Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Can I Sleep With You? ❯ And If I Die... ( Chapter 3 )

As usual in my writing, Ryou Bakura is just referred to as Ryou, and his Yami as just Bakura.

Oh yeah...just a warning here, but if this comes across as incredibly cheesy, well...^_^;; sorry. The vacuum mistook the plot bunnies for dust bunnies and sucked me dry of them.

__________________________________________________________

Can I Sleep With You?

Chapter Three- And If I Die...

by ChibiBoko

I hate rain.

...Was Yami's initial thought. He never could understand what Yugi saw in it. Oh, it was useful, especially in the rare times it occured back in the old days in Egypt. But outside of agriculture, what was the point?

He'd actually asked Yugi that once. The disbelief that froze on his aibou's face was something he could still see so clearly when he closed his eyes.

It was very easy, to remember things when your eyes were closed.

So he hadn't slept. Haven't been able to, much less choose not to, he reflected ruefully.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Mokuba throwing a yellow rose down the hole onto the small coffin. A white one flew down to keep it company, and Yami raised his eyes from the young Kaiba to the see the elder.

Kaiba looked up, feeling someone watching him, and their eyes met across the distance.

Yami frowned and turned away, stealing out of sight into some background foliage. Perhaps if he hid the sight of that....that, he could imagine all this away. Pretend it's just a bad dream.

Worse than a bad dream. He slumped against a nearby sakura tree, head bowed. "I failed." He whispered the the air. "Yugi..."

He didn't know how long he sat there, watching the puddles grow from the rain they were fed. Sneaking a glance, he saw the recent crowd had broken down to a few scattered stragglers, who were already leaving. Good.

Walking desolately back to the deserted, too-recently dug up earth, he stared down at the sharply cut stone. "Why didn't you say anything?" He murmured absently.

"Maybe because no one asked." Yami heard the distinct crunch of shoes behind him. "Maybe because he thought he was just a bother." He whipped around to glare at Seto. "And we all know how he hated to be a bother."

The bitterness in the other's voice seared Yami's ears as he yanked Kaiba's head down by his black trenchcoat. "What would you know about this?" He hissed vehemently. "What would you know, Kaiba, about losing someone so important that having them gone leaves nothing but-" His voice broke.

"-A hole, an ache where they used to be?" Kaiba finished for him as he gently pried Yami's fingers from the glossy leather. He frowned down at him. "You're right."

"What?" Yami glowered up at the taller brunette.

"You're right." Seto shrugged as he turned to walk away. "After all, what could a man like me know about loss? Or guilt. Or the shock of realizing that someone you thought would always be there suddenly isn't anymore...And you don't have the first idea of how to cope." Yami had to strain his hearing to catch that last bit, as Kaiba seemed to prefer muttering it under his breath.

Yami looked shamefaced at his feet, then turned back to stare heartbrokenly at the awful, awful tombstone.

Kaiba's footsteps paused. "At least, I know one thing now." He said over his shoulder.

"..." His mind rehashing over snatches of painful memories, Yami barely registered the other's voice.

Kaiba's eyes saddened a little as they glanced at the white marble stone that Yami was contemplating. "...At least now," He said softly, "I know from experience not to take anyone's advice but my own."

"..." Yami bent down to hide his face. He couldn't stand it if Kaiba of all people, saw him break down here.

Gravel skittered as Seto started down the path back to his car, where his brother was surely waiting for him.

"..Do you really think you need to tell me that?"

Kaiba paused.

Yami looked up forlornly at the CEO's back. "Do you really think I need to be reminded that I should have known, that I should have paid more attention to what was going on with him, that I should've been there-" He broke off as his voice cracked suspiciously, clenching his fists and scowling at the ground, eyes hidden beneath soggy bangs.

"That I should've kept my promise to take care of him." He whispered.

Footsteps crunched closer and stopped directly in front of the crouching ex-pharaoh. Looking up in confusion he saw Kaiba holding out his hand to him.

"Come on," Blue eyes looked down at him solemnly. "I'll give you a ride home."

But Yami shook his head. "Thank you, but I can't...I can't go back there. Not tonight." He stood up and turned to leave.

The brunette snorted. Muttering irritably under his breath, he stalked after the other boy and blocked his path.

Yami looked at him tiredly. "What do you want, Kaiba?"

Seto looked down at him. "Where will you stay then?" Something nagged at the back of his mind when the tri-colour-haired boy had turned away. Most likely his Mokuba-soundalike-conscience, which had a bad tendency to flare up at inconvenient times. Like now.

Yami shrugged carelessly. "I'll probably go to a motel for a while."

"What about the Game Shop?"

Yami just looked at him. "Yugi and I moved out when Joey and Ryou started running it; you know that."

"I doubt the chihuahua would mind playing host for you." Seto cocked an eyebrow.

Yami turned partially to glimpse back where they had come from. "I know." He sighed quietly. "They had already offered, actually. But I refused." He looked back up at the CEO.

"They have their own grief to deal with without adding mine as well. Plus..." He swallowed. "...That place holds as many memories for me as home does." He added softly.

He stared disinterestingly at his reflection on a puddle as the silence bred and grew around his rival. "Was there anything else?" He asked without looking at the other.

"..."

"Then farewell." With that, Yami turned down another secluded path, away from the silent millionaire.

"..." Kaiba looked on after the bereaved figure as he wrestled with himself, divided between staying or chasing after him. "...You'll find, I think," He murmured to the unhearing dark one, "that memories aren't content to tie themselves to just places."

Almost unwillingly, he trudged back to the newest addition to the cemetery. Gazing down at the upchurned earth-turning-mud, he closed his eyes.

"For what it's worth, I didn't do such a good job either, Yami."

Crouching down, he traced chilled fingertips across the fresh inscription.

"Yugi...." He swallowed, standing up abruptly turning to quickly stride down the path that lead back to the rest of the living world, leaving behind those who've gone beyond tangible reach.

Wind howled mournfully through the trees, and down the deserted pathways of the cemetery, its wailing loud and despairing enough to divert the ears from an almost inaudible "...i'm sorry..."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

@_@ :Yeesh, I'm starting to think chapter three's have curses on them that induce the author into incredible cheesiness. Is this even any better than the original chapter three? I wonder....