Author's Notes: I LIVE!! Yes, my rants were deleted, so they banned me for a week. But I'm back now! For those who care, I'll be posting my rants on my website in a couple weeks. I'll let you know when I do. I'm very glad you people like Bakura and his views on the "magic," because there will be a lot more of that… I've never seen any real evidence that Bakura abuses Ryou, and Seena (my official source of Yami Bakura information) hasn't either, but he'll do it a little anyway. Also, after much inner debate about relationships, I think I can do what I want with this story without delving into yaoi. But let me know if it gets too slashy for you. I think my idea of yaoi is a bit different from what you might have been thinking… I don't intend to write any sex scenes, or even kissing. Really, I suspect the most I could do would be a bit of cuddling, and if it even gets that far, it won't be for ages. So don't worry about nasty, offending things! Oh, and since no one suggested a new title, I'll just start getting attached to the one I've got. This is mostly in Bakura's point of view, although in later chapters it's hard to tell… Even for me!
Scale: Indigo doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh. This is stupid. If I have to do something, I want to do the warning… *stomps off muttering death threats*
Ankh: Really, this probably doesn't need a warning at all. There's a little violence, but it's not too bad. And Indigo might have written a yaoi-ish sentence or two, but that's only because she put that other warning up there in her notes. After this chapter, don't expect any. Unless she decides to talk to you about it again!
The Cost of Weakness
The meal Ryou and his uncle ate was very strange… It was a pot full of different kinds of white meat-like stuff (seafood, or so Ryou's thoughts told him) in broth with some long thin noodles. What a strange word. Noodle… Oh well.
The most bizarre part of the meal was how it was eaten. Bakura watched in awe as Ryou held the two sticks in one hand and neatly pinched each piece of food before bringing it up to his mouth. When he was finished with the solid stuff, he put down the sticks and picked up his bowl to drink the remaining broth. This was more familiar to Bakura. And apparently it all tasted very good.
"I see you like your father's present," Ryou's uncle said, nodding at the Ring on Ryou's chest.
"Oh yes," Ryou said, smiling. "It's the best present I've ever gotten!" He gently ran his hand over the Ring, and Bakura could feel him more strongly than ever. He loved the Ring so much. It almost felt like he felt that strongly about Bakura…
Bakura shook his head to clear it. NO! This boy was weak, and he MUST get stronger. If Ryou cared at all about him, it would have to wait until the boy was stronger.
Ryou sipped tea from a small clay cup. "Are you packed?" his uncle asked.
"All except the things I'll need tomorrow," Ryou answered.
"Good. If you're finished, you can start loading it into the truck. I'll be there to help you after I wash the dishes," Ryou's uncle said.
"Okay!" Ryou said. He gave a little bow to his uncle and went upstairs. There, he grabbed a box and brought it downstairs. He carried it outside and put it in a huge metal box on wheels. This must be their chariot. A mage as powerful as Ryou's uncle was surely entitled to his own chariot. Even if it wasn't very attractive. And Bakura couldn't see how horses or camels could be hitched up to it. Perhaps it ran on magic as well.
Bakura made Ryou look around again. Though it was dark, he could see all sorts of large, odd shapes. It was too dark to make out what they were.
Ryou went back inside to get another box. He continued to load them into the chariot, and his uncle helped. The older man used no magic, though. This puzzled Bakura.
Finally, after hours of loading all the boxes in the house into the chariot, there were no more. Ryou yawned. "You'd better get to bed, Ryou. We'll have a long drive tomorrow," his uncle said.
"All right. Good night!" Ryou said, smiling at his uncle. He went back up to his nearly empty room. He changed into some softer, lighter clothes and picked up the small white brush by his bed. He took it to another room where he put some sticky blue stuff on the bristles, ran some water over it, and began scrubbing his teeth with it.
//Oh, I see! It's for washing teeth!// Bakura said to himself.
Ryou nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around and looked quickly in the closet and the bath area, and outside of the room. "Wh…who's there?" he asked nervously. Bakura realized the boy had heard him again. Oh well, now was as good a time as any to make his presence known. The sorcerer wasn't around.
//I'm in the Ring, you weak fool.// he said, annoyed at the boy's frantic attempts to locate whoever had spoken. //Just my luck, I have to get stuck with the village idiot…//
Ryou was holding the Ring, staring at it in openmouthed wonder. "Who… are you?"
