A/N: I was going to do a funny/cute collection next, but somehow ended up being inspired to write this short bit of literal insanity. I edited this after I slept and kind of cringed while reading. Bare with me, please.

By the way, bolded letters refer to Ichigo. Everything else is... well, you'll see.

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Twenty-Fifth Collected

Keepsake

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He liked these types of nights best – nights that passed by as a glint of silver, slithering it's way past his memory and leavingsmall traces of freshness in his mind. Light shone in from a night sky, moon just a sliver like the sheer metal of his sword – her sword – their sword – as it was drawn from a sheath and flashed backwards quick like a venomous snake rearing back. The nights that he danced around her, prowled around her, captured her in his mind; those nights werewhat gave him theeuphoria in the black twists of himself. The way she lied to him, even though he knew she was lying and she knew it too, sent him spiraling into his hatred for her. And he would bounce back,topple her over, show her why he hated her; why she should hate herself; why he hated her for turning him into such a sentimental beast; why she should hate herself for turning him into such a sentimental beast.

"If I could," by now he talked with the aid of his mouth. "I would kill you so I would not have to share you with anyone else." He would smirk into the shell of her ear and slide around her like a trailing shadow, grabbing onto her shoulders, tugging on the folds of her dark cloths.

"And I would not have it any other way," he saw her say without the movement of her thin lips, despite the nails that dragged on his hands with fury and agony and terror. He had convinced her. The voice in his mind had told him so and after so many horrid years she was finally his and shut out from anyone else in the world – universe. He had gone to too many great lengths to finally meet her price,but he would not light his prize around to a soul in the world like a barbaric, foolish man.

It was these nights that the pieces of his mind jumbled around in his head and amber eyes flickered through them all,loving the shattered bits that yelled and screamed and rolled his tongue into knots. Those parts of him splintered into his senses long ago with a roar of a last attempt to take him down – but the better part had won.

He successfully gained his precious item he had longed for since the beginning of his time.

And when she pushed at him he was convinced she was leaning into him, comforting him and accepting the side that had dominated the once naïve fool. Her words burned into his skin deeply and made him roar with laughter. What lies! She wouldtalk about having to help him, all so she could get back what she thought belonged to her.

"Wrong," he would hiss. "What belonged to you has gone and left and is buried dead." And then she would cry andscream and hit and it made him feel oh so powerful, having the shards of the past – the ones that had fled from the grave in the center of his soul – dig themselves into his eyes and bring forward the longed for sense of pain, sense of fight he had been looking for forso long! And it was all thanks to her, the trigger ofhis fire that sparked heavily.

"But you will never know," he had said to her, laughing merrily while he spun her around festively and she whimpered under his jailed look.

"Oh, but you do, but you do! You do know and you're lying to me! Tell me you're lying to me, Rukia-chan!" And she would choke and sputter and fall to the rocky ground in a helpless mess. But still, she would grab and bite, attacking ruthlessly. "Tell me you're lying!" His roar would send her into a silent spasm and he would pick her up off the ground easily. She would dangle helplessly, high in the air, aided by the hand on her throat that cut into her neck like nails into a board. And with his other hand, a shining dagger would appear and hold itself at his... histhroat. So, she would wail some more and croak out the words "I'm lying! I'm lying! I'mlying!I'mlying!I'M LYING!" over and over until her voice was raw, and red stained his fingertips on her throat.

And then there was the euphoria again – that sickening bittersweet pain that tunneled through the veins of the stolen body, searing him to the point where he would scream out to her andthrow her back onto the ground and dance with heragain.

"Oh, Rukia-chan! I cannot do such a thing to you because you are HIS key!" His laughter would continue throughout the night, echoing like its own epiphany.

Oh, how he – the horse made king! – adored these types of nights. The silver glint of memory would stab him repeatedly but keephim alive, like the sheer metal of his sword running through the malice in his body. And he prayed – oh how he prayed! – for the day when he would not survive that glint of silver and he would have to battle his way to be king again. The key, the key, the key. He knew the key to King's sanity. She shook in front of him, lied to him, told him she never loved him. She bit and kicked, scratched and clawed, yelled and glared.

Oh, how he loved usinghis key!

Word Count: 919

A/N: And this, readers, is the produce of going thirty seven hours with only two hours of sleep and reading excessive amounts of Death Note fiction.

So, lack of sleep makes me sadistic and malicious? Feel free to slap me for not giving you guys a notice beforehand.

-Very tired Hayley.