Apologies for the crappy title and summary, it's 4:15am.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the coffee that is stopping me from slumping over my keyboard...
Yami's sigh was lost in the sounds of joyful laughter and squealing children all around him. He would have loved nothing more than to run as far away from the carnival as possible, but Yugi had been harping on about it for weeks, and the last thing he wanted was to upset his dearest friend, especially for such a selfish reason. So he stayed by his hikari's side, and smiled when he looked his way.
"Isn't this great?!" Yugi said excitedly, his large eyes shinning with a childlike innocence that had somehow remained intact, despite all the hellish battles they had fought over the last few years.
"Yes" Yami answered, the fake smile still plastered across his face.
Pleased, Yugi grinned back, then squealed in delight as he spotted a stall selling hot dogs and candyfloss. Yami just shook his head and followed as his hikari skipped towards the stall happily.
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Nearby, Ryou was not having as much luck. Unfortunately for him, his yami was perfectly happy to voice his boredom.
"Why are we here?! This is lame!" The tomb robber grumbled, booting a small child out of his path and flashing the offended mother the finger.
Ignoring his yami's antisocial behaviour, something that was fast becoming a habit for the sake of his sanity, Ryou looked around for something that might interest the psychotic spirit and keep him from knifing anyone out of boredom…again.
Letting his eyes slide along the rows of stalls and booths, he found himself quickly dismissing them all as either too dangerous or far too dangerous, until he came to a large wooden roofed construction with glass outer walls. That might keep him occupied for a while, he thought deviously.
Turning to Bakura, he nudged him and pointed out the attraction.
"Hall of Mirrors" Bakura said under his breath, reading the large, twinkling sign above the entrance, "What's that then?"
"It's a maze with mirrors as the walls, you have to try and find your way through it" Ryou explained.
"Bah! That'll be easy!" Bakura declared, stomping towards the gap in the glass wall with a smug look on his face.
Sighing in relief, Ryou slipped away for a few minutes of much needed peace.
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Yami, now with a hot dog in his hand, eyed the tent Yugi had dragged him over to warily.
"You really think this woman will be able to tell you your future?"
"Sure! Why not?" Yugi chirped, bouncing towards the entrance flap. Taking a bite of his hot dog, Yami followed less eagerly.
"Hello my dears" The woman behind the small, cloth covered table purred, her hand resting on a large crystal ball.
"Hello" Yugi beamed, seating himself opposite her and placing some coins in the hand that wasn't on the ball.
The woman smiled and pocketed the cash before sliding her hand down to hover next to the crystal, the other moving to mirror it on the opposite side.
"I see that you have overcome many challenges in your short life" She said in a husky voice after staring into the ball for a few moments, "But the time of hardship is at an end. I foresee a time of peace, a peace you will share with your friends."
Yugi's eyes lit up at this, but Yami couldn't help emitting a snort.
Blinking, the woman looked up at him questioningly.
"I'm sorry, it's just, could you be any vaguer?" He chuckled, clearly not impressed.
The woman's eyes turned cold as she silently regarded the amused Pharaoh.
"You do not believe in fate, young man?"
"Oh, I believe in fate, I just don't believe in your ability to determine it" He replied, ignoring her angry glare and side stepping behind Yugi's chair towards the flap.
"You doubt my power?" She smirked, "Then I shall give you a demonstration!"
Pulling a pinch of green powder from a pouch at her waist, she threw it in Yami's direction. Startled, he raised his arms reflexively and the powder settled harmlessly onto his hot dog.
"Hey!" He grumbled, flicking the powder off his food. Glaring at the woman, he stomped out of the tent, closely followed by Yugi.
"You shouldn't have done that!" Yugi whined, trotting to keep up with his annoyed yami, "It's never a good idea to annoy gypsies!"
"Oh don't be silly!" Yami snapped furiously, whirling to face his light, "Are you trying to tell me that she just cursed my hot dog?!"
