Ritual Dance

Disclaimer: I dont own Yu-gi-oh!

Title: Ritual Dance
Part: 4/?
Warnings: none
Pairings: Atemu/Yuugi
Notes: 'Thoughts' "Speech"

Enjoy!!!

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~(*)~

Floating. That would be the only thing that could describe how Yuugi felt. His limbs were unresponsive and his mind was clouded with soft webbing. His vision was hazy and indistinct forms appeared from under his eyelids.

Occasionally, Yuugi could feel his arm being lifted from his side or a leg being bent. Voices were muffled noises in his ears. The topic of discussion could not be understood but Yuugi had a gut feeling that it had to do with him.

His body seemed heavy even though he was still floating. Sensation danced across his skin in this strange limbo between wakefulness and sleep. Whispers echoed in his ears and the heaviness instantly fell away. Colors bloomed in his vision and downy soft wings brushed against his skin. Strong arms held him close as they flew through this limbo and Yuugi easily slipped into a contented sleep.

~(*)~

Sunlight greeted Yuugi when he awoke next. He turned over with a light frown and burrowed his head in his pillow. Why did he ever take those curtains off his window? He was beginning to regret it now.

It must have been Saturday, Yuugi assumed, or Sunday. The alarms clock hadn’t gone off yet and it seemed to be fairly quiet. On a weekday Yuugi could hardly sleep amongst all the noised his neighbors made in their rush to get ready for work and the construction workers starting up the jackhammers.

Yuugi inhaled deeply, savoring the scent on the pillows. Freshly washed pillowcases were his favorite this to wake up to in the morning. His nose twitched as he realized that the smell was different that normal. It was very similar to those spices his Grandpa used to bring back from his Middle Eastern trips.

He arched his back in a stretch as his eyes cracked open. Sitting up, Yuugi rubbed the sleep from his eyes and froze when he saw the interior of his bedroom.

Simply put, this wasn’t his bedroom.

The walls were painted in an earthy tan, and opaque, maroon curtain served as dividers where a majority of the walls were missing. The sun shone through an artistic gap in the ceiling, which only covered half of the room. Crystalline globes were suspended mid-air like some kind of frozen bubble and they floated free of any wires. There were no doors, only a giant archway for people to walkthrough.

The whole set-up gave the room a free and airy feel. Regardless, he felt very exposed without four walls surrounding him and he couldn’t help but feel trapped even through there were no doors.

“Where am I?” Yuugi jumped, his voice being startlingly loud amongst the sounds of birds and insects. His voice didn’t echo, like it would in a building, but seemed to expand out of the archways and through the curtains.

“Home.”

Yuugi jumped again, the movement sending him to the floor in a tangles mess. The voice that spoke was not his own nor any he had ever heard before. It was definitely male and it was just a touch lighter than a baritone. The tone and pitch reminded of a famous singer that had everyone, especially the girls, pinning over him in a heartbeat.

“W-what?” Yuugi responded in confusion. Were those feathers just decoration or did this oddly dressed person have feathers growing off of his ears?

“You are home.” The man, more like a teen actually, clarified. His shirt billowed in the light breeze and Yuugi distractedly inspected the design. It looked like something a fashion model would wear. The shirt was open-backed and there were no sleeves, the top of the material was held up with a double ring that hung loosely around his neck. The pants were baggy and the bottoms were secured to his calved by fashionable bands made of black metal. Matching arms bands decorated his right and left arms.

Red eyes starred triumphantly at the confused Yuugi, easily taking in the human’s form. He was extremely lucky that the Guardian’s Spirit had called him over. Otherwise he would have walked away partner-less from the Dance again this year. He couldn’t wait to hear about his partner’s world and about his partner himself.

Yuugi gathered his legs underneath him, rising to a half-crouch. What was this guy talking about? This wasn’t his home.

The teen’s feathered ears twitched as if to catch a small sound. He, the stranger, tilted his head, sending golden bangs into his face. His hair, Yuugi noticed, was strangely similar to his even if the rest of him was definitely different.

“Home?” Yuugi asked. Who was this guy? He had never seen anyone that looked remotely like that before.

He tensed when the stranger took a step towards him. “This,” the stranger swept an arm around the front of him, gesturing to his surroundings, “is your home.” The red-eyed teen looked to be at the beginnings of frustration and Yuugi felt a cold, lead weight settle in his stomach.

“What?” Yuugi protested. “This isn’t my home. Where am I?” What was with this guy?! Did he (Yuugi) stumble into a madman’s reality?!

Cautiously, he edged towards one of the openings. He needed to think and he couldn’t do that with this stranger here. Even though he didn’t know the layout of this place, there had to be a place he could hide.

Yuugi gulped when the stranger’s red eyes narrowed in frustration. He didn’t know what this teen’s temper was like and he didn’t plan to find out.

The teen’s sigh caught him off guard and he jumped in surprise. Red eyes reopened after a moment and Yuugi saw patience replace the frustration. Yuugi warily watched the red-eyed teen as he spoke again.

“You are in the central village of Khemti, our home.”

“But-“ Yuugi interrupted. “This can’t be my home. I live in Domino City, Japan. I’ve never even been to a place like this before.” Yuugi tried to convince the obviously crazy teen that he was mistaken but he was having a difficult time doing so.

“But that was before the Kionci Leodraic. It is tradition for the younger of the Yoiney bonded to move in with his/her Aibou. Since you are the younger and your birth-village is not near here, you will live here with me. Thus, this is our home.”

