Disclaimer: I said it once and I'll say it again; not mine.
I wasn't expecting to get as good of reviews as I did on the first chapter. Who knows, if this keeps up, IIPTB may include my first lemon. Only if you really beg for it, though. My friends would never support this...Oh well! I've rambled on enough. On with the fic!
Special thanks to "Princess of Mirrors." That was truly quite a review. I'll use your advice.
Thanks to all my lovely reviewers.
Hidden Guardian
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In the morning, Ryou went into the kitchen to make breakfast for himself and Jou. He hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, at least not a proper one. All night, Jou's words had been buzzing about in his head. He had never heard of such an absurd idea before, but Jou accepted it as an everyday thing. He made himself a bowl of cereal, frowning at the memory of whopping mounds of pancakes. Not anymore, though. He sighed over his cheerios.
A few minutes later, Jou walked in and helped himself to the same. "You sleep okay?" he asked the albino boy. "Fine, you?" Jou gave him a look. "You were moanin in ya' sleep. 'M almos afraid to ask what you was dreamin bout." Ryou whapped him with a magazine. "I'll thank you to leave your perverted mind in the bedroom." "Only if you're in dere wit me. The way you were moanin, mm-mm, nice." Both of the boys laughed at this.
"It was nothing like that. I was just thinking too much." "Not bout wha I said las night was it?" Ryou blushed and nodded. "Well, you think abou all of wha I said: it ain' right for ya'." "But it is for you, right?" "Les jus drop it, eh?" Ryou felt like doing nothing less, but at that moment, the lock on the front door clicked. He ran into the living room to meet Bakura, who staggered in a second or two later. "For God's sake, 'Kura. You weren't at work all night, were you?" The yami gave him a tired nod. "Got today off, though. I need sleep. I'll see you when I plan to rejoin the living."
Ryou frowned. It was stupid of him, but he had hoped that he and Bakura would spend the yami's whole say off together. "Would you like something to eat, first?" "Nah." He ruffled Ryou's hair and kissed his forehead. "Night." "Bakura, you really should eat," he insisted, falling into mother- hen mode. Bakura pinned him with a glare. "I'm going to sleep, and then, when I wake up, I will eat. Okay?" The edge in his voice made Ryou back off.
When he got back into the kitchen, he saw Jou in a most peculiar position. He was sitting under the table, raising his head up to thump against it. "Is...something wrong?" "I swea' to God I forgot sommat', but I don' remember what." "I see. And, this may be a stupid question, but why are you hitting your head of the table?" "Ta' give muh brain a jum'-start."
Personally, Ryou had never heard anything more silly, but Jou was who Jou was. *Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.* "I rememba' now! I'm 'sposed to met Sets at elev'n. Wha time'sit?" Ryou checked the clock. "Ten thirty." "Damn!" Jou raced around the house, gathering his stuff. "Sorry, Ry, I gotta' split. See ya'." He dashed out, missing the hurt look on Ryou's face. 'Great, I'm all alone again. Bakura won't get up for a few hours yet.'
He went into his room and pulled a few books from his shelf. It was a rather interesting series called Confidential Confessions. Sure it was a girls' series, but Ryou was really sensitive for a guy. He opened up the fourth book and started to read. When Mai had loaned him her books, he hadn't understood them, but as he read them again, with Jou's words still in his head, he started to make the connection.
But why would anyone do that by choice? Who would want to sell themselves and put a price on something so valuable? It seemed rather foolish to him. Surely the things that Jou had told him about weren't as common as the books made it seem. It couldn't be, he told himself assuredly.
He placed the book back on the shelf and laid himself, boredly, on the couch. 'Well, maybe I should get something done today rather than just lay here.' Yet he couldn't convince himself to move. He was in laze-mode after having stayed up late with Jou. He wasn't going to sleep, he just...wanted to...rest. No, he was just...resting his...eyes...zzz.
*** Dream ***
Ryou gasped and panted as a faceless stranger ran his hands all over the young hikari's chest, sharp nails digging into the flesh. He moaned out a name he couldn't remember after having said it. Icy blue eyes (no, it's not Seto) stared down at him, lust as apparent as any emotion could be. But something was wrong. This was not his Bakura. No, he would not do this with someone else.
