A/N. I think there's going to be lot of these tonight. And by these I mean author notes!
Firstly the bad news. I have the feared Swedish test tomorrow (scream please, it's just that scary) I suck at Swedish, the language is ten times harder than English, and twice as hard as French, which is pretty hard. But no worries, I will use my awesome guessing powers to pass the test! Plus I can't really say that Swedish is hard, when Finnish is probably one of the hardest languages for foreigners to learn (that's what I heard) Se johtuu näistä meiän oudoista taivutuksista. :D It's because of our weird conjugations.
Also I'm going to re-read my chapters so i can take the most obvious mistakes out of there. :)
But there's a happy thing too. And I bet you either know or do not know what it is :D (my great guessing powers) Yes, I have got my 100th review. (Music please) You people don't know how happy you make me, or maybe you do. But every word you say, even if it really doesn't mean anything, makes me feel warm and happy inside. And I want you to feel warm and happy inside too, my readers, reviewers. I luv 'ya all! If you ever come to Finland let me know, so I can meet you at the airport and give you a real big warm hug. You're the most awesome people I have ever known, even if you just clicked the first chapter and then thought this was bullshit and left (if you did, you won't be reading this nah, nah, nah). Some of you are older than me, which makes me giggle (I don't know why), some of you are funnier than me, it makes me giggle too. And some of you ( I think most of you) are a lot smarter than me, which makes me ponder. I don't deserve you, my readers. I don't deserve you. And if I get a flame someday, I don't deserve that either. You are the most wonderful people in the whole world, and reading your reviews makes everything worth it.
Here's a bit of one awesome song that I want to share with you: 'Without you I'm nothing at all. And life has the face of a morbid game. With you nothing seems impossible. It all seems to fit the frame.' I know it's originally a love song, but I think it fits to this situation.
That was it. I hope I made someone feel warm and happy. :) If I made, my work here is done. Now the chapter:
13. Name
Yami found his other half lying on the roof. A pair of shoes laid next to him, reminding Yami of the body. That man Bakura had killed, was it just few days ago? It felt like forever. Bakura looked like a body too. His arms laid next to his sides, and his empty eyes stared into the stars above him. His chest was hardly moving. Once again Yami wanted to check that his yami was breathing, and he wanted to close those eyes. Eyes of a dead man.
Dead men does not sleep, Yami mused. He felt still angry, but it could wait, at least until he got an answer to the question bugging him. Yami walked next to the motionless body, and stared down at it. There was a silent pause. During it neither of them moved. Bakura just laid and Yami just stared down on him
"You don't sleep much, do you?" He asked finally.
Bakura heard him, Yami knew he did. So he waited for the answer. Bakura struggled to regain his control to his sleeping body. He closed his eyes and opened them, once, twice. Though his body was now awake, he didn't move and his eyes still gazed the beautiful stars.
"Not at all," Bakura said. "Not anymore."
Yami looked at the stars too. They were abnormally bright tonight, usually they disappeared behind the lights of the city. Bakura's answer hadn't surprised Yami. He had knew it all along. That was the thing Bakura had been searching from the ocean that day. He was looking for his dreams.
That could sound poetic, Yami thought, the stars, the cold roof, lost dreams, everything. But neither one of the soul halves were poets, so the idea disappeared and was never made into a poem.
Yami sighed as the wind blew his hair to his face. He moved them away, golden locks, and the white one.
"Aren't you here to yell at me?" Bakura asked from the ground.
"Could you not disturb this moment?"
"Do you like it?"
Yami smiled to himself, when Bakura's silent mumble caught his ears:
"All we need is a sunset..."
"All right, if you really want it," Yami said after another silent moment. "I don't want you in my Soul Room ever again. You understand me?"
Bakura didn't answer, but Yami knew that his yami had understood.
"Can't you let me sleep?" Yami asked.
"Why should I give you something I don't have?" Bakura said. "Plus you could be sleeping right now, but no, you had to climb up to the roof to spend time with me." Bakura chuckled tiredly. "With a person who really can not sleep."
