If You Feel Better

Chapter 44

Bakura stirred in his sleep, wearing off the effects of his night of binge drinking. He shifted in his seat, gradually awakening his senses again one by one. He blinked open his drowsy eyes, even the pitch blackness being too much for his hangover to handle. A painful headache stabbed his brain, slowly releasing just to stab it again. With a low groan, he held his forehead in his palm, massaging the ache as if it would soothe away.

He was well known for enjoying his drinks, even being drunk somewhat regularly, but he hadn't gone anywhere nearly as overboard as he had the night before in a very long time. He had way overdone it and now he was feeling its full effects. Groggy and parched, he scrutinized the scene around him, memories steadily returning.

His men were slumbering on the floor after having filled their bellies with the finest alcohol known to Egypt. They had been screaming, shouting, and laughing all night, getting just as drunk as he was. Now they were all passed out: half on the floor, half in their chairs. Made sense.

Aya had been sitting in his lap, with a scowl on her face and wrapped in one arm the entire time. But where was she? He looked down at his lap and saw that it was empty. He used his hands to feel if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he was only touching his own body. Where was she? He clearly remembered her being there when he fell asleep. He hurriedly scanned the ground with his eyes, but did not see her amongst any of the sleeping figures. Where was she?! His eyes landed on the doorway at the far end of the mess hall, realization dawning on him and his blood starting to boil. Where was she?!

Bakura shot out of his seat, ignoring the protests from his hungover body, and yelled "Wake up!" He kicked his men conscious as he made his way to the exit, stepping on them haphazardly if they were unlucky enough to be in his way. "Wake up!" he yelled again, paying no attention to the intense throbbing of his headache, made worse by his shouting. "Aya's gone! We have to find her!"

His men reluctantly awoke to their master roaring, clutching their heads in agony, belching, moaning, and a couple even puking. Still, they were not as resilient as their leader and they remained on the floor for some time, unable to fend off their inebriation. "Wake up!" Bakura commanded again, storming out of the room and leaving them all behind. He couldn't wait for them to get themselves together. He had to find her now.

He stumbled into the hallway, bumping into the walls and doors as he staggered as quickly as he could toward the entrance to the lair. He checked every room he passed, knowing full well that she wouldn't be inside, but still wanted to believe that she was still somewhere there. He threw open the doors, skimmed the room, and then did the same to the next.

Finally, he reached the entrance to his lair, charging clumsily up the stairs and out into the sun of midday. He retracted from the light piercing his eyes, his head pounding intensely from the sensory overload. Blinking away the pain, he ran a few steps out into the desert, turning around furiously in all directions only to find the empty sand staring back at him. Enclosed by endless waves of dunes, there was no trace of Aya in sight and no clues as to which direction she went. She was gone.

Bakura yelled out to the sky in anger, his voice echoing against the vast emptiness of the heavens. He grabbed his hair in his fists, practically ready to rip it out. He had had her. She was as good as his. But he slipped up in getting too intoxicated and she managed to escape while he was passed out.

His ear perked at the sound of a distant neigh. It wasn't one of his horses. It was too far away and coming from the wrong direction. From his right, a herd of horses appeared from behind a dune, each carrying a person on their backs. To his irritation, he immediately recognized who they were. The sun's rays glinted off the pharaoh's Millennium Puzzle as well off the other gold accessories and accents that he and Priest Seto were wearing. They led a party of about fifty men in his direction, clearly having spotted him. They made a beeline for him, but he remained fearless, standing his ground and facing them head on.

As soon as they reached him, the pharaoh jumped from his horse before it had even stopped and pulled out his sword before pointing it at Bakura.

"Where is my daughter?!" he ordered, his deep voice echoing the same as Bakura's had.

Unintimidated, Bakura spit at sand and wiped his lip with his thumb. "You just missed her," he growled out.

"What're you talking about?!" Seto asked, joining the pharaoh on the ground, threatening Bakura with a sharp blade of his own. "You had better return her unharmed!"

"She's not here!" Bakura snapped, ignoring the intense pounding in his head that grew with the yelling back and forth. His men finally joined him outside, having pulled themselves together and shaking off the drowsiness. Despite their hangovers, they drew their weapons and pointed them back at the pharaoh and his men, though they stayed behind Bakura until further instructed. "She's gone!"

"You mean she ran away?!" the pharaoh asked, keeping his composure.

"And why should we believe you?!" Seto asked, thrusting his sword out a little farther. "You're a dirty thief who cannot be trusted! How do we know that you don't have her hidden inside?!"

"Because I have more men here than you do," Bakura scoffed. "I could take you down easily. Why would I lie? There's literally no point." The pharaoh looked into his eyes, searching for some trace of deception, but finding none. Though the King of Thieves was to be trusted under no circumstances, he had the overwhelming feeling in his gut that he was telling the truth. "I don't know which direction she went and she has no idea where civilization is, so if you want to find her alive, I suggest searching for her instead of wasting your time with me."

More than a hundred men shuffled out of the underground lair, all ganging up behind Bakura with their swords drawn, a display of the serious edge he had over the king.

"I'm sure you're hiding her!" Seto continued to argue. "Surrender and let us search for ourselves! You're a criminal that deserves to be behind bars as it is! We're not taking your word for it!"

Bakura hmphed, unthreatened by his words. "By all means, if you don't believe me, come face me head on right now," he invited. "But does Aya have time to wait until you're done? Every second she's out there, the more dehydrated she becomes, the more disoriented she is, and the more danger she's in. No one lasts more than a day out in the desert with nothing. You really want to conquer me over her dead body?!"

The pharaoh hesitated, knowing that he was correct if Aya had truly run away. There was no time to waste, much less with a losing battle against Bakura. He lowered his sword slowly before fully sheathing it away, Seto and the rest of his men reluctantly following suit. "For my daughter, I will leave you alone for now," he proclaimed, climbing back onto his horse. "But know this, Bakura: you will not get away for what you have done to her and for you have done to the rest of my people! You will be punished for your crimes and you will answer to the gods for your deeds!"

Usually armed with a well-deserved insult or a witty comeback, Bakura was in no mood to agitate his nemesis. He was masking a severe hangover and wanted to head out searching for Aya just as soon as the pharaoh was. "I look forward to it," he responded with a slight smirk.

The pharaoh and Seto whipped their reins and rode away into the desert, their band following close behind them. Bakura watched with a glaring expression, annoyed that their presence stalled the start of his search.

"My Lord," one of his men spoke up. "Should we go after them?"

"No," Bakura answered. "Let them go."

Fatal errors occur when taking opportunity at the wrong moment. He knew better than to attempt withdrawing the pharaoh's life at that moment. It was easy to get excited and carried away, but that would be a huge mistake. Though he did have more men than the pharaoh had on him, his were hungover, some barely standing, and more importantly, the more people searching for Aya, the more likely she would be found. Although he would far rather she be with him, it would at least mean she was safe if her father discovered her before he did. If she weren't missing, he would have gone after the pharaoh and each of his men without a second thought, and he most likely would have succeeded. But that was alright. He was more than used to playing the long game with the royal family. Her father could wait, but being lost in an unforgiving desert, Aya could not.