The Fragile Life of a Lily

There is just something about little Bakura that I can't resist... Anyway, another contest fic. Mischiefshipping: Thief King Bakura x Mana. Okay, even though I decided my OTP is Thief King Bakura x Ryou, I now officially adore Thief King Bakura x Mana. :O WTF. It's so CUTE.

Before we begin I want to mention that I am taking a few liberties here. I figure it's okay because it isn't established fact. Number 1 – Mana was discovered at a young age and brought to the palace for training and 2 – Bakura discovered later on who had destroyed his village (as hard as it is to consider, I don't remember it being established that he knew who destroyed Kul Elna right away though it is implied).

This is another one of those fics that I have so much more that I want to write about and yet it will probably never happen...

Okay, so Mana is about... 8-9 and Bakura is 9-10. So it's been about two-ish years since the Kul Elna incident. I put them about two years apart because... Because I can and I don't know how old they actually are. Damn.

Lastly my title sucks and I was desperate and there is symbolism of the Egyptian kind behind lilies and I couldn't go into it because of time constraints.

Also (lastly 2), HUGE THANKS to Neko who I practically dictated my plot to. She wrote it down in the form of an outline for me which really helped me start writing. Midterm shock can do that to you.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned it all! Especially little Thief Bakura. Even if he probably has rabies.

The streets of Kemet was bustling with life when Ra reached his pinnacle. The guards struggled through the crowd, pushing and shoving people out of the way; one was knocked into a barrel of wheat, sending it flying almost into an open-air vase shop. But while their prey were small and light the guards were large, hulking creatures and were not able to slip through crowds with the same ease.

Regardless they continued on their relentless hunt, ignoring the collateral damage and the angered shouts from the wheat and vase shops. By the time the havoc subsided and the mess cleaned, the guards were long gone and this section of the market settled back to its relatively peaceful self. However, though the guards were on the other side of the marketplace, their quarry was not.

In the back of the display of goods, one of the vases groaned quietly. "Bakura... Can we come out now?"

The other vase rattled slightly. "Shut up! You're going to get us caught!"

"But Bakuraaa, I'm getting really hungry!"

"That's your own fault. I almost lost my hands to get you those figs. You shouldn't have dropped them all."

"I-I – I didn't drop them all! And I wouldn't have dropped them if you hadn't stopped so suddenly! Why didn't you just tell m we were going to hide here and –" There was a loud squeak and scuffling as the shopkeeper pulled the young girl out by the back of her rags.

"Well well, it looks like I caught a rat," The shopkeeper sneered, pulling at her mousey brown hair. One large shaggy hand reached around her chest

"Let go!" she cried out. A desperate swing of her leg managed to hit the keeper's shin hard. The man howled but did not let go - however, the opportunity was not missed; her friend had been given the time he needed to jump out of his vase. Bakura shot out straight at the shopkeeper, snarling and wild-eyed like a diseased rodent, and bit his wrist.

The cries were attracting unwanted attention but it was just what the girl needed to escape. The shopkeeper withdrew his hand quickly and she darted away from him, skinny legs pumping as fast as she could make them – but there was no footfall behind her and she turned around, horrified, to see the boy on the ground, arms twisted behind his back. He glared at her before his face was crushed into the dirt.

"Run Mana, you idiot," he coughed, spitting dirt and saliva. "Run!"

Mana looked behind her and saw the faction of the guards from earlier pushing through the throngs towards them. She looked back at the shopkeeper who had noticed the odd colour of the boy's hair and had started shouting about the demonic being disguised as a child, playing pranks upon him and plaguing the streets of Kemet. Her breathing quickened and her heart began to pound; she felt a tingling in her fingertips and a pressure behind her green eyes that burned like fire. Panic had gripped her and Bakura's shout of "No!" came too late.

There was a large bang and a pink flash. Mana stared, suddenly weak in the knees and dizzy, and didn't resist when a hand grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the crowd and away from the commotion.

