Scorched Existence

Pre-story notes:

Thank
you to those of you who reviewed my story!
If any of you are reading my other fic “Stupid
Mutt” you might notice that this one follows the same general storyline… you’ll
see why later. ^_~

And now
the section dedicated to my lovely reviewers:

EgyptianGoddess:style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Admittedly, this fic
is doomed to be an angst-bomb. Well… at
least part of it is. As for whether or
not Bakura

will
return his love… well, you’ll see.

Bambi: Thank
you! I like Bakura/Ryou too.

trivia-game:style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Thank you for the comment about the
title! I put some thought into it.

Ryou:style='mso-spacerun:yes'> *huggles back*

lolly_butt:style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Yup. class=GramE>Angst. I couldn’t
have described the first part better myself!
Guess what? There’s actually
plotline now! *gasps*style='mso-spacerun:yes'>

And now, onto chapter 2!

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Early the next morning, Ryou awoke
still laying on the floor just inside his front door.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> His father was almost never home, so it was
unsurprising that he hadn’t returned home this night either.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> His yami was nowhere nearby.

Ryou shifted, trying to get up onto
his feet when a stabbing pain wrenched through his entire body.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> It didn’t take him very long to remember why
as he noticed the dried blood caked to the welcome mat on the floor.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Sorrowfully, a single tear slipped down his
cheek. “Bakura…”

He shook his head, determined not
to let it get to him. Bakura was gone
now anyway, he usually disappeared during most of the day, only revealing
himself to Ryou when they were at home alone.

Finally, he mustered the strength
to pull himself up and stumble to the bathroom.
For the moment, he didn’t care about much of anything, as he turned on
the shower and stepped inside, still partially clothed.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> As if by routine, he threw off his shirt and
tossed it outside the shower, letting the cool droplets of water cover his body
with their cleansing mist.

As the water warmed up, he cleaned
himself off, lingering in the shower afterwards.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> For some reason, he felt at peace in the
shower. He sighed
at the thought that the foyer by the front door was not a new place.

When he was through, he
mechanically went through the motions he did every morning preparing class=GramE>himself for school, and headed off, trying to walk normally
so that nobody would suspect that anything had eveppenppened to him.

He always had to leave for school
at least an hour early, even though it should only have taken him five minutes
to walk there. Sure, he liked to be
early to his classes, but for some reason, it always took him longer than he
remembered to reach school.

Before
he could dwell more on these thoughts, he blinked, growing a little
light-headed…

It
wasn’t uncommon for this to happen.
Sometimes he lost track of where he was walking and suddenly ended up at
an entirely different place. Ryou did
not even note this as he checked his location and began to walk towards school
again. After taking a glance at his
watch he gasped. Only five minutes to
get to class!

He
began to run, but a searing pain that tore through his abdomen made him
stop. Instead, he walked briskly towards
his school. On the way, he noticed his
friend Jonouchi running towards the building too, brushing something off his
face. Perhaps he had fallen somehow?

“class=SpellE>Goodmorning Jonouchi!
How are you today?” He waved to his friend and asked politely.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He was shocked by the reddened glare he
received from his friend.

class=GramE>“Pissed off at Kaiba.” Jonouchi stated bluntly.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He shook his head.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> “Sorry Ryou, I… I shouldn’t be class=SpellE>talkin’ to ya right now.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> There’s something I haveta
do.” Without another word, he waved and ran into the school.

“style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>That was rather odd…” Ryou thought to
himself, wondering just what Kaiba had done to Jonouchi this time to upset him
so much. Usually Jonouchi brushed off
whatever insult Kaiba threw at him quickly.
Ryou winced inwardly at this thought.
“I wonder if Kaiba’s insults hurt
Jonouchi as much as Bakura’s hurt me?”

Again,
he pushed these thoughts from his mind.
“I have to think positively!style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Otherwise my friends will be displeased.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> I wouldn’t want them to be troubled with my
problems…”

Ryou’s
first couple of classes passed without much event.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He was shocked to hear Kaiba’s name called to
the office, and even more surprised after both Jonouchi and Kaiba
returned. His friend was obviously
furious with the hardened CEO, but Kaiba seemed to be rather calm, as if
watching the drama of a theatrical play unfold.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> “Kaiba
never seems to lose his composure. He
never changes… neither does Bakura. They
both are so similar like that. They both
hurt the ones around them…” His
thoughts wandered a bit before quizzes were passed out.

