“Hey there, Ma.”
Joey returned home to see his father readily waiting in front of the porch and his mother tending to the garden outside. Without even bothering to remove her garden gloves and her dirty apron, she ran over to hug her beloved son like she had not seen him in years. Joey took this all in with a nonchalant smile on his face. He could guess that the rest of his pals are probably enduring the same doting like he got.
“So, son, how did it go, if you don’t mind your ol’ man asking?” Mr. Wheeler asked as he approached his son with a clap on the back.
“It was a new experience. Dinna really expect to be quite…interesting,” Joey replied, feigning nonchalance as much as possible.
“Did the Whisperer hurt you? Did it do anything out of the norm? Was it inappropriate to you?” Mrs. Wheeler asked worriedly as she helped take his duffel bag.
“Ma, stop worryin’! I dinna think too much ‘bout it. I just let it do its job, is all. It hurt a lil’, but nothin’ I can’t handle.”
“Alright now, woman, you let your son take a break,” Mr. Wheeler took his wife’s arm and gently led her to the kitchen. “Why don’t you fix something for your son to eat and let him rest for a while, aye?”
Mrs. Wheeler didn’t need to be told twice. She went straight into the kitchen and started making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just the way Joey liked it and put whatever dirty laundry there is in the duffel bag into the laundry basket to be washed. Mr. Wheeler noticed the slightly thoughtful look on Joey’s face and asked, “Son? Everything alright?”
“Yeah, Pa,” Joey broke out of his reverie. “Just a lil’ tired, is all. Imma gonna go tuh mah room now.”
Without even waiting for his father’s usual reprimand about his articulation, he walked quickly upstairs to his room and closed the door behind him before slumping down onto the floor, his back against the door and his hands over his mouth to suppress his cries that threatened to escape as his eyes began to cry buckets again. It took all his willpower to pretend nothing had happened and chat casually with his friends, even to make teasing jokes at Yugi and Ryou about their blossoming complexion. It was a miracle for him to even smile and laugh at the way Yugi and Ryou blushed crimson at Joey’s tease through his face that was aching to burst in tears as his crumbling heart fought hard to break him from his façade. He knew he was being a sappy sorry sod of a wuss who was crying like a girl, but right now he didn’t care. There were too much overwhelming feelings within him that had yet to be let out of his system and he could do to hold them back so much. It was all he could do to keep his pride and honour the pact he had made with his friends and not betray them.
He just wanted to be a crybaby for once, just this once.
Outside his room, Mrs. Wheeler stared sadly at his door with her husband shaking his head and forbidding her to interfere. She sighed and left the tray of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and orange juice on the floor at the door for Joey to take to eat later.
--:--
The moonlight streamed through the window into his bedroom and his apple crystal pendant caught the light, shimmering and sparkling as its light bounced onto a small corner of his bed post. Joey fingered the pendant absentmindedly and realized that it had been almost a week since his meeting with his mate. He spent his week-long holiday off school hanging out with his friends, from going to arcades to field trips to night club bashes, which of course were recognized by the bartenders as the gang who were part of the teen herms undergoing the ritual and forbid to serve them alcohol no matter how he, Tristan and Malik bribed and threatened, and had to settle with soft drinks and be seated in a designated room for non-smokers.
But despite the holidays, they were not spared from school work as their class rep would make them come to the public library every day after school hours to tutor them a little about the lesson of the day and hand them the homework for it. He often act the way he always acted in front of his friends, only to go home and cry himself to sleep because of his aching heart and of his feeling of betrayal towards his friends of not honouring the pact, until he couldn’t cry anymore. It was painful to pretend that he’s still the Whisperer-hater he vowed to be and even more so when he and his friends went over to the prayer sanctuary to pray for their children to be Whisperer-dominant when all he wished for is that his child would be anything but Whisperer-dominant. There have been a few times he just wanted to break down onto his knees and beg for forgiveness and ask them to forget about their silly childish pact, but his pride and his fear of losing his friends held him back.
If only he knew what was really going on inside his friends’ mind about their experiences with their mates.
Joey sighed and got off the bed. He figured to try and make himself a little midnight snack, and hopefully a little warm milk would bring back his sleepy bugs. With that, he went down the stairs and towards the kitchen. He knew the ins and outs of the kitchen well enough to not need the lights other than the light of the moon from the window to see what he was doing. Soon he started whipping up his usual favourite snack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and heated some milk in the microwave oven.
Just when he was about to pour his glass of warm milk into his glass, he suddenly felt an odd presence behind him. It was almost familiar yet totally strange at the same time. Without looking behind, he quietly opened the knife drawer and grabbed the first knife his hand touched before facing whoever was behind, only to be outsmarted by a tight grip on the hand that held the knife and meeting face to face at a pair of cold ice-blue eyes staring mischievously at his brown ones.