Bakura did not stop dragging her until they were at the outskirts of the market. She was finally released from his iron grip and, exhausted, she stopped. Bakura turned on her immediately.

"I told you not to do that! You're going to attract attention to us!"

Mana had known that he would not let it go but was still unprepared for the venom in his voice and the stinging it brought to her eyes. She rubbed at them furiously, mumbling, "I... I just wanted to help you...!"

"You wouldn't have needed to help me if you hadn't just –" He stopped in mid-sentence, closed his eyes and ran a hand through his tangled hair full of sand and dirt. "Forget it," he muttered. He shoved his hand into his pocket, pulling out two wrinkled dates. "Here. I managed to grab these before we left the market." He grinned, and tossed one to his partner in crime; the tension disappeared instantly.

The date bounced off the tips of her fingers and she caught it at the last second after comically diving for it. She stood up, holding it tightly in both her hands this time, and beamed. "So then," she said through a mouthful of date flesh, "things turned out alright, didn't they? I mean, we still got food!"

"Don't be ridiculous. A real thief could steal a whole ton more than I did and not be caught!" And just as suddenly he was hostile again and Mana recoiled. Whenever Bakura began to talk about what a 'real' thief could do there was no stopping him and she had learned that if there was any time to shut up and listen, this was it. Bakura finished the date and spat out the seed in a show of anger. "Don't you see, you stupid girl?! I have a long way to go and you –" He glared at Mana again, but this time the look was dark and dangerous. "You're holding me back!"

-o-O-o-O-o-

Mana waded into the Nile, as far as she could stand with her hips above the water. The waves were gentle but lapped at her thighs. She held her rag dress up with one hand to prevent it from getting wet. "Catch some fish." Bakura had said.

"O-Ouch!" She fell over after missing her third catch. Now drenched and feeling Ra beating down on her mercilessly, she discarded her initial plan and sat down in the water, splashing some on her face to cool off. Bored, she watched the fish surrounded her cautiously, examining the new object that had made its way into the river. She drew circles in the water with her finger playfully and watched them flit away, recalling today's events in her mind.

Bakura never spoke about his past much. The only reason Mana knew that his village had been destroyed was because they had stolen from a tavern and Bakura refused to share any of the drink with her just because 'he was older'. Even so, his lips had been shut tight; all she learned was the name of the village, that it had been a village of thieves and that it had been raided and destroyed. From the sounds of it, he knew little about the circumstances about it as well. Bakura had stumbled in the alleyway and in the semblance of a slurred speech declared, "I – I'll find those bastards and kill'em! I'll kill every last one of 'em!"

"Who are they?" Mana had asked, eyes wide. At the question Bakura stopped and looked adorably crestfallen for a moment before scrunching up his face into a rather dopey-looking scowl.

"You don't need to know that. You just need to know that Ammut will have them in her jaws soon enough."

She wondered now about it because it reflected in everything they did. Mana had always tried to keep up with Bakura; she followed his directions and under his skilful watch had developed nimble hands. But just as often she would make a big mistake and they would wind up in another situation like the one before, or she would say something and trigger his hot temper; worst of all, lately she had been having these unexplainable instances that seemed to set him on edge even more. It was even worse for her because she truly did want to just survive, the two of them, and make him happy. Sometimes she couldn't help but think –

"He hates me." She decided there and then, splashing her fist hard against the surface of the water. Suddenly feeling defiant, she looked around quickly for Bakura or any other witnesses. After all, it would not due to be discovered alone by a stranger and Bakura was the one who wanted her to stop doing this in the first place... She reached her hand out, scooping up some of the stream's water and tried to imagine what she had felt just a bit ago, the unfamiliar tingling in her fingers and burning behind her eyes. Her other hand was held up as well and when she faced her palms together – just for a second – the water hovered between her hands.

She let out a faint grunt in frustration as she let the water fall through her fingers. She did not know what it was that she had been able to do but Mana found it almost impossible to replicate it. It was a strange and unknown power that only seemed to be in reach when she was backed into a corner.

