Chapter One

Domino City

Duke Devlin, rain and the 'happy-crew'

Bakura sighed. It didn't matter how many people he stole from, how many old women he scared, how many squirrels he fed poisoned seed to, he still couldn't get over the fact that he didn't have a birthday.

Well, obviously he must have had a birthday at one point or another, but the fact was that as much as he liked to deny it, he was several thousand years old, and after a while, you do start to forget things. Normally small things, but after aeons of time with nothing to mark the days in the Millennium Ring, birthdays seemed pretty insignificant, to be honest.

He sighed again, the beginning of a headache starting in his temples, and looked up to take stock of where he was. It was Ryou's talk of Yugi's forthcoming birthday that had set him off, and, annoyed and depressed, he had gone for a walk. He realised that he must have wandered all over town, and, glancing at his watch, which was technically not his at all, he realised that he had been doing it for a while as well. He had been so lost in thought that he had wandered nearly all the way to the Kame Game shop.

He mentally groaned, knowing that the quickest way home from where he was would involve going past the shop, and every time he passed by its large glass windows he'd be hugged by an overly-happy Yugi, and glared at by his over-protective yami.

Normally he'd do it just to antagonise the Pharaoh, but today he really wasn't in the mood. However, it would take an hour to get home any other way, but it was only twenty-or-so minutes by walking past the shop and cutting through a few alleyways, and all he wanted to do right now was curl up in bed and sleep, preferably with Marik as a pillow.

And Bakura was not a patient person.

Gritting his teeth, he bowed his head and strode quickly towards the shop, hoping for once that his unusual hair wouldn't make him stand out in the small crowd of people on the streets.

The rain was really hammering down now, and it had only just been spitting when Bakura left. He didn't really mind, though. The downpour had made everyone put up umbrellas, but it rolled down Bakura's face in small streams. It rolled down the streets as well, forming little rivers in the gutters that coursed down to small lakes as they hit the blocked drains at the corner of a road. The fall made the world look grey, but not unpleasant, Bakura mused. He didn't like the rain- he had decided long ago that if something wasn't in Egypt, then there was no need for it to exist. However, it had it's advantages, such as the fact that everyone was hurrying through the streets and not paying attention to him. And right now, he would look a lot less suspicious with the collar of his long black coat pulled up. He wandered closer to the shop.

Past the first set of windows, past the door, and just as he was breathing a long sigh of relief at escaping, he heard his name called out in a high pitched voice that extended every syllable to the largest possible degree.

"Bakura!"

He groaned. Not only did he have to contend with Yugi and the Ra-damned Pharaoh, but the whole little 'happy crew', as he, Marik and Malik had dubbed them, were there, huddled cheerfully under large, brightly coloured umbrellas. Joey, his hair looking even messier than usual from the rain was standing just in front of his squeaky sister, whose name none of them had ever bothered remembering who was trying to hide behind her brother. Tristan was there, staring at said sister, and the friendship girl, who seemed to exist solely for the purpose of annoying him, staring first at the Pharaoh, then at Yugi, then at Bakura again.

"Bakura," Yugi said in his six-year-old on sugar voice, "come in and watch a movie with us?"

Bakura mentally growled and declined their offer, although for a moment he was tempted just by the appalled look on the Pharaoh's face. Normally, he might have come in just for a few minutes just to antagonise his nemesis. However, his headache was worsening, and he stormed away from the happy crew, almost immediately turning into an alleyway that most people would be too terrified to enter. Bakura wasn't worried though.

In fact he barely gave it a thought, since he was the reason most people should scared.

'Idiots,' he mused.

He was surprised when he arrived outside their home, since nobody seemed to be there, because there was no lights were on. He picked the lock (before you ask, he'd always had a major aversion to keys and refused to carry one, since he could open most locks in seconds. He wasn't called 'thief king' for nothing.) He looked around the house, just to be sure, but he was right. He sighed, dejected. The house just wasn't as nice when they weren't all there.

Without Malik there was no music drifting through every room of the house, ranging from the heaviest metal to classical. He always did have a strange taste, did that boy.

Without Ryou there was no smells of cooking from the kitchen. He could cook most things well, and since he was the only one of them that was even able to make toast without setting something on fire, it had been his job since the start to make food.

And without Marik, the empty house just made him feel lonely. He couldn't hear the sound of the television being switched off as he came through the door, the sound of quick, light footsteps as he took off his shoes and the feel of his partner's arms around his waist.

