S: (walks in the door and stops short, staring)
(the story room is full of males, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru from Inuyasha, Hatake Kakashi from Naruto, both halves of Bakura, Father Able from Trinity Blood, and Youko Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho)
S: ONYX!!!
Onyx: (peers out around Sesshomaru's shoulder) What, don't you appreciate the White-Haired Bishi Brigade?
(about six voices, in unison) SILVER!!!
Onyx: Of course. Silver.
S: (rubs her head in disbelief) Thanks for the eye candy, but I'm on a diet! And where's my disclaimer sign?
(everyone in the room points upward: the disclaimer sign is mounted on the wall over their heads)
Disclaimer Sign: Onyx and S disclaim ownership of any and all characters listed above. For further Disclaimer see chapter one.
S: ...right. Uhm, warnings for this chapter include biting, scorn of homophobia, and a completely out-of-the-blue character insertion. That should cover it. Please enjoy!
LIVES TO LIVE
Chapter Eight: Findings
Celtos blinked awake the next morning, only a few minutes past dawn. Turning his head slightly, he found Damus staring out the eastern window, watching the cold grey light spread across the sky. The mage was already dressed; clearly, he'd been up for some time.
"Ugh… Damus?"
"I didn't want to wake you," the mage said softly, not looking back. He was standing in his 'battle pose'; arms folded across his chest, his staff in one hand. It looked more than a little odd, given that he was in street clothes, but Celtos understood. Subconsciously, Damus was trying to turn this into just another battle, another simple duel. Yami never lost in dueling, and if Damus could put himself back in the position of just another monster, rather than a frantic brother, it would be easier to stay calm. Easier to believe they would win.
"You're not planning on carrying your staff today, are you?" Celtos mumbled around a jaw-cracking yawn, finally getting Damus to turn and look at him. The mage's eyes were tight with anxiety, and there were dark shadows beneath them.
"Actually, I am. I'll need it if we're going to do any serious battling."
Celtos grunted as he rolled out of bed – literally – and pulled himself to his feet. "You think it'll come to that?" he yawned, staggering to the dresser, where he had left his neatly folded clothes. "Wouldn't you have sensed if there were any dark forces that strong in the area?"
"I should be able to sense Mirai's majic signature, too," Damus reminded him as the Elf dragged on his jeans. "If I can't even do that much, there's no telling what else I missed."
"Ugh," Celtos replied intelligently, and pulled his shirt on, leaving it unbuttoned. Buttons were much to complicated for that hour of the morning. He did take time, however, to buckle the fine leather knife-holsters around his ankles and double-check the blades in them. By the time he was done, Damus was waiting by the open door, catching the smell of breakfast as it wafted up the stairs. Celtos slung an arm around the mage's shoulders, and somehow the pair of them navigated down the stairs without incident.
When they got into the kitchen, Yuugi was standing on a footstool in front of the stove, happily scrambling what looked like two dozen eggs in an enormous pan. Yami was sitting on the counter near him, attempting to drown himself in a coffee mug. The small, four-seater kitchen table was half-occupied; Gaia was sitting opposite the door, shoveling down eggs, while Amystria sat to his left, perched daintily on her chair and nibbling on toast. She was a vegetarian.
"Good morning, Masters," Damus greeted them with rather forced cheer. Celtos grunted incoherently and flopped into a chair to Gaia's right, managing to raise his hand in greeting before dropping his head on the tabletop.
"Not a morning person, Celtos?" Yuugi inquired mildly, chasing the eggs around the pan with a spatula. The Elf grunted, rocking his head side-to-side on the table as a negative response.
"I sympathize," Yami rumbled from the depths of his coffee mug. The spirit's eyes were still closed.
"Drink your coffee, Yami. It will wake you up," Yuugi chided, abandoning his eggs for a moment to pour a cup for Celtos. The Elf sat up long enough to taste the dark liquid, gagged slightly, and shoveled several spoons of sugar into it before continuing.
"Sorry, Celtos, I'm so used to doing it the way Yami likes it, he's the only one of us that ever drinks coffee."
