Tenshi: Thanks for the reviews everyone! You really made my day! But now, I really want to get going with the storry.

CoppyCat: Well, aren't you in a hurry?

Ryou: Should I be worried?

Tenshi: Maybe... Anyway, this chapter is where things start to move between you and Bakura here.

Bakura: Well I know you took yor time.

Tenshi: And I still will. I said that things start moving, not that they'll move fast. Not with your unemotional, not caring and denying attitude.

CoppyCat: Ok, beore you spoil too much, let's get going with this. Disclaimer: Tehnshi-chan doesn't own yu-gi-oh or it's caracters yet.

Tenshi: Guess then, all that's left is the storry. Let's go!

Ryou's condition was becoming worse by the day. The bullies were attacking him regularly, wich meant tough punishents every day for being late. His body was so damaged that almost any movement would cause him more pain. With only his master's punishments, it wouldn't be such a problem. But seing as how he was being beat up twice a day, his body didn't get enough time to recover, and now he was sore and in pain all day long, becoming worse with each day.

The fact that he didn't eat wouldn't help either, and his starvation was now more and more visible. His arms were even thinner than before, his wribs could be seen clearly unless he was wearing a loose shirt, and his skin was now white enough to contest his hair.

And one more thing. He was becoming araid of touch. He was literarry becoming afraid of anyone touching him, and every time he would have the slightest bit of skin-to-skin contact with anyone, he would jump startled and back away as far as possible rom the respective person. And why? Well let's say that beating up ~in different ways: with punches and kicks, with a whip...~ wasn't the only tipe of punishment the thief applied. No, ever since that first time, he kept raping on the list too.

Anyway, that wasn't his biggest problem right now. Despite the fact that Bakura's punishments weren't quite as bad as they used to be, his body still couldn't keep up with the damage, and now it was like it went on shut-down. He would colapse to the ground more and more often, and diferent parts of his body gave out in the worst moments. One time, it even gained him another beating when he fell down and hit the bucket with water he had just used to mop, wich water made a mess on the floor in the hall.

Of course people would put quescions, but he'd keep on ignoring them and carrying on with what he was doing. He refused to be sent to the nurce's office, or to the hospital, and he was relieved when his father didn't answer to the letter sent to him regarding Ryou's poor state, even though the boy was fully expecting that he wouldn't.

Bakura eventually noticed something was really wrong with his slave. At the begining, he just let it pass, and said it was his imagination. But he noticed that Ryou would never touch his dinner, and he knew the boy didn't eat breakfast, and even if he ate at school, it couldn't possibly be enough, and it wasn't, seeing how paler the boy has become.

Ryou found himself having no choice but to eat dinner, as Bakura would always notice his plate full and make him eat. But every time, he would throw it up after the thief left. And this evening was no exception. The thief finished with his steak, and he made Ryou eat up his own dinner, and after the thief left and was nowhere to be seen, the boy ran to the toilet like he allways ended up. But as he was throwing out everything in his stomach, he was unaware of the eyes watching him from the shadows. Eyes that kept watching him all evening, and whitnessed him as he was colapsing to the ground in pain while doing his work, but would always get back up, and go on, oblivious to the pain that was obviously filling his every move.

When he finshed, Ryou went to his room and started doing his homework, and during that time, his hand stopped responding to him once, and one time, his whole body started shaking violently, and he fell to the ground with tears of pain filling his brown eyes.

By the time he was finished and started preparing for bed, the thief had stopped watching him. But, he already saw enough.

The next morning, Ryou, like always, got ready for school. He took a shower, trying his best to avoid touching any injuries. After he got dressed in his spare uniorm, cause the other one was dirty with blood right now, he went to the kitchen and prepared master Bakura's breakfast. He left it on the table and went to exit the house, when he heard footsteps coming his way. He turned around, terrified to see master Bakura there.

"B-Bakura-sama! Di-did I w-w-wake you up? I-I'm sorry! I d-d-di-didn't m-mean to. I'm sorry!" he said, bowing to his waist while holding back a whimper of pain, than rising back to look at his master.

Te thief didn't answer. When he started walking towards Ryou again, the boy shut his eyes tightly and clenched his fists in fear of the punisment he was expecting. He flinched when he realised his master was right next to him, and tightened his fists even more, doing his best to stop his body from shaking in fear, or better yet, terror.

He heard his master stop right next to him, than, to his surprie, the door opened, and the tief walked out, passing rigt by him.

Ryou's eyes opened, becoming large.

"M-master...?"

"Come on, slave."

"Y-yes, master." The teen walked out, locking the door behind him. He caught up to his master, remaining two steps beind, his eyes cast to the ground. Bakura was walking with his hands in his pockets, and heading somewhere, without hesitating at any turn. Ryou followed his master, careful not to bump into him when he suddenly stopped. Te boy rose his eyes to look at his master again.

"M-master...?"
Bakura turned to face him, and Ryou let his gaze back to the grownd.

