Chapter Four
"Please, just go home." Kaiba spoke in a pleasant tone to his maid as she refused to leave his mansion. If it had been anybody else he would have slammed the door in their face or raised his voice, but with her it was different. She was his longest serving employee and the only member of Gozaburo's house staff that he kept on. The only reason for this was for Mokuba's sake since he adored her to pieces with her kind heartedness and motherly behaviour. Over time Kaiba learnt to tolerate her over protectiveness of them both, and in a strange way it seemed like she had become a member of the family.
"But master Seto, I worry about you so." She argued, concerned about him and the tough time he had been put through recently. "If I'm not around to make sure you look after yourself then who will?" Without waiting for any kind of reply she poked Kaiba hard with a stubby finger and rambled on. "I haven't seen you eat anything this past week, it's no good for you to do this to yourself. A growing young man like you needs….."
"Ros, I just need a bit of time to myself." Kaiba addressed her by name, his tone of voice still gentle. Now he was met with a stern gaze from the old woman's wrinkled eyes. "It's only for a week, think of it as a vacation." She still continued to stare, and Kaiba made one last attempt to get rid of her. "Did I mention that it's paid vacation at triple your pay? And when you return you'll find your hours halved and pay increased by ten percent of what it is now." Damn, she didn't buy it. There was only one thing left to do. He'd seen Mokuba do it a thousand times whenever he was in a similar situation, and forced a smile on to his face.
It took a moment to take effect but Ros' face finally softened. "Okay." She sighed and pushed back her dark greying hair. "But you have to promise me you'll take good care of yourself."
"Promise." Kaiba replied dropping the smile. He watched her leave before he closed the door and let out a deep sigh. He felt awful lying to her about pay rises which he knew she would never get, but the shorter hours she would definitely receive.
Kaiba made his way to Mokuba's room and sat down in front of the broken picture frame that still lay in the same spot were it had fallen the night before. He looked down at the skewered photo and longed to be with his brother. His life didn't matter now that he had nothing to live for and no number of pills that the doctor prescribed him would ever change that fact. Placing his hand into his pocket he pulled out a medicine bottle containing the pills that the doctor had given him and stared at it for a moment. There was a sharp pain in his stomach as it rumbled from the hunger of not having eaten for days and Kaiba finally decided that he couldn't resist the temptation to eat any longer. He placed the medicine bottle back into his pocket and made his way down to the kitchen in search of food.
The refrigerator didn't contain a lot and what ingredients were there Kaiba was sure it could somehow make a meal. The trouble was he didn't know how or what to do with them. He closed the door and spotted several takeaway flyers pinned onto the refrigerator with brightly coloured magnets. Mokuba loved to have takeaway food even though Kaiba despised the stuff, but now he was so hungry he could just about eat anything. He took one of the flyers and dialled the phone number.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Another shift ended as Bakura took off his brightly coloured jacket and hung it up on the peg in his locker. He was glad that work was over for the night so that he could go home as he still had assignments to do for school the next day. Rubbing his eyes he yawned. He was tired and exhausted from the continuous loop of school and work but knew that he needed to keep going. He made his way out of the locker room and into the pizza parlour and was about to exit the front door when his boss called out to him.
"Oi, 'Kura!" His boss held a pizza box out in front of him. "Deliver this."
"But my shift just finished." Bakura protested pointing to the clock which said eleven o' five.
"You can deliver it on your way home then can't you?" the boss glared at Bakura and waited for him to take the pizza.
Reluctantly Bakura took the pizza from his boss and read the address from the label. "You've got to be kidding me." He moaned under his breath.
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Bakura stopped his moped at the gates of Kaiba's mansion and stared down the drive which led all the way up to the front door. His heart pounded hard in his chest as he thought about what he had done earlier at the school. Back then he had felt nauseous at speaking the way he had to Kaiba, but now he was felting ten times worst as he dreaded to think what might happen to him as Kaiba was surely going to seek revenge.
After building up the courage he finally drove his moped down the drive and parked up right outside of the mansion. He had second thoughts about removing his helmet as it would hide his face from Kaiba and offer his head protection if he found himself under attack, but decided to remove it anyway and grabbed the pizza.
The doorbell sounded as he nervously pushed the button and waited for the door to be answered. As the key turned in the lock, Bakura braced himself for whatever might happen and found himself face to face with Kaiba.
"You." Sneered Kaiba as he caught sight of Bakura standing in front of him. "What do you want?"
"I'm here to deliver this." Bakura thrust the pizza at Kaiba, his heart pounding as though it was about to explode. He knew that Kaiba wasn't the type to accept an apology but thought he would say sorry for earlier. "And while I'm here, I apologise for my outburst earlier."
"Do you really think that I take notice from someone with schizophrenia?" Kaiba retorted recalling the anger he had felt.
Feeling hurt from being called a schizophrenic, Bakura began to relax a little as it seemed Kaiba wasn't going to have his revenge here and now. He offered the pizza again which was accepted and was surprised to see Kaiba open the door wider for him to enter.
"Stay here whilst I get the money you're owed for this." Kaiba ordered and walked away into a room directly opposite them at the far end of the hall.
Bakura took the chance to look around the huge hall which led off into many rooms. The staircase was one of the grandest he'd ever seen and hanging down from the ceiling was a sparkling crystal chandelier. He took a step backwards to admire the chandelier and almost lost his balance as he stepped on something. Bending down he reached out and picked up an empty medicine bottle. He turned it to examine the label and saw that the pills had recently been prescribed to Kaiba and that they were to be taken twice daily. If that was the case then there was only one reason why the bottle could be empty, Kaiba must be going through an emotional state that he too had felt in the past.
