LYB: YAY!!! HAPPINESS!! JAY FINALLY FINISHED TYPING THIS FOR ME!!!
Everyone: o_O U;;;
LYB: I'm so happy!!! ^_______^
Malik: Okay, who was the smartass who gave her sugar.
Yami: Not me.
Bakura: Don't look at me, I'm not suicidal.
Yami: Uhh… guys, I just made a scarier observation…
Malik: What?
Yami: *fearful* we're the only three yugioh characters here…
Bakura and Malik: O_O!!!
LYB: *rubs her hands together, smiling evilly*
Malik: RUN!!!
LYB: I'll chase them in a minute, first of all, I have things to say ^_^
BlackBalloon: Yes it does, but that's a secret between you and me ;) as for the painting of hell? I'll explain it in a later chapter (and read my caption to Hikaru below). Yes I have heard that song!! I love it!!
Hikaru Imonoyama: just re read the part just before it mentions the painting, Bakura has the room lit only with candles! Mwhahaha! I love metaphors!! And the picture about the angels sounds so kawaii! I'd love to see it.
CheetaCat: *offers a cold pack to help that bump from the wall* ^_^
~!~ Special thanks to everyone who liked my picture~!~ ^___^ I feel good now and I'll draw some more just for you Spirit Guardian ;)
Okay about this story: It's a 2 in 1deal. The main plot which follows the song "Smash" which is the next song on the CD Gutterflower and a rather funny side plot involving Yami, Malik, Bakura, 2 other Goo Goo Dolls songs from the CD A Boy Named Goo (which get played at the club) and many, many shots of scotch. ^_^. It has nothing to do with the CD Gutterflower or the main plot but I decided to throw it in because of the two side stories running beside the BakuraxRyou one: YamixYugi and Malik's past. So feel free to read it too, in fact PLEASE read it too. But just so you know, the side plot is set off from the main story by Gutter flowers: @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ it's worth it, trust me, specially if you like Malik and Yami. ^^
LYB: *runs after her muse and glomps all three of them*
Malik, Bakura & Yami: @_@
LYB: YAY!!! Story time!!
*Song Lyrics, as usual*
~Bakura's thoughts~
************************************************************************
Smash
************************************************************************
"And that's what happened," Bakura concluded, then glancing at Malik, who was lying beside him under the park trees in the cool shade of night, staring at the stars.
"You told him everything about my Yami?" Malik said thoughtful.
"Yes," Bakura nodded.
Malik turned his head, a worried look on his face. "You didn't say anything about me, did you?"
"No," Bakura offered him the best sympathetic look he could manage. "Those are things you confided to me. I would never betray you like that. Those are your dark fears."
Malik nodded, satisfied and turned back to the sky. "Will you go?" He asked.
"Where?"
"The club."
"Oh." Bakura was silent a moment before opening his mouth. "That one looks like Hathor," he pointed lazily to the cloud formation, avoiding the question.
Malik examined it a moment. "I can't see a cow in that. There's no way. You're just stuck dwelling on love; you're seeing the love goddess in clouds for the love of Ra. "
"Well excuse me, I think it looks like Hathor." he growled. Malik laughed and rolled on his side to say something but stopped and stared curiously.
"Hey what's this?" He asked reaching for Bakura's neck. Bakura smacked his hand like a mother catching her son in the cookie jar.
"Don't touch. It was my mothers." He let his fingers run around the simple golden chain link necklace around his neck. "I used to wear it in Egypt after she disappeared."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I've kept it tucked away for awhile now, but I've felt like keeping something I loved close to me, since Ryou isn't anymore."
Malik let his face fall, feeling his friends pain, knowing very well there wasn't much he could say to a comment like that. So he decided it would be best to change subjects. "We need to take another coffee run. It's 1 a.m."
"Sorry I woke you," Bakura acknowledged. "I had to talk to you. You know everything in the background, anyway."
Malik nodded. "I don't mind. I wasn't asleep anyway. Isis was a bit mad, but she'll get over it."
Bakura sat up and stretched his arms. "A coffee run it is."
"To the Batmobile, Robin!" Malik smirked, getting up and brushing imaginary dirt off his pants.
"The wha…" Bakura gave him a strange look, slightly disturbed.
"What?" Malik smiled. "You don't watch the Justice League?" Bakura continued to stare at him like he had 10 heads. "You seriously need to watch that with me and Isis sometime. It's an awesome cartoon"
"Cartoon?? Aren't you a bit old for cartoons?"
"Hell no! Age of maturity matches my shoe size remember?"
"Sometimes I wonder about you," Bakura smiled shaking his head, knowing that Malik was only trying to cheer him up. He rose. "To the Batmobile!" he said, humouring Malik.
"Sweet! I drive! " The blond cheered and ran for the motorcycle.
"Hey! It's my turn!" Bakura cried and chased him. He tackled Malik around the waist and they both tumbled into the grass. Bakura pushed himself up and raced for the bike. Malik grabbed his foot and Bakura fell flat on his face again. Bakura sprang up, scrambling after Malik, who had tried once more to reach his bike. They continued to fight their way to the motorcycle until finally Bakura laid his hands on the handlebars, Malik hanging around his waist in a vain attempt to hold him back.
"You're forgetting something," Malik said tactfully, brushing himself off as Bakura sat on the bike.
"What?"
" I have the keys, Baka!" Malik dangled the keys in front of him matter-of-factly. Bakura scowled and grabbed the keys then Malik climbed on behind Bakura as Bakura started it up. He revved the engine before spinning the bike out into the road. Bakura shook his head, letting the wind kick back his hair. Malik hooked his feet firmly on the running board and held onto Bakura's shoulders as he stood. Bakura laughed as Malik let his head fall back.
"You're suicidal!" Bakura laughed.
"No," Malik said. "Just crazy."
"Hold on!" Bakura called back. Malik promptly sat down and braced himself against Bakura as Bakura revved the engine again, shooting off and pulling the bike into a brief catwalk before taking a sharp turn out onto the freeway.
Malik pinged Bakura's ear. "Hey! I thought we were going for coffee! What are you doing on the freeway!? " he yelled over the roar of the bike and the rush of wind.
"Who cares?" Bakura yelled back, "Let's just drive," Malik laughed and once more partially stood up leaning on Bakura's shoulder. Bakura laughed as Malik gave a wild, delighted scream, and Bakura pushed the bike to 110. Eventually, they made their way back into the city, cruising down what Malik had dubbed "The Domino Sun Set Strip," a string of nightclubs that came alive at night.
Malik tightened his grip around Bakura "Should we dance tonight? Kills stress and questions better than caffeine."
Bakura nodded. The idea was a good one. Bakura allowed Malik to pick their club for the night and they sat themselves down next to each other in a corner booth, soaking in the exotic pound of the music. They sat awhile, casually taking shallow drinks from hard liquor. Two girls passed them by, eyeing them up, then circled back to them. Bakura moved close to Malik, reaching over him in a sensual way to take Malik's dark rum and drink from it. Just as casually, Malik dropped his arm over Bakura's shoulder and stole Bakura's Brandy. The girls looked mildly disappointed and passed by. The two boys separated. "We've gotten so good at that. Gee, you'd think we're gay…" Malik said softly, taking back his rum.
