Chapter Text
"Why do you have a shovel?"
"It's what I use to bury the bodies," amethyst eyes twinkled with mirth and impish delight as the little demon said this.
"If I do my job right, there won't be a body to bury," Atem replied in a business tone. "By the way, you need not babysit me." He shifted a large snow-white wing in a shooing motion as if to hint that the diminutive demon could bugger off.
His boots pushed off a building that looked suspiciously like it was made from fused bone and stretched flesh, and he tried not to think too deeply about it. His wings beat once to create thrust that shot him into the 'skies' of hell. Not that it was much of a sky but more of a mass of smoke, spirits, and miasma, that hung over the landscape like a perpetual oppressive purply-red-gray overcast.
He descended, and touched down on a jutting outcrop of stone. Far below, a river of toxic green and blue colored ooze moved with an unnatural sluggish current. Every once in awhile the shape of an anguished face, or a grasping hand would appear before sinking back into the substance. Atem wrinkled a nose at it, but made no comment.
Movement in his peripheral alerted him that he was followed. The little shovel demon from before fluttered his wings as he touched down on the same outcropping about three meters from Atem. He smiled merrily.
That smile was extremely disarming and unsettling all at once on the face of a demon.
Atem didn't trust this creature at all. "What do you want?"
"I'm a spectator," chirped the smiley demon.
"Fantastic," Atem responded dryly. "They were supposed to send me a guide while I'm here and instead they sent me a peanut gallery." He pushed off the outcropping, another flap of wings propelling him farther into the depths of Hell.
His ruby colored eyes scoured the jutting landscape; his gaze drifting over towering spires that looked like naked rib bones poking from the ground, passed mounds of smoldering black carcasses, and scrutinized more structures of fused bone and stretched flesh. The occasional demon populated the scene, as well as clusters of damned humans, some lost, some in agony, and some fighting each other.
"Someone has to watch your tight ass while you're here," the little demon explained cheerily, his leathery chiropteran* wings catching a draft that held him aloft beside the angel. His flowing black outfit rippled and flowed behind him. "I'm Yugi!"
Feathered wings stuttered in the air, causing Atem to almost stagger mid-glide. He choked. Actually choked, before he managed to school his expression to something unfazed.
Atem tried not to acknowledge the demon's—Yugi's suggestively exposed shoulders, midriff, and uh... diamond-cut boob widow. Not that the little male demon had any breasts. So all it did was give Atem a flirty glimpse of Yugi's pectorals. The extent of the demon's clothing color-scheme appeared to be black.
This was a stark contrast to Atem's appearance. Who was adorned in a soldier's finery. A long white jacket, with gold trim and fastenings, a grey vest underneath, and a black tie at his neck fastened with a dark ruby brooch. A gold encrusted scabbard hung off his belt, holding a sheathed holy sword, his weapon of choice.
Much more effective than a shovel. He cast a side eye at Yugi, who was clutching his demonic shovel like a giant lollipop.
"What's your name, angel?"
"Atem." He touched down again, this time on the tip of one of the rib-shaped spires. He spread his wings to keep his balance as he perched on the structure, pointedly ignoring the demon in favor of his search.
Yugi had nowhere to land, and opted for flying around Atem in loose circles. Every time he passed in front of the angel he would twist, or loop-de-loop in mid air before making his round again.
A sigh escaped him the third time Yugi did this, but Atem continued to ignore him.
Finally something white in the distance caught his attention. It was far off, and very obscured by all the haze, but there was definitely something large and pale out there.
"Oh, you found the holy pest," Yugi said this practically into his ear. "Good job."
Involuntarily Atem shot off the spire. Forcing distance between himself and the suddenly waaay too close demon. At some point during his last pass, Yugi had fluttered up just behind his shoulder to catch a glimpse of what Atem had been staring at.
"Do you mind?" He flapped his wings to keep himself aloft.
"Not at all," Yugi swooped up in front of him, grinning playfully. "Shall we go collect your lost little angel... horse?" He said the last word like he wasn't sure that was the correct term to describe the thing.
