A Change of Heart

Disclaimers: If I owned any of these characters, I'd be kicking up millions! But I don't…so I'm stuck in a little convenience store with damn customers all day!

Pairing(s): Yami/Yugi, Malik/Mariku (not mentioned but rather hinted), Ryou/Bakura

Warnings: This was just something I knocked together in about 30 minutes for the sake of writing something with my favourite pairings in, so don't go mad at me if it either a) doesn't make sense, or b) is slightly wrong by the Yugioh timeline. Like I say, I only wrote this for fun.
Actually, I think it develops a plot later on, more around the style of Bakura regretting everything he's ever done to Ryou, but the beginning is still a little sketchy, and starts off with a humoured feel.
If any of you can improve my pathetic beginning, then let me know!

Thanks!
Ashford2ashford

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Bakura sighed, his energy gone, his eyes closed, and his entire body spread out over Ryou's couch, not caring whether the hikari was going to freak when he came in through the door. It felt weird, being back here, especially after being in the shadow realm for so long, but Bakura felt sure he would adjust to it soon.

"Well, I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow, Yugi."

"'Kay, Bakura!"

Bakura rolled his eyes. His hikari was home from school early, and to make matters worse, he had walked home with Yugi and had gotten used to the little gang calling him by his second name. He couldn't wait for the little light to come through the door.

"Bakura, can I borrow your notes? I think I've forgotten mine."
"Sure, Yugi…come in, I'll get them off my bed."

Bakura sat up, new energy flowing through him and a manic grin spreading like butter across his face. The Pharaoh's little baka hikari was coming in! Unsuspecting, innocent, and the holder of the Millennium Puzzle! Life was going to get more interesting!

There was a rattle of keys in the lock.

"Oh my. I'm so sorry Yugi. This door sticks sometime. I do hope you're not in a rush."
"No. It's okay, Baku-chan. I can wait."

By now, Bakura was eagerly awaiting the opening of the door, the sight of the horror on the two little hikari's faces when they stepped in, the screams that would ensue, especially from Yugi. His grin was threatening to push his ears from his face.

The door opened.

"Make yourself at home, Yugi. Umm…could I offer you a drink?"
"Yeah sure…I would like…huh? Who's that?"

There was the sound of a beeping horn and then Yugi and Ryou began to laugh and shout over the road at something. Bakura bit his lip and uttered a few Egyptian curses.

"MALIK-SAMA!"
"Malik-chan! Come on in!"
"Long time no see!"

The ex-tomb robber slammed his head against the table and hissed inwardly. Not only was Ryou hanging around with Yugi and his groupies, but now Malik? He bristled and then heard a gasp behind him, followed by a startled cry.
Whirling round, he came face to face with little Yugi, and his grin widened even more so.

"Hello, little hikari!" ("light" the other word for the lighter sides) He hissed, his tone sinister, stalking towards the little light, his hands locked into claws. "How was your day at school? I daresay, you won't be taking another…"

Then the pain began…as Malik walked through a different door…and slammed it into Bakura. The tomb robber cursed again and this time didn't stop, his face twisted up into agony, his foot caught behind the door.

"KUSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" (Or "shit" in English) He yelled, barely noticing Yugi running past him and towards the 'safety' of Malik, who still had no idea what he had just saved Yugi from.

"What's going on? Is everything all right in here? Oh my! Bakura!" Ryou rushed into the room and stepped around Bakura as one would step around some one with a contagious disease, or who was a disease in Bakura's case.

Bakura howled in anger and then yanked his foot from out of the door, before realising that there was a sinister figure laughing behind Malik. To make matters worse, the laughing was at him, and this only enraged the injured soul stealer even more.

"Mariku." Bakura growled, rubbing his foot, "You look…" he did a double take at the now present Mariku, "…short?"

True to Bakura's word, Mariku only stood about two foot tall, and the mini yami was not at all happy about it. Not at all. Although Bakura had to admit, at this size, Mariku looked far more cute than intimidating, and the prospect of torturing the stuck up little six-year-old Egyptian was – wait. That was it!

"I see you've finally started looking your age." Bakura commented, still completely oblivious to the three staring hikari's, more interested in the merciless teasing of one who used to have so much power.

"Silence you slimy soul stealer!" Little Mariku demanded, his sennen eye still glowing ever so brightly on his forehead. Bakura grinned, "Or you'll do what, short stuff?"

Before the mini terror could react, the presence of a stronger, more powerful being was felt in the room, a booming and deep voice demanding, "That's enough you two! This is Ryou's house, and Ryou makes the rules. You are trespassing in Ryou's home, Thief Lord!"

Mariku and Bakura turned around and saw the ever so familiar sight of the Pharaoh standing there, stood towering over Yugi, his arms folded, and a stern look in his eyes.
Bakura gave a "humph" in reply and then sat down on the couch, poking at the mini Mariku. "This was my home also, Pharaoh. I lived here for years."

What had started out as a plan to murder innocent hikari's was now turning into an age old spat with the Pharaoh of legend. Of course the age old Thief Lord was determined to win this argument.

Pharaoh Yami/Atemu now stood to one side of Yugi, walking towards the arrogant Thief and the mini Mariku. Mariku gave the same sort of hiss that one might hear a cat making, and Bakura simply stared at the powerful presence, daring him to try and fight.

Instead of doing any fearsome battle to the death, or trying to slaughter the two opposing yami's, the Pharaoh merely sat down on the couch and patted his knee, watching little Yugi carefully as the small hikari made his way over to his yami (darker half) and made himself comfortable on the Pharaoh's knee.
Bakura and Mariku stared open mouthed and then growled dangerously, realising that instead of world domination or fights to the death, all they were going to get was this sickening display of affection and a cup of tea.

