In the middle of the night, Ryou felt pain. Intense pain. Familiar pain, though it had been a long time. It took his breath away and made him grit his teeth. "No, not again," he breathed in agony. He couldn't suppress the groan of pain that wrenched from his gut as he sat up, trying not to disturb Amaya as he stood and stumbled towards the bathroom. He heard her stir, and he inwardly cursed himself, even as he tried not to curse out loud from the pain.
"Ryou? I-Is something wrong?"
Her sweet angel voice made Ryou begin to regret ever asking her out in the first place. Not because he didn't care for her, but because he cared so much about her and what she thought of him. "Yes, everything's fine, go back to sleep. I'm sorry I woke you." He turned to face her as he spoke in a strained voice, suppressing the physical pain as he'd done in the past, because he always felt like a bother whenever he had to ask for any sort of help.
He shouldn't have turned around. The Millennium Ring was emitting a faint light, enough for Amaya to see it and the blood that had begun to trickle down his chest. Her eyes grew round, and she sat up quickly.
"What...? Why..." she whispered, shocked and concerned.
Ryou put his hands up, palms out. "I'm okay, don't worry. Go back to sleep."
Her gaze drifted from his chest to his hands. "Your hands... They're shaking." Her eyes caught his, and it became obvious to her that he was in great pain, that he was afraid, and that while he wanted her to keep her distance, he needed help. She stood up, unsteady for a moment. Then she stepped forward, saying, "Come on, let me get a better look."
He let her lead him into the bathroom and sat where she told him to, too distracted by pain to protest. She turned the low light on, and stared at his impaled chest in horror. He knew what she was thinking: Why on earth would he do this to himself? How had he managed to do it, for that matter? Was this some kind of sick obsession? She must think he was crazy, messed up, yet she didn't say a word.
Amaya simply wet a wash cloth and brought the tissue box with her as she knelt by him. She lifted a hand and began to tentatively reach for the Millennium Ring. Ryou grabbed her wrist, his hold weak, but strong enough to stop her. His hand was shaking, and he could hardly breathe as a full-blown anxiety attack shattered his grip on reality. What if the Spirit attacked Amaya? What if she hated him, feared him, loathed him after this night? What if she didn't believe him when he tried to explain the truth to her?
Amaya looked up, and knew in that moment that Ryou couldn't have possibly done this to himself. He was the victim here, and this hadn't been his choice. She kissed his cheek, then peeled his fingers from her wrist, vaguely sensing the rapid pulse of his desperately terrified heart.
"Breathe, Ryou," she whispered. "I promise, it'll all be over quickly."
She could tell that he made a conscious effort to obey her instructions. She touched the Millennium Ring gently with one finger, and was shocked to see it seem to slide further into Ryou's chest. His hand clenched her shoulder as a small sound of pain issued from his throat, his eyes squeezed shut. She was both impressed and frightened by his reaction: impressed, because she knew that she wouldn't be capable of being so still if it were her in his position; frightened, because she was worried that he'd had to deal with this before. How many times? Had he always dealt with it alone, too self-effacing to ask for help? Her heart ached for him, but she needed to stay focused if she was to do him any good.
She bit her lip, and didn't tell him to move his hand this time. She carefully guided the Millennium Ring out from under Ryou's skin, being slow and careful so as not to cause more damage or pain than necessary. Once it was out, she dropped the wretched thing in the sink and pressed tissues to the wounds. She let them stick to his skin and absorb the blood so that the bleeding would stop, then cleaned the blood from his abdomen with the wet washcloth. Under different circumstances, it would have been arousing.
Ryou's eyes were half-closed and unfocused, his arms limp at his sides now. He appeared to have no energy for anything.
"I'll be right back," she said softly, standing and fetching her first-aid kit, bringing it back and getting out the gauze, tape, and antibac. He remained deadly silent throughout the process as she tended to his wounds, which just made this whole scenario all the more disturbing. When she was done, she put all her first-aid things away, then turned on the sink tap to wash her hands. She watched numbly as the water carried the blood down the drain, then reached out to pick up the Ring. She cried out and dropped it back into the sink, clutching her hand. Ryou was at her side in moments, gently coaxing her hand into the open without saying a word, despite his previous near-catatonic state. The burn mark was visible on her palm and fingers, which perplexed her greatly.
"Th-The water was on cold…" she whispered, confused and stunned. Ryou kissed her burned hand, then hugged her close to his side. "Wh-What is that, Ryou? What's happening? Why is it hurting us?"
