A Thousand Paper Cranes

Why is all of my stuff been depressing lately? Gah…there's a bit of Tendershipping; it was what I thought worked best.

Warning: SB… Separate bodies! It's going to catch, I swear! And of course, OOCness from Bakura, though that's usually a given for most Tendershipping stories...except for the ones by those brilliant authors (the onesyou suspect are making millions on books they wrote in the 'real world') that you can't help but be jealous of. Yeah, those ones. You know...

Disclaimer: Umm…no. Hey, you expected a long speech?

I'd like to make something clear right now though. Yugi will say something later that I don't agree with…I can't say anything now, but I just want to be clear on that. Hopefully none of you agree with it either.

It was a normal day at school. Yugi glanced around the classroom; Jounouchi and Honda were throwing paper airplanes while the teacher's back was to them, Anzu was taking notes diligently, and Yami was reading the black board, clearly bored, elbow propped up and head in his hand.

'It's strange,' Yugi mused, 'to think that just few months ago, Yami was sharing a body with me.'

But with the two of them sharing spiritual energy in one body for so long, there was bound to be an excess of it. Somehow, the combined spiritual energy was stored in the millennium puzzle, and as time went on, Yami had begun to notice he could make himself more solid. Gradually, he could make himself a temporary body for limited amounts of time…and those, too, lengthened, until he could go days at a time without resting in Yugi's head.

He was enrolled into school now (his grandpa had gone through some legal process so that Yami officially 'existed', though Yugi hadn't the faintest idea what he had done), and was doing quite well for a three thousand year old pharaoh.

Yugi blinked. It seemed that Yami had been trying to get his attention for the last minute and a half.

"What?" Yugi mouthed.

"Where's Ryou?" Yami mouthed back, pointing to Ryou's empty chair.

"Doctor's appointment."

That was all he knew, too. Yugi faintly wondered why he was going; though he had never said anything, he had noticed that lately, Ryou was being bruised much more easily. He had dismissed it though; it was probably nothing. Ryou, though, was obviously slightly concerned…it was a matter for another time, though. Yugi could always ask him later; they were all going to hang out at his house after school anyways.

Yami nodded and turned back to the board, and Yugi lost himself in the boring world of education once again.

-o-O-o-O-o-

"Horror!"

"Comedy!"

"Horror!"

"Comedy!"

"How about a nice romance –"

"NO!"

Yugi and Yami laughed as Anzu scowled at Jounouchi and Honda.

These were the moments Yugi loved, when all of his friends were together and just relaxed, having a good time. Now that Battle City was over, everything was nice and calm, and he couldn't be happier.

Ryou walked into the room, looking slightly pale and haggard, and everyone immediately turned to him.

"Where were ya, buddy?"

"You got to skip the whole day! Lucky!"

"How was your doctor's appointment?"

There was a moment's pause, and then the most unexpected thing happened – he dissolved into tears. Anzu and Yugi were quick to rush to him, helping him over to the couch, Honda and Yami stood stock-still, shocked, and Jounouchi followed him over, asking frantically, "What's wrong? What's wrong?

Later, they found out what was wrong, something that would change everything.

Ryou had been diagnosed with leukemia.

-o-O-o-O-o-

Ryou was moved a hospital in Kyoto; they had caught the disease very late.

The moods were somber at school the next day with him absent again. None of them would let it get to them though, Jounouchi even going so far as trying to convince the others that Ryou had been misdiagnosed. That had subsided quickly, and soon all had come to terms with this new turn of events.

"Look, he'll be okay," said Honda. "He's been through a lot worse then this!" They were on their way to Yugi's house.

"We should make something more then just a card! Something special, like…umm…"

"A thousand cranes!" exclaimed Anzu.

The other four looked at her strangely.

"I read it in a book once, and I think it would be a really good idea," said Anzu enthusiastically. "It was a legend…if someone was to fold a thousand paper cranes, they would get a wish as a gift for pleasing the gods."

