Title: Dragon Trainers Chapter 5

Author: Alta Lemur!! (Latinam Amate!)

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: J/S and REBD/BEWD eventually

Spoilers: none

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to several books whose terminology, or names, I take. I do not own YuGiOh, but I like to think I own the rights to Blue Eyes' personality.

Summary: AU Shounen ai and het. Romance and angst. Night falls and the sun rises. Watch the rising and falling of love in a world of magic and dragons.

Dedications: Ahem, as Thanksgiving is rolling around, I suddenly realized that I haven't thanked anyone yet. In chronological order: Thank you Treana for telling me to write! Thank you Evil (aka Ryou, Aries, etc) for unintentionally making me want to write a romance! Thank you lumpy sitting pillow for making it uncomfortable to sit on you! *hugs pillow* Oh, and very very big thanks for Rem for betaing and giving me confident making compliments! And great thanks to reviewers and criticizers! Now go read!

Jou glared scornfully at the tiny image of himself in a randomly floating bubble. Then, whether from Jou's heated gaze or from surface tension, it popped and departed to bubble heaven, leaving its siblings to handle the wrathful youth. And so Jou glared at the other numerous tinny bubbles with their tiny images and their tiny glares, increasing his anger if nothing else.

Jou had decided to take a bubble bath instead of just a regular one. But instead of relaxing at the soft lavender scent and the soothing warmth, he was completely occupied by inner thoughts and images. When he tried to rest his head against the side of the tub and close his eyes, he suddenly found himself accosted by the first image he had of the strange dragon trainer, followed closely by that same young man with a more spiteful look crossing precise features.

So instead of lingering on those infernal images, Jou gladly unleashed his wrath on the innocently popping purple bubbles with their equally, if smaller, glaring blonds. So absorbed was Jou in his miniatures that he didn't notice the door sliding open and someone stealthily coming in behind him until a low masculine voice sounded.

'I wish I knew what was so interesting about those bubbles,' said the voice.

Wide eyed, Jou spun around quickly and sloshed the speaker with lavender suds. Ember shook his snout of purple substance to look back down at the now irritated face of his human companion.

Clutching the side of the tub, Jou yelled, "Don't sneak up on a person while he's taking a bath!" Then noticing the door wide enough to let a dragon as big as Ember enter was open, he promptly turned red and ducked under the water a little more. "And close that door before someone comes by!"

Ember seemed a bit obstinate at his human's shouting, but he craned his neck to see the door and closed it with his tail. When he faced Jou again, he wore a mix between a perplexed and concerned expression.

'What's got you so huffy?'

Jou had stopped blushing but now gave a startled look before turning to the side and petulantly crossing his arms.

"I am not huffy," he scoffed.

Ember curled his mass around the bathtub and ended up with his head craning over Jou's shoulder. He smacked Jou playfully on the shoulder with his snout then blew cordially on some of the purple suds.

'Sure you're not,' said Ember as he continued playing with his bubbles.

Jou turned to his dragon and pushed on his massive jaws with his soapy hands only half meaning it. The dragon responded with his own playful nudge. Then Jou sunk his hands in the lavender foam and slopped it over a good part of his dragon's head. Before long the two were in an all out bubble bath battle.

Half the room was soaking and Ember had resorted to using his tail before both were laughing so hard that they had to quit in order to breath. Ember had his head against the porcelain tub and Jou was resting against the warm scales of Ember's neck.

With a minor disturbance to the bubbles still in the tub, Ember spoke, 'So what is bothering you?'

Jou sighed and readjusted his position against his dragon so that he was glaring at the water. "Well, besides stupid life in general? This stuck-up dragon trainer brat and his priss-priss of a dragon is what made my day officially hell." He kicked at the water in front of his gaze in deterrent of another image of the otherworldly dragon trainer to pop up.

