Dream Prince

Chapter 16

This Isn't My Idea of Fun

The following morning found Yugi wandering around the camp looking for Jono. He wanted to ask the blond to teach him sword fighting but he could not do that if he could not find the other. In the end Yugi found Jono among a gathered crowd of people who were most likely watching an arm wrestling match. Obviously not too interested in the sport in question, Jono's face turned away from the spectacle in a distracted manner, his eyes falling on Yugi. The blond then gave Yugi a wave and started to walk towards the shorter male.

"Good morning, Jono", Yugi spoke out as soon as the two were properly face to face. Jono regarded him with a thin smile and spoke wearily: "Morning, Rasui."

Yugi instantly noticed that something was bothering his friend. Jono seemed unusually down, and Yugi suspected it to be something more than mere tiredness.

"Is something the matter?" Yugi asked from the blond, who blew a breath out, puffing his cheeks in a reminder of a sigh, and then answered: "I'm just feeling a bit homesick, is all."

"Homesick?" Yugi repeated curiously. To him Jono seemed so untouchable and invulnerable, much like Bakura, but here he saw the blond give in to a normal human weakness. It was unexpected and maybe even a bit alarming. Having been deprived of contact with friends his age when growing up, Yugi did not know how to react to a situation requiring empathy. Yugi felt the emotion, yes, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do with it.

"Remember how I told you that I have never been far from home before?" Jono queried before continuing. "I know that everyone has their own idea of the best place in the world but to me my home was perfect." The blond smiled wistfully. "It's such a beautiful place, even though to you it might appear boring or bleak."

Now that Yugi thought about it, shouldn't he also feel homesick? He had been away for way over a week but he did not find himself feeling the level of sorrow that Jono was obviously experiencing. Sure, he missed his mother and grandfather but that was a longing directed at individual people, not the place he should have considered home. Perhaps it was because Yugi had been raised to be Atemu's bride and life companion. Even though he had been taught about court manners, politics and strategy, he had never been trained in combat. Nor had anyone ever tried to plant any form of patriotism into him. All his life Yugi had been told: 'Egypt will be your home', and now it seemed that Yugi's heart had started to believe that.

"Actually, there was something else I wanted to discuss with you", Yugi spoke out as he attempted to change the topic of conversation. Since he had no idea of what he should say to Jono to offer consolation or comfort, he hoped to at least distract them both.

"Sure thing, Rasui. Ask away", Jono prompted and Yugi spoke out: "I was wondering about that peculiar way you wield a sword. Where did you learn that?"

"I learned to use a sword from travellers, actually", Jono answered easily with a nonchalant shrug. "It was one of the only styles available for me to learn and it proved useful against robbers." The blond smirked triumphantly then, clearly thinking about past victories. "Not many people have seen the style so they don't know how to prepare for it."

"I want to learn it", Yugi said eagerly and then blushed in embarrassment and lowered his head in shame at his own impoliteness. It was a bit hesitantly that he continued. "If it's okay with you to teach me?"

"I'd be glad to", Jono replied without any hesitation, smiling brightly as he nodded his head in agreement. "Come on, we'll practice on the south side of the camp." The blond turned to lead the way and tilted his head to the direction for emphasis. "No one goes there." Jono started to walk and Yugi scurried off to follow. "And I think this particular style will be perfect for you."

At those words Yugi's steps faltered a bit but the young prince managed to regain his balance and query: "Why do you think that, Jono?"

"It's just an itch I have", Jono answered with a yet another shrug. Yugi took a calming breath at the answer, mentally scolding himself for being so jumpy. There was no reason for him to be so suspicious of anyone; it could not be possible for Jono of all people to think that Yugi was a foreign prince in disguise. Actually, he probably did not even have to worry about Dartz now that he was on the topic. Dartz never visited the castle and Yugi encountered the wizard's minions extremely rarely. There was no way for the sorcerer to know of Yugi's daring escape so soon, if he was to know of it at all. It would be silly of Yugi to fry his nerves over empty fears sparked by people who said something that Yugi misinterpreted.

