Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Fairytale ❯ Fairytale ( One-Shot )

Hmmm... there are some indications of shounen-ai, but besides that I can't come up with any warnings...

This is kind of an AU fic, so Yami Bakura is here Bakura and Yami Malik Mariku, since they need names of their own.

Disclaimer: No. I don't own it. (Do I really have to say what?)

Fairytale

Through a dark and stormy night galloped a lone, gallant figure on a black horse, his armor shining in the silvery moonlight that every now and then escaped the gloomy clouds. The same armor made it difficult to say anything else about him since it covered him from head to toes. Through the roaring wind he rode, not caring about the occasional showers of rain, snow or hailstones big as eggs.

For years the rider had been looking for this kind of opportunity. Ever since his nurse had told him tales of beautiful princesses who had been captured by evil wizards, he had daydreamed about a princess he would save, and as soon as he was old enough he set out into the world, feeling sure that somewhere there had to be a princess for him to save. And now, finally, he had heard rumors of one.

He rode on with a determined expression on his face, his eyes locked onto the distant horizon. So it was no wonder that, without noticing anything, he almost rode past a cart that had gotten stuck into the mud.

"Sir Knight! Please, would you help us?"

He blinked, held back his horse, and turned to look behind pushing his visor up.

The first thing he noticed was a beautiful brown haired girl who smiled at him pleadingly, and - being the gallant knight that he was - he immediately flung himself from the saddle and bowed to the girl returning the smile.

"Milady, I thank the gods that they let my path cross thine giving me this chance to offer thee my humble help."

The girl continued smiling. "I am very grateful, Sir knight, and so is my brother."

Brother? The knight looked around and noticed a young, blond man leaning on the cart, eyeing him suspiciously. Appears to be the protective type... He sighed. Oh well, that can't be helped. He put the smile back on his face.

"If you have some rope, my horse can easily draw your cart out of that mud."

The blond boy took a rope from the cart, threw him the other end of it and he tied it to his saddle. "Now boy, draw," he whispered to the horse, and in few seconds the cart was back on hard ground.

The girl smiled to him again. "Thank you very much, Sir. This was very kind of you. We were beginning to get quite desperate, we did not believe that anyone would be traveling in this godforsaken land."

He bowed to the girl. "I assure thee, Milady, it was nothing." He glanced at the blond boy, who had not yet said anything. By now he was beginning to doubt that the boy was mute. "Couldst thou tell me, Milady… Have thou or thy brother heard anything about a poor princess who is held as a prisoner by an evil wizard around here? From what I know there should be a castle somewhere nearby, guarded by a dragon."

"A dragon?" The blond boy snorted. "It's more like three dragons, I'd say. And it ain't…" He coughed. "I mean it is not a wizard, who has captured the princess, but an evil genius, Sir Knight."

The girl nodded seriously. "That is right, kind Sir. There are three dragons indeed, and if you wish to save the princess you have to pass grave dangers before it. It is a miracle that we, me and my dear brother, got through the Damned Forest so easily."
The knight blinked. "The Damned Forest?" The girl nodded again. "To find the princess you will have to cross it. And in the forest, there live two real wizards, very evil ones. They capture everyone who passes their forest, and…"

"And?"

The girl shrugged. "I do not know. No one has ever escaped to tell."

"But thou and thy brother passed…"
"As I said, it was a miracle. The gods protected us… Or perhaps it was because my brother talks so much that they did not want to have anything to do with us."

"I… see," the knight said, although he was not sure what he saw. To him, the boy did not seem to speak that much. "But what made you to set out on such a dangerous journey?"

The girl glanced nervously at her brother and whispered then to the knight: "We used to work for that genius but he had a habit of calling my brother a dog, and in the end he could not stand it anymore."

"Oh, I see." The knight nodded gravely. "That was very rude."

The girl smiled, once again. "However, now we have to continue our way. When you meet the genius, Sir Knight, place your trust into the Heart of the Cards."

"Heart of the Cards? What does that mean?"

"How should I know? That was just something I was supposed to say. You know, the mysterious prophecy part."

