"Do you need help sitting up?" Dr. Katsume set her bandages aside and watched carefully as the tan boy forced his body into an upright position.
"No." Mariku shuddered when the pain blasted his lower regions. He cocked his neck to the side, trying to alleviate the aches that also pounded in his head and shoulders. It had been over a week since his escape from the Shadow Realm, a week of nightmares and unending exhaustion. Still, he wouldn't have traded it for the world. The blonde was clean now, free of dirt and cum and the constant stickiness of spilt blood. He was warm and resting and could see the sun whenever he wanted just by looking out the window. Of course Mariku did spend most of the day sleeping. He could never close his eyes at night but remained alert, watching and fearing that the Priestess would emerge from the darkness to reclaim him. However when morning finally came and the sun once more began to rise, the spirit's hell would dissapate, and he would watch in weary fascination as fragments of Ra's divine flame poured in through the window, leaving rivers of warm and golden light to burn across his bedsheets.
"Ishizu would you come in here please?"
"Of course." Heeding the doctor's call, said femle slipped quietly into the room. In truth she'd been lurking in the doorway, knowing her brother's yami probably wouldn't be able to hold himself up long enough for the woman to examine and rebandage his injuries. Neither Malik nor Rishid were home at the moment and though she secretly was wary of the task, Ishizu felt it was her duty to help her brother's other half. Despite the Darkness' growl of protest Ishizu slid her arm gently around his shoulders, being careful not to brush against any of the broken ribs as she kept him from falling back onto the mattress.
"Arigatu." With a slight nod Dr. Katsume began to cut away the gauze covering Mariku's body. She flinched as the Initiation scars were revealed, wondering briefly where they had come from. But that wasn't her job. Those wounds were long healed, and it was the new ones that the physician must now occupy her mind with. "Are you feeling alright Mariku?"
"Yes." It was a lie. He wasn't feeling alright. Marik didn't remember what had happened the first day when his body had been cared for. He'd been delirious, but now that he was in his right mind being touched made the Darkness shiver. He felt like their eyes were boring into his skin, like his body was once more about to be violated. The spirit closed his eyes as the bandages fell away but opened them again as his hikari's sister gave a quiet hiss.
"What is it?"
Ishizu didn't answer. Instead she stared wide-eyed at the cuts and lacerations littering the yami's chest. Cleaned and dressed though they were, Mariku still looked awful. And to think this was just his upper body. What it must look like between the Darkness' legs made the Egyptian woman cringe.
"Hmm... well you look better than you did on the first day. That's for sure. Still, you'll probably be held up in bed for another few weeks." Dr. Katsume tapped Mariku's chest lightly. "You should count yourself lucky. I've seen kids die from injuries as bad as yours." Carefully she began to wash his cuts, using a mixture of hot water and disinfectant. The slight sting did register in the spirit's mind, but the sensation of the warm cloth felt good against his flesh. Slowly Mariku began to relax, his body growing a bit heavier in Ishizu's arms.
The woman in turn watched with unconscious fascination as the Darkness' eyes drifted shut, his face softening until it seemed almost tranquil. He didn't even fidget when the doctor rewrapped his wounds. "Is he asleep?"
Katsume smiled gently at the blonde as her hands dipped lower to remove more of the old dressings. "You know I think he might b..."
Without warning Mariku's body went board stiff. He scrambled away from the angular woman, sparks of terror spitting from his eyes. "N-no!" Wrenching himself from Ishizu's grasp the spirit tried to crawl off the bed but lost his balance and fell. With a tormented cry he rose from the floor and stumbled several feet before collapsing just short of the doorway.
"Marik!" Leaping to her feet, the blue-eyed woman tackled Mariku before the Darkness could do himself any more damage. "Stop this!" The boy shook his head, a few unintelligable Egyptian phrases whistling past his lips. He tried to pull away, but she refused to let him up. "Just calm down." Ishizu ran a hand gently through the other's hair, hoping it might sooth him. Gradually Mariku's mumblings died to nothing, and his struggles ceased. However he continued to stare fixedly at her, eyes brimming with fear.
"Sister?"
A quiet shudder wracked Ishizu's slender frame. 'That...that thing...it called me...' No, that wasn't right. Looking into the Darkness' eyes she suddenly realized just how human Marik was. It wasn't merely that he had called her sister. It was that when he did so it felt natural, as if he really were her brother.
"Y-yes?"
The spirit's painfully tense body went imediately limp. He sighed softly, both in extreme exhaustion and pain. "Perhaps I am overreacting." This was said in a humorless, deadpan voice, but something about Mariku's words caused Ishizu to smile.
