AN: Hey everyone.

Thanks so much for all the comments. =)

I've officially finished writing this story, but I've still got a lot of editing and whatnot to do, so bear with me xD

The lyrics in this chapter are from Panic! At The Disco's 'Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks'...I was listening to it and it fits pretty well.

Anyway…

…Enjoy!

Borderline

"Without music, life would be a mistake."

-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

16 ; You Could, You Can

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

The six young men are hurrying back upstairs at 3:45 AM because, even though they won't admit it, they're all exhausted. (Even Bakura, who never sleeps, really.)

When they're trekking through the hallway that led them to the tunnels, Joey pulls his sweater closer around himself and mutters,

"It's so friggin' cold."

He then looks up at his best friend, who is wearing nothing but his thin pajama top.

"Seto, how are you not freezing?"

Seto smiles a little and wraps his arm around Joey's shoulder, pulling his best friend closer, and their body heat together makes it a lot less colder for both. Joey grins.

"Oh," he whispers, and then looks back down, blushing a tiny bit.

Meanwhile, Ryou is walking next to Bakura in the far back of the group, watching Joey and Seto, who are up ahead. He frowns and pulls his jacket (he was smart enough to bring one) closer around himself.

"Bakura?" he starts, feeling sort of unsure.

Bakura doesn't look at him but still answers,

"Yeah?"

Ryou swallows a little; he takes a breath in.

"Did you really mean it when you said we were like Seto and Joey?"

There. He asked it. The question that had been nagging at him (as much as he didn't want to admit it) ever since the day Bakura told him that.

There was just this little voice in the back of Ryou's mind that kept telling him that this was a game. Bakura wasn't mentally stable, and because of that, Bakura couldn't really have a best friend; after all, look at how Yugi and his relationship turned out!

Ryou and Bakura's friendship was a game for Bakura in that little voice's opinion, and there were no real connections. In a moment, Bakura could drop it all and Ryou would be left hanging by a thread.

This whole "I'm-worried-and-unsure" thing is new for Ryou; he doesn't like it.

There's a silence after he asks his question. Ryou feels like a total imperfect idiot, and he opens his mouth to say something to negate his past sentence.

"Seto and Joey?" Bakura suddenly replies, stopping Ryou.

Ryou blinks. Bakura isn't mad like he expected him to be. His voice is all pleasant surprise and thoughtfulness.

Ryou nods. "Yeah, Seto and Joey."

Bakura and Ryou turn simultaneously to each other. They stare. Bakura blinks only once.

"No. We're not close in that way."

Ryou's heart falls.

Bakura smirks.

"We're close in our own way."

The boys are standing in a group in the hallway back upstairs.

Their rooms are a few steps ahead, and they're just waiting to give goodbyes. Then, they'll all head to bed.

Problem is, no one knows what to say.

Finally, Yugi, the seemingly bravest one of the group at the moment, speaks up.

"Thank you, Bakura. This was really fun," he says, and then he smiles a little.

Everyone else simply blinks after Yugi speaks, but inside they're all bursting with shock.

Yugi is actually talking to Bakura after their huge fight.

Bakura licks his lips. He's not intimidated in the least bit, even though all eyes are on him, awaiting his answer. He nods slowly.

"Yeah," is all he whispers in reply.

There's an awkward silence.

Joey swallows. He takes a breath in and shuffles on his feet unsurely before,

"So does this mean we still hate each other?"

Everyone stares.

Bakura smirks.

"Why, Mr. Wheeler, what ever made you think that we hated each other?" he says wryly.

Joey looks down.

"Well, I mean, you had that one fight with Yugi and we all had this unspoken rule where we weren't talking so…" He trails off, because he really doesn't know where to go from there, and he's kind of realized that Bakura's comment was simply sarcastic so he feels like an idiot for even answering.

Seto rolls his eyes.

"You guys," he starts. Everyone turns to him. "After tonight, can we just call a truce?"

There's silence.

Then, Yugi speaks up.

"This kind of all got out of hand," he whispers.

Ryou shifts his body weight from one foot to another. Yugi's completely right; their fight and "silent treatments" were ridiculous, but there's no way he's going to actually admit that.

Seto sighs. "Yeah, it did get out of hand. And after such a great time like tonight…why go back to being all nasty or whatever? That would just mean all the fun we had was a waste."

Tristan suddenly decides to say something.

"I'm going to bed."

And before anyone has a chance to say even one word, he's disappeared into his room.

There's silence after Tristan leaves; Ryou's really getting sick of silence.

"Okay, so, fine. We don't want to kill each other anymore. We'll at least talk and be civil to one another," Ryou exclaims suddenly, aggravated with and breaking the quiet. "Deal?"

Everyone stares at him.

Then, Bakura smirks.

"I'm in," he announces.

And once the two sociopaths have agreed, everyone else is all for it, too.

Thus ended Ward 227's feud.

"Try a minor third," Ryou suggests, leaning over Bakura on the piano a couple afternoons after their tunnel adventure.

Bakura quickly presses the right keys and nods at the result.

"That's sounds good," he mummers, and erases a couple notes to change on the piece of manuscript paper in front of him.

Ryou smiles smugly. "Of course it sounds good. I suggested it after all," he says, only halfway joking.

Bakura turns and smirks at him. "Whatever," he replies, rolls his eyes, and then turns back to the keyboard. He starts to play a tune Ryou knows he's been writing for a while, but then, Bakura opens his mouth and starts to sing, too.

