This is just a little short story I did while on holiday recently which started off as an idea that just suddenly popped into my head while I was shopping in Plymouth with my family. I've decided to post it up now because I've just finished some big exams and I need cheering up. There isn't much to say about it; apart from I've tried to make this quite realistic. This has meant putting in some details to make it more authentic. Or try to at least.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or the character Fettuccini from "The Care Bears" movie (I just used his name for my own devious plans). All I own is the made up characters, Sarah, John, Tom, Claire (OCs) and the story idea itself.
Warning: As usual this is a yaoi story (male x male) so if you don't like it then please don't read and then complain. There will be a very small amount of abuse but nothing to push it into the R category. There isn't much swearing in here either.
Notes: This (probably obviously to you) takes place in an AU (Alternative Universe) and so there is no duel monsters, Millennium Items or spirits. There are four OCs (Original Characters, most of them bit parts) and some of the original characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! are OOC (Out Of Character). Ages are also different, ranging from 14-26 but I'll specify them when I get there. In case you're wondering why I've put the meanings of things in brackets, it's because I feel sorry for all the people who don't know what they mean. Just like me. If I've got any of them wrong, please tell me!
"Blah" is speaking, blah is thinking and /blah/ is emphasis.xxxxxx is a little bit of time passing/different POV and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is a big change in time/different POV.
Part one: All the Princes and Paupers
It was nighttime in South East London and three people were whispering to each other from their 'beds' in a large circus tent. The reason they were 'beds' was because they were made up of bales of hay with a scrappy blanket to cover the bodies lying on them. That was it, nothing else to ease their weariness after a hard day's work. At least Marik was asleep: things seemed to be ten times more stressful whenever he was around. Not because he wasn't a nice person or anything, he was one of the sweetest people they knew but his temperament was unpredictable, they couldn't sleep until he did as he had a nasty habit of trying to bite people in a gesture of friendliness. Only you usually didn't stop bleeding for the next two days and there was a case of someone who had to have their arm removed after one of Marik's friendly greetings. Of course it didn't matter if /they/ got bitten, as long as they didn't complain about it.
"When are things going to get better for us?" One of them asked to no one in particular, completely swamped by the blanket wrapped around him. He was the youngest, a boy of fourteen in the body of a ten year old. Although he had grown half a foot over the past year, that was not a good thing in the master's eyes. The only reason he had been taken in was because of his height, or rather, the lack of it and so growing was a bad thing. He had been threatened with abandonment but that didn't stop his body from growing. Nothing would.
"I think we have to face the fact it ain't happening Yugi. He tricked us and now we can't escape because we'll just get caught again." Another boy, this time fifteen, replied, looking around as though to check no one was there. He had brown hair that spiked up very tall, with long arms and legs and a knack of being able to get them into positions that weren't considered natural. At the moment all he could do though was wince in pain from his joints, the master had pushed him too far again.
"It's not like we could escape together anyway. How would we get Joey to understand that he has to leave the place that gives him food and shelter and go somewhere where his safety isn't included? And we could never get Marik to be quiet unless we hit him and I don't want to do that." A soft voice added, matching his soft, almost non-existent body. His pure white skin and hair was set off by his pink eyes and thin frame, which rarely saw daylight for fear of being marked, and not just by the burning of light. The master didn't like it if his skin was imperfect; he didn't look as good then.
"Maybe someone will realise one day that we're unhappy and they'll take us away." The boy they called Yugi, suggested.
"Yes, but it might be to somewhere worse. I'd much rather be here than in a workhouse or living as a street boy." The brown haired boy pointed out.
"Tristan's right you know. At least here we don't get beaten up as long as we do what we're told. And we get food everyday." The albino said, causing Yugi to look down and close his eyes.
"I know, but I just don't like being here. I want to go home…" He sniffed quietly and put his face in his hands while the other two sat on either side of him and hugged him tightly.
"Shush Yugi, you have to be strong…" The white haired boy whispered. "We still have each other and as long as we're here, we're all going to be fine."
"Listen to him Yugi, we're here for each other and I know it seems bad sometimes but at least we're together." Tristan said, looking closely at Yugi. "We'll always be together, they'll never split us up."
