Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Golden Dance ❯ 9: Awakenings ( Chapter 9 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Title: The Golden Dance, chapter 9 of ? REVISED

Author: Tsutsuji

Rating: R (nothing strong in this chapter, though)

Warnings: yaoi, with a side helping of angst

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to these characters and I'm making no profit from this fic and intend no copyright infringement.

Spell-checked and self-beta'd. Please inform me of any errors I've missed.

Notes: Thanks for the reviews! Special thanks to those who have poked and prodded me about this story over the last year! I really hope you continue to enjoy this story. It's so much fun to write about these guys!

Summary: Jonouchi comes to a realization, and Thief Bakura learns something about himself from a most unexpected source.

REVISED. Just a couple small but important changes. A few lines added in the middle, and a few paragraphs at the end. (4/21/06)

***

To refresh your memory, when we left Jonouchi back in chapter 7:

"What just happened?" he asked, even though he knew the answer was pretty plain. "Thatwasn't a dream, was it?"

Seth looked sorrowful. "No. And yet, in a way, it was."

"Yeah. I guess." He couldn't quite be angry with Sethor with himself for letting it happen. He'd hardly known what he was doing, but he couldn't feel the regret or alarm he thought he should be feeling. In fact, Seth looked more worried about it than Jou felt.

"I am sorry once again, J'nuchi," he said in a whisper. "My desire for you was real, yet in my heart, I was thinking of Jumoke."

"I know," Jou said quietly. "I got that. It's okay." He stared out the window at the steady stream of water from the sky. "I was thinking of someone else too. Seto Kaiba."

***

The Golden Dance 9: Awakenings

***

Jonouchi lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling, listening to the rain outside and to the thought that was buzzing around inside his head like a fly trying to beat its way out of a window.

I just had sex with an ancient Egyptian guy who looks like Seto Kaiba. I was wishing it was Seto Kaiba. That means I want to have sex with Kaiba. That means I want to be with Kaiba. Does that mean I'm, like, in love with him or something?

"Ngah!" He sat up and shook his head to get rid of the thought. Not because it wasn't true, though. Just because he was so stupid that he hadn't realized it before.

"Now I figure this out," he muttered to himself. "Great timing, Katsuya!"

Seth sat up as well, watching him with a concerned frown. Jonouchi glanced at him and looked away quickly.

"Don't mind me," he said. "I'm just tripping over my own mind, here. Happens all the time."

This didn't seem to reassure Seth at all, though - possibly because he'd said it in his own language.

"Have I caused you pain, J'nuchi?" Seth asked anxiously. "I will not forgive myself if I've hurt you!"

"Nah!" Jonouchi shrugged. All things considered, he didn't feel too bad. The slight ache that remained in his backside was kind of a good feeling, oddly enough - but that was bad because it reminded him of what he thought he'd been doing, or rather, who he thought he was doing it with.

He couldn't just sit here and think about it any more. He reached for his jeans and started pulling them on, ignoring Seth's sad eyes watching him. He couldn't even look at the priest now. He just kept wondering if Kaiba looked the same, if he'd smell and taste the same. It was way too much.

"I have to go see what's going on," he said as he grabbed his shirt off the floor. "See if they found your old buddy Bakura yet or not."

Behind him, Seth made a sound - the vocal equivalent of a wince of pain, Jonouchi thought. In spite of himself, he turned and looked at the priest.

Seth sat with one leg crossed over the other, looking perfectly comfortable sitting there naked on Kaiba's fancy carpet, except for the droop of his head and his clenched fists. He must really have winced when he heard Bakura's name, Jonouchi realized with a pang of sympathy and a little bit of guilt. Here he was, all of a sudden pining for one lover he'd never had and probably never would, while Seth had already lost two.

Jonouchi yanked his shirt on, and then watched out of the corner of his eye as Seth slowly reached for his scattered robes. He had the definite look of a man trying to pull himself together, Jonouchi thought. He may have been missing Jumoke, but apparently his feelings were even more twisted up around Bakura. Jonouchi still had a hard time believing anyone could love a guy like that Millennium Item thief, but the signs were pretty clear, even to him.

