Summon The Dragon

I think Pegasus' late wife was Cynthia in the original and Cecilia in the dub. (Cynthia Crawford --- cute. Although I have a friend whose name will be Stephanie Seymour when she and her fiancé get married)

Thanks to me being something of a latecomer and Cartoon Network showing the series in bits and pieces, I had actually never seen the episode following the end of the climatic Yugi/Yami/Pegasus duel until a couple of weeks ago. (So Jada's not the only one who does the Tarot thing with dueling decks!) Needless to say, by the time they got through the whole story about Pegasus and his late wife, I was basically in a puddle on the floor - yeah, I'm a sap. :-). But Gods, that was so sad....

Oh BTW, Greta Satcchi (I think that's how its spelled) married her cousin, who supposedly has ties to Carlos the Jackal - and I want to say the name of the movie is Double Indemnity, but I don't think that's right. It's based on a Scott Turrow novel, I believe.... And the bit with the salad really happened the last time I went out to lunch with someone who shall remain nameless....and yes, it's really Romaine, not Roman, lettuce, I know..... :-)

The "ugly dog" tattoo story is one I've heard in connection with several different people - I don't know how true it is, but it's funny. And the girl getting the name on her boobs - that was a creepy tale the tattoo artist (and I mean artist; he is good) who did my butterfly was telling me and a couple of his friends who were hanging around the shop at the time. He didn't actually do the tattoo - it was someone he was working with at the time. When the other artist commented that "you two must have something really special going," the girl giggled and replied, "Oh he doesn't know I exist - yet." Creepy, ne?

Warnings for language, violence....

Disclaimer - They're not mine, except for Jada.

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Summon The Dragon

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Prologue: In dreams..........

"Ji-chan, pwease don't leave me-----" the little violet-eyed chibi sobbed, looking up at his grandfather through his tears.

"I have to, Yugi. I'm sorry." Solomon didn't sound regretful in the least.

"But -- but I wuv you! Pwease don't leave me----"

"I know you love me. I'm sorry, but these things happen. You're going to have to get used to being alone. Nobody will ever love you the way you are."

"Ji-chan, no----pwease no, pwease----" Yugi tried to chase after Solomon, but the older man turned away, vanishing into the mist surrounding them.

"Ji-chan?" Yugi sniffled, looking around. "Ji-chan, I'm 'fwaid --- come back, pwease -- I'll be good, I pwomise, weally----"

No reply. Yugi stood there for a moment more, then crumpled to the ground and started to cry harder. "Ji-chan?" he sniffled, "Pwease ---- come back?"

"Koi?" Gentle arms enfolded him, holding him tightly, comfortingly. "Shh, beloved, you're dreaming. Wake up."

"I--!" Yugi opened his eyes, startled. He wasn't at the foot of the Sphinx after all. He was in the apartment above the Game Shop, in his room, in his bed, safe in the arms of his dark love. "Yami?!"

"It's me. Shhh, my heart, my beloved, my precious jewel," the dark spirit murmured, kissing away Yugi's tears. "What was it, my light? What frightened you so?" He'd been awakened by his small koi's whimpers, his heart nearly breaking when he realized his little light was crying in his sleep, curled up and shivering.

"It's nothing, Yami. Just a dream----" Yugi quavered, snuggling cr. Hr. He was shaking still yet and his heart was pounding.

"Are you sure?" That worried Yami. He wasn't about to make the same mistake he had before and dismiss Yugi's nightmares as "just dreams." He held Yugi tighter, rubbing his back soothingly. "Tell me anyway, beloved. Please."

Yugi didn't want to talk about it, but he let Yami read the dream from his mind. Feeling a flash of apprehension from his dark love, he looked up nervously. "Yami?"

"Beloved?" Yami realized he didn't know what to say. Ra, please, let this be a nightmare. Just a nightmare.....

"Promise me one thing?" Yugi's beautiful eyes were wide, dark with fear.

"Anything, my beautiful amethyst." Moving heaven and earth wouldn't have been unreasonable, in Yami's opinion, if it would have made Yugi happy.

"Promise, whatever happens, you won't leave me?"

"Never, my heart, never," Yami replied, then kissed him again, softly.

"I'm sorry. You must get so sick of me asking that----" Yugi said, snuggling closer. He could feel Yami's overwhelming love flowing down the link they shared, wrapping around him like a blanket, soothing and reassuring. Yami loves me, at any rate, he thought.

