Dripping Wings

Atemu shifted uncomfortably in his new clothing. The leather, as good as he made it look, stuck unusually close to his skin. He wasn't used to clothes that clung to him like a second skin. He wasn't sure he was ever going to like it. Yuugi was in front of him at a table as he looked over the book that contained the spell that he would use to open the portal.

Atemu frowned to himself as he watched his Bonded read the ancient tome. He really didn't want this excursion to take more than just a couple of days. The two of them had visited the High Priestess of Tranquility earlier that day to check up on her status. Yuugi's eyes had grown very wide in surprise when he looked upon her swollen belly. The priestess was a little over eight months pregnant, and was due to give birth in a couple short weeks.

If they missed the birth of their own child, Atemu felt he might have a fit. Yuugi, however, was very adamant about getting to Jou as soon as absolutely possible. He refused to take 'no' for an answer. They could not wait.

"All right," Yuugi announced. "I believe I have it."

He raised an eyebrow. "You only believe? You're not positive?"

Yuugi made a small face and shrugged a shoulder. "Well, nothing in magick is positive, now is it? I'm reasonably sure I can get us there and back without any trouble. There's a .05 percent chance that our body parts will end up in twelve different dimensions at once."

"Comforting."

Yuugi cracked his knuckles, then raised his hands in front of him. "Sarcasm won't get you anywhere. We'll be fine! Trust me."

Atemu could only shake his head as Yuugi began the incantation. A strange, multi-colored glow started to permeate Yuugi's skin as the spell grew. There was a rhythm in the air, as if silent drums were being beaten, and the energy burst forth and started to swirl in front of his hands. As the colors mixed and swirled, the energy started to tear at the air and pull the visible threads of reality apart. Right where the image of the wall at the other end of the room used to be, a darkness that held within it spots of amber colored light swirled into existence.

The hair on the arms and back of the neck of both of them were raised on end as electrical currents buzzed in the air. Yuugi stopped chanting and lowered his arms. The portal was finally done. He turned to Atemu and motioned for him to follow, but his Bonded was skeptical. "I don't see anything on the other end but darkness, Yuugi."

Yuugi nodded. "We won't see anything clearly till we get to the other side." He pulled out a small phial of liquid from his shirt pocket. "Here. A linguistics potion, so you'll be able to understand Japanese."

Atemu smiled a little as he took the phial. Linguistics potions were very difficult to make, and Yuugi had seemed to manage it with ease. After all, if he couldn't make it, no one else in their world could. He was the only one that actually spoke and understood the foreign tongue, and only one with the knowledge of the language could make a potion for it. His memory flashed back to their very first time meeting, and he had given one to a very wary Yuugi. So much time has passed. I wonder if there's going to be anything left of Jonouchi for us to even salvage. He drank the phial and felt the language seep into his conscious. When he was done, he slipped his hand into Yuugi's and laced their fingers together, then squeezed firmly. With one final breath, he nodded, and they walked through.

At first, it felt as though the earth had given out beneath them, and they tumbled. The darkness and the amber lights flickered and swayed, wind whipped their hair, and they tumbled.

Yuugi cried out as he felt a deep, hard tug pull at his being. A line of red lightning sizzled and hissed between him and Atemu. Their blond bond was being pulled upon, but it was holding firm. The dimension traveling wasn't going to separate them, no matter how hard it tried.

A flash of pain and light later, and they tumbled to the ground on the other side of the portal.

It was night in Domino City. The pavement below their hands and knees was damp with summer rain. Atemu felt the dirt from the ground as it stuck to his wet fingers. They pulled themselves up together and leaned against one another for support. Yuugi clutched at his head and waited for the world to stop spinning. He'd had a notion that traveling through dimensions would be disorienting, but he hadn't realized it would feel like a mountain had just fallen on his head.

"Are you all right?" Atemu asked him.

"Fine," he rasped out. Slowly, surely, the world began to right itself again. He blinked rapidly a few times and watched as his surroundings came into focus.

They were on Seventh Street and Main, just a few blocks away from his old apartment. Yuugi had to take a moment to gather his bearings. After so many years of being gone, it was amazing how quickly it was coming back again.

