A/N: Good gravy, I think I died again. But now… I LIVE! All righty, this is (almost) the last chapter! There could be another one after this… or I could end it here! Who knows! I'm being spontaneous! I'm out of school now, anything could happen! Oh, and, just as a notice, I will be gone for two weeks as of June 8th. I'm going to Europe! So fun. That said, I will most likely not be updating during the aforementioned period of time, but now that it's summer, I promise to get my rear in gear and start up on some other fic ideas that have been floating around randomly in my head. And now, on to the next chapter!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 10

Finally he could see the entrance to the cave. They were almost there. The two fugitives had been dodging guards, both flying overhead and searching through the brush, as Bakura led them to the underground tunnel. The night was almost over; sunlight was beginning to creep out from under the night sky on the eastern horizon, and the demon was not happy about it. They would no longer have the cover of darkness, and that was something that he did not feel like dealing with at the moment. His head was throbbing, his shoulder was a bloody mess, and his wing was prone to sudden spasms of pain.

Ryou was stumbling along next to the demon, not doing much better than Bakura was, and looking exhausted. "We're almost there," Bakura said softly, trying to reassure the angel. Ryou looked up, a look of relief forming on his face as he saw the cave entrance, which wasn't as concealed as the other caves that the two had hidden in.

Suddenly, the look of relief dissolved into fear. Bakura frowned, but he soon saw what had frightened Ryou. Four guards were crashing through the brush towards the cave, and as the demon and the angel stood frozen for a moment, the guards spotted them. The first of the guards charged forward, skimming over the ground with his wings spread and sword ready to strike.

Bakura reached instinctively for the dagger that was usually at his side, but then remembered that it had been taken from him when he had captured, so was only able to dodge the guard. The Demon Lord's guard skidded to a stop, and turned, sword in hand, but suddenly there was a loud crack. The guard's eyes grew wide and unfocused, then slowly fell closed as he slumped forward. Behind him was Ryou, a fallen tree branch in his hands.

Bakura stared at the angel for a moment, then his head snapped around as two more of the guards charged at them. The demon easily dodged a sword slash, his fist connecting squarely with his opponent's nose. The other guard went after Ryou.

"Hello, pretty thing…" he said in what he must have thought to be an arousing tone. Ryou frowned, and the guard, who had just been thinking how easy it would be to capture an angel, was completely unprepared when a tree branch slammed into the side of his head with such force that he was knocked out cold immediately. The final guard saw what had happened to his comrades, and rather abruptly decided that reinforcements were needed as he ran off in the other direction.

Meanwhile, Bakura walked over to Ryou. He stared for a few moments at the broken tree branch in Ryou's hands, then at the two unconscious guards that had been attacked with said tree branch. He blinked a few times, then chuckled softly. Ryou blinked, wondering if he had heard right; had Bakura just chuckled?

And there it was again! After a few more moments, Bakura was laughing uncontrollably as Ryou stood next to him and wondered what was so funny. Eventually, Bakura regained his composure. He took the tree branch out of Ryou's hands, tossed it at one of the unconscious guards, and proceeded to lead a confused Ryou into the tunnel.

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Ryou gradually woke up to see the dark tunnel walls around him, hearing Bakura's slow, steady breathing beside him. The angel's head was resting in the demon's lap, said demon slumped against the wall fast asleep. Ryou sighed; they had been traveling through the tunnel for almost two days now, and being in a small, dark space for that long was unnerving. Bakura hadn't been quite sure exactly how close they were to the end, but estimated that it would be another day or more before they got near the end of the tunnel. Ryou grimaced; it wasn't a pleasant thought.

The angel stared up at the ceiling of the tunnel, falling deep into his own thoughts. He felt rather useless, and he didn't like the feeling. Bakura was the one that had rescued him, gotten them out of the capital city, fought off the guards, and found a way for them to get to the edge of the lands to go to this unknown place called Earth. And what had Ryou done to aid them in all this? Almost nothing. Sure, he had smacked that guard in the face with a stick, but Bakura could've taken that guard with his bare hands. Ryou barely knew how to fight; he had never thought it would be a skill that he would need. And so, he sat back and watched uselessly…

Well, he had done something good, hadn't he? He'd broken through Bakura's barriers, and helped the demon rebuild himself once everything had crumbled to the ground. That was good, right? He loved Bakura, too… Wasn't that also something? The angel looked up at Bakura's sleeping face, feeling confused.

