Chapter Three: Smiles
Bakura was aware of a bright light shining all around him, radiating out of every crevice of nearby space.
Wait...wasn't this the same pearly glow from when...?
"Welcome, Thief King," called a voice. The Voice, as Bakura had dubbed it.
Bakura sighed in annoyance. This was exactly what he needed- another lengthy conversation with the Voice. "Well, I cannot say that I'm pleased to hear...you...again," Bakura called out.
"You haven't made Ryou happy yet, Thief King," the Voice called in what Bakura considered an unnecessary accusing tone.
"Yes," Bakura protested, "I have...I...I have made him...smile!" Bakura said, sounding triumphant. "So, having met my requirements, I can stop trying to make him happy, and do whatever I please, correct?"
"Wrong!"
"What?" Bakura hissed at the Voice, seething in anger. He was not a babysitter! He did not have time to go around attempting to please that child day after day!
The voice snorted in disbelief, oblivious to the Thief King's anger. "You honestly think a smile, one lone smile, is happiness?" the Voice asked rhetorically. It talked over him when Bakura tried to reply anyways.
"Besides, it was only a fake smile, cast only to befuddle you long enough to allow him to make it to his room, undisturbed. In other words, he only wanted time to think, alone."
The voice chuckled. "He's a clever boy, isn't he, to play on your newly re-discovered emotions like that? Looks like Ryou learned a thing or two from you, ha!"
Bakura sneered. Ryou wasn't that good an actor...
...was he?
Anger flashed through Bakura. How dare Ryou deceive him!
"And, do tell me, Thief King, was your apology sincere? Did you truly mean your words, or did you only utter them from guilt?"
Bakura looked away and mumbled something indistinct.
"What was that? Couldn't hear you, Thief King..."
Bakura raised his voice, tone icy.
"No, I suppose it wasn't...I only said so because Ryou said it would make him happy."
The voice laughed, "So, how can you be cross with Ryou for responding to your insincere apology with an insincere smile?"
The laughter rung in his ears echoing...echoing...echoing...
YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH
Bakura woke to the smell of something cooking.
For minutes, Bakura had forgotten all about this strange dream, but as he yawned and stretched his arms, he remembered all that voice had told him.
Ryou had fooled him, the Thief King, with a fake smile. Two fake smiles, now that he thought back to the event.
Bakura was trying not to let this get to him, that Ryou, of all people, had managed to trick him. He really was.
Nonetheless, the fact of the matter was that it still troubled him tremendously. Was it this human body that caused him to be so easily deceived, so... weak? He felt a surge of self-disgust. He hated weakness. It was a quality unbecoming of a thief. Weakness was something that must never be shown, something that, if revealed, could get you killed.
It didn't help that Bakura still had to make that little fraud happy.
Bakura grumbled all the way to the kitchen, which he found by following the smell.
Ryou was standing in there, cooking on the stove, his back to Bakura. For a moment, Bakura wanted to creep up to him and scare the living daylights out of the boy, but dismissed this silly, immature thought as soon as it occurred in his head.
On the counter, there was a plate of eggs, giving off a delicious aroma.
It smelled so...good...and he was so...hungry... Bakura was a thief, he did not ask for things, only took, and so he reached for the plate, realizing that it would be the first thing that he would consume in this body. Bakura might have been drooling, he wasn't sure...
SMACK!
Jerking his throbbing hand back reflexively, Bakura looked up into the angry face of Ryou, who was waving a spatula around madly.
Bakura had mentioned he was really, really hungry, hadn't he? He was not in the mood.
Knocking Ryou's spatula to the ground, he dove for the food.
"Those are mine!" Ryou shrieked, grabbing the platter from Bakura's greedy grasp.
Bakura narrowed his eyes at Ryou and... His stomach growled. Menacingly, of course.
"Oh, would you like some food, Bakura?" Ryou said, bending down to retrieve his spatula once he was sure Bakura wasn't going grab the plate again, looking as if he was trying to hide a smile.
Heh, a 'fake' smile, thought Bakura resentfully.
"Yes!" huffed Bakura, outstretching his arms to reclaim the dish.
Ryou swatted Bakura hands away again and handed Bakura the spatula, saying "If you want food, fix it yourself...eggs are in the fridge, don't make a mess."
With that, he grabbed his plate, shoved past Bakura, and went to his room, a smirk on his face.
Fine! thought Bakura. He was the Thief King; surely, he could manage to make his own breakfast!
A few broken eggs, several burns, a small kitchen fire, and many, many, colorful curses later, Bakura was thinking otherwise.
In fact, he was swearing so badly that Ryou had promptly marched back into the kitchen a half hour later, screaming, "What is going on in here?"
Ryou took one look at Bakura's face (his left eye was twitching, he had a black smudge his nose, and his hair was in complete disarray) and doubled over, laughing. Until this point, Bakura did not know that Ryou could be so cruel.
Bakura Death Glared him...a glare so intense, he usually reserved it just for the Pharaoh, himself.
