A/N: I have been wanting to write something like this for a while but since I already have two on-going stories, I was a bit hesitant to start a new one. The title, 'Until Midnight' has very little to do with the story, I made plans on paper and it was getting late so I decided to write until twelve and then go to sleep, that inspired the title.
Darkness was starting to settle on a town near the palace walls. The town was separated from the main one by a short distance, that was were all the palace workers, like guards, lived. A boy not much older than 13 was outside with a few other kids near his age, they had stayed out the whole day but now their parents were starting to call them back home. They knew that the darkness would come quickly when the sun started setting and it was better to be in doors by the time it did.
One boy was called by a taller tanned and bald man. The man was in duty in the palace tonight and since the third member of their small family was having her priestess training, the youngest member would have to be alone that night unless he came with his older brother to the palace. They had made it so that the boy would go with his brother and stay in a small servant room as the older took care of his duties.
The young boy was commonly known as Malik, he lived with his adopted older brother and sister near the palace. When their parents had died five years ago in the great fire that nearly burned down the whole town, Rishid, the oldest of the three, had made their guardian. Rishid had been adopted by their parents when they still lived and had became a permanent part of the family. The older sister Isis was a priestess in training and because of that, she was away a lot, leaving the other two by themselves.
Torches were lit to drive away the night. They entered the palace grounds through a small door, hidden from the viewers. The boy was shown to his room and told to go to bed. Of course he was too excited to go to sleep yet so he stayed up and looked around, first in the room, then he glanced out from the small window. He was told not to leave the room until his brother came for him in the morning but his curiosity was starting to get the best of him. How could he pass up this chance to explore?
Slowly he peeked out of the door, seeing a servant in the end of the hall, coming closer, he quickly with threw his head and waited for the servant to pass the door. When he heard the footsteps getting farther away from the door, he carefully looked out again. Seeing no one he stepped out and closed the door after him, careful not to cause any sound, he made his way down the hallway. Making sure that no one saw him by being on constant look-out, peeking behind corners and glancing behind him, even hiding once from a guard and running quickly away when he saw a person coming towards him.
The fast pace he was moving around with made him get lost quickly. Malik no longer had any idea where he was or how he could get back to his room. There was really not that much to see in this part of the palace anyway and he was a bit disappointed. Just endless hallways with dull stone walls and a few people here and there. Everything looked the same...
"Hey! What are you doing here?" Yelled an angry voice from behind him and he bolted to run. Footsteps followed him no matter how fast he ran and he was known to be a fast runner.
Starting to panic, he ran through the halls and past many rooms, bumping to someone on the way but not caring. The chasers seemed to be multiplying, if anything could be concluded by the sounds of running feet behind him. He knew that he was in deep shit now and regret ever leaving the safety of his room. His siblings had always told him that he should learn how to control his curiosity and stop sticking his nose into other people's busyness. He should have listened to them when he still had the chance. Now he was probably going to jail from trespassing and he would never see his family again.
Malik prayed the gods that they would save him or just make the ground swallow him, anything as long as it got him out of this.
One should also be careful what they ask for, they might just get it.
In the darkness of the night, a lone figure made his way through the palace grounds, skillfully avoiding the guards. Bakura hadn't got the title of the King of the Thieves by getting caught after all.
His red cloak flapped behind him as he ran and pressed against a wall near the way in to the palace. Making sure that no one would see him slip in, he opened the door enough for him to fit in and stepped in to the torch lit space. The destination wasn't far from here, if the information he had gotten from his inside man was true. The fools who wanted the riches he could attain were always handy.
Little did he expect to hear yelling and running footsteps farther down the halls. The guards were chasing some little punk around the halls, yelling like madmen and paying little attention to anything else. This proved to be an unexpected blessing to the thief, now he could just walk in, take the goods he was after and walk back out again, odds were that no one even noticed him before it was too late and he was long gone. He smirked, making a mental note to thank the brat for this distraction, if he ever got the chance.
Not wasting any time, the man made his way quickly to the chamber the goods were kept and slipped in. he took out his sack and started stuffing in the valuables. That was when some barged in, making him turn around quickly, only to see a boy leaning against the door, clearly out of breath. He counted two plus two and got that this must be the same brat the guards were after. The thief cursed under his breath, if the kid was here, the guards would be here soon too.
The little boy's eyes grew wide as he realized that he was not alone in the room. The thief took out a knife and pressed it against the small throat in a fluid motion and the boy gasped.
"Are the guards still after you?" The man asked and the boy shook his head as much as the knife would let him.
"N-no, I think I lost them..."He whispered carefully. Why was it that just when he had lost the guards, he found himself in even more trouble? Malik had just bolted behind the corner to get away from his chasers and quickly closed himself in the nearest room he could find. It just happened to be the room Bakura was in, just his luck.
"Don't make a sound or I'll have to slit your throat." The man started his standard threats for anyone who walked in on him. The boy didn't make a sound, just stood still as if paralyzed.
Their heads snapped up as they heard the guards run past the door. Malik sighed in relief, if the guards had barged in, he would surely be dead by now.
