Broken Light, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Me: OO OHMYGOD IT'SROUNDEIGHT ALREADY?! THE NEXT ROUND'S THE FINALE!! HOLY INSOMNIA, BATMAN!! (If any of you get the two things referenced there, I'll give you a virtual cookie.) So anywhoosle. Round Eight. With an AE pairing that I am drawing a total blank on, chuteshipping (AtemuxKisara). I suck at AE, let alone this pairing… (IRONY! "Seto and the Blue Eyes White Dragon" just came on my playlist!! AHAHAHA!!)

AU. Uses the AE characters, with cannon actions but written in an AU. Chuteshipping (AtemuxKisara, which is the contest pairing), mizushipping (SethxKisara), and, if you squint, sealshipping (MahaadoxAtemu). While this story does not contain explicit references to shounen-ai, it is hinted at. If you are offended by gay pairings, or even hints at them, please, do not feel obligated to read. You have been warned.

Poem Note: Each of the three poems (NOT BY ME – they're by my classmate) precedes a section in the POV of Atemu, then Seth, then Kisara, and then back to Atemu. The last poem is broken into two parts, the first part preceding Kisara's part, the second Atemu's wind-up. I also think that each of the poems can be in each of their POVs, depending on who they precede (except for the last one, that's wholly in Kisara's POV). Again, I didn't write the poems, my friend wrote them like a year ago… I just think they work so perfectly. Each of the poems reflects the feelings of the person that talks right after it, and they all are pretty much about Kisara, so… yeah.

Disclaimer: Hikari Daeron does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any affiliations. The poems in this story are in a trilogy called "Winter (Whispers, Echoes and Sighs)" by Alan Cowen, and under no circumstances does Hikari Daeron claim any right to them. (No one can use these poems without his permission; he's a classmate of mine.) This work was written exclusively for the aforementioned contest.

Broken Light

At least I know you're not a leaf
Caressed constant by the cold breeze,
Harassed, if you will, by the winter night.
A Venus flytrap, Beauty with teeth,
Would better suit you.
And though I know I'm not a bee
And certainly can no longer be a fly,
What am I?

The first time I saw Kisara, she was in Seth's arms.

Ah, the way I describe it. No, it wasn't like that. Growing up on the streets of Manhattan is not such a simple task. Seth and I have had it easy; we've grown up wealthy, accustomed to having our every whims answered. Our lives were straightforward enough: I was the heir to the Pharón Corporation, and, as he was my cousin, Seth was to be my top executive.

Our lives were set out for us. We were perfectly happy, and prepared to face our futures.

Then Kisara came into our lives.

I'm not saying that she wreaked our lives, or our futures. But once we met her, everything… well, everything changed. Mahaado disappeared, Mana was left alone, and Seth…

Seth was never the same again.

Even I changed. We all knew that Seth was in love with her, but no one knew how I...

Well, in any case, after she left, our lives weren't the same.

The first time I met Kisara, Seth had burst in on a bunch of hooligans who had ganged up on her. Fearing for her life, my brunet cousin interfered and managed to get her safely away. I was in the limo when I saw him running with her in his arms. I had the chauffeur stop the car and yelled at him to come in.

When he did, we both properly examined the girl. I remember Seth stiffening when he got a better look at her. I didn't ask why; instead, I stared in wonder and awe. She was beautiful. Her silvery-blue hair was long and soft, and her skin the palest shade I'd ever seen… I felt my heart beat all the faster as I stared at her, captured by something I had never known.

We took her to our home. Once inside, we called Mahaado – my best friend, a medical student – who came with his little sister, Mana. He cleaned her various scrapes and bruises before declaring that she would be fine.

"Are you sure?" I demanded. "Apparently, she was totally defenseless against the people that attacked her. Are you sure there isn't any sort of… I don't know, internal damage?"

Mahaado's lips had twitched. I distinctly remember the way he used a hand to cover his mouth, but not before I saw a small smile. "Atemu, calm down," he said, raising his other hand and ruffling my hair with it. I pouted. "She's going to be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not in med school for nothing, Pharaoh." That had always been my nickname, since my last name, Pharón, meant 'Pharaoh' in Persian. "Trust me. She'll be fine."

Mana shook her head from her seat and sighed loudly. "Oh, let it be, Mahaado," she said, flipping through a magazine. "You know how Atemu is. He's just going to be obnoxious about it until he realizes that she will hook up with him when she awakens."

I threw a pillow at her. She yelped as it smacked her and chucked it straight back with a laugh. A pillow fight would have ensued, had Seth not snapped, "Hey, do you want to wake her?!"

Smacking Mana with a pillow one last time, I walked over to my kneeling cousin. I placed my chin on his head and threw my arms around his neck. "I know you're worried, Seth," I murmured. "But I'm sure she'll be fine."

She was fine, of course. When she woke up, she mistrusted us instantly, until she remembered seeing Seth jump in to save her. Then, she warmed to us. "Thank you," she murmured as Mana made some tea. "I don't know what to say."

