This has got to be the strangest thing I have done in a while but I know that I need to write this letter.
I got out all of my lined paper and grabbed a pen before heading out into my kitchen and sitting down at the table.
Dear god,
I need to talk to you. Please, dear God, please. I will ask for nothing else for the rest of my life. I cannot find words that would begin to describe what I would do if you helped us.
Please dear God please bring them home safe. I do not care about when they do come home but please let them come home soon. We miss them; you can look into our minds and thoughts. You can search through the memories we have and our secrete despairs that we have and you can see our loneliness. You can see all the desperation and longing we share. Please help us.
There is nothing in this world that could ever relieve this loneliness besides them. Yugi and Ryou try to stay strong and Malik is doing his best but you know as well as we do that there is very little keeping them in this world. Mokuba is doing his best as well. He misses his brother more than he lets on. Just like his brother he refuses to show any emotions unless something major happens. But I have seen the look in his eyes when his birthday and other holidays pass by. He is only a child and has to take care of more than he should have ever been given. Sure Seto has people to help him but they don't do nearly enough.
I know that just knowing they are alive is what is keeping us in this world and not with you. I feel the same way but I know that if I went to join you and all your angels in heaven we would leave them behind. We don't want them to suffer as we are now.
Please dear God we want nothing else, nothing else could ever compare to this plea that I am sending to you. Please bring them home safe. Please.
Love,
Joey
I finished my letter with tear in my eyes and grabbed an envelope. I folded my desperate plea and sealed the envelope before grabbing my jacket and keys and heading out the door.
I walked in silence in the cold winter night. The sky was dark and heavy with clouds about to burst. The first flakes of snow started to fall when I reached my destination.
I entered the park and walked slowly down the path to the one place I know my letter would be delivered.
I slowly approached the most beautiful place in our city and sat down under it.
This is the only place in the world with a constantly blooming sakura tree. The tree had to be at least 200 years old and was huge. The branches cascaded to the ground and made a veil from the outside world when you sat against the trunk.
I sat under the comforting branches covered in beautiful pink flowers. A small wind picked up and the loose petals cascaded around in the wind making a whirlwind of soft petals.
As I sat there I felt so at peace and as if nothing was bad in the first place. I felt that the war was never even a thought and our boyfriends were not enlisted. I felt no fear for their well beings and no sadness or loneliness.
That is why we come to this tree, no where on earth have we ever felt so loved or safe when we sat under the tree. Yugi basically lives here most days. Ryou comes here at least once a day and Malik comes to write here when he cannot handle the world. Mokuba doesn't come very often since he is always so busy but I bring him here sometimes when it gets too hard for him. I don't blame them, I come when I need to feel the unconditional love that my boyfriend used to give me.
We never have to look far when one of us goes missing. I constantly worry about Yugi and Ryou though, since Malik and I have stopped them from killing themselves several times. If they ever go missing we run as fast as we can to this tree, in case they really did hang themselves under the tree as they had mentioned a few times.
Most of the time they are just sitting under or in the tree, thinking or crying but we caught them a few times with large pieces of rope and Yugi had a knife once.
We know that we need to stay strong for our lovers but it is becoming harder and harder with each passing day. They have been gone for 5 years now and all letters have stopped coming.
The worst day was when grandpa died and left Yugi all alone in this world. Mokuba and Ryou couldn't get him to stop crying for days. Mokuba was so strong, he helped Yugi in ways that Ryou, Malik and I never could.
I stood up after a while and took out my letter.
It's time to deliver our plea, our prayer.
I grabbed a branch closest to me and swung my body up and found the little hole in the tree. I stuck the letter in the hole and sat on the branch for a few moments before jumping down and walking out of the secluded sanctuary.
I walked down to the street and back to my house before heading inside and checking my messages.
There were no new messages so I went into the kitchen and made dinner before heading to bed, there was no point in doing anything else.
5 years later
It's been ten years. My god it has been ten years since I last saw his beautiful face.
I sat in the same place I was 5 years ago.
The petals on the sakura tree were as beautiful as ever and Ryou, Malik, Yugi, and Mokuba were with me this time.
Everything had changed in the past 5 years. Yugi is almost as tall as I am and has gotten very skinny. He is as pale as ever but has gotten over his rebellious phase so he now sits in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a red v neck t shirt with a black jacket lying on his lap. He has grown his hair long and it rests at the nape of his neck in a low pony tail. He has glasses too and they are square with a fashionable frame. He is now the owner and proprietor of the game shop so he doesn't get to go out much but when he does he normally goes straight to the tree. He finally stopped trying to die but he still isn't the same happy go lucky person he used to be. He may never be the same. He was hanging from a branch upside down and was fiddling with a brain puzzle.
