Love me so Tender
Back in Domino Arc
A Chiba-kun and starrrrii story!

Is there anyone still monitoring this story? First of all, I'd like to apologize for taking a long and unexpected hiatus. Life got in the way. I hope you guys like this new chapter though.

A big shout out to TheMysticWonder. You inspired me to edit this chapter. This one's for you. We don't own anything aside from the plot.

Please read, review, and enjoy.

Chapter 46: Never Alone

The boy sighed in relief the moment the thief king was slowly lulled into unconsciousness. He smiled sadly, wondering if he could really handle this. True, he could take care of people with fever but he has never seen Bakura weak. The thief king never had a fever before and judging from his reactions every time Ryou would fall due to over-exertion, he did not know how to handle them either. "You're too hard-headed, you know that?" he whispered before caressing his fallen thief's cheek. The boy then continued what he was doing, wiping the thief's body at least twice in order to stop it from heating up too much.

He brushed some bangs out of the Bakura's eyes. He felt bad for doing it to him and the fact that Ryou did not step out of the car to see him only made matters worse. "Zorc-sama... was with Kaiba-kun yesterday," he started, as if he was practicing as to what he was going to say to Bakura. Somehow, even the sheer sight of him was truly making him feel guilty beyond words. "I don't understand but when I was suddenly pulled back to my body, he was-" he stopped abruptly, not able to tell the other. He felt scared and ashamed even. He did not know what he was supposed to tell him next. He knew that Bakura never liked betrayal and what he did was one of the worst things a lover could do. "Kaiba-kun took me. I-I wanted to push him away but no matter what I was doing, nothing happened. I-It felt good, Kura. I did not want it to feel good"

The Millennium Ring glowed for a moment as their souls finally connected. Ryou opened his eyes and he saw two rooms presented before him. He did not know as to why their soul rooms were separated that way considering what had happened the last time that he was here. He took in a deep breath before walking towards the thief king's room. He gasped when he saw the things happening around them.

When Bakura had passed out, he had woken up inside his soul room. Naturally, he was unsurprised by the state of it, not the state of his own body. In a way, it was comforting to come back to something that was so constant and predictable. He was standing for a while, simply admiring the beauty of the blood on the walls, blood he had spilled and spread. He could feel something brushing up against him, faint and insubstantial. The thief didn't even need to look around him to see what it was: he already knew. "Yes, I can hear you." His eyes closed partially and he smiled, falling back until he was on the floor, sitting comfortably and looking up at nothing in particular. He felt oddly peaceful, considering how normally chaotic this room seemed to him.

Slowly, the room grew colder, as the spirits continued to rush about aimlessly. It created a chilling effect and made Bakura start shaking to keep warm. A few of them were whispering to him still, and though unseen, he could feel them brushing over him in a sort of pseudo-comforting fashion. The thief's lips moved quickly, forming words under his breath, something that only these ghosts would understand. Well, maybe if Marik or the Pharaoh were to hear what Bakura was saying, they would understand his words. Not to say they would find what he was saying particularly pleasant, seeing as the descriptions he was relating to the ghosts haunting him were rather graphic and frightening. To any outsider they would have been, anyway; these kinds of thoughts were normal for Bakura and thus wouldn't faze him or the spirits swarming around him. If anything, they would take delight in his words. Their laughter and incessant whispering was clear evidence of that.

Ryou rushed towards the fallen thief king, wrapping his arms around the shivering tomb robber. "Bakura-sama," he stated before trying to calm down the Ring-keeper in his arms. His heart was constricting the moment he realized the term he used to refer to Bakura. 'Had it been that long since I called him my master?' he thought before clutching onto the thief king as if he would fly away the moment he stopped holding onto him.

They began to get restless, however, turning their whispers into shouts when an unexpected guest showed up. Bakura turned his eyes towards the door, smiling tranquilly when he caught sight of Ryou. Yadonushi..." he mumbled, sounding somehow happy in spite of the numerous cuts and scrapes all across his skin. But something was bothering Ryou. "What is it, love?" He asked, reaching up and putting one palm to either side of the boy's face. "Why are you worried? Why are you... calling me that...?"

Tears fell the moment their eyes met. Bakura's eyes were no longer the shiny red orbs that he loved to see. They were not shining anymore and unfortunately, the spirits were not making it better. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" he exclaimed. It was then when the Millennium Ring started to glow once more, the two dark rooms collapsing entirely. Ryou still held on the thief in his arms, not willing to risk letting him go.

Ryou focused his attention to the one next to him. "Bakura-sama?" there it was again, the slight irritation at himself for even referring to him in that way. Maybe it was because of the present happenings and he knew that he was utterly devastated of the 'sin' he had just committed.

