AN: Hi guys. Two things:

1. Thanks for all the great reviews. I can honestly say that you guys have given me some really amazing ones throughout this fic and I can't, in all honesty, think of a response to some of them them that I deem, well, good enough to thank you properly (which I find kind of ironic as I wrote this whole fic) xD

But I will reply to all these reviews one day =)

2. This fic has been creeping up on me a little because this is actually the second-to-last chapter. I didn't even realize I was that close to the end. It's all sorts of sad, but I'm excited to start new things too.

So yeah, the next (last!) chapter will probably have a real long AN about how much I've loved writing this and how much I love you guys. You deserve that.

Warning:

This chapter's really intense, emotional, and…yeah.

Enjoy.

Borderline

"We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness."

-Anonymous

22: Cross My Heart And Hope You Die

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

Ryou and Duke slowly slip out of the bedroom.

The two stand in the doorway and peer down the hallway, and Ryou tries hard to get used to the fluorescent light. No one seems to be around, so Duke smiles kindly at Ryou and steps out into the corridor. Ryou follows.

He and Duke had waited a little bit after Ryou's tears subsided to let Ryou regain his composure and hopefully let his red, puffy eyes soften a little bit. They were quiet as they sat and waited in the moonlit room.

Ryou was so thankful to Duke, because Duke just knew that in those minutes Ryou needed the silence and just faithfully sat and watched Ryou carefully, making sure his younger friend was okay.

Finally, Ryou decided that he was feeling a little bit better, and Duke suggested softly that maybe it would be nice to watch a movie with the other guys in the TV room. Ryou agreed.

Now, as he walks to the room, he realizes that his eyes have lost some of their inflammation, but he still feels really embarrassed and awkward for his evidence of crying as he shuffles down the hallway after Duke, who is smiling and acting like his normal laid back self.

This all feels very strange to Ryou.

Never before has he felt this meek and uneasy.

His "epiphany" back in the room seems to have melted away the entire person he used to be. All his confidence, cockiness, and sarcasm is gone. It's as if he's starting all over.

The two arrive at the TV room, and Duke announces in a loud, clear voice,

"Hey, guys, Ryou was wondering if he could come watch the movie with you."

All three boys, who had been seated comfortably on the couch, turn. Their faces peer at Ryou curiously, and Ryou wants to shrink into a little ball as their gazes pass over him. (Once again, all these shy, nervous emotions are really new to him and he's not totally sure what to do with himself.)

But immediately, Yugi's face breaks into a welcoming grin, he scoots over, and he replies cheerfully,

"Of course. C'mon and sit here, Ryou."

Ryou feels horrible as he slowly walks over to the other boys. He plops down next to Yugi and peers at his friends sitting next to him.

Seto is pretending not to be interested in looking at Ryou (who's been cooped up in either A: the living room or B: his bedroom, so he hasn't been seen or talked to in a long time) and keeps his eyes on the TV screen. Joey gives Ryou a soft smile, and Yugi whispers,

"It's good to see you again."

None of them mention his still obviously puffy red eyes or the fact that he's been a recluse for the past 24 hours.

Duke walks up to the arm of the sofa to Ryou's left and sits on it lazily. He starts to watch the movie, too.

Ryou glances up at him.

Duke must sense Ryou's gaze on him, because he takes his eyes off of the screen for a moment and smiles down at him; it's a calming, truly understanding grin.

Duke won't tell a soul about what just happened, and Ryou knows that without a doubt. Duke will keep his "secret" until Ryou wants others to know about it, and Duke won't use his outburst of sobs and emotion as a tool against him.

Ryou knows that he'll never, ever, in his entire life, be as amazing as the four young men sitting around him.

There are voices.

Ryou doesn't know how he even heard them, but he did.

He woke up to echoes.

Slowly, tiredly, he lifted his head from his pillow and, in the grogginess of sleep, looked to Yugi's bed.

As soon as he caught sight of it, he was awake in a flash.

The bedcovers were untidy (so unlike Yugi that it was a bit scary) and wrinkled, and it was obvious Yugi had gotten up to go to the bathroom or get water or something along the lines of that.

But Ryou knows Yugi didn't get up to use the bathroom or to get water. It wasn't that simple. He doesn't know how he knows, but he just knows.

