Fate: Hmm, how much more? Even I don't know!
Disclaimer: Lawyers? Where?
[10] In Which Malik Is Traumatized For Life
Ryou Bakura, duelist, Monster World competitor, decent student, and completely psychotic hikari, was pacing irritably around the basement of the museum. He'd only emerged after his yami and Shadi had gone upstairs.
Damn him...damn them all! They're trying to keep me from my yami! He's mine! Mineminemine...he's all mine, and they'll never keep us apart. Nevernevernever.
Ryou picked up a stray bit of pipe from the floor and flung it against the wall furiously as a final touch. He then sat down against the wall with an audible thump, pouting and stroking the knife in his left hand across his lips.
I want to taunt him, to tease him, to draw him out and make him scream, trade pain for pleasure and pleasure for pain until he's broken in my arms, boneless and bonded to me forever and beyond...
Ryou sighed dreamily, turning the knife blade to briefly graze his lips before sliding it back into a pocket. Warm blood trickled down his chin and onto his gray shirt. He absently licked at it, then went back to his musing.
I'm in lust.
Yes.
I want to feel him scream beneath me, have him writhe and bleed in my hands, want him want him he's MINE!
Sigh.
Ryou glowered fruitlessly at the staircase. The closer he came to Bakura, the more dangerous he felt himself grow. With every thwarting, with every failed conquest, his mind felt more warped and tangled, until he was reaching for anything and everything that came near.
Yami...Yuugi...Jounouchi...Isis...Shadi...all my playthings, to use and break, discard and throw away into the Shadow Realm...toys, every one of them... Ryou giggled, listening to his breathy, sinful laughter dispassionately, then smiling at the subtle invitation he heard. Gone was the innocence in his sweet, charming manner.
He was still sweet, in a distorted, cloying manner. He was still charming, as a murderer charms his victims. The ability to seduce with a touch, a look, a smile, was burning in his blood, burning to be used, burning to draw one more person into his circle of lust and death.
Ring magic...an ever-expanding cycle of death, lust and hatred, madness all twisted and coiled and ready to spring, all boiling in me...
Yami took it for granted...and I took it all...
And oh Ra, but I love it oh so much...
Ryou smiled even more widely, malice and mocking curving his bloodstained lips without him thinking about it.
He was still sitting like this when the back door opened.
A boy with long, sandy hair bounced into the basement. He was about Ryou's height and build, with darker skin and lighter eyes. What wasn't so obvious was his psychotic darker half, his tendency to try and mind-control random people and take their wallets, or the fact that his name was Malik.
Well, well, well... Ryou thought with a growing smile of delight. Someone certainly looks lovely tonight.
"I'm ba-ack!" Malik singsonged, continuing towards the now vacated desk with nary a look left or right. "Isis-oneesan?" he queried when he reached the abandoned workstation. "Er. This isn't good. Maybe she's upstairs!"
With this innovative thought, Malik whirled around.
And came face-to-face with Ryou.
"Meh? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!" Malik jumped about six feet straight into the air, flailed his arms, and managed to do several back somersaults over the desk and into the wall before sitting up and blinking dazedly.
Ryou smiled slowly and waved.
"Ryou? Geb's bones, don't scare me like that!" Malik yelped. "What're you doing down here all alone?"
Ryou giggled softly. He looks...so good, he thought. "They left me," he whispered mockingly. "All alone," he continued on a sigh.
"Huh? Who?" Malik blinked.
"I suppose I scared them," Ryou added dreamily. He's confused...so confused...and a little nervous...but I see desire there...
Ryou slid bonelessly over the desk and slithered into a sitting position in front of Malik. "I'm ever so changed, you know," he softly confided, ending in a muted but wild laugh. It's so funny...so easy...so me.
"You are?" Malik asked, being completely unaware of what had happened in the last twenty-four hours or so.
"Mmm. Very," Ryou replied, leaning slightly closer as the Ring around his neck began glimmering slightly. He slid a hand into his pocket and pulled out his knife, then began passing it along his lips once more.