“S…Seto…?”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out to whom those blue orbs belonged to. Seto pushed Joey’s hand that held the knife softly onto the kitchen counter and purred, a torrent of whispers trailing along with its voice. After making Joey let go of the knife, it took him into its arms and wrapped its wings around him for comfort measure. Joey thought he couldn’t cry anymore after so many days of pouring out every ounce of H2O in his body, thought he had cried himself dry, but the feeling of Seto’s arms around him and its soft beating heart in its chest as his ear touched it sent him straight back to Tears-ville.
“Seto…Seto…! I…I missed ya…I missed ya so much…”
“Here…” Seto whispered in his ear, telling him with its few words that it was here with him now. It reached down to caress his still flat belly and purred lovingly, nuzzling its face into Joey’s hair.
“It’s not dat soon, Seto. I’m not exactly pregnant yet.”
“Forming…Changing…Baby…” Seto whispered as it gave Joey a lick on the nose, making Joey giggle.
“You mean…our baby’s beginning to grow already?”
A nod from his mate confirmed his question.
“Dat’s…kinda fast…I guess dat’s why I’ve been such a crybaby lately. Musta been da moodswings.”
Seto smirked at the way Joey blushed at the thought of being pregnant already.
“We…better be in mah room. I dinna want mah ol’ folks tuh freak out seein’ ya ‘ere.”
Bringing his midnight snack along with him, he led his mate into his room and turned on the nightlight. At long last, he was able to see how his mate looked like. Seto was clad in a satin white loincloth that ran all the way down half of its thigh. It wore a pair of gold armlets and shoulder-blade armour that seemed made to fit for its almost muscular yet slim built. It had a silver bangle across its forehead, covering its eyebrows, highlighting its ice blue orbs even more. Its fair skin illuminated its entire being and its silky chocolate-brown hair was magnificent under the kiss of the moon rays. It had a tiny black dragon with blue eyes tattooed on the middle of its chest, and its wing frames were of the same colour as its skin, with the inner skin a slight tan colour. Seeing them stretched behind Seto’s back, Joey couldn’t help but shudder both in mild fear and awe at the majestic look and aura Seto gave off. Joey was lucky he didn’t drop his plate of sandwiches and glass of milk after trying to drink in everything that is before him.
“Ya…Ya beautiful, Seto. Ya…everything I imagined ya tuh be.”
Seto let out a small smile of gratitude over Joey’s compliment. Joey settled down his milk and sandwiches and came up to Seto, fingering the tattoo.
“Nice. I mighta just git one mahself if Pa ain’t so strict ‘bout these things.”
Seto purred as it felt his finger running along the lines of the black dragon on its chest. It laid a few butterfly kisses on his forehead. Joey grinned.
“Ya reli are like a dragon. Cold n proper on da outside, hot n ferocious on da inside. Can I call ya Dragon?”
Seto thought for a while, then nodded in agreement. Its eyes were slightly dim due to the nightlight, and Joey couldn’t feeling mesmerized as he stared at the cold pupils and the black snake-eye-like iris in the middle.
“I…I dinna understand dis. We’ve only just met…and yet I miss ya like as if we’re old couples. What’s wrong wif me, Seto?”
“Love…”
“Love?” Joey tried to sound humorous, to pretend that what Seto proposed was ridiculous, but one look at those alluring eyes told him that it was serious. “Yeah, I guess…dat’s what I’m feelin’ right now. Funny, huh? Dinna think love at first sight existed anymore.”
“Puppy…” Seto purred as it caressed Joey’s face lightly.
“About dat,” Joey said as he backed away a little. “Ya still haven’t answer mah question. How’d ya know of mah pet name mah real ‘mother’ gave me?”
“Puppy…?” Seto tried to bring him back to his arms but Joey backed away even further.
“No. Not until ya tell me.”
Seto sighed and materialized the Millennium Rod which served as a medium to open the gateways between the human world and the Realm of the Night and brandished it in front of Joey. It closed its eyes and concentrated until a certain aura built up around the Millennium Rod. A sort of vortex form above the rod and it revealed a picture of a man with honey-brown hair and skin white as ivory and another man with honey-tan skin and blonde hair carrying a baby in his arms. Joey gasped and moved closer towards the image displayed before him and reached a shivering hand towards the man carrying the baby.
“Mo…Momma…Papa…” Joey said, his eyes widened in disbelief.
“He’s lookin’ just like ya, darlin’,” the man with honey-brown hair whom Joey addressed as his father said as he pinched the baby’s nose. The baby winced and cooed in reply. Joey understood now how he got his accent.
“He’s got your hair,” Joey’s ‘mother’ said.
