"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
Pictures of summer filled the darkness behind Bakura's eyes. Pictures of happiness, joy. Of times when there was no constant fear, no endless apprehension, and no unspoken pain.
His bright eyes snapped open, but the pictures remained, engrained on his retinas. His dark thoughts moved around the bright colors like water around an island. Standing in the shadowy corner of his Host's room, he gazed past the dancingly bright, joyful, sickening colors to the sleeping form of his Hikari, curled safely on his bed.
Moonlight spilt on him like liquid silver, illuminating him.
His Host's dreams; they plagued his mind like solitary candle ruining perfect darkness. Without his silly Hikari to control the flow of his own thoughts, the dreams and subconscious impressions of sleep merged almost seamlessly with his own thoughts. He tilted his head to the side, evaluating the expression on his unconscious mortal's face.
It was calm and peaceful. It was unlike any expression he ever wore when he was awake. How could he? No one could stand to be honestly peaceful when they dealt with trials like his Host had. Sleep was the boy's only escape, Bakura knew. His only protection from the harsh realities of life. It was his last defense, his security in a way. In his dreams, Ryou escaped into the past and dabbled in hopeful futures. He played with his sister again. He spent time with his acquaintances from school, strengthening the measly friendships they shared. He lived out a life where no one else shared his body.
It was his fantasy. The child's own personal paradise.
Bakura frowned. His mortal had too much hope in seeing him defeated. His dreams were the most pure, untainted form of his raw desires. Bakura saw everything. Every thought, every goal, every wish and desire that rest in his Hikari's heart.
But while sleep was Ryou's protecting escape…it was also proving to be his vulnerability.
Sleep opened the door, normally well sealed, between Yami and Hikari. How could this mortal protect himself when he left himself so completely exposed and unguarded as soon as the sun crept behind it's black curtain? Bakura smirked. He couldn't. Not from impressions, words, ideas, manipulations. He was all too susceptible…
He stalked over silently, standing over his Host like a phantom. He closed his crimson-tinted eyes, focusing on the dreams that his Host sent to him, unawares. They were of his 'friends' tonight. The Pharaoh's brat and the others. Oh how his mortal wanted to be accepted by them. How he wanted to be part of their circle. It was a shame he was so blind. His eyes slid open again and he pushed the dream to the back of his mind.
Ryou sighed, the hint of a smile on his lips. Bakura reached down with a gentle touch like black silk, brushing the hair away from the boy's face. Slowly, patiently, he bent down so that his face was inches from his Hikari's ear. His breath was cold, running over the human's skin.
"Ryou" Bakura sighed. It was the first time he'd spoken his Hikari's name out loud. The boy responded by turning his head slightly to the side. He continued softly. "Ryou, you know they'll never accept you." He sat down on the mattress beside the sleeping form. "They don't trust you, my silly Hikari…They're only pretending."
An unconscious frown slid onto Ryou's features. Bakura smiled.
"I know what you want. I know you better than anyone." Bakura closed his eyes. Ryou's dreams were gradually changing as the words swept over him. A sense of agitation crawled over the pictures, and the perfect sky was melting into a messy shade of violet ink. Confusion dripped like rain onto Ryou's responsive subliminal mind.
Bakura lowered his voice even further, pressing the words into his Host. "You can't keep secrets from the other half of your soul, Hikari. You are an open book. Do you want to know what I've read on your pages?" He paused, waiting. Ryou curled tighter, pulling in to himself. His voice was gentle, persuasive but it held a chilling undertone. "You can't continue to hide in your dreams. It's time for you to wake up and open your eyes. Even in sleep…eventually reality has to set in." He slowly pulled his slender fingers caressingly through Ryou's hair. The boy's eyes were twitching behind closed lids. His fingers trembled slightly.
"And, Ryou, the reality is that your friends will never be there for you. Do you think they actually care?" He laughed softly, stroking him like he was a sleeping cat. "Poor Hikari. I know how much you wish that they did."
His eyes glinted brilliantly under the bright moonlight. "You've always known that they wouldn't take you in, haven't you? You can't admit it to yourself because you fear what will happen when you realized that no one is there for you." His voice held no room for argument, even if the teen had been awake to give it. "You're done pretending, Ryou. They aren't your friends. They'll never be your friends."
The dream had become nightmarish, swirling in ever darkening colors through Bakura's thoughts from their source. Ryou's bratty excuses for friends were melting, fading away from Ryou who, in the dream, began searching desperately to find them again.
"You aren't as alone as you think, though."
Ryou's eyes were damp, salty tears leaking from the dreaming eyes. Bakura wiped a tear away with his thumb. "You'll never be alone Ryou. I'm here, and I give you exactly what you want…I find you friends don't I?
"Don't you appreciate the friends I've given to you, Hikari?" He hissed, his voice quietly threatening. "Little friends who will play with you whenever you want, and all you've done is object and mourn your nonexistent losses."
"But," His voice was suddenly feather-soft again, like a breath of wind on a moonless night. "I'm not angry with you, my silly Hikari."
The nightmare followed the pattern of his voice, becoming chaotic and panic filled when he was angry. All faded as his voice softened once again. It was just Ryou sitting alone, fearful.
Bakura twisted a strand of Ryou's hair, wrapping it around one finger, watching him closely. Ryou shuddered, trying to escape the dream unsuccessfully. He released the strand and drew his finger down the side of the sleeping mortal's face. "You're soft, Ryou. You have a soft heart. It makes it too easy for you to be hurt…you're friends are hurting you. All of it is their fault, isn't it?" He could feel how his words were torturing his Host. The teen was doing all he could to reject them from his mind.
But finally an impression entered Ryou's nightmare. No more than a figment of thought, a shadowy figure forming beside the forlorn boy, it dropped a dark atmosphere over the entire dream, like a suffocating dark blanket. "You're life belongs to me, Ryou." The shadow said, echoing the words Bakura said softly.
Ryou's face was twisted into an ever more agitated frown, muffled by sleep. Bakura's eyes flashed as he looked down on the boy and he smiled. All bright colors and happiness were gone, and it was about time as well. Brushing his Host's bangs, he leaned over him closely. He drew a quiet breath and laughed softly enjoying once again the darkness in his mind, and the dark that now contaminated his Host's.
"Sweet dreams, Ryou."
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