FIC Seraph Part 15
Jun. 24th, 2006 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljSome more of this one. Probably be a while for the next part, I'm planning on posting Responsive 11, then Incubus 14, followed by Responsive 12 then Patron 14, and I'll decide what else to post after that.
Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme
This is AU, seriously so
:blah: = hikari to yami telepathy
-blah- = yami to hikari telepathy
Ryou was still surprised sometimes by the way his Shadow clung to him in sleep and how desperate he was for Ryou’s approval and attention, but it was very enjoyable anyway. So it wasn’t a surprise that Shadow was in his arms when he woke after the way Shadow had begged him not to leave him alone after actually fucking him for the first time. That tight heat had been incredible, something he hadn’t expected in the slightest and something he intended to experience often in the future. He hadn’t expected Shadow to still be asleep when he woke, but he didn’t need to get out of bed yet, so he might as well just let him sleep. Even though they were the exact same size, height and weight, and they both put on muscles in the same way - without bulking up - somehow Shadow always seemed much frailer than he did. His current behaviour only emphasised this as Shadow pressed his face into Ryou’s chest, and Ryou almost automatically began stroking his hair and back soothingly. He treasured the trust this showed, as a sign of how effectively he’d managed to break his Consort to his will.
It didn’t take too long for Shadow to wake up himself, snapping immediately from sleep to full alertness even after last night, and Ryou smiled approvingly at that. He released Shadow to let him get out of bed, but as his Consort moved he seemed to feel something, because he froze for a second, drawing in a hissing breath. Ryou knew that it was supposed to hurt after the first time you were taken, but...after a full night to recover? And Shadow had a high pain threshold, if not quite as high as Ryou’s, so it shouldn’t hurt enough for him to show it.
He used his magic to bring the lights up, sitting up and grabbing hold of Shadow as his Consort moved away from him.
“Stay.” It came out almost as a growl, and Shadow obeyed, freezing, but trembling ever so slightly. Ryou could see that his Consort was scared, terrified almost, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. He ran his hands over his Consort’s body, watching to see how he reacted, and where he was hurt. Shadow didn’t react badly until Ryou ran a finger up the crack between his ass, without quite entering him, but Shadow still flinched away, then turned to look at Ryou, terror stark in his eyes. Ryou laughed and gently pushed his Consort down to lie on his stomach as he moved to check where they’d fucked the night before.
“Damn!” He cursed as he saw the blood staining the white sheets and turned on Shadow. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“T-tell you what, Seraph-sama?”
“That I hurt you.” He raised his hand in frustration without thinking about what he was doing, and Shadow cringed away from him. That...didn’t make any sense he thought, lowering his hand. He’d never hit Shadow outside of sparing and formal punishment since he’d arranged for Shadow to get his own body, and he always told Shadow about formal punishment beforehand. And besides, the way he was holding his hand, fingers spread wide and half curled, bent back at the wrist, it wouldn’t be any good for hitting anything. He raked the hand he’d raised through his hair as if that was what he’d intended all along and took hold of Shadow by the shoulders. “Answer my question Shadow. Why did I find blood on the sheets from last night?”
“I...towards the end I tore inside. It wasn’t much, really, I’ll heal soon enough.”
“No, you won’t.” Ryou let go of Shadow’s left shoulder, reaching around behind his Consort with his right hand, and gently pressing against the entrance to his body. Shadow hid the pain it caused him, but Ryou could feel it through their bond, which he’d forced open. “You should have told me as soon as I hurt you, so I could do this.” And he focused his will into healing his Consort, not just from the tear, but to make him as tight as the virgin he’d been before last night.
“I should send you to the scientists, have you altered so that you’re self-lubricating there and you won’t get hurt when I fuck you.” Ryou knew that the scientists and the labs frightened Shadow, and he coldly used that threat to punish him.
“No, please, don’t. J-just tell me what I did wrong, and I won’t do it again, I swear!” Shadow was terrified of Ryou, and of his anger, and he really didn’t seem to understand why he was angry.
“If I ever hurt you during sex and you fail to tell me again then I will send you to the scientists. Do you understand me?”
“Yes Seraph-sama.”
“Good. And I’m going to spank you for failing to tell me that you were hurt this time.” He pulled Shadow over his knee, and began the process of spanking him, as promised.
--0--
“Well, that didn’t work too well did it?” Yugi winced at Anzu’s comment, she’d advised against talking to Bakura like this, and certainly against ambushing him and dragging him away from Ryou. “He was more afraid of the way we were forcing him to talk to us than he was of Ryou. He probably contacted Ryou asking to be rescued from us.”
