Shaman King: Ryunosuke "Ryu" Umemiya x Lyserg Diethel
Fandom: Shaman King
Pairing: Ryu/Lyserg
Theme set: Alpha
Rating: PG to R, for safety's sake
Warnings: OMG TEH GAY, mentions of attempted suicide, no coherency time-wise, mixed canons, other character's commentary, the kind of crack-a-rific humor the series is infamous for, and spoilers for the manga and anime's endings; there are several different AUs contained herein, please ask if you're not sure as to what's canon-set and what isn't.
1. Comfort
The first time Ryu actually held Lyserg was an attempt at comfort; they were in Mu and Marco had been killed two days before, Jeanne soon after, and it just wasn’t fair that someone like Lyserg should go through losing a family alone twice.
2. Kiss
They didn’t think anyone had witnessed their first kiss, hidden as they were in the shadows well back from the campfire, but Horohoro’s utterly traumatized expression at “breakfast” the following morning spoke otherwise.
3. Soft
Lyserg hated being the youngest, hated the fact that he still had the body of a boy when Yoh and Ren were men in all but legal terms; but when Ryu cuddled up next to him and called him comfortable, it stung a little less.
4. Pain
Lyserg didn’t realize until much, much later that it had been Ryu who found him; then again, most people wouldn’t have been able to remember anything after getting shot.
5. Potatoes
Even if he ended up peeling more skin from his fingers than from the potatoes, even if Anna complained that he was “distracting her cook,” Lyserg didn’t care: so long as he was with Ryu, nothing else mattered.
6. Rain
The rain in London was sad, cold and lonely-but Lyserg wasn’t like that anymore, and defied it by kissing Ryu as they both got drenched.
7. Chocolate
Even if it tasted horribly bitter, Ryu would eat Lyserg’s attempt at a Valentine’s Day gift... and send a better chocolate back on White Day, with a recipe.
8. Happiness
The simplest things about their relationship made Lyserg happy: Ryu’s cooking and his own attempts at the same, waking up next to someone for the first time in... well, ever, and the sight of their matched rings on the windowsill as they washed dishes after a party all contributed to what Morphine derisively called “a marriage high.”
9. Telephone
Mikihisa wondered why he kept letting his student use the main house’s phone line; while Ryu could certainly be considered one of the family, a single month’s long distance bill (and all the calls to a number in London!) of eighty thousand six hundred thirty-three yen was nothing to sneeze at.
10. Ears
“You’re cute,” Ryu whispered, and any protests Lyserg might have had were lost in a moan as Ryu seized his partner’s left earlobe with his teeth.
11. Name
“You may even end up fighting against that ‘Ryu’ you were friends with,” Marco said, and wondered for what felt like the thousandth time just why his student always blushed when that pompadoured idiot was mentioned.
12. Sensual
There could be no doubt as to the reason Marco had made him wear such a uniform, Lyserg’s slender, feminine legs were meant to distract opposing teams, and so he made sure to flip his trench coat back at every opportunity-god knew Ryu would be watching his every fight.
13. Death
His last thought wasn’t of the car’s other occupants, but of the Japanese shaman he might have loved.
14. Sex
Their first time was awkward and fumbling and in Lyserg’s opinion ended far too soon; afterwards, neither of them bothered to bathe-with three more priests to fight, and then Hao, there simply wasn’t time.
15. Touch
Lyserg had been deprived of physical affection for so long that even a casual pat on the back could make him blush-though, Ren noted with faint disgust, he flushed the deepest shade of red when it was Ryu who touched him.
16. Weakness
“I’m pathetic,” Lyserg murmured, and Ryu (knowing that to argue would be pointless) simply pulled the boy closer and gently stroked his hair.
17. Tears (warning: this is a BIGASS AU taken from the anime’s ending)
Yoh’s funeral was a brief affair, but to Lyserg it seemed to be hours-as it was, all he could do was stand beside Ryu and listen as his newfound lover wept-before everyone else left and he could let himself collapse against Ryu and break down.
18. Speed
Driving a motorcycle was one thing, clinging desperately to Ryu in an effort to keep from falling off while going well above the speed limit was entirely another, and despite being pressed against his boyfriend's body Lyserg really didn't like it that much.
19. Wind
It wasn’t quite fair, that they’d had to part company so soon after they’d realized why “the X-Laws thing” hadn’t killed their friendship; sitting under a tree in one of Tokyo’s cemeteries, Ryu could almost imagine he heard Lyserg’s voice on the wind, and didn’t know that twelve hours later in London Lyserg would be doing much the same thing.