"Promise?" Tristan nodded his head and Yugi smiled, wiping his face with his hand. "Thank you Tristan, Ryou. I don't know what I'd do without you…"
"You wouldn't be here; you would be somewhere where you're happy." Ryou commented but Yugi shook his head.
"No, I think things would be worse." They sat hugging for a while, leaning against each other in their sleepiness until they heard a person walking towards the tent. Quickly leaping back into their 'beds', they pretended they were asleep until the person had finished checking on them, poking them hard before leaving the tent once more. They looked at each other for a second, trying to reassure themselves that things would be better tomorrow and before going off to sleep, the only escape from their lives…
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'Dear friends,
'It is that time once more, when winter starts to set in, that we leave our manors in the country and move into London to meet up with others and see how things have changed over the last year.
'As usual, you are welcome to come stay with me at May View House but if you decide not to, I would still like to invite you to a gathering, just the five of us, on the 6th October at my abode as a chance for us to reacquaint and hear of each other's endeavours over the year.
'I hope to hear from you all, my sincerest wishes,
'Lord Kaiba.'
"Humph, he always made his letters nice and fancy, I don't know who he's trying to impress…" A black haired man commented to himself before he picked up a pen and pulled a sheet of paper towards him, glancing out of the window to admire the rolling grounds before turning back to his reply.
'Dear 'Lord Kaiba',
'I feel inclined to acquiesce to your request my Lord but just be glad this letter was not received yesterday or I might have had to disincline.
'However, I would like to enquire if it could be allowed for me to arrive a day early, as that is when I am letting the servants vacate to their residences.
'I hope you do not disapprove of the forwardness of my asking and that you receive this letter in good health.
'Sincerely,
'Orville, Duke of Rutland.
'P.S. You know, you could have just asked if I wanted to come over, all this flowery language is quite unnecessary. You are killing all the trees off…'
xxxxxx
"Hmm, a chance to eat nice food and be fussed about more than I am here… I like the sound of that."
'Kaiba,
'Do you think I could refuse such an offer? I'll be the first one there.
'Malik'
A man with wild, ash coloured hair smirked at his reply, thinking about what Kaiba would say to that before putting the letter in an envelope and placing his seal over the break in the paper.
"That reminds me, I must get the place sorted out before I arrive…" He stood up and went to find his head butler to enquire as to what was happening about the situation.
xxxxxx
"London, maybe I will find the answer there…" He ran his fingers through his pale hair as the feeling of emptiness came back to him. He felt so unfulfilled but maybe seeing his friends would sort that problem out.
'Dear Kaiba,
'Yes, I would approve of stopping off at your abode before continuing onto mine. However, I may be late, as I have to make a visit to an associate of mine.
'Yours sincerely,
'Bakura, Duke of Warwickshire.'
He thought to his 'acquaintance', a man who claimed to have found a feral child. No doubt it would come to nothing but he may as well look into it, after all, it was /his/ money that had funded it.
xxxxxx
He re-read the letter, the excitement of an opportunity to meet the man who had 'presented' him to society so well, again causing him to nearly spill the jar of black ink sitting on the table. He set pen to paper, thinking of how to phrase his reply.
'Dear Lord Kaiba,
'It would be my pleasure to visit you at May View House; we have not had the chance to talk for a while now. And if it is not too rude, I would like to be able to stay for the whole of the season, Kale still makes me uncomfortable. To be perfectly honest, I am afraid of disturbing my grandfather's soul.
'Sincerely,
'Lord Yami'
xxxxxx
Lord Kaiba read all of the replies, having all come at a similar time, a rare smile crossing his face. His friends were the only things that would let him be happy; there was nothing else that was worth his time or effort. Like Bakura, his life was also unfulfilled but he would never admit it, thinking his feelings disgraced the memory of his father Clarence, the person who had made this life possible. He was eternally grateful but that didn't stop him from thinking that something was missing…
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"Come on you scum, wake up!" Was the greeting Tristan, Ryou and Yugi got the next day but they sat up straight away, knowing it was not a good thing to make the master angry. Items were near thrown down next to them and they rubbed their eyes, looking to see what it was. "I want one of you to feed Marik and Joey and the other two to come with me. We're moving soon and the whole place needs to get packed up." The three of them quickly looked at each other, Yugi and Tristan giving Ryou slightly begging glances.
