EnsTren: (actually I saw Jou threatening Seto with his spoon cause he's "Bein' a bastard an' makin' Yug' cry!")
EnsTren: (then Seto makes the spoon bend)
Edmondia: ("Seth! Turn this fork into a pretzel!")
EnsTren: ("I can't do that! That's my hikari!")
Edmondia: ("So make him do it!")
EnsTren: ("Seto, pretty hikari, will you turn the fork into a pretzel?")
EnsTren: ("I'm not a show dog. Mutt! Use your brute strength to turn the fork into a pretzel because you obviously lack the brainpower to do it otherwise.")
Edmondia: ("Why should I bend the fork into a pretzel?")
EnsTren: ("It's a sad day when you can't even teach a young dog new tricks.")
Edmondia: ("Shaddup. Explain the damn fork.")
EnsTren: ("It's below me, mutt. But it seems to be about your level. Good practice for stamping liscence plates, don't you think?")
Edmondia: ("Didn't stop you with the spoon, did it?")
EnsTren: ("You were threatening me with it.")
Edmondia: ("Yes, Kaiba. Because spoons are so very very deadly.")
EnsTren: ("I don't like Golden Retrievers much, how about a poodle?")
Edmondia: ("...so it's true. Ya really have gone crazy.")
EnsTren: (Narrowed poison spitting eyes, he was just going to make Katsuya's hair pink and extremely curly, and possibly bald in certain areas. Instead he said quietly, turning his eyes away as if it was nothing, "At least I do not have a criminal record.")
Edmondia: (Jounouchi didn't even flinch. "Yeah, well, you do what you have to to survive. Woulda thought you of all people would know that.")
EnsTren: ("I would have thought someone with street smarts like yourself would know what I control and avoid... aggravating me, considering what could happen.")
Edmondia: (Jounouchi just grinned at him. "Maybe I think you're fun ta play with.")
EnsTren: ("Maybe you should consider I can bend more things than metal," he spat, trying hard to restrain himself, to play reasonably fair.)
Edmondia: (He rolled his eyes. "Lighten up, Kaiba. This game's for fun.")
EnsTren: ("Games aren't fair," he said very simply, as if it were a true and honest fact that no one could dispute. He then considered the conversation at an end and went back to what he was doing.)
Edmondia: (Jounouchi tapped him on the nose with a mischievious wink. "Cheer up, Kaiba." And then he bounced back to his feet and wandered away.)
EnsTren: (Seto felt something recoil in him and wondered if Yugi's light could store up in people so when they touched him he felt ill. /Yami?/)
Edmondia: (//Mmmhmm?//)
EnsTren: (/I want to go home, I want to go to our room,/ where I can pretend and forget and we can play games where we both win and I can forget and pretend and be happy.)
Edmondia: (//Was he hitting on you?//)
EnsTren: (/I don't know./)
Edmondia: (//...no, he was teasing you. Why didn't you play with him? He's not going to hurt you.//)
EnsTren: (/He felt funny,/ vauge impression of light illness when he touched him, not knowing if it was disgust at the mutt or Yugi rubbing off on him.)
EnsTren: (/And I don't like pity./)
Edmondia: (//I don't think it was pity, pretty light. I think he just wanted you to smile.//)
EnsTren: (/Pity./)
Edmondia: (//I don't think he pities anyone.//)
EnsTren: (/I don't like him. I don't want him to touch me./)
EnsTren: (/I don't want to play games./)
Edmondia: (//Maybe it's not a game, maybe it's just playing.//)
EnsTren: (/What's the diffrence between playing and games? One has rules, or a rule, and the other does not./)
Edmondia: (//Don't you want to play?//)
EnsTren: (/Everything has rules, even if they are broken. So play is not fair, because it's a game. You and Mokuba are the only ones who won't hurt me./ Even if memories haunt him about Mokuba's "betrayal," even if your touch is pain.)
Edmondia: (//I'm sorry that you feel that way, hikari.//)
EnsTren: (/Why? Because hikaris should be optimistic and blind to the truth?/)
Edmondia: //Because you deserve to be happy and play.//
EnsTren: /I'm happy with you and Mokuba, I play with you and Mokuba./
Edmondia: //You should play with your friends - and no, don't contradict me, friends are a good thing to have, and like it or not these are the people who are closest to you.//
EnsTren: /You and Mokuba are./
Edmondia: //Aside from us, pretty light.//
EnsTren: /I'd rather fuck my secretary than "play" with them./
Edmondia: //No fucking anybody but me. And you're no fun.//
EnsTren: /Exactly, I only want you, so you can imagine how little I want her. And sex isn't fun?/
Edmondia: He snorted. //Yes, it's fun, but there are other kinds of fun that you should be having with your friends.//
EnsTren: /Again I reiterate the seceretary statement./
EnsTren: /I've been thinking about the story,/ Seto suddenly changed the subject and relaxed subtly.
Edmondia: Seth plopped down on his desk, transparent. //Oh?//
EnsTren: /Yes,/ he smiled a little, /I think I would be from Greece and my father from the eastern lands, but he either passed away or passed through./
EnsTren: He nodded slowly to himself, /Mother and I would live in one of the city states, on the outskirts, and Mokuba would be just a little child, maybe even an infant./
Edmondia: //Mmmhmm...?//
EnsTren: /And we wouldn't be doing well, there wouldn't be enough money, but I would know some of the traders because I worked for them when they were in port, and I looked at their maps and listened to their stories. I would have gone with them too if I didn't have to take care of my family and... wasn't afraid of the scruffier ones./
Edmondia: Seth chuckled. //Timid.//
EnsTren: /Yes, perhaps I might be from Thessalonica, Amphipollis, or even Athens. And I would go to one of the traders I trusted best and sell myself to him for my family./
Edmondia: A ghostly fingertip brushed down front of his school jacket. //Hmm.//
EnsTren: /And I might think that he was going to keep me on his ship as a worker, and he would for a time, because I had always helped him before when he was in harbor./
EnsTren: /But then he would be killed or perhaps somehow I would change hands without his concession. And I would tell my new owner that I was a virgin and then he would take me to Kemet because of my pale skin and eyes./
Edmondia: Seth grinned at him. //And then you would wind up with me. I like.//
EnsTren: He smiled very slightly, /I'm glad./
EnsTren: /I liked how you ran your hand though my hair when you were frightening. I was too frightened and nervous to realize it then, but I liked it, it made me feel... wanted. Not that you ever make me feel unwanted, Anx, but just... a simple gesture, and it makes my scalp feel good./
Edmondia: //Remind me to do it more often, then.//
EnsTren: Another sweet smile, almost... hopeful. /Please?/
Edmondia: //In public, mry? When did you get so bold?//
EnsTren: /Not now, baka./
EnsTren: A raised eyebrow, /Or are you going to pull that Cold Priest act on me?/
EnsTren: /If so we'll leave now and I'll put on that as soon as we get home./
Edmondia: //...don't tempt me.//
EnsTren: /I'm serious Yami, I don't want to stay here and I like sex, it's best when we are in the room, oddly. And I don't have to be here, I only had a test in the morning./
Edmondia: //And how would it look to Mokuba if you started skipping school for sex?//
EnsTren: /I'm not skipping school for sex. I'm skipping school because the mutt touched me and made my stomach queasy and going home and having sex with you is the best remedy./
Edmondia: Seth frowned. //Why in the world did he make you queasy? He's balanced.//
EnsTren: /Maybe because he's a mutt, or because Yugi's light is sticking to him, or maybe I just don't like people touching me any more./
Edmondia: //Why wouldn't you like people touching you?//
EnsTren: /When He touched me it was to hurt me, when you touch me I feel pain, when Yugi touches me I feel sick. So maybe my brain is convinced that if someone touches me it hurts. It's called conditioning./
Edmondia: //Conditioning?//
EnsTren: /Yes, classical conditioning. A man was experimenting with dogs for some reason or another and there was a conveyor belt that brought their food to them. But then he noticed something, see the conveyor belt would take time to bring the food to the dogs, but after a while the dogs started salivating when the conveyor belt started, before they could see or smell the food./
EnsTren: /They subconsciously associated the sound of the conveyor belt with getting food, which caused them to salivate, so after a while, a conveyor belt sounding triggered the salivation reaction. They did something like that with a baby to make him afraid of rabits./
Edmondia: //And you think you've done this to yourself?//
EnsTren: /I've not "Done" this to myself, it happened. It is possible./
Edmondia: Seth leaned forward and kissed him quickly. //With you, anything is possible.//
EnsTren: Smile, /Of course, I'm a genius./
Edmondia: Another stolen kiss. //Of course.//
EnsTren: /Home?/
Edmondia: //You are old enough to make this decision on your own. But if we go, I'll have to say goodbye to Atemu first.//
EnsTren: /I'm asking if you want to./
EnsTren: /And you're trying to guilt trip me, maybe./
Edmondia: //I wouldn't mind. And what do you mean, maybe?//
EnsTren: /You might be trying to guilt trip me./
Edmondia: A beguiling smile. //Would I do that?//
EnsTren: /Yes./
Edmondia: //I only want what's best for you, pretty love.//
EnsTren: He closed his eyes and leaned slightly forward so his head rested against his yami. /I know./
Edmondia: He let his fingers curl around his neck. //Well...?//
EnsTren: /What do you want,/ I want to make you happy.
