A/N: This chapter took a really long time to write! In other news... reviewer responses at the end.

.t.t.t.

Chapter 4: Taking hell's choice trades life away for a dream

A week later, my bruises are healing and I can step outside without strangers staring at me... too much. With a shock of white hair at my age, it's not something that I can avoid altogether. Nosy bastards should mind their own business... even the landlady is starting to bitch at me for not paying the rent on time.

Yami hasn't talked to me much lately, and I'm not about to ask him about that kiss. Eh, so maybe he's reverting back to the way he was before... before Anzu's wedding, I guess. Now that I think about it, that's really when all this shit started. I think.

"You think too much," Yami tells me as he appears on the floor next to me.

It's a nice change, him being nice to me. I could get used to this, if only I could figure out why he's acting like this. I assume this is an act, because him lying to me for the last ten weeks makes more sense than him lying for the last ten years. I know I can't put anything past him because, well, he's Yami, but wouldn't it be nice, eh?

"All right," I say with a sigh, as I lean back onto his chest. Hn... I think I like it when he doesn't button up his shirt.

Shit that hurt. "Yami, what the hell was that for?" I yell at him as he leans back. Bastard, push me off like that and I'll break my collarbone.

"What happened to you?" he growls. "You used to stand up to people. Hell, you used to stand up to me."

What? "The hell are you talking about?" I cry. "I thought you were enjoying that as much as I was."

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh, really... and just how much would that be, hikari?"

Damn, he doesn't miss a thing. Time to think on your feet, Ryou... or on your stomach, rather. I push myself up to lean on my arms, and glare back at him. "You know, I think Yuugi was right about you, after all. Even when you're being nice, you're still a bastard."

His eyes narrow dangerously. "When," he says slowly, "did you run to Yuugi about me?"

.t.t.t.

I smirk at Yami's back. He's steaming on the porch, too dangerous for words. And I was the one who so royally pissed him off, by not telling him about my conversation with Yuugi. I'm actually enjoying not being beaten down for once, and oddly enough, I think Yami is enjoying himself too.

Despite that my life is no better than it was yesterday, I'm the most cheerful I've been for a very long time. Months, if you count odd encounters with Yuugi-tachi, not that their brand of cheeriness is just right for me. And, many years... since I've been this happy by myself.

But then I'm not by myself. Yami is with me, as always. The last time I was happy was before he came into my life.

"You don't have to sound so miserable about me," Yami says through my head. He sounds definitely annoyed, if not as pissed as before. Ha. "I'm not some great tragedy wreaked on your life."

"Yes you are," I retort. "Yami, you might as well stop being nice. Nice can't erase our past."

"I'm sure," says Yami.

He draped his arms around my shoulders, and I smiled. Always the one to make up by sex- not that that's ever happened before... damn, well, not yet anyway. I can always hope. Either way I figure the fastest way to get there is to make up right now. I glance up at him, his arms not at all blocking my face.

"Do you want to know what Yuugi told me?" I asked him.

He looked casually bored as hell. "I'm sure that in all your long conversations about me, he only told you one thing of value." I rolled my eyes. He gave me a look, all-right-what-did-the-little-twerp-say.

"He told me," I said pointedly, "to not make the same mistake that he did. To... not, fall in love with a spirit."

Yami nodded slowly. "Interesting... and what's your opinion on that?" He looked subtly different then, somehow, and the air felt hyper-tensed.

What? I blinked and shrugged. To be honest, I didn't really know. "I don't actually see anything wrong with it," I told him. "As long as you're not making fun of me for it... don't give me that look, you know you do. But, yeah, I don't see anything wrong with it."

"Well." He looked at me quizzically. "Can I ask you a question- when was the last time you talked to another person?"

I didn't get it. "Um, I think I was yelling at Mrs. Tanaka yesterday morning."

He rolled his eyes, probably because I'm such a dumb hikari. "No, Ryou. I meant, when was the last time you talked to someone, for any lengthy period of time, because you wanted to?"

"Yuugi last week," I said quickly. "There's something wrong with that?"

Yami smirked. His smirks are getting to be more like smiles every day, not that I'm about to tell him that. "Yes, there is," he murmured, leaning towards my ear. "I don't want you taking his advice about me," he said. "Your spirit is different from Yuugi's. And I am not the same kind of soul as Atemu."

"Atemu?" I asked. He frowned, but that swept off his face quickly with a shrug. I decided to leave it at that- after all, who wants to know as much as Yami does about that whole Egyptian-spirit community? There are much better things to do with a pleased Yami around- such as kiss, of course.

I knew he wasn't expecting anything, so I leaned my neck up, looking at him backwards. I tilted my head to the side and flicked the tip of my tongue out to touch his lips. Yami shivered, almost imperceptively, as I licked a soft trail from his lips down to his chin.

He wasn't complaining, so I turned around to face him. Abruptly, he leaned back until he was sitting on the floor, pulling my waist so I straddled his hips. He grasped my hair gently and pulled my face centimetres from his. In an almost-ignorable flicker, I felt rather than saw a change in the air.

