OMG. An update! this is a long chapter, sortof. Long for me anyway...hope you enjoy.
"I thought you said they'd wake up in an hour or two."
"It's only been two and a half, big deal."
Yugi's head swam as he opened his eyes. He had to blink a few times for his vision to clear. He was looking at the ceiling wondering what had happened. A little disoriented, still pondering how he'd gotten on the floor he looked around Ryou's room. Five new people, four men and one woman, were in the room with him.
The woman was draped across Ryou's bed in way that managed to be both casual and regal. She was someone important you could tell. The men were like that too, reminding Yugi of cats the way they all seemed so graceful.
There should have been something wrong with this picture but for the life of him Yugi couldn't figure out what. Something in his mind kept telling him he should panic but he just didn't know why.
"Hey pharaoh, your brat's awake," said one of the men. He looked a lot like Ryou with white hair and pale skin. The shortest man turned from the book he was studying and looked directly at Yugi. The teen watched as he walked gracefully over and kneeled down in front of him looking into his eyes.
"Hey, you're a vampire right?" he asked. The man looked at him strangely and Yugi noticed that he looked like him, sort of. It was mostly the hair; the man's eyes were blood red.
"Yes, I'm Yami," he said. Yami turned to look at the woman in confusion.
"It's one of the symptoms of the bite, they're extremely calm for a while, enjoy it while you can," she said. Yami looked back to Yugi. "That'll make this easier to explain then." Yugi was about to ask what he was talking about when he heard a groan to his left.
Ryou opened his eyes and sat up studying the room in the same detached kind of way Yugi had.
"Hello Yugi," he said noticing his friend after a few minutes of gazing around blankly.
"Hey Ryou," Yugi greeted smiling.
Ryou looked around his room for another minute then turned back to Yugi with a look of confusion on his face.
"Um, Yugi?"
"Yeah Ryou?"
"Who are all these people and why are they in my house?"
Yugi giggled for seemingly no apparent reason and pointed to Yami.
"This one's Yami," he said. "I don't really know who the others are."
Throughout this exchange the vampires in the room had turned to their queen for reassurance as they'd never encountered this before. She nodded encouragingly at them holding back her laugher. Not a lot rattled the old vamps but when something did it was a funny sight indeed.
The two friends continued to chat amiably with each other while the vampires exchanged amused glances. After another fifteen minutes about, the other two woke up.
"Finally!" Marik broke out.
"When are they going to snap out of this?" Kiaba asked in a bored tone.
Joey looked at him for a minute. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" the teen asked. As if on cue the other boys seemed to come awake and realize where they were and, more importantly, who they were with.
"Yugi?"
"Yes Ryou?" Yugi said. Both boys were fighting to keep their voices normal.
"The crosses didn't work did they?"
"Nope," Bakura answered flashing his fangs.
Ryou's hands went to the side of his neck instinctively. "You're the one who bit me!" he accused. Bakura shrugged noncommittally.
"Am I supposed to apologize?" he asked Marik who shrugged.
"You could try it I guess."
"It'd be a lie though."
"Would you two please shut up?" the woman said. Surprising to the (human) teens they did so immediately and looked a little embarrassed.
"So are you boys going to explain to these poor boys or am I going to have to?" she asked the other vampires. No one answered and she sighed and sat up on the bed. Her long hair fell over her shoulder with the motion and she brushed it back before motioning the teens to come closer.
"I won't bite you," she said exasperated when they didn't comply. Slowly, Yugi rose and went to sit on the very edge of the bed as close as he dared to get to her. Reluctantly the others followed; Malik came last and sat on the floor with Joey.
"You guys can sit too," she said to the vampires. Marik and Bakura promptly fell to the floor in a graceful motion more like floating than actually falling. Malik and Ryou stared mesmerized until Joey coughed.
The vampire woman started;
"First off, introductions; these are my subjects; Yami, Seto who prefers Kaiba but I out rank him so I can get away with it, Marik, and Bakura." She nodded to each of the vampires as she said it. "And I'm Queen Nira; ruler of all the creatures of the night, a.k.a vampires." She winked at the boys. "And a more unruly bunch of creatures you will never find."
Yugi caught Yami rolling his eyes and hid a smile.
"Anyway, what does any of this have to do with you, right? Well, these four had a prophecy foretold about them when they were born by our most powerful seer. She said they had the power to save our species from destruction from…we don't speak His name; you might call Him the devil. Anyway, about half a century ago our seer said that they had to find their mates who had would appear when we needed them. So we waited, we're quite good at that actually. You learn to have a lot of patience after a few centuries. Finally, you guys were born. Then we waited some more for you to be old enough and grow into your powers which are actually very remarkable, I've never seen anything like the power you four wield. I sent these four to make you their mates. Any questions so far?"
Malik raised his hand. Nira quirked an eyebrow and he put his hand down mumbling something along the lines of sorry thought we were in school.
"Anyhoo, um what?"
"We don't have any powers…" Ryou said. The other boys nodded in agreement and the queen smiled. "You can't use it yet, you need to have it…awakened by something. In this case, becoming the mates to these four is the only thing that will awaken your powers because one, they're you destined mates, and two, they're the only vampires in the world powerful enough to do it.And once you're all mateyou can help us defeat the Evil One."
They boys all blinked at each other all thinking the same thing. 'This woman's crazy…'
"I prefer the term unique," she said indignantlywhile they all tried to remember if they'd said something out loud.
