1Hi! This is my attempt at a humorous parody of "Beauty and the Beast" starring the YGO cast. Note the emphasis put on attempt.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I just cast them in this story line that I don't own either (though the slight variations, like Ryou drowning? They're all mine.) Moreover, I'm dirt poor. So don't sue me. You'll only be wasting your time.
Is This Your Mansion?
Chapter Six
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When Ryou woke up again, the shades in the white, circular room were flung open, inviting bright sunlight to pour inside. The sheer canopy of the bed created a shimmering veil of white around Beauty. Sitting up, Ryou moaned and covered his eyes. The light, though a welcome change from the night's darkness, hurt. "Mokuba?" he called.
Mokuba lifted a corner of the canopy and sat down on the bed. "Yes, Beauty?"
Ryou fell back on the pillows and sighed. "Mokuba, what happened last night? I can't remember anything past running out of the house. How did I get back here?"
"Master rescued you from drowning and brought you back here," Mokuba said. "You were soaked and wet. We were so afraid you would never come back."
Ryou nodded slowly, his face solemn with thought. Then, looking up, he asked, "What time is it?"
"A quarter to ten. Will you be eating breakfast with the Master?" Mokuba's voice was cheerful, hopeful of a more pleasant response than the one he got the night before. Ryou did not answer, so Mokuba felt compelled to add, "He did save your life, Beauty."
Ryou sat up. "All right, I'll eat with him. It's the least I can do."
Mokuba patted Beauty's hands happily. "Wonderful! Now, we must get you dressed. The clothes you wore yesterday are being washed at the moment." Feet scurried over to the closet and clothes seemed to fling themselves out, falling like silk cranes to the ground. Mokuba seemed to have a certain outfit in mind for Ryou; he only hoped it was not a woman's outfit.
"Ah ha!" Mokuba cried at last. "Found it." Something white and soft folded over an invisible arm and rushed over to the bedside. There, Mokuba held up the hanger and Ryou saw what was something unmistakably feminine, yet he did not object to wearing the outfit. A white silk shirt with a v-neck cut and long white silk pants with a drawstring at the top hung on the hanger floating in midair.
Ryou smiled. "Oh, it looks lovely," he said.
Mokuba placed the clothes on the bed and stepped away- an indent in the carpet gave him away. "It was my mother's," he said, then walked out the door. Minutes later Ryou followed him out the door, white silk covering his body like a cloud. Mokuba silently squealed at the sight. Beauty, unaware of Mokuba, floated past him and down the hall to the stairs. He walked down the grand staircase and entered the dining room, where an enticing breakfast was laid out on the table. Ryou stood in the doorway, looking around in fear, looking for the Beast.
"Ryou," Yuugi said at the boy's elbow, causing him to jump. "Let me show you to your seat." Ryou nodded, wondering absently how Yuugi would show him, until he saw the chair at the end of the table pulled out by invisible hands. He hurried to the end of the table. "You must remain standing until the Master arrives," Yuugi instructed him, squeezing his hand then letting it drop.
Beauty stood behind the chair and watched the entrance to the dining hall fearfully. As the grandfather clock in the hall struck ten, a tall shadow fell inside the dining room and a moment later- Ryou held his breath as the shadow moved further in- the man from the night before stepped into the room. His proud head turned in contempt to Beauty, who withered beneath the cold blue eyes. Then he snapped his head away and continued to the head of the table, where invisible hands pulled the chair out with a soft mutter of "Master." The man sat down and nodded subtly. The chairs lining the table pulled out in one motion and Ryou felt a hand on his elbow again.
"You may sit now," Yuugi whispered and Ryou quickly did so. A clattering of plates and silverware wound around the table and Beauty watched in astonishment as platters of food floated from person to person. Invisible hands snatched pastries, scooped up muffins, and dished out eggs onto their plates. A salt shaker rose up and down in the air rapidly on Ryou's right, but the middle of the shaker was invisible in the air. Ryou shivered, then saw a dish of bread was thrust under his nose. "Help yourself," Yuugi said and Ryou wished he could look into his friend's face and thank him. Otherwise, it was uncanny to talk to thin air.
At the other end of the table, the Master scanned the table with brisk eyes, his brown brow furrowing. "Where is Honda?" he demanded.
