Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh.
Hi there, sorry for the wait. I have gotten a few reviews for this story asking me to continue it so I will. Just to warn you I am not sure when the next chap will be as my beta is on holiday and a lot of my time is going to be taken up real soon with other things. I will try to regally write some of this story so it shouldn't be too long, hopefully.
Thanks to my beta cara-tanaka once again for having the patience to beta this for me.
Please review, I love to hear what people think of my work and how I can improve it.
Only thing left to say is...
Enjoy.
Chapter 2
"It is good to take a break every once and a while to wander the gardens." Stated the pharaoh as he and his cousin the High Priest Seth strolled casually around one of the many lush green and vibrant parts of the palace that were constructed for the pharaoh's pleasure. Seth didn't change his normal sour look but neither did he argue with the statement. The pharaoh allowed himself a small smile, knowing that was a good a confirmation as he would get that the taller brunette too appreciated the break from the normal boring duties.
Joining them on their walk was Mokuba, who had jumped at the prospect of spending some time with his brother when he wasn't working and Yugi. Yami's beloved personal slave and lover, who had also jumped at the chance to spend some relaxing time with his master.
"Are you enjoying the gardens Yugi?" Yami asked, looking at the delight on his smaller look-alike's face.
Yugi nodded his head eagerly. "Yes, very much so Yami."
"You know that you have my permission to wander any of the gardens when you please, you do not have to stay with me when I am working in the palace." Taking one of the smaller boys hands, the pharaoh squeezed it affectionately, causing a dusting of pink to gather on the other boys cheeks.
"I could, but the gardens just aren't as beautiful without you being here to enjoy them with me, my pharaoh."
Yami was cut off from replying to the sweet statement by a snort behind him. Turning, he glared at his cousin, who was standing with his arms folded and a mocking smirk on his face. Mokuba stood beside him and smiled lightly at Yami even as he looked at his brother curiously.
"If I am going to have to listen to your soppy love sick dribble all day, I would prefer to go back to work." A lifting of one fine brown eyebrow dared Yami to try and make him stay. Luckily for the pharaoh he didn't have to try to force the brunette to continue his break as Mokuba jumped on the statement and immediately employed the dreaded puppy eyes on his older brother.
"No, Seth, don't leave! We barley ever get to spend time together because you are always working. No one works as much as you do in the palace, please stay!" Mokuba made sure his eyes gained some extra moistness and upped his cute factor by pouting his lip. Yugi raised a hand to his mouth and turned his head away to disguise his amused smile when he saw the dreaded High Priest's resolve crumble and cave into his brother's commands.
Yami, of course, had no such qualms with letting it show just how amusing he found the brunette's manipulation and a mocking smirk now played upon his lips.
As the brunette waved his hand to indicate that they should go on and that he would remain with them, he glared at his cousin warning him not to say a word. Yami was tempted to say something, as he knew that as he was pharaoh there was nothing the other could actually do to harm him but decided that he wouldn't just to keep the peace. He hadn't had time for a break in a long while and didn't wish to spend it arguing with his cousin.
"Come my Yugi, let us continue." He said as he once again took the smaller boys hand in his own and raised it up to his lips for a chaste kiss. Yami congratulated himself when he once again saw a blush forming on his beloved cheeks.
Just behind them Seth once again snorted but unlike the first time didn't say anything. Yugi glanced back at him nervously.
"Ignore him, my love;" said the pharaoh soothingly, "he is just jealous that he doesn't have his own lover to spend the days with."
The brunette actually gave a small laugh at that, before shaking his head in exasperation at his cousin's barely concealed hints. Yami had been trying to find someone to match him up with for almost a year now and had failed continuously. Something which greatly annoyed the pharaoh as his attempts at finding his High Priest a lover became more desperate and obvious to see.
"For the last time cousin, I do not need, nor yearn for, a lover. And even if I did I have yet to find someone who I can do more that merely tolerate and actually wish to be with."