"S'fine," Celtos mumbled, about two seconds from falling back asleep. He was distracted, briefly, when Cayenne and Lustire walked in from the living room. Both were still in their nightclothes, and looked more than a little rumpled.
"Good morning, you two. Oh, Lustire, you're bleeding!" Yuugi exclaimed in alarm, pointing to the swordsman's shoulder. Lustire blinked, then touched the material of his grey tee-shirt with his fingertips. When they came back damp with blood, he spun around and smacked Cayenne upside the back of the head.
"Hey! You weren't complaining last night!" came the indignant response.
Gaia promptly choked on his eggs. As his eating habits very closely resembled those of Joey and Tristan, though, perhaps it had only been a matter of time. Lustire blushed – which involved his unglamoured skin turning a darker shade of green – and smacked Cayenne upside the head again, somewhat harder this time.
"You draw blood?" Yuugi sounded rather alarmed by the thought.
Cayenne grinned at him, needle-point fangs flashing in the overhead light. "Can't hardly help it, with these teeth. Besides, he makes the nicest little moans…"
Lustire, by now a fetching shade of emerald, smacked Cayenne hard enough that the mages' eyes crossed. Gaia, having turned slightly green himself, mumbled some very flimsy excuse about training and fled the room. Lustire shook his head, accepting a cup of tea from Yuugi with a silent nod of thanks.
Celtos, at least half-awake by now, shot Cayenne a sour look. "You could try to be a little more considerate, you know. Gaia can only handle so much."
"Poor little straight boy!" Cayenne snapped, quite without sympathy, and snatched an apple from the bowl of fruit on the counter. "More than half the deck's in bed with their own gender, he needs to stop being such a prude." He took a large bite out of the apple and licked slowly at the juice that threatened to escape his mouth. Lustire promptly dropped his mug. Celtos caught it before it could hit the floor, passing it back to the soldier without even a blink.
"Regardless," Yami interjected calmly from his seat on the counter, "some things are best kept in the bedroom."
"Ah, well," Damus spoke up, claiming Gaia's vacated seat at the table, "on that note, Master, you may want to wear something with a high collar today."
"What?" The Pharaoh shot him a rather mystified glance, before catching sight of his reflection in the side of the toaster. "Aibou!!" There were a half-dozen hickies scattered across Yami's tan throat.
"Sorry, Yami," came the giggled response, not sounding sorry in the least.
"Aibou, you're supposed to be the innocent one!" Yami wailed in mock despair.
"I am innocent, compared to you! Where you left marks, nobody but you or a proctologist would see them!"
A wave of laughter went up at that; Yami blushed heavily, and the tension in the room eased somewhat. They all ate their breakfasts as quickly as possible, but most of them were still chewing when Seto and Mokuba walked in. Both of the Kaibas stared at Cayenne for a long moment, until the blue-skinned monster got annoyed and stuck his tongue out between his fangs. Mokuba jumped, and Seto arched an eyebrow.
"What are you supposed to be?"
"Dragon Master, Magician of Black Chaos. Cayenne, Kaiba." Damus performed the introductions, gesturing with his fork.
# o # o # o # o # o # o # o # o #
It took some thinking on the part of the mages to figure out exactly how they were going to conceal the weapons that the monsters carried. The end solution involved the two mages putting their staffs into small 'pocket dimensions,' which they could access at any given time. It was a little more complicated trying to hide Celtos' broadsword and Lustire's elaborate blade; in the end, it was a combination of several glamours that resulted in both men looking like they were wearing backpacks. In actuality, both had their swords strapped to their backs; the illusion would be dispelled as soon as the blades were drawn. No villain would be intimidated by some guy swinging a backpack around, after all.
Cayenne, instead of borrowing clothes, simply conjured his own. His taste in clothing was a little different than anyone else's, and the end result proved that. He ended up wearing black leather pants with a slight boot-cut, a leather buckle top similar to Yami's, save that it was blood red, an ankle-length black leather duster, and black leather boots. His skin, once he glamoured it, was very, very pale, but he left his eyes their natural shade of crimson. Combined with his jet-black and currently straight hair falling down his back, he looked more like a Hollywood vampire than anything else.
