A/N: Me glad you liked it people!! ^^;; hahahahaha, I guess that kind of surprised you, didn't it? Lil Lily can be really angsty at times! Hmm... yeah, you guys have nothing to fear. Here's the sweet happy ending for both this fic and "Shades of a soul" readers. Enjoy!
AND REVIEW!
Disclaimer: ............ no. No own. Why do you think I'm crying in here? *starts crying*
Warning: This fic contains shounen ai, and swearing (we're talking 'bout Bakura in here...), so you've been warned.
Pairings: Bakura/Ryou, Yami/Yugi and (Yami) Malik/(Malik) Ishtar
Keys: "__" means talking, '__' means thinking, and italic means flashback
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Final
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He... breathed. He was breathing. Oxygen passed through his lungs and his chest went up and down in a slow motion. Although... he felt weak. Very weak. As if he couldn't move a finger if he wanted to. He could barely open his eyes...
Not that he wanted to.
Because there was something wrong. Something on his body... on his arm was wrong. Everything was wrong. He was cold... oh so very cold, different from the cold he thought he would be feeling.
And yet he heard voices. Familiar voices. Not the soft voices or foreign voices he thought he was supposed to hear. Familiar voices... he knew all too well. He wanted to run away from them. Run away to where he was supposed to belong. The atmosphere, the breeze, the voices, the feelings... everything was wrong.
Or was he wrong?
Didn't he belong here?
Yet he went into unconsciousness, his world threatening to fall, and his body threatening to break if he kept where he was. The voices didn't acknowledge he had awakened, because he didn't give a sign that he had. So the worry, concern and fear still flew in the air, the tension so thick you could almost grab it with your hands.
One walked from one side to another, mumbling words to himself, trying to calm down and threatening to kill the bastard himself as soon as he wakened, and the other was just sitting, trying to calm the first one with soothing words.
But Bakura was oblivious of everything, as he slept into an ocean of memories, trying to drawn him into its darkened bottom, where some precious memories laid.
~~
"Who do they think they are?!" Bakura hissed, and the shorter chocolate-orbed teen beside him sighed, bringing a hand to his eyes.
"My parents?" Ryou asked, and Bakura looked at him with a 'you-know-exactly-what-I-meant-so-don't-try-to-sound-stupid-about-it' kind of look. Ryou just sighed again and leaded both of them to his room, where they would be able to talk in peace, since his parents didn't acknowledge the room at all or just ignored it as if it was nothing into their lives.
"Ryou, no parent say 'You are nothing but a burden, useless, helpless and hopeless piece of nothing to us, so just get the hell outta my sight' to a son like you." Bakura said, raising one eyebrow to emphasize his statement, really adding that last part by his own.
"They don't like me, Bakura. That's just it..." Ryou said silently, making Bakura almost yell an exclamation of amusement.
"'Just' it, Ryou? I'm sure they have your death planned somewhere deep within their mischief and sick minds!" he said, but Ryou didn't hear him. Noticing that Ryou was refusing to hear what he had to say, Bakura knelt in front of Ryou, who sat on his bed, and took the boy's chin in his fingers, making him look into his eyes. "They don't just 'don't like you' or else they wouldn't hit his son to the point of turning him into some kind of selfless, lonely, book-obsessed freak who spends most of his days at a library sitting away from everyone in silence." Ryou's jaw fell.
"Bakura how many times do I have to tell you not to stalk me?" he asked, and Bakura smirked for a brief moment before getting serious again.
"You got my point, didn't you?" he asked, and Ryou sighed again, nodding slightly. "Good. Can I kill them now?"
"Bakura!" Ryou exclaimed, his eyes wide and pushing the other away from him. Bakura snickered.
"Hey, they annoy me, okay?" narrowing his eyes, he snickered again. "And you know when someone annoys AND angers me what happens..."
