Even In Fairytales:

Chapter XII:

While the others were at breakfast Ryou and Bakura were in the courtyard, sitting on the edge of a fountain. The trickling sound of water served as the only noise. "Bakura, may I ask you something?" Ryou said after a few minutes of silence.

"Ask away kiddo."

"Well, I was wondering if you could tell me why exactly you took the cufflinks."

"Oh, well, it's kind of hard to explain. The best way to explain it is that it's what I had to do for my fairytale, though at the moment I really don't care about the miller's daughter."

Sighing Ryou shook his head. He knew all too well what it was like to do things and the only answer you could give was for your fairytale dictated you to do it.

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As soon as breakfast had finished everyone had gone off to do different things; Otogi went to his study, Marik had gone off to wander around the palace aimlessly while Yuugi had slipped away without so much as a word and Yami went to go find him to see if he was all right. Fortunately for Yuugi he had lost Yami; however he currently found himself in a garden without any knowledge of how he got there or how to get back to the main hall of the palace. So until someone came he just resorted to walking around the garden, which, to be fair, was very beautiful.

The green hedges were trimmed back perfectly, no stray branch hung over the stone path. Outlining the perimeter of the hedges were exotic flowers, some of which he never seen or even heard about, in colors such as vibrant blues, purples, yellows, and reds. Stopping, Yuugi plucked a red hibiscus from its bush and inhaled the scent before continuing on his walk. On the other side of the flora border there was an opening with marble steps that lead up to a weeping willow. Curiously, Yuugi made his way towards the drooping tree. He went to move the veil of branches when he heard someone call his name. Looking back out over the garden he saw Yami making his was towards him. 'Well, I guess there's no denying that he would've found me sooner or later.' He thought as he retracted his hand from the tree.

"There you are." Yami called as he made his way up the steps.

"Oh, hey." He greeted softly. "Looks you found me."

"There were only so many places you could be." Yami just shook his head. "However, I want to talk to you."

"About what?" Yuugi asked, twirling the hibiscus in his fingers.

"I just want to know why you've been avoiding me. Every time I saw you in the halls you disappeared down another corridor. Did I do something wrong?"

Sighing, Yuugi turned back to him. "It's complicated."

"We've got time." Yami told him softly.

A slight breeze blew by and Yuugi shivered, wrapping his arms around himself to keep warm. Yami wrapped and arm around waist, drawing him close. "The weather's unpredictable today." Yuugi commented to no one in particular.

"Yuugi?"

"Yes?" He asked, looking up only to be met with a pair of soft lips pressing against his own. His violet eyes widened before sliding closed. The red hibiscus fell out of his grasp and to the ground unnoticed as he wrapped his arms around Yami.

A few moments later they parted and looked at each other with half-lidded eyes. "Um, excuse me." A voice interrupted. Reluctantly they drew away from another and turned to the voice.

"What is it?" Yami asked the young man standing before them.

"Forgive me, I am truly sorry if I have interrupted something, but I've come to tell the two of you that his highness is requesting your presence in the courtyard."

Yami gave him a nod. "All right, tell Otogi we will join him in a few minutes."

Bowing at the waist the servant said, "Yes sire, right away." He then rushed off down the steps and back through the garden.

As soon as he was gone Yami turned back to Yuugi. "I guess we should go then." Yuugi said after a moment, before turning away and descending the steps and followed the servant out of the garden.

Yami stood there for a moment, a small breeze blowing by before following Yuugi through the garden and to the courtyard.

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Eventually the two found their way through the winding palace halls and ended up in the courtyard. "It's about time you two showed up." Marik said, his tone bored, as he pretended to examine his nails. When he opened his mouth to speak once more he was shushed up by a nudge from Ryou.

Otogi shook his head and looked at the two that had just joined them. "Anyways, before your group started to make your way north I wanted to tell you something." He began. "I've had my staff replenish your supplies and I will have a carriage take you to a certain point so you don't have to spend half the day walking."

"Otogi, you don-" Yami began to protest, but Otogi held up his hand and cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it. Besides, the quicker you get there the quicker you can return and sort everything out." He told him, directing his statement more towards Yami than anyone else.

