I know this is extremely late, but summer is a really busy time for me, and I didn't realize that this year of high school would be either. Everyday I get up, go to school, go to practice, come home and do homework, then go to bed! Almost no time to write! tear But I'm trying the hardest that I can! I also made this chapter a little bit longer to help make up for it.
Fish And Chips: Yey! You're not dead! But thanks!
Aww. Now I remember, one reviewer makes me sad. : ( Sad me. And I even made this chapter all Bakura fluff too! Jeez, talk about not feeling the love!
Nami was pinching the bridge of her nose, the same agitated look on her face since she came out of the bathroom. Her eye was twitching, but who could blame her? Tristan and Joey had been fighting over the same draw in a game of poker for over five minutes! They were way too loud for her pounding headache, and then they kept jumping up and fighting, surprising and irritating everyone.
She glanced down at the two hands of cards on the floor, both the exact same: a pair of twos and a pair of threes. Then, of course, being hot-head male demons, they couldn't find a sensible way to solve this, and instead, decided to beat the other to a pulp; And to tell ya the truth, it was giving her a killer migraine.
It wasn't just the witch either. Everyone in the room was at the end of their ropes; even little Yugi, which was disturbing all in itself. He sat in the corner with his eyes closed and, like everyone, had a look of restrain of his face; his arms crossed tightly with his pointer finger tapping against his arm.
She sighed and leaned back against the foot of the couch and lazily looked up at Bakura, who was slumping in his seat, feet propped up on the table and his arms resting on the back of the couch. Unconsciously, she leaned her head against his left leg, which gained his attention immediately.
"You think we could just switch their cards so one wins?" the girl mumbled into his pant leg.
"Nah," he leaned back and placed his hands behind his head, "They'd just fight over it again anyway, this time with fists."
A particularly loud scream cracked through the air and Nami dug her face deeper into the demon's clothes. The pounding was about to drive her insane; running from hungry vampires was better than this, at least then she could do something. So she just decided to relax and bury her face into Bakura's leg, droopy eyes almost ready to close, when she felt something soft on her lap.
Nami didn't even have to look, but decided to anyways, to see her little black cat sitting there all royally, his little black hairy ears laying flat back against his head and he was constantly twitching with each especially loud shout from the blockheads.
"You know, you could do something." he said, snapping both eyes shut from the loudest yell yet.
She shook her head and responded in an all-knowing and reproaching voice, "You know that would be cheating."
The little black-furred legs gave out under ShiShi's body and he fell on his stomach onto her lap, and he spoke with a defeated tone, "Then just kill me now and put an old cat out of his misery."
Draping her left arm over Bakura's leg, she nuzzled into his soft flesh and her own, trying desperately to make herself more comfortable and easy her pains, when she took in a deep breath and sighed deeply. A small gust of wind whipped around the room, ruffling clothing, jingling glass, and blowing all of the cards into a messy pile at the other end of the room.
The little girl sat up straight as everyone looked at her wearily, and all she could do was respond with a shrug of her shoulders. Now that the cards were scattered, the boys had no reason to fight anymore, and fell limply to the floor and sat on their behinds. Mai, Yugi and Nami stared at the cards, hoping that they'd do something extraordinary, like get up and dance or something, or another idea for a game would come to them. After staring at Nami for a good minute, they decided to think up a good game.
Then Yami smiled a bit, "We could play the Closet Game."
"What's the Closet Game?"
Tristan smirked, speaking with a darker, more menacing tone, "Wanna find out?"
"Uh huh."
Bakura leaned over and whispered in Mai's ear, "I think she's a moron."
"Well then, you're the perfect one to go with her Bakura!" she replied, standing up and clapping her hands together.
The demon in question almost fell out of his seat, while the young witch looked excited. She had a large smile on her face as she clapped her hands and jumped up and down a little from her spot on the carpet.
"Does she even know how to play?" Joey whispered to Tristan, his friend shrugging.
"Well you two, let's get in the closet!" Mai took Bakura by the scruff of the neck and started walking down the hall, the direction of the closet in the middle of the hallway, the girl following obediently behind her.
