First thing I would like to say is, Thank You So Much to all of you especially those who support me since Chapter 1! Like I said earlier, you make me keep my writing 'flame' going so I will do my best to update this story as soon as possible! To bakurasgirl123, Haley and Ceiwen, thank you very much for the reviews and so glad that you guys love this story! I can only hope that you will like this chapter too so let's start right away but of course, the usual info comes first:
Beta: (she's busy so the chapter is un-beta at the moment)
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Keys:
"Talks"
'Thoughts'
~Flashbacks~
Chapter 13: Grandpa
The moment "The Elementals" arrived at their destination, the Air Elemental swiftly disabling the tent's security system with his gifted talent in 'break-and-enter' and the first reward he got was a neck-strangling from his counterpart, Ryou Bakura followed by the rest of his friends approaching their respective companions in apprehension. The older boys explained plainly that they managed to set up a trap to distract the animals while giving them time to escape. The reason for creating this lie was mainly to cover their true identities and also to lessen their friend's worries even though they have healed themselves to almost full health. The Newcastle students clearly had doubts written on their faces but promptly brushed off as all that mattered was their safe return. As the teenagers were having a great time celebrating their reunion with Yugi and Yami...
"Somebody help me stop this maniac before I really lose my voice!"
"Who are you calling a maniac, Bakura!"
Their friends could only shook their heads while some snickered candidly as they watched the two white-haired adolescents wrestling like 5-year old children before Yugi and Joey decided to move and stop the commotion. For them both to act uncharacteristically could only mean one thing.
"Bakura is slowly falling for that kid, isn't it?" Yami asked with a mixture of surprise and amusement painted on his features.
"I know it will happen someday but never expect this soon." Seto agreed with a soft chuckle that effortlessly caught Joey's attention.
"Oi! I can hear that you know!" Yet the Air Elemental's terrorizing glare did nothing to stop his cousins from smirking.
With a satisfying dinner and story-telling of "The Adventures of the Star-Shaped Haired Twins" as they called it, the day was coming close to an end but not before a small gathering between the Newcastle students in Yugi's tent.
"I'm glad that you are safe, Yugi!" Ryou spoke distraughtly with his buddies sitting close to each other forming a small circle. "We are so worried that you might get caught by the storm-"
"Or ambushed by those dangerous animals we saw earlier!" Yelled Malik whilst trembling at the thought of being squished by the said living beings.
"Or even starve to death!" Trust Joey to worry about food all the time.
"Guys, I'm fine." Yugi said tranquilly with both of his hands holding up like he always does when trying to calm his friends' fretfulness. "I can take care of myself; I'm not as weak as I used to be anymore. Besides, Yami is right by my side all along and he's being kind and protective of me throughout the whole journey."
As soon as he spoke his last words, the threesome looked at each other before staring back at his tri-colored haired classmate, each with a teasing smirk on his face.
"So, my dear friend Yugi." Malik stated with that same grin plastered on his attractive lips. "What happened between you and Yami while we were busy looking for you two?"
"Nothing." Was the amethyst-eyed boy's straightforward answer, he should have known that they would throw those kinds of questions at him later on. "Like we told you guys earlier after dinner, we're both trying to find our way out of the forest but get wedged by the wild storm so we had to stay in a tree-house until it subsided, then Yami found a path that leaded us to our tent but halfway there, we stumbled upon those animals you saw previously, we ran forward and that's when we met Malik and Marik, and you get the rest of the story."
"Duh! We know that already." Joey exclaimed whilst rolling his eyes. "We want to know the details, there must be something going on between you two! You've been trapped in that forest with Yami for what...5 days and you're telling me that there's absolutely nothing happened?"
Before Yugi could open his mouth, the Egyptian hastily spoke next.
"That fat-ass hippo is right! You and him staying together alone for 5 freaking days! And don't tell me you don't feel anything towards him, I can see the way you look at him so shyly like a girl sending love letters to her secret admirer."
