Ch. 17: New Schedule and Nightmares Abound
Ryou's POV
The next day, I awoke very hungry. My stomach growled for all to hear and it really hurt.
"Sakura, I'm hungry. What am I supposed to eat?"
"What are you supposed to eat," she mocked. "Well, whatever Yami Bakura wants to eat."
"Huh?!"
"It's simple. We've made this into a sort of game, shall we say. Starting Monday, which is today, the following order will be followed: Yami..."
"Yami Bakura, YAMI BAKURA!!!!" Yami yelled correctively to her.
"...Yami, Sakura, Ryou," she said, a bit of an edge to her voice. She was scaring me. It wasn't like Sakura to be so take-charge and easily offended. Ayari, maybe, but Sakura...
"And what does this order signify?" I asked politely.
"It signifies who gets to pick the food for today."
"Great Scott, you're going to let him pick the food?!" I cried hysterically. "He'll get me sicker than I already am!"
"Don't worry. I told him to lay off of the hard-edge stuff."
"Oh, alright..."
"Now, whatever you pick on your days is your decision, but everyone else has to eat it. Am I clear? I don't care who's finicky, unless you're allergic, you're eating it. Even me."
I stared at Sakura lovingly.
"Thanks, onee-chan. This will really help," I said optimistically. "So, Yami, what'll it be for breakfast?"
"Well, I felt if I would just make my favorite meal a teensy bit more system-friendly, we could manage. Even you, weakling."
I gulped nervously as he held out a very raw-looking steak-kabob. There wasn't any oozing blood, but that meant nothing. My stomach writhed.
"Er, Yami? Isn't that hard-edge?"
"Heavens, no! This is what I ate in Egypt when I was young. Got me sick the first dozen times, but I ate it just the same and my body adapted eventually."
I didn't feel any better.
"Bakura, just try the damn thing!" he snapped. "As many times as I've eaten the pure stuff and had you throw it up, you should be adapted to this. 500 yen says you won't vomit."
"Okay," I replied warily. "You're on."
We all ate the steak-kabobs and waited for it. Sakura became slightly nauseous, but didn't puke. I got confused.
"Hey, did you ever eat this stuff before?" I asked.
"Not this, but I did try the raw steak one time, just to see what Yami Bakura got out of it. It tore my stomach apart like it would yours."
I felt my stomach churn at the thought of what Yami usually ate, then I waited for it to come up. It didn't.
"Wha... how come I'm...well, okay?"
"Easy. That steak wasn't totally raw. When steak isn't totally raw, but isn't totally cooked, I figure it stays in your system longer, ergo you stay full longer. Also, it doesn't cause the ravages of acute indigestion like purely raw steak does. Just makes you feel crummy for a while. Me, I don't feel it anymore."
I sighed. Raw or not, I could feel my stomach cramping up again.
"Okay, but I need a bit of rest. You know me..."
"Yes, I do know you pretty damn well."
Yami grinned widely at his own intellectuality as I went to sleep the steak off. I thought it stupid to sleep since I'd just woken up, but after staring at the ceiling for twenty minutes, I fell asleep.
Yami Bakura's POV
I traced my scar absentmindedly with two fingers then played with the Millennium Ring out of boredom.
"So, now what?"
"I don't know, but that was pretty smart, Yami. Cooking it a little."
"Yes. I suppose it was smart."
"Yami Bakura, you aren't thinking of eating that stuff again, are you?"
"And so what if I am?"
"I don't know how much more of it I can take."
"Oh, chill. I won't eat any more."
I leaned my chin on my hand. Ryou would probably do this okay.
"I'm going to cut us up a salad for tomorrow, 'kay?" Sakura said.
"Yeah, whatever."
I lay back on the floor, letting my muscles relax. I fell asleep, though I was very alert. Being a thief never allowed me much privilege to sleep deep. I usually did sleep pretty deep, but it wasn't because I wasn't aware, it was because I couldn't move my body. Like I was paralyzed or something in my own sleep...
"OWWW!! SHI-TALKING MUSHROOMS!!"
I snapped out of my sleep at once, and out of my current train of thought. That was Sakura.
"Sakura! What's going on?"
