KS: Hey minna! We are so sorry that took so long.

Ryou: KSistern has been very busy and just couldn't find the time to message Tenshi.

Bakura: Shut up, they all know that she was just being lazy.

KS: I was not!

Bakura: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They own nothing!

Ryou: Please don't sue.


Ryou ran away from his friends, and didn't stop running the entire 3 miles home.

Exhausted, he entered his house and let go of the door handle, then fell to his knees panting and sweating. Only then did he realize exactly what he'd done.

"Oh my God! No, no, no! What have I done? How could I have yelled at them like that!"

Ryou's heart was beating unbelievably fast, but it went off the charts when Bakura took hold of his collar. The man lifted Ryou off of his knees and held him eye level.

"What's wrong Ryou?" he grinned at the younger. "Personally I found that entire scenario to be very amusing."

Ryou whimpered sadly when out of nowhere his stomach grumbled. Bakura seemed to find this very funny. After laughing out loud he threw Ryou at the couch and asked with a maniacal smile;

"Hahaha. Ryou, are you hungry?"

As if in response, the light's stomach growled again. The spirit's grin grew wider.

"Well then Hikari, guess what. You are going to cook dinner for me."

Ryou's eyes widened, he knew where this was going. Today was Tuesday. Bakura always left on Tuesdays. One week he attempted to bring Ryou along with him but... He ended up carrying an unconscious boy home for reasons to vulgar and awful to speak aloud.

When Bakura left on Tuesdays there was no telling when he would return. But one thing the younger knew for sure was, dinner had to be done and ready for him or there would be consequences.

"And it had better be done by the time I'm back. When, and only when, I finish, you may eat."

With that Bakura opened the door and left.

Ryou sat back for a moment in hopes to try and calm his racing heart. Bakura knew that Ryou hadn't eaten since dinner the day before yesterday. He almost always missed breakfast due to the Yami's shenanigans. Not to mention lunch, and even dinner for that matter. Starving Ryou had become almost a hobby for the spirit.

Ryou turned his head to look out the window by the door. What he saw made him flinch and immediately shoot up out of his seat.

Bad idea. His stomach flipped in protest and his vision clouded. The whitette doubled over in pain while his head pounded. Ryou grunted, fell to the ground and stilled.

His eyes looked to the window once more before unconsciousness took over. Bakura, along with his sadistic smile, was gone.

Ryou's eyes closed.


When his eyes opened, the white-haired boy was met with a shock. He was blind-folded and tied to a hard surface. Very awkwardly, I might add.

His hands were tied together with what felt like a wire. But because Ryou could still move his arms with just that, his hands were duck-taped down too. His legs however, were not tied together. They were bent at the knee to be tied to what felt like table legs. Ryou now realized that he was, hopefully, on the kitchen table in his house and not somewhere else.

He pulled at his binds for a moment to test how sturdy they were. They were tight enough to cut open his wrists and ankles immediately. Ryou winced and decided to remain motionless until something happened.

During his wait he also took note that he was only wearing jeans. It was warm though. Something must be cooking to give off so much heat. It smelled good too. Sooo good. Like brown sugar.

"I see you've finally decided to wake up, Landlord," he heard. "Who said you could sleep while I was out?" Ryou could practically feel the grin in the voice he knew to be Bakura's. "Well~? Who said you could?" he prodded.

Ryou shivered as the cruel voice sent cold shocks up his spine. The spirit always managed to terrify Ryou, almost without trying.

"N-Nobody."

"Then what, pray tell, made you decide it was okay to?"

The smaller albino felt something cold on his cheek. It ran up the side of his face and underneath the blindfold. Bakura wrenched the blade back, cutting off the blindfold and with it, a small sliver of Ryou's skin.

"Gaahh! It was an accident Bakura-sama! I swear!" he shouted, rushing to defend himself. He blinked several times to get used to the bright kitchen light right above his eyes.

"Whether it was an accident or not, Hikari, the fact that you disobeyed me is enough reason to punish you."

Ryou whimpered.

Punishment.

Again.

"Why Ryou, are you hungry?" Bakura asked after hearing the boy's stomach give a loud growl once again. "Well I happen to know something you are simply going to love," by the look in his eyes, Ryou could tell just how awful the night was going to be.

Bakura turned around to open the fridge. He pulled out a bag of fresh, bright red apples, and took one out and began to slice it with ease. After it was in six segments, he cored them to get rid of the seeds.

"A snack I've learned to enjoy over the years is apples with homemade caramel," he pulled a pot out from under the sink and filled it with water. The spirit then turned on a burner and set the pot over the flame. He began slicing apples again while he spoke to Ryou.

