Concrete Angel

Note: I don't own the song 'Concrete Angel' Martina McBride does, but I tweaked the lyrics a bit to fit the story although I couldn't think of anything to replace lace (sorry). The little star things show the lyrics. I also don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. Oh yeah, all contact Yami to Yugi are in Italics. I usually only put thoughts in italics but I didn't know what to do for them. –Alkvingiel

Ryou slowly locked the front door trying to hold back his tears, even this simple movement hurt like hell but he couldn't let the tears fall or it would mess up the make up and people would see the bruises. The only thing he'd done this morning was put his school uniform on over his clothes from yesterday and that had caused him a punch in the eye for crying out. Now he walked to school hoping not to see anyone he knew especially Yugi.

**He walks to school with the lunch he packed
Nobody knows what he's holdin' back
Wearin' the same outfit he wore yesterday
He hides the bruises with linen and lace**

Miss Nari watched as her students started to come in, she said hello to them and smiled. Someone caught her attention, he didn't walk by her desk to say hello like everyone else it was Ryou Bakura. He sat at his desk eyes cast down and hands in his lap. The few times she'd looked into his eyes she wanted to cry because of what she saw there. Miss Nari had seen students like this before, it was usually because of problems in the home but according to his profile Ryou's father was never home and his mother had died when he was still young. That wasn't it and she knew it but she never asked or reported it.

**The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask
Bearing the burden of a secret storm
Sometimes he wishes he was never born**

**Through the wind and the rain
He stands hard as a stone
In a world that he can't rise above
But his dreams give him wings
And he flies to a place where he's loved
Concrete angel**

"No! Bakura! Please!" Ryou begged covering his face.

"What? You dare call me by my name slave! How dare you!" Bakura hissed throwing Ryou across the room. Another cry escaped his lips and Bakura picked him up. "Why did fate pair me with a hikari so weak?" Bakura questioned before hitting him again. Next door a man stared out the window as he listened to the yells and cries coming from next door. He turned out the light and told himself that stuff like that happened all the time.

**Somebody cries in the middle of the night
The neighbors hear, but they turn out the lights
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate
When morning comes it'll be too late**

**Through the wind and the rain
He stands hard as a stone
In a world that he can't rise above
But his dreams give him wings
And he flies to a place where he's loved
Concrete Angel**

The trees blew slowly in a breeze sending shadows over the neatly kept stones. So many are there but one stands higher than the rest…no flowers cover the ground around it only a piece of paper held down by a small rock from his classmates. The wind blew again and the paper went with it, it's words already forgotten by most now only read by the wind. To some it seems as if the angels smile but this one frowned and as the rain started to come down the rain gathered in his eyes and then fell. It was the last thing he did…

**A statue stands in a shaded place
An angel boy with an upturned face
A name is written on a polished rock
A broken heart that the world forgot**

**Through the wind and the rain
he stands hard as a stone
In a world that he can't rise above
But his dreams give him wings
And he flies to a place where he's loved
Concrete angel**

Yugi stood outside with the rest of the school as the Principal planted a tree in Ryou Bakura's honor. It was something they did whenever someone in the school or close it died. Joey stood behind him, Tristen to his left and Tea to his right. They each had silent tears running down their faces. None of them had been truly close to Ryou, he hadn't let them.

"There wasn't anything we could have done Abiou," Yami said through their mind link.

"No Yami, I should have known. Those days when I ask him to come over and he was about to accept but then got a scared look and said he couldn't, when I touched his shoulder and he gasped in pain…I should have pressed about what was wrong. Now Ryou's gone and he's not coming back…" Yugi insisted and he sank to his knees.

"Yugi!" Joey and the others chorused, they were worried about their friend he hadn't done anything all say except stare at Ryou's empty desk… now he just stared at the sky. In his eyes he could see an image of Ryou walking away. The image turned looking a little surprised as if someone had called his name. He smiled and waved then turned and disappeared.

"He's in a better place now Hikari, you must remember that. Shadi has the Ring and Bakura is banished forever…he will never hurt anyone ever again," Yami whispered.

"I know it's just not fair," Yugi replied.

"Fate is never fair…" A voice said quietly and a tear slid down her angelic face then she to disappeared.