Yeah! A dozen chapters, here I come. I do believe I have either ruined or totally made excellent everyone's view of lollipops. Go me. XD

Review Responses:

Wrote this over Spring Break. Editing took forever…sorry everyone. Review responses on chapter 14 or thereabouts.

On With the Fic Already:

Last time…

Auru carried Rino around to the door at which Katsuya stood. The guard courteously held the door for both of them. As Katsuya followed them out of the room, I heard Rino say, "Auru…really…it's three in the morning—can't we—?"

"No. You should know what you and lollipops do to me by now. It's your own fault for sucking on that stupid, stupid lollipop."

Dead & Dying

Twelfth

Yugi's View

Left with a frosty CEO and a silent vampire as dinner partners, I decided not to say anything. Yami took an unnecessarily violent stab at his salad. Auru was being seriously annoying, messing with Yami's plans. I blushed down at my plate, not really seeing the strawberry jam-coated roll or the hill of chicken pasta.

Yami set down his fork. "I'll be right back," he said abruptly. He touched my shoulder as he stood up, leaving something cold that curled around my neck like a scarf. Kaiba narrowed his eyes, apparently able to see the shadow, but didn't say anything.

The door shut behind Yami. I knew one of his shadows was curled about my neck protectively, but as Kaiba shifted his frigid glance to me, I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive.

"Only half a soul," said Kaiba suddenly. My fear got shunted aside by confusion.

"What?"

Kaiba took a long drink from his coffee cup. "Did you know?"

I shook my head, having no clue what Kaiba was talking about.

"You've only got half a soul," clarified Kaiba.

"I…." My voice trailed off. Memories of the past hours floated to the surface.

Didn't Bakura say something about my soul?

I hadn't been thinking clearly at all at the time, lack of air and overabundance of fear clouding my thoughts. Had Bakura wanted me because I only had half a soul? I couldn't think of any other possible reason.

"I…I guess I do." I bowed my head, kind of embarrassed. One more reason was added to the list of why I was a freak.

Kaiba took another drink of coffee and glared into the now-empty depths of his cup. He rose from his chair. "It's nothing to be ashamed of," Kaiba said.

I looked up at him. Kaiba slid aside a painting and thumbed a button. Radio static crackled and quit. "More coffee for me, Yasuhito-san; thank you." Kaiba slid the painting back into place and sat back down.

"What—what does it mean?" I asked quietly. Kaiba looked up from his neatly skewered bite of salad.

"You may feel quite empty from time to time. People may try to take your half-soul or give you a half-soul. Don't agree to either—the adding or subtracting of a soul will make you a puppet to someone else's will. Aside from that, it's hardly important."

I pushed a wayward noodle back into the little hill of pasta on my plate. I was too tired to get the true scope of this huge revelation. Questions moved too sluggishly in my mind, and all that came to the surface was, "But…why do I…?"

"Fate, whims of a twisted god, error in the cosmos, a soul mate in a parallel universe—who knows?" Kaiba gestured with his fork. "It doesn't matter anyway. I dealt with it for years. It wasn't a problem."

A quiet knock came again at the door, thankfully releasing me from coming up with a reply to Kaiba's quiet declaration. I'm not the only one with only half a soul….

"Come in," said Kaiba. The blonde guard poked his head in the door again. Kaiba glared, and, tone icy, he asked, "Katsuya-san, why aren't you at the shrine? And why do you have my coffee?"

Katsuya smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Kaiba-san. Stopped by the kitchens for a midnight snack. Somebody told me to give this to you on my way out. And I switched shifts with Yoyomi-san."

If Katsuya switched shifts, then why was he out on the grounds in the first place? I wondered.

Katsuya walked into the room and over to Kaiba to hand him the coffee. "Do you…would you like a different shift, Katsuya-san?" Kaiba refused to look at Katsuya, seemingly quite uncomfortable. Katsuya, for his part, bit his lip uneasily.

"Uh…no. No, this one is fine. I'll go back right now." Katsuya set down the second mug of coffee.

Yami walked in the open door silently. I felt the cold shadow around my neck return to his casually opened hand. "Sorry," he said. "I needed a bit of air."

"Not a problem," said Kaiba. "Katsuya-san…you can go."

"Okay—I mean—yes. Kaiba-san." The blonde guard made for the door.

