Chapter 10

Drake had been the first to wake up and the growling in his belly had been enough to drag him out of his room, down the sweeping staircase and into the semi-grand entrance hall as he made his way towards the kitchen. He'd seen pictures of this place as it had been when Kaiba had been a teen, its layout hadn't changed nor had its décor, but the scattering of personal effects everywhere made it feel… homey. It also reminded Drake of his own home in the Northern Palace and how much he missed the place. It was strange to think such large buildings could feel so comfortably cosy and he couldn't help but wonder if a stranger entering would feel the same.

For a little while Drake stood at the bottom of the stairs, thinking of his home and how empty it must feel with none of them there. Then he noticed the door to the room directly parallel to where he stood was open and the bay windows were casting a warm stretch of light towards him. As the tip of that reached his feet Drake forgot his hunger and automatically made his way into the room.

The Kaiba mansion, like the Northern Palace, was huge and there were a vast number of rooms he'd never been in before. This was one of them. The room itself was all but square, apart from the area that bowed out for the bay window. In front of the window was a seat facing the side part of the Kaibas' garden; specifically the apple tree where the Kaibas took the vast majority of their family portraits. Along the whole length of the right wall ran a ceiling high bookcase. Each shelf was crammed full of dusty old text books and reference guides. In the centre of the room was a desk and chair, with a fold away blackboard rested neatly on the top.

A slim smile flickered across Drake's face; this was Taylor's school room. He remembered how much Taylor had complained about it when he'd first been taken out of mainstream and placed into private tuition. For their own good he'd been spilt from his Ohpayo cousins and it had benefited him a great deal. After all, there was no way anyone could argue Taylor wasn't the smartest of the trio, although you'd never get any of them to admit it. Slowly Drake crossed the room and sat down on the window seat. The light coming in from the morning sun felt comfortably warm and made him feel more than a little drowsy.

Curling up on the seats plush cushion, Drake found himself drifting off into a light sleep. His eyes couldn't have been closed for more than about ten minutes, however, when he found himself being rather roughly prodded in the side. Opening his eyes in annoyance, he spotted Damon grinning stupidly at him, like the cat who got the crème. Glaring, Drake made an annoyed, throaty growl and squiggled himself away. This didn't deter the youngest member of the Kaiba family, however, and, after a few moments, Damon began prodding at him again. Drake couldn't help but wonder what it would take to make the kid understand he didn't want to be disturbed. He thought about giving him a scare, but didn't want to risk further trouble with Kaiba and Tristan.

'Damon,' Tristan's voice sounded from the doorway, 'I'm pretty sure Drake's not appreciating that.'

Glancing up towards him, Drake noticed an odd expression on Tristan's face. Their eyes met for a moment, as Tristan's expression tried to form a tangible question. It failed.

'Come on Damon,' Tristan reached a hand out towards him, 'let's get you some breakfast, shall we?'

'Kay,' Damon nodded, before making his way towards Tristan.

They then left and Drake went back to trying to nap.

'Feeling a little catty this morning,' this time it was CiCi who disturbed him.

'Huh,' he blinked blearily up at her.

A strange frown pulled at her forehead, but she made no reply.

'What do you mean feeling a little catty this morning,' Drake tried to see if he could get an answer from a better formed question.

Still she gave no reply, if anything she was staring at him with a kind of expectation as though she was still waiting for him to ask the question or at least make some kind of reply. Eventually she just shrugged and moodily turned away.

'Wait,' he jumped down from the seat to follow after her, 'I want to know what you mean.'

She didn't react to his question, although she did drop her pace a little in order to allow him to catch up.

'CiCi why won't you answer me,' he stared at her as he reached her side. 'What do you mean? I don't understand.'

She still didn't answer his question and Drake couldn't help but wonder if maybe she'd woken up deaf that morning.

'Drake,' Taylor's voice called to him, forcing Drake to come to a stop at the bottom of the stairs.

Staring up them he saw his boyfriend staring down at him with a strangely curious look on his face.

'Drake,' there were more than a few uncertain tones in his voice, 'why have you turned into your Sintoy?'

'What,' Drake shook his head, 'I haven't.'

'You have,' Taylor insisted, 'and what's more I could understand what you just said.'

'Of course you did, I was speaking the same language as you.'

'No you weren't,' he shook his head, 'you're a cat right now and you're speaking in cat.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are,' he nodded, 'why would I lie about something like that?'

Drake thought about it for a moment and then realised Taylor wouldn't. Automatically he bounded up the stairs towards the room the Kaibas had given him to stay in and gazed at his reflection in the mirror. It was true, he was a cat, but something was wrong. Shifting his gaze away from the mirror he stared down at himself. He looked human. He felt human. But when he shifted his gaze back to the mirror he saw his Sintoy. He saw a half grown large black cat.

'What's going on,' Drake turned towards Taylor, as his reflection appeared in the mirror beside his, 'I didn't turn into my Sintoy and I don't feel like a cat. What's going on?'

'I don't know,' Taylor frown, 'but I do know for certain you're the only one who can hear me, which I'm guessing will mean I'll be the only one able to understand you.'

'Which means we won't be able to explain to anybody what's going on,' Drake half wailed half groaned. 'Why would someone want to do that to us?'

'Because they're evil and this is their sick idea of a joke,' his expression darkened, 'that's why.'