AN: I can't think of anything to say about this chapter. Enjoy though =)

Borderline

"I can't think of anything else to write about besides families. They are a metaphor for every other part of society."

-Anna Quidlen

19 ; Hidden Value

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

"It's my birthday."

Ryou looks up.

Bakura is smirking, leaning his head over Ryou's from behind.

Ryou feels a big smile crawl onto his face.

"I'm nineteen," Bakura proclaims, and hops to the front of Ryou's plastic chair. "They're getting me a chocolate cake for tonight."

Ryou glows; the thought of a truly happy, simple birthday celebration makes him feel all giddy.

"That's great! Happy birthday!" he says, and Bakura nods.

Then, Bakura plops onto the floor, cross-legged. He smirks up at Ryou.

"So, what's my present?" he asks.

Ryou's eyes widen.

Present?

What?

How?

How was he supposed to get a present for Bakura if the farthest he strayed from Rockford's grounds was the gardens out back once a day for forty-five minutes? He couldn't go into town. And he didn't even have any money! Did anyone else get him a present—?

"I'm kidding, Ryou."

Ryou snaps out of his worried frenzy to see Bakura staring at him, trying to hold back a laugh.

Ryou can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Oh. Okay," he says and smiles weakly.

Bakura throws his head back and finally lets out several chuckles.

"Yeah, don't get yourself all worked up, Ryou, even though it was pretty funny to see your face. They don't let us get presents here," he says, and at the last part of his sentence, he frowns.

Ryou finds himself frowning, too.

It must be hard for Bakura, he thinks.

Bakura has no one. He doesn't have a family that cares. He doesn't have a true control over himself or the environment he's in. He doesn't even have real love or feelings, it seems.

Before he knows it, Ryou is down on the ground pulling Bakura into his arms.

His heart is pounding and he feels Bakura tense up with the sudden hug, but he knows that for once Bakura really needs to know that someone cares.

That he cares.

"Once we get out of here, Bakura, I'll get you a present," he whispers, and Bakura pulls away.

"I-I have to go," he stammers, refusing to look into Ryou's brown eyes, and it's the one time Ryou has seen Bakura actually show his discomfort.

In September, the boys watch as the traffic outside of Rockford's grounds gets busier as the students pour into the state college that's just down the road.

All six patients are sitting at the windows, lined up one morning, watching.

Yugi sighs wishfully.

"Do you guys ever think we'll get to go to college?" he asks.

Joey squirms uncomfortably. "I think it'd be kind of fun," he says softly.

Bakura snorts.

"Psh, yeah right. Having a bunch of know-it-all, elitist professors cramming useless information down your throat really sounds fun," he says, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Joey frowns and Seto elbows Bakura roughly, purposely.

Bakura rolls his eyes.

"Whatever, you guys. It's not like we could, anyway. I mean, it's not like we're even normal."

And then, he gets up and storms out.

There's silence after he leaves because everyone knows he's right.

On Halloween, Kaiba is hiding in the bathrooms.

He refuses to come out, and has locked the door.

It would be funny if it weren't pathetic.

Duke sighs and bangs his fist on the door for what seems to be the hundredth time.

"Seto, please," he begs. "Please come out. People have to get into the bathrooms and showers and stuff."

Inside comes the ever uncompromising,

"No."

Duke puts his forehead on the door and sighs, defeated.

All the boys are crowded around the guard, their faces housing different emotions. Ryou is confused; Bakura is smirking, devilishly amused; Yugi is biting his lower lip, obviously feeling awkward and sympathetic; Tristan is rolling his eyes; Joey is sadly and thoughtfully looking down at his feet.

Jared finally runs up the hallway to all the commotion.

"Is he still not coming out?" he asks, and when Duke nods, he sighs and shakes his head. Then, he steps up to the door.

"Seto, come out."

"What have I been saying for the past four fucking hours? No!"

"I have the key, Seto. I can get in."

"But you won't be able to get me out!"

Ryou can't help but let a burst of laughter escape at that, and immediately, he gets a dirty look from Joey.

Ryou leans in close to Bakura.

"What is going on?" he whispers.

Bakura leans back into his friend to reply.

"Well…you know what? Just watch," he says, smirking.

Ryou's eyes widen in interest and bit of surprise at the reply, and he obeys.

Tristan finally lets out a huff and exclaims,

"Just open the door. Who cares if the pyscho's in there? I need to use the freakin' bathroom!"

Ryou and Bakura explode into peals of laughter.

Jared rolls his eyes, and just as he's going to put the master key into the lock, Seto suddenly speaks.

"Tonight is the night of demons and the dead."

Everyone is suddenly so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"I don't want to even set foot near that bed, tonight. No way. They'll come and haunt me the worst, tonight."

No one has any idea what to say.

All of a sudden, Joey steps forward.

"Are you sure, Seto? I mean, I'll be right there with you, so maybe they won't come."

Jared's mouth falls open.

Duke blinks.