"What? I did not-"
"What did you just call me, you stupid sports-freak with glittery girly hair!" Joey interrupted with a retort and an irate glare directed towards his golden-haired comrade.
"Don't you dare insult my hair!" Then unexpectedly, Malik's smile widen into a knowing smirk before saying the one word. "Mutt."
"That's it! I'm going to cut your tongue out so you can't talk any longer!"
While Yugi's words fall on deaf ears, Ryou, the peacemaker of the group stepped between the two brawling teens and split them apart with much difficulty due to his skinnier form. "Cut it out, guys. It's over midnight right now and your ear-splitting shouts will wake the others up."
Although the spare bedroom that Yami was staying in Yugi's tent had soundproof barrier activated all over the area, with those two loud-mouths roaring like the sounds of thunders, even that barrier couldn't withstand their sound wavelength so thankfully, they stopped their so-called friendly fight and sat down once more.
"Anyways, I don't think something like that goes on between them...yet." Yugi would have hugged his white-haired friend if it wasn't for that one word 'yet'. "But I do agree with Malik and Joey about something you haven't told us in detail, like when you and Yami stayed inside the tree-house. Care to tell us?"
With his three friends ogling and trapping him like predators staring hungrily at their one and only supper, the shortest of the group sighed dejectedly before slowly answering,
"Okay, fine. I'll tell." Yugi drawled before looking up. "But first, I need to know something."
"What?" Came Malik's question.
"Have you finished your project while I was away?"
10 seconds passed, then a minute, and when it felt like forever, Ryou's scream resonated in the night as that one sentence finally registered in their minds and stunned them like an alarm clock waking them up from their deep slumber, but this time their nightmares have just begun.
"Oh my gosh! I completely forgot about that!" Cried the brown-eyed stripling with his hands holding both sides of his head in panic.
"We were so worried about you that we spent every minute of it trying to find a way to save you and ignore everything else!" Came the next yell from the boy with the darkest skin among the group.
"And then those friends of ours are forced to stay in our tents due to the storm so we got distracted especially when I have to live under the same roof with a rude guy like Kaiba! We both argued every time we meet each other so how can I do my homework peacefully with him sticking to my nose constantly? So yeah, you can't blame me for not doing anything." Joey explained whilst nodding his head repetitively as if he was reassuring himself.
"What? My so-called roommate is so much worse than yours I bet!" Malik bellowed in disbelief. "That idiot 'twin' of mine is the one who attaches to me like glue and that's not all! We decided to make dinner ourselves but he destroyed almost my entire kitchen with his clumsy and stupid brain so in the end, what do we eat? Bread, I tell you! Just a loaf of cold bread for dinner!"
"Oh my, I never thought this would happen to you, poor Malik." Ryou said with his hands rubbing Malik's back to soothe him as the martial artist faked cried in Ryou's arms. "Mine is not such a bad case, Bakura can actually be quite nice but still, there's something odd about him that I can't put a finger on."
While the threesome was conversing about their individual roommates, they utterly forgot about their main question of the day and sadly, their purple-eyed buddy standing behind them.
'Now I'm more interested in knowing their daily lives with their roommates, but I can ask them another time and I can't help but notice that they are getting pretty close to them, maybe their relationships are more intimate compared to mine and Yami's...wait, what?'
Yugi shook his head in order to get rid of the ridiculous thought. 'Why did I think of that all of a sudden?' He then sighed heavily as he moved forward and settled his friends down but not before thinking his last thought silently in his head.
'At least they stopped asking questions about me and Yami, they will tease me all day long if I answer them since they know I'm a terrible liar.'
Meanwhile inside the spare bedroom that was occupied by Yugi's look-alike was now empty due to a sudden call the ruby-eyed teen received from his close friend.
~Flashback~
"Finally, a nice, soft bed to sleep on after such an exhausting night!" Yami exclaimed while flopping down onto the cosy bed with a pleased sigh. He then folded both of his arms behind his head whilst at the same time, gazing the white ceiling in full attentiveness.
