Chapter Seven: Complicated
~~Bakura's POV~~
You know what? Nature sucks.
Our unexpected plunge into the river caused Atenna to dig her claws into my back and emit a godawful yowling sound. I lost hold of Mai as we crashed into the water.
Okay, so it wasn't exactly a raging river, but with all that old, splintery wood floating around, it also wasn't the safest place on Earth. Not to mention that I am /Egyptian/. I never had the occasion to learn how to swim as a...well, I guess you'd say non-spirit. Anyway, I learned fairly quickly that if you kick the water and wave your arms around, it keeps your head mostly in the air.
"Get off, Atenna!" I yelled as soon as I had enough breath to speak. She hissed at me and climbed onto my head, one claw drawing a shallow but extremely painful line down my cheek. I kicked harder, freeing my hands up to yank her off and throw her onto the bank.
After a few agonizing moments, Mai surfaced, blood streaming from an ugly- looking scrape on her head. She coughed and flailed about. I made my way over to her, avoiding a dangerous piece of the bridge, and caught hold of her arm. "Um, Mai? How do we get out of the river?"
She leaned her head against me, treading water frantically. "We swim, you...dear, sweet thing. Away from all of them."
Them, of course, referring to our friends, who show up at the worst times and were currently pointing assorted flashlights at us and shouting what I assumed was some kind of encouragement. I couldn't hear much with water in my ears.
Mai coughed again and dragged me away from the light, a rather symbolic gesture, I guess, although the situation was far from fatal. I tried to help by kicking and hitting the water. Swimming seems violent, somehow. It's a good thing water is inanimate.
**Chill out, whatcha yelling for
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see
I like you the way you are
When we're driving in your car
And you're talking to me one on one
But you become**
We managed to drag ourselves out of the water. Mai immediately collapsed, her hand pressed to her head. I turned to glare across the water at our "friends."
"The lights aren't helping," I called. The lights went out. Well, at least in their concern they were willing to listen to me. "Does someone have my cat?"
"Yes," the pharaoh said. "And she's not very nice."
"Just don't corrupt her," I said, turning to Mai. At some point, the moon had put in an appearance, so I could actually see her. "You okay?"
"No," she groaned. "Head hurts. Leg hurts. Cold and wet. Are the lights gone?"
"Yeah, you can open your eyes." I brushed a strand of her soaked hair out of her face, a gesture that for some reason made her smile at me. Girls are /so/ weird...
"You're so cute," she murmured.
"Yeah, and loss of blood is making you delusional," I said. "Keep in mind that sound carries across water, all right? They can hear us."
"So?"
I lowered my voice. "So we don't want to tip them off as to what...uh...happened. Before."
She sat up, her hand pressed against the scrape. "Duh. I should have thought of that. Sorry. You're right, I'm delusional. Let's get the cat and run away now."
I shook my head, surprised at just how silly she was being. "You're in no condition to run anywhere, Mai."
"Then you can carry me. You suggested it, before."
"Yes, I did. That was before they got close enough to be able to see us."
**Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me**
"You're an idiot," Mai informed me. Across the river, the pathetic weaklings we call our "friends" were apparently having some difficulty with the cat. Rock on, Atenna. "What's wrong with them knowing about us?"
"You broke up with Joey this morning, dear. Knowing the pharaoh, he'll persuade the others that I brainwashed you or some such lunacy."
"So I'll tell them the truth."
"What reason do they have to trust either of us?"
Mai laughed and we both managed to get to our feet. She buried her face in my chest, which was adorable but definitely would have given us away. "So, how are we supposed to get back across the river?" I asked, gently pushing her away. "We've got to grab my cat and assure our so-called friends that we're alive and relatively uninjured."
She showed me the blood on her hand. "I don't think this is 'relatively uninjured.'"
I rolled my eyes and turned to glare at the others. "Ryou, take my cat home and feed her. I'm going to make sure Mai gets home safely."
They held a whispered conversation, then apparently deemed me a worthy guardian. "All right," my hikari called. "See you later, Yami."
"Yeah, whatever."
As we walked away - excuse me, I walked, she limped - Mai shook her head and made that annoying tsking sound. "Sure, you're sweet around me, but you can't manage a civil word with them."
"They treat me the same way. Eye for an eye."
