Okay, so, I was jammed for something to write as I had promised. I had no ideas (or, at least, good ones) for any of my stories, so out popped more ideas. I started writing at least a dozen different things, which I'll probably finish some rainy day, or something. But this one is the only one that found itself finished. Uh, enjoy! ^_^;

Was slightly inspired from the movie Moll.. something rather. x.x I'll edit this later, I swear!

~*~

Yuugi leaned on the rickety old fence, steam escaping his mouth as he breathed in an attempt to ward off the fear. It was a chilly night; something to expect in the desert. The stars twinkled in the velvet sky, unaccompanied by the moon. Soft whinnies were emitted by the horses, safely in their stalls for the night. A cool wind rustled his locks, playing with the silky strands, sending a shiver down his spine. The dark, empty street before him was lit by a solitary street lamp, dimmed with the black smoke that encompassed the glass, casting the cobblestone road in a comfortable light. Things that should have soothed him.

But nothing brought Yuugi comfort anymore.



The ugly, scratched voice sounded off the small stable. Yuugi jumped, and glanced wildly behind him, seeing the key master, the punisher, the pain. His breathing became uneven, and in his panic he ran to the horse's keep. In his haste to get away from the place that he was forbidden from, his foot caught in a rusty stirrup hooked to the wall. But Yuugi did not notice in his fright, and as he raised his foot it wrenched his ankle painfully, twisting him around and smashing him into the cold stone wall of the building he hated, tearing his soft skin. Tears burned in his eyes.

Gaw damn, Bitch! Where are ye'?

He was in so much trouble already. He had to run. Yuugi, ignoring the calls and the overwhelming hurt wafting from his joint, tugged his ankle free and took another step. But his injured foot couldn't support his weight.

Yuugi crumpled to the ground, the smell of wet hay and manure filling his nostrils. Along with the stench of what he'd been raised around. Yuugi grimaced and started crawling toward his only means of escape; a horse.

But the crone had other plans for him.

A cold hand clamped itself around Yuugi's pained joint, pulling hard. A scream of agony tore through his throat as he felt something rip out of his body. The hand, startled by the sudden pop, dropped him as soon as it had grabbed.

the woman snarled. She was a skinny, sick-looking person. Baggy rags hung limply from her tiny frame. Her eyes were sunken into her boney skull, giving her a haunting look. She was one of the few that was smaller than Yuugi.

Yuugi cautiously reached down to the lower part of his leg, prodding with trembling fingers. The digits came in contact with something slimy and hard and broken. A bone.

D'you realize who's comin' tonigh'? Saliva dribbled down her chin as she spoke, livid. When the crone realized the one before her wasn't paying full attention, she roughly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him up towards her rotting mouth. Yuugi gagged and cried out softly as his broken leg was dragged across the dirty ground. His sad soulful eyes met the cold gray ones of the key master and the mantra that he had been repeating in his head for years renewed itself.

The bloody Pharaoh is comin', ye' Bitch! E's made of money! she screamed and shouted in his blank face, shaking him roughly. When she got no whimper or cry or answer, the crone roughly threw him into the stone wall, snapping his back. Still not satisfied, she hobbled over to a nearby pitchfork and jammed it into his arm, hearing a satisfying squish that signified it had gone through. A cruel smirk painted itself onto her cracked and dry lips at the sight of a solitary tear that made it's way down Yuugi's cheek. It was so painful...

Now, ge' your ass in there, an' shake it! He was chucked into the building, where the servants and the prostitutes ignored him and stomped on him and kicked him into the cold cellar, where blackness greeted his tired body.

~*~

Giggles and squeals and moans and light and the same stench he had smelt for years woke him from his dreamless sleep. Yuugi groaned, remembering the crone's warning. Ha. Seemed like the festivities started without him, regardless.

Not finding the strength-- or the motivation for that matter-- to haul himself to his feet, Yuugi rolled over to face the doorway. It was cold in the damp underground room, Yuugi thought absently. He snorted at himself, wincing at the pain that greeted his action (someone had planted a heavy foot on his chest). When was it not cold?

He watched silhouettes of people filter about, casting his body into shadow whenever one passed. Most of them were cooks, but he saw several of the prettier girls being led away by plump men. Yuugi was suddenly glad he did not join the He didn't want to know what the Pharaoh looked like, didn't want to look upon another cheating, uncaring man, didn't want to see another person chip away at his soul and steal a piece that would soon be treated like trash and discarded.

Knowing that he would break down if he didn't occupy himself, Yuugi checked his arm that was stabbed. The red liquid hadn't stopped flowing, but at least it was beginning to scab. Good sign, good sign.

Footsteps alerted him into instant silence, his body wriggling into a dark corner. They were soft, quiet, guarded steps; wasn't someone from here. Curiosity flowed across Yuugi, dulling the pain for a slight moment. An eyebrow quirked. He waited in anticipation.

Seth, I have told you. I do not want to be here.

Yuugi blinked. That wasn't the expected voice. It was... deep. Bold. Confident. It didn't match the soft footsteps. The pieces didn't fit. Yuugi's mind quieted as another voice joined.

It wasn't my idea. Atemu--

A hiss sounded through the catacomb-like hallways, halting every movement. A spider stopped spinning its thread, the cook halted the stirring in confusion, a giggle was paused. Yuugi's breath hitched as the two beings were shrouded in the light, revealing a tall male on the right of a much shorter person, who's body was sleek and dangerous, who held atop his head a crown of hair...

.. like mine.

Don't ever say my name in the public again... The voices faded, the footsteps just as soft as they receded. Yuugi sat, huddled in the corner, wondering what had just happened, his mind not responding. He pressed himself to think about more pressing matters. Like the new set of footsteps. Ones more familiar. Ones that hobbled and promised pain.