//Not that it's any of YOUR business, but I'm Bakura. Now shut your mouth.//
Ryou's mouth snapped shut automatically. He started scrubbing his teeth again slowly. /Bakura? But that's my family's name…/ he thought to himself. /I wonder if we're related. Does he look anything like me? Does he even have a body, or is he just the ring?/
Bakura sighed in annoyance. //I can HEAR you, you know.// He REALLY wanted to hit the dense boy. Suddenly he felt strange. The Ring in Ryou's hands glowed and Bakura found himself standing in front of Ryou. He stared down at his slightly transparent body, turning his hand over again and again. Then he looked at Ryou, whose eyes were as big as the Ring itself.
Bakura frowned and slapped Ryou across the face. "Quit that, you look like a fish." Ryou stepped back and put a hand to his face. Bakura grinned. He had felt the boy's cheek under his hand! "You felt that?" he demanded. Ryou looked shocked and hurt.
"Y…yes! Why did you do that?" Ryou asked.
Bakura grinned triumphantly. "Because I can!" He shoved Ryou out of the way and stood in front of the mirror. Ah, wonderful. He paused to admire himself. His skin was paler than he remembered, but he'd been in total darkness for countless years, so that was unavoidable. His eyes were hard and narrow, a sharp contrast to Ryou's soft round ones. And a large spike of hair stood up on each side of his head, a bit like bat wings.
Satisfied with his appearance, Bakura turned back to Ryou, who looked very hurt and a little frightened.
Suddenly a voice interrupted them. "Ryou, I'm going out for a while. I'll be back in no more than an hour," his uncle called.
Ryou opened his mouth, but Bakura quickly grabbed a piece of his hair and hissed "Not a word about me!"
Ryou gulped and nodded. "All right. See you tomorrow!" he called to his uncle. Bakura nodded and waited until he heard the door slam shut. Then he yanked on Ryou's hair, pushing him out of the small white room. Ryou gave a shriek of pain.
"Go to your room. We need to talk," Bakura ordered. Ryou stood rubbing his head for a minute, so Bakura frowned and kicked the boy in the shin to get him to hurry. Ryou yelped and scrambled to his room with Bakura close behind.
Upon entering his room, Ryou put a hand to the wall and the magic globe on the ceiling lit up. Bakura gasped involuntarily and took a step back. He looked suspiciously at Ryou. So, this fragile boy COULD use some magic. "Explain this magic," he snarled, pointing at the glowing sphere.
Ryou looked confused and then had the audacity to laugh. "That's not magic! It's a light. It uses electricity."
Bakura glared at him and deftly punched his shoulder. Ryou staggered back, looking very upset. "Tell me how the light-magic works, fool! Don't you dare laugh at me!" He hadn't minded being with this boy at first, but he was steadily getting more annoyed.
Ryou gulped and pointed to the wall, where there was a small panel with a tiny stick poking out. "You just push the switch up and down and the light turns on and off."
Bakura went over to it and pushed up with all his might. Nothing happened. He gave Ryou a murderous look.
Ryou flinched. "It's… already on. Push it down to turn it off." Bakura growled and Ryou backed away. He pushed the switch down using his full strength. As the light disappeared, he realized that it didn't take that much effort. So he spent a moment turning the light off and on before turning back to Ryou.
"Where are you from that you don't know how to turn on a light switch?" Ryou asked in what he hoped was a soft, non-threatening voice.
This made Bakura almost livid with rage. "I know all I need to know!" He started pummeling Ryou with his fists. "In Egypt they had the sense not to teach magic to weaklings like you!"
Ryou cried out in pain every time Bakura's fists met his thin frame. Finally he dropped to the floor and stared up at Bakura in pain and bewilderment. "Why are you doing this? I don't want to fight you! Please, I know you're confused, but I can help you get used to things here." He offered a weak, tentative smile, trying again to seem friendly and non-threatening.
Bakura growled and kicked Ryou. "Ha. You're too weak to fight me. THAT is why I'm doing this. You're so weak you don't deserve to be alive! And if you don't toughen up soon, you won't be! Got it, weakling?"
Ryou couldn't do anything but nod. He was shaking, petrified with fear. Bakura beat him a bit more, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. After a while he felt so terrible that he willed himself back into the Ring. He was disgusted at Ryou's weakness, but also at himself. However, he still felt it was his duty to make Ryou strong. So he angrily stalked off through his corridors to wallow in his own misery and self-loathing for a while.
Out in his room, Ryou had stopped crying. He was covered in bruises, but they were mostly under his clothes, so they would be easy to hide. He still didn't understand why Bakura would care how weak he was, or even why Bakura was here at all, but he knew the other boy must live in the Millennium Ring. Ryou slowly lay down, pulling a blanket over his aching body. He lay awake for a long time, but finally fell asleep clutching the Ring.