It took another fifteen minutes for the rest of the group to show up. Joey was the only one of them that would be going out with the monsters to search, but Tristan and Teá would be staying behind at the shop with Mokuba and the other monsters. The majority of the search party was grouped together in the kitchen, waiting with dwindling patience when Joey finally arrived.
"Never try to teach a dog to tell time," Seto muttered under his breath as Silvis, the Silver Fang wolf, trotted out the door with his nose on the ground. Celtos and Damus jogged out the door behind the wolf, while Yami, Yuugi, Lustire, and Cayenne followed.
"That's 'never try to teach a pig to sing,' bastard!" Joey snapped over his shoulder as he ran to catch up. Seto jogged beside him, unbothered, following the odd little parade back to the Domino Park.
# o # o # o # o # o # o # o # o #
Silvis lifted his head a few inches and sneezed.
"Helpful, very helpful," Damus muttered sourly, glaring at the shattered tree where his sister's card had been pinned the day before. Cayenne gave the tree an appraising look, then glanced back at Celtos. The Elf offered a sheepish shrug in return, and Cayenne rolled his eyes before sitting down cross-legged in the center of the clearing and setting his fingertips on his temples. The others watched silently as a blue-white glow pulsed from his temples, brighter than Damus' had been.
It only took a moment before the mage leapt to his feet, moving so fast that the motion itself was little more than a blur. "Got her," he announced, grinning wildly, and set off at a run.
A chorus of protests rose behind him before the others fell in line. Silvis loped alongside Cayenne, followed closely by Damus and Celtos. Lustire hung back a little, running with the humans. Seto and Joey had no problem keeping up, their long legs matching the monsters stride for stride, and Yami's lean form moved light and swift over the paved walkways. Yuugi, however, was clearly straining to keep the pace. Without ever breaking stride, Lustire caught Yuugi with one hand, dipped a knee down, and swung the boy easily onto his back in one smooth motion. Yuugi gave a startled little yelp, grabbing the monster's shoulders, but calmed down after a moment.
"Thanks, Lustire."
A short nod was his only response, and the group ran on. It didn't take long for the human members of the party to figure out exactly where they were going – the warehouse district, down on the docks. It was the 'bad' part of Domino, and a running favorite for the evil part of the dueling world. Joey shuddered a little, but kept pace. It would be some time before he forgot the fact that he and Yuugi had both nearly drowned on those docks as a result of Mariku's scheming.
"If this is all another one of his plots, that purple-shirted freak's gonna find his Millennium Rod stuffed up his ass," Joey mumbled. At that moment, Silvis let out an echoing howl and surged forward, flying over the ground before them. Cayenne let out a blistering curse and leapt after him, his long duster swirling behind him. The other monsters kept quiet, but all of them sped up, forcing the humans to a full sprint. The difference between a monsters' strength and stamina and that of a human were becoming very apparent.
By the time the group slowed to a walk, deep inside the warehouse district, Yami and Joey were panting, and even Seto was breathing a little hard. Lustire set Yuugi carefully on the ground, then silently reached back, settling one hand on the hilt of his sword. Silver Fang had his nose to the ground again, and Cayenne had his eyes closed, turning this way and that like a satellite dish. After a moment, both of them fixated on a single direction, and walked together towards the back of the district. The further they went, the older and shakier the buildings got, until at last they stopped before a warehouse that looked only seconds from toppling under its own weight.
"You must be joking."
Cayenne turned back to glare at Seto, curling his upper lip just enough to expose his fangs. "I don't joke." The CEO simply crossed his arms, tucking his hands inside the front of his pewter-colored trench coat and glaring straight back. Lustire stepped on Cayenne's foot and Joey elbowed Kaiba in the ribs, effectively breaking up the glaring match, while Silvis nosed at the heavy wooden door, growling softly.
"Enough, you two. This is no time to be immature," Yami was growling too, trying to keep his voice from carrying. Damus, meanwhile, shouldered past his cousin and began inspecting the door.
"Not locked," he whispered after a moment, getting everyone's attention. He gave the door a hesitant push and it rolled back slightly, showing off a fingers-breadth of the warehouse's dark interior. "Not even latched."
