Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Half Full or Half Empty? ❯ Concealed Past ( Chapter 11 )

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Concealed Past

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Later on in the evening, my mother dropped Ryou and I at the hospital. We would catch the subway home once we were finished. I could feel a trickle of perspiration run down the side of my temple. I could feel Ryou's gaze upon me. He could see the look of worry washed over my face as I fixed my eyes toward the ground, biting my bottom lip.

"Hey, Shika cheer up. You're going to be fine. You're beautiful no matter what." Ryou said affectionately. He put his hand on my back and rubbed it as we continued down the dim halls of the hospital.

We got to the doctor's office and went in and sat down. He finished doing something on his computer and turned in his chair to face me. If my mother was here she would have died at the look of him - he was blonde and young - my mother's fetish in the male area.

"Hello Miss. Haadimaal. I'm Doctor Roes. Are we taking your bandages off today are we?" he asked me.

Duh. "That's what I came here for."

"Alrighty then. I'll just get you to pop up on the bed there and remove your shirt and bandages so we can take a look at your ribs, okay?"

I nodded and got up on the hospital bed on the other side of his office. I heard Bakura growl from inside his Millennium Ring as the doctor approached me after I had discarded my bandages and shirt. He took a look at the bruising on my torso. I flinched as he went to touch me.

"Still painful?"

I nodded. He continued to feel around my ribs with the palms of his hands. Bakura had silently overtaken Ryou's body and was snarling at the doctor. I glared at him, indicating he should let Ryou take control again. He did as he was told - grudgingly though. Dr. Roes asked me to turn on my side so he could put his stethoscope against my back and listen to my heart rate.

"Hmmm…" he said as he listened.

"Somethin' wrong?" I asked.

"Your heartbeat is irregular… I might just take your blood pressure, if that's okay."

"Okay." I put my shirt back on and stuck out my arm. The doc put a blood pressure cuff around my arm. It felt tight for a couple of seconds.

"Your blood pressure is normal… I think your irregular heartbeat is a result of stress. Have you been feeling angry or upset lately? Doing too much? Worrying?"

I let out a sarcastic laugh. "You have no idea."

"Okay well, might I suggest that you take things slowly, one thing at a time okay? Keep your diet balanced - this means no junk food, chocolate or anything that contains a high percentage of fat. Drink lots of water, if you can. Do you play any sport?"

What an absurd question. Look at the state I'm in! "No. How can I if I'm limb-to-limb in plaster?"

Dr. Roes laughed. "I hope you don't smoke, that doesn't help either. I'd like you to come back in to see me in a couple of weeks just to make sure that that heart of yours hasn't got any serious problems. Now… I'll just fetch one of my nurses to remove those stitches of yours." He got up and walked out of his office.

"Are you okay?" Ryou asked, putting a hand over mine.

"Yeah. It's the stitches I'm worried about. Not to mention this whole `irregular heartbeat' thing." I sighed.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, love." Ryou said, comforting me with a soft kiss to my lips. Dr. Roes soon returned with a female nurse. I tensed as I saw her holding a kit with surgical instruments in it. She was also wearing rubber gloves.

"Shika this is Nurse Tracey, she'll be taking your stitches out for you and then it'll all be over." I swallowed hard and trembled slightly.

"Come on up and take a seat. This shouldn't take a minute." Nurse Tracey said, gesturing me to sit back up on the hospital bed.

I reluctantly got up and lay down. "Now, this won't hurt a bit."

Sure. Before long, my stitches were all out, and she applied a damp cotton-wool bud to my wound. I bleated like a lost lamb; the substance on the cotton-wool was obviously iodine or some other antiseptic. It felt like she was rubbing salt into my cut.

"It's healed beautifully. There will be some scarring, however. Just consider yourself lucky that you still have your eyesight. The glass that cut your eye nearly went right through to your lens."

"How come there isn't a cut on my actual eye then?" I asked, confused.

"The eyes are the fastest healing organs in the human body. Along with the tongue and mouth. Amazing, isn't it?" Nurse Tracey put away her surgical instruments and disposed her rubber gloves.

I frowned slightly but shrugged it off. "When did you want to see me next?" I asked Dr. Roes as I got back down off the bed.

"Hmm… give me a call in a couple of weeks. Until then, don't go doing anything too strenuous. We don't want that heart of yours stressing itself even more than it is already."

"But I've got school camp soon!" I cried.

"Well, it's not like you'll be able to do much with your leg in that cast anyway." Dr. Roes shrugged. "Nothing you can do about it I'm afraid. You can still go but you may be limited to any physical activities in your condition."

I whined, only to see Dr. Roes smile. "I'll hear from you soon Shika. Thanks for coming. Goodbye now."

I nodded and collected my crutches and hobbled out of his office and out into the corridors. Bakura once again materialized beside Ryou. He shoved his hands in his pockets, but didn't keep his gaze from me. I felt strangely uncomfortable when he fixed his eyes on me like that. I didn't so much mind it when Ryou did so.