"Hey, if the shoe fits." Bakura smirked. He took his Brandy back. "How can you drink that shit?" he said pointing at the rum. "It tastes like fucking old spice and burns your mouth!"
"Well, your Brandy is rich enough to skin a cat," Malik responded, spreading his arms across the back of the seat. "Have you decided about Ryou yet?"
At the mention of the boy, Bakura took another drink from his glass. "No," he answered, rolling the alcohol around the glass, looking at it thoughtfully. "I felt like such an idiot, kissing him like that. You should have seen the expression on his face. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I still can't figure him out, sometimes."
*Hey...what are you thinkin'
I tried to read your face
Say...say what you're thinkin'
Don't carry round that pain*
"You think he didn't mean his invitation?"
"I don't know. He's still hurting, I think. I hurt him more than any person deserves." Malik nodded, accepting this. "I really thought he would cry when he came to me tonight." Bakura sighed. "But what he did was for worst…"
*Every time I see you pickin' at yourself
I love...I love when things work out*
"What can be worse?" Malik said, turning to look at him, taking a drink.
"He cut open his wrist again."
Malik coughed suddenly, then snuffled. Bakura raised a brow, concluding some of the rum must have gone up the nose. Malik coughed again. "Say what?"
"Tried to kill himself, but didn't get too far; he only had one wrapped."
Malik shook his head. "That bad hu? Oh Horus… I swear you must be made for each other." Malik half-smirked. "You go insane apart."
*Smash...I heard ya cryin'
Seven times this year
Crash...but now you're smilin'
Holdin' back your tears*
"You think?" Bakura said thoughtfully. "That we're made for each other?"
Malik offered a sincere smile and nodded. "I hope this all works out for you."
"I hope so too, or I'll belong in the nuthouse soon."
"You already belong in the nuthouse!"
"True." Bakura smiled sadistically
*Every time I see you pickin' at yourself
I love...I love when things work out
Ya, every time I see you torturin' yourself
I love...I love when things work out*
Bakura letting his face fall blank once again "I'm not sure what to do, Malik. I can't believe I did that!"
"Told him? I've been telling you to do that for months. It's probably good that he knows; just give him a bit of time. He knows what your limit is now. He's learned your fears and inner war. He has to deal with that, just like you have to deal with his passion for music and his…" he paused, trying to find the right word.
"Self-destructiveness?" Bakura offered. Malik nodded once more, but Bakura shook his head. "I'll do everything in my power to save him from the self-destruction. I've fallen in love with his music, and that wasn't even that I met! But… Malik… I'm dying. I think I am." Malik looked at him, eyes wide. "I'm hoping to crash myself into the ground. What I meant was taking him into my arms. I can't believe I did it. Even now I can feel it, I can feel him pressed against me, his heart beating. Living, breathing, warm in my arms." Bakura subconsciously licked his lips. Malik raised his brow.
"You liked it, huh?"
Bakura shook his head. "It was incredible. It was like electricity when I put my lips to him. I couldn't resist." Malik nodding thoughtfully. "I don't think I can go on without him."
"Tell him so." Malik said, flashing his trademark mysterious grin. Bakura opened his mouth to say something, but quickly polished off his Brandy instead. "At least come to the show like he asked. You never did tell me if you would."
Bakura was silent a moment. "I don't know. I've upset him enough."
"He asked you to, and you nodded. You'll upset him if you don't. Talk to him. Just talk to him. Better yet, let him read the things written on your walk. Run home to him like you want." Bakura let a smile cross his face and picked up Malik's glass, pouring a mouthful of the drink into his own and put it back on the table. He raised his glass.
"To my hikari," he said looking at the glass. "I'm coming back to you." Malik laughed and lifted his own glass.
"Here here," He smiled. They both downed their drinks.
*And I see it from another place right now,
I'm comin' home before I hit the ground
Right back where I want to be right now
Smash
And I feel it.
Smash,
And I feel it.
Smash
And I feel it,
Right now…*
@~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~
They sat for another short while when a song started to pound itself out on the club speakers. A dark, warped tune, something made to move to. Malik closed his eyes and tapped his fingers to the beat. He got to his feet and held out a hand to Bakura. "Shall we kill our thoughts for a minute?" Bakura pushed himself up and they somehow pushed through the crowd into the pale neon on black of the dance floor.
Getting into the movement was slow at first. Bakura closed his eyes and caught the beat with a few tosses of his head before raising his arms into the movement of the song. Another form of art. He let his shoulders dip to the music, moving his hands and fingers in a gentle elegance as he stretched and flexed his arms. He twisted and turned in the ocean of faded white light and dark and the ever moving current of sound. His arms curled in and unravelled themselves upward, letting his body break itself into the pounding beat. He tossed his head with the beat, working his white hair into silvery wisps hat fell across his face. He let his senses rock shut and let his limbs twist and curl something like a weeping willow caught by a flame. There was no thought to movement when the music thought for you.
Malik awoke his senses long enough to look at Bakura, and he laughed slightly noting how the light caught his pale skin and hair, giving him the image of a white angel thrown out of heaven and fallen from grace for being too much like himself. His body was twisting to the music, a moth caught in a flame. Malik closed his eyes and caught himself in the music once more.
The song shifted into that of another, Malik smirked but knew in his heart Bakura had paused. "Is that…?" Malik opened his eyes long enough to nod and smile.
"Yes, that's Ryou. This is an earlier Stardust Goddess song."
"Thought you had no albums."
"We don't, but we have demo tapes floating around."
"Oh." Both of them wrapped themselves up in the music again.
*Oh here you are, there's nothing left to say.
You're not supposed to be that way…
Did they push you out? did they throw you away?
Touch me now and I don't care.
When you take me I'm not there.
I'm almost human, but I'll never be the same…
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
Long way down, I don't want to live in here alone.
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…*
"Did Ryou write this?" Bakura asked over the music.
"Sort of," Malik answered. "It was a collaboration on both our parts."
Bakura twisted with the music. "I understand, you gave him one of the pages you wrote about your yami."
"Yes, but doesn't it fit the moment?"
Bakura nodded, turning up his arms to the ceiling, wreathing his wrists, letting his body move to the music.
*I never put you down, I never pushed you away.
You're not supposed to be that way.
And anything you want, there's nothing I could say.
Is there anything to feel?
Is it pain that makes you real?
Cut me off before it kills me…
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
Long way down, I don't want to live in here alone.
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
I never put you down, I never pushed you away…
Take another piece of me,
Give my mind a new disease ,
And the black and white world never fades to grey…
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
Long way down, I don't want to live in here alone.
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
On my own…
On my own…
I'm on my own…*
Bakura opened his eyes and gave a smiled look at Malik, who had his arms tucked behind his head and tossed his head to the music, stirring up the locks of his silk strained gold hair. Bakura laughed, Malik always knew how to get his spirit up. He was feeling pretty good and his mood was picking up and with it, his confidence and will. He would go to the concert.
He suddenly caught something from the corner of his eye and turned his head. That was interesting. He poked Malik in the chest and Malik snapped back to reality. Bakura pointed at the figure, now sitting at the table they had once been, placing an order. "What the hell is he doing here?" Malik said in slight surprise.
