Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I do own my characters and the plot line.

A/N: Not much to say, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 38

Tension

The tension and anxiety in the waiting room was so thick you have cut it up into squares and served it on a plate as the four people took turns pacing the floor. Seto had been instantly emitted into the hospital and was currently in the emergency room, having the doctors hooking up to all sorts of things and stitching up his many gashes.

Demi was still shaking, although slightly less then when she had arrived, but she was still white as paper. Amaya silently reached out and rested her hand on the older girl's shoulder, who accepted it wordlessly. She hadn't said anything since she had told them what Seto had done, nor had Maiyu.

Yami and Amaya had shared little words as well, Yami had for the most part just held Amaya to him, rocking her gently while she tried to come to grips with what was happening.

And Yami was not without his own thoughts, this situation being all to familiar. Seto had made an attempt on his own life once before, a couple months after Mokuba's death, altough the self damage hadn't been near this bad. He didn't know all of what happened with the boy's murder, Seto had refused to talk about it after bringing the mutilated body back to the club.

A doctor in a white lab-coat walked up to them slowly.

"Is one of you Yami?" He asked.

"I am." He said, standing up. "Is he going to be ok?"

"He's lucky to be alive after losing so much blood, it's a good you found when you did, another 15 minutes and he would have been too far gone." The man replied.

"But is he going to be ok?" Demi demanded, rising to her feet. The doctor nodded.

"Ya, he's lucky." He answered. "He should be healed in a couple weeks, but I'll have to keep him for observation. Do you have any idea why he might have tried to kill himself?" The four friends glanced at each other nervously, Amaya biting her lower lip - a sure sign of nervousness. Finally, and surprisingly it was Maiyu who spoke up.

"Ya, his little brother was killed three years ago to the day." She answered. "They were close, seeing as they were the only blood relation the other had, we don't exactly know what happened, but I saw the body and ........ it was bad. Really bad." The Doctor nodded slowly.

"Has he made any past attempts?"

"No." Yami said quickly. He knew that if he told them the truth, they wouldn't be letting him out for a long time.

"Alright." He said. "I think he's finally starting to regain consciousness, if you want to visit him. But in his current state of mind, he may not want company." All four nodded and waited until he walked away before discussing who should go in first.

Finally it was decided that Demi should be the one to go, seeing as she was the one who had found him in the first place. Taking a breath the raven and lime haired girl stepped into the room.

She stopped, stunned and fighting to hold back her tears.

The man on the bed didn't even look like Seto at all. His face was sallow and his cheekbones were a little sunken in, giving him the frightening impression of a corpse. He was hooked up to IV and many other things, and a blood bag was being emptied into his starved veins.

Slowly she moved closer to him, one shaking hand reaching out to pushed his chocolate hair back from his brow.

'His body's so cold...........'

She jumped when the seemingly lifeless figure groaned, his eyebrows knitting together as his eyes slowly fluttered open, revealing his jewel blue eyes. He looked as if he was confused to where he was, but the look vanished as he set eyes on her.

"Seto...." She whispered, slowly retracting her hand, hoping that he hadn't noticed. If he did, he gave no sign.

"Leave." He said, his voice hoarse, his face once again regaining it's emotionless facade.

"Why?" She whispered, willing herself not to cry. "Why, Seto?"

"I SAID LEAVE!" His body suddenly animate with rage he reached over and harshly pulled out the IV and the blood tubes, blood trickling from the hole in his skin.

Demi slowly backed away in shock before the nurses came into the room. She didn't see anymore because at the moment he began ripping out his stitches, she ran out of the room, unable to take anymore. Without pausing she ran by her three friends in the waiting room, ignoring them as they called out to her.

Her heart was racing as she ran, she didn't know where she was going, and in she didn't care. All she knew was that she had to get away from the images.

Seto in the bathroom, his wrists slashed and bleeding.

Him on the bed, looking like the very image of death.

His face contorted in rage as he ripped out the stitches, his cuts reopening and spurting blood.

Her legs refusing to hold her weight anymore, she collapsed sobbing. She loved him, she knew she shouldn't and she hated herself for it.

He would never love her back, he only saw her as a whore, she knew it, and still she couldn't help the way she felt.

It felt as if he was slowly ripping pieces of her heart out and stomping on it, she shouldn't even be crying over him, and yet she wanted so badly to be in his arms.