Bakura decided that he had all he needed and could carry and that it was best if he just left while the guards were still bysu with finding the boy. Just what to do with him? Normally he just killed whoever had seen him in the act but it would be a shame to kill this one. As a thief, he could appreciate pretty things, such as the boy.
Making a quick decision, he grabbed the boy and gagged him with a piece of cloth, the boy made a muffled sound as he bid his hands with a short rope. As a thief he also came well prepared in all situations. He threw the boy to his shoulder, the treasure to the other and made his way out of the room, making sure not to be seen.
His midnight black horse was waiting a little way of the wall. Mounting the horse and placing the boy in front of him and loading the treasure behind them, he gave the horse a signal to get moving and the horse was quick to gallop into the night, disappearing from sight into the darkness.
Malik didn't know what he had gotten himself into but he feared the worst. He had heard horrible stories of what happened to little children that were kidnapped by thieves. Some say that they ate children for dinner with wine and made clothes out of their skin. Then again, he had heard from the older kids that it was just a way to keep the children from wandering into the dark alone and keep them away from all the strange men. He just hoped that it was true.
Malik glanced back at his kidnapper. He saw his shoulder length grayish white hair flowing in the wind and sharp silver eyes looking ahead. He turned his eyes away and looked ahead of him, not seeing very far because of the thick darkness. Malik wondered if the thief saw where he was going and just hoped that was the case, it wouldn't be very fun to ride off a cliff or something like that.
Bakura had noticed the boy glance at him from the corner of his eye. He absentmindedly wondered what was going through that little head but then decided to concentrate in ridding though his horse knew the way, he just liked to feel like he was in control of things.
They were starting to get close to his current hideout and the horse was slowing down. Soon they came to a full stop and he dismounted the horse, grabbing the goods, and the boy, with him. They went to a cave and in the distant wall he found a certain spot on the wall and pressed it, opening the wall. The opening was rather small but enough for him to fit in with his treasure. In the cave were others who turned to see who came in but soon went back to their own busynesses, except for the ones who had noticed the boy on Bakura's shoulder. They looked with great interest as the man passed them to go to his own room, carved on the cave wall.
Much to his annoyance, there seemed to be some sort of commotion going on in his room. He left the goods, and Malik, in the larger space and went to see what was going on.
Malik was left behind and he looked around with large eyes. All he could see were the shady men who stared at him like he was some kind of exotic treat. He backed as far against the wall as he could. The voices in the other room were getting louder before calming down again, all Malik was able to make out was that someone had tried to steal someone's valuables but was caught red handed.
"Aren't you a pretty little thing..." Someone said, snapping Malik's attention back to now quickly. "What's you name?" The one to address him was an older man with only one eye. He removed the gag so that he could answer.
"T-that's none of your busyness!" Malik said with defiance. The men laughed all around, sending various comments to the man's direction.
"Heh... Do I need to teach you some manners?" The person asked and reached out to grab Malik's chin. He struggled against the hold but it was no use. He felt the man let go, however, as something rather big was thrown at him.
"Don't touch him." Told Malik's kidnapper from the door way. The thing that had hit the man was another person and the man tried to get the literally dead weight off of him.
"Get up." Bakura told to the boy and dragged him up from the floor by the arm, pulling him closer in the proses. "Anyone who touches what's mine will end up like him." He nodded in the direction of the man laying on the floor. "Got it?" The other people in the room just nodded or mumbled something inaudible. "Good. You come with me."
Malik half walked, was half dragged to the other space, separated by a curtain. He looked around and saw a bed in the middle and next to the walls were piles and piles of expensive looking clothing and jewelry. The sack of the resent goods were thrown into the pile and so was Malik. He landed painfully on his backside and cried from the pain a bit. He glared at the man who jumped to lay down on the bed. So he was a part of his personal treasure now?
The boy noticed that his wrist were still tied together and started bitting the rope in order to get it to open. Bakura took notice of this and walked to him, kneeling down.
"Don't act like some animal." He said, taking the binded wrists and untying the knot himself. Malik looked at him warily, refusing to believe that he was just being nice to him. "You can't wear that dirty thing." He gestured towards Malik's clothing, which used to be white but had been dirtied by the sand and had became gray-brown color.
Bakura turned to dig something out from the huge pile of clothing and finding what he was looking for, tossing it to Malik. "Put that on."
Malik looked down on the clothing, it was a pale purple tunic. He looked at it with slight distaste, wrinkling his nose at it.
"What?" Asked Bakura, noticing the expression on the other's face. "You don't like it?" Malik shook his head. "Too bad because you really have no other choice." Malik looked up at him.
"Are you going to eat me?" He asked carefully. Bakura looked at him, not expecting the question and then bursting laughing. Malik took that as a 'no'.
A/N: Short, yes, but once I get things rolling the chapters will be longer, promise :) My first time writing Citronshipping... I guess you could say that there's a minor shota warning too but nothing too bad, see? It's rated only T. So what do you think? I want some honest opinions here.
Review please!!