The two would have no doubt continued the argument about the brunette's love life if it wasn't for said brunette's brother cutting them off with a loud exclamation of delight.
"Jou!" shouted Mokuba, before taking off quickly and leaving the others behind. While he enjoyed spending time with his brother, even in the presence of Yami and Yugi he had quickly gotten bored of the conversation which he had heard many times before and had run on ahead to find something else to entertain him. He was glad to spot the golden mop of shaggy hair lying close to the ground that could be none other but the new slave he had befriended.
Crying out his name in greeting the young raven haired boy ran up to the youth, intent on greeting him properly, when the shaggy head turned and brown eyes glared at him hard enough to make him freeze on the spot.
"Don't come any closer Mokuba." It wasn't a question but a demand and it stunned the young boy. He could feel his eyes getting moist for real this time at the apparent rejection of his friend. Looking at Jou though, he noted that he was in a rather odd position.
The golden haired youth was currently crouched on the soft ground near a small mound of decoratively places rocks that were meant to look natural just outside the shade of a small tree. Two of the rocks lent against each other for support and left a well sized gap in-between them. Jou currently had his hand all the way up to his shoulder within the gap and was apparently searching for something with the utmost concentration.
At a slight distance from him stood another girl, who by her attire but clean appearance was an indoor palace slave. Mokuba thought he may have seen her around but was unsure. The girl was plain in appearance with the normal dark colours of most Egyptians but it was obvious as she clasped her hands in front of her chest and shuffled restlessly from one foot to the other that she was anxious and worried. Just what was going on here?
Mokuba would have asked, feeling that maybe he was missing something, if his older brother hadn't arrived just in time to here Jou, a slave, command him so coldly. Of course, this made the brunette angry.
"Just who do you think you to speak like that to my brother?" the brunette demanded, as he caught up with the raven haired boy. Hearing Mokuba's delighted exclamation he had used his long legs to stride on ahead of the pharaoh and Yugi to see what had excited the younger boy only to hear someone demand him to not come closer. To see it was a slave that had spoken so out of term made his blood boil, especially when the youth had the impudence to use his younger brother's name like he already knew him.
Seth would have no doubt gone up to the youth and yanked him back by the shoulder in his anger had it not been for his little brother grabbing onto his arm and holding him back. Turning to glare at his brother and tell him to release him so he could punish the slave properly he was cut short by Jou speaking.
"I don't have a right to speak to Mokuba like that other then the fact I am concerned for his safety. I currently have my hand in-between several rocks that I am almost certain is home to at least one resting rattle snake. If the snake was to bite me I don't want to accidently pull it out and have him close enough for the snake to turn and strike him too. So stay there, shut up, and let me concentrate would ya! I've almost got it."Jou said, speaking as he normally would. He hadn't turned around to view who he was a speaking too, otherwise he probably would have kicked himself for his stupidity. Evidently, he was also concentrating so much on the task that it hadn't quite clicked in his mind exactly who Mokuba's older brother was.
Behind the golden haired youth Seth stood almost speechless at being talked to in such a way by a slave. Seeing that his brother was too shocked to continue his angry charge Mokuba released his arm. It was at this time that both Yami and Yugi arrived.
"Jou, what are you doing?" the smaller asked, recognising his friend.
"Stay there and give us a sec would ya Yugi, I almost got it." replied the blonde, still not turning around and totally unaware of whose presence he was in. Yami turned to Yugi and lifted an eye brow in question, to which the smaller boy only shrugged. He had no idea what the blonde was doing either.
The girl who had been standing anxiously beforehand had recognised exactly who the tall brunette and bigger of the two tri-coloured haired men were and had spent the last few minutes on her knees with her arms in front and her head pressed to the ground in the proper bow of respect. She had also been listening with baited breath to the conversation between the High Priest and her fellow slave.
The poor girl almost had a heart attack when out of the corner of her eyes she saw the pharaoh turn to her.
