Once on an island far away a young boy was left stranded in a tree after a particularly fierce storm. Now his future could've diverged in any direction at this point, he could've been adopted by a poor, but sweet couple, or yes, starved. However in this particular universe, for this particular boy, he was much luckier. Or perhaps one might call him much, much more unlucky. It all depends on who tells the story, and the story has changed quite a bit since it began. Yet the truth will always out, as is the case this particular day.
A little boy sits crying in a tree. He is in the awkward middling stages during which child seems to not quite fit, yet he cannot truly be called a baby any longer. He is old enough to know that his mother is not here, and she should be, but not old enough to remember her when he grows should he be separated from her. Whatever else can be said, the fact remains that he is crying, quite pitifully at that. Not the long, loud, weeping cries of a child who expects to be taken care of immediately, but the quiet, pitiful cries of one who has been waiting for a very long time and knows no one is coming, but still needs to express sorrow. He wipes his nose on leaves, his hands, his long white hair, anything he can reach when it runs too drastically, and continues to keel sorrowfully.
A man materializes just opposite of the tree the boy sits crying in, unable to get down, and blinks, as though he was not expecting to be greeted by tears. Perhaps they came after in his line of work. The man appears very clearly not human, however, with wild blonde hair sticking in thick clumps in a wild mane, clearing four feet around his head easily. His bronze skin glowed ethereally in the sunlight, and his shoulders seemed to stretch for miles. All of that could've been forgiven, but the man's eyes could not be. They gleamed a sickly yellow, backed by a power that whispered dark secrets to the human soul. He cocks his head to the side, staring at the small boy opposite of him.
"Boy." He calls, and the boy looked up, pale skin beginning to blister like a cooking lobster even in the fair light of the morning. The boy sniffs in an attempt to dry his tears and focus on this stranger. "What are you doing?" The man asks. And the boy blinks wetly.
"Crying." He answers, with a croaking voice belaying the hours he must've spent doing as he claimed. The man frowns.
"Why do you cry boy?" He asks, and the boy sniffles once more, thinking the question over in the serious manner only not quite babies can manage. The man waits patiently, head still cocked.
"Can't get down." The boy finally decides. The man thinks this over, and nods after a while.
"You shouldn't have climbed up." The man proclaims, and the boy frowns for the first time. The man begins to walk away, content in his understanding of the problem.
"Didn't!" The boy protests, and the man pauses. "Storm did it." The boy insists, making wave motions with one of his hands, and holding onto the tree with the other.
"I've been told lying is wrong." The man responds, as though the lesson never particularly stuck with him. The boy frowns more severely.
"Not!" He yells, and then ducks his head, apparently surprised at the amount of noise he can produce. The man grins, however, more at home with this type of conversation. "'Sbad. Hurts." The boy says stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. The man shrugs carelessly. "Name?" The boy asks, when it becomes clear the man is not interested in pursuing this line of conversation, or perhaps just because he himself has become bored of it.
"Me?" The man asks, looking surprised. The boy nods and smiles. "People call me Mariku." He answers, and the boy's eyes light up in comprehension.
"Death." He declares with a smile, and Mariku looks a little taken aback with the warmth in the smile, but nods anyway. "Mine." The boy demands after a brief silence. Mariku's brow furrows.
"Your name is Death?" He guesses, but the boy frowns severely, so Mariku assumes that was not what the boy meant, and thinks hard. "What…" He starts, furrowing his brow, "is your name?" The boy claps, and Mariku smiles a little.
"Ryou!" The boy chirrups happily, having apparently forgotten all about his predicament over the course of their conversation. Mariku nods in acknowledgement, but keeps his distance. Ryou frowns and holds out his hand. "Shake. 'Snice." Ryou explains and then furrows his brow. "Po-lite." He sounds out, and so Mariku dutifully treks over to kiss the boy's hand. Ryou giggles. "'Snot shake." He says, and instead takes Mariku's hand in his and gently lifts it up and back down. "Shake. 'Snice." Ryou says proudly.
