Angel Black: You know me and cliffies.
Angelic mouse girl: I know. I usually don't like OC's in stories. But I just love these kids.
Lunara: I loved that movie as a kid! It was my favorite!
Lupusdragon: I love to keep you guys guessing sometimes. Having said that….on with Anzu!
Dragondreamer: Yes, I did enjoy my vacation…*Holds up chibi hikari plushie *
Ryou's Mistress: I have tons and I means TONS of homework.
Mystical Dragon: He'll be ok, though.
K: Yeah, I thought Tim got off too easy, too. But it was funny.
Heather chan: Summer vacation is just begun. I'm back in school and I don't wanna, either.
AMT: yeah, I told you Ryou would be fine. It's up to him now to recover.
Ssjgoddesschico: *Ryou hugs back and hands ssjgodesschico a chibi ryou doll *
Sumomo: Both will be really good.


Bakura's POV
I woke up the next morning with Marik beside me. Malik slept alone in his own room with Aten's crib. When we came home from the hospital yesterday, Malik didn't speak to us. He crawled upstairs to his room and shut the door quietly. He didn't come out all night. Marik had to take him a sandwich and a drink so he could eat.
Marik talked to his hikari and Malik just told him he was worried about Ryou.
I opened my eyes and kissed my daughter who slept between Marik and I. Aria opened up her brown eyes and she hugged me.. It felt comforting to look into the bright, sparkling chibi eyes of my baby.
"Hewwo, daddy! I gwad you awaked! I weawwy missed you, daddy."
I smiled and kissed her again. I missed my little girl and I pulled her tiny body close to me in a cuddle. It was then that I missed my hikari even more. Today there had to be good news for him! There just had to! It was quite surprising for Ryou to only react to Aria. I wonder how he would react if he were to see Aten.
Aria turned around and I looked up as a snore broke out of Marik's throat. Now I will be the first to admit that sometimes I sleep oddly. Sometimes, I fold my arms on my chest and sleep like that….like a mummy. I don't know why I did that. It's not like I was ever mummified or anything.
Now, Marik…..Marik was already strange to begin with. He slept on his stomach…just like I buried him.
Of course as a corpse, he didn't drool half as much as he did now. A translucent trail of drool dampened the pillow as Marik let out a deafening snore.
Aria covered her mouth and giggled. She turned to me. "Unkie Mawik is a dwoolie-face!"
I joined in her amusement. I never saw Marik snore so loudly and drool so much. He almost looked like a drooling puppy. For a split second, the thought of calling him "Puppy #2" was too enticing. Then I remembered that Marik probably would not like being called "Puppy" anymore than he would like to be called "Dwoolie-face."
"Unkie Mawik is funny! Dwoolie-face!" Aria said inching away from the river in the bed.
I leaned over and nudged Marik on the shoulder. "Wake up, Ishtar."
"Oh…yes….Malik…."
Uh-oh. This can't be good.
"Dammit, Marik! Wake the hell up!"
A small whimper escaped Marik's throat and I tried to remain calm thanking Ra and Isis and Osiris that Marik had clothes on. Aria chuckled again as Marik smiled.
"Unkie Mawik is dweaming of something happy!"
"Malik….right there…."
Ok. That was enough for me. Marik's dream was getting out of hand to be having my daughter in the room, let alone the same bed, let alone being near him.
I lifted Aria out of bed and put her on the floor. "Aria, go get mom. We're going to see mommy soon as soon as I get Dwoolie-face to wake up. Ok, munchkin?"
Aria nodded enthusiastically and skipped away.
"Ishtar, wake up!"
With a push, I woke him up and stopped his snoring.
"What….What is it?"
"Ryou and I don't do that with Aria in the room for a reason, Marik," I said putting my shirt on.
Marik yawned and turned on his side. "Hey, I can't control what I dream about."
I leaned over to try to dry off Ryou's pillow with a towel I kept nearby. "No, but you can at least try not to create the Nile River in my bed with drool or anything else in liquid form, ok?"
Marik sat up and stretched. "Fine."