"Yeah. I still CAN'T believe you beat up Tsume! Bakura, the very same day you had given up almost killing him because of me!" Ryou complained crossing his arms, narrowing his eyes and leaning against his bed, regarding the day when... well, Bakura was really impulsive and unpredictable (in other words they kissed). Bakura went closer to Ryou, and no matter how he tried to keep the distance, Bakura didn't stop until their faces were only inches apart.
"That's because I don't like anyone touching you..." he grinned. "... but me." Leaning forward, Bakura kissed Ryou without any protest coming from the other white-haired boy, leading them both to lay on the bed, Ryou becoming fully subordinated to Bakura, the older one in complete charge.
When the touches didn't stop at flaming French kisses, and tight hugs, with Bakura sliding his hands to the inside of Ryou's shirt, the other one broke the kiss and stared up at the hungry teen on top of him.
"What?" Bakura asked almost innocently, and Ryou raised an eyebrow.
"Take a guess, Mr. I-am-totally-incapable-of-controlling-my-hormones." Ryou said, and Bakura snickered.
"Well, sorry if I... offended you. Just got carried away. Not that you seem able to control your hormones either." Bakura said, and it took Ryou a few seconds before realizing Bakura... had his shirt unbuttoned and Ryou's arms were placed on his exposed chest. Now, when exactly did that happen? "And you know, our position is also kind of compromising..."
"Bakura!" Ryou exclaimed for the second time that day, shoving a laughing Bakura off of him to the other side of the bed, scowling at him.
"You are too defensive." Bakura snickered, and Ryou laughed a mockingly laugh.
"And you are too impulsive." He said, and both stuck their tongues out at each other.
"But can we continue?"
"BAKURA!" said teen laughed even harder, as Ryou looked at him with a face of disbelief, and blushing. He made his way back to Ryou, crawling the whole way until their faces were again only inches apart.
"You may think it sounds stupid and you don't have to tell the world I said this but..." he leaned to Ryou's ear and whispered some words that made his eyes go wide. He looked intensely into Bakura's dark brown eyes before giving him a kiss of his own, Bakura being unable to grin through the kiss. Both were lead to lay on the bed once again, only Ryou was on top of Bakura this time. They parted to breathe, and Ryou noticed Bakura was grinning again.
"So we ARE going to continue after all." he more stated than asked, and Ryou narrowed his eyes.
"You couldn't get back at being romantic or anything along those lines, now could you?" he asked, and Bakura just shook his head, a smirk on his face. With smart movements and taking the other's shock as an advantage, Bakura kissed Ryou again, now on top of him.
"Now I think that's somewhat difficult, don't you?" he asked, and Ryou rolled his eyes. "I love you." Ryou stopped, and looked up at him, seeing that he had spoken that twice that day, out loud this time. "There, are you happy now? We can continue, right?"
"Bakura, you're IMPOSSIBLE!"
"What?"
~~
Voices. More of them. And louder as well. Some seemed desperate, some seemed quiet, some seemed sorrowful... he understood that he couldn't run now. He couldn't go away as he had wanted in the very first place, and probably wouldn't be able to do so anytime soon.
So he decided to breathe and let the air fill him, before opening his eyes. Slowly, two dark brown orbs started to reveal themselves and look around for the source of the annoying voices.
He met sadness, relief, tears and pain in the faces and eyes of those who inhabited the insanely white room, a blur of colors slowly turning into the forms of his friends, who looked at him with expectant and hopeful glances. The first ones that noticed he had awakened were just beside him, and turned their full attention to him, ruby and amethyst teary and concerned.
"Bakura!" the one that sat on a chair beside the bed he was on said, taking a hold if his arm. "We're glad you're okay..." he said smiling, and the one behind him narrowed his eyes at Bakura, holding down his tears and having one arm around the smaller one's shoulders, ruby seeming extremely full of emotions.
"Exactly. And you have no idea how your selfish, stupid, idiotic and insane act worried us all to the point of panic!" he exclaimed, and Bakura rolled his eyes.
"Glad I'm loved." He said, and the others in the room narrowed their eyes threatening at him.