"The island, I know."
Bakura's gaze moved from the stars to Yami.
"Do you?" he asked suddenly full of hate. "Do you think you know?"
Yami was caught off guard.
"I...I well," he stammered, " I can imagine. It can't feel good to be alone for six months. Without food and water and well everything. But you must understand, that I can't regret sending you there. We are... were enemies. Everything is fair in war, right?"
"And in love too," Bakura said and got up. His feet were unsteady, he tried hard to keep his balance. When he regained it, he stood right in front of Yami.
Yami noticed how suddenly Bakura's eyes were full of tired anger, emotions that were bottled up for too long.
"You want me to understand?" Bakura asked, both voice and eyes full of scorn.
Yami nodded. That's what he wanted, though it could be impossible.
"Maybe you should understand first," Bakura said. "It's not about six months, it's not about hunger or pain, it's not about loneliness, it's not about that I couldn't sleep. It's about all of them together, and it's about time. I thought I would be there forever. I thought that I would be there until I just someday would stop being alive, until I would fade away. I thought I would see the same sky, feel the same pain, forever and ever. I thought nobody would come and get me back. You can't understand that!"
Yami looked away.
"I'm going to do something I should have done a long time ago," Bakura said.
Yami thought what it was.
"Look at me, Yami," came the command.
Yami looked. He had never seen so sincere eyes. They hide nothing. For a moment they showed all, the pain, the fatigue, the anger.
That's before Bakura punched him, right in the middle of his face. Yami's nose let out a crack, but it didn't break. Yami didn't think about it. Only emotion he felt was confusion, but acceptive one, in a 'guess I deserved this' kind of way. Only thought crossing his mind was: 'He called me by name. He called me Yami.' It was the first time. Usually Yami was 'Pharaoh' or just 'you' to Bakura. Never before had Bakura said his name, and meant it.
Pain came later.
It came when Bakura was long gone. He had took his shoes with him too. Yami sat on the roof, holding his bloody nose with his hand. He felt pain. He hoped that Bakura felt it too.
In the morning Yugi and his grandpa asked Yami what had happened to him. Yami told the truth.
In the school his friends asked Yami what had happened to his nose. Yami lied.
When Yami was asked third time about his nose. He didn't say anything. He changed subject:
"You're a wise guy Malik, if you put your mind into it. Why can't you help me?"
Malik poured the coffee and gave the other cup to his visitor.
"As I said before," Malik answered, sitting on one of the chair in Ryou's living room. "I have nothing to do with you Yami."
Yami raised his eyebrows, as he sipped the hot coffee.
"You've been spending too much time with Bakura and Marik."
"Wrong," declared Marik's happy voice behind Yami. "If he had been spending too much time with me and Bakura, he would laugh at your silly request."
Yami cursed silently. He had wished to talk to Malik in peace like hikari to another. That was supposed to mean no yamis.
"Marik it's nice to see you too," Yami said.
"You can't say that, because you don't actually see me," Marik said grinning, and after some pondering added: "Unless you have grown eyes to your back. If you have, please tell me how. I want ones too."
Yami turned his head so he faced Marik and said:
"Well you haven't changed since we last time met."
"Neither have you. " Marik sat on the couch, and started twirling his hair around his finger.
"It was yesterday dummy," Malik said and gave his yami a coffeecup.
"A lot of things can change in one day," Marik argued. "For example, Yami can come and ask us a favor even though he knows that last time we lied." Marik smiled charmingly to Yami.
"I'm not asking you to do a favor to only me. If you do that favor, you would do it to Bakura too," Yami said.
Malik sipped his coffee.
"I don't know about it..."
"Bakura already owes us one," Marik remarked.
"But he's your friend!" Yami yelled.
"Our friend, our kind of friendship," Marik grinned.
"If Bakura needed help he would come to talk to us, not you," Malik said, leaning his chin against his hand. "I don't think there's anything wrong with him."
"Anything wrong! Have you seen his eyes?" Yami screamed. "He hadn't slept in ages! And you say there's nothing wrong with him!"