"Now, I have to go, but you," she spoke to the vampires, "have to stay with your mates until they recover and then you can give them the third bite." She spoke to the teens again, "If you have any more questions, just ask the idiots over there." Without another word, she was simply gone.
Joey was the first to break the awkward silence that had settled over the room.
"Am I the only one who thinks that woman is on crack?"
"She's...eccentric," Yami said ever the the diplomat.
"You think she's bad, you should have seen her mother," Marik muttered. Bakura shuddered and nodded.
"I don't know 'bout you guys, but I'm hungry," Joey said suddenly.
"You guys eat right?" Malik asked looking at Marik.
"Sure, no rules against it."
"We don't have to, we can survive without food." Bakura said.
Yugi was the first to stand and start towards the door. All of the sudden his stomach rebelled and his legs decided they weren't going any where at the moment. He closed his eyes when he saw the floor rushing up to meet him and braced himself for the impact.
"Yugi!" Ryou exclaimed.
The movement stopped and he felt strong arms around him. He opened his eyes and Yami shifted him as if he weighed nothing until he was leaning against the slightly taller man. Yami had his arm around his waist; all that was keeping him up was Yami's arm. Yugi, still feeling nauseous looked around the room and regretted it as his stomach churned again. Quickly he buried his face in Yami's shoulder without even thinking about it and tried to make the room stop spinning.
He could smell Yami's skin, sort of musky with a hint of cinnamon and something else that could only be Yami himself. The scent calmed his stomach and he lifted his head up to meet Yami's eyes. He blushed immediately and tried to pull away stammering an apology but Yami shushed him.
"Nira warned us about this, they can't do too much at once," Kaiba said. Yami nodded and in one swift motion picked Yugi up and carried him bridal style towards the door. Yugi let out a small noise at the sudden movement and blushed even more if that were possible.
Ryou tried to get up off the bed and follow; he got about two steps farther than Yugi had before Bakura had to catch him. Ryou's eyes widened at that and he tried to get down from the others arms but Bakura was stronger.
"We're going downstairs, right?" Yami asked Yugi. The smaller one nodded. "The living room is fine. There's room for all of us to sit down," Yugi mumbled.
Malik looked at Joey and grinned. He got up as quickly as he could and dashed for the door but Marik was right behind him and blocked his way.
"Do I get to be carried like a princess too?" Malik asked. Marik grinned and Joey almost shuddered at how similar it was to Malik's, like when he was burning something.
"Nope," was all the blond vampire said. He scooped Malik up and over his shoulder then turned and walked out the door.
The only ones left in the room were Kaiba and Joey. Joey looked up at the tall man who was suddenly beside him. Kaiba held out a hand and Joey took it. He was surprised at how warm it was. Kaiba pulled him to his feet.
"Can you walk?" he asked. Joey stood still for a minute. His stomach was a little upset but that was all, no big deal.
"Yeah," he nodded. He walked to the door, more slowly than he normally would with Kaiba right beside him.
They were the last ones to the living room where everyone else was already seated.
Joey couldn't help but laugh at how uncomfortable they all looked sitting next to one another. Well, except for Malik and Marik. They were sharing a recliner; Malik was sitting on Marik's lap.
Yugi and Ryou on the other hand looked like two deer caught in the headlights. Yugi was beside Yami on the long couch curled in a ball with his chin on his knees and arms around his legs. It was how he normally sat but there was a stiffness that was never there unless the small teen was extremely nervous. Yami looked just as stiff. He was sitting on the cushion next to Yugi not touching the cushion Yugi was one. His feet were flat on the floor, knees together, back straight, and his hands were folded in his lap. He kept his face relaxed but kept glancing at Yugi.
Poor Ryou was on the love seat next to Bakura. He had his legs crossed and his foot was tapping nervously. Bakura was tense looking also perched on the edge of the arm of the love seat.
They all looked at him when he, and surprisingly Kaiba, laughed.
"Sorry, you're just all so…" Joey said searching for the right word.
"Uptight." Kaiba said. Joey nodded still laughing slightly. Shaking his head he walked towards Ryou's kitchen.
"You guys want anything?" he called. Ryou jumped up swiftly.
"I'll get some drinks," he said. Without a word Bakura followed him. Kaiba went also just to make sure the bite wasn't having any negative effects on the blond boy.
Bakura noticed that Ryou's steps were a little wobbly and he kept close to him in case he fell again as the shorter boy bustled about the kitchen. He shooed Joey, and with him, Kaiba out saying he was the host and it was his job to take care of his guests.
"I'm not leaving," Bakura said when Ryou looked at him. They were the only ones in the kitchen.
Ryou looked down quickly saying nothing and went back to grabbing some soda and water from the fridge. Bakura had a little time to examine the boy as he hustled around. For some reason he found himself thinking he looked more like a girl than a boy. Maybe it was the long hair.
He also tried to sort through his reaction upstairs. Bakura had heard that mating was one of the most wonderful experiences, that you felt like you had found the other part of yourself once the bond was complete, he just hadn't believed it until now.
Even after the second mark he felt more protective of the boy. Right now he had the hugest urge to take Ryou in his arms and never let anything bad ever happen to him. After living for centuries alone this was a new feeling.
He snapped out of his thoughts when Ryou tried to reach for the glasses. They were too high up and he was stretching to reach them. It was a movement that Bakura found both sexy and cute.
In a second he was beside Ryou reaching up and retrieving the glasses for him.
"Thanks," Ryou mumbled lowering his eyes. Bakura thought that was cute too, how shy and quiet he was.
At that moment he decided that he'd never let Ryou out of his sight.