"Bakura, just wait until you get out of here... I bet I'll kill you with my bare hands." Violet seemed threateningly serious at the moment, that even kind of scared Bakura.
"Uh... I should fear, right?" he asked the young man standing beside the woman, and he nodded.
"Oh yes, Bakura. Mai has been so worried that we thought she would eat her nails and pull all of her precious blonde hair off." He said, ice blue orbs finally showing some kind of emotion... even though it was sarcasm. Bakura snickered.
"Thanks Mai... I never thought you'd miss me so much. I'm touched." He said, and Mai glared at him more.
"Bakura, it's unknown to the man how you're able to act so coolly after the most stupid act you've ever done in your whole life seems to have brought you near death." The ruby-eyed teen said.
"Talent." Bakura said, and the amethyst-eyed boy giggled.
"I'm glad you're okay, Bakura. We all are actually. Don't mind Yami... he's the one that has been the most worried about you." He said, and Bakura blinked.
"Yugi, you really impressed me there... Yami worried about me? Now apocalypse can come and the hell shall freeze up." He said, and Yami just sighed.
"Shut up, Bakura." He said, and everybody laughed. Yugi seemed to do a sign to Seto and Mai, who looked at each other and nodded too, exiting the room just after that. A moment of silence passed then... either thinking on what to say.
Bakura, on the other hand, was thinking on what not to say... or if he should say anything at all. He obviously wasn't dead as 'planned' and that had brought him to the point of depression again, even though he masked that all too well with the cool attitude. In truth he was wanting to finish the incomplete job and die, jumping out of the hospital window, and if that didn't kill him, throwing himself in front of the first car he saw.
"Bakura..." Yami began, and said teen looked at him questionably. "... why did you do it?" he asked, and Bakura looked away. Yugi shifted in his seat, and looked down at his hands on his lap, looking as if he was trying to hold back the tears that formed in his eyes.
"When we arrived there... We thought you were dead." He said quietly, not even the assuring hand of Yami on his shoulder making him relax.
~~ Flashback ~~
"Are you sure?" Yami asked his little companion, as they entered the cemetery. He didn't like that place... it mocked him and tried to make him believe that it was a mistake that Yugi was alive, and that he should go away. Join all the lost souls that remained there, trying to rest in peace.
But Yugi had called him late at night, sounding terrified and with a voice muffled by tears, and that had gotten him immediately up and he waited for Yugi, that said that he had to see him at that very moment...
The little one told him that he had had a dream, in which a boy that looked extremely like Bakura told him to go to the cemetery, and that if he didn't go soon, something bad would happen. Maybe it was because of his coma-state, but Yugi now felt as if he had some kind of... connection with some people he had never seen before entering his dreams and asking him for help. Usually, they asked him to visit them, and it usually was in that place near the park, in the cemetery (in which Yugi had already placed uncountable flowers by graves of people he had never met before), or in the own dreams... But they just wanted to see him, thank him, and go away.
This boy seemed different though, because the dream was extremely quick, just enough for him to give Yugi his message and his figure was strangely... fading...
At that information, Yami gave no complaint or said anything but accompanied him towards the cemetery.
"I... don't know..." Yugi said, and Yami sighed, placing his arm around Yugi's shoulder. Suddenly, he saw something. Something white, that contrasted perfectly with the dark atmosphere. Showing it to Yugi, they both rushed towards the figure.
Their breaths were caught in their throats as they recognized the figure as Bakura, his blood soaking the earth beneath him, lying just before the grave of his beloved Ryou.
"Yugi... Call the emergency... now." Yami breathed, and Yugi nodded, trying to control the tears that threatened to come. He quickly rushed to the nearest telephone.
Yami walked towards the lying figure and tried checking out for the pulse. As lost as the situation seemed... the broken boy was still alive.
'Why... Why my friend?'