"Uh—Katsuya-san?" He turned around at my question. "Can you show me where my room is first? I'm done with dinner."

Katsuya-san turned to Kaiba, who nodded.

"I'm finished eating, too. Thank you for the meal, Kaiba-san," said Yami.

Kaiba was silent as we left.

Yami's View

Katsuya led Yugi and me out of the foyer. The foyer consisted of six massive marble columns partially sunken into the wall, accenting several silvery modern pieces of statuary. Soft blue carpet cushioned our steps as we wound around deep blue chairs and glass coffee tables. The hat stand in the corner resembled a tree, with branches hung with jackets and roots of shoes.

The blonde guard continued from the first room we'd entered (the entrance hall). Vaunted with more columns, but containing much less furniture, the entrance hall was understated grandeur incarnate. A wide navy blue carpet sprawled towards a large set of frosted glass doors. Our steps carried us through them.

A large marble staircase, shot through with deep blue threads instead of black, swept up to the second floor. It dominated the room, flanked by two statues of rampant dragons.

I'd stepped outside to feel the cool air and let off a little steam. I would be a very poor guest if I'd ended up blowing up someone or something in Kaiba's house. I felt a little less stressed, but I needed a long stay in oblivion to completely work through this tangled knot of emotions and thoughts in my mind.

Katsuya bypassed the sweeping marble stairs, however, and walked over to the wall. He stood in front of it for a moment, and then a section slid aside to reveal a glass elevator. Yugi and I followed him inside.

The elevator had no buttons. I briefly wondered how it operated. My question was answered when Katsuya said, "Third floor, East Wing," and the elevator hissed into motion.

The ride was quiet and fairly quick, and included a sideways jaunt across the inner façade of the mansion. Through the glass walls of the elevator, one could look out on an expansive courtyard. The gardens were shrouded in darkness, but I could see well anyway. I picked out a couple poorly-hidden guards and an attendant taking a smoking break near a sign that expressly forbid said activity. I resisted the urge to take out my stress on the attendant by incinerating him from thirty yards.

The elevator stopped smoothly. Another section of wall, nondescript except for the plaque proclaiming "East Wing", slid aside to let us back into the mansion.

"You'll find phones in your rooms. Pick it up and you'll be routed to Yasuhito-san, who runs the intercom system for the grounds," said Katsuya, suddenly breaking the silence. "If you need anything, you can ask him."

Yugi and I nodded. A wide hallway extended to our right and left; a little alcove with plush-looking couches confronted us straight ahead. Behind one of the couches, I was not pleased to see a corner of Auru's hastily discarded jacket. Just wonderful, I thought, cynicism and annoyance making me feel destructive again.

Katsuya withdrew a sandwich from an inner pocket of his uniform. "Your rooms are off the Sunrise Alcove, there. Anything else you need now?" Katsuya started unwrapping his sandwich from its paper prison.

"No, I think we're fine for now," I answered.

"Good night, then." Katsuya nodded and stepped back into the elevator. A quiet hiss announced the closing of the wall. A slight whoosh told me Katsuya was gone.

I went into the Sunrise Alcove, apparently named for the morning phenomenon that would be visible through the enormous window facing east. I picked up Auru's jacket with two fingers. It didn't smell of anything embarrassing, but I set it gingerly over the back of a couch so it wouldn't look suspicious.

Yugi walked into the Alcove and looked around. There were four doors, two of which were closed—obviously the unused room and the one housing my hormonal traveling companions. I took a couple steps towards an open door, thankful that the rooms seemed soundproof.

I straightened my shoulders. I couldn't sleep in the same room with Yugi again. Tempting fate once is fairly stupid; twice is just plain asinine.

"...Good night, Yugi." I reached for my door. He seemed a little confused, a bit afraid, and hurt. It made for a wrenching expression on his face. My vampiric side warred with more human instincts I was unaware I possessed. One side told me to drink him dead; the other instructed me to go and comfort him immediately.

"G'night…Yami," answered Yugi. He went into his room quickly, shutting the door with a quiet click.

It took me a moment to shake myself back into motion. For the first time in my considerably long life, I was feeling guilt.

