A Warm Heart in a Cold Desert

Disclaimer: I own this *Points at CD collection* and this *Holds up a stuffed animal wolf* and even this *Holds up algebra work* But I don't own YGO... Anyone wanna bid for my algebra homework, though?

Pairings: Bakura/Ryou, Marik/Malik, side Seto/Joey. Yami/Yugi? Perhaps.

Warnings/Other: Yaoi (Don't like? Don't read.), angst, death, maybe some OOC. Hi to D and Tia.

Summary: -AU- Bakura, an Egyptian prison escapee. Ryou, a contradictory teenager sick of the family life. After Ryou is dragged along on his family trip to desert, he finds Bakura in the back of his car, and decides to run away with him. There's only one problem. They're lost in the desert with no idea where civilization is. YAOI BxR

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"What?" Bakura asked, taken aback as Marik dried the tear by rubbing his thumb and index finger together. "I'm not crying!" He snapped, glaring at his friend momentarily.

Marik smirked. "Sure you're not. That's why you're so depressed and tense- your shields are crumbling and you're worried about it."

Bottomless earthen orbs glared a second time, "Since when did you become the bloody voice of reason, Marik?"

"Since I felt like it." Marik replied simply, shrugging. "No one else took the role so I figured why not."

Bakura simply stared. "I'll never understand you 'till the day I die." He muttered sarcastically, although once the meaning of his words set in, he sighed. "As close as that day might be."

Marik absentmindedly played with the hem of his prison shirt. "There's a chance you'll live."

"And you know that for a fact?" Bakura asked rhetorically. When Marik didn't reply, he rolled his eyes and rest his chin atop his fist. "This sucks."

The tanned Egyptian nearly burst into laughter, and he would have if the situation wasn't so serious. Instead, he smirked a second time. "I don't know what that Ryou kid did to you, but I've never heard you say that for as long as I've known you."

Bakura shrugged. "Times change, and so do people. Like you said, things aren't the same as they were when I was ten. Perhaps it's time I let the past be and work towards whatever future there is."

Silence.

//

But for the steady beeping of the heart monitor, room 301A in the Hendidura¹ Medical Center was completely silent. Ryou and Malik had agreed to escape at midnight, when most of the staff had already left for the day, and just a few wandering nurses stationed each floor. That way, Ryou would have already had lunch and dinner, and hopefully a little more energy in his system.

Time flew by quickly that day, and once the annoying ticking of the hospital clock told them midnight had finally arrived, Malik snuck outside the room carefully, peeking his head past the wall connecting the four hospital rooms (301A, B, C, and D) just enough to get a clear view of the hallways. Once he was sure no one was coming for a while, he turned back and nodded at Ryou, who quickly reached up and pulled the plug out of all the monitors. The IV plug was a bit harder, as one part of it was actually in his skin. Biting his tongue, he eased the IV needle out of his arm and held the gauze pad against his skin until he was sure it had stopped bleeding.

Ryou had already changed out of his hospital gown, and into the clothes he had been wearing prior to being taken to the hospital. They ran quietly against the wall, careful to pause momentarily and check that no patients were awake. Thankfully, the floors were silent for the most and they were able to get to the bottom floor within no time at all.

As they were nearing the main lobby and the exit, Malik grabbed Ryou's wrist and held him back. Ryou spun around and arched his eyebrow curiously.

"Look." Malik whispered, pointing diagonally up to the right at a video camera monitoring the width of the lobby. "We have to get past that without being seen."

"Great." Ryou muttered, fingering the end of his shirt sleeve.

Malik pulled Ryou against him when the camera spun in their area. "Got a plan?"

There was a long pause as Ryou thought hard, until his serious expression faded away. "Yes, I do." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a long, silver blade; Malik recognized it to be Bakura's beloved dagger. "We've only got once chance at this working, so we'll need to be careful."

Malik nodded. "What's your plan?"

"Simple." Ryou replied, as if his idea was the most obvious thing ever, "Throw the dagger at the camera, retrieve it after disarming said camera, then run."

"Sounds good to me." Malik said, "I've been practicing for ages. I'll do it."

He took the blade from Ryou and ran two fingers over the length of the blade. With age-old percision, he drew the dagger back and let it fly straight into the glass center of the video camera. Sensing that alarms might go off soon, he ushered Ryou out the door. He turned back towards the inside of the lobby and climbed atop the main desk, jumping up and catching the dagger by the handle. He hopped down off the table and ran outside, catching Ryou's wrist and dragging him along as both ran. Behind them, lights flickered on one after the other on different floors until almost every floor was illuminated by lights.

"Got the dagger?" Ryou asked through breaths as they continued running. His ribs ached slightly, but not enough to deter him from the task at hand.

"Yup," Malik replied, winking slightly.

* * *

That same day, Thursday, a week later found Bakura standing in the defendant's corner in the court of law, with a woman he knew as a miss Tea Gardener acting in his defense. He didn't particularly trust her, but not because he didn't like her- he hadn't even met the woman when she had been appointed has his defense attorney.² So far, things had been going violently against him no matter what Tea tried to tell the judge, who, to Bakura's ultimate fury, looked like an older, shorter, slightly chubbier version of Yami Mutou.

