Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Insert Cool Yu-Gi-Oh! Related Title ❯ Chapter Sixteen: Close My Eyes and Cry ( Chapter 16 )

Disclaimer!
No, I don't own any Yu-Gi-Oh! and related etc`s. If I did... Sporks would be made of metal... And would be called Ryou. *grins and inserts `Ryou' into mouth* Heh, heh.

//Are the yami mentally speaking to their hikari.//
/Are the hikari mentally speaking to their yami./
And Italics are thoughts.


Chapter Sixteen: Close My Eyes and Cry

"So then, I said to her, `Wow! You look gorgeous!' and she said, `What? You didn't think I looked good before?!' and I'm like, `No, you looked awesome before, but you look even better now!' and she was all going crazy, like, `You jerk! You're saying I looked ugly before! How dare you!? Baka! And then she starts throwing crap at me-"

Yugi was intently nodding at Honda's reenactment of his `date' the day before. Of course, he wasn't really paying attention. Ryou stood next to him. The white haired boy was busy laughing at Honda's wild movements as he told everyone about him having to dodge a flower vase followed by a chair and several purse accessories.

"She was all psycho, yelling about the world hating her and crap! Sheesh! No wonder she doesn't have a boyfriend. She's crazy!" Honda finished laughing to himself. "See if I ever go on a date with her again!"

"You shouldn't be so mean," Anzu chastised. "I mean, it's not her fault. She probably has low self esteem, or something," she shrugged.

"Or, it could be that she's crazy!!" Honda emphasized.

Yugi smiled as he saw Ryou laugh again. /Ne… Yami?/

//Yes, aibou?// Yami quickly manifested himself next to his hikari.

/I was just wondering… No... Never mind,/ Yugi shook his head. /Well, actually… Look at Ryou./

Yami turned to see the white haired, pale boy laughing at Honda and Anzu's ridiculous argument. //He's laughing,// Yami stated.

Yugi nodded. /Yeah. Yami? When was the last time Ryou laughed?/

//Well…// Yami thought about the answer and finally shrugged. //A very long time ago,// the spirit finished.

Yugi sighed. /I'm still not very used to him laughing like that. I mean, don't get me wrong Yami, I'm really happy for him, but… I just think it's… Weird? Don't you? That he's changed so fast? Yami?/ Yugi looked up to see his yami looking at him with concern evident in his eyes. He turned away quickly. He didn't want his yami to see him flinch.

//Why do you ask, aibou?//

Yugi bite his lips and whispered, /…. No reason. No… Reason./

Yami frowned and was about to continue his conversation with his hikari when he suddenly heard Ryou's voice. //Huh?//

"I can see Yami!" Ryou repeated and pointed to the invisible space next to Yugi.

"What?" Honda and Anzu asked.

"You can see him?" Yugi chimed in, quickly blurring his true thoughts.

"Yeah! Hey, just like you saw Bakura, huh?!" Ryou smiled again. "Hi, Yami!" he grinned and waived at the surprised looking spirit.

Yami waived back still lightly confused. //Hey…//

Ryou turned a light shade of pink. "Um… Bakura says… Hi." Ryou cringed, "And by 'Hi,' I mean, lot's of words I'd care not to reiterate." He laughed nervously.

Yami took about two seconds to understand what Ryou was talking about and then burst out laughing himself. /Tell the bastard, `Right back at you!'/

"Yami!" Yugi shouted out, "That's rude!"

All three of them did a whole `end of the episode' laugh. Honda and Anzu simply looked lost. Anzu looked over at Honda and Honda shrugged completely baffled.

"Speaking of being rude," Honda suddenly called out. "Where the hell is Jounouchi?! We've been standing here for almost fifteen minutes!"

It was customary for the gang to gather at the school gates after class and walk each other home. Unfortunately, Jounouchi had yet to show up. Anzu, Yugi and Ryou looked around.

"Hey, you're right," Anzu added. "Oh, no! You don't think that he and Kaiba might have gotten into another fight, do you?!"

"We could check the nurse's office?" Ryou suggested.

"Hey, hey, now before you declare me dead, at least let me explain, you know," Jounouchi called out as he trotted towards the group.

"There you are!" Anzu sighed.

"What took you!? It's been forever since the bell rang!" Honda yelled.

