Batteryshipping (Bakura Ryo/Jonouchi Katsuya/Yami no Bakura)
. . .
((warnings for mentions of abuse, a vague reference of something that might be self-harm, and depictions of panic attacks.))
. . .
"Are you ever scared of me?" Ryo asked once.
Jonouchi didn't answer. Not with words. He just wrapped his arm around Ryo's waist and pulled him a little closer on the couch, letting Ryo automatically fold up into a ball with his knees up to his chest as he nestled his head into the crook of Jonouchi's arm. He had always been a cuddler. Jonouchi had never minded.
Sometimes, Ryo would go dead. He'd stop in the middle of a conversation and stare at nothing, his eyes glassy as his hands dropped limply into his lap. It could last for minutes before he snapped back, blinked, and asked Jonouchi where they were.
Sometimes, he woke up in the middle of the night screaming, his voice babbling incoherently on the other end of a cellphone at a bleary-eyed Jonouchi about shadows and how there wasn't enough light in his house and he couldn't turn on enough lights or make enough noise with his headphones to block out the ghost pains of the other one's voice.
Sometimes, Jonouchi would find Ryo in the kitchen with blood on the palms of his hands. Accident with the kitchen knife. Usually. Sometimes it was hard to tell when it was an accident and when it wasn't—sometimes, Ryo didn't seem to know himself.
"He's always going to be here, somewhere," Ryo mumbled into Jonouchi's chest. "He's always going to be in between us. It's never just going to be me and you."
Jonouchi remembered a time when sometimes, Ryo's eyes had flickered from green to violet like some cruel trick of the light, when a twisted smile had grown over his face, when his distracted humming became something more sinister, as the other one tried to pretend that no change had ever occurred.
The Ring was long gone but Ryo still wore the heaviest necklaces he could find because he didn't feel right without the weight pulling on his neck. He still forgot to eat and sleep until his skin turned gray.
"I told ya I wasn't going anywhere," Jonouchi said, just squeezing Ryo's shoulder slightly.
"Are you scared of me?" Ryo asked again.
Jonouchi just smiled at him.
"Scared? Me? I ain't scared of anything."
. . .
A/N: Some bonus implications of Puffshipping in there for y'all. Next is Barriershipping (Seto x Yami Yugi x Noa).
