Minorshipping as requested! Please review and let me know if you want more added to this story!
Duke knocked on the door to Ryou's apartment again, starting to wonder if something was wrong. The last time he or anyone he knew had heard from Ryou was more than a week ago. The others had been unconcerned. Tristan pointed out that Ryou was simply the kind of person who kept to himself. Anzu had added that Ryou was extremely studious and had probably holed himself up in his apartment to complete college and scholarship applications before school was back in session. Joey's contribution was that Ryou was a hermitic introvert—although he'd said it less concisely. Yugi had let himself be assured by his friends, but Duke knew better.
The Black Clown was closer to Ryou's apartment building than the homes of the others, so Duke—who lived in an apartment above his store which happened to be situated between Ryou's apartment and Domino High—was a little more familiar with Ryou's living habits than the others. Most important of his living habits was his weekly visit to Duke's store.
Every Saturday since he'd opened, Ryou had visited and bought something. Duke attributed this penchant to the fact that the Black Clown game store was the only store in Domino to sell merchandise for the Monster World RPG. Sometimes it was a single Duel Monsters booster pack, but more often, it was an MW figurine or some other paraphernalia for the game that seemed to be Ryou's favorite. He'd mentioned to Duke that he'd had to order anything he wanted for it online until now, and he was tired of paying the shipping costs.
It wasn't just the fact that he'd missed the last two Saturdays that made Duke suspicious. The last few times Ryou had been at the Black Clown, he'd seemed listless, almost unemotive. Three weeks ago—the last time Duke saw him—there had been a new order of Monster World figures. It had been the release of a new class of wizards, and Duke had expected Ryou to get excited, but he'd been completely apathetic.
Something was going on with him, that much was certain. So when he'd disappeared, Duke had begun to get concerned. After all, Ryou lived alone. What if something had happened to him? What if he'd been mugged and left to die in an alley somewhere? There wasn't anybody living with him who would report him missing. Duke, Yugi, and the others were the closest friends Ryou had, and most of them hadn't even believed this to be cause for concern.
Duke started to feel along the edge of the doorframe, hoping to find an extra key somewhere. Otherwise, he'd have to find Ryou's landlord and convince him to let Duke in. He let out a grunt of satisfaction as he found a key taped to the top of the doorframe. It wasn't perhaps the safest place to hide an extra key, but that was the last of Duke's concerns right now.
He opened the door and found the one-room apartment ensconced in more darkness than he would have thought possible. He called out Ryou's name, twice, but didn't get an answer. Shivering as he entered, he closed the door behind him before moving deeper into the dark room. Thick blankets had been hung in front of the windows, but Duke pulled them down and opened the blinds so as to illuminate the room.
It was more of a mess than Duke would have thought possible for someone as meticulous and careful as Ryou. He began to inspect it, taking everything he saw as another sign that something was terribly wrong. The bed was unmade, the sheets pulled in different directions as they draped off the bed. Several dirty tea mugs sat in the kitchen sink. The fridge was empty except for some moldy strawberries and an empty egg carton, both of which Duke readily discarded. Dirty tissues and empty plastic water bottles littered the floor, clustered mostly around the couch, where more heavy blankets were piled haphazardly. You couldn't even see the couch cushions. Duke picked up the empty tissue box and tossed it into the trash as well, starting to wonder if Ryou had legitimately gone missing when he heard a small, kittenish sound coming from under the blankets on the couch. Duke froze. Ryou didn't have a cat. His landlord wouldn't allow it. He tentatively lifted a corner of the comforter and revealed the pale face of a waking Ryou Bakura.
"Thank god," Duke said, immensely relieved. "I thought you were dead."
"Hm?" Ryou squinted up at him, no longer accustomed to so much light.
"Are you feeling alright?" Duke asked as he crouched down beside the couch to more closely study Ryou's expression. "We haven't seen you in a while and I was afraid something had happened to you."
"'M fine," Ryou muttered half-heartedly, looking more confused than anything else.
"There's no food here," Duke stated, raising a suspicious eyebrow at him.
"Cereal," was Ryou's one-word answer as he nodded in the direction of the kitchen cabinets. Duke stood and went back into the kitchenette and found the single box of cereal Ryou had been referring to.
"It's almost empty." Duke frowned at his friend. "Why are you under all those blankets when it's summer? If you want to be warm, you could just turn the AC off and open a window."
Ryou shrugged, his eyes drifting closed again. "Honey, on the counter," he added in a sleepy voice, ignoring Duke's question.
Duke hardly thought that honey counted as food in this case, but he took a few moments to look at the counter for it. He finally spotted the half-full bottle of honey next to an empty box of tea. Duke checked what kind of tea it was: weight loss tea. His stomach suddenly felt very unsettled indeed, and he went to check the medicine cabinet in Ryou's bathroom, trying to keep him talking as he did so.
"When was the last time you talked to Yugi?" There was a bottle of Advil, mostly full, inside the cabinet behind the mirror. That was innocent enough.