He remembered the bitterness in Bakura's voice when he'd said Jumoke gave him the ring to protect Seth, and when he'd claimed he didn't care what happened to the priest. He had a strong suspicion that Bakura really did take the Ring from Jumoke out of concern for Seth, though, no matter what he said about it.

He shook his head. They were a couple of stubborn idiots, all right! The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was to him that they cared for each other, and yet all they did was fight.

That sounded like someone else he knew, too. Well, at least as far as fighting all the time went - not so much the "cared for each other" part of it, he reminded himself sharply. Even if he'd just figured out how he really felt about Seto Kaiba, he knew Kaiba didn't feel anything like that about him. Even if he did call out Jonouchi's name just before he passed out that last time...

Jou stood up abruptly. He'd been hanging around here too long.

"I have to go see how Set-- how Kaiba's doing, I mean," he said.

"Yes," Seth answered absently.

The priest was dressed again in his white linen kilt and blue and gold tunic, and now stood in the center of that carpet Jonouchi had gotten so familiar with. Now he was the one staring out the window. Still probably thinking about his lost loves, Jonouchi thought as he turned around and headed for the door.

Halfway there, he noticed for the first time that Seth had left his tall hat and his weird duel-disc gear on a chair near the door when he came in, and along with them, the Millennium Rod was lying there as well. That weird, eye-shaped emblem on the rod seemed to wink in the dim light coming from the rainy window. It made his skin quiver to look at it, just like that Ring always did. He dragged his gaze away from the thing, but he still felt like it was staring at the back of his head as he walked by.

All of those Millennium Items were creepy, he thought, except maybe for Yugi's puzzle. Besides Marik and Bakura, he remembered that weird guy Shadi with his ankh-shaped Millennium Key, and who could forget Pegasus and his evil Eye! Thinking of that, he paused with his hand on the doorknob.

"Yeah, that's right," he said aloud. "You said the pharaoh in your world has that Eye, didn't you? Instead of the Puzzle like Yugi has. I don't know how things are in your world, Seth, but I can tell you, the only guy I ever knew with a golden Eye like that was a real creep! For all I know, Bakura could be right about your pharaoh. But then again, I thought the pharaoh in your time was a guy like Yugi, so, who knows? Maybe your king is a real prince, or maybe in your reality Bakura is one of the good guys. I guess anything's possible." Considering how this day had changed his view of reality, he could believe almost anything now.

Seth turned to glare at him. Jonouchi wasn't sure if he just couldn't stand to hear a word said against his king or if it was the idea of Yugi being pharaoh that made him look so sour.

"You believe the raving of a thief?" Seth sneered. "Bakura hates Akunadin because as Pharaoh he has not been merciful to thieves and criminals, and rules firmly with the rightness of Ma'at. But Pharaoh has treated me like a son, when I had no father of my own to guide me. You invite the wrath of the gods when you speak ill of Pharaoh Akunadin!"

"Sorry, no offense meant," Jonouchi said quickly. Seth made a haughty sound and turned away again.

"Like a son, huh?" Jonouchi added thoughtfully. Seth was enough like Kaiba that this didn't impress him a lot. In fact, it brought the image of another familiar father-figure into his mind. "I sure hope you picked a better foster father than Seto Kaiba got stuck with, then," he muttered.

Seth didn't seem to catch that, but it was just as well because Jonouchi didn't feel like trying to explain it all. Thinking about it only made him want to go and see how Kaiba was doing even more than before. But it seemed like an awkward way to leave things, considering what had just happened between them. He paused with the door half opened and turned around.

"Hey, Seth," he said. He didn't know what else to say, so he just stood there when Seth turned to him again. The angry glare of a moment ago was gone, and he looked at Jonouchi with his clear, direct gaze.

"Jonouchi," Seth said, pronouncing his name very carefully this time, and then adding a little, formal nod of his head. It looked as if he was finally ready to acknowledge that he was really Jonouchi and not Jumoke.

And, Jonouchi thought, this priest standing there, looking so regal and cool all decked out in his blue and white and gold robes -- he wasn't Seto Kaiba, either.

