Bellebelle3 - Yeah... I have no idea where the Batman thing came from. But I can totally picture Seto in the mesk, those pointy little ears are so cute!
Freak in the Shadows - You're trapped underneath your drunken brother? You should draw on his face! It's fun putting poor little Bakura through all this, I should have guilt or something but my pizza fixation has taken over and all I can think about is pineapple chunks.
Shiro Ryuu - I quite enjoyed the whole skipping work thing, I managed to get loads of stuff typed up. Yay! And yes, Seto is a complete bastard. The chapter after this one is the turning point, though. He finally gets to see that he really is driving Bakura nuts. It was muchly fun to write!
Lady11Occult - You can never have too much fanfiction! It's good for your brain, like fish.
Flamethrowerqueen - Yay!I missed you! My ego grows an extra ten sizes when you're around! Bakura's way of dealing with pain is to smile at it like a crazy, because he is one. It came from watching him get wiped out too many times on the show - he always laughs when he's about to die.
Note: I love my reviewers! I also love being really horrible to Bakura. I am a bad person, but at the moment I am a bad person with pizza, so I care not.
Poor Twisted Me 5
I'm sick today. I think it's a hangover, since I passed out on the back porch and woke up in bed. I'm pretty sure Seto carried me, but I think he only did it because he really doesn't need the press taking photos of a drunk guy passed out in his garden. I spent the first hour after waking up just locked in the bathroom, being sick over and over until there was nothing left in me to throw up. Now I'm lying on my bed feeling fucking sorry for myself, I can't even move. I haven't had a hangover this bad since… ever.
Ryou is hovering over me all worried, and I don't have the energy to tell him to piss off and let me die in peace. He made me swallow some painkillers when I could keep them down, but they haven't started working yet and my head is pounding – I feel like I got hit by a train.
I roll over and groan, sticking my arm out off the edge of the bed and making some vague gesture for Ryou to go away. Thankfully it's covered up, because the movement reminds me all about the bruises there. I don't even want to look at them yet, I'm wearing long sleeved black pyjamas so I'll poke at the bruises when I feel less like the living dead.
Ryou seems to get the message, because he leaves a glass of water on the nightstand for me then goes off to mother someone else. I'm just about to thank Ra for the peace, but then the door opens again and Seto is in my room, frowning down at me. He really needs to get a few new facial expressions, and I really need this right now. It's a reflex to sit up and pretend I'm not weak in front of an enemy, so my body goes right ahead and does it without consulting my brain. This is obviously very stupid, because my headache suddenly amplifies by about ten times and I just go totally white and collapse again. So much for not looking weak.
I can't even open my eyes now, so I just lie there and try to sell my soul to Ra in exchange for Seto getting some urgent phone call right now. Ra ignores me as usual though, and I feel Seto's hand on my forehead, checking my temperature. You'd think he cared, wouldn't you? I don't even have the energy to flinch and see if it inspires any sort of guilt in him. It always worked on me when Ryou did it.
"You're an idiot." Seto informs me, and I'm well aware of this. I will never drink again. Well… probably not for the rest of the week, anyway.
"Go away, I hate you." I roll over and mumble into the pillow, then realise how pathetic and childish that makes me sound. I'm pretty sure he's laughing at me, which I enjoy about as much as having his hand around my throat.
XxXxX
Around midday I get up, realise I still feel like shit and go back to bed ten minutes later. Before I crawl back beneath the sheets though, I lock the door to the bathroom and roll my sleeves up, staring at my arms for a few minutes. The worst of the bruises are green, and you know you're fucked when bits of you start turning green. Around the edges of the green it's black, which fades into blue and light purple on the outside. It's actually quite pretty, I'm a living work of art. Fuck, it hurts.
I rifle through the medicine cabinet for something to put on them and come up with a tube of cream, which is better than nothing. I perch on the edge of the bathtub and rub the stuff into my arms, wearing a really blank grin because it hurts like all hell and my way of dealing with pain is to smile insanely at it.
