Clash Between Two Worlds
Chapter 5: A Spark Of Emotion To Ignite The Fire

"YOU IDIOT!"

Bakura watched with his mouth agape as the white – haired angel disappeared out the window. The hysteric laughter of Marik brought the demon from his shock. Shooting him a glare and a snarl, he ran towards the window, only catching, "Looks like you've got yourself a suicidal an-", before he jumped onto the stone ledge and dove off.

Wincing as he was blinded momentarily by the sunlight as he fell, Bakura quickly scanned the area below him as he dropped, easily spotting the angel nearly at the water. He watched, half in surprise and half in anger, as the two wings that had been flailing limply from his back spread, his left completely out to its full extent, the right more or less half way.

'Stupid fool.' He muttered in his head, spreading his own wings and pulling out of his dive with a swoop. The angel had managed to pull out of his dive as well, though more than a little shaky and tilted, due to his injured appendage. He was still moving at a rather quick speed a few feet above the waters surface, occasionally swaying off balance to his right.

The demon was about 15 feet behind the angel now and gaining fast. Frowning to himself, Bakura didn't know whether the best way to get him to stop was to chase him back to the castle or knock him down into the water. He didn't really want to get wet… and he didn't know whether or not angel's wings became waterlogged or not.

Goddamn.

He needed to go read a book on these stupid creatures.

But, Bakura did know that angel's were far more elusive in flight than demons were. Demons had speed, but speed didn't matter if you could just move out of the way and change direction with a simple flip every time.

"Hey!" He decided to try and talk him into stopping. Why was he stooping down to such a level for this angel again?

Ryou responded by glancing back over his shoulder and changing direction. But Bakura had seen this coming. Relying on the current they were both riding to help him along, the demon turned sharply to follow the nearly vertical angel. The tip of his white wing was just beginning to trail across the water's surface when Bakura got his chance.

Another ocean breeze swept through, pushing against Ryou's injured wing, which happened to be the wing that was under him. Falling off balance, the angel was flipping on his back with a cry of surprise. Bakura flapped once, twice, three times and his arms grabbed pale shoulders. Curling his black wings, the demon let his weight fall against Ryou's, sending them both down into the waters with a large splash.

Bakura opened his eyes the moment he felt fingers tightly grip the chest of his shirt and pull. Wide and frightened brown eyes stared up at him, his cheeks puffed out, which would have been comical, was this an amusing situation. Realizing what the frantic tugging on his shirt meant, Bakura hooked his hand underneath the angel's shoulders, pulling him up towards the surface. Using his wings to push him upwards faster, the two finally broke the surface with a gasp for air.

"What the HELL were you thinking?" Bakura immediately shouted over the wind. "You can't even swim and you decide to go for a fucking joyride on a busted up wing over the OCEAN? Are you insane?"

Ryou only clawed at the demon's shirt, the shouting not registering in his mind, trying to climb on top of him, "Don't let me drown, don't let me drown! I don't want to die!"

Bakura sputtered as he was nearly pushed underwater, swatting the angel's hair from his face as he bobbed back up. "Stop that! You're not going to drown, you idiot, if you stop trying to drown ME."

The movements stopped, quivering pale arms locked around the demon's neck and his face buried atop one arm. Bakura could feel him shaking, be it from the slightly chilly waters or otherwise, as well as his legs wrapped firmly around his waist. The demon couldn't help the passing thought of the two of them in the same position, only the angel pressed back against a wall…

Shaking his head mentally, the thought was gone, a question replacing it: How to get above the water with wet wings. Not going to be easy.

Ryou suddenly jumped against his chest, a cry tearing from his throat, "What was that? Something just hit my foot!"

Shit.

That meant whatever it was, was behind him.

He had a decent idea of what it was too. Only one water creature lived this close to a portal to Hell.

Great.

Bakura felt a brush against his own leg, making him scowl. Definitely not what he needed right now.

"Just keep calm, Angel…" He could feel the trembling grow and decided that it was best he didn't know what was swimming around them right now.

"What was it, Bakura…? What touched me…?" Ryou's voice was tight and scared as he clung all the more tighter to the others neck.

Bakura was more focused on lifting his wings from the water than anything else, but never-the-less answered with, "Ehh… nothing I can't handle."

Ryou was about to nod, when a loud splash broke out a few feet next to them, causing both the angel and demon to snap their attention towards it.

A large creature had broken the surface; black in color with red and gold stripes across it's back. A large horn protruded from its skull, formed in the shape of a meat cleaver. The creature looked to be some sort of serpent, with clouded yellow eyes and a sharply – finned tail. Opening its mouth, Ryou didn't bother to count how many rows of sharp, pointy teeth it had. All he knew was that there were way too many and it was way too close. Letting out a scream as the creature let out a terrible shriek of its own, Ryou attached himself to Bakura, in his panic raising his waterlogged wings and flapping them as hard as he could.

