Chapter Sixteen
Darkness, like life, doesn't last forever. The insanity of black faded…warmed to dark red, and then pink.
Blood?
No…the inside of his eyelids.
"Unnh…"
"Honda? Honda, are you awake, man?"
Gentle hands were squeezing his left, and as he stirred, Honda felt the tug of ropes attached to his forearms.
Gods, no. Not ropes. Not again. He wrenched at them, testing their strength. Something ripped out of his skin, and he yelped.
"Honda! God, man, wake up! Nurse! Nurse! Get in here, he's having some kind of fit!"
That voice. His eyes flew open, searching for the owner of the disembodied, achingly familiar tones. He couldn't still be alive, could he?
Something warm dripped down the inside of his elbow. Now that…that was blood. But where the hell was he? There was a clamor of voices, and someone snatched up his bleeding forearm, pressing down on the wound there.
He shifted. And he hurt…hurt in places that he shouldn't. There were heavy stone blocks weighing his wrists down. They were almost too heavy to move. His hip twinged. And he was having a hard time moving that, too.
And oh, his head hurt. When he grimaced, his cheek pulled with the tightness of unfamiliar scars. "Anhh…what…?"
"Honda…" The name drawled out into a moan, "Oh, God…you're alive! I thought…we thought…after the accident…"
"…'Yu…ji…?"
He searched for the green eyes that the voice had to belong to, and he found them. Latched onto them. Held tight with every ounce of strength he had. Otogi's smile was dazzling. Funny. He hadn't seen it all the time he'd known…
The present came back to him in a headlong rush. Yes, he had seen Otogi smile before. But it never had quite this effect on him.
He found himself smiling back.
The cacophony of voices was dying down, now. Someone had bandaged his forearm while he'd been drowning in Otogi's smile. Oh. He must have…ripped an I.V. out?
The Honda of the past balked at the foreign words. What in the name of Ra was an I.V.? And why had someone attached that thing to his arm? What was this, some kind of torture?
He shook his head, still discarding shreds of ancient thoughts.
"Yeah, it's me, man. It's Otogi. You remember me, huh?"
"Yeah…I…"
"Just wait until the other guys find out! They'll drop everything! I should go call them…"
The other guys? His friends? Shizuka, Anzu, Yuugi…Mai…Jounouchi…Bakura…
Tears pricked the corners of his eyes at the thought. Jou and Mai and Bakura…alive. It was too much to deal with.
The green eyes floating over Honda's bedside tightened in concern. "Are you all right? Are you in pain? I could get one of the doctors in here, if that's what you need…"
If only he would stop babbling. It was hard to follow, readjusting to the words that no longer made sense to his ears. "'Yuuji?"
"…yeah?"
"Just…shut up a minute?"
"…Oh…okay…"
He still hadn't released the other's hand, and tightening his grip—owww—Honda pulled him closer.
"Tell me what happened…?"
Otogi sat down beside him again, scrubbing his thumb over what little of the back of Honda's hand he could reach for the cast. Let Honda decide what he was comfortable with. Otogi hadn't seen his expression change for almost five goddamn months. Until the other boy forcibly pulled his hand away, he wasn't going to move it. His eyes closed in thought. "It's been…almost five months,"
Five months?
"…We had a sleepover at Yuugi's, and you left the house on your bike."
Bike? He stumbled momentarily over the word, before a white Yamaha with blaze-red stripes flowed into his memory. Ohhh…bike…
Damn, he had a pretty bike, didn't he?
Otogi went on.
"You trashed it."
Trashed his bike? Trashed his bike?
"That was a dumbass thing to do," Honda sighed. Otogi chuckled softly, and nodded.
"Yeah, it was. Geez, you just had to spin out right in front of me, didn't you?"
"You were the one yelling behind me."
"Uh…" The tone of Otogi's voice was slightly sheepish. "Yeah, well…I was pretty sure you were dead, after all. Some little kid ran out in front of you…no, take it easy, Honda. He wasn't hurt."
Honda settled back with a grimace at the pain moving had caused. The doctors hadn't been able to do much physical therapy until recently, considering his injuries. He was sore. "That's good, at least."
"Yeah," Otogi nodded again. "Hey, do you need anything? I can get the—"
"'Yuuji?"
"…yeah?" Otogi paused again midsentence at the interruption, and looked down.
He shook his hand free of Otogi's. He knew what he wanted to do…despite the fact that the—dream? Hallucination? Memory?—was long over, he was still grateful for the selfless way Otogi had taken his hit.
But it hadn't been real, had it?
He'd just have to pop Yuugi's puzzle apart and see if a pharaoh came out.
And until then…
His fingertips – made heavy by the cast – rose to brush against Otogi's jaw. The darker-haired teenager didn't pull away. Instead, he sat frozen, staring down at Honda with wide, frightened eyes.
This was wrong. Wrong on several levels, no matter how good it felt. And what if his friends saw…?
Honda's muscles quaked, having lain unused for so long, and his hand began to drop. "Help me out here, would you?" He asked, with half a smile. A hopeful smile.
But…this was wrong…
Otogi decided he didn't care. With a soft grunt of agreement, his hands caught up Honda's palm in a gentle grip and guided it back to his cheek, nuzzling into the fingertips as though they were his own soul given back to him.
They brushed the downward-pointing streak on Otogi's cheek, just under his eye. It was not mascara, after all, but a tattoo. And underneath the tattoo, Honda could feel the slick, uneven raised edge of a scar. He didn't want to ask how it came to be. It was far too appropriate, just as it was.
"I missed you."
"I missed you, too." Came the tentative reply.
Honda sighed. The last things he'd remembered was the being alone. Was being too preoccupied and worried to say what he needed to say, when he needed to say it. Jounouchi had never known just how much his best friend cared about him. Otogi had probably died, and never known how much Honda…
"No, I mean…I really missed you. I was lost for so long…I didn't have the chance…no…I didn't take the chance to—"
"Whoa, whoa, man, cool your jets!" Otogi grinned, drawing back to pat Honda's hand as he returned it to the bedclothes. "This doesn't sound like you at all. What'd they put in your meds, buddy?"
He knew it wasn't going to work, then. Otogi wasn't the same person now that he had been then. Honda had been an idiot to think it would be any differently. But it was too late. He had to finish what he'd started.
"—tell you I loved you…"
Silence. A moment of dead, ringing, stifling silence.
"…What'd you say?"
"I…love you."
Otogi gave him a long look. "That's what I thought you said." He leaned close to Honda's face, cupping his cheek as he searched the other's eyes. Honda gazed back at him, trying to say with his expression what it was that his words apparently couldn't.
If he'd had any strength left, he would have been up on his elbows by now, filling the little distance left between his lips and Otogi's.
But Otogi took care of it for him.
He'd never…kissed a guy before…was it going to be the same thing as kissing a girl?
Well…not quite. But his friend had surprisingly soft lips, as it turned out.
The puzzle-popping could wait until tomorrow.
The End.