I am not dead! I can't believe it took me so long to update… I'm so sorry to everyone. I am currently working two different jobs and they take up practically all of my time.
So, this chapter jumps from scene to scene quite a bit, but I think it works out better than having a lot of boring in-between stuff. I warn you now, there is a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end of this chapter, but I will update quickly.
Thank you to all you lovely people who reviewed. Sorry I don't have time to write comments back to everyone, but if I don't get this chapter posted now, I never will! I hate being such a procrastinator.
Jadeyuy: I totally agree with you on the relationship thing… and I did put a little more angst than usual in this chapter so hopefully you'll enjoy!
Digimagic: Yay! Another darkshipping fan!
Chrysler: Wow, I'm so flattered that you actually stayed awake that long to read my story. Thanks!
Major-rocket-fan: Yes, there was more plot development than I let on in that last chapter and quite a bit more in this one. Glad you caught it!
Here's the 20th chapter (I can't believe my story has gone this long!) hope you like it and please review!
Chapter 20
Happy Birthday
Shit… I forgot to close the blinds all the way last night. And now, the bastard Sun has chosen to filter through the window, directly into my eyes.
But it's not like I haven't been awake for the last hour and a half anyway.
I hate to admit it, I mean, I really hate to admit it, but I am getting worried. It's the type of worry that has had enough of an effect that it prevents me from getting a decent night's sleep.
Of course, the same does not hold true for Yami, the center of my worries. I roll over in my bed to face Yami's back, yet another little thing that tells me something is wrong. Usually when I wake up, he would be curled around me as close as possible, but for the past couple of days, it's been like this. I could just be overreacting though. That wouldn't be anything new. It has been getting a lot warmer outside; maybe he just gets hot sleeping so close to me.
I inch closer to Yami's resting form and slide my arm underneath his waist to connect with the other one I drape over him. Much to my disappointment, this doesn't disturb him in the slightest.
I pull myself closer, so my chest touches his back. His warmth cascades through me, which causes me to subconsciously tighten my grip around him. I place a light, but lingering kiss on his shoulder, something much more gentle than most of what we did to each other last night.
Lying here, my mind wanders back to all of the small changes in Yami's behavior, the most obvious of course, being his excessive sleeping habit. Sure, having bodies of our own puts a few more restrictions on us, but I know that he doesn't need as much sleep as the average human.
The other things are so hard to catch that probably the only ones who do notice them, are me and Yugi. Even so, I still can't decide if these are actually things I should be concerned about. People change over time, and I've certainly witnessed first hand Yami's delightful change in some aspects of his personality, so maybe these are simply more of them. He is rather spontaneous, so there's a chance that I am just being a paranoid idiot.
But in the end, I don't know anymore. I absolutely hate not knowing something for sure. Yami and I are rarely apart for too long anymore, making it entirely possible that since I've been seeing so much of him that I'm creating all these things in my head to worry about for no good reason. It's like I must to have something negative to focus on, because I can't believe that things are going so well for me. I can't just accept the happiness that comes with my relationship to Yami and be content with that. I have to see reality for what it is, that nothing lasts forever and everything that seems like a blessing to me is doomed to failure in the end. That I don't deserve happiness like this for what I have done in the past. That I will most likely end up hurting Yami, like I always do to the people that I care about. That, in the end, there is no point in any of this at all. That-
Yami stirs and I break out of my thoughts in time to loosen my grip so that he can roll over to face me. His crimson eyes blink a few times before remaining open, piercing my own with that penetrating gaze originating from only a few inches away.
"How long have you been awake?" He asks me in a hushed voice.
"Not long."
"What time is it?"
"I think it's around six in the morning."
"Good, that means Yugi is still asleep."
"Okay…" I say, not quite sure what he is getting at, especially considering we are at my house.
"Don't tell me you already forgot."
"Forgot what?" He brings a hand up and flicks at my nose. Apparently what I have supposedly forgotten was something important.