Malik and Marik looked at each other and shrugged.
"I wonder whose fault it is," Marik mocked.
"And I wonder who is trying to fix it!" Yami spat back.
"Apparently us," Marik said leaning his head against the back of the couch and staring at the ceiling. "You're trying to make us fix your problems. Really smart, Pharaoh. You can't even help your own yami."
Malik had closed his eyes when Marik and Yami started arguing. He whispered one word and opened his eyes.
"What?" Yami asked.
"Trauma," Malik repeated and smiled smugly. "Curing that one takes more than a lullaby or a bedtime story."
"Who would want Yami sing a lullaby anyway?" Marik asked, chuckling, and stared humming to himself.
"Well what it takes?" Yami asked.
"Bakura won't accept it," Malik stated, closing his eyes again. "Bakura won't accept your help."
"He takes it," Yami said coolly, though he was slowly getting angrier and angrier. " He takes it, he wants it or not."
"Isn't it a little bid weird?" Malik asked tilting his head. " You're practically forcing help down someone's throat who doesn't want it."
"I just want to sleep, okay?" Yami spat.
"Ah, I knew there was something like that behind all this," Malik flashed Yami a smile.
Marik had seemingly lost all interested. He stared at the bird outside the window and hummed to himself. Yami couldn't tell was he admiring the bird, or trying to figure out what was the best way to cook it for dinner. Knowing Marik, Yami put his money on the latter one. After Yami had came to a conclusion that the psycho wasn't going to enter the conversation anymore, he turned to Malik, who was drinking his coffee.
"He keeps me up every night," Yami complained. "I need him to sleep."
Malik let out a small neutral sound, lowering his coffeecup to the table.
Suddenly Yami realized that he was pretty much ignored by every one in this room. It didn't feel nice. He sighed. This was going nowhere. Yami was getting up, so he could leave when a familiar sound from the hall stopped him:
"Marik! Malik! Are you ready?"
"It's Bakura!" Marik screamed happily, and after giving the bird last murderous glare ran to meet the other psycho.
Yami was suddenly center of Malik's attention again. The hikari smiled to him sweetly and asked:
"Didn't I mention that Bakura was coming?"
Yami shook his head. It was his fault too really. He hadn't checked where Bakura was when he was talking to the blonds. Clearly Bakura hadn't checked Yami's location either. The surprised look he gave Yami was enough to tell that Bakura hadn't been aware that Yami was in the house. Marik and Bakura stood in the doorway. Before Yami could throw an excuse and leave, Bakura's eyes narrowed dangerously and he asked:
"What are you doing here, Pharaoh?"
And it was back to Pharaoh again. Yami sighed. He hated being called pharaoh, but I guess it was still better than just 'hey you with a spiky hair!' Yami stood up and locked his eyes with Bakura. The last night was still fresh in their memories, it seemed. Bakura gaze was full of pure hatred, and Yami decided wisely not to go too close to his yami. He didn't want a new punch to the face. Bakura tilted his head, but didn't let his gaze quiver.
"Well?" he demanded.
Crossing his arms to his chest Yami said:
"I'm going to make you sleep."
Blunt announcement shocked Bakura. He opened his mouth to say something, realized that he had nothing to say, and closed it again.
Marik and Malik followed the situation closely. Both had suddenly became very interested. Their eyes moved from Yami to Bakura and back to Yami like they were following a fast paced tennis match.
Bakura blinked, and looked away. He wanted to say something, do something. But what could he do? His confusion swept through the Mind Link.
Yami waited for the answer. It never came.
Bakura simply turned around and left without a word, shutting the Mind Link. Marik followed him, after changing few unspoken words with his hikari, maybe about the bird, maybe about Yami, nobody knew.
When Marik had left Yami turned to look at Malik, who was still comfortably sitting on his chair. Malik shrugged answering Yami's unspoken question.
"Your yami, you problems," he said.
Yami sighed. He should have known this. His yami, his problems. Deal with them.
A/N: Dun dun dun du du du dun... (*sings weird movie music, until mom says they should really read Swedish*)