"So, where's your apartment?" Mariku asked.
"Not far," Ryou replied, before grinning mischievously. "You'll love my pet tarantula," he put on an innocent face as he turned to see Bakura's reaction. He stopped dead and his eyes went wide as he stared at the younger albino.
"What?" he asked. Ryou burst out laughing.
"Come on Bakura! Do I really look like the type to keep a spider as a pet? I'm just taunting you. I'm not as sweet as I look you know," he grinned and resumed his walk as Bakura visibly relaxed. The blondes, however, kept laughing when they realized what their devious little companion had done. Maybe he wasn't as innocent as he seemed. They looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. 'We could have some fun with this one.'
"You're a jerk, you know that?" Bakura scowled, although he kept walking with him. Ryou just smiled. It was kind of fun knowing how to get a rise out of someone approximately 3000 years older than him. Hell, he was getting a rise out of the Thief King himself! Ryou still couldn't quite believe Bakura's true identity. 'Oh god,' Ryou thought. 'Did I really just think 'his true identity'? It makes me think of a bad mystery novel. Of course, that's kind of what all this feels like… maybe I should write a book and change the names around. That would be entertaining. Especially if Bakura read it. Oh how I'd love to see that expression.
Ryou started to giggle as he imagined that, and eventually it turned into full blown laughter, getting so intense that he ended up doubled over while the three walking with him stopped and looked at him, then each other, trying to figure out what was so funny.
"Ryou…?" Bakura started, severely confused, and when Ryou looked up and it only made him laugh harder because the expression was almost identical to the one he'd just been imagining.
As he gasped for air between fits of hysterical laughter, passerby had stopped being passerby and stood there watching, most of them grinning and laughing a bit themselves. They didn't understand what was funny, but the sight of the boy doubled over with his three companions sporting severely confused expressions was a humorous sight in itself.
The spectators really started laughing when Mariku got impatient, a common occurrence. He stalked forward and picked Ryou up bridal style, earning a yelp from the breathless boy. He proceeded to walk off, a silent cue for Marik and Bakura to follow. Marik was laughing good naturedly, but Bakura was having a different reaction.
He knew it was completely harmless, that it didn't mean anything. He knew that Mariku was simply trying to make progress and was sick of waiting for the fit of laughter to stop. But even knowing this, Bakura couldn't stop the angry pangs of jealousy coursing through him. He wanted to be the one to carry Ryou. He wanted to be the one Ryou looked up at with that adorable bewildered expression. He wanted it to be his neck Ryou wrapped his arms around to steady himself as he was swept off his feet, and he wanted to be the one to do the sweeping. His jealousy was strong enough to quickly override the sudden thoughts that sprung up, mostly consisting of, When did I get so possessive? and When did my feelings for this kid get so strong?
Marik looked over and saw Bakura's expression and the slight twitch in his right eye, and hurried forward to tell Mariku to put Ryou down.
Mariku looked to the side as Marik started whispering in his ear. "Mariku. Put Ryou down. 'Kura's really jealous and he's trying to kill you with his eyes right now."
Ryou only heard two words. 'Kura's' and 'jealous'. When he looked back at Bakura, with a little strain on his neck, mind you, he looked livid, and his right eye, the one with the scar under it was twitching slightly. He squeaked a bit in surprise when Mariku suddenly moved to put him down, and when he was firmly back on his feet, Ryou looked back, and the livid expression was gone. Ryou's brow furrowed, and he fell back to walk in step with Bakura.
"Hey, what was that about?" he asked, looking up at his not-quite-doppelganger. Bakura decided to play dumb, which was strange for him. He'd never hidden feelings from anyone before.
"What was what about?" he asked, blinking.
"When Mariku picked me up, I looked back at you, and you had this livid expression on your face."
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did. Your eye was twitching too."
"Which eye?"
"The one with the scar under it, your right one."
