Author's Note from S: I apologize, I really do. I had intended to have this out barely a week after the last chapter, but I work with horses for a living and they can make things a little chaotic. End result, I'm typing this one-handed due to three broken fingers. Please excuse any typing errors that result.
To my kind reviewers; blue leafy, santurion3, Dutch Duelist, andromeda90, and DarkPyroGirl, thank you ever so much. I wish my timeliness did justice to your kindness!
And Hworang Girl: (faints)
Onyx: ;;looks down at her, then bows to Hwoarang Girl;; An honor exceeding all honors. We thank you. ;;pokes Sarah with her toe;; Wake up, Hikari, or I'll banish Bakura to the Shadow Realm again.
S: (pops up) You can't do that! We need him for this chapter!
Bakura: To HUMILIATE me, you mean!
S: Hush, you'll give the whole thing away.
(Kuriboh goes sailing past with the 'Disclaimer see Ch. 1' sign)
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LIVES TO LIVE
Chapter Four: Revelations
As Yuugi and Yami vanished up the stairs, all eyes turned to Celtos.
"I told you: the Elf growled, uncomfortable under their stares, "I did NOT summon him!"
"Well, somebody did," Gaia pointed out, walking over to Celtos' vacated seat on the couch and flopping into it. Joey, who was still standing behind the couch, stared down at him for a moment before walking to the edge of the couch and sitting on the arm.
Mirai was not so easily deterred, though. Dancing around Celtos, she peppered him with questions that no other monster would have been able to get away with. "Are you sure? Are you positive? Really, really positive?"
"Yes, yes, and again, yes! I'm an Elf, Mirai, we don't have magic!"
"Maybe some of big brother's magic got transferred to you while you were - "
""Mirai!"" Damus' stern voice mingled with Celt's exasperated one, and the young mage fell silent.
"Um… can I ask something?"
Looking slightly surprised, all the monsters shifted their gaze to Joey.
"Anything you wish, sir," Damus answered calmly as Celtos half-stomped across the room and threw himself down in the loveseat.
"If Elves can't do magic, than how does Mystical Elf do what she does?"
"She's a half-breed," Celtos answered, clearly still frustrated. "Damus' uncle is her father."
"Oh." There was a brief pause while Joey processed this, then; "Are you all related?"
"Mostly interrelated by group," Damus answered, seating himself next to Celtos. "The Dark Sage is my Grandfather, Cayenne - "
"Who?"
"The Magician of Black Chaos," Lustire replied, and several of the monsters jumped, having forgotten he was in the room. Even when Gaia appeared, he hadn't moved from his seat by the window.
"- is my cousin," Damus continued as though there had been no interruption. "Mysti is his half-sister, Gaia and Lustire are.. second cousins?"
"Third," Gaia corrected absently, dropping his head against the back of the couch and closing his eyes.
They were interrupted at that point by Yuugi bounding down the stairs, calling to Gaia that his bath was ready. As the monster quietly slipped out, Joey stood up to watch his friend.
"Where you goin', Yuug?"
"I need to call Ryou, and see if Bakura's been doing anything funny lately." Glancing in at the monsters scattered around the room, he added, "Why don't you guys all lie down for a bit? You look exhausted."
The suggestion was met with murmurs of agreement, and all except for Lustire (who gave no indication that he had heard at all) slowly filtered upstairs and to their respective bedrooms.
When he and Damus reached their temporary bedroom, Celtos couldn't help but sigh with relief. He had always hated to admit to exhaustion, but he was bone-tired and the queen-sized bed looked incredibly welcoming.
Damus muttered a brief incantation and gave a sigh of relief as his armor fell away, landing with muffled thuds on the carpet. "It's always a relief to get that stuff off at the end of a day." Although he was a powerful magician, Damus was not as strong physically, and his armor was heavy.
Celtos, who was now standing on the opposite side of the bed, quietly removed his helmet – he had put it back on to walk through town – and stared at it for a long moment. It took his friend's voice to snap him back to the present.