Jounouchi shrugged. "I was just walking real slow. You know, thinking and stuff…" the blond said in a small voice until he noticed the odd looks he was getting from his other friends. "I mean… I saw this really hot girl and I started following her, and stuff! Heh, heh. No big deal!" Jounouchi fake laughed, but inwardly berated himself. He had been following someone, alright, but it hadn't been a hot `girl.'

"Jounouchi! Don't tell me you've sunk so low as to start stalking someone!?" Anzu asked horrified.

Honda grabbed the blond in a head lock. "Ooh! You sly dog! Who was it, huh? Who was it?! Come on, you can tell me! Was she hot?! How, hot?! Huh? Come on! Let it out! Who was it?!"

"Ahhh!!! I'll never tell!" Jounouchi fought against his best buddy, actually starting to feel good again. He could always count on Honda to make him feel better. "I'll take it to the grave with me!!!"

"Which is where I'm going to send all you damned ass bastards, if you don't quit your incessant yappings and get the hell on with it, you filthy, dirt encrusted, mangy mongrels!" Bakura flicked off all those in the general area in an all out hand motion. "I'm hungry. I'm tired. I'm bored. And I hate you all. So, shut up and let my hikari go home!" Bakura smirked one last time and switched with his aibou, leaving a very red and embarrassed Ryou to deal with a highly surprised and confused audience. "….. Gomen?" He added, his blush deepening.

Jounouchi observed the obvious. "Holy crap! That was Bakura!!"

"Oh, yeah. We forgot to tell you," Honda let Jounouchi out of the head lock. "Apparently, Ryou's yami is… Hanging out with us now. Or something? Um. And he's not… Evil. Now. Anymore. I guess," Honda shrugged. "Personally, I'm kinda confused as to what the hell's going on, but… What'cha gonna do?"

Jounouchi turned to look over at a very beet red Ryou. "O… K…" He coughed. "Anyway… We.. Should probably get home now. It's getting late and I'm beat."

The rest of the group agreed and they began walking home. On the way, Honda again began retelling his cumbersome story about the date from hell. Yugi actually listened this time and Ryou smiled at all the added `details' of the second telling. Anzu simply shook her head and said random pointless stuff in the `psycho girl's' defense.

Jounouchi heard the first part and caught enough of the main story plot to stop caring after the first three minutes. He began to shy away from the group, falling behind a bit, but still staying close enough that no one would really notice he was lagging. Yugi noticed though. A frown passed by his lips like a falling sakura petal.

"Oh, man! I'm telling you! Stay away from that crazy whore-"

"Honda! Don't say such mean things!" Anzu bashed the spike haired kid.

"Ow! Hey, that hurt! Hey, Jounouchi?! You just gonna let her hit me like that?! Your best friend?! Eh? Jounouchi?" Honda asked the blond.

"Mm? Huh? What?" Jounouchi quickly asked. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What'd you want?"

Honda scoffed. "Well, thanks for the support."

The blond laughed at his friend's sarcasm. "Ne, gomen! Ha, ha. Sorry, I just.. I got some stuff on my mind," the boy's smile faded. No one noticed. Except Yugi.

"So!" Honda patted Jounouchi's back rather harshly. "Anything interesting happen to you today?!"

Jounouchi shrugged again and looked away. "I found out I might be gay."

Everyone stopped walking and blinked at the blond for many seconds, till Honda burst out laughing. "Oh, that's funny!!! Heh, heh! For a second there, I almost thought you were serious! Ha, ha, ha!"

Anzu joined him, "Seriously! You boys joke around so weirdly!"

Yugi shrugged and laughed too. Ryou just blushed and chuckled while looking away.

"Yeah… Joking. Heh," the golden haired boy laughed slowly and without much enthusiasm. Again, no one noticed, except Yugi.

Anzu started yakking about friends and romance and the eternal goal of love, or something stupid and pointless that everyone was trying desperately to ignore, but with little success.

/Yami?/

//I noticed,// his other self added. //Jounouchi's… Acting odd.//

Yugi nodded.

"-And you! You need to apologize to that girl! You probably hurt her feelings, and, you, Jounouchi, need to stop messing with Kaiba! You should become his friend! The power of friendship will always hold us together even if we face the difficulties of growing up and are separated by time and space our friendship will-"

"SHUT UP!!!"

