Lion Heart

Cosmic Tomato: Oh c’mon, would I ever make Yuugi actually hurt Atemu? I’d never! I find other people to do that *grins* Enjoy the next chap!

Cattie: Actually, I’ll be there in exactly one week from now, so I can still easily update XD Cedar Point would be an amusement park Tavi’s planning on dragging me to. The horror! Rollercoasters! Feel my extreme desire to not go now! °coughs° and don’t drown from the extreme amounts of sarcasm that just dripped off those words XD Anyway, have fun with the next chap!

EvilPharaohAtem: Yay! Someone who doesn’t want to cause me bodily harm! You’re my new best friend! XD And don’t worry, Atemu will remember Yuugi. Have fun with the chap!

Dragonlady222: Yes, Teana should die. Painfully. With slow torture involved preferably. Sadly, I can’t do that… in this story anyway. Note to self: Write story were I can make all Teana-killing visions a reality. ^^ Enjoy the chap!

Ravenwolf: °hands over brain° there ya go! Now you’ll be able to figue out who the him is °nods° Glad you like the fic so far and enjoy the new chapter!

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Well, i’m glad you people all seemed to like the last chapter, because to do be completely honest I rewrote the first part of it twice and I still don’t like. It just annoyed me so much that I refused to rewrite it again. Anyway, on with the next chap! In this week’s episode we’ll have some SethxJou hints, some Teana getting pissed off, and for the most part just getting things on track for the upcoming scenes. So, without further ado, chap 8! Enjoy folks and R&R!

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--: 08 :--
A New Home

The sight was quite comical really. Pure and utter shock did not quite befit the features of Seth. Yuugi was used to seeing the High Priest stoic or scowling. Admittedly he’d seen the brunette in a happy mood as well, mostly at Atemu’s expense, but even that was a strange sight at times. Shock simply didn’t seem fitting to him at all though.

“So this,” Seth glanced over at Yuugi, his eyes scanning the shorter teen as if checking if he hadn’t missed anything, “is Hikari?”

Yuugi grinned at him, not having expected a much different reaction from the other. Seth could be quite judgemental at times and if he’d thought he might lose Atemu’s respect by showing him his human form, than he knew it would decrease the High Priest’s. With Seth he could handle it though, simply because he wasn’t nearly as close to Seth as he was to Atemu. He found Seth’s shock more amusing than anything else.

“Expecting some bulky guy that carries weapons with him everywhere he goes?” Atemu chuckled at the comment and Seth’s features shifted back to normal, eyes narrowing on him slightly.

“That proves that you’re him; only he would make such a remark at a time like this.” He rolled his eyes as the grin on Yuugi’s face broadened. He glanced at the blonde also present in the room for a moment, blinking as he recognized him, though he couldn’t quite place where he’d seen the other, before just shrugging it off as unimportant and raising an eyebrow.

Atemu, catching the questioning look, decided to answer before any snide comments could be made, “This is Jou, a friend of Yuugi’s. Since Ryou and Malik – the two who were kidnapped – are probably being kept to blackmail Hikari in some way, we thought it would be better if Jou stayed here.” He glanced at Yuugi for a moment, the teen now looking down with that same guilty look on his face once more. He grimaced at it, his heart wrenching slightly at seeing his friend in such a state.

Jou smiled nervously, not used to being scrutinized so much, “Uhm… hey?” he held his hand out for Seth to shake. For a moment there seemed to be a flash of recognition at the sound of his voice, before it was pushed behind the thick barriers that seemed to cover every emotion in the High Priest’s eyes, leaving nothing behind. His hand was completely ignored as Seth turned back to Atemu. Jou scowled at this, but stayed silent nonetheless.

“And what excuse are you going to make up for them? Two peasants suddenly in the palace for no apparent reason are going to be suspicious and the others will start asking questions. Since you’re obviously trying to keep this a secret from everyone else, you need a reason.”

