I Own You

By: Kerigan

Chapter 22

Ryou's eyes widen with sudden shock, his mouth suddenly dry, and everything sort of froze. The knife landed with a heavy thunk, with a sick wet sound. Everything was dark as Ryou closed his eyes, the rain beating upon him and his other. Only the space between the two was the line between dark and light. As his heart began to slowly descend from it's rapid thrumming, he took in a deep breath. Beside him, cutting a few locks of hair, and a cold blade pressed against his left temple, he realized just how close death had came. Why Bakura deliberately missed was beyond all of his senses, and left him numb.

"Ryou!" someone familiar screamed.

"R…you.." the voice came broken, angry, and rugged. Something warm and sticky dotted Ryou's face, which made him finally open his eyes. Wide eye met his as a bloody river trailed from his darker self's mouth. Bakura's face was sheet white, with total surprise. Seto was above Bakura, letter opener in hand, plunged into Bakura's back. Ryou was frozen still, just like time. No one was moving besides the silver drops cascading down. He really had no idea how he felt at that moment either. Relief, suspense, fear, numbness….almost anything spiraled within him.

"Ryou…I…I…hate you…" Bakura coughed as the letter opener seemed t loose grip of flesh and he fell on top of the quivering boy. Seto instantly pried him off, and rolled him over to the side. His form felt extremely lighter, and Ryou knew that Bakura would fade any minute now. As if this sudden threat never existed….and so would he. The attached slave to a cruel master, both going down with the ship.

Seto's soft touch came delicately, as if Ryou was made of precious glass, and as his hand cupped the back of his neck, time came normal again. Ryou grabbed Seto in a fierce hug around the collar. "I-I thought he was going to kill me." He whispered, even though he wanted to scream it over the torrents of water. Seto didn't say a word. He had never killed someone before, and the sudden realization made him cringe. However, what he did was the best of things to do. Besides, Bakura wasn't really a person right? The soaked clothes made both of them shiver, but none of them wanted to move.

Yami and Yugi held Marik's unconscious body over their shoulders. Yami with one arm, Yugi with the other. They both secretly prayed he wouldn't wake up to unleash Malik again. As they watched silently from the front porch, they looked at each other. "Should….we…help?" Yugi asked slowly, unsure of his words. Yami shook his head, no.

"I don't think we can."

Seto looked over Ryou's shoulder to see Bakura's limp body. His hand was twitching, as if to grasp the ground beneath him. Ryou looked over as well. After a second, he pulled himself away from Seto to slowly proceed to the fallen enemy. They looked so identical, it was like watching himself slowly bleed to death. It pained him as it relieved him. A hesitated look towards the knife, not the letter opener, before he grabbed Bakura's shoulder tenderly and flipped him over as gently as possible. "Leave me behind." He whispered, half mentally, knowing Bakura would get the message even through the loud rain.

Bakura's eyes were closed, his body limp. However, he shook his head slowly. "No…" he growled.

"Please! Please please please!" Ryou cried, wanting to bow down to his once master. "Let me live here on earth, and you can live in the shadow realm! If you take me with you we will only be in pain forever! Bakura, you must see this! Please!" Tears streamed down the boys face. Even when the darker was dying, he still caused him pain.

"I won't." he coughed, pained to numbness.

"WHY! Bakura, live immortally with your own power by yourself in the realm you love! Let our connection be severed!" His hair flopped into his face as he looked towards the ground. The grass now turning muddy, and letting his fingers slip in.

Everything grew quite as a sudden bolt of lightning lit up the sky. Seconds later, the thunder boomed in the background with such a sudden force it made Ryou wince. "Oh, please." He whispered, unable to control his sobs. "Just let me go."

A hand grabbed his wrist with an extreme grip. He snapped his head up to see Bakura turning to his side, his eyes staring intently into the duplicate's. Nothing was said between them as both of their millennium rings glowed into appearance. Ryou had forgotten about their necklaces, how it was his burden to carry, how it started all of this. Suddenly, Ryou's exploded. The searing heat burned his chest, but Bakura wouldn't let him go. He just kept staring, or rather glaring at Ryou. His eyes so fixated it was almost unbearable. "I hate you." He said again, this time as if he wasn't pained at all. "I HATE you." And with that, he collapsed, blood pooling around him and staining Ryou's pants. He stared as his darkness vanished from the realm of reality.

