Bland emotionless voice: Silverscreamer does not own YuGi Oh.
Silverscreamer: .* d'oh!
Chapter Two: Planning for Tomorrow
Ryou went straight up the stairs to his room and locked the door behind him. He leaned against the door and sighed, only partially from relief. Bakura had kept his temper. at least long enough for Ryou to get upstairs, which was longer than usual. He took off his heavy winter coat followed quickly by his thin school jacket. As he did, he heard Bakura and Malik voices from downstairs, though he couldn't make out anything that was said.
Bakura sounded so furious... Ryou didn't want him to be mad at him.
Ryou sighed and moved to the thermostat. He was so cold after getting wet from and then being out in the snow. Shivering, he peeled off his cold, damp shirt. It was good to be home in his room with the heater going, but leaving his drenched clothes on wouldn't help him any. At first he kept his gaze turned upwards at the ceiling, not wishing to see the damage. Then he looked down at his throbbing stomach. His flesh in the area he'd been kicked was a brilliant red and beginning to bruise in places. He sighed once again, fighting back tears. Just as he was moving towards his closet to get his favorite white sweater, he heard it. Footsteps barreling up the stairs towards his room.
Bakura was coming.
He quickly pulled his sweater on and turned to the door even as the knob jiggled furiously. Bakura was trying to get in, and obviously wasn't pleased at his failure. When the doorknob wouldn't turn, there was a loud banging on the door. "Ryou!"
The hikari didn't answer. He just moved to his dresser and finished changing out of his wet clothes.
"Ryou! Open this door!" There was a slight pause. "RYOU!! Are you listening to me!?" The banging persisted.
It was almost too much for the poor boy. His head had already been pounding, and now it was getting worse. His headache rose in intensity with every loud bang on the door. Finally he took a deep breath and called out to his yami. "Yes! Yes I hear you. Please stop banging!"
There was silence, then Bakura growled through the door. "Open this door. NOW!"
"No." Ryou whispered.
An angry growl penetrated the door. "Open this door now. Or by Ra you WILL regret it!"
"I don't feel good. I just want to rest." Ryou swallowed, frightened by this new threat.
"Ryou." Bakura's voice sounded odd. Angry. but with something else there too.
"It was very cold today. I think I might have caught something." Ryou replied before his yami could say anything more.
There was a long silence. It felt to Ryou as though it lasted for hours, but in all reality only took a few moments. Finally, there was an exasperated sigh from the other side of the door. "FINE! But you'll get it later. You pathetic hikari!"
Ryou listened to the retreating footsteps and sat on the edge of his bed. He stared numbly at the ground a million thoughts fighting for attention in his throbbing head. Why did this have to happen to him? If it happened to anyone else, they'd be able to do something about it. "Bakura's right." he whispered. "I am weak. and pathetic." With a sigh, he stood and moved to the door that connected his bedroom with his bathroom.
He stared at his ghastly reflection. He had been right... Though he wished he hadn't been. A reddish-purple circle was forming around his left eye, which was already swelling shut. Then there was the fact that the left corner of his mouth was swollen, his lower lip cut, and dried blood was smeared across his chin. How could he possibly keep the others from seeing this? Yugi would be upset. Tea shocked and bothersome about it. Joey and Tristan would probably try to get the name of who did it to him. And Yugi's yami. He cared about Yugi and anything that upsets Yugi also upsets him. Who knows what he'd try to do to handle the situation?
Yami (Yami Yugi, of course) was so unlike Bakura. He cared deeply for his hikari. But Bakura. Ryou quickly tried to shove away the thought he had started. Turning on the faucet he watched the water as it ran into the sink. He would never say that Bakura didn't care for him. He would just never admit to the fact. He just. had his own way of showing it. By trying to make Ryou tougher. Trying to make him more 'manly'. He just wanted Ryou to be able and willing to look after himself.
Sometimes the lessons got out of control, though.
For that reason, Ryou feared him. He really didn't want Bakura to see him weakened by something like this. Oh, it hurt very badly and he didn't think he could take it much longer. But he couldn't show weakness to his yami. He just couldn't. Bakura would surely punish him for being childish. For being the pathetic, weak boy that they both knew he was. He didn't want to be punished.
