Linger

by AllTheHats

Drabble. Yugi does not carry his other self's name. Perhaps they should have questioned that Bakura does. (Or: Ryou is more Thief King than anyone is really comfortable admitting, and he'll be thrice damned before he lets this spirit steal his name in addition to his life.)

These are the things he carries: white hair, a dead family, and his own name.

Bakura is tired of having things taken from him. His friends call him Ryou, and he smiles and says, "Please, call me Bakura." He pretends not to notice the looks they exchange. (They were never close enough, anyway, to really deserve the first name basis.)

He stares at his own reflection and traces the scars on his chest. He feels a spontaneous urge to put a knife to his face and bursts into hysterical laughter. He takes scissors to his hair instead, and it's almost good enough. He wants nothing to do with the monster beneath the bed, the darkness that haunted his life and into his death. But he refuses to forget, and he refuses to run. The dead have never wanted him, but the ghosts have always been his. So he cuts his hair short and wears bright colors and smiles a little wider, when Yugi's friends startle. They think he does not remember. He remembers more than he wants.

He leaves cypresses at his mother and sister's graves. He has never seen them after their deaths, and he is glad. If his family always has to be dead, he is grateful that, at least, they must not always linger.