Me: and now back to story, folks!
'Leanne: ...folks...?
Me: yeah...you gotta problem with that?
'Leanne: never mind... *shakes head*
Shinu: humph...well at least I have a part in the fic...
Ryou: ^^;; now now...
Me: AHHHHH!!!! *screaming bloody murder*
Everyone: O_o;;
Me: MY MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: *runs in carrying bazooka shooting random mushrooms popping out of the ground* GWA HA HA HA!!! Take that, fan fiction authoress!!! You will never own Yu-Gi-Oh!!!
*
"Ryou...Ryou wake up." Bakura prodded the adolescent's side and twisted his hair into painful knots, but Ryou just groaned and tried to bat his hand away. He had to resort to more desperate measures. "It's 6:47. We're gunna be late."
"It's WHAT?!" The startled hikari jumped on top of Bakura and squished his spiky head into the pillow so he could see the digital clock on the opposite bedside table. "Shit! I have to phone Yuugi to make sure he's ready to go in less than fifteen minutes!"
And so he jumped off the suffocating yami and raced to the telephone, punching in random numbers from the depths of his brain and hoping they belonged to Yuugi Mutou.
Bakura just shook his head and went downstairs to get a quick breakfast. Probably oatmeal again.
*
"All passengers for flight 106 to India now boarding." The hollow voice of the intercom rang through the near-empty airport, summoning everyone unfortunate enough to have booked a flight at 9:00 a.m.
"Nuh... I'm not awake yet..." Ryou slumped against Bakura, whom was sitting in between him and a ragged-looking Yuugi. Bakura awkwardly thumped his zombie-ish hikari on his silvery head a few times and cringed at the groaning response he received.
"Ryou, the roof says we have to get on the metal-bird thingy now...wake up..."
"C'mon, Ryou. We're gunna miss the flight if you don't stand up." Though Yuugi was extremely tired that didn't stop him from dragging his fellow hikari towards the gates of the empty airport.
Once Bakura, Ryou and Yuugi stepped onto the runway, a flight attendant came out to greet them and 'escort' them to the plane. The very small, very cramped plane.
"Aww, man. We should've stolen a jet or something from Kaiba. He wouldn't miss it..." Bakura whined.
"Well, it could be worse. We could have gotten a smaller plane with no roof. Besides, after this reaches India, we're switching to a bigger airline. So be happy that it's a place to rest for oh, about six hours." Yuugi responded with a grim smile.
Their attendant, who also happened to be their pilot, approached the trio with a guilty kind of face. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but we only have two passenger seats ready."
Ryou spoke coherent words for the first time since 6:52 that morning. "Thassokay. I'll sit on 'Kura's lap. No biggie..." With that, he fell asleep standing up and the pre-mentioned yami had to pick him up when it was time to board.
A couple of hours past and due to the small area available to them for moving around, they were in the same positions as when they first boarded and no one was very cheerful about it. However, they were now officially awake.
Yuugi was leaning on his arm, staring out the minute window. 'I wonder if Yami'll miss me at all...' He shook his head lightly and tried to occupy his mind with a less unsettling question. Turning to look at the golden-copper toned pendant hanging from his steel chain, he wondered whether or not they would ever reach India. Yuugi batted at the upside-down pyramid's capstone with his childish fingers.
The plane flew through a patch of random clouds.
"Bakura, why do you think Malik wanted us to fly to Egypt? Do you think he's..teamed with Marik, by any chance?" Ryou said through clenched teeth, for his head was pressed into the yami's chest.
Bakura looked up from intently studying the cover of some manga they had picked up from a stand back at the airport to the hikari on his lap. He sighed deeply. "I really hope not. I mean, he was pretty friendly last time we saw him. In fact, I think the reason Malik moved back to Egypt was to get away from his other half." Ryou pondered this piece of evidence. "Marik isn't a yami, Ryou. He is the physical manifestation of Malik's rage towards his family's heritage." Bakura said this with a firm tone in his voice; as if he wanted to make sure Ryou knew that no yami would act like that.
"Yeah, I know. But still…" The dark pressed his finger to Ryou's lips to silence him and then placed his own on the light's forehead.
"Nothing will happen to you, Ryou. I won't let anything happen." Ryou smiled and nuzzled his head into he crook of Bakura's neck. He trusted Bakura to a nearly impossible extent, but that didn't mean he was perfectly, completely safe. Even spirits have a limit, though they would never admit it, even to themselves. That was their weak point.
Ryou sighed and averted his thoughts to something more cheerful. After all, they were only about another hour's travel until they reached India. Then it was straight on to Egypt. No time to work off the jetlag to come. Oh well.
