A/N: I feel it is my duty to say this now, before you become too embroiled
in the plot to step away. "Let Go" was a fluffy romance. "Fallen" is
classified as drama. Perhaps it ought to be under angst. Let me make this
perfectly clear. People are going to die. There will be blood. There will
be cold-blooded murder. There will be cliffhangers. This is not a happy
tale. Things will not even turn out precisely the way you expect them to.
In this chapter, the love triangle (Bakura/Mai/Yugi) becomes more of a love
pentagram. And then in a couple of chapters, the love pentagram subsides
into the more conventional rectangle. Though octagons are not out of the
question in the future. Sorry, I'm rambling. That said, you are responsible
for what you want to read, and flames will not be tolerated.
Don't panic /yet/. The /real/ bad stuff doesn't come until halfway through chapter six. And it's not R-rated by any means.
That said, here's chapter five.
Chapter Five: Hello
Bakura was shocked to wake up in the morning and find that he actually felt rested.
One would expect that his nightmares would only have gotten worse, now that his memories were back in their entirety. After all, he /had/ killed Kaiba's father, and there was that messy business with the tomb robbing.
Not to mention that it wasn't exactly nice to find out that Yami was his brother. Twin brother, no less.
"I am not going to think about that," he said out loud.
"Think about what?" Shizu asked sleepily.
He swore in Japanese and nearly fell off of the pallet - a drop of two inches, admittedly, but still far enough to consider it a fall, and this was silly, why was he thinking stupid things when there were more important issues at stake?
"You're in my bed," he said numbly.
She laughed. "Yes, dear. We always sleep together."
Luckily, his memory quickly reassured him that she did not mean it in the sense he /thought/ she meant it, and that in fact they had never made it very much past kissing. He relaxed.
"Right. Good. Oh, my memory's back."
"Excellent." Shizu yawned. "Because we've got work to do. We have to find out who that handmaiden is that Leila cast the spell on, and who she fell in love with, and then - "
"Oh, Leila?" Bakura interrupted. "I haven't seen her."
"She, um, visiting family, won't be back for a few weeks, maybe never, sick grandmother or something, love you!"
Before she could kiss him, Bakura quickly scooted away, a motion which caused him to crash the two inches to the stone floor. "Ow," he said. "Er. I just - idea! You could, um. Well, someone's sure to have noticed the love spell. You could interview people who were there."
"I could," she said thoughtfully. "Glad to see your plans are back to their former level of brilliance."
He blinked. "Was I really /that/ bad at plans? No wonder we had to bring Malik into this..."
She yawned again. "Akil, the plan - "
No. Whatever plans she had, they were /bad/. He remembered that.
"Bakura," he said quickly. "That's what I want to be called." And before she could work that out, he fled.
* * *
Mai had absolutely no intention of going anywhere near the throne room ever again. This was because she had discovered, to her chagrin, that Yami's resemblance to Yugi set off very /bad/ thoughts.
Very, very bad.
Instead, she found her way to the kitchens and begged the head cook to let her work there. The cook eyed her skimpy outfit and wordlessly handed her an apron, mumbling something about decency.
Mai wasn't an exceptional cook - in fact, her specialty was grilled cheese - but even she knew how to chop vegetables. She was busily doing this when she suddenly realized that she really didn't want to be alone.
Giving a hasty apology to the cook, she returned the apron and went off, looking for Kaiba. She did hate him, but he /was/ trying to find some kind of cure for the love spell, so she felt able to tolerate him.
Instead, she almost crashed into Yugi.
"Augh," she heard him say. "Mai."
There was a ringing in her ears. She wasn't at all sure that she liked it.
Yugi squeaked in consternation. "I've got to go - "
"Stay," she said dreamily. She looked down at him. The rational part of her mind said that he was too short, too pure, she wouldn't like him at all...
Except that she did.