"Dunno." Bakura answered. "What the fuck would the pharaoh be doing on our level?" Bakura nodded with his head toward the table, a silent way of saying 'should we join him?' Malik nodded. They got to the table just as the bargirl got back with 3 tequila shots and had lined them up. Bakura came up behind Yami as he downed the first shot and pop a lemon slice into his mouth. Bakura leaned over him, wrapping his arms about Yami's shoulders.
"Hey pharaoh!" He said in a sarcastically perky voice. "What's new?" Yami gave him a look of surprise but it quickly turned to annoyance when he realized Bakura had only leaned over him to steal his remaining drinks. Bakura handed one to Malik. "You seriously weren't going to drink all of that, were you?" Bakura said, quickly sucking on the palm of his hand before drinking the tequila. He quickly slid in beside Yami and stole a lemon to suck on.
"Yes, I was." Yami said sourly. "Before you took it."
"I never knew you to be a drinker," Malik said plopping down beside Bakura and doing the tequila drinking ritual quickly.
"I can drink," Yami growled.
"Three tequila in a row?" Bakura raised a brow. "What are you trying to do? Trash yourself?"
"Yes." Yami said bluntly, leaning back and crossing his arms. Bakura and Malik exchanged a look of surprise and concern. "I'll assume you two are here to do the same."
"No," Malik said leaning on the table, a slight smirk on his face. "We came here to dance; the alcohol is a bonus. We rarely ever get completely drunk." He cast a glance at Bakura who nodded slightly in an unspoken language. "But I suppose if you want to get trashed we can help you out."
Yami scowled. "I don't need your help."
Bakura growled. "Why do I feel like that was directed at me?"
"Because it was." Yami spat.
"Oh bite your royal tongue!" Bakura snapped. "What's your problem tonight?"
"It's none of your business!" There was a brief silence before Yami spoke. "Why the hell are you two dancing?" Yami looked at them, the absurdity of the situation dawning on him. The two most bitter and anti-social people he knew dancing? Bakura flagged over the waitress, and ordered a bottle of scotch, an Irish cream, a whiskey sour, a Manhattan and three shot glasses. "What's all that for?" Yami asked.
"If you're going to drink, drink right. Shooters and chasers." Yami looked confused. "Drinking has come a long way since your mead and wine, your majesty." Bakura smirked. "As to why we're here, I had a bit of a run in with Ryou tonight and it drag up things I'd be happy never to think of again. So Malik was gracious enough to step out with me while I argue with myself, curse my life and Malik's, and brood the fact that your little hikari has the one I want." Bakura cast him a look. "Now what about your highness?"
Yami looked mildly amused. "You talked to Ryou?"
"He did more than talk," Malik smirked and grabbed a shot glass and the scotch as the waitress set out the rest of the drinks. Bakura smacked the back of his head, then paid the girl before turning back to Yami.
"I'm not about to tell you my life story. And besides, I asked you a question." Bakura pushed a shot glass and the Manhattan toward Yami.
"What's this for?"
"Okay," Malik explained, pouring a shot of scotch for the 3 of them. "First you drink the scotch." He proceeded to do so. "Then you take your side drink…" Malik picked up his whiskey sour and sipped on it. "The side drink kills the taste of hard stuff, plus has alcohol so you get twice the liquor. Even more intriguing still, after you take a drink from the sweet drink you're willing to take another shot. You get drunker faster."
Yami seemed satisfied with this and proceeded to copy Malik's example with his own set of drinks. "What's this called again?" He asked before reaching for the drink.
"It's called a Manhattan. You'll like it, trust me. It's right up your alley." Yami looked at him suspiciously but drank it anyway and nodded his head in approval. "So you normally drink like this?"
"I prefer a good brandy," Bakura replied. "But will you just answer the question?"
"Hikari troubles." Yami said coolly, taking down another scotch.
"What's wrong with Yugi?" Malik started. "Wait a minute, let me guess, you're in Bakura's spot."
"It's more complicated than that." Both Bakura and Yami answered back. They looked at each other and shrugged, then each took a shot.
"I know Bakura's situation, but I thought you and Yugi adored each other. I think an explanation is in order." Malik drank two shots in a row as he spoke.
Yami sighed. "He's depressed about something and it's driving him down deeper and deeper. He's getting edgy and defensive. Well, you know what people are like. This is killing me! He won't tell me what's wrong; he refuses to listen to me. He keeps pushing me away. This Ryou thing has made it worse. He won't listen to me when it comes to Ryou." Bakura gave him a mean look. "I say nothing bad about your light other than he's not right for mine."
Bakura nodded. "I agree. Continue."
"I just miss him. I fought with him tonight until I thought I would kiss him or lock myself in my soul room and refuse to come out. I talked to Kaiba for a while tonight, too. Kaiba is quite sure the boy is a druggie, and I think he's right…" Bakura just looked slightly amazed. If such a thing was possible with Yugi… he took another shot rather quickly in an effort to deaden the impact the statement made on him.
Malik just nodded. "It's no wonder."
Bakura and Yami looked at him, wanting explanation. "Living with a Yami is never an easy task. Trust me, I've had one. You two can't even start to comprehend what it's like to live up to this thing in your head. True, it was an extremely different situation than the ones you're both in, but the idea remains the same. Your lights are tired of being pushed aside." Bakura looked wistfully at his empty shot glass. Yami just looked confused.
"I've never pushed aside my abiou," Yami protested. "I love him. I'd do anything for him."
"Have you told him so?" Bakura said, filling his glass with scotch and drinking it. Malik closed his mouth, looking satisfied that Bakura had said exactly what he was about to. Yami slumped down and folded his arms, looking defeated.
"I suppose not," he replied dully. Bakura took a quick drink of his Irish Cream.
"Trust me, not saying anything gets you into more trouble than just saying it. I wouldn't be sitting here now, that's for sure."
"Yugi…" Yami murmured. "I want to save you from falling, but how did you start to fall in the first place?"
Malik downed another scotch along with Yami before speaking. "Because of you, probably. He probably saw you as the cooler part of himself. Your the part everyone recognize and saw and thought was Sooooo great."
"Plus you stand over him, guarding him like a 10-foot-wall: Your stubbornness." Bakura added untactfully, using stubbornness as an adjective for highness, then added another checkmark to his total of shooters.
Malik gave the white haired spirit a lazy glare and pointed a finger at him. "The booze is making your tongue loose."
Bakura smacked his hand away. "I'm just preachy."
Yami smiled slightly before Malik poured them all another shot and continued. "Well it's true, you watch him like a hawk. He probably wanted to do something for himself."
"Crack?" Yami questioned sarcastically, raising a brow and drinking his scotch a bit slower this time.
"Well, that's just following the crowd," Malik said pointedly, taking a sip from his whiskey sour to wash down the scotch. "He probably got fooled into taking it when you weren't around. Yug's a trusting soul. He's innocent. More than likely he had no idea what he was getting into. He maybe still doesn't. Not really his fault or choice"
"So there's still hope?"
"There's always hope," Bakura said thoughtfully. "You just have to find it. The kid isn't a full fledge junkie or anything, at least not that I can see. He's just caught up in a bad world." He pointed a finger lazily at Yami. "Get him out. Just don't make it sound like you're the one who's right. He has reasons too, you know. You're not the only one, pharaoh, who has a way to kill pain." Bakura motioned to the nearly empty scotch bottle Yami was pouring another 3 shots from.