I thought I saw the ghost of a grin, but it was too dark to be certain.
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See, the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no no**
As soon as I was absolutely /positive/ that the pathetic weaklings couldn't see us, I slid my arm around Mai's shoulders and let her lean on me, which I expect greatly alleviated her pain. She grinned and gave me directions to her house, which turned out to be only a few blocks from mine. I mean, from Ryou's house, where I happen to live. Yeah.
"Thank you," she whispered when we arrived. She dug in her pocket, came up with a key, and opened the door. "You want to come in?"
"Fine." Actually, I was a bit nervous. Girls don't just...invite you in. Not in Egypt.
She turned on several lights and collapsed onto the couch. "Can you get the bandages and stuff from the bathroom?" she asked.
"Yes, princess," I muttered less than enthusiastically. Typical Mai, expecting me to do /everything/ for her. I fetched the first aid kit and knelt on the floor beside the couch, handing her a wet cloth. "You, uh...have to wipe off the blood."
"I know, hon. Don't baby me."
"Right. Well."
With the blood gone, her numerous scratches weren't so bad. The stinging stuff she made me apply was. I think I actually blushed. I'm just not used to helping people, I suppose - especially people who have kissed me. Ack. Blushing again. Don't even want to think about that right now...
Finally, we put assorted Band-Aids on her cuts and scrapes, and she proceeded to fall asleep, leaving me in quite an awkward position. I kissed her on the forehead and got out of there as quickly as I possibly could.
**You come over unannounced
Dressed up like you're something else
Where you are ain't where it's at, you see
You're making me
Laugh out when you strike your pose
Take off all your preppy clothes
You know you're not fooling anyone
When you become
Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me**
When I got home, Ryou was still waiting up. Well, at least, I could tell that he had tried, since the lights were on and he was asleep on the couch with the TV muted. I tried to tiptoe past, intending to steal his bed for the night, but I am cursed with a hikari who sleeps very lightly.
"Your cat's sleeping on the table," he muttered drowsily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Where've you been?"
"Taking Mai home, you know that."
He stared at me. "If it was /me/ who fell in, you wouldn't have walked /me/ home."
"Sure I would have."
"Really?"
"I couldn't get out of it. I live here, too."
He threw a pillow at me, then cringed, half-expecting me to hit him, I suppose. Well, it felt good to throw my rule-book out the window, so I instead offered, "I could make some popcorn. There's a good movie on tonight. It's Shakespearean."
"Shakespeare. You want to watch Shakespeare? He's famous. He wrote good literature."
"Well...the movie is called 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.' I hear it's really bloody."
Ryou sighed. "Fine. Popcorn. And could you get me a blanket while you're at it?"
I did. It was worth being nice just to see the utter confusion on his face.
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See, the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no no**
I didn't get to see Mai for a whole week, because Ryou's father was going to be home and Ryou hadn't /quite/ gotten around to telling him about me. Thus, I had to spend some time inside the Ring, which was unpleasant, to say the least. Having a semi-physical body for awhile had been nice, and Mai had...well, she'd made me forget that I was a spirit, while we were kissing.
It was nice.
Finally, Ryou poked me with his mind. //He's gone, Yami. You can come out now.//
I could sense the sorrow in his 'voice.' It was hard on the kid, having a father who was away most of the time. That made me his guardian. Sort of. In a way.
So, I 'checked' my rule-book and discovered that I was not allowed to show any sort of kindness to him - only cynicism. Thus, as we are now disregarding the rule-book, I resolved to do something nice for him.
"Hey, hikari, wanna go see a movie? I'll buy. For you and your friends."
He stared at me over the top of the book he was reading. "Are you sick, Yami?"
"Nah...I've just got some money I don't need."
"Where would /you/ get money?"
"Working." Well, if you could call beating up some /very/ rude teenagers and taking their wallets work.
"You're serious."
"Duh. I never joke."
"You're a complicated guy, Yami, you know that?"
**Chill out, whatcha yelling for
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see
Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me**
As it turned out, everyone was free that day, including - joy - Mai, and also - despair - the Pharaoh. And the pathetic weakling. Sigh.
I don't even know what the movie was called. I let them pick it out, accepted their dubious thanks, and proceeded to sneak out ten minutes in. As I'd intended, Mai followed me.