'Demi.' She thought as she hugged herself. 'Your a fool.' Unable to fight the full extent of the tears anymore, she let them all fall as the sun began to set.

Amaya rose to her feet as she watched her best friend run out the hospital, ready to pursue her when Yami rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Let her go." He whispered, his eyes following Demi as she ran out of the front doors.

"No." Amaya said firmly. "The last time she ran off she almost got killed. I'm going after her."

"That wouldn't do any good." Maiyu piped in. "She needs to be alone."

"Maiyu's right." Yami agreed softly. "This had to be hard on her."

"Why? She hates Kaiba!" Amaya argued.

"It's hard on you, and you dislike him." Her boyfriend pointed out. "Demi lives with him."

"Your right." Amaya sighed, slumping into her chair. "I just worry about her."

"We know." Yami replied, wrapping his arms around her. "Come on, we should go home. I think we'll just end up upsetting him if we stay. He had a bad enough reaction to Demi."

Wordlessly, the three friends got into their leader's car.

(A/N: I was going to leave it there, but then I decided that I had room for one more scene......... love me dammit!)

Maiyu walked into her room, expecting to see her long-abandoned..... well, she didn't really know what he was to her yet.........laying on the bed looking very annoyed at having been forgotten, but what she saw when she walked in was an empty apartment.

"Son of a bitch!" She cursed, throwing her keys down onto the ground in frustration. "Bakura, if your in here, I'm not in the mood." Dark laughter met her ears, coming from the bathroom as the door opened, revealing the ivory haired man standing in the doorway in nothing but a towel, (A/N: Cally, for God sake, put your eyeballs back in and wipe the drool of your chin before your sister yells at you Drools) the cuts he had acquired from Marik still wrapped in thin cloth.

Maiyu stared in shock for a moment before Bakura's voice snapped her back to reality.

"What the fuck took you so long anyway." He said, walking over to her, a sexy glint in his eyes. "I missed you." She backed away from the advancing male until her back hit the wall.

She was out of places to run.

"Bakura.....please don't-" But her plea was cut off by his mouth descending on hers, hot and open, and she was lost to the feeling entirely.

He let out a deep throated something that almost sounded like a moan as he pressed his muscular body against her small frame as her hands slid around his neck. His hands slid down the side of her body and back up again, sending chills through her.

She broke away, panting, her face flushed, but again he dove for her lips. She pushed away.

"Bakura stop." She whispered, her gaze dropping downward (A/N: To the floor, you Hentais.)

"Why?" He purred, pressing his chest closer still.

"Bakura." She said again. "Please don't do this."

"I'm getting mixed messages here." He said, pausing to kiss the base of neck. "Back in the alley, you said you wanted to go out with me, or whatever the hell you called it, and now your backing out."

"Ya, I wanted you to go out with me." She said, her frustration building. "I wanted you to care about me! Not just fuck my brains out every night!" Fighting back tears she summoned all her energy to push him back, taking care not to hit any of his wounds, and ran out of the door, slamming it behind her.

Once she was safely away from him, she broke down into tears, half from frustration, half from sadness.

'He's never going to feel anything for me.' She told herself firmly, as the tears fell harder, splashing onto her black clothes. 'All he cares about is sex! And still, he has so much darkness in him........'

"Maiyu?" Her head snapped up as she heard her name, hastily wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. "Maiyu are you ok?"

"Ryou." She whispered. "Aren't you mad at me?" He slowly shook his head and sat beside her in the hall.

"I was, but I'm not anymore." He answered softly.

"Oh Ryou." She said as she buried her face in her chest and continued to sob, everything she had been holding back about Bakura flooding out at full force.

Ryou's cheeks tinted pink as he awkwardly wrapped his arms her. After a few moments her sobs died away and she looked up at Ryou.

"I think I know why you were crying." He said softly. "You have feelings for my brother, don't you?" Maiyu was a little taken aback, but nodded all the same.

"Yes, but he'll never return them." She answered quietly, then a thought hit her. "Ryou, who do you care about?" She could almost the boy blushing, although his back was to her, after a few seconds he answered.

"Serenity."

A/N: Well there we are! Some romance all around, and what's this? Ryou likes Serenity? Hopefully I'll have some Ryou/Serenity fluff in the next chapter, and remember Ming? We'll she'll be making an appearance in the next chapter along with some of Seto's thoughts.