“But he’s got yer skin. And yer looks.”
“He’s just so cute.”
“Like a little puppy, aye?”
“Mmhmm. Oh, Joey. You’re Momma’s little puppy. No one will ever take you away from me. Ever…”
The scenes stopped abruptly and disappeared as mysteriously as it came. Joey wanted to protest, wanting to see more of his ‘mother’, but saw that Seto was down on one knee, panting breathlessly as both its hands held tightly onto the Millennium Rod, trying to steady itself. Joey, realizing what was going on and what Seto had done for him, quickly changed from annoyed into worry and quickly ran towards Seto, trying to support it onto his bed.
“Ya…Ya alright, luv?”
Seto nodded slightly, slowly regaining composure and normal breathing.
“I…Imma sorry I pushed ya. I shouldna asked ya tuh do dis. It was childish of me.”
“It’s…OK…”
“It musta drained ya off a lot. Imma sorry. I dinna mean tuh…”
Seto’s kiss stopped him short. Oh, how he missed its kiss. He returned its kiss hungrily, savouring the taste, forgetting the need to breathe as he and Seto fought over tongue dominance. Only when his lungs were protesting for air that he managed to reluctantly tear away from Seto’s delectable lips.
“I…do…anything…for…you…Puppy…”
Its words were slow, but it was overwhelming to hear Seto say a full sentence for him. Joey threw himself in its arms, his midnight snack forgotten as he savoured the loving warmth of Seto. Seto slowly returned the hug and purred, stroking his hair.
“Puppy…My Puppy…”
They both lay in bed, content to be in each other’s arms and basking in each other’s warmth. None of them did anything further, even though the chemistry was begging them to do so, because no one in their right mind would suddenly jump into ‘bedding activities’ after having only met once. Besides, Seto seemed to be one of those traditional kinds that would not bed a pregnant person lest it might harm the child.
“So ya actually looked into mah past, eh?” Joey asked, tracing his finger again along the dragon tattoo. “Why?”
Seto shrugged.
“C’mon, Dragon, ya gotta admit, no one is dumb enough tuh snoop in other people’s past. Why’d ya do it?”
Seto hesitated a little, as if trying to find the words to say it, then finally replied, “Want…know…you…more…”
“Well…OK, I guess dat’s reason enough.”
Seto slowly reached its hand to scratch the back of his ear. Joey somehow found it very comforting.
“Ya won’t leave me eva, will ya, Dragon?” Joey asked.
Seto didn’t reply, but his slightly sad eyes were answering enough.
“Please say ya won’t leave me. Please.”
“Can’t…promise…”
“Please…Lie tuh me or whateva…Just say ya won’t leave me…”
Joey clung onto him desperately, not wanting him to go, as he buried his face onto Seto’s chest. Seto may not be able to see what’s going on, but it could tell that its mate was crying again, judging by the ragged way he breathed and the shuddering of his shoulders. His eyes stung with tears and his heart panged with the pain of loneliness once more when Seto still refused to reply him, and Seto could feel the guilt creeping within it for causing such heartache to him.
“Why…Why can’t ya stay wif me…? Why can’t ya do just dis fer me…? Why…?”
“Shh…Puppy…”
“I dun wanna…I dun want ya tuh leave…”
“Shh…”
Seto quietly blew at Joey’s eyes, giving him a mild dose of the Breath of Draught. It watched as Joey’s eyes slowly flutter shut, still whimpering and sobbing as he slowly drifted into Dreamland. It didn’t want to lose him to world of dreams and slumber, but it was the only way it could do to calm him down and make the separation easier. How its heart ached as well at the thought of leaving him, but it had to be done. It was not meant for the human world of light even though it was capable of withstanding the sun and it had other important matters to attend to back home. It had a responsibility, a job to do, and it wasn’t about to forsake it for a human. Not yet, anyway.
“I love ya, Dragon…Love ya so much…”
Hearing the whispered words from its mate, its lips couldn’t help but crease into a smile that it hadn’t thought it could make for so many years. Leaving a chaste kiss on the sweet tender lips of its mate, Seto gave one last look and one last stroke along Joey’s hair before rushing towards the window and jumped, hurrying to return before the dawn breaks and its brother realizing it that it was not on its posts again.
Unbeknownst to it, as soon as it was gone, a dark figure slowly crept into Joey’s room, its red eyes glowing in the dark as it watched Joey sleeping peacefully due to the effects of the Breath of Draught. Beads of his tears still cling onto his short eyelashes, in which the dark figure reached out a slender finger to rake them away and taste them on its tongue. It spotted his midnight snack and, while draining the glass of warm milk and munching away his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grinned from ear to ear as it continued to watch Joey.
“Soon, little mortal. Soon.”
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