"Koi, I adore you. I could never tire of saying how very much I love you---" Yami murmured, picking up on that last tho. ". "You're my everything, my heart, my world, my reason for being." He nuzzled into Yugi's soft hair, basking in the glow of his small koi's utter adoration. Five thousand years trapped in darkness had been but a small price to pay to be loved by this diminutive, lavender-scented angel in his arms.

Yugi kissed him softly. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Yami-koi. I love you so much----" He nestled closer, warm and safe in his lover's arms.

Yami cuddled his little light, happy just to hold him and caress him back to sleep.

~*~

"You can't go back there yet. They're still doing the autopsy."

Pegasus looked around, startled. He was in his childhood home, in thvingving room, with the huge bay window overlooking the neatly manicured and landscaped lawn. It was eerily, twilit dark inside, the cloud-locked gloom of a storm. The speaker was his evanescent, beloved, lost Cynthia. As she spoke, she gestured toward the stairs leading up to the bedrooms.

"Still?" He realized the other figure was Jada Mercury, who was holding Kuriboh in her arms like a cat. The funny little furball was warbling softly, happily.

"They need to find out why that was the only part that survived," she said, looking to the side, eyes soft and grieving.

Jada looked around to the coffee table, where sat a pink --- something --- with cartoonish eyes and smiling mouth, a something that looked like a bowling pin.

"Somehow you look more like a stomach than a soul," Jada said.

The pink bowling-pin-thing laughed. "Things aren't always as they seem. And sometimes I miss what's right in front of me."

"L:ike with your favorite paintbrushes?" Cynthia said, laughing merrily.

"Yeah--" The pink thing actually blushed. "Never mind that I'm still learning to read the map of the heart." As it spoke, two men in stained white coats, masks and gloves carried a stretcher down the stairs. Morbidly curious, wondering who they were talking about, he stood to look----

It was him. Or rather, the child he had once been-----

sus sus awoke with a start, looking around. He wasn't frightened so much as utterly bewildered. What the----?

"That has got to be the strangest dream I've ever had----" he said to nobody in particular - there wasn't anyone else there.

Weren't strange dreams supposed to mean something?

And sometimes I miss what's right in front of me.

To paraphrase Jada Mercury, inscrutable omens blew, not to mention sucked. He had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Sure, he'd had a real talent for misplacing his paintbrushes, back when he'd still been painting, but still----

I'm still leag tog to read the map of the heart.

Odd, but poetic. Wasn't there a book called A Map Of The Human Heart? He seemed to remember Jada saying something about it. If he remembered what she'd said correctly, it was the story of Mr. Rochester's first wife, before he met Jane Eyre - no, wait, that was the DVD she'd rented a few nights ago, Wide Sargasso Sea. He'd to to rent that one, just to see if it was any good. That was one thing he hadn't expected to find he had in common with Jada Mercury - they shared a love of gothic romance novels, Jane Eyre and Rebecca and Wuthering Heights - he'd nearly laughed himself into a severe attack of hiccups when she'd confessed her private nickname for Croquet was Mrs. Danvers. She wasn't at all what most people expected - heck, she wasn't at all what he'd expected.

Was he betraying Cynthia, somehow, thinking that?

He closed his eyes with a shiver. Was it betrayal to want to somehow get on with your life, whatever there was of it? To admit that you wanted to find a way to somehow put all this pain behind you, to try to somehow live again? Not to forget, but --- forgive, maybe? Forgive the dark forces that had brought all this upon you, forgive them for ruining your life, plunging you into despair, for taking the only thing that ever mattered to you and leaving you frozen inside, numbed, unable to feel anything, even, after awhile, the pain of your own shattered heart? How could he forgive them that?

Maybe I have to try.

Lost in his troubled thoughts, he drifted back off to sleep.

~*~

"I can tell your fortune, if you'd like."

"What?" Jada looked around at the beautiful blonde woman in the long, elegant blue and pink dress. "Okay. Why not?" She followed the woman into the -- she'd thought it was a tent, but it looked more like a room in a castle. In fact, it was a room in a castle. A tower room, judging from the fact that all she could see out the windows was the sky.

