A/N: SORRY TO YOU WITH ALERT TO THIS STORY; I ACCIDENTALY UPLOADED THIS CHAPTER AND HAD TO TAKE IT DOWN AGAIN! I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY PROBLEMS THIS MIGHT HAVE CAUSED! T___T
Final wordcount: 3133 words.
SEE! :D Long chapter this time! I told you this one would be longer! Finally, the real chapters has commenced. Er, but the cliffhangers have not stopped. Nu-uh. X3
Anyway! I won't keep yacking! Please, read and enjoy and I'll see you in the end credits!
Where we last left our hero;
"Jonoh?" The man leaned out over the edge of the bed to look at him and Katsuya froze in shock. "What are you doing down there?" A cold chuckle, that too, very familliar. "Do you enjoy sleeping on the floor like a dog, perhaps?"
"Kaiba. It's frickin' KAIBA."
Chapter 2
Indeed. To Katsuya's shellshocked mind, that man on the bed was Kaiba Seto; His arch nemesis and the one whom he was certain was plotting his demise, his nightmare incarnate, the Tom to his Jerry. And any other reference that could indicate their hate for each other (1)
Those cold, unemotional eyes were the same, if a little darker in colour and just slightly more open.
That sharp chin and nose, that sneer that almost were out on his lips, tickling the corners of his thin mouth.
That neat brown hair, if a little longer, a little messy from sleeping (PLEASE, SAY IT WAS FROM SLEEPING, Katsuya cried in his own mind) and lighter in colour.
And who CARED about if Kaiba had gotten a dark tan since he saw him yesterday, or that he doubted he was so damned muscular under his form-fitting poloshirt. His mind sure didn't and was screaming the only possible answer to whom this person was: it WAS Kaiba fucking SETO!
Thus, Katsuya decided to tell this man that obviously didn't know he was Kaiba, that he was just that. Kaiba, that is.
"KAIBA?!" Katsuya shrieked again (thanking every diety he could think of that none of his old gang members or God forbid OTOGI could hear him then).
The man, OBVIOUSLY Kaiba, frowned slightly, making him look much more dangerous than Kaiba usually did. "You should not call someone else's name ike that in my presance, dog. I thought we went over this before."
Dog insults. If that didn't prove this was Kaiba once and for all, NOTHING did.
"I'M NOT A DOG!" That familliar retort made Katsuya feel a little bit calmer. Fragmentaly so, but he was not one to complain. Not right now anyway. "A-And what the hell is going on?! Why am I naked?!"
Pause. STARE.
"WHY ARE YOU NAKED?!"
A gasp of horrid realisation.
"W-We didn't...do it, did we?!"
Now, Katsuya WOULD have yelled more, but was stopped.
By a big hand grabbing his throat and throwing him back onto the bed, that squeaked indignantly and then used the cold-shoulder treatment to punish the one whom treated it so rudely by not even apologizing for that mindless attack on it's being.
Katsuya stared up at the now furious, yet slightly confused, face of tanned-Kaiba. "When did he get that tan? Is it can-tan?" His scrambled mind wondered in mid-panic.
"What has gotten into you today, slave?" Can-tanned-Kaiba growled, those dark eyes icely burning into his own, promising pain and punishment beyond compare. "You are talking back to your master and wake him from his sleep, just to scream some nobody's name?" The steelgrip on his throat loosened somewhat to allow him air as can-tanned-Kaiba seemed to calm down a little. "Did you have another one of those bad dreams, Jonoh?" His voice seemed almost caring, a sharp contrast to Katsuya's rapidly bruising throat.
Wait. What did can-tanned-Kaiba just call him? Jonoh? Uh...that wasn't right.
"...huh?" Katsuya blinked up at him hesitantly. "Uh...what did you just call me?"
Can-tanned-Kaiba slowly raised an eyebrow. "Jonoh. Did you hit your head?" Pause. "...appart from how it banged against the headboard last night." A smirk curved his lips, making Katsuya's stomach send fluttery sensations through him, centering somewhere around his belly-button.
"Jon-HEY! That's not my name!" A brilliant deduction, brought to you from Katsuya's magnificent brain.
"Of course it is." Can-tanned-Kaiba looked impatient at his appearant dumbness now.
"NO! I'm Jounouchi Katsuya-DAMNIT, get off of me, Kaiba!" Katsuya suddenly thrashed underneath the stoic brunet, as the feel of having that warm body on top of him made his body go all...fuzzy and heated.