"Let me go," he cried up to the man who was now kissing down his throat. "Let me go! Bakura!!!" But no one came, and the stranger didn't let up. "Leave me be! I don't want this!" Again, he was ignored. The faceless stranger continued down to his chest, taunting him in ways that were unaccustomed to his mind. It was a surprise to him that this unidentifiable stranger was being kinder to him than his own lover.
Soft hands slid down his sides to clutch his hips as the one above him moved even lower...all Ryou could do was look up and stare into the eyes of a man who was about to do things with him like the things Bakura would have him do.
After it was all over, the man pulled a wallet out of his jacket and pulled out a handful of bills. "It's all there. I hope to see you again," the stranger told him. Ryou didn't respond as he picked up the money, discreetly counting it. It was more money than he had held in all the months since his father had kicked them out put together.
"Well? Another night?" Ryou pulled his head to his chest. "I think so."
*** Dream Ended ***
Ryou sat strait up in his bed, face red, and panting. 'What in the world?' He looked all around with wide eyes. 'Oh thank God. It was only a dream. That was scary.' He looked down to where his hand was clenched, only air where in his dream had been money. 'Yikes, that was creepy.'
He thought back to the strong hands touching places on him that were meant to be for Bakura only. 'I need to stop listening to Jou. I'm having dreams about this stuff now.' He laid back against the pillows reaching over to grab the clock. Only fifteen minutes had passed since he had last checked it. That meant Bakura would still be asleep, and in no mood to be woken up.
He decided to act as normal as he could until his yami awoke to talk to him. Pulling his hair back, he followed his usual routine of cleaning up the mess in the apartment. Once he could see the floor again, he headed down the stairs to the bottom floor to get the mail, since he had gotten the feeling that it hadn't been gotten the day before.
A neighbor was down in the mailroom collecting his own mail. "How ya' doin', boy? You and that brother of yours doin' alright?" Ryou hid a chuckle at the idea of Bakura being his brother and answered in the affirmative. "Yes, sir. We're both doing quite well." He pulled out the handful of letters, near-horror-struck to see that it was all bills, save one postcard from Anzu who was away on a trip.
Discarding the postcard as her normal 'miss you; wish you were here,' he took a peek at where the bills had come from. "Ah, that time of the month, eh? Well, at least these apartments aren't too expensive." Ryou was too ashamed to mention how hard Bakura had to work to pay for it. "Well, anyway, you and your brother come around some time, and you tell me if you guys havin' any problems."
Ryou nodded to him. "Yes sir, we will." After the man left, he sighed in relief. Something about that guy had never sat right with him. He didn't know what, it was just a gut feeling. Hmm...well, Bakura didn't like him, anyway. When he got back upstairs, he proceeded to make dinner while unconsciously counting the minutes until Bakura would wake himself up.
Finally the smell of food lured the yami out of his room and into the kitchen. "*Yawn* Morning 'kari." "More like afternoon. Evening, even. You slept the whole day away, Yami." Bakura groaned. "Don't you start whining, I had a hard night." "Sorry," Ryou apologized shortly. "Well, whatever." Bakura sat down in his spot at the head of the table while Ryou sat at his side. "What happened to Dog?" "If you mean Jou, he had to leave because of plans he had made with Seto."
"Please don't tell me what those plans were for. Insatiable mutt." "Jou's my friend, Bakura." "And? He's not mine." After eating in silence for a bit, Ryou reached over to the counter and grabbed the mail. "These are for you, Bakura. I think they're all bills." "You didn't check, did you?" Ryou winced at the sharpness. For some reason, Bakura tended to get irritable if Ryou opened the mail. "No, I didn't open them." "Hmm."
"Also, I have to talk to you about something." Bakura made a show of setting the mail down. "Of course, hikari. What is it?" Ryou hesitated, wondering if he should bring up the dream. He decided against it, knowing how it would sound to his yami, and found something else to ask him. "Our school is going on a trip soon, yami." "And?" "The trip...isn't exactly free. And the money is due at the end of the week."