"Celt!"
"Hum? What?" Glancing up, he found the reflection of Damus' gaze in the mirror over the dresser. "Did you say something?"
"Aren't you going to take off your armor? I know it's more comfortable for you that way."
"It – yes," the Elf managed wearily, and undid his shoulder guards and cloak.
"Is something wrong?"
"Well…" Celtos paused with his chest plate half-off, supporting it with one hand. "I just feel a little uncomfortable, being in the Master's house and… continuing as we do."
The mage's face fell slightly. "You don't want our Masters to know?"
"Wha – no! I didn't mean it that way, love, I swear, I just - "
"You're afraid of their reaction."
Celtos nodded quickly, and Damus sighed slighltly, stripping out of his robe and standing in his leather tunic and breeches. Although he didn't share the Elf's fear, he understood it. When they had first begun their relationship, Celtos had been extremely timid, even fearful, of displaying their closeness. His most frequent argument was that he wasn't good enough for the high-level mage. Although physically powerful and extremely skilled in battle, his attack points didn't reflect that, and it had resulted in an inferiority complex.
Damus, who had the cunning of all mages, had made such a point of initiating public displays of affection that even Celtos had been forced to admit none of the other monsters objected. Now, stripping out of his tunic, the mage sent a reassuring look at Celtos in the mirror, and dropped the tunic before sitting down to take off his boots and socks. The rest of his things were in an untidy heap on the floor, and Celtos sent a disapproving glance at the back of his lover's head as he carefully folded his cloak. The rest of his armor was stacked very neatly on the chair beside the dresser.
Flopping facedown on the bed, now wearing only his skintight leather leggings, Damus propped his chin up on his fists and watched Celtos undress. The silly half-smile on the mage's face slipped away as Celtos stripped off his tight brown shirt, exposing his broad back to his lover's cerulean eyes.
Slowly, Damus' eyes traced over the jagged, pale-white scar that spanned the Elf's back, running from just behind his right shoulder blade across to his left hip. The scar, as wide as Damus' hand, was a mark he always remembered seeing, and always brought with it a vague, unidentifiable feeling of guilt, although he never knew why.
"It hasn't changed, you know."
The sound of Celt's voice brought him abruptly out of his reverie. "Sorry – what?"
"I said, it hasn't changed. The scar."
"I know," Damus answered, tilting his head back slightly as the Elf continued to regard him in the mirror. "It just always tugs at my memory. Like I should know something about it."
"Damus, love, even I don't remember where I got it," Celtos pointed out, turning back to face the mage. "I can only hope that our memories will return someday."
"And if they don't?" Rolling onto his back, Damus arched his neck to stare upside-down at the Elf, his head pressing into the center of the mattress.
"Then we keep going on as we have been," came the calm answer as Celtos seated himself on the edge of the bed, his back to Damus again. Frowning, the mage rolled over and raised himself up to his knees, staring at the back of the Elf's golden head. He was at the wrong angle to see Celt's face in the mirror, but he could sense his lovers' sudden sadness. Scooting forward on his hands and knees, he wrapped his arms around the Elf's waist and nuzzled into the side of his sensitive neck.
Celtos didn't react at first, but after a moment his muscles tightened slightly. That was the only warning Damus got before finding himself on his back on the mattress with his arms pinned above his head and the now-smirking Elf straddling his hips.
"I will never understand how you do that," Damus grumbled, crossing his eyes at the Elf now hovering a few inches above him. Celtos just laughed and planted a kiss on his lips. Instantly, Damus took advantage of the Elf's distraction and flipped them over, leaving a very startled Celtos on the bottom.
"I've been practicing," he explained, smirking at the astounded expression on his lover's face. Then, without another word, he leaned down and proceeded to kiss the Elf thoroughly.
Damus' senses were no more acute than those of a human, and, involved as he was with Celtos, that meant he didn't hear the unlatched door squeak open. Nor did he see when a head, crowned in distinctive three-colored hair, poked in. Therefore, he was understandably confused when the Elf beneath him began twisting as though trying to escape.
