Red & Blue, Black & White

Summary: REWRITE. Dragon AU! Seto Kaiba is the lieutenant of the Rafter of Domino Peak, living his days in frustration after the death of his father. Not only is he second-in-command to his lifelong rival, and the only caretaker to his hatchling brother, but his attitude towards his leader has 'earned' him solo patrol duty for the next month. On one of those patrols, he comes across an odd, aggressive black dragon who comes with his own set of baggage.

Pairings: Kaiba/Jounouchi, Yugi/Anzu, Honda/Otogi, Ryou/Marik(not Yami Marik), Yami/Yami Bakura, other minor shippings will be mentioned as the story goes

Rating: T+, may go up later

Chapter 7: Hunting Trip

"This is literally the worst day of my life." Seto muttered, lying on his stomach in the nesting field, as eight hatchlings crawled all over him as if the large white dragon were a big rock or a tree.

"You sure are popular with children." Yami told him with a chuckle, basking on a nearby rock "I'm guessing they see you can get as grumpy as one."

"Keep it up and I'll give you yours back." Seto snapped; the hatchlings playing on and around him were Mokuba, Namu, Malika, Amane, and Yami and Bakura's clutch of four whose names Seto had yet to learn properly.

It'd been almost a month since Yami and Bakura arrived to the Rafter of Domino Peak, and although some of the Rafter especially Yugi was distrusting of Yami after his years of disappearance, they'd actually settled rather nicely. Bakura was, surprisingly, very popular; the Underbrush as his Rafter called him, was a very gruff and not at all respectful dragon, but there was something very down to Earth about his coarse personality. And since he was a healer, he worked alongside their own healer Marik, and gave the Zephyr more free time to spend with his mate and children.

Speaking of Bakura, even in dragon form he was extremely similar in appearance to Ryou; they were both silver (even if Bakura's was in a gradient), had the same general body shape, and were frill-necked. Generally speaking, their biggest differences were their dragon breeds with Ryou being a Windrider wyvern and Bakura being a Darkstalker dragon, and their differences in eye colour in dragon form, which were basically inverted colours of each other, Ryou's being light yellow and Bakura's being dark blue.

This had been quite the incident when they met each other, especially since they shared a family name. They ended up going to Ishizu for some family background to see if their bloodlines had intersected at some point in the past. After a few days of going through the Rafters records of births and deaths, she found that they were cousins; they had the same grandparents. Many years ago, a Domino Peak dragon and a Shadow Forest dragon had a one-time clutch together, and when the eggs had hatched the Windrider took the wyvern children while the Darkstalker took the dragon children, to match up with their respective clans better.

While this made a lot of sense, the revelation that Bakura was a mixed breed dragon was very much to his chagrin. His mate teased him for days that he too was a 'filthy hybrid' and their own children were more Windrider than Darkstalker.

It was for the better though, because the family settled better with the Rafter since both of them had family ties to it, the two Bakura's were getting along just fine, disturbingly well even; although Yugi still forbade his older brother from coming anywhere near him.

Seto, however, was still stuck with helping the refugee family, so he was consistently getting stuck with a scrum of dragon chicks. Of Yami and Bakura's four newest clutch they had two sons, Atemu and Bakari; and two daughters, Kamilah and Bastet, they'd hatched shortly before their fathers left the Rafter of the Shadow Peak and their eyes were now opened and they were mobile, if a bit clumsy.

Bakura was currently off to the side, sitting with Marik as the two conversed over stories of their patients, and sorting piles of herbs "And that moron had the nerve to wonder why his leg wasn't getting any better." Bakura told the other dragon.

"You'd think dragons would put their health before pride." Marik replied.

With Bakura and Yami being a bit more divulging when it came to information about their Rafter, they didn't have a reason to be secretive like Jou - Seto had yet to tell them that he knew where their diamondtooth had been - taking human form in the Shadow Forest Rafter was considered shameful, because of their vulnerability. No dragon, even when facing starvation or life threatening infections, would ever take their human form, which was why they were seldom seen in any form other than dragon, and why their Rafter was still relatively small and didn't have a human village. Even the intermediate form was off the table for most of them.

Bakura was so reluctant to take his human form, it wasn't until his family was in imminent danger that he could force himself to do it. Even Mana and Tozokuo were reluctant. It must have been a profound phobia if even the rational Bakura considered it an absolute last resort.

This explained why Jou refused to take his human form, even if it would speed up the recovery time of his broken leg.

"Hey Uncle Kaiba!" A voice from above said; he sighed and rolled his eyes as the fledgling Mana landed right in front of him, a big hare in her small jaws. In dragon form, Mana was a wyvern like Yami, but she was lusterless, and her scales were a dark gray to light gray gradient from top to bottom, and her eyes were blue like Bakura's.

"I'm not your uncle." Seto deadpanned, looking down at the fledgling.

