Disclaimer:
I do not own Yugioh! or Harry Potter in any incarnation. They each belong to their particular creators. I do own this particular storyline idea so please don't steal it.
Notes:
Well, since Yami won the Go Fish! Tournament in the storage shed against the HP, IY, YYH, and Naruto casts, I'm gonna give a little sneak peek teaser for the future of Advent of Darkness.
Well, this isn't very linear but hopefully this will tide all you rabid Advent of Darkness fans over for a little while, while I get my Yugioh fic writing gloves back on. This is a scene that takes place sometime in the future of my story 'Harry Potter and the Advent of Darkness' and may or may not make it into the actual main fic as it is right now.
Just a reminder, this is not yaoi or shonen-ai. Take it as such if you really, really want to but don't blame me if you think it is and are upset by it. I don't intend it as such.
Translations:
Ohayou gozaimasu minna-san = Good morning everyone.
Aa/hai = affirmative, yes
Ni-sama = older brother (said with respect)
Ne = isn't that right?
Baka = idiot, fool
Kami-sama = God
Iie = no
Masaka = It can't be/ I don't believe it
Demo = but
Anou = um
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Harry Potter and the Advent of Darkness – Teaser:
Birds of a Feather
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Seto Kaiba was not particularly pleased with the current situation. He had never been particularly fond of nature and the 'great outdoors;' yet, here he was, sitting on a large, fairly uncomfortable boulder, staring out at the shadowed forest around them, and trying to remain aloof and unconcerned of the goings on around him. The chill bite to the early dawn air was easily ignored, he was used to ignoring physical discomfort in the name of progress and advancement of his goals. However, the constant bickering coming from his left was a little harder to ignore, especially since it was getting louder. Finally, enough was enough.
Spinning around so that his heavy black trench coat flared behind him (despite his sitting position), Kaiba rounded on the source of his annoyance with an irritated scowl. "Is it too much to expect from you to be able to cease your yapping or should I simply invest in a muzzle to give to Shizuka for you?"
"Whaaat!! Why you!" Jounouchi snarled at Kaiba and spun away from his argument with Honda and Otogi and lunged at the rich teenager who was perched imperiously on the boulder across from the campfire.
"Jounouchi stop!" Otogi cried as he latched onto Jou's left arm and Honda grabbed his other one to stop him from attacking Kaiba. "He's just trying to bait you. Kaiba, just because we're all stuck out here in this miserable forest doesn't give you the right to try to amuse yourself by picking fights!"
"Jou, cut it out! If we keep this up we won't have to worry about getting attacked by those masked freaks, we'll have torn each other apart before they even find us! Now calm down!" Honda struggled to hold the blond teen back.
"Keep it down! Some people are trying to sleep here!" Anzu scowled at the lot of them from where she was curled up in a sleeping bag between Shizuka and Mai, her hair mussed up from the pillow.
"We might as well give up Anzu-chan. Not like we'll be getting back to sleep after that." Mai sighed as she pushed herself up to a sitting position in her own bag lying alongside Anzu's. She stretched her arms out above her head and yawned tilting her head back. "Quit picking on Jounouchi, Kaiba. Just because you don't like the accommodations doesn't mean you get to take it out on everyone around you." Mai frowned at the CEO as she turned back to the tableau across the burnt down campfire from the girls. "It's not like we have much choice anyhow. Think I would be out here roughing it when there are perfectly good hotels, probably not more than an hour's drive away, if we had a choice in the matter?"
"Choice or not, this is still the height of stupidity. Though I shouldn't expect too much from this group considering your track record. Camping out in the middle of nowhere, with minimal supplies, for who knows how long until that fool thief gets back is not going to win you any awards in intelligence or planning from me. At the very least we should have bought more supplies. If we had, I wouldn't have to listen to those three bottom-less pits fighting over the last bag of chips." Kaiba scowled and turned his glare on the three teenage boys in question. Honda and Otogi had the decency to look abashed at their behavior. Jounouchi just glared right back.
"Well, maybe hanging around to have Mokuba snatched by those freaks so you could buy a couple more bags of snacks is more your idea of a good plan, Kaiba." Jounouchi growled at him. "But for me, I'd rather have my sister safely away from there, even if it means we're low on food for a bit. Some of us don't mind not having three squares a day if it means we'll all be safe and together. But apparently, you're more concerned with a good meal than your family's safety." He sneered up at the blue-eyed teen whose gaze turned frosty as Seto met Jounouchi's brown-eyed glare.