"Ryou says /you/ bought the tickets," she said, leaning against the wall.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I just did, that's all."
"But you bought Yami's ticket. I mean Yugi's Yami," she added when she saw how confused I was. "Jeez, don't you have a name I can call you by?"
I shrugged. "Look, I don't know how much Yugi told you, but our memories of the past are basically gone. Mostly. I've got more than Yugi, but I can't for the life of me remember my name. That's just the way it goes. You could call me Bakura. Everyone else does."
She shuddered. "Doesn't fit. That's what we call Ryou, sometimes. That's even /more/ confusing. Couldn't you make up a name?"
"Mm...no."
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no**
I glanced down and noticed that she was wearing jeans for the first time since I'd met her. Usually she wore a skirt intended to show off as much skin as possible. "Are you trying to hide the bandages?"
She flushed. "Um, yeah. Kind of. I mean, that doesn't work for me. I'm the perfect, pretty one, they can't know I've been injured."
"I think they noticed, Mai."
She sighed. "Um...Bakura...tomb thief...whatever. Where does our relationship stand?"
Now /there/ is an uncomfortable topic. I quickly changed it. "Do you think they'll rebuild the bridge?"
"I asked you a question."
"The truth is, I have no idea where we are. Is that okay with you?"
A wicked gleam entered her eyes, and I tried to back away. Luckily, the lobby was devoid of people, since the next movie wasn't starting for almost an hour. The guy behind the counter was reading a comic and didn't notice when she pounced on me. We crashed to the carpeted floor, kissing. I mean, she kissed me. I wasn't /trying/ to kiss back. These things just happen, you know?
When we pulled apart, she sat up, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Where were you this week?"
"It's...complicated."
"/You're/ complicated."
She pulled me up, then kissed me again. I awkwardly slipped my arms around her waist.
We were interrupted by a soft shriek and a clunk as the empty bucket of popcorn hit the ground. We immediately leapt apart, Mai smoothing her shirt, me fiddling with my hair. I laughed nervously.
"Hi...hikari."
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no no**
~~Bakura's POV~~
You know what? Nature sucks.
Our unexpected plunge into the river caused Atenna to dig her claws into my back and emit a godawful yowling sound. I lost hold of Mai as we crashed into the water.
Okay, so it wasn't exactly a raging river, but with all that old, splintery wood floating around, it also wasn't the safest place on Earth. Not to mention that I am /Egyptian/. I never had the occasion to learn how to swim as a...well, I guess you'd say non-spirit. Anyway, I learned fairly quickly that if you kick the water and wave your arms around, it keeps your head mostly in the air.
"Get off, Atenna!" I yelled as soon as I had enough breath to speak. She hissed at me and climbed onto my head, one claw drawing a shallow but extremely painful line down my cheek. I kicked harder, freeing my hands up to yank her off and throw her onto the bank.
After a few agonizing moments, Mai surfaced, blood streaming from an ugly- looking scrape on her head. She coughed and flailed about. I made my way over to her, avoiding a dangerous piece of the bridge, and caught hold of her arm. "Um, Mai? How do we get out of the river?"
She leaned her head against me, treading water frantically. "We swim, you...dear, sweet thing. Away from all of them."
Them, of course, referring to our friends, who show up at the worst times and were currently pointing assorted flashlights at us and shouting what I assumed was some kind of encouragement. I couldn't hear much with water in my ears.
Mai coughed again and dragged me away from the light, a rather symbolic gesture, I guess, although the situation was far from fatal. I tried to help by kicking and hitting the water. Swimming seems violent, somehow. It's a good thing water is inanimate.
**Chill out, whatcha yelling for
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see
I like you the way you are
When we're driving in your car
And you're talking to me one on one
But you become**
We managed to drag ourselves out of the water. Mai immediately collapsed, her hand pressed to her head. I turned to glare across the water at our "friends."
"The lights aren't helping," I called. The lights went out. Well, at least in their concern they were willing to listen to me. "Does someone have my cat?"
"Yes," the pharaoh said. "And she's not very nice."
"Just don't corrupt her," I said, turning to Mai. At some point, the moon had put in an appearance, so I could actually see her. "You okay?"
