Into the Darkness 11- Getting a Clue

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me (fortunately for the characters) I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh in any way, shape or form. After all, if I did, there would be so much shonen-ai moments that it would not be at all funny. I do however own the AU of this particular fic, and some of the powers/legends attributed with the vampires in this fic, including the idea of Lords of Darkness.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-Ai! If you don't like, please don't read! Rated for later content, swearing, limes and blood. This is, after all a VAMPIRE fiction. Darkshipping- i.e. Yami and Bakura

Flames shall be extinguished with great force because it is bush-fire season and I hate bush-fires. Many Australians do.

Thanks to my reviewers:

Nusku

Sphymx

YugiTheDarkPharaoh

Alex Fisher (New reviewer! \o/)

RyuKan

Eltaris

leencze

Kuro Ookami Hatake

Shadow Cat17

Anabel Sinclair (New reviewer! \o/)

kit-kit

Starshinesoldier

Shoy (New reviewer! \o/)

Yamino Tenshi 202

Incidentally, is anyone interested in beta'ing this story? I've had a spot of trouble finding a willing beta y'see, so I thought I'd offer it here just in case. It's preferred if you've written at least one story before, and can deal with some smut, blood etc. Though if you've gotten this far... Meh.

Hope you all enjoy this, and I've got several more to type, so expect to see those soon! Also, if you're interested, I've just started a Death Note fanfiction, an AU with LxLight as the main pairing and sides to be decided.

Smile! :D
Ireina

"How… how did you… how did that…?"

"You're welcome." he replies, ignoring my stammered question as he nips just under the lobe of my ear before pulling back and busying himself gathering together the bowl and cloth.

How on Earth did he do that? I had no idea that was an ability we gained. Or is that one of the individually specific powers that Lords sometimes have? Well, I suppose it might have something to do with that numbing agent we can choose to secrete when we feed, but how that would accomplish a healing I wouldn't know.

As I watch his gracefully swift movements I catch a glimpse of reddened flesh. What? I remember him touching the salt-water induced burn in the middle of my chest, but as he'd made not a sound or even the smallest face to indicate it had caused him even the mildest of discomfort I had dismissed it as another added bonus of age- you know, like bonus immunity to sea-water or something. But honestly, that was a bright red!

"Let me see your hand."

He turns to me as thought surprised. "Why? There's nothing there worth fussing about."

Time, I think for my 'yeah-right-sure-whatever' glare.

He rolls his eyes at this before letting out a huff and extending his deceivingly dainty hands for my inspection. One hand is the lovely cold smooth and pristine white natural to most nosferatu (I'm an oddity, I have no idea why, but I'm still fairly dark-skinned. It might have something to do with my having once been an avatar for Ra, though I doubt that.), but the other, the one he'd used to inspect my injury…

"Nothing worth fussing about? Akefia, this is almost as bad as mine!" I gasp, grabbing his wrist and looking closely at the injury. "If not worse!"

"It is nothing-"

"My ass it isn't, that looks like it has bubbled as much as mine did!"

"Do not worry your pretty little head about it. Such as this means naught to me."

"What?"

As if suddenly realising what he'd said, Akefia goes still. "Never mind. If it will make you feel better, go ahead and do what you will." he says, glancing out the window as though enthralled by the view. What he finds so interesting about a dormant tree covered in snow is quite beyond me.

What did he do before he… ('I will not blush.' I tell myself firmly.) got rid of that burn? I believe all he did was rinse it. There's probably not that much left on his hand though. Well, an ounce of prevention's worth a pound of cure, and I don't much like the idea of getting my tongue burnt. Though if he could heal that the same way, I don't think I'd…

No. Bad thoughts. I am not going down that track of thinking right now. Or ever.

"What are you doing?" he asks incredulously, though he does not pull from my grasp.

"Rinsing away any leftover seawater, what did you think?" I reply, gently wiping the wet cloth over the raw skin, an angry red welt against the snow of the uninjured skin of his wrist. I do not want this to hurt him, that would be poor thanks, not to mention just plain cruel after what he just did for me.

"It's gone now." he says quietly. I am fairly certain that if he could do that, I, as another Lord should also be able to do it to a certain degree. All he did was lick after all.

Gently I pat the burnt skin dry with the dry end of the wash-cloth before I put the thing down, holding his hand palm-up in both of mine.

I look up at his face, meeting his eyes with my own before very slowly and deliberately running my tongue over the middle of the injured hand.

He jumps, with a strange look on his face. Did I put too much pressure on the injury and hurt him?

"Sorry." I apologise, before turning my attention to the rest of his hand, making sure not to put so much pressure on while ensuring not an inch of the painful burn escapes my attention.

There, the palm is done, and while it does not appear nearly so bad, it has still not healed completely either, the way mine had.

Maybe the power strengthens with age? No matter, now for his fingers.

Slowly (and not without a small amount of hesitation- after all this would be considered foreplay by many humans, for whatever reasons they have) I lift his injured index and middle finger to my mouth and begin to carefully lick around each finger, carefully swirling my tongue around the tips of each.

'By the gods!' I hear along the mental pathway that runs between his mind and mine. It does not appear that that sentiment was addressed to me, which means that he probably didn't mean for me to hear it, so I don't question what he means. I finish these two and remove them from my mouth, switching to his fourth, of which only the very pad is lightly burned.

I must admit, this is a rather… enjoyable activity, and I think that I might now understand why this seems to be considered such an act by so many.

'Does he… know what the intended purpose of that action is?' Akefia wonders, his mind sounding almost foggy to me. Wait… what does he mean 'the intended purpose of that action'? How could sucking on someone's fingers have a purpose?