Jounouchi snorted. "You don't honestly believe that hocus pocus crap, do ya?"

Anzu made an annoyed sound and pointed to the millennium puzzle, and then to Yami. Jounouchi cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Good point."

"I think it's a great idea!" said Yugi, nodding with the same enthusiasm Anzu had earlier. "Besides, it'll be our way of showing him how much we want him to get better."

"But a thousand cranes…that's kinda a lot, don't you think?" said Jounouchi. "And I don't know about you, but I don't know how to fold a crane…"

"Neither do I…" frowned Anzu.

Yugi turned to Yami, who shook his head silently.

"Where would you be without me, huh?" said Honda, clapping Jounouchi on the back. "Lucky for you, I used to love origami a couple years back."

"You? Origami?" said Anzu incredulously.

"You've gone soft on me!" said Jounouchi dramatically. Honda reacted immediately by grabbing Jounouchi into a headlock, which then led to a full-out play fight. Anzu immediately was all over them, demanding for them to stop (though trying to hide her smile). It was really just like normal.

Yugi gave a sad smile. Not quite. Ryou should be beside him, watching with his famous hidden smile and his laughing eyes. 'He will be again, soon,' he thought resolutely.

"Yugi?"

"Yes?" asked Yugi, turning around to Yami, who had been awfully quiet.

"What is leukemia?"

"It's a type of cancer," Yugi said, without looking directly at him.

"But that's a disease…diseases can be cured so easily in this time," said Yami slowly, frowning. "Why are you so worried now?"

Yugi sighed.

"Most can…" Yugi said quietly. He wiped his eyes; he hadn't noticed tears forming. "My grandmother had cancer too."

"And," Yami hesitated. Yugi turned away from him.

"Cancer is just a six letter word for death."

-o-O-o-O-o-

They visited him often, even though it was almost an hour's drive away. It pained them all to see him hooked up to various tubes and monitors, the IV in his arm reminding them of Battle City just a few months before.

Anzu had told Ryou about the cranes, and he couldn't have been happier. They would bring in the coloured paper, folding them into cranes in front of him, laughing and joking as if they didn't have a care in the world. Jounouchi would sometimes would take a piece of paper and fold an airplane instead, and toss it while Honda snickered and Anzu reprimanded him.

His friends could tell Ryou's mood was brightened every time they visited, and even Yugi was cheered by his encouraging smile.

On the occasional visit, they would see Ryou's father, holding his hand and stroking it, telling him he was going to be okay. They would quietly wait outside the room; Mr. Bakura had been working extra hard to raise money for the hospital bills, and the few times he was able to get away and see Ryou were precious to both of them.

But Ryou wasn't faring as well as they had hoped; he started to look sicklier with each visit, and his blood count was far too low for him to go home yet. Chemotherapy would be starting soon though, and it was always darkest before dawn.

The strangest thing had happened a month and a half after Ryou was first diagnosed, though. The five of them had come in for another visit, carrying a small box of paper cranes, only to find Bakura, of all people, sitting at the side of Ryou's bed, fiddling with one of the papers they had left behind last visit.

Yami had immediately stepped in front of the others, shielding them for a possible attack, millennium puzzle already glowing warningly. Bakura looked up slowly at them; a heavy silence hung in the air.

Bakura held out his paper to them; at first, it looked like a messily crumpled paper. But then, it hit them; it was a paper crane. In almost slow motion, Yugi had stepped around Yami and taken the crane out of Bakura's hand.

"278," whispered Yugi. "Thank you."

There was an unspoken truce from that day on. They never bothered him, and in turn, he never said a word to them. The five continued to visit, only to be joined by Bakura as soon as they entered the room. Ryou didn't even seem to notice a difference, or at least, never reacted to the new addition. Or maybe he had already accepted Bakura that day they had first seen him…they never found out. Soon it was as if Bakura had been with them for years; they loosened up around him.