I leapt to my feet in an instant, but I was groggy, so I ran into a pedestal. Pain shot through my shoulder, numbing pain.
"Shit! Damn column!" I yelled, clutching my injured shoulder. I ran into the kitchen, leaning heavily on the wall, panting.
"Damn, this house is too...Sakura, are you all right?!"
Sakura was clutching her left palm.
"The knife slipped and I sliced my palm," she told me, hissing slightly.
"Here, let me...patch it up," I said, faltering slightly.
I found our small first aid kit and snatched out a gauze pad and some medical tape. Very crudely, I bandaged her wound. It wasn't so bad to me, but I couldn't imagine how it felt for her. My worn hands fondled hers as I secured the bandage. She gasped as she felt my fingertips touch her soft skin.
"Thief's hands. I know they're rough," I said apologetically.
"Hm," she nodded, "But it wasn't that. Not really. I thought your hands felt nice...warm and caring you know..."
I snorted derisively at that. Me warm and caring? Feh!
"That is quite amusing, foolish onee-chan. I am not nice and you know it."
"Sure, Mr. Nice."
I grinded my teeth in annoyance. Damn instigating girl. I hate it when she did that. With another gentle press of the gauze pad, I pressed her hand onto her lap impatiently.
"There. All done. Now leave me alone."
She rolled her eyes and stroked my hair. I snarled under my breath.
"Do I look like a petting zoo to you? Remove that hand unless you want it removed by me."
"Oooh, so feisty."
I shuddered in disgust.
"You are DISGUSTING!!" I snapped. I turned abruptly, only to run into another wall with my bad shoulder.
"Argh!!" I yelled. I wasn't used to having to endure actual pain all by myself. Ryou absorbed some of it as it was his body after all. And I liked the pain. I just didn't like it now. Depression, the Sequel: Yami Bakura's Guilt. Sounds like a shitty soap opera. Or a shitty movie. Anyway, so I was hurting like hell.
"Oh, lets get the buckets for the blood," Sakura said. My attention was turned to her.
"Blood? Where?!"
She rolled her eyes.
"It's an expression, loser."
"Shut-up!" I yelled, rubbing my sore area.
"Come here," she told me.
I obeyed. With a gentle sweep of her light fingers, she removed the robes from the achy spot on my shoulder. After careful scrutinizing, she told me it was swollen enough to hurt, until I lost my body, if someone touched it.
"Just take a nap or something. I'll wake you when Ryou gets up and we'll go out."
Contrary to what she said, I couldn't sleep. Eventually, she gave me a sleeping pill and I conked out for a good long while.
Ryou's POV
I woke up feeling refreshed and happy. I nearly tripped over my yami, who was sprawled on the ground quite haphazardly, snoring and drooling.
"Eww..." I said in disgust. He suddenly began to stir and slur in his sleep.
"Shaddup...Ka, shut Kiyoshi up...snort!"
He turned to his side and lay on his right arm, immediately crying out and shifting to his other side. His face's right side was red from lying on the floor and the scar showed up a bit more prominently.
"Gonna get you, pharaoh...kill Dad and Mom...Go, Diabound...can't lose...stupid...hurt...no...can't end this way..."
He began to kick and moan and thrash in his sleep.
"Yami, wake up!! Come, come! Wake up!"
With a snort and a growl, his eyes opened.
"Are you alright?"
"Never better..." he replied slowly. "Never better..."
"You were dreaming about the battle again, weren't you?"
"No...Of course not!"
"Look into my eyes and tell me that you didn't."
"I wasn't."
He didn't flinch, but he was way too serious to be telling me the truth.
"I heard you talking in your sleep."
"Shit," he muttered almost incoherently. "Okay, yes, I dreamt it again."
He stared at his right sandal as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Come on, up you get," I said, helping to heave him up to his feet. He simply stood there. After a while, I saw a tear slide down his face. A rogue tear that betrayed his feelings.
"Yami, it's okay. Just forget about it. It's in the past."
"Well, my past is coming back to haunt me," he said angrily. "Ka's never going to leave me alone. I've been so dry with her. Damn, what I wouldn't give to kiss her and hug her and...Well, you know..."