"You, raise and tell me what is going on here." He commanded. Feeling her legs shaking dangerously she did as was bid of her and hesitantly explained.
"P-please sir, I-I dropped some jewellery of m-my m-mistress Isis in the rocks and J-Jou is trying to retrieve it d-despite the s-snake." She was incredibly thankful when the attention was once again turned back to the still backwards facing blonde.
"Are you insane, you will get bitten!" exclaimed Seth, Mokuba made a noise of worry while Yugi anxiously called out the blondes name to try and get him to turn around and pay attention. Yami's thoughts mirrored those of the taller brunette's.
Jou didn't seem to be worried though and replied back casually as he tried to push his hand in further and continue to search. "Haven't gotten bitten so far and it wouldn't be the first time It happened. I'll just have to suck the poison out quick and...got it!" he exclaimed as he felt his fingers close tightly around the golden wrist band. Pulling his hand out slowly he exclaimed once again in victory as the band was pulled through without a single snake striking him.
Grinning wildly he turned towards the waiting girl and casually chucked the decorated gold band to her. Only the desperation to not drop such a thing again, especially in front of the pharaoh and his High Priest allowed her to catch it.
"See, told ya I would get it." It was at about that time that Jou saw exactly who was standing behind him. It took him exactly half a second to take in the ornamental jewellery of the tall brunette and taller tri-coloured haired man for him to recognise what it meant and exactly who he had just been talking and told to 'shut it'. The blonde's thoughts went something like this.
Oh, shit!
Turning swiftly on the ground, still down on his knees he pressed his heads to the floor and mimicked the position the girl had done earlier, bowing to the pharaoh and the High Priest as he should have done when he first came into their presence. There was silence for a while.
Internally Jou's mind was anything but silent and was currently entering one of its best rants of the century.
You just didn't realise who it was did you? It could have been anyone but it has to be the two most powerful people in Egypt. It's the bloody pharaoh for the Gods' sake and you just told him to 'shut it' without bowing or even acknowledging his presence. It just didn't click, did it, exactly who Yugi's master is and who Mokuba's older brother is and now you're most likely in for an untimely death because you happened to mouth off to the two most powerful people in Egypt. Maybe if you're lucky the pharaoh will be as merciful as Yugi made him out to be and only give you a quick death. Like being beheaded. That can't be too bad, can it? You just barely feel the blade break your skin and then your heads off and your dead so there's no more pain and everything is fine, right...you know, I think there is something wrong with me considering I'm about to die that instead of fear I'm mostly only feeling annoyance because the stupid bastard Malik was right. There is definitely something wrong with me, maybe I should see a healer. Ah, but I'm going to die so there wouldn't be much point and damn if that smarmy bastard isn't going to be smug. Hopefully, they will kill me here so I won't have to hear him say I told you so, and...
It was at this point that his internal rant was cut off by someone speaking.
"You, go back to your mistress and deliver the jewellery." Yami dismissed the girl who quickly took off. Wanting to be as far away from the powerful people as possible.
Oh, just bloody great, thought Jou before the voice turned to address him.
"Rise slave," Jou did as he was commanded, glad for the order as his knees were beginning to hurt.
No doubt Yami would have said something else if it wasn't for Mokuba cutting him off by taking the few steps needed and hugging the blond hard around the middle. Jou was just as surprised at everyone else by the action of the raven haired kid.
"Jou, why did you do that? It was completely stupid! You could have been killed! What if the snake bit you and you died because the poison was too much and you couldn't get it out in time and..." the kid was working him into quite a state.
Squeezing both of the small shoulders briefly in reassurance Jou replied in his normal laid back and care free manner. "Hay, no worries kid, the snake didn't bite me."
"But that's not the point" the younger boy whinnied.
"No, it's not," interrupted Seth, he was jealous at the closeness between the slave and his brother and also confused by it. The High Priest didn't like being confused and so turned to an emotion he was more comfortable with, anger. "The point, Mokuba, is how exactly do you know this slave and why is he calling you by your name?"
