Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh
Kind of inspired by an episode of Scrubs
Ryo Bakura walked into the cemetery with three roses - one pink, one white, and one yellow – gently held in his fist. Seeing the decorated headstones of strangers didn't make him sad as they would to most. Instead he drew comfort from the fact that others felt it important to let the dead know they were still thought of.
The white-haired boy reached his destination. The two matching headstones sat in the grass as if they were waiting for him. He placed the pink rose and a letter on the headstone of his sister. He said a quick prayer and laid the white rose on the headstone of his mother. He took a moment to think of the two. He missed they way his sister laughed until she cried and the way his mother would kiss the top of his head while he played with blocks on the floor.
He wiped a small tear from his eye and made his way down the row of headstones. He stopped at Mrs. Harvey's headstone and placed the yellow rose on top. Bakura didn't know her that well, in fact they'd never met alive. He did, however, know her husband Sam. They'd met here at the cemetery, actually. Sam was as frequent a visitor as Bakura was.
Their friendship began one day when same walked up to Bakura at his sister and mother's graves. He asked the young man about them and Bakura asked about his wife in return. Sam then pulled two flowers out of the bouquet he brought for his wife and set them on the graves of Bakura's sister and mother. Sine that day, Bakura always brought an extra rose for Sam's wife, even when he didn't expect to see Sam there. The two had many conversations, mostly about life, death, family, and what heaven would be like. In a way, Sam was a father figure to Bakura, always offering advice and wisdom.
On his way out of the cemetery, Bakura thought about Sam and how he hadn't seen him around lately. Bakura was just thinking about how Sam hadn't been around lately when he cut his hand on the rusty gate of the cemetery. He tried to ignore it, and told himself that the bleeding would stop eventually, but closer inspection couldn't be denied; he was going to need stitches.
It took a bus ride, 2 hours in the waiting room, and a handful of napkins from a near-by hotdog stand, but Bakura finally got his hand stitched up. On his way out he overheard some nurses talking about a patient named Sam.
"Poor guy, they don't know how much longer he's gonna hold on." Said the first nurse.
The other nurse shook her head sadly. "Sam was such a nice old man too."
Bakura couldn't help but ask. "Excuse me, are you talking about Sam Harvey?"
The nurses looked surprised. "Why yes, are you his son? I thought he didn't have any living family."
"No, I'm just a friend. Is he allowed visitors? I'd like to see him." Bakura hoped the answer was yes. Sam had once told him that he was the last Harvey left and Bakura couldn't stand the thought of Sam dying alone.
Luckily, the answer was yes and the nurse showed him to Sam's room. The old man seemed surprised to see Bakura here.
"Why Bakura…" he spoke with a scratchy voice "How did you find your way here?"
Bakura sat down on a chair across from Sam's bed. "I cut my hand on the gate at the cemetery." He said a little embarrassed.
Sam laughed and shook his head. "I always thought I should tell someone about that gate."
Bakura let some quiet pass between them. They exhausted small talk like the weather and school. Finally, he worked up the courage to ask the question that had been in his mind. "Sam, what's wrong with you?" Bakura blushed, immediately regretting his word choice. "I'm sorry, I mean you're in a hospital and I see all these machines here and…"
Sam let out his throaty chuckle again. "Bakura I'm old. Old people die."
The younger boy could only blink his brown eyes in awe. "How can you be so comfortable about this?"
"Here's the secret, I'm not." He replied directly. "But I hope by joking about it I'll be more ok with it."
"What do you think heaven will be like?" Bakura asked, hoping to get on a slightly happier subject.
The old man smiled and relaxed more into his pillow. "I hope that, when I get there, I'll see my family and my beautiful wife again. We'll spend a day together, that is if there is a differentiation between day and night in heaven, and then I'll have a romantic night with my wife. We'll talk and kiss and I'll tell her she's just as beautiful now as they day I met her." His smile grew as he remembered his wife's face.
"When you get there…" Bakura began shyly "… I mean there's no rush or anything…but if you have time, will you tell my mother and sister that I love them and I miss them?"
Sam nodded. They'd had a similar conversation before in the cemetery. Bakura wondered if his mother and sister know how much he missed them. Sam told him that they knew. They could watch from heaven and could feel when he was sad of thinking of them.
The two talked like they normally did. Sam asked Bakura about his friends and that card game he liked so much.
