Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh characters.

Warnings: This will get very angsty in later chapters, sometimes gory so this is not for the faint of heart. Also, this is AU. (My first AU story, wee!)

Her Sweetness: -cries- I've had the worst day! My computer had to get cleaned because of a lightning storm and ALL my music got erased! Sixty dollars worth! My internet got put out and people had to come out to fix it! Thankfully none of my chapters were harmed. I'm upset so please don't tell me the chapter is late because I know. T.T

— Everybody, Everybody —

Chapter Six

The lights were all off in the room, pitch-black, everything a source of midnight except the television screen. In the darkness, it glowed a cerulean blue, images flashing and the speakers blasting sounds and echoes; screams, blood soaring through the air and guns and swords. Truly, it was not this dark outside, dusk now in the natural light but all the blinds were drawn. A console hooked up to the television set was connected to a controller and it was being held by the only inhabitant in the room and the house, maybe even the world.

Bakura's red-brown eyes were fixed on the game, the only other part of him moving were his fingers, dancing across the controller. He'd been playing this game for an hour now, having already cried everything he had in spite of himself. He knew that it was uncharacteristic of him to do anything of the sort, crying was certainly Ryou's job.

Then what is mine, he asked himself, killing yet another pawn on the game.

Holding Ryou. Making all the crying stop. Whispering soft words of comfort when Ryou came out of a teacher's room, his shirt torn and sobbing but keeping that smile on his face. Bakura admitted to himself, there was no beauty like a distraught Ryou. Nothing compared. But some beauty should never be unveiled and his job was to keep that veil on his younger brother's pretty face and to keep a veil on his own. But the veils fell off.

The controller dropped from the pale teen's hands and he let his head droop to the side of the chair he was sitting in. Bakura wished to beg for Ryou's forgiveness, he never should've said any of that. He should've been quiet about his feelings like he often was with Ryou. Just tell his little brother what he felt more than anything: I love you, I love you. But he felt other things too.

Bakura looked at the phone, wishing he had Marik Ishtar's phone number. Just to say sorry, just to say: Come back home, I'm sorry. But that would have to wait. Just then, Bakura's eyes widened and his hands flew to hold his head which was searing with pain. He groaned out, kneeling on the cream-colored carpet and cringed.

And just as quick as it had come, it left and it left Bakura panting hard.

-

Marik Ishtar watched the unconscious form laying on the couch in his small living room. He watched from just beside the figure, kneeling on the carpet, his head resting on his arms that were on the couch cushions. His whole body shook, tiny tremors that rang off small alarms inside his head. Ryou Bakura's chest was rising and falling rhythmically now and no one would be able to tell that he was unconscious but Marik knew. Marik knew what happened and at the same time he didn't know.

It had all happened so fast. Ryou Bakura was going to go away and he would have never seen him again, they would've never sat together at lunch again and he would not have ever ventured inside the boy's house again. He'd had to do something quick but he was frightened, Ryou Bakura did not remember confessing his love to him? How does one forget something like that?

That Marik didn't know and it scared him so bad. That's when the tremors started and Marik grabbed that pretty boy's shoulder and pushed him into the wall. Ryou fell back with a small yelp and Marik took him in his arms and put him on the couch. But that was over thirty minutes ago. Now Marik shook his head to himself, small child-like whimpers coming from him as he whispered to Ryou: "W-Wake up and tell me that you love me now, Ryou Bakura… wake up,"

His hand crawled foreword and touched the hem of Ryou's shirt, lightly tugging on it. Whether Ryou remembered his love for Marik or not, Marik still wanted him to wake up, to prove that, despite being knocked unconscious, he was still the same person Marik fell in love with. But still, all this indecision about Ryou Bakura and this love was not going to change what he had done.

Ryou wanted to leave this place, leave Marik, probably forever. But that was not the problem. Marik stopped Ryou from leaving, put his hands on beautiful Ryou and pushed him to the wall, knocking him out cold. He ran his tan hand over the boy's pale face, moved strands of silver hair out of the way and looked at those closed eyes.

Why had he done such a thing?

Didn't he know that was a bad thing?

Didn't Marik Ishtar know that any second now, Ryou Bakura could wake up and run to the nearest police station?

Marik Ishtar kidnapped me, he could hear Ryou saying.

Marik Ishtar kidnapped me. And I hate Marik Ishtar.

He drew away from the sleeping teenager, slumping to the floor, his arms wrapped securely around himself. He shook his head from side to side. That's not right, he thought. Ryou Bakura loves me and he would never say those things, never ever. Tears clouded his eyes creating a lilac mist. Marik lifted his head from his arms and starred out, closing his eyes and opening them again.

