I woke up suddenly, incredibly disorientated. As if I was still stuck in a dream that I couldn't get out of.

I wrestled blindly with the duvet, trying to sit up. When I finally managed to upright myself and blink away the confusion, it hit me like a

sledgehammer. A strange, definite sensation. Like I knew something was coming. A presence.

Gasping, I jumped out of bed and down the stairs, raced through the kitchen into the hallway to the bathroom. Door was closed. Crammed my

ear up to it.

There it was. Horrible, horrible sounds of Ryou emptying his guts.

Panic rose in me. He was back.

I didn't want to keep listening, but he sounded so much worse than before, I was worried. "Ryou!" I knocked on the door.

All I heard was a muffled groan. And then a thump.

My heart gave a sick lurch. Did he just collapse?

"Ryou!" I battered the door, panicking. "Speak to me!"

Another weak murmur, nothing coherent. Shit. I thought I'd better go in there. "Ryou, I'm coming in, hold on!"

I put my shoulder against the door and shoved once, twice, three times. The feeble lock broke and, door swinging inwards, the scene of horror

was revealed to me.

Ryou was there, slumped over the toilet bowl, half-conscious, eyes rolling back into his head, sweat dripping down his face. It was like a scene

from The Exorcist.

He was an awful shade of grey, almost the same grey as the pool of sludgy vomit in the toilet, and also splattered around the floor and the

walls. Oh my god, I could have screamed.

Ryou stirred and I thought he was going to come to, but instead he convulsed and ended up heaving again. I ran to him and gathered up his

hair as he chucked into the toilet bowl.

It was more sludgy grey-purple muck, all the same thick, almost taffy-ish consistency. And lots of it too. I had never seen anything like it in my

life. I felt faint.

"Ryou!" I cried as he continued to heave violently over the loo. "What is this stuff?"

It couldn't have been anything that he had actually eaten. I mean, my cooking wasn't much but I was pretty sure that even once digested, it

still wouldn't look like that..

It looked almost like… ectoplasm.

He groaned once the episode was over, weak from having everything ripped out of him.

"Are you finished? I think I'd better get you to bed."

He just blinked catatonically at me and let me help him up. I tried to avoid stepping in the puddles of the stuff lest we tramp it all through the

house.

He could barely stand or walk by himself- his legs had turned to jelly.

It would have been a mission trying to get him up the many stairs to his room, so I took him to my room instead which had fewer stairs.

Once I had laid him on the bed in the recovery position, I raced downstairs to the laundry. Thought it might be wise to find a bucket and some

towels.

Successful, I bounded back up there and draped the towels around him and put the bucket down beside the bed.

He had his eyes closed, but was stirring uncomfortably, sheen of sweat on his face.

"Ryou," I prodded him. "Can you hear me? You'll be fine okay? If you have to puke again, do so in the bucket."

"Mmm," he murmured feverishly.

Good. Okay, I thought, trying to calm myself down. I would have liked to call the ambulance, but I knew there was nothing they could do.

There was nothing I could do either. Except wait.

Bloody Yami. Why couldn't he ever make a graceful entrance to the mortal world? I would bloody chew his ear about this when he arrived.

Hovering, I watched Ryou as he seemed to fall into a fitful slumber. His breathing slowed, and so did mine.

I would need to stay home with him today in order to keep a close eye on him. I knew he'd be all right. But now… I needed to go clean all that

shit up downstairs. Ugh. I really felt like leaving it for Yami to clean up later but I it might be hours before he showed up. Not that he'd do it

anyway. Asshole.

I trudged gloomily down the stairs and found all my cleaning gear. Bracing myself as I crossed the kitchen into the hallway, mops and buckets

clanking, I came to the bathroom door, which I had shut behind me and Ryou when I had dragged him out of there.

I took in a deep breath, wishing I had a gas mask; it was a horror show in there, I could only imagine what the smell would be like by now.

I shuddered and opened the door.

What I saw shocked me.

The splatters of vomit I had thought were all over the walls and the floor were gone. I had to blink a few times when I saw that the

purple-grey goo had all collected into one big pool on the floor. There were no traces of it anywhere else, except in the toilet, where it seemed

to have agglomerated itself into one big blob stuck right down the bottom of the hole.

There was also no smell. At all!

"What.. the.. fuck," I whispered to myself.

I poked the puddle on the floor with the mop handle. To my disgust, it squidged under the pressure and then sprang back into shape when I

let go. Like play-putty.

I repeated this three more times to make sure I wasn't going mental. When I got the same result the third time, I jumped back gasping, an

intense sensation of dread creeping over me.

This wasn't normal spew. Supernatural spew...?

Where the hell did it come from?

These were questions I would have to ask his Royal Monstrosity later. But for now, whatever it was, I just had to get it out of there.