"Does that mean they're not expecting us, or they are?" Yuugi wanted to know, pressing close to his darker half. A sharp 'click' from behind him was enough to make the boy jump; turning around, he was astonished to find Seto holding a handgun and jacking a round into the chamber.
"Seto?"
"Nine-mil Berretta semi-automatic," Seto explained, thumbing the safety on. "It's loaded with Glazer Safety rounds; it should be enough to stop anything we need stopped."
"I didn't think you liked guns," Joey muttered, eyeing the gun a bit uneasily. Guns of any type weren't very common in Japan; although it wasn't the first time he'd seen one, they weren't his favorite thing in the world, either.
"I don't," Seto answered shortly, settling his finger securely on the trigger-guard and pointing the gun upwards, away from the others. "But I don't like being stupid, either."
"You, stupid. Yeah, that'll be the day." Joey tried to laugh, but the sound was too forced to be believable. Metal rasped as Lustire and Celtos drew their swords, and Damus and Cayenne both pulled their staffs into existence.
"Get behind us," Celtos ordered quietly. The four humans didn't question it, but drew back to either side of the doorway, each tucked in behind two monsters. Silvis drew back as well, tucked close to Celtos' legs. Damus, his staff held securely in one hand, pulled himself back behind the wall of the warehouse and gave the door one solid shove.
It rolled open surprisingly easily, squeaking only a little, spilling grey light into the murky inside of the building. Stacks of half-rotted wooden crates crafted eerie shapes and threw misshapen shadows onto the cracked concrete floor. The inside of the warehouse was not a single open space, but broken up at regular intervals by support beams, which vanished into the shadowy recesses of the ceiling like mutated tombstones. Here and there, a hole in the sagging roof admitted a beam of light, in which dust motes danced like miniature ghosts. Cautiously, the five monsters stepped inward, and the humans trailed them a moment later.
Standing just inside the door, still well behind the monsters, Joey gave a small, quavering moan. "I hate places like this."
On either side, Damus and Cayenne exchanged glances, then nods. Moving together, they tapped the butts of their staffs once, sharply, on the floor, and brilliant light bloomed at each of the staff's heads. The light didn't improve the warehouse much – if anything, it made the dust thicker, the grime nastier, and the shadows deeper, but at the very least they could see where they were going.
And they could also see the enormous black velvet curtain hanging from the ceiling rafters not twenty feet in front of them.
"What the heck -?" Joey shook his head and stepped away from Kaiba, walking up beside Celtos to stare. "Why is there a nice velvet curtain in a place like this?"
Just as he finished asking that, several things happened at once. Silvis let out a tremendous, snarling bark, Cayenne shouted "There's someone behind there!" and the curtains parted, pulled back and away by black velvet cords, to expose the person behind them.
A perfectly tailored black tuxedo, complete with a tail coat and a top hat, looked quite odd enough in this grim setting. But when you included the oddly garish black and white mask…
"You!" Yami shouted, and Yuugi grabbed his arm to keep him from moving.
"Bastard!" Damus shrieked, and lunged forward so fast that Celtos barely had time to seize him, pinning the mage's arms to his sides and getting thoroughly kicked in the shins because of it. "You miserable, worthless excuse for a magician! First you deface the cards of my cousins, dishonor them in battle, imprison and threaten my Master, and now you seek to steel my sister from me?!"
"Yes, me. Did you think that you had seen the last of me, O Mighty Pharaoh?" Arcana laughed as he stepped forward, completely ignoring the furious Dark Magician struggling to go for his throat.
"Yami, you know this… person?" Seto managed to make even the word 'person' sound like a slur, Yuugi realized, and tugged a little more sharply on Yami's arm. "Seto, this is Arcana. He's the one that Mariku had control of during your Battle City Tournament… the one that almost had his leg cut off?"
"I see." The gun in Seto's hand clicked slightly as he turned the safety off. "And what, exactly, is he doing here?"
"I am here to collect a debt that is owed to me!" Arcana informed them, although he was addressing only Yami. "When my price is repaid, your monster will be returned to you."
