I'll jump right in to the explanations since I haven't been able to come up with anything particularly witty to put in the author comments this morning. Sigh.
This story is taking place after the Duel City tournament (for Yu-gi-oh) and in the middle of the Majora's Mask storyline (for Zelda).
Ryou and Bakura have their own bodies. They can still merge together but it requires that Ryou is the one wearing the Millennium Ring and that they aren't more than 30 feet away from each other at the time (there's a point to this but you'll need to wait and find out what it is ^_^).
There's a lot more dialogue than there is action in this chapter, but it's setting up some important details for later on.
I'll end off with saying that I don't own any of the Yu-gi-oh or Zelda characters appearing in this story. I also don't own the Prince of Persia (but I do run him up against booby-traps on a regular basis).
- - -
"Ryou. Ryou wake up!"
Ryou slowly became aware of something shaking his shoulder. He moaned and rolled away from the irritating grip, subconsciously pulling the blankets he was cuddled under over his head in the process. Night was for sleeping.
"Don't try my patience Ryou, you're going to get up now."
There was something vaguely familiar about that voice, but Ryou's mind was too clouded with sleep for him to comprehend why he knew it. He pushed the nagging concern that was building up in his chest aside and burrowed deeper into the comforter. "Must… sleeeeeep," he managed to murmur before nodding off again.
"Hikari! If you don't wake up this instant I swear in the name of Ra that I'll send you to the Shadow Realm!"
Ryou's brow furrowed at this and his mind unwillingly began to surface from sleep. Shadow Realm… that sounded familiar. As the cogs in his head began to spin faster he remembered being cold and hungry… and having to go to the washroom really bad. Sighing, Ryou rolled over to face his dark half. From where he lay Bakura appeared to tower over him, a glass of water held ominously in one hand. Ryou glanced past him to where his alarm clock stood and grimaced at what the glowing green numbers told him.
"Kuuuuura... it's one-thirty in the morning! You better have a bloody good reason for waking my up."
Bakura put the glass back down onto the nightstand. "I want to go for a walk," he said, as though it was the most logical thing in the world.
"Go then, you don't need to tell me," Ryou sighed, never ceasing to be amazed at his dark half's antics. "Just make sure to lock the door behind you."
"You're coming with me." Not only was Bakura's voice utterly serious, but Ryou also noted despairingly that he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet in anticipation.
In a desperate attempt to put his dark half off Ryou's made his eyes go as wide as they could, crystallized sleep still crinkling at their corners. His face began to sink into a cute pout when the effect was ruined by a jaw-cracking yawn. He sighed; the time old puppy-dog look would never work as well the second time round. "And why should I allow myself to be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night? Can't this wait until morning?"
"Well you see…" Bakura looked really excited now. "I just came up with some new maneuvers that I really wanted to try out, and they'd be a bit strange to do in the daylight with people watching."
"Practice them here then."
"Not big enough. I'll also need some rather specific equipment for what I have in mind, and the only place I can think of to look for it is out on the streets."
Ryou reached over and flicked on his bedside lamp in order to better study his dark half's face. Bakura blinked at the sudden light, but the giant grin plastered on his face never lessened one bit. Above the grin his eyes were wide, and oddly glassy.
"Bakura, have you been playing Prince of Persia again?" Ryou asked.
The Thief King made a show of looking hurt at his hikari's accusatory tone. "You buy me games and then scold me for playing them? How cruel."
"I didn't mean to do that," Ryou rubbed his temples, trying to concentrate. "It's a good thing that you play them since they keep you out of trouble. However, sometimes you take things a bit too far."
Bakura looked insulted. "Just because the Prince's athletic abilities should be seen as a model for anyone hoping to improve their skills at break and entering-"
"Bakura! There are footprints all over the living room walls. We're going to need to re-paint everything at this rate. Besides, I don't really think you need to be learning any new ways to break into places, especially such physically risky ones."
"I'm a thief, what do you expect?" Bakura's violet eyes were glinting dangerously.
Ryou's head bowed forward, his eyes sliding shut. "I don't want you to get hurt," he whispered, his voice suddenly full of emotion.
Bakura froze and the aura of danger that had been swirling around him vanished. You really do care too much for others...
Bakura watched his hikari squirm. Ryou obviously wanted to relax back into sleep, but he was far too aware of the water sitting patiently nearby and how much nearer it would become if Bakura were feeling particularly cruel. No one moved for a while and Bakura's thoughts began to drift away into crazy acrobatics and sand monsters, so it took him a moment to realize that Ryou had reached a decision to sleep despite the danger it put him in. Bakura snapped back to his old self. "While I find your sentiments warming, don't think that I'm going to let you get out of this. Who else will tell me how cool I look?"
Ryou felt arms snake under the blankets and wrap around his waist. He yelped in protest and clung to the thick comforters, hoping against hope that they'd be able to keep him glued to the bed. It was not to be so; the arms easily dragged him off the mattress.
"No fair Kura!" Ryou whined, batting at the thief weakly, his muscles still half asleep.
Bakura cackled and dragged Ryou across the room, the bed sheets dragging behind him. With one hand Bakura pinned his struggling hikari to the wall, with the other he pulled open the closet door and began flipping though the hangared shirts.
"Come on Ryou, time to get changed," he sung. When his hikari made no move to comply his grin turned taunting. "That is, unless you want me to do it for you. If that's the case by all means just remain standing there with that pitiful look on your face."
Ryou dropped his pout. "So pushy," he complained before yawning again. "Fine, I'll come with you. Just don't think that this will suddenly become a common occurrence."