"It has been so long since the last time I slept in a large bed as comfortable as this." The star-shaped haired boy cogitated as flashbacks of his joyful city life invaded in his mind. "Makes me wish that I can turn back time so that horrible disaster never happens, I wonder what my family is doing at the moment, especially father..."
Yami's nostalgic feelings were interrupted when without warning, a vivid red light shimmered at the centre of the triangular glass necklace he wore around his neck followed by a soft blinking sound. His right calloused fingers held the piece of material up to his face as without delay, a hologram emerged with a GPS tracking device map presenting in front of him, his piercing crimson irises narrowed in awareness before he found what he was looking for, a bright red dot flickered on the right-north side of the forest.
Without further ado, the teenager jumped off the bed, opened the window speedily with cautious hands as with one last look at his bedroom, the Fire Elemental climbed onto it and stepped onto the grass before he sprinted towards his target urgently whilst at the back of his mind, silently apologizing to his smaller twin and hoped he did not freaked out of his sudden absence.
~Flashback ended~
When he was far away from the tents, Yami produced a round flame disk that could boost his speed tremendously and thus, reached his goal in just about 5 minutes. It was not necessary to do so and Seto would not be happy about this yet he did not care as once he stood on the spot where the target formerly was, he lighted his right index finger on fire and that's where he saw a tiny insect flying towards it.
"A Mosquito?" Yami whispered whilst raising a right eyebrow reflexively.
Knowing that the bug would not harm him in any way, the stripling closed his eyes whilst allowing it to do its task. The miniature pest injected his finger with its prickly needle-like mouth before a mental image materialized, showing a man in mid 70s beaming in his head.
"Hello, Master Yami. Long time no talk, how have you been recently?"
The said teen couldn't help but smiled back before he answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "Oh, you know...same old same old."
"The usual bickering between your cousins until half of the forest has been damaged by let's say...floods? Tornadoes? Earthquakes? Or from what your powers can do...droughts?"
"That's a bit too much, Grandpa!" The youngster said along with a chuckle. "Although Bakura, Marik and occasionally Seto and me can sometimes get carried away by our emotions, we don't cause uproar as dreadful as that...well, maybe once or twice before but that's a long time ago." He then shuddered inwardly when one of the horrible scenes entered his mind. It was not long after they left the city that their emotions were pretty much unstable but that was comprehensible as few months later, their feelings had quelled greatly and therefore, able to manage their powers a little better than last time.
"I was just kidding, Master Yami." The older man chortled in return before giving him a soft, heartfelt smile. "I told you not to call me Grandpa; you are my master after all."
"And I told you to stop calling me Master Yami, just Yami is fine." The ex-master replied back with an aggravated sulk which successfully broadening the elder's smile. "You know how much you mean to me as a family member."
"Well, yes but..."
"Anyways..." Even though it was rude of him to disrupt when a grown-up was speaking, this has become a norm to him as he knew both of them were stubborn when it came to name calling. "How is father doing?"
"Always straight to the point, eh?" The grey-haired fellow remained calm yet Yami's perceptive eyes could see the smile became strained though he hid it well, as only those who were close to the senior could only detect his slight change in body language. After few moments of silence between them, a dismal sigh finally broke the tense atmosphere.
"I hate to break this to you but your father isn't in good condition-"
"What happened? Tell me!"
Yami had known a year ago that his father had diagnosed with a grim unidentified disease that was triggered mostly on account of fatigue, depression and lack of appetite. Ever since his precious son left his humble home, things had never been the same again. It was as if life has sucked out of his family especially his father who had raised him the moment he was born into a great man he was now. Many years has passed since that incident took place as day by day, the man's state got poorer and poorer until one day, the lord collapsed in his bathroom and it took 10 minutes for the older man to find his location before he instinctively called the ambulance for help.
"As you have realized from the last time we talked, his conditions have never improved but recently..." He paused for a moment before he resumed his speech, this time in a much softer, lower whisper. "He began to cough blood the size of a plate."