She backed him up against a wall, ignoring another squeak, and pressed her palms against the stone on either side of his head. "Didn't they warn you to stay away?"
"I have a job to do - Mai - eeeee..."
She wasn't sure why she'd bent to kiss his forehead, but it could have been worse. "I'm sorry about all this."
"Not your fault - urk..."
Her hand had somehow slid down his chest, which, do to his status as a slave, was bare.
"You're very innocent, you know..."
"Not for much longer!" he yelped. "Not if you don't stop - it - ohhh..."
Well, she was apparently doing very interesting things to his ear with her tongue. And not of her own free will. This was thoroughly appalling.
He had been carrying an empty tray. It clattered to the floor as he hesitantly raised his hands to her face.
"Mai - don't - Bakura - Joey - "
"Yugi..."
"They're going to kill us," he said. He sounded resigned. She took that as a good sign and moved to claim his lips.
Predictably, he forgot to breathe, so she had to pull away seconds later to wait while he coughed pathetically.
"We can't."
"We have to," she murmured, and kissed him again.
**Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Hello, I'm your mind
Giving you someone to talk to
Hello**
Kaiba glared at the wall, because the other priests had already run away in terror, and there wasn't anything else to glare at.
For the first time in ages, he had absolutely no idea what to do.
He'd asked the priests to work on the love spell cure, and they'd all laughed and informed him that it couldn't be done. The spell was designed to be unbreakable. Finding a counter-spell could take months, even years. Certainly one of the two affected would die before the cure was discovered. If there even /was/ one.
It was like a nightmare. Kaiba knew that he /should/ find the cure. It was the right thing to do. He generally frowned on doing the right thing, but he'd always rather liked Mai, and he really hated to see anyone suffer like this. And the eight of them were in this together, right? And they would never get back to their own time unless Mai and Yugi were both able to be in the same room together without panicking.
All these thoughts of togetherness and cooperation were really out of character.
Time-travel did strange things to the mind.
Kaiba eventually organized his thoughts and worked out that he couldn't care less if Yugi and Friends remained here forever. But Mokuba didn't seem happy. He hadn't slept well - Kaiba could tell. He wasn't about to risk his brother's health in this time when people died so young. If it took cooperation to get back to the future, well...
Maybe the first step was finding a cure.
Only he bloody well couldn't do /that/, not right now, not with all these /idiots/ insisting that it was impossible.
Everything is defined by its opposing force. For profit in one thing, payment in some other. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin.
That was simple logic.
Kaiba tried, very hard, to avoid the nagging voice in the back of his mind that said smugly, "But what does /logic/ have to do with /magic/?"
"Kaiba?"
The High Priest whirled. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."
Yami shrugged. "Didn't think it mattered. I was just wondering if - "
"No counter-spell yet."
"Oh." Yami stared at the floor determinedly. "Well. I'm bored."
"Such mundane words for the almighty pharaoh."
Yami mutinously ignored Kaiba's sneering tone and continued, "And I figured you might be bored too, so I thought, we could play a game."
"The Shadow Games?"
"No! Not yet. Too dangerous. It's just...I found a chess set."
Kaiba blinked. "I didn't know they had chess five thousand years ago."
"Don't think they did. I had some slaves make one out of wood."
Well, here was Kaiba's chance to beat Yami. The CEO was extremely good at chess.
"Sure, let's play. We can find out if the title 'King of Games' extends beyond Duel Monsters."
* * *
Malik's first mistake - and some would say his worst - was trusting Bakura as much as he did.
They'd been friends since they were six or seven, completely ignoring the protocol. Bakura wasn't a god, anyway - just the brother of one. A fallen angel, the people called him.
Have faith. Bakura said those words so often, when they were in trouble. I can get us out of this.
Malik always believed him.
Contrary to historical belief, chess originated in Egypt. The game was not /called/ chess, and in the wake of the Shadow Games, it was lost, only to be rediscovered in India and Persia centuries later.