Yami nodded, accepting this as well. "Yugi's just happens to be whatever's offered to him," Yami concluded Bakura's thought, taking the shot he poured. Malik followed the example, but Bakura didn't touch his. He just sipped at his like Irish Cream.
"You know, it's funny when you think about it," Bakura said, unusually calm for himself. "Life or fate, or whatever the hell rolls the dice has somehow managed to roll us all together in a losing game. We've lost everything, yet we struggle to get above it. But what we need to go forward is out of our reach."
"Yeah, it's kinda strange that we'd all end up here," Malik said, leaning back and spreading his arms across the back of the corner seat, lounging. "In this bar, killing our pain. Well… when Bakura and I came here we had no intention of drinking ourselves into a philosophical conversation, we came to dance."
"Well, thank you for keeping me company," Yami nodded then closed his eyes; the light starting to hurt them.
"It's no good to drink alone," Bakura smiled slightly, surprising Yami.
"You surprise me sometimes Bakura. Just when I think I have you figured. I always wondered what Ryou saw in you."
"What do you see in me?" Bakura smirked at him. "I can look at you and call you an arrogant egotistical power-tripped pompous royal asshole, but then I'd be lying because in the back of my mind, I know now you'd jump head first into your own little hell because of your hikari. I see you now not as strong as you'd have us believe. The personas we put on everyday are far different than how we usually are. Our personas often try to make up for the things we lack so we look normal."
"So this is a breakdown of reality, in a sense. We're seeing each other as we see ourselves."
"I'm going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow." Malik groaned, rubbing his head. Bakura laughed and knocked his shoulder against Malik's playfully, but was a bit too light-headed to sit back up again, so he just leaned against Malik and drank the shot Yami poured him a while before. Malik didn't seem to mind the contact and laughed at the white-haired boy and poured another shot for himself and Yami, both of which were taken down quickly. "You're going to be at your limit soon, Baku."
"Nonsense!" Bakura replied. Yami smiled vaguely, feeling slight jealousy towards the other spirit and former hikari. Somehow they were bonded to each other. They argued like hell, but they were close. At that moment they had started to argue over which was better: Irish cream or whiskey sours. Yami laughed at the two but promptly laid his head back, feeling slightly dizzy.
"Ooo! The pharaoh's out of it!" Malik said, sounding like a giggling schoolgirl.
"Oh shut-up." Yami replied, pointing his finger. "You …hey…why are you two so close? Are you together?"
Both of them stiffened up and pulled apart. "Hell no!" They both snapped, then glared at each other.
"You are so of base there," Bakura said, putting a hand on Yami's shoulder heavily. "You see, Malik and I have escaped from hell together, and we've been together ever since. I love Ryou, yeah? Malik tried to help me get him back when Yami Malik banished him…even gave me his Sun Dragon…but that backfired… we both got screwed on that one,"
"Because you wouldn't listen to me you arrogant ass." Malik said pointedly, poking Bakura.
"Well how was I supposed to know he was going to one-turn-kill me!?"
"If you had listened to me you wouldn't have lost!"
"It was a fluke! It's not my fault!"
Yami rolled his eyes, joining the argument. "Well whose fault is it? I'll kick his ass for making me share a soul room with him," Yami pointed at Bakura. "Until the ring was given back."
"Oh bite me." Bakura growled. "Is this lets-gang-up-on-the-tomb-robber night?"
"Don't make me answer that," Malik chided.
Yami laughed again, then sighed, missing the emotional closeness. "I miss calling out to my hikari. He doesn't talk through our link much anymore."
"Talk to him instead. Just ramble through your link. Let your emotions go through, so he can understand." Malik offered. The music seemed to melt down to a much softer song. Malik smiled. "Oh, another Stardust Goddess."
"Is this one yours?" Bakura asked. Malik shook his head, and his smile softened. "Ryou wrote it based on something Isis wrote for me. But I can hear other voices in it. That's the way with music. It means something different but just as important to everyone." They turned their ears to the music, and listened, each hearing a different song. True to Malik's words, they all heard a different voice besides Ryou's. Malik heard his sister calling to him, as well as himself worrying over Bakura's sanity. Yami heard his own voice crying his pleas to his beloved hikari and Bakura heard his own beautiful prayer back to the angel singing. Bakura closed his eyes. ~I feel it, Ryou. ~…
*And even though the moment passed me by,
I still can't turn away .
I saw the dreams you never thought you'd lose
Tossed along the way .
The letters that you never meant to send,
Lost or thrown away.
And now we're grown up orphans
That never knew their names,
We don't belong to no one
That's a shame.
You could hide beside me,
Maybe for a while
And I won't tell no one your name…
And I won't tell name.
The scars are souvenirs you never lose,
The past is never far.
And did you lose yourself somewhere out there?
Did you get to be a star ?
Don't it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are?
We grew up way too fast
And now there's nothing to believe;
The reruns all become our history.
A tired song keeps playing on a tired radio,
And I won't tell no one your name…
And I won't tell your name.
Mmm, mmm, mmm,
No, I won't tell your name…
I think about you all the time,
But I don't need the same.
It's lonely where you are,
Come back down,
And I won't tell your name…*
@~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~
Bakura let him eyes flutter open and growled in his throat releasing his head pounded, but at least he was thankful he wasn't stomach sick. He closed his eyes again to block out the painful light now creeping through the cracks in his curtains and let the previous nights events play through his head. The place he thought he'd end when he was sitting in the tree outside Ryou's window last night, was at a bar getting drunk with Malik and Yami, all of them sharing secret pains and advice. He concluded two things, one, Yami wasn't all _that_ bad and two, he was never getting that drunk again; it made him do strange things, like be relatively friendly to Yami. Then the though occurred that the only reason they started drinking heavily was, in an odd way, to help out Yami. ~I'm getting soft~ Bakura sighed in his mind.
He pushed himself out of bed and wandered towards his ever growing mural of paintings and poetry. He looked up at his version of the change of heart angel. "Ryou…" he sighed and closed his eyes. In his mind he could feel the boy's skin, hear his voice and see his pale angelic face, blank with the strange stare that greeted his kiss the night before. Bakura glanced around then picked up the ink pen from the drawing kit, thinking of the conversation he had at the club, the started to write once more on the wall:
"Hey,
What are you thinking
I tried to read your face…"
After adding few more lines he read it over and smirked slightly, knowing exactly how to conclude it:
"And I see it from another place right now,
I'm coming home
before I hit the ground
Right back where I want to be right now
Smash
And I feel it.
Right now…"
He stepped back and nodded approvingly, for the first time in what seemed like years he felt relieved and happy, "I'm coming back to you, Ryou." he said, a true smile played across his lips. He grabbed his shirt which was lying on the floor where he had left it the night before, the clock chided him that it was already almost 4 pm (which wasn't surprising considering he only crashed somewhere around 5.) and he had a concert to get to.
********************************************************************
LYB: She told ya the side story was worth it, Yami! Yami?
Yami: *hick* x_x…
LYB: o_O
Malik: He'll be okay in awhile.
LYB: I hope so! He just made a lot of progress with his hikari problems!
Cyris: Please R&R, and I'll apology's for my mistress if everyone is slightly ooc in this chapter and that it was so damn long….
