A/N: I wrote this chapter extra fast because… I had a moment of enlightenment? I don't know, it just came out so easily! If anyone's wondering about the chapter name, it's sort of linked to the chapter before this. You see, there's this (old) joke: "'Did you know that blood is thicker than water?' asked a vampire from his victim to be. 'But so is porridge,' the victim tried." Yeah, not that funny but at least I got chapter titles xD It also links to the Ishtars and, in a way, to Bakura's… art. Speaking of art, there's a link in my profile to a piece of SC fanart by Fae/KuroiMezzy :)


Shattered Crescent

Part Seven

She passed the same old and worn art poster again. Ishizu glanced at it, the text, "Art of Mikazuki Bakura", hard to read from under the other poster clued on it. It was the same poster she had seen on her way to the police station and it never failed to amaze her. She had never seen inner scenery like that before and now that she had met Bakura Ryou, she was sure that the wheels of destiny were in motion. Why else had the two, Mikazuki Bakura and Bakura Ryou, met if not to carry out something greater?

Ishizu was a firm believer of many things other's thought as rubbish. Her own little brother thought she was out of her mind. The possibility that Malik was right had crossed her mind once or twice but she always shook it off. Malik was too earthbound, too hung on coincidence, to understand her view. She didn't blame him for it. The fact, that everything bad that had happened to him was destined, was difficult to grasp, after all.

She looked around for a bit, trying to see where she should go. Domino was such a strange city… It attracted individuals with bad pasts but also those who weren't as ignorant to the higher forces as people tended to be. Ishizu wondered if she should seek out this Mikazuki who, judging from his paintings, knew so much. She would have liked to find out if he understood what he knew, or if he was just as confused as Bakura Ryou.


Bakura took a look at the mirror covering most of his hall wall. He hadn't stopped to admire his appearance because for the first time in ages, he had a moral dilemma. The thought made him snort but didn't stop his image from mocking him.

His eyes met with those on the mirror, a frown settling on both sets of features. Bakura placed his hand on the reflective surface, the ring making a sharp 'click'. He thought he could care for Ryou but…

"Do you think it's wrong?" he whispered and, "gnorw s'ti kniht uoy oD?" replied the mirror.

It didn't help to ask the question out loud when he had just himself to ask for guidance. Bakura wasn't the best at giving out advice, even he had to admit that. The advice he gave worked for him, with things that concerned him and no one else. Despite how they had one name in common, Ryou wasn't Bakura, and unlike Bakura, Ryou wasn't aware of the situation they were in.

Bakura smirked at his worried reflection, shaking his head. It was stupid and too late to think about that now when things were in motion. After a final glance at the image, he grasped the bag with Ryou's clothes in it and marched out. He had even washed and ironed the damn things.

On his way to the police station, the Malik-issue raised its silly head. He had decided not to do anything about it for the time being; he would be the first to know if the brat came close to succeeding. Bakura was skeptical about Malik's chances of pulling the murder off but underestimating was never good. And besides, Ryou was a far more pleasant to think about.

Bakura didn't know where at the station Ryou worked but figured he could find out or just wait for the other by the doors. He stepped through the main doors, realizing that he hadn't been there before. A small miracle, his lifestyle considered.

As Bakura looked around, hoping to spot Ryou, he found something else that didn't do good things to his state of mind. A picture of Malik's face was taped on the wall, with "Missing!" written all over it. Bakura's eyebrow arched as he moved to take a closer look.

"Malik Ishtar, huh..?"


Ryou lifted his head from the pile of papers it had been buried in upon hearing his colleague's voice.

"About the stuff you wrote here," the man waved the written analysis. "Do you think we could tweak it up a bit and publish it without a fuss? I mean, with the… killer and all…"

Ryou frowned. The way the other spoke of it was too degrading for his tastes. "What do you mean by 'tweaking'?" If that meant what he thought it did, he would want a good explanation for it. It was his text, and so far, he thought it to be accurate. He hadn't written it to be published and didn't like the idea.

