I cannot dream, but sometimes I can pretend to dream. I don't remember dreams, but I do remember nightmares… The dream I had, if you can call it that, was of Marik being dead. He was bloody and broken and scarred all over. It wasn't my fault. There was no cause of it that I can remember. It was shocking and it was painful. I woke up in a cold sweat and… he was still here, asleep.

He was not smiling. His chest rose and fell with his breaths and his mouth was slightly open. I was relieved that he was there, but I was frightened that I could be afraid. I was scared that I could be afraid of something outside of failure. I was scared because I noticed… that he meant something to me.

I slid back down in the bed and took an experimental breath. I don't have to breathe, but I figured if I was already feeling alive there wasn't any harm to do it as a sort of stress relief. I licked my lips and thought hard about it, and maybe I thought too hard. I felt like I wanted to cry.

I held that in, and I turned to him and pulled him to my chest, carefully like fragile glass. He felt my arms apparently, because he shifted in his sleep and stretched. I closed my eyes and pretended again to sleep.
"Ba… Bakura?"

I remained silent and still, trying to pass it as his imagination that I moved at all.

"Hmm…" He turned and held me as well, using my shoulder as a headrest. "Goodnight…" He already said that before he went to sleep, it was a little ridiculous for him to repeat himself. He hugged me tight like I were a stuffed toy and yawned a bit.

Maybe I was more than just a partner to him, but a friend too. How many friends did the boy even have? He must feel so lonely. That loneliness reminded me of my own, even if on most days I did not feel it. Everyone I ever cared about is dead. I would be dead as well if there were not dues to pay.

This could of been destiny if I believed in it. I would not tell him. Maybe I wouldn't need to. It was far beyond friendship to me. I remained quiet for the rest of the night. In the morning he didn't even notice that for a moment, my lips were on his forehead.