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cartoonus-maximus · 6 years ago

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Okay, so this is an unfinished story I found while digging through some of my older files. I was in high school when I wrote this, and I think it really shows in a lot of ways.

It was a YGO vampire au, with tones of found families and some light puzzleshipping, tendershipping, and bronzeshipping. There’s a fair amount of OOC-ness, but I don’t think it’s any worse than the majority of fanfics written by younger authors.

Anyway, here’s the unedited snippets of the story if anyone wants to see some of my earlier writing. (Or get inspired for your own vampire aus. No judgement here.)

“Blood-Brothers” circa 2012? I dunno, but I was in high school.

Atem, Bakura, and Malik are vampires, while Yugi, Ryo, and Mariku are their donors. These three blood-suckers are not just friends – they are also blood-brothers, vampires who were all sired by the same creature, Gozoburo.

idea for later: Seto was pursuing Gozoburo and finally found him after he'd already killed a younger couple. Seto summons Atem, Bakura, and Malik, and the four of them successfully kill their sire. Afterwards, the dead couple's child, Mokuba, is found, and Seto takes the boy home with him to Kaiba corp.

Prologue:

Long ago, in a place now known as Ancient Egypt, there was a man. This man was named Gozaburo, and he is important to the story because he has always had a bad habit of kidnapping and killing people.

This is his nature, for he is a vampire.

Once, back in the days of Egypt's great rule, there were four boys who fell victim to him. They were the royal prince, Atem; his cousin, the priest-in-training, Seto; the runaway slave, Malik; and the orphaned thief, Bakura.

But these children were not to be eaten and killed by Gozaburo. No, Fate had something special in store for those four boys.

Over the course of time, Gozaburo forgot about the children who's lives he had destroyed, and the four boys were on their own to live their lives as best they could.

One, by name of Seto, went his own way, not desiring to be too close to anyone else, but the other three stuck together, calling themselves 'brothers in blood.' These three blood-brothers were named Atem, Bakura, and Malik.

And they have one goal that they wish to accomplish: to track down and destroy their sire.

Many centuries have past since their story began. And now is the time to complete their journey.

Chapter 1: “Drinking Party”

Malik perched comfortably on the side of a building, occasionally sticking his nose up and sniffing the air. @#$%! Why did he have to be so @#$% weak that he couldn't he get the scent?

It had been two weeks since he and his blood-brothers had left their previous location in the Middle East in search of their quarry, and three days since they had come to the small city of Japan called Domino.

Two long, strenuous weeks during which Malik hadn't had anything to eat... anyone to eat. Oh sure, occasionally Bakura would sneak on ahead, claiming that he was scouting the area when he was probably only drinking a 'Bloody Mary' as he called his pretty little victims, but Malik couldn't sneak away. Atem would always notice and call him back, needing to borrow the strength of his brother. Malik, being vicious but loyal to a fault, was always more than happy to lend his strength to the other, even though he was quickly starving.

Wasting away to nothing, that's what he was doing. He would starve, and wither away to a pile of ashes and die. But, then who would take care of Atem...? Who would remind Atem to feed regularly? Oh forget it; Bakura would take care of him. Bakura could always needle Atem into listening to him, the silver-haired and silver-tongued devil. Brother Baku would...

“Nothing?”

Coming out of his thoughts, Malik flexed his wings slightly and craned his neck to look at his blood-brother who stood just on the ledge of the building's roof above him. “Not a single thing, Atem. With so many scents in the air, I can't distinguish his from the rest!”

Atem frowned as he looked down at the claws on his hands, as he were considering getting them polished. “I'm still unclear as to why he wanted us to follow him. Why has he led us on like this? Ever since he turned us all those centuries ago, our sire has played us in a constant game of cat and mouse. Toying with us, messing with us...”

He shook his head. “Gozaburo must be stopped. He has taken too many lives already, and I am not going to stand by and watch him destroy any more.”

Malik watched as his blood-brother walked away from the ledge. With a tired sigh, he turned to follow. Why did he have to be so loyal?

“Do you suppose Bakura has found us a meal yet?” Malik asked hungrily.

Atem shrugged silently, his mind on other matters.

'Prince Brother Atem must be really, really hungry!' Malik thought to himself. Atem had some strange ethical dilemna that seemed to prevent him from drinking human blood. He would deprive himself of the life-giving liquid for many weeks, sometimes months, at a time, to the point when he became extremely weak and was on the verge of death. Whenever that happened, either Bakura or Malik would bring him a human, often an evil one, and push the mortal against him.

When they did this, Atem seemed to lose his mind, becoming even crazier than Malik was. It was scary to see the cool and collected Atem completely lose it like that, but it seemed to happen very frequently... every few years or so.

The two vampires went back inside the building they stood on top of. Since the building was abandoned, they had moved in and made themselves very comfortable, claiming certain rooms as their own personal territory and setting up their resting places. Being Egyptian vampires, they each slept in a sarcophagus, not a coffin.

They were soon joined by their third blood-brother, the one known as Bakura. He came 'bearing food...' that is, he was carrying three humans in his arms.

The humans had a sort of glassy-eyed, hazy look to them, since Bakura had put them under a trance to keep them from struggling, but that look left their faces the instant Bakura dropped them to the floor.

“Where did you get them?” Atem asked with a slight shudder for what he knew he was about to do.

“I took them from the prison, after reading their personal records. They are each wanted for murder, rape, and the like.” Bakura grabbed one of the frightened humans by the hair, looking on in disgust while the man began screaming and cursing in Japanese. “They are to be executed in the morning anyway, so I thought we could at least put them to good use!”

Throwing the man he held (who was rather a large man) away to the salivating Malik and ignoring the immediate bloodbath that occurred, Bakura reached for another. “Oh, here's one you'll like, my prince! As I recall from his record, he took advantage of a small girl and then beat her to death with a brick and stuck her remains in the freezer! I think he sounds perfectly delightful!”

Atem felt his muscles tense and become hot as he lunged at the man angrily. “Is this true?!”

The man stared up at Atem's face, too scared to form words with him mouth.

“@#$%! Do you have no heart?! Do you have no shame?!” Enraged and hungry, Atem lost all control of his instincts and his body. He sank his fangs into the man's neck and began to claw, tear, and drink away all of the man's life.

When Atem woke up many hours later, he found that he was covered in blood. Malik and Bakura each lay nearby in similar states; Bakura was sitting up and licking the blood off of his arms in a cat-like manner, while Malik was still asleep, a human femur clutched between his teeth.