"Yeah," Jonouchi said. He nodded to Seth as well, and then turned away and went to find Kaiba.

---

Bakura caught Ryou as the boy's suddenly cool body slumped against him, and held on to keep him from sliding right down into the water. Alarmed, he held Ryou's face up and searched it for signs of life. Ryou's eyelids fluttered, and Bakura could see the rhythm of his life's pulse beat in his throat, but he didn't wake up. His skin had gone cold although his face still seemed flushed. Something more than a lover's swoon that had taken him, he realized. He had to get Ryou out of the water.

It was awkward, but his concern for Ryou aided him as he stood and lifted the limp body up in his arms, and then stepped out of the tub. He stood there for a moment, uncertain, both of them dripping puddles on the floor.

"Ryou?" he spoke in the boy's ear, then laid his lips against Ryou's cheek. His face was starting to turn pale, although he moaned a little and his breath came out in little puffs of air.

He caught a muttered word, and realized he'd also heard it from Ryou's lips a moment before he'd fainted, a word in the boy's own language that he hadn't recognized. Now it somehow echoed in his mind and he realized what it meant.

"The Ring?" he said wonderingly.

He suddenly recalled Ryou's words when he'd first appeared at the door of Jonouchi's friend, when he'd spoken of some strange weakness and the spirit that had protected him. Frowning, Bakura headed for Ryou's bedroom where they'd left both of the golden Rings.

He managed to get the thick covering on Ryou's bed over him, as his damp skin was rapidly growing even colder. Then, gingerly and with a grimace, he picked up Ryou's Ring by its cord and placed it in his cool hands. Then he sat back on his heels beside the bed, brushing Ryou's wet hair aside from his face, and waited. He didn't know what else to do.

Ryou murmured a few words in Bakura's language, while his eyes seemed to search under his closed lids. Bakura leaned closer, but he only heard "gold," "Pharaoh" and "magic;" the rest was too softly spoken to make out. Then he said his own word for Ring again, and another heartbeat later, a soft flush began to return to his white skin.

Leaning forward, Bakura reached a cautious hand to touch Ryou's skin, on his throat where the life blood flowed under delicate skin. Just then, the Ring in Ryou's hands flashed briefly. The thief started back and stared at it as his own heart began to pound. A second later, when the Ring showed no other sign, he turned his gaze back to Ryou's face, to find the brown eyes open and staring at him - except now there was a strange crimson fire in their depths.

"What has happened?" he asked sharply.

"Ah, the sound of the ancient tongue," said a voice from Ryou's mouth, speaking softly in Bakura's own language. Ryou's mouth smiled. "How nice to hear it spoken again, after it has only been an echo in my mind for so long."

"What are you?" Bakura demanded.

"I am known to these people as the Spirit of the Millennium Ring," said the voice, and the crimson eyes narrowed.

"You are the spirit Ryou spoke of - you are myself," Bakura said wonderingly. "My real Double!"

"I am a smarter version of you, evidently," the other Bakura said sharply. "You idiot! Can't you see that you're killing him? His will is considerable, but even his strength is no match for whatever magic brought you here. I've given him my own energy to keep him alive, and I will continue to do so, but his body grows weaker by the moment even so."

The thief drew back in alarm. "My presence is causing this harm to Ryou?"

"Obviously!" the spirit snapped, but then he smiled. It gave the thief a chill down his spine to see his own grim smile on Ryou's lovely face. "However, I must thank you as well. Through you, I have been able to feel my host's touch at least a little, which I have longed to do. And more than that, I have discovered thoughts in his mind that he has managed to keep hidden from me until now, and feelings that I never expected him to have for me. I have tolerated your desire for him because of this, even though it's obvious there is someone else you want even more."

The thief scowled back at the spirit. "If you speak of Seth..."

"Oh, don't bother to deny it, 'Prince of Thieves!' I know that's what your lover the priest calls you. Through my host's thoughts I've learned a great deal of what's been going on since you arrived here. If you search your heart, you'll find that your desire for my host is not entirely your own, while your love for that fool of a priest is real."

