Marik handed Atem a skewer with a steaming piece of meat on it and smiled foxily.

"Do you want to invite your bed warmer out here to join us?" He asked slyly, and Atem's face reddened slowly.

"He's asleep," Atem said, hoping this was the truth, and Marik threw his head back to laugh.

"Yes, because you were up all night wearing him out?" Marik encouraged, holding up more skewers for others, and Mana gasped audibly behind him.

Atem grimaced and knelt by the fire to roast his meat, hating how everyone had the wrong idea about him already.

"That's nice," Isis commented, accepting a meat skewer from her brother with a smile. "I'm glad you're enjoying him, Atem."

"I'm not—" Atem began, but no one heard him. They were already uninterested, laughing and talking about the size of the python Marik had killed.

Mana moved to sit beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder, smiling.

"You could've told me, you know," she said, looking a little hurt. "I guess that explains why you weren't so eager to peek at him…"

Atem ground his teeth furiously and lost his appetite.

"I said I was going to wait three days before interacting with him, and I intend to keep my word," Atem said, but Mahad threw him a withering look and said, "I saw you coming out of his hut today at dawn. Don't deny that, my king."

"It was to bring him medicine!" Atem fumed, and Mahad looked away guiltily, meeting Marik's gaze, and he had to look away from him too.

"Do you think he eats meat?" Mana asked curiously, waving the skewer in front of her nose. "I've heard things about those foreigners. They eat things that come out of boxes. Where does that food come from? Does anyone know?"

Atem shook his head and stared glumly at the meat on his skewer, his thoughts full of the foreigner's angelic sleeping expression.

Inside his hut, Kaiba was peeking out through the cracks of his door, watching them roast an enormous fish they had gutted and put on a slab of rock above the fire.

Fish! I want fish! Kaiba reeled, sitting back on his heels and wondering if he dared to exit the hut while stark naked.

The men outside were naked too, but they wore something around their waists, and the women were the same. Nothing covered their shoulders or breasts. Grass skirts and loin cloths were the only clothes they wore, aside from the thick jewelry that covered their neck, arms, and ankles.

Will I put on bloody clothes for a bite of fish? Kaiba wondered, and decided that no, he was not willing to do that.

Sighing, Kaiba walked back to the bed and sat down, his stomach curling with hunger.

He'd slept the day away, and the sun had set. Thankfully, it had cooled down considerably, but only because the sun was no longer blasting directly overhead. The temperature was somewhat bearable now, but the people outside were milling around the fire like it was cold.

God, I miss air conditioning! Kaiba groaned, pacing the room in a solid circle, growing antsy.

His skin was itching horribly now, and Kaiba didn't want to think about how disgusting it looked. He could feel it peeling.

The real obstacle was asking for more medicine.

Rushing to the door again, Kaiba peered out through the crack and tried to figure out who was the queen. It was probably the one with long hair and large, round breasts that would make even a modern woman envious. She was the prettiest and had the most amount of gold jewelry on her wrists, next to the man with spiky hair.
Maybe he was the king?
He wasn't very intimidating.
The tall man made of pure muscle was way scarier.

They're her muscle, Kaiba decided, tucking his legs underneath him in an attempt to make himself comfortable on the floor.

The pretty girl with long hair and large breasts rose to her feet with three skewers in hand, and Kaiba eyed them hungrily.

She began walking towards the door, and Kaiba scrambled to get back on the bed, wondering how he could make himself look more presentable. Fuck. He was naked.
She was the first girl to come in and see him. Shit. Shiiiit.

Kaiba snatched up a pillow and pressed it to his crotch, leaning against the edge of the bed and composing himself. She was the queen…
Fuck…fuck….

The wooden plank door slid open and she stepped inside, smiling brightly at him.

Kaiba forced the corners of his mouth up in a smile and tightened his grip over the pillow, breaking out into a cold sweat. Damn…her boobs were larger than his face…
Had he ever seen boobs this large up close?!

He whipped his head to the side and reminded himself not to stare, feeling his ears burn with a mixture of fury and humiliation.
Too late. He'd already been staring.
She probably knew.
She definitely knew.
He had stared at her boobs for longer than five seconds before looking away.
She definitely had to know that he was staring.
They were fucking huge!

I'm disgusting, Kaiba balked, and Mana stood there awkwardly, understanding that the foreigner was embarrassed by his nakedness.

"Ah, I'll get someone to make you a covering," Mana offered kindly, stepping closer to offer him a skewer. "Please eat this. I can't put it down anywhere."

Kaiba heard her speak and he slowly turned his head to look at the fish skewers she was holding and tentatively reached out for them.

She stepped forward to get closer and Kaiba instinctively shrank back when he saw her boobs bounce.

