I couldn't take it anymore. Zork had left me. It's been three months. I can't remember what happened or if we fought, or even why he left in the first place. All I knew was that he wasn't coming back.
My house was a wreck, I hadn't been caring for myself, let alone coming out of my home at all. Not even Yugi or Marik could coax me out. Or their way in. I'd cut myself off from all interaction with my friends. One thing was certain: My heart was broken. Zork had been the base of every aspect of my life. The only reason I still even had a house was because Marik had someone paying my bills, probably Odion, his older brother.
I walked into my room, being careful where I put my feet in the piles of clothes, trash, and stuff I've been interacting with these last three months. Today was the marking of the end of the fourth month. I reached my room and opened my bedside table and pulled out the cold metal that would help me.
I walked back to my living room and stood in the middle of the room. I had retrieved a gun. I'd bought it a long time ago when Bakura… I put in bullets in every hole to be safe. I put the gun to my temple and looked at the clock. It was midnight. It's been four months since Zork left. I took a deep breath and then let it out.
"I love you Bakura." I whispered. I went to pull the trigger but I heard the door slam open and I turned to see who it was but I was tackled to the floor. I screamed.
"Ryou! Ryou calm down!" I screamed in terror. I felt them put their hand to my mouth, muffling my screaming. I was going to be murdered. Strangely this didn't bring any comfort to me.
At least three minutes later, I realized that my heart and mind recognized that voice that was speaking to me. I listened harder, hoping against hope that this could possibly be real.
"Shush, Ryou. You're safe, I'm here. Stop screaming." I obeyed the voice. I heard it sigh in relief. "That's it. Calm down, child. Silence." I finally fell totally silent. "I'm going to remove my hand and you won't scream, right?"
"Mm-hm." I replied. I felt the hand slowly be removed from my mouth. I waited a few seconds. "Bakura?" I asked hopefully. I heard a dark chuckle from the man sitting on my back.
"Who else?"
"Am I dead?" I asked. I heard an audible growl.
"No. Give me that gun." I was suddenly wary of him. He's angry.
"Uh-uh." I moved the gun from him as he reached to snatch it.
"Now, Ryou!" He demanded. I squirmed under his weight.
"Let me go!" I demanded. He tugged on my hair.
"Give me the gun!"
"No-OW!" I stopped squirming. He'd reached behind him and smacked my bottom.
"How about now?" I measured my choices but I felt another swat on my bottom and then a slight tug on my jeans.
"No!" I whined, reaching behind me. "Take the gun!" I told him, handing it over to him. He snatched it from me and removed the bullets before I heard something hit the farthest corner in the living room.
"I'm gone for four months, and you lower yourself to suicide?" He seethed. I gulped as I felt him turn the other way, still sitting on my back. "This house is a mess! What am I going to do with you Ryou?"
"G-get off me?" I asked hopefully.
"Eager to get up are we, angel? I probably should have known better. You're nothing but a sweet, innocent child compared to me… anyone really. I have a question before I proceed with my judgement. You lost your mother and sister and father and yet you decide suicide is the best option when I die. Why?" I gulped. It's not that it's a bad answer. Zork was, as I said before, my base for every aspect of my life. He's whatever I need him to be, just like the relationship Marik had with Malik. Father, brother, friend, anything and everything I could possibly want or need. I've had him in my life ever since I was three. My father had gone to Egypt and had brought back the Millineum Ring as a souvenir and it had gone to me as soon as he had brought it home. Thus came about our first meeting, though I didn't remember it at the time, it took me a while to realize that Zork wasn't just an imaginary friend. "Answer me whelp! I don't ask questions intended to be ignored!"
"Your my oldest friend and without you, nothing is the same. I tried to pretend everything was normal but soon it was too much of an effort to keep pretending. I missed you. How are you even back? How are you here?"
"That's not important right now, Bakura. Right now, I need to deliver my judgement." I felt his hands drift deftly under my waist and undo my jeans button and zipper before they were roughly pulled to my ankles. The next thing I knew, I had been thrown over his shoulder as he looked for something.
When he delivered four firm swats, he threw me over his knee, which had his foot on the sofa. I struggled to get down but he had a hand on my back, keeping me there. Then something hit me.
"Wait! Did you say die?! As in you died?! I thought you left me!"
"I did. In death. Now before I really begin, this is for your poor choices, nothing more and nothing less. Got it? Good. Now, let's begin." With that I felt a firm, hard swat land on my left cheek. I yelped.
"OW! That hurts!" I whined. I had only been in this position a few times. Mostly for putting myself in harm's way. I didn't know if it was me he was worried about or my body. He and I used to share the same body up until a year ago. He gave a dark chuckle.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was supposed to be painful, angel." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Otherwise, why would it be called 'punishment'?" He landed another swat on my right cheek. I yelped again. Complaining at him won't make him change his mind about this. He started up a rhythm in the swats landing on my bottom and on the tenth swat, or fifth for each, I started whimpering. "I'm sorry. How was I supposed to know you'd come back?"
"Stop whining, brat." He spat. I whimpered as he placed an extra hard swat across both my thighs.
"Ahhh." I kicked my legs, not to escape but because it hurt so much. "I'm sorry, truly I am Bakura, but please stop! It hurts! Very badly!"
He didn't respond and when he reached the twentieth, I was crying. That was when he scooted me forward and I wrapped my hands around his ankle to keep from falling off his knee to the floor. He quickly grabbed my hands and put them in the middle of my back, making it where I didn't have to worry about falling off.
When he reached the thirtieth, I was sobbing. He scooped me off his knee and I stood there, sobbing, continually trying to wipe my tears away. I gasped when I felt my boxers and jeans pulled back up and felt him redo the zipper and button. He wrapped his jacket around me and brought me into his lap.
I turned and sobbed into his chest, crying not only from the punishment he'd given me but from all the pain I'd been trying to hide for so long. I felt him rubbing soothing circles on my back, his chin on the top of my head.
We sat mostly in silence for a while before it crossed my mind to ask him how he was here. I moved my head to look him in the eye. Or tried but all I was managing to do was continually trying to wipe away all the falling tears. He gave one of those gentle smiles reserved only for me. He used his own hand to wipe away my tears and I grabbed his hand, whining.
"Please don't ever leave me again. I missed you too much and I know it's cheesy but you are my life, you're the reason I'm so social and-" I was caught off guard by him placing a kiss on my forehead and his other hand had come up and closed my mouth for me.
"Silence Ryou. I don't intend to ever leave your side again. To answer your earlier questions, I've made a few deals with the devil. The devil being Anubis of course." I've heard Bakura talk about him before and we've read about Anubis in one of my classes.
"The Egyptian god of death?" I asked. He gave me a dark smirk.
"Why, yes. I've been given many things I could ever desire. All I have to do is-" He gave a shudder "-pull pranks on the Pharaoh." I leaned against him. "I had no choice but to sit back and watch your stupidity play out, which was agonizing."
"Sorry 'Kura." I yawned. His grip changed and he carried me to my bedroom.
"Time for some sleep. While you're sleeping, I'll get some cleaning done around here." I whimpered and clung to him.
"No, lay down with me, please. I'm worried this is a dream. I always dreamed that you'd come home but I always would wake and you'd be gone." He sighed but laid down next to me under the covers, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Those weren't dreams. That was your subconscious. I won't leave. I'm a man of my word, angel." I cuddled up closer to him and closed my eyes, breathing in his scent. It was so familiar and so comforting. I was really worried this might be a dream and as long as I get the comfort I'm looking for from him during this dream, maybe losing him in the morning won't be so bad.