Hehehe. I think my drugged up Yugi scared people ^_^. I wanted to do something to distract Yami and Yugi from Ryou's problems, besides there had to be some reason Yugi was happy all the time. I'm joking, no one hurt me. Oh and I had a great idea for a spin off fic. Anyone think I should continue the Yami and Yugi plot in another story? (Oh and as to how Kaiba knew what crack was… I'll leave that to the imagination)
Yugi: I still say that was mean.
LYB: *huggles Yugi* Please forgive me!! You know I love you!!!
Yugi: weeeellll, okay ^_^
Yami: Are we really going to get our own story?
LYB: Plead with the reviewers.
Yami: PLEEEEAASEEEE!!!! I want to help my Yugi!!!
LYB: Okay, anyway.
Bakura: Yay! A song from my point of view!!
Malik: Hey and I'm in here too.
Cyris: *sarcastically* Oh joy…
*song lyrics*
_song lyric that are spoken as dialog_
**********************************************************************
What A Scene
**********************************************************************
"You know I've been looking everywhere for you?" Malik said walking up behind Yami Bakura who was walking, head down, thumbs hooked through his belt loops down the street. The spirit spun quickly, his body tensed for a fight, his eyes gazing fearfully at the Egyptian. "Whoa, Whoa." Malik said with a smile, patting Bakura's shoulder in a teasing manner. "Down boy, It's me." But Bakura had already begun to relax, the sultry smile assured him it wasn't the one he feared.
"Malik," he sighed.
"Your jumpier then normal." The blonde stated, "It's not like he's coming back." Bakura just shook his head and silently started walking again a if he didn't even care Malik was there. Malik sighed , Bakura obviously didn't want to talk. Then Bakura stopped and glanced back at Malik, as if to say: Are you coming?
Malik came to his side and they started walking down the road together, silently. It was the first company Bakura had since he tore the ring from Ryou's neck; then again, he wanted to be alone for awhile. He had heard Malik come after him on his motorcycle that night at the club, and he had hid until he passed. No one was going to try to talk him into an apology, he had only given the boy what he wanted. But he wasn't stupid enough to think the boy who now looked so perkily happy, actually was. He knew Ryou well enough to know that he didn't handle stress well. The pressure of the bands new found success had fallen like a encumbrance on the boys shoulders, now from a distance he was watching the boy crumble. It was torturing, watching Ryou smile and be the proud lead singer of a hit band, but secretly wander by himself and sit alone by the park lake for hours looking so lonely. Secretly reverting back to himself outside of his new role.
*When your feeling all wrong in the back of your mind again,
How does it feel?
When you drop down everything's all the same.
Oh yeah… *
Bakura could see how frustrated Ryou was. Bakura could have run back to him that minute to lift him up again, tell him to grow up, tough it out, help him stand on his own. But one thing stopped him; Ryou's relationship with you. Well if that was what the boy wanted so be it. Let him beat himself up.
"Okay, you in there, Bakura?" Malik said tapping on the top of the shorter mans head with his knuckles. "Your usually the talkative one."
"What do you want me to say, Malik?" Bakura hissed, "Seriously, what do you want? I know your going to ask me something about the boy so you may as well stop beating around the bush. I'm psychotic, not stupid."
"I never said you were." Malik replied in his calm voice. "And I don't think your psychotic, maybe semi-sociopath but not psychotic."
"Since when have you been a shrink?"
"We both know someone psychotic," Malik's normally expressional face was deadpan, "And you not like him. At least you have some amount of decency; at least you feel things." Bakura cringed, no he wasn't like that son-of-a-bitch rod spirit, he did feel. He felt pain, he felt regret, he suffered. No, Malik was right, he wasn't psychotic, he just suffered. Suffered since he was a child. Saw his father beat his mother till she fled, leaving him the only target for his fathers rage. Raped, torn, striped, beaten, weak. No, he swore he'd never let Ryou be weak like he had been but looking on how he had acted now it had turned out to be a sadistic circle, finally broken to little to late. Just when he thought he had found a way to bury his past, the power in the millennium items, his adoration for his abiou, that psychopath came along. As if he couldn't suffer enough, he had to break him completely. It was fun to be around him at first, how could he have been so blind, so stupid? Oh yes, he hated the yami, he knew the evil he had done went far beyond the card cards and duel monsters. Malik had suffered the dark ones true wrath as well.
"There you go again, lost in thought." Malik laughed slightly.