"Mokuba's well-being is always my first concern." Kaiba replied in a cold monotone. "I will not stand by and watch my brother go hungry while waiting for that menace-to-logical-directions to get back. As soon as Yugi gets back with Mokuba I'm taking him down to that town to buy supplies."
"Now who's talking poor planning, Kaiba?" Honda frowned. "You'll stick out in that town like an NBA player in a pygmy village. No way you won't be noticed. At the very least, wait for Bakura and Ryou to get back. Bakura may be a menace to our sanity at times, but he's the best at sneaking around unnoticed and you know it. When he gets back he can help us get some supplies without being noticed. If he wants Ryou to stay healthy and eat, then he's got to help the rest of us get more food. Besides, maybe he's found it by now and we can finally get the hell out of this stupid creepy forest."
"Honda-san has a point Kaiba-san." Shizuka yawned as she sat up, pushing her red hair out of her eyes. "We do need more food; but we shouldn't be careless. We shouldn't split up too much, and Bakura-san will be able to protect you and Mokuba-kun if those men find you in the town. It would be terrible if we should finally find the last piece only to have those men kidnap you or Mokuba-kun. I would be terribly sad if you or Mokuba-kun were hurt, Kaiba-san." Shizuka lifted her sincere green gaze up to meet Seto's.
Seto shifted slightly on the boulder and then dropped his gaze, turning to the tree line. "Aa. We will wait until Bakura returns. But I will not let Mokuba go hungry because of fear of those masked fools." He added turning to glare pointedly at Jounouchi, Honda and Otogi.
"Ohayou gozaimasu minna-san." Yugi smiled brightly at the group as he walked into the small clearing alongside Mokuba, their arms weighed down with canteens and firewood.
"Sorry we took so long ni-sama, we decided to get some more firewood to get the campfire going again." Mokuba grinned brightly at his older brother. He glanced around the campsite for a moment as the two dropped their loads beside the burnt down campfire. "Isn't Bakura back yet?"
"No, he hasn't been back all night." Honda frowned. "You don't suppose something happened to him do you?" He asked; turning a worried gaze toward the southeast where he knew the thief king's intended destination lay beyond the trees.
"Iie. If something had happened, I think I would have felt it." Yugi replied as he wrapped his hands around the incomplete puzzle that hung around his neck. "Even without... Even as it is, the puzzle still amplifies my own abilities enough to sense the other item holders. Especially at such close range."
"Hehe, well nice to know I'll be missed. Though you'd probably miss my powers more than myself, ne?" Silent as the tombs he used to frequent, the white haired thief king appeared out of the brush between Honda, Otogi and Jounouchi and grinned as the startled teens jumped in surprise.
"Bakura! Don't do that!" Jounouchi cried as he spun around to glare at the ring spirit. Then he blinked. "Bakura, I had no idea you were trying out for the role of Old Saint Nick, though you'll have to grow a beard as long as your hair to complete the picture." Jounouchi grinned wickedly as Yami Bakura scowled at him, his amber red eyes flashing in warning.
"Hold your tongue, mutt. Or not even Ryou will convince me to share breakfast with you." Bakura growled out as he swung the large sack around and off his shoulder and set it on the ground in front of him.
"Huh, breakfast?" Jounouchi blinked in surprise.
"Bakura, what happened? Are you both all right?" Yugi asked in concern as he took in the state of the thief's appearance.
"Of course I'm all right. Just had a few encounters with filthy corridors and hidden passages in that Ra-forsaken castle." Bakura scowled at the diminutive teen as he brushed dust and cobwebs off his clothes.
"But, your clothes..." Yugi persisted, indicating the unfamiliar outfit.
"Borrowed as a disguise." Bakura stated flatly, unwilling to go into details on the why and how of his vivid, if dusty, red sweater and the dirty and torn black cloak fastened at his throat.
"Borrowed huh, does Ryou know you stole someone's clothes?" Kaiba asked with a smirk.
"He's asleep in his soul room right now, and yes he does know, he managed to stay awake until after we left the castle grounds. Don't even ask." Bakura added as he glared at Yugi's opening mouth. "I'm not his wake-up service. You can wake him up and bug him for details yourself after I've eaten something."
"Food? You brought food for everyone?" Jounouchi asked incredulously.