Malik gazed cross-eyed at the moving knife. "Isn't that – ?"
"My delectable yami's? Oh, quite...but he was absolutely in pieces when I left him, and didn't really mind so very much..."
"Er," Malik said intelligently. "Doesn't that hurt?" he inquired as Ryou put another slash across his own lips.
"Wonderfully so," Ryou breathed. "I love sensation – any sensation – don't you?"
"Sensation's good," Malik agreed in the tone of one humoring a lunatic. He was quite good at that, being as he had one living in his mind.
"Do you think you'll like this sensation?" Ryou asked, winding his hands in Malik's shirt.
"What sensa – WAH!" Malik found himself being jerked forwards violently and being kissed rather thoroughly by Ryou.
Which, all things considered, wasn't too bad.
If you discount the teeth, the blood, the psychosis, and the fact that his yami tended to be on the possessive side.
Ryou pulled away slightly and smiled slowly.
Malik jerked back, both hands clapped over his now-bloody mouth, making horrified squeaking noises. "Hathor protect me..." he gasped when he finally removed his hands, industriously scrubbing the blood off onto his black pants.
Ryou merely pulled him closer again with a hand over his captive's mouth. "You're the closest to yami...and the least resistant. I wonder...is there something there that draws me to you? Your weakness, perhaps?"
Malik struggled wildly as Ryou murmured cloyingly sweet nothings in his ear and kissed his hair. He finally tore himself free, and, screaming like a banshee for his sister and his yami, bolted.
Ryou lay back on the ground, looking at the blond strands of hair caught in his vermilion-stained fingers and giggling through bloody lips.
[somewhat earlier]
"Well, Shadi, you probably went tearing down there to go poke through that kid's head, so what'd you find?" Aset inquired.
Shadi sighed. "Aset, I did not go 'tearing down there to go poke through that kid's head'. I came in, said hello, and then went to go investigate. Priorities, you see."
Aset shrugged. "Same difference. So, let's hear it. What'd you find?"
Shadi sighed. "I saw – "
"Hey, hey, wait a minute!" Bakura snapped, sliding off of his place of repose and to his feet. "You are not going to tell everyone here what is in my mind! That's my personal mind, you got that?"
Shadi continued as though he had not heard. " – a lot of weapons, a few books, lots of dark red and black, and plenty of seduction."
"We can see that by looking at him," Yami said, sounding bored. Bakura made a strangled growling noise and whipped out his Sharp Pointy Butcher Knife of Doomation. Unfortunately, Yami wasn't watching, so the full effect was lost.
"This was in the hikari's soul room," Shadi interrupted hastily. "The thief's soul room was covered in dust, as though he was unable to do any of the things that characterized him."
The tableau froze.
Bakura glowered at him and spat, "I told you to stay away from my hikari." This effectively broke the silence.
"Your hikari is hitting on everything that moves," Yami said in tones of immense disgust. "There's no point in you reiterating yourself."
Bakura's fury brought an inhuman speed to his pulling Yami's head back and pressing the knife to his exposed throat. "One more word about my hikari and I'm going to need to clean this knife up again."
"If you kill him, kill him in the basement. It's hell getting blood out of the rug," Isis said absently. "If my little brother and his yami can manage it, so can you." She then blinked and looked up. "Oh, shit. My pharaoh, you shouldn't have heard that."
"If he's dead, it won't matter," Jounouchi said with a noticeable lack of tact.
Shadi quietly walked up behind Bakura and lifted the knife away from Yami's throat. "Please."
Bakura whirled around, knife clutched in front of him, staring around wildly with smoldering red eyes. "What do you know? What the hell do any of you know? I did this! It was all me! I did this and I as much as killed him and I can't fix it and I don't know what to do and all I hear from you is condescension and plans to rescue my hikari and take him away from me! Even if you could get him back, you'd take him away because you hate me! You don't understand! No one understands! He's mine!"
