Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Ways to Drive an Esper Psycho ❯ Do You Love Me? ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Not a single review for Chapter 2 so far... this picture is looking very familiar... and in Crisis of Faith although many professed to like the story while it was in progress, only one bothered to review the last chapter. History repeating itself... ? I guess Baby Dragon watching C-Span wasn't too funny after all. I know it wasn't angsty.
Okay... from now on this story will contain at least two pairings, and one of them will definitely be yaoi, but there won't be anything explicit in either case. And it will NOT be Esper Roba/anyone.
Reviews! Please? Esper groaned as he was bodily flung off the couch. He groaned again as he struck the floor.
"Come on, get up, you idiot!"
Something wrapped around him right under his arms and pulled him to his feet, keeping him up even though right then all he wanted to do was fall down. The next thing he knew the only clock in the possession of the Roba family was being shoved before his face.
"It's already-!"
Serpent Night Dragon nodded and smirked. "You better believe it." His tail unwound and propelled Esper into the bathroom. Almost as an afterthought, his entire Duel Monsters deck came flying after him, scattering across the tiles. Esper scrambled to pick them up as the door slammed. "Don't forget to at least put those cheating fingers of yours through your hair," Serpent Night Dragon's voice continued. "You look like hell froze and reheated."
Before Esper could protest he automatically looked to above the sink while still gathering the cards; there was no mirror. Their mother's hand one had been sold some time ago. "Damn," he muttered, disbelief suspended. "That stupid dragon could say I looked like Reflect Bounder and I wouldn't know the-" He froze, precious seconds ticking away, his fingers holding a card data side down. He flipped it up, nodded, and muttered, "Reflect Bounder? I wish you'd come out now."
A flash of light and before him stood none other than the monster destroyed in his last duel by his very own Jinzo. He looked into one of the mirrors and discovered that yes, indeed, he did look like hell froze and reheated. In fact, he looked like hell froze, reheated, and refrozen repeatedly.
The time- there was no time to waste!
Esper jerked the brush through his hair several times, though there was no visible improvement. He turned on the sink just long enough to more or less fill a cupped hand and splashed cold water onto his face- no time to wait for it to warm up. He wiped it more or less dry with his sleeve, then allowed himself a quick glance back in the mirror. "Um… thanks?" he managed to get out before the door flew open again and the tail flew in and dragged him out.
His sneakers were thrown into his hands and he jammed his feet into them, only then remembering the socks. He grabbed two out of the paper bag that served as a laundry hamper, thanking God they were only a little bit dirty compared to some of the other ones in there. Who cared if one was purple and the other one was yellow? He stuffed them into his jacket pockets to put on later. Then he remembered and turned for the bedroom. Tom and the twins-
"I'll take care of them. You get out! Now!"
With that, Esper was shoved out the door of the apartment, landing on his side. The taped paper bag containing his school supplies flew after him. He struggled to his feet and sprinted for the elevator, then ran back, grabbed the bag, and retraced his path.

Dar managed to hold back hysterical laughter as he looked out the door and saw Esper Roba running for the elevator. He then looked down at the clock and pressed buttons, knocking the hours backward by four, to their rightful location at 4:02 AM.
He grinned as he imagined how Ran and Sora and Black Jade and Geoffrey and all the rest would laugh if he ever got to tell them about this little escapade. His grin expanded as he looked out the window and noted it was raining.
Then he frowned and looked over the items in the kitchen cabinets- there was no refrigerator in the apartment. It was cold enough for one, anyway. It could never be mistaken for the Raptor kitchen. Which was too bad, because Charlie and Danny and Tommy and Kyosuke weren't bad at all.
"What wouldn't I give," he muttered, "for some of that stupid cranberry-raspberry juice right now."