"'S been awhile," he answered in that same sleepy voice. There was also a bottle of antidepressants, a little less than half full. How long had he been taking them? Duke checked their expiration date and realized that Ryou must have gotten these quite a while ago, since they would expire in just a few months.
"I've missed you at the game store." A bottle of diet pills, empty, resided in the little cabinet as well.
"You did?" Ryou sounded genuinely surprised, which made Duke look up from the empty pill bottle in his hand at the pale teen lying on the couch like an invalid. He closed the cabinet and went back to Ryou.
"Of course I missed you. You're a regular, and I always notice the regulars. Besides, you're my friend. Why do you sound so surprised?" He was crouching next to the couch again, fixing Ryou with a hard emerald stare.
"I didn' think anyone'd notice that I haven' been aroun'." There was something sloppy in his speech that was caused by more than mere grogginess. It almost sounded like he was drunk, but there was neither sight nor smell of alcohol anywhere.
"Why do you have these?" he asked, holding up the empty pill bottle and watching a pained expression overcome the other's features. Fear followed it. Duke grabbed the top of the blanket, which Ryou'd had secured under his chin, and yanked the whole thing off of him.
"H-Hey!" the Brit cried in indignation, but he didn't try to grab the blanket away from Duke, nor did he even try to curl around himself and hide his bony figure from his friend's eyes. That wasn't to say that he was naked, for he was indeed clad in a teal tank-top and black boxers, but at the same time, he wasn't wearing real clothes.
"When was the last time you ate?" he asked sharply.
"Dunno…" Ryou yawned.
"Stand up, Ryou. Now."
The apartment's resident blinked up at him, fighting to keep his eyes open. "Can't…"
"Why not? Did you overdose on these?" Duke asked harshly, holding out the bottle again and making his friend wince. "Or maybe on something else?"
"No, no, 's jus'… I haven' been eating, an'… it hurts to move…" Ryou stopped fighting his eyelids, letting them close. Duke dropped the comforter and bent down back to Ryou's level.
"Stay awake! Why are you falling asleep? What's wrong?" Duke was a little frantic, a bit angry, but mostly concerned. Ryou needed immediate medical help, and he didn't know what he should do that would most help Ryou in the moment.
"Low… sugar…" Ryou sighed, starting to lose consciousness. Duke ran to the kitchen, returning with the bottle of honey and a clean spoon. He started to squeeze the honey into the spoon.
"While I call an ambulance, you'll eat this, okay? I need you to stay awake, Ryou."
"Can' afford…" Ryou protested weakly, but Duke quickly cut him off.
"That's the dumbest reason for not going to the hospital that I've ever heard," Duke snapped as he shoved the spoon in Ryou's mouth, took out his phone, dialed 911, and put the phone to his ear. "If you can't afford to pay the hospital bills, then I'll pay them. I'm not going to let you die."
"Mmm…" At least he seemed to be enjoying the honey.
A nurse went out to the waiting room to inform Duke of Ryou's condition: stable, but critical. He was in the ICU. If they'd waited much longer to get Ryou to the hospital, he might have slipped into a coma. Duke learned from the nurse that Ryou had some kind of condition where his blood sugar was naturally low, and it put him at risk of passing out if he went several hours without eating. Duke thanked her for the update and asked if he could see him. The patient was unconscious, but yes, she'd take Duke to Ryou's room.
Duke sat by Ryou's bed, just watching his friend sleep. It was hard to look at him like that, hooked up to machines and tubes and wires. It was almost as many as they'd attached to Joey when he was unconscious after his duel with Marik.
He still hadn't decided who he would call to tell about this—or if he would tell anyone at all. He considered the consequences if he didn't tell anybody: only Duke would know Ryou's secret, which meant that it was up to Duke to make sure he got help and straightened himself out. If he told their other friends, then Ryou would be embarrassed at the very least, but he'd have more people willing to help him and hold him accountable so that this never happened again.
Duke fell asleep contemplating this dilemma. He awoke in the hospital the next morning with a stiff neck and a sore back. Ryou hadn't woken up yet. He stretched, glad that he wasn't needed at the store this morning. Sure, he had paperwork to do, but it could wait. What to do now, though? He could wait for Ryou to wake up, or he could go home and clean himself up a bit before coming back with some of that paperwork while he continued to wait for Ryou. He opted for the latter, consoling himself with the notion that he'd return as quickly as possible.
Duke did what he needed to do, grabbing a granola bar and making himself a cup of coffee to take with him. As he gathered some things in his office and tucked them into his laptop bag, his cellphone rang. It was Yugi.
"It's Duke, what's up?" He said as he answered his phone with his bluetooth earpiece, wanting to get back to Ryou as quickly as possible.
"I owe you an apology." That was unexpected. "You were right, something's wrong with Ryou. I decided to swing by his apartment this morning and see how he was doing, but he's not here, and the place is a mess, and I'm really worried about him. I don't know what to do. Should I call the police?" Yugi was panicking, and Duke felt a little bit relieved that Yugi had decided to check out Ryou's apartment himself. That meant that Duke didn't have to make a decision about whether or not to tell him.