"Really Yadonushi, I still can't believe you fell asleep while I was gone. But, you know, the fisherman I killed happened to have some fishing wire, that became useful since I still don't know where the rope is," Bakura's voice was getting more fierce with each word.

He took a handful of the apples he'd been cutting and tossed them into the now boiling water, then, tired of slicing apples, threw in the rest of them whole. The older man turned around to face Ryou. Not surprisingly, he had a bone-chilling smile that reached from ear to ear.

"This is going to be be fun."

He pulled another pot off the stove that Ryou had failed to notice before. It had a spatula handle sticking out of it. Bakura stirred it a little and pulled out the kitchen utensil.

"Here's the caramel. Very, very hot," he said, sweetly at first only to then turn venomous.

Ryou's eyes widened as his darker half walked closer and began to drizzle the piping, hot, viscous liquid all over his unclothed chest.

His eyes watered and his body writhed. Ryou screeched in agony while Bakura's insane grin just grew.

"Oh what fun, what fun. I'm really enjoying this. Aren't you?" he stopped his torturous act while there was still 2/3 of the caramel left. He walked back to the stove to put the pot back over the flames he'd failed to turn off.

"I got a new knife, Hikari. I guess the fisherman used it to gut his fish," the Psychopath walked back over to Ryou, holding a long thin blade. It wasn't serrated, unlike most of the thief's knives. He stood to the Light's right side and slapped his burns as hard as he could with his left hand, causing the boy to scream in pain, and in the process got it covered with caramel. He just licked it off, savoring the taste.

Once the caramel was hard, he grabbed it and pulled it off the boy's chest, receiving yet another scream in reward from the boy.

"Gaaaahhnnhhnn," Ryou panted and coughed. He then started hyperventilating when he saw Bakura raise the blade over his chest and begin to cut. Ryou began to cry and quiver in pain.

"You know Tenshi, you are quite the sight right now," he said after a while. "Sweating, hair soaked in blood, writhing in pain, with tears on your cheeks, and not to mention these beautiful burns all over your chest," Bakura looked almost thoughtful for a moment, but that was short-lived because he broke out into another grin and drove the knife a little deeper into his Hikari's chest. The screams earned from that were deafening. Especially when he poured some more caramel, that slid into the wounds. Ryou had no doubt that this mutilation would lead to scarring.

Ryou could feel Bakura drawing something, but his vision was already becoming blurry with tears, he couldn't make much of anything out. The older man worked slowly and carefully to make the picture come out just right.

When he finished the slow, agonizing, voluntary act of violence, he walked back to the stove and turned off both burners. Then he proceeded to poor the caramel into a bowl and stab the apples out of the pot. When he finished his rather primitive form of serving, Bakura carried the apples and syrupy sauce to the table where Ryou was immobilized.

"This looks very good Ryou. Have you ever tried homemade caramel before? It's much better than you may think."

Ryou had in fact tried it before, a long time ago when his mother was alive. She would always make some for him and his sister. Ryou's stomach let out the loudest and longest growl yet. He was sure he was visibly drooling by now.

Bakura laughed out loud and popped a caramel covered apple slice in his mouth. He taunted Ryou by moaning in pleasure and chewing slowly. The teen didn't know how much more of this he could take. His stomach rumbled again, but Bakura just kept eating.

After a minute or so, the Spirit's face lit up like he'd just had the most brilliant idea ever. He dipped his finger into the still hot caramel and covered it thoroughly.

"Would you like to try some, Hikari," Bakura dipped his finger into Ryou's mouth. The younger's hunger got the best of him and he lapped up all that he could. After he was done though and the other's finger retreated, Ryou understood exactly why Bakura had done it. The pain in his gut had increased exponentially, the small taste he'd gotten only served to whet his appetite and make it even worse. He whimpered again.

Bakura sat on the table next to Ryou and, almost gently, ran his left hand across the Light's cheek. Ryou knew it was time to be terrified. What was a soft expression before turned insane as Bakura dug his fingers deep into the scabbed wound he'd made while taking off the blindfold. Ryou howled in pain.

Bakura took his other hand and began to claw at Ryou's chest as well.

Bakura must have pitied Ryou because he finally let him pass out after that. He'd had a good night though. He'd tortured his Hikari, burned his Hikari and marked his Hikari with a symbol of ownership.


KS: This chapter was really fun to write, but it wouldn't have been even close to presentable without Tenshi's patient editing.

Ryou: She will be joining us again in the next chapter.

KS: Bye, bye!