AN: Oh my gosh! So, I log onto my email account and find an email entitled 'HELP ME, PLEASE!' which, as I'm a curious person, I opened. Turns out, it was from this person who recently sent a pretty flame-ish comment to me and you guys are totally flooding their account with hate mail and stuff. Now, while I thought it was hilarious and pretty much the coolest thing ever that you guys stood up for me and my fanfiction, hate mail is probably not the right answer. Everyone's entitled to their opinion so I'm not gonna throw negative comments back at them just 'cause they did it to me.

So...please don't feel it's necessary to send hate mail on my behalf. Stupid reviews like that don't bother me when I have you guys (who are absolutely super special awesome by the way) to send me nice ones =)

But...in spite of myself, it did make me chuckle. I love you guys all the more now =)

P.S. The tonsillitis is going, which is good. Also, I have two weeks holiday. So say hello to the return of the eclectic-and-not-totally-planned-yet-frequent update schedule! It lives once more! =D

I so hope you enjoy this new chapter.

Borderline

-"There are no secrets better kept than those that everybody guesses."

-George Bernard Shaw

14 ; Cat's Out Of The Bag

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, and this storyline is absolutely, positively fictional. I mean no offense to anyone.

Ryou doesn't get any sleep.

He goes through with his typical nighttime routine (getting sleeping medicine that he doesn't take, brushing his teeth, changing into his pajamas, ignoring Yugi as best he can), but regardless of the regularity that normally causes him to fall asleep within maybe fifteen minutes, his eyes don't shut once.

They remain locked on the ceiling, only to quickly peer over at the clock on the desk every now and again.

10:15 PM.

Ryou can't tell if he's excited, or if he's a nervous wreck.

Bakura is Bakura. Ryou knows that. As much as he adores him, Bakura is still, technically, crazy. Even though he and Bakura share a diagnosis, Bakura is still daring—to the point of attempting or getting into life-threatening situations. Bakura is a risk.

A risk you love, Ryou, he reminds himself harshly.

But he's human.

Ryou Bakura is human.

And thus, Ryou Bakura is imperfect.

And imperfect people get scared.

Or excited.

Or whatever the heck he's feeling right now.

(Sometimes, Ryou realizes, nowadays, he has trouble deciphering his feelings. But he figures that'll pass eventually.)

Suddenly, Ryou gets the urge to actually use some of the advice that Dr. Potts gave him for therapy.

He's going to "think his feelings through."

10:30 PM.

He's nervous. He admits it to himself, with a disgusted look on his face.

He's nervous because…what is Bakura's secret, really?

Didn't, just the other night, the two of them have a conversation about not having secrets?

That's why they're stuck here.

Their mental problems aren't because of secrets. They have problems because it's just them. Bakura and Ryou are "crazy" because Bakura and Ryou are meant to be crazy.

There's nothing anyone can do to change that.

Not Jared, Duke, or Dr. Potts.

No one.

Ryou swallows.

Maybe Bakura's secret isn't what Ryou's thinking it's going to be.

Maybe it's something stupid like a secret little closet in the Art Room or a way to sneak into the nurses' station or—

No.

It's Bakura.

Bakura's Secret wouldn't be that little. Not that petty.

Bakura's Secret is going to be huge.

And Ryou's a bit worried.

What if the two get in trouble and separated? What then? Bakura is Ryou's only friend at Rockford; he'd be all alone if he lost Bakura.

What if they kill Bakura? (Ryou doubts that would happen, but he likes the drama of the idea, regardless of how terrible it is.) Bakura's bad; he's been bad. Whatever's going to happen tonight might be his final strike.

What if they send Ryou to a new hospital?

Or worse—what if they send Ryou back home?

A whirl of disgust flies through Ryou's body and he visibly shivers through his covers.

No.

He won't go back home.

Not for a long time.

Ryou turns on his side in a rustle of sheets.

10:45 PM.

He gulps.

Okay, now the flip side—Ryou's excited.

An adventure with Bakura is what he's planning on. Good or bad, it's going to be an adventure. Ryou likes to be daring and spontaneous and a little bit crazy. And he's hoping he's going to get to be all of those things tonight.

And to add to all that, he's going to find out one of Bakura's secrets. He's going to get to dig a little deeper into the mind he loves so much and unlock more of its enticing mysteries.