Nami was quite happy until Mai grabbed her by her collar and threw both of them into the closet and slammed the door shut, a metallic click being heard as clear as day. She sat there in the dark for a second, blinking stupidly to see if she closed her eyes, the lights would come back on, and stuck her arms out rigidly to the sides to try and feel her surroundings.
When she felt the wall, the witch blindly leapt for it, tripping over items forgotten on the floor, sweaters, jackets, hats and a bunch of cloth like material, as it felt like they were wrapping themselves around her ankles, forcing her to trip and hit the wall, harder than expected. Rubbing her right hand, Nami tried to sooth the pain and then felt around for the door, finding a broom handle, tripping over a bucket, and having something furry fall on her head.
In a split second, the witch freaked and started screaming, even though her common sense told her it was just a mop head, she couldn't help think that it was some giant spider coming to eat her. She jumped back and tripped over the clothes again, and that's when she heard a loud hiss.
"Would you stop that! You're going to--"
She gasped, holding her breath and not daring to move a muscle and somewhere, Bakura doing the same. Nami knew she fell, that was for sure, but what she was laying on was soft and warm, and obviously had something to do with Bakura.
Slowly, she felt around and instantly knew she was on his lap, sprawled all over him, mangled and tangled all in the junk and the closet and his body, along with her own, and she could feel him tense up underneath her belly.
A long, silent moment went by before the albino relaxed a bit and slunk down the wall he was resting against. His hand, for lack of space, was lightly set on her back, not touching or feeling, just laying there, unmoving. Seeing this as a sign to relax a bit, and give a rest to her tense muscles, Nami let out a shaky breath, and slumped and formed to the shape of his lap.
Sitting still, she tried not to make it even more uncomfortable, emotionally, not physically; she was sure both of them were pretty comfortable. The girl shifted her head and took in a deep breath, breathing in a strangely appealing scent. It smelled like cologne, but just a drop to add a pleasing flavor, and not ruin the whole dish.
It was in that, uneventful moment, that something brushed by her sock, a large shiver run down her spine as her eyes widened in the dark. One of the highest-pitched screams, known to man and demons alike, erupted from her throat, and even though she was thoroughly wrapped up in everything in that closet, she jumped up and started thrashing about, throwing her legs and arms everywhere.
It was only so long before all parts of her body had bruises and her head was pounding like great Navaho drums. Then, a swift, but terrible pain came, like a whip snapped at the back of her head and she fell motionlessly to the ground, not even being able to blink. Nami fell right back into Bakura's lap, her head laying in an awkward position on his shoulder as her young eyes stayed wide open, panic still surging through her veins.
Though she was panting heavily, Nami tried to move and struggle just as she had been, but found it impossible to move any part of her body, besides being able to breath and blink regularly. This made her angry, the thought about panic completely leaving her mind, as she tried to thrash about harder, rolling back and forth from her spot, shaking and bouncing madly.
"Stop it, before I completely knock you out."
The witch ceased struggling and stared up at him, his attention clearly focused on the wall. From the slightest light slipping out from the crack underneath the door, she could see that his eyes were narrowed and that his white creamy cheeks seemed darker.
He glanced back at her with a serious look; that's when it clicked. A sharp pain in the back of the neck, being unable to move; Bakura had hit one of her pressure points, like straight out of an old samurai movie, where the old sensei whacks the back of your neck and you fall dead. Only she was lucky enough to live. Then it hit her; that bastard could've killed her!
Nami struggled ferociously, curling up into a ball and slamming her head back, whipping her legs from side to side, and bouncing up and down on his lap, her anger was shown crystal clear to his dark chocolate eyes. Unfortunately, she seemed to have thrashed about a little too much, and lost her balance, causing her body to fall into his chest and her face land snuggly in the crook of his neck.
She blinked a good three times, blood rushing to her face as she tried to tell herself that this wasn't happening, and apparently, Bakura just stopped caring what she was doing. He knew that she was rendered immobile, but for some reason, she expected him to start feeling her up, and being a giant pervert like she heard all demons were, deep down or plain as could be.