"I'll feed Joey and Marik if you want." Ryou knew that it required a lot of patience and control and he was seen as the best person for it, but he enjoyed it. It was the only time he got to see them and they always managed to make him smile.
"Don't take too long or you won't have anything to eat." The master grumbled before disappearing off with Yugi and Tristan. Ryou sighed quietly before going over to the area where Joey and Marik were penned in together.
He saw they were both asleep, lying close to each other and he took a moment to watch them, smiling as Joey kicked his leg out and hit Marik, causing him to growl slightly before settling down again. Marik hadn't been with them before, he was a wild child the master had 'rescued' and was unused to human company so he spent little time with anyone apart from Joey. No one was quite sure why but Ryou suspected it was because Joey somehow reassured him, what with the features he had. They were able to relate to each other better and Ryou didn't think Marik had ever even seen Yugi and Tristan for more than a few seconds at a time. It was like he feared them…
His attention was brought back to reality when he heard Joey stirring and he opened his eyes, staring at him for a second before leaping up and running towards him.
"RYOU!" He grabbed hold of him and hugged him tightly, Ryou feeling the hair covering nearly all of his body against his face. He smiled, this was why he enjoyed being with them, because they seemed to appreciate him more than anyone else did.
"Hello Joey." Ryou replied when Joey had finally let go of him, standing in front of him, an eager look on his face. In fact, if Joey were an animal, it would have to be a little excitable puppy. He was just so enthusiastic all the time; he would do anything as long as it made someone happy. Ryou could almost imagine him with a wagging tail. "I've got breakfast for you and Marik, could you wake him up please?" While Joey was in an almost permanent state of happiness, Marik was less certain. He copied a lot of things that Joey did but he was still susceptible to mood swings, especially when it came to waking him up. The last person other than Joey to wake him up was nearly mauled to death. He had calmed down a lot though, he was just very shy now but Ryou still left the waking to Joey.
"Marik, wake up!" Joey yelled, shaking him quite hard and of course it didn't take long for him to open his eyes, sitting up suddenly, ready to kill the person who had dared to treat him like that. Until he realised it was Joey. He then beamed at him and Joey turned back to Ryou. "I woke him up Ryou."
"Thank you Joey." Ryou stepped closer and sat down on one of the bales of hay. "Hello Marik." Ryou said quietly and Marik stared at him for a second before hiding behind Joey, suddenly looking scared. He was of most people. Joey turned to Marik and he mumbled something.
"Marik says hello too." Joey said, slightly less happy than before but still with a wagging tail. Ryou set down the bucket in his hand, only now looking at what was inside it. There were various bits of very rare meat and on some days it nearly made him sick, the smell was so awful. But today wasn't too bad so it must have been Sarah who had prepared it. She hadn't been here long and they had talked to each other once, when she had brought it herself. She had watched Ryou feeding them and realised that it wasn't animals that were getting it, despite what she had been told. So she always made sure they were at least slightly cooked, instead of bloody raw like the others did it. And it didn't make much of a difference to Marik and Joey but it did to him.
"I've got some food for you here." He pushed the bucket forward and Joey and Marik sniffed suspiciously at it before looking back at Ryou again. Oh dear, it would have been nice if he could have gone for one day without having to do this… "Do you want me to try it first?" They nodded their heads and Ryou looked down in the bucket, trying to find the one that had been cooked for the longest. He took it out and stared at it for a second, wishing he didn't have to do this before putting it in his mouth, chewing for the minimum amount of time and swallowing. If he didn't do this, they refused to eat it and he would get told off for not feeding them. However, he was not a great fan of food in general; he didn't eat much else apart from this during the day, if he managed to keep it down… "There, nothing wrong with it."
