Chapter 16

"So," Bakura began the next morning as the four sat around 'their' tower. "He doesn't look too badly roughed up."

"No," Marik agreed, "I tried to take your advice and go relatively easy on him. But I don't like it. And I'm not going to keep doing it unless you come up with a really good reason." He glared at Bakura, daring him to come up with one.

"Don't have one." Bakura shrugged, "It's your choice really. He's your hikari not mine." He ran a hand over Ryou's hair as he spoke. "I don't really have any right to interfere in your treatment of him. And it goes both ways. I don't tell you and Yami what to do; you don't tell me what I should do. Simple."

"Well you don't seem to follow that very well." Marik smirked at him. "Look at what you've been doing."

"I know," Bakura replied serenely, "I should have just let you kill him right?"

"Well, yeah. Exactly. But I can't really say that I'm sorry you didn't." Marik shrugged in an unconscious repetition of Bakura's earlier gesture. "So... I guess it doesn't really matter does it?"

"Not really," Bakura told him. "It's just a case of following the spirit or the letter of the law. Sometimes you can't do both."

"And since when have you done either?" Marik asked laughingly. "After all, the profession of thief isn't exactly one bound by the law is it?"

"No," Bakura's eyes glowed with suppressed merriment. "Does it matter?"

Marik couldn't contain his laughter at that. Even the hikaris joined in. The joking way the two Egyptians sparred seemed to inspire a lot of laughter and a loosening of their normally strict behavioral rules.

Ryou wasn't the only one glad of the change. Malik felt it even more than the other hikari. If Ryou was used to strict rules; Malik was used to senseless violence. The worst of it had stopped after Bakura's put down and lecture about how killing your hikari was not really a good idea but it looked as though it was going to start again. Bakura didn't seem to realize the extent of his influence on Marik but Malik both knew and appreciated it.

If it weren't for Bakura he probably would be dead, as Marik never stopped hurting him for anything – except the other yami. He didn't really understand why Bakura cared about whether he lived or died or how hurt he was but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that he did and his intervention had saved Malik numerous times. A casual word from Bakura and Malik would be left alone for days at a time.

And Bakura didn't even notice. That in itself was amazing. It was only too obvious to Malik, especially on the rare occasions that Bakura would get angry at him. Then not only did Marik turn him over to Bakura for punishment he got it from his own yami afterwards. Sometimes he was glad Bakura didn't know what he could do. If he did he'd probably use that power, and not for Malik's benefit.

Life was good though. Marik hadn't been beating him for a while so even if he did start again it wouldn't hurt as much, as Malik wouldn't have to deal with more than one set of wounds at a time. He had been getting fed, and it seemed as though that would continue as his getting fed appeared to be part of the deal with Marik and Bakura sitting together. And finally, he had actually been allowed to talk with Ryou.

As he'd said life was good. He'd seen that Yami and Hermione were together too. That was good for them. Now all he needed was for Yugi to get together with Anzu and Bakura to realize that Marik liked him. If that happened then he'd probably get left alone most of the time. Marik would be too busy with Bakura to bother with him.

That was his definition of paradise. A pretty poor picture of paradise some would call it, but he knew better. Isis was safe and Rishid... Rishid was dead and beyond any questions of safety. That meant that he was the only one he had to worry about and a life without pain, or with a minimum of pain seemed like heaven to him. That was why he was so grateful to Bakura. Because of him Malik had been living his dream and it had been even better than he had thought.

Ryou didn't pay attention to the duel between Yami and Ron. He already knew who was going to win anyway and the position Bakura had him in was not one that encouraged paying attention to anything other than keeping his pose. It was a copy off of one of the many Greek statues they had been looking at in History of Magic.

The statue had been of a couple in the middle of... well... coupling. Bakura had looked at it and immediately thought about what it would look like if the girl had been taken away. So now Ryou was desperately trying to hold himself up so his body would have been at a 30 degree angle from the floor if it weren't for the fact that he was arched backwards as well. His hands were in the air, as if caressing someone, which was exactly what the statue had been doing, and his mouth was only slightly open. He was sweating and panting heavily trying to get enough air.

Bakura could be very sadistic sometimes. Ryou had really been looking forward to watching the duel as he hadn't seen anyone playing Duel Monsters since the disastrous incident in Battle City and now look at him. Obviously he shouldn't have thought that he would be allowed to do anything he really wanted to. He should have known that Bakura would ruin it.