Everyone: o_O U;;;
LYB: I'm so happy!!! ^_______^
Malik: Okay, who was the smartass who gave her sugar.
Yami: Not me.
Bakura: Don't look at me, I'm not suicidal.
Yami: Uhh… guys, I just made a scarier observation…
Malik: What?
Yami: *fearful* we're the only three yugioh characters here…
Bakura and Malik: O_O!!!
LYB: *rubs her hands together, smiling evilly*
Malik: RUN!!!
LYB: I'll chase them in a minute, first of all, I have things to say ^_^
BlackBalloon: Yes it does, but that's a secret between you and me ;) as for the painting of hell? I'll explain it in a later chapter (and read my caption to Hikaru below). Yes I have heard that song!! I love it!!
Hikaru Imonoyama: just re read the part just before it mentions the painting, Bakura has the room lit only with candles! Mwhahaha! I love metaphors!! And the picture about the angels sounds so kawaii! I'd love to see it.
CheetaCat: *offers a cold pack to help that bump from the wall* ^_^
~!~ Special thanks to everyone who liked my picture~!~ ^___^ I feel good now and I'll draw some more just for you Spirit Guardian ;)
Okay about this story: It's a 2 in 1deal. The main plot which follows the song "Smash" which is the next song on the CD Gutterflower and a rather funny side plot involving Yami, Malik, Bakura, 2 other Goo Goo Dolls songs from the CD A Boy Named Goo (which get played at the club) and many, many shots of scotch. ^_^. It has nothing to do with the CD Gutterflower or the main plot but I decided to throw it in because of the two side stories running beside the BakuraxRyou one: YamixYugi and Malik's past. So feel free to read it too, in fact PLEASE read it too. But just so you know, the side plot is set off from the main story by Gutter flowers: @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ it's worth it, trust me, specially if you like Malik and Yami. ^^
LYB: *runs after her muse and glomps all three of them*
Malik, Bakura & Yami: @_@
LYB: YAY!!! Story time!!
*Song Lyrics, as usual*
~Bakura's thoughts~
************************************************************************
Smash
************************************************************************
"And that's what happened," Bakura concluded, then glancing at Malik, who was lying beside him under the park trees in the cool shade of night, staring at the stars.
"You told him everything about my Yami?" Malik said thoughtful.
"Yes," Bakura nodded.
Malik turned his head, a worried look on his face. "You didn't say anything about me, did you?"
"No," Bakura offered him the best sympathetic look he could manage. "Those are things you confided to me. I would never betray you like that. Those are your dark fears."
Malik nodded, satisfied and turned back to the sky. "Will you go?" He asked.
"Where?"
"The club."
"Oh." Bakura was silent a moment before opening his mouth. "That one looks like Hathor," he pointed lazily to the cloud formation, avoiding the question.
Malik examined it a moment. "I can't see a cow in that. There's no way. You're just stuck dwelling on love; you're seeing the love goddess in clouds for the love of Ra. "
"Well excuse me, I think it looks like Hathor." he growled. Malik laughed and rolled on his side to say something but stopped and stared curiously.
"Hey what's this?" He asked reaching for Bakura's neck. Bakura smacked his hand like a mother catching her son in the cookie jar.
"Don't touch. It was my mothers." He let his fingers run around the simple golden chain link necklace around his neck. "I used to wear it in Egypt after she disappeared."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I've kept it tucked away for awhile now, but I've felt like keeping something I loved close to me, since Ryou isn't anymore."
Malik let his face fall, feeling his friends pain, knowing very well there wasn't much he could say to a comment like that. So he decided it would be best to change subjects. "We need to take another coffee run. It's 1 a.m."
"Sorry I woke you," Bakura acknowledged. "I had to talk to you. You know everything in the background, anyway."
Malik nodded. "I don't mind. I wasn't asleep anyway. Isis was a bit mad, but she'll get over it."
Bakura sat up and stretched his arms. "A coffee run it is."
"To the Batmobile, Robin!" Malik smirked, getting up and brushing imaginary dirt off his pants.
"The wha…" Bakura gave him a strange look, slightly disturbed.
"What?" Malik smiled. "You don't watch the Justice League?" Bakura continued to stare at him like he had 10 heads. "You seriously need to watch that with me and Isis sometime. It's an awesome cartoon"
"Cartoon?? Aren't you a bit old for cartoons?"
"Hell no! Age of maturity matches my shoe size remember?"
"Sometimes I wonder about you," Bakura smiled shaking his head, knowing that Malik was only trying to cheer him up. He rose. "To the Batmobile!" he said, humouring Malik.
"Sweet! I drive! " The blond cheered and ran for the motorcycle.
"Hey! It's my turn!" Bakura cried and chased him. He tackled Malik around the waist and they both tumbled into the grass. Bakura pushed himself up and raced for the bike. Malik grabbed his foot and Bakura fell flat on his face again. Bakura sprang up, scrambling after Malik, who had tried once more to reach his bike. They continued to fight their way to the motorcycle until finally Bakura laid his hands on the handlebars, Malik hanging around his waist in a vain attempt to hold him back.
"You're forgetting something," Malik said tactfully, brushing himself off as Bakura sat on the bike.
"What?"
" I have the keys, Baka!" Malik dangled the keys in front of him matter-of-factly. Bakura scowled and grabbed the keys then Malik climbed on behind Bakura as Bakura started it up. He revved the engine before spinning the bike out into the road. Bakura shook his head, letting the wind kick back his hair. Malik hooked his feet firmly on the running board and held onto Bakura's shoulders as he stood. Bakura laughed as Malik let his head fall back.
"You're suicidal!" Bakura laughed.
"No," Malik said. "Just crazy."
"Hold on!" Bakura called back. Malik promptly sat down and braced himself against Bakura as Bakura revved the engine again, shooting off and pulling the bike into a brief catwalk before taking a sharp turn out onto the freeway.
Malik pinged Bakura's ear. "Hey! I thought we were going for coffee! What are you doing on the freeway!? " he yelled over the roar of the bike and the rush of wind.
"Who cares?" Bakura yelled back, "Let's just drive," Malik laughed and once more partially stood up leaning on Bakura's shoulder. Bakura laughed as Malik gave a wild, delighted scream, and Bakura pushed the bike to 110. Eventually, they made their way back into the city, cruising down what Malik had dubbed "The Domino Sun Set Strip," a string of nightclubs that came alive at night.
Malik tightened his grip around Bakura "Should we dance tonight? Kills stress and questions better than caffeine."
Bakura nodded. The idea was a good one. Bakura allowed Malik to pick their club for the night and they sat themselves down next to each other in a corner booth, soaking in the exotic pound of the music. They sat awhile, casually taking shallow drinks from hard liquor. Two girls passed them by, eyeing them up, then circled back to them. Bakura moved close to Malik, reaching over him in a sensual way to take Malik's dark rum and drink from it. Just as casually, Malik dropped his arm over Bakura's shoulder and stole Bakura's Brandy. The girls looked mildly disappointed and passed by. The two boys separated. "We've gotten so good at that. Gee, you'd think we're gay…" Malik said softly, taking back his rum.
"Hey, if the shoe fits." Bakura smirked. He took his Brandy back. "How can you drink that shit?" he said pointing at the rum. "It tastes like fucking old spice and burns your mouth!"
