Yuugiou - Thief King x Malik
Fandom: Yuugiou Duel Monsters
Pairing: Thief King Bakura x Malik
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: Range from G to R
Notes: Obviously somewhat AU, takes place in the modern time. Hopefully Bakura's presence there is at least somewhat explained by the sentences, but yeah. Comments are love. :3 ♥
01 - Motion
The man moved like quicksilver, moved through time and space, through his mind and across his body, between his sheets and over his lips, and Malik didn't care where he came from, so long as he didn't stop moving him.
02 - Cool
There was nothing cold about him; he lived like the sun, warm and glowing, and Bakura wanted to both shrink from him and capture him all at once, like a moth to his flame.
03 - Young
There were times when Malik wondered just how old Bakura was, since, even ignoring the time gap of three millenia he seemed to have transcended without a wrinkle to show for it, Bakura appeared much older than Malik, and Malik never wasted a chance to tease him about it.
04 - Last
The last time Malik had formed a partnership with anyone under the namesake 'Bakura,' it had ended quite disastrously, so he couldn't help but have his reservations when this new thief of his attentions offered his hand, the word partner rolling from his lips.
05 - Wrong
Bakura was never wrong; this was rule number one of Malik's mental book on the man, written when he found himself pinned to the bed, Bakura proving his rightness is every possible way.
06 - Gentle
Bakura is never gentle was rule number two as Malik examined the dents the headboard had left on the wall, afterwards.
07 - One
"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them," Malik read aloud, casting Bakura a wary look before he eyes turned suspiciously to a certain artifact about his neck.
08 - Thousand
Three thousand years was a long time to live (or not quite live, as the case was) and it took a long night of drinking and Malik’s company to shake Bakura free of the thought that his cause might not have been worth the time.
09 - King
"And he was called the Pharaoh amongst thieves, the king of all tomb raiders, and his story would shake Egypt to its very core," said Bakura, the only person Malik knew (aside from himself, of course) who was vain enough to tell a bedtime story about himself.
10 - Learn
Bakura learned by experimentation, but it took cooking socks in the toaster, attempting to wash clothes in the dishwasher, and running Malik's precious motorbike into the neighbor's dog to teach Bakura that perhaps the best time to learn about modern devices was when Malik was not home.
11 - Blur
Time was passing in a blur, and Malik, lips bruised, back aching, and body locked in a tight hold, wondered if he'd truly only know this man for a week.
12 - Wait
"Wait for me," Bakura murmured in his ear every night before he slipped out of bed and into the night; and every night Malik waited, unable to sleep until he felt that accursed bastard of a man return to him, silent but warm.
13 - Change
"Leopard's don't change their spots," Bakura had said casually in response to Malik's sputtering protests when he'd returned home with two new necklaces and three rings adorning his body, results of his nightly escapades.
14 - Command
Bakura did nothing on command; in fact, staring calmly into the face of a clearly furious Rishid who demanded him out of Malik's house (and Malik's life, no doubt), he did the exact opposite, turning around and kissing Malik until it bruised, much to both Ishtars' chagrin.
15 - Hold
Malik liked to be held, liked to be comforted and cradled, and liked to feel safe in powerful arms, his head resting against a warm chest; Malik also liked to keep this a secret, but somehow Bakura knew it and manipulated it in every way he could.
16 - Need
They didn't need each other; Bakura needed Malik like he needed a monkey on his back and Malik needed Bakura like he needed the return of his darker self, and perhaps, had they not been so vocal and certain in their lack of needing each other, they wouldn't have found themselves needing each other so much.
17 - Vision
Isis had been neither the first nor the last to warn Malik about the thief who'd appeared out of nowhere - she didn't need visions to know that something bad was going to happen, and she wasn't sure if she could protect her brother from it, this time.
18 - Attention
There were times when Malik worried that he wouldn't always hold Bakura's attention; like a precious gem, Malik feared he would be locked away to gather dust and forgotten while the thief chased some other exotic rarity.
19 - Soul
It was strange, the sense of jealousy Malik felt when he watched Bakura speak of his ka - the beast of his soul - with a light in his eyes and a nostalgic smirk on his lips.
20 - Picture
Try as he might, Malik simply could not convince Bakura to get his picture taken (“No good can come of something that flashes Ra’s light and steals your face away!”), and so Malik, determined to have something to remember Bakura by, pushed him into a photobooth and kissed him breathless just long enough for a strip of pictures.
