Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Koware na Hato ❯ Fuzai ( Chapter 12 )

Koware na Hatori

by: Yumei

(yukuro)

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A/N: -_-;; sorry everyone for the delay. I am very, very unhappy! T_T my computer got a VIRUS and the whole thing needs to be reformatted… *sigh* I can't believe how close I was to losing this… u_u;; luckily, I saved this story on a floppy disk! But my poor, unfortunate other stories… *goes off to cry in a corner* thanks for your reviews anyway! *gloom, unhappiness, glooooooooom*

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Disclaimer: … *grumble* yu-chan does not own the charries; just the strange plotline that keeps getting stranger. -.-;

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Chapter Twelve: Fuzai

Voices and words swam together dizzily in Bakura's head. Familiar, worried, curious voices filled his head, and he found nothing more annoying. Why were they talking? How had he ended up here again? Who had ever supposed that the infamous tomb robber, a breaker of the pharaoh's law, actually be going to the pharaoh himself for help? The past really repeats itself after all…

"I don't need any help from you!" Bakura spat at the young pharaoh as he waved his guards away with complete trust. "I could have easily escaped from these damn guards myself!"

"Don't be daft, tomb robber," the pharaoh said almost sharply, shocking his guards by getting down on his knees so he was eye level with the angry snowy haired thief. Calm crimson eyes met blazing brown ones. "I can see you're very independent, but you'd better learn to ask for help when you need it. My guards saved your life out there."

"So what?" the tomb robber shot back instantly. He glared hard back into those calm, completely infuriatingly calm, crimson eyes. I didn't ask for anyone to save me. I was ready to die if I had to. I will get him back myself! I didn't ask for your help, so leave me be! What's one more person to you? You have an entire kingdom of people, so why do you pick me?"

Yami smiled slowly. "Funny you should ask," he said, standing up, but turning to untie Bakura's hands. "Why should I take notice of a person who has robbed my family tombs seven times now and I've let make away with mounds of gold?"

Bakura narrowed his eyes and shifted his hands to be free of the binds on his wrists. The ropes were harshly cutting into his skin and he was slightly wondering why that stupid pharaoh was helping him. "If that's so then why do you help me now? And what do you mean you let me? What do you want from me?"

"You may know….someday," the crimson eyed boy said simply, closing his eyes and taking away the last bit of rope. He even kept a calm face when the tomb robber suddenly turned around and shoved a short dagger inches from his throat. The royal guards instantly grabbed their weapons and prepared themselves to attack. Yami glanced at them, silently telling them not to move. "Stay where you are."

"Why don't you tell them to kill me?" Bakura asked, gripping the knife tightly, still mere inches from the pharaoh's throat. "I could easily just slit your throat now and kill you and that would be the end of my problems. Why don't you panic? I can really do it!"

"I know you can," the pharaoh said calmly, eyes still closed. "But you won't," he finished, pushing the dagger away from his throat easily with his index finger. "Now why don't you please calm down and let me help you…that is, if you really want to find him."

"What do you know about him?! What can you do?! You're the pharaoh and he's just another citizen! What could you possibly know?! I want to find him, but I don't need your help!"

"Bakura," Yami said sharply, opening his eyes again. "I cannot allow you to run around as you just were! I will not allow such recklessness in the city. You could have seriously hurt some innocent person and you nearly got yourself killed! Now listen to me. Kawatori is an immigrant from a foreign country. Don't you think I would have some information on him?"

"How is information on him going to help me?" Bakura said angrily, his hands balling into fists while shaking at the same time. "I know everything about him. What could you possibly still have that could be helpful to me?"

"Trust me, and I will be able to," the pharaoh said firmly. "I will make sure I will do all I can to help you find him. You have my word. Now, all you have to do is ask for help, Bakura. If you don't learn now, you never will."

