Bits and Pieces
Series: YuGiOh
Title: Bits and Pieces
Author: Fictatious
Character(s): Bakura Ryou, Yami-Bakura, Mutou Yuugi, Yami-Yuugi, Jonouchi Katsuya
Rating: General
Warnings: Meh
Previous: 1, 2, 3
Summary: The usual "What if a yami or two gets their own body at the end of the series there?" set-up; in this scene, Bakura freaks out because he doesn't know where Yami-Bakura went.
“I’m home!”
No response.
Ryou frowned. Was Thief sleeping? He slid out of his shoes and stepped up into the hallway, padding on slippered feet towards the living room. The couch was vacant and the television was turned off. The pervasiveness of the silence felt unnatural and a nagging little knot of anxiety found its way into Ryou’s chest as he walked across the living room to his bedroom.
That room was also empty. The little knot of anxiety began to grow, tugging at Ryou’s spine. He checked the toilet and the bathroom*, empty. The anxiety spread to Ryou’s heart and lungs and he started to panic.
“Thief?” he called, rushing through the apartment and opening every door, even the closets and balcony. “Thief?”
There was no response. The Apartment remained empty and oppressively quiet except for Ryou’s frantic sounds. “Where are you?!” he demanded of the air as he came to a stop in the middle of the living room, his breath coming rapidly and his eyes starting to burn.
The idea that the Thief had disappeared into thin air was ludicrous, Ryou told himself, and then told it to himself again for good measure. He couldn’t just get misplaced anymore, he was a living human being with a physical body that couldn’t go off on any astral-plane shenanigans. So then he had to have got up and wandered off physically, right? Right.
Ryou glanced toward the entryway and then walked over to examine the small table next to the door. There was a spare key that normally sat in a little English tea-cup along a few other odds and ends on that table. Ryou pushed some loose change a battery and a paperclip around the little cup with his finger; the key was gone. Part of Ryou felt relieved. Thief had left the apartment still in full possession of his body. But this also raised a new collection of worries.
Thief was walking around the city with four broken ribs and a generous helping of flesh-wounds. All of them had been healing quite well in the last two weeks, some of the smaller cuts were already covered over in fragile scar-tissue, but his ribs were only just starting to heal and any little bump could make them worse than before. And Ryou’s imagination was already supplying the worst places the Thief might have gone and the sort of troubles that were likely to come to pass in such places.
Ryou walked back into the living room and sat on the couch, perched just on the edge of it with his whole body tensed. He bit his lip and stared at the blank television screen. He stood up and walked forward a few paces, realized he had nowhere to go and turned around part way, then stood their nervously, glancing around the empty apartment. Ryou rung his hands and blinked quickly.
What if he’d gotten into trouble? Thief did have a tendency to go to the kind of places and do the kinds of things that would get him into trouble. What if he didn’t come back? What if he got himself injured even worse? What if he got picked up by immigration? What if he’d offended a yakuza boss and gotten shot? Nonononono, that was way too extreme. That couldn’t have happened. Ryou was just getting carried away.
But still, what if he didn’t come back? How would Ryou find him? When he was part of the Millennium Ring, he was always drawn back to it no matter what, and most of the time when he went somewhere disreputable, he took Ryou’s body along with him. It hadn’t been possible to loose him, except when Yuugi and Pharaoh had taken the Millennium Ring...
Ryou had just hit the ‘send’ button on his cell phone before he even realized he’d taken it out, and it started to ring Yuugi’s number. Of course Yuugi hadn’t done anything with Thief, or even Pharaoh, because Thief wasn’t pocket-sized anymore, he was bigger than either of them. But it was already ringing, and Ryou needed to tell someone, needed someone to help him.
“Hello?” Yuugi’s voice asked when the ringing cut off.
“He’s gone!” Ryou blurted and his voice sounded hysterical in his own ears.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Thief! He’s gone! I got home and he’s gone! I don’t know where he is! I don’t know how to find him! He’s injured! He shouldn’t be wandering around alone! What if something happens to him?!” The words poured uncontrollably out of Ryou’s mouth.
“Bakura-kun, please calm down!” Yuugi sounded worried now too. “We’re going to come over right away and we’ll figure this out. So please, try to stay calm, okay?”
Calm? How could he be calm at a time like this? “Okay,” he said automatically.
