Bonding brothers

Myrtle and Ryou arrived in Bakura's bedroom at the same time the next morning.

"What are you doing here?" Both of them demanded at the same time.

"Yes," Bakura's dry voice interrupted them. "Why don't you two explain what you're doing here? This is my bedroom you know."

"Sorry," Ryou muttered, flushing. "I wanted to talk to you that's all."

"Hn," Bakura looked over at Myrtle. "And you?"

"I came to bug you of course." Myrtle retorted, glaring at him. "What did you expect?"

Bakura sighed and sat up, revealing that this time he had at least had the foresight to wear pajamas. Ryou blinked at him looking startled as Myrtle tried to hide the flash of disappointment she felt. The loose black robe was completely modest, although it didn't look like anything else he'd worn.

He caught the direction of their gaze and made a face. "I pinched it off Sirius. It's not like I was going to let myself be caught again."

"Caught?" Ryou repeated curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you later." Bakura replied absentmindedly. "Myrtle go away. You can come back when we're finished."

"I'll just eavesdrop on you two then." Myrtle responded mischievously. Bakura glared at her, and shadows spun out from around him, shoving Myrtle out of the room and leaving him alone with Ryou.

"So what do you want?" Bakura asked, turning to his former hikari.

"You... I..." Ryou looked at the floor, wringing his hands nervously. "I..."

Bakura sighed, and pulled Ryou down onto the bed next to him before swinging off and rifling through his clothes drawers. "Spit it out already yadonushi." He said boredly. "I don't have all day you know."

"Just forget it." Ryou mumbled and stood, preparing to go. Bakura reached out and negligently caught Ryou's arm.

"You're not going anywhere." He shoved Ryou down again, and stood over him, frowning. "You started this; now you've got to finish it."

Ryou stared fixedly at the floor. "It's nothing, really. You don't want to know."

"I'll be the judge of that." Bakura retorted, and Ryou sighed.

"Myrtle pulled me away from the others yesterday to say that you missed me and to ask why." Ryou began, taking a deep breath. "And I wanted to ask you whether it was true or not."

"That I missed you?" Bakura asked. Ryou nodded miserably. "Why shouldn't it be true?" Ryou gave him a wide-eyed surprised look. "What I don't get is why you should care. I'm just the evil spirit who possessed you."

"No!" Ryou protested, then, modulating his tone, "No, that's not how I see you at all. You're more like an older brother." Bakura gave him a skeptical look, and Ryou continued quickly. "A rather sadistic older brother admittedly; but still, you're not that bad."

"Yeah right." Bakura muttered, but his eyes looked slightly softer than usual. "You're so naive yadonushi." He leaned over to ruffle Ryou's hair lightly.

"I know," Ryou mumbled, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Bakura returned bluntly. "It's cute." To counteract this surprising statement he turned and grabbed a set of clothes out of the drawer. Ryou turned away, sprawling out on Bakura's bed and staring at the wall absently, trying to think rationally about what Bakura had just said. Had his yami really said he was cute?

"You're so... strange, hikari. Of course I missed you. You're my light. How could I possibly not miss the other half of my soul? How's your Niffler coming anyway?"

"He's fine." Ryou said happily, cheerful now that Bakura had accepted him. "He's been creating a lot of mischief though. Turned the whole common room upside down trying to get Yami's Millennium Puzzle."

Bakura laughed. "It seems that Yami has yet another opponent trying to win his Puzzle. He always has been surrounded by them. Guess that's one thing that hasn't changed at least."

Ryou smiled back at him. "Yeah, I guess. That was funny though, watching Yami – who's normally so dignified, you know – tear around the room, trying to get away from Neffer. He ended up hiding behind me, so I could catch the little devil."

Bakura sobered. "Yes, he does that a lot doesn't he? It seems that every time I duel him you're the one who ends up making him win. He never could have won if it hadn't been for you."

"That's not fair." Ryou protested. "He didn't get any help the last two times."

"You mean in Battle City and the Role-Playing game I played with him?" Bakura asked lightly.

"Yeah." Ryou looked up warily.

"Okay, I admit that he didn't have any help in Battle City. It was his shadow powers that made sure he drew Osiris. It had to be; or hadn't you noticed that when he's playing a card game – or any other kind of game for that matter – he always gets lucky?"

"Well, yeah." Ryou admitted. "But I don't think he'd cheat."

"No, I don't think he'd do it on purpose either. But he still uses shadow powers to help himself win, consciously or unconsciously. Plus, he did have help in the Role-Playing Game. Yugi and the others helped him; first by lending him their power so he could summon another monster, and then by finding out his name. He would have lost that one on his own as well."

"Oh." Ryou couldn't think of anything else to say after that.

"Yes, oh." Bakura returned mockingly. "Now come on. It's time for breakfast." He grabbed Ryou's hand and tugged the smaller boy out of the room, before Ryou could react. As soon as he realized what was going on, however, he tightened his grip on Bakura's hand and ran faster, forcing Bakura to break into a jog to keep up with him.

"You're too slow," he said teasingly, and laughed as Bakura picked him up and set him on his shoulder, carrying him into the Great Hall. Things couldn't be better.

yaminakathy: I try to post a chapter every day, but I miss sometimes.

x-mas gurl: We got it all day, but we live up high so we didn't get any flooding or anything. Why were you getting up so early anyway?

simpleinsanity: I'm 15 today. It's cool; Mom and Dad keep teasing me about how I'm going to have to get my driver's license (I think I spelled that wrong) next year. I thought the chapter endings were fine. I think they're supposed to trail off like that. Don't blame me for them. I didn't write those two. This one's mine. I'd join your C2 thing but I'm not sure what it is. I haven't been able to get on for longer than it takes to post these and answer your reviews lately. Tell me please? -puppy eyes-