Seeing he hadn't keeled over yet, they took some of the meat and started eating it, causing Ryou to look away. He hated watching other people eat, it made him feel sick and the taste of the meat was still stuck in his mouth. So he shut them off and tried to think of something else instead. The master had said they were moving…
It must be to London, seeing as it's nearly winter now. I'm not sure that's a good thing though… It meant being viewed to aristocrats and they were worse than the lower classes were. They went /just/ to make them suffer even more than they already were, in Ryou's opinion. They came in and spent their whole time asking the master why he hadn't had the animals killed yet. That's what they saw them as: animals, below even the paupers and criminals. They were freaks…
Ryou tried to hold back a sob, not wanting to get Joey and Marik upset. But that word hurt him so much, he didn't like the way he was, he wanted to be normal. He saw the way everyone stared at him, like he was something dangerous. Even Yugi and Tristan acted like that sometimes and they were his friends. That's why he liked Marik and Joey, they just didn't seem to be able to judge him, they saw him as a person who happened to be quite pale. But that was only two people…
He heard them move and then the sound of water. They had been given bowls to drink from but Sarah had managed to smuggle in a couple of cups for them. Fine, they may be quite animal-like in behaviour but that didn't mean they should be treated like them, that was just cruel and unfunny. He turned back to them, wiping his eyes so they wouldn't see the tears waiting to fall and checking the bucket to make sure they had eaten everything.
"Ryou, why do you look sad?" Joey suddenly asked and Ryou looked at him, trying to frown in puzzlement.
"W-why do you say that?"
"Because your eyes are wet and sad people have wet eyes." Joey said simply.
"Don't worry, I'm just a bit tired." He said quite convincingly and Joey stared at him, wondering what to do. "I'll be fine, honestly."
"If you say so." Joey looked almost disapproving of what Ryou had just said. "Do you know what's going on? There's lots of noise and yelling today." He said, changing the subject dramatically.
"It's winter soon so everything's being moved to London."
"London? That's where all the posh people live…I don't like them, they think we're animals." Joey said sombrely before cheering up again. "But it's only for a few months and then we can go. And we'll be together too." Trust Joey to always look on the bright side of things.
"Yes, you're right. Anyway, I have to go now and help them put the things away." Ryou said, standing up with the bucket in his hand. "Hopefully I'll see you two soon."
"I hope we'll talk again too Ryou." He hugged him once more, only this time less tightly. "Bye Ryou."
"Bye Joey, bye Marik." He glanced over in Marik's direction and instantly looked down at his feet.
"Bye Wyou…" Marik whispered and Ryou grinned, he could talk, if only a little.
"See you guys later." He left their pen and glancing back, saw them staring mournfully at him. He turned around again, knowing if he didn't he would somehow persuade himself to stay with them for the whole day and that was /not/ a good idea.
Ryou looked up at the sky to see how bright the sun was and was glad to see it was quite cloudy. He burnt /very/ easily but today he could at least stay outside for more than a minute before he felt the effects of the sun. Usually it was only a matter of seconds. He walked over to the kitchen area, a very large tent constantly full of different smells and lots of yelling, to replace the bucket when he ran into Sarah, a girl slightly older than him with wiry brown hair.
"Hello Ryou, long time no see." She said cheerfully and then looked at him properly. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're just skin and bones! Have you not been eating /any/thing at all since I last saw you?" She demanded, trying to lift his top up to get a better look.
"Of course I eat!" He said, stepping backwards. She sighed and glanced back into the kitchen.
"Stay here for a second…" She disappeared into the large tent and reappeared again, an apple in her hand. "I know it doesn't seem a lot but I know if I give you any more, you won't eat it."
"I'm not hungry." Ryou said stubbornly.
"Quite." She grabbed his hand and pushed the apple into it. "Now eat it! I'll know if you haven't." She said, looking seriously at him and he sighed, taking a bite out of it.
"Thank you." He took a couple of more bites out of it before hearing the yells of the master as yet another incompetent twit did something wrong. There seemed to be a lot of those whenever he was around. "I'd better go now."
"Don't let him get you down…" She said as a farewell before going back into the kitchen.
Ryou quickly finished off the apple and then made in the direction of the master's voice to see if there was anything for him to do. Whatever it was, it was bound to be the lowest job of the low. He had absolutely no respect for them…
"Ryou, where have you been?" He heard the master boom as Ryou entered what appeared to be pure chaos.
"Feeding Marik and Joey, remember?" He replied quietly, knowing you had to be careful with how much liberty you could take with him.
