The Purpose of a Heart
Chapter Nine:

"You wanted something?" Bakura forced his voice to remain level as he leaned back in the chair before the higher-up's desk. Any number of things could be the reason for this meeting. Perhaps the boss had noticed the printer, maybe Blair had told him he'd caught him in the basement, maybe he'd been caught on camera in the basement the second time, maybe Louis hadn't been on level after all and had blabbed to the boss about his plans…

"Yes, I just wanted to let you know that I ordered those Tonfa Blasters for you. You've been a good worker, you only fought back with me once, and I think you deserve them. You're welcome to set up a target out back, for whenever you'd like to use them."

"That's it?" Bakura asked before he could stop himself.

"Huh?"

"That's it…like, that's all there is to it? They're on their way?" He quickly mended his comment.

"Yep."

"Hey, that's great." Bakura got to his feet. "I can't wait."

"Well, you have been a good worker. Unlike some people. Someone came into my office the other day and stole the tape out of my camera. I think they might have been snooping."

"Really?" Bakura felt his chest grow rather cold. "What do you think they were after?"

"I don't know, but it's disconcerting to know that someone would search my office without my permission." He folded his hands across his desk and looked around. "It's always alarming when someone finds his private sanctuary to have been rifled, you know?"

"Ne…yes, yes, that's pretty bad." Bakura nodded fervently. "Terrible. I hope you catch whoever it was."

"As do I. And on top of it all, I have to order some more printer paper." He waved an order form. "Somehow, all the paper I had was used up."

"Weird." Bakura said.

"Say, do you have any idea who might have been in here? You're on this floor after all. For some reason, the cameras outside my room were tampered with too, the dates are all messed up, so I don't know what date the videos were taken on, and I can't tell who came in here when."

Bakura very much hoped he hadn't gotten a tan at any time recently, because he had a feeling his face was becoming pale. The cameras outside, he'd forgotten about those. But now to his great luck, someone had scrambled the dates. Who? He pushed the thoughts aside and concentrated on the matter at hand. "I wouldn't even know where to start." Then he got an idea and added smoothly, "But if I had to guess? I'd say Blair."

"Blair?"

"Yeah, you know, I hear things around here."

"Do you really?"

"Yeah." Bakura nodded and lowered his voice. "I heard he's getting mad about, you know, being your right-hand man. He wants to take over the whole thing so that people will treat him with the respect he thinks he should have."

"Does he now?"

"Yeah, the rumour is that he thinks you're holding back information from him about your business…I don't know what it is, obviously, but other people that do know, I'd heard them talking. At least, I'm pretty sure they used Blair's name." He paused thoughtfully for realistic appearances.

"Hmmn, I'll have to ask Blair about it." The boss replied, scribbling something on a piece of notepaper. "Thank you, Bakura."

"You're welcome." Bakura turned and strode toward the door, and was nearly out it when the boss called,

"Bakura, if I could ask another favor…"

Bakura froze and whirled around. "Yes?"

The boss produced a handful of envelopes. "Could you deliver these to some houses for me? It would be best if they didn't go through regular post."

Bakura snatched the envelopes and nodded. "Sure, sure, I'll do that."

"Can you drive? You can take the small white car."

"Sure I can drive." He grabbed the keys and left before the boss could find any other reason to keep him behind.

In the hall he met Louis, who asked what the boss had wanted. Bakura waved the envelopes and told him it was nothing important. He repeated that someone had been in the boss's office, and mentioned the scrambled camera dates.

"Probably pretty handy for whoever was in there." He said quietly.

Louis smiled and slowly closed one eye in a wink. Bakura stared back and finally glanced up at the cameras and back toward Louis, who gave a slight smile and replied, "Well, if it was Blair, I sure hope the boss punishes that guy like hell."

He waved once and walked off. Bakura kept on down the hall, thinking, I wonder if this means I owe him one now...?