21 - Fool
It was his favourite game, playing the fool, because Malik knew that if he teased Bakura enough, the thief would eventually take him without holding back.
22 - Mad
"You're driving me mad," Malik had whispered one night through heavy breaths, and Bakura's only response had been to grin against his ear and murmur, "You really need to stop blaming other people for your problems, beautiful."
23 - Child
Sometimes, in the safety of the early mornings when neither of them could sleep, the two would relate to each other stories of their childhoods, of their reasons to survive - they never spoke of it in the light of day, but those murmured conversations only served to form more invisible bonds between them.
24 - Now
Bakura was grateful for Malik in some respects - Malik spoke his language, as he'd learned it from childhood, and he'd seen enough in his life not to be too startled when Bakura told him of his true origins; at least, if Bakura had to be stuck in the here and now, he was stuck with someone competent.
25 - Shadow
It was the perfect metaphor for the pair of them, Bakura thought as he watched shadow and light flicker in the flame, swaying and twisting together in burning heat; but, then, metaphors annoyed him anyway, so he finally blew the candle out and let darkness take the room.
26 - Goodbye
Malik was in the habit of saying goodbye, so he started practicing for the day Bakura would leave him, inevitable yet unknown.
27 - Hide
Malik often kept things from Bakura, hid them through lying and omission, but this only drove Bakura forward to pry open Malik's protections and discover just what it was that drew him to this boy.
28 - Fortune
The small fortune in jewelry Bakura wore on his body served to pay for a month's rent of an apartment near the edge of Domino - a month because Malik didn't want to push for more and near the edge of Domino so they could get away from Malik's sister banging on the door and telling them to keep it down every night.
29 - Safe
Even after seeing Bakura throw off a man who was getting too close to Malik during their first clubbing experience, a blade appearing almost out of nowhere and sending the man running for his life, Malik had never felt safer in Bakura's arms.
30 - Ghost
The first time Malik thought he saw right through Bakura's hand when it passed in front of his face, the thief had instantly denied it and forcibly changed the subject; the image, however, haunted Malik's mind, constantly reminding him that Bakura really was no more than a ghost of time.
31 - Book
Having prided himself on his mastery of lying and deceit (at least when his darker personality had been around), Malik hated more than anything that Bakura read him like an open book.
32 - Eye
Eyes of amethyst and sapphire, hair of spun gold and silver, and skin of deep bronze - everything about them spoke his language and created the most perfect gem that, for once, Bakura decided to hold onto a bit longer now that he had it.
33 - Never
"Say you'll never leave me," Malik had drawled during one of their more inebriated conversations after a long round of experimenting with "modern alcohol," and Bakura had simply smirked lazily with a drawled, "Never."
34 - Sing
The only time Malik had ever heard Bakura sing was once when Bakura was sure Malik wasn't listening; a soft, meaningless and somewhat off-key tune fell from his lips in a coarse Egyptian tongue and Malik never asked him to repeat it, for he knew it was just one more memory to lock close in his heart - the moments with Bakura that came once every thousand years.
35 - Sudden
The motion was sudden, unexpected and unprovoked, but when Malik felt Bakura's arms around him, just holding him, he suddenly felt scared for reasons he couldn't explain.
36 - Stop
Secretly, Bakura was glad Malik had never once asked him to stop, because, with the blonde pinned beneath him, panting his name, he was certain he wouldn't have been able to.
37 - Time
"I'm running out of time," Bakura breathed softly, but Malik pretended not to hear.
38 - Wash
Bakura had been certain that nothing could wash away the blood on his hands and cleanse the weight of his soul, but somehow, Malik's presence always let him give way a bit to the foolish feelings of hope.
39 - Torn
Torn between his duty to his family and the beckoning hand of the thief, Malik feared he might split in two once more.
40 - History
Bakura had once found one of Malik's history books and, flipping it open to the pages on ancient Egypt, he gazed distantly on what had once been his; he quickly closed the book again, however, when he saw the worry flickering in Malik's eyes, expressing a fear neither of them wished to voice - that Bakura would someday return to the pages of history.
41 - Power
Power was a funny thing; all his days, Malik had desperately craved it - power over his life, power over his destiny, power over people and power over the world - but the moment Bakura had stepped into his life was the moment he had learned what it felt like to crave the powerlessness of being pinned to the bed by strong arms.