"Remember, hikari, we don't have much to throw around. If it's not too much, we may be able to see what we can do, but don't get your hopes to high. How much is it?" "180" "Repeat that. 180? As in dollars?! No way, Ryou. We may have a ninth of that left over at the end of the month, and that has to go toward food and other necessities. Why don't you ask Kaiba to loan you the money? I'm sure it won't be a problem and we'll find some way to pay him back, eventually."
"He can't. His financial advisor won't let him. Normally Seto wouldn't listen, but this guy is already blackmailing him over being with Jou. Even if Seto fired him, the tabloids would walk all over the 'gay CEO' story. He can't do anything much at all. We're planning a way to get rid of him, but in the mean time, no cigar."
"Sorry, Ryou. What about your other friends? No one?" "Nope. Yami's had to run the shop since Ji-san (yes he calls Yugi's grandpa that) is in the hospital, Jou's worse off than we are, and Mali and Mar are having to pay for themselves since it's not mandatory."
"If not, then what's the big deal about going?" "I'd just like to get out of the city for a few days, see a new place. I just thought..." "I'm sorry, hikari. I have to say no. We just can't handle it. Maybe you can go if there is a trip next year." Ryou sighed. "Okay, Yami. I'm going to my room, alright?"
"That's fine." He put his plate in the sink, but as he walked out he muttered, "I'm going on that trip. Somehow, I will." But the only idea he got was, of course, the way Jou was going to pay for it. And if he wanted to do that, he'd have to head over to the bad part of town. He put a cloak from before the move on over himself, so no one would recognize him, and climbed down the fire escape, seemingly in a trance.
'I'm not going to do it,' he told himself. 'I'm just going to check this 'service' thing out...'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Well, hopefully that was a little better than the last chapter. I' bet the characters are still a little flat, but I don't write personalities that well. *Shrug* Well anyway, please-please-please review and tell me what you think? I'll owe you a good long review on your own fics if you help me out.
***** Question
Do any of you think I need to raise the rating? I don't really know what would be counted as 'R', so I couldn't tell you if mine should be. Would anyone help me out? Pleeeeeeease??? :-(
Thanks
Hidden Guardian
I wasn't expecting to get as good of reviews as I did on the first chapter. Who knows, if this keeps up, IIPTB may include my first lemon. Only if you really beg for it, though. My friends would never support this...Oh well! I've rambled on enough. On with the fic!
Special thanks to "Princess of Mirrors." That was truly quite a review. I'll use your advice.
Thanks to all my lovely reviewers.
Hidden Guardian
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In the morning, Ryou went into the kitchen to make breakfast for himself and Jou. He hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, at least not a proper one. All night, Jou's words had been buzzing about in his head. He had never heard of such an absurd idea before, but Jou accepted it as an everyday thing. He made himself a bowl of cereal, frowning at the memory of whopping mounds of pancakes. Not anymore, though. He sighed over his cheerios.
A few minutes later, Jou walked in and helped himself to the same. "You sleep okay?" he asked the albino boy. "Fine, you?" Jou gave him a look. "You were moanin in ya' sleep. 'M almos afraid to ask what you was dreamin bout." Ryou whapped him with a magazine. "I'll thank you to leave your perverted mind in the bedroom." "Only if you're in dere wit me. The way you were moanin, mm-mm, nice." Both of the boys laughed at this.
"It was nothing like that. I was just thinking too much." "Not bout wha I said las night was it?" Ryou blushed and nodded. "Well, you think abou all of wha I said: it ain' right for ya'." "But it is for you, right?" "Les jus drop it, eh?" Ryou felt like doing nothing less, but at that moment, the lock on the front door clicked. He ran into the living room to meet Bakura, who staggered in a second or two later. "For God's sake, 'Kura. You weren't at work all night, were you?" The yami gave him a tired nod. "Got today off, though. I need sleep. I'll see you when I plan to rejoin the living."
Ryou frowned. It was stupid of him, but he had hoped that he and Bakura would spend the yami's whole say off together. "Would you like something to eat, first?" "Nah." He ruffled Ryou's hair and kissed his forehead. "Night." "Bakura, you really should eat," he insisted, falling into mother- hen mode. Bakura pinned him with a glare. "I'm going to sleep, and then, when I wake up, I will eat. Okay?" The edge in his voice made Ryou back off.
