Whoa, sorry for not updating for so long guys. I'd like to say I have a really good excuse, but I don't. Except homework. Lots of homework believe me. And the band went to Disneyland! So cool! Anyways, here's the chapter:
Wait a sec. You guys need to let me know if I'm (a. making the characters OOC, or (b. neglecting a group, okay?
Disclaimer: two words: nope!
Ch. 5- Earning Trust
The discussion took surprisingly less time than Yami had figured. Bakura fought quite a bit less than normal, maybe because he was out numbered two to one. At the end he had a question.
"So if You're sun and justice and You're moon and secrets, what the heck am I supposed to be?"
In Kamui's soul room, Ryou was asking the same question. The three of them were sitting in the hammock that hung from the ceiling. Yugi in the middle, Ryou lying back, and Kamui snuggling a small stuffed animal shaped like a wolf cub. Yugi and Kamui had been telling Ryou all they knew about the situation.
"Let's see," Kamui pondered for a moment. "I think your representative light was the stars: bigger than they appear and seriously far reaching."
"And the balance?" Ryou asked curiously.
"I think you were selflessness or something. You know, where a person looks out for others before themselves. Your Yami is sort of like ruthlessness. In other words, overcoming all obstacles in an effort of self-preservation. Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing, it just needs its balance like everything else."
Humming happily, she hugged the little wolf toy to her and leaned back on the hammock, which seemed to expand to fit all of them comfortably.
They all sat in silence for a while, just thinking and letting the significance of the events all sink in. Ryou was the first to break the silence. "The voice that was in your soul room hasn't come back, has it?"
"You guys too?" Kamui sat up. "Shion had just about convinced me it was all a dream."
"We could always be suffering from mass hallucination," Yugi laughed, but his heart wasn't in it. "So now what guys? If we're supposed to be protecting various balances in the earth, how do we do that?" He and Ryou both turned to Kamui.
"Don't look at me!" She held up her hands defensively. "I jus tell stories, I don't predict the future."
"I wonder if Yami's done yet." Yugi wondered aloud. "Let's go check on them!" He hoppe doff the hammock. The sudden change in weight flipped it and the other two found themselves on the ground as well.
"Let's try a warning next time, Yugi," Ryou laughed as he picked himself off the floor. All three left the soul room and each reappeared by their respective yamis. They were just in time to hear Yami telling heatedly at Bakura.
"…so if you even think about using him the way that blasted-"
"Hi Kamui, hi Yugi. Finished talking to Ryou?" Shion cut Yami off. Yami looked up and realized what he'd been about to say. He searched Yugi's face, trying to figure out how much he'd heard.
"Yami, what's going on?" Yugi asked slowly, recognizing the heightening tension. Yami cursed silently. Should he tell Yugi? He wanted him to be prepared, but not afraid.
"Me too, secret-keeper?" Kamui asked softly. "I thought you were done keeping secrets from me, at least." She looked sadly at Shion. Shion looked at her helplessly.
"Kamui, I just…"
"We didn't want to frighten you, Yugi," Yami tried to explain. "It's not that we wanted to keep a secret from you. Never that. I was afraid that you would remember and the burden would be too great…that you would be hurt and in a situation where I couldn't help."
"It's my past, too, Yami," Yugi reminded him softly. "You can't protect me. Not this time."
"I should be able to protect you always," Yami scowled. "That was my duty and promise."
"Secrets won't keep Yugi, Ryou, or me safe," Kamui jumped in. "What if we did something that put us in danger simply because we didn't know any better?"
"Tell them," Bakura crossed him arms. "If you don't I will. You may be afraid, but I'm not. I refuse to coddle my hikari like a china doll."
Yami glared daggers at Bakura who looked decidedly unimpressed. Shion, being slightly less subtle about it waked him upside the head. "Hey, what was that for?" Bakura demanded while fighting the urge to kill her outright.
