Disclaimer – If I ever own them, every fangirl/guy out there will probably end up loving me or wanting to strangle me. But since I'm still a little no-name fanfiction writer, obviously I don't own them yet.
Author's Notes – My sincerest apologies for the lateness of this chapter/day. Unfortunately, when it comes to weekends my time on the computer is somewhat limited (husband) and I was unable to work on it. I will work on catching up today and tomorrow. Until then, however, here is day six . . . and more Bakura torture : ) ducks a blow from the Tomb Robber Yes, as you can tell, he's not happy with me. Good thing I'm just as sadistic as he is.
On with the story . . . and don't forget to leave me a review!
Chapter 6 - On the sixth day of Christmas – Six Plotting Friends
Another sleepless night of thinking and feeling later, Yami lay on his bed, staring out the window at the lightening sky. One hand absently caressed the mark Bakura had left on his neck, rubbing at it gently and wishing it was something more than just a testament to how out of control they had both been last evening.
Sighing, he rolled onto his side, fighting desperately to get his mind and body to relax and let him sleep. Somewhere in the house, Yugi was starting his day . . . but all he wanted to do right now was hide and forget the mess his heart had landed him in.
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Across town, Bakura was suffering from much the same problem. Music wasn't helping, and neither was drinking, although he'd gone through two more bottles of vodka and a bottle of tequila while he was at it.
All his thoughts centered on Yami, and what had almost happened between them the day before. He kept seeing that form beneath him, feeling that body pressed against his, and it was tormenting him more than he wanted to admit. Not simply physically, but mentally as well.
Then there was the strange pain in his chest where his heart would have been. The source of that pain, he suspected, was the fact that Yami had left before they could finish what they started. He'd wanted Yami . . . and not just physically, but emotionally as well. He could admit it now, even if it was only in the silence of his own mind. He was falling in love with the Pharaoh . . . if he hadn't already done so.
Groaning, he rolled onto his stomach, burying his head under his pillow. He had fallen in love with Yami, a man who he'd hated for nearly his entire existence. How had it developed to this?! What the hell was wrong with him?
For that matter, why was he even worrying about it? It wasn't like Yami was going to fall in love with him . . . hell, after everything he'd done to the Pharaoh, he was still surprised the man allowed him to live! There was movement upstairs, and Bakura hoped rather desperately that his young hikari would not come down to check on him. The last thing he need was to see Ryou right now . . . especially not after the spectacle he'd made of himself the night before.
He'd been desperate to find Yami, almost to the point of murdering the first person who got in his way. But he'd tracked the Pharaoh as far as Kaiba Land before losing him . . . and instead running straight into the hikari's. He was sure the boy's had covered for the Pharaoh, but he couldn't prove it, so he had returned home.
He loved Yami, and wanted to claim him so badly it hurt. But how was he supposed to go about doing that? There was the entire crux of his problem . . . and he couldn't think of a way to solve it.
Sometimes he really hated his reputation as a heartless bastard.
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While the two former spirit's were coming to grips with their problems, six friends were gathering around a worn table in the Domino Coffee Shop.
Yugi looked around the table and smiled slightly at his friends. Duke, Tristan, Joey, Ryou, Tea . . . they were all here. Between the six of them, they had to be able to come up with ideas for getting the two yami's together. He was a little worried about Tea being here, but she was still a friend, and she had the right to know.
"Guys . . . Ryou and I need your help," he started. "You see . . . our yami's are in love and . . ."
"Yami's in love?" Tea asked, interrupting him. "With who?" He sighed, shaking his head before nodding to Ryou.
"Our yami's are in love with each other, Tea," the small Brit said quietly. "At least, we think they are. We know Yami is in love with Bakura . . . but of course my dark is being somewhat stubborn."
"Whoa . . . wait a minute," Tristan said, leaning forward on his elbows, dark eyes serious. "You mean to tell us that the Pharaoh and the Tomb Robber are . . . in love? With each other?" He glanced at Joey, who amber eyes were confused, and shook his head. "No way man . . . they've hated each other for five thousand years."
Yugi sighed, shifting slightly in his seat before launching into details about the happenings between the two former spirits over the last five days. Ryou interrupted every now and then with his own comments, and things he'd seen Bakura doing that were out of character for the former thief, and together they lay the entire puzzle before their friends. When they were finished, Joey whistled slightly, leaning back and running a hand through his perpetually disheveled blonde hair.
"Wow," he murmured. "Who woulda' thought?" He chuckled slightly, shaking his head in amusement before continuing. "I take it, by your telling us this that you're looking for some kind of help." Yugi nodded.
"We don't know what to do," he said. "I mean, Yami's told us that he loves Bakura, but you know the thief! He won't ever own up to something like that . . . not unless we nudge him in the right direction. But that's not something either Ryou or I can do. That's why we need you guys . . . we're at our wits end here."
