…There were two…There will always be two
"So, Bakura, where have you been?" Joey said, as he tried to break the mundane ticking of the clock and the equally annoying noise of the TV, which none of them really paid attention to.
It was the dying hours of the day. Both men did nothing all day but slouch around in the living room, after breakfast and lunch that Ryou prepared much to Joey's surprise, staring absentmindedly at the TV, and the momentary sharing of glances--bored, naughty, scared, and already everything of that sort between the both of them, including a bit of playing around, or chasing around for that matter.
"You are not in the place to know."
"Oh c'mon, bite me."
Bakura moved to get out of his chair.
"I mean, no, but—tell me."
"And why should I? Have you become Duke's replacement over here or something?" The whitehead muttered lazily, sinking back into his original place.
"No, but I want to know."
"Why?"
"Nothing. I… just want to know… about you two… you're… you know…"
Bakura growled to cut him off. "Just say we're lovers, ok?!" He barked, annoyed. "You make it sound like it's a deadly contagious disease or something!"
"Ok, I'm sorry. You know I'm new in this."
A loud, exasperated sigh. "Fine. But trust me, you aren't like a beginner in bed."
The blonde's cheeks flared into a burnt red. "Ok, enough of that!!" No, he definitely wasn't ready to talk about it yet. "You're changing the topic. This is about you and not me, remember??"
"A slightly more annoying version of Duke…" Bakura muttered as he chuckled. "Ok so, I've been in Egypt."
"Egypt?? What the hell were you doing in Egypt??"
"Stuff to steal… things to destroy… boys to sleep with… those kind of things."
"Er…" Joey grinned stupidly. I should have kno— "What?!?"
"What?" Bakura turned to him sluggishly, his eyes half-dropped.
"B-boys to…sleep with?!?"
"I told you, you're not in the place to know."
"Oh c'mon, I don't believe you."
"Do I look like in the mood to joke around?" The whitehead said, slowly, but somewhat dangerously calm.
"With you and Duke… like…that??"
Joey was half-perplexed and half-annoyed as the other man just turned away from him and towards the TV, smirking briefly. Like he was underestimating the blonde's comprehension abilities. The blonde just stared at Bakura, still not swayed by the whitehead.
Ryou glanced at him, sensing his eyes. Ok, so Joey was not such an easy opponent to beat, with his persistence and all. He motioned Joey to come over to his place with his hand's up-and-down sway.
The blonde raised an incredulous eyebrow. And Bakura just continued his urging. Finally, Joey stood up and edged to where the whitehead sat. He lowered his head when Ryou was somewhat trying to whisper something to him. The suddenly, surprisingly, Bakura caught him by the waist and sat him his lap, his back facing the other man.
Bakura neared his face to the blonde's ear. "There are some things that you just can't understand, Joey."
The blonde opened his mouth to retort something out, but he could not say anything, defeated, finally.
"OI!"
There was yet another loud thud as Bakura got up abruptly like Joey was not sitting on him. He almost ran to the door.
"What happened??" The whitehead asked worriedly as he met Duke by the door.
"Hm." Duke flinched as he touched his bruised lip.
"Bad hit. You got into a fight somewhere?" Joey tried to inquire as he stood up from the floor.
"He…hit me."
Bakura's face was twitched in mixed worry and anger. He gently cupped Duke's chin, examining the annoying bruise. "Does it hurt?" He asked, his face turning soft.
"Ne, Baku-chan, it's just a small bruise." Duke smiled, quite happy with Bakura's reactions.
"Who hit you anyway?!" The whitehead's face hardened once again, his tone rising. He wished to know who had hurt Duke, to hit him thrice as hard in the face, or just beat him senseless to the ground.
"I deserve this, don't you think?" Bottle-green eyes turned to the blonde as Duke smiled ruefully.
Joey just stood there, lost in oblivion all of a sudden. He cannot explain it, but he just felt something, something really weird, something he knew he wasn't supposed to be thinking about then.
---
The blonde shifted uneasily once and again in the couch, alone in the silence of the living room when Bakura came back from wherever.