Once the cream is on I give it a moment to sink in and roll my sleeves back down, wincing. Then I unlock the bathroom door and crawl back into bed, trying to find a position to lie in that isn't painful. I have to give Seto some credit, he's really good at being a total bastard.
XxXxX
I'm woken up a few hours later by Ryou knocking on the door. At least, I'd assumed it was Ryou.
"Come in," I groan, and find out that it was actually the pharaoh. "Oh sweet Ra, why won't you leave me alone?" I greet him.
"I wanted to talk to you," he says, coming over to the bed and sitting down. I sit up and rake a hand through my hair, then remember that it hurts when I do that because my arms are fucked.
"I don't want to talk." I glare at him, hoping stupidly that he'll just be considerate and fuck off. No such luck, of course. Am I so special to him that he can't just go and find someone else?
"Look, I'm sorry for forgetting you, you know that. It isn't as though I could help it." Pharaoh tells me. He has that lecturing tone in his voice, like I'm some child and I've done something wrong. He's a living God; I suppose he thinks nothing is his fault. I want to kill him. I want someone to be here to stop me.
"You know why there's always someone trying to kill you every five minutes?" I hiss, "Because you're a fucking prick, that's why." I draw my knees up to my chest, reigning in the urge to kill. He's frowning at me, I wish he'd go away.
"Don't be like this, Bakura. I remember what we had now, you have no reason to hate me anymore." He tries.
"I've had five thousand years to build this hate up, Pharaoh, it's not going anywhere." I know nothing I say is going to convince him that I really, truly do hate him. I don't know why he does this; I must look like I'll be a good lay or something. I liked it better when nobody noticed me at all. I hate the pharaoh and Seto makes me want to jump off a building. Look at where attention's gotten me.
"I was thinking, we're all going camping this weekend, do you want to come?" The pharaoh asks me, in an 'I know what's good for you' tone. I was perfectly happy on my own until he came along, is peace too much to ask for?
"No. I hate you all and I hate nature." I point out, knowing full well he's trying to rekindle some fairytale relationship we once had. What we actually had was sex, but he tends to over-romanticize things like that. I think he's the one who needs to get out more.
"Come on Bakura, you might enjoy it." He tries to persuade me, and the only way I'd ever want to go camping with him would be to see him get covered in wasps.
"I won't enjoy it. I'd rather eat scarabs. You'd have to remove half of my brain to make me enjoy sitting in a tent with you and your idiot friends." I tell him, wondering if I could get away with murdering them all if I did it in the middle of the woods and buried them really deep. I'd have to wait until my arms healed up, though.
"You'd rather sit here and brood instead of coming out and having fun with us?" He can't seem to understand that.
"I'm not brooding, I'm attempting to create an aura of leave me alone. Obviously it isn't working. Now go away before something horrible happens to you." You can't really threaten someone who just glosses over insults, but it's more of a habit now. I can't hurt him anyway – the worst I could do is bend his cards or something. Admittedly that would send him into a fit of hysterics, but the thought of getting close enough to pick his pocket for the damned deck makes me nauseous.
"You can't do this forever," he tries to look concerned for me, and in return I'm trying to give him cancer through the power of thought.
"Yes I can." I smirk. I'm tempted to make up some really horrible thing I'll do to his friends if he doesn't go away, but actually doing it if he called me on it would involve effort. I need a pizza, I wish I had one of those little flippy cellphone things Seto has so I could just call for one. I haven't eaten all day because I've been throwing up, sleeping and nursing my bruises. I'm really hungry now.
"Well, if you change your mind…" Pharaoh says, getting up to leave. Finally.
"If I change my mind I'll make sure to kill myself before I start believing in the power of friendship and enjoying group activities." I mean that.
He rolls his eyes at me and walks out of the room, and I need to tell Ryou and Mokuba not to let him in next time.
XxXxX
I eventually get so hungry I can't sleep anymore, and head downstairs to find food. I creep into the kitchen and open the refrigerator to look for sandwich things, but there's a plate in there with a note on it from my light. It's for me, which is nice, so I stick it in the microwave and make myself a drink while it heats up. When it's done I put my drink and my food on a tray to carry into one of the other rooms, reminding myself that my arms are still throbbing and I should be careful not to drop it all over the place.
