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: M

Chapter 11: Least Lonely Guy in Town

"It's time to go." Seto told Marik as the gold-dusted dragon herded his three hatchlings out of the nest. Ryou was on guard duty at the farmland right now, leaving his mate alone with their brood as the nest area was being officially cleared for winter.

"I know Lieutenant Kaiba, quit your bitching." Marik hissed at the white dragon - Seto narrowed his eyes slightly, either the encroaching winter was getting to the healer, or Bakura was starting to rub off on him. There was evidence to support both really.

Malika and Namu jumped out of the nest, squeaking excitedly as Marik gently pushed them out with his tail. Amane, however, was still just lying in the nest. "Come on honey," Marik said gently as gently roused her onto her feet with his tail - the hatchlings yellow eyes appeared heavy, almost hollow, not bright and lively like her siblings. Although sluggishly, the dragon chick slowly hobbled after her siblings.

Seto did not miss the worry that was darkening Marik's eyes as he lead his brood out of the nesting area, lagging behind slowly in step to make sure Amane kept up.

He looked over his shoulder to see Jou trying to bask in the sunlight, which wasn't working too well considering the wind chill, one of his wings were extended while the other one was at his side, draped over Shizuka who was shivering. "That means you too." Seto said, approaching the Darkstalker hybrid "The nesting area is cleared for the winter, it's time to go to the village."

"Alright." Jou yawned and stood up.

"You realize you have to at least transform your hatchling." Seto deadpanned, Jou looked down slightly at his tiny chick, who was still shivering between his talons as she tried using him to shield herself from the intense plains winds. He figured in a forest the winds wouldn't get this intense with the trees buffering them.

"I don't think I can prompt her transformation." Jou told him.

"Do you even know how to transform?" Seto asked him - he knew the Shadow Forest Rafter had stigma against transforming, so almost all of them couldn't do it on their own yet; but all dragons regardless of upbringing have the basic instinctual knowledge of how to transform that came once they moved into the fledgeling stage. They just needed to be prompted the first few times.

Jou looked to the ground quickly before looking back up at the windrider hybrid "No." He answered gruffly.

"Not surprising." Seto commented "I'll prompt her when we get back to village." He started walking out of the nest, following the trail that lead to the village. He needed to conserve energy for flying later. Jou followed closely behind before he caught up, walking side-to-side with him, his daughter was being carried on his back.

"Don't you feel weird when you're human? When you're a dragon?" Jou asked.

"It's the same thing, stray." Seto replied simply "All dragons are humans and all humans are dragons, so I don't see why your Rafter has a problem with it."

"You know," Jou began, looking up at the darkening sky, in the days he'd been in the plains territory he'd grown oddly fond of the night sky "they say that humans and dragons used to be seperate."

"This another old legend?" Seto asked flatly.

"Well do you want to hear it or not?"

"Might as well."

"The legend goes that back in ancient times, humans and dragons were at constant war with each other. The dragons were powerful, but the humans were resourceful. Both could use magic, with dragons being elemental magic users and humans being spellcasters. They didn't know what they were fighting about, they'd been fighting each other for so long they didn't know anything else. Now, one day a dragon and a human met. The story kind of uh, diverges from here, some say the human saved the dragon and some say the dragon saved the human, but one saved the other."

"Kind of like how I saved you from your own stupidity." Seto snided, Jou didn't acknowledge that and just continued with his story.

"After one saved the other, the dragon and the human discovered that they didn't hate each other, they didn't want to fight at all. So they talked, and found they had a lot more in common than they thought. They even had the same type of elemental magic that they used."

"Let me guess, the specific element was lost to time and translation as well?"

"Look all that matters in this story is the conceptual aspects, okay? Anyways, the dragon and the human were alike in every single way except for their species. They found they were basically the sam, and as time went on and they strengthened each other in every way, they found they could not bear to be apart. The decided to talk to their respective clans to reveal this bond that they have formed, and maybe this would usher in peace between the two races."

"I bet that went well and their clans were completely understanding." Seto remarked sarcastically.