Bakura smirked and released him, now turning his full attention to the closet. After rifling through a few options he selected a pair of soft jeans and tossed them to Ryou. While the thief's head was still embedded in the closet Ryou took the opportunity to strip off his pajamas. When he had the jeans on he took the proffered blue and white stripped t-shirt and short black jacket that he then pulled on wearily. As he was pulling his hair out from under the jacket collar a pair of rolled up socks zoomed in and bounced off his nose.
"For all your complaining you certainly are obedient," Bakura remarked, watching as Ryou sat down to pull on the socks.
Ryou staggered back to his feet then glanced over to the small mirror that hung above his dresser. "Dressing like you makes people think I'm tougher than I actually am. The school bullies will occasionally leave me alone now."
Bakura rolled his eyes. "A mystery solved."
"Well it's true!"
"Alright, alright. Let's just get going," Bakura reached into the closet once again and pulled out a long black trench that he'd been favoring of late. As he swung it casually over his shoulders the Millennium Ring jangled, the movement having caused it to swing forward from where it had been resting on a shirt exactly like the one Ryou was now wearing.
Ryou was herded out the bedroom door and into the living room. A faint humming noise alerted him to the fact that the television was on despite the dark screen. He made his way over to it carefully, not wanting to step on any of the numerous bits of electronic equipment that lay between them. He pressed the button and the humming stopped. Behind him Bakura was grabbing the house keys from the table. Ryou found himself once again being led through the room, this time ending up standing on the front step. Bakura locked the door behind them and slipped the keys into his pocket.
Ryou couldn't remember ever having been outside at such a late hour. The night was chilly despite it being mid-summer. The moon and stars shone in a clear sky, only slightly muted by the city lights, and a night wind brushed along the streets. A plastic bag rolled by phantom-like, slipping in and out of the flood of the streetlights until it was brought to a halt by a car tire. He turned his attention from the caught bag. "Now that you've got me out here do you want to tell me where we're going, or is this just going to be one long surprise after another?"
Bakura was pensive. "Well, I need somewhere with an awning, and some parallel walls a meter or two apart."
Not wanting to spend more time awake than he needed to, Ryou turned all his thoughts to helping the thief. "Restaurants would be a good bet for finding an awning," he said after a moment. "There's a sushi shop down a couple blocks that I recall has something like that. Why don't we head there?"
"Excellent idea!" Bakura was obviously pleased with the suggestion. He made his way down the stairs, managing somehow to completely vanish into the shadows before reappearing suddenly when he stepped onto the lit sidewalk. Ryou followed after him, hugging his arms across his chest and hunching his shoulders in an attempt to keep warm in the cold night air.
The block rolled by slowly. Ryou's mind began to drift off again into dreams and so he was surprised when he suddenly ran into something warm. Bakura had stopped in front of him and was staring at a nearby lawn. "What in the name of Ra do those people think they're doing decorating for Halloween at this time of year?" he wondered, his voice sharp with scorn.
The object of his distraction appeared to be a large purple balloon with glowing yellow eyes. Despite floating in a very balloon-like manner it had a strange shape, as though it was being pinched and flattened. There was also what appeared to be a fabric ponytail hanging from the back of the body. Two clawed hands hung limp on the end of twine arms, nearly brushing the ground.
Ryou studied the apparition as well as he could in the gloom. "What's it attached to?" he asked.
"Don't know, and quite honestly I don't care," Bakura walked up to the balloon and punched it, sending it careening across the lawn, it's twine arms spinning to keep it upright. Smirking, Bakura continued on towards the restaurant.
"It isn't very nice to go vandalizing other's peoples stuff," Ryou chided halfheartedly. He also tended to take issue to decorating out of season; seeing Christmas lights in June made him want to… well he was never sure what it made him to want to do, but he had a feeling that it would be bad for both him and the offending lights. He glanced back, hoping to get a last look at the strange balloon; it was no longer on the grass however.
"It's gone," he remarked to Bakura. "You must have knocked it loose."
"Good riddance. Hey, if we're lucky it will take out one of Kaiba's helicopters."
Ryou was shocked. "That's not very nice! If he died who'd host more Duel Monster tournaments?"
"I didn't say he needed to be in the helicopter…" Bakura muttered. "I can make jokes you know. Besides, who in their right mind would be flying around at this time of night?" As if to prove his point Bakura stopped and opened his arms to the sky, looking up for any sign of an aircraft. To his and Ryou's surprise there was two yellow dots some way above them. They weren't moving at all, and as the two teens looked on the lights blinked.
"Well, that's just plain strange," Bakura remarked in shock.
"Is that… the balloon from the lawn?" Ryou asked in a hushed voice, subconsciously moving closer to his dark half.
"Maybe it wasn't a balloon." Bakura suggested. No sooner had he spoken than the Millennium Ring tugged at his neck, two of its pointers pointing directly at the yellow eyes.
"What's it telling you?" Ryou asked.
"I'm not sure…"
The eyes began to drift slowly, until they were right above Ryou and Bakura's heads. A trickle of light came down from above, intensifying into a bright stream before either of the teens could react.
"Do you feel lighter than usual?" Bakura asked his hikari upon noticing that his feet were slowly but surely leaving the ground. He looked up and noticed that Ryou's eyes were wide, an unnamed terror swimming beneath their surfaces.
Ryou's mouth opened and closed a few times, his brain still trying to comprehend what was going on. When they were two meters off the ground he finally regained his voice. "Alien abduction!" he wailed, grabbing Bakura's arm and holding on tight. A white light began to surround them. It blocked out the shadowy forms of the houses and the dark stretch of the road.
"Ryou! What in the name of Ra is an alien?"
"If we get out of this in one piece we're watching Star Wars," was the only reply Bakura got (and he found it to be unusually cryptic).
The light wrapped around them possessively, causing the Millennium Ring to flail its pointers wildly, one of them glancing off Bakura's chin when he tried to look down. Then suddenly and completely without warning… the light popped.
