Fever Dreams
a short one by The Pop Tart Spirits

Review, please. I like to know what my readers are thinking; it helps me write.

He surfaced for the third time, gasping. No matter how deeply he dove, the glittering of silver was always too far away. Grumbling to himself about magic pools, Jonouchi suddenly shivered. Looking up, he realized how late it had gotten.

That was the thing about this dream. It followed a generally normal sense of time. Also, it was quite realistic in that its nocturnal monsters were more vicious and prone to attacking than those that woke by day. Jou glared at the offending sun, which to his annoyance ignored him, and readied his body for one more dive. After this, he told himself, I'll have to figure out where to camp in this oasis. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of shelter...

Distracted, he dove... and his fingers dug into silky mud. By not focusing on his goal, he'd managed to make it to the bottom.

He glanced around for the source of that silver flickering, and saw it just to his right. Hauling himself along the bottom, he came up to the beckoning gleam and saw that it was a small silver casket. More confused than ever now, he picked it up and pushed off the bottom.

Sitting at the water's edge, already dry from the harsh desert air and back in his dream clothes, Jou regarded the casket. It was about the size of his hand and ornately worked with swirling designs. "What are you?" Jou asked it quietly. "Did you make it impossible for someone to actively pursue you? Are you going to curse me if I open you?"

The casket, being a casket, did not answer; Jou solved his dilemma by grabbing the thing and throwing its catch open.

Nothing happened. Peering inside, Jou found a lot of water, and a sodden velvet bag. When he pried open the bag, a lump of waterlogged paper and a ring fell out. Jou wished to all the heavens that the paper had been intact. He remembered The Lord of the Rings with some trepidation. Finally, he decided to simply pocket the ring -

"Of course this shit doesn't have pockets," he murmured, and sending up a silent prayer, he slipped the ring on to his right ring finger.

Nothing happened. Nodding and rolling his eyes at his fear, Jou made to slip it off so he could study it. It didn't budge. "Great!" he yelled, yanking on his finger.

A growl answered directly behind him. Jou froze, and turned very, very slowly.

Standing five feet away was the biggest -

He snapped awake. "FUCK!" he yelled, bucking in the bed. The nurse, who'd come in to change his bag, screamed and jumped. Jou noticed her and apologized multiple times, but she was graceful and simply changed the back, smiled, said "It's all right, you just startled me," and backed out.

Jou settled back down and went about the laborious process of falling asleep again.

He was almost there when, unbidden, a thought of Kaiba popped into his mind. He drowsed a bit, smiling, thinking of how Kaiba had jumped the orderlies and thrown the doctor around. After all the screaming fights they'd had, it was good to know that Kaiba actually liked him as a person enough to visit. Who knows, maybe he'll come ag...

- bear he'd ever seen. What the fuck? Jou thought frantically. I'm in the fucking desert! There's no bears in the fucking DESERT! And it's ORANGE!! What the FUCK?!!

Then the bear reared, and Jou forgot every survival program he'd ever seen. He turned and ran. FindaweaponfindaweaponfindaYEOWTCH! The bear swiped at his back with a gargantuan paw and knocked him sideways into the pool. Jou felt fire on his back and side, and knew he was bleeding. He squished into the mud at the bottom of the pool and looked up at his adversary. The bear looked almost toy-like from down there. Jou sat down, not feeling particularly stressed for breath, and leaned back on his hands.

His left hand went through the mud and touched something hard beneath the muck. Curious, Jou turned and grasped the object. It came free slowly, shlucking out of the mud, and Jou triumphantly held the buster blade aloft underwater. It was six feet in length, one in width. It reminded Jou of Advent Children. Now, he thought, how to get the fuck out of this water without coming up right under the bear...

He'd forgotten about the ring.

All of a sudden, he was lifted bodily out of the water and set gently on his feet across the pool from the bear, which looked between him and the pool in confusion. Jou hefted the sword -

and promptly dropped it. "Fuck!" he swore, "things are always so much lighter under water!" Speaking of which, how did I get out of - FUCK! BEAR!

He'd forgotten about the ring. Again.

Instinctively Jou brought the sword to bear and swung at the creature in terror. It collided with the beast's arm with a thunk and a gush of blood, and the bear howled in agony. Jou stared. The arm had been cleaved to the bone.

The bear decided Jou was no longer easy prey, and loped away on three legs, whimpering. Jou lifted the sword again, and went to clean it. Then he noticed how big it was. "How in the hell? OW!" The ring had constricted on his finger. "Oh, so you're gonna help me, huh?" No more constriction. "Hokay. That's good. I hope you know how to find civilization, too, because I've been travelling for days and haven't seen a thing."

