Chapter Twenty: Good People and a Living Corpse

For the first time in months, Yuusei woke up and he wasn't alone. Before his eyes were open, he turned over and reached out for Kiryu. There was a nagging fear that when he opened his eyes, he would see someone else, but his fingers knew every inch of Kiryu's body and it was unmistakably him laying by his side.

Yuusei then allowed himself to look at Kiryu and stretched his arm over his chest, holding him protectively. "Good morning, Kiryu," he murmured, but Kiryu didn't stir. Yuusei didn't mind waiting. He felt the rise and fall of Kiryu's chest under his arm and found his own breathing was just as relaxed. Maybe it wasn't quite in one piece, but Kiryu was back. Divine's arrest had reopened his case and made it a mistrial. The judge had strongly suggested Kiryu continue to see a psychiatrist, though, which Yuusei, Jack, and Crow vowed to make sure happened.

It was over an hour later when Kiryu awoke. He blinked slowly a few times before looking at Yuusei.

"How do you feel?" Yuusei asked, sliding his hand down to lace their fingers together.

Kiryu turned his head to the other side. "I don't."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't feel. I'm a corpse."

Yuusei stared up at the ceiling, unsurprised that his happiness had been fleeting. Since his emotional outbreak on the roof, Kiryu'd barely shown any sort of reaction to what happened around him. He hadn't seemed happy upon his release, hadn't been upset when forced to talk about his experiences with Divine. It was like his soul had stayed behind on the rooftop and they'd brought a shell home.

"You're not a corpse, Kiryu." He paused. Trying to fix all Kiryu's problems had gotten them all into this mess, hadn't it? This was something he couldn't talk Kiryu through and it was an ache he couldn't transfer to himself. Yuusei would give him time, and then Kiryu would have to realize that he was a phoenix, meant to be reborn after all that had happened rather than fade away for good.

The institution grew smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. Aki turned around when it was out of sight, searching futilely for another glimpse of the place that had been her home. Well, it was more like Divine's arms had been her home, and now he was locked up for so many offenses, he would be lucky to see the light again. And she would be lucky to see him again. She was disgusted with herself for already thinking of visiting him, but for so long he'd made her feel alive and now her heart felt hollow.

But it's beating, she thought. I'm alive, regardless of where Divine is. And I don't... need him.

Her mother patted her knee awkwardly. "We'll be home soon, sweetie. I redecorated your room and put a vase of flowers from the garden in there. I hope you like them."

"Thanks, Mama," she murmured. It was hard to meet her mother's eyes when Divine had distorted Aki's image of her so horribly. If that was hard, though, looking at her father was impossible. She knew he'd struck her and called her a witch when she was little and trying to understand the scary things happening to her. That was a real memory. The longer she was away from Divine, the easier it was to separate them from the false seeds he'd planted in her imagination, fertile with fear of abandonment.

"We're so sorry, Aki," her father said quietly. Aki stiffened and he sighed. "We're sorry that you were hurt where we put you for your own protection. And... I'm sorry I hurt you when I was a coward and afraid. I love you."

She looked out the window rather than reply to his apology. It made her happy, but she couldn't trust it yet. Trusting too easily wouldn't be a mistake she'd repeat. She asked, "Are they shutting down the institution?"

Her father tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "They will close that place for good. You were hurt there, and that's unforgivable. The head doctor and half the staff are already behind bars. It's just a matter of time before evidence comes up against more of the workers there."

"Where will the patients who aren't going home go?"

"They'll be transferred to a mental hospital a few wards over. Don't worry about them."

Aki couldn't help it. She rested her head against the cool glass of her window and wondered if they would have to live farther away from their friends and families than before. "Can't it stay open with a new staff? Another place could end up with too many patients and then none of them would get any care."

"She has a point, dear," her mother said.

Her father looked in the mirror at her. "Do you want me to try to keep it open instead? But, Aki, that place- you were experimented on!"

"I don't care. I was already different. Practically a witch, right?" she said bitterly. "At least Divine accepted that about me."

"I'm sorry," he apologized again. "You aren't a witch. I mean to say, no matter what you are, I love you."

"Then try to fix the institution that's there," Aki insisted. "Instead of just letting that place be abandoned."

He nodded. "Okay. I'll speak with the hospital's board and a few friends and see what can be done."

"Good." She realized they were almost home. Before going to her bedroom or anywhere else, she wanted to go into the garden, which had always been her favorite place. She would breathe in the natural aroma of a thousand different flowers and try to remember who she was and figure out who she wanted to be.