“We had to do something!” Jou sounded outraged at the implication that they should leave Ryou to abuse Bakura.
“Yeah, we couldn’t just leave him there to be hurt!”
-Why not? No one cared until you could actually see the bruises Seraph was leaving on Shadow’s body. And...I hate to say this, but I’m not entirely sure that the bruises really do constitute abuse. Seraph’s refusal to heal them does, but not making the bruises in and of itself.- Yugi hated the bitterness he could sense from Yami, but he didn’t know what to say to the spirit he loved.
“Of course not, but we didn’t have to use those tactics, there wasn’t any indication that we had to hurry.” Anzu frowned as she spoke, obviously thinking about the bruises they’d started seeing on Bakura’s body. “I know the bruises looked bad, but that’s all they are, bruises, and we don’t actually have enough evidence to take to anyone. No one will act on our suspicions alone, or on what little evidence we have now.”
-I think Seraph might be good enough to hide any evidence of abuse. I’m sure that he’s brainwashed Shadow enough that he won’t be willing to tell anyone that he’s been abused.- Yami sounded sad about that, and a little scared; Yugi couldn’t exactly blame him for that, and it gave him an argument to use on Anzu.
“That’s why we were trying to talk to Bakura, the only way we can show anyone that he’s being abused is if he tells us how to get evidence, and he won’t until we can convince him that he is being abused.”
“Yes, but this wasn’t the best way to convince him, was it Yugi?” Anzu sounded sad, and a little bit guilty, while Yami was radiating an air of pain, mixed with a very little satisfaction, and a hint of guilt when Anzu pointed out the flaws in their approach. “We surrounded him, and bullied him into coming here, then we began interrogating him, and accusing someone he thinks he loves. No wonder Bakura-kun became defensive.”
-I think he might have contacted Seraph asking for help as well, I could sense some Shadow Magic use, but not what type, when Shadow claimed that Seraph did heal him.- Yami sounded unhappy about that, and Yugi could see why. If Ryou healed Bakura, but still left the bruises what sort of damage did he do when Bakura was ‘training’?
“And he obviously called to Ryou for help. He says those bruises are from training, but he implied that Ryou usually does worse damage.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Honda sounded shocked. “Me and Jou, we’ve been fighting for most of our lives, and we got plenty of bruises, but not much worse, not like Bakura was talking about.”
“Yeah, I’ve got hurt worse than Honda has, but even using knives I haven’t got that many scars, the way Bakura talked he needed Ryou to heal broken bones or cuts after every training session. That isn’t training, that’s torture.”
“But the fact that Ryou does heal him of that much damage will make it harder for us to convince people that Bakura is being abused. Yes, he has bruises, but Ryou has publicly declared and proven himself a skilled martial artist, Bakura has admitted to being less skilled than Ryou, and martial artists in training often have a lot of bruises.” Yugi frowned at Anzu’s clarification of the problems facing them, he hadn’t wanted to think about that, he knew that it would be hard to convince any adult to take their concerns seriously, even if there’d been more physical evidence.
“We’ll just have to try and find more evidence then, and perhaps you could talk to him alone Anzu? Or you Honda, since you didn’t ask any questions and Anzu seems...more sensitive.”
“Sure.” Honda still didn’t seem that worried about Bakura, but Yugi wasn’t as paranoid as Yami was anyway.
“If I can Yugi-kun.” Anzu nodded to him as she replied, frowning a little. “But I don’t think he’ll be that willing to trust me.”
--0--
Bakura only started shaking when they got back home, and he couldn’t figure out why, or why he couldn’t stop. And he had to get himself under control, and quickly, or Seraph would be angry at him for being so weak. But...he kept on having flashbacks, to that first awful six months when Seraph was educating him as to his proper place in life, to his life before he was trapped in the Ring, being raped, or being tortured for doing what he had to so he could survive, and to the destruction of his home and clan. Then...Seraph pulled him into his arms.
“It’s alright, I’m not angry at you for being upset.” Bakura tentatively reached out through their bond, to confirm that, expecting to be rebuffed angrily, but instead all he could sense was love, support, and a protective/possessive fury directed at the children who’d tried to separate them. He shivered at that thought and pressed himself against his master more firmly, nuzzling into his chest for comfort. Seraph stroked his back and hair gently, whispering how much he cared for him, and how proud he was of Bakura’s self-control throughout. It was enough to make Bakura actually start to cry, one of the few times he wouldn’t get into trouble for doing so. Seraph just kept on praising him, rocking him back and forward slightly, as a comfort, and Bakura kept on crying, until he couldn’t cry any more, ignoring Rukaiya’s scandalised gasp when she saw them like that.
