Borath: Right, Pachelbel deserves the bulk of the credit for this one. I
only added the odd sentence and all of Tetsuo's bit. Still, hope you
continue to enjoy our combined efforts.
Pachelbel: *grin* Hehe, send me to a family meeting and I go nuts with writing! This ought to be enjoyable; I think we had tons of fun writing this monster-of-a-chapter.
Spawn: Chapter 4
It was with great reluctant that had Bakura gone into his Soul Room for the first time since the spell hit him. He had been well aware that anything that happened in his body would be represented in there and he didn't want to be faced with that one. But he had to at some point so it had been as good a time as any when he got home. And his conversation with Kaiba scant hours ago had given him an idea.
Bakura sighed, resigning himself to the inevitable. After a moment to suppress any nervousness, he entered his own little space of the Shadow Realm.
The room was dark, ordinarily; so dark that only the vaguest outline of his bed could be seen. He didn't need any light, however, since it was an exact copy of the single-room dwelling he'd once had.
It irked him to find that, today, the room was faintly warmed with golden light. It was a light that cast too pleasant a glow to belong in his room, but he was just glad there wasn't a crib anywhere in sight. Then he saw the source of the strange light; a small, glowing orb hovering nearby. *That* had to be the little worm. Maybe this was better, though; it certainly didn't *look* like a baby. He could squish this thing without even a twinge of guilt. Maybe now he wouldn't have to admit to his little 'accident' to anyone.
A sadistic smile made its way across his lips as he strode purposefully towards it. He decided quickly that he wanted to destroy it with his bare hands. No, no.*one* handed. He wanted to crush whatever made up that little sphere in his fist and watch the light fade to black as it sputtered out of existence.
As his fingers formed a loose cage around the warm.thing.his smile turned into an all-out grin. "Good bye, Nausea." He murmured, and slowly, dramatically, closed his hand into a fist.
An electrical jolt of the most painful magic he'd felt (even when Malik had messed up a black-out spell) sent him hurtling backwards to land squarely on his back. Well, that hadn't been on the top of his list of 'things I expected to happen within the next 30 seconds'.
Now completely enraged, Bakura jumped up and stalked back over to it. Meaning to send *it* flying through the air, he crescent-kicked it; a basic, but efficient, blow. It connected, but again he found himself down. This time he was on his arse and, having skidded several feet whilst on it, he was now quite sore.
"Who the fuck made *you* a Kung Fu master?" He growled at it, not the least bit pleased that his unborn child was, seemingly, invincible. That hurt his pride more than a little bit.
Glaring at the gold orb floating in mid-air with venom, he decided against hitting it again as he was already nursing a burnt hand and bruised ankle. Bloody thing. But the creature that Kaiba had mentioned, the one that helped Yami and the one that he saw in the Temple in Egypt, he could perhaps do something.
Unfortunately it only answered to Yami, which put a bit of a hitch in his plans. However he'd heard the Pharaoh griping that the thing had a mind of its own often enough to know that it was possible that it could appear without a direct summoning. Lots of shouting and, sadly, begging was likely in order. But he'd only beg when he was desperate.
Three hours later with no luck he admitted to himself that he was desperate.
"Damn it! *Please* show yourself! I need some fucking help and you're the only one who can provide it," he screamed into the darkness around him. Nothing happened. Swearing profusely, Bakura prepared to return to the real world.
"It's rude to walk away from someone you've been cursing for over three hours."
Stiffening at the smooth voice from behind him, Bakura spun in a tight circle to see Tetsuo stood several feet away from him. Regal robes splayed across the floor and lavender hair pulled away from a face that held a hint of amusement as well as dry annoyance. The markings moving languidly down his cheeks and down into his robes caught the shorter spirits interest for a moment, seeing that matching marks were printed on the monster's arms. These ones wee static though. Red on black eyes bore into Bakura's own brown, making it obvious that the Tomb Robber was to state his case now.
Not wanting to close the distance that Tetsuo had established between them, Bakura remained where he was as he pursed his lips tightly. He had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to like this conversation with the enigmatic creature. "I'm pregnant."