“I see the prince is awake and ready to start the night,” Bakura teased him. “Admit it, you feel better now that you've eaten again.”

Atem sighed. It was true, he felt better right now than he had felt for the past three months. If he intended to continue his manhunt of Gozaburo, he really would need to drink blood more regularly... as much as he detested the notion.

He looked around, realizing that there was nothing left of their victims aside from the pile of bones that surrounded Malik. “Bakura, where are the remains?”

“Well, I drank my fill and then gave the rest of him to Malik, who practically swallowed him whole, the poor, starving devil.” Bakura cocked an eyebrow at his blood-brother in an amused fashion. “You were so enraged and so ravenous, you single-handedly devoured the entirety of that one I brought specially for you. Blood, bones, muscles, organs... It was most impressive, I assure you.”

Atem began to shudder and he felt sick.

“Oh, it's not the end of the world, Atem,” Bakura told him, almost as if trying to give his brother comfort. “We all do it at some point or other... In fact, you've done that sort of thing more than any of the rest of us.”

When he got no answer, Bakura sighed. “Listen, my brother... I don't really understand this feeling of guilt that you often have after feeding, but I'm not going to argue with you about it. But, if it makes you feel better, he deserved it. His victims are all avenged... just like we will be when we find Gozaburo.”

Atem nodded and looked away. After a minute, he slowly stood up.

“I am going to clean myself off,” he explained when Bakura looked at him, an unspoken question in his red eyes. “And then, I'm going to go search some more.”

Chapter 2: “Shadows and Games”

Atem flew through the night air, his powerful wings beating rapidly, his sharp nose smelling the air almost frantically. Still nothing.

Not Gozaburo, his sire, and not Seto, his cousin. Where were they? Where could they possibly be?

He searched all around Domino all night, but he found nothing.

No scent. No trace. Nothing. Just nothing...

Heaving a sigh, the exhausted vampire landed in an alley behind a shop. He would just rest for a few minutes, he told himself. They sun would be up in an hour or two, and he would need to get back to his sarcophagus before that happened.

“I'll see you later, 'Jii-chan!”

Atem looked up with some surprise when a person stepped through a side door of the shop out into the alley. It was a boy, probably in his early teens. He wore the uniform of one of the local high schools, and he was carrying a bag full of trash, clearly intended for the trash can that Atem was perched on. And he smelled really, really good...

Atem felt his feeding frenzy coming on again.

The boy opened his mouth to scream, but fell silent when the vampire lunged at him.

“Sssh!” Atem hissed, pressing his hand over the boy's mouth. After a moment, he removed his hand, and was greeted by a torrent of Japanese from the boy's mouth.

“Who are you?! What are you doing here?! You're not going to hurt me, are you? Are you?!”

'His voice sounds nice,' Atem thought to himself, grabbing the boy and pulling him into a tight and sudden embrace. 'Rather gentle, and innocent, and childish...'

The boy let out a small yelp as the vampire sunk his fangs into the skin of his soft, tender neck. Atem sucked at the blood, drinking deeply.

Atem felt the boy relax against him, as many of his victims did in response to his bites. Something to do with vampire's fangs having a paralyzing affect, or something like that. So long as he didn't claw or tear the boy's skin, he knew that the child would remain quiet and peaceful like this.

His blood tasted so sweet and heavenly! Not like those criminals that Bakura always brought home... this taste was wonderful, and it felt oh so good...!

Atem forced his mouth away when he heard the boy whimper. Had he hurt him? He honestly hadn't meant to. He was just... still kind of hungry... and the boy looked so sweet...

“Are you alright, little one?”

The boy stared up at the vampire, his eyes a little glazed over, but fear still existing in them.

Atem sighed. There was that accursed conscience again! Why did he need to feel guilt like this? Why did he have to have a heart?

He petted the boy's hair softly, trying to comfort him, as he licked at the wound to close it up. “I am sorry, little one.”

The boy stared up at him, his face somewhere between fear and wonder. “I've never heard of a vampire who apologized for biting someone before...” His violet eyes widened suddenly. “You bit me! Does that mean... am I dead? Am I going to become a vampire like you are?!”

Atem couldn't help but chuckle at the boy's innocence. “No, little one. You are still very much alive. I did not deplete you of your blood; I only took a little bit of it. No, you are still a human, young one.”

“Oh, good!” The boy smiled. Atem couldn't help but notice how endearing his smile was. “If I died, who would help 'Jii-chan with the Game Shop?!”

“Game shop...?” Craning his neck, Atem looked at the sign above the shop door, noticing it for the first time. His understanding of the Japanese language was rudimentary at best, but he could read the word 'game' now that he examined it closer.

“Yes! Grandpa runs the Kame Game Shop, and I help!”

He smiled gently at the boy, who was jumping up and down in excitement. “Do you now?”

“Oh, yes! And I love it! I love playing games! More than anything else in the world, actually!” The boy giggled. “My teachers all say that I should focus more on my homework, rather than playing games, but I don't care what they say! They're all a bunch of bullies anyway!”

Atem openly laughed at the boy's eagerness. “What is your name, little one?”

The boy looked up him shyly. “I'm Motou Yugi. You can call me Yugi if you like.”

“Well, Yugi, my name is Atem, and I would like to thank you for letting me rest here for a bit. I would love to stay here and talk with you some more, but I really must be going home.”

Yugi pouted in disappointment. He didn't have any friends in school and, considering how nice this vampire seemed to be, he was very much enjoying Atem's company. He brightened quickly, though. “Would you come back and visit me tonight? 'Jii-chan will be in bed, snoring! We can play games together!”

Atem chuckled slightly. “I … would like that. Alright, Yugi, I'll come back tonight.” He then flexed out his wings, took a running start down the alley, and was up in the air and gone within mere moments.

Yugi smiled broadly, glad to have made a friend. Even if it was a vampire who had just bitten him.

Chapter 3: “Playing Games and Telling Stories”

True to his word, Atem returned later that night. While he knew that he should be searching for his cousin some more, he had promised to visit the boy and he never went back on his word.

Besides, a part of him wanted to see this boy again; the young one seemed to love games, even as much as Atem did, and he was willing to forgo sleep to stay awake and play games with a vampire.

Atem landed lightly on the roof above the shop, peering in through a window that was wide open and had lights on inside it.

“I've returned, little one.”

Yugi looked up from a puzzle he was fiddling with, smiling and eagerly throwing the pieces he was holding to the floor. “Oh, good! I was getting sick of this puzzle! I could be working on it for a millennium and I still wouldn't get it!”