Endnote: Yep, it's gonna be a long, drawn-out beginning… I'll eventually come to the Duelist Kingdom stuff, but not for a while yet. More Bakura-y goodness first! Again, if anyone knows the Japanese word for "uncle," let me know. And if you have any information on Yami Bakura that isn't in the dub, or you think I might not know, tell me! And please let me know if this gets boring too, because I'm going to spend a lot of time with more stuff like this chapter.
Scale: Indigo doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh. This is stupid. If I have to do something, I want to do the warning… *stomps off muttering death threats*
Ankh: Really, this probably doesn't need a warning at all. There's a little violence, but it's not too bad. And Indigo might have written a yaoi-ish sentence or two, but that's only because she put that other warning up there in her notes. After this chapter, don't expect any. Unless she decides to talk to you about it again!
The Cost of Weakness
The meal Ryou and his uncle ate was very strange… It was a pot full of different kinds of white meat-like stuff (seafood, or so Ryou's thoughts told him) in broth with some long thin noodles. What a strange word. Noodle… Oh well.
The most bizarre part of the meal was how it was eaten. Bakura watched in awe as Ryou held the two sticks in one hand and neatly pinched each piece of food before bringing it up to his mouth. When he was finished with the solid stuff, he put down the sticks and picked up his bowl to drink the remaining broth. This was more familiar to Bakura. And apparently it all tasted very good.
"I see you like your father's present," Ryou's uncle said, nodding at the Ring on Ryou's chest.
"Oh yes," Ryou said, smiling. "It's the best present I've ever gotten!" He gently ran his hand over the Ring, and Bakura could feel him more strongly than ever. He loved the Ring so much. It almost felt like he felt that strongly about Bakura…
Bakura shook his head to clear it. NO! This boy was weak, and he MUST get stronger. If Ryou cared at all about him, it would have to wait until the boy was stronger.
Ryou sipped tea from a small clay cup. "Are you packed?" his uncle asked.
"All except the things I'll need tomorrow," Ryou answered.
"Good. If you're finished, you can start loading it into the truck. I'll be there to help you after I wash the dishes," Ryou's uncle said.
"Okay!" Ryou said. He gave a little bow to his uncle and went upstairs. There, he grabbed a box and brought it downstairs. He carried it outside and put it in a huge metal box on wheels. This must be their chariot. A mage as powerful as Ryou's uncle was surely entitled to his own chariot. Even if it wasn't very attractive. And Bakura couldn't see how horses or camels could be hitched up to it. Perhaps it ran on magic as well.
Bakura made Ryou look around again. Though it was dark, he could see all sorts of large, odd shapes. It was too dark to make out what they were.
Ryou went back inside to get another box. He continued to load them into the chariot, and his uncle helped. The older man used no magic, though. This puzzled Bakura.
Finally, after hours of loading all the boxes in the house into the chariot, there were no more. Ryou yawned. "You'd better get to bed, Ryou. We'll have a long drive tomorrow," his uncle said.
"All right. Good night!" Ryou said, smiling at his uncle. He went back up to his nearly empty room. He changed into some softer, lighter clothes and picked up the small white brush by his bed. He took it to another room where he put some sticky blue stuff on the bristles, ran some water over it, and began scrubbing his teeth with it.
//Oh, I see! It's for washing teeth!// Bakura said to himself.
Ryou nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around and looked quickly in the closet and the bath area, and outside of the room. "Wh…who's there?" he asked nervously. Bakura realized the boy had heard him again. Oh well, now was as good a time as any to make his presence known. The sorcerer wasn't around.
//I'm in the Ring, you weak fool.// he said, annoyed at the boy's frantic attempts to locate whoever had spoken. //Just my luck, I have to get stuck with the village idiot…//
Ryou was holding the Ring, staring at it in openmouthed wonder. "Who… are you?"
//Not that it's any of YOUR business, but I'm Bakura. Now shut your mouth.//
Ryou's mouth snapped shut automatically. He started scrubbing his teeth again slowly. /Bakura? But that's my family's name…/ he thought to himself. /I wonder if we're related. Does he look anything like me? Does he even have a body, or is he just the ring?/
Bakura sighed in annoyance. //I can HEAR you, you know.// He REALLY wanted to hit the dense boy. Suddenly he felt strange. The Ring in Ryou's hands glowed and Bakura found himself standing in front of Ryou. He stared down at his slightly transparent body, turning his hand over again and again. Then he looked at Ryou, whose eyes were as big as the Ring itself.
