[A/N: Since several of you seemed to agree with me that you can never have too much Darkshipping, here be Ultimatum, Part the Second. Enjoy.]

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~Ultimatum~
Part II

By the time the two ancient spirits reached the Kame Game Shop, Bakura still couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that he'd lost, for good this time. Fighting with Yami was a perpetual routine that was part of his everyday lifestyle. Now that he could no longer do that, it was like being enslaved again just as he had been three thousand years ago. Time would cease to exist; his world would spiral into darkness, boredom, and an eternity of nothingness. It wasn't a very comforting notion to come to terms with, so in typical tomb-robber fashion – he hadn't. Yet.

For now, he would pretend that following Yami to his "home" was simply a mild irritation he was momentarily forced to deal with.

Yami, after slipping through the front door and leading Bakura through the maze-like shelves of gaming paraphernalia, made his way around the counter and stood stoically in front of an angry-looking Yugi. The shorter boy made a strong noise of disapproval.

"First you go wandering off without telling anyone where you intended to be or what you intended to do, so I'm worried sick and calling all my friends to see if maybe you'd done something normal for a change – but no, not you. Then, as I can very well see, you were nowhere to be found other than with that monster, whom you just so happened to drag in here." A pause. "Yami! Why?! He's dangerous! What's gotten into you?!"

"I might ask you the same thing, aibou. I didn't feel the need to tell you where I was going because it was short notice and a short meeting, besides."

"But still!"

"'But' nothing. I'm fine."

Yugi's expression showed quite plainly that he was not convinced. "Why is he here, anyway?" he asked, nodding quickly toward Bakura. The thief was presently trying to turn invisible, hunched nearly into a crouch below the counter so that only the top of his snow-white head was visible to Yugi and Yami.

The ex-Pharaoh calmly replied, "I won a duel against him, and the stakes were high enough so that I now have complete control over him. He'll be staying with me, for a while anyway."

Yugi's eyes were already fairly large saucers when they weren't wide with surprise. When Yami told him that Bakura was supposed to live there – in the same space as him and his grandfather – his bug eyes nearly engulfed half his face. "I hope you don't mean in this household."

"I mean exactly that, Yugi. It is my wish that he stay here where I can personally keep him out of trouble." Yami placed his hands on Yugi's shoulders and smiled at him. "Please don't fight me on this; if you do, you'll end up kicking us both out…"

"…You don't give me much of a choice with that kind of talk," Yugi grumbled, pouting. "You know I'd never kick you out."

"Yes, and I also know you trust me. Let him stay here for a while, all right? I promise I'll explain everything later."

Yugi sighed. "Okay, but Grandpa's not gonna like it—"

Yami leaned in close to whisper into Yugi's ear: "I never said he needed to know."

Before Yugi could even gasp in surprise, Yami had yanked Bakura back into a standing position and proudly announced he was retiring for the night. He was not to be disturbed.

All Yugi could do was whirl around and stare after his yami's coattail in complete disbelief. Without hesitation, he made a mad dash across the room to the doorway of the garage where they stocked extra items and did the inventory. On the wall was a white telephone which Yugi wasted no time in yanking down (after jumping several times in order to reach it). He dialed Ryou's number and waited while the line rang softly in his ear. He harbored a sinking suspicion that the British boy hadn't known what his yami had been up to either.

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Immediately when they entered Yami's room, Bakura was bombarded by the overpowering scent of incense. It instantly reminded him of Egypt – the sands, the tombs, the palace, the palm trees, the Nile, the market, the clothing, the people - but most of all, the Pharaoh. It reminded him of injustice – the horrible injustice that was dealt to him and his family so many millennia ago, much like the injustice of right now, when he was within striking distance of Yami, but could do absolutely naught about it. Revenge would feel so much better than enslavement right now, he thought absently. Better than pointlessness…

He sighed and took a seat on Yami's bed. Thinking about what he wasn't able to accomplish made him think about how meaningless his life really was. It was precisely like being shackled, when eventually you simply lose the will to live all together and nothing matters anymore.

"Bakura…?" Yami's deep voice floated across his thoughts and brought the thief back to the present. He blinked at the room, surprised that he wasn't in the palace with its silken and velvet throw pillows and tapestries, its golden throne and its high walls… The only remnant that remained was its inhabitant, sitting beside Bakura on an average sized bed in a tiny room that would have been used as a storage closet in the real palace.

"Hm?" Bakura said, still looking around the room and not at Yami. There was a small desk against one wall, and an entire shelf stacked with nothing other than Duel Monster cards on the other. A few were littered along the royal blue carpet as well, their glossy surfaces shining underneath the soft glow of a bedside lamp. Other than the out-of-place cards, though, Yami's room was almost painfully spotless. Everything was in order; not a book or a pencil out of place.

