My god... For so long I have not updated. Many apologizes! Everything will be explained at the end of this short story I have created. If you like Yu-Gi-Oh and Bakura, then may you find pleasure in reading this ^-^

-Rumiko

Dark brown clear eyes awoke to a cool, peaceful aired room. Ryou Bakura sat up in his bed with a surprised expression. Ryou ran his fingers through his unruly platinum blond hair and felt an unusual calm.

"I'm me…" Ryou whispered to himself. Ryou has not woken up to a morning when his memory was not fuzzy in ages. Maybe even years. Though he didn't remember what happened yesterday, his mind was clear. He did not feel any pressure in his mind. Realizing this Ryou quickly pulled the top buttons off his night shirt, exposing his pale chest. Something was not right.

"Looking for this, are you?"

Ryou looked up from his chest to his bedroom door frame to find a tanned boy holding the millennium ring in his hand. Without taking his eyes off the boy Ryou stood up from his bed and stared at him. The tanned boy was an exact reflection but had different colored features such as his skin and instead of brown eyes, they were deep blue. Underneath his right blue eye he had a scar of one horizontal line and crossed by three vertical ones. Their white hair resembled the same to each other. Ryou shook his head of his own trance and noticed the boy was nude with nothing but towel below his waist.

"What are you doing here?" Ryou exclaimed, "How did get in here without any clothes on?"

The tanned boy smirked, "I would be careful of what you say to me. I'm just as confused as you are."

Ryou recognized his voice. It was very familiar. It resembled the same voice he had been listening to (or not listening to) for years.

The boy walked at up to Ryou and allowed each other to see eye to eye.

"Bakura?" Ryou quickly covered his mouth.

"In the flesh. And literally. I would not think you would mind the towel. I did awake with no clothes on." Bakura gave himself a swift look and trying to decide to make of his own body.

"I-it's quite all right… But you— " Ryou paused.

The tanned Bakura looked at him and he was not sure how to make the expression that he saw in his eyes. Normally Bakura would challenge him because he considered Ryou to be the weaker half but now, those eyes looked merely curious.

"You don't seem the same as before. Your voice is less…" Ryou is debating whether he should finish his comment or not. He learned that Bakura could be difficult in giving a decisive answer that he could understand and/or agree to.

"Less, what?" Bakura straightened himself, "Oh I see. Less menacing. I was not always like that you know."

Ryou's eyes widened by his counterpart's answer.

"And I'm assuming by your expression that you are surprised? It would seem when I awoke I learned that most of my darkness was locked up in the ring. The darkness that I was filled with until the day my spirit no longer had a human body." Bakura folded his arms over his bare chest, "It is a mystery why only a portion of my soul was released from the millennium ring and I now have a physical body to walk around in."

Ryou listened to this information attentively and decided to use his courage to ask. "Do you remember anything? Anything at all Bakura?"

Ryou always referred to dark counterpart as Bakura because he realized how redundant it was to always say "the dark me", especially when there was occasions that he mimicked Ryou's personality well enough to fool his friends. He only kept this way of distinguishing to himself, though.

Bakura's expression became solemn. Ryou was not use to this expression from his other half. "There are holes in my memory. I only remember my life before I stole the millennium ring and a few things of the present." He made a small, twisted smile, "You do not like me."

Ryou tried to let that statement affect his beating heart and allowed his eyes to wander to the floor. "What else do you remember?"

"I mostly remember feelings. I remember you don't like me and I was one with very much vengeance. Greed. Pride. I would do anything to get my way. But what I did as I was that personality, I can't say. Most of those feelings and memory stood in the ring. I feel it." He lifted the ring to stare at its center. Ryou looked up as he heard something being thrown on his bed. It was the ring.

"Don't allow yourself get concerned over it for the time being." He turned his back to light skinned boy and began walking out the bedroom.

Ryou perked up, "Where are you going?"

The tanned boy turned his head back to the pale one, "You don't mind if I bathe?"

"O-of course not." Ryou looked around his room, "I will look for some spare clothes too."

"What I'm wearing now is not enough?"

Ryou's fair cheeks became a light shade of pink, "N-no… I don't think so."

"Ah, right. I am not in Egypt anymore. Then I will leave you to it." With that, he walked out of the bedroom and into the hall towards the direction of the bathroom.

