"Bakura and the Cuckoo Clock" a "Yu-Gi-Oh!" fanfiction 3-21-2014

Hang on... Let me check right quick to see if I own YGO... Nope.

Yami no Bakura cocked his head to the side quizzically, staring at the strange apparatus that had arrived in the mail, a peculiar birthday present from his host's grandmother.

"Yadonushi?" he asked after a minute, turning to the happy-looking Ryou and expecting an explanation. "What is this?"

"It's a cuckoo clock, Yami!" his 'landlord' squealed excitedly. "And all the way from the old Swiss Clock Shoppe in jolly old England! Grandmother always sends the nicest things…"

Plucking the strange object out of the box, Ryou set it on the table, staring at it and admiring it with a big smile on his face.

"We used to have cuckoos in our house in England," Ryou murmured softly. "I always loved the way they looked and sounded… It's nice to have something from home here in Japan, you know."

Bakura paused, dragging his eyes away from the strange object and settling them onto his host instead; Ryou seemed to miss England an awful lot, even though his father's side of the family was Japanese and although he had been living in Japan for the past few years. The boy had adapted rather well to the sudden change of language, surroundings, and culture, and frankly Bakura was mildly proud in the way his host handled the sudden move, especially since his father was almost always away at work. Ryou was very independent and had been taking care of himself – going to school, going to work, paying the rent, not to mention keeping track of his yami.

Bakura shook his head to bring himself back to reality, finding that Ryou was putting batteries into the 'cuckoo clock.'

"Tell me, yadonushi, what is the purpose of a … 'coo-coo clock?'"

Ryou turned to him, beaming joyfully. "Well, it tells you what time it is, it looks lovely, and it makes these wonderful cuckoos every hour on the hour!"

This statement caused the yami a little bewilderment. The only 'cuckoos' he was familiar with was his own snickering of 'kukuku.' Or of the way those annoying girls at school would 'coo' over his landlord… that is, until they met with peculiar accidents.

But, Bakura got the idea that his host was talking about something different altogether.

Even so, he helped Ryou hang the thing up on the wall, afterwards Ryou stood back and admired it proudly, muttering something about getting a thank-you out to his Grandmother straight away.

Humming happily, Ryou set about to doing the dishes, carefully wiping them off each by hand and setting them to dry in the strainer. His happy smile never faded as he listened to old familiar tick-tock of the little clock.

Bakura stared up at the little clock that was now hanging on the wall, just above his head. It didn't look too terrible, vaguely resembling a European cottage with many vines and flowers growing over the clock face, and it did make a nice little ticking sort of sound. It clashed strongly with all of the Egyptian pieces, the local style and décor, and Ryou's Monster World toys that made up the rest of the little Japanese apartment, but it was clearly making Ryou happy and that was the important thing.

The last thing Bakura needed was an unhappy little landlord. Ryou had made it very clear the last time he was unhappy that his happiness had direct effects over whether or not Bakura's schemes worked properly. Apparently, if Ryou was particularly upset with his yami, that automatically meant the Pharaoh won.

Bother.

Stepping onto the stepstool that had been used to hang the clock, Bakura began to study it closely. It was rather quaint, he could admit, and it was distinctly European in every way, shape, and form. But, it didn't seem like a bad little clock. It was certainly nicer to look at than Ryou's digital clock, with those horrid flashing red numbers and the loud, obnoxious alarm that went off at six in the morning. And it was nicer than Ryou's watches, on which the numbers were so small that you almost needed a magnifying lens to tell the time.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad little thing…

Just as Bakura was thinking that, the little clock struck three. A small door opened on it, right in front of his nose, and a small bird flew out on a set of wooden sticks.

"Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" the bird cried out, pecking Bakura soundly on the nose before flying back in.

"Oh, yeah, you'd better run!" Bakura yelled after it, fingers prying at the little door to make the bird come out again.

"Yami!"

Oops.

Almost sheepishly, Bakura turned around to face Ryou, who was standing in the kitchen doorway, dishtowel in hand and hand on hip. His face looked decidedly unhappy.

Bakura put on his best innocent smile, trying to hide the fact that his fingers were groping into the bowels of the clock, searching for that smart-alec bird. "Yes, Yadonushi…?"

"Take your hands off the clock right this second!"

Silently, the yami brought his hands down to rest at his sides, although he couldn't help but send a small glare at the clock. How dare it mock him and then get him into trouble?!

"What were you going to do to my beautiful new gift from Grandmother, Yami?"

Bakura said nothing for a second, still glaring at the poor timepiece. When he did finally speak, he struggled to put his reasoning into words. "Well… There was this bird, you see… I was merely minding my own business and admiring your new clock, and then this cheeky little bird pops out and bops me on the nose!"

Ryou stared at him for exactly two seconds before doubling over in laughter.

"It's not funny, Yadonushi!" Bakura whined, unable to prevent himself from pouting. "There is an evil bird living within your clock and I must vanquish it before it harms either of us!"

Regaining his composure, Ryou took his yami by the hand and pulled him into the next room, a safe distance from the clock. It took quite awhile, but he finally managed to explain all about the bird and many general facts about how a cuckoo clock works to his yami.

"So, the bird come out and does that 'cuckoo' thing every hour? Just like that? Every hour?!"

Ryou nodded, thankful that his yami was finally understanding it.

He shivered when Bakura smirked evilly all of a sudden.

"Yami, what are you thinking?"

Bakura shot him an innocent smile and gave him a reassuring hug. "Nothing, Yadonushi. I promise you that I will do nothing to harm your new clock."

Ryou watched his yami carefully for a few more minutes before shaking his head and going back to his chores.

Bakura smirked to himself, deep in thought. The Pharaoh had never even heard of a cuckoo clock before, so he wouldn't have any idea of what to expect from it…

Now, how could Bakura get the Pharaoh into Ryou's apartment and, more importantly, to stand on a ladder in front of the clock just as it struck an hour? And could that little bird hit him with enough force to break his nose?

It was definitely worth thinking about.

The End.

Every time I see anything from the original Japanese version where Yami Bakura is snickering with that little 'kukuku' thing, I envision a cuckoo clock. Thus, the story.

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