“We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Ryou slid the phone back into his pocket and stared into space, hugging his arms around himself, over his churning stomach.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Ryou tore out into the hall and skidded as he turned the corner to reach the door. It wouldn’t be Thief. It was just Yuugi. Thief had a key. But...? Ryou opened the door to see Yuugi, Pharaoh and Jonouchi standing on his porch. The tiny bubble of hope within him burst, but he forced a polite smile.
“I- please come in. I don’t- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you, it’s just- I don’t know what to do. I panicked,” Ryou stammered, stepping back to let them inside.
“It’s okay, Bakura-kun. We don’t mind at all,” Yuugi said in an entirely too calm voice. “Please calm down and let’s figure this out.”
“So what, Mister Bad-Attitude just up and left?” Jonouchi asked, kicking off his shoes and leaving them in disorder as he stepped into the hall.
“I don’t know! I came home and he wasn’t here!”
“... He could be in the wind,” Pharaoh suggested in a quiet voice.
“He wouldn’t leave me!” Ryou snapped, glaring at the Pharaoh. “He needs me! He wouldn’t run away!”
“No, of course not!” Yuug said quickly, shooting Pharaoh a stern frown and patting Ryou’s back. “I’m sure he just went out for a minute.”
“But he’s injured!” Ryou wailed.
“Yeah, well, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, is he,” Jonouchi snorted.
“Jonouchi-kun, please don’t joke,” Yuugi said with irritation or stress sharpening his voice. “Now, did you look to see if he left a note or anything?” he asked, turning back to Ryou.
“I...” It had never even occurred to Ryou to look for one, it didn’t seem like the sort of thing Thief would be likely to do. “No, I didn’t look for that.” He turned and trotted back to the living room. He riffled through the small accumulation of papers on the table and then darted across to the kitchen and tore apart the counters looking for a scrap of paper that might hold a clue to Thief’s whereabouts. There was nothing. Ryou collapsed onto one of the stools at the counter and bit his lip.
“Um, well, is there anything--”
“He took the spare key, I think,” Ryou said before Yuugi finished his question.
“Well that’s good, I mean, it probably means he just went on an errand or something,” Yuugi said brightly.
“Like robbing a bank,” Pharaoh murmured and Jonouchi chuckled. Ryou ignored the comment.
“I really think you’re probably worrying too much, Bakura-kun. I think we should just calm down and try to be rational.” Yuugi’s words mushed into an annoying drone as Ryou tuned him and the other two out, turning back to all the worst-case-scenarios his imagination could supply him with. Despite Yuugi’s babbling, the sound of a key entering the lock on the front door sounded loud as thunder in Ryou’s ears.
Ryou jumped to his feet and took off running for the door. He turned the corner into the entry hall just as it opened and saw Thief pushing it open with one hand, a collection of shopping bags hanging from the other. Ryou nearly threw himself at Thief, but remembered the broken ribs and skidded to a stop before they collided. “Where were you?!” he all but screamed.
“Sorry, I meant to get back before you,” Thief said with a guilty wince. “I even got a taxi when I knew I was running late. I thought it would get me here faster, but then we hit traffic.”
“Are you just incapable of thinking about other people?” Jonouchi drawled in a low, confrontational voice from the end of the hall and Thief’s eyes snapped up, the muscles in his face and the rest of his body suddenly going tense, as though preparing for a fight.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“Bakura called us freaking out because you up and disappeared,” Jonouchi spat back. “Y’ever heard of leaving a note or something?”
“I’d planned to be back earli- Kch- you,” Thief’s expression turned into a snarl as he spotted the Pharaoh. “Fine! Party’s over! Everybody out now! Go home!” he commanded, clapping his hands for attention.
“I think we deserve an explanation,” the Pharaoh said, narrowing his eyes. “Where were you?”
“Y’know, that little entitlement complex of yours is really pretty annoying. You don’t deserve anything,” Thief sneered, kicking off a pair of unfamiliar and very new-looking shoes before walking barefoot into the hall. “But if you must know, I was running a few errands.”
“You didn’t do anything dangerous!” Ryou asked, following inches behind Thief as he pushed past the others into the living room. “You’re still injured!”
“I know, I know,” Thief answered, sounding exhasperated. “Look, I got clothes and did a couple other little things. Nothing dangerous. And I got myself a cell and a new one for you.” He dropped his bags on the floor and pulled out a box for the newest, top-of-the-line cell phone, handing it to Ryou.