Bakura's eyes widened at that. "You've noticed my scar?" he asked, reaching up to touch it almost subconsciously.
"Yeah."
"When?"
"I think it was about when you were changing my sling. Why?"
"No reason, it's just… not many people ever notice it, especially not with my skin tone. If I was tan like I used to be, that'd be a different story but-" suddenly he cut himself off, shaking his head and looking forward.
Now it was Ryou's turn to play dumb. "You used to be tan?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," he paused before continuing. "Last summer I spent a lot of time at the beach and I got more tanned than I usually am. It made my scar more prominent," he lied through his teeth. Well, the last sentence wasn't a lie. It was more noticeable when he was tanner. It just hadn't been from the beach.
Unfortunately for Bakura, Ryou hadn't been thrown off of their original topic by the distraction. "So?"
"So… what?" Bakura asked, hoping to just get Ryou to drop it. He wasn't sure why he didn't want Ryou to know how he felt about him, but he did know that he was worried, for whatever reason, that he didn't return the feelings.
"So, why did you look like you were going to kill Mariku when he picked me up?" Ryou was starting to get impatient. Fortunately for Bakura, however, he looked up and saw that they had arrived at his apartment. "Oh! This is it. Should I just run up quick, or do you guy's want to come in?" he asked, and Bakura smiled, grateful for the change of topic.
Marik grinned. "Why, I wanna come in of course!"
Ryou smiled. "Of course you do. Well, come on, we won't take long, I just have to get some clothes and we'll get going."
"Hey Bakura, come look at this," Marik said, he and Mariku standing close together, both looking at the picture in Marik's hand. Ryou was in his room, gathering what he needed and putting it in a small suitcase. He was taking longer than he would normally, given he only had one arm to work with.
"What is it?" the thief asked, walking over and staring, a smile forming on his lips as he took in the image. There was twelve year old Ryou, posing for the camera with a huge smile on his face, standing with two females. There was a woman slightly behind him with a hand on his shoulder, looking to be in her late twenties, and she was obviously Ryou's mother, with the same white hair and similar features. There was also a girl who seemed to be a bit younger than him, with one arm looped around his middle. She was almost identical to Ryou, the only outstanding differences were that her hair was a bit shorter with a pink streak in the front, and her eyes were bright emerald green. The three looked happy to be with each other.
Ryou walked out to see all three of them huddled over that picture, smiling. "Having fun?" he asked, and the three of them started, looking up at him.
"Hey Ryou, who's this?" Mariku asked, holding out the picture. He took it, and they huddled around him, looking with him. A sad smile made it's way onto his face.
"That's mom, and my little sister Amane. I remember that day. Dad was holding the camera. It was Amane's tenth birthday. Mom and I had just gotten done baking the cake, we were throwing her a surprise party. Dad had taken her out for an ice cream to give us time to set everything up. I remember the mad dash to clean everything up when we saw them pulling into the driveway. We kept slipping on flour we had spilled on the floor and stuff. We checked like ten times to make sure we hadn't overlooked anything 'incriminating' that she might have seen when they came in," he chuckled. "All the trouble was worth it, though, when we saw her face. She was ecstatic. Actually she almost choked me with the hug she gave me, and I think mom could've said the same," he pointed at something in the picture. "You see that little pink smudge on my face? That's icing. Amane decided to get cheeky and smash a piece of cake in my face. I guess I missed a spot when I washed it off."
"Where are they now?" Mariku asked. Sadness made it's way into Ryou's gaze as he touched the faces of his mother and sister, as if he could melt right through the picture and back to that day.
"They died, a few years later. They were driving home from a shopping trip when a drunk driver slammed into them. Flipped the car and everything. I was home with Dad. He left by the time I was fifteen. Haven't heard from him since."
It was silent for a time, before Ryou spoke again. "I'm ready to go, my bag's packed."
That broke the silence, and they all started moving again, leaving and making their way back to Bakura's house.