"Hey… Joey?"
Joey groaned and rolled over. "Mmph… Jade? I think ya need ta know da Joey Wheeler Rule Number One: Don't wake Joey Wheeler in da middle of da night."
Black Jade seated himself on the edge of the bed, flipping dark spikes of hair out of his face. His red eyes didn't look at all evil; they looked normal on him. "It's not the middle of the night, it's a bit past four in the morning."
Joey pulled himself into a sitting position and swung so that by turning his head ninety degrees he could see Jade's profile. "Oh. Okay. What is it?"
"Well, something's been botherin' me." Jade leaned back against the wall with his hands behind his head. "Ya know the day before the night the Rare Hunter showed up?" Joey decided to accept the theory that imitation was the best kind of flattery.
"Ya mean the one with Exodia? Yeah, I remember that day."
"Well, ya remember you were talking to Yugi and those others, before ya went to register?"
"Yeah…"
"Did you mean it?"
Joey blinked. Was Red Eyes Black Dragon really blushing? "Mean what?"
"I mean, when you kissed my card. I felt it. I asked Yugi and he said you did it, too."
"What the-"
"Well? Did you mean it?" By now the blush could not be denied. "Um. Are you really in love with me?"
Any further discourse was cut short by the unconscious state of Joseph Wheeler.

Rex Raptor pulled the blanket over his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "I don't want to get up," he mumbled. "I don't want to get up!"
But he did. He had to.
He actually wore the standard Domino High uniform, with none of his little "additions" such as socks with little dinosaurs on the ankle, for the first time since his freshman year. He didn't even bother to put on his hat- another thing he had done without fail since freshman year.
And he had always, always, always taken his deck with him. Since before freshman year.
Ran and Sora were back in the cards, since Rex doubted the excuse of "friends sleeping over" would hold out for very much longer. If he overestimated, then he could very well lose Ran and Sora.
Just like he'd lost Red Eyes Black Dragon, and then Dar DelaSangre…
It was raining, and Rex sat in the front of the car with his school gear, not saying a word. When the door opened before the high school and his father said, "Well, see you later," his returned goodbye sounded as if a robotic version of him was saying it. He climbed out, reached back in for his backpack, and headed away. The uniform jacket didn't come with a hood, and Rex's head got drenched before he reached the building. He didn't care. Compared to losing Dar, wet hair was the absolute least of his worries.

Cassiel rose before either Aaron or their Master and prepared a meal. He had to taste several items to be absolutely sure what they were, but he knew they were safe for consumption. Every one of them had been specified by his Master, and painstakingly written down by Cassiel.
"How," he muttered, "just how did you get yourself into this?"
Cassiel had once, six or five hundred sixes years ago depending on how you counted it, been a genuine child. He had believed that Masters always knew what was best. He had believed that they could never deliberately hurt him. He had believed they all cared.
He had been proven wrong.
After the duel he had waited along with Aaron, waited for something to happen. Of course their cards were tampered with, so they couldn't be taken away like Cassiel had first expected, but still. Things couldn't just go on the way they had been before; the shift had been too great for that to happen. They couldn't go back again; that much was certain.
Whatever they had expected, they definitely hadn't expected the wish.
But he had made the wish. And they had to answer his call.
Cassiel picked up the various items and placed them on a large book, then picked up the book and started for his Master's room.
But he hadn't ever expected to be his Master's keeper!
All the shades were drawn. All Cassiel could make out was shadows. There was a large one in the center of the room, and lying in the center of that, looking very weak in comparison, was him.
"Catherine," he muttered. "Catherine…"
Cassiel placed the food on the table beside the bed and hastily left the room.

Esper Roba had not been amused when Dar finally let him in. "Stay here," he gritted out, "and take care of Kyosuke." Then, after a quick course in baby care, "And by God and Jesus and all that is holy-"
"-just about everything that isn't you-"
"-if you've harmed one hair on his head, just one hair, I'll- I'll make you wish you were never born!"
"Oh? And how exactly will you do that?"
"SHUT UP!" was Esper's only comeback.
So the four oldest Robas had gone off to school; they went to different ones than Rex's school which was apparently a long way south. And he was stuck with a one-year-old and Reflect Bounder, who hadn't been recalled to his card.
Reflect Bounder actually wasn't so bad. He introduced himself as Rigel, like the star, and he busied himself keeping Kyosuke amused by doing odd things with his mirrors. When Kyosuke began to cry, Rigel (who had apparently listened in on Esper's lecture) ran to get the bottle. It was at that point that Dar pressed the lock button on the apartment door, opened it, walked out, closed it, and walked off. By the time Rigel had finished with Kyosuke's needs for the moment, he had completely forgotten that Dar was supposed to be there.