Fake Ryou sat in a similar position in front of him, arms wrapped around his legs, knees drawn up to his chest; Marik was startled and his small gasp threatened to evolve into a scream when Fake Ryou leant in, their faces now close. Marik, instinctively, tilted his head away, his eyelids drooping once again.

"You're not the one I want…" He mumbled, looking sidelong at the couch cushions and the sleeping boy they cradled. Marik looked back at Fake Ryou. "It's him, he's the one I love, he's the one who said he loved me back…"

'Yes.'

And for the first time since meeting Fake Ryou that day on his couch, Marik's lips did not move for him. Fake One willed his own speech, he looked at Marik Ishtar and his rosy lips that were very much similar to Ryou Bakura's moved. They moved and Marik Ishtar did not tell them to, did not wish for him to say anything much less on his own. And a thought hit Marik. He did not summon Fake Ryou when he appeared.

Marik starred, lavender eyes wide as they scrutinized that placid face, pale and beautiful, just like Ryou Bakura. Same sweetness in the smile he gave but it was different. Ryou Bakura's smiles were filled with sadness, bubbling with misery just below the surface to where Marik thought it would all filter through the boy's pores. But Fake Ryou's smile was happy, almost childlike and it gave that face a serene glow.

"W-What?" Marik asked.

'Yes.' He said again; chocolate vats concentrated on Marik's eyes and his head dropped to meet the tanned boy's knees, literally making him jump. Fake One looked up immediately when he felt Marik tense. His gaze deepened and he seemed to be searching for something in Marik's eyes. 'Yes, I love you. I love you, Marik Ishtar.'

There was a shy smile that Marik showed then. He shook his head, relaxing now, his shoulders drooping. "But Ryou—"

'Loves you. Too bad for Marik Ishtar that he does not remember like I do.' Fake Ryou's smile turned impish though he kept his innocence about him. He continued, his head coming back to meet Marik's knees. He sighed, brown eyes starring at Ryou on the couch, the two eyes narrowing slightly. 'Ryou Bakura loves you, loves everything about you, loves your name and you and everything. Just does not remember saying it, does not remember like we do.'

Marik, who watched Ryou lying still as well, looked down to the boy's head leaning on his legs. "What do you mean he… doesn't remember? Y-You can't just forget saying you love someone… if you meant it." Marik fought against the upcoming flood in his eyes. "But there really isn't any proof that he meant it at all. Now that I think about it, it is kind of silly for me to think… that out of everybody who loves him, he'd love me back."

Poor Marik Ishtar lost that fight.

"He wants to get away from me now, after what I've done… he'll wake up and run to his brother or the first person he sees…" He ran his wrist over his lavender eyes, wiping up stray tears but missing most of them.

The Fake One watched Marik's movements stoically and his smile broke out again, bigger and brighter than ever. 'Make him remember,' He said, attempting to grab Marik's attention. 'Make Ryou Bakura remember how much he loves Marik Ishtar.'

Marik didn't look at him, his right wrist still covering half his face. He sniffed again, taking in a deep breath and calming his nerves. He'd gotten rather good at comforting himself in the past week. "I-I can't just make him remember—"

'You can make lots of things happen with time, Marik Ishtar,' Fake Ryou sat up straight and pulled Marik's hands into his own, drawing them up to his face. Marik watched now, red around his purple, intense eyes. He ran his fingers over Marik's palms and bent his head foreword into those hands and kissed them lightly, pink lips lingering only for a moment. Violet eyes widened as coffee-brown eyes looked up again; smiling, he said: 'A whole lot of things. Keep him close to you, let him remember on his own but help him.'

Marik slowly took his hands from Fake Ryou's, replacing them in his lap. "Keep him… close."

'Don't let someone so wonderful leave. Remember what you said,' His sweet smile did not waver. 'Everybody loves him. So you have to be better than everybody.'

A weary blink and Fake Ryou was gone. When Marik realized this, he started to reach out but didn't know whose hand he wished to touch. His eyes flickered upwards and, once again, there was Ryou, that sweet face tilted towards the couch cushions, his breathing coming peacefully. Marik watched only a while longer before getting up and heading for his room.

