Title: Bakura Is A White Albino Snow Man Who Lives In Egypt You have THREE new messages. BEEP!/i
Ryou, it's your father. Just wanted to call and check in. I'm afraid I won't be able to visit you like we planned this summer. I'll call you back when I'm in the next town, all right? Talk to you then. Bye.
My hand tightened onto my wrist, my nails digging into my wrist.
Bakura, hey, it's...Jounochi. I...never mind. I...nothing. Bye.
My nails went in deeper.
Hey, Bakura! It's Yugi. Um, hey... I've been meaning to call you. After the mall yesterday...you got kind of weird. You're eyes narrowed and you...you threatened to take the Puzzle. I'm...worried. Are you under a lot of stress? Well, I just hope you feel better. Call me when you get this, I think we need to talk.
I clenched my hands. I gasped, standing up and dropping my arms. I was bleeding. I stared at my wrists, slowing walking to the bathroom. I leaned over the edge of the bathtub, running the water. I sighed, it was soothing having the cold water run over my cuts.
What's happening to me?
It's easy to just shrug and smile and pretend everything's all right. But I'm starting to wonder what's going on.
There's periods of time I can't account for and the way my friends keep getting freaked out after many of them... And last night I felt like I hadn't slept at all and I woke up in my clothes...
I keep thinking it's stress, but the only thing I'm stressing about is these weird occurrences.
I tried to talk to Yugi-kun about it but I couldn't put it into words. I don't even know what's going on how am I suppose to ask him to help? Do I really want to ask for help? Why bother other people with my problems?
Except, I can't help but think it's becoming *their* problem by just being around me...
I stretched, yawning a bit. Gosh, am I tired. Maybe I should get more sleep...
~~~
I woke up with a start. Or tried to wake up. It felt like...I wasn't even in my body. What in the world is going on?
I'm running and I can see perfectly well what's going on only I don't understand and I'm starting to grow scared. Is this a dream? What's going on?
//Huh? What?//
I gasp mentally. There's...someone in my thoughts...!
//Calm down!//
I gasp as suddenly my body stops moving. I look up and I'm staring at myself. Well, a bigger, meaner, scarier version of myself.
"Calm down," he says, rolling his eyes.
Where am I?
"We're in our Soul Room."
"Wait!" I say in a strangled whisper. "How did you hear my thoughts?"
"Because I'm you. Well, your darkness."
"My...my darkness?"
"That's what I said." He walked over and picked me up.
"Let go of me!" I shrieked, starting to kick and struggle.
"Relax!" he yelled, carrying me through a dark hallway. "I'm taking you someplace where you can lie down." He set me down in a bed.
I looked around, not seeing much in the darkness. "Where...where am I?"
Instantly, the room lit up. I gasped and he seemed startled. "I guess it's your presents," he muttered, moving over to sit in a chair. "You're in my room. Where I rest."
"Rest?"
"While you go on about your life. When you're in school, I'm here. When you watch TV, hang with your friends, do your homework, I'm here, resting, watching you."
"Watching me?"
"Not much else to do. I've been forbidden from your room."
"My room?"
"Your part of your Soul Room. It was locked from me, I couldn't let myself known. Until you somehow entered mine through your sleep."
"This...doesn't seem like a very comfortable room."
"It resembles my room in Egypt."
"Egypt? Is that where you're from?"
"Much like the mo hitotsu no Yugi."
"The other Yugi?"
"The one that comes out during Yugi's duels."
"Why do you constantly come out when I am not asleep? I keep having periods--"
"--of time you can't remember? His presents awakens me. And you do not know because you had not yet realized my presents."
"Why would he awaken you?"
"He and I are spirits of the Millennium Items."
"You mean my Ring?"
"A mere artifact contains me, a spirit."
"But...who are you?"
"I am you. In another life." He sighed, sifting in the seat. "Well, not totally. Our appearances and some of our experiences are similar but our personalities...are very different. My soul wasn't available to be placed into your body when it was made, so another spirit, yours, was created. Your environment shaped a totally different person out of it."
"So what do you want with me? Are you going to hurt me?"
"No, not never." He gave me a fang-y grin. "I need your body in order to do my bidding. In fact, I'll even protect you to a certain degree, but only if I sense danger to this body."
"Is that all I am?" I asked, my eyes welling up with tears. "A body?"