Ember furrowed his brows. Another dragon along with a trainer had come into the training grounds, and he hadn't known? He should have been there with his human companion for such a thing. What if something had gone wrong? He mentally reprimanded himself for losing such concentration when playing with Brasher that he hadn't detected these newcomers.

'What did they do? Did they try anything?' Ember asked in concern.

Remembering his earlier outrage and frustration now that he had a listening ear, Jou spilled everything right down to the glistening scales of the dragon. However, he managed to evade most details about the other dragon trainer. He didn't want Ember to see too much into Jou's conflicting thoughts at this time.

Ember was so caught up, though, in the descriptions of a near attack on his human companion that he probably wouldn't have paid attention to any mention of a human involved in it. He had raised his head from being relaxed against the tub to staring with mix anxiety for his human and anger towards the other dragon, and maybe some towards himself for his own absence. His growl at the end of Jou's little tale managed to pop a few surrounding bubbles and create small ripples in the water.

'She did What?! I can't believe a dragon companion would act like that! Where's she from, the middle of a swamp? That nasty little metal head!' He finished the last with a good thump of his tail to the tiled floor.

Jou was a little surprised at the fervor in his dragon's reaction, but he was glad to have someone on his side in the issue. With Yugi spouting stuff about hospitality to his half-spoken complaints and Honda unavailable for the rest of the week, Jou had felt isolated in his opinion. He was glad that his dragon companion had sought him out.

When Ember once more settled down a bit and rested his head against the tub with a few muttered words, Jou gladly placed his weight against his dragon companion. Lazily, he watched the last few lavender bubbles pop in the water. Feeling comfortable, Jou reached out to his dragon's mind.

'Hey, bud?'

'Hm?'

'Thanks.'

***

Seto ran his hand down one of the glistening scales of his Blue Eyes. When he had found his dragon companion, he had ended up polishing the dragon's scales with a leather pad and the oils from Blue Eyes' skin. At first they had both talked briefly about their new rooms, and even more briefly about a rude blond, but both had gladly lapsed into meticulous scale grooming.

He was done polishing and now was content to feel the polished metallic scales under his fingers. Under his fingers, Seto could feel the slight rumbling of his dragon. He found it soothing rather than unnerving, as some people did. Most humans associated dragon purrs with growls, or even thunder cracking. Usually only dragon trainers felt anything other than threatened by dragon purrs.

Blue Eyes was curled up on her carefully arranged hay bed. Seto was casually nestled behind a forearm and leaning against her flank. Her scales were cool at first touch, but warmed after a minute of sitting by her. With his dragon's purring and gentle warmth, Seto was falling into a sleep-like lull. He had just closed his eyes and consented to a short nap when the door opened.

Tri-colored hair poked in followed shortly by its owner. After Yugi had made sure this was indeed the right room, he fully entered the dragon chamber. When the human guest's eyes met his, he gave a slight bow and received a nod from the seated dragon trainer. Once courtesy was dispensed, Yugi assumed a bright smile and approached his two guests. By the time he stood in front of them, the journeyman had risen and the dragon had stirred enough to raise her head enough to acknowledge him.

Making sure his smile didn't falter when it wasn't fully returned by the other boy, Yugi spoke. "Oh, I've been looking all over for you. I see you've become comfortable." At this he glanced at Blue Eyes and gave her a slight nod. "I wanted to tell you that lunch was prepared," he said to Seto. Turning fully to Blue Eyes, he also said, "Oh, and if you didn't want to eat privately, you can come up and eat with us."

Yugi saw the dragon tilt her head in contemplation, and he wondered if she took too much towards her dragon instincts to be alone while eating, or if she'd be more social like other dragon companions. Apparently her human companion wondered the same thing and turned to her, no doubt also mind speaking to her. Then the dragon trainer turned and started walking towards Yugi, as well as the door. A second or two later his dragon also stood and began following.

