Disclaimer:

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Kazuki Takahashi has that honor!

Please note that from now on, I will be switching between Ryou and Bakura's POVs for each chapter. So while the last two chapters were from Bakura's perspective, this one will be from Ryou's perspective!


Chapter 2: Setting the Board

"Move the hut over more…"

"The tree is in the way of the market…"

"…Why the hell are you placing the columns of the Pharoah's palace over there?"

Ryou breathed in deeply, pausing in his movements and closing his eyes in a vain effort to prevent himself from snapping at his darker half. This had been happening repeatedly for the past few hours. Building this huge table for Yami Bakura's new project had taken weeks of preparation. Every day after school, Bakura would direct his host towards the local museum and continue constructing the table under his supervision.

Ryou honestly couldn't remember the last time he had gotten a proper night's sleep in the past two months. The only thing Bakura would say was that if he cooperated, he would be allowed in control of his body during the day. This allowed the boy to attend school regularly for the first time in literal years. It wasn't like Ryou was going to turn that opportunity down.

The young teen glanced over at the transparent form of the ancient spirit who looked over the RPG table with an intense, scrutinizing expression. If Ryou's placement of clay figures were just slightly off from what Bakura wanted, the spirit would snap at him to fix the mistake. It was as if Ryou was trying to split an atom. Every single placement of the figures had to be just right to please Bakura. Mistakes were not even a possibility to be entertained even if for a brief moment.

So far the Pharoah's palace was mostly finished and a handful of huts on the left side of the area were painted and put in place. The dirt road leading through the city was drawn out and painted trees were placed in various areas as instructed by the dark spirit.

"…How many times do I have to tell you to keep the huts close together?!" Bakura barked, glaring at his host with crossed arms. His transparent form floated above the ground as he stood next to the boy. Apparently the hut that was just placed was a millimeter's width too far from where the spirit wanted it.

Ryou cringed inwardly at the loudness of Bakura's booming voice through their mind link. He nearly dropped the clay replica in his hands, caught off guard by the sudden shout. He sucked in another deep breath, carefully putting down the hut in the middle of an empty space on the diorama. "…Voice, it would be helpful if you could give me more specific instructions before I place the clay…" he forced out in the most polite tone he could muster. It was getting increasingly harder not to grit his teeth every time he replied to his darker half.

"My instructions are specific! It's not my fault that you're so incompetent with everything!" Bakura growled back.

The teen felt his clay and paint-clad hands drop to his sides and tighten into fists. "…'Place the hut over there' followed by 'no, not right there! Move it over!' is not specific!" he huffed out, narrowing his eyes back towards the spirit.

"It has to look exactly like it did three thousand years ago!" Bakura insisted. He reminded Ryou of a child who snapped whenever a parent would do something slightly off on an experiment when helping him with a class science project. Everything just had to be perfect.

Ryou sucked in another deep breath, trying to calm himself before he made the spirit even more irritated with him. He turned completely towards Bakura's form, adding, "Why can't you show me Egypt through your eyes so I can figure it out that way?"

The thief's eyes narrowed. "We're doing it my way. Either get used to it or I'll just find someone else to finish up this table for me," he growled stubbornly. What was left unsaid was the assumption that Ryou would be locked up in his soul room if it resulted in Bakura getting fed up with his host.

Ryou frowned. "…Why can't you just show me what it looked like?" he pressed. Bakura always seemed to get more on edge whenever the boy asked about anything related to his past. "I'm sure you're capable of sending a mental picture through our link…" This project would get done so much faster if Bakura didn't have to stop Ryou every other minute to yell at him.

Bakura snorted loudly. "I don't care if it takes an extra week. We're doing this the way I planned it," he responded. "So get back to work before I get tired of you, yadonushi."

The spirit's host didn't yet move. "No!" he snapped, glaring back defiantly at the thief. "This is ridiculous even for your standards!" His hands made no movement towards the table. "You won't tell me why you're making me build this RPG board, nor will you tell me the purpose of it. The least you could do is make my life easier by just showing me a glimpse of your memories of Egypt!" He had lost countless hours of sleep and precious amounts of time he could have used for homework just because he had been slaving over this damn diorama. Ryou had reached his limits.

The dark spirit's eyes immediately sparked with fire. "Do you really think it's wise to piss me off?" He growled low in his voice. "You remember what happened the last time you refused to listen to me?"

Ryou stood his ground firmly. "So what if you lock me up again? It just further delays this project of yours," he pointed out. "You seem desperate to finish it as quick as possible…"

Bakura grit his teeth. It was obvious that the boy had a point. In an instant, the air in the room went from extremely tense to quiet and awkward. "…I don't even know why you even bother to continue asking me why I'm telling you to make this. Is my target never obvious enough for you?" he replied in a calmer tone. It seemed that the more Bakura locked Ryou away, the less effective it became as a punishment and both of them knew it.

Ryou froze, all of his anger leaving him at once. His eyes widened. Of course. Why was he such an idiot? "…You're planning to go after Yugi-kun again, aren't you?!" he gasped out in horror. He stared down at the table and at his hands, suddenly ashamed that he had indirectly helped Bakura accomplish his goals. "…That's why you never told me what this was for!" He was shaking, unsure if it was out of disgust, fear, anger, or a mixture of the three emotions.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "I never told you because you should know by now," he scoffed. "My target is and always will be the Pharoah." He flashed a wry smirk in Ryou's direction. "I can't believe you did this much for me and didn't connect the two together… You really are a pathetic host." His tone became cynical as if he were a demon mocking a fallen human.

