Sorry about the mix-up when I posted this on the Famiglia drabbles. This was meant to be the first chapter of a new drabbles series, so I hope you enjoy it! Don't worry, this won't be taken down like before!

Also, in case anyone was wondering this is an odd crossover between Howl's Moving Castle and the focus of the new Drabble set, Yu-Gi-Oh! I am trying really, really hard not to simply replace the characters from Howl's Moving Castle with the Yu-Gi-Oh! ones so it doesn't feel like a cut and paste edition of the movie.

Also, I am going to stick to the CLASSIC Yu-Gi-Oh, and NONE of the sequels. To be honest the series felt like it went downhill once they replaced Yugi with new heroes and made the card game itself far too complicated for my tastes.

Seto Kaiba, by and large, was not a nice person. He barely tolerated people on a good day. However he hated the idiots who made up the bulk of the local soldiers even more.

Ever since the princess suddenly disappeared, the Pharaoh had gotten it in his head that she had been kidnapped and had accused the neighboring country of the deed. They had denied it, of course, but it hadn't helped that the king of the other country already hated the Pharaoh for something that they refused to discuss. Whatever it was, the dislike ran deep between the Pharaoh Atem and King Bakura.

Seeing them harassing a teenager and trying to bully the kid into joining the military pissed him off. It was bad enough most of the local boys seemed to get caught up in the fervor and had enlisted, thinking only of the riches and glory they'd get on the battlefield and not about the horrors they would endure against enemy soldiers.

From what he was overhearing, they were trying to intimidate him into joining the army where he would likely be bullied even more for his smaller stature and gentle disposition. The kid had enough spine to disagree, but his exits were cut off.

He had the weirdest hairstyle Seto had seen in his life though.

"There you are, you slacker. I thought I told you to run the errand and come straight back, not waste my valuable time enlisting with the rest of the idiots. It's bad enough most of my workforce decided to enlist rather than do their damn jobs," said Seto.

The look of relief was obvious on the kid's face, once they figured out what he was talking about.

"Sorry Boss, I was kept up," said the teen. "My brother kept me later than I thought."

As if the odd hair style wasn't enough, the other boy had three toned hair and an odd pendant around their neck.

"Is this brat one of your employees? You should keep better track of them. Wouldn't want any...accidents...to happen," sneered the soldier.

The teen immediately went to his side, looking relieved.

Once they were out of earshot, they spoke up.

"Thanks for that. I can't believe the Pharaoh is being so foolish as to start a war over the fact the princess went missing...or that he would use his petty rivalry against the other king as why he suspects them to be the culprit."

"The soldiers around here are idiots."

The other teen was about to reply, when they sensed something and stiffened.

"Speaking of idiots, it seems the ones following me are back," they scowled.

Seto turned to look and found shadows gathering in unnatural ways. He had heard rumors of such things, but had never encountered them himself.

He tensed, and knew without being told that being caught by those things was bad news.

Suddenly the other teen grabbed him by the waist.

"Hold on tight...I'll get us out of here. Anywhere you want me to drop you off?" he asked.

"My shop," he replied.

"Keep a firm image of it in your head," he instructed. He did so, and was startled to feel himself moving from one place to another...and that he suddenly reappeared right outside his shop.

"Thanks for the save earlier," said the teen.

"Avoid the smaller alleyways...it's harder for them to harass people in larger crowds," said Seto.

The teen nodded in acknowledgment, before disappearing.

Seto dismissed the odd event out of hand...right up until he was closing his small shop.

This...was going to be a major headache.

Yugi yawned, and was exhausted.

"Hey Yug, you gotta customer!" shouted Jounouchi.

"A customer? No one comes in this...late..." started Yugi.

There was a very pissed off teen.

Where once he had been normal, there had been a few...changes.

The sad thing was, they recognized the handiwork.

"You. Fix me," demanded Seto pissed off.