When he got back into the kitchen, he saw Jou in a most peculiar position. He was sitting under the table, raising his head up to thump against it. "Is...something wrong?" "I swea' to God I forgot sommat', but I don' remember what." "I see. And, this may be a stupid question, but why are you hitting your head of the table?" "Ta' give muh brain a jum'-start."
Personally, Ryou had never heard anything more silly, but Jou was who Jou was. *Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.* "I rememba' now! I'm 'sposed to met Sets at elev'n. Wha time'sit?" Ryou checked the clock. "Ten thirty." "Damn!" Jou raced around the house, gathering his stuff. "Sorry, Ry, I gotta' split. See ya'." He dashed out, missing the hurt look on Ryou's face. 'Great, I'm all alone again. Bakura won't get up for a few hours yet.'
He went into his room and pulled a few books from his shelf. It was a rather interesting series called Confidential Confessions. Sure it was a girls' series, but Ryou was really sensitive for a guy. He opened up the fourth book and started to read. When Mai had loaned him her books, he hadn't understood them, but as he read them again, with Jou's words still in his head, he started to make the connection.
But why would anyone do that by choice? Who would want to sell themselves and put a price on something so valuable? It seemed rather foolish to him. Surely the things that Jou had told him about weren't as common as the books made it seem. It couldn't be, he told himself assuredly.
He placed the book back on the shelf and laid himself, boredly, on the couch. 'Well, maybe I should get something done today rather than just lay here.' Yet he couldn't convince himself to move. He was in laze-mode after having stayed up late with Jou. He wasn't going to sleep, he just...wanted to...rest. No, he was just...resting his...eyes...zzz.
*** Dream ***
Ryou gasped and panted as a faceless stranger ran his hands all over the young hikari's chest, sharp nails digging into the flesh. He moaned out a name he couldn't remember after having said it. Icy blue eyes (no, it's not Seto) stared down at him, lust as apparent as any emotion could be. But something was wrong. This was not his Bakura. No, he would not do this with someone else.
"Let me go," he cried up to the man who was now kissing down his throat. "Let me go! Bakura!!!" But no one came, and the stranger didn't let up. "Leave me be! I don't want this!" Again, he was ignored. The faceless stranger continued down to his chest, taunting him in ways that were unaccustomed to his mind. It was a surprise to him that this unidentifiable stranger was being kinder to him than his own lover.
Soft hands slid down his sides to clutch his hips as the one above him moved even lower...all Ryou could do was look up and stare into the eyes of a man who was about to do things with him like the things Bakura would have him do.
After it was all over, the man pulled a wallet out of his jacket and pulled out a handful of bills. "It's all there. I hope to see you again," the stranger told him. Ryou didn't respond as he picked up the money, discreetly counting it. It was more money than he had held in all the months since his father had kicked them out put together.
"Well? Another night?" Ryou pulled his head to his chest. "I think so."
*** Dream Ended ***
Ryou sat strait up in his bed, face red, and panting. 'What in the world?' He looked all around with wide eyes. 'Oh thank God. It was only a dream. That was scary.' He looked down to where his hand was clenched, only air where in his dream had been money. 'Yikes, that was creepy.'
He thought back to the strong hands touching places on him that were meant to be for Bakura only. 'I need to stop listening to Jou. I'm having dreams about this stuff now.' He laid back against the pillows reaching over to grab the clock. Only fifteen minutes had passed since he had last checked it. That meant Bakura would still be asleep, and in no mood to be woken up.
He decided to act as normal as he could until his yami awoke to talk to him. Pulling his hair back, he followed his usual routine of cleaning up the mess in the apartment. Once he could see the floor again, he headed down the stairs to the bottom floor to get the mail, since he had gotten the feeling that it hadn't been gotten the day before.
A neighbor was down in the mailroom collecting his own mail. "How ya' doin', boy? You and that brother of yours doin' alright?" Ryou hid a chuckle at the idea of Bakura being his brother and answered in the affirmative. "Yes, sir. We're both doing quite well." He pulled out the handful of letters, near-horror-struck to see that it was all bills, save one postcard from Anzu who was away on a trip.