Tan-canned-Kaiba frowned slightly. "Jou...nouchi?" He repeated his name as if it was very foreign to him and it sounded strange on his tongue. More like 'Jounitsi' than the real thing, but Jou wasn't in the mood to correct him.
"Yeah! You should know that, can-ta…err, I mean, Kaiba!" Katsuya glared lightly at him. "Don't play dumb."
"I wouldn't play a game that you seem so very talented at." Can-tanned-Kaiba muttered, more to himself than meant to be heard by others. Then, he went serious and suddenly grabbed Katsuya's chin, holding him still while he leant close...closer...very...close...!
"K-Ka-What are you...?!" Katsuya shrieked once more, putting his hands at the other's chest. Not good! Being this close was NOT good...! And...neither was...that warm breath against his lips...so faint, but there...and...his scent wasn't nice either...warm and...spicey...and...w-what was he thinking again?
"Be quiet." Can-tanned-Kaiba mumbled, stopping about an inch away from Katsuya's face. Or, his lips, in Katsuya's mind. His heart raced while those cold eyes drilled into his own, seeming to see so, so much more than just a pair of amber orbs. They seemed to see right into his soul and dig around in his thoughts leisurely.
Can-tanned-Kaiba's face suddenly changed. It could have been surprise, but Katsuya wouldn't bet any big money on it (it could just as well have been gas). It was as if he saw something deep, deep in his eyes...
"You are not Jonoh." He murmured then. His voice contained some sort of emotion that Katsuya had never heard in Kaiba's voice, EVER. It...it was almost...it sounded sort of like sadness.
"That's what I've been telling you for the last five minutes!" Katsuya face-palmed. "Seriously, Kaiba-"
"Then I shall inform you of something, since it doesn't seem to have made it through your thick skull, peasant." Can-tanned-Kaiba gave him a cold look as he pulled away, stretching to his full, impressive height. Even when sitting, he was VERY, very tall. "I am NOT the one you call 'Kaiba'. I am Seth, Pharaoh of Egypt and former High Priest of the royal temples honored to Set and Ra."
"...come again?" Katsuya GAPED.
The man's eyebrow twitched in a way Katsuya found highly familliar. And amusing. And it sent a strange sense of completion through him; whenever he could make Kaiba (or...can-tanned-Kaiba) annoyed, he felt like a winner.
"The Pharaoh never repeats himself."
"...huh. That must get annoying when people really don't hear what you say." Katsuya blinked.
"Well, in some matters, I might..." Seth (or can-tanned-Kaiba, as he still was in Katsuya's head) paused in his sentance and then glared at Katsuya. "Don't change the subject of matter. Who are you and what are you doing in my slave's body?"
"I already told you! I'm Jounouchi Katsuya!" Katsuya huffed, crossing his arms crossedly.
Seth rolled his eyes, making a small motion with his hand that said 'carry on'. "I asked not you name; WHO are you?"
"Uh..." Katsuya hesitated for a moment. Oh, boy, this would be fun to explain... "Well, I'm....from the future." He scratched the back of his neck with a nervous laugh.
Seth gave him a long look of sceptism.
"What, I am!" Katsuya huffed and glared at him. "I'm from Japan, a looot of years into the future! Millennias, even!"
"Japan?" Seth looked highly confused. "Where lies that kingdom?"
"Well, it's not a kingdom, persay..." And Katsuya proceeded to explain as much as he knew about Japan, both of ancient and presant time. The tanned brunet listened quietly, taking in all the new information with great interest. He only interrupted a few times to ask about things he didn't understand, but mostly let Katsuya tell his story.
When he was finally done, Seth sat with his arms crossed, head rested against the wall above the bed, eyes closed and a thoughtful frown on his forehead. He sat like that for several minutes and for a brief moment of insulted pride, Katsuya thought he had fallen asleep. Just when he was ready to smack him to show how unhappy he was about this, Seth finally spoke.
"So it is true..." He mumbled, slowly opening his eyes (and Katsuya quickly lowered the hand he had meant to smack the brunet with). "The soul travel on, even when the body perishes and like the grand phoenix, it rejuvenates."
"...uh?"
"When you die, your soul is born again in another time. " Seth rolled his eyes. "You seem to be the future self of my slave, Katsuya Jonoh." He frowned lightly then. "But how in Ra's holy name did you get here?"
"Well, uh..." Katsuya hesitated. "I had a really weird dream before I got here...where I floated around in darkness and went by this person that kinda looked like me..."
