Yami dashed into the house to find a pen or paper, but ended up hitting a gold mine of books.
Shelves and shelves of it were hoarded in one large room, so Yami grabbed a nearby bag and began throwing things into it.
Boxes of pencils.
Two fountain pens and one bottle of ink, still new with the seal on the cap.
Three new diaries still in their paper gift wrapping. Was this enough?!
Yami burst into another room and saw a luxurious bathroom with a shiny silver shower head, a giant porcelain bath, and his heart clenched with envy.
RUNNING WATER?!
He was asking Seto for these things when he got back.
He grabbed all her new toiletries–sealed toothbrushes, toilet paper, soap, lotions, perfume–until his bag was bulging with items. He had to put a few perfumes back, feeling a bit guilty.
Well, she wasn't using these anymore….
Get out. You don't want to pleasure this dragon, Yami ranted to himself as he slowly crept out of the house and closed the door behind him, seriously considering stealing a chicken. He couldn't.
He wouldn't be able to raise it before it died hopping off a ledge somewhere.
His thighs ached as he sprinted across the grass to the opening he saw earlier. It was a giant, vertical crack in the wall of the cave, and…of course there was a guard sitting on the chair, holding a gun across his lap. Great.
Not to be defeated, Yami approached the door and gave it a push. It creaked open, and the guard looked right at him, looked at his bag full of things, said nothing, turning his head away as if he didn't see anything.
Well, if he was being so helpful…
"Which way back to Seto's lair?" Yami asked tentatively, and the guard paled.
"No." The man replied gruffly and kept his gaze face forward, his cheeks dark red, his eyes wet at the corners.
"You're mistaken. I'm not going there tojump. I'm from there," Yami said testily, aware that Seto's bad reputation preceded him. "And I don't know my way back."
"Then you're better off here," the guard replied, and didn't move from his post.
Annoyed, Yami gave the guard an eye roll and headed off.
He felt he could reason with Seto before giving up on that dragon.
Seto had saved him twice, so he had to care a little, right?
Right…and I'm lost, Yami paused in the giant hallway and marveled at the long stretch of red carpet underneath his feet. Wow….
It was like a luxury castle in here.
He turned left and went down another hallway lit with bright glass baubles.
He'd find a way out eventually.
Seto realized his human was missing and cursed Bakura under his breath.
Great. Let this one go? Or start a war of poaching humans back and forth until there was another trend of jumping?
It's my only human! He wants to keep stealing mine to maintain his little…human family experiments! Seto raged as he paced his room with a furious flick of his tail.
Yeah, he would fight this. If they were kicking him out of the clan, he wasn't going down without a fight.
Using magic on each other would break the peace treaty rules of the mountain, but fuck the clan and their rules. He was going to play dirty if he was even playing at all.
Holding his hand up to cast a viewing portal, Seto scanned the hallways of Bakura's lair, scowling at the giant field of flowers and cows. Gross.
He peered into every house and saw small groups of sleeping humans, all in pairs or families. This was agonizing to see.
Bakura was such a preachy bastard.
Wait. The girl who had jumped was new, so…
He's sexually using my human?! Seto swallowed the thin film of bile rising in the back of his throat and dared to peek into Bakura's room, half-relieved to see the dragon was deeply asleep in his bed…alone.
Now filled with mild anxiety about his human having been traded away already, Seto wondered if all was lost. He'd just steal a sleeping one from the cabins…. Nope.
That would be breaking up a family.
He wanted to take back his own.
The spiky-haired one.
Kami or whatever.
Age 25 male.
Sweeping his magical gaze over the long corridors, a movement caught his eye, and Seto paused, wondering if he'd been detected. His magic flickered briefly when he saw a familiar, pretty face walking along the wall, unharmed, acting frightened but determined.
Found him! Seto's heart clenched with triumph and he used his other hand to cast a bigger portal, large enough for him to step through. Let the games begin, Bakura.
He was taking his human back and then casting an anti-snatch on him.
Yami gasped and pinned himself against the wall when he saw a vertical rip of light open up in the space before him and instantly relaxed when he recognized Seto's sharp silhouette, complete with towering horns and beautiful wings.
S-SAVED…again! Dragon magic was cool?
