Hello~
If you're wondering, which I doubt you are, if you wanted to, you could probably thank TimeAndRhythmDoesIndeedSleep for this update. Since they added this to alerts yesterday, and it cheered me up. I figured I'd fix this thing a little more and... |D Yeah, I'm pretty easy to please.
This fic, titled "The Witch", is a little different from the things I usually write. You've been warned... But I still hope you read it.
Rating: T for... umm. Some swearing and stuff.
Warnings: I-I'm sorry, but if I told you, it would spoil the idea! It's nothing graphic, though, I promise.
Summary: That day, he was supposed to die. And now, whatever happened to him, he would still consider himself "lucky".
Oh and I don't own.
"Are you the witch intended to die on the guillotine tomorrow morning?"
The guillotine? Oh, right. The guillotine. Yes, that's Ryou for you. He was so dangerous that they wanted to see his head get cut off. If they burned him, there was a chance he would do some fancy phoenix spell and survive, you know?
What a lucky guy he was.
"Yes." Ryou said, twisting his head painfully after being still for so long and looking up at the person talking.
He was tall and pale, with white hair and piercing eyes that stared at Ryou.
And Ryou swore that he was probably drooling but he couldn't rip his eyes off of him, he was so hotttt... Though Ryou couldn't really compliment his choice of clothing; all black. He could easily be blamed of being a sorcerer of some sort.
"Well, are you?" he asked.
"Am I what?" Ryou asked, spaced out.
"A witch." he said with a chuckle, probably because of the way Ryou was still staring at him.
"Yes." Ryou repeated himself. He had no need to deny it. It's kind of like a religion; if you deny it, your powers grow weaker and weaker, but people will still blame you just the same.
"That's cool," he chuckled, taking a key from his pocket and opening the shackles around Ryou's hands, then the ones around his feet.
As Ryou moved his hand testily, he asked the other male, "What if I lied, just now?"
"Then you are a good liar. That would be good, also. Now follow." he grabbed Ryou's wrist and yanked him out of the dungeon.
Ryou wasn't a good liar. He was a horrible liar, really.
"That's no use," Ryou informed him, "There's a labyrinth to prevent escaping."
He replied with a smug, "I'm here, aren't I?"
Oh, right. He was there, so he had gone through the labyrinth already.
Ryou asked his name after we had walked for a while.
"Bakura," the other said quickly.
"Bakura, like the famous thief?" Ryou asked, raising his eyebrow. Was this thatBakura or...?
"Yeah," Bakura said with a grin, "That's me. And what's your name?"
"Ryou," he replied shyly. It was ages since the last time someone wanted to know his name. He was and would probably always be the 'the witch' in their eyes.
Bakura was different, though. Ryou could see it in him with a simple spell called "Truthful Eyes". It exposed a person's aura, along with its element and strength.
And Bakura had the darkest aura Ryou had ever seen. It was so dark that he simply had to master some kind of powerful, horrible dark sorcery.
For a normal person, an aura as dark as Bakura's - or as light as Ryou's, frankly - would be simply overwhelming. They would most definitely be crushed under it before long.
"You're so purely light and I'm as dark as the night. We make a fine match, don't you think?" Bakura murmured pleasantly.
Creep. Ryou would have blamed Bakura for reading his mind, but Ryou knew for a fact that he hadn't done so.
"What are you?" Ryou whispered. Conversating about such topics in a place where guards could be lurking anywhere was highly stupid.
"A thief, like I said." Bakura replied smugly, "A sorcerer."
"Is that why you freed me?" Ryou questioned.
"Partly."
"And the other part is...?"
"I want to take over the world. And I want someone pretty by my side."
Ryou blushed, "Are you really sure you chose the right person? I'm not a girl, you know?"
Bakura swiftly caught his lips in a chaste kiss, "Absolutely."
After this, Bakura and Ryou started spending pretty much every moment - awake or asleep - together. Bakura said it was so that Ryou wouldn't get himself in trouble again, which sounded like a rather pathetic excuse, really.
Whatever the reason was, though, Ryou still liked it.
Ryou frowned as his eyes opened, and Bakura wasn't there beside him.
Instead, the taller sorcerer was behind him getting dressed, currently buttoning up his shirt.
"Couldn't you have slept with me just a little longer?" Ryou whined, rolling on his side and wincing as pain hit his back.
Bakura looked at him momentarily, "Sorry. I have to examine these spells." He shuffled over to kiss Ryou gently, "You can still sleep if you want to, you know."
That was out of question, naturally. Ryou was so accustomed to the other's warmth that sleeping alone wouldn't be possible.
"You're so obsessed with taking over the world..."
"We can do something fun tomorrow, I promise."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Of course, tomorrow never came. Bakura didn't have any time for his fragile lover anymore.
"Bakura! You have got to see this! It's so awesome! It's a guaranteed one-hit kill with this spell!" Ryou cried with faked cheerfulness one particularly sunny day. Ever since Bakura had started ignoring him, Ryou had been searching for a way to regain his approval, sadly without any results.
"Not now, I'm busy."
The same answer, every time.
"Oh. Well, do you want me to make you some food?"
"Whatever."
Maybe if Ryou tried his best to cook something Bakura liked, the taller man would look his way again?
After five hours of cooking, Ryou called Bakura to eat.
"Not now, I'm busy."
Ryou's lip quivered, though Bakura didn't see it, as he didn't even look at Ryou. "Oh. Okay. I'll just leave it on the table? It will get cold, though."
"Would you just leave me alone? I swear, I would be better off without you!" Bakura snapped angrily.
"Yes..." Ryou nodded, tears clouding his vision as he struggled to keep his voice from breaking. "You surely would. I'll go take a walk, okay?"
