Disclaimer; I don't own the wonderful manga/anime Yu-Gi-Oh! And neither do I claim anything in relation to that show.

Pairing; Thief King Ba-khu-ra/Bakura/Ryou

A/N; Anyone knows what that pairing has for name? I know I've seen a list somewhere, but I just can't find any link/too late tonight for me to actually collect my ass enough to try to find it.

Right, to those of you waiting for the sequel to Sea of Stars, it IS in the works... but it just isn't really coming out as I want it to. Hopefully I will get it out, but... /shrug/

Anyway, I hope you will like this little thing; I'm already quite fond of it. Righty! Enough of my babbling; here is the first chapter! (hopefully others will come out quickly) The thing with the names between Bakura and Ba-khu-ra will probably be slightly confusing, but I hope it will be possible to keep them separate.

/Thoughts/

:Ryou to Bakura and Ba-khu-ra:
:Bakura and Ba-khu-ra to Ryou:

Phase 1: Adapting to Reality

Sleeping in had always been something Ryou had favored. Not that he'd had many possibilities to do so since he'd gotten the Ring, but now it was all over. Well... that was how it was supposed to be.

The Ring had appeared yesterday night, a few hours after they'd all gotten home from Egypt. Soft glow around his neck and over his chest, it had slowly materialised until it was as real as Ryou had wished it wasn't.

He hadn't scourged up enough courage to go tell Yuugi-kun yet. But really, what could his multihued haired classmate do? He didn't have the Puzzle any longer, and while he had grown a lot mentally since Ryou had first met him, Yuugi-kun didn't really possess any special talents that could solve this.

Seemed the Ring was fond of him. Making a grimace at the white-washed ceiling at that thought the white haired young man groaned and rolled over, hiding his head under a pillow. What now? Bakura hadn't appeared yet, so maybe... maybe he didn't inhabit the Ring anymore, and it somehow had just appeared anyway.

/Wishful thinking. It's never that easy./

Yawning, Ryou stumbled out of his room and into the kitchen, still only his black pair of pajama bottoms, and turned on the coffee machine on autopilot, not really thinking yet. Turning around to lean against the kitchen bench, he stretched lazily before braving the summer morning bright room again. And blinked. Stared. And quickly turned around.

/I did not see that. My imagination. Early morning hallucinations. Impossible. No, nope and absolutely not. I did not open my eyes just now and saw that. Pre-coffee. Yes, that's it./

Pouring his favorite mug (large and black with a pentagram in white on it) full of coffee, he turned around, eyes closed and didn't open them before he'd almost emptied the mug and almost burned his tongue off in the process. They were still there. Taking a deep breath and releasing it in a huge sigh, Ryou decided it was better to face your ghosts (so to speak) face to face.

"Okay... can someone tell me why I'm seeing two of... well, me, and not one?"

The two Bakuras sitting by the table scowled at him simultaneously, and if this wasn't so frustrating, it would have been funny. To the left, the version he was most used to sat, arms crossed and clothed in the usual striped t-shirt, leather pants and the black trench coat draped over the chair beside him.

His yami.

To the right sat another version he hadn't seen before, but Yuugi-kun had described the Bakura they'd met in the Memoryworld, and by that description he assumed this was his former incarnation and what his yami had looked when alive. Red robe, wild mop of white hair, dark skin, and lots of muscles, Ba-khu-ra made an impressive picture where he sat sprawled in the chair, light spilling all around him.

Ryou was tiring of the silence.

"Well? I'm waiting for an answer." He said impatiently, and finally one of the two seemed inclined to give him one. The dark-skinned tomb robber shrugged his shoulders with a bored expression on his face, examining the gold rings on one of his hands.

"We don't know. Something happened when the Pharaoh returned to the afterlife, and somehow we turned out this way." his voice was deeper than Bakura's, but Ryou supposed that was only natural; Bakura shared his body, and Ryou's voice was not the deepest out there, while Ba-khu-ra was a much larger man, and apparently had had the vocal cords to go with his impressive frame.

"No, you don't say. I couldn't have figured out something unusual had happened." Ryou spat out sarcastically, and then froze, his blue eyes darting between the two others to see from where the reprimand would come. Bakura had a lopsided smirk on his lips as he leaned back in the chair but made no other move.

