Warning: Implied yaoi, the rest are the same.
A/N: I forgot to say this last time. This story takes place after Battle city, but before the whole mess with Yami's memory world began. And Ryou and his yami somehow escaped from the shadow realm, I don't know how....errr...let's just assume it's luck. Shizuka(Serenity) have moved back to Domino city, she's staying with Jou and is attending the same school as everyone, just a grade lower. And Jou's father is not abusive! (Why do people like to torture Jou is beyond me.) Kaiba and Mokuba are back from America and the gangs are in the senior year of high school.
OK, now on with the story.
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*Die. Die. Die. Die. DIEEEEE....*
Ryou sighed inwardly as Bakura chanted obsessively inside his head. Yugi, who was sitting in front of them, twitched slightly, as if sensing the malicious energy radiated from behind him.
It was Friday, and they were in the last class of the day. The English teacher, Ms. Hanada, was reading off a thick hard-covered book with a monotonous tone. One of her elbow were propped up against the desk, the other was hovering near her face, stifling the occasional yawn. Ryou surveyed the room with a quick swing of head. Most people were either asleep or in the process of falling asleep. Jounouchi was perching lazily on his seat to his right, textbook opened, placed on the desk vertically and covering the comic book behind it. Kaiba was seated to his left, bluntly typing away on his laptop while stole fugitive glances at Jounouchi.
He sighed again, at the poor appreciation of literature displayed by his fellow classmates. Was everyone blind? Couldn't they see how wonderful Shakespeare was?
*You are such a geek.*
/Yami!/
Bakura, having pulled himself out of glaring daggers at the back of Yugi's head, was looking at the notebook on his desk attentively. He could feel Bakura's frown, and his yami's rampaging attention, swayed from the foreign scribbling on the paper to the teacher's boring voice.
*What the hell is she babbling about? This stuff makes no sense.*
/It's Victorian poetry. I think that one of its main objectives was to confuse its reader./
*What kind of moron would fall in love with a donkey!*
/It's suppose to be funny. Midnight summer's dream is a comedy ....or so I've been told./
Bakura laughed soundly inside his head, then slurred out a string of Egyptian. Their meaning eluded him, which was probably a good thing, since Ryou doubted that the translation would be appropriate for his tender and innocent ears.
*If this is the kind of garbage they've been feeding you, no wonder you are all brain dead.*
His yami had little patience toward things that are ambiguous and precarious, which sometimes contradicted against the masterful manipulator image Bakura tried so hard to build. Ryou thought that it was rather endearing. It made Bakura seemed more....real. But he was never going to voice it out loud, black eyes didn't suit him at all.
*Stupid cow! If she doesn't shut up soon, I'll--*
/You--you can't kill her!/
A pause, then Bakura snorted. *Stop me.*
/We....err.....she...she's going to teach us MacBeth next week./
*And what the hell is a MacBeth?*
/Ahh...err...it's another one of Shakespeare's plays, a tragedy!/
He felt the small tingling on the back of his head, like someone was scratching his skull softly. Bakura was interested, and Ryou continued tentatively.
/With a lot of....ahmm....deceptions, and betrayals, and murders, and....well, you know./
*.....continue.*
/Many people died./
*Did they.*
/Yes.... very bloodily./
*.......*
/Yami?/
*.....she lives.*
The bell chose that time to ring. It's shrieking tore through the silence of the room with savage force. Ryou winced, having been snatched from the internal conversation by the painful throbbing of his eardrums.
Ms. Hanada stood up faster than any student, waved a couple of times and drawled out something about 'no homework', and fled from the room. His classmates all cheered happily, and the room was bloomed with activities in a matter of seconds. People were making plans for the weekend, inviting other people over or just chatting about irrelevant things.
Ryou pulled out his school bag from under the seat and began to gather his books. A presence approached and a shadow soon loomed over him. He raised his head. Jounouchi was standing beside his desk, smiling down at him shakily and fidgeting nervously. He smiled in return.
Jounouchi murmured, "Ryou, can I.... talk to you for a minute....alone?"
He blinked at the blonde's serious tone, then shrugged. Quickly he stuffed the last book into his bag, and patted Jounouchi softly on the shoulder.
"Lead the way."
~~~*~~~
"You want me to what?!"
"I want you to date my sister."
Ryou gaped. Jounouchi had said it so casually, like it was the most natural and sensible thing in the world. He was painfully aware of the fact that he probably resembled a goldfish out of water. Jounouchi stepped closer and regarded him a little worriedly. He hastily rubbed his face with the back of his hand, attempting to get rid of the embarrassing flush staining his cheeks.
