Orion
by
The Pop Tart Spirits
He was running, running so fast that both his legs and the screaming people he pushed past were a blur. He felt blood on his face, reveled in it.
His instinct told him to get out of town, avoid the people. They were so loud... but all he knew was running, and he no longer cared where he went.
He had been shoved into a store window and he wasn't sure how badly he was bleeding; he was healing himself as he went but that was slow going. His energy was for running.
He was in remarkably good shape for being cooped in a puzzle for 5,000 years... of course, the genes in this body were spliced magically from Yugi's own and Yugi was a healthy one.
Yugi...
Signs flashing past in his narrowed vision. A mother scooping her children out of the bloody madman's way. Slow to a jog through traffic... extraburstofspeed into the park... free. He kept running.
Who was Yugi?
Blood still flowed... it was worse than he had thought. He was slowing down.
Yami was gasping for breath as he neared the fountain, thinking only to wash his face in it, but gravity and vertigo took control of him in his bloodloss-weakened state and pushed him face first into the water instead.
Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered. He was only sane enough to know he'd gone somewhat mad, but he was mad enough to think himself completely sane... running from his problems had never been his strong suit, because when you're Pharaoh and you don't deal, then someone will come along, take advantage of those problems, and kill you.
But besides, the water felt nice...
"Oh, no you don't!" A strong pair of hands, attached to pale muscular arms, clamped on to his torn jacket and hauled him out of the water.
Yami tried to breathe, but his lungs were rebelling. Okay, then. Eyes close, body go limp... we'll try that.
"Don't make me give you mouth to mouth, Pharaoh."
That voice... make it go away... it's too loud... too raspy...
Sigh. "All right then, you give me no choice..." Then Yami could hear muttered under the man's breath: "Ya pompous fiend."
Then suddenly there were lips on his, pushing air into those unresponsive lungs, and his eyes flew open to meet the stern, stubborn mahogany ones of Bakura.
All the water came out.
"Pah... Bakura!"
"You were dying!"
"And you cared?"
"You're doing me a favor!"
"Ah, so that's it." Yami tried in vain to stand, wondering how in the underworld he'd gotten to Heritage Park. "In that case, you should have let me drown."
"Not a good enough reason, Pharaoh?"
"No! As a matter of fact, a very selfish one."
"You have the nerve to call me selfish after trying to drown yourself in a fountain? How the hell did you become Pharaoh!"
Yami sniffed outwards and water sprayed. Then, hands in pockets, his proud shoulders slumped. "Thank you..."
Bakura did a double take. Did he seriously just thank me?
But Yami was walking away.
Shaking his head fiercely, his white mane of hair flopping around almost comically, he pleaded silently, -no, not falling for some stuck up dead guy, please dear RA don't let me fall for this asshole...-
"Fuck!"
Yami turned around only to catch a glimpse of the Tomb Robber as he winked out. Then he was gone, dematerialized and 'ported back to the house he and Ryou shared.
If he'd had the energy, Yami might have entertained the idea of following him, just to see what happened. He's an odd one, but despite our differences, we have crucial things in common... ah, what the hell am I babbling about, I gotta go find Yugi- YUGI! Everything that had happened that morning came rushing back at him. SHIT!
He tried to teleport himself to the Game Shop but in his fatigue ended up at Kaiba's instead, and he had no energy left to correct his mistake. He sank into a sodden heap on the doorstep just as Seto himself was opening the door.
"What the fu- Yami?"
A groan. Then silence.
"Yugi called awhile ago, hoping you had come here."
-Is he even breathing?-
Rolling up his sleeves, Kaiba turned Yami over only to curse and pick him up at the sight of his blue-tinged lips. "Shit, shit, shit..." he muttered. -Guest room? Nah...-
Ten minutes later Yami was ensconced in blankets, minus his wet clothes and with a hot water bottle at his feet. His wounds had been dressed and he was sound asleep, but Kaiba was still in his very cold shower.
He knew taking Yami's clothes off had been a bad idea, but they were soaking wet and torn. He would have had to get them off sooner or later, and it would have been very embarrassing to have to fetch a female member of the staff. Or a male one who didn't care.
-Nice cold shower, freezing cold shower, lalalala...-
When he stepped out of the bathroom, a white towel slung about his hips, he noticed two things: one, it looked like Yami's fever had broken and two, said Pharaoh was staring at him with a very unreadable expression. Seto offered him a wan smile.