"I should think so." As carefully as she could the woman helped the Darkness into a sitting position. Dr. Katsume hung back, not wanting to startle the already unsound Egyptian. She watched as with great care Ishizu got the spirit to his feet and led him back towards the bed. Once Mariku was situated beneath the blankets, the blonde physician took out a syringe and filled it with something from her bag. She felt slightly guilty about this, but it was the only way to check the injuries on his lower body.
"Mariku, I'm going to give you a shot of morphine. You will wake up in about five hours with absolutely no recollection of what happened. Do you understand?"
The Darkness shook his head, but in fact he understood all too well. That bitch was going to knock him out so he'd be good while she poked and prodded him like some kind of...
Dr. Katsume was quick with the needle. She inserted into his arm and within seconds had injected the vial's contents.
"What the...bitch!" Mariku struggled to rise, rage cloaking his eyes in a violent shade of indigo. Katsume stumbled backwards, surprised by how angry the formerly apathetic teen had become.
"Get back!" The woman found herself being shoved backwards by Malik. The teen had walked into the living room just in time to hear his darker half's cry of outrage, and he hadn't wasted a single second. Within moments he was up the stairs and through the door to the guest bedroom. Placing himself in front of the two women, Malik gave the spirit a disgusted glare. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Mariku's anger evaporated under his hikari's accusing gaze. Why was he so pissed off? "I..." The Darkness swallowed hard. He wanted to answer, but the morphine's effects were already beginning to take their toll. His vision was becoming all fuzzy. It was like he couldn't even think straight anymore. The spirit swayed dangerously in the bed and, with several more stutters and broken sentences, collapsed into the pillows.
"What did he do?" Malik grabbed his sister's hands and held them to his chest. "I should have never left you alone with him! That bastard! Did he hurt you?"
"N-no." Ishizu shook her head. "He didn't. It was an accident really..."
"I'm afraid this little episode was my fault." Dr. Katsume walked over to the siblings, chewing her lip in agitation. "I surprised him with a shot of morphine so I could finish examining him. Unstable as your friend is I should have known..."
"That's no reason for him to attack you like that! Gods, I thought he was over this shit!"
Ishizu flinched at the bitterness stewing in her brother's voice. "Dr. Katsume is right, Malik. Mariku couldn't help himself."
"The FUCK he couldn't!" There was no calming the distraught Egyptian. Just as he had begun trusting his yami, just as he had started to believe there might be more to him than hate and demensia, the bastard went back to something like this! The look in Mariku's eyes as he lunged at that woman... it was as if he'd been transported back in time to Battle City. Malik suddenly felt very tired. "What was I thinking? Monsters like him can't change even if they want to." The blonde teen left the room, being careful not to look back as he strode down the stairs and out the front door. He didn't want to think of his sister's bewildered face, of Mariku's eyes, eyes that were both alive and dead, angry and sorrowful, beautiful and entirely too human.
And so it was that Malik Ishtar missed the grimace that passed over Mariku's sleeping form, for even in sleep the Darkness sensed his lighter half's anger, and even in sleep did he feel an enigmatic sadness grip his heart.
"Are we almost there?"
"Yes Bakura. I already said that."
"Then why haven't we stopped?"
"There's still two more blocks to go."
"But I thought you said we were almost there."
"We are." Ryou's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Since when was his yami so obnoxious? In the twenty minutes since they'd left the house Bakura had asked what seemed like a million questions. He'd sat next to him in the front seat of the Brit's ramshackle car, anxiously drumming his fingers against the dash and saying more than he probably had in over 5000 years. 'Oh well. At least he's cheerful for once.' That was true. In the week since he'd been promised a visit to Mariku's, the Thief King had behaved terrifyingly well. It got to the point where Ryou had to wonder if this really was the spirit of the Ring and not some weird imposter. He'd even allowed the doctor to do her job, taking all the medication and letting himself to be submitted to all kinds of pokes and proddings. Because of this, Bakura was healing fast. Though his face and chest were still heavily bandaged, for the most part the spirit could get around on his own. He still needed help with things like stairs and getting in the car, but other than that...
"Is that it?"
Ryou slammed on the brakes, skidding to a halt just in time to turn into the parking lot of the Ishtars' Domino apartment. "Yeah, we're here."
As he followed his hikari inside and down the hall to the Egyptians' Japan residence, Bakura couldn't help wondering if Mariku's health had improved. When Ryou called, Ishizu had said he was sleeping. She had sounded kind of worn, as if things weren't going as well as they might have.