Discarding the postcard as her normal 'miss you; wish you were here,' he took a peek at where the bills had come from. "Ah, that time of the month, eh? Well, at least these apartments aren't too expensive." Ryou was too ashamed to mention how hard Bakura had to work to pay for it. "Well, anyway, you and your brother come around some time, and you tell me if you guys havin' any problems."
Ryou nodded to him. "Yes sir, we will." After the man left, he sighed in relief. Something about that guy had never sat right with him. He didn't know what, it was just a gut feeling. Hmm...well, Bakura didn't like him, anyway. When he got back upstairs, he proceeded to make dinner while unconsciously counting the minutes until Bakura would wake himself up.
Finally the smell of food lured the yami out of his room and into the kitchen. "*Yawn* Morning 'kari." "More like afternoon. Evening, even. You slept the whole day away, Yami." Bakura groaned. "Don't you start whining, I had a hard night." "Sorry," Ryou apologized shortly. "Well, whatever." Bakura sat down in his spot at the head of the table while Ryou sat at his side. "What happened to Dog?" "If you mean Jou, he had to leave because of plans he had made with Seto."
"Please don't tell me what those plans were for. Insatiable mutt." "Jou's my friend, Bakura." "And? He's not mine." After eating in silence for a bit, Ryou reached over to the counter and grabbed the mail. "These are for you, Bakura. I think they're all bills." "You didn't check, did you?" Ryou winced at the sharpness. For some reason, Bakura tended to get irritable if Ryou opened the mail. "No, I didn't open them." "Hmm."
"Also, I have to talk to you about something." Bakura made a show of setting the mail down. "Of course, hikari. What is it?" Ryou hesitated, wondering if he should bring up the dream. He decided against it, knowing how it would sound to his yami, and found something else to ask him. "Our school is going on a trip soon, yami." "And?" "The trip...isn't exactly free. And the money is due at the end of the week."
"Remember, hikari, we don't have much to throw around. If it's not too much, we may be able to see what we can do, but don't get your hopes to high. How much is it?" "180" "Repeat that. 180? As in dollars?! No way, Ryou. We may have a ninth of that left over at the end of the month, and that has to go toward food and other necessities. Why don't you ask Kaiba to loan you the money? I'm sure it won't be a problem and we'll find some way to pay him back, eventually."
"He can't. His financial advisor won't let him. Normally Seto wouldn't listen, but this guy is already blackmailing him over being with Jou. Even if Seto fired him, the tabloids would walk all over the 'gay CEO' story. He can't do anything much at all. We're planning a way to get rid of him, but in the mean time, no cigar."
"Sorry, Ryou. What about your other friends? No one?" "Nope. Yami's had to run the shop since Ji-san (yes he calls Yugi's grandpa that) is in the hospital, Jou's worse off than we are, and Mali and Mar are having to pay for themselves since it's not mandatory."
"If not, then what's the big deal about going?" "I'd just like to get out of the city for a few days, see a new place. I just thought..." "I'm sorry, hikari. I have to say no. We just can't handle it. Maybe you can go if there is a trip next year." Ryou sighed. "Okay, Yami. I'm going to my room, alright?"
"That's fine." He put his plate in the sink, but as he walked out he muttered, "I'm going on that trip. Somehow, I will." But the only idea he got was, of course, the way Jou was going to pay for it. And if he wanted to do that, he'd have to head over to the bad part of town. He put a cloak from before the move on over himself, so no one would recognize him, and climbed down the fire escape, seemingly in a trance.
'I'm not going to do it,' he told himself. 'I'm just going to check this 'service' thing out...'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Well, hopefully that was a little better than the last chapter. I' bet the characters are still a little flat, but I don't write personalities that well. *Shrug* Well anyway, please-please-please review and tell me what you think? I'll owe you a good long review on your own fics if you help me out.
***** Question
Do any of you think I need to raise the rating? I don't really know what would be counted as 'R', so I couldn't tell you if mine should be. Would anyone help me out? Pleeeeeeease??? :-(
Thanks
Hidden Guardian