"Well, your Brandy is rich enough to skin a cat," Malik responded, spreading his arms across the back of the seat. "Have you decided about Ryou yet?"
At the mention of the boy, Bakura took another drink from his glass. "No," he answered, rolling the alcohol around the glass, looking at it thoughtfully. "I felt like such an idiot, kissing him like that. You should have seen the expression on his face. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I still can't figure him out, sometimes."
*Hey...what are you thinkin'
I tried to read your face
Say...say what you're thinkin'
Don't carry round that pain*
"You think he didn't mean his invitation?"
"I don't know. He's still hurting, I think. I hurt him more than any person deserves." Malik nodded, accepting this. "I really thought he would cry when he came to me tonight." Bakura sighed. "But what he did was for worst…"
*Every time I see you pickin' at yourself
I love...I love when things work out*
"What can be worse?" Malik said, turning to look at him, taking a drink.
"He cut open his wrist again."
Malik coughed suddenly, then snuffled. Bakura raised a brow, concluding some of the rum must have gone up the nose. Malik coughed again. "Say what?"
"Tried to kill himself, but didn't get too far; he only had one wrapped."
Malik shook his head. "That bad hu? Oh Horus… I swear you must be made for each other." Malik half-smirked. "You go insane apart."
*Smash...I heard ya cryin'
Seven times this year
Crash...but now you're smilin'
Holdin' back your tears*
"You think?" Bakura said thoughtfully. "That we're made for each other?"
Malik offered a sincere smile and nodded. "I hope this all works out for you."
"I hope so too, or I'll belong in the nuthouse soon."
"You already belong in the nuthouse!"
"True." Bakura smiled sadistically
*Every time I see you pickin' at yourself
I love...I love when things work out
Ya, every time I see you torturin' yourself
I love...I love when things work out*
Bakura letting his face fall blank once again "I'm not sure what to do, Malik. I can't believe I did that!"
"Told him? I've been telling you to do that for months. It's probably good that he knows; just give him a bit of time. He knows what your limit is now. He's learned your fears and inner war. He has to deal with that, just like you have to deal with his passion for music and his…" he paused, trying to find the right word.
"Self-destructiveness?" Bakura offered. Malik nodded once more, but Bakura shook his head. "I'll do everything in my power to save him from the self-destruction. I've fallen in love with his music, and that wasn't even that I met! But… Malik… I'm dying. I think I am." Malik looked at him, eyes wide. "I'm hoping to crash myself into the ground. What I meant was taking him into my arms. I can't believe I did it. Even now I can feel it, I can feel him pressed against me, his heart beating. Living, breathing, warm in my arms." Bakura subconsciously licked his lips. Malik raised his brow.
"You liked it, huh?"
Bakura shook his head. "It was incredible. It was like electricity when I put my lips to him. I couldn't resist." Malik nodding thoughtfully. "I don't think I can go on without him."
"Tell him so." Malik said, flashing his trademark mysterious grin. Bakura opened his mouth to say something, but quickly polished off his Brandy instead. "At least come to the show like he asked. You never did tell me if you would."
Bakura was silent a moment. "I don't know. I've upset him enough."
"He asked you to, and you nodded. You'll upset him if you don't. Talk to him. Just talk to him. Better yet, let him read the things written on your walk. Run home to him like you want." Bakura let a smile cross his face and picked up Malik's glass, pouring a mouthful of the drink into his own and put it back on the table. He raised his glass.
"To my hikari," he said looking at the glass. "I'm coming back to you." Malik laughed and lifted his own glass.
"Here here," He smiled. They both downed their drinks.
*And I see it from another place right now,
I'm comin' home before I hit the ground
Right back where I want to be right now
Smash
And I feel it.
Smash,
And I feel it.
Smash
And I feel it,
Right now…*
@~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~
They sat for another short while when a song started to pound itself out on the club speakers. A dark, warped tune, something made to move to. Malik closed his eyes and tapped his fingers to the beat. He got to his feet and held out a hand to Bakura. "Shall we kill our thoughts for a minute?" Bakura pushed himself up and they somehow pushed through the crowd into the pale neon on black of the dance floor.
Getting into the movement was slow at first. Bakura closed his eyes and caught the beat with a few tosses of his head before raising his arms into the movement of the song. Another form of art. He let his shoulders dip to the music, moving his hands and fingers in a gentle elegance as he stretched and flexed his arms. He twisted and turned in the ocean of faded white light and dark and the ever moving current of sound. His arms curled in and unravelled themselves upward, letting his body break itself into the pounding beat. He tossed his head with the beat, working his white hair into silvery wisps hat fell across his face. He let his senses rock shut and let his limbs twist and curl something like a weeping willow caught by a flame. There was no thought to movement when the music thought for you.
Malik awoke his senses long enough to look at Bakura, and he laughed slightly noting how the light caught his pale skin and hair, giving him the image of a white angel thrown out of heaven and fallen from grace for being too much like himself. His body was twisting to the music, a moth caught in a flame. Malik closed his eyes and caught himself in the music once more.
The song shifted into that of another, Malik smirked but knew in his heart Bakura had paused. "Is that…?" Malik opened his eyes long enough to nod and smile.
"Yes, that's Ryou. This is an earlier Stardust Goddess song."
"Thought you had no albums."
"We don't, but we have demo tapes floating around."
"Oh." Both of them wrapped themselves up in the music again.
*Oh here you are, there's nothing left to say.
You're not supposed to be that way…
Did they push you out? did they throw you away?
Touch me now and I don't care.
When you take me I'm not there.
I'm almost human, but I'll never be the same…
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
Long way down, I don't want to live in here alone.
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…*
"Did Ryou write this?" Bakura asked over the music.
"Sort of," Malik answered. "It was a collaboration on both our parts."
Bakura twisted with the music. "I understand, you gave him one of the pages you wrote about your yami."
"Yes, but doesn't it fit the moment?"
Bakura nodded, turning up his arms to the ceiling, wreathing his wrists, letting his body move to the music.
*I never put you down, I never pushed you away.
You're not supposed to be that way.
And anything you want, there's nothing I could say.
Is there anything to feel?
Is it pain that makes you real?
Cut me off before it kills me…
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
Long way down, I don't want to live in here alone.
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
I never put you down, I never pushed you away…
Take another piece of me,
Give my mind a new disease ,
And the black and white world never fades to grey…
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
Long way down, I don't want to live in here alone.
Long way down, I don't think I'll make it on my own…
On my own…
On my own…
I'm on my own…*
Bakura opened his eyes and gave a smiled look at Malik, who had his arms tucked behind his head and tossed his head to the music, stirring up the locks of his silk strained gold hair. Bakura laughed, Malik always knew how to get his spirit up. He was feeling pretty good and his mood was picking up and with it, his confidence and will. He would go to the concert.
He suddenly caught something from the corner of his eye and turned his head. That was interesting. He poked Malik in the chest and Malik snapped back to reality. Bakura pointed at the figure, now sitting at the table they had once been, placing an order. "What the hell is he doing here?" Malik said in slight surprise.
