Shadow & A Dancer

Chapter 19

Atem died on the operating table a few hours later.

He had tried to flee from the warm, open arms of death; had tried to block out the comforting lull of eternal darkness, and the whispered promises of respite, after all that his tortured soul had endured.

He had fought to stay in the land of the living, but death was as soothing as it was familiar. It reminded him of the dark heat that pumped blood through the chambers of his heart; it was reminiscent of Yugi's tender touches that burned grooves into his skin, and of lullabies that compelled him to give into the illusion of peace for the rest of eternity.

It was a battle that he had lost.

An inevitable loss, perhaps.

He simply shouldn't have gone as long as he did without medical attention. He shouldn't have endured the pressure of the shadows against his torso for hours, as they squeezed the very life from his body.

But Yami had wanted to draw out their time together.

He had wanted to wait for Yugi to rise from his slumber before playing his games with them both.

And with every minute that had passed and with every breath that Atem had taken, air had escaped through the laceration in his lung and had built up within the pleural space in his chest, shifting his mediastinum and compromising his hemodynamic stability.

His critical condition was only further complicated by haemoptysis, which was a direct result of the trauma inflicted on the vessels in his lungs that had led to the blood pooling within the cavity.

The trauma was simply too significant, and his respiratory distress too grand.

His blood pressure and oxygen levels plummeted during surgery, and his heart stopped.

He flatlined.

Traumatic pneumothorax, the doctors had called it.

It was only by the grace of God, Atem reasoned later on, that the doctors were able to resuscitate him and pull him back from the gentle kiss of death.

And Atem thanked said God for sparing him from being on the receiving end of Yugi's wrath, for surely the boy would've tracked him down in the afterlife and beaten him senseless for such a grievous transgression, such as dying on him.

Atem supposed then that he didn't mind losing the battle; didn't mind the three and a half minutes he had spent on the other side as a wandering soul in the realm of the dead.

For he had found his way back - back to Yugi, back to his true home - and despite his lost battles, in the end, he had won the war.

o0~0~0o

Atem's memory of the following week spent in recovery was spotty at best.

He vaguely remembered the medical terms for the procedures he was required to undergo - something about emergent chest decompression and needle thoracostomy.

He recalled the discomfort of the tubes that they had inserted into his chest cavity, only to then remove a few days later.

He remembered more clearly, however, the obscene amount of time he had spent fielding questions from his superiors, as they arrived in small hordes to interrogate him on the events of that afternoon.

He had gone to the prison to meet with an old client, he had told them, and had accidentally wandered into the morgue instead, where he had found Yugi and Bakura crouched over a third, unidentifiable prisoner, who was visibly deceased at the time. He had been held against his will and beaten until he had passed out.

He couldn't recall anything after that, he informed them.

So, no, he didn't know how Bakura had gotten out of his cell block or how Yugi had escaped from the infirmary. It sounded like that was a question for the guards on duty at the time.

He agreed with one of the prison administrators that it was very unfortunate that the prison didn't have a security feed installed inside of the morgue. The administrator imparted to him information that he already knew: that those in charge had never thought that there was a need to monitor a room that was supposed to be only accessible to staff and was simply there as a holding area for corpses awaiting transfer to their final resting place.

Though Atem was sure that they had definitely found a need for a camera now.

He apologized that he could be of no help when the warden himself arrived a few days into his recovery to tell him that there were no prisoners unaccounted for, and that the deceased male found had yet to be identified.

Atem had told the man that he was sorry, but that sounded like a system error, perhaps, and that it had nothing to do with him.

Why was Atem's gun found on the premises? He must've forgotten to turn it in at the security checkpoint.

How did he get it through undetected? He didn't know, but it sounded to him like the entry guard fucked up.

The questions kept coming, and Atem's story stayed the same.

And if anyone thought he knew more than he was letting on, well then, Atem silently wished them a grand ol' time proving it.

One such person arrived at his hospital door a week later, when his visitors had become less frequent and his breathing more stable.