"Calm down, Yugi. I know he's not there. I visited his apartment yesterday, and he's… he's not missing or anything." Duke had been about to say that Ryou was alright, but that wasn't exactly a true statement, now was it?
"Then where is he?" Yugi asked, still upset. "Is he with you? Is he alright?"
Duke sighed. "No, he's not with me. I'm on my way to the hospital; you can meet me there and I'll take you to him."
"He's in the hospital?" Yugi gasped. "What ha—"
Duke hung up on him. He couldn't explain this over the phone. He didn't have the capacity to do so.
Fifteen minutes later, Duke entered the hospital lobby and saw Yugi waiting for him. Yugi burst out of his seat and started to ask a question, but Duke held up a hand to silence him.
"Just let me show you where he is before you ask what's going on, okay?"
Yugi nodded reluctantly, looking anxious. They walked together in silence as Duke guided him to the ICU, bypassing the adjacent waiting room and taking them down the hall until they came to Ryou's room. Duke opened the door and went in first, letting Yugi follow him. He heard the shorter one gasp as he saw his friend.
"What's wrong with him?" Yugi asked, looking up at Duke stubbornly. "You have to tell me this time."
Duke took a seat and put his laptop bag on the floor next to his chair. "Did you know that he was depressed?"
"I would never have thought that he was," Yugi answered, the defiance starting to drain from him as he moved to sit beside Duke.
"I was starting to suspect it," he admitted. "You didn't know that he was anorexic, did you?" the dice-master asked solemnly.
"No, not at all," Yugi replied quietly, looking incredibly sad and stunned all at once.
"Neither did I," Duke conceded. "He was in pretty bad condition when I found him yesterday. His blood sugar was really low and I couldn't even get him to stay awake. There wasn't really any food in his kitchen, and when I saw him…" He couldn't bring himself to say anymore.
"How bad is it?" Yugi asked quietly.
"He said he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten," Duke answered, sounding a bit cold. "He's dangerously underweight, and they say he'll have to stay here for at least two weeks to monitor his health as they help him gain back the weight he lost." He cleared his throat, and added, "He'll also be getting the therapy and counseling he needs so that this doesn't happen again."
Yugi nodded, his face downcast and starting to scrunch up a bit. "Why didn't he say something?" he whispered, feeling helpless. "I wouldn't have thought any less of him if he'd talked to me about it. Maybe I could have helped him somehow…"
Duke handed him a tissue as the King of Games started to cry.
Almost two weeks later, when Ryou was released from the hospital, Duke was there to take him home.
"I'm glad to see that you're doing better," Duke greeted with a smile. Of course he had visited Ryou since he'd admitted him, but he still had a business to run and he couldn't visit him as often as he'd like.
"Thank you," Ryou replied with a hesitant smile.
"I took the liberty of cleaning up your apartment while you were in here," Duke said as he led Ryou out to his car. "I didn't think it'd be healthy for you to come home to that mess."
"You didn't have to do that," Ryou protested, pleased by his kind gesture, but finding it unnecessary. Duke was already covering his hospital expenses, which was more than he deserved.
"I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to," Duke assured, smiling at Ryou again as he started the car.
When they reached Ryou's apartment, he invited Duke in for tea. While the water was boiling, Ryou opened the door to his fridge and gazed at its barrenness.
"I need to go to the grocery store," he said with a sigh.
"You know, Ryou, I've been thinking," Duke said carefully. "Why don't you move in with me for a little while. This place is so dreary, I can't imagine it's very conducive to a happy, healthy lifestyle." Ryou closed the fridge door and turned around to look at Duke with wide eyes, taken aback by his offer.
"But you've already done so much for me."
"I don't mind," Duke assured, stepping closer to Ryou and holding his hands. His bright green eyes were warm and his voice was earnest as he continued, "I'm willing to do what it takes to make sure you're alright."
"But… why?" Ryou asked, looking confused as a light blush touched his cheeks from Duke's closeness. "I'm not anyone special. I never have been."
"Because you're special to me, Ryou," Duke admitted, lifting a tender hand to Ryou's cheek. "And I'd like to be special to you, if you'd let me."
"Duke, I…" Ryou was at a total loss for words as the pink of his cheeks darkened to scarlet. His eyes started to water, but he didn't know why. This was one of the happiest moments of his life. "You're the only one who's ever seemed to really care about me," he whispered, his voice cracking. "You're… special to me too, Duke. I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me."
Duke smiled down at him, pleased. "It's settled, then. You'll come and stay with me. After all, whatever makes you happiest is what's best for you." He kissed Ryou's cheek slowly, giving the other time to pull away in case that's what he really wanted.
"It would make me very happy to live with you, Duke," Ryou murmured in answer, glancing up at him with a sweet, grateful smile. "I can't think of anything that would make me happier."
P.S. When I started writing this, it was going to be Chapter 2 for my "Mumbleshipping" prequel, "Power of Three," but then I decided it was a bit too gritty for that. Please review if you enjoyed it!