Gasping, Nami felt his hand touch her head lightly, and she started shaking involuntarily. 'I knew it. He is just like all the others.' She closed her eyes tightly, using all of her strength to ball her hands into fists, making her knuckles turn white, to brace for all the pain to come. Then her eyes shot open and she blinked thrice.
Relaxing her fists, the girl concentrated on listening as hard as she could, closing her eyes to picture the sound better. Sure enough, a small sound, barely audible was coming from the demon. His hand was on the back of her head, slightly rubbing it and running his long white fingers through her hair as he 'shushed' her softly, trying to calm her. It was a weird sensation, but nevertheless, it was doing it's job.
Her brown eyes lowered dangerously as she squirmed around where she sat, trying to get more comfortable to rest and possibly fall asleep, not really noticing she had control of her body again. She nuzzled her head into his neck and slowly draped her arms around his neck and shoulder, not noticing the surprised look and slightly blush on his face. As all males, he had an automatic system and removed his hand from her hair and place it, with it's partner around her tiny waist, pulling slightly closer and leaning down, resting his chin on her shoulder.
The two stayed like that for a good stretch of time, until Bakura's excellent demon hearing could hear that her breaths were beginning to even out, as her mind slowly lost the battle to the fog, and slowly returned to a land of butterflies and cotton candy clouds. His gazed softened uncharacteristically as he watched her small form vibrate from her breathing, then froze for a second.
Her petite hands had lost all form in them and limply started to slide from their spot on his shoulders, one falling down and resting against his back and the wall, the other…
Bakura huffed and stuck his nose in the other direction, trying not to look at not to do anything, especially because the little witch didn't know she was doing it. He kept his gaze away as a strong blush formed on his cheeks, as his slippery uniform kept bringing her hand down, further and further, right until she was on top of…
A flash of light, several loud screams and laughter, and a loud crash exploded through the apartment, then, a strong white light flashed into Bakura's eyes and he shaded them with his arm. In front of him were shadows of several people, one of them holding a very bright light to his dark tuned eyes.
"Perfect, Bakura! That was the coolest face ever!" a male voice said, with small fits of laughter in between his words.
He growled as he felt his eye twitch, "Joey… I am going to kill you!"
The demon stood up in a rush and threw himself at his blonde enemy, not caring or remembering about the sleeping witch on his shoulder. But that was alright because the flash had woken her up and she was laying dazed on the floor of the closet, until his foot stepped on her face; she cried silently, a waterfall of anime-like tears waving down her cheeks when Mai came over and helped her get up and stand, helping her up and out of the small room.
With Mai's soft hand firmly in place around her waist, Nami hobbled out of the hallway and into the main room, where Bakura was jumping over furniture, people and any objects in his way to prevent him from attacking his prey. Meanwhile, Joey had a giant grin on his face, leaping from couch to chair to table and throwing small, blunt items in his path back at his pursuer.
"No violence!" Nami barely sniffed through her tears.
A few minutes later, everyone was calm and sitting back in the living room, Joey laying on the floor in a heap with a giant lump on his head the size of a soccer ball. Tristan and Mokuba were snickering in the corner with the picture they had taken while the to were in the closet, and Yami was putting the flashlight away in the kitchen.
"Jeez Bakura," Mokie said with a large grin on his face, "I didn't know you and Nami were that close."
She looked up, "We're not that close."
Bakura huffed.
"If you like her that much, maybe you'll wanna play again." Tristan added with a silky tone.
"We're not that close." the girl muttered again. Bakura just looked away.
"I'm sick of that game," Mai whined, acting much like a child, "Let's play a different one."
"Truth or Dare?" Mokuba suggested.
"Alright Nami!" She jumped up as Tristan invaded her personal space, leaning way too close for comfort, "Truth or Dare?"
"Dare?"
He smirked, leaning back and pointing at her, "I dare you to French Bakura!"
Nami blushed and looked away slightly, "Truth."