It was clear by Malik's demeanor, by the way his lips fell into a tight line and his eyes flashed all-knowing, that his supervisor was well-aware of his involvement, though the man could not deduce to what extent said involvement was.

After first inquiring about his condition, Malik had lowered a packet of paperwork down onto his bedside table and had placed Atem on official notice.

Even if they could prove nothing else, Atem, by his own admission, went against a direct order to abstain from meeting with any clients. He was to be suspended with pay until a thorough investigation could be conducted, Malik told him, at which time he would be cleared to come back to work or be arrested to stand trial for whatever charges they saw fit.

Atem would be doing neither of those things, but Malik didn't need to know that.

His suspension included an immediate halt of his security clearance and access into the prison, so the next time that Atem saw Yugi, it was with the help of the most prominent financial backer of the M.P. Prison - the man who had funded half of its construction and for whom the prison had been named after.

Mr. Maximillion Pegasus himself.

An old friend, who Atem had met back in his training days.

A man who had a soft spot for him, Atem knew.

Though unable (and unwilling) to grant Atem access past the security checkpoint, Pegasus and the warden were able to find common ground, which allowed Atem the opportunity to face his 'captor' down in the transport area - a large multi-room extension of the prison, attached to the main building by a series of halls.

Alongside Bakura, Yugi was to be transported (with extra security provided by the FBI) to the federal courthouse so that he could insert a plea for the new charges stacked against him - a right that he had refused in his previous case of the murdered inmates and guard - and Atem was told that he could see Yugi prior to his departure for a span of ten minutes.

There were additional provisions to this meeting, of course.

Yugi was to remain in the holding cell at all times, where he and Bakura were impatiently awaiting transport. Rusty bars ran from the floor to the ceiling, and Atem would not be permitted access inside the cell, he was told.

Yugi's lawyer was present as well, a man of no importance to either of them, along with a pair of federal guards that secured the doors. The warden himself stood close-by and monitored them, and Atem knew that the only reason that he had agreed to this in the first place was with the underlying motive of proving Atem's guilt in all of this.

Whether they presumed him at fault or not, Atem knew that they would need all the evidence they could gather before they charged an employee of the Federal Bureau with anything improper.

Even so, the warden knew that he was not the victim in this like he was claiming to be.

Atem would go on to validate these notions, for he had no intention of holding up his facade today.

Come nightfall, none of it would matter anyways.

"You look like shit, Atem," Yugi greeted him.

The boy looked even smaller than Atem remembered. He was thin, too thin, under his prison jumpsuit, and his cheekbones were more prominent than usual. The casts around his wrists were painful reminders in Atem's heart of what the boy had endured that fated afternoon two weeks ago.

"Nice to see you, too." Atem stood close, almost against the bars. "You look like you're not eating enough," he countered.

Yugi pursed his lips and gave a little shrug. "Haven't had much of an appetite these past two weeks," he said.

"Still." Atem pressed. "You should at least try - "

Atem lost his breath then and broke into a coughing fit. He brought a closed fist to cover his mouth and rested his other hand over his chest, right over the scar from his surgery, as he tried to soothe the ache that manifested itself from the strain of his cough.

"Sorry," Atem muttered when he caught his breath again.

He looked back up and found Yugi was frowning at him.

"I would've killed you, y'know," Yugi said, his tone softer now. He raised his hands to wrap around the bars in between them. "If you had died. Or I guess I should say if you had stayed dead," he clarified.

"Oh. You heard about that."

"There's been a lot of talking going on within these walls since..."

"Yeah..." Atem mused, just as quiet. "Well. In any case, I'm pretty sure you can't kill someone who's already dead."

Yugi watched him, his eyes forever breathtaking. "I would've found a way," he said.

The corners of Atem's lips twitched. "I don't doubt it," he breathed.

A disapproving scoff left the lawyer's mouth. "You guys have seven minutes," he told them.

"Seriously, fuck off."

"Yugi."

"I mean, Christ, he spent all that money on a law degree just to sit here and tell us the fucking time."

"Yugi."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Fine," he snapped, then he pinned Atem with a small glare. "I don't like when you do that," he said.