The sound of Kaiba's re-approaching footsteps could be heard and Bakura quickly stood up to face him. "I found these." He said holding the tiny bottle in his hand.
"Thanks, I've been looking of those." Kaiba was swift to take the bottle from Bakura and handed over the money for the pizza.
"I couldn't help but notice that they were recently prescribed." Bakura said as he placed the money in to his wallet.
"Losing my brother hasn't been easy for me." Kaiba admitted. "People seem to forget that I'm only human too."
"Nobody's forgotten that, you just don't let people help you." Bakura pointed out. He felt his heart pound from nerves as he was about to address Kaiba's state of mind. "I know that you're feeling suicidal."
"Suicidal?" Kaiba laughed.
"The bottle's empty." Bakura stated. "And because of all that's happened over the last week or so, I suspect that you've taken an overdose as your way of coping with the situation." There was no reply and unlike his usual self Kaiba glanced away not wanting to make eye contact. "Please let me help you."
There was an eerie silence for a moment before Kaiba spoke, still looking away. "Nothing you can say will change my mind about how I feel. In a few hours it'll be too late anyway."
Bakura was surprised at just how easily Kaiba had opened up considering that he never spoke about anything concerning his feelings to anyone else. For a brief moment he could relate to how messed up Kaiba's head must be for him to act out of the ordinary and then he had an idea. An almost sly smile crept across his face. "Why wait a few hours when I can help you get the job done quicker? Just show me where your kitchen is."
"If you're intending to use blades to speed up the process then I recommend that you make sure that you don't leave any evidence laying around if you don't want to be charged with murder." Kaiba told Bakura as he led the way to his kitchen. He had though of using blades himself but couldn't quite find the strength inside to go ahead with it.
"I had something else planned." Bakura replied pulling open cupboards. He hoped that Kaiba wasn't his usual intelligent self so that his plan would be able to succeed. "If you look at the components used to make your medication and know which other components that can be used as a catalyst for said component, most of which are every day items that you can find in the kitchen, then you can knock up a rather lethal cocktail that will surely have you dead within the hour." Did that work? He quickly glanced at Kaiba who was looking slightly confused. I'll take that as a yes.
For the next couple of minutes Bakura took whatever ingredients he could find and added them to a blender ready to be pureed together. He hadn't kept track of everything but knew that lemon juice, soy sauce, peanut butter, foie gras, mustard, garlic, soured cream and eggs were amongst some of the things he had used. The blender whizzed around mixing everything together and then he transferred it in to a tall glass.
"Bottoms up!" Bakura smiled as he placed the glass in front of the bemused Kaiba and then added: "You might what to hold your nose and knock it back as fast as you can."
Kaiba picked up the glass and looked at the greeny-brown liquid which smelt horrific. Not only did he take Bakura's advice and hold his nose but also closed his eyes as he gulped it back. "That is the most discussing thing that I have ever tasted!" he exclaimed setting the empty glass down. "Are you sure it will work?"
"It'll work." Bakura smiled, his plan was going well so far. "So what made you decide that suicide was the answer?" There was no reply from Kaiba. "You're going to be dead within the hour so what harm could it do to share your feelings for once? It's not like I'm going to rush out and tell everybody, and even if I did who'd believe a schizo like me?" He smiled again hoping it would encourage Kaiba to open up.
"Do you know what it's like to lose a loved one?" Kaiba asked as he twisted the glass around on the counter. He saw Bakura nod and continued. "Multiply that feeling by each of your family members until there is only you left. Each of them had given you a purpose and reason for living but now there isn't anything left to live for."
"What about Yugi and the others?" Bakura asked. "Even though you don't seem to notice it they're your friends and are willing to be there for you like any family member."
Kaiba pushed the glass away from him. "You still don't grasp the fact that I don't do 'friends'. Besides I think that the word …." He stopped mid sentence as he felt his stomach whirl and waited for it to settle again. "The word 'friend' is greatly over rated." He felt his stomach whirl again and his checks began to water. Quickly he left the kitchen as his stomach was about to erupt its contents.
Bakura let out a sigh of relief as he was wondering just how long it was going to take for his plan to be completed. He followed the sound of vomiting to the bathroom that Kaiba had rushed to. Outside the closed door he spoke to Kaiba. "A friend is someone who's always there for you even when you're feeling your lowest. You don't pay them to be there and most of the time you don't even ask for them." The vomiting stopped. "How do you think they'd feel if you were gone? Not to mention the millions of other people your death would effect. A lot of duellists still admire and look up to you, and then there's your company's clients, customers, employees and their families. Where would they be without you?"
There was a long pause and moment of silence before Bakura spoke again. By now he was sat on the floor with his back leaning against the wall to the side of the door. "I'm sorry that I made up that drink to cause you to vomit, but someone had to make you see sense during this hard time in your life." There was another long period of silence. "Kaiba?"
Concerned, Bakura got up and entered the bathroom to see Kaiba kneeing on the floor in front of the toilet. His arm was leaning against the toilet rim with his head resting on top of it, eyes closed. Bakura checked to make sure that Kaiba was just sleeping and that he hadn't choked on his own vomit. "You'll feel a lot better in the morning." He smiled softly.
The time on Bakura's watch was close approaching midnight and he was very tired by now. He yawned and frowned at the thought of still having his assignment to do, but he couldn't leave Kaiba alone in the state he was in. He sat back down outside the bathroom and waited for Kaiba to wake up. Surely he couldn't sleep for long in that position? Resting his head against the wall again it wasn't long before Bakura too fell fast asleep.