"Hey there." The whitehead greeted loudly, trying to shake the frozen blonde.
Joey turned to him idly. "Hey."
"Gotta prob? Where's Duke?" Bakura sank next to Joey, crossing his arms behind his head.
"He kicked me out."
"What??"
"He. Kicked. Me. Out."
--
"Do you know where Ryou went, Joey?"
Duke was drying his hair up in front of a mirror, Joey watching from their bed. He had just taken a bath and Joey, well, Joey didn't take it with him.
And speaking of that, Joey's stomach lurched. Eversince his talk with Bakura, he can't feel quite comfortable with Duke around. He didn't know what to do, what to say, if he even had to do anything.
Bakura…is sleeping with other guys.
"Hey, Joey, you okay?" The raven-haired lad turned to where the blonde sat. Joey was drenched in cold sweat, his face drained of color.
Should I do something?
"Joey."
The blonde turned to him absentmindedly. "Yeah?" He replied, not having remembered that he was already a few lines back from the other man.
"You have been like that since I came back. Is there a problem?" He asked, his face etched with gentle worry, that uneasy fall of his eyebrows marring his already-marred beautiful face.
"…No…not really…"
Duke returned to face the mirror, his expression unwavering.
"Duke?"
"Hm?"
"…Do you…love…Bakura?"
"Yes."
Joey's eyes widened. Duke answered too straightly, earnestly honest, without doubt. Which made it even screwed for the blonde.
"Why do you ask?"
"Does he love you, too?"
Duke managed to show a very slight smile. He is amazed, more than surprised, to hear the blonde asking him anything of that matter. Amazed of his childlike tone and somewhat innocent eyes.
"Yes, I believe he does."
The blonde's resolve broke to dust. He didn't want to hurt this man, this man who had shown utter kindness and unexplainable gentleness with him. He didn't want to give him pain in return, no he didn't, and he wouldn't want to, ever. But Bakura… would he let Duke remain in Bakura's shadow like this forever, not knowing of the deceit of his lover, which he held so dear and believed that loves him too?
No… It can't be helped…
"…Then why…why aren't you his only one?"
The mundane ticking of the clock corrupted the silence once and again, taking advantage of the uneasy stillness and the quietness of held breaths.
A sudden surge of heat flowed to Joey's face as he saw's the slightest upward curve of Duke's pale lips in the mirror. The memory of those sorrowful bottle-green eyes he just saw will forever be burned in his memory. He didn't know why, but he was enraged by this reaction. It's not like anything he had expected from what he thought was a man that just knew his lover was cheating.
Tick, tock... tick, tock…
"What?? Can't you say anything?!?" Joey almost shouted.
Duke smiled slightly, ever sadly, again.
"I can't believe you." The blonde remarked in disbelief. "That bastard is sleeping with other guys and you'd just keep silent and smile at me sadly there?!"
Bottle-green eyes melted into russet ones knowingly, its light dimmer than usual.
"You…already know…?"
The raven-haired man turned back to his mirror and continued to comb his hair, exasperating Joey even more.
"You mean—you know Bakura's cheating all along and you haven't done anything?!? Just keeping quiet in your own little corner in his shadow, probably pained all along but still letting him treat you like—like a bitch—or his plaything or something-- "
"Get out."
--
Even as he sat there on the chair, restless all the while even after a couple of hours or so since Duke threw him out of their room… He can still remember the chilly glow of Duke's eyes, and his deep, toneless voice when he told him to get out. The words were so bitter he could taste them as they kept repeating themselves in his head, almost driving him mad.
---
Dinner was taken in absolute silence. Not even Ryou would dare to speak, knowing his situation in between. He didn't know the whole story, but he knew Duke was mad at Joey. That's all there is to know, and he wasn't really a man of questions. Period.
Joey ate quietly on his side of the table, russet eyes fixed on his plate. He had done something offending to Duke, he knew it. But he can't quite understand why the raven-haired man was mad at him and not with Bakura.