"Date your sister?" He repeated.
He had wanted to sound genuine curious and dauntless. What came out was close to a squeak. It was early autumn, but the summer heat still lingered and the air was dreadfully sticky with humidity. Ryou resisted the urge to fan himself with his hand. He suddenly wished that he had left his sweater at home.
He asked uneasily, "err...why?"
"To protect her."
Was that suppose to make sense? He refrained from passing on any unsavory judgment on the psyche of the boy before him. If he remembered correctly, his friend was furiously protective of Shizuka. Any boy who dared to thread within ten feet of the pretty girl without permission, were often used as target for punching practice.
"Why again? And from what?"
Jounouchi looked around their surrounding carefully before strolled toward Ryou. The blonde leaned closer as if revealing some big secret and whispered in a low voice.
"From the moneybag."
"Kaiba?"
He was befuddled. Jounouchi nodded eagerly.
"That bastard is stalking her!"
Jounouchi balled his hands into fists, and shook them angrily at some invisible enemy. Ryou discretely took a step back and put a safer distance between them.
"Stalking Shizuka? Why would--"
"He fancies her, that's why!"
"Kaiba fancies Shizuka." That was just.... strange. Keeping his tone neutral, Ryou asked again, "why would Kaiba fancy her?"
Shizuka didn't seemed to be Kaiba's type. She was the girl next door. He always assumed that a rich guy like Kaiba would want to date some sophisticated girl from high society, at least according to all the TV shows.
"Why wouldn't he fancy her?!" Jounouchi shouted indignantly, and looked at him like Ryou was the biggest moron in the world. "She's beautiful, and smart, and kind, and...."
Ryou chuckled as Jounouchi continued to list off his sister's good traits. To Jounouchi, Shizuka would, of course, always be the most beautiful, most intelligent and the kindest girl in the whole wild world. His attention was drew back when Jounouchi took a hold of his shoulders.
"Ryou, you have to help me! I don't think I can protect her this time, that bastard's too strong for me to just beat him up."
It was unusual for Jounouchi to admit defeat, and even rarer when it concerned Kaiba. This couldn't be that serious, could it?
"Jounouchi, are you sure that you are not over reacting?" Ryou asked carefully.
"NO, no, I am not. You don't understand. He's been stalking her ever since he got back from America. He followed us home, showing his ugly face everywhere we go....and he...he left a whole dozen of white roses by our door just the other day."
"White roses?"
That was rather romantic of Kaiba, although it didn't seem like the kind of thing the stoic young man would do. Then again, appearances could be deceiving. But....Ryou recalled hearing that white rose was Jounouchi's favorite flower.
"Shizuka loves white roses!" Jounouchi added, almost as if sensing Ryou's unvoiced question. "That jerk probably had some people investigate her and spy on her or something."
He was disheartened by Jounouchi's frantic expression. The other boy really looked stressed out. Still, that didn't explain why Jounouchi would want his help. He was sure that there were ample more suitable candidates.
"Why me? Wouldn't you go to Yugi first?"
"Are you kidding? Anzu would skin me alive."
Oh, right. That.
"What about Honda then.... or even Otogi. I am sure they would jumped at the opportunity."
It wasn't that Ryou didn't want to help, but just like with how Jounouchi had concerns about Anzu's reaction. He didn't want to get pummeled by Shizuka's admirers neither.
"I'll just bet they would." Jounouchi replied dryly, "which is precisely why I am not asking those two."
"Eh?"
"They both have designs on my sister! I am not letting those two perverts anywhere near her. They would want to stand really close, and grope her, and kiss her, and all those other disgusting stuff!"
And Ryou wouldn't?
"And I wouldn't?"
Jounouchi looked at him weirdly, "no, of course you wouldn't. You are gay."
~~~*~~~
His soul room was composed of various tunnels and pathways, entwined together to form an intricate and elaborated maze. The labyrinth wasn't too different from that of the pharaoh, only darker, damper and colder.
In other words, it was not the best place for napping.
As a result, he had made it a habit to sneak into his hikari's soul room whenever possible. Just like right now, he was laying on his back upon the beach. The sun light graced his body with its warm rays and the wind caressed his face softly with its gentle breeze. The wave sang against the sands, and the white foams danced impishly against his bare feet.
Nice. Very nice.
