AN: Thanks for all the supportive comments regarding all the rather flame-y reviews I got, guys =)

So, okay, I don't mind stupid comments, but one thing really bugged me for some reason: someone wrote that 100% of published novelists don't write in the present tense. Um, Time Travellers Wife? Fight Club? American Psycho? ALL present tense novels. Look it up.

Yeah, just felt like clearing that up.

ON WITH THE FIC. In present tense, I might add =)

Borderline

"People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

-Abraham Lincoln

15 ; Strike!

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

It's a bowling alley.

There's a bowling alley in the basement of the psychiatric hospital's men's ward.

Go figure.

After walking through the one big tunnel to the left, the passageway split into several different tunnels, and Ryou found himself rather confused. The whole setup down there was rather intricate, so he kept close to his best friend, who knew his way well.

Finally, they came to a battered looking brown door. Bakura opened it, and immediately, a lane with pins and six bowling balls came into view.

Joey laughs in unexpected joy (which Seto smiles - yes, smiles - at, Ryou notes), Tristan follows suite and chuckles in disbelief, and Yugi exclaims, "Whoa!"

Ryou is beaming, and Bakura is smirking.

But no one moves.

As happy as everyone is, no one moves forward to start the bowling game.

It's too awkward (for some unknown reason), and no one's sure how to break the ice.

But then Ryou, being Ryou and ever energetic, eager for fun, is the first to rush forward after a frustrated sigh. (Everyone is wasting valuable game time!, he thinks in annoyance) He grabs a bright red bowling ball, turns grinning madly at his companions, and exclaims,

"C'mon you guys!"

Everyone bursts into laughter.

But they come and play, too.

Bakura and Ryou are sitting on the side of the lane, waiting for their turns to bowl.

Ryou is bouncing slightly in his seat, buzzing with excitement, beaming, and swinging his legs back and forth; Bakura is simply watching with a smirk, amused.

Yugi is up. He grabs a navy blue ball, and rushes forward, letting it go at the last minute. It slides across the smooth lane and crashes into the pins, knocking down all of them.

The guys all start clapping, and Ryou glows with happiness as he "whoots" and exclaims,

"Yeah! Strike! Go Yugi!"

Yugi bows, smiling and giving Ryou a playful "thank you, thank you!"

Then, Yugi sits down, and Tristan's up.

"All right Tristan!" Ryou cheers as the man walks over to the lane.

And suddenly, he feels like something's not quite right.

He turns.

Bakura is staring at him.

Staring at him blankly.

Ryou feels a shiver run through him.

Bakura is staring at him blankly, but Bakura is looking right in his eyes, and Ryou knows right away that Bakura's piercing dark brown gaze is reading his every thought and Bakura is figuring him out by the second.

Ryou swallows. And suddenly, he knows why Bakura is suddenly acting so weird towards him, and he knows what he has to do.

"Tonight," he starts softly, putting a true, hopefully reassuring smile on his face for his best friend. He then reaches out and touches Bakura's thin hand comfortingly. "Tonight, we're all friends. We can be friends without worrying about other stuff. No fights, no past troubles, no resentments, nothing else. Just friends. It'll be okay for tonight."

Bakura doesn't smile.

Bakura doesn't smirk.

Bakura doesn't laugh.

But his face loses that frighteningly empty stare and he simply turns his head, replying,

"Nothing will ever be okay."

After the bowling alley (the winner was a tie between Joey and Yugi because they all found out that Joey's a really good bowler, apparently), Bakura announces that he wants to show everyone one more place.

"Wow, Bakura, you obviously use these tunnels a lot!" Joey exclaims, still radiating utter joy from the fun he had back at the bowling alley.

Seto beams at Joey's happy state; this is what he lives for, now. He lives to see Joey smile, because without Joey there would be no living for him. Without Joey, Seto would be alone and without help. His nightmares would hold him captive, and he would never be saved or have an outlet, and he knows that if that were the case, he'd kill himself in the blink of an eye.

Seto squeezes Joey's hand a little tighter.

"Well, I don't always come down here just to escape. Sometimes I just get bored at, like, 1AM and come down here to explore," Bakura answers. "So I discover a lot."

Ryou blinks. He leans into Bakura's ear.

"But I thought you said yesterday you can't break out of seclusion!"

Bakura turns and smirks at Ryou.

Their noses graze, and Ryou shivers a little.

"There were guards around, Ryou. You've gotta be careful about what you say and when you say it," Bakura explains.

Ryou nods.

"But, to answer your question, I have my ways to get out of a lot of sticky situations," Bakura adds, grinning mischievously, and then he turns down a hallway, leaving Ryou both utterly confused and mesmerized.