42 - Bother
The amount of time Malik spent on his looks every morning bothered Bakura to no end - compared to the five minutes Bakura spent dumping water over his head and shaking his hair dry (rather like a dog, Malik always pointed out), Malik managed to spent an hour in the "shower" followed by another half-hour redoing his make-up and hair, only to emerge from the bathroom looking hardly any different from when he'd gone in.
43 - God
Bakura worshipped a god that represented everything he'd been denied, the ka spirit Diabound who was forged of the spirits of his family and woven with the power of darkness; Malik, on the other hand, worshipped a god who represented everything he now had, gained through his own power - Ra, the sun and the light.
44 - Wall
In ancient times, Bakura had been given the ability through his ka to walk through walls; this was, Malik decided, the only plausible explanation for how easily he passed through the walls of Malik's heart and settled, a permanent ache in his chest.
45 - Naked
Malik was naked and writhing beneath Bakura when he accidentally screamed, "I love you," and, after that, nothing was the same.
46 - Drive
Their drive to live, survive, and win was the same - defeat the Pharaoh, get revenge, and regain a shattered childhood - but there were times when Bakura didn't wonder if that was what was driving them both over the edge.
47 - Harm
"I never meant to harm you," were the words Bakura would never say, not even as Malik was clearly displaying desperate emotions that twisted things sharply inside Bakura that he didn't even know he had.
48 - Precious
Bakura claimed Malik to be his most precious possession, often growled it hungrily in the aftermath of their pleasure, but it took Bakura slipping away more and more at night without a word for Malik to realize just how much he belonged to him.
49 - Hunger
Bakura's hunger (for food and for everything else) was savage and insatiable, and Malik often wondered if he wasn't housing a beast instead of a man, one who paced the confines of his cage, tearing up whatever food was provided him just so he could survive long enough to escape.
50 - Believe
Malik never thought he would feel so desperate to cling to something, to keep it close to him, as he did now, but with Bakura’s hand slipping through his fingers and slowly disappearing, Malik almost felt compelled to clap his hands and claim his belief in ghosts of three millennia, if only it would keep Bakura with him one more night.
Pairing: Thief King Bakura x Malik
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: Range from G to R
Notes: Obviously somewhat AU, takes place in the modern time. Hopefully Bakura's presence there is at least somewhat explained by the sentences, but yeah. Comments are love. :3 ♥
01 - Motion
The man moved like quicksilver, moved through time and space, through his mind and across his body, between his sheets and over his lips, and Malik didn't care where he came from, so long as he didn't stop moving him.
02 - Cool
There was nothing cold about him; he lived like the sun, warm and glowing, and Bakura wanted to both shrink from him and capture him all at once, like a moth to his flame.
03 - Young
There were times when Malik wondered just how old Bakura was, since, even ignoring the time gap of three millenia he seemed to have transcended without a wrinkle to show for it, Bakura appeared much older than Malik, and Malik never wasted a chance to tease him about it.
04 - Last
The last time Malik had formed a partnership with anyone under the namesake 'Bakura,' it had ended quite disastrously, so he couldn't help but have his reservations when this new thief of his attentions offered his hand, the word partner rolling from his lips.
05 - Wrong
Bakura was never wrong; this was rule number one of Malik's mental book on the man, written when he found himself pinned to the bed, Bakura proving his rightness is every possible way.
06 - Gentle
Bakura is never gentle was rule number two as Malik examined the dents the headboard had left on the wall, afterwards.
07 - One
"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them," Malik read aloud, casting Bakura a wary look before he eyes turned suspiciously to a certain artifact about his neck.
08 - Thousand
Three thousand years was a long time to live (or not quite live, as the case was) and it took a long night of drinking and Malik’s company to shake Bakura free of the thought that his cause might not have been worth the time.
09 - King
"And he was called the Pharaoh amongst thieves, the king of all tomb raiders, and his story would shake Egypt to its very core," said Bakura, the only person Malik knew (aside from himself, of course) who was vain enough to tell a bedtime story about himself.
10 - Learn
Bakura learned by experimentation, but it took cooking socks in the toaster, attempting to wash clothes in the dishwasher, and running Malik's precious motorbike into the neighbor's dog to teach Bakura that perhaps the best time to learn about modern devices was when Malik was not home.
