So~! I just re-watched the 3rd YGOTAS Spectacularmathon ^^ And guess what happens to Little Bakura? His ribs get broken :D I guess it must have seeped into my subconscious XD
And...and...YAMI BAKURA SAYS HUZZAH! D: I THOUGHT THAT WAS MY WORD! *cries* lol XD Maybe that seeped into my subconscious too ;)
Yeah...I kinda killed the flow of the story there XD Sorry; had to get that off my chest :P Huzzah!
Two weeks ago, Ryou had been afraid of sharing his home with a stranger. Deep down, he cherished the bliss of solitude that he felt when home alone. Giving that away had terrified him.
But now, all alone in that big, empty apartment, all he wanted was Yami to come back to him. To say that he was sorry for leaving, to say that he was never going to go away ever again and that he wanted to spend his life by Ryou's side. To say that he loved him.
Ryou didn't know how long he stayed curled up on the floor of his living room, crying his heart out as though that would make it stop breaking every time he recalled Yami's parting words. Goodbye, Ryou Bakura.
He didn't care that they had been interrupted. He didn't care that it was Yami's missing 'friend' who had done so. He didn't even care that Yami was in love with Yugi. Ryou could have lived with that, somehow, if Yami had stayed. All Ryou could bring himself to care about was the fact that Yami had left him, forever. And Ryou had never even told him the truth.
Trembling, Ryou looked up and stared around the apartment. It looked almost exactly the same as it had before Yami had moved in. The depletion of Ryou's chocolate straws stash and the strange green blanket were the only indications that Yami had ever existed.
Ryou made his way over to the couch and picked up the green blanket. It was Yami's blanket. But Yami had never had a chance to use it. It smelt like Ryou.
Ryou bent down and picked up the Star Wars blanket, which had been knocked accidentally off the couch by either Yami or Ryou...before the call. This one was Ryou's. It had been Ryou's since he was eight years old. But when he lifted it to his face and breathed deeply, all he could smell was Yami.
Clutching the blanket to his chest, Ryou burst into sobs again. "Yami...I'm so sorry," he cried. Yami had only kissed him because he had pitied him; it was so, so, obvious. Ryou's feelings were like an open book; of course Yami had known that Ryou loved him. He just couldn't bear to tell him that he already had a lover. It was only natural that somebody like Yami would pity him.
Ryou put the blanket down again, afraid to touch it in case he rubbed off Yami's scent. He traced his fingers over the couch and closed his eyes, bringing back their last few minutes together. He laid his head down on the side of the couch, his tears beginning to stain it. How could Yami have been in love with Yugi that whole time?
His fingers collected a few stray hairs on the couch, and Ryou held them up to his eyes. A single long white hair and a black hair tipped with purple. Ryou and Yami. Right here in his fingers. Blinking away the tears, Ryou twisted the two hairs together, entwining them as his and Yami's lives would never be. But as soon as he let go of the tips of the hairs, they bounced apart as any hairs would. Ryou started crying again. It was just like his life; Yami had only stayed because Ryou was holding him there. And now he was gone. Ryou let the hairs slip from his fingers.
He rested his head on the couch again.
One night, Ryou, he told himself. I'll cry for one night. And then, tomorrow, I'm going to wake up and pull myself together. He sniffled. And then I'm going to get dressed into my jeans and stripy shirt. I'm going to have a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast and brush my teeth, and then I'm going to go to that soccer match with my friends, because it'll be Saturday and that's what friends do on weekends. The tears erupted from his eyes again. And I'll tell them with an innocent smile that Yami left, laugh it off, and say I'll just advertise for a new room mate. And they're never going to know how heartbroken I am, because I don't want them to worry about me. One night is all I'm allowing myself. Just one night.
Clutching the green blanket to himself as though it would protect him from the pain of his loss, Ryou closed his eyes and cried himself to sleep.
Ryou had thrown away the scrap of paper given to him by the lady at the newspaper firm the day he had met Yami. But he had put the number into his phone. That was one connection they still shared.
He knew in himself that he wanted to call the number. He also knew that Yami wouldn't pick up. But if there was an answering machine message in Yami's voice, Ryou wanted to hear it. He couldn't bear the thought that the last words he had heard Yami say had been a saddened goodbye. He wanted to hear Yami tell him in a cheery voice that if he left a message, he would get back to him as soon as possible.
But he didn't call it. For all he knew, Yami had found Yugi by now and he was happily forgetting his former room mate.
As Ryou had promised himself, he didn't cry on Saturday morning, at least not on the outside. He kept his true sorrow bottled up inside him and somehow managed to get through the day with a smile on his face.
