Aria: Yay! I finally have time to write again! The play and school were sucking my soul away...
Yami: I'LL suck your soul away, you little...
Aria: *pales* Um...play nice? Look, I'm SORRY!
Yami: *folds his arms and glares*
Aria: *backs away* I swear, it'll all work out in the end...besides, you THRIVE on angst. It's your natural state of being.
Juri: She's right, you know.
Joey: OH, like YOU'RE one to talk, Miss I-don't-believe-in-miracles.
Jury: Shut up, little man.
Aria: Um, okay. Let's get on, shall we? So...disclaimer...hmm...oh, yes! *snaps fingers*
Aragorn son of Arathorn: *appears* Huh? This isn't Gondor! Hey, this isn't my story! What am I doing here?
Aria: *staring* Uh...I...um...no! It isn't your story, but would you please read this for me?
Aragorn: *looks at the paper, then at Aria* You brought me here to read a DISCLAIMER? I'm going to be King, you twit! I have more important things to do!
Aria: *big anime eyes* Please?
Aragorn: *sighs* Fine. Aria doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Revolutionary Girl Utena, or me, thank God.
Aria: That's right. You belong to Tolkein!
Aragorn: What? Who?
Aria: Um...never mind! Thanks for dropping by! Have fun killing orcs! *Aragorn disappears* Alright, let's get this show on the road! I bring to you...
SECRETS OF A ROSE Chapter 7: Tears
They flooded down his face in steaming drops, silent and salty and wretched, falling from his delicate chin on to the silvery shirt he still wore, staining it with salt. Behind him, Yugi and Miki sat unknowing, oblivious to his presence, and when he felt how the slim boys hand felt softly up the jaw line of his other half, he fled the room, walking swiftly down the carpeted hallway with hot tears blinding his pained eyes.
His pace quickened---he had to get away, had to get far enough away that his breaking heart wouldn't be felt, that the link would too weak for Yugi to feel it, that it wouldn't interrupt---
---interrupt---
He sank to his knees and clutched at his chest, his eyes widening in pain as his heart---broke---shrieked within him. Silently he wrestled, wrapping his arms around his chest and gasping for breath.
Staring at the rich carpet beneath him, he watched the tears drop silently onto the thick material and fought away the image that burned in his mind.
Lips coming softly together---
His heart cried.
Yugi broke away, his eyes suddenly widening. Miki sat up, his heart suddenly thudding faster than he could handle, racing away in his chest, and his eyes clouded with the overflow of blood before he could shake it away.
"Wha---what's wrong? I---I---I'm sorry---I'm so sorry if---"
Yugi clutched his small fist to his chest, the knuckles whitening under the stress.
"My heart." His cheeks were flushed, his eyes snapped shut, grimacing with each new wave of pain. Breathing heavily, he slowly lifted heavy lids and looked up into Miki's shocked bright eyes, his own lazy with pain.
"Yugi..." Miki said, his hand clenching. "What's happened? Can I help?"
For a little while, there was silence, harshly ragged with the heavy breaths Yugi was taking as tears threatened to spill from his darkened violet eyes. He gasped as it tore at him, flailing wildly.
"Yugi!"
He opened his eyes. The room was dark, he couldn't see. Someone bent over him, soft hair falling in shades of gray over a shadowed face.
"Miki?"
He didn't respond, his colorless eyes frozen in a worried stare.
"Miki!"
Grasping the boy's shoulder, he shook him, hard, the burning pain forgotten as he tried to shake Miki back into the world.
He didn't respond, didn't even move except to passively snap back and forth as Yugi shook him. He let go, appalled, and looked around in disbelief.
The room had been stripped of all its color and comfort---even the mirror didn't gleam the way it had earlier. Hard and gray, chilled, it waited miserably in the shadows, and as he slipped off the bed to silently land on the soft carpet, the silence broke in a single, choked, sob.
He swallowed the cry in his throat, silenced the answering groan that threatened to come from his numbed chest, and listened.
There.
Again, a ragged breath, an almost scream this time that made him sick and weak.
From the hall.
He padded over to the door, which was standing, for some reason, open, and looked out into the gloomy hallway. He squinted.
A shape was huddled a few meters away---hard to make out in the gathering darkness, but it seemed to be the best bet---it shook, and he stepped back, startled, as another grinding sob rose reluctantly.
He moved forward, his heart crying with every new breaking sob and rasping gasp, until he stood immediately behind the figure. He reached out timidly, his delicate hand hesitating just for a second before resting on the shadow's shoulder.
The effect was spectacular---it jumped up and whirled around in a blaze of gold and red and deep, fiery violet, tears dropping hotly from surprised---angry---eyes.
Yugi's eyes widened, the mystery of the burning pain revealed. His hand moved quickly, protectively, to his heart.