Though sometimes doubts were voiced about Bakura and his sincerity, Yugi had always defended him. A few days after first seeing Bakura there, and about a week after Ryou's first round of chemotherapy, Yugi had been at the door, alone, when he had seen Bakura holding Ryou gently, who was sobbing. Ryou was holding a few clumps of white hair in his hands. Yugi didn't know what had sparked this new change in Bakura, but he was grateful all the same.

Months were passing by like nothing. By this time, Ryou had lost all of his hair. They were steadily making their way to four hundred cranes. One or two of them would come now, still as often as they could, and added the cranes to the overflowing box. Yugi brought in a bigger box the next visit, but Ryou had asked instead if he could decorate his bedside table with them instead; a task he would've done himself if he hadn't felt so weak all the time. In fact, Jounouchi and Honda had accidentally walked in on him vomiting. From then on, everyone was sure to knock first. It seemed as if he wasn't going to be discharged anytime soon.

One day, Bakura asked them to take him to Ryou's apartment to organize it for when he was better; it took them all aback, but they complied. From that day on, Bakura would stay in Ryou's home and make his way to the hospital himself.

But something new had arisen: Ryou needed to have a bone marrow transplant. And it was no surprise to Yugi, Yami, Jounouchi, Anzu and Honda when it turned out that Bakura was selected as a donor. Bakura's body was created, just like Yami's, based on his host. They could only hope that Bakura's marrow would help him fight off the disease.

It went well; Ryou was released for a few weeks after the transplant. He had gone into remission, and spirits were high.

He wasn't out of the hospital for long though; he relapsed. The chemotherapy and the transplant failed. The leukemia had come back, and Ryou's chances of survival had just dropped.

The visits continued, but the laughter and smiles seemed to be forced. Morale was dropping.

Yami found Yugi one night by his bed on his knees, praying for Ryou. Yugi turned to him mid-sentence, tears in his eyes.

"What if…what if he doesn't make it?"

"Then he will be in a better place," said Yami quietly, walking over and kneeling beside Yugi. "For now, all we can do is have faith."

They knelt in silent prayer together, and came together to do it again night after night.

-o-O-o-O-o-

Bakura planned to visit again, and this time Yugi offered to come with him. The others were too busy to visit and Yami, though he would normally come had to mind the shop, because Yugi's grandpa was driving the two of them to the hospital this time.

Yugi had a bad feeling that day; he wished it wasn't just Bakura and him there. Later, he wished he hadn't come at all.

Two doctors stopped them outside his hospital room, faces stoic and clad in identical lab coats, just as they were about to step in. The two told them Ryou was to be transferred to the Domino Hospital, much closer to his apartment then this one.

Bakura, eyes narrowed with suspicion, asked why. There was silence for a moment, until the female doctor finally spoke.

"At this point…there's nothing more we can do for him," the first doctor said softly, "except make him comfortable."

Yugi had frozen, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes. Bakura's eyes had narrowed into slits, hands curled into fists.

"You put him through all this – all this medical shit for nothing?" said Bakura in a dangerously quiet voice, fists trembling. "After all that damn chemotherapy, and that radiation – making him even worse then he already was – it's your fault!"

Yugi had never heard Bakura be so vocal during the whole time he had been at the hospital. Bakura's voice had risen until he was yelling, and he had launched himself at the doctors. Yugi had to jump forward and grab him, and he was miraculously holding Bakura back.

"Please control yourself, Mr. Bakura," the other doctor said sharply, a strict-looking woman. "You are in a hospital, and are disturbing the other patients!"

"To hell with them!" shouted Bakura, no longer pulling against Yugi, settling to glaring daggers at the two doctors. "You'll be putting them there anyways!"

"Bakura?"

The soft voice made all four of them pause and look to the open door. The curtains inside the room rustled as someone tried to pull them back. Bakura gave one last warning glare before rushing in.

