Small Troubles
by HCG and WSJ
HCG: ^^ Bwahahaha, and now the fourth chapter begins! And what fun it shall be!
Kaze: *whine* Can't you two just be nice to me in one chapter, at least?!
Disclaimer: We don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, unfortunately for the both of us (what we wouldn't give to have it!) But the Negative Realm and all related characters and ideas belong to HCG, while Damon and Horus belong to WSJ. ^~
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Kaze pulled himself to his feet from his face-fault and sighed in exasperation, dusting off his long, flame-adorned trench coat and staring down at Kaeru. Things just could not get worse...well, okay, maybe they could, but he hoped to God they wouldn't. He was at the end of his rope even now.
"Well?" the little spirit asked again, staring up at the two now-much-taller agents in a mix of confusion and impatience. "How do I do it again?"
"Aaah....well..." Kaze sweatdropped slightly. Truth be told, he hadn't the faintest idea how one would go about returning to a Millennium Item--he had never been the spirit of an item before. He glanced over at Pegasus, hoping that maybe the other Millennium Item owner could shed some light on the subject.
Unfortunately, if he had had any hopes, they were shattered almost instantly. Pegasus shrugged, saying almost conversationally, "I have no idea how to do it either. The only person who would know is a spirit."
"Wonderful," Kaze muttered sarcastically. "Just wonderful. This day could not get better." He sat down at the table where Kawari had since returned to (though maneuvering was a bit difficult due to the fact that Damon was still clinging to his leg). The little falconer scrambled up onto his lap almost instantly and sat there cheerfully, his worries over the angry Kaze long having disappeared.
His option of banging his head against the table now taken away due to the chibi in his lap, Kaze instead placed his forehead in one of his hands and sighed. "Okay," he muttered, assessing the situation, "so we have no idea if the Ring's powers are cut off, Kaeru can't even get back to his soul room--which could have helped our situation--and we have no way for him to learn how." He fought the urge to swear loudly in front of the chibis and sighed again in exasperation.
"If I may make a suggestion?" Pegasus asked, raising is remaining eye's brow slightly.
"Shoot," Kaze muttered.
"First," the white haired man began, looking over Kaze's shoulder with slight amusement, "I would suggest getting Saguru off of those robots before he short-circuits any more."
"What?!" Kaze yelped, whirling in his seat so quick he nearly sent Damon flying--the boy cried out in surprise and clung to Kaze for all he was worth. Kaze didn't much care at the moment, however, because he was staring over at Saguru, who was in turn staring in interest at one of the twitching, malfunctioning robots. "Saguru!"
The little second-in-command of the Opposition gave a yelp of surprise and turned to face Kaze, chibi brown eyes wide in a 'caught in the act' look. "I didn't mean to!"
"I'm sure," Kaze muttered, exasperated, as he rubbed his temples in irritation.
"I didn't!" Saguru shot back, now pouting in that 'you'd better believe me' look. "It just started doin' dat after I askeded it for a whole bunch of stuffs!"
The Blue Eyes sighed. "All right, fine. Just come over here and sit next to Kawari, okay?" Saguru did as he was told, though he looked rather put out about it. Kaeru sat down on the other side of Kawari, while Damon scooted over from Kaze's lap to sit down next to Saguru.
Once all the chibis were at the table, Kaze sighed, shook his head, and proceeded to get some more breakfast for the two that hadn't eaten yet, as Kaeru and Saguru appeared to be quite full ("They always were resourceful agents," Pegasus had pointed out in an attempt to be optimistic about the situation).
As soon as the four once-agents were settled and Damon and Kawari had begun to dig into their own batch of pancakes, Kaze sighed and turned to Pegasus. "Now what? I'm assuming you had a plan in mind from the way you were talking earlier."
"Well, yes," the Duel Monsters creator said calmly, nodding. "Remember how I said that a spirit would know how to return to the Ring?"
"Yeees," Kaze muttered, eyeing Pegasus with a raised eyebrow--he was wondering where this was going.