The skewers were shoved into his hand and Kaiba tightened his grip around them quickly before they fell. He saw her step out of the hut with a friendly wave.

He let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding and stared at the fish skewers in his fist.

Holy fucking shit. Those were the largest breasts he'd ever seen in his life, and they were terrifying.

No longer hungry, Kaiba held the skewers for a while, staring out through the open door and watched the tribespeople fanning the fire with large leaves while others were setting out baskets of nuts to roast.

There were children running around the clearing, laughing and dancing.
The men were sanding pitchers on the ground a few feet away, and the women were taking turns at the fire, tending to the nuts.

Not a gun in sight.
The spears had been put away, and everyone's faces were relaxed, and happy.

It's peaceful here, Kaiba realized, the fish was slowly sliding off the end of the pointed stick, so he hastily dipped his head down to eat it, pleased with the wonderful, smokey taste. It was delicious.

Atem glanced up and looked away quickly when he saw that the foreigner still hadn't left the hut even though the door was wide open.

He wasn't acting frightened, so why didn't he leave the dwelling?

"Mahad," Atem decided to consult his dearest advisor, kneeling beside him while he was sharpening a blade. "Why won't he leave the hut? Is he frightened of us?"

"Did you say he could leave the hut?" Mahad asked gruffly, wondering why the king was asking him about this. "He obeys you, does he not?"

"We don't communicate," Atem said stiffly, but then realized that was untrue. The man had asked for water, and he in turn, had fetched him water.

"Hm," Mahad replied noncommittally and Atem's cheeks burned.

Kaiba watched this interaction closely.

It was strange. The large, muscular man behaved like an older brother to the spiky-haired man.

Were they related?

Deciding it didn't matter, Kaiba set the skewers down on the nightstand and wondered how he could ever access running water to properly clean his hair. It was starting to become greasy, and he didn't want to think about how many days it had been since he had a proper wash.
Prisoners didn't get to choose, did they?
He had a whole hot spring to himself in the hut, so why was he complaining?

Sighing, he sat back on down the bed and crossed his arms, watching the spiky haired man stand up and make his way towards him.

Oh shit…. Kaiba paled and realized he'd forgotten he was naked while he was eating, and that anyone glancing in through the open door could've just …seen him completely. In fact, the spiky-haired man was staring at him right now. Panicking, he raced to the door and dragged the plank over the opening to shut himself inside.

Shocked, Atem stood a few feet away from the hut, hearing raucous laughter echoing behind him from Marik and the other villagers.

"It's too soon! He needs to recover!" Marik howled, and Mana covered her face with her hands, her ears red.

"I didn't do anything to him!" Atem cried, and he received more cheers and laughter.

Kaiba heard whoops and howling outside his door and winced, wondering why they sounded so…wild. They were wild.

Have they ever had contact with the outside world? Kaiba wondered frantically, and he heard the footsteps outside fading.

These people lived in huts they made themselves.
They hunted and killed for their food, and their written language was basically pictures.

Where are the ones that use guns? Kaiba shivered and sat on the bed, thinking he'd sit in the spring again because he didn't have anything else better to do.

Atem stepped into the medicinal hut and accepted the bowl from the healer, trying to appear unfazed by the man's sudden rejection, but deep down, he was disturbed. What had he done to deserve a door being slammed in his face?

"Atemmm!" Mana called to him, waving. "Can I touch him if you don't want to interact with him for the next two days?"

"Why is she allowed to touch him?" Marik asked sourly. "When am I allowed to touch him? His skin can't stand the sun, so it must be soft."

"I wanna touch him!" A child piped up and waved his skewer over his head excitedly.

Atem gripped the medicine bowl tightly and realized that everyone saw the foreigner as an interesting pet or a toy.

"He's a person, and we will treat him like one of us," Atem said stiffly. "He's not less human because his skin is pale."

No one was listening. They had lost interest and were entertaining the child who had come by to ask if he could take everyone's stick for them.

Sighing to himself, Atem marched toward the hut and made a lot of noise opening the door, hoping it would alert the man inside of his arrival.

Kaiba got a fright from the sudden, loud scraping, and he leapt to his feet, backing away to the farthest corner, trying to be invisible. He had an unpleasant flashback to his childhood, where the evil man who was supposed to be his guardian had snuck up on him repeatedly to scare him, and those play sessions always ended in tears.

His heart raced painfully fast in his chest as he backed against the stone wall. The spiky-haired man entered carrying another bowl wrapped with a leaf, and Kaiba instantly relaxed.

The queen's servant was here to bring him more medicine.
How nice. Accepting the skewers from her politely had been a good move.
Should he try to communicate verbally with this man?
He appeared to be friendly and non-violent.