"Your souls switched places through the Shadow Realm?" Seth looked shocked. "That is a phenomenon I've never heard of...a future and past self switching places and times...this is much troublesome." He suddenly stood, getting off of the bed. "I shall go investigate if such an occurance has-"
"AKK! GET DRESSED FIRST!" Katsuya yelped, throwing himself face-first into a pillow to protect his innocent, innocent eyes. His cheeks burned, as he'd seen FAR more of this Kaiba-ish man than he'd wanted to. FAR more, if you got his drift.
"Damn, he's well endowed!" Katsuya's mind helpfully provided before it promptly got shot, maimed and finally crushed under a huge, heavy mental heel.
A soft chuckle was the answer to his outrage and then...
A warm hand trailed over his asscheeks, in a caress that made everything seem twice as hot.
"You are far more prudent in your world, it seems." Seth's lips brushed against his earlobe, his voice trembling it's way through his eardrum, making that simple sentance seem far more intimate than it should. "Nakedness is a perfectly natural way of being...and far more enjoyable if you know how to take advantage of it..." The hand slowly massaged the muscles of his ass then.
Katsuya reacted in the way ANY manly man would have.
"EEEEK! YOU PERVERT!" A loud clatch was heard and in the next moment, Katsuya had bolted through a door to a room that seemed to tie together with the Pharaoh's chambers.
Seth trailed his fingers over the handshaped, red mark on his cheek and then chuckled darkly.
This would surely be interesting...
-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Jonoh was having a strange, but not unfamilliar dream.
The darkness around him he knew; it was the Shadow Realm. Every once in a while, he ended up in this place in his sleep. It never frightened him; Seth had taught him about it's mysteries long ago, in that time when Jonoh was still innocent and fifteen and Atemu was still Pharaoh and Seth High Priest. The days had been different then; Seth used to smile them, mostly around lady Kisara.
Once upon a time, Jonoh had hated her.
Seth seemed to have forgotten about how much he taught him and about what potential he had thought the young boy possessed. When Atemu and Kisara died he had never taught Jonoh of the Shadow Realm again. At first, Isis had taken up his training, but only for a few months. Then, Seth hd called him to his bed and life had once more changed for Jonoh.
Then he truly became a slave to Seth.
Jonoh was shaken from these nostalgic thoughts when something blond floated into his visions. Then, his eyes widened with shock.
It was himself. Yet...not...
This boy's skin was much paler, like the few Romans Jonoh had seen on a ship once when he was younger. His hair was blond, if a little darker in colour than his own. They shared the same face, which frightened Jonoh.
His clothes were strange to Jonoh. Some kind of fabric that went all the way down his legs and was tight against them and everything else on his lower body. An equally tight cloth stretched across his chest, arms and shoulders. It was open in the middle, with golden metal pieces in one and and holes in the other, where Jonoh supposed the metal pieces would fit. Under it, he wore something that looked a bit like a baggy, white sack, but he could be mistaken. It all looked very, very odd to him anyway. He tried to imagine wearing anything like that in Egypt's heat and mentaly cringed.
When their eyes met, Jonoh's widened. Their colour was alike, yet very different. The boy's reminded him of amber, where his own was the same colour of copper ("Though far more precious," Seth had said once. Jonoh's cheeks heated up in remembrance).
Jonoh tried to understand what this pale mirrorimage was. It was not a Shadow monster, for Jonoh felt no darkness from him. Obviously he was not a magician either, even if Jonoh felt a slight spark from him. So what was he?
The next moment, the boy floated away from his vision and Jonoh could no longer ponder on it.
White light engulfed him then and Jonoh knew he was waking up.
The first thing he noticed was how cold it was. He was shivering from it, burrying his face in the only source of warmth he could find; some sort of cloth and his own arms.
At once, he knew this was not right. It was too cold, too uncomfortable. He felt no sun on his face, nor any kind wind caressing his face. He was dressed...and he couldn't feel that warm, soothing presance next to him anymore.
Jonoh fluttered his copper coloured eyes open slowly and raised himself to sit up straight.
The room was swarming with life. People in his own age either sat by wooden desks (this amazed Jonoh; wood was very rare in Egypt) or stood in small groups and talked. It was an endless chatter, worse than in the marketplace, that made Jonoh's head hurt. Especially since he didn't understand most of the things being discussed.
Something that struck him as odd was how every man wore the same type of clothes and all women did as well.
Jonoh swallowed tightly and tears were pushing at the back of his eyes. Tears of confusion and slight fear.
What was this place?
