Tristan was out taking his dog, Blankey, on a walk. He hadn't really felt like taking her on one, but once he mentioned the word "walk," she had started barking happily and licking him. So he finally took her on a walk. Now that he was out here, he was glad that he had gone.
Earlier he had had a headache from trying to figure out his math homework and getting out in the fresh air was doing him good. He started to hum a little tune and Blankey's ears pricked up. They were about to round a corner when Blankey stopped, listening.
"What is it, girl? You hear something?" Tristan asked. It was probably just a cat or something that she wanted to chase.
Then he heard it too; voices, right around the corner. "Give us all your money, little brat, now," the voice of a gruff sounding man said.
"B-but I don't have any on me right now," a much softer voice said.
"Hey, Hiroku, think he's lying?" another man's voice said.
Tristan cautiously peeked around the corner, holding Blankey back so she wouldn't be seen. Two men had a white-haired boy in the blue uniform of Domino High School backed up against a wall, robbing him. Tristan recognized him as Ryo Bakura, a boy who had recently transferred to his school and now was a member of his little "gang" of friends with Yugi, Joey, and Téa. He was pretty quiet and shy, with a face that could have him mistaken as a girl. Tristan didn't know him well but still thought of his as a friend.
"Hey, Dave, you think this really is a boy? Kinda looked like a flat-chested girl." Hiroku took Bakura's chin in his hand, turning his face from side to side. Bakura backed up into the wall, trying to hide.
Dave grabbed Bakura's school bag and scattered its contents all over the ground. Books and pens and pencils went flying. Then he went over and checked Bakura's pockets; all he found was a gum wrapper and a paperclip. "Guess he really doesn't have any on him."
"That is what I said," Bakura said quietly. "Can I go now?"
"I do wonder if this is a girl," Hiroku said, not dropping the subject. "There's only really one way to find out, Dave."
"Heh, yeah." They both surrounded the frightened boy, one of them reaching for the clasp of his blue trousers.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Tristan stepped dramatically out from around the corner and out of the shadows. Blankey's head was down and she was growling at the two men.
"Mind your own business, punk," Hiroku, who was the self-proclaimed leader, said.
"This is my business, he's my friend. Now leave him alone before I introduce you to two more of my friends," he balled his hands into fists.
"Two more friends? I don't see anyone else here," Dave, who wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, said.
Tristan let go of Blankey's leash so that he had both hands free. Blankey went over to Bakura and stood in front of him protectively, still growling at the two men. "Meet Mr. Righty and Mr. Lefty." Tristan ran forward and caught Dave a left uppercut to his jaw. The blow itself wasn't enough to knock him out, but him flying back and hitting his head on the wall did.
Hiroku, seeing that Tristan meant business, didn't want to stick around. He picked up Dave and high-tailed it out of there. "Not worth my time," he tried to coolly say over his shoulder, but the effect was lost when he ran into a wall.
Tristan turned back to Bakura, who was now knelt on the ground, trying to pick up his things. "Here, let me help you." Tristan knelt down and soon they had all of Bakura's stuff back in his bag.
Now that Tristan was closer he could see that Bakura's eyes were blank of any emotion and he seemed almost listless, not really looking at anything. "You okay, man? You look kinda pale. Not that you don't always look pale, but you look paler than usual."
"I'm fine," Bakura said in a monotone, not looking up at the brown-haired boy.
"You haven't been in school since Monday so I'm just wondering." And it was Thursday now, so he hadn't been in school for three days. Come to think of it, it was kinda strange that Bakura was wearing his uniform even though he hadn't been at school. Although Yugi sometimes wore his uniform on the weekends so maybe it wasn't so weird.
Tristan also saw that Bakura looked thin, since he was one of the only boys he knew who buttoned up his uniform the way it was supposed to be, Tristan could see that he looked thinner than he had before. "When was the last time you ate?" he couldn't help asking.
"Um, Tuesday morning, I think," Bakura said with his eyes downcast.
"Geeze man, that's nearly three days. If you don't eat you're gonna die. Is something wrong?" There definitely seemed to be something the matter.
