So, here is chapter three. Thanks for the reviews. I always love getting reviews. And I'd love to get more...

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I would, I wouldn't write fanfics, now would I?

Chapter 3

And I thought.

Life went on. Life was rugged. Life was short. Life was unfair. Life sucked...

Somehow, my life wasn't beautiful or wonderful or whatever, it just wasn't. At least not anymore. Not since the only person I loved on earth was taken away from me. Why did he'd had to die? Everything was my fault. Maybe I could've saved him from drowning... If I only would have known what would happen... Then I'd never have agreed to jump from the cliff. Never. And only because he wanted me to be happy. Me. It was just so unfair. I should have been dead, not he. He just wanted to make me happy. He always had been nice and friendly and gentle and... so much more. And all that even before he'd met me. His whole life he'd never done anything wrong, anything bad. And he'd had it hard, very hard in his short life. His mother and sister had died in a car accident as he'd been eight and his father... He had killed himself four years after the death of his wife and daughter as he obviously didn't care about what would happen to Ryou when he was gone. Yes, Ryou'd had a hard and unhappy and sad childhood. He'd rarely smiled, his friends had told me.

And then, he'd met me. I knew it as if it had been yesterday. I was looking around in a shop for clothes, after I'd stolen the purse of a really unfriendly man.

Yes, I'd been a thief. All of my life I'd been a thief. And while we're at it, I could tell you as well from my life.

I didn't know where I was born and I didn't know my parents. I just knew that they hadn't wanted me and that they had marooned me just after my birth. So, after somebody had found me, I was brought into an orphanage. I hadn't liked it there. It had been dirty and there had been too much children. Mean children, as well. Even as I had been a small child and some of them had been ten years older than me, they'd been unfair and had pushed me around and had tormented me mercilessly because of my looks. And nobody had cared about me. Nobody had ever loved me. Neither my own parents, my own flesh and blood, nor the women that had worked at the orphanage. That had been hard. No wonder why I was how I was. But since no one had ever loved me, I had been used to it. But that didn't mean that I hadn't hated it.

Nobody would ever had adopted me. The men and women, that came to choose a child to adopt, had never been interested in me, and they always chose another child. I didn't know why nobody wanted me, maybe they just hadn't liked me. Maybe, there was something about me, for example my white hair or my dark eyes, that had scared them away.

As I'd turned ten (of course, I didn't know my exact birth day, the birth day they'd given me was just the day they'd found me), I had decided that I'd been old enough to leave the orphanage. So, in the night of my 'birth day', I'd climbed out of the window and had run away.

The following years I'd battled myself through the world. Well, not through the world, but through the town. At daylight, I'd always tried to steal as much money as possible to buy some food and other things I'd needed, and in the evening I'd looked for a place where I could stay overnight. Of course, this hadn't meant a warm bedroom or such things, no, it had meant to sleep under bridges and other places where you'd never wanted to live.

So, now back to the day when I'd met Ryou. As I'd already said, I was looking around in a shop, searching for clothes, after I'd stolen the purse from a really unfriendly man...

*flashback*

I ran against somebody.

"Watch where you're going, naughty urchin!" I'd run against a man, who wore a expensive black suit.

"I'm really sorry, Sir", I apologized and continued walking. As I was past him, I smirked. //What a dumbass...//, I thought and eyed the black leather purse I hold in my hands. I'd stolen it from the man in suit. Quickly, before he noticed that his purse was missing, I turned around the next corner and counted the money that was in the purse. Bingo! Forty thousand bucks! //Finally I can buy some new clothes//, I thought. Clothes were actually not as easy to steal as one might think, so I preferred to buy them.

I went to one of the clothes shops on the outskirts of Domino City. Of course, I couldn't spend all the money in this single shop. It would've been very suspicious if a thirteen year old boy would spend so much money in that single shop...

Well, I looked around to find anything that appealed to me. I'd finally found some shirts and trousers, so I went to a fitting cabin. I drew the curtain, that surrounded the fitting cabin, aside and two widened chocolate brown eyes stared at me in shock. My mouth opened slightly and I gaped at the most beautiful figure I've ever seen in my life. The boy, who stood in front of me, holding the shirt he wanted to try on before his chest, was stunningly beautiful. His skin was pale and he had long white hair, just like mine, only that mine was spikier than his. His lips were a soft pink and they looked so smooth. While I was looking at him I had a strange feeling, I'd never had before. I couldn't describe it.