"Your highness." The footman called as he entered the courtyard through the glass French doors that lead into the palaces' sun room. "The carriage has been pulled around to the front steps and the bags are being loaded now. Whenever they're we'll leave."

"Ah, thank you Etienne." He said to the footman before turning back to the group in question. "Well, it looks like this is good bye."

Everyone murmured in agreement as they started to make their way to the front steps of the palace.

"However, I'd like to have a word with you." Otogi said as he grasped the other prince by the shoulder, stopping him. Noticing this, the rest of the group stopped and looked at the other two with a concern."Don't worry, it's only a quick word and won't take very long. Please do continue on."

"All right then…" Ryou said slowly before they made their way through the threshold of the French doors.

As soon as the others had disappeared he turned to Otogi. "All right, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, it's more like tell you something than talk."

"What is it?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I sent word to your grandfather letting him know that you are well."

"Thank you, Otogi."

"You're welcome, but I know of a better way to set your grandfather's mind at ease rather than a letter."

"I know what you're getting at and no, I'm not going home. Not yet at least."

The green eyed man stared at him for a moment longer. "Alright, I trust you on this."

"Thank you Otogi. Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome. Have a safe journey."

"Good bye my friend." Yami said as he walked through the French doors into the sun room.

Yami swiftly walked through the halls and in no time found himself outside the front steps of the palace. He made his way towards the carriage and saw he that he got there at just the right time for the footman was helping Yuugi up before he, himself got in the carriage as well.

On one side sat Marik, Bakura, and Ryou; leaving Yami to sit next to Yuugi. As soon as he sat down the footman shut the door and singled to the driver that everyone was in and ready to go. There was a sudden lurch of the carriage before they started rolling smoothly along.

Yuugi glanced around at everyone, an amused smile formed on his lips. 'So we've got Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, Rumpelstiltskin, and the Frog Prince all riding in a carriage together. Now that's something I'd never thought I'd see.'

For the most part it was silent, but every once in a while someone spoke a word or two. Before they knew it the carriage came to a halt. "What's going on?" Ryou asked as he looked out the window. No one said anything and right when Ryou pulled his back inside the door opened.

"I'm sorry." The footman said. "But this is as far as we're going to go."

As soon as everyone climbed out of the climbed out of the carriage they found themselves on a dirt path the middle of nowhere. Right as Ryou turned around to thank them for bringing them this far it was already going back the way it came.

"Well, I guess we're on our own from here." Marik said, turning into a wolf.

The unlikely group each picked up a bag that contained some supplies and started to make their way down the path. Their walk was going to be nothing but a long, warm, and possibly sweaty one. "Summer's drawing closer with each passing day." Ryou said as he blocked the sun from view. "It's almost too warm to keep moving on."

Marik glared at Ryou. "Yeah, well, you try walking in it with 90 pounds a fur on your back. Then you can complain."

"I don't think you have the right to complain either." Bakura told him. "You didn't even have to become a wolf in the first place."

"Yeah, well, it gets me places faster."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "You're going the same pace as us. And I have a question for you; can you even turn into anything else other than a wolf?"

Marik looked at him questionably. "Of course I can."

"Are you sure? I've never seen it."

"Fine," Marik growled. "The next non-wolf animal that we see I'll turn into and show you that I can turn into something else other than a wolf."

"Well that should prove to be interesting."

While the three of them began to bicker Ryou and Yuugi just ignored them. Their pace quickened in hopes that they would find some place to cool off at such as trees or an oasis of some sort. They walked until they came to the edge of a cliff. As they looked down they saw a crystal clear lake shimmering in the sunlight. "Well, we found a place to cool off at, but how do you suppose we get down from here?" Ryou asked as they both looked around.

"There! I see a path." Yuugi said a few minutes later. Sure enough there was another dirt path winding down the hill.

Looking behind them they saw the other three still talking and didn't seem to notice what they found. Sighing Ryou turned to Yuugi. "Do you want to race to the lake?"

Yuugi smiled and nodded. "Sure why not. See you at the bottom." And with that, Yuugi took off running.

Ryou stood there for a moment before fully comprehending what just happened. "HEY! That's wasn't fair!" He yelled as he chased after Yuugi.

It was then that they pulled out of their conversation. "Did…did they just leave us here?" Yami asked as they watched the two disappear down the path.