"Oh, yes, I know…" The knight really did remember things like that in the fairy tales his nurse had told him.

He mounted his horse. "I will take my leave now, then."

The blond boy bowed to him slightly. "Our sincere thanks for your help, Sir Knight. May the gods smile on your journey."

He nodded to the boy. "On yours as well." And he rode away.

For sometime the girl and the boy looked after him. Then the blond boy muttered: "I sure hope I don't never hav'ta talk like dat again."

The girl laughed. "You barely said anything, big brother. I had to do all the talking."

*

It did not take the noble knight long to reach the Damned Forest. The trees there were all black, their trunks twisted into unnatural forms, and there were no leaves in them. In fact, there did not seem to be anything living in that forest.

The knight did not let this bother him as he rode directly into the forest, not giving the ominously swaying tree branches another glance. Anyway, if there was nothing living in that forest, there could barely be anything that was dangerous to him, right? Besides those wizards, that is… Well, he would deal with them if they tried something. If not, all the better.

These thoughts had barely crossed his mind when suddenly the dead forest was full of action. Two men wearing horrifying masks jumped down from the trees above him and pulled him from the saddle. Other men with similar masks ran forth from behind the trees, and the knight did not even have time to draw his sword before he was tightly tied.

"I have to say, gentlemen, that this is hardly appropriate behaviour. I am but a lonely traveler and…"

One of the men gave him a shove. "Be quiet."

The knight stumbled a little, but managed to stay on his feet. "Hardly appropriate," he muttered. "You could at least give me your names, sirs."

The man who had pushed him glared at him through the slits in his mask. "You don't need our names. All you need to know is that we are the Ghouls of the Damned Forest, and we serve the Lords of the Damned Forest, and it is our task to catch anyone who dares to set his foot into the Damned Forest, because the Damned Forest is forbidden."

The knight blinked. "There were enough 'Damned Forests' to last for the rest of the day… What do you mean, forbidden?" The man pushed him again. "You talk too much."

The men put a blindfold on the knight, and started to lead him deeper into the forest. They had not walked for long when they stopped and took the blindfold away. They were standing in the front of a black castle. The knight bent his head backwards trying to see the top of it, but it was in vain; the highest tower seemed to reach the sky.

The gates of the castle opened slowly although there was no one to open them, and the men led him inside. The castle seemed to be as dead as the forest, the only sounds the knight could hear came from their footsteps and the few torches that burnt on the walls. The men led him to spiral stairs, and they began to climb upwards.

And they climbed.

And they climbed.

And they climbed some more.

The knight was beginning to doubt that the tower really reached the sky.

And they climbed.

Finally, just when the knight had made a silent vow that after this he would never climb another stair, they reached the top. The stairs ended to huge doors, which had carvings in some strange marks the knight could not read. As the gates, also the doors opened by themselves, and the men pushed him into an enormous room with thick carpets, flaming fireplace, and very comfortable looking armchairs. Especially the last ones caught the knight's attention, since his feet were really aching after the long climb.

The doors slammed shut behind him making him start a little. He looked behind himself and realized that the men had left him alone in the room. He looked around, shrugged, and was just about to sit on one of the armchairs, when a young white haired man entered the room. Well, at least most of him entered the room, for some reason he kept his right hand behind the door so that the knight could not see it.

The knight straightened himself and met the other man's gaze, trying to look as dignified as he could being tied up as he was.

The other stared at him for some time, and then, slowly, an evil smile began to form on his lips. The light from the fireplace made his reddish eyes gleam, and his white hair pointed wildly in every direction. He was dressed in a robe of very dark purple. Soon his smile turned into an evil cackle.
"So, here we have still another brave knight trying to find out the secrets of the Damned Forest? I am afraid that this adventure is going to end very tragically for your part, my dear knight."

Suddenly he jerked a little as if someone had pulled his right hand, which was still behind the door. He frowned slightly and glared angrily at the door, but turned soon his attention back to the knight, the evil smile returning to his lips.

"In a sense I am very grateful for you coming to this visit… I was beginning to run out of test subjects."

