Disclaimer - Nope, still don't own them . . . and I'm likely to never do so, no matter how much I wish.
Author's Notes - I AM SO SO SORRY! Believe it or not, the story is actually finished and completely posted on AFF.Net, but I've been lazy and absorbed with a whole lot of real life stuff, and rewriting and editing was just . . . well, enough excuses. I'm back, and editing to post on fanfiction.net, and I hope all of you will forgive me for disappearing for so long. With that said, on with the story! grovels
Chapter 10 - Still Not Settled
Bakura awoke slowly, his body aching in places he hadn't even thought possible. Movement to his right caught his attention. He turned his head . . . and nearly swore when he saw Yami getting dressed. It looked as if the man was getting ready to run again . . . and Bakura wasn't about to allow that.
"Where do you think you're going?" he growled, lunging across the bed and grabbing Yami's wrist. Yami jumped, startled, but was caught in an iron grip before he could go more than a few steps.
"Let me go, Bakura," he said, refusing to look at the white haired man. "Just let me go. I can't go back . . . I'd be putting everyone in danger." He sensed Bakura standing up slowly from the bed behind him, but he refused to look back. If he did, he would be tempted to stay . . . and he couldn't do that. "Look . . . just let me go. I just need some time to myself, to get a hold on this . . . I'll be back."
"You're lying," Bakura said flatly, coming around to stand in front of him. "Or did you forget that I'm an empath? I can tell you're lying . . . if I let you go, you don't intend to come back." He sighed, dropping Yami's wrist now that he was in between him and the door. "Running away isn't going to solve anything."
"You don't know . . ." Yami murmured, collapsing back onto the bed, his shoulders drooping. "You don't understand . . ."
"F&%$ you," Bakura snapped, forcing Yami to meet his eyes with a hand on his chin. "I understand that you're scared, and too cowardly to face it head on, and too damn full of pride to let anyone help you!" Yami's eyes flared, the tri-haired man standing and brushing against bare skin as he moved away.
"It's not pride . . . it's called sanity," he snarled, his temper rising. "If I stay, I put everyone in danger . . . if I go, the only person in danger from me is myself. At least I can admit that. And yes, I am scared . . . but who wouldn't be if they had this floating around in their head, just waiting for the right time to bust loose and wreak havoc!?" He turned to regard Bakura carefully, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "You're afraid of your ability too," he murmured harshly. "Are you too cowardly to deny that you closed yourself off to protect yourself?" Bakura stepped towards him, his own eyes like shards of flint as he met the challenging crimson gaze head on.
"I know what I did . . . and I was young and stupid at the time. Maybe I still am, for wasting my time on you," he snarled. Yami stepped back as if he'd been slapped . . . but came back stronger.
"Maybe you are," he replied. "So let me just get out of your life and forget you ever met me. You and Marik will be better off . . . and so will my friends." He strode towards the door, only to find Bakura in his way again. "Move," he said, his temper flaring further . . . and with it, his telekinetic abilities.
"Not happening," Bakura growled, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the door. "I'm not letting you run. You've got to face this sometime . . . it might as well be now." A light near the door exploded suddenly . . . but none of the shards came within an inch of him. It was as if they suddenly stopped dead before touching skin and dropped to the floor. He could feel a slight wind picking up and knew that he was pushing Yami hard . . . but Yami had to realize that he wouldn't harm anyone he cared about, like he had done while they were together. Yami's abilities had been this strong then, feeding off the passion the two of them had created . . . and he'd kept it firmly in control. He needed to find out first hand that he could do it at any time . . . he just had to have the confidence in himself to know that he would never let it get that far.
"Move Bakura . . . before I do something that I'll regret for the rest of my life," Yami murmured. The wind stirred his hair, causing the soft spikes to wave gently as he stared at the man blocking his way out.
