Pairing: Intentshipping (Mokuba x Yami Bakura); I would like to specifically note here that Mokuba is aged up a bit here, around 17 or so (the same age as the other characters at the beginning of the series).
Premise/Headcanon: Bakura isn't quite the villain he used to be. Literally. With Zorc defeated and the Pharaoh in the afterlife, the hollowed-out soul of TKB is given a second chance to do... something. He's not completely restored, not completely unchanged by his ordeal but he's there nonetheless. TL;DR: Bakura has a separate body from Ryou, and a culmination of memories from his time as TKB, shorter time being used by Zorc, and while fuzzy some recollection from the period of time Yami Bakura possessed Ryou.
Mokuba and Bakura are doing a thing; only the gods know what to call it, though.
Summary: [OOC, post-canon, altered canon] Bakura isn't a cat person. Unfortunately, Mokuba is. Ryou does some cat-sitting against Bakura's wishes, and there must be consequences for ignoring him, of course.
Continuity: Some weird in between place, but it leans more towards the manga – meaning that we're gonna have some sassy!Mokuba in here. Kind of a continuation of the universe my other Intentship fic, Sweet Sixteen, takes place in, but hopefully with improved characterization and justified OOCness. You don't have to read that to get this, though – in fact, don't. Thanks!
Notes: This is a gift for Jukeboxx-and-Wrekkord on Tumblr (JukeboxxSheepters on Ao3). This kind of turned into a real story at some point, so I'm not sure that there are enough cats. But there are cats!
Finally applied my post-canon/afterlife line of reasoning to Bakura, and it's an... interesting experience. Also, no cats were harmed in the making of this fanfic.
Warnings: M/M stuff (shounen-ai, whatever you wanna call it); Bakura staring a lot at cats, and being awkward about relationships with various people.
Cat-and-Mouse
The first time Bakura encountered one of the things, he glowered at it until it turned around and walked away. It looked like a big rat with longer legs and a tail, to him. Big enough to eat. He could probably cook it, if he got hungry. How did an animal get in the house? Maybe he'd left the door open again. Oh, well. He supposed that ultimately, it was a problem that Ryou could handle.
Except when he journeyed downstairs to the den, the front door wasn't open and Ryou wasn't poised to fuss at him. That was the way those things usually went. Instead Ryou wasn't concerned with him at all, or the door, and wasn't even the only person there. Apparently Mokuba had seen fit to visit without telling anyone. The animal he'd seen earlier was tucked between arms, held up by one and being petted by another. Whatever conversation they were having stopped once Bakura was in view, and he scowled.
He hated secrecy when it was belonged to other people.
"Oh, hey," Mokuba said, as though showing up with a soft, squishy creature was the least bit normal.
So Bakura met that greeting with silence and simply waited. Words weren't necessary to point out what was wrong here. Few people were tolerated by him besides Ryou and with Mokuba being an – and the only, really – exception, any lack of information was akin to betrayal. At least, when it came to information he wanted. He had to be specific, sometimes, or Ryou would talk his ear off about gardening or work or whatever it was that dainty boys did during the day when they weren't at home.
But Mokuba wasn't quite a dumb as Bakura sometimes wished. The kid kept his silence, probably just to bother him Bakura realized, and the two of them stared at each other in silence for so long that even Ryou began to look uncomfortable. Even from the corners of his vision, Bakura knew the sound of Ryou's awkward shifting.
The ball of fur in Mokuba's arms made a chirping sound. It was familiar, though Bakura couldn't place it. But he wasn't going to get caught up in wondering. There was a standoff happening and he refused to lose, especially to a Kaiba.
"Uh, guys," Ryou said, finally, when the time lapsed was rounding on a minute. "If you're going to fight, at least give me Pascal first."
Mokuba frowned. "I don't know what you're so upset about. I'm here to ask Ryou for a favor. You don't have to do anything."
Speaking was a concession so far as Bakura was concerned. "Who the hell is Pascal?" The syllables were rough and awkward in his mouth – were humans meant to make those sounds? Either way, it was a distraction, he was sure, so he forced them to address the issue at hand. "And why is there an animal in my house? What the hell is it?"
Rather than feel bad about losing, like a proper loser, Mokuba laughed at him. "It's a cat, stupid." It chirped again. "This is Pascal."
A sneer lined Bakura's lip. Yes, that thing looked a bit similar to what he remembered. But he knew what cats looked like, and this one was ...different. Lazier. "It looks fat and stupid," he said. In Egypt, their colors were different; they were longer and taller and looked more feral. This Pascal-thing looked like a carefully shaped pile of pudding covered in fur. Barely related to Bast, if at all, and not worth reverence of any sort.
Mokuba gasped and held the 'cat' close. "How could you even say that? She's very smart and just the right weight! Even the vet says so."