There's silence at first, and then…

Click.

The door opens.

Joey smiles.

Seto peers out; he looks like a wreck. There are bags under his eyes and his eyes themselves are red from crying. His outfit is askew and his hair is sticking up, but the grateful look on his face shines past everything.

Slowly, so slowly, he steps out.

Seeing everyone standing there, after they had been waiting and begging and going through so much trouble for hours to get him out, he clears his throat awkwardly and announces,

"I'm going to skip my shower tonight."

Then he scampers down the hall as fast he can.

Joey is walking towards Seto's bedroom at 9:30 that same evening, blanket, pillow, and book in hand.

Ryou and Bakura are chatting off towards the side, but as soon as Joey comes into view, they both stop and look.

Jared is the first to walk up to the young man.

"Joey…are you sure you want to do this?" he asks, staring seriously at the patient.

Joey looks insulted suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

Jared frowns.

"This is Seto Kaiba we're talking about, Joey. He wakes up in the middle of the night screeching and sometimes doesn't even sleep. And here you're willingly giving up your room to bunk with him?" the head guard says, disbelief in his voice.

Ryou and Bakura quickly look up at Joey's face to see his reaction.

Joey stares silently at first.

Then, Ryou watches as Joey Wheeler gets the most confident, sure look on his face he has ever seen and his eyes narrow. He looks Jared dead in the eyes and announces,

"Absolutely. It's the least I could do for him."

The day of Christmas Eve, Jared allows everyone's parents to come and visit.

"Christmas is a time of gratefulness and family," he announces that morning. "So your folks are allowed to come for several hours this afternoon and tonight to share a meal with us."

Bakura bangs his head back against the sofa and Ryou groans.

The last thing either of them wants is to see their parents.

But regardless, at six o'clock that afternoon, in walks Ryou's father.

Ryou's eyes widen.

Since he's last seen him, he's…changed.

His father seems a bit more tired, and does Ryou see a few gray hairs on his head?

He swallows and walks up to him.

"Hey, Dad," he greets, and lets himself be pulled into a hug.

Thus started an evening full of introductions, discoveries, and meetings.

It was amazing to see how all his friends felt about their parents and how their feelings all differed.

Starting with: Yugi.

Yugi was beaming the entire time he was with his mom and dad. The entire family looked picture-perfect, his parents were both extremely nice and welcoming, and immediately Ryou's father and Yugi's parents got along and started chatting away.

Ryou was standing with Yugi off in the corner at one point and asked him,

"Aren't you mad that they sent you here?"

Yugi shook his head.

"No, I agreed to it. I need help, Ryou. They know I do too, and even though they miss me like crazy, they're still willing to let me get that help."

Ryou is officially jealous of Yugi's relationship with his family.

The next encounter that evening was with Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.

Tristan stood there the entire time, rolling his eyes like a frustrated teenager and ignoring everything his parents said. Right away, Mrs. Taylor started going off to everyone about how happy she was that her son "overcame his addiction".

Ryou snorted when he heard that.

Seto Kaiba doesn't have any parents. All Ryou knows is that they died when he was a small child, but Seto won't tell anyone more than that (which kind of annoys Ryou).

Seto's younger brother, Mokuba, visited him instead. That went nicely; he was very outgoing and surprisingly hopeful about his brother's situation.

Joey seemed really shy about his parents at first; they were warm and always cooing over Joey, even though they were separated. They seemed pretty apologetic because, apparently, Joey's younger sister Serenity couldn't come.

Duke's parents even showed up. As usual, his father got along rather well with Mr. and Mrs. Devlin, and Duke and Ryou also spent the entire time actually chatting with one another.

The evening was going just fine until the very final encounter.

Ryou spotted his best friend over in the corner, alone, watching everyone scamper around and chat with a blank look on his face.

Ryou walked over.

"Bakura!" he called, putting a smile on his face even though his insides were spinning with nerves.

Bakura looked up. His face paled as soon as he spotted Ryou's father standing behind him.

Ryou took a breath in and stopped in front of the slightly older boy. "Bakura, this is my Dad. Dad, this is Bakura," he introduced, trying his best to hold his composure.

At first, Bakura and Ryou's father just stared at each other.

No doubt he had heard about Bakura. Oh, he most certainly had. But he hadn't heard exactly good things considering the fact that most of the information he learned about Ryou didn't come from Ryou but Dr. Potts or Jared, who don't like Bakura very much.

Ryou's father smiled.

"Hello, Bakura," he said, his voice firm with a classic fatherly tone. "So nice to finally meet you."

He cleared his throat a moment, and then added,

"I've heard a lot about you."

Ryou shuffled on his feet when he said that.

Bakura simply nodded politely.

Then, it happened.

Up walked a woman.

She had long white hair and dark brown eyes and a soft face with pouty lips and milky skin. She was dressed in a nice blue outfit with three-inch heels and her face was decked out in eyeliner and lipstick and eye shadow.