When the duo made it behind the small row of tents that contained the camp's provisions, Jono took his sword out and indicated for Yugi to do the same. As soon as Yugi had his sword out Jono demonstrated the proper grip Yugi needed to have on the handle for the particular sword fighting style. The blond stood to Yugi's left facing the same direction as the prince did, providing Yugi with an excellent image to mimic.

After Yugi had gotten an impression of how the pose was supposed to be like Jono told him to sheathe his sword and then unsheathe it again and try to copy the starting pose from his memory. At the first attempt Yugi was not very successful and so Jono showed the pose again and Yugi followed his lead. Then the blond put his sword away again and told Yugi to try to recreate the pose from memory once more. Yugi failed two more times before he got the pose right enough for Jono to be satisfied with the result.

Next Jono started instructing Yugi in a couple of simple blocks, all the while telling Yugi what kinds of blows they were good against and which attacks would most likely make it through and tear his stomach open. Yugi grimaced at every single example of the latter group when he could not stop himself from having mental images.

Yugi informed Jono of when he thought that he had memorized the blocks properly, and Jono nodded before they faced each other. Not about to swing his sword at a novice, Jono suggested they did a visualised exercise. Jono would say where the attack was coming from and Yugi would then show the bock he thought to be right.

By the point in which Yugi started to get the blocks right, his grip on his sword had turned slippery from the sweat that covered his palm. It was starting to get taxing to swing the heavy metal sword around. Yugi still tried to keep going as well as he could, until his sword slipped from his wet hand and fell onto the sandy ground. And that was when Yugi heard the snicker.

The prince's entire body tensed and the boy glanced from the corner of his eye to the side to see the person he least wanted to see witnessing his tumble. Lord Odji was perched on top of a grate and smirked viciously at Yugi when he saw the shorter male looking in his direction. Yugi immediately diverted his gaze and picked up his discarded sword. Straightening himself Yugi faced Jono again, to see the blond glaring murder at the noble.

"Are we still continuing?" Yugi queried, sounding whinier than he had meant to. Jono's eyes looked down at him immediately and the blond's murderous expression smoothened out and brightened into a smile as he assured the other: "Of course not, Rasui. It's better you take a break now." The friendly gaze turned serious again and the brown eyes narrowed. "I'll have a little chat with that Odji."

"Please, Jono, don't do anything that will get you in trouble", Yugi pleaded with the other. Jono smirked at him, an expression that made the young prince more than slightly distrusting of the other's plans. "I promise I'll choose my words carefully."

"Maybe you could threaten to sick Priest Seto on him", Yugi suggested, remembering the discussion from two days ago, the one about how Seto seemed to have developed a soft spot for Jono.

"Like I'd ever ask that guy for help", Jono snarled with displeasure. "Not to mention I hardly think he'd appreciate it if he heard that I'm using his name to get my way." The blond waved a hand at Yugi dismissively. "Forget it."

"Fine. Still, remember not to do anything you might regret", Yugi concluded before departing from the scene. He tried not to think about what Jono might possibly do, or threaten to do, to Odji.

Soon after walking back into the main camp Yugi ran into Bakura. Only, it took Yugi a moment to recognize his friend; Bakura had, for some reason, changed his hairstyle during the night. The albino's hair no longer hung freely on his shoulders, but had been plaited into miniature braids as thick as a finger. Doing all those braids must have taken a great deal of the previous night, Yugi noted with no small amount of awe.

"What's with the hair, Bakura?" Yugi asked quietly, only to have Bakura plant a hand on his mouth and snarl: "What have I told you about calling me that?" The thief pulled back to glare at Yugi sternly. "You should just call me 'Akefia' all the time. If you switch between the two you're bound to get them mixed up and give away our secret."

