Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.

Okay, I have been suffering from major writer's block for several days/weeks now and suddenly this idea popped into my head and began to formulate. Now, I don't know if this gets covered in the third season of Kyou Kara Maou since I'm still in the process of watching it, but this is something I just wanted to write.

And I know I say that I never write death fics, but does it count as a death fic if the character was already dead 4000 years before the story takes place?

Anyway, here's the fic, enjoy:)

"Hey, Murata, I have a question for you." Yuuri watched his best friend who smiled cheerfully at him.

"What is it?"

"Well, I've heard all about how you were so great and powerful as the 'Great Wise Man' but what happened to you after all that?"

Murata raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Yuuri looked at the ground, trying to figure out a way to word his question without being crass. "Well, I know you continued to advise Shinou, but what happened after that…what I guess I'm asking is—"

"You want to know how I died, is that it?"

Yuuri jerked slightly but nodded.

"Well, I lived to a ripe old age and died in my sleep after having to put up with that annoying man for so very long." He grinned brightly at his current king. "It was a great life."

Yuuri rubbed the back of his head, relieved. "Oh, well that's good then. Well, not really good, since you did die and you had to put up with Shinou for a long—"

Murata suspected that the boy-king would have continued to try and babble his way out of being insensitive, hence, making it worse, if Conrart hadn't come up then and politely asked if he could have Shibuya for training.

"Ah, excuse us." Yuuri left Murata behind and the young man turned and made his way to the stables to fetch his horse and return to Shinou's temple.

When he reached his rooms, he found his former king already standing in them. "What do you want?" he asked without preempt.

"You really shouldn't lie to my chosen Maou."

"Lie about what?" Murata asked, too innocently; he knew exactly what the other man had meant.

"About your history. Honestly, you told him that you were almost burned at the stake once. Why hide this?"

"Because Shibuya does not need to know everything about me. He's my best friend, not my keeper."

Shinou pouted. "I thought I was your best friend."

"That was before you became a huge pain in the ass."

"Yeah, but you know you loved every minute of it."

Murata rolled his eyes. "Enough, if you're just going to harass me about the past then get gone."

Shinou sighed. "Daikenja," Murata flinched at the use of his old title. "Your death, tragic as it was, was completely honorable. Why hide it?"

"Because I don't want to talk about that day. The day that I left you."

4000 years ago…

Daikenja sighed as he stared at the note in his hand that he'd received via messenger bird.

Good morning, my Sage,

If you would be so kind as to ride out into town, I hoped we might
have breakfast together before von Voltaire can bury me under
the paperwork I should have done last night and never got around
to for some reason.

Anyway, please hurry to that place with the fantastic hot cakes.

~Shinou

Daikenja was rather irritated to have woken alone in the inn where they and Shinou's entourage had been staying. And now he was being summoned about, post haste. "He could have at least woken me up if he wanted me to come to breakfast," he muttered darkly, as set set the letter aside and began to put fresh clothes on while simultaneously picking up his and Shinou's clothes from last night which were spread from the door to the foot of the bed.

…

Daikenja dragged himself out of the inn to the stables to fetch his horse since the place Shinou had described was not within walking distance if he wanted to be there before his king had finished breakfast. He heaved himself onto Dark Moon, his purest black horse, with a pained grunt and kicked her into a light trot in the direction of good food.

Alas, good food was not to be had. As he reached the location, he found Shinou outside and still on his horse. "Your Majesty?" he asked, uncertainly.

"Come, Sage, we are going on a trip." He lifted his cape to reveal fully packed saddle bags.

"Quit messing around, Shinou."

"I'm not. I wish to go to Cimaron for awhile."

"No, you wish to avoid the paperwork you managed to duck last night."

"It's not my fault that paperwork is less important than pleasuring you."

Daikenja flushed scarlet and spluttered out, "Th-that's not th-the point!"

"Come on, you can use as much of a break as I can."

"Which is to have none at all," the double black muttered dully.

"Please?" Shinou asked.

Daikenja did not want to give in and wracked his brain for another excuse to stop the blond. "Your Majesty, where are your guards?"

"Oh, I gave them the slip," he replied, dismissively.

Daikenja looked horrified though. "But sir, what if there is an attack?"

"There won't be. We're in Caloria. Nothing bad ever happens here."

Daikenja began to feel a strong foreboding. "Come, my lord, let's find your guards."