That was it; Yuugi decided that he had to get away from this insane teen now.

Jumping up, Yuugi sprinted for the open archway. He dashed around the teen’s surprised attempt to stop him and his breath caught when fingers brushed against his arm. A split second later Yuugi was past the teen and sprinting out the archway and onto the balcony, and was spurred to run faster when he heard the teen’s exclamations of dismay.

The sun shone bright through the treetops, blinding him to the point where he couldn’t see how the rail less balcony suddenly ended.

There was a moment where Yuugi didn’t feel the solidity of a floor underneath him and it stretched out in his mind as a stunned horror. The wind seemed to support him momentarily before it rushed up at his face, signifying the start of his fall. Wide, purple eyes gazed at the ground rushing up to meet him and the only thought that passed though his mind was that he was going to die.

The next second that passed was suddenly accompanied with a feeling of security when two arms surrounded his falling form and multiple black wings thundered around him. Time slowed tremendously as he was pressed back against another body and a face was pressed over his shoulder. He barely had the time to turn his head and see the insane teen from before starring seriously at the up-rushing ground when time resumed its normal pace.

Somehow, the red-eyes teen had managed to upright their headfirst position and they hit the ground feet first. The midnight colored wings must have slowed their fall to the point where the recoil only sent them rolling forward instead of to their deaths. The impact sent dust flying and all the air was knocked out of his lungs.

Yuugi laid there in the red-eyes teen’s arms, gasping in large gulps of air. It was fortunate for the insane teen that Yuugi was so winded and shocked at what had just happened because he was having similar troubles breathing. Yuugi’s dazed eyes latched onto the large black wings that were trembling above them in exertion. They looked so familiar.

The red-eyes teen was the first to recover and, keeping a good one-armed hold on Yuugi, propped himself up on an elbow. His hair was windswept and his breathing was still irregular but he looked extremely grateful that his rescue had been successful. His eyes narrowed, however, when he turned his attention to Yuugi.

Silently, the red-eyed teen checked the human for injuries. Luckily, neither of them sported anything more serious than bruises and a few small cuts from when they had skidded across the ground. His black wings pulled back to rest of his back and painless movement told him that they weren’t injured. Yuugi’s eyes followed the wings movement and stopped when he caught sight of the teen they were attached to.

Yuugi’s eyes focused back onto the reality that had just been turned upside down. A tremble started to work its way through his body and his eyes betrayed the confusion that gripped him. That fall had hurt, so did that mean this wasn’t a dream? This was real?

“What’d you do that for?” The red-eyed teen’s voice was quiet but it held an irritated edge that mad Yuugi flinch.

Sighing, he sat up, bringing the human along with him. No resistance met him as he put both of his hands on either side of the smaller teen’s face and made their eyes meet.

Yuugi froze under that searching gaze. The emotions he saw were mixed and foreign and they frightened him to no end. He winced when one hand moved from his face and wrapped around his arm. His legs lay uselessly beneath him when the teen lifted him from the ground. He was brought up to be carried in the just-married-style. Yuugi couldn’t find it in him to struggle as the red-eyed teen started to walk.

He hid his face in the teen’s shirt when he became aware of all the starring eyes. Creatures that look like the once holding him were milling around the bases of the trees, though these only had one pair of wings. A glare from red-eyes sent them scattering into the tree’s boughs.

With a light-footed step and then a jump, the red-eyed teen took to the sky. They did not go back to the room where Yuugi woke up in, much to his surprise, but dark wings caught an updraft and they soared up above the treetops. The shadow of the red-eyed teen’s body sheltered Yuugi from the strength of the sun’s rays.

The longer they flew, Yuugi gained more time to reorganize his thoughts. From what had just happened, he was brought to one of two conclusions. First: he was insane. Second; he had been dropped into a parallel dimension. He honestly didn’t know which one was worse.

“What’s your name?” The red-eyed teen asked after a few minutes of gliding. He had been starring off into the sky so the sudden question startled Yuugi. Silently, Yuugi weighted the pros and cons of telling the stranger his name and decided that it didn’t matter either way.

“Yuugi.” He whispered, not bothering to give his last name.

A soft smile formed on the red-eyed teen’s face as he repeated Yuugi’s name to himself.

“What’s yours?” Yuugi asked in the following silence. The stranger’s smile broadened at the question, like he had been expecting it. Which was true, honestly, it was common courtesy to exchange names.

The red-eyed teen caught an upward draft and midnight wings thrust them upward. He closed his eyes and let the sun rest on his face before turning to Yuugi.

“Atemu.” And his eyes opened.

It was like a switch. Multi-colored lights sprung forth from nowhere and they raced alongside them in intricate patterns. The line between the sky and the earth bleed away like water on a fresh painting and Yuugi's eyes grew wide as a strange feeling swept through him.

Something foreign, yet familiar to him, stretched tentatively outward from someplace near his heart. A presence, confident and so strong, contacted the thing connected to him and he shrunk away. Like a skittish animal meeting another of its kind for the first time, he stretched back to the other, stronger presence. It curled around him when it got close enough and he did not struggle for long before he realized that it wasn’t hurting him.

Yuugi's eyes hooded at the new feelings that flooded him through this contact. It soothed away the shock and confusion that held him before. Information about his situation, like how he was now bonded to Atemu and that he had performed in the Kionci Leodraic, or Ritual Dance last night, wormed into his head and he was not afraid. It was normal that he would live with his bonded from now on and he knew, just knew, that nothing could separate them.

~(*)~