The glow in Bakura's eyes was slowly beginning to return, and when he realized that something in his soul room was weakening and the spirits were shouting and wailing their displeasure at being disturbed, Bakura screamed. All too suddenly the pain had returned; it felt as if he were slowly being torn apart. To make matters worse, the room around him twisted and melt away until somehow it ended up shattering. He clung tightly to Ryou, trying to save both of them from falling apart, but they fell anyway. When they landed, Bakura did not even notice where they were. All he knew was that the Spirits of Kul Elna were gone once more.

He pushed away from Ryou, standing up and glaring down at him dangerously. "You idiot!" He exclaimed. "What do you think you were doing? They weren't hurting me! They weren't going to touch you!" But the next second, he had calmed down and was once again cuddling up to his Yadonushi in an uncharacteristic display of affection. "I don't know what to think anymore," he whispered. "I'm so confused... and you're just as confusing, you know. Why are you calling me Bakura-sama? Tell me, Ryou... you've been acting strangely. I just want to know, love." He closed his eyes and sighed, leaning back against the wall. It was warm in here, something that Bakura appreciated. He wasn't in pain anymore, either. So why did something still feel so wrong?

The boy's eyes widened, his body shaking from what was happening. His mouth was agape as he stared at the thief king and when he cuddled towards him, Ryou did something that he thought would never happen again. The boy pulled away from him, curling up at the other end of the bed, pressing his back against the corner of the room. His arms wrapped around his legs, trying his best not to look at Bakura's rather confusing state.

"I didn't push them away. I just went in your soul room and that was what happened. I can... leave if you want me to," he whispered, his voice barely above a whisper. Somehow, the comforting room did not comfort Ryou at all.

It was mainly because of the rather large space between the two lovers and the fact that he was feeling uncomfortable around him. If only there was a way for him to truly speak his mind but then again, he could not bring himself to say the story again. No, not when Bakura could hear every word that he was saying. "Bakura-sama..." he started, his head hanging low like a servant would do when talking to his master. The simple gesture said a lot but Ryou was truly bowing his head to send out his apologies to the thief king. He knew for a fact that he did not want it to happen, but it did. "I should leave. I should go far from you to stop halting your plots against the pharaoh," he whispered, somewhat hoping that it would draw his emotions away from what had happened with Seto Kaiba and him but to no avail.

He gripped on the sheets of the bed beneath them before letting the tears fall. The room's walls started to peel from their comforting nature and slowly returned to the deranged yet somehow alluring state when they spent their first night together in the soul room. "I just... Zorc-sama he... I just didn't..." He tried to start his sentences but at the same time, his thoughts failed to form coherent sentences, given that they weren't really making much sense at all. The boy looked at his thief king, noticing the mark on him and recalling that it was the same mark on the Egyptian that he spent his time with. Ryou pressed his fingers on his own face, feeling a slight cut appear on his cheeks once more. At that moment, the Glasgow smile was once again apparent as he sobbed quietly in place. "Ryou spent the night with Kaiba-kun. Zorc-sama pushed Ryou to doing it but Ryou felt good too. Ryou saw Baku on the way to school this morning but Ryou was hurt that Baku did not come for Ryou. Ryou thought that maybe Ryou was not enough for Baku anymore. Mariku said that Baku will get rid of Ryou soon but Ryou does not want to believe it. But then Yuugi-kun said that pharaoh will leave Yuugi so... Baku will leave Ryou too," he whispered, mumbling off different noises that were supposedly words for him. The boy crawled towards the thief king, his hands holding onto the thief's face, coating it with his blood. "Baku promised to be with Ryou but Baku will leave Ryou for the pharaoh. Ryou will be... alone again."

Bakura could see quite clearly that his host was breaking down in front of him again. But something rooted him to the spot he was in, held him there strongly enough that he couldn't go and try to comfort the boy - not until it was too late and he had already reverted to that scarred, broken form he took on when something was wrong. The false smile no longer unnerved the thief; he felt, for a while, as if he might have had one too. He felt the same as Ryou currently did while he was on his own in his soul room, if only more at peace, but still just as destroyed and unsure. He listened, keeping his composure outwardly, though it was incredibly to feel just how enraged this news was making him. And, besides that, his expression was beginning to twist into something that more suited how he really felt at this.