"Where are my clothes?"
"In the trash," Seto offered, turning his back to pull on some pants. "They were ripped to hell and bloody, so there was no salvaging them. I put them out of their misery." He realized too late that he was still giving Yami a split second view of his ass, but on second thought... there was a kiss last night, and it meant something. So I don't really care what he sees anymore...
Still shirtless, wearing only his (still slightly tight) black house pants, Seto came to sit on the bed, tucking Yami's sweat soaked bangs back and earning a grousing smile.
"I don't know how you ended up on my front steps, but I'm kinda glad you did."
"Oh?" A slender, dark brow arched. "And why is that?"
"Because you would have died if you had wound up somewhere else... you were suffering from a mild case of hypothermia and blood loss never helps anything."
-And I got to take care of you...-
-And I got to see you...- A less proper part of his mind added. Seto inwardly facepalmed.
"And," he continued, smiling down at the beautiful young man lying in his bed, "because I get to do this."
The kiss was fiery, so unlike last night's sweet joining that Seto wondered which was the real Yami... and then the Pharaoh's tongue slid over his lips and coherant thought simply melted away.
Seto sternly reminded himself that Yami had just been through a harrowing ordeal... while clambering atop the warm body in the blankets and attacking Yami's mouth. The crimson eyes had fluttered closed and mumbled moans rumbled in Yami's throat as the kiss deepened still further, stretching the lifeline between them taut and drowning them in warmth.
They had to breathe, of course, but after a few gasps they went at it again, this time with Yami pushing the blankets out of the way, thus placing his burning hot chest against Seto's.
And that was what shattered the dream.
-Oh god, he's burning up!- Seto pushed himself up off the bed and looked at Yami lying there. With the absence of someone to kiss, the pain had returned, his head was pounding, and so he curled into a little ball and sent his mind elsewhere, turning inward to heal himself.
Of course, not knowing Yami had this ability, Seto thought he had passed out. Blankets were gently re-arranged, and a cool cloth was placed on Yami's searing hot forehead. Hands shaking, Seto managed to stick the electronic thermometer in Yami's ear...
110!
-Holy fuck!- Seto cupped Yami's cheek in his hand, his eyes never leaving the young man as his other hand fumbled for the phone on the side table. But he touched the Millennium Puzzle laying there instead...
Huh? GAHH!
He was pulled into some sort of hallway. There was blackness before him, and blackness behind, but on either side were two doors. One was brightly painted and sounds of laughter and music came from within. But the other door...
"Seto?"
The bright door opened, and little Yugi Motou poked his head out. "How did you get in here?"
Seto Kaiba could only stare in shock. Yugi smiled. "It's okay, I'm sure there's very plausible explanation for this." Then his cherubic features steeled and he marched across the corridor. "Yami? Open this door this instant!"
An incoherant mumbling sounded on the other side.
"What do you mean, healing?"
More mumbling. Seto was astonished that Yugi could actually understand.
"Oh, okay. Well, I'll send Seto back then."
CRASH! Tink, tink... crash, boom... loud echo of boom... stumble, stumble...
"Seto!" Yami's flushed face appeared in the door way. "What in Ra do you mean, Set... oh."
He shook his head. "I'm not going to ask how, aibou," he said to Yugi, who said, "Well, maybe it's the connection you two have." He said this with a grin Kaiba didn't particularly like.
"But I haven't the energy to send him back," Yami finished. Yugi nodded.
"Should he remember?"
Yami thought for a moment, then a look of sad resignation came upon his features. Seto only had time to fully register that Yami was wearing an Egyptian tunic and that the room behind him was not a room, but a world filled with sand, before Yami softly answered "No," and shut the door.
"Okay then," Yugi said to himself. "See ya later, Seto... at least, now I know where Yami is."
Seto started to think, but he's right across the hallway from you all the time, of course you know... and then the world became spirals of darkness.
He woke in the darkening room stretched across his empty bed. His closet was open and he could see the empty hangers. As he rolled over, wondering where the day had gone, he felt a note crumple beneath him. Pulling it out, he read:
I feel better now, so went home... Thank you.
Then Seto remembered what had happened in the bed what felt like only moments ago. -I fell asleep? Hn...-
His head still fuzzy and strangely resonant, Seto pulled himself out of bed and stormed into the kitchen to make some coffee.
R&R, please.