A/N Post-series. Again. Maybe like eight years after the last episode.
(It's alright with me)/It's okay by me/It was a long time ago ~ Speeding Cars, Imogen Heap
"No, no Elisa, those boxes go to first floor, not the second."
"Sorry Mr. Bakura!" said the young girl, Elisa. She turned around quickly and headed back to the first floor.
Ryou watched her go. It was odd, he mused, being back in England. After all the time that had passed, this was where he ended up. Of all places, he always thought that when he moved to Domino he would have stayed there forever…
He shook himself out of his daze and returned back to his work. There was an exhibit to set up after all; he wasn't being paid to daydream.
Egyptian artifacts lined the walls and lights dangled from the ceiling, their wires showing. There was still a lot to be done before the exhibit would be presentable.
Ryou sighed.
So much to do, so very much to do –
"Hey, hey! You!"
Ryou froze. Was that man speaking Japanese?
Bemused, Ryou looked over his shoulder and saw the speaker. He was a very tan man with blonde hair and bright purple eyes. A shiver ran down his spine, though he didn't know why. And when Ryou tried to think of why, his head simply became fuzzy and dim like, like –
(Like being drowned in darkness.)
The man took a step forward.
"You're name is Bakura, Bakura Ryou right?"
"Yes." Ryou had to force the word out. His whole body had clamped up. Why was he having such a strong reaction? He couldn't ever recall meeting this man and there certainly wasn't anything to be afraid of, the man couldn't be any older than Ryou. He certainly didn't look intimidating.
"You don't remember me, do you?" He sounded almost bitter. Or sad. Ryou couldn't tell which.
"No… I'm sorry; I've always had a bad memory!" Ryou faked a laugh to go with the last bit he had hastily added on when he realized how bitter and rude the first word had come out as.
The boy moved even closer to Ryou.
Ryou, instinctively, took a step back. His eyes narrowed.
(Both reactions where almost…involuntary.)
"My name is Malik Ishtar," He said, and Ryou could sense the man's arrogance all of a sudden.
Malik Ishtar.
It was odd, that name sounded familiar and when he said it in his head, it wasn't in his voice instead it was in Yuugi's.
(Yuugi…)
"You were in Egypt with us?" He said this more to himself, but Malik nodded.
"Are you a friend of Yuugi's?" Ryou had to ask because he honestly couldn't remember. Those couple of years when he was sixteen, seventeen were cloaked in a black fog. Whenever he tried to think, there was always something that choked – suffocated him. He could never find anything in that darkness.
Malik blanched. "I guess."
"Have you talked with him lately?" Malik questioned, he was eager to divert the conversation to Ryou.
Ryou felt his body stiffen.
"I'm happy he's gone, you know. So you can stop looking me like that. Like I'm about to break any second."
"I wasn't – ,"
"Don't lie to me, Yuugi!"
"Bakura-kun?"
"I'm…I'm sorry, Yuugi-kun. I didn't mean to raise my voice."
"…"
"…"
"Bakura-kun, let me help you. Please. You're my friend. I don't want you hurting."
"I'm fine."
"Bakura-kun you don't have to do this by yourself! I'm here and I know what it's like."
"No you don't. You don't have any idea."
"What are you –,"
"I should go."
Ryou willed himself to stop thinking about that. It was all so long ago. Years, almost a decade.
Meaningless.
It was all meaningless.
"No, actually I haven't."
"Oh, that's too bad." Ryou thought he heard a hint of sarcasm in that.
They stood there, wrapped in a silence that was particularly awkward. Why had Malik even wanted to talk to him? Ryou had only seen Malik briefly in Egypt. Had they even ever talked? And how did Malik know Yuugi so well again?
"Battle City! You were there weren't you? ... Oh."
That's why Malik had recognized him.
(He'd spent plenty of time in Ryou's body.)
"Um…yeah." Malik's eyes suddenly found the floor very interesting.
Mechanically, Ryou's hand found the spot on his arm where he had been…hurt. The memories washed over him with the force of water breaking out of a dam. They crashed onto him and dragged him under to their darkest depths.
He remembered.
The deal that Malik and the, and the (just say it!) spirit of the millennium ring (Ryou had began to tremble, but he quickly clenched his fists to make himself stop) had made. Being thrown back into his bleeding body in the middle of duel, at Malik's urging and the spirit of the millennium ring, he remembered the spirit of the millennium ring!
The trembling had already turned into shaking. Malik must have seen this because he cringed.
"Are you – are you alright?" Malik asked, seemingly genuinely concerned.
"Of course," He snapped, no longer caring about polite facades. This boy had invaded his mind on multiply occasions, what could Ryou hide from him that he didn't already know?
"Look." Malik closed his eyes and he shook, as if he was swallowing down a very big pill (or maybe his pride?).
"Would it mean anything if I told you I was sorry?" The words were both desperate and incredulous.
"I – what?" Ryou blinked, completely stunned. No one had ever, no one had ever apologized to him – not his father for abandoning him, not Yuugi for making decisions that took away apart of himself (even if it was the darkness) no one.
Malik rolled his eyes, but then a solemn expression overcame them.
"I'm sorry, Bakura Ryou."
Ryou's mouth dropped open.
They stared at each for a minute, and then Ryou did nothing. Malik was waiting for something, acceptances of his apologize probably, but all of Ryou's words had dried up.
So he said nothing.
(And Ryou curled back into himself.)
Something flashed through Malik's eyes.
"I get it," he said, with that same bitter pleading tone to them as he had everything else.
Malik walked away.
Ryou watched.
He remembered after all, Kul Elna and the hate the – the spirit of the millennium ring – had carried around. And he – Bakura Ryou (different, they were different) – he didn't want to be that. He couldn't let himself be that.
He wouldn't.
(Forgiveness, something the spirit never knew, but Ryou could at least try...)
"Wait!" Ryou called out, rather loudly.
Malik turned around a bewildered expression on his face.
"Yeah?"
Ryou felt all the courage he had drain from him. The words pushed at the roof of his mouth, but somehow his tongue would not heed them.
No.
His fears, his hates, his guilt would not rule him.
Not anymore.
The past was the past. Everyone deserved a fresh start.
(Even me, yes even me.)
He looked into Malik's confused, vulnerable lilac eyes with determined confident brown ones.
"Would you – would you like to come over for tea?"
A/N I would just like to see today is the six-month anniversary of this fic. I can't believe I've been writing this for six months, which may not seem a lot to you, but it seems like forever to me. At this rate in another six months I will have 70 chapters! -mind boggles-
Anyways, review!
