Seto came gliding upwards in his half-human form and landed on his feet right by the edge, glancing around fearfully, wondering if his human had jumped too.

His heart fluttered with relief when he saw the spiky-haired human hugging his legs while sitting against the sharp stone tucked away on the side of the cave, and he sighed, approaching him to ask if he was okay. Now he had to keep an eye on his human…

"Did you see all of that?" Seto asked, half-dreading the answer. "...Hey. Answer."

Yami kept his forehead tucked into his arms and stayed silent. If the dragon was asking about his well-being, now was the time to lay down all his demands and be heard! He'd milk this moment to his own advantage!

Should he also be disturbed that the dragon was always naked when he was in his human form?

His name…was?! Seto wracked his brain for it and forgot.
Nevermind.

It was…something, age 25, male. Kami?
He reached out to touch the human on the arm and gave him a tight squeeze, his body heavy as he asked again, "can you tell me what's going on in your head? You don't also want to …. right?"

Yami raised his head and made fierce eye contact with the dragon, his heart dipping to his feet when he fell into clear blue eyes with those dark, vertical slits.

H-His dragon was handsome and pretty….it almost made him not mind seeing him more often, just to ease his boring, daily loneliness.

Seto began to panic the longer his human remained silent. This was not his specialty….

"I want to write a letter to my family," Yami said evenly, and he saw his dragon's sharp shoulders sag a little…with relief? But he pressed on with his demands. "I need more than one set of clothes. I want to cook my own food. I want more stairs. I want access to paper and pens, and…a way to deliver and receive letters."

Seto's ears rang and he understood this human was bargaining. Fine. He could do that.

"I give you all those things, and you won't jump, ever?" Seto said with an equal steadiness in his voice, trying not to be affected by the large, angular violet eyes that seared holes into him, because the human remained unblinking.

This one was…different.
The others would cry, or beg him for freedom.

This was the first one to talk so calmly with him after witnessing a death.

Was it an act or was this one broken in a different way?

"You'll give me those things, and more," Yami insisted, biting back a fearful gasp when he saw a white-haired man with a deranged look on his face come rising up from the edge behind them, framed by dark purple wings that cast a terrifying shadow over his face. S-SCARY!

Yami pointed wordlessly over Seto's shoulder, his horror unabated when he saw the other dragon was clutching the mangled, bloody remains of the girl who had just jumped.

Bile rose fast and hard in his throat.

Yami clapped a hand over his mouth and felt it coming up anyway, the ground shaking once more when the dragons began to fight…in a language he couldn't understand.

He coughed weakly and saw the dragons go diving off into the distance, leaving him alone once again. Alright. They sure loved to fight.

Now he had to clean up his own sick.

At least he didn't throw up on the rug.

Seto was thrown against the rocky cliff and his wings scraped painfully as he slid down to the ground with a weak cough. Bakura was angry, he understood that!

Struggling to his feet, Seto backed away with a hiss when Bakura landed before him and screeched, "you're always killing our tributes! Leave the clan! You don't belong with us! Give up your lair and we'll even help you move!"

This…again! Seto wiped the trickle of blood away from the corner of his mouth and grit his teeth.

"I like….being close to the city for its …resources," Seto spat and felt more blood coming out of the cut on his lip, but he didn't dare heal it in front of Bakura who would just hurt him again out of spite.

"Then you can move to another region, in another part of the world!" Bakura raged, balling his fists at his sides while he faced off with the annoying silver dragon who had been a pain in his ass since the first day of the clan forming. "You don't know how to keep human pets! They're better in pairs! They're better in families! They need to be fed three times a day and you don't even do that! Joey tells me your brides go sneaking into his rooms to use amenities!"

"It can feed itself!" Seto replied defensively, but his heart was sinking.

Humans were social creatures, he knew that.

Better in pairs? He and the human made a pair. Was that good enough?

Because he didn't want to keep families of humans like the other dragons.

Bakura stepped into his face and shoved a threatening claw underneath his chin with his index finger, leaning in so close, Seto could smell a sour breath when he hissed through his fangs, "Last. Chance. If your human dies for any reason before the snow freezes into ice, I'll call for an Order to vote you out by majority. The others will easily agree."

With that, Bakura spun around to leap off the cliff with a rough flap of his wings, soaring down into the canyon below, his anguished cry shaking gravel loose from the rocky walls.

Seto glared at the crevice below and sat down to think, and heal his wounds.

He was at a limit. The clan was pretty much done with him.
He couldn't afford to live on his own.

He'd be tracked and killed by adventurers the moment he got ostracized. Word would spread that a dragon was living alone somewhere, ripe for hunting.

The Demon Lord himself would skin him for the magical properties of his scales and use his horns as decoration on a wall.

True. His knowledge of keeping a human happy was limited, but he knew where to start.

He leapt off the cliff and felt the wind rushing through his hair as he dove upwards into the sky, heading back to his cave.

Yami heaved the pail of water up the shallow incline and finally managed to get it all the way to the landing pad. He set it down beside the patch of vomit and sighed.

Well, now he was hungry.

He dipped his hand into the icy water and squeezed the dirty sponge around, wincing in disgust. Ready to get up to his elbows in vomit!

Holding his breath, Yami placed the wet sponge on the patch and felt a strong gust of wind come blasting in through the mouth of the cave, and he let out a panicked cry, leaving his pail and sponge there while finding cover behind a lounge.

