Wow! Chapter 6 already! Thank you for all the reviews and keep on doing it because the encouragement I am getting is priceless. I am trying very hard to keep everyone in-character so please let me know if anything seems 'off' in this chapter and I'll make a note not to do it again. Okay? Thanks! Well, I'm going to introduce another plot into this so as to keep you interested. Let me know if I've kept you entertained through all this!
Chapter 6: Guardians
Despite reckless driving at breakneck speeds, it still took twenty minutes to reach the fountain, during which Yami's form 'flickered' six times much to Seto's despair. Thankfully she remained unconscious the entire journey as each transformation would obviously have been extremely painful for her to endure.
The second the car had pulled to a halt, Seto leapt out of the door carrying Yami new-bride fashion and ran towards the fountain, the small crowd of people parting in surprise as he ran through them blindly.
Stopping at the edge of the fountain, he lowered the lower half of her body into the water before submerging her entirely. There was a bright flash of light and a froth of bubbles before she re-emerged couching harshly, a hand moving to the ledge to support herself. Moving her sopping hair out of her eyes, she squinted at Seto curiously, silently inquiring what the hell had happened.
"Are you alright now?" he asked, ignoring the curious stares from the people around them as he knelt down to her eye-level. Receiving a wide-eyed nod, Seto moved his arms back into the fountain and lifted the soaked woman up out of the water, setting her down on unsteady legs and holding her waist until she regained her balance. Blushing slightly, she smiled her thanks before allowing herself to be led back into the car, gratefully wrapping the soft blanket that he produced from the trunk.
"Thank you," Yami murmured genuinely as Seto slid in beside her, tucking the blanket more securely around her shoulders and waist.
"You should talk to Yugi," Seto replied, motioning slightly at her head. "I called him to say I was bringing you here. He's probably having kittens now."
She barked a laugh. "That would certainly be a sight!"
Silencing her mind against that entertaining image, she settled back in the seat as the car pulled into motion once more. Reaching out and across the void that separated them, she called out to her lighter half, smirking at the instantaneous response.
//Yami! Are you alright?! What happened?! Are you coming home?//
//I'm Fine. The curse wore off but now it is fixed for the next few months. I believe Seto is driving me home now so I will see you soon and you can assure yourself of my wellbeing.//
//Alright. I'll be waiting for you.//
Snapping her mind back to her current location, Yami smirked in a reassuring fashion and began to wring out her hair inside the towel. "I think you should come into the shop with me when we get back, so you can talk to Grandpa about this whole extension thing."
****
YVO
//Well, the extension idea went over well with Grandpa and Seto had a group of builders over at the Game Shop within a week. Not only is this going to allow another room in the living area but the shop itself can also be expanded meaning we can shelf and sell more merchandise.
Turning to another matter that, in a sick little way, I find quite amusing, Yugi's wisdom teeth are finally coming through. This makes his bad moods as violent as mine now, a situation which is very volatile when my back hurts and his jaw aches and we are in the same room as each other. I can't help him with normal growth so he is on his own in terms of discomfort.
Seto came over this morning briefly to 'check in' as he put it before heading off to work, which I thought was sweet but I'll be stapled to the ground and having rodents consume my intestines before I admit that out loud.//
****
When Yugi stalked into the living room, a warm cloth pressed against his cheek, the first thing he saw was Yami obviously in her own discomfort, squirming in a vain attempt to find a position in which she was comfortable. Flicking on the television, he turned back around to see that she had somehow managed to prop herself upside down on the sofa, her legs balanced in a relaxed manner on the top of the cushions and her hair dangling limply over the edge, her hands folded over her stomach.
"Comfy?" he asked in an amused tone, his brow raising at the sight.
Yami snorted, adjusting her shoulders minutely. "Yes, finally. Bloody pregnancy. I'm going to kill Seto if he appears before this ache stops."
Shaking his head slightly, Yugi took a seat opposite the sofa, still holding the warm cloth to his face. "I was wondering; how come the curse wore off when it should have lasted the rest of your life, and why don't you change back with different temperature water?"
Yami sighed slightly, the movement looking quite comical whilst in her current position. "I am guessing here, but I believe that the fact that I am little more than a five-thousand year old spirit with huge amounts of magical energy is having an impact on the effects of this curse. My magic is probably keeping me in this form and on some level slowly repelling the curse off of me as last week's incident seems to prove."
Nodding slightly as he turned over that explanation in his mind, Yugi came to the conclusion that it did in fact make a lot of sense. If Yami's magical energies were in fact causing the curse to slowly 'wear off', then is raised the question of whether Yami would keep returning to the spring to retain her female form or would she would allow herself to return to being male after the child was born.
Before Yugi could voice his thoughts he heard the post come and promptly got up to retrieve it. Freezing with surprise when he saw the front page of the newspaper, he called back to Yami through the wall.
"Yami? Are you still on the sofa?"
"Yes Yugi. After all that effort I don't plan on moving soon either. Why?"
'Well, I just saw the paper and I don't think you should be standing up when you see it."
Knowing that Yami would get up at that, he hurriedly returned and stood over Yami's head. Fumbling with the paper until it was suspended the correct way in which to be read above her face, he winced slightly at the sound she made. It started as a gasp but tapered off into a growl.
Yami wanted Seto around right then so that she could wring his neck. The headline story this morning was that Seto was apparently to be a father and that a wedding was expected soon so as not to dishonor the mother. And right there, slapped onto the front page and filling up a depressing portion of it, was a photo of him leaning over her in a fawning position as she sat in the Nyannichuan fountain.
She was going to find that photographer and play a game with him with very, very high stakes the second she could move quickly again.