"Always had a nasty mouth on you, omote. You should learn to control it." He drawled out and glanced over at his dark-skinned self. The tomb robber was picking his nails with a knife, head bowed down so his grin was almost hidden by his wild hair.

"Wouldn't it be almost required? He doesn't seem to have retained much of us, but we always had a foul mouth." Ba-khu-ra said nonchalantly. Ryou could feel a headache forming.

When midday rolled around, Ryou was ready to start tearing his hair out. With a frustrated growl he grabbed his wallet and headed out to buy some groceries.

Besides from having been separated into two, the Bakuras had gained bodies of their own, but could, they said off-handedly, retreat to the Ring if needed. Not that they were going to do so when they didn't see the need.

So now he had to not only share an apartment with his yami and the tomb robber, but also keep them fed! He was just lucky his father always had supplied more money each month than he ever had needed, so the increase in outcome would probably not be noticed by his wallet.

With a sigh Ryou shook his head and walked into the store unhappily. Now he'd have to get steak. If he didn't he was quite sure none of them would be as amiable as they had been since they'd appeared that morning. At least his yami (this was beginning to get confusing, weren't both his 'yamis' now? Headache, headache, better not think about it) would, and he doubted Ba-khu-ra was any different since they practically was, well, the same person.

"Oi, Bakura!"

Looking up, Ryou spotted the familiar mop of golden hair that went with that voice and he smiled when Katsuya-kun came up to him, Yuugi a half-step behind him.

"Hi, Bakura-kun!"

"Jounouchi-kun, Yuugi-kun. Nice to meet you." He said, feeling both happier than before and nervous. He was sure they'd be able to tell what had happened, that he had the Ring back, that his yami was back, that his freaking incarnation had appeared.

But why would they?

Neither Bakura nor Ba-khu-ra was around, and the Ring was hidden under his tank top. While they would be able to tell he was wearing something, they wouldn't know what, and wouldn't have any reason to believe it was the Ring. All that was over after all, so there was no reason to suspect anything.

"Out shopping? Need some help?" Yuugi asked brightly, bouncing on the balls of his feet.While he had grown a lot mentally, his personality was still as bright as it always had been. Ryou almost panicked at Yuugi's offer. If they helped they would become suspicious, since he would be buying a lot more than one person needed, he just knew it.

"Ah, I... eh. No thank you, Yuugi-kun. No need. I don't need much, so I won't need any help or anything, but thanks for offering." Ryou forced a unconcerned smile and breathed a sigh of relief when Yuugi nodded, seemingly not suspicious nor shot-down by Ryou's decline of his offer.

"Okay. Will you come to the arcade later? Maybe go for a pizza?" Yuugi looked so earnest that Ryou laughed, the tension in his gut that had been present since late this morning disappearing like snow before the spring sun, and nodded.

"Absolutely. At five?"

His two friends nodded and waved as they walked off, eagerly talking about new magicwizards cards and strategies, planning their participation in an upcoming tournament. Ryou collapsed against the cold meat disk with a sigh of relief. They hadn't noticed anything. Now, shopping.

Closing the door with his foot Ryou walked into the kitchen, passing the living room where his two yamis were watching TV, making mocking commentary. While Ba-khu-ra wasn't used to the thechnology, he'd probably been updated on present-day's all little wonders and was already adapting.

A thief needed to blend into his surroundings after all.

"Oi, Ryou. Did you buy any steak?" Bakura asked, not looking away from the screen. The taller and darker man beside him perked up visibly, or rather, visibly to Ryou's trained eye, at the mention of meat.

"What am I, your housekeeper?" He asked irritated, but stopped at the warning growl from the sofa. Cursing himself for not being able to stand up to his yami he sighed.

"Yes, Bakura, I did buy steak. I have some instincts of self-preservation you know." With a growl he stalked out into the kitchen, but calmed down enough to carefully place all that he bought at its right place without anything breaking or being manhandled. With a sigh he leaned back against the bench, much like earlier that day and dragged a hand over his face.

