Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Roses ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh, I'd be writing in Japanese.

Authors Notes: I really don't know what genre this fits in, sorry about that. And, as you could probably guess, this fic is a little strange, to say the least. I don't understand myself sometimes.. And I don't know if ra

The sky is dark, darker than usual, and the vast emptiness sends a shiver down the man's spine. He pushes a strand of silky hair away from his face and runs a hand across the smooth dark wood of his desk.

When he closes his eyes he sees roses.

He misses her.

There's a cacophonous clatter in the next room, an overly loud vocalization of surprise.

"Ah, shit! Pegasus?"

The man reluctantly opens his eyes. The roses disappear along with the dark - the overhead lights have been turned on. No doubt by the owner of the cocky smirk that so arrogantly converts the atmosphere.

"Whoah, dude, you ok? You're not having a seizure again, are you?" Caring words from a deep voice and strong tan arms.

Pegasus smiles, forcefully. "Yes, I'm fine." I was thinking about her, he reflects, shaking his head as if to shake the woman away.

There is another now. His name is Otogi.

The comforting smell that the boy carries with him reaches Pegasus' nostrils, the feeling of young arms around his neck, the tickle of invisible hairs against his cheek.

A soft caress, disguising Otogi's true meaning of tucking that pesky strand of hair back behind Pegasus' ear.

"You were thinking about her, weren't you?" Soft words still, but a menacing, tantalizing, whisper. Somehow still sweeter than the sweetest wine.

"Yes." A short reply, and Pegasus sighs, leaning his head against the back of his chair and half-closing the one eye that still remains on his face.

Otogi turns off the light and sits back down next to him, close but not touching. A silence, like unseen doors closing.

"You read my mind." Pegasus continues, trailing a hand down the back of his chair. The same dark wood. The same coldness.

Without knowing what is happening he feels a sudden warmth against his chest, arms once again wrapped around him.

It's not the darkness that disorients him-he lives in darkness-it's the feeling of being hugged like this at such an unexpected moment. Pegasus is reminded of her, and he clings to the thought and simultaneously pushes it away.

Otogi's voice sputters, stutters, rambles, confesses it's life story.

Closing his eye completely, the roses come back with a giant shudder and Pegasus slumps back in his chair, his lifelessness repelling Otogi.

He hears the boy's heavy footsteps stomping to the other side of the room. A pause.

"You know," the teen's voice is completely monotonous. He pauses, and there is a screeching noise, and the feeling of salty wind roaring through the room.

Pegasus opens his eye to see Otogi's sharp profile against the large window, corners of his mouth lifted in another smirk. Even in this light the goose bumps are evident on his arm, which rests on the sill next to the open window.

"I was going to tell you that I broke a statue in the other room. Another one of those horses with wings. You're pretty full of yourself, aren't you?" He twirls a piece of his jet black hair as he speaks. "You don't have to listen to me. It's fine."

A pause in between the flow of words, Otogi's eyes half closed and staring out the window, looking but seeing nothing.

Nothing but roses.

Pegasus knows that he cannot protest. There is a heavy weight on his chest, and he feels it as if for the first time.

The rebellious shadow at the window laughs, a short and unnerving laugh.

"She's dead. You know that, right?"

"But-" Pegasus begins to speak out, to say something, anything.

He stops before he relays it all. To him, she is sacred.

"Fine." The teenager's voice is a whisper again, a hiss, a snarl. And where has the sweetness gone?


Where are his roses?

"Fine!" He repeats the word, his voice stronger this time. It is no longer a whisper, but the menace remains. "I'm leaving, then. If you want to live in the past, in your own little dimension, that's your deal."

He turns, walks back into the light, and Pegasus is struck by the realization that he isn't just a black shadow, but he's alive. Flesh and bone and - real.

Not a lingering demon.

Not the one whose icy blue eyes used to gleam with some hidden evil.

"I'm leaving." He says again. Coughs.

There is still a weight pressing against Pegasus, oppressing him, suffocating him.

Everything spins away.

Otogi turns, whispering something inaudible under his breath. He slowly and deliberately walks over to the doorway.

One last fleeting glance as he steps over the threshold.

As he shuts the door, Pegasus sees roses.