Malik walked into the room with Aria playing with Aten's monkey doll. Malik fell on the bed. I don't know if he was just tired from not sleeping or just too upset to stand up.
"Hikari, didn't you sleep?"
Malik shook his head. "No….I didn't have Aten with me."
I felt for Malik. The hikari really cared for Ryou and loved Aten as if he were his own. In almost every sense, Ryou was Aten's real mother. But Malik mothered Aten…he cleaned him, played with him, fed him, dressed him, held him closely as Aten slept. I have no idea how he felt while Marik and I were gone. All he said is that he stayed at KaibaCorp. Ever since then he has been quiet…especially around Marik.
"You have to sleep, hikari," Marik said rubbing his lover's back.
"I know, but I just can't sleep."
"Tell you what. If we can get the hosptial's ok, maybe you can stay with Aten tonight. Would that make you feel better?"
Malik's head shot up from the comforter as we heard the tiny monkey bang its cymbals together. "Really?"
"We'll see, hikari." Marik leaned over and kissed Malik. Malik seemed to respond immediately to his yami's kiss. Watching these two together was one of my most favorite past times…especially Marik. I knew I fell for him for a reason. His kiss was like an electric shock….warm and fast.
As expected, Aria didn't think twice at watching Marik and Malik kiss each other deeply. I wondered how long that would last. She just immersed herself in her toy.
Marik pulled away and licked his lips. "Hikari….you are so beautiful."
"Yami. I missed you so much. I never want you to leave me again." Malik hugged his yami. "Please don't leave me."
"I won't, tenshi."
I picked up Aria and brought her downstairs to make her breakfast to give Marik and Malik some time alone. I figured after so much time separated, they deserved some time alone.
I put Aria in her high chair and gave her Cheerios, her favorite cereal. It wasn't long after that moneybags and his puppy came. Aria once again played target practice with the Puppy and used the Cheerios as ammunition.
That kid's going to grow up to be like me someday…that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Puppy wike Chee'os!"
"Aria..I'm going to say this one time. Don't hit me with the Cheerios!"
"Puppy wike Chee'os!"
The Puppy stood behind his master.
Seto sat in the kitchen chair and crossed his long, thin legs. "So, are you going back to the hospital today?"
"That's a stupid question. I don't answer stupid questions."
Seto twirled the cord holding his portrait of Mokuba between his fingers. "I just wanted to know. What side of whose bed did you wake up on?"
"Of course I'm going over there to the hospital. Why wouldn't I?"
Seto leaned over and picked up Aria out of her seat. Aria still held a handful of the cereal. "Unkie Seto wike Chee'os?" Aria fed Seto a few Cheerios. "That good?"
Seto nodded as he crunched on the dry cereal. Marik and Malik returned downstairs. After feeding Aria, it was time to bathe and dress her. She splashed me making me soaking wet. I tried to dress her and she evaded me. She crawled under the bed and ran around the other side of the bed. Seto must have heard her high-pitched squeals and came upstairs to investigate. Aria ran out of the room before I could get her dress on her.
I jumped off the bed and heard Seto cry, "Naked Chibi Alert!" I went to the door and found Aria hunched over Seto's shoulder, his face beet red at the sight of my daughter running out of the room unclothed.
"Is she always this much trouble?" Seto asked me.
The naked little chibi laughed as she hugged her uncle.
"Ryou usually does this, moneybags."
"You mean Ryou takes care of her? What do you do?"
"I dress her, too! You try learning how to change a baby girl's diapers and tell me how much trouble you have!"
I pulled Aria off of Seto's shoulders. "Daddy, I'm nakkie!"
Oh dear Ra. I am in so much trouble when she grows older!
*******************
After a good hour of trying to get Aria's dress fastened and trying to stop her from taking it off, we finally left for the hospital. Seto walked down the hallway, his jacket flowing behind him, with Joey's arms locked around his.
Marik and Malik went to Pediatrics to find Aten. When Aten was missing, they came running to me in a panic. I asked a nurse where they moved Aten Bakari Ishtar. The nurse told me that they put Aten with Ryou that morning in hopes of speeding Aten's recovery.