No reaction. "I am aware of that."
A low growl. "I shouldn't be."
Tetsuo raised a slender brow at that, his hands clasping in front of him as he turned to the side and began to walk in a slow arc towards Bakura. The movement was akin to how a predator would approach a cornered prey.
"Ah, yes. The spell that is responsible for this had originally been designed for my Master. So unfortunate that wayward it went, right into you," the monster tittered, demon eyes now narrowed as it neared Bakura who had to use force of will to stand his ground against it. He had an idea of what Tetsuo was capable of and, to put it simply, really didn't want to do anything to piss it off.
"Yeah, it's a crying shame," Bakura agreed gruffly, crossing his arms definitely across his chest. Tetsuo was now mere inches away from him, well over a foot in height difference allowing him to be an intimidating presence. Not that Bakura was going to belay any sort of fear in front of it.
"And so why have you called me here?" Tetsuo prompted patiently in even tones.
Bakura had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. That likely wouldn't have been to his benefit considering that he was just about to ask for a favor. "To get rid of the damn thing. Now get on with it!" Okay, so the pressing urgency of the situation had made his mouth run away without him. Whoops.
"You can't order me around," Tetsuo scoffed unclasping his hands. Mirth was in his voice now as if he found Bakura's audacity amusing. "I'm not yours to summon or to command. And this is your mess, not mine. Kindly take responsibility for it."
"Fine!" Bakura exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air as Tetsuo turned on his heel and started to walk away from him, obviously seeing that he'd spent enough time here. "Then at least give me some damn advice on how to kill it because I'm fresh out of ideas!"
Tetsuo froze like he'd been struck and Bakura quirked his brow as he realized that he may have just put his foot in it. Swallowing heavily when Tetsuo turned slowly, ominously, to face him, eyes glowing slightly now and the marks on his arms sluggishly beginning to move, Bakura had the profound desire to take a step back. Nothing had unsettled him this badly before. Facing this angry creature felt worse than the reason behind his nausea did.
"I don't like your tone, and I don't like how you plan to treat what in actually is close to a miracle. Your disdain for life is of little business of mine, but I feel obliged to guide you towards a change in attitude," Tetsuo said in a low firm voice. Bakura had about enough time to squeak before Tetsuo raised a hand towards the orb and another at him. A bright, burning light flashed through all three of them for a few brief seconds before darkness returned.
Tetsuo returned his arms to his sides, marks stationary once again. Bakura put one hand to his warmed stomach and the other to his pounding head. There was a niggle of 'something' in the back of his head, a third presence. And it was scared. Fear pulsated off of it in waves. It wasn't Ryou though. The bond between himself and his Hikari was filled with static indicating sleep, although it was clearing up meaning that Ryou was being awoken by the disturbance.
"What the Hell did you do?" Bakura demanded angrily, approaching the monster in long strides. He was too pissed off to care about the creature's feelings.
"I've bound you and the child spiritually. It can sense your emotions and you can sense it's. I've given it sentience but it has no thoughts, only feeling. Perhaps this sharing sentiment will alter your behaviour," Tetsuo said, effectively condemning Bakura, before he vanished in a cloud of crimson light.
Bakura stood motionless for a few moments before looking to and glaring at the orb. A sensation that could only be described as 'what?!' filtered into his mind from it and Bakura only glared at it harder. "Oh sod off."
~*~*~*~
Ryou woke up for the second time in one night (morning, if one wanted to be precise). As soon as he did, he became aware of a dull tingle in his hand, ankle, back and shoulder. When Bakura let down his shields enough, 'tingling' usually signified an injury of some sort in his yami. He could sense Bakura skulking in the Shadow Realm and tried twice to contact him. The first time he was ignored. The second earned him such a vicious threat, he gave up on talking to the spirit. It was probably for the better that he did.
Once he focused on the outside world again, he heard someone moving around outside his room. Seeing as how Bakura was obsessing with something new and fascinating in his Soul Room, it seemed to fall upon Ryou to take care of the intruder. Joy.