The knight gulped and took involuntarily two steps away from the… the positively evil creature in front of him. Just then a door behind him was violently pushed open. Another man dressed in a similar robe stormed inside, dragging an exact copy of himself behind. Or not really dragging… The knight blinked when he realized that the two were actually tied together with some kind of handcuffs.

The newcomer glared at the evil man. "Test subjects? You and your fucking tests, I want to have this one! I'm bored, I want to play with something…"

The other man sighed. "Look, Mariku, you cannot have this one. I have few very important tests I can't finish unless I get some fresh material."

"You and your fucking tests, Bakura. Why can't you have little fun sometimes? And what about my tests?"

Bakura blinked. "Your tests?"

"Yes, my tests. I'm trying to find out what you can do to a man without killing him. That's quite important to know if we have to torture someone someday, don't you think?" He cracked up with maniacal laughter, eyes gleaming just as much as Bakura's had been although the fire was behind his back.

The knight gulped again. If the other one was positively evil, this one was positively mad. He started to back away from him, realized then that it would take him closer to the evil one, and started slowly to move towards the doors from which he had entered the room.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Both men, mad and evil, turned to look at the poor knight and raised their right hands… or at least Mariku did so. Bakura had forgotten that he could not use his right hand right now. As he raised it with a sudden movement, another white haired boy stumbled forth from behind the door and bumped into him, and they ended up falling down on the floor.

Mariku, on the other hand, had no problems with his spell. Beams of black light left from his right hand and surrounded the knight's legs, tying him tightly to the spot where he was standing.

On the floor, the other white haired boy was helping Bakura to stand up smiling brightly.

"Thank you for pulling me free," he said. "Although I don't think that it was very nice of you to tie me to that wall and put a gag on me in the first place. Why did you do so?" He tilted his head a little on the side, looking at Bakura with wide, questioning eyes. Bakura groaned. "Shut up…"

The knight looked from Mariku and his companion to Bakura, who had been tied to the other white haired boy with similar handcuffs, and back. "Excuse me…. Would you mind me asking what… why… those handcuffs…"

"Yes, I would, " Bakura muttered. Then he sighed. "We had the bad luck of meeting a fairy some time ago. I'm sure you know that no magics work on fairies. She decided that we had to be taught a lesson about friendship and love, as she put it. She kept on babbling about friendship so long that I was about to go nuts."

He glanced at Mariku. "I think that he did," he whispered. "He wasn't that mad before it. Anyway, she obviously thought that talking wasn't enough and decided to give us companions who would 'guide us to the light' or something like that. I had extremely bad luck; she decided to start on me. She had only a certain amount of goodness she could use, and of course she miscalculated and poured most of it into my aibou. So Mariku was quite lucky… Malik isn't that bad… I mean good."

"I see, " the knight said. "Could you tell me what is the name of your… aibou… or what it was you called him? I'm tired of referring to him as 'the other white haired boy'."

The other white haired boy smiled at him. "I'm Ryou," he said, offering him his hand, which the knight naturally could not take since his hands were tied behind his back. Ryou frowned. "You know, Bakura, that is not very nice... Why have you tied him up like that? Come on, let's free him."

He started to walk towards the knight, but Bakura stopped him abruptly. "What the hell you mean!? We most definitely will not free him! He is our prisoner!"
Ryou sighed. "I've told you before, it is not nice to take prisoners either," he explained patiently. "You wouldn't like to be a prisoner, would you? I'm sure he doesn't either. So…"

"Will you SHUT UP!!!" Bakura screamed.

Ryou shook his head. "And you know very well that it is not nice to yell at people like that," he said quietly.

Mariku and Malik had sat on couple of the armchairs and were watching the other two snickering every now and then. Both of them seemed to enjoy the show. Bakura glared at them angrily and glanced then at his aibou. "Some day I'm going to strangle you…"

"Why don't you?" the knight asked out of curiosity. Bakura glared at him at his turn.

"Because if I kill him, I will die also. That is part of the fairy's curse."

Ryou nodded. "Moreover, it is not…"

"Yes I know!" Bakura shouted. "It is not nice to kill people."