Mariku blinks a little and feels a smile creeping up. He tries not to smile in the company of humans because apparently it is 'rude' in 'his line of work' and 'terrifies the mortals even more Mariku, please stop being so creepy'. But Ryou doesn't seem to notice that Mariku's smile is supposedly off, and he grins widely back. "You're coming with me." Mariku decides, and reaches up to pluck Ryou from the tree. Ryou frowns again, but Mariku doesn't see the problem and so sets him down on the ground next to him.
"Ask. 'Sbad." Ryou grumbles and Mariku blinks again, confused. Humans seem to have endless rules that make no sense.
"Come with me?" Mariku says instead of arguing, attempting to make the statement sound at least a little like a question. Clearly it meets with Ryou's exacting standards, because he nods and reaches up to take Mariku's hand. Mariku stares blankly at their intertwined hands and then back down at Ryou in confusion. Ryou blinks back up at him guilelessly. "What's this?" Mariku finally asks when it becomes clear Ryou is not just going to offer him an explanation. Ryou cocks his head to the side and furrows his eyebrows.
"Walking. Gots to hold hands. 'Sa rule." Ryou explains with all the confidence of a very young child. Mariku nods back seriously and marks another rule off in his mental list of human nonsense. This, at least, is a sensible rule, because Ryou's hand is a comforting weight in his, even if it is a little damp, like the rest of Ryou. Mariku sets off into the woods, towards where he knows his temple is only two days walk. Normally he would travel through the shadows, but he has never taken a living human with him before, and he's not entirely sure what would happen, but he thinks he might be sad if it caused something bad to happen to Ryou. Besides, Mariku likes walking, even if humans tend to do what Ryou was doing in the tree when they see him and run away like they're trying to play what he's been told is called tag with him. But they aren't, because if he chases after them, they only cry harder. Mariku and Ryou walk until Ryou starts to droop and rub his eyes and blink heavily every couple of seconds.
"What are you doing?" Mariku asks when this doesn't cease to happen after a space of maybe two minutes.
"Tired. Hungry." Ryou responds, before breaking off into a huge yawn that doesn't seem to fit inside such a tiny human. He starts sniffling again and Mariku frowns because he does not want a reenactment of the tree scene earlier.
"What do you want, then?" Mariku asks, fairly politely he feels, given they are still two days away from his temple because Ryou's inferior tiny human legs cannot carry him as fast as Mariku's can.
"Carry?" Ryou responds, hesitantly lifting his arms. Mariku blinks, but obligingly reaches down and picks up the small child. He barely weighs anything and it's not like Mariku would have trouble lifting him even if he did weigh the substantial amount Mariku, from his relatively limited exposure, feels children his age should be.
"Why are you so tiny?" Mariku demands, because after racking his brain Mariku has become sure that even the dead children he had to fetch weighed more than Ryou. In fact, Ryou feels closer to death than most of those children had when he visited earlier in the week, or month. Ryou blinks sleepily at Mariku and pats his cheek,
"Hungry." Ryou repeats, before yawning once more and snuggling his cheek to Mariku's chest. Mariku considers this before deciding he is glad that Ryou is his now, because he might've had to murder the boy's guardians if he had not found Ryou in a tree. But then again, he would never have met Ryou if Ryou was in the tree, so perhaps he should thank whichever deity had caused the storm instead. There was a lot to consider here. But then Mariku frowns again, because Ryou's life-force was very weak, as were several life-forces in the surrounding villages. Maybe he would try to find some food for Ryou while doing his job. Mariku feels this is a good plan, so he seeks out the poorest life force and stores Ryou on a little clover patch to go find some food.
Two hours, five minor life extensions, and ten soul-reapings later, Mariku returns to where he left Ryou with what he feels is an appropriate amount of food. Ryou is sitting on the clover patch, with his arms wrapped around his torso and his face twisted in misery. Mariku blinks at him and offers the top food item, which turns out to be bread when Ryou looks up, and Ryou's face crumples completely and he starts crying. Mariku rears back, confused. He thought Ryou would like the food, humans needed it to live, didn't they? But then he suddenly became aware of the fact the Ryou had wrapped himself around his leg.
"Gone!" Ryou sobs, clinging tightly to Mariku's leg. Mariku considers this, wishing Ryou had a slightly larger vocabulary, before he thinks he understands.