He frowned a bit, "I truth you to French Bakura!"
"It doesn't work that way," Mai smacked his hand out of the way and inched towards her, her long golden hair falling over her shoulder, "Why don't we play that game?"
Yami glanced at Seto, "I don't think we should--"
"Oh, stop being such a downer! Seto and Mokuba are fine! Besides, the rest of us will be playing too! If anything bad happens…"
Her brown eyes widened as the witch stared at her, "'Anything bad happens'…"
The demoness just smiled sweetly.
The young girl's eyebrow twitch, someone had pulled her string one to many times for a traumatizing encounter, and as quick as a flash, she grabbed the nearest blunt object, her backpack and began swinging it all over the place, not necessarily hitting anything, just letting her emotions out.
"What do you mean 'If anything bad happens'! What exactly is this game! How is my life going to be endangered this time! What game are we going to play! 'Who can eat the appendage fastest'! I'm tired of you demons and your stupid games that are harmful to my bodily health!--"
During her rant, Nami had jumped up onto the table, stomping her feet and swinging her backpack like a weapon, and due to the forces of gravity, when she swung her pack too far one time, she tumbled to a heap on the ground. Some of them snickered as she blushed and sat up, fixing her hair and straightening her skirt.
Hearing the crumpling of paper, she felt her blood freeze and turned around to see Mai, unfolding a balled up piece of paper with a curious look on her face. She reached out, but the demon had already started looking at it.
"Hey, Nami, what is this? It fell out of your backpack. Hey, isn't this one of the papers from that school incident?"
The witch loosened up for a second, glad that the magical ink made it unreadable to her, "I can't tell you." The others looked at her funny, "Magic."
Joey smirked, "Then I use the truth from the game! What does it say?"
She snatched it out of Mai's hands and looked at it for a single second, before using the paper to cover up her smirk, "It has the name of the person I love."
All of the demons gazed at her with wide eyes, then at the small paper in her hands, unconsciously inching closer to see what it said. Even Bakura was as transfixed as everyone else, all trying to see who the one person Nami the Witch loved.
She watched them out of the corner of her eyes, a sneaky and strange smile on her face. They were about to see over the top when… in an instant, she shoved the paper into her mouth, chewing it hurriedly and swallowing it down whole, a large grin on her face after she was done. They all jumped back in surprise, afterwards, Tristan, Joey and Bakura glaring at her and her innocent smile.
"What was that for!" They seethed.
She just smiled, "Now no one will know who I love."
All of them, excluding Mai, looked away in a huff, all in similar positions with their arms crossed tightly over their chests, trying to look cool and act like nothing was wrong. Mokuba looked down and had a small blush line his face, his little fingers curling in his lap, all of this, the little magician had noted.
'Wow, they really want to know about my private life.' she mused.
An awkward silence fell like a cloud over the group, enveloping them all in a haze of goose bumps and shivers. All of their slit-like eyes were darting from place to place, never resting for very long incase she was looking at the same spot, and every few times, they'd glance at her to see where she was looking.
A cough made them all jump, and stare at Kaiba, who had his arms crossed, head down with his eyes closed as he stood in the corner.
"The game." was all he said.
"Oh, right. The game!" Mai cleared her throat and continued, "It's simple. We just blind fold you, dump you somewhere in the forest and you have to find us."
"So, basically, it's just plain Hide and Seek!" Nami nodded to herself.
Only after they had blindfolded her, carried her every which way so that she would be confused as hell, and stuck her in a random spot in the forest, did ShiShi, with his magical guardian cat powers pop out of nowhere. And, as usual, he pointed out exactly what was wrong with this picture.
"You realize that you're blindfolded, thrown into a random spot in the forest, chasing after demons, not to mention hungry vampires, for some stupid game, while they, A: have better reflexes than you, B: have better senses than you, and other demons could show up at any time to try and attack you, and/or eat you."
Nami's hands were feeling the bark on a nearby tree, then she looked up at his voice, "Huh?"
"You're hopeless."
