This story is completely inspired by the way Yami no Bakura acts towards his lighter half when they first meet in the manga (Battle 50: the Millennium Enemy part 1) as well as the "Season 0" anime (Episode 25: A New Dilemma! The Pretty Boy Attacks!). He just seems so giddy and delighted to meet Bakura for the first time, and I always get these images of the yami swooping in and hugging and kissing his poor host to death!
(Oh, and here's a fair warning: our favorite silver-haired yami may, at times, seem… uh… overly interested in Bakura? That's just how he strikes me in their first meetings… stalker-ish.)

This story was written on October 4th and 5th, 2013

Bakura looked around his room wildly. He knew he was hearing someone laughing, but he couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. He was alone in his apartment (or so he hoped) and he doubted any of his neighbors would be laughing so loudly or evilly.

Uncertainly, the young man picked up his trusty baseball bat and started hunting around his apartment, wondering if there was an intruder that intended to rob him. He wasn't sure why anyone would burglarize the home of a teenager who had nothing to his name, or even why the burglar would be laughing so crazily and loudly.

Maybe… maybe an insane person had gotten into his apartment!

After searching in every room of his little home, he finally paused and leaned against a wall, trying to slow down his heart rate. The laughing had stopped just moments before; he could relax now.

"Heh heh heh…!"

Bakura looked around wildly again. "Who's there?!"

The laughing ceased, replaced by a startled silence, finally broken by a shocked voice. "You… you can hear me now?"

"Of course I can hear you! I can hardly hear myself think over all that laughing you're doing!"

The silence continued for a while longer. Shortly, a person took form beside Bakura, making the boy jump.

The person looked very similar to him, albeit like a ghost version of himself, with his same pale complexion and white hair, but with some differences too. This person had thin, red eyes, while Bakura had wide, brown eyes. Also, this doppelganger was noticeably taller and thinner, and he seemed to be older than Bakura.

The lookalike cocked his head to the side, gazing at Bakura with very interested eyes. "You can see me?"

"Yes."

"And… and you can still hear me?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Why would I have answered your first question if I couldn't hear it?"

"I just wanted to check." The lookalike suddenly broke into a smile, making himself look like the Cheshire cat. "The time has finally come that I can communicate with my master! Today is a glorious day!"

Bakura stared at the other person in confusion, still holding his baseball bat just in case. "What are you…"

But the other one continued on, now actually dancing in circles around Bakura as he sang loudly with his inhuman voice. "Oh yes, this day should be celebrated! I've finally met him! The boy with a Millennium Item!"

He stopped his dancing and singing for a moment, voicing his thoughts. "Maybe it's because of that boy with the puzzle that we can finally hear each other … You could never hear me before, and yet, after you touched that boy's puzzle … and the pharaoh …"

"What are you babbling about?" Bakura interrupted. "Who are you, anyway?"

The other one turned his smile on Bakura, gazing at the boy in a fashion that made the boy think of a variety of words, including 'stalker' and 'predator.' "Who, me? Why, I'm the other you from the Millennium Ring!"

"Ring…" Bakura stared dumbly for a moment before realizing what he meant. "You mean this thing?"

He pulled his beloved ring-shaped pendant from beneath his shirt, stopping momentarily to watch it gleam and glitter in the light.

The other person gazed lovingly at the Ring, then took a step closer. Bakura could feel his warm breath on his neck as the other spoke. "Yes… the pretty, shiny Ring… I come from inside of it. I'm accustomed to living in the cold, dark confines of your wonderful treasure, hanging around your neck, listening while you go on about your day …"

Bakura felt an arm drape over his shoulder and around his neck, and the other's hand lay over his chest. Long, pale fingers splayed out in all directions, covering the boy's heart.

A jolt of shock and pain went through the boy's body at the contact, and he thought he was going to die of a heart attack. "Release me…"

"No," the other hissed, his smirking lips hovering just behind Bakura's ear. "I don't think I will. I haven't been able to touch another person for over three thousand years, and you are so warm… and your hair smells so good…"

Bakura suddenly found himself sitting on his couch. The other person's arms and legs were wound around his body, and a foreign nose was nuzzling into his hair.

With a yelp, the boy jumped up and fled, leaving his ghostly stalker on the living room floor.

Bakura ran and hid in his bedroom, locking the door behind him and even barricading it for good measure. He wasn't sure if that would keep the intruder out, but he decided it was worth a try. Picking up the phone, he quickly dialed the police, explaining that there was some sort of creepy stalker in his apartment.

Police officers showed up shortly, along with his landlord, to inspect the place. They were all very angry when they found nothing and they didn't believe Bakura's story about a stalker that looked almost exactly like him appearing out of nowhere, babbling about puzzles and pharaohs. Everyone thought that the teenager was making things up to get a rise out of his elders, a terribly dishonorable thing to do.