We walked into Ryou's room expecting Ryou to be playing with Aten, conscious and aware of all that was happening around him. That wasn't the case. Ryou remained curled up in a ball. One doctor came up to me and shook my hand.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Dr. Zillman and I have been monitoring Ryou's vital signs."
"Where is Zira?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"He is doing his rounds with other patients. And who may you be?"
I gripped his hand tightly. "Let me introduce myself. I am Mr. If-You-Kill-Ryou-You're -Ass-Will-Be-In-The-Shadow-Realm-So-Fast-You-Won't-Know-What-Hit-You. Any questions?"
The doctor stood and stared at me as if I was the most frightening apparition he had seen in his entire life. "Yes….N..N…Nice to meet you.."
I rolled my eyes and turned away from him to look at Ryou. I leaned down to Ryou and kissed him in the forehead.
"I'm here, angel. Good morning, my love."
"What…What is your relationship…with..the patient?"
I stood up and looked him in the face. The doctor stepped back from me. "I am his husband. I am his lover. I am the father of his child. I am also the guy whom you have to deal with if he dies." I narrowed my eyes at this doctor.
"…………oh. Ok."
We heard a knock at the door. The doctor sighed almost in relief breaking our tense moment.
"That would be our volunteer now to see Ryou."
"Volunteer?" I didn't like the sound of that for some reason.
The doctor opened the door and to our horror stood a person dressed as a clown…not just any clown….IT WAS ANZU!
"OOOOO!!!!!!!!! Bakura! Ryou! Seto! Happy Joey! What are you doing here in this friendliest of all places???"
THAT'S IT, RA! TAKE ME NOW! ANYTHING BUT HER!
The moron…sorry…that's an insult to morons…the clueless girl skipped up to Ryou and I blocked her with my body.
"WHAT in the name of Ra are YOU doing here?"
"I volunteer here as Bubbles the Clown! So turn that fwown upside down the Happy Fun way! Let's all smile as biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig as we can! Ready? Set! Smile!"
I wished she would smile herself out of here.
Malik pushed me over, much to my surprise. "Anzu, get out of here now!"
"But I'm being friendly! Hospitals are like Friendship! YEAH FRIENDSHIP!"
OH FOR THE LOVE OF RA!
"Hospitals are NOT like Friendship!" Joey yelled.
"Aww…Joey is not being very fwiendly!"
Aten began to whimper in his crib as he slept. Marik picked his son out of the bassinet and stroked him careful not to remove his IV in his hand.
"I know what will cheer you up, Ryou! Let's sing the Happy Fun Friendly Song!"
SOMEONE GIVE ME A SHARP OBJECT TO KILL MYSELF, PLEASE!

*sung to frere Jaques *

"I love friendship, I love friendship
Yes I do, Yes I do
Silly Friendly Friendship
Happy Happy Bunnies
I love Friends! I love friends!"

That's enough to drive anyone insane! Aten let out a cry and Ryou arched his back shaking.
"Stop…..Tim…Daddy…please stop….Make him stop."
Aria tugged on Seto's jacket and he helped her on the bed as I held Ryou in my arms. He could only shake as I wrapped my arms around him, feeling every convulsion of his delicate body. Tears fell down my face to see my lover in such a state. Never before in my life or my afterlife did I feel so helpless to stop something. All Anzu did was jump around like an idiot.
"So what's wrong with Ryou?" She looked at Ryou's chart hanging on the edge of the bed. "Ryou is in catatonic! KITTIES! WHERE'S THE LITTLE KITTIES!"
I rolled my eyes and the doctor placed his fingers on Ryou's wrist and looked at his watch. He shook his head and ran out of the room. BASTARD! A nurse came into the room a couple minutes later with a syringe and she gently placed it in Ryou's arm. He slowly stopped convulsing and his eyes closed.
"What did you just give him?"
"It's a light sedative. He'll be ok." The nurse rubbed Ryou's hair. "It's so soft."
"What happened to him?"
The nurse looked out the door. "Zillman can't tell an ankle from an appendix. We work under Dr. Zira, so we know how to handle Ryou well."