"Yeah, I know. And I wish you could. But she's been reincarnated into a little girl. You couldn't attempt, er...intercourse...or anything of the sort until she becomes much older. And even then, Sarah could feel the effects of such goings-on," I told him truthfully. "Listen, if Ka Saraha—that was her full name, correct?—well, if she really loved you, she'd understand. She'd understand how bad it would be..."
I shivered in fright at what it would mean if Ka Saraha was his own age. He'd probably...well...you know... and I wouldn't know. But I would know, because my hormones would be pumping like heck and some of the other obvious things...er...
"I wouldn't ever attempt intercourse with Ka unless I had your consent. Never ever! I've come too far to lose your trust now. You are the only one who trusts me, other than Sakura, and I've tried to destroy you, so that tells me something. Even a baka tomb robber like me gets the point."
He smirked devilishly as was his right and creepy power to. I'm glad he mellowed out after all of his failed attempts. He's still the Touzoku-ou in his heart, but deep inside his ethereal heart (So deep that you'd be sliced to ribbons before you ever reached the spot, mind you), he is a scared and innocent person. Of course, I could be wrong. Who will ever know? Nobody actually knows the true past of Yami no Bakura, Touzoku-ou of Egypt and sole survivor of the destroyed village of KuruEruna. We knew all of the outlined things like that, but we didn't see in between the lines...
Anyway, the rest of the day was simple and er...filling. We all had a double chili cheeseburger and a huge bean burrito and that was it. Plus about a dozen sodas. I didn't exactly like bean burritos, but I didn't have a choice. Whose idea was it to put a Taco Bell in Japan? Curse them. Curse them and their entire family...
"Bakura, come on, let's go home. I'm beat," Sakura told me with a yawn. "Yami here can barely stand on his feet, so let's get home before he collapses."
I sighed and shrugged my shoulder with a smile. How could you fight with that logic?
Long chapter! Makes up for the long wait. I was actually going to make it shorter, but I took my stopping goal into consideration and also the fact that the internet was out at my house for a while and typed some more. So that's the power of an unwanted delay. Anyways, see ya later, peeps, and don't forget to R&R!!
Ryou's POV
The next day, I awoke very hungry. My stomach growled for all to hear and it really hurt.
"Sakura, I'm hungry. What am I supposed to eat?"
"What are you supposed to eat," she mocked. "Well, whatever Yami Bakura wants to eat."
"Huh?!"
"It's simple. We've made this into a sort of game, shall we say. Starting Monday, which is today, the following order will be followed: Yami..."
"Yami Bakura, YAMI BAKURA!!!!" Yami yelled correctively to her.
"...Yami, Sakura, Ryou," she said, a bit of an edge to her voice. She was scaring me. It wasn't like Sakura to be so take-charge and easily offended. Ayari, maybe, but Sakura...
"And what does this order signify?" I asked politely.
"It signifies who gets to pick the food for today."
"Great Scott, you're going to let him pick the food?!" I cried hysterically. "He'll get me sicker than I already am!"
"Don't worry. I told him to lay off of the hard-edge stuff."
"Oh, alright..."
"Now, whatever you pick on your days is your decision, but everyone else has to eat it. Am I clear? I don't care who's finicky, unless you're allergic, you're eating it. Even me."
I stared at Sakura lovingly.
"Thanks, onee-chan. This will really help," I said optimistically. "So, Yami, what'll it be for breakfast?"
"Well, I felt if I would just make my favorite meal a teensy bit more system-friendly, we could manage. Even you, weakling."
I gulped nervously as he held out a very raw-looking steak-kabob. There wasn't any oozing blood, but that meant nothing. My stomach writhed.
"Er, Yami? Isn't that hard-edge?"
"Heavens, no! This is what I ate in Egypt when I was young. Got me sick the first dozen times, but I ate it just the same and my body adapted eventually."
I didn't feel any better.
"Bakura, just try the damn thing!" he snapped. "As many times as I've eaten the pure stuff and had you throw it up, you should be adapted to this. 500 yen says you won't vomit."
"Okay," I replied warily. "You're on."
We all ate the steak-kabobs and waited for it. Sakura became slightly nauseous, but didn't puke. I got confused.