Edmondia: //I think it would be best for you to stay in school.//
EnsTren: /Okay, we are going to go home eventually, so that's good. You don't think... that any others will come over here and try to "play," do you?/
Edmondia: //He was just being friendly.//
EnsTren: /I didn't like it. Do you think any others will be "friendly?"/
Edmondia: //I'll warn off the other hikaris, but I can't tell you about the rest - not that the rest of them actually like you.//
EnsTren: /Good and double good./
Edmondia: He bounced off the desk and headed for Ryou. One smack upside the head, and the pale-haired boy got the message. The process was repeated for Malik, but instead of smacking Yugi upside the head, Seth jumped in his lap.
Edmondia: Yugi turned an interesting shade of purple.
EnsTren: Seto smiled and his body gave a little shake as he held his laughter in.
Edmondia: Seth fell back with a yelp as Atemu tackled him off of his omote. In the ensuing scuffle, they managed to roll through two aisles of desks, resulting in half the class shivering from a sudden chill.
EnsTren: Seto watched them with a slight, very slight, grin on his face.
Edmondia: "Gaaaaaaaaah! Not the hair, cousin, not the haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!"
EnsTren: Seto wondered if Seth was playing like he had about the slippers, just to make him laugh.
Edmondia: "Hey! Let go of that!"
"Only if you let go of my hair!"
"Wuss!"
"Shrimp!"
"Klutz!"
"Dork!"
EnsTren: Seto muttered under his breath, "Children."
Edmondia: "WE ARE NOT!"
They exchanged an evil glare. "STOP COPYING ME!"
A beat.
"NO, YOU STOP!"
Another pause.
"ARGH!"
EnsTren: /If you don't stop rolling around on the floor with him I might get jealous./
Edmondia: //Oh, really?// And he promptly rolled over again, giggling against his cousin's throat.
EnsTren: /Incorrigeable! Don't start stripping now, you'll give just about everyone who can see you nosebleeds./
Edmondia: His yami gave him a truly evil grin. A moment later, a spectral school jacket went flying and landed on Bakura's head.
Edmondia: "Yours too, cousin!"
Edmondia: That one landed on Malik, who had both hands clamped across his face in a desperate attempt to keep from laughing.
EnsTren: He but his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands, "Monsters," he muttered.
Edmondia: A second later, he felt a ghostly hand clamp down on his ankle.
Edmondia: "Hikari doesn't love meeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Seth wailed to Atemu, who was sitting regally on his stomach and wearing a truly evil smirk.
Edmondia: He wriggled backwards and wrapped both arms around his leg. "Please don't leave me for someone prettier!"
EnsTren: Seto grumbled and then had a very very evil grin, /Revenge is sweet,/ he said to his yami and then said quietly, "You're the best Yami in bed and they all knew it, that's why they dressed you up like a giant phallic symbol and gave you "The Rod.""
Edmondia: Atemu took one look at his mortified cousin's face and burst into laughter.
Edmondia: Across the room, Yugi gave a strangled giggle, almost squeaking.
EnsTren: Seto lifted his head up so he could see and his massive grin was exposed.
Edmondia: Seth stared up at him, starry-eyed. "PRETTY HIKARI!"