"That's right!" Ryou smiled happily. "See? You're learning."

Bakura rubbed his temples. "I don't believe this… This was supposed to be a humor fic, not a farce… Could we get back to business?"

"Sure," the knight said. "Noble mages, I ask you to free me. There is a beautiful princess nearby in a dire need of a savior, kidnapped from her home by an evil genius, and guarded by three horrible dragons. It is my destiny to save her."

"It is your destiny, noble knight, to end up us my test s…"

"No way!" Mariku jumped up from the chair dragging Malik on the floor. "I want him!"

"That's too bad because you can't have him." Bakura turned to glare at Mariku, his patience clearly grown thin. He completely ignored Ryou, who was trying to pipe up something about learning to share.

"We'll see about that." A dark glow was beginning to surround Mariku's hands. "We'll see indeed," Bakura muttered, a similar glow growing around his hands.

"Uh, Bakura… You know, it's not very nice…"

"Shut up."

"Mariku, why don't we go back to our room… I could show you something…" Malik tried to wink suggestively at the glowering wizard, but Mariku did not pay any attention to him. Malik glanced at Ryou with a desperate expression. "Here we go again…" Ryou smiled weekly. "So it seems."

Then all the hell broke loose.

The knight tried to remember all the gods he knew of and even made up some of his own to pray to. Obviously someone listened - or then it was just pure luck. During the battle, Mariku forgot to keep up the spell that tied him into one place, and suddenly the knight noticed that he could move. He ran quickly to the fireplace trying to avoid the bolts of black energy that flew around the room, and used a burning stick to burn off the ropes that bound him. Carefully he tiptoed to the door. Just as he was about to slip through it he heard Ryou shouting, "Follow the bird out of the forest!" He turned to look back in surprise and saw Ryou wink at him while trying to hide behind Bakura's back. He nodded and ran to the stairs.

"Give my regards to the princess! ^__^ " he heard Ryou's voice behind himself. The wizards did not notice anything.

He ran quickly down the spiral stairs, almost getting dizzy of the constant turning. The halls downstairs were empty and there was no one to stop him as he ran to the gate, which opened to him. Not any smart gate, that one...

His faithful horse had managed to escape the men who had captured him and had then followed them to the castle. He ran to it and flung himself into the saddle. Now let's see... He looked around. Follow a bird... "There!" Indeed, there was a little golden bird sitting on one of the black tree branches.

"Little bird! Would you guide my way out of this forest?" the knight shouted to it. For a moment the bird sat still on the branch, but took then wing and started to fly away from the castle. The knight spurred his horse after it.

*

By now the knight had left the Damned Forest far behind. The bird had guided him directly to its edge and left him there before he had even been able to thank it properly. Now he rode on, trying to find either the castle of the genius, or then someone to give him directions.

There was one problem. He had ridden for days and had not met anyone after he left the Damned Forest. He was beginning to wonder whether he was heading towards a totally wrong direction. I should have asked those siblings better directions... He smiled a little as he remembered the girl. I wonder what the princess looks like... At least she is said to be beautiful.

Just then he noticed a big mansion like house coming into view from behind a small hill. Great! I can ask directions there. And maybe there is some lady who needs help in something.

He rode briskly towards the mansion and reached it soon. The morning sun shed its soft light onto the beautiful gardens that surrounded the house, little birds sung cheerfully on the branches of the garden's trees and flowers on the ground were slowly opening as the sunrays tenderly caressed them. The knight took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. I hope they are not sleeping anymore, he thought as he rode into the courtyard.

The mansion's outer doors were abruptly pushed open. Young, brown haired man stepped out of the mansion and remained standing in front of the doors, the end of his cloak blowing in the suddenly awakened wind. The birds fell silent. The sun was covered with a black cloud. A shiver ran up the knight's spine.

"Finally!" The brown haired youth almost spat the word out of his mouth. "What the hell took you so long?"

The knight frowned. "Pardon me, kind sir, if I am wrong, but art thou the evil genius I have been a-searching?"