"For finally being right at a really inconvenient time," Shion sighed. Then she began to speak. Her voice was soft, but with the stillness in the room she was heard as well as she would have been if she'd shouted. She told them of finding the secrets in her room and of the fire yami's betrayal. When she told them how the fire yami had cut his hikari's soul from him, Yugi farther into the couch he was seated on with his eyes screwed shut. He reached out and gripped yami's arm, as thought to convince him he was still there. Ryou looked as if he might have like to do the same, but wasn't willing to chance Bakura's wrath.
//Yugi, I'd never do something like that// Yami's voice flowed through their link.
/I know, Yami/ Yugi reassured him. He stopped attempting to crush Yami's arm, but didn't let go completely. Shion continued until she had told them everything, except their fears concerning Bakura.
There was silence in the room as the story ended. They simply breathed. It was all they could do. No explanations were needed as they left. Ryou, Yugi, and Kamui needed to absorb the new information and only time could help that.
Kamui told Shion she wanted to go home so Yugi and Yami walked to the game shop alone. Yami longed to know how his hikari was feeling about all thins, but was hesitant to probe their link. "Do you forgive me?" he asked when he could stand the silence no longer/
Yugi looked at him, surprised. "Don't be silly Yami. You haven't done anything wrong."
"I kept a secret from you," Yami reminded him.
"But you were trying to protect me. I would rather you not do it again, of course, but I understand."
"You don't…remember, do you Yugi?" Yami asked hesitantly.
Yugi shook his head. "No, but I almost feel as though I could remember, if I tried hard enough."
"Don't." Yami said shortly. "Its occurrence caused the separation of all the hikaris and yamis once. There's no need for you to experience it again."
"I know." The Yugi's face broke into a grin. "You know what would help right now?"
"Burgers?" Yami guessed.
"Burgers," Yugi agreed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Ryou sat dejectedly at the kitchen table. Bakura looked over at him and opened his mouth to speak. Nothing even vaguely appropriate came to mind, so he shrugged and turned back to the TV.
There was no use trying to watch it. It could have announced that ducks had colonized mars and he wouldn't have noticed. All his questions about the shadow realm, all his plots to steal the power Yami wielded, all of that had been effectively turned to mud. He now knew, knew, how to finally be granted all the power he longed for.
All it cost was half his soul. The half that was seated not too far from him, pretending in vain to study like nothing had happened.
'A devil's deal,' Bakura thought as he flipped blindly through the channels. Ryou knew of ht struggle taking place in his Yami. How could he not? And yet he chose to remain.
'He trusts me,' Bakura thought. 'He shouldn't but he does,' Bakura wanted ot know why, to grab Ryou by the shoulders and shake him until he told Bakura why. Why, Why? He wanted to demand. Why do you trust me when you know me so? When you know what I did, who I was…
Bakura stopped. Was that really it? Was because the part of him Ryou should be afraid of was who he was before? Did it no longer exist? Was that what kept Ryou from running so far that his yami couldn't follow?
'He can't depend on that,' Bakura thought angrily. 'How can he know what I'd do? I don't even know what I'd do…' Bakura let the thought roll around in his mind. 'I don't know what I'd do.'
He starred at Ryou's unprotected, unwatched back and a wave of sorrow hit him. For a second the emotion was so alien he assumed it had come from his link with Ryou. With a shock he realized it came from himself. He was the sad one.
"What kind of weakling have I become?" he muttered aloud. Unable to bear it, he disappeared into his soul room.
Ryou gave no indication that he knew his Yami was gone, gave no outward sign that that he had heard his yami's muttered self-scolding. But he had. "You're no weakling Bakura," he answered the empty room. A heartfelt smile fell to his face. He trust had not been misguided.
He knew what Bakura would do.
Or perhaps he only hoped strong enough that he thought he did.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Yea! I typed it all up. Here's a quick preview of next time:
"I said show yourself!"
"Such a temper," the voice tsked. A shadow grew near the door. Out of the depths glided a young woman…
Wanna know what happens next? If so, review!