Yugi's View

With the tangled knot of thoughts in my head, I didn't think I'd be able to get to sleep at all. I couldn't figure out why Yami seemed so distant now, yet sent a shadow to guard me less than an hour ago. I just learned I had half a soul, which was a confusing bombshell in itself. Kaiba was an utter enigma. My mind felt severely overloaded.

I did notice that my room was quite nice. A double bed with bedclothes in varying shades of blue dominated the far wall. Two tall windows were covered by long, dusky-colored blinds. A couple of low armchairs clustered around a glass coffee table supported by a silver curlicue.

Once my socks and pants joined my bandanna on the floor and I had joined my pillow in bed, however, my body realized that it was indeed nearly four o'clock in the morning. Tired eyelids slid shut and my mind slid into a lovely black world of dreamless sleep.

Softly shining blue numbers on the night-table beside the bed informed me that it was shortly before noon. I blinked a couple of times and sat up. Swiping a hand across my eyes, it took me a couple of minutes of fogged brain action to figure out exactly what I was doing here. When it came to me, I felt uncomfortable inside.

It would be several nights before I felt completely recovered from the almost-all-nighter I had pulled. Now that I felt somewhat rested, though, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I pulled a throw blanket off the end of the bed and wrapped it around my waist. I walked over to my door and tentatively pushed it open.

Nobody was out in the Sunrise Alcove. A patch of sun, however, was warming a couch facing the large window in the eastern wall. Feeling like a cat, I curled up in the sunny patch. A number of leafy green trees waved their branches lazily in a passing breeze. The window looked out across the grounds. Aside from a mown area to the far south, the only landmark in the sea of trees was an obsidian pillar in the north corner of the grounds. Runes I didn't recognize led down to a marble building that looked like a shrine.

I dozed for a little bit. Silence reigned supreme in the East Wing. I was woken from my daze by a door clicking open.

I raised my head to look over the armrest of the couch. Rino, dressed in his t-shirt and a throw blanket around his waist, peered around the door. I was shocked at his bloody state. His lips were bruised and punctured in two places, his shirt was streaked red in several spots, and his neck was ringed with fang marks. He hiked up the throw blanket and I could see a trail of blood running down his ankle.

"Rino…!" He turned and blinked at me.

"Good morning, Yugi-kun." Rino made for the couch, walking slowly.

"Rino—you're—!"

He ran a hand through red curls that were falling over his forehead. "Yeah, I must look pretty bad." He smiled sheepishly.

"What…happened?"

Rino sat down on the couch beside me gingerly. Rearranging his throw blanket, he blushed a bit. "Uh…Auru…."

"Oh. Nevermind," I said hurriedly.

"No, it's okay." Rino scratched his neck carefully. There was a long pause.

"Doesn't it hurt?" I asked.

"Only in the morning," answered Rino. He made several runes in the air, and the couch under us softened. I made a little shocked noise as I sunk further into the cushions.

"How do you do that?"

Rino leaned back into the now-plush couch. "Remember I told you I was in Haven because I preferred to live in my own reality?" I nodded. "Well, I can bend reality to make it what I want. Pain can be pleasure, blue can be red, sweet can be sour…I can make it however I want, so long as I have enough energy."

"So that's how you made us invisible," I said, having received too much shocking information in the past few days to really be surprised at anything as trivial as my new friend being able to change the cosmos as he pleased.

"Yeah. It's harder to bend reality for people besides myself, but it can be done." Rino looked at his fingers and ran a nail under another, loosening what looked like blood.

There was another long pause during which I looked out across the grounds and Rino continued his crusade against his dirty fingernails.

"How did you and Auru get together?" I asked suddenly.

"What?"

I blushed. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, I don't mind. I'll tell you if you want. Kind of a long story, but Yami-kun and Auru don't seem to be morning people."

"Okay," I said softly.

Rino considered for a moment. "I had been in Haven for a week and half or so. I hated it," started Rino. I nodded, agreeing. "Auru and I were not roommates originally; we were in rooms next to each other."

I crossed my legs and tucked my blanket around me. Rino continued. "I had gone down to the psychiatric offices in handcuffs. They couldn't get me to my sessions any other way." At this, I felt extremely relieved to be out of Haven. "Once I got to the room, they usually unlocked me. This time, they didn't. They started to ask me lots of questions…I got really upset…I kept trying to make them all vanish…but I couldn't. They wouldn't go away." Rino's voice became softer.