“Shadow, is there anything that you find helps your emotional state? I find doing katas is calming, almost a meditation at times, is there anything that has a similar effect for you? Or should I just put you to bed?” Bakura found himself blushing at the implication of Seraph’s second question, at least what he assumed the implication was, even if he should be long past that, but he forced himself to think about his answer to the first question. If Seraph calmed emotional turmoil by doing katas that explained a bit of the shape he was in, but in Bakura’s first life he’d never found anything that had a calming effect on him, and he wouldn’t have wanted to. And in this life the closest thing he’d found to a calming activity was cooking, but especially...
“Baking. It gives me something to think about, and kneading the dough...” He shrugged without clarifying what he meant, he didn’t need to after all, his master hadn’t asked.
“Oh, good, I’ve missed the wonderful breads you make. Could you start off a sourdough loaf as well?” A slow, approving smile spread across his face, and Bakura smiled back at him, tremulously. Seraph had approved of his unspoken request to go to the kitchen to compose himself, and even better he’d praised his skills there, and he’d wanted to find a way to make him feel better about what had just happened. He hadn’t told Bakura that he’d betrayed or failed him in any way, and he’d half expected that he would, he’d feared that possibility, the thought of betraying him hurt.
“I can try, I cannot be certain that it will necessarily work, you know that we don’t always get the correct yeasts. And even if I succeed we won’t get the loaf for at least five days.” It didn’t really bother him that he was so comfortable in the kitchen, he knew that it was considered unmanly in a lot of modern cultures, but it gave Seraph another reason to want to keep him, and made him feel a little less dependent, like a prostitute.
“I know, but I can wait.” Seraph smiled at Bakura almost teasingly, and Bakura bowed his head blushing. “Rukaiya, I want you to help Shadow bake however he tells you to, or go and make yourself useful cleaning somewhere else if that’s what he wants from you.”
“Yes Seraph-sama.”
“I could probably use someone to wash everything up as I use it. Is there any bread you wish me to bake in particular Seraph-sama?”
“No, just something other than plain bread.” Like the only bread Rukaiya ever baked, when she did bake something.
“Yes Seraph-sama. Shall I freeze some as well, for future use?” If he did then while the loaves he would bake today were rising he could make the dough up for other loaves.
“Definitely.”
--0--
Ryou sighed as he went over their financial situation. They didn’t have any reason to worry about money, but for the past year all of their income had been from the return on his investments, made using the payments from when he’d Worked earlier, or from the coding Shadow did, and more had come from the coding than Ryou was happy with. He wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or pissed that Shadow could survive without him now, although he’d got all his coding jobs through the Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen, which was a sort of comfort. But he was definitely worried about how long it was since he’d Worked, he wouldn’t be getting really good assignments for a while, and even though he’d been available to Work for more than two months he hadn’t been contacted.
He knew why he wasn’t getting any assignments as well, requesting the break for training had done some damage to his reputation, and he didn’t have the history to Work at alpha enhanced standard already, his last assignment had been beta enhanced and more than a year ago. And he’d made it clear to the Fairest that he didn’t want Shadow to Work until after he’d started to Work again, which gave Ryou more time to get him into shape again. There was only one real solution for this, even if it did hurt his pride a little. He would have to make this request in writing, and as formally as he could manage, so Ryou pulled out a sheet of parchment, a brush and black ink.
‘Lady Fairest,’ He’d only met her once, before he’d Worked for the first time, all other contact had been through letters such as this.
‘Honour to you, but it is my wish to humbly request that I receive some assignment. I understand that during the year I spent training I have suffered a loss of reputation, and since I underwent alpha enhanced testing, rather than alpha standard you do not have any record of how my skill has improved, so I wish to inform you that I will accept any assignments that could be undertaken by a beta standard or higher Adept.
‘Yours in hope
‘Seraph.’
Ryou knew that really he should have used more beautiful language, and phrased his request much more aesthetically, but that had never really been something he was good at. And besides he had a feeling the Fairest might well appreciate the directness - comparative directness anyway, as compared to the circumtuitous way most Adepts of the Children of the Fairest tended to address their concerns when they contacted her. Generally his fellows tended to be more concerned with making sure what they wrote down or said for her eyes or ears was beautiful than comprehensible, but Ryou didn’t really have the talent needed to play word games like that with her. But he could make sure it was presented beautifully, since he was very skilled with calligraphy. The private language of the Children of the Fairest was beautiful written down anyway, but Ryou had focused on making each ideograph as perfect as he could, and placing it in the perfect position on the page to convey its meaning and compliment the other ideographs.