Jounouchi made a curious squeaky noise and tried to hide under a table. Bakura turned to him, the fire in his eyes dying into confusion. "I don't understand you," Bakura said simply, slowly sinking to the ground. "I don't understand anyone."
When faced with a greatly distraught, nervy, and armed tomb robber, one has two options. The first is to run screaming and not stop until one is about fifty miles away.
The second is the one Shadi used.
/Er. Eisei?/
At your service! the spirit of the Ankh said cheerfully, peering out at the world through Shadi's eyes and turning them briefly purplish-red. Oooh, doesn't he look cute in the real world!
/Er. Yes. Don't make him a sex toy, but.../
Really?
/Yes./
Eisei immediately appeared next to Shadi in a tussle of curly dark red hair, freckles, and red eyes. The Ankh spirit stood roughly six foot two in boots with a build similar to Shadi's, and was wearing a pair of rather tight jeans and a leather vest, being much more entertained by modern clothing than his hikari.
He slowly surveyed Bakura, then gave vent to a wolf whistle before stalking over, deftly picking up the tomb robber, and putting the knife on a table out of reach. He then twirled in place, letting his shoulder-length copper curls flare out, all the while squealing like a fangirl over Bakura.
Everyone sweatdropped with rather large, round eyes.
"What...?" Yami finally managed to squeak out.
"Eisei," Shadi explained. "The spirit of the Millennium Ankh. His twin brother is in the Scales. Eisei is...easily enamored of pretty things. Rather like your silver-haired acquaintance there, only Eisei's pretty things tend to be in human form."
"Do me a favor and keep him on the other side of the room from me at all times, will you?" Yami requested.
"I can but try." Shadi sighed deeply.
It was on this note that Marik walked into the room and stopped dead in the door, a lit cigarette resting forgotten in his mouth.
"What the hell is going on here?!" This statement was punctuated by a steady flow of smoke from between the startled yami's lips.
"Meep," Jounouchi said, and retreated even further under the table.
Isis got up, stormed over to Marik, neatly plucked the cigarette out of his mouth, and pitched it out the nearest window. "Smoking is fine and dandy, since you're already dead, but if you get my brother sick or me fired, you're going to wish that Father never found the Millennium Items, you stupid fuck," Isis hissed.
"Aw shit," Marik replied. "You mean I can't smoke in here?"
Isis promptly grabbed the Millennium Rod from his pocket and hit him upside the head. Hard. "No, and if you ever ask me that again, you're going to be eating that Millennium Rod sharp end first," she said, tucking the Item back into Marik's pocket.
Aset remarked as an aside to the rest of the room, "They do this all the time. It's been a bit of a truce since he started shagging her brother."
Jounouchi looked relieved to have a distraction. "Uh-huh."
Marik sighed. "What is this freak show, anyway? Bloody hell, you're back?" he demanded of Shadi. "Oh, Am'mit eat me, it's you," he added, glancing contemptuously at Eisei. "Isis-onee, when are you ever going to break up with those three idiots?"
"Shut up, otouto," Isis shot back.
"Wow," Jounouchi said reverently as Marik digested this information.
"What?" Isis asked.
"You're still alive after all that," Jounouchi said, admiration shining in his eyes. "Wow."
"I know Marik is oh so very riveting, but could someone PLEASE GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF THIS PREDICAMENT?" Bakura screeched from across the room.
"Stay there until someone gets a camera!" Jounouchi suggested.
"Eisei, please," Shadi said.
He could see Eisei pouting, but the spastic Egyptian finally put Bakura down and wandered over to him after making a tour of the room and glomping everyone enthusiastically.
Shadi sighed and looked at the assembled group, all of whom were suffering various shades of being disturbed, from Aset's complete and utter ignoring of Eisei to Jounouchi's limb-flailing hysterics. "Eisei, you are officially dangerous."
Eisei grinned sunnily. "I'm a yami. Of course I am." He was playing with Bakura's butcher knife, Shadi noticed.
"Ahem. Put that down," Shadi instructed.