"Well," Pegasus continued, "all we need to do is get a spirit to remind Kaeru how to go back to his Item!"
"Right," Kaze said, rather sarcastically, "And where are we going to get one of those? We don't have any other spirit members of the Opposition!"
"That's only partially correct, Kaze-boy," Pegasus said, sounding almost cheerful. "We have an ex-spirit in the base, don't we?" He grinned.
Smiling should be made illegal in the Opposition, Kaze thought dryly, as he watched the optimistic white-haired man awaiting his answer. "Do you mean Yami? No way! I'm not putting any of these four near him--hell, we don't even know if he did this to them or not!"
"So it would be the perfect opportunity to go and see what he's up to," Pegasus said calmly, sipping on a second coffee he'd gotten from one of the working robots. "We can go after these little ones finish up their breakfasts and get cleaned up."
"And aftew I feed Howus!" Damon added happily through a mouthful of pancake.
Kaze groaned. He had so hoped the black-haired boy had forgotten that...oh well. It couldn't be helped.
"Okay, fine," the Blue Eyes agreed, sighing. "After we get these guys cleaned up, we'll go check on Horus and then go see what Yami's up to." He grimaced. What a wonderful morning schedule. And he had the feeling something big was supposed to happen today too, but he couldn't remember...
A half hour later, Damon and Kawari had finished eating and all four chibis had been cleaned up, and Kaze found himself walking down one of the back hallways that lead to the small aviary that had been provided for Horus. Grimacing, he wondered yet again how the hell he'd gotten himself into this mess. The fact that Pegasus was still being annoyingly cheerful wasn't helping him either, and he felt like glaring moodily at the other Millennium Item holder behind him (but that would mean turning around, and he really didn't have any energy for it after chasing the four former agents-turned-kids down the halls).
"Well, here we are!" Pegasus announced cheerily as they entered the aviary a few minutes later. Damon bounced up and down in delight as he gazed around the room he was very familiar with, while the other three chibis just stood to the side, already growing bored. Kaze stepped into the aviary last, made a quick head count to make sure all four were there, and then closed the screened in door behind him.
A sudden screech came from one of the taller perches, causing most heads to snap in that particular direction and Kawari to dive behind his chibi yami, startled. There sat a very impatient Horus, currently hooded and dancing back and forth from talon to talon.
"Howus!" Damon yelped excitedly, skipping forward. He attempted to reach his falcon, but unfortunately the poor chibi was several heads short of the perch, and could not reach even on tiptoe. He tried to jump, missed by a long shot, and tumbled backwards, falling onto his butt and staring up at the perch in part confusion, part disappointment.
"Howus got tawwer," the little black-haired boy commented, staring up at his bird.
"Weawly tall!" Saguru agreed, giggling slightly.
" 'n big, too," Kawari whined, peeking out from behind Kaeru.
Kaze had noticed this problem too, and grimaced slightly. While Horus was a suitable size for a full grown Damon, in his present state the bird was a lot larger in comparison and would probably topple the boy over if she tried to perch on his arm or shoulder. Not to mention the fact that it was a falcon, talons, beak and all, and could be rather dangerous for a chibi.
"Er...Damon," Kaze said quickly, watching as the one eyed former falconer pulled himself to his feet, "maybe today wouldn't be a good day for you to feed Horus."
"But she's hungwey!" The boy protested, hands on hips, looking adorable in his defiant pose (though at the moment it was only annoying Kaze).
"I didn't say we weren't going to feed her," Kaze countered, exasperated. "I just said you shouldn't do it."
Damon cocked his head, pondered this for a minute, and then asked, "Why?" The other chibis giggled.
"We're not starting that again," Kaze said forcefully, crossing his arms over his chest and attempting an athorative glare in the black haired boy's direction. However, while this effect worked quite well intimidating adults, it had absolutely no effect on the chibis, who only burst into more giggles.
He sighed and tried speaking again. "Here, let me do it for you," he offered, taking a step forward towards the bird. Okay, he wasn't looking forward to this, but at least the chibi wouldn't be doing it, which was a small comfort. Very small.