So Ryou slides out of bed and shivers as the cool air clashes with the warm heat radiating from his body, and he tries to ignore the shiver that flies through him as his feet touch the tile.

He ignores the thumping of his nervous heart as he walks to the door, opens it, and peers out.

As soon as he does, he knows something is going on.

Seto and Joey's door is open. They're gone, too.

Ryou bursts out of his room and scampers down the hallway. He catches sight of the nurses' station, and his heart pounds a little harder.

Duke isn't there, either.

He stands in the middle of the corridor after discovering Duke is gone, in the pitch-blackness, alone for a few moments.

Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness and hurt well up inside of him, and he has no idea what to do.

Until he starts hearing those echoes, again.

They sound like ghosts.

But familiar ghosts.

Ryou dashes down the hallway to the Art Room.

It's freezing and Ryou's having a hard time remembering how to find his way around, but he knows he's doing the right thing.

His bare feet tap anxiously against the stone, cold ground of hallway, and he flies through the long passageways, listening for those echoes that are now getting clearer and louder.

Finally, he reaches the place he was hoping to find.

In front of him lie those three tunnels, big, frightening, and dark.

For a split second, Ryou really wishes he'd brought a flashlight.

But he knows he has to keep going no matter what so he takes a deep breath in, shakes off his coldness, and peers as hard as he can through the moonlight to try and see which tunnel he should walk through. It seems hopeless at first because those voices have stopped and Ryou has nothing to try and follow now, until suddenly, words come flying out of the tunnel to the far right.

Ryou doesn't think as he runs forward through the tunnel. It's not until he's halfway down the passageway that he realizes that this is the one tunnel Bakura didn't show them when he and the other guys first came down here.

He's not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

All of a sudden, his feet stop moving and his breath hitches in his throat because in front of him stand five people.

Seto is standing protectively in front of Joey, his dark blue eyes blazing with fury.

Joey is cowering behind Seto, shaking, his face shocked.

Yugi is staring, violet eyes wide as saucers.

Duke stick-straight, his face set like stone in a nervous look.

Then, there's the final person.

All Ryou can see is the back, but the messy white hair and the pale skin and cocky, menacing stance are all too familiar.

Bakura turns around.

Ryou and Bakura's eyes meet, and for a split second, Ryou feels a rush of joy at seeing his best friend again. But then he sees the look in Bakura's eyes, and his blood runs cold.

His friend's stare is dripping with hate and vengeance, and Ryou doesn't think he's ever felt more terrified in his entire life because those feelings are directed at him.

A small gasp resonates throughout the group of young men when they see Ryou standing there.

Bakura's face suddenly melts from pure disgust to a mocking, devilish smirk.

"Why, hello there, Ryou. Come on over," he says, and his voice is loud and dripping with sarcastic sweetness.

Ryou stands there, and he tries to ignore the fact that he's shaking.

Bakura frowns.

"What's the matter? Are you scared?"

Ryou swallows and takes one step forward, then one more, and then before he knows it he's standing right in front of Bakura, and Bakura is smirking in such a disgusting way that Ryou can't understand why in God's name he glares and sneers,

"What are you doing here, Bakura?"

Joey lets out a cry of dismay and exclaims,

"Ryou, be caref—!"

But Bakura flies around and shouts at the top of his lungs,

"SHUT UP."

And no one says another word.

Bakura flies back around to Ryou, and his stare has gone from whatever faux kindness he was pretending to have to pure fury and hatred.

"I guess you're better than all of us, now," Bakura says; his voice is mocking and he raises an eyebrow. "Or, rather, better than me."

Ryou lets out a small, nervous breath.

"Wha—what are you talking about?" Ryou exhales, because he's not even trying to play dumb; he honestly has no idea what Bakura is talking about.

Then, it happens.

Ryou is up against the wall, terror and agony filling his veins, his heart pounding, and he gasps for breath.

Bakura's hands close harder against his throat, and Bakura's dark eyes are merely centimeters away from Ryou's lighter brown ones.

Ryou can feel his best friend's breath on his skin as Bakura sneers,

"Duke Devlin here told me about your little escapade a few hours ago. You decided you don't want to be everything you were. You decided you wanted to change from the oh-so dreadful sociopath you were. You decided to turn your back on me."