Atemu frowned in thought, “I’m not quite sure yet… There really doesn’t seem to be a reason that I can think of to use, so I was hoping to just keep them out of sight and if someone asks, say that it’s top secret or something.”

“And you expect the others to accept that?” Seth gave a sceptical look, “I doubt Shimon for instance will accept that reason. He’ll want to know what secret since he’s your advisor and should be allowed to know.”

Atemu sighed, “I know, but I refuse to use them as servants or something just to cover their presence up.”

Yuugi smiled at the Pharaoh, his brief lapse in control over his emotions mostly gone again, “I wouldn’t mind if it makes it easier for you. You can probably assign me and Jou to do light things or something and I even promise to come save you from Teana from time to time as Hikari.”

Atemu shuddered at the mention of the girl, “I almost forgot about her… how sweet ignorance can be,” he glanced at Jou, “You wouldn’t mind either?”

Jou shrugged, no longer scowling at the High Priest and looking at Atemu now, “Not really. It’s better than gettin’ kidnapped.”

Atemu nodded and sighed, reluctantly agreeing to the idea, “Fine, but I’ll make sure neither of you will have to do much. As for where you’ll be sleeping…” he hesitated, knowing that although he’d improved the living arrangements for the servants greatly since his father’s time, he still didn’t like the idea of Jou and mostly Yuugi sleeping there. It still wasn’t the best place to stay.

“It isn’t that bad.” Yuugi said, as if reading Atemu’s thoughts. Atemu still didn’t look too pleased with the idea and Yuugi sighed, “If it’ll make you feel better, I could always sleep on the huge mountains of cushions you keep here for me to sleep on, even though I usually always refuse…”

“Well you sleep here from time to time, though mostly because at those times you’re always too exhausted to leave.” Atemu smirked at the slightly embarrassed blush that crept up Yuugi’s cheeks, “But it would be nice if you’d stay out of your own free will for a change.”

Yuugi shook his head but smiled nonetheless, “Fine, but that doesn’t solve Jou’s problem.”

Jou shrugged before Atemu could even start thinking of anything, “I have a feelin’ that whatever I get here is better than what I had back in da village, so I really don’t mind.”

Yuugi cocked his head, “You sure?”

Jou simply nodded, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He grinned, “It’ll be fun enough to hang around da palace with barely any work ta do.”

Seth snorted and Yuugi could’ve sworn he saw some plotting being done in the ice-blue eyes of the other. He feared for Jou because if Seth was planning to keep him busy, he would be busy no matter what Atemu said.

Atemu also caught the glint in his cousin’s eyes and raised an eyebrow slightly, though he made sure no one else would notice it. Why Seth would put any effort into whatever it was he was planning he didn’t quite know, especially since it involved Jou; someone he’d never met before. He made a mental note to find out later though.

“Well then, why don’t you lead Jou to the servant quarters, Seth? Give him a room to himself, preferably.” Above all, Atemu could use some entertainment. He liked Jou, he really did, but with Teana now annoying the hell out of him on a daily basis he really didn’t mind some harmless plotting on Seth’s behalf as long as Jou didn’t actually get hurt because of it.

“Of course.” Seth stood up and walked towards the doors leading out of Atemu’s bedroom, not waiting in the slightest for Jou to follow. Jou scowled once more, deciding that he definitely didn’t like this High Priest, but followed without comment. Arguing would most likely ensue more than enough; status be damned.

It took him all but two minutes to get fed up with the silent treatment, “Hey, would ya please slow down a little? Some of us don’t know da palace dat well.”

Seth glanced behind him, an only half-interested look on his features, “Well you’re going to have to learn then if you want to work here.” Without another word he turned to face ahead again and continued his silent treatment.

