Comforting Embrace (1-Shot)

Ryou ran down the deserted street as fast as he could. He pushed himself to go faster as the rain continued to come pouring down from the gray clouded sky above. His soaked sneakers splashed through the puddles and his rain jacket did little to stop the water droplets from chilling his bones. His indifference to the cold wetness was caused by one thought: Finding Bakura.

Bakura hadn't returned to the bar they owned when Melvin did and it was the crazy haired blonde's words that spooked Ryou into finding him. He had asked Melvin where Bakura was and Melvin had responded with, "I thought he was already here." Upon finding that to be false, Melvin cursed loudly and said, "We got separated as the cops pulled up. Our mutual agreement is to always meet up here afterward, but I was sure that he'd get here first." Ryou had then grabbed his coat and took off despite Melvin yelling at him to wait a while longer.

Something had to have happened, he thought as he tried to match his breathing with his strides. Bakura is the best thief I know. He couldn't have been caught by the police. He rounded another corner and finally came upon the building the pair had planned on robbing for weeks now.

Police cops surrounded the building and yellow caution tape was being put up around the cars to create a barrier so any evidence they would find, not that they would, wouldn't be tampered with. Ryou quickly surveyed the backseats of all the squad cars to find that Bakura wasn't in any of them. He felt relieved that he hadn't been caught. No doubt the detectives would be able to pin multiple thefts to him and put him behind bars for a long time. Ryou didn't want to think about how lonely he'd be if that came true.

He must be on his way back to the bar if he hasn't arrived since I've been gone, Ryou thought with a small huff. Wanker had me worried for a couple minutes. He's going to get an earful when I get back. He went to turn around when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a thin red stream running down the side of a nearby building. His attention turned to it immediately as he recognized what the watered down liquid was. Blood was being mixed with the onslaught of rainwater and was pooling enough to overflow down the side of the building.

Ryou quickly changed his course to the roof of that building. He scaled the fire escape with small stumbles as he thought of the worst. What if Bakura is the one bleeding up there? He shook his head free from the thought; he didn't have time to weigh on what could be up there. He needed to find out for himself.

Jumping from the fire escape to the roof, he quickly ducked behind the air conditioning unit that rumbled gently as it worked to keep the building cool. He snuck around the side and upon deeming that side safe, he did it again with another. This time he found three bodies lying unconscious on the flat concrete roof.

He squatted down and stayed still as he looked at them from a distance. None of them had white hair and that made Ryou relax a bit. At least it wasn't Bakura that was bleeding. He approached the three of them cautiously, for he didn't know whether or not they were wounded or just unconscious junkies who had too much of their preferred drug. Turned out it was the former of the two.

Each man had large puncture wounds on their stomachs and the sight alone was enough to make Ryou gag. Sure, he lived with Bakura and seeing him devour steak was pretty raunchy but this far surpassed that. Blood was pooled around them from the slowly bleeding gut wounds. It was streaked towards the edge of the roof where Ryou knew it dripped down to the ground. Their clothes were soaked and Ryou bet it was all blood and not water. He wondered who would've done such a thing when a crashing sound came from the fourth side of the unit.

His head spun around swiftly and he froze in his crouched position. A string of familiar sounding curses drifted over and then some more shuffling could be heard. Could it be...? Ryou thought in disbelief. He quickly sneaked over to peek around the corner and he let out a sigh of relief. Bakura sat hunched against the unit.