Hey, just because he was evil, didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the good things in life.
Ryou was his opposite in every way imaginable. The boy was kind, gentle and pure. His light wasn't perfect, but Ryou had an inner sparkle. A goodness so bright that it shone from within and couldn't help but be noticed by others.
It had always troubled him. Ryou had no idea how easy it was for him to unbalance Bakura. It wasn't fair. How could Ryou be so....good and remain good for so long. From what little Bakura had patched up, through the Swiss cheese that was his memory: kindness to others was the same as cruelty to oneself. Why couldn't Ryou see that? Perhaps this modern age was a lot safer to live, but it wasn't really that far apart from the ancient time. The strong still preyed on the weak. And just because Ryou chose to embrace everything in his typical meek fashion, didn't mean Bakura was going to play all nice and accepting.
Bakura had never denied the fact that he was a sadist, nor had he ever claimed to be a very rational person. So what if he was labeled as a power-hungry lunatic, he was simply ensuring their mutual and continued survival.
And just what did he have to do to knock some sense into his moronic hikari?!
His thought was interrupted by a loud boom, which was followed by static noises. The blue sky above flashed bright red for one second then dissolved into a mellow shade of gray.
This only happened when Ryou was upset.
He closed his eyes, concentrated hard and reached into Ryou's mind. The noises intensified. He sat up, alarmed. Then swiftly forced his presence into Ryou's conscious, first peeping carefully through his hikari's eyes, readied and prepared to take control if the situation warranted.
The first thing he saw was the president of the Yugi Mutou fan club. Jounouchi Katsuya, or as Bakura had creatively dubbed, brainless monkey #1.
Then his hikari's surprised yelp speared through the static.
/Yami! I--I thought you are asleep./
Ryou didn't sound upset, more embarrassed actually, like being caught doing something he shouldn't. Curious and demanded immediate attention.
*What's monkey #1 doing here?*
/We were just talking, and please don't insult my friend, yami./
*Why is our face all warm? What the hell did he say to you?*
/Errr...nothing important. Go back to sleep...please?/
Monkey #1 was oblivious to their internal dialogues. The blonde stared at them intently for a moment, before scratched his head and coughed a few times.
"You are, aren't you?"
"NO!"
Ryou's loud shout came a little too quickly. Bakura frowned, tried futility to sort through his hikari's distraught thoughts and memory. He didn't like being kept in the dark.
The monkey opened his mouth again, "you are not gay? .....are you sure?"
*You are gay? Since When?*
Ryou ignored him, but he was too startled to take offense. To say that Bakura was shocked would be a gross understatement. That little baka had the galls to keep secret from him. Why he ought to--
"Of course not! What gave you that idea!?"
"Well, you never pay attention to any of the girls. I mean they are always going 'ohhh's and 'ahhh's every time you walk pass them. And you are....well, pretty and... kinda girly looking."
Bakura snicked. *That's true.*
Ryou mentally rolled his eyes, /yami, we have the same face. If I am girly looking, what does that make you?/
*Unlike you, I am confident in my natural masculine./
"Please, Ryou." The monkey's whiny voice once again cut through their conversation, "I am sorry if I was wrong. But you are always so nice, and I know you are not the kind to take advantage of her. Please...."
He could taste the beginning of submission, as Ryou's resolve slowly crumbled under the blonde's crestfallen expression. Curse Ryou and his sympathetic nature.
"Please, Ryou. It would mean a lot to me."
*Don't you even think about it, whatever it--*
"Oh, all right."
CURSES!
"Really? Thank you so much! You are such a pal!"
The blonde threw himself at Ryou, and engulfed his hikari in a bearhug. Ryou squirmed, a bit uncomfortable with such public display of gratitude. He growled unhappily.
*If he doesn't remove his hands in the next second, I am going to kill him.*
/NO! I don't have enough friends for you to kill any of them off!/
*Your loss. What does he want anyway?*
/...well, he thinks that Kaiba is--/
*Spare me the lurid details.*
A sigh, then, /he wants me to date his sister, so that Seto Kaiba would stop stalking her./
A twig snapped. The sound was almost inaudible, but it didn't escape Bakura's hearing. He narrowed his eyes and expanded his senses a little. Then he smirked and resumed their mental conversation.
*That's....a very idiotic plan.*
/It could work./
*I doubt it.*
/Why not?/
*Well, for one, Kaiba is standing right behind us, and probably heard everything.*
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The plot tickens.
^^