The shadows. The gangs. The thieves. Drug dealers, drunks, debt, hunger, fear... The basic facts of his old life swam in front of his eyes. He'd forgotten just how much he never wanted to come back.

"Yuugi," Atemu intoned softly next to him.

He blinked and breathed deeply. Apparently he hadn't moved for a good few minutes. He felt his heart rise from the pit of despair he'd felt it fall down. Atemu was with him. His life in Sekesha was not a dream.

His resolve to save Jou strengthened. "Let's go, this way," he pointed to the left. "Keep to the shadows, Atemu. It's best not to draw too much attention."

Atemu kept close to Yuugi's side as they made their way down the road. This world was very alien to him. The buildings were tall and dark and angled. Stairways led up and up and up to windows high above them. Street lamps poured amber colored light into the dank air. Strange, large devices made of metal were placed next to the side walk. Some of them were moving along down the street.

Yuugi caught Atemu's intense stare and elaborated for him. "Cars. They run by burning gasoline for energy, and use constructs of metal and gears to turn the wheels and carry people at high speeds."

"Interesting," he frowned.

There were few people on the streets. Yuugi determined it must have been very early in the morning. One, perhaps two am. No one was around. It was only five minutes later when they rounded a corner and the old apartment building came into view.

Yuugi paused and looked upon the old, crumbling entryway. He wondered if Jou even still lived there. It was doubtful, but it was the first place to start. Thus, he pulled Atemu into the shadow of the building, away from the light, and unfurled his wings. His bonded gave him a funny look, but Yuugi pointed upward. Atemu's red eyes followed, and saw a small platform three stories up at the end of one set of narrow iron stairs. "Why are there so many stairs on these buildings?" Atemu questioned.

"These are residences. Those stairs are fire escapes."

The King narrowed his eyes at the site. "People live here? It's dilapidated!"

"Low-rent district," Yuugi shrugged. "No one here has any money." He flapped his wings and rose to the platform. Atemu was quickly behind him.

The were no lights behind the smudgy window they stood in front of. They hid their wings again and Yuugi looked in.

The place was deserted, with not even a trace of use. The insides looked gray with a thick layer of dust on everything. There was no furniture, and no signs of life. It was deemed safe to enter. With a little charm, Yuugi had the window unlocked and was sliding in.

Atemu lifted his left leg and hoisted it over the windowsill. His boots were heavy, and his pants pulled strangely. Yep. He definitely hated these clothes. He was just about to stand upright when a small light flooded the room, then Yuugi fell back into him and held onto his arms tightly. Startled, he pulled his bonded close. "What is it?" He looked around Yuugi's head to see.

"It...it hasn't been touched. At all. After all this time, nothing's been moved!" Yuugi walked forward slowly, almost as if he was afraid to touch more of the floor. The small orb of light he'd summoned with his Gift gently floated next to him. Slowly, he bent over and picked up an old, dust ridden towel. "I dropped this on the floor the day I fell in the portal! And here!" He moved again and picked up a ratty looking sweater. "I wriggled out of this when the thug had me! I-" Still, he continued to look around. Years of dust covered everything. It was clear nothing had touched the apartment in a long time.

Yuugi shook his head. "I don't understand why this place hasn't been rented out again. Why was nothing touched?"

Atemu shivered. The tiny apartment was like something out of a pale nightmare, veiled by dust and memories. He used to live here. My Bonded lived like this. I thought I could imagine what it was like, but it's so cold in here and so terrible.

Stains of unknown origins covered every surface. The sink of the barely-there kitchen was green and brown and black. The walls were yellow and splashed with red and dark dark burgundy. It could only be blood, a fact that was affirmed by the splash patterns and the flaking, dried edges. "Yuugi, let's leave. There's nothing here."

It appeared that Yuugi could not tear his eyes away from the horror on the hole filled walls.

"Yuugi!" He grabbed at Yuugi's shoulders and pulled him closer. Yuugi flinched, but seemed to be pulled out of his thoughts. "Y-you're right. There's nothing here. Let's go."

Atemu pulled Yuugi out of the window and closed it with a resounding snap! His Bonded was still shaking in his arms, and he held him close until he felt Yuugi had once again regained control of himself.