"Hey, did you ever eat this stuff before?" I asked.
"Not this, but I did try the raw steak one time, just to see what Yami Bakura got out of it. It tore my stomach apart like it would yours."
I felt my stomach churn at the thought of what Yami usually ate, then I waited for it to come up. It didn't.
"Wha... how come I'm...well, okay?"
"Easy. That steak wasn't totally raw. When steak isn't totally raw, but isn't totally cooked, I figure it stays in your system longer, ergo you stay full longer. Also, it doesn't cause the ravages of acute indigestion like purely raw steak does. Just makes you feel crummy for a while. Me, I don't feel it anymore."
I sighed. Raw or not, I could feel my stomach cramping up again.
"Okay, but I need a bit of rest. You know me..."
"Yes, I do know you pretty damn well."
Yami grinned widely at his own intellectuality as I went to sleep the steak off. I thought it stupid to sleep since I'd just woken up, but after staring at the ceiling for twenty minutes, I fell asleep.
Yami Bakura's POV
I traced my scar absentmindedly with two fingers then played with the Millennium Ring out of boredom.
"So, now what?"
"I don't know, but that was pretty smart, Yami. Cooking it a little."
"Yes. I suppose it was smart."
"Yami Bakura, you aren't thinking of eating that stuff again, are you?"
"And so what if I am?"
"I don't know how much more of it I can take."
"Oh, chill. I won't eat any more."
I leaned my chin on my hand. Ryou would probably do this okay.
"I'm going to cut us up a salad for tomorrow, 'kay?" Sakura said.
"Yeah, whatever."
I lay back on the floor, letting my muscles relax. I fell asleep, though I was very alert. Being a thief never allowed me much privilege to sleep deep. I usually did sleep pretty deep, but it wasn't because I wasn't aware, it was because I couldn't move my body. Like I was paralyzed or something in my own sleep...
"OWWW!! SHI-TALKING MUSHROOMS!!"
I snapped out of my sleep at once, and out of my current train of thought. That was Sakura.
"Sakura! What's going on?"
I leapt to my feet in an instant, but I was groggy, so I ran into a pedestal. Pain shot through my shoulder, numbing pain.
"Shit! Damn column!" I yelled, clutching my injured shoulder. I ran into the kitchen, leaning heavily on the wall, panting.
"Damn, this house is too...Sakura, are you all right?!"
Sakura was clutching her left palm.
"The knife slipped and I sliced my palm," she told me, hissing slightly.
"Here, let me...patch it up," I said, faltering slightly.
I found our small first aid kit and snatched out a gauze pad and some medical tape. Very crudely, I bandaged her wound. It wasn't so bad to me, but I couldn't imagine how it felt for her. My worn hands fondled hers as I secured the bandage. She gasped as she felt my fingertips touch her soft skin.
"Thief's hands. I know they're rough," I said apologetically.
"Hm," she nodded, "But it wasn't that. Not really. I thought your hands felt nice...warm and caring you know..."
I snorted derisively at that. Me warm and caring? Feh!
"That is quite amusing, foolish onee-chan. I am not nice and you know it."
"Sure, Mr. Nice."
I grinded my teeth in annoyance. Damn instigating girl. I hate it when she did that. With another gentle press of the gauze pad, I pressed her hand onto her lap impatiently.
"There. All done. Now leave me alone."
She rolled her eyes and stroked my hair. I snarled under my breath.
"Do I look like a petting zoo to you? Remove that hand unless you want it removed by me."
"Oooh, so feisty."
I shuddered in disgust.
"You are DISGUSTING!!" I snapped. I turned abruptly, only to run into another wall with my bad shoulder.
"Argh!!" I yelled. I wasn't used to having to endure actual pain all by myself. Ryou absorbed some of it as it was his body after all. And I liked the pain. I just didn't like it now. Depression, the Sequel: Yami Bakura's Guilt. Sounds like a shitty soap opera. Or a shitty movie. Anyway, so I was hurting like hell.
"Oh, lets get the buckets for the blood," Sakura said. My attention was turned to her.
"Blood? Where?!"
She rolled her eyes.
"It's an expression, loser."