Taking the younger boys shoulder, Seth glared at the blonde as he drew his brother back from him and placed the boy protectively behind him. Jou frowned at him and then lifted his eyebrows in disbelief at the brunette's over protectiveness against him.
"Jou's my friend Seth, he helped me back to the palace that time I was late when I got lost. He's really cool and he plays with the children and told me all these stories about pranks he's pulled and stuff."
"He shouldn't be telling you about such disobedient and dangerous things." Seth said as he glared at the slave. "You!" he hissed, now addressing Jou. The blonde youth looked him straight in the eye, "I don't want to see you talking to Mokuba anymore. Ra knows what you plan to do with him. Stay away from my brother or I will have you whipped slave."
"What!" cried Mokuba. "You can't do that Seth, Jou would never hurt me. He's my friend, why would you hurt him? Why won't you listen?"
Turning to his brother, Seth tried using the no nonsense voice that normally calmed Mokuba down. "I don't want you associating with people like that; you don't know what they may do for some money. I don't want you playing with mutts."
"Hay, ya bastard, I'm not a bloody dog!" cried Jou, unable to keep quiet when being directly insulted in such away. In his head he was punching himself silly and just imagining Malik's smug, know-it-all face as he got in trouble for running his mouth off. He refused to retract his statement though or apologise.
Everyone was looking at Jou in surprise, wondering at how he dare defy the high priest like that. Yami was finding that whole encounter more and more entertaining. Moving on from the shock of being talked back too quickly, Seth used his most icy and intense glare on the slave to make him bow his head. He was once again surprised when the blonde again defied him by glaring back with just as much intensity and heat.
No doubt a glaring contest would have happened if not for Mokuba bursting into tears and shouting at his own brother himself. "Why do you not want me to have any friends? You never listen to me! Just because you like being completely alone doesn't mean other people want to be. Stop forcing your loneliness on me!"
Startled, Seth eyes softened as he tried to reach out and comfort his brother. Before he could place a reassuring hand on the boys shoulder, the raven haired child pulled away and still in tears ran off down the path they had just come from. Yugi immediately took after him while Seth stood shocked and hurt at his brother's rejection.
Yami saw the look on Seth's face and frowned when he didn't run after he brother. The priest's hands were now clenched at his sides and his head was bowed and shoulders slumped. Overall, he looked utterly pathetically lost and rejected. He needed to get this sorted out and soon, he couldn't have his high priest in a mope and he didn't want the two brothers fighting. On the other hand, it was probably a good idea to let both of the stubborn males cool off first before making them confront each other again. They were likely to do more damage than good with the moods they were in at the moment.
Looking to the blonde, he found Jou frowning in worry in the direction Mokuba had just run off and shifting from foot to foot, looking like he may run off to comfort the boy as well. While he did think Seth was being unreasonable for not letting Mokuba talk to his new friend and thought Jou was probably a trust worthy person if his Yugi liked him, the pharaoh also knew that letting the slave near the high priest's younger brother at the moment would only make things worse.
The young pharaoh sighed in exasperation; he had so been looking forward to his day off.
"You, Jou," the messy blonde head turned slowly to face him. "I know you are worried at the moment but stay away from Mokuba for now or you will just make things worse, understood." The other boy opened his mouth to argue, looked to Seth and back to Yami's stern face and thought better of it. Closing his mouth with a snap, he sighed and nodded to show he understood but didn't like it. Yami repressed a smile at the boy's expressiveness. He looked rather like a rejected puppy. "Please, return to your duties. Only talk to Mokuba if he approaches you."
Once again the blonde nodded, now looking like a kicked puppy and it almost made the pharaoh go back on his words at the absolutely pathetic appearance but he held firm, just.
Waiting till the blonde was out of sight after his dismissal, he turned to the still brooding and rejected looking Seth. Sighing once again he fixed a stern frown on his face, this was going to take a lot of sorting out.