"This is stuff that plains dragons like, right?" Mana asked, dropping the hare in front of him.

"While I appreciate that you're trying to adapt to this rafter and it's prey, that's too small for an adult dragon." Seto told her "However, do you know how to utilize prey that's too small for dragons?"

"Uhhmmm feed it to the chicks?" She asked.

"No, you take it to the human village; up to three humans can get a meal out of a hare that size." He explained. She looked at him like it was a new concept… and, yet, it was a completely new concept for her, being from a Rafter that was against human transformation. "You should go take it there, we can preserve it for the cold months."

"Preserve?" She inquired, tilting her head. Since she'd been forced to be human a few times since she arrived, she and her brother and father were starting to get used to human meals, however, those meals were usually fresh.

"With a lot of food items, we have to preserve them because prey disappears during the winter and plants don't grow as well, we have different methods of preserving. There's drying, salting, or storing in dark and cold places like cellars. It depends on what it is. For meat, we dry it out."

Mana squished her nose "Sounds gross if it's not fresh."

Seto rolled his eyes "Better than starving to death." He said, as one of Mana's hatchling siblings started chewing on his front talon, which he didn't care too much because they didn't have teeth yet. "Now just go take that to the village, ask an adult their to change you into a human." He told her.

She reluctantly picked up the hare and flew up again.

"Okay, I think I'm done with all of these chirpers." Seto muttered, standing up; all of the hatchlings clung onto him like a bunch of burrs. He walked over to the two healers off in the distance "Hey Bakura." He said to the unaware silver dragon.

"Wha-" Bakura asked, looking up and squawking as all of the hatchlings were dumped on him. As the hatchlings piled on top of him, he looked up angrily at the Lieutenant.

"I'm taking a break, you and Yami just stay here in the nesting area." He told the disgruntled healer.

"You son of a-"

"I'll escort you all back to the village later." Seto interjected, turning away and lifting his wings up. He heard Bakura continue to swear as he attempted to get the hatchlings off of him. He was surprisingly gentle for such a coarse dragon, but it was probably because four of the hatchlings were his own.

"Wait up," he heard, he turned again and saw Ryou approaching him "let me join you."

"I was going hunting." Seto explained as Ryou caught up to him.

"I'm trying to get back into top shape," The silver dragon said "now that the eggs are hatched I can finally start back on normal duties."

"You'd be better off on your own." Seto dismissed, but the windrider was insistent.

"I heard you found a different way to hunt," Ryou observed "in the woods? I'm interested in learning… and to be honest," he lowered his voice a bit "I'm stir crazy as bloody hell. I need some time away from the nest."

"Fine." Seto grunted; Ryou immediately took off in flight. Cursing wyverns for their ability to fly from a stationary position, the white dragon took a running start to fly.

"Do you think it'd be worth it?" Ryou asked as the two dragons stalked a black bear from the top of a tree.

"It doesn't have any cubs, so we shouldn't have to worry." Seto replied, extending his claws "I'll distract it from the front, you hide in the bushes until it rears up on it's hind legs, you scan attack its throat."

They quietly as possible came back down to the ground, Ryou trying to conceal himself in the foliage.

Before Seto could make a move, a black blur shot out from the nearby bramble cluster and tackled the large black bear.

"Oh no." Seto said out loud; luckily Ryou didn't seem to hear him. He watched as Jounouchi rolled with the bear a few times before sinking his soot-covered teeth into the bears throat, piercing the thick fur and skin and making bright red arterial blood fill the red-eyed dragons jaws. The bear went limp.

"Ryou, please don't-" Before Seto could finish the silver dragon already jumped out of cover, his frill-neck expanding to it's full diameter, taking a threatening stance to the intruder.

"Trespasser!" Ryou growled to the strange black dragon; Ryou wasn't an aggressive dragon, he was more of a hunter than fighter any day. However, he was pent up from months of being in the nesting area, so he was more gung-ho than he would be normally.

Jou blinked at him in surprise "Bakura?" He asked in surprise, obviously mistaking the windrider for his Underbrush.

Seto quickly made his way over to diffuse the situation. "Kaiba?" Jou asked, looking to the white dragon who immediately cursed him under his breath for making it apparent that they had at least met. As if to make the situation even worse, the dragon chick Shizuka stumbled out of the bushes and clumsily padded over to her sire, looking up at the other two dragons curiously.

Ryou's softened a bit in the presence of a hatchling, but he kept his defense, even as he looked back to Seto suspiciously "You two know each other."

"..." Seto wasn't sure what to say "Uhh-"

"We know each other well, actually." Jounouchi interrupted the white dragon, picking up his daughter by the scruff of the neck as he stepped over the black bear.

'Jounouchi I swear to the gods if you let Ryou know I've knowingly harbored a fugitive-'

"He's the sire of my daughter."

If Seto wasn't so good at keeping composure he probably would have fallen over.