Amaya sounded so distressed that Ryou felt increasingly guilty. He owed her an explanation, he was just afraid that she wouldn't believe him. He sighed heavily, then murmured, "I'll tell you in the morning. Let's go back to sleep." He was still shaking violently, but he reached out and turned off the tap, then led her to their bed even as she helped him walk. Even though it must have pained him, he hugged her close and tight. He was afraid, she could tell that much; well, she was too.
She became even more afraid as hollow, sadistic laughter seemed to echo from the bathroom, sending shivers down her spine, even though it must have come from her own imagination. Even so, she was soon asleep.
Amaya kept glancing over at Ryou as they rode the train back to Domino. He was very good at hiding his pain, which concerned her. She also didn't know what to make of his story. When she thought clearly and logically about it, she concluded that there were only three possibilities: he was lying (it wasn't true, and he knew it), he was insane (it wasn't true, but he believed it), or he was telling the truth (it was true, and he was right to believe it).
She knew that he would never consciously lie to her. They'd been together long enough that she knew he was a good person at his core, even though he'd lost his family and struggled with so much. She knew that he believed what he said. Between his behavior following the incident and the pain he himself had endured, she found it impossible to believe that he was consciously lying.
She also found it impossible to believe that he had inflicted that pain on himself. For one thing, she would have been awoken by the sound of it. For another thing, she'd already been conscious when he woke up. She'd been awake for a minute or two when she'd heard Ryou wake up and whisper, "No, not again." Then there was the fact that the Millennium Ring, after being chilled with cold water, had somehow managed to burn her. And that moment when it had sunk itself deeper under Ryou's skin, like a living parasite... Amaya shuddered. That image in particular was burned into her mind, such that she could not doubt that it had happened, nor could she ever forget what that evil spirit had done to Ryou.
She believed him, if only because that which she'd witnessed with her own senses was utterly undeniable and his explanation made the best sense of it.
She glanced over at Ryou, who'd been extremely quiet all morning. When she'd woken up, she discovered that he hadn't gone back to sleep at all, but had lain awake all night. He looked exhausted and acted stunned.
"Some part of me hoped that this would never come up, that I'd never have to explain it all to you," he'd said in agony that morning as he tried to do just that: explain everything to the puzzled and frightened Amaya. "I know that it's hard to believe, but you need to trust that I'm telling you the truth."
Ryou knew what was at stake just as much as Amaya did: if she chose not to believe him, if she thought he was lying to her, or worse, that he was insane, she could break up with him and refuse to see him ever again; in the latter case, she could also have him dragged into a psychiatric hospital under claims that he suffered from split personality disorder and was a potentially violent and dangerous person.
If that happened, Ryou supposed that his yami would probably revolt and break out of the hospital, so Ryou wouldn't have to suffer there long, but at what cost? What harm would his yami do in making their escape? Furthermore, such an escape could make him a fugitive. He knew that Yugi and their friends would know the truth about him, but he couldn't put them in danger by trying to hide with them. Marik would know the truth, but Marik was also a murderer, and Ryou didn't think it would be safe to hide with him in their basement apartment besides.
He could just see it now: he and his yami on the run from the police, under accusation of insanity, struggling between survival and doing what was right, in desperate need of food and shelter—
Ryou was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Amaya take his hand and interlock their fingers. He looked up at her, somewhat dazed. She smiled and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
"Everything is going to be okay," she reassured, managing to sound entirely confident of the fact. Ryou could only smile back at her weakly and kiss her brow before resting his chin on top of her head, his heart feeling heavy. There was so much that could go wrong. How could anything be alright?
"I can tell you're not convinced," Amaya murmured.
Ryou sighed, closing his eyes as he buried his nose in her hair. She always smelled like flowers, and the scent soothed him.
"I believe you, you know," she whispered, much to Ryou's relief and pleasure.
"You do?" he murmured in disbelief.
She nodded, blushing as he dropped her hand to put his arm around her waist and pull her close. "I just… don't understand a few things."
"Yugi's agreed to meet you at the cafe this afternoon to explain it better," Ryou informed her.
"Yugi?" she repeated, mildly surprised, but then she remembered that Yugi had an artifact with symbols similar to those on Ryou's Millennium Ring.
"Yes, he's experienced something similar with his Millennium Puzzle, although the spirit he shares with isn't evil. He's a pharaoh from Ancient Egypt who ruled roughly three millennia ago."
Amaya was taken aback by this new information. What most caught her attention though was the note of envy in Ryou's voice. She couldn't help but pull back and look at him curiously. What hadn't he told her?