“…and I
have some important matters to attend to, so I expect for there to be style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>no wandering eyes style='font-style:normal'> while
I’m gone.” The teacher spoke, leaving the classroom.

Ryou
quickly began the quiz, letting it distract him from the pain that sitting in
the hard school chairs was causing to his already aching bottom.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> “That was easy.” He
breathed quietly, almost sad that the quiz hadn’t distracted him longer.

After
much fidgeting around, Jonouchi leaned over and whispered, “Hey Ryou… can class=SpellE>ya help me out? I’m class=SpellE>havin’ trouble…”

Immediately,
Ryou looked over to Jonouchi’s paper, his desire to help his friend much
stronger at the moment than the idea of cheating.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Briefly, he scanned Jonouchi’s work, style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>“Romeo and Juliet is a book about a ninja.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He rode his horses across the dessert to find
Julie so she wouldn’t be a captive belly dancer for the huns…
…what?! Does he even style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>know wha is is writing?” Shaking his
head, he sighed. “It seems he is even
more distracted than I am. Poor
Jonouchi, I wonder what happened to him?
I wonder if anyone has ever noticed me act this way?”

It
didn’t take long for Jonouchi to copy and reword Ryou’s answers.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Before he knew it, the silver haired boy
stood in the gymnasium. This was usually
his least favorite class, since he couldn’t rely on his intellect to get him
through it.

The moment after he stepped through
the locker room door, someone grabbed him and pulled him into a dark closet to
the side. After a couple of seconds, a
small flashlight flicked on, and he felt strong, tanned arms, curl ad
hd
him. The entrancing scent of Egyptian
spices teased his nose and bright violet eyes stared deeply into his own.

“M-Malik…?” Ryou breathed.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He gasped and tilted his head backwards…

&np> 

“…sure you’re ok?” Yugi’s voice
drifted towards him.

He was walking down the hallways of
the school away from the gymnasium.
Apparently classes were over now.
Ryou breathed, taking in this information nearly effortlessly and nodded.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> “Of course, you need not worry about me Yugi.”style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He smiled reassuringly.

Even
so, Yugi eyed him doubtfully. “Are you
sure? I mean… you didn’t seem to care at
all that you were written up for ditching half of gym class with Malik, and
then you aced today’s rope climbing test.
You even beat Jonouchi to the top!”

class=GramE>“And then tried to knock me
off the stupid rope!!” Jonouchi glared at Ryou, but couldn’t keep it
up as he looked into Ryou’s innocent and questioning eyes.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He sighed, “Ok, maybe you did just ‘loose class=SpellE>yer footing’ like ya said, but…
Ryou, I agree with Yugi on this one. I
think ya should get some help about this.”

During
the entire time, Ryou remained silent.
How could his friends say such lies about him?style='mso-spacerun:yes'> He never ditched class with Malik!style='mso-spacerun:yes'> A moment later he cursed himself for thinking
these thoughts. “My friends would never try to hurt me.
Maybe I fell asleep in the closet?
I am a little tired today… but rope climbing…I could swear that I never…”style='mso-erunerun:yes'> His thoughts were interrupted as they stood
in front of the principal’s office.

an>Fan>From
that point on, the people in the office, his friends, and the principal all
seemed to swirl around him. Their voices
blurred, and from the mess he could tell his friends were being dismissed.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> After they left, he heard the words “E wing”
mentioned multiple times. Soon, he was
lead by one of the assistants through the school and back to a place that he
didn’t know existed. “Good luck
sweetie.” He heard the lady say as she gave him an encouraging nudge towards a
very formidable looking door. The
intimidating iron seemed to weigh him down and slow his steps.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Just what was this “E wing” anyway?style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Why did he have to come here?

This
place scared him.

“Go
ahead, it won’t bite you.” Murmured an amused voice from
behind him. Ryou tilted his head,
wondering why the woman’s voice had suddenly lowered so much, to the point of
sounding like a guy. He put a hand to
his head. She was a woman, wasn’t
she? Quickly Ryou turned around, but the
assistant had already left.

class=GramE>Correction. This
place frightened him beyond words.

After
making a scared little “meep” sound, he closed his
eyes tightly, as if the next room would burn them, and quicklystyle='mso-spacerun:yes'> pushed through the door.

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Thanks again for the reviews!style='mso-spacerun:yes'> They help encourage me to write faster.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> (Really!style='mso-spacerun:yes'> No joke!)
^^;;