Now, Ryou smiles.

He has no idea what attracts him to Bakura so much; he doesn't think he'll really ever know. It's like an unseen magnetic force—it just drew his and Bakura's souls together, despite whatever boundaries there were, are, or will be.

11:00.

Ryou quietly gets out of bed and creeps out the bedroom door.

He and Bakura didn't plan an exact place to meet.

But Ryou knows where to go anyway.

He's almost to the TV Room when he spots Bakura, leaning through the nurses' station window, slipping a sleeping pill into the snoozing Duke Devlin (the only guard on duty)'s mouth. The boy's tongue is poking out of the side of his mouth, and he's got a rather adorable, determined, concentrated look on his features as he tries to be as quiet as possible.

"Bakura!" Ryou whispers sharply, stopping not too far from the scene, his voice clearly filled with amusement as he tries to hold back a laugh.

Bakura snaps around, and his wide eyes and "I-hope-I-didn't-just-get-caught" face make Ryou have to try even harder not to bust out into peals of laughter.

Once the older boy sees it's just his friend who has walked up on him, his face changes from worry to annoyance.

"Oh, it's just you. Don't scare me like that," he replies in the same hushed tone that Ryou used. Then, he hops out of the window, and in a flash, is walking out of the nurses' station. "I was just making sure that we don't have any interferences tonight."

Ryou feels the excitement (or fear) welling up inside of him again.

He smiles.

"All right. What's this `secret'?" he says finally, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

Bakura smirks back. He closes and locks the nurses' station with a ring of keys that he quickly puts back in his pocket after he's done using. (Ryou doesn't ask how he got the keys, either.)

"Follow me," Bakura instructs, and walks quickly past his best friend, down the hall towards the Art Room.

Ryou first follows Bakura with his eyes, but then, after a breath in, begins shuffling after the older boy.

There's silence until the two reach the Art Room.

The duo stands in the doorway as Bakura pulls out that same ring of keys, and quickly fumbles to find the right one. Then, he shoves it into the lock, turns it, and the door opens as Bakura whispers,

"Come on."

Ryou follows wordlessly.

The Art Room is dark, but the two boys can maneuver through it easily because they know the room like the back of their hand. They know where to turn so that they don't bang into the cello, they know where to reach out and move the accordion, and Bakura, at least, knows where to walk to show Ryou his secret.

In the back of the Art Room is a tall chain link fence. Ryou never really went over to it because as enticing as it was, he knew he couldn't get through due to the numerous padlocks strapped onto the door.

Behind the chain links, several old guitars or violins or other instruments lie, untouched, and covered with dust.

But now, standing this close to it, Ryou realizes it was guarding something, because as he looks closer, he sees that behind the old instruments lies a passageway.

A passageway that leads down and maybe even out.

Ryou's eyes widen.

"Bakura, is that—?"

Bakura whips out the keys and quickly unlocks the chains, pulling them off. He throws open the door, and Ryou cringes as it whacks a guitar, and sound resonates throughout the atmosphere.

Bakura doesn't skip a beat.

"Get in here," he mutters as he squeezes his way through the small opening.

Ryou follows suite.

Ryou watches in the dark as his best friend steps lightly over an overturned, broken cello on the ground.

He tries to keep his steps as graceful and fluid as his best friend's, but occasionally he stumbles because he's distracted by the broken-down instruments surrounding them.

It's probably one of the most tragic sights he's ever seen.

Broken and neglected instruments lie unused back here in the blackness. He thinks it's horrible to waste such beautiful instruments that had such possibility of being great, but he can't really do anything about it and just stares at them all sadly, mentally wishing them well.

It's funny; Ryou can be kind and compassionate and sympathetic to instruments, but not to human beings.

Finally, Bakura stops in front of the small doorway in the far back that Ryou saw earlier.

The only sound now is breathing from the two boys.

Then, finally, Bakura says,

"Stay close."

And he disappears into the dark door ahead of them.

Ryou blinks once.

Only once.

Then, he looks back behind him at the saddening sight of broken cellos and guitars and violins that are visible somehow in the darkness and follows after Bakura.

The two walk in darkness for a while with Ryou only keeping near Bakura thanks to the other boy's clattering footsteps on what he thinks is a stone floor.

