I'm so very sorry that I had not updated on my scheduled time, I had recently lost someone and had lost my desire to type for a while, but I can't leave you guys hanging. I plan to get back to updating once a month, but I cannot set a specific date, hope you can forgive me.

To my ever supportive reviewers:

KrazynKuki – Did I go somewhere? Well even if I did I couldn't be gone for too long, lol, glad you're so excited to see me though.

Midnight Fantasia Goddess – Princess TuTu is definitely on my list, sadly though I have a lot more to watch till I get to it. I like angst because in it I see people's sorrows and how they strive to get through, their inner strength, though sometimes it takes the main character time to get there. Sorry my update is late.

FormerV – Sometimes I feel my writing can be too pretty, like it's impossible for me to express the level of gore or brutality happening sometimes, but I'm glad you liked it I had a tough time with it, lol. I also feel sorry for Ryou, though I'm the one torturing him so, often I stop and wonder why I'm doing this to him… I'm an evil person. Sorry it took so long to update when you were phyched.

ilovemanicures– My cousin argued that I couldn't compare Bakura to a woman suffering PMS, but he acts how he acts! I'm glad you liked that line, I wanted to show how Ryou has some feistiness by picturing the situation that way. Bakura is so new to the thought process of helping I'm shocked he didn't accidently kill Ryou "healing" him, lol. I'm glad you liked the chapter and sorry for the long wait.

Nearcreature – Yes, Bakura is cruel and despicable and, and , and EVIL! But not as evil as I, because I write it this way, I'm sorry Ryou. I'm glad you liked the chapter.

Darth Mudkip – Yay, ego boosting! I'm really glad you liked the chapter and well I'm much later than you, sorry about that. I will try to follow your demand!

A.R – I am also glad that you clicked on my story, I am always excited to hear that someone likes my story, especially if it isn't usually what they look for. I really try to keep it as realistic as possible aside from the whole dragon thing and contract stuff, lol. I'm really happy you like the way I write and I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter.

WolfyMcClowd – I think it's awesome that you think my story is awesome ^^

– Thank you, I'm glad you like it, I'm really trying to just keep everyone in character, but it's really hard. Sorry for the long wait of the update.

Silver Scales

"Ryou!" The teen quickens his pace, pretending he hadn't heard the one calling him. "Ryou!" Please, go away! Go away! The boy's heart is thundering in his chest and he is seconds away from bolting, but a firm grip on his shoulder stops him, it is not the one previously calling him though.

"-H-hello Atem.-"

"-Ryou! Didn't you hear me calling you?-" Yugi huffs when he finally catches up to the two taller males.

"-I'm sorry Yugi, I must have been in my own little world-," I can't talk to you! Go away! The, surprisingly, very awake dragon this morning warned him it would be best to stay away from "that pompous lizard's tamer", something the teen doesn't want to defy. "-I have prior engagements for lunch, sadly, can we talk another time?-"

"-This is much more important-," the obvious demand in Atem's voice makes Ryou's heart stutter in his throat, is this dragon just as willing to rip me apart?

"-R-right-," the teen feels he has no choice but to obey, as unwilling as he is.

"-Atem, you're scaring him-," the short boy scolds his dragon with large eyes set in the best glare they can muster before softening when he looks to his classmate, "-don't worry, I just thought you might want some answers, first though lets go somewhere more private.-" If it was anyone else that had asked to go somewhere private he would have been more fretful, but with Yugi it's innocent, even though it could be Ryou's death later.

When the little teen said private he meant it, they walk across the whole school to a little field that no one is at and even that is not good enough, Yugi leading them to the edge of the property behind a tree. There Atem keeps watch while his tamer insist that his company sits beside him. It is silent for a bit while Yugi struggles with his bookbag, then out of it he pulls out a book so large that it had took up all the room of that pretty large bag, the poor hollowed sack deflates on the ground and is forgotten.

Being large is not the only thing that stands out from the book, the first thing that Ryou notices is that glowing Chrystal in the middle of the peeling leather that is the cover, he instantly recognizes it from the cave and has the strongest urge to touch it just to make sure this isn't something he's imagining, but before he can it is flipped open. The pages are yellow and crumbled with obvious age but the mysterious character's within are still as black as a moonless night.

"-It's hard to find where to begin, I never had to explain it to anyone before, if I even had tried they would have thought I'm insane-," Yugi gives a little laugh, his first sign of nervousness now that he has Ryou's undivided attention all on him.

"-Yeah, you can't really tell anyone you have a dragon stalking you-," his taller friend assures with his own small chuckle, the air is filled with unease.

There is a silence while Yugi gathers himself before he gives a curt nod, to himself more than anyone.