Atem set the bowl down on the nightstand and noticed the man was acting like a frightened squirrel, cowering in the corner while covering his privates.

"I'll get you something to cover yourself with," Atem said warmly, and he heard the man speak for the first time.

"Suck my nipples."

Atem blinked and swayed violently on the spot, wondering if his ears were deceiving him.

Kaiba swallowed thinly and tried again. "Let me go," he said steadily. The spiky-haired man blinked repeatedly and looked very shocked.

Did he understand?

Hopeful, Kaiba repeated himself. "Please, let me go."

Atem grit his teeth and heard the man ask him again. "… …Suck my nipples."

Kaiba tried again in another language, going for English, and then German.

"Please, let me go. Let me go."

Atem shook his head slowly, his ears filled with the strange language the man was speaking. He was now regretting not having stuck to his three-day plan. Maybe this man had heard conversation outside and could understand bits and parts of it.
Either way, it was disturbing, and he was leaving.

He turned to go, and Kaiba called out to him. "Wait! Can you understand me? Will you let me go eventually?"

Atem froze halfway out the door and heard the man ask him again, sounding desperate, "….. …. Suck my nipples! …."

Exasperated, Atem turned to give the handsome man a glare and said very clearly, "No. You're clearly still injured. Get some rest."

He hurried out and hastily slid the door back into place, his heart thundering rapidly in his chest.

Kaiba's heart sank at the man's cold demeanor, and he sagged against the wall, hissing in pain when his skin touched the rock.

Fuck everything. They were keeping him here for some reason and they wouldn't say why.
What was to stop him from walking out the door and yelling for help?

Guns and arrows, Kaiba thought glumly, moving to sit on the bed and staring at the bowl of medicine, trying to stem to horrible waves of depression consuming him steadily. His only hope was that Mokuba was alive and doing better than he was.

Atem marched into Mana's hut and sat down by her fire pit, watching her brush her hair and adjust her jewelry by the mirror.

"What is it, my king?" She asked sweetly, turning to give him a smile.

"The foreigner has learned some bad words from our language," Atem said shakily, trying to compose himself from that traumatic interaction. "My three-day rule still stands."

"Of course," Mana purred, not listening at all. She was too busy dipping her hands into the mud pot and slathering it onto her neck and face.

"Want some?" She offered, and Atem shook his head glumly.

"It's not hot enough for that, is it?" Atem asked tiredly, and she shrugged happily.

"It's always hot enough," she answered vaguely, humming to herself as she continued to swipe mud onto her cheeks.

Atem laid down on the mat and stared up at the sky through the hole in the center of the roof, listening to the wind rustling through the trees and insects chirping, trying to sort out his tumultuous feelings.

"Go back to your own hut!" Mana protested, pointing at the door bossily. "I'm having my friends over tonight!"

Atem nodded and obediently got up to leave, still feeling restless and unable to shake the handsome man's request from his mind. He had been hoping to get some advice from Mana about that, but he couldn't even bring himself to talk about it.
It was too embarrassing!

Kaiba chinned the pillow and tried to enjoy the feeling of the medicine cooling on his skin, but the horrid screeching of the cicadas were deafening. The walls around him were barely walls as they were, so nothing was blocking out the sounds from the outside.

The humidity made it hard for him to breathe, and his skin was forever drenched in a thin layer of sweat.

Can I die? Kaiba thought glumly, kicking his feet aimlessly on the bed and missing his screens dearly.

He wasn't sure what he yearned for more: the internet, air conditioning, or a good shower.

Or a fucking toothbrush, Kaiba grumbled, running his tongue along his teeth and recoiling at horrid, fuzzy feeling.

He also couldn't stop obsessively thinking about Mokuba and running the events of their capture in his head. His little brother screaming his name hysterically stuck permanently in his brain, and he buried his face in the pillow, biting back tears of frustration.

He'd done his best to protect Mokuba all his life, first at the orphanage, and then from the child-molesting monster who adopted them. Just when he thought he'd succeeded in giving Mokuba the biggest, most promising step-up in life with the billion-dollar company he'd stolen from the monster—this had to happen.

"And it just goes to show…" Kaiba said, thudding his forehead against the pillow and hearing the leaves crunching inside the stuffing. "…That money really doesn't matter if I can't fucking use it!"

Shadi was passing by the hut, making his nightly rounds when he heard the foreigner say something angrily, so he paused, and waited for the man to speak again.

Kaiba heard footsteps outside his door and held his breath, wondering if it was the spiky-haired man again. Didn't matter. He was going to start yelling and make himself heard.

"LET ME GO!" Kaiba called at the figure hovering by the door. The plank was shoved aside, and to his mild horror, it was the bald man carrying a sharp spear.