"Well… Change a few things… Like this praise you give to the killer's intelligence. I don't think that's what we should-"

To his own surprise, Ryou stood up, interrupting whatever was coming next. "I didn't write it to please the crowd and if you use it and change it, you better slap your own name on it as well." He had worked hard to write it and if the basic facts were to be changed… it wouldn't be his text anymore but propaganda. Ryou would not let anyone print any deliberate lies with his name on them. As if the stunt 'Evening Domino' pulled hadn't done enough damage.

The investigator looked taken back. "But Bakura, you must understand, the citizens-"

Ryou tried hard to keep polite but the smile refused to come. "Look… I don't think people need to be told… creative truths."

"But if it calmed them down…"

"Leave the lies to trash papers like 'ED'," Ryou told, his frown threatening to form into a glare. He wasn't sure why he got so defensive about the whole deal but he blamed it on the article written about him. The things he wrote about the murderer weren't praise, they were facts. "Now, if you excuse me…" He walked away, grabbing his things. He had stated what he thought about it, not that he expected anyone to listen, and now his conscience would be clean incase they went against his word. Why didn't they understand? Ryou had a good reason why he had told the press to tune it down. It was like his coworkers hadn't read what he had written.

While stomping out of the building, Ryou forgot to inform Honda he was leaving. Honda wasn't his mother, and Ryou was angry. The evening shadows criss-crossed on the boring, gray floor, and Ishizu Ishtar crossed Ryou's thoughts. That had been a strange encounter and yet, it felt like Ryou should have known what the woman had been talking about. It was as though…

Ryou shook his head. There was nothing supernatural about any of this. As much as he wanted to believe that maybe there was, he couldn't bring himself to, not anymore.

The front doors came to view and Ryou came to a sudden halt as he happened to glance up from the floor. The man stood against the sun light, and Ryou remembered to breathe when he waved, lifting up a plastic bag. A new frown darkened Ryou's face as he started walking again; wondering if this was some kind of a cruel joke.

Why did Bakura always show up like this?

The familiar smirk took its rightful place. Ryou's frown deepened; he hadn't realized it was a "familiar smirk" until now.

"Hey," Bakura greeted. "How are you this fine evening?"

Hadn't Ryou been frowning, he would have started to. "Why are you here?" He wasn't angry at Bakura anymore but he had other things to be angry about and Bakura was there. For some reason, it was easy to get angry at Bakura. Ryou got the feeling that Bakura wouldn't judge him by what emotions he showed. "Are you stalking me now?"

Bakura blinked, the picture boy for twisted innocence, and pointed at himself. "Who, Me? Stalking? Nooo…" The smirk came back when Ryou folded his arms. "I thought you'd like your clothes back." He held the bag even higher and waved it from side to side in front of Ryou's face like some kind of a hobo's hypno-clock.

Ryou stopped the waving, taking the bag and looking inside. He hadn't thought Bakura would bring them back, or had hoped he wouldn't, but now when the clothes were there, unharmed and neat, he felt grateful. A small smile slipped on his face without his permission.

"Um, thank you… I should return yours." Ryou glanced up.

"You can show Me where you live while you're at it." Bakura grinned. Ryou was ready to scowl but reminded himself that he wasn't angry with Bakura this time; it would be wrong to take it all out on him. He took a deep breath instead, reminding himself that the clothes were ironed.

"Why are you really here?"

"Well… I'm here to take you out and to charm My way into your pants," Bakura told. "It's Friday, Ryou," he added, as if that explained everything.

Ryou blinked, forgetting to react to the first part. "Fri…day..?" It clicked, their last meeting coming back to him. The realization didn't make him any less irritated. "I never agreed on going out with you today, or any day," he told. "As I remember it, I declined so if you'll excuse me, I have to go home." He moved to go past Bakura.

"Who are you going home to?"

