Title: Tsubasa o Orinasu Mono (Part I of the Cubes Trilogy.)
Summary: AU; yaoi? Found by a clan of vampires, Seto and his colleagues can only hope that their captors will kill them swiftly. But maybe humans aren't the only ones trapped among the vampires.
Warnings: Dark. Slavery.
Chapter 2: Fire.
Vampires weren't exactly myths, but they weren't supposed to exist, either. That is, they did exist, but they had nothing to do with Kaiba, and since they didn't concern him, he would ignore him, and they would thus leave him alone, preferably by not existing.
Or not.
Not much was known about vampires. Considering that onlyabout three humans had ever escaped vampire captivity, this wasn't entirely a surprising fact. Those who lived to do so all told of evils beyond imagining: humans sold and tortured and used until their masters grew bored and fed upon them. Corpses stacked high in dumps when the vampires prospered and humans kept little better than dead when their owners couldn't afford to be lavish and dispose of humans whenever they felt like it. It was worse when the prisoners remained alive, a fact to which the survivors' scars, both physical and mental, were testimony.
The vampire leading the line of prisoners had been silent and somber the entire trip. He had not even flinched when Seto kicked him in the shins. When the kick had been repeated, the vampire had turned around and backhanded Seto in the jaw, sending the wood that gagged him further back in his throat until it almost choked him. Seto had stopped kicking. Even so, he was determined not to bow down to a bunch of blood-sucking parasites. No matter what they did to him, they could not, would not take away his defiance.
They neared a very large building, and the prisoners were marched in unceremoniously, led onto a sturdy-looking stage and behind thick curtains, where large wooden posts awaited ominously. Several more vampires wearing surprisingly casual clothing met them there, like angels come to lead them to the underworld. The ones that had herded them to this spot left, presumably to catch more humans.
One, wearing a sweatshirt and cargo pants, approached Seto (who was trying to retain as much dignity as he possibly could in a situation like this), lifted his chin forcibly up, and injected something into his neck. Forget dignity. All that mattered was the pain. It burned like forest fires (He would know; that had been last month's on-site news assignment.) spreading through his veins the way his blood was supposed to, the way the fire had flowed easily through trees,flames licking the branches, lapping at the night air as if to gauge it before it continued its spread. The vampire moved on to repeat the process down the line of captives. Seto noted grimly and with no little satisfaction that he was the only one who hadn't screamed. That didn't mean it didn't hurt, though. Even after the fire had subsided, a dull ache remained in the back of his head, like some small animal gnawing at his flesh.
Moments later, Seto found he could not move.
Sweatshirt-with-cargo-pants was back. With a professional disinterest, he untied Seto's wrists and removed the block of wood. The vampire stripped off Seto's coat, then his scarf, then his shirts, until Seto was naked waist-up. He eyed Seto's body critically, gaze lingering unpleasantly over his chest, and scribbled some notes on the clipboard hanging from the first wooden post.
A light sheen of sweat covered Seto's forehead as he tried to move, even blink, but he couldn't. His hands were yanked forcibly above him and tied to the post, not that it mattered except, perhaps, to prevent him from falling down, and then they finally left him alone.
They had taken his watch, so he had no way of knowing how much time passed. He estimated it to be an hour: an hour for them to half-strip each of his companions and inspect them like meat. He felt sorry for the girls of the group, and hastily averted his gaze, glad that his eyes obeyed him, even if his eyelids did not.
Then, the curtains opened.
It was surprisingly warm in the room, but Seto suddenly longed for his shirt. He couldn't decide what was more disconcerting: all the hungry stares on his bare upper body, or the fact that he couldn't shiver in response.
A bell rang somewhere behind them; vampires of every shape but mostly one size (the large size, of course) surged forward as one, eyeing the prisoners. His chin was lifted up so many times he could practically feel the bruises forming. Every time someone prodded him in the chest or ran a finger down his neck or twisted him around to inspect his back, Kaiba felt like snapping at them. But he couldn't.
Those who looked Kaiba over didn't seem to like what they saw. Their gazes lingered on the scars that littered Kaiba's back and wrists. "Suicidal," they muttered to themselves, looking disgruntled. "Not worth three gold."
One by one, Seto's comrades were led away. He watched with mute disgust as gold exchanged hands until finally he was one of three captives who hadn't yet been sold. Just about all the vampires had left. Dimly, Seto wondered what happened to those who weren't sold, but the throbbing in his head had grown until he could barely think… And that was Not Good, since thinking was what he did best.
The vampire who had been accepting gold readily from the buyers walked over to the slim girl at the opposite end of the line from Seto, a disgusting leer plastered to his face. "I guess you belong to me now, since nobody is willing to buy." The girl didn't flinch, of course. Before any of the captives knew what was happening, the vampire had jammed his tongue down the poor girl's throat.
Still, she couldn't struggle.
Seto looked away. Was this what would happen to him, too? It was what the few survivors had described, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. Yet it was too terrible to even consider, being slaves to vampires until their masters grew bored.
A loud voice caught his attention, and Seto looked towards the sound. A brown-haired vampire who looked to be at the peak of his youth was yelling, arguing with… with another vampire. The second vampire, definitely the shorter of the two, was waving his arms animatedly, causing his head to shake and send waves through the magenta and black spikes that were evidently supposed to pass off as hair.
The boy was pointing at Seto.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Seto couldn't decide, the boy stormed off minutes later, pausing only to grab a warm-looking cloak that draped down to his ankles, violet eyes filled with exasperation. The gold-collecting vampire, grazing his teeth over the girl's throat, disengaged himself from Seto's coworker and walked briskly towards the brown-haired vampire, talking loudly enough for Seto to hear.