Mana kicked at the water again, scaring away the small fish at her legs. How absolutely frustrating. No food, no success, nothing to bring back to him. She looked across the river in half-hearted despair.

There were water lilies floating on the other side of the Nile. With a gasp of surprise and delight, she looked around and spotted another group on her side down the river bank. She forgot about the fish and her failure. For a moment she saw Bakura in her mind, sneering at her and telling her how useless the flowers were and she was for liking them and then banished the thought. It was something she did not want to think about.

Giggling to herself, she scrambled in the mud, pulling herself to the lily in the water and with a hard tug, plucked it. It was her absolute favourite flower and Mana would keep it with her, even hide it if she had to from Bakura. She looked around one last time for Bakura, ready to defend herself against an impending verbal onslaught if she had to.

Instead there was a young man – a boy barely grown up – decorated in silk and gold, staring at her. Her eyes slid from his clothing to his strange long brown hair and then finally to the guards at his side, advancing on her from all sides and trapping her against the edge of the Nile. Her fingers began to tingle and her eyes itched and burned but there was something wrong; the boy looked apologetic as he spoke and made signs with his hands. The strange golden object around his neck glowed and Mana felt herself go numb as she fell right into the arms of a guard...

-o-O-o-O-o-

He had checked up and down the Nile and she was nowhere in sight. This was when he began to panic. Bakura had sent her off to do a chore while he went downstream to cool off, both figuratively and literally. He had thought it impossible sometimes but he felt guilty, of all things. Bakura had left their conversation just as miserable as Mana was – he was just much better at hiding it – and the look on her face caused his chest to tighten uncomfortably for a reason beyond him. It reminded him of things he did not want to think about, things that would not help his goal of revenge: how seeing her smile made his heart flutter, or how giving her part of his share of the food after a successful day filled him with a rare joy. It brought about feelings that he simply could not comprehend.

So he had done something that he reasoned would make both her and him happy. He went and picked her white water lilies. Her love of them was a fact he had carefully stowed away inside himself for future use and he was very proud that he had remembered.

But now... she had disappeared.

Bakura came to their meeting point at the edge of the market, the hand holding the lilies trembling ever so slightly. If they ever got separated this was where they would meet, once they had shaken off whoever was tailing them. It was another plan that Bakura had concocted. Ra began to set in the sky and he sat down in the dirt. He waited and waited...

He had begun to doze off but his eyes snapped open at the sound of heavy footfalls and of spears hitting the ground rhythmically. Every muscle in his body tensed, ready to throw him out of the way and into safety –

Mana was draped over the shoulder of a guard and something in Bakura snapped. He jumped in front of the guards in a move that in his haste could only be described as boldly stupid and shouted, "Let her go!"

The guards stopped for a moment and looked back into their ranks. A young man pushed through them and Bakura felt his gaze tear through him; he had no doubt that he was a noble of some sort. Bakura gulped and waited and his eyes fell to the pendant the man wore around his neck. It stared back at him, cruel and teasing and familiar, and as Bakura felt his limbs go numb moisture gathered in his eyes and he knew what was about to happen.

He heard the boy shout and wave his arm and Bakura was roughly pushed aside. He choked loudly and his eyes prickled as he watched as the white water lilies he so carefully plucked from the water were ground into the dirt. His ears rang and his vision began to fade, and the last thing he saw were green eyes opening, staring at him, sparkling –

"BAKURA!"

And Bakura swore on his life that he would find the man that took his Mana away and kill him.

The attack Mana 'used' was Dark Magician Girl's attack 'Dark Burning'. Just if you were curious. I dunno if I'll continue this but if not... Well, just know that what happened in canon is then therefore the sequel. :3

O.O Also, I hope I didn't make Mahaado seem evil. He's just doing what he thinks is best for the kingdom and Mana... without asking her. Well, I didn't say he was right.