Yugi took a step back, surprised by Yami's outburst. He stared for a few moment then bit his lip as his eyes began to fill with tears. Sniffling, he turned and ran away into the crowd.
Groaning, Yami lowered his head into his free hand and sighed again. He'd have to go and apologise later. There was no point trying to find Yugi now, when he got upset, he tended to become unreasonable.
Lifting his head back out of his hand, he spotted the back of a white haired head disappearing into the Hall of Mirrors. Brightening up a little, he started to pick his way through the throng of people. If anyone could cheer him up, Ryou could. He usually had something nice to say, and if that failed, there was always the accent.
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Still smirking, Bakura walked swiftly down the first corridor…and smacked straight into the hard surface of a mirror. Dazed, he shook his head and stared at the glass in front of him. How had that happened?
Whirling around, he made his way down the second corridor, only to bounce of another mirror a few seconds later. This collision sent him sprawling backwards onto the floor. Cursing, he picked himself back up.
Five minutes later, he was considerably bruised and thoroughly lost.
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Stepping out of the glaring sunlight into the cool shade of the maze of mirrors, Yami stopped to let his eyes adjust for a moment before setting of down the corridor, easily turning into the second, his pace not even slowing.
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"Ra damn it!" Bakura growled, picking himself up off the floor for what felt like the hundredth time. Muttering curses under his breath, he tried a new direction, all the while planning what he was going to do to Ryou when he finally got out.
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Catching sight of the white hair once again, Yami sped up a little.
"Hey, Ryou" He called out in greeting. The figure in front of him stiffened immediately before slowly turning round and Yami's eyes widened as he realised his mistake.
Snarling, Bakura clenched his fists and gave Yami his best death glare. This was the last thing he needed! It was embarrassing enough bouncing off mirrors at every turn without his most hated enemy watching him with those annoyingly superior eyes of his.
Yami was about to mutter something about being on his way when he noticed the bruises on Bakura's forehead, and instead snorted in laughter. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened, it certainly explained why some of the mirrors he'd passed had sported large cracks on their otherwise smooth surfaces.
That was too much for Bakura. Letting out a savage battle cry, he threw himself at Yami and wrestled him to the ground.
Shocked, Yami curled into a protective ball as he went down, inadvertently slamming his knee into Bakura's groin.
Bakura just grunted and continued trying to claw Yami's eyes out.
Adrenaline pumped through the Pharaoh's small body and he somehow found the strength to push Bakura off. Scrambling to his feet, he tried to flee in the direction he had come, only to jerk to a halt as he felt something tighten around his neck. Gasping for air, horror swept through him as he realised that Bakura had grabbed his millennium puzzle and was now garrotting him from behind with its chain.
Grunting as a second burst of adrenaline flooded through his veins, Yami threw himself backwards, slamming his surprised opponent into the mirror behind hard enough to shatter the glass and causing him to release his hold on the chain and slide to the floor.
Yami quickly stumbled away, this time prevented from leaving as Bakura grabbed his ankles.
"Where do you think you're going?" He laughed coldly.
Yami, now understandably in an even fouler mood than before, turned to hurl obscenities at the psychopath attached to his legs, but the words caught in his throat as his eyes fell on the remaining mirrors behind the snarling tomb robber. The shattering of the pane Bakura had been thrown into had weakened the entire row, and now, each and every one of them was starting to slide out of place, heading straight for the feuding yami's.
Yami just about managed a less than dignified scream before the mirrors crashed down on their heads and sent them spiralling into darkness.
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When he awoke, the first thing Bakura noticed was that fact that all the sunlight was gone. They must have been unconscious for quite a while if night had fallen.
Suddenly, he remembered why he was sitting in a pile of broken glass and quickly looked around. Much to his relief, Yami was still unconscious, lying on his side a few feet away. Wincing as he pulled himself off the glass strewn floor, he inched over to his nemesis and prodded him. When he didn't respond, he prodded him harder.