"And you're stuck with me."
He sighed as her foot raised high in the air and stepped past him, tramping through brush and plants as she slowly made her way through the forest. What she didn't realize, is that the demons smelled, heard and possible saw, depending on who, every moment she made while lost in the dense wood, while she walked around blindly like a normal human.
ShiShi paused every once in a while, his little black ears twitching and golden eyes scanning the immense blanket of dark green to match sure that no one popped out to harm her. As unwilling as he was, the guardian trusted the vampire's word that he would not harm his master, but as for any other of the students in the school, he trusted them about as far as he could reach.
His black little ear twitched, and the cat looked to the right, pausing to listen clearly. The pink little nose twitched as ShiShi sniffed the air carefully to examine all the scents. Something seemed off, all of the normal scents of the forest were there, the little bit of demon was still lingering around, but it seemed like one was missing; a page was ripped out of the book.
After another second, and Nami's yelp from running into another tree, he shrugged it off and trotted off, following the whimpers from down the path. When he had left, two red slits glowed, showering the bushes in it's evil light as they followed the cat's form, before shrinking back into the darkness.
When he caught up to her, his witch had her foot stuck in a thorn bush and was yanking on her leg to try and set it free, pausing her effort every few seconds to stick her hand outwards to catch her balance against a tree.
He leaped up onto a nearby rock and lied down comfortably, licking one of his front paws before saying sarcastically, "Having trouble?"
"No!" she shouted stubbornly, at last pulling her leg free and falling to the ground.
It happened to quickly for the lazy and out of shape cat to act, a shadowed figure pounced from somewhere in the woods and snatched up the girl, dragging her off high into the sky, and gone without a trace, leaving the small break in the trees seeming rather empty.
For a moment, ShiShi sat there staring at the spot his master had been but a few seconds before, a cloud of warm air from her body, and the grass still pressed down from where she stood. That was before he lost it. In an instant, he was a black flash, similar to the kidnapper across the bountiful forest, easily having his nose return him to a familiar clearing.
He bounded past the torn and battered trees, where the slight scent of Joey's wolfish form still lingered and straight towards the two giant pillars of wood on the horizon. The cat pressed his heels deep into the ground and roared to a screeching stop, right in front of the first tree, the one all of her friends had taken a small vacation to, the one that caused the second giant to come to be.
Panting, the guardian stared up at the blanket of leaves above him, before looking over to it's sister tree by the stream, faintly seeing the white wisps of magic flowing from one to the other. He gulped and tried to sooth his burning and dry throat before concentrating on the tree, a faint rune glowing on it's trunk.
"You know why I'm here," ShiShi said in a commanding voice, "Now bring them to me."
He closed his eyes and thought that the world was pulling him to the moon, but knew that it was the other way around. In less than an instant, all of his charge's demon friends stood in an arc before the cat and the tree, none passing any words through their lips as a light breeze rustled the leaves.
"Wh… where's Nami?" Mokuba's small and choked words broke the silence, breaking the spell of calm over all of them.
"What the hell happened!" Tristan snarled.
Joey growled loudly, clenching his fist as Mai narrowed her eyes at his side. Yugi bit his lip while his older brother hissed and showed his teeth, Seto not making any real visible move, but his eyes turned into miniscule black slits, as the veins in his white arms and hands protruded.
"Where the hell is she!" Bakura stepped forward, his fangs glistening in the moonlight.
"I was hopping you would know." was the replied, continuing hastily from the glares giving, "About a minute ago she seemingly vanished, but I know her well enough that she was kidnapped."
"Kidnapped!" Yugi repeated.
ShiShi nodded, "I know it was some type of demon, but I can't determine it. I haven't lived here long enough, and your scents seem to keep changing."
"What about hers?"
"That's different."
Yami looked at him quizzically.
"Either way, I can't very much save her as a cat."
"Then don't be a cat." Mokuba pointed out.
"Easier said than done." He noticed their looks again, "I can't very much transform at every little thing."
"You think that her being kidnapped is a 'little thing'!" Bakura raved.
