Work Text:
It was odd, Yugi thought, being back at school. After everything that had happened, he knew it was going to be difficult to just go back to his life as if nothing had happened.
And of course, he missed his Other Self. As much as he told himself that moving on was important to the Pharaoh--to Atem--it didn't change the fact that he felt like part of himself was missing. He wondered if he would ever feel whole again. He wondered if he wanted to.
As the day wore on, Yugi noticed that he hadn't seen Bakura anywhere. At first, he thought they had just been assigned different classes, but even during break periods when the other kids came to see him, Bakura wasn't there.
At the end of the day, Yugi and Tea left class. Joey and Tristan were in another class, but were waiting for them by the exit.
"Hey, guys!" Joey yelled, waving at them.
"Hey," Yugi called back as he and Tea ran up to their friends. "So, we goin' somewhere?"
"Just home," said Tristan. "Unless you have somewhere else you wanna go?"
Yugi shook his head. "Although... have either of you seen Bakura today?"
"No," said Tristan.
"Nope..." added Joey. "He wasn't in class with you?"
"No," said Tea. "We thought he was in class with you."
"Nah," said Joey. "You think he's okay?"
"Maybe we should go see him," Tea suggested.
Yugi thought about it for a moment. He had an idea of what might be troubling Bakura, and it occurred to him that it wasn't something he'd want to discuss with everyone. Yugi wasn't really even sure the boy would talk to him.
"Nah... I'm sure after all this excitement, he just needed another day to relax." He felt bad about lying to his friends, but they sometimes had trouble taking no for an answer.
And so they headed home.
After dinner, Yugi headed over to Bakura's apartment. He realized the boy might ignore him, or tell him to go away but he hoped he'd at least be able to talk to him. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the buzzer.
"Hey, Bakura, it's me!" he shouted through the door. "I'm alone! Can we talk?"
There was a pause. Yugi heard movement, but that didn't mean that Bakura would answer the door. Or that he might answer it just to tell Yugi to go away.
Finally, the door opened. With the barest look of acknowledgement, Bakura turned and headed back into his apartment.
At least it's not "Go away", Yugi thought. Taking his shoes off, he followed his friend into the living room.
Bakura looked disheveled; his hair was messy, but also not as thick and full as it usually looked. He was still in his pajamas. Walking over, he sat back down on the couch, putting his feet up.
Yugi looked around for a place to sit.
"Oh," said Bakura, scooting over and giving him room on the couch.
"Thanks," said Yugi, sitting down.
They sat for a moment in silence. Finally, Yugi spoke up:
"I've been having trouble sleeping the last few nights. And last night, I figured out why..." He turned to Bakura, who was just looking at him, waiting for him to continue.
"It's too quiet," Yugi said. "Not the house, or anything, but..." he tapped his head. "In here. Even when my Other Self and I weren't talking, he was there, in the background; and now I realize that I was always sort of aware of him. He was sort of a..."
"Presence..." Bakura finished.
"Yeah," said Yugi, smiling.
There was another silence between them. Looking over at Bakura, Yugi could see that he was trying to hide how sad he was.
"You miss him, don't you?"
"Well, sure," said Bakura. "He was our friend."
"I don't mean my Other Self," said Yugi softly, giving the boy a significant look.
Bakura's eyes widened, then he looked down with a guilty expression.
"I... it's..." he took a deep breath. "It's like you said, it's so quiet now. It's... lonely."
Yugi nodded. "Did you and he ever... like, talk?"
Bakura looked away.
"Look, Bakura..." Yugi carefully considered what he was about to say. "He... your Other did some... awful stuff, but..." Yugi sighed. "I know what it's like to be connected to someone that closely. To share... everything with someone. I realize that whatever the rest of us might feel about your Other, your feelings might be different. So, if you wanna talk about him, I'll listen, whatever you have to say."
Bakura remained silent.
"I'm lucky," Yugi continued. "I can talk about my Other Self with the rest of our friends. Whereas you... I doubt they'd be as understanding about your Other. They probably think you're just glad to be rid of him. But it's not the simple, is it?"
Bakura looked at Yugi. He seemed as if he might want to talk, but was uncertain.
"It's okay Bakura, you can talk to me. I promise I won't tell anyone else; that's why I came alone."
There was a long pause.
"It was... rough at first," Bakura started hesitantly. "Some of the things he did... to me, and to other people were... like you said, awful. Though in some cases, I think he really thought he was helping me in his own... twisted way. Like when he turned Mr. Karita into a figure to punish him for being to mean to me, and threatening to cut my hair.
"But we came to a sort of... understanding. It was never quite the friendship you and your Other Self had, but... it was better than it had been."
Bakura paused, looking thoughtful again. He smiled. "He liked Pocky..."
Yugi laughed. "Really?"
"Yeah," Bakura replied. "I bought some, and I guess he was curious about it, cuz I... I had one of my black-outs, and when I woke up, it was gone!"
"The whole box?"
"Yeah!"
"Oh, Gods!"
"I know!" Bakura said, laughing.
"So, what you do?"
Bakura shrugged. "I--you know how you could get in contact with your Other Self... you sort of call to him?"
Yugi nodded.
"I called to him and said, 'Look, you know food costs money... I don't mind you eating my food, but leave some for me'. "Yes, all right,' he replied. 'I just got carried away.'"