"Shut up! I…" Bakura dropped his arms to his sides and stared at the ground in shame, a few angry tears finding their way to his eyes. "…please help me… Please… If…If I don't see him again… Help me find him…"

…and the pharaoh just smiled and kept his word as promised…

"Someone please call Sehkto…"

Voices… Sounds… Words… Jumbled phrases slowly formed into words again, yet still sounding a bit odd… The voices of those people finally became clear. Their worried voices sickened Bakura.

"Should we wake him and ask him to tell us what's going on?" asked a male voice; proud and confident. Hiroto Honda.

"I don't know…he seems to have lost a lot of blood… I wonder what happened," Yuugi's small voice rang out.

"That idiot's been getting himself in trouble again. What this time? Picking fights with dogs?" Hmm. That voice wasn't as familiar as the others and the remark was rude enough. Odd sounding, but it was surely the high priest. What the hell was he doing here?

"Kaiba! That's not very nice." Damnit, she came after all. The pharaoh's going to get it…

"I think he's up already. He's listening to our conversation with an annoyed look on his face," Yami's cool voice cut in. "Open your eyes, tomb robber. I know you're awake. Your eye's twitching."

Growling slightly, Bakura opened his eyes a bit painfully and winced from the pain shooting up and down his body from his chest. He hadn't meant to fall asleep. Pain coursed through his body as he sat up, a white coat slipping from his shoulders. More likely he fainted from pain. He probably overworked himself getting to the pharaoh.

"You've been asleep for three days already. Who wrapped your bandages? A dog could have done a better job."

Bakura glared up at the cold blue eyed high priest. "Question: Why do you care? What are you doing here anyway? Striking up old 'activities' with the pharaoh again?"

Seto raised an eyebrow and returned the cold stare, ignoring Anzu and Honda's puzzled looks. "This is not your home and if you want me to leave then fine. It puts you in a bad position and you're wasting my time just sitting there. Oh, and you may want to take notice whose coat you're using as a blanket there."

Yami smirked as he watched the two exchange cold glares. Turning to the snowy haired thief, he said in his imperturbable voice, "You never said anything about not calling him and I apologize for the denial of your other request, but believe me, I didn't do anything to make it this way," he said a bit unhappily, remembering how Bakura disliked Anzu. "Seto was kind enough to come and help me out."

"…" The blue eyed boy turned and walked towards the opposite wall, but not without blushing slightly and cursing under his breath. Of course, he would do anything for Yami and no one else, excluding Yuugi, of course. Though he couldn't believe he was doing it, he went to retrieve a clean rag and fresh bandages for the tomb robber anyway.

Sending Honda and Anzu away to look for the missing Jounochi, Yami sat down next to Bakura on the coach. Yuugi had happily hugged him and kissed his cheek before running off after his two friends. Yami had received snickers from the tomb robber for that. Sighing, he leaned back and waited for Seto to return. "Why don't you tell me about how you got into this situation."

It wasn't a question. Sighing reluctantly, Bakura told Yami about Malik and when he first appeared, but after a confused Yami had asked why he was at a park to begin with, Bakura had to start from the very beginning. He was embarrassing himself and obviously Yami as well, because when Seto finally returned Yami was beet red and Bakura was flushing while cursing under his breath.

Not bother to ask what they were blushing about. Seto sat next to Bakura on the other side and fished his glasses out of his pocket and put them on. Yami was smiling at him, slightly blushing. The blue eyed boy was unsure of whether the ruby eyed boy was still blushing about whatever he and Bakura were discussing or him. Shrugging it off, he held out his hands and waited a bit impatiently for Bakura to tell him where he was bleeding.

Bakura stared, wide-eyed, at the blue eyed boy on his left. One reason was that he never knew he wore glasses, the other was he was half unsure of what he wanted to do. Pushing Seto's coat into Yami's lap, Bakura, still staring, said to the high priest, "You wear glasses?"

Looking at him, annoyed, Seto dropped his arms and glared. "Yes, I do. Got a problem with that? I overworked when I was younger so I damaged my eyes. I don't need them all the time, but I do need them sometimes. Now, show me wherever you're bleeding."