"I asked if your wound was giving you any problems," the tri-haired duelist replied. It could have been Bakura's imagination, but it looked to him as though Yami were inching closer and closer towards him. Imagination, then.

"Um, not really." An awkward feeling crept into the air that made Bakura feel more on edge than before. It probably stemmed from Yami's imagined proximity and the foreign setting of his room. Either way, it made him feel terribly out of place.

"May I see it, just to be sure?" Yami asked. He'd meant it honestly – worriedly, almost. But Bakura took it as an insult, as usual.

"What, you think I don't know what my own pain feels like?" he growled, finally sending Yami a very familiar sneer. The ex-Pharaoh looked taken aback by Bakura's sudden vehemence. He should have known better; it was assumed that he was used to a bi-polar Bakura by now. Maybe it was something I said…? he thought.

"Maybe you don't," Yami whispered, metaphorically reading his mind. His violet-red eyes were filled with utmost concern – a worry that Bakura read as pity, and to him that pity was insulting.

"If I didn't know what pain felt like after being put through so much of it, then I really would be a basket case. But I know, Yami. I know the feeling well." He paused to stand up and start pacing in front of Yami's bed. "Hell, I've known nothing but pain for so long now, the feeling is probably permanent. All I'll ever know is pain…"

"So you see my point, yes…?" Yami sounded hopeful.

"No. Elaborate."

"Maybe you've harbored that pain in such a manner that you've forgotten what it feels like. Maybe you've hurt for so long that…that you're used to the feeling…" he trailed off a bit when he realized how harsh his own words sounded, despite trying to say them in a gentle manner. Thankfully Bakura didn't seem to notice. The thief looked altogether lost in his own thoughts, his hands clasped together behind his back, head lowered in concentration.

"How," he said after a long, eerily silent intermission, "how is it…that the pain I was in…still in…never went away?" Yami wisely didn't answer such a question. The awkward mood from before began to blacken into something filled with tension and hatred. Words that needed to be spoken long before now came bubbling up to the surface.

"To me," Bakura continued, "it truly is an eternal feeling – eternal pain. I lost everything I had to your monarchy – even my own humanity. I wished for weeks after your father's brother sacrificed my people that I had died with them, just so I wouldn't have to bear such a mountainous burden on my young shoulders!" Bakura paused in his monologue to face Yami with a fiery look in his eyes. They were glistening as though there should be tears in them, but there wasn't any. "I…lost…everything…to you," he said darkly, enunciating every syllable. "I didn't gain peace from the creation of the Seven Sennen Items like you did; I gained a living Hell, a raging war within myself that will never end, even now, some three thousand years later. I gained a kind of pain far worse than any number of physical tortures I was put through in my lifetime. There is nothing left but pain! Can you understand that kind of hurt? Can you?!"

As Bakura's voice nearly escalated into shouting, Yami finally decided to put an end to it, to everything – especially Bakura's pain, but to their feuding as well. He stood up, face-to-face with Bakura, and wrapped his arms around the thief's skinny waist.

A rush of breath left through Bakura's parted lips. It had never occurred to him that he'd never been hugged before until just now, when someone finally decided to give him one. To people who are loved their entire lives, something as common as a hug might not mean much. To someone who has never been loved at all, a hug is like redemption, like a second chance. Yami's hug allowed Bakura to finally feel something other than negative emotions like pain, anger, and malice. For the first time in his life, Bakura felt happy. He felt loved.

"I'm sorry," Yami whispered as his tears fell onto Bakura's cheek. "I…well, I had an idea that your life must have been hard, but I was raised to learn how to deal with hardships. No one ever told you… You really had…no one…"

Bakura didn't know what to say. It was the first time someone had ever heard his story, much less agreed with him. He didn't mind as much now that Yami was feeling sorry for him. It wasn't pity - it had been compassion he'd wanted all along. He needed someone to feel for him, to reach out to him and pull him back from the hideous road he'd taken since he was but a child.

"Atem," Bakura said finally. He decided to return the hug he'd been given. And the use of the formal name did not go unnoticed by Yami, either. "I… don't know what to say…"

"Then don't say anything. I've given back to you the love that was so shamelessly taken away. Do with it what you will, for it is yours to keep."

"Don't be a fool—"

"Love is not foolish. Love is blind, but to the blind comes wisdom. The way I've ignored you – ignored your pain – for so many years, that was foolish. Seeing only your surface and the loathsome front you used to cover up your pain, that was foolish. But this…no, this is love. This is yours."

