Ryou had spent the evening wearing his poker-face, as he often did when he couldn't remember what he had done that day. It always concerned him that his other-self might have done something illegal or immoral, and so he disguised vague feelings of worry and guilt behind his blank-look. That look made his parents worry, but it would worry them a great deal more if they knew why he wore it.
After bathing and returning his school books to his backpack, he finally settled down into his bed and let his eyes shut, the outer-world disappearing as he sank down into his inner-world. He found the other mind that lived there was waiting for him in the hallway when he opened his door. He was glad, because he didn't like to go into the other room.
'What happened today?' Ryou asked, stepping back to invite the Thief in.
'I met with Malik again,' the Thief said, moving into the afternoon-lit tatami-room that was Ryou's mind. 'We spoke for some time... I'm not sure if I should trust him.'
'You've never seemed particularly concerned with trust,' Ryou noted, going to sit in the corner where a large beanbag and a pile of cushions were mounded up. 'Do you think he's strong enough to hurt you if he isn't trustworthy?'
The Thief looked down at him silently for a minute, before settling himself down into the cushions hip-to-hip with Ryou and putting an arm around his back. It wasn't an unusual gesture from the thief, but it felt more possessive than normal just now. 'He has a plan to stack the final eight for the tournament and make our play at the finals.'
'So I suppose we'll be playing then,' Ryou said, leaning back into his pillows and relaxing against the Thief. He felt very tired tonight; the Thief had probably had one of his walk-ten-miles-for-no-particular-reason days. His feet were pretty sore.
'Part of his plan is endearing himself to your school-mates,' the Thief explained. He settled back with Ryou and pulled him closer, resting his chin against Ryou's forehead as he continued. 'To follow their movements closely, and to appear as a non-threat, he plans to make them believe that his servant is him.'
'That seems logical.' Ryou nodded.
'He wants us to get him close to them,' the Thief said in a darker tone, his arm tightening around Ryou a bit.
Ryou guessed from the gesture that it was something about this part of Malik's plan that was making his Thief nervous. 'How?' he asked.
The Thief was quiet for a minute again. 'To have them come upon him as he is attempting to help you. After you have been injured.'
Ryou hummed softly, closing his eyes. 'You're right. You shouldn't trust him. He does seem to be a callus user of people,' he said quietly.
The Thief nodded. '... But he's also right... There isn't adequate time to prepare a more subtle approach and it is the fastest, easiest way to endear him to Yuugi,' he said quietly. 'But he is not assuming any risk to himself in this plan.'
'How does he plan for us to get hurt?' Ryou asked curiously, fiddling with a lock of the Thief's hair.
'He said he leaves that to me,' the Thief replied.
'His plan seems to have you doing all the work,' Ryou noted.
'It does indeed,' the Thief agreed.
'... Are you asking for permission?' Ryou inquired, tilting his head and opening his eyes a little, but he didn't bother to focus, all that was in the view ahead of him was his Thief's neck and hair and the edge of a pillow.
'I am asking for a second opinion of the cost-benefit ratio.'
'Do you think it's worth it?' Ryou asked.
'You're not supposed to ask that. That would be a tainted annuluses of the situation if you just base your answer upon mine,' the Thief rebuked, annoyed.
Ryou smiled softly. 'I already know, though. It's important to you. You're getting anxious lately. Do you think he's going to beat you to what you want?'
'He could delay me. And delay at this stage could be costly,' the Thief said.
'You'll take care of me though,' Ryou mused, half changing the subject.
'What?'
'If I'm hurt, you'll take care of me,' Ryou elaborated.
'Of course, but if you're hurt I will be weakened as well,' the Thief murmured, sliding both arms around Ryou's shoulders and pulling him close. 'I would not wish to be in a weakened state when Malik betrays me.'
'If?'
'If,' the Thief agreed. 'But "if" or "when" is a risky gamble.'
'If you think it's worth it, I don't mind,' Ryou whispered, draping his arm around the Thief's waist and cuddling against him.
The Thief was silent for a long period, during which he started to stroke his fingers through Ryou's hair. 'You're a good boy, Ryou,' he finally said, kissing Ryou's forehead.
...
A collection of delinquent senior-high students who had the audacity to think of themselves as a street-gang were smoking in the alley behind a convenience store. Activities such as this and verbally harassing people who walked past were about the extent of the wrong-doings by which they claimed gang status. It was quite pathetic really. But it was precisely the variety of pathetic he needed right now.
The Thief walked down the alley from the opposite end, as though taking a short-cut to the arterial street beyond. As predicted, the 'gangsters' couldn't resist the opportunity to harass a weak-looking, sweet-faced boy. The jeers started the moment they spotted him.
One wearing a red bandana tied around his head (likely a style he'd seen in an American movie or something equally stupid) whistled sharply. 'Look at this cutie! Hey, Haru, do you suppose that's a girl or a boy?'
'She's flat-chested, but she's got a pretty face, doesn't she!' the boy that must have been Haru laughed. 'What's your name, sweetie? You want to come party with us?'
'Bite me, Yankee*-trash,' the Thief said quietly, continuing to walk without making eye contact.
All five of the youths started laughing at that. 'Now don't be like that, honey!' one wearing sunglasses and a cheep faux-leather jacket said. 'My brother** Haru just wanted to know your name.'
'She's got some pretty nice hair, right? Let's call her Yukiko***,' one with unforgivable sideburns chortled. His friends laughed with him, apparently deciding it was a good name.
'That's a pretty necklace, Yukiko,' the one with the bandana said, standing in front of the Thief and reached toward the Millenium Ring.