“I... Thank you...” Ryou mumbled, holding the box and giving it a slightly bemused look.
“And where did you get all that?” the Pharaoh asked. He was leaning against the kitchen counter now, giving Thief a suspicious look.
“I bought it,” Thief sneered. “Y’know, with money.”
“And I wonder where you got that from,” Pharaoh sniffed, looking away.
“Didn’t I tell you to leave?”
“There’s no need to fight,” Yuugi broke in quickly. “Thief-san is back and everything’s okay.”
Jonouchi snorted. “No need to fight? Bakura was freaking hysterical because this guy’s too much of a douche-bag to write a note. If you weren’t an invalid, I’d punch you.”
“I could hand you your own ass if I was blind and missing both legs,” Thief scoffed. “Go home. I’m injured, remember? I need my rest. So get the hell out of my house.”
“It’s Bakura’s house!”
“Jonouchi-kun, I think maybe it is best if you leave,” Ryou interrupted. “It’s no good for Thief to get worked up in his condition.”
“My condition?”
“Bakura-kun is right,” Yuugi agreed quickly. “I feel like you’re going to start really fighting if we stay much longer.”
There wasn’t any protest, and after the three had left the apartment, headed back towards Yuugi’s house, Ryou sat down next to Thief on the living room couch. “You didn’t do anything dangerous?” he asked again, in a soft, pleading voice.
“No. Don’t worry. I don’t go trying to pull any jobs when I’m not a hundred percent,” Thief reassured, putting his arm around Ryou. “And I got the cell-phone now so you can call me if you get worried again.” He grinned fondly.
“That is helpful,” Ryou agreed, closing his eyes and leaning into Thief just a little, being mindful of his ribs.
***
*- It’s pretty normal for the toilet and sink to be in a separate room from the bath/shower in Japanese architecture.
A/N: Ah... hm... no comments or explanations are coming to mind... Er, some of you are probably wondering why Bakhura is beat the hell up, I should write a shorty on how that falls into my interpretation of events... I'll try and get on that soon. Long-story-short is that that's the condition he was in right before he got put into the Millennium Ring and that's the way he came out again 3000 years later when the spell got broken... Actually, I guess that pretty much explains it, but I probably will still write a shorty on that too.
Title: Bits and Pieces
Author: Fictatious
Character(s): Bakura Ryou, Yami-Bakura, Mutou Yuugi, Yami-Yuugi, Jonouchi Katsuya
Rating: General
Warnings: Meh
Previous: 1, 2, 3
Summary: The usual "What if a yami or two gets their own body at the end of the series there?" set-up; in this scene, Bakura freaks out because he doesn't know where Yami-Bakura went.
“I’m home!”
No response.
Ryou frowned. Was Thief sleeping? He slid out of his shoes and stepped up into the hallway, padding on slippered feet towards the living room. The couch was vacant and the television was turned off. The pervasiveness of the silence felt unnatural and a nagging little knot of anxiety found its way into Ryou’s chest as he walked across the living room to his bedroom.
That room was also empty. The little knot of anxiety began to grow, tugging at Ryou’s spine. He checked the toilet and the bathroom*, empty. The anxiety spread to Ryou’s heart and lungs and he started to panic.
“Thief?” he called, rushing through the apartment and opening every door, even the closets and balcony. “Thief?”
There was no response. The Apartment remained empty and oppressively quiet except for Ryou’s frantic sounds. “Where are you?!” he demanded of the air as he came to a stop in the middle of the living room, his breath coming rapidly and his eyes starting to burn.
The idea that the Thief had disappeared into thin air was ludicrous, Ryou told himself, and then told it to himself again for good measure. He couldn’t just get misplaced anymore, he was a living human being with a physical body that couldn’t go off on any astral-plane shenanigans. So then he had to have got up and wandered off physically, right? Right.
Ryou glanced toward the entryway and then walked over to examine the small table next to the door. There was a spare key that normally sat in a little English tea-cup along a few other odds and ends on that table. Ryou pushed some loose change a battery and a paperclip around the little cup with his finger; the key was gone. Part of Ryou felt relieved. Thief had left the apartment still in full possession of his body. But this also raised a new collection of worries.
Thief was walking around the city with four broken ribs and a generous helping of flesh-wounds. All of them had been healing quite well in the last two weeks, some of the smaller cuts were already covered over in fragile scar-tissue, but his ribs were only just starting to heal and any little bump could make them worse than before. And Ryou’s imagination was already supplying the worst places the Thief might have gone and the sort of troubles that were likely to come to pass in such places.