When Ryou went down to the soccer field, he didn't play the full game but stopped to watch at half time when his rib started hurting. It brought back the memory of when he had first broken it, and-
Ryou pushed the thought away before he started crying again.
For the second half of the game, he wasn't really paying attention his friends. He sighed, resting his head on his chin. He took out his phone and stared at it, bringing Yami's phone number onto the screen. He had memorised it already.
The ball skidded past him, and Ryou started, before stopping it and rolling it back into the field. Somebody just got a free kick. He didn't bother to find out whom.
He looked at his phone again, wishing Yami would call. He just wanted to know that Yami was alright; it had sounded as though Yugi was in danger, and if Yami was going after him...
The thought was almost enough to make Ryou call Yami right then and there. He didn't know which scared him more; the fact that Yami might be putting himself in danger for Yugi, or the fact that Ryou might never find out what had happened.
Ryou felt his eyes begin to moisten again. I mustn't cry...I mustn't cry...he thought, somehow managing to keep the tears away.
Ryou went down to the local mechanic after the soccer game and started interfering with the vehicles the mechanic was working on, to his intense fury. Ryou did, of course, fix two of them in less than the time it had taken the mechanic to fix one, infuriating him even more. Much as he hated annoying him, Ryou needed to do it; it was therapeutic, and even the mechanic himself knew that Ryou was a far better car fixer than he would ever be.
Ryou didn't want to go home to the empty apartment. Even when Yami hadn't been there when Ryou came home, there had always been the reassuring knowledge that he could walk in at any minute. But now...it was just so final.
Ryou knew he was stalling for time until he would have to return, and this upset him. He had never pictured himself as the type to run away from his problems.
But then again, had also never pictured himself as the type to fall in love with somebody like Yami.
When Ryou finally returned to his apartment building, he was exhausted. He had been helping the mechanic for the past four hours. It had distracted him from thinking of Yami, but he hadn't even noticed how badly he was wearing himself out.
But he couldn't bring himself to open the door. If Yami wasn't there, Ryou would lose the last hope he was clinging to that Yami may still return to him. And as much as this hope pained him, Ryou didn't want to lose it just yet.
He took his hand off the handle. He would run away, just this once. For a few hours.
The Saturday night party on the above floor was well underway when Ryou gatecrashed it. Since most of the people present were gatecrashers to begin with, nobody even noticed him.
Ryou didn't enjoy himself. There was too much noise and too many people. Ryou didn't like being around so many people he didn't even know. The air reeked of cigarette smoke and everyone – everyone – was drinking. The music which had always seemed loud from the floor below was deafening from the apartment at its source. It almost made Ryou cry; he could feel himself losing eardrums by the minute.
Somebody offered Ryou a drink, which Ryou took out of manners. He sat at the table, staring at it but not daring to touch it. It was some kind of alco-pop. Ryou grimaced; he drank milk for a reason.
Ryou couldn't see how anybody could bear to host such an event on a weekly basis, or how anybody could bear to come. He already hated it. But it did at least distract him from the pain of his loss. Here in this ear-killing party, the memory of Yami could not haunt him. And for that reason alone, being there was utter bliss.
He dutifully stayed until the party started to break up. However, when it did so, Ryou was the first to go. He dashed for the elevator, his ears ringing. He was never going to come back. Ever.
The lift was jam-packed with drunken partygoers, and Ryou found himself wedged in between them. His heart raced, almost scared. A babble of inappropriate words and suggestive remarks washed over his head, and Ryou literally covered his ears, squishing his eyes shut. The single floor was the longest lift ride of his life.
When it finally spat him out on the next level down, he stumbled towards his apartment door. He hadn't touched alcohol at all, but looking at him, it was hard to tell the difference. He could barely hear over the buzzing in his ears and his vision was fuzzy from sheer exhaustion.
He opened the door. For all its unpleasantries, the party had succeeded in making him too desperate for bed to cry over Yami.
Ryou made for his bathroom. He was still wearing his soccer clothes and was covered in engine grease; it was amazing his neighbour had even let him in looking like he did. Maybe a shower would help Ryou to clear his head.
He was barely halfway across the room when he felt a tiny prick at his neck.
Was it some kind of spider? His fingers darted up to the spot automatically. They found a strange protuberance from his skin, which came off easily.
Ryou stared at the dart, dumbfounded.
Everything happened very quickly, then. He heard the sound of approaching footsteps as he started to feel dizzy. And then he heard another sound. A sound he had thought he would never hear again.
"Get down, Ryou!"
Ryou didn't need to obey the order; his body was doing it for him. "Yami...you came back," he breathed, toppling to the floor as blackness closed in around him.