"Whatever."
Crying was never a good thing for a sorcerer. It made them weak and messed up their aim. That's also why Ryou didn't want Bakura to know that he was crying. Bakura didn't need to hate him any more than he already did.
Ryou took the path to the seaside, the same path he and Bakura had taken so many times.
"I need to be better... For Bakura... He deserves better..." Ryou chanted, almost like it was a spell, then stopping and dumping his belongings on the ground.
"Let me see... Making this circle is crucial, and you have to say inside it to prevent yourself from getting hurt..." Ryou muttered to himself, drawing the mentioned circle on the sand with a stick, "But if you lose your concentration, even the circle won't help you anymore..."
He stopped working momentarily when his stomach let out a long growl.
When was the last time he ate together with Bakura?
"Shut up. It's not that long ago." he muttered half-heartedly.
"Anyways... You need total concentration on this to hit your target. Not bad, I'm great at concentrating!" Ryou laughed in what was supposed to be happiness, though it came out pretty hollow, almost bitter.
He sighed, knowing just how alien the idea of real happiness felt to him these days. He had been so happy when he had first been with Bakura... Didn't he love Ryou anymore?
"I think I'll start with... Aiming that rock!" he declared, to himself mostly, since he was fairly certain not a soul was currently listening to him.
He hit the rock alright, but the inanimate object didn't take any damage, standing still without a crack.
Ryou sighed and changed his aim to a nearby fish.
"Sorry, Mr. Fishy..." he muttered and started casting the spell again.
"I swear, I would be better off without you!"
His tears started flowing more rapidly, and with a screech, Ryou's vision dimmed.
How long ago had Ryou left?
Bakura felt uneasy with the light sorcerer off somewhere.
It just felt wrong, being separated from Ryou, especially after Bakura had said something like that to him. But Ryou knew he didn't mean it, right?
Right?
Bakura walked the familiar path the two of them used to take to the beach. Why didn't they ever go on walks together anymore? Bakura would surely come if Ryou just asked.
As he neared the beach, Bakura saw the other lying on his back in the soft sand.
"Ryou! Good thing I found y-"
He wasn't moving.
Why wasn't Ryou moving?
"Oh God..."
Bakura knelt down next to Ryou, and soon found that the teenager was lying in a spell circle.
And he had fresh tear trails on his cheeks.
"Bakura! You have got to see this! It's so awesome! It's a guaranteed one-hit kill with this spell!"
"No... This can't be happening! RYOU!" Bakura cried, shaking the dead body violently. Anything to have Ryou wake up and complain about how Bakura could never be gentle with him.
"Why did you have to try the spell even though you were so weak..." Bakura muttered incoherently, tears trailing down his own cheeks.
Ryou's eyes were closed, and his mouth was slightly open. The spell he had used must've been good; it hadn't left any marks of existing.
It took Bakura a little over three months to locate Ryou's soul. And that was a horribly long time, seeing how Bakura was supposedlyable to locate souls easily with his skills in dark sorcery and how being alone was none-too-slowly destroying the last of his sanity.
But Ryou had found such a lonely corner of the afterlife that Bakura had already considered giving up when he ran into someone.
"Am I right if I say you're looking for someone?" the tanned, blond-haired stranger asked him, shuffling a deck of tarot cards.
"Maybe…" Bakura sighed, "Yes."
"A white-haired sorcerer…" the other muttered, not looking up from the cards.
Bakura felt like something was strangling him; he couldn't seem to open his mouth and admit that the blonde was absolutely right.
"With brown, innocent eyes… Such innocence, it's a miracle after everything he's gone through…"
"JUST TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK HE IS!" Bakura half-screamed, half-hissed.
Chuckling, the other nodded. "Mind if I do," he replied, motioning for Bakura to follow him.
"Marik? What's up?" a shy voice spelled quietly. And Bakura knew that voice.
"Nothing much," Marik replied, "You have a visitor, though." He stepped aside and let Bakura and Ryou see each other again after an agonizingly long span of time.
Ryou's eyes widened and he whimpered, curling into a ball. "I'm so sorry, Bakura… I was too weak…" he whispered, not daring to look at his lover.
"I'm the sorry one here, you idiot," Bakura growled, "I made you cry. I understand if you don't want to see me ever again…"
Shaking his head stubbornly, the small boy slowly rose to a sitting position. "But Bakura, I love you. It's just that…" he stared at his hands for a moment, leaning to touch Bakura, something neither of them actually felt. It was just an unreal illusion. "I'm not alive anymore."
"I don't care," Bakura replied stubbornly, "But I really need you by my side."
And ever since that day, Bakura never once ignored Ryou again.
It was bittersweet: In a way, Ryou would always be there. But then again, he would never be.
"I wish I could touch you," Bakura sighed as he searched for Ryou's ghostly hand, only to go right through it after finally locating it.
"I know." Ryou whispered, unreal tears seeming to flood his eyes yet again.
"Shh..." Bakura comforted him feebly, "It's alright."
It was a lie. Of course it was. But for Bakura's sake - and his own - Ryou nodded. "Yes..."
"Who are you talking to, mister?" a young boy asked, staring up at Bakura in confusion. Without very, very high-ranked sorcery, seeing (or hearing) ghosts was out of question.
"My lover," Bakura replied to him without missing a beat.
The boy tilted his head. "You're insane," he stated seriously.
"Insane…" Bakura repeated, "I am. I left him die." To Ryou, he murmured, "We'll fix this..." Even though they both knew it was just another lie.
Being two of the best sorcerers, they both knew.
They had done this to themselves, and now they would always be together.
Even though they would never be again.
Ugh, that wasn't a normal ending... :/ Hope you liked it though?
Review? I won't continue without some love, you know...