Shinou raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a bad feeling?"

"Yes. It's probably brought on simply because of your reckless behavior but all the same…"

Shinou nodded. His Sage's "bad feelings" had a habit of being annoyingly accurate. It was how he had managed to avoid Shinou's first attempts to start a relationship with him when he said he wasn't ready for it.

Without further ado, he brought his horse alongside Daikenja's and ran a hand over the dark haired man's cheek. "Well, if this latest bad feeling is accurate, I may have to just keep you by my side forever to predict whenever something bad will happen to me."

"Idiot," the Sage replied, trying not to lean against those calloused fingertips. He failed and leaned into them smiling slightly. "I already promised to stay with you forever, didn't I?"

Shinou grinned and leaned precariously over in the saddle to kiss his lover. Daikenja felt his lips part of their own accord a second before his mouth was awash with the warmth of another man's breath in it. Daikenja's eyes slid shut as he reached out to rest his hands on the king's chest.

All at once, his sixth sense kicked into over drive. He pulled his eyes open and spotted the glint of metal catching the sunlight as the arrow was aimed and fired. He immediately shoved his love backwards, sending him into the dirt. He heard the blond yelp just before the arrow pierced his body.

Shinou shot to his feet, looking irritated. "If you didn't want to kiss me, you could have said it. You didn't have to push me off my hor—" he stopped dead when he saw the arrow protruding from his lover's chest. "DAIKENJA!"

Daikenja swayed slightly, starting to slip from the saddle himself. Shinou ran over to catch him. "You-your Majesty…" he trailed off as blood began to fill his mouth and dribble out.

"No…NO!" Shinou roared as he stared down at his best friend and true love. "No, please…stay with me."

"Shinou…you must…escape. Leave me." The double black struggled to make his king understand. He had to save his king, his love, even at the cost of his own life.

"Never." Shinou completely disregarded the present danger and began to weave a healing spell. He refused to give up.

Daikenja, though, held no such idle fantasies. He knew that he was dying, and that there was no saving him. "I love you," he whispered, as he fought to keep his vision clear, keep Shinou clear in the haze of pain that clouded him. "I love you."

"Don't say that like it's the end," Shinou cried frantically. "You promised you would stay by my side forever. You just promised! Please, you can't die now. Please, Daikenja!"

"And I will," the Sage gasped. "I'll always come back to you."

"No, you are going to stay, not 'come back!' This is a royal command: you cannot leave me."

"Sorry, my lord…but not even you"—he coughed violently, blood spewing—"can con-control death."

"We'll see about that." Shinou began desperately to heal the other man but it was too late. Daikenja was fading fast.

"You know…you c-could at least tell me you…love me, too," Daikenja attempted to joke, his laugh bubbling with blood.

"I love you!" Shinou snapped out. "I love you, I love you, by all the Gods, I love you!"

"That's better," he said, with a hint of a smile. With the last of his strength, he reached up to touch the king's cheek. "Try not to destroy the c-castle be…before I can come back…here." His hand dropped along with his eyelids.

"No…no, Daikenja…my love, please, please wake up. Don't do this to me. Damn it all, just wake up, please!" And those were last words he heard as he drifted into oblivion.

Present day…

"Well, you did come back, just like you said you would," Shinou said, almost lightly.

"Yeah, just too late. You had already passed on by the time I came to realize who I was."

"Well, you're here now."

"Oh yeah, I'm here now. But I look nothing like I did back then and you're a ghost that I can't be with." Murata looked down. This side of him, the angry and upset side of himself that he hid from Shibuya and the others behind reflected eyeglasses, only came out when Shinou broke down his barriers. "It sucks…I want…I want to…" He gave up trying to put his feelings into words.

Shinou sighed. "My Sage," he murmured, walking over and wrapping his arms ineffectually around the slim teenage body his lover now wore. "Perhaps someday I, too, will be reborn and we can be together again." He lifted the boy's lips and kissed him gently, chastely. "In fact, I promise you that it will happen someday." He kissed him again.

Someday…someday, they could be together again, properly…Someday.

The end

Okay, I decided that since the Wincott kid can carry Shinou around in mini form, then he should still be corporeal in his full size. But he is a ghost, so he can't take his clothes off or get an erection so that's why he and Murata can't be together properly.

Anyway, thanks for reading and please review:)