"It's Yugi's birthday today." Oh, right… That really was the first thing on my mind. I've been anticipating it the entire week and I can't wait to celebrate with all of his friends tonight at the damn party.
"I wanted to make him breakfast this morning and then we can decorate the house for tonight."
"Great, I didn't realize I was being included in these plans as well." I tell him, rolling my eyes in the process.
"Of course you are." He says while laughing a bit and snuggling underneath my chin. His damn hair starts to tickle at my nose and he moves in just the right way that it pokes me in the eye rather painfully.
"Okay, that's the last time your damn hair pisses me off!!" I yell, completely changing the subject. Letting go of Yami, I jump out of bed and run over to my desk. After sifting through a couple of drawers, I finally find what I am looking for. I turn back around dramatically to find Yami still in bed and staring at me, utterly bewildered by my sudden actions.
I let out one of my signature strings of maniacal laughter and hold up the pair of scissors for Yami to see. He instantly realizes what I am threatening to do and tries to get out of the bed, but I am much too quick. I jump on him, pinning down his hands and brandishing the scissors menacingly close to his hair.
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Wanna bet?"
"I know you like my hair the way it is." He's right, but I still want to see how far I can take my little bluff.
"Yeah, but not when it stabs me in the eye!"
"You wouldn't actually cut my hair." Heh, now he's trying to call my bluff and he looks quite confident about it too.
"Are you really so sure about that?" His gaze falters ever so slightly as I move the scissors against his hair.
He hesitates and I can see the uncertainty run past his eyes, but is quickly replaced by that arrogant confidence of his. "Yes."
And the instant he speaks the word, I close the blades of the scissors. Yami's eyes clench together from the sound and his entire body tenses up. He reopens them a moment later to find the stray strand of hair I cut off dangling in front of his face.
"I can't believe you did that!" I laugh at his astonished expression and lean back to allow him to sit up. He takes the piece of his hair from me and stares at it, almost mournfully.
"Come on, it was just one hair. You're just lucky I didn't cut off more than that." But of course, I would never really cut a large portion.
He tosses the hair aside and lets loose a new and improved glare of death straight in my direction. "You're lucky I don't cut off something of yours! You realize that now I will be forced to get you back for this. I don't know how yet, but rest assured, I will."
Wow, that was actually kind of scary. I never knew that Yami could make his eyes look like that, with the ominous gleam and all. "Nothing you can possibly do will ever scare me like I just scared you."
"Fine then, but don't say I didn't warn you."
"Sure, sure." He gets out of bed and drags me with him.
"Well, you're still not getting out of going back to my house." Dammit.
--------------------------------------------
"Hopefully he is still sleeping." Yami tells me as he unlocks the door and lets us in.
"Why?"
"I want it to be a surprise. He probably isn't even expecting me to be back here until tonight, so it'll be more fun this way." We take off our shoes and jackets quietly and move into the living room, checking around for any signs of conscious life. We walk into the kitchen to find Yugi's grandfather making some coffee.
"Hi Jii-chan!"
"You boys are up early. I was just debating whether or not I wanted to open the store today."
"Well, the party's not until tonight, you could just close early."
"I guess I could do that."
"Oh, do you want to help me make breakfast for Yugi?"
"Sure." They start talking about what they should make and grabbing all sorts of things from the refrigerator and various cupboards.
But what am I supposed to do, stand here and watch? It's not like I know how to cook at all or really care to know for that matter. I get bored much too easily to tolerate this. Maybe I can see if there is anything around here that would be fun to burn.
"Bakura, why don't you start decorating some of the rooms for the party tonight?" Yami tells me while producing a carton of eggs from the fridge.
"Decorate?" Being a fearsome Tomb Robber, I don't lower myself to participation in those sorts of activities.
"Here, take these and go make yourself useful." Yami walks over to the counter and scoops up a wide array of scary, colorful, papery things and dumps them in my arms.
"What am I supposed to do with these?"
"You'll figure it out, it's not that hard." Yami says with a smile that tells me he's laughing on the inside, laughing at how ridiculous I'm sure I look.