Ryou has gotten a little taller, not by much though and his hair is very long. It flows past his butt and is normally in a tight braid to keep it out of his face, but right now it is loose as he runs his fingers through it while sitting in the top branches of the tree. He has gotten stronger and works in a coffee shop to pass his time. Technically he doesn't need to even have a job since Bakura owns several different clubs around the world that Ryou never sold. He just has a job so he won't be lonely all the time. He is now wearing a green long sleeved top with black pants.
Malik looks the same but has grown a little taller. He no longer wears his signature purple vest but instead it's a light purple t shirt and black leather pants. He got another tattoo on his wrist but no one knows what it says since its in hieroglyphics. But he always looks at it when he gets sad. He is now lying on a branch of the tree, picking flowers and making a chain with them. His personality has died down so much over the years; he is calmer and is surprisingly brilliant. H just finished getting his doctor license and works in the hospital in the surgery rooms. He rarely has time off but when he does he normal sleeps or hangs out with us.
Mokuba changed the most out of all of us. He has gotten a steady girlfriend and plans to propose to her in the near future. He has grown to be as tall as his brother and he cut off most of his hair. It now looks similar to his older brother's hair style with a small pony tail in the back. His childish face has become sharper and his eyes are filled to the brim with new ideas. He single handedly runs his brothers company and he is just as brilliant as his older brother. He doesn't share emotions openly but he is not as closed off as his brother, he isn't afraid to show emotions he just chooses not to. He was sitting on the ground and was curled up against the trunk, his hands mindlessly playing with the grass around his feet.
As for me I was laying on the ground, face up looking at the stars through the branches. I myself had changed since I last saw my boyfriend. I had grown up and become mature. I practically adopted Mokuba when he was little and helped him choose his career choices. When he finally got his steady girlfriend Mokuba had dinner with me, as if I was his parents. I cried when he graduated high school and took him out for drinks when he turned 21. I became both his parent and his friend. This war not only changed my life but it changed me, in many ways. I was forced to stop goofing off and become mature. I discovered what makes me happy, what makes me sad and what makes me proud. I am not the hot tempered school boy I once was. I work in the game shop with Yugi on weekends and work in an electronics store the rest of the week. Like Ryou I don't technically need to work but I get bored and lonely otherwise. When I was younger and Seto got me out of my father's "care" and my father was sent to jail I inherited everything he had previously owned. Turns out my father owned a large amount of land in upstate New York. After a few trips to visit the land I built a hunting reserve and opened an inn employing 15 people. The inn soon became a popular hunting reserve and gained an excess of 17 thousand a month. Thus I did not need to work but in order to stay out of trouble I got a job. Now here I lay on the ground in our little sanctuary enjoying each other company as we waited patiently to know if our loved ones would ever come home.
Maybe they will be home soon.
"Hey guys" I said as I sat up and looked at the ground. I had their attention even though they didn't show it, so I just continued. "I never told you this but I once wrote a note to god. I wrote about all of us, and our desperate plea to bring them all home safe. I wrote it years ago, and we never received letters saying they were hurt but I still have to wonder, will they ever come home?"
Mokuba crawled over to where I was and smiled before pulling an envelope out of his pocket. "I did the same thing. I carry it with me to remind me that every day we don't get a letter saying they are hurt my prayer was answered."
"I write them all the time" Malik said as he pulled out his little black notebook. "Why do you think I carry this around with me all the time?" he tossed it down into my lap and I opened it to see hundreds of letters.
"I write them too but I place them in bottles and throw them into the sea, hoping they will float to where ever they are and 'Kura will read them." Ryou said as he swung his legs over the branch he was sitting on and started to braid a small piece of his long hair.
"I don't write letters, I write songs and when things get too bad I sing them. Yami used to write songs so it makes me feel closer to him. When things get really bad I visit grandpa. He always knew what to do so I just talk to him." Yugi said as swung himself to actually sit on the branch while he continued to play with his brain puzzle.
"I think they will come home, someday they will come home to our waiting arms and we will all be reunited" Ryou said as he finished his braid and started to unravel it again.
"Hey Joey how is Serenity doing?" Malik asked as I tossed his book back up to him.
"She is doing good, can't do much since she has to stay in bed until the baby comes sometime in the next few weeks" I said as I lay back down. I watched as Yugi swung himself back upside down and continued with his puzzle.
"How is Duke doing? He has to be nervous since he was never a father before" Malik asked as he leaned up against the tree again.
"He is doing good but is nervous; hell I'm nervous, I'm going to be an uncle in just a few weeks. But Mai has been very helpful when it comes to raising Serenity. Mai taught her so much, I can never repay her. Mai is like a sister to me and like a mother to Serenity. I don't know what I would do if Mai had never showed up."
"They are going to be great parents" Yugi said as he swung himself up and around the branch in a circle before staying upside down again.
I chuckled a little at his monkey like abilities. "I never knew the king of games was also a monkey"
Yugi looked away from his puzzle and did another full circle around the branch before grabbing the branch and doing a flip before landing foot first on the branch, sending little sakura blossoms to fall from the branch like snow to cover both Mokuba and me in the petals.