This was enough of a lift for Bakura, as he spread his own wings and pulled both of them from the water's grip. A set of jaws snapped only a few feet away from the two, as Bakura struggled to lift their combined weight with soaked wings. Ryou stole a small peek down past the demon's shoulder, watching with horrified eyes as more black heads began to rise from the water. Smaller creatures joined in from where they had originally been floating, making the angel's stomach clench. The air was soon filled with the cries and shrieks of the black serpents and Ryou then realized that they had an extremely slim chance of making it out alive.

A sudden force jolted the two, both the demon and angel's grips lost on each other. Ryou fell backwards, only to land on something tough and rigid. Hearing a snort, Ryou froze, slowly looking behind him. Dusky yellow eyes glared into his, a screech ushering from below him. Another yell came from behind him, causing Ryou to turn back to look.

A black tail smacked into Bakura's stomach, sending him soaring backwards, only to land back against the neck of the creature he was sitting on. Ryou watched with an open mouth as another pair of the monsters reared their heads back, about to strike at the dark-winged demon.

Gripping the ridges of the snout, Ryou leaned over to scream, "BAKURA! LOOK OUT!"

The demon looked up, seeing the open jaws heading straight for him. Folding his wings, Bakura let himself drop, the teeth of the creatures sinking into the neck their creature. Ryou dove off the serpent right before it flung its head back to let out a screech. Pinning his wings to his sides, the angel fell towards Bakura, catching up quickly and gripping the demon's sides. Flaring his wings out the best he could with all the pain that was coming back, Ryou flapped for what he was worth, slowing the heavy body from falling.

"Are you all right!" Ryou's chocolate eyes were wide as he studied the demon's face, realizing that he had his eyes narrowed up past his shoulder.

Tense arms suddenly wrapped around his body tightly, the air being sliced as black feathers spread and caught the current, dodging out of the way of sharp teeth Cursing to himself as Ryou began to slip in his arms, Bakura held him closer, the angel's own arms finding their way around his neck again.

His wings pumping hard, Bakura slipped between two broad necks and lifted the two of them high above the creatures, where they couldn't be reached. Looking down, the two watched as five of the serpents attacked the one that had been bitten, the creature shrieking as it fought back, tail slashing, sinking below the surface with the others following. After a few moments of silence between the two, except for their harsh breathing, Ryou turned to face the demon, tears in his eyes.

"I-I… I… sorry… I'm so sorry, I didn't… I didn't… I-I… I'm so sorry!" Tears spilled down his cheeks as the angel buried his face against Bakura's neck. The demon didn't respond, his mood pretty much shot. Flapping his black wings, Bakura headed back towards the window they had jumped out of. Landing on the ledge and jumping down onto the carpeted floor, Bakura strode past Malik and Marik. The two hadn't moved from their spot on the floor the entire time, Malik's pale wings wrapped around Marik's body to conceal whatever it was that they were doing.

Bakura ignored the two, ungluing Ryou from his chest and dumping him on the end of the king – sized bed. Black feathers hung limply and trailed behind him as he started to walk away, before a voice stopped him.

"Oi, you look like a pair of drowned rats!" Marik let out a laugh, one hand pulling the yellow feathers from his view.

Bakura snarled, glaring over at him, "Fuck. You."

Marik laugh, grinning impishly towards the other demon. "Please. Do."

The white – haired male sneered, holding up his middle finger, Marik laughing at the gesture. A whine came from behind the wing, Malik's voice following:

"Mnn, Amator, focus on me…"

Marik gave a small smirk, looking down at the blonde angel, "Just a minute, geeze." A light moan followed. Looking up again, the demon asked, "Seriously though, what happened? You're dripping everywhere."

Bakura twitched softly, pointing back at the equally soaked angel on the bed, who was sitting silently, wiping away his tears. Clenching his jaw, the male made an aggravated sound in his throat, before storming towards the doorway, shouting, "Fucking Lanius and his fucking pistrix buddies!…Decided to make me their next meal!… Then the stupid angel has to go all suicidal on me!… And then I have to save his sorry ass!…"

The rest was muttered off as the demon trudged down the hallway, out of earshot. Ryou had finally calmed himself enough to stop crying, looking over to where Marik was chuckling to himself.

"What's a… landus? And a pistrix?" He asked softly.

Marik laughed again, "Lanius. You go and ask little 'Kura about that one. A pistrix is a demonic shark. Nasty thing… now go on, ask 'Kura about Lanius."