~3:17 p.m.~
The plane finally came to its halt on the sparkling pavement. The attendant thanked them for flying with whatever airline they were and undid the door's latch for the troop.
Ryou nodded and climbed out of his yami's lap. Yuugi shook his head to rid it of its questions and jumped off without having to move much. The door was right beside him, after all.
Bakura was a different matter. His nose was buried in the same manga mentioned earlier. It was called 'Gravitation', or something, and had gotten much more interesting. Yuki was still a bastard in his opinion, though. For some odd reason, Shuichi seemed a lot like Ry-
WHAP!!
"OW!!" Ryou had to pound his yami's head before he got to wrapped up in his insanity. "Waddya do that for?!"
He only shook his head in embarrassment before leaving Bakura left sitting on the plane; one hand clutching the top of his head and the other his book.
*
Yami sighed deeply. Yuugi hadn't said much when he had informed his of his sudden departure with the Bakuras. Only a short, jumbled up explanation and an awkward hug. Had they really grown that far apart? Ever since Mae had shown up again..everything had gone wrong...
Yami choked. He couldn't tell if it was to hide possible tears pushing at his eyelids or on the dust of the old attic. He had taken residence there after his hikari got up and left-
He stopped at that thought. Maybe Yuugi wanted to...wanted to get away from, him? The former pharaoh bit his lip so hard to stop it from quivering, blood had started to trickle down his chin.
Yuugi, Yuugi was all he could think about. Maybe he wasn't so naïve. Maybe he could've handled the situation better than /he/ could have. Perhaps his juvenile personality was only a mask. A mask to hide memories? Past pain? Had someone tried to hurt him before, or something? Yami had never really bothered to ask and only assumed that the exterior Yuugi was the only Yuugi.
Now he could see how their relationship had kind of diminished. Yami didn't ever tell Yuugi what was on his mind and therefore Yuugi couldn't help him. Yami couldn't face his problems on his own and ended up pushing his own hikari away. Maybe that's what happened between Ryou and his yami? He never did ask Ryou-kun how Bakura treated him.
Yami exhaled deeply again. Maybe he was too much of a worry-wart. Ryou was probably fine and Yuugi didn't /really/ hate him. When he got back in a week Yami would apologize and everything would go back to normal. If you could ever call the late pharaoh's spirit normal.
*
Yuugi-tachi ended up staying at a hotel in India anyway because their flight was cancelled due to extreme weather condition. Apparently the winds were to high to have a safe flight takeoff, or something. But that was just fine by the group. After all, no one was really looking forwards to sleeping on an airplane and arriving at one in the morning, at least to them.
"The food was great too!" Yuugi exclaimed once the group exited the Indian restaurant. Bakura was slightly appalled at the menu and ended up ordering the one thing he recognized; chicken teriyaki. The other two hikaris got some dish neither could even attempt to pronounce, but liked it anyway.
"Yeah yeah." Bakura droned. His one hand was crammed in his pocket while the other was in some kind of a death-grip from Ryou. "It was better at the hotel. At least their's was edible."
Ryou rolled his eyes but continued walking. "There are somethings that taste good outside of pasta and greasy foods, 'Kura. And chips." All his dark did was scowl. Ryou smiled. "But anyway, we only have this last flight and we'll be in Egypt. Aren't you excited Baku-chan?"
Bakura's eye twitched involuntarily, but he decided to endure the nicknames. "Yeah, kinda." He looked to be staring intently at the ground, as if avoiding a question.
/What's wrong? Something bugging you about returning to your homeland?/ Ryou decided to exercise their link in case Bakura didn't want to tell Yuugi, or something.
Bakura blinked at the unusual telepathy waves, but decided it might be okay to tell Ryou. //Maybe.// He changed his vision from the ground to the space in front of him. //I'm just wor-wondering about Shinu. That's all.//
Ryou fell silent. Bakura was about to say he was worried about her. Were they involved back then? Maybe that's why he was so jumpy lately. But-that shouldn't matter, right? 'I mean, I...we...' Ryou really couldn't put the right words together, but they were together now, so any old flames shouldn't matter now. Yeah, that's it.
Yuugi looked over at the pair. Both albinos weren't talking, at least not out loud. The violet-eyed boy heaved his chest and went back to his own thoughts about Yami. His own, anyway. 'I wonder what he's doing now?' Yuugi chuckled and shook his head at his own slowness. Of course Yami would be worried about him. He always was... Yuugi smiled. 'That was how much he cared-cares for me.' He just didn't want his hikari to be hurt.