"Duke, about a while ago…"
The blonde flinched slightly as silverware slammed onto the table. Duke abruptly got up and stormed out of the dining area, Ryou following suit, leaving Joey alone on the table.
"…I'm sorry." He tried to finish his sentence off to the empty space, his golden-brown eyes burning behind closed lids.
---
"What's going on?" Bakura asked a bit harshly, almost fed up with the tension.
"Duke, I'm sorry." A voice suddenly came out of nowhere. Obviously, Joey had followed the two men upstairs. "I don't really understand what I did wrong."
"Maybe it's time you did."
"Will somebody tell me what happened while I was away?? This is so screwed up, you hear?!" Bakura's impatience ruled out.
"Tell me, Bakura, do you really love Duke?" Joey asked, his voice still controllably flat.
"Yes, I do, but what does that have to do with this?!"
"Then why do you keep hurting him?"
The whitehead turned to Duke, who, then, turned away from him. "Duke…?"
Seems that all of them are lost now. "I was bothered when I knew you were playing around with other men. He…he loves you very much, Bakura, and he believes that you do, too. He knows of what you do, but he just keeps quiet. I don't understand."
"Look. I know that he knows what I do. He accepted me for who I am."
"And I just can't." The blonde's voice was flowing with utmost concern. He just can't stand it. Those sorrowful, dim green eyes he saw in the mirror rushed to his memory once and again.
Way too screwed. Way too aggravatingly screwed.
"I sleep with other men. That's what I do. But it doesn't mean anything to me. Only Duke does." Bakura was all so suddenly calm. "Tell me, Duke, do you know that?"
"…Yes."
Joey painstakingly stayed there, watching the other two men without quite understanding anything. He could not stand having to watch all this, mainly because he didn't want to believe that it was even possible. He couldn't well see the point, and he didn't want to accept it. "But you…hurt…don't you?"
"…Yes."
Sharp, auburn eyes mellowed in the sight of sad, lime ones. Never has he seen them so dim.
Duke turned to face Bakura, then Joey, and turned to the cold, dark ground. "…Am I…just one of those toys?"
Finally, light was dawning on Joey's understanding. Duke was not mad at him… he was just… scared, perhaps. Scared that Bakura didn't really love him, like he believed. With the whitehead being able to induce other clueless men under his spell, it's not impossible that he's just one of them, one of those toys he simply played with. Joey just had to slap him in the face with the possibility, that, however painful, he may be. That he doubted himself and Ryou unconsciously; he just tried to ignore that doubt because of his love.
--
On a dark corner of an alleyway, a little boy with unruly black hair was hugging his knees, tears pouring from his wide, green eyes.
"Hey there." Another boy, about 7 years of age like the other, just happened to walk by and crouched by his side.
The black-haired boy pretended not to hear him. He was too upset to talk right now. He kept his face hidden behind his crossed arms, sobbing.
"What's the problem?" The other boy asked again.
Finally, the crying one looked at his newfound companion. He was a boy with short, messy white hair and big shining brown eyes, looking at him with such pure, childlike concern.
"Why are people bad?" He uttered, his little voice still squeaky. He stared sadly at the ground.
"Why, what happened?"
The boy hid his face again. "People hate me and my dad. See, my daddy is a clown… people laugh at him. My friends hate me now they already found out. They… they pushed me…" He said, his voice trembling, as he showed his bleeding arm to the other boy. "I ran away. I don't ever want to come back out there again. They all hate me."
"Don't cry. I am alone too. I ran away from home because they all hate me there, too. They yell at me all the time, they even beat me. I have no parents. I don't cry."
Wide green eyes looked at the other's brown ones. "Really?"
The other boy smiled. "Yes." He ripped a strip of the rim of his shirt and started to tie it to the other boy's arm. "There. Does it still—"
The white-haired boy suddenly dropped to the ground, clutching his head. The other boy held him worriedly. "Are you alright? What's happening?" He said, his big green eyes watery.