When we got home, I checked that Harry was in his cage and put some fresh water into his water bowl. I still couldn't believe that my brother had bought me an iguana for a pet. He couldn't have bought a kitten or anything else could he have? My mom smiled briefly at me before speaking to me.

"Your eye looks nicely healed."

I mumbled something to myself and walked to the bathroom. This would be the first time I had seen my injury. For the past month it had been healing underneath a cotton and gauze bandage. My mom changed it every couple of days to stop infection taking place. The bathroom was dark when I entered, so I turned on the light and walked in front of the mirror. I wasn't too surprised at what I saw.

"You call this healing beautifully?!" I shrieked, gazing at the scar below my eye which was similar to that of a lightening bolt; it was still kind of scabby and oozy though. It came almost half way down my cheek.

"You're beautiful, Shika. My beautiful lotus, you're beyond perfect." Ryou said, taking me close to him, planting kisses all over my sleek ruby hair.

A tear welled in my eye and overflowed onto my cheek, sinking deep into my wound. The salt in it made my wound sting, which made me cry even more in a never-ending cycle.

"I'm ugly Ryou! I'm u-u-ugly…" I sobbed, grinding my teeth together. I felt Ryou's grip around my shoulders become stronger and then he pulled back. Bakura looked down at me, fury in his eyes. He gripped my chin hastily in between his thumb and forefinger. I gazed up at him, my eyes sparkling with tears; I felt somewhat afraid of him. His grip on my chin was strong.

"Don't you dare say that about yourself again!" he growled, fastening his grip. "You are beautiful inside and out and are blessed under the name of Ra and Isis! How dare you offend them by saying such nonsense?" I scowled up at him, struggling from his grip and eventually let myself loose and hobbled away to my room, slamming my bedroom door behind me. Sure I was half Egyptian, but they didn't need to know that. I heard footsteps up the stairs and Ryou's door slamming shut. Since the floor in Ryou's room wasn't soundproof, I heard their muffled conversation:

"What did you do that for? You baka! You could have hurt her!" Ryou raised his voice.

"She's a fool to say she is ugly! The gods watch over her! They created her here on this earth, Ryou!"

"She doesn't know that! She isn't Egyptian like you, Bakura!"

"She has Egyptian blood in her! Her middle name is Lotus, hikari!"

"What has her middle name got to do with anything, yami?"

"If you are blessed enough to have the name of a plant that grows on the river Nile in your name then you are sanctified! You can be sure of it!"

"She's NOT Egyptian, Bakura!"

"She's is Egyptian! She's got it in her! Turkey is a very close country to Egypt, Ryou! Think about it my light. I want you to ask Afet tomorrow if she has any Egyptian relatives. Then I will prove my point to you and to Shika!"

Their conversation stopped there. I rolled my eyes and turned over under the covers in my bed. My `irregular' heart sure wasn't getting any profit out of this.

Ryou's POV…

I sat up at the table finishing the last of my wonderfully made breakfast. I glanced over at Shika who was struggling to keep herself upright on her crutches while she bent down to feed Harry. At least she was making an effort to look after him. She hadn't spoken a word to me since last night. I guess she has a right to be angry at me; more so Bakura. She's been under so much stress lately - she doesn't need my merciless yami yelling at her on top of everything. Speaking of yamis, I thought back to what Bakura had said to me at the end of our argument last night: "I want you to ask Afet tomorrow if she has any Egyptian relatives. Then I will prove my point to you and to Shika!"

I switched my gaze to Afet, who was stacking the dishes. Should I ask? It wouldn't be rude or offensive, would it?

"Excuse me, Afet, may I ask you something?"

She turned at me and smiled sweetly… motherly… "Sure Ryou, go ahead."

I responded, "Err… do you have any relatives from Egypt?"

She reeled back in surprise. "What makes you ask that, Ryou dear?"

I shifted uncomfortably. My mother used to always call me `Ryou dear'. "Well… I was just curious about Shika's middle name. That's all."

"Oh, you mean Lotus? Yes… her grandmother, my mother, is from Egypt. She met Shika's grandfather on a trip to Turkey. I'm half Egyptian, generally. I don't really think much of it."

"What is your mother's name, might I ask?"

"Anuba… her name is Anuba."

I gasped. "Anuba is the female translation of the Egyptian God Anubis…"

Afet went back to stacking her dishes. "I know what you're going to ask next too." She chuckled. "My mother was named Anuba because Anubis took her parents away from her when she was just a girl. I therefore put Lotus in my child's name as a symbol of peace and tranquility in her life. Besides, have you ever seen a lotus flower, Ryou?"

I shook my head. "I know they are a type of water-lily though."

She whirled around throwing her arms up in the air. "They are the most amazing creation in the world! They are so beautiful and they smell amazing. I wish I could have brought some back with me from my trip there. I will return some day. I know I will. Shika will go there too."