"Baka, it was Ryou's idea, seeing as how helpless you lot are without refrigerators or Burger Worlds I'm inclined to agree. Where would be the fun in watching you starve to death before I've defeated pharaoh-yo." Bakura sneered at the blond as he dropped to a crouch beside the sack and opened it up to reveal breads, cheeses, various breakfast pastries, fruit, and several sealed jugs of milk. Snatching up a jug of milk, some bread and cheese, and an orange he retreated to an overturned log beside the campfire and leaned back against the boulder Kaiba was perched on top of. Even before he had started in on the food, Jounouchi, Honda, Otogi and Mokuba had descended on the sack and were rifling through it picking out certain tasty looking pastries and fruit. Yugi sighed and walked over to sit next to Anzu on the end of her sleeping bag.
After a few hectic moments Mokuba squirmed his way out of the feeding frenzy and ran up to Seto who had sprang down to the ground to lean against the boulder and scowl disdainfully at the behavior of the other teenage boys. "Here ni-sama, I managed to grab you some of these pastries before Jounouchi and Honda grabbed em all." He held out a double handful of danishes, apples, a few wedges of cheese, and three small twinkie-sized pastries, each a pale yellow color but more rounded than twinkies.
"Aa." Seto took two of the danishes, an apple and one of the odd yellow pastries. "You eat the rest Mokuba."
"Hai ni-sama!" Mokuba grinned and stuffed half a cheese wedge into his mouth as he trotted over to an empty area of grass a few feet away and plopped down with his haul. Seto followed after and settled on the grass beside him.
"Cut that out you guys!" Mai reprimanded as she swatted Jounouchi over the back of the head. "We need to divide it up so everyone gets some and so that we still have some for later." She pushed Honda and Otogi away from the sack and commandeered it, tugging it over closer to the campfire and the girls' sleeping bags before opening it again to start doling out the food.
"Oww, c'mon Mai, I'm starving!" Jounouchi moaned as he rubbed the back of his head and followed after her, clutching one of the yellow pastries in his hand and trying to talk around the raspberry danish in his mouth.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Jounouchi." Mai frowned at him. "Finish those before grabbing more." She nodded at the food already in his hands and mouth. Jounouchi pouted but started in on the danish with vigor. No one noticed Bakura eyeing the division of the breakfast foods with a glint of repressed laughter in his eyes.
Kaiba had just started in on a lemon danish when Mokuba turned to him with a grin. "Ni-sama, you should try the raspberry ones. They're really good." Kaiba nodded absently as Mokuba picked up one of the small yellow pastries and took a bite out of it. "Hey, these are really good too ni-sa-" The sentence was abruptly cut off by a loud popping sound and abruptly Mokuba vanished from where he had been sitting.
"Mokuba!" Seto shouted in alarm as he leaped to his feet. Everyone in the clearing abruptly froze in shock and stared at the empty place where Mokuba used to be. Mai held a bottle of milk in one hand, Honda was reaching for a cinnamon roll, Yugi sat bolt upright, staring with impossibly wide eyes as Anzu clutched at his shoulder and Shizuka ducked behind her, peeking out cautiously. Bakura turned his piercing gaze on the empty seat and Jounouchi, a yellow pastry half stuffed into his mouth, had turned around from his argument with Otogi over another of the yellow pastries to stare in shock at the space where Mokuba had been sitting.
Before Seto's mind could comprehend his brother's disappearance and shift into panic or action, a flutter of movement on the ground caught his attention with a decidedly confused sounding "chirp." Standing on the ground was a rather large yellow canary, maybe twice the size of an ordinary canary.
"Mokuba...?" Breathed Yugi in shock. The canary chirped in response and cocked its head toward Yugi before blinking and chirping again, sounding very confused this time as it turned to look back at its wings and tail. Spreading its wings slightly it chirped again, this time sounding surprised.
"Masaka. Mokuba...how...but... Kami-sama." Seto gasped in shocked horror as he dropped to his knees beside the Mokuba-canary. "Iie, Mokuba...no..." Mokuba-canary turned to Seto and chirped happily before hopping toward him. Seto hesitantly reached out to touch the Mokuba-bird and whispered brokenly. "Mokuba...no..."
Just at that moment, Yami Bakura exploded into uncontrollable laughter. He doubled over on his log seat, clutching his stomach as he howled with laughter. The sudden explosion of noise frightened the Mokuba-bird so badly that its avian instincts to escape took over. With a frightened squawk, the Mokuba-bird's wings burst open and it leaped into the air in a frantic flutter of wings and feathers.