"yes I have always been a monkey how on earth did you figure that out?" he taunted sarcastically before flipping himself upside down again and dropping his completed brain puzzle to the ground. He continued to do some more flips and tricks before flipping off the branch and landing on the ground before grabbing his puzzle again and climbing back up. He inverted himself again and started to do the puzzle again.
We all clapped and laughed at his antics before resuming our original positions. Ryou however stood up and pulled a couple of strings from out of his pocket and flinging them to other branches before swinging around on his makeshift rigging before doing his own trapeze act. Ryou hadn't forgotten how to swing and twist in the air, even after the 10 years of being away from the circus. He flung himself around for a while before landing back on his branch and pulling all of his ropes back into neat little balls and putting them back into his special belt.
"Man Ryou you always amazed me with the way you could do that on such little rigging."
"You have to trust your body to know where to go and then you can go any trick you want" he said as he took his hair out of his loose ponytail and playing with it again.
Mokuba was standing up and looking around for small rocks. He had a few good handfuls before starting to juggle them. He had at least 25 rocks going at once and he tossed them to me as he finished his own little act. "I juggle at work when I had conference calls or when I need to release any pent up feelings. Seto used to do the same; he taught me how to juggle before we went to the circus. It was always really funny to walk in on a conference call because he would have at least 20 going at once to keep himself from falling asleep."
Malik pulled a few knives out of his boots and jumped down from the branch he was on and started to fling the knives into the tree around Mokuba, making a perfect outline of his body against the trunk.
Mokuba simply closed his eyes and allowed him to throw his knives; he was used to it anyways. He used to be the model during their knife wars anyways so he gradually began to trust Malik with throwing the knives.
"Alright Joey your turn" Malik said as he grabbed all his knives and placed them in his boots before heading back up the tree.
"Alright only this once though" I said and then i pulled off my special flute necklace. "What animal do you want to see?" I said as I walked out of the tree sanctuary and watched as everyone climbed higher on the tree to poke their heads out of the top of the tree for a good view.
"Let see a little horse action" Mokuba said as he settled on a branch next to Yugi.
"Hmm, haven't done that one in a while. I hope she won't be too mad" I played a quick tune and I heard a low clatter on the ground before I flung myself in the air and landing on the back of a pure white mare as she trotted around the outside of the tree.
I played another few tunes and continued with my tricks. The horse wasn't happy with me at all but complied anyways. When I was just about finished I climbed onto her back and stood proud and tall as she trotted under me. I put my arms out to my sides and then did a large back flip onto the ground as the white horse trotted away to wherever she came from.
I went back into the tree and everyone climbed back to where they were originally as they clapped and laughed.
We hadn't done that is so long I had almost forgotten that we were ever in a circus.
We hung out and talked for a little longer before we headed our separate ways to go home.
I headed back to my house and went straight to the recorder to see that I had no new messages. I went into the kitchen and cooking some eggs real fast before heading into the living room and playing a movie.
I fell asleep a little while later but woke up when I heard the door open quietly. Shit someone is in my house.
I grabbed me knife out of my shirt and quietly made my way over to the hallway where the intruder was. I waited another moment before coming out of my hiding spot.
In the hallway stood a very tall brunet man with very long hair, it hung to his knees and was in a loose ponytail, secured with a leather cord. He had on a pair of green cargo pants and a black t shirt. His regulation green jacket was lying across a large green travel bag. His boots were sitting on the ground next to his bag. His back was turned away from me as he took off his hat. He turned around and I dropped me knife.
"You… you can't be…"
He opened his arms as his bone chilling blue eyes softened to show a look of love in their depths. I ran into his arms and started to sob, this was a cruel joke, my mind playing tricks on me again.
"Hello baby, I'm home, I'm really home" I hugged me close to his strong body and angled my head up to meet his eyes. He leaned down and pulled my lips to his softly.
We kissed and kissed. He was home, he was really home.
1 week later
I sat down once again as I did 10 years ago and grabbed a pen and paper and sat at the kitchen table. I started to write but with tears of joy this time.
Dear God,
Thank you. I could never ask for anything more from you. They are home, all of them. Safe and sound. Thank you for listening, thank you. Words cannot and will never express the feeling of gratitude we have towards you.
Love,
Joey
I grabbed me coat and keys before heading over to our beautiful sakura tree. I climbed up to the hole in the trunk and placed me letter inside as I did 10 years ago.
When I put my letter into the tree I saw a little black note book, a letter in a bottle, another envelope and a small folded piece of paper. I smiled and added me thanks to the pile of notes before heading home to my beautiful boyfriend.
Alright I wrote this as a kind of Christmas/ holiday thing but I also wrote it because I heard the song "Note to God" by some little girl. It was a video actually and I burst out crying because there were soldiers coming home to their children and families. It was so cute so I wanted to write this as a thank you for our soldiers and to show some holiday spirit. It's not very holiday but whatever.
I do not own the characters or the show or the song that inspired me.
