Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The not to distant future ❯ Chapter 7

The not to distant future
By Yami Kitsune
Chapter seven: Calm before the storm



After all the excitement the night before the three hikari’s had been unable to fall back asleep. Despite the yami’s trying to convince them. Bakura and Marik finally gave up.

“If you get sick don’t blame me!” Bakura snapped at Ryou. Ryou had always been prone to sickness. Bakura had found this out after duelist Kingdom. Bakura himself could handle a bit of rough weather and had staid in possession of Ryou’s body for most of that trip. And he had been able to ignore the cold he had caught while sleeping outside all those nights. But that had been Bakura’s first hand experience at how weak his hikari really was.

“I won’t get sick.” Ryou said softly even as he lay his head back down on Bakura’s lap. Marik watched them and shook his head before turning his attention to Malik. Marik knew his hikari wouldn’t get sick from a lost nights sleep, but the wound on his shoulder was troublesome. Malik caught Marik staring at him and shook his head sighing.

“If you’re that worried you can help me clean it.” He said heading to the bathroom. The only reason Malik remembered the wound was there was because of the dull throbbing in his shoulder and the pain every time he moved it. Marik jumped to his feet and followed Malik into the bathroom.

Yami however was watching Yugi as the boy struggled with everything he had to stay awake. Yugi had stretched out on the couch, his head now in Yami’s lap. His eyes red and puffy from crying again, but he didn’t take his eyes off Yami for a second. Yami smiled at him and brushed some hair out of Yugi’s face.

“Sleep aibou. I’ll still be here when you wake up.” Yami said. Yugi shook his head at this still not looking away from yami.

“…I don’t want this to be a dream…” Yugi said. Yami blinked, he had not watched Yugi as much as he would have liked over the past two years. He had missed when Grandpa had died. And when Yugi’s friends had left him. Yami was slightly grateful he had missed watching those events, because he would have been tempted to return long before now.

“It’s not a dream.” Yami said kissing Yugi’s forehead. Yugi closed his eyes and literally had to struggle to open them again. Yugi stared at Yami again, his eyelids sagging more before he finally gave up and closed them. He snuggled closer to Yami fisting a hand in Yami’s shirt. /don’t want to be alone any more./ Was Yugi’s final thought before sleep over took him. Yami frowned as he watched Yugi pass out from pure exhaustion.

“Hn, he’s still stubborn.” Bakura said. Yami looked up and found that Bakura had been watching him, Ryou having fallen asleep himself.

“They both are.” Yami pointed out. Bakura shook his head.

“Ryou is easy to force to sleep. Just a few commands in his head does the trick. He’ll sleep for hours now.” Bakura said and carefully lifted Ryou up. Yami frowned at that.

“You FORCE him to sleep?”

“Yeah. The only way I could get him to shut up sometimes. He really is a whiner.” Yami watched Bakura carry Ryou into the bedroom, he shook his head and leaned back his hand absently running through Yugi’s hair. //Don’t worry my hikari. I’ll make sure you’re never alone again.// He silently promised Yugi. Yugi however made no response.

The door to the bathroom opened again and Marik came out followed shortly by Malik who’s shoulder was now wrapped in bandages. But he didn’t look to happy. Yami raised an eyebrow as Marik threw some peaces of fabric into the rubbish. Malik glared at him as he slowly sat down wrapping his arms around himself being careful not to show much of his back to anyone. It was then that Yami realized that the peaces of fabric had been Malik’s shirt.

“You don’t have to hide your scars you know.” Yami said. “Everyone here has already seen them.” He pointed out. This earned HIM a glare from Malik, but the hikari still didn’t say anything.

“Malik, stop sulking. You couldn’t ware a bloody shirt!” Marik said rolling his eyes. He looked at Yami. “He’s still insecure about his scars. Doesn’t like anyone seeing them, even if they’ve already seen them before.” Marik said taking off his own shirt and tossing it at Malik. Malik quickly pulled it on fixing his yami with another glare.

“I am not some exhibit!” He snapped. “It doesn’t matter if people have seen them before or not. Scars like mine….people stare…and I don’t like it.” Malik explained pulling his feet up onto the chair and wrapping his arms around his knees. Yami looked at him blinking. He had never realized that it bothered the boy that much. Marik looked at Yami.

“Malik never wanted it.” he said. “He didn’t want anything to do with guarding the pharaoh’s tomb.” Marik said. Yami looked down at his own sleeping hikari. As he thought about it he realized that he had never really gotten the full story of why Malik’s back had bee carved into. All he knew was that it was something that every male in Malik’s family had to undergo.

“His father was a sick bastard.” Marik said suddenly. Malik’s head shot up and he gave Marik a warning look. Yami watched them and could tell that they were talking mentally. Although with the looks on their faces he was sure it was more like arguing instead of talking.

/Shut up Marik! It’s in the past and you don’t need to go blabbing the whole story to anyone!/

//I wasn’t going to ‘blab’ I was just stating a fact.//

/A fact that YAMI didn’t know! The last thing I want is him asking questions NOW SHUT UP!/ With that Malik stood and stormed back to his bedroom slamming the door. Yami gave Marik a confused look. Marik sighed and shook his head.

