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Rock and a Hard Place

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The trip back to the camp was made in silence. When they reached their clearing, they found Duke Devlin making a little fire in the fire pit, while everyone else gathered around it for warmth. Mokuba smiled and quickly hurried over as Seto, Yami and Bakura returned.

"Is everything okay?" Mokuba demanded. "You three went off in kind of a hurry." His gaze finally rested on Yami. "Are you doing alright?"

Yami smiled faintly at the worry in Mokuba's tone. "I'm alright now. Seto and… the Tomb Robber helped me."

"I have a name, you know, Pharaoh," Bakura muttered. "It's Bakura. You don't have to keep calling me Tomb Robber."

"And you don't have to keep calling me Pharaoh either, yet you seem to take some sort of amusement from it," Yami said. "I found it only fair to return the favor."

"Hey guys," Joey called from over by the fire. "Now that you're here, we've got a problem. There are only three sleeping bags, and there are seven of us."

"I thought there would be some sort of five star hotel on this island somewhere!" Mai said. "Pegasus sent a cruise ship, I figured he'd also be providing room service and maids. Cheapskate."

"I'm willing to be room service," Duke said, "but Joey will have to be the maid. He'd look much better in the outfit, anyway."

"Oh, he would!" Mai said with delight. "With a short little black skirt and a feather duster… you'd be so cute, Joey!"

"You know what, forget I said anything," Joey grumbled. "You two are welcome to sleep in the dirt for all I care."

Bakura strode past the fire, grabbing one of the three sleeping bags. "I'll share with Seto."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Mokuba protested. "You can't just decide that, without even asking him."

"I don't have to ask," Bakura said. He grinned at Seto. "You'll say yes, won't you?"

Seto raised an eyebrow and folded his arms, not saying anything at all.

Seto's silence didn't bother Bakura in the least. After all, he knew exactly how to get the answer he wanted to hear. "Say yes, Seto."

Seto glared at him. "Yes," he answered promptly, before turning away to add wood to the fire, completely ignoring the others.

"Must you keep doing that?" Ryou demanded with irritation. "You know he doesn't like it."

"So what?" Bakura asked. "Quickest way to get what I want. What's he going to do, resent me for something as simple as deciding the sleeping arrangements?"

"He might," Ryou said. "At least try asking him next time. You might even get the same answer, if you phrase it nicely."

"Well, okay then…" Joey said. "I guess then Yugi ought to share with Mokuba, then. It'll be kind of a tight fit, but he's the only one of us with a hope of squeezing into a child's sleeping bag."

"So that means Duke and I will be sharing with you?" Mai asked, smirking at Joey.

"What gave you that idea?" Joey asked her, rolling out his own sleeping bag. "I said you two could sleep in the dirt, and I meant it."

"Well, if you insist," Duke said lightly, then grinned at Mai. "It'll be awfully cold tonight, I think. We'll just have to keep each other warm, won't we?"

Mai giggled, cuddling up against Duke and casting a sidelong look at Joey. "I guess we'll have to, if Joey isn't willing to share. But if that's the case, I don't think either of us will be getting much sleep…"

Joey tensed, glowering at the both of them. "Alright, alright! I'll share the damned sleeping bag."

"Why, what a generous offer," Mai purred at him. "But you know, I think I'll have to decline. After all, this way I'll get Duke all to myself."

"Like hell you will!"

"Now ladies," Duke said, laughing. "There's plenty of me to go around."

"Would you three cut it out?" Seto grumbled at them. "There are children present, you know."

"I'm not a little kid, Seto," Mokuba protested.

"If you tell me you understand what they're insinuating over there, I'm going to make sure you get grounded when we get home," Seto muttered.

"Chill out Seto, yeah?" Joey called over at him. "You know kids learn about sex by the third grade, these days."

"With people like you around, I'm honestly not surprised," Seto said. "Decide on your sleeping arrangements and go to bed already. The rest of us aren't interested in hearing about your love life." He laid out his own sleeping bag near to the fire, climbing into it and turning his back to the others.

"Don't hold it against him," Mokuba murmured softly to Joey. "You know he's not normally like this. It's just that lately…"

"Yeah," Joey interrupted. He glanced pointedly over at Bakura. "I think I know exactly what's pissing Seto off lately. And frankly, I don't really blame him."

"Mm-hmm," Mokuba said sadly. "But there's not much we can do about it, I'm afraid. I'm scared that if we try to stop him, he'll hurt Seto even more."

Bakura sat near to the fire, by all appearances ignoring their whispered conversation. Seto had already fallen asleep, or was trying very hard to appear that he had. Mokuba was probably right, Bakura decided; Seto made a pretty good hostage. If anyone tried opposing Bakura, he could very easily take it out on Seto.

Though that would pretty much destroy all that he'd been working for. Not for the first time, Bakura resented that damned Blue Eyes White Dragon for presenting him with this challenge. But he couldn't very well back down from it now. This was a matter of pride.

"Only pride?" Ryou broke into his thoughts. "Or maybe something more?"

"Shut up," Bakura commanded irritably.

"No, really, I'm curious is all," Ryou continued. "Are you really doing all this because a dragon dared you to? Or because you maybe actually like Seto?"

"Shut. Up."

"Because you seem to be going to an awful lot of trouble for this." Ryou seemed oblivious to Bakura's anger. "You don't always get it right, but you're trying. You even listen to my advice. Sometimes, anyway."

"If you don't shut up right now, I'm going to banish you back into that card."

"We have a deal, remember?" Ryou reminded him calmly. "But you're right, maybe you actually don't care about Seto at all, and therefore don't really need my advice. I'm sure you'll do just find blundering through it on your own."

"…and people call me evil."

Ryou didn't reply to that, though Bakura got the impression that the mortal was terribly pleased with himself at the moment. For a moment, Bakura seriously considered breaking his promise and banishing Ryou to someplace more foul than a card. Ryou was right, though; for the moment, Bakura did need his tenderhearted viewpoint and advice. But Bakura stubbornly avoiding thinking about Ryou's questions as to his motivations for doing this. Bakura wanted to make Seto care about him, and Bakura always got what he wanted. It was as simple as that.

With that clear in his mind, Bakura moved to join Seto in the sleeping bag. It was something of a tight fit, but if Bakura curled close enough to Seto, there was just enough room for the both of them. Bakura smiled faintly as he felt Seto stiffen as he moved close to him; apparently Seto had only been pretending to sleep after all.

"It's just me," Bakura whispered softly in Seto's ear. "You did agree to share your sleeping bag with me, after all."

"I don't recall you giving me much of a choice," Seto hissed. "You never do."

Bakura was quiet a moment, thinking as he enjoyed the warmth of Seto's body pressed so close against him. "If I had asked you, would you have agreed?"

"We'll never know, now will we?"

"…May I share your sleeping bag with you?"

Seto was silent for a moment, before pointing out the obvious. "You already are."

"Yeah. But I could always leave," Bakura said.

"Would you?" With some difficulty, Seto managed to maneuver around in the sleeping bag so he could look Bakura in the eye. "If I told you no, would you leave?"

The thought of sleeping in the dirt was in no way appealing. Remaining here in the shared warmth of the sleeping bag was appealing. But a night in the dirt, covered with bugs probably wouldn't kill him. "Yeah," he said reluctantly. "I guess, if you really want me to…"

Seto gave him an unreadable look, then gave a partial shrug. "Whatever. You might as well stay, you're here already."

Ryou muffled a soft giggle. "Told you so."

"I swear by all the ancient gods," Bakura silently snarled at him, "if you say that one more time, you're going to regret it."

"Got it. I'll shut up now."

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