But Damon protested again. "No! I want Pegsy to do it!"
Kaze blinked. "Okay...why?"
The former agent giggled. "'Cause he makes funny faces!"
The Blue Eyes raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing. Actually, come to think of it, he hadn't heard from Pegasus since the man had unnecessarily announced their arrival to the aviary. Turning around, he scanned the room for the Millennium Item owner. Ah, there he was.
Pegasus was in the corner the farthest from Horus, staring at the bird nervously and watching it as though it was going to try and assassinate him. Upon Damon's request, he said hastily, "Oh, no no, you want Kaze-boy to do it, don't you Damon?"
Damon shook his head. "NO! You!"
Pegasus frowned and said in an almost whining voice, "You sure?"
"Yes!" Damon was giggling loudly now.
"Fiiine..." the Eye owner said in a long drawn out sigh. Moving forward (veeeeery slowly, the writer wishes to add) he came up to the perch where the falcon was still dancing in impatient hunger. Reaching out, again very slowly, he unhooded the falcon, squeaking slightly when the bird shook its head once freed of the confining hood.
"Okay....what now?" the white haired man asked nervously, never taking his eye from Horus.
"Food, silly Pegsy! Howus is hungwey!" Damon answered this question as if anyone should know it.
"Of course, Pegsy," Kaze added dryly, emphasizing the chibi's name for the company owner, "how could you not have known that?"
Pegasus shot Kaze a look that plainly said "watch it our you'll be duel monsters food," but before he could come up with a witty comeback, Horus gave a small screech, stretching her wings out wide and flexing her talons impatiently.
The result was a high, almost girly scream from the millionaire, who scuttled backwards, tripped, fell to the ground, and crawled over to the wall, yelling frantically, "Stop her! She's attacking me!"
Damon fell over laughing loudly, the other chibis (even Kawari) fell about in giggling fits, and even Kaze had to fight a smile from tugging at the corner of his lips. "She's not attackin' you, she's stretchin'!" Damon supplied between his fit of laughter where he was rolling on the ground.
"I don't care if she's stretching or playing cards, I'm not going near her!" Pegasus snapped, heading at a remarkable pace for the door. "I'm waiting over here," he added, giving his leader a glaring look and standing by the door.
Kaze nodded slightly, still busy with his internal battle of keeping himself from bursting out laughing, and Pegasus (having read the Blue Eye's mind) stood sullenly next to the door, glaring a hole in the floor.
In the end, Kaze had to do the actual feeding. Although he wasn't fond of the bird, he wasn't scared stiff by her, and he'd seen Damon feed the falcon when in his full grown form enough times to know what to do. It was a rather clumsy feeding, he had to admit, and Horus did not appear at all pleased. Kaze thought it was well worth it, however, when Pegasus screamed like a girl again and bolted out through the door when Horus struck her rat breakfast in midair rather messily with a triumphant screech--at least something amusing had come out of all of this.
After Horus had devoured her rat, Kaze had allowed Damon to pet her for a few minutes before having her rehooded and set back on one of her perches. The black haired boy seemed satisfied for the moment that his bird had been sufficiently taken care of, although he made Kaze promise that he could come back to see her several other times that day, so the Opposition leader shooed the four chibis out of the aviary (where a disgruntled Pegasus was waiting) and closed the door behind him.
"Okay," he said, sighing wearily, "that's one thing off the agenda. What's next?"
"Visiting Yami," Pegasus snapped, a sharp tone in his voice--apparently he hadn't gotten over the whole Horus incident.
"'dun wanna visit 'ami," Kawari whined, hiding behind Kaeru again.
"We need to, Kawari," Kaze explained patiently. "You don't have to go in his room if you don't want to, though."
"'dun wanna," Kawari repeated dully, nodding in response to Kaze's question.
"Okay then," the Blue Eyes muttered, sighing. "Everybody ready? Let's go pay Yami Yugi a visit, then."
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HCG: And so another chapter ends! Bwahahaha!
Kaze: Ugh. Well, at least I got to see Pegasus make a fool out of himself...
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