He turned to look at me, startled. "I..." He walked over to me and sat on the edge of the bed. "I dont' understand what you want to be."
"I feel like...you're a parasite or something."
He grinned at that. "Yes, yadonushi."
I turned from him, the man, that was lodging in my mind. "Get out," I gasped. "Get out now!" I screamed.
My voice echoed off the walls. The room dimmed. I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I don't mean to hurt you--"
"You're ruining my life!" I screamed, fighting from him. I sat, hunched over, in the farthest corner from him. "I'm not normal anymore! I can't just blend in! Get out of my head!" I screamed.
I sensed (since when could I sense the other me?) stiffen, then pull back from the room. My surroundings faded until I was in a dark alley way. I looked around, scared, but knew what I had to do. I pulled the Ring from around me neck and dropped it as I began to run. I felt bad, after all, my father had given that to me. But I had to get rid of him.
~~~
I rolled over on my side, sleeping, until I felt the cold metal hit my bare arm. I sat up, unable to breathe.
The Ring was still there.
Around my neck.
I screamed.
I stopped screaming as I saw myself in the room again. I was standing in the doorway, looking at the bed. The lights, again, rose up once I stepped into the room.
He was in the bed, sleeping, but woke up instantly upon my entering the room. "What's wrong?"
"Get out!" I screamed. I couldn't believe how rude and harsh I was being but I wanted him out.
"But I--"
"How did you come back? How did the Ring come back?"
"Mo hitostu no Yugi has already tried to banish me. I can't go. You and I are bound together."
"What?" I whispered hoarsely.
"It's our destinies, omote."
"I want you out, NOW!"
"I can't leave! Don't you understand? You are my host and I'm the parasite! Live with it!"
"I can't! You've hurt my friends! You--" I gasped. "It was you who challenged...my friends...you tried to...the Graveyard..." I was confused, beginning to put the pieces together. "How long have you been here?" I demanded to know.
"As long as you've had that ring. You just never let reality sink in. I've seen the letters you write your sister. She's dead, omote, get over it."
"Shut up!" I screamed, tugging at my hair. "Just...shut up..."
The room faded around me again. I ran to the bathroom, not sure why, but running a bath. "Bath...clean... I need to clean myself!" I ran from the room, letting the bath fill, frantically looking around for things to clean myself with. I came across my exacto knife. I dropped all the things of soap and picked it up. I stared at it, nodding to myself. "Yes..." I whispered.
I walked back to the bathroom, a new sense of false calmness running through me. I sat on the edge of the filling tub and meticulously began to uncap the blade. I ran it over my wrist experimentally, staring at the small line of red that formed after a few seconds. I slashed it over my wrist again, harsher.
I smiled softly, feeling the tension, the pain, the anger wash away. I ran my wrist under the water. I tensed, still feeling something in me. "Get out!" I screamed as I began to slash my wrist over and over, tears beginning to form.
Suddenly, the calmness over took me again as I washed the water turn a fainted red from my blood. I put my wrist under the water again, intrigued by the spider web of slashes in my wrist.
I felt cleaner.
Like he was gone.
//Don't hurt yourself.//
I screamed, digging the blade across my skin. My eyes widened, feeling the sudden blinding pain. I fell into the water, crying, screaming, bleeding, bleeding, bleeding...
Bleeding.
"Stop!" came his voice, next to me.
I dimly looked at him, then back at the pink water I was lying in.
"I'm not trying to hurt you, omote!" I looked back up at him, my tears falling faster. He reached over and turned off the water and took me into his arms. "Shh... It's okay..."
"What are you doing?" I asked softly.
"I'm you, omote. I know what you feel, need, desire..."
Someone to hold me...
My head fell back.
"Omote! Stop! You gotta stay awake!" the spirit nearly screamed. "Please stay awake!"
"I'm so tired...it hurts so much..."
He took my wrist in his hand. "Oh... You've really done a number on yourself." My blood was squirting out my cut vein, into his face and pale locks. He put it back under the water, but still it kept squirting, turning the already pinkish water an even deeper red.
"I wanna go sleep..." I murmured, falling away from his grasp.
He caught me, bringing me close. "Please, omote, stay awake. I'm begging you. Please..." He slipped his arm under my legs and lifted me up. "Come on, we're going to the Pharaoh's house. He'll help you."
Again, I woke up in...my Soul Room? Only, this time, I was in a hallway. I look back and forth and all I can see is two doors. I looked behind me and there's another door, with a window of...my eyes...