"Yami..."
Black-rimmed eyes narrowed arrogantly. A sharp, bright glow---
He was gone.
* * *
"I don't understand, Miki," he said later. The other boy had found him kneeling in the hallway, and now they sat together again on his bed, Yugi looking aimlessly at his hands, Miki listening carefully. "He feels totally...gone. I haven't felt this separated from him in...well, never, really. He's always right there, and now he isn't. I can't even imagine what could have happened...he's always been the stronger one of us---he's always known just what to do, and had the courage to do it. I've never seen him snap like that before." He drew his legs up to his chest and looked at his knees, tears threatening to spill from his wide violet eyes.
"That pain was coming from him. I'm surprised I didn't feel it sooner...he must have tried to hide it." He gave a derisive snort. "Figures. He's always there whenever I need some kind of help, but the second he breaks I'm not even allowed in."
Miki nodded, his clear blue eyes clouding slightly with a memory that suddenly veiled the room from his view. A glitter of piano notes...
"I know..." Miki said slowly. "It was almost the same thing with my twin sister, Kozue, and myself, when we first came here. We were so close...inseparable, really, as children."
(A garden, flooded in sunlight).
"She was my everything, and I never felt alone, because I always had her...but something changed...she changed. It seems like everything she does is another pan to hurt me."
(Delicate hands lovingly running over ivory keys in glowing spring sun.)
"We're still together, but it's different. We used to be like two halves of the same whole, but now...we're like---like---"
"Like light and dark." Yugi's voice was soft and low, but it startled Miki out of his reverie. The stopwatch clicked.
"Yes, exactly," he said, looking at his companion curiously. "Just like you and Yami, it seems. Two things of such an opposite nature that they cannot exist, one without the other." His gaze flicked away, towards the wall and he didn't look at Yugi as he said "this is why you feel the separation...half of you is tearing itself away.
"And you cannot exist as a whole without your other half."
* * *
Warm morning air flowed around him, flicking drops of sweat from his face and padding his moving body. New morning sun flared in the bronzy-gold of his hair as he ran, illuminating the road before him, and birds erupted into song, erasing the thud-thud of his feet on the blacktop.
(Mine.)
He pushed himself faster, harder; grimacing as his legs ached and his breath burned cold in his throat. His heart pounded furiously.
(Mine.)
"I'm not," he muttered, his breath coming faster now. He'd been running for almost an hour, now, faster with each hill and each time the night before flashed before him.
(Cool blue eyes watching with satisfaction as he tried to push his way past.)
"I'm NOT," he said again, feeling the words grate against his already burning throat, using precious air that his burning muscles cried for. Iron-wrought gates rose before him, and he slowed, steadied, stopped. Entwining his fingers in the complicated iron decoration, he bent his head and shoulders, breathing heavily, his entire body blazing with excess heat and frustration.
"I'm not..." he whispered.
He showered the sweat away, standing for longer than necessary, perhaps, under the steaming hot water. By the time he had toweled dry and dressed, his mind was in no more of a conclusion than it had been while running or during any part of the night before, but he seemed to have acquired a certain numbness that made it easier to exist. The tumult in his head finally quieted, he went outside, looking for Wakaba.
She found him first.
Walking through the rose-scented campus, lost in thoughts, someone called him. He turned with a smile, but what he saw erased it from his face.
"Joey!" Wakaba cried, running up, but said no more, trying to catch her breath. Her cute face was streaked with tears, her eyes clouded with more.
He moved towards her, wrapped his arms around her small frame and felt her shake with sobs.
"What's wrong?" he asked, and she when she kept sobbing, he pushed her away slightly and bent down to look into her eyes.
A bruise blossoming on her cheek caught his attention, and fury flashed through him. Had he...?
"Wakaba," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, " what happened? Did---did someone hit you? What's going on?"
She nodded slightly, her eyes downcast, and he flared with anger. Had Kaiba...?
Her lips moved, but no words came loud enough for him to hear.
"What did you say?" he asked, wiping fresh tears from her cheek, taking care to not press against the tender bruise.
"Utena..." she said softly. His hand froze. New tears flooded silently down her face.
"It was Utena."
* * *
Aria: I know, I know this was short...but I really didn't need it to be that long, and besides, I really needed to get this chapter up, so I can get back into writing my stories! For those of you who have read Persuasion *cough*READ IT, REVIEW IT*cough*, I'm working steadily on the conclusion to that as well. So...um...yeah. REVIEWS, please! Reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I write! So please review!
Kaiba: Fine, fine. Anything else?
Aria: Actually, yes! If you have a preference as to who people end up with, let me know! I won't promise to go with it, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.
Yami: *cracks his knuckles threateningly*
Aria: *nervously* Ah, yes...*clears throat* Now, Yami...