"Oh yes, does it really take that long?" He said snidely as he looked around the area. "There really isn't much you can do around here; I've already got enough useless idiots here as it is. I know the kitchen staff were moaning about not having enough help, why don't you go over there?" Ryou simply nodded his head before going back the way he had come.
Ryou knew that what he had just done was an act of kindness…sort of. The master knew full well that he got burnt easily so being in the kitchen would keep him out of the sun at least. But he also knew that a lot of people were afraid of him so it was also probably because they would have refused to work near him.
Oh well, at least he's not making me clear out the animals' pens. He thought, slightly happier than before as he stood in front of the white tent.
"Oh, Ryou. What are you doing back here? Don't tell me you want something else to eat?" Sarah said jokingly.
"The master said you needed some help here and told me to make myself useful." Ryou replied and she smiled in happiness.
"Great, you can help me!" She led him into the kitchen and Ryou saw that, for once, there was very little cooking. The cooks were constantly busy, having to feed a camp of at least a hundred, not including animals, took a lot time. So the fact that a lot of stuff had been packed away was surprising.
"Where are the others?" Ryou asked curiously.
"Oh, they're getting the cart for all of this. They can't pack everything at the moment as the kitchen's always the last thing to go down but they have to do it quickly so anything not needed goes." They stopped in front of a large chest full of pots and pans. "For instance, we can get rid a lot of this stuff. But first of all, we have to clean it."
"Don't they get cleaned every day then?" Ryou pondered as Sarah took out a pan and handed it over to him.
"Do you think we've got time? No, the insides get wiped but the outside is left to get black. This is the monthly clean and once they're done, they can't be used until we get to London." She explained, searching in another chest for something to scrub with them with. "The head cook has taken out everything she needs so all of this has to be washed." Ryou pulled a face and she laughed. "It's not that bad. I mean, we can sit down and chat while we're doing it."
"That's a good point."
They set to work on the pots and pans (Note from S. Chensu: Now I know how to clean them, I've had to do it on Guide camp but I don't think they had washing up liquid then. Hmm…), laughing as they flicked the soapy water at each other, getting almost as wet as the cooking equipment. They stopped for lunch when once again Ryou was practically force-fed but somehow it didn't feel as bad as other times.
It was now late afternoon and the two teenagers were tired but proud as the gleaming pots and pans sat in front of them. It was then another person came in, and recognition flittered onto Sarah's face although Ryou didn't know him. He must be a cook, one of the behind the scenes people who did one of the most important jobs but was never acknowledged for it. He glanced at them and instantly his face became that of distaste as he looked over Ryou.
Somehow I managed to nearly forget that everything thinks I'm a freak… He thought wryly as he prepared himself for what was to come.
"Sarah, what is /that/ doing there?" He demanded, causing Ryou to blush and became nervous. Although there was supposed to be no cruelty against children here, he wasn't counted as one.
"He has a name John; he's just like you and me." Sarah pointed out but his face didn't change.
"I don't care what /It/ is!"
"Anyway, Fettuccini said to him to help out in the kitchen and he has!" She continued and John paused in his anger.
"Well, I suppose if Fettuccini said to help then so be it." He grumbled and stepped closer. "Everyone's finishing for the day now and I need your help to start the dinner." Ryou took this as the signal for him to leave and he stood up, keeping his eyes to the ground as a sign of respect.
"Yes, I'll be with you in a second…" Ryou heard faintly as he left the tent. He gave himself a moment before giving in to the tears, covering his face with his hands as he tried to control himself when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Ryou…?"
"What do you want?" He said thickly, knowing it was Sarah but still shrugging the hand off.
"I wanted to see if you were going to be all right." She said hesitantly and he looked at her, scowling at her words.
"Oh yes, I'm going to be fine and dandy. I'm just going to spend the rest of my life with people treating me like that!" He shouted, turning away from her.
"But not everybody thinks about you like that…" She whispered.
"So what? A handful out of a camp of a hundred!"
"Well at least it's something…" She pointed out before sighing. "Well whatever. I thought you might like to talk to someone but obviously not." Ryou merely walked away and she shook her head. "You can't shut everyone off forever Ryou…" She murmured before going back to the kitchen.
xxxxxx
"Hey Ryou, is something wrong? You seem a bit quiet tonight." Tristan said as they sat together, eating dinner. Well Tristan and Yugi were, Ryou felt sick as usual.
