All the way home, Ryou's stomach twisted, and his mind raced. Every day it was the same, with more or less torture, depending on the mood of who was waiting for him when he arrived home. The boy paused, trembling at the doorstep of his own home. Flashbacks assaulted his mind, the agonizing physical pain and emotional stabs to his heart were as fresh now as they were the very first day they were inflicted. He could see clearly every time the man smacked him to get an answer out of him, and thrust into his exhausted body. Anxiety threatened to choke him, and Ryou did his best to swallow the rising stomach acid threatening to spill out his mouth. Reluctantly, he placed the key in the lock, turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door. Silence permeated the walls of the house, and Ryou knew that wasn't a good sign.

Ryou placed his backpack down on the living room and removed his jacket, his eyes quickly scanning the room and stopping on a figure leaning against the wall in the kitchen doorway, his eyes shielded by the layer of thick, white bangs in his face, but his mouth bore a twisted, sharp-toothed grin.

"It took you long enough to get home, Hikari. You're lucky I didn't need something." The man's voice came out raspy and low, full of hidden meaning and dripping of darkness.

"I'm sorry Bakura, my teacher needed to talk to me after class." Sweat began to trickle down the nape of Ryou's neck. He knew Bakura would know he was lying.

"Like hell they did." Bakura slowly walked forward with his arms crossed, his nails digging into his arms. He seethed like a wolf about to devour it's prey and took Ryou by the collar, leaning into the boy's face until their lips were only inches apart. "Why were you really late?" He hissed.

"I…I…" Ryou could not think of an excuse good enough, one that his Yami would believe, but he didn't dare to tell him the real reason he had taken so long to get home. When no answer came out of Ryou's trembling lips, Bakura smacked his Light hard on his cheek and the boy winced, his eyes glazing over.

Bakura grabbed Ryou's face and lifted his chin, forcing the boy to look him in the eyes, something he hated to do. "You had me worried Hikari…" He mocked, not sounding worried at all. "I thought you might have tried to leave me, and we both know that would not work well for you."

"I wouldn't try that… I know you'd find me…" Ryou said softly, looking away.

"I know where you are all the time, whether you know it or not. Hiding from me would only bring you more pain. Now- why were you so late?" He dug his nails into the soft flesh of Ryou's face.

There was a long pause before Ryou answered, "I didn't want to come home…"

Bakura's eyebrows knitted together, a tornado of confliction whirling inside his brown eyes. He dragged Ryou off his feet by the back of his collar, the boy stumbling to his knees. His skin burned as it was dragged against the carpet, his body made to comply by being forcibly moved.

"Bakura, please…" he begged and was ignored. Bakura lifted Ryou onto his bed and pushed him onto his face, grabbing a familiar rope that was tied around his bedpost.

"I'll make it so you want to come home. You'll be in class staring at the clock the entire day just waiting to return to me when I'm done with you." He chuckled, climbing onto the bed with the rope in between his fingers. "Come here." He commanded. Too scared to defy the man Ryou knew was much more powerful than he was, he did as he was told. Bakura lifted his Light's shirt above his head roughly and threw it onto the floor. "You won't be needing that."

He bit Ryou sharply on the neck, feeling the need to sink his teeth into a recently healing bruise that had been left in the same spot. Ryou cried out in pain and winced, gritting his teeth. "Don't you realize you can cry out all you want, but your distress falls on deaf ears?" Bakura chuckled darkly, pushing himself on his smaller Light. "No one really cares about you but me. Your friends don't care about you, they just want to get rid of me- and they would hurt you in the process. Your family doesn't give a shit about you either."

"My family loved me!" Ryou protested, trying to block out the hurt brought on by memories of his mother and sister's death.

"What about your father? Where is he now? I'm all you have. I'm all you'll everhave. Hikari, you know you like what I do to you.. I help you feel less alone, don't I?" He hissed in the younger boy's ear, nipping on the lobe. Ryou shuddered. "When will you admit it to yourself…" Bakura deftly tied the rope around his submissive's hands, binding them tight and stepping back to take a look at the boy, who looked away from him, knowing what all this would lead to in the end.

"No matter. Someday you'll come to realize you can't live without me. One day, you'll wake up and realize you need me."