"Just make everything look festive." Yugi's grandfather adds in. Festive? What does that entail?
"Go, go, we want to finish before Yugi wakes up." Good thing Yugi's birthday fell on a weekend this year. I can't imagine how early Yami would have wanted me to get up if we had to do this before Yugi went to school.
Yami shoves me into the living room, still covered by these idiotic decorations. I guess this means I'm being forced into doing such a menial task. I drop everything in my arms onto the couch in an attempt to sort all of the various items. Okay, there's a couple of signs that say happy birthday, some of this rolled up papery crinkly stuff, balloons, unknown sparkly things, tape, and scissors. So, where do I start?
Hm, I guess I could hang up this banner first… Surveying the room, the space above the doorway looks like a good place for it. I drag a chair over and tape up each side, centering it nicely. I jump back down, admiring what seems to be a proper place for the Happy Birthday sign. I can put the other ones up later.
I pick up one of the rolls of paper stuff and stare at it for a moment, at a complete loss as to what it is actually supposed to be used for. It looks like it could go on the walls and make a border of sorts around the doorway I just put that sign above. I tape a few strips around the edges and look around to see what else could use some blue paper stuff on it too.
The tv can have some, so can the chairs. It's kind of hard to tape things on the couch so we'll skip that. I can put some of the green kind on the walls too and the bookshelf. The sparkly things can go everywhere. I think this is going quite well, despite my inexperience in these matters.
These balloons are a different story though. I've blown up a few, but aren't they supposed to float? These ones must be defective or something. All they do is fall slowly down to the ground. I could have sworn when I've seen these things before, they were always suspended in air by a string. Well, they can just stay on the floor then, if that's where they prefer to be.
"How are you doing out he-" I swing around to see Yami standing in the doorway, obviously stunned by the brilliance of my decorating skills, something I'm sure he never knew I was capable of.
Wait, why has he started laughing? Was something I did really that funny? I walk over to confront him about his unprecedented behavior and he manages to contain his laughter to some extent. "What's your problem?"
"Um, nothing. Why don't you go wake up Yugi while I finish up decorating for you?" He pauses to reconsider his suggestion. "On second thought, you can go help Jii-chan with the rest of breakfast."
"You want me to cook, instead of decorate?" I eye him suspiciously, not understanding why he wants to finish decorating, himself.
"Good point. Go and wake up Yugi, but be nice about it." I was expecting that he'd say I should keep decorating, but I suppose this is acceptable as well. It's not like I wanted to be the one doing the decorating in the first place.
I sigh and head upstairs to Yugi's room. I stop at his door and with stealth only someone such as myself could possibly possess, I enter his room. Making no audible sound, Yugi's sleep is not disturbed in the slightest by my movements. Yugi is nestled underneath his covers, wearing his pastel blue pajamas with yellow stars. Looking at him like this, you'd never believe that he was a third year high school student.
So, how should I wake him up? Yami expects me to be nice, but he knows better than that. Might as well try the gentle approach, even if it's only to be able to tell Yami that I actually did try.
"Yugi, it's time to get up." I say in a monotone and calm voice while standing next to his bed. Yugi does not stir whatsoever. Oh darn, I guess I'll have to be a little more forceful if he is going to be this heavy of a sleeper.
Ah, is that Yugi's foot I see, sticking out from underneath the covers? I reach down, quickly grab his exposed foot, and drag him off his bed so that he is hanging upside down, his hair barely touching the floor. Yugi yells out in surprise and takes half the sheets off the bed with him as he flails about.
"Bakura!" He gasps as he looks up at me with bewildered eyes. I simply wear my typical smug expression, knowing that I have accomplished my appointed task by my own methods.
"Happy Birthday, little one." I tell him softly. I can't help but let my arrogant smirk approach the borderline appearance of a genuine smile. This sight is just too perfect. Yugi stares back at me for a moment and then I lower him down so his hands touch the floor. After I let go of his foot, he manages to stand up, with his balance only faltering a couple of times.