//Omote? I want you to rest. I have control of the body right now and I'm hurry as fast as I can to get to the Game Shop. It will be just fine, I promise. Go ahead, look around the Soul Room. Just relax.//
"Okay," I whispered. I walked over to the first door. It was dark and...seeping with darkness. It's weird that I can now see this magic. It's like opening your eyes for the first time after being blind your entire life. I looked down at my wrist--the wrist that should be bleeding. It wasn't cut, wasn't open, and not even bleeding. But...a faint mist seeped from it...
I ignored it and turned the doorknob and looked in. It was dark, empty, and desolate. I closed the door, backing up against the opposite wall. I looked over to my left, gazing at the other door. It was half white, half...gray... It wasn't really black. I went over and turned the handle. I opened the door and peeked in.
It was dark, but it wasn't...as dark as the other's room. My other? I suppose. I'm not really sure what to call him.
//My name's Bakura.//
"So is mine," I whisper.
The room is a hazy gray, interrupted with lines of light from somewhere in the infinite abyss of the room.
//No, you are Bakura Ryou, I am King Thief, Bakura-sama.// I can hear the grin in his voice.
"I was a thief in my old life?" I tried to reach out and touch a wall but it wasn't there. It was fleeting... It was unstable...
It was so me.
I fell to my knees and began sobbing into my hands, the room growing darker and darker.
~~~
I looked up, a hand on my shoulder. "They're going to help you." He was kneeling next to me, a worried look in his once hard, cold brown eyes.
"Th-thank you," I whispered.
He looked around the room, eyebrows knitted together in perplexity. "I imagined the room a lot...less dark." He stood up and made his way to one of the paths of light. He followed it a ways, disappearing. He came back, shaking his head. "This can't be right."
I stared up at him, tears in my eyes. "I don't feel good." I began swaying.
He hurried back to me and took me in his arms. "Come on, hold on. Yugi promised a healer. He's taking you to a healer." He pressed my thin body against his and whispered into my hair, stroking it. "Please, just get through this, please."
"I can't. It hurts. I just wanna--"
"Die? You wanna die? Please, you can't. I need you. I--" His grasp tightened and he choked back a sob. "I need you, yadonushi. I need you omote, Ra, I need you iRyou/i!" He held onto me tight, sobbing. "I can't loose you, omote. Please get through this." He took my face in his hands and smiled. "I'll help you. iPlease/i! I'm begging you."
I smiled sadly, nodding jerkingly. "Okay."
I found, that once I stopped letting myself slip away, the better I felt.
"Can you make a bed?" he said softly. "I would, but it's not my Room, I can't. You just...think of one being here and it will be here. Please..."
I nodded tiredly and thought fleetingly of a really comfortable bed...silk sheets, big comfy goose down mattress and pillows... And it was there.
He carried me over to it and set me in it, pulling the covers behind me. "You're safe now. You can rest. Just don't give up." He began walking out of the room.
"No! Please, stay!" I cried, motioning him back. "I'm scared."
He came back to me, shaking his head. "Don't be so weak, yadonushi. The only thing here is your mind."
"A person's mind can be a scary place."
He lied down next to me, pulling me close, stroking my hair. "Omote--"
"What should I call you?"
"I suppose mo hitostu no boku can be quite cumbersome rolling off the tongue. Well, my name is Bakura so I don't know what else to tell you."
"Bakura is fine," I whispered, running a finger down his face.
He took my wrist in his hand. "Your wrist isn't seeping out your life- force. That means you're going to be okay."
I rested my head on his chest, tears welling up in my eyes. "Bakura... Am I suppose to be alone?"
"You're not alone, omote. Not anymore. You have me."
"I have me," I whispered. "I have the darkness I've feared for so long to embrace me."
"I'll take care of you, yadonushi." He ran his hand along my cheek and smiled his fangy smile. "I'll be like your older brother. You'd like that, huh?"
I nodded quietly. "Thank you," I whispered.
~~~
I woke up, in bed. But not the comfortable bed in my Soul Room, but a hospital bed. I bolted up.
"Please, Bakura-kun," a man said, getting me to lie back down. "You mustn't upset the bandages, you just got out of minor micro-surgery stitching you back up."
"Who-who are you?" I asked, confused.
"A nurse. Now lie back down and I'll allow your friends in."
