by WSJ

WSJ: My best friend got me a 3 Doors Down CD for my Birthday and I've been obsessed with this song ever since. *grins* I have it playing over and over in my headphones right now.

Ryou: *sighs* It's about me, isn't it...?

WSJ: *nods* Yup. I don't own YGO. The reason I haven't posted in awhile is because I was grounded from the computer. I was still in my pjs when a guy-friend of mine came over last Saturday. My mom nearly had a coniption. So I'm really, really mad at the moment. This is sort of my story too.

According to my parents, everything I do is wrong. Usually, I can make it to my room before I feel the urge to punch something, but lately I can hardly keep from screaming at my parents. So this is my story too.

If something doesn't happen soon, I'm going to lose control and do something I'll regret. They're getting closer to pushing me over the edge. This is my story too.

~This story is for anyone who feels unloved. At least I have my soulmate to run to, but there are others I know who are completely alone, and prefer it that way. This story is for them. It is theirs too.~

{....} Ryou to Bakura

[....] Bakura to Ryou

/..../ Yugi to Yami

//....// Yami to Yugi

()()()()()

Ryou stood in the bathroom, staring with mixxed horror and amazement at the face staring back at him in the mirror. It just wasn't possible that it was his.

White hair hang limp around his shoulders, in places matted with blood and tears. One pain-filled brown eye was almost swollen shut, and a bright purple bruise spread across the opposite cheek.

No longer able to stand it, he turned his back to the counter and slid down until he was sitting on the cold tile floor, his knees pulled up to his chest. He took several deep, gulping breaths, trying to keep from sobbing out loud.

He was empty inside. There was nothing but a black void. Nothing. He would have suicided by now, except for the fact that his yami always managed to stop him.

"K'so you Bakura." he murmered, tears making their way out of his eyes dispite the fact they were squeezed tightly shut. "Curse you to hell!"

Breathe in right away,

Nothing seems to fill this place.

I need this every time,

So take your lies, get off my case!

"What was that!?!"

At the sharp voice Ryou didn't even look up, but kept his face burried in his arms. He didn't answer, and his yami slapped him several times across the face before stalking back out.

"Loser..." He heard his dark mutter.

The white-haired hikari sat still for a moment, making sure Bakura was gone before he pulled himself into a standing possition. He closed the bathroom door, making sure it was firmly locked, and then opened a drawer in the counter.

From it he drew a long, black silk ribbon, a small jar of clear, slightly pink-tinted syrup and a syringe. He deftly tied the ribbon around his upper arm, and then took a seat on the toilet lid.

As he had many times before, Ryou inserted the syringe into the jar. But instead of filling it only a quarter of the way full, as he usually did, he filled the syringe totally full. He wanted to make sure he did this right.

Ryou stuck the needle into his arm and then untied the ribbon, settling back against the bathroom wall. Bakura would never hurt him again.

Some day I will find, a love that flows

Through me like this.

This will fall away, this will fall away.

Bakura started as the doorbell rang. With a grumble he raised his voice. "Ryou! Door!" He waited several seconds and then repeated the call, again with no answer. "Ryou?"

The doorbell rang again, and with a muttered curse Bakura stood up from the couch to answer it. As he opened the door he had to bite his tounge to keep from cursing again. It just had to be the Pharoah's midget...

"What do you want?"

Yugi blinked. "Er, to see Ryou. He wasn't at school today. Coincidentally, why are you answering the door Bakura?"

The tomb-robber's scowl deepened. "Why is it any of your business?"

Yami appeared next to his aibou, also scowling. "Where. Is. Ryou?"

"How should I know? Am I my hikar's keeper? But if you want to search the premises then don't let me stop you!" Bakura snapped, stepping aside and ushering them in with a mock-bow.

Yami stood near the door, his arms crossed and his scowl firmly in place, keeping an eye on Bakura, while Yugi ran upstairs.

"Ryou?"

You’re getting closer

To pushing me off of life’s little edge.

Cause I’m a loser, and sooner or later

You know I’ll be dead!

About a minute later Yami was startled out of his halfway-meditation by a mental gasp from his hikari. /Yami!/

//What is it aibou?// Yami asked, straitening up and heading for the stairs. He turned and glared at Bakura, who after a moment's deliberation followed.