I smiled kindly at her. "Don't worry about a thing, Kisara," I said. She had told us her name with some misgivings, but we told her ours and she wasn't so worried (most people had heard of the Pharón family, after all). "I promise, you don't have to be afraid anymore."

Her smile made my heart skip a beat. I felt myself blush. "Thanks, Atemu."

"O-of course," I stuttered.

I hadn't known what she would do to us, when I first met her. I didn't know how Mana would grow to resent the world and the people in it, how Mahaado would be driven so mad that he would leave, how Seth would close himself off from everyone else, even me…

I didn't know that she would leave me to wonder who I was, and what exactly I was meant for, after all.

I see the green light and wear on
Knowing the waves will splash thick in the night;
And though surety is a wave,
I splash on toward the light with all might.

I am the descanter of sighs,
I blow winds across the horizon;
And though surety is the sun,
I don't wait 'til the oceans have dried.

I never told Atemu, but the day that I dragged Kisara from the streets was not the first time I had met her.

Up until a few years ago, I lived in Brooklyn with my mother. I didn't know who my father was, and all my mother ever told me was 'He's going to come back one day'. I used to believe her, until I realized that he had left us for years without nothing, and surely, such swine didn't care about any family it had.

Of course, this was before I knew that my father was the younger brother to the CEO of Pharón Corporation. The only way I ever knew about that, anyway, was when Atemu appeared at my doorstep, claiming to be my cousin, and that my old man had finally kicked the bucket.

In any case, before I met Atemu, before I knew anything of such things, I lived with my mother in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. One day, when I was coming home from a local school, I was jumped. I came out worse for wear, my already-tattered clothes torn and my body battered, bloodied and bruised. I hadn't wanted my mom to see – I knew she would cry, and I hated to see her cry – so I went to a local park to use the showers there to clean up. When I arrived outside of the building where we lived, it was on fire.

I screamed for my mother. She usually slept while I was at school, and was probably trapped inside. I ran forward to go inside, but someone grabbed me and held me back. I watched in horror as the complex crumbled in a roar, shattered glass spraying everywhere as my present exploded before my eyes. I screamed; I couldn't help it. Suddenly, nothing was as it should be. I didn't remember my father, my mother was taken from me in a tragic twist of fate. They always said karma was a bitch, after all.

But then burst through a girl, tugging my mother with her. I stared in a sort of avid terror as she collapsed on the ground, coughing up soot and covered in a multitude of burns. My mother was alive; she suffered from third-degree burns and smoke inhalation, but, thankfully, nothing worse. The firemen had put the girl on a stretcher to take her to the hospital. I screamed a 'thank you' as she was taken away.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Wait! What's your name?"

"Seth! What's yours?"

Over the commotion, I didn't catch her name. But I never forgot the silver-blue hair or the pale face, and the earnestness with which she had looked at me.

When I saved her from the people who had ganged up on her, I didn't see or recognize her at first. It was only when I was in the car, next to Atemu, that harsh reality slapped me in the face. At the time, I had mistaken it for a caress. It was only later that I would realize what she had cost us.

When she woke up, I did not partake in the conversation. Instead, I watched as Atemu talked to her, laughing in his carefree way and making her love him as he did everyone. It's not so much that I resented this ability, but I always felt a twinge of jealousy that Atemu was at such ease with people, when I could never be.

Instead of being warm and open like he was, I was cold and ruthless. Even to truly good people, I was nothing short of an asshole. For instance, Mahaado: I had never liked him because of the relationship he had with my cousin, even though he was intensely loyal to my family and to Atemu. His sister, Mana, I had always snubbed because, for all her good heart, I found her silly. And these were only two. The only person I had ever truly liked, despite myself, was Atemu.

Later, Kisara joined that list, too.

"Jealous, Mahaado?" I sneered as he and I watched the two from afar. Mana was in the kitchen making tea with the maids; for some reason, she liked the chore.

The other glanced at me with a raised eyebrow. "Of what?"

"The way Kisara and Atemu are 'making the eyes' at each other." It was low, a hit below the belt. I had always suspected, but never truly confirmed, that Mahaado was a little too fond of my cousin. It was not that I was homophonic, or against the idea, but it was a jibe I could not resist making.

Mahaado stiffened. "If Atemu is interested in the girl, it is no concern of mine."

"Except that you are his best friend. Or are you something more?"

I had to applaud his stealth. Without so much as a whisper of cloth, he dragged me into the nearest room before slamming me into the wall. "Listen, Seth," he hissed. "Just because you are Atemu's cousin gives you no right to goad me. If you want to fight, then be a man and fight. None of this beating-around-the-bush, hm?"

He released me before walking out of the room. I loosened my tie and followed him. Neither of us spoke to each other for the rest of the evening, not while Kisara joined us for dinner and then afterwards, when Mana insisted that she spend the night with her and her brother at their apartment.

She kissed Atemu goodbye. It was on the cheek, but he blushed nonetheless. "B-bye, Kisara," he stuttered. "See you tomorrow?"