"You shouldn't have brought that up." Bakura hissed.
Malik's face saddened "I understand, you know I do. I hate him too."
The words were so wonderful to Bakura at that moment. "I know you do," he replied softly, "I know you do."
"Bakura, look, I know what you've been through. I know you've suffered. But your arrogance and fear have gotten ahead of you this time, so has your pride. You shouldn't have done that to Ryou."
Bakura scowled. "It was what Ryou wanted."
Malik ran a hand through his blonde hair, "He was angry Bakura, he was in a rage. He was hurt and sorrowful when he wrote that, he didn't know what he was saying."
"Well he's happy enough now with Yugi." Bakura stressed the last boy's name with annoyance.
Malik shook his head, "No. No, he's not. I've noticed him change."
"I know he has, I've been keeping an eye on him. I know him well, very well. He's my hikari for the love of Ra. He's idealistic, he wanted everything and I wanted him to have it. But the world doesn't work that way, he's finding that out now."
Malik starred at him. "Yeah, that's right. I think he's feeling the stress of the music industry, the stress of being on his own in a big world. He's hurt and confused, but he's buried it under this rock star persona."
Bakura nodded in agreement, "I've noticed."
"You've been watching him?"
"Keeping an eye on him and no I'm not a stalker. Just, every now and then I find myself wandering past the game shop and looking for any sign of him, or going to the park and he'll be there, so I'll hang around there a bit. I'm…" He paused.
"You're worried about him?" Malik smiled.
"Yes." Bakura acknowledged readily.
*Saccharine caffeine nicotine gum,
Oh it tastes sweet but its not for long
And I just think you thought it would be… *
"You love him?"
There was another long pause before Bakura replied in a soft barely audible voice, "yes." Malik nodded slowly, contemplating this.
"Tell me Malik, is it as bad as I think it is?" Bakura said almost ideally, "Now that he's found out the music industry isn't all pretty pictures?"
Malik laughed slightly, a sad distant laugh. "I only do it for fun. Being on stage and everyone looking at me, only me, it a thrill, like going 150 on my motorbike, one wrong move and you screw everything up. You know me, I love the adrenaline. I can take all the record labels bitching in stride with a smile on my face because their pointless bickering amuses me. So none of that pressure gets to me at all." Malik smiled "Then again, I'm no stranger to stress, people hassling me and being mad at me. " Bakura smirked at the comment. "But Ryou?" Malik continued, "He takes everything so seriously. He doesn't like having people angry at him or pushing him."
"That's Ryou, slow and steady. He can't handle it on his own. Well, he will someday, but not right at this moment."
"Exactly." Malik agreed.
*And when your looking for truth on the cover of a magazine,
How does it feel
When you found out what your not going to be?
Oh yeah…*
Malik sighed and shook his head, "You know I'd hate to say this because it'll make your ego inflate more then ever but I think Ryou needs you to push him forward and keep his head level so he doesn't get caught up in how cruel the world can be."
"Fuck my ego." Bakura growled, "I'm miserably without him, the comfort of just seeing him and how beautiful he looked in that old green shirt."
"You told him that?" Malik smiled, amused.
"No, I'd just pin him to the bed." Bakura replied, the same devious smirk on his lips.
"Oh?" Malik gave him a curious look "You and Ryou were closer then I thought."
Bakura sighed, catching the glance. "So what? I slept with him. That mean something?"
Malik raised a brow, "Judging by that look on your face, it means something to you. And if it didn't mean something to you, you wouldn't have brought it up. Oh yeah and you didn't gloat about it."
Bakura gave him a look, "Are you done chastising my sex life yet?"
"All I'm saying it that you screwed up Bakura, your foolish pride has once more stopped you from telling Ryou what you feel."
Bakura shrugged, hanging his head slightly to hid his hurt expression from the blonde by his side. "My hikari is no longer MY hikari, he has Yugi now, he doesn't need me. Even let Yugi throw the ring out into the lake so I've heard."
"This is true. But… Ryou would listen to you."
"He listened to me because he was scared of me."
"Is that so? Then why did he keep the ring on his being for a week after you left?"
Bakura stopped walking, catching Malik by the shoulder "He did that?" Malik looked down at the spirit turned flesh. The former yami's eyes were (from what Malik recalled) for the first time not dark or angry. They were tender and sorrowful, how different from his normal self.
"Yes." Malik nodded.