Jou smacked his back with his wing before continuing "They were both attacked for their 'treachery' within an inch of their lives, and left for dead. Being so close to death, even with the distance between them, they found they were thinking each others thoughts, and with their last bit of strength they sought each other out. They had so little life within in them when they met up, they decided to share their strength between them to keep the other alive, and this selfless act formed a magic contract between them - and the two became one."

Seto nodded as he kept his eyes on the path, just listening.

"They were initially in their intermediate form, and their thoughts didn't run together, but almost as quickly as they merged physically they merged on every other level. All of their thoughts, feelings, and intentions matched until they were one being in every way. They could even shift between their human and dragon forms, still with only one consciousness. This first transforming dragon, being a magic user and spellcaster, was at the time the most powerful in the land, having the sheer strength of a dragon but the cleverness of a human."

"And how did this extend to everyone else, then?" Seto asked.

"As time went on, this human-dragon was tired of the wars between the two races that made them up, and decided that enough was enough. Using a powerful, archaic magic spell that has been lost to time, the human-dragon enchanted the entire land beyond what the eye can see, and every dragon fused with a human and vice versa, and all of their offspring had the same ability to shift between the two races, and this lineage continued and continued, and resentment faded between ones human and dragon side until we forgot we were ever separate in the first place." Jou finished as they finally came upon the village.

"Legends are ridiculous things." Seto said as he came up to his hut, in his talons he grabbed a tunic he had hanging off of a clothes line, and shifted back to his human form fast enough that he pulled the tunic over himself before the other dragon could get a good enough look at him without it.

"Woah, that's what you look like as a human? How come your fur and eyes aren't the same?" Jou asked as he crouched down low trying to get down to Seto's level.

Seto rolled his eyes and crossed his arms "It's called hair, not fur, stray." He corrected "And our human forms rarely reflect on what we look like as dragons, now, hand Shizuka to me so I can prompt her to change."

"How come you pulled that weird pelt on?" Jou asked as he used his wing to pull Shizuka off of his back and pass her to Seto.

Seto huffed slightly as he held the dragon chick in his arms - a dragon chick was roughly the size of a large housecat, but they were unfortunately not quite as light as one "It's called clothing. Humans have an advanced sense of shame."

"Shame?" Jou tilted his dark, spiny head.

"Humans don't like being exposed." Seto explained simply, then focused. His eyes started to glow as he focused on the ambient magic he was feeling from the hatchlings elemental core, grabbing onto the tendrils of the baby dragons unrestrained magic he prompted the gland to trigger her transformation.

Shizuka chirped loudly as her eyes glowed, Seto quickly grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around her as her body shifted from a dragon chicks to a human infant. Jou's eyes were wide as he looked down at the pale baby in Seto's arms - her eyes were now a bright shade of brown, and the feathery tufts of hair sticking from her infantile head were rust-like in color. "Oh wow - is that, is that really Shizuka?" He asked, marveling at the now extremely tiny bundle in the Lieutenants arms.

"You saw her form change for yourself, stray." The brunet scoffed "Now, are you going to allow me to prompt you to transform too?" Jou immediately shook his now massive head hard, making Seto impatiently click his tongue "You're trying to make your Rafter more progressive aren't you? What kind of hypocrite would encourage everyone else except him to change?"

Jou's red eyes flashed "This hypocrite." He retorted indignantly "Besides, we already talked about this with Yugi, start with the children, then the fledglings, then the adults."

"Will you change with the adults then?" Seto asked, knowing full well what the black dragon would say. Jou was silent for a moment, and shifted his talons as he slowly lowered his head to look back down at them.

"I… I can't..." He explained "I'll do all the night duties expected throughout the winter, but I'll do it as a dragon."

"You could die if this winter is harsh you know - do you have any idea the sheer difference of energy needs between and human and a dragon? If this winter is particularly scarcee, you - as a complete carnivore, could die trying to sustain yourself in that form." Seto explained.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a fledgling! I survived this long, I'll survive this winter." He stood up a little until he was sitting back on his hind legs.

"That's because prey animals tend to hide out in the forest during the winter," Seto explained caustically, glaring up at the Darkstalker hybrid "prey doesn't typically stick around the plains for the winter season." Their territory was always inflicted with harsh, preyless winters, while buffalo had thick whooly fur to keep warm, the winter snow would absolutely blanket all of the grass, and the buffalo would migrate elsewhere.