Ryou nodded, slipping off the bed and following the wet trail of water out the door and down the left hallway. The torches were still lit on either side of the walkway, allowing for easy vision of the footprints, feather lines and stray droplets. Knowing he wasn't much better, Ryou carefully shook his wings, ridding them of the majority of water. Sighing softly to himself, the angel wandered up a small flight of stairs, seeing that the dampness ended in front of a large doorway to his right. Stepping up in front of the door, Ryou saw that it was already open a few inches. Curling his fingers around the edge, he pushed it open, enough for him to slip in.

Leaning back against the wood to close it, Ryou lightly bit his bottom lip, looking around. The room must have been a library, for there were rows upon stacks upon shelves of books lining three full walls. A couch sat against the left wall, across from a large fireplace that held a crackling fire. A large window was set back behind the couch, dark navy blue curtains drawn closed to keep nearly all light out. Bakura was sitting in front of the fire, his wings stretching out and shivering, water dripping from the feathers, before folding against his back. He watched as the demon brought his knees up to his chest and placed his arms atop them, wincing slightly as sharp mahogany eyes glanced over at him.

Swallowing his nerves, Ryou slowly walked over to Bakura, dropping down on to his knees a few feet from him. Leaning as low as he could, the angel spread his wings out to the sides, holding the pose. Unable to keep his right wing levitated, it began to shake with pain from being overused, simply sagging to the ground as Ryou stated, "You saved my life. I am in your debt."

Bakura glanced down at the angel's exposed back, before placing his chin down in his arms and staring into the fire. "Get up."

Ryou sat up at his words, folding his wings. The two sat in silence, until the lighter boy fidgeted slightly.

"Uhm, Bakura…?" Dark brown eyes shifted back towards him. "What is a Lanius?"

The demon snorted, shifting and looking back into the fire. "Not a 'what'. 'Who'." His eyes narrowed, "Lanius means 'The Butcher'. Nasty little sucker who likes to chop its prey up with that horn on its head, until it's surrounded in a cloud of blood, hence, the name Butcher. Pistrix – er… 'demon sharks', as they're also called, are the only things that live in the ocean so close to a portal to Hell. Therefore, eat what they find, including themselves. That's why you saw them all go after that one."

Ryou nodded, a little unnerved to know that there was a portal to Hell somewhere close by. The silence filtered back in again and Ryou lowered his eyes to his lap. Shifting caught his attention a few moments later, milky brown eyes looking up to watch as one of the demon's legs dropped down to curl around the other, one hand placing itself against his stomach. Hissing slightly, Bakura pulled his hand away and tilted it towards the fire, the glow making the dark liquid in his hand glisten.

His eyes widening, Ryou darted forward, grabbing his hand and looking closer at it. "Is this from – "

"That bastard…" Bakura interrupted, pulling his hand away and lifting his shirt over his head. Growling to himself, the demon looked down. Purple, nearly black, blood covered his flat stomach, smeared by his shirt. But a large gash could be clearly seen above his navel, nearly seven inches across.

Taking the shirt that had been dropped; Ryou picked it back up, carefully wiping away the blood as he kneeled before the demon. Setting down the material, Ryou gently placed both of his hands over the injury, closing his eyes.

Bakura watched silently, feeling the warm pressure of the other hands against his stomach. A light blue glow swelled from under them, before dying off a few seconds later. Glancing at himself again as the angel took his hands away; he saw that the wound was now closed for the most part, but still red with irritation. The soft voice in front of him made the demon look up.

"I can't fix you completely, I'm not that strong yet…" His sentence trailed off for a moment, along with his eye contact. "…But I hope that it is enough, for now."

Mahogany eyes stared at the lighter version of himself without a word; before he was startled to see chocolate orbs meet his again.

"Bakura, why… why am I here?"

The demon was silent for another moment, studying the small creature before him. A smirk began cracking out across his features, before a snicker was let forth. He couldn't help himself. Bakura let his head tip back, a long, loud laugh echoing around the room.

Ryou blinked in surprise, watching as the shadows danced across his body, a small flush forming across his cheeks. Feeling nervous and slightly silly for asking something that could make the darker man laugh so hard, Ryou flushed harder, looking back at his lap and muttering an apology.

The laughter ended abruptly, silence filtering in quickly. Ryou jumped when fingers curled around his chin again, lifting his gaze. He found Bakura's nose to be nearly touching his own, those dark, mahogany eyes boring into his. Pulling away slightly, Bakura grinned a devilish grin, replying, "At first it was just a fun little game to pass the time… " The demon's grin widened into a smirk as he leaned in close again.

"…But now…"

Ryou's heartbeat quickened, the heat rising to his face again as he realized that their lips were barely touching as he spoke.

"…I'm not so sure."

Bakura pressed his mouth over the angel's, ending the conversation.