The first secret
The end of August is the end of another summer. The end of seemingly endless days of lounging around with friends and deciding where you can afford to get lunch that day. It's time to say so long to those blazing hot days and soothingly cool nights in city parks. But if you're a typical teen, heading back to school for months of thankless toil and being cooped up indoors, you might just want to celebrate your brief affair with freedom.
So the last day of August finds a few close friends camped out in one of Domino's lesser known parks. As the day draws finally to a close and the sun begins to set, they head home one by one until only five remain: Ryou, Bakura, Joey, Serenity, and Duke.
Ryou's happy enough, despite the end of another glorious summer, because Yugi left over an hour ago, taking Atem with him. It's not that he doesn't like them or enjoy their company, but Bakura still has a way of clamming up around the pair that doesn't exactly put his mind at ease.
Now, the group sits in various places along the top of a low hill, simply observing the sun as it vanishes at the horizon, sending all manner of colors into the sky. It's their own little aurora borealis.
"Look at that," Serenity says in awe, gazing raptly at the scene before them. She interrupts the placid silence, but no one really minds.
"Beautiful," agrees Devlin, looking quickly at her pretty, young face, before returning his gaze to the sky.
"That's my favorite color," Bakura adds after a minute. This time it's a true interruption. They all turn to look at the typically silent and usually brooding boy. Ryou has a small, careful smile on his face.
"Which one?" he asks softly.
"That one," replies Bakura easily, making a large, sweeping gesture with his hand at the expanse of color. By the way his hand moves, they are able to guess that he means the pinkish hue that surrounds the sun's blazing visage.
"The…what?" asks Joey, looking at Bakura as if he's just told him something both unbelievable and hilarious, "Your favorite color is pink?" The way he says it doesn't sound mean, per se, but there is stifled laughter tingeing his question and Bakura doesn't like being laughed at one bit.
"Yes," Bakura replies coolly, not bothering to look in Joey's direction as he speaks.
Through a miraculous combination of tiredness and his sister's leveling presence, Joey says no more. Of course, there is probably a slight chance he's still the tiniest bit afraid of Bakura.
Not long after that the sun finally sets and the gang splits up for the trek home. Bakura and Ryou head south to their apartment while the other three head North to the commercial district of Domino. Joey and Serenity have been living in a small apartment of their own for months now and Duke's office, above which he now lives in a luxurious suite, is only a few blocks away.
They're halfway home when Bakura asks Ryou what exactly is so funny about liking the color pink. Ryou has to fight the urge to laugh himself. This is something he never thought he would have to explain to anybody, least of all the spirit of an ancient Egyptian thief king.
"It's not funny," he tells Bakura evasively, "Joey was just being an idiot, ok?"
"Uh-huh," the other boy responds sarcastically, "Why is it funny, really?" In unison, they cross the street, Ryou trailing slightly behind to conceal his gentle smile, "Tell me." continues Bakura, turning in time to see Ryou replace the grin with a façade of seriousness.
"OK," Ryou concedes, "It's a little funny, but only to people like Joey. Not me," he hurries to clarify. "The thing is, some people think that it's funny for guys to like the color pink. Usually only girls say they like it. Though I know more guys like it than care to admit."
It takes a moment for Bakura to process the information as they walk in silence, passing dark houses on both sides of the road.
"That's ridiculous," he says finally, but he doesn't look angry. He doesn't say anything else and Ryou, assuming the subject has been dropped, allows his mind to ponder his own mild insecurities of the impending year of school. But Bakura speaks again before they've walked another block.
"It's the color I remember from Kul Elna," he says slowly, his eyes following the line of parked cars as they pass, "Every night we would sit outside and watch the sunset. There wasn't really much else to do, but…" His voice fades out as he looks inward at his memories of his previous life, his eyes glazing over slightly as he focuses on those images.
This startles Ryou and as they walk together he glances over at his yami from time to time feeling an unexpected desire to protect the boy. It's backwards, really, because Bakura should be the tough one, the stony one…the one who doesn't like pink in other words. That's how everyone sees him and Ryou imagines that the last time anyone considered Bakura to be a complete and normal person, capable of having sweet interests must have been a long time ago. The sad truth remains that anyone who knew that Bakura is long dead, existing perhaps in another, more celestial, world.
Everyone, that is, except one.