Chibi B: Hi there! ::waves:: I bring you new fic!

Taski:...::snoring::

Chibi B: Shhh, don't wake him up! I don't feel like being mocked today...XD

Okies, this is another oneshot (obviously) and it's based after the short story "Scarlet Ibis". I actually started this two years ago, in 8th grade, but forgot about it. So, I finished it a few months ago and decided to post it! It's very similar to the short story in the beginning, but at the end, it's different since I couldn't remember exactly what happened...

So, on with the fic! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own "Scarlet Ibis" Or Yu-Gi-Oh!

I watched him for years. Years and years and years and years I spent watching, waiting for the opportunity to be set free. He was weak. He'd been that way since childbirth, a small, frail little thing. The doctors didn't think he was going to live past the age of three. His parents already had a coffin made for him, a tiny brown shaped casket, perfect for his baby size. But he fought on! Oh how he struggled through his days, trying to talk, trying to crawl, and trying to show that he would not give up.

And he succeeded.

At his own pace, he managed to pick himself up on all fours, managed to gargle out words that didn't make any sense. Words that jumbled together in his run on sentences, but they were still words! He did all of this, all by himself. He had made it to the age of four, successful, and still learning at his own slow speed.

…Until I came.

He received the Millenium Ring at his fifth birthday, permanently binding us together with its strong magic, intertwining our souls into one body. He belonged to me, as I belonged to him.

"Who'aw yu?" He asked, staring up at me with wide, innocent brown eyes as soon as I materialized before him. Eyes that were determined to show the world his courage and passion. "Youn' angew?" I shook my head.

" Not an angel. Yami." I corrected, still gazing down at him frigidly. "Get up. We have bv work to do."

"Ork?" He asked, tilting his head to the side adorably.

"Yes, work." I said, picking him up and swinging him over my shoulder carelessly. His mother and father had left to the store, so I had no worries about being caught. "I'm going to teach you to walk."

"Alk?" He questioned curiously, not at all minding that he was currently slung over my shoulder. "Octows say I no awk."

"I don't care what the doctors say. You're going to learn to walk, and I'm going to teach you."

I carried him outside and down the dirt path that led to a pond on their small little farm. Arriving there quickly, I set him down, watching him plop on the dirt without a care. I observed as he looked around himself curiously, reaching out his scrawny, pale little hands to touch the wildflowers that grew here. Then he started to cry.

"What is it?" I asked, annoyed at his meaningless bawling.

"So pwetty." He sobbed. "Pwetty, pwetty." He gently touched a scarlet red flower, rubbing his fingers over the soft petals. I couldn't help but give a small smile at his cute childlike form.

"Let's begin." I said, once again reverting back to my old, uncaring self. He looked up at me again, his eyes widening.

"'at!"

"What?"

"Need ma 'at!"

"You're hat?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I had forgotten how easily he burnt in the sun. Oh well. "No, you can get your hat once you stand up." He blinked, frowning at me cutely.

"Octows say I no awk."

"I know that. But you can do it if you work hard enough." I said, "Now stand up." He paused, then bit his lip in concentration. He tried to push himself up, tiny arms straining under his body's weight. I watched him with a critical eye, as his face turned red from his exertion. Suddenly he fell back down, looking up at me with tear filled eyes.

"No awk." He sniffled. "Sowwy."

"Again." I said sternly, causing him to look up at me pitifully, begging for mercy. I only stared down at him unemotionally. "Again." He tried yet again, and failed, his face becoming more sweaty and red with his unsuccessful attempts. After the fifth try he started to cry again.

"No awk! I sowwy! No awk! No awk!" He wept heavily, avoiding my gaze and rubbing at his eyes.

"You can too walk!" I said, scowling. "One more try. This time, I'll help you."

He sniffled again, then nodded his little white haired head. I leaned down, putting my hands underneath his arms, and lifted him so he was just barely standing on the tips of his toes. Then, I slowly lowered him, watching as his wobbly legs tried to sustain the newly added weight. He held on to my arms, face set in deep attentiveness, as he tried his hardest to stand. Finally, I let go of him completely, and stepped back. He teetered for about five seconds before he lost his balance and came crashing to the ground. He looked up at me, amazed.

