Tangled Webs

***

Mokuba stood uneasily outside of his brother's room, chewing his lower lip. His brother hated it when he chewed his lower lip; it was Mokuba's nervous habit, and Seto said it made him look undignified. It was only recently has Mokuba started to point out that, as a child, he was supposed to look cute, not dignified. Seto seemed to have forgotten that he too had had a cute stage as a child.

"Seto?" Mokuba finally called through the closed door. "I'm going to go out for a little while."

"Fine," was Seto's muffled reply.

"And I'm going to ride my bike off the roof," Mokuba continued.

"Fine."

"And then I'm going to have Joey Wheeler teach me to play duel monsters," Mokuba added.

"Fine."

"And I'm quitting Kaiba Corp, and I'm going to stay out really late and eat ice cream until I puke, and maybe I'll go to a strip club and bribe the guy at the door to let me in. I could pass for a really short 18 year old, don't you think?" Mokuba finished in a rush.

"Fine."

Mokuba scowled. Apparently, his brother had been abducted by aliens and replaced by a pod person. He stomped down the hallway, making as much noise as he could because Seto always hated it when he did that, and grabbed his jacket from his room. He was going to see Yugi. Mokuba knew something had happened between Seto and Yugi, and Mokuba was damned well going to find out what it was and fix it.

**

Marik made some really funny faces when he was concentrating really hard. But that was about the only thing interesting about watching him work. Bakura was getting bored. Correction; he was way passed bored, and moving into homicidal. He didn't dare break Marik's concentration though; what if Marik accidentally damaged Yugi's brain and sent the diminutive duelist into a permanent coma? Not that Bakura really cared what happened to Yugi, but if and when Yami found out what had happened…

Bakura shuddered, not wanting to think about what Yami would do to him. There were things worse than the Shadow Realm, and Yami probably knew all of them.

The light radiating from the Millennium Rod finally faded, and Marik sat back with a look of smug satisfaction.

"Well?" Bakura demanded.

"My finest work ever," Marik announced. "You may now get down on your knees and worship my magnificence."

"You wish. Joey may get down on his knees for you, but he's the only one." Bakura looked and him skeptically. "So, how long until whatever you did to Yugi kicks in?"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?" Marik grinned and stood up. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go fetch my puppy and get out of here. Your hikari's house is creepy."

Bakura blinked at him. "It is?"

"It's too clean." Marik headed down the hallway to go find Joey. Bakura frowned, then retreated to his soul room to get a better seat to watch the action.

**

Ryou finished rooting through Bakura's old box of clothing, dressing in the chosen items and critically examining himself in the mirror. Black fishnet shirt, leather jacket, dark heavy denim jeans with some sort of spiked metal coverings over the kneecaps, and black leather boots with more buckles than boot. He looked…

Dangerous? Sexy? Like he was going to the hottest party in town? Ryou's eager pride offered.

Foolish, decided Ryou's self-consciousness. His pride whimpered and returned to its little corner to hide.

He sighed, gazing at his reflection in disappointment. Yes, he looked foolish. Bakura may look hot in all this stuff, but Ryou certainly did not. He just didn't have the right personality for it. People would just laugh if they saw him in this getup.

Well, he was doing this for Yugi, after all. Maybe he wouldn't impress him, but Yugi could certainly use a good laugh right about now. Coaxing his pride back out and gathering up his courage, he left his room to go find Yugi.

He encountered Marik dragging Joey down the hall. Joey was complaining half-heartedly about having to leave, and Marik just looked happy to be leaving.

"Bye Bakura," Joey called as they passed Ryou, then halted so fast that Marik got yanked back. Joey turned around to look at Ryou again. "Ryou?! What are you wearing?"

Ryou smiled at him sheepishly, flushing a little pinkly. "Er. I was going to try to cheer Yugi up."

Joey didn't say anything. Marik tore his eyes away from Ryou to look at Joey, and glowered when he discovered Joey was similarly staring at Ryou.

"We'll just be going then," Marik growled, taking a fierce grip on Joey's arm that would probably bruise, and dragging his still staring boyfriend away.

Well. Judging from the way the two had stared, he either did look good, or he looked even sillier than he'd previously thought. He knocked lightly on the door of the room Yugi was in, feeling increasingly more ridiculous by the minute.

"Come in…" Yugi called.

Ryou opened the door slowly, stepping inside and almost cringing, expecting to hear Yugi's immediate laughter over Ryou's outfit. But Yugi just blinked at him. "Er, hey Yugi… I thought maybe… you'd like to order a pizza, maybe rent a video or something?"

"Ryou…" Yugi said slowly. "What are you wearing?"

Ryou sighed. "Bakura's old clothes. Thought you could use a good laugh."

