"You must let him go."
Tears welled at his eyes, a few slipping down his cheeks. Paralyzed though he was, nothing stopped the unsettling feeling of his yami's hands around him in their ghostly form, the tinkling of the chains around his wrist a clenching accompaniment to the rapid flutter of his heart.
"I.. I don't want to." He wanted to hunch over, close his eyes and weep, flinch away from the hand tracing his face, anything to get away from the words that threatened to take his other away from him.
The person cooed at him, "Brave little light, he is dead. He always has been. They do not belong here."
No. Nonono. He breathed in sharply, a hiccup at the end as he shied away from the truth.
Of course mou hitori no boku was dead - he knew that. "But… he's different. He can stay! He can have my memories!"
The fettered hands had comfortingly ensconced him, the sound overwhelming as the facsimile of a warm body pressed against his back. Kisses were pressed softly into his hair, but he could take no comfort from it, especially when he could not hear the no doubt loving words of Yami's lips.
"Child," the other was stern, pressing their fingers to his forehead. A vague recollection supplied him with the thought that those fingers were right where his third eye was, "It is your duty to make sure he makes it to the other side. Do not forget that."
…
He shot up with a startled gasp, cheeks tight with drying tears. More were quickly supplied as he curled up, quiet but broken sobs wracking his frame as he wrapped his arms around his legs with a white-knuckled grip.
The sound of his name in a frightened and concerned tone only made him cry harder.