Ignoring the pain that wrenched up his arm and down his foot, Yuugi looked for another way out, panic seizing his mind, causing his rational thoughts to be trampled in the wake of the fear.

The footsteps were getting closer.

The spider stealthily crept into the shadows, offering him no condolence.

Close.

The door was out of the question. Jou had said, before he had become free from this wretched place, that there was a hidden.. something here... where...

Closer.

In a frenzy, Yuugi tore away the ancient fabric lining the walls, once carpets and curtains and bedclothes in an effort to soothe himself, and, to his utter astonishment, a rotting door greeted him. He stood there, speechless, forgetting everything for one moment...

Closest.

The key master marched to the open cellar, glancing in suspiciously, mouth curving like a horseshoe downwards. She sniffed, and entered the room. The dust floated about, imitating snowflakes that never melted, flashing in the dimmed light. A rat scuttled across the dirt floor, screeching.

But there was no one there.

The crone snorted in contempt, muttering about how boring her job had become and how already dull her life was. She limped back out of the room, pausing to look behind once more before continuing, going strait, the keys stringed onto her belt jangling with each lurch she took.

~*~

Yuugi couldn't breath.

He was crawling through a dirt... tunnel. There was no other way to describe it. The worst part was he could barely scramble through it. There was barely enough oxygen to sustain his breathing. Cobwebs littered the passageway, entering his heaving mouth along with very, very dry dirt. It clogged his throat, his breathing becoming ragged. Pain stabbed him at every moment, second... hurt.

And suddenly it was over. He tumbled out, through many folds of soft, ancient fabric...

.. and found himself in a very, very, very fancy room.

Yuugi's jaw dropped, pain stunned into silence. This room was reserved for only the finest and richest people in Egypt. Silk, blood-colored, was everywhere. The color of passion, supposedly.

He raised himself from the floor, supporting his weight on his hands, looking around in wonder. Yuugi had never been granted this rich splendor. He wasn't even allowed to peer at it. It, along with the outside fence, was forbidden.

Yuugi cautiously reached out his good arm and tentatively poked a flap of red silk draped over a chair. It was so soft; like nothing he'd ever touched before. He was drawn to it. Yuugi flattened his palm against the fabric, smoothing it. It rippled under his touch, gracing him with something akin to gentleness.

Footsteps. Something he'd been hearing a lot lately. Yuugi, still not over his last panic frenzy, threw himself under the first place that entered his mind: the bed.

The door opened.

-- father arranged this?

It was the same strong voice that had hissed in the hallway. A rumble that rolled across the room and boomed in your eardrums, demanding to be heard. Yuugi drooped. His luck was never something to write home about, but, today it seemed like it was pushing him off a high cliff and squealing about it.

Rustles. The same feet he had been hearing quite frequently padded towards the two king-size beds placed in the silk-covered room. Yuugi's breath hitched again as the one with the commanding presence softly sat on the bed.

A sigh filtered about the room. Yuugi listened.

I just don't know what to do anymore, Seth. The speech was saddened, miserable, much different than the loud confident one before.

I just... I just don't know what to do anymore.

~*~

The two had talked for many more hours in quiet, hushed voices. Yuugi was helpless and cramped underneath the silk-ridden bed. He couldn't feel his legs anymore, and they tingled at the loss of blood. He grimaced, and shot a small breath out of his nose.

That was his greatest mistake.

The room was dead silent. Yuugi's face paled considerably as the realization of he'd just done entered his mind. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

 And then suddenly crimson eyes locked on to his own, burning him. Yuugi wanted to cry after seeing every emotion that flashed unstoppingly in those eyes. His own orbs widened and Yuugi backed away with numb limbs from those eyes, those soul-staring, hurtful eyes.

The eyes never moved; never left his. Yuugi gulped. Now he understood why the voice belonged to this man. He understood perfectly.

The man advanced. Yuugi receded, breathing becoming irregular. He had to get out, run, find Jou, find anybody...

Yuugi rolled out from under the bed just as the blood-red eyed man lunged at him. He rose waveringly on a painful leg, the bone still sticking out from the body at an unnatural angle. Yuugi wildly dashed for the door, the only thing not covered in the color of passion, and dove--

--Straight into the man's companion.

Trembling, his mind not daring to comprehend the punishment he would receive, Yuugi looked up into dark cobalt. He winced at the gaze he was given. A brow rose in amusement.

Feeling the alien warmth seep into his cold body, Yuugi jumped away from the man's body, afraid of getting even more hurt than was already promised.

Hot air entered his ear behind him, and Yuugi sidestepped the crimson male. He hated being touched, even by life-giving forms, in any type of intimate way. It had always ended in hurt and pain and suffering.

He met the man's hard gaze squarely, blanked his mind like he had when the crone had beaten him, blocked the nerves sending him pain, and awaited what was to come.

One thing he did not expect, however, was a smile.
~*~

... Soo, this was supposed to be a one-shot. Thing like that never work out, huh? -.- All right, so it's a two-shot. Sue me.

I don't know if they used camels or horses more often back in Egypt, but dammit, I say so for now. XD

I haven't edited the second part of the story (wherever that is), so, excuse me for any strangeness and over-all suckadge. And I swear to any gord that is listening, the second part to this will be up in the next two weeks at most. x.x Truth be told, I didn't know where else to go with the plot. *Sigh*

Anyhoo. Review, please! ^-^ And, if you'd like to smack me for not updating anything else.. *Motions to a pile of assorted weaponry stashed in the corner* Choose your pick.

Nother side note-- is from Ocean's story, Fly Away Home. ^w^ Go and see~, if you have any free time.