The arraignment hadn't gone well. He had been charged with four counts of first degree murder (the worst kind, he later found out with a sigh) and remand had been denied.

He stood with his hands resting tensely on the stand while he glared into Judge--this was what really angered him; the judge was in fact related to Yami--Mutou's eyes. Bakura managed to keep his expression empty enough, but he could hardly believe what was going on. The past week he had spent in the prison cell with Marik by his side, serving as an oddly supportive friend, had gone by so fast, and now reality struck him. His very life would soon be over at the hands of the courts if things continued going the way they were.

The prosecutor, a tall blonde woman with fiery magenta eyes and lengthly blonde hair, seemed to have made it a hobby of calling him a cold-blooded murderer every chance she got.

"Your Honor, this man is obviously a criminal of the worst breed, he slaughtered four men in cold blood!"

The door in the back of the court room opened, and a thin boy with silver hair to match Bakura's entered the room.

"What kind of decent human would attempt such a feat, Your Honor?"

"One with a crime record such as this man deserves nothing but punishment!"

"A cold-blooded criminal! Look at his eyes, they are the eyes of a murderer! A killer!"

"A heartless, selfish, inhuman pig!"

Ryou's eyes widened. `No way they're talking about Bakura!`

"Comitting the murder of four is bad enough, Your Honor, but to go so far as to decapitate another human is completely unforgivable! That, Your Honor, is why I say he should be put to death! Forget life in prison, Sir, that's too good! Death is the only suitable punishment!"

For one horrible moment, Bakura froze completely as a gasp escaped his lips. Treacherously deep eyes wide, Bakura could only stare at the prosecutor in horror. Deep inside his heart, he prayed the judge wouldn't give him the death penalty. As cliche as he found it to be, it seemed as if everything was passing before his eyes. He had to smirk at what was happening mentally, although his heart wasn't in it.

Ryou paled until it looked as if he could be drawn on a sheet of paper; a faint, dizzy feeling attacked him, but he stood still. They couldn't kill Bakura... He needed him. Tears started filling his chocolate eyes, and he shook his head, backing up against the door, clutching his head with his hands. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he ran forward, catching everyone off guard, until he was standing beside Bakura. "NO! No! It isn't true! It isn't true!"

"Ryou?! What are you--why are you here?!" Bakura hissed, completely shocked. "You shouldn't /be/ here!"

"Order! Order!" Cried the judge, standing to his feet.

Ryou shook his head violently, "No! No! Bakura didn't kill those men, he didn't..." The courtroom went silent as Ryou kept his gaze reasonably steady. "I did." He sniffed and turned his head to look at Bakura.

The Egyptian had never looked so taken aback in his life. He was too suprised to even move as he stared back into Ryou's determined eyes.

"No! Not Bakura. I killed them!" Ryou pleaded, turning back to the judge. "It was me!" Shakily, he reached into his pocket and pulled out Bakura's knife, now covered with his finger prints. "I did it!"

The defense stood up, "Your Honor, I request an immediate dismissal of charges!"

Mai Valentine, the prosecutor, lowered her hand from her mouth and spun around on her heel. "Your Honor!"

"Order! Remove this man from the court!" Judge Mutou cast a beady glare at Ryou, who was fighting to control his wild heartbeat as he held the dagger tightly in his hands.

Tea slammed her hands down on the defense table, "Your Honor! A dismissal of charges, please!"

The gravel came in harsh contact with the judge's stand. "I declare this a mistrial!"

"Your Honor!"

Judge Mutou called a recess for the courts, and gave the police and people of the court twenty-four hours to process the information Ryou had given him during the recess.

//

After what seemed like months later, but was actually only an hour, the people had found evidence to support Ryou's story of rape and kidnapping. It was still somewhat dense though, and no one had even told Bakura or Ryou for that matter what was going on.

.

Bakura was racing around the law building, trying to find Ryou. The silver- haired youth had dissapeared shortly after recess was called, on the verge of tears, and Bakura hadn't even had the chance to speak to him. After combing every inch of the building that he could, Bakura came across a bathroom and decided to check there for doubt's sake.

Ryou was curled up in the corner of the bathroom against the wall and under the sink, obviously crying. Bakura noticed his dagger was absent; it must have been confiscated during Ryou's interrogation.

The Egyptian quickly joined his koi under the sink and pulled him into an embrace. Ryou sobbed into his shoulder, clinging to the older boy's waist like a lifeline.

"Ryou... Why did you take the blame for my crime?" Bakura asked, unaware of the slightly harsh tone in his voice as he held the boy tighter.

The fifteen-year-old in question shook his head and took a deep breath, finally calming down slightly.

"Bakura, I don't want to die."

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1 - Hendidura is Spanish for 'cleft' -__-; I just opened my dictionary and used the first word I saw.

2 - NOT intended for Tea bashing.

Bakura: ...I'm gonna kill you, that's it, Shori.

Shori: o___o Uh, Bakura, you know you can't do that.

Bakura: A man can dream, can't he?

Shori: ...You can kill me in your dreams, as long as you don't really. Oh, and by the way, the review counter is updated to 170, which is 15 more than what I have right now if my math is right (I'm at 155 reviews! ^_^ w00)

Bakura: This is one time I hope I sleepwalk.

Shori: ...¬¬