Aisha: Heh, well here I am…. Again. This has been the Saturday from hell. I didn't get to do anything, I've been trapped in this house for three days straight, and the two episodes of YGO were re-runs. Sigh Man am I bummed. Well something good did happen, I found a story that I had totally forgotten about, and saw that it was finished with a sequel on the way, but I don't know when that'll be. All the stories that I check for updates haven't been updated since the begging of last month or longer. It's sad. Oh well. Enough of me and my Sat. Sob-Story, ON WITH THE FIC!

Responses:

flaming heart: GIR-esq. I like you. You're nice!

Shenya: Just for you, the next chapter, so you can waste more of your time read my mindless drivel . I had a weird dream about Ishtar and Malik doing the Flamingo dance last night. It was disturbing. I've sworn never to mix cough syrups again. o.0;;

Ly the werewolf: It's really fun writing like this, and it makes it easier to portray emotions if you're right inside the character's head. It's odd the way I do Malik and Ishtar, because I've seen all the episodes up to were Ishtar beat Mai in Battle City, and neither of them act anything like this, but it's easier and people like it ;;

And don't worry I just choked down some cough syrup. I think the Spanish Inquisition would have had many more fatalities if they had used Robitusin (Sp?) as torture. Shudder I hate that stuff.

Sarina Fannel: Slowly but surely I am recovering. Anyway I'm glad you like me humble ficcy. I like Ryou's wings too, they're pretty, but I afraid that they would contrast to the rest of his pale appearance too much. Oh well, they're cool so they stay!

Yamis Girlfriend: Nope, no sugar in the Upper Elements. I think I'll have Ryou get addicted to Sugar so that Bakura can tease him ; Don't worry you're gonna find out how Ryou and Malik are related this chapter. One of the best stories you've ever read? Surely you jest! There are lots of stories out there that make mine look like kindergarten work 'specially with all of the mistakes I make. But thank you all the same, any more compliments like that and my head is going to swell with arrogance o.0;;

dagoneyes: Yes fear the evil cliffhanger!!!!! cough Adara is supposed to watch Mokuba, but that's not very important, she'll be going back to heaven soon (but she'll probably be back later, just so she can tease poor Ryou.)

u don't wanna noe: Yup, Yugi and Yami finally met, and I think that I'll put some more of them at the end of this chapter, or at the beginning of the next. I thought it would be interesting to get ethereal beings sugar-high, but wait until later I'll have Ryou bouncing off of the walls!!

Yami Bakura Kia: Arigato. Take your time, there's no rush to get the link on your page ;

Firedraygon97: Everybody loves Ishtar…. I find that funny, because he wasn't even going to be in this fic originally. I'm glad I put him and Malik in though, because it gave this story a bit more of a plot. Before it was just kind of a 'write as it goes along,' thing, and it still is in a way, but there's a definite plot line now! All I have to do is avoid plot bunnies, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (aka Writer's Block)

TidBits: Irk! I'm sorry I missed putting up a response to your review for chapter6, I didn't double-check my reviews before posting. --;; Everyone seems to have some herd of raging animals but me….. I know! I'll counter your herd of raging Llama's with my herd of raging LEMMINGS!!!!!!! Mwuahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cough Tankies for putting me on your listy, I appreciate it! In a whisper Psst! Update soon, your story is better then mine!

A VERY LARGE GOMEN TO ANYONE THAT I MAY HAVE MISSED WHILE RESPONDING TO REVIEWS. It makes me feel stupid, and it gets you mad at me for not saying anything to you.

Disclaimer: Let's see, in accordance to the almighty countdown that started in chapter6 as 'Give it a week,' I believe we have Five days left. I'll bet you my Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon card that I….. (How valuable is that card?)….. won't succeed (ok, so I'm playing it safe, just because that card is powerful. --;; Gomen, Gomen.)

Bound By Our Simple Mistakes

Chapter8: Family Affairs.

(Ryou's POV)

"What would you say if I told you that we were related, Ryou?" I dropped the pixie stick that I had been about to open, and looked Malik straight in the eye, not liking what I saw there.

Sincerity.

Through all the sugar and mirth there was a horrifyingly overwhelming look of sincerity radiating from his eyes.

And my reaction?

Throw up all your mental barriers and dig around for any excuse you can find for it not to be true.

"When-….. Who-…… But we're-…… How?!?!" Good Job Ryou, that has to the worst attempt at denial ever!

Malik moved from my side to sit in front of me, so he could look me in the eye. He started to study me.

My body stiffened.

My heart froze.

I could hear the steady ticking of the clock, which sounded like it was going slower and slower.