Deciding to try and get his mind off of that, Ryou wondered to himself what Earth was like. He'd heard some stories about it, but those stories had been from thousands of years ago when there had been a little more contact between the White Lands and Earth. Now, it was said, the humans of Earth didn't even know that the White and Black Lands existed. They knew about the Gate, for some reason, but not the land that guarded it.

Ryou found that he didn't know much about humans, either; supposedly they were almost exactly like angels and demons, except did not have any type of wings. Otherwise, he was clueless; he had no idea what their customs would be, what kind of culture they had, or even what language they spoke. As long as they actually got to the mists, it would be quite a transition.

It was said that when a human went through the Gate in the White Lands, they would have the wings of angels, and that if an angel or demon went to Earth, then they would no longer have their wings. It made sense; Ryou didn't exactly like the prospect of losing his wings, but not having them and being on Earth was better than having them and being in the possession of the Demon Lord.

Bakura murmured something in his sleep, and Ryou looked up at him curiously. A moment later, the demon opened his eyes, garnet looking down into soft green. He smiled, brushing some of Ryou's white hair out of his eyes.

"How are you doing?" he asked softly. Ryou smiled back at him, and tried to say that he was fine, but a yawn cut in right at that moment. Bakura's smile widened as the angel yawned cutely, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"I'm fine," he finally managed to say. "Maybe a little sleepy." Ryou's stomach growled loudly in protest. "…and a little hungry," he said sheepishly.

They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments, and then Ryou slowly looked away. Bakura's brow creased, and he gently turned the angel's face back to look up at him. "Is something bothering you, angel?"

Ryou opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it. He averted his eyes, then tentatively began to speak, "I just… I feel sort of… well, useless, I suppose."

Before Bakura could say anything, Ryou continued, feeling the sting of tears building up behind his eyes, "Well, what I mean is, I feel like I haven't done anything to help us get out of here. All that I've really been is a nuisance; I can't fight, I couldn't escape from the palace by myself, I'm the reason that your wing got wounded, and…"

The angel was cut off as Bakura put a finger on his lips. He stared down into Ryou's green eyes for almost a full minute, then said softly and carefully, "It's okay. You can't have any idea what you have done for me, and it's a debt that I can only try to repay."

Staring up at him, Ryou wondered absently when Bakura had gotten so good at speaking with such sweet words. He could see the frightened child in the demon's eyes again, the part of him that only Ryou had ever seen. Also mixed in there was gratitude, and what could only be identified as love. The demon leaned down and gently kissed the angel, hoping to reassure him.

"We'd better get going," Bakura said as he pulled away, though he made no immediate move to do so. He stayed sitting where he was, stroking Ryou's cheek gently.

"Yes, we should…" Ryou murmured quietly, but he didn't move, either. Instead, he closed his eyes and leaned into Bakura's soft touch. He kissed the demon's rough fingertips, wrapping his arms around Bakura's waist and laying his head on the demon's stomach.

As much was he would have liked to continue to lie like that, Bakura knew that they had to keep moving. He heard Ryou sigh unhappily as the angel felt him shift around to stand up. His emerald eyes opened to stare at the darkness around them, and he reluctantly allowed Bakura to pull him up to his feet.

"How much farther?" Ryou asked as they started walking.

"We should be about three quarters of the way there," Bakura estimated, "so it shouldn't be too much longer. Maybe less than a day."

Ryou sighed yet again; a little less than a day wasn't exactly "not too much longer" in his book. But, it wasn't like he had a choice, so he kept walking. His wing had been irritating him lately; it itched under the old bandage that Bakura had wrapped around it, which seemed like so long ago. If he tried to scratch it, he always regretted it; just touching it would make it hurt.

