I had this sitting on paper for a month or two. Started it while bored in class. Finished it when I should have been studying. Oh well.
Don't own anything, only the plot. If ever there is one.
If you squint real, real, real hard, it can be considered as shonen-ai. Depends on how you see it.
Hope you enjoy!
He stared at his room. His neat room. He had put everything in order that week-end. It was neat.
Too neat.
Too perfect.
He snapped. In one swift move, what rested on his desk came tumbling to the floor. His bedside table, knocked down. Posters and paintings were torn down from the wall, soon followed by the curtains. Figurines were sent scattering to the floor. Drawers were upturned. Clothes strewn everywhere. Bed sheets ripped. Even his mattress was flung to the floor.
He finally collapsed in the corner when he couldn't find anything more to destroy. It didn't look like his room anymore. More like a battlefield. He slowly drew his knees against his chest, trying to calm his hoarse breathing and to soothe his throat, sore from too much screaming.
He felt better. He hadn't done that in years. Not since his sister had died.
He could cope with anything. Of course he could. He could cope with death. He couldn't care less if he was alone. He could cope with that dangerous voice in his head. He was used to it.
Who was he kidding? He was bound to snap one day. It just so happened that that day had come.
The others went to Ancient Egypt. He had wanted to come. He wanted to help. He was willing to help. But they left without him because some stupid item said so. 'Too evil', it had said. Stupid friends!
In frustration, he kicked the nearest object lying on the floor, before letting his head rest against the wall, closing his bloodshot eyes. It felt good to blow some steam.
A chuckle filled his ears, causing him to snap his eyes back open, but he didn't see anyone.
'My, what happened to your beautiful room?' Ryou cringed slightly at the voice. The voice.
'Go away!' He muttered. But much to his annoyance, the voice decided it didn't want to leave. The fact that he could faintly see a spirit sitting on his upturned mattress confirmed that thought.
'Not that I mind,' it said, completely ignoring Ryou's order. 'It suits you more. It suits us more.'
Ryou lifted his head to glare towards where he could faintly see the spirit.
'Tell me Ryou, why aren't you with your friends?' It continued in a casual tone. 'Or do they even want you with them? They left you behind, didn't they? Why wouldn't they after all? What use would a haunted soul like yourself be?'
'I think' Ryou started in a dangerously calm voice, 'I think I told you to go away!'
The other chuckled as he stood from his sitting position. Ryou followed his movements from the corner of his eyes, frowning in suspicion as the other approached him instead of leaving as he was told to.
'You know that, don't you? You know what they think you are. You know what you are.' The spirit smirked as he crouched beside Ryou so as to be at eye level with the boy. 'A lost soul... A tainted shadow...'
That was it. He had had enough.
Ryou lounged at the spirit of the ring, barely registering the fact that he could actually touch the seemingly unearthly being as he raised his fist for a punch. 'I said get out!' he yelled. 'I told you to go away!'
The spirit felt Ryou's fist connect with his jaw in a powerful hit. It seemed Ryou had built enough anger to throw a punch capable of throwing his target off balance. He stumbled backwards slightly, but he was quick to recover, sending Ryou a grin as the boy glared at him.
'That was a pretty good hit, I must say. But I'm sure you can do better than that, Ryou.'
'Shut up!' Ryou screamed as he swung a second fist at the spirit, only to have a transparent hand catch it in midair. The teen froze for a moment before trying to jerk his hand away from the offending grasp.
'Let go off me! Just leave me alone!'
'Calm down, you idiot!' The spirit growled as he managed to take hold of both upper arms. Ryou started pounding his fists against the other's chest, but the thief's grip on him only tightened.
'Just leave me alone...' he tried weakly, slowly giving up on his attempt to hurt the spirit. 'I just want to be alone.'
The spirit stood expressionless as Ryou nearly collapsed against him, growing exhausted as the adrenaline in his veins slowly dissipated. There was a small flash of annoyance in his eyes as he glared down at the teenager he still held. But still, he brought his hand up and slowly started to pet the white-silver hair his host had, allowing himself a small smirk as he felt the other tense at the touch. It could have been from fear, anger, or just plain annoyance.
The spirit decided it was a mixture of all three.
'Idiot!' He muttered... 'Don't you see you will never be totally alone? Not while I'm here, anyway.' He continued to slowly caress the other's head in a soothing manner, much like a mother would her child. 'Besides, no matter how many times you tried convincing yourself that you wanted me to disappear, it never stopped you from getting the Ring back or from wearing it, did it? You once said you never wanted to be alone again. That was one of the reasons why you wanted your friends to play with you forever, wasn't it?'
He felt Ryou shift slightly against him, in a vain attempt to pull away. Not that he actually thought he could.
'You twisted that. You made them part of the game. You put them into comas. So now, they don't want anything to do with me. You drove them away.'
'Did I, Ryou? What about Yugi and his friends? What about the Pharaoh?' Ryou felt the spirit's grip on him tighten, and he couldn't help but wonder what exactly had caused the thief to hate the Pharaoh so much. 'Unless I'm mistaking, you betrayed me and you risked your own life to save them. But what did the almighty Pharaoh do to repay you?' The voice dropped into a dangerously low tone, daring him to say anything. 'I'll tell you what he did. He took the life you risked to save them for granted. That night on the blimp, he hesitated between your sanity and his memory. He was almost willing to risk killing you just so he could gain his memories back. Some friend he is!'
Ryou suddenly tried to break free of the other's hold.
'No! That's not true!' He yelled. 'I'm alright! I'm fine! He can't have risked my life, nor my sanity!' He halted as his hair was grabbed by the one hand that had been petting him all along. Now that hurt!
'Then tell me what exactly happened then, since you don't believe me.' The voice snarled angrily at him.
Ryou tugged at his locks to try relieving them of the pain the other was causing, when it dawned on him that he didn't know what happened.
What he did remember, though, was being thrust into possession of his body, only to find himself in the middle of a duel and to see that the injury on his arm had for some reason started to bleed again.
He remembered pleading for help.
He remembered his calls remaining unanswered.
As if nobody had cared.
Until he felt a presence appear in front of him, as if to shield him.
He had lost consciousness shortly after that.
'Was it you?' he asked in a whisper. 'Were you the one that answered my call?'
He heard the voice chuckle above him as the spirit released his hair, before running his fingers through it again.
'Who else? Who else would have cared about your well-being? Not the Pharaoh, not your friends, not even your own father.' He had spat the last sentence to further emphasize his dislike of the afore-mentionned persons. 'You're too precious for me to let you get hurt unnecessarily.'
Ryou wasn't fooled. He knew the only reason the spirit wouldn't want anything to happen to him was because he didn't want to be trapped into the Ring again. He needed Ryou's body to be able to fully exist. The fact that he knew Yugi was also an added bonus.
But Ryou found that he didn't mind anymore.
As long as he wasn't completely alone.
After all, the spirit was right when he said once that they weren't that different from one another. They were both alone, both outcasts.
But Ryou didn't mind.
As long as they were alone together.
It felt nice.
The spirit smirked as he felt Ryou finally accept the truth, however twisted it was. He had gained an ally, and the Pharaoh had lost the one ally he wasn't aware of having.
It felt nice.
After all, as a thief, he couldn't afford letting the Pharaoh steal Ryou away from him after going through all the trouble to get him to trust him.
He wasn't about to lose such a precious addition to his collection. Not now, not ever.
And that's the end. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I'm still trying to figure out how I came up with this...
Thanks for reading! Reviews are, of course, appreciated.