"When I do what?"

"That."

"Ah, yes, thank you for that clarification."

"That." Yugi looked seconds away from stomping his foot. "I don't like when you open your stupid mouth and say my name. Actually, I don't like when you talk at all, because I hate how much I miss you talking when you're gone." Yugi dropped his gaze to the ground. "And you're gone so much, and you almost died, you did die, and it's all I can think about," he said, near a whisper.

"Yugi..." Atem lifted his hands to cover the smaller ones still wrapped around the bars. His heart longed at the contact. It longed, and it hurt, too. "I'm here. I've told you before, I'm not going anywhere," he said.

Yugi shook his head, and golden strands swayed over his cheeks. "You scared me," he said, a hard edge back in his voice.

Atem sighed then and gave up all pretenses.

He reached forward with his hand and traced the delicate curve of Yugi's cheek with his thumb, the pad trailing over the soft skin like tears. "I scared you? Ha. You nearly gave me a heart attack." Atem laughed, but it was tampered and weighed down by sad undertones. "I thought for sure he was going to...," he trailed off.

His eyes drifted over to the casts around Yugi's wrists and his shoulders fell. His entire body almost fell then, and he wanted to fall, right onto his knees and beg Yugi for forgiveness.

But Yugi didn't give him the chance to grovel. Instead, the younger man reached in between the bars to tilt his chin up and peer into his eyes. "I vowed I would never say this to anyone ever again," he told him then. "But you... you never make anything easy for me."

"What - ?"

"Shut up for once, I'm not done talking yet." Yugi's hand dropped from his chin, and Atem saw only flowers in his eyes.

Atem envisioned them both sitting on grass then, in a meadow perhaps, and peace has found him again. Yes, it was peace that flowed through him when Yugi told him, with bars separating them, that he loved him.

And then the meadow was gone, and Atem imagined a mirror instead.

Or maybe a picture.

No. A puzzle.

One that was finally coming together after all this time, and Atem realized then that all of the pieces that made him up were tinted purple and reflected only Yugi.

Atem leaned his cheeks into the bars then, brought his fingers to the underside of Yugi's smooth jaw, and beckoned him forward to press his lips to his mouth.

They kissed, unashamedly and open-mouthed, between metal bars, because fuck the forces that tried to keep them apart.

None of it ever mattered anyway.

Atem knew that nothing - not walls or bars or spirits or even death - could ever come in between them.

They ignored the outraged shriek from the lawyer, the disgusted sneer from the warden, and the unwanted comment from Bakura on the other side of the cell, as Atem moved his lips against Yugi's without pause.

He only faltered when he felt Yugi wince against his lips, and Atem trailed his tongue over the boy's bottom lip as an apology, licking the small speck of blood he found there.

A guard was separating them then, gripping Atem's shoulders and shoving him back.

"Alright, alright!" Atem hissed, ripping his arm free and taking a step back. "I'm away," he said with raised hands.

"Doesn't matter. Time's up," the warden snarled. "Say goodbye."

Atem turned back to Yugi, reached out for his hand, but was pushed away, towards the exit, before he could make contact.

So he caught Yugi's gaze instead and said over his shoulder, "Behave yourself, please."

Atem grunted when he was shoved again, right out the door.

"No promises," he heard Yugi call after him, right as the door was shut in his face, and he realized that his mouth tasted of copper.

o0~0~0o

"Yeah, this is Jaden Yuki. I'm at the desk for area 739 and have two FBI agents here to secure transport for Prisoners Motou, Yugi and Akefia, Bakura. They're just finishing up the paperwork, and will be ready to proceed in ten."

The words were outlined in static and felt sudden after standing in the eerily quiet room for nearly two hours.

"Great, they're early." Hitori - the shorter and bulkier of the two guards standing watch - ducked his chin towards the radio pinned to his shoulder and said, "Copy that. We'll escort the prisoners to the van." He looked over at the holding cell with narrowed eyes and sneered. "Time to go, you sick fucks."

"How very original of you," Yugi said tonelessly, watching the ceiling, his gaze bored.