Mokuba had dreamed of a girl around his age who turned into a Blue Eyes White Dragon named Sen and got a job at Kaiba Corp. Only in his dream the owner of Kaiba Corp. wasn't Seto, it was a really short Pegasus dressed like an old lady. And then there was another Blue Eyes White Dragon called Nigihayami Kohakunushi; only they found out his real name was Haku. And then Pegasus was taking care of a giant baby with sea-green hair like the Roba brothers he hadn't busted. And then he woke up.
He came downstairs to find Seto, Chihiro, Haku, Sapphire, and Lord of Dragons seated around the dining room (the table was only big enough for two) having breakfast. Mokuba took his place at the table and started on his readied plate, eating somewhat faster than he did on the weekends and definitely faster than Seto. In fact, he was eating almost as fast as Sapphire, who was eating like he hadn't seen food in a thousand years.
"Mokuba," said Seto, "I'd like you to meet Ryuunosuke."
Lord of Dragons, newly labeled in Mokuba's mind as Ryuunosuke, bowed. Mokuba reached out, grabbed his hand, and shook it in response.

"Psst," Joey whispered in the half-minute before the bell. "Who's the new kid? The bummed-out looking one?"
Téa turned around. "Don't you recognize him? That's Rex Raptor, for heaven's sake!"
"Oh. Right. I knew that."
"Okayyyyyy."

Dar didn't have much time. It had taken an hour to get to Rex's house in the rain, and he had to get back by a little bit past three- he had learned that was when school stopped. He didn't want to push Esper too far.
Maybe he could just stay with the Raptors, who gave a damn about Esper Roba… that option was dismissed quickly. After some experimentation they had learned that Dar and the others had to return to their cards on their Master's command. Back then, of course, their Master had been Rex who would never force them back in. But now Dar's card was in Esper Roba's possession; the latter might have cheated to get it, but regardless he had it. And Dar might not consider Esper his Master, but Esper certainly did, and the method he had used to get the card made no difference.
He had to go back to the city he had learned was named Lantern. Eventually.
But not for now.
And if his plan worked, after a while he'd never need to go back there again.
Dar calculated he'd be able to stay in Domino (newly dubbed Battle City, after the tournament) for roughly four hours. And he wasn't going to spend that time dawdling outside Rex's house when he knew perfectly well Rex wouldn't be coming home until it was too late to see him.
After some more searching, he found the school Rex attended. He walked right in as if he belonged there; that ploy had worked for him several times in the past. And considering the large number of students in Rex's school, probably everyone would assume he was just another student.
And it almost worked.
"Dar! Hey, Dar!"
He spun; he knew that voice didn't belong to Rex or Esper or Job. He had heard Rex's voice giving commands on the field too many times to not recognize when a voice wasn't his. Job was his own cousin and the same thing went for him. And Esper's was far more annoying. This one reminded him more of the one who'd had the Flame Swordsman and the Battleguards, the one into whose hands Black Jade's card had passed. In fact, it reminded him of…
He was wearing another set of the clothes he'd seen hanging in Rex's closet, the clothes Rex put on when he needed to go to school (but Rex generally added some things of his own). He leaned against the wall besides a closed door- Dar didn't see any open doors, probably because of the rain. His hair was dark like a cloudy night where you couldn't see the stars, but it had a luster to it that cloudy nights didn't have. His eyes were dark blood, and Dar knew as soon as he noticed this attribute exactly who he was.
"Jade?" It was more of statement than a question.
"That would be me, yeah." Jade lifted an eyebrow as he indicated Dar's constructs. "Don't ya think ya ought change those a bit, Dar? That way you'll fit in more." The arm swept from Dar to another door, one with a simplified outline of a human in front of it. "You better go in there ta do it, though."
It was hard work changing the constructs once they came into being, especially in this place. Too, the smell wasn't the most pleasant one Dar knew of, and it was distracting both to smell it and to breathe through the mouth.
He gave up and decided to start from scratch. He concentrated, the human fingers and toes elongating into claws and the human spine stretching, wings appearing. He dropped to all fours as the transformation drew to a close, then immediately began changing back, this time shaping his constructs to approximate what Jade had been wearing.
He gave himself an appraisal, undid the primitive latch, and walked out.
The first thing he saw was Black Jade's new Master with his mouth open. In fact, Dar thought, it was so wide open you could probably stuff a Petite Angel in there. What seemed like forever but was only a few seconds passed before the mouth moved to form words.
"What the hell… tell me I didn't see what I just saw."
Act normal. Act like you belong. Maybe he doesn't know. "That depends. What did you see?"
Another false forever went by before the answer. "… claws under the door."
Damn.