"Um, nothing, I just wasn't hungry is all." The way Bakura kept avoiding looking at Tristan made him think even more that something was wrong.
"Well, how about we go to my house and get you something to eat, okay?" Tristan took a step in the direction of his house. Bakura didn't move, just stood, staring blankly at nothing. "Come on, man." Tristan gently took hold of Bakura's arm and tugged him along.
Blankey came up behind Bakura and nudged him in the back with her nose. He startled a little when her wet tongue licked his hand. "Oh, dog." He acted like it was the first time he had noticed her, and maybe it was.
He reached down and patted her on the head. When she wagged her tail happily he dug both hands into her black and brown fur, giving her a rub. "Good doggy. What breed is he?"
"Actually Blankey's a girl, and she's a German Shepherd."
"Ah, a herding dog." He continued petting her, seemingly mesmerized by her. "Good doggy, good girl." Blankey barked happily again, her tail thumping against Tristan's leg.
"If you pet her so much she's gonna get spoiled rotten. If she had her way she'd get petted all day long." Tristan laughed. He loved his dog, but she could be a little annoying at times. "Come on now, let's get going."
Once at his house Tristan starting pulling things out of the Frig. "Let's see, we've got pizza, some Chinese food, ooh, and cake. It was my mom's birthday yesterday and we have left-over cake." He set the items on the table.
Bakura had sat down at the table but didn't look interested in the food. He had his arms crossed on the table and his chin rested on them. Blankey was under the table, her tail on his feet. "Here, let me microwave the pizza, you like pizza, right?" He zapped it for a minute and set in down in front of Bakura.
Bakura didn't even look at it. "Come on, Bakura, you need to eat." He picked up a slice and put it in front of the white-haired boy's moth. Nothing.
Tristan's mother came into the kitchen. "Oh, hello there, I've never met you before." Tristan had only ever had Joey, Yugi, or Téa over and his mother had never seen Bakura before. "What a cute boy. He is a boy, right?" Other than Téa, Tristan had never had a girl over.
"Yes, Mom, Bakura is a boy. He just about got robbed and I saved him. He's really not very responsive right now and won't eat. He says he hasn't eaten in three days." Tristan finally got Bakura to take the pizza in his mouth and he took a bite, and promptly spat it back out.
"Oh my, that's horrible! Here, let me try." She got a fork and cut off a small piece of pizza. "Come now, you need to eat, young man." Bakura didn't take the food.
"Maybe he just doesn't like pizza?" Tristan suggested. "Maybe we should try some cake." He offered Bakura some cake, but he wouldn't take it. "Come on, it's strawberry."
After a few frustrated minutes of getting nowhere, Tristan took more drastic measures. "That's it. You are going to eat." He held Bakura's mouth open by force. "Mom, put something in there." His mother was a little shocked by his sudden forcefulness, but she complied and put a forkful of cake in Bakura's open mouth.
"Now chew and swollen it," Tristan ordered. Bakura did as he was told. "Good." Tristan gave him another forkful. Bakura kept eating them and soon Tristan had fed him the entire slice.
"It's good that you got him to eat something, Tristan dear, but he really should have something more than sugar." Tristan's mother offered him the piece of pizza he had taken a bite out of.
This time he took it. And he ate it, or more like devoured it. He had soon polished off all of the left-over pizza and was looking for something else to eat. Tristan got him the Chinese food and he ate that too. He kept eating so Tristan kept feeding him. "I'm glad that you are willing to eat now, but don't you think you've had enough? You're going to make yourself sick if you eat anymore."
"Okay," Bakura said softy as he finished his third banana.
Tristan's mother had left to do something else after she saw that Bakura was eating and the two were alone again. "Do you want to stay the night? It's already late and it might not be safe for you to walk home by yourself." Tristan knew that Bakura lived by himself in an apartment building. He couldn't image living all by himself. It would get so very lonely. He had his parents and Blankey so he wasn't alone, but poor Bakura, all by himself. Tristan felt himself feeling sorry for the shy boy.