Ryou crept out into the hall once he found a makeshift weapon. Part of him hoped that it was just Malik; the other half of him hoped it wasn't. Bakura could handle Malik's insanity, but Ryou had no desire to be subjected to the maniac's antics. And certainly not tonight; he was too damned tired.
Ryou sighed and put his father's tennis racket down when blue and white light from the muted TV revealed a familiar blond Egyptian. Malik's violet eyes turned on him, squelching any hopes of escape. Advancing upon Ryou slowly, Malik tipped his head slightly and opened his mouth to speak.
"Bakura's in his Soul Room. He won't talk to me, but maybe you can reach him." Ryou spoke stiffly before the other could start. And then rant.
"Not likely," Malik muttered petulantly.
"Did you two have a fight?" It wasn't normal for Bakura to just *ignore* Malik. Perhaps some other questions could be answered; his yami's recent behaviour for example. That was presuming that he could hold the other's interest long enough. That was a rather optimistic presumption even at the best of times.
In response to Ryou's question, Malik scrubbed his hands through his hair, looking dumbfounded. "Well.yes, we did, but it wasn't anything unusual. If I'd *known* his feelings got hurt so easily, I'd have killed him by now. He didn't even come back for make up sex!"
Ryou was starting to regret this conversation. Bakura wasn't a talkative person, and he'd sort of expected the same of the yami's lover who was now pouting. Which was disturbing.
Malik, pacing now, went on despite the paler teen's obvious disinclination. "I was pretty mad about that. I mean, who does he think he is? But when I found he'd snuck in and taken Rishid's potion away, I figured he must have given it to the Pharaoh, so I can't be too pissed anymore. But it's been almost two weeks now, and I still haven't seen him, laid him, or laughed at the Pharaoh with him. Ignorant bastard's ignoring me," he finished with a growl.
"You made a potion? To give to Rishid?"
Malik shook his head. "To give to the Pharaoh," he corrected, setting himself back down on the couch and sniffling rather pathetically.
Ryou frowned. "What does the potion look like?" Something clicked horribly in his head. "Does it make you crave alcohol?"
"No, but now that you mention it, I'd kill for a beer."
"I think Bakura drank the last drop," Ryou answered dryly. "Malik." He sat down in front of the taller boy, steepling his fingers and bracing himself for what looked to be a difficult conversation to get to a simple answer. "What did the potion do?"
"It was part of a spell we were doing, but the victim had to drink a potion for everything to work. That shouldn't have been a problem; it was strawberry flavoured and all, but I couldn't think of a way to get the Pharaoh to ingest it. It's not like he'd trust anything I give him."
Ryou nodded, pursing his lips as he continued in his struggle to nudge Malik along to the information that he needed. "Ok, but what was the *spell*?"
"It was a pregnancy spell," Malik stated matter-of-factly.
Ryou's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "What if Yami Yugi didn't drink it? What if.what if *Bakura* did?"
At this, Malik began laughing so hard that he actually rolled off the couch. "Then he's screwed! I mean, how stupid can he be?" Malik laughed some more. When he saw that Ryou was serious, he grabbed the dark-eyed teen's shirt roughly with narrowed eyes. "That's funny, dammit."
Ryou laughed nervously, causing Malik to nod in satisfaction. "But Malik, what would you do if he *did* get pregnant?" he asked cautiously
The blond shrugged. "Dunno. Make him get an abortion? Kick his arse for being so careless?"
Ryou's mouth dropped a bit. "But he's your boyfriend!"
The Egyptian looked genuinely repulsed by that. "Ugh! No! He's my punching bag, and I'm his. We're." Malik's hand waved idly as he searched for the words. "We're fuck buddies!" Malik's pleasant smile dissolved as he glared firmly at Ryou, intent on getting his point across. "Not boyfriends."
With that little misconception cleared up, and after making Ryou promise to tell Bakura he'd come by, Malik stood and walked out without so much as a backwards glance.