About an hour later, Bakura stopped the car beside a mailbox and stuck the envelope inside, rolling the tinted window back up and driving off. This delivery job offered him a lot of time to think in peace. The boss, asking me all that stuff…what if he already knows it was me in there?

He signaled for a right turn and cruised down a quiet side road. And then there's Lou…he thinks fast, scrambling those dates for me like that…but how'd he do it? He must have gotten access to the camera controls, but how? I never thought I'd find him covering for a mistake I made.

He patted the side of his jeans where he'd stored the papers he'd printed out, the important ones. He never went anywhere without them now, and had sewn a pocket for them inside his jeans so that he could always keep them nearby. That way, in case his room was searched again, at least the evidence would be hidden well.

I wish I could figure out what these plans are for. A building? A car? Boat maybe? Some type of machinery? I can't tell. If I could just get access to the Internet, I might be able to look them up and translate the English. But where am I going to find a safe computer to use?

He pulled up to a long road and got out with a sigh. Great, more walking. He was tired after the stressful day so far and didn't feel like walking. Still…it was the last envelope. Then he could go back to his room and sleep for the rest of the day. Finally.

He'd just closed the door of the mailbox when he heard someone shouting his name from behind him.

"Bakura!"

Oh no…

He spun around to see the one person, the only person, whose voice he had memorized. They were running toward him, waving. Bakura's first instinct was to make a dash for the car, but his legs locked up as they approached.

Yami…

Louis was relaxing in his room, watching TV, thinking to himself about stuff. Mainly about his partner that he was get-away driver for.

Bakura's an okay guy, I think. He thought, flipping through the channels. He talks about how he's a bad friend and how he's killed people, but deep down, I think he's on the level. And he's always so worried about Yami. It's like that's all that he cares about. That's pretty amazing, he has no fears for himself. I wish I could be fearless like that! If anyone ever gets out of this place alive, I bet Bakura would be the person to do it.

He sat up and put down the remote thoughtfully.

And he said he'd get me out too if he found a way. That's pretty damn generous of him considering I haven't done anything worth much. I haven't helped him at all, and he put his trust in me to help him save Yami and all those people he says are in danger! And I haven't been any help. Sure, I scrambled those dates on the cameras, but that wasn't much. I should do something more.

He considered what Bakura had said about the basement. Maybe down there, he would be able to find some more information that would help. It was certainly worth a try. Bakura had mentioned some things written in English. Louis knew a good deal of English because of his journalism major, and considered that maybe he could translate it. A part of his mind nagged that Bakura had warned him against going down there, but he ignored it.

He slunk down the hall and located the staircase on the first floor. Glancing around, he turned the knob in the door and found it unlocked. Inside, it looked as though someone had just been in there. Papers, scattered around the table, and the brightly-lit computer screens tempted him. He wasn't sure where to start looking. The large-busted woman on one screen attracted his college-boy attention and he decided that was a good place to start. After about a half-hour, he straightened up in excitement. That was it! So that was what the people in the building were hiding.

"Man, Bakura's going to freak out when he sees that I found this stuff out for him." He said to himself gleefully. "He's going to be so happy! And I actually helped…boy, soon we'll be out of here and he can go back to Yami and I can go home…"

He didn't notice when someone else opened the door behind him.

"Bakura! Where have you been?" Yami slowed to a walk and finally stopped a few feet in front of him. "Have you seen the posters? You've been missing for so long, we got worried. I knew I saw you the other night. Why were you standing outside my window? I came outside to look for you, but you'd left."

Bakura just stared blankly ahead, mind racing. This isn't happening, Yami didn't just catch me out here, in a few moments I'll wake up and this is another dream…

"Bakura?" Yami was bewildered by the lack of response. "Are you okay?"