Edmondia: Atemu snorted with laughter and rolled off his cousin, stumbling back to his omote and landing in his lap, giggling madly.
EnsTren: He looked down at his yami, eyes sparkling with happiness.
Edmondia: Seth positively beamed up at him.
EnsTren: /Psychotic Yami,/ he said, still in high moods but lightly mocking.
Edmondia: //Hikari is GORGEOUS when hikari smiles like that.//
EnsTren: Seto lowered his head, blushing and all too aware that people could see his ears redden, /Am not!/
Edmondia: The loud snicker that came from Yugi's general direction indicated that Atemu knew his cousin all too well.
Edmondia: Seth slid both arms around his waist and squeezed. //Beautiful.//
EnsTren: His good mood came crashing down and as before he was flushed in embarrassment he was now pale in anger, he hissed and it turned into a snarl at the end. He HATED them and they were laughing at him and something that his yami barely saw. How dare they? He HATED them.
EnsTren: He put his hands down, clenched into fists and knuckles white trembling with rage. He hated them for what they were and had and what they reminded him of, but he knew, intellectually, that they did not mean to hurt him.
EnsTren: And now they were laughing at him.
Edmondia: //Hikari.// The word was a hiss.
EnsTren: He folded his arms, fingers clenching into his arms just below the elbows as hard as he could. He was restraining himself from doing something, anything, but he did not know what but knew it would be bad.
Edmondia: //Sweetling, if you don't calm down, I will take control of the body until you can.//
EnsTren: He stiffened and his lip curled, his Yami never had threatened that before. Never. It would have been too close to forcing him and he had been much less trusting of him, and much more fragile back then to even do it.
EnsTren: If he wanted his body so much, fine, let him have it, in his soul room he didn't have to listen to people laughing at him. So he fled the outer body, sweeping in fast and doing the equivalent of whipping his soul room door open, slamming it behind him, and deadbolting it shut.
Edmondia: Seth sighed heavily as he took control, shooting a panicked look over to his cousin. Atemu stared back, startled, then nodded softly. He would cover for anything that happened while he tried to fix this mess. So he folded his arms on top of the desk and hid his face behind them, willing himself into the corridor that separated them from one another.
Edmondia: //Hikari?//
EnsTren: The door was closed and there was no light from under it. That wasn't very odd, however, light and dark passed from under the door as if his hikari's soul room was both and was slowly rotating.
EnsTren: What was odd however was that as soon as he called to him his hikari stuffed a towel under the door so he couldn't even see the darkness.
Edmondia: He leaned against the door, pressing his face to the cool surface. //I really screwed up there, didn't I, pretty light?//
EnsTren: He could feel his hikari inside, anrgy and hiding from him, most likely in the cot in the middle of his room. He had only seen his hikari's soul room once, and it was by accident. It was a very deep intimacy and his hikari had been upset when he found him staring into it, but had forgiven him faster than Seth predicted, though not by much, for the fact that he did not enter.
Edmondia: He rapped on the door lightly. //Pretty love, will you speak to me?//
EnsTren: The was no answer, he was probably curled up cutely in the cot in the middle, the childish Blue Eyes White Dragon print covers pulled up over his head and his head resting on the matching pillow.
EnsTren: His hikari's soul room was a six pointed star, and the door actually wasn't attached to the walls. In each corner there was something diffrent.
EnsTren: In one that was full of bright light was nothing less than a shine to Mokuba, and the light spilled out of it, bleaching the floor and ceiling brillant, like untouched snow. Right next to that was a corner that was dark and tainted, there was a picture of Gozaburo inside with many dart holes in it, and cigars and elements of torture he recognized from his hikari's dreams. The next was closed closet, chained up and very dark, he saw things slavering under the door and heard screams inside--Bad memories if he had his guess.
EnsTren: Then was their beloved Dragon, a statue of silver standing defiantly next to the horrible memories. There were pictures on a shelf there, but he never saw them as he did not enter. He thought that the dragon moved slowly though.
EnsTren: Another corner with a a man with silver hair and the Millennium Eye--and many many rabbits. This one was as pitch as Gozaburo's. The last... was odd, it was a sealed up closet with a door that you could barely see. It was dark, but there was light too. However it wasn't gray... Behind that wall--he thought, that's where his Hikari's light was.