The yami and oldest of the group clutched Ryou's hand just a fraction of a bit tighter. Feeling the warmth from his love gave him enough strength to board the plane to Egypt. He came to the conclusion that Shinu was way over his mistakes and had her own problems to deal with.
So when they all reached the airport and when boarding call was sounded, every single one of them went reassured and well prepared to face the obstacles ahead, should there be any.
*
Shinu was currently lying on chunk of grass near the outskirts of the city.
~Flashback~
"Ahh!" A sixteen-year old girl with light-brown hair and light blue cotton dress was knocked to the ground by a new resident of their small, upper-Canada village.
"Ah, sorry there, miss. I guess I really wasn't looking where I was going." A boy who looked a couple of years older than her extended a hand to help her up. A big, idiotic grin was plastered over his face. "Let me help you with those." The nameless boy yanked her up somewhat gently and proceeded to pick up the tied bags of freshly milled wheat that she was carrying.
The girl shook the late autumn leaves out of her loose braid and focused her sight onto her attacker.
"Why, aren't you part of the new colonists from Britain?" She continued to dust her off-white apron off. She hated being dirty in front of a stranger.
The young boy looked up and gave her a toothy smile once again. "Yup, that's me and my family alright! Wow, it's not everyday a young, pretty thing like you recognizes me. My name's Jenkai. Jenkai Jones." Jenkai lifted the sacks up and threw them over his burly shoulders. He extended his hand out to her for the second time that day.
~End Flashback~
"Our first meeting and the best years of my lifeline. And in the end, it didn't matter anyway..." Mae shifted in the blazing sun of Ra and into the shade of a nearby tree. A very short, very crippled-looking tree, but a tree nonetheless.
*
'Leanne: ...Upper Canada?
Me: ;; eh heh, yes... Well, what did you want me to do? I really wanted to pick out a place that didn't appear in every other fic out there and something I knew a thing or two about...
Shinu: ... *speechless*
'Leanne: ^^;; okay then. If you say so.
Ryou: aww...there wasn't much shonen-ai in this chappie...not fair...
Bakura: humph. *crosses arms and tries to look like he doesn't care*
Me: y'know, Baku-kun, you aren't very convincing...
Bakura: *eye twitches again* don't...call...me...that... :C
Me: whatever, Baku-kun. Ja! ^^
(p.s. yays! I got the first Trigun DVD and the second Gravitation manga! Apparently so did Baku...eh heh heh...)
'Leanne: ...folks...?
Me: yeah...you gotta problem with that?
'Leanne: never mind... *shakes head*
Shinu: humph...well at least I have a part in the fic...
Ryou: ^^;; now now...
Me: AHHHHH!!!! *screaming bloody murder*
Everyone: O_o;;
Me: MY MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: *runs in carrying bazooka shooting random mushrooms popping out of the ground* GWA HA HA HA!!! Take that, fan fiction authoress!!! You will never own Yu-Gi-Oh!!!
*
"Ryou...Ryou wake up." Bakura prodded the adolescent's side and twisted his hair into painful knots, but Ryou just groaned and tried to bat his hand away. He had to resort to more desperate measures. "It's 6:47. We're gunna be late."
"It's WHAT?!" The startled hikari jumped on top of Bakura and squished his spiky head into the pillow so he could see the digital clock on the opposite bedside table. "Shit! I have to phone Yuugi to make sure he's ready to go in less than fifteen minutes!"
And so he jumped off the suffocating yami and raced to the telephone, punching in random numbers from the depths of his brain and hoping they belonged to Yuugi Mutou.
Bakura just shook his head and went downstairs to get a quick breakfast. Probably oatmeal again.
*
"All passengers for flight 106 to India now boarding." The hollow voice of the intercom rang through the near-empty airport, summoning everyone unfortunate enough to have booked a flight at 9:00 a.m.
"Nuh... I'm not awake yet..." Ryou slumped against Bakura, whom was sitting in between him and a ragged-looking Yuugi. Bakura awkwardly thumped his zombie-ish hikari on his silvery head a few times and cringed at the groaning response he received.
"Ryou, the roof says we have to get on the metal-bird thingy now...wake up..."
"C'mon, Ryou. We're gunna miss the flight if you don't stand up." Though Yuugi was extremely tired that didn't stop him from dragging his fellow hikari towards the gates of the empty airport.
Once Bakura, Ryou and Yuugi stepped onto the runway, a flight attendant came out to greet them and 'escort' them to the plane. The very small, very cramped plane.
"Aww, man. We should've stolen a jet or something from Kaiba. He wouldn't miss it..." Bakura whined.
"Well, it could be worse. We could have gotten a smaller plane with no roof. Besides, after this reaches India, we're switching to a bigger airline. So be happy that it's a place to rest for oh, about six hours." Yuugi responded with a grim smile.