"You won't do it, and you need to learn that. You could never allow anything to happen to someone you care about . . . or love. Or did Yugi lie about that? Do you love me?" Yami sighed, crimson orbs closing for a moment. Bakura took down his carefully built walls, reaching out with his own empathic senses to feel the turmoil behind Yami's closed lids. He could feel the power Yami had . . . and he could also feel that his lover was keeping it very firmly in check. The mirror in the bathroom splintered, the light above it cracking and shattering . . . but not once did Yami allow anything near enough to harm him.
"Bakura, don't force me into this," Yami whispered. "I don't want to do this . . . I'm sorry. You should be afraid of me . . . forget you love me, forget you ever met me. Forget what we had in this room . . . and go protect Marik. I don't need you . . . and I don't love you!" He shouted that last sentence, his crimson eyes opening to glare at the white haired man. Bakura felt the power swirl around him . . . just as he found himself lifted from the ground and set on the bed, gently, but still moved. He scrambled back to his feet . . . only to find the door open and Yami gone.
"Damn it!" he swore, grabbing his clothes and dressing swiftly, not bothering with his shoes, socks, or shirt as he raced out the door . . . only to find no trace of Yami. "Sonofabitch!" he snarled. "All right . . . time for plan B," he murmured, going back into the room to grab his keys. Yugi had told him about a cabin that Yami owned north of here . . . they thought that was where he might be heading. He'd said that Yami didn't know that Yugi knew about it . . . if that was the case, then he would head there thinking it was safe. So be it . . . Bakura would catch up with him there. And this time, he wasn't getting off so easily.
----------------------------
Bakura left the Viper near the road, unwilling to let Yami know he was there by driving closer to the cabin. Of all the places, this cabin was in the middle of nowhere . . . it had taken him three days to find it. He'd called back into the city to let everyone know that he was still trying to track Yami down . . . he hadn't mentioned their confrontation in the hotel, unwilling to go into detail. Yugi had confirmed that Yami had gone there . . . he'd managed to wheedle that much out of the lawyer who had called to confirm what Yami had been attempting to do. Yugi had accepted . . . only because of the fact that, as soon as Bakura brought Yami back, he was turning everything right back over to his errant cousin.
Bakura was still stunned that Yami was as rich as he'd found out he was. It explained why he'd reacted to Bakura's comment about rich people as he had . . . technically, he'd been lumped in with Kaiba, which from what Bakura had seen of the two's relationship, was not something he had appreciated. He smiled to himself grimly as he stalked through the woods surrounding the cabin. That was something he would soon rectify . . . if he could just get his recalcitrant lover to see reason and stop being afraid of himself.
The white haired man swore as the cabin came into view . . . several windows were blown out, and it looked like a tornado had gone through here not long ago. Yami appeared to be having problems . . . and Bakura wondered absently what was causing it.
He froze as he rounded a corner and found the lake . . . with Yami calmly floating in the middle of it, over the water, his hands held out at his sides, palms down, his eyes closed.
"Holy shit . . ." he whispered, stunned at the display of power. The water was rippling underneath the man, waves beating against the shore as Yami floated unmoving above the center of the disturbance
Yami concentrated, trying to empty everything in his head into the water below him. All the rage, all the pain and sorrow he funneled into his telekinetic powers, using them to wipe his mind free of what had been plaguing him non-stop for the past three days. When he'd gotten here, he'd been so worked up that the minute he let his guard down, things had gotten out of hand. He hurt . . . his head hurt, his body hurt, but most of all, his heart hurt and there was nothing he could do to heal it. Marik and Bakura had gotten under his skin and made him feel something he'd thought would never have come to him . . . they'd made him love, and he'd had to deny that in order to protect them. Tears dripped slowly down his face as he pushed it aside, funneling it into his powers as he was everything else, trying desperately to make himself forget. Unfortunately, the pain wouldn't go away.
He opened his eyes . . . and they locked immediately on Bakura's own wide, chocolate brown ones. Losing control abruptly like that, he found himself suddenly very wet. He spluttered as he swam to the surface, spitting out water before swimming to the dock and pulling himself out of the water.