Folding his wings in as close to his body as he could, Atem slid through the small window, temporarily losing his balance and landing upside-down on Yugi's bed.

Yugi laughed quietly, then rushed over to help the vampire to his feet. Soon both of them were settled on the floor facing one another, sorting through a variety of games that were stashed beneath the boy's bed. Monster World, Dungeon Dice Monsters, Duel Monsters, Capsule Monsters, and a variety of others were hidden under there somewhere.

“You seem to like games with monsters, little one,” Atem remarked. “Do you have a favorite that you wish to play tonight?”

“I like Duel Monsters, but I don't really care what we play.” Yugi smiled shyly. “I'm just glad that someone wants to play a game with me...”

“Don't you have any friends at school who enjoy playing games?”

“... no.”

Atem felt his red eyes widen as he turned to stare at Yugi, completely forgetting the cards he had been shuffling. “None of your friends enjoy playing games, you mean? I know my brothers get bored with the games I play with them very quickly, but – ”

“That's not the problem. I just... don't have any friends.”

The vampire stared, wondering how such a caring young boy could not have any friends. He shook his head and placed a smile on his face, hoping it looked friendly and inviting enough. “Well, Yugi, why don't you and I be friends? I could use the distraction of games to keep my sanity, and my brothers are seldom very helpful in that regard.”

Yugi beamed up at the vampire, apparently pleased with that idea.

Long, strategic hours passed, and the two game-players hardly noticed. They played game after game, talking and laughing and beating one another and having a wonderful time.

“You mentioned having brothers,” Yugi said, finally feeling comfortable enough to ask the vampire questions.

“Well, we aren't really related, but that's what we call each other.” Atem stared off into space for a minute, wondering how best to explain it. “We were not born brothers, but Fate chose to throw the three of us together anyway. My blood-brothers – Malik and Bakura – and I, as well as my cousin, were all taken captive by a strange man. He disguised himself as a friend of my father's, but nothing could be further from the truth.”

Putting the Monster World figures back into their box, Yugi moved so that he was sitting beside Atem, listening to the story intently. Atem wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders, holding the child flush against himself. Yugi snuggled against him comfortably.

“As it turned out, the man was really a vampire, and an enemy of my family and our country. We lived in Egypt, you see, back when it was a thriving nation and considered to be the heart of civilization. This man believed that if he could gain control of Egypt, then he could gain control of the world.

“He kidnapped three young boys, planning to turn them into vampires and force them to destroy their own homeland – a thief, a runaway slave, the prince, and a priest-in-training. He bit us all and turned us into vampires... except for my cousin, the priest-in-training. My cousin fought so much and he was so strong, that the vampire only managed to half-turn him, and he became a half-vampire.

“No matter what the man tried, though, he couldn't control any of us. We fought against him and betrayed him every chance we could. Eventually, we all escaped him.”

Atem sighed and smiled dryly at Yugi, who was staring up at him in fascination. “It's a very long story about what happened after that, but the short version is that my brothers and I have chased our sire all the way to Japan, and that we intend to find him and kill him for the acts of horror and the crimes that he's committed. Also, we know that my cousin is somewhere around here, and I would like to find him.”

Yugi was tilting his head back and looking up at the Egyptian vampire with evident interest. “So, you just spend all your time searching for these two people? That sounds boring... But, I suppose I would do the same if I had any missing family members. I just have 'Jii-chan, and he's always around.”

Atem noticed that Yugi was starting to yawn, and the boy was having difficulty keeping his eyes open. “It's late, and you are tired. I should be going, little one.”

“I'm not tired,” the boy argued, ruining his statement by yawning halfway through.

The vampire chuckled, very much amused by the human youth. “Yugi, I really do need to be going, and you need to be getting to bed – it's not good for your kind to spend so many hours awake and so few asleep.”

The boy crossed his arms, trying to scowl and failing miserably. “But I don't want to! I want to stay up and play more games with you!”

Atem sighed good-humoredly. “Get some rest, little one. I promise that I will come visit you again some other night.”

Yugi frowned, but finally nodded, climbing into bed just as soon as the vampire had left.

Yugi snuggled down under the blankets, a smile on his face. He had made a friend, one who enjoyed playing games just as much as he did, who was willing to come back and spend time with him again.

Chapter 4:

(Atem will start feeding off of Yugi, and they will make it a permanent arrangement.)

Atem kept his promise, and he came to visit Yugi the following night, as well as the night after that. Soon, he was spending every night playing games with the small mortal, each one enjoying the company of the other.

Bakura and Malik would often tease Atem, making fun of him for befriending a human child. But he only smiled and ignored them. Even on the nights when the three of them were supposed to be out hunting for prey, Atem couldn't prevent himself from going to visit with Yugi instead.

This was no small concern for the other two.

“You can't just starve yourself, Atem,” Bakura told him one night, catching him before he went out the window. “Look, you're malnourished enough as it is! Leave the boy alone for one night and come hunting with us.”

The other paused, then shook his head. “I can't, Bakura. He already spends all day alone, with no form of companionship aside from his grandfather, and I can't bear the thought of him being alone all night, too!”

Bakura's face darkened considerably, and when he spoke again his voice came out in a disgusted hiss. “Fine! Then go play with your little toy, and don't come running to me when you die from lack of nourishment!”

With that he turned and stalked off, leaving Atem to sit on the windowsill watching after him. Malik, who had been sitting on the floor nearby the entire time, sighed loudly and rolled his eyes.

“Looks like you made Bakura mad,” Malik commented.

“Bakura's always mad! He'll get over it!”

The other vampire looked over to gaze at Atem curiously. “What is it about this boy exactly that compels you to go visit him every night? To the point where you will refuse to come hunting with us?”

Atem froze on the window ledge for a moment, staring off into space uncertainly. “I... I do not know.”

But, he was so hungry...!

Before Atem knew what he was doing, he had pinned Yugi down to his bed, his red eyes gazing at the boy's neck and nowhere else. His eyes and nostrils were filled with the view of Yugi's pulsing veins, the scent of his blood, his mind filled with nothing but the thought of tasting the boy again...

Yugi cried out in fear as the vampire's hungry mouth came in contact with his neck, teeth slicing through the tender skin and releasing his blood. But, as Atem's paralyzing ability kicked in, Yugi's eyes began to droop and he became quiet, his breath eventually started to come in short gasps.