Their attendant, who also happened to be their pilot, approached the trio with a guilty kind of face. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but we only have two passenger seats ready."
Ryou spoke coherent words for the first time since 6:52 that morning. "Thassokay. I'll sit on 'Kura's lap. No biggie..." With that, he fell asleep standing up and the pre-mentioned yami had to pick him up when it was time to board.
A couple of hours past and due to the small area available to them for moving around, they were in the same positions as when they first boarded and no one was very cheerful about it. However, they were now officially awake.
Yuugi was leaning on his arm, staring out the minute window. 'I wonder if Yami'll miss me at all...' He shook his head lightly and tried to occupy his mind with a less unsettling question. Turning to look at the golden-copper toned pendant hanging from his steel chain, he wondered whether or not they would ever reach India. Yuugi batted at the upside-down pyramid's capstone with his childish fingers.
The plane flew through a patch of random clouds.
"Bakura, why do you think Malik wanted us to fly to Egypt? Do you think he's..teamed with Marik, by any chance?" Ryou said through clenched teeth, for his head was pressed into the yami's chest.
Bakura looked up from intently studying the cover of some manga they had picked up from a stand back at the airport to the hikari on his lap. He sighed deeply. "I really hope not. I mean, he was pretty friendly last time we saw him. In fact, I think the reason Malik moved back to Egypt was to get away from his other half." Ryou pondered this piece of evidence. "Marik isn't a yami, Ryou. He is the physical manifestation of Malik's rage towards his family's heritage." Bakura said this with a firm tone in his voice; as if he wanted to make sure Ryou knew that no yami would act like that.
"Yeah, I know. But still…" The dark pressed his finger to Ryou's lips to silence him and then placed his own on the light's forehead.
"Nothing will happen to you, Ryou. I won't let anything happen." Ryou smiled and nuzzled his head into he crook of Bakura's neck. He trusted Bakura to a nearly impossible extent, but that didn't mean he was perfectly, completely safe. Even spirits have a limit, though they would never admit it, even to themselves. That was their weak point.
Ryou sighed and averted his thoughts to something more cheerful. After all, they were only about another hour's travel until they reached India. Then it was straight on to Egypt. No time to work off the jetlag to come. Oh well.
~3:17 p.m.~
The plane finally came to its halt on the sparkling pavement. The attendant thanked them for flying with whatever airline they were and undid the door's latch for the troop.
Ryou nodded and climbed out of his yami's lap. Yuugi shook his head to rid it of its questions and jumped off without having to move much. The door was right beside him, after all.
Bakura was a different matter. His nose was buried in the same manga mentioned earlier. It was called 'Gravitation', or something, and had gotten much more interesting. Yuki was still a bastard in his opinion, though. For some odd reason, Shuichi seemed a lot like Ry-
WHAP!!
"OW!!" Ryou had to pound his yami's head before he got to wrapped up in his insanity. "Waddya do that for?!"
He only shook his head in embarrassment before leaving Bakura left sitting on the plane; one hand clutching the top of his head and the other his book.
*
Yami sighed deeply. Yuugi hadn't said much when he had informed his of his sudden departure with the Bakuras. Only a short, jumbled up explanation and an awkward hug. Had they really grown that far apart? Ever since Mae had shown up again..everything had gone wrong...
Yami choked. He couldn't tell if it was to hide possible tears pushing at his eyelids or on the dust of the old attic. He had taken residence there after his hikari got up and left-
He stopped at that thought. Maybe Yuugi wanted to...wanted to get away from, him? The former pharaoh bit his lip so hard to stop it from quivering, blood had started to trickle down his chin.
Yuugi, Yuugi was all he could think about. Maybe he wasn't so naïve. Maybe he could've handled the situation better than /he/ could have. Perhaps his juvenile personality was only a mask. A mask to hide memories? Past pain? Had someone tried to hurt him before, or something? Yami had never really bothered to ask and only assumed that the exterior Yuugi was the only Yuugi.
Now he could see how their relationship had kind of diminished. Yami didn't ever tell Yuugi what was on his mind and therefore Yuugi couldn't help him. Yami couldn't face his problems on his own and ended up pushing his own hikari away. Maybe that's what happened between Ryou and his yami? He never did ask Ryou-kun how Bakura treated him.
Yami exhaled deeply again. Maybe he was too much of a worry-wart. Ryou was probably fine and Yuugi didn't /really/ hate him. When he got back in a week Yami would apologize and everything would go back to normal. If you could ever call the late pharaoh's spirit normal.