"I worry about him, Malik." Bakura said softly, his head down and started to walk with his friend again, "I'm afraid for him. I never thought I could be so weak."
"Did you ever think that maybe it's not a weakness at all? Maybe it's a strength."
"A strength?" Bakura scrunched up his face.
Malik grabbed the other man's hand as they walked and pressed into it a flat, long, slim, rectangular wooden box. "Here take this, my sister gave this to me. Isis was afraid for me, and that love of hers was strong enough to heal even a tired soul like mine. Maybe yours is strong enough to heal Ryou's and your own."
Bakura furrowed his brow in questioning as he looked at the odd flat wooden box. He opened his mouth to ask what Malik meant by what he had said but he was cut short by a foot tripping him. Unable to catch his balance in time he felt flat on his face, the box pressed to his chest, while Malik walked by a look of fake innocence plastered on his face. Bakura looked up at him from the ground. "You baka." He hissed.
"Just think about it Bakura." Malik said glancing back, flashing a smile and small wave. "Just think about it." Then he vanished into the crowd.
Bakura stood up and dusted himself off. Of course, as always, Malik was right. The mysterious Egyptian didn't say much but when he did, he usually gave out amazing insight. The pale blonde youth did care, there was no doubt about that and when it was needed, he had no problem loaning out some of the lesson's he had learned in his short but hard life. Bakura looked at the box a moment and decided to wait till he got home to open it. He stuffed the relatively small box into the back of his belt as he would if he were hiding a gun and covered it with his shirt. Malik was right again now, though it was something Bakura already knew; the real world had crashed hard against Ryou without his alter ego to support him.
*They give you your image and the things you believe.
Open your eyes tell me what did you see?
And I just think you thought it surreal.*
Bakura shook his head and kept walking, as much as he worried about the boy he wasn't about to interfere with the boys relationship with Yugi. Still, he wished more then ever he could put some sense into the boy: Take it easy, your destroying yourself. But he was also sure about something else from think about the psychopaths from his far and resent past, he couldn't use his old Egyptian ways to do it. If he had the chance, he would never lay a harmful finger and the beautiful white haired boy again. To bad he may never get the chance to, it's not like the boy in his new found glory would ever come back to him.
*And how does it feel when your out on your own?
And now it's too late to come home?
And it's hard to be free, when your down on your knees.
Take it easy till you make it alone…*
Bakura was wrapped up in his thoughts, head down and hands in his pockets, wondering vaguely where Ryou was at that moment and what he was doing, when he collided with someone. "Hey!" he shouted and stepped back, brushing himself off and catching inconspicuously to see if the box was still intact, it was. "Watch where your going," he snapped at the boy he ran into before looking at him. When he did glance at the boy, who was gathering up the bags he had dropped , Bakura did a double take, "Ryou?"
The more innocent appearing of the white haired look alikes stood up, a sour look on his pretty face. He had on a pair of black jeans and combat boots with a matching black jacket over a blood burgundy T-shirt. "On the eye of Horus!" Bakura swore looking his double over, "You look like a punk! Or me, which ever you weren't going for."
"How about myself?" Ryou scowled.
"That looks like a rock star, you're not a rock star, You're Ryou." Bakura scowled back.
"I'll be who I want to be!" Ryou snapped. Bakura was taken back by this new change in attitude.
"Your funny kid." Bakura glowered. "Now stop making a fool of yourself."
"Making a fool out of MY-self?" Ryou hissed.
"Yes, YOUR-self." Bakura taunted back, giving him a nasty look. "Now get out of my way. I was hoping to talk with my Ryou, not some snot-ass punk. The Ryou I know is gentle and calm. Now if you'll excuse me, I don't have time for cheep wannabe acts." he pushed past the boy, discussed, but also hoping his little speech had worked. It had been true enough, he wanted to talk to Ryou, not his charade.
*Now you're a supermarket punk rock television comedy
Out on the scene
Yeah I bit down and now there's no hand to feed.
Oh yeah…*
"Yami, wait…" Bakura felt a chill, that sweet voice did it to him every time. Bakura made his face like stone before turning and looking at the boy who now looked slightly ashamed.
"Now there's the Ryou I know." Bakura said smoothly in his detached voice. "Now kindly explain why your dressed and acting like me?"
"Like you?" Ryou asked, looking sadly frustrated.
"Don't act like me, it doesn't become you and your ingenuous personality. You're not cruel of harsh, you're gentle and honest, so don't ruin yourself by trying to be."
