[Closed]

[shiromadoushi]

Characters: Bakura & L
Location: Death City Heights 7th floor
Rating: Well, it has L in it so... PG-13?
Time: 3/22, after Kid's class.
Description: L looks like hell. More than usual. Cue Bakura worrying and acting as L's caretaker. Because someone has to...



Bakura had barely been home long enough to take off his shoes and set down his groceries (and new assortment of first aid supplies) before going back out into the hall to knock on the door across from his.

"Ryuzaki-kun? It's me... are you in?"

Comments

[shiromadoushi]

"Who's the idiot there, the one asking the wall or the wall who can't answer?" Bakura returned with a sigh. "You always ask impossible questions... I don't know what went on in your world, Ryuzaki-kun... only a little piece of it... how on Earth can I say anything about it?"

[dead_black_eyes]

L paused to think about it, answering the question about as maturely as one might expect.

"The wall, definitely."

[shiromadoushi]

...Of course he would say that. Of course.

"You're only saying that so you won't have to call yourself stupid...." Bakura countered before shaking his head slightly. "What are you looking to hear, Ryuzaki-kun? Are you expecting that I think you're a horrible person?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"I'm just expecting that you wouldn't say it so clearly."

[shiromadoushi]

"How many times do I have to say that I don't think that before you'll believe me...?" Bakura asked softly.

[dead_black_eyes]

"You can say it as many times as you'd like, or not. It's really your choice. But it won't be true until I am, in fact, not a horrible person."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura sighed softly. "There's a difference between being a jerk and being horrible... Unless you've become a mass murderer or gone around arbitrarily hurting people for the thrill of it or something like that, you aren't a horrible person..."

Not even Kaiba was a horrible person, and Kaiba, as far as Bakura was concerned, was worse than Ryuzaki in so many ways. He'd been told enough about Death-T and knew enough about Kaiba's reputation in the business world (and heard Jounouchi ranting about him enough times) that he was sure that he had a decent idea. But Kaiba was fair (mostly) and what he was willing to do to try and save his brother...

And Ryuzaki hadn't even built a theme park to kill a 16 year old boy. He would have had to do something reeeeally big to change Bakura's opinion that he wasn't horrible.

[dead_black_eyes]

"Your standards," L chuckled. "I cannot tell you how many terrible people your laughably low standards would pardon..."

[shiromadoushi]

"I said or something like that...!" Bakura protested with a slight scowl. "And I meant for you in specific..."

[dead_black_eyes]

"So that's what it would take for me, especial? Bakura, I don't know whether to be amused or appalled that you hold me to different standards than everyone else. This is how monsters are made, don't you know that?"

[shiromadoushi]

There was that feeling again, one that was far too common when dealing with Ryuzaki (and the Ring's voice, if he were being honest) that he was in over his head and had made too many mistakes to get back on track. Everything was out of his control and tumbling in a direction he didn't want to go.

He hated that feeling...

"There's no way I could list every thing that would make a person horrible... You're just a jerk, Ryuzaki-kun. Kaiba-kun's done worse than you have chasing after the other Yuugi-kun and I don't call him a horrible person either! There's more to you than your obsession with Light..."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Is there? That's very kind. Naive, but kind," L said thoughtfully. "But I don't know this 'Kaiba'... and you don't know what I would do if I wasn't on a choke-collar, courtesy of the law and human decency. Usually someone else's."

[shiromadoushi]

"You could say that for a lot of people... People who are horrible don't worry about that sort of thing. They do what they want and find ways around the consequences. Ryuzaki-kun... You're not horrible. You really aren't."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Nothing that I want is really all that horrible, no... It is because I'm selfish. Most of what I do affects a relatively small number of people, myself foremost. I'm not power-hungry, but that doesn't mean that I'm not a bad person."

[shiromadoushi]

"Why do you think that you are...?" Bakura honestly wanted to know now. With this level of stubbornness... He knew there was no way he could change his friend's mind.

[dead_black_eyes]

"There are a lot of reasons..." L offered vaguely. "Least of which isn't the fact that I am 'a jerk', as you put it. I really do genuinely enjoy seeing people squirm."

[shiromadoushi]

"But you have good qualities too, even if you try to hide them..." Bakura pointed out softly.

[dead_black_eyes]

"Maybe you've just been fooled into seeing what's not there..."

[shiromadoushi]

"Maybe," Bakura would give him at least that. "But I don't think that's the case."

[dead_black_eyes]

"You're really that determined to see the best in everybody?"

[shiromadoushi]

"Not everybody..." Since it wasn't as if anyone would find Bakura defending his doppelganger... "I've met people far worse than you."

[dead_black_eyes]

"I am frankly surprised you have any faith in humanity at all, if that's true."

[shiromadoushi]

"Mou, Ryuzaki-kun, you really haven't done anything horrible that I've seen! The worst you've done is been an utter pest... The Ring's done worse than you even just in the time he's been here! Not to say anything of what he's done back home...."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Give it some time. Something will probably come up," L sighed.

[shiromadoushi]

...Ryuzaki's insistence was starting to really seem so odd.

"...You really want me to think of you the way I think of the Ring...? Why?"