The ring instantly shot a beam of light into the distance. No matter which way Jou moved his hand, the beam of light pointed solidly in the same direction.

"Cool... okay, so how about shelter for tonight?" The ring fell dark. Jou laughed. "Guess that's up to me, then..."

Then he noticed he was no longer wounded. Was it the ring, or the water? he wondered silently, then shrugged, swung the blunt side of the sword up on to his shoulder, and went to shimmy up a palm tree. Unlike in reality, he was instantly asleep.

He spent three more dream days in the desert. Dream time was in no way attached to reality, so it was about a week. He could see some sort of city in the distance, and was finding the energy to run instead of trudge towards it when he woke up. He sighed, no longer prone to cursing when it happened, and was about to roll over when he noticed another presence in the room. Astonished, he cried, "I didn't expect you to come back!"

Seto Kaiba smiled slightly. "I keep my promises, mutt."

Jou no longer bristled at the 'mutt'. He secretly saw it as a kind of pet name, and had no idea how right he was. Kaiba had unconsciously incorporated the insult into his daily vocabulary and no longer said it with any kind of rancor.

Jou sat up and drew up his knees, hugging them to his chest. "How's life?" He was like a child, so starved for company. Kaiba would have pitied him if he hadn't understood all too well. "Life is," he said simply. "I've got the company, school and Mokuba."

"Oh yeah, school," Jou said faintly. "Don't really miss that..."

"Were you really doing as poorly as we were all led to believe?" Kaiba asked with a smile. He knew, of course, that he wasn't. Seto Kaiba kept tabs of everything.

Jou had the grace to blush. "Nah, not that bad. I just didn't test well."

"Well, you'll be happy to hear that the DuelDome is working quite well. Mokuba invited Yugi and company over for a quite successful test run." Kaiba didn't add that he'd had the nearly orgasmic pleasure of turning the settings up all the way and watching Yami Yugi battle through all of it. Something he hoped no one would ever find out: his love was for Jou and the Game... his lust was for the dark half of Yugi Moto. Especially when he dueled.

Jou grinned. "I can't wait to play it myself. Is it even better than that virtual reality thing we did that one time?"

"So much better," Kaiba said. "Your soul isn't even at risk."

Jou chuckled a bit at that. Then something struck him, wiping the smile from his face and causing him to stare unabashedly at Kaiba. The CEO, not expecting the expression, blushed faintly before he got himself under control. Jou had realized that while he had never considered himself gay, just open, he was very close to falling in something with Seto Kaiba. Not love, he wouldn't go that far, but... something. Something that made him extremely happy, whereas before his confinement he would have gotten drunk and/or stoned to forget about it.

"What, mutt?" Kaiba asked after the silence had stretched too long. Jou shook his head, smiled shyly. "Nuuuthin'. Hey, you never finished telling me about Mokuba's pet project."

If Seto Kaiba had not been Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corp and a very highly esteemed business individual, the nurse would have had to pry him away at eight o'clock. But being who he was, he simply said goodbye and went.

Falling asleep was even harder. Jou was glad they'd given him drugs, or he wouldn't have been able to do much else than lie there and grin...

What is this city called? Jou asked the ring silently. The information simply popped into his mind, like it had been there all along and he was simply remembering. He'd grown accustomed to this type of 'conversation' since he'd first found the ring. He was a bit wary of it at first, but thusfar the ring had shown no signs of wanting anything more than to be helpful.

The city had once been called City of Desert Storm, and had been a shelter for all manner of folk during the fierce sandstorms. Jou understood those; he'd already miraculously survived two of them. Now, however, the city was decrepit and rundown, and was called Shadow City. It was a haven for lowlifes and sellswords, run by a lord whose reputation put to his credit at least a thousand kills, two hundred women in his harem, and an entire host of magic users. The information was slightly tainted with someone's distaste; Jou wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't realized that he was suddenly prone to prejudices he couldn't have possibly had. He knew it wasn't the ring's. Even from the beginning, Jou had known that the ring itself wasn't a sentient entity. There was someone behind it - someone who did not at all like Nykides, Lord of the Shadows.

This is all just more and more like a D&D campaign, Jou thought to himself. I wish I'd played more. Then - wait, there are people here?

But as he approached the enormous, weather-worn gates, he knew it was not so.

Whoever fed information to the ring was either about fifty years behind the times, or was a ghost himself. The city was motionless save for the skritching of rats and the settling of dust, empty save for corpses. These were desiccated to bone and sinew.

Jou poked at the grisly remains with the tip of his sword, having become quite accustomed to carrying and wielding the thing. It still stunned him at times to see the size of it, but he'd worked out a training routine for every dream-morning that worked every muscle in his body with the sword. Although he had no mirror, he knew his dream self was well on its way to becoming ripped.