20. Freedom
The X-Laws had been dissolved, and he could go anywhere he wanted... anywhere, with anyone... Lyserg supposed that included going to Japan with Ryu, and silently apologized to Lady Jeanne for never fully coming out.
21. Life
Hao was dead, and he didn’t have a purpose anymore... or at least, he hadn’t until he felt Ryu’s hand close around his own, making him drop the gun in surprise at the fact that someone actually did care as to whether he lived or died.
22. Jealousy
Ryu only realized that he loved Lyserg after he saw the British shaman out in public with the X-Laws’ blond leader-the hot swoop of jealousy that made his stomach clench proved it.
23. Hands (linked to 21)
That time, Ryu had been surprised by just how much smaller Lyserg’s hands were than his own; soon afterwards, he realized that they were a perfect fit.
24. Taste
“You could have warned me that it’d be so salty,” Ryu spluttered, and all Lyserg could do was laugh.
25. Devotion
It wasn’t the fact that Lyserg had left that angered Yoh, it was how easily the British boy had abandoned Ryu, who’d worshipped him with something akin to wonder.
26. Forever
Eternity, to a shaman, is just part of the job; to a ghost, it’s everyday life; to two lovers reunited after only a short time, it’s the first time where they’re finally free to be themselves.
27. Blood (linked to 33)
It was almost amusing, that Lyserg had fainted at the sight of his own blood; indeed, if it hadn’t been part of a suicide attempt Ryu would have laughed at how ridiculous the situation was.
28. Sickness
Meene was utterly perplexed by Lyserg’s statements while feverish; the only intelligible phrase was “Ryu, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” and he repeated it so many times....
29. Melody
Neither of them could really sing, but there was something about the way they acted while doing so that lead Yoh to forcefully prevent Horohoro from interrupting; many months later he’d be told by Lyserg that Ryu had decided that their trip to a karaoke box that night counted as a first date.
30. Star
They kissed, and Ryu grinned sheepishly, saying “Well, I got my wish.”
31. Home
He’d spent so many years searching for his “best place” that it rather shocked Ryu when he realized that he’d found it, in the form of an embrace from a green-haired fellow shaman.
32. Confusion
For a few blissful moments, Ryu believed Lyserg to be a deep-voiced girl-and then the dowser bared all and there could be no doubt as to his gender.
33. fear (linked to 27)
The waiting was the worst part, it left Ryu to imagine that Faust had already walked out and said with a defeated expression that there was nothing he could have done, that Lyserg was dead....
34. Lightning
Lyserg had always expected kissing to feel like a pleasant electrical shock, but his first relationship proved that wasn’t the case-if it was, wouldn’t he feel like he’d been hit by lightning when Ryu kissed him?
35. Bonds
It wasn’t like they were lifebonded or anything, after all, he still had half a crush on Marco, but there had been times when Lyserg had known exactly what Ryu was thinking; there had been times when Ryu had done something for him that was exactly right, and both were beginning to wonder if this was one of the “complications” Mikihisa had warned them about shortly before the wedding.
36. Market
The first time they went out in public and acted like a couple, they’d just finished getting groceries: Anna had seen them lounging on the couch and ordered them both out of the house, and neither had really wanted to stop cuddling just then; really, it wasn’t their fault that the manager hadn’t wanted “a pair of fags*” on her bench, and that they’d both gotten angry enough that Lyserg accidentally caught the building’s facade on fire without realizing what he’d done....
37. Technology
Without the internet, they would have lost touch in a few weeks... with it, their relationship heated up to the point of no return.
38. Gift
The ring had taken forever to find, but the look on Ryu’s face as he accepted it was enough to make the months of canvassing jewelry stores (which was rather harder than it sounded if you were a tall, green-haired foreigner and couldn’t understand certain dialects of Japanese) worth it.
39. Smile
There were some things worth fighting for, and while he’d never admit it openly, Ryu’s smile was one that Lyserg fought for-he fought in hope of seeing that smile again without fear of Marco hitting him for “fraternizing with the enemy.”
40. Innocence
It could be the last night of their lives, so Chocolove broke out with the dirty jokes-Lyserg only understood one, and Ryu fell in love with him all over again.
41. Completion
Since his parents’ death, Lyserg had felt like only part of a person-when he was with Ryu, he forgot that for some reason he couldn’t quite place.
42. Clouds
“Beautiful,” Ryu said, and Lyserg blushed as he realized that the older shaman wasn’t looking at the sky.
43. Sky
“We both live under the same sky,” Ryu had said, and it had taken every bit of willpower that Lyserg possessed to keep from accepting Billy’s offer of a ride just for the sake of staying under an identical sky for a bit longer.