Bakura scowled hard at the spirit, unsettled by his words and by how much he seemed to know. He was not at all willing to do as his Double suggested and examine his feelings for Seth. Instead, he turned his discomfort around on the spirit.

"You call this boy your host? Is that all you think of him? What kind of parasite are you, spirit?" he snarled.

The other Bakura's eyes gleamed like red coals.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," he snapped. "I am keeping him alive, while it is your presence here that drains the life force from him."

The thief stared at him in alarm, but the other Bakura's expression became serious.

"No matter what happens to him, I won't be destroyed, and eventually I would find a new host," the spirit said, softly, as if he was speaking only to himself. "But this one, Ryou, has become ... important to me. And now that I know how he feels.... It may be foolish of me, but I find I'm no longer willing to sacrifice him, possibly not even to obtain the goal that has been my only reason for existing these three thousand years. But I can only give him so much of the dark power at my disposal without causing him even greater harm."

He turned his sharp gaze on the thief again. "That is why you must take Ryou to find Seth and the one called Yugi, and find the answer to this puzzle, because if you stay here any longer, both Ryou and Seto Kaiba will die. And then, I fear," he continued, though his grin didn't look like he was afraid at all, "whatever evil it is that drains their lives will continue to drain yours, until both Priest and Thief have vanished as well."

Bakura hid the worry in his heart and leaned toward Ryou. "You must tell me more! How did we come to be here? Why is your - my - spirit trapped in that evil Ring?"

The dark spirit regarded him for a moment. "I do not know all the answers myself, unfortunately," he said in a quieter voice. "Perhaps the tale of our lives is too different for me to guess. Ryou seems to have glimpsed some of your memories of the past, but where I remember certain events from my childhood all too well, I see that you have no memory at all of yours.

"When you find the way to return to your own time, I would urge you to seek for the seventh Millennium Item - the Puzzle. If it exists in your time, it may hold the key to many mysteries. If our histories are the same, you may discover a far better reason to despise the Pharaoh than just because he stole your lover away from you. But if our pasts are different, and if you were not present at the moment they were made, then you have given me a glimpse of another reality, and of how I might have been..."

He trailed off, looking beyond Bakura with a strange expression in his smoldering eyes.

"You speak in the riddles of an oracle," the thief said.

He scowled at the spirit, disturbed and confused by all he was hearing, especially his last few words. Did he mean to say that he knew the secret of the making of the Royal Items? Bakura looked down at the Ring again, with the odd sense of unease he always felt in the presence of those Items. He saw that its light had grown dim, and then he noticed that the crimson eyes had closed as well.

"Spirit? Ryou?"

Cautiously, he leaned over again, reaching out to the still body. His fingers touched cool skin, and for a moment he didn't feel the beat of a heart. Then he felt a soft flutter of life under his fingers. He heard a sigh, and the body stirred. Ryou turned to him and opened sleepy brown eyes.

"Oh dear," he said with a weak smile. "I did faint after all, didn't I? I shouldn't have made the bath so hot. I'm sorry!"

Bakura stared at him, realizing that he must not remember anything of the spirit's visit. But just as the other Bakura had hinted, Ryou's strength was returning, although he still looked pale and limp. He debated whether he should tell Ryou what the spirit had said. He didn't wish to, but how else could he explain that they needed to find Ryou's friends and Seth?

While he debated with himself and tried to decide what to say, Ryou noticed the Ring lying in his hands. He ran his fingers over its golden curves with a strange smile, then looked up at Seth curiously.

"Did you put this here?" he asked.

Bakura nodded. "You asked for it, and it - it seems to have given you strength. But I am worried, now. Ryou, the spirit of your Ring spoke to me."

Ryou's eyes grew wide, but Bakura couldn't decide if there was fear or hope, or something else in them.

"You are in danger, and so is this other man, this Kaiba you spoke of earlier. This - other me, he says that our presence here, mine and Seth's, is draining your Ba - your life energy. He said that Seth and I must find a way to return to our own time as quickly as possible."

"Oh! You mean, he said you're the danger that he warned me about?"

"Apparently." Bakura frowned, and he could see Ryou wondering the same thing that he wondered: if that was true, why where they here at all, and what did Jumoke's warning have to do with all of this?

