My life my pain

POV Kaiba

“Jounouchi!”

I saw him entering the hospital and couldn't help but call out to him. How embarrassing. What happened to the cool, indifferent me? At least I refrained from running up to him.

Yesterday had been difficult for me. I hadn’t been able to concentrate on work; I couldn’t stop thinking about the blond and how our meeting the day before had played out. And in addition to that I was nervous about today. I had to prove that I was serious in my proposal of friendship, and given the circumstances it wouldn’t be an easy task. I had been such an asshole, but Jounouchi had always been too trusting for his own good; besides, he would soon realize that I was serious.

When Jou heard me calling, he turned and stopped walking to wait for me.

I couldn‘t help but notice how cute he looked. He had a thin red scarf wrapped around his neck, and his cheeks and nose were red from the cold. His hands were buried in his jacket pockets. He looked so...innocent, so cute. I almost blushed at all the dirty thoughts which ran trough my head, but luckily not all my old habits had vanished; I could still control my facial features as needed. I pushed those thoughts away; they wouldn’t get me anywhere.

“Hello Jounouchi. How are you?“ I asked as we entered the hospital. I could see that he had black shadows under his eyes. “You look a bit tired.“

“Yeah, had a tough day at work yesterday. I’m a waiter, but the restaurant I work at had some money issues, so I had to stay back and work something out. Juggle the numbers a bit.“

“I didn't know you were good with numbers.“

“Well, when you don't have money you learn how to deal with the bit you have,“ he said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Not that you would know anyway. But working with the finances is actually harder than waiting on people, but I get paid extra for it so its okay.“

“Want to go to the cafeteria and get a coffee before we visit them? It might wake you up a bit.“

“Yeah, that would be great,“ he said, smiling at me.

As we drank our coffee, we sank into an easy conversation. It was nice to
talk to somebody my age, somebody who wasn't after my money or power. He talked about his job and I listened with interest. He seemed to enjoy working with money, hard as it was. I soon realized that Jounouchi didn’t talk about private issues; just about work, and he soon ran out of information on that subject.

“Enough about me,“ he said. “What about you? How’s your life going?“ He carefully avoided any personal issues, but seemed quite keen to talk about mine. Here I struggled a bit; I wasn’t fond of talking about my private life either. However, it seemed I had no other topic of conversation. Work was the same as ever, and my social life had been pretty much nonexistent since Yuki had left.

Jounouchi had apparently picked up on my uneasiness, because he said, “Say Kaiba, how’s Mokuba? He’s sixteen now right? Driving the girls crazy, I bet. He was always such a great kid.“

“He’s just fine. Yes, puberty has hit him hard; there’s a girl he’s always talking about, but he won’t tell me her name. Otherwise he hasn't changed much.“ Jou smiled at that and we finished our coffee in comfortable silence before making our way to Ryou´s room.

Ryou was awake, sitting on his bed and staring off into space. When he heard to door open and saw Jounouchi and me he growled out, “What do you want? Leave me alone.“

“Hey Ryou, we just wanted to visit you. We miss you. Look, even Kaiba is
worried about you,“ Jounouchi said, his tone companionable as he stepped further into the room despite Ryou´s protest.

“I don't give a fuck. Go away you street rat.“ Ryou´s face was contorted into a mean grimace. I was shocked. I’d visited him in the hospital before, but he had always been asleep then. Could this really be the same sweet boy from high school?

“Ryou…“ Jou tried again. I could see the pain in his eyes, but he didn‘t give up. That had always been an ability off his I admired. “I know you‘re hurt but…“

He didn’t get any further. Ryou jumped up from his bed and swung his fist at Jounouchi, but before it could hit him I caught Ryou´s arm.

The second my hand touched his unclothed arm I felt a pull tearing trough my whole body. My stomach clenched and I suddenly felt very sick. And then everything went black.

“Kaiba? Oh god! Finally!“ That voice...

Yami?