I looked at the nurse closely. She was there taking care of Ryou when Ryou gave birth to Aria and Aten!
She walked over to Marik and pet Aten's hair, too. "Such a little cutie, he is! We had to bring him in here this morning since we hoped he would respond to Ryou."
"I LOVE KITTIES! WHERE'S THE KITTIES?"
the nurse rolled her eyes. "There is no kittens here."
"No," Seto said ripping the chart away from Anzu's pathetic hands. "She read "catatonic" and thought it meant a cat was here." Seto slapped Anzu in the back of the head.
"Kitties are like Friendship! YEAH FRIENDSHIP!"
Seto let out a growl and cried out…"THAT'S IT!" Seto opened the window and picked up Anzu.
"Seto is being my friend! I love you, Seto! YEAH, SETO! YEAH FRIENDSHIP!"
Seto threw Anzu out of the window.
"BEING THROWN OUT OF A WINDOW FROM 40 FLOORS UP IS LIKE FRIENDSH-." Anzu never finished her sentence. She hit the ground like a pile of bricks, but to our amazement (and disappointment), she bounced back into the air.
Seto cried out in a scream and banged his head on the wall. "SHE'S *bang * NOT *bang * HUMAN! *bang bang bang *" Seto continued to bang his head on the wall as Anzu hit the pavement only to bounce back effectively defying the laws of gravity.
Joey lovingly rubbed Seto's back as he banged his head against the hospital wall repeatedly. Aten opened his eye and saw Seto banging his head against the wall and began to cry.
I still held onto Ryou hoping that holding me would break him out of his trance. But when Aten began to wail and cry, Ryou blinked his eyes. Slowly, I saw the light return to them again.
"Ryou?"
"Aten? Where's Aten?"
I helped Ryou turn around and Marik handed Aten to Ryou. Ryou cuddled Aten against his chest as the baby's cries reduced to tiny whimpers.
"Can I get a bottle here?"
The nurse left and came back with a bottle filled with formula. Ryou put the nipple to Aten 's mouth and he began to drink looking into Ryou's eyes.
It happened again. Once with Aria. Now with Aten. Ryou was only responding to them.
When we took the kids away, Ryou would return back to his catatonic state.
"Ryou?"
His brown eyes looked up at me. "Yami!" Ryou grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to him for a kiss.
"I missed you, Bakura! I haven't seen you in the longest time!"
How could I tell him I have been by his side? Doesn't he even remember that?
"Ryou, I was here all day yesterday and just now this morning. Don't you remember?"
Ryou looked down at Aten sadly. "Sorry, yami. I'll never do it again."
"Do what?"
"…….Nothing."
"No. Do what?"
Ryou turned away from me to avoid my eyes.
"Shhh….Aten. It's ok." Ryou began to rock Aten in his arms and rock himself back and forth. Aten just ate quietly. I didn't know who Ryou was trying to calm, himself or Aten.
"Ryou, I'm not mad."
Ryou turned to avoid my eyes more. It was almost as if he didn't want to talk to me let alone see me. He turned to Malik. Malik wrapped his arms around Ryou.
Malik raised his compassionate eyes up to me and I moved back to the corner where Ryou wouldn't see me. Ryou turned his head towards where I was.
"Malik, Is my yami mad at me again?"
I looked at Malik and cast my eyes down at the floor.
"No, Ryou," Malik said looking at me.
I heaved a sigh. Ryou didn't even want to see me…didn't want to look at me.
Anzu ran back into the room. "THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN, SETO! SETO, MARRY ME!"
Seto threw up his hands. "I'm leaving. Come on, Puppy!"
"BUT I WANT LITTLE SETOS!!!! I LOVE YOU, SETO!"
Joey growled grabbing Anzu. "Nobody gets Little Seto but me! Get used to it!"
Seto stormed out of the room, but not before throwing her out the window again.
I just watched Seto and Joey leave as I watched Ryou. He was only across the room, but we never felt so far apart.
At least Ryou seemed normal around the children. He was aware of his surroundings. For the moment, I could be grateful for that.