Die: *sigh* I'm not so proud of this chapter. Still, I don't really have any other ideas about what to happen next, so I'll live with it.
Bakura: ... Please tell me this isn't filler.
Melvin: If it's filler, I'm going to rip your head off and mount it above my door.
Die: Don't you do that anyway, Melvin? And anyway, this isn't filler. It's the chapter where you find a handful of things out, and there's some light fluff!
Bakura: My Ra, shoot me now. A fluff chapter. *pauses* How fluffy is it?
Die: As fluffy as Ryou.
Melvin: By Ra, we're all doomed.
Marik: This story was inspired by Spice and Wolf, but the plotline is drastically different and will have no real connection to Spice and Wolf for too much longer.
Ryou: *smiles cutely* Black Die does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! She does, however, own a picture of me and Kura!
Chapter Three: The Dangers of Trust
xx~~West~~xx
"Rock a bye baby, on the treetop/ when the wind blows, the cradle will rock/ when the bow breaks, the cradle will fall/ and down will come baby, cradle and all," a voice sang from the prison block, followed by insane laughter from the shadowy part of the cell it originated from.
"Hey! Quiet down in there, demon!" a guard yelled, pushing his spear in the general direction of the source in hopes that he would pierce the skin of the singer, but all he did was gain a hand moving impossibly fast out from the shadows to smack the metal point of the weapon to the concrete ground, claws sprouting from slender fingers to dig into the sturdy wood, the laughter stopping just as suddenly as it had come. The demon had deigned to respond to his captors.
"Do not underestimate me, mortal," a voice hissed, unnatural emerald eyes gleaming from the darkness and seeming to go directly through the poor man. "I can handle your little stick far better than you ever could. After all, it was my little brother Bakura who invented the damn thing in the first place." As if sensing the stiffness in his body, the product of fear, Zelophehad lunged forward, pressing his surprisingly lithe body against the bars so closely he almost seemed to go straight through them like a phantom, his tail sneaking through the gaps between the metals to fall against the man's arm and draping around it like a lover. The entire experience was too much for the poor man who then fled, screaming at the top of his lungs, from the neko boy who had fallen over himself with giggles that did not speak of normalcy.
"Don't do that!" a voice protested from above, catching the glance of a single emerald eye upwards through the grate.
"And whyever not, Duke?" he asked, the tips of three fingers concealing the majority of a cruel smile and successfully holding back more of the giggling. "It is hardly my fault that normal mortals are prone to shitting their pants when I am not even trying to scare them, never mind when I actually begin to play with them a little."
"Yeah, well, cut it out. It's cruel and unbecoming to taunt people like that."
He rolled his eyes. "Fine fine, take away what little entertainment I can provide myself here." With a light yawn, he rearranged himself on the floor with his legs pulled up to his chest and his chin resting on a cupped palm. "So have you managed to secure my Item yet?"
"Not quite. I got an offer for it when the man saw me looking at it during the late-night service, but I didn't want to take it until I learn exactly why it's so important."
"Because the true owner of Millennium Items such as those made by us pagan gods holds power over the creator of said item. Obedience is hardly the least of such power, hence why I cannot leave this place without my Anklet." He yawned in boredom, leaning his torso back on the arms he planted behind himself and draping one leg across the other, leaning back so that his entire body was flaunted to the other, the light smirk on his face almost daring the other to rake his jade eyes down that lithe body with its slight muscles. Duke bashfully turned his head, pointedly fixing his gaze on the stained glass window across the courtyard from them, and Zelophehad couldn't contain an amused laugh at his modesty. "Go on, you may leave me. I shall not repeat the actions, as entertaining as they are to me."
"You'd better not otherwise I'll leave you here to find your own way loose," Duke warned, turning his back and walking away.