Leaning forward, he splashed warm water onto his face, attempting to wash away most of the blood from his lips and chin. Once he'd finished, he dabbed gently at his face with a towel- wincing in pain as the soft fabric pushed or brushed against sensitive, swelling skin. He looked back in his reflection. Both eye and lip had swollen. "I need to get some ice on this." he sighed and left the bathroom.
Unlocking the door, Ryou pushed it open slowly. Peeking his head out, he glanced around. Bakura was no where in sight. Creeping silently down the stairs, he kept his ears open in case Bakura was moving around somewhere. For the longest time, he didn't hear anything. Then, as he neared the door to the kitchen, he heard pacing in the living room. He stopped and listened for a while. Bakura was muttering to himself, but Ryou couldn't make anything out. It sounded like he was speaking in ancient Egyptian. Ryou swallowed, glad that he didn't have to pass that room to get to the kitchen.
Dodging inside he moved quickly to the freezer. He reached in and pulled out two icepacks. He kept a small supply of them back in one corner of the freezer. They come in handy more often than he wished them to, and after a while he decided it would be easier to have them made already so he didn't have to worry about it when in pain.
He was about to leave the kitchen when he thought of something else. Turning back to the fridge, he also grabbed a sandwich and a can of cola out of the fridge. It was getting late after all, and he was hungry. Besides. he'd never heal if he didn't keep up his strength.
Carrying his supplies up the stairs he managed to move without making hardly a sound. Once in his room again, he dumped his supplies onto the bed and glanced around. He had a sudden thought. Moving quickly from the room, he went through his parents' room and into their bathroom. It was probably a stupid idea. but it might just work. He opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out his mother's foundation. He studied the makeup for a few moments before quickly retreating to his room again.
He shut the door behind him, but didn't lock it this time. For some strange reason, he had the feeling that Bakura wasn't going to bother him. Sitting on his bed, he opened the soda and took a drink before putting one of the cold icepacks against his eye. It stung like crazy at first, but eventually the extreme cold numbed the pain. He held it gently against his face as he ate the sandwich, careful not to stretch his lips too far apart and risk making the split bleed even more.
Once he was done eating, he hid the evidence under his bed. He glanced about his room silently before switching on his radio to play some soft music. Something to help calm him down and dull his emotional agony, even if there was still the physical pain. After a few moments, he lay down on his back. With a sigh, he placed the other icepack on his lip and closed his good eye.
He must have dozed off, because the next thing he knew he opened his eyes and found that he was curled up on his side. The icepacks had slipped off his face, which, of course, meant that they were doing him no good whatsoever. Sitting up, he looked at the clock. He'd been asleep for maybe half an hour. Dropping the icepacks onto the floor he pushed them under his bed, then took the makeup he'd taken from the other room into his bathroom.
He hesitated for several minutes before he finally sighed and applied some around his eye. It hurt to touch the bruised flesh, but he had to do something about the black eye. As time passed and he applied more of the makeup, the discoloration slowly disappeared. Pushing some of his silver- white bangs out of the way, he studied his face. Leaning his face close to the mirror, he looked it over. It was good. He smiled slightly. Good thing he got his pale complexion from his mother.
Satisfied, he washed the makeup off of his face and carefully stashed it in a drawer. He yawned and, rubbing the back of his neck, went back into his bedroom. He was too tired to change out of his clothes, so instead he just turned off the lights and went towards his bed. Stopping in the middle of the room, he stared down at the Millennium Ring silently. Then, taking it off from around his neck, he placed it on his dresser.
Yawning again and wincing in pain, he moved slowly to his bed. It had been yet another taxing day. How long had this been going on? He wondered. It felt like forever. But it hadn't been so bad until just a month or two ago. That's when things really got bad. As he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up tightly around his shoulders, he wondered why it was that the world hated him so terribly.
He closed his eyes against a flow of tears and tried to sleep. It eluded him, though. He put his arms under his head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts about how it could be with Bakura swirled and danced in his mind. Why couldn't he have what Yugi had with Yami? He knew that he and Bakura were friends, but he wanted Bakura to be kinder to him. No more of this 'pathetic mortal' stuff.
A knock on his bedroom door startled him out of these thoughts. "Ryou? You still awake?" Bakura demanded to know.
"Yeah." Ryou replied.
Silence. Then, "Are you going to open the door?" He sounded annoyed.