Surprisingly, it was Tea who came up with the first idea.
"Ryou, have you spoken to Bakura at all about this?" Ryou shook his head, white hair brushing against his cheeks gently with the movement.
"I can't . . . you guys know how he is." Tea nodded.
"Okay . . . so we have to force him to admit it. That's easy. Knowing Bakura, he'll get jealous easily . . . so we give him something to be jealous about. If Yami's willing, one of us should 'pretend' to start dating him . . . or at least that we're becoming interested in doing so. He won't be able to stand that." She flipped her brown hair back behind her ear, blue eyes staring down at the table thoughtfully, drawing invisible designs on the surface with her fingertip. "It can't be me . . . if Yami's interested in Bakura, than someone female is definitely out. My suggestion would be Joey."
The blonde stared at her in shock, amber eyes wide before narrowing thoughtfully. It made sense . . . in a twisted kind of way. He and Yami were close friends . . . not as close as he and Yugi were, but close enough for it to be plausible. Question was, how did he feel about it? He'd never been interested in other guys . . . although he had to admit, if he ever was, Yami would be at the top of the list. He nodded slowly, chewing on his thumb nail absently for a moment before replying.
"It could work . . ." he murmured. "Bakura does strike me as the type that is possessive . . . if he really does have any feelings at all for Yami, he'll move to lay his claim if he thinks someone might take him out from under him. My worry is what he'll do to the person who's moving in on his territory."
Tristan chuckled slightly.
"I suppose I can play bodyguard," he said, smiling as he leaned back in his chair. "Bakura and I have come against each other before . . . he's smart, and fast, but I can outmaneuver him if I have to." He sobered after a moment. "If you guys are really sure this is the way to go, I'm in. Yami's my bud . . . if it'll help him get something he wants, than I'm there for him."
Yugi exchanged a glance with Ryou, considering the plan carefully. It could work . . . if Bakura didn't do something completely unexpected, as he was wont to do. The thief wrecked the best laid plans with an ease that would have been astonishing if it wasn't so damn frustrating. And what if Yami wouldn't go for it?
Yami? he called. He sensed the Pharaoh's attention turn towards him, and smiled slightly. Could you come to the Coffee Shop? We have something we want to discuss with you.
Of course, aibou, Yami replied. Just a moment. Yugi sat back and waited, holding the Puzzle between his hands. Yami hadn't done this in a while . . . since he'd gained his own body, he'd been wary of going back into spirit mode for anything, but he still could if it was necessary.
A quiet golden flash lit up their corner of the shop. When it faded, the Pharaoh stood beside the table. Shaking himself slightly, he settled into an empty chair, crimson eyes glancing around at the gathered friends curiously.
"What's going on?" he asked. "Something I missed?" Ryou smiled as Yugi cuddled into his taller counterpart, who drew the boy into his side lovingly and rested his chin for a moment on his aibou's head.
"You could say that," Tristan murmured. "You're about to have a suitor . . . Joey, to be exact." The crimson eyes widened as Yami sat up straight, a slightly shocked and wary expression on his features before he glanced to Yugi and Ryou. The shock faded quickly as his ever working mind put the pieces together.
"Intending on making Bakura jealous?" he asked. When everyone nodded, he frowned slightly, his eyebrows drawing down as he stared at the table in thought. His first thought was to say that it was too dangerous . . . if Bakura got jealous, there was no telling what he would do, and that could put Joey in danger. Then there was the fact that the thief was not stupid. After yesterday, Bakura had to know that he harbored feelings for him. There was the chance that he would be doing this for nothing. Still, some small part of him knew that he had to do something . . . even it was as farfetched as pretending to hook up with Joey.
He glanced at the amber eyed blonde in consideration, seeing only the willingness his tall friend had for helping him. If Joey was willing to do it . . . he had nothing to lose by going along with the plan. He'd already lost his heart. What greater pain could there be?
"Alright," he murmured, and smiled at the collective sigh of relief that passed around the table. "If you all are sure you want to participate in this . . ."
I don't like to see you suffering, my dark, Yugi murmured through their link, cuddling back into his side. If there's anything we can do to help, we'll do it . . . we're your friends, Yami. Yami tucked an arm around his diminutive light, listening with the other half of his soul as their friends began to sketch out the details of the campaign to make a five thousand year old, overly stubborn and obtuse thief jealous.
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Bakura groaned, cracking his eyes open as he heard the front door open and what sounded like a herd of elephants entered the house.
"The groupies," he muttered, grumbling under his breath. "Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful." He wondered though . . . Ryou usually avoided bringing anyone over to the house, mainly for fear of what he would do to them. So what was he doing? He had to be up to something . . .
The door in the kitchen that led to his quarters opened.
"'Kura?" Ryou called down. "We're going to set up the Christmas tree . . . if you wanted to join in." The boy didn't sound hopeful . . . more like it was a token offer than anything. That was good. If Ryou had seriously thought he would join in on that nonsense, there would have been trouble.