After he was completely gone, Ryou looked towards Seto. He was staring as well, but his eyes were different. The icy blueness actually appeared comfortably soft to Ryou. With a smile, he reached for him, but collapsed in exhaustion. Instantly his CEO had scooped him up from the ground, which was a good thing because if he had stayed face down he probably would have drowned. "It's done. We're okay. Everyone is okay." Seto said soothingly in Ryou's ear. "Just relax."

Yami and Yugi watched the two as if they were a television set. "Yami, come on, we better get Marik to our house."

"WHAT! I don't want him anywhere near our house!" the other yelled, totally disgusted by the idea.

"But he's Marik now!"

"I don't care!"

"HEY!" Seto yelled, and both instantly looked up. "We are leaving." Then with that, he picked up Ryou almost easily and walked to street. Instantly, a limo drove up out of the blue that Seto had probably just called. They got inside, and took off.

Yami twitched. "What about us! You assh-"

"YAMI!" Yugi yelled defensively. "Come on, let's go home."

Mokuba watched impatiently by the window hoping to see Seto drive up at any minute. His foot tapped anxiously, knowing something bad had gone on while he was at school. Even if the driver had said his brother was at work, that didn't really help him. His brother or Ryou could have been hurt, or worst! If anything happened to any of them he would be devastated.

Finally, he saw the black limo pull into the slick driveway. However, they parked directly into the garage because of the rain. Instantly Mokuba bolted towards the garage. He almost crashed into a few maids, but it didn't matter. When he came to the door he ripped it open. "Brother! Are you okay!" he yelled. Seto got out of the car, then turned to his brother.

"Yes…I'm fine.." Seto lied, knowing his brother would be worried if he told him otherwise.

"What do you mean you are fine! You are soaking wet! Where is Ryou!"

"I'm right here!" A cheerful voice replied as he peeped his out from behind the car. "We just went running in the rain."

Mokuba sort of stared for a minute, then eyed his brother. "Is that true?"

Seto shrugged before grabbing his suitcase from the car and walked inside. Ryou hugged Mokuba, but the other boy pulled away. "Ew! I'm wet now!"

Ryou laughed. "I'm going to go get dressed, do you think your brother would lend me some clothes?"

The smaller boy nodded. "Of course."

So off they went. When Ryou walked into Seto's closet he was immediately swallowed by the blue and black shades of clothing. Mokuba had waited outside and Ryou had stripped down to his boxers and was wrapped up in a pre-warmed towel. Despite the warmth he still felt cold.

"What are you doing in here?" Seto asked quietly, as he walked into his closet. He smirked as he closed the door.

Ryou shrugged. "Looking for clothes." He said rather innocently. Then he pulled out a random trench coat from the hangers. He eyed it and smiled. "Oh look, I found something, off I go." He made a bolt for the door. However, Seto caught him with his arm instantly. Then he pulled him in so that Ryou faced the opposite wall in which he ran from.

"Did you really think I would let you go after all this?" he whispered warmly in the other's ear. A hand crept up his bare chest suggestively. "Besides, you owe me for using my clothes."

Leaning back, the white haired teen smiled warmly, even though the other couldn't see. As he fell back, Seto took a few steps so that he lightly backed into the door. It held against their combined weight. "Don't you owe me for being here?" Ryou asked.

Seto bent his mouth over to the soft curve of his lover's neck. His breath tickling Ryou so that he laughed softly. Then, since the other didn't pull away, he let his lips touch. The soft caresses, and kisses made Ryou feel like melting away into Seto. "I love you." He whispered.

"What?" Ryou asked.

There was no verbal reply as Seto slowly spun his around to explore his front side. Hands cupped Ryou's cheeks as a kiss was placed upon the his lips. It was so odd how the other was so enticing, and how he was such a great kisser. Ryou wrapped his arms around Seto as their kisses dipped from casual to passionate. "I love you too." Ryou mutter between lip locks. "I think I'm going to love you forever."

:D I'm going to miss all of you guys who stuck with me in this story. Don't worry, another will be coming sooner or later.

I just wanna thank everyone. Like I usually do. If anyone has any ideas for another story, or anything else, do be open about it. I'm always open to ideas.

Bye bye!