"No, just thinking about random things." He said to reassure them.
"So what did you have to do today then? We didn't get a chance to talk or anything." Yugi said, trying to get Ryou to interact.
"Oh I went to the kitchen and helped Sarah clean the pots and pans. Wasn't too bad I suppose…"
"Sounds good actually, Sarah's quite nice. At least you didn't have to clean out the animal pens." The job that everyone hated… Ryou smiled as he imagined them trying to shovel up mounds of waste while holding their noses.
"He made you do that? Ew!" Ryou squealed and the others laughed.
"Yes and it wasn't a pretty sight." Tristan added, causing Ryou to laugh even more.
"At least you didn't fall into it like that other guy did." Yugi pointed out. "I think he must have been one of the handlers and he was going to get something when he fell over a shovel and landed on the big smelly pile!" They all joined in laughing, tears rolling down Yugi's face as he remembered the look on the man's face. "That was funny…"
"It was less funny when he accused us of putting that shovel there on purpose…" Tristan commented and Yugi winced.
"It was lucky Fettuccini came in when he did or he would have flogged us for sure."
"He hasn't been too bad today, I wonder why?" Tristan pondered.
"Probably because he knows that when we go to London, he's going to get lots of money. That's the only thing that would make him happy." Ryou said scornfully and Yugi nodded in agreement.
"Yes, you're right. Oh well, at least it means he might shout at us less." The three of them continued making small talk until the master came along and yelled at them, telling them to go to bed.
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The five aristocrats sat together in Lord Kaiba's large drawing room, having finally arrived after facing the usual problems of moving to London for the winter.
"I swear the servants are getting more and more lazy every year." Lord Kaiba, known just as 'Kaiba' to the five of them, commented.
"It's probably because you take too much with you; servants can only do so much you know." Orville, Duke of Rutland (although he hated both his name and his title) replied. "And anyway, we're all here now so it doesn't matter." He added.
"You are just being soft Duke because you feel sorry for them."
"That may be so but you could at least be less overbearing." Duke retorted and Malik quickly interrupted before anything could start.
"Please, we can argue over the finer points of servants' rights when you're both drunk." He smiled, knowing that this would get to Kaiba. Any comments about him and drinking always did.
"I do not get /drunk/!"
"Only that time when you got really shy around that girl-"
"And the time when old uppity arse came to visit-"
"/And/ the time when you tried to get rid of the taste of oysters when you first tried them." They all recounted various tales of Kaiba drinking enough to tip him over the scales of being sober and he yelled in annoyance, throwing his hands up in defence.
"So I drank a little too much a couple of times!"
"A little too much, he says…" Malik muttered and Kaiba stared at him pointedly before rolling his eyes.
"Humph…" He sat there looking like he was going to have a tantrum for a couple of seconds before sitting up straight again and clearing his throat. "So who is your associate then Bakura? Who is so important you could be late to see your friends?" Kaiba disapproved greatly of the way Bakura splashed about with his money and he knew it.
"Oh, nothing really interesting. I did ask to change the date but he was adamant he had to see me then." Bakura said vaguely, feeling Kaiba's attitude to how he lived his life.
"Anything come out of it?" Duke asked, always interested in the things Bakura did. At least he wasn't boring like so many other aristocrats were.
"Yes, there were some developments…"
"Like what?"
"Well he found what I was looking for." Bakura was close to blushing; this was making him really uncomfortable.
"I hate to say it Bakura but you are going to have to explain it better than that because I have no idea what you are talking about." Yami interjected and the others nodded in agreement.
"Fine, fine! Basically I paid someone to find a feral child for me." As soon as he said that he had several questions fired at him all at once. "Well I just wanted to see one and it was a man called Fettuccini. He did find one and I was going to go and look at it in a few days' time."
"Fettuccini? Doesn't he own a circus?"
"Yes and they are moving to London for the winter months. He has a lot of things like animals and performers and some other curiosities." Bakura explained and they listened on, interested in what he had to say. "We could go and visit him I suppose."