I opened my eyes; sure enough, there he was, with his strange hair and a relieved expression on his face. In my mind there was only one explanation as to why I was with him.

“Am I dead?”

“What? No, no! Nothing like that. I can’t believe you’re finally here!“ The big grin on his face made him seem almost hyperactive.

“If I’m not dead, where am I? And why are you here? Why am I here?“

He calmed down enough to explain. “You are in the realm between life and death. When Bakura and I left your world we were neither dead nor alive. Our physical bodies had died long ago, while our souls have lived on and on for over 5 thousand years. Since our bodies died, we were neither dead nor alive, not ghosts, just spirits…don’t try to understand; I myself don’t understand it all.“

I was sceptic. Had I hit my head, or was this just a crazy dream? I had always prided myself on my extraordinary IQ, but this went way over my head. It just made no sense.

“And why am I here? You said `finally´. Have you expected me?“

“Well, when you touched Ryou his scream for Bakura was so loud and forceful that Bakura´s spirit was pulled into your body; but because he is not your other half and is therefore incompatible with you, there was no way the two of you could share the same body. You took Bakura´s place.“

“What? He’s in my body now?!“

“Exactly; but don’t worry, his soul is not compatible with your body either. Its power will drain soon. When that happens your soul will be pulled back into your body automatically.“

“But why me? It’s not like you two just disappeared yesterday. And it’s surely not the first time someone touched Ryou, so why me?“

“Because Kaiba, whether you believe it or not, you are the reincarnation of Seth, the royal high priest of Egypt. And because of that you are connected to me and Bakura who lived at the same time. As well, your position as former high priest makes you sensitive to supernatural things. We not so much expected you as hoped that you would come. We knew the only one that could help us to get out off here was you.“

Okay, it wasn’t like I could deny the existence of spirits and shadow realms anymore, but I still didn’t believe that I’d ever been anyone but Seto Kaiba…even despite the strange dreams I had about pyramids and pharaohs and tomb robbers.

Yami seemed to see the stubbornness in my eyes. “You don’t have to believe in any of it, but please help us, Kaiba. For Yugi and Ryou´s sake.” He noticed my expression and continued. “Don’t try to play indifferent Kaiba. Bakura and I have sensed your presence around Yugi and Ryou for almost two months. We know they’re in a hospital, so you must visit them. Please, I am not one to beg, but here I am. I will do anything to return.”

I sighed. I wanted to help, but I didn’t want to come into contact with my supposed former self…but there was no way I could deny my help for something so important.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll help you, but remember: both you and Bakura are indebted to me now.” It was one thing to show Jounouchi my changes, but another to show them to my former rival…the one who had beaten me in Duel Monsters again and again.

“Thank you so much Kaiba; I promise Bakura and I won’t ever forget. So listen,” his expression grew serious, ”these are the things you need to do…”


In Ryou´s Room Jou’s POV

It all happened so suddenly: Ryou trying to hit me, Kaiba catching his arm, Kaiba fainting. He just sank down to the ground slowly.

”Kaiba?“ I asked, shocked. He didn’t react. Ryou was staring down at Kaiba, as shocked as I was.

I moved forward and hovered over him, not sure what to do. There had been no reason for him to faint like that. Should I call for a doctor? But before I could do anything, Kaiba’s eyes opened and he started groaning. I thought there was something strange about his eyes; they didn‘t hold the same depth they normally did, and they displayed far to much emotion.

”What the hell…” Kaiba cursed, confused.

Okay, there was definently something wrong. His voice sounded totally different; actually, it sounded rather like…

”Bakura?“ I heard Ryou whisper as he bent down to have a better look at the person on the floor.

”Ryou I…“ But before Kaiba (Bakura?) could finish his sentence Ryou pushed me out of the way hugged Kaiba, sobbing.

”Oh Bakura, finally. I’ve waited so long. I knew you would come back.“ He buried his head in Kaiba‘s shoulder.