Finally, after several fits of hysterical chuckling, Ryou straightened up, wiping a few laugh-induced tears from his eyes, and stared at the black blobs residing in the pan on the stove.
"I think I burned the eggs," Bakura explained unnecessarily. "You aren't going to make me eat that, are you?" he asked warily, eyeing the man-made disaster that was his cooking.
Internally, he snorted. As if Ryou could force him.
Ryou laughed again. "I should, but...I won't," he said, as he began to clean up and got some more eggs. "Sit down and I'll cook some more for you."
Bakura went to the kitchen table and sat, watching Ryou work over the stove.
A while later, Ryou threw a plate of eggs in front of him. Instead of retreating to his room, though, Ryou sat down at the table in the chair located opposite Bakura.
Not even paying attention to Ryou's new position, Bakura dug in.
For the first thing had truly eaten in over three thousand years, he found that the food was not disappointing. Ryou was a good cook, as Bakura had discovered.
"So," Ryou asked once Bakura was finished,"did you like it?"
Bakura looked away, smirking. "It wasn't bad."
Ryou grimaced, crossed his arms for a second, and then took Bakura's plate to the sink. "You're welcome..."
Normally, Bakura would have come up with a witty and degrading remark, but he was too busy scheming...err, planning.
The sooner he made Ryou happy, the sooner he could leave. Thus, Bakura's goal for today was to make Ryou as contented as possible. But...how?
How would he make this boy happy? This was quite the problem for Bakura. He, as a thief, had no experience at all in the art of pleasing others, especially not whiny, bratty teenagers. Although, for a teenager, Ryou was not particularly fussy.
A sudden stroke of inspiration hit Bakura.
He grabbed Ryou's arm leading the boy towards the door. "W-what are you doing?" Ryou practically screamed, pushing his arm away roughly.
"We are going for a walk around the city." Don't hit him, don't hit him, don't hit him...
Ryou's jaw dropped.
"What? Isn't that what you kids like to do? Why else would spend all day wandering around, talking?"
Ryou was still gaping at him.
Bakura sighed. "So a walk wouldn't make you happy? If not, we could just remain here," Bakura said, sounding aggrivated.
Bakura finally responded, coming out of whatever shocked trance he was in. "No, no, let me just...get dressed first."
He began to walk into his room, only to turn back towards Bakura, looking him up and down. "you might want to change, too, Bakura," he said, hesitantly grabbing the Thief King's arm and trying to lead him towards the room.
But Bakura backed away from Ryou's outstretched fingers, almost falling over in the process. "Who said you could touch me?" he snapped.
"Well, you've touched me plenty of times!" Ryou screamed back.
That was...a valid point. Why had he grabbed Ryou, again?
...He didn't know. The answer was completely lost to him.
This bothered the Thief King deeply.
Ryou was glaring at him...looking very unhappy.
"It won't happen again," was Bakura's quickly thought up retort.
Why did Ryou seem even more unhappy at that reply?
"Well, follow me and we'll get you out of that ridiculous outfit. You look like a cosplayer."
What is he talking about? Thought Bakura, looking down at his clothing.
Oh. He was clad in a red robe that was remarkably similar to the once he had worn in Egypt, all those years ago.
This was not a 'ridiculous outfit!' He had stolen these fine fabrics from...well; maybe he could see Ryou's point, perhaps. It was somewhat flashy.
Huh, he had never foreseen Ryou being the voice of reason.
Walking behind Ryou, he entered the bedroom.
It was rather small, with a few pieces of mixed-matched furniture, a television still on, and a laptop charging in a darkened corner.
Ryou opened a drawer, pulling out and old t-shirt and jeans and tossing them to Bakura.
He caught them with ease. "Where can I change?"
"The bathroom is the next door down the hall."
After both Ryou and Bakura were dressed (although the T-shirt Ryou had provided was quite tight, the Thief King's body was a bit larger than Ryou's slim form), they both stepped out, Ryou locking the door behind him, keys jangling.
Bakura and Ryou had been walking up a sidewalk, unspeaking, for about fifteen minutes now.
In addition, Ryou still didn't look happy.
Bakura was about to abandon his failed attempt to please Ryou, to tell him that they should just go back to the apartment, when the noticed a scantily-clad woman stumbling down the street, grinning goofily, and grabbing onto everyone in her path. Her sleazy actions were causing the people in front of her to scatter. If you asked Bakura, she was obviously drugged or, otherwise, mentally limited in some way.
The woman proved her incompetence as she strutted up to Bakura and Ryou in her unsteady manner and came to a stop.
She looked up at Bakura with hazy eyes and drawled out, "Mmm... look at those muscles..." and she reached out to grab him.
"Touch me and you will be bodily injured," Bakura sneered. Ryou simply looked horrified and... a little angry? What was that about?
The woman seemed incapable of hearing Bakura's threat or just didn't care about the potential pain in her future; she proceeded to wrap her arms around Bakura.