EnsTren: And of course there was the middle, a simple cot with children's bed set in the design of Blue Eyes White Dragons and a simple dresser next to it. The entire thing revolved around that point.
Edmondia: He knocked again.
EnsTren: His hikari didn't answer--but he heard him sobbing quietly.
Edmondia: //...pretty light...// he sighed, //Pretty light, will you let me in?//
EnsTren: There was no answer, nothing to even suggest his hikari even heard him. And slowly it dawned on him that his hikari might have been starting to trust Atemu and his little Yugi, hating them but trusting them not to hurt him deliberately. Trusting him never to issue a threat like he did.
Edmondia: He leaned back against the door, slowly sliding down the wall to crumple against the floor, burying his face in his hands.
EnsTren: What must it be like to have been hurt so badly like his hikari had been to been a slave, no, less, a serf, with no control--and to have the person closest to you threaten to take over your body without permission?
Edmondia: Quietly, without his own knowledge, tears had begun trickling down his cheeks.
EnsTren: Tortured, enslaved, stripped of his soul, and he threatened him with that.
Edmondia: Now he remembered what all those centuries had been like.
Edmondia: Funny, it had seemed such a long time since he'd loathed himself...
EnsTren: Now his hikari was crying and hurting, hurting, like he never had before, and all their progress almost beyond all doubt broken and gone, perhaps beyond repair. And he couldn't get to him, to at least calm him and make him feel better if not salvage this situation. Couldn't get to him if he decided to start hurting himself, or did it without realizing it.
Edmondia: //I'm sorry, precious light,// he sobbed quietly, //Gods, my lovely one... I'm sorry, so sorry, I love you so much...//
EnsTren: What has he done? What has he done?! What had he been thinking?!
Edmondia: He wasn't thinking. He was being a stupid jackass.
Edmondia: ...he'd never see that smile again.
Edmondia: He was crying so hard he was starting to choke.
Edmondia: Pathetic.
EnsTren: He might never see his hikari whole again.
EnsTren: No, not again, ever.
Edmondia: //...godsI'msosorryIloveyousomuch...//
EnsTren: He could imagine his hikari curled up tight and sobbing, sobbing, just like him, and clutching his plush dragon and some happy memories. He knew how much he needed him right now, but also knew how little he wanted him too.
Edmondia: But he wanted him right now.
Edmondia: And he was never going to get him.
EnsTren: Maybe he'd come back out for Mokuba? Surely there was no way he could stay away and stop protecting him. If he hid and maybe was far far away he'd come out. And if he came out, even if he couldn't help him, Mokuba would be able to--it was better someone could rather than no one.
Edmondia: ...could he stand to be apart?
EnsTren: Could he stand to deny him care? He couldn't get care while locked up in his soul room.
Edmondia: //I love you,// he whispered again, numbly. It was the only thing he was certain of, anymore.
EnsTren: He... he needed... to make it better. But he couldn't. He needed...
Edmondia: He needed his hikari.
EnsTren: He hurt his hikari.
Edmondia: He mustn't touch his hikari again - he'd only hurt him more.
EnsTren: His hikari gave him so many gifts, offered himself in so many ways--even started to grant his fondest wish--but no, he didn't want to think about it because he just shattered it. His hikari's world revolved around Mokuba and himself, and this, this is how he betrayed him.
EnsTren: Rewarded him. Thanked him. Hurt him.
Edmondia: //Mry... i mry...// he whimpered, //I mry...//
EnsTren: No answer... would there ever be one again?
Edmondia: //Love you so much,// he whispered to the empty corridor, the shut door. //Love you, so sorry, love you forever... so sorry, so sorry...//
EnsTren: Did he deserve to be forgiven?
Edmondia: Of course not.
EnsTren: Maybe... he should leave his hikari alone for a little while. For all he knew his very voice was making him cringe under his covers.
Edmondia: But... he... he didn't want to be apart from him...
EnsTren: What was he to do? He'd need to take control of the body sometime. And the soft sounds of his hikari's crying was only driving him deeper into despair.
Edmondia: //Love you, so sorry, love you love you love you always and forever...//
EnsTren: He clawed lightly at the door, wanting to try an open it, knowing he very possibly might be able to knock it down, but knowing that it would hurt his hikari. If it didn't tear the delicate threads holding his mind together he would hate him more.