"-This book was passed down to me from my father who had it passed down to him from his father and so forth for many generation leading back to our ancestors who were dragon warriors-," though it is hard to catch onto with Yugi being so modest, there is a bit of pride in his voice as he speaks of his bloodline, "-Unlike you I have also entered a contract willingly with Atem-"

Ryou just gives a small nod to that knew knowledge, though he doesn't fully understand, he just wants the smaller teen to say what he must so he can leave.

"-Though there is a way to forcefully break the contract, this book doesn't tell us how, the only other way is for the dragon to reject you, that is unlikely because it will come with a consequence to himself-" Yugi sounds regretful, "-but there is a protection spell-"

Ryou is finally interested, " -That will protect me from him?-"

"-Physically, if the spell works he won't be able to come within a few feet of you, but it's not a simple spell and if by any chance the binding spell is complete it will become useless.-"

"-W-will he complete the spell?-" The taller teen talks more to the ground than his friend now, all this talk about spells and contracts he would have found humorous in any other situation, but now he clings to each word as if they would be his last.

"-Even if he could he wouldn't want to,-" Yugi begins to explain, but Ryou doesn't look at him even as he speaks, "-Right now you are the only one truly losing, the contract was made to keep control of the dragons because humans feared them, but the sorcerer that had created it didn't get to finish it before he was stabbed in the back-"

"-Stabbed in the back?-"

"-In a literal sense, it was a mistake of my ancestors who thought neither humans or dragons should be in control, though my people were too late and what had been done could not be taken back.-" The story is told as if the small teen had been there to see it for himself and regretted it just as much as his ancestors had. "-With the spell half complete the dragons will have to steal their energy from a host which they can easily force and take advantage of, though if it is complete the dragon and you will be a part of each other's soul, he will feel what you feel as you will feel what he feels and if you or him dies then you both die.-"

"-Th-this isn't f-fair-," it comes out as a despaired whisper, Ryou's breath half catching in his throat, " -he's g-gonna drink me d-dry and th-then l-leave-" the teen is almost hysteric, so panic stricken at that he doesn't hear what Yugi is saying, it all sounds like the blahs spoken by a Charlie Brown adult.

"-Ryou! Ryou, listen to me!-"

"He's in my head. He knows what we are talking about, knows I am talking to you," The poor child is so deep in his own misery he doesn't notice he is speaking in his native tongue and that his acquaintance can't understand him. "He's gonna kill me this time."

"-Ryou, what do you mean 'drink you dry?' What is he doing to you?-" Yugi continues to shake him by his shoulders.

"-M-my blood,-" The shaken boy responds after a moment, "-isn't that how they do it, by blood?-"

Yugi's face is one of utter shock and confusion before his eyebrows crinkle in worry and his eyes soften into a piteous stare. "-Th-they're not vampires, Ryou,-" he tells the other, grip tightening on his shoulders. "-I'm s-sorry for what he's done, b-but that isn't-" It is now the smaller boy that is speaking more to the ground, not knowing how to break the news to the other teen.

The school bell rings in the distance and it is blatantly ignored, school is such a small thing now. A small useless matter to the subject at hand.

Before Ryou can further question the more petite host the dragon steps forward.

"-We feed off your life force,-" Atem explains his voice not totally indifferent but not with the care Yugi was trying to use, "-Every minute of the contract is a minute of your life.-"

Yugi flinches at his dragon's carelessness, but doesn't speak up against it because Ryou needed to know and he would never be able to tell his classmate by himself. Ryou himself just sits there, trying to absorb the knowledge handed to him, but it won't sink in. It's as if he has his finger tips in the water though he can't register that they are wet.

"-We can hope that when he has become strong enough that he will move on to a stronger host, until then it is best if we do the protection spell, but to do that we need something of the dragon's.-" The small dragon tamer speaks to Ryou quietly, hesitantly, as if the other was a small animal that would very easily bolt as any given second. "-Blood or hair, anything will do; he is in human form so he should function as such.-"

The albino nods though he isn't really listening, his mind still on Atem's words and soon he is getting up to dismiss himself, he is grabbed before he can make his escape though, Yugi clinging onto his wrist tightly.

"-One last thing: don't act suspicious, there are dragon hunters and if they find you they will complete the spell and ultimately kill you,-" The boy is gravely serious, "-Dragons are nearly indestructible, so they will not bat an eye at your demise, they will only see it as a necessary sacrifice.-"

That isn't the last thing though, the last thing that Yugi says hits Ryou hard, because it is true and the white-haired-teen might be acting just a bit too cold, yet he can't make himself act another way in this situation.

