#puzzleshipping vampire

A mere century or two after the king of vampires was nearly killed and fell into a dormant state, disorder and terror reigned as the vampires no longer had a head to their hierarchy. The council he left behind failing to maintain order in his stead against the rebelling noble houses. 

The council, realizing the puzzle had been solved, and seeing no other option, set plans in motion to rouse their king from his death like sleep. 

They force him to hold his arm over the open sarcophagus and cut his palm. He cries and tries to flinch, to move away, but he's paralyzed. Yugi is left to watch in horror as his blood runs and drips to the vampire's lips. Slowly at first, the sleeping form begins to stir. A slight twitch, an inhale, and a breathe through an open mouth. And the moment the vampire realizes how he's been disturbed, his eyes are wide and dilated. It's only seconds before their crimson stare is fixed on Yugi and the black consumes his pupils entirely. 

Their eyes never part as his tongue sluggishly laps at the blood staining his lips and he shudders. And Yugi? Yugi feels a great chill and something like pinpricks beneath his skin before those eyes give him a look that in another context would have had a very different affect. 

The spell, much to Yugi's gratefulness is broken by the very people that kidnapped and restrained him steal the attention of those unsettling eyes. Someone clears their throat off to the side, and the spell, much to Yugi's gratefulness, is broken as the attention of those unsettling eyes leaves him. The Pharaoh continues to lie there, unmoving except for his eyes and waits, cold, accusatory. A stark contrast to the enrapt attention they doled on the other man. "Seth…Speak." 

"My lord/ Pharaoh, your people are in need of direction and order, we are but few now and the actions of the minority of even our meager number bring down the wrath of the humans. We are dying." 

"Then you have failed me and my name." 

The figures stiffen, though Seth attempts to hide his appear unshaken by the words and continues, as he knows he must. "We, your loyal servants have brought you that which you sought during your reign." 

The eyes perk up at this, a light flickering in them before being smothered once more by a bored expression, the transition almost fast enough that anyone could miss it. In another such fleeting moment, though more obvious action, that same gaze falls upon Yugi. "Oh?" 

The man almost smiles, if the slight, momentary upturn of the corner of his mouth could be considered such a thing. "Pharaoh, may we present the millennium puzzle," He says as he dangles the item above the prone being, "whole once more, and-"

"That which is mine, my heart…" his eyes widen and he gazes at Yugi with a look of such awe and unadulterated desire, Yugi is certain he's been mistaken for someone else. He couldn't inspire that, could he? 

As it was, he just stood there, frozen with his still bleeding arm over the coffin with no idea what this vampire had uttered in that foreign tongue. The Pharaoh struggles to sit up, a winces at the effort and pain it causes to wrack through his frail form. "You will be forgiven your failure, we will rebuild what we once had, but for now…" He began to pant as he sat upright, collapsing on the coffin's side, his eyes unwavering, "release him from your compulsion. And leave us." 

"But Pharaoh-" 

"I am not so weak that I cannot coax a frightened doe to my side. It was not a request. You will leave us and release him from your hold." 

"Of course, my king." Atem hums, his eyes glinting in the dim firelight, half lidded and dark the moment the order is fulfilled.

 Yugi didn’t even have long enough after the door was closed and the spell removed to move an inch before he feels another presence slip/ spill/ consume his thoughts. "My better half, my heart. Mine." Yugi may not have understood the language, but there was no misunderstanding the man's behavior… or the clear possessive tone on the words he knew referred to himself/ he'd addressed him with so far. He shook, small tremors the only sign he had any control of his limbs before his raised arm fell to his side, tired and numb, the movement confirming that yes, it had fallen asleep. The prickly, weighted and uncomfortable feeling of it, making him wince. 

He could move it seemed, but he was no fool. 

The compulsion to stay clear in his mind, and the urge to flee forgotten in the haze of it and his fear. And when he felt the urge to draw closer, he couldn't even think to deny it. A flickering of emotions foreign to him, guilt, pain and sorrow. And hunger, overwhelming despite its brief nature. These were not his feelings, but even as he knew it, he feared whose they were. The vampire sighed, and waited for Yugi to lie his head on the side of the sarcophagus, patient, but strained. Yugi forced his eyes to close and a shaky breath escaped him, feeling the cold metal against his cheek. 

Thin fingers card through his hair, and he all but expects the vampire to use it to pull his head up or to grab his attention, but it never happens. It's a gentle, soothing gesture and it surprises him the longer it lasts. Yugi opens his eyes to gentle, almost warm eyes and he isn't sure if he should trust the sense of safety they evoke in his chest. 

Then Atem stops to grasp his arm, and Yugipanics. He draws his arm back to himself without a thought. And it's a beat before he notes that he's no longer under the other's compulsion. He moves to once again run for it, but a hand grasping desperately at the sleeve of his dress shirt and what could only have been described as a plea hold him in place just as effectively. With how little he understood of the man's words, he could have sworn he'd heard him say please. Atem seemed to be struggling, his grip on Yugi loosening as he once again collapses, half of his torso lying out of his coffin. "Please… I… do not… wish to be…alone." It's a broken mess of words stumbling over each other and breaks where it's clear he isn't sure what words to use or how they should sound. It's piteous, desperate, and it breaks Yugi's heart.