"What?" Shadi hissed, thudding the base of his spear threateningly against the floor of the hut.

"Let me go home! I need to see my brother!" Kaiba said steadily, clutching the pillow tighter to his chest, fully aware that his bare ass was on full display, but he tried not to let his discomfort show on his face.

Shadi blinked rapidly, hearing the man say, "Suck my nipples…!" And something else he couldn't understand.

Growing numb with shock at the man's request, Shadi gripped his spear tighter and glared.
What…was this man…asking for? Atem? Perhaps this was supposed to be directed towards Atem, because this was dirty talk reserved for lovers only.

"I will get him. Stop screaming. You'll attract the lions," Shadi growled, and stormed out of the hut, not bothering to close the door behind him, heading straight for Atem's dwelling.

"…Hey!" Kaiba cried, sitting up and wondering if it had worked.
The man had just…left. What did that mean?

Wincing, Kaiba hopped off the bed and wasn't halfway to the door when he saw the spear-carrying man returning with the spiky-haired man in tow. They were arguing loudly, and people were peeking their heads out from the neighboring huts to stare at them.

"He's asking for you," Shadi said gruffly through gritted teeth. "Did you teach him how to say that?"

"No!" Atem cried, his irritation towards the stranger rising higher. "I don't know where he learned that from!"

"Well, get him to stop screaming," Shadi said stiffly, shoving Atem towards the hut and moving to slide the door in place. "Wear him out like you did last night, and make sure he can't walk. There was a fanged monkey sneaking around here a couple nights ago, and Marik is trying to fight it off."

Atem opened his mouth to protest, but Shadi stuck the door in place, trapping him inside with the foreigner in the dark room.

Hissing in annoyance, Atem turned to the stranger and scolded him. "Look what you did. Now everyone thinks I laid my hands on you!"

Kaiba stared at the spiky-haired figure, unable to see his face. Only his slender silhouette was visible in the darkness. Whatever language he was speaking sounded like nothing he'd ever heard.

"Go to sleep," Atem said, and he turned to leave.

Kaiba saw that the man was about to go, so he jumped at this chance to ask, "When you let me go? Can I go outside with you?"

Atem took a deep breath and let it out slowly when he heard the man say, "…. Suck my nipples … nipples…!"

Better to ignore it.

Atem shoved the door aside and stalked back to his dwelling, wondering why was that man so demanding.

Kaiba stood at the door of the hut and was met with a spear pointed threateningly at his chest.

He froze, staring into the bald man's eyes when he talked.

"You are a burden," Shadi said darkly, shoving the spear closer to the man's pale, white skin. "Your only use is to make the king happy because women are scarce around here. Go back inside before a lion makes you it's meal."

Kaiba swallowed thinly and backed away slowly.

Great. He was not allowed outside past the door lest he get stabbed, or worse.

The plank was moved back into place, trapping inside in the dark, so Kaiba blindly made his way back to his bed, his body heavy with despair. What did these people want with him? Why were they keeping him here, fed and watered…like a pet?

Throwing himself down on the bed, Kaiba buried his face into the crunchy pillow and let out a muffled scream.

He could try fighting his way out of the village, but he wouldn't know where to go.
He'd be caught and brought back. Or, he'd manage to escape successfully, and then die in the jungle because everything in nature was terrifying and murderous.

Biting back angry tears, Kaiba chinned his pillow and wondered if this was what he deserved. Maybe this was God's way of punishing him for indirectly murdering his abuser.

But he killed himself all on his own! Kaiba raged, sitting up and grabbing the medicine from the nightstand when the burns on his neck became unbearable. He rubbed the liquid over his skin and forced himself to take steady, even breaths.

Maybe this was God's way of punishing him for taking all the money and turning the rotten company into something wholesome.

Maybe this was God's way of forcing him to reconsider and reevaluate his life.
Maybe God didn't exist.
Maybe this was just his own rotten luck at work. He'd listened to Mokuba's bratty request and gotten himself captured along with other rich snobs, because that's what he'd become: A rich snob.

But I worked hard to get where I am…Kaiba thought glumly, staring into the empty medicine bowl and hating how he kept missing one patch of skin on his back because he couldn't reach it.

He set the bowl aside and pinned the leaf underneath it, staring at the dark wall before him, listening to the deafening screeching of the insects outside.

I'm just in a bad situation and I need to get myself out of it, Kaiba resolved, laying back down and letting the balm slowly dry off his skin. The cooling effect was extremely soothing, and Kaiba found that it really helped him relax and…fall asleep.

Author's note:

Kaiba's language overlaps with atem's language in a strange way and neither of them realize it.