Ryou looked hurt, confirming what Bakura thought, the boy was getting in to deep. He was hiding his pain in his new persona. Doing his best to fit the part he had been forced to play. Poor boy. Ryou still hadn't opened his mouth but it looked like he was trying to decide what to say. "What ever you decide to say," Bakura said, raising a brow, "It better be from Ryou not your damn little Darren Hayes alter-ego."
Ryou sighed, "If your worried about me, I don't want any of your speeches. I like this new life."
"Then can I offer you my sympathy?" Bakura said in one of the sincerest tones he had ever heard.
Ryou was stunned. "Your sympathy?" he muttered, "What do you know about sympathy?"
"Enough." he replied calmly "Enough to know you're suffering, you're overwhelmed. You think you've found something you can hold on to, but guess what? You bit off more then you could chew. I know, I've been there."
*And all the beautiful images lining your walls
Pop radio screaming down the halls
And now you think you've found something real.*
Ryou cringed, how come his yami knew so much. Suffering? Yes, that was a good word for it. Between the band and Yugi he was losing his mind. Deadlines on the music, a semi-addict boyfriend fighting with his darker half, being in love with this white haired fiend who had so far never show the love he wanted to see. "your wrong," he said finally, "So wrong."
"Am I?" Bakura replied smartly.
"Do you have any idea how much I've wanted this?" Ryou said, raising his head slightly. "Fame, freedom and someone to love me?"
Bakura crossed his arms, his sharp dark eyes cutting threw Ryou's chocolate ones. Ryou felt his breath catch in his throat, the eyes seemed to scorch his very soul, breaking threw and dividing all truths and lies. "You've fooled them all you know, with your charade. They all believe your healed. I know I'm not the most honest person in the world, but at least I'm myself. I refuse to lie about who I am, people who do are afraid of themselves and I find it a sorry attempt to make their own misery go away." Bakura paused "Just like it's wrong for someone to take out their pain on someone they love." he hesitated again.
*And when it's all about money and the things that you need
Live a big lie and they all believe
Now I just find that somehow obscene.*
Once more Ryou was at a loss for protesting. Did the ancient spirit just accuse him of lying or apologise for everything he had done? Both? "I…" he started, but found he couldn't finish. All the emotions had come cascading back and the two just stared at each other is silence, the crowd passing around them oblivious. Tears bit the younger boys eyes, more then anything else he wanted the ancient boy to open his arms so Ryou could run to him, but the fiend stood motionless. Ryou's mind told him to shut it, shut it all out like he had until now, but still his heart ached horribly like it had while he shut it all up.
*And how does it feel when your out on your own?
And now it's too late to come home?
And it's hard to be free, when your down on your knees.
Take it easy till you make it alone…
Take it easy till you make it alone…*
"I… I… don't know…" Ryou murmured, "I don't know anything anymore. I was so sure and now… now…"
_"What a scene."_ Bakura smirked,
_ "It's all been said before
and all been done,
Take it easy till you make it alone."_
Ryou glanced into his others and bit his lip.
*Take it easy till you make it alone…
Na na nana na , Nana na na nana Na na na, Na na na nana na na*
Then of all things, his former yami laughed in a low voice and took the boys face in his hands. A dark amused expression on his face. _"Lies with love and truth
Bittersweet looks good on you
Not everybody wants to know your name,"_
He pressed his lips strongly to Ryou's forehead then laughed in his dark way. "Foolishness," he smirked, "That's what it is. You just keeping living in your little illusion, and see what happens." He released the boy and vanished into the crowd, his trademark smirk on his face, leaving Ryou in a mass of confusing. Of course he meant his last comment as an insult; Ryou was enraged that his yami dare tell him how to live his life when he had broken their bond. But he was touched as well. Sorrowfully lonely. Tear flowed over his cheeks, he couldn't keep doing this.
*Na na nana na , Nana na na nana Na na na, Na na na nana na na…*
*******************************************************************************
LYB: See a bit more upbeat.
Ryou: Not for me!
Malik: But I had fun ^_^ I got to show off!
Bakura: What did you give me anyway?
Malik: Trust me you'll like it.
Ryou: Why are you here anyway?
Bakura: I'm a muse too!
LYB: Okay you two, that's enough. Anyway, the next chapter would be "Up, Up, Up" for anyone who has the CD Gutterflower. This CD has given me so many things to run with, if you've liked this fic thus far go and buy it, it's so worth it. I'm pretty sure you'll end up thinking about Ryou as a Gutterflower.
