Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Midnight Love Affair ❯ Midnight Love Affair - III ( Chapter 3 )

Midnight Love Affair

By: Akiko

 

Chapter III-

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong and were created by Kazuki Takahashi and I do not take credit in any way. All I take credit for is writing this story, that's all. Thank you and have a nice day.

 

A/N: Gomen nasai minna-san to make you wait so long for this chapter but I just haven't had any inspiration or motivation lately until I started to read other fanfics. They actually got me wanting to write other fics and not work on this one but since I'm having troubles with that I figured I would update this story. Once again, gomen nasai minna-san for making you all wait so long.

 

 

The priest sat in a chair next to the bed of the pharaoh, watching the man sleep peacefully. The priest closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh, and shook his head. `I shoulder be sleeping, not sitting up and watching him sleep...' the priest thought to himself, keeping his ice blue eyes closed, remembering the events earlier that night. He slowly reopened his sapphire gaze and placed them upon the wrist the pharaoh had grabbed, a question slipping through his mind, the same one that did when he felt the small hand. `Why did he do that…?' The priest asked himself, trying to come up with an answer.

 

He knew that some people did that as a reaction to something, but he had known the pharaoh most of his life and he had never seen, or known, the man to do such a thing before. Seth placed his gaze upon the sleeping figure, watching him as a strand of his brown hair slipped into his face. It was late and the sun would be rising in a few hours, it wouldn't be long. `I've stayed up all night watching him sleep, keeping an eye out for the thief to return but it doesn't seem like he will. I'm rather glad of that, maybe now I'll get a few hours of sleep in yet,' the priest thought and closed his eyes, getting as comfortable as he could in the chair he was sitting in. He then crosses her arms over his chest and rested his chin against his chest, sitting in a slightly slouched position. Sapphire eyes slid closed as he gave out a soft breath of air and took in a deep, yet slow one, holding for a moment before letting it out as he allowed his body to relax and his mind to stop thinking about such trivial things. After all of that his mind and body soon completely relaxed, allowing the priest to drift off into a deep sleep rather easily, not noticing the sun starting to peek up over the horizon or the opening of two violet eyes.

 

Atem gave a soft smile as he watched the priest fall asleep next to him. Unlike the others, Atem trusted Seth the most with his life for unlike the others. He had known Seth most of his life, they had basically grown up together. The tri-hair colored young man pushed himself into a sitting position upon his bed and ran a hand through his hair, which had lost some of it's volume during the night as he slept. The boy then slipped out from beneath the covers and off the edge of his bed, and made his way to the balcony. He rested his hands delicately upon the well carved, and smoothed rail that circled the edge of the balcony.

 

He allowed his violet eyes to scan over the area, and finally land on where the sun was rising from, and gave way to a small and soft smile as he watched it turn the sky beautiful and light colors of pink, light blue, and a soft and light orange color as they mixed together and gave proof to the rising of the sun. A few loose strands of his hair slipped into his face as he lost himself in the colors that were being created, ignoring a small noise that had been made from the side of the balcony.

 

He then jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up, his violet eyes going a bit wide and about to yell out when a hand covered his mouth, muffling the sound. The captor looked back at the sound of shifting being made to find the priest sitting in a chair, fast asleep still. A smirk appeared along the person's lips as they tied a gag around the pharaoh's mouth and then tied his wrists to a pole of the balcony, and walked into the bedroom, making their way to the sleeping priest.

 

Atemu's eyes widen some more as he tried to struggle, his gaze falling upon the restraints around his wrist and trying to get them free, starting to wish he had remembered his training on his to get free of such things, but panic taking over and losing all his sense of what he needed to remember and what he needed to do in order to free himself. `Calm down.. I've got to calm down..' Atemu thought to himself, closing his eyes and trying to calm himself down. `I can't think clearly like this.. I need to breath and just calm myself down, if I do that then I can get free and help Seth…' At that moment the pharaoh's eyes snapped opened and he looked into his room, panic taking over once more as he saw the captor with a dagger to Seth's throat.

 

He struggled some more, trying to make a bunch of noises, closing his eyes tightly and trying to hope it was all just a dream. He ignored the pain of his bonds sinking into his wrists and drawing blood as he struggled to get free, making as much racket was possible in his situation, even yelling as loud as he could against the gag that muffled his voice. `Seth!' he thought and looked up at his bonds, trying harder and harder to free himself, not realizing how much blood he was causing himself to lose and how faint he was starting to feel, his only concern being to save the life of his one priest.

