A/N: I've been waiting to post this for a while now. There are a few weird things about this fic, but I'll try to just note the important things here, but I'll explain more at the end...
This is set in Ancient Egypt, but the names are still Kaiba and Yami. This has to do with Ancient Egyptian pharaoh names and the plot, and I'll explain it more at the end.
This is loosely Yami's point of view, but instead of a name he is mainly just called 'the pharaoh.' This also has something to do with the plot.
I think those are the main things that are off about this...
Warning: There isn't really anything bad in this chapter, but the pairing is KaibaXYami, boyXboy, shonen ai, so you've been warned. Also, it's kinda fluffy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or anything about Yu-Gi-Oh.
The pharaoh slowly walked through the elegant halls. Though it was much too late for anyone to be around except for the occasional guard, he held himself high, looking as royal as the palace in which he lived. But inside, he was completely different from his calm exterior. If you were to stand close, you would hear his breathing was erratic; see that his eyes weren't completely focused on what was actually in front of him.
Instead, the pharaoh was focused on the images still playing through his head. He couldn't stay alone in his room after such a horrible nightmare, but the walk wasn't clearing away any of the terrifying images. In his mind, he still saw the sun as it was covered in darkness, he still saw his people as they were eaten alive by the demons that rose in the night. And it would forever be night.
The young pharaoh quickened his pace down the halls. He started trembling, then he was frantically running, biting down on his lip to keep from crying out and causing the guards to think that something was wrong, that he was in danger. Cool air brushed over his face, though he hadn't even realized he had run outside. He panicked, frantically looking around. It was dark out, so dark, and he bolted for the first door he saw, not caring where it led.
The room was dark, but at least it was inside. The pharaoh was now gasping for breath, leaning against the door. He slid down to the ground, head in his hands. He hadn't even realized the occupant of the room had gotten up and stood next to him.
"Pharaoh?" Whoever it was asked. The sudden noise made the pharaoh freeze up in terror, and he immediately curled up into a tight ball, his side leaning on the door for support since there was no way he could possibly stay upright himself. Tears started falling down his cheeks and he sobbed silently, too scared to feel ashamed. The other person in the room let out a small sigh, then wrapped his arms around the pharaoh, whispering soothing words. The pharaoh couldn't make out any specific words, but the tone calmed him. He leaned back into the embrace, his eyes closed, his tears drying. And then he recognized the voice.
"K-kaiba?" The pharaoh said in astonishment, his eyes snapped open as he tried to turn around to look at the person. He couldn't be completely positive that it was his arrogant cousin. After all, the last time Kaiba had comforted him had been when the pharaoh's mother had died. It seemed like forever ago, but he'd never forgotten that moment, how those arms had felt. And they felt eerily similar to the arms around him now.
"You ran into my room without knowing it belonged to me? It's no wonder the Egyptian people worship your knowledge. The Great Pharaoh certainly is a smart one." Definitely Kaiba. No one but the pharaoh's cousin would be that sarcastic to the pharaoh. He knew that he shouldn't let Kaiba get away with being sarcastic or mean, either, but it was nice to have someone who wasn't constantly afraid of upsetting the gods when they said anything out of place. Kaiba would stop if the pharaoh asked him to. And the pharaoh was fairly sure that his high priest didn't actually mean it to be a negative comment. Deciding to address Kaiba's behavior towards him later, the pharaoh instead smiled a little and relaxed more into Kaiba's arms, the back of his head leaning against his high priest's chest. He was beginning to drift off to sleep, when images from his nightmare came back to him. The pharaoh became tense, and he started to shake again.
"What is it?" Kaiba asked. If the pharaoh hadn't known Kaiba so well, he would've thought that his high priest was worried about him. But although the high priest worried about the pharaoh, Kaiba never worried about him, not like he worried about the high priest. The pharaoh wasn't sure if the high priest worried about anyone like that. Did he?
But it was impossible to think about anything very deeply right now with those images running through his head. His breathing was starting to get ragged again. He hadn't replied to Kaiba yet, and somewhere in the back of his mind a voice wondered why Kaiba hadn't done anything about this yet. The voice was answered when he found himself involuntarily making a bit of an 'eep' noise as he felt his body being lifted off the ground.