Oddly enough, Yugi didn't really feel like laughing. What he felt like doing… was an entirely inappropriate thing to be thinking about doing with a friend! He didn't know where the sudden urge came from. It was completely out of place. Yugi loved Seto, not Ryou, so… what was he thinking?

"Yugi?" Ryou asked shyly. He could feel himself starting to blush. Yugi was staring at him so oddly, and… Ryou rather liked it.

Yugi blinked, then shook his head as if to clear it. "What? Oh, right, pizza. Mmm, no thanks, maybe we could just make sandwiches, or… something…" His train of thought was derailing fast, with Ryou standing in front of him looking so good. He tried desperately to call up the mental image of Seto, but it was so elusive, blurred in his mind.

"Yugi, are you feeling alright?" Ryou broke the silence again, taking a few tentative steps forward. "You look a little pale."

"I don't really feel like myself," Yugi murmured, standing up slowly and walking up to Ryou. He stood looking up at his friend for a moment. Then he stood up on tiptoes, his hands on Ryou's shoulders to raise himself up enough that he could kiss Ryou.

**

"Yugi!" Mokuba called, pounding on Yugi's door. "Open up! It's Mokuba! I need to talk to you!"

The door opened, but it was Yami, not Yugi, that stood there. "Hello Mokuba. Yugi's not home right now; he spent the night at Ryou's house."

Mokuba frowned. "Do you know when he will be home?"

Yami shook his head. "He left me a note, and usually he calls to say when he'll be home, but he hasn't yet…"

"Actually, he may have…" Mokuba said slowly. "See, Seto tried to call him a bunch of times yesterday except he kept getting one of those 'this number is unavailable' messages. I think your phone is broken."

Yami blinked. "Really?" He opened the door wider for Mokuba to come in, then went to pick up the phone. No dial tone.

"Here's the problem!" Mokuba announced, pointing to where the phone was unplugged from the wall. "Someone unplugged it."

"Yugi spent all day waiting for Kaiba to call, it couldn't have been him. And I didn't, so that leaves…" His eyes narrowed. "Bakura."

"Could you tell me the way to Ryou's house?" Mokuba asked. "I really need to speak to Yugi right away. Seto won't get out of bed! He won't go to work, and he doesn't listen to anything I say, he just lays there all depressed. I've never seen him like that before!"

"I'll take you over there," Yami said. "I believe Bakura is over there too, and I think I need to speak with him about this…"

**

Well, THAT sure was fast…

Bakura lay back in his soul room, watching as Yugi's almost chaste little kiss had turned into a nice little make-out fest. Bakura had told Marik go easy with the whole manipulating of Yugi and Ryou's minds, but apparently Marik still hadn't quite gotten the hang of subtlety. Or maybe it was just that Marik was too impatient to care if Yami figured out what had happened.

Still, the plan seemed to be working, if a little faster than intended. Yugi and Ryou were about five minutes away from having sex, Yami would be happy that the two mortals were happy, and hopefully Bakura would reap all the rewards of Yami's happiness.

Only one thing interfered with that happy daydream. The doorbell was ringing.

Ryou broke his kiss with Yugi when he heard the doorbell ring insistently a second time, glancing at Yugi apologetically.

Yugi pouted cutely, wrapping his arms around Ryou and giving him another brief kiss. "Don't go."

Yugi's pleading eyes should be illegal, Ryou decided as he gave up trying to go get the door, settling back onto the bed with Yugi. Mentally he called to Bakura's soul room, /…go get the door, Bakura…/

//…YOU go!…//

/…I'm busy, you go get it…/

Apparently Marik's mental tampering had made Ryou a little more demanding, as well. Grumbling, Bakura left his soul room, materializing in the living room, and went to answer the door.

Uh oh.

Yami stood on the porch, arms folded, looking expectant. Beside him stood the younger Kaiba brother, also looking expectant.

"H-hey Yami… wasn't expecting to see you here…" Bakura began.

"Well, I would have called, except it seems the phone is unplugged," Yami answered. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Um, maybe?"

"My big brother was trying to reach Yugi all yesterday!" Mokuba told him. "Except he couldn't and now he's all miserable." He took a breath. "Is Yugi here?"

Probably best not the scar the poor kid while Yami was standing right there, Bakura decided. "Yeah, down the hall, but-"

Too late. Mokuba took off running down the hall, calling for Yugi. Yami gave Bakura an unreadable glance, then followed after Mokuba.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you…" Bakura called after them…

Moments later there was a surprised "eeep!" as Mokuba discovered why exactly he shouldn't be going in there. He came running back into the living room, face a rather interesting mottled red. "Y-Yugi is… is…"

"A little busy right now," Bakura finished for him calmly.

He cringed a little as Yami came back into the room, looking decidedly not happy with recent turns of events. "Bakura," Yami said in a low, deadly tone. "I detect that someone has used a Millennium Item to make a few interesting changes in my hikari. Perhaps you can explain?"