Still, he had to look on the bright side or he'd always be wallowing in misery. Bakura had said that if he managed to pull this off and didn't disturb him during the duel then he would be allowed a treat. Ryou wasn't sure exactly what his yami had meant by that but anything that Bakura considered a treat had to be good right?

Ryou quickly damped his thoughts down again, not wanting to annoy Bakura by broadcasting them to him. Not now, when he had the opportunity to have something good happen. Not now that Bakura was being nice to him.

He had to do this right. So all he could think about was keeping his thoughts down and staying where he was. If he got this right then everything would be okay. He just had to do this one thing... he hoped.

The door opened and Ryou nearly fell down. Had he done something wrong? Was that why Bakura had come in? Please let it not be that. He had to have gotten it right. He'd been trying so hard. His eyes misted.

"Down hikari," Bakura's voice was, as always, cold, but he spoke as he would to the cat he'd rescued from drowning. That cat was the only living thing he'd ever shown kindness to. Ryou relaxed as he dropped to his knees on the floor of his soul room. If Bakura was talking to him like that then he must have been okay. He'd done it right this time.

"Have fun," Bakura said casually, tossing a handful of sweets at Ryou before following the other two down the stairs. They were leaving the hikaris at the top of the tower for the day so that they could talk with each other. This, it turned out, was what Bakura had meant by giving Ryou a treat. He'd somehow managed to convince the others to play along and leave the three up there together. It was going to be wonderful!

"Are you okay Malik?" Ryou asked worriedly, "I know Marik's been hurting you again..."

"I'm fine," Malik replied stoically. "It's you I'm worried about. How's Bakura been treating you? He seems less... angry lately but, are you okay?"

"Fine," Ryou agreed, smiling. "It was Bakura who got them to let us all stay here. He's been... nicer recently."

"Um... I know this is going to sound weird, but... why did he decide to let us all do this? Isn't he the one who's always wanting to know what's going on with everyone else?" Yugi put in timidly.

"It doesn't sound weird." Marik looked over at Ryou, "I was going to ask the same thing."

"Uh," Ryou stared at them flustered, "It's no big deal really."

"Okay that just makes me want to know more." Marik's look turned serious. "You wouldn't be so nervous if it was nothing."

"Yes," Yugi agreed softly, "We can't help being worried about you."

"Why?" Ryou stared at him. "I don't get hurt unless I disobey. Really." He added, seeing the other two stare at him in disbelief. "And he just arranged this because the last thing he wanted me to do was really hard."

"All right," Yugi agreed, "But what was it? Why would he ask you to do something hard instead of doing it himself? He's so much stronger than you, or any of us, that I don't see why he wouldn't just do whatever it was himself."

"It's not really important, just something he has me do sometimes. He likes asserting his control over me I think." Ryou stared at the ground. "He just tells me to stand a certain way and not to move until he says I can. That's all. As I said, it's no big deal; it just gets hard holding one position for hours."

"Sounds awful," Yugi said sympathetically, "I know I couldn't do that."

"Not really," Ryou replied quickly, "And it's a small price to pay for not getting hurt. If it means that I don't have to go through what Malik does," He looked over at his Egyptian friend, "You know what I mean don't you?"

"Yes," Malik agreed, "And he's right. If it means not getting hurt a little effort now and then isn't a big deal. Let's talk about something else anyways. Have you heard anything from your girlfriend?"

"Malik!" Yugi yelled, going bright red. "Anzu's not my girlfriend!"

"Then how did you know who I was talking about?" Malik replied teasingly. "If she isn't your girlfriend I'll... I don't know. I was going to say eat the rod but Marik would kill me if I did. I know! If you don't like her I'll jump Bakura." He smirked triumphantly at Yugi.

"Um, Malik," Yugi said hesitantly, "Wouldn't he get, angry, if you did that?"

"I don't think he'd care really," Ryou contributed, "He'd probably just find it amusing. The worst reaction you'd be likely to get from him is a slap if he thought you meant it."

"See," Marik said triumphantly, "It would be fine. He's not the type to get mad because of something like that. He'd only get mad if you look at him wrong." He added cheerfully. "Not because you glomped him."

"Yeah..." Yugi agreed, "Not like Marik."