Yugi awoke the next morning in a soft warm bed, he turned over expecting to see Yami and give him a kiss but he wasn't there.

Yugi sat up looking around, he was in Yami's room all right, but Yami was nowhere to be found. He hopped out of bed feeling a bit wobbly but otherwise stable he shuffled out into the hallway upon not hearing anything coming from the bathroom.

It was night time so he could see just fine as he wandered the corridors of the mansion he went downstairs towards the kitchen hoping Yami was there this mansion was slightly scary at night with no one with him.

Suddenly he heard voices coming from behind the door up ahead curious he crept towards the door there were two voices and something was shuffling around. Yugi pressed his ear to the door trying to hear what they were saying and whether one of the two was Yami or Seto or maybe even Jou.

But almost as soon as he pressed his ear there he regretted it; the door swung open like someone had just kicked it open smashing him into the wall behind it with a pitiful cry. Two figures shuffled through the door quickly,

"Oh dear, do you think we killed it," one of the two said having a younger sounding voice,

"No, I think the little dust ball got away again; I swear Yami needs to do something about those dust bunnies." The other deeper sounding voice replied closing the door with about the same force he had opened it with letting little Yugi slump forward against the wall with a cough from where the doorknob had nailed him right in the gut.

He almost felt the eyes of the two others land on him,

"Oh no we killed him!" cried the younger voice; Yugi heard the rapid stomping of two rather large feet from the sound of it.

"Shut up you idiot, you now good well that you can't kill Yami by just smashing him with a door," the deeper voice said marching slowly towards Yugi with equally sized feet as his partner.

Two more feet hit the floor on either side of Yugi's knees and something sniffed his face like a huge dog, ruffling his lightning bolt bangs slightly. He cracked open an eye only to be met with a beak-ish scaly nose; His eyes shot open when the thing attached to that nose turned its head looking very closely at his face and giving him a good view of the thing's heavily scaled cheek and eyebrow all of which were a very pale sandy tan. Yugi tried not to stare into the lavender eye that was contracting and dilating as it brought him into focus in the darkness.

"What's wrong Malik, is he dead?" whimpered the younger voice behind this lavender eyed creature,

"I told you to shut up moron, this isn't Yami!" roared the beast in front of Yugi, who flinched pressing himself back into the wall as the creature that was almost straddling him backed up allowing Yugi to get a good look at it.

It was an Ishtar; the creature had a slightly elongated neck and an almost human build to its upper body, and large clawed, muscular, triple jointed, hind legs that allowed it to stand upright it had a thick T-rex like tail that gave it balance. Yugi's gaze didn't linger on its body for long, he was more focused on its head those lavender eyes were focused on his violet ones freezing him, scared.

"Who are you!" the larger of the two almost identical lizards roared at him, dropping back onto its front feet as long spines rose off its back.

Yugi was stunned silent, he couldn't speak, he opened his mouth but nothing came out other that a strangled 'meep' the angered creature moved forward with serpentine grace and speed; making Yugi's eyes widen even more and his fear rise as the creature got way to close for bodily comfort, putting both of its clawed 'hands' on his thighs and pinning his legs to the floor, spreading them slightly.

"I asked you something dumb ass," it growled at him his wording none to edited; Yugi felt like his heart was about to stop right then, the large lizard in front of him squeezed slightly reminding him of the claws that were very dangerously close to a very sensitive area.

"Iie, Iie, Yugi!" Yugi screamed at the top of his lungs scared out of his wits now; his eyes felt like they were about to pop, his heart felt about ready to stop beating, and his fingers had gripped into the carpet.

The large creature in front of him reared back holding its head as its eyes contracted in pain the sharp pitch of Yugi's voice had hurt its ears it recoiled into a kneeling position its twin set down the things it was carrying to take care of the other.

Yugi took this as a chance to run, he shot off like a professional sprinter, but the other smaller lizard turned around hissing, angered by the fact that this stranger to 'their' home had hurt its twin, and took off after him on all fours.

