Hello happy people! I am happy today and I don't know why. It's just so strange, but oh well, I am strange. Anyways, thanks for being patient with me for the last chapter. Writer's block is a real killer. I couldn't think of how to make the flashback work into the story and I felt like breaking something, thankfully I didn't and I got the chapter posted. See ya at the bottom!
Bakura had begun to knelt down before Mariku when the other struck at him with the pocket knife, which he promptly dodged by leaping away from him a few feet. Mariku flew towards him at a quick pace and struck again, this putting a good sized gash in his shoulder.
Blood flowed from his shoulder and began a puddle on the floor. "What the hell was that for?" Mariku responded by striking at him several more times, but missed each time, but on where he merely cut Bakura on the cheek.
Bakura winced and collapsed to one knee and felt himself getting weaker with each movement and with every minute that the blood spilled from his wound.
"Cut the shit and tell me what's gotten into your fucking head!" Bakura yelled in a violent tone.
"You are a bad man, Bakura. I know what you've been trying to do….you tried to grape me…"
"Don't you mean rape?" Bakura corrected.
Mariku's face flared red as he realized that Bakura was correct. "Shut up! I saw you! You were being mean and everything!"
Bakura was utterly confused and still didn't understand what had gotten into Mariku's head that would make him think he wanted to hurt him in any way. "That's ridiculous, you idiot. I wouldn't dare harm you in such a way."
Suddenly, Mariku dropped the knife and collapsed beside it with both hands again brought to his head. He moaned as he was again bombed by similar memories, all of them mixed up and confusing him all the more.
Bakura felt no pity for the other and stumbled out of the room past him, then heading upstairs to the bathroom to take care of his wound.
Mariku couldn't take it and ran out of the house and into the snow, not bothering to stop and just kept running. He wanted to get away from the memories and he didn't know how. He saw blood and darkness; heard angry and profane words being exchanged; then he heard horrid and painful screams coming from a very dark place.
Bakura had taken off his shirt and began to flush it out with water. The blood did begin to slow, but it wasn't clotting like he needed it to. It was taking a lot of time and energy, which he had little of either.
Suddenly, his vision blurred and he felt himself losing control. He collapsed to the tile in a pool of his own blood and was fully unconscious.
Mariku turned down the street and into an alley way. He collapsed out of fatigue against the spray paint stained brick wall. His breathing was heavy and unsteady and his face was red with tears and his skin had been burnt by the strong, frigid wind that had raced against him.
He sobbed loudly and the sound carried further into the darkness of the alley. The sound of crashing metal emited from the darkness and two shadowed figures emerged from it.
Two tall male figures approached him. They wore ratted old clothes and beanies on their head. In their hands were spray cans that weren't yet emptied entirely. One man had chesnut colored bangs and red streaks in his long hair held back in a pony tail and the other had black hair streaked with blue and a lot of facial piercings.
"Look what we got here." The chesnut-hair's deep voice boomed. The other nodded and knelt down in front of Mariku. He lifted his chin with a gloved finger and looked him over as if he were something being sold in a market place.
"He's a cute little thing ain't he?" The other's dull voice whispered. He smirked at Mariku and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt; bringing him to his feet. "Whadya say we have some fun with him?"
The larger chestnut-haired male nodded and too smirked. The shorter one, still holding to Mariku's shirt, dragged him behind as Mariku was sucked into the darkness with them.
The alley became dead silent and there was no one in sight. Suddenly, a loud pained shriek shot out of the darkness and echoed though the streets.
Ryou and Malik were asleep on the couches in the living room of Mariku's home; Ryou on the couch opposite Malik. The sandy-blonde hikari stirred and woke from his long slumber. The television was still on and the living room was a mess. Malik first turned off the active television and set the remote aside on the sidetable.
He ran his fingers through his unruly hair and stretched, popping a few joints and feeling relieved and a little less stiff. He looked at the time and went up the many flights of stairs to Mariku's room. He peered in and saw that it was still empty and his yami had still not returned home.
Malik returned to the first floor and grabbed his coat from the coat rack by the door. He returned to the living room and sat down next to Ryou on the couch. He leaned over Ryou and kissed him lightly on the forehead. Ryou stirred from sleep and glanced through half lidded eyes at Malik.
"I'm going to see if Bakura has found Mariku yet. I'll be back soon." He whispered. Ryou nodded and dropped back off into sleep where he had left off. His breathing was soft and he smelled amazingly good.
Malik chuckled lightly and left, locking the front door of the house behind him. He took a brisk walk to Bakura's house. He walked up the stone pathway to the door and knocked twice, receiving no answer. He knocked again, and again he received no answer.
