I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Rhapsody Moonschild and Tat Claire Kokoro
|~*Rhapsody: Say, Tat, I have a gift for you!
Tat: Really? It's not my birthday.
Rhapsody: ^^ I just felt nice. Here. **hands her a package**
Tat: **opens it enthusiastically** Wow, it's a BAKURA plushie!!! **huggles, then glomps Rhapsody** Thank you Rhap-chan!
Rhapsody: ^^ Thought you'd like it.
Tat: **thinks a moment** I have something for you! I'll be right back! **runs off**
Rhapsody: While we're waiting… Yu-Gi-Oh! doesn't belong to us, it belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.
Tat: **returns with huge box** For you, Rhap-chan!
Rhapsody: **goggles** Sweetness and light… **opens it** Wow, it's the real Ryou!
**Said Ryou is caged, wearing collar. Looks annoyed.**
Rhapsody: But, Tat, I can't keep a licensed character…
Tat: Just borrow him for a bit.
Rhapsody: Works for me! Now start the fic!*~|
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (by Rhapsody)
Yami's POV
Okay, if your lover was pulled into a house by his angry, abusive yami and the door slammed in your face, you wouldn't turn around and walk home, idly whistling a tune… Would you?
Well, I sure as hell won't. I take the chance that Bakura has forgotten to lock the back door again and slip around the house. From inside I worriedly note loud yelling, and then a scary silence…
Damn it, the door is locked. What to do, what to do?!! I only hesitate for a second before slamming my fist through the glass and unlocking it from the inside.
I'm dripping blood on Ryou's floor as I fly through the room in search of him. What's with all the white carpet, for Horus' sake!!!
There, there he is… My heart almost stops as I see the crumpled body on the floor by the front door. Bakura is nowhere to be seen—probably stuck in the Ring from my curse.
Damn that idiot!!! I curse inside. Why couldn't he have realized the futility of hurting my koi? He is going to know pain later, a lot of it. But first I have to help Ryou.
I bend down to examine his silent body. Still breathing… Thank all the gods!!! But the wound is long and bleeding freely. It looks like a practiced suicide's* wrist cutting—made so that even if the suicide is found before death s/he can't be saved.
((*Well, you can't exactly practice suicide more than once, but I mean a person who's tried it and hasn't died more than once.))
I scream in frustration and fear and anger and sorrow, and then call for an ambulance.
Bleep… bleep… bleep… bleep…
The sound is regular. He's breathing well…
Bleep… bleep…
"Sir, are you bleeding?" asks a shocked voice. I tear my brain away from dark thoughts to see a kid in a med uniform in front of me. Her tag said 'High School Job Shadow.' She wasn't even graduated…
"Yeah, I'm bleeding," I reply. My hands are soaked red from the glass slivers of the window.
Bleep… bleep… bleep…
Thank Ra he still lives.
"Well, come with me and we can get you all fixed up," the girl said pseudo-cheerfully. She takes my arm to help me out of the chair in which I am sitting, at vigil at Ryou's bedside.
"I'm staying here."
Bleep… bleep…
The desperation in my tone scares her, I can tell. She looks down at the sleeping boy in the bed and her face softens a little.
"Brother?"
"Lover," I say tartly.
She blinks a couple times and says slowly, "Sir, we really need to get the glass out of your arm or you're going to bleed to death."
"He almost did," I say softly, motioning with my good hand to my koi.
"Sir, please?"
Bleep… bleep… bleep… bleep…
I don't bother to answer and return to watching the monitor. If that noise stopped, I might be able to stave his death off long enough for the doctors to come. Maybe.
"Sir?"
This is a new voice. I look up to see an older man, his tag "Dr. Jerry Hartwell." He has something in his hand I can't quite see.
"Come along with us, sir. We'll be quick, I promise. You can come right back."
I see the student behind him staring fearfully.
"No," I reply.
Bleep… bleep…
With an unanticipated move the doc sticks something in my arm.
Tranquilizer! I realize in the second before my vision blurs and I am unconscious.
In my dreams I can still hear it… Bleep… bleep… bleep… bleep…