"It's not locked anymore." Ryou told him and rolled onto his left side, despite how it hurt his head, putting his back to the door.
It opened and shut again and Ryou listened to Bakura's footsteps as he moved toward the bed. Soon, he was standing over him, casting his shadow across Ryou due to the small bit of light that entered through the cracks around the bedroom door. Ryou didn't look up at him. He was afraid of what he might see. A long silence enveloped them. He couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. He could sometimes sense what Bakura was feeling or thinking, but he couldn't now. He was too hurt and tired.
Finally, Bakura broke the stillness. "You took off the Ring." He mumbled as he turned away and moved towards the item. "Why?"
Ryou shrugged as he lay there. What was it that he heard in Bakura's voice? "I don't know."
Bakura was silent, staring at his hikari in the dark. Then, he turned away, and disappeared into his Millennium Ring for the night.
Ryou closed his eyes. and sleep finally embraced him.
~~~~~~~~
Oy. Poor tormented Ryou. I feel so mean. .* Don't you just hate when that happens? *sigh* Ah well.
Again. You'd better keep those reviews coming if you want to see what happens next!!! ~_^ *wink!*
Speaking of reviews. thank you to those of you who did! *glomps Amber* And thanks to you too, for the e-mail since your silly net connection won't let you review. And now a word to each of you who reviewed. (I read another fic where the author did this. thought it was nice. So I'll do it by putting the name of the person I'm talking to and then my comment to that person.)
Wolfyu = Ryou's definitely one of my three fav characters too. But he's just such a target for people to beat up, ya know? And like I said before, you can't have a story without conflict! Thanks for your stamp of approval.
aneme-child = Eep? *blinks and stares down at you* Erm. no groveling please. It. er. It isn't that good. is it? ~_~() Don't worry. So long as you keep saying you like it, I'll keep it coming.
SK1234 = Short and to the point without any flowery language. Cool! I'm glad you think it's good work. *beams happily*
And who could forget Amber.
*Screams and runs away to hide* Don't hurt me!!! See!? I kept my word! Here's the new chapter! And hopefully the third chapter won't take too long for me to put up! And yes. Malik is an amusing psycho twit isn't he? ^_^()
Silverscreamer: .* d'oh!
Chapter Two: Planning for Tomorrow
Ryou went straight up the stairs to his room and locked the door behind him. He leaned against the door and sighed, only partially from relief. Bakura had kept his temper. at least long enough for Ryou to get upstairs, which was longer than usual. He took off his heavy winter coat followed quickly by his thin school jacket. As he did, he heard Bakura and Malik voices from downstairs, though he couldn't make out anything that was said.
Bakura sounded so furious... Ryou didn't want him to be mad at him.
Ryou sighed and moved to the thermostat. He was so cold after getting wet from and then being out in the snow. Shivering, he peeled off his cold, damp shirt. It was good to be home in his room with the heater going, but leaving his drenched clothes on wouldn't help him any. At first he kept his gaze turned upwards at the ceiling, not wishing to see the damage. Then he looked down at his throbbing stomach. His flesh in the area he'd been kicked was a brilliant red and beginning to bruise in places. He sighed once again, fighting back tears. Just as he was moving towards his closet to get his favorite white sweater, he heard it. Footsteps barreling up the stairs towards his room.
Bakura was coming.
He quickly pulled his sweater on and turned to the door even as the knob jiggled furiously. Bakura was trying to get in, and obviously wasn't pleased at his failure. When the doorknob wouldn't turn, there was a loud banging on the door. "Ryou!"
The hikari didn't answer. He just moved to his dresser and finished changing out of his wet clothes.
"Ryou! Open this door!" There was a slight pause. "RYOU!! Are you listening to me!?" The banging persisted.
It was almost too much for the poor boy. His head had already been pounding, and now it was getting worse. His headache rose in intensity with every loud bang on the door. Finally he took a deep breath and called out to his yami. "Yes! Yes I hear you. Please stop banging!"
There was silence, then Bakura growled through the door. "Open this door. NOW!"
"No." Ryou whispered.
An angry growl penetrated the door. "Open this door now. Or by Ra you WILL regret it!"
"I don't feel good. I just want to rest." Ryou swallowed, frightened by this new threat.
"Ryou." Bakura's voice sounded odd. Angry. but with something else there too.