Bakura scoffed, one leg hiked over a knee as he picked at his nails. "Spent too much time on his knees in the academy to ever learn any proper insults," he suggested.

"How many of his bosses dicks do you think he took in his mouth to get this swanky position being our glorified babysitter?" Yugi took to counting the little dots in the ceiling tiles. "Like three?"

Bakura flicked a piece of dirt from underneath his thumb. "Are we talking about over the length of his career or how many dicks he can take all at once?"

"Both."

The cell door was ripped open with enough intensity to slam against the bars and send vibrations along the floor.

Yugi hissed when he was yanked by his cast up onto his feet. "You got a fuckin' mouth on you," the guard spat, as he twisted Yugi's arms behind his back and cuffed him.

Yugi went to argue, found it to be pointless, and told the guard to go fuck himself instead. "And your mom. Though I'm sure you've done that plenty of times before."

Bakura snickered, as the other guard on duty secured his hands behind him and ushered him out of the cell. He was older than the guard rough-handling Yugi, and perhaps more weary of exactly who they were escorting to the van waiting outside.

The van itself was long but thin, rectangular in shape, and was complete with a set of steel bars that separated the driver from its passengers. A precaution if the gun in the holster by the driver's hip wasn't enough of one.

The back of the van had two benches that lined the sides and faced towards each other, a mere two feet apart, almost close enough to bump knees.

Hitori shoved Yugi in first, secured him to the chain attached to the bench.

Bakura was fastened to the opposing bench.

"They're all yours, Al," Hitori said to the guard in the driver's seat from his spot at the back of the van.

Al glanced at him in the rearview mirror and nodded. He picked up the walkie on his dashboard. "Prisoners secured. We all set to go?" he said into it.

An accented voice belonging to one of the FBI agents came over the radio. "All good to go. It's a long drive. Let's get this over with."

Al snorted. "You're telling me," he said, then lowered the walkie onto the passenger seat next to him. "See you boys in a few hours," he directed these words to the guard still standing at the van doors.

Hitori reiterated the sentiment, glared at the two confined prisoners, and slammed the back doors close. Circling the van, he walked a few steps towards the sleek, black cruiser and tapped on its hood. The blond agent at the wheel returned the sendoff with a small salute and turned over the ignition.

The van and cruiser bringing up the rear followed suit, and all three engines revved to life.

The first cruiser drove forward, out of the open prison gates, and the two cars behind him followed.

There were no windows in the van, and Yugi could only see glimpses of the outside world through the cracks in the bars that blocked most of the windshield.

There were trees though. Lots of trees.

And lots of potholes that the van's wheels would dip into as it trucked over loose gravel on the road.

"So, what did you get?" Yugi asked the white-haired man a few minutes into the drive.

Clarification wasn't needed on the matter.

They both knew what he was talking about.

"A pack of cigarettes," Bakura said, lifting his dark gaze to look at Yugi.

"And?"

"A transfer."

"To where?"

"What do you fucking care?" Bakura closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the side of the van. "All you need to know is I held up my end of the bargain."

"No need to get pissy," Yugi said. "Was just trying to make conversation."

"Well, don't. You and Atem are testing my patience with all this bullshit." He peeked one eye open to stare at him. "And despite all the disgusting PDA and fake tears you put on for show, I'm still convinced you're using him."

Yugi met his gaze evenly. "I am," he spoke, then glanced away.

"Ha." Bakura smirked. "Knew it. Someone like you isn't capable of giving a fuck about anyone but your damn self."

"I wouldn't go saying all that," Yugi said. "I care about things."

Bakura snorted. "Like what?"

Yugi glanced away, thoughtful. "Like the blood on my hands... and justice." He pursed his lips; squinted his eyes. "Or revenge, perhaps, depending on how you look at it." He shrugged. "And despite what you think, I care about things that are mine. Like Atem's heart."

"You just said that you're manipulating him."

Yugi responded with an airy chuckle. "What makes you think those are mutually exclusive things?" he asked him.

Bakura didn't answer, found himself bored again, and was therefore done with the conversation.