11 - Blur
Time was passing in a blur, and Malik, lips bruised, back aching, and body locked in a tight hold, wondered if he'd truly only know this man for a week.
12 - Wait
"Wait for me," Bakura murmured in his ear every night before he slipped out of bed and into the night; and every night Malik waited, unable to sleep until he felt that accursed bastard of a man return to him, silent but warm.
13 - Change
"Leopard's don't change their spots," Bakura had said casually in response to Malik's sputtering protests when he'd returned home with two new necklaces and three rings adorning his body, results of his nightly escapades.
14 - Command
Bakura did nothing on command; in fact, staring calmly into the face of a clearly furious Rishid who demanded him out of Malik's house (and Malik's life, no doubt), he did the exact opposite, turning around and kissing Malik until it bruised, much to both Ishtars' chagrin.
15 - Hold
Malik liked to be held, liked to be comforted and cradled, and liked to feel safe in powerful arms, his head resting against a warm chest; Malik also liked to keep this a secret, but somehow Bakura knew it and manipulated it in every way he could.
16 - Need
They didn't need each other; Bakura needed Malik like he needed a monkey on his back and Malik needed Bakura like he needed the return of his darker self, and perhaps, had they not been so vocal and certain in their lack of needing each other, they wouldn't have found themselves needing each other so much.
17 - Vision
Isis had been neither the first nor the last to warn Malik about the thief who'd appeared out of nowhere - she didn't need visions to know that something bad was going to happen, and she wasn't sure if she could protect her brother from it, this time.
18 - Attention
There were times when Malik worried that he wouldn't always hold Bakura's attention; like a precious gem, Malik feared he would be locked away to gather dust and forgotten while the thief chased some other exotic rarity.
19 - Soul
It was strange, the sense of jealousy Malik felt when he watched Bakura speak of his ka - the beast of his soul - with a light in his eyes and a nostalgic smirk on his lips.
20 - Picture
Try as he might, Malik simply could not convince Bakura to get his picture taken (“No good can come of something that flashes Ra’s light and steals your face away!”), and so Malik, determined to have something to remember Bakura by, pushed him into a photobooth and kissed him breathless just long enough for a strip of pictures.
21 - Fool
It was his favourite game, playing the fool, because Malik knew that if he teased Bakura enough, the thief would eventually take him without holding back.
22 - Mad
"You're driving me mad," Malik had whispered one night through heavy breaths, and Bakura's only response had been to grin against his ear and murmur, "You really need to stop blaming other people for your problems, beautiful."
23 - Child
Sometimes, in the safety of the early mornings when neither of them could sleep, the two would relate to each other stories of their childhoods, of their reasons to survive - they never spoke of it in the light of day, but those murmured conversations only served to form more invisible bonds between them.
24 - Now
Bakura was grateful for Malik in some respects - Malik spoke his language, as he'd learned it from childhood, and he'd seen enough in his life not to be too startled when Bakura told him of his true origins; at least, if Bakura had to be stuck in the here and now, he was stuck with someone competent.
25 - Shadow
It was the perfect metaphor for the pair of them, Bakura thought as he watched shadow and light flicker in the flame, swaying and twisting together in burning heat; but, then, metaphors annoyed him anyway, so he finally blew the candle out and let darkness take the room.
26 - Goodbye
Malik was in the habit of saying goodbye, so he started practicing for the day Bakura would leave him, inevitable yet unknown.
27 - Hide
Malik often kept things from Bakura, hid them through lying and omission, but this only drove Bakura forward to pry open Malik's protections and discover just what it was that drew him to this boy.
28 - Fortune
The small fortune in jewelry Bakura wore on his body served to pay for a month's rent of an apartment near the edge of Domino - a month because Malik didn't want to push for more and near the edge of Domino so they could get away from Malik's sister banging on the door and telling them to keep it down every night.
29 - Safe
Even after seeing Bakura throw off a man who was getting too close to Malik during their first clubbing experience, a blade appearing almost out of nowhere and sending the man running for his life, Malik had never felt safer in Bakura's arms.
30 - Ghost
The first time Malik thought he saw right through Bakura's hand when it passed in front of his face, the thief had instantly denied it and forcibly changed the subject; the image, however, haunted Malik's mind, constantly reminding him that Bakura really was no more than a ghost of time.
