Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Seasons of Love ❯ Persistence of Memory ( Chapter 2 )

Night was always the best time.

It wasn't best for the obvious reasons, those being the cover of darkness to mask his presence in temples and tombs and the trust that all the "honest" citizens of the kingdom were sleeping. No, it was best because that was when his real treasure was closest.

The fair-haired Aegean was a prize in and of himself, a temple virgin he'd "stolen" from one of the houses of Ra. At first the boy had been skittish and frightened of him, expecting Bakura to use him and kill him sometime during the night. After several weeks with no indication that he was in any danger from the thief, the boy had relaxed enough to lie near him. It was months later that they moved from a tentative, fragile friendship into something stronger.

He could still remember the first time the boy dared to rest closer. He'd been keeping watch, uneasy with the number of guards roaming the city, when the Aegean lie down beside him and rested his golden head on his lap. It was all Bakura could do not to jump up or snatch the boy into an embrace; he'd slowly fallen for the boy, but he was still uncertain as to what the boy - who said his name was 'Jyonou' - felt towards him.

Night was the only time that they were able to be relaxed. Even with the threat of capture should he be found in a temple, Bakura found comfort in his boy's embrace. Months passed, a full year plus several more weeks, before tragedy found them... and Zork reared his head from the ruins of Kura Eruna.

Zork had used Jyonou to lure Bakura into his grasp, promising that the Aegean would be returned to the thief without harm in exchange for loyalty to him, only to renege on his word. Bakura could still see the light dying in his beloved one's eyes as Zork tore him asunder.

Millennia passed, three in all, before Bakura was able to see the stars again and enjoy the embrace of nighttime... but it was not the same without his Jyonou lying beside him. Yadonushi was a good kid, willing to help in his quest to find the rest of the Sennen items and free the souls of his people, but there was still the shadow of Zork, hiding somewhere in the twisted corridors of Bakura's own mind.

And then he found his love once more.

Oh, but it was bittersweet at best. Zork still loomed in the back of his mind, and it wasn't hard to guess that the monster would use Jyonou - no, Jyonouchi now - against him once more if he was aware of his existence in this new world. Bakura had no choice but to push the blond away, no matter how much it broke his heart. All he had left were his dreams of Egypt, where he still had his Jyonou and there was no Zork to darken their lives.

Then came the time he'd dreaded and feared, when he was too powerful to fight anymore, and the thief became a spectator in his own body. He'd nearly broken when he realized Zork had drawn all of the Pharaoh's allies into the yami no RPG, his beloved Jyonou included. His fear that Zork would win was overshadowed only by his fear that he would recognize Jyonouchi for who he'd been and destroy him once more.

But the Pharaoh won, and Bakura had been drawn away from life to the Afterlife. All that was left were the worlds he'd created in his mind, where Jyonou was alive and well. This was his gift to his Jyonou, to Jyonouchi... the world of his dreams and the Sennen Ring.

He trusted that in time he'd find his way home again. But until then, he would wait.