HI! I am infinitely sorry for the 9 month hibernation.. ^_^ THank you to anyone who reads this and to anyone who put this on story alert/faved/reviewed/generally made me feel special.

P.S. Sorry about Kaiba in this chapter, he is being very creepy and will be for the rest of this fic. I was thinking of changing him for pegasus but that would have been too weird and pervy. :D

.P.'t own YU-Gi-Oh. And this is more shonen ai than yaoi.

P.P.P.S Year 12= 11th Grade or 16-17yrs :D Good Old Wikipedia.

"I kissed a girl, and I liked it! The taste of her cherry chapstick!" The song echoed loudly in the small room, while the baseline made the floor vibrate and sent shivers up Ryou's spine. Ryou was standing in a club, all flashing strobe lights and swaying bodies. Among the crowd, he spotted people he recognised. Yuugi's star-shaped hair stood out among the crowd, whilst he recognised Serenity from her long, silky hair. There were also people he didn't know, unfamiliar faces. He caught a glimpse of wild, spiked hair and, for a split second, slanted crimson eyes staring right at him.

Suddenly, the walls flew away from him. He was standing on a pillar, and below him danced a sea of red flames. They seemed to sing enticingly as they crept up the pillar towards him, forming shapes. Love hearts, flowers, birds, plants. Ryou was entranced. A resounding voice from above called out "You will burn in the fire of hell!"

"Burn with lust..." hissed the voices from below. A vocal collage reached his ears. A collage of many songs that Ryou had heard in the past.

"I'm bringing sexy back, yeah...baby, push it, push it real good!...babe, pick a night to come out and play, if it's alright, what do you say?...all night long, it's just you and the crowd, doing tricks you've never seen...AND YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO FACE IT, YOU'RE ADDICTED TO LOVE!"

It was so unreal. Love, love, love. And then, the most vivid part of the dream so far. A man appeared, randomly sitting inches from Ryou, back turned. All Ryou could see of him was his tanned back, and wild blonde hair, tinged reddish from the feverishly dancing flames below. The man spoke so quietly Ryou had to listen hard, but the three words were seared into his memory. "Just say yes."

Ryou woke up in the school's sickbay, in a cold sweat. He was lying on his back with a rather unpleasant view of the blotchy, dirty ceiling. I wonder if they thought it was amusing, putting sick-coloured wallpaper in a sick room, Ryo thought drily as he sat up. A clattering of boxes announced the arrival of the nurse, Amane. Ryou gave her an angelic smile, which was rare but beautiful thing. Out of all the adults in the school, the young disorganised nurse was Ryou's favourite, because she treated him like a real person, rather than a burden that had been foisted upon her. Ryou was always flattered that, after spending her day dealing with crying, vomiting, grouchy, germ-ridden teenagers sent from their lessons to the infirmary, she still deemed him important enough to bother with whenever he found himself in the sick room, which was often. Ryou was rather prone to injury. He wasn't particularly delicate, just unlucky. It didn't help that some people thought it amusing to trip people in the corridors and Ryou was often in his own little dream world so didn't think to avoid the outstretched leg or dodge the not-so-gentle shoulder barges that were flung around during lunch break. Amane returned his smile. He's a strange one, she thought, but so sweet.

Ryou generally felt slightly pathetic, knowing the nurses shallow kindness meant more to him than anything. She probably went home to her family, her boyfriend, whatever, and forgot he even existed, while he clung on to every kind word aimed at him like it were gold dust. When he was alone, he replayed these moments in his mind to keep him sane.

It's not working... the sceptic in his mind kept telling him, you need to get a grip!

"Ryou? You best get back to lessons now. One more hour, and then we'll both be free, eh?" Amane winked at him.

"Oh...ok." Ryou tried to shake the image of the mysterious man from his mind. He was so...enticing. And so real. For some reason, Ryou couldn't rid himself of the notion that the man might not just be a figment of his imagination. However, he did have last period, Social Studies, to worry about.

"Erm...Ryou?" Ryou glanced up to see Amane by the door, keys in hand. He quickly moved outside the office. "Good luck, Ryou. Damn, if anyone needs it, you do." Amane said, smiling. She turned and walked away, flat shoes making no noise on the cheap carpet. Ryou took off, hoping to get to his next lesson before the register closed.

The first thing Ryou noticed as he entered the room, was the lack of noise. He stood by the door, looking around for his seat. Great, right at the front. Ryou began to walk across the room. Their social studies teacher, Miss Valentine, was glaring at him with unsuppressed hatred. She was a woman in her late 50's with dyed blonde hair who never wore anything that wasn't tight and aimed at women half her age. She was lax when it came to rules, but not when it came to her own opinions. She took it as a personal insult if anyone debated against her, which therefore rendered her social studies classes completely useless. As Ryou sat down he found himself thinking about how the school desperately needed some new teachers.

Miss Valentine walked up to the whiteboard. "As you know," she said, "We have been studying relationships this term. We're now moving on to talking about romantic relationships. Now, no need to laugh." She directed the latter comment at Jounouchi, who was laughing along with Tristan. He doesn't get it, Ryou thought bitterly. None of them do. This is probably the most useful thing we're ever going to learn in school, and all they can do is laugh and stare at Miss Valentine's cleavage.

"There are lots of different types of romantic relationships. Shall we list a few?"

As the class volunteered contributions, Ryou drifted into a daydream. Suddenly, something hit him on the back of the head. He glanced and saw it was a piece of paper, screwed up.

On the back, some intelligent, witty person had scrawled "queer". He unfolded it, and noticed it was the remains of a permission slip.

Year 12* Trip to Domino Arts College

Ryou groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. Another day, another pointless school trip.

Little did he know, this particular trip was going to change his life.

The bell rang shrilly, jolting Ryou from his vague daydreaming. He half-smiled to himself. End of the day!

He shoved his book unceremoniously into his bag, jumped up from his seat and walked quickly out into the corridor. The journey from the classroom to the school gates took about five minutes. On Friday, there was always a feverish buzz in the air. The happiness of two days freedom. That "Friday feeling". That was what put the slight spring in Ryou's step as he walked alongside the metal fencing outside school towards home.

He was about halfway home from school when the first strange event took place.

A shiny black limousine rolled up alongside him. It stopped and one of its doors swung open, blocking his path. Ryou jumped slightly. A man leaned out of the open door. Ryou recognised him immediately. "Seto Kaiba." He said curiously. Kaiba was a multi millionaire, one of the richest people in Domino, influential, well known, rich.

Kaiba spoke. His voice was smooth, yet strangely scripted and almost too confident. "Ryou Bakura. I've been thinking lately. About myself. About my life. And I was thinking..." He ran one hand through his hair, sighing"...how lonely its been recently, in my huge mansion."

Ryou raised one eyebrow. What the hell? "And this involves me...why?" Ryou asked.

"It's a shame that I have no-one to share my riches with."

Ryou didn't like the way this conversation was going.

"I want you to come and share it with me." Kaiba finished. He gave a cocky smile, as if expecting a round of applause, or for Ryou to faint with happiness.

"Erm... I hardly know you!" Ryou said incredulously. Seriously, this kind of thing only happens in films about the 1700's, when some poor woman marries an old man for his money...

Kaiba smirked. "Well, think about it, my pretty." He handed Ryou a business card. It had a phone number printed on it in silver. "Goodbye Ryou. I know we'll meet again soon."

The limo drove away, leaving Ryou standing there on the pavement. "Creep." Ryou muttered. He pocketed the business card, and then jogged the rest of the way home, because it was cold and he wanted toast.

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