Atem didn't dignify that with a response. There was no 'we.' This was his mission. The demon was simply there to babysit him, and judging from its size, weapon of choice, and dopey personality, it probably wasn't a very good demon. Most likely a low-level imp. He had an impressive set of horns though. They jutted from the sides of his skull before curving up towards the sky in dangerous points.
He shook his head and took off in the direction of his target. This was no time to be admiring a demon's horns. There was never a time he should be admiring a demon's horns. There was nothing admirable about a demon, no matter how adorab—annoying it was.
The steady beat of his angelic wings propelled him over the hellish landscape. An echo of wing beats behind him informing him that his demonic babysitter was keeping pace. It didn't take them very long to reach the pale creature Atem had seen. He spread his wings, slowing down, before perching on a tall but thin stone plateau.
Unfortunately his new perch had just enough room for Yugi if they got cozy. And the demon did just that. He flapped his large chiropteran wings frantically to keep balance, smooshing himself right up against Atem, who squirmed as far to the edge of the tiny plateau as he could manage without falling off.
He shot a dirty scowl, before peering over the edge to assess the situation below.
"It's an Acceptance," Atem noted aloud.
"That's a pretentious name for a horse-man-angel-thing."
The creature below was a white headless centaur with wings. A tiny set of wings on each of its hooves, and massive set on its back. The body of a man jutted out of the neck portion of the horse, but where a human head would have been, there wasn't one at all. Stopping short right at the neck. Instead a large angelic face was set in the stomach of the man portion of the creature. The face looking like it was composed of porcelain.
Black marks, like bruises, marred the flesh of the angelic creature, and glowing red veins protruded sickly in patches across its body.
"Only heaven would create something so grotesque and proclaim it a heavenly entity," Yugi remarked thoughtfully. He didn't sound bothered so much as amused.
"It's been tainted by hell," Atem clarified, nodding to the unnatural bruises and glowing veins.
"Well, it wasn't a looker even before that happened, I can assure you." Amethyst eyes darted over to look Atem up and down, and a sultry smile pulled at Yugi's mouth, "but not all heaven's creatures are hard on the eyes."
Atem reached a dark-skinned hand out and shoved Yugi off the side of the plateau by his face.
The little demon squawked in surprise before flapping his wings, and making circles around the plateau giggling like a school boy.
The sliding sound of metal heralded the unsheathing of his sword. Atem brandished the blade in his right hand, testing the weight of it in his grip.
As a newborn angel, he still wasn't quite accustomed to the weapon yet. Despite all his training. This was to be his first real mission, to track down and collect one of Heaven's creatures that had gotten lost in Hell and was now causing a ruckus. The babysitter was mandatory since he was in Hell's territory and they didn't want another angel getting lost. Hell could just as easily take care of this creature, but they'd asked Heaven to clean up their own mess, and perhaps bring it home if it was still in a condition to save.
Unfortunately, it was not. Having been in Hell for too long the Acceptance was now tainted and mad. It would see no reason, and it would spread the malignance to everything around it once outside this realm.
He would have to slay this once holy creature.
"You're going to kill it?" Yugi folded his arms over the edge of the plateau and looked up at Atem, the rest of his body clung to the side of the stone whilst his large wings draped off his back.
"It must be done. It's too late to save it."
"We could always leave it here and let it be completely corrupted," Yugi suggested, casting his own look down at the rampaging centaur creature. "What would that make it then? A Rejection? Or would it be a Denial?"
"Heaven and Hell would have my hide if I left it here. It's already demolished a sizable portion of Hell," Atem gestured to several grotesque structures that had been leveled in the past ten minutes alone. Never mind the rest of the ruined landscape the angelic entity had been razing to the ground.
"We'll have to skin a lot of sinners to rebuild those structures," the little demon heaved a sigh, sounding so put out by the prospect. Like it was going to be some unfavorable chore to torture and skin humans, and fuse their bones into new architecture. "You're right. It's best it goes."
"So how are we going to vanquish this beasty?" Yugi continued in a more chipper tone.
Said beast had made its way to the plateau they were both perched upon, and was smashing against the structure violently, hooves gouging large chunks of stone from it. The force from the blows was enough to shake the whole plateau, sending Atem staggering for balance, and causing Yugi to dig in so he didn't fall off.