"I am reluctant to say this, but he said I must bring you to your friends. I don't know how to find them. Are you strong enough to show me the way?"

Ryou blinked at him in surprise, then nodded. "I think so. I feel quite normal now," he said as he started to sit up, then he paused. "Well, nearly normal. Now that you mention it, I do still feel a little odd."

Bakura reached over and put his hand behind Ryou's shoulder to help him sit up. His skin was warm again, and soft as silk, and the wet strands of his hair fell over Bakura's arm. Ryou looked up at him with his soft brown eyes and smiled. At first Ryou he simply seemed grateful for the help, and then something else came into his eyes, like a deeper warmth.

"I am sorry," he said softly, as he leaned into Bakura's arms. "We didn't get to finish our bath."

Bakura drew him in and pressed his lips to Ryou's forehead. "I am sorry as well," he said.

But he was less disappointed than he expected to be. His desire for Ryou had cooled, and now he could tell that what the spirit had said was true. It was as if someone else's need had driven him to want Ryou as he did before. Now, even though the pretty one was still wonderfully warm and inviting in his arms, he was only filled with concern for him.

Then he remembered that the spirit had also warned him that this curse would eventually threaten Seth as well. He closed his eyes, pressing his face into Ryou's hair, and remembered the fear he'd felt and tried to ignore when Jumoke had warned him that Seth was in danger. He knew that was really why he'd kept the Ring even though he dreaded to touch it.

"Come," he said, pulling away from Ryou. "I'll help you dress, and then you must show me the way back to Seth."

---

Jonouchi got a little lost before he finally found his way back to the corridor with Kaiba's room. As he came in sight of it, Mokuba came out of the room and carefully closed the door behind him.

"Hey, Mokuba," he said, dropping his voice after the first word when Mokuba quickly turned and put his finger to his lips. "Sorry, didn't mean to shout. What's happening? Any change, for the better I hope?"

Mokuba shook his head. "No, not really. The doctors just kicked me out. They're running some more tests. They said it will be a while before he can have any visitors. Sorry!"

"Yeah," Jonouchi said. "Me too. Well, at least he's still hanging in there, right?"

"Yeah." Mokuba didn't sound very enthusiastic.

"Come on, we'll figure something out, and you know Kaiba's no quitter. He won't let whatever this is get the best of him! He still has to come back and try to beat Yugi again, and you know he's not ever going to give up on that!"

Mokuba looked up at him with an odd expression. "You know, this is a lot like that time after he lost to Yugi, only it's different. He won the last duel he played, but he keeps replaying it, over and over again. At first I thought that was why he collapsed, because he hardly gets any rest and he never eats. He just keeps replaying that last duel."

"That's weird. I mean, if he won, what's he worried about? Who'd he beat last time, anyway?" Jonouchi tried to think of any tournaments or duels he'd heard of since Battle City, but it had only been a few weeks and he couldn't think of any events that Kaiba would have bothered with. Mokuba's expression got even odder.

"The last time he dueled was with you, Jonouchi," he said. "Don't you remember?"

"Me?" It took a second, but he did remember that last duel very well. He just didn't expect Kaiba would ever give it a second thought. "You're kidding!"

"Nope. It's been all he's thought about ever since then. We were supposed to leave for America ages ago, but he couldn't drag himself away from his computer simulation of that duel long enough to make the arrangements."

Mokuba cocked his head and fixed Jonouchi with a look that was just short of a glare.

"Did something happen during that duel? I've never seen him like this before. And after he collapsed, he keeps saying your name, only sometimes it sounds funny."

"Yeah. Jumoke, right? That's because of Seth. It's complicated. I have no idea why he's obsessed with our last duel, though, Mokuba. I got control of his Blue Eyes, but he won in the end, so I don't know what's bothering him about it. This thing that's happened to him now, I don't see how it could have anything to do with that, anyway."

"Well...." Mokuba said doubtfully. After a few seconds, he shrugged. "I don't really care, just as long as he gets better soon."

For a moment, Jonouchi forgot all about Seth and his own problems. Mokuba looked miserable, and Jonouchi realized he was trying to hide just how scared he really was.