It was now four in the morning, but Ryou doubted he'd be able to sleep again, not with all the thoughts swirling around in his mind now. Bakura had to know by now that he was.well, if he was. Ryou shook his head, thinking back on all the tormenting of Yami Yugi that Bakura had done. 'What goes around, comes around' seemed to fit into his yami's life, for once.
But Bakura was his yami at the end of it all, and if the child was magically conceived like Malik had implied, then it was doubtful that it *could* be aborted meaning that Bakura would have to live with it. And he severely doubted that Bakura could cope with that. Not knowing much about this sort of thing outside of the few things he'd picked up from Yami Yugi, Ryou called the teen hotline, as the doctor's office was closed.
"Hi, my name is Ryou. My. er, my girlfriend is pregnant." He winced, wishing he'd said 'sister'. It was done now though, and he couldn't exactly backtrack. Ryou figured that he might as well ask about what Bakura was likely going through in the immediate future; he doubted that his yami's pride would allow him to seek any form of advice. "I need some advice for morning sickness."
"Hi, Ryou. Well, I have a kid, so I've been where your girlfriend is. For me, saltine crackers helped. It's different for every pregnancy, but obeying the cravings can help to prevent her from getting sick. And tell her not to worry about her figure until after the baby's born, because it's healthy to gain weight."
Ryou was willing to bet money that if he told Bakura not to worry about his figure, he'd end up with a black eye, to say nothing of the madness the yami would fly into if Ryou let on that he knew about all of this. Bakura's pride wasn't exactly small; just walking into the room he was in could bruise it. Pointing out that he shouldn't worry about getting fat over the next few months was practically a death wish.
"Actually," the girl on the phone went on, breaking up the silence, "I saw an article in today's paper about this. In the health section. It's probably a good idea to show it to her."
"Oh. I'll go look for it. Thanks!"
"You're welcome. Congratulations by the way!"
Making a rather hesitant strangled noise into the phone by means of a response, Ryou hung up and stood for a moment contemplating what to do next. Figuring that surreptitiously keeping his yami in as fair a condition as possible would save him the most grief, he sifted through the previously unopened newspaper until he found the right page. After carefully cutting out the article, he placed it on Bakura's pillow and then found himself staring at it nervously.
This would not please his yami to say the least. He wished he could run away before it was found, but he knew that not only was that impractical, it was impossible; Bakura would hunt him down within a day. So, he resigned himself to his fate and collapsed on the sofa, flipping through channels in an attempt to distract himself until Bakura left his Soul Room and found the article.
****
It was over an hour before that happy event occurred, Bakura having spent most of that time most productively glaring and flinging every expletive he had ever known at the orb of light. He'd stopped when he'd become fed up of feeling its growing depression, settling for sitting on his bed and brooding instead.
He had grudgingly come to the conclusion that this was something that he was going to have to live with. To his knowledge the spell couldn't be reversed and it was obvious that the child couldn't be destroyed. So he was stuck with it. How exactly he was going to cope over the next few months was beyond him. He'd probably have to leave the country for a few months when he started to get 'round' to avoid the unpleasantness of everyone finding out. He could figure out the birth and abandonment bits then.
Wanting nothing more than sleep after what had honestly been a thoroughly exhausting day, Bakura had left his Soul Room without so much as glancing at Ryou and made his way upstairs. Dropping onto the mattress, he frowned when he heard paper crumple.
Pulling it out from beneath his head, he scanned over the text, his eyes growing wider with every word and his mouth falling open. How in the Hell had this gotten oh-so-conveniently onto his pillow? Ryou... His bloody Hikari knew. Somehow he'd either been smart enough to put it together or he'd found out some other way.
Planning on confronting his 'beloved' other in the morning and then beating the information right back out of him, Bakura rolled onto his side and settled to go to sleep. From his stomach, a light feeling of contentment trickled into his mind. Obviously the child was easily satisfied. It certainly seemed to hold no animosity against its 'father' over his attempts to kill it.
Bakura promised to make a damn good attempt to change that over the coming weeks. If he and the child hated each other, then the next nine months and the separation afterwards would go a lot easier.