Only after a second of gaze, I realized that I was disturbing him and went out of the fitting cabin, mumbling an apologize. I almost had forgotten what I'd wanted to do in the first place.

//Who was that boy?//, I asked myself. I didn't know why, but somehow I had the feeling that I had to see him again. I would wait for him in front of the shop. Yes!

I looked at the clothes in my arms and decided to buy them without trying them on. If I'd try them on, the boy would probably have left the shop and I'd never see him again.

After I'd paid at the cash desk, I put the new clothes in my backpack and waited in front of the shop, leaning against the wall.

And while I waited, I asked myself what exactly I was doing. I... waited for some guy I'd seen a brief moment in a fitting cabin, because I thought he was beautiful...? Uh-oh, what was wrong with me? But maybe, I didn't wait for him because of his looks and stuff, maybe it was just the feeling that he could be... my friend that made me waiting for him. Maybe my instincts told me that he was a nice guy and I'd never had a friend, so it was about time. Or maybe... - it was hard to admit it- maybe I had a crush on him. A little crush...

At this moment the white-haired boy exited the shop and his eyes widened as he saw me. I noticed that his cheeks blushed a little and again I had this strange feeling in my stomach. I just looked at him. He turned and at a brisk pace he walked in the opposite direction.

Quickly, I followed him. My heart pounded heavily against my chest. Suddenly, as I nearly had caught up with him, he stopped and turned around to face me.

"What do you want?", he asked and his voice was the most wonderful sound I'd ever heard. "Why do you follow me?", he demanded.

I didn't know what to say. I'd never had such feelings for anybody... and I'd just met him, not half an hour ago, for the first time.

"I... I...", I stuttered and decided to apologize for the fitting cabin thing. Yeah, that was a good idea to make some plus points."I'm sorry that I'd disturbed you in the shop. Really...", I told him.

"Uhm... It's Ok. I was just... surprised", he said and put on a kind smile. I nodded and also put on my nicest smile.

"I'm Bakura", I told him and reached out my hand. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. Hopefully, he would shake my hand with his beautiful pale hand.

"My name is Ryou", he said and shook my hand. As his hand touched mine, this strange feeling overwhelmed me again. Suddenly, I felt complete. I knew it was strange, but that's how it felt.

I felt, that I was... in love?

And I felt, I couldn't just let him go wherever he would go and then see him never again. Somehow, I had to meet him again. But what should I tell him? Hey, Ryou, you beautiful boy with the looks of an angel I've met just half an hour ago, would you like to date me?

No, that would have been stupid. And maybe the feeling I felt wasn't love, maybe it was in fact just the wish for being friends with that white-haired angel. Actually, I hadn't had a friend before and I'd never had the wish to be friends with somebody, so how could I tell if that feeling was the wish for being friends with Ryou or love? I sighed inwardly. I didn't know it exactly, but I had to find it out. But the love thing was more probable, because since when did a boy describe his friend as an beautiful angel?

I decided to ask him for his address.

"Uhm... where do you live?", I asked him and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Uh...", he hesitated, of course. Who would give a stranger one's address?

Ryou would and did it.

"I live not far from here. Just around the corner and then at the third crossroads right. I live in one of the grey apartment buildings, apartment building C. The apartment is the 601. Top story", he described and smiled. Probably, he wanted a friend, too, or why else would he describe to me, although he didn't even know me where he lived? I tried to keep the directions in my mind.

"Thank you, Ryou. I was glad to meet you. Maybe, we can meet again", I said to him and he nodded. Then, he turned around and went into the direction of his home.

I sighed as I watched Ryou leave, the sinking sun in the background.

Then, I went towards where I decided to sleep in the night. It was a quiet place behind a bush under a bridge. Not really comfortable, but better than on the street. I packed out the blanket that was in my backpack and tucked me up. And I lay there and lay there and couldn't fall asleep. All the time I had to think of Ryou. And only then I realized something I hadn't realized before when I'd met him. Probably I'd been to enchanted to realize it, but... Ryou WAS a boy. And I WAS a boy, too. So the feeling I've had, had to be in a friendly way. It couldn't have been a feeling of love, could it? Unless... unless I was gay.

Now, was I gay or wasn't I? That was actually a difficult question. I'd never been interested in girls, but I'd never been interested in boys either. I'd never been interested in anybody to be precise.