"Let me have your deck," the woman said. "It can tell me what you don't know about yourself." She took it, turning the first card over. "Magic Mist. You're not seeing anything clearly right now, are you?" She turned the second card over. "Relinquished. You can't fight what Fate has chosen for you, which is ---" She held up the final card - Happy Lovers.

Jada rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. The second to the last one I caught tongue-kissing the enemy, the last one threw a Colt 45 bottle at me from a third-floor window. A full one, might I add. Good thing he was drunk and his aim was off." She looked at he blonde woman. "It's not that I don't appreciate the effort. But there are those of us who were never meant to find a soul mate. I'm one of them, I think."

"You don't need to find him. You already have. I sent him to you, that night. Just be patient with him, please. Even those born with wings must learn to fly----"

Fly----?

Born with wings? That wasn't her-----

And what is that horrible smell?

Jada awoke slowly to find herself nose to nose with a small gray cat. Mehitibel. Great. Tuna breath was bad enough, but liver and tuna? Ick. She groaned and rolled over, wondering about the strange dream she'd had. She was sure it didn't mean anything apart from she shouldn't eat leftover pizza before going to bed.......nor feed the cat Fancy Feast Liver and Tuna Pate

~*~

1. "Everything I do is all for you....."

"OH-MY-GAWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDD!!!!!!!!!!! Did you like SEE the friendship ring Darryl like got for Tea and all? Like it's soooooo cool and all! It's like a sapphire and all cause like he said that's like what her eyes like are and isn't that just like so cool and like soooo romantic and all it's like so hot like he's the coolest like he could be my babydaddy babyboy like any time like he's even cooler than like Jeffy, Jeremy and Jordy like all put together and all like------" Tiffani Mills burbled, unaware that most of the other patrons in Burgerpalooza were giving her funny looks.

Seto Kaiba rolled his eyes, wondering how on Earth his cousin Jada Mercury put up with this chick. She told him it was her version of social work. "Who the hell are Jeffery, Jordy and Jeremy?"

"It's JEFFY!" Tiffani exclaimed.

"Some boyband. All Fart Too or something like that,\da rda replied.

"All 4U!" Tiffani cried.

"Close enough," Jada smirked. She was actually in a good mood for a change. One field hockey stick - 500 yen. One deliberately missed field hockey ball - 200 yen. Going Tanya Harding on Tea Gardnier's sorry ass - make that her right leg - and having it look like an accident - priceless. There are some things money can't buy---- She started to reach for the communial onion bloom - only to realize that it was nothing left of it. "Merde. Next time we are getting one onion bloom for Yugi and one for the rest of the table."

"Huh?" Yugi looked up from his plate.

"Never mind, koi," Yami chuckled as the server came over with their drinks - iced tea for Seto, diet Coke for Tiffani, regular Cokes for Yugi and Yami and vanilla Coke for Jada.

"Have you decided what you're going to have?" she asked.

"I'll have the Bacon Double Cheeseburger, with the Zesty Fries and coleslaw," Seto said.

"Me too, please" Yugi said shyly. "But no coleslaw."

"I'll have the Chicken Strips," Yami said. "With the cheese fries."

"I'll have the Kamikaze Wings, extra hot, with the Habenaro Jack Fries," Jada said.

Seto winced.

"And I'll like have the Chicken Caesar Salad and all, but like with no dressing and no cheese and no chicken and all," Tiffani announced. "Oh, and like no croutons. Carbs like make you fat and all. Oh, and like no roman lettuce. The hot celeb beauty experts and all say like roman lettuce gives you zits."

Yami looked at Yugi. //What does that leave, koi?// he asked mentally.

/Just the bowl and the fork, I think,/ Yugi replied.

"Since when are you on a diet?" Jada said as the server left.

"Well, Deenie's daddy said he's like gonna get up backsatge when Jeffy, Jordy and Jeremy come to town and all, so like I gotta be all sexy and all---". She was tall and skinny, but somehow still managed to be dumpy. She had long straight brown hair so fine and flimsy that it tended to separate over her ears, making it look unwashed and unkempt. She had recently traded in her thick glasses for contact lenses, but wore far too much makeup in an effort to "redefine" her unfortunately equine face.

"Oh---" was all Jada could say. She was very petite - only about an inch or so taller than Yugi - with kittenish features and huge dark eyes. Her skin was a dusky dark olive. Her hair was a mass of glossy black waves that sometimes looked like it weighed more than she did. She looked very sultry and darkly exotic - until she opened her mouth and her oversized and comically protruding front teeth killed the effect.