~~
"I should have been." Bakura said, and both boys looked up at him surprised. "It isn't as Ryou's death didn't affect me more than those first months. It ate my insides as a deadly virus, trying to consume my entire self... It affected me as if a part of me had died, as if my own soul was fading. I didn't mention it... it hurt. A fucking lot. But I guess I couldn't take it anymore..." Bakura explained, something that just hurt the other two further.
"What 'bout your friends, Bakura?" Yami asked, his voice cold. "Do you think we were gone too? We were there. We're here, and don't think you're doing that anymore." Yami said, and felt Yugi clenching tightly to his arm, trying to catch his attention.
"Yami..." he said, his voice soft, nodding briefly, making Yami sigh.
"You were lucky, Bakura." Yami said.
"You have no idea." Yugi said, smiling to Bakura, as he stood up and along with Yami left the room.
Bakura didn't think he was lucky at all. He survived? No luck. He still had a life to live, there still would be a tomorrow? No luck. He was once more taken away from Ryou? No fu-
"Bakura?" a voice from the doorway made Bakura snap his head immediately towards the source, as if in an attempt to tell the person to go away. But he never had to. His voice left him the moment his eyes met the subject that he so prompted wanted to dismiss. He felt dead, to say at least. Or too alive. He didn't know how to place it, and he personally wasn't looking forward at trying to.
"... Ryou?" he called, this time checking his own voice as if trying to make himself believe that he was still awake, that this Ryou wasn't one of those daydreams he had had at the park. This place wasn't haunted, he was still (somewhat) sane, and hallucinations were not part of his system at the present moment.
The other one trembled, tears falling helplessly down his cheeks, trying to walk towards the bed where Bakura laid, but his legs felt weak, and he just wasn't too successful at trying to control his emotions. He never was.
Before he could think straight, he rushed forward and threw himself on the arms of his confused, perplexed and surprised lover, that wanted nothing but to comprehend what was going on. He hugged the smaller one tighter, as if in an attempt to prove himself that he was awake.
It was real. Everything was.
"Ryou...?" he asked again. The other one sobbed and looked at him. He couldn't move too much, since he was still weak, but he managed to touch the other one's face. The same smooth, perfect, fragile skin... the same look in the big brown eyes...
"I'm here, Bakura. I really am..." he whispered, his eyes showing happiness. "They... tired to kill me... but they didn't. Somehow, they just pretended I was dead, and instead, I was kept here in a critical condition all this time. I'm sorry, Bakura... I'm so, so sorry... You were probably broken... You almost died for me!" he sobbed, and Bakura could do nothing but hug the smaller one. Bakura was not one of words, not even with his lover.
"You mean to tell me... your parents pretended you were dead... and you were actually here?" he concluded and Ryou nodded. "Those bastards..." he mumbled, but Ryou made a shushing sound and placed a finger on his lips, a smile on his features.
"I'm okay, Bakura... that's probably what matters the most at the moment..." he said, and placed a soft kiss on the other one's lips. He just adjusted himself comfortably on his lover's embrace, and closed his eyes. Bakura just hid his face on Ryou's smooth hair, and closed his eyes, drifting to unconsciousness once again.
Outside, all the others were utterly happy that Bakura, the only one that seemed unaffected when it came to emotions, was once again united with the only reason he still... breathed.
Everyone blinked as they heard loud sounds of crashing and looked at each other, sighing and sweatdropping.
Inside the room, Ryou blinked at the sound. Looking up a little, all he could do was sigh and giggle.
"Man, at least if he wanna die we're in a hospital already..." Mai mused, and Ryou heard Yami's laugh and Yugi's giggle.
"I'M UMPH... IT HURTS, IT HURTS!" someone cried out from far away, and everyone blinked.
"Uh oh..." they all said.
"MALIK!!" Ishtar called, and everyone shook their heads.
~* owari *~
Lily: ^^;; lol, so how was it? I didn't mess it up, did I?
Iris: Just pray, Lily...
Lily: *sighs* Yeah... ANYWAY, this is over, please review, and I'll see you guys in a soon future! ^^ See ya!