Malik and Bakura were masters of the game, and applied it often to their own escapades.
"We," Malik said once, "are like the priests." (The Egyptians did not have bishops.) "We move diagonally and end up in the places where the kings weren't expecting us to be."
Bakura had shaken his head and gently touched one of the pieces. "No, you can be a priest. I'm a slave." (Something like a pawn.)
"Why would you want to be a slave?"
"If they can slip all the way to the other side, they become the most powerful players in the game."
Malik was startled by this, but just then he saw a brilliant move and played it. Bakura thought that his best friend had forgotten all about their conversation.
The Ishtar boy never forgot.
He always believed it, though. Bakura might be the most powerful player in the game...
But Malik was the one who would turn up unexpected at the crucial moment.
Malik had faith in his friend. He trusted him implicitly, turned to him when his parents died, and knew that when he was with Bakura, nothing could harm him. When you were with the second-in-line to the throne, you were safe.
He should have learned eventually that when you have too much faith in something, it is bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry.
* * *
Ryou staggered through the second day with wide, haunted eyes.
He /wasn't/ dying. He couldn't be. He said it to himself, over and over.
I'm not dying.
What was the first symptom? Weakness?
He wasn't weak. No weaker than usual.
The only reason the plates seemed to get gradually heavier and the same set of steps grew harder and harder to climb was muscle fatigue. Perfectly normal.
Not dying.
Despite his fierce refusal to believe the demon, he still went to Mokuba the moment he discovered that no one needed him.
The boy inspected the watch, then shrugged. "I can't get it off without taking off your hand." He glanced up, dark blue eyes widening. "You don't /want/ me to - "
"Only if you can do it with a minimum of pain and an absolute guarantee you can put it back on," Ryou said. "I want that thing off me."
Mokuba shook his head. "I can't control the power. I have no idea what to do. Ask the other healers - "
"I wouldn't trust just anyone!" Ryou gazed glumly at the floor. "I have to get it off. I /have/ to. It's a matter of life and death."
Mokuba's eyes glittered with concern and a certain professional curiosity. "How so?"
"Well...it started in our time, when a demon showed up in our house searching for something..."
**If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken
Hello, I'm the lie
Living for you so you can hide
Don't cry**
Joey's depression lasted well into the second day. He wanted Mai, he wanted her to want /him/, but not because of a spell. Although, if there /had/ to be a spell, why was it Yugi, of all people?
He was in a fairly dark room, lit by a single torch which hung near the entrance. It seemed to be a small armory - though "armory" implied armor, and there wasn't any, just rows and rows of pointed sticks. Weapons at their most basic.
"Hello?"
The voice was so familiar, and he jerked around to stare. He couldn't see much, just luminous purple eyes and torchlight on blonde hair.
"Mai?"
The girl smiled. "Were you in the throne room yesterday, when the spell went off?"
He stepped hesitantly forward. "Yes, you know that. Did they find the counter? Are you still in love with Yugi? You haven't /done/ anything, have you?"
She shook her head violently. "No! Never. Even with the spell...I can't believe I saw Yugi first." She put a slight emphasis on the name; maybe out of disgust? Joey wasn't sure.
"That's good."
"I mean, what is he, a slave?" She walked forward and touched his face.
"Y-yes..."
"I don't /really/ love him," she said, and reached up to kiss him firmly on the lips. He didn't stop to think, but wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed back, hard. She felt so /nice/ and...why was she wearing a robe? /That/ wasn't standard handmaiden clothing...
Of course, once rational thought was working, he pushed her away. "Mai, what about Bakura? He'd kill me if he knew - "
"Bakura?" she asked, eyes glinting angrily. "What /about/ Bakura?"
"You love him," Joey said. "He loves you. I love you. But that doesn't matter, because you two are together, and I'm not going to get involved again. Don't make me."
She stared at him, and it dawned on him that something about her eyes wasn't right. They were darker than usual, and very, very angry.
