Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: In All These Years
Romance: Ryou x Yuusuke
Word Count: 1,563||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance, SupernaturalRated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section D, #007, a oneshot; Written for the One Ship Boot Camp, prompt #31, ancient; Written for the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, prompt #27, forbidden love
Notes: This is set in the same AU as my previous fics for the One Ship Boot Camp for them, where Ryou is a demon prince and Yuusuke is a mage. I don't mean to write it just for them, but the ideas flow for that one.
Summary: There is a downside to being a demon prince's lover. Yuusuke will age. Ryou will not. Are there answers? Perhaps, but are they ones Yuusuke can accept? More, will his guardian angels accept them?

Yuusuke did not like to think about how very old Ryou was. The demon prince did not look his years in the slightest, at least not by human standards. Granted, human standards did not apply to him, which was made all the more obvious by his horns, wings, tail, and habit of shredding people who annoyed him too much until they were a thin pasty film. Yuusuke somewhat wanted him to break that last habit, but given that not everyone in the world considered it a good idea for a mage to have a demon prince as a companion and lover, he thought it best not to press the issue.

"How old are you?" Yuusuke asked one morning. The thought of Ryou's age had floated and drifted in the deeper reaches of his mind for some days now, until it finally reached the surface. There were other thoughts slinking along behind it, but he took them one at the time.

Ryou raised one dark blue eyebrow before he shrugged. "I don't know. Time doesn't always flow in Hell the way that it does in the mortal world. By our standards, I'm..." He hesitated for a moment before he gave another shrug. They were the only ones there, if one didn't count Fubuki or Honest. Yuusuke couldn't be certain if the angels counted at all where Ryou was concerned. "I'm not that old. Adult, but not middle-aged."

That still didn't properly answer the question. "You're a lot older than I am, though." Yuusuke hadn't yet reached twenty-five. Given that his traveling companions were two angels and a demon prince, he on occasion doubted his ability to reach thirty, and they'd only been on the road together for six weeks.

"Of course I am. I said time is different, not that it doesn't flow at all." Ryou looked almost annoyed with him at that. "By human timekeeping, I'm somewhere over fifteen thousand. Perhaps more."

"Actually, you're sixteen thousand, seven hundred and thirty-seven, as of next winter solstice," Fubuki said. He hadn't been there three seconds earlier, having been discussing something or other with Honest.

Ryou gave him a look fit to chill a volcano. "And how would you know?"

Fubuki's smile shone bright and brilliantly. "Because my birthday's right after that, and I know you were born just before I was."

Yuusuke's eyes marked the tension in Ryou's shoulders. "I didn't know angels or demons even had birthdays," he interrupted politely, trying to defuse what looked to be something he did not want happening. Ryou seldom lost his temper, but if anyone could make him do it, it was the overly cheerful angel of love who'd attached himself to them.

Fubuki started to open his mouth when Ryou interrupted, his eyes flaming. "We don't. We have a day when we came into being, but that is not a birthday."

He turned his attention back to Yuusuke, blatantly blocking out Fubuki. "Why this interest in age?" The side of his mouth quirked. It was not a smile, but at least he wasn't on the verge of raging. "Do you think you're too young for me?"

"I think I won't be around forever and you will be," Yuusuke said after a few silent moments. He really did not want to think about this a lot. But it had come up anyway and now he had to deal with it.

The demon prince didn't reply at first either. Then he shook his head. "That isn't something that you have to worry about."

Yuusuke did not like the way that he said that. Fingers of dread skittered their way down his spine. He pulled in a breath or two and looked up to meet those eyes he'd seen looking at him so many times before. "Why not?"

Again there was silent. Yuusuke could see Fubuki and Honest exchange silent glances and he wondered, not for the first time, if they could speak to one another in a way that neither he nor the demon could understand. And if they could, what were they talking about?