"Long silver hair, one eye obscured, has a penchant for dramatics and behaves like a flamboyant idiot?" Yugi asked.

Seto growled.

"You know him?"

"I know of him. The Pharaoh put a magic restriction on him after the...incident."

"...Incident?"

"You really, really don't want to know the details," deadpanned Yugi. "Let's just say that those who do know of them wish they were never informed of the full extent, and that hearing about it requires a large quantity of alcohol just to get through the full story."

"How bad are we talking about?" he asked, in spite of himself.

"Let's just say grave robbing was involved and that's all I'll say on the matter."

"Can you fix me?"

"It's going to take a while to figure out which spell he used, but it should be doable. There is, however, a slight issue."

"What sort of 'issue'?" demanded Seto.

"That particular mage was very fond of 'true love' spells. Which means a certain amount of affection to another person is required to break it," said Yugi apologetically. "Which normally isn't an issue, except the longer it's on, the harder it is to break it."

Seto's face twitched. Rampantly.

"Just out of curiosity, is the Pharaoh likely to arrest me if I brutally murder that idiot?"

"Ask me that after I find out how long he's been able to use magic again and what else he's done with it," said Yugi promptly.

Seto simmered down, even if he twitched a bit because apparently this "Pegasus" had placed a tracker on him to see if he could lead him to the mysterious wizard.

He had heard that most wizards were scatter brained and often had cluttered homes and spaces. Yugi's castle felt homey, for lack of a better word and while it was slightly cluttered was still surprisingly clean and well kept.

Then again it seemed the wizard had taught their apprentice how to use household magics, and Mokuba clearly didn't mind casting the spells to keep the place clean and tidy regularly. It was good magic practice after all.

It wasn't until he got to the wizard's workroom that he found the clutter.

Seto twitched at the sight.

"Why is this room a disorganized mess?"

Yugi sweatdropped.

"I'm...not so good with paperwork. I can keep a house clean, but when it comes to organizing and calculating maths in my head..." said Yugi somewhat embarrassed.

Actually the pile wasn't nearly as bad as when they originally left home...at least it wasn't overflowing from the room and the spacial magics hadn't been tested in a while to keep things contained.

He picked up a random piece of paper.

"What is this?"

"Part of the agreement for leaving home was that I keep up my duties...which includes doing the things my brother tends to shunt off to others because of how busy he is," said Yugi exasperated. The second that war was declared, Yugi had made it clear to the one sending the paperwork that they refused to have anything involved with it. Their brother could file his own paperwork for the soldiers over his bout of complete stupidity.

Amusingly, his right hand agreed and only sent the usual amount...which had still increased due to war-time filings.

Seto overlooked the paperwork. It wasn't much different from what he had to deal with in his own business, but from what he could tell it was far more branched out.

"Do you have to sign these personally, or can anyone do it?"

Yugi blinked.

"What?" Yugi said surprised. "Anyone can sign it so long as they have a stamp with my magical signature on it and have my approval. It's normally not done because of the secrecy issues involved."

"Secrecy issues?"

"I have a fairly high up position in the kingdom, and certain oaths have to be sworn before anyone can file the paperwork," explained Yugi. "Mokuba swore the oaths, but he hates doing them more than I do and only helps when the room gets too full to move around in."

Seto looked at the paperwork. Then at his own form.

"Are temporary ones acceptable?" he asked. "I refuse to stay here on charity while I'm waiting for this curse to go away."

Yugi blinked, then brightened.

"Considering this is low-level paperwork, temporary ones are allowed. The more high up ones are clearly labeled, so set them aside if you see them and I'll deal with them personally."

At least he wouldn't be bored.

A few hours later...

Yugi stared at the room. It was almost pristine, save for a small pile of paperwork that was clearly labeled as high clearance only. Yugi looked at Seto, who was taking a nap on the couch.

"The finances were a complete mess, the materials ordered were a disaster and I think I saw at least two possible cases of embezzlement in the works," he said flatly, without opening his eyes.