****
Borath: Review button is right there (Points). Clickity-click!
Pachelbel: Yes! Do! NOW! I mean, that's EIGHT pages for you to comment on, so don't you DARE wimp out with the feedback!!
Pachelbel: *grin* Hehe, send me to a family meeting and I go nuts with writing! This ought to be enjoyable; I think we had tons of fun writing this monster-of-a-chapter.
Spawn: Chapter 4
It was with great reluctant that had Bakura gone into his Soul Room for the first time since the spell hit him. He had been well aware that anything that happened in his body would be represented in there and he didn't want to be faced with that one. But he had to at some point so it had been as good a time as any when he got home. And his conversation with Kaiba scant hours ago had given him an idea.
Bakura sighed, resigning himself to the inevitable. After a moment to suppress any nervousness, he entered his own little space of the Shadow Realm.
The room was dark, ordinarily; so dark that only the vaguest outline of his bed could be seen. He didn't need any light, however, since it was an exact copy of the single-room dwelling he'd once had.
It irked him to find that, today, the room was faintly warmed with golden light. It was a light that cast too pleasant a glow to belong in his room, but he was just glad there wasn't a crib anywhere in sight. Then he saw the source of the strange light; a small, glowing orb hovering nearby. *That* had to be the little worm. Maybe this was better, though; it certainly didn't *look* like a baby. He could squish this thing without even a twinge of guilt. Maybe now he wouldn't have to admit to his little 'accident' to anyone.
A sadistic smile made its way across his lips as he strode purposefully towards it. He decided quickly that he wanted to destroy it with his bare hands. No, no.*one* handed. He wanted to crush whatever made up that little sphere in his fist and watch the light fade to black as it sputtered out of existence.
As his fingers formed a loose cage around the warm.thing.his smile turned into an all-out grin. "Good bye, Nausea." He murmured, and slowly, dramatically, closed his hand into a fist.
An electrical jolt of the most painful magic he'd felt (even when Malik had messed up a black-out spell) sent him hurtling backwards to land squarely on his back. Well, that hadn't been on the top of his list of 'things I expected to happen within the next 30 seconds'.
Now completely enraged, Bakura jumped up and stalked back over to it. Meaning to send *it* flying through the air, he crescent-kicked it; a basic, but efficient, blow. It connected, but again he found himself down. This time he was on his arse and, having skidded several feet whilst on it, he was now quite sore.
"Who the fuck made *you* a Kung Fu master?" He growled at it, not the least bit pleased that his unborn child was, seemingly, invincible. That hurt his pride more than a little bit.
Glaring at the gold orb floating in mid-air with venom, he decided against hitting it again as he was already nursing a burnt hand and bruised ankle. Bloody thing. But the creature that Kaiba had mentioned, the one that helped Yami and the one that he saw in the Temple in Egypt, he could perhaps do something.
Unfortunately it only answered to Yami, which put a bit of a hitch in his plans. However he'd heard the Pharaoh griping that the thing had a mind of its own often enough to know that it was possible that it could appear without a direct summoning. Lots of shouting and, sadly, begging was likely in order. But he'd only beg when he was desperate.
Three hours later with no luck he admitted to himself that he was desperate.
"Damn it! *Please* show yourself! I need some fucking help and you're the only one who can provide it," he screamed into the darkness around him. Nothing happened. Swearing profusely, Bakura prepared to return to the real world.
"It's rude to walk away from someone you've been cursing for over three hours."
Stiffening at the smooth voice from behind him, Bakura spun in a tight circle to see Tetsuo stood several feet away from him. Regal robes splayed across the floor and lavender hair pulled away from a face that held a hint of amusement as well as dry annoyance. The markings moving languidly down his cheeks and down into his robes caught the shorter spirits interest for a moment, seeing that matching marks were printed on the monster's arms. These ones wee static though. Red on black eyes bore into Bakura's own brown, making it obvious that the Tomb Robber was to state his case now.
Not wanting to close the distance that Tetsuo had established between them, Bakura remained where he was as he pursed his lips tightly. He had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to like this conversation with the enigmatic creature. "I'm pregnant."
