Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ This Is Now and That Was Before ❯ All Our Lives Get Complicated ( Prologue )

This is my first story focusing mainly on the pairing of Seto/Jou, and only my second Yu-Gi-Oh fic, so please be kind.

In this fic, you will be able to find angst, lust, reincarnation, polytheistic-ness, a bit of OOC, perhaps some magic, definitely a bit of love and, most importantly, shounen ai / yaoi. Read at your own risk. Other pairings that may be hinted at include Jou/Mai, Jou/Yugi, Jou/Honda, and perhaps even some Jou/Anzu (Bleck! But just for the heck of it, that). These will in no way be focused on, as I really don't like them much, and should you choose to interpret them as just friendly-relations, that's all fine with me. ^.^ I might do just that, myself... x.x; Also, there will be small mentions of Yami/Yugi and Bakura/Ryou throughout.

Full Story Summary: Cursed to wander the four corners of the earth, trapped eternally in an endless circle of incarnations in which he remembers all that is past. It all sprang from one forbidden taste of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and now Jounouchi Katsuya must find redemption and grace in the unlikeliest of places -- a single, tainted human.

Disclaimer: Nothing in Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to me. Unfortunately, that would include Ryou, Yami and Jounouchi. *cries*

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His eyes burned. His ears burned. His feet burned; but most of all, his whole body burned. Sand whipped mercilessly around his unprotected frace, flung into him by a harsh, cruel wind, and causing him to squint to be able to see what was ahead of him. The boy winced and flung his arm over his eyes, trying to ward off at least a bit of the flying sand from his vision.

Had it really been this sandy and dry the last time he had been this way? Now, it resembled something of where he'd met Yugi... but only resembled, because he had sworn not to trespass upon that part of the world ever again-- it held only memories, depressing memories at that, and he was sick and tired of memories, because he could never escape such things. But he tried, always tried-- it was the only thing he could do. Try.He was tired, so tired. His very bones ached with the listlessness they had long acquired. How long now, had it been since he had first set out on this seemingly endless journey on the off chance that he would run into that diamond in the rough, that one-in-a-billion chance? Decades? Centuries?

Millennia?

And yet it seemed so much longer than it had been; he knew that too well. Each stumbling footstep seemed like he was attempting to walk through molasses; each blink of an eye seemed an hour of darkness.

~Others will experience ages in an instant, a lifetime in the blink of an eye. But for you, young trespasser of souls, it will make all the difference.~

What... what had he done to deserve this, any of this? It was a question that haunted him every second of his strained, forced life. A question that he knew the answer to all too well, though it made only a bare facsimile of sense. He had failed; failed her, failed himself. It had been the last mistake he would make for a long, long while.

He wouldn't fail again.

"Damnit..." he coughed, spitting out a mouthful of sand as he did so, though it did nothing to lessen the gritty, dirty taste in his mouth. He grimaced and ground his teeth together, scrubbing tiredly at his eyes. Beneath him, his bare feet stumbled along, one shaking step forward at a time.

He had to... had to find...

The hot, ruthless sun above was beating harshly on his broken form, an unconscious attempt to quell his spirit. But he wouldn't give up; he couldn't. He had promised her, on that that fateful day, so long ago that that time was recorded in history as nothing but myths and legends, children's stories to scare them into obedience. His story was no joke; no haunting tale that he could banish into the night by a simple, comforting embrace.

~Each day will be spent in minute detail, each moment scorched into your mind's eye for all time.~

He could remember her, though; it was the only part of the curse, of this horrible pseudo-blessing of remembrance, that didn't serve to break his soul more than it had already eroded of it's own will. The only thing he had left to live for. Her memory.

~You will not be able to forget, but you will yearn for it not to be so, every conscious moment of the day.~

Her memory...

Shizuka...

The last of his strength gave out then, and he collapsed to his hands and knees, then fully and bodily to the sandy earth when even the use of those limbs failed him. Sand invaded his open, gasping mouth in a dry rush that nearly choked him, but he didn't care. Let it; let it choke him, suffocate his body. Let his mind descent into the empty obliviousness he so longed for, body and soul, if only for a few moment's reprieve.

Only sixteen turns this time; a very short plane of existence, compared to some of the others. But-- short, long what did it matter, really? Either way, he would continue his journey, endlessly, eternally, until he found it. Found what he was looking for; that one thing that he had had a dozen times a dozen since he had begun, and yet the one thing he could never seem to get truly and perfectly right.

The thing, the object, that promised the total oblivion he always looked for, and the reunion he had longed for since the dawn of his journey. The one thing that he had been promised he could find, if he only looked hard enough, only looked in the right place.

The one thing that could finally and totally release him from this hellish prison of endless life.

A harsh wind blew gritty sand into his eyes, his mouth, his ears; his vision began to blur and darken in a final act that he was all too familiar with, even as his lips silently mapped out the one, single word that was his fiery, inner torment;

Love...

