Author's Note: Thank you again so much for the reviews and to the people who have added this story to their favorites list. Hopefully this chapter meets your expectations. Please enjoy!
Several hours later, Bakura awoke with a start. He was lying on a stiff dark blue couch and there was what appeared to be a white shower curtain surrounding him, hung on metal clips built into the walls. His head throbbed and he groaned, lifting a hand to inspect the injury. To his surprise, there was a crisp bandage circling his head.
At once, he remembered where he was and what had happened. After Yami had retreated into the Ring, Bakura carried Hotaru out of the warehouse and somehow convinced a taxi to pick them up, despite the bloody and battered state they were both in. Upon reaching the hospital, he had handed Hotaru to a nurse before collapsing from his own wound on to the ground.
"Aoimori! Where's Aoimori?" He gasped, shooting up and swinging his legs off the couch. A wave of nausea instantly hit him and he groaned again, holding his head. A nurse yanked back the curtain and surveyed him, an eyebrow raised. "Young man, I suggest you lay back down before you open your wound any further. You already lost a bit of blood from it, you don't want to lose anymore." She told him, stepping inside the curtain, looking prepared to push him over if she had to.
"Where's Aoimori? Is she okay?" Bakura asked, wincing as he raised his head to look at the nurse. "The girl you brought with you? She's stabilized. They've removed the wires and wrapped her up. She's sleeping over there." The nurse gestured to a space hidden from view by the curtain. "What in the world happened to you two?"
Bakura ignored the nurse's question, instead standing up and ripping back the curtain. Sure enough, in a bed up against the wall, Hotaru laid on her back, her eyes closed. Several different monitors were hooked up to her small body, each one beeping quietly.
Stumbling slightly, Bakura made his way over to her, his chest tightening at the sight of her. She had a mask on her face to help her breathe, her skin was an unhealthy twinge of gray, and she had large bruises on her arms, assumingly from catching Yami as he fell.
Against his better judgment, Bakura looked down at her legs. The nurse had left the blanket off of her and so her exposed legs revealed the damage they had suffered. There were thick white bandages wrapped around each leg, covering her from her ankles to just under the hem of her uniform skirt. Despite the thick bandages, Bakura caught a glimpse of the angry red welts the wires had burned into her skin.
Taking in all these details, his chest tightened even more, an anger beginning to fill his body. What the hell did rare hunters want with her? She's new in this country and has very limited knowledge of duel monsters. Hell, I bet she doesn't have anything more than a basic starter deck!
The Ring glowed warm against his skin for a brief moment. I don't know. Maybe we were the targets and the girl is an unfortunate casualty. Why? Why would they do that? It's not their style to involve more people than necessary. They should have left her in the alley! It should be me lying in this bed, not Aoimori! Bakura, get a grip. The rare hunters will use whatever means they decide they need to get what they want. And they don't care who they involve or who they piss off.
Bakura spun and leveled the nurse with a stare. "Will she be able to walk again? Will she heal okay?" He demanded, his hands gripping the metal railings attached to Hotaru's bed. The nurse nodded and smiled sympathetically. "She'll be alright. In fact, she should be able to walk as soon as tomorrow. It all depends on her pain tolerance. Her wounds aren't permanent. Your little friend will be okay." With that, the nurse finished checking Hotaru's monitors and with another smile, left the room.
As soon as she was gone, Yami reappeared in his shadow form. There. The girl will make it. Stop beating yourself up over something you had no control over. What you should be doing, instead of worrying about this brat, is trying to find out why the rare hunters are attacking so soon. The next international tournament isn't for another six months at the least. No contestant is going to appear in Japan for at least four more months. So why now?
Bakura shook his head, unable to tear his eyes away from Hotaru's sleeping face. "I don't know and I don't care. I'm not participating in that tournament so they have no business with me. But they had no right to involve Aoimori with this.'
Yami sighed and crossed his arms, staring at his lighter half. It was obvious to him that his other soul was becoming quite attached to the small girl lying on the bed in front of them. And if he was reacting this way to what strangers did to her, Yami was slowly beginning to realize that Bakura would even protect her against him. That realization was not a happy one and something inside of him grew even colder. This girl was causing nothing but problems. If she hadn't been walking with Bakura, he would have been able to tell when the rare hunters were approaching and Yami would have been able to banish them to the eternal darkness with no hesitation, whatsoever.
And yet, she fought for them and then stopped him from fighting. Yami swore under his breath and looked away from the girl. He extremely disliked the effect that she was having on him and his lighter half. It was becoming more and more apparent that something had to be done to prevent any further interference from her.
While Yami contemplated and Bakura worried, Hotaru's eyelids fluttered and a small moan escaped her lips. At that small sound, both boys turned their attention to the bed. With some obvious difficulty, Hotaru opened her eyes, blinked, and focused them on Bakura.
