AN: Chapter 2 up in less than a week? WHAT.

Also, forgot to say thanks to GeorgieMcsleuthington when I first put this chapter up!Here's moooore!

Ryou woke to pounding. His head was pounding, and someone was insistently beating on the door to his apartment. He realized he was face down on the floor of his bedroom and tried to push himself up, but the room spun viciously. Crawling to the trashcan, he retched. There was food and drink he didn't remember consuming, and a terrible taste in his mouth. He felt wretched. He decided it was worth it just to lie on the floor for a moment longer and allow for the fact that he felt like utter shit.

So this is Bakura's retaliation . . . that fuck.

Ryou wasn't so naïve that he thought Bakura had poisoned him or something equally insane (although he wouldn't put it past the deranged spirit). He knew he had one hell of a hangover.

"Come . . . coming!" he cried weakly, wincing at the sound of his own voice.

"Ryou! You're in there!" The voice sounded like Yugi? What was Yugi doing here? Ryou realized he had no idea what time it was, or even what day. Fuck. Clinging to the wall and then the doorframe, he hauled himself up and stumbled to the door.

"Hi . . ."

"I ran into Tea and- holy Ra, Ryou! Are you okay?"

Ryou moved away from the door and Yugi stepped inside, wide eyes full of concern for his friend.

"I'm . . . it's just . . ." Ryou found his face working to find equilibrium between hysterical laughter and broken sobs. He settled for collapsing into a chair at the table. He didn't know where to start. He didn't even know if he looked as bad as he felt. Probably worse.

Then again, if anyone would understand this insanity, it would be Yugi . . . maybe I could give it a shot and trust a friend.

For once, the negativity was silent. Ryou didn't know what to make of that. Hopefully his darker side had exhausted himself for a while.

Yugi had pulled up the other chair to sit next to him.

"Ryou, hey, do you need to talk about this? You know I'm here for you, right?"

Anxious violet eyes met pained brown ones.

Deep breath. You can do this.

Ryou shut his eyes and inhaled shakily.

Here goes nothing.

"Well, um, as you are aware, the spirit of the Millennium Ring sometimes takes control of my body."

"Go on."

"It's just- I thought that-" He buried his face in his hands, willing himself not to completely lose all self-control. That was the ticket. He had to maintain control of himself; that's what all this was about anyways.

"I thought I had this handled," he breathed. "I thought that if I just took everything easy, and kept a schedule and kept organized and just- just kept everything together, he wouldn't do this. There would be no weakness for him to take advantage of, but he was still so angry!"

Ryou looked up suddenly, eyes wide with fear and staring blankly across the table. His hands were tangled in his hair in a gesture of wild desperation.

"Ryou."

The voice had suddenly changed. He realized he was talking to Yami now.

Hands wrapped around his, gently taking them away from his head and placing them on the table to set the overwrought teen in a calmer pose.

"Ryou, you need to understand something. It is true that there is darkness in all of us, and we must strive our utmost to overcome that."

Ryou nodded in acknowledgment, not quite feeling up to meeting the pharaoh's eyes just yet.

"But you must know that the spirit that inhabits the Millennium Ring isn't you. He is a separate entity with his own darkness, and his own will. When he enforces that will on you, he is allowing his darkness to win. Not the other way around. Do you understand?"

Ryou managed to look up at the wine colored eyes and nod.

"You need to know that when he does that, it's not your fault."

"I . . . I know that."

"It's not your fault."

Ryou bit his lip and attempted a smile.

"I know."

Yami gently rested a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault."

He broke, then. His head fell forward, chin almost touching his chest. Tears streamed silently down his face. No anguished sobs came forth as his shoulders shook noiselessly. Yami's hand remained, a comforting presence that did not violate a personal space that was barely even his anymore. Eventually, he stopped. He gave a deep, cathartic exhale.

"Thank you."

Yami nodded.

"Where you go from here, however, is something I leave up to you."

And then Yugi was sitting in front of him. Ryou sniffed and managed a genuine smile at his friend. He felt slightly weak, but not tired, as if he had recovered from a long fever. Or a thorough cry.

"Yeah. Yami can be like that," Yugi said with a soft smile.

"If you don't mind, I think I'll go dunk my head in the sink."

"Okay. Do you want me to go or . . .?"

"I would really appreciate it if you stayed. It's a great comfort to have a friend around right now."

"Sure thing, Ryou."

Ryou got up and walked to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror.

Blimey . . .

