AN: Hey everybody!

Thank you so, so much for all your amazing comments.

For those of you that got a tad confused I am not done with this story, there's a fair few chapters to come yet. BUT I have finished writing the first draft of the story, but I'm probably gonna change/edit a fair bit before I post it =)

Borderline

"So progress report:

I am missing you to death."

-Fall Out Boy, "I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"

17 ; Sit Tight

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

Duke comes every day for a week.

Everyday that man walks in, always grinning, and plays whatever Bakura or Ryou tells him.

He plays it well, too.

And every time Duke plays, Ryou watches as Bakura smirks and watches the man. Ryou watches as Bakura occasionally nods in approval or joins in on a certain part of the song, and Ryou notices how they both play together so well.

And Ryou knows that he might just be losing his best friend.

Ryou is walking down the hallway one morning when he hears something.

By the nurses' station, Jared and Duke are standing, talking. Jared is clearly speaking to his subordinate about something important, and Duke is nodding solemnly.

Ryou smirks.

He slides up sneakily to hide behind a wall and listen in on the conversation. (He's good at that sort of thing.)

"Duke, I just want you to be careful," Jared says, all seriousness.

Duke frowns. "Don't worry. I've only been going for about a week, and we just play music. If anything, I think it's helping them," he replies.

Jared doesn't say anything for a moment; he just stares thoughtfully. Then, he nods slowly. "All right. But please, Duke, be careful. I know you're the closest in age to them, and I know that you want to help, but they're sociopaths, don't forget. They're not normal."

Ryou smiles at the head guard's words.

Duke nods understandingly. "I'm completely aware and careful of that," he assures. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Jared smiles. Then, he leans in closer. "And Duke? Keep a close eye on Ryou. I'm worried about him."

Ryou frowns; immediately, his stomach drops. What did he tell them? Didn't he tell them to not worry about him?

"He's hanging around Bakura, you know. That's not good," Jared finishes, and Duke simply blinks.

Then, the younger man shuffles on his feet uneasily.

"Yeah, Jared. I know," he finally mutters in reply.

Jared nods and smiles. "Also, Duke, I'd like you to see if there's any way this whole `music' thing could be used to get Bakura to cooperate in therapy. The way you talk about it, it seems like when he plays, those walls of his go down. See if you can look into that more; try and get inside his head so we can stop this mess."

Ryou's jaw drops a little.

No. No, no, no.

They're going to use Bakura's passion against him.

Duke just stares at his superior for a moment. Then, he clears his throat.

"All right, but, I have to, um, go now. But I'll talk to you later," Duke says, and when Jared nods, he scampers off as fast as he can.

When Ryou was little, the kids hated him because he told secrets.

Even if it was his "best friend" who told him, Ryou would run off the second after the information was revealed and spread it around the playground.

It concerned his teachers.

His parents tried to talk to him about it.

But Ryou only really stopped telling secrets when he finally had no information to actually tell, because after a while no one told him secrets anymore.

Ryou Bakura thinks back on those kindergarten days because Ryou Bakura has a secret now, when he's eighteen years old.

He has a secret that will give him his best friend back all for himself.

What Jared said to Duke about trying to "get inside his head" would make Bakura so furious that Duke would be forever banned from the Art Room and it would just be Bakura and Ryou again. Bakura and Ryou would "be close in their own way" again, and Ryou would be oh-so happy.

But as soon as Ryou walks into the Art Room, at 12:45 (the typical time they met there to play), all anxious smiles and eager to share what he knows, his heart falls to his feet.

There, Duke stands smiling with Seto, Yugi, Tristan, and Joey.

Bakura is sitting confidently in front of the group, staring at all of them.

No one has acknowledged Ryou's presence.

He walks in fully.

"What's going on?" he asks, his tone angry and annoyed.

Duke turns around. He smiles brightly.

"Oh, hey, Ryou. The other day, Seto asked me if he and the other guys could come and join us here to play some stuff. So I brought `em and Bakura said it was fine," he explains.

Ryou wants to scream and kick and hit and tackle Duke to the ground.

No.

Duke was already enough.

Now, everyone else wanted to come and join in, too.

Now, it wasn't special "Bakura and Ryou time" when they came to play music. Now, apparently, it was "Every fucking person in Ward 227 time".

And the worst part was, Bakura apparently agreed to it.

There would be no "secret-telling" for Ryou today, and there probably wouldn't be for a long, long time.

If he dared to tell the secret now, everyone would gang up on him in defense of Duke (because, really, they'd probably think Ryou was just being a jealous jerk [which, admittedly, he kind of is]), and Bakura wouldn't believe him and it'd just be a mess.

Hopelessness wells up in the pit of his stomach.

Ryou's losing Bakura faster and faster.

And there's not a thing he can do about it.

Ryou is sulking in the corner of the Art Room.

He's sitting on top of an old guitar case, and his knees are pulled up to his chest.

For the past half an hour, everyone has ignored him.

All they've been doing is blabbering about what he and Bakura have written and ideas to add to the songs or notes to start new ones. (Ryou's really furious that they're going to dare and touch his and Bakura's songs.)

Not once in the past thirty minutes has someone picked up an actual instrument.

"Okay, so, let's get this all straight. Who plays what?" Bakura suddenly asks, demanding silence just by simply speaking.

Seto uncrosses his arms for a moment. "I play bass."

Tristan answers, "Guitar."

Joey shyly smiles. "Guitar and piano and drums."

Duke smiles. "Bass and guitar."

Yugi stares at Bakura; there's something unspoken between them in that moment, and Bakura says,

"I know, Yugi. But don't tell me, tell them."

Yugi sighs. He turns toward the rest of the group. "I play drums."

Now, everyone's turned to the back towards Ryou.

He chuckles inwardly.

Well, what do you know; he thinks bitterly, they actually do want to include me.

"I play guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, piano, violin, and cello," he says, and smiles smugly when everyone's jaws drop.

Bakura rolls his eyes.

"Everyone grab an instrument they know and let's get started, then," he announces, purposely taking the attention off of Ryou.

Duke, Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Seto obey.

And Ryou?

Well, he frowns, but he gets up anyway.

Right before the boys all start playing, Duke pulls Ryou aside.

Ryou wants to yank Duke off of his arm and chuck the guy across the room, but instead he just narrows his gaze a little bit and keeps a clearly annoyed and/or disgusted look (whichever is worse) on his face as the man starts talking to him.

Duke ignores Ryou's hostility and simply smiles weakly.

"Ryou," he starts.

Ryou rolls his eyes.

"Look, I just want to say…thanks," Duke says, obviously feeling a bit awkward.

Ryou blinks as soon as the words come out, trying to hide his surprise and wide eyes.

One of the things about Duke that annoys Ryou the most is his genuine "niceness".

Ryou's not used to "niceness".

"What for?" Ryou replies in a bitter, disbelieving sort of voice.

Duke had nothing to thank him for. In fact, Ryou was hoping Duke would hate him because of the way he was purposely snubbing him.

"For letting the other guys and me play with you and Bakura. I know this was sort of a special thing for you two, and I appreciate you letting us join in. It's nice for us all; we haven't gotten to play instruments in forever," Duke explains, and then his smile widens at the end of his statement. "It means a lot."

Ryou swallows heavily.

The, he shakes Duke off and looks away, muttering,

"Whatever."

Hurrhurr. I'm rather fond of jealous Ryou =)