"No doubt she will." I got up and rinsed my plate off in the kitchen sink and added it to Afet's pile of stacked dishes. She smiled and kissed my cheek as I was about to head off to school with Shika.

"Ready to go?" I asked my fragile lover.

She nodded timidly and slung her bag on and shuffled across the room. We began walking down the pavement. The fine weather sure picked you up on a lousy day. I was sick of all this rain. It was similar to being back in England where it seemed to rain non-stop.

"Shika… I'm sorry about last night. My yami was just knocking some sense into you. He didn't mean to be so aggressive." I said. Shika just turned away, gazing up at a single cloud against the azure expanse of sky. I sighed internally. Great, I bet she won't talk to me for the rest of the week now.

//Should I talk to her?//

/I don't think it would help./

//I could talk to her about her past, hikari.//

/SHE DOESN'T HAVE A PAST LIFE BAKURA! She doesn't have a Millennium Item!/

//You'll be surprised.//

/What ARE you talking about?/

//She may not have a Millennium Item, Ryou, but she has a place in Ancient Egypt. It's in her blood.//

I rolled my eyes and closed off our mind link. Bakura wasn't being any help. He wasn't even sorry for the way he reacted last night. Even though he meant well, he obviously hasn't picked up how sensitive Shika is at the moment.

"Shika, please talk to - "

"Okay so what if I've got Egyptian in me? I don't care! What's the point to all this? What has that got anything to do with Bakura's outburst last night?! Don't think I didn't hear your conversation last night because I did!" she screamed.

"Yes I figured that." I said calmly, trying not to pick a fight myself.

"Bakura, get out of that cowardly right now and tell me what you wanna tell me! I'm listening! I've got proof if you want it!" Shika yelled, directing her voice toward the Ring which dangled against my chest.

"Proof of what?" I questioned, but before I knew it, my yami had taken over.

Bakura's POV…

My flustered lotus flower snarled at me. I couldn't help but bust out into a manical fit of laughter. She was so cute when she was angry. However absurd the situation was to me, I knew I had to try and be solemn about the topic.

"What are you laughing at you white-haired demon?!" she shrieked.

I laughed harder. I hadn't been called a demon since 5000 years ago by an Egyptian Army Officer when Marik and I were running from them. We eventually found a hiding spot in the desert. They stopped searching for us after a couple of days.

"Show me your proof then, lover." I said, smirking down at her with my arms folded across my chest.

She threw her schoolbag to the ground, turned around so her back was facing me and lifted up her school shirt at the base of her back. She revealed a tattoo in navy and black henna ink. I gasped.

"I don't believe it!" I cried.

"What don't you believe?" she asked, putting her shirt back down and grabbing for her schoolbag again.

"That symbol… it's Sekhmet the Mighty One! Do you know what that means?"

She rolled her eyes at me. "Of course I know what it means. I wouldn't have been made to get it otherwise. Mom has a tattoo of the flail and crook(2). My Grandma has a tattoo of the ankh(3)."

Getting a tattoo at the base of your back on your tailbone is a tradition in some Egyptian families. In this case it was a tradition in Shika's - as well as mine.

"Here, take a look at mine." I turned around and she lifted up my striped shirt at the foot of my back.

"It's The Sound Eye of Horus! (4)" I was surprised that she recognized my trademark straight away.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"My grandmother taught me all I need to know."

"So you know about ancient Egypt and all that too?"

"Malik's yami told me a little about it. But it's still a hazy subject to me. I'd like to learn more about it. I doubt I would have had a place in that time though."

"It would be good if we could find out."

"I think I know how."

"How?"

"Isis Ishtar."

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(1) Sekhmet - "The Mighty One" = A sun goddess. She represents the scorching, burning, destructive heat of the sun. She was a fierce and witty goddess of war, the destroyer of the enemies of Ra and Osiris. Her temper was uncontrollable. She was a woman with the head of a lion. Kewl huh? ^_^

(2) The Flail and Crook = A symbol of royalty, majesty and dominion.

(3) The Ankh = Symbol of eternal life. The gods are often seen holding an ankh to someone's lips; this is considered to be an offering of "The Breath of Life". The breath you will need in the afterlife. (Same thing as the Ankh that Shadi has)

(4) The Sound Eye of Horus = The Symbol of the Egyptian God Horus' sound (good) eye. The name Horus comes from the Egyptian word Hor, which translates as 'face'. We find him worshipped as Mekhenti-irry which translates as 'He who has on his brow Two Eyes', the sun and moon representing his eyes. On nights when there is no moon we find him worshipped as Mekhenti-en-irty, 'He who on his brow has no eyes', in this form he was considered the god of the blind. The famous Eye symbolizes `healing' and `protection'.

Updates: Sunday or Monday. By the way, if you want to look up the Egyptian things that I put in this fic, go to http://members.aol.com/egyptart/index.html it's got some really cool information and stuff in it ^_^