Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

After an argument with the on the difference between a "manly bonding story with mystical items" (my term) and a "story about touchy boy love" (her term), it was decided that this fic has shounen-ai subtext. Just so's ya know.
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Ryou shivered and wrapped his arms around himself as another gust of wind rocked him on his feet.  It was far too cold up here on the battlements of the castle--especially since it had been mildly warm the past few days on the island.

As he took a step forward, trying to find a place that would shelter him from the wind, something crunched under his foot.  Ryou glanced down.  Gold glimmered on the stones; pieces of the broken Millennium Puzzle lying scattered and abandoned.

Yugi! he thought, glancing about blindly for the teen.  He had seemed to be back to himself after Tea had dueled Mai, but....

The spirit had taken him over again right after Kaiba's loss to Pegasus.  And now the Puzzle had been taken apart.  Yugi...wouldn't have been driven back into his earlier despair by that, right? he thought with a sickening feeling.

Ryou hugged himself a little tighter at the memory of the duel.  When Yugi had mentioned Pegasus' Millennium Eye, something cold tickled the back of his neck.  He didn't understand the reaction, but he hadn't liked it.

Further down, a shape against the moonlight caught his eye, and Ryou half-ran to the edge of the castle's walls.

Yugi stood there, clutching the battlement and staring at the island below.  His expression was utterly defeated.  Ryou felt his stomach clench.

"Yugi..." he whispered.  The smaller boy didn't turn, but his shoulders tensed.

"Bakura," he said.  Ryou took a step forward, standing to Yugi's left.

"It's me," he assured.  For some reason, he needed to make sure Yugi knew it was him, not anything else.  "We have to go inside.  It's freezing out here."  He placed a hand on Yugi's arm.

The boy was burning up, so much so that Ryou drew his hand back.  "I can't go back in there," Yugi said to him.  "I can't ever go back."

"Don't be ridiculous, Yugi," he said.  "You can't stay out here.  You'll get sick."

He could see the corner of Yugi's mouth curl up, and the horrible expression on that normally happy face made Ryou shiver more than the cold.  "That would take too long," he said quietly.  "I'm not sure I could stop it like that."

The clenching in his stomach had turned to a knot and nausea.  "Yugi, please.  Get away from here.  You can't do this."

Yugi finally turned to face him, and the look on his face was no longer bitter, but calm.  "Yes, I can.  I have to, Bakura.  You understand, even if the others won't."

His wrist began to ache again.  He grabbed Yugi's arm, ignoring the heat boiling off of him.  "No, Yugi.  You're stronger than I am.  You can fight!"

Yugi shook his head, but didn't try to remove Ryou's hand.  "No, I really can't.  I tried, but it didn't work.  I said I'd never duel again, but then...after Tea fought so hard for me...I thought that it wouldn't matter.  That I could control it long enough to get my Grandpa back.  But you saw what happened in the castle.  It was still there.  It'll always be there.  They live inside us, you said so yourself."

Another blast of wind rushed across the roof, cutting through Ryou's thin shirt and making Yugi sway on his feet.  Ryou gripped his arm tighter, words failing him at the moment he needed them the most.  "Please don't, Yugi.  You broke the Puzzle.  That has to be the end of it.  Think about Joey!  He may be getting better, but he needs your support!  And Tea and Tristan and me--are you going to leave us?"  He stared at Yugi's calm face, growing more desperate with each second.  "Are you really going to abandon your grandfather to Pegasus?"

Yugi looked down at that, and the tension in Ryou's chest began to ease.  Maybe he could do something useful after all.

When Yugi looked up, tears were beginning to brim in his eyes, but that horridly calm look was still on his face.  "I'm sorry," he said.  "I wanted to save him so much.  But I can't do it with this evil inside me.  I have to get rid of it now, before it hurts anyone else."  He tugged on his arm, trying to get free.

Ryou held as tightly as he could.  "Don't do this, Yugi," he pleaded.  "You're the first friend I've had in so long.  I don't want to lose you."

"But you understand," Yugi persisted, looking him at him straight.

Ryou had to shut his eyes.  He did understand, that was the worst of it.  He knew what was driving Yugi, even if their motives were different.  Even while he wanted to drag the teen away from the wall and back inside where it was safe and warm, another part of him was whispering to let him go, let him dive over and rid the world of another monster that hid in these golden objects.  He felt shamed slightly, that he had been acting from a purely selfish desire to be free, while Yugi wanted to protect the others. 

While all this was going through his mind, the boy had managed to break out of his grasp and climb up onto the edge of the wall.

"Don't jump, Yugi," he asked, his voice hollow in the chill air.  "I don't want you to go."

Yugi gave him a look, part sympathy and part sorrow.  "Goodbye, Bakura."

Ryou lunged for him, but the boy had already jumped.  "Yugi!" he screamed, staring over the wall of the castle into the shadows.  The forest below obscured his view, but he could picture the body, broken and twisted on the hard ground below.