44. Heaven
He’d only been to Hell-but when Ryu smiled at him, Lyserg thought he could tell what Heaven must be like, if only for a moment.
45. Hell
Hell, to Ryu, was waking up in Patch Village without Lyserg, knowing that his beloved was somewhere alone and frightened.
46. Sun
Sometimes Lyserg hated being so pale, but the feelings of having the man he loved rub aloe gel into his shoulders almost made him like getting sunburnt.
47. Moon
Moonlight made them both seem ethereal and pure, and despite having the morals of her kind, Morphine felt faintly dirty as she watched her master and his lover kiss.
48. Waves
Upon reflection, Ryu came to realize that falling in love with Lyserg had been like being swept over at the beach: there was the initial infatuation, which swept him off his feet, and then just as he recovered he fell head over heels, shoved over by what definitely felt like love.
49. Hair
The first thing Lyserg noticed, upon sitting down next to Ryu in the bath, was how much better he looked with his hair down; the second was less an observation of his friend’s collapsed hair than a first-hand experience with the effects of an un-pompadoured Ryu on certain long-repressed hormones.
50. Supernova
Once, Yoh made the mistake of checking up on his friends via second sight: looking at Ryu and Lyserg’s slowly combining aura was like looking at an exploding sun.
Notes:
*Please substitute the equivalent Japanese derisive slang term for homosexual male here... I’m not certain what it is in the current language (is "o-kama" still in use, or is it archaic now?), although I know “lez” has apparently been imported, I’m clueless as to whether or not the closest male equivalent has. Also in regard to number 36, yes, Lyserg gets the Spirit of Fire at the end of the manga. I’ve imagined his relationship to it as one similar to Lavan Firestorm’s relationship with his abilities, i. e. piss him off and you’ll get burned.
Yes, I know #42 is cliched beyond all reason. Why’d I do it, then, you ask? Because it fits these two too damn well!
In regards to 47: Morphine is a fairy. They’ve got the morals of cats. Those lovely Victorian stories where all fairies are nice and good and sexless and pure? BULLSHIT. Go research Celtic/general British Isles mythology... the tuatha de danaan and the fae are quite different from what you’d picture. Book!Tinkerbell, in all her jealous brattiness, is actually fairly typical in terms of attitude!
Pairing: Ryu/Lyserg
Theme set: Alpha
Rating: PG to R, for safety's sake
Warnings: OMG TEH GAY, mentions of attempted suicide, no coherency time-wise, mixed canons, other character's commentary, the kind of crack-a-rific humor the series is infamous for, and spoilers for the manga and anime's endings; there are several different AUs contained herein, please ask if you're not sure as to what's canon-set and what isn't.
1. Comfort
The first time Ryu actually held Lyserg was an attempt at comfort; they were in Mu and Marco had been killed two days before, Jeanne soon after, and it just wasn’t fair that someone like Lyserg should go through losing a family alone twice.
2. Kiss
They didn’t think anyone had witnessed their first kiss, hidden as they were in the shadows well back from the campfire, but Horohoro’s utterly traumatized expression at “breakfast” the following morning spoke otherwise.
3. Soft
Lyserg hated being the youngest, hated the fact that he still had the body of a boy when Yoh and Ren were men in all but legal terms; but when Ryu cuddled up next to him and called him comfortable, it stung a little less.
4. Pain
Lyserg didn’t realize until much, much later that it had been Ryu who found him; then again, most people wouldn’t have been able to remember anything after getting shot.
5. Potatoes
Even if he ended up peeling more skin from his fingers than from the potatoes, even if Anna complained that he was “distracting her cook,” Lyserg didn’t care: so long as he was with Ryu, nothing else mattered.
6. Rain
The rain in London was sad, cold and lonely-but Lyserg wasn’t like that anymore, and defied it by kissing Ryu as they both got drenched.
7. Chocolate
Even if it tasted horribly bitter, Ryu would eat Lyserg’s attempt at a Valentine’s Day gift... and send a better chocolate back on White Day, with a recipe.
8. Happiness
The simplest things about their relationship made Lyserg happy: Ryu’s cooking and his own attempts at the same, waking up next to someone for the first time in... well, ever, and the sight of their matched rings on the windowsill as they washed dishes after a party all contributed to what Morphine derisively called “a marriage high.”
9. Telephone
Mikihisa wondered why he kept letting his student use the main house’s phone line; while Ryu could certainly be considered one of the family, a single month’s long distance bill (and all the calls to a number in London!) of eighty thousand six hundred thirty-three yen was nothing to sneeze at.