"An imp would just be in my way. You can stay here, I will slay it." The angel dove off the plateau, sword at ready, he plunged down, down, down, at the once angelic, but now rabid beast.
"I'm not an imp!" Yugi's protests fell on deaf ears. He scrambled to the top of the stone structure and plopped down cross-legged so as to have the best view of the skirmish below. After all, it wasn't everyday that you got to watch the denizens of heaven try to murder each other. Atem said he didn't need his help, so Yugi would continue to spectate.
Feh, angel pride. Atem had certainly converted quickly to the heavenly ways. A pang of dejection hit Yugi as he watched the newborn angel. He squashed down the longing and melancholy that threatened to overwhelm him.
Atem clashed with the Acceptance, sword coming down to stab the creature, only for his blade to be met with powerful diamond-hard hooves. The resulting *Clang!* echoed like thunder in the chasms of Hell.
The Acceptance took this opportunity to swing one of its great human-like fists. It connected with Atem's chest and sent the angel flying across the landscape.
Atem smashed into a building made of skulls, and collapsed the side it from the force of his impact. Dozens of tiny lizard looking demons screeched and yowled, and scampered out of the building before the rest of it could come down.
With much difficulty he managed to pull himself from the shattered skulls, shaking the disorientation from his head. Acceptance packed a wallop. He would need to keep that in mind.
"You got this!" called the high-pitched voice of his babysitter. "I believe in you!"
"No thanks to you!" Atem snapped back as he righted himself and brushed bone dust and debris from his finery.
"You didn't want my help," Yugi reminded from the safety of his perch.
Not that it was very safe, as Acceptance had resumed trying to topple the thin plateau.
"Because I won't need it."
Once again he shot forward with a powerful thrust of his wings. Rocketing at the Acceptance at a near blinding speed. He swung his sword, this time making contact with the creature, and managed to lop off one of its horse legs.
The porcelain face set in the creature's stomach screamed.
Atem dove out of the way just as the creature took a swing of retaliation at him with both fists.
He had its attention now. The Acceptance had no interest in the plateau anymore, and came at Atem with relentless hooves and fists and armored wings.
It was all he could do not to get hit. For such a large and bulky creature, it was surprisingly fast and formidable.
Yugi watched the angel dance around blows from the former angelic beast. There were a lot of near misses, and he was practically clenching his butt from all the tension.
Atem wasn't a very skilled angel yet. He was clumsy, and he telegraphed most of his actions before he even made them. Even a beast as mindless as the Acceptance was able to match and block most of Atem's attacks.
He also didn't seem to know that the weak point was the porcelain face set in the stomach of human part of the creature. To kill it decisively, Atem would need to pierce that face, right between the eyes.
Yugi's wings twitched when the Acceptance managed to clip the angel on the shoulder with one of its massive hooves. The force was enough to dislocate one of his wings.
Atem howled. It hurt like a bitch to get hit with that hoof. And he was pretty sure his left wing was useless now. He hopped away to a safer distance, and attempted to flex said wing. Pain shot through his back. Yup. It was crippled.
Acceptance didn't allow him much of a reprieve. It charged, slamming both fists where Atem had been a mere second ago.
Luckily he dove out of the way again.
The next time the beast struck, Atem side stepped, and cut into the creature's side with his blade.
Blood spattered all over the angel's formerly pristine but now scuffed and dirtied clothing.
The cut from the blade sent the beast into another frenzy—could it even get more frenzied?—and it began thrashing wildly at him. Fists, hooves, a sweep of its great wings. The thing was swinging it's body around wildly, keeping pace with Atem's dodges and not giving him any chance to recover.
Unable to use his wings to put distance between them, Atem could only side-step, and hop to avoid Acceptance's attacks. He tightened his focus, searching desperately for an opening so he could cut the creature with his sword again. But it wasn't giving him an inch. It didn't help that his balance was compromised due to his crippled wing.
He managed to dodge another severe blow, one that would have taken his head off had the beast's fist connected. The Acceptance reeled back to strike again, this was the perfect time for Atem to take a stab at the porcelain face.