Finished with his ring finger I reluctantly release the digit. His flesh tastes as good as his lips do, cloyingly sweet but with the slight tang of a spice, perhaps nutmeg.

Before I realise it, I appear to have taken his uninjured last finger into my mouth as well.

Hm. That is nutmeg.

Suddenly I find myself on my back, Akefia's body pinning me as he slides his tongue in my mouth, roughly tasting and probing. Hey, when did his hands get there?!

"See, he's just… fine?"

Akefia freezes at the sound of the familiar voice, (not horrified, but rather filled with surprise), before Akefia sits back, moving away from me. I try to convince myself that I don't miss the sudden loss of contact.

Ryou is standing in the doorway with a blank expression, his eyes glazed. Perhaps he was shocked? I know it is not common for two of the same gender to do that sort of thing in modern mortal society.

"He does seem much better." agrees Yugi, the younger slayer completely unfazed. He glances in a sidelong fashion at his new teacher. "Oh come on Ryou, snap out of it." he says, snapping his fingers together in the air in front of the other mortal's face.

"Do they… do that a great deal?" Ryou asks in a faint voice, appearing to rouse slightly.

"Yeah, but what can you do?" shrugs Yugi.

"We do not do that a great deal!" I burst out in nervous self-consciousness. "It's probably just remnants of the Aura manifesting- he pinned me."

"And this sort of thing… doesn't bother you at all?" the white-haired Slayer questions, voice sounding… hopeful? What an odd tone…

"Why should it? I don't care." Again Yugi shrugs. "Who would I be to talk anyway…" he mutters under his breath, so softly that I am sure that only I and Akefia pick it up.

I tilt my head to the side at this. Does little Yugi mean what I think he means?

Ryou nods thoughtfully, face unreadable, save for a faint something lurking in his eyes. I really can't help but liken that strange something to a thing I've seen in Akefia's eyes several times.

I send a look to Akefia, eyebrow raised, only to see a strangely contemplative… almost wistful expression on his face for a brief second before he notices my gaze and it disappears.

/What?/ he sends tersely. What did I miss? Why did he become so hostile all of a sudden?

/You seem… angry/ I reply with caution.

/I am not angry-/ He pauses. /Not quite angry exactly/ he amends.

/Then what is bothering you?/

He frowns mentally;(though how that is possible, I know not.) /It is hard for me to explain/ he hedges.

/Try/

/It is hard to explain because I do not understand it/ he says and I sense a faint puzzlement present in his mind-voice.

/What do you not understand? Perhaps I might be of assistance/ I offer. Now he's really got my curiosity piqued.

/It is… complex/

/Akefia, stop dancing around and answer the question/

/I was…bothered by what you just said, and… I do not know why/

/You mean when I said you had pinned me probably because of remnants of the-/

/Yes/ he cuts me off abruptly, not allowing me to finish. /Is that really all you think this is? /

/Well/ I start. What else could it be? Before his use of that Aura, he didn't show one whit of interest in me- sexually or otherwise. But…

--

I begin to cough, and Ra it almost feels as though several of my organs are coming up with it!

'This might be it- I can't breathe! Perhaps the Thief-King was too late to help after all.' I think wryly.

Suddenly he is there, breaking his (apparently) self-imposed rule of distance and at my side, attempting to ease my breathing with hits to the back. Initially I am shocked at the sudden contact (though not ungrateful!) and I whip my head up to the thief's oddly angular face, now no longer covered by shadows. I feel a jolt of recognition briefly before it is pushed aside.

His eyes are red! So similar to my own, though of a much more bloody shade than mine. What really shocks me however is the strange concern there and… 'Hathor above, he's beautiful!'

Within several seconds the coughing subsides and I am beginning to believe that maybe he can do as he says.

--

"Now…go… I can… Oh RA! Go… your scent… I do not want… to harm you…Atemu…" He says my name softly, though most of the preceding sentence was emphatically (to put it mildly) spoken, and my brain quietly registers surprise at the soft and gentle tone he used for my name. I allow Yugi to pull me away, shocked at the fact that Bakura's last statement was practically pleading.

--

"No, it isn't. You still haven't told me why you want him to stay alive- why you feel such a need to protect him, though he's quite capable of looking after himself. And don't say it's because of the Debt, because I'll know you're lying. I've got Slayer blood, remember."

"Because I don't know why! All I know is that the thought of him dead is enough to make me want to rip the person who took his life apart. Now leave me the hell alone!"

--

Back… before… he didn't need to help me breathe- and then, when he'd ordered me away whilst still caught in the throes of the Aura… he sounded desperate not to hurt me, not to mention the soft tone he used for my name.

Then there's that from last night. Did he mean that? If he did, then… what does that mean?

I shoot him a curious look from under my gold bangs. /No…/ I send slowly. /Maybe… it's not that simple/

His face gains a subtly surprised look, though I have no doubt he is allowing me to see it- he is not the type to show emotions or thoughts clearly on his face. /I agree… it is not so simple. But whatever 'it' is, I believe we can no longer put blame on anything else for it/

/No. We can't/

His eyes meet mine and I feel a gentle caress across my cheek, no heavier than the brush of a butterfly's wing.

/How did you do that?/ I ask curiously.

Akefia gives an almost imperceptible smile and I feel the same pressure, though this time across my lips. /You mean that?/

/Yes, I mean that/

/Wouldn't you like to know, A-te-mu/ he sends in a smug sing-song.

"Why do I get the feeling I just missed something?" Ryou pipes up, a confused look on his face.

Both Akefia and I laugh.

I hope you all enjoyed, and please do leave me a review!

Smile! :D
Ireina