"Forgive me," he started. "I hadn't expected to find the place exactly as I'd left it. I can't understand why it hasn't changed. Something terrible must have happened-must still be happening. Apartment owners don't just leave a room like that! They need as much rent as they can get!"

Atemu could not come up with a reply. With a flick of his hand, he used his shadows to snuff out Yuugi's orb. They wouldn't need the illumination anymore. "We should move on from here. The answers are probably lying with Jou. Where else would he be?"

Yuugi shoved his head into Atemu's shoulder and sought comfort. He sighed. "Next...I'd guess the bar. Come on. It's only a few blocks from here."

"The place is still open?"

Yuugi chuckled through his shaky breath. "The bars here don't close until three in the morning or so. People party until very late at night."

"Every night?"

"Hmm...five on Saturdays."

Atemu found himself shocked as they winged themselves off the stairs and landed on the pavement below. "Does anyone ever get any sleep around here?"

"Sometimes," Yuugi replied. So far, every word from him since entering his old world sounded old and bitter. Atemu couldn't wait to get him home.

There were still very few people on the road as they ambled their way on, but Atemu did notice that the closer they got to the bar, the more people that appeared, and very few of them looked friendly. Yuugi had told him before that not everything and everyone in this world was terrible, but that he simply lived in a bad part of town.

Bad, indeed. He wondered just how many 'bad parts' of this world there were. It seemed to be barely a pale comparison to the greatness of Sekesha.

The bar was a small little joint with a double door and shiny neon lights. Steady vibrations were heard pounding through the walls as the bass from the music filtered through the thin walls. Atemu would have preferred to take a breath and steal himself before entering the cacophony within, but Yuugi pulled on his arm and pulled him in without hesitation.

It was mostly dark inside, loud, and frankly, Atemu felt suddenly claustrophobic. He'd never seen people move around so closely before. It was clear even to an alien foreigner like him that the people were partaking in some form of dancing, but it appeared to him to be more like an orgy with clothes on. This point was even confirmed as the movement of the dancers' hips was punctuated by the steady rhythm of the bass.

Yuugi wove through the crowd and headed to the bar at the back of the room. The bartender was currently cleaning a smudgy looking glass mug and wore a decade old scowl on his face. His arms were huge with muscles. His clothes were faded black and looked like they'd seen better days, and he hadn't shaved in perhaps a week. Atemu would probably not have trusted any food that had been served by him.

"Keith!" Yuugi yelled over the noise.

The blond haired man looked up, and for a moment his scowl vanished and he grinned toothily. "Yuugi!? Holy shit, it's you!" He waived the violet eyed man over with enthusiasm.

A small blush tinged Yuugi's cheeks. It had been years, after all, and suddenly he showed up again without warning. "It's been a while, Keith!" Yuugi pulled Atemu safely up behind him and rested his hands on the bar.

Keith shook his head as he looked at Yuugi. "Damn, look at you! You're..."

Yuugi raised an eyebrow. "Grown up? Taller? Better looking?" He gave a half grin.

The bartender shook his head, then leaned in closer. "You're alive! Everyone's believed you to be dead for years now-thought Gozaburo's gang finally got to ya."

Yuugi's face darkened a tad. "Yeah, I suppose you would have. I really suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I've been...pretty tied up for a while."

"Shit," was Keith's response. He kept cleaning the mug. "Want something, pal? On the house."

Yuugi shook his head no. "Thanks, but no. You know I've never had any."

The man shrugged.

"Anyway, do you know where Jou is?" Yuugi pressed.

Keith frowned and shook his head. "Haven't seen him in a couple of years, Yug. If you see the deadbeat, make him pay up on his tab."

Yuugi sighed and reached his hand towards his back pocket. Atemu noticed how Yuugi faked his reach into his pocket and instead used a charm to magick up some money into his hand. "How much does he owe?"

"Two thousand yen."

Yuugi winced. "You know you shouldn't have let him rack it up that high." He started to count out the money and slapped it on the counter. "Here, keep it all. I've no use for it."

Keith whistled as he started to count the enchanted money. "Alive and loaded, remind me to stay on your good side."

"Would you know where we could find him?" Atemu asked.

