AN:
Thanks to…
dragonlady222: Yeah, I hope so, too. Ah, and Bakura! It must be hard to deal with all that at once…Thanks for the review!
FlyingShadow666: Lol, glad they're welcomed so jubilantly. Thanks for the review!
Spirited-Lilly: Poor Bakura…we shall find out in Chapter Nine, won't we? Thanks for the review!
casaragi: Haha, I really like them, too! I hope they can help…Thanks for the review!
D.H. Knightly: I'm happy to hear that! Thanks for the review!
The Vampire Prince: Heh, my bad. It was getting too long. To compensate, this chapter is an extra page long. Thanks for the review!
Chapter Nine: Humanity
Everything was dark. Pitch black dark.
The first thing that occurred to him was Ryou's absence. Why isn't he beside me? He didn't know, but he had to find out.
Bakura took a step forward before a voice whispered gloatingly, "You let him out of your sight."
At first, he maliciously shoved the voice away, choosing not to acknowledge it. However, the reference to Ryou made him hesitate for a split second, wedging a bit of trepidation into his mind. No, the teen shook his head, as if trying to convince himself that the dreadful voice was wrong. He's with me, I swear he is!
"Do you even know what you're doing?" the mocking voice taunted. "Do you even know where he is?" Bakura glanced around him, seeing nothing but black. No…no! Panic started to fill him, to stifle him, to drown him. It was slow at first, but the more he struggled and the more his efforts resulted in no little brother, the fear started to turn from a trickle into a violent flood. It was forcing its way down into his throat, like unwelcome water.
"Don't touch him! Get away from him!" Bakura shouted, his voice near the edge of cracking. "You can't…take him…" He was getting desperate, flinging his arms to either side of him in hopes of even the slightest brush of Ryou, running frantically in this direction and that.
Bakura felt air rush past him as he tripped. For a moment, Bakura froze, utterly terrified. Get up! a part of himself shrieked, his mind afire. Get up before he takes him back! Get up before you lose him! As he scrambled to his feet, he couldn't suppress screaming a desperate "Ryou!" into the nothingness engulfing him.
"I'm disappointed, Bakura," the mocking voice said airily. There was a chuckle as Bakura sank back to the ground, shaking. "I thought you would take better care of things that mattered to you. Now, all that suffering…for naught."
"Because I have him."
Bakura woke with a start.
"It's about time you got up," a voice growled.
Like a scared cat, Bakura cautiously glanced at his side as he fought to breathe. Instead of seeing the sneering businessman that he had expected, a tanned Egyptian teen was glaring at him with his arms crossed. Bakura was trembling still, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over as he swallowed hard. Get a grip, he thought fiercely, trying to repress the fear crawling all over him as he tried to recompose himself.
"W-who are you?" Bakura asked, unsuccessfully hiding the fear laced in his weak voice. He would have scowled, but for fear of his father walking through the door far behind the stranger, he bit down on it.
The youth didn't answer. His eyes traveled down to the white-haired teen's bed sheets, which were clenched tightly by Bakura's hands.
Dark, hard purple eyes that belonged to the sitting youth narrowed. "Are you okay?"
Bakura ignored the question as he pulled himself into a sitting position. He closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth, telling himself that it was just a dream. More like a nightmare from hell, he thought bitterly. Nevertheless, an urge to confirm his thoughts by seeing his brother emerged with heightened intensity.
A horde of questions rained down on the teen as he took a deep breath and finally got his breathing under control. However, the most pressing one was blurted out a little too forcefully. "Where's Ryou?"
The teen said nothing at first, obviously a little irked about having his question ignored. Then, gruffly, the stranger muttered, "He's fine."
"I want to see him."
The words had barely left Bakura's lips when the door opened and a sullen child trudged in. As the boy looked up and saw a conscious Bakura on the bed, he visibly brightened tenfold.
"Bakura!" shouted Ryou rather ecstatically, sprinting to the bed. He didn't waste anytime as he hastily clambered up and threw his arms around Bakura, weeping for joy.
He's safe, he's okay, he's here…Usually, the teen would have pulled away after a few seconds of holding Ryou, but his arms just tautened at the thought of releasing his little brother, the words from his nightmare still freshly imprinted in his mind.
I thought you would take better care of things that mattered to you.
Bakura held Ryou close for a little longer before he permitted his arms to go slack, letting loose a jubilant Ryou. He won't come back…he's gone…I've cleaned my hands of him, Bakura reassured himself, though it felt more like he was lying. But all that mattered was Ryou was here. Now drained of what little energy he had harbored just moments before, Bakura laid back and heaved a sigh as another teen entered the threshold.
"My, my, no wonder Ryou sounded so happy," said the newcomer warmly. Bakura blinked as he looked from one Egyptian to the other, noting that despite looking like twins, the newcomer had much softer features than the glaring one. "I'm Malik, nice to meet you."