“Malik’s dad wasn’t the…fatherly type.” Marik said and then looked down at Yugi smiling a little. Yami felt Yugi move closer to him and looked down to see that Yugi had woken up.

“You didn’t sleep very long.” Yami said leaning down and kissing Yugi’s forehead. Yugi didn’t move, still staring at Marik. Yami glanced up and rolled his eyes when he saw Marik was now smirking at Yugi. Yami picked up a pillow and threw it at the other yami. Marik yelped when the pillow hit him right in the face.

“You’re scaring Yugi, stop it.”

“What?! I was just smiling at him!”

“You were smirking.” Yami said turning his attention back to Yugi who was sitting up rubbing his eyes. Marik snorted and stood up heading to Malik’s room. Yugi turned and looked at Yami.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He said.

“Were we talking to loud?” Yami asked. Yugi shook his head.

“No, I just couldn’t sleep. I…I’m worried about Jou.” He looked down his hair shadowing his eyes. Yami could tell that he was trying not to cry. He wrapped his arm around Yugi’s shoulder frowning when he felt him tense up. “What’s wrong Yugi?” Yugi was silent for a long time and Yami was beginning to wonder if he had fallen back asleep.

“Why did you come back?” Yugi asked. “Are you here to…stop that shadow thing?” Yami blinked taken aback by Yugi’s dull tone.

“…I, yes. That is one reason why I’m back.” Yami said. Yugi slid out from under Yami’s arm and stood up not looking at him.

“After that, then what? Will you have to go back? You don’t belong here. Spirits should move on. Isn’t that the reason you left two years ago?” Yugi asked his voice now bitter. Yami stood up staring, he’d never seen Yugi like this. And he was just now realizing how much the boy had changed in the past two years. For one, Yugi had finally gotten taller. Not much, but he was now the same height as Yami. He also looked skinnier, as if he hadn’t been eating right. But those were just outward chances. The biggest change that Yami could see, was the light that he used to be able to see around Yugi, the light of innocence, seemed to be fading. And now that he thought about it, the light around Ryou and Malik had faded as well.

“Yugi…there is another reason I cam back. And why I brought Bakura and Marik with me too.” Yami said stepping closer to Yugi. The other boy didn’t move, but Yami could see that he was still tense.

“It…would have been better.” Yugi said as if he hadn’t heard Yami. “If this had just been a dream…”

“Yugi, please don’t say that.” Yami said moving around so he could stand in front of Yugi. He put a finger under Yugi’s chin and lifted his hikari’s face so he could look at him in the eyes.

“Yugi, I’m not leaving again.” he said making sure Yugi heard him. “I came back, and I plan on staying.” Yami said, not yet telling Yugi about the mortality spell. He would save that news for later. Once they had gotten Jou back. And found out who was behind calling the shadows. Yugi stared at him a look of disbelief crossed his face.

“You….you’re not leaving again?” Yugi asked. Yami shook his head.

“I’m going to stay here with you.” Yugi smiled some of the light returning to his eyes and Yami smiled back at him pulling him into a hug. “I promise, I will never leave your side again.” he whispered.

~~~

“I promise, I will never leave your side again.” The voice echoed through the dark room as the hooded figure stood over the water basin watching Yami and Yugi.

“It’s sickening isn’t it?” He asked looking at his female counterpart. She however didn’t seem amused at all. He was glaring at the image in the water as. “You keep glaring at them like that I think they’ll burst into flames.” he laughed and she fixed her glare on him. He laughed again.

“Still have feelings for him do you, Anzu?” He asked. Anzu snorted pulling her hood down still glaring.

“If things had been different two years ago then he would have been mine.” She said looking back at the two in the water. Not baring to look at them any more she hit the surface of the water making the image vanish.

“I was still watching that.” He snapped pulling his hood off.

“You enjoy watching boys get all lovey dovey?” Anzu asked turning her back on him. “Really Honda.” She said waving her hand and walking over sitting down on a couch.

“No, I don’t enjoy watching them.” Honda snapped turning his attention back to the water and waved his hand over it. This time an image of Ryou and Bakura appeared. “I am waiting for the right moment to act.” He said grinning. Anzu blinked at him.

“Act? What are you talking about?” She asked looking interested again.

“Tell me Anzu, do you know how a ‘shadow’ is born?” He asked grinning more widely. Anzu shook her head.

“No, I don’t. But I get the feeling you’re going to tell me.”

“Actually, I think it would be much more educational if you were to just watch.” He said still looking into the water. Anzu blinked and stood up going over and looking into the basin again.

~~~~~

Bakura sat next to Ryou’s bed watching over him. He heard Yami and Marik in the living room and shook his head glad he’d left when he did. He looked at Ryou’s pale form and sighed.

“You really are helpless when you’re alone aren’t you?” He asked not expecting an answer. Ryou moaned in his sleep rolling over.

“…stop…please…” he whimpered and Bakura blinked. Even after two years Ryou was still having nightmares? Bakura frowned, he had never cared to look into his hikari’s dreams. Because he himself was never a big fan on nightmares. But he had thought after all Ryou had gone through that the nightmares would have stopped. The fact that they hadn’t worried him. What was it that Ryou was so scared of?

Bakura made a mental note to ask Ryou about it when he woke up. For now, he just sat and watched his hikari sleep.

TBC>>>