"Ryou-san…Okay?" She asked quietly, her voice subdued from the painkillers coursing through her veins. Bakura smiled and nodded. "I'm okay. How are you feeling, Aoimori?" She blinked and glanced down at her own legs. "No to feel my legs." She murmured, glancing in Yami's direction. She did a double take, her eyes widening as she stared at Yami before glancing back at Bakura. "Ryou-san..two?" She mumbled, her eyes clouding.
As with the last time she noticed Yami in his shadowy form, the ancient soul began to panic and rage, drifting around the room in his building frenzy. Helpless, Bakura glanced at his darker half before carefully placing a hand on Hotaru's cheek and turning her head so that she was facing him. Her eyes were clouded and unfocused, staring vacantly over Bakura's shoulder. "Aoimori, listen to me. You're sedated; the drugs are making you see things. There is only one of me." He said, trying to make his voice as convincing and soothing as possible.
Hotaru stared at him for a moment before her eyes rolled back into her head and she drifted back to a medicated sleep sleep. At that, Bakura sighed and turned to face the Thief King. "What is the matter with you? Even if she can see you, its not like she understands what's going on. The only times she has seen you, she's been in a lot of pain. She either won't remember or think that she was just seeing things." Bakura explained, trying to calm down the angry spirit.
Yami glared at him and without saying a word, vanished within the Ring. Remember Bakura, I will wipe her memories and drive her from this country. Don't give me any further temptation.
Bakura shook his head and sat down in one of the hard plastic chairs near Hotaru's bed. He wasn't leaving any time soon due to two reasons; he didn't know the extent of his own injuries, and he wanted to confirm with his own eyes that Hotaru would honestly be okay. Soon enough, he nodded off to sleep, the only sound remaining in the room being the slight breathing from the two teenagers and the steady beats of the machines.
The next morning, having been discharged from the hospital, Bakura and Hotaru walked through the falling snow together. It was a school day, but by the time the two had woken up and the hospital deemed them suitable to leave, it was already so far in to the school day that it would have been pointless to show up then. So instead, after making a quick call to Yugi for the day's assignments, Bakura had offered to see Hotaru home. After all, her legs were still heavily bandaged and he worried that she would collapse in the snow from the pain if left on her own. At least, that's what he told himself when they began to walk.
"How are you feeling? Are you too cold?" Bakura asked, glancing at Hotaru out of the corners of his eyes. Hotaru smiled and nodded. "Yes Ryou-san. Three time, I okay. Warm coat of my." She said, looking down at her school issued black coat. Bakura nodded and shoved his hands further into his own black coat. Unfortunately, since the attack had happened after school and they both spent the night in the hospital, they were still wearing their uniforms from the day before.
"So where do you live exactly?" Bakura asked, this time turning his head so that he was looking straight at her. However, Hotaru hadn't heard him, instead she was walking with her head tilted up towards the falling snowflakes. Seeing her charcoal eyes wide with happiness and the blackness of her hair and outfit contrasting with the snow, Bakura felt a surge of warmth from his chest and up to his neck, causing him to look away from her quickly.
Noticing this, Yami glowered within the Ring. In his opinion, the least amount of time spent with that girl, the better. It would be best to stop before any further attachments were made or strengthened Unfortunately, Bakura didn't appear to share that opinion with him at that time.
After a couple of minutes, Hotaru grabbed Bakura's arm and tugged lightly in a different direction than from where they were going. "My house way there." She said with a smile. Bakura nodded and allowed her to lead him. As they walked, he realized with a start that her place was on his everyday route to school. While he grew momentarily happy with that knowledge, Yami silently groaned once it reached him. It was as if the fates were conspiring against him to keep this girl in his sight.
Halfway down the street, Hotaru stopped and pointed at a tall apartment building. "My house." She said, smiling again. "So you live in an apartment." Bakura commented, looking up at the building. Hotaru stared at him, a confused expression on her face. "A…par..tme..nt.." She sounded out the word, her nose scrunched slightly in concentration. "Apartment." Bakura said, smiling slightly at her serious face. "Apartment." Hotaru repeated, looking up at him. "Good, you got it." Bakura smiled again. At that, Hotaru's face lit up. "Apartment! My apartment!" She said, almost proudly.
She didn't even know what the building she lived in was called? Sweet Ra, this girl is stupid. Yami snorted. Bakura smacked the Ring beneath his shirt and inwardly glared. Ease up a little, would you? Japanese is still difficult for her. She's improving, but it will take a while before she can speak it fluently. It took you a little bit, didn't it? Yeah. Two days. All I had to do was see everything you knew about the language. Whatever. Fine.