Bakura frowned and slapped Ryou across the face. "Quit that, you look like a fish." Ryou stepped back and put a hand to his face. Bakura grinned. He had felt the boy's cheek under his hand! "You felt that?" he demanded. Ryou looked shocked and hurt.
"Y…yes! Why did you do that?" Ryou asked.
Bakura grinned triumphantly. "Because I can!" He shoved Ryou out of the way and stood in front of the mirror. Ah, wonderful. He paused to admire himself. His skin was paler than he remembered, but he'd been in total darkness for countless years, so that was unavoidable. His eyes were hard and narrow, a sharp contrast to Ryou's soft round ones. And a large spike of hair stood up on each side of his head, a bit like bat wings.
Satisfied with his appearance, Bakura turned back to Ryou, who looked very hurt and a little frightened.
Suddenly a voice interrupted them. "Ryou, I'm going out for a while. I'll be back in no more than an hour," his uncle called.
Ryou opened his mouth, but Bakura quickly grabbed a piece of his hair and hissed "Not a word about me!"
Ryou gulped and nodded. "All right. See you tomorrow!" he called to his uncle. Bakura nodded and waited until he heard the door slam shut. Then he yanked on Ryou's hair, pushing him out of the small white room. Ryou gave a shriek of pain.
"Go to your room. We need to talk," Bakura ordered. Ryou stood rubbing his head for a minute, so Bakura frowned and kicked the boy in the shin to get him to hurry. Ryou yelped and scrambled to his room with Bakura close behind.
Upon entering his room, Ryou put a hand to the wall and the magic globe on the ceiling lit up. Bakura gasped involuntarily and took a step back. He looked suspiciously at Ryou. So, this fragile boy COULD use some magic. "Explain this magic," he snarled, pointing at the glowing sphere.
Ryou looked confused and then had the audacity to laugh. "That's not magic! It's a light. It uses electricity."
Bakura glared at him and deftly punched his shoulder. Ryou staggered back, looking very upset. "Tell me how the light-magic works, fool! Don't you dare laugh at me!" He hadn't minded being with this boy at first, but he was steadily getting more annoyed.
Ryou gulped and pointed to the wall, where there was a small panel with a tiny stick poking out. "You just push the switch up and down and the light turns on and off."
Bakura went over to it and pushed up with all his might. Nothing happened. He gave Ryou a murderous look.
Ryou flinched. "It's… already on. Push it down to turn it off." Bakura growled and Ryou backed away. He pushed the switch down using his full strength. As the light disappeared, he realized that it didn't take that much effort. So he spent a moment turning the light off and on before turning back to Ryou.
"Where are you from that you don't know how to turn on a light switch?" Ryou asked in what he hoped was a soft, non-threatening voice.
This made Bakura almost livid with rage. "I know all I need to know!" He started pummeling Ryou with his fists. "In Egypt they had the sense not to teach magic to weaklings like you!"
Ryou cried out in pain every time Bakura's fists met his thin frame. Finally he dropped to the floor and stared up at Bakura in pain and bewilderment. "Why are you doing this? I don't want to fight you! Please, I know you're confused, but I can help you get used to things here." He offered a weak, tentative smile, trying again to seem friendly and non-threatening.
Bakura growled and kicked Ryou. "Ha. You're too weak to fight me. THAT is why I'm doing this. You're so weak you don't deserve to be alive! And if you don't toughen up soon, you won't be! Got it, weakling?"
Ryou couldn't do anything but nod. He was shaking, petrified with fear. Bakura beat him a bit more, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. After a while he felt so terrible that he willed himself back into the Ring. He was disgusted at Ryou's weakness, but also at himself. However, he still felt it was his duty to make Ryou strong. So he angrily stalked off through his corridors to wallow in his own misery and self-loathing for a while.
Out in his room, Ryou had stopped crying. He was covered in bruises, but they were mostly under his clothes, so they would be easy to hide. He still didn't understand why Bakura would care how weak he was, or even why Bakura was here at all, but he knew the other boy must live in the Millennium Ring. Ryou slowly lay down, pulling a blanket over his aching body. He lay awake for a long time, but finally fell asleep clutching the Ring.
Endnote: Yep, it's gonna be a long, drawn-out beginning… I'll eventually come to the Duelist Kingdom stuff, but not for a while yet. More Bakura-y goodness first! Again, if anyone knows the Japanese word for "uncle," let me know. And if you have any information on Yami Bakura that isn't in the dub, or you think I might not know, tell me! And please let me know if this gets boring too, because I'm going to spend a lot of time with more stuff like this chapter.