Anyway, read and review everyone! Should I continue the Yugi/Yami story in another fic? Should I continue with the next chapter?
Yugi: I still say that was mean.
LYB: *huggles Yugi* Please forgive me!! You know I love you!!!
Yugi: weeeellll, okay ^_^
Yami: Are we really going to get our own story?
LYB: Plead with the reviewers.
Yami: PLEEEEAASEEEE!!!! I want to help my Yugi!!!
LYB: Okay, anyway.
Bakura: Yay! A song from my point of view!!
Malik: Hey and I'm in here too.
Cyris: *sarcastically* Oh joy…
*song lyrics*
_song lyric that are spoken as dialog_
**********************************************************************
What A Scene
**********************************************************************
"You know I've been looking everywhere for you?" Malik said walking up behind Yami Bakura who was walking, head down, thumbs hooked through his belt loops down the street. The spirit spun quickly, his body tensed for a fight, his eyes gazing fearfully at the Egyptian. "Whoa, Whoa." Malik said with a smile, patting Bakura's shoulder in a teasing manner. "Down boy, It's me." But Bakura had already begun to relax, the sultry smile assured him it wasn't the one he feared.
"Malik," he sighed.
"Your jumpier then normal." The blonde stated, "It's not like he's coming back." Bakura just shook his head and silently started walking again a if he didn't even care Malik was there. Malik sighed , Bakura obviously didn't want to talk. Then Bakura stopped and glanced back at Malik, as if to say: Are you coming?
Malik came to his side and they started walking down the road together, silently. It was the first company Bakura had since he tore the ring from Ryou's neck; then again, he wanted to be alone for awhile. He had heard Malik come after him on his motorcycle that night at the club, and he had hid until he passed. No one was going to try to talk him into an apology, he had only given the boy what he wanted. But he wasn't stupid enough to think the boy who now looked so perkily happy, actually was. He knew Ryou well enough to know that he didn't handle stress well. The pressure of the bands new found success had fallen like a encumbrance on the boys shoulders, now from a distance he was watching the boy crumble. It was torturing, watching Ryou smile and be the proud lead singer of a hit band, but secretly wander by himself and sit alone by the park lake for hours looking so lonely. Secretly reverting back to himself outside of his new role.
*When your feeling all wrong in the back of your mind again,
How does it feel?
When you drop down everything's all the same.
Oh yeah… *
Bakura could see how frustrated Ryou was. Bakura could have run back to him that minute to lift him up again, tell him to grow up, tough it out, help him stand on his own. But one thing stopped him; Ryou's relationship with you. Well if that was what the boy wanted so be it. Let him beat himself up.
"Okay, you in there, Bakura?" Malik said tapping on the top of the shorter mans head with his knuckles. "Your usually the talkative one."
"What do you want me to say, Malik?" Bakura hissed, "Seriously, what do you want? I know your going to ask me something about the boy so you may as well stop beating around the bush. I'm psychotic, not stupid."
"I never said you were." Malik replied in his calm voice. "And I don't think your psychotic, maybe semi-sociopath but not psychotic."
"Since when have you been a shrink?"
"We both know someone psychotic," Malik's normally expressional face was deadpan, "And you not like him. At least you have some amount of decency; at least you feel things." Bakura cringed, no he wasn't like that son-of-a-bitch rod spirit, he did feel. He felt pain, he felt regret, he suffered. No, Malik was right, he wasn't psychotic, he just suffered. Suffered since he was a child. Saw his father beat his mother till she fled, leaving him the only target for his fathers rage. Raped, torn, striped, beaten, weak. No, he swore he'd never let Ryou be weak like he had been but looking on how he had acted now it had turned out to be a sadistic circle, finally broken to little to late. Just when he thought he had found a way to bury his past, the power in the millennium items, his adoration for his abiou, that psychopath came along. As if he couldn't suffer enough, he had to break him completely. It was fun to be around him at first, how could he have been so blind, so stupid? Oh yes, he hated the yami, he knew the evil he had done went far beyond the card cards and duel monsters. Malik had suffered the dark ones true wrath as well.
"There you go again, lost in thought." Malik laughed slightly.
"You shouldn't have brought that up." Bakura hissed.
Malik's face saddened "I understand, you know I do. I hate him too."
The words were so wonderful to Bakura at that moment. "I know you do," he replied softly, "I know you do."