"That...actually doesn't surprise me. I'm terrible with maths and it always ends up swimming in my head after a certain point," admitted Yugi. "Plus the place is a complete mess with the war going on."

"Honestly, what is that idiot Pharaoh thinking, starting a war over his sister?" said Seto exasperated. "The soldiers are annoying enough on a regular day, having this farce of a war going on is making them even more stupid than usual."

"I honestly have no idea. I know the Pharaoh and King Bakura are on bad terms, but claiming he kidnapped the princess is a bit ridiculous," agreed Yugi. "For one thing, the entire palace knows that the Pharaoh is overprotective of his little sister to the point assassins would have an easier time going after the actual Pharaoh instead."

Seto opened his eyes at that.

"Wait, seriously?"

Yugi nodded.

"He's a total sis-con," Yugi deadpanned. "Why do you think I opted to do my official work outside the palace, rather than stick around and watch that any further?"

Seto looked to Mokuba, who snickered and nodded. There was a mischievous air that said he knew something they weren't telling the cursed human.

"So little Yugi has found a new stray...and such a handsome one at that," said a voice mysteriously.

"It seems that Crawford has been set loose again. They really should have put that dreadfully tasteless fool out of his misery the first time," said another voice. This one sounded more mature and slightly refined, but also a bit snooty.

"I agree, but the Pharaoh is a soft heart," said the other occupant. She sounded youngish. "Think Yugi is still up for our usual visit?"

"Like the kid would put it off because of a new boarder," scoffed the older one.

"True. Besides, it means you can see Jounouchi again, right?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about! That uncouth fire demon is hardly my type!" protested the older voice, the embarrassment clear in their voice.

"Sure he is..."

A few days later...

Seto twitched at the people in the house.

"Why is the Witch of the Wastes here?" he asked.

"Anzu is a good friend of mine and she always brings the best tea," said Yugi cheerfully. "Besides, transformation magic is something of a specialty of hers, even if her demon Mai is such a tsundere sometimes."

Seto blinked, and for a split second a much older woman was in the teenager's place. Oddly enough, the teenager image felt more 'real' than the older woman image.

"I got tired of the boys harassing me because they wanted an 'in' with the royal court. So I took up the older woman image and ended up being mistaken for an evil witch who lived in the wastes," said Anzu, without looking at him.

Yugi's friends were weird. At least she didn't seem as annoying as that stupid fire demon.

Anzu gave him a proper look once she finished her tea.

"Oh for the love of Slifer... who the hell let Crawford out? And why didn't you warn me that hack was loose in the area?" demanded Anzu.

"I've been busy trying to get him settled in. I'm having trouble pinning down which 'love' spell Pegasus tied into it," said Yugi.

Anzu walked around a less than happy Seto.

"No wonder, it's one of those really annoying lingering types. Fortunately it's easy enough to break...but not until the transformation magic has mostly run it's course."

Seto twitched.

"What."

"The transformation spell is hindering the unlocking curse. Crawford really needs to quit mixing them, it's annoying having to clean up after these stupid spells he insists on creating," said Anzu absently. "The problem is that the love spell is tied into it...and from what I can tell, you're one of those closed off types, so it'll take a while for the transformation to run it's proper course."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"Your preference in avoiding romance is going to make this spell last longer than normal, since the more 'love' you feel in your heart towards another person, the quicker you transform. Crawford must have been really annoyed with you to use it," said Anzu flatly. "He's a bigger fan of that 'love conquers all' stereotype than most of the ladies in the palace...it was part of the reason why he was so popular before the incident."

"The fact he knew so much about make-up and had the 'tragic lover' aura going for him didn't help...or the fact he was quick to recommend good hair products," coughed Yugi amused.

Anzu's lips twitched upward at that.

"There's that too," she admitted, snorting.

From what little he had seen of the man, he had to agree with them. He was still going to gut the jerk for cursing him though.