Yugi smiles and begins to rearrange his blankets on his bed. "You know, it's very rude to wake someone in such a manner."
"Why do you think I did it?"
"Of course, I guess I shouldn't have even bothered to comment. But, there will come a day when I finally get back at you for all the terrible pranks and teasing you've directed towards me these past few months."
"Oh, I feel real threatened by a tiny little thing like you."
"We'll see."
"Anyways, you should be getting downstairs. Yami is waiting for you."
"Right." I let Yugi lead the way back down to the living room, but as we enter the room, I realize that all of my hard work has been ruined.
"Yami, what did you do to the room?!" I ask in disbelief.
"Wow, Yami it looks so cool!" Yugi mutters in amazement, much to my surprise.
I tap the back of his head and make a chiding sound. "No it doesn't. He changed all the decorations from how they used to be, from how I had them."
"Not everything. See, that banner is still in the same place." Yami calmly contradicts, while pointing to its position above the doorway.
"But…"
"I'm sorry, but this is how the decorations should be. You had the crepe paper in the oddest of locations and balloons scattered aimlessly about."
"But…"
"It's alright, I shouldn't have expected you to be perfect at something you've probably never done before."
"But…"
"Gods Bakura, stops sulking about it and let's go eat breakfast!" Yugi giggles as Yami walks over and takes my arm, forcefully directing me into the kitchen.
"This looks great, Yami!" Yugi exclaims when he sees the table set with everything. He runs over to hug Yami and then his grandfather.
"Happy Birthday, aibou."
"Thank you. This has been such a good start to the day; I can't wait for my party tonight!" Right, the party… Can't forget about that…
-----------------------------------------
"What?" Apparently, Yugi did not hear what I said before and is wearing a rather perplexed expression as well. And thanks to his question, all the attention is now focused on me, the last person to give Yugi his birthday present. Thankfully though, there aren't that many people here since Yugi decided to invite only his closer friends to his party.
I consider not answering Yugi, that is, until Ryou elbows me in the side, making me all the more uncomfortable. "I said… this one is from me…" I manage to mumble out in the unnerving silence.
Yugi stares back with extra-wide eyes and slowly takes the present from my outstretched hand, which Yami was kind enough to wrap for me. He begins to unwrap the present in a delicate manner and I automatically turn away, my gaze focused elsewhere on nothing in particular.
"Oh, how cute!" I hear Anzu state aloud when the rustle of paper stops. I turn back, for some reason actually curious to see Yugi's reaction to my gift.
My movement catches Yugi's attention and he glances over at me, before closing his eyes and hugging the stuffed Kuribo. Ra, that stuffed toy has increased his kawaii-ness higher than I ever thought it could be. I think I'm going to be sick. "Thank you, Bakura! I love it."
All of Yugi's friends are still staring at me and if it doesn't end soon, I will have to hurt someone. "What?!"
My stern tone of voice seems to break everyone from the shared trance they are all apparently in. Jounouchi shakes his head a bit. "Sorry, I just never thought I'd see the day when you'd do something nice for anyone else, especially Yugi."
"Yeah, that's quite a change for you." Honda adds in.
"I wasn't purposefully being nice… I- I just thought that the Kuribo resembled Yugi… Anyway, I was forced into getting a present, it wasn't my idea." Everyone smiles and laughs a bit as they stand up, helping Yugi clean up the mess created by all of the wrapping paper littering the floor.
They're just trying to compliment you, in a roundabout sort of way. You needn't make excuses for yourself. Ryou tells me through our link, as he looks to me softly.
I just don't like the word 'nice' being applied to my actions. It isn't accurate at all. I say while I cross my arms in front of me and lower my eyebrows in annoyance. I briefly shift my eyes to see Yami displaying his typical smirk while engaged in conversation with Jounouchi, but his eyes seem tired and void of the usual mischievous gleam. The irritation fades away, leaving only concern in its place.
What's wrong? Ryou asks, resting his hand lightly on my upper arm once we are standing as well.
It's nothing. I hope.
