A/N: Chapters will be longer in the future and will involve KHR characters. Pairings: Atem/Thief King Bakura, Yugi/Ryou/Kaiba, Malik/Jounouchi/Mai, Tsuna/Everyone (in the KHR universe).
Bakura turned the ring over on his palm; insultingly easy to steal, the ring had not been guarded well. One powerful guardian had stood in his way, but, once the guardian had fallen asleep, the ring was free for the picking. Bakura thought that, if he were to do it again, Diabound's power would not be needed. If the rest of the rings were as easy to steal as this one had been, then the job was a joke, and he would have to school the failures of thieves who had been sent before him.
The ring itself was frustrating Bakura because he could sense its power, yet he was unable to use it. It did not have the same feel as the Millennium Items; its power was brighter, a veritable sun compared to the Items. He supposed that someone like Yugi might be able to use the ring, but that would require telling them he had stolen from the mafia and was planning to do it again.
Bakura got up from his crouch and prepared to summon Dark Necrofear. Even in this revived body, he could still summon others' kas. His own ka, Diabound, still got the most use, of course, but Dark Necrofear was not far behind. He drew out her card and called upon the powers of the shadows, reaching into the furthest boundaries of his soul, and brought her forth into the mortal plane.
Dark Necrofear resembled her form from Battle City, except the doll in her arms was now repaired. The ka bowed, each movement measured and graceful. She was accustomed to safeguarding what Bakura stole until he either turned the item in to his middleman or the friendship gang made him return it.
Without a word, Bakura extended the hand that held the ring and plunked the pilfered treasure down in Dark Necrofear's palm. He breathed out a harsh laugh as the ka faded back into the shadows. There was no way for the Vongola to retrieve the ring now; it would remain in Dark Necrofear's possession until he turned it in for the cash. Unless the mafia had somehow gained the power of the Shadows when he wasn't looking, the ring was safely his.
As he brushed imaginary dust off his jacket and paced about the dilapidated warehouse, Bakura started to plan his next heist. The target this time would be a green version of the yellow ring he had just stolen, but there was no chance that the guardian of the green ring would come to Japan alone. He would need to Shadow travel a greater distance this time, but his employers gave him the location of his target so he wouldn't have to search the whole of Italy to find the guardian. He would have to both cloak himself in Shadow and use Diabound's powers of invisibility and intangibility to acquire the next ring. Raiding a mafia stronghold without the Shadows or Diabound is tantamount to suicide, and Bakura wasn't arrogant enough to think he could do it.
Once Bakura weighed his options and decided against going for the second ring that night, he conjured up a portal of shadows. It warped the air around him, drawing everything in. Before leaving the warehouse, one of his safehouses, he double-checked the locks and security system. They wouldn't prevent the determined, but they would discourage casual intruders, like bored teenagers, from entering. After he reassured himself that no one was going to come in without his knowledge, he left through the portal.
Travelling through the Shadow Realm, a formless liminal space, was the quickest method of getting from one place to another that Bakura knew of, and he was loathe to fly in an airplane. The walk through the Shadow Realm was brief and safe, as safe as it could be. As he passed others' kas, he waved to them and took comfort in knowing that his own ka was enough to protect him from everything but one of the God cards.
Bakura exited the Shadow Realm and appeared right outside the small townhouse that he and Atem shared, bought with Kaiba's money. Instead of unlocking the front door with his key, as a normal person might, he climbed over the hedge, scaled the side of the house, used a knife to pry open a window, and clambered inside. The window was promptly shut and sealed with Shadow magic. The entire house was warded to prevent unexpected visitors, so using the Shadows to travel into the middle of their living room was impossible.
Ever since Kaiba brought down the boundaries between the mortal world and the next, Bakura had to tolerate Atem's presence. He would have thanked Kaiba for giving him another opportunity to kill Atem if both of their names in the Book of the Dead not been scratched out, preventing him from exacting his revenge. The only consolation was that the Kul Elna's other inhabitants had passed on after the Items were destroyed. The friendship gang had thought that he would calm down after learning that his village had been freed from their torture, but his thirst for vengeance had not been quenched.
The Ishtar family had found Bakura in the ruins of Kul Elna, confused and dangerously dehydrated. Malik ordered him kept under heavy watch while he healed, but no one outside the family was alerted to his revival. It was only when Mariku had clawed his way out of the Shadow Realm that Malik had been forced to truly acknowledge that he alone could not handle what had happened. He visited Kaiba, at first to blame him, but when he found that Atem had been revived as well, it was to sympathize. Had Atem won the final duel with Kaiba, Kaiba would have gone back empty-handed while Bakura and Mariku would be free to roam. Caring for a person who had only second-hand memories of living in the modern world was trying.
When Bakura found out that Atem was also alive, he escaped. The shadows answered to his call as if 3000 years was nothing. He located and confronted Atem and found that Atem was ready to die a third time if it meant Bakura would give up his anger. At that, Bakura had laughed.
Malik moved to Domino City along with Isis and Rishid, where there were people who could restrain him should the unthinkable happen and he, the host, disappear. Perhaps it was a return to his roots, or simply the result of having years to think of the consequences of his actions, but Mariku had gained a new goal: protect Malik. He did a piss poor job of it before, yet it seemed that his change of heart was legitimate.