But the other boy just kept screaming in pain, writhing on the ground while he clutched on his head. "My head… it… hurts… aah…"
After a few more minutes, the white-haired boy stopped moving, dead limp on the ground. The other one shook him, tears streaming from his eyes. "Hey! Wake up! Don't leave me!!" He screamed.
Brown eyes opened slowly. For some reason, it scared the other boy and he edged away. The white-haired boy got up, and the other one backed to the wall.
It was not he. No, this boy scared him.
"Hey there." He said, as he came nearer to the black-haired boy.
"No…don't come any closer…" He cried.
"Don't be afraid…" He said, as he stretched out his little arms to the frightened boy. He held him in his arms, trying to hush the other's crying. "…I will take care of you. We will be together…"
--
"No…of course not." Bakura wrapped his arms around Duke, holding him tight. And Joey, he saw it. It wasn't like anything Bakura did to Duke. It was… out of… sincerity. Reciprocated warmness. "I'm a man that is not to be trusted. But that is the only one, I assure you with my life, I cannot lie about."
--
"…Always."
--
Duke was the one who gave birth to that other side of Ryou. A man that was a total opposite to him—loud, rude, violent, impulsive, treacherous, hardheaded, conceited… a man that vowed to love him as his life, and a man he loved back just as much. Eventhough he sleeps with other men, they shared something beyond all that, and that only they understood.
Joey realized that, finally. The scenario in front of him proved him wrong all along. However odd, he can't help but believe that it was indeed true.
---
"Can I go to school?"
Duke laughed.
It was early in the morning, fourth day of Joey's week. As if the count mattered. He wouldn't mind being a mutt forever if all pups were treated like this. The whitehead was still sleeping, his arms and legs draped over Duke, and they looked quite adorable, much like little kids.
The night was spent in an entirely different air. It was a good thing, especially for Joey, for by it he better understood their mutual agreement that was beyond body. All of them just lay awake in the bed, side-by-side, just enjoying each other's company, sharing their stories to tell, sharing their comfort, their quietness until they drifted off.
The blonde was the first to get up, having woken up unexpectedly because he had a dream he already couldn't remember. He took his morning bath and came back to the room with the raven-haired man already awake, but still lazing about beneath Ryou's limbs. For some reason, Joey wanted to go to school.
"What's so funny? I just want to go to school today."
Duke laughed again. "Nothing. You're just cute."
Pink stained the blonde's cheeks. "Anyway, I'll be going. Coming with me?"
"Nah. I'm going to stay here with my Baku-chan." The raven-haired man replied, his eyes glowing dreamily as he kissed the tip of Bakura's nose. "I missed him."
And with that, Joey approached Duke. He cradled the man's face in his hand, tracing his thumb downward through the black line on his cheek.
--
"I don't want to cry anymore." The black-haired boy of seven years, frail and innocent, spoke. He woke up after a bad dream that night. His shouts and cries had wakened the other boy beside him. They changed their minds about sleeping even after a couple of hours or so.
The white-haired boy wiped the other's cheek with his hand. "It's hard not to cry."
"You won't make me want to cry anymore, would you?"
"No, of course not."
Big green eyes looked at the taller boy happily. He smiled as the other boy traced his thumb on his face, from the brim of his eye down to his left cheek. "This is where your tears always fall." He said. "They wouldn't fall anymore."
And so, a black line was marked there, to remind him that he wouldn't have to cry since then.
--
Joey smiled as he kissed Duke's forehead. He woke up in a good morning.
---
The summer air played with Joey's golden hair as he walked in the open road to their school. He was happy, and the sky seemed the same. It was such a good day. Who cares if he's late for school anyway…
He walked by the roadside overlooking the creek. The water was a crystal blue, and the grass carpet was dancing with the wind, so peaceful and calming. He stopped. There was someone there, lying on the grass, his arms crossed behind his head.
Joey's heart leapt in surprise.
A/N: Heya! Did I bore you? Anyway, I'm doing it a-chapter-a-day. So, it's the third day, aight? Fourth day next chappie. I find it very slutty to do a-boy-a-day mweheheh… and I can't help the angst. It's in my blood. So… just guess who's next… ja :)