Wind storm or dragon landing?
He could never tell the difference and he didn't want to get squished or drenched in animal blood. He'd learned that lesson the hard way several times.

He peeked over the edge of the lounge and saw the white-haired purple dragon come zooming towards him with its claws outstretched, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him up to his feet to swing him around in a half-circle until his chin hit a sharp shoulder, and Yami found himself clinging to the dragon's back while it glided through Seto's hallways, silent with anger and grief.

Oh, I'm being kidnapped, Yami thought cheerfully and decided to enjoy the ride.

Long white hair whipped into his mouth and he turned his head to the side, wincing.

He felt himself slipping down, so he tightened his knees around the man's hips and was surprised to see a clawed hand inching back to help support him by the ass, so Yami shifted and hung on harder, his heart fluttering with a strange feeling.

They were zooming through unfamiliar parts of the cave, and Yami marveled at the new surroundings. There were main hallways, small and large.

One was clearly for dragons and there were neat corridors on the side for humans, separated by towering pillars for safety.

It was like a civilized…fancy hotel, complete with hanging chandeliers and statue decorations.

Beautiful! Yami's head spun as they flew outside for a bit, circling around the side of a mountain before diving back in through a small crevice.

The white-haired dragon had to tilt to the side to fit them both through, but after the dark tunnel zoomed past, Yami found himself gently dropped to his feet in a luxurious field of grass.

Plots of land were planted with beautiful fruits, vegetables, and even a few trees! There were large houses lining the far edge of the cavern… It looked like a little town square here.

Humans were lounging around, harvesting, chopping and standing by a fire, boiling a pot of something that smelled…absolutely delicious.

Stunned, Yami sat right down in the grass and even saw three children come running up to embrace the white-haired dragon.

Bakura was led away by the hand and served a bowl of soup. Yami continued to watch the surreal, idyllic scenes before him, understanding a few things.

Seto's lair was indeed a barren, cold, rocky hell.

Seto was an insane, loner dragon.

Seto didn't care about him.

The humans here ate better than the rich ones in the city.

They were dressed in layers of warm clothes that looked new.
Their hair was shiny and clean, some even in braided styles with ribbons and accessories.

The children had three, enormous play structures in the back!

A dog was circling the pot and was fed a piece of meat off a plate.
Two cats were napping on a wooden bench nearby.

Yami also saw two cows munching on grass in the distance.
They had private cows?!
That meant fresh milk!

This is why no one comes back! Yami realized with a cold trickle of horror.
Humans here lived happy, fed lives, not needing to work for anything.
They were kept like luxurious, designer pets.

"Where did Hana go?" One of the children asked loudly, and Yami tensed. Uh oh.

Bakura raised his head and gave Seto's human a glare and spoke carefully, "Hana wanted to trade places with her friend, so now this is our new friend. Let's be nice to him. Maybe Hana will come back after a year. She wanted a change of scenery. We can go visit her after the snow melts….if that's what she wants."

A woman with her hair plaited into two braids approached Yami with a bowl of soup and barely made eye contact, then walked away.

Yami held the soup atop his lap and stared at it, the savory scent making his mouth water painfully. That dead girl Hana lived like this, and she wanted to die?! Why?!

He raised the bowl to his lips and ate quickly, his stomach gnarling and grateful for the nourishment.

Seto needed to take pointers from this dragon. The grass here was soft and cared for. Seto only had sloping rocks and dangerous winding paths.

There was story time happening by the fire. Someone came to collect his plate, and the humans dispersed back into their homes.

Yami didn't move from his spot, but the dragon whose name he learned was Bakura came to take his hand and led him towards a cabin tucked away at the corner of the field, right beside a small coop of chickens.

The birds clucked loudly at him and Yami saw two eggs sitting atop the nests, waiting to be collected, and his mouth watered.

"Hana's duties were feeding these chickens and being my new bride," Bakura explained, depositing the spiky-haired human at Hana's doorstep, wrinkling his nose at slender male who had obviously been starved at a young age, no taller than some human children he'd seen.

Yami swallowed thinly and wondered if…that was to be expected of him now, and he seriously considered running away.
Now he understood.

He'd take Seto's slippery, rocky hell if it meant he didn't have to…pleasure this dragon.

"You witnessed something traumatic. Take a month to recover, but I want these chickens fed at the very least," Bakura sniffed, and he turned to leave, his heart clenching with turmoil.

He didn't want his new bride this century to be a man. He preferred females.

Time to ask Tristan if he would trade anyone from his clan. Maybe switch around with Marik too.

This was what Seto's carelessness caused–human scarcity amongst their perfect environments.

I might just take one with me, Yami eyed a small brown chicken nervously and wondered if he would be killed for stealing it.

Seto's rule was 'no pets' or it would be eaten, but he had a feeling he needed to have a serious talk with that dragon. About living conditions and how it related to mental health.

An eerie quiet fell over the clearing and Yami realized everyone had gone to bed.

The regularity shocked him.

People livedlives here.

Lights went out in windows while he stood on the doorstep for what felt like an hour or two, watching someone come out to put water down for the dogs and cats, yawn, then walk back inside their house.

Yami held his breath for a second, breathing in the sweet air that held the scent of ripening fruit at the end, and then sprang into action.

Author's note:

yami gets kidnapped but doesn't wanna stay?!