He ran forward silently and hung onto Seto's arm, keeping his head lowered because the dragon was…naked, and he focused on sharp ankles covered in the silvery scales.
Were they flying back or vanishing back?
Time to leave…now!
Seto froze in shock when the human didn't run away and instead rantowards him.
This was a first.
The human…liked him?! Why?!
He'd been nothing but neglectful to it.
Yami waited to be magicked away and glanced up into the dragon's handsome face, giving his arm a fierce shake, wondering why he was spacing out.
"What's wrong? Let's go!" Yami insisted, shaking the dragon's arm again, ignoring the pretty, pale collarbones that protruded nicely from the man's bare chest, half-covered with scales from the neck down.
The ground glowed with magic, and the carpeted floor vanished, replaced with the familiar, gray, rocky ground of Seto's lair.
Letting out a relieved sigh, Yami registered he'd been teleported back to his room, so he wasted no time emptying his bag of valuables to stash them away. Writing materials secured to tell Yugi all was fine!
Seto watched his human moving around with frantic motions and his heart leapt with guilt as he forced himself to ask it, "you wanted to come back. Do you like it here?"
Yami paused in his organizing at the bedside table and let out a mirthless laugh, throwing the tall dragon man a condescending look over his shoulder.
"I hate it here. But I accept my fate," Yami replied with another shake of his head, trying not to laugh again. "Your lair is a barren hole. I want basic necessities. Running water. A safe series of paths to get around. And a way to deliver letters to my brother."
Same demands, Seto thought dazedly, so he had to reaffirm something… "I give you those things and you won't jump?" Because that was all he cared about.
Yami blinked rapidly for a moment and realized this was the leverage he'd been missing the entire time. It had been right in front of him.
He turned to slowly fold his arms across his chest to threaten the dragon with a cool smirk, "you'll build me a nice room with running wateror else I'll jump. You'll fly into the city to bring me edible meals, or I'll jump to get there myself. I don't want to eat your shitty cooking anymore. It's making me sick."
Then he knelt to fix up the last drawer of perfumes, pleased with his mini loot.
Seto bit the tip of his tongue so hard, his eyes watered.
This human sure was bold.
He had past humans threaten to jump too, but never using it as a means to order him around!
"You have some nerve–" Seto began, but the human stood to give him a terrifying glare that twisted his pretty features briefly while he continued to make his demands.
"I'll jump without warning if my letters aren't delivered. If you want to keep me here, you'll keep me happy," Yami was getting comfortable with his threats now. "I want to send money to my family. Or I'll jump. I demand you use magic to clean up your own messes. You're a capable, powerful being and neither you nor Bakura could save Hana in time. I know I can jump anytime I want and be successful."
Seto blinked rapidly and decided that he would cast barrier spells on his cliffside now.
Yes, the magical signature would attract attention and the city's guilds might demand he take it down after a while, but he was beyond caring now.
If the clan was going to kick him out anyway, he would break all the rules.
Then, when the human made good on his word to jump, he'd be able to prevent it, thus preventing his ungraceful exit from the clan.
And to further prevent death disasters…
"I'll do that, but you won't leave my side for even a second," Seto hoped it came out as a threat, but unfortunately, the human was smug and seemed to enjoy that response.
"Even better. I want to pick my own restaurants," Yami replied, and he climbed wearily into bed, hating how he was too tired to get clean. "I want a bath. Are you making that room with running water now? And do you have clothes?"
He kept getting heart attacks seeing the dragon's bare muscular chest and…thing that swung merrily between his legs when he walked.
Seto wrinkled his nose and let out a frustrated hiss. Being ordered around by his pet.
"The clothes you're wearing seem fine now," Seto said stiffly, and turned to stretch his arms out to begin casting, readying himself for mana depletion.
Yami grit his teeth and said nothing, laying down on the pillow and closing his eyes when he felt the walls and ground shaking with the force of Seto's magic.
He hated how tears were leaking out of the corners of his eyes as he lay there, taking steady, deep breaths to calm himself.
Seto casting magic for him now showed he could successfully negotiate and learn to live with this dragon.
His demands had to be self-harm threats, but he hoped they could work past this in the future.
At least he was safe now…. He dozed off with that thought comforting him.