Anzu screamed and held her hands on her shoulder. "Itai!" She fell to the floor whimpering.

"Anzu!" Yugi called out as he ran to her aide. Jounouchi and Honda did the same.

"By the damned gods, woman! About damned time!" Bakura tossed a round stone up and down in his hands. "This one's incase you start spieling some crap about friendship again, or some other crap like that! Oh, gods! Hell! I'll just go ahead and throw it right now and save me the time!" Of course Ryou stopped him. "Oh, like they all don't want her to shut up as much as I do!" He yelled at the other soul inside himself.

"Bakura! How could you!?" Jounouchi stood in front of Anzu, who was busy rubbing her arm where a rather large bruise was now forming.

"Stay out of this human! This concerns only the babbling idiot girl and my really big rock!" Bakura laughed, smirked, took aim, then got an annoyed look on his face. "But..!" he began, then looked really irked, followed by deliriously happy as a rather sadistic looking smirk graced his pale face. "Heh." He dropped the rock and let Ryou take control of his own body once again. Ryou looked sheepishly at the three boys crowded around the fallen Anzu and meekly apologized. "Um… Gomen. Again."

Jounouchi scratched his head. "Well… That was weird."

"Don't tell me we're going to have to put up with this every day?!" Honda called out as he helped Anzu up onto her feet.

"Really, Anzu, I'm sorry," Ryou again told the girl. "Don't worry. It won't happen again. I made sure of it."

"It's OK, Ryou," Anzu assured. "I'm not mad at you. I know it wasn't your fault."

"What did you tell Bakura?" Yugi suddenly asked. "I couldn't hear what you two were talking about."

Ryou's eyes went wide and he blushed deeply. "Nothing!" He began walking away. "We should hurry up! I'm already late in getting home!" he lied.

Yugi nodded. "Right! I'm supposed to help Ji-chan with the shop later today! Wanna stop by," he asked Anzu, Honda and Jounouchi.

Anzu shook her head. "No, I have to get home and change to go to Burger World, remember?" They upped my shift this week. Sorry."

"That's OK. You guys?" Yugi turned to look at Jounouchi and Honda.

The brown haired kid shook his head no. "Sorry, Yugi, but I got some major homework due tomorrow, and I haven't even started. That date yesterday really threw my schedule off, you know."

Yugi nodded again and looked to Jounouchi.

Jounouchi looked distant. "Uh… I…"

"Please!" Yugi begged.

Jounouchi sighed and shrugged. "Sure." No one noticed the tired look in Jounouchi's eyes. "I guess. I got nothing better to do."

Yugi frowned.

/He looks so… Sad?/

Yami nodded.

* * * * * * * * * *

Yugi pushed open the door to his grandfather's game store and let Jounouchi enter in front of him. Honda, Anzu and Ryou had all already taken off to their respective homes. Only he and Jounouchi remained. Their short walk to the game store had been marked by veiled silence. Yugi finally broke it. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked.

"Talk about what?" the blond casually spoke.

Yugi shrugged. "Whatever is bothering you." He waived to his grandfather.

The blond snorted. "No. Not really." He also greeted Yugi's grandfather.

Yugi's eyebrows furrowed. "It'll make you feel better," he added walking behind the clerk counter and motioning for Jounouchi to follow.

Jounouchi hesitated. "I don't think so." He followed Yugi into the back room of the store, which happened to be the Mutou house living room, and up the stairs towards Yugi's room. "This crap I gotta figure out on my own."

Yugi sighed, but nodded. "Good luck then. Just know I'm here. If you need me, you know, for anything. I'm here for you."

Jounouchi smiled. He really was lucky to have such a good friend. "Thanks Yugi. I`ll remember that."

Yugi smiled too and both boys entered the tri color haired kid's room. "So? You wanna duel really quick? I haven't dueled anyone in so long! Anyone I can beat, that is," he added, remembering he had dueled Yami last night and lost.

Jounouchi crossed his arms. "Hey! Oh, see, now I have to kick your ass, `cause of that comment!"

Yugi laughed and so did Jounouchi. They both got on either side of Yugi's bed and commenced their Duel Monster's match right after Yugi unwrinkled the bed sheets.