But he stepped on his own drooping wing, and toppled forward, hard. Right onto his sword. The blade nicked his chin and sliced the front of his uniform, as well as his chest. He felt the crossguard dig painfully into his side.
Acceptance bore down on him, fists falling like twin hammers, ready to smash the angel into the ground until he was nothing more than a feathery smear against the stone.
He clenched his eyes shut, and prepared for the end.
But it never came.
*Twong!*
Atem jerked his head up at the noise only to catch an eyeful of fluttering black fabric, and leathery wings.
Yugi was standing over him, shovel held in both hands, using it as a shield against the Acceptance's strike. The playful smiles from before were gone, replaced with a focused look of determination as he braced against the Herculean strength of the creature.
With a snap of his arms, he forced the Acceptance back, sent it staggering on its three horse legs. Yugi began striding forward while it was still recovering.
There was something about his walk, Atem noted from his spot on the ground. Yugi strutted like a model on a runway, confident and sure. His head held high and wings trailing behind him like a train. The imagery was almost... bewitching.
When the creature struck again, Yugi was prepared. He deflected the blow with ease, and dodged the second fist. He sent a powerful kick to the beast's remaining front hoof, and the sound of bones snapping preceded the creature toppling to the ground.
The Acceptance writhed and thrashed and struck at Yugi with all its remaining limbs.
The little demon ducked a pass from one of its wings and stepped closer.
In one swift motion he raised his shovel and brought the scoop down on the beast's porcelain face. The shovel pierced the face, burying right between the eyes, sending cracks spider-webbing all over its surface.
And then the Acceptance fell limp. Silence settled around them like the settling dust of the battle field.
For a long long moment, Atem could only watch. Watch the little demon as it stood triumphantly over the dead angelic beast. Like a knight who'd just slain a dragon and rescued a princess.
Then he shook off his stupor and rolled onto his side. He placed a hand to his chest to assess the damage. The cut was superficial. Bleeding, but not deep. It would heal quickly enough. His wing was still out of commission, and he had no idea if it was broken, or dislocated at this point. It hurt like a bitch, that much he was sure.
Satisfied that he wasn't going to die, Atem flopped onto his back and let out a sigh of relief. He stared up at the shifting colorful overcast that was Hell's sky. His first real mission, and he botched it. Couldn't even complete it. What a failure.
Bright purple eyes popped into his field of vision, followed by a merry smile.
"You're not dead!" Yugi sang.
Atem shut his eyes. Maybe if he ignored him, he would go away.
"Your pretty clothes are ruined, and you suffered some impressive battle wounds, but you survived. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that the sword slices were self-inflicted."
He scrunched his eyes tighter and willed the demon away.
"Looks like we get to bury a body together after all!"
Atem's ruby-colored eyes shot open and he stared at Yugi. The demon had his shovel raised like a torch, that infectious smile plastered all over his face.
"C'mon! Don't make me bury it by myself." He held out a hand to the angel.
Atem wasn't sure what he was thinking. He was a little distracted by the bubbly demon standing over him, and he was still dazed from the battle. So it was a surprise to both of them when he reached out his own arm, and took the demon's tiny delicate hand. Yugi had really soft skin. Sinfully soft skin.
He suppressed a shudder.
Yugi hauled him up to his feet with a strength that belied his small stature.
"Thank you..." Atem mumbled under his breath.
Yugi beamed anyway, leaning in dangerously close to him. So close that Atem could feel Yugi's breath on his chin. "You know what they say, it's your best friend that helps you bury the bodies." One of those sinfully gorgeous amethyst eyes winked at him.
That was enough to send the angel recoiling. He stumbled back, mindful of his crippled wing, and forced distance between them. All the while fighting the burning heat in his cheeks, and cursing the devil before him.
"We are not best friends!"
"What about regular friends?"
"No!" He scooped his sword from the ground and stabbed it into its scabbard.
Yugi trailed after him when he stalked towards the slain Acceptance.
"Friends with benefits?!"
*technical term to describe bat wings. It means, "hand-wing."