Now if it would only transfer to the pale, skinny self on the other side...

He found nothing in the bodies but the faded rags of their clothing, which meant that something had come along after all the death and carried away their valuables.

But what?

Now that he'd gotten to the city, Jou decided to explore every nook and cranny. He tentatively pushed open the door to the nearest building, and it creaked open with a shower of termite dust. Inside were the furnishings appropriate for a dwelling near the gates - cheap and simple. The richer buildings would be nearer to the Palace - and again with the just knowin' stuff! Jou thought, irritated. Makes me sound like I'm a walkin' encyclopedia. The closest I ever got to this stuff was D&D - I never read fantasy or watched anime.

But he did want to see some of the more opulent housing, so he eased back out of the doorway and set off down the main road.

All of his exploring took two more weeks, as he was encouraged to be thorough. Not a living creature was to be found - even the rats seemed to be invisible, though he could hear them. The highlights of these weeks of fruitless searching were Kaiba's two visits.

"Hmm... this ring. It's silver, unadorned, and fits like it was made for you?"

"Yeah," Jou said, toying with the sheets. "And the weird thing is it's like the guy who made it is still around somewhere, guiding me - what?"

Kaiba was frowning. "I don't like the sound of that, mutt. Let me do some research, and I'll get back to you on it... oh. Mokuba wanted to know if there are any dragons."

Mokuba cares, too? "Nope, nothing so far. I'm still in the city, remember? And when I say deserted, I mean deserted. There aren't even any bugs." Jou hugged his knees. "I'm so glad they let me wake up every once in awhile. I don't know what I'd do if I were stuck alone in that place all the time..." he shuddered.

His senses dulled by time spent in sleep, Jou didn't notice Kaiba move until he was cradled in his arms. "Wha-" he yelped softly. Kaiba had buried his face in Jou's neck. "Don't talk like that, Jonouchi," Kaiba said, using his name instead of 'puppy' or 'mutt'. Jou colored brightly. "Kaiba, what are you -" He shut up as sapphire eyes gazed into his. "Don't talk as though you'll ever be alone. I won't allow that kind of talk, and I especially will not allow you to be alone."

"Really?" Jou asked, childlike again. Kaiba allowed himself a chuckle. "Really."

They gazed into one anothers' eyes for a quietly joyful eternity.

Then they both became acutely aware that Jou was perched on Kaiba's lap. And the nurse was due any minute.

They sprang apart faster than Jonouchi could track. He was getting kind of sick of that, really. Annoyed and... he leaned over the side of the bed and vomited.

Kaiba was instantly back on the bed, his strong arms holding Jou as he retched. His frown grew deeper. "Are they even feeding you anymore?"

"S-sure," Jou said weakly, pointing to the tubes strung up next to the bed. "Those green ones. They go in to here," and he pointed to his side.

Kaiba pinched the tubes lightly and felt something liquid running through. He nodded slowly, not letting go of Jou. "If you're not going to complain..."

Jou's face took on a determined look. "I want to finish this goddamn dream, Kaiba. I have to know where it ends."

Hopefully not with your death, Kaiba thought, but forced himself to smile.

He left, feeling troubled, as Jonouchi explained his mess to the nurse. There's something not right about all of this, now that there are more pieces falling into place, he thought. I hope I can solve it, before...

There was no point to finishing that sentence. Seto Kaiba, who had seen death many times before, pursed his lips and shoved open the door.

IN MY DEFENSE:

- The ring's light was taken from Howl's Moving Castle; the man is brilliant. I pay him homage.

- Yes, Jou has one of Cloud's swords. Sue me. Oh, please. You'll get my debts.

- The ring is a plot point, not a pointless reference to LotR.

Look, the only reason I said what I did about reviews is because I never get any - and I work really hard on my stories. Take Orion, for example. Fourteen chapters - 67 reviews. I've seen stories with TWO chapters that have hundreds. How exactly is that fair? And please don't just say it's because their story doesn't suck. Orion has its weak points, but for what it is it certainly doesn't suck.

I want this story to be recognized soon, because it's only going to be four or five chapters long. After you finish stories, if they're not amazingly graphic sex scenes, they fall right off the map. I think the idea for this story is interesting and I'm having fun writing it - I want to know that others are enjoying it too. I guess I should have worded my request differently - I don't just want reviews for reviews. I want constructive feedback. I want to know what was running through your head as you read it, what you found funny, etc.

Bear with me, eh? And you'll have the third chapter soon. Kaiba will make more sense in it, I think.