LUNA WON'T YOU CRY FOR ME
A/N: This is the story WITHOUT the song lyrics. For the complete story WITH the lyrics, visit my Deviantart gallery. I only own my OCs. I also drew, and therefore own, the image that goes with this story.
Titania stood out on the curved balcony, her light blue statin nightgown wrapping itself around her legs. Behind her the doors that lead to her room (or at least, the guest room Pegasus had assigned to her; Yugi, Atem, Ryou, and all the others each had their own room. In honor of both Yugi and Atem's approaching birthdays, which were conveniently on the same day, Pegasus was hosting a small, private tournament; family and friends only) were open, the curtains barely whispering as the cool night breeze tugged at them. Her blond hair seemed to float as the wind teasingly pulled it. It was late, well after midnight yet nowhere near dawn, and she should have been resting. But Titania couldn't sleep; an ancient longing tugged at her heart and made sleep impossible. So she did the only thing she could think of: she let the moon and the stars and the wind and the night carry her away. Physically she was still on the balcony, but her mind was far, far away, in a place of memories from lifetimes ago and half-forgotten dreams of the past.
A soft sigh escaped her lips as Titania gazed upward. The bright full moon gazed back. Against the back-blue of the night sky, it seemed to glow as brightly as the sun. Even the millions of stars surrounding it seemed to fade in the presence of the lunar light. Dark blue eyes reflected the moon's soft glow as Titania wondered somewhere in between the dream world and the waking one. In her half-awake state, filled with the yarning of one who puts their hopes and dreams on a passing star, as if to invoke some obscure entity's compassion; Titania whispered the name of the one she most desperately wanted to be with her at that very moment. "Akefia…."
Far away from Pegasus' private island, sitting on the roof top of an apartment building on the outskirts of a large city, a lone male figure sat gazing at the city lights, also lost in thought. Titania, why couldn't he just forget about her?! Yes, they had been close friends as children and yes, her parents and his father had arranged for them to marry when they came of age and yes, they did help each other escape and survive the destruction of their home; but she was dead! He had seen her die, felt the life leave her body! So why did it feel like she was out there somewhere, lost deep in the night?
He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't! The rational part of Titania's mind argued that there was no way Akefia could have lived long enough to make it to the next dynasty, let alone the modern world of today, without some kind of magical help; And magic wasn't one of his gifts. Still, part of Titania refused to give up her hope of seeing him again. Somewhere deep within her heart burned a bright spark of belief that they would meet again. Maybe she clung to that belief because she had never gotten to say a proper goodbye to him. They were still young, but by now homeless and living on the streets, when the fever hit her. Weak and delirious, Titania could barely walk, let alone help Akefia find food for their meals. Panicked at the thought of losing another person he cared about, Akefia had stolen herbs from the local doctor and brought them to Titania. But Akefia was no doctor and couldn't even name the plants he had taken, much less guess their medical worth. So he did the only thing he could: mixed them all together, fed them to Titania, and prayed to Set that she'd get better (Their village had been called evil and had been forsaken by the pharaoh and his gods. Like Set, they were outcastes, with no chance of ever redeeming themselves. But Set took pity on them; He alone of all the gods knew how it felt to realize you were wrong and to be denied the chance to make amends. As the god of the desert, he made a sanctuary for those damned yet repentive souls who had been thrown out and left to die on his sands). It didn't work. The herbs made Titania violently ill and after throwing them up she began convulsing. When that finally stopped she slipped into a coma so deep that he mistook her for dead. He couldn't bear to stay near her "corpse" nor could he bring himself to bury her (Looking back, Titania realized how lucky she was that no one tried to dispose of her "dead" body while she was comatose. She suspected that being in the far corner of a narrow, unimportant alley had something to do with it). So Akefia left.
When Titania finally awoke, weeks later, she understood almost immediately why Akefia wasn't there. Weak, dehydrated, starving, and still dealing with the lingering grip of the fever, Titania was in no condition to be wandering around the city; but that's just what she did. She had to catch up to Akefia, wherever he was. She had to show him she was alright, she was alive. Dazed, her mind half-full of fever dreams, Titania bumped and stumbled her way to an oasis at the very edge of the city. Beyond it lay nothing but desert sands. As Titania began to walk forward, she stepped on something that was most certainly not sand. One! Two! Three! Each strike felt like a white-hot coal was being shoved into her bloodstream through her ankle. Titania stumbled, then fell, towards the oasis pool. Her vision blearing, she could just make out the body of the snake as it slithered away.
She didn't die that day as she suspected she was going to. No, she had been rescued by the inhabitants of the Shadow Realm. An act that was both a blessing and a curse.
Clasping her hands in front of her, tears ran softly down her cheeks as she gasped in desperation "Gods please, oh please, bring him back to me! Let me find him! Let our paths cross even just once more! Please, please let me see him one last time!"
Far away the young Thief King stood up on the roof where he had been sitting. Taking a deep breath, Akefia willed himself not to show any weakness. Yet that didn't stop a single tear from trickling down he scarred cheek. 'Oh Gods please take these memories away! 'he silently begged.' Please rid me of this hurtful feeling!' He couldn't afford to fall prey to his emotions, not while he still needed to avenge his people by destroying the pharaoh.
"Titania?" Startled, Titania tore her gaze from the moon and whipped around to face the owner of the voice. There, standing in her bedroom's doorway, holding a glass of water, stood a sleepy-eyed Ryou Bakura. "Ryou?" she called out softly "Why are you out of bed at this hour?" "I was getting a cup of water." he said, smiling sheepishly as he held up the cup for emphasis. "I was heading back to my room when I thought I heard your voice. I decided I'd sneak a quick peek into your room and make sure you were okay. What's wrong, why were you standing on the balcony?" "I ah, I-I had a bad dream." Titania quickly lied. It was sweet of Ryou to worry about her and had it been anything else she would've opened up immediately and told him the truth. But Akefia, that was something no one else knew; a part of her life she'd never shared with anybody. Not Kisara, not Mab, not even Petit. "Are you okay, do you want to talk about it?" Ryou asked as he stepped into the room, placing his water on a nearby night stand. "No, I'm fine, really. I can't even remember it; it's one of those kinds of nightmares." Titania answered a little too quickly, turning around so her back was facing him. "You can go back to bed Ryou, I'm fine." Ryou frowned, before stepping forward and gently grabbing Titania's had. "No you're not. You need your sleep." Dazed by his boldness, Titania allowed him to guide her to her bead. Only when she was lying down on top of the sheets did Ryou release her hand. Walking swiftly, Ryou closed the windowed doors that led to the balcony, their curtains obscuring the moon's light. Ryou then turned back to the bed, only to see Titania slip into sleep's embrace. Quietly, so as not to disturb her, he walked back over to the nightstand. As he reached for his water, he heard a small murmured "Ryou…" come from Titania. A gentle smile graced Ryou's face as he bent down and placed a quick soft kiss on Titania's forehead. "Sleep well Titania." He said, before taking his water and returning to his own room (glancing at the clock, he cringed. Why on Earth was he even up at this hour?!).
Neither of them would remember their nighttime exchange in the morning; it would become just another secret kept by the night.
The sound of a car going by snapped Akefia out of his thoughts. Quickly clearing his mind, he began to move. He knew from experience that the hours between two and four in the morning were when cities truly slept and he had work to do. With a smirk, Akefia jumped off the rooftop, disappearing into the night's dark shadows. He wasn't called the King of Thieves for nothing.