The last sentence struck him like a lost unmoved doll; the first thought in his mind immediately went back to the point when he had a nightmare about seeing his father coughing out blood while he was stuck in the forest with Yugi. Was it some kind of a bad signal? Like a premonition? All he knew was that he did not want this occur to any of his closest family members at all, especially not him. What will he do if he...
"Yami!"
"Huh?" The tri-colored haired youth snapped out from his thoughts before he focused his mind back to the image of the grey-haired man with his eyes still closed.
"I know how you feel, boy." The plump senior said with a reassuring smile. "But he is fine for the time being and it is not your fault that these things happen so don't give me that guilty look."
Yami would have given him a sheepish expression for getting caught if he wasn't this disheartened and concerned about his father's health.
"Besides, his friends and I are taking care of him so don't you worry a thing."
"Easy for you to say, Grandpa." Was Yami's only response but that lifted his spirit a little. He could count on his dad's reliable and faithful friends, as well as this Grandpa he was speaking to who was his family's oldest butler and caretaker.
"We all miss you, Yami."
"Yeah, I know." Oh, how he wished he could return to the way it was before he received his powers. "I miss you and everyone else too."
Stillness took place once more but after a minute or two, the elder looked up with a clearer voice that demanded full attention from the youngster.
"By the way, there is one thing I should tell you."
"Oh, what is it?" That effectively brushed the rest of his miserable thoughts out of his head in an instant.
"The packages will be delivered in a day or two in front of the entrance, make sure you or your cousins pick them up when they arrive."
"Yes, thank you, Grandpa."
The government had allowed The Elementals's family members to deliver anything necessary to the four boys but obviously, the items will have to pass through a strict security check before they send the packages to their destination via Air Mail. The items received from them were usually new clothes, study materials, newspapers and so on. There were only two main rules which they need to obey and those were...
One, NO electronic devices were allowed to be sent to the boys. This proved to be very tough for the teenagers as citizens from all over the world depended heavily on them as generations after generations, science and technology enhanced enormously in a rapid pace so young people like them had caught up in using almost everything electronic in their daily lives. The four teens were dismayed when they heard such a harsh rule especially Kaiba who was the one most involved in this, mainly the laptop he always brought with him anytime, anywhere.
Two, the items can be delivered once every four months only. Also, contacts between The Elementals and the citizens (particularly their family members) were absolutely NOT approved thus even letters were not able to be sent to the four adolescents. This was another letdown for the boys as who knows how long they could see their family members again, the government has yet to mention when they were allowed to be back to the city and with almost all of the citizens shooting loathing glares at them on the day they left the place, they had a feeling that they should prepare for the worst.
(Yami's glass necklace was the one and only electronic device they had but that particular item was secretly brought to him in approximately 1 year and 4 months later, an electronic device with the shape and function of a mole dug out of his cottage's front door and fruitfully delivered the said necklace to its rightful owner before it self-destruct with a small explosion, this was to prevent the government from finding out about it. When Yami found out about the purpose of the item, in the next 4 months, an unnoticeable but distinctive robot insect the size of a micro chip acted as a 'messenger' and for the first time, Yami was able to communicate with his fellow family member. This continued as a routine as every 4 months before the package was sent to them, one of Yami's close relatives would dispatch a different robot bug to keep in touch.)
"Anything else?"
"Hmm...Let me think." Due to his old age, short-term memory was to be expected. "Oh, yes. You can tell Master Seto, Master Bakura and Master Marik that their families are fine. Master Seto's little brother, Mokuba is doing well in college while Bakura's aunt and uncle are working on their business investments productively and lastly, Marik's relatives were the same as last time though his uncle has made plans to stay in Australia, something about building up his business and start a new life there though the rest are staying in Egypt."
"I see. That's good to hear, I will tell them tomorrow regarding their families' status."
"Alright and erm..." The butler scratched his head in aggravation while stroking his beard which was his common habit when he was thinking hard.