Chapter 5:

At school a few days later, a certain Seto Kaiba will smell his cousin's scent on Yugi. He will offer to help Yugi out with his homework, acting overly friendly and being sure that he'll get his own scent on the boy, and even stopping by the Kame Game Shop after school. He will purposefully leave a trail of his scent behind him as he heads back towards his own hideout, but will make the scent stop after awhile, so that Atem will only be able to follow for a little ways. Atem will come to visit Yugi again that night, smelling his cousin, and taking off to find him.

Chapter 6: “Blood Rush”

Atem frowned. He'd had Seto's trail! He'd had him... but now it was gone again. Why did his cousin have to be so good at covering his tracks! Seto was almost as good at it as their sire was – a disturbing thought.

The Egyptian vampire prince put his nose in the air again, breathing deeply and searchingly.

Malik was a bit unnerved; he was so used to being Atem's nose, eyes and ears. In the past, he'd often been Atem's wings and legs as well, since Atem would starve himself for such long periods and would become terribly weak. But, ever since he'd started feeding off of that human boy he'd befriended, Atem had become very strong and was more than capable of doing everything himself.

Out of the corner of his eye, Bakura could see the evident strain on Malik's face, and he cast a smirk towards his blood-brother. “Relax, Malik. The prince is a big boy now, and he doesn't need you to hold his hand anymore.”

Malik frowned, but didn't respond to his brother's joking. He was distracted by a sudden scream coming from a few streets down, his keen vampire hearing tuning into the sound with ease.

“Please... leave me alone!”

Leaping from his perch, Malik took off in the direction of the voice. “Trouble.”

“Are you @#$% kidding me?!” Bakura whined from somewhere behind him. “Are we @#$% heroes now?!”

Soon all three vampires could plainly see the source of the commotion: a young boy with long, white hair had been cornered in an alley by a group of thugs. The boy held a knife in his hand, but he clearly didn't have the confidence or will to use it, and he wouldn't last in an actual fight.

“Just leave me alone...” the boy whimpered pitifully. “... please...”

The thugs only laughed as they closed in on him.

A hiss on his curled-back lips, Atem swooped down at the group of thugs, clawed hands extended and grasping at the men. The other two vampires stayed back for a moment longer, just watching as their normally so subdued companion was suddenly taken over by a bloodthirsty rage.

“Why would you attack a practically defenseless boy?!” Atem asked, holding two of the thugs up in the air as he hovered for a moment. “Why do some people have to be so completely heartless?!”

The two criminals didn't give him an answer. Instead, they began to tremble and whimper every bit as much as the boy had been.

The other members of the gang tried to escape out the front of the alley, but they were cut off by Malik's broad wing span.

“Going somewhere?” Malik asked with a sneer.

One of the crooks pulled a gun out of his belt and took aim at Malik, but his hands were trembling so much that he could hardly manage to fire the shot.

Bakura laughed from his perch on the wall beside them. “I wouldn't,” he told the man with the gun. “You see, bullets don't work so well on us. It will only serve to make him mad. Tell me, mortal, have you ever seen an angry vampire?”

“Well?!” Atem yelled wrathfully at the two men he held. He let them drop to the ground, where they landed on their backs, and he swooped down to stand over one of them, pinning the man to the ground. “What do you have to say for yourselves?!”

In a sudden display of either courage or stupidity, the man replied by spitting in Atem's face, something the vampire really didn't appreciate.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Atem impulsively leaned forward, his jaw suddenly becoming hooked around the man's throat. The man let out a scream as the sharp teeth ripped into his flesh, the claws scrabbling and tearing into his back.

The thugs were still hemmed in by Malik, but they quickly realized that, while there was only one vampire, there were many of them. So, they devised a new strategy.

Bakura watched in amusement as the gang raced to attack Malik all at once. They thought that they would overpower him, since their strength was in numbers.... but Bakura knew they would learn the hard way.

Malik simply laughed at the little onslaught of humans, merely grabbing the first one that came into range and deftly biting into the man's arm, listening to the screams and drinking deeply. After a moment, he threw the empty shell to the ground, laughing and letting the blood drizzle down his face and neck, staining his shirt.

“Well then... who's next?”

“Wait, my brother!” Bakura called as he jumped down to join the feeding frenzy that was quickly taking over the alley. “Don't forget about me! I'm starving up here, and you two are having a drinking party without me!”

Atem actually laughed at his blood-brother's comment. “Well, Bakura, you're more than welcome to these lowlifes. I'm afraid I've become rather accustomed to Yugi's blood, for I haven't any longer the stomach for such disgusting garbage as these.”

Bakura was eager to stand off against one of the thugs, who drew a knife and acted as if the small sliver of metal could possibly defend him against the blood-sucker.

It was mere seconds before the human lay down before him, Bakura happily licking the man's blood off of his fingertips. Looking up and coming back out of his bloodlust, he could see that Atem was sniffing the air again, searching for Seto's trail, while Malik was drinking every drop of blood out the one body that he'd managed to keep, complaining something about his victim being 'too small and unhealthy to provide proper nourishment' or something to that affect. The remaining members of the gang had fled and were nowhere to be seen.

“Well, that takes care of them...” Bakura wiped the blood off his lips as he turned to find himself staring at the boy who's life they had just saved, who had shrunk against a wall as far away from them as possible. “Now, what have we here...?”

The silver-haired vampire began to walk towards the boy, who immediately shrank back and began to whimper and beg.

“Please... please, don't hurt me...”

A cruel comment on the tip of his tongue, Bakura managed to bite it back. The boy looked truly scared, and he certainly wouldn't help matters by opening his big fat mouth. Someone would have to come comfort the boy...

Looking around, Bakura saw that Atem was already wandering off, probably having picked up Seto's trail again and hoping against hope to find his cousin, and Malik was currently busy dealing with the remains of the bodies they'd left in their wakes. Great. That meant Bakura was the only one to take care of the boy... wonderful...

“It's okay... I'm not going to hurt you...” Taking the knife from the boy's hand, Bakura gently touched the boy on the shoulder, hoping that it was a soothing touch. He was too tired to hypnotize the boy, so he would have to do this the old-fashioned way. “It's alright, you're safe now...”

The boy stared up at him with wild eyes for a moment, tears beginning to trickle down his cheeks. Oh great, he was leaking.

“There's no need for tears, you're safe,” The vampire pulled the boy into an intimate embrace, holding him tightly. He rubbed his hands up and down the boy's back soothingly as the child cried on his shoulder. “No one is going to hurt you, I promise.”

Bakura looked the boy up and down, noting the many knife cuts that he'd received from the gang, most of which were still bleeding.

