xIsisx: So... I updated! And so soon! Aren't you proud of me?

Disclaimer: ... see first chapter's disclaimer...

Warning: (kinda) yaoi romance in this chapter.

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And a Very Merry RA-mas To You
Chapter 2 – (almost) Kiss of Hate
By xIsisx
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- Start -

"Bakura, can you please go up to the attic and get the box of the Christmas stuff?"

"No. Go get it yourself you lazy bum." Bakura casually shot back.

Ryou appeared in the doorframe of the living room.

"Me? Lazy bum? Look at you!" Ryou indicated to the mess around Bakura, which included beer cans, empty wrappers of all sorts, broken things from various sources, and did we mention the beer cans? To have this in a nutshell: looks like a tornado hit this room.

"Yeah? What about me?"

Ryou rolled his eyes and sighed, "Fine, I don't want to go to the attic 'cause a ghost lives there and I'm, ironically, scared to death of ghosts."

Bakura snorted into the bag of chips he was eating.

"Ghost? My ass!" He managed to say between his laugher, "You hang out with that idiotic Pharaoh who, incidentally, has a ton of duel monsters that would even scared the death out of ghosts."

"Yeah well, duel monsters aren't real…"

Bakura raised an eyebrow, "And ghosts are?"

Ryou threw up his arms in defeat, "You're just making this complicated! Just go get that darn box already!"

"Alright, alright! I'll get it, but only because it's you," He winked at Ryou, "What do I get in return?"

"If you survive, a congratulations and a pat on the back for being alive. If you don't survive, well, you get to go to heaven… or, in your case, is it hell?"

- !i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i! -

Bakura returned downstairs with a box.

"There. I didn't die, do I get a pat on the back now?" He asked sarcastically.

"No," Ryou said cheerfully, "But you have to clean up the living room first."

"Why me?"

"Because the mess is all yours!"

Grumbling, Bakura left the kitchen and entered the living room. He started poking around here and there and pressing random buttons on various machines. He paused at an answer machine and pressed "Play" (though he did not know it).

"Hey Ryou," Came Yugi's voice, "D'you wanna come shopping with us to pick up food and stuff for the party? If yes, meet me at the mall at 3 o'clock PM, if not, I'll bring some food over later."

Bakura blinked in confusion and then screamed, here was this little innocent machine, with the voice of the spiky-haired punk! He scuttled as far as he could from the answering machine.

"Bakura! What— what did you do?" Ryou asked in confusion, looking around.

"THAT THING!" Bakura pointed to the little devil of a device that had spooked him out, "IT SPOKE TO ME WITH THE PHARAOH'S HIKARI'S VOICE!"

Ryou sighed, "You're hopeless," He indicated to the machine, "This is an answering machine. It's not alive, it doesn't sleep, it doesn't eat, and it does not have blood. Okay?"

Bakura gave a slight nod.

"It picks up the messages of people that called because we somehow were unable to reach the phone. Okay?"

Bakura nodded again.

"It's not going to hurt you, it's not some trap, and it's not a monster."

"That's what it wants you to think!" Bakura retorted, "And you're falling for it's every lie!"

Ryou rolled his eyes and proceeded to explain what he said again.

- !i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i! -

"Hey Yugi, what's up?" Ryou greeted as he walked over to where Yugi and Yami were.

"Oh, the usual, except that he" Yugi indicated to Yami, "doesn't think it's a very good idea to invite Marik's yami too."

"Lighten up Yami," Ryou laughed, "Malik's much more better behaved now. And he doesn't send people to the Shadow Realm just for the sake of it anymore."

"Yeah, well." Yami muttered.

"Hey you wanna know what Bakura did this morning?" Ryou asked as he turned back to Yugi, "It was hilarious."

"Sure."

Ryou then explained about the 'evil answering machine devil', as Bakura dubbed it.

"Omigosh that's so funny!" Yugi laughed, even Yami looked a bit amused.

"He was actually scared? The tomb robber?"

"Believe it or not, he was!"

The three continued their shopping, with some lighthearted chatting going down the aisles.

"Alright, I think we have enough food," Yugi glanced down at the overflowing cart, "To feed a hundred people, at least."

"That's about how many people are at the party," Ryou grinned, "Plus one 'cause Joey has a stomach of two people."

(Joey: Do not! xIsisx: What are you doing here! You're not in this scene! Get down! –shoves Joey out-)

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"Hey Bakura, I'm back," Ryou announced, putting his bags down, "How's the living room coming?"

Bakura appeared in the doorway and glared at Ryou, "Now that you mention it, very badly."

"Oh, it can't be that bad."

"It was that bad when you left…"

Ryou, however, ignored him and walked into the living room.

"Whoa!" Ryou glanced around, everything was sparkling clean, "What d'you mean, bad? This is awesome! Did you do this yourself?"

Bakura shrugged, a 'why-did-I-do-this' look came about his face. Ryou squealed and hugged Bakura… or rather, glomped him.

"Hey! You're heavy, getoff me!" Bakura's voice was muffled under the grip of his hikari.

"Oh! But—" Ryou stopped, his face was no more than two inches away from Bakura's, "Umm…"

"Hmm?" Bakura moved closer, decreasing the space between their faces.

"Nothing…" Ryou muttered, a blush coming on his cheeks, he quickly released his grip and excused himself.

- !i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i! -

Up in his room, Ryou quietly closed the door and flung himself face-first on his bed.

"Omigod Omigod Omigod Omigod Omigod…" He said over and over again, he and Bakura almost kissed! But… that didn't make any sense, Bakura had always shown him that he hated him, so… why an almost kiss?

"I don't love him…" He muttered to nobody in particular, "I hate him…" But down inside, Ryou knew that he was fooling himself.

- !i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i! -

Downstairs, Bakura flung himself on the couch.

"He's no fun… I don't like him… I hate him…" Bakura muttered under his breath, staring at the blank TV screen, "He doesn't like me, I don't like him…" But he was wrong on both accounts.

- !i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i! -

Ryou's Mental Diary

He doesn't love me, never will. I don't love him, I never will either. But the almost kiss couldn't just be a joke, could it? Well, with Bakura you'll never know. Then again, I don't think he'll do such a thing just for a joke. Maybe he and Marik or Malik had a bet of some sort? I don't mind Bakura, but I don't like him either. I can live with him, but I can also live without him… right? Well I have lived for, like, 13 years without him with no pain. The pain came from him, right? I wonder if he has any pain, why is he so against Yami anyway? Why…-

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Bakura's Mental Diary

Gah. Running away after I tried to kiss him, what sort of an idiot would do that? My hikari, that's who. Wait, no no no no, I didn't try to kiss him, did I. No I didn't, he tried to kiss me… but then running away? Uh, no, not that either. Um but…-

- End -

Bakura: GAH! I would never say anything like that!

xIsisx: Yah, well, this is my story so booYA!

Ryou: And don't forget to review so the party can begin! -cute puppy face-