"What did he want?"
In response, brown-hair also raised his voice. "Well, boss, he wanted to buy the first one over there."
"How much was he offering?"
"Four gold."
"FOUR GOLD?" Brown-hair shrunk away. "Yuugi has never bought a slave in his life, and suddenly he's willing to spend four gold? Why'd you refuse?"
"I… I thought you wanted…"
"I want gold, idiot! Bring the slave to him and get me my money!"
"Y-yes sir."
"Where is he?"
"In… in the woods, sir."
"Fine. Hurry up!"
Brown-hair rushed up to Seto and untied him, dragging him briskly outside. The harsh air was a slap on Seto's bare skin, and if he could've, he would have screamed. The harsh wind dulled the ache that the injection had left him with, but it was so… cold….
He barely noticed when the vampire pushed him down into a kneeling position in a cart of some sort, or when his wrists were bound behind him and his ankles secured together. The cart started moving, but still, Seto paid no heed. All that he could think of was the cold. The snow that fell on his body melted into little rivers of pure, numbing pain, dripping down his back to his waist. His natural reaction was to cringe desperately away from the icy touch. Instead, he remained frozen.
As his body grew numb(er), he forced himself to stop thinking about the temperature. Instead, he directed his eyes around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. They were passing through what looked like a primitive village, with small houses and no phone lines. As they passed, people came out of the houses to stare, and Seto wished that he could somehow hide the scars that ran across his body. Since he couldn't, he settled for glaring at each of them in turn with wind-stung eyes.
The houses were thinning out now, and he could see more and more snowy landscape between each of them. Consequently, the houses seemed more run down. The last houses they passed sported peeling, sun-bleached paint probably nowhere near its original color and gaping windows like missing teeth, crooked and shutter-less. And then, they were out of the village.
Though he thought to wonder why they had just exited the village, he didn't really care. Of course, his mind had no such inclination, darkly supplying him with more than enough reasons. Now they were nearing trees, or rather, tree stumps. Seto hadn't thought that trees would grow in such a cold climate, but apparently, they did. Or perhaps they didn't, and that's why they were cut down. The vampire with the weird hair was sitting on one of the stumps, holding in one hand a knife and in the other, something wooden. As they neared, Seto realized that the boy was whittling. Faintly, he made out a beak.
"Yuugi!"
"Good afternoon!" Yuugi looked up, smiling innocently, before his gaze fell confusedly on Seto.
"Well, we've changed our minds! This one is for sale. Six gold, you said?"
The small vampire pursed his lips. "Well, look at him! He's freezing! You've probably done some permanent damage; he'll be dead by tomorrow. And besides, I also changed my mind. Three gold, like theasking price."
Brown-hair gaped. Seto could practically see the gears turning in his head. He had promised his boss four 'gold', intending to keep two for himself. But if he returned with only three…
"And I'll tip you another for the delivery, how does that sound?"
"…Um, that sounds good."
Smiling cheerfully, Yuugi stood, setting his knife on the stump and the whittled figure in his coat pocket. Out of a bag hanging at his hip, he drew out four coins and put them on the other's open palm. Fingers closed around them firmly, and, as if hoping to leave before Yuugi could change his mind again, brown-hair left, muttering darkly to himself.
Yuugi inspected Seto with solemn consideration, looking amused when the human returned his gaze squarely. Only seconds passed before Yuugi seemed to have decided something. From his bag, he drew a small vial of golden liquid and approached Seto, putting it to the man's lips and tilting the man's head back a bit. Not really having a choice, Seto let the liquid slip down his throat, burning not unpleasantly, while he imagined all the terrible things he'd do to the vampire when he got free. A growl built up in the back of Seto's throat, and he shook his head violently, sending the vial flying. He tried to choke up the liquid in his mouth, and a few drops dribbled from his lips, down his chin. They froze almost instantly. When the vial landed, the last of its contents seeped out, melting a hole in the snow.
That was when Seto realized what he had just done. Seto blinked, and then repeated the process, pleased that he could. How was it possible for him to move? Looking somewhat annoyed, Yuugi picked the knife up from his tree stump and walked closer.
Even though he was bound at the wrists and ankles, eventhough he was completely numb, eventhough he was about to be tortured in unthinkable ways, Seto held his chin as high as he could while completely numb and glared at the vampire approaching him as best he could with the cold wind lashing at his eyes, relieved at the fact that he could do either at all. Hey, if he could move, it was at least an improvement from a few minutes ago.
The rather small vampire didn't even falter, merely circled around behind Seto, knife in hand. Did Seto really want to know what was happening? Did he really want to know what it was that Yuugi was doing to him? Yes. But his arms were so numb that he couldn't feel a thing. Yuugi might've been hacking them off, and Seto would've been oblivious.
He did, however, feel it when a weight settled on his shoulders a few minutes later. Before he could even try to turn his frozen neck to investigate, Yuugi had put his face against the side of Seto's head, using his hands to push the human closer. The hands were tiny but warm, and it seemed impossible that anything could feel so warm after the cold… but Seto realized that he himself was warmer than just a few seconds ago.
"Orange," Yuugi whispered quietly, reverently, almost gently, his breath stirring the sensitive hairs in Seto's ear. Before the human could even begin to question, the warm touch was gone from his face and Yuugi appeared in his circle of vision, minus his cloak. He plucked the pieces of the broken vial out of the snow, slipped it back in his pouch, and continued walking in a sort of semi-arc until he disappeared once more behind Seto's back.
By the time Seto's neck cooperated with him enough to allow him view of what was behind him, the falling snow was quickly filling up Yuugi's footprints.
To Be Continued…