31 - Book
Having prided himself on his mastery of lying and deceit (at least when his darker personality had been around), Malik hated more than anything that Bakura read him like an open book.
32 - Eye
Eyes of amethyst and sapphire, hair of spun gold and silver, and skin of deep bronze - everything about them spoke his language and created the most perfect gem that, for once, Bakura decided to hold onto a bit longer now that he had it.
33 - Never
"Say you'll never leave me," Malik had drawled during one of their more inebriated conversations after a long round of experimenting with "modern alcohol," and Bakura had simply smirked lazily with a drawled, "Never."
34 - Sing
The only time Malik had ever heard Bakura sing was once when Bakura was sure Malik wasn't listening; a soft, meaningless and somewhat off-key tune fell from his lips in a coarse Egyptian tongue and Malik never asked him to repeat it, for he knew it was just one more memory to lock close in his heart - the moments with Bakura that came once every thousand years.
35 - Sudden
The motion was sudden, unexpected and unprovoked, but when Malik felt Bakura's arms around him, just holding him, he suddenly felt scared for reasons he couldn't explain.
36 - Stop
Secretly, Bakura was glad Malik had never once asked him to stop, because, with the blonde pinned beneath him, panting his name, he was certain he wouldn't have been able to.
37 - Time
"I'm running out of time," Bakura breathed softly, but Malik pretended not to hear.
38 - Wash
Bakura had been certain that nothing could wash away the blood on his hands and cleanse the weight of his soul, but somehow, Malik's presence always let him give way a bit to the foolish feelings of hope.
39 - Torn
Torn between his duty to his family and the beckoning hand of the thief, Malik feared he might split in two once more.
40 - History
Bakura had once found one of Malik's history books and, flipping it open to the pages on ancient Egypt, he gazed distantly on what had once been his; he quickly closed the book again, however, when he saw the worry flickering in Malik's eyes, expressing a fear neither of them wished to voice - that Bakura would someday return to the pages of history.
41 - Power
Power was a funny thing; all his days, Malik had desperately craved it - power over his life, power over his destiny, power over people and power over the world - but the moment Bakura had stepped into his life was the moment he had learned what it felt like to crave the powerlessness of being pinned to the bed by strong arms.
42 - Bother
The amount of time Malik spent on his looks every morning bothered Bakura to no end - compared to the five minutes Bakura spent dumping water over his head and shaking his hair dry (rather like a dog, Malik always pointed out), Malik managed to spent an hour in the "shower" followed by another half-hour redoing his make-up and hair, only to emerge from the bathroom looking hardly any different from when he'd gone in.
43 - God
Bakura worshipped a god that represented everything he'd been denied, the ka spirit Diabound who was forged of the spirits of his family and woven with the power of darkness; Malik, on the other hand, worshipped a god who represented everything he now had, gained through his own power - Ra, the sun and the light.
44 - Wall
In ancient times, Bakura had been given the ability through his ka to walk through walls; this was, Malik decided, the only plausible explanation for how easily he passed through the walls of Malik's heart and settled, a permanent ache in his chest.
45 - Naked
Malik was naked and writhing beneath Bakura when he accidentally screamed, "I love you," and, after that, nothing was the same.
46 - Drive
Their drive to live, survive, and win was the same - defeat the Pharaoh, get revenge, and regain a shattered childhood - but there were times when Bakura didn't wonder if that was what was driving them both over the edge.
47 - Harm
"I never meant to harm you," were the words Bakura would never say, not even as Malik was clearly displaying desperate emotions that twisted things sharply inside Bakura that he didn't even know he had.
48 - Precious
Bakura claimed Malik to be his most precious possession, often growled it hungrily in the aftermath of their pleasure, but it took Bakura slipping away more and more at night without a word for Malik to realize just how much he belonged to him.
49 - Hunger
Bakura's hunger (for food and for everything else) was savage and insatiable, and Malik often wondered if he wasn't housing a beast instead of a man, one who paced the confines of his cage, tearing up whatever food was provided him just so he could survive long enough to escape.
50 - Believe
Malik never thought he would feel so desperate to cling to something, to keep it close to him, as he did now, but with Bakura’s hand slipping through his fingers and slowly disappearing, Malik almost felt compelled to clap his hands and claim his belief in ghosts of three millennia, if only it would keep Bakura with him one more night.