Malik thought it was strange that Bakura had not promptly answered the door as he always had. Malik reached out to the door knob and twisted it and oddly enough the door was unlocked. Bakura was never one to take such chances and his door was usually bolted tightly.
The suspicious male walked into the house and searched the Living area first, finding nothing out of place except for the blood-stains on the cream carpet. Malik had a bad feeling about this and picked up his pace. He ran up the stairs and as he went he saw droplets of blood leading up them, down the hallway, and to the bathroom, which Malik did follow.
The bathroom door crept open and the hikari poked his head into the room. His eyes drew wide as he saw Bakura fallen on the ground in a pool of his own blood. "Bakura!"
Malik slipped into the bathroom and knelt down beside him, checking his pulse to see if he was alive. "Barely," he whispered sounding slightly panicked. Bakura had a white complexion and his body was cold and stained with his blood. His pallid tendrils had soaked up a small amount of the blood and had turned it a scarlet hue. He seemed almost dead, but thankfully he wasn't..not yet at least.
Malik ran from the room like a bat out of hell in search of the phone which was on Bakura's dresser in his bedroom. He called Ryou in a panic instead of calling for an ambulance.
The sleep-heavy hikari picked himself up off of the couch and answered the phone in the first floor cooridor. "Hello, Ishtar residence," he answered groggily.
"Bakura! Its Bakura!" Malik yelled from the other end.
"What's wrong?"
"Bakura is bleeding all over the place and I don't know what happened!"
"What?" Ryou said sounding more alert and panicked.
"You might want to get your butt over here now! Uh…hello?"
Ryou had dropped the phone and already sped out of the house. Malik threw the phone aside and returned to Bakura. Running as quickly as he could, Ryou arrived at the house in a matter of minutes and was out of breath. Malik heard the door fly open downstairs and ran to the top of the tall flight of stairs. He saw Ryou bent over with his hands on his knees and he was having trouble recalling his breath.
Malik ran down to him and carried him up the stairs while he recovered himself. Ryou jumped off of his back once at the top of the stairs and bolted for the bathroom with Malik right behind him. Ryou dove to the floor beside him and also checked for a pulse which was faint and growing more faint with each critical moment that passed.
Malik had finally gotten over his panic and was already searching the cabinets for medical supplies. He had taken care of Mariku plenty of times and in situations like this Mariku would always survive and recover without any problems. There was one problem though; Mariku had never bled all over the place like Bakura was now.
Ryou's eyes darted up and down Bakura's form. His eyes built up with tears and he didn't know what to do with himself. "Put your hands on his arm and put some pressure on his wound!" Malik said as he was now tossing things carelessly from the medicine cabinet above the sink. Ryou did as he was told and continued to panic, but less than before. He too was gaining control of himself.
"Do you have a needle and some wire by any chance?" Malik inquired of Ryou.
"Downstairs…under the sink…"
Malik didn't hesitate to bolt from the room and down the steep stairway, tripping over himself and falling to the bottom. He shook it off and ran for the kitchen. He found a coil of thin wire and a small package of thick needles under the sink just as Ryou had said. He also spotted a pair of scissors which he too pocketed. He quickly returned to the bathroom, there was no time to waste.
Ryou glanced back at him a moment. "Are you all right? I heard a crashing noise downstairs." Malik nodded and told Ryou he had just tripped. He did his best to sanatize both the wire and the needle before proceeding to thread the needle with the silver string. He put the needle point between his teeth and knelt down beside Bakura, turning him off of his front and onto his back so that the wound was then accessable.
Just as Malik was about to begin sewing up the wound the best he could, Ryou saw the needle and his eyes shot wide. "What are you doing with that?"
"Relax, I have done this for Mariku thousands of times."
"How the hell can I relax when he is bleeding to death?"
Malik looked at Ryou and was quite surprised. Ryou realized that he had cursed for the first time in his life and looked to be surprised himself. Malik chuckled and dove the needle into Bakura's wound. Ryou averted his eyes; it was too disgusting for him to watch.
Bakura whispered his pain with a soft moaning sound. Ryou panicked and tried to stop Malik, but was pushed off by the other who continued to sew up the wound. Ryou was amazed by his sewing skills, and the fact that Malik had not fainted. Ryou would have most likely fainted at the first stitch.
Malik quickly finished and cut the wire with the scissors. "That's all I can do here." He mummbled and sat back on the edge of the bathe, wiping at the small beads of sweat with the rolled up sleeve of his shirt. He stood and washed the blood from his hands and advised Ryou to do the same.