The angel let his mind slowly shut down as they traveled down the tunnel, keeping himself just aware enough to put one foot in front of the other. It dulled everything, making his movements mechanical and much easier. Just keep walking… one foot in front of the other… that's all that exists… And so he walked in a daze, staring down at his feet with half-lidded eyes.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been moving forward like that, but was rather abruptly brought back into the present when he smacked right into Bakura, both of them stumbling forward to land in an ungraceful heap on the tunnel floor.

"Awake, aren't we?" the demon said dryly from his position on the floor. Ryou blushed bright red, stuttering apologies as he stood back up and helped Bakura to his feet. He looked up in the direction that they were traveling, and saw why Bakura had stopped so suddenly. Small streams of light were coming from the end of the tunnel.

"Did we make it?" Ryou asked in a whisper, as if the sunlight might hear him and choose to disappear again. The moment of awe was slightly ruined by the angel's stomach growling loudly, but he ignored it, and urged his tired legs to move forward to what he hoped was the exit. Bakura was beside him, also apparently having trouble getting himself to move forward.

After what seemed like an eternity of running, they reached the end of the tunnel. Ryou turned his face to the sky; there were dark clouds building, just beginning to cover up the sun, but he didn't care. He could see the sky; they were close to reaching their ultimate path of escape, and that was all that mattered. Thunder rumbled across the sky, and lightning laced its way through the clouds. The soft sound of raindrops hitting the dry ground filled the air, and Ryou let the coolness of the rain hit his face and flow down it in clear rivulets.

Bakura, meanwhile, looked off to the horizon. There, the mists could just barely be seen through beneath the rain-heavy clouds. It wasn't much farther. He glanced at the angel, whose arms were spread wide as if to embrace the water falling from the sky. Bakura didn't want to disturb his bliss, but instead took Ryou's hand.

Green eyes opened, blinking a few times, then lighting up with a smile. Bakura smiled back, and, giving Ryou a gentle tug on his hand, they headed towards the mist on the horizon. The forest had ended a long time ago above the tunnel, and all was now amber fields splotched with green plants every so often. No towns or cities were this close to the mist; Earth was considered beneath the status of the White and Black Lands, and thus no one wanted to be anywhere near the passage to it.

Suddenly, Bakura pulled on Ryou's arm hard, and began running. Ryou was pulled along behind, barely able to keep up, and was out of breath so quickly that he couldn't ask Bakura what was wrong. He managed to glance back over his shoulder, and saw why Bakura had taken off so quickly. Twelve or so demons dressed in the red and black uniforms of the Demon Lord's guard were flying rapidly over the field behind them.

The angel almost panicked right then, and a momentary burst of adrenaline made him run so fast that he caught up with and passed Bakura, pulling the demon along behind him instead. Wishing to every god, goddess, deity, demi-god, and saint that he could think of that he could use his wings, he ignored the fire building up in his lungs and pushed himself as hard as his rapidly-depleting reserves of energy would allow.

He could see it… it wasn't that far now… The mists were right up ahead, so very close, and beneath their gray blanket was Earth where they could be free. The angel glanced at the demon next to him, and soft green met bright garnet. Ryou realized in some random part of his mind that their hands were still locked together.

Looking forward again, the mists were so very close. Looking back again, he could see the guards coming closer and closer. Just a little farther… just a little farther… He didn't know if he was going to make it. He was so tired… his energy was almost gone… Don't think, just run. Run.

Neither of them hesitated. They leapt into the mists simultaneously, still holding hands, and began to fall. The surprised and angry shouts of the guards behind them faded away, the mist surrounded them, and a sudden pain in their wings began to build up. Looking at the angel next to him, Bakura saw that his angel had passed out from exhaustion. Reaching out and taking him into his arms as they fell, the demon let warm darkness take him, comforted in the fact that, whatever happened now, they were free from the Black Land forever.

A/N: Well, I really hope this wasn't too crappy. I've been extremely critical of my own writing lately, and I would like to know what I could focus on to try and make it better. If anyone has any ideas, please TELL ME. I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter, there will be one more chapter, most likely very short. Please review!