The other glared at him. "First of all, stop talking like that. You can't even do it right. Besides, it gets on my nerves. Secondly, my name is Seto Kaiba. You may call me Mister Kaiba. Forget all that 'evil genius' nonsense."

The knight bowed slightly. "Personally I think that few 'thous' and 'thees' every now and then just help to create the right atmosphere, but if you insist… My name is Yami."

Seto raised his eyebrows a little. "Of what Order?"

Yami frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Usually all knights belong to some Order or another. Like to the Round Table, ever heard?"

Yami shook his head. "Can't say that I have, nor of any other furniture orders. There are no orders where I come from."

The eyebrows rose even more. "Really?"

Yami shrugged. "You see, actually there are no knights either, so there's no need for orders."

Seto sighed. "So you're not even a real knight… just my luck. I guess it doesn't matter. Let's get into the business, shall we?"

He raised his hands. "Blue Eyes White Dragons! Come!"

Suddenly three white dragons appeared on the yard, surrounding the knight (or what-so-ever he is).

"Attac…"

"Hey, wait, wait!"

Seto lowered his hand. "What?"

"Well, I… You see," Yami tried desperately to think a way out of this situation. "This isn't fair."

"What isn't fair?"

"Well, there are three dragons! And then there's you. That makes four against one, and I say that's not fair!"

"I'm the bad guy here, I don't have to care about what is fair," Seto said and started to raise his hand.

"Of course not, but… this doesn't follow the canon!"

Seto lowered his hand again. "What canon?"

"You know, in all fairy tales, there's usually only one dragon. Yes, it can have many heads and so, but still… Think about Snow White, for example… or was it Sleeping Beauty, that Disney version… Anyway, only one dragon is allowed!"

Seto blinked. "Allowed? Has someone made rules to this?" He shrugged. "All right, if you insist…" Once again he raised his hands. "The Ultimate Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

Somehow, the three dragons standing on the yard merged into one gigantic beast. Yami gulped as he gazed up at it. I'm not sure if this is any better option... Damn that nurse... Why couldn't she tell me stories only about little fairies and such...

He could hear Seto's voice as if it came from somewhere far away.

"White Lightning!"

The dragon opened its mouth, and Yami closed his eyes waiting for the breath of fire. Then he was thrown from the saddle as the Ultimate Blue Eyes White Dragon… sneezed.

"Oh damn!" Seto stormed down the steps and ran to his dragon. "I forgot! One of my dragons caught cold last week when it was flying in the rain, and now that I combined them it infected the others too!"

He patted gently the sniffling dragon. "Oh you poor baby… Go to rest before you get really sick." The dragon sniffled once more and disappeared.

Seto turned to glare angrily at Yami who was scrambling to his feet. "Now all my dragons are sick, and it is your fault."
"My fault?"

"Yes, your fault. I wouldn't have combined them if it weren't for you!"

"Whatever you say…" Yami sighed, and glanced around, but he couldn't see even the tail of his horse. Obviously a sneezing dragon had been too much for the poor animal. "So," he said drawing his sword, "it's only you and me."

"Yes," Seto said, still eying him angrily, "but I'd like to point out that I don't have a weapon. That's not 'fair', is it?"

"Damn." Yami lowered his sword. "Go get one then. Or, of course, if you unhand the beautiful princess, I will leave you in peace."

Seto rolled his eyes. "Unhand. I give up with you," he muttered. Yami smiled apologetically. "I just had to say it."

Seto sighed. "I'll go to get my sword." He started to walk towards the mansion, but just then a young boy appeared at its main entrance.

"Oh, there you are, big brother!" The boy ran to Seto and hugged him tightly. "Happy birthday!"

"Mokuba, I… Let go of me!" Seto tried desperately to push the boy away. "Mokuba, this is not a good time…"

"Why not?" The boy finally released his grip. Then he noticed Yami. "Oh, you have a visitor! Is he coming with us on the picnic? I'm so happy Seto, I thought you didn't have any friends here!" The boy began to bounce around.