"Then we have to take him to the hospital."
"Let's go then."
The two males called for a taxi to come a.s.a.p. and waited for it as patiently as they could. The drive happily obliged and drove them to the hospital as quickly as he was able.
Once at the hospital, Bakura was admitted right away and taken to the Emergency Room. Ryou and Malik were directed to the Waiting Room for the time being. Ryou sat back in a chair and sighed deeply. He was desperately trying to hold back the tears that wanted to burst from his eyes.
Malik pulled the trembling male into his arms and held him closely. Ryou gripped his jacket and held him tightly. Malik couldn't think of anything he could say to reassure the robber's hikari that his yami would be all right. Ryou didn't expect him to say anything, but he had wished that he would have.
After at least an hour or so, the two hikari's were confronted by a young gentleman in a long white coat and thick glasses with a black frame. He had auburn hair and a friendly smile on his face. Malik stood and shook his hand, Ryou stayed sat in his chair and clutched to Malik's arm when he sat back down.
"You the fella's that came in with the egyptian fella?" The doctor inquired and Malik and Ryou nodded. The doctor sat adjacent to them both and still had that stupid grin on his face. Ryou wanted to rip it off of him and strangle him for even smiling at a time like this. This desire to kill the doctor burned in his light chocolate eyes.
"Fella's, I have to congratulate you both." Ryou looked confused and Malik did as well. The doctor chuckled and grinned again making Ryou want to commit murder even more and this feeling was not his everyday feeling.
"You saved your friends life and I commend you for it. Are either of you doctors?" The excited man inquired. Malik and Ryou both shook their heads in unison. The happy man was surprised and his surprise was obvious. "Well, the stitching on his arm was excellently done; even better than what I can do. That amazes me. I wish more people knew how to do things like that. It would save me the trouble."
"Who closed the wound?" The doctor inquired still looking excited and starving to know more. Malik and Ryou exchanged glances and each pointed at the other.
"It was him," they said in unison.
"No, it was him," Malik quickly followed up.
"Nu-uh! It was-" Malik clasped his hand over Ryou's mouth and repeated that it was Ryou. The doctor's beeper called to him from the belt of his pants. "Oops, I have to go. You can give me a few pointers later, all right?"
The doctor took off down the long white cooridor and disappeared around a corner. Ryou forced Malik's hand off of his face and gave him a displeased looked. "What are you doing? Why did you say it was me?"
"Because I just felt like it." He grinned at Ryou and eased back against the back of his chair. Ryou sighed and dropped his head, his clean white tendrils falling in front of his face. "I am the one that deserves such recognition. I did nothing, but watch and panic."
Malik shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Can't just learn to say thank you and shut up?" Malik said teasing the other. He pecked him on the cheek and tried to hold him against, but the other drew away and again looked at him in a frustrated way which was adorable from Malik's angle.
"I don't feel right about it, Malik!"
"Listen, I don't need recognition for anything. I just feel good for just knowing I might have save his life."
"But Malik-!"
Malik put his finger on Ryou's soft lips and put the other finger to his own lips, "Shh…" He removed his finger and took the other's hands in his own. "I don't care…and you shouldn't either…"
Ryou leaned against his arm and sighed again. "I still won't feel right…" he mummbled. Malik rolled his eyes and pulled Ryou into a long and passionate kiss just to shut him up.
A nurse strolled into the room with Bakura's paperwork and approached them both. She handed off the paperwork to Malik who swiftly looked the papers over. "What's all of this?"
"Those are discharge forms for your pal. He can go as soon as he gets his last transfusion." She replied and popped the gum in her mouth.
"Thank you." Malik said and handed the papers off to malik to look at.
"Oh yeah, you can go see him if you want to." She pointed out the directions to Malik and returned to whatever she had been doing.
Suddenly, the sound of blaring sirens filled the lot outside and two doctors ran past the waiting room. Ryou and Malik watched as a blood-covered figure was quickly wheeled by them and taken down the hallway. Malik looked a little distraught about something. Ryou waved his hand in front of Malik's face. "Are you all right?"
Malik shook it off and nodded, "It's nothing…let's go see Bakura."
Malik walked Ryou back into the busy hallways and they counted the numbered doors until they arrived to Bakura's room. They opened the door that was left slightly ajar and walked into his room.
The palid-haired thief was laying motionless in his hospital bed and was hooked up to a large number of machines that did something important for him. Most of the blood had been cleaned up and he almost looked like new, but Ryou wasn't about to forget how gruesome he looked laying on the bathroom tile in a pool of his own blood.