"Let me see her!" Yami snapped, gently tugging his arm free of Yuugi's hold. "When I am assured that she is safe, I will hear your demands."
"Far be it for me to refuse the order of a Pharaoh," Arcana replied, his mocking tone identical to the one Seto often took with Joey. Taking a step to the side, he swept a gracious bow towards the opening in the curtain and clapped his hands together. Immediately, a spotlight blinked on, shining down one of the innumerable support beams holding up the warehouse roof. However, this beam was a little bit different, because Mirai was bound to the bottom of it. Her hands were tied around the post behind her back, her ankles were tied together, and she was blindfolded and gagged, but she appeared unharmed. Judging by the expression on her face, she'd been calling Arcana every name in the book and then some, but there were no injuries on her pale skin, and aside from being tied up, she seemed perfectly fine.
"Mirai!" Damus cried out, relief echoing in his voice, and Mirai's head whipped towards his voice. Immediately, she began wriggling wildly, trying to get free of her bonds, and Celtos quickly told her to stay still, so that she didn't hurt herself.
"Does that please you, Pharaoh?" Arcana had glided closer in the few minutes they'd spent looking at Mirai. He was now standing close enough for Damus to kick him – Celtos' grasp was forcing the mage to show remarkable restraint, thus far – but Arcana was acting as though the monsters weren't even there. Even Seto's handgun, which had been leveled at Arcana's head since his first appearance, didn't seem to faze the man. Yuugi was beginning to wonder if Arcana was simply ignoring everyone except Yami, or if he really didn't see them at all. Carefully, Yuugi took a step back from his dark half, waiting for Arcana to react to the motion, but the man's eyes never moved from Yami. Yuugi stared at him for a moment, shrugged, and walked around behind Yami to the other side of the group to stand behind Damus and Celtos.
"It satisfies me. I will not be pleased until she is free," Yami answered. Arcana laughed, and the sound of it sent Yuugi's stomach running to hide. It wasn't a sound any sane person would make.
"Very well, then, my terms. If you wish your monster returned to you, you will return my beloved Cadeline to me!"
"What?" Yuugi and Damus practically shrieked the word, not that it made any difference; Arcana never even blinked.
"I don't understand," Yami said slowly. "How am I supposed to return her to you?"
"Because you have her, I know you do!" Arcana's voice was high, a little bit frantic. "Lord Malik stole her to control me, but after you defeated me, you defeated Lord Malik as well! Therefore, he must have surrendered all his prisoners to you, his conqueror! You have Cadeline; I know you do! And if you wish to regain your monster, you must return her to me!"
"I don't have her, Arcana. And Malik never did. You said yourself that she left you after the accident that damaged your face," Yami answered carefully, watching the man as though he might explode.
"It doesn't matter, Pharaoh, if you do not have her, you must find her!" Laughing, the so-called Master of Magicians flicked his wrist, causing a pristine white handkerchief to appear in his palm. When he whisked it away, a glittering, gold-hilted dagger was clenched in his hand.
Damus gave a furious hiss, struggling with greater force than ever against Celtos, fighting to reach Arcana with a kick, but Celtos had dragged him backwards far enough that he could not.
"Let go of me, Celtos!"
"You know I can't do that, Damus. You'd kill him, and I know you would eventually regret it."
"Either you return Cadeline to me," the golden dagger twinkled sharply in the reflection of the spotlight, "or I have no reason to keep your monster intact."
This time, it took the combined effort of Celtos, Cayenne, and Lustire to hold Damus back. Cayenne got Damus into a choke-hold and held it until Damus was on the verge of unconsciousness before he dared to release him.
"What if she doesn't wish to return?" Yami challenged, quietly, barely noticing as Seto plucked Cayenne's elbow, silently leading the magician outside the door of the warehouse.
"You have a magician, Pharaoh. Force his magic to rekindle the love she once had for me!"
"He's out of his mind," Celtos muttered, and Yuugi glanced up at him.
"Aside from the obvious, Celtos, why do you say that?"