"Mokuba! No!" Seto cried and sprang to his feet, leaping after the panicked bird. Terrified that his brother would fly away and be lost in the forest, he ignored everything in his way that wasn't a tree or a large boulder. The results had Bakura laughing even harder as he pounded his fist on the ground. Kaiba leaped the campfire in a panic, trying to catch the Mokuba-bird, and though Jounouchi and Otogi scrambled to get out of his way, he tripped over Otogi's leg and fell forward, slamming into Jounouchi who hit Honda on the way down and resulted in a tangle of limbs and curses.
As Kaiba struggled off the ground, he shoved Honda off of his shoulder and pushed Otogi away from his right side with a snarl that died in his throat as he saw a battered looking, yellow feathered form collapsed on the ground about a few feet in front of him.
"Mokuba... No, no, Kami-sama no!" Seto choked in horror as he scrambled forward on his knees to the canary. 'Had he lost control and landed badly? Had he been caught in the pile up? Had someone fallen on him?' Panic and fear gripped his soul and crushed his heart into a million broken shards as he reached the canary. Gently he picked its limp form up and cradled it in his hands, unsure how to check for a bird's pulse. "Are you all right? Answer me please." Hope soared within him to repair his shattered heart as the canary stirred and chirped weakly, turning its head dazedly. "Oh kami-sama..." Seto choked out as he cradled the dazed canary to his chest, ignoring everything around him except the semi-conscious bird cradled gently in his hands. Ignoring the still maniacally laughing Bakura, the moans of Honda from where he'd bruised his shin in the fall, and a strange, loud popping noise from somewhere off to his left.
"Ni-sama?"
"Mokuba!" Seto gasped as he pulled his hands slightly away from his chest to look down at the canary. 'He could talk?' "Mokuba, are you all right?"
"Hai, ni-sama. Demo, could someone help me down from here?" It was only then that Seto realized that Mokuba's voice was coming from off to his left. Turning his head to focus on his brother's voice he looked up and to his left and easily spotted Mokuba sitting about fifteen feet off the ground on a sturdy tree branch in an old oak tree.
"Mokuba? Demo..." Seto glanced back down at the oversized canary cradled in his hands and blinked in confusion. Before he could do or say anything else there was an explosion of bright yellow smoke and feathers accompanied by a loud popping sound right before the negligible weight of the canary abruptly multiplied by an exponential scale and Kaiba found his arms full of a form nearly as tall as he was. The smoke dispersed almost as rapidly as it had appeared, revealing a very dazed, semi-conscious Jounouchi slumped across his lap and cradled in his arms. Kaiba was so shocked he could just sit there and stare for a moment.
Jounouchi moaned and blinked his eyes open. The first thing he saw was Kaiba staring down at him with the most impossibly shocked expression he had ever seen on the teenaged CEO. Then it registered that Kaiba was holding him in his lap. That brought on the horrified shout from Jounouchi, followed almost immediately by a very uncharacteristic yelp from Kaiba who dropped Jounouchi like he'd been scalded and scrambled backward. Jounouchi yelped in pain as he smacked his head against the ground and saw stars for an instant before his vision cleared.
"You!" Roared Kaiba as he wheeled around and leveled an accusing finger at the still hysterical Bakura. "This is your fault! Those damn pastries you brought caused this! You probably planned it!" He snarled as he lunged to his feet and in a few strides, towered over the thief king who had dissolved into snickers by then.
"Hehehehe. Worked better than I'd hoped, Kaiba. Didn't know you cared so much for the pup." Bakura grinned wickedly up at Seto, laughing in the face of the CEO's towering rage.
"You!" Growled Kaiba as he reached for the snickering thief king's collar to haul him to his feet. Abruptly the insane light died out of Bakura's eyes as the amber red faded into warm chocolate brown. His wildly spiked hair settled down against his scalp as though finally acknowledging gravity existed.
"A-anou...did I miss something?" Ryou Bakura yawned sleepily and blinked as he looked around him and then focused on the enraged teen looming over him. He cringed back away from Kaiba at the glare the furious teen was focusing on him.
Kaiba's rage deflated for the moment, his target safely incorporeal and unreachable, for now. "No. Nothing important." He bit out in a cold, sharp tone, daring anyone to contradict his statement with his cold gaze as he turned away from the white haired teen to stalk across the campsite to the tree Mokuba was currently perched in.
"A-anou, why is Mokuba-kun in a tree?"
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The End -- [for now]
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After Notes:
If you're wondering why Jounouchi's Canary Cream lasted less time than Mokuba's its because Mokuba is a lot smaller than Jou, so his dose of the potion lasted longer.
Who can guess where they are? Or what Yami Bakura's been up to?
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If you liked this, take a look at the rest of Advent of Darkness and let me know what you think.
