Some Nights I Stay Up, Cashing in my Bad Luck, Some Nights I Call it a Draw [May 1]

[dead_black_eyes]

Characters: L Lawliet, Bakura Ryou
Location: Starting at the apartment, ending in Las Vegas, baby!
Rating: PG for showgirls, and for L treating Bakura like a servant (wait, no, valet.)
Time: May 1, 4:00 PM to around 10:00 PM
Description: L has figured out where Light is hiding out after the cruel and humiliating "dinner party" events. But traveling without backup is a bad idea, and there are a lot of ways for two game-loving young guys to kill time before unfortunate quarries return to their crappy motel rooms.




L had not traveled outside Death City since arriving except through Shibusen's mirror transportation for missions. That made this a somewhat special occasion, but that being said, he was traveling very lightly. He had one change of clothes, Light's toothbrush (despite the fact that Bakura had bought him a whole stack of new ones), and his communicator, and that was about it. They barely filled half of the blue backpack L had chosen to carry his personal belongings, and so he filled the rest with candy.

He sounded like a piñata when he walked, but it was worth it to know that he would have snacks on the bus.

He waited expectently for Bakura to show up; the bus would be arriving within ten minutes, and while L was aware that Bakura was typically punctual, he would leave without him if he was late even this once.

Comments

[dead_black_eyes]

As the water ran and L's tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth, he mentally rehearsed what was going to happen. He would finish his shower, bag up his clothes, and ask Bakura for a spare set.

L had only brought one spare set, after all. And he had come in this morning wearing it. The clothes he had left wearing the night before were covered in blood, bagged up, and discarded in a dumpster. Probably still there, since trash wasn't collected on Sunday, but nothing L wanted to ever see again.

Really, L's plan ended there. There was only so much he could explain without it sounding absolutely ridiculous. Even the bare minimum ("need clothes, don't ask") was pushing it.

L's body would ultimately make the decision for him. As he stepped into the shower, a numbness crept into his face and shimmered over his vision, the floor tilted, and his legs gave out under him. Eyes staring and unseeing, his limbs jerked and spasmed involuntarily as the water poured down on his bloodless back.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura froze at the sound. There was something horrible to it, heavy and thick that made it unmistakable. "Ryuzaki-kun...?" he called, fingers white around the first aid kit as he walked to the bathroom door.

No answer. Why was there-- Maybe he hadn't heard. The water was loud, the water was always loud. Maybe---

He pounded on the door, panic rising. "Ryuzaki-kun! Are you okay?! Answer me!"

[dead_black_eyes]

"A bit, yes," L answered, heading for the front desk and standing aside so that Bakura could handle the distasteful servant-business of checking into the hotel.

The young man glanced up, flashing Bakura a grin. "Welcome. Name and check-in time?"

[dead_black_eyes]

L would definitely have answered, if he could hear anything at all. Later, the moments would feel like a story he was told about another person, or a picture of someone else, even though he knew it had to be him.

A small mercy was the fact that the tub had a drain that worked well, and there wasn't enough water on the shower's floor for an unconscious man to drown in.

[shiromadoushi]

With how often Bakura had switched apartments in his life, signing into a hotel was one step away from second nature, which no doubt helped the illusion of being L's valet. Minutes later he handed L his keycard and picked up their luggage once more before heading for the stairs, having made sure to ask where they had been located. Much as an elevator would have been nice for the suitcase, he knew Ryuzaki well enough to not even bother asking.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura only waited seconds more before trying the knob, all but throwing the door open. "Ryuzaki-kun, are--"

He froze, eyes wide as he spotted his friend, crumpled in an ungainly pile. Oh fu--

Adrenaline kicked in seconds later as everything turned into a blur of motion. The water was turned off as he grabbed towels, crouching down to carefully haul L to be sitting up, wrapping the towels around him.

He was cold. Why was he so cold! Was he breathing? Pulse, he needed to--

The motion froze again as Bakura stared at his friend's wrists. The bulky stitching, the screaming red lines, the ugly deep red and purple around them....

