A Warm Heart in a Cold Desert

Disclaimer: *Eats pocky that was mentioned in chapter 1's disclaimer* Well... there goes my ownage of YGO.

Pairings: Bakura/Ryou, Marik/Malik, side Seto/Joey. Yami/Yugi? Maybe, maybe not.

Warnings/Other: Yaoi (Don't like? Don't read.), angst, death, maybe some OOC. Shoutouts to the usual. Oh, and a huge thanks to Sam-chan (Ice Princess Xia) READ HER STUFF!

Summary: -AU- Bakura, an Egyptian prison escapee. Ryou, a contradictory teenager sick of the family life. After Ryou is dragged along on his family trip to the desert, he finds Bakura in the back of his car, and decides to run away with him. There's only one problem. They're lost in the desert with no idea where civilization is. YAOI BxR



Ms. Bakura's mug of hot liquid dropped from her hand and fell to the linoleum-tiled floor. Steam lifted into the air wherever the coffee spilled from the crack in the ceramic cup. Upon looking up hesitantly into his mother's face, Ryou noticed a look of rage present in her darkened orbs.

"Ryou..." Ms. Bakura started, "/What/ has gotten into you? First you run off with no note, no anythings, not even a good-bye! Then you drive your grandparents and I insane with worry. And when I finally get to see you again in the hospital, you defend this... this criminal!" She jerked her head towards the pale-skinned Egyptian, "Run off again, almost get put to death...! Ryou, where did I go wrong with you?"

Compared to the look of anger on Ryou's face, Bakura's glare was nothing. "Mother... I told you before... He is no more a criminal than I am." The boy said calmly.

"Leave him be," Bakura hissed, stepping infront of Ryou as he sensed the beginnings of a huge argument starting to form. "Do you even know the whole story?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Get away from my son."

"And if I refuse?"

"There won't be any room for refusals! I'll get a restraining order, you won't be able to come near my son!"

"Are you taking into consideration Ryou's feelings? Perhaps he does not /want/ a restraining order."

"/Perhaps/ you're biting off more than you can chew! I bet it's your fault he landed in the hospital in the first place!"

"/My/ fault?! If it wasn't for me, he'd fucking be dead!" Bakura's rage exploded at this point, and he stepped forward, slamming his fist into the wall. His hand dug through the plaster as a hole larger than twice the size of his fist fell through onto the insides of the building. "He'd fucking be dead!"

.

Ryou could only watch from the sidelines as the love of his life and his family went head-to-head in the worst verbal argument he had ever seen. Tears were forming in the backs of his eyes as the war raged on. There was only one time he had ever seen Bakura this upset, and that was when four lives had been taken. Of course, in that instance, Ryou wasn't particularly mournful, although he didn't wish for anyone to have been killed, at least not the way the murder had been committed.

Ms. Bakura's jewelry clanked as she slammed her hand on the small table inbetween a row of relaxing chairs, "You're a fucking prisoner, what would you know about love?!"

"I was about to ask you the same question! Suppose you hadn't ignored him the way you had, you wouldn't be hating yourself so badly now," Bakura smirked, lowering his voice to just above a raspy whisper.

Ryou broke in here, knowing full well that Bakura's comment would only aggravate the situation. Taking a breath, he ran inbetween Bakura and his mother from where he had been subconsiously pushed aside once the argument had flared. "STOP IT!" He shouted, arms still extended to his sides as the tears began to drip down from his earthen orbs. "Please, stop it! I don't want to see you two fighting anymore!" When he was answered with nothing but shocked silence, he continued. "Please. Stop. Just stop it."

A hand grapsed his shoulder, and he was spun around forcefully, so that he almost fell backwards onto Bakura, who he had been facing a moment ago. His teary brown eyes met the enraged ones of his mother. Never before could he remember her eyes looking so purely demonic and furious, filled with such rage and hate that for a second, he thought his real mother had been replaced with a carbon copy. He stepped back as his mother's lips parted. He fumbled behind his back until he found Bakura's hand.

"Ryou, I don't know what's gotten into you." Her tone was low, yet the rabidity she was trying to control could not be repressed. "But now I'm posing you with a choice. I'm sick of you sticking up for someone who doesn't deserve it."

Bakura and Ryou both glared.

"You can with come home with me, like a respectable son, and live with your /family/, and /forget/ about that human you say is important to you."

Ryou glanced back at Bakura and took another reversed step closer to him. "Or...?"

"Or you can forget ever having the house you grew up in be your home, and you can go with... him," she said, tone full of disgust, "But if you do chose that, you can also forget having a family with your grandparents and me."

Bakura's glare shot up in levels of intensity. "How the fuck can you even /think/ that?! What kind of 'mother' are you?!"

Tears that Ryou didn't know existed began sliding down his cheeks. He shook his head and took a couple more steps back, wiping his eyes. Time seemed to stop completely as Ryou tried to control his sobs; he couldn't believe his own mother could say that to him. Finally, his form stopped shaking and he stood straight, looking his Bakura in the eye. "You understand, I've decided to go with the one I trust the most and love the most."

The Egyptian tried to keep his face expressionless, completely unaware of Ryou's decision. "I understand." He said, crestfallen.

"Good! Now, Ryou, let's go find the car..."

"Mother, I'm not leaving with you."

"...and then we'll get lun-- What?!"

Bakura's eyes widened. "Ryou?"