The words stopped Ryou on his tracks unlike any physical obstacle could have done. He didn't turn to face Bakura but guessed that the other had noticed what effect the words had on him.

"Because if there's no one there, except for your precious work, why bother?" Bakura continued and Ryou found himself listening to every word. "Come with Me, Ryou. It'll be fun, I promise."

"What if…" he started. "What if I don't want 'fun'?" Ryou wanted to go, or didn't want to go home, but there were things keeping him back, preventing him from just agreeing. "What if I want serious?" He needed to know before jumping into anything with even half a foot. He refused to be a harmless pastime.

Bakura was silent, for once, before answering. "Then serious it is."

Ryou stared at the pavement wide eyed for a moment longer before lifting his head. He spun around to face Bakura, to see if there was any deceit.

Even the mischievous twinkle had left Bakura's eye and only the strange, almost caring look remained.

"You're serious," Ryou breathed, more to himself, to gather his thoughts into something resembling a mind.

The smirk came back. "I thought that's what you wanted. Honestly, if you can't decide what you want..."

Ryou blushed. Wasn't that what he had told Bakura the last time? "Er… Sorry, I was just… I wasn't expecting you to… really, you know, to agree and… yeah," Ryou tried to get his thoughts out of his mouth but it wasn't working. Bakura grinned at him but somehow, it didn't feel like he was making fun of Ryou.

"You're really mean deep down, aren't you?" Bakura asked. "You're lucky I'm not more sensitive or I would be insulted by your distrust." The grin didn't leave and Ryou found himself smiling. There was something about the other that made him smile even when he was angry or annoyed. Ryou didn't know what it was about Bakura but guessed it had something to do with his brand of humor.

"Ah, an expression that's not a frown," Bakura broke Ryou's musing. "Does this mean you will come with Me?"

Ryou laughed, shaking his head but not to decline. "You've talked me into it. What did you have in mind?" When Ryou realized that he shouldn't have asked, it was too late.

"I was thinking about dragging you to the nearest corner and molesting you but since you're such a spoil sport you'll only get coffee," he smirked, "instead of Bakura."

The urge to punch the other for being so tactless was close to taking over. Ryou settled on repeating his new mantra, 'the clothes were ironed', in his mind. He hoped the thought would bring him enough patience to live through whatever he had just agreed on. "I think I'll enjoy that coffee…"


Earlier that Friday evening, Seto had been sitting in the dining room table, talking to Mokuba about things that didn't have anything to do with KaibaCorp when their rare chat had been interrupted. Seto had been in a pleasant mood for just a second and someone had to call to his private number and ruin it for him.

"I thought I told you not to call this number, Mikazuki." If grinning made a sound, he would have heard it.

"Actually, you told Me not to call unless it was an emergency."

Seto frowned. "What 'emergency'?"

"Does the name 'Ishtar' ring any bell?"

He had to pause to think. This better be important for interrupting his free time. "Ishtar… An Ishtar owned a company that was specialized on knives and blades. As I remember, Gouzaburou bought parts of it but KC no longer had need for it when we stopped weapon industry…" He had seen the document some years back.

"What happened to the company?"

"Why are you so interested?" Seto asked. Mikazuki wouldn't care about anything like that unless it was somehow relevant. "It doesn't matter to me what happened." KaibaCorp didn't need anything weapon related anymore. What happened to some company wasn't his concern.

"But you could find out if you wanted to, correct?"

Seto snorted. "Of course." The man on the other end started to annoy him but, during the years, he had learned that listening to Mikazuki could be useful. "But why would I?"

"To know the motives of certain people that might just be after your life, perhaps?"

"Mikazuki if you won't go to the point-"

"I have to go. Nice talking to you, bye!"

Seto glared at the phone for a second. In times like this, he wasn't sure if Mikazuki was a genius or a complete moron. He entered the dining room again, having left to take care of the conversation, and saw Mokuba smirking at him.