"Mmph.. love.. wait.. Damus! Yami!"
Damus sat up instantly, looking shocked. "Celtos, I understand that you loyalty to our Master is unwavering, but calling his name while I'm - "
"Oh, for - " At a loss for words, the Elf set his hands firmly on Damus' chest and pushed, sending the mage sprawling inelegantly to the floor below. Standing up, Celtos made a thoroughly useless attempt at straightening his pants before bowing to Yami. "Master, how may we assist you?"
Damus poked his head up from behind the bed, clearly startled. "Master!"
Yami restrained his smirk as best he could, which was not terribly well. "Hello, Damus. Both of you are requested in the living room – Bakura will be here shortly."
"As you wish, Master," answered a fiercely blushing Celtos, bending down to help Damus up and avoiding Yami's eyes.
"Oh, and you two?"
""Master?""
"If you close the door next time, you won't be interrupted."
Celtos blushed more brilliantly than ever, and Damus gave a half-nervous, half-embarrassed chuckle. Smirking more broadly than ever, Yami turned and walked down the hall to speak to Mysti and Mirai.
Exchanging silent glances, Damus and Celtos both reached for their shirts.
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"Honestly, don't you two ever quit?" Gaia exclaimed as the two came down the stairs a moment later. Celtos and Damus glanced at one another, realizing for the first time just how they looked – kiss-swollen lips, disheveled hair, and flushed faces.
"No," Damus answered him calmly, causing Celtos' blush to renew itself. Gaia snorted and turned his back on them, trying not to laugh.
Mirai, who had arrived downstairs a bit before her brother and Celtos, gave a shrill giggle, and Celtos glared at her.
"You're not one to talk, Little One," he mock-growled at her. "All of the times you've wreaked havoc in the deck…"
"My spells don't go awry that often," she countered, pouting slightly.
"Oh, so you actually meant to change Cayenne into a duck?" Damus inquired in a too-innocent voice.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did!"
"Funny," Celtos murmured, "I could have sworn you said you were trying to change him into a chipmunk."
Mirai promptly threw her staff at him. Celtos, however, was an Elf, and possessed all the speed of his race. He ducked instantly, causing the staff to soar over him and strike Gaia squarely in the back of the head. There was a flash of light, and where the grey-skinned monster had been standing there was now a grey… squirrel.
Damus, Celtos, and Yami all rounded on the young mage. " " "MIRAI!" " "
"I didn't mean it, I swear!"
"Hold on, I'll fix it," muttered Damus, summoning his staff from the bedroom. Before it could reach him, however, their problems compounded. The door to the living room swung open to admit Ryou Bakura, who was closely followed by his Yami.
Squirrel-Gaia, already nervous due to all the people in the room, decided that he needed to find a nice, comfy hiding place. Being possessed of the rather flighty logic that all squirrels have, he decided an ideal hiding place would be inside the leg of Yami Bakura's pants.
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A half an hour later, Damus was using his own magic to remove the last traces of Gaia's squirrel tail. Yuugi, sitting on the sofa, was busy binding a handkerchief around the bloody bite on Yami's forearm – sustained not from Gaia, but Yami Bakura. Said spirit was sulking in the Ring with no intention of coming out, still burning with the humiliation of being forced to drop his pants in order to dislodge Gaia, and severely regretful of his decision to go commando today.
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S: (giggles)
Bakura: You see? HUMILAITION!
Onyx: Oh, shut up. Okay, credit where credit is due: the comment about turning Chaos into a duck is a brief tribute to Hwoarang Girl's story 'Troubles of Chibi Proportion.' We hope you don't mind – it was just too hilarious to pass up!
Celtos: Yes, welcome to Mirai's Magical Menagerie of Mayhem.
Mirai: (throws her staff at Celtos again, who ducks, again, and the staff hits Yami Bakura, who is changed into a seagull)
All: MIRAI!
Mirai: Um… oops?