It's sad when i see more and more of my influence in these chapters...almost done with the reposting!
Once again;
Seeing as certain symbols don't like to show for me, things are a little complicated;
"Speaking"
'Thinking'
/Ryou to Royko-Bakura/
/Royko-Bakura to Ryou/
-Yugi to Yami-
--Yami to Yugi--
(Malik to Marik)
((Marik to Malik))
(((Author's notes)))
Disclaimer: I'm not gonna keep repeating myself...ok? I'll let you know if anything changes that would make me saying that i don't own Yugioh a lie...
Weekend in the woods; Start
It was Friday, finally the week was done and Ryou would find out from Bakura if he could tell Yugi. He was sure that the answer would be yes since Yami already knew, and wouldn't like the idea of keeping it from his hikari any longer.
"Royko." Ryou said cheerfully as the group walked out of the school yard towards the Game Shop (Seto was half carrying half leading Joey), pulling his 'brother' out of the conversation he was having with Yami.
"Yeah Ryou?" He asked, looking slightly annoyed at being interrupted.
"The week is up...What's your answer?" Ryou asked quickly, glancing at Yugi who looked confused by their conversation.
"Eh? Oh. Right...Uh..." Royko glanced at Yami, who raised a eyebrow at him before he turned back to Ryou and sighed, "Go ahead, but please make sure he understands everything correctly." /And that he knows not to tell anyone else./ he added silently through their link.
Ryou's face lit up and he nodded before grabbing Yugi's hand and pulling him back and away from the group, out of earshot.
"Ryou! What is it? I was talking to Honda about duel monsters!" Yugi whined, frowning at his best friend.
"Sorry, Yugi. But this is important and I can't wait any longer." Ryou apologized before continuing, "You have to promise not to tell anyone else. Marik and Yami are the only other's who know. And Yami just figured it out last night somehow."
"Ok, Ryou. I promise I won't tell anyone, now hurry and tell me," the shorter of the two friends replied, doing his best to keep pace with Ryou, who nodded and proceeded to tell him about Royko, or..Bakura.
"And that's whats been going on, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner Yugi but Bakura wanted to keep it a secret from everyone. I don't know how Yami found out, but Marik figured it out the day the Ishtars got here, when he went out to make sure Royko was ok and came back with him unconscious," Ryou finished, taking a deep breath and waiting for Yugi to recover.
"Oh...Wow Ryou." Was all that Yugi managed out in reply, he seemed to be distracted.
'He's probably talking to Yami...' Ryou sighed and nodded before the two ran and caught up with the group, the two hikaris exchanging glances with their darker halves.
Royko seemed a little nervous at first, but a reassuring smile from Yugi seemed to wipe it all away and he smiled back softly before returning to his conversation with Yami.
"See? It wasn't so bad was it?" Yami whispered gently as the group reached the shop and headed around the back to the house, where they would all pick up their camping stuff which they had all left at Yugi's the day before, so it would be easier to just go strait to Yugi's place then to the campsite from there.
"I guess not, but it was Yugi. He's as forgiving as Ryou is..." Royko replied softly as Yami handed him his bag, shouldering it after he slid his jacket on (his arms had healed by now), he then turned to help Ryou find his stuff, Yami turning to help everyone else.
"Thanks for letting me tell him." Ryou stated softly when the spirit came over and started carefully searching for Ryou's bag with him.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it." Royko replied as he located his brother's bag and snatched it, handing it over before they stood up strait.
"You and Yami are going to behave on this trip, right Royko?" Came Marik's voice as he appeared behind his friend, smiling.
Royko felt his face heat up for a minute before he retorted, "I'm more worried about you and Malik behaving." It was Marik's turn to blush.
"Yeah, well I mean...Now that Yami knows..." Marik trailed off at a look from Bakura, quickly turning and going to look for his hikari.
Half a hour later everyone had gotten their stuff and the carpooling set up had been assigned. Here's how it goes;
Seto's car (5 seats):
Joey (front seat),
Yami (back seat, middle),
Royko (back seat),
Mokuba (back seat)
Mai's car (5 seats):
Tea (front seat),
Serenity (back seat),
Ryou (back seat),
Yugi (back seat, middle)
Marik and Malik were using Marik's motorcycle and Duke and Honda were taking Duke's car, with everyone's bags, the food, tents, etc.
"Alright, can we get going now people?" Seto asked, glancing at his watch, it was already 5:00. 'So much for getting a head start.'
Everyone nodded and piled into the cars, Duke leading the way with Mai and Seto's cars right behind, all of the cars were convertibles and everyone had voted on having the tops down.