"Yami?" I asked. He didn't respond and I pulled away, shaking my head to clear it. All I saw now was my flat, just as before. There was nothing wrong with my eyes, but it felt as though it took a long time for my brain to make my eyes work.

He shook his head at me. "Have you been living in our head too long?" he asked. "If anyone was watching us, they'd see you hugging thin air. Because, you know, you are..."

I frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?" I asked. Then I realized, and fairly leapt off his lap- "Yami! What do you mean, if anyone was watching us?"

He laughed a faintly horrible laugh. "Just hypothetical, hikari," he said.

My heart was still racing, though, and it took a long time for me to calm down. Yami sat there patiently, watching me- he didn't go back into the ring, just sat there studying my face. When it felt to me like I was beginning to get back to normal he approached again, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of my trousers to pull me to him.

This time the kiss had no gentleness, but was all fire and edge. He pulled me on top of him and as my eyes closed, I heard him whisper, "You are mine."

.t.t.t.

When I returned from class, the flat was dark in the changing light. It would be colder here soon. Strange... Yami had started to make a point of turning on a light for me- he knows that I don't like being in the dark. He's probably still grinning from this morning, when he pounced me as I was walking out of the bathroom and disappeared five minutes later after saying, "Now, go take a shower. You'd better make it a cold one."

He thinks he's so funny, since it's obvious who's in control in this relationship. But I don't mind- well, not so much since I talked to Yuugi again.

Yami walked in. So he's been outside while I was out... I looked at the flashing digital clock on the floor. 5:00- and here I thought he was a late riser. More likely he's been stalking around for the whole six hours.

"You may be a little nicer to me," I commented, "but that doesn't mean you're not still contributing 200% to Osaka's crime rates, does it?"

He smiled, disturbingly. "What you don't know doesn't hurt you," he said.

He looked tired, though, and I knew he was going to get very bitchy soon unless I let him sleep. Serves him right for staying out all evening.

I let him go, though, watching as he blinked slowly while walking out of existence. My mind was on what he had just said. "What you don't know doesn't hurt you." Yami's always been like that, sure, but I have this kind of suspicion that he's working that now.

Yuugi warned me... I don't know how the hell he figured out that anything was up. And now I'm wondering if Yami is just toying with me, because that sure as hell wouldn't surprise this bitter heart. I don't know why he started kissing me, and I don't know why I still haven't stopped him...

Hell. I shook my head as I started to make breakfast for myself. This whole thing's always been crazy. What's the difference between seeing spirits and falling in love with them? It doesn't really matter.

Who cares, what if anything Yami is planning, if I've never been happier.

.t.t.t.

A/N: I'm sorry this chapter was so late... and now that I re-read it, it doesn't seem as good as I had thought. I was trying to make things move along a bit more, but this is getting kind of weird... I did take time to sort of plan the next few chapters, so I should say... this fic is getting darker. Well, Ryou's getting happier but the fic is getting darker.

If that doesn't make sense, it will soon... or eventually, anyway. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't tie up from chapter to chapter. The Yuugi stuff will make sense next chapter, I promise... because of a nice appearance!

I can't believe they took away the special characters...

.t.t.t.

Review responses from ch. 3:

I really can't do this every chapter. I could try, but that would put a kink in the fic-uploading schedule and this fic is driving me crazy enough as it is. So...

Yami-love OB1: Thank you! Especially for the repeat reviews!

Dark Magician Girl / Hikaru: I'm glad it's different grin I've seen you around... other review pages... thanks for all the feedback!

Elle-Fate2x1-2: Thanks! I hope this chapter did a bit more for the "what's happening between them" part.

Celeste Rose: hugs chibi-Seto plush Aww, thanks! I'm glad you like the pace, I was afraid it'd be too slow compared to most fics.

colleen: This chapter is almost... well, I'm not really sure how long it is because and my computer are saying different things. But it's definitely longer than all but the first, I think. I'm used to writing one-shots!

Pork Steak the Grande: Thanks... Ryou gets happier frowns but hey, is that a bad thing? ... eh, maybe. We'll see. And, er, thank you Gandalf, too...

Violent-Tendencies: Wow. Good questions. Everyone go look at the questions! Lol. Anyway, answers in the order you asked them:

1. That will be revealed in the next chapter... kind of. This story doesn't really get into detail about it, but you can bet they had a romantic relationship!
2. No, he's still around... just not around Yuugi. If I remember next chapter I'll get into this more at the end.
3. Ah. Can't tell you yet (getting monotonous, isn't it?), it's something you find out near the end (I think!). But just think about Bakura's flaws... specifically how he's... behaving... in this relationship.
4. I assume you mean the niceness, in which case the answer is yes. Yes in relation with #3. And he's being nice deliberately.

And yeah, Ryou's going to get happier. But this fic is definitely going down dark by the end.

Shella: Wow, I'm glad to see you came back to the story. And I'm truly honored by your opinion.

.t.t.t.

A/N: I'm looking forward to ch. 5! It should be up on Friday, but don't expect any promises! Well, er, heh... if you'd consider taking a click on that silly periwinkle button down there...