Review Please!
I do not own Yugioh! or Harry Potter in any incarnation. They each belong to their particular creators. I do own this particular storyline idea so please don't steal it.
Notes:
Well, since Yami won the Go Fish! Tournament in the storage shed against the HP, IY, YYH, and Naruto casts, I'm gonna give a little sneak peek teaser for the future of Advent of Darkness.
Well, this isn't very linear but hopefully this will tide all you rabid Advent of Darkness fans over for a little while, while I get my Yugioh fic writing gloves back on. This is a scene that takes place sometime in the future of my story 'Harry Potter and the Advent of Darkness' and may or may not make it into the actual main fic as it is right now.
Just a reminder, this is not yaoi or shonen-ai. Take it as such if you really, really want to but don't blame me if you think it is and are upset by it. I don't intend it as such.
Translations:
Ohayou gozaimasu minna-san = Good morning everyone.
Aa/hai = affirmative, yes
Ni-sama = older brother (said with respect)
Ne = isn't that right?
Baka = idiot, fool
Kami-sama = God
Iie = no
Masaka = It can't be/ I don't believe it
Demo = but
Anou = um
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Harry Potter and the Advent of Darkness – Teaser:
Birds of a Feather
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Seto Kaiba was not particularly pleased with the current situation. He had never been particularly fond of nature and the 'great outdoors;' yet, here he was, sitting on a large, fairly uncomfortable boulder, staring out at the shadowed forest around them, and trying to remain aloof and unconcerned of the goings on around him. The chill bite to the early dawn air was easily ignored, he was used to ignoring physical discomfort in the name of progress and advancement of his goals. However, the constant bickering coming from his left was a little harder to ignore, especially since it was getting louder. Finally, enough was enough.
Spinning around so that his heavy black trench coat flared behind him (despite his sitting position), Kaiba rounded on the source of his annoyance with an irritated scowl. "Is it too much to expect from you to be able to cease your yapping or should I simply invest in a muzzle to give to Shizuka for you?"
"Whaaat!! Why you!" Jounouchi snarled at Kaiba and spun away from his argument with Honda and Otogi and lunged at the rich teenager who was perched imperiously on the boulder across from the campfire.
"Jounouchi stop!" Otogi cried as he latched onto Jou's left arm and Honda grabbed his other one to stop him from attacking Kaiba. "He's just trying to bait you. Kaiba, just because we're all stuck out here in this miserable forest doesn't give you the right to try to amuse yourself by picking fights!"
"Jou, cut it out! If we keep this up we won't have to worry about getting attacked by those masked freaks, we'll have torn each other apart before they even find us! Now calm down!" Honda struggled to hold the blond teen back.
"Keep it down! Some people are trying to sleep here!" Anzu scowled at the lot of them from where she was curled up in a sleeping bag between Shizuka and Mai, her hair mussed up from the pillow.
"We might as well give up Anzu-chan. Not like we'll be getting back to sleep after that." Mai sighed as she pushed herself up to a sitting position in her own bag lying alongside Anzu's. She stretched her arms out above her head and yawned tilting her head back. "Quit picking on Jounouchi, Kaiba. Just because you don't like the accommodations doesn't mean you get to take it out on everyone around you." Mai frowned at the CEO as she turned back to the tableau across the burnt down campfire from the girls. "It's not like we have much choice anyhow. Think I would be out here roughing it when there are perfectly good hotels, probably not more than an hour's drive away, if we had a choice in the matter?"
"Choice or not, this is still the height of stupidity. Though I shouldn't expect too much from this group considering your track record. Camping out in the middle of nowhere, with minimal supplies, for who knows how long until that fool thief gets back is not going to win you any awards in intelligence or planning from me. At the very least we should have bought more supplies. If we had, I wouldn't have to listen to those three bottom-less pits fighting over the last bag of chips." Kaiba scowled and turned his glare on the three teenage boys in question. Honda and Otogi had the decency to look abashed at their behavior. Jounouchi just glared right back.
"Well, maybe hanging around to have Mokuba snatched by those freaks so you could buy a couple more bags of snacks is more your idea of a good plan, Kaiba." Jounouchi growled at him. "But for me, I'd rather have my sister safely away from there, even if it means we're low on food for a bit. Some of us don't mind not having three squares a day if it means we'll all be safe and together. But apparently, you're more concerned with a good meal than your family's safety." He sneered up at the blue-eyed teen whose gaze turned frosty as Seto met Jounouchi's brown-eyed glare.
