Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.
Title: Pretty As A Girl
Word Count: 2,111
Rated: PG-13
Romance: Keith x Bakura Ryou
Notes: This takes place during Duelist Kingdom, the night before the finals, and was written for the fourth season of the Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.
Summary: Bandit Keith wants to get to know someone better. He may or may not be on the right track with that idea.

Bandit Keith Howard was a man on a mission. Two missions, to be absolutely and perfectly accurate. The first was to get into that Jounouchi kid's room and steal the card that he needed. That would make sure that the idiot brat got disqualified before they had to duel, and that he himself would be able to burn through whatever flimsy 'competition' he had to deal with still. Not that any of them could beat him. His multiple decks and killer strategies would stomp past both that Yuugi sucker and the blonde bimbo.

Of course, he had a few other ways he'd like to deal with her, most of which involved a closed bedroom door and some grunting and moaning. But he could do that any old time. She looked like she'd do it with anyone.

His second mission was something a little more difficult. He wanted to find out where that white-haired wench who hung out with Yuugi was sleeping and see if she needed something, or someone, to keep her warm. She was a definite pretty piece of work, even if she dressed more like a guy in those sweaters and pants.

Maybe she was one of those tomboy types? It was hard to say sometimes, especially in Japan. Their styles made no sense whatsoever to him.

Still, she was nice eye candy. He hadn't seen hair that was actually really white before, and those warm brown eyes were just gorgeous. And the way her body looked…yeah, he couldn't wait to hold it against him. He just hoped she wouldn't hold it against him. Or that she would. Heh. He never got tired of that joke.

He slipped down a hallway, trying to decide what he wanted to do first. He had to wait until he was certain that Jounouchi was asleep before he went into the blond's room. He knew where that one was, but he hadn't noticed which one his future girlfriend was sleeping in. Duels, and revenge, came first, after all.

Keith licked his lips at the thought of what was going to happen tomorrow. It had taken him years, but he was finally in a position where he could get back at Pegasus for everything that the bastard had done to him. All he had to do was get through another couple of obstacles and he was free and clear.

Maybe he should save tracking down that sweet piece of pretty until after that? Once he was the undisputed king of dueling again, there was no way that she could turn down his offers. He'd have all the money that Pegasus was offering and then some. Chicks loved guys who had money. When he'd been the U.S. champ, girls had fallen all over themselves to get to him. And they'd do it again once he was back on top.

No, he decided. He wouldn't wait. Having a good makeout session, or more, before a duel had always been fantastic luck for him. Of course it hadn't worked too well during that last duel with Pegasus, but who cared? That bimbo hadn't even been worth it in the first place.

Now that he thought about it, he decided it could work out pretty well if he combined his two missions. That cute piece obviously knew the blond moron, so if she persuaded him to come outside and talk to her, Keith himself could get into his room and find that card. Then they could both go celebrate somewhere else. Like in his room. Or hers. Keith wasn't all that picky.

The first thing to do was to find her, then. He'd been ghosting around the castle, trying to kill some time until it got late enough to do the deed. The rooms were one floor up now, he thought. Pegasus's little fantasy showpiece was confusing. There should have been some kind of a map. Of course, the bastard probably just wanted them to stay all sound asleep in their rooms and not go wandering about to find out whatever kind of secrets he had.

Not that Keith cared. The one secret he wanted to know was exactly how much booze he could buy with all of the prize money. And he'd find that out tomorrow.

Which brought him right around to what he wanted to do now: finding his new little assistant and getting her persuaded to do what he wanted her to. She was probably going to be difficult. He wouldn't be that surprised, not if she hung out with some goody two shoes like that Yuugi kid. But he had ways of persuading people to do what he wanted, like those other duelists he'd tricked into helping him get here could have testified. Especially when the person he wanted was some soft bit of harmless fluff like she was. He'd have to be careful; skin like hers tended to bruise easily, he'd noticed. There'd been one girl back home who had been like that, and he'd had to make sure that no one thought he was beating on her.

He turned a corner and stopped, staying in the shadows. There was someone up ahead. It was hard to see just who it was, given the fact the hallway was as dark as it was. He'd had to avoid a few of Pegasus's guards. If that was another one of them…well, he'd either sneak by them or bash them over the head until they couldn't see straight, much less see him. It wasn't as if he hadn't done that kind of thing before around here.

Keith moved forward, extraordinarily quiet for his size, and tried to get a good look at whoever it was. It had to be a guard; they were making an effort to stay in the dark areas of the hall themselves. Probably so they could watch what was going on if any of the 'guests' came sneaking around. He stuck to the darkness himself, inching ever closer, until he could get a good look at them. Apparently the moon was on his side, as clouds drifted away from it, pouring silver light down into the hallway through the wide windows.