Bakura shook his head, realizing now that it wasn't a dream after all, and worried about the Uzi, which was laying in the backseat of the car. If Yami got one look at it, if he put two and two together and figured out that Bakura was the mysterious shooter around Domino…

"Is something wrong? Are you in some type of trouble?" Yami finally asked. "Look, if you're in trouble, I can try to help…"

Help. Bakura's mind finally clicked into gear. So fast, in fact, that Bakura startled himself. Yami CAN help…he's got a computer.

Quickly, Bakura dug into the waistband of his jeans and produced the papers.

"I need you to do research on these." He finally answered, thrusting them toward Yami.

"Huh?" Yami asked, taking the papers before he could think otherwise.

"Please, research these, and mail the results to my apartment, and disguise them really well!"

"I don't get it. What is this, plans for a new house or something?" Yami asked, turning the papers upside down and narrowing his eyes quizzically at them. "A new house in America?" he added, squinting at the English text.

"I don't know, you need to find that out for me." Bakura replied, edging toward the car. "Just find out what it is. You have the Internet. You can find anything on the Internet. Mail whatever you find to my apartment. Disguise it inside a magazine or something discreet."

Yami looked up. "Bakura, please tell me what's going on. First you vanish, then you're standing outside my house like a stalker, then you vanish again, now here you are delivering mail to this house in a car you never had before. Your apartment is empty, your manager is all, "Bakura? Who's Bakura?", You haven't been seen by anyone so I know you're hiding someplace. What the heck is up with all this? Do you have something to do with those murders?"

The soft purple of Yami's eyes was starting to wear on Bakura extremely heavily. It had always been those damn purple eyes that captivated him, the way so many different emotions could hide in them at the same time. He'd studied his own eyes in the mirror and seen in them only mischief and shadows. Yami's eyes on the other hand…at one moment they were clear and expressive and then the next, dark and secretive…they were so different from his own, and they nearly hypnotized him at close range. Right now, they were soft and clear as day. Bakura hardly even noticed that Yami had mentioned the murders until he was able to stop studying his face. He snapped to attention.

"Just find that stuff out and mail it to me. And then, after that, you've got to get out of-" Bakura was cut off when he saw a car turning down the road.

"Dammit." He swore, making a break for his own car. He couldn't let anyone else know he was around.

"Wait!" Yami called, stepping forward. Bakura slammed the car door and floored the accelerator, the tires squealing a bit on the take-off as he sped down the street, leaving an extremely puzzled-looking Yami standing alone on the sidewalk.

To Be Continued…

Author's Notes:

This was such a short chapter! When I wrote this one out in the outline, it seemed so much longer. How did that happen! I apologize…well, at least something interesting happened in this one. Yami and Bakura finally had a meeting! And the mysterious papers have changed hands. Maybe now we can get someplace with this sl…next chapter will be a big revelation. It's going to be a very important turning point! And it should be longer than this one…I'm pretty sure. Plus, a few new layers will be added, so we can all look forward to those as well. But until then, this chapter wasn't totally pointless. There's some details that shouldn't be sneezed at, for sure. Or, as the wannabe 'gangtas' at my school would say, "Fo sho."

Okay, that was random.

Replies!

Hershey-Kiss: Good, it was supposed to be funny! xD Bakura can be such an amusing character. Then again, he can be a lot of things. O.o That police write-up is hilarious…but how insulting would that be? I can see her point!

You Know Us: Hmmn…And yet Michelle-chan still claims she does not have any sort of crush. Aww, but I'm so glad you liked it. :niko: O.o big word. Decompensating. That sounds as though it would be painful. Hopefully Bakura will be able to pull out of it! Maybe his meeting with Yami will help him out, ne? Bakura always has been a little psycho, let's just hope he can keep his head on straight for now. He must protect Yami! (Or I fear we'll all be in danger of annihilation by the Keep Yami Safe Campaign…)

Well, this has been posted a day early! We had a half-day of school on Friday and I thus was able to finish it sooner. And no school tomorrow! President's Day and all. What fun! Anyhoo, I hope you've enjoyed chapter nine, and I'll see you here next week.

Jaa!