"Ryou felt good too..." he hissed."Of course you did. Of course. You just sat back and let things run their course, did you? You didn't even bother to fight back?" He was sneering now; taking long, intimidating strides towards his Hikari. The thief had been standing a short distance away and only now was he opting to close it. He stopped just before the bed, facing Ryou at an angle from where the boy was huddled in the corner. "You just let him do what he wanted. You listened to him. Listened to them. Everyone. You betrayed me, Ryou." At those words, something seemed to break in Bakura, as if he hadn't realized the truth of what he'd said until it was spoken out loud. He laughed darkly, madly. "I thought you had come away from the weak little host you used to be! But you can't even question what you're hearing!"

He lunged forward, snarling and clamping a hand around Ryou's neck. But he seemed to think better of this almost immediately, pulling the boy back up to his eye level and roughly fisting his hair. "I'll kill him," the thief hissed. "Kill them. Kill all of them for hurting you. For hurting me... won't it be beautiful, Ryou? Sweet, sweet, beautiful little Yadonushi? We can watch them bleed... tear out their lying tongues, cut off their sinful hands." His own hands moved to hold either side of Ryou's face, directing the boy's twisted gaze towards himself. Bakura laughed bitterly. His eyes were wide and wild. Something inside him had snapped. Maybe it was the way he interpreted the boy's words, thinking that he still didn't trust his darker counterpart enough to believe him. Maybe Ryou really was unsure about all of this, but the way he seemed to believe Yuugi... "I'm not going to the afterlife. Never. Not with Pharaoh... never with Pharaoh. I'll send him to Ammut first! I'll let everything else perish before I let myself die!"

"No... No! Ryou did not want to be with Kaiba-kun. Ryou wanted to push him away but Zorc-sama held Ryou in place. Ryou wanted to run away but Zorc-sama kept holding onto Ryou. B-Baku did not come for Ryou either..." he whispered, tears trickling down his cheeks freely. He felt bad beyond words and the way that he was handled by his supposedly tender lover did not make matters any better. His eyes narrowed down when he looked at the thief king, biting his lower lip, "Baku does not love Ryou... Ryou is just a host for Baku. When Ryou loses his benefits for Baku, Baku will throw Ryou away. Baku promised Ryou though... So even if Ryou is weak and useless, Bakura would still stay with Ryou," the boy whispered before laughing. The boy truly looked weird, crying and laughing at the same time. His mind was not forming coherent words at all, simply saying what was coming in mind.

Bakura was grinning madly now, almost mimicking the way the fake smile on his reflection stood out. His teeth were clinching; eyes still alight with rage and excitement. His grip on Ryou tightened and he got marginally closer to the boy. "You won't be alone, Ryou," he whispered dangerously. "You'll never be alone. Not as long as I'm here. The entire world can go to ruins, but you'll never be free of me."

Bakura still wasn't ready to back down yet. His emotions were heavily clouding his judgment, though he did not realize it. "You think I didn't look for you?" He hissed. If Ryou had seen him that morning then it would have been clear to him that the thief had been out in the rain, at the very least. He hadn't been in good shape that morning at all, and by the time he and Ryou finally found each other, things had only gotten worse. "I searched for you all night." He sighed. Something was beginning to clear in his mind. Maybe it was the desperation in Ryou's voice or perhaps just his heartfelt pleas, but Bakura found himself involuntarily softening at these words. Even more stunning to him was the fact that Ryou was beginning to make sense again. When they fell back together, one big tangled mess of limbs, it just felt... right.

"Ryou loves Bakura very much! Ryou would never betray Bakura on his will! Ryou will never leave Bakura!" he exclaimed now, somewhat hoping and praying that his emotions were shining through. "Ryou does not want to do anything but to stay by Bakura's side. Ryou loves you. I-I love... I love you," he whispered, his mind slowly understanding the things that were going on. The Glasgow smile was slowly healing as his lips formed in a true smile. The boy then hovered on top of Bakura, staying on all fours before tangling his hands in the white mess on Bakura's head. "I-I love you..." he whispered before pressing their lips together.

Suddenly Bakura felt very tired. It was almost as if he had been through a great feat of trouble when really nothing had happened at all. He remained silent and allowed Ryou to kiss him, automatically responding by pressing back against him. Even if he may not have wanted to, the instinct of returning this physical affection was something he had to do. It was unavoidable. When they pulled apart, the last few hints of rage were slowly leaving Bakura's body. He said nothing, allowing the peace and quiet to wash over them both.

When he had calmed down somewhat, he had rolled over and started kissing Ryou again. He wasn't rough or insisting in the least, just showing some strange kind of affection through the gesture. He pulled away after a while, and with a casual grin, began playing with the boy's hair. "I'm still going to kill him, you know," he said. "Even if it was unintentional on your part, you belong to me. I promised you a long time ago, remember? If anyone ever touches you the way I would, I'd kill them." He had shown that clearly with Malik's dark side, but of course the only reason he was still around was because the god of darkness had decided it would be fun to bring him back. In the end, though, he would go right back to the shadows that he came from. Now Kaiba and Malik were going to be joining him as well.