"Shut-up!" I yelled, rubbing my sore area.
"Come here," she told me.
I obeyed. With a gentle sweep of her light fingers, she removed the robes from the achy spot on my shoulder. After careful scrutinizing, she told me it was swollen enough to hurt, until I lost my body, if someone touched it.
"Just take a nap or something. I'll wake you when Ryou gets up and we'll go out."
Contrary to what she said, I couldn't sleep. Eventually, she gave me a sleeping pill and I conked out for a good long while.
Ryou's POV
I woke up feeling refreshed and happy. I nearly tripped over my yami, who was sprawled on the ground quite haphazardly, snoring and drooling.
"Eww..." I said in disgust. He suddenly began to stir and slur in his sleep.
"Shaddup...Ka, shut Kiyoshi up...snort!"
He turned to his side and lay on his right arm, immediately crying out and shifting to his other side. His face's right side was red from lying on the floor and the scar showed up a bit more prominently.
"Gonna get you, pharaoh...kill Dad and Mom...Go, Diabound...can't lose...stupid...hurt...no...can't end this way..."
He began to kick and moan and thrash in his sleep.
"Yami, wake up!! Come, come! Wake up!"
With a snort and a growl, his eyes opened.
"Are you alright?"
"Never better..." he replied slowly. "Never better..."
"You were dreaming about the battle again, weren't you?"
"No...Of course not!"
"Look into my eyes and tell me that you didn't."
"I wasn't."
He didn't flinch, but he was way too serious to be telling me the truth.
"I heard you talking in your sleep."
"Shit," he muttered almost incoherently. "Okay, yes, I dreamt it again."
He stared at his right sandal as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Come on, up you get," I said, helping to heave him up to his feet. He simply stood there. After a while, I saw a tear slide down his face. A rogue tear that betrayed his feelings.
"Yami, it's okay. Just forget about it. It's in the past."
"Well, my past is coming back to haunt me," he said angrily. "Ka's never going to leave me alone. I've been so dry with her. Damn, what I wouldn't give to kiss her and hug her and...Well, you know..."
"Yeah, I know. And I wish you could. But she's been reincarnated into a little girl. You couldn't attempt, er...intercourse...or anything of the sort until she becomes much older. And even then, Sarah could feel the effects of such goings-on," I told him truthfully. "Listen, if Ka Saraha—that was her full name, correct?—well, if she really loved you, she'd understand. She'd understand how bad it would be..."
I shivered in fright at what it would mean if Ka Saraha was his own age. He'd probably...well...you know... and I wouldn't know. But I would know, because my hormones would be pumping like heck and some of the other obvious things...er...
"I wouldn't ever attempt intercourse with Ka unless I had your consent. Never ever! I've come too far to lose your trust now. You are the only one who trusts me, other than Sakura, and I've tried to destroy you, so that tells me something. Even a baka tomb robber like me gets the point."
He smirked devilishly as was his right and creepy power to. I'm glad he mellowed out after all of his failed attempts. He's still the Touzoku-ou in his heart, but deep inside his ethereal heart (So deep that you'd be sliced to ribbons before you ever reached the spot, mind you), he is a scared and innocent person. Of course, I could be wrong. Who will ever know? Nobody actually knows the true past of Yami no Bakura, Touzoku-ou of Egypt and sole survivor of the destroyed village of KuruEruna. We knew all of the outlined things like that, but we didn't see in between the lines...
Anyway, the rest of the day was simple and er...filling. We all had a double chili cheeseburger and a huge bean burrito and that was it. Plus about a dozen sodas. I didn't exactly like bean burritos, but I didn't have a choice. Whose idea was it to put a Taco Bell in Japan? Curse them. Curse them and their entire family...
"Bakura, come on, let's go home. I'm beat," Sakura told me with a yawn. "Yami here can barely stand on his feet, so let's get home before he collapses."
I sighed and shrugged my shoulder with a smile. How could you fight with that logic?
Long chapter! Makes up for the long wait. I was actually going to make it shorter, but I took my stopping goal into consideration and also the fact that the internet was out at my house for a while and typed some more. So that's the power of an unwanted delay. Anyways, see ya later, peeps, and don't forget to R&R!!