Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

The book Ryou and Honda discuss is a real one, by Katherine M. Ramsland. It was helpful to this story, even if the section on biology made my head go 'boom' and the part on masochism was too funny for words.
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#18: The Moon

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When Ryou's parents had asked him to move out, he'd agreed on the condition that they let him leave town and transfer schools. He found a decent student apartment in the Domino High district, which they paid for, and the last time he saw them both was when they helped him move.

(His parents had left their hometown as well; even after their son moved out, the families of some of the teenagers that had fallen into comas after playing with Ryou were still harassing them.)

Ryou occasionally saw his father when the man came to the city to check on his art museum, but Bakura Keita was more of a silent partner in the museum's ownership than an active one, and the occasions were rare.

But they still spoke on the phone sometimes; and his parents usually sent him birthday and Christmas gifts, though they rarely arrived on the correct dates. His Christmas gift this year was a black trench coat, which Ryou had viewed dubiously. But it fit him better than his old winter coat, so he'd traded the two out and called to say thank you.

Ryou's apartment was a one bedroom, one bathroom place. The kitchen was on the smallish side, but the living room was relatively large, which is why Ryou had picked it. He had packed up all the components of his Monster World game and set the game up in the bedroom; and he'd taken a fold-out couch from his old home and set it in the living room, where he slept. The only other furniture in there was a chair, a bookshelf, a potted plant, and a small television on a stand, all of them pushed against the walls to leave as much space in the middle as possible.

The television was a parting gift from his mother. Ryou watched it much more often than he'd used to, now that he never had to cook.

He'd originally kept his clothing in the bedroom closet, but after playing his final Monster World game with Yuugi, Ryou had transferred everything into the hall closet, and moved the few things in the hall closet to the bedroom one. It was inconvenient when he needed to hang up his coat -- when winter officially arrived Ryou just draped the coat over the side of the armchair -- but since he rarely had visitors it wasn't embarrassing, and it allowed him to see the Monster World table as little as possible.

At first, Ryou hadn't thrown the game out because he believed that the other Yuugi had defeated Bakura, and he thought that eventually he would be able to play the game again without worrying that someone was going to die. Later, when he realized that Bakura was still alive and that he would never play it without being haunted by memories and ghosts in the figurines, he still couldn't bring himself to throw it out.

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It was still snowing on and off several days later when Honda showed up at his apartment.

It was a Sunday, and Sundays were the only days that Ryou didn't make his bed back into the couch in the morning. He had been lying on top of the quilt and taking a break from studying for finals by playing a game on his laptop when he was forced to answer the doorbell. He'd already known that it was Honda -- Ryou had opened the blinds to see the snow, and the brunet had to walk past the window to reach the door -- but he didn't answer until Honda knocked.

Ryou wondered why Honda never rang the doorbell, let the other teenager in, and went back to his game.

As he walked into the living room, Honda glanced down at the piles of books around Ryou's bookcase. He picked up one of the ones on the top.

"The Science of Vampires?" Honda said, raising an eyebrow.

Ryou ignored his tone. "I was trying to find information. That one was pretty useless. It's an American book, so it has all these references to Western stories and things that I've never heard of." He paused the game briefly before looking over at Honda. "The section on forensics was useful, though. And the one on making vampires might be useful, but I can't understand most of it. I don't like science, and it keeps talking about chromosomes and DNA and . . . viruses, and genetic stuff."

"Huh." Honda shrugged out of his coat and hung it over the other side of the armchair, before sitting down and flipping the book open.

They remained silent for a while; Ryou assumed that Honda had found the chapter he'd been talking about when the brunet muttered about needing a biology textbook.

Honda skimmed through the pages until he was near to the back. Then he raised both eyebrows and read the chapter title out loud. "'Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Vampire Sex But Were Afraid to Ask.'"

"That's also mostly references to Western novels," Ryou said, focused on the computer screen. "That, and the sadomasochism scene."

Honda looked over at him. "The what?"

"S and M," Ryou said, a little slower. Honda didn't reply to that, and Ryou glanced over at him briefly. ". . . You do know what sadism and masochism are, right?"

Honda pulled the book up slightly and set his features in a glare. "That bondage crap. Yeah."

"Bondage is a part of it, yes," Ryou mumbled, suddenly typing frantically on the keyboard. There were faint, tinny fighting noises from the laptop's speakers.

Honda swore uncomfortably under his breath. "You are into the freakiest shit."

"I'm not into S and M," Ryou replied absently. "Not really. . . . I knew a girl who was."

Honda snorted. "That must have been an awkward one-night stand."

"Kirie wasn't a one-night stand. She . . . was my girlfriend."

Honda looked up, but quickly covered his surprise. "Wow. I wouldn't have thought you could have a girlfriend. Didn't you get bored?"

