A/N: Yay for being on time! And yay for this being the last chapter! As always, I hope this is alright for you all :)

Ryou spent the rest of the evening sat on the Ishtar's couch being comforted by Melvin. He couldn't believe what had happened – his worst nightmare had come true, and there was nothing he could do to fix it. He had considered apologising, but he doubted Bakura would even look at him, never mind listen to him. Melvin kept telling him that his brother would forgive him eventually, but he wasn't so sure. He had seen the hurt in Bakura's eyes before he left. The last time he had seen his brother that vulnerable was the night their mother died, which worried Ryou immensely. If Bakura was that upset with him, he doubted he would ever be forgiven.

Melvin had offered for Ryou to stay over for the night, but Ryou declined. As much he would have loved to, he knew hiding from his brother would only make the situation a lot worse than it already was. He just wished that everything would go back to the way it was before. All he could do was hope that Marik hadn't made things worse when he'd left to talk to Bakura…

Ryou unlocked the door and was greeted with silence. He hung his coat up in the hallway, and cautiously made his way over to the living room. He wasn't sure what he was going to say if he saw Bakura, but he knew he had to do something, regardless as to whether Bakura would respond or not.

Thankfully, his worrying was cut short when he entered the living room to find his father, and not his brother.

"Hi dad," he said as he sat down on the couch opposite his father.

"Hello Ryou," his father said in a serious tone, never taking his eyes off of his son as Ryou sat down. "Where have you been?"

"At a friend's house," Ryou said, oblivious to his father's tone.

"I see," his father replied, nodding his head slightly before speaking again. "And who was this friend, exactly?"

Ryou suddenly picked up on the atmosphere in the room. He looked timidly towards his father, and saw the stony expression on his face – his father didn't look happy at all. "Um… Melvin Ishtar…" he said unsurely.

His father's eyes glazed over and turned colder than Ryou could have imagined. He didn't know why he was acting like this, but he had a feeling he would find out soon.

"Ahh, yes, Melvin," his father mused, turning to lock eyes with his son, "tell me Ryou, when were you planning on telling me about the little affair you have with that boy?" His father spat the word like it was a bad taste in his mouth he couldn't wait to get rid of.

Ryou stared in shock, how did his father know?! His father seemed to pick up on his panic, as he began to speak again.

"Confused about how I know?" he asked, speaking the very question that was on Ryou's mind. "You have your friend Marik to thank for that." At Ryou's even more confused face, he decided to elaborate. "He burst in here earlier in quite the panic looking for your brother, saying something about having to fix the situation because Bakura found out about your little relationship. I'll ask again Ryou, when were you planning on telling me?"

Ryou could do nothing but stare. What could he tell his father? He would have told him sooner, the only reason he didn't was because he didn't want Bakura to find out. Of course his father would be angry! "I'm sorry, dad, I should have told you sooner. It's just… Bakura doesn't like Melvin very much, and I wasn't quite prepared to tell him yet… so we didn't tell anyone…"

"Ahh, I understand now," his father said, his face brightening up a bit. "Now that you've proved your point, you can dump that boy and we can all move along nicely."

Ryou felt his jaw drop, "W-what?"

"You heard me, Ryou," his father said, all seriousness back in his voice, "you can stop pretending to like that boy now. We both know you're too smart to be one of those disgusting faggots."

Ryou felt his heart shatter into a thousand pieces as his father spoke the words he never wanted to hear again. "D-dad… you… you can't be serious?"

"Deadly. Now stop with the act, it's pathetic," his father almost growled, his tone dangerous.

"I-I… it's not an act," Ryou said, trying to keep his voice as firm as possible.

His father's eyes hardened as he turned his icy cold stare on Ryou, making said boy apprehensive as to what was going to happen next. "Do not lie to me boy."

"I'm not lying!" he almost yelled, not understanding what was wrong with his father.

"Yes you are!" his father roared back at him, making Ryou whimper out of fear. "You are not gay! No son of mine is gay!"

Ryou wanted to sink into the couch and hide. The memories of his encounter with Ushio came flooding back to him, fogging over his mind with a cloud of terror and anxiety. He had thought his problems were over, and he especially didn't think his father would be adding to them, but he was wrong. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't lie to his father and say he was pretending, but who knows what would happen if he kept telling the truth. In the end, he decided the lies had gotten him into too much of a mess already, so he would have to stick with the truth, no matter what the consequence. "Dad, please listen to me… I'm not lying…"

His father growled loudly out of rage, before back handing Ryou across the face, sending him crashing down to the floor from the force. "YOU'RE NOT GAY! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"

Ryou moved his hand to cradle his bright red cheek as he lay on the floor, looking at his father with wide, scared eyes. He couldn't make any words leave his lips – he was too shocked. His father stood above him, clenching and unclenching his fists as he stared down at his son, seething. Ryou had never seen him so angry, and it terrified him to his core.

