[fic] Theme 056 "Desire", for 100_wangsts {遊☆戯☆王: 'Atemu'/Yuugi; PG-14}
(stretches) Just got my test over with yesterday, and I’m totally beat. This theme isn’t exactly the happy-fluffy ones...I haven’t done much of those lately, have I? xD
But, um, try to enjoy it anyway. ;A;
Written for 100_wangsts. This is theme 056.
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-14
Pairings: ‘Atemu’/Yuugi, ‘Atemu’/?, Yuugi/?
Story Type: Drabble/one-shot
Summary: Desire and passion didn’t last forever for them.
Disclaimer: (wails) For the fifty-sixth time, no!
Spoilers: AU.
Warnings: Mentions of adultery - thus, a bit of OOC-ness, because I do believe them to be monogamous. n.n;
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“Hello, you’ve reached 011-787-8989. I’m sorry, but I’m not available to come to the phone right now; please leave your name, phone number, and message after the beep so that I can call you right back.”
Beep.
“Hey, love? I’ll have to stay behind to finish a couple more documents, the clients need them tomorrow. I don’t know how long they’ll take, so don’t wait up for me. Sleep tight, love you.”
Click.
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Their marriage was hanging by a thread. After five years of living together, their lives were dulled to a monotonous pace. At first it was a happy prospect; they passed each other’s family’s ‘test’, overcame obstacles set by society, found someone willing to hold a marriage for them, and the apartment they lived in now was a quaint, respectable place. They didn’t think of adopting a child or keeping a pet; it was enough with each other’s presence.
But after the honeymoon period, the initial passion faded into the backdrop of their relationship as their work started to pull them apart. One a doctor, the other a lawyer; irregular hours and increasing wealth did nothing to help them create more time for one another. And if there were time to be spent at home, they would either be scrambling to finish what they couldn’t at work, griping about co-workers while the other snapped right back about his situation, or falling asleep on the couch like a log. They sometimes wondered if all this was necessary - they hadn’t been intimate since their wedding night - but then they remembered some of the sneering faces, and they resolutely vowed that despite being a homosexual, it didn’t mean they fail at life. They would prove to them that they could work just as well as anyone else.
As days passed, the apartment began to gather dust. They didn’t know when it started, but at some point, they had both stopped coming home. Sometimes they had to stay at their workplaces, even to sleep. Or they would crash at a co-worker’s place until they had to go back - because it was just so tiring.
It had been exactly twenty-eight days until they sat down properly at a table together again. Neither were surprised that it had been at the food court they used to visit often; it was not entirely shocking either to find another person with them either. So they thought nothing of it, and for a moment, they thought they got back the spark they had originally.
The apartment had been cleaned, had some sense of life back into it. Yet they still barely saw much of each other. It wasn’t that they didn’t try - they did, even arguing with their bosses - but work just stole first priority. The first priority that should have been themselves when they took their vows.
The voice-mails on their cellular phones were practically the closest thing they had to each other. Short conversations every now and then weren’t uncommon, but both were always rushing back into their work. If one of them couldn’t make it home on the prescheduled time, he would phone the other. When they first called to apologize for work delaying them, they accepted without question, even going out of their way to bring a little something to help them stay awake if they had the opportunity to slip away. Weeks passed, the messages became more frequent, and they just didn’t have the energy to do more than to respond with an “okay,” and hang up. Months passed, and their voices were merely conversing with an electronic one.
They didn’t ask each other why they had to stay behind so often - was work wearing them out that badly? They couldn’t ask - if they did, then they would have to come up with their own excuse. And they didn’t want another lie to cover the original one.
Sometimes they wondered if the other found out what they were doing, would there be a divorce? As liberating as that sounded, they didn’t want their relationship to end on such terms. They had a three-year history on top of the five-going-on-six - it was too long a time to simply go off into different ways because of this. They still loved each other despite the affairs.
They kept telling themselves the lust would pass and become nothing but a buried memory.
“Hello, you’ve reached 011-787-8989. I’m sorry, but I’m not available to come to the phone right now; please leave your name, phone number, and message after the beep so that I can call you right back.”
Beep.
“Hey, love? I’ll have to stay behind to finish a couple more documents, the clients need them tomorrow. I don’t know how long they’ll take, so don’t wait up for me. Sleep tight, love you.”
Click.
They didn’t bother to listen to the message. They knew its contents; it was the same every time. Neither mustered the courage to admit their fault, too wrapped up in their little bubbles of lies.
They wondered where they miscalculated.
- Owari -
Story Word Count: 841
Authoress Notes: Moral of the story: materialistic wealth is nothing compared to family/love.
Hmm, the ending is rather...abrupt. I couldn’t think of a good way to end it (other than to keep going and I’m trying to keep it under a thousand words here) so you get their business-y/money-oriented view on relationships.
As for their nameless ‘partners’ - that’s up to you.