This would not be easy. He'd actually had some hopes to get a more 'normal' life back when the Sennen Items fell down into the darkness below the tomb. But that was apparently not to be and he would just have to suck it up as he had done many times before.

At least now he wouldn't find himself with random cuts on his body, placed there by a yami thinking this was an effective way of showing his "loyalty". Shaking his head he turned back to the sink, deciding to start on his two yamis' dinner since he was going out and didn't want to have to break early just because he had to whiny babies at home, screaming to be fed.

:We heard that: The twinned voice thundered down the mental link, but it was more overwhelming and humorous, than it had been a painful reprimand. It seemed that both versions of Bakura were much saner now that there was no Zork to influence them.

Not that Ryou was stupid enough to believe they were anywhere close to mentally stable, because that would just be stupid. But there would probably not be any random sprees of mental and/or physical torture afflicted on an unsuspecting population or his friends (other than himself of course), and that was enough for the blue-eyed boy.

Putting the last of the dinner into the fridge he dusted off his hands, feeling accomplished. He didn't much like cooking actually, but he was good at it, and that was probably for the best. He didn't want to throw money on take-out just because his food wasn't good enough for the yamis. There may be money, but not an endless supply of it. Going into his room he changed into something less sweat-saturated and stopped in the doorway between the hall and the living room.

"I'm going out with Yuugi-tachi, dinner's in the fridge."

The answer he got wasn't very stimulating; two separate grunts, which didn't tell him if they even had heard what he'd said, but Ryou figured it didn't matter. He'd informed them, his duty was done.

With a shrug he got to the door, put on his shoes and got his jacket, so if it got colder later that night, he wouldn't freeze, and was ready to have some, normal, unrelated to the Sennen Items or any other kinds of magic or mayhem, fun with his friends.

Opening the door, the albino almost bounced in, giggling slightly due to all the soda he'd drunk that night and the general fun. He had almost forgotten all about reappearing Rings and double sets of yamis, only thinking on it long enough to close down their link on his end. He didn't want to hear any complaining from over there in all evening.

Closing the door silently, he came as far as a step up from the area where you left the shoes before he was slammed back against the wall, two bodies pressing him into the plaster and making him stay in place.

"Where the fuck do you think you've been!" Breath hot against his ear, the angry hiss vibrated in the air, Bakura's voice grating. Ryou's mood soured immediately. But instead of doing what would have been smart, that would say; excuse himself and be sweet he hissed back, instantly angry.

"Out. I said so. Or didn't you listen?" His moment of bravery was not cheaply bought however as one of Ba-khu-ra's hands painfully tightened around his upper arm.

"You said you were going out, but then you closed the link and didn't even call later. We won't tolerate such behavior! You will tell us when you'll get home or you won't be going out at all!" It was clear both yamis were livid; Bakura's nails were digging into his shoulder, while the tomb robber most likely was leaving bruises.

First Ryou almost exploded.

They couldn't tell him when and where to go! But just before he was to open his mouth and make things worse, Ba-khu-ra's words registered in his burning brain. He instantly deflated, relaxing back against the wall. The two Bakuras, sensing victory, eased up on their punishing grips.

"I'm sorry. Okay? Next time I won't keep the link closed all evening, or at least tell you beforehand how long I think I'll be gone. You were worried?" The last was almost whispered in a small voice, Ryou staring intently at the ground, his bangs falling messily over his face and hiding it.

The silence stretched, and Ryou thought they were simply not going to answer, which was what he had been expecting. But then there was a brush along the link, apparently the two Bakuras were talking privately, before they stepped away from him.

:Yes: That simple word, no more than whispered in the recesses of their shared mind, made Ryou's eyes widen. Something swelled.

Bakura alone would never had admitted to something like that before, and actually being missed, having someone that would miss him and get angry if he didn't keep them informed about his whereabouts made him feel better in so many ways he couldn't say.

Now bouncing through the apartment and into his room, he resolutely ignored his aching shoulder and upper arm, undressed and collapsed into bed. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

My, my. Poor Ryou's having troubles, isn't he? Hope you liked! XD I hope any slight OOC can be explained away by my explanation... I'm not that good at doing Bakura/the tomb robber... Have pity on me!