 

Violet eyes fell into the room again, only everything being blurry by now, thus making it hard for him to tell what was going on and finally blacking out, his head hanging now, some blood still falling down from his wrists as an unconscious tear slipped from his closed eyes and down his soft skinned, well tanned cheek.

 

The pharaoh's captor smirked when he glanced over to see the man had passed out, but frowned at noticing the blood. `What a pain he's going to be…' the person thought, turning their chocolate gaze back to the high priest, only to find a pair of ice blue, cold and emotionless eyes glaring back into the chocolate brown orbs, causing the captor to jump bac, startled by this small turn of events as the dagger fell to the ground, making a clattering sound against the hard ground.

 

“I personally didn't think you'd show up again tonight, thief.. and this time you set your aim higher, the pharaoh? Couldn't get into the treasure room so you thought you'd go for the big one and kidnap Pharaoh Atemu, how greedy of you, Bakura,” Seth frowned, standing up and pulling the rod from his belt, a small dagger slipping out the bottom of it. “Normally it would go against how I've been raised to kill you, since I'm a high priest; but I am also the only one with the power enough to protect the pharaoh from petty and disgusting thieves such as yourself, Bakura. And from your tactics, the pharaoh is injured, and that's something I'll have a hard time forgiving.”

 

“You were asleep,” Bakura hissed, glaring as he backed up. He had been taken off guard and lost his weapon. He hadn't expected capturing the pharaoh would be that easy, thus why he brought the one dagger with, but he lost that when he had been startled by Seth, and the priest was now standing in front of the weapon so the thief couldn't get to it. “I could've easily gotten away wit--”

 

“But you didn't, and that was your mistake. If you hadn't noticed, the pharaoh will do what's in his power to keep his followers protected. I had been asleep and you could've easily slipped off with him, but because I was a threat to you, you thought it would be the perfect chance to finish me off. What you didn't count on was the pharaoh struggling and making as much noise as he did to try and warn me; that's what woke me up and brought your downfall as of now, thief,” Seth explained, swiping the blade of the dagger horizontally at the thief, only for him to back off and run for the balcony.

 

Seth came to a stop from his chase at the rail of the balcony, glaring down as he watched the thief escape. He then quickly placed his millenuim rod back in the sash of his clothes and freed the pharaoh's wrists, pulling the gag off from around his mouth and scooping him up in his arm, carrying him over to the bed. He gently set the man down upon the bed and moved to go get some bandages, only to have the pharaoh's hand grasp his clothes.

 

Seth looked down at the pharaoh and blinked, then shook his head and carefully, and very gently, moved the pharaoh's hand back to the man's side and walked out of the room for a moment to get some bandages, ignoring questions from the other priests and ordering them to stay out of the pharaoh's room. He snatched the bandages and made his way back to the room, glaring when he noticed one of the priests about to step into the room. “I thought I ordered none of you to enter the room of the pharaoh,” he stated, causing the one priest to jump a bit and step back.

 

He shook his head and slipped past the priest and into the room, closing the door. Setting the bandages down on the bed near the ruler, he grabbed a chair, placing the object next to the bed and sitting down upon it. He grabbed the bandages and started to clean the wounds up with the extra supplies he had grabbed as well. He placed the clothe back in the small bowl of water next to the bed and started to bandage the pharaoh's wrist. He ignored a small flinch from the pharaoh, and then blinked, shifting his gaze to the man when he noticed violet eyes open.

 

“Se-Seth..?” Atemu spoke weakly, and tried to sit up, only to have the priest push him back down against the bed.

 

“No, you need to rest. I'll take over your duties for today while you stay here. I'm not sure how much blood you lost, but I don't want you to risk anything,” he explained to the man, only to get protest, which surprised him a bit; the pharaoh normally listened to him in these situations, not that they happened a great deal, but enough.

 

“If I have to stay resting then I want you to stay at my side and guard me, Seth,” Atemu spoke, watching the man's ice blue eyes with his own soft lavender gaze. “You're the only one who seems to be able to stand up to the thief well enough to keep me safe, the others aren't as on top of the game as you are, Seth,” Atemu spoke.