Kiryu lifted his head and looked around the room. Yuusei must have left the curtains open. The room was too bright for him to fall back asleep. He noticed a picture turned around on the bedside table, so he reached out and turned it back around with one finger. Jack and Kazama were standing together in it, the former with his trademark scowl, the latter smiling and throwing a peace sign. I'm in... Jack's room? He pushed the picture over, making it clack loudly against the table. Or I could be hallucinating. I'll ask Yuusei later.

He sat up and stretched his arms. His joints popped, not surprising considering how long he'd lain there inactive. He still didn't feel like getting up. Rather, getting up seemed no better than staying in bed. I should've jumped, he mused. This is so pointless. There's no reason for me to be alive. He looked out the window once more. If this building had enough floors, he could find its rooftop and finish what he'd let Yuusei talk him out of. Or he could just borrow one of Jack's razors. He decided on that course of action and dragged himself down the hall to the bathroom. He opened the door and searched through the medicine cabinet. Aspirin, shaving cream, an extra bar of soap, but no razors. Kiryu scowled and slammed the cabinet shut. "Why don't any of you trust me!?" he shouted.

The door opened wider behind him and two more faces showed up in the mirror: Jack's and Yuusei's. "You're unsupervised for less than a minute and you decide to off yourself," Jack said. "So why do you think!?"

"Don't yell at him, Jack."

"It's my apartment, I'll yell if I want," he muttered.

Kiryu tilted his head. "Why am I sleeping in your room, Jack?"

"The guest room doesn't have a window," Jack answered. "Yuusei didn't think you'd like that."

"Oh... I probably wouldn't have." He frowned. "I wasn't trying to do anything, I just wanted to- cut my hair. It got a lot longer."

"Whatever you say." Jack tugged on a stand of his hair. "You do look more like a girl than ever."

"Do not," Kiryu pouted.

"Come eat something, Kiryu," Yuusei said. "You were asleep for a long time so you must be hungry."

"Not really."

"Did he say it like a question?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "Come on. Food time." He picked Kiryu up and carried him to the kitchen, Yuusei trailing behind.

"Nooot huuungryyyy," Kiryu whined.

"Don't worry, I didn't let Jack cook," Yuusei said.

Jack threw Yuusei a threatening look but was too busy trying to get Kiryu to sit still to do anything more than that. "I'll have you know Kazama loved my cooking."

"Kazama?" Kiryu blinked. "Did you two finally get together?"

Jack and Yuusei exchanged a long look. "Yes, we did," Jack said.

"...Good for you," he said. It felt like another knife in his heart, knowing Jack was dating a cop. If he could just reach that knife and give it a fatal twist...

"Kiryu, look, he's a good person. I'm not asking for you to like him, but at the very least don't waste your time hating him. He helped us out the night we got evidence on Divine, you know."

"Really? A cop actually helping someone?" Kiryu snorted. "That'll be the day."

Yuusei put a bowl of grapes in front of Kiryu and sat down next to him. "It's true. And he's asked about you ever since. You should give him a chance, when you're ready."

"Whatever." Kiryu stared at the bowl. "I don't like grapes."

"That's why Martha always hid them when you came over," Jack said. "Because of how much you hated them. You'd eat a whole bunch to save the rest of us from their terrible taste."

"Yeah, okay, so I don't hate grapes! If I don't want to eat them, I won't eat them!" He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

"Yuusei, keep your dumb boyfriend from starving to death, I have a date." Jack threw a jacket over his shoulder and shot another look at Kiryu. "Stop being an idiot. After everything we did to get you out, you really think we'll let you die? Get real."

When he was gone, Yuusei took Kiryu's hand gently and held it to his cheek. "You aren't feeling any better, huh?"

Kiryu picked up a grape and squished it between two fingers. "Do I have to say it again? I don't feel better, I don't feel worse, I don't feel."

Yuusei wiped the grape remains from his hand with a paper towel. "If you don't yet, that's okay. You went through a lot. You're seeing a new psychiatrist next week who's going to adjust your medicine and that could help too. You'll be okay, Kiryu."

"Such a fucking optimist." Kiryu shook his head. "You can't see into my future when I don't know if I'll even have a future."

"Kiryu." Yuusei grabbed his face and made him meet his eyes. "You are going to have a future. Now eat a grape."

"I need a new place," Jack said, stirring his coffee. Kazama made himself a cup of tea with the rest of the hot water and sat down on the couch.

"It is getting pretty crowded and you had to give up your room. Which was very thoughtful of you, by the way."

Jack nodded. "It was. But that's not what I meant. My lease runs out at the end of the month and-" He frowned. "I can't afford the rent there anymore. Unless I get a job." He looked at Kazama seriously. "That never works out for me."