"What are you doing here?" he growled as Bakura strode up to him.
"Looking for you, of course," Bakura replied, stopping beside him. "That was quite the display of power . . . and a nice swim, from the looks of it."
"Go away," Yami snapped, standing up and striding towards the cabin. The hurt was back, magnified by the nearness of one of his loves, but he ignored it as he stalked up the path towards the cabin. For some reason, he wasn't surprised to find Bakura following him. "I thought we cleared this up back at the hotel . . ." he snarled, grabbing a towel and rubbing at his hair with it.
"No . . . we made love and then you ran like a coward again," Bakura replied. "Why can't you accept that you need us?"
"I don't need you . . . what I need is to be alone!" Yami snapped, glaring at the man. Bakura looked around, a skeptical look crossing his features.
"Somehow, I highly doubt that," he murmured. "It certainly looks like being alone hasn't done you any good."
"It's going to take time," Yami growled before closing his eyes and sighing. "Just leave . . . I don't want you here."
"I'm not leaving without you . . . and unless you can force me all the way back to where I parked the Viper, you can't do anything about it."
"Fine . . . then I'll leave," Yami said, striding towards the door.
"Good luck . . ." Bakura murmured, watching out one window as Yami strode towards his bike and then swore when it wouldn't start for him. He stalked back into the cabin and stood over Bakura, who had returned to his seat.
"What did you do to my bike?" he snarled.
"Only removed a couple of wires . . . I can fix it when you're ready to listen to reason and return to your friends and your cousin," he said mildly, a slight smirk gracing his features when Yami swore and spun on one heel.
"You're an ass," Yami growled from the other side of the room.
"And you're being an idiot," the white haired man replied, rising from the couch slowly to move closer. "Yami . . . you know you can control this. You just have to believe that you can . . . you didn't hurt me as we made love, and I know they were surging then . . . I could feel it, and I'm not a sensitive like Marik. You even controlled it when we fought over your leaving the hotel . . . why are you being so stubborn about this?" He reached out to touch one shoulder gently, and was stunned to find it shivering.
"I . . . don't want anyone to get hurt if I can't . . ." Yami murmured, refusing to turn around. Bakura tugged on the shoulder, forcing him to turn before raising his head with his other hand. Gazing into those crimson eyes, he knew that he would risk his life for this man . . . somehow, someway, he had to make Yami see reason.
"I know you can . . . you showed me back in the hotel room. You'll never let someone you care about get hurt by this . . . it's not in your nature, no matter how strong these 'abilities' of yours get. Trust me . . . and let us help you," he whispered, before pressing his lips to Yami's in a desperate kiss. He groaned as Yami opened his lips, allowing Bakura entrance and giving him permission to deepen the kiss.
Bakura . . . Yami's voice whispered across his mind, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said before in the hotel room . . . I do love you, and I understand why you closed yourself off. Bakura pulled back to breath, resting his forehead against Yami's as he sighed.
"I know you didn't mean it," he said quietly. "But please . . . you can't do this alone, Yami. If the destruction here about is any indication, you've having more trouble now than you did back in the hotel. Let us help."
"I . . . I feel so helpless," Yami murmured, his eyes closed. "I don't know what to do anymore . . . I used to be able to empty my mind . . . but now every time I try, I see you and Marik. I don't want to lose either of you . . . but I'm so afraid of losing control . . ."
"Come back with me . . . let us prove to you that you can do this with us by your side," Bakura whispered, his voice pleading. "Your cousin is worried sick . . . and Marik is falling to pieces by the day, if what Jou said is true. They're all worried about you . . . please, come back with me to them." Yami sighed, and nodded.
"All right. Being here alone isn't doing me any good . . . but if things get out of hand, promise me you'll let me go."
"I won't promise what I can't do," Bakura whispered, brushing his lips briefly across Yami's. "But I promise we'll deal with this in whatever way necessary."