Before he could change his mind Ryou folded the parchment, sealing it with green wax and using his personal seal to confirm it was from him, then addressed it and placed it in the gold box that functioned as a mail delivery system for all the Children of the Fairest. There, now he was pretty sure he would get some sort of assignment, because why would the Fairest turn down the chance to get Work that she knew Ryou was capable of out of him, without insulting him by assigning something too easy.
Done was done anyway, and so he turned away from the box, deciding to go and check on his Consort. He’d focused on their finances the way he hadn’t for too long in order to distact himself from how his ‘friends’ had tried to take Shadow away from him, and now he would focus on making sure that Shadow was feeling better, safer and more secure. Because if he let himself feel angry at what they were trying to do Ryou knew that his thoughts would turn to ways of killing them, without anyone suspecting, killing them, or torturing them. As he made his way to the kitchen Ryou felt the box contact him, telling him that he had a message, and returned, finding that the Fairest had accepted his offer, giving him a beta enhanced assignment.
--0--
Yami hated how wrong it had gone when they tried to help Shadow. He’d thought that Yugi would have a better plan than that, would be able to cite the abuse he’d observed, or asked Yami to cite the abuse he’d observed, and convince him that yes, Seraph was abusing him. Instead they’d confronted Shadow, and accused Seraph openly, rather than guiding Shadow to recognise the way he was being treated for himself. Yami was pretty sure that Shadow was too brainwashed to understand that he’d been, was still being, abused unless he figure it out for himself, and Seraph kept him from ever realising that by himself.
-Yugi, I have an idea about how we could help Shadow, if you wish to hear it.- He’d been brooding over the debacle their first effort had been for most of the day, and all night too, thankfully he didn’t need to sleep the way Yugi did.
:What do you want me to do? Our last attempt didn’t go too well.: Yugi seemed angry, and Yami refused to cringe because of that.
-Write down every time you see something that looks or sounds like abuse, or the signs of abuse, and get all your friends to do the same thing. I’ll let you know if I notice anything that you might have missed.- Or seen and dismissed. -Then, in a couple of months we’d have something to show Shadow, or possibly an adult, grounds for our worries.-
:I’ll let you tell the others about it.: Putting the responsibility for this plan firmly on Yami, but he didn’t mind that at all. He didn’t think there was anything he could have done better to organise their first attempt at helping Shadow, not in the short time the others felt they had to work in, but he could console himself by doing everything he could to make their second effort a lot more successful.
-Then can we have a chance to buy some suitable notebooks precisely for that purpose before we go to school today. I think Seraph might have instructed Shadow to avoid us for a while, even if he doesn’t do it on his own.- And Yami thought that since Shadow was obviously deluded enough to believe he loved Seraph he’d want to avoid the people who’d tried to separate him from his abuser.
:And if he hasn’t?: Yugi seemed concerned, and if Seraph hadn’t given Shadow those orders Yam thought it would be a bad sign, something Shadow could point to and say ‘see, he wouldn’t have done that if he was abusing me’, and it would mean Seraph thought, or knew he had too much control over Shadow to need to tell him to avoid them. :But sure, we can leave a little early and get the notebooks on the way to school.:
-Thank you. If Shadow hasn’t been ordered to avoid us we’ll wait until we can get the others alone, and make our own records until then. And...if he hasn’t been instructed to avoid us could you try to find out why?-
:Why not you mean. And if he lets me get close enough to find out I’ll ask, sure.: Then Yugi began focusing on getting ready to go to school, something Yami appreciated because he’d have to leave early to have a chance to get the notebooks. He didn’t question the type of notebook Yugi chose, all four being soft covered reporter’s notebooks, even if he’d have preferred something a little sturdier - but then he wasn’t entirely sure Yugi could afford to buy the sort of notebooks he’d prefer for this. He knew the tournaments he won for his aibou had high prize money, but he also knew that Yugi had given all the money from Duellist Kingdom to Jou, and he wasn’t sure he hadn’t been similarly generous after other tournaments.
Still, it took long enough for Yugi’s purchases to go through that he had to run the five blocks to school, something he did more easily than he would have before Shadow started training him, and he didn’t have a chance to see how Shadow reacted to him, or to talk to his friends before class. And when break came Shadow stayed as close to Seraph as he could, avoiding Yugi almost the way he tended to avoid Yami.
-It looks like he’s either been ordered to avoid you, or just wants to avoid you aibou.-
:I know. But I don’t think he’s going to be avoiding Anzu, don’t ask me why not. It gives us time to fill the others in on our plan too.: Yugi gathered his friends, handing the notebooks out and explaining what they were for before their next teacher arrived.