The hikari was not use to having his opinion being considered from his alter ego. He wasn't sure how to either react or deal with the lack of repercussions he was getting when he spoke of an unnecessary opinion to him. The yami never cared about the hikari's opinion. But he decided to leave alone his feelings and confusion to start looking for spare clothes for the Yami self walking around and taking a bath.

"Ryou!" He heard Bakura calling out, "Could you get in here and show me how in the Ra this contraption works?"

The boy found the clothes he planned to let him borrow and rushed to the bathroom. He understood the reason of the Egyptian's distress. Bakura was getting frustrated with the dial that controlled the water's temperature. Ryou left the clothes on the top of the toilet seat and helped him understand the modern day device.

"This water… It does not stay constant with it's temperature. The water turns ice cold one moment, then blazing hot the next!" His blue eyes narrowed at the metal dial.

Before Ryou moved the dial to a temperature he asked, "How do you like your water?"

"Warm. But rather on the cool side. That is why I prefer morning bathes in an oasis to be the most refreshing."

The dial was moved to about a 70 degree angle. "Like this?"

A russet hand moved over the flowing water. "This is perfect." He allowed the water to fill the tub as he sat by the tub's ledge. Once the tub was filled with water, he felt the body of it with his hand. He was satisfied.

Ryou was about to turn to leave but not before a hand caught his wrist. "Why are you leaving now?"

His white head quickly turned to face his darker counterpart's glazed blue eyes with his widen brown ones. "You look at me as you were a gazelle who could lose it's breath at any minute. You're tense."

The brown eyes narrowed, "Am I to expect to trust you?"

The blues did not falter, "I have no knowledge of what I did to you. The darkness that I was embodied with is mostly within the millennium ring. I know you do not like me but that doesn't mean I know why."

"Having most of your darkness in the ring does not give me enough of a reason to make me feel better around you."

A low chuckle came from the Egyptian's throat and a mocking smirk appeared on his lips, "You are being defiant now."

"So what if I am?" The hikari tried his best to keep his tone even and indifferent despite how anxious he felt inside.

A brown thumb was felt over the bottom of his wrist. "You also have an erratic beating heart." He let out a sigh. "I don't want for you to fear me. I was just testing you before. I was a thief because I didn't have a choice and I wanted revenge. And that developed later after those forsaken millennium items were ever created." He lightened his grip on the pale wrist, "I assure you that I am not going to harm you. I have no reason to. The source of my revenge is not within me. I only share a small portion of my former self that you are familiar with, hence, the reason why all I could do about it is sense these sinister emotions..." The yami's eyes lids slowly covered half of the glazed hue of blue eyes.

Ryou's anxiety took a slow turn. He listened to every word and did not know what to make of it. Bakura was an expert liar. But the Bakura in front of him doesn't seem to be lying at all. And other occasions Bakura wouldn't be lying but rather have a twisted way of caring. In his definition may lead to harming someone. But no, the way the thief grabbed his wrist was no way menacing.

"Bakura, I…" The hikari trailed off.

"Yes?" The yami gave his attention.

"You should take your bath before the water gets any colder." Ryou managed to allow his lips make a small smile, "I will get started with breakfast for us." Bakura released Ryou's wrist and smirked with a nod.

When Ryou left the bathroom with a closed door Bakura removed his towel and sighed with pleasure as he dipped into the a little less than warm water. He felt was going to try to make up to his fair-skinned hikari. He still doesn't remember what he did to him at all but he memorized his uneasy pulse by every beat.

Ryou decided to cook something simple such as eggs over rice. He didn't know how to make the most exquisite of dishes but they were simple and good enough to live on. He did not know what the tanned counterpart liked to eat. This worried Ryou a little bit and then he remembered that he was a thief and thieves can't be picky, could they? He shook his head as he was lifting the omelet from the frying pan to a bowl with cooked rice. He decided to worry about it when Bakura actually eats it and states his opinion. He had to be strong whether the boy in his bathroom was a liar or not.

In the nearly empty apartment there were steps coming the halls that were clear sounds as they came closer to the kitchen.

