Merry Christmas, Brat

Introductionis long. Skip it you don't want the setting and the usual background history (though you might want to know some of this stuff, its a tad different from the norm). But I PROMISE you ONE chapter a day till Christmas, can I do it? I don't know, but it's a test of my will!!

-------------Introduction-----------

Ryou Bakura, was little small for his age, but compared to some he knew, he was pretty average. He had snowy white hair, but unlike an albino, he had large chocolate colored orbs for eyes. His eyes shimmered with tainted innocence, many sorrows, and a dark secret who's source came from a certain object that Ryou attached himself to. That one possession he most loved, and most loathed, was the Millennium Ring. The beautiful ornament was also known as the Sennen Ring and the Three Thousand Year Ring. Because that was exactly how old the wretched thing was.

Given to him on his birthday as a boy, the damned thing - or rather - what was sealed within it - had made his life miserable ever since. By the time he got it, he was already an only child again for the second time in his life, and motherless to top that. His father rarely had time for him. A nanny, or rather, several over the years tended to him whenever his father was away on his many expeditions. But on his fifteenth birthday, one is allowed to leave the care of their guardians and start life on their own.

Though his father paid for, at first, his rented apartment, and sent a monthly check for food, Ryou was rather poor. He lived in a house now, in a quiet neighborhood where not so many people would give him strange glances as he walked outside.

The Millennium Ring had been responsible for him having several nannies, as most of them mysteriously disappeared without incident or ran off like lunatics. The Millennium Ring was also responsible for Ryou being kicked out of the apartment by the staff. And it could very well be the reason why the pay checks never seemed to pay for quite all the food Ryou needed.

For, as if you didn't know already, the Millennium Ring contained something, or rather, someone, who never should have been released in the first... or is it... second place.

On a contrast, this someone was an opposite of the boy known as Ryou Bakura. We'll refer to this someone as Yami Bakura - Dark Bakura, for that is what Ryou's few friends called the someone. He was a purely evil spirit that came to be trapped in the Millennium Ring for some reason no one has quite figured out yet. But they just all know it would have been better if he'd stay there.

Yami Bakura, as a spirit, possessed Ryou Bakura and resided side by side with the boy's soul, tormenting him and bending him to his will. The spirit could also manifest itself like a ghost and phase through entire solid objects, even walls, on occasion. The spirit also at times seemed more like a vengeful poltergeist sort of ghost. Yami Bakura could sometimes manifest himself a physical shell, and each time he did, he somehow got stronger, instead of weaker. And this spirit had so much strength it seemed inhuman. But his heart, also, seemed in human. He barely even seemed human, such cruelty he bestowed upon those around him.

Poor Ryou Bakura, of course, was the closest to him, and obviously not by choice.

This was the second year after Yami Bakura had fully revealed himself to Ryou, the second year of Ryou's memory blacking out when he was possessed, and the end of the first year where Yami Bakura had been strong enough to manifest and abuse him. Ryou couldn't remember how it started, but everything he did seemed just to feed Bakura's anger.

And so thus is where we begin... early winter. Fifteen days till Christmas. A Christmas, like the last one, Ryou knew he wouldn't be allowed to have, nor participate in.

-------------End Introduction-----------

December 10th, Friday - 8:20 PM

Clutching his side, Ryou swallowed a mouthful of bloody bile. His chest hurt like a tightening pinch between his second and third ribs, but first and foremost, his side now had a growing blue, black, and green splotch that would stay for weeks... Nothing seemed broken, but then again, he really hadn't been hit so hard before. Bakura must have been really mad this time.

Ryou winced, still hardly remembering what he did. Sometimes he wondered if it was his fault at all... one thing always lead to another. First he forgot to wear the ring to school, then he was forced to wear it all the time, even when he slept, then he took it off after a bath, and he found out all too well bare flesh does not stand a chance against a blade of knife.

He reached the bathroom, kicked the door halfway closed behind him and sat down on his knees in front of the toilet and threw up what little food he had eaten that day. He still hurt, he ached all over, and now he just felt empty inside, and hungry again... He didn't even want to get up and take off his shirt to see what new scars he had in the mirror. It was winter... anything could be hidden with a sweater over him.....