--0--
Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme
This is AU, seriously so
:blah: = hikari to yami telepathy
-blah- = yami to hikari telepathy
Ryou was still surprised sometimes by the way his Shadow clung to him in sleep and how desperate he was for Ryou’s approval and attention, but it was very enjoyable anyway. So it wasn’t a surprise that Shadow was in his arms when he woke after the way Shadow had begged him not to leave him alone after actually fucking him for the first time. That tight heat had been incredible, something he hadn’t expected in the slightest and something he intended to experience often in the future. He hadn’t expected Shadow to still be asleep when he woke, but he didn’t need to get out of bed yet, so he might as well just let him sleep. Even though they were the exact same size, height and weight, and they both put on muscles in the same way - without bulking up - somehow Shadow always seemed much frailer than he did. His current behaviour only emphasised this as Shadow pressed his face into Ryou’s chest, and Ryou almost automatically began stroking his hair and back soothingly. He treasured the trust this showed, as a sign of how effectively he’d managed to break his Consort to his will.
It didn’t take too long for Shadow to wake up himself, snapping immediately from sleep to full alertness even after last night, and Ryou smiled approvingly at that. He released Shadow to let him get out of bed, but as his Consort moved he seemed to feel something, because he froze for a second, drawing in a hissing breath. Ryou knew that it was supposed to hurt after the first time you were taken, but...after a full night to recover? And Shadow had a high pain threshold, if not quite as high as Ryou’s, so it shouldn’t hurt enough for him to show it.
He used his magic to bring the lights up, sitting up and grabbing hold of Shadow as his Consort moved away from him.
“Stay.” It came out almost as a growl, and Shadow obeyed, freezing, but trembling ever so slightly. Ryou could see that his Consort was scared, terrified almost, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. He ran his hands over his Consort’s body, watching to see how he reacted, and where he was hurt. Shadow didn’t react badly until Ryou ran a finger up the crack between his ass, without quite entering him, but Shadow still flinched away, then turned to look at Ryou, terror stark in his eyes. Ryou laughed and gently pushed his Consort down to lie on his stomach as he moved to check where they’d fucked the night before.
“Damn!” He cursed as he saw the blood staining the white sheets and turned on Shadow. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“T-tell you what, Seraph-sama?”
“That I hurt you.” He raised his hand in frustration without thinking about what he was doing, and Shadow cringed away from him. That...didn’t make any sense he thought, lowering his hand. He’d never hit Shadow outside of sparing and formal punishment since he’d arranged for Shadow to get his own body, and he always told Shadow about formal punishment beforehand. And besides, the way he was holding his hand, fingers spread wide and half curled, bent back at the wrist, it wouldn’t be any good for hitting anything. He raked the hand he’d raised through his hair as if that was what he’d intended all along and took hold of Shadow by the shoulders. “Answer my question Shadow. Why did I find blood on the sheets from last night?”
“I...towards the end I tore inside. It wasn’t much, really, I’ll heal soon enough.”
“No, you won’t.” Ryou let go of Shadow’s left shoulder, reaching around behind his Consort with his right hand, and gently pressing against the entrance to his body. Shadow hid the pain it caused him, but Ryou could feel it through their bond, which he’d forced open. “You should have told me as soon as I hurt you, so I could do this.” And he focused his will into healing his Consort, not just from the tear, but to make him as tight as the virgin he’d been before last night.
“I should send you to the scientists, have you altered so that you’re self-lubricating there and you won’t get hurt when I fuck you.” Ryou knew that the scientists and the labs frightened Shadow, and he coldly used that threat to punish him.
“No, please, don’t. J-just tell me what I did wrong, and I won’t do it again, I swear!” Shadow was terrified of Ryou, and of his anger, and he really didn’t seem to understand why he was angry.
“If I ever hurt you during sex and you fail to tell me again then I will send you to the scientists. Do you understand me?”
“Yes Seraph-sama.”
“Good. And I’m going to spank you for failing to tell me that you were hurt this time.” He pulled Shadow over his knee, and began the process of spanking him, as promised.
“Well, that didn’t work too well did it?” Yugi winced at Anzu’s comment, she’d advised against talking to Bakura like this, and certainly against ambushing him and dragging him away from Ryou. “He was more afraid of the way we were forcing him to talk to us than he was of Ryou. He probably contacted Ryou asking to be rescued from us.”
“We had to do something!” Jou sounded outraged at the implication that they should leave Ryou to abuse Bakura.
“Yeah, we couldn’t just leave him there to be hurt!”
