Heaven Sent
by Hunter K
AN: Author jumps up and down the ceiling after having a good 4 mugs of coffee… "Yay! I was banged! No sense bantering about that now, I managed to pull off… Anyways, Thanks to Canti-chan! I really love your works. I'm glad you're going to update /smiles/" This chapter is hurriedly made just for Flamie, since I know she's patiently waiting for an update. And…
DISCLAIMER: Yu-Gi-Oh! Doesn't belong to me...
Quote of the Century: "Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all."
– Oliver Wendell Holmes (whoever that was…)
Chapter 3: Larceny and Deceit
"Am I gonna lie here all day?", the thief asked while he lazily hung his head on the edge of the bed, watching his little angel scrub the bedroom floor with wet rag.
Ryou stood slowly and stretched his tired limbs before answering Bakura. "Nope! You can do almost everything aside from carrying heavy things and acts that can break your bones again…" Ryou scolded, and ended it with a mocking "…robbery included!"
Bakura felt his eyes water, or it's just a gesture for Ryou to feel sorry for him. "What can I do then?" he asked with a try on a 'neglected kitten' look which tends to be ineffective because he turned out to be a growling kitten instead.
Ryou tried to hide his smirk and tried to scare the thief. "Wash the dishes, cook for dinner, plant a tree, build a birds nest, kiss a baby, fly a kite… there's so many things to do!", the albino teen chirped energetically in a very exaggerated approach. It almost made the thief king pop his eyes out of its socket!
Yes, the thief king found that creepy that he even called a god to help him out. He raised his head, mentally saying, "Oh Ra, please give me a sign that this kid is just lying…"
Ryou chuckled at the sight.
After minutes of riding on the smaller ones jokes, Bakura got his 'I'm a Thief King' composure back, wearing his stern eyes and cocky grin, "And why the hell I can't rob?"
"Because you are ill!" the smaller boy reasoned out.
"It doesn't seem that I can break bones with it though…"
Ryou towered in front of Bakura, to show him his triumph against the thief and to startle him at the same time, which doesn't work pretty much since the thief is immune in threats far more hostile than his is. "And, that thing is BAD!"
Bakura was hit, but found a very weak point on the others statement that leave him smirking to himself. He let sometime pass for Ryou to congratulate himself before he attacked by spitting his words loudly, in a very mocking, annoyingly mocking way, "And you think lying isn't THAT bad!" Bakura gestured as if he was thinking while Ryou was dead silent upon hearing Bakura's question. Not receiving a reply, the thief continued thinking out loud, "do bad things have hierarchy or you just rate them as bad or good?" Bakura stared the dumbfounded teen for an answer.
Silence.
"Now what?"
"And where'd the idea of lying came from? We're talking about thievery here!", Ryou tried his best to escape the topic and move to another.
Bakura displayed a smirk and whispered venomously, "Earlier… You told your friend I was your cousin… Isn't that considered a lie?"
Ryou looked at a different direction. This wasn't right. It wasn't even right for the person he intends to defend to question him. Ryou thought for a while and considered that he must tell the other to know but he feels upset of the blame so he absently spat, "How could you even compare a little lie that intends to protect you to the criminal act of burglary?" Pain was drifting on his voice.
Bakura sat on the bed, shocked. 'Protect?' he asked himself, 'Who's protecting who here?' Bakura, the king of thieves, being protected by a weakling? Look! Is this kid is mocking? "Huh? So, you lied because you wanted to protect something?"
Ryou nodded, not wanting to look into the thief's direction. He was afraid that the other might notice the blush that had crept its way on his cheeks.
"So your lie isn't a sin because of that?" The thief muttered, "And that means robbing won't be a sin anymore if I do it with good purpose…" Bakura smirked, "I'll go steal for charity's sake then!"
Ryou shook his head. "It is still a sin…"
"Then your lie is also a sin!" Bakura thumped his forehead with his right palm, "This wont end…"
"You know, there's such a thing called a white lie…" Ryou's brown orbs peeked at Bakura timidly from under his silver locks. He clutched the rag consciously, introverted by the thief's stare.
"Go ahead… I wanna learn about that!"