"I'm going to talk to him," she said. "Right now."
* * *
Shizu stalked along the corridor, glanced around to make sure no one was looking, and slipped through the secret doorway into the catacombs.
Mai. That must be the handmaiden who looked like her. She'd been counting on it; no one would talk about things like love spells in front of a noble, but all handmaidens gossiped.
It had been sheer luck that she'd run into a guard who knew the victim of the spell. Sheer luck that he'd said what she needed to know.
Yugi. A slave.
But that wasn't important. Akil - Bakura, he wanted to be called Bakura - was supposedly in love with someone else. A handmaiden, no less. Unheard of.
He wasn't in their room. She questioned several other rebels, but they all shrugged.
Oh, well. She'd see him tonight.
It didn't matter. The plan didn't have to change. In fact, maybe it was better that he loved Mai. That could work out in favor of...
Shizu suddenly found that she was in no mood for plotting.
**Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello, I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday**
The only reason that Mai stopped kissing Yugi was that they were discovered.
"Why is it always me?"
She broke away, gasping for breath, and shot a death glare at Ryou. Her eyes immediately softened upon realizing that he didn't have that traumatized, oh-my-God-the-end-is-near look on his face. He seemed...resigned. And so very depressed.
"It's not what it looks like," Yugi said hastily. "She dropped her, um, ring - "
"In your mouth?" Ryou asked reasonably. "It's okay. I understand. Love spell. At least it isn't bloody fatal!"
Yes, something was definitely wrong with him.
Mai reached out to touch his arm, and he yanked away. "Don't. That's all I need, one little cut with those /talons/ of yours and I could bleed to death!"
Mai inspected her fingernails. "They're not sharp, and you're not a hemophiliac."
"Not yet."
"Are you okay?" Yugi asked.
"You're so oblivious," Mai said. "And I like it." That last bit was out before she could help it; she yelped and covered her mouth, mumbling, "Sorry, sorry..."
"Words cannot hurt me." Yugi shuddered. "If you kiss me again, that might."
"I'm going to die," Ryou wailed, and collapsed theatrically.
After a moment, Mai nudged him with her toe. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling with large, weary eyes.
"I /hate him/," he said suddenly.
"Erm, who?" Yugi asked.
"Yami!" Upon noticing their confusion, Ryou snapped, "Mine! I hate him!"
"You don't /mean/ that," Mai said.
"I'm dying and it's his fault! I'd bloody well /say/ I hate him! Who goes around making deals with demons, anyway?"
Yugi and Mai exchanged glances. This was not like Ryou at all. They hadn't been aware that the word "hate" was even in his vocabulary.
~~
A/N: Ha, told you the kisses wouldn't be who you thought. Now, seriously, who would've guessed the Joey/Shizu kiss? Hmm?
I'm serious! This is Mai/Bakura! You don't believe me!
Notes to the Reviewers: Not so many, this time around. Hmm. Well, general thanks.
Night Beauty: Persian, eh? I don't remember when the Persian empire started. Hmm. I first heard the name Leila in a book set in Egypt. It /sounds/ vaguely Egyptian. Didn't the Persian empire control Egypt once? Okay, no one cares. :P
Mori: Sorry, no Mai/Bakura this chappie. Soon, though. Promise.
LiLianJieGurl: Yeah, poor Joey. It will only get worse for him.although /probably/ he'll get to kiss Mai at some point. I mean, really. Poetic justice, anyone? Malik.love Malik. Especially cunning-plan!Malik. Although if you want evil plots, keep an eye on Shizu. She is very, very bad.actually, I think I mentioned her current plan a few chapters ago. Hmm.
Azzie@Az: Ryou's a darling, isn't he? Poor dear.
Rei Mayonaka: Well, I feel sorry for Joey and Ryou. They're probably going to suffer the most. Oh! Except for Malik.