As he'd expected, the neko started singing once more as soon as the other male had been removed from his eyesight, but only to start another child's ditty. "Three blind mice/ three blind mice/ See how they run?/ See how they run?/ They all ran after the farmer's wife/ who cut off their tails with a carving knife/ have you ever seen such a thing in your life/ as three blind mice?" he sang, then dissolved into another fit of giggles, though these seemed a little more sorrowful than the last, which had been almost mocking, and they hung in the air long after the source had stopped emitting the sound. He couldn't help feeling a little guilty at the sound; he hadn't inquired about the thing the neko had been so insistent upon receiving, wondering had kept him awake the last few hours and thus led to him returning to the cell to obtain answers. Zelophehad fascinated him, even after this current meeting that revealed a rather disturbed side of the spirit, and he had to admit the idea of holding some power over the other was an intreuging one, especially if it ensured the neko would travel with him. Zelophehad would prove a wonderful solution to his monotony, and he was determined to keep the boredom away even if it meant the neko thirsted for his blood.
His boot slipped on something that made a grinding sound on the ground as it met the unforgiving stone, Duke's quick shift of weight back onto his other foot being the only thing that kept him from meeting the stone himself, and he paused and bent down to see what it was exactly that he had found. A golden gleam met his eyes from the moonlight, the simple golden-and-leather-interlaced chain holding up a handsome pure golden eye, though the surface was a little rough and dirty from its stay in the dirt. Shrugging, Duke pocketed the item without a second thought, deciding he'd need a good night's sleep before he could return to the problem of retrieving the Millennium Anklet from the wrist of the Church.
xx~~North~~xx
Bakura easily picked out which house belonged to Ryou once he'd started exploring the outskirts of the village, figuring the smaller boy to be more fond of the relative isolation rather than the bustle of the inner square, especially given that the remainder of the village saw no problem with throwing the poor boy down into a very deep gorge for animals to pick what little meat he had on his bones—seriously, he was so skinny even Bakura, eternal lover of meat, would've thought twice about choosing the other as his meal if they had met in any other situation. Still, the place held so much of little Ryou's scent that it was obvious the place had been absent of visitors for a long time, other than the myriad of light, fading scents, no doubt from when he was taken. Assuming the other had worn the Ring as a necklace, he let his nose guide him rather than ask the very quiet boy clinging to his back tightly and constricting his arms from its usual range of movement, his tail protesting quietly against being smushed to Bakura's back by Ryou's pelvis but being adamantly ignored in favor of more important matters, such as locating the Ring. Belatedly, he wondered if he had scared Ryou by snarling curses at him when he had screamed earlier while he was scaling the cliff, but he shrugged the concern from his shoulders, more than used to hearing nothing more than the howl of the wind.
Not bothering to pick the locks on the door, he simply kicked the thing in, noticing absently that the splinters on the ground surely had to be the result of someone earlier having the same idea. "Um," Ryou ventured tentatively, the first thing he'd said since Bakura had gotten mad at him earlier, "the door wasn't locked."
"If you think I give a damn, fluffy, then you're wrong 'cuz I don't," the neko snarled in reply, causing Ryou's small form to flinch against his back. Absently, he wondered if the human was always this scared of everything or if it seemed to be something reserved specifically for him. This familiarity with the smaller's fear-scent helped him, however, because he could easily isolate the trail from where the idiotic villagers had dragged Ryou from the house and trace it back to the crawlspace he'd been hiding in. The space was rather tiny, there would be barely enough room in it for Bakura if he was in his other form, never mind his true one. He frowned, his head leaning forward as he focused his narrowed mahogany eyes on the darkened space of the wedge-like area as it trailed off into a smaller point. "Ryou," he said, reluctant to admit that the area was just the kind of swallowing darkness that only Zelophehad would have been able to see through, "where's the Millennium Ring?"
"I slid it to the back corner so that they wouldn't be able to take it from me and sell it to some passing merchant."
"Of course you did," Bakura sighed, the words 'fuck my life' coming to his mind. "Any idea how to get it back?" He really didn't feel like having to go back outside to find a curved stick to fish his precious Millennium Ring out, and even now the Ring wasn't responding to his attempts to summon it back around his neck where it belonged.
Ryou nodded. "Maybe if I focus on it, it'll appear on my chest?" At the glare Bakura threw over his shoulder, he wilted, doe eyes widening in alarm. "Sorry, sorry, it was a dumb idea!"