"Di it! I di it!" He cried happily, clapping his hands together, ignoring just how weak he was at the moment. I nodded my head proudly.

"Yes, you did it." I bent down, and swooped him back up into my arms. He snuggled there contentedly, burying his now ruby red face into my shirt.

"Ami elp'd. 'Ami, 'Ami, 'Ami." He mumbled, eyes fluttering shut with a joyful smile on his face. "Luv 'Ami." I stopped, startled, and stared down at the bundle in my arms. "Luv 'Ami lot." I looked at him critically for a moment, before smirking and walking back to the house.

It went on like that for weeks after that day. We often found ourselves down there by the pond whenever we could escape from his parents, him picking up the wildflowers, and me watching him, before we would start to work again on getting him to walk. Those were the good memories of him and I, the ones I will treasure the most.

And then there were the bad.

One recollection burns out in my mind much more brightly then the others. It was a day I wish I could not recall, but I know that I can never forget.

It was another afternoon, and we were sitting by the pond after another grueling day of work for him. He still had not gotten the full hang of walking yet, and I was becoming thoroughly frustrated. In my anger, I had dragged him up with me to the shed behind their house, climbing up the ladder, with him on my back, to the loft. It was there that I showed him his little coffin, telling about how everyone thought he was surely going to perish before his third birthday.

The wooden box was covered in dust, and he stared at it critically before shrugging his shoulders, and looking up at me.

"No mine." He said, shocking me greatly. I furrowed my brows together in aggravation. What it was from, I can't tell you, but I was just seriously frustrated with him at the moment.

"It is yours. And before we leave, you have to touch it." I said angrily. He frowned up at me.

"No. Dun wan to."

"Then I guess I'll just have to leave you here." I said in a non-caring voice, starting my way down the latter. His eyes widened considerably as he watched me make my decent. I knew he was afraid of being left alone.

"Dun 'eave meh 'Ami!" he cried, and he bent towards the casket, his shivering fingers reaching out to touch the wooden box. He swallowed, closed his eyes, and screamed when his hand finally contacted with the hard surface. We both jumped when a mouse scurried out from behind the coffin, squeaking loudly and then disappearing behind a bail of hay.

When I looked back at him, he was immobile and staring ahead at the wall blankly, so I picked him up and brought him down the ladder. When we were finally outside, in the blazing sunlight, he cried, clinging onto me tightly.

"Dun 'eave me 'Ami! Dun 'eave me."

When he turned six, I began to feel more aggravated that he still wasn't able to walk. His speech however, had improved greatly over the two years. It wasn't as hard as it once was to try to define what he was saying. The point was though, that he still could not walk more than a few steps, when other kids his age were running and playing and swimming.

"Don't you want to have fun like the other boys?" I demanded as we sat together once again by the small pond in the backyard.

"Yes." He said, blinking up at me as if I should have already known the answer.

"Then you have to start working harder." I said. "I want you to be able to run by your seventh birthday." His eyes widened.

"But that in jus' fwee weeks!" I nodded.

"That's all you need. Now come on, start practicing."

We worked extremely hard those three weeks, and he was getting better and better. Finally, the day came, were he was able to make it from one side of a room, to the next. I can't express how proud I was of him, and how his wide grin of accomplishment warmed my heart.

His seventh birthday came quickly, and Ryou was eager to show his parents what he had been working on the past few months. After they were done singing happy birthday and having cake, Ryou spoke up as having a present for everyone.

His mother almost fainted when her son pulled himself up, and slowly walked over to the couch, which was about five or six feet away, and sat down next to his father. He smiled up at them, even though he was exhausted from the work, and started to clap for himself.

"I di it! Wyou can alk now!"

