Author: Deathangelgw

Disclaimer: Not mine, though if I had a Blondie, we know who would be the Pet…

Warnings: AU, angst, sap, dark, shounen-ai

Pairings: Rikki/Iason hinted, Iason+Raoul

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Raoul finds and loses his heart

A/N: Again with the inspiration! Maya inspired this heartfelt angsty piece just with a mentioned idea for a pic. Watch it!! VERY SAD!!! Enjoy and please review

The ruins stank of burned insulation, wet concrete, and ashes as Raoul walked among its broken remains. Dana Bahm...once a sanctuary, now the only thing remaining after a madman's jealous rampage. He tucked a strand of his golden blond hair behind his ear as the wind blew up around him. He still had a ways to go until he came to what he needed to find.

Carefully, he stepped along the steel beams that lay around on the broken ground, nimbly dodging the large chunks of concrete as he worked towards the center of the buildings. He stopped as he saw the frame of what had once been a massive iron doorway. The doors were charred and fallen, jagged where they had sheared from the other as their frame had been destroyed, no longer able to stay those that might enter into the halls they had protected.

He came up to them slowly and walked through the small pass that their haphazard fall had created. He looked around and carefully stepped down the stairway that fell before him, avoiding the holes that gaped at him. He came to the platform and stopped as he found what he had been searching for.

Swallowing hard, he steered clear of the still smoldering steel beams as he went towards where a pile of concrete had buried the two that had changed the face of Tanagura. He came to the heap of broken mortar and stone that mingled with shattered steel and began to move the pieces. He grunted once on a particularly large piece, but otherwise remained silent as he cleared the two free of any obstruction. He stopped, breathing deeply as he regained control while gazing down at the two corpses before him.

Rikki, the mongrel who had destroyed single-handedly an Elite Blondie, lay curled into Iason. His tan body was now bleeding and charred from the fires and fallen building, his face though was calm and peaceful, the glimmers of the Black Moon still smoking in his cracked lips.

Iason was also peaceful in his last repose, his eyes open and locked forever on Rikki. His legs were no more than bloody stumps while his once powerful body was crushed as well. His hair, once nearly white with its purity, was now gray with blood and soot, complimenting his reddish skin and torn clothes.

Carefully, Raoul bent in and removed Iason from Rikki’s final hold and held him close, sitting on the cold and broken ground absently as he held the broken friend of his friend…his love. He brushed aside some of the dirtied hair, then ran his thumb along the pale flesh of Iason’s cheek, rubbing away the grime and blood that had smudged its once flawless surface. He blinked rapidly, disturbed to find his throat closing up as he gazed into the blank gaze of Iason, and then started as the features blurred. He brought a shaking hand up and brushed it tentatively along his eye line, startled to find it wet with tears.

He shook his head slowly as he saw his tears drip onto the pale still face, then let out a cry of grief, ragged and broken as he hugged Iason to him tightly. He trembled as he rocked the broken frame, never making another sound as he grieved in his silence. He didn’t curse either the Pet or the Master, only held the one he could never have. That had been stolen from him when a mongrel had come into Midas.

Time passed slowly and his grief quieted as the wind blew hollowly around him and the two dead men. He looked up as the rumble of an approaching ship alerted him to the arrival of Jupiter’s retrieval section. He stood up slowly, brushing his backside off before he gathered Iason to him in a gentle cradling hug. He waited until the ship landed and headed for it, leaving it to the operatives to retrieve Rikki’s body as he stepped among the piles of rubble. He didn’t care if it wasn’t what Iason had wanted. Iason and Rikki were dead together now…that part was irrelevant. Now, Iason was with Raoul, where he belonged. If only it didn’t hurt so much.

After placing Iason into a stasis capsule, Raoul leaned in and kissed the Blondie softly. “Iason…rest in peace now. If only to share one last deep kiss with you shall I keep you close. Save me a place next to you,” he whispered softly as he brushed a tender hand once more along the dirtied cheek before straightening. Face once more a mask, he closed the capsule and activated it. Jupiter wanted to see the remains and so she would. But Raoul was done.

Without a word, he turned to leave for his own transport. There was much to do now to return life to ‘normal’. But Raoul knew that he would forever bury his heart with Iason Mink. Such were the costs of life.

~Fin