10. Ears
“You’re cute,” Ryu whispered, and any protests Lyserg might have had were lost in a moan as Ryu seized his partner’s left earlobe with his teeth.
11. Name
“You may even end up fighting against that ‘Ryu’ you were friends with,” Marco said, and wondered for what felt like the thousandth time just why his student always blushed when that pompadoured idiot was mentioned.
12. Sensual
There could be no doubt as to the reason Marco had made him wear such a uniform, Lyserg’s slender, feminine legs were meant to distract opposing teams, and so he made sure to flip his trench coat back at every opportunity-god knew Ryu would be watching his every fight.
13. Death
His last thought wasn’t of the car’s other occupants, but of the Japanese shaman he might have loved.
14. Sex
Their first time was awkward and fumbling and in Lyserg’s opinion ended far too soon; afterwards, neither of them bothered to bathe-with three more priests to fight, and then Hao, there simply wasn’t time.
15. Touch
Lyserg had been deprived of physical affection for so long that even a casual pat on the back could make him blush-though, Ren noted with faint disgust, he flushed the deepest shade of red when it was Ryu who touched him.
16. Weakness
“I’m pathetic,” Lyserg murmured, and Ryu (knowing that to argue would be pointless) simply pulled the boy closer and gently stroked his hair.
17. Tears (warning: this is a BIGASS AU taken from the anime’s ending)
Yoh’s funeral was a brief affair, but to Lyserg it seemed to be hours-as it was, all he could do was stand beside Ryu and listen as his newfound lover wept-before everyone else left and he could let himself collapse against Ryu and break down.
18. Speed
Driving a motorcycle was one thing, clinging desperately to Ryu in an effort to keep from falling off while going well above the speed limit was entirely another, and despite being pressed against his boyfriend's body Lyserg really didn't like it that much.
19. Wind
It wasn’t quite fair, that they’d had to part company so soon after they’d realized why “the X-Laws thing” hadn’t killed their friendship; sitting under a tree in one of Tokyo’s cemeteries, Ryu could almost imagine he heard Lyserg’s voice on the wind, and didn’t know that twelve hours later in London Lyserg would be doing much the same thing.
20. Freedom
The X-Laws had been dissolved, and he could go anywhere he wanted... anywhere, with anyone... Lyserg supposed that included going to Japan with Ryu, and silently apologized to Lady Jeanne for never fully coming out.
21. Life
Hao was dead, and he didn’t have a purpose anymore... or at least, he hadn’t until he felt Ryu’s hand close around his own, making him drop the gun in surprise at the fact that someone actually did care as to whether he lived or died.
22. Jealousy
Ryu only realized that he loved Lyserg after he saw the British shaman out in public with the X-Laws’ blond leader-the hot swoop of jealousy that made his stomach clench proved it.
23. Hands (linked to 21)
That time, Ryu had been surprised by just how much smaller Lyserg’s hands were than his own; soon afterwards, he realized that they were a perfect fit.
24. Taste
“You could have warned me that it’d be so salty,” Ryu spluttered, and all Lyserg could do was laugh.
25. Devotion
It wasn’t the fact that Lyserg had left that angered Yoh, it was how easily the British boy had abandoned Ryu, who’d worshipped him with something akin to wonder.
26. Forever
Eternity, to a shaman, is just part of the job; to a ghost, it’s everyday life; to two lovers reunited after only a short time, it’s the first time where they’re finally free to be themselves.
27. Blood (linked to 33)
It was almost amusing, that Lyserg had fainted at the sight of his own blood; indeed, if it hadn’t been part of a suicide attempt Ryu would have laughed at how ridiculous the situation was.
28. Sickness
Meene was utterly perplexed by Lyserg’s statements while feverish; the only intelligible phrase was “Ryu, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” and he repeated it so many times....
29. Melody
Neither of them could really sing, but there was something about the way they acted while doing so that lead Yoh to forcefully prevent Horohoro from interrupting; many months later he’d be told by Lyserg that Ryu had decided that their trip to a karaoke box that night counted as a first date.
30. Star
They kissed, and Ryu grinned sheepishly, saying “Well, I got my wish.”
31. Home
He’d spent so many years searching for his “best place” that it rather shocked Ryu when he realized that he’d found it, in the form of an embrace from a green-haired fellow shaman.
32. Confusion
For a few blissful moments, Ryu believed Lyserg to be a deep-voiced girl-and then the dowser bared all and there could be no doubt as to his gender.