"Your mind has been corrupted…" his father started to mumble to himself, only just loud enough for Ryou to hear. "We need to leave; we need to get you away from him."

"I-I've not been corrupted," Ryou said in a weak voice.

"Yes you have! Why else would you pretend to be gay?"

Ryou didn't know what to do, his father wasn't listening to him, and now he was talking about leaving? They couldn't just leave now! They had a good life here; he didn't want to move again…

"We're leaving, now, Pack your bags," his father commanded, staring directly into Ryou's eyes.

"N-now? We can't leave now, what about Bakura?"

"Your brother will be fine," his father said harshly, moving closer to Ryou, "we will be better off without him."

"We can't just leave him here on his own!"

"We can, and we will." He grabbed Ryou by his arm and started to drag him towards the door. "Your brother has never been worth anything, we don't need him."

Ryou gasped as he struggled in his father's grip, "B-but he's my brother! He's your son!"

"You're the only son I need, Ryou, and that's why I must take you away from here, that's why I must free you of your disease." He tightened his grip on Ryou's arm.

Ryou felt tears prickle the corners of his eyes. Why was his father acting like this? It didn't make any sense! "B-but we can't leave Bakura on his own! I can't leave him! I'm not leaving!"

"Yes you are, you're coming with me whether you want to or not."

"No I'm not!" He gave one last fierce tug, and somehow managed to break free from his father's hold. He ran to the other side of the room in a panic, not quite sure what he was going to do.

His father grumbled lowly as he watched his son get away, before walking towards him, fists shaking in anger. "Yes you are!" he shouted, before smacking Ryou in the face again.

Ryou yelped as his father's hand collided once again with his already hurt cheek. He watched as his father towered over him and raised his fist. He held his breath from fright and shut his eyes tight, waiting for the inevitable impact that was sure to come – but it didn't. Slowly and cautiously, he opened his eyes, but did not see his father. He panicked – what was his father planning to do? He looked around to try and spot him, and the sight before him made his heart fill with both relief and worry.

Bakura had their father pressed against the wall, his hands clutched in the man's white shirt, creasing the fabric. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" he growled, pressing his father harder into the wall.

"That's no way to address your father, Florence," their father said coolly, not sounding threatened by his son at all.

Bakura snarled and slammed his father backwards, "Answer my question, you piece of shit!"

"I don't need to answer your questions, son. I'm your father and you will do as I say, now let me go – I need to rid your brother of his illness."

Bakura raised an eyebrow, but did not loosen his grip on his father's shirt, "What illness?"

"I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, Florence, you seem to be acquainted with this Melvin boy our Ryou has been associating with."

Realisation dawned on Bakura, and his anger bubbled up again. "You were beating him, because he's gay?"

"He needs to drop the act!" his father spat, eyes lighting up with anger. "No son of mine is gay!"

"Well I'm sorry to have to say this daddy dearest, but both of your sons are gay," Bakura said sarcastically with a smirk.

His father glared at him, his voice taking on a dangerous tone, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Bakura said, unfazed by his father.

"I'm not surprised; you were always a let-down, a mistake. Your mother and I only wanted one son, you weren't supposed to happen," his father began, venom filling his voice, "and now that you've corrupted Ryou, I must take him away to cleanse him from your disease."

Bakura saw red. He removed his hands from his father's shirt, and moved them to his throat, squeezing his windpipe with all the strength he could muster. "You're not taking him anywhere, he's better off without you – we both are."

"I will take him where I please! He needs me!" his father managed to choke out.

"We've never needed you; we've survived this long without you! I never wanted to see your face again. Why did you bother coming back?"

"I-I came to see my sons!"

"Bullshit! You never used to visit us before, why now?" Bakura tightened his grip, hoping that would entice their father into spilling the beans. "If you tell me I'll let you go."

"I owe you nothing!"

Bakura growled, "You owe us for abandoning us, why are you really here?!"

Their father began to cough, his face turning red from the pressure, "Alright! I'll tell you!"

Bakura gave himself a satisfied grin, before loosening his hold on his father's throat – all though not all of the way.

"I got caught stealing some of the antiques we dug up in Egypt and I was fired. I needed somewhere to stay, and where's better than with my own family? But now I see I left you in a worse state than I thought. I need to fix this, and I'm going to do it by taking Ryou away from you," their father said, his voice hoarse.

"I'm not leaving!" Ryou piped up for the first time since he had realised Bakura was there. He stood by his brother, pinning his father with a glare.

"Yes you are! You need to be taken away from the bad influence!"

"But there are no bad influences! If you really cared for me, you would let me do what makes me happy…" Ryou said in a small voice, his eyes sad.

"This will make you happy!" their father said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice, "this is what you want!"