Ryou catches Duke's desperately apologetic look out of the corner of his eye, and Ryou immediately forgives him. When Bakura wants to know something, you tell him. Duke only told about what happened between the two of them because he didn't want to die.

"You want to play the hero, Ryou? You want to play the hero who's `turned on his evil ways', the Darkside, and revealed the secrets of the enemy to the good guys? Do you want to be that conforming little back-stabbing snake, Ryou?" Bakura asks, his tone pure poison.

Ryou takes a shaky breath in and tries to pull Bakura's hand off of his neck. (He's hoping this is all a bad dream.)

Bakura smirks and for a split second the hatred is gone from his eyes.

"'Cause if you want to be that "hero", Ryou, I will gladly play the villain," Bakura whispers, his tone terrifyingly mocking.

Next thing he knows, Ryou is on the ground, coughing and sputtering for oxygen, because Bakura finally let go of his throat.

Bakura let him go and spun around, and to the other four, terrified young men, he shouts,

"I'll gladly play the villain because evidentially that's the only thing I'm good at! Right guys?"

Duke takes a breath in. He's trying hard not to show his fear, but a little bit leaks through as he shakily yells back,

"We never said that, Bakura!"

Bakura pauses for a moment. There's silence.

The calm before the storm.

"WELL YOU SURE THOUGHT IT!" Bakura finally shouts, his eyes blaring, and everyone in the room, even Ryou, shrinks back in horror. "You all know that you think I'm this fucked up psycho who's good for nothing except sarcastic remarks and lies and misery! YOU KNOW!"

Bakura takes a furious breath in, and carries on.

"WELL YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK OF YOU GUYS? DO YOU?"

No one says a word in reply, and Yugi has started crying.

Bakura laughs suddenly; it's bitter, evil.

He throws his head back, and drawls out,

"Oh…my…God. You are all so useless."

Ryou can't take it anymore. Still on the ground behind his best friend, he shoots his head up and cries,

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?"

Bakura turns. He stares down at his friend; his face is in that killer glare, and Ryou is shaking again.

Bakura smirks.

"What's my problem? My problem is that you are a traitor, Ryou, and—" he flies around to Duke. "—and you are a liar!" He points to Yugi, Joey and Seto. "And you three are weak, insane, and hypocrites!"

Duke is furious, now. His eyes blare and his fury is stronger than his fear as he spurts back,

"And what was Tristan, huh? What was Tristan? Was he so bad that you had to go and put him in an effing coma?"

Bakura laughs menacingly, hauntingly, again. He calmly walks over to Duke and stares the man down.

"Tristan, my friend," he starts mockingly, "Tristan was just a plain old, good for nothing moron. I should have tried to kill the guy a long time ago."

Seto suddenly snaps.

"You are so insane, Bakura. You're so insane. You're just pissed `cause Tristan knew about all that crap you write in your journal. Well guess what? We all know, Bakura! We all read it! Ryou, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and I all read those oh-so precious pages in your journal! And you know what else? Ryou showed it to us, so I don't think that oh-so special friendship you had was really that special at all!"

Ryou knows that Seto wasn't trying to get him in trouble with Bakura.

Seto was honestly just so furious that he threw out whatever he could to hurt Bakura.

But after the words come out, Ryou feels his heart drop, and for a split second, his vision goes black.

There's silence.

Ryou dares to look up, and when he does, he stops breathing.

Bakura is staring at him blankly.

And for some reason, in that moment, "blankly" is worse than "killer" or "hatefully" or any other dreadful adjective or adverb.

Ryou gets up and runs.

He runs and runs and runs as fast as he ever has in his entire life and doesn't stop to look behind him and races farther down the tunnel (which is lit by tiny, orange fluorescent lights that cast an eerie glow on the corridor ahead of him) and tries to find some way out to safe his effing life.

All of a sudden, he stops. In front of him is a door. He throws it open.

A large storage room lies in front of him. It's filled with boxes of medicine. Valium and all sorts of other liquids are stored in the long glass vials around him, shining menacingly in the blue, moonlit room.

Ryou takes a deep breath in and runs in. He trips over God knows how many boxes and is positive that he'll have far too many bruises on every part of his body tomorrow, but he keeps on sprinting through until—

"Ryou, why are you so scared?"

Bakura's voice echoes behind him, full of sarcasm and hate, and Ryou almost passes out.

He has to get out of there. Find help. Something.