Otogi, who sat on the Master's right, coughed nervously. "Oh, he should be in soon."
"He mentioned that Yami was acting up earlier, Master," Malik, further down the table, added.
The Master glared narrowly at both servants as though he could see them, then pursed his lips and turned to his breakfast. Ryou, who observed the interrogation and the way Otogi and Malik humbly responded to the cold man, was reminded that he still had not met the one other visible person of the mansion- the stable-hand Honda. He was curious what kind of person Honda was and on the whole looked forward to seeing him, because it would be a nice change to see someone again.
He was not disappointed as the kitchen door opened and a tall handsome man stepped inside the room. It was so good just to see a person that Ryou unconsciously let out a squeak of delight. Honda (for surely, who else could it be) had warm brown eyes that fell with surprise onto Ryou as he stepped into the room, before an equally cozy smile spread over his face. He stopped beside the Master's chair and bent his handsome body towards him.
"Apologies for my tardiness, Master Kaiba," he said in a humble yet quietly mocking voice. "Yami tried to get loose last night during the storm." It was the first time Ryou heard the cold man named. It suited him immensely, a formal, at-a-distance name that slipped over him like frost.
The Master's mouth descended his face, the corners like commas reaching towards the line of his chin. "Very well, Honda. I am sure you handled the situation."
Honda, his face still towards the ground, lifted his eyes towards Beauty, who blushed when his playful eyes met his own. "Naturally, Master Kaiba." Ryou wondered what their relationship was, lovers parted bitterly. One took it hard, while the other chose to find a joke in everything, from the dancing light on the carpet to the ice wrapped around the Master. Maybe that was how he got away with using his name. Maybe the warmth in his eyes melted the ice despite the winter within the Master's soul.
The man nodded and Honda straightened up. "I will want to take Yami out later. Be sure he is ready by then." Honda nodded, a smile on his lips, and then he walked down the table, his eyes on Ryou, and it seemed as though Honda would walk right through him. But he stopped a few seats down and sat at the vacant chair, the only one still flush against the table rim. Ryou thought he could hear Honda's laughter echoing behind those eyes.
The rest of breakfast passed without incident, but Honda's eyes watched Ryou openly throughout the morning. Beauty did not know whether he was flattered or appalled.
At a quarter to eleven, the Master rose from his seat and all the chairs lining the table pushed back. Ryou was a little late in standing as the Master left the room. As soon as the door swung closed, an immense jovial chatter filled the dining hall. Dishes floated of their own accord into the kitchen and in the invisible mayhem, Honda disappeared from the room, like a ghost with wings.
Ryou tried not to appear obvious in looking for Honda, but it seemed he was not particularly good at hiding his curiosity. A voice in his ear spoke low. "He's probably out at the stables. He's been dying to meet you." It was Jounouchi's voice and Ryou quietly thanked him. And he slipped out of the room as well.
Honda was not surprised to see Ryou standing in the stable doorway. He was feeding a beautiful black horse some oats, looking so pastoral and beautiful that Ryou wondered again who this man was and why he chose to waste away at this cursed palace. He turned, absently stroking the horse's nose, and smiled at Ryou. "Hello, Beauty."
Ryou stepped forward, his body hesitant. "I-"
"I suppose you want to know what I'm doing here. Why I choose to spend my life with that cold man and his formless servants."
"I…well, yes," Ryou said.
Honda nodded, then walked over to a pile of hay on the other side of the stables. "Come here, Beauty. Sit down."
Honda sank down into the golden straw. Ryou delicately sat down beside Honda, the hay leaping up to engulf him in yellow warmth. He was like a lamb beside Honda, weak-kneed, meak, and mild.
"Ryuuji and I used to live in the city, thousands of miles from here. We've never been country people; I don't really know how we got here in the first place." Honda smiled and a small part of Beauty melted inside. "Actually, that's not quite true. I know how I got here and a little of why Ryuuji came here as well.
"We were quite happy, Ryuuji and I, living in the city. It started out with me as his bodyguard- Ryuuji was head of a major corporation and was a large public figure then. We gradually became friends, of course, but, um, nothing more. Not that I didn't want to, Beauty, but...he was such a big person at the time; I was lucky just to be his friend. Besides, he could have had anyone he wanted. Why would he choose me?"