"O-okay", Yugi murmured weakly. He did not understand Bakura's insistence on the names. Yugi for one hand preferred to have someone call him by his real name occasionally. It kept him from getting confused over the identities of Yugi and Rasui. That was when Yugi realized that Bakura always called him either Rasui or prince or then by some obscure reference to his height. Almost like Bakura did not want to grow attached to him. Of course, it might have just as well been because Bakura did not consider one's name and identity to be as closely connected as Yugi did. It certainly was more like Yugi to think so much into things like that, while Bakura was more straightforward about everything.

"Now, where have you been?" Bakura asked with a scowl that Yugi optimistically thought to be worried.

"I was practising using a sword with Jono", Yugi answered truthfully. Bakura snorted at the answer before commenting: "It's really a wonder how a prince can be so useless with a sword."

"Well, excuse me for the fact that my parents did not think I would ever need to use a sword!" Yugi snapped heatedly, getting defensive about the topic that had been giving him grief the entire morning. Bakura lifted his hands in an effort to calm Yugi's suddenly flaring temper as he spoke in a tone of voice that was half amused and half surprised: "Calm down, pipsqueak. I was just joking around with you."

"I don't consider that a funny topic", Yugi murmured and jutted out a lip. "I already have been degraded by Odji today, I don't need you to add in on the hurt."

"You want me to take care of him?" Bakura asked, his more than slightly eager tone sending shivers of dread down Yugi's spine. The prince crossed his arms as if to ward off the other's evil as he exclaimed: "No! No taking care of him!"

"Fine", Bakura grumbled in a disappointed matter. The frown of white eyebrows was the closest Bakura would get to actually pouting. "You always ruin my fun."

1.

Odji had expected his day to turn out to be a dull one, since his schedule contained the always equally droll task of checking over what remained of their provisions and what would need to be restocked. It was the one thing Odji was allowed to do by himself, since his 'companions' did not expect him to get up to anything while handling the assignment in question. And Odji was not planning on doing anything underhanded, because whatever negative results would follow from a lack of equipment would also affect him.

The worst part about having to go through the provisions was the fact that it was always done early in the morning, during the cool hours before Ra's rays shone from the higher sky. Those were the hours Odji would have preferred to spend laying down on a particularly cool spot simply relaxing and enjoying himself. But no, he had a duty uphold and that duty trapped him inside the stuffy tents on the south side of the camp.

By the time Odji was done with his assignment and left the last of the tents, the best hours of the day had already been wasted. The raven-haired noble could not resist muttering a string of not-so-flattering names, all of which referred to a certain young Egyptian prince.

During his inaudible grumbling Odji had started to walk back towards the oasis, the direction of the soft bed located within his tent. He did not have enough time to take more than a couple of steps before he heard human voices speaking. Now, it was not uncommon for there to be people talking in the camp, it was a part of the human nature to interact, but anyone rarely came to the equipment tents. There was nothing out of place with Odji growing curious about this oddity.

Locating the nearest open space between the tents, Odji made his way towards the source of the voices. The noble came across two young soldiers he recognized instantly for separate reasons: one of them was his key to beating Atemu and the other was the one reason he might fail. And they were doing the one thing that might mess up Odji's plans: practising.

Spotting a crate beside him, Odji seated himself to observe the two training sword fighting. Fortunately for him the two had not spotted him so he might be able to observe them for a while. And he was going to keep an eye on them for as long as he could.

The first thing Odji noticed was that Rasui did not seem to know as much as the basics of using a sword. The short male was merely repeating whatever moves the other soldier, Jono, was showing him. It was a good thing to know, relieving too, but Odji did not know how things might change in the future.

After a while Jono stopped showing the moves to Rasui and simply gave spoken instructions. Watching the happenings grew more boring with each moment that passed, since the amount of mistakes Rasui did decreased with each time Jono reminded him of a right move.

Then Rasui dropped his sword. Actually, the blade slipped from his hands and flew to the ground. Odji could not stop the victorious snicker that came from him and in the next instant Rasui stiffened and turned his face to him. Odji smirked at the boy, who quickly averted his gaze. Odji took the opening as a chance to direct his attention to the soldier's teacher, only to find that the other was already looking at him. The brown eyes were narrowed in an obvious sign of aggravation. Used to receiving glares on a regular basis, Odji disregarded the look and gave the blond a sultry smirk and a wink.