Ryou catches sight of a flight of metal steps leading to a door that has a sign above it reading EXIT. Without giving it a second thought, he begins flying towards it.

As soon as he's there, at the door, he swings it open and—

It's raining.

It wasn't quite cold enough to snow, and outside on the roof almost-freezing raindrops pound the ground.

Ryou's heart races.

He steps out into the air and the cold water melts with his sweat and he takes a shaky breath and every part of his body aches.

He feels like sobbing.

He feels like falling onto the ground and crying for days and days because he can't take it anymore.

But he's not crying, and he's not going to start.

Slowly, so slowly, he begins to walk farther across the roof.

His feet patter against the wet concrete and the raindrops plop around him and he's soaked, but he doesn't take his gaze off of the cloudy night sky as he walks robotically to the edge.

He reaches it.

He looks down at the drop.

His words from the talk with Duke hours ago ring in his mind:

Death seemed like a nice way to let go of it all.

Ryou slowly brings his hands up to the concrete surrounding the rooftop. The stone feels rough and cold as it touches his fingertips.

He thinks that maybe the landing won't be so bad.

After all, he'll be dead right away, so the only scary part would be the falling itself.

But he'd rather die by throwing himself off of a building than to be murdered by his best friend and the one person he loves more than anybody else in the world.

Footsteps echo behind him.

He doesn't turn as someone walks out onto the roof.

He's a bit too caught up in suicide.

"Ryou."

It's Bakura.

Ryou turns his head.

His best friend his standing there, his chest heaving up and down, the rain soaking through the thin t-shirt he's wearing, dripping off of his ghostly white body.

In his right hand Bakura holds a shot. The liquid vial Ryou recognizes as Valium from the room he just passed through. The needle is gleaming and ready.

Ryou knows that if anyone were to be injected with that medicine, the over-dose would kill him within minutes.

Ryou smiles weakly.

"Bakura."

Bakura smirks devilishly, his eyes lighting up with hate.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be me?" he asks, his tone terrifying and quiet.

Ryou doesn't say anything.

"They gave me shocks, Ryou. They strapped be in a chair and shot electricity through me because I wouldn't `cooperate'," Bakura whispers and takes a step closer, bringing the vial of Valium nearer to him. "It took me forever to get out of that fucking room they locked me in, but I did. I came back here, I and tried to find you. But instead I found Seto and Joey and Duke and Yugi and learned that you didn't really want anything to do with me anymore."

Ryou still doesn't move as Bakura moves to only a few feet away from him.

"And now, I find out that you lied and back stabbed me, too. You, my `best friend'. The only person I really, truly—"

Before he finishes his sentence, as if he just realizes what he's saying, Bakura groans loudly. Then, he takes a deep breath in.

"My parents hate me. My dad is all but dead, my brother loathes me, my mom thinks I'm some demon. I have nothing, now, Ryou."

Bakura smirks.

"And quite frankly, I kind of want you dead."

All of a sudden, there's a huge explosion of noise, and Seto, Joey, Duke, and Yugi burst through the metal door to the roof he and Bakura are standing on. Ryou looks up only because he notices something rather peculiar.

Duke's got a gun.

Duke is pointing the gun directly at Bakura, and without words, everyone standing there knows that Duke Devlin will shoot if needed.

Bakura turns from looking at Duke (he seems to be unaffected by the fact he's at gunpoint) and stares back at his best friend.

"Ryou, I was wondering. Can you tell me…why do they hate me?"

Bakura's words come out with an eerie sort of innocent curiousness, and Ryou blinks.

Bakura frowns.

"Oh come on, Ryou. They want me dead. Why is that?"

Ryou suddenly feels words welling up inside of him. They well up to the point of bursting and finally, finally, they pour out.

"Because you're already dead!" Ryou starts.

Everyone's faces immediately read confusion, but Bakura just smirks.

Ryou takes his hands off of the concrete in front of him, and thoughts of suicide are mentally pushed aside for just a moment. He walks forward closer to Bakura.

"You're dead already, Bakura. You have no heart; you don't feel. You don't love. You don't worry for others. You're selfish. You don't have a soul; you don't really think or long to be free. You're dead," Ryou says, his voice rising in pitch and hatred so that by the end of the sentence, he's almost shouting.

"Dead, Bakura. Dead," he repeats himself, his gaze narrowing.