"You were asleep, so I got food." Mariku explains, offering the bread again. This time Ryou looks at it distrustfully, then stares back at Mariku, and then back to the bread.
"Mine?" He asks, doubtfully, unwrapping one arm from Mariku's leg. Mariku feels a surge of murderous rage rush over him, inexplicably but like an old friend, but he's been told expressing this rage is 'terrifying, please never do that again', so instead of saying anything Mariku nods, and Ryou reaches out to slowly take the bread, watching Mariku the whole time. He then proceeds to eat the entire loaf of bread while Mariku watches in astonishment. "Up?" Ryou asks after he finishes, and without so much as looking at the rest of the food, so Mariku banishes it to the Shadow Realm and dutifully picks Ryou up again to continue the trek to his temple.
So it goes for the rest of the trip to Mariku's temple, which turns out to take four days because of Ryou's inability to travel consistently, even with Mariku carrying him. Mariku doesn't blame Ryou though; he is, after all, only a very small human, so expecting the same from him as one would from a god is a very silly idea. Still, they eventually reach Mariku's temple, at which point Mariku sets Ryou down and knocks, because Ryou had told him when Mariku had taken Ryou with him to one of the villages 'knock, 'snice'.
"We're not open to the public today." The voice of his lead priestess echoes politely. Mariku frowns.
"Yes you are." He insists, and the door flies open. His lead priestess gapes at him, as though she has never seen him before. Which is ridiculous, because Mariku was just here three weeks ago.
"My lord, I thought you were a villager. You…" She hesitates here, sweeping her gaze from his feet to the top of hair. "You usually just appear inside." She finishes softly. Mariku nods, this is true, but Ryou had insisted.
"'Srude. Gotta knock!" Ryou yells from Mariku's side and his priestess' eyes bulge out. It is an amusing look on her. She appears to be struggling for words, but that is one problem Mariku's travel companion does not have an issue with. "Name?" He asks curiously, and the priestess stutters and stumbles over her words while Mariku and Ryou wait patiently. She keeps shooting confused looks at Mariku.
"Ishizu." She finally manages, drawing herself up regally. "Ishizu Ishtar. Who are you?" She returns. This is why Mariku made her his lead priestess; she is never surprised by anything for too long. It's a good trait for a priestess of any deity, especially him, to have.
"Ryou! Nice meet!" Ryou exclaims, politely extending his hand to the women. Ishizu smiles gently, and takes his hand as Mariku watches fascinated. They shake hands, much more gracefully than Mariku and Ryou managed, and then Ishizu turns back to Mariku.
"Is there something you needed, my lord?" Ishizu asks politely, and Mariku nods, motioning to Ryou.
"Ryou should stay here." Mariku states simply, and blinks when Ryou shoots him a betrayed look, complete with watery eyes. Ishizu notices as well and tsks.
"Our lord is poor with words, forgive me Mariku." Ishizu directs to first statement to Ryou and the second to Mariku. Ryou blinks with watery eyes up at her, and Mariku simply nods, it was a true statement, he sees no need for apologies. "I believe he desires you to stay here because his job as a death god is very dangerous and not appropriate for children. Besides, here he will always know where you are, and as a priest you will have a line of communication to him. Am I wrong?" Ishizu asks, again directing the last portion of her statement to Mariku. Mariku shakes his head, slightly confused. Is that not what he said? Ryou turns his gaze seriously to Mariku.
"'Strue?" He demands, and Mariku nods firmly. Ryou sniffles and nods back before taking Ishizu's outstretched hand.
"Will you be staying my lord?" Ishizu asks politely, but Mariku shakes his head against.
"I've wasted enough time. There are dead people." Mariku says, and turns to go, feeling good about his accomplishment.
"Bye!" He hears, and turns slightly back around to see Ryou waving one hand over his head. Mariku mimics the gesture hesitantly, and then more certainly when Ryou smiles widely. He watches Ishizu and Ryou turn and enter the black marble temple before he turns as well to return to his job.
I wrote this in about an hour and now it's midnight thirty, forgive me if there are awful errors, I just wanted to post it as soon as possible, because Once on This Island is one of my favorite musicals and while this just barely has anything to do with Once on This Island it was still spawned from the musical. Also get excited for Mariku/Ryou because why not, am I right?