"It was very cold today. I think I might have caught something." Ryou replied before his yami could say anything more.
There was a long silence. It felt to Ryou as though it lasted for hours, but in all reality only took a few moments. Finally, there was an exasperated sigh from the other side of the door. "FINE! But you'll get it later. You pathetic hikari!"
Ryou listened to the retreating footsteps and sat on the edge of his bed. He stared numbly at the ground a million thoughts fighting for attention in his throbbing head. Why did this have to happen to him? If it happened to anyone else, they'd be able to do something about it. "Bakura's right." he whispered. "I am weak. and pathetic." With a sigh, he stood and moved to the door that connected his bedroom with his bathroom.
He stared at his ghastly reflection. He had been right... Though he wished he hadn't been. A reddish-purple circle was forming around his left eye, which was already swelling shut. Then there was the fact that the left corner of his mouth was swollen, his lower lip cut, and dried blood was smeared across his chin. How could he possibly keep the others from seeing this? Yugi would be upset. Tea shocked and bothersome about it. Joey and Tristan would probably try to get the name of who did it to him. And Yugi's yami. He cared about Yugi and anything that upsets Yugi also upsets him. Who knows what he'd try to do to handle the situation?
Yami (Yami Yugi, of course) was so unlike Bakura. He cared deeply for his hikari. But Bakura. Ryou quickly tried to shove away the thought he had started. Turning on the faucet he watched the water as it ran into the sink. He would never say that Bakura didn't care for him. He would just never admit to the fact. He just. had his own way of showing it. By trying to make Ryou tougher. Trying to make him more 'manly'. He just wanted Ryou to be able and willing to look after himself.
Sometimes the lessons got out of control, though.
For that reason, Ryou feared him. He really didn't want Bakura to see him weakened by something like this. Oh, it hurt very badly and he didn't think he could take it much longer. But he couldn't show weakness to his yami. He just couldn't. Bakura would surely punish him for being childish. For being the pathetic, weak boy that they both knew he was. He didn't want to be punished.
Leaning forward, he splashed warm water onto his face, attempting to wash away most of the blood from his lips and chin. Once he'd finished, he dabbed gently at his face with a towel- wincing in pain as the soft fabric pushed or brushed against sensitive, swelling skin. He looked back in his reflection. Both eye and lip had swollen. "I need to get some ice on this." he sighed and left the bathroom.
Unlocking the door, Ryou pushed it open slowly. Peeking his head out, he glanced around. Bakura was no where in sight. Creeping silently down the stairs, he kept his ears open in case Bakura was moving around somewhere. For the longest time, he didn't hear anything. Then, as he neared the door to the kitchen, he heard pacing in the living room. He stopped and listened for a while. Bakura was muttering to himself, but Ryou couldn't make anything out. It sounded like he was speaking in ancient Egyptian. Ryou swallowed, glad that he didn't have to pass that room to get to the kitchen.
Dodging inside he moved quickly to the freezer. He reached in and pulled out two icepacks. He kept a small supply of them back in one corner of the freezer. They come in handy more often than he wished them to, and after a while he decided it would be easier to have them made already so he didn't have to worry about it when in pain.
He was about to leave the kitchen when he thought of something else. Turning back to the fridge, he also grabbed a sandwich and a can of cola out of the fridge. It was getting late after all, and he was hungry. Besides. he'd never heal if he didn't keep up his strength.
Carrying his supplies up the stairs he managed to move without making hardly a sound. Once in his room again, he dumped his supplies onto the bed and glanced around. He had a sudden thought. Moving quickly from the room, he went through his parents' room and into their bathroom. It was probably a stupid idea. but it might just work. He opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out his mother's foundation. He studied the makeup for a few moments before quickly retreating to his room again.
He shut the door behind him, but didn't lock it this time. For some strange reason, he had the feeling that Bakura wasn't going to bother him. Sitting on his bed, he opened the soda and took a drink before putting one of the cold icepacks against his eye. It stung like crazy at first, but eventually the extreme cold numbed the pain. He held it gently against his face as he ate the sandwich, careful not to stretch his lips too far apart and risk making the split bleed even more.