Marik was driving in and out of the three cars, showing off on the motorcycle (he was trying to keep Malik entertained), by doing some tricks both on and off the road, everyone dubbed the pair as the ride's entertainment.
After a while Marik decided to take a break from messing around, and was riding next to Seto, who decided to make some use of the two.
"Hey, go ask Duke how much farther till we get there, will you?" he called out to Marik, who decided to come even closer to the car rather then yell back.
"Why don't you just call him?" he asked, rolling his eyes.
"Because, this seemed more effective then calling them both," came the reply. Malik, who was holding onto Marik's waist and leaned against him obviously tired, could've sworn that Seto had given him a small smile, but dismissed it. Why would the cold-hearted CEO smile at him anyway? He was only bored out his mind...Oh, that's why.
"Come on, Marik. It'll be fun to play messenger, it'll give us something to do." Malik stated before Marik could reply to Kaiba.
Marik just sighed and nodded, giving in to his hikari. "Alright...We'll be right back." With that the two sped up ahead to Duke's car.
"I wonder just where this campsite is...We seem to be going pretty far out." Royko mused aloud, leaning his head against Yami's shoulder tiredly. They had been driving for about a hour now, and the sun was due to set in about half a hour.
"Wherever it is I'm sure it's worth the drive," Yami replied, stroking his boyfriend's hair gently. Curiously he reached over to where Bakura's batwings would normally be and played with the hair that seemed to have replaced them, smirking when Royko tried and failed to stifle a giggle. "Aha."
"Stop that," Royko whined, reaching up and batting Yami's hand away from that area of his hair.
Yami silently obliged and returned to stroking the white locks with one hand while the other wrapped around Royko's waist to make sure he couldn't pull away. Making a note to himself to play with Royko's hair later and find that spot again (Bakura had hidden it fairly well up till now), Yami smiled.
Mokuba, seeing this, reached over and touched the same bits of hair the Yami had been playing with before. "You're sensitive to touch there?" he asked, smiling widely when Royko let out another small giggle and squirmed slightly against Yami's grip, trying to pull out of Mokuba's reach.
Yami, of course, didn't allow this, smiling at Mokuba, "He's very ticklish, it seems...and those few strands of hair seem rather sensitive for him as well," he stated softly, his free hand moving and tickling one of the white haired boy's sides lightly, causing him to giggle and squirm even more.
Mokuba's eyes lit up at this. "Wow. I didn't think Royko ever laughed unless it was at someone else's expense...It's cute," he finished and started to play with the strands of hair again, causing Royko to go into a giggle fit, Yami holding him in place for Mokuba.
Seto was watching the three through his rear-view mirror, almost pitying Royko for being at the mercy of the two boys. He knew that when Mokuba found something he liked to do he could do it for hours, and that Yami would do anything to help if it entertained the young Kaiba. Specially if it meant hearing Royko's cute, innocent laugh.
Everyone but Mokuba had heard that laugh before. At school the other day, when Yami had randomly started tickling Royko lightly during lunch while the group was sitting outside on the grass, throwing the teen into a small giggle fit. Everyone had commented on how cute it was when Yami decided to finally stop and allowed Royko, who was a deep shade of red by then, to catch his breath.
Marik and Malik came back over to the car, both smiling when they saw what was going on in the back seat. "Having fun back there?" Malik asked, causing Mokuba and Yami to halt their activities for the moment and turn their attention to the motorcycle riders. Royko merely turned red, looking at Marik, who was smirking at him. Then he finally realized what Marik had meant when they were talking at the shop.
Soon afterwards, he reached up and tapped Yami on the nose, muttering. "You better behave on this trip..." Yami just smirked at him and turned back to listen to the conversation Seto and Marik were having.
"Duke said we should be there in about a half hour, then it's about a 15 minute hike from the cars. But my bike should be able to follow the trail, so I can help bring up some of the heavier things with it, but we're going to pull over and stretch once I tell Mai and get back to Duke."
Seto nodded in reply, showing that he understood and that the two could go inform Mai. Before doing so though, Marik switched to where he was driving next to the passenger's side of the car, equal to the back seat.
"Having fun, Royko?" he asked, smirking when he saw his friend's face heat up.
"Lots," The teen replied simply, glaring at the blond driving the bike before he drove away, heading to inform Mai on the plan. 'I wonder if I could convince him to give up the bike up for the rest of the drive...' Royko's thoughts were interrupted by Yami and Mokuba, who decided to continue the tickle torture.
Soon enough, the cars all pulled over onto the side of the road and everyone got out, stretching. Luckily for Bakura, Marik and Malik had gotten sore by now from the bike, and Marik offered him the chance to drive it the rest of the way.