"Friends?" I asked, still confused.
"Yes, quite a lot of them. There's even a certain...blond threatening to avenge you."
"Jounochi-kun?" I whisper confused beyond belief.
"It's probably the meds, don't worry, you'll be okay."
I nodded, lying back down. I looked uneasily at the faces that filed in.
Yugi-kun took my hand, leaning in. "Are you okay?"
I nodded, turning from him into the concerned caramel eyes of Jounochi-kun.
"Bakura! What's wrong? What happened? Who did this to you?"
"I did," I whispered.
"Your yami said it was an accident," Yugi-kun said softly. "Did he hurt you, Bakura?"
"No," I whispered. "I did. Can you just...please, Yugi-kun. I needed to bleed out the darkness, clean myself. I didn't mean to cut so deep," I whispered.
Jounochi-kun placed his hand on my arm. "We were worried."
"Well don't. I can take care of myself."
//Don't burn your bridges.//
Huh?
//There's no need to be rude.//
"Gomen," I whispered. "I'm so sorry. It...it must be the meds."
"It's okay," Otogi-kun said softly. "It must have been tough on you."
//He's kind of attractive,// Bakura teased.
Oh, quiet.
//What, you're not homosexual? I'm the only one?//
Enough! I rolled my eyes.
Yugi-kun placed his hand on Otogi-kun's arm. "I think he's talking to the spirit of the Ring."
Okay, so I'm gay.
//I know. You wear those damn sweaters that are just so "Look at me! I'm queer!"//
Shut up.
//Your friends are staring at you.//
I unglazed my eyes and looked at them all. "Gomen. Can--can I be alone? Gomen, but I need to think."
They nodded, obliged, and left.
Once they were gone, Bakura appeared next to me, as a translucent being. "You have very nice looking friends, you know that?"
"It sure pays to be gay around here with the extreme lack of girls around here."
"Your choices would be slim."
"I'm going to be okay."
"I know. You got me," he joked, shaking me by the shoulder.
"Bakura?"
"Yes?"
"What is your goal with my body?"
"Just to live again," he said softly. "This is the closest I'll get until I get all the Millennium Items."
"What will happen when you get the all Millennium Items?"
"That's something to worry about later."
***I may have a sequel to this, but this story itself is finished.***
Ryou, it's your father. Just wanted to call and check in. I'm afraid I won't be able to visit you like we planned this summer. I'll call you back when I'm in the next town, all right? Talk to you then. Bye.
My hand tightened onto my wrist, my nails digging into my wrist.
Bakura, hey, it's...Jounochi. I...never mind. I...nothing. Bye.
My nails went in deeper.
Hey, Bakura! It's Yugi. Um, hey... I've been meaning to call you. After the mall yesterday...you got kind of weird. You're eyes narrowed and you...you threatened to take the Puzzle. I'm...worried. Are you under a lot of stress? Well, I just hope you feel better. Call me when you get this, I think we need to talk.
I clenched my hands. I gasped, standing up and dropping my arms. I was bleeding. I stared at my wrists, slowing walking to the bathroom. I leaned over the edge of the bathtub, running the water. I sighed, it was soothing having the cold water run over my cuts.
What's happening to me?
It's easy to just shrug and smile and pretend everything's all right. But I'm starting to wonder what's going on.
There's periods of time I can't account for and the way my friends keep getting freaked out after many of them... And last night I felt like I hadn't slept at all and I woke up in my clothes...
I keep thinking it's stress, but the only thing I'm stressing about is these weird occurrences.
I tried to talk to Yugi-kun about it but I couldn't put it into words. I don't even know what's going on how am I suppose to ask him to help? Do I really want to ask for help? Why bother other people with my problems?
Except, I can't help but think it's becoming *their* problem by just being around me...
I stretched, yawning a bit. Gosh, am I tired. Maybe I should get more sleep...
~~~
I woke up with a start. Or tried to wake up. It felt like...I wasn't even in my body. What in the world is going on?
I'm running and I can see perfectly well what's going on only I don't understand and I'm starting to grow scared. Is this a dream? What's going on?
//Huh? What?//
I gasp mentally. There's...someone in my thoughts...!
//Calm down!//
I gasp as suddenly my body stops moving. I look up and I'm staring at myself. Well, a bigger, meaner, scarier version of myself.
"Calm down," he says, rolling his eyes.
Where am I?
"We're in our Soul Room."
"Wait!" I say in a strangled whisper. "How did you hear my thoughts?"
"Because I'm you. Well, your darkness."
"My...my darkness?"
"That's what I said." He walked over and picked me up.
"Let go of me!" I shrieked, starting to kick and struggle.
"Relax!" he yelled, carrying me through a dark hallway. "I'm taking you someplace where you can lie down." He set me down in a bed.
I looked around, not seeing much in the darkness. "Where...where am I?"
Instantly, the room lit up. I gasped and he seemed startled. "I guess it's your presents," he muttered, moving over to sit in a chair. "You're in my room. Where I rest."
"Rest?"
"While you go on about your life. When you're in school, I'm here. When you watch TV, hang with your friends, do your homework, I'm here, resting, watching you."
"Watching me?"
"Not much else to do. I've been forbidden from your room."
"My room?"
"Your part of your Soul Room. It was locked from me, I couldn't let myself known. Until you somehow entered mine through your sleep."
"This...doesn't seem like a very comfortable room."
"It resembles my room in Egypt."
"Egypt? Is that where you're from?"
"Much like the mo hitotsu no Yugi."
"The other Yugi?"
"The one that comes out during Yugi's duels."
"Why do you constantly come out when I am not asleep? I keep having periods--"
"--of time you can't remember? His presents awakens me. And you do not know because you had not yet realized my presents."
"Why would he awaken you?"
"He and I are spirits of the Millennium Items."
"You mean my Ring?"
"A mere artifact contains me, a spirit."
"But...who are you?"
"I am you. In another life." He sighed, sifting in the seat. "Well, not totally. Our appearances and some of our experiences are similar but our personalities...are very different. My soul wasn't available to be placed into your body when it was made, so another spirit, yours, was created. Your environment shaped a totally different person out of it."
"So what do you want with me? Are you going to hurt me?"
"No, not never." He gave me a fang-y grin. "I need your body in order to do my bidding. In fact, I'll even protect you to a certain degree, but only if I sense danger to this body."
"Is that all I am?" I asked, my eyes welling up with tears. "A body?"
He turned to look at me, startled. "I..." He walked over to me and sat on the edge of the bed. "I dont' understand what you want to be."
"I feel like...you're a parasite or something."
He grinned at that. "Yes, yadonushi."
I turned from him, the man, that was lodging in my mind. "Get out," I gasped. "Get out now!" I screamed.
My voice echoed off the walls. The room dimmed. I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I don't mean to hurt you--"
"You're ruining my life!" I screamed, fighting from him. I sat, hunched over, in the farthest corner from him. "I'm not normal anymore! I can't just blend in! Get out of my head!" I screamed.
I sensed (since when could I sense the other me?) stiffen, then pull back from the room. My surroundings faded until I was in a dark alley way. I looked around, scared, but knew what I had to do. I pulled the Ring from around me neck and dropped it as I began to run. I felt bad, after all, my father had given that to me. But I had to get rid of him.
~~~
I rolled over on my side, sleeping, until I felt the cold metal hit my bare arm. I sat up, unable to breathe.
The Ring was still there.
Around my neck.
I screamed.
I stopped screaming as I saw myself in the room again. I was standing in the doorway, looking at the bed. The lights, again, rose up once I stepped into the room.
He was in the bed, sleeping, but woke up instantly upon my entering the room. "What's wrong?"
"Get out!" I screamed. I couldn't believe how rude and harsh I was being but I wanted him out.
"But I--"
"How did you come back? How did the Ring come back?"
"Mo hitostu no Yugi has already tried to banish me. I can't go. You and I are bound together."
"What?" I whispered hoarsely.
"It's our destinies, omote."
"I want you out, NOW!"
"I can't leave! Don't you understand? You are my host and I'm the parasite! Live with it!"
"I can't! You've hurt my friends! You--" I gasped. "It was you who challenged...my friends...you tried to...the Graveyard..." I was confused, beginning to put the pieces together. "How long have you been here?" I demanded to know.
"As long as you've had that ring. You just never let reality sink in. I've seen the letters you write your sister. She's dead, omote, get over it."
"Shut up!" I screamed, tugging at my hair. "Just...shut up..."
The room faded around me again. I ran to the bathroom, not sure why, but running a bath. "Bath...clean... I need to clean myself!" I ran from the room, letting the bath fill, frantically looking around for things to clean myself with. I came across my exacto knife. I dropped all the things of soap and picked it up. I stared at it, nodding to myself. "Yes..." I whispered.