"-I'm sorry, I just.. wanted to help-"

Ryou looks at the board but it is just a blur and as much as his teacher is speaking he just can't find the will to try translating it to his language, it's just a bunch a jumbled syllables, the bell will ring soon though, then he will get up and move to the next class in his distracted way only to repeat the process. Already two classes have passed and if the way hadn't been imprinted in his body just as much as imprinted in his mind he would be lost, because his mind is miles away.

It's so bad he doesn't even realize when the final bell has rung and he is walking off of school grounds, he is brutally brought back to himself when he just happens to catch a streak of silver through the crowd though, the jerk-back so sudden he is trembling. He stops in his tracks, students continue to push past him as if he isn't there, and he wished more than the world that he wasn't.

~Come on, host.~ That voice in his head confirms his fear and the only thing Ryou can think of is the Dragon's rage, because he broke a rule, he spoke to Yugi, and he thought about escaping. ~Your stalling is only harming yourself.~

He turns and he runs, fighting against the onslaught of peers is like swimming against the current, but he has to get away. Dodging, ducking, squeezing; he forces his way through the crowd with amazing speed, nothing but the sound of his own hectic heartbeat in his ears and blurs of color in his eyes.

The teen was so far out of it that it was only a matter of time before he tried to cross the wrong person when he does though he isn't expecting for blue eyes to be staring down at him with mirroring fear, though that fear is directed at him. Keith stands over him, so fretful that when Ryou tries to stand the large male stumbles back and trips over his own feet. For a moment there the two are in complete reverse of how they have originally been with the smaller teen looming over the horrified bully, it makes him ill, and though he isn't in any way wrong he apologizes before he again bolts, because the giant just looked too pathetic.

This situation is sickenly familiar, the feeling of being hunted as prey, the anxiety that any second he will be caught. His legs tire and his lungs scream for deprived oxygen, but he keeps running, winding down unknown roads, trying to escape someone that's in his mind.

~Inane human, do you think you can get away?~ The dragon taunts, and it makes his head throb, ~You are weak.~ He stops just a moment, bringing his hands up to cover his ears as if that will stop the voice or the pain that comes with it, ~You will regret running.~

The boy yelps and struggles when arms wrap around him from behind, tears spilling down his cheeks as he degrades himself for even thinking of running.

"Shh," A voice that doesn't belong to Bakura whispers in his ear and with no knowledge of who this man is Ryou is still relieved, growing slack in the strangers arms though he cannot stop his trembling or the relentless tears. "What a pretty, little tamer; the silver is lucky."

Ryou doesn't really hear what the man is saying over his own pants for air and he doesn't care, all that matters is getting oxygen into his deprived lungs, though every breath comes out in a quiet sob, he didn't know how desperate to breathe he was, how light headed he had become, he was too bent on escaping to notice that the world had grown fuzzy around him. The teen is just starting to gain his senses, worrying over his new predicament when something more terrorizing than that shows itself.

The boy goes from his slumped form to fighting like a beast in his captors arms when Bakura turns the corner, all calm and sophisticated as if he wasn't even partaking in this chase, Ryou understands why wolfs would chew off their own legs for freedom.

"You must be going too hard on him," The gold dragon taunts, Bakura oddly finds it sickening, the way he is holding his thrashing host, "he's frightened half to death."

"I don't think it's any of your business what I do to my host," The other dragon hisses, not liking the situation he has been put in.

"I wasn't criticizing, in fact, I think it's cute," Marik continues and there is something unnatural about the way he sniffs the humans hair, it is apparent attraction that the dragon is showing, but to mate a human is one thing but to mate someone of the same sex is counterproductive and though he shouldn't care it makes his stomach sour. It's as if Marik doesn't even notice Ryou's desperate struggles as he nuzzles the panicked teen. "I could punish him for you."

Bakura is just about to object when his tamer interrupts.

"Pl-please. Please. Please." He cries out like a mantra in-between his huffs for air when his body is much too weak to struggle any longer and even his pleas are growing quieter by the second, "please. Pl-please." He begs until he can't anymore, his body shutting down on him, he faints.

"Poor thing," One of Marik's hands leave the boy's torso to cup his wet, pale cheek, the growl leaves Bakura's lips before he can stop it; the gold dragon seems to have a way with getting under his skin. "If you let me keep him for the night I promise I won't kill him, you can even keep my tamer for insurance."

"I don't know how you lizards do things around here, but I can handle my own tamer," Bakura objects.

"Pity," For a moment there the Silver beast thinks that he is getting off that simply, but he is alert to the way those pristine nails of the other male lengthen and take on an edge as that tanned hand goes from tenderly cupping Ryou's face to firmly gripping his throat, "Though in this position I don't think you have much room to argue, if you truly refuse I could easily just kill him."