Cassiel did a simple transportation spell, like the one infused within the Mystic Box. There was a reason the doors closed before the two monsters were switched, besides to create suspense for the uninformed- it wasn't at all a pretty sight to watch. That was why he did it in the room with the tiles.
He focused on leaving his body, literally pulling his soul out of it, like his Master had done with that other card. Only this time he wanted it to happen, so in a way it was easier. He kept only the thinnest of ties, thin enough so that he could wander away. He heard the sound of his body falling against the tiles; he would get it later.
In his mind's eye Cassiel flew out of the room, out of the building, over the city wet with the rain and seeming to glow with all the other souls. There were four strange glows in the building besides Aaron's. They were a little bit like Aaron's and his own; there were traces of Shadow lingering around them.
He oriented himself to the south and after a long, long while managed to see the place called Battle City. His rough destination. Now to find his more precise one…
There were two clusters of souls with traces of Shadow, as well as some lone ones. One of the ones in the clusters gave him an extremely familiar feeling and even though that was the one he was looking for, he recoiled from it. Everything began to fall down on his figurative head.
His soul wasn't torn apart and scattered to whatever corners the Shadow Realm had. Instead, Cassiel's soul spiraled down toward the second cluster, and before he could stop it the spell dragged his body along.
It didn't fully materialize until he had fallen through the roof of the large house into one of the rooms, and he still wasn't quite sure it had until he smashed into the floor. At first the only thing in his thoughts was the pain. Then he noticed the others in the room and gulped. "Um, Lord of Dragons? I know you won't believe me, but this was entirely unintentional. Could you please stop pointing the Flute of Summoning Dragon at me?"
Lord of Dragons backed off, and Cassiel got to his feet. "I'm very sorry about this."
"I accept your apology. You'll have to speak to our Master, though."
Gulp. "Where might your Master be?"
"He's occupied at the moment. Ryuunosuke, go ask for him. I'll take care of this."
Ryuunosuke bowed. "As you wish, Lady Chihiro."
"And don't call me Lady. You make it sound like I'm Lady of Faith."
"Yes, Lady Chihiro." He left the room, leaving only her and Cassiel.
She grinned in a sideways manner, revealing abnormally sharp teeth; the cold light from above made her hair seem like alabaster or something of that nature. "As you may have concluded by now… I'm Chihiro Snow. Very pleased to meet you."
He nodded in response. "My name is Cassiel." His mind made a quick identification: dragon in human shape. Probably- no, definitely, Blue Eyes White Dragon. And with that his mind automatically began to look for a quick transportation spell.
She looked to the door. "Our Master should be here shortly. If I don't know him well enough to know he'll be interested in off-color Dark Magicians falling from what certainly looks like thin air, I don't know him at all."
Cassiel started. "How did you-"
She smiled. "You're holding the staff," and she indicated it. "And your eyes- they're like Gabriel's. They have the same look in them. Not to mention your staff's a lot like his, too."
Now Cassiel felt like a complete idiot. "I'm very sorry about this."
"You already said that. You sound just like Gabriel when you say that, did you know that?"
Before he could reply, the door swung open and Chihiro's Master entered.