Oh, the fates or something had to be smiling on him tonight. Because now he could see quite clearly just who it was that was there, and he licked his lips. There she was, looking just as gorgeous as she had earlier when he'd seen her. In fact, the moonlight made her even better looking, even more feminine and tasty. Her white hair gleamed and glowed, and her pale skin all but screamed to have him redden it with his touch.

He wondered just what she was doing out and about like this. Maybe she couldn't sleep. He grinned at the thought of that. He had a sure-fire remedy if that was the problem. Maybe he should go ask her. As far as he could tell, there weren't any guards around here at all. That meant they could get down to business right here and right now.

Keith strolled right over to her, and wasn't surprised when she jumped suddenly. "Hey there, pretty thing," he leaned in more closely as he spoke, not wanting to give her a great deal of room to run away. That wasn't how first meetings should go, after all.

"Hello?" She seemed to be a little nervous. Maybe he should've thought about shaving. No, what would be the point? It was just a girl he was meeting, after all. "You're…Bandit Keith, aren't you?"

"That's me. So you've heard of me." That certainly made his night a lot better. She probably already liked him. Could it be that she was looking for him? Yeah. That was it. She'd just gotten lost, the silly little fluffhead. What else could he have expected?

"You could say that." She ducked her head in a way that he found very charming, and he moved in a little more closely. "Do you have to stand so close?" Now there was something of an edge to her tone. He wasn't all that certain if he liked that, come to think of it.

"What are you doing out at this hour?" he asked, not really answering her question. "Shouldn't you be getting your beauty sleep?" He smirked a touch as he leaned in even more, for a good view of those moonlight-drenched brown eyes. Her voice was huskier than he preferred on girls, but he thought he could deal with it. There were a lot of reasons it could be like that now, thinking about it.

She turned her head away a little and he grinned, liking the new angle he was seeing her face from. "I was just wandering around some." There was a hint of confusion there now as well. She was shy! Keith liked that in his women.

"I could give you something to do," he offered. Before she had a chance to protest, he leaned in even more closely, reached up and grabbed her chin, and turned her face back towards him. "I can think of a lot of things that we could do together, a pretty girl like you and a man like me."

All she did was stare at him, and Keith grinned even more. That was just perfect. He started to lean in to kiss her, his free hand going up under her sweater at the same time. He wanted to get in a good feel, and see just how she was built under that thing. She was really going to have to change her dressing habits. He wanted to be able to see her cleavage, and the more of it the better. Maybe he could get her to get some fashion tips from that Kujaku woman. He hadn't noticed much about her, but he had spied that rack of hers.

He froze with his lips a brief space above hers. There was something wrong here. Something very wrong. He kept moving his hand around, then pulled back to check just how far under the sweater he was. This had to be some kind of a joke.

"So, uh," he said, trying for something he wasn't certain of and yet hoped was true at the same time, "had plastic surgery?" That certainly ruined the mood, but if he was wrong, then he didn't want to be in the mood.

Slowly, she shook her head and he swallowed. "Are you going to have it?" Maybe he could look…her…up later. Yeah, that would be the ticket. Sure, he'd never tried something like that before, one of those who started off one way and then switched, but she was pretty enough that he could probably pretend tonight hadn't happened. Once she had changed all the way, of course. And the sooner the better. Maybe after he'd won the tournament, he could pay to have it done faster?

"No," she …no, he didn't want to think of that as being anything other than a she…replied. "I'm not a girl." For some reason, he thought he heard something like a bit of amusement in her…his…voice. She thought this was some kind of a joke?

"What the hell do you think you're doing, going around looking so pretty then?" Keith wanted to hurt something badly. As quickly as he could, he pulled his arm back and balled up his fist. If this was a guy, he didn't have a single qualm in the world about punching him dead in the face. And there wasn't a damned thing that this little worm could do about it, either!

But no matter how swiftly his hand moved, compared to the way that little bastard reacted, Keith might as all not have even bothered. One hand caught Keith's effortlessly, and he noticed a little absently that the brat was wearing some kind of necklace that he hadn't seen before. It was kind of weird looking, reminding him of one of those dream catcher things he'd seen in cheap convenience stores.

Nothing was said at all. Keith finally yanked his hand away. "Yeah, well…whatever." He had more important things to do with his time than mess around with some stupid girl…boy…whatever it was. He turned away and stalked off down the hall. The last thing he heard before he was completely out of earshot was what sounded like soft psychotic laughter, and then a gentle voice murmuring, "It wasn't that funny."

Tell me about it, kid. Keith shrugged to himself, then headed to stake out Jounouchi's room for a while. He shouldn't have gotten side-tracked, even by a face that really had been as pretty as a girl's.

The End