"Is there anything new with you?" Bakura asked then bit his lip for being so stupid.
"There is actually." Sam chuckled. "A few weeks ago I adopted a puppy; a scruffy little mutt I rescued from the pound. I named him Scrapper. He's pretty quiet but he likes shoes. I give him my old ones to chew on."
"What's going to happen to him?" the teenager asked?
"It's all taken care of." He said with a smile. "When I got him, I knew I wouldn't have him for long."
Bakura nodded slowly but the thought that Sam knew what was coming for a long time bothered him. "What was your favorite moment of your life?" he asked hoping to bring in a happier subject.
Sam let a nostalgic smile spread across his face. "The day I proposed to my wife. I had just come home from the war. She was right there waiting for me when I got off the plane. I took her in my arms. We shared a kiss. Then I got down on my knees and asked her to be my wife. I didn't have a ring for her or much money at the time but she said yes anyway." Sam looked lost in time for a few moments. He blinked a few times and his eyes seemed to focus on Bakura again. "Is it getting darker in here?"
Bakura gulped. His whole body started to shake. It wouldn't be much longer now.
"Bakura, come here. I want to tell you something." Bakura walked over to Sam's bedside and leaned in close so the old man wouldn't have to strain himself by having to talk too loud. "You know how you spend a lot of time at the cemetery? How you bring flowers for your sister, and mother, and even my wife?"
Bakura nodded. "I will continue to do that and I'll bring one for you as well."
Sam shook his head in disgust at this. "You're a young man, Bakura, just sixteen. You have a lot of life ahead of you. Don't spend it at the cemetery. It's important to remember those who passed, but it's also important to live life while you have it. It's an odd combination of fast and slow. Do things that make you happy, even if it is just having a quiet evening at home, but also try something you might not like or that sort of scares you. Now, I don't mean doing something stupid, but go skydiving or ask a cute girl to dance. Just live life and don't dwell on death. And if you feel you must do something for me, go get a firework, now I don't know what kind of poofy laws they have about them now, but get the biggest bang you can afford and set it off for me. I always wanted to go out with a bang."
Sam looked up at the ceiling. A smile spread across his face and his eyes light up. To Bakura, it seemed 50 years melted off the old man's face.
"Hello Beautiful." He said to the ceiling. "I missed you, too."
With that, Sam closed his eyes. The machine that had been beeping in the background let out a long, high-pitched beep. Doctors and nurses rushed in and told Bakura to go outside. On the other side of the door, Bakura leaned against the wall. It felt like his legs might collapse beneath him and he could feel himself shivering. Finally, a doctor came out and told him what he already knew.
It was late when he left the hospital, but not so late that he couldn't go to a mini-mart. All he could find were a few bottle rockets. When he got home, he dug an empty bottle out of the recycle bin and went to his back yard where he set them off.
Bakura let a tear roll down his cheek as he watched the rockets go up and explode in the sky. "Good bye, Sam."
[-]
Sam's funeral was small. It was only made up of him and a few of Sam's friends and neighbors.
A few weeks later, Bakura got a call from Sam's lawyer. He wanted to set up a meeting. Soon, Bakura found himself sitting on a brown leather chair in the lawyer's office. Sam had left most of his money to charity but left a small sum to Bakura. "There's something else…" The lawyer said when he finished explaining this. "I think you might want to come with me."
Bakura got in the law firm's car and they drove down to an animal shelter. When they got there, they immediately went to a cage that contained a scruffy white and gray dog. Bakura immediately knew this had to be Scrapper. The dog looked up at Bakura. His pink tongue hung out of his mouth and his tail waged. A tuft of fur hung over the dog's left eye. Bakura knelt down and let the dog smell his hand. He let out a happy bark and continued to pant. The girl who worked at the shelter unlocked the cage. Scrapper immediately jumped into Bakura's arms and licked his face.
"He's yours if you want him." The lawyer said.
Bakura rubbed the dog's soft fur and looked into its chocolate brown eyes that just happened to match his own. "Yes, I can give him a home." He continued to pet the dog and let it lick him.
When he took Scrapper home, it was already excited and interested in everything. He could have changed the dog's name but decided to stick with the one Sam gave him.
At night, the dog slept on the floor by Bakura's bed. As he reached down to scratch scrapper's ears a thought comforting thought came to him. Bakura may have lost a friend, but Sam left him with a new one.