Bakura mentally pouted. Where were they?

He wandered into the bathroom and grabbed some paracetamol from the bathroom cabinet. He dry-swallowed them, and wandered through to the room he shared with Marik. He threw himself down, and just as he was drifting off to sleep, still fully dressed, on top of the duvet he heard the door bang and footsteps come flying down the hall.

The door was thrown open, and Bakura could see his hikari standing there, looking very pleased with himself, with a slightly maniacal glint in his eyes that Bakura had only ever seen in the mirror as he looked at himself.

That was enough to worry the yami.

"Come on, get up! You need to go!"

Bakura blinked.

"Go? Go where?"

Ryou stared at him like he was an idiot.

"You need to come get your present, of course."

That got Bakura's attention. If there was anything that interested the thief, it was the prospect of something free.

They hurried out of the building, and into a waiting limousine.

"Err… Ryou?"

"Mmm?"

"Since when did we get a limo?"

Ryou only grinned, and told the driver to do what he does well, and go already. They drove through the streets of Domino, Ryou just smiling at every question Bakura shot at him, until they ended up at the executive entrance of Domino Airport. By this point, Bakura was extremely confused- they hadn't bought him an airport, had they?

Walking through the quiet corridors, the pair soon came to a small lounge, where Marik and Malik were engaged in conversation with a man who appeared to spend far too much time on his long, black hair and far too much money on dice accessories.

Duke Devlin.

The man turned around and flashed one of his most charming smiles at the newcomers.

"Ryou! Bakura! Two of my favourite yami and hikari! How do you both do?"

As the two white-haired males replied, Marik couldn't help but whisper into Malik's ear.

"Is it just me, or does he seem a little too friendly with our little Ryou?"

Marik blinked, then flushed.

"What does it matter? Who ever Devlin decides to hit on is no concern of mine."

Marik just nodded, and grinned to himself.

Bakura was still completely confused. What was he doing here? Why was dice-boy here? What in Ra's name was his suitcase doing over there? And why did he have a sneaking suspicion that this was all Ryou's idea? The so called 'light' was much more devious than he first appeared.

Upon voicing all these questions, he found brown arms slung around his waist as Marik hugged him from behind.

"Ah, darling Bakura, worry not! We have arranged it all, so fear not for the future!" Marik exclaimed.

Bakura stared at him, slightly worried.

"You arranged it, and I'm supposed to feel safe?"

Marik gave him a hurt look, complete with a pout, until Bakura buckled and turned round to nuzzle his ear, whispering that 'of course he trusted him'.

Behind them, Ryou coughed. They paid no attention, and Ryou sighed despondently. Malik and Duke both noticed this, and almost simultaneously pulled the couple apart roughly.

Ryou coughed again.

"We noticed how upset you were, so we decided to take you on holiday. And it just so happened that Mr Devlin here owes Malik a rather large favour-"

"-So I am lending you my private plane and complimentary rooms at each of my hotels."

'Not really' reflected Bakura.

Bakura appraised Duke, looking him up and down with a look of disinterest.

"So when did you get so rich? Please don't tell me that because of Dungeon Dice Monsters you got so much money you decided to branch into the tourist trade, 'cause that's almost as unoriginal as me trying to steal something."

"That's right!" Duke smiled, his chest swelling slightly with pride.

Bakura looked him up and down, noting the designer labels on Dukes clothes.

"So, about where you live. Is there much security around your prized posses-"

Bakura was broken of as his hikari grabbed his ear and twisted, smiling angelically at Duke, in apology. Duke smirked back, whilst Bakura writhed in pain.

"Oh my," muttered Marik to his hikari, "should we interfere?"

"Yes," came the angry response.

Marik looked up in surprise, but his light was not looking at Bakura, it was flicking between the angelic-looking Ryou and the smirking Devlin.

Marik grinned. Something more to add to his theory. Bakura really was going to owe him a lot of money after losing this particular bet.

Duke Devlin walked them to the boarding lounge, and instructed them to take very good care of his jet, staring mainly at Bakura and Marik as he said this, who, to their credit, managed to keep very innocent looks on their faces the whole time.

Duke left after slipping Ryou a dazzling smile and his number, leaving the four to board, which they did, Marik and Bakura with linked arms, Ryou looking slightly confused, and Malik with a scowl on his face, severely wishing he still had the Millennium Rod so could do some real damage to 'dice-boy'.

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