Edmondia: //Pretty light, pretty light, pretty love, pretty darling, pretty pretty sweetling...//
EnsTren: He could feel Seto moving once violently at the last endearment, like he had felt him tumbling around in his pillow fortress when upset. Sweetling, what he had called him when he threatened him.
Edmondia: He cursed himself again.
Edmondia: //Sorry, so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, love you, love you, love you forever and ever my pretty light, my pretty life, my soul...//
EnsTren: His pretty Ankh, his love, his pretty beautiful suffering sun.
Edmondia: He brushed that thought against his mind, wrapping it up in his grief and drowning it in his love.
EnsTren: //Oh gods I'm so sorry. WhathaveIdonetoyou?//
Edmondia: Another sob.
EnsTren: //I've ruined everything, so sorry my light, my Ra, my morning and evening star.//
Edmondia: /.../
EnsTren: //Sorry, so sorry, forever, sorrysorry, loveyouloveyou forverlove pretty beautiful light.//
Edmondia: /...I hate you./
EnsTren: Everything... crumbled, fell in on itself. Was he even still in his body? Had his soul been trapped in a card and he was some how still aware within his body? No, that was impossible, he was the soul and if he had been removed he wouldn't have been slowly collapsing ouside his hikari's door.
EnsTren: I ruined everything.
Edmondia: I love you.
Edmondia: I'm sorry.
Edmondia: I love you.
Edmondia: I'm sorry.
Edmondia: I love you.
EnsTren: There was no answer, not even from hope.
Edmondia: And he didn't know what to do.
EnsTren: What should he do? What did he always do? He... ran to Atemu.
Edmondia: A hand fell on his shoulder, and he spun, ready to fight - and found himself staring into the very surprised eyes of one Mazaki Anzu.
Edmondia: "...Kaiba?" she ventured.
EnsTren: Oh... dear. Either he was hallucinating or he had accidentally taken the body and run to his cousin.
Edmondia: A soft hand fell on his other shoulder, and he glanced backwards.
EnsTren: Fuck, "Seth," he corrected and turned haunted eyes to Atemu, noting, somehow, the classroom was empty, he had "slept" though to lunch period in all likeliness. That saved him the trouble of altering memories.
EnsTren: He saw through the window the slant of the sun, not lunch, school was over.
Edmondia: The hand reached up to cradle his cheek, and he melted against the touch. "What happened, cousin? What's wrong?"
EnsTren: He fell. He fell to his knees keening and giving into sobs, hugging his cousin's legs.
EnsTren: There was no light, there was no hope. Only pain and despair and his hikari's, hikari's, loathing.
Edmondia: Soft hands in his hair, on his shoulders, soft familiar lovely tiny golden hands.
EnsTren: And he sobbed, and he begged. "K-ill me!"
Edmondia: "What?!"
EnsTren: "Ki-ill m-mme c-cousin! Please! Destroy my soul and crush it to dust and feed to to Apophis so I can never hurt him again!"
Edmondia: His cousin moved, dropped to his knees, cradled his face in his hands, and a soothing rush of shadow brushed against his mind, enough to force the air back into his lungs. "I won't kill you, cousin, I won't do that. Tell me what happened."
EnsTren: He sobbed quietly on Atemu's shoulder, trying to get himself under control. "H-He heard you laugh and he was starting to trust you I think to not deliberately hurt him. He got... so angry, like you s-suh-sometimes." He gulped down air and slid his hands around Atemu's waist and held him close, like his hikari held his dragon.
Edmondia: Soft fingers drifted through his hair, again, soft and soothing, and he realized that this was where he'd picked up the gesture, and would his hikari ever let him touch him again?
EnsTren: Never.

"I-I... he was trusting me, I think, I know. And I... I told him that if he didn't calm down I would take over the body until he could. I... I never did that before, I've never even been in his soul room, and he... I've only seen it once by accident and he was mad about that but I respected his privacy and then I... I threatened him with that!"
EnsTren: "He's been tortured and enslaved and stripped of his soul and I said that to him!"
EnsTren: "What have I done, Atemu? He... He hates me! He locked himself in and I can't even see under the door and he... He said he hated me!"