"Mokuba's well-being is always my first concern." Kaiba replied in a cold monotone. "I will not stand by and watch my brother go hungry while waiting for that menace-to-logical-directions to get back. As soon as Yugi gets back with Mokuba I'm taking him down to that town to buy supplies."
"Now who's talking poor planning, Kaiba?" Honda frowned. "You'll stick out in that town like an NBA player in a pygmy village. No way you won't be noticed. At the very least, wait for Bakura and Ryou to get back. Bakura may be a menace to our sanity at times, but he's the best at sneaking around unnoticed and you know it. When he gets back he can help us get some supplies without being noticed. If he wants Ryou to stay healthy and eat, then he's got to help the rest of us get more food. Besides, maybe he's found it by now and we can finally get the hell out of this stupid creepy forest."
"Honda-san has a point Kaiba-san." Shizuka yawned as she sat up, pushing her red hair out of her eyes. "We do need more food; but we shouldn't be careless. We shouldn't split up too much, and Bakura-san will be able to protect you and Mokuba-kun if those men find you in the town. It would be terrible if we should finally find the last piece only to have those men kidnap you or Mokuba-kun. I would be terribly sad if you or Mokuba-kun were hurt, Kaiba-san." Shizuka lifted her sincere green gaze up to meet Seto's.
Seto shifted slightly on the boulder and then dropped his gaze, turning to the tree line. "Aa. We will wait until Bakura returns. But I will not let Mokuba go hungry because of fear of those masked fools." He added turning to glare pointedly at Jounouchi, Honda and Otogi.
"Ohayou gozaimasu minna-san." Yugi smiled brightly at the group as he walked into the small clearing alongside Mokuba, their arms weighed down with canteens and firewood.
"Sorry we took so long ni-sama, we decided to get some more firewood to get the campfire going again." Mokuba grinned brightly at his older brother. He glanced around the campsite for a moment as the two dropped their loads beside the burnt down campfire. "Isn't Bakura back yet?"
"No, he hasn't been back all night." Honda frowned. "You don't suppose something happened to him do you?" He asked; turning a worried gaze toward the southeast where he knew the thief king's intended destination lay beyond the trees.
"Iie. If something had happened, I think I would have felt it." Yugi replied as he wrapped his hands around the incomplete puzzle that hung around his neck. "Even without... Even as it is, the puzzle still amplifies my own abilities enough to sense the other item holders. Especially at such close range."
"Hehe, well nice to know I'll be missed. Though you'd probably miss my powers more than myself, ne?" Silent as the tombs he used to frequent, the white haired thief king appeared out of the brush between Honda, Otogi and Jounouchi and grinned as the startled teens jumped in surprise.
"Bakura! Don't do that!" Jounouchi cried as he spun around to glare at the ring spirit. Then he blinked. "Bakura, I had no idea you were trying out for the role of Old Saint Nick, though you'll have to grow a beard as long as your hair to complete the picture." Jounouchi grinned wickedly as Yami Bakura scowled at him, his amber red eyes flashing in warning.
"Hold your tongue, mutt. Or not even Ryou will convince me to share breakfast with you." Bakura growled out as he swung the large sack around and off his shoulder and set it on the ground in front of him.
"Huh, breakfast?" Jounouchi blinked in surprise.
"Bakura, what happened? Are you both all right?" Yugi asked in concern as he took in the state of the thief's appearance.
"Of course I'm all right. Just had a few encounters with filthy corridors and hidden passages in that Ra-forsaken castle." Bakura scowled at the diminutive teen as he brushed dust and cobwebs off his clothes.
"But, your clothes..." Yugi persisted, indicating the unfamiliar outfit.
"Borrowed as a disguise." Bakura stated flatly, unwilling to go into details on the why and how of his vivid, if dusty, red sweater and the dirty and torn black cloak fastened at his throat.
"Borrowed huh, does Ryou know you stole someone's clothes?" Kaiba asked with a smirk.
"He's asleep in his soul room right now, and yes he does know, he managed to stay awake until after we left the castle grounds. Don't even ask." Bakura added as he glared at Yugi's opening mouth. "I'm not his wake-up service. You can wake him up and bug him for details yourself after I've eaten something."
"Food? You brought food for everyone?" Jounouchi asked incredulously.