 

“Then whom would you suggest taking over your duties for today?” he asked, taking the pharaoh's other wrist and bandaging it. He figured it was best not to argue at the time and let the pharaoh have his way, otherwise this would never come to an end, and either the pharaoh would end up doing his duties with his condition or Seth would stay by his side while someone else preformed the duties, and to save the run around, he gave in.

 

“Priestess Isis can handle it, she knows the duties very well and is accustomed to them. She's very well intelligent as well and will make the people even more proud; she's about as dedicated to them as I am,” he informed the priest at his side, and received a nod from the man.

 

“I will inform her of her duties for today then,” Seth spoke and stood up. “Stay put, Atemu,” Seth told him, in a commanding and yet scolding tone, knowing the pharaoh would only listen that way and walked over to the door, opening it up. He stepped out for a moment and spoke with Priest Mahado, informing him to tell Isis what she is to do and what to tell her about the pharaoh. He nodded to the man, and watched him walk down the hall before slipping back into the pharaoh's room and closing the door, walking back to his seat and sitting down, looking at the pharaoh. “There, you have your wish, now lay down and rest,” he told the pharaoh, closing his eyes.

 

“I may have injured myself, Priest Seth, but I do not need the rest as much as you do,” he told the man and gave a soft, smile. “You should be the one to rest,” he told him. “I'm sure you ended up staying up all night to watch and make sure I stayed safe. However did you expect to fulfill your duties for today in such a state? I'd say it's worse than mine at the moment,” he gave a small laugh, causing the priest to have a surprised look to his features.

 

Seth closed his eyes and shook his head. “If I had not fallen asleep then you would not have received such injuries due to my inability to notice what was going on. You, in a sense, were your own savior; if you had not making such an effort to struggle to try and warn me of the danger from the thief, then I would not have woken up. We were lucky he sees me as such a threat that he would try to take the advantage to kill me,” Seth admitted, keeping ice blue eyes closed.

 

Atemu blinked, watching Seth and then gave one of his softer smiles. “I have a duty to my people, to those who follow me. I would do everything within my power to keep them safe, Seth; that also includes keeping my priests safe, if you have yet to figure that much out,” he told the man. “I'm just lucky your so loyal to me, otherwise you might be a great threat if you were to rise against me,” he told the man, giving another soft laugh, which caused Seth to open his eyes and look at the pharaoh.

 

`Such a carefree attitude. He's the pharaoh, carrying a great burden upon his shoulders to please the Gods, to look as one of them, and to keep his people safe, yet he still manages to smile and laugh like he's an innocent and carefree child, he truly is something else,' Seth thought as he watched the man, then shook his head. “Didn't I tell you that you should be sleeping, Pharaoh Atemu?”

 

“You did, and I also told you that you needed the rest more than I did, did I not, Priest Seth?” Atemu shot back at the man.

 

Seth blinked once more, watching Atemu and shook his head. “You can be such a pain sometimes, Pharaoh,” he mumbled, causing the pharaoh to give another soft laugh. The priest watched Atemu as he laughed this time, a very faint and unnoticeable smile slipping to his lips. It had been a long time since he had seen the pharaoh smile, let alone heard the man laugh in such a carefree and innocent way. `The last time I saw him like this was when we were but mere children. He was always so carefree back then…' Seth remembered, closing his eyes.

 

+++++Flashback+++++

 

A young boy ran into the kitchen, and slipped under a table, hiding as an older man walked in and looked around.

 

“Young Atemu, this is no time for games, you have to finish your lesson about the past Pharaohs of this land, and you'll be the next one to take the throne, you need to learn this stuff!” the man huffed and walked out of the kitchen and down his hall in continued pursuit of the young boy.

 

The boy snickered under the table, slowly crawling out from under it on all fours, only to have an arm snake around his waist and pick him up. Violet eyes shot up to meet soft, ice blue one. “Se-Seth!” the boy cried in astonishment and nervousness; this way a boy he'd known for a while now, and he knew the boy was to be one of his priests. He somewhat feared the slightly older boy due to how forceful he could be; he was the only one who could manage to make the boy sit through a lesson, but he was the only one who'd let him get away with so much as well.

 

“Your causing trouble for your tutors again, aren't you, Atemu?” Seth sighed softly, setting the boy down. “I've told you that you needed to learn this stuff to become a good pharaoh when your time comes, haven't I?”