Bakura stayed awake a few extra hours, sitting on his bed and staring in bewilderment at the Ring that he wore around his neck. Had that really happened? Or maybe it was the pressure from school that was getting to him. Those new friends he had only just made… those silly fangirl cheerleaders chasing him around and following him everywhere… that horrid gym instructor that pulled his hair… Not to mention everything that had happened in his previous home with his family…

Perhaps he'd just snapped over all the stress.

"That idiot pulled my host's hair?!" The voice returned, sounding angry, disbelieving, and overly protective all at the same time.

Bakura screamed and covered his face with his pillow in frustration as his body was wracked with a terrible feeling of pain.

After the pain subsided, he opened his eyes and looked around, uncertainly.

The silky voice began to coo to him sweetly. "Look at your chest, my beloved landlord."

Fearfully, the boy did, eyes widening with horror at what he saw. The five points that hung from his ring had imbedded themselves into the skin around his heart. To guard it? To protect it? Or simply to keep it captive?

The strange voice began to laugh again, sounding victorious and giddy. "We are connected forever! And thanks to you, I've finally found the keeper of the Millennium Puzzle after all this time!"

The other person took form again, eagerly climbing onto the bed beside Bakura, smiling widely and wrapping his arms around the alarmed boy. He hummed lightly and gazed at Bakura with some affection. "You are to be my eternal host… my vessel, forever!"

Bakura tried to escape the other's embrace, but to no avail. "Go away! Leave me alone!"

The lookalike pouted in a teasing fashion. "That's not very nice… I'm having so much fun with you!"

He smiled at Bakura, looking terribly evil. "By the way, ever since you first put the ring on, I've been granting your wishes as an added bonus. Consider them simply little gifts granted on a whim."

Bakura stared at him in confusion, not certain if he really wanted to find out what the other meant.

"Don't you remember when you were playing those wonderful games with those entities you called 'friends?'" The other person looked so very pleased and happy with himself, certain that he had done the right thing. "You said 'I hope we can all play this forever!' So I granted your wishes!"

"W-what are you talking about?" Bakura stuttered, feeling his face go pale. He realized the sad, scary truth behind the mysterious comas his playmates had always fallen into. "You can't mean…?!"

"You'll understand someday, I suppose…" The other person shrugged and looked away, his mind on other matters. "I now have the perfect chance to claim the Millennium Puzzle! Who knows how long it will take for a chance like this to appear again!"

Bakura used all this talking that the other person was doing to escape his grip and flee to the other side of the bed, trying to hide against the wall.

The other persona stopped talking to himself and turned back to Bakura, as if feeling the need to teach his 'host' a thing or two. "The Millennium Items are like tombs of mighty, ancient souls… But, if there are keepers of those tombs…" A twisted smirk. "Then there also has to be grave-robbers!"

He pulled Bakura into his arms again, tenderly stroking the boy's silver hair, which sent shivers up the boy's spine and goosebumps up and down his arms. "Well, then… since I'm in such an amiable mood tonight, perhaps I'll grant you with another gift…"

"What are you planning?!" Bakura demanded with a slight quiver of his lips. He received a loving smile and a sharp, teasing yank on some of his white bangs.

"You don't want to be bald, do you?" The voice needled, teasing him gently. His creepy voice was honey-dipped and sugar-coated, sounding almost sweet… almost. "I know how proud you are of your beautiful hair. I would be, too, your hair is so pretty and soft… Besides, I serve my master, and that gym instructor has insulted my master! Such impudence shall not go unpunished, I can assure you!"

Bakura felt his brain shutting down, as if he were falling asleep, and he watched with horror as his body and that of the other person began to merge together, becoming one; a body of which he had no control.

"Stop…" He meant to shout, but his voice came out in nothing but a sleepy whisper.

He felt the other person petting his hair and lightly kissing his forehead, the way his mother had always done when he went to bed. "You should get some rest, beloved landlord…"

Thief King smiled as his precious, sweet little host fell asleep, pleased with his newfound ability of putting the boy to sleep and taking control of his host's body.

He lay the boy gently on the bed in his soul room, pausing just long enough to tuck the boy into the bed, pet his hair, and press a kiss to his forehead.

"Yes, my wonderful little angel, you'll be the perfect vessel for me. You'll belong to me, and only to me… Do you understand, my beloved landlord? Mine and nobody else's."

He closed the boy's soul door behind himself as he left, being careful to lock the door so that his host would be safe, (although Bakura didn't see it that way when he woke up later) and led the boy's body out of the apartment, a little smirk on his lips.

There was a gym instructor that needed to be taught a lesson, penalty games to be played, and dolls to be made for his sweet, darling, angelic little host.

The End.