"I'll live." Jou insisted stubbornly.

"Are you really putting your pride before the safety of my Rafter?" Seto challenged, stepping forward, leering best he could with their present size difference "Us feeding you is robbing us of resources." Feeding one dragon in one day is like feeding seven humans in one day, which makes the biggest difference during the winter.

Jou looked away stubbornly, maybe a little guilted "I'll talk to Yugi," he said "Me and the adult dragons who won't transform will feed ourselves - we'll fly back to the Shadow Forest for a few days at a time if we must."

"That's just wasting more energy." Seto mumbled this time, realizing there was no discussing here, either the Shadow Forest diamondtooth was too stubborn or too unintelligent or both, he wasn't going to be swayed.

Shizuka whimpered in his arms, catching Jou's attention. "What's wrong 'Zuki?" He asked the infant as he brought his large dark head close to her. She looked up at him curiously and reached up with her chubby baby hand, and grabbed the ridge of his nostril "Aack-!" He tried dragging his head away carefully, and she whined when he was out of grasp.

"And you expect me to just take care of your hatchling for you? You realize I'm a Lieutenant right?" Seto asked irritated "I have my own baby brother to take care of, I'm not equipped to take care of two, I'm not a dame or a sire so I don't produce a surplus of supplementary magic." In fact, he should have been taking care of Mokuba right now, but his little brother was with one of the many caretakers of the Rafter.

"I'll tell you what, I'll stop by as often as possible and supplement both of them." Jou offered.

"Why not give your offspring to a Shadow Forest Dragon?" Seto asked; and the dark look that crossed the other dragons eyes reminded him of exactly why. He didn't trust most of his Rafter yet, Hirutani hadn't acted alone when the rest of Shizuka's clutch was destroyed. The fact that he entrusted the life of his heir to a dragon from a different Rafter that he'd only met a season ago said a lot.

"You know why." Jou said lowly, shifting his talons "Will you do it?"

Seto rolled his eyes a bit, but then sighed "I'll do my best, but remember that my Rafter practices communal raising - we have people whose sole job is to take care of the hatchlings when their parents or caretakers are busy. We'll also readily hand off offspring to other parents." While Seto's primary caregiver had been his father, Gozaburo was always busy as the Lieutenant, so he was also taken care of by most of the adults at the time for long periods, including but not limited to Otogi and Mizaki's parents. Yugi, after his mother had died, was also communally raised rather than adopted since he was so close to the fledgling stage anyways.

"I… I'm okay with that." Jou agreed reluctantly "I'm sorry if I'm frustrating you because I'm as stubborn as a mule but… Transforming is off the table for me, that's just how it is."

Seto was about to retort when he felt something cold on his face; both of them then looked up to see that snow was starting to gently fall "Winters first snow has arrived." Seto said simply, wrapping the cloth around Shizuka to cover her better.

Jou said nothing, watching the the flakes falling from the open sky.

Seto shook the flakes that accumulated on his thick brown hair "I'm going to grab Mokuba, this is my hut if you want a general idea of where I might be during the winter."

"Please..." Ryou heard his mate whisper quietly; he looked over to see Marik was leaning over the wooden cradle that held their brood. Frowning, Ryou put the book he was reading down and walked over.

"Marik?" Ryou said softly, reaching over and putting a hand on the sandy-haired mans shoulder. Marik slowly looked over his shoulder, and Ryou frowned further to see his mates lilac eyes were as dark as mulberry with melancholy. "Sweets, don't kill yourself with worry."

"How can I not?" Marik almost scoffed, but with his current dejection it only sounded like a soft sob "I'm a healer and I can't save my own daughter..." The statement made Ryou have a catch a sad noise in his own throat.

"Don't say things like that Marik… it's not over yet. She's still here with us." He hugged over the healers shoulders as he looked down at the cradle where the three children were sleeping. All three were limp as they slept, but Amane was damp with sweat and breathing slightly heavy and fast compared to her siblings. Her skin was a medium tan between his and Marik's skin colour, but there was an ashen cast to it, an attestment to her current weakness.

