Jungle Fever – By ashford2ashford AKA: The Mini Arkana

Disclaimer: I'm sure you're all fully aware that I don't own any of these characters, so I can just skip this part!

Pairing(s): This even I don't know! I think it's got a slight hint of Strings/Arkana but also a touch of Arkana/Seeker. . .shrugs try to enjoy!

Dedications: This is dedicated to Knupfel, and also my little Pookie Drew! Without them, this idea would have never formed in my head!

Other Notes: This is a Rare Hunters fiction. This is the first of hopefully many chapters! I'd say there was hardly any yaoi in it, but I can't make that kind of promise for later chapters. This is my first YuGiOh Fic for fanfiction.net, and I only want to make Rare Hunter fans happy! Well. . .even if you're not a Rare Hunter fan, you'd be glad to know that Mariku, Malik, Rishido, and Ishizu make it into later chapters (Probably chapter four if I get good press for this ) so there you go! I seek to please everyone!

Without Further Ado, Please Enjoy!

DAY FIVE – Unlikely Teams

(Arkana)

Upon awakening the next morning, I was surprised to find my fever was subsiding somewhat, the burning temperature I had recently had fading slowly but surely. I don't think I really did care about what had happened to me when I was bitten as soon as I had stepped into the jungle any more, but one thing was for sure, my strength may have been renewed from fever, but I still needed food.

Even some plants were beginning to look appetising as I stalked through the jungle, my senses now more aware and keen than they had been previously. Now that my senses were online again, however, I did find that I was now more paranoid and jumpy; every rustle in a bush or noises in a tree seeming like a threat.

It wasn't very long actually, after I had begun this tedious walking ritual, until I heard the most sweet blessed sound I could ever hear – the rushing of water, the gushing of a small waterfall, and the 'drip drop' of soft thirst-quenching raindrops.

Before now, all I had ever had for moisture was the dewdrops from leaves, and so this sudden discovery deep in the heart of the jungle seemed like a blessing, a change of luck.

A few more minutes and I were knelt at the poolside, lapping up water like some thirst-crazed animal.

The 'pool', as such, was a small lake of some sort in the middle of the jungle, probably filled from the waterfall that ran into and out of it. There were rocks all around it, and the cliff side that held the waterfall made every sound echo around me. A small cave lay embedded into the rocky cliffs, but I paid it no mind (even if I did, it was only to acknowledge it as being there in case I needed to run anywhere).

I lay by the side of the lake for what seemed like ages, letting my hand trail into the water, my thoughts suddenly clear. In the distance I heard gunfire, and then the cry of a wounded creature, which made me sit up slowly and look around for a few seconds, confused, before I realised it posed no threat.

I sighed gently and then lay back down, before noticing something falling from the waterfall and into the lake.

Curiosity over came me and I watched as a bloodied corpse of some form of animal drifted to the shoreline. Sneaking a closer look, and smelling the fresh kill, I felt my mouth begin to water and my stomach churn.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?My mind screamed at me, It's a raw kill corpse! Eating that would make you no different from any other animal in this jungle! I might as well die like an animal. I'm hungry...

I crept forwards on all fours like an animal, kneeling down in the dirt next to the bloodied corpse. Putting all fears aside and listening to my ravenous cravings, I began to tears and chew at the tangle of flesh, fur, and bone.

The metallic taste made my tongue feel like it wanted to tear itself out of my mouth, and I felt the urge to retch happen many times, but my hunger over came all sense I ever had and I began to gnaw and chew faster, making sick snarling sounds in the back of my throat.

Stop...please, stop doing this to yourself...

I could feel tears pouring down my face in horror of what I was doing, but now I knew the truth that Seeker had always known...humans and animals were no different. Both so savage and yet humane at the same time, both with their own code of living, their own way of surviving, and Seeker had known that for years...had probably hunted men and women alike to show that even mankind could too become prey to their own natural desires...

I looked up at the waterfall from where the corpse had drifted.

Could Seeker see me in this act of inhuman nature? Was he watching and smiling, knowing I understood? Knowing full well that I know what the same knowledge has he? Had he done this before?

As I was pondering this, I suddenly felt something or someone hit me with such force that I lost all of my senses in a blur of movement of brief pain and then...

"STRINGS!" My eyes were filling with tears of relief, and said mime was smiling too, clutching onto my shoulders and trembling. I hugged him tightly and then let my tears free, crying onto his shoulder.

"Oh Strings...where did you come from?" I looked at him with joy, even though my hands and face and chest were covered in blood. Strings turned and pointed towards the cave that I had seen before.

I froze.

"You...you saw me eating?" I asked, hesitant and filled with fear. What if Strings assumed I was some sick freak from this? I watched him nod slowly and then he smiled, lunging past me with a soft burst of speed and beginning to chew and bite at the carcass as I had done.

I watched in some amused bewildered shock and then smiled. He understood. Strings always understood.

As he ate greedily, I took a glance at his body. He wore a pair of shorts, as did I, and I could see now what I had never seen before. He was skeletal thin, anorexic thin; his bones jutting out from every bit of skin. His spine jutted out like the scales on a dragon's back, and his thin little fingers tore at the meat with very little strength.

"Oh Strings..." I placed a hand on his back of bones and then felt him stop moving beneath my touch. He turned and looked at me with wide eyes, beautiful watery eyes, and then I noticed that all of the rings and studs were gone from his face. Seeker must have removed them.

A soft whimper escaped his lips and then we gazed at each other for what seemed like forever. Slowly, our fingers entwined, our gazes locked to each other, and then our lips met...

I made a soft rumble in my throat as we both relaxed into the kiss, our tongues finding each other at last. I could taste the same taste in both our mouths, the taste of the flesh, but that only made me deepen the kiss ever so slightly, my sexual hunger showing amongst my hunger for food.

If I could have read Strings' mind...I would have known how he felt too...

(Strings)

It surprised me how Arkana reacted to the kiss, forcing himself onto me like some animal starved of mating instincts. The feelings I felt, the hunger in his kiss, the pressing of our bodies together, they all came together inside me, and I can say that the experience, although rough, was not at all unpleasant.

I closed my eyes, happy to be at least feeling something other than my life without words, without emotion. Ever since I had first begun to listen to Arkana's words, I had known that I liked him.

But Arkana was a man who very rarely forgot things, and his past had haunted him then, and so my lust for his beautiful flesh had been dismissed as a mere dream. After all, if he were straight and still mourning his lust for a woman, what hopes did I keep of ever making him my own?

The first time he had shown interest in me at least, was at the café meeting, which seemed like so long ago. So long in fact, that I was beginning to believe this was where I belonged. In this jungle with the animals, the hunter's gun, and the hopes of finding my friends again.

Arkana had been eating his soup, and the only reason he had eaten it was for the simple fact that he wished for me to eat also. He had known that I was refusing to eat unless he did and so he had forced what was his last cooked meal down his throat in the hopes that I would eat also.

And now this...

I heard him utter a soft moan against my lips, tears flowing down his eyes, his grip tightening, his nails digging into my skin, his kiss becoming harsh and unforgiving.

But this was what I wanted...I wanted him to take out his years of lost sexual desires on me, to make me feel his pain, make me cry as he had.

The kiss ended suddenly and we both stared at each other in the darkening light of the sunset, both breathing very hard and never allowing our grip to soften.

Arkana looked up and sighed.

"We'd better get some sleep, ne?" He curled up at the side of the lake and then held me in his arms.

And for the first time in my life...I was happy to obey...