"I can't imagine why." Kazama put his mug down and smiled at him. "It can't be because of your royalty complex."

"Kazama, this is a legitimate problem!"

"No, it's fine," Kazama said. "All you need to do is move in with me." From the start, Kazama'd thought Jack's bad news was just good news in disguise. If he could live with his best friend and boyfriend, it would be a dream come true. And Jack really wasn't cut out for the regular working life. Kazama didn't mind taking care of him financially.

"You mean that?" Jack smiled back and gave him a bitter coffee-flavored kiss.

"Of course."

"Then I accept your gracious offer." He paused. "But what about Yuusei and Kiryu and Crow? They can't really go back to the orphanage anymore."

"They'll be back at college soon, right? At least, I assume Yuusei and Crow are going back."

"I hope Kiryu's well enough for Yuusei to go back," Jack sighed. "Or else he's going to keep holding him back from being a scientist and discovering a new energy source or whatever."

"I don't think Yuusei views it that way," Kazama said.

"Yeah, I'm well aware."

Kazama could tell how annoyed thinking about this was making Jack, so he hurriedly said, "Anyway, we can help them out. There are plenty of cheap places if you know where to look, and Crow already has a job, so there's that."

"That sounds fair enough." Jack grinned. "Not everyone is lucky enough to have a dashing boyfriend like me." He leaned in closer. "I'd like to show my appreciation."

"That makes me the lucky one," Kazama said back, right before Jack claimed his lips.

Kiryu was stuffed full of grapes when Yuusei let him go back to bed. He ran his fingers through his hair restlessly, wondering if Crow would cut it for him since he was good at that sort of thing. His mind drifted from his hair to how soft the sheets were. They were almost too soft. Kiryu felt like he was about to sink through a cloud and break apart on the ground below. He held on tight to the sheets to keep himself in the air. "How does Jack sleep like this?" he groaned into the mattress. Then the cloud dissipated and he was somehow on the ground. "Ow..."

He climbed back into bed and waited to see if Yuusei would come to check out what the loud bump had been. A minute passed and no one came. Okay, round two. He gave the cloud-mattress a warning glare and laid all the way back down. This time it behaved and he was able to fall asleep.

When he woke up again, he sensed eyes on him before he'd opened his. He stared out through narrowed slits at two small figures standing in the doorway. Children. Why am I seeing children now?

"Mr. Kiryu?" the girl said. "I hope we didn't wake you up."

Crow appeared behind them. "Hey, Kiryu."

"Crow, why are there children?"

"These are the two I've been babysitting. This is Nico and this is West. They wanted to bring you something."

Kiryu was unsure of how to react. He remembered Crow talking about them a little but they didn't have anything to do with him. This was like an ambush and he gave Crow a sour look to made sure he knew it.

"I'll take them home in a minute. Play nice, Kiryu," Crow warned before leaving them alone.

They came to his bedside, hands outstretched. "I'm sorry we came without asking you first," Nico said. "But Crow has told us a lot about you and we're really happy you're home again."

"We made you cards!" West added. "Here you go."

Kiryu took the cards examined them. Typical little kid drawings and sentiments. "Why?"

"Why what?" West asked.

"Why did you make me cards? I'm not Crow, you don't know me."

"But that doesn't mean we can't be worried about you. If you're important to Crow, you're important to us!" Nico insisted.

Kiryu looked back at the cards. He almost said he didn't want them, but then Crow would get mad at him and he didn't feel like dealing with him getting up in his face and chirping about the importance of being nice to little kids. "Thanks, I guess." He put them on the bedside table on top of the picture he'd knocked down.

The next thing he knew, West had climbed into bed and was sitting beside him, cards of a different sort in hand. "Crow told me you used to be the best at Duel Monsters! I wanna duel you!"

"West, I told you, he's probably tired and doesn't have his deck with him anyway." Nico pulled on West's arm lightly, trying to get him off the bed. "Sorry," she apologized to Kiryu. "Crow got him obsessed with this game and now he plays all the time. He's trying to do the handless combo Crow said you were good at."

"It's fine." Kiryu was remembering all sorts of things now. Duel Monsters was the reason he'd started calling himself and his friends Team Satisfaction. They would enter local tournaments together and win easily, no matter who they were up against. Jack would use his power deck, Crow his speed deck, Yuusei his deck of monsters who were weak until joined in powerful combinations. Kiryu's handless combo always caught his opponents off-guard. He had no idea where those cards were anymore. "Let me look at your deck, anyway."

"Okay!" West said brightly, handing it over.