Next Chapter: Haunted. Summary in poem form. Joey and Yugi have a big fight / Ryou's illness keeps him up all night / Mai wanders the castle and feels quite alone / Malik's cunning plan is finally known / Shizu's so evil and 'Kura's so clueless / Did you know that in Egypt, they often went shoeless? / The love spell is broken, but no end for the strife / A cliffhanger causes attempts on my life.
Don't panic /yet/. The /real/ bad stuff doesn't come until halfway through chapter six. And it's not R-rated by any means.
That said, here's chapter five.
Chapter Five: Hello
Bakura was shocked to wake up in the morning and find that he actually felt rested.
One would expect that his nightmares would only have gotten worse, now that his memories were back in their entirety. After all, he /had/ killed Kaiba's father, and there was that messy business with the tomb robbing.
Not to mention that it wasn't exactly nice to find out that Yami was his brother. Twin brother, no less.
"I am not going to think about that," he said out loud.
"Think about what?" Shizu asked sleepily.
He swore in Japanese and nearly fell off of the pallet - a drop of two inches, admittedly, but still far enough to consider it a fall, and this was silly, why was he thinking stupid things when there were more important issues at stake?
"You're in my bed," he said numbly.
She laughed. "Yes, dear. We always sleep together."
Luckily, his memory quickly reassured him that she did not mean it in the sense he /thought/ she meant it, and that in fact they had never made it very much past kissing. He relaxed.
"Right. Good. Oh, my memory's back."
"Excellent." Shizu yawned. "Because we've got work to do. We have to find out who that handmaiden is that Leila cast the spell on, and who she fell in love with, and then - "
"Oh, Leila?" Bakura interrupted. "I haven't seen her."
"She, um, visiting family, won't be back for a few weeks, maybe never, sick grandmother or something, love you!"
Before she could kiss him, Bakura quickly scooted away, a motion which caused him to crash the two inches to the stone floor. "Ow," he said. "Er. I just - idea! You could, um. Well, someone's sure to have noticed the love spell. You could interview people who were there."
"I could," she said thoughtfully. "Glad to see your plans are back to their former level of brilliance."
He blinked. "Was I really /that/ bad at plans? No wonder we had to bring Malik into this..."
She yawned again. "Akil, the plan - "
No. Whatever plans she had, they were /bad/. He remembered that.
"Bakura," he said quickly. "That's what I want to be called." And before she could work that out, he fled.
* * *
Mai had absolutely no intention of going anywhere near the throne room ever again. This was because she had discovered, to her chagrin, that Yami's resemblance to Yugi set off very /bad/ thoughts.
Very, very bad.
Instead, she found her way to the kitchens and begged the head cook to let her work there. The cook eyed her skimpy outfit and wordlessly handed her an apron, mumbling something about decency.
Mai wasn't an exceptional cook - in fact, her specialty was grilled cheese - but even she knew how to chop vegetables. She was busily doing this when she suddenly realized that she really didn't want to be alone.
Giving a hasty apology to the cook, she returned the apron and went off, looking for Kaiba. She did hate him, but he /was/ trying to find some kind of cure for the love spell, so she felt able to tolerate him.
Instead, she almost crashed into Yugi.
"Augh," she heard him say. "Mai."
There was a ringing in her ears. She wasn't at all sure that she liked it.
Yugi squeaked in consternation. "I've got to go - "
"Stay," she said dreamily. She looked down at him. The rational part of her mind said that he was too short, too pure, she wouldn't like him at all...
Except that she did.
She backed him up against a wall, ignoring another squeak, and pressed her palms against the stone on either side of his head. "Didn't they warn you to stay away?"
"I have a job to do - Mai - eeeee..."
She wasn't sure why she'd bent to kiss his forehead, but it could have been worse. "I'm sorry about all this."
"Not your fault - urk..."
Her hand had somehow slid down his chest, which, do to his status as a slave, was bare.
"You're very innocent, you know..."