"Okay," was all Bakura said, still avoiding looking directly at Tristan.
Tristan went down the hall to tell his mom that Bakura was staying over. "Okay, Tristan, there's a futon in the closet down the hall. Do you think he'd like a bath?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Maybe a soak would help Bakura feel better. Tristan went to start the bath.
When he went to find Bakura and tell him about it, he found him sitting in the living room, having a play fight with Blankey. He had her ears held gently in his hands and she had a paw on his chest. "Good girl, do you know any tricks?"
"I've got a bath set up in the bathroom if you want to take one." He saw that Bakura was smiling faintly now; he really seemed to like Blankey. Tristan was glad that he looked happier than he had before.
"Sure," Bakura stood up. His smile faded a little when he wasn't playing with the dog anymore.
"I've got an extra pair of pajamas that you can change into when you're done."
"Okay." Bakura went into the bathroom, reluctantly leaving Blankey outside. She sat outside, waiting for him to come back out.
Tristan went to his room to set up a bed on the floor for Bakura. He found that his mother had already set one up with pillows and everything. Seeing that that was already done, he went to find the pajamas. He found them and changed into one of the pairs and kept the other one for Bakura. He stayed in his room for a while, waiting for Bakura to come back from his bath. He thought about what might have happened to Bakura to make him not eat for three days and be so out of it.
A thought nagged at the back of his head that he didn't want to admit to having. What if, with Bakura's pretty face, someone had taken advantage of him, molested or raped him or something. It did make sense, but he didn't want to believe it. He was really curious now but felt that it wasn't his business to pry.
It was a good half hour before anything else happened. Tristan hoped that Bakura was feeling better now that he was in the hot water. He was about to go get himself a drink of water when Blankey come into his room, whining and looking worried. "What is it, girl?"
She barked and headed back to the bathroom. Tristan, curious, followed her. He knocked on the bathroom door. There was no reply. He knocked again, still nothing. Finally he got worried and opened the door. He gasped; Bakura, dripping wet and naked from being in the bath, was sprawled out on the floor, blood gushing from his left wrist.
"What happened?!" Tristan rushed to his side. Bakura stirred a little, looking with dull eyes up at the taller boy. He didn't say anything; just lay his head back down.
Tristan grabbed some bandages and disinfectant and used them to clean and bandage the injured arm. He also got a towel and draped it over the boy's naked body, blushing slightly. "What happened? Did you fall or?-" His eye was caught by something shiny on the floor. He went closer and saw that it was a razor blade, a bloody razor blade. There was no way that Bakura had accidently cut himself on it.
"You cut yourself?" It was the only explanation. Bakura still didn't say anything, but silent tears were now running down his face. "What's wrong, did something happen?"
Bakura wouldn't talk so Tristan didn't push it. He pulled him to his feet and led him to the bedroom; Tristan guiding him to sit down on the futon on the floor, not sure what to do now. Bakura had cut himself; took a sharp piece of metal and actually slashed himself open. Tristan couldn't imagine ever doing that to himself. There were way too many things out there that could hurt you that he saw no reason to do it yourself.
He stared silently at the white-haired boy, what could have prompted him to do it? It must have been something horrible. "Here," he threw the pajamas down next to him and left the room, leaving Blankey, who hadn't left Bakura's side, with him so he wouldn't try to hurt himself again.
When he came back Bakura had changed into the pajamas and had his arms wrapped around Blankey's neck, still crying and whispering something too soft for Tristan to hear to her. Then he lied down, not bothering to put the covers over himself.
Tristan knelt down and pulled the blanket his mother had put on the futon over the boy. Normally his mother didn't allow Blankey to sleep in his bed, it would get fur all over it and teach her bad habits of sitting on furniture, but since Blankey seemed to be the only thing that held Bakura in check, Tristan let her sleep with him. They lay, cuddled up to each other, Blankey on occasion whining and licking Bakura. It was true that dogs could sense what you were feeling. And it was obvious that Blankey knew that Bakura was sad and was trying to comfort him.