Upon hearing the plans he had for Kaiba- or at the very least, the threat that he was going to kill said CEO, Ryou simply let out a sigh of absolute relief. This sigh did not go unnoticed by the boy though for he immediately remedied it by pressing his face against the thief's chest. "I love you. Y-You wouldn't know how much it hurts to be called by YOUR name over and over again..." he winced when his memories became clearer. He furrowed his eyebrows at the thought as he tried to figure out what had happened during the time that he was fixed on the bed. "H-He was calling your name too," he whispered, not bothering to refer to the young businessman by his name. He looked up at the thief king, a finger placed on Bakura's chin. "S-Say it again. S-Say my name? Even just you... Even if it's just you, I would feel better," he muttered, biting his lower lip to stop himself for saying anything else. At that moment, he broke out in soft sobs, tears trickling down his cheeks. Unlike his previous tears, he did not understand as to why he was crying this time around.

He moved closer, the finger on Bakura's chin pushing it in order to part it as much as he could. His hot breath escaped his lips as Ryou broke into pants. Just one small push would cause their lips to collide. But instead of kissing him, the boy buried his face on the crook of the thief's neck, unable to stop his tears. "I-I know you don't like it when I cry. I-I find it weak myself whenever I do... I-I just... I just don't understand as to why I can't stop crying this time," he muttered before tightening his grip on the thief's shirt. At that point in time, his knuckles were slowly turning even paler (if that was even possible) from the force that he was exerting on them. He tried his hardest to bite back the tears but he found himself unable to keep it from coming out. "As long as you say it... A-As long as I hear you say it... I-I would be alright. As long as I can hear you say my name," he muttered. Maybe it was more than just the name. Maybe it was more than just this simple longing to touch the thief all the time. Maybe, his longing was turning into an unhealthy addiction.

Bakura smiled and closed his eyes, finding the atmosphere completely peaceful for once. There was something about the room around them and the quiet words Ryou was forming to him that just made him feel as if he were getting lulled to sleep. He absent-mindedly reached out for Ryou and pulled him closer, taking him by the hand. "It's not just my name," he said. "It's your name, too. Our name." He had taken it from Ryou, after all, adopted it again when he found that they had shared it from the very beginning. He laughed. "Ryou." That was all the thief said. He didn't have anything to add to it, just felt that he should give the boy what he wanted. With a slow, lazy move, he kissed his Hikari, repeating his name quietly each time he would get a chance to break away.

The boy sighed deeply before gulping a little. 'This isn't good... I-I love him too much,' he thought as he looked up at the thief king. At that moment, he just couldn't help himself. When their gazes met, Ryou widened his eyes before pressing their lips together in a soft yet longing kiss. He could feel every bit of remorse and sadness that the thief king was feeling but at the same time, he was pretty sure that Bakura could feel his feelings as well. 'I must be really pathetic, clutching onto you all the time. I keep on asking for my independence and even though I don't want to be left alone, I want to be able to still stand on my own feet... B-But it's no good. It's always no good when I'm around you. I'm no good whenever it's matters about you. One look and I would just feel like I'm melting slowly. Y-You do so much with just one stare,' he thought, pulling the thief closer as he groaned into the kiss. 'I-I really am pathetic, aren't I Bakura? I really am weak. I was weak and I'll always be weak.'

The king of thieves didn't respond at all while he was listening to his Hikari's thoughts. In truth, he didn't know what to say to it, seeing as he hadn't realized just how strong an effect he had on the boy. In a way, this was instilling him once again with a sense of power. This complete and utter devotion was something he could only have dreamed of before, when he needed it to get his revenge and had no other thing on his mind. Now, however, he found he craved this devotion for an entirely different reason. When they pulled away and Ryou was still crying, Bakura reached forward and wiped some of his tears away. "I think it's time you woke up, Ryou."

Moments later, the thief found himself alone in the room again. He sighed to himself, falling backwards until he was staring at the ceiling. Things were now more confusing than ever. I'm going to have to choose eventually,he thought. Thankfully he knew that the mind link was currently not working, seeing as he was sealed off from Ryou by their soul room. Though he knew making the choice between Ryou and his revenge was coming, he still planned on trying to delay it. He had been trying before to somehow blend the two, but now... it looked like that just wasn't going to be possible. Still, that wasn't going to deter him.