"Mokuba, he'll pull through! I'm sure of it!"

He's got to, he thought. I can't imagine the world without Seto Kaiba in it, either, and I don't want to.

Mokuba put on a brave face and managed to smile up at him. "Yeah, I know," he said. "Anyway, I have to go do some stuff while the doctors are busy with him."

Jonouchi guessed immediately what kind of "stuff" Mokuba needed to do. It probably involved running KaibaCorp himself and keeping the media from finding out that the CEO had collapsed with some mysterious illness.

"You'll all stay here as long as it takes, won't you?" Mokuba said. "I had a room fixed up for you and Yugi, and one for Seth, too. Here..."

He led Jonouchi to a door next to Kaiba's room. Inside there were two beds, plus chairs, a table, and a big screen TV. Another door led to a private bath.

"Jeeze, Mokuba," he started to say.

"Yugi agreed to stay already. He's downstairs, getting something to eat. You should go and eat, too. Just ask the cook for whatever you want, okay?"

"Yeah, sure..."

Mokuba nodded and smiled at him gratefully, then turned away to go deal with his "stuff." He only got a few steps away before he stopped and turned back.

"Oh, by the way," he said, "Anzu called here a while ago and spoke to Yugi. She said they haven't found that other guy, but they're going to go back out and look again after the rain lets up."

He took off on his own business before Jonouchi could think of a response to that. Jonouchi watched him go, then went in and sat on one of the beds with a "whoosh."

"Man, getting something to eat sounds like a good idea. I should go do that, I guess. And a shower and maybe a nap sound good too."

But what he really wanted to do was to get in and see how Kaiba was doing with his own eyes. He could just hear the faint sound of voices through the wall, so the doctors must still be in there with him.

"Damn."

He flopped onto his back on the bed. "Hang in there, Seto Kaiba, you dumb ass. Because I've got something to say to you when you get better. Whether you want to hear it or not."

Jonouchi closed his eyes to try to imagine just how he was going to say what he felt. He knew it was probably pointless; it would just get him another good kick in the head. But he had to say something, now that he knew. If he could just figure how to put it, maybe at least Kaiba wouldn't keel over and die laughing at him.

"What would Jumoke say?" he muttered. "Would really impress Kaiba if I walked in and said 'I love you' in old Egyptian, wouldn't it!"

With that absurd thought and those words in the ancient language echoing in his mind, he suddenly fell asleep.

---

Kaiba didn't know when the doctors finally left. Just before he'd fallen into another faint, he began to realize they were more interested in studying his mysterious illness than in curing it. Unfortunately, threatening them in ancient Egyptian didn't quite have the effect he wanted.

When he managed to focus on the room again some time later they were gone, but they'd left him attached to various machines that bleeped and hummed in a depressing way. Wires trailed from his head, chest, and arms, taped or clipped to his skin. He tried to get a look at the information they were recording, but the screens were all turned away from his view and just out of reach. It was too much effort to climb out of bed and look at them. The energy it took to simply raise his hands to make sure they hadn't shaved any hair off his scalp was enough to wear his arms out.

It took him several seconds to realize that the doctors had been replaced by the one person he wanted to see even less. Being sick was bad enough, and going crazy would have been even worse, but the worst thing of all was that he knew he wasn't crazy when he saw his ancient Egyptian look-alike standing there next to his bed.

Seth looked down at him as mournfully as if he was already dead, but his eyes shifted away quickly when he realized Kaiba was awake and staring back at him.

"Forgive me for disturbing your rest, but I must speak with you, Seto-Kaiba," he said solemnly. "Although I fear my words may cause you even more distress," he added with another quick, guilty glance.

Kaiba closed his eyes and sank back against his stack of pillows. He couldn't imagine what Seth could have to say to him, or how it could be any more disturbing than anything else that had happened so far this day. Unfortunately, at the moment he didn't have the strength to tell him to get lost, so he was just going to have to listen whether he liked what he heard or not.

---

To be continued...

Next: Jonouchi has more weird dreams, while Seth discusses lovers past and present with Kaiba.