"There are ways for mortals to extend their lifespan," Ryou said. A slash of a dark smile made its way across his lips. "Among them being to bargain with a demon."

The noises that both Honest and Fubuki made almost set Yuusuke to laughing.

"Ryou, I don't think that's a very good idea." Fubuki started forward. Ryou gave the angel one of his more annoyed looks.

"I'm a demon." Unspoken, but Yuusuke suspected the words, I don't do good things hovered behind Ryou's lips.

Those lips parted into a worse smile than before. "And you were the one who ensured I'd come here and be bound to him anyway. So whatever comes from that is your fault."

Fubuki audibly sniffed. "You needed the company."

The sound that Ryou made did break Yuusuke out into laughter. He tried his best to calm it down and focus on what was going on around him, aside from the comments of his angel and demon companions.

They were still a fair distance from the nearest town. He thought he had enough provisions to last until then, especially since Ryou, Fubuki, and Honest only ate when in company, assuming they didn't want to let anyone know what they really were. In Ryou's case, that meant he seldom ate at all, as he cared very little who knew he was a demon and who didn't.

What Ryou said drifted back into his mind. A bargain with a demon that would reduce or stop his aging altogether? He'd known of such things, even though he hadn't made the connection to doing so with Ryou. Having a demon prince for a lover was still very new to him.

To be with him for longer than just twenty or thirty years? Forever? It was an idea that had some sparks to it. He did question on what kind of bargain they would make and what they would both get out of it, but the concept did not really bother him that much.

Soft fingers rested on his shoulder and he turned to see Honest there.

"Master," the guardian angel murmured, "I cannot make your choices for you. But I suggest that if a longer lifespan is what you seek, then there are ways other than bargaining with a demon prince to gain it."

Ways less likely to damn one's soul for all eternity, Yuusuke thought. He knew his guardian angel well by now. All he said, however, was, "I'll keep that in mind."

He would; he wasn't in any especial rush to make up his mind.

Ryou stood now on his other side, giving Honest an annoyed look all his own. "I wouldn't damn him unless that was what he wanted."

"He would belong to you if you made a bargain with him to that effect. During his life, and after it," Honest pointed out. "It would get you what you want."

That got a shrug from the demon prince. "If that's what he wants."

Yuusuke cleared his throat. "Honest is right. There are other ways." He didn't want to really discuss it anymore. Though now that the idea had been lodged into his head, he thought he knew what he wanted to do once they reached a city with a large enough library. He'd heard of springs that could restore one's youth or keep one young forever. He wanted to know where one could find such a thing, as well as what other tools could be used to retain his youth.

Would being damned be so bad if it were with him, though? He trusted that Ryou wouldn't torment him forever, like other damned souls. A brief fantasy flickered through his mind, imagining himself as some sort of assistant to Ryou in Hell, taking part in whatever else it was that a demon prince did when not bound to some mage in the mortal realm.

Perhaps one day he'd talk to Ryou about that. For now, he thought he hadn't seen nearly enough of this world itself to give it up. While he'd never really wanted to leave his home village, now that he had, he wanted to see all of the wide world. A longer lifespan could help with that as well. And the thought of everything he could learn! Hadn't some of the greatest mages lived for centuries without making bargains with their souls?

He could have it all. He could have Ryou and he could have magic and his life. He wanted it all. And the more he thought on this, the more he was determined that he would have it all.

Ryou's hand brushed by his cheek for the briefest moment. His prince wasn't one for tender contact very often. "Whatever you choose, it is your choice."

Yuusuke leaned his head into Ryou's touch, breathing softly. "I don't want to lose you." He didn't. Not to age or death or someone else thinking that he shouldn't associate with a prince of demons or anything.

He did not miss Honest and Fubuki's shared glance, but he chose not to bring it up. Whatever worried them did not worry him. Besides, they were angels. They had their own views on demons and those who worked magic.

He had made his choice, and he wasn't going to change it for anyone.

The End