So not only did the former Pharaoh of Egypt likeBakura, he actually loved him. Beyond that, Yami understood him, which was just as important to Bakura as the affection. He silently swore that if his heart swelled anymore it would burst like bloody balloon. "I feel…that I'm in your debt, somehow…" he said, eyes shimmering with a few tears that he vowed would not be allowed to fall. "I mean, look at everything I've put youand your friends through, all just because no one had ever—"

Yami leaned back a bit and placed a lithe finger to Bakura's lips, hushing him. "You owe me nothing in return for the love I'm giving you, Bakura. Let go."

Let go…

Two, small, simple words that somehow never once made their way into Bakura's master plans. Two words that – given the chance – could have saved everyone a lot of headaches and heartache. Let go.

"I'll love you too, you know," he murmured, words awkward on his tongue. They weren't easy words for someone like Bakura to say, much less to whom he was saying them. To be honest, he didn't even know if he knew how to love.

"You don't have to rush," Yami said, chuckling between soft sobs, "Whatever becomes of us now is out of my hands. I only wanted to set you free."

"Set me free?"

"From your hate. From your past. From everything."

"So does that mean you're not going to answer my question anymore…?" Bakura asked referring to the deal he'd made with Yami about knowing his purpose in life.

"Not necessarily." Yami tilted his head to one side. "Silly thief… Have you not been listening at all? I've already answered your question."

Bakura blinked, letting a single tear finally fall from his left eye. Oh. Right. "Whatever becomes of us now is out of my hands." His answer was that from the beginning: he didn't know Bakura's purpose in life. No one did, except for maybe himself. Duh…

"Yami?" Bakura said, taking his previous seat on the bed again.

"What?"

The look in Bakura's eyes said that he was tired, that he wanted to sleep on everything they'd discussed. His mouth said, "Never mind. It's nothing."

Yami wiped his eyes and laughed. If Bakura only knew how entertaining he was… "Surely you're not wondering where you'll be sleeping…"

Bakura's cheeks flushed and he quickly blurted out, "No! I mean, I know that… Well…"

"Go ahead and rest, Bakura," Yami said. "I've got some things I need to clear up with Yugi, but I'll be joining you shortly."

Bakura nodded. "Fine." He flopped down on his side, snowy head resting on a pillow, brownish eyes still peering up at Yami. "When I wake up, if I'm in a bad mood, just tell me that the part about 'setting me free' was all a load of crap and that I'm still under your control, all right?"

Yami paused in the doorway. "I don't know what you're talking about." He sounded genuinely confused.

"Of course you do! You said so yourself, you 'let go' or whatever…" he trailed off, glaring at Yami's back.

"No, I think you made that up. I never set you free; well, maybe sentimentally set you free…But the shadows determined from our duel that I would control you, fair and square. That was our terms." Bakura couldn't see him grin.

"What?! So even after everything you said about love and pain and forgiveness, the deal is still on!??"

Yami finally faced Bakura, still grinning like a Cheshire cat. "It was our ultimatum. You didn't expect me to give it up before I even tried it out, did you?"

"Tried it out…What the hell do you—"

"Bakura – stand."

To his horror, the thief's body was now beyond his own control. He jerked upright in the bed and then stood up straight beside it. He gasped, unbelieving.

"Now don't move," Yami continued, "I need you still so I can concentrate on healing your wound."

"Was that a direct order too?" Bakura said sarcastically. He waved his hand up and down a bit, much to Yami's dismay, just to see if it was. "I told you earlier I was fine. You don't need to heal it."

"A wound is a wound, now be still."

After Yami had sucessfully (and magically) patched up Bakura's side, he smirked at him again. "What?" the thief asked suspiciously.

"Bakura – sleep." Yami's grin broadened. His eyes were grinning too.

Bakura scoffed as he was forced to lie back down and halfway close his eyes. "You're terrible."

Yami laughed. "I know; Yugi says the same thing all the time."

"So…you'll be up in a few minutes then?"

"Yes. After I speak with Yugi."

"Will you nap with me?"

"Yes, Bakura, after I clear up some things. Please go to sleep..."

Unwillingly, Bakura was soon enough out and snoring softly. Yami shook his head because he couldn't really tell if the thief would be angry or not when he woke up, but then he decided that it didn't matter. Everything was okay now.

But just for now. Yami knew well that when it comes to Bakura, nothing is ever okay for very long.

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[A/N: I know; I misled you. There was no smex in this chapter. There were just too many differences that Bakura and Yami needed to overcome, though, before they could move on to something like that. I gave you the version I liked best (despite Bakura having been a little OOC with the tears and the whatnot....). No promises for a third section (even though I left room for one…) Please review.]