Author's Note:
Just a little something I worked on to try and deal with a bad case of writer's block… Hopefully now I'll be able to get on with a more lengthy and complex Bakura-centric fic that I've been (not…) working on for months.
On a side note, I'm happy to have finally managed to get a Loveless fic finished, I feel all the things for Soubi but I've never really been able to get it down on paper in a way that I like enough to show people.
Some quotes from volume 8 have been used.
Hope you enjoy, I know it's not exactly literary genius…
Severed Strings
"It's time to wake up, sleepy head."
Cigarette ash falls, burns to the floor.
"Come on, the deadline is tomorrow, we have work to do."
A shuffle, whispers of clothing against the wall.
"Enough of this, there's work to do."
"No."
Blonde hair falls limp, eyes downcast.
"Look at me. No, look."
Fingers claw at bloody scars.
"Stop that."
Fingers claw.
"Stop."
Fingers.
"Please, enough."
Bloodied fingers drop, eyes do not see.
"You need to wake up today, he's gone, you can breathe now. Why won't you breathe?"
Blonde hair sways from side to side.
"Let's go, it's over."
"No."
"Please…"
Days and weeks lurch forward but time stays where it fell. Cigarette smoke strokes pallid skin, silky tendrils wrapping and choking shallow breaths, tired lungs. Scarlet stained scars drip drip drip on the hardwood floor, soaking into cracks, slowly forming pools that splash and scatter in the darkness. An empty room, a ghost of a man, waiting to be haunted. No tears, no mournful sobs, silence with baited breath just waiting for the order to live. Waiting for the icy voice of his Beloved to ignite a fire in his veins, to burn him with life and love and purpose and sweet sweet indifference. Acknowledgement.
No voice comes, left alone, half a man, heartstrings broken and bleeding on the floor, still reaching out into the void for their lost connection. A puppet with severed strings. He has his orders but no no no it's all wrong, the divine cannot be dead, everything is wrong, the world is wrong as it has been so many times before. Beloved spreads Beloved's wings and flies in the face of the world!
Still there is but one reluctant heartbeat, one pair of lungs that labour without a reason, without love. Loveless and lost but calling calling out and screaming without a sound, desperate for a whisper of pain and punishment. The loving trail of a knife against flesh.
"It's over now, he can't hurt you anymore."
Dulled eyes lift to look at nothing.
"I'll help you change these clothes, you look a mess."
Dried blood sticks and cracks.
"That's it, now raise your arms."
Orders are followed, do as master says and you won't get hurt.
"You're bleeding again, stay there, I'll get the first aid kit."
"Yes, Master."
"What was that?"
Silence.
One final order to be fulfilled, maybe then Beloved will be whole and the pain will stop. Fighters obey, that is their purpose, their duty, their desire. Sacrifice themselves unto he who is to be Sacrificed. Submit and protect and love and be loved and burn and break for the one. For Beloved. One final order, one command left undone.
"You can be reborn - Shed your skin."
But for Beloved to abandon Beloved, surely it is a mistake, it cannot be possible. Two halves of one being cleaved in two. Even in death, the bonds of obedience cannot be broken.
"Like a chrysalis concealing a butterfly."
No, Beloved's word is final, it is law. Beloved flies in the face of the world.
"And so you will melt."
One final order to rend his soul in two.
"And so you will die."
A soul already broken and shattered on the bedroom floor.
"And so you will be reborn."
Can a soul really belong to two masters?
"Don't turn away."
"That's it, up you get, steady now."
Shaky limbs struggle to support dead weight.
"Take it slow. How long has it been since you last had something to eat?"
One step, then another, towards the half open door. Towards the sunlight.
"Hey, slow down, you're injured."
The door opens in a swirl of purple and blonde.
"Hey! Where are you going? Wait!"
A concerned hand reaches out. It misses.
"Seimei's orders."
The door slams shut.
"You bastard."
One man clutching a bloodied shirt.
"I will be reborn."
One man nursing a bloodied soul.
"For Loveless."