They smelled delicious...

The boy let out a small cry as the vampire began licking and sucking at all the cuts that showed on his arms and face and neck. His tongue was rough, and he wasn't at all gentle, and his grip hurt, but the boy didn't fight him.

Bakura licked his lips happily when he was finished tending to the boy's injuries; this kid's blood tasted sweet and salty, and it was so much better than any blood Bakura had ever drank before! Even the two or three mouthfuls he'd managed to lap up from the cuts were enough to make the blood-sucker feel full of energy and determination. Heck, he even felt almost... happy.

The boy was staring at him with wide chocolate-brown eyes.

“Oh, relax,” the vampire told him, being uncharacteristically sweet and gentle. Unable to prevent himself, he ruffled the boy's pale hair in a friendly fashion. “I'm not going to hurt you. Haven't you figured that out yet? What's your name, kid?”

“R-Ryou... Bakura Ryou.”

“Really? Hey, we have the same name: Bakura.” He gave another, hungry lick to a gash on Ryou's arm, then smiled at the boy sweetly. “Don't worry about those morons, they won't give you any more trouble. Here, I'll take you home, so I know you get there safely. Like a bodyguard. That's a good idea, isn't it?”

Ryou was still staring at him, as if unsure whether to be afraid or not.

Malik walked over to see what was going on, using one of his claws as a toothpick and removing a sliver of skin from between his teeth. “What's up, Baku-Baku?”

He was surprised when the nickname didn't get a rise from his normally aggressive blood-brother. Instead, Bakura threw his arms around the human boy's shoulders and almost hugged him, a strangely happy looking smile on his face.

“This is my new friend Ryou,” Bakura explained softly as he licked at a small scratch on the boy's cheek, making the poor little human look very uncomfortable. “I'm going to take him home, so no one else will hurt him, because he's so sweet and wonderful!”

Malik wasn't sure if he should laugh, cry, or scream, so he let out a strange noise that sounded like a combination of the three. “Ah.... Ryou, was it?... Did he... drink some of your blood?”

The boy nodded nervously.

This time, Malik just laughed. “Drunk! He's drunk! He's stoned on your blood! You've got him buzzin' buzzin' buzzin' like a bee with your hemoglobin! Intoxicated! Under the influence! Drunk, drunk, drunk! He's--”

“Not so loud, Malik,” Atem ordered him, appearing out of nowhere. An amused smiled passed over his face as he took in the scene before him. “Alright, well... Malik, I'm going to need you to come with me, and.... I suppose, Bakura may do whatever he wishes.”

“Don't worry,” He added when he saw the alarmed look on Ryou's face. “He won't hurt a hair on your head... certainly not in the state he's in now.”

The human boy glanced down to the vampire that was now leaning and rubbing against his shoulder, purring softly and looking very much like a contented kitten. Looking back up, he saw that the two 'sober' vampires were already flying off through the air.

Ryou sighed to himself, causing Bakura to fret and worry over him and question whether or not he had inadvertently harmed his new little pet. This was going to be the strangest night of the boy's life, and he knew it.

Chapter 7:

Atem's nostrils flared every once in a while as he sliced through the inky blackness of the night on his powerful wings. Running on a regular supply of Yugi's blood had made the vampire prince stronger than he'd been in quite some time, if not ever, and it heightened his senses considerably. Even while in the air, he could smell his cousin's tracks.

(Atem and Malik go searching for G and S, and they do find Seto, but they lose him again. Seto does allow Atem to follow him, but Malik gets lost in the middle of all the mess, while Atem and Seto manage to have a long talk. Anyhoo, Malik is left out cold behind the Egyptian Museum of Domino.)

Malik's body collapsed, his knees buckling under him, and he landed in a crumpled heap in the alley behind a large brick building.

Chapter 8: “The Vampire's New Pet”

Cries of delight filled the air as Ryou was carried through the night sky by unnaturally strong arms. He had been scared out of his wits when Bakura had first scooped him up and proceeded to carry him through the air, far above the skyline of Domino, but he had since settled into the vampire's arms and begun to enjoy himself.

“Having fun, my pet?” Bakura asked, the hiss of his voice holding a slight teasing aspect to it.

Ryou couldn't help but wonder if it was at all dangerous if a vampire started calling him pet names.

The albino boy pointed his finger down towards a particular building. “I believe that's my house down there.”

Nodding, Bakura swooped down, landing gracefully on his feet and gently setting Ryou down beside him. He followed along behind the little human boy as he began to make his way home, watching over 'his pet.' He didn't exactly feel good about leaving Ryou alone, though; for some reason that he didn't quite understand, he rather liked the boy and wanted to keep an eye on him.

And he wanted to taste more of this boy's delicious blood...

Bakura hung back as the boy went into the house, sighing as the door closed behind him. He didn't take off quite yet though, choosing to wait and watch for a few moments more, and he was glad that he did.

Soon, muffled cries were heard from inside the house. Ryou's cries. “Father, no! It's not like that, I swear!”

Snarling, the vampire jumped into the air, his powerful wings carrying him through a closed window. Shattered glass flew everywhere, zipping through the air as if confetti had been thrown into the air to announce the vampire's arrival.

Ryou was curled up on the floor in the fetal position, and an older man, presumably his father, was standing behind him and kicking him repeatedly.

Ryou was reduced to crying and whimpering again, begging his father to stop. But the man just kept beating him.

“Traitorous brat! You're nothing but a useless, worthless, piece of – oof!” The man was soon on the floor, a silver-haired vampire snarling where he had stood a moment before.

“What was it you were about to say?” Angry words were hissed out from between fangs and sneering lips. “Let me think... you were about to call your son a 'piece of @#$%,' right? I dimly remember my own father calling me that on many occasions.”

“What the—oh, @#$%!” The man on the floor cried out as he got a look at his assailant.

“What's the matter, mortal?” Bakura asked, reaching down and dragging the human man back to his feet, making direct eye contact as he held the man up in the air by the front of his shirt. “So used to bullying your wimpy son, who's so small and weak-willed that he won't fight back? Not ready to stand up to someone your own size?”

“Please, don't hurt him, Bakura!” Ryou whimpered from the floor nearby. Getting onto his hands and knees so he could crawl, the boy scuttled across the floor and latched himself onto Bakura's leg, holding onto the vampire with all his might. “He's my only family! Please, don't hurt him, Bakura! Please!”

Bakura glanced down at the boy, snarling. “Does he do this to you often, Ryou?”

The boy didn't answer right away, only clinging harder.

“Well?! Does he?!”

Looking up at the vampire, Ryou finally managed a nod.

“I'm willing to guess how often,” Bakura muttered, turning back the man he held in front of his face. “My own father used to beat me, before his rather untimely demise, and it seems like he did so... quite frequently. I'll assume you're no better, are you?”

The man barely responded, staring at Bakura and stammering out a few sentence fragments in Japanese.

Bakura hissed vehemently through his teeth. “I loathe your kind with every fiber of my being, you son of a @#$%, and nothing would make me happier than to slit your throat clean open here and now, but...”

He glanced down at the boy who still clutched at his ankles, gazing up at him with tears trailing from chocolate-brown eyes.

He sighed before continuing. “I suggest you thank your son, foolish mortal, for it's he who saved your life tonight.”

With that, Bakura dropped the man to the ground. Leaning over, he plucked Ryou from his leg and pulled the boy to his feet, wrapping his arms around the boy tenderly. “Come then, my pet. Let's look at your wounds.”

Ryou looked down at himself, noticing that his father's kicks had reopened some of his cuts from earlier, which Bakura was eying eagerly. Embarrassed and completely flustered by the entire situation, Ryou raised his left arm and allowed the vampire to lick at one of his bleeding injuries. He couldn't help but enjoy the attention that the vampire gave him though, and he ended up leaning into Bakura's arms, allowing the blood-drinker to take from him what he would.

His father stood up from the floor, taking in the scene and not liking it one bit. “What the @#$% do you think you're doing?! Encouraging a @#$% blood-sucker to feed off of you?! Next you'll be begging to become one them, coming down on your own kind and devouring them! You treacherous little--!”

“That's enough!” Bakura snapped suddenly, holding his hand up as a warning. “I thought that perhaps you'd be smart enough to change your mind about your behavior towards your son after what I said earlier, but clearly it's not enough for a mortal to be defended by a vampire only once.”

Ryou yelped as Bakura suddenly scooped him up in his arms again, as if to carry him off. Which he was intending to do, the boy quickly realized.

It only took seconds for Bakura to get out the broken window and into the air, his wings carrying the two off them into the night.

Ryou began to wail, realizing that he was being carried off and not knowing where or why.

“Don't cry, my pet,” Bakura said with an unnaturally soft voice. “I am not kidnapping you, nor do I intend to harm you in any way or form. I just...”

Stopping and hovering in the air, he looked down at the frightened boy he held in his arms. “Look. I like you, Ryou. You remind me very much of myself when I was your age... and I want you to have a better life than I did.” Sorrowfully, he locked his eyes onto Ryou's, red staring deep into brown. “I don't want you to be hurt all the time like I was. I want to protect you from the pain.”

Ryou nodded, angrily swiping at the tears on his face. So many times in his life he had been hurt by others and wished for a savior to swoop in and rescue him; this wasn't quite what he had in mind, but it was close enough for him. “Where are you taking me?”

“I'm going to take you to my home. Well, at least, it's the place where I'm living for the moment. My brothers will be there, too, so it won't be too quiet or anything. But, you'll be safe there. No one will hurt you.”

Ryou was quiet for a moment, then almost shuddered as he asked a question. “You mentioned your own father having an 'untimely demise...' Did you … kill him?!”

Bakura almost laughed as he shook his head. “No, don't be ridiculous. Even vampires do not devour their own families! No, it was not I that killed him... he was murdered before my very eyes, by the same beast that turned me into a drinker of blood.” He scowled for a second, then shook his head and smiled almost fondly at the boy he was carrying. “But, that's nothing you need to be concerned about.”

Nodding again, Ryou sighed and lay his head against Bakura's chest, surprised when he felt the vampire lightly kiss the top of his hair. Soon, he began to enjoy himself again as Bakura swooped through the sky. Cries of delight filled the air as he was carried through the night sky by unnaturally strong arms.

“Having fun, my pet?” Bakura asked, the hiss of his voice holding a slight teasing aspect to it.

Ryou wondered again if it was at all dangerous if a vampire started calling him pet names.

Chapter 9: “So How Was Your Night?”

Atem thought long and hard about everything that Seto had told him as he flew through the air, heading for home.

Seto had said that he knew where Gozaburo was, that he was keeping right on their sire's tail, that he was waiting for just the right time to attack.

He'd said that he was using Atem and the others as a distraction, mostly. He knew that Gozaburo was more interested in the three of them than in him, so he was simply biding his time, watching and waiting for just the right moment.

Then he would attack and kill their sire once and for all.

Atem frowned, lost deep in thought for a moment, but was soon brought back to reality by the pain and weariness in his body. He had been going nonstop for several hours, and his body was not used to doing this much activity within the span of a few months, much less in one night. He wanted more than anything to curl up in his sarcophagus and go to sleep.

Maybe he wouldn't get up again for the next three weeks; the thought sounded appealing to him.

He landed on the roof of the abandoned building that he and his blood-brothers had claimed as their home and went inside, momentarily wondering if Bakura was back yet. His question was answered when he went into the main room that the brothers tended to gather together in.

The room was filled with many broken pieces of furniture that had been left behind by the original occupants as well as Egyptian antiquities that the vampires had brought with them; pieces of jewelry and figurines of Osiris and Anubis were scattered around the otherwise dusty, dingy room.

Bakura sat on the floor in the middle of the room, holding a young boy in his arms. The boy was asleep and didn't move for the most part, except to occasionally whimper or clutch at the vampire.

“It's only a dream, Ryou,” Bakura whispered softly, his clawed hands stroking the boy's white hair in an oddly caring fashion. His soothing words lulled the boy back to sleep. “You are perfectly safe, my pet... no one is going to harm you. I'm here.”

He glanced up at Atem. “I'm not certain if this boy is at all capable of having a good dream... it seems that he only has nightmares.”

Atem walked closer and looked at the boy for a moment, and then up at Bakura. He smirked lightly, but said nothing. He was very much amused that Bakura seemed to be so attached to a human boy when this same vampire had mocked him for befriending Yugi.

Bakura sighed. “Look, he reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger. And when I went to take the boy home, I learned that his father treats him the same way that mine did.”

Atem frowned; he knew that Bakura's father had been an abusive bully, and, considering how the vampire had responded to Ryou earlier, he wondered how Bakura reacted to this man who was just like his own predecessor.

“In the meantime,” the silver-haired vampire continued, changing the subject so that he was no longer in the spotlight. “Tell me what happened with you. I smell the priest's scent on you; I want to know what happened.”

Atem explained all, doing his best to leave out any detail that he found too personal. He was also very careful to keep his voice quiet, so that he wouldn't wake Ryou up.

When he was finished, Bakura gaped at him in silence for a moment. “So he's... stalking our sire?”

“I suppose you could put it that way.”

Bakura shook his head in frustration and growled. “Your cousin is an idiot. Does he really think that Gozaburo is really going to ever let his guard down? Does he really think that our sire could not sense his watching eyes?! That is the single stupidest thing I've ever –”

He cut himself off when a he heard a small cry come from the boy in his lap, who was blinking and staring up at him owlishly.

“We didn't mean to wake you, young one,” Atem apologized quickly. “Bakura and I were talking and I suppose we got a little carried away.”

“Go back to sleep now, pet,” Bakura whispered, smiling gently at the boy. He touched his hand to the boy's cheek, offering some tender comfort.

Ryou blinked a few more times, then nuzzled back into Bakura's lap, soon drifting off to sleep once more.

Atem watched as Bakura began to stroke the boy's hair again; it was the first time in a very long time that he had seen Bakura appear to be happy... in fact, he couldn't remember the last time he had seen that. It made him feel very glad that Bakura had found Ryou.

“I guess this is how you must feel about that Yugi boy, isn't it?” Bakura mused aloud. “Hm, it's no wonder, then, that glowing smile you always come home with when you go to visit him. I can't help but wonder though... will Malik ever find someone that means so much to him?”

At that comment, both vampire's furrowed their brows and looked around curiously.

“Say... where is Malik, anyway?”

Chapter 10: “Five Days Later...”

Mariku sighed loudly as he headed for the back door. What the @#$% was Shadi's problem anyway? Not allowed to smoke in the stinkin' museum... What kind of a rule was that, anyway?

Of course, if his sister caught him smoking at all, inside or outside of the building completely devoted to ancient Egypt, she would have his head on a pike. And then she'd kill him. And probably ground him.

Eventually she would take pity on him and resurrect him, but then she'd spy the cigarette again and kill him again.

The boy slipped out the back door, lighting the small cylinder and raising it to his lips as he stepped out into the alley.

Immediately, his eyes widened and, for a moment, his mouth couldn't make up its mind what to do with the cigarette – should he spit it out or swallow it whole?

In the end, he managed to pull it out with his fingers, allowing his jaw to drop. His panicky mind began to think of possible escape routes, but his feet refused to budge.

Why was there a vampire lying unconscious in the alley?

Mariku stared, his face a combination of wonder and fear, debating in his mind about what he should do about it. The vampire was bound to wake up sooner or later, and then what?

Deciding to play the hero, he picked up an old, broken mop that was sticking out of the museum dumpster. Wrapping his hands around the broken length of wood and holding it over his head, he took a step towards the blood-sucker, intending to stab the stick straight through its chest to kill it.

But he hesitated. The vampire had the tanned skin of an Egyptian, along with a multitude of jewelry very much like the gold trinkets that Mariku wore, and he had bushy, blonde hair.

Mariku realized that he and the vampire rather resembled one another.

Lowering his stick, he moved to sit beside the creature of the night, reaching out to softly touch the vampire's hair with his fingers.

The vampire awoke upon feeling the boy's warmth, a clawed hand reaching up with lightning reflexes and grasping the thin wrist.

“... human...”

Mariku let out a small shriek upon hearing the vampire's hiss. It wasn't so much that the vampire seemed threatening in any way or form as it was that Mariku had never heard one speak before. He was taken aback a bit by this sudden occurrence, and tried to wrench his wrist loose.

“Let go of me, filthy blood-sucker!”

The vampire did, almost immediately. “... strong... little human...”

“Hey, I am not little!” The boy shouted, fully riled by that remark. He was shorter than most boys his age, as well as incredibly thin, and he was very sensitive about his appearance. Even though this vampire was easily two or three times his size, that didn't mean that he could make any comments on Mariku's stature.

'It,' not 'he,' Mariku reminded himself. Vampires were monsters and were not human and thus had no right to be called by name or gender.

“Now c'mon! Get up and go away! The sun's coming up and I don't want any stinkin' blood-suckers around while I'm smoking... or any other time, for that matter!”

The vampire in question paid very little attention to the boy's ranting. His interests seemed to lie entirely in any portion of Mariku's skin that showed from beneath his tight clothes.

Mariku noticed this. “What are you looking at, anyway?”

Red, inhuman eyes continued to gaze longingly at his skin. “... thirsty... need... blood...”

“Oh, no! I'm not letting you drink from me!”

The vampire gazed at him for another moment, seeming to be lost in thought. It was strange, Mariku realized; the vampire possessed so much strength and prowess, it should be able to lunge at him and tear him to shreds in an instant. However, this vampire didn't. It seemed to want to, but it didn't.

He soon realized why that was. “You're weakened. You probably haven't drunk any blood in awhile, and it's weakened you. Is that why... you're here? And not leaving? And not attacking me?”

The vampire didn't answer. Only continued to look longingly at the boy. “... please...”

Mariku frowned, his mind a roaring mass of confusion. He didn't want to feed his blood to a vampire. He didn't want the vampire to die right in front of him. He wanted to help the blood-sucker. He wanted to run away from it as quick as possible and have nothing to do with it.

“Oh, to heck with it!” He suddenly screamed, giving in and making up his mind on the fly. He reached into his pocket and fished out his Swiss army knife – a gift from Odion on his birthday – and suddenly swiped the blade across his forearm. Droplets of blood began to trickle out.

“You can drink a little bit of my blood,” he told the vampire, who was staring at his arm with such longing it was disgusting. “But you can't have all of it, understand?”

The vampire nodded weakly. “Won't … drink … all. Promise.”

Mariku snorted, picking up the dropped shaft of wood and holding it with his free hand. “Yeah, like I'm gonna believe you.”

Snarling, he thrust his bleeding arm in front of the vampire, who almost immediately grabbed it and wrapped his mouth around the cut.

Teeth grazed his skin, and Mariku tried not to shudder. A part of him was secretly pleased, though, to see the content and peaceful look on the vampire's face.

“How long have you been here?” the boy couldn't help but ask. He was so very curious about this blood-sucker, and his curiosity would not be ignored.

The vampire paused for a moment. “Since... since Tuesday night... or was it Wednesday morning?... It all runs together, you know.”

Mariku felt his eyes bulge. “Wednesday was five days ago! It's currently very, very early on a Monday morning!”