Once he was done eating, he hid the evidence under his bed. He glanced about his room silently before switching on his radio to play some soft music. Something to help calm him down and dull his emotional agony, even if there was still the physical pain. After a few moments, he lay down on his back. With a sigh, he placed the other icepack on his lip and closed his good eye.
He must have dozed off, because the next thing he knew he opened his eyes and found that he was curled up on his side. The icepacks had slipped off his face, which, of course, meant that they were doing him no good whatsoever. Sitting up, he looked at the clock. He'd been asleep for maybe half an hour. Dropping the icepacks onto the floor he pushed them under his bed, then took the makeup he'd taken from the other room into his bathroom.
He hesitated for several minutes before he finally sighed and applied some around his eye. It hurt to touch the bruised flesh, but he had to do something about the black eye. As time passed and he applied more of the makeup, the discoloration slowly disappeared. Pushing some of his silver- white bangs out of the way, he studied his face. Leaning his face close to the mirror, he looked it over. It was good. He smiled slightly. Good thing he got his pale complexion from his mother.
Satisfied, he washed the makeup off of his face and carefully stashed it in a drawer. He yawned and, rubbing the back of his neck, went back into his bedroom. He was too tired to change out of his clothes, so instead he just turned off the lights and went towards his bed. Stopping in the middle of the room, he stared down at the Millennium Ring silently. Then, taking it off from around his neck, he placed it on his dresser.
Yawning again and wincing in pain, he moved slowly to his bed. It had been yet another taxing day. How long had this been going on? He wondered. It felt like forever. But it hadn't been so bad until just a month or two ago. That's when things really got bad. As he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up tightly around his shoulders, he wondered why it was that the world hated him so terribly.
He closed his eyes against a flow of tears and tried to sleep. It eluded him, though. He put his arms under his head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts about how it could be with Bakura swirled and danced in his mind. Why couldn't he have what Yugi had with Yami? He knew that he and Bakura were friends, but he wanted Bakura to be kinder to him. No more of this 'pathetic mortal' stuff.
A knock on his bedroom door startled him out of these thoughts. "Ryou? You still awake?" Bakura demanded to know.
"Yeah." Ryou replied.
Silence. Then, "Are you going to open the door?" He sounded annoyed.
"It's not locked anymore." Ryou told him and rolled onto his left side, despite how it hurt his head, putting his back to the door.
It opened and shut again and Ryou listened to Bakura's footsteps as he moved toward the bed. Soon, he was standing over him, casting his shadow across Ryou due to the small bit of light that entered through the cracks around the bedroom door. Ryou didn't look up at him. He was afraid of what he might see. A long silence enveloped them. He couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. He could sometimes sense what Bakura was feeling or thinking, but he couldn't now. He was too hurt and tired.
Finally, Bakura broke the stillness. "You took off the Ring." He mumbled as he turned away and moved towards the item. "Why?"
Ryou shrugged as he lay there. What was it that he heard in Bakura's voice? "I don't know."
Bakura was silent, staring at his hikari in the dark. Then, he turned away, and disappeared into his Millennium Ring for the night.
Ryou closed his eyes. and sleep finally embraced him.
~~~~~~~~
Oy. Poor tormented Ryou. I feel so mean. .* Don't you just hate when that happens? *sigh* Ah well.
Again. You'd better keep those reviews coming if you want to see what happens next!!! ~_^ *wink!*
Speaking of reviews. thank you to those of you who did! *glomps Amber* And thanks to you too, for the e-mail since your silly net connection won't let you review. And now a word to each of you who reviewed. (I read another fic where the author did this. thought it was nice. So I'll do it by putting the name of the person I'm talking to and then my comment to that person.)
Wolfyu = Ryou's definitely one of my three fav characters too. But he's just such a target for people to beat up, ya know? And like I said before, you can't have a story without conflict! Thanks for your stamp of approval.
aneme-child = Eep? *blinks and stares down at you* Erm. no groveling please. It. er. It isn't that good. is it? ~_~() Don't worry. So long as you keep saying you like it, I'll keep it coming.
SK1234 = Short and to the point without any flowery language. Cool! I'm glad you think it's good work. *beams happily*
And who could forget Amber.
*Screams and runs away to hide* Don't hurt me!!! See!? I kept my word! Here's the new chapter! And hopefully the third chapter won't take too long for me to put up! And yes. Malik is an amusing psycho twit isn't he? ^_^()