"How did you find that out?" the neko roared, his whole body taunt with his anger and the barely-restrained urge to throw Ryou from his back. "Tell me!"
"I- I accidentally dropped it down the well one time, and when I was crying about it at the house, the next thing I knew, there was weight around my neck and it was back!" He burst out crying then, frightened into tears by the murderous expression on the other male's face. "Don't kill me, Bakura, please! I don't want to be alone again!" A slender something pierced the skin of the neko's back when the smaller hugged him tighter, those slim arms more constricting than any foe he'd ever faced before, causing him to yelp with pain as his ears twitched to the side, but with the smooth sensation of gold against his bare skin, he knew that somehow, Ryou had recalled the Ring from the depths of that crawlspace and it was now hanging around his fragile neck. Once again, the words 'fuck my life' came to Bakura's mind.
xx~~East~~xx
"Now who's the one showing so much attention to the mortals?" Yugi teased when he saw Yami sitting at the pool that allowed them to gaze upon the mortal realm, the normally-confident Pharaoh's tail moving back and forth with concern and uncertainty. "Yami?"
"I heard you, aibou," he answered absently, his ears looking more like Yugi's than his own.
Yugi sat himself down on the rim of the pool, pulling his mirror over to rest with his head against the smaller's chest. "What's wrong, Yami? This isn't like you."
"I'm scared, Yugi," he confessed softly, taking comfort in the steady play of his mate's hand over his ears. "Did I make the right choice by sending the others to the mortal world? I mean, Zelophehad has those occasional touches of true insanity, Bakura's never really been one for companionship especially since he received his domain, and Melvin isn't above killing people if they get in his way or annoy him." Feeling the chest beneath him inflating with an inhalation of air, he added, "And don't try to tell me they weren't like that before those humans caught them, aibou, because they were. Trust me, I governed them from the day they were born. They've never been ones for kindness. They're proud, arrogant, and stubborn. The three of them have never changed, aibou, and I doubt they ever will. I fear I sentenced those three boys to their deaths by pairing them with those three psychos."
"It's all right, Yami," Yugi soothed, unable to resist dropping a kiss on his mate's forehead. "It'll be okay, I promise you. The Items will keep them from killing the others, and I doubt Bakura would let anything happen to the one holding his precious Ring. Melvin's already proved himself willing to protect the Rod and its holder."
"But what about Zelophehad?" Yami insisted. "Don't you remember when we banished him?
The black-haired male was chained to his post, his emerald eyes mocking them with his jerks on the silver shackles that were strong enough to start yanking the wood straight from the ground, though he obviously had no intention of fleeing his punishment, especially considering how the tip of his ebony-furred tail could have easily picked the lock of the cell he'd been kept inside. He threw his head back, insane laughter tearing from his lips inbetween the lyrics of a haunting song—" Ring around the rose-y/ pockets full of pose-y/ ashes to ashes/ we all fall down!"
"I- I've never been so glad to see someone banished in my entire life," Yugi confessed, shivering at the echoes of the hollow laughter brought by the recollection. "But I have faith in Zelophehad. He'll turn everything around. He doesn't want to be insane anymore."
Yami frowned, pulled back to look up at his mate's distraught face. "And how did you come to that conclusion, aibou?"
"Because he asked me to kill him before he went to trial."
xx~~South~~xx
By this point, Marik was well-used to wearing the concealing, dirty tan tunics that were made of a rough burlap only a few shades lighter than his skin. However, he had to admit that it didn't do Melvin any justice, even if the fabric clung closer to his bronze skin than it did Marik's and the neko had adorned himself with whatever gold jewelry he could find. He shrunk back slight when the neko turned to him but didn't protest when he was gently examined for injuries. "Hm," the larger mused to himself, "nothing on those wrists or ankles, don't want to aggravate those wounds, but a necklace or two likely wouldn't hurt, along with some armbands for those biceps." He smoothed Marik's hair back, holding it loosely with a hand as leaned in to take a look at Marik's ears. "Hmm, I suppose even those two holes could be used for earrings."