Straightening up slightly, he remained squatted next to Yami's limp form and regarded him curiously. He was really out cold. Either that, or he was…
Blinking as the thought struck him, Bakura leaned closer to check his breathing. Unfortunately, it was too dark to tell by sight alone, so he was forced to lean right up close to Yami's face to listen for the sound of air entering or leaving his body. Even more unfortunately, Yami chose that moment to regain consciousness.
Bakura would have laughed at the look on the Pharaoh's face if he didn't have a thousand tiny shards of glass imbedded in his rear, niggling at him every time he made the slightest movement. That kind of thing generally tended to suck the humour out of any situation.
Instead, he settled for staring into his enemy's wide, lavender eyes.
"What are you doing?" Yami asked quietly, his warm breath tickling Bakura's cheek. Completely unprepared for the jolt than ran through him, Bakura jerked backwards. Too fast.
His arms flailed helplessly as he lost his balance and fell onto his backside with a thump, yelping as the glass that was already there dug in further and was joined by a hundred other fragments. Lying on his back amongst the broken mirrors, he groaned.
Now it was Yami's turn to be amused. He had apparently found a way to annoy Bakura, which was never a bad thing. Crawling over to the Bakura's whimpering form, he placed an arm either side of the tomb robber's head and leaned down.
"Does this make you uncomfortable" He breathed, smirking as he saw Bakura shudder beneath him.
"Stop it and get off me" Bakura growled dangerously, the blush rapidly spreading across his face betraying the threatening tone of his voice.
"Why, Bakura, just moments ago you were trying to kill me. Now it almost seems as though you'd rather get dirty with me" Yami chuckled, playing his advantage to the full. Leaning down so that his mouth was a hair's breadth from his enemy's, he stared with half closed eyes into Bakura's widened ones, and purred.
Lightning fast, Bakura raised his arms from the floor and roughly grabbed the back of Yami's head, pulling him down into a bruising kiss. Shocked, Yami opened his mouth to protest, but his words were quickly cut off as a tongue slid in and began to probe his own.
His heart racing, the Pharaoh found himself responding to the rough intrusion of his mouth, his own tongue dancing around Bakura's and wrestling it back the way it had come.
After several passionate minutes, Bakura released his grip on Yami's hair and they broke apart, both panting for air.
Neither was quite sure what to say as they slowly pulled themselves up off the floor.
"Well that was…unexpected" Yami said quietly, shifting nervously from one foot to the other.
Bakura glanced sideways at him and smirked.
"I only did it to freak you out. I had no idea you were such a whore, Pharaoh."
Yami scowled and swiped at his head. Easily ducking the blow, Bakura laughed and took a step forward, grabbing Yami's still extended arm by the elbow and pushing it wide whilst pinning the other one to his side with his other hand. Still smirking, he leaned forward and tipped Yami back, sliding one arm round behind him at the same time to support his weight.
"Would you like me to freak you out again?"
The hungry look in Yami's eyes before he wrapped his free arm around the tomb robber's shoulders caught him by surprise.
The kiss was shorter this time, but no less passionate. Releasing his willing captive, Bakura grinned again. Yami took a step back and tilted his head slightly.
"I don't understand you."
"Not many people do" Bakura chuckled in response.
"What does this mean?" Yami continued, his eyes locked firmly on Bakura's face, studying his reactions intently. Bakura just shrugged.
"What do you want it to mean?"
Yami frowned and turned his head away. What did he want it to mean? He couldn't deny that it had felt good when Bakura kissed him. Very good in fact. So did he want more?
Slowly, he turned back to face Bakura's inquiring gaze.
"I want it to mean that…that maybe we could…" He said quietly, biting his lip as he trailed off. Why was it so damn hard to say?!
An uncharacteristic smile graced Bakura's lips as he watched Yami struggle to find the right words. Stepping forward, he kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Ok" He said simply, "Now lets get out of here."
Turning sharply he made to continue along the wrecked corridor…and managed to walk into one of the few remaining mirrors on the opposite side.
Chuckling, Yami moved to help the cursing tomb robber off the floor.
Please R&R :)