"Because what he's asking is impossible. No magician can do that, not Damus, not Cayenne, not even their grandfather, the Dark Sage. There is no way for it to be done." Seeing Yuugi's bewildered expression, the Elf explained, his voice barely above a whisper. "Majik can do almost anything; fool the eyes, deceive the mind, trick the body. It can change a person's form, even restore the dead, but the one thing it can never do is fool the heart."
"Oh," Yuugi said, and looked back to Arcana. "So what do we do now?"
"You will not have your monster back until I am reunited with my love!" Arcana shrieked.
"I'll send you to wait for her in the afterlife!" Damus jerked suddenly against Celtos' grasp, struggling as violently as he could to free himself. Cayenne reappeared abruptly, catching hold of his cousin again before Damus could break free.
"I will not be denied!" Arcana's voice rose to a scream, and he was just turning away from them, back towards Mirai, when there was a sudden, dull 'thunk,' and Arcana slumped to the ground in an unconscious heap.
"Idiot," came Seto Kaiba's voice, emanating from the empty air above Arcana's collapsed form.
"Oo-kay… what just happened?"
"It's very simple, mutt. I had the Chaos Magician turn me invisible so that I could shut this moron up." There was an extremely significant pause, before he added, "Sometimes, Pharaoh, there is such a thing as a simple solution."
Yami just stood there, rendered entirely speechless. Celtos' ears flicked slightly, following the faint sound of Seto's footsteps through the curtain, back to Mirai's beam. There was a brief pause, and then the ropes holding Mirai fell away. The girl immediately tore off the blindfold and the gag, then gave a cry of relief and hurled herself into her brother's arms.
"Big brother, I'm so sorry! I promise that from now on I'll be good and do my practice every day and wear what you want me too and I'll never get mad at you again and - "
"Hush, hush," Damus murmured, hugging the girl to his chest. "Don't make promises you can't keep, little sister." Sobbing, the girl buried her face in his chest, clinging to his shirt with both hands and trembling with relief. Celtos, silent but clearly relieved, enfolded them both in his strong arms. He was trembling, too, but he made no sound as he held them both. Silvis danced around their legs, butting his head up against Mirai's thigh in a show of affection.
Once Mirai's sobs had settled to a few sniffs and the occasional hiccup, Damus gently detached her hands from his shirt and pushed the girl into Celtos' arms.
"Big brother?" Mirai sniffed after him, but he shook his head at her.
"Hush, Mirai. There's something I need to do." With carefully measured steps, the magician moved away from his sister, walking to where Arcana lay, still unconscious on the cracked cement floor. "You have hurt us for the last time," Damus whispered, his blue eyes narrowed into slivers of steel. "Let the shadows take your soul!"
At the last word, an explosion of blue-black flame engulfed Arcana's unconscious form. When they cleared, he was nowhere to be seen.
"What did you do to him?" Seto's disembodied voice demanded, now coming from behind Joey.
"I threw him into the Shadow Realm," Damus answered indifferently. "Master Yami can retrieve him if he wishes too."
"At the moment, my only wish is to get us all home," Yami answered, but added under his breath, "and perhaps a little more coffee."
"Come on, little one," Damus said, slinging an arm around Mirai's shoulders and taking Celtos' hand in his own. "Everyone's waiting to see you again." The three of them headed for the door, followed closely by Yami and Yuugi, but Joey promptly called them all back.
"Aren't you all forgettin' something?"
Brief glances were exchanged; shrugs and headshakes replied. "Such as?" Yami prompted, and Joey gave him a disbelieving look.
"Such as, getting' this invisibility spell offa Moneybags?"
There was a long and very embarrassed silence, broken only by Joey's muttering, "I don't like not bein' able to see – HEY!!" The blond boy suddenly leapt forward, clutching his rear end protectively with both hands and looking astonished. Spinning around, he addressed the seemingly empty air where he had been standing a moment ago. "You just grabbed my ass!"
"I did no such thing," Kaiba answered boredly, standing somewhere to the right of the point Joey was addressing.
Cayenne, however, was watching the 'empty air' with a rather speculative expression in his crimson eyes. "I can't take the invisibility off," he grumbled after a moment. "It has to wear off. He'll be visible again sometime this afternoon. Until then, shut the hell up and deal with it!"