Ryou saw the question in her eyes, and sighed yet again. "This spirit's done some pretty awful things, May. Not just to me, but to my friends and others." He was silent for a long moment, then hugged her close again. She could feel the Millennium Ring being pressed between them; she couldn't understand why he would want to be wearing it.
"I guess I just thought that if you don't know about him, it could somehow keep him from hurting you."
"It's going to be alright, Ryou. I mean, he hasn't hurt me in all this time, so it's not likely that that's going to change, I should think. And now that I know about him, I'm more equipped to protect myself from him should he try to hurt me. This doesn't change anything."
Ryou could only hope that she was right. They shifted and sat more comfortably, with his arm around her shoulders and her leaning against him.
"You said that only I was meeting with Yugi?" she clarified, feeling vaguely nervous about the prospect of meeting with Ryou's friend without Ryou there.
"Yes, I'm sorry, but I need to talk to the spirit, and he's so bloody difficult, it'll take some time to get straight answers from him."
Amaya began to giggle, rather out of the blue.
"What?"
"It's just… your accent sounds so cute when you're angry." She continued to giggle, and her laughter eased a true smile from Ryou. They both relaxed and were able to somewhat enjoy the remainder of their train ride.
Ryou had given Yugi a phone call early that morning; he was lucky to catch him on his way to morning classes. Ryou quickly explained, in as little detail as possible, what had happened, asking Yugi for advice on how to explain his situation to Amaya. Ryou was so afraid that he'd mess it all up, so afraid that she wouldn't believe anything he said, that Yugi offered to talk with her and help explain things. That helped put Ryou's mind at ease.
Yugi and the Pharaoh explained their own relationship to Amaya before they explained what had happened in Duelist Kingdom with Yami Bakura, and how Marik and Yami Bakura had teamed up in Battle City. He told her how Ryou had been injured and hospitalized, how he'd then been controlled by both Marik and his Yami, how Yami Bakura was temporarily banished to the Shadow Realm until they managed to send Yami Marik there, thereby freeing Yami Bakura from the Shadow Realm.
Amaya took it all in stride, asking occasional questions, but mostly keeping silent. By the end of it, Amaya actually looked rather upset. "I-I had no idea," she murmured. "I mean, I knew that he lost his mother and his sister, and then his father, but I-I didn't know that he had to go through all of that as well…" Her heart overflowed with pity for him.
"He was trying to figure out how to tell you, but he didn't know how. I told him he shouldn't worry about it, though. After all, you two seem to really care for each other. And where there is love, there is trust."
Amaya blushed. "Thank you," she answered, not sure if there was any way that she could thank him enough for explaining all of this and helping her to understand.
"What the bloody hell was that?!" Ryou yelled at Bakura. "What did I do to warrant that?!"
"You left Marik all alone; he had nightmares, and I was incapable of shutting him up because you were gone."
Ryou smacked his forehead with his palm. "And why did he have nightmares? Did you actually watch all of the Cannibal Holocaust movies last night?"
"Yes, we did, and those are entirely unrelated to the nightmares. We also watched The Notebook, because Marik wanted to see it, and he had nightmares about Ryan Gosling breaking up with him."
Ryou sighed heavily and plopped down on the sofa. "But was this really necessary?" he demanded, gesturing to his chest.
"Yes." Yami Bakura stepped forward and loomed over Ryou, who felt that familiar waft of cold air. The smug, facetious grin he'd been wearing was nowhere to be seen. "You left and didn't tell us where you were going or when you'd be back. For all I knew, you were trying to run away. So of course, drastic measures were necessary."
"I have my own life, Bakura, and you're not in charge of it." Ryou threw the Millennium Ring on the floor as he stood and walked towards the door. "I'm done with this, and I'm done with you. This time, I am leaving, and I'm not coming back."
"You're welcome!" Yami Bakura yelled after him.
Ryou froze and turned around, a cold anger burning in him towards that arrogant spirit who'd ruined his life.
"What did you just say?"
"I said that you're welcome. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't know, and you'd still be so bloody anxious about how to tell her that you'd be mixing up Marik's purple shirts with my whites!"
"My whites," Ryou grumbled, slamming the door behind him as he left.
"Yugi, do you happen to know Ryou's address?" she asked hesitantly, feeling vaguely embarrassed that she didn't even know where her boyfriend lived. "He's avoided telling it to me, and I suppose he's done so because of his yami, but I need to talk to him."
Yugi hesitated, then took out a pen and wrote Ryou's address on a napkin and handed it to her. "It's not too far from here, and you shouldn't have trouble finding it. I hope things go alright between you two!"
Amaya was reassured by his smile, and hoped as much as he did that everything would be alright.