Well, one review so far! That's much more than I thought I would get. Thank you Midnight Chamber for such a nice review. Have a cookie. On with the chapter!

Chapter Three: Glass

The bottle was very hard to keep off of. Bakura had told himself he was going to be cutting back on the drinking in order to stop getting drunk so often but it had failed. He was sitting on the couch with a beer bottle in his fist and two empty bottles on the floor.

Ever since Yami had called Bakura had been kept in deep thought. Normally he didn't listen to what he had to say about his habits but now he was taking it to deep consideration about actually doing that. The thought of him and Ryou being the same person also remained fresh in his mind.

If that were true then he was actually hurting himself as well. Bakura would feel the mental pain of it while Ryou felt the physical pain. Was that the way it worked? It made sense to him since he was actually just a spirit and Ryou was the one really alive in this age. Since they were the same person it might even mean they would feel the same thing. Perhaps...

Shaking his head Bakura chugged down the rest of the bottle. It was too early in the evening to be thinking that hard. A few more bottles and his mind would slip into nirvana. Then he might hopefully fall unconscious so Ryou would have a pain free evening. With the alcohol already numbing his mind Bakura soon didn't care if he got drunk or not.

"I'm back," Ryou called into the house as he carefully opened the door with four heavy grocery bags in his arms. If he wanted to avoid another beating he had gone shopping so they would have food items for tomorrow.

The house was silent. That was odd. Normally Bakura shouted to him to shut his mouth and that he didn't have to announce his entrance all the time like a big shot. It must be one of three things: He was asleep, he couldn't hear him, or worst of all, he was drunk.

Balancing the bags Ryou walked through the house to get to the kitchen. Still no answer. He just prayed that he wasn't drunk again. He couldn't afford another time like that.

When he entered the kitchen a fist came flying out of nowhere and it slammed him into the ground. The bags dropped all around him and food containers either broke or they rolled out of the bag. Standing above him with a maniacal grin on his face was Bakura.

"It's about time you got back," Bakura said in amusement and laughed when Ryou backed away. "What's the matter? You scared of me?"

Gulping back his fear Ryou stammered, "N-no. I'm not afraid of you."

"Then you won't be afraid of this, will you?" he said with a wider grin and picked Ryou up by his collar and gave a hard punch to his middle. The other him grit his teeth to hold back his shout. Bakura only seemed to take that as an invitation to continue with the beating with many brutal punches and knee kicks while holding him by his collar. Ryou was only afraid of what would happen if he actually let out a whimper.

When he was at last satisfied Bakura tossed Ryou out of the kitchen and into the living room. Clutching his stomach tightly Ryou could only look at his Yami with scared eyes and pray he wouldn't get killed.

"Aw, poor little thing is scared," Bakura said mockingly and walked closer.

Unable to hold it in any longer Ryou cried out, "Get away from me!"

Laughing loudly he said, "Oh is that what you want? You want me to back off don't you?" Laughing a bit more he continued, "I'll make a deal with you. If I break something and I don't get hurt in doing it, then you get to go crawl under your bed if you want. If I get hurt, then you get hurt."

Trying to figure out if Bakura really meant it or not Ryou wasn't given enough time to think for he was then dragged by the collar to the bathroom. Once there he was dropped again and Bakura was standing in front of the bathroom mirror.

Clenching a fist he grinned wildly and aimed it at the mirror. Striking the mirror with his hand lots of shards flew and Bakura's hand started to bleed fast. Instead of wincing at it he just shrugged and got his other hand to punch at the mirror. He must think that hand might have a better result than his other one.

Punching the mirror with full force more glass flew and that hand also began to bleed but even faster than the other one. Both sleeves were blossoming with blood quickly and shards had even cut into his arm so various areas on his arm were bleeding as well.

"Maybe my head will work," Bakura said suggestively to no one in particular.

Getting to his feet Ryou grabbed his arm and said, "If you use your head your just going to bleed even more."

Thrusting him back to the floor Bakura completely ignored his concern and reared his head to hit the mirror. Before Ryou could object again more glass flew and blood poured down his Yami's face.

Bakura backed away from the mirror and held a hand across the gash in his forehead with wide eyes as if he had just realized what he had done. Blood came through his fingers and stained them crimson and went across his sleeve. Ryou wanted to help him but he was afraid of getting hurt again.

Swaying a bit around the room Bakura removed the hand from his head but he fell to the floor instead. When Ryou crawled across the floor to look at him and check to see if he was okay it appeared as if he had fainted from blood loss or the alcohol. It was hard to tell.

No matter. Ryou couldn't just leave him there in the bathroom to bleed to death on a floor of glass. He might hate everything about him, but he was his Yami nonetheless. He would care for him no matter what.