"Why?" Bakura snapped, quickly drawing his bandaged left hand away. "What are you going to do?"

Seto shot him another annoyed look as Yami chuckled. "Look, I'm not going to kill you or something. Your bandages are already soaked. Now show me before I have to strip you to find out myself."

Twitching a bit nervously at the last remark, Bakura pulled off his jacket and held out his left hand, using his other hand to lift his shirt off. Although he didn't want to waste time being bandaged up and wanted to spend his time finding Ryou, he had to admit, his body was in a lot of pain.

Hearing Seto sigh again, Yami peered over Bakura's shoulder before getting up completely and moving to the other side of the couch, next to blue eyed boy. Resting his head slightly on his strong back, Yami closed his eyes contently and whispered, "Is it really bad, Seto?"

"A blade pierced his hand, Yami. What do you think?" Seto said quietly as he cleaned the wound in case of an infection. He was doing it very carefully so he wouldn't hurt Bakura, but the boy didn't seem to be extremely grateful. The tomb robber merely shifted in his seat, his eyes occasionally examining the wound himself. "The cuts are really deep. Since he's a spirit, all I really need to do is stop the bleeding. He'll be fine after a while."

"When did you become a doctor anyway, high priest?" Bakura mumbled uncomfortably. His hand hurt a lot. He wished he hadn't stabbed himself after all. Well, it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

Completely ignoring his question, Seto picked up the bandages and wrapped up the pale hand tightly. A slight blush tinged his cheeks. Yami's warmth comforted him and it felt nice whenever he felt the boy's even breathing on his back. Finishing with the hand, the blue eyed boy looked to Bakura's chest. "Damn, what happened to you?"

"Old friend," Bakura said dryly, "He's got a thing for cutting people with sharp objects while he rapes them. I think blood excites him or turns him on. Something like that anyway."

Nearly dropping the tools he was using, Seto looked up at him, brows furrowed. "You were raped? Men weren't made for that kind of thing. If too much force is applied…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea," Bakura muttered, his face heating up. "Besides," he said hotly, "who said I was raped? He tried, but I didn't let him go through with it."

"That's a relief, because I'm not doing any medical work down there even if it was to save your life," Seto said coldly, cleaning one of the many deep cuts in the tomb robber's pale chest.

"Good," Bakura shot back, equally cold. Hearing Yami chuckle to himself, he scowled. "I can't believe I bothered to ask you for help, pharaoh. All you do is sit there with an amused smile and your annoying calm voice. I want to find Ryou and I want to find him NOW."

"Who do you think you are to demand something like that?" Seto asked sharply. His icy blue eyes blazing behind his glasses. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Bakura was slightly shaken. This had certainly caught him off guard. He had never heard the high priest's voice become so icy and stern before. He wasn't sure what to say get out of the situation, and Yami was peering at them, surprised. "Well… Who do you think you are? Yelling at me like that…"

"You're right."

The snowy haired boy stared at the other boy in shock. He hadn't expected that one.

"You're right. Who am I? You have no right to ask that. You should be looking at yourself. You say you're urgent to find Ryou and say you do things to help him, but you have done nothing but hurt him! Don't be thinking, 'oh poor, poor me! What am I to do?' Why don't you give some consideration to the people who you hurt?! You don't know what it's like love someone and having them not care."

"What do you know…?" Bakura said quietly, his blood boiling. "SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE FOR ME EITHER!"

"I know I don't," Seto said coldly, glaring straight back at the tomb robber. "You are some cruel bastard. You say you love Ryou, but you're too selfish to admit it! Don't think I don't know. Think I don't remember the past, Bakura? Well, I may know more than you think. Yes, I saw him too. Kawatori. You know who he is, but you just keep denying it, so you won't get hurt."

Bakura shook his head in denial, eyes wide. He backed away from the cold block of ice before him. No, no… He's wrong! He's wrong… I don't want anyone but Kawatori! How could I have ever even considered it… He would never understand! "Stop yelling at me! Stop looking at me! You would never understand!"