 

“But it's so boring~~!” Atemu whined, giving a soft pout that he knew tugged at Seth's heart and let him get away with almost anything under the watch of those soft, ice blue eyes.

 

Seth blinked and sighed, closing his eyes. “Sometimes, your highness, you can be such a pain. You need to get back to your lesson, this is one you should know something about,” he told the boy, reopening his eyes to watch him pout.

 

“Can't you teach me about the past pharaohs, Seth? You know so much more about them than those tutors do, and I can stand to listen to you talk on and on about it,” Atemu whined some more.

 

“I have my own lessons I need to take, Atemu, you know that. As your future high priest I need to make sure I can carry out the duties and be able to protect you…” Seth tried to get into the boy's head, but blinked as he watched Atemu run out the door of the kitchen.

 

“You'll have to catch me first, Seth!!” Atemu yelled back at the older boy as he ran down the hall, easily avoiding running into everyone.

 

“He's going to get me into trouble again, but everyone always wants me to chase after him because he listens to me better than he does his own father, the pharaoh, sometimes,” Seth muttered to himself and walked out of the kitchen, only to have his arm grabbed by Atemu's tutor at the moment, and get glared at.

 

“If you don't catch him, boy, you'll regret it. I didn't pull you from your class just to have you let him run wild like this,” the man growled almost, glaring daggers at Seth.

 

Seth's gaze instantly went cold and emotionless as he pulled his arm from the man. “I know what you pulled me out of my class for, and I find it pathetic that I have more control over him than you can, oh, but then again your not allowed to lay a finger on him and he doesn't seem to like you very much,” Seth snapped back. “And watch where you place your hands, I am one the high priests chosen and I will be the one appointed to watch over and protect Atemu when he becomes pharaoh,” he told him, only to get smacked across the cheek by the man.

 

“Watch it boy, your still young enough to let me punish physically like this,” the tutor growled.

 

“No wonder Atemu doesn't like you, you have the worst attitude I've seen out of all of them, and the shortest temper,” Seth continued to shot back. He didn't fear the man, he didn't fear anything, except one; he feared the idea of letting Atemu getting hurt, of being the one to cause the boy to get hurt. “I'll get Atemu back, but you'll lose your job. I'm tired of you pulling me out of my class. I'm ahead of everyone else, I'll ask the Pharaoh if I can teach his son,” Seth told him and started to walk away, following the direction in which Atemu took off in.

 

He was cut short with his arm being grasped tightly by the tutor. Seth narrowed his gaze dangerously and snapped a cold and dark glare back at the man and that was all that the man was given before a small child's voice yelled from down the hall.

 

“Let him go!” Atemu shouted, having some tears in his eyes, and a few down his cheek. He had seen the whole thing, and it had upset him greatly.

 

“Atemu, it's time to go back to your lesson,” the tutor spoke, releasing Seth and walking down the hall towards the boy. Atemu shook his head, backing up a few steps and finally lost the ability to move his feet, scared of the man that was advancing towards him right now.

 

Seth blinked and ran over, knocking the tutor off balance before pushing him to the ground and running over to Atemu, standing in front of the boy, keeping him out of sight. “Atemu doesn't want you near him. If you continue this I'll see personally to it that your hauled out of the palace by the guards and that you'll never step foot in here again,” Seth threatened the man, but he was already too angry to listen.

 

“You low account…” the tutor growled, glaring at Seth and ran for him.

 

Seth blinked and turned around, grabbing Atemu's wrist and pulling the boy with him as he ran. He knew he didn't have the strength to deal with the man himself, so he thought of the next best thing he could; it was time to go and see the pharaoh in an unexpected visit. He knew the man was too angry with him to notice where they were leading him.

 

Atemu stumbled a bit, but Seth kept pulling him along. “Come on Atemu, you can keep up,” Seth told him, looking over his shoulder and giving the boy an encouraging smile. Atemu blinked and then nodded, trying his best to keep pace with the boy ahead of him. “We're…”

 

“I know, that's the point,” Seth informed Atemu, knowing what he would say before he got the next word out. Seth finally shoved some doors open and ran up to the throne, causing quite a deal of commotion by this. He ran and stood next to the current Pharaoh, Atemu's father. He held Atemu's back to his chest; his hands on the boy's chest to keep his close as he tried to catch his breath and watched the tutor stumble in and stop dead.