And then his words pretty much failed him. To say that his hair was disheveled would be like saying that Mako Tsunami was mildly fond of the ocean. It stuck out in innumerable, gravity-defying angles that Ryou had not even thought possible for hair to achieve. There was also the unmistakable sheen of product. His face was still a bit ruddy from crying, but his tears had also apparently caused copious amounts of eyeliner he didn't even know he owned to run down to his jawline. As for his clothes, well, he sensed Bakura must have caught his train of thought related to dressing like a bondage slave and decided to have it come back to haunt him. He also could not fail to notice uneven patches of glitter clinging to him from head to toe. To tie it all together, he was pretty sure most of his sleeping must have taken place on a dirty floor. Ryou took a step back and started laughing.

At least it can't get any worse, eh Ryou?

He wiped his face as clean as he could with a soaked washcloth and decided to tackle his hair later. After quickly changing into a T-shirt and sweatpants, he rejoined Yugi.

"You're looking better!"

"Yeah. I think I've managed to accept that what's happened has happened. I think. But . . ." His face fell a bit, the comic mood set upon seeing his ridiculous appearance replaced with trepidation for the future.

"You don't know how to take the next step?"

He nodded and sat down at the table.

"Well, let's look at the positive details. You're aware that another presence inhabits your mind. That's a start. You also know that it's a spirit connected to a Millennium Item, not simply another part of your personality. These things may seem obvious, but these are two facts I had to come to terms with myself that helped me better understand my relationship with my yami."

"So there's someone else using my body, and it's an ancient Egyptian spirit. Not some sort of alternate personality. Yugi, am I supposed to be comforted by any of this? Because frankly it's still just as disturbing."

"Just stay with me. These things aren't really comforting in and of themselves, but you can at least know that it's the truth. Now, going only on that information, what would you want to know next?"

"Er, a name? But I mostly just call him Bakura. So . . . next I would try to find out what it wants from me. But he just wants a body! That's why he takes mine whenever my guard is down, and I have to constantly keep him out of my consciousness!"

Ever since Ryou had discovered that the spirit had no scruples about stealing his physical person, he had trained himself to ceaselessly fight it off. By keeping his life simple, there were no major distractions or emotional upsets to drain his mental energies. At first, it had worked. The thief was blocked by his constant vigilance. But as time wore on, the trapped spirit grew more and more frustrated until his violence and anger were beyond anything Ryou had the power to counter. That was when Ryou would wake up in strange places with large chunks of time he couldn't account for. Then he wouldn't hear from the spirit for a while. Assumedly, it needed time to recover. He would be lulled into a false sense of security. Then gradually, oh so gradually, the negative thoughts would come back. He would start having nightmares that upon waking he could only remember as a paralyzing fear. By the time he started isolating himself and realized what was going on, it was too late. The cycle had started over.

"So . . . you've never really talked to him about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about, really. He's just a thief."

"I see. Well . . ." Yugi shifted uneasily. "You may not want to hear this, but I think that instead of fighting him, you should try some communication. It sounds like he's only fighting fire with fire when you resist."

Yugi was right: Ryou did not want to hear that. He forced himself to remember that Yugi was doing the best he could to help, and that when it came to maintaining a healthy relationship with the ancient Egyptian spirit you were host to, his friend had a lot more experience to offer.

"I'm not saying give in or anything like that," Yugi said quickly, seeing the veiled despair on his friend's face. "Just try to get a few sentences out of him."

"Right. I'll . . . I'll try that. No, really, I will, don't give me that look," Ryou actually chuckled. "But when I end up on the evening news for robbing a museum or something, you bloody well better come visit me in prison."

Yugi beamed at him, relieved to hear some humor, dry as it was.

"I'll bring you a gift basket."

"You're one of the best people a bloke could ever have for a friend, Yugi."

They both stood up, and Yugi moved to give Ryou the bro-est of taps, but he backed off with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, you probably don't want to hug me right now. I probably smell like booze and shame; I'm in dire need of a shower."

His friend laughed, and settled for gingerly patting his shoulder. He rested his hand there for a moment, holding Ryou's gaze.

"Hey, call me or something later, okay? Yami and I want to make sure you're okay. Someone could come over if you need."

Ryou assured him he would.

He stared at the door for a few moments after Yugi had left, not really reflecting on their conversation, but how Yami and Yugi could be so very different. They had different insights and different advice, but at the same time, they both proved to be very good friends. The light and dark played off each other so well that Ryou never would have guessed the strange circumstances of their relationship. It made him marvel at the world's oddities, and he dared to hope. Just a little.

I did my part. Now you do yours: review!