"Hey, look! The Sleeping Beauty awakes!" A loud voice suddenly boomed behind him and Jonoh almost jumped out of his skin. He quickly turned his head around to stare up at the person whom had spoken.
A teen with darkbrown hair (which faintly reminded Jonoh of a rhino's thick horn) and a pair of even darker brown eyes. He had a friendly, strong face that at the moment was pulled into the widest grin Jonoh had ever seen. His face was familliar, even if it wasn't exactly the same...
"...Hon'daru?" Jonoh said hesitantly, blinking slowly. This boy looked exactly like his childhood friend Hon'daru, with whom he'd lost contact with after he became Seth's. If they'd grown up together, he was sure he'd looked just like that.
The boy looked confused for a moment before he started laughing so loudly Jonoh was close to smack his hands over his ears to save those poor, innocent eardrums from breaking.
"Maah, Jou! How long did ya sleep anyway? Your mind has turned into mush!" Before Jonoh could ask what this 'mush' was, the brunet suddenly pulled him into a strange position; Jonoh found his neck held tightly by the other's arm and he was slightly bent over...
And then, the boy's knuckles started rubbing his scalp in a way that burned like all of Ra's rage had burned there. And the brunet was STILL laughing, making Jonoh wonder if he had planned this pained experience all along.
"YAAAH!" Jonoh gave a sharp cry, squirming to get out of his hold. "A-Aah! L-Let go of me, please! HYAA! That hurts!"
The rubbing stopped a second later and Jonoh found himself quickly pulled into a straight standing position. His eyes met those dark ones, that now stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. And a second nose too. When Jonoh looked around hesitantly, he found the room silent; everyone was busy staring at him in much the same way the offending boy had.
"W-What?" Jonoh said in a weak, hesitant voice, fidgeting selfconciously. Why was everyone staring at him? H-He'd reacted like anyone would to such an assault!
"Uh..." The brown haired boy scratched his cheek in what looked like a highly uncomfortable and uncertain gesture. "...are you feeling okay, Jou?"
Before Jou could respond(or ask where he was) a very short boy with crazy hair walked up to them with a kind smile, taking his backpack off. "Hi, guys!"
"Yuugi!" The brunet looked very relieved to see him, quickly putting a hand on his shoulder. "Good thing you're here! Jou is acting really weird!"
"Maybe he's just gotten normal, Honda!" A girl with short brown hair and big blue eyes said then, smacking the brunet over the head when she sat down in the desk next to where the crazy haired boy had put his bag down.
"HEY!" Honda glared at her.
Jonoh only noticed this in hindsight. His eyes were stuck at the short boy.
"He...he looks just like the former Pharaoh." Jonoh thought in shock. "...but...cute. Sweet. More innocent...and that girl called him Yuugi, not Atemu..."
"Jou-kun?" 'Yuugi' suddenly spoke, bringing Jonoh out of his staring. Those big, amethyst eyes (Atemu's had been red, hadn't they?) blinked curiously at him. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I-I..." Jou trembled slightly, not sure what to say at all. His voice shook and he still felt near tears. What was this world, so unlike his own yet filled with so many familliar faces? It was scary...he only wished to be home and to see...
"Ah, damn." The boy called Honda suddenly cursed, looking at something over Jonoh's shoulder. From the look in his eyes, it was something he did not like; the animosity in his eyes was clear for anyone to see. "He came in today too. I keep hoping he'll be run over by a car one of these days..."
"Honda! That's a terrible thing to say!" The brunette girl scolded harshly.
Jonoh slowly looked over his shoulder while those two bickered, to see whom they were talking about...and froze. His heart felt like it stopped and his mouth went dry.
"Well, Jou agrees with me!" Honda suddenly said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Right, Jou?"
Cold blue eyes.
"Jou?"
Brown hair, neat and perfect.
"Earth to Jou! Can you hear me, over?"
That face that haunted away any nightmare of pain and death.
"Seems like Houston has a problem."
"Shut up, Anzu! JOU?!"
A sweet smile slowly spread across Jonoh's face and his eyes filled with tears while his heart filled with relief and joy.
"Seth. It's Seth."
End Chapter!
(1) Anyone who have some good references they can think of? The best one will be used for another chapter ;O YES, I am making a reader-contest! The best one will...uh...get...eternal glory? XD
There we go! Another chapter, long this time no less! And a reader competition! Sort of. Without prizes. Except the title of "AWESOME". You all want that, right? RIGHT?! DAMN RIGHT YOU DO!
...anyway! I hoped you enjoyed and PLEASE, leave a review! They are like water and air combined to me!
- The Blonde Midget