While the two had their inner conflict, Hotaru had kept her grip on Bakura's arm and had led him into the apartment's lobby area. It was simple with white tile floors and white walls. Vague paintings of flowers hung in available spaces, adding subdued splashes of color to the otherwise plain lobby. There was one set of silver elevator doors on one side of the lobby; across from it appeared to be the office of the landlord.
Realizing that Hotaru was leading him to the elevator, Bakura stopped and looked down at the smaller girl. "Is everything okay, Aoimori?" He questioned, not fully understanding the smaller girl's actions. "You to walk me. I to feed you." She said with a hopeful smile.
"Will your parents be okay with that?" Bakura asked, a little hesitant to go up to her apartment, but nonetheless, allowed the girl to lead him into the elevator. She glanced up at him as she pressed one of the buttons, causing the elevator to lurch to life. "No to care." She said with a shrug. Bakura blinked, not fully understanding her statement. She didn't care? Or her parents wouldn't care? And he couldn't think of another way to ask her without getting the same answer or confusing her.
At the fourth floor, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Stepping into the hallway, she led him to the third door on the right. After extracting a small metal key from her skirt pocket, she unlocked the door and stepped inside, motioning for him to follow her inside.
It was a small apartment. After stepping through the door, Bakura found himself looking at her living room area. It was a small tastefully decorated area to the right of the door with a black couch pushed against a wall, a wooden end table to the left of it and a tall black lamp to the right. Across from it was a small TV on a wooden stand.
To the left of the front door was her kitchen, supplied with the usual kitchen accessories. Only there was one counter with the sink built in, attached to a wall that was supposed to be the barrier between the living room and the kitchen. However, that wall was just the right height to be able to look over it into the living room. Further into the apartment looked to be a dead end hallway with a door on the left and a door on the right. Bakura assumed those to be her bedroom and the apartment's bathroom.
While he was looking around, Hotaru had hung up her coat and bag on metal hooks fastened to the wall in the living room and had returned to his side with her hands held out expectantly. Guessing at her motives, Bakura removed his coat and school bag and handed them over to her. After being rewarded with a smile, she hung them up and gestured to her couch.
"Please to sit, Ryou-san." She said as she started to walk into the kitchen. "Dinner I to make." He nodded and sat down on the couch, watching her as he leaned back into the comfortable cushions.
"Aoimori, do you live here by yourself?" He asked after a couple of minutes. Hotaru poked her head up over the counter. Unfortunately for her, she was about the same height as the counter, so it appeared that she was standing on the tips of her toes in order to see him. "Yes. My father in England." She said with a smile before going back to her cooking.
Judging by the clanging of pots on the counters that she would be too distracted to answer any more questions, Bakura decided to continue to survey what he could see of the apartment.
Upon closer inspection, none of the furniture looked like it had been used for very long. Even the few paintings of flowers on the walls looked like they had been modeled after a hotel lobby. Overall, the feeling of the apartment was very temporary and picturesque, as if a real person didn't actually live here, that it was just for show.
So what? Yami mused from within the Ring. Your place looks like this too, only more for a male. Why do you care how she lives? I am just curious. I've never been in a girl's home before. I didn't know what to expect.
At Bakura's admission, Yami snorted but refrained from further speaking. After about ten more minutes with the only sounds being Hotaru clanging about in the kitchen, she left the kitchen carrying two large wooden plates.
Handing one to Bakura, she smiled hopefully. On the wooden plate was a smaller ceramic plate containing a cooked burger with a fried egg on top of it. "Is only Japanese food I to know to cook." She said, still smiling her hopeful smile. Bakura smiled back as he accepted the wooden plate from her. "It looks delicious. I haven't had a hamburger steak with a fried egg in quite a while." He told her, earning another bright smile as she sat down next to him. Only because you can't cook eggs to save your own life.
Once they had eaten and after Bakura had persuaded Hotaru into letting him do the dishes in return for her cooking, the two sat on the couch, chatting amicably.
Hotaru asked him, to the best of her ability, about Japan and dueling. And Bakura asked her about England and the pronunciation difficulties that came from switching between English and Japanese.
"I to think English." Hotaru stated with a small shrug. "To translate in begin then to remember how to talk. Small hard but is fun." Bakura nodded. "I understand that." He told her, trying out his English. "I think in Japanese, so I have to translate faster in my head faster than I can talk."
As they sat there chatting, the lights in Hotaru's apartment flickered once before completely shutting off. She jumped up and ran to the window, pulling up the blinds. "Big snow." She said, her voice a little quiet with awe. Bakura stood up and looked as well. It was true, there were huge drifts moving down the street as snowflakes pelted the ground as fast as rain.
Shit….Shit….