"No," she groaned. "Head hurts. Leg hurts. Cold and wet. Are the lights gone?"
"Yeah, you can open your eyes." I brushed a strand of her soaked hair out of her face, a gesture that for some reason made her smile at me. Girls are /so/ weird...
"You're so cute," she murmured.
"Yeah, and loss of blood is making you delusional," I said. "Keep in mind that sound carries across water, all right? They can hear us."
"So?"
I lowered my voice. "So we don't want to tip them off as to what...uh...happened. Before."
She sat up, her hand pressed against the scrape. "Duh. I should have thought of that. Sorry. You're right, I'm delusional. Let's get the cat and run away now."
I shook my head, surprised at just how silly she was being. "You're in no condition to run anywhere, Mai."
"Then you can carry me. You suggested it, before."
"Yes, I did. That was before they got close enough to be able to see us."
**Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me**
"You're an idiot," Mai informed me. Across the river, the pathetic weaklings we call our "friends" were apparently having some difficulty with the cat. Rock on, Atenna. "What's wrong with them knowing about us?"
"You broke up with Joey this morning, dear. Knowing the pharaoh, he'll persuade the others that I brainwashed you or some such lunacy."
"So I'll tell them the truth."
"What reason do they have to trust either of us?"
Mai laughed and we both managed to get to our feet. She buried her face in my chest, which was adorable but definitely would have given us away. "So, how are we supposed to get back across the river?" I asked, gently pushing her away. "We've got to grab my cat and assure our so-called friends that we're alive and relatively uninjured."
She showed me the blood on her hand. "I don't think this is 'relatively uninjured.'"
I rolled my eyes and turned to glare at the others. "Ryou, take my cat home and feed her. I'm going to make sure Mai gets home safely."
They held a whispered conversation, then apparently deemed me a worthy guardian. "All right," my hikari called. "See you later, Yami."
"Yeah, whatever."
As we walked away - excuse me, I walked, she limped - Mai shook her head and made that annoying tsking sound. "Sure, you're sweet around me, but you can't manage a civil word with them."
"They treat me the same way. Eye for an eye."
I thought I saw the ghost of a grin, but it was too dark to be certain.
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See, the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no no**
As soon as I was absolutely /positive/ that the pathetic weaklings couldn't see us, I slid my arm around Mai's shoulders and let her lean on me, which I expect greatly alleviated her pain. She grinned and gave me directions to her house, which turned out to be only a few blocks from mine. I mean, from Ryou's house, where I happen to live. Yeah.
"Thank you," she whispered when we arrived. She dug in her pocket, came up with a key, and opened the door. "You want to come in?"
"Fine." Actually, I was a bit nervous. Girls don't just...invite you in. Not in Egypt.
She turned on several lights and collapsed onto the couch. "Can you get the bandages and stuff from the bathroom?" she asked.
"Yes, princess," I muttered less than enthusiastically. Typical Mai, expecting me to do /everything/ for her. I fetched the first aid kit and knelt on the floor beside the couch, handing her a wet cloth. "You, uh...have to wipe off the blood."
"I know, hon. Don't baby me."
"Right. Well."
With the blood gone, her numerous scratches weren't so bad. The stinging stuff she made me apply was. I think I actually blushed. I'm just not used to helping people, I suppose - especially people who have kissed me. Ack. Blushing again. Don't even want to think about that right now...
Finally, we put assorted Band-Aids on her cuts and scrapes, and she proceeded to fall asleep, leaving me in quite an awkward position. I kissed her on the forehead and got out of there as quickly as I possibly could.
**You come over unannounced
Dressed up like you're something else
Where you are ain't where it's at, you see
You're making me
Laugh out when you strike your pose
Take off all your preppy clothes
You know you're not fooling anyone
When you become
Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me**
When I got home, Ryou was still waiting up. Well, at least, I could tell that he had tried, since the lights were on and he was asleep on the couch with the TV muted. I tried to tiptoe past, intending to steal his bed for the night, but I am cursed with a hikari who sleeps very lightly.
"Your cat's sleeping on the table," he muttered drowsily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Where've you been?"
"Taking Mai home, you know that."
He stared at me. "If it was /me/ who fell in, you wouldn't have walked /me/ home."
"Sure I would have."
"Really?"
"I couldn't get out of it. I live here, too."