Yugi smiled warmly at both his guests before turning and hastening out the door in order match the others' long strides. As the young mage lead the way through various corridors, he anticipated the coming lunch, but mostly the introductions and tales of the others' journey. Even without his grandfather there, he hoped he could be good enough of a host to make a good impression of the Trigold Training Grounds on these two. Well, unless they decided to leave a message for his grandfather and then leave, Yugi would have at least a few days to make a good impression, and to enjoy whatever company these two provided.

Yugi's anxious thoughts abandoned him when he entered the dinning room. Already seated in the room was Jou in heated conversation with his dragon, Ember. Jou halted his conversation when Yugi entered to give him a grin only to have it falter and turn into a scowl when Seto soon followed. That, however, was overshadowed by Ember's menacing glower when Blue Eyes entered the room along with Blue Eyes' answering growl.

Yugi cast a hesitant eye between the four others in the room. What were they doing?! Yugi couldn't have his best friend, Jou's dragon, and his guests attacking each other before they were even introduced! Yugi balled his hands into fists. This was really going horrible, and he would have to do something before dragon breathe was thrown across the room.

"Hey, stop it!" he yelled between the four.

Yugi noticed both humans glanced at him briefly, but then continued to lock eyes with each other. Deciding that he had to confront one of them fully, so he turned to Jou with hands on his hips just as Jou was about to say one or his remarks to the journeyman dragon trainer.

"What do you think you're doing Jou? And you Ember? You're being incredibly rude for no reason!" Yugi reprimanded with one of his most stern looks across his face.

Jou looked a bit flustered at Yugi's remark. Yugi was blaming him? What was he talking about? Jou cast another glance at the other dragon trainer. Was that a smirk? Jou gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles were white. Oh, no way in hell was he going to stand for this.

Jou looked incredulous at Yugi. "He's the one who started it!" he said with an accusing finger toward the journeyman. Yugi's stern look just became more cross at that, and Jou could see the other dragon trainer's smirk increase. No way was this happening.

Yugi rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. Taking his hands off his hips and throwing his arms to the side in his frustration, he said to Jou, "Really, Jou. Just settle down and stop being uncivil." Yugi turned to encompass everyone with his eyes. The dragons looked away, either not wanting to be attached to the word uncivil or already being familiar with glares from the small Motou. Jou looked away as well, grumpily and with some muttered words. The human guest made an effort to eradicate any signs of his smirk and took the most civil and rigid stance he could.

Yugi cleared his throat briefly before addressing all. "Now if you all are done, we'll have introductions before lunch." He looked pointedly at Jou, who was still seated. With a pleading look from Yugi, Jou got up. Ember soon walked over to his human companion to stand behind him. Behind him, Yugi could hear the guest's dragon doing the same for her human companion. Well, he supposed that this was about as friendly as the four would get for the time being.

Turning so that he now faced the two guests, Yugi placed his hand over his chest in customary introduction. Smiling as warmly as he could muster, Yugi said, "Hello. My name is Yugi Motou, student mage at the Consilia Magery School and temporary overseer of the Trigold Training Grounds." He finished with a slight bow.

Yugi turned and looked expectantly at Jou, who rolled his eyes and locked eyes with the journeyman.

"I'm Jou." He inclined his head to indicate his dragon, "and this is Ember. Nice to meet you." He said the last with a bit of a sneer.

Seto took the other dragon trainer's introduction with mere iciness. As he inclined his head to stare straight at Jou, the world seemed to shrink to encompass only the two of them with dark and light shadows of their looming dragons. Seto narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I am Seto Kaiba, first son of the Kaibas of Campestris Crossing and journeyman dragon trainer. This is my dragon companion Blue Eyes of Fulmen Mountains. It's a pleasure to meet you." He crooned out coolly.

Yugi looked quizzically between the two humans. What exactly was happening here? He shook his head with a resigned sigh. This was going to be a long lunch.

A/N: Dum da! Another chapter. You've read, now review.