Ryou walked back into the living room and sat on the couch, perched just on the edge of it with his whole body tensed. He bit his lip and stared at the blank television screen. He stood up and walked forward a few paces, realized he had nowhere to go and turned around part way, then stood their nervously, glancing around the empty apartment. Ryou rung his hands and blinked quickly.
What if he’d gotten into trouble? Thief did have a tendency to go to the kind of places and do the kinds of things that would get him into trouble. What if he didn’t come back? What if he got himself injured even worse? What if he got picked up by immigration? What if he’d offended a yakuza boss and gotten shot? Nonononono, that was way too extreme. That couldn’t have happened. Ryou was just getting carried away.
But still, what if he didn’t come back? How would Ryou find him? When he was part of the Millennium Ring, he was always drawn back to it no matter what, and most of the time when he went somewhere disreputable, he took Ryou’s body along with him. It hadn’t been possible to loose him, except when Yuugi and Pharaoh had taken the Millennium Ring...
Ryou had just hit the ‘send’ button on his cell phone before he even realized he’d taken it out, and it started to ring Yuugi’s number. Of course Yuugi hadn’t done anything with Thief, or even Pharaoh, because Thief wasn’t pocket-sized anymore, he was bigger than either of them. But it was already ringing, and Ryou needed to tell someone, needed someone to help him.
“Hello?” Yuugi’s voice asked when the ringing cut off.
“He’s gone!” Ryou blurted and his voice sounded hysterical in his own ears.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Thief! He’s gone! I got home and he’s gone! I don’t know where he is! I don’t know how to find him! He’s injured! He shouldn’t be wandering around alone! What if something happens to him?!” The words poured uncontrollably out of Ryou’s mouth.
“Bakura-kun, please calm down!” Yuugi sounded worried now too. “We’re going to come over right away and we’ll figure this out. So please, try to stay calm, okay?”
Calm? How could he be calm at a time like this? “Okay,” he said automatically.
“We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Ryou slid the phone back into his pocket and stared into space, hugging his arms around himself, over his churning stomach.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Ryou tore out into the hall and skidded as he turned the corner to reach the door. It wouldn’t be Thief. It was just Yuugi. Thief had a key. But...? Ryou opened the door to see Yuugi, Pharaoh and Jonouchi standing on his porch. The tiny bubble of hope within him burst, but he forced a polite smile.
“I- please come in. I don’t- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you, it’s just- I don’t know what to do. I panicked,” Ryou stammered, stepping back to let them inside.
“It’s okay, Bakura-kun. We don’t mind at all,” Yuugi said in an entirely too calm voice. “Please calm down and let’s figure this out.”
“So what, Mister Bad-Attitude just up and left?” Jonouchi asked, kicking off his shoes and leaving them in disorder as he stepped into the hall.
“I don’t know! I came home and he wasn’t here!”
“... He could be in the wind,” Pharaoh suggested in a quiet voice.
“He wouldn’t leave me!” Ryou snapped, glaring at the Pharaoh. “He needs me! He wouldn’t run away!”
“No, of course not!” Yuug said quickly, shooting Pharaoh a stern frown and patting Ryou’s back. “I’m sure he just went out for a minute.”
“But he’s injured!” Ryou wailed.
“Yeah, well, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, is he,” Jonouchi snorted.
“Jonouchi-kun, please don’t joke,” Yuugi said with irritation or stress sharpening his voice. “Now, did you look to see if he left a note or anything?” he asked, turning back to Ryou.
“I...” It had never even occurred to Ryou to look for one, it didn’t seem like the sort of thing Thief would be likely to do. “No, I didn’t look for that.” He turned and trotted back to the living room. He riffled through the small accumulation of papers on the table and then darted across to the kitchen and tore apart the counters looking for a scrap of paper that might hold a clue to Thief’s whereabouts. There was nothing. Ryou collapsed onto one of the stools at the counter and bit his lip.
“Um, well, is there anything--”
“He took the spare key, I think,” Ryou said before Yuugi finished his question.
“Well that’s good, I mean, it probably means he just went on an errand or something,” Yuugi said brightly.
“Like robbing a bank,” Pharaoh murmured and Jonouchi chuckled. Ryou ignored the comment.