"Gay or not gay, that is the question", I muttered to myself. And even if I was gay and that damned feeling was love... who could tell that Ryou was gay, too?

I sighed. Maybe he would at least be my friend. Slowly, I drifted to sleep.

The next day, I waited until it was afternoon and then I went off and searched for Ryou's home. I went to the shop where I'd met him yesterday and then around the corner, along the street until I reached the third crossroads. There I turned right and kept straight on. There were many grey apartment buildings. So, which one was building C? I continued going. A... B... Ah! There was C! I went to the front door and then up the stairs. Ryou had said he lived on the top story. How high was this building? After six staircases I decided to take the elevator. Arriving on the top story, I went to apartment 601 and wondered if Ryou was at home at all.

I shrugged and rang. My heart beat heavily. Would he recognize me or had he already forgotten me? I heard steps. And then, a white-haired boy peeked through the slightly open door.

"Hello, Ryou", I said and he opened the door completely. Surprise was written in his face.

"Oh, Bakura", he said and smiled. "Come in."

I went into his apartment and yes... that was when everything started.

After I'd figured out that he lived alone, and he had told me what had happened to his family, I felt really sorry for him. But then I saw, that we shared almost the same sorrow. We both were alone.

We talked the whole afternoon and I tried to find out more about Ryou. He was a really nice guy. And... well, I now knew the answer to the question I had the last night before falling asleep. I was gay... but I didn't know if Ryou was, too. I'd just have to wait until... I didn't know until when, but some day the time I'd come to know would come.

Well, we became friends and from that day on I visited him every afternoon, because in the morning he was in school.

More than one week had passed as he asked me for my address. Then I had to tell him, what I'd tried to hide. That I lived on the street and I told him my story. As I had finished I thought that he maybe wouldn't want me to be his friend anymore, but his reaction was the opposite. He was shocked and asked why I hadn't told him before. I just stuttered something and he immediately offered that I could live with him in his apartment. I said that I couldn't accept that, but he stuck to his guns. I couldn't believe it.

And that was when we became best friends. And as I didn't go to school, he signed me up so that I could go to Domino High. There I met the others. I didn't like them too much, but I didn't show it, because they were Ryou's friends.

And soon, Ryou and I discovered, that we were actually more than best friends. And Ryou told me, that he'd had such feelings since the first time we'd met. Just like me.

I thought, that our loneliness connected us somehow. I could understand exactly what he felt and he understood what I felt.

Ryou was happy for the first time since five years and I was happy for the first time of my life. Since he'd met me, he'd started to smile and laugh, something he'd rarely done before, his friends had told me.

We were happy...

I sighed. This memory made me sad. Now, Ryou was gone and I wasn't happy anymore. Yeah, there were other people, that liked me, but I didn't like them. Yugi and the others. They didn't know how it was to have your dead lover in your arms, how it was to live on the street, how it was to live without anyone who loved you, how it was to live without parents, how it was to suffer... They just didn't know how that felt. They could never understand me, never, and not a bit like Ryou did understand me. He knew how all that things felt. He had lost his whole family. And now, I had lost him.

Would I ever love anybody again? Could I ever love anybody again? Ryou had been the only one for me and I had promised him, just before he had died, that he'd be forever the only one I love.

I just stared at the ceiling. Suddenly, I thought of Malik. Why did I thought of him? I shook my head to get him out of my thoughts, but it didn't work. I saw his face before my eyes. I saw his lavender eyes staring into mine. Quickly, I shut my eyes and hoped that his face would vanish. And it did. I sighed. This strange feeling, I'd had as I'd seen him this morning... No... it couldn't be... Could it?

Sorry, if this chapter was kinda boring. Or if it has confused you. I just had to write this, how Bakura had met Ryou and stuff, so that some day I can get this story to the point where I want it to get (or something like that).

And just that you know, why I let Ryou describe where he lived: I've heard that in Japan, there aren't street names, so I didn't write one. Now, is that actually true that there are no street names or am I misinformed?

And the 'forty thousand bucks' are of course forty thousand yen.

Well, please send me a review and tell me if you liked that chapter... or not. Just tell me. Oh, btw, I've enabled anonymous reviews, what means that you can send me a review even if you're not signed up or logged in. So, please review.

~Crystal of Moonlight~