"That was Bakura, right? What did he want?" the teen asked when Seto took his seat. Mokuba liked Mikazuki more than his brother did but that was just because the crazy bastard had stood up for him when Seto hadn't been around.

"You can never know with him…" Seto muttered and Mokuba snickered but didn't comment.


Ryou placed his bag under the table. He hadn't taken Bakura as a small café type of person but realized that the choice had something to do with the tiny tables placed in secluded corners. Bakura wasn't touching him but Ryou knew that he could and that made him nervous. What made him even more anxious was that he knew Bakura knew he was nervous. The knowledge was written all over that face.

Maybe agreeing hadn't been such a great idea after all. Ryou made a mental note not to let Bakura talk him into anything ever again.

"Do I really make you this uneasy?" Bakura broke the silence. Ryou considered saying "No" but since Bakura knew the answer, there was no point in denying it.

"Yes… Yes, you do," Ryou admitted. "I… just somehow," he looked down at his untouched tea, "…get the feeling you know a lot more about me than you let on and I…" The tea wasn't that interesting so he glanced up, "I know next to nothing about you…"

Bakura smirked. "Despite how I know about your investigations and such, I don't know much about you as a person. A bit like you know about My art, really." Bakura leaned back. "You know everything you need to know about Mikazuki Bakura, the artist, but…" he trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging and Ryou knew what he meant.

"You're right." Ryou smiled a little, letting himself relax. "So, Mikazuki Bakura, the person, what do you do besides paint?"

"Sleep, mostly," Bakura shrugged. "But not as much as I'd like to since I prefer working at night… It's damn difficult to sleep when everyone else is awake."

The small smile widened into a grin. "A fellow workaholic, then. Do your friends pester you about always working and not sleeping or eating properly, too?"

"They know better than that. I'd bite their head off if they interfered."

Ryou laughed, leaning his head on his palm. "I wish I could do that…" The comment made Bakura raise a brow.

"What? Bite heads off?"

"Well, yes, but only in theory. You know, to have that something that would make them leave me alone once in a while." Ryou grasped what he was saying and hurried to reword it. "I mean, I like my friends and coworkers but they don't really… relate to my situation…"

Bakura nodded. "You mean the murder investigation."

Ryou's eyes widened in a mixture of amazement and relief. "You didn't say 'kill'." He hadn't meant to say that aloud but it slipped out before he could stop it. He blushed because of his slipup but Bakura looked amused.

"You think I should have?"

"What?" Ryou asked, getting a hold of the conversation again. "No!" he yelled and a few heads turned. Ryou sank further into his seat in embarrassment. While Ryou was trying to hide under the table, Bakura grinned and waved at the people staring. For a second, Ryou wondered what on earth Bakura was doing but the strange gesture got everyone to look away. He glanced between Bakura and the other people before deciding that it was safe to come out again and continue from where he had left off.

"No, it's just that… Everyone at work and the press and everything…" he let the sentence die, kicking his back bag. He needed to talk to someone about this, someone who would listen and not just wave him off or put his views down. He looked at Bakura who was watching him like he was the most interesting thing in the whole wide world. Bakura would listen.

Ryou reached for his bag to dig out a copy of his latest writing. "You're a civilian so I shouldn't…" He paused and laughed, one of the hollow laughs he shared when he wasn't amused. "Who am I kidding; I'm not really an investigator either…" Ryou found what he was looking for and raised it for the other to see. "I wrote this concerning the case. See here?" he pointed at parts of the text. "I wrote 'murder' and 'murderer' many times over to make my point, I even put this silly side note here," his finger passed a side of the page. "'Kill equals no intended, murder equals yes intended. Stop being delusional,'" Ryou quoted himself.

"Can I… Can I read it?" Bakura asked, holding his hand out. Ryou focused on him again, blinking at the odd tone of voice and at the near stammer. He had never heard Bakura hesitate with his words like that. Ryou thought that it couldn't be uncertainty but failed to come up with other explanations.

