Prompt XVI: Protection
Atem paused and glanced over his shoulder. Yugi was still scowling in the direction the God Dragons had gone. The Gandora wasn't bristling as he had before, but he looked as if he wanted to chase them off, as if he were annoyed Atem had denied him the chance. He smirked and shook his head, turning back and beginning to pick his way along once more. Yugi hurried to his side, falling into step, and glanced at the sky in the direction they'd gone again.
Atem glanced at him sideways. "I don't think they're coming back," he teased softly, voice warm with laughter. "I'm almost certain you can cease your bristle and glare."
Yugi grinned at him, but cast a sharp look around. "I hate them asking for time alone with you. You know that."
"Because you're a worrier and never listen to me," Atem laughed, pleased when Yugi turned to him and flicked his blue-black tongue with a huge grin. "And you're so overprotective it's borderline obsessive."
"Excuse me?" Yugi scoffed. "Most certainly not!"
Atem smirked. "You threatened to tear Jaden's wings off for looking at me the wrong way," he snickered. "You snapped your teeth at Leviathan and you glared at Yusei as if he owed you food."
Yugi raised his chin. "All three of them deserved it."
He shook his head. It had just been a relief that none of them had seen any reason to do more than snicker. Yugi had been the only aggressor the entire meeting between them, huffing when they so much as spoke the wrong way toward him. He'd bristled and shifted his weight more than once as if he might lunge forward. He'd narrowed his eyes and growled when Jaden so much as twitched.
He was just lucky all three of them had found it amusing rather than annoying or taken to the provocation.
Atem wasn't sure how he was supposed to deal with one of them should something happen. Jaden would aid Yusei and vice versa should the other go to return the anger Yugi had displayed. He knew for a fact leaping into that fray would likely be more painful than what any of his suitors had ever managed.
They were considered deities for a reason.
And he didn't know their abilities but for seeing visions when peering into water. Blind spot or not, what came of a fight between them should they all come to blows?
He just had to hope they all saw Yugi as amusing and childish later as they did now.
Surely Yusei would back him up and intervene should one of the other two take offense. He'd backed him up at the meeting days prior, before he'd come to retrieve him to speak with them again. He'd been confused as to the quick succession, but Yusei had said it was only to properly introduce themselves.
Jesse and Yugi had actually ended up swapping stories for a small period of time, before he'd caught sight of Jaden stepping a little closer. Then the Gandora had shot forward so quickly even Atem had startled. He'd swung around to face Jaden, growling and bristling and glaring. Atem truly wondered what Jaden must have said to him when he'd spoken to Yugi alone at the gathering….
"Did they now? And what justified it?"
"They're a set of hindquarters," Yugi huffed. "All three of them are piles of dung mixed together."
Atem snorted and tilted his head. "Because they continue to use the Badlands as our rendezvous point?" he laughed. He wasn't stupid. He knew the original reason they'd chosen it for the gathering. The heat had slowed him down. Jaden had been afraid of him, scared he was a wild and mindless animal that killed without restraint or Judgment. He'd especially been worried when Jesse had ended up on the wrong side of Yugi's claws, no doubt. "They were likely using it before I was even considered. They probably just made it more abundantly clear it was because of me now that I'm among them."
Yugi huffed. "Well, they've met you. And they know the rumors aren't correct in every aspect, so now they should choose elsewhere."
Atem snorted. "All because of me? They should find new meeting points because of me?"
He raised his chin somehow further, voice full of annoyance. "Yes! You're the youngest and the most important of them. And you're prone to dehydration in arid spaces. I think they owe it to you to change meeting points, yes."
Atem frowned and tilted his head. He was hardly the most important. He was sure that title still held for Jaden instead. His stomach lurched as he watched Yugi continue forward. "Yugi—"
The Gandora whipped around and considered him in bewilderment. "What? I'm not wrong. They should be courteous enough to acknowledge and abide by it."
He barely suppressed a flinch and the urge to look away quickly. It was bewildering to him just how much Yugi genuinely cared. It was so strange. Yugi was overprotective and picked fights for so much as the wrong tone, saw the other three's choices as offensive, and had charged Keith just to slow him down when Atem got there. It was overwhelming, truthfully, and at times it made his belly ache.
Yugi so clearly loved him, and Atem wasn't even truly sure he'd he able to summon a modicum of that for him. What if he never learned to love him so much as he did him?
"Atem?"
"Hmm?"
"You look like you're far away."
"No. I… I'm just grateful you're so overprotective," he said, cutting off the thought full force and smirking when Yugi huffed. "I have the most overprotective little Gandora in all existence as my mate."
"I'm not overprotective. I'm…the perfect amount of protective."
"And I molt," Atem snorted.
Yugi whipped around to glare at him playfully. "I can't believe you'd pick on me about molting."
"No, not at all. Just your overprotectiveness."
He looked as if he wanted to argue, then snickered and glared at him even as he tried to stop laughing. "Shut up, Atem," he finally chuckled when Atem burst out laughing at his expression. He smirked before pouncing over and nipping his cheek. "Okay, so, maybe I'm overprotective. But I love you, so deal with it."