It's cold down…wherever they are. And Ryou hears faint water-dripping sounds, too.

Then, finally, he catches faint moonlight on the ground up ahead.

Bakura and Ryou both pick up the pace at the sight of the light.

But they don't get to the light.

They don't get to the silvery, appealing moonbeams because a voice stops them,

"You drugged Duke. How clever."

Ryou's heart pounds in his ears as he turns slowly.

There stands Seto Kaiba, Joey Wheeler, Yugi Mutou, and Tristan Taylor.

Seto is smirking with his arms crossed. Joey is staring wide-eyed. Yugi is glaring. And Tristan is laughing.

Bakura rushes forward to Ryou's side.

This is it. We're in so much freakin' trouble. I'm gonna either be sent home or to another hospital, and Bakura's gonna—

"Don't say another word, Kaiba," Bakura sneers, interrupting Ryou's anxious barrage of thoughts.

Joey takes the liberty of replying before his best friend can.

"It's true. You do have a secret passageway," Joey says, and his voice is timid but breathy with excitement and awe.

Tristan bursts into a quick, mocking chuckle. "What do you mean, Joey? Did you think he had a magic wand that zapped him out of this place? God."

His voice is dripping with a nasty sarcasm.

Joey looks down, and he begins to twist the edge of the sweater he's wearing over his pajama top while his eyes become watery.

Whoa, Joey is really sensitive, Ryou thinks as he watches the young man's reaction.

"N-no I just wasn't…" Joey trails off, because he's convinced himself that he sounds like a total idiot who has no idea what he's talking about and who will obviously be looked down upon and hated by everyone because of it, even though it's nothing like that at all because everyone knows Tristan's just a cranky (ex?)-pothead who was a jerk in the first place and likes to insult pretty much everyone.

Seto turns with a consoling smile and immediately grabs Joey's hand, stopping it from twisting the edge of his blue sweater any more with a comforting grasp, and just like that, Joey seems to be a little better, because he smiles in response a tiny bit.

Then, Seto turns from Joey and glares daggers at Tristan.

"Just shut it, Taylor," Kaiba hisses.

Tristan rolls his eyes.

Yugi huffs.

"What are you two doing down here?" the tri-color-haired boy asks, directing his question towards Bakura and Ryou and trying to stop a fight between Tristan and Seto.

Ryou shuffles awkwardly on his feet.

Bakura, ever-confident, tosses the hair out of his eyes (which promptly falls back again, Ryou notes) and answers coolly,

"It's better than being stuck up there in bed like you guys were."

Tristan glares.

"Well, we're not up there anymore. We heard you and Ryou rushing through the halls and woke up."

"We followed you here," Yugi finishes, his glare deepening. Obviously, he's not too fond of the fact that his best friend and his now-self-proclaimed rival are running around together in hidden passages at 12:00 AM.

Bakura shrugs. He turns and begins walking towards the moonlight again.

"Then join the fun," he says nonchalantly. Then, he turns around, glaring so sharply that even Seto nervously shuffles a little. "But don't say a word about this night ever again."

Everyone's eyes widen.

Ryou regains his composure and rushes forward to follow Bakura.

There's a moment of silence.

Then, Ryou hears the footsteps of the rest of the guys trekking wordlessly after.

The moonlit area was actually many areas.

Everyone's breaths were taken away as soon as they reached the source of the light.

In front of them were three huge tunnels with windows scattered down their hallways, spilling in silvery night light.

Ryou blinks.

Bakura takes one step forward, doesn't turn around, and says to Ryou quietly,

"This is my secret."

Now he raises his voice so that everyone can hear what he says.

"This is how I get out."

Yugi takes a few steps forward, still taking in the unexpected sight.

"So…do each of these tunnels lead somewhere different?" he asks.

Bakura nods.

"Yeah. They were built way back with the original building; they were constructed so that the patients didn't have to walk through cold weather to get from one part of the building to another, `cause apparently, this men's ward is huge," the boy explains. "These tunnels are actually pretty forgotten about, too, even by the guards, so it's pretty much just me down here."

There's an awe struck silence for a bit, and then Bakura surprisingly says,

"Come on, there's somewhere I want to show you."

Thanks guys x