Ryou didn't reply. A minute later, the laptop jingled, signaling that he had finished the fight.

"She was the first person I met who wanted to date, not just sleep with me," Ryou said quietly. "So we dated."

Honda flipped another page in the book. "So why'd you break up, then? You talk about her in the past tense."

"I met her at a game store. We had that in common. So eventually she played Monster World with me." He paused, and then added: "That's why I have to wear gloves. By the time she went into the coma, so had several others, and the police were getting really suspicious of me."

". . . ." Honda shifted in the armchair. After a few seconds, he gave up trying to find a reply to that and flipped back through the book again.

Ryou focused on the screen and didn't look at him

". . . Do you know you always say 'people' and 'person'?" Honda asked after nearly six minutes had passed.

"Yes," Ryou said shortly. "What of it?"

Honda snorted under his breath. "If you ask me, bisexuality's just a way of not being able to admit you're gay." He said that under his breath as well, but both he and Ryou had excellent hearing by now.

"Fuck you," Ryou said evenly, making Honda start. "You only kill women, so don't talk to me like I'm the only one who's screwed up."

Honda stared at him. "You . . . what the hell does that have to do with anything?" he demanded.

"The woman who killed you, did she look more like Shizuka-chan or Miho-chan?" Ryou asked. "I assume that's how she got your pants off."

Honda's hands tightened around the book's cover. "Shut the fuck up. Now."

Ryou fell silent, and he leaned up on his elbows and began typing fast again as he joined another battle. A quarter of a minute passed before he spoke again, this time with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"How did you make her hate you so much, anyway? Did you haggle over the price?"

Honda slammed the book shut and shoved himself onto his feet. "You fucking little shit, I'll--"

He didn't finish, because the other teenager turned to look at him, and his eyes were clearly red. Honda cut himself off, and Bakura gazed at him impassively.

"I may owe you, Honda," he drawled, "but I won't tolerate threats to my landlord."

Honda forced himself not to step back. ". . . Owe me?"

"Yes," Bakura said. "You're the one who made me immortal, after all. This gives me a great advantage over Yuugi, I assure you."

Bakura watched with amusement as Honda clenched his hands into fists, but he didn't let it show on his face. Instead, he tilted his head slightly to the left. "Plus, my landlord has changed considerably since his death -- if you hadn't noticed. I like this cold version of Bakura Ryou much better."

Honda's hands slowly uncurled, and his eyes widened a fraction as he stared at him. The corner of Bakura's curved up into a harsh smirk.

There was a 'splort' from the laptop, and Bakura looked back at it.

He blinked, and then Ryou frowned. "I didn't have that saved."

If there was a reply to his complaint, Honda couldn't hear it.

Honda watched Ryou for a little longer, but the other teenager was ignoring his presence. Finally, carefully, Honda picked up his coat. He left without slamming the door, and didn't put on the coat until he was outside.

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Ryou had opened the game at the point he'd last saved it, and was replaying his pervious moves when Honda left. Bakura was chuckling.

(You need to learn when you're pushing too far, landlord,) he finally said, once he'd gotten control over his laughter.

You never have, Ryou replied.

He started in surprise when Bakura manifested on the bed next to him, lying in the same position as the teenager was. Ryou tilted his head, letting his hair fall over his shoulder so that he could no longer see Bakura out of the corner of his eye.

(And since when have you wanted to act like me?) Bakura asked, once again amused.

Ryou bit his lip. I. . . . "I didn't mean it . . . like. . . ."

Bakura tsked. Then he reached out and touched Ryou's chin. His hand was intangible and went straight through the skin, and that sensation was enough to force Ryou to turn his head and look at him. "You should learn to lie in your mind, instead of resorting to speech. It only gives you away."

Ryou focused his gaze on the corner of the bed and the wall, and didn't reply.

Bakura propped his chin on a fist. "Tell me, landlord: wasn't that fun?"

Ryou closed his eyes. ". . . yes," he said quietly.

Bakura smirked. Ryou didn't need to look to know that he was doing it.

He jerked his head back in the opposite direction and shut the laptop, not caring that his game was cut off once more without being saved. Ryou curled up on his side, facing away from Bakura.

Leave me alone, the teenager said. I'm tired, and I don't want to talk to you.

(A half-truth this time,) Bakura commented. (That's an improvement.)

When Ryou gave no reply, he let out a dramatic, long-suffering sigh. (Very well, landlord. I can wait for you to come to terms with yourself. After all, we have eternity now, don't we?)

Ryou bit his lip, and curled up a little more.

Bakura was not made of flesh and blood, not any longer, so physics had no hold on him. There was no creak or shift in the mattress when he left the bed. If he had left it. Ryou wouldn't turn around to check.

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Eventually he sat up and moved off the bed in order to resume studying, but Ryou was careful not to look behind him as he did.