As long as you are sure...I can tell he thinks that I am lying. He'll probably bug me about it later, but for now, he walks off to join the others in conversation.
"You know, for being a skilled thief, you aren't a very good liar." Malik says in a hushed voice as he approaches me.
"I wasn't lying. I really was forced into getting something for Yugi." I look cautiously to the side of me to make sure everyone else is out of earshot.
"Whatever you say… Come on now, no need to be antisocial." Malik then reaches over and takes my hand, leading me toward the others who are hovering in the kitchen, getting their seconds on the cake and ice cream.
"There's always a need." I grumble back. Deciding that I am much too exhausted to make a scene or threaten him in any way, I allow him to merge us into the conversation.
"So, when are you going to leave?" Anzu asks Jounouchi.
"Well, the tournament doesn't start for another week and a half, but I want to get there a day early just to get settled." Oh, this again… I seem to remember them mentioning this a while back. I wonder how long Yami will be gone for. I'm sure Ryou will want to go and support Yugi, so he'll leave too. Great, I'm going to have to find something to occupy myself for a bit while they are gone.
"We'll come and cheer you guys on!" Honda directs towards Yugi and Jounouchi. Can't forget about the cheerleading squad… How can Yami and the others stand it all the time?
"We need to figure out how we are all going to get there. So, we have Yami, Yugi, and Jounouchi all registering for the tournament and Ryou, Honda, Bakura, Malik, and I going to watch. That makes eight people. Maybe we can ask Kaiba if he'll drive some of us or-"
"Did I hear you include my name in that list? I would rather not go and play cheerleader for five days." I tell Anzu before she can get anymore ideas about my participation. There is no way they are dragging me to that thing, even if Yami is playing.
"But Bakura… if you don't want to watch, you could register and play in the tournament."
"There's no point in playing if there aren't lives or souls at stake. That's the only entertaining way to play Duel Monsters. So, your total will have to be seven people."
"I'm afraid it will have to be six." All attention shifts to Malik at my side. "I can't afford to miss school for that long and there are a few other things I have to tend to that week."
"Aw, come on guys! You can't skip out on us!" Jounouchi whines to us like the dog he is.
"Um, you'll only have five going to this tournament Anzu. I've decided not to participate in this one." The words clearly come out of Yami's mouth, but I can't even begin to believe them.
"What?!" I ask loudly, conveying the surprise of everyone in the room. I hold Yami's eyes with my own for several moments, searching for a reason why someone so obsessed with the game would miss out on displaying his skills. Luckily, the others are so stunned that they failed to note how suspicious the interaction between me and Yami just was.
"What do you mean, you aren't going?" Anzu asks in a confused tone.
Still locked in my gaze, Yami replies to her in a calm tone. "I just thought it would be nice to let someone else win for once. I'm sure everyone is getting tired of being beaten by me anyway."
His eyes coolly slip from my grasp and turn instead to Jounouchi, causing a twinge of panic to course through my body. There is something gravely wrong here. Yugi, the one person not utterly astonished by Yami's sudden change in character, has not articulated even the tiniest of syllables. He must have known about all of this.
"You know how many people want to play against you? I know I want to and Kaiba has been gloating about how this time, he won't let you beat him." Jounouchi tells Yami in an aggravated manner. "You have to come with us. I want you to come."
"Sorry, but I made up my mind a long time ago. There's no point in arguing with me." His face is stern, but swiftly shifts to a soft, wistful smirk. "Now, since it is Yugi's birthday, why don't we ask him what we should do next?"
Considering the nature of the suggestion, there is, as expected, no objections from anyone. Yugi, nervous from all the immediate attention, remarkably regains his voice but stumbles a bit over his words. "I- I was thinking that we could all go to the arcade for a while… I mean, if that's alright with everyone…"
"Of course it is!" Anzu overly exclaims, to make up for forgetting why they were there in the first place.
"Sounds like a perfect plan to me." Honda says. I'm sure they'll wait until a more appropriate time to discuss this with Yami. After all, this is supposed to be Yugi's day. I on the other hand, could care less. This is pissing me off and I am going to fix it now.