"Where do they think they're going in the first place?" Bakura asked as the two figures disappeared down the hill.

"Oohh, a race! Fun!" Marik said as he ran down the path after the other two.

"HEY! Get back here!" Bakura and Yami yelled simultaneously as they chased after the wolf.

Reaching the end of the path Yuugi skidded to a stop right by the lake. A few moments later Ryou joined him. The two of them were out of breath, sweaty, and even warmer than before. As they caught their breath Marik soon joined them. "Where are the other two?" Ryou asked as Marik laid down next to them.

"They're coming."

Both boys looked up in time to see both Yami coming towards them. "Where's Bakura?" Ryou asked, looking around.

"Right…behind…me." He panted as he sat on the ground next to them. Sure enough just passed him was the dwarf, sitting there, breathing just as heavily as the prince was.

"Are you two all right?" Yuugi asked.

"Oh we're fine, but a little bit of WARNING next time might be nice." Bakura said from where he lay on the ground.

"How can you two be tired, it wasn't that long of a run?" Marik teased.

"Shut it wolf boy!" They both snapped at him, neither one of them was in the mood to hear what he had to say about it.

"If it makes you feel any better there's a lake right over there." Yuugi informed the two of them.

Both of them sat up and looked at each other before looking at Yuugi. "Really?"

"Yup, it's the reason we had a little race down here." He explained as he pointed at it. The two scrambled up to their feet, taking off their shoes as they neared the lake.

"Hey, wait, you two don't even know what's in that lake. It could be dangerous." Yuugi called to them. Without so much as heeding his call the two just climbed into the water, sighing in satisfaction of how cool the water was.

"Come on in you three, the waters nice and relaxing in the hot sun." Bakura called after a few moments.

Both Yuugi and Ryou skeptically looked at each other, unsure of what to do. However, Marik was all for it and jumped right in with them. "Oh come on you two. There's nothing wrong with the water."

"I don't know…" Ryou trailed off as they both stared at the lake.

Without any warning Marik came up and grasped Yuugi's shirt in his teeth and pulled on it, causing him to fall into the lake. "AH!" He failed his arms as he fell into the cool pool of water.

A few moments later he surfaced and coughed up a bunch of water. "Are you all right?" Ryou asked as he knelt down next to the lake.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" It was Yami that asked this time before he glared at Marik.

"What did I do?" He asked, changing back into a human once more.

"You're the one that pulled him in here."

"Yami! Let it go! I'm all right. Really, I am." Yuugi cut in.

"If you say so." He said as he watched Yuugi swim back over to the edge of the lake.

'Oh, I can't do this anymore. I need to tell him. It's really unfair and he deserves to know that it was me.' Yuugi thought as he pulled himself back onto the bank and sat next to Ryou, who had his feet dangling in the cool liquid. Looking up, Yuugi saw the three of them starting some sort of water war. 'Tonight, that's when I'll tell him.'

Not really wanting to get caught in the heat of the day the group agreed to spend the day at the lake. When the sun began to set was when they would talk about whether or not they would continue on that evening or if they would wait until the next morning before moving on.

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Pegasus examined the clear jar in front of him, noticing that it was only half way full. "This is all you have to show for your work?" He asked the three on bended knee in front of him.

"Yes my lord." They all answered in unison.

"And you've failed to get any other magic from another tale before showing this to me."

"Yes my lord."

The white haired man let out a sigh as he turned away from them. The fairytale draining wasn't going exactly as he had expected it to. That's when a thought struck him. "Valon," He began turning back to them.

Said brunette raised his head. "Yes, my lord. What is it?"

"I believe a week or so ago you mentioned that you believe that you saw the chosen one. Am I correct?"

"Yes." Confused the three of them looked at each other before looking back up at their lord.

He smiled wickedly as an idea formed in his head. "That's good, very good. When did you last see the chosen one?"

"Just recently." Raphael answered. "Why?"

"Because I want you capture and bring him to me."

AN: Finally! An update! This chapter took forever considering that I had to cut a few characters from the story. And that affected the next chapter as well. But no worries since I know exactly what's going to happen next chapter. Also, the lake is a depression so it would have a bank and no shore...or so I think.

Anyways, until next time.