Seto closed his eyes and reopened them, his expression softer. "Maybe you're right. I really wouldn't understand your feelings, but that's why we're here to help. I would never be able to understand how you feel, but I know more about love then you think.

"I always thought I never had love, but when I look back, I see it was all around me. I had always had the love I had for my brother. So I am a block of ice, and I never would have guessed my icy heart would have been melted by 'crimson fire' itself. So maybe I don't understand you, but I definitely understand Ryou. You can't do anything for him now. The most you could do is calm down and let us help you."

Yami listened to Seto's soft words quietly. The outburst had surprised him as well as Bakura. He had never heard Seto's voice sound like that before. It sounded so soft and soothing…

The tomb robber stared in utter shock at the blue eyed boy. What the hell had gotten into everyone lately? He really didn't need to hear the high priest's love confession, or whatever it was. Pulling his shirt back over his head, Bakura shot the other two boys a look. "I don't care what you think is right. Don't you get it?! Ryou could be hurt right now! I'm going to find him now!"

"Bakura, wait!" Yami jumped to his feet, but the snowy haired flash had already disappeared out the door. Sighing defeatedly, he collapsed back onto the couch. "I don't know what's gotten into him lately…"

The blue eyed boy closed his eyes and removed his glasses. He was done being a Good Samaritan for today. He couldn't even believe he had let that much spill! It was pretty stupid of him to do that…

"Seto," Yami breathed, closing his eyes. "Thanks for being here these past few days…and thank you…for what you said to Bakura and helping him. Thanks… Thanks for everything you've done for me these past few weeks…"

Seto's eyes strayed to the shorter boy next to him before quickly turning away and staring at the wall with a slight blush. "It was nothing."

"Maybe not to you it was…" Yami whispered softly, opening his eyes and glancing at the other boy. "But for me… Seto…you are my ice…"

Frozen in shock as the crimson eyed boy kissed him, Seto slowly reached up to his shoulders and pushed him away gently. "I can't do that," he said firmly. "You're the one who doesn't remember… You were the one who said that you could never stop loving Yuugi. Am I supposed to be a replacement?"

"Yes," Yami admitted quietly, his eyes staring hard into the boy's icy blue orbs. "Yes, that's how it was. It was…at first… I'm not the one he loves anyway. Of course, a part of me will still love him, but then… I've found someone…that has been by my side ever since the beginning of time. Someone I'm destined to be wit h for the rest of my life. Seto… will you…accept me?"

Heart nearly stopping, Seto's eyes softened slightly. "What are you saying, you stupid pharaoh?" he muttered softly, brushing away the boy's blond bangs. "My fire, you have already melted my heart. You're only going to put yourself in misery if you choose me."

"I think… I'll take that risk…my impudent high priest…"

"Uhm… you guys? Do you think we should stop their make-out session and tell them about Jounochi?" Honda asked a bit nervously, eyes glued to Yami and Seto. It was really weird seeing those two get along…so…well.

"No," Yuugi said instantly, a small smile trailing his lips. "Mou hitori no boku needs someone right now. He needs to have this moment…after all I've put him through recently, it's the least I can do for him."

"What are you talking about, Yuugi?" Honda grinned, slapping Yuugi on the back. "Think we should just go off and look for Bakura ourselves?"

"That's what I've been saying the whole time!" Anzu complained, tapping her foot on the ground. "Now let's hurry up and go, you perverts! Stop looking at them!"

"Sorry," Honda apologized, grinning sheepishly. "It's just… I never would have imagined that fire and ice could ever be able to extinguish each other…"

Neither would I have guessed, Yuugi thought with a gentle smile as he watched Seto pull Yami into an embrace as soon as their lips parted. Maybe it's better for him anyway. Fire and ice, huh? Ironic…

I'm coming to find you, Ryou…just give me some kind of sign…please… Bakura closed his eyes as he ran down the sidewalk. His entire body ached from pain, but he kept running in determination. "Ryou… I'll find you…"

Trying to speak to him through their mental link again, Bakura squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. Ryou…where are you? Instantly being shot back by a painful barrier, Bakura gasped and dropped to his knees. Damnit… Why isn't it working? I can barely even sense him anymore. The last time his spirit felt so weak was… Eyes widening, Bakura grabbed the gate next to him and pulled himself up.