"Cayenne!" Damus scolded, but the red-eyed mage shook his head.
"Yeah, I know," Cayenne groused. "But my advice is the same to you, Sir Cousin; shut up and deal with it!"
"Oh, well, that's jus' great," Joey grumbled. "Walk in front of me goin' home, Moneybags."
"As if you could tell, mutt."
"I'm warnin' you, Kaiba - "
"Oh, just go!" Cayenne bellowed.
# o # o # o # o # o # o # o # o # o
When the small party walked through the door of to Yuugi's kitchen nearly an hour later, everyone in the building came to their feet at once.
"Mirai!" several voices cried, and the young mage gave a squeak of embarrassment and hid behind her brother's shoulder. Mokuba, who had been playing chess against the Mystical Elf, looked around in confusion.
"Where's Seto?"
Another yelp from Joey confirmed several suspicions. "Behind Joey," Yami informed the boy, and went to get another cup of coffee.
"What is he talking about? There's nothing there!"
Damus glared at Cayenne over his sister's head. "This is your doing, your shoddy majic. You explain it."
"It was not shoddy majic!"
"QUIT GRABBIN' MY ASS!!!"
That effectively halted all conversation, particularly since Joey was standing quite alone in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room.
"Uh, Joey?" ventured Tristan. "There's nobody behind you."
"The heck there isn't," Joey grumbled, walking over to dislodge Gaia from the sofa. The Knight simply sighed and took a place on the loveseat instead.
"What shoddy majic? Where's my brother? And what's wrong with Joey's ass?"
"Language, Mokuba!" Seto snapped, and Mokuba spun a full circle looking for him before Cayenne decided to enlighten the boy.
"Your brother is invisible," he said flatly, shoving Gaia off the loveseat before flopping down and dragging Lustire into his lap.
"Invisible?"
"Invisible and perverted," Joey grumbled, as Celtos and Damus sat down next to him. Mirai settled herself on the sofa arm, leaning against her brother's shoulder.
"…Seto?" Mokuba asked hesitantly, staring around the room.
"I'm over here, Mokuba," came the reply, and Joey abruptly toppled off the couch.
"HEY! Why, I outta – "
"Let it go, dude," Tristan advised, eyeing the end of the couch warily. Celtos, on the other hand, seemed entirely unbothered sitting next to the invisible CEO.
"Just for the record, I have not been 'grabbing' Wheeler's ass." Seto sounded entirely too self-satisfied, and there was an expectant silence before he continued. "I've been groping it."
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better!" Joey shouted, sarcasm dripping from every word.
"So, how long until this wears off?" Mokuba asked, a desperate note in his voice.
"I don't know! I already said I don't know! Most likely some time this afternoon."
"But it's only ten o'clock!"
"Your problem, not mine."
"You wouldn't say that if it was your ass gettin' grabbed," Joey grumbled from the floor.
"Groped," corrected Seto.
"Isn't it really the same thing?" asked Teá, which silenced both of them.
It took about a half an hour after that to explain the details of Mirai's rescue, including Damus sending Arcana from the Shadow Realm.
"What I'd like to know is how he got out of the hospital in the first place," Mokuba spoke up. "He nearly had his leg chopped off, and I know for a fact that Seto had him committed to a mental institution."
"I'll have to have a word with the head of staff," Seto muttered, shifting and causing the couch cushion to wiggle.
"I'm guessing you just crossed your arms, Seto?" Mokuba asked.
There was a short pause before Kaiba sighed. "I suppose body language is ineffective when you're invisible."
"No, ya think?!"
# o # o # o # o # o # o # o # o # o
S: Wow, that was long! Over 5,000 words, even if you ignore the author's notes and my usual drivel in the beginning. Does anyone ever actually read that, anyway? I'd be interested to know. In any case, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and New Years. Tune in next chapter to see more of Seto's fascination with Joey's ass, new levels of nefariousness from everyone's favorite Chaos Magician, and – dum dum dum! …..
Well, you'll just have to click and find out. I'll have it posted as soon as I can! Love you all! Remember, Reviewing is fast, easy, and free, but it makes authors the happiest people in the world.