Kisara nodded with a smile, then turned to me. To my great surprise, she bowed. "Goodbye, Seth," she murmured. "Thank you, for everything." I returned her smile awkwardly.

"Um, yeah, no problem, Kisara…" I hesitated, and then extended a hand. She took it. I'm not sure what compelled me to do it, but I suddenly bent forward and brushed my lips against the back.

She blushed, a pale pink warming her face. Atemu flushed too, but a much darker shade. I saw Mahaado rolls his eyes from my peripheral vision, and saw a confused expression light on Mana's face.

It didn't matter, what any of them thought. Ever since she saved my mother, I had built up a vision of Kisara in my mind. Meeting her… it's been surreal, unlike any other experience I've ever had.

Until she left, of course.

Great caverns, deep caverns, hold echoes never-ending
Of truths constant bending
And folly stale.

I walk through great walls invisible
And split shells indivisible
With ancient tales
I heard in echoes.

I stayed. It was wrong of me. I never belonged with them in the first place, but something compelled me to stay, to be happy for the first time in my life.

I was torn, despite my happiness. Atemu flattered me with his attention constantly, laughing, joking, making me smile like no one ever has. While I liked him a lot, I do not think that it was ever truly the love that he desired.

But it was wrong of me to toy with him. I held genuine affection for him, but… it was still wrong of me, as it was wrong of me to toy with Seth, too. I truly liked both of them, and for Seth, it may have been something stronger, but I was never meant for either of them. I was not meant to be here, and that the two of them became so attached to me…

I should have stopped it. I am the White Dragon, I should have been able to keep it at friendship – not even, to leave immediately after they helped me – and never look back. Instead, I stayed. I stayed, and their feelings grew, and then I sorely regretted it.

It was wrong of me. I should have left. And even though I didn't, I shouldn't… I shouldn't have encouraged them, the way I did. And in turn, I shouldn't have said the things I did.

"So you're the heir to the company?"

"Sure am! It's a huge responsibility, but… well, with Seth at my side, I think I can handle it!"

"Hmm… do you want this, Atemu?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you truly want to be the CEO of this company? To be contained in this society and live in a world that all anyone ever sees is your money? Do you truly want to be caged in this life, where all you can ever do is caw when your true potential lies in singing?"

I didn't just say such things to Atemu. I said them to Mahaado as well…

"How can you keep doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Staying in the sidelines. Watching passively. It's obvious you love Atemu, why not tell him so?"

"W-what are you saying?!"

"Look, Mahaado, it's apparent that you are extremely loyal to Atemu, that you would do anything for him. But is that enough? Even more so, is it not restraining for him? I wonder, will he always grow up with such protectors at his side? Or are you too afraid to let him experience life as he would?"

I should never have come. That's why, when I left, I thought it was for the best. I flew up into the sunset and disappeared, leaving them to live out their lives without the intruder who should never have been there in the first place.

I am the warbler of echoes
In these caverns melting;
This icy Eros;

This winter era:
The era of Whispers,
They echo.

After Kisara left, we all lost a piece of ourselves, whether directly or indirectly because of her. The day that Mana had woken up to find Kisara gone from the house, Mahaado had went out 'to search for her', as he claimed. While he was out, Mana read his journal, lying carelessly on the table, in which he had expressed doubts to whether he was doing me a favour or an injustice as a friend and 'protector', as he called himself.

The police came knocking at my door. They took me to headquarters, where I was asked to identify a body.

After Mahaado died, Mana changed more than any of us. She took to wearing long sleeves and always had something black or red on. She said it was for mourning and his blood, spilt when he had been killed – or killed himself, we never truly knew. She rarely smiled. She refused to move in with me, when I asked her; instead, I subtly paid her rent and had her living expenses covered, as she lived alone. We saw each other often but rarely spoke, though sometimes I woke up with her sleeping at my side, face blotchy with dried tears.

Seth had been in love with Kisara. When she left, he suddenly seemed lost. He dropped out of business school for a while, before my father forced him to continue if he wanted to keep his place in the company. But he was never the same… he slipped on an icy mask that not even I could penetrate.

And I? I became a wandering soul, like all of the souls that are trapped on the earth and wish to break free. Life became ever the more uncertain, a broken light that I was never to penetrate or understand. After Kisara left, there was something that was always missing. It seemed that our lives had become overshadowed, and that dawn would never break forth.

After Kisara left, life may have went on, but we were certainly never the same.

I echo.

Me: I got the title of the story because I was watching Across The Universe and while I was singing along with the title song, "images of broken light" came into the line and so… (grins) About the story, though – I wrote three different ones, and this is the only one I finished/actually liked, so there you go. It's… well, props to Alan for the amazing poems, which inspired me to write this version of my chute. (crosses fingers) Wish me luck! (Did you like my 'Pharón' joke? Ahahahaha… And yes, it really does mean Pharaoh in Persian. Hurray!)

And because I don't think the story gave the poems justice, here is how Alan originally wrote them:

Winter (Whispers, Echoes and Sighs)

II.