But that was okay, because Yugi had nothing left to say on the matter anyways.

They sat in relative silence for a few minutes, before another pit in the road bounced Yugi up, then back down hard onto his seat.

He swore, waited another minute, until he was sure that the driver's attention was completely on the road, then he hiked his knees up, planted his feet onto the flat seat, and made himself into a small ball.

With little effort, he rolled his shoulders and dragged his bound hands over the curve of his tailbone and past the bottom of his feet.

Bakura watched him with mild interest. "Neat," he commented when Yugi sat straight up again, with bound hands in front of him now. "Guess it pays to be a midget."

"Sure does." Yugi rested his hands, casts, cuffs, and all, in his lap.

The guard would probably notice his change in position later in the drive, but the chains were short enough - a few feet give or take - that Yugi couldn't get to the guard even if he wanted to.

Not to mention, the bars.

It was safe to say that Al was well out of his reach.

Lucky him.

o0~0~0o

It had been a solid year since Isis had last found herself at the gates of the M.P. Prison. Her supervisory status had not required her to meet with clients in quite some time, and she had rather enjoyed her time away from the residents of this particular structure.

Still, she remembered the layout as if her last visit had been simply yesterday, and she waited patiently by the proper side entrance with two federal agents in tow until a buzz came overhead and allowed her entry into the first room of the transport area.

"Afternoon," the guard at the front desk greeted. "Name's Jaden. What can I do you for?"

Isis pulled out her wallet to present her badge and identification to the guard. "My name is Isis Ishtar," she said. "We're here to aid in the transport of Bakura Akefia and Yugi Motou to the federal courthouse."

The man raised an eyebrow at her and pinned her with a strange look. "The prisoners already left like forty minutes ago with the other agents you guys sent over," he said plainly.

The muscles in Isis' body locked into place all at once. "What other agents?" she asked, a sharp edge to the question.

Jaden noticed this and raised an eyebrow at her. "Ah, well, let's see." He pulled out a clipboard from the upper drawer of the desk, and scanned the attached paperwork. He pointed towards the signatures at the bottom of the page. "Oh, yeah, it was an agent Joseph Young. The other one had a strange name, you know that agent with the freakishly bright blue eyes? Oh, right here, it was agent Yami H - "

"That's not possible."

"Sorry ma'am, but those were the agents that picked them up. It's probably just a mix-up with you guys. I mean, their credentials are right here, and they had all the paperwork for the transport - "

"No."

Isis' tone silenced him immediately.

"You don't understand," she continued slowly, her phone already to her ear. "We didn't send any other agents."

o0~0~0o

Yugi spent the last twenty minutes of the ride humming, despite Bakura's threats and the driver's pleas for him to shut the fuck up.

"Fuck," Bakura eventually spat. "I shoulda just slit your throat instead of that fuckin' demon that used you as a hostel. Or whatever the fuck he was."

Yugi tilted his lips. "No, demon is a pretty good description," he said.

"Heh. Died like a human though." Bakura mused with a nasty grimace. "Fucking pathetic. Just like everyone else."

Yugi opened his mouth to respond, but the scratchy voice of the radio filled the car instead, effectively cutting him off.

"Obstruction up ahead," the agent said over the radio. "I'll check it out. You both stand back and wait for the all clear."

"10-4 over," another deeper voice answered, and Yugi bit his bottom lip. "I'll stay behind with the van."

"Fuckin' ridiculous," Bakura snapped as the van began to slow, before coming to a full stop entirely. "Let's just go already. I got shit to do."

"Hey, shut up back there," Al retorted. "You think I like this?"

"I think you like fondling little girls and using this job as a cover." Bakura grinned cruelly.

"I should fucking shoot you," the guard said darkly. "Say it was an accident, that I feared for my life, and just kill the both of you. I'd get a fucking medal, do you know that? For ridding the world of the likes of you two."

Bakura laughed, and it filled up the entirety of the van. "Oh, now that's something I'd fucking pay to see," he said.

