Title: Time
Author: Neko-chan
Rating: PG
Summary: Nothing perfect lasts.
Notes: RM just put up a meme in her LJ. She made a listing of all of the first sentences to her stories, and then we had to take one and make a little ficlet in a comment. I decided to use "Nothing perfect lasts" and... lo and behold... I actually wrote something for Yuugiou again! -shock and amazement-
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"Nothing perfect lasts."
He stares down at the Sennen Puzzle, and thinks of the past. He remembers the first time that he met mou hitori no boku (or would it be Atemu now?), the first time he stepped through the door, into his other half's soul room. He remembers the mazes and the riddles and the labyrinths that he had to fight through to finally come face to face with the ancient pharaoh. He remembers, vividly, the first time he was able to make the pharaoh laugh.
He also remembers, vividly, the first time the pharaoh was able to make him cry.
He traces the golden edges of the puzzle with his pale fingertips. The rough edges catch on his skin and he presses harder, wanting--relishing, needing--the pain. It's easier this way. If the pain is greater than the joy that he remembers, that he wishes he could go back to, then it will someday be easier to forget.
He wants to forget, you know.
He wants to forget everything.
The Sennen Puzzle is a heavy weight in his hands, but it's an empty one. There is no internal fire, a warmth that always seemed to make the item glow, there is no more spirit to it. That's because the one thing that had made the item alive, is now gone.
And that thing--that person--is never coming back.
Nothing perfect lasts. He remembers that. Atemu had told him that, once, a long time ago. (It wasn't a long time ago, not really. The time that they had spent together had been so short, so irregular. It wasn't enough, it was never going to be enough.) The other had been tracing the worn and almost-gone pictures they had found in one of his soul rooms. The pictures were faded and, if given enough time, they would have soon disappeared.
They were going to disappear, anyway, because nothing can stand against the test of time.
"Nothing perfect lasts, Yuugi. It all eventually fades."
He traced the curves of the figures, fingers dusting over the rust-colored clothing of the pharaoh depicted. The gold was flaking, mostly gone, the dark tan of the man's skin was now reduced to ivory, and the deep violet of the pharaoh's eyes were lavender, tired and worn and mostly gone.
The memory of that time, that one hour spent in mou hitori no boku's soul room, is fresh. Time has not yet faded it, leeching the life and the essence of it. It's vivid enough that he can still recall the way that the other's lips had tightened, pursing marginally. The pharaoh had been in pain, and he had been helpless to stop the onslaught of almost-remembered memories.
Nothing perfect lasts.
Yuugi sighed and then opened his hands, letting the Sennen Puzzle fall into the ocean.
It was all gone now, anyway.
:End:
Additional Notes: Time, Touch, and Dinner are all from 2004. I had them up in my writing LiveJournal, but had always forgotten to post them here. ; Sorry.