"YAMI!" Yugi cried running as fast as he could away from the beast that was gaining on him quickly; he turned a corner and tripped on the edge of the runner sending him slamming into the opposite wall before trying to take off again down another hall.

The giant lizard finally caught up to him there though, ramping off the wall with it's hind feet, severely scraping the wall with it's hind claws, it reached out and knocked Yugi's feet out from under him with a front paw sending him flying as he tripped again. The monster easily caught him; pinning one arm and pressing a paw menacingly against his chest,

"Yami!" Yugi screamed again as the other huge lizard rounded the corner. Yugi stopped moving 'scared stiff' literally, the paw on his chest tightened slightly and Yugi felt the claw tips just barely puncture his skin, Yugi screamed for Yami one more time before he passed out he went totally limp under the monster's claws the last thing he heard was a hissed.

"Get off of him damn it."

Yugi awoke next to the smell of dirt, fire, and a very heavy perfume, and what ever it was he was laying on wasn't all that soft either, he opened his eyes and sat up he was in a very strange atmosphere; there were selves carved into rock walls holding decorative vials of different colored oozes, there was a mirror on the wall over a natural spring full of crystal clear water, and electrical wires were strapped to the rock ceiling for the lights in the room.

Yugi himself was lying on a strange mattress made out of some sort of rough material; it was also almost bigger than Yami's bathtub.

The cloth covering what Yugi had expected was the door, moved aside Yugi's eyes widened and he immediately started to try to move in the opposite direction backing up against the wall as one of the pale tan lizards came through the door. It stared at him as he flattened himself against the wall, trying to stand up on the thick mattress that he was now guessing was also this monster's bed.

"Yami!" Yugi started to call, almost crying, the creature rose onto its hind legs it shut its eyes and its body glowed for a few seconds before being replaced by a normal looking human being with sandy blond hair and the lizards lavender eyes thankfully he was clothed wearing tight black pants and a light lavender midriff showing tank top.

"I hope this form less terrifying to you," he said coming closer this one was the smaller one he came to the edge of the mattress and stopped staring at me like he was guilty of doing some crime. Yugi finally realized that he was shirtless and had five small Band-Aids on his chest from his claws,

"I am sorry," he said looking down and shuffling his feet.

"Malik sent me in here to tell you; he calls me a lot of names to get me to do it," he added, Yugi unglued himself from the wall and crawled across the huge mattress till he was in front of him sitting there like a dog looking up at him.

"You're not a bad lizard after all are you?" he asked the brother standing in front of him.

"I am no lizard I am a dragon" he growled seeming to take offense to being called a lizard; Yugi backed away slightly still not knowing what to think about this man in front of him

"Sorry again," he said coughing out a tiny cloud of soot as knelt down, not seeming as menacing then.

"Are you better?" he asked his English lacking slightly as he reached out to touch Yugi's chest which still bore the large scar.

Yugi backed away from him trembling slightly,

"I'm fine," Yugi said curling up into the blanket.

"Oh, err, I am Marik," he said off handedly.

"I don't mean to scare," he added closing his eyes again and returning to his dragon form, stepping onto the mattress and bending his supple body around Yugi; he turned his head to face him.

"I just like my scales better," he said his English becoming radically better.

"Will your brother try to tear me apart like he did earlier?" Yugi said genuinely scared of Marik's sibling.

"As long as you don't call him a lizard and answer his questions you're fine," he said smiling,

"So you are Yami's pet or something?" he asked not minding the personal question he had just asked,

"No, I'm his… err, well" Yugi just couldn't bring himself to say what exactly he was in front of Marik; so he just bit his lip making his long canines stick out over his bottom lip.

"Oh, he changed you didn't he!" Marik said pointing a claw at the fangs; he nodded a yes to him.

"What do your scales feel like?" Yugi asked curiously,

"you can touch if you want," Marik said scratching the side of his head with his hind foot, looking like a large scaly dog.

Yugi smiled relaxing somewhat as he laid a hand on the top of Marik's head; the scales were slightly hard but were smooth enough to feel almost like highly polished rocks and he was really warm too. There were different textures too, like the scales got smaller and felt like snake skin underneath his eyes and then his chest had smooth long scales that were even smoother than his other scales and he groaned and rolled over onto his back when Yugi scratched them. So he did it again and Marik groaned again so Yugi just kept on scratching with Marik moaning and groaning underneath his hands as old scales flaked off.