Yugi seemed disinterested with the exchange, and only came to attention when he heard a knock at the driver's side window. He couldn't see the person on the other side of the door from inside the van, but he could hear the muffled voice of one of the agents when Al rolled down his window.

"What's the matter?" Al asked.

"Your back tire is low, almost flat," the agent said. "Think you ran over something and the air's leaking."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Al jerked open the door and stepped out of the van, and the occupants inside could hear no more of the conversation.

Yugi sighed and turned to Bakura then. "How about a story?" he offered. "To help pass the time?"

"Fuck off."

"Oh, come on." Eyes of dark violet glinted. "You'll like this one. It's about a light being snuffed out."

Bakura glanced at him. He shifted in his seat, and the cuffs tying his hands behind his back jiggled. "Fine," he grunted. "Shoot."

"Okay. Story time."

o0~0~0o

Malik was walking across the parking lot of the headquarters when his phone began to ring and vibrate in his pocket; a heavy pulse against his thigh.

A scowl twisted at his lips.

He had been in his office for nearly three days, deprived of both sleep and food, as he worked hours on end trying to make sense of what had transpired in the morgue a few weeks prior between his protégé and two cold-blooded murderers.

People were being investigated and put on notice left and right. Internal Affairs was breathing down his neck, and everyone was in a frenzy to identify the disfigured corpse before news stations picked the story up.

God, and then there was his anger; the fury that curled in his blood, because he knew that Atem had a hand in this, even if he didn't yet know how.

And the idea that his employee, his dear friend of so long, would do this to them, to the department, to him.

It was salt in a wound so deep, Malik could feel it burning inside of him.

In a fit of misplaced rage, Malik yanked the phone from his pocket and raised it into the air, ready to smash it against the ground where he stood.

But in a space of just a moment, his brain finally registered the programmed ringtone.

It was Isis.

He paused.

Then, he exhaled a deep breath out of his nose and counted in his head.

When he got to ten, he brought his thumb to the screen to answer the call, but found himself hesitating again.

This time, it was because of something that had caught his attention.

Malik lowered his phone and frowned at the empty booth across the lot.

Ryuji wasn't manning his post.

Which wouldn't have been so out of the ordinary if Malik hadn't noticed that the booth had been empty an hour earlier as well when he had stepped out from some fresh air.

He had assumed at the time that Ryuji had taken a bathroom break.

But now...?

The vibrations in his hand came to a halt, as he abandoned his path towards his car and walked over to the booth.

His stomach began to churn with each step he took, and he didn't know why until he caught sight of a dark liquid seeping from the crack at the bottom of the entry door to the booth.

By the time he was close enough to distinguish the liquid as blood, he was ripping open the door and nearly tearing it from its hinges.

Ryuji was there, curled up on the ground, with his black hair tinged red.

Malik felt the bile rise in his throat as his phone began to vibrate again against his palm, accompanied by a familiar tune.

He swallowed.

Then, sinking to one knee to check for a pulse, Malik accepted the call, brought the phone to his ear, and hissed into the receiver, "Where is he?"

o0~0~0o

"So once upon a time, there was this man. He was a sweet man; a tender soul, who lived his life helping others. He was beautiful, really, inside and out. I remember he had these big dark eyes, and a smile that could end wars. "

Bakura inched forward a fraction, inclined his head. "You knew this man?"

"Oh, yes, very well," Yugi said quietly. "You see, he was my friend. And he was truly... the brightest light I had ever encountered."

Yugi leaned forward, caught Bakura's eyes, and smiled.

"That is, until he met you."

Bakura's shouts were muffled by Yugi's hand suddenly over his mouth and by the razor blade splitting his skin and sinking into his throat.

He tried to yell, to scream, but it caught in his throat, and all that came out of his mouth instead was a bubble of blood that splattered over Yugi's hand and painted his cast.

Yugi shushed him with a tsk of his tongue. Blood was leaking from his own mouth, caused by the sudden force of spitting the blade from his inner cheek. It stained his white teeth red.

"Ah, ah, none of that," Yugi whispered to him. "It's rude to interrupt."

