Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh….Well, let's just say it would be interesting. I do, however, own Ashi and Mika.

A/N: If you've read my fic "Prelude to a Return?", you may have noticed that Bakura mentions his sisters. This is a oneshot I wrote because I was bored and liked the idea of Bakura having sisters. Hope you enjoy. :)

"Not Always…"

………………………………..

"Ashi."

Nothing answered the nervous nine-year-old, save for another loud snore.

"Ashi. Wake up!"

He was a little too loud that time. "Shut up, ya gods-cursed kid, for the love of Ra!" a sleepy thief barked angrily.

Bakura flinched. "I-I'm sor-" he started to say, then broke off. He remembered something his mother had said years ago, while teaching him to survive on the streets. "We are thieves," she had said sternly. "Manners, looks, a sense of what's right and what's wrong-those are things that nobility need." She spat. "Not us. Those things are worthless to us. Use them, and you'll only find yourself ridiculed and trampled."

He'd found that lesson surprisingly difficult to master. But he was slowly getting better. He strangled the apology before it escaped, and replaced it with a fearless-sounding "I'll talk however loud I want to, old man!"

He breathed shakily, expecting retribution. But all he got was a grunt, the kind of grunt one gives when half asleep. It figured. No relatively sane thief was willing to sacrifice precious sleep for an unimportant kid.

So once more Bakura was free to focus on the immediate issue.

If his sister didn't wake up and help him, he didn't know what he was going to do. It had never been too much of a problem before; his mother had known about it, and he could usually wake her up to ask for help. But after the incident two days ago…

He shook his head, blinking back tears. He shouldn't have been surprised, anyway. Thieves were caught and punished every day. They never came back. What had happened to his mother was inevitable. He had to harden his heart if he wanted to survive-another hard-learned lesson.

In the end, the bottom line was still the same. The only person he really had to turn to now was his thirteen-year-old sister. Who just so happened to send grown men running for the desert (he couldn't very well say "hills") if they disturbed her sleep.

But Bakura's ridiculous little issue was scarier in his eyes than the fury of Ashi. He started to shake her furiously. "Come on, Ashi! Please wake up!" Nothing.

Extremely frustrated now, both from inborn temper and lack of sleep, Bakura decided to exploit the teen's one weakness. He leaned very close to her ear and hissed, "Ssssnake."

Ashi shot up, wide awake now and very close to screaming. She scrambled away from her tattered blanket. "Where?!" she gasped in terror. "Where is it?! Oh, I hate snakes-"

She stopped babbling for a second and noticed her little brother's face.

His very guilty, apprehensive face.

Her eyes narrowed. "Bakuraaaaaa," she snarled, drawing out his name to indicate that an unsurpassed wave of wrath was about to engulf him. "You are dead."

The boy gulped, backing away hurriedly. "A-Ashi, calm down! I-I just-"

"You woke me up," Ashi cut in lividly. "You threatened me with snakes, you little-"

"I didn't threaten-"

"I should skin you, you know that?! Skin you and make a coat out of your flesh!"

Bakura's skin crawled. "Ashi, please listen to-"

A whimper came from behind him. "Sissy's gonna kill 'Kura!" the little voice began to sob. "B-bu-but I like 'Kura! D-don't k-kill him, Sissy!"

"And now you've woken up Mika!" Ashi moaned, aghast. She scooped up their four-year-old sister, assuring her quietly that she was not going to kill Bakura (her fingers were crossed, of course).

Eventually the toddler fell back to sleep, and Bakura pounced on the opportunity to explain before he met a gruesome end. "Look, Ashi, I really didn't want to wake you up. But I…..Well, I couldn't sleep."

The thirteen-year-old raised an eyebrow wearily. "Why?" she asked, too tired to threaten her brother any longer.

He reddened, though his sister couldn't see it in the night. "I…um…"

"……"

"…All right, whatever," Ashi sighed at last. "I don't care. I'm going back to sleep. You can share my blanket, okay?" A pause. "But I get the bigger half," she added as an afterthought.

Bakura grinned, relieved. It was a good thing she was tired.

How could he ever admit to her-to anybody-that he was afraid of the dark?

Fin

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A/N: So, what did you think? In case you were wondering, the title "Not Always" is referring to the fact that Bakura didn't always love the dark.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, but don't feel like you have to. Thanks for reading. :)

-SkywardShadow