Important Note: This story is dedicated to all my reviewers! Thank you for being so patient with me while I found the problem as to why I couldn't log in. And now that I've fixed it... More stories for all of you! Thank you all very much! I love you guys! :)

Winning to a Storm

Ryou sighed as he stared up at the ceiling of his tiny little room. Tears were streaming down his cheeks out of his chocolate brown eyes. He suddenly shut them tight, and curled up into a small ball. Outside his window was a thunderstorm. Powerful winds were causing a tree to hit his window every few moments, and lightning lit up the sky at irregular intervals. A knock at his door startled him so much that he fell over the side of his bed, and he struggled to wipe the tears from his face as he tried to stand up. The door opened without warning, revealing an anxious looking Bakura.

"'Kura? What do you want?" Ryou had somehow managed to pull himself back up onto the bed, and looked as though he had just woken up from sleeping.

"Something's wrong with the television." He stated, and looked suspiciously at his hikari. "Were you sleeping?"

"Um... no, I was just thinking about, um, things..." Ryou jumped up from the bed, and walked towards Bakura. "What happened to the television. You didn't send it to the Shadow Realm, did you?" He gave his Yami a dark look, almost matching the weather outside.

"No. It just stopped working." Bakura explained, and led Ryou down to the evidence.

"Hmm..." Ryou tried everything he could think of to get it to turn on. But nothing worked. Absolutely nothing.

"See? And I didn't do anything! I swear!" Bakura took a step back from Ryou, a determined look on his face.

"I believe you, Bakura. But that's odd... It should be working..." Ryou jumped in fright when a huge crash outside their home broke the silence. He rushed over to the window with Bakura. What they saw was nothing that one would normally see. A half a car sat in the middle of the roadway, with a lawn chair and a toy attached to it. The fire that had started in the car several moments before had stopped because of the rain.

Ryou looked up at the sky and paled. Things were flying in the air from the powerful winds. Lawn chairs, toys, plants, flowers, papers, and even rocks were flying around with the winds. And off in the distance was something quite familiar to Ryou. He felt a lump growing in his throat, and he tried to fight back the tears that stung his eyes. A tornado was off in the distance. And it was heading right towards them.

Ryou had lost his family to a tornado once. It had been the worst storm in Domino City's history. Hundreds had died, thousands had been injured, and several had simply gone missing. Ryou had been fortunate to have been in their basement that fateful night. He had been playing a simply game of hide and seek with Amane. After hours of his hiding and Amane's seeking, he had gone looking for his little sister. She had been no where to be found. In fact, everything else above the basement had disappeared. It had been the worst night of his life.

But now he had Bakura with him, so it wasn't as bad. But the tornado brought up so many memories that he started to fear for Bakura as well. Maybe he was cursed? To never have any loved ones survive?

"Hikari, that doesn't look very friendly." Bakura broke Ryou from his depressing thoughts. Ryou turned to him, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

"No, it doesn't. Come on!" He grabbed Bakura's arm, and pulled him all the way down to the basement. He wasn't going to lose anyone to another storm. Ever.

He dragged him all the way down to the safest corner of the basement, and sat down.

"Hikari, what are we doing here?" Bakura was confused by his hikari's actions.

"Surviving. Bakura, that's a tornado. They're deadly. We've got to stay down here until it's gone." Ryou's voice shook slightly.

"Okay." Bakura went silent, and stared at the wall opposite of them, while Ryou shook with fright. Memories flash past Ryou's delicate eyes, and he clung to Bakura's shirt with all his might, and closed his eyes.

Several hours past by, which only Bakura seemed to notice. He sighed impatiently. A huge crash from upstairs broke the silence without warning, nearly giving Ryou a heart attack, and startling Bakura, who had grown accustomed to the silence. Another huge crash worried Bakura, and he found himself seeking out his hikari, who was glued to his side. His free hand grasped his hikari's tiny, cold hand, and he pulled his light closer to himself.

Ryou, who felt the sudden warmth on his hand, was never more happy, even if he was scared out of his wits. He buried his face on Bakura's shoulder, and concentrated on the warmth emanating off of Bakura's body. Soon he found that he couldn't hear the storm any more. The only sound that his ear picked up was the beating of his own heart. It was still racing, but slowly slowing down. The beating calmed himself down.

Suddenly he heard another sound. It sounded much like his own heart, for it was beating in much the same way. Only it was beating quite slowly. Ryou kept his eyes shut tight, and slowly took notice that his heart had matched the pace of the other. Then he realised who's it must have been. Bakura. Of course he had a heart, but what surprised Ryou was that he could hear it. The rhythm of their beating hearts seemed to melt into one another until they were exactly the same. Then Ryou realised that he and Bakura really were connected. And not just by their mind link.

Soon something was shaking his shoulders. He dreaded to think about what was happening to himself, so he kept his eyes closed. That is, until someone whispered into his ear.

"Hikari, it's over." Bakura shook Ryou's shoulders again until Ryou's eyes finally snapped open. He looked around for a moment, and when he realised that he and Bakura were still completely in tact, and he threw his arms around Bakura's neck, crying for joy.

Bakura helped him up to his feet, and he finally let go of Bakura's neck. He wondered why Bakura was acting so nicely towards him. He shook off the thoughts, and concentrated on walking up the basement stairs. He paused at the middle step, and hesitated. He wasn't so sure any more if he really wanted to go up. What if the tornado was waiting up there for him? He shuddered, and scolded himself mentally. He shouldn't be so childish, after all, tornadoes couldn't hold grudges, or even have feelings for that matter.

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder, and without a backwards glance, he continued on up the stairs. He pushed the door open, and braced himself for the shock. He was surprised to see that the only thing that had happened was that several bookshelves had toppled over, and a long piece of wood had crashed through the window. He checked the house over thoroughly, and found that no other damage had been done. The tornado must have just missed his house. He walked over to the living room window, and pressed his nose up against the glass. The house across the street was no longer there. He shuddered when he thought of what could have happened to his house.

He knew that Bakura was standing behind himself because he could feel the warmth radiating off of his darker half, so he leaned back and closed his eyes. A smile found its way to his pale lips, and he sighed. He had won to a storm. He had finally won.

Thank you very much for reading, and... Please R&R! I really appreciate it!

In fact... it probably makes me happier than writing stories! And that makes me extremely happy!

*huggles reviewers*

Review Thanks:

CherryRedHead: Yay! Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, I've been wanting to update and post all of my stories for a while now, but it just wouldn't let me. I'm so glad that I figured out the problem. Because now I can update more often! I love storms too, they can be quite relaxing, but of course, not the tornadoes. I felt the need to have Bakura be like that, and it just seemed right to write it like that at the time, and I don't regret making him that way, it makes him more cute in my opinion - Oh yeah! About that dishwasher fic... Apparently, one of my reviewers reported the story for some reason. I still have no clue why, though. I didn't write anything bad, and the rating was okay, too. And because my computer crashed, I don't have that story to upload anymore. Don't worry, though, I'll do my best to write another soon and have it posted before too long. Thank you so much for reviewing! - *huggles*