Title: Canvas

Summary: A post-Duelist Kingdom story centered around Pegasus and his search for a way to bring Cecelia back… And the man he wants help from is the most unlikely of all. Shounen-ai of a very uncommon pairing that someone requested.

Disclaimer: Lily does not own YuGiOh. Lily is not making money off of this.

Warnings: None?

Chapter 6: Blank

From childhood, Funny Bunny had been one of Pegasus's best friends. It was sad but true. Being an aristocrat meant he always had to act a certain way, could only interact with certain people. He didn't like any of them. Kaiba-kun could probably understand, seeing how few friends he had.

Funny Bunny, though rather two dimensional, always pulled through. No matter what happened to him, he always was the one to come out on top. Granted, the various random objects he managed to pull from hammerspace were helpful, but that didn't stop him from being Pegasus's hero.

It's rather pathetic to be obsessed with ink on paper, is it not? But Pegasus couldn't exactly help it. All the real people he'd met were so boring, but Funny Bunny…

And then there was Cecelia. She was a surprise, to say the least. By the time he'd met her, he'd given up the hope that any living, breathing person could be worth his time. That all changed when he saw her, standing shyly near the wall where the crowd of people thinned. His first impression had been that she was a goddess in training: young but already so beautiful.

He suddenly wondered if Kaiba-kun had ever met someone like Cecelia, if he'd ever just thought about someone and felt his heart skip a beat. Probably not. But it would be nice if everybody could have someone as close to them as Cecelia was to Pegasus… if only for a short while.

And why exactly was Pegasus thinking about Cecelia and Kaiba when all he wanted to do was concentrate on Funny Bunny? But then, it could be excused, for Cecelia was perpetually on his mind, and Kaiba-kun was on the couch perpendicular to the one Pegasus was on, having retrieved his laptop from the helicopter, doing whatever it was he had to do to find the people that might have stolen the Eye, which might return Cecelia to Pegasus… it all went around in a circle, didn't it? It wouldn't really be a surprise if Kaiba-kun ended up being forever linked to Cecelia in Pegasus's mind.

Turning his attention back to Funny Bunny, Pegasus was delighted to find that his favorite part in this particular volume had come up without his notice. Every time he read Funny Bunny, it seemed as if he were reading it for the first time, and this was no exception. He chuckled happily as Funny Bunny managed to escape his oppressor's claws yet again, as if he hadn't seen the exact thing happen over twenty times already.

Pegasus found that he could feel eyes boring into the side of his head and looked up, smiling lightly. "What, am I not allowed to laugh?"

Kaiba-kun looked caught between snapping back and making a face, finally settling on frowning before looking back down at his work. Deciding that it would be amusing just to see the reaction, Pegasus stood and laughed again. Kaiba-kun tensed.

"I'm going that way," Pegasus said, setting his Funny Bunny gently down beside the remote control and pointing, "I think two doors down, in case you need me."

He received a mumble of assent in response, but Kaiba-kun didn't look up.

~~

Seto was disrupted from his work by a moaning sound. Feeling curious, and finding his concentration broken, he saved the beginnings of his email to the drafts folder, clicked the laptop shut, and walked out of the room.

The moaning had stopped. He was a bit put out that his grand adventure was gone, he figured that while he was out here, he might as well do something, like finding Pegasus, perhaps? He walked down in the direction Pegasus had said earlier, and, as promised, the second door down was open.

Pegasus was sprawled on the floor, hand clutching at his face. The glasses were neatly folded and placed on a nearby table. "Pegasus?"

Slowly, the addressed man looked up, eyes wide and blank with some indiscernible emotion. Finally, they seemed to register, and he smiled weakly. "Kaiba-kun…"

"What happened to you? You look terrible."

And indeed, he did. Pale skin, quivering shoulders… Pegasus definitely wasn't too healthy at the moment. "I… tried…" Kaiba saw the other's eye dart to his left, and followed his gaze. Pegasus had evidently been painting, as the picture on the easel had only a single curve on it.

"You tried…?" Kaiba prompted helpfully, feeling mildly concerned. The other man had, after all, stolen his and his brother's souls at one point, so there was really no point in getting too worked up over this.

"I tried to paint her." The words were spoken so quietly Kaiba could barely hear them, and yet so sorrowful, he couldn't possibly miss the meaning. "I couldn't. It felt like I was dying…"

The concern grew minutely, and Kaiba knelt next to Pegasus, and, despite himself, helped the man to a sitting position. "Soon," he responded, never good at comforting. "You'll get it back soon."

"…Thanks." Surprise showed in Pegasus's eye, but he made no move to get up. "I don't feel up to leaving at the moment, Kaiba-kun. Could you do me a favor? Could you destroy that canvas for me?"

"Destroy it?"

"…Yeah… That's what I've always had to do in the past. Otherwise I can't even look at it." He looked so desperately sad, and perhaps a bit ashamed of his weakness, and Kaiba felt a bit of confusion. Something was strange, something about himself. His reaction. Was he supposed to feel pity or something? Yet he didn't feel pity. He felt annoyed at the canvas for causing trouble, sure, and now he gladly ripped it apart.

But why didn't he feel sorry for Pegasus? Was he really that heartless? He had never thought himself as truly callous. That was why he hadn't told Pegasus that out of the thirteen people he'd already checked, the latest one to leave the island did so three days before the finals. He didn't want to cause Pegasus the misery of knowing that so far, there was no possible person to blame for the theft of the Eye.

To Be Continued…