Ryou collapsed to his knees, mindlessly clutching the battlement.  It took all his strength not to throw up on the cold stone.  Why him?! he thought wildly.  Why not me?  Why did Yugi's spirit save me and do nothing for him?  He squeezed his eyes shut, tears beginning to leak out.  Why didn't I manage to save him?

"Because you're useless, landlord," a familiar voice answered, and Ryou's eyes shot open in terror.  The spirit--his spirit--was standing there, the arrogantly angry smirk on his face as always.

"N-no," he whispered.  "You're..."

The spirit lunged forward and gripped Ryou's arm harshly.  "This didn't stop me," he hissed.  "Why did you think some mere Pharaoh's trick would?"

Pharaoh? Ryou thought disjointedly, staring wide-eyed at his wrist.  The wound had opened again, and blood was dripping down his arm, wet and sticky and still so cold.  Yugi's death had turned him to ice.

The spirit simply looked down at him, a twisted smirk playing on its lips.

~~~~~

Ryou woke up, damp with sweat and gasping for breath.  His hands immediately flew to his chest, where the Millennium Ring lay, cold as ever even though he was too hot.  He sat up, wrenching the cord over his neck, and dropped it at the foot of the bed.  He just sat there for a minute, struggling to calm his breathing.  Dreaming, I was dreaming, he repeated.  Yugi's alive.  Everything's okay.

There was something else tugging at his mind, the memory of...another dream?  Something about Tristan and Tea....

Then he saw his hands.  There was dirt on them, in the cracks and under the nails.  And...his palms burned.

Oh, no...he thought.  Ryou flung aside the covers in the guest room Pegasus had furnished and ran out.  It wasn't until he'd knocked at the door to Yugi's room that he realized he was still barefoot, the way he'd been sleeping.

There was no sound in the bedroom for a time, and Ryou was about to run to Joey and have him help search the grounds when the door opened.  A very tired-looking Yugi stood there, whole and alive.  Ryou restrained the urge to throw his arms around the boy to make sure that he was real.

"Bakura?" Yugi asked sleepily.  "What're you doing up?"

"I...I had a bad dream," he answered, hiding his hands behind his back out of habit.  "I was afraid it was true.  I'm sorry to wake you."

Yugi shook his head, trying to stifle a yawn and failing.  "That's okay, I was having this really weird dream..." he said.  "I think I'm glad you woke me up, actually."

Ryou fidgeted, hyperaware of the fact that it was almost morning, he was in the middle of a castle corridor, and Yugi looked ready to fall asleep on his feet.  "I'm sorry," he apologized again.  "I'll let you get back to bed."

Yugi nodded and yawned again.  "'Night, Bakura," he said.  As Ryou turned, he added with simple curiosity, "Oh.  What did you dream?"

Ryou stared down at the floor.  His feet looked very pale against the dark stone.  "I...dreamed you died," he said quietly.  "You broke the Puzzle and jumped off the castle and I couldn't stop you in time."

Yugi blinked several times, and the sleepiness in his eyes fell away.  He reached out and touched Ryou's arm.  "I'm fine," he said, voice full of conviction.  Ryou looked up at his eyes.  "I promise, I'm okay now.  You don't have to worry."  He frowned.  "Was that all?"

Ryou paused, then shook his head.  "The spirit was back," he said, even quieter.

Yugi's eyes were warm and full of comfort, and it made the dream worth it just to see that look meant for him.  "Do you want to sleep in here tonight?" he asked.  "I don't snore," he added with a sleepy grin.

Ryou smiled back.  He really didn't want to be alone in his room in this giant fortress that belonged to a madman, after the shaking thought that his spirit might not really be dead after all.  He'd rather be curled up in a blanket in Yugi's room, warm and protected.  And maybe, he thought, while I'm gone someone will steal the Ring from my room.  Let them be cursed.  Then he felt ashamed for thinking that, and took it back.

Ryou was about to accept Yugi's offer, when he remembered his hands.  There was still dirt--at least, he hoped it was dirt, it was too dark to tell--on them, from something.  "Thank you, Yugi, but I'll be fine."

The teen frowned at him again.  "Are you sure, Bakura?"  Ryou nodded.  "I can walk you back, if you want."

"No, you need to get to sleep," Ryou said.  "You have all that dueling tomorrow."

Yugi nodded in agreement and yawned for the third time, this one ending in something like a squeak.  He blushed as Ryou smiled.  "Night, then."

"Good night, Yugi."  At least the dream was wrong about you, he thought with relief.  He turned and began walking back to his room, starting to shiver in cool air of the castle.  Once he was around the corner, he heard Yugi's door close.

After Ryou got back to his room, he spent the next half-hour scrubbing his hands.  When they were clean, he crawled back under the covers and fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

The Ring still lay at the foot of the bed, gleaming slightly in the gloom.