"Bakura, look, I know what you've been through. I know you've suffered. But your arrogance and fear have gotten ahead of you this time, so has your pride. You shouldn't have done that to Ryou."
Bakura scowled. "It was what Ryou wanted."
Malik ran a hand through his blonde hair, "He was angry Bakura, he was in a rage. He was hurt and sorrowful when he wrote that, he didn't know what he was saying."
"Well he's happy enough now with Yugi." Bakura stressed the last boy's name with annoyance.
Malik shook his head, "No. No, he's not. I've noticed him change."
"I know he has, I've been keeping an eye on him. I know him well, very well. He's my hikari for the love of Ra. He's idealistic, he wanted everything and I wanted him to have it. But the world doesn't work that way, he's finding that out now."
Malik starred at him. "Yeah, that's right. I think he's feeling the stress of the music industry, the stress of being on his own in a big world. He's hurt and confused, but he's buried it under this rock star persona."
Bakura nodded in agreement, "I've noticed."
"You've been watching him?"
"Keeping an eye on him and no I'm not a stalker. Just, every now and then I find myself wandering past the game shop and looking for any sign of him, or going to the park and he'll be there, so I'll hang around there a bit. I'm…" He paused.
"You're worried about him?" Malik smiled.
"Yes." Bakura acknowledged readily.
*Saccharine caffeine nicotine gum,
Oh it tastes sweet but its not for long
And I just think you thought it would be… *
"You love him?"
There was another long pause before Bakura replied in a soft barely audible voice, "yes." Malik nodded slowly, contemplating this.
"Tell me Malik, is it as bad as I think it is?" Bakura said almost ideally, "Now that he's found out the music industry isn't all pretty pictures?"
Malik laughed slightly, a sad distant laugh. "I only do it for fun. Being on stage and everyone looking at me, only me, it a thrill, like going 150 on my motorbike, one wrong move and you screw everything up. You know me, I love the adrenaline. I can take all the record labels bitching in stride with a smile on my face because their pointless bickering amuses me. So none of that pressure gets to me at all." Malik smiled "Then again, I'm no stranger to stress, people hassling me and being mad at me. " Bakura smirked at the comment. "But Ryou?" Malik continued, "He takes everything so seriously. He doesn't like having people angry at him or pushing him."
"That's Ryou, slow and steady. He can't handle it on his own. Well, he will someday, but not right at this moment."
"Exactly." Malik agreed.
*And when your looking for truth on the cover of a magazine,
How does it feel
When you found out what your not going to be?
Oh yeah…*
Malik sighed and shook his head, "You know I'd hate to say this because it'll make your ego inflate more then ever but I think Ryou needs you to push him forward and keep his head level so he doesn't get caught up in how cruel the world can be."
"Fuck my ego." Bakura growled, "I'm miserably without him, the comfort of just seeing him and how beautiful he looked in that old green shirt."
"You told him that?" Malik smiled, amused.
"No, I'd just pin him to the bed." Bakura replied, the same devious smirk on his lips.
"Oh?" Malik gave him a curious look "You and Ryou were closer then I thought."
Bakura sighed, catching the glance. "So what? I slept with him. That mean something?"
Malik raised a brow, "Judging by that look on your face, it means something to you. And if it didn't mean something to you, you wouldn't have brought it up. Oh yeah and you didn't gloat about it."
Bakura gave him a look, "Are you done chastising my sex life yet?"
"All I'm saying it that you screwed up Bakura, your foolish pride has once more stopped you from telling Ryou what you feel."
Bakura shrugged, hanging his head slightly to hid his hurt expression from the blonde by his side. "My hikari is no longer MY hikari, he has Yugi now, he doesn't need me. Even let Yugi throw the ring out into the lake so I've heard."
"This is true. But… Ryou would listen to you."
"He listened to me because he was scared of me."
"Is that so? Then why did he keep the ring on his being for a week after you left?"
Bakura stopped walking, catching Malik by the shoulder "He did that?" Malik looked down at the spirit turned flesh. The former yami's eyes were (from what Malik recalled) for the first time not dark or angry. They were tender and sorrowful, how different from his normal self.
"Yes." Malik nodded.
"I worry about him, Malik." Bakura said softly, his head down and started to walk with his friend again, "I'm afraid for him. I never thought I could be so weak."
"Did you ever think that maybe it's not a weakness at all? Maybe it's a strength."
"A strength?" Bakura scrunched up his face.