Bakura's begun to shake with rage. He lifts up the shot of Valium.

Duke shuffles a bit closer.

Bakura casts a quick look at Duke, and then turns his gaze full force on Ryou. His eyes are filled with hate.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Bakura hisses, his tone rising as well.

Ryou smirks.

"No idea, Bakura? Really? You think I have no idea?"

He runs forward before he can stop himself, and stops all but two feet away from the other young man.

"I know perfectly well what I'm saying, Bakura. You are a cold hearted, selfish, lying, insane, lost nineteen year old who likes to play games and pretend he knows he's confident and knows who he is when you're really just so pathetic and self-destructive that you can't stand it!" Ryou shouts, and then he sees it.

Tears.

In Bakura's eyes.

His brown eyes are glazed over with liquid and now his lower lip is shaking.

But no pity wells inside Ryou.

None at all.

In fact, only buried fury bubbles up. Fury that he knows has been simmering beneath the surface for God knows how long. And now, it all comes out.

"YOU. ARE. CRAZY, Bakura. CRAZY!" Ryou cries, and Bakura shakes a little harder. "YOU NEED HELP. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW COMPLETELY MESSED UP YOU ARE!"

Bakura lowers the shot of Valium unnoticeably in his thin, shaking hand.

Ryou glares as hard as he's ever glared in his entire life.

Loathing anger fills his veins, and he's shaking, too.

He sees Duke standing off to the side, silent, his chest heaving up and down, ready to shoot a bullet through Bakura.

He sees Seto shivering off to the side of the doorway and staring hard and coldly at all of them.

He sees Joey clutching his arms, trying to both warm and comfort himself, sniffling, tears coming out of his eyes.

He sees Yugi, standing there, staring blankly, his angelic eyes hauntingly dead. Tears roll down his cheeks and his hair mats to his forehead as he watches his closest friend of over ten years stand there, about to A: be shot or B: kill someone, and he must have the same question burning in his brain that everyone else has as well:

Why?

None of them chose to be crazy.

None of them wanted this.

Not even Bakura.

Bakura never once said, "I always wanted to be crazy."

He just said he enjoyed it now that it's happened.

But here they all are, standing on the top of a mental hospital in the pouring January rain, wordless, ready to kill.

Ryou takes a shaky breath in.

"I hate you, Bakura. I hate you more than you will ever know."

Silence but for the rain.

Drip-drop. Drip-drop.

And Bakura falls.

Bakura falls to the ground.

His hands fly up to his head and bony fingers clutch white locks tightly as his hands entangle in his hair and the water pools around him. He clutches his head as hard as he can and his veins almost pop out of his pale, thin skin.

He's in so much pain.

So much pain.

But Ryou doesn't do a thing.

He's shaking; Bakura is on his knees, trembling.

Then, it happens.

Bakura lets out a wail.

In all their lives, Yugi, Seto, Ryou, Duke, and Joey have never heard a wail like that and never again will.

Desperate.

Agonized.

Miserable.

Hated.

Sorry.

Bakura sobs and screams and shouts for what seems like hours but what only can be a few minutes, and everyone just stands there.

Ryou finds his insides turning to goo and his limbs shaking and he starts sobbing and falls to the cold, wet ground.

He brings his hands up to his eyes and digs his palms into them and loves the pain. He lets the tears run and mix with the rain. He lets himself shiver and he lets his teeth chatter and his lips tremble and he lets himself be himself.

Then—

"God, Bakura—!"

Ryou looks up.

BANG.

Silence.

Bakura is crouching in front of him.

His eyes are wide.

His mouth is open.

The vial of Valium has fallen from his hand.

He's shaking.

Blood is soaking through his outfit.

Yugi lets out a sob.

Joey screams.

Seto shouts out various obscenities and Duke wails.

Time moves like molasses and Ryou takes deep breaths in and tries to stop his spinning mind and he hears as Duke and Seto rush over and grab Bakura as he lets out a cry and falls over.

Duke is blubbering, sobbing. The gun has fallen from his hands.

"I-I-I'm so sorry. Oh, God. Oh dear God. I thought he was going after Ryou, I didn't, I oh, God…"

Then, Bakura lets out a huge scream of agony, and Ryou snaps back into reality.

His best friend has just been shot.

Ryou flies forward.