He heard Marik sniffle and looked down to see the healer bring his hands up to cover his face, no doubt to hide tears "She's not getting better, Ryou." His body started to shake and Ryou struggled internally not to do the same "Nothing I'm doing is working..."

Ryou blinked, feeling his own eyes wetting as he watched their sickly daughter, and his heart twisted further and further and his tears swelled as she reminded him so much of her namesake, his own late sister, Amane Bakura.

His memories were hazy to the point of being shapeless in his minds eye, but the one thing that was clear in his past was the sorrow felt by his two fathers after his sisters death. She too was a runt, and had always been fragile compared to him and their peers, and on their third or fourth winter had gotten very sick, and ultimately perished within that season.

Would his daughter, who shared her name, also share her fate just tragically much sooner?

He hid his face into Marik's sandy hair, silently sobbing with him.

He hated the forest, at least normally he would, but right now the forest was beautiful.

Seto had neutral feelings for most of the seasons, but he had a particular relevance for the season of winter. Winter was the season of rest in every sense of the word; creatures and plants would rest and hibernate, saving their energy for the coming spring, but the less lucky or weak creatures would die. There was rest for all, regardless of it it was permanent rest of not.

It managed to be so cold and dark, but beautiful in it's own way. Seto, as a leucistic dragon, finally blended into his surroundings. Even this forest.

The forest was neverending with it's thick foliage, but there was just enough break in the tree's to leave the starry night sky and full moon visible above him as he walked down the path in his dragon form. The trees, the ground - everything was covered in a blanket of snow, creating a contrast against the dark shapes and shadows usually offered by the forest, as the snow reflected the cold light of the moon.

He inhaled the cold air sharply, not minding the tang that just seemed to refresh his lungs as he regally strode down the never ending path. His wings were outstretched, and the forest was completely silent, not even his footsteps made a sound.

"You look a lot like snowdrift out here, you know." His dark companion said to him as they walked down the path. Jou had materialized out of the shadows to join him, it seemed.

"You look like a lump of rock in the snow." Seto said back calmly.

"You gotta admit, the forest isn't so bad." Jou offered, then looked up at the sky.

"Neither is the open sky." Seto replied, savoring the tranquility.

"No," Jou admitted "the open sky isn't so bad either."

/End dream/

Seto sat up from the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the cold light of dawn filtered through his eyelids into his eyes. He opened them slightly as he looked over to the cradle where Mokuba and Shizuka were sleeping, thankfully they weren't awake yet. Carefully, he got onto his feet and changed into his village attire - it was a dark blue tunic with off-white pants and undershirt, metal wrist bracers, and brown leather boots and waist belt. Like Yugi, he also typically carried a weapon with him while in human form, he used a staff rather than a short sword.

Making sure the babies were still firmly asleep, the brunet Lieutenant walked out of his home. The entire village was coated by the snow fall of the night, but it was not actively snowing right now. The light was pale from dawn breaking, but was amplified by the whiteness of pure snow.

Seto was both surprised and not surprised to see Jou was curled up asleep next to his hut, he too was covered in a little bit of snow, meaning he'd fallen asleep only recently. He was still nocturnal, after all. Scoffing at the 'guest' slightly, Seto otherwise did not disturb him as he grabbed the metal basin he had leaning against his hut, which he held in his freehand.

He walked over to the well and carefully filled the basin, mindful of how heavy it would be once it was full. Perhaps if it was too heavy, he could just change to his intermediate form, since scale armor thankfully materialized over worn clothing. He grunted from the weight as he picked up the now three-quarters full basin; it was heavy, not enough to waste energy on transforming.

Walking back over to his hut, he went to the brick firepit and placed the large basin on top of the iron grate on top. Grabbing some of his firewood - old sticks he'd gathered weeks ago around the forested area - he put them into the pit, and kicked in some dried leaves. Sparking some of his lightning through his fingers, he zapped the leaves until they caught fire, and blew against them as smoke started to rise and the sticks underneath also caught fire.