"Here." The thief said, throwing something to Ryou. The boy barely managed to ctach it, hiding the pain in his whole body at the sudden movement. "Get something to eat that's easy on the stomach. I'll be here when you're ready."

Ryou then noticed that he was standing next to a store, and that what the thief had thrown him was a wallet. "Y-Yes, Yami-sama. Right away." He bowed, than turned to enter the store.

While he was searching for what to buy, Ryou started thinking back to hese past weeks. There was one more thing going on, that he just couldn't understand. He kept having these dreams where he was somewhere in a desert, and he would always see everything from someone else's point of view, hearing all the person's thaughts as if they were his. H never actually saw anyone n tose dreams, but he always knew he wasn't alone. Also, in most of them he was either put to work, or punished for something he knew full well while he was in the dream, but he just couldn't remember once he woke up. At first, he didn't think anything of it, but it was becoming rather disturbing. And now especially. Since last night, he had one more of those dreams.

!FLASHBACK!

He was tired. Exhausted! He wanted nothing more than to sit down, close his eyes, and just sleep. But he couldn't afford that. He had to finish his chores for the day, otherwise, that evening, he would wish he was never even born. Well, he'd wish that more than he did already.

He just finished scrubing the floor in his master's room, and he stood up, ready to proceed to making the bed, but the moment he was up, he felt the whole world spinning with him, and a horrible headache. Than, everything went black as he fell to the ground.

When he opened his eyes, it was dark around him, the only light consisting in a single candle lit up in the room.

"Well, well, sleeping on the job, are we."

He flinched when he remembered what happened, and that hestill didn't finish his work yet.

"I-I'm sorry!" he quickly rose up from the floor he was still on. He bowed to his waist and kept his eyes of the person in front of him, and onto the ground, before closing them tightly He knew what was coming. He was still trying to smehow prevent it, but he knew he had no chance. Life just wasn't that kind to him. Never was, never will be. "I'm really sorry, master. I-it's not going to happen again. I didn't m-m-mean to..."

He was cut off by a fist in his side, throwing him to the ground.

"It's not going to happen again, and I'm going to make sure of that." he still didn't look at the stranger's face, but he could see his feet coming closer, though everyting was in a blur. He was terrified.

"M-master... Bakura..."

!END FLASHBACK!

Ryou sighed. He just couldn't understand what all these dreams were supposed to mean, but when he heard his master's name talked clearly in his dream, he was sure something was deffinitely wrong. Those weren't normal dreams, and it wasn't a coincidence that he was the one seeing them. But what could they possibly mean?- Than, he shoook that off. He was becoming pathetic and paranoid. There was no way those were anything more than just that- dreams. He didn't have to think so hard about everything.

He finally came out of the store, holding a plastic bag in his hand. Master Bakura was there waiting for him, as he said he would be.

"I'm sorry I made you wait, Master."

Once again, Bakura didn't answer. He threw something at Ryou again.

"Take these."

Ryou moved to catch the object, but as it made contact with his hands, his body chose that exact moment to shut down. For a second, he just stood there, frozen. Than, he dropped the object from his hands, and fell to the ground. He stood there for a few seconds. Bakura was watching, no emotion showing on his face. Then, Ryou grabbed the object from the ground and stood up, noticing it was actually a small box of medicine.

"At noon, take one of those before you eat. Now get to school. And don't be late home again, slave." with that, he turned around, and left in the direction of their house.

Ryou looked after him, not knowing what he sould think. Than, he realised he was late for school, so he put everything in his school bag, and headed there as quickly as his injured body would allow it. He made it only a bit after the bell had rang, and forunately, his teacher let him in. School went on as usual, with his ocasional shut-down's and the constant quescioning.

Soon, lunch came, and he headed out to get some fresh air. He remembered what Bakura had ordered him that morning, and decided he would better listen to what his master told him, though he didn't get what the medicine was for. He knew he wasn't going to keep the food in, but again, he did as he was ordered. And, he was surprised to find that he didn't feel like throwing up one minute after finishing. Maybe that's what the medicine was for...

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! RING! RIING! !

The bell rang, ending his train of thaughts. He didn't want to be late for another class, so he headed inside. Class went smoothly, until suddenly, around the middle of the period, he rose up of his chair and ran straiht to the toilet. He threw up everything he had eaten. Aparently, not even medicine could help him now. They only managed to slow the process down, but he ended up in the same place. A few of his classmates followed him, and saw what happened. They told the teacher right away, who insisted that Ryou go home and rest till he got better, but Ryou absolutely refused to do that, and they couldn't force him, or carry him home, so eventually, they stopped the discussion.

When school was over, he waited ill everyone was out of the class, than he started packing his things with difficulty. He headed out. But right when he was walking out of the school-yard, he collapsed once again. Fortunately, no one was around to start asking quescions again. So he eventuall stood up, and started walking back home.

He gased when he was grabbed by the hand and pulled into an alley.

"You thought you'll fool s by not showing up on time, little Ryou? You really thaught you'd get away that easily. Well, then how about we show you how things really stand around here?" Ushio stated, and then snapped his fingers.