I watched, once again feeling a certain sense of pride flow through me when his mother and father embraced the boy, crying. That should teach them to give up so easily on their only child, and to just expect him to sit and whither away through the years. I always knew he could do it, he only needed to work hard.

He continued to improve throughout the next few months. He could walk easily enough, though he did have to take short breaks now and then to regain his strength. His speech, however, was still rough.

We began to grow more close each day we went to visit our same spot out by the pond. His smile, his laughter, his sparkling eyes, they all softened my normally hard heart, though I didn't let him know that.

In fact, I don't think I even once told him I cared.

Then, came that fateful day. The day that everything fell apart…

We did our normal routine, only he seemed less vibrant than usual, and was especially quiet on our way down to the pond. He sat down, and stared at everything, touching the flowers still as he did when he was younger, crying because they were beautiful. He looked up at me, and strained a small smile.

"'Ami? I wuv you..."

I rolled my eyes, though inwardly my heart was fluttering in my chest, and snorted.

"You're still such a girl, Ryou." I muttered, then stood up, walking off with my hands in my pockets. He immediately struggled to stand, and trailed after me, ignoring my cold comment towards him a few moments before.

"'Ami? Whewe we goin?" He asked, trying to keep up with my long strides, and not once complaining. I admired him out of the corner of my eye, and slowed my pace down a little, so he wasn't having such a hard time.

"To the lake."

"Wake?"

"Lake, Ryou." I corrected absentmindedly.

"Mama sed its goin to wain..." Ryou trailed off, his chest heaving with his deep breaths of exertion. I scowled at him, then paused, annoyed.

"So what?"

"I tant be in wain." Ryou explained, using my short pause as a chance to regain his breath. "Cold..."

"Fine." I snarled, and turned back to stride quickly in the other direction, feeling myself once again become angry for no apparent reason.

These bouts of anger happened once in a while. I was unable to control myself and think rationally, always ending up hurting Ryou in some way. The shed incident was an example of my barely controlled anger before, but, as I mentioned earlier, I had no power over my actions.

"'Ami! Swow dow!" He cried, moving as fast as his frail little legs would let him. I ignored him, and moved faster, noticing that it had begun to drizzle lightly.

"If you can't keep up than maybe I should just leave you here!" I shouted, glaring at him before running down the road. I could here him fall to the ground crying, screaming my name.

"'Ami! 'Ami come back! Don't weave me! Don't weave me, 'Ami! Don't weave me..."

I ran as fast as I could, the rain now pouring down harder, and felt the frustration I had for him slowly slip away. When I arrived back at the farm, I turned my head, and waited for him to come up over the hill at his own, slow pace.

Minutes passed by, and he still hadn't come back, making me begin to feel slightly anxious even though I wouldn't have admitted it then.

When the rain stopped, and he still hadn't returned, I started back down the same trail, hoping to meet him along the way.

He wasn't there...

I stood, paralyzed at the place I had left him at, seeing his tiny shoe prints in the mud leaving a trail. I followed them with my eyes, until I spotted a curled up figure at the base of a tree. Relief washed through me when I concluded that he had probably crawled over there to escape the rain, but, there was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't seem to get rid of...

"Ryou." I called, jogging over to him. "Come on, let's go."

He didn't move. His head still sat resting on his knees, which were curled up to his chest, his arms hanging limply by his sides. The sinking feeling grew stronger.

"Ryou..?" It was barely a whisper, and I leaned down and to tilt his head back, my eyes widening in horror at what I saw.

Crimson rivers spilled out of his mouth, flowing down his chin and his porcelain neck, staining the front of his shirt a brilliant scarlet color. His beautiful chocolate brown eyes stared blankly ahead, unseeing, unfeeling...dead.

Immobile, I gazed at him, speechless.

He was gone...

And with that realization, I held his body close to mine, and screamed.

No! It was all my fault! All my fault! If only I had noticed he wasn't his usual self this morning, if only I didn't force him to follow me to the lake, if only I didn't run away and leave him here alone! Suddenly, I wished I could take everything I ever said cruel to him back. I became conscious to how horrible I was to him, and how I never once ever showed him I cared.