Ryou inched closer to Honda and wanted to reach out for his hand. The black horse in the stable stamped its hoof and shook his mane.
"But I loved him," Honda sighed. "I would have gone to the ends of the earth for him." Honda's brown eyes shone like amber. "After a few years, Ryuuji planned a voyage to Egypt, to increase the scope of his company. I, naturally, went with him.
"The ship was at sea only for a few days before it met a tremendous storm that left me shipwrecked on a foreign shore. I had no clue where Ryuuji was, and took him for dead. But that, Beauty, took a long time for me to accept. Because my heart told me that somewhere, my love was alive." Honda sat up a little and shifted in the hay.
"So I searched for years for Ryuuji, searched to the ends of the earth and beyond, for seven straight years. And then one day I got lost in this forest, lost for days, stumbling through the trees. Until, finally, I found the mansion...and Ryuuji."
"But he was invisible by that time," Ryou whispered. Honda nodded.
"That's right, but he was alive and that was all that mattered to me. Though I vowed to break the curse that kept him from my sight."
A shadow at the stable door fell across the hay towards the pair, but neither noticed the dark shape on the ground. The black horse snorted and turned away from the sun.
"But...but they're still invisible. Is it that hard to break the spell?"
Honda grinned. "Well, I wasn't quite suited for that job. You see, Beauty, the key to breaking the spell is-"
"Honda!" a sharp voice snapped from the door, and the shadow advanced quickly towards them. "You weren't about to reveal the secret to the curse, were you?" It was Otogi. Honda shrank a little from his lover, his cheeks turning faint pink.
"Ryuuji! My love, there you are!" Honda leaped up and wrapped his arms around invisible shoulders.
"Well, were you, Honda? You know that's forbidden."
"Of course I wasn't," Honda pouted. "I was going to explain the hours to Beauty."
Honda's arms fell from Otogi's shoulders and the shadow on the floor flattened. Ryou assumed Otogi now sat close to him, and when he saw the hollow in the hay, he found his assumption was correct. "In that case, may I? After all, Hiroto, I was there."
Honda sank back into the hay, his hand in the air preoccupied with an invisible lock of hair. "By all means, love, go ahead." Honda turned his head absently away from Beauty. Ryou turned his attention to where he thought Otogi sat.
"When the witch cast a spell on the Master, it was to be hideous to all who see him. But the witch was not so cruel as to make him ugly for all of time, and so she allows the Master to appear in his original form for three hours a day." Ryou felt a shift in the hay and watched a shadow fall across the black horse's stable gate, who, at the sight of the shadow, retreated to the back of his stall. It was the shadow of a hand, Otogi's hand. "Ten in the morning, six in the evening, and two at night- these are the only hours the Master appears as he once did. At all other hours, he locks himself away in the west wing, because his appearance is so grotesque that he dares not even show himself to us, for fear that we might die of fright." The hand shadow fell and the black horse returned to gate, sticking his nose over and pushing Honda in the shoulder for attention. Honda laughed and pushed the horse's wet nose away. Ryou gazed up at that smiling face in wonder.
Honda, seeing Ryou's eyes on him, turned to him and grinned. "Beauty, so far you have only seen the Master as he wishes you to see him. He arranges meals that way, because he is ashamed. But if you are going to break the curse, you have to be brave. You have to understand why the Master is known as the Beast."
Ryou, scared by the intensity of Honda's gaze, looked away. "But how do I do that?"
"You have to see him, of course! See him as the curse intended him to appear!"
Ryou gasped. He had feared that's what they meant for him to do. But he was just the humble son of an inventer. What could he do about curses and beasts and witches?
TBC...
Oh my god, Chapter Six already! Now I have to go write chapter Seven, and Eight and Nine and however many more until this story is complete! I never imagined I'd get this far, though, so I'm very proud of myself. Though, considering, the main romance has yet to begin! Oh my.
And if you are wondering why it seems that Ryou is in love with Honda, well, um, he's experiencing these new feelings for the first time. You could say that since he came to the mansion, he's grown up. For instance, he's never encountered sex before, but the servants have no qualms about discussing their love lives. So this is just another level of maturity that Beauty has reached. Well, if that was something you were wondering, hope I answered your question. Looking forward to Chapter Seven. Until then!