Kiryu looked through the cards, unimpressed. He didn't have most of the key cards necessary for the combo he was going for. Still... Kiryu looked through it again and saw how it could work together, not as Kiryu would use it, but perhaps in West's own way. He nodded and handed them back. "Not bad. I'm sure you'll go far with Crow as your teacher."

West accepted his cards and scrambled off the bed. "Will you duel me one day, maybe?"

Kiryu thought about it. Making a promise about "one day" meant expecting to be around for it. "I don't know."

"Well, think about it, okay?"

"Sure." Kiryu shrugged.

Nico patted him on the arm. "You can go back to sleep now. If it's okay, could we could back and see you sometime?"

"It doesn't matter to me. If Crow brings you, I'll see you."

"Thank you!" they said together before leaving.

I guess I at least have to stay alive until then, he sighed. He didn't want to be responsible for traumatizing a couple of kids expecting to see him outside of a coffin.

Having slept as much as he had at this point, he doubted he'd drift off again anytime soon. With nothing else to do, he looked around the room more thoroughly than before. By the armchair was a stack of physics textbooks. Kiryu guessed Yuusei sometimes skimmed them while he was sleeping.

"Oh yeah..." Kiryu felt another stab of guilt as he realized just how much he'd wrecked Yuusei's college career so far. He left the bedroom and found Yuusei in the kitchen, typing away on a laptop.

"Hey, I want to talk to you," he said.

Yuusei shut the laptop and looked up attentively. "Sure, Kiryu. What is it?"

"I was wondering, are you going back to college next semester?"

Yuusei hesitated. "Do you not want me to?"

"No! I mean, I want you to go if that's what you want. I want you to live your life the way you would if I didn't exist."

"But you do exist, which is how I like it, by the way."

"Go to college."

Yuusei pulled Kiryu close and kissed him. "Fine. That is what I want. But I'm not going to live on campus. I talked to Crow and we're going to find an apartment close to the college and the three of us will live there. You can go back to college if you want, but you don't have to. You can take time and figure out what you want to do with your life. Have you ever really thought about it?"

"Not really." Kiryu rested his chin on Yuusei's shoulder. "Only that I was gonna marry you."

Yuusei leaned his head against Kiryu's. "I think that's a great plan."

Kiryu rolled his eyes. "You would. But I'm not going to marry you until I deserve you."

For once, Yuusei didn't argue with him. "Okay. I'll wait as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable marrying me."

"You're too good for me," Kiryu mumbled. "If I were you, I would've broken up with me a long time ago. Probably that first time you touched my scars and I broke your nose."

"And Jack tried to physically remove you from the orphanage," Yuusei said. "Thank goodness Crow was able to calm him down."

"You didn't get mad at me or anything."

"You didn't mean it." Yuusei shrugged. "I can put up with whatever you throw at me, literally or otherwise. Always have, always will."

"Such an idiot." Kiryu positioned himself on Yuusei's lap, facing him. "Say, you know what we haven't done for awhile?"

"Is that supposed to be a hard question?" Yuusei smirked, feeling the boner Kiryu was starting to get.

"My darling genius. Come on, let's fuck."

"No, one second." Yuusei stopped Kiryu from pulling off their clothes.

He whined. "What?"

"First, I want to hear you say you're not a corpse, because I'm not a necrophiliac."

"You would be for me." Kiryu kissed him, but Yuusei didn't let go of his hands. "Fine. I'm… a living corpse. That's sort of alive."

"That's a good start. Now, where were we?"

Kiryu's eyes lit up. "Let's fuck in Jack's bed."

"Kiryu!"

"Or not." Right, no more acting without thinking and trampling on other people's feelings. Old habits died harder than he did, apparently.

Kiryu dragged Yuusei to the floor once they were out of their clothes. "This is fine, too. You ready for moan for me?"

"Only if you make me."

"That won't even be a challenge. Are you trying to bore me back to death?"

"Already told you, not a necrophiliac."

"Then, I guess I will have to stay alive."

If the choice was between Yuusei's embrace or death's, there was no competition.

I can't believe I've reached the end of this story. I've had such a wonderful time writing it, and though I could go on, I feel like I told the story I set out to tell. Thanks to everyone who supported me, especially the people who reviewed and the ones who encouraged me on tumblr! The truth is, I almost stopped posting this story halfway through, because it seemed like no one cared. But then I was proved wrong through the messages of you kind people.

So now that the story is complete, what do you think? I already have an idea for my next 5D's story, but I also want to focus more on my original writing, so I'm not sure when I'll begin it. Anyway, thanks once again for reading! Let's never let this fandom fade away!