"What are you doing?" The pharaoh's tone was a bit harsher than he had meant it to be, but he left it that way. He struggled in Kaiba's arms until Kaiba gently set him down on the bed. Kaiba lit a small candle on the wall, then walked back to the pharaoh. He lowered himself to his knees so his face would be level with the pharaoh's. But even though he was now kneeling by the side of the bed, he was still too tall to look at the pharaoh directly, so Kaiba crossed his arms and laid his head down on his arms.
"What is wrong, my pharaoh?" Kaiba asked again. The pharaoh felt his face heat up immediately at the affectionate term Kaiba used. Sure, other people used it, but this was Kaiba, and he usually avoided most terms that implied affection in any way. And the way Kaiba said it just made it seem so possessive, while when other people said it the term seemed more like a status. When Kaiba said 'my pharaoh,' it just made the pharaoh feel that Kaiba was implying that the pharaoh belonged to him... He wasn't sure that it would be such a bad thing.
"... Yami?" The question was so quiet, the pharaoh almost hadn't heard. If the last thing Kaiba had said made the pharaoh's heart race, this made the pharaoh's heart jump out of his chest. Kaiba had just called him Yami. His first name! Not everybody knew the pharaoh's first given name, and among that small amount of people, it was an even smaller amount that called him by it so personally. The pharaoh could pretty much name only two people who had called him by his name, and that would be his late mother and father. But hearing it on Kaiba's lips was a whole different thing entirely than when his parents had called his name. Oh, Ra. The pharaoh decided he must hear Kaiba say his name again.
"Since when have you been able to call my first name?" The pharaoh swore he saw Kaiba blush, but then again there was only one candle lit, so his eyes might have been playing tricks on him. After all, the pharaoh couldn't think of any time he had ever seen Kaiba blush.
"Am I not allowed to call you that?" The arrogance in that voice, it was almost like a challenge. The pharaoh tried to decide what he should answer with. If Kaiba won the game too easily, it may not be as fun to use the prize. But then, his first name was a big deal; he was the pharaoh. What if Kaiba just gave up? But that wasn't anything like Kaiba. Kaiba had made a challenge, and he never backed down from a challenge, especially one that he himself initiated. So the pharaoh decided to drag it on, his mind focused on getting Kaiba to call him by his first name once more.
"Shouldn't you get my permission to call me by my first name? Isn't it odd for someone to call the pharaoh by his first name, especially without his status before or following?" The pharaoh smiled when he saw Kaiba's eyes. He said the right thing. Kaiba would play this game with him.
"You said 'Kaiba' earlier. Is that much different? Isn't it also odd for a pharaoh to call their high priest anything without the words 'high priest' connected to it?" Kaiba shot back. The pharaoh realized that Kaiba had a point there.
"It's less odd than the high priest calling the pharaoh by his first name, though," The pharaoh mumbled, pouting subconsciously before smirking instead and saying more clearly in response, "Well, you are my cousin. I think of you as 'Kaiba, the pharaoh's cousin', before I think of you as 'the pharaoh's high priest.' Does this mean that you think of me as 'Yami' before you think of me as 'Pharaoh?'" The pharaoh waited for Kaiba's reply. Kaiba paused for a longer while than expected before answering, making the pharaoh somewhat anxious as the silence went on, the smirk he had while teasing his cousin disappearing, until finally Kaiba came out of his thoughts.
"... I think of you as my cousin, but... the pharaoh is my cousin. 'Yami' is..." Kaiba trailed off, lost in thought. After a minute or so, the pharaoh realized Kaiba had no intention of finishing the thought. But the pharaoh wasn't about to let it go.
"'Yami' is...?" He prompted. Kaiba sighed.
"A completely different person entirely." He ended. The pharaoh was confused more then ever at the answer. What did that mean? Was it good... Or bad? He almost wanted to yell at Kaiba for giving such a vague answer, though it barely had the right to be called an answer at all being that it just created more questions.
"Pharaoh," Kaiba began, tentatively, breaking the pharaoh from his thoughts, "What was it? The thing that was... troubling you." Oh right. That. The pharaoh had been distracted with Kaiba, causing the actual cause of this whole... moment slip his mind. Unfortunately, it had obviously kept its grip quite well in Kaiba's.
Pharaoh saw his nightmare once again, though it wasn't as vivid as it had been before, now that he'd spent some time awake, avoiding thoughts of it. The images were fuzzier now, he was less sure of what happened. But the pharaoh remembered his feelings in the dream. How terrified he was... It still sort of disturbed him. He switched his attention to trying to come up with an answer that would please himself and Kaiba.