Now normally Seth wouldn’t have responded quite so harshly. It might be contrary to popular belief, but he did have feelings and he knew exactly what his behaviour did to some people. He simply tended to ignore that knowledge in favour of being a jerk, simply to try and keep people as far away from him as possible. He had seen many people suffer because they’d let others get too close to them and he’d long ago decided he’d try to avoid that as much as possible. Atemu and maybe Hikari to a certain extent were the only ones he’d let close to him. Atemu simply because it was his cousin and they’d grown up together - and Hikari because for some reason you just couldn’t help but like him. Even his father wasn’t quite as close to him as those two were. Aknadin wasn’t a bad father or anything, they just didn’t have a great bond.

Jou was a different case, though.

Seth grimaced slightly as he remembered exactly why the blonde seemed so familiar to him. When Atemu had send him out to find out what people thought of him, he’d started at the close-by village. There weren’t a lot of people still living there so observing the small community and asking a few questions here and there hadn’t been too hard. Questions about who he was had simply been answered by a wandering traveller, and no one had seemed to bother to ask any further.

Jou, although he hadn’t spoken directly to the blonde, had been one of the people he’d seen many times. And each and every time Seth hadn’t been able to resist the urge to stare and pay attention to nothing else. It had gotten to a point where Seth had actually considered talking to the other without any particular reason.

That had been about the point where he’d finally realized that even though he only barely knew the blonde and he only saw a bit of what he was like, he was definitely attracted to Jou. It had also been the point where Seth had quickly left the town to go look around in another before he could break his own rule of not letting people into his life so easily.

Now, however, it seemed he’d be stuck with Jou for quite some time. The war wasn’t going to be resolved over night and thus, Jou would be around for a while. He might’ve been able to suppress everything – proven by the fact that he hadn’t immediately recognized Jou – but he was pretty sure that if he didn’t do something, his own rule was going to be broken.

Sadly though, he had no plan. He’d been attracted to others before but never to this extent. All he could come up with was to be as rude as possible and make Jou’s life as hard as possible so the other would practically hate him. At least then he’d have a very good motivation not to lose his self control.

Lame, yes. Necessary, definitely.

Seth glanced behind him shortly as they reached the servant’s quarters only to see Jou scowling at him, his eyes burning with an angry fire. Seth mentally cursed himself for having glanced back, immediately reminded that he simply loved the look of the blonde when he was angry or annoyed. He quickly looked in front of him again in an attempt to hide any reaction he might’ve had

Okay, annoying the blonde to a point where that look would cross his face was probably a bad idea as well.

He really needed a plan B.

Without a word being spoken between the two of them, Jou entered the room Seth showed him to and looked around, momentarily forgetting his anger in favour of looking around curiously. The room really wasn’t too bad. There wasn’t much in it maybe, but the bed seemed better than the one he had back at home and at least here there wouldn’t be a father who would get mad at him for seemingly nothing. The beatings he got on a regular basis were definitely something he wouldn’t miss while he was staying here.

Of course since he was going to be gone for quite a while, by the time he got back his father would probably be so angry he wouldn’t be able to walk for a month, but at least he was safe until then.

“I have to go tend to some important matters, so stay put until you’re summoned to do something.” Jou glanced back at Seth for a moment to give the other a glare at the tone that clearly implied he wasn’t capable to follow the simplest of instructions. A brief smirk flitted across the other’s face before Seth turned around and walked away, leaving Jou alone in the room.

With an aggravated sigh and a few curses towards the brunette that had just left, Jou sat down on the bed, waiting until someone would come to get him.

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Yuugi watched Jou and Seth leave, feeling a slight nervous feeling coming back to him. No matter how comfortable he’d always been with Atemu, it was different to him somehow now. It was probably because now that Atemu saw his human form, he’d be a lot easier to read than the lion form Atemu had always seen. His emotions were easier to see and with that came the problems of hiding his true feelings for Atemu.

“So,” Atemu looked at him intently, his eyes watching him as if trying to find the answer to a question Yuugi didn’t know, “why is it that you seem so familiar to me while I have no idea how that’s possible?”