/It's Ryou! We're in the bathroom! Yami, I think he's dying.../

Yami started, and then broke into a run, arriving in the upstairs bathroom to see a very teary-eyed Yugi kneeling beside Ryou, who was slumped against the side of the bath tub.

The albino was very, very pale, and his skin almost had a greenish cast to it. His eyes were closed tightly in pain, but there was a slight smile on his face. He looked really beat up, and with his left sleeve rolled up both yami and hikari could plainly see the needle-tracks up and down his arm.

You’re getting closer.

You’re holding the rope

And I’m taking the fall.

Cause I’m a loser, I’m a loser...

Yeah…

Vaugely Ryou was aware of someone near him, cradeling his hand in theirs. He could faintly hear someone talking to him. "Ryou..."

He couldn't summon the strength to answer, but instead slumped farther against whoever it was.

He could almost feel the poisonous drug coursing through his veins, and he almost smiled. He knew he was dying. Now Bakura would never hurt him again!

In all his escasy, an all too familiar mental voice broke through his thoughts.

[Ryou, what are you doing!?!]

{You can't hurt me anymore yami...}

Bakura stood stunned behind the two Motos, staring at his hikari. A choked sort of sob escaped his lips at seeing his aibou, yes, his aibou, like this. The Pharoah turned to glare at him, Yugi choosing instead to keep talking to Ryou, trying to get him to wake up.

Yami stood up and stepped forward until he was nose-to-nose with Bakura. "What. Did. You. Do?"

Bakura's eyes widened and he took a step back. "I-I didn't do a thing! I swear! I mean, sure, I beat him, but I had nothing to do with the state he's in now!"

Yami scowled. "Sure. Right. Bakura, he's dying! He won't make it much longer. Even if we did get him to a hospital, it's probably too late!"

Bakura stumbled backwards, his head reeling.

This is getting old,

I can’t break these chains that I hold...

My body’s growing cold,

There’s nothing left of this mind or my soul!

Addiction needs a pacifier,

The buzz of this poison is taking me higher.

[Ryou, Ryou, I'm so sorry! It's all my fault, isn't it? I drove you to this!] Bakura received no answer and sagged to the floor in the hallway, burrying his head in his hands.

To his surprise he began to cry, sobs shaking his slender frame. Tears leeked from between his fingers to fall to the carpet as his heart-rendering cries tore through the air.

He finally pitched forward onto his hands and knees, pounding his fists into the floor, tears still streaming down his cheeks. "It's all my fault!"

He felt an arm around his shoulders and looked up to see Yugi, of all people. The boy smiled at him saddly, even though there were tears in his eyes.

Someone kneeled on his other side, and Bakura was amazed to find Yami's comforting hand on his back.

[Ryou, speak to me! Anything! Please Ryou, I'm so sorry...]

{Y-Yami...?}

The voice was sluggish and slurred, even mentally, but Bakura clung to it. [Ryou! Please, just hang on aibou!]

{Yami... I wish... you... had never... come to me....}

And Ryou Bakura, later called Ryou Magnificint, breathed his last.

And this will away, this will fall away,

You’re getting closer,

To pushing me off of life’s little edge!

Cause I’m a loser and sooner or later,

You know I’ll be dead...

"Ryou? Ryou, NO!"

Yami and Yugi didn't even have to ask. They knew.

You’re getting closer,

You’re holding the rope

And I’m taking the fall.

Cause I’m a loser, I’m a loser...

"Ryou... I was wrong. You weren't weak. You weren't a loser. I am. Please Ryou, please come back..."

/Yami, is he... fading?/

//Yes aibou. Now that he is no longer bound to this world by way of Ryou, the afterlife is claiming him.//

Bakura noticed that the house, Yugi, Yami, everything was becoming rather insubstantial. It was like he was suddenly expanding to fill the entire universe. But still, there was an empty space in his heart where his hikari should have been.

You’re getting closer

To pushing me off of life’s little edge

Cause I’m a loser and sooner or later

You know I’ll be dead.

In the empty span of hallway between Yami and Yugi the Millinium Ring dropped to the floor.

You’re getting closer

You’re holding the rope

And I’m taking the fall

Cause I’m a loser

They say that to this day the Bakura house is haunted. Screams will come from one particular bedroom, and often the figures of two angels, one with white wings, the other with black, will be seen in the upstairs hallway, simply standing and staring at each other, or arguing silently in words no one can hear...

I’m a loser…

()()()()()

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God bless minna-san!