"…Ok…" Ryou handed the pages to Bakura and added in a moment of bitterness, "Just don't ask to change it and publish it…"

Bakura glanced at him over the papers but said nothing.

Ryou started fiddling with a napkin while watching Bakura's eyes pass the lines of writing and pausing a few times to glance at Ryou. Their knees brushed under the table though Ryou was sure he hadn't moved. He searched the other's face for any signs that it hadn't been accidental, and finding none, reminded himself to relax. The people who intended to jump you didn't inform the jump-ee beforehand, right? Bakura had made it clear that he wanted to molest Ryou and Ryou assumed that meant the other wouldn't do anything.

Bakura finished reading and gave the papers back to Ryou. Neither said anything for a while, Ryou waiting for Bakura to comment on what he had read, and Bakura stirring his cooling coffee.

"Well…?" Ryou tried. For some reason, what Bakura thought about it was important to him. Bakura met his eyes, the corner of his lips tilting up in what Ryou assumed was a half smile.

"It looks like you know what you're doing."

Ryou couldn't help but smile, the expression relieved and broad. "Thank you." It felt great to hear someone acknowledge the effort he put into his work. He hadn't realized how close he was to loosing faith and starting to think that maybe everyone else was right, that he had been wrong all along. "You have no idea how good it feels to hear that."

Bakura's smile changed into a smirk. "I think I have some idea, at least."


And Ryou thought he felt great. Were Bakura not as careful as he was, he would have started jumping in joy. Someone had noticed the effort he put into his art. Despite how he did not jump around like a loon, he hummed while walking down the street with Ryou. It wasn't that he needed acknowledgement, but since it was coming from Ryou

It was getting dark out and Ryou had insisted that it wouldn't be safe to walk around late on a Friday night. Bakura had rolled his eyes at that, because he was the reason why walking around late at night wasn't safe, but had agreed on heading home. And because Ryou's home was on his way home, he had offered to walk the other. Bakura had not picked the café based on that knowledge… It was a nice café…

"It's funny how we live so close to each other," Ryou said, stopping near the front door of his apartment building.

"Correction, it's fortunate." Bakura grinned when Ryou blushed.

"Uh, yeah, I guess…" Ryou looked as though he didn't know what to do next. He glanced at the door and then at Bakura who waited to see what he would do. "Um… I should… go inside now so… bye?" Ryou said, starting to fiddle with the sleeve of his shirt. "Unless you…"

Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Unless I..?" he helped. He wanted Ryou to finish his suggestion but the other looked like he wouldn't if not encouraged.

"Unless you'd like to… do something together, sometime?" Ryou asked, and Bakura grinned, victorious. "I mean, when neither is busy with work, which is probably never so…"

"Now that we have started cheating on our respective jobs already, we might as well continue. Right?"

Ryou let go of his sleeve and snickered. "Right." He smiled. "I'm sure we will run into each other again, then."

"Yeah…" Bakura sighed; blaming it on the damned, pretty smile that made him want to do things to the person it belonged to. He decided not to analyze his chances and pull Ryou closer by his shirt collar instead. He didn't regret his decision when Ryou's eye closed after the first shock and a gentle hand made the back of his neck feel warm.

Ryou pulled away first, flashing an awkward smile and tinting pink. "Um… I really have to go now," he told and backed away. Bakura grinned as the other tried to open the door by pulling before remembering that he needed a key to get in. Ryou laughed at his own mishap while digging out his keys, managing to get in.

"Good night, Ryou," Bakura whispered before turning to walk away. Besides slipping his phone number into the bag he had given Ryou, he hadn't planned his next move yet. He wasn't too worried, though. Ryou just had to play along.

An old, discarded newspaper rolled around on the street in front of him. Bakura spared a glance at it and almost stopped in mid-step, turning his head to look at the gray paper. His eyebrow arched and a grin formed as he watched the paper fly around.

If he could do anything to Ryou, yet, then maybe he could do something for him.


Is it just me, or does the "Go" button look like it needs clicking?