Safe answers

Ryou was sprawled out on one of the seats in the Common Room when he saw Hermione detach herself from the others and head purposefully towards him. Normally he would have welcomed her company, but this time he sighed as she came closer. He knew what was going to happen next. How could it not? She'd been talking with Yugi and Yami for the past few hours, ignoring him at dinner in favor of talking more with them, so there was no way he was going to be able to avoid this.

She was going to ask about Bakura. Being who she was she would do it in the nicest possible way, trying not to make it sound accusatory, but she would ask. And then it would turn into an interrogation, with her repeating to him everything that Yami and Yugi had told her about his former yami. Ryou's head dipped as he thought about it. He would never have expected Bakura to show up and rescue him. He had always been his yami's possession, his body, and he knew that Bakura was possessive, but he hadn't thought that Bakura would feel the same possessiveness for him once he no longer needed his body. A smile pulled his lips up. Maybe his yami did care after all.

"Ryou," Hermione's hesitant voice intruded on his thoughts. He looked up at her and nodded, gesturing for her to go on. He already knew what she was going to say after all. "I- that boy- the one who saved you from Malfoy- I mean-"

Ryou sighed, holding up a hand. "You mean that you've already been told everything about him that they know and now you want to see if you can pump any more information from me." He knew he sounded tired. He was tired, tired of Yami's suspicion, tired of it always being him they came to to fix things, tired of this stupid charade he had to play. How could he tell her anything without telling her that Bakura was a spirit who used to share his body?

"Well, not exactly." Hermione sounded very embarrassed. It was far too clear that she was wondering if she had really been that obvious. "I just wanted to know where you knew him from, and warn you about him. Yami and Yugi both say he's really dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt."

"I won't be." Ryou assured her, a slight smile crossing his lips. She really was insatiably curious. Now that she had a good reason to ask him about Bakura she would take it, earlier protests to the contrary. "He stopped those other boys from hurting me didn't he? It would be sort of pointless to turn around and hurt me himself."

"Well, yes," she admitted. "But why did he save you in the first place? And the way he talked to that other boy... It sounded as if he'd known you for a long time."

"For a while he was the only person that would talk to me." Ryou looked down. This was the best way to tell it. The safest way. But it hurt, telling her about himself. He had always managed to avoid questions on what he had done when he was apart from his friends. "That was before I moved to Domino. Everyone else seemed to think I wasn't worth bothering with, and even he didn't seem to actually care about me. But he didn't complain about me tagging along, and he would talk to me occasionally." Ryou looked down at his hands, which were folded in his lap, and shifted to a more normal position before going on. Hermione was staring up at him as if fascinated.

"I knew he was dangerous. Some of the places I followed him into were completely awful. But he never hurt me, and I was always safe as long as I stayed near him. I think it was probably because of the novelty of having someone who looked like him that he put up with me."

There! Completely truthful, but not actually saying anything that would sound unusual. Bakura really had let him 'tag along' although for him that meant that he would allow Ryou to watch what he did with their shared body rather than the more usual meaning. And Ryou really did believe that he had been intrigued at finding a host who had his body. He knew that Bakura had had other hosts before him; he wasn't the first by any means, but Bakura had told him that he was the first one who had any resemblance to his past self at all, let alone the uncanny resemblance that he actually had.

"Oh," Hermione said softly, obviously feeling sorry for him, not what he had wanted, but at least it would stop her questions. "Okay, I get it. It's almost time for the curfew. You'd better get in bed soon."

"Yes," Ryou agreed, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow." And, making sure to keep the smile on his face, he walked up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Once out of sight he allowed the mask to drop and his true feelings to show through. He could tell that Hermione was uncomfortable around him now, though she should be fine by tomorrow, and he hated it. It was better to focus on his yami's rescuing him. That was the highlight of the day, after all.

X-mas Gurl: Well, that's going to be difficult. I'll write if I get any ideas I guess, but don't get excited. Bakura's my favorite character so I'm glad you think he turned out well. I love your reviews!

yaminakathy: Glad you like it.

simpleinsanity: Would the fic you're talking about be White Angel-chan's 'The New Students'? I love that one. And I'm glad you like my Bakura. huggles