A/N: Well hey there! It's time for the fourth chapter of Two halves, one soul....

Though the chapter itself isn't very funny, this was fun to write. I do not know why i keep on making Bakura call Ryou 'little one', but I like it, and I'm not going to stop. :D

In this chapter: Talking, and some hinted...Stuff? D:
Well I guess that's all for this chapter.

......

I'm so gonna get hate-mail from Ryou-fans. -.-'

4. Little One

"Bakura," Ryou whispered, like with that name only, with that one word, if he could say it enough times, he could bring back his yami.

Bakura crossed his arms across his chest. His brown eyes were emotionless as he spoke with a slightly annoyed tone:

"Talk, little one. I do not have all night."

Little one, thought Ryou bitterly, was it all that was left of what used to be? Bakura had always liked to call Ryou 'little one' as long as Ryou could remember. And it seemed he wasn't going to grow out of that habit. Good.

"I've missed you," Ryou admitted.

Bakura raised his eyebrows.

"Well that tends to happen, when you loose half of yourself. The body reacts..."

"No it's not that," Ryou interrupted, shaking his head. "It's more than that. A lot more. I can cope with the longing of the body. But the heart..."

Ryou couldn't bring himself to look into Bakura's eyes anymore. He hid himself behind his white hair.

"I want you back," he whispered.

"What?"

"Why can't the things be like they used to be?! It worked then! It would work now! I want you back! I want you to be mine again!"

Ryou's words echoed in the silent room.

Bakura's eyes had widened and he was clearly shocked by this sudden outburst.

Ryou raised his gaze, now determined.

"Why, little one?" Bakura whispered after a long pause. "Why? Why do you want to tie yourself up with the unspoken rules of soul halves? Why do you want me back? Why do you want to give away the freedom you longed for?"

"Because I need it," Ryou answered. "I need someone to complete me. I need you."

Bakura closed his eyes tightly.

"I need you back," Ryou pleaded.

Bakura opened his eyes.

"No."

Ryou felt tears, hot salty tears were running down his cheek. When had they arrived?

"But..." he tried to find words to oppose, to make Bakura understand, but he couldn't speak no more.

Bakura sighed.

"This all happened against our will. But we just have to adapt. We can't go back. Our past is gone. There is no us, anymore. There is just you and me. You have to give up. Or if it pains you so much, get yourself a new yami."

"No!" Ryou screamed, tears now clearly visible, staunching his voice a little. "I don't want anyone else! I want you!"

"But you can't have me," Bakura stated coolly. 'I'm Yami's now,' was what Ryou heard.

"How can you be so calm?! How can you speak like this doesn't matter to you?! Why do you hate me and not Yami?!" Ryou cried. "Why do you want to stay with him?! He's the one who did all the horrible stuff to you!" Ryou steadied his breath, and tried to suppress the tears. "Why don't you hate him?" he whispered.

"Because hating him would be like hating myself," Bakura answered. "Remember? You told me the exact same thing. And the you said that you were happy without me."

"Why do you taunt me like this? Why do you use my own words against me?" Ryou felt so weak, he thought his knees would cave in, but before they could do that, he sat down to the floor.

"Because that's what I do," Bakura answered. "What do you want, little one? That I understand? That I can do. I can understand. Do you want some comfort?" Bakura sneered. "Then you should run to Yugi, or to your other friends. I am not a shoulder you can cry on."

Ryou buried his face to his knees and let it all out. He let the tears flow free.

This had been so bad idea. He should have kept it all inside. He should have never talked to Bakura. The moment the thought had occurred him, he should have discarded it.

But he hadn't.

He had done something, he should have not done. He had made himself look like a fool in front of Bakura.

And blaming himself didn't make the pain in his heart any better.

It all hurt so much. Why couldn't the pain go away? Why did it always have to hurt?

Because it was Bakura. People who get too involved with Bakura hurt themselves. And Ryou was more involved than anyone else right now.

Ryou sobbed miserably. The tears, they didn't seem to stop. And what was Bakura doing right now? He was probably glaring down at Ryou with his cold brown eyes.

Ryou was afraid to raise his gaze, afraid to stop crying, because if he stopped crying now, he would have to face Bakura, and the cold eyes, where Yami lived.

As long as Yami lived in Bakura's eyes, Ryou didn't want to look into those eyes. He hated how it filled him with jealously.

"I hate him," Ryou whispered.

It felt good. It felt too good.

"I hate him!" Ryou screamed. "I hate Yami!"

The tears were slowly drying up. Ryou held on to that one sentence to make his calm down. 'I hate Yami.' And it was the truth. Ryou hated Yami. From the bottom of his heart. Yami had stolen his Bakura away.

"You should hate me too."

Ryou raised his gaze, when he heard the serious sentence.

Bakura sat there right in front of him, and the emotionless eyes were fixed on Ryou.

"What?" Ryou whispered.

"If you hate Yami, you should hate me too," Bakura repeated. "It would be so much easier if you did. For example, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You wouldn't be crying."

Bakura turned to stare at the wall.

"Life would be so much easier if you hated me," Bakura muttered, and Ryou wasn't sure if it was targeted to him or not.

Bakura reached out and clumsily wrapped his arms around Ryou.

He closed his eyes, and held his ex-hikari for a while.

"Just try to hate me little one, okay?" he whispered.

'What a weird dream,' Yami thought.