 He isn't sure if it's some master scheme or the vampire toying with him, but… he had requested that yugi be left uncompelled when it would have no doubt been easiest for him to have been left like he had been, if not repositioned and he clearly wasn't using that tactic on him anymore. And he'd already had a clear chance at his throat if that's all he wanted. A starved vampire only had so much control. Which raised the question… why hadn't he, then?

 What reason was there for him to be so gentle, to attempt to communicate, if all he intended was to drain him? Yugi whirled around and loomed over the vampire, confused and frustrated. He knew full well he couldn't turn his back on this man like that. Not without an explanation. He hated seeing anyone in the state the man was in, and if his life wasn't immediately under threat… He had to admit to being a little curious at least. The people who'd brought him here had refused to tell him anything, and… even with most of Seth's conversation with him was in Japanese, it raised more questions than answers. "What do you mean, leave you alone? You have people out side those doors waiting for you, waiting for you to drain me and be done with it."

 Yugi feels the hand around his wrist tighten like a vice and the eyes slit. "Then why… why are you messing with my head?"

 "I… I wish to … protect, Yugi. I cannot… if ..I do."

 "what do you mean, prote-" Fate decided that in that moment the door across the chamber would open and Yugi cursed. 

"Pharaoh, we need to leave before-" he takes in the scene in front of him, Atem half lying out of his coffin and keeping a white knuckled grip on Yugi, who, having turned his head in that direction, given away that he was not under anyone's influence. Seth froze for only a moment before his long strides brought him before the cowering young man.  He reached out his hand to grasp Yugi's collar, enraged, "How dare you, you insolent-" 

"Silence your tongue and stay your hand," Where his Japanese had been unsure and hesitant before, it was now authoritative and commanding. Surprising Yugi both by the change in his demeanor and that he would be privy to this argument in a way he hadn't been for the last one. "he has committed no offense upon me. You, however, tread a very dangerous line as you stand. You interrupted without my explicit permission-" 

"Interrupted his escape attempt perhaps. You were left to your own devices long enough to take from him, yet it is clear you have not. Why?"

 "You interrupted without my explicit permission and you would be wise to remember your place, cousin, and ask me fewer questions in the future. As for your answer, I do not…" The king falters, like the words alluded him. With a glance in Yugi's direction, he switches to his native tongue. Reluctant to divulge all of the situation and its delicate nature to the one it concerned, just yet. "I do not wish to frighten him further. Our bond is already so fragile despite the puzzle's completion. I wish for him to give his blood willingly."

 "and you would delay us because you do not have permission to take something you are going to die without?" A seething glare is his only answer and Seth mutters under his breath about the stubbornness of kings and mules before regaining his composure. "Very well, let's speed this up shall we? Before we're discovered here." 

He turns to Yugi, his earlier sneer gone, but the look in his eyes  he peers down at him from are still as callousc.  "You notice he's given you a choice. Our Pharaoh is too weak to do more than parlor tricks and he's too frail to leave this place on his own merits as he… sits. Seeing as we won't leave without him and he's determined to keep us down here until you offer your blood to him, if you wish to leave this place, I'd suggest you see reason before the choice is made for you. Even a king only has so much resolve and right now his equivalent is more akin to Atlas." With that insight, he turns on his heel and stalks out the door, his cape fluttering behind him, once more leaving them in the lantern light of the tomb's inner chamber.

 "He says that like he expects me to believe I'll live through this." Yugi wasn't aware he'd spoken allowed until the other replied, 

"You will." 

"And why should I believe you?"

 "Because I am giving you a… a choice. " 

"But you're starving and-" 

"Clearly in far more control of myself than any vampire you've met, I'm sure. I will take only what I require to get me out of here and… what you can easily replenish with rest. Seth wishes to leave this place as soon as we are able, but I will ensure you have time… to recuperate just as I will."

 "And that will last you?"

 "I will… go dormant once more,” the vampire sighs, “at least until our departure it should… keep somewhat if I do so." 

"And if it isn't enough?"

 "Then I will hunt/ my priests and I will hunt for what is around. You will live, I swear it." 

"I… don't have many options. I doubt your… priests would let me leave just like that."Atem hums his ascent/ agreement, smiling apologetically. 

"You can… you can take what you need." Atem's eyes soften and he tilts Yugi's head up and to the side, nuzzling his neck and favoring a spot with tongue and teeth before loosing his fangs and breaking the skin. Yugi opens his mouth involuntarily in a silent scream, before a very different sound escapes him/ rises from his throat. The moan is more of a whine, but it isn't the last of its kind as pleasure wracks his frame overwhelms/clouds his senses.

 When Atem withdraws and seals the wound, the vampire is anything but sated, but he is more than content/ pleased/ greatly pleased. He'd been reveling in the sounds the man made, in the taste of him and the feel of him as he held him close and he moved closer still. Yugi had found himself straddling the other and he made as if to move, before hands found themselves at his hips and he felt his breath hitch without his permission and his heart beat/ his cheeks heat furiously. "if there was anything you ever wished of me," Atem purred from below him, his eyes peering up at him through blown pupils, a tongue making a brief appearance to his lips and emphasizing his very prominent fangs. 

Yugi squirmed slightly, watching the muscle with apt fascination and at the memory of what he'd already known of the attentions of the man's fangs. Atem observed his actions as well, "It would only be my pleasure/ I would take immense pleasure, in granting it/ to grant it." Yugi wasn't sure what his answer would have been, and he would never know, as they were once again interrupted. 

This time, he wasn't the one cursing.