“I really think you’re probably worrying too much, Bakura-kun. I think we should just calm down and try to be rational.” Yuugi’s words mushed into an annoying drone as Ryou tuned him and the other two out, turning back to all the worst-case-scenarios his imagination could supply him with. Despite Yuugi’s babbling, the sound of a key entering the lock on the front door sounded loud as thunder in Ryou’s ears.
Ryou jumped to his feet and took off running for the door. He turned the corner into the entry hall just as it opened and saw Thief pushing it open with one hand, a collection of shopping bags hanging from the other. Ryou nearly threw himself at Thief, but remembered the broken ribs and skidded to a stop before they collided. “Where were you?!” he all but screamed.
“Sorry, I meant to get back before you,” Thief said with a guilty wince. “I even got a taxi when I knew I was running late. I thought it would get me here faster, but then we hit traffic.”
“Are you just incapable of thinking about other people?” Jonouchi drawled in a low, confrontational voice from the end of the hall and Thief’s eyes snapped up, the muscles in his face and the rest of his body suddenly going tense, as though preparing for a fight.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“Bakura called us freaking out because you up and disappeared,” Jonouchi spat back. “Y’ever heard of leaving a note or something?”
“I’d planned to be back earli- Kch- you,” Thief’s expression turned into a snarl as he spotted the Pharaoh. “Fine! Party’s over! Everybody out now! Go home!” he commanded, clapping his hands for attention.
“I think we deserve an explanation,” the Pharaoh said, narrowing his eyes. “Where were you?”
“Y’know, that little entitlement complex of yours is really pretty annoying. You don’t deserve anything,” Thief sneered, kicking off a pair of unfamiliar and very new-looking shoes before walking barefoot into the hall. “But if you must know, I was running a few errands.”
“You didn’t do anything dangerous!” Ryou asked, following inches behind Thief as he pushed past the others into the living room. “You’re still injured!”
“I know, I know,” Thief answered, sounding exhasperated. “Look, I got clothes and did a couple other little things. Nothing dangerous. And I got myself a cell and a new one for you.” He dropped his bags on the floor and pulled out a box for the newest, top-of-the-line cell phone, handing it to Ryou.
“I... Thank you...” Ryou mumbled, holding the box and giving it a slightly bemused look.
“And where did you get all that?” the Pharaoh asked. He was leaning against the kitchen counter now, giving Thief a suspicious look.
“I bought it,” Thief sneered. “Y’know, with money.”
“And I wonder where you got that from,” Pharaoh sniffed, looking away.
“Didn’t I tell you to leave?”
“There’s no need to fight,” Yuugi broke in quickly. “Thief-san is back and everything’s okay.”
Jonouchi snorted. “No need to fight? Bakura was freaking hysterical because this guy’s too much of a douche-bag to write a note. If you weren’t an invalid, I’d punch you.”
“I could hand you your own ass if I was blind and missing both legs,” Thief scoffed. “Go home. I’m injured, remember? I need my rest. So get the hell out of my house.”
“It’s Bakura’s house!”
“Jonouchi-kun, I think maybe it is best if you leave,” Ryou interrupted. “It’s no good for Thief to get worked up in his condition.”
“My condition?”
“Bakura-kun is right,” Yuugi agreed quickly. “I feel like you’re going to start really fighting if we stay much longer.”
There wasn’t any protest, and after the three had left the apartment, headed back towards Yuugi’s house, Ryou sat down next to Thief on the living room couch. “You didn’t do anything dangerous?” he asked again, in a soft, pleading voice.
“No. Don’t worry. I don’t go trying to pull any jobs when I’m not a hundred percent,” Thief reassured, putting his arm around Ryou. “And I got the cell-phone now so you can call me if you get worried again.” He grinned fondly.
“That is helpful,” Ryou agreed, closing his eyes and leaning into Thief just a little, being mindful of his ribs.
***
*- It’s pretty normal for the toilet and sink to be in a separate room from the bath/shower in Japanese architecture.
A/N: Ah... hm... no comments or explanations are coming to mind... Er, some of you are probably wondering why Bakhura is beat the hell up, I should write a shorty on how that falls into my interpretation of events... I'll try and get on that soon. Long-story-short is that that's the condition he was in right before he got put into the Millennium Ring and that's the way he came out again 3000 years later when the spell got broken... Actually, I guess that pretty much explains it, but I probably will still write a shorty on that too.