"Mokuba! Stop it! He's not any visitor, we have an important fight waiting…"

Mokuba stopped bouncing abruptly. "Fight? You can't fight on your birthday! What if he hurts you?"

"He won't."

Mokuba smiled. "Yeah, of course not. You're the best." He hugged his brother again. "But I still don't think that you should fight today. It's your birthday! And look, I made a card for you." He smiled even more brightly as he shoved his card into his brother's hand. Seto glanced at the card. "That's very nice, Mokuba. Now wait a moment, so we can have our fight and…"

"I don't want you to fight! We have to go now on the picnic, and then we can feed the bunnies and…"
"Mokuba! Stop talking about picnics and bunnies! You destroy my reputation!"

"Excuse me," Yami decided that he should say something. "I know this isn't my business, but why don't you go on the picnic with your brother and let me leave with the princess?"

Seto glared at him icily. "This really is none of your business, so keep quiet."

Mokuba stared at Yami with a confused expression. "What princess? Does he mean…"

"Keep quiet, both of you! I'm going to get my sword now and then we'll fight!"

"But…"

"No buts, Mokuba." He turned his back to Yami and Mokuba and started to march towards the mansion.

"Hey, wait a moment!" Seto glanced over his shoulder at Yami. "What now?"

"I was just wondering why you are doing this. I mean I'm sure you had some reason to kidnap the princess…"

"You want to hear my reasons? I'll give you my reasons!" Seto took few steps towards Yami eyes flaring up. "My genius is unappreciated in this medieval world! I could defeat the wisest men of this realm in a battle of wits, but no one gives a damn! Everyone is just interested about beautiful princesses and knights in shining armors. Even my own brother prefers stories of battles and all kinds of stupid heroic deeds!" At this point his voice broke down a little. He sniffled, reminding Yami of the blue-eyed dragon. "So I decided to capture a princess to proof that the bravest knights of this world cannot best me."

Yami stared at him not knowing what to think. Suddenly he noticed Mokuba running past him tears in his eyes to hug his brother again. "I'm sorry big brother! I'll read all the books you want me to for now on. I promise!"

Seto blinked and looked down at Mokuba. "It's okay, kiddo," he said ruffling a little Mokuba's hair. "But now I have to fight."

Mokuba looked up at him. "Do you have to? I don't think that you have to proof anything to anyone, big brother."

"Yes I do." Seto pushed him away and continued his way towards the mansion. "When this is over, we can go on the picnic."

"Seetooo…" Mokuba whined. Seto turned abruptly on his heels and glared at his brother. "You heard what I said! If you don't stop that whining right now, I'm not going on any picnics at all!"

Tears gathered up in Mokuba's eyes. Just before the waterworks began, Yami jumped between the two brothers. "Hey, take it easy. There's really no need for this… Listen, if you feel unappreciated here, maybe you should consider moving to another story. I'm sure there are lots of those where a guy with sharp wits can go far. Maybe you'll even get some friends there, people who are like you."

Seto kept on staring at him skeptically. Yami groaned inwardly. What the hell should I say... Suddenly he heard the voice of the girl he had met ringing in his mind. ...place your trust into the Heart of the Cards... He gave a little start. Heart of the Cards... The card!

"And then there's your brother. Maybe he too would be happier somewhere else… He clearly isn't happy here, since you are not. I'm sure he cares a lot about you, and you about him. And I'm sure that he's quite a great little brother, isn't he? Obedient and so?"

Seto nodded slowly.

"So couldn't you this one time do what he asks? Just go on that picnic. It is your birthday, anyway, and I'd hate to kill a man on his birthday. And I'd hate to get killed myself, birthday or not… Look, he even gave you a card he's made all by himself, the one you are crunching in your hand…" He took a deep breath, and continued softly, "I'm sure he put his heart in the making of that card…"

Seto blinked and stared at the crumpled card. There was a picture of a white dragon flying towards the sun on it, drawn very childishly, but it was clear that great effort had been put into it. Seto kept on staring at the card for a long time and turned then to look at his brother who was still doing his best not to cry.