Malik grabbed the other man's hand as they walked and pressed into it a flat, long, slim, rectangular wooden box. "Here take this, my sister gave this to me. Isis was afraid for me, and that love of hers was strong enough to heal even a tired soul like mine. Maybe yours is strong enough to heal Ryou's and your own."
Bakura furrowed his brow in questioning as he looked at the odd flat wooden box. He opened his mouth to ask what Malik meant by what he had said but he was cut short by a foot tripping him. Unable to catch his balance in time he felt flat on his face, the box pressed to his chest, while Malik walked by a look of fake innocence plastered on his face. Bakura looked up at him from the ground. "You baka." He hissed.
"Just think about it Bakura." Malik said glancing back, flashing a smile and small wave. "Just think about it." Then he vanished into the crowd.
Bakura stood up and dusted himself off. Of course, as always, Malik was right. The mysterious Egyptian didn't say much but when he did, he usually gave out amazing insight. The pale blonde youth did care, there was no doubt about that and when it was needed, he had no problem loaning out some of the lesson's he had learned in his short but hard life. Bakura looked at the box a moment and decided to wait till he got home to open it. He stuffed the relatively small box into the back of his belt as he would if he were hiding a gun and covered it with his shirt. Malik was right again now, though it was something Bakura already knew; the real world had crashed hard against Ryou without his alter ego to support him.
*They give you your image and the things you believe.
Open your eyes tell me what did you see?
And I just think you thought it surreal.*
Bakura shook his head and kept walking, as much as he worried about the boy he wasn't about to interfere with the boys relationship with Yugi. Still, he wished more then ever he could put some sense into the boy: Take it easy, your destroying yourself. But he was also sure about something else from think about the psychopaths from his far and resent past, he couldn't use his old Egyptian ways to do it. If he had the chance, he would never lay a harmful finger and the beautiful white haired boy again. To bad he may never get the chance to, it's not like the boy in his new found glory would ever come back to him.
*And how does it feel when your out on your own?
And now it's too late to come home?
And it's hard to be free, when your down on your knees.
Take it easy till you make it alone…*
Bakura was wrapped up in his thoughts, head down and hands in his pockets, wondering vaguely where Ryou was at that moment and what he was doing, when he collided with someone. "Hey!" he shouted and stepped back, brushing himself off and catching inconspicuously to see if the box was still intact, it was. "Watch where your going," he snapped at the boy he ran into before looking at him. When he did glance at the boy, who was gathering up the bags he had dropped , Bakura did a double take, "Ryou?"
The more innocent appearing of the white haired look alikes stood up, a sour look on his pretty face. He had on a pair of black jeans and combat boots with a matching black jacket over a blood burgundy T-shirt. "On the eye of Horus!" Bakura swore looking his double over, "You look like a punk! Or me, which ever you weren't going for."
"How about myself?" Ryou scowled.
"That looks like a rock star, you're not a rock star, You're Ryou." Bakura scowled back.
"I'll be who I want to be!" Ryou snapped. Bakura was taken back by this new change in attitude.
"Your funny kid." Bakura glowered. "Now stop making a fool of yourself."
"Making a fool out of MY-self?" Ryou hissed.
"Yes, YOUR-self." Bakura taunted back, giving him a nasty look. "Now get out of my way. I was hoping to talk with my Ryou, not some snot-ass punk. The Ryou I know is gentle and calm. Now if you'll excuse me, I don't have time for cheep wannabe acts." he pushed past the boy, discussed, but also hoping his little speech had worked. It had been true enough, he wanted to talk to Ryou, not his charade.
*Now you're a supermarket punk rock television comedy
Out on the scene
Yeah I bit down and now there's no hand to feed.
Oh yeah…*
"Yami, wait…" Bakura felt a chill, that sweet voice did it to him every time. Bakura made his face like stone before turning and looking at the boy who now looked slightly ashamed.
"Now there's the Ryou I know." Bakura said smoothly in his detached voice. "Now kindly explain why your dressed and acting like me?"
"Like you?" Ryou asked, looking sadly frustrated.
"Don't act like me, it doesn't become you and your ingenuous personality. You're not cruel of harsh, you're gentle and honest, so don't ruin yourself by trying to be."