Yuugi smiled, happy that he could finally tell Atemu everything that he’d been keeping from the other. “Do you remember when you were little; your father took you along to a place close to the village to give some guy money to kill off the rebels?”

Atemu scowled and nodded, “Yes, it was the second time my father decided to drag me along to something like that… the first time he ordered his guards to murder an entire village.” He glanced down at the Millennium Puzzle for a moment, “It’s where the Millennium items came from, sadly.”

Yuugi grimaced at the thought of en entire village being destroyed for more power, but knew it was something late Pharaoh Aknunkanon would definitely pull. He stored the information away in his mind to think about later; right now he was telling Atemu how he’d become Hikari. “Remember a young boy you saved when he was discovered by your father?”

For a moment Atemu stared at him in that searching way again, before his eyes widened in realization and recognition. “But he… died. My father-“

“Shot me with shadow magic while the lion that had been roaming the desert pounced on me.” Yuugi grimaced at the memory of the incredible pain he’d gone through, “Yeah, I didn’t quite die.”

Yuugi spend quite some time telling Atemu everything that had happened since that day. How he’d woken up with his friends, his first time transforming, all the training he’d had to put into controlling his power, the first time he’d helped Atemu and everything else that came with keeping his secret. Atemu listened to it all silently, intently watching his friend as he finally got to know who he really was; the real person behind Hikari.

“And that’s pretty much it. Jou already told you how he and the others found out that I’m Hikari and you know how you found out… so yeah.” Yuugi fiddled with his shirt a bit nervously under the intense gaze now that he didn’t have anything to say anymore, and so had nothing to distract himself with. No matter how much he loved those eyes, it could be quite nerve-wrecking to be watched so intensely by them.

“Well,” a wry smile crossed Atemu’s face, “Never thought my father would actually accomplish something good for me in my life, even if you went through Hell for it.”

Yuugi chuckled at the comment, “I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.” He blushed a bit, knowing the comment meant more than what Atemu would probably read into it. It was true though; love put aside, he’d do everything all over again if it would get him Atemu’s friendship.

Atemu smiled gently at the comment and chuckled, “I’m glad to hear that; you’re part of why I’m still sane at this moment, especially now that Teana is here.”

Yuugi gave him a mock shocked look, “You mean this is you as a sane person? Wow, don’t want to see you going insane then.” The completely serious tone in which the statement was spoken made Atemu burst out in laughter. Yuugi just grinned at the other, glad that he’d been able to make him laugh. Atemu was usually very tense since he had so many worries, but a good laugh could relax the even the most tense of people. Atemu was no exception to that rule.

After a few more minutes of laughter, Atemu finally calmed down though he continued to chuckle a bit to himself, “Thanks, I really needed that.” He visibly relaxed, the usual tenseness leaving him.

There was a knock on the door and both Yuugi and Atemu’s heads snapped to the door. Atemu had never been so happy that people didn’t come into his room without first getting permission. Giving a brief urgent glance at Yuugi, the younger jumped up, his skin already glowing with the magic within him as he started to transform into Hikari.

“Who is there?” Atemu’s eyes stayed on Yuugi in wonder as the younger slowly transformed into the black lion with golden manes that he knew so well, clothes being discarded at the last moment so they wouldn’t rip.

“It’s me, Atemu. Are you alright?” Teana entered the room just as the glow of magic died down and Hikari quickly kicked his discarded clothes under the bed. The lion was all-too happy that his emotions and expressions were practically impossible to read in this form – Atemu not included in this rule.

Teana’s eyes focused on Hikari as she scanned the room for a moment, an annoyed look crossing her face in record time. “Oh, I see you have company.”

Atemu, leaping at the chance to annoy the girl in front of him without it having any consequences, smiled seemingly obvious to the irritated tone, “Yes, Hikari and I were just discussing some things. We’ve decided that he’ll be living here from now on. During the day he’ll probably be gone mostly, but in the evenings and at night he’ll be here at all times.”