Ambulance. He needed to call an ambulance.

[dead_black_eyes]

Bakura's instincts were dead-on. Lwould, true to form, rather climb six flights of stairs than spend even thirty seconds on an elevator. "I believe I'll be playing Blackjack, most likely, as it has the best odds and is the easiest to cheat at."

He was so horribly blunt about it that any true-blue gamer would likely find it shocking. But he was blunt about it in Japanese, which was far less likely to be picked up by any curious ears nearby.

[shiromadoushi]

"You really think you'll need to cheat?" Bakura asked, voice amused as he easily slipped into his native language. "Or is it just insurance against stacked odds?"

Since Bakura was sure the house would have its tricks to insure it didn't lose more money than it had to.

[dead_black_eyes]

L was dimly aware at first of the fact that he was being propped up, melting limply out of the stiff hypotension-caused seizure as Bakura wrapped him in towels. The ringing in his ears returned, only to fade back so he could hear his friend's ragged breathing in painfully sharp focus.

So much for discretion... Too late to hide my injuries. Next, he'll think he has to call an ambulance, and that can't happen.

He seized Bakura's wrist; his own grip wasn't particularly firm, it couldn't be, with the mess things were under those stitches, but the message had to be clear.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura had been about to get up but the cold fingers around his wrist stopped him and he turned. "Ryuzaki-kun..." There was a bit of relief in his voice. If he was moving, it meant he was closer to being alive...

"I'm going to call an ambulance, okay? Just hang on..."

[dead_black_eyes]

L swallowed past his cotton-dry throat, not releasing his weak but desperate hold on Bakura's wrist.

"No. You can't..."

[shiromadoushi]

"You're going to die if you don't get treated!" Bakura protested, panic rising. "The first aid kit can't do anything against this! I don't--"

His breath caught a moment before the words could escape. He didn't know what else to do. His best friend was going to die and he couldn't--

Wait.

There was something he could do. That only he could do...

"Ryuzaki-kun, I need you to resonate with me. Enough so I can try healing you."

It was a long shot. He didn't know how well it would work, how well L could take resonating in the state he was in, how well anything would work, but he had to try. Every moment lost was one more moment that those ugly bruises were going to continue to grow and his friend's skin would grow colder until nothing could save him... Even if it was only a little... even if it was just enough...!

[dead_black_eyes]

"I don't need to," L scoffed, as if that was obvious. "But I count cards, and I'm good at it. You should know that, and you should therefore be prepared to leave quickly if we need to. You should also know that we're going to be leaving with more money than we showed up with, so if you want something, let me know and I'll give you the money for it after a few hands. Unless, of course, you're doing just as well, in which case... don't bother me."

He started up the third flight of stairs, seeming unusually energetic, with a slight bounce in his step.

[shiromadoushi]

It took most of Bakura's self control not to laugh fondly at the spring in Ryuzaki's step, even as he trailed behind with the awkward of the suitcase slowing him down. "Got it!" he grinned. "Just be sure you comment on your good luck, you should be able to last longer before people catch on that way~" he advised. "Or even make up some story that a fortune teller told you you'd have great fortune if you gambled today."

People who gambled were pretty superstitious, after all. Everything was all about luck, or so they claimed.

[dead_black_eyes]

L's cold, damp hand was in Bakura's extremely quickly and readily.

...almost as if L had been counting on that offer, several days in advance, but hopefully Bakura wouldn't be thinking about his somewhat opportunistic inclusion in the trip until much later.

Because even if the veins could be closed and strengthened just a little, to keep him from bleeding out internally, it would make all the difference.

[shiromadoushi]

The only thought was relief that Ryuzaki wasn't going to argue.

Bakura's transformation was almost instantaneous, the small d10 landing in L's palm, thin red thread swiftly and firmly attaching.

'Roll!'

The connection was thin and shaky and Bakura didn't dare pull on L's reserves at all, wanting to leave his friend with every bit of energy he had, but with his own determination...