No reaction. "I am aware of that."
A low growl. "I shouldn't be."
Tetsuo raised a slender brow at that, his hands clasping in front of him as he turned to the side and began to walk in a slow arc towards Bakura. The movement was akin to how a predator would approach a cornered prey.
"Ah, yes. The spell that is responsible for this had originally been designed for my Master. So unfortunate that wayward it went, right into you," the monster tittered, demon eyes now narrowed as it neared Bakura who had to use force of will to stand his ground against it. He had an idea of what Tetsuo was capable of and, to put it simply, really didn't want to do anything to piss it off.
"Yeah, it's a crying shame," Bakura agreed gruffly, crossing his arms definitely across his chest. Tetsuo was now mere inches away from him, well over a foot in height difference allowing him to be an intimidating presence. Not that Bakura was going to belay any sort of fear in front of it.
"And so why have you called me here?" Tetsuo prompted patiently in even tones.
Bakura had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. That likely wouldn't have been to his benefit considering that he was just about to ask for a favor. "To get rid of the damn thing. Now get on with it!" Okay, so the pressing urgency of the situation had made his mouth run away without him. Whoops.
"You can't order me around," Tetsuo scoffed unclasping his hands. Mirth was in his voice now as if he found Bakura's audacity amusing. "I'm not yours to summon or to command. And this is your mess, not mine. Kindly take responsibility for it."
"Fine!" Bakura exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air as Tetsuo turned on his heel and started to walk away from him, obviously seeing that he'd spent enough time here. "Then at least give me some damn advice on how to kill it because I'm fresh out of ideas!"
Tetsuo froze like he'd been struck and Bakura quirked his brow as he realized that he may have just put his foot in it. Swallowing heavily when Tetsuo turned slowly, ominously, to face him, eyes glowing slightly now and the marks on his arms sluggishly beginning to move, Bakura had the profound desire to take a step back. Nothing had unsettled him this badly before. Facing this angry creature felt worse than the reason behind his nausea did.
"I don't like your tone, and I don't like how you plan to treat what in actually is close to a miracle. Your disdain for life is of little business of mine, but I feel obliged to guide you towards a change in attitude," Tetsuo said in a low firm voice. Bakura had about enough time to squeak before Tetsuo raised a hand towards the orb and another at him. A bright, burning light flashed through all three of them for a few brief seconds before darkness returned.
Tetsuo returned his arms to his sides, marks stationary once again. Bakura put one hand to his warmed stomach and the other to his pounding head. There was a niggle of 'something' in the back of his head, a third presence. And it was scared. Fear pulsated off of it in waves. It wasn't Ryou though. The bond between himself and his Hikari was filled with static indicating sleep, although it was clearing up meaning that Ryou was being awoken by the disturbance.
"What the Hell did you do?" Bakura demanded angrily, approaching the monster in long strides. He was too pissed off to care about the creature's feelings.
"I've bound you and the child spiritually. It can sense your emotions and you can sense it's. I've given it sentience but it has no thoughts, only feeling. Perhaps this sharing sentiment will alter your behaviour," Tetsuo said, effectively condemning Bakura, before he vanished in a cloud of crimson light.
Bakura stood motionless for a few moments before looking to and glaring at the orb. A sensation that could only be described as 'what?!' filtered into his mind from it and Bakura only glared at it harder. "Oh sod off."
~*~*~*~
Ryou woke up for the second time in one night (morning, if one wanted to be precise). As soon as he did, he became aware of a dull tingle in his hand, ankle, back and shoulder. When Bakura let down his shields enough, 'tingling' usually signified an injury of some sort in his yami. He could sense Bakura skulking in the Shadow Realm and tried twice to contact him. The first time he was ignored. The second earned him such a vicious threat, he gave up on talking to the spirit. It was probably for the better that he did.
Once he focused on the outside world again, he heard someone moving around outside his room. Seeing as how Bakura was obsessing with something new and fascinating in his Soul Room, it seemed to fall upon Ryou to take care of the intruder. Joy.