Ryou, go with the others and make sure Yugi has a good time with all of his friends. Not expecting my commanding tone, Ryou turns to me, worry clearly written all over his features.
What are you going to do?
I just want to get to the bottom of this. What I would really like to do, is smack Yami on the side of the head for lying to me like that. Just go and see to it that we aren't missed.
Okay, but please come home tonight then.
Fine.
Malik walks up and takes Ryou's hand in his own, motioning to him that they should join the others already on their way out the door. Suddenly, I notice that Yami is still among the group, obviously trying to avoid me for the time being. This is just infuriating.
Oddly enough, Yugi steps in between Yami and the rest of the group, as if purposefully isolating him so I could have a chance at getting a hold of him. I seize the opportunity and grab the back of Yami's shirt after most of the others have left the house, clamping my other hand over his mouth to prevent him from alarming the others. Yugi notices my actions but does not say a word as he closes the door behind him.
Even more confused now and just overly frustrated, I firmly press him against the wall, my one hand still over his mouth. With a simple silent exchange, I can tell he is as angered with my actions as I am with his.
Slowly, I remove my hand from its place, but Yami remains taciturn and cold. He just had to be stubborn about this. I suppose I will get straight to the point, then.
"Why are you lying?" I ask, keeping my voice monotone so hopefully this won't turn into a violent argument.
"What have I lied to you about?" He snaps back, but with an equally controlled tone.
"Isn't it obvious? There's something preventing you from going to that tournament and I want to know the real reason for your lack of participation."
"The motives I stated were not false. This way, Yugi can have a chance to be in the spotlight." Our eyes are still locked to one another, unblinking, trying to find a fault in the other's defense.
"Oh, how generous the King is. I'm sure poor little Yugi greatly accepts your pity regarding his meager skills, that you have to drop out for him to have any sort of a chance." The moment I allowed the sarcasm through, I knew it was a bad idea. The single twitch underneath Yami's eye lets me know I just went too far.
"I am not pitying him. Yugi has remained in my shadow for too long and it's time that I let him be on his own in this sort of thing."
"I know that's not what this is about! I saw the look on Yugi's face! There's something more going on here than you are telling me about." My rage overpowers my control and filters through, causing my voice to rise. I press him further against the wall and my hands tighten around his arms.
"Let go of me." Yami commands with a stern voice.
"Not until you tell me the truth."
"You're hurting me."
"Then tell me! Is what you're hiding really that bad that you're willing to go through all this bullshit to keep it from me?"
"I told you to let go of me!"
"No!" With that, Yami releases a small burst of Shadow Magic from the Puzzle, throwing me back against the adjacent wall.
As I stand up, blood trickles from the side of my mouth and I have to fight to keep my balance. While Yami is supporting himself against the wall, he closes his eyes for a moment, presumably to regain his control. He opens his eyes and stares into me with the same fury he used to show me when we were enemies. Confronting him like that was a mistake.
"I am going to catch up with the others. You can do as you wish, just don't talk to me the rest of the evening about this. We can discuss it tomorrow." He states in a somewhat callous tone.
I remain silent and he walks towards me, heading for the door. As he approaches, I notice how pale he has suddenly become. I am tempted to say something, to keep him from leaving the house, but I don't know what he would do if I agitated him further. It's probably from being stressed out by our argument.
The door clicks shut and Yami is gone without another word. Should I follow him and make sure he gets to the arcade alright? I'm sure he would sense me and be even more irritated. No, Yugi and the others aren't too far ahead, I should just go home and wait for tomorrow.
Tomorrow… I'd better damn well receive some answers.
To be continued-
Okay, I promise you all that it will not take months for the next chapter to be posted. Hopefully, just a couple of weeks. You can all yell at me for how long it took me to update, I deserve it. That is, if everyone hasn't forgotten about my fic since it has been so long. Anyways, as always, tell me what you thought of it, the feedback is greatly appreciated and enjoyed, especially the long, funny reviews some of you leave!