"As far as I know, all of the demons of this school are just curious about her. They wouldn't really try anything, but if they did, I'd be ready to transform at the last minute. Again, I need you're help to get there."
"Where is she?"
The cat looked up, above the tree line to the tops of the buildings beyond the woods, staring directly at the school clock tower. It seemed like a giant tower standing erect in the sky, a symbol of dominance only rivaled by the old tree in the valley.
"The clock tower?"
He nodded.
"Then lets go!"
All of them disappeared as quickly as they had come, the only prove that they had been there were a few leaves, blown around from all the excitement, falling slowly back down to the earth. The cat sighed to himself, before turning back to the tree behind him. He stared at it for a second, his little tail flowing back and forth before running to catch up with the rest of them.
Wherever Nami was, she seemed oddly calm. She was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees which were brought up to her chest, her chin leaning against her knees as she waited. For what, she wasn't exactly sure, but it seemed peaceful at that time, but something kept pricking the hairs on the back of her neck.
The breeze slightly brushed at her face, blowing her hair around and tickling her cheeks, making her smile. Unbeknown to her, three dark figures were watching from behind her, hiding in the shadows of the clock towers eaves, two of them staring at her in fascination, one had his red eyes narrowed, a clear look of dislike on his pale face.
"Fascinating, isn't she?" One mused.
"Quite interesting." The second agreed.
The third scoffed, "You two have lost it. She's just a human, as normal as any other. I don't see why you insist on keeping her alive."
"It's simple," answered the first, "We all hear her heart beat the same; she walks the same, talks the same, but something about her is different." he spoke as he walked around the unsuspecting girl, her weak mortal ears unable to hear their high pitched words, "How could a plain mortal such as her know of our world, much less be able to live in it without constant fear?"
"You speak nonsense." The third almost snarled, "You know that she gets afraid. We've seen it!"
"You speak the truth," the second butted in, "But some mystery yet remains. She is one who knows fear, but she knows it not like a regular human. Only when there is danger in front of her or if she is surprised as she felt the effects of fear course through her veins. One would think being with all of these predators would make her nervous in the very least."
"What are you saying?"
"We're saying: This girl probably has some special powers."
This perked the third's interest, "What kind of powers?"
"Of that, we are not sure."
"Then let us feast on her blood and see what happens."
"You are impatient. What if her blood contains something that could kill us? We know not what she possesses, and that is why we do not act." The second preached, turning around to gaze upon the girl.
The last huffed, crossing his arms in defeat. The first had walked up to her and kneeled down, gaze with his deep red eyes upon her small and fragile form, bringing his hand up, only millimeters away from her face as he paused there, about to stroke her seemingly soft skin.
"Yuu, if you dare move any closer, I'll snap your neck and freed your corpse to the dogs."
The first slowly lowered his hand, rising gracefully and in a fluid movement to his feet and turned to face Seto, who's fiery blue eyes burned with the coldest flame. He spoke in the same high pitched voice that Nami could not hear, and therefore she remained in her unmoving and relaxed position.
"Seto, the last I heard, you were friends with one of those 'mutts'. I doubt he would want to hear that kind of talk; that could ruin your wonderful friendship." Yuu spoke with a joking and calm tone, as if the two were good friends, yet his voice was deep and enchanting.
"Leave her alone and I might let you live."
Yuu smiled.
At that time, the rest of the gang had made it up to the top of the clock tower, and stood poised, ready for a fight. Joey, who sensed something wrong, as if he knew that they were talking about him, due to the hair on the back of his neck raised, stepped forward and growled.
"You let her go!"
For the first time, Nami heard noise and was completely shocked. Her reflexes sent her six feet into the air, her arms waving up and down frantically at her sides as a scream of pure surprise and adrenaline left her throat. The motion, combined with being on top of the windy clock tower pushed her over towards the edge, where she started to fall…
Yeah, I know. Gone for an eternity and now back with a cliff hanger. But, you get what you pay for. Which is nothing! Muahaha! Ja matte ne, minna!