33. fear (linked to 27)
The waiting was the worst part, it left Ryu to imagine that Faust had already walked out and said with a defeated expression that there was nothing he could have done, that Lyserg was dead....
34. Lightning
Lyserg had always expected kissing to feel like a pleasant electrical shock, but his first relationship proved that wasn’t the case-if it was, wouldn’t he feel like he’d been hit by lightning when Ryu kissed him?
35. Bonds
It wasn’t like they were lifebonded or anything, after all, he still had half a crush on Marco, but there had been times when Lyserg had known exactly what Ryu was thinking; there had been times when Ryu had done something for him that was exactly right, and both were beginning to wonder if this was one of the “complications” Mikihisa had warned them about shortly before the wedding.
36. Market
The first time they went out in public and acted like a couple, they’d just finished getting groceries: Anna had seen them lounging on the couch and ordered them both out of the house, and neither had really wanted to stop cuddling just then; really, it wasn’t their fault that the manager hadn’t wanted “a pair of fags*” on her bench, and that they’d both gotten angry enough that Lyserg accidentally caught the building’s facade on fire without realizing what he’d done....
37. Technology
Without the internet, they would have lost touch in a few weeks... with it, their relationship heated up to the point of no return.
38. Gift
The ring had taken forever to find, but the look on Ryu’s face as he accepted it was enough to make the months of canvassing jewelry stores (which was rather harder than it sounded if you were a tall, green-haired foreigner and couldn’t understand certain dialects of Japanese) worth it.
39. Smile
There were some things worth fighting for, and while he’d never admit it openly, Ryu’s smile was one that Lyserg fought for-he fought in hope of seeing that smile again without fear of Marco hitting him for “fraternizing with the enemy.”
40. Innocence
It could be the last night of their lives, so Chocolove broke out with the dirty jokes-Lyserg only understood one, and Ryu fell in love with him all over again.
41. Completion
Since his parents’ death, Lyserg had felt like only part of a person-when he was with Ryu, he forgot that for some reason he couldn’t quite place.
42. Clouds
“Beautiful,” Ryu said, and Lyserg blushed as he realized that the older shaman wasn’t looking at the sky.
43. Sky
“We both live under the same sky,” Ryu had said, and it had taken every bit of willpower that Lyserg possessed to keep from accepting Billy’s offer of a ride just for the sake of staying under an identical sky for a bit longer.
44. Heaven
He’d only been to Hell-but when Ryu smiled at him, Lyserg thought he could tell what Heaven must be like, if only for a moment.
45. Hell
Hell, to Ryu, was waking up in Patch Village without Lyserg, knowing that his beloved was somewhere alone and frightened.
46. Sun
Sometimes Lyserg hated being so pale, but the feelings of having the man he loved rub aloe gel into his shoulders almost made him like getting sunburnt.
47. Moon
Moonlight made them both seem ethereal and pure, and despite having the morals of her kind, Morphine felt faintly dirty as she watched her master and his lover kiss.
48. Waves
Upon reflection, Ryu came to realize that falling in love with Lyserg had been like being swept over at the beach: there was the initial infatuation, which swept him off his feet, and then just as he recovered he fell head over heels, shoved over by what definitely felt like love.
49. Hair
The first thing Lyserg noticed, upon sitting down next to Ryu in the bath, was how much better he looked with his hair down; the second was less an observation of his friend’s collapsed hair than a first-hand experience with the effects of an un-pompadoured Ryu on certain long-repressed hormones.
50. Supernova
Once, Yoh made the mistake of checking up on his friends via second sight: looking at Ryu and Lyserg’s slowly combining aura was like looking at an exploding sun.
Notes:
*Please substitute the equivalent Japanese derisive slang term for homosexual male here... I’m not certain what it is in the current language (is "o-kama" still in use, or is it archaic now?), although I know “lez” has apparently been imported, I’m clueless as to whether or not the closest male equivalent has. Also in regard to number 36, yes, Lyserg gets the Spirit of Fire at the end of the manga. I’ve imagined his relationship to it as one similar to Lavan Firestorm’s relationship with his abilities, i. e. piss him off and you’ll get burned.
Yes, I know #42 is cliched beyond all reason. Why’d I do it, then, you ask? Because it fits these two too damn well!
In regards to 47: Morphine is a fairy. They’ve got the morals of cats. Those lovely Victorian stories where all fairies are nice and good and sexless and pure? BULLSHIT. Go research Celtic/general British Isles mythology... the tuatha de danaan and the fae are quite different from what you’d picture. Book!Tinkerbell, in all her jealous brattiness, is actually fairly typical in terms of attitude!