Invalidshipping (Bakura Ryo/Shadi)

. . .

"I do not want to talk to you."

The spirit paused at the voice, robes swishing around his feet from the sudden change in momentum. He clearly hadn't expected the boy to notice him.

"How long have you known I was here?" Shadi asked.

Bakura Ryo looked up from the sink and into the mirror. He saw his own pale green eyes first, clouded over with wisps of white hair that he hadn't brushed properly in two days. The circles under his eyes from nightmares and insomnia, from nights he spent on the couch because there wasn't a window in his bedroom and he couldn't sleep feeling like he only had one escape route. His hands shook even as he pressed them into the counter. His fingers were tired, tired from handling thin paintbrushes as he worked his thoughts away by making figurine after figurine. Every surface in his home was covered with the damn things now. He was getting to be practically a factory. Maybe he could sell them. Pay for college that way.

His eyes pushed over to the side, a labored motion that made him even more tired. He caught the flat, aqua green eyes of the man behind him. Part of him was vaguely surprised that the man had a reflection. He had always thought that ghosts would be invisible in mirrors. But, if Ryo could see him, he supposed scientifically, the man had to be able to absorb light, and thus, an image would be projected in the mirror.

He almost laughed. Thinking about this scientifically? He was really starting to lose it.

"Jonouchi-kun told me he talked to you," he said. He dropped his eyes back to the sink, twisted the tap on so that water could release into the basin. He shoved his hairbrush under the water briefly to wet it. His hair was going to need the help. "I thought I had noticed you. He just confirmed it."

Flickers, mostly. Ryo had noticed him, a hint of a cloak clinging to a corner, the scent of desert and dried out mummies crawling through a ventilation shaft, a whisper of ancient Egyptian ghosting across the back of his neck and making his hairs stand on end.

"So you've known the whole time."

"Yeah."

Well, he'd guessed, but he wasn't about to tell Shadi that. He shoved the brush into his hair and wrenched it viciously through the knots—the motion brought tears to his eyes, and he rethought his angry decision. It was going to take him a second to work the brush out of the tangle it had gotten into. Great.

A pause between words ate at the space between them. Ryo didn't turn around, paying attention only to messing with his hairbrush. Shadi didn't make even a hint of moving forward.

"You are as spiritually aware as I had hoped, then," he said softly.

"Being possessed by the goddamn devil will do that to you, I guess."

He didn't even try to alter the venom in his words. He wanted them to bite. To at least make Shadi hesitate, his eyes flicker, his weight shift back. But he did none of those things. The Egyptian man simply stood, as immovable as ever.

"You are still angry," Shadi said. "Angry that the items did not allow you to follow into the world of Memory."

Ryo finally ripped the brush out of his hair.

"Are you a psychiatrist now?"

He started from the bottom this time, carefully, running the brush through the ends first and working the knots out one at a time. He was going to need a hair cut. Too many split ends.

"I had only the world's best intentions in mind."

"You don't think I could have helped them fight him? That I hadn't been trying for as long as I knew he was there?"

"The needs of the many outweighed your desire."

Ryo couldn't stop himself. He flung the brush at the mirror and the glass cracked in the corner. It sent a rift down through Shadi's eyes, fracturing them. Ryo pushed his hands against the counter, head down, refusing to look up into the mirror. He couldn't breathe. He was going to have a panic attack. Not in front of him. Not in front of him.

He swallowed through the rock in his throat, tried to breathe.

"He was my friend too," he whispered. "I should have been at his side."

There was no answer.

When Ryo lifted his eyes, Shadi was no longer in the reflection of his mirror.

Only the echo of the man's breath remained behind.

"Something new approaches. Stand by him now, then."

Ryo knew it was the only acknowledgment he would ever get from that man.

. . .

A/N: Another one that's kinda supposed to tie in with Darkside of Dimensions coming out in April. Gosh I'm so excited for that movie. Next is Intrigueshipping (Priest Akhenaden/Priest Set).