The palid-haired Hikari was overcome by tears at the sight of his poor Yami laying motionlessly in a hospital bed with tubes and things shooting out of his body in various places.
Behind, in the hallway, a few doctors flew past the door. Malik and Ryou both looked out into the hallway and saw them turn down the next hallway. Malik was curious as to what was going on and decided to follow.
Malik ran to the next hallway and skidded to a hault and he became frozen in shock with his eyes wide and his jaw hanging. "M..Mariku!"
Ryou heard what the other had exclaimed and joined him at the beginning of the new corridor. "What did you say?" He looked around frantically to see where the other's yami was.
Malik bounded off down the hallway with Ryou trailing a ways behind him. He turned into the ER unit. "Malik!" Ryou called from behind. As Ryou turned the corner he saw Malik being dragged out of a room by nurses.
"Sir, you can't just barge in like that!" One nurse told him.
"Stop! Let me go!" Malik screamed and struggled.
One of the doctors stepped out of the room to see what the trouble was, just as Ryou had finally caught up to his fighting lover.
"This guy here is related to the patient in that room. What happened?" Ryou inquired.
"I can't quite say yet. I haven't gotten a thorough look yet. He's in pretty bad shape th-"
"He can't stay here!" Malik screamed, interrupting the doctor.
Ryou placed a hand on Malik's shoulder and clenched him tightly to stop his struggling. "He needs medical attention, Malik."
"He can't stay…he's never been in a place like this. Things could happen!"
"Like what?" Ryou crossed his arms and waited for the ridiculous answer he assumed he was going to get.
Malik hesitated with his answer meaning he either couldn't think of one or there wasn't one at all. "I can't think of an answer to that right now, but I know that he just can't!" Malik hissed.
"We can't just take him in the condition he is in! That's the most moronic thing anyone could ever think! He has to stay here for medical attention!" Ryou said in a risen voice that sounded quite scary, and it wasn't like him at all to raise his voice like this.
Malik was extremely upset about everything and just stormed off. Ryou just stood there, not knowing what to do. "I always screw things up…" He sighed deeply and turned to the doctor, who looked stunned that such a quiet person could be so loud. "Please, do all you can for him right now, and when you have, please contact me. My name is Ryou Bakura. Could you please?"
"Sure thing." The doctor nodded. "Leave a number with one of the secretaries in this unit." The doctor pivoted and walked back into the chaotic room on quick working doctors and nurses.
Ryou left his cellphone number with the nurse as he was instructed and went to look for Malik, but ended up unable to locate him. He instead returned to Bakura's side.
Malik walked out into the courtyard where tons of snow had built up. He began the makings of what was going to be a snowman. He packed on the snow hard, almost punching the snow to pack it down. He was furious and worried all at the same time.
Ryou sat down next to Bakura and his eyes wandered up and down Bakura's slim form. Suddenly, there was a soft knock on the door of Bakura's room. Ryou turned anticipating it to be Malik, but the man that stepped in was only the doctor involved in Mariku's case. "I thought I would find you in here. Could I talk to you please?"
Ryou nodded and walked out of Bakura's room behind the doctor. He made sure he quietly shut the door and stood confronted the more elderly man. "Your friend from the Emergency Unit is stable now and doing well. He has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit." The doctor told with a pleased smile.
Ryou looked quite relieved that Mariku was stable and doing well. "Thank you so much. Is he awake?"
"No, unfortunately he is still unconscious."
"I see. What exactly is wrong with him?" Ryou inquired further.
"Well…there was head trauma and-"
"Head trauma?" Ryou exclaimed and clasped his hands over his open mouth.
"There's more. I believe your friend was most likely raped."
"Raped? Are you sure?"
"All of the signs were present. I am not truly worried about him being raped, however. The head trauma is the most important thing right now and he is being prepped for a Cat Scan."
The doctors beeper screamed at him from his belt which he turned his attention to. "I have to go overlook the procedure. Please excuse me." The more elderly doctor walked away from Ryou and turned down another of the many corridors.
Ryou leaned back against the wall and put one of his hands on his forehead running his fingers back through his hair. "How am going to tell Malik?"
Malik scooped up a large handfull of snow and rounded out a snowball which he used to pelt his poorly built snowman. "This is all my damn fault!"
Ryou slid down the wall to the floor and sat there trying to think of a way to break the news easily to Malik.
Holy crap! Look how much I wrote! Plz review and I hope you didn't hurt yourself reading all of this, sheesh, so much reading.