Mokuba and Ryou are in the room with the television, watching a movie. I take my tray in and retreat into a corner, then answer all their stupid 'are you ok now' type questions and let them get back to cuddling or whatever. I'm not interested in the movie so I look up at the bookcase next to me, picking out the first book that catches my eye so that I'll have something to read while I eat my dinner. Ok, this isn't so bad…
XxXxX
It wasn't so bad. Well, for a couple of hours, at least. But then Seto turned up in the doorway and I was actually having a nice night, he has to fuck everything up. Mokuba and Ryou were still sitting on the couch together, all curled up watching television, and that pissed him off. I could see it in his eyes, and he just gave me this we need to talk look. It's actually a come let me hurt you until I feel better look, but it needs a snappier name. I do it, anyway. I put my book down and make up some pathetic excuse for my light – I'm going to bed, I'm going for a walk, whatever – then I head out of that nice little corner and make my way to Seto's room. I could just ignore him I suppose, but there's always the chance that he'd take it out on Ryou, and I don't want to have to kill him. Yes, I'm letting him do this to me so I don't have to kill him, I'm a fucking idiot. I should just go ahead and murder the son of a bitch, but I don't think Ryou would be happy about that and it'd really fuck things up for him with Mokuba.
I let myself into his room without knocking because that's not needed when I'm only here so that he can beat the shit out of me to make himself feel better. I close the door behind me and stand there looking at him, waiting for him to stop glaring and start with the violence, and all I can think about is that damned book. I should have finished the book first. If he kills me or something I'll never get to find out what happens at the end. This is one of the signs that I'm losing my fucking mind, but I'm so wrapped up in thinking about the book that I don't care. I think he can tell he doesn't have my full attention, because he suddenly strides over and grabs my chin, forcing my head up and looking right into my eyes. I stare back, but I'm looking through him instead of at him.
"Something important?" He asks, smirking. I stare through him and realise that I can't remember any of the character's names in the book, this disturbs me. It's not a good sign to be forgetting something I was reading less than five minutes ago.
"A book. I can't remember it now." I mutter, not really paying attention to what I'm saying because I'm too busy trying to figure out what's going on with my brain. Some days I really would love to just be a normal person, not having to chase after my own mind all the damned time. Where does it go?
He's looking smug and I should be angry, but my head is spinning and I'm having a hard time remembering why I came up here in the first place. Something about a book, I think.
"What's wrong with you?" He demands, raising an eyebrow and looking down at me with something between amusement and concern.
"I think you're driving me insane." I say honestly, which makes him laugh even if I wasn't joking. Apparently my delicate little mental balance is a game to him - which is all fine and good - but we'll see how amusing he finds it when I start my killing spree with him.
"Maybe you should stop thinking so much." He suggests, tilting my chin up again with one hand so I have to look at him. I focus on his touch, which makes me feel a little better. I don't think he's actually trying to comfort me, but giving me something to keep my attention on is doing the trick and the impending panic attack feeling is going away. That's good, because I don't think he'd live through one of my panic attacks.
"Maybe you should stop fucking with me." I say, and he does that self-satisfied smirk again.
"What fun would that be?"
I'm about to tell him what I think of that, but he steps back at a knock on the door. A moment later Mokuba opens it and pokes his head in, grinning at his brother and not looking surprised that I'm in here, thank hell. Oh yeah, I just came up here to get the shit beaten out of me. Fun, huh?
"Ryou and I are going to bed now, 'night Seto! 'Night Bakura!" Mokuba calls happily.
"Yeah, 'Night Seto." I growl, deciding that enough is enough for one night. He can save this for when I feel better. He seems to accept this, which is worrying, and lets me leave for my own room. I got through an entire day without getting anything broken, I'm so proud of myself.
Ra, I really am losing my mind.
TBC
The next chapter is going to be fun. Meheh.