… And somewhere in the background I could hear Ishtar humming 'I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,' and offering that blessed sugar to whoever had just walked into the room.

But I couldn't look away. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn't.

I don't know what it is that he was looking for, and after awhile I began to get the feeling that even he was sure what he was trying to find.

"Your parents," he said suddenly, his voice still calm and controlled as ever.

"Huh?"

"Tell me what you know about your parents," He clarified for me.

"Nothing, really. I just know that they died when I was really young," for as long as I could remember I had lived alone, and before I had met Yugi and Adara it had just seemed natural that there wasn't anyone around for me.

"Hm," Malik chewed on his lower lip in thought. "I never thought that you would know so little."

"So little about what?" This was getting more confusing by the second.

"About yourself, Ryou."

"What's there to know? I'm a teenage angel that lives alone and goes to the Academy. That's all." What was he going on about? I was beginning to think that he was just about as crazy as Ishtar, except in a less laughable way.

"Don't you know who you are?" It was becoming harder to keep eye contact with each question that I had no answer to.

"Ryou Soma," That was the best answer I could give him. Yes it was open ended and it didn't contain very much information, but was an answer, and it was my name.

"Yes," he said smiling, "Ryou deriving from Ryu which is Japanese for Dragon, and Soma a Greek word meaning alive or living. Ryou Soma. The Living Dragon." I didn't even have time to try and guess what he meant by that (and I think he planned it that way to keep me slightly in the dark) before he switched topics. "One hundred and fifty years ago your parents were on opposite sides of the second Great Monster War. Your Mother being a demon and your Father being an angel. I'm pretty sure you can guess that they fell in love, and had you right under the noses of the two great councils. They were both executed for treason an hour before the peace treaty was signed," he spat sounding particularly bitter, and it was at that point in time that I realized I'd do anything to not get on Malik's bad side for fear of the consequences. "But you," he continued, tone lightening considerably, "they didn't kill."

My head was reeling. "Why?" And that wasn't my voice.

Head dizzy and eyes unfocused I turned around to see the new speaker. Bakura. He had been listening? Judging by Ishtar's face he had been listening too.

Great, story time.

I turned my head back to face Malik when he started speaking again. "Well apparently his parents had hidden him so well when they realized that they had been found out, that once he was found the treaty had already been signed. There was a lot of debate that went on over it, since they thought it unnatural for there to be a demon angel hybrid, no one wanted him to live, but people were too afraid that if they took action it would break the treaty and start the war all over again." I winced a little at the rough parts of the speech.

This was too much, but it did explain a lot about my life. Why I was alone, why my wings were larger then normal and not white, and the failure of the protection spell. Of course it wouldn't work, it only hid angels from humans, not freakish hybrids. And this certainly explained why so many of my teachers took pity on me, while most of the other people I met simply hated me without reason. My teachers knew me, but those people had only heard the rumors that I suppose had been hidden from me on purpose. A lot of pieces were finally fitting into the puzzle my life had become, but I still had two questions. What was that whole 'The Living Dragon' stuff about, or had that been the sugar talking? I wasn't willing to voice that out loud yet, if Malik intended to tell me he would in his own time. But I was willing to say this, "You never answered me." My voice sounded quiet and pathetic, even to my ears.

"Huh?" Malik seemed to have been thrown out of his serious attitude, because he was smiling and reaching for a red pixie stick that Ishtar was offering.

"You told me we were related, and I asked how. You never answered that," I'd have time to be shocked, and emotional over all of this new information later, but not until I got away from all of these people who were barely better than strangers in my eyes, 'family' or not.

"Your Mother and my Mother were sisters, so we're cousins."

Cousins. That was a new concept. I wasn't sure if I could trust him, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. I'd lived alone for so long, it would just be weird to add something to that, it had been hard enough to adjust to Yugi and Adara. A Cousin? He didn't expect me to live with him or anything, did he? It would be weird to leave the Upper Elements.

The Upper Elements……

School…..

Project…..

Tracking humans…..

I've been seen……

I'd failed the test in less than a day…..

If it weren't for Malik I'd still be trapped inside the head of a human……

Shit?

Could things get any worse?!?

I quickly stood up, intent on getting my pocket computer so I could contact Yugi and Adara, and promptly tripped over my own feet landing painfully on my wings.

Apparently they could get worse.

So there I was staring at the ceiling, spreading out my wings so I wouldn't be lying on top on the now extremely sore joints, and praying that a lightning bolt would just miraculously whip out of the sky and strike me dead.

I blinked and suddenly two sets of purple eyes blink back from over the bed that my feet were currently resting on. "What?" I asked nonchalantly.

"You plan on staying down there all night?" One set of eyes blinked while the other set half closed, as though giggling.