His sleep deprived mind was being difficult. It was hard to focus on just one idea, his mind kept wandering, his eyes kept closing. The pharaoh laying in bed wasn't really helping, either. The pharaoh knew so much time had passed that no matter what he said it would sound like an excuse, so he stopped trying to be creative and just said the first thing that came to him.
"It's... not important." The pharaoh knew Kaiba would never let this go with such an insufficient answer. The pharaoh himself was ashamed that it was the only thing he could come up with at the moment. But he might as well try getting away with it. Maybe Kaiba would see how tired he was, and just let it all go for now...
"Like hell." Or he would just get more annoyed that the pharaoh was obviously lying. "How could something unimportant have my pharaoh running into random rooms crying?" He had a point there. The pharaoh tried to think of something else, not missing that Kaiba once again had used the term, 'my pharaoh.' My pharaoh. It wasn't helping him focus on replying, which is really what he needed to do right now.
The pharaoh knew he owed Kaiba an answer that wasn't a lie. But he also didn't want to tell him the truth. It revealed how weak he was; how vulnerable. He couldn't let Kaiba see how weak he was. It would just be shameful for the pharaoh to share such a thing with his high priest. Especially not now, when he was so tired that he knew he would end up saying more than he meant to or word something the wrong way and end up regretting everything that came out of his mouth the next morning.
He was the pharaoh. He didn't want one of his high priests knowing that the almighty pharaoh was brought to a sobbing wreck from his own imagination. But he only had to reassure Kaiba that he was okay, right? That would be easy enough... Then again, this was Kaiba he was dealing with. Kaiba could be a skeptic about everything. The pharaoh supposed that the running and crying part wouldn't really help him either.
"Please... I'm not in any danger. I swear it to you." The pharaoh looked right into Kaiba's eyes to make sure Kaiba knew he was serious. He needed Kaiba to realize that he couldn't talk about this, not tonight. Hopefully he wouldn't ever have to talk about it. But the pharaoh had one more request for his cousin.
"Would you... Let me stay here tonight?" The pharaoh made sure Kaiba knew it was a question, that he knew he could refuse if he wanted to. But the pharaoh really wished he wouldn't. He felt so safe next to his cousin. The pharaoh realized there was probably more to this, and he began to think of the 'why' aspect, when Kaiba interrupted his thoughts.
"Fine. But you must first promise to tell me about this." Figures. The pharaoh couldn't help but smile a little at Kaiba. He really couldn't accept anything without getting something out of it. Though the pharaoh hadn't expected him to accept anything at all this quickly.
"Yami?" Kaiba leaned in to look at him better. His felt his face flush up again. His reactions were weirder than normal. The pharaoh decided it was probably because he was emotionally stressed at the moment.
"Yami!" Oh right. He hadn't answered Kaiba yet.
"Later." Kaiba looked like he was about to say something, so the pharaoh quickly added, "I'll tell you later, I promise. Something scared me, but it's not... Later. Please." Kaiba considered it for a moment, then nodded. The pharaoh let out a small sigh of relief. He hadn't wanted to sound so desperate, but at least it had worked. And he was comfortable. At least until Kaiba began to push him over.
"What are you doing?" The pharaoh growled. Kaiba smirked.
"Well, it is my bed. If you don't want to sleep with me, then sleep on the floor." Kaiba climbed into the bed, elegant as always.
"No, I'm fine with... sleeping with you." The pharaoh wished he could physically pick his mind up and take it out of the gutter.
A/N: So, you know, please review, nothing mean or evil but criticism is welcome.
I hate waking up from a nightmare terrified but then later I realize that the dream isn't scary at all! What minds can do...
Okay, now about the names being Kaiba and Yami even though it's in Ancient Egypt. Around some time in Ancient Egypt, pharaohs had five names, their birth name plus four more names. Egyptians knew the pharaoh's names, but in this fic Egyptians don't know their pharaoh's birth name. Most people call Yami 'Atem' since it's pretty personal to call the pharaoh by their birth name. Since 'Atem' was being called Yami, I changed High Priest Seto to High Priest Kaiba. The name Seto will come in later :3
Yami being 'the pharaoh' all of the time has to do with how Yami sees himself, and has to do with the overall plot of the story.
I think that covers it.
Now I'm off to work on Traitorous Minds, but I'll try to write some more of this when I have spare time ^^