Pessimistic Optimist

The vision of Yubel fades away as he blinks rapidly, and he finally sees Yuugo on the bed instead of his first friend. There is no dragon’s heart, no Yubel pleading for him to leave, telling him I want to, I want to and his worried glances. He is a King, not a prince. He should do better than the hurried rush of flashbacks.

The boy woke up to darkness. Confused, he tried to move to a sitting position only to fall back against the stone with a choked cry as white hot agony shot through his body.  Breathless with pain, all he could do was lay there as he concentrated on the rise and fall of his chest, wincing when even that tiny movement made his ribs scream in protest.

Where was he…? There was a nagging feeling like he had forgotten something important… like he should be somewhere else right now.  Flashes of colors and sounds leaked into his thoughts but they were jumbled and nonsensical at best, the only image that he could really grasp onto was a pair of intense gold eyes…

He should be probably be panicking, but he was just too tired.

He had initially gone to order the miners to keep a lookout, as the Vessel wasn't anywhere to be seen in the castle, but on his way out he found him. A motionless body hidden by darkness, its owner breathing but not very much. He was alive, and that was all Sillva needed to know. He exhaled with the breath he had been holding.

Gently, he picked up the Vessel from the ground and made sure not to make anything worse. Haou was already in a bad mood. In a whoosh of wind, he appeared in the infirmary wing of the castle and immediately called whoever was in the nearby vicinity to help.

Haou was notified not too long after, and Sillva wisely stepped out at the glance Haou gave him. Dian Keto the Cure Master was more than enough. She would definitely be able to heal the Vessel.

How the hell had he managed to develop a thing for the smug, son of a bitch who was holding him prisoner in a clichéd villainous castle that was teeming with literal monsters?

This was a million times worse than Beauty and the Beast; the beast never threatened to destroy Belle’s oldest and dearest friend because of some random folktale-light nonsense about being possessed by an evil lampshade and never made her CROSS DRESS.

(Had Yugo examined his thought processes a bit more clearly, he would have  been mortified that he was now drawing parallels between himself and a freaking Disney princess.)

"Vessel," a cool, male voice interrupted his lamenting from behind and Yugo uncovered his face to see another skull-faced minion had addressed him. They all started to look the same to him after a while. This one looked vaguely familiar and a trickle of memory told him that this green-caped guy was the one who started the whole fucking dress business that first night!

"What do you want," he muttered resentfully.

"I am to escort you back to your quarters," he said with a shallow bow. "If you could come with me…"

Scowling, Yugo gathered his skirts again and stood up, only tripping on his hemline once but caught himself on his chair. His cheeks unconsciously puffed up a bit in displeasure and he mechanically followed the servant, still mulling over his thoughts.

His distraction was probably the reason why he hadn’t noticed that the monster was not leading him back to his assigned room.

A sudden blast of chilled air hit him and his eyes snapped forward in confusion, only to see that Grenn had pushed open a chained set of doors that opened up to nowhere.

"What the…!" Yugo exclaimed, looking up at him alarm. "Where the hell—-ack!" He was abruptly cut off when the monster’s claws closed around his throat.

"Look at you," it hissed, giving him a vicious shake.  "Prancing around like a common harlot and distracting His Majesty from his precious work! You murdered my brethren! The Supreme King cannot afford to be held back by trash like YOU!”

What harm could it do? If Grenn wanted to mess around a little with the Vessel, SIllva wasn't going to stop him. No one liked him--he was only alive by the King's orders.

And so, when the split second wore off, something went horribly, horribly wrong--Sillva couldn't reattach the shackles back on. That alone made the warning bells in his head go off.

"Your Majesty," Sillva opened the doors to the King's bedroom and waited as he took a few moments to compose himself. "I'm sorry for intruding, but the Vessel is--gone--"

Haou's golden eyes glowed in the darkness. There were no lights in his room, only whatever streamed through the windows. Haou walked forward until he was a foot from SIllva, and the duel monster immediately got down on one knee.

"Grenn said something about undoing the shackles," Sillva continued without prompt; he had been with Haou long enough to know what the King wanted without saying it. "He isn't Light-ridden, your Majesty. I checked. It seems there's a grudge--"

"Find him," Haou said as he walked past without letting SIllva finish. The Warlord wisely did not speak up, and only disappeared in a flash of light.

The Darkness surrounded him as he held his hands out. Flashes of memories shot through his head: Yubel gone, Yubel missing, the nobles had done it--

  It was odd, hearing the spirits refer to Judai as such. She didn’t understand, but she concluded that she could just question him about that title at a later time. The spirits seemed wiling to offer support, though. Honoka was content with the situation currently if that was the case.

  “Oh, yes, right! We can definitely start now. All of my classes are over for the day, and I need to head home anyway. S-So, yeah, we should go,” she replied to him with a merry tone, a large smile forming its way onto her face, before gesturing for him to follow her and beginning the normal walk towards her house.

  “My siblings are out of the house for the rest of the week. My dad’s on a business trip, and my mom took my sister to visit the family, so we’re clear for about a week,” Honoka explained. It would be good to avoid any confrontations with her family. Plus, the situation would be much smoother with them gone. 

  “If you want some food, I think I have leftovers from yesterday.”

Haou only provided the standard Juudai smile with an excited “lead the way!” on his tongue. When she mentioned food, he had to stop and think. This body was just a manifestation of Darkness, or his powers, and he did not technically need any nourishment (including sleep). However, if he was Judai...

“Aha sweet!” he said, going along with the charade. As soon as he got to business, he’d have to drop it. But it wouldn’t be hard to skirt around this girl. “What’s for leftovers? Shrimp?”

The nearby scenery was taken with skittish side glances as he tried to place a trail on the dreadful card that had eluded him so many times. There would be signs, a sudden spark of energy, a gold trail, perhaps the confused student that would stare for no reason...

There.

“You spoke of balance.  Of cycles.  But has it never once occurred to you, Supreme King…”

It sent a jolt through his body, as if the Darkness inside him starting stirring at the very moment Yuuri uttered those words.

He fixes his composure and exhales, refusing to let this get to him. “Of course it has,” he’s not stupid enough to not connect the dots. If there was one of the Gentle Darkness, there would be one of the Light, but its lack of appearance has made Haou dismiss it into myth. It’s made him forget.

… Oh fuck it, he had a fucking crush on the Supreme Fucking Asshole.

Getting information was going to tough--he already knew this. He just didn’t think Yuugo would be so stubborn. He had to admire it, almost, the stubbornness almost reminded him of Judai.

(At that, he felt a strange warmth in his chest, and he shook it off almost immediately. How pathetic.)

“In that case, then I suppose that’s the end of dinner and dinner talks,” he said with a note of disappointment. The doors to the parlor opened into the hall where they were before. “I have to get back to business, but you’ll find a suitable change of clothes in your bedroom when you get back.”