Ryou was already four hours late! Where in the world did he disappear?If he was trying to run away, Bakura would've known. But than, where was he? He was never really this late before, though he did make a habit out of being late. Oh he was going to get it that evening! Bakura was pacing around hinking all that, and he was very pissed now. That boy really was trying to get him mad! If he went ouside of the way he took home, Bakura would've known right away, wich means he was somewhere on that route. But that why was he being so late, unless if it was to piss the thief off?

But the truth is, despite all that thaughts, somewhere deep, deep down, verry deep and well burried, he was holding the slightest bit of concern. After all, something could've happened to the boy on his way. Fortunately, Bakura was very good at hiding those kinds of thaughts, even from himself. Still, after four hours, he got his coat, and left the house, in order to go and search for the boy. Something was definitely wrong. Either the boy was trying to get him mad, or something really happened to him, Ryou had to be found. And besides, he was getting hungry.

He

took the route he knew Ryou was taking to school. He looked in every window, and through every alley, though he knew even before he looked that the boy wouldn't be there. Otherwise, he should be able to feel his presence. After a wile, he was about t give up. He was getting really close to the teen's school, and still Ryou was nowhere to be found. But then, he felt the slightest presence. Ryou was close.

So, he took the alleyways arund there one by one, and when he got to a certain one, he knew the boy would be there, even before he heard the silent groan coming from the shadows of the alley. He headed there, and what he found shocked him.

There was Ryou, unconscious on the ground, his uniform jacket unbuttoned, leting Bakura see his blood-dripped blouse, and the long cut made on it, and through his skin. His face was also covered in blood, turning his white hair red. The boy was barely even breathing right now, and his presence was so faint, Bakura could hardly sense him here, standing right next to him.

The thief leaned down and picked Ryou up. He needed to be tended to, now. And yes, Bakura would always beat him, and leave him unconscious on the floor, but he never eft the boy nearly this damaged. He was hardly alive.

So he quickly took the boy home. He kicked the door open, and didn't take the time to close it after him. He went straight to the boy's room. However, he noticed the room was in pretty bad shape, with blood on the walls and bed-sheets, and the air was heavy and filthy. it wouldn't be healrhy for the boy, he needed clean air, and to rest. So he walked to another room on that same corridor, where he knew for a fact that the boy cleaned up, and left him on the bed there. He went to bring a bucket with water and a few bandages, and also braught a sponge, and a glass of water since Ryou would need to get rehidrated. Than, he proceeded to getting the school uniform off the boy, as he realised that the jacket wasn't touched by the blood too much, and if it was closed, it could go unnoticed, if not for the blood on his face and hair. After he got the blouse off the boy, he gasped in shock.

There was a big, long cut going diagonally from the right side of his chest, almost to his stomach, and unfortuately, it was still bleeding. Alsu lots of other small cuts and bruises filled the boy's body. However the injuries werent all there was to it. What worried him was that he could see each and every one of the boy's wribs, and his arms held a dangerous resemblance to tree branches. Very thin- tree branches.

Overall, the boy was to times thinner than even a photomodel. It was unhealthy. Bakura realised then that the boy had probably been starving himself for a while now.

He then started checking Ryou up for any broken bones, before he could do anything to tend to the boy. To his horror, he found the boy's right frorearm to be broken, but thankfully, there was nothing else in the same state. It was lucky. And it was also lucky that the bone didn't pierce the skin, or else it would've been really bad.

It was obvious to the thief that not all those wounds were fresh, and he knew for a fact that he wasn't the one who caused most of them. Some of the wounds probably went pretty far back, so really, it was a wonder he didn't black-out till state was awfull! He needed to be tended to, and quick.

So Bakura took the wet sponge, and sarted cleaning off the boy's body, surprisingly gentle arund te injured areas. After he cleaned the blood and dirt off the boy, he took the bandages, and started patching him up around the smaller wounds on his chest, and his stomach and arms.

Now, the biggest problem was the big cut on Ryou's chest. He had to somehow stop the bleeding, or else the boy wouldn't last much longer before he'd die of blood-loss. Unfortunately, the thief wasn't as goos at healing as he was at inflicting the damage.

Oh Ra, the boy would have quite a few quescions to answer one he wakes up!

Tenshi: I'm not very pleased by this chapter. I could've done better.

CoppyCat: It's perfect, aibou! After all, it's past midnight here! You shouldn't be up writing at these hours!

Tenshi: I know, Yami, but my mother punished me by taking my laptop for the week, so I have to sneak around and write and upload at night, when she wouldn't find me out.

CoppyCat: Why can't you just wait till you'r time's up?

Tenshi: I don't know, it's hard not to be able to write a whole day. But maybe I'll rewrite this chapter if the readers think I should. Also, I think I'll be writing the episodes on a notebook for the week, then upload them all at once once I get free access again. Sould I do that I
think my writing slomps off in this chapter... Please let me know what you think, in the form of a review ^_^ Well anyway everyone, good night, I'm off to bed.