Bakura warily watched this 'Malik' as he pulled up a chair next to his twin. He didn't say anything as there was a pause, clearly for the bedridden teen to introduce himself.
However, no words escaped Bakura's lips as he continued to keep eye contact with Malik, feeling quite confused. He was so desperate to ask the questions hurdling around in his head, yet he simply couldn't speak. Did he dare trust these new arrivals?
Ryou noticed the awkward silence hanging between his brother and his new companions. He took a breath before he cleared his throat. "Bakura," the child said quite loudly, "these people helped us when you fainted at the train station."
Malik saw Bakura's confused look again, and quietly explained, "Fatigue caught up to you."
There was a nod from Bakura as he mentally slammed his head into a wall. How he could have been so stupid? Such a simple mistake, it could've led to their recapture! What was I thinking? Bakura angrily seethed to himself. His misstep could have resulted in social workers taking both him and his brother to an orphanage, or foster care, or back to his parents if they had filed a 'missing children' report.
Then the nightmare flashed in his memory, like a knife sliding into his stomach.
Do you even know what you're doing?
Bakura's entire body tensed again, and his hands fisted the bed sheets once more. Stop it, he shouted at himself. It was just a nightmare…just a dream. And with that, he tried hard to shove his father's echoing words to the farthest reaches of his chaotic mind.
But he couldn't stop to think… What the heck was he doing? How was he going to take care of Ryou? What kind of guardian would faint from exhaustion to leave those under their protection vulnerable? He should've known what his limits were, how far he could go, how much he could take.
"Malik, go get some groceries…take Ryou with you," a stiff voice said.
Malik tried to protest. "But Marik-"
"Now."
Malik glared at his counterpart before he murmured, "C'mon, Ryou, let's go."
Ryou, who was reluctant about leaving so soon, uncertainly looked back at his brother, who was about to say something.
"We can trust them," Ryou hastily said. Bakura blinked, closing his mouth. "I-I'll be right back, I promise." Ryou gave his brother's hand a squeeze before bounding off the bed and following the retreating Malik. He glanced back once to smile and wave before he left.
Though the child didn't know it, his words had hit Bakura even harder than a gun could achieve. Bakura would have stopped him, called him back, kept him by his side, but the way Ryou seemed to actually trust these strangers… Where had he been while his brother… Shouldn't he have come to that decision? As the older brother? Again, Bakura was reminded of his failure as the guardian.
Marik watched the door close, and waited for the two younger siblings to be out of earshot before he quietly said, "I need to know."
Bakura couldn't speak, for all sound left him when his brother had said those words. At first, he avoided Marik's eyes, grimly staring at the closed door.
"Tell me why a high schooler, and a kid who's not even ten years old, ended up in Kyoto all by themselves." Marik finally got Bakura's attention, as the teen slowly looked at him. Whatever the Egyptian had expected, it wasn't what he saw. The hard purple eyes struggled to maintain a glare as guarded pale lavender eyes with a hint of night stared back at him.
"We ranaway," Bakura simply said. Then he fumbled for words, averting his gaze back to his hands. "We…my father…I tried…"
Marik was quiet for a moment, studying the younger teen before him. There was a struggle between fear, suspicion, confusion, and much more chaos. He could see the lines of weariness that should only appear in adults, the braced determination and resolve, but also the fragility of it all. Fragile, because the balance was dependent heavily upon the wellbeing of a child.
He wanted to know more, like why they had fled or where they were from. However, Marik knew that even he couldn't bring himself to inquire about such things. The teen before him looked on the verge of shattering, at the mercy of the cruelty of the world.
"Do you know anyone here in Kyoto, any relatives?" Marik finally asked.
Bakura shook his head, realizing just how foolish his ambition had been. How was he going to support both Ryou and him when-
"As soon as you get a job, you pay half the rent for this condo."
Bakura blinked, not sure if what he had heard just then had been his imagination at work.
"Of course, don't get out of that bed until Malik gives you the say-so," Marik murmured, staring at the ceiling as he thought. Then he glanced back at Bakura, and almost laughed at the teen's puzzled expression. "It'll be easier to pay rent when I only have to worry about half of it."
Bakura fell silent again, at a loss for words. Kindness was something he was still suspicious of, not having many encounters with it. He would have refused the offer, he would have laughed it all off, or even just glared, but the thought of wandering Kyoto with Ryou and no roof above their heads…
"You can stay as long as you need."
So tempted to ask why, but afraid of what it might entail, Bakura swallowed hard before he hesitantly put faith in someone he barely knew, something he hadn't done in years. Living only a few months with someone he could finally call 'family', someone he could finally trust and love, had opened to him the possibility that perhaps not all humans were shameless, greedy monsters like his parents.
Unable to speak, Bakura met the stranger's gaze in gruff but somewhat grateful way.
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AN: Whew, I'm sorry this chapter is late. It took FOREVER to edit. I hope it wasn't too corny or abrupt…please review! Hm, the next update will be on Saturday or Sunday night (shooting for Saturday). Thanks for reading!