He threw a pillow at me, then cringed, half-expecting me to hit him, I suppose. Well, it felt good to throw my rule-book out the window, so I instead offered, "I could make some popcorn. There's a good movie on tonight. It's Shakespearean."
"Shakespeare. You want to watch Shakespeare? He's famous. He wrote good literature."
"Well...the movie is called 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.' I hear it's really bloody."
Ryou sighed. "Fine. Popcorn. And could you get me a blanket while you're at it?"
I did. It was worth being nice just to see the utter confusion on his face.
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See, the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no no**
I didn't get to see Mai for a whole week, because Ryou's father was going to be home and Ryou hadn't /quite/ gotten around to telling him about me. Thus, I had to spend some time inside the Ring, which was unpleasant, to say the least. Having a semi-physical body for awhile had been nice, and Mai had...well, she'd made me forget that I was a spirit, while we were kissing.
It was nice.
Finally, Ryou poked me with his mind. //He's gone, Yami. You can come out now.//
I could sense the sorrow in his 'voice.' It was hard on the kid, having a father who was away most of the time. That made me his guardian. Sort of. In a way.
So, I 'checked' my rule-book and discovered that I was not allowed to show any sort of kindness to him - only cynicism. Thus, as we are now disregarding the rule-book, I resolved to do something nice for him.
"Hey, hikari, wanna go see a movie? I'll buy. For you and your friends."
He stared at me over the top of the book he was reading. "Are you sick, Yami?"
"Nah...I've just got some money I don't need."
"Where would /you/ get money?"
"Working." Well, if you could call beating up some /very/ rude teenagers and taking their wallets work.
"You're serious."
"Duh. I never joke."
"You're a complicated guy, Yami, you know that?"
**Chill out, whatcha yelling for
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see
Somebody else 'round everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me**
As it turned out, everyone was free that day, including - joy - Mai, and also - despair - the Pharaoh. And the pathetic weakling. Sigh.
I don't even know what the movie was called. I let them pick it out, accepted their dubious thanks, and proceeded to sneak out ten minutes in. As I'd intended, Mai followed me.
"Ryou says /you/ bought the tickets," she said, leaning against the wall.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I just did, that's all."
"But you bought Yami's ticket. I mean Yugi's Yami," she added when she saw how confused I was. "Jeez, don't you have a name I can call you by?"
I shrugged. "Look, I don't know how much Yugi told you, but our memories of the past are basically gone. Mostly. I've got more than Yugi, but I can't for the life of me remember my name. That's just the way it goes. You could call me Bakura. Everyone else does."
She shuddered. "Doesn't fit. That's what we call Ryou, sometimes. That's even /more/ confusing. Couldn't you make up a name?"
"Mm...no."
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no**
I glanced down and noticed that she was wearing jeans for the first time since I'd met her. Usually she wore a skirt intended to show off as much skin as possible. "Are you trying to hide the bandages?"
She flushed. "Um, yeah. Kind of. I mean, that doesn't work for me. I'm the perfect, pretty one, they can't know I've been injured."
"I think they noticed, Mai."
She sighed. "Um...Bakura...tomb thief...whatever. Where does our relationship stand?"
Now /there/ is an uncomfortable topic. I quickly changed it. "Do you think they'll rebuild the bridge?"
"I asked you a question."
"The truth is, I have no idea where we are. Is that okay with you?"
A wicked gleam entered her eyes, and I tried to back away. Luckily, the lobby was devoid of people, since the next movie wasn't starting for almost an hour. The guy behind the counter was reading a comic and didn't notice when she pounced on me. We crashed to the carpeted floor, kissing. I mean, she kissed me. I wasn't /trying/ to kiss back. These things just happen, you know?
When we pulled apart, she sat up, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Where were you this week?"
"It's...complicated."
"/You're/ complicated."
She pulled me up, then kissed me again. I awkwardly slipped my arms around her waist.
We were interrupted by a soft shriek and a clunk as the empty bucket of popcorn hit the ground. We immediately leapt apart, Mai smoothing her shirt, me fiddling with my hair. I laughed nervously.
"Hi...hikari."
**Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
See the way you're acting like you're somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you fall and you crawl and you break and you take
What you get and you turn it into
Honesty
Promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
No no no**