"Oh I don't know, I've rather taken a liking to the floor," In times of extreme emotion it's sometimes best just to let go, and salvage what sanity you have left. "How do you want me to respond to that?" I asked Malik, still staring at the ceiling in a detached way, my mind threatening to shut itself down should I hear an answer that I couldn't handle.

"Respond to what?" He sounded confused, like he had totally forgotten what he had just told all of us.

"You know perfectly well what," My gaze finally shifted from the ceiling to around the room, and then locked onto a pair sneakers that were disturbingly close to my head. I studied the sneakers for awhile before following them up to a pair of legs, following the legs up to a torso, the torso up to a neck, and the neck up to head with white spiked hair, and brown eyes that were as stoic as I felt. The world could have blown up at that very moment, and I doubt I would have done much more then shrug my shoulders and say something along the lines of, "yep, just another day."

"Respond as best you can, Ryou. I just felt that it was your right to know," I could almost hear the shrug in Malik's voice.

Was it just me, or was the atmosphere of the room suddenly becoming lazy?

I didn't look away from Bakura; I don't think I could have. He was interesting, so very like me but….. not like me at all. And he was staring right back at me, probably trying to figure out how a simple trip up to the school roof had ended up with him having a demon on his guest bed and an angel on his floor.

Detached. That was the only thing I could feel right now. Everything had turned out all wrong. It was just supposed to be a simple test. Follow the assigned human, that was it. But I had not only been seen by my assigned human, but trapped in his head. And now this? It was all just too much. My mind had trying to comprehend everything that was going on around me, all but shutting down, leaving me, for lack of a better word, detached. About everything. And empty. Everything was hollow now. I wondered if Yugi and Adara knew what a freak I truly was.

"At least your not in my head anymore," were the words from Bakura that pulled me out of my mental musings. I blinked a few times and then went back to staring at his sneakers. I'm not sure how long we all stayed like that seconds, minutes, hours, did it even matter? I was surprised, to say the least, when I was pegged in the middle of the forehead by a small bundle of pixie stix. I looked up in the general direction they had come, to see that Malik had fallen asleep while still leaning over the edge of the bed, and Ishtar looking at me with a frown on his face. Frown? I hadn't seen him do that yet, and by the way he had been acting I had thought it impossible of the teen. It didn't look right on his face, and it was turning borderline snarl.

"What?" I asked, blinking stupidly.

"Stop it," he growled out, his voice low and menacing.

Blink. Blink.

"Anger, yelling, crying, laughing psychotically, all understandable. But here on Earth they drug people up when they separate from their minds," this sudden change in the boy left me confused. He didn't sound the least bit insane any more.

"You would know," I heard Bakura mutter from his leaning position on the side of the bed. When had he moved there? Last I checked I had been staring at his shoes. Did I really blank out like Ishtar said? I looked down at the candy in my hand. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to loose myself in a sugar rush, to forget everything else. Wait, wasn't that the mentality that spawned alcoholics and substance abusers?

This had to stop. My thoughts were wandering to places they didn't belong. Information overload or not I had to get a little bit of my emotion back. It wouldn't do to just be an empty shell. What was the point in that? Life was meant to be lived, not left hanging at the first hurdle. I'd be damned if I drifted through life just because of some stuff that happened in the past that I could never change.

But I couldn't just forget all of this. And what about that Ring that had appeared on Bakura? What was it? Maybe Malik knew, I'd have to remember to ask him when he was awake.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I finally sat up and retracted my wings. Looking out the window I finally realized how dark it was, and how late it must have been. "Yugi, Adara!" My eyes widened when I realized how late I was for the meeting.

"Unh," I heard Malik groan from on top of the bed. Oops must have woken him up, and by the look on the two mortals faces I shortened their lives by five years. Note to self: Don't suddenly yell in a room that's been silent for a good hour or so. "Where's the fire?" Malik asked, voice still thick with sleep.

"My friends, I was supposed to meet them!" I said frantically, standing up and searching the room for my bag. As if things weren't bad enough already my stomach decided to remind me that it had only eaten a Snickers bar and a handful of Pixie Stix in the past 24 hours.

"No way," Malik said jumping off the bed, and taking hold of both my shoulders from behind. "Not until you- we," he corrected as his own stomach growled slightly, "eat something. Lead the way Bakura."

Mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'Freeloaders' Bakura got up from his sitting position and guided us down to the kitchen.

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Aisha: Wow, that was long! And just about the worst chapter ending yet, but hey a lot of stuff happened, and I have trouble doing angst so there. Blink Well I'm tired now so goodnight everyone. Please Review, it would be much appreciated.

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Chapter Revised: August 4, 2004.