Clinging to the gate in desperation, the snowy haired thief panted and stopped for a second to catch his breath. No…what if he… Ryou… I can't let you die again! I'll come rescue you… I'm coming… Slowly dropping to his knees again, Bakura struggled to pull himself up.

"Bakura!" Yami called from around the corner. He was running as quickly as he could to catch up with the other boy. With Seto at his heels and the rest of the group not too far behind, the crimson eyed boy called out again, "Bakura! Wait up a moment!"

Ignoring the boy's calls, Bakura crawled along, eyes set. Go away, stupid pharaoh… I don't want you to follow me! I'll get him back myself… "I don't need your help!"

"Bakura? Is that you?"

Running into a pair of long legs, Bakura looked up with a hateful glare at the unfortunate person he had run into. Bakura snarled. "Get out of my way!"

Jounochi blinked slightly and helped up the boy up. "Are you ok? You look horrible. I've never heard you snarl like that in my whole life. You sound like that security guard at the museum! And…"

Bakura instantly froze. ...museum? The answer finally dawning on him, Bakura pushed Jounochi out of the way and ran down the sidewalk with a new determination. The museum! Of course! Isn't that what Kawatori told me about? "The building of lost memories"! That's where Ryou is… I'm coming, Ryou…!

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A/N:whee… x_X;; thanks for reviewing, everyone! You guys are so fast!! By the next time I checked my mail, it was already way over ten! You ff.net reviewers are great! I'm flattered T.T; thanks! (and now everyone sees why I needed to bring Seto into the story too ^_^) *sulks about the virus*

Jounochi: …that's it???? That was my appearance!!?? I'm insulted!

Author: …-_-; quiet, before I pair you up with some psycho. Like…like… *sweatdrop* @_@;; eh… hold on, give me a sec…

Jounochi: *sweatdrop*

Ryou: I'm not even in this chapter! X_X how dare you make me suffer!

Author: *still thinking* oh, hush, Ryou! Or I'll let Malik eat you!

Ryou: O.O… wah ;_;

Bakura: *bangs on closet door* let me out of here this instant, you oni devil!

Author: ><; everyone shut up while I think of who to pair Katsuya up with to kill him!

Everyone: … *sweatdrop*

Jounochi: ._. I don't wanna die…

Author: Pegasus J. Crawford! O_O;;

Jounochi: O_______________O;

Author: >_>; nah… he's got a creepy laugh…

Jounochi: n_n *relief* thank god…

Author: Anzu! ^.^

Jounochi: O________________________O;; ok, ok! I'll take Pegasus!

Anzu: …why is everyone so cruel to me?! ><;

Bakura: *hugs the penguins the reviewers gave him* >_>…

Author: *blinku* You'll be ok, Bakura… You're in a closet with… *counts* three…four…five…six guys squished in there with you ^_^;

Bakura: ………. You say that like it's a good thing -_-;

Malik: *glomp* xD

Marik: … @_@; I have an immature yami, everyone

Malik: *chew* bahaha… he tastes good *cackle*

Bakura: x_x freak

Author: o_O; yeah… anyway, thanks again, everyone! ^^; oh, and Katsuya, you can have Yuugi…or something @.@;

Jounochi: …but he's in the closet . .;

Author: *shrug* oh well. Sorry, Katsuya (yes, that is his first name). Bye, everyone! Chapter 13 is on its way!

Everyone: *groan* nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…!

Author: -.-;; *shoves them all into the closet* hush, children

Chapter title: "fuzai" means "absence; missing; not there"

Bakura: pfft. Like the author's mind isn't quite there

Author: ._. shaddap