"No," Bakura growled, "it's what you want! Don't you see Ryou? He doesn't really care for you, he just wants a slave to cook and clean for him, like you have been for the past few weeks."

"That's not true! I do care for you Ryou! I do!" their father almost pleaded.

"No you don't…" Ryou said, his voice low and filled with sadness, "you never have, have you?"

"Yes I have!"

"No you haven't! What kind of caring father hits his son?!" Bakura yelled.

Their father's patience had finally reached its end, "You know what? Forget it! I've had enough of the both of you! You're more trouble than you're worth!"

"If that's how you feel, leave! Neither of us needs you! Go on, piss off!" Bakura roared, throwing his father in the direction of the door.

Said man stood up and brushed himself off before heading towards the doorway with a final shout of, "I hope you rot in hell, you disgusting faggots."

Bakura lunged forwards, but was stopped as Ryou grabbed the back of his shirt, keeping him in place. "Let him go," he said, his voice holding no emotion.

They heard the door slam shut, and Ryou sank down to the floor, running a hand through his hair. Bakura sat down beside him and placed an arm around his brother.

"I'm sorry… I should have believed you…" Ryou whispered as he rested his head against his brother's shoulder.

"It's not your fault our father's a psychopath," Bakura said, resting his chin on his brother's head. "Speaking of psychopaths, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have made such a big deal out of it…"

Ryou raised his head in surprise, looking straight into his brother's eyes. "If anyone should be apologising, it's me! I should have told you sooner!"

"Let's just forget about it, okay? I'm not exactly ecstatic about it, but I can live with it, as long as I don't have to see you two kissing or anything."

Ryou giggled a little bit, and smiled for the first time since he had returned home. Perhaps things were going to be alright, after all.

The next day their father knocked on the door, asking for his stuff. Bakura chucked it at him none too gracefully, before telling him to piss off out of their lives forever. Their father made a comment about going back to England to start again, and that they didn't need to worry about seeing him, which relieved them both.

When they reached school, they had planned to explain to Marik and Melvin what had happened, but didn't get a chance to until lunch.

"Oh my God!" Marik exclaimed, looking between the two British brothers with worry on his face, "are you two okay?"

"We're fine now," Ryou explained. "I just can't believe our father would be like that…"

"If he ever touches you again, I'll kill him," Melvin mumbled protectively, instinctively wrapping an arm around Ryou, before remembering Bakura was there and retracting his arm.

Bakura rolled his eyes, "Touch him if you want, I don't care."

Melvin raised an eyebrow, "You've certainly changed your tune."

"Yes, well," Bakura said, his eyes flickering over towards Marik, "I had some gentle persuasion that helped me see that perhaps, you being with my brother isn't the worst thing in the world." He sent a wink Marik's way, and said Egyptian blushed.

"Oh for the love of God, will you two just kiss and get it over with! You're driving me crazy with your constant flirting!" Melvin whined.

Bakura grinned as he turned to face Marik. "Okay," was all he said before he grabbed the Egyptian by his lavender hoodie and crashed their lips together.

Melvin and Ryou looked at the two of them in shock as Marik wrapped his arms around Bakura's neck, and Bakura's hands rested on his tanned hips – they definitely weren't expecting that to happen.

When they eventually parted, they both sent their brothers wide grins – Bakura's more of a smirk than anything else.

"Well, that was easy…I didn't expect you to actually do it, you know," Melvin commented, staring at the two in disbelief.

"I can be quite spontaneous," Bakura said arrogantly, earning a whack on the shoulder from Marik.

"Don't lie to them, Baku'! We actually… we got together last night, when I went to try and fix the mess I'd created," Marik said sheepishly, "sorry about that again, Ryou."

"That's perfectly alright Marik, it's all in the past now!" Ryou said, beaming at the two of them, "congratulations guys!"

"Just try to keep the noise down, I don't want you to disturb mine and Ryou's alone time," Melvin purred, causing Ryou to blush.

"Just because I'm tolerating you being in a relationship with my brother, doesn't mean I want to hear about what you do in your spare time together," Bakura grumbled, making Melvin laugh.

"As long as I don't hear about what you do to my brother, I think we'll be just fine," Melvin agreed, making Marik frown.

"What do you mean what he does to me? If we're doing anything, I'll be doing it to him!"

"Of course you will, Marik," Bakura and Melvin said at the same time, making them both of them laugh raucously.

Marik pouted as he began to argue back, and despite himself, Ryou smiled. Everything was falling to place now. Yes, he was still sad about his father, but with time he knew it would be okay. He had his brother, his boyfriend and his best friend, and really, that's all he wanted. They were the only three people in the world he really cared about, and he knew that this was the beginning of something wonderful.

A/N: Well done to everyone who guessed correctly about Papa 'Kura!

So yes folks, this is the last official chapter, but there is still the epilogue, so expect a lot of lighthearted flufftastic crap in the next chapter XD