"Lieutenant!" He heard a cheery voice behind him - he was still crouched, but he looked over to see Mazaki in her human form and an unknown female.

Mazaki as a human was somewhat similar to him, having brown hair, azure eyes, pale skin and elongated proportions, sometimes making him wonder if they were related in some way. Her face was displeased at the sight of him; it was no secret that she did not like him because of how cold and harsh he had been to her and the rest of their peerage back when they were young, and she especially did not appreciate how dismissive he was of Yugi back then and somewhat now. She was currently wearing an ankle length cream long-sleeved dress with a red-brown apron over it, and faded brown leather shoes.

The woman next to her he didn't recognize, she appeared around their age, maybe slightly younger. She had pinkish pale skin, long light purple hair that went down to the small of her back, and large, almost owlish violet eyes. She was wearing an off-white long-sleeved blouse, and long waist-to-floor yellow skirt, and she didn't appear to be wearing any shoes.

"Who requests me?" Seto asked, rubbing his hand together before standing up and facing the two females.

"Miho requests you." The purple-haired girl giggled, giving Seto pause.

"You can transform?" He asked, then glanced over the sleeping dragon next to his hut.

"Miho needed a little prompting, but I think I can take it from here." Nosaka said, linking her arms with Masaki. His eyebrow quirked a little; man he hated it when people spoke in the 3rd person. Mazaki cleared her throat, looking up at Seto harshly at his obvious disapproving demeaner.

He ignored her though "How come he can't transform then?" He asked, pointing at the sleeping Shadow Forest Diamondtooth.

"He can," Nosaka said simply "he was actually the first of our peerage to learn how to. He only did once though..." She trailed off, seemingly forgetting something.

"Interesting..." Seto trailed off; so Jou was capable of it in the past, that ruled out complete inability. He really was just stubborn then.

"Anyways," Nosaka blinked her eyes up at him with a grin "what are you doing now, Lieutenant? Miho should really go to sleep since it's the morning, but I'm just interested in the things that humans do."

"I'm heating up the water in the basin," Said Seto, looking over at the water that wasn't even steaming yet "I need to clean Mokuba and Shizuka before I pass them off to caretakers." He also needed to wash himself, not that he was going to share that information with these females though.

"You wash them with water?" Nosaka asked, blinking in surprise and she grasped her own hands in front of herself "Why don't you just lick them clean?"

"..." Both Seto and Masaki looked to each other in a rare moment where they thought/felt the same thing at the same time.

"... That works for dragons and other animals, but not humans." Seto simply replied, trying not to sound awkward "Human tongue is more… unsanity. Also, it's weird." He dare not mention that the tongue is human form is also used for more… lewd, acts between two people. She probably didn't know. Gods, would the Shadow Forest Rafter need a class on how intimacy worked as humans? He wasn't going near that topic, Ishizu can deal with that.

Miho hummed in thought "Okay..." She said.

"She and a few other of the adults in her Rafter have volunteered to take human forms and learn how to perform human duties, since Miho is a Lieutenant she needs to learn from you." Masaki stated.

The tall brunet cursed under his breath "I already have to deal with her scatterbrained alpha, and his newborn, don't I have enough extra duties?" He demanded, feeling the water with the tips of his fingers for the temperature.

"Diamondtooth Jounouchi is nocturnal and you are not," Masaki pointed out "You only really have to deal with him at dusk and a little into the night. You can always talk to Yugi though."

"Why so he can disregard all of my gripes and concerns?" Seto replied sarcastically "But, if it'll keep the peace, I'll show her what I can later, right now I have to deal with children." He explained "In fact, while I'm doing this, why not show her to the female bathhouse?"

Masaki's face turned slightly red, and she inhaled deeply before exhaling quickly. "Fine." She retorted, she pulled Nosaka's hooked arm closer to her and practically dragged her in the direction of the female bathhouse.

Feeling the water again, Seto pulled it off the grates quickly and carried it into the hut. Mokuba and Shizuka were still asleep, but not for much longer. Sighing, he lifted Mokuba to where he was sitting up; his baby brother whined as his sleepy eyes opened and looked up to him with a grumpy expression. "Good morning, little brother." Seto greeted, and he swore he heard the infant dragonishly growl at him. Chuckling, he pulled the tiny peasant robe off of the boy and put him into the watery basin, letting him sit on his own before crabbing a brass cup to fill with warm water and pour it on him.

