TL: Ahoy, maties! Since you all seemed so anxious I decided to put up a nice little cliffhanger-killer, even though it's short. Sorry to keep you waiting so long for so little.
Jou: Also, the authoress has a new computer, so she's been settling things with that and transferring documents and that kind of thing.
TL: Yupyup, but my new compy's so nice and fast… *sigh* I'm gonna dedicate this chapter! It's dedicated to my friends Aleia, and DES, who is not dead (huzzah!). Disclaimer please, Jounouchi?
Jou: This writer-person here does not own Yugioh or any characters therein, but the poem in this chapter she made up herself. Pretty sad, really.
TL: Hmph.
~~~@~@~@~~~
Bakura stared for a few minutes at the limp form lying sprawled in the doorway. It looked like he had fainted. Bakura hmphed and walked up to Ryou, crouching down next to him. He grabbed a shoulder and shook it, flipping the boy onto his back. "Hikari!" he said sharply. "Ryou! Wake up!"
Ryou made a tiny groaning noise, but didn't wake. Bakura sighed. This could be complicated. First he grabbed a dish towel from the counter and drenched it in the faucet with warm water, then used it to clean up Ryou's arm and wipe the sweat from his forehead. As he did this Ryou stirred slightly, taking in a breath. Bakura watched him intently, wondering if now he would rise, but to no avail. Bakura sighed and picked Ryou up, carrying him to his room and setting him on the bed with grace. And then, he waited…
Ryou's mind would sometimes come out of its dark fog and swim through lighter grey areas, when he felt something or heard Bakura's voice, but he couldn't bring himself to wake up and face the consequences of his words. It was comforting, knowing that here, in this strange world of total black and no memories, he was perfectly safe. He couldn't feel it if his life left him, and he couldn't see Bakura's face twisted in anger. Yes, here he was safe, so he let himself drift along the currents of nothingness.
"Green below grows the grass, and golden above soars the sun…" Bakura squinted at the blotchy letters on the paper. "Lost in a world of blue, I still know that you are the one." Well, that was sure a creative rhyme, he thought sarcastically, but kept reading. "Even though I might cry all night, I still love you with all my might." He snorted again, but more softly. It wasn't amazing, but Ryou had still written it…just for him. It was a pity he couldn't have handed it to the spirit himself and ended up letting it instead go through the middleman of the trash can, but that was Ryou. You sometimes had to dig deep to find his true feelings.
"I dream that someday you'll wipe away my tears, and that you'll stand up strong against my fears… But for now I take the hits to make you smile, even if I'm screaming all the while." Bakura was too absorbed in the poem to notice Ryou's eyes snapping open in recognition.
"Sorry for being such a burden," Ryou mumbled, averting his eyes toward the wall. Bakura looked up in surprise.
"Did you really mean it? What you wrote, and what you said?"
Ryou looked back into Bakura's face and decided to be brave, this one time. "Yes. I meant every word of it."
He endured Bakura's silence and watched as he actually averted his gaze. "Well… It's a nice poem."
Ryou smiled as he felt Bakura finally giving in. "Thanks. I'm still tired, so…"
"Oh yeah. I'll bandage your other arm up for you."
"Thanks again, Kura-chan."
Bakura winced at the nickname, but Ryou felt something had changed about him. It seemed that he had had a great weight lifted off his mind, and one of the reasons for him hurting Ryou was gone.
His bleeding fully stopped and his mind settled, Ryou succumbed to some much-needed rest.