The library.

Ryou often walked passed it when he was on his way to Dr. Potts's office, but never before had he actually been in the place.

Bakura led them through one more twirling tunnel, and then finally up a dusty, creaking flight of steps before he opened a door and revealed the room of books to everyone.

They were all wordless at first; then Seto blinked and whispered,

"Wow."

Bakura nodded.

"Yeah, `wow'," he agreed, and then he ambled forward before stopping at the mahogany desk a few feet from Ryou. He plopped down in the stiff chair. A pair of huge reading glasses off to the side suddenly caught his eye, and he slipped them on, looking utterly ridiculous wearing the oversized spectacles.

Everyone chuckled.

Bakura then waved his hand and in the same playful, mocking voice he used to make fun of Dr Potts instructed,

"Sit, everyone, sit!"

So now, all the boys are nicely spread out across the library, some on chaise lounges, and others in a stiff armchair. They're all silent, admiring the array of books around them.

Seto smiles a small smile.

"I haven't read a book in so long."

Joey smiles sadly in response. "You read so much back home. It's no surprise this is hard for you."

Seto nods weakly.

Ryou turns his attention to his best friend, who has now turned on the reading light on the desk and is flipping through a file he has pulled out (pulled out from where, Ryou doesn't know).

Suddenly, without a word, he chucks the folder across the room towards Ryou.

"What the heck, Bakura?" he exclaims, flying forward (taking care to not fall out of the chair), and barely catching it.

Bakura doesn't look up from the second folder he's now skimming through.

"Read it," he simply says.

Ryou looks down.

It's a barrage of disgust and familiarity that hits him when he sees what the item is.

Just like his school record, it's a manila folder. Just like his school record, on the tab, it reads: RYOU BAKURA. But unlike his school record, it is also labeled "Patient File".

Ryou chuckles inwardly.

Yugi, who had peered at the object as soon as he could over Ryou's shoulder, exclaims,

"`Patient File'? Bakura, how'd you know these were here?"

Bakura chucks the second folder at the short boy.

"Don't ask questions, Yugi. Just read."

Yugi blinks, but doesn't say another word.

Soon, all six boys' files are distributed to their proper owners, and it's utter silence again as all the boys go through what ranges from weeks to years of confidential information about themselves.

Ryou reads his file with expectations of bad news and isn't that bitter when he sees the reports of: Indecisive, confused, rude, reckless, disobedient. Patient exhibits ill will towards those trying to help and shows signs of being unstable.

At that last part, "unstable", Ryou can't help but laugh.

Bakura looks up as he hears his best friend's chuckle. He smirks. "What?"

Ryou swallows. "`Shows signs of being unstable'," he quotes, and then looks up in his friend's eyes. "Well, I guess that's me, now."

Bakura rolls his eyes.

"That's everybody at sometime in their life."

Now, across the room, Seto, as soon as he opens his file and skims the first page, slams it shut.

Everyone turns.

"Kaiba?" Yugi asks, genuinely a bit concerned.

Seto stares straight ahead, his eyes glimmering with tears, shaking a bit. He hesitates, and really only answers when Joey puts a soft hand on his arm to show that he's very worried.

"It's a log," he starts, his voice quivering a bit. "A log recording of every single one of my nightmares they know of." He looks down, and wraps his arms around himself. "Five years of nothing but terror and Hell," he mutters, and that's the end of that.

Joey's file makes him frown, (he reads it as he soothingly rubs Seto's back, by the way) because at the very end of the second page, it's written: Patient does not see his own worth.

As soon as he reads it, Joey mumbles,

"Liars."

Yugi sighs as he looks through his. His obsessive compulsive behaviors, as he reads about them, annoy himself. But he feels hopeless because he knows there's nothing he can do about them. Not now, at least.

Bakura slams his file shut after he's read a couple pages and mutters various obscenities at Dr. Sampson, the head psychiatrist that works exclusively with him and the one who wrote the majority of his papers.

Ryou raises an eyebrow.

Bakura stares back in response; his eyes narrow in thoughtfulness and bitterness.

"I'm a `disaster', `hopeless', and `dangerous'," he quotes angrily, and Ryou frowns.

He really feels bad for Bakura, sometimes.

Then, everyone turns to Tristan, who is simply lying on the chaise lounge, almost asleep, file closed neatly next to him.

Joey stares.

"You're okay with what they wrote about you?" he asks softly.

Tristan shakes his head. "They said some pretty bad stuff."

Bakura blinks. "And you're not pissed…why?"

Tristan smiles smugly.

"Because at the very end they wrote: CURED."

R&R guys =)