Sick to his stomach, Ryou wobbly stood up and supported himself on the counter will his arm. The flu season this year hadn't hit Domino, and the nurse at the school gave him a free flu shot, which he had barely felt. But his immune system never was good, maybe he caught it anyway, that small dose was enough to infect his entire system.

The pinch in his ribs spasms again. He didn't know what that was... maybe it'd go away... He stood up farther and walked back into the hallway and clicked the light off. He paced down the hallway again, the same way he had a few minutes before, turned the corner, and fell to the floor and wrapped a stray blanket around him. No bed, no big comfy pile of pillows. The floor, and one thick blanket, was what Bakura told him to deal with.

Ryou curled up tightly in a ball, the blanket over his head in his corner of the bare room. Bakura had all the blankets, all the pillows, and the bed, in the room above the garage that wasn't used. He felt so foreign in the empty house. Alone.

December 11th, Early Saturday - Time Unknown

It was dark outside, and no light at all was present in the cold house. Bakura didn't know how he was aroused from his sleep but he was awake now. The house was chillingly cold, even colder than what he usually appreciated. He laid in bed on his back and stared up at the ceiling. He must have had a dream. That's the only explanation for his sudden awakening. But he hadn't had a dream in a long time, so no, that couldn't be it.

Maybe something awoke him through the mental link. He couldn't sense anything, but his hikari was near, he sensed, and still asleep. But just to be sure the brat wasn't having a nightmare or some such and his mere mental state woke Bakura up, Bakura crawled out of bed. Ryou had better be sound asleep or else he'd be having a lot more than just a little nightmare.

The cold air nipped immediately at Bakura's unprotected feet and chest. He always slept in his jeans unless they got blood on them, and all the blankets he'd collected from all of Ryou's belongings kept him warm enough that a shirt just seemed too scratchy at night. And socks.... he never did get used to socks fully so when he was sleeping he preferred to be as comfortable as possible. But the comfortable environment of the bed and the uncomfortable environment of the winter chilled house were not the same.

The chill swept over him, but it refreshed him. The hair over his shoulders kept him warm enough.

He swept down six small steps that led to the garage's roof where he slept, and into the kitchen. Bakura's nose wrinkled as he glared at the unwashed dishes in the sink. A chore for Ryou to do after he finished pulverizing him for disturbing his sleep.

Bakura leaned around the doorway, paced down the hall and leaned in onto the sight of the next room. Empty other than a box or two in the corner, he spotted Ryou immediately snuggled between them. He crossed the distance in the room quietly and stared down at Ryou's sleeping body, which moved up and down with each of his breaths.

However, much to Bakura's displeasure, Ryou was after all, sound asleep. So if Ryou didn't have a nightmare he had no idea what had woken him up. Bakura sat down on the floor cross-legged, his hair falling way over his shoulders as he slouched. He observed Ryou and his pitiful excuse for a blanket. The brat didn't seem to be at all aware of Bakura's presence, so Bakura figured not to wake him up.

And as dark as it was in the house, light from a street lamp flooded the room around Ryou making his overall curled up body seem angelic as if it were to wake up and sprout wings to fly away at any moment.

Bakura wondered what the hell he was thinking as his hand somehow involuntarily shot out stopped inches from Ryou's face, ready to slap him awake so Bakura could be satisfied and go back to bed. He stopped, not only because he realized there was no need for it... but because... a small smile had formed on Ryou's sleeping face. He seemed.... happy.

Bakura pulled back his hand, he would allow the brat to sleep in his happiness, because the morning would be hell. He stood up and walked back through the house to his room. Crawling back into bed, his thoughts somehow drifted and a flash of memory hit him. His own life in ancient Egypt had been miserable and he's made Ryou's just as miserable. Of all the things.... he couldn't understand why he continued to torment the boy.

He rolled over and closed his eyes. It wasn't like the brat would have survived what he'd been through anyway. Ryou Bakura was still to soft, and that was an insult to Bakura's conscious.

Review please, if I need to fix anything, just mention it, spell check only does so much, you know. ; And does anyone want a pairing? Doesn't even have to be B x R, could be anybody involving Bakura or Ryou. Ya. Review.