The look on Teana’s face was beyond comical. It was only through sheer willpower and self-control that neither Hikari nor Atemu burst out into laughter, though Hikari couldn’t help but grin at the expression. He hid it by lying down on the bed, burying his face in his paws as best he could without making it look too suspicious.

Anger, shock, desperation, irritation, hatred, and a definite plea for someone to tell her that what had just been said was nothing but a joke were all fighting for dominance on Teana’s face. “And, where will he be sleeping?” Teana’s voice sounded quite stiff, obviously hiding a lot of emotions beneath the controlled tone.

Atemu wondered briefly if he could convince Hikari to sleep with him in the large bed since there was plenty of room but decided against it. If Teana really was to burst because he’d pushed too far she’d probably run back home crying, and her father would declare war even though he’d technically done nothing to offend Teana. With that in mind, he motioned towards the large pile of pillows and blankets, “Over there.”

A slight note of relief spilled over Teana’s face though it was quite obvious that she was really unhappy about the latest developments. Hikari, even though he knew very well that Atemu had no romantic feelings for Teana in any way, still felt a pang of jealousy that she could at least show her feelings for Atemu so openly when he was both too afraid to lose Atemu as a friend, and also knew it would be quite problematic for Atemu since there were a lot of princesses he should actually be choosing from. Whether Atemu might fall in love with him or not, he simply wasn’t of the right status.

With that small pang, Yuugi stood up from the bed and walked over to Teana, breaking the silence he’d kept up with her at all time since he’d met her, / I’m sure we’ll get along just fine. / He faked a smile he was sure she wouldn’t see through.

Teana stiffened at the words, momentarily confused at the mental contact before comprehending who exactly was speaking. Her stiff demeanour only became more tense at this realization as she also recognized a certain note of a challenge in the words. Well, if Hikari wanted to play it that way, she would just have to show him she was all Atemu really needed.

A smile just as faked at Hikari’s yet just as believable came onto her face as he brushed a hand through the thick golden manes briefly, refusing to touch Hikari after that, “I’m sure we will, yes.”

Atemu watched the exchange with a feeling of foreboding growing inside of him. He had the distinct feeling he’d just become part of something akin to a bet, and he didn’t quite like where that idea was leading to.

‘I’m so screwed.’

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If anyone is wondering what the hell is going on with Bakura, Mariku, Malik and Ryou… yeah, keep wondering XD They’re not showing up yet. I have other things to take care of before I actually switch to those guys but I promise that will be getting screentime… at some point. Also, to all people living in the US that want to cause me bodily harm for one reason or another, exactly one week from now I´ll be going to the US to visit Tavi for 2 whole weeks! If you wanna kill me, figure out where she lives and come maim me. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed and Review!

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Preview±

“So there haven’t been any attacks lately?” Teana gained a nod and Atemu slowly brought another bite of food to his mouth, his eyes still unfocused and his thoughts obviously somewhere else.

“Well that’s great; maybe Bakura and Mariku have finally given up.” She smiled, trying her best to make Atemu look at her.

“Maybe.” Teana would’ve screamed and would’ve gladly thrown a fit at the lack of attention but etiquette forbade it. Instead she glared at the amused look Seth threw her.

“It’s not like you’ll get any more out of him.” She hissed at the brunette, by now having learned that whether she used manners or not, the High Priest wouldn’t care. Her temper was all too happy to finally have an outlet though, so not using manners was far more appealing to her at the moment than using them.

Seth rolled his eyes and glanced over at Atemu, “Any word from Hikari?”

In less than a second of the name ‘Hikari’, Atemu’s eyes focused and he looked at Seth attentively. Teana’s jaw would’ve dropped if it wouldn’t have been un-lady-like. “He’s been scouting the desert for clues a lot but so far he’s come up with nothing. He was gone this morning before I woke up though, so I wonder why he was in such a hurry.”