The second doctor took this as an opportunity to walk away briskly, and the first looked after her, clearly torn between following her and staying behind and not invoke the wrath of Bakura again. He seemed to come to a decision when he leaned forward and said in a low voice in Yugi's ear, "He will be transferred in three days." He paused, and then added, "Our condolences."

-o-O-o-O-o-

Just as the doctor had said, Ryou was transferred to Domino Hospital, which was only a ten-minute walk from his house and a short bus ride for the rest of his friends.

Bakura came religiously, day after day; the others came as often as they could too. The doctors at the local hospital were much friendlier then the last, but more importantly, hadn't told them yet how long Ryou had left. And with this in mind, everyone continued to hold on to the fading hope that Ryou would survive; though somehow, in the back of everyone's minds, they knew Ryou was living on borrowed time.

Ryou wasn't getting chemotherapy anymore though; the treatment simply wasn't working. In fact, he wasn't getting any treatment at all, except for painkillers and such. As the doctor had said to Bakura and Yugi, they were just making him comfortable.

The cranes remained a top priority for everyone, but no one worked harder on them then Bakura. Day after day, when he wasn't in Ryou's hospital room, one could find him carefully painting a crane; he had made it into an art. They had passed the halfway mark a long time ago, and were just a few cranes short of one thousand.

Slowly though, though an outsider looking in wouldn't see it, Ryou seemed to lose more and more hope. What was visible was the slow decline in his health again, until he could barely get up. The dreaded news finally came: Ryou only had a few days left at the most.

So there Bakura sat, in Ryou's apartment, staring at his masterpiece. Ten months had finally passed, and there it was, finally. After months and months of endless folding…the final paper crane. With the same care he had put into each of his handcrafted Monster World figurines, he had made the thousandth crane special. About the size of a hummingbird, Bakura had spent hours meticulously painting it to match Ryou, with a golden belly to represent the millennium ring to a silver body, made to match his hair when he was healthy, and beautiful wide brown eyes that made it look so lifelike that he half expected it to leap out of his hand and take flight.

The doctors were wrong, they were all wrong. He now had the key to Ryou's survival in his hand; he would beat the odds, he would survive.

All Bakura had to wish for was just for Ryou to live…that's all everyone wanted. It was what Ryou's father wanted. It was what his friends wanted. It was what he, Bakura wanted. He hadn't helped Ryou all of those months just to let him die.

"I wish…"

He paused.

"I wish…"

Bakura couldn't do it. Why couldn't he do it?

"I wish…I wish…"

And then it hit him. This was just another selfish wish of his. He didn't understand why it bothered him so much; before the illness he had just thought of his host as just that: a host for him. But something, some strange feeling had been stirred up deep inside him when he saw him lying helpless in the hospital bed…

Though every visit Ryou smiled at him when he walked through the door, his eyes told stories of the pain he had been through. What would happen if Ryou survived? Would he be condemned to the hospital for the rest of his days? Most likely, and in constant pain…

"I wish that Ryou won't have to suffer anymore."

-o-O-o-O-o-

That afternoon, he visited Ryou. Looking as weak and tired as ever, Ryou looked up at the door when he came in and his face immediately broke into a smile.

"Bakura."

Bakura grunted in response. "Just came to check in on you again."

He took a seat in the chair beside Ryou's bed, and for a few peaceful minutes they simply sat there, enjoying each other's company. But something was burning inside Bakura, and at last, he couldn't hold it in any longer. He had to know.

Bakura braced himself for finally speaking the thought that had been plaguing him all night. "Host…Ryou…do you want to die?"

There was a moment's pause, but Bakura could see it wasn't of shock; Ryou was considering his answer carefully.

"I'm not afraid of death anymore," said Ryou with a small smile. "Thanks to what you did for me in Battle City, facing Osiris for me…"

"That was different, I knew I would survive," said Bakura. "Hardly an example to compare to –"

"Mm…true," said Ryou slowly, shifting against his pillow. "But…I still wouldn't mind it that much…I've given it a lot of thought…" he sighed. "I don't want to sound fatalistic, but maybe this is just what was meant to happen. I…I can finally see my mother, a-and Amane again! It…it hurts, you know," he said in a pained voice, "but at the same time…I-I don't want to let my father, or Yugi and Anzu and Jounouchi and Honda, o-or…or you down." Ryou let his head drop back on the pillow, breathing harder.