The vampire stared at the boy, his face somewhere between confused and alarmed. “Five... days? And yet... you're the first human to find me... why is this?”

The boy frowned, lost in thought, occasionally being distracted by the vampire's tongue probing his self-inflicted injury in a hungry fashion. “Ummm, well... I only work here once a week. And I'm the only who ever uses this exit, I think – it's the only way I can sneak a smoke without Shadi or Ishizu or Odion or anyone else blowing a gasket at me.”

The vampire nodded, studying the boy closely. “You're Egyptian, aren't you?”

“Yes.”

Another nod, this one more of satisfaction. “I am from Egypt myself. My name is Malik.”

“I'm... Mariku. I work here at the Museum of Egyptology.”

The vampire's eyes lit up, and he laughed. “How I'd like to go through that museum with my brothers, just to see how many things they've got wrong!”

Mariku frowned. “Hey! We are very particular about our facts, and we do all sorts of research beforehand!”

“Whatever,” the vampire rolled his eyes. He seemed concerned when he looked up at the sky, where the sun's rays were beginning to peak through the staggering darkness. “Tell me which way is North, and I'll leave.”

Mariku pointed his finger, and the vampire left, apparently just strong enough to fly.

Mariku wondered where the vampire stayed during the day, and whether or not he would be back again.

Chapter 11:

Malik will leave before the sun rises, but he will return the following evening to talk to Mariku in the museum. When Malik gets back to the hideout, he is momentarily confused when he sees that Ryou boy walking around the place, perfectly comfortable. Bakura sneers at Malik and says that he doesn't have to explain himself and drags Ryou off to his bedroom.

(Seto is the fourth blood-brother, but he is only half-turned and is a loner who tends to do things his own way. He used to be an Egyptian High Priest and he is Atem's cousin. When trailing Gozoborro, Seto finds the house of G's most recent victims, two parents and a child. It's too late to save the parents, who already lie on the floor dead, but Seto takes care of the little boy, who's name is Mokuba. Seto brings the little one home with him, calling him 'little brother' and 'Mokie.')

(Pegasus is an older vampire, an old enemy of Seto's. All of his usual employees, Kemo, Croquet, are all vampires as well, and Duke Devlin is his little half-vampire assistant.)

(Pegasus has little Mokuba kidnapped from Seto to get Seto's attention, and he also attempts to kidnap Yugi to get Atem's attention... however, he ends up capturing Yugi's grandfather, which still achieves what he wanted anyway.)

(So, Seto and Atem set out to rescue their friends, Yugi, Bakura, and Malik all going with them. Ryou and Mariku stay home.)

(At a later point, I want Ryou to go grocery shopping, picking up food for himself as well as steak for the vampires, and paying for it all with money that Bakura gave him earlier. When he's shopping, he runs into his father, Rashyo, who starts bullying him and calling both him and the vampires horrible names. Ryou sticks up for the vampires and leaves as quickly as possible, collapsing back in Bakura's bedroom in tears. Bakura comes along and holds the boy, offering what little comfort he has to offer.)

With a sharp cry, Ryou collapsed face-first onto the little cot in the corner of the 'bedroom,' promptly curling up into a ball and tucking his knees under his chin. Tears began to slowly trickle down his cheeks as he thought about everything that his father had said to him.

Every word spun around in his head, making him dizzy and nauseous, becoming louder and louder and crueler and crueler with each minute. His stomach hurt terribly, and he could no longer see through the fog of tears.

The door opened and closed, another person entering and walking over to the cot. Probably Bakura.

Ryou became aware of the vampire sitting down on the cot beside him. A strong hand pressed itself on his back, right between his shoulder blades, and began to rub gentle circles.

Bakura didn't say anything, and the silence itself seemed to speak for him.

“I saw my father...” Ryou whispered through quivering lips.

Silence for a moment. “How did that go?”

Every single word that his father had said flew through his mind, and Ryou felt something inside him break. He began to sob angrily, not even stopping as he was lifted and pulled into Bakura's lap, the vampire's arms wrapping around him tightly, his wings folding down and draping around the two of them as a cocoon.

“He – he said so many horrible things!” the boy stuttered a few minutes later. His tears had begun to slow, allowing his voice to become usable again. “He said that you vampires were nothing but evil parasites, and that you were only going to hurt me later down the road. That-that I'm stupid for trusting you...”

The other frowned, his grip on Ryou tightening instinctively. He didn't know what else the man had said to Ryou, but it was clearly enough to bother the boy. It was enough to make him wonder.

“Your father's right, you know,” Bakura whispered quietly.

The boy frowned, blinking his eyes harshly to get rid of his tears, turning to stare up the vampire in confusion. “... What do you mean?”

Bakura's lips tugged into a mock smirk. He wrapped his fingers around the boy's neck, the tips of his claws teasingly trailing over the bite marks on the side of Ryou's neck, showing where the vampire had been. “I am a parasite. And you are my host.”

Ryou frowned. “I always thought of our relationship as more of a symbiotic one.”

“And how do you figure that?”

“Because... I feed you, and you protect me,” the boy said slowly, his lips pursing together as he thought through his wording. “You give me a safe place to live, and you give me freedom. And, even though you drink my blood, you never actually hurt me. … These are things I never had before.”

The vampire frowned, his grip on the boy tightening. “Like I said, you are my host. You belong to me, and of course I'm going to protect you.

(Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Tea Gardener are all humans that are being held captive by Pegasus and are rescued by the Brothers. Other vampires who work for Pegasus will include Bandit Keith, Mai Valentine, and Duke Devlin. Mai and Duke will turn out to be really nice and will end up helping the brothers.)

Malik snickered, very amused by the sight of Bakura being so sweet and caring towards the human boy.

Bakura growled. “What?”

“Nothing, it's just... the high and mighty tomb robber! The king of thieves! The proud ruler of Hell... wrapped around the pinky finger of that silly little fluffy-haired boy!”

Bakura's jaws snapped at Malik, as if to bite his brother's nose off. “It's not my fault if Ryou is more tolerable than the rest of you idiots! And besides – he tastes better when he's happy!”

Malik was leaning back against a wall, laughing uncontrollably. “Really? Maybe I'll have to try him sometime.”

“You will not lay a hand on him, do you hear me?!” Bakura was seething by this point, and he was breathing heavily through his clenched teeth. “If you so much as touch a hair on his head, I will personally stake you straight through the heart! Understand?!”

“Y'know, Baku, it's funny to see you being so protective.”

#my writing #my (past) writing #I found this again and thought #y'know someone else may enjoy this you never know

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