Kaiba gathered the sobbing boy in his arms and carried him to Ryou´s bed, where he put him in his lap. Tenderly. It was strange to watch. Assuming it was really Bakura, it was even stranger than thinking it was Kaiba with Ryou in his lap. Bakura had always seemed to hate Ryou; he had abused his mind and body until the very end…or so it had seemed to all of us, but there had to be something more, something that none of us had been able to see. Otherwise Ryou wouldn’t ever have fallen in love with Bakura, and Bakura wouldn’t have reacted the way he did now.

”What happened to Kaiba? What have you done to him?“ I was happy that Ryou had his Yami, or at least his Yami’s soul, back, but if Kaiba had to suffer for it…

”Just be silent,“ Bakura snapped, focusing Kaiba‘s hard eyes on me ”He will be fine. Just give us some time.“ I wanted to protest, but something about the way Ryou was safely tucked in his lap and how carefully Bakura tried to calm the smaller boy down made me stop for a moment.

Bakura whispered into Ryou´s ear and slowly the sobbing began to ebb away. I wanted to ask if Kaiba was really okay, but I didn‘t want to interrupt them; they looked like they were in their own world, and I wanted to give Ryou privacy with his love. I just hoped they wouldn’t start kissing. It wouldn’t be fair to Kaiba and…I didn‘t really want to see anybody kissing Kaiba… Luckily they didn’t, even though it was obvious they both wanted it. After a while of quiet talking and loving caresses, Bakura stood up and took Ryou´s hand, looking deep into his eyes.

”If everything works out right we will be together again soon, my angel. And this time everything will be perfect. I will carry you in my arms and nobody, especially me, will ever hurt you again.” With that Bakura went over to me. ”Take care of my angel or I will make you suffer,“ he threatened.

”What the hell…“ Before I could finish my protest, Bakura fainted and I had to catch him. Kaiba‘s body was to heavy, so me and the unconscious CEO slipped to the floor.

The instant he opened his eyes again I could tell that Kaiba was back. No one has such guarded eyes as him. Kaiba groaned. He looked pale and exhausted.

”Hey Kaiba, you okay? You look like…“ but again I didn't get any further. Kaiba
passed out again, but this time it was more like he was asleep. His breath was even and calm, as was his face; his head was settled on my lap. I couldn't believe it. Here I was with Seto Kaiba, his sleeping head in my lap. I took the opportunity to study him a bit. He looked so much younger while sleeping, younger than he actually was. His hair fell gently over his eyes; before I could think about it, I brushed it away.

At my touch Kaiba stirred but didn't wake up. Instead he moved his head further into my hand and was now facing my jeans-clad cock.

My breath hitched. Oh god. His breath was so warm and his hair in my hand so soft and...was it just me or did he move again? God, he was almost nuzzling my groin.

Before I could lose my head completely, I heard Ryou speaking up from the corner of his bed.

”Ahem…Jou?“

I had totally forgotten that he was still there. He was watching Kaiba and me with curiosity in his eyes. I swallowed nervously. Was I blushing? Was it obvious that I was turned on? God, please no.

”Ahh, Ryou could...could you help me put him on your bed?”

”Not necessary. I am awake.”

I looked down and sure enough he was awake, not facing my groin anymore, but moving out of my lap. There was no sign he was aware of the compromising position we had been in just seconds before.

We both stood up and I asked, “Are you OK?”

He gave me a small smile “I am just fine.” I could see he was lying; he had difficulty standing straight. But I knew better than to fuss over him.

”Whatever! Do you know what happened? Was that really Bakura in your body?”

”Yes, it was him,” Ryou spoke up. “So, will you help us?”


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This chapter took me quite some time to write…I hope you like it. I had some difficulties with it. Especially the dialogs. Blackwidow had a really tough job too. I made soooo many mistakes. I am really lucky that I have her.

Anyway, thanks everybody for reviewing. It made me really happy to read that you like what I have written so far. Next chapter will be up soon.