I walked back to the bathroom, a new sense of false calmness running through me. I sat on the edge of the filling tub and meticulously began to uncap the blade. I ran it over my wrist experimentally, staring at the small line of red that formed after a few seconds. I slashed it over my wrist again, harsher.
I smiled softly, feeling the tension, the pain, the anger wash away. I ran my wrist under the water. I tensed, still feeling something in me. "Get out!" I screamed as I began to slash my wrist over and over, tears beginning to form.
Suddenly, the calmness over took me again as I washed the water turn a fainted red from my blood. I put my wrist under the water again, intrigued by the spider web of slashes in my wrist.
I felt cleaner.
Like he was gone.
//Don't hurt yourself.//
I screamed, digging the blade across my skin. My eyes widened, feeling the sudden blinding pain. I fell into the water, crying, screaming, bleeding, bleeding, bleeding...
Bleeding.
"Stop!" came his voice, next to me.
I dimly looked at him, then back at the pink water I was lying in.
"I'm not trying to hurt you, omote!" I looked back up at him, my tears falling faster. He reached over and turned off the water and took me into his arms. "Shh... It's okay..."
"What are you doing?" I asked softly.
"I'm you, omote. I know what you feel, need, desire..."
Someone to hold me...
My head fell back.
"Omote! Stop! You gotta stay awake!" the spirit nearly screamed. "Please stay awake!"
"I'm so tired...it hurts so much..."
He took my wrist in his hand. "Oh... You've really done a number on yourself." My blood was squirting out my cut vein, into his face and pale locks. He put it back under the water, but still it kept squirting, turning the already pinkish water an even deeper red.
"I wanna go sleep..." I murmured, falling away from his grasp.
He caught me, bringing me close. "Please, omote, stay awake. I'm begging you. Please..." He slipped his arm under my legs and lifted me up. "Come on, we're going to the Pharaoh's house. He'll help you."
Again, I woke up in...my Soul Room? Only, this time, I was in a hallway. I look back and forth and all I can see is two doors. I looked behind me and there's another door, with a window of...my eyes...
//Omote? I want you to rest. I have control of the body right now and I'm hurry as fast as I can to get to the Game Shop. It will be just fine, I promise. Go ahead, look around the Soul Room. Just relax.//
"Okay," I whispered. I walked over to the first door. It was dark and...seeping with darkness. It's weird that I can now see this magic. It's like opening your eyes for the first time after being blind your entire life. I looked down at my wrist--the wrist that should be bleeding. It wasn't cut, wasn't open, and not even bleeding. But...a faint mist seeped from it...
I ignored it and turned the doorknob and looked in. It was dark, empty, and desolate. I closed the door, backing up against the opposite wall. I looked over to my left, gazing at the other door. It was half white, half...gray... It wasn't really black. I went over and turned the handle. I opened the door and peeked in.
It was dark, but it wasn't...as dark as the other's room. My other? I suppose. I'm not really sure what to call him.
//My name's Bakura.//
"So is mine," I whisper.
The room is a hazy gray, interrupted with lines of light from somewhere in the infinite abyss of the room.
//No, you are Bakura Ryou, I am King Thief, Bakura-sama.// I can hear the grin in his voice.
"I was a thief in my old life?" I tried to reach out and touch a wall but it wasn't there. It was fleeting... It was unstable...
It was so me.
I fell to my knees and began sobbing into my hands, the room growing darker and darker.
~~~
I looked up, a hand on my shoulder. "They're going to help you." He was kneeling next to me, a worried look in his once hard, cold brown eyes.
"Th-thank you," I whispered.
He looked around the room, eyebrows knitted together in perplexity. "I imagined the room a lot...less dark." He stood up and made his way to one of the paths of light. He followed it a ways, disappearing. He came back, shaking his head. "This can't be right."
I stared up at him, tears in my eyes. "I don't feel good." I began swaying.
He hurried back to me and took me in his arms. "Come on, hold on. Yugi promised a healer. He's taking you to a healer." He pressed my thin body against his and whispered into my hair, stroking it. "Please, just get through this, please."