Bakura jumped at the chance, but Yami, Ryou and Yugi, knowing who they were dealing with, all turned down the chance to ride with him, and Seto and Joey refused to let their siblings onto the bike no matter who was in control of it. Honda and Tea were both taking over the other cars because Mai and Duke were tired. So Malik ended up riding with Duke and Honda while Marik took Royko's spot in the back of Seto's car.
"Royko, you know how to drive a motorcycle?" Mokuba asked, eyes wide as the white haired teen hopped onto the bike happily, running his hand over the side of it.
"Yep. I can do some pretty nice tricks on it too," came the reply, that's where Marik decided to chime in.
"You can do tricks as long as you're 100 positive that you won't crash or something," he stated, glaring at his friend. The last time Marik had let Bakura use his bike to show off he had ended up needing to buy a new one.
"Don't worry, Marik. I don't think I'm going to be doing any tricks tonight," Royko reassured the blond as a sheepish smile came over his face at the memory, it had taken Bakura weeks to regain Marik's trust with his bike, a time during which Bakura almost became even more insane then he already was.
Mokuba frowned at this, but was immediately distracted by Seto calling for everyone to get back into the cars before they left without them.
Marik gave Royko one last look before getting into the back of Seto's car as well, Royko just smiled innocently and started the bike, circling around the cars once while they started before pulling out onto the rode in sync with Honda, who was taking directions from Duke.
The rest of the ride was greatly entertaining for Bakura, who had started to mimic Marik's moves from the beginning of the ride for Mokuba, who had practically begged him to show off a bit, and had then stated that when he got old enough he was going to learn how to ride 'one of those things.' Something of which earned Royko a glare from Seto, who didn't like the thought at all.
After muttering a apology to Seto, Royko had returned to playing on the bike, weaving in and out of the cars like they were moving cones meant for him to suddenly drive in front of.
Fortunately for the drivers, they all knew that they didn't need to worry about avoiding the motorcycle because Royko had already proved to them that he was as skilled as Marik with the bike.
Once they reached the end of the rode for the cars and the start of the hike, Royko and Mokuba convinced Seto and Marik into letting Mokuba ride on the motorcycle with Royko while he took the tents and etc to the campsite, which Duke had previously informed Royko how to get to from there.
"Just be careful, you two," Seto stated with a sigh as Marik finished fastening the first haul to the back of the bike and gave Royko a thumbs up to say they were good to go.
"Don't worry about it, Kaiba. I won't let any harm come to your little brother. We'll take it nice and slow," Royko stated before starting the bike and heading down the trail at about half the speed he had been driving at before hand.
"He calls that slow?!" Seto cried out, watching them go.
Yami and Marik just chuckled. "Well, he does need some speed to get up the hill, Kaiba. I'm sure they'll be fine. Come on, lets start getting our stuff up there," Yami replied softly, shouldering both his and Royko's bag while Marik shouldered Mokuba's and his own. Seto, having volunteered to carry some of the heavy items, had asked Marik to take his brothers stuff while Joey carried the his (Seto's).
"Yami's right you guys, if we don't want to still be walking in pitch blackness then we better get going," Mai stated, pulling three flashlights out, tossing one to Duke and another to Tea, keeping the third for herself, "these should help us see the path, and help Royko and Mokuba to see us. Duke will lead, Tea will stay in the middle of the group to make sure rich boy doesn't trip or something, and I'll stay in the back."
Seto rolled his eyes, grabbing a few random items before indicating that he was ready and following the rest of them up the hill to the campsite, Duke leading. Mokuba and Royko passed them twice before they reached the site, where the explanation for the slowness of the two on the bike was waiting for them.
Royko and Mokuba had started up a fire and set a kettle full of water over it to boil and had also set up a few of the tents, next to the fire the two had formed a small note in the dirt that read:
Get yourselves something hot to drink, we'll bring the rest of the stuff up, there isn't much. /Royko and Mokie
"Cute..." Yami muttered, just as the water reached boiling point, and the kettle whistled.
"Here, we'll take care of this...What do you all want to drink?" Ryou asked, carefully taking the kettle off the fire while Yugi pulled out several cups. Once everyone agreed on tea, Ryou quickly and carefully went about finishing making it and the two of them handed out the cups, just as Royko and Mokuba drove up with the rest of the stuff.
"You're all very welcome," Royko stated as he helped Mokuba off the bike before starting to get the rest of the stuff, automatically finding Marik taking hold of his arm and throwing him towards Yami, who pinned the shocked boy on the ground.