*
Yuugi-tachi ended up staying at a hotel in India anyway because their flight was cancelled due to extreme weather condition. Apparently the winds were to high to have a safe flight takeoff, or something. But that was just fine by the group. After all, no one was really looking forwards to sleeping on an airplane and arriving at one in the morning, at least to them.
"The food was great too!" Yuugi exclaimed once the group exited the Indian restaurant. Bakura was slightly appalled at the menu and ended up ordering the one thing he recognized; chicken teriyaki. The other two hikaris got some dish neither could even attempt to pronounce, but liked it anyway.
"Yeah yeah." Bakura droned. His one hand was crammed in his pocket while the other was in some kind of a death-grip from Ryou. "It was better at the hotel. At least their's was edible."
Ryou rolled his eyes but continued walking. "There are somethings that taste good outside of pasta and greasy foods, 'Kura. And chips." All his dark did was scowl. Ryou smiled. "But anyway, we only have this last flight and we'll be in Egypt. Aren't you excited Baku-chan?"
Bakura's eye twitched involuntarily, but he decided to endure the nicknames. "Yeah, kinda." He looked to be staring intently at the ground, as if avoiding a question.
/What's wrong? Something bugging you about returning to your homeland?/ Ryou decided to exercise their link in case Bakura didn't want to tell Yuugi, or something.
Bakura blinked at the unusual telepathy waves, but decided it might be okay to tell Ryou. //Maybe.// He changed his vision from the ground to the space in front of him. //I'm just wor-wondering about Shinu. That's all.//
Ryou fell silent. Bakura was about to say he was worried about her. Were they involved back then? Maybe that's why he was so jumpy lately. But-that shouldn't matter, right? 'I mean, I...we...' Ryou really couldn't put the right words together, but they were together now, so any old flames shouldn't matter now. Yeah, that's it.
Yuugi looked over at the pair. Both albinos weren't talking, at least not out loud. The violet-eyed boy heaved his chest and went back to his own thoughts about Yami. His own, anyway. 'I wonder what he's doing now?' Yuugi chuckled and shook his head at his own slowness. Of course Yami would be worried about him. He always was... Yuugi smiled. 'That was how much he cared-cares for me.' He just didn't want his hikari to be hurt.
The yami and oldest of the group clutched Ryou's hand just a fraction of a bit tighter. Feeling the warmth from his love gave him enough strength to board the plane to Egypt. He came to the conclusion that Shinu was way over his mistakes and had her own problems to deal with.
So when they all reached the airport and when boarding call was sounded, every single one of them went reassured and well prepared to face the obstacles ahead, should there be any.
*
Shinu was currently lying on chunk of grass near the outskirts of the city.
~Flashback~
"Ahh!" A sixteen-year old girl with light-brown hair and light blue cotton dress was knocked to the ground by a new resident of their small, upper-Canada village.
"Ah, sorry there, miss. I guess I really wasn't looking where I was going." A boy who looked a couple of years older than her extended a hand to help her up. A big, idiotic grin was plastered over his face. "Let me help you with those." The nameless boy yanked her up somewhat gently and proceeded to pick up the tied bags of freshly milled wheat that she was carrying.
The girl shook the late autumn leaves out of her loose braid and focused her sight onto her attacker.
"Why, aren't you part of the new colonists from Britain?" She continued to dust her off-white apron off. She hated being dirty in front of a stranger.
The young boy looked up and gave her a toothy smile once again. "Yup, that's me and my family alright! Wow, it's not everyday a young, pretty thing like you recognizes me. My name's Jenkai. Jenkai Jones." Jenkai lifted the sacks up and threw them over his burly shoulders. He extended his hand out to her for the second time that day.
~End Flashback~
"Our first meeting and the best years of my lifeline. And in the end, it didn't matter anyway..." Mae shifted in the blazing sun of Ra and into the shade of a nearby tree. A very short, very crippled-looking tree, but a tree nonetheless.
*
'Leanne: ...Upper Canada?
Me: ;; eh heh, yes... Well, what did you want me to do? I really wanted to pick out a place that didn't appear in every other fic out there and something I knew a thing or two about...
Shinu: ... *speechless*
'Leanne: ^^;; okay then. If you say so.
Ryou: aww...there wasn't much shonen-ai in this chappie...not fair...
Bakura: humph. *crosses arms and tries to look like he doesn't care*
Me: y'know, Baku-kun, you aren't very convincing...
Bakura: *eye twitches again* don't...call...me...that... :C
Me: whatever, Baku-kun. Ja! ^^
(p.s. yays! I got the first Trigun DVD and the second Gravitation manga! Apparently so did Baku...eh heh heh...)