She looked like some kind of model or actress, and Ryou found himself sort of surprised when she opened her mouth, and in her oh-so charming voice said,

"Hi there. I'm Bakura's mother."

Bakura immediately looked down, his body tensing, crossing his arms, his jaw tightening, his face paling worse than paper, every part of him showing disgust and shame.

Ryou felt pity well up inside of him so fast that it shocked him.

This was the woman.

This was the woman that left Bakura. Hurt him. Lied to him. Didn't really love him. (As far Ryou was concerned, at least.)

Ryou's father showed no ill will at all, and immediately his face lit up in happiness and he quickly introduced himself. They talked a bit, Bakura's mother and Ryou's father, until finally, she looked and smiled at Ryou.

"You're Ryou, right?"

Ryou narrowed his gaze. It was only when his father elbowed him in the side—hard—that he finally answered,

"Yeah. That's me. Your son's best friend."

Bakura's mother looked taken back at the harsh tone that Ryou used at first, but then she quickly re-gained her composure and smiled.

"Nice to meet you," was all she said.

Now, fifteen minutes after that first meeting, Ryou stands with Bakura in that same corner and they both watch in disgust as everyone hops here and there and talks and laughs like everything is apparently just fine and they're not in a freakin' mental institution with their children.

Bakura suddenly speaks.

"I wasn't sure which would be worse. Having her come, or having him come."

Ryou looks to his friend.

And Ryou almost falls down with shock because Bakura's face is etched in actual, bona-fide misery.

"I suppose I should just be happy either of them came, you know?" he whispers, and he glares across the room at his glowing mother who's happily chatting with Mrs. Devlin.

There's quiet, because quite honestly, Ryou doesn't know what to say.

"He's in the hospital. All those years and all those bottles of vodka and beer finally got to him. They think he'll live maybe about a year or something like that."

Ryou wants to scoop Bakura in his arms like he did on his birthday and let him know that he cares, but he restrains himself, and simply swallows heavily.

Bakura looks down at his feet and moves the toe of one shoe across the tile floor in a line—back and forth.

"That's why he couldn't come tonight, she said. She said otherwise, he would have been here in a second."

Ryou's eaten more food than he probably would eat in five years. (Everyone always said that his eyes were bigger than his stomach; he completely agrees.)

He vaguely wonders, as he sips his soda and watches everyone chatter happily around him and feast on the remainder of their meals, why they don't cook really good food like this all the time.

He takes a deep breath in.

Slowly, he scoots his chair back and gets up. He lightly touches his father's back. He flinches a little, and Ryou notices he's in a laughter filled, oh-so engrossing conversation with Mr. Taylor. Finally, he begins to tear himself away.

"Yes, Ryou?" he says.

Ryou jams his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm gonna go take a walk. Let my stomach settle before dessert and stuff," he announces.

He nods.

"Okay, but don't be back later than fifteen minutes."

Ryou rolls his eyes, but nods and then walks off.

He's not even sure where he's going.

He just knows he has to get out of the room.

After a while, the picture-perfect, happy setting of the Christmas Eve dinner kind of made Ryou sick. Not to mention, he hadn't seen Bakura all night.

As he opens the door to go into Ward 227, he gets a sudden rush of chills.

To see the ward silent and dark with the exception of a few lights here and there is strange for him. He's used to it buzzing with his friends and guards and he's used to the now eerie atmosphere being filled with music or clever ideas.

Then, all of a sudden, the strange silence is broken.

"Bakura, I don't know what your problem is. I just don't understand you!"

There's a faint voice coming from farther down the hall. Ryou recognizes it as Bakura's mother.

"Join the club," comes his easily recognizable, sarcastic best friend's voice, followed by a bitter laugh as well.

Ryou quietly scampers closer to the voices. Immediately, he realizes that the two are in the Art Room. He rushes forward, hides behind the doorway, and watches.

They're standing in the moonlit room, arguing.

Bakura is in front of a chair by the table covered in instruments, and his mother is pacing around by the back window.

She's rubbing her forehead in what must be frustration and sighs.

"Look, Bakura, I care. I really do," she says, a desperate tone to her voice.

Bakura scoffs; she glares.

"I just don't see why you don't see that! I'm trying. I'm trying to get involved and help you because I know you need it! I'm going to and want to start to be here to help you and guide you! I want to be your mother, Bakura! For once in your life! I've done some thinking and decided I need to make changes," she cries, turning and standing, staring straight into her son's eyes, seeming genuinely upset.

At first, all Bakura does is stand stick-straight, silently. Then, he slowly takes his hands and places them on top of the chair in front of him.

"Well, Mom…" he starts, his voice faintly mocking. He looks up at her. "Maybe you should have thought of that before I was thrown into the fucking mental institution!"

He thrusts the chair he was holding on to forward in fury; it topples to the ground in a loud clatter.

Then, with one last death glare directed towards his mother, Bakura storms out of the dark room.

=)