"That was refreshing." The russet colored boy came by the kitchen counter and saw the pallid boy serving the bowls of food by the gathering counter that was across the kitchen area. Bakura sat on a stool and began eating the food he cooked. Bakura sat next to Ryou in another stool and looked at the food he was given. He blinked to how unusual the food looked to him.

The tanned one turned his head to the pale one, "What do you call this Ryou?"

Ryou took a swallow of food and turned to his dark counterpart. He noticed that Bakura was dressed in the blue jeans he allowed him to borrow. He also noticed that he was topless. Ryou suddenly recalled that ancient Egyptian men did not always dressed with a shirt due to it's harsh heat. So he dropped that pending question and answered Bakura's.

"It's eggs over rice."

"Is it good?"

"I'm eating it."

He smirked, "You're becoming rather comfortable with getting smart with me."

Ryou caught himself and stared at Bakura. "I-I…"

"You need to stop doing that. That includes the worrying." The russet boy took the spoon and used to take a bite of a spoon with a combination of rice and egg. He swallowed.

"This is good!" The Egyptian continued to eat with content.

The pallid boy breathed out a breath of relief and continued his share of food.

Ryou remembered that today was a school day and had to get ready to leave. Through all the confusing doings of the millennium ring had done early in the morning, he had almost forgotten. But he wondered what he was going to do about Bakura walking around and about.

As Ryou walked over to the sink to pour water over his bowl to clean it up, he began to speak, "Bakura…"

"Hm?" Was all he was able to respond while he finishing up his breakfast.

Ryou took a sponge and began cleaning the oil and excess bits of foods in the bowl, "If I asked you for a favor…just this once, would you do it?"

He heard his darker half swallow, "It depends on what it is."

"I would need you to stay here while I go to school. And not cause any problems when I am not here."

He heard a low, rough chuckle coming closer from behind Ryou and saw a tanned hand placing another dirty bowl. By the corner of the pallid boy's eye he saw a mocking grin and his were darkly amused.

"That would be two favors. Must you go to school?"

Ryou merely nodded and began cleaning the new bowl. Bakura gave a slight pout and wished his hikari would relax. The yami was beginning to piece together that whatever he did to him, it must've been terrible. As if instead of having a visible scar like he bore, his hikari had one where one could not see.

"Ryou. Look at me."

The pale boy continued to wash the dish and did not lift up his head and his long white unruly hair covered his face. Ryou was in open defiance. He decided to test the russet boy this time. He was willing to take the risk.

This was my first EVER attempt in writing fan fiction that wasn't based on YYH. Any fanfiction I ever wrote since the 8th grade was based on YYH, whether I published it online or not. And this was my first EVER attempt in writing shonen-ai fan fiction. So this story is kind of a big deal to me because I broke two of my barriers when it came to the fan fiction realm in my mind... -Throws healthy leaves into the air.-

Now my little commentary on the story... I don't know what to expect but I am posting it because I like it and I hope my friends do to. Bakura (BOTH OF THEM) would seem out of character. But I hoped not too much... I always thought the both sides of Bakura were very charming so I did not want to...ruin them, haha! But I always wondered when I recently finished season 5 of YGO that if the friendly Ryou Bakura and the menacing Yami Bakura were really that different. It's obvious, yes they are, BUT, if you take a look at their lives, it makes the mind reel... Bakura had his village savaged and destroyed. He was the sole survivor. Do you blame his mentality? I don't. Everyone takes disasters differently. And then there's Ryou whom had tragedy in his life too, like his deceased sister. ( I don't remember if his mother died as well.) He reacted variously and remained humble. I know you can't compare the two tragedies on equal terms... But if Bakura was not given the experience he had, he would've became a lot like Ryou. He'll probably still have cunning and strength, instead would've used it differently.

Now FINALLY, here comes my point... I wanted to play the 'what if' the two met each other and tried to see eye to eye. Obviously I mixed it up by having a little memory loss in play but you'll see. This story may come to be either a double shot or a thrice shot... It depends how much length I will have when finish it. I am up to the last or the last two scenes of the story. It depends how much I end up writing. But with the excessive homework I get from college, (especially this semester -face palms herself-) if I do very well in time management, in which, I recently messed on because I decided to spend a single afternoon with friends and that definitely played a part on my working groove... As soon as I get back on track, everything should work out and I will be getting writing updated...