As the senior took his time to recollect his memories, Yami looked up when moonlight shone onto him like a brilliant spotlight and that's when he realized the time.
'I think I better hurry before Yugi comes and finds me.'
"I guess I should get going..."
"Yes, that's right...I almost forgot!" The grey-haired man suddenly exclaimed whilst unintentionally cut off Yami's dialogue.
"Is there something new going on recently?"
That question was unforeseen as the red-eyed teen blinked confusingly with surprised expression written on his charming face.
"Nothing's going on, Grandpa." The Fire Elemental replied with slight shake of his head. "Although we have unexpected visitors coming here but it seems that they have no ill intentions, just four students planning to stay in the woodland for doing their science projects. They will leave after two weeks I think."
"Is that so?" Were the only words uttered by the old man himself. "How long have they been staying there exactly?"
"Err..." Now it was Yami's turn to recall his memories. "Around 8 days including today."
"What do they look like?"
"Well, there is one named Malik Ishtar, he looks so much like Marik but his body is a little less bulky and his blond hair doesn't have that kind of crazy pine tree look. Then there's Ryou Bakura and no, he's not related to Bakura but his features are quite similar to him, again his white hair is less wild and his brown eyes are much larger. Next is Joey Wheeler, he has short blond hair and dark brown eyes and his height is almost as tall as Bakura. Lastly, Yugi Mutou is my look-alike and I really mean it. He's slightly shorter than me and he has large purple eyes but everything else looks so similar to mine, even my star-shaped tri-colored haired but then he doesn't have yellow bangs shooting upwards like lightning bolts. I guess that's it."
As he described his new friend's features as best as he could, the older one of the two listened keenly as he nodded once in a while before drawing a conclusion.
"Yami, I think I know those new friends you met."
That had once again stunned Yami to no end.
"Eh? You know them?"
"Technically, yes." The butler said with a firm nod. "Listen, Yami. What I'm about to tell you is important so listen well."
Yami straightened himself before he nodded understandably. "Okay."
"About those four, they are actually there for a mission...or so I heard."
"What mission?" Now that sparked Yami's interest even more.
"I'm not sure because I can't hear their conversations clear enough." The plump old man answered with a disappointed sigh. "But what I can tell is that..."
"3 seconds before self-destruct."
"What?" This was not the right time for that at all. "What did you want to say Grandpa?"
The older male tried to speak a few more words but it was soon cut off as the image in Yami's head faded into nothingness and when he opened his eyes, the mosquito retracted its mouth from his finger and flew away as the next thing happened was a tiny explosion followed by a cloud of dust with tiny pieces of metal falling onto the mud's surface.
The star-shaped haired adolescent cursed at the bad timing inwardly with his teeth grinding in disappointment, his eyes were directing at the chunks sparkling on the moonlight.
'Darn it, I'm so close and it seems to be serious judging from the look on his face.'
The last image in his brain was the troubled expression written all over his old butler's features and the message had to be important as he was usually composed in any situations and therefore, rarely showed any nervousness in him except when it comes to people he cared about. All in all, it could mean one thing.
'That mission definitely has something to do with us being "The Elementals". After all, I did hear some words from him like "be careful", "using powers" and "around them" which I assume is our new friends. Did they know something about us? What are the relationships between Grandpa, Yugi and his friends? What is their mission? Arrgghh! So many questions left unanswered!'
Yami ruffled his hair as a way of releasing his irritation and just when he was about to turn around and head back to Yugi's tent, a twig's snap stopped his movements completely as the hair on the back of his neck stood up edgily.
'Oh oh, who is it this time? Please don't be Yugi, please don't be Yugi.'
"Yami?"
The ruby'eyed youngster's prayers were crushed when he heard an angelic voice reaching his eardrums which could only belong to none other than his look-alike. With an inward sigh and a tranquil expression, he swung round to face his new-found friend with his usual amiable smile on his lips.
"Hey, Yugi."
The shorter of the two smiled back in return.
"Hey, Yami. What are you doing out here? I was looking for you when I found that you're not in your room." Yugi asked with a frown and a flash of worry in his amethyst eyes.