Ryou's faced brightened. He has to think first of how to word the saying he read from an English book into Prygian(1). After rummaging with the variety of words available on his vocabulary, he settled with, "It's a lie where you intend to make things better… In other words, no harm done!"
The thief rolled on the bed to lie on his back, "I don't harm anyone when I rob tombs…"
Ryou sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the thief who, as he thinks, was trying to neutralize his crimes. "Where's the good deed there?"
"Okay!" The thief hauled his body to sit on the bed and raised both his hands as if to gesture his surrender. But to the younger teen's surprise he said, "I'll go make a white larceny then!"
Ryou raised a brow and then chuckled at the statement. He throws the rag at the thief's face and continued to laugh heartily. Bakura removed the said piece of cloth and saw Ryou clutching on his belly, trying to halt his pit of laughs.
The thief shook his head and let his thought wander on his reasons why and how he'd been a thief.
…-…- Thoughts… Bakura's POV -…-…-
Shouts filled my ears. Heat had drawn countless beads of sweat allover my body. I roamed my tired eyes allover the place. Everyone was going here and there, running, shouting, struggling. I was panic-stricken. Not knowing what was happening until I saw a number of people in black hooded-robes.
I was confused.
…but it came…
Our village was attacked.
"Akila!" I shouted, "Akila, where are you?" I ran opposing the gush of people. Being her elder brother, I have to protect her. It's not for mere duty but for the love of my sister. Father and mother, I did not care for they are the most skilled thieves around Egypt, not being caught in any mission they take, what more in a sheer raid like this?
"Ahh!"
That was her voice! That was Akila's voice! I ran to the direction of the scream. In a dark alley, I found a little girl of five, with long raven hair and shimmering black eyes. She screamed with pain as on of the three people in black gripped both her hands tightly; it almost colored bluish-red about his clutch.
My head blacked at the sight. I was too furious to think. With that surge of anger engulfing my whole being, I bashed myself on the guy holding her. "Don't you dare hurt my sister!" I blurted out of my lungs.
"Brother…", she clung on the edge of my shirt, hiding her face beside me.
The men just looked at each other, then to us. I somewhat wished that they quit screwing us and leave. But they didn't. "Brave kid!" one of them smirked, "Sorry, but we have to borrow your little sister for a while…"
My eyes widened when I felt a surge of pain on my abdomen. Things happened too fast, too fast for me to even register what happened. My body felt dead. My vision swirled. Suddenly I felt like a soul trapped in a lifeless body. I can think but cannot move. I sense but fail to define what I feel is. I wanted to move, but my body won't. I wanted to help Akila. My body was dumped in a pathetic heap on the ground as they crowded in front of my sister. I can't see well, but I can tell she was sobbing and I can hear her shouting my name. The more she bellows my name, the more I wanted to help her. I struggled, and when I was about move on fours, someone hit me on the ribs and I blocked out.
All was black but I can hear noises. The sound of Akila screaming indistinct words and the sound of ripping fabric flooded my ears. And I totally passed out.
…-…- end thoughts -…-…-
"There yet?", Ryou snapped at Bakura who seems to be physically in front of him but is mentally roaming around the deserts.
"Uh?", he confusedly shrugged after getting over the shock he got from the sudden statement.
"You know, you're right…", Ryou sat beside him, "I was a liar. I know it was a sin but… as you see, I only have one sin…"
The thief stared at him, right brow cocked. "What do you mean?"
"When you lie, you just lie. But when you steal, you steal and put up a lie to cover up.", Ryou tilted his head a bit to the right while staring the thief right into his brown orbs, "And that's two sins all in all." He gestured the numbers with his fingers which seemed to appear as a peace sign.
'He was right', Bakura thought, 'Do wrong to make the wrong seem right… But, does that take you anywhere?'
...- tsuzuku -...
(1) - the language of ancient Egyptians around 2800 B.C. according to my adviser, Haru the great
AN again: I know! This fic is dull… Lacks emotions… It got long chapters but nothing goes inside those long chapters… I'll try to rework next chappie… Try to flame… It makes me feel burnin/eyes burnin' red/