"It's like gonna be so awesome and all!" Tiffani squealed. "And did you like hear that Jeffy got like a tattoo and all? He said it was like Chinese for like brave fearless sexy leader of the wolf pack and all like cause he's like so hot and sexy and brave and fearless and all---like I have the piccy like here somewhere! Like here it is and all-----" She dug around in her bag, then handed Jada a copy of HOTPOP!, open and folded back to the story: "Jeffy's HOTPOP! 'too! All-4U's HOTPOP! Babydaddy Babyboy Gets Inked!"

"I got a tattoo when we were in London. The guy who did it told me it means "Handsome and fearless leader of the wolf pack" because that's what I am----" Jada read aloud. It was very prominently placed on his arm. She was surprised that it actually was Chinese - the last few times she'd seen a "Chinese" tattoo it had actually been Kanji. However, her grasp on Chinese was tenuous at best, so she couldn't tell if it actually said "alpha wolf" or whatever. "It's nicely done," she observed, wondering if it had been done at the studio her mom had once worked at - as the office manager, not a tattoo artist. The article didn't say. "Hmm. I wonder if he had it done at Blackshear's?"

"Let me see that---" Seto took the magazine from her hands, frowning at the tattoo.

Tiffani squealed. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Isn't it like so true and all?! He's like my hotpop babydaddy babyboy and all! EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" She squealed again, clapping her hands.

"Baby daddy baby boy?" Seto looked at her. "Isn't that just this side of incestuous?"

"Yeah, it's like in -- whaever and all, cauuse it's got a wicked sexy hotpop killer tune ancd all! it's like their hot new song and all - "I'm Your Babydaddy Babyboy." Tiffani giggled.

One syllable, Kaiba, Seto reminded himself as he mentally slapped his forehead. Words of one syllable.

"I hope they didn't rip off Uncle Bri for this one," Jada observed, mostly to herself. In her opinion, her parents' band should have sued for copyright infringement or whatever over that first crap song All-4U had inflicted on the world, "We're The Man" - the one that ripped off "We Will Rock You." She looked at Seto. "What are you looking at, Dragon Breath?"

"This thing doesn't say anything about a wolf pack---" Seto started.

"Then what does---the fuck?" Jada started, reaching for her soda, then looking around to see where the glass was. She picked it up and took a sip. "Then what does it say?" She sipped from the straw again.

"You like know that girl Deenie and all? She like got Jordy's name like tattooed on her boobies and all. Like right around both nippies. It's like so cool!" Tiffani bubbled.

"Say what?!" Seto looked at her, wide-eyed.

Yugi and Yami looked at each other, then at Tiffani, then at each other again.

Jada, who had snorted vanilla Coke out of her nose on "boobies," looked around in disbelief, wiping her nose with a napkin. "She fucking what?!"

"I'm like serious! She has "Property of Jordy Johnson All-4U" on both her boobies! Right around her nippies! It's like so cool! So like I'm gonna like get "Property of Jeffy Jamison All-4U 4Ever-N-Ever" on my tushie!" Tiffani bubbled.

Yami looked at Yugi. "Nippies?"

Jada looked at the other girl in disbelief. "Wait-a-fucking-mi. Sh. She tattooed some guy's name that she doesn't even know, who doesn't know her from Bastet's favorite cat and never will, who'd probably take out a restraining order on her if he did know her, on her tits? And you're saying it's cool?! Hell-LOW?! I think the secret word for today is "stalker--"

"Well, like what's the difference between your mother having "Property of Freddie Mercury tattooed on her tushie and all?" Tiffani huffed.

"Two things. One - my mother happens to be married to Freddie Mercury, and has been since 1975, "Jada retorted. "Two - she doesn't have "Property of Freddie Mercury" tattooed on her ass, nor anyplace else, for that matter. She has that little funny curly thingie on her wrist and the red and yellow rose on her ankle. That's it."

"Well I'm still like gonna do it and all!" Tiffani shot back, folding her arms. "So like there and all!"

"Tiffani, it's your ass. You can do whatever the hell you want to with it---" Jada sighed as the server brought their food over. After the girl left, Jada looked at Seto's coleslaw in disbelief.

"Ewww. Gross. You're actually going to eat that, Lizard Stomach?"