Malik was already sitting down and asking Ryou for a cup of tea, and the Pharaoh was bouncing his hikari up and down on his knee like he was playing with a child. Bakura pouted and realised that with the Pharaoh around, his commanding and threatening presence went unnoticed. Mariku followed Ryou into the kitchen and later returned with some animal crackers, which he sat down on the rug with, and then tortured each one mercilessly.

Bakura sighed and then realised his thoughts were turning to that of the Pharaoh himself. Why did the age-old king insist on being such a bother throughout the ages? More importantly, why was the Tomb Robber devoting precious time to actually thinking about the Pharaoh?

Bakura growled.
'No…freaking…way…' Bakura's eye twitched and he bit the back of his knuckles in irritation 'I doNOTlike the Pharaoh! Never! Not now! Not ever! NO! I hate him. He's my enemy for Ra's sake'

But even then, his attention was slowly turning to that of the sight of said Pharaoh playing with his hikari. He found that watching the two, light and dark, at play to be most relaxing. Yugi was giggling cutely like he always did when his yami was around, and the stupid baka Pharaoh was laughing his deep reassuring laugh as usual.

'No…it's not the Pharaoh…it's the way the Pharaoh acts…'

Why couldn't Bakura have been like that with Ryou?

'The way he treats his Hikari…that's why I'm watching him…'

Bakura recalled memories of Ryou when the very spirit he could never get away from took his innocence. He remembered the cries of pain, the scream of agony and the constant repetition of "Onegai. Tasukete! Yamero! Onegai…" ("Please! Help me! Stop it! Please!") over and over again, until blood acted as lubricant and the once pure hikari cried his last tears for that night.

The memory brought shivers to Bakura's body. 'And I'd bet my Millennium Ring that the memory hurts Ryou even more'

The tomb robber looked over at Ryou and found that instead of spending some time with him, the hikari would rather talk to Malik. Malik for god's sake! Just thinking about it made Bakura's hair bristle just like a cat's fur does when it feels threatened.

"MUAHAHAHA!!! Little rabbit, your time on this earth is up! Ku ku ku ku!!!" Mariku crunched the cracker between his teeth, spitting out several crumbs and already pummelling a tiger cracker into dust as he spoke.
Bakura glared daggers at the smaller yami and then, deliberately attention seeking, he stole one of the crackers – a little cat to be precise.

Did that get everyone's attention?

Most certainly.
Mariku began wailing, hitting the Thief Lord's legs with his tiny arms, and kicking him in the shin. That got everyone's attention! Yami death glared at Bakura, Yugi stared with wide eyes, Malik laughed hysterically, and Ryou…

Bakura did a double take.
Rather than watch the scene unfold, Ryou had decided that not making any eye contact at all with the ex-tomb robber was the best option for this situation.
'But…but…but…' Bakura whimpered to himself, 'I thought for sure it would get his attention…

"Well…I'd best get this mini terror home to bed hadn't I?" Malik grinned, picking up a still squirming, still wailing, Mariku by the shirt, "Come on, tiny terror!"
"For every nickname you think of calling me…I shall kill you!" Mariku replied, snarling as he was dragged out of the door.

"I suppose you must go too Yugi, Pharaoh?" Ryou said it with such…such…horror in his voice, as if he wanted nothing more for them to stay with him!
It hurt Bakura's heart…had he had one.

"I'm afraid so…little Yugi has his notes and he must study for the tests this year, right aibou?" Yami turned to his 'other self' and smiled softly. Yugi gave Ryou a big hug and then smiled, "Yip! Gotta be up re-ee-eal early in the morning!"

Bakura waited, lost in his thoughts as Ryou said his goodbyes, a hand on his cheek. 'Why is he so scared?' he wondered, 'I…I can change! I'll be nice to him from now on if he wishes! Really!' He was becoming frantic over nothing…

He barely heard Ryou shut the door gently and it was only as the small, dejected teen tried to creep past the open door of the living room did he look up.
"What are you doing?" He asked, maybe too roughly for Ryou jumped a mile.
"N-nothing!" Ryou was sounding a little hysterical, backing away as Bakura stood up and advanced on him.

"Is that so? Are you trying to tell me you weren't creeping past the door?"

Ryou's eyes were wide in blind panic, a shadow looming over him, filling up the space of the wall behind him, plunging the area he was in into darkness, he looked up and stared directly into Bakura's eyes, which were cold and hungry…and then the shadow faded, as Bakura walked back into the other room, sitting on the couch and playing with a lock of his spiky white hair, twirling it around one finger and giving soft growls as he did so.

The hikari looked confused.

He could have sworn Bakura was about to attack him! More important than that, he could have also sworn that he briefly saw a flicker of emotion in his darker self's eyes, a glimmer of resentment for the fear he was causing within the heart of his smaller side.

Of course, Bakura didn't show much emotion now. The dark one was more interested in the television, watching some horror movie on the cable. On the television, the dark shadow of the creature loomed over the innocent victim, clawed hands gripping the shoulders of the small one harshly.
The little one screamed, the monster cackled, pulling the boy closer to him. Ryou stared, his eyes fixed on the screen. The creature cackled once more and then knelt down, as his fingers became tendrils that began to cover the boy in darkness.
"You're mine." It whispered in a voice as dull as the colour of the gravestone, "You belong to me!"

And then Bakura turned the television off, and Ryou looked startled once more.

"Hikari…" Bakura started to say something, and this time Ryou was eager to hear, but he never finished, "…never mind. I'm going to bed. You can join me later if you wish…"

And then he was gone, and Ryou looked on with surprise as he realised that this may have been the only lucky break he would ever have from his darker half…

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Ashford2ashford: ahh. More random fics that don' t make sense at all…how delightful…well, this is a pathetic attempt at a Ryou/Bakura fic…but I hope you all like it!