Ringshipping (Thief King Bakura x Mahad)

(Bakura's thoughts are the ones in italics, Mahad's are the regular font…)

The Millennium Ring had always felt...off, somehow. It was something in the way that its magic sat in my stomach. A feeling that I couldn't place. Like…like it was never mine.

That power was mine. My god had promised it to me; it was the one Item that he had been able to work through. But its darkness had been tainted by the quiet, unassuming nobility of that man…

That feeling worried me for a long time. Did the others feel the same way about their items? Was it simply because it was a foreign magic that I had to get used to?

I would take it from him. He would be my first victim...his would be the first blood to stain the stones, and the other guardians would fall after him.

I learned to cope with the strangeness. I incorporated the Ring's magic with my own. Soon, that disconnect between me and it seemed to start to disappear. I could feel it becoming one with my own magic, and it was a calming feeling.

I could barely contain the anticipation, when I finally appeared before the pharaoh and lay eyes on the man who had stolen my right. I had only to wait for him to make a mistake...and then I would be taking the Ring from his cold, dead body...

I was confident in myself. I had been called the greatest of all magicians, and I had proved it many times in my service to the pharaoh. I had tamed the Ring, and its power was mine to command. I would defeat this threat called Bakura and protect the pharaoh. The tomb robber called the Ring his, but it was mine.

I had no idea he would act so quickly and rashly. To take me alone – he was more foolish than I had reckoned. I had to admire his courage. But my own anticipation blocked most of that out. The Ring was nearly mine. The foolish magician was just ripe for the killing...

I underestimated him. I should not have thought to take him alone. But I didn't want anyone else to get hurt...both my protectiveness and my pride had blinded me. If he won, he would take the Ring, and he would use it to kill the people I loved. One or both of us was going to die here, in this tomb...and I was determined to make sure I brought him down with me.

What a fool he was! He thought to destroy me by sacrificing himself in the process. But I love those fools the best – they are always the easiest to kill. And I did kill him. Although he brought the tomb down around us, my knife found his heart. And I took great pleasure in watching the life drain from his eyes, as he groped in vain for the Ring as I ripped it from his neck...

Because that power was never his to own...

A/N: I read a very steamy Mahad x TKB romance in preparation to write this one and found that...it didn't work. Well, at least, for me it didn't. I can't see these two as having any romantic feelings for each other. They are simply soldiers on opposite sides, with opposite goals, and they happen to stand in each others' way. Next is Riftshipping (Thief King Bakura x Ryo x Yugi).