Guilt overtook me, and I sobbed for hours, holding his fragile body to my chest, vaguely noticing how cold it had gotten, until I heard the sounds of voices behind me. I peered into his dead eyes one last time, and kissed his forehead before disappearing back into the ring around his throat.

"I love you Ryou..."

A few days later, his funeral took place. I watched with hollow eyes and a heavy heart as they lowered his casket into the cold, wet ground. It was the same casket his parents had made for him before. After all, the boy never did grow very much.

His parents cried, along with a few other relatives, before they left back to the house. The family was consoling them by telling them that there was nothing they could have done for him, that the boy was going to die anyways, regardless of what they had thought.

I stayed at his grave, holding the Millenium Ring in my hands. His parents had discarded it in his room, and I took it before attending the mass, invisible to all other eyes of course.

I couldn't help but wonder, as I sat next to his tombstone, if he would have been better off without me interfering with his life. He was doing fine by himself, before I came. If I hadn't rushed him, then maybe he would still be here, not locked in a coffin, buried under mounds of dirt and worms.

But, then I thought of all the happy times we shared, and how he smiled up at me, with such blinding trust, and undying love...

I felt myself being pulled back into the ring, to await the next time I would be released, and gently ran my fingers along the smooth stone with Ryou's name carved in it.

"Goodbye Ryou, my hikari." I whispered, then closed my eyes and gave in to the call of the Ring.

But no matter how hard I tried, I never forgot those haunting words...those last words spoken by someone who just wished to be normal, and loved...

"Don't leave me yami...Don't leave me..."

-

-

-

I felt the pull, the undeniable strain of the Millenium Ring calling me out into the living world once again. I didn't resist, and let myself be sucked out of the eternal blackness that had been my home for the last thousand years or so, ready as ever to great the new world that awaited me. Though, I still had to face the fact that Ryou was no longer there anymore, and that thought dampened my slightly ecstatic feelings of being able to see light once again.

I blinked. The light and color of, what looked like a room to me, taking me by surprise. Gathering my bearings, I glanced around, amazed. This time was so different from the last! I could hardly recognize simple items that were lying on the floor of this 'room'. A small whimper interrupted my wonder, and I snapped around sharply, only to be met with a sight I thought I'd never see again.

Big, innocent mocha colored eyes stared up at me, framed by luscious locks of thick snow white hair that trailed over his shoulders and down his back. In his hands, he held the Millenium Ring, clutched tightly to his chest, and looked up at me in complete awe.

"Are you an angel?"

My legs trembled, hearing his voice for the first time without him stuttering or stumbling over his words. He was here with me, my hikari was back.

"Ryou…"

Falling to the ground, I wrapped my arms around him, ignoring his cry of shock, and buried my face into his hair, inhaling his familiar sent. He was really here, this was him…

"No, Ryou, I'm not an angel, I'm you're yami."

"Yami…" He breathed out, finally relaxing in my embrace. "My yami?"

"Yours. Forever." I promised, my voice stern. I was determined not to make the same mistakes I did before. No, this time I was going to care for my other half the right way. "And you're mine, Ryou. All mine."

"Will you leave me?" He asked, his voice soft and gentle as I had once imagined it to be before if he wasn't born with an illness. My heart broke, and I held him tighter.

"Never leave you…Never…"

"Luv 'Ami."

"I'll make sure you won't ever be left alone again…"

"Dun 'eave me."

"I'll stay with you for eternity."

"'Ami? I wuv you..."

"I promise.""Don't weave me..."

Chibi B: I had to make it a happy ending! I felt bad I killed Ryou...again...::twitch::

Well, guess what? While skimming over this, I sort of remembered a scene I wanted to put it, but never got the chance too. It was when the boy found the Ibis, you know? I wanted to have Ryou find a dove instead...but...::sigh:: I'm too lazy to put it in. The title of this fic was supposed to be "Crimson Dove" I think too...::shrug: Ah well, I hope you enjoyed this!

R&R!