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"Seto! Big brother, hurry! I've found something!" a rough, childish voice rang out over the wind that was wildly whipping sand around a tall, lithe teen wearing all black, with a thick ebony scarf tied tightly around his face, masking his features. Sapphire eyes with an inherent coldness as deep as the stone they shared hue with blinked in mild surprise, before the youth shrugged slightly, barely just a twitching of the shoulders, and strode towards the sound of his little brother's voice, tugging the horse they had bought at the market reluctantly behind him as he did so.

"What is it, Mokuba?" Seto Kaiba had sent his little brother out in front of their traveling party partly as a lookout and partly to let him have some much-needed playtime; he hadn't actually expected the twelve-year-old to find something. "Stay away from it; it might be dangerous," he added, a needed afterthought for his treasured younger brother's safety; they were all each other had left in the world, and he wasn't about to ruin something like that with a simple bout of carelessness.

"Yes, Seto!" came the instant reply, causing Seto to smirk slightly. Mokuba was so innocent, so carefree; everything Seto himself was not. Mokuba wasn't tainted by the harsh realities of life; wasn't stained with metaphysical blood like he was.

Mokuba was the only thing that kept Seto from dying inside each and every day, and the brown-haired youth would give anything to see that it remained so for as long as he could possibly help it.

"Big brother, hurry up! I think he's still alive!"

A 'he' this time. Seto sped his footsteps a bit, despite whinnying protests from the horse. He's found a person? A human? Out here?

The blue-eyed boy found his little brother kneeling worriedly over a largish, sand-covered lump, frantically attempting to dig the lump out. Seto's chilly gaze swept over the person lying prostrate on the shifting ground, noting the ragged, care-worn clothing that was barely more than rags draped over an almost too-slender frame, golden-blonde, messy hair strewn this way and that across the strange boy's forehead and into his tightly clenched eyes. The blonde youth's mouth was open, and sand was rapidly collecting on his lips.

"Are you sure he's not dead?" There was not much to prove that he wasn't, Seto mused inwardly.

"Yes." Mokuba nodded. "See; he's still breathing."

And, indeed, he was; it was very slight, however, and diminishing by the moment. Seto's upper lip curled in disgust as his eyes swept over that prone form once more. Weak. This boy was weak.

"Maybe he should be dead. He looks like nothing but a worthless, pathetic mongrel. A dog." Seto turned away, tugging on the reigns that were looped in his hands. "Leave him, Mokuba. Let's get going."

Mokuba's eyes widened. "But, Seto--" he paused, glancing down as a slight groan escaped the dry lips of the blonde boy, then looked back up hurriedly. "We can't just leave him here!"

"I assure you, we can."

"But--" Another cough, and the strange boy shifted fitfully, lost in the throes of unconsciousness, moaning. "There isn't an oasis for miles, and he could die out here! Please, big brother! We have to help him!"

Seto's eye twitched, and he bit back his retort instantly. Mokuba was right, of course. It was times like these, however, that he severely wished that Mokuba wasn't always playing his conscience. "...Fine. Wake him up. He'll come with us. For now." He bit out. The blonde puppy didn't deserve their assistance, but Mokuba wanted to help, and so they would.

A moment of silence broken only by the wind and the sand in the tall youths' ears, then Mokuba's choked reply. "He... won't wake up. Seto..."

Lips thinning and eyes narrowing slightly, Seto whirled and walked to the boy and his kid brother, tugging the horse along with him but managing to hide his irritation when Mokuba looked pleadingly up at him.

"Hold the reigns," he told Mokuba sharply, holding said object out. "This is as good a time as any to check that our newest purchase has the correct stamina we require."

The black-haired child took them immediately, standing up and backing away as Seto leaned down to pick the blonde youth from the ground. Sand fell in rivulets off of the body, like some twisted crafting of water, and Seto could have sworn that five handfuls of sand fell out of the unconscious boy's mouth as the boy's head fell limply onto the taller youth's chest. A half-mumble, half-groan escaped the blonde youth's lips as Seto none-too-gently hauled him upwards, the chocolate-haired youth staggering a bit under the full weight of the other. Seto regained his lost balance after barely a moment had passed, lifting the boy up and slinging the body over the brand-new saddle of the horse, then pausing a moment to tie straps of leather to the boy and the saddle.

"You're just lucky we aren't too far from home." Seto muttered darkly to the golden-haired youth, making sure to pitch his words so Mokuba wouldn't catch them. "Otherwise there would be no stopping me from leaving you here to rot, mongrel. Feel lucky." His only reply was another graon that was almost drowned out by the whipping wind as he double-checked the straps to make sure they were secure, then turned his attentions back to his brother, though Seto left one hand hooked on the leather ties to steady the horse and her passenger.

"Let's go, Mokuba."

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[1] - Lyrics taken from "The Devil Is Bad" by The W's.

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Whew! Prologue done! *wink* Well? What does everyone think about it? I know it might be kind of confusing, but all will be explained in due time, minna. *smirk* And pretty soon there will be some real Seto/Jou action. *snicker*

Review, please! Reviews make me happyyyyyy~!!

Threnody: No, they make you hyper.

*pouts* Same thing!