"Baka, it was Ryou's idea, seeing as how helpless you lot are without refrigerators or Burger Worlds I'm inclined to agree. Where would be the fun in watching you starve to death before I've defeated pharaoh-yo." Bakura sneered at the blond as he dropped to a crouch beside the sack and opened it up to reveal breads, cheeses, various breakfast pastries, fruit, and several sealed jugs of milk. Snatching up a jug of milk, some bread and cheese, and an orange he retreated to an overturned log beside the campfire and leaned back against the boulder Kaiba was perched on top of. Even before he had started in on the food, Jounouchi, Honda, Otogi and Mokuba had descended on the sack and were rifling through it picking out certain tasty looking pastries and fruit. Yugi sighed and walked over to sit next to Anzu on the end of her sleeping bag.
After a few hectic moments Mokuba squirmed his way out of the feeding frenzy and ran up to Seto who had sprang down to the ground to lean against the boulder and scowl disdainfully at the behavior of the other teenage boys. "Here ni-sama, I managed to grab you some of these pastries before Jounouchi and Honda grabbed em all." He held out a double handful of danishes, apples, a few wedges of cheese, and three small twinkie-sized pastries, each a pale yellow color but more rounded than twinkies.
"Aa." Seto took two of the danishes, an apple and one of the odd yellow pastries. "You eat the rest Mokuba."
"Hai ni-sama!" Mokuba grinned and stuffed half a cheese wedge into his mouth as he trotted over to an empty area of grass a few feet away and plopped down with his haul. Seto followed after and settled on the grass beside him.
"Cut that out you guys!" Mai reprimanded as she swatted Jounouchi over the back of the head. "We need to divide it up so everyone gets some and so that we still have some for later." She pushed Honda and Otogi away from the sack and commandeered it, tugging it over closer to the campfire and the girls' sleeping bags before opening it again to start doling out the food.
"Oww, c'mon Mai, I'm starving!" Jounouchi moaned as he rubbed the back of his head and followed after her, clutching one of the yellow pastries in his hand and trying to talk around the raspberry danish in his mouth.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Jounouchi." Mai frowned at him. "Finish those before grabbing more." She nodded at the food already in his hands and mouth. Jounouchi pouted but started in on the danish with vigor. No one noticed Bakura eyeing the division of the breakfast foods with a glint of repressed laughter in his eyes.
Kaiba had just started in on a lemon danish when Mokuba turned to him with a grin. "Ni-sama, you should try the raspberry ones. They're really good." Kaiba nodded absently as Mokuba picked up one of the small yellow pastries and took a bite out of it. "Hey, these are really good too ni-sa-" The sentence was abruptly cut off by a loud popping sound and abruptly Mokuba vanished from where he had been sitting.
"Mokuba!" Seto shouted in alarm as he leaped to his feet. Everyone in the clearing abruptly froze in shock and stared at the empty place where Mokuba used to be. Mai held a bottle of milk in one hand, Honda was reaching for a cinnamon roll, Yugi sat bolt upright, staring with impossibly wide eyes as Anzu clutched at his shoulder and Shizuka ducked behind her, peeking out cautiously. Bakura turned his piercing gaze on the empty seat and Jounouchi, a yellow pastry half stuffed into his mouth, had turned around from his argument with Otogi over another of the yellow pastries to stare in shock at the space where Mokuba had been sitting.
Before Seto's mind could comprehend his brother's disappearance and shift into panic or action, a flutter of movement on the ground caught his attention with a decidedly confused sounding "chirp." Standing on the ground was a rather large yellow canary, maybe twice the size of an ordinary canary.
"Mokuba...?" Breathed Yugi in shock. The canary chirped in response and cocked its head toward Yugi before blinking and chirping again, sounding very confused this time as it turned to look back at its wings and tail. Spreading its wings slightly it chirped again, this time sounding surprised.
"Masaka. Mokuba...how...but... Kami-sama." Seto gasped in shocked horror as he dropped to his knees beside the Mokuba-canary. "Iie, Mokuba...no..." Mokuba-canary turned to Seto and chirped happily before hopping toward him. Seto hesitantly reached out to touch the Mokuba-bird and whispered brokenly. "Mokuba...no..."
Just at that moment, Yami Bakura exploded into uncontrollable laughter. He doubled over on his log seat, clutching his stomach as he howled with laughter. The sudden explosion of noise frightened the Mokuba-bird so badly that its avian instincts to escape took over. With a frightened squawk, the Mokuba-bird's wings burst open and it leaped into the air in a frantic flutter of wings and feathers.