Ryou looked hurt, confirming what Bakura thought, the boy was getting in to deep. He was hiding his pain in his new persona. Doing his best to fit the part he had been forced to play. Poor boy. Ryou still hadn't opened his mouth but it looked like he was trying to decide what to say. "What ever you decide to say," Bakura said, raising a brow, "It better be from Ryou not your damn little Darren Hayes alter-ego."
Ryou sighed, "If your worried about me, I don't want any of your speeches. I like this new life."
"Then can I offer you my sympathy?" Bakura said in one of the sincerest tones he had ever heard.
Ryou was stunned. "Your sympathy?" he muttered, "What do you know about sympathy?"
"Enough." he replied calmly "Enough to know you're suffering, you're overwhelmed. You think you've found something you can hold on to, but guess what? You bit off more then you could chew. I know, I've been there."
*And all the beautiful images lining your walls
Pop radio screaming down the halls
And now you think you've found something real.*
Ryou cringed, how come his yami knew so much. Suffering? Yes, that was a good word for it. Between the band and Yugi he was losing his mind. Deadlines on the music, a semi-addict boyfriend fighting with his darker half, being in love with this white haired fiend who had so far never show the love he wanted to see. "your wrong," he said finally, "So wrong."
"Am I?" Bakura replied smartly.
"Do you have any idea how much I've wanted this?" Ryou said, raising his head slightly. "Fame, freedom and someone to love me?"
Bakura crossed his arms, his sharp dark eyes cutting threw Ryou's chocolate ones. Ryou felt his breath catch in his throat, the eyes seemed to scorch his very soul, breaking threw and dividing all truths and lies. "You've fooled them all you know, with your charade. They all believe your healed. I know I'm not the most honest person in the world, but at least I'm myself. I refuse to lie about who I am, people who do are afraid of themselves and I find it a sorry attempt to make their own misery go away." Bakura paused "Just like it's wrong for someone to take out their pain on someone they love." he hesitated again.
*And when it's all about money and the things that you need
Live a big lie and they all believe
Now I just find that somehow obscene.*
Once more Ryou was at a loss for protesting. Did the ancient spirit just accuse him of lying or apologise for everything he had done? Both? "I…" he started, but found he couldn't finish. All the emotions had come cascading back and the two just stared at each other is silence, the crowd passing around them oblivious. Tears bit the younger boys eyes, more then anything else he wanted the ancient boy to open his arms so Ryou could run to him, but the fiend stood motionless. Ryou's mind told him to shut it, shut it all out like he had until now, but still his heart ached horribly like it had while he shut it all up.
*And how does it feel when your out on your own?
And now it's too late to come home?
And it's hard to be free, when your down on your knees.
Take it easy till you make it alone…
Take it easy till you make it alone…*
"I… I… don't know…" Ryou murmured, "I don't know anything anymore. I was so sure and now… now…"
_"What a scene."_ Bakura smirked,
_ "It's all been said before
and all been done,
Take it easy till you make it alone."_
Ryou glanced into his others and bit his lip.
*Take it easy till you make it alone…
Na na nana na , Nana na na nana Na na na, Na na na nana na na*
Then of all things, his former yami laughed in a low voice and took the boys face in his hands. A dark amused expression on his face. _"Lies with love and truth
Bittersweet looks good on you
Not everybody wants to know your name,"_
He pressed his lips strongly to Ryou's forehead then laughed in his dark way. "Foolishness," he smirked, "That's what it is. You just keeping living in your little illusion, and see what happens." He released the boy and vanished into the crowd, his trademark smirk on his face, leaving Ryou in a mass of confusing. Of course he meant his last comment as an insult; Ryou was enraged that his yami dare tell him how to live his life when he had broken their bond. But he was touched as well. Sorrowfully lonely. Tear flowed over his cheeks, he couldn't keep doing this.
*Na na nana na , Nana na na nana Na na na, Na na na nana na na…*
*******************************************************************************
LYB: See a bit more upbeat.
Ryou: Not for me!
Malik: But I had fun ^_^ I got to show off!
Bakura: What did you give me anyway?
Malik: Trust me you'll like it.
Ryou: Why are you here anyway?
Bakura: I'm a muse too!
LYB: Okay you two, that's enough. Anyway, the next chapter would be "Up, Up, Up" for anyone who has the CD Gutterflower. This CD has given me so many things to run with, if you've liked this fic thus far go and buy it, it's so worth it. I'm pretty sure you'll end up thinking about Ryou as a Gutterflower.
Anyway, read and review everyone! Should I continue the Yugi/Yami story in another fic? Should I continue with the next chapter?