Ryou silently stepped closer to Bakura and burried his head in his chest, wrapping his arms around the sixteen-year-old's waist. "I'm staying with Bakura."

Ms. Bakura's face was red with anger as she stared, caught off guard at Ryou's unexpected answer. "How-how can you /chose/ that?!"

"It wasn't hard at all. By asking me that question and forcing me to choose, I knew that going with you was the wrong choice. No mother who truly loved her child would ever say something like that..." Ryou mumbled despondently.

For one horrible moment, the world went silent, shocked by Ryou's statement, and hesitant to hear the reaction.

"Fine then! If you want to throw everything away like that, Ryou, then you go right ahead." Ms. Bakura's fist was shaking in rage as she turned and stormed down the hallway in the opposite direction, obviously lost for any other words.

Bakura just stared at Ryou, dumbstruck, as a loud, shouted curse was heard from the other side of the court building.

.

"Ryou...?" Bakura asked, once the boy had finally dried the last of his tears. "I... How... Why...?" Still in a state of shock, Bakura found it hard to pose his question.

The boy in question shook his head slowly as he clung to Bakura's waist, his mind a swirling mix of heaven and hell. He never wanted to lose his family. As much as he despised his relatives at times, like most teenagers his age did, he loved them and it was tearing him apart slowly. The realization that he could never return to his warm, comfy mattress he had had since childhood at the end of each day; that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep underneath the painted stars on his ceiling, nor awaken to his favourite radio station playing a song brought on another waterfall of tears, but this time he managed to keep them at bay.

Bakura only felt intense hatred for Ryou's mother right now. He couldn't believe anyone could be so harsh to his Ryou. Furthermore, he had always grown up believing every mother was like his own: Caring, loving, affectionate, without the capability of anger. But, he thought with a mental sigh, that perfect image of a maternal figure was ruined the day the man claiming to be his father became enraged at beat her to death. Since then, he had never had a role model until he met Malik and his older sister, Ishizu. She could never fill the gap in his heart, but it was something. And, now, Ryou's soft, gentle presence had started eating away at the void, replacing the emptiness with a natural ecstacy.

Returning to the present, and once again putting the past behind him, Bakura tightened his grip around Ryou's waist and somewhat hesitantly placed his chin on the smaller boy's shoulder.

"Bakura?" Ryou's voice barely broke the silence that had surrounded the two.

He looked down curiously. "Ryou?"

"What's going to happen to me now? I mean, I don't have a home, you don't have a home, Marik and Malik don't... Where are we going to live?"

"I don't know." Bakura replied reluctantly, though honestly. "We'll just have to see what happens."

A sigh, followed by a gasp. "Bakura... Marik's still at the station, isn't he?"

Bakura paused, he had almost forgotten where Marik was due to the trial. "I believe so, yes."

Ryou untangled himself from Bakura's arms, much to the other's dismay. "We should go try and get him out."

"We should." Bakura nodded before capturing Ryou's lips in a passionate kiss.

.

Ryou gasped in suprise, giving Bakura the chance to slip his tongue through the slightly parted lips. He explored and memorized each and every inch of Ryou's mouth, sending shivers through both bodies. Ryou melted into the kiss and gave Bakura full control of the situation. Eventually, they had to part for air, although it was clear neither of them wanted to. Both boys were breathing heavily.

Ryou panted, smiling. The kiss left him in a purely blissful state as he stared adoringly into Bakura's eyes. "I trust you."

Empty shock spread across the pale Egyptian's face. It both overwhelmed and overjoyed him that someone as pure and perfect as Ryou would place their trust in him. The only problem, was whether or not he felt he could place his heart in someone else's hands. It wasn't that he didn't trust Ryou, because he did... to an extent. After his past relationship with a certian spiky-haired, dark-skinned Egyptian had failed, Bakura found it extremely difficult to trust anyone. Deep inside himself, although he would never verbally admit it, he was afraid of being hurt a second time, afraid of having promises being broken, of having to piece his heart and life back together again.

Bringing himself back to reality with a mental shake of the head, he found himself gazing into a pair of hesitant brown eyes. Once it became known to him that he was supposed to say something back right about now, he parted his lips and cleared his throat, lost for words.

"Bakura?" Ryou asked carefully, studying the other's face for any signs of flickering emotion.

Unable to think of a response yet again, Bakura cupped Ryou's face in his hands gently, and pulled the boy closer, almost fearfully pressing his lips to the candy-like tiers infront of him.

"Do you... trust me?"

Bakura's hands dropped to his side. He raised his eyes and looked deeply into Ryou's orbs for a very long time, until at last he forced himself to speak. This was it, the hardest thing he had ever had to do...

"Yes."



Shori: WOOHOO! I FINISHED THIS CHAPTER!

Bakura: ...I'm... Not even going to comment, Shori...

Shori: Whaaaat? What'd I do /now/, 'Kura?

Bakura: -__-; The question is what /haven't/ you done, and what are you /planning/ on doing.

Shori: Not a lot, Bakura. I fear this story is going to be ending within a couple chapters.

Bakura: ... *Gets down on his knees* Thank you, Ra!

Shori: o_o Right. Uh, Bakura, you're scaring me. And the review counter is updated to... O_O holy woah... 205!

Bakura: *Coughs and gets up* It's my /job/ to scare people, baka.

Shori: ...You odd person.