Yami gave him an apologetic expression as he politely replied, "Sorry. I can't sleep so I decide to go out and get some fresh air." At the same time, he secretly hoped that Yugi did not hear any conversation between him and his butler.
"I see. But you could have told me before going out, and why don't you use the front door? It's not like we're having a secret discussion or something." Yugi said whilst shrugging his shoulders. "Doing it that way makes me feels like you're in a hurry or have done something secretive behind my back. Maybe I watch too much crime and investigation scenes, haha!"
However, Yugi's last sentence caused such a huge fright inside Yami but thankfully he managed to keep his calm without his comrade's notice.
'He's right! Why didn't I think of that? I must have been worried about the time limit of the bomb inside the robot bug.' The taller teen thought with an inward face palm.
Yami's few moments of stillness must have been taken a bit too long as Yugi was about to ask another question when Yami's eyes caught an object the same colours as his eyes flying towards his way.
"Ah. There you are, Flare!"
Hearing the sound of a bird's tweet made Yugi spun round to face a woodpecker flapping its wings and later on, situated on Yami's right shoulder.
"Yugi. This is the friend I told you about before we fall down the cliff."
"Oh." Was the only word he uttered as the previous conversation was forgotten when he stared into the blue jewels which represented Flare's eyes. "She looks so pretty."
The bird chirped happily in reply as Yami stepped closer with Yugi ready to reach out and touched the bird's feathers. "Can I?"
"Of course."
Seeing the bird still standing on the same spot encouraged Yugi to move forward and stroked the bird's feathers as gentle as he could. "Wow, it's so soft." His actions earned a bird's delightful chirp as it leaned onto his touch which caused him to chuckle in response.
'Yugi's smile never ceases to amaze me but his laughter is so pleasant to my ears like music, I hope I get to hear that often.'
Yami's intense stare and attractive smile must have been distracting to Yugi as the smaller teenager promptly realized the close distance between them and so, he moved two steps away from the older of the two and shyly looked up.
"Thanks for introducing me to your friend, Yami. She's gorgeous and fun to be with."
"I'm glad to hear that."
With a quick goodbye from their new friend, Flare, they walked towards Yugi's tent whilst chatting with each other with soft but joyful voices as they were getting ready to go to bed. Their last thoughts were the missions set for tomorrow.
'Tomorrow I will have to tell Seto and the others about my talk with Grandpa along with the mission he mentioned to me. I wonder what it's about.'
Whilst Yami casted a sideway glance towards Yugi's back before closing his bedroom's door, the shorter 'twin' strolled towards his own bedroom, determination twinkled in his purple irises.
'Tomorrow we need to finish our school project quickly. We have a mission to complete this week.'
As Yugi gave a peek at Yami's bedroom door, the one thought lingered in his head before he closed his door as darkness enveloped him in his room.
'The mission to capture "The Elementals" and bring them back to the city.'
To Be Continued...
...and cut! That's it for Chapter 13! I wonder how this plays out next chapter, still need to think of some more ideas but the main plots are all in my head already...I'm getting excited and worried about them at the same time! XD Sorry for the cliff-hanger once again and sorry for the lack of fluff even though I try to add some Puzzleshipping moments at the end of the story (and also Tendershipping at the beginning although you can't tell much unless you get why they were 'brawling' like that? :P...with one sentence hinting Puppyshipping? LOL!)
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter! It has revealed more information about Yami's and his cousin's lives back in the past and I wonder who that butler is...I'm sure it's easy to guess...*sobs* If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me and I will answer as best as I can! :D Also, vote on my poll please!
Again with the usual quotes in every chapter, "Faves and Alerts are always welcomed" along with "REVIEWS are much appreciated!" Please do so and I shall be eternally grateful! XD So stay tune for Chapter 14: Tutors!
P.S: Thank you so much for the "Over 9000" views! Also, I wonder what I should do once I get 100 reviews. So excited! XD