Loyalty to The Limits

Originally posted: 2003

Revised: August 10th 2008

Prologue

Since before man can remember, before recorded time, it seems, dog has always been man's best friend. They show loyalty and trust that humans can rarely grant each other. Sometimes however, loyalty can run too deep, to the point of meaningless self sacrifice, and just as a dog with an abusive owner, two lovers can be the same. One thinking that they are superior, though it is their puppy they both most value and least deserve. The other is the dog, always loving unconditionally, never biting the hand that rarely feeds it, adoring, no matter how cruel and cold his master may be.

Still, maybe the dog's efforts are not always so futile as in the literal relationship between owner and pet. Maybe the dog can nuzzle and bark enough, suffer enough.

Chapter One

"You need to go, now." He said, blue eyes flashing in the dark.

"But I thought- I mean, wasn't this?" Joey stumbled through the words, not sure what questions to ask or what words to use. He was so confused, how could someone be so kind to him just hours ago, share that with him, make- make love to him, and be acting like this now?

He laughed and it seemed forced. "It wasn't." He tossed Joey his clothes. "So go."

"But-Why?"

His eyes softened for just a moment, then went back to the hard blue so much colder than normal. "You should have known this wasn't for real, it was fun, but just fun…Not even the best I've ever had really. But hey," He shrugged his shoulders, "What are you going to do? It was your first time, right?"

"I thought…we were… No! This isn't fair! You said it, you can't just-!" Joey, the blonde, had stood, walked over to the boy he was yelling at. He was waving his arms wildly as he spoke, anime style, then he just stopped, and repeated the words that had been whispered, screamed, moaned and panted that night. "I love you." He embraced the blue eyed boy, about the neck, kissing him. They both nearly fell into the feeling that had dominated the night, but Joey was soon pushed away.

The other boy narrowed his key features into slits, locking them with Joey's, then snapping away. "Get dressed. Get out. Get over it. It never should have happened and it never would have worked."

Blue eyes, full of hatred, all for him…and for some reason, after all Seto did to him, Joey would kill to see those cold blue eyes one more time.

"What's wrong with him, Yug?" Tristan asked, listening at the locked door.

"I'm not sure, Tris. He's been hauled up in there for nearly a week. He went out last Friday, didn't come back until early Saturday and he hasn't left his room since, at least not when we're around."

Soft spoken as always, not needing or bothering to whisper, Ryou joined the conversation. "He gets up at night, I can hear him sometimes, but I can never catch him…"

Tristan asked the question that hardly needed asking. "Do you think he's depressed?"

Ryou rolled his eyes. "I think we've all apprehended that. Something is obviously wrong, I can hear him crying." Sure enough, the sound of sobbing and sniffing could be heard in the gaps of their whispering.

Tea joined them and addressed Joey through the door. "Come on Joey, nothing can be so bad your friends can't help make it better!"

The sobbing stopped for a moment, and Joey's voice, raspy from crying and disuse came through the door. "Fuck off!"

"Hmmm. He's just mad, I know he doesn't mean that." Tea shrugged.

Yugi, Tristan and Ryou looked at each other, rolling their eyes at Tea's turned back.

It is now day eight of Joey's solitude, and considering his normally raucous disposition, those eight days have been a surreal and quiet time for everyone else in the "dorm".

As though he planed it (his now slightly resentful friends thought), Joey was the only one with a room to himself, so no one could give him a real reason, like needing new underwear, to let them in. When they had rented the apartment, because all of them went to nearby schools, Joey had offered to take the smallest room, so that everyone one else could share, bunking with the one they most wanted to, but weren't yet ready to admitt their reason's for.

"I think he's depressed." Tea said idly, twirling a bit of her brittle, shoulder length hair.

Ryou made a sound of indignation, "We've only been saying that for…what? Over a week?"

Trying to avoid a stress induced cat fight, Yugi stepped in. "Ok, we still don't know what happened, lets try to figure out what it could be."

Tristan was the first to speak, "Well…he seemed a bit down for a while, after Mai and him broke up. He was just in this nasty, man bitch funk. Did he tell any of you why they split?" No one replied in the affirmative. "Me either. Anyways, he seemed fine all last week, better than he'd been, then Friday he was almost normal. He said he was going out. He was looking forward to it. He was gone, then Tea got here while he was out and the next morning this started!"

There was a long pause wherein everyone looked at Tea.

"What? I haven't seen him since I got here? It's not like I did anything!"

Yugi finally looked away and sighed. It was true that Joey and Tea had never been overly fond of each other, he was loud and outgoing, she, prissy and preppy, but she couldn't get to him like this. "It's true, he didn't even know you were coming."

Ryou bit his lip thoughtfully. "Well, whatever it was, it must have happened while he was out."