"Ewww----" Tiffani poked at her plate. "This is just like lettuce and all---"

Seto rolled his eyes. "Fuck you very much."

"I thought you only played with boys," Jada said, helping herself to a Zesty Fry. "And anyway, I'm not exactly Greta Scaatchi."

"Who?" He looked at her.

"An actress. She was in a movie with Harrison Ford. Something to do with lawyers, except that she was dead or something like that. I think. Anyway, she married her first cousin, I think they have two kids together and he's got some kind of ties to this guy who's a terrorist - I think----something about a hyena----"

"Was this in the movie or real life?" The only thing more confusing that one of Jada's movie summaries was her attempt to get to the punchline of a joke.

Tiffani was still poking at her plate. "Ewww. That dumb bitch like brought me nothing but lettuce."

Yami looked at her. "It was what you ordered, Tiffani."

"I like ordered a chicken Caesar salad and all!" Tiffani moped.

"Yeah, with nothing on it," Seto put in, then looked at Jada. "Was that all in the movie?"

"The dead part was in the movie. The rest of it's real," Jada replied, "Mmmm. Kamikaze wings." She sucked the meat off of one with surprising delicacy. "So anyway, what does it say?"

"What does what say?"

"The tattoo, Dragon Butt Breath."

"It like says hot sexy babydaddy babyboy le of of the wolf pack and all---" Tiffani said.

Seto shook his head. "No it doesn't. It says "Ugly Dog Face Boy."

"WHAT?!" Tiffani shrieked, making the others cringe and nearby heads turn. "It like does not and all, you liar! See, it like says RIGHT HERE that it like says hot sexy leader of the wolf pack and all!"

'That's what the guy who did it told him it says. But that isn't what it says," Seto ied.ied. "Tiffani, take it from me; I know Chinese. It doesn't say what he thinks it does."

"You're just like saying that and all cause he's like a sexy hotpop babydaddy babyboy and you're like not an all!!" Tiffani cried, bursting into loud tears. "You're just like jealous and all so you're mean! You're being mean and all cause he's a hotpop sexy hot babydaddy babyboy and he's like gonna be my hotpop babydaddy babyboy and all like----"

"Hey, Dragon." Joey wasn't about to ask what was going on.

"Hey Pup." Seto turned around to give Joey a quick kiss on the mouth. Yugi, ever the considerate one, was handing the snuffling Tiffani napkin after napkin in an attempt to staunch the flow of mascara down her face. Jada shook her head and turned back to her Kamikaze Wings.

"Man, I wish these came hotter," she said after a moment. "They ought to make an extra extra hot version."

Seto looked at her is disbelief. "If those things came any hotter, they'd be declared a biohazard!"

"Seto, they're not really that hot. Just a little---" Jada said.

"Yeah right---" Seto unthinkingly snitched a french fry from her plate, forgetting that they were the Habanero Jack Fries. Seconds later, he grabbed his glass, draining it dry and shoving ice cubes in his mouth in a desperate effort to kill the burn. Joey had collasped on the floor, laughing.

Jada looked at her cousin. "Wuss."

Yugi, ever the sweet one, offered Seto his Coke.

~*~

"Why would et aet a tattoo if he didn't know what it said?" Yugi was wondering later as he and Yami walked home, holding hands.

"It doesn't seen like a very good idea, does it, koi?" Yami agreed. "Was Jada's peculiar friend serious about - the other tattoo?"

"I hope not. That's seriously creepy," Yugi said. "After all ---- oh Gods!" They had rounded the last corner before the Game Shop, only to come upon an ocean of flashing lights, emergency vehicles and police tape.

"Ji-chan!" Yugi broke into a run.

"Aibou, wait!" Yami hurried after him. By the time he caught up, Yugi had reached the taped barricade.

"Officer, please, is my grandfather all right?" he was saying anxiously.

"That's the grandson and his boyfriend!" someone nearby said. A man in a dark suit looked around, then made his way over.

"Yugi Mutou?" he said.

Yugi nodded. "S-Sir? What happened? Is --- is my grandfather---?"

"He should be all right. They've taken him to the hospital," the man replied. "Someone held up his store and he took a good knock to the head. They're still not sure what taken - all the money seems to be in the register." He frowned. "Let me get someone to take you and your boyfriend to the hospital---"