"doesn't that hurt?" Yugi asked as he took off another wide scale.

"No, feels really good, Malik got mad at me and hasn't done that for me in weeks," Marik said grinning at him showing off sharp white teeth.

"That's the thing about humans, you don't have constantly shedding scales," he said rolling back over, satisfied with the good belly rub.

"actually we do, you just can't see it," Yugi corrected.

"Really? I guess I never noticed," he said closing his eyes again and becoming human; he was sitting next to Yugi with his legs crossed scratching at the tanned skin on his arm.

"I said you can't see it," Yugi said giggling slightly as Marik went cross-eyed trying to see it.

"oh… yes," he replied returning to his natural form smiling.

"but I still like my scales," he said plucking at one of his thick forearm scales.

"What were you two doing when you smashed me with that door anyway?" Yugi asked.

"getting some food, Yami stores our food in a compartment at the back of the cold room you guys keep your blood in, but some dust bunnies had gotten in and eaten some of it, and well, we were about to eat the little buggers when they scattered, and well we hit you with the door; are you all right from that we really didn't mean to hit you," he added apologetically.

"I'm okay, Malik just scared me to death with his tactic for learning my name," he said laughing nervously remembering how close the other dragon's claws had been.

Suddenly there was an almost hyena-like laugh on the other side of the curtain door Yugi looked to him and he just shrugged.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh, now I've got you!" they heard Malik cry from the other room and they both got up to see Marik pushed the curtain aside to reveal a large cave-like room. there were more electrical wires on the ceiling and different animal skin rugs were lying on the floor, along with numerous huge pillows that had been knocked off dragon size couches. There was a computer in the corner that had a rather vulgar picture on the screen as a screensaver and a big screen TV was in a carved out niche in the wall; a cozy looking place if you ignored the slight mess of books scrolls and paper scattered across the floor along with a couple of dry old bones among other things.

Yugi's gaze was attracted to the large tan dragon kneeling in the center of the mess, with his claws on top of an upturned waste basket, grinning like a maniac as he reached for a forgotten pocket knife.

"oh dear" Yugi heard Marik mutter,

"Malik let the poor thing go" he said raising a claw to stop him; Malik looked up from the waste basket.

"Now way 'deary' I've been hunting this little thing for months," he said looking crazed; now that Yugi saw him in good light Malik had a fuzz of hair on the back of his head that ran down his neck slightly; Marik left Yugi's side making a path to Malik pushing things aside.

"Malik what did that poor thing do to you?" he said nudging a big pillow to the side.

"its been eating my food, you moron, now shut up, I want to enjoy this moment." He said sounding like he was just dying to take the waste basket off the whimpering animal inside.

He lifted it off a bit and reached under it, making whatever it was shriek and cry pitifully; he brought the thing out clutching it in one paw. The thing in his claws was definitely odd it looked like a ball of dusty gray fur about as big as a paper plate with a pair of large eyes floppy long ears and a pair of large three toed feet the thing had no visible mouth but it was still shrieking and crying making Yugi's heart wrench.

"Malik put it down." Marik told him,

"no! I'm not about to put this thing down," Malik cried turning away from his brother and looking at the furry ball like he was about to eat it.

"I said put it down Malik!" Marik repeated he looked like he was about to cry.

"No!" he replied sharply; his tongue stuck out as he opened his mouth about to put the little puff ball in, but Yugi couldn't take any more of the poor creatures crying.

He ran over to Malik, pulling the larger dragons claws apart, freeing the little fur ball and taking it into his arms, petting it and shushing it, treating it like a baby, trying to calm the poor creature down, as he walked away from Malik and plopped himself down on the floor cuddling the very soft fluff ball.

Malik was staring at Yugi like he had just committed a crime and gotten away with it, nobody not even Marik stole potential food from him, and the turned quickly facing Yugi's back which was wide open to him his eyes flashed as he raised a paw ready to swat Yugi aside and claim his prize of the dust bunny he had captured.