The younger man shook his head in disbelief. "You're horrible!" he hissed. "You know I would never help you if you were going to hurt my friends!"

To this, the thief laughed loudly. It was like Ryou had just said some hilarious joke. " 'Friends'?" he echoed with a snicker. "You honestly think those ignorant mortals are your friends?"

Ryou glared. "Well they treat me much better than you do!" he snapped back, offended that Bakura was judging his attempts to form friendships.

Bakura only chuckled. "Are you so sure about that?" He shook his head. "At least I'm up front with how I treat you… those fools call you their friend to your face and yet never invite you to go anywhere with them. They clearly don't trust you with anything."

"I wonder why that is…" Ryou grumbled under his breath. Obviously, he might be closer to Yugi and his group by now if it wasn't for his darker half's meddling.

The thief rolled his eyes. "I don't know why you still bother," he scoffed. "So long as the Pharoah and I are sworn enemies, you'll never be able to be actual friends with his vessel's group."

Bakura's host felt his fists clench up again. "Why do you even hate him so much anyways?!" he snapped. "As far as I'm concerned, Yugi-kun and his other self have done nothing but good things for other people!"

At once, the spirit's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "It's none of your damn business why I want him dead!" he snarled. In one instant, he went from irritated to angry.

Ryou narrowed his eyes back. "And there you go again!" he huffed, beyond exasperated. "Every time I bring up some part of your past, you snap at me! Why can't you just give me some hint so I can understand why you get offended so much?!"

"…And the Pharoah is far from innocent. He just conveniently forgot about everything he did," Bakura added in a quieter hiss. His transparent figure moved closer towards Ryou. "Just because you were chosen as my host doesn't mean shit to me," he murmured, his voice dropping an octave in an effort to sound threatening. "Do you know how many other hosts I've had before you? You're not special so don't expect me to treat you any differently by telling you about my life."

The boy felt his irritation abate from Bakura's words. "…You know…" he began calmly, "The more you tell me things like that to push me away, the more I think that you're only just trying to protect yourself from getting hurt…"

The ancient spirit froze. He opened his mouth to say something, but snapped his jaw shut only a second later. For once in their long forced partnership together, Ryou had managed to stun the thief into silence. No comeback was given.

Ryou noticed this and shook his head slowly. "If you aren't willing to tell me anything, I see no reason to help you," he added. "All I want is to get to know you better."

Bakura still didn't say anything. His gaze fell to the floor for a bit as if he were debating with himself on what to do. It was definitely an odd sight for his host to take in. The usually arrogant spirit had no insult to throw back at him. After what seemed like forever, his voice spoke up. "…Everything I do is for revenge…"

The young man's eyes widened. Bakura was actually opening up to him? This was entirely unexpected. He had always wished for the spirit to do such a thing, but for it to actually be a reality was something else entirely. "…What did the Pharoah's spirit do to make you want revenge against him?" He asked this in a cautious voice, scared to push Bakura too hard too soon.

"It was his entire family," Bakura corrected. He glanced away from Ryou, looking down at the incomplete table, going silent for a few minutes more. "…So are you going to finish this thing or not?" It was clear to the host that Bakura was not comfortable with this conversation and wanted to change gears as soon as possible.

Sensing Bakura's oddly rare emotion of discomfort, Ryou sighed. "…Are you still going to let me go to school?"

The spirit nodded. "I already made the deal with you, didn't I?" he snorted. "I don't go back on promises."

The teen then did something that was alarmingly odd. He beamed up at Bakura. He was just so happy to finally find a crack in the thief's wall of defenses. "I'm not the type to leave work unfinished…" he admitted. "But you need to leave Yugi-kun and everyone else out of this…" His tone grew firmer with his added requirement. "And if you lie to me about it, I'll do everything in my power to stop you from succeeding in your goals…"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "I'm not making any more promises to you," he grumbled. "You already got enough out of me, brat." His tone proved that he was definitely irritated that he had exposed so much to his host.

Somehow though, Ryou knew that Bakura would try to fulfill his request as best as he could. Though Bakura would never admit it, the spirit needed Ryou's help to fulfill his objectives. To this, the thief's host smiled at the man. "Well… come on, then," he murmured. He picked up the clay hut he put down earlier. "Where do I put this one?"

And so it went on…


A/N: Woo~! I finally updated this fic! While I'm not the type to plead for reviews, I'd like to know people's thoughts about this piece. So if you guys could maybe review sometimes, I'd really appreciate it!

I'm glad that I finally could start developing their relationship. Sorry if the development is slow at first… I just want to try making their transition from reluctant relationship to friends to more as realistic as possible. This is why I didn't want to start it out with Ryou having some one-sided crush on Bakura. I wanted to challenge myself. I want both of them to develop feelings for each other as the fic goes on rather than just Bakura changing for Ryou.

That said, another thing I wanted to do was to make Ryou have somewhat of a backbone. I feel like after a few years of being with Bakura, he would start fearing him a bit less. He'd be used to Bakura's company and could push back against him once in a while. Of course, Ryou doesn't do this often. As stated in the chapter, he does it only once in a while when Bakura pushes him too far. I just enjoy writing Ryou as someone who isn't quite a pushover. He's been through a lot in his life so I feel like he's a lot stronger than many people depict him as.

With all of that said, please review!

Ja ne!