Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. I wish.
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Part 1: Separate
Chapter 6: Yami no Yugi: Sorrow
Bakura was light, hardly weighing anything when I stood up with him in my arms, despite that he was a good head-and-a-half taller than me. I wondered if they'd fed him at all, or if he'd just existed on alcohol for the past seven years. He whimpered a little when I picked him up, but didn't struggle or protest like he had at first. One hand wrapped around the chain that held the Puzzle, although I suspected it was more for comfort than any thieving tendencies and let him.
I carried him from the room and down the stairs, tapping into the Puzzle's power to make us glow with an ethereal, golden light. Men gasped and hurriedly backed away as I stepped into the common room, my glare scaring them more than any display of Shadow Powers could.
"The Ring," I said softly, my voice cold. The bartender nearly fell over himself to get a stool and pull the Ring down from its nail. No one seemed willing to come near me with it, though, and finally it was just set on the end of the bar. I walked over to it, and whispered quietly to Bakura, as my hands were full carrying him at the moment.
He blinked at me, and then turned his head slightly to see the Ring laying on the counter beside him. His eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas, and he eagerly reached out to snatch it, holding it against his chest like a favorite toy. Still glaring at everyone who dared get in my way, I made my way to the front door and kicked it open.
Once I was outside, I slipped into a shadowed alley and let the glow around me fade. It was only then, as Bakura began to shiver in my arms, that I realized several things. I was alone in Luxor's underworld, with possibly Luxor's most famous male prostitute naked in my arms. Oh shit.
Just as I was looking around for something to bang my head into, I heard a quiet chuckle from behind me. Turning, I saw Gypsy looking at me, obviously amused. The Tauk was giving off a low light, and I felt a rush or relief at seeing her there. "Gypsy! Am I ever glad to see you!"
She smiled at me. "I figured. Ebon's bringing the car around now. We thought you might like a nice smooth get away ride to the airport."
"And I suppose asking how you found us would be a stupid question?"
She grinned and reached up to touch the Sennen Tauk. "Of course." Her face turned a little more serious and she took a step closer to me. "However, this isn't time for jokes. We called Rissa and she's bringing her plane to Luxor airport. You need to get out of Egypt as fast as possible. Even if your little display in there scared everyone who saw it into silence, it's not going to be long before other people begin to notice that little Horus is gone."
I nodded mutely. Nerissa, Seto and Isis's oldest daughter and Maia's older sister, was the current CEO of Kaiba Corp and a competent pilot. "Thank you, Gypsy." I said quietly.
She smiled as she drew a long cloak from around her shoulders and draped it over Bakura so he wouldn't freeze to death in the cool night air. "You can thank me when this is all over." she said. "While it's true that the Ring and Puzzle keep you and Bakura from dying, Bakura hasn't been in contact with the Ring for over seven years, and he seems to have hit upon the only way of killing himself that the Ring can't counter."
"What?" I asked, my eyes widening. "You mean drinking?"
She nodded, her lips pressed together tightly. I opened my mouth to ask another question, but just at that moment a small, dark colored car turned a corner and pulled to a stop near us. I followed her to it and nodded at Ebon as I slid in the back, Bakura laid out across the seats with his head on my lap. Gypsy got into the passenger seat, and a moment later we were on our way.
It was a short ride to the airport, during which time Bakura fell asleep, still clutching the Ring for dear life. Rissa Kaiba was waiting for us when we arrived, next to the small jet she used for private travels. It occurred to me that the few clothes I'd brought were still back at my hotel, but at the moment I didn't care. I lifted Bakura into my arms again, whispering to him softly as he moaned and thrashed in his sleep. After a moment he settled down, one hand actually leaving the Ring to wrap around the Puzzle's chain again.
I was halfway up the steps to the plane when I realized that Gypsy had pulled a bag out of the trunk of the car and was following me. I blinked, surprised. "Gypsy?"
She gave me a calm look. "You'll need me."
I felt a shiver go through me, the way it always did when Isis or Gypsy predicted the future. I nodded simply and took a seat in the jet, Bakura laid out across my lap again. This time he refused to let go of the Puzzle, and I had to let him sit up a little and lean against me. Gypsy sat down across from me as Rissa wordlessly took the pilot's seat. I heard two voices, and craned my neck to see Maia in the co-pilot's seat. She turned a little and waved to me, and then she and Rissa went back to running pre-flight checks.
Bakura moaned softly and shifted, and I frowned. Raising a hand to brush his hair away from his face, I cursed quietly when my fingers touched his skin. "Gypsy, he's got a fever."
Gypsy nodded, looking grim across the darkened cabin. She rummaged around in her bag for a moment, then tossed me a bottle of aspirin. "If he wakes up enough, give him one of those, though I doubt he'll wake up."
I just stared at her. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"
She just shook her head.
It was a four-hour flight to Nice, France, the city closest to my secluded little house. In those four hours, Bakura only got worse. His fever sky-rocketed, and he alternated between fits of sweating and shivering. At one point Gypsy had to help me hold him down as he thrashed around, we were afraid he was going to hurt himself. The Ring began to glow soon after his fever set in, but whatever it was doing didn't seem to help any. By the time we landed in France, I was really worried.
"I made sure long ago that if Horus was taken from me, no one else could ever have him."
Qasim's confident words came back to me as Gypsy rented a car and we began the hour drive back to my villa. I frowned, brushing Bakura's hair away from his sweaty face. What in the world could Qasim have done to him? I was startled out of my thoughts as Bakura gave a hoarse shout, making Gypsy swerve slightly. "Ryou!"
"Shit!" Gypsy cursed, something I'd never heard her do. "What happened?"
I could feel panic rising inside of me as Bakura continued to babble, most of it unintelligible, although Ryou's name could be heard quite often, along with mine and the names of Ryou's kids. "I think he's hallucinating."
"Well that can't be good." Gypsy said dryly.
"Gypsy, when we get to the house, please take good care of Bakura." I said, my mind made up. "I'm going back to Egypt. Maybe someone at the brothel knows what's wrong with him."
"Most likely," she agreed. "But I doubt they'll just tell you after you ran away with their best attraction."
I chuckled darkly. "That's what I have the Puzzle for."
"Yami," I looked down in surprise to see that Bakura had taken my hand, and was staring at me with cloudy and pain-filled eyes. "Yami, where are you going?"
"I'm going back to Egypt," I told him gently, stroking the back of his hand with my thumb. "I'm going to find a way to make you all better again."
He fell silent, although his eyes didn't leave my face.
"How do you feel?" I asked, although it was a stupid question.
"Dizzy," he murmured. "Sick." He fell silent again, just staring at me. Finally he asked "Am I going to die?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I said vehemantly.
He smiled a little. "Good." he said so softly that I had to strain to hear it. "Ryou would be mad if I died without telling you..." he trailed off, and his eyes drifted closed as he passed out again.
I just sat there with my mouth open, blinking at him. Tell me what? What was Bakura so determined to tell me? I snapped my mouth closed as something stirred inside me, a feeling long surpressed. I looked down at him helplessly, wondering what these feelings within me meant. After a moment I shook my head and pushed them away. I'd have time for contemplation later, right now I had other things to think about.
It wasn't until we reached the house that I realized I was still holding his hand.
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^_^ There you go! Any guesses as to what's wrong with Bakura? :p