He pulls Bakura into his arms and cries so hard as they mash together in an explosion of blood, sweat, tears, rain, and love.

Ryou buries his head into Bakura's hair and shakes and shakes and mummers whatever comes to mind.

Seto is loudly calling to Joey to get some help and Yugi is running, trying to find something to stop the bleeding.

Ryou slowly opens his eyes, and he can barely see because they're so blurry with moisture. But he looks, and Bakura's gaze meets his and it's so pained that Ryou wants to throw himself off of the roof again just to get the image out of his mind.

Bakura smirks sadly. He's crying.

Tears dance down his cheeks and mix with rainwater and he whispers,

"I'm sorry."

Ryou shakes his head and lets out a sob.

"D-d-don't be…" He inhales shakily and exhales with a wail. "P-please, Bakura, don't be. You'll be okay now…you c-can change…"

Bakura shakes his head.

Ryou shakes his head, too.

"Ryou, I-I don't think I can—" Bakura starts.

Ryou feels fury bubble up inside of him. He balls up his fist and whacks it so had against the concrete of the roof that his hand starts to bleed.

"SHUT UP," he orders, his tone dripping with frustrated anger because he knows he can't control whatever's happening to his best friend and it tears him apart.

Bakura laughs as much as he can. It's bitter, and it's nothing like that laugh Ryou adores and would give anything to hear in that moment.

Then, slowly, Bakura mutters out,

"Please, I know I messed up, but please don't forget me, okay?"

Bakura doesn't know that Ryou hopes everyone else will remember both of them once the night is over, because that edge of the roof is starting to look rather enticing.

And it still hasn't stopped raining.

Ryou sits, his back propped up against the doorway.

It's stopped raining.

He's still on the roof.

The concrete scratches his back and every muscle and bone in his body screams with pure agony. He lets the crisp, cool, clean morning air fill his lungs with his small breaths.

He watches the sunrise with his bloodshot eyes.

Lemon yellow.

Crystal blue.

Creamy white.

Rosy pink.

It's so perfect that Ryou wants to scream at it all.

He almost does, but a voice stops him.

"They're planning on sending you home next week."

Duke has walked out on the roof and leans up against the wall near Ryou. His timing for small talk is both just right and so wrong.

"With some extra, in depth sessions of therapy, they think you'll be fine leaving for home really soon."

Ryou doesn't move.

Duke sighs.

"I have no idea what in God's name to say to you, Ryou."

Ryou shakes his head and smiles sarcastically.

"Then don't say anything," he mummers, and Duke nods.

Then he leaves back through the doorway, and begins talking to whom Ryou recognizes as Jared.

Something stirs.

Slowly, Ryou looks down.

Bakura lies in his lap, his eyes staring up at him. His hair is a wreck; it flies every which way and is still wet. His face is ghost-pale, his body looking thinner than ever. His clothes are soaked in blood, and his arm is wrapped with a makeshift sling.

But Ryou doesn't think he's ever looked more beautiful.

Quiet, delicate words come out of his dry lips. They speak such a pure truth that it sort of takes Ryou's breath away.

"I'm going to miss you, Ryou."

Ryou thinks that in that moment, he's never been more thankful for anything in his entire life than Bakura being alive.

Gently, he reaches up a hand and moves a strand of silky hair out of his best friend's eyes. He rubs the skin softly with his thumb, back and forth, and Bakura closes his eyes and sighs at the touch.

Ryou looks down lovingly and lets a small smile grace his lips.

"Well then you'll have to get out of here pretty fast and come visit me, won't you?" he whispers, and feels his heart hurt a little when a tear rolls down Bakura's cheek and he shakes his head slowly.

Bakura's brown eyes open.

He sniffles.

"I won't be leaving here, Ryou. I'm a `hopeless disaster', remember?" he replies, his voice dripping with misery and a slight mocking tone.

Ryou shakes his head and brings his other hand up to lightly caress Bakura's injured arm.

"No, Bakura. You will leave here. You will be okay. We will see each other again. I promise you."

Ryou leans down and stares unblinkingly into his friend's eyes, their faces inches away.

"I promise you."

Bakura smirks and Ryou's insides swivel with joy as his best friend whispers back,

"Call me crazy, but...I believe you."

I can't get over that this is the second to last chapter! D: How did that even happen?