He wasn't going to lose any more friends. He wasn't.

[dead_black_eyes]

L glanced sidelong at his friend.

"You seem to know a lot about cheating, for someone who maintains such an honest front."

[shiromadoushi]

"Aaaa---" Bakura rubbed the back of his neck with a small laugh. "It's nothing like that! Sometimes it's just good for people to think things like that. And it's sometimes pretty fun to get someone to think that a trick is just good luck."

Especially when that someone was as gullible as Jounouchi was...

[dead_black_eyes]

L dropped the die on the floor of the shower, giving the untrue double-weapon resonance as much of his own energy as he could without his vision fading again.

He'd underestimated his own abilities, and though there had been jokes the night before about the card-counting being insurance against the house... the real insurance was Bakura, the friend who never failed his friends.

[shiromadoushi]

4.

Healing was Bakura's least practiced and least used of the abilities he knew of that he had and it was always a strange feeling, turning the energy that he normally directed outward to attack or protect inward to heal, and where normally the Meister would direct the outward shot, Bakura was doing the directing this time.

The soft white light that grew around the d10 as it returned to L's palm, reaching out to gently wrap around the detectives managed wrists, sinking into them with a cool, yet somehow warm sensation, much like a warm spring breeze.

Every last bit of energy he could spare, Bakura poured into trying to repair the horrible damage, coaxing ruptured skin to smooth over seal closed, locking in what blood was remaining, stimulating the regrowth of blood cells to replace the ones both lost and floating uselessly in the large ugly bruises.

It was exhausting, but Bakura kept pushing. Even if he burned all his MP, even if he had to convert his HP...

Finally, the glow faded, returning to the d10 for just an instant before Bakura reverted to his normal self, slumping back against the wall of the bathroom, chest heaving.

He was almost afraid to look over. Had it been enough....?

[dead_black_eyes]

The angry, searing sting of the cuts was soothed by the healing spell, despite the fact that they were both weapons and could therefore not achieve anything close to the resonation that a weapon and a meister could. For a second, all the weakness and hurt was lifted, and the veins started to knit together again and the bruises began to fade.

When Bakura returned to his human form, exhausted and slumped against the shower wall, L glanced down at his hands. His grip was stronger, the wounds were firmly scabbed over (a process he'd been struggling with, on account of never having enough iron in his diet), and the ringing in his ears was completely gone. His vision was back to normal, too, meaning at least a few blood cells has been regenerated.

It wasn't a perfect job, and it in fact couldn't be. There was evidence of the slices, and there would be scars. But it was better than L had expected or hoped for.

"Are... you all right?" He stood cautiously, using the towel bar for support.

[shiromadoushi]

"I'll be fine..." Bakura assured, despite the exhaustion showing in his voice and that he still hadn't moved. "I still have at least one hit point... they regenerate when I rest..."

It wasn't like it had been Luonazun he had cast. That one would use all his HP... no, he could recover from this. Even if right at the moment he just needed to sit there a moment.

... his pants were getting wet, weren't they?

"Did it....?" he asked, finally opening his eyes to look up.

[dead_black_eyes]

L cleared his throat, pausing on the landing before they climbed their sixth and final staircase.

"We'll have fun for a better part of this evening, but expect me to be scarce, especially after a certain time of night. If I seem to disappear, only take action if I don't return before we check out tomorrow morning."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded, sobering at the reminder. "Any instructions for what to do if that does happen? Places to check or people to call...?"

Hopefully he wouldn't have to... but.... if Ryuzaki was going to be in danger, he was there to help.

[dead_black_eyes]

"At least one hit point" hardly sounded reassuring. L panicked when he was down to one sugar cube, after all. But there wasn't much time to rest, they still had to get down to the lobby, and they still had to deal with Light.

In answer, he held out the undersides of his arms. Both of the long, diagonal lines met at his wrists, forming a "V" shape when his arms were held together. It was ugly, but it was, for all intents and purposes, healed.