Face contorting as the discomfort permeating her entire form sky-rocketed, Yami squirmed upright and shoved herself off of the sofa and stalked towards the phone. Picking it up, she punched in Seto's office number quite viciously and stood positively fuming as she waited for him to pick up. He had given her his private number so that she could contact him immediately in an emergency. This certainly counted as one.
"Seto Kai-"
"Have you seen today's paper?!" Yami yelled down the receiver before he could finished his standard greeting.
Seto frowned as he pulled the phone away from his ear so as not to go deaf at the volume of her voice. "Yami? No I haven't, why?"
"Just. Read. It," she hissed squeezing the phone hard now as she held the paper up again, barely restraining the urge to shred the damned thing. The sound of papers rustling could be heard before a litany of curses, a few select words from the article being mumbled as he quickly read it.
"I don't believe this. A bloody tourist took the photo last week by mistake, recognized my face when it was developed and sold it yesterday to the press."
"I'm not going to be able to go outside for a while, am I?"
"No, not on your own at least."
Yami nodded with a resigned sigh. Too many knew Seto's face and he had a lot of enemies that would be more than happy to use her against him. She was a liability now, or at least until Seto released a statement saying that it was false and that she was just a friend.
"Do you want me to send someone over to pick you up?" he asked after a few moments of silence.
"Why?"
Seto smirked a little down the phone. He had intended to keep this to himself for a few more months but in light of recent events, he figured that Yami could use some cheering up right then. "I have a surprise here I think you'll like."
Her interest perked now, she looked over at Yugi who simply shrugged with a smile. "I need to look after the shop with Grandpa so you can go if you like."
Nodding her thanks, Yami asked in a low voice, "can you come and pick me up? We don't know if an enemy of yours recognizes my face and knows where I live."
"Sure, I'll be over in a little while."
"Thank you."
Hanging up, Yami turned feeling a great sense of relief that abruptly left when she saw Yugi practically bouncing on his toes and grinning like an idiot. Her crimson eyes narrowed suspiciously as she crossed her arms defensively.
"What are you so happy about, Aibou?"
Yugi grinned even harder. "You and Seto are getting together," he replied in a sing-song voice.
Quietly ignoring the heat rising in her cheeks, Yami shook her head in denial. "No we aren't, Yugi. He's simply taking some responsibility for what is happening."
"No, I think he likes you like you like him, so stay over there with him as long as you want."
Before Yami could gather a response to that very direct statement, Yugi promptly left for the Game Shop leaving Yami gawking at nothing. Scrubbing her hands through her hair irritably, she followed and strolled through the shop ignoring her Light who was serving a customer, looking up long enough to grin at her as she passed. She was only stood outside for five minutes before Seto's car pulled up, the CEO getting out and opening the door for her himself after glancing up and down the street suspiciously.
The journey back to Kaiba.Corp was spent in silence, Yami puzzling over her Aibou's last sentence and Seto wondering how he could protect her until he could sort this entire thing out.
****
"So what is this surprise?" Yami asked as they stood beside a locked door at the end of one of the more private corridors at Kaiba.Corp. Seto merely smiled and produced a keycard, swiping it through the slot and pushing the door open to allow her to enter.
The room was dark as they entered, Seto thumbing on the lights once they were both inside and the door was looked. The room was now dimly illuminated; the lights sending soft shadows about the spacious room.
Stunned, Yami approached the object in the center of the floor slowly, a hand reaching out to run over it's smooth surface when she reached it. Running slender fingers over the intricately carved wood, she felt Seto come up behind her and place a warm hand on her shoulder.
"It was delivered yesterday. I was going to move it into the nursery as a surprise in a few weeks but I thought you'd like to see it now," he murmured, running his own hand along the soft wood of the crib.
Smiling broadly, Yami reached a hand out to one of the four sculptured posts, tapping the head of the carved Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon lightly. The beast's tail was coiled about the length of the post and its head was facing into the cot, it's fore-legs raised protectively. Two other identical dragons decorated the other posts and a Dark-Magician with staff standing erect knelt formally on the remaining.
"Guardians?"
"I thought a personal touch would be appropriate for the Queen of Games."
Nodding slightly with her mouth pulled into an amused smile, Yami actually paused to think about that title. Her conversation with Yugi earlier returned to mind and she turned to face him, her stomach brushing against his slightly as he was stood so close.
"What happens in seven and a half months? Give or take a week."
Seto frowned in confusion at that, knowing that she was indicating the curse would wear off again by then but not quite sure what she meant by bringing it up. "You'll go back to Nyannichuan for another 'dose', won't you?"
Yami sighed wearily; she had been afraid of this. "Seto, this isn't my true form. I'm not comfortable like this."
"Well or course you're not. You're six months pregnant; you're supposed to be uncomfortable."
"Before then. I'm only staying like this so I won't kill the child, and likely myself changing back to what I should be. But I don't know what happens when it asks what happened to its mother."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?" Seto reasoned as he placed both his hands on her shoulders and began rubbing his thumbs soothingly at the muscles between neck and shoulder. He knew he had to keep her calm; a raised blood pressure would be the last thing they needed.
"'We'?" Yami asked, a damnable hopeful feeling swelling up from inside her gut.
Seto gave a half shrug and a small smile. "I can't exactly let you be a single parent, can I?"
"I was hoping you'd say something like that."
TBC
Only a demi-cliffhanger here so don't send any harm my way. As always, reviews are helpful. The only reason this chapter was posted (and written!) today was because of a big ol' bunch of reviews that were extremely encouraging and inspiring so the quicker and the more you write, the quicker and more you shall receive. So press the button and tell me what you think!