"Having fun, beta?" He heard from his window, he looked to see Bakura in his human form leaning in through the window. He noted the healers scragglier than usual hair and dark marks on his neck.

"What do you want, Bakura?" Seto asked impatiently; why did everyone want to bother him this morning.

"Just checking up and making sure you aren't fatigued, Yugi really is working you for all you're worth huh?" The white haired man began, twirling a piece of spiky hair in his finger. He looked to the cradle to see Shizuka "Where'd the extra kid come from?"

"Your jabberjay of an alpha refuses to take human form." Seto stated stiffly, pouring water through Mokuba's dark hair, and grabbing a nearby cloth. "So his daughter doesn't have human parent right now."

"Former alpha." Bakura reminded "Just because those idiots decided to grovel to your Rafter for help doesn't mean I'm going back to them." He studied the auburn haired infant "Wonder where the red stuff came from?" He muttered, Seto didn't pay attention to that. "You know, Ryou's pretty convinced that Jounouchi is her dame and you're her sire, why'd you pull something like that out of your ass?"

"I didn't pull anything out of anywhere," Seto replied, annoyed "she's not my daughter - but you already know that don't you?. Jonouchi basically abducted me under threat of blackmail if I didn't go along with his lie."

Bakura blinked slowly "So I'm guessing that it was him I scented in your forest border?"

"Yes." He admitted in a deadpan.

"So… You shielded him?"

"Not shielded. I let him stay if he kept himself hidden."

"Wow," Bakura snickered "I guess your whole Rafter is full of bleeding hearts."

"Oh shut up Bakura, is there a specific reason you haven't left my presence yet?"

"Geeze, and Marik said only human females had that time of the-"

"Bakura." The brunet cleared his throat, he scrubbed Mokuba's neck with the cloth, making the tiny human boy giggle.

"Say, speaking of gross human stuff, you ever have sex?" The question caught Seto off guard, so he didn't justify that statement with a response "I have to tell you, I tried it, it's pretty bloody fantastic."

"I do not want to have this conversation with you." Seto said flatly, now just refusing to even look at Bakura.

"Oh wow. Is the big, strong, stoic Lieutenant of the Rafter of Domino Peak embarrassed?" The brown eyed man teased. Seto gritted his teeth angrily.

"I'm not interested in finding a mate." Seto told him "Now go away Bakura, I'm busy."

"Tch." Bakura tsked, and Seto imagined him rolling his eyes with a smug grin "Fine. If it flusters your poor virgin ears so much."

Seto reached his arm back without facing Bakura and zapped him with a very weak lightning spark, making the healer yip in surprise.

"Shit! Fine, your no fun anyways." He heard cobblestone footsteps as Bakura finally left him alone.

"I swear Mokie if anyone else bothers me this morning, I will turn into a dragon and swallow them whole." Seto said to his baby brother, who only laughed naively in response.

To be continued...

Authors note: Some more dragon legends! This time, the fable on why dragons can take three forms.

So, Ryou has two fathers just because there's conflicting signs of who his father is. In DSOD his father was a white haired man who died when he was a kid, while in the regular anime his father was a blue haired man who was always away doing archaeology. So for simplicity's sake, these are two separate guys and they're together, not that it really matters too much because they aren't going to show up in the story in anything other than passing mention. I mean, they're probably not dead they're just more likely not too involved with Ryou's life because he's an adult.

The human clothing varies from Rafter to Rafter usually. Domino Peak uses medieval European clothing, while the Shadow Forest Rafter (once more modernized) would wear ancient Aztec style clothing (Which is what Bakura, Yami and their family wear). Bakura and Kaiba are like... besties, really. I like to think Kaiba respects Bakura's bluntness and Bakura likes Kaiba's no-nonsense attitude. Bakura calls Kaiba 'beta' rather than the popular fanfiction trope of 'priest' because he isn't a priest here and it's a contrast to the revered term 'alpha'.

Please read and review!