-Why not? No one cared until you could actually see the bruises Seraph was leaving on Shadow’s body. And...I hate to say this, but I’m not entirely sure that the bruises really do constitute abuse. Seraph’s refusal to heal them does, but not making the bruises in and of itself.- Yugi hated the bitterness he could sense from Yami, but he didn’t know what to say to the spirit he loved.
“Of course not, but we didn’t have to use those tactics, there wasn’t any indication that we had to hurry.” Anzu frowned as she spoke, obviously thinking about the bruises they’d started seeing on Bakura’s body. “I know the bruises looked bad, but that’s all they are, bruises, and we don’t actually have enough evidence to take to anyone. No one will act on our suspicions alone, or on what little evidence we have now.”
-I think Seraph might be good enough to hide any evidence of abuse. I’m sure that he’s brainwashed Shadow enough that he won’t be willing to tell anyone that he’s been abused.- Yami sounded sad about that, and a little scared; Yugi couldn’t exactly blame him for that, and it gave him an argument to use on Anzu.
“That’s why we were trying to talk to Bakura, the only way we can show anyone that he’s being abused is if he tells us how to get evidence, and he won’t until we can convince him that he is being abused.”
“Yes, but this wasn’t the best way to convince him, was it Yugi?” Anzu sounded sad, and a little bit guilty, while Yami was radiating an air of pain, mixed with a very little satisfaction, and a hint of guilt when Anzu pointed out the flaws in their approach. “We surrounded him, and bullied him into coming here, then we began interrogating him, and accusing someone he thinks he loves. No wonder Bakura-kun became defensive.”
-I think he might have contacted Seraph asking for help as well, I could sense some Shadow Magic use, but not what type, when Shadow claimed that Seraph did heal him.- Yami sounded unhappy about that, and Yugi could see why. If Ryou healed Bakura, but still left the bruises what sort of damage did he do when Bakura was ‘training’?
“And he obviously called to Ryou for help. He says those bruises are from training, but he implied that Ryou usually does worse damage.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Honda sounded shocked. “Me and Jou, we’ve been fighting for most of our lives, and we got plenty of bruises, but not much worse, not like Bakura was talking about.”
“Yeah, I’ve got hurt worse than Honda has, but even using knives I haven’t got that many scars, the way Bakura talked he needed Ryou to heal broken bones or cuts after every training session. That isn’t training, that’s torture.”
“But the fact that Ryou does heal him of that much damage will make it harder for us to convince people that Bakura is being abused. Yes, he has bruises, but Ryou has publicly declared and proven himself a skilled martial artist, Bakura has admitted to being less skilled than Ryou, and martial artists in training often have a lot of bruises.” Yugi frowned at Anzu’s clarification of the problems facing them, he hadn’t wanted to think about that, he knew that it would be hard to convince any adult to take their concerns seriously, even if there’d been more physical evidence.
“We’ll just have to try and find more evidence then, and perhaps you could talk to him alone Anzu? Or you Honda, since you didn’t ask any questions and Anzu seems...more sensitive.”
“Sure.” Honda still didn’t seem that worried about Bakura, but Yugi wasn’t as paranoid as Yami was anyway.
“If I can Yugi-kun.” Anzu nodded to him as she replied, frowning a little. “But I don’t think he’ll be that willing to trust me.”
Bakura only started shaking when they got back home, and he couldn’t figure out why, or why he couldn’t stop. And he had to get himself under control, and quickly, or Seraph would be angry at him for being so weak. But...he kept on having flashbacks, to that first awful six months when Seraph was educating him as to his proper place in life, to his life before he was trapped in the Ring, being raped, or being tortured for doing what he had to so he could survive, and to the destruction of his home and clan. Then...Seraph pulled him into his arms.
“It’s alright, I’m not angry at you for being upset.” Bakura tentatively reached out through their bond, to confirm that, expecting to be rebuffed angrily, but instead all he could sense was love, support, and a protective/possessive fury directed at the children who’d tried to separate them. He shivered at that thought and pressed himself against his master more firmly, nuzzling into his chest for comfort. Seraph stroked his back and hair gently, whispering how much he cared for him, and how proud he was of Bakura’s self-control throughout. It was enough to make Bakura actually start to cry, one of the few times he wouldn’t get into trouble for doing so. Seraph just kept on praising him, rocking him back and forward slightly, as a comfort, and Bakura kept on crying, until he couldn’t cry any more, ignoring Rukaiya’s scandalised gasp when she saw them like that.