 

“What is the meaning of this, Seth?!” Akunumkanon questioned as he put his gaze on the tutor and then on the older child standing next to his throne, noticing the boy out of breath from the running. He then glanced at his son to see the fear in his eyes of watching the tutor. “Atemu, mind telling me what's going on..?” he asked his son.

 

Atemu looked at his father and took in a big breath of air, opening his mouth to explain but was cut off by Seth's voice speaking up.

 

“I'm sorry… to disturb you, Pharaoh, but I feel this man is.. unable to… perform his duties to… teach A-Atemu..” Seth stumbled a bit over his wording, still trying to catch his breath.

 

The pharaoh looked upon the elder boy, noticing a red mark on his cheek that was starting to bruise and a red hand mark around one of his arms before looking to Atemu, to see no such marks upon the boy. “Atemu, what happened…?” he asked the child, knowing Seth would keep things in a form matter and not speak of everything that happened.

 

Atemu blinked and looked to his father, a few tears slipping down his cheeks. “I don't like him, father, he.. he hurt Seth! He hurt Seth because I cut out on my lesson,” Atemu admitted and buried his face into Seth, causing both Seth and the pharaoh to blink.

 

“It's all right, Atemu, I'll be all right, I promise you,” he told the boy in his arms, giving a soft smile and running a hand through his hair, trying to comfort the boy.

 

The pharaoh blinked and set a cold and hard glare down upon the tutor, speaking his mind before telling the guards how to punish the man. He waited until they had pulled the man from the room before looking at Seth and Atemu. “I think that's the first time I've seen you break into a smile, Seth; you tend to always be so serious with everything,” he told the boy, causing him to jump a bit and placing blue eyes on the man.

 

“I'm sorry, I fo--” Seth started, but was cut off.

 

“I was starting to think you were always so serious and it was making me wonder exactly why my son adored being around you so much,” he closed his eyes. “All the tutors I've found for Atemu have either left because of how wild he is or been punished for such crimes against the palace,” he sighed, replacing his gaze back upon the two. “Will you help me choose his next tutor, Seth?” the pharaoh asked.

 

Seth blinked and then nodded. `If I help choose, then I won't have to ask to be his tutor… I do have my own lessons I need to learn…' Seth thought, but Atemu piped up.

 

“I want Seth to be my tutor!” the boy protested, getting his father's attention. “I know he has his own classes, but…”

 

“No more said,” the pharaoh spoke up before his son could finish. “You seem to only listen to Seth anyways and from what I've heard he's been doing very well in his classes and is further ahead of the others and he's proven to me time and again how well of a high priest he'll be with his attitude, his loyalty, and his protective nature,” the pharaoh paused for a moment. “So,” he started again, looking at Seth, “will you be young Atemu's tutor?”

 

Seth blinked, watching the pharaoh for a moment before looking down at Atemu. He was doubtful that he could teach the boy the things he needed. He was ready to decline until he got those lavender eyes locked with his, the boy was giving Seth that pout that always managed to tug at his heart once more, and the older boy gave it. “All right, I'll do it,” he accepted. “I'll do the best I can at teaching him, Pharaoh; I won't make you regret it,” he added in and got a nod from the man.

 

“Then go on,” he shooed the two away. “I've got work I need to get back to that was rudely interrupted with the barging in of you two and that man,” he told the kids and watched them leave.

 

Seth looked down at Atemu when they were out of the Pharaoh's sights and sighed. “What am I going to do with you, kid? You do nothing but pull at someone's heart strings,” he told him and walked down the hall, Atemu following close behind him, wearing a big grin across his face.

 

+++++End Flashback+++++

 

Atemu smiled and looked at Seth. “The last time you said something like that to me was while you were tutoring me, Priest Seth,” he informed the man, receiving a nod from him. “And before that you normally used to scold me about how I do nothing but `pull at someone's heart strings.' Isn't that it?” he asked with a slight laugh.

 

“Yea, and you still do. It's become an art form for you, Pharaoh,” Seth told him, opening his eyes up and watching the man.

 

“That could be taken as a good thing, means I know what to do to get people to do what is best for themselves,” Atemu told him.

 

“Yes, it could be taken at that way as well,” said Seth, sitting back in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest and eyes locked on the pharaoh.

 

Atemu blinked, looked down at the bed before closing his eyes. “Your eyes…” he spoke softly.