The Crow and The Cat

Chapter 1

Another story by Nikuman-Dango. It's already been completed, but I'll post a chapter a week anyways. 

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Jounouchi Katsuya and Muto Yuugi walked along the sidewalk, talking. Tomorrow was the weekend and their group of friends were going to an Egyptian exhibit. All of them were excited, but none as excited as Yuugi. The short sixteen-year-old had always been interested in Egypt, and he was intending to go someday. The history and culture was so interesting, and the pyramids? He was going to see those if it was the last thing he did.

"Yuugi, did you hear that?"

The smaller teen looked up and shook his head. He'd been too deep in thought to notice any noises. Jounouchi paused and listened for the noise again, and not a minute later a strange noise came drifting from their left. Both boys turned and looked, only to find an alley way not too far ahead of where they stood.

"Let's check it out!" Katsuya called, jogging ahead and entering the space between buildings. Yuugi followed behind quietly, he knew once Jounouchi set his mind on something, you couldn't stop him. It wasn't that Yuugi minded, the hard-headed blonde was his best friend, it just got old sometimes.

"It's a cat."

Yuugi poked his head around the corner, and saw the cat his friend was talking about. It was a deep shade of brown, and lying on its side. The pads of its feet were soft, as if it had never walked on asphalt in its life, and there was something poking out of its rib cage.

"Jounouchi-kun! It's hurt!" Yuugi exclaimed, running forward. The cat opened its eye's at the sound of Yuugi's approaching footsteps, revealing calculating blue eyes. As Yuugi slowed to a walk, the cat let out another strange sound before completely passing out.

"Ahh! N-no! I want to help him! Get off!" Cried Yuugi, swatting franticly as the crow continued to peck at him. After the cat had stopped moving, a crow had come out from behind it and began to attack Yuugi. The crow defiantly had something wrong with one of its wings as well one of its legs. A hand shot out from behind Yuugi and grabbed the crow in its fist.

"Hey you stupid bird! Quit it!" Shouted Jounouchi, squeezing the bird until it made a strangled squeak. Yuugi reached out and snatched the bird from the blonde and cradled it to his chest.

"Jounouchi-kun, grab the cat. Let's take them to Jii-chan's game shop and see if we can help them!"

Jounouchi gave him a look, then nodded and gently took the cat into his arms and followed the spiky-headed teen to his home.

"Jii-Chan! Oi Jii-Chan?" Yuugi called, holding the door open for Jounouchi with his back.

"Ooh. Yuugi, what's going on?" asked the old man, poking his head out from under the counter.

"Jii-chan, we found these guys hurt outside!" Jounouchi shouted, setting the brown cat on the counter. The man looked it over before pulling a first aid box out from behind the counter and opening it. He pulled out some gauze, a few cotton balls and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and set them down.

"Jounouchi, hold the cat there so I can fix its leg."

The blonde did as he was told and held the cat so its leg was extended for the man to look at. Sugoroku took the cat's leg and gently began to clean it with a wet cotton ball. It stirred and opened its eyes, but did nothing more as its leg was wrapped and its ribs were examined.

"Jii-chan, how is he?" asked Yuugi quietly. Jounouchi had carried the bandaged cat away and set it down on the couch in the next room. Sugoroku looked at him before holding his hands out for the bird in his arms.

"He'll be fine after a few days. Now hand over the bird."

Yuugi complied and gently let the bird go and hop into his grandfather's hands.

Both teen's decided that it would be best if both animals stayed with Yuugi and his grandfather, so Jounouchi left for home to finish his homework. The cat watched on uninterested while the bird perched tiredly on Yuugi's lap while Sugoroku escorted the blonde to the door. After saying goodbye, Sugoroku returned to the room Yuugi sat in.

"Well, it seems that bird has taken quite a liking to you Yuugi." He said with a smile. Yuugi smiled in return.

"Yeah, but the cat doesn't seem to care about any of us. I wonder why that is?"

"It doesn't matter at the moment. Right now, we need to focus on feeding the both of them."

Yuugi nodded and gently removed the now sleeping bird from his lap and onto the warm cushion by the brown cat and followed his grandfather into the kitchen.

Watching the bid eat the poppy, sunflower and pumpkin seed mixture that Yuugi had created was something the star-headed teen never thought he would do. But here he was, sitting on the couch with the bird in his lap watching as it took one seed in its uninjured claw, then move it to its mouth to eat. This process was repeated until the entire pile of seeds was gone and the bird settled itself in Yuugi's lap once more. The cat, on the other hand, wouldn't touch the canned cat food Sugoroku had gone all the way to the store and bought for it. He just sat there and looked on in disinterest with his dull blue eyes. Yuugi shook his head and picked up the bird, carrying the bird up the stairs and into his room before setting the bird down on his desk and going back downstairs to fetch his backpack.

After finishing his homework, fixing dinner for both he and his grandfather, cleaning his room and bathing, Yuugi settled on his bed with a stack of cards. These cards were his favorite dueling deck for a popular game known as Duel Monsters. Yuugi would never brag, but he was pretty good at games, and this one was no different. Most nights, he would just flip through the cards and add some, exchange some, maybe even take some out. It was a pastime he found when he'd started to fall asleep when reading books. So Yuugi laid all the cards out, face up, on his comforter and looked over all of them. There were some pretty neat spell cards, a few handy trap cards, and he even had a few top level monsters. He started to sort through them, place one here, one over there, and one…

"Hey!"

The bird was dragging cards all over the place with it's beak! No, it was sorting them… or was it? Yuugi watched as the bird picked through the cards until it found the "Dark Magician", which it then drug back over to his spot between Yuugi's legs and sat on. Yuugi laughed and gently plucked the card from under the bird and collected the rest, setting the deck on the desk next to him.

"I need to find you a name!"

The bird pouted at the loss of his card, but looked up at Yuugi with an amused glint in his eyes.

"Well, lets see… you're black so how about… Yami?"

The bird made no noises, but it's gaze clearly said; 'If that's what you want.'