There was just something about the boy with iridescent eyes that always made them come back. Those heterochromia eyes that trapped them in it's hypnotizing stare each time they tried to walk away, only to be pulled back into that awe-struck cage.
But in those changing colors, just underneath the pretty surface, was something not quite human.
Sitting in an old rusted folding chair, wrapped up in clinking, restraining, and downgrading chains was a long-time, but still relatively new honorary member of the survivor's current base. Short white-silver hair covered his face as he slept in the cold metal embrace. Eyes hidden from the greedy world.
Beneath the constricting chain-links, he wore old dark blue jeans, a thin black button up shirt, and a pair of shiny black combat boots. The chains were tied tightly around him, slithering in and out of his chances of freedom and escape like metal snakes. Not that he ever even tried moving beyond the occasional tilting of his head from side to side or swaying that bewitching gaze across the large and uncharacteristically cold room. He and the chains that bound him to the chair, were the only things in the room. Dead to the world.
The once long shock-white tresses that used to reach below his mid-back, now swung about in wispy movements just above his shoulders, dancing in the unseen winds that seemed to always accompany the boy barely aged of nineteen since around a week ago. When he first came in, that once cascading silky white barely touched the tips of his normally well-hidden ears and was caked in crimson mud.
He was so drenched in the red liquid that his hair was almost a pinkish-red hue for days until it started raining and Katsuya decided to do him a 'favor' and washed the remaining color out.
He didn't stir an inch when the heavy steel doors were opened and warmth invaded the stark and dull room. In stepped his once schoolmates of his short stay at Domino High from hardly two years ago, and he eventually awoke to the hushed whispers of concern and pity.
All was silent as he lifted his head, silver locks falling away from his pale and regal face, having lost all his baby-like qualities during their brief separation, and watery eyes blinked at them owlishly.
His eyes were dazed and somewhat confused, but the colors were what always had them staring in anticipation. For now they were a simple sky blue with gold rims, violet slowly splashing into recognition like dye into a glass of clear water, painting the baby blue several darker shades, and soon red joined the now golden-yellow edges.
Truly a sight to behold.
It never once ceased to amaze them how such normal eyes once upon a time could display such an array of fireworks and colors, Tristan once said they'd never forget the world's former colors if they just kept looking into those changing irises. It was true. Each and every new color that made itself known could bring about a certain memory or two if you let it. You just couldn't forget when you were staring into those colorful orbs.
But his eyes were dead. Colorful, enchanting you could say, and dead. A scary contradiction.
They held little real light outside of the changing colors. They just stared out without really seeing, misty and hazy, never really looking at them or giving a thought to them.
Lifeless almost.
They had once heard that he used to have green eyes before they faded away into chocolate brown when he first came to Domino, so they knew his eyes were different. He was different. Sometimes when they were playing games and he was staring off, they saw light red and purplish fragments peeking out at them before being washed away by those once lively brown liquid orbs that shimmered with delight and the remains of innocence not yet stolen.
Now they glimmered with nothing but the amazing colors of an electric show gone wild. The colors sparked in and out of sight, climbing atop one another and creating new colors. Like water dyes mixing and blending, but they never stopped to settle into a single whole, always changing.
The only time they slowed down was once he first opened his eyes and right before he closed them. Mokuba and Serenity were curious once and had Duke open one of his eyes while he was asleep, and they were shocked to see that the colors still changed, albeit slower, even in his unconscious state.
It nearly always made tears come forth in Yuugi's eyes, because he knew they had no idea on how to help their barely acquaintance-friend and there was nothing they could do.
Whatever had happened in those short years, they couldn't make it in time to save him and this was all that was left of him by the time they finally arrived.
The boy once named Bakura Ryou barely existed anymore, and it really was a wonder of when that boy had been able to smile without feigning the ignorance that the world hated him.
Those eyes stared out at them, dead and colorful, putting even the most brightest rainbows to shame, lighting up the entire colorless base, and they all knew that they had to work fast if they ever wanted to see that smile, even if it was only once more.
But there wasn't much they could do. The world was dying and they were all being dragged down with it, barely surviving on their own.
Whatever life there was left in those beautiful and entrancing eyes that could dazzle an Angel, Yuugi swore he'd hold onto that dimming hope that they could still save the boy that was once so much like them.
He sincerely hoped that they could save him from the waiting, because he knew that Ryou was always waiting for someone to help him find a way out of the dark, and he'd be damned if he didn't get him out of there after all they've been through!
Ryou had always hid the sorrow and the pain behind blinding smiles and carefree gestures, but the pure despair and dimming light couldn't have been obvious as it was that fateful day they found him half-drowned by a riverbank in the forest as they themselves were running. They couldn't go back to that river since it was quarantined off after that due to toxic radiation.
Maybe that's where he got it from. But they wouldn't know, he didn't open his eyes until several days later once his fever went down. Maybe he got it even before then, but he doesn't seem to care. He never spoke or showed any other signs of being conscious while he was awake.
Those eyes just changed their colors and showed them a whole other world, a world that didn't exist anymore, and a world he never cared about.
While they didn't know how to save him just yet, they always came back to look at those eyes. Those breath-taking eyes that stole the colors of the world, a world he used to remember.
They always made sure to come back for the remaining light in the eyes of the boy once named Bakura Ryou in their decaying world.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, any and all rights belong to their rightful owners.
Yes! I finally got this done! Even though I'm that sure what it is, obviously it's AU xD and a mere one-shot as far as I'm concerned or know at this point. And as always- I never know what to put as the genres, but yeah...
And yeah, I'm using some of the original Japanese versions of their names, not that you could really tell, blah.
Review if you want, flame it, but anything would be appreciated!