"Which reminds me," Bakura said, trying in vain to disregard the new display of weakness. He fished into his pocket and took out the last crane.

"I finished the last one today."

He put it in Ryou's hands. Ryou brought it close to his face, looking at it from all angles.

"It's beautiful…" Ryou breathed.

"Spent a bit of time on it," said Bakura, shrugging. "Once you get the hang of it, it's really as simple as a Monster World piece."

"It doesn't make a difference, and it doesn't make it any less beautiful. I appreciate the effort," Ryou paused, and hesitating, said, "I suppose you made the wish already?"

Another pause. They surveyed each other.

"Don't feel obligated to live," he finally said. "We all want the best for you…one thing the Pharaoh and I agree about," he smirked. Ryou chuckled.

Bakura took a small breath. "I wished that you wouldn't suffer anymore. And if that means…"

Ryou was speechless. With the little energy he had left, he threw his arms around Bakura, tears trailing silently down his face.

"Please tell them…I could never have asked for better friends…a-and tell my father I love him…I always loved him, I didn't care about all those times he was away, I still love him…a-and you, Bakura…all of these months…I-I…" he broke off, crying quietly.

They stayed like that for the rest of the visiting time, until the doctors finally ushered Bakura out of the room.

-o-O-o-O-o-

Ryou passed away that night; he had died in his sleep, the doctors had informed Bakura the next morning, when he had come to visit. In his state of shock, he vaguely thought that he would have to pass the tragic news to the rest of his friends and Ryou's father. How he would react to a doppelganger of his son, telling the news of his death, he couldn't imagine.

Bakura mechanically walked into the room, not truly registering what he was doing, until he realized that he was standing at the side of the bed.

Ryou looked like he was asleep. Unhooked from all the tubes and machines, he finally looked…natural again. He was still slightly warm to the touch…if it wasn't for the fact that his chest was still, Bakura would have believed him alive.

Something sparkling in the corner caught his eye. He turned to the table, where lying seemingly abandoned on the desk was the shining origami bird. The final crane…he picked it up, turning it over in his hands. This thing…it was responsible for Ryou's death, it had to be. There was always someone or something to blame. His grip tightened on the delicate wings, one of them tearing slightly at the edge.

Bakura looked up at the bed again and faltered. Loosening his grip, he walked forward and placed the bird gently onto Ryou's chest.

"May you be granted safe passage into the afterlife," he whispered, bowing his head. Taking Ryou's cooling hand into his for a moment, he squeezed it once before letting it flop back onto the bed, and exiting the room.

Bakura never cried, he never had and he never would. But the moment he had looked back at Ryou, they had threatened to fall; not tears of sadness, but of happiness. A small smile had graced Ryou's lips. He was no longer in pain, but in a better place now, and Bakura couldn't help but attribute it to the paper cranes.

Bakura's wish had come true, after all.

It was what Ryou had wanted.

It is Japanese legend that folding 1000 cranes (senzaburu) so pleases the gods that the folder is granted a wish.

Sorry, I know that it's weird how it switches from Yugi and friends to Bakura…

I tried to do as much research as I could, but I had a bit of trouble…I hope at least most of my facts were accurate.

Well, that's the end. I don't think I did a good job on it, which I find sad, because this is one I really wanted to do well. It was inspired by a bit of thinking I did a week ago, about one of my mom's patients last year, a little boy with a different cancer that I met once or twice. His cousin had heard about this legend and folded a thousand cranes by himself for him, but he had died anyways…

Please understand that the point of the story is not saying that someone with cancer is a lost cause. It's just a tribute to the boy.