"I can't. It hurts. I just wanna--"
"Die? You wanna die? Please, you can't. I need you. I--" His grasp tightened and he choked back a sob. "I need you, yadonushi. I need you omote, Ra, I need you iRyou/i!" He held onto me tight, sobbing. "I can't loose you, omote. Please get through this." He took my face in his hands and smiled. "I'll help you. iPlease/i! I'm begging you."
I smiled sadly, nodding jerkingly. "Okay."
I found, that once I stopped letting myself slip away, the better I felt.
"Can you make a bed?" he said softly. "I would, but it's not my Room, I can't. You just...think of one being here and it will be here. Please..."
I nodded tiredly and thought fleetingly of a really comfortable bed...silk sheets, big comfy goose down mattress and pillows... And it was there.
He carried me over to it and set me in it, pulling the covers behind me. "You're safe now. You can rest. Just don't give up." He began walking out of the room.
"No! Please, stay!" I cried, motioning him back. "I'm scared."
He came back to me, shaking his head. "Don't be so weak, yadonushi. The only thing here is your mind."
"A person's mind can be a scary place."
He lied down next to me, pulling me close, stroking my hair. "Omote--"
"What should I call you?"
"I suppose mo hitostu no boku can be quite cumbersome rolling off the tongue. Well, my name is Bakura so I don't know what else to tell you."
"Bakura is fine," I whispered, running a finger down his face.
He took my wrist in his hand. "Your wrist isn't seeping out your life- force. That means you're going to be okay."
I rested my head on his chest, tears welling up in my eyes. "Bakura... Am I suppose to be alone?"
"You're not alone, omote. Not anymore. You have me."
"I have me," I whispered. "I have the darkness I've feared for so long to embrace me."
"I'll take care of you, yadonushi." He ran his hand along my cheek and smiled his fangy smile. "I'll be like your older brother. You'd like that, huh?"
I nodded quietly. "Thank you," I whispered.
~~~
I woke up, in bed. But not the comfortable bed in my Soul Room, but a hospital bed. I bolted up.
"Please, Bakura-kun," a man said, getting me to lie back down. "You mustn't upset the bandages, you just got out of minor micro-surgery stitching you back up."
"Who-who are you?" I asked, confused.
"A nurse. Now lie back down and I'll allow your friends in."
"Friends?" I asked, still confused.
"Yes, quite a lot of them. There's even a certain...blond threatening to avenge you."
"Jounochi-kun?" I whisper confused beyond belief.
"It's probably the meds, don't worry, you'll be okay."
I nodded, lying back down. I looked uneasily at the faces that filed in.
Yugi-kun took my hand, leaning in. "Are you okay?"
I nodded, turning from him into the concerned caramel eyes of Jounochi-kun.
"Bakura! What's wrong? What happened? Who did this to you?"
"I did," I whispered.
"Your yami said it was an accident," Yugi-kun said softly. "Did he hurt you, Bakura?"
"No," I whispered. "I did. Can you just...please, Yugi-kun. I needed to bleed out the darkness, clean myself. I didn't mean to cut so deep," I whispered.
Jounochi-kun placed his hand on my arm. "We were worried."
"Well don't. I can take care of myself."
//Don't burn your bridges.//
Huh?
//There's no need to be rude.//
"Gomen," I whispered. "I'm so sorry. It...it must be the meds."
"It's okay," Otogi-kun said softly. "It must have been tough on you."
//He's kind of attractive,// Bakura teased.
Oh, quiet.
//What, you're not homosexual? I'm the only one?//
Enough! I rolled my eyes.
Yugi-kun placed his hand on Otogi-kun's arm. "I think he's talking to the spirit of the Ring."
Okay, so I'm gay.
//I know. You wear those damn sweaters that are just so "Look at me! I'm queer!"//
Shut up.
//Your friends are staring at you.//
I unglazed my eyes and looked at them all. "Gomen. Can--can I be alone? Gomen, but I need to think."
They nodded, obliged, and left.
Once they were gone, Bakura appeared next to me, as a translucent being. "You have very nice looking friends, you know that?"
"It sure pays to be gay around here with the extreme lack of girls around here."
"Your choices would be slim."
"I'm going to be okay."
"I know. You got me," he joked, shaking me by the shoulder.
"Bakura?"
"Yes?"
"What is your goal with my body?"
"Just to live again," he said softly. "This is the closest I'll get until I get all the Millennium Items."
"What will happen when you get the all Millennium Items?"
"That's something to worry about later."
***I may have a sequel to this, but this story itself is finished.***