Cold Blood by S. Lawliet
Ryou Bakura didn't care what the others thought.
He gazed, hypnotized at the snowflakes tumbling down from a sky that was both white and red. His breath misted and faded away in front of his dull brown eyes. He didn't care what the others thought. Trembling, he placed one bare foot onto the frozen ground, stepping out of the light into the dark. He just didn't care anymore, and he didn't think the world did either.
Things had grown distant between Ryou and Yugi after the absence of their darks; reflecting that distance, gradually even Jounouchi had stopped greeting him every morning. Each and every day he'd gone to school alone, was alone in school, and walked back as everyone laughed and chatted around him. He'd even lost his reputation as a duellist; after all, it had always been him duelling, not Ryou himself, and Ryou had since discovered that he was much better at playing Monster World than Duel Monsters. Far much better actually, and Yugi and his friends were also much more apprehensive to play it with him.
Ryou shivered, wrapping his arms around himself. It was almost as if Atemu and Bakura were the only two things holding the group together, as twisted as that was; Atemu because he cared for everyone so much, and Bakura so they could keep an eye on him. They'd never seen him, only the monster inside. Half the time he'd hung around with them he'd been possessed and they hadn't even noticed. So much for them being good friends, or even good heroes, because even though Ryou knew that Yugi and his friends were only human, for teenagers that claimed to have such a strong view of friendship they sure had been a big disappointment.
Maybe Ryou Bakura was just never meant to have friends.
And that was why he was doing this. Ryou smiled brokenly, savouring the cold wind as it blew through his snowy white hair and cut through his thin layer of clothing. He'd waited this long, and now the snow had finally arrived. He laid down softly, burrowing into the ice, looking exactly like a fallen angel that had been ripped out of a fairytale, or the sky at the end of everything.
"When you die… Does it hurt?" The question that nobody would answer fell childishly from his lips. However, his brown eyes were focused intently on his mother as he waited impatiently for his answer.
"Dying?" Alice Bakura said in shock, wiping her hands on her apron. "Why would you want to know that, sweetie?"
"No one will tell me!" Seven year old Ryou pouted. "All the teachers clam up, and father just looks at me weird. And I can't ask Amane either because she's too young. So can you tell me?"
"Well…" Alice said thoughtfully, "I guess you just won't know until it happens. And you shouldn't worry anyway Ryou, because it won't happen to you for a while yet. And it won't happen to me anytime soon! Why don't you go and play with your sister? I need to finish dinner!"
Two months later, two short little months, Alice and Amane Bakura had both died in a car accident. There hadn't even been enough of them left to bury, and Ryou got the answer to his question. Dying hurt a lot, and it hurt ten times worse if you were the one left behind. But his father didn't care. Neither did Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, Malik, Shizuka, Kaiba or Mai. They wouldn't be hurt, or saddened by his passing, and freezing in something that was the same colour as the hair which he had been ridiculed for his entire life was far less painful than being hit by a car, far less painful. In fact, it was almost easy.
Closing his eyes, not wanting to see the sky again, he could almost imagine the snow around him being stained red with blood, the same colour as his eyes. Since when was blood ever this cold, heartless, but yet so welcoming to the poor broken shell he'd become?
Maybe ever since he'd first put that ring around his neck.
As it was, by the time morning came and people realised he was missing; no trace of him was left. It was almost as if he'd melted away, into the substance that finally he'd found comfort in.
Ryou was wrong about one thing though. His father did care, and he cried at his funeral. Ice cold tears that couldn't be faked.
And up there in heaven, Ryou waited as impatiently as he had when he was younger for everyone to join him.
Umm... *Takes a glance at the angry Ryou fangirls standing behind me* Please don't kill me!
I suddenly felt like writing this because I was feeling depressed (no, really) and I almost cried writing it... Not the usual Valentines Day fic, ne?
Songs that inspired this fanfic - Nothing and Everything by RED, Fallen Angel by L'ame Immortelle, and Strange by Tokio Hotel ft Kerli.
Disclaimer - I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or the songs mentioned above. I made up the name of Bakura's mum though.