"So how's class going?" Yugi asked, drawing a card. He quickly glanced at it and covered the card on the playing field. "For the past week you haven't stopped going on and on about how much of a jerk Kaiba is. Turn end. Today, you didn't even mention him." Jounouchi drew a card. Yugi noticed immediately that the boy flinched at the word Kaiba. "Is everything OK?"

The blond looked at his card and placed it on the field. "Fine." He looked up. "Your turn."

Yugi pouted, but drew again. "Did something happen today-?"

"No."

Yugi looked up at Jounouchi's abrupt answer.

"I mean… No. Nothing happened. Why would anything have happened? It was just like class. Everyday. Always normal. He didn't even say anything to me today…"

Yugi laid another card over and ended his turn. He could tell that Jounouchi's concentration was not there, and his mind was elsewhere. "Jounouchi… Are you sure you`re alright with Kaiba-"

At the mention of the blue eyed boy, Jounouchi jerked up. "Huh? What? Yugi?" He looked around as though he had no idea were he was. "Listen," he began gathering his card. "I gotta go. Sorry, but… I gotta… Go." He turned to leave. "See you at school tomorrow, ne?"

"Yeah… School."

Jounouchi walked out the door and Yugi was left alone in his room. Yami appeared.

/I'm worried about him./

Yami nodded. //As am I.//

* * * * * * * * * *

Ryou entered his house and locked the door behind himself. He had made a deal with Bakura. He bit his lips as he walking further into his home. The deal guaranteed the safety of this friends from here on out. He walked towards his room. Because of the deal, he would no longer have to worry about Bakura hurting anyone. He opened the door to his room and walked in. Bakura promised to not ever hurt any of his friends ever again. Ryou walked up to the bed. All his friends would be safe from now on. Ryou gulped as he felt strong, graceful arms entwine themselves around his lithe body and lower him onto the bed. It was a deal with Bakura that he made. He felt the warm pressure of another's body against his own. A deal that Bakura was about to enact payment on.

//To do whatever I want.//

Ryou gasped.

* * * * * * * * * *

Jounouchi walked out of the store and into the street. He walked down the dull gray, paved road towards his house, taking a few detours here and there, letting the night slowly creep onto him. He stopped a few alleyways away before he got to his home. He quickly turned into a now darkened corner and made his way to the back of a liquor store's back alley trash way. He found a small beer crate pushed against the dirty wall, next to the giant, foul dumpster. It smelled like urine and he saw insects, probably cockroaches, crawling around on the floor. He shrugged indifferently as he felt the cold air funnel between the two building's side walls and blast him with a powerful chilling air. He pulled in his jacket around himself. He walked over to the crate next to the disgusting green dumpster and sat on it.

Back when he was a kid, he had discovered this place. It was back when the liquor store had been a reputable convenience store. Back before his neighborhood had become a crappy ghetto. Back when this alley had been spotless and the dumpster a clean shade of forest green. He had gone there and played. Always by himself though. He never told anyone about this place, not even his gang buddies, or even Honda. This disgusting place was his best kept secret.

And now I have another disgusting secret.

Jounouchi heard a beer bottle crash a few feet away and a bit of incoherent yelling before a disturbing calm settled over the place again. The yellow light of the back door's blinking light bulb sputtered on and immediately attracted tons of gray moths. They swirled around the glowing light in a pointless dance that went on every night with out change or fruitful difference. Jounouchi sighed. He remembered the first time he had come to his alley corner. How beautiful it had been then; a bizarre mystery of unknown adventures that promised him excitement and fun. Now, all the alleyway promised him was sadness and despair.

He had personally witnessed its degradation over the years. He had also tried to stop its slow, but inevitable decay. And he had failed. Now, he came here not with the intention of whimsical ideals of fun and play, and childish glee filled happiness. No. Now, he came to this wretched hell hole to feel the blatantly cold, despair caused by his childhood fantasy's death. Now, he came to this place only to cry.

It's been a while, old friend.

Jounouchi let his body go limp, resting his back and head against the grimy wall and outstretched his arms out to his sides, running them up and down, feeling the cold slime and dirt that clung to the crumbling concrete walls. He inhaled a ragged breath and exhaled unevenly.

It's been… A while.

Sitting in his dark corner, by the stinking dumpster, he closed his eyes and cried.

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