A shiver crept over him, and he bolted upright, red-brown eyes widening as he identified the sensation. Yami was upstairs. The Pharaoh was in the house . . . so very near it was almost painful suddenly. He hadn't thought that Yami would get involved with this Christian holiday nonsense. This close to his rather disturbing revelation of caring for his former enemy, it was disconcerting to find himself suddenly in the same house.
Now what the fuck was he supposed to do? He wanted to continue to hide out down here . . . but he also wanted answers to the stalled events of the previous day. But he certainly didn't want to confront Yami in front of the amalgamation of teenage hormones upstairs at the moment. Perhaps he could go up there, be his usual self, and somehow get the Pharaoh alone for a few moments.
That thought stuck, and he finally levered himself off of the bed and stalked up the stairs to the kitchen. The main amount of noise was coming from the living room . . . from the sounds of it, the entire group was there, and had already begun digging into the box of glittering crap Ryou called ornaments.
"They must have brought a tree with them," he muttered, smelling the scent of pine in the air. Of course, that particular scent brought back the memory of being stuck up in a tree, and he growled under his breath before turning the corner into the living room.
He froze in the doorway, red-brown eyes widening in disbelief. The living room was a mass of moving bodies and glittering ornaments, mostly clustered around the tree in front of the bay window that looked onto the street outside. His eyes, however, only flickered over the others, coming to rest solely on the black jean and white t-shirt clad form of the man he was obsessing over lately.
His heart thudded in his chest painfully, and his breath suddenly wasn't anywhere near easy to suck into his lungs. It was like taking a hammer to his chest and his mind couldn't help but remember exactly what Yami looked like underneath that shirt. He couldn't help wishing that he knew what was under those pants as well, and inexplicably he blushed.
Unfortunately, before the blush went away, his hikari saw him.
"Oh . . . hello yami," he murmured, drawing everyone's attention to him. Quickly replacing the dumbstruck expression with his typical sneer, he stalked into the room, picking up an ornament and glaring at it before snorting disdainfully and casting the glittering thing aside. "I didn't think you would be joining us."
"You were making so much noise I couldn't hear myself think," he snarled, flopping into the only clear chair left in the room. "If I have to listen to you, I might as well see what stupidity you're up to." Eyes rolled all around the room, and he glared at them all in turn before turning his eyes back to the tree . . . and the Pharaoh who was standing near it. Was it simply his mind, or did Yami suddenly seem much more tense? Understandable, he supposed, considering what had gone on between them the last time they had seen each other.
However, that thought quickly disappeared beneath a red haze when Joey stepped up to the lithe figure, wrapping an arm around the slim waist and pulling Yami into the tall, lean body.
"Hey love . . . I found this over in Ryou's miscellaneous box," the blonde murmured. He was holding an Egyptian ankh ornament up for the Pharaoh's inspection. "Perhaps we should ask if we can borrow it for the tree over at the Game Shop." Yami nodded, and after a moment, snuggled closer into the blonde's chest, crimson eyes closing.
Knuckles whitening as his hands clenched on the arms of the chair, fingers nearly digging holes into the upholstery, Bakura barely managed to keep himself from standing up and going to tear the Pharaoh away from the amber-eyed blonde. What right did that mutt have to be touching HIS Pharaoh? Especially so intimately!
Joey buried his face in the spiky tri-colored locks, fighting to hide the smile that crossed his face when he saw Bakura's reaction to him holding Yami. Oh yeah . . . the thief definitely had it bad for the Pharaoh. Actually, now that he was holding the slim figure himself, he found himself wondering what Yami would be like as something other than a friend, but he quickly shoved that thought out of his head. While he did hover on the fence between being straight and gay, he'd never really been interested in another guy. Besides which, this wasn't about him and Yami . . . this was about getting Bakura to admit something that he wouldn't do otherwise. Hopefully, he would survive this little act. If he judged the look he was getting right, he would have said that the thief was currently plotting a very messy and painful death for him.
Yami, at the moment, was far from comfortable. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine that it was Bakura that was holding him in an effort to relax. This wouldn't work if he didn't look completely at east with Joey touching him like this . . . and the Tomb Robber was not stupid, no matter how much that came into doubt at times. He still wasn't sure if this was the right way to go about this . . . what if it had the opposite effect? What if Bakura saw that he was already claimed and simply backed off?
Growling under his breath, Bakura shoved himself out of the chair and stalked back down to his room, slamming the door as he went. Yami opened his eyes and pulled away from Joey at the loud noise, looking at Ryou in worry at the thief's obvious retreat.
"Well," Ryou murmured, shrugging and smiling slightly as he met the concerned crimson gaze. "I would say that went rather well."
Yami could only hope that the white haired hikari knew what he was talking about.