Ryou crept out into the hall once he found a makeshift weapon. Part of him hoped that it was just Malik; the other half of him hoped it wasn't. Bakura could handle Malik's insanity, but Ryou had no desire to be subjected to the maniac's antics. And certainly not tonight; he was too damned tired.
Ryou sighed and put his father's tennis racket down when blue and white light from the muted TV revealed a familiar blond Egyptian. Malik's violet eyes turned on him, squelching any hopes of escape. Advancing upon Ryou slowly, Malik tipped his head slightly and opened his mouth to speak.
"Bakura's in his Soul Room. He won't talk to me, but maybe you can reach him." Ryou spoke stiffly before the other could start. And then rant.
"Not likely," Malik muttered petulantly.
"Did you two have a fight?" It wasn't normal for Bakura to just *ignore* Malik. Perhaps some other questions could be answered; his yami's recent behaviour for example. That was presuming that he could hold the other's interest long enough. That was a rather optimistic presumption even at the best of times.
In response to Ryou's question, Malik scrubbed his hands through his hair, looking dumbfounded. "Well.yes, we did, but it wasn't anything unusual. If I'd *known* his feelings got hurt so easily, I'd have killed him by now. He didn't even come back for make up sex!"
Ryou was starting to regret this conversation. Bakura wasn't a talkative person, and he'd sort of expected the same of the yami's lover who was now pouting. Which was disturbing.
Malik, pacing now, went on despite the paler teen's obvious disinclination. "I was pretty mad about that. I mean, who does he think he is? But when I found he'd snuck in and taken Rishid's potion away, I figured he must have given it to the Pharaoh, so I can't be too pissed anymore. But it's been almost two weeks now, and I still haven't seen him, laid him, or laughed at the Pharaoh with him. Ignorant bastard's ignoring me," he finished with a growl.
"You made a potion? To give to Rishid?"
Malik shook his head. "To give to the Pharaoh," he corrected, setting himself back down on the couch and sniffling rather pathetically.
Ryou frowned. "What does the potion look like?" Something clicked horribly in his head. "Does it make you crave alcohol?"
"No, but now that you mention it, I'd kill for a beer."
"I think Bakura drank the last drop," Ryou answered dryly. "Malik." He sat down in front of the taller boy, steepling his fingers and bracing himself for what looked to be a difficult conversation to get to a simple answer. "What did the potion do?"
"It was part of a spell we were doing, but the victim had to drink a potion for everything to work. That shouldn't have been a problem; it was strawberry flavoured and all, but I couldn't think of a way to get the Pharaoh to ingest it. It's not like he'd trust anything I give him."
Ryou nodded, pursing his lips as he continued in his struggle to nudge Malik along to the information that he needed. "Ok, but what was the *spell*?"
"It was a pregnancy spell," Malik stated matter-of-factly.
Ryou's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "What if Yami Yugi didn't drink it? What if.what if *Bakura* did?"
At this, Malik began laughing so hard that he actually rolled off the couch. "Then he's screwed! I mean, how stupid can he be?" Malik laughed some more. When he saw that Ryou was serious, he grabbed the dark-eyed teen's shirt roughly with narrowed eyes. "That's funny, dammit."
Ryou laughed nervously, causing Malik to nod in satisfaction. "But Malik, what would you do if he *did* get pregnant?" he asked cautiously
The blond shrugged. "Dunno. Make him get an abortion? Kick his arse for being so careless?"
Ryou's mouth dropped a bit. "But he's your boyfriend!"
The Egyptian looked genuinely repulsed by that. "Ugh! No! He's my punching bag, and I'm his. We're." Malik's hand waved idly as he searched for the words. "We're fuck buddies!" Malik's pleasant smile dissolved as he glared firmly at Ryou, intent on getting his point across. "Not boyfriends."
With that little misconception cleared up, and after making Ryou promise to tell Bakura he'd come by, Malik stood and walked out without so much as a backwards glance.
