Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Visions of the Heart ❯ Private Oasis ( Chapter 2 )

Unmei: -.-

Disclaimer: Own none.

/.../ hikari to yami
//...// yami to hikari
Malik is the hikari (Full name: Malik Ishtar)
Ishtar is the 'yami' (Full name: Yami Ishtar)

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Visions of the Heart

Chapter 2 -- Private Oasis

I felt Bakura's stare on me, and for all conventional purposes, I stared back. The fact that I couldn't actually see what I was staring at was a technicallity.

The trance was broken when down below Yugi again pounded on the door. "Ryou? Are you all right?!?"

Bakura shook himself and I knew he was scowling. "There's no way you can go out. I'll have to fool them."

I blinked. "You're actually offering to help me? And there's no way you'll be able to fool Yugi, let alone Yami!"

Bakura stepped toward me and I flinched away. But he didn't hit me like I'd expected him to. Instead he grabbed a lock of my blood-soaked hair and held it in front of my face, momentarily forgetting I couldn't see it. "You want your precious friend Yugi to see you like this?!?!? I swear, if you so much as move from this house I will do a lot worse then just blind you!"

I whimpered and scooted away, but he seemed suddenly not to notice, or care, as the reality of his own words hit him. "I..."

He snapped out of it, and I heard him pounding down the stairs, grabbing my coat and backpack from where I'd dropped them the night before. The front door opened and then slammed shut and I strained to hear Yugi's voice.

"We'd better hurry, we're going to be really late. Did you oversleep Ryou?"

"Uh, yeah. I was up pretty late last night."

I could imagine Yugi's eyes widening. "Did Bakura do something to you? I could send Yami after him."

I had to stiffle a giggle at the knowledge that my oh so lovable yami was seething at that comment, but couldn't do anything about it without blowing our cover.

It was really his hide he was saving, I realised suddenly. If Yugi and Yami found out what he'd done to me, they'd skin him seven ways from center. I'd just get a lot of sympathy.

I didn't hear Bakura's answer to Yugi's question because they had passed too far out of earshot on their way to school.

I sighed and lay back against the pillows. What was I going to do now? It suddenly felt like a ten-ton weight had landed on my shoulders. What was I going to do? How was I going to get around, especially without Bakura or my father here... I could fall down the stairs, or trip and hit my head on something...

A wave of hysteria rose in my throat, and I choked it down. A few tears ran down my cheeks as I realized just how much my life would be changed now. I could go on wishing that the blindness was temporary, but I knew in my heart it wasn't. To never see the blue sky again, to never be able watch the stars at night...

I wished fleetingly I could just stay in bed all day, then I wouldn't have to worry, but the rumbling of my stomach said something else.

Feeling carefully, I found the edge of my bed and stood up unsteadily. My injured left arm dangled helplessly at my side. I started to take a slow step forward and tripped over the shoes I'd left laying there the night before.

I landed with an 'omph!' and stayed there. My face felt hot and flushed, the carpet rough against my cheek. I curled up in a ball and whimpered, trying to gulp down the great oceans of tears that were trying to find their way out. I gave a shuddering sob and curled up tighter. The pain in my arm was almost a blessing, it grounded me and kept me from going into complete hysteria.

But even so, I sobbed for a long, long time.

Bakura froze in the act of sprinting from English to physics. "Shit..." he whispered, mostly to himself.

Yugi, who was about two steps ahead of him, skidded to a stop and turned around. "Are you coming Ryou?"

"Ah, yes Yugi, of course!" Bakura laughed falsely and hurried to catch up with his "friend". 'I forgot Malik was supposed to come over today while Ryou was at school!' He attempted to contact his hikari, but Ryou was either asleep or two deep in his own mind to hear Bakura. The thief growled and cursed under his breath, shifting his books around slightly.

Ryou had better have enough sense not to open the door...

That evening when Bakura stomped inside and threw Ryou's backpack down, he was surprised to see only Ishtar, who was lounging around the living room.

"Where are our others?" Bakura askedsuspiciously, crossing his arms.

Ishtar glanced up. "Ryou and Malik? Fine. They're in the shower."

Bakura face-faulted and sweatdropped. "I... Er... Didn't know Malik was like that. It's sure as hell that Ryou isn't..."

Yami-Malik blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Um... They're in the same shower?"

Ishtar, in all his bleached-blond density, finally got it. "Malik isn't gay, dimwit! They both have swimming trunks on! How else is Ryou supposed to get all that blood out of his hair?"

Ishtar's face hardened and his eyes narrowed slightly at his own words, as if they reminded him of something. He got up off the couch and strode over to Bakura, who stood there giving him a puzzled look. Then Ishtar, glaring daggers at his friend, slapped Bakura. Hard.

"What did you do to him?" the blond hissed, his nose bare inches from Bakura's.

The white-haired yami was taken aback, his hand laid absently on his stinging cheek. "What are you talking about?"

Ishtar's eyes narrowed further. "You know very well what I'm talking about. Healthy, fifteen-year-old boys don't suddenly go blind. And they sure don't have the will-power to torture themselves to the point of being as bad off as Ryou is."

Bakura, having recovered somewhat, just glared back. "How do you know? How are you so sure it isn't self-mutilation?"

"Because, my 'dear friend', some of those cuts, in fact, most of those cuts on Ryou's arm go all the way down to the bone. The bone Bakura. How could you do that to your own hikari? I know you and I aren't exactly known for our kindness, but what you did was wrong Bakura, even I can't deny that."

Bakura scowled at the Rod spirit, but in truth his knees felt suddenly and inexplicably weak. Ishtar was right. As much as he hated to admit it, he was right.

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WSJ: Yeah, the last part was third person POV. Get used to it. The next several chapters skip POV a lot, but somewhere around chapter 10 they finally settle into third person permanently.

Unmei: SJ, you're editting. Couldn't you just go switch it all to third person right now?

WSJ: Yeah... but I'm far too lazy. ^^ Ja!

God bless minna-san!