"Mokuba! No!" Seto cried and sprang to his feet, leaping after the panicked bird. Terrified that his brother would fly away and be lost in the forest, he ignored everything in his way that wasn't a tree or a large boulder. The results had Bakura laughing even harder as he pounded his fist on the ground. Kaiba leaped the campfire in a panic, trying to catch the Mokuba-bird, and though Jounouchi and Otogi scrambled to get out of his way, he tripped over Otogi's leg and fell forward, slamming into Jounouchi who hit Honda on the way down and resulted in a tangle of limbs and curses.
As Kaiba struggled off the ground, he shoved Honda off of his shoulder and pushed Otogi away from his right side with a snarl that died in his throat as he saw a battered looking, yellow feathered form collapsed on the ground about a few feet in front of him.
"Mokuba... No, no, Kami-sama no!" Seto choked in horror as he scrambled forward on his knees to the canary. 'Had he lost control and landed badly? Had he been caught in the pile up? Had someone fallen on him?' Panic and fear gripped his soul and crushed his heart into a million broken shards as he reached the canary. Gently he picked its limp form up and cradled it in his hands, unsure how to check for a bird's pulse. "Are you all right? Answer me please." Hope soared within him to repair his shattered heart as the canary stirred and chirped weakly, turning its head dazedly. "Oh kami-sama..." Seto choked out as he cradled the dazed canary to his chest, ignoring everything around him except the semi-conscious bird cradled gently in his hands. Ignoring the still maniacally laughing Bakura, the moans of Honda from where he'd bruised his shin in the fall, and a strange, loud popping noise from somewhere off to his left.
"Ni-sama?"
"Mokuba!" Seto gasped as he pulled his hands slightly away from his chest to look down at the canary. 'He could talk?' "Mokuba, are you all right?"
"Hai, ni-sama. Demo, could someone help me down from here?" It was only then that Seto realized that Mokuba's voice was coming from off to his left. Turning his head to focus on his brother's voice he looked up and to his left and easily spotted Mokuba sitting about fifteen feet off the ground on a sturdy tree branch in an old oak tree.
"Mokuba? Demo..." Seto glanced back down at the oversized canary cradled in his hands and blinked in confusion. Before he could do or say anything else there was an explosion of bright yellow smoke and feathers accompanied by a loud popping sound right before the negligible weight of the canary abruptly multiplied by an exponential scale and Kaiba found his arms full of a form nearly as tall as he was. The smoke dispersed almost as rapidly as it had appeared, revealing a very dazed, semi-conscious Jounouchi slumped across his lap and cradled in his arms. Kaiba was so shocked he could just sit there and stare for a moment.
Jounouchi moaned and blinked his eyes open. The first thing he saw was Kaiba staring down at him with the most impossibly shocked expression he had ever seen on the teenaged CEO. Then it registered that Kaiba was holding him in his lap. That brought on the horrified shout from Jounouchi, followed almost immediately by a very uncharacteristic yelp from Kaiba who dropped Jounouchi like he'd been scalded and scrambled backward. Jounouchi yelped in pain as he smacked his head against the ground and saw stars for an instant before his vision cleared.
"You!" Roared Kaiba as he wheeled around and leveled an accusing finger at the still hysterical Bakura. "This is your fault! Those damn pastries you brought caused this! You probably planned it!" He snarled as he lunged to his feet and in a few strides, towered over the thief king who had dissolved into snickers by then.
"Hehehehe. Worked better than I'd hoped, Kaiba. Didn't know you cared so much for the pup." Bakura grinned wickedly up at Seto, laughing in the face of the CEO's towering rage.
"You!" Growled Kaiba as he reached for the snickering thief king's collar to haul him to his feet. Abruptly the insane light died out of Bakura's eyes as the amber red faded into warm chocolate brown. His wildly spiked hair settled down against his scalp as though finally acknowledging gravity existed.
"A-anou...did I miss something?" Ryou Bakura yawned sleepily and blinked as he looked around him and then focused on the enraged teen looming over him. He cringed back away from Kaiba at the glare the furious teen was focusing on him.
Kaiba's rage deflated for the moment, his target safely incorporeal and unreachable, for now. "No. Nothing important." He bit out in a cold, sharp tone, daring anyone to contradict his statement with his cold gaze as he turned away from the white haired teen to stalk across the campsite to the tree Mokuba was currently perched in.
"A-anou, why is Mokuba-kun in a tree?"
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The End -- [for now]
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After Notes:
If you're wondering why Jounouchi's Canary Cream lasted less time than Mokuba's its because Mokuba is a lot smaller than Jou, so his dose of the potion lasted longer.
Who can guess where they are? Or what Yami Bakura's been up to?
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If you liked this, take a look at the rest of Advent of Darkness and let me know what you think.
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