I have a livejournal, order of chaos, the link to which is now in my profile. It doesn't do weird things to the formatting when I update it either.
Just for the record, I don't own Yugioh. You do know that, don't you?
xxx
xxx
xxx
Of Trains and Tactics, Part Two
It wasn't a long trip as such, but they were all quite thoroughly bored by the time it was half over and the tea lady wandered through offering refreshments. None of them planned beyond thinking of what they could eat or wondering if the tea lady was breakable, and how the train would react if she were, but somehow all six of them ended up in the corridor at the same time.
Crimson red eyes met his, and Marik braced himself for Yami's impending attack almost without thinking. He was seriously disconcerted when the ancient Pharaoh flinched slightly instead of striking and murmured a quiet apology to his aibou. An aibou who had grown dramatically since last they met.
The dark yami scowled lightly, instinctively, his attention switching from the Pharaoh's hikari to his own and back again. He knew the warning signs.
Malik's face had taken on a look on rapt fascination. "Yugi. Your hair." The cascade of red and gold and ink-black curls was... "Shiny!" He reached out, and Yami snarled, undecided as to which hikari was the greater threat. "May I touch it? Please?" The plea appeared to be addressed to either of the two tricolours. Flicking another wary glance at his aibou, Yami backed away cautiously.
"It would appear," a silvery voice stated from just behind him, "that we do not have a battle on our hands after all."
Yami spun quickly, meeting amused chocolate eyes. He spent a few seconds trying to work out whether he faced Ryou or Bakura, before realising it was both. And came to the disconcerting realisation that they were, at present, allies, and not enemies after all. "Just as well," he answered, deep voice cautiously friendly. "Yugi would kill me, otherwise."
Rakura looked skeptical.
The Pharaoh reached one hand up to touch the blossoming bruise on his left cheekbone. "It feels worse than it looks then?"
"Hardly." Rakura snorted. Then, "Yugi did that?"
"Hai."
"As in fluffy-kitten hikari over there? That Yugi?"
xxx
xxx
xxx
Marik leaned back casually into one of the long seats, Yugi pulled snugly against him as the Dark Yami rested his dagger at the base of the hikari's throat. Yugi relaxed, resting easily in the grip of his one-time enemy, and concentrated on tranquillising his own yami. The dagger didn't bother him, and besides, he was comfortable. Malik had finally been detached from his hair, and was curled up asleep on Marik's other side.
Rakura murmured sweet nothings in Yami's ear, half soothing, half warning, until the Pharaoh reluctantly relaxed, sniggered, and sat down with him on the seat opposite the others.
xxx
xxx
xxx
"So what are you guys teaching?" Yugi asked sleepily, ending the strangely easy silence.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts, fluff-ball, what did you think?" Despite the scorn, the dark hikari sounded even less awake than the light.
"Well, Yami and I are teaching potions."
"I believe what Malik is trying to convey," Rakura drawled, "is that my letter - and, apparently his also - was an invitation to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts... along with two others."
"It would make sense for it to mean the three of us," Yami commented. "I wonder why it didn't. Why were we chosen at all, for that matter? Not for our ability to teach, certainly - I know nothing about potions."
"We came because we thought that the minions..."
"Students." Malik corrected.
"Yes dear." Marik neglected to correct himself. "They will be most entertaining."
Rakura looked suddenly interested. "I thought," he murmured, "that the Dark Arts sounded worth looking into." He smiled innocently.
The Pharaoh concentrated his not inconsiderable intelligence and willpower on Not Commenting. Rakura raised an eyebrow at Yugi questioningly, who sighed.
"Yami wanted a challenge - the lack of evil guys taking over the world was starting to get to him, I think. Plus," the hikari tugged at a curl and grimaced as it sprang stubbornly back into place, "they might be able to do something about my hair."
"Their motives are suspect then," Yami stated the obvious. "I believe it would be safest if we conceal the existence of the millennium items, at least for now."
"I agree," Rakura said swiftly.
"So you will do it?" A note of surprise entered Yami's voice.
"Since when have I cared about safety, Pharaoh?" he followed scathingly. "Of course not."
Yugi pulled a rubric's cube from their bag and began a subtly threatening blur of scrambling and unscrambling patterns. Yami subsided.
"I see no reason to explain anything, however," Rakura added. "Why make it easy for them?"
What with homicidal hikaris, uneasy hunches, and immortal mortal enemies that turned out to be not so mortal after all, the Pharaoh felt he deserved a break. And no-one was gong to to give him one. He smirked deliberately. Confidence or arrogance, it was back in place.
"Why indeed?" he answered.
xxx
xxx
xxx
The train slowed.
Red eyes glinted.
Mahogany-chocolate glinted back with deadly amusement.
Two sets, lavender and amethyst, shone with excitement.
Violet venom was clouded by abstraction, a hissed whisper of "shut up, train, or I'll have you taken apart and recycled as sardine tins. Lots and lots of sardine tins."
The doors slid open.
"Everybody's thinking it, I'm just saying it - It's showtime."
xxx
xxx
xxx
Deleted Scene (This officially does not exist)
Sometime during the train ride:
"Can't you understand plain English?" Bakura snorted.
"Well duh. We happen to be Egyptian. Or Japanese. Whatever."
Yugi looked suddenly worried. "This school we're going to...?"
"Speaks English, and not Japanese, yes."
"It appears we have a problem, then," Yami concluded. "We won't be able to communicate with our students, let alone torture - I mean teach - them."
"That can be remedied." The tomb raider looked smug. He pulled out a jar, in which a couple of three eyed fish were swimming contentedly in circles, and passed it to Malik. "Put one of these in your ear, then Yugi can do the same."
The dark hikari opened his mouth.
"Shut up," Bakura snarled, preemptively. "These weren't easy to acquire you know."
The ensuing debate decided that if they desired to continue their existence, they would do exactly as the tomb-raider instructed. Yami had been no help at all, muttering something about rubric's cubes and bruises, and smugly ignoring the threat to his light.
"Why us?" Malik whined.
"You're the ones who have bodies, ours are just figments of our imaginations."
"Pretty realistic for make believe," Malik commented, prodding Bakura teasingly with one finger. The spirit caught his arm in a lightning movement and gouged something into the palm of his hand with the tip of his dagger. The wound healed unnaturally quickly, leaving fast fading red lines carved in a symbol that in Ancient Egypt had once meant 'first warning.'
xxx
xxx
xxx
And sorry for the wait. Have fallen in love with Livejournal, and Sparrington. Captain Jack Sparrow, and Commodore James L Norrington locked all my other muses in a box somewhere and hid it. My thanks to the last few reviewers, who helped them break out again.