"But I like – "
"Eisei. Knife. Down."
"...fine." Eisei sulkily placed the knife on top of a display case.
"Thank you. Now, I'm going to need your opinion as a yami and a healer, so please try and be a little less...enthusiastic," Shadi suggested. /Kaisei?/ he said inwardly, getting the yami of the Scales's attention.
Yeah, what?
/Do you mind terribly keeping an eye on your brother?/
You're better at it than me,Kaisei replied, and materialized. As Eisei's fraternal twin, he shared the height and build of his brother, but had curling black hair and reddish-orange eyes instead.
"How many people are going to be in this room, anyway?" Aset asked.
"As many as this conference needs," Shadi said gravely.
"I'm glad I left Yuugi home," Yami muttered.
Isis began counting people as Jounouchi crawled out from under the table and stood up. "Jounouchi, Pharaoh Yami – you say your hikari will not be here?"
Yami nodded.
"Good," Isis said frankly. "This place can't hold many more. Bakura, Shadi, Eisei, Kaisei, yami, me, Marik, and – " Isis stopped and blinked. "Marik."
"What? Haven't we established that I'm here?"
"What are you doing here if my brother isn't?" Isis asked slowly.
Marik tilted his head slightly, then looked around. "Wait a minute, where's my hikari?"
"That's what we're wondering," Aset said patiently.
"No, he was going to go through the basement to look for you, and he told me to come up here and wait and not break anything," Marik said to Isis.
Bakura's eyes widened a great deal. "Bastet protect him," he breathed involuntarily.
"What?" Aset asked. "You leave something down there?"
Bakura cut her off. "Yes. Ryou."
Aset's eyes widened. "Shadi, you didn't see him, did you?"
Shadi blinked. "Not in the physical world."
"He's there," Bakura said, starting for the door. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
A bloodcurdling scream promptly split the air, followed by the sound of scrabbling feet. The door to the cellar banged open, nearly missing Bakura. A screaming and bloodstained Malik tore into the room, knocked his yami down, clung to him, and began sobbing hysterically.
Fluffy: grooves
firedraygon97: He was temporarily dragged in. ;;
KeMu: Eisei wants sessy bishies.
Flame: Erk. Typo evils. But THANK YOU!
yukoma: Be confused. Be very confused...
S.A. Bonasi: I've never found that it makes sense that only the Puzzle and Ring should have spirits, so I...er...work around it. And have fun with it. The Puzzle's having two is Bakura living in there for a while after Battle City, methinks, but I could be wrong. Andandand...good luck with the dare!
Alyssa-Anime-Angel: Shadi's not that much older than everyone else, actually. Seen him in the anime lately?
Nadako-Miaka: Having your own hikari isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Chibi Chaos Mage: Ehehe...go look up S. A. Bonasi's fic 'Yama Nashi, Ochi Nashi, Imi Nashi'.
Rose Fox: Thanks. Will do!
Sky-Pirate-Tat: tries to hide the rope for lassoing readers
RYO'S ANGEL: Oo Caps lock?
Melissa: drags in a kicking, screaming, foaming-at-the-mouth interior decorator Here you go! And is this cliffie better? Evil evil last one...
Saturn Imp: Fear the scariness.
Kitten: Me? Discontinue this story?
Falcona, Luke, Kaial Skywolf: Yes, I was possessed when I wrote that. Or I really hope I was. Eeesh.
Bara Kitsune: Don't worry, the end isn't terribly near.
Wolfqueen821: Okay. Right. OO
summer psycho-- The White Ferret? Draco Malfoy? Well, think about it...he works on the black market with a girl who's trying to destroy the world.
Dark Millenia: That was supposed to be this chapter. But it's going to be next chapter now. u
Epiphany Under Moonlight: I like that title too.
Froz Flame: I'm undead. You can't kill me. Really.
vanishingact: Glad you think so.
Gyakutenno Megami: Welcome back!
Duel: Why do I even stand here, looking pathetic, telling you to review? I have no purpose. Sigh.