"Not for much longer!" he yelped. "Not if you don't stop - it - ohhh..."
Well, she was apparently doing very interesting things to his ear with her tongue. And not of her own free will. This was thoroughly appalling.
He had been carrying an empty tray. It clattered to the floor as he hesitantly raised his hands to her face.
"Mai - don't - Bakura - Joey - "
"Yugi..."
"They're going to kill us," he said. He sounded resigned. She took that as a good sign and moved to claim his lips.
Predictably, he forgot to breathe, so she had to pull away seconds later to wait while he coughed pathetically.
"We can't."
"We have to," she murmured, and kissed him again.
**Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Hello, I'm your mind
Giving you someone to talk to
Hello**
Kaiba glared at the wall, because the other priests had already run away in terror, and there wasn't anything else to glare at.
For the first time in ages, he had absolutely no idea what to do.
He'd asked the priests to work on the love spell cure, and they'd all laughed and informed him that it couldn't be done. The spell was designed to be unbreakable. Finding a counter-spell could take months, even years. Certainly one of the two affected would die before the cure was discovered. If there even /was/ one.
It was like a nightmare. Kaiba knew that he /should/ find the cure. It was the right thing to do. He generally frowned on doing the right thing, but he'd always rather liked Mai, and he really hated to see anyone suffer like this. And the eight of them were in this together, right? And they would never get back to their own time unless Mai and Yugi were both able to be in the same room together without panicking.
All these thoughts of togetherness and cooperation were really out of character.
Time-travel did strange things to the mind.
Kaiba eventually organized his thoughts and worked out that he couldn't care less if Yugi and Friends remained here forever. But Mokuba didn't seem happy. He hadn't slept well - Kaiba could tell. He wasn't about to risk his brother's health in this time when people died so young. If it took cooperation to get back to the future, well...
Maybe the first step was finding a cure.
Only he bloody well couldn't do /that/, not right now, not with all these /idiots/ insisting that it was impossible.
Everything is defined by its opposing force. For profit in one thing, payment in some other. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin.
That was simple logic.
Kaiba tried, very hard, to avoid the nagging voice in the back of his mind that said smugly, "But what does /logic/ have to do with /magic/?"
"Kaiba?"
The High Priest whirled. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."
Yami shrugged. "Didn't think it mattered. I was just wondering if - "
"No counter-spell yet."
"Oh." Yami stared at the floor determinedly. "Well. I'm bored."
"Such mundane words for the almighty pharaoh."
Yami mutinously ignored Kaiba's sneering tone and continued, "And I figured you might be bored too, so I thought, we could play a game."
"The Shadow Games?"
"No! Not yet. Too dangerous. It's just...I found a chess set."
Kaiba blinked. "I didn't know they had chess five thousand years ago."
"Don't think they did. I had some slaves make one out of wood."
Well, here was Kaiba's chance to beat Yami. The CEO was extremely good at chess.
"Sure, let's play. We can find out if the title 'King of Games' extends beyond Duel Monsters."
* * *
Malik's first mistake - and some would say his worst - was trusting Bakura as much as he did.
They'd been friends since they were six or seven, completely ignoring the protocol. Bakura wasn't a god, anyway - just the brother of one. A fallen angel, the people called him.
Have faith. Bakura said those words so often, when they were in trouble. I can get us out of this.
Malik always believed him.
Contrary to historical belief, chess originated in Egypt. The game was not /called/ chess, and in the wake of the Shadow Games, it was lost, only to be rediscovered in India and Persia centuries later.
Malik and Bakura were masters of the game, and applied it often to their own escapades.
"We," Malik said once, "are like the priests." (The Egyptians did not have bishops.) "We move diagonally and end up in the places where the kings weren't expecting us to be."
Bakura had shaken his head and gently touched one of the pieces. "No, you can be a priest. I'm a slave." (Something like a pawn.)
"Why would you want to be a slave?"