It was now four in the morning, but Ryou doubted he'd be able to sleep again, not with all the thoughts swirling around in his mind now. Bakura had to know by now that he was.well, if he was. Ryou shook his head, thinking back on all the tormenting of Yami Yugi that Bakura had done. 'What goes around, comes around' seemed to fit into his yami's life, for once.
But Bakura was his yami at the end of it all, and if the child was magically conceived like Malik had implied, then it was doubtful that it *could* be aborted meaning that Bakura would have to live with it. And he severely doubted that Bakura could cope with that. Not knowing much about this sort of thing outside of the few things he'd picked up from Yami Yugi, Ryou called the teen hotline, as the doctor's office was closed.
"Hi, my name is Ryou. My. er, my girlfriend is pregnant." He winced, wishing he'd said 'sister'. It was done now though, and he couldn't exactly backtrack. Ryou figured that he might as well ask about what Bakura was likely going through in the immediate future; he doubted that his yami's pride would allow him to seek any form of advice. "I need some advice for morning sickness."
"Hi, Ryou. Well, I have a kid, so I've been where your girlfriend is. For me, saltine crackers helped. It's different for every pregnancy, but obeying the cravings can help to prevent her from getting sick. And tell her not to worry about her figure until after the baby's born, because it's healthy to gain weight."
Ryou was willing to bet money that if he told Bakura not to worry about his figure, he'd end up with a black eye, to say nothing of the madness the yami would fly into if Ryou let on that he knew about all of this. Bakura's pride wasn't exactly small; just walking into the room he was in could bruise it. Pointing out that he shouldn't worry about getting fat over the next few months was practically a death wish.
"Actually," the girl on the phone went on, breaking up the silence, "I saw an article in today's paper about this. In the health section. It's probably a good idea to show it to her."
"Oh. I'll go look for it. Thanks!"
"You're welcome. Congratulations by the way!"
Making a rather hesitant strangled noise into the phone by means of a response, Ryou hung up and stood for a moment contemplating what to do next. Figuring that surreptitiously keeping his yami in as fair a condition as possible would save him the most grief, he sifted through the previously unopened newspaper until he found the right page. After carefully cutting out the article, he placed it on Bakura's pillow and then found himself staring at it nervously.
This would not please his yami to say the least. He wished he could run away before it was found, but he knew that not only was that impractical, it was impossible; Bakura would hunt him down within a day. So, he resigned himself to his fate and collapsed on the sofa, flipping through channels in an attempt to distract himself until Bakura left his Soul Room and found the article.
****
It was over an hour before that happy event occurred, Bakura having spent most of that time most productively glaring and flinging every expletive he had ever known at the orb of light. He'd stopped when he'd become fed up of feeling its growing depression, settling for sitting on his bed and brooding instead.
He had grudgingly come to the conclusion that this was something that he was going to have to live with. To his knowledge the spell couldn't be reversed and it was obvious that the child couldn't be destroyed. So he was stuck with it. How exactly he was going to cope over the next few months was beyond him. He'd probably have to leave the country for a few months when he started to get 'round' to avoid the unpleasantness of everyone finding out. He could figure out the birth and abandonment bits then.
Wanting nothing more than sleep after what had honestly been a thoroughly exhausting day, Bakura had left his Soul Room without so much as glancing at Ryou and made his way upstairs. Dropping onto the mattress, he frowned when he heard paper crumple.
Pulling it out from beneath his head, he scanned over the text, his eyes growing wider with every word and his mouth falling open. How in the Hell had this gotten oh-so-conveniently onto his pillow? Ryou... His bloody Hikari knew. Somehow he'd either been smart enough to put it together or he'd found out some other way.
Planning on confronting his 'beloved' other in the morning and then beating the information right back out of him, Bakura rolled onto his side and settled to go to sleep. From his stomach, a light feeling of contentment trickled into his mind. Obviously the child was easily satisfied. It certainly seemed to hold no animosity against its 'father' over his attempts to kill it.
Bakura promised to make a damn good attempt to change that over the coming weeks. If he and the child hated each other, then the next nine months and the separation afterwards would go a lot easier.
****
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