It was a fine weekend afternoon, and one Ryou Bakura was sitting on the couch, eyes glued to the TV screen.

It wasn't often that he watched a game show like this. Sure, sometimes he'd watch reality shows and soap operas to get a laugh out of them, but the little 'competitions' annoyed him. The only reason he was watching one now was because 1) nothing else was on, and 2) the sheer stupidity of the program had drawn him in.

One of the girls was being particularly vacuous when what looked to be Ryou's brother wandered in. Ryou didn't notice his presence, so he just stood there and stared at the television in bewilderment.

"What exactly is this, host?" he asked.

"I don''t know, but the utter madness of it is more attractive than Dora the Explorer," Ryou replied, not sparing him a glance.

"It'll rot your brain," the other mumbled, sitting down next to him.

"I know, that's why I'm not going to make a habit out of this. Say, what have you been up to all day, Bakura? It's been strangely quiet," he mentioned, twisting around to look at the other.

'Bakura' had many names, the most prominent one being his self-imposed title of "King of Thieves." It was a name he had earned, too; Most of the little knickknacks and games around the house were things Ryou didn't remember buying at all. It was only natural for him to be a little worried of what else might've been stolen.

"Reading," said Bakura, holding up a book.

It was a dogeared copy of 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' a book that Ryou had read for one of his classes.

Again, it wasn't unusual for this to happen. Bakura tended to read all the same books as Ryou did, provided that they weren't textbooks. A novel could keep him out of trouble for up to a week.

"Oh," said Ryou, taking it back, "did you finish it, then?"

"Yeah. It was pretty good. Much better than the last one you brought home," said Bakura.

"I didn't like that one either," said Ryou, making a face as he set the book on the coffee table.

"Baumer had a very good point," Bakura murmured after a while.

"Oh?"

Bakura picked up the book again and flipped to a page before reading aloud, "It is queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on my small men."

The image of Yami Yugi came to mind, and Ryou laughed.

This is what I thought of when I read that quote.