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 9: Arch

Pegasus woke up in tears, barely registering the two forms hovering anxiously by his bedside. He bolted from his bed and ran, unsure if he ran through something or someone or only empty space in his haste to get there. The door was locked, as Seto had previously noticed, but Pegasus kept turning the knob as if it'd magically unlock itself somehow. When it refused to budge, he sank to his knees, pounding at the door, trying to make it yield to fists that reddened with constant impact.

"Pegasus-sama?" A key was handed to him, and he took it gratefully, trying to jam it into the keyhole and missing the first dozen times. Finally, he heard the click and twisted the doorknob and ran in. Though he hadn't been in the storage room since he'd gotten the Eye, though his vision was blurry, he somehow knew exactly where it was and threw his arms around it as best he could, pushing his face against it, and sobbed until he felt empty of tears.

He felt a hand on his shoulder but didn't look up, only shook his head and mumbled, "Leave me alone." There was no way he wanted to be faced with anybody in this state, distraught and clutching the first portrait he ever painted of Cecelia. What had happened to his always calm, always collected exterior? For a moment, he scrambled to rebuild the mask, but it felt too good to let it all out.

"You're destroying the picture," Seto said calmly.

"It doesn't matter anymore, I guess. And we can stop looking for the Eye."

"You wanna talk about it?"

~~

All of Cecelia's portraits, whether bearing her likeness or not, were disposed of but one, a small sketch done with pastel before her death that Pegasus framed and would put on his desk once he moved.

Pegasus stood in the tower that looked over all of what was formerly his castle. The blank space on the wall that used to sport Cecelia's picture was now sadly blank, but he was strangely glad of it. It was what Cecelia had wanted, after all, for him to let go of his past, and so he supposed that he wanted it too. He had to, didn't he? It was just a bond that lovers shared, to want a common goal.

Footsteps sounded behind him, and he felt a mild twinge of annoyance.  This was his private sanctuary, after all, one where he could go to brood, and even if it wouldn't be his much longer, it still was for the moment.

"Hey. How does the eye feel?" Seto was standing in the doorway, unsmiling and yet not sneering, either. A neutral expression. A bit too neutral, giving the impression that it was crafted rather than natural, that the owner was afraid that any sort of emotion might scare Pegasus away like a flighty animal.

"Natural." He demonstrated with a half-hearted wink, then asked, "How'd you find me?"

"I'm psychic?" Seeing the other's look, Seto amended with, "I saw you come here last night, right after you fled dinner."

Hearing this, Pegasus nodded and fell silent.

"So, are you ready to talk about it yet?" Seto picked a seat, knowing that if the answer was yes, it'd be a long story, and if the answer was no, he would have to just pry it out.

"I guess." Seto waited patiently, a skill he had to master for Mokuba, and glanced out the window. It had stopped snowing the night before, but snowdrifts still piled up and covered most of the windows. Servants were already outside, plowing and digging and trying to free the garage and main doors so everybody could get home, tempted by the bonus they would get for doing extra work.

"I was desperate, I guess," Pegasus said, and though the words meant next to nothing to Seto, he nodded anyways. "By then, I had been without Cecelia for so long I felt I would die without her. And when I got the Eye, maybe the pain made me delirious, but I doubt it. I had really forgotten what she looked like.

"When I saw the vision the Eye gave me, I instantly assumed it was her, because I wanted it to be so much. I could hardly remember why I loved her so much, only that I did, and I wanted her back. I guess you know what happened from there. I decided that by getting all the Items, I could get Cecelia back."

Sighing, he put a hand over his forehead, tracing his pinky along the bumps of his eyes. Both eyeballs responded to the pressure, reassuring him that they were both real.

"I couldn't, of course. The Items are too powerful for me, I think. They would've consumed me and found someone else to wield them. Or maybe they would've given me what I thought was Cecelia. A travesty. And I believed it."

"What can you expect? We all forget those we don't see for a long time."

"But this is Cecelia we're talking about. Cecelia!"

"And?"

"And…" Pegasus mutely considered saying, 'And I always thought I could never forget her,' or 'And even yesterday, I said I could never forget her,' but realized that it was pointless. "Never mind," he finally said, taking a few steps from the blank wall. "Don't worry about it, Kaiba-kun."

"Are you sure?"

Pegasus nodded and smiled, knowing that he could fully release his anxieties in his journal later. They both fell silent.

"Have you thought about what I said?" Seto asked, and then had to work hard at refraining from kicking himself. What possessed him to bring _that_ up?

"What did you say?"

"Oh. Um, nothing." He stood. "I'm leaving then, I guess."

"You are? Let's get you the deeds to Industrial Illusions then, shall we?"

"I don't want it."

"…Huh?" Looking flummoxed, Pegasus frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I don't want it. I didn't help you find the Eye, did I?"

"But… I said that whether or not you succeeded, you could have the company."

"Yes, but you cancelled the search."

"After you finished what I had asked of you."

"And I said to consider the whole video thing to be part of the original deal."

"Though it wasn't."

"But now it is."

"Kaiba-kun, why are you doing this? Industrial Illusions is yours!"

'Because if you own it, we'll have to meet again to discuss my rights to making and selling products based on your cards,' he thought, but said, "Because the company needs you to design cards, of course. And because I don't have time to run your company as well as mine."

"So… so why did you agree to this at the beginning?"

"It's not like I had anything better to do. I wanted to try." Seto was getting slightly irritated by Pegasus's inability to accept a favor. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm leaving."

"Wait." Turning, exasperated, Seto looked at Pegasus, wondering what he wanted now.

"Before you go, can I… paint you?"

End.