But Marik saw him and smacked him,

"you idiot don't you dare hit him; Yami would be wearing your hide as a raincoat if you did,"

"I'm not going to hurt him; I was just going to get my bunny back," Malik hissed as he stared down at the little human sitting in front of him cooing to what had been his prey.

"Oh yes you were, now say your sorry you almost scared him to death earlier,"

"no!" was his only reply,

"I won't scratch your belly scales for a year if you don't tell him your sorry," Marik threatened smirking at the corner he had backed his brother into; Marik knew well what almost always happened right after a belly rub and he also knew Malik couldn't go without it for an entire year

"All right I'll do it," Malik growled his spines raising slightly irritated at his brother as he slinked around Yugi, who looked up from the still whimpering dust bunny in his arms Malik sat down in front of him like a dog.

"I'm s-s-sorry" he stumbled over the last word like it hurt him to say it,

"for what?" Yugi asked the larger lavender eyed dragon,

"For smashing ya with a door and scaring the living daylights out of you," he recited before getting up and marching off into the recesses of the dragons' den but not before tripping on a stray dirty magazine on the floor which Malik quickly picked up and threw across the room as his spines rose again.

"Is he always like that?" Yugi asked snickering slightly after Malik left,

"Pretty much, he does have his good days though," Malik said smiling at him.

A small wave of dizziness hit him, making him hold a bit tighter to the dust bunny.

"Malik could you take me back to Yami? I need more blood." Yugi said looking to Marik for help; he changed back into his human form and knelt down next to Yugi,

"okay, can you move or are you just not felling well?" he asked laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Just not feeling well," Yugi replied, Marik picked him up putting him on his shoulders closing his eyes again.

Yugi felt the body below him shift, the muscles changing position and shape and the bones becoming shorter or longer Yugi was still sitting around his shoulder area and Marik started to move. He leaned back letting his head come to rest on Marik's higher back end,

"Does it hurt when you change?" Yugi asked as he felt Marik starting to go up a set of large stairs designed for the brothers' big feet.

"No, it just twinges a bit when the spines and tail come back," Marik said turning his head a bit to look at Yugi out of the corner of his eye.

"I have spines too," he said, raising them a bit to raise Yugi a little ways off his back Yugi smiled a little blinking lazily at him who would have thought he of all people would be riding a dragon let alone a very nice intelligent non-flying one.

The stairs that they were climbing seemed to go on up pretty far from the dragons' den and the dizziness Yugi was feeling was getting worse when they finally reached a rather decorated looking door that had a pair of twin dragons, Malik and Marik, carved into it facing each other one holding up a book with a claw pointing to the sky, the other most likely, Malik was holding a sword and pointing to it, all in all it was very nice craftsmanship.

Yugi felt Marik stop and shift his feet around,

"What're you doing?" Yugi asked quietly his head throbbing.

"I'm putting my shoes on," Marik replied "Seto makes me wear them so I don't scratch up the wood floors," he added.

"You weren't wearing them last night; I remember you tore up the wall chasing me," Yugi said pointedly.

"I don't sometimes when the others aren't awake, because the things are damn annoying I'll show you once we get some blood into ya," he replied pushing the door open with his nose.

Yugi bit his lip when the door bumped his leg slightly,

"how long ago were you changed anyway?" Marik asked almost completely turning his head around to look at Yugi.

"three nights ago," Yugi replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry for you, I'd let you bite me but your not old enough for your fangs to get through my skin and my blood is too strong for you," Marik said turning his head back around so he could see.

They continued walking in silence toward the kitchen; Marik stopped at the door to the kitchen and looked around the corner before moving on into the kitchen.

"Marik what are you doing up here!" Yugi heard and he held onto the soft dust bunny that had fallen asleep on his chest it was Seto.

"I brought Yugi up here for blood, I couldn't just leave him and make him walk all the way up here," Marik replied Yugi felt Marik twist his body around and he turned his head to see Seto quickly standing from the kitchen table and coming over to his limp figure that had had been draped over Marik's back.