Yami: I'LL suck your soul away, you little...
Aria: *pales* Um...play nice? Look, I'm SORRY!
Yami: *folds his arms and glares*
Aria: *backs away* I swear, it'll all work out in the end...besides, you THRIVE on angst. It's your natural state of being.
Juri: She's right, you know.
Joey: OH, like YOU'RE one to talk, Miss I-don't-believe-in-miracles.
Jury: Shut up, little man.
Aria: Um, okay. Let's get on, shall we? So...disclaimer...hmm...oh, yes! *snaps fingers*
Aragorn son of Arathorn: *appears* Huh? This isn't Gondor! Hey, this isn't my story! What am I doing here?
Aria: *staring* Uh...I...um...no! It isn't your story, but would you please read this for me?
Aragorn: *looks at the paper, then at Aria* You brought me here to read a DISCLAIMER? I'm going to be King, you twit! I have more important things to do!
Aria: *big anime eyes* Please?
Aragorn: *sighs* Fine. Aria doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Revolutionary Girl Utena, or me, thank God.
Aria: That's right. You belong to Tolkein!
Aragorn: What? Who?
Aria: Um...never mind! Thanks for dropping by! Have fun killing orcs! *Aragorn disappears* Alright, let's get this show on the road! I bring to you...
SECRETS OF A ROSE Chapter 7: Tears
They flooded down his face in steaming drops, silent and salty and wretched, falling from his delicate chin on to the silvery shirt he still wore, staining it with salt. Behind him, Yugi and Miki sat unknowing, oblivious to his presence, and when he felt how the slim boys hand felt softly up the jaw line of his other half, he fled the room, walking swiftly down the carpeted hallway with hot tears blinding his pained eyes.
His pace quickened---he had to get away, had to get far enough away that his breaking heart wouldn't be felt, that the link would too weak for Yugi to feel it, that it wouldn't interrupt---
---interrupt---
He sank to his knees and clutched at his chest, his eyes widening in pain as his heart---broke---shrieked within him. Silently he wrestled, wrapping his arms around his chest and gasping for breath.
Staring at the rich carpet beneath him, he watched the tears drop silently onto the thick material and fought away the image that burned in his mind.
Lips coming softly together---
His heart cried.
Yugi broke away, his eyes suddenly widening. Miki sat up, his heart suddenly thudding faster than he could handle, racing away in his chest, and his eyes clouded with the overflow of blood before he could shake it away.
"Wha---what's wrong? I---I---I'm sorry---I'm so sorry if---"
Yugi clutched his small fist to his chest, the knuckles whitening under the stress.
"My heart." His cheeks were flushed, his eyes snapped shut, grimacing with each new wave of pain. Breathing heavily, he slowly lifted heavy lids and looked up into Miki's shocked bright eyes, his own lazy with pain.
"Yugi..." Miki said, his hand clenching. "What's happened? Can I help?"
For a little while, there was silence, harshly ragged with the heavy breaths Yugi was taking as tears threatened to spill from his darkened violet eyes. He gasped as it tore at him, flailing wildly.
"Yugi!"
He opened his eyes. The room was dark, he couldn't see. Someone bent over him, soft hair falling in shades of gray over a shadowed face.
"Miki?"
He didn't respond, his colorless eyes frozen in a worried stare.
"Miki!"
Grasping the boy's shoulder, he shook him, hard, the burning pain forgotten as he tried to shake Miki back into the world.
He didn't respond, didn't even move except to passively snap back and forth as Yugi shook him. He let go, appalled, and looked around in disbelief.
The room had been stripped of all its color and comfort---even the mirror didn't gleam the way it had earlier. Hard and gray, chilled, it waited miserably in the shadows, and as he slipped off the bed to silently land on the soft carpet, the silence broke in a single, choked, sob.
He swallowed the cry in his throat, silenced the answering groan that threatened to come from his numbed chest, and listened.
There.
Again, a ragged breath, an almost scream this time that made him sick and weak.
From the hall.
He padded over to the door, which was standing, for some reason, open, and looked out into the gloomy hallway. He squinted.
A shape was huddled a few meters away---hard to make out in the gathering darkness, but it seemed to be the best bet---it shook, and he stepped back, startled, as another grinding sob rose reluctantly.
He moved forward, his heart crying with every new breaking sob and rasping gasp, until he stood immediately behind the figure. He reached out timidly, his delicate hand hesitating just for a second before resting on the shadow's shoulder.
The effect was spectacular---it jumped up and whirled around in a blaze of gold and red and deep, fiery violet, tears dropping hotly from surprised---angry---eyes.
Yugi's eyes widened, the mystery of the burning pain revealed. His hand moved quickly, protectively, to his heart.
"Yami..."