His mouth opened to deliver another quip in return for not telling him in advance about this trip, but Bakura hesitated. Mokuba actually looked offended on this animal's behalf, so maybe he had missed something.
Not that he could fathom how. The thing was a coppery sort, darker on the ears, nose and maybe some other places – it was hard to tell with Mokuba clutching the thing as though it were made of pearls. There was a patch of white just below its neck and, on second glance, had bright blue eyes that looked a little more alert than he'd first thought. Nothing else stood out, though.
"And anyway," Ryou added, "I'm taking care of her for a week."
"And you didn't think to ask me?" Bakura snapped. It was much easier to aim his ire at Ryou. Habit and all. "Just thought I wouldn't notice some wild thing roaming around my territory?" Ryou shrugged.
Mokuba rolled his eyes. "I thought there was maybe a fifty-fifty chance of that." Then chuckled.
"That thing can't stay here," he decided. "I don't want it." Anything in the house that he couldn't control to any degree had to go.
"It's only while we get the house cleaned," Mokuba added. "I'll be by every day to check up on her and stuff. She's pretty independent, so I don't think she'll bother you."
Ryou made some kissy faces at the thing, and Bakura recoiled. "And she's so cute." His voice went all soft. Then he reached forward and plucked the thing out of Mokuba's arms. Ryou cradled it, nuzzled it, and the thing let him; was still as it was handled. "Be careful, or I might not let you take her back."
It was obvious that neither of them were listening to him, so Bakura said again for clarity, "I don't like animals., unless I'm eating them."
"You're an animal," Mokuba snapped.
He frowned, so that they couldn't possibly miss his disdain, before he turned right around and went back to his room. Ignoring him for the favor of an animal was definitely not the best way to keep him from harming it.
Mokuba seemed to realize that, because several minutes later a head full of black, bushy hair peeked in from behind his bedroom door. "You're not really mad, are you?" it asked.
Of course not. It was the principle of the thing. "That's a stupid question." Cat or squishy-pudding-cat, it was just an animal. A pet. Bakura's pets were allowed to have pets of their own, he supposed. That thought put him in a considerably better mood.
Mokuba came into the room fully, hair giving way to a face and body that moved toward him, closer. "I wanted it to be kind of a surprise," he admitted. "Since I have an excuse to visit every day."
Bakura wasn't sure how to respond to that. He never did, when Mokuba started being sentimental. And he hated surprises anyway. "I hate those," he said aloud, just to make the point.
Hands pushed at the door until it close with an audible click and when he turned to face Bakura again, Mokuba smiled. "You'll like this one, though, I think."
Those same hands reached down, unbuttoning and unzipping and while Bakura thought it the great start to an apology he didn't want to admit it. So instead he focused on what he was being told. The part he liked. "...a week, yeah?"
"Seven whole days."
"Of this?" And that was the real question. Because Mokuba stopping by to make sure that thing was still around didn't mean Bakura would get to see him getting undressed each time, either.
Though they never talked about it, Mokuba's usual visits were currently sporadic at best. It wasn't like Bakura could (or wanted to) just stroll up to the Kaiba Mansion and demand the time he wanted. That would mean dealing with that cunt, Seto; it'd also mean that someone else would know about them besides Ryou. But Mokuba wasn't his responsibility and that was too much work.
Coincidental convenience was acceptable, though.
"I dunno. Maybe. If you want." Mokuba shrugged, then stretched and approached the bed. "Promise not to eat her?"
They both knew the thing wouldn't be worth the trouble, but Bakura would be damned if he were the only being suckered into anything. "This. Every day. Say it," he demanded, even as he pulled off his own shirt – he was not one to turn down gifts. The heat of want pooled in his belly and at this point he cared a little less about their discussion and a little more about also being naked.
"I'll make sure I'm here every day," Mokuba said, climbing into the be next to him, "and I'll make sure we have sex every day, too." There was a devilish grin on that face, and a tongue brushed over the top lip before it was pulled between teeth. "There. I said it. Deal?"
It was hard to hide what excitement he felt while squirming out of his pants as though they carried the plague, but he managed. "Good enough."
So... Bakura is weird. He's got some stuff going on: having been possessed by Zorc, then his soul basically emptied out and worn by Zorc in the Ring and then being kind of stuffed back into it at the end (at least, in this headcanon). I guess keep that in mind while you keep reading. I didn't want to focus on the details of his emotional hangups, because that's complex enough for its own story - not to mention that Bakura discussing anything emotional would be like literally pulling teeth out of a child's mouth - so it's just the residual stuff affecting him here.
If anyone has questions about this headcanon or wants to know more about, drop me a review or a PM. Either one is fine!
I thought about changing the title several times, but it honestly is an accurate descriptor for what's going on, so I guess I'll leave it for now.