Seto lifted him off Marik easily, wondering why he was clutching one of Yami's infamous dust bunnies to his chest,

"what happened? Yami's been worrying himself sick trying to find you," Seto said setting him down and rushing off to get Yugi some blood while Marik laid down situating himself on the floor.

"I'm sorry Yugi," he said yawning wide

"why?"

"Because Malik and I don't keep a small blood supply in our den; you could have stayed longer if we did," he replied looking sad.

"I know, but you heard him Yami's been worrying about me," Yugi said quietly he finally let the dust bunny go, setting the sleeping fur ball on the table and leaning forward with his face inches away from it.

"don't go running down anymore dark staircases," he whispered.

He felt a hand come to rest on his back and he looked up to see Seto standing over him with a very large glass of blood. Yugi tried to take it but his hands wouldn't grip it, so Seto finally pulled up a chair next to him and tipped the glass up for him to drink. Yugi looked like he was feeling better with every gulp of blood he took in he pushed the glass away bringing in air and wiping off the blood left on his chin.

"Seto I just can't understand it where would Yugi have gone!" Yami said sounding worried as he walked through the kitchen right past Marik.

"hey Marik," he said waving to the dragon laying on the floor.

"What are you doing up here?" Marik pointed to Yugi smirking at Yami. Yami followed the padded claw and saw Yugi,

"Yugi!" he cried happily diving at him and catching the little one in a bone crushing hug making him cough back up a tiny spatter of blood.

"I love you too Yami," he said coughing

"where were you!" Yami said holding Yugi out at arms length.

"I was with Marik," Yugi said he reached over and grabbed the sleepy dust bunny.

"and look, I saved one of your dust bunnies," he said holding the little fur ball for him Yami took the dust bunny from him the little creature blinked at him.

"Hello Spoof," Yami said rubbing his ears gently.

"What did you save him from?" he asked setting Spoof on the table again.

"Malik tried to eat him," Yugi replied as he watched Spoof hop/roll clumsily on the table

"What exactly did you two do to Yugi?" Yami asked Marik.

"Well, we were up here getting food, and some dust bunnies followed us in and were eating our food; Malik went after them and they scattered and we kind of squished Yugi behind the door and…" Yami held up a hand to stop him.

"Marik just change for me," he said not wishing to sit there for hours listening.

Marik did as he was told, becoming human and leaving behind all four of his 'shoes'

"Well, come here you know what I'm going to do," Yami said pointing to the floor in front of him Marik crawled over to him kneeling in front of him.

Yami looked into his eyes and put his hands just above Marik's head, tendrils of purple and black seeped from his fingertips and into Marik's hair. The entire event passed quickly before Yami's eyes from the dragon's perspective, his mouth dropped open when he flashed by Malik's interrogation and he frowned.

"Seto go look at the wall of the open doorway closest to the Ishtar's food storage," he said smirking slightly as Seto jumped up from the table.

He flashed through the rest of Marik's memory smiling when he came across the belly scratching he finally wrenched his hands away breaking the small tendrils going to his head; Marik turned his head a bit cracking it loudly before he crawled back to where he had left his shoes and changed sighing when he had to put them back on.

"See, Yugi, this is why I hate these things," Marik said showing him once he had one on; the thing did look like it would be kind of annoying, it had five padded slips that covered his claws and straps connected to a band around his 'wrist' held them on.

"They do look kind of annoying," Yugi replied.

"Malik's got a set to he just never wears them," Marik said smiling at him.

Yami sat down next to Yugi and leaned over and kissed him behind the ear making Yugi turn around and kiss him lightly on the lips smiling.

"I knew it you two are together!" Marik cried making the two look back at him.

"oops," if the dragon could have blushed he would have been doing it right now.

"MARIK! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY WALL?" they all heard Seto roar from somewhere in the mansion.

"this is where I exit stage left," Marik said crawling off with his belly almost touching the floor.

Gruzzee: alas I will make this short again, I still have a block on my other story knight in shining leather but please keep R&R-ing and come back for more