Black-rimmed eyes narrowed arrogantly. A sharp, bright glow---
He was gone.
* * *
"I don't understand, Miki," he said later. The other boy had found him kneeling in the hallway, and now they sat together again on his bed, Yugi looking aimlessly at his hands, Miki listening carefully. "He feels totally...gone. I haven't felt this separated from him in...well, never, really. He's always right there, and now he isn't. I can't even imagine what could have happened...he's always been the stronger one of us---he's always known just what to do, and had the courage to do it. I've never seen him snap like that before." He drew his legs up to his chest and looked at his knees, tears threatening to spill from his wide violet eyes.
"That pain was coming from him. I'm surprised I didn't feel it sooner...he must have tried to hide it." He gave a derisive snort. "Figures. He's always there whenever I need some kind of help, but the second he breaks I'm not even allowed in."
Miki nodded, his clear blue eyes clouding slightly with a memory that suddenly veiled the room from his view. A glitter of piano notes...
"I know..." Miki said slowly. "It was almost the same thing with my twin sister, Kozue, and myself, when we first came here. We were so close...inseparable, really, as children."
(A garden, flooded in sunlight).
"She was my everything, and I never felt alone, because I always had her...but something changed...she changed. It seems like everything she does is another pan to hurt me."
(Delicate hands lovingly running over ivory keys in glowing spring sun.)
"We're still together, but it's different. We used to be like two halves of the same whole, but now...we're like---like---"
"Like light and dark." Yugi's voice was soft and low, but it startled Miki out of his reverie. The stopwatch clicked.
"Yes, exactly," he said, looking at his companion curiously. "Just like you and Yami, it seems. Two things of such an opposite nature that they cannot exist, one without the other." His gaze flicked away, towards the wall and he didn't look at Yugi as he said "this is why you feel the separation...half of you is tearing itself away.
"And you cannot exist as a whole without your other half."
* * *
Warm morning air flowed around him, flicking drops of sweat from his face and padding his moving body. New morning sun flared in the bronzy-gold of his hair as he ran, illuminating the road before him, and birds erupted into song, erasing the thud-thud of his feet on the blacktop.
(Mine.)
He pushed himself faster, harder; grimacing as his legs ached and his breath burned cold in his throat. His heart pounded furiously.
(Mine.)
"I'm not," he muttered, his breath coming faster now. He'd been running for almost an hour, now, faster with each hill and each time the night before flashed before him.
(Cool blue eyes watching with satisfaction as he tried to push his way past.)
"I'm NOT," he said again, feeling the words grate against his already burning throat, using precious air that his burning muscles cried for. Iron-wrought gates rose before him, and he slowed, steadied, stopped. Entwining his fingers in the complicated iron decoration, he bent his head and shoulders, breathing heavily, his entire body blazing with excess heat and frustration.
"I'm not..." he whispered.
He showered the sweat away, standing for longer than necessary, perhaps, under the steaming hot water. By the time he had toweled dry and dressed, his mind was in no more of a conclusion than it had been while running or during any part of the night before, but he seemed to have acquired a certain numbness that made it easier to exist. The tumult in his head finally quieted, he went outside, looking for Wakaba.
She found him first.
Walking through the rose-scented campus, lost in thoughts, someone called him. He turned with a smile, but what he saw erased it from his face.
"Joey!" Wakaba cried, running up, but said no more, trying to catch her breath. Her cute face was streaked with tears, her eyes clouded with more.
He moved towards her, wrapped his arms around her small frame and felt her shake with sobs.
"What's wrong?" he asked, and she when she kept sobbing, he pushed her away slightly and bent down to look into her eyes.
A bruise blossoming on her cheek caught his attention, and fury flashed through him. Had he...?
"Wakaba," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, " what happened? Did---did someone hit you? What's going on?"
She nodded slightly, her eyes downcast, and he flared with anger. Had Kaiba...?
Her lips moved, but no words came loud enough for him to hear.
"What did you say?" he asked, wiping fresh tears from her cheek, taking care to not press against the tender bruise.
"Utena..." she said softly. His hand froze. New tears flooded silently down her face.
"It was Utena."
* * *
Aria: I know, I know this was short...but I really didn't need it to be that long, and besides, I really needed to get this chapter up, so I can get back into writing my stories! For those of you who have read Persuasion *cough*READ IT, REVIEW IT*cough*, I'm working steadily on the conclusion to that as well. So...um...yeah. REVIEWS, please! Reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I write! So please review!
Kaiba: Fine, fine. Anything else?
Aria: Actually, yes! If you have a preference as to who people end up with, let me know! I won't promise to go with it, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.
Yami: *cracks his knuckles threateningly*
Aria: *nervously* Ah, yes...*clears throat* Now, Yami...