"Dunno." Bakura answered. "What the fuck would the pharaoh be doing on our level?" Bakura nodded with his head toward the table, a silent way of saying 'should we join him?' Malik nodded. They got to the table just as the bargirl got back with 3 tequila shots and had lined them up. Bakura came up behind Yami as he downed the first shot and pop a lemon slice into his mouth. Bakura leaned over him, wrapping his arms about Yami's shoulders.
"Hey pharaoh!" He said in a sarcastically perky voice. "What's new?" Yami gave him a look of surprise but it quickly turned to annoyance when he realized Bakura had only leaned over him to steal his remaining drinks. Bakura handed one to Malik. "You seriously weren't going to drink all of that, were you?" Bakura said, quickly sucking on the palm of his hand before drinking the tequila. He quickly slid in beside Yami and stole a lemon to suck on.
"Yes, I was." Yami said sourly. "Before you took it."
"I never knew you to be a drinker," Malik said plopping down beside Bakura and doing the tequila drinking ritual quickly.
"I can drink," Yami growled.
"Three tequila in a row?" Bakura raised a brow. "What are you trying to do? Trash yourself?"
"Yes." Yami said bluntly, leaning back and crossing his arms. Bakura and Malik exchanged a look of surprise and concern. "I'll assume you two are here to do the same."
"No," Malik said leaning on the table, a slight smirk on his face. "We came here to dance; the alcohol is a bonus. We rarely ever get completely drunk." He cast a glance at Bakura who nodded slightly in an unspoken language. "But I suppose if you want to get trashed we can help you out."
Yami scowled. "I don't need your help."
Bakura growled. "Why do I feel like that was directed at me?"
"Because it was." Yami spat.
"Oh bite your royal tongue!" Bakura snapped. "What's your problem tonight?"
"It's none of your business!" There was a brief silence before Yami spoke. "Why the hell are you two dancing?" Yami looked at them, the absurdity of the situation dawning on him. The two most bitter and anti-social people he knew dancing? Bakura flagged over the waitress, and ordered a bottle of scotch, an Irish cream, a whiskey sour, a Manhattan and three shot glasses. "What's all that for?" Yami asked.
"If you're going to drink, drink right. Shooters and chasers." Yami looked confused. "Drinking has come a long way since your mead and wine, your majesty." Bakura smirked. "As to why we're here, I had a bit of a run in with Ryou tonight and it drag up things I'd be happy never to think of again. So Malik was gracious enough to step out with me while I argue with myself, curse my life and Malik's, and brood the fact that your little hikari has the one I want." Bakura cast him a look. "Now what about your highness?"
Yami looked mildly amused. "You talked to Ryou?"
"He did more than talk," Malik smirked and grabbed a shot glass and the scotch as the waitress set out the rest of the drinks. Bakura smacked the back of his head, then paid the girl before turning back to Yami.
"I'm not about to tell you my life story. And besides, I asked you a question." Bakura pushed a shot glass and the Manhattan toward Yami.
"What's this for?"
"Okay," Malik explained, pouring a shot of scotch for the 3 of them. "First you drink the scotch." He proceeded to do so. "Then you take your side drink…" Malik picked up his whiskey sour and sipped on it. "The side drink kills the taste of hard stuff, plus has alcohol so you get twice the liquor. Even more intriguing still, after you take a drink from the sweet drink you're willing to take another shot. You get drunker faster."
Yami seemed satisfied with this and proceeded to copy Malik's example with his own set of drinks. "What's this called again?" He asked before reaching for the drink.
"It's called a Manhattan. You'll like it, trust me. It's right up your alley." Yami looked at him suspiciously but drank it anyway and nodded his head in approval. "So you normally drink like this?"
"I prefer a good brandy," Bakura replied. "But will you just answer the question?"
"Hikari troubles." Yami said coolly, taking down another scotch.
"What's wrong with Yugi?" Malik started. "Wait a minute, let me guess, you're in Bakura's spot."
"It's more complicated than that." Both Bakura and Yami answered back. They looked at each other and shrugged, then each took a shot.
"I know Bakura's situation, but I thought you and Yugi adored each other. I think an explanation is in order." Malik drank two shots in a row as he spoke.
Yami sighed. "He's depressed about something and it's driving him down deeper and deeper. He's getting edgy and defensive. Well, you know what people are like. This is killing me! He won't tell me what's wrong; he refuses to listen to me. He keeps pushing me away. This Ryou thing has made it worse. He won't listen to me when it comes to Ryou." Bakura gave him a mean look. "I say nothing bad about your light other than he's not right for mine."
Bakura nodded. "I agree. Continue."
"I just miss him. I fought with him tonight until I thought I would kiss him or lock myself in my soul room and refuse to come out. I talked to Kaiba for a while tonight, too. Kaiba is quite sure the boy is a druggie, and I think he's right…" Bakura just looked slightly amazed. If such a thing was possible with Yugi… he took another shot rather quickly in an effort to deaden the impact the statement made on him.
Malik just nodded. "It's no wonder."
Bakura and Yami looked at him, wanting explanation. "Living with a Yami is never an easy task. Trust me, I've had one. You two can't even start to comprehend what it's like to live up to this thing in your head. True, it was an extremely different situation than the ones you're both in, but the idea remains the same. Your lights are tired of being pushed aside." Bakura looked wistfully at his empty shot glass. Yami just looked confused.
"I've never pushed aside my abiou," Yami protested. "I love him. I'd do anything for him."
"Have you told him so?" Bakura said, filling his glass with scotch and drinking it. Malik closed his mouth, looking satisfied that Bakura had said exactly what he was about to. Yami slumped down and folded his arms, looking defeated.
"I suppose not," he replied dully. Bakura took a quick drink of his Irish Cream.
"Trust me, not saying anything gets you into more trouble than just saying it. I wouldn't be sitting here now, that's for sure."
"Yugi…" Yami murmured. "I want to save you from falling, but how did you start to fall in the first place?"
Malik downed another scotch along with Yami before speaking. "Because of you, probably. He probably saw you as the cooler part of himself. Your the part everyone recognize and saw and thought was Sooooo great."
"Plus you stand over him, guarding him like a 10-foot-wall: Your stubbornness." Bakura added untactfully, using stubbornness as an adjective for highness, then added another checkmark to his total of shooters.
Malik gave the white haired spirit a lazy glare and pointed a finger at him. "The booze is making your tongue loose."
Bakura smacked his hand away. "I'm just preachy."
Yami smiled slightly before Malik poured them all another shot and continued. "Well it's true, you watch him like a hawk. He probably wanted to do something for himself."
"Crack?" Yami questioned sarcastically, raising a brow and drinking his scotch a bit slower this time.
"Well, that's just following the crowd," Malik said pointedly, taking a sip from his whiskey sour to wash down the scotch. "He probably got fooled into taking it when you weren't around. Yug's a trusting soul. He's innocent. More than likely he had no idea what he was getting into. He maybe still doesn't. Not really his fault or choice"
"So there's still hope?"
"There's always hope," Bakura said thoughtfully. "You just have to find it. The kid isn't a full fledge junkie or anything, at least not that I can see. He's just caught up in a bad world." He pointed a finger lazily at Yami. "Get him out. Just don't make it sound like you're the one who's right. He has reasons too, you know. You're not the only one, pharaoh, who has a way to kill pain." Bakura motioned to the nearly empty scotch bottle Yami was pouring another 3 shots from.