What was even more surprising was that he allowed her to stroke his tan skin for a few second before shoving her from him, causing her to titter-totter onto another random, unfortunate male.
Ryou was staring at him in shock. "W-what? Why did you let h-her?" he spluttered out at Bakura.
Bakura checked to see if the woman was gone (she was now across the street, somehow) and unfurled his hand to show Ryou his prize.
Ryou stared at Bakura in blatant disbelief. "You stole her wallet?"
Bakura's response was a grin. "Pick-pocketing is one of my specialties. Of course, that was no case to proud of, far too easy..."
Ryou frowned at Bakura, disapproving. "You shouldn't have done that, Bakura."
"Oh, do you want to return it to her?" Bakura questioned sarcastically.
Ryou didn't notice the sarcasm, glancing at the bimbo, who was now conversing animatedly with a street lamp.
Ryou sweat dropped."No, just keep it Bakura," he said, sighing.
Bakura's grin turned into a smirk. The Thief King had triumphed...
"Lunch is on me," he told Ryou, pleased with himself.
Ryou actually giggled. "Fine, but I get to decide what we eat." He grabbed Bakura's hand and led him into a shop.
Bakura didn't even mind this time as Ryou held onto him. It felt sort of...nice.
YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH
Bakura was sitting beside Ryou on a park bench, eating ice cream. Yes, ice cream. This was the food that Ryou insisted that the Thief King would try.
Even if Bakura wouldn't admit it, he really liked it, although it was a bit sticky. The delicacy had a nice flavor...chocolate.
Ryou, who had already finished his cone, was staring at Bakura in avid interest. Bakura briefly wondered if it was a fake fascination, but shrugged.
"What?" Bakura sneered.
Ryou smiled. Yes! Bakura was sure it was a real smile, this time. Now all he needed to was to figure out the cause...and he would be free in no time!
"You love it, don't you?" Ryou said, smiling wider.
Bakura's eyes bludged. "W-what?" he stuttered out, his heart pounding furiously. Why was he reacting this way to a simple question? 'You love it, don't you?'
...Did he love Ryou's smile?
Ryou frowned, smile vanishing. "I said, 'you love the ice cream, don't you?"
"Oh! I mean, yes, I suppose so," Bakura blabbered out, the strangest sense of relief overfilling him.
Bakura realized in horror that heat was rising into his cheeks.
Even more terrifying was that Ryou was looking at him in an odd way.
"Uh, are you alright?" called Ryou, waving a hand in front of Bakura's face.
"Yes, I'm fine, Ryou," he said, swallowing hard.
He grabbed Ryou's hand and-ignoring the swoop this caused in his stomach, refusing to meet the boy's puzzled stare, for fear of what might happen if he looked Ryou in the eyes- said "Let's just go back to the apartment."
A flustered and confused Ryou trailed after him.
YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH YUGIOH
Once back in Ryou's apartment, Bakura fled to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face from the sink faucet.
What had happened back there? Why had he reacted that way?
Bakura sighed. He would just have to put it behind him, forget it. Yes, it was all in the past...
Bakura glued a grimace to his face with the help of the bathroom mirror and went to find Ryou.
Ryou was found in his bedroom, watching television. Upon Bakura's arrival, he patted the spot next to him. "Do you want to watch some with me? We can watch a movie..."
Bakura choked back a groan. The last thing he wanted to do now was to view the idiotic figures in Ryou's television set.
...but if it made Ryou happy, the suffering would be worth it...
Bakura nodded. "Only if I pick out the movie."
Ryou smiled. (Aha! Another victory for the Thief King!) "Sure," he said, pointing Bakura to a cabinet full of videos.
Bakura picked one out, examing the cover art, and dropped it immediately. It...had...rainbows...he shivered, half-expecting his hand to burn from the contact. Ryou watched the exchange with amusement clearly portrayed in his expression.
Cautious, he grabbed another one. Oh! This one looked much better, it even had blood running down the title!
Ryou seemed disturbed by Bakura's selection, but didn't comment as he pushed the DVD into the player.
Soon, Ryou was hiding under the covers, pillow covering his delicate, green-shaded expression, and Bakura was cheering as the first victim went down, imagining the actor was the Pharaoh.
When the movie was over and credits rolled down the screen, also covered in blood, Bakura called out to Ryou, who had been unmoving for the last few minutes. "Ryou, it wasn't even that gory...Ryou? Ryou?"
Bakura removed the pillow from Ryou's face and Ryou turned over, snoring.
Bakura was a little tired himself. Yawning, he turned off the T.V. and the lights, stretched out beside Ryou, but making sure there was plenty of space between the two, and drifted asleep.
Author's Notes: Wow, that was a long chapter...Anyways, thanks for all the awesome reviews and be sure to R & R again! Oh, yes, and I need one little favor...can anyone tell me the name of the Thief King? On some forums/other fanfics I've read they said the name is "Akefia" but can anyone confirm/deny this? If so, leave it in a review. Thanks! :)