I sprinkled it with bleach, did some more poking and squishing; but no matter how hard I tried to break it up, it remained a stubborn blob.

I grunted in disgust and frustration. It would probably bog the toilet if I tried to flush it, so I ended up having to hook it out of there with the

mop handle. I didn't want to touch it, even with rubber gloves on.

I made disgusted noises as I plopped it into the bucket. Now for the next one.

Managed to lift it off the floor in one piece. It was heavy, like a big slab of flesh. I tossed it into the bucket as well, filling it right up to the brim.

I wiped my sweaty brow with my forearm. What now? I was sort of tempted to take it along to the nearest lab and get it tested, but really I

was so creeped out that I just wanted it out of my sight as soon as possible.

If I couldn't flush it down the toilet then it certainly couldn't be poured down the sink…

So I just ended up flinging it over the fence into the neighbours' garden.

"Merry fucking Christmas," I muttered.

Poor Ryou. What in a past life did he ever do to receive this horrible treatment time after time?

Tiptoeing back inside, I settled myself in the chair in the corner of my room with my laptop so I could keep an eye on Ryou.

He slept for more or less the whole day, squirming a bit here and there but was otherwise peaceful.

Although I tried desperately to distract myself with books and internet, panic continued to whorl inside me. Not only shaken from the terrible

ordeal Ryou had just faced, I had Yami's arrival to anticipate. And I wasn't sure how I felt about that. What would I say to him?

In amongst it all, I did feel a kind of relief. Wrong as it was, I couldn't deny that I had missed him.

How he would feel about seeing me, however, was a different story.

I had been quite horrible to him, really. No wonder he had stayed away for so long.

I hoped he had had enough time to cool off. There had been many things left unsaid.

When darkness fell, I felt by then I deserved a good stiff drink. Went downstairs and poured myself a whiskey from the mercifully replenished

liquor stash, lay on the couch to contemplate my misery.

I had a lot to process and ironically I found alcohol cleared my head effectively-at least beat down the rising hysteria to some degree.

Yami… it wouldn't be long now, I could feel it. Through these weeks of his absence, I had been tortured. Tortured. I didn't want to have to

choose between them. Now that I thought about it, this was as good as the situation could get really; having Ryou as my best friend for a few

days, and then Yami, my… What was he really? It had dawned on me long ago that this wasn't just a fuck-buddy arrangement.

I knew he felt this too.

Time ticked along as I continued to mull things over, my thoughts becoming fuzzier, eyelids becoming heavier. I thought I might as well sleep

down here tonight- give Ryou a bit of space and still be near enough to hear anything happening.

Then I realised I had left my cellphone in my room; figured I'd better go get it just in case Ishizu called. Tiptoed back up the stairs and crept

into bedroom. Ryou asleep peacefully. I grabbed phone off the chair where I'd left it and made to exit, but I froze when Ryou stirred. My heart

skipped a little, half-expecting Yami.

"Kazuya?" Ryou's soft voice murmured sleepily, eyes half open.

Definitely still Ryou. "Yes love?"

"Come lie next to me," he whispered.

Tugged at my heart, I relented. "Okay." Carefully slid into the bed next to him. Kept a safe distance- even thought I knew he wouldn't be up to

making any moves, had irrational fear that he would still get the wrong idea.

I watched his angelic face as his eyes closed again and his mouth bore a little smile, like he was having a happy dream.

I breathed out carefully. The worst was over. Now to face the demon.

Still holding Ryou's hand, I sidled into an uneasy sleep.

It had to be about 3 o'clock in the morning when a sudden chilled feeling in my hand woke me up, like I'd just plunged it into a bucket of cold

water. And then went back to normal warmth. What the-? My eyes flew open and I looked to my right, where whichever Bakura it was was still

lying next to me. I looked closer. Gaunt face, troubled brow..

Yami. There was no mistaking it. My heart started palpitating.

Before I knew it, a pair of golden cat-like eyes, fluorescent in the dark, focused upon me.

I nearly gasped. He looked even more beautiful than before, if that was even possible.

He glanced down to where our hands lay entertwined, and smirked.

"Well that's certainly a change of tune from when I last saw you."

I let go quickly, felt rush of heat coming to my cheeks. I felt like crying, from both joy and grief. How long had it been? Two months? So many

things left unsaid.

"I…" my voice wavered. "I didn't think you were ever going to come back."

He rolled over so that he was propped up on his elbows, looking down at me. "Well here I am," he whispered laconically. "Did you miss me

after all?"

I swallowed, half hiding my face in the pudge of the pillow. "Yes."

A small smile crossed his lips. "Did you now?"

I did enjoy writing this, although I must let you know, I seem to have issues writing a story from the very beginning; it just seems to come to me in random dribs and drabs. I hope you don't mind- it will be in the right order eventually.

Reviews appreciated in the meantime.