Bakura, incensed by someone who had previously tried to kill them all being forgiven, cornered Malik and demanded an explanation. His answers were deemed unsatisfactory, and Malik was ignored. Mariku switched in and told Bakura that he would be sent to the darkness again if he continued to threaten Malik. That was how they had discovered that the Shadow Realm was no longer an eternal and inescapable prison, but a revolving door. As soon as Bakura was sent to the Shadow Realm, he was able to return to reality.
After the realization that sending people to the Shadow Realm was no longer an effective means of detainment, Bakura returned to his original plan of stabbing Atem. The act went through successfully, but Atem was fine afterwards, even if he was a bit woozy from the pain. Bakura knew that he had struck himself from the Book of the Dead, but he hadn't known Atem's name was no longer in the Book. Frustration set in. If he couldn't kill Atem straight up, and the Shadow Realm was no longer a viable option, then what could he do?
When Malik had confronted Bakura about what happened between him and his Alter, he revealed that it was not Atem's father that had created the Items, but his uncle. Bakura dismissed that information with the excuse that Atem was the only living relative of Aknadin anyway and so should suffer.
While Bakura stayed with Malik and Ryou, Yugi and Atem acknowledged that their hearts tread different paths during their separation. They still loved each other, but their hearts were no longer one. At first, Bakura had only met with Atem to make an attempt on his life, but once they stopped trying to rid the world of the other, their relationship devolved into hate sex, except in Atem's case it was pity-sex and in Bakura's it was don't-you-dare-pity-me-sex.
Bakura had learned the hard way that love and hatred were head and tail of the same coin, and he never knew what side would land face-up on any given day. That day, the coin was still spinning. He glanced around their bedroom, noting that Atem was not yet asleep, which was breaking his promise not to work all night. The multiple all-nighters that Atem was forced to pull were only a small part of why Bakura did not want to go to college.
Bakura stepped on the squeaky stair as he made his way down to Atem. If that noise hadn't woken Atem up, then Bakura didn't know what would. He was a light sleeper, only in his revived body able to sleep with others present and only with select individuals.
"Bakura? Is that you?" Atem's voice was creaky with exhaustion.
"No, it's Exodia the Forbidden One." Bakura snorted, although he knew that Atem couldn't hear. "Of course it's me."
"I suppose that I shouldn't have asked," Atem said as Bakura entered the living room. He was studying from a textbook two inches thick, the book open across his lap and his feet resting on the couch's plush arm.
Bakura spread his arms wide, as if asking for a hug, and smirked. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." He let his arms fall and walked over to where Atem was lounging.
Atem closed the book and set it on the coffee table with the rest of his textbooks. "What did you steal this time and who hired you?"
Bakura winced inwardly. Atem was too insightful for his own good. "Some jewelry for an unknown client." Atem gave him a look. "I know, I know, don't agree to jobs without knowing who the client is...but the amount of money they're willing to pay me!" After the fiasco that had been a honeypot operation by Interpol to lure in thieves, Bakura took at least a modicum of care.
For all that he complained about Bakura's...activities, Atem did very little about them. The thief was glad, but supposed it had more to do with being a reward for agreeing not to kill without reason than with Atem not caring. For some reason, the friendship gang thought that Atem exerted a moderating force on Bakura.
"If you're that desperate for money, go duel Kaiba." Atem was apparently feeling snarky that night.
Bakura grinned. "You don't get it. All the thieves that they've hired so far have failed, except for me. It's a matter of pride, now."
"And what makes you so sure that you won't end up like the rest of the thieves?" Atem scrunched up his eyebrows, although Bakura didn't know if it was from exasperation or concern.
"Are you worried about me?" Bakura's grin grew wider.
"No. I just don't want Shadow magic to be known to the rest of the world." It would have been a good excuse if Bakura didn't know that Atem didn't care about people using Shadow magic if they did so responsibly.
"Aww, you are worried." Bakura's grin grew until he could bear it no longer, and he burst into a small fit of laughter. His mortal enemy, a feeling that used to be reciprocated, was afraid for his safety.
Atem sighed and opened his mouth as if to speak, but decided against it. He sighed again.
"Planning on studying the night away?" Bakura asked, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. "You have more than a month go before finals."
"I'd like to be as prepared as possible," Atem said, "but, now that you've returned and seem to be set on distracting me, I think I'm done for the night." He was at the top of his class, but maintaining that status required him to study long hours, hours that Bakura wished he were doing something else with. "...Should you be this excited from theft?"
Bakura seemed to teleport, banned as it was in their house, over to Atem's side on the couch. Short as Atem was, he could lay his entire body on the couch and still have room for Bakura to sit on the cushion at the end. Atem obliged Bakura and laid down, his head on the thief's lap, and Bakura tangled his fingers in Atem's hair as a reward. To have the man he used to believe was a god sighing in contentment on his lap was a power trip, and he relished the moment.
They remained like that for a while, Bakura coming down from the excitement of the heist and Atem simply relaxing. When Bakura removed his hands, Atem whined almost imperceptibly in disappointment, but did nothing more. "I'm going to take a shower," Bakura said as he slid off the couch and ambled towards the master bathroom.
"Have fun," Atem said, snark returning. He waved, cheeky.
"I'd have more fun if you joined me." Bakura wasn't serious, as, the last time they tried shower sex, he slipped and bruised his side something nasty.