-

The spinning world was, for the first time in his life, felt beneath Ryou Bakura's hands as he lifted himself from where he lay. Dizzy, his arms failed him and he hit the couch again, wincing, not at the pain but from the spinning, constant spinning of the world. He never remembered it spinning before, not in a way that he felt it. He opened both eyes fully and, first reaction, was confused, but only for a split second. The furniture, arranged in a mildly sloppy way and the barren floors, covered with naught but a stained carpet. It wasn't his house and it surely didn't belong to any one of his friends.

Scanning the room with soft chocolate eyes, he came to the door about five feet away from him and the couch. The gold chain was locked across it and so was the lock above the key hole. Ryou tilted his head in question and that movement trigged a small yelp to come from him. He reached his hand back and felt the back of his head, pulled his hand around to his eyes and saw a small spot of blood on his fingertips.

"W-What…" A twinge of pain again. "What happened?" Flashing of a hand on his shoulder. "…" Marik was crying.

"O-Oh my God…" Ryou got up from the couch, ignoring the dull throbbing of pain coming from his head. He stumbled backwards, now fully aware of what had happened and where he was. Marik's apartment. Suddenly the last few minutes of his memory filled his vision and the fear that he'd felt was coming back to him.

"What if I said I loved you back, Ryou? Could you promise me then that you wouldn't do it again?"

Ryou shook his head worriedly and headed for the locked door at the head of the apartment. He reached it quickly and grabbed at the doorknob and pulled, temporarily forgetting it was locked in his hurry. His hand never found the locks as it was stopped in it's spot on the door, trapped, palm flat on the door while the other side of his hand was covered with smooth, tanned fingers.

His breath caught in his throat and he looked up, two lilac eyes starring innocently back at him, question and a bit of sadness in those eyes. Marik's hand slid off of Ryou's and it seemed as if he was trying to smile but it didn't come out very well, Ryou thought.

"H-Hello, Ryou," He said, hand at his side now, smile trying so hard to be normal. "I—"

"Get away from me, Marik," Ryou's soft chocolate eyes narrowed as he backed into the door, his head up against it and the little spots of blood running down the chipped door's exterior. "I know what you did, you knocked me out! You tried to keep me here, I'm bleeding on the back of my head, Marik!"

A short gasp escaped Marik and he shook his head, "N-No,"

"How long have I been unconscious?" Ryou yelled now, enraged as the thought crept into his mind that that was what he had been: unconscious, in a house alone with someone who claimed to love him and was insane enough to detain him from leaving. Ryou's tapered eyes watered as he looked at the couch and then back to himself. He shouted: "D-Did you… did you do anything to me…?"

His eyes watched Marik's reaction to his question and he seemed not to get it at first but his eyes widened at last when he understood, shaking his head rapidly and backing up another step. "No! No, I would never… Ryou, I love you. I-I only stopped you from going so we could talk rationally…"

"Rational? There's nothing rational about what you did; you're not rational! And I won't talk with you," He turned around, stopped only at the startling sight of droplets of his blood on the door. He flinched at the memory of the blood on his and Bakura's bed that night in the cabin.

"No, Ryou, please don't!"

Ryou heard Marik's voice shouting as he unlocked the door and before he knew it, the door was shut and he was rammed up against the wall, two strong hands on his shoulders and his eyes looking up into Marik's. Marik relocated one hand to Ryou's chest, keeping him pinned to the wall while his other hand relocked the door and Ryou screamed out in objection.

"This is kidnapping! Let me go! Marik!"

"Just listen to me!" Marik shouted back after the door was secure. He looked back into Ryou's still watery eyes as he flailed under Marik's grip. "You just don't remember is all! You do love me, you said you did and you wouldn't have done all those things if you didn't! I talked to Fake Ryou and he said I should help you remember… So I want to keep you here until you do and we can be together… I-I really love you, Ryou Bakura." He smiled sweetly, the uneasiness gone from his demeanor. His hand slid down Ryou's chest and shirt and made it back to Marik's side.

He waited for Ryou's reaction but Ryou was unable to speak. His bottom lip hung a little below his top, his eyes wide and fear and confusion shone through. After a moment passed and Marik's sweet smile began to drop, Ryou choked out: "F-Fake Ryou?"

A pause before a deep blush on bronze cheeks. "Y-Yes… I… I used to talk to him when I was lonely for you…"

Ryou let that sentence sink in. His eyes watered even more as he looked at the door, the thing he was unable to get to with Marik standing here; he knew Marik was stronger than him. Tears spilled over his cheeks, thousands of them all at once. He's insane, Ryou thought, head in his hands as he slid down the wall. He suddenly felt two arms come around his shoulders and he leant, unintentionally, into Marik's chest and continued crying.

To be continued…