Jono was indeed a very fiery person; the blond was strong, determined and very pleasing to look at. Ever since Jono had matched up against Atemu, Odji had been wondering what it would be like to have all that power as his own, to use it as he wished. Such a feisty thing like Jono simply had to be a good partner in bed. It should not be too hard to find out if the case was so; Odji was one of the most desired men in the kingdom, Jono would surely jump at the chance to be with him.

If possible, Jono's glare turned even more murderous before the blond turned to Rasui and said something to the shorter male. Odji was entirely too outraged to try and listen to what the two were saying. How dare that nobody ignore him! And it was in favour of that pathetic Rasui too! There was no way the raven-haired man would let this slide. Jono would beg to receive his attentions, for no one could resist Odji's charm.

By the time Odji was finished with feeling utterly insulted, Rasui was leaving the scene with Jono staying behind. As much as Odji wanted to shout something degrading after the short soldier, the raven-haired male was more interested in what Jono was doing. The blond was, after all, walking right towards him.

It was only to be expected, Odji thought as Jono crossed the distance between them. Jono could not resist Odji's charms any more than any other person who had fallen victim to his lures. The blond would surely be putty in his hands in mere moments. He prepared his most attractive smile to greet the blond with.

"Hey, jerkface", were the first words out of Jono's mouth and Odji froze at the unexpected greeting, unable to respond. "I want you to stop stalking Rasui. The only thing you're succeeding in doing is making him lose focus and that makes me lose patience." The brown eyes were narrowed murderously. "If it keeps up, I'm going to snap."

"You're in no position to threaten me or even speak with such disrespect towards me", Odji snapped at the blond; a rebellious attitude could be attractive but this blatant disregard of his position was not turning him on. "I can have you severely punished for your disrespect."

Suddenly Jono leaned in close to Odji's face. For a moment the noble thought that the blond was going to jump him; authority figures were arousing to many, after all. But, in the end Jono growled out in a tone of voice that did not sound aroused in the least: "You honestly think you'll be able to get your guards on me before I get my hands on you?" Odji watched, transfixed, how the blond's lips turned into a malicious smirk and took an involuntary step back, away from the threatening presence.

"I see we're seeing eye to eye now", Jono murmured, the threatening tone of voice still present. "Now, I will give you two options: you will either stay away from our practise or sleep with your eyes open." The blond's eyes flashed and for a moment Odji thought he saw red instead of brown. "I know where you sleep."

"I won't take orders from you", Odji argued heatedly, with most of the indignant anger in his voice only there to cover up how nervous and frightened he truly felt. "You're the one who's supposed to follow my commands."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that", Jono replied in a tone of voice that was more amused than bothered. Actually, the blond's tone was only amused and not bothered at all. Jono's teeth flashed from between his smirk before the blond turned away from Odji and walked off into the camp. Odji stayed still for a while, contemplating and trying to pull himself together.

Jono was definitely a beautiful thing to look at, but once you got close and personal with him he became malevolent in a manner that was very unattractive. Odji would have to seriously consider if he wanted to take his possible murderer into bed. But, then again, Jono was so very beautiful and had such a nice, strong body. That body was probably strong enough to break Odji's bones and snap his neck, but it would also feel very nice against his own.

When all of his thoughts were summed up, Odji came to the conclusion that Jono would do his bidding for the rest of his life once he found out what a skilled lover Odji was. So, the raven-haired man decided that he would focus on luring Jono into his bed first and then let his talents remove all of Jono's dislike towards him. Yes, the plan was perfect, and bound to work.

To be continued…

Enging Notes: Sorry about taking so long to update. Instead of having loads of free time after summer break started I've been really busy with my summer job.

Also, I will be closing the poll about my next story after this Sunday, meaning that this week is your last chance to submit your votes. I've been positively surprised by the amount of people who have voted. Thanks, everyone.