The Thief grabbed his wrist in a vice-grip and glared at him. 'Don't touch me,' he said in a low, frigid voice. Bandana looked startled and froze, staring at him, but his friends didn't notice and kept laughing. The Thief let go of Bandana's wrist, he stepped back slowly, rubbing it with his other hand.
One of them, wearing blue-jeans worn in just such a way as to be obvious that the fraying had been purposefully made in the factory rather than earned, leaned forward, grinning like the idiot-thug he was. 'Hey, Yukiko, this alley's our territory, y'know. We're happy to let you walk through it, but you should give us something in return. It's just proper, when you're visiting someone else's home, to bring a gift.'
'How about contempt, or do you have enough of that?' The Thief put his hands into his pockets and gave them a bored look. They laughed again. The Thief yawned and said 'I've had enough of this,' and made to step past them.
'Hey, not so fast, baby!' Haru said, grabbing his arm.
'Let go,' the Thief snapped and aimed a weak punch at Haru's face.
Haru easily caught his fist and they all started laughing harder than before. Haru had let go of his other arm, which put the Thief facing him and in a more favorable position for his next move. He proceeded to slam his left elbow into Haru's gut, causing him to let him go in surprise, which freed the Thief's right hand to slam upward into the underside of the youth's jaw.
The laughing abruptly ceased and the other four moved to encircle the Thief as their expressions lost the former merriment and turned hard. Haru was staggering back, holding his jaw in pain. The Thief hadn't hit him very hard. Not really. He'd been holding back because he didn't want to damage them quite yet.
'You've got a lot of guts, faggy!' Blue-jeans snarled, brandishing a wooden practice-sword. 'We mighta let you off easy, but nobody gets away with hitting one of our brothers!'
As the beating ensued, the Thief fought back only minimally, enough to hold the gang's interest and to protect Ryou's ribs. He'd tolerate bruises but broken bones were a different matter entirely, and he had no intention of allowing a long-term injury to befall Ryou's body.
After several minutes, Sideburns pulled a small knife and managed to slice into the Ryou's left arm. The Thief decided that that was quite sufficient and commenced to give Sideburns chest a hard kick. He felt something snap, one, maybe two ribs, before the youth flew back into the wall and slumped down, hugging himself.
Haru received a broken nose and possibly some internal damage. Blue-jeans got a broken arm to go with the severe pummeling to his core. Bandana took a hit to the side of his head and passed out before he could be given much visible damage. Sunglasses lasted longest, mostly because he'd hung back, looking shocked and frightened as his gang-brothers were laid to waste, and so he had the special experience of being choked into unconsciousness.
As the Thief allowed the last boy to slump to the ground, he heard clapping and glanced up at the mouth of the alley to see Malik leaning against the wall, looking amused. 'That was quite a show!' he said, grinning.
'Glad you appreciated it,' the Thief replied, rolling his shoulders and wincing. Perhaps he had let that go on too long...
'You're bleeding,' Malik noted, pointing to where Sideburns had managed to cut the Thief.
'Yes,' the Thief agreed, annoyed that he'd been distracted enough to allow that. 'It's shallow though.'
'It's good. A bit of blood always gets people excited,' Malik chuckled.
'I don't suppose you have any alcohol,' the Thief asked without much hope. 'I hate to think what might have been on that knife.'
'Sorry,' Malik said, shrugging.
The Thief sighed, 'Whatever. Anyway, you'd better take care of him.'
'Of course I will. Yuugi's friends are close by, we don't have far to go.'
'All right.' the Thief nodded, feeling tired from the beating as he knelt down and settled himself on the ground next to Malik. Malik crouched down, looking intrigued. Brace yourself, Ryou, he whispered inwardly, before letting go of consciousness and falling down towards the darkness of his soul-room.
Ryou woke with a pained gasp and crumpled forward, hugging himself. He was glad that he hadn't been standing, or he probably would have fallen. A hand caught his shoulder, steadying him and he looked up. 'Y-you're Malik?' he whispered, taking in the dark, bronze-colored face.
'That's right,' Malik smiled, looking a little bit friendly but also a little bit too pleased and excited. 'And you must be Bakura Ryou.'
Ryou nodded and his head spun. What the hell had happened? Malik took his arm and Ryou flinched, looking down to see that he was bleeding from a small cut on his bicep. Malik produced a handkerchief from one pocket and started to dress the cut with it. He didn't know much about first-aid, Ryou noted, but didn't bother to correct him as Malik tied the kerchief loosely, making it comfortable rather than effective.
After tying the kerchief in place, Malik moved to Ryou's side and put an arm around his waist, pulling Ryou's arm over his shoulders and helping him to stand up. 'We've just got a little walk. Your friends are two blocks from here,' he said. Ryou nodded, feeling dizzy and aching all over. The Thief's idea of getting just a little bit hurt was rather different from Ryou's.
...
It's like Stockholm-luv or something. Ryou, you are an unhealthy boy.
This fic gets a glossary!
*Yankee- teenaged street gang kid, I guess it's supposed to be American-style delinquent youth or something? I don't have a history on that etymology there...
**Inside gangs, members often refer to each other as 'Aniiki,' a form of the word for brother.
***Yukiko- the word 'yuki' meaning 'snow,' combine with the suffix 'ko' makes this a distinctly feminine name. -- No, they don't think Ryou's actually a girl, they're just ridiculing his femi looks.
I'm just calling him 'Thief' in here because I don't hold with just referring to him as 'Bakura' because that doesn't even make sense. That's a family-name and so seems even less likely that Akefia would associate himself with it than Ryou's given-name. And because this is season two and none of the Egyptian names have come into play yet.
Hey, you should review if you liked this at all. I get all discouraged when there's no reviews...