Keith looked up and seemed to have noticed him for the first time. If he thought it was strange that he looked so similar to Yuugi, he didn't mention it at all. Not even a flicker of his eyes. "I suppose you should check downtown. That's where everyone says he spends all his time these days."

Atemu wasn't sure what was held in 'downtown,' but Yuugi's shoulders slumped down. "Figures," he replied. He waved at Keith in goodbye. "Thanks, Keith. I probably won't see you anymore after this. You've been a big help."

Keith's face settled back into its natural scowl. "Sure. Whatever. Good to see you're healthy, punk. And good luck."

He smiled. "Thanks, Keith."

Yuugi pulled away from the bar and grabbed Atemu's arm again.

:I take it you know where Jou is,: he spoke through their mind link. The yelling was too much work over the loud music that never stopped playing.

Yuugi's head nodded. :I've got a pretty good idea. We'll have to head there in the morning.:

As Atemu nodded his understanding, Yuugi started looking around the club. :You know...: he started thinking back. :I think we should dance before we leave here.:

Atemu gave him a scandaled look. :You've got to be joking, dear. I'm not allowing my body, much less yours, to mingle amidst this crowd. All I smell is alcohol and sweat.:

Yuugi chuckled. :Aside from the smell, it's kind of the point. Come along, just trust me on this. Join me.:

Yuugi pulled and he resisted only minimally. They slowly swam through the crows until they were just a little away from the middle of the dance floor, and Atemu allowed Yuugi's hands to settle on his hips and they started to move. :Who was Keith, anyway?:

:Keith has been the bartender here for years. Whenever Jou got really drunk, he'd call me and have me take him home. He's a tough asshole most of the time, but whenever I was in a real pinch and Jou couldn't be there, he was a real help. One of the best guys to have next to you in a fight. I've seen him go down swinging.: Yuugi replied.

Atemu closed his eyes as he mulled over the information. So, an old friend then. There were bound to be a few still around.

A new song started to play, and it seemed that the DJ pumped the music even louder. Atemu listened to the lyrics closely as the very steady beat pounded in his ears. You let me violate you...you let me desecrate you... The beginning thus far was slow, but steady. Everyone slowly got into a strong, steady rhythm of grinding to the beat. Yuugi subjected him to the same. You let me penetrate you...you let me complicate you...help me...

Strange lyrics. His body moved more as Yuugi guided their movements. The floor was absolutely crowded with people. The heat from the crowd was almost stifling, and Yuugi's cool touch was like a glass of fresh water. I want to fuck you like an animal...I want to feel you from the inside...

Yuugi touched his face and trailed his hand down Atemu's chest. The people of this world apparently were not prudent at all when it came to subject of sex in public. He would have been embarrassed for himself as he became aroused, with Yuugi grinding against him as he was, but everyone around them was doing much the same thing. No one gave them a second look.

Yuugi dipped his hips and swayed sensuously, and as he did so he squeezed Atemu's hips with his hands and guided his lover's hips with him. Bolder moves that brought them closer. Help me...it's your sex I can smell...

The song felt like it went of for ever, and the more he danced the more the beat took over the beating of his heart, the music feeling as if it was moving through his blood stream. It was exhilarating. The friction from Yuugi's body was driving him mad. Every sway, dip, and movement. Their bodies never parted.

Yuugi pulled away only slightly, but it was enough to capture Atemu's attention as he pulled back and swayed their hips by his direction. Yuugi grinned into Atemu's shoulder as he felt his partner's arousal against him. He couldn't blame the poor man for being so easy to turn on. After all, they'd only made love twice in the barely two week time span that he'd been mostly recovered.

The song ended when a stronger, faster beat started to take over, and all of the couples broke apart and started hopping along to the new song. Atemu was forced out of his trance and suddenly realized that sweat was trailing down his skin. He blinked rapidly and stared at his lover. Yuugi was smiling and sweating as well. The tension from earlier seemed to have melted off his frame. "That was...interesting," he conceded.

Yuugi laughed. "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

He tapped a finger on Yuugi's nose. "Never breathe a word of this back home."

Yuugi laughed even more. "Come on. Let's grab a hotel room for the night. We need to head to the station tomorrow and probably bail out Jou."

Atemu followed Yuugi out of the bar as he asked his next question. "What's the station?"

"Prison."