He sat on the mattress, hugging his knees and letting his chin rest on them.

It was little past midnight, told the clock on the wall.

Next to yami's mattress, on a real bed was Yugi, sound asleep and dreaming.

What a weird dream. Who dreams of Ryou and Bakura talking? If it even had been a dream, that is.

Yami bit his lip.

Ryou had mentioned his name couple of times. Yami frowned, trying to keep the dream fresh in his mind. He didn't want it to slip away. It had been interesting. Important, maybe? Yami didn't remember the whole dream, just bits.

"You can't have me," Bakura whispered to Yami's ear with a cold tome.

"Why don't you hate him?!" Ryou's scream echoed in Yami's head.

A good question, Yami thought. Good question Ryou. It was a pity that he couldn't recall the answer.

As silently as Yami could, he got up and went to the door, the bits of dreams still swarming in his head. Yugi didn't wake up, when Yami opened the door, the ex-hikari just rolled around and continued dreaming.

Yami closed the door behind him and leaned against it, in thought.

That dream. It had felt too real to be a dream. If it wasn't a dream, then it had to came through the Mind Link. So, had Bakura sneaked out of the house and went to see his ex-hikari, which by the way seemed like a very odd thing to do?

There was only one way to find out.

Yami sneaked to the door that led to his room and opened it.

"Hi 'ya!" greeted, with a friendly wave, the person siting on the windowsill.

"Marik..." Yami sighed.

Before Yami could add anything the blond yami started babbling with a incredible speed:

"Believe me, Yami, you can't blame this on me and Malik. In fact this has nothing to do with us. Sure, we borrowed Bakura again, but we left a note you see." Marik pointed at the piece of paper on the floor. "Besides it's not like this whole thing was our idea anyway. If you should blame someone, that would be your wonderful ex-hikari. Yeah, blame Yugi. He said that we should do it. He wanted us to do it. We needed to take Bakura to Ryou. I can't imagine why. But I guess it doesn't matter now, since we're bringing him back. So before you start screaming, and wake up the whole building, I ask you to wait a second."

Yami blinked. He had caught maybe half of the words from the yami's speech. The important ones had been: Ryou and Yugi. Blame Yugi. He had made the blond's take Bakura to Ryou. It had all been Yugi's idea.

Yami watched as Marik turned a little, leaned out of the window, and started helping someone up.

Yami found himself wondering why Marik didn't fall. Two heels firmly pressed against the wall didn't sound enough to keep the yami on the sill.

But apparently it was, since Marik didn't fall. His hands around the other's wrist, he lifted Bakura to the windowsill and then inside.

"Couldn't you just have used the stairs?" Yami asked.

Marik didn't answer. He held to Bakura's hand, and tried to make him stand straight. When he noticed Yami's questioning look, he said:

"He's just a little tired."

"No doubt. He's been up half the night because..."

"Important stuff," Marik interrupted. "It was important stuff, and if Bakura was awake enough to speak, he would agree with me."

Marik proceeded to clean invisible dust off from Bakura's shoulders. When the yami was happy with his friend's condition, he said to Yami:

"Thanks for lending him. You can have him back now. Here you go."

And with that Marik gave Bakura a gentle push. It was enough to make Bakura trip and fall right into Yami's open arms. Seemingly unaffected, Bakura rested his head against Yami's shoulder. Yami put his arm around Bakura's waist, and blushed a little, when Marik grinned mischievously.

"Everything here seems to be fine," blond said, still grinning. "I'll be leaving now."

And before Yami could voice his protests, Marik jumped off the windowsill. Yami ran to the window, dragging the sleepy yami behind him.

On the ground, just under the window, Marik straightened up and the other one, it had to be Malik, asked:

"What took you so long?"

Marik chuckled.

"Nothing," he answered innocently.

"Okay," Malik said, suspecting.

Then the duo started walking away. Before they could get too far away, Marik stopped, turned around and locked his eyes with Yami's. Then he raised his hand as a gesture of salutation. Yami raised his hand too.

"Are you coming or not?" asked Malik, who had already disappear from Yami's sight.

Marik laughed and ran after his hikari.

Yami slammed the window close, before turning to face his yami. Bakura, without support, was slouching. His gaze was on the floor, and his hair covered his face.

"What will I do with you?" Yami pondered, not really waiting for an answer.

Bakura, however raised his gaze a little. From under the veil of white hair, the yami raised one eyebrow and asked:

"Sleep?"

Yami laughed.

"We can start with that."

Ryou still sat on the floor. But he had stopped crying.

He still felt his yami's arms around it.

For that moment, Bakura had been his.

He still heard the words, the simple order.

'Try to hate me little one, okay?'

Ryou shook his head. He didn't want to hate. But what choices he had?

Either he could try to hate and eventually forget Bakura, try to dull the pain in his heart.

Or he could continue loving and longing for the one who he had lost, and in the end be destroyed by his hatred and jealously towards Yami.

Which one should he choose?

Ryou didn't know what to do.

Whatever he would choose, it would cause him nothing but pain.

How had he got himself into this?

A/N: Why do I keep torturing people? In Soul Halves I tortured Bakura, and now Ryou. Gah, I'm horrible.

I'm very sorry Ryou. *hugs Ryou* Well now I have to do something with him... Damnit... :S (what ever will I do??? What ever will I do???)

I can't just leave him like that!

...Because we all just want Ryou to be happy.