Innocent Love

Part iii - Regret

Yoh Asakura thought the brutality would never end, the immense training that tore his muscles from his very bones. It hurt to walk, sit, squat, anything that involved moving his abused body. Now it was not only Anna that abused him. Len and Trey took turns hitting him now too. Some days he wished to never move from his bed, but it was Marik that gave him the little hope he had left.

Marik was always there for him, tending to his wounds, healing his body, loving him when no one else did. Yoh loved Marik in return and he was never happier, until Anna found out.

Neither of them expected her to be at the mall, she spotted them eating ice cream and holding hands laughing at stupid jokes and looking at the pets. When Yoh sensed her, turning to face her, her hand found his cheek in a painful slap. Yoh recoiled, grasping Marik's hand tighter before he was wrenched away and drug across the mall.

"Don't even explain yourself." Anna snarled over her shoulder. Yoh trembled. He felt his free hand being seized and then him being pulled back into the warm security of his lover.

"Yoh isn't going anywhere."

Anna snarled and turned on her heel, glaring at Marik with a dark look that even the strongest shaman would regret. Undoubtly, Marik stood his ground.

"Yoh doesn't deserve to be treated like this." Yoh looked up into his eyes focused so intently on Anna. "No one needs to be a slave to the ones they once called friends."

"Shut up."

"No. I won't shut up." Marik replied calmly. Those standing around them were watching. "I love Yoh Asakura and he deserves a better life than with a heartless wrench like you."

It happened too fast. Yoh felt himself being pushed away as Anna charged with an animalistic roar. Marik found no escape from her beads, and desperately trying to free himself from them, only Yoh saw Len's blade.

"Marik!"

He watched in standstill, time ticking by as the blade found its mark. Marik's face twisted in pain and surprise, the beads shattering as he crumpled to the floor. They were overcome by rage and hate, they didn't know that they had just killed Yoh's last shred of hope.

"MARIK!" Yoh screamed his name, pushing his way through the gathered crowd to his side tears overcoming him. He rolled the man over into his lap, cradling him.

'M-Marik..'

Blood was pooling around him. Anna seemed to realize something was wrong. Yoh's voice was broken with sobs as he tried to bring the man he loved so much back.

'Marik.. Marik.. please.. don't.. DON'T DIE ON ME I LOVE YOU! I.. love you...'

Uncontrollable sobs wracking his body, the shaman clutched Marik's body, sobbing into the lifeless chest. Sirens wailed in a pitiful mourn unheard to him. It was the end, the last clutched threads broken and shredded in his shattered soul.

Despite the accident, Anna and all Yoh's former friends showed up at the funeral. Yoh neither talked or looked at them during the service, refusing any contact with them. He still belived that Marik was out there somewhere waiting for him, and continued his life on a new turn. He became a powerful shaman, with new friends, new hope, new future, he stood stonger and wiser. He still returns to the grave, laying red roses over the tombstone and sharing stories of his new life.

At times, Yoh can hear his voice, calling over the wind with the dancing petals under the sakura tree where he lay at rest. Its what modivates Yoh to walk on, knowing that one day, he too will join his lover on the other side, the begginning and the end, of Innocent Love.

OWARI