"Ryou! Bakura! I didn't expect you to come so soon. My brother's yami is still sleeping, but you may go up and see him if you'd like."
Ignoring Ishizu, the spirit brushed past and limped as quickly as he could towards the stairs. Ryou was about to protest but stopped, realizing that with the mood Bakura was in steps wouldn't be a problem. The tombrobber hobbled along, following the aura of Mariku's shadow powers.
"Well he certainly seems to be healing up nicely."
The Brit nodded and offered Ishizu a heartfelt grin. "Yeah, Kura's pretty resilliant like that."
The blue-eyed woman smiled sadly. "I can see that. Perhaps Marik would be too if he could just learn to accept our help."
Ryou felt his own smile suddenly begin to fade. "What do you mean? He isn't acting like he did at Battle City, is he?"
"Well no, not really." The woman hesitated, trying to figure out how best to continue. "He's just so...nervous, and when Mariku starts acting up it puts Malik on edge. Like today, I don't know what came over him. My brother I mean. He was so...angry."
"Maybe he's still feeling uncertain about his yami being back. I mean, they were never really on good terms to begin with."
Ishizu nodded. "I thought of that. Its as if he's afraid once Marik's well he'll revert back to his old self, but I just can't see that happening. His wounds... they're so horrible." The woman swayed, and for a moment she looked slightly ill. "No matter how insane he is, I can't see anyone going back to how they used to be after enduring that kind of trauma."
"I get that." Ryou swallowed hard, remembering when he himself was in a similar position. "Even someone like Mariku wouldn't be the same after enduring that kind of agony."
"I only wish Malik would understand that." Gently the woman put her arm around Ryou's shoulder. She hadn't meant to make the white-haired boy upset. "Do you think that you could talk to him, Ryou? Help my brother understand what Marik's going through?"
"I don't know. Our situations are just so different. I mean even after the whole...thing...with Bakura, I never could bring myself to hate him as Malik did Mariku." Ryou stared at the floor, too ashamed to meet Ishizu's heartbroken gaze. He was lying. He knew he was lying. The Brit was just trying to avoid talking to Malik because he didn't want to face his own demons. "I'm really sorry."
"No, its fine." The female Ishtar looked sadly out the window. "He'll have to come to terms with it on his own I suppose. Anyway, Ryou, I think I might take a little walk. Would you mind staying here to watch Marik and Bakura?"
The Brit chuckled and plopped down on the porch swing near their front door. "No problem. You just take a little stroll, and I'll make sure they don't destroy the house or something."
With a brief smile of her own Ishizu left, hoping that a walk around the park would help clear her mind. Somehow she didn't think it would. Somehow she knew the hatred in her brother's voice and the bruised and bloodied flesh between Marik's thighs wouldn't wash from her mind for a very long time.
"Mariku?" Bakura didn't try to touch the sleeping boy. Instead he sat in the chair near his bed, watching intently as Marik fidgeted, lost in a turmoil of bedsheets and shadowed dreams. The Thief snarled softly to himself. The Darkness looked much better than he had on the first day, but not near as healthy as he should. Wasn't that doctor taking care of Marik as well as she was Bakura? 'If he doesn't get well soon I'll make sure that bitch gets a one way ticket to the Shadow Realm!' With this cruel thought to comfort him, the spirit settled back in his chair and continued to study the bedridden yami. He sat there for what seemed like ages, carefully noting every hitched breath and unconscious shudder.
"...nnggg...don't...hikari please...so-sor..."
Bakura sat up a little straighter as Mariku began mumbling in his sleep. Shifting restlessly in the bed, he continued to speak.
"...please...be good...I'll be good now...Malik..."
Scrambling to his feet, the Thief grasped the Darkness' hand between his own, but Mariku only moaned and wrenched away.
"...don't send me back..."
This was followed by a quiet sob. Then, quite suddenly, the Darkness opened his eyes.
"Bakura?" Mariku blinked and sat up, his dreams forgotten. The tombrobber looked ready to kill. "Bakura, what's going on?"
"That BASTARD! What did he say? Where the FUCK is he?"
"Bakura I don't..."
Without thinking the spirit raised his hand and slapped Marik hard across the face. "TELL ME!"
For a minute the younger yami didn't speak. He was too shocked. Then, hand trembling, he reached up to touch his stinging cheek.
"Bakura..."
-TOT (I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far! I hope you liked it. I'm trying to get the plot moving a bit faster without rushing. Also I'm trying for more consistant updates. I have a nasty habit of going from a chapter a week to one every month and back again. It's something I need to work on.)