"If they can slip all the way to the other side, they become the most powerful players in the game."
Malik was startled by this, but just then he saw a brilliant move and played it. Bakura thought that his best friend had forgotten all about their conversation.
The Ishtar boy never forgot.
He always believed it, though. Bakura might be the most powerful player in the game...
But Malik was the one who would turn up unexpected at the crucial moment.
Malik had faith in his friend. He trusted him implicitly, turned to him when his parents died, and knew that when he was with Bakura, nothing could harm him. When you were with the second-in-line to the throne, you were safe.
He should have learned eventually that when you have too much faith in something, it is bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry.
* * *
Ryou staggered through the second day with wide, haunted eyes.
He /wasn't/ dying. He couldn't be. He said it to himself, over and over.
I'm not dying.
What was the first symptom? Weakness?
He wasn't weak. No weaker than usual.
The only reason the plates seemed to get gradually heavier and the same set of steps grew harder and harder to climb was muscle fatigue. Perfectly normal.
Not dying.
Despite his fierce refusal to believe the demon, he still went to Mokuba the moment he discovered that no one needed him.
The boy inspected the watch, then shrugged. "I can't get it off without taking off your hand." He glanced up, dark blue eyes widening. "You don't /want/ me to - "
"Only if you can do it with a minimum of pain and an absolute guarantee you can put it back on," Ryou said. "I want that thing off me."
Mokuba shook his head. "I can't control the power. I have no idea what to do. Ask the other healers - "
"I wouldn't trust just anyone!" Ryou gazed glumly at the floor. "I have to get it off. I /have/ to. It's a matter of life and death."
Mokuba's eyes glittered with concern and a certain professional curiosity. "How so?"
"Well...it started in our time, when a demon showed up in our house searching for something..."
**If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken
Hello, I'm the lie
Living for you so you can hide
Don't cry**
Joey's depression lasted well into the second day. He wanted Mai, he wanted her to want /him/, but not because of a spell. Although, if there /had/ to be a spell, why was it Yugi, of all people?
He was in a fairly dark room, lit by a single torch which hung near the entrance. It seemed to be a small armory - though "armory" implied armor, and there wasn't any, just rows and rows of pointed sticks. Weapons at their most basic.
"Hello?"
The voice was so familiar, and he jerked around to stare. He couldn't see much, just luminous purple eyes and torchlight on blonde hair.
"Mai?"
The girl smiled. "Were you in the throne room yesterday, when the spell went off?"
He stepped hesitantly forward. "Yes, you know that. Did they find the counter? Are you still in love with Yugi? You haven't /done/ anything, have you?"
She shook her head violently. "No! Never. Even with the spell...I can't believe I saw Yugi first." She put a slight emphasis on the name; maybe out of disgust? Joey wasn't sure.
"That's good."
"I mean, what is he, a slave?" She walked forward and touched his face.
"Y-yes..."
"I don't /really/ love him," she said, and reached up to kiss him firmly on the lips. He didn't stop to think, but wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed back, hard. She felt so /nice/ and...why was she wearing a robe? /That/ wasn't standard handmaiden clothing...
Of course, once rational thought was working, he pushed her away. "Mai, what about Bakura? He'd kill me if he knew - "
"Bakura?" she asked, eyes glinting angrily. "What /about/ Bakura?"
"You love him," Joey said. "He loves you. I love you. But that doesn't matter, because you two are together, and I'm not going to get involved again. Don't make me."
She stared at him, and it dawned on him that something about her eyes wasn't right. They were darker than usual, and very, very angry.
"I'm going to talk to him," she said. "Right now."
* * *
Shizu stalked along the corridor, glanced around to make sure no one was looking, and slipped through the secret doorway into the catacombs.
Mai. That must be the handmaiden who looked like her. She'd been counting on it; no one would talk about things like love spells in front of a noble, but all handmaidens gossiped.