“Shadow, is there anything that you find helps your emotional state? I find doing katas is calming, almost a meditation at times, is there anything that has a similar effect for you? Or should I just put you to bed?” Bakura found himself blushing at the implication of Seraph’s second question, at least what he assumed the implication was, even if he should be long past that, but he forced himself to think about his answer to the first question. If Seraph calmed emotional turmoil by doing katas that explained a bit of the shape he was in, but in Bakura’s first life he’d never found anything that had a calming effect on him, and he wouldn’t have wanted to. And in this life the closest thing he’d found to a calming activity was cooking, but especially...
“Baking. It gives me something to think about, and kneading the dough...” He shrugged without clarifying what he meant, he didn’t need to after all, his master hadn’t asked.
“Oh, good, I’ve missed the wonderful breads you make. Could you start off a sourdough loaf as well?” A slow, approving smile spread across his face, and Bakura smiled back at him, tremulously. Seraph had approved of his unspoken request to go to the kitchen to compose himself, and even better he’d praised his skills there, and he’d wanted to find a way to make him feel better about what had just happened. He hadn’t told Bakura that he’d betrayed or failed him in any way, and he’d half expected that he would, he’d feared that possibility, the thought of betraying him hurt.
“I can try, I cannot be certain that it will necessarily work, you know that we don’t always get the correct yeasts. And even if I succeed we won’t get the loaf for at least five days.” It didn’t really bother him that he was so comfortable in the kitchen, he knew that it was considered unmanly in a lot of modern cultures, but it gave Seraph another reason to want to keep him, and made him feel a little less dependent, like a prostitute.
“I know, but I can wait.” Seraph smiled at Bakura almost teasingly, and Bakura bowed his head blushing. “Rukaiya, I want you to help Shadow bake however he tells you to, or go and make yourself useful cleaning somewhere else if that’s what he wants from you.”
“Yes Seraph-sama.”
“I could probably use someone to wash everything up as I use it. Is there any bread you wish me to bake in particular Seraph-sama?”
“No, just something other than plain bread.” Like the only bread Rukaiya ever baked, when she did bake something.
“Yes Seraph-sama. Shall I freeze some as well, for future use?” If he did then while the loaves he would bake today were rising he could make the dough up for other loaves.
“Definitely.”
Ryou sighed as he went over their financial situation. They didn’t have any reason to worry about money, but for the past year all of their income had been from the return on his investments, made using the payments from when he’d Worked earlier, or from the coding Shadow did, and more had come from the coding than Ryou was happy with. He wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or pissed that Shadow could survive without him now, although he’d got all his coding jobs through the Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen, which was a sort of comfort. But he was definitely worried about how long it was since he’d Worked, he wouldn’t be getting really good assignments for a while, and even though he’d been available to Work for more than two months he hadn’t been contacted.
He knew why he wasn’t getting any assignments as well, requesting the break for training had done some damage to his reputation, and he didn’t have the history to Work at alpha enhanced standard already, his last assignment had been beta enhanced and more than a year ago. And he’d made it clear to the Fairest that he didn’t want Shadow to Work until after he’d started to Work again, which gave Ryou more time to get him into shape again. There was only one real solution for this, even if it did hurt his pride a little. He would have to make this request in writing, and as formally as he could manage, so Ryou pulled out a sheet of parchment, a brush and black ink.
‘Lady Fairest,’ He’d only met her once, before he’d Worked for the first time, all other contact had been through letters such as this.
‘Honour to you, but it is my wish to humbly request that I receive some assignment. I understand that during the year I spent training I have suffered a loss of reputation, and since I underwent alpha enhanced testing, rather than alpha standard you do not have any record of how my skill has improved, so I wish to inform you that I will accept any assignments that could be undertaken by a beta standard or higher Adept.
‘Yours in hope
‘Seraph.’
Ryou knew that really he should have used more beautiful language, and phrased his request much more aesthetically, but that had never really been something he was good at. And besides he had a feeling the Fairest might well appreciate the directness - comparative directness anyway, as compared to the circumtuitous way most Adepts of the Children of the Fairest tended to address their concerns when they contacted her. Generally his fellows tended to be more concerned with making sure what they wrote down or said for her eyes or ears was beautiful than comprehensible, but Ryou didn’t really have the talent needed to play word games like that with her. But he could make sure it was presented beautifully, since he was very skilled with calligraphy. The private language of the Children of the Fairest was beautiful written down anyway, but Ryou had focused on making each ideograph as perfect as he could, and placing it in the perfect position on the page to convey its meaning and compliment the other ideographs.
Before he could change his mind Ryou folded the parchment, sealing it with green wax and using his personal seal to confirm it was from him, then addressed it and placed it in the gold box that functioned as a mail delivery system for all the Children of the Fairest. There, now he was pretty sure he would get some sort of assignment, because why would the Fairest turn down the chance to get Work that she knew Ryou was capable of out of him, without insulting him by assigning something too easy.