"The hospice is a relaxing weekend getaway where you're a cut above all the rest. Sick and sad patients on first-name basis with all the top physicians…"

There's a tone of bitterness and true emotion to the lyrics as he sings, and Ryou is utterly blown away by that.

He finds it fascinating that Bakura can apparently sing things with such real emotion, and yet not show any real emotion in his actual life or self.

Ryou bites his lower lip a little, asking the question that's been nagging at him for a while now.

"What's in your journal?"

Bakura suddenly flies around, glaring. "What's in my journal is none of your business."

Ryou swallows. "All right," he mutters in response, a little bit defensive, and then turns back to the violin he was messing with before Bakura's piece.

Bakura turns back around on the piano bench and starts playing the beginning to a version of "Karma Police" by Radiohead (another one of those bands Ryou's parents hated him listening to) they wrote.

Suddenly, the boys hear someone walk in.

Immediately, Ryou's violin and Bakura's piano playing stop mid-song.

Duke Devlin stands in the doorway, smiling. "Hey guys," he greets. "Long time no see."

Bakura doesn't say or do anything in reply. Ryou waves a little.

"Are you coming to kick us out of here?" Bakura finally speaks, asking drearily.

Duke frowns a little. "No. I was just wondering—" Suddenly, he stops speaking. It looks like he's a little nervous and feels kind of intimidated.

Ryou smiles. He likes that effect he and Bakura have on people.

"Yes, Duke?" Bakura urges, his tone impatient.

Duke lets a breath out. "I was wondering if I could play with you guys."

Ryou and Bakura are speechless.

But Bakura, ever the one to regain his composure rather quickly and come back with some kind of remark, replies disbelievingly,

"You play?"

Duke nods. Without a word, he confidently walks into the Art Room and saunters over to the table covered in instruments. He picks up an acoustic bass guitar (Ryou loves that guitar, by the way; before Rockford he had never actually seen an acoustic bass guitar, and he thinks it's really awesome.) He then pulls out a chair, plops in it, and starts to play a few measures of music he's obviously memorized.

Once he's done, Ryou finds that his jaw is hanging open a bit in surprise, and Bakura is speechless for the second time in a matter of ten minutes (Which is, as one can expect, unheard of.).

Duke smiles.

"I play guitar, too, but right now I'm really into bass," he explains.

Bakura smirks.

"So you're not as much of a suck-up, goody-two-shoes as I thought, Devlin," he says, and Ryou is quite surprised. That comment is Bakura's twisted version of a compliment. Bakura normally never gives twisted versions of compliments. Ever. Not even to him.

Ryou feels jealousy swirl suddenly inside of him.

"All right, Duke," Ryou starts, his tone a bit more bitter than he wants it. "See if you can keep up."

With that, Ryou picks up an acoustic guitar and pulls the strap over himself. He starts to play one of the trickiest songs he knows, his well-trained fingers flying over the frets and strings.

When Ryou plays music, he's lost.

He's lost, but he knows his way. He gets lost in a world all his own, where people and feelings and problems don't exist, and it's just time signatures and melodies and chords and accompaniments and bass clef and treble clef and grace notes and eighth notes and tempo and pedal and strumming and magic. He gets lost there, because that is where he feels he's closest to perfect. He gets wound up deep in music, and in music is where Ryou just clicks.

While most people would get lost that deep in the music and passion, he knows his way, and can go in or out of that wonderful world whenever he wants.

And that's the world he left to when he was playing with Duke, so when he finished the song, he was still a bit frazzled from his music experience and almost completely unaware that Duke had finished, too.

Duke had finished, too.

Duke managed to keep up a good rhythm and beat while playing with Ryou.

Duke looks up and smiles, green eyes wide.

"You're friggin' amazing, man," he says.

Ryou swallows. His face doesn't change after the sincerely sweet compliment from Duke; it remains etched in that disappointed, disbelieving look.

He gives a glance to Bakura.

The slightly older boy is staring at Duke, an interested look in his eye. That oh-so-well-known smirk is on his face.

Ryou looks back at Duke.

"Go ahead and come and play with us whenever you want," he grumbles softly, and then he sits the guitar back down because he doesn't really feel like playing anymore.

The next day, Duke comes back. He's all glowing smiles and sparkling, excited eyes as he ambles in, dressed oh-so nicely in that uniform of his.

"So guys, whadda ya wanna play today?"

Ryou stares, his gaze narrow.

He was kind of hoping Duke would chicken out and, like, never ever set foot into the ward again, or something.

Bakura stands up.

"How about something by blink-182?" Bakura suggests, but since it's Bakura, it's not really a suggestion. More like a command.

Duke shrugs, smiling a little. "Sure."

He picks up the bass guitar, and then Bakura starts tapping out the opening melody on the piano. The two start the song together, with Ryou standing off the side, watching with arms crossed.

Finally, when it's about to hit the chorus, Bakura slams his hands down on the keys suddenly, and both Ryou and Duke cringe a little at the unpleasant noise.

Bakura flies around, glaring angrily at Ryou.

"Ryou, where's your guitar?" he snaps.

Ryou blinks, but then he catches himself and smirks.

"Oh, sorry I forgot," he says, his tone dripping with sarcasm that Duke pretends not to notice and Bakura catches right away.

"Well then get it now, play it, and shut up," Bakura orders, his voice frighteningly bitter and his eyes narrow.

Ryou glares, grabs the guitar, and loudly plops down in a chair.

Duke twists his fingers awkwardly. (It's not the easiest thing to be caught in a fight between Ryou and Bakura.)

"Start from the bridge," Bakura instructs, and then music is filling the room once again.

=)