"I ran outside the room—still in handcuffs—and dodged the guard. I was crying and couldn't see very well, so I ended up barging into Auru's room instead of mine. He was…drinking."

"Uh oh."

"Yeah, Auru was very surprised." Rino was silent for a moment. "I wanted to die right then." Rino smiled wryly. "I asked him to kill me—to bite me."

"Oh…he couldn't, right?"

"No. Just because I asked him, he couldn't kill me." Rino fidgeted with the edge of his blanket. "Auru gave me the closest thing to death he could, though. He drank me to oblivion. I thought I had died. They took me to the hospital wing of Haven and transfused lots of blood into me. Auru said it was a week before I woke up." Rino looked out the window as a flock of birds flew by.

"I was pretty angry when I woke up. Auru was there. He didn't say anything, he just wrapped his arms around me and drank me to unconsciousness again."

Rino twisted his neck experimentally, wincing as the punctured skin shifted. "We did that for months. The doctors were absolutely mystified why I suddenly lost so much blood. Auru healed my neck every time, so they had no clue someone else was even visiting me."

Rino looked down at his lap. "I think what made me fall for him at first was that he was always there when I woke up. Nobody had been that dependable for me—they just didn't care or they thought I was too strange."

"I started staying awake for a little while before Auru put me in a coma. Each time I woke up and he was there to see me, I stayed awake longer." Rino smiled. "Finally, I asked him if he wouldn't drink me one time, so that I could get out of the hospital wing. The doctors had no idea what happened to make me recover so fast, but they pronounced my body healthy and sent me back to the boys' dorm."

"I cooperated with the psychiatrists for a while. They saw improvement, and that I was 'saner' when Auru was around. They asked him if he'd mind rooming with me. He said he wouldn't mind at all. I moved all my stuff into his room. That night he drank from me again, but only enough to knock me out until the next morning."

Rino rearranged his blanket. "I wasn't strong enough to walk down to breakfast on my own, so Auru got the job of carrying me around. He didn't mind at all. He'd started to care about me, I guess. I began to lose my reflection—."

"What?" I interrupted suddenly. "Sorry."

"It's fine," said Rino, mellow and still sleepy. "When you fall in love with a vampire, you lose your reflection to them. They begin to see you in the mirror. You can't see yourself any more. It makes for an interesting experience trying to comb your hair," said Rino. "Auru won't stand still while I do it," he laughed.

"Yeah…." I trailed off. Thankfully Rino continued his story, not noticing my awkward thoughts.

"Once I couldn't see myself in the mirror anymore, Auru asked me to be his boyfriend. He can be a jerk sometimes, but I love him a lot." Rino smiled again. "He may bite me, but he's not abusive at all."

Abruptly, there was a loud thump and the sound of thrashing from Rino's room. The door slammed open, revealing a shirtless Auru wearing only the sheet off their bed around his waist. He looked positively panicked. Once he spotted Rino, however, he sighed, apparently relieved.

"Rino…." Auru knelt next to Rino and suddenly became angry. "Rino! Why did you leave!" Auru's hands tangled in Rino's hair and slid down his neck and shoulders, trailing dark healing shadows. "Rino…don't do that again," said Auru softly. "Don't leave me."

"I'm sorry," said Rino. He meant it. Auru wrapped his arms around Rino and buried his face in Rino's chest. Rino smiled at me.

Auru looked up. "I need food. Let's go eat."

"Let's find you some pants first," said Rino.

"I'll go see if Yami's awake." I rose from the couch and opened Yami's door slowly. Behind me, Rino and Auru returned to their room, talking softly and laughing.

"Yami?" A dark form was lying on the bed. I entered the room. It was a little different from mine, so I walked slowly to avoid bumping into any furniture. I was about to say Yami's name again when I noticed a mirror in the far corner of the room.

I stopped and bit my lip. For a moment I stood indecisive, but after my hesitation I walked over to the mirror, carefully avoiding looking into its wide silver eye.

Once I stood in front of it, I looked into its reflective depths. I reached up a hand to touch the surface. My reflection was even more faded and now slightly transparent.

That only served to tangle my thoughts even more.

Oh…poor Yugi. So confused.

When I thought up my pen name, it originally had nothing to do with the story. But it got worked in anyway. Hope it's a good twist o.

R & R, people…:D