Done was done anyway, and so he turned away from the box, deciding to go and check on his Consort. He’d focused on their finances the way he hadn’t for too long in order to distact himself from how his ‘friends’ had tried to take Shadow away from him, and now he would focus on making sure that Shadow was feeling better, safer and more secure. Because if he let himself feel angry at what they were trying to do Ryou knew that his thoughts would turn to ways of killing them, without anyone suspecting, killing them, or torturing them. As he made his way to the kitchen Ryou felt the box contact him, telling him that he had a message, and returned, finding that the Fairest had accepted his offer, giving him a beta enhanced assignment.
Yami hated how wrong it had gone when they tried to help Shadow. He’d thought that Yugi would have a better plan than that, would be able to cite the abuse he’d observed, or asked Yami to cite the abuse he’d observed, and convince him that yes, Seraph was abusing him. Instead they’d confronted Shadow, and accused Seraph openly, rather than guiding Shadow to recognise the way he was being treated for himself. Yami was pretty sure that Shadow was too brainwashed to understand that he’d been, was still being, abused unless he figure it out for himself, and Seraph kept him from ever realising that by himself.
-Yugi, I have an idea about how we could help Shadow, if you wish to hear it.- He’d been brooding over the debacle their first effort had been for most of the day, and all night too, thankfully he didn’t need to sleep the way Yugi did.
:What do you want me to do? Our last attempt didn’t go too well.: Yugi seemed angry, and Yami refused to cringe because of that.
-Write down every time you see something that looks or sounds like abuse, or the signs of abuse, and get all your friends to do the same thing. I’ll let you know if I notice anything that you might have missed.- Or seen and dismissed. -Then, in a couple of months we’d have something to show Shadow, or possibly an adult, grounds for our worries.-
:I’ll let you tell the others about it.: Putting the responsibility for this plan firmly on Yami, but he didn’t mind that at all. He didn’t think there was anything he could have done better to organise their first attempt at helping Shadow, not in the short time the others felt they had to work in, but he could console himself by doing everything he could to make their second effort a lot more successful.
-Then can we have a chance to buy some suitable notebooks precisely for that purpose before we go to school today. I think Seraph might have instructed Shadow to avoid us for a while, even if he doesn’t do it on his own.- And Yami thought that since Shadow was obviously deluded enough to believe he loved Seraph he’d want to avoid the people who’d tried to separate him from his abuser.
:And if he hasn’t?: Yugi seemed concerned, and if Seraph hadn’t given Shadow those orders Yam thought it would be a bad sign, something Shadow could point to and say ‘see, he wouldn’t have done that if he was abusing me’, and it would mean Seraph thought, or knew he had too much control over Shadow to need to tell him to avoid them. :But sure, we can leave a little early and get the notebooks on the way to school.:
-Thank you. If Shadow hasn’t been ordered to avoid us we’ll wait until we can get the others alone, and make our own records until then. And...if he hasn’t been instructed to avoid us could you try to find out why?-
:Why not you mean. And if he lets me get close enough to find out I’ll ask, sure.: Then Yugi began focusing on getting ready to go to school, something Yami appreciated because he’d have to leave early to have a chance to get the notebooks. He didn’t question the type of notebook Yugi chose, all four being soft covered reporter’s notebooks, even if he’d have preferred something a little sturdier - but then he wasn’t entirely sure Yugi could afford to buy the sort of notebooks he’d prefer for this. He knew the tournaments he won for his aibou had high prize money, but he also knew that Yugi had given all the money from Duellist Kingdom to Jou, and he wasn’t sure he hadn’t been similarly generous after other tournaments.
Still, it took long enough for Yugi’s purchases to go through that he had to run the five blocks to school, something he did more easily than he would have before Shadow started training him, and he didn’t have a chance to see how Shadow reacted to him, or to talk to his friends before class. And when break came Shadow stayed as close to Seraph as he could, avoiding Yugi almost the way he tended to avoid Yami.
-It looks like he’s either been ordered to avoid you, or just wants to avoid you aibou.-
:I know. But I don’t think he’s going to be avoiding Anzu, don’t ask me why not. It gives us time to fill the others in on our plan too.: Yugi gathered his friends, handing the notebooks out and explaining what they were for before their next teacher arrived.
Seraph
Date: 2006-10-31 06:12 am (UTC)~Servant Indo, The Servantian Knight
Re: Seraph
Date: 2006-10-31 09:33 am (UTC)