"I'll get this, I think Yami wants to finish what you were doing in the car," Marik stated with a smirk, earning a glare from Royko, who soon after was giggling uncontrollably due to both Yami and Mokuba tickling him.
"Poor guy.." Joey muttered as he watched the three, doing his best to sound pitying, but despite his tone he wore a amused look on his face along with everyone else.
"Some people are just...Erm...cursed with having such nice laughs," Tea stated with a shrug as she sipped at her drink, exchanging glances with Mai, who seemed to be holding back a laugh.
After a few minutes, during which Malik had gone to help Marik, Yugi finally decided to try and help poor Royko. "All right you two, let him breath will ya?" he called over to the three on the ground.
Mokuba and Yami immediately stopped, Mokuba running over to get the cup Seto had waiting for him while Yami pulled Royko into a hug, whispering something that only the white haired boy could hear. Royko's eyes went wide before the two stood up and he announced that they were going to head to bed, quickly pulling Yami into their tent, which was one of the few already set up.
Mai was about to say something to protest, but Marik just shook his head and said, "Don't try to stop them from going, they won't listen."
"Besides, there's not a lot left to do and Royko was the one who did most of the work when we were setting this up, so I think that if he wants to drag Yami off he can," Mokuba added, which caused Mai to give in automatically. Who was she to ask him to work even more?
"Well, we better get the other two tents up..." Seto stated before standing. The sleeping arrangements had already been planned out, the Kaiba brother's had brought three tents, one for Seto and Joey, another for the girls, and the last one for Yugi, Ryou, Mokuba, Honda, and Duke to share (it was a big tent so they'd have plenty of room).
Yami and Royko had a tent of their own to share, as did Marik and Malik. At first it was going to be that Royko slept with the four other boys while Yugi and Yami shared a tent, but after Ryou had informed Yugi about everything on the way to the shop he had insisted on switching places with Royko, who had accepted gratefully.
Everyone nodded in reply to Seto's words and stood, the only tents left were the two blond's, and the girl's tent. So while the boys went about setting up the two tents, Tea, Serenity and Mai agreed to finish setting up the rest of the stuff and to securing the food.
Surprisingly enough, the girls were done before the boys, probably because Mai had a lot of experience with such things and therefore did most of the work while also teaching Tea and Serenity things.
Although they ended up having to ask Mokuba to come over and let them lift him up so that they could finish securing the food items, which had caused all the boys to break down laughing. Well, all but Seto, who merely gained the slightest smile of amusement on his face.
Finally everything was done, and Marik put the fire out before everyone turned in for the night, after deciding that Yami and Royko had to cook in the morning for being the first to go to turn in.
Marik had found Malik's sketchbook and a pencil and had written a note to the two, stating the decision. He had then ruffled the side of the tent slightly, to make sure that they knew someone was about to intrude, before sticking his head in and throwing the note strait at Bakura's head, retreating as soon as he saw that he had hit his target, in order to dodge a pillow that was thrown at him.
--Inside Yami and Royko's tent...--
"What's this?" Yami muttered, reaching over and snatching the crumpled up piece of paper while Bakura launched a pillow strait at where Marik's head had been a second before.
"Damnit I missed," The thief muttered, starting to crawl out from under the blanket he and Yami had be cuddling in to retrieve his pillow, only to be stopped by Yami.
"Forget it, I'll be the little thief boy's pillow tonight," Yami whispered in a seductive tone, smirking and causing Bakura's face to heat up. "Now, hand me that flashlight please?" The Pharaoh pointed just behind his partner, where a flashlight was laying just a few feet away.
Bakura blinked and turned around, reaching over and grabbing the flashlight before taking the note from Yami and holding the light over it so they could read it.
Since you two lovebirds decided to turn in early tonight and leave us to finish setting up, you get to be woken up early by rich boy tomorrow to cook breakfast. /Marik
P.S. The only reason I'm waking you two up is because none of these nitwits can get up early without a alarm clock. And don't think that I won't go in and poor water on you two if you don't wake up. Just a warning. /Kaiba
"Uhm...Yami, I hope you know how to cook. Because I don't," Bakura stated after reading the note, frowning slightly.
"Don't worry, I do...This'll give me a reason to teach you how to, though," Yami replied, smirking again as he turned off the flashlight and set it aside along with the note. "Anyways, I promised that I'd give you another lesson, so let's go somewhere more...private,"
Bakura blinked, looking at his lover confusedly before realizing what Yami had meant and nodding. "Alright.." He muttered before curling up next to Yami and burying his head into his chest, slipping away from the 'real' world.