It had been sheer luck that she'd run into a guard who knew the victim of the spell. Sheer luck that he'd said what she needed to know.
Yugi. A slave.
But that wasn't important. Akil - Bakura, he wanted to be called Bakura - was supposedly in love with someone else. A handmaiden, no less. Unheard of.
He wasn't in their room. She questioned several other rebels, but they all shrugged.
Oh, well. She'd see him tonight.
It didn't matter. The plan didn't have to change. In fact, maybe it was better that he loved Mai. That could work out in favor of...
Shizu suddenly found that she was in no mood for plotting.
**Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello, I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday**
The only reason that Mai stopped kissing Yugi was that they were discovered.
"Why is it always me?"
She broke away, gasping for breath, and shot a death glare at Ryou. Her eyes immediately softened upon realizing that he didn't have that traumatized, oh-my-God-the-end-is-near look on his face. He seemed...resigned. And so very depressed.
"It's not what it looks like," Yugi said hastily. "She dropped her, um, ring - "
"In your mouth?" Ryou asked reasonably. "It's okay. I understand. Love spell. At least it isn't bloody fatal!"
Yes, something was definitely wrong with him.
Mai reached out to touch his arm, and he yanked away. "Don't. That's all I need, one little cut with those /talons/ of yours and I could bleed to death!"
Mai inspected her fingernails. "They're not sharp, and you're not a hemophiliac."
"Not yet."
"Are you okay?" Yugi asked.
"You're so oblivious," Mai said. "And I like it." That last bit was out before she could help it; she yelped and covered her mouth, mumbling, "Sorry, sorry..."
"Words cannot hurt me." Yugi shuddered. "If you kiss me again, that might."
"I'm going to die," Ryou wailed, and collapsed theatrically.
After a moment, Mai nudged him with her toe. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling with large, weary eyes.
"I /hate him/," he said suddenly.
"Erm, who?" Yugi asked.
"Yami!" Upon noticing their confusion, Ryou snapped, "Mine! I hate him!"
"You don't /mean/ that," Mai said.
"I'm dying and it's his fault! I'd bloody well /say/ I hate him! Who goes around making deals with demons, anyway?"
Yugi and Mai exchanged glances. This was not like Ryou at all. They hadn't been aware that the word "hate" was even in his vocabulary.
~~
A/N: Ha, told you the kisses wouldn't be who you thought. Now, seriously, who would've guessed the Joey/Shizu kiss? Hmm?
I'm serious! This is Mai/Bakura! You don't believe me!
Notes to the Reviewers: Not so many, this time around. Hmm. Well, general thanks.
Night Beauty: Persian, eh? I don't remember when the Persian empire started. Hmm. I first heard the name Leila in a book set in Egypt. It /sounds/ vaguely Egyptian. Didn't the Persian empire control Egypt once? Okay, no one cares. :P
Mori: Sorry, no Mai/Bakura this chappie. Soon, though. Promise.
LiLianJieGurl: Yeah, poor Joey. It will only get worse for him.although /probably/ he'll get to kiss Mai at some point. I mean, really. Poetic justice, anyone? Malik.love Malik. Especially cunning-plan!Malik. Although if you want evil plots, keep an eye on Shizu. She is very, very bad.actually, I think I mentioned her current plan a few chapters ago. Hmm.
Azzie@Az: Ryou's a darling, isn't he? Poor dear.
Rei Mayonaka: Well, I feel sorry for Joey and Ryou. They're probably going to suffer the most. Oh! Except for Malik.
Next Chapter: Haunted. Summary in poem form. Joey and Yugi have a big fight / Ryou's illness keeps him up all night / Mai wanders the castle and feels quite alone / Malik's cunning plan is finally known / Shizu's so evil and 'Kura's so clueless / Did you know that in Egypt, they often went shoeless? / The love spell is broken, but no end for the strife / A cliffhanger causes attempts on my life.