Bakura sighed. He was smiling, though; it was clear that in retrospect, he was amused by the Spirit's antics.
"To his credit, he never did eat all of anything after that. Granted, sometimes he came close--'You just said not to eat it all'--but he usually left me with enough."
Bakura gave Yugi a look. "Were there any foods your Other liked?"
"He liked oranges," said Yugi, smiling. "They didn't have them in Ancient Egypt, and I guess he really liked the... novelty of them."
"Oh, Gods, oranges," said Bakura. "I once blacked out while shopping and when I came to, I was at home and..." Bakura's eyes widened. "So many oranges..."
Yugi laughed. Bakura shook his head. "At least they're good for you," he said.
There as another pause. Bakura ran his fingers though his hair. Looking down at it, he chuckled.
"What?"
"He really liked my hair," said Bakura. "Once, I got an appointment to get it trimmed; ya know, just a little off the ends?"
Yugi nodded.
"So, I went to the appointment... and found out he'd canceled it!" Bakura laughed. Then he sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"None of these stories paint him a very positive picture of him, do they?"
"No, not really," said Yugi, chuckling.
Bakura furrowed his brow. "Actually... there are a few things."
Yugi smiled. "Okay."
"On my last birthday, my dad was going to come home, but he got stuck... somewhere, I dunno..." there was a bitterness in the boy's voice. Yugi had a feeling this was far from the first time the man had missed important things in his son's life.
"Anyway, so I was sitting here watching Hausu when I heard... singing."
Yugi's eyes widened. "He was...?"
"Yeah," said Bakura with a smile. "I couldn't understand the words, but it was... nice. He told me it was something his mother used to sing to him. Which could have been a complete lie, but the sentiment was nice."
"He liked hearing about folklores and myths, especially if they were gory... Like Sawney Bean, who led a clan of cannibals in Scotland, or the Leyak from Indonesia."
"I'm not familiar with that one," said Yugi, wondering if he would regret asking.
Bakura smiled. "A Leyak is a witch that eats corpses..."
"Lovely..." Yugi noticed the smirk on Bakura's face. "There's more, isn't there?"
"During the day, they look like normal women, but at night, they detach their heads and fly around when their entrails dragging behind them!”
"Oh, Gods!"
Bakura laughed, amused by his friend's shock. "There's a cheesy 80's movie about them; we must have watched that thing ten times..."
Both boys laughed.
"We liked watching horror movies together," Bakura continued. "And he helped me with some of my dioramas. And putting together my occult deck. Though I guess that was sort of self-serving on his part."
They fell into silence again. Bakura had rested his chin on his knees. Yugi noticed he seemed happier, a smile on his face.
"There is... one more thing." There was hesitancy in Bakura's voice.
"Oh?"
Getting up, Bakura motioned for Yugi to follow him. They walked into the boy's bedroom. Next to the window above his desk hung a frame picture. Taking it down, Bakura handed it to Yugi so he could get a closer look. It wasn’t a photograph, but a painting. It was a highly stylized portrait of a young girl. It took Yugi a moment to understand exactly what this was.
"This is... your sister? He drew this?"
"Yeah." Bakura sat down on his bed. "He saw some of my pictures of Amane and... I guess he decided to give me a gift. He said he knew what it was like to lose family. At the time, I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, but now I know..."
Yugi nodded, sitting next to Bakura. He looked at the painting again; a young girl with pale hair and green eyes. He also noticed red hieroglyphs in the corner. "His signature?"
"Yeah, though he never would tell me what it said. I mean, I doubt it's his name, but..." he shrugged.
"It's good," said Yugi, smiling. "Who would've guessed he was an artist?"
Bakura smiled back. "I was surprised, too. Though, like I said, he did help me with some of my dioramas. Those require some artistic skill."
"Hey," Yugi said, "you said you and he would watch movies 'together'."
"Yeah," Bakura replied. "He could share his mind with me like you and your Other. He just chose not to when he was doing something he knew I wouldn’t approve of."
"Ah. Lovely."
"Yeah," said Bakura, sighing. "But like you said, even when we weren't... 'talking', I could still sense him there... And now I can't."
Bakura bent his head down. Yugi saw him try to brush away a tear without Yugi noticing
"I'm sorry, Bakura."
The boy shook his head. "The Spirit made his choices. I... I actually did ask him to give up on his revenge, but he never would..." the boy sniffled. "Gods, this is stupid..."
Getting up, Yugi got a box of tissue from Bakura's desk, handing it to him.
"Thanks," Bakura said softly, taking the box and wiping his eyes.
"It's not stupid," Yugi replied. "You were connected to him, for better or worse, and now he’s gone."
"Yeah..."
"And it might take awhile to get over it. But I'm here for you. Really, Bakura. I'm going through the same thing, so... so I know what it's like." For a moment, Yugi thought about his own Other, and how much he missed him. Finally, he continued. "Please know that you can talk to me. Even it's about something... bad that happened."
"Thanks, Yugi. That means a lot.
"You came over because I wasn't at school, huh?"
"Yeah," said Yugi. "I was worried about you."
"Thanks," said Bakura, smiling. "I'm feeling better now. It's nice to know there's someone who I can talk to about this. And, ya know, you can talk to me, too, about... your Other Self. I know you have your other friends, but none of them understand your situation quite like I do."
"True," said Yugi, smiling. "Thanks, I might take you up on that some time."