"Mokuba…" he bent down to hug his brother. "I'm sorry, I was thinking only about myself." He glanced up at Yami. "You're right, I've wasted enough time on this place. We're leaving somewhere else."

"Can we first go on the picnic, big brother?" Seto smiled at him. "Sure, kiddo. Let's go."

"Yay! We're going on a picnic!" Mokuba started bouncing all around again.

Smiling, Yami looked after the two brothers as they walked away with a picnic basket Mokuba had produced from somewhere in a matter of seconds. That went well, he congratulated himself. Really good job. And now, the princess. She's probably sleeping somewhere awaiting me to wake her up with a kiss.

Searching through the mansion took longer than he had expected. The place was really huge. What made the search even more difficult was that there were no towers or other obvious places in the mansion where captured princesses could be held.

Finally he came to a locked door. It did not take him long to open it, for a knight he was really good in picking locks. Then again, as we remember, he wasn't a real knight.

The door led into a beautifully decorated room. In the middle of the room there was a four-poster bed, covered with veils. Through the veils he could see a small figure lying on it. He stepped quietly closer, removing his helmet and feeling his heart beat wildly. Finally. The fulfillment of his dreams… He drew carefully aside the veils and looked at his sleeping beauty.

He blinked.

He really had not expected his princess to have similar tri-colored hair he had. Moreover…

"You are not any princess," he stated in utmost shock. The small figure on the bed opened his eyes and sat up smiling cheerfully. "Have I claimed I were?" he asked. Yami stared at him for a moment and sat then down on the bed. He was really starting to feel quite dizzy.

"Would you mind explaining me what is going on here?" he asked weakly.

"Oh, not at all," the other boy said cheerfully. "Not that I know everything, though. Anyway, I was living quite peacefully with my grandpa in one small town, when that guy, Seto I mean, I'm sure you know him…" Suddenly he became worried. "You didn't hurt him did you?"

Yami shook his head. "No. He left for a picnic."

The other smiled with relieve. "Good. He's not that bad. Anyway, he kidnapped me, I'm not sure why, although I have some idea. He muttered something about this realm having a shortage of beautiful princesses. He said that I'd have to do, and that if he'd not let anyone see me and spread a rumor that I was from some very distant place all would go well. So, did you come to save me?"

Yami nodded dumbly.

"That's great!" The other hugged him tightly. "By the way, my name's Yuugi. What's your name?"

"Yami." He was still quite dumbstruck.

"Nice to meet you." Yuugi shook his hand happily. "So what shall we do?"

Yami blinked slowly and turned to look at him. "Do? What do you mean?"

"Well, since I'm not a princess you cannot get half of a kingdom or anything such. So where do you want to settle down? And I think that I really have to send a word to Grandpa, I'm sure he's worried…"

"Settle down?"

"Yep." Yuugi frowned when he finally noticed the way the other was staring at him. "Is something wrong?"

Yami sighed and fell backwards on the bed. "Just give me some time… this is a little too much…"

Yuugi smiled happily. "Sure. Just as much time as you need." He lay down beside Yami and nuzzled a little closer. For some time they lay in silence. Then Yuugi raised his head.

"Just one thing…"

Yami turned to look at him. "What?"

Yuugi wrinkled his nose. "Get rid of that armor. It's hard, and it stinks."

So, this is where we leave our hero. When Yami got some time he did get used to the idea that his princess actually was a little prince, and they lived happily ever after. Same goes for Seto and Mokuba, who found a story that suited them much better, and also for the siblings the knight had met, who found a new place to live where no one referred to others using animal names. The wizards too were quite happy, especially Mariku and Malik, in their own mad way, and even Bakura found out that he could actually live with Ryou, at least if he got him gagged every now and then.

~*~*~

AN: Yes, I realize that someone wearing a full armor doesn't 'flung himself into a saddle' and so on very easily, but this is a fairy tale. Just ignore it. Maybe the armor is special made by elves from some strange metal that's really light or something…

And then... Yuugi as the princess is hardly original, but it couldn't be helped here... ^__~ And I might mention one more thing: I don't really have anything against any of the characters (yes, that includes also Anzu-fairy...)