Yami nodded, accepting this as well. "Yugi's just happens to be whatever's offered to him," Yami concluded Bakura's thought, taking the shot he poured. Malik followed the example, but Bakura didn't touch his. He just sipped at his like Irish Cream.
"You know, it's funny when you think about it," Bakura said, unusually calm for himself. "Life or fate, or whatever the hell rolls the dice has somehow managed to roll us all together in a losing game. We've lost everything, yet we struggle to get above it. But what we need to go forward is out of our reach."
"Yeah, it's kinda strange that we'd all end up here," Malik said, leaning back and spreading his arms across the back of the corner seat, lounging. "In this bar, killing our pain. Well… when Bakura and I came here we had no intention of drinking ourselves into a philosophical conversation, we came to dance."
"Well, thank you for keeping me company," Yami nodded then closed his eyes; the light starting to hurt them.
"It's no good to drink alone," Bakura smiled slightly, surprising Yami.
"You surprise me sometimes Bakura. Just when I think I have you figured. I always wondered what Ryou saw in you."
"What do you see in me?" Bakura smirked at him. "I can look at you and call you an arrogant egotistical power-tripped pompous royal asshole, but then I'd be lying because in the back of my mind, I know now you'd jump head first into your own little hell because of your hikari. I see you now not as strong as you'd have us believe. The personas we put on everyday are far different than how we usually are. Our personas often try to make up for the things we lack so we look normal."
"So this is a breakdown of reality, in a sense. We're seeing each other as we see ourselves."
"I'm going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow." Malik groaned, rubbing his head. Bakura laughed and knocked his shoulder against Malik's playfully, but was a bit too light-headed to sit back up again, so he just leaned against Malik and drank the shot Yami poured him a while before. Malik didn't seem to mind the contact and laughed at the white-haired boy and poured another shot for himself and Yami, both of which were taken down quickly. "You're going to be at your limit soon, Baku."
"Nonsense!" Bakura replied. Yami smiled vaguely, feeling slight jealousy towards the other spirit and former hikari. Somehow they were bonded to each other. They argued like hell, but they were close. At that moment they had started to argue over which was better: Irish cream or whiskey sours. Yami laughed at the two but promptly laid his head back, feeling slightly dizzy.
"Ooo! The pharaoh's out of it!" Malik said, sounding like a giggling schoolgirl.
"Oh shut-up." Yami replied, pointing his finger. "You …hey…why are you two so close? Are you together?"
Both of them stiffened up and pulled apart. "Hell no!" They both snapped, then glared at each other.
"You are so of base there," Bakura said, putting a hand on Yami's shoulder heavily. "You see, Malik and I have escaped from hell together, and we've been together ever since. I love Ryou, yeah? Malik tried to help me get him back when Yami Malik banished him…even gave me his Sun Dragon…but that backfired… we both got screwed on that one,"
"Because you wouldn't listen to me you arrogant ass." Malik said pointedly, poking Bakura.
"Well how was I supposed to know he was going to one-turn-kill me!?"
"If you had listened to me you wouldn't have lost!"
"It was a fluke! It's not my fault!"
Yami rolled his eyes, joining the argument. "Well whose fault is it? I'll kick his ass for making me share a soul room with him," Yami pointed at Bakura. "Until the ring was given back."
"Oh bite me." Bakura growled. "Is this lets-gang-up-on-the-tomb-robber night?"
"Don't make me answer that," Malik chided.
Yami laughed again, then sighed, missing the emotional closeness. "I miss calling out to my hikari. He doesn't talk through our link much anymore."
"Talk to him instead. Just ramble through your link. Let your emotions go through, so he can understand." Malik offered. The music seemed to melt down to a much softer song. Malik smiled. "Oh, another Stardust Goddess."
"Is this one yours?" Bakura asked. Malik shook his head, and his smile softened. "Ryou wrote it based on something Isis wrote for me. But I can hear other voices in it. That's the way with music. It means something different but just as important to everyone." They turned their ears to the music, and listened, each hearing a different song. True to Malik's words, they all heard a different voice besides Ryou's. Malik heard his sister calling to him, as well as himself worrying over Bakura's sanity. Yami heard his own voice crying his pleas to his beloved hikari and Bakura heard his own beautiful prayer back to the angel singing. Bakura closed his eyes. ~I feel it, Ryou. ~…
*And even though the moment passed me by,
I still can't turn away .
I saw the dreams you never thought you'd lose
Tossed along the way .
The letters that you never meant to send,
Lost or thrown away.
And now we're grown up orphans
That never knew their names,
We don't belong to no one
That's a shame.
You could hide beside me,
Maybe for a while
And I won't tell no one your name…
And I won't tell name.
The scars are souvenirs you never lose,
The past is never far.
And did you lose yourself somewhere out there?
Did you get to be a star ?
Don't it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are?
We grew up way too fast
And now there's nothing to believe;
The reruns all become our history.
A tired song keeps playing on a tired radio,
And I won't tell no one your name…
And I won't tell your name.
Mmm, mmm, mmm,
No, I won't tell your name…
I think about you all the time,
But I don't need the same.
It's lonely where you are,
Come back down,
And I won't tell your name…*
@~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~ @~8~
Bakura let him eyes flutter open and growled in his throat releasing his head pounded, but at least he was thankful he wasn't stomach sick. He closed his eyes again to block out the painful light now creeping through the cracks in his curtains and let the previous nights events play through his head. The place he thought he'd end when he was sitting in the tree outside Ryou's window last night, was at a bar getting drunk with Malik and Yami, all of them sharing secret pains and advice. He concluded two things, one, Yami wasn't all _that_ bad and two, he was never getting that drunk again; it made him do strange things, like be relatively friendly to Yami. Then the though occurred that the only reason they started drinking heavily was, in an odd way, to help out Yami. ~I'm getting soft~ Bakura sighed in his mind.
He pushed himself out of bed and wandered towards his ever growing mural of paintings and poetry. He looked up at his version of the change of heart angel. "Ryou…" he sighed and closed his eyes. In his mind he could feel the boy's skin, hear his voice and see his pale angelic face, blank with the strange stare that greeted his kiss the night before. Bakura glanced around then picked up the ink pen from the drawing kit, thinking of the conversation he had at the club, the started to write once more on the wall:
"Hey,
What are you thinking
I tried to read your face…"
After adding few more lines he read it over and smirked slightly, knowing exactly how to conclude it:
"And I see it from another place right now,
I'm coming home
before I hit the ground
Right back where I want to be right now
Smash
And I feel it.
Right now…"
He stepped back and nodded approvingly, for the first time in what seemed like years he felt relieved and happy, "I'm coming back to you, Ryou." he said, a true smile played across his lips. He grabbed his shirt which was lying on the floor where he had left it the night before, the clock chided him that it was already almost 4 pm (which wasn't surprising considering he only crashed somewhere around 5.) and he had a concert to get to.
********************************************************************
LYB: She told ya the side story was worth it, Yami! Yami?
Yami: *hick* x_x…
LYB: o_O
Malik: He'll be okay in awhile.
LYB: I hope so! He just made a lot of progress with his hikari problems!
Cyris: Please R&R, and I'll apology's for my mistress if everyone is slightly ooc in this chapter and that it was so damn long….