EnsTren: "Destroy me for him, Atemu, kill me so I can never hurt him again! It's within your power, and if you do it not for me then do it because you owe him!"
Edmondia: "...and how do you think he would feel if I took you from him, sweet cousin?"
EnsTren: "I wouldn't be hurting him! He's strong on his own, Atemu! He's survived so long without me and I'm breaking him apart. It would be kinder to destroy him quickly with a shadow game but I'm torturing him!"
EnsTren: "He'd be delighted! You must do it Atemu, if not destroying me then sealing me away again."
Edmondia: "I will not." There was steel there, fire and gold, and he knew his pharaoh had made his choice. "You need one another - I will not keep you from him."
EnsTren: "He doesn't want me! We may need each other but I am destroying him!"
Edmondia: "And without you he will destroy himself - I will not allow it!"
EnsTren: "I've destroyed everything we built! Obliterated it and we will never be able to rebuild it!"
Edmondia: "It will be rebuilt."
EnsTren: "I might as well have threated to rape him! He hates me! How can that be rebuilt in this lifetime?!"
Edmondia: "Because he loves you."
EnsTren: "He hates me, he told me so!"
Edmondia: "Stop and think, cousin! If he is truly that angry, wouldn't he seize upon the one thing that would hurt you most?"
EnsTren: He fell almost completely silent and sniffled. Inpulsively he reached up for Atemu and hauled him into his lap to hug like a well loved stuffed animal, or like Mokuba.
Edmondia: His cousin sighed against his hair, tolerating the affront to his dignity, gently sliding his arms around his neck and squeezing him.
EnsTren: "I can never touch him again," he whispered into his cousin's hair where the nest of gold was. "I only hurt him."
Edmondia: "He loves you," Atemu murmured, "He will let you touch him again, I promise you that."
EnsTren: "I won't touch him," he said defiantly. "It's the least I can do to spare him pain."
Edmondia: "Don't be foolish."
EnsTren: "I'm not being foolish," he said stubbornly. "All the pleasure, the rightness he should feel is pain. He told me before that if felt as if I had claws."
Edmondia: "You said it was better, the last time..."
EnsTren: "I have to share my mind with him, press mine to his so we overlap, almost all the pleasure he feels is the pleasure I feel. And it is very difficult to do this all the time, you know this Atemu, it is tiring and neither of us have a solid memory after."
EnsTren: "But he usually feels pain still, sometimes, when he takes me to a room he made for me as a gift he doesn't feel pain."
Edmondia: "...take him there. And beg for his forgiveness."
EnsTren: "And if he does not forgive me? If he refuses to open the door to his soul?"
Edmondia: "Beg him before his soul."
EnsTren: "I have, Atemu-chan, I have and he... he said he hated me. He loves me you say, but we both know that his soul is badly contorted, what if what I did, this unforgivable thing I did, was enough to make that love turn to hate because his tortured soul could allow it?"
Edmondia: "...beg him, plead with him, yield to him... never abandon him. It will take time for him to forgive you, but he does still love you. I can tell, sweet cousin, I can tell how much he still loves you. He will never hate you."
EnsTren: He hugged him tighter and tears flowed from his eyes and into Atemu's hair, "How?" He whispered, begging him to tell him how he knew, how he had such faith.
Edmondia: He smiled, that soft, wise smile, so rare in his solemn eyes. "I know his soul, sweet priest, dear cousin. Believe me when I say he loves you still."
EnsTren: And he started crying again, sobbing and feeling like he was dying and being born all at once.
Edmondia: Atemu was warm in his arms.
Edmondia: Beautiful cousin.
EnsTren: Wonderful cousin, wonderful wise protecting cousin. Helping and protecting him in turn just like he helped and protected him when they were in the palace.
Edmondia: In his heart of hearts, he loved him still.
EnsTren: Just as his hikari loved Mokuba.
Edmondia: Just as the night loved the stars.
EnsTren: Just as he loved his own stuffed dragon.
Edmondia: How had they ever been parted?
EnsTren: Stupid items.
Edmondia: Stupid destiny.
EnsTren: Stupid everything.
Edmondia: Beautiful cousin.
EnsTren: Beautiful hikari.
Edmondia: ...saviors.
EnsTren: Home.