"Thank you for stating the obvious!" Bakura rolled his eyes, furthering the sarcasm. Ryou glared at him. Bakura, Duke and Yami had just gotten back with food and drink.

"Do you think we should bring him some?" Ryou asked, somehow indicating the pizza and Joey with one gesture.

"Yeah…will you take it? I'm not sure he'll trust me not to try something sneaky." Yugi smiled, though wearily.

"You, sneaky?" Bakura snorted.

"I said I'd try, not that I'd be successful."

Ryou walked up to the door that was haphazardly plastered with old fliers from battle city, random words and posters of the red eyes black dragon. He knocked lightly. "Joey, it's Ryou, I've got some Pizza for you…you don't have to come out or anything, just eat something, ok?"

"I don't want anything." Joey replied, the door adding to the thick sound in his voice.

"Please Joey, eat the pizza?

"I can't eat anything Ryou. It just comes back up!" He snapped.

"Why? Joey, maybe we can help, or at least understand why you need to be alone."

"I can't! I just can't, Ryou! I know you want to help, but I just need to think this whole thing through…. You're probably thinking, 'it's been a week,' or something about how if Trist were here he'd joke that it takes me a while to figure out what to have for lunch, a major life crisis might take eons…and it might. Ya gotta le'me alone Ryou."

Now maybe Ryou's been spending a bit to much time with his Yami, or maybe he's just growing up in an unexpected way, but he couldn't stop thinking about Joey, locked up all alone in his room.

Ryou couldn't touch his dinner.

"It's contagious!" Duke wailed.

Lying in bed that night, Ryou couldn't sleep. He raised himself, walked over to Bakura's bed and poked the tangible spirit.

"Bakura? Can I borrow some of your clothes?"

"Ergghnaaaarah." Came the semi-enthusiastic reply, equipped with gnashing teeth.

"Bakura. Can I take some of your clothes?"

Slightly more awake now, the spirit blinked. "…buggering….bl-…fucking hell? What do you want?"

"Can I borrow some of your clothes?"

"Since when do you want to dress like me?"

"Since now. Pleeeeeease?" He made puppy eyes at his darker half.

"Fine, don't do the eyes in my clothes though, it'll just look weird."

"Thank you!" Ryou kissed Bakura on the cheek, then ran to the closet.

"You're borrowing them now? For what?"

"I'm taking Joey out, I'm going to cheer him up."

"You…Mr. Naiveté...and breakdown boy…out in the city in the night…alone? No. I'm going with you." Bakura grinned sleepily but with the same touch of evil as normal. He began picking out clothes for himself and his Hikari. This was the first time he'd had such an opportunity, and he was going to make the most of it.

Before leaving the room, Ryou dug into Bakura's top dresser drawer, took something out and slipped it into his pocket.

Bakura flushed. "How did you know I had those? And why do we need them!?"

"A few weeks ago I needed a pair of boxers…and I saw them. I thought we might need them tonight."

"What will we be doing that will require those?" Bakura snapped, eyes wide with the question.

"You'll see."

Ryou was standing outside Joey's door and Bakura was whispering instructions from behind him. "To the right! No, the RIGHT! Oh…that is the right, the left then! Gently, gently! It's not made of steel you know!"

"Bakura, I can handle this." Ryou growled, sounding much like his yami.

"You can't handle the handle! You're going to break my lock picks damnit!"

Lock picks. Good, thin, new lock picks. A marvel of modern technology to an ancient Egyptian tomb robber.

"Fine. You do it then!"

"I will!" Bakura snatched up the picks from Ryou and had the door open in a few seconds.

Ryou rolled his eyes. "You are so weird. Can't manage to get through the turnstiles on the underground, or the spinning doors at the airport, but you can pick a modern lock in seconds. Wait here." Ryou left Bakura to lean against the door frame and fondle the lock picks.

Joey's room was in a state worse than normal, which was saying something. Ryou went straight over to the closet and put together an outfit for Joey to wear out with them.

"What are you doing? Get out." Joey's face was tear stained and pale, but he seemed to have been sneaking out to shower. This was good, at least from Ryou's perspective, he hadn't been looking forward to making Joey shower.

Ryou threw the clothes at Joey and he shivered and the unhappy familiar feel of it. "Come on Joey, we're human, life's short and it's our job to go out and live life so well that someday death will fear to take us!" Joey smiled, though weakly. Maybe this would be good for him, but then again, that's what he had thought before the last time he had gone out.

His thoughts about the night ahead of him didn't get any better when he realized what Ryou was wearing, and fell especially when Bakura walked into the room to ask if everything was going ok, flicking a lighter. This was not going to end well.

:End Chapter: