Disclaimer: I don't own Yuugiou or Yu-Gi-Oh!

Her Sweetness: This is the sequel to A Few Small Repairs. I got hit with the writing bug… Actually, this story has been a long time coming but I just hadn't gotten around to it. Please review and tell me your thoughts.


Things Fall Apart

Chapter One


"Why are you crying, Sugar?"

"… I'm feeling lonely," he shifted in the Darkness, keeping his hands on his knees securely. He whispered again, "I'm feeling lonely."

A smirk. "But I'm right here with you."

More sniffles. "M… Maybe I'm not lonely for you."

There was a pause and Death shook his head in mild amusement. The other boy sensed the pleasure surrounding his form and tensed his body. The Entity leant down and rested his head on the small, frail shoulder.

"You couldn't possibly be speaking of…?"

"Yes," he nodded, "I think I am."

A flash of white fangs and then Shadow consumed them both. A voice in the shades of eternal night murmured to deaf ears:

No, you're not.


The cherry blossoms look lovely this spring, thought Ryou Bakura. Funny that he did not know to which other spring he was comparing them to, this year's beautiful blossoms. Still, they looked lovely.

The sun sparkled just over the tall skyscrapers across the street and even beyond that. Glares bounced off of the endless rows and columns of shiny windows and made it back to the window Ryou starred out of; but that didn't faze him. The rays only intensified the warm sensation one got when they looked into his melting brown eyes.

However, no one looked into his eyes here.

This place, this institution; he found that the people that walked by in the hallways, the doctors and the nurses and everyone else, they refused to look him in the eye. There was something unnerving about that but something calming as well. He would never have to look in their eyes either. As long as he remembered that fact, he could be okay with no eye-contact. He could be okay with it.

"Mr. Bakura." A hand was set on his shoulder but Ryou didn't jump. It was strange to him but no one—no matter how scary this place looked from certain angles—frightened him here. No one. But he had to keep telling himself that. He was taken away from the sun and the blossoms and turned up to see a man in a suit giving him a small reassuring smile.

Ryou sighed inwardly and lifted himself from his seat in the hallway and walked with the man down the empty corridor. The walls were a dull gray, the color matched his institution-issued jumpsuit which was a solid gray, no pockets or belt loops. He was even stripped of shoes or socks here unless, forced to walk on cold tiled floors unless, as he had observed, it was time to go into the garden in the back of the facility where the patients could stretch and enjoy the sun. They allowed no games to be played on the 3rd Floor, the one he resided on.

He had been at the Central Domino Psychiatric Institute for a little less than a week, five days to be exact. He remembered as he followed this man into the room he had visited for an hour everyday and sat down as the doctor closed the door behind the two of them. Ryou had been admitted to the Institute after only a few sessions with Dr. Seto Kaiba. All it took was a few hours and a few tests for the good doctor to see what was so clear to Ryou himself though, now, he was not exactly sure why it was clear.

He walked into the room like a sane person, hadn't he?

He sat down and smiled politely. Didn't shout, didn't flinch.

Ryou tilted his head as he remembered… that one flinch… just one.

It was when Dr. Seto Kaiba had been talking on their third session (before his admission to this place) that he had made that one little mistake, maybe even the defining mistake. There had been a series of murders in his neighborhood and when Ryou came in for their session that day, after the initial greeting, that had been the first thing that Dr. Seto Kaiba had addressed.

He had held up a picture of a youngish looking boy with spiked hair. "This is Yugi Motou, Ryou. Do you know him? He went to your school before his life ended."

Ryou had stared at the picture. "No, I don't know him," he said honestly. He remembered thinking what a strange hairstyle for a boy to have.

The doctor held up another picture, this time of a girl. "What about her? Her name is Tea. Tea Gardner. This girl was even in your class. She died the day before Yugi Motou."

"Why am I being asked this?"

"… Truthfully, the police requested me to ask you this. It's routine for anyone who had been in that area at the time. The cases are left unsolved and the families are riddled with grief."

Ryou nodded. "I'd like to help if I can."

Dr. Seto Kaiba smiled, his blue eyes gentle with Ryou.

"But," Ryou continued, "I can't remember that girl. I really don't pay too close attention to anyone at school. I'm sorry."

"Then what about this young man? He didn't go to your school but… well, take a look." He held up a photograph of a teenage boy, blond hair, tanned skin and lavender eyes that shot out of his face like lilac thunderbolts. Dr. Seto Kaiba lowered the picture so he could see Ryou's face and was just in time to see a flinch, a twitch of his left eye and suddenly, mutely, Ryou began to cry.

"Mr. Bakura? Ryou? What's wrong?"

Ryou's voice was not upset or bothered by his now flowing streams of tears. He looked at the picture and said, "No, I'm sorry, he doesn't ring a bell."

"Ryou, you're crying," the doctor said with some concern. He was young, only five or six years older than Ryou and he was still left with some compassion in him, not like most of the other psychiatrists in the building, stripped of anything more than scientific interest in patients.

"Am I?" Ryou touched his face and drew back a wet hand. "I didn't know that. I don't know why. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry."

The tears dropped to the cream colored carpet and made wet spots and microscopic thudding sounds. Ryou had grabbed some tissues from a box on the small table by his seat in the office. Before he was able to wipe his face, he glanced again at the picture of the boy and more tears came.

Not long after that session, he came to be a resident at the Institution. His transaction from his home to this place was fuzzy and he didn't feel like trying to remember it. But he remembered faintly men in blue and arguing between them and Dr. Seto Kaiba. He didn't understand it or even remember what it was about but he had a feeling that somehow Dr. Seto Kaiba had been kind.

Now, a little less than a week later, when the cherry blossoms were outside being bright and soft and gorgeous, he was back in this office again, back in the same seat, staring at the good doctor who sat behind his large mahogany desk. The light coming through the open windows nearly blinded him on his first day here but now he was used to it and learned a trick on how to avoid the glare.

He tilted his head a little and gave a smile.

"Hello, Dr. Seto Kaiba."

Dr. Kaiba smiled at him in return. "It isn't necessary to say my whole name, Ryou, I've told you that."

Ryou seemed to ignore this. "What shall we talk about today, doctor?"

"Anything you want. I've told you, you can be as open as you like here."

Ryou paused and looked away from the man. He watched the shadows of the light on the ground and suddenly turned to the doctor with a small frown on his face. "I can't think of anything to talk about." He paused and looked at the clock on the wall. "We have so much time left."

"You know, Ryou, I don't want you to think of our sessions as just time to be filled. Maybe you could think of our time together as a way to get emotions out. I know you don't talk to many people here. It must be frustrating to not be able to speak your mind to anyone."

"…"

"Ryou?"

"What if I don't have anything on my mind?" he asked quietly.

"You must."

"Why?"

"There's always something on the human mind."

"What makes you think I'm human?" he asked.

The doctor held back a smile. "Our tests have concluded that you are indeed human."

"I'm tired of the tests. When will they stop?"

"Currently, we're trying to see what your tolerance is for lithium and a few other medications. If anything hurts, please tell me and I will instruct the nurses to be more gentle."

"It doesn't hurt, it's just annoying."

"I'm sorry."

"I don't like so many people getting to see me naked."

Dr. Kaiba shook his head. "I wouldn't like that either but it's for medical purposes. They aren't judging your body or looking at it with any sexual desires, they have to make sure they don't give you something that you're allergic to or can't handle."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Know what?"

"That they don't look at me with sexual desire."

"These are trained professionals, Ryou, they—"

"You're a professional, doctor, and you still have sexual desires. A degree doesn't stop someone from lusting."

"You're right but I don't lust in the workplace."

"Why?"

"It's inappropriate."

"Why is it inappropriate, doctor? We're all humans here."

Dr. Kaiba could have sworn he heard a little humor in Ryou's voice and that was a first. He smiled although Ryou's expression remained placid and somewhat serious. The doctor said, "Because I'm trying to maintain a professional relationship with my patients and the staff. I'm trying to help people here and a physical relationship would get in the way of that. It's a conflict of interest. If I was romantic with one of the patients, say, then maybe because of our unprofessional relationship I would hold back on a treatment or prescription. Do you see?"

"Yes," Ryou said, absorbing this and simultaneously looking out of the window.

When their hour was over, Ryou was escorted out of the office by one of the security guards. Not roughly for with force because this was routine for all patients. With some of the other guests at the Institute, the ones who were admitted for violent crimes or who were just harmful in general, had to be escorted by two guards but Ryou supposed no one took him as much of a threat. He was, after all, so very thin and pale. How could he be dangerous?

His room was not far from Dr. Kaiba's office, only a short elevator ride and a hallway. His room was number 19 and the guard opened the door for him, let him in and then closed it. Ryou was not shocked or dismayed to hear the click of a lock. He turned to his empty room, only a bed with neat, gray sheets and a side table with a lamp and a window that was never allowed to open.

He leaned up against the door and smiled. "I'm here," he said.

"Welcome back," answered Death.