"That sounds like a good idea." Kaiba said and they smiled to themselves, it took a lot to get Kaiba's attention. "Well now that is sorted out what has been going on with you Malik? I heard something happened with you, a certain lady and some playing cards…"
"Oh that… I tell you, the whole situation was blown out of proportion, all that happened was…"
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Ryou sat on top of a wagon as it travelled along a road, legs swinging over the side as he stared at the mass of smoke and the hustle and bustle of life in general known as London. There was no escape now; they were stuck there until March, six whole months of being abused, verbally if not physically. But somehow the journey had its good points too. It showed Ryou what could have happened to him if he hadn't been taken in, struggling to survive on the street if he wasn't killed and experimented on first. He didn't know whether that was true or not but he had heard the rumours, cages upon cages of those who were different, scientists trying to find out why they were the way they were…
"Oy Ryou, aren't you going to come in? It's getting cold out there!" This was accompanied by the banging of a window as it was lifted and a head poked out of it, looking upwards as he looked down.
"It's not too bad out here but I'll come in anyway." Yet again there had been an argument as to what to do with him, Yugi, Joey and Marik as they moved to London. Tristan managed to get away with staying with the performers, although he was the only contortionist. They had put Joey and Marik with the animals as usual, despite several arguments between the master and Sarah and some of her friends. They couldn't change his mind but at least he allowed Yugi and him to stay with them instead. So now Yugi was with a couple of animal keepers called Claire and Tom while he was staying with Sarah.
He carefully made his way over the top of the caravan and onto the small set of steps before opening the door and entering. He shivered at the contrast between the cold outside and the warmth provided by several lamps, closing his eyes slightly at the brightness of them. She immediately realised and lowered them all so that he could see comfortably. Another problem: he had trouble seeing with candles as the light hurt his eyes. He could deal with the sun just about if it was cloudy but candles or naked flames in general were bad for him.
"I've got some stuff ready for dinner, although I know you're now going to say you're not hungry." She sighed and sat down at the small table, him doing the same.
"Err…"
"I just don't like sitting here eating like a fat pig while you don't do anything." She said, holding out a roll to him. "It's not fresh but it's good. Please eat it, I don't want you dying on me."
"All right." He was a little bit hungry but he took it mainly to please her. "We're nearly there." He said to change the conversation.
"Good, I hate travelling. It takes so long and I know we only do it twice a year but we seem to spend most of the time getting ready for it." She commented, causing him to laugh.
"I think it's all right, you get to see all the caravans in a huge great line, like we're migrating." The equipment and animals and the people who dealt with them went a couple of days before everyone else so that by the time they got there, everything was already set up. The circus was mostly made up of families and so they came in their own caravans but those who didn't, which were few, were given one. Sarah had got hers from Claire who had moved in with Tom when they got married.
"Well I suppose you can but someone has to control the horses so I usually see the back of the one in front of me." She glanced at the clock to see what the time was. "Anyway, we should be stopping soon." True to her word they heard the yelling of people, telling them all to get off the road and into probably a field where they would spend the night. "I'll be back in a minute."
She jumped out of the caravan and ran around to the front to the horses, taking control of them to steer them to the field. Ryou poked his head out of the window and saw the line gradually moving right to a large patch of grass. They had been set up by generations of travellers before them and luckily no one had done anything to them yet. Soon he felt the caravan stop and he heard Sarah yell for the food for the horses. He found the two buckets filled with vegetables and handed one to her while he held onto the other one.
Soon they were done and after talking to the master for a few moments as he went around checking everyone was there, they went straight to bed, completely tired and knowing they needed to be ready because tomorrow they would arrive at the site.
Yay, first part done! Only six more left to go! This is going to be the shortest story I've ever written but that doesn't mean it won't be good! A couple of apologises, first of all for the amount of Ryou focus in this part but I get the feeling there's going to be more of it so /very sorry! And also for the fact it's not as accurate as I thought it was going to be. See I did write this, having an idea but made the stupid mistake of thoroughly researching after writing most of this and so, as expected, I've made one blindingly obvious errors to anyone who has studied the Victorians before. But if I don't tell you, you won't notice. So if you review with a point about me making a very stupid mistake I already know!
Anyway, please review and until next time (in about a week and a bit's time), have a good day!
S. Chensu xxx.
P.S. I would have posted this up at the beginning of this week but has been down a lot recently so I haven't had the chance!