"Holes?" he yelped, lavender eyes wide before he remembered that his father had tested the heat of the knife by adding needles to the flame and piercing them through the fleshy cartilage of Marik's earlobes.
"It's all right if you'd rather they heal over," Melvin confessed, his own gold earrings shifting slightly as he straightened. "But I'd like to see you with some of this on you, if only so that everyone will look at you and know that you are mine." At this, tears sprung up in Marik's eyes, only to be gently stroked away by a golden-furred tail. "Don't cry, little one, I didn't mean it in a possessive way. I simply wanted to protect you, and the best way to do that was to stake my claim on you."
"Melvin," the human breathed, leaning forward towards the larger, his eyes pleading for this to not be a joke.
His face soften slightly from the thoughtful scowl it had taken. "It's all right, little one," he whispered, his hand coming up to run his thumb over the soft cheek. "I'll take care of you. I won't let your injuries kill you as they have so many others."
The mention of his wounds had his arms flying over his chest protectively even if he did end up burrowing deep within the broad chest of the neko, whose eyes widened in surprise before they became half-lidded with contentment and his tail came around to wind itself about that slender, fragile human wrist. "You'll always be safe here," he pronounced softly in a voice that wavered with its daring in breaking the comforting silence, "I promise."
The loud slap of leather of flesh broke the tender moment, Marik's lavender eyes wide to the fury-consumed gaze of the neko whose ears and tail were standing bolt upright. "Get away, demon!"
Melvin's ears narrowed, falling back and in on themselves as he backed up, the light in his dark lilac eyes promising nothing short of death had the man not been holding the Millennium Rod clenched in his fist. "You are dead, human," he promised darkly. "As soon as the Rod is out of your hands, you are fucking dead."
"Melvin, no!" Marik cried as his father grew closer to him. "Don't let him hurt me!"
A roar split the air then as the neko sprang in a blur of tan and gold, pushing his opponent to the ground with a crack as the chin snapped forward. Still, the spirit wasn't done until he had stomped on the man's windpipe to crush his throat and separate his vertebrae from his broken spinal column. A dribble of blood from the man's mouth had gotten on his hand and he licked it off absently as he turned to the smaller once more, meeting frightened, wide lavender with his whole being. "Interesting," he murmured, his tail's draft sweeping some stray dirt across the cold sandstone floor.
"Wha- What?" Marik stuttered, scooting backwards at the sight of the blood-smeared other.
The neko couldn't contain a smirk, his twisted personality coming to life at the taste of the blood of something even remotely akin to the creatures who had tortured him and his elder brothers Zelophehad and Bakura all those centuries ago. Blood of any kind may have been pleasant to spill, but the taste of human blood was so different from that of the spirits. More appealing. "It looks like you're the true owner of the Rod," he remarked off-handedly. "No matter. Saves me a good deal of trouble anyway."
For the first time since he had glimpsed that beautiful feline, Marik felt the stirrings of true fear. He let them take over, driving him to his feet and giving him speed as he ran through the laberinthine halls of his home. He hated living underground with all his heart but not to the point where he wanted to die. Throwing himself underneath the protective cloth at the altar, he pulled his legs to his chest and prayed to whatever god may have still been listening to him that he wouldn't be found.
Die: YAY FOR KURA AND MELVIN SUCKING ROYALLY AT FLUFFY THINGS!
Bakura: Hey, where'd the hikaris go?
Die: Oh, they got scared off when they read the chapter.
Melvin: *eyes go huge* You mean we're alone here with YOU?
Die: Pretty much, yeah.
Bakura: GET ME OUTTA HERE! *runs off*
Melvin: HEY, DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HER! *follows*
Die: ... Okay guys, you can come out now!
Yami: *comes out of closet* By Ra, I thought we were going to die in there.
Yugi: *smiles innocently* Hey Yami, what's this? *holds up one of Die's bras*
Die: *snatches it and throws it in the closet* That for me to know and you to never have again. Now do your duty!
Yugi: Review and I will let you have a plushie of me!
Yami: ... I wanna review now.
Die: *smiles* Until next time! *sees Yugi playing with her bra again* HEY! PUT THAT BACK! YUGI!