"...What?" Ryou inquired, blinking in confusion. He looked to Shizuka; surely he wouldn't believe him, Shizuka looked exactly like her father except-

Except that her eyes were slightly purple.

"... Is this true?" Ryou asked, looking to his peer.

"Uhhh." Was all Seto could say.

"He's a bit reluctant because we're young," Jounouchi continued with the lie, coming up to them and rubbing the top of his head under Seto's chin, who was too startled to push him away this time "but he's truly a stud."

Seto was very close to falling over at that comment.

"..." Ryou was silent as Jounouchi pulled away from the blue-eyed Lieutenant "Wow." Ryou finally said, turning his attention to the still startled Seto "I didn't think you had it in you."

That comment finally broke him out of his stupor "-And what's that supposed to mean?!" He demanded.

"Well, no offense, but I thought you were asexual."

"How am I supposed to not take offense to that?"

"Being asexual isn't an insult."

"Ahem," Jou cleared his throat, "anyways, I came to collect my daughters sire; I have to get prepared for the winter, and I was hoping to have a few days with him."

'What the fuck' Seto thought.

"I guess your energy is needed elsewhere..." Ryou trailed off, looking to Seto "You go on, Lieutenant."

"But the Rafter-"

"I'll tell Yugi that you're just going on hunting trip for a few days, you take care of business with your family; I won't tell anyone if you're not ready." Ryou nodded respectfully, if a little bit awkwardly, to Jounouchi, and flew off beyond the canopy above them.

Once they were alone, Seto glared at the black dragon who was now just licking his front talons nonchalantly "Why would you say something like that?!" He demanded.

"Shadow Forest dragons specialize in being sneaky, you know." Jounouchi said, licking the top of Shizuka's head "We're not above lying for the greater good."

"What's the greater good in this case?" Seto asked as drew his wings closer to his body, still glaring at his darker counterpart.

"As you can see, my leg is all healed up." Jounouchi explained, moving his hind leg in demonstration "So that means it's time to go back to the Shadow forest and take my Rafter back from that murderous bastard."

"And how does that concern me?" Seto asked. "You yourself said you don't want help getting your backwards, backwoods Rafter back."

"I don't need help fighting," Jounouchi told him "I'd never need help with that. However, I have my daughter to worry about, I can't leave her unattended while I fight Hirutani and his goons, I don't have anyone in my Rafter that I trust right now. I just need you to keep watch on her while I'm fighting; and, just in case..." He trailed off; but Seto understood what the 'in case' was.

In case if he didn't make it.

"You know, your insufferable healer and his family have taken sanctuary in my Rafter." Seto told him, the black dragon blinked but shrugged.

"I guess that makes sense..." Jounouchi started, tone becoming solemn "My Rafter traditionally isn't the kindest to outsiders or hybrids, there was no way that Bakura was going to take that standing… speaking of which, who was that dragon who looked just like him except a wyvern? He seemed way too… not an asshole, to be my Bakura."

"That was Ryou Bakura," Seto informed him "he and Yami Bakura are related through their grandparents."

"They're cousins?" Jou started to laugh "O-Oh my gods! That's hilarious! Bakura's a hybrid! That'll knock that asshole down a peg."

"You seem very fond of him." Seto deadpanned, watching the dragon practically roll on the forest floor in laughter.

"Oh, don't get my wrong; I love Bakura." Jounouchi said "But, he's always been a bit uh, blunt."

"Yeah I've caught onto that." Seto stated bluntly. "Believe it or not, the Domino Peak dragons love him. Also, Yami is our Diamondtooths older brother."

"Oh wow. Well, most of us already believed he was a Domino Peak dragon anyways." Jounouchi replied, regaining composure as he stood up and put his daughter onto his back. "Well, let's get started on our way then."

"Have you ever considered asking me?" Seto asked, annoyed as the dragon sauntered by him, brushing his tail under his chin in a manner that would be considered flirty if he wasn't mocking him.

"Be a good baby-daddy, and come along, honey." Jounouchi continued to mock, making his voice sound maternal at the emphasized words. Seto grumbled; he had every right to tell Jounouchi to fuck off, but if he returned to his Rafter right now he would either have to explain to Ryou that he was harboring a wanted criminal, or return without telling him anything and making himself look like a deadbeat parent.

Annoyed, Seto reluctantly trailed after the diamondtooth, presumably in the direction of the Shadow Forest.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Authors note: Short but important and dialogue.

Seto sure is popular huh, he got himself a niece, a daughter and a baby-momma all in one afternoon.

So Bakura and Ryou are cousins; for dragons, the family name comes from their dame; the dragon who passed their egg (with most same-sex couples, both of the dragons will pass eggs, because couples who are m/m or m/f have less eggs per individual clutch compared to m/f couples. There are exceptions to general name rule this, of course, such as dragons who are only raised by one parent (Seto, Mokuba), or adopted (Jounouchi).

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