Bakura struggled against the chains, his arms twisting behind his back, and cuffs cutting into his wrists. But he was pinned to the wall by a body, by a razor, and unable to use his hands. He kicked out, hard, but Yugi squirmed in between his knees, wouldn't budge, and with each sudden movement the Bakura made, the pressure of Yugi's hand weighed heavier and the blade sunk deeper, allowing more blood to escape the newly formed incision making its way through his muscles and arteries, and taking with it his strength to fight back.

The chains attached to Yugi's cuffs were short enough to keep him from the driver, but with his hands bound in front of him instead of behind him, the few feet the chains did allow was enough for him to take two steps forward and slice a point into Bakura's throat.

"Now, as I was saying," Yugi said. "Ryou... well, he was just the kindest person in the entire world. Then you came along, and you stalked him. You kidnapped him. And you tortured him bloody." It was coming faster now, like red water slipping in between Yugi's fingers. "He was never quite the same after that, you know. He cut off all contact with his friends... with me. Then, he moved far, far away, and we never spoke again. I know you meant to kill him that night, and you nearly succeeded. But Ryou... he did beat you in the end. He lived, and well. That's more than anyone is going to be able to say about you."

Bakura's eyes were wide, panicked, when they found his, and the psychopath was breathing in so sharply, like gasping shards of glass into his lungs, and it still wasn't enough. Yugi hummed; watched him as he slowly drowned in his own blood. "Atem asked me to behave, so I won't cut your dick off and make you suffer, even though you deserve it. He didn't want me to do this at all really, but let me tell you a little secret; just between you and me.

"You see, Atem loves me dearly. Very foolish of him, I know, but that does not change the fact that he would give his very life for mine. So, I knew that if I batted my eyes extra pretty at him, he'd let me get away murder. Ha, quite literally."

Bakura tried to breathe again and wound up gurgling, and a fresh ripple of scarlet pushed out from the gash in his throat.

"So," Yugi continued on, "I fucked him, and then I asked him for this here razor. The very one that I'm using to kill you with right this moment." Yugi's tone had a touch of fondness to it. "I suppose that's it, really. I hope wherever Ryou is, that when he hears about this, he'll be able to find the peace you stole from him." Yugi frowned, paused, then his eyes brightened. "Oh! And one last thing," Yugi brought his mouth to Bakura's ear and breathed, "would you be a dear and say hello to Yami for me? I'm sure you'll have a special place next to him in hell."

With one last thrust of his hand, the blade disappeared entirely inside folds of skin, severing Bakura's carotid artery and sending a splatter of blood everywhere.

It dripped from the tips of Yugi's bangs, as he settled back onto his bench and watched Bakura's body convulse with each gush of blood.

And then his body stilled, the river of red slowed, and it was all over.

Bakura's eyes glazed over.

A dirty brown.

Nothing like Yami's.

"Hm," Yugi mumbled aloud to no one. "You're right. Dying looks pretty pathetic on everyone."

He sat there in silence, even after the back doors of the van swung open, and two men appeared in the threshold against a backsplash of trees and sunlight.

"Yugi," a voice called out to him.

Atem.

Yugi barely heard him, and just kept staring at Bakura's lifeless body. Soulless, too, but Yugi supposed that the man never really had one of those to begin with.

"Yug'."

He heard that voice more clearly than the first. It was enough to make him turn away from Bakura to look instead into a pair of amber eyes.

Yugi inhaled a deep breath and held it in his lungs.

He stood from the bench, took one step forward, and stumbled to the floor of the van, surrounded by blood and chains.

Arms were around him then, and he caught sight of blond hair just as tears began to blur his vision.

"Jou," he exhaled.

To Be Continued...

A/N: So, apologies if this is your first time reading this chapter. It has been available for over half a year now on Ao3, which is where I'm active nowadays. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for FF and the community here, but the format and structure over at Ao3 has been more appealing to me as an author. Please feel free to check me out over there, I have a whole bunch of stories that aren't even posted here. You don't need to be a member there to read/comment. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! There's another one available that I'll post soon.