Chapter 3
Yami slowly came to full awareness. His eyes fluttered opened and he let out a girlish scream as he came face to face with a Tomb Robber with a bloodthirsty grin. He lurched backward – a little too far – and landed on the floor with a thud! Bakura nearly killed himself laughing, clutching his stomach as he lay on the bed laughing his ass off. He let out a sigh when he finally managed to wrestle his laughter under control and reduce it to a few chuckles that escaped every now and again.
"Was there any need for that?" Came a disgruntled voice from the vicinity of the floor.
"'Course there was; it was funny as hell! You scream like a girl, Pharaoh." Yami rolled his eyes in lieu of answering.
"Where's the bathroom? And do you have a change of clothes here?" he asked as he got up off the floor, changing the subject.
"It's through there and why do you need a change of clothes?" he said, staring pointedly at the clothes Yami was wearing. Yami rolled his eyes again.
"These clothes are filthy; they got soaked yesterday in the rain where they got dirty and they weren't cleaned. And it's so easy to stain leather. I can't wear these home." He crossed his arms over his chest in a stance that practically said I-just-dare-you-to-argue-against-me.
"Oh bloody hell. You sure you're not a girl?" Yami shot him a baleful glare which caused Bakura to grin. "And enlighten me as to how you will be getting home."
"Oh don't act more stupid than you already are." Bakura snarled at that. "You're taking me home." Bakura laughed again.
"I'm not taking you home. I don't know where you got the idea that I was. Now run along Pharaoh," he added with a smirk as he saw Yami open his mouth to argue, "I'm sure you're just itching to get out of those oh-so-dirty clothes." Yami just shot him a withering look before entering the bathroom, slamming the door harder than necessary behind him.
xXx
"Well Pharaoh, is there any hot water left?" Bakura sneered as Yami re-entered the room, steam billowing out behind him. Yami just shot him a glare and made his way over to the wardrobe in the corner of the room. He made sure the towel was securely around his waist before diving into the depths of the wardrobe, looking for some suitable clothing.
"You know, this childish behaviour isn't going to encourage me to take you home any sooner." Yami grew angry.
"I'm acting childishly? You're the one who seems to get some perverse pleasure from refusing to take me home." Fully dressed now in jeans and a t-shirt (courtesy of Bakura), Yami rounded on Bakura, who was reclining on the bed like he didn't have an irritated Pharaoh that was finally losing his patience and his temper in front of him. "Why the fuck can't I go home!" Bakura's eyes widened – making him look remarkably like his hikari – in an 'I'm to innocent to do any wrong' look and pointed to himself as if to say, 'who, me?'.
"You can go home any time you want Pharaoh. I'm not stopping you." Yami didn't have to be looking at the Tomb Robber to know that he had a huge shit-eating grin on his face.
Yami felt like tearing his hair out. That, or strangling the Tomb Robber just to vent his frustrations. "Yes," he began, deceptively calm, "I could go home anytime I wanted…if I knew where the fuck I was! You'd think that someone who hates me as much as you claim to would be shoving me through the door in his haste to get rid of me."
All signs of joking disappeared from Bakura at that statement, and he became unusually solemn. "Yeah, you'd think that, wouldn't you?" Sensing he was on the verge of a breakthrough, Yami pressed forward, determined to get some answers out of the Tomb Robber.
"Why don't you want me to go home, Bakura?" He shocked himself with his use of Bakura's actual name but figured that it would get through to him much better than calling him 'Tomb Robber' would.
"Did you know that this is the first time we've been alone together since Duellist Kingdom?" he said, not answering the question. Yami laughed with forced humour, trying to diffuse the strange atmosphere that had descended on the situation.
"That's because everyone is scared that we'll destroy each other if we're left by ourselves." Bakura smiled at that, but it was so sad that Yami had to look away.
"This may sound really…strange Pharaoh, but I just wanted us to spend a little time together without us duelling in a shadow game with deadly stakes." Yami was officially confused now. If the Tomb Robber hated him then why would he want to spend time with him?
"I don't understand. Why would you want to spend time with me if you hate me?" Bakura fell back onto the bed and threw his arms over his eyes. He sighed before answering.
"I ask myself that sometimes. I hate you for what happened to my village…or at least I used to hate you. I'm still angry about what happened, don't get me wrong, but I just don't…hate...you anymore." Wow, talk about revelations. Yami had no idea any of this was going on.
"What brought about this change? As far as I knew you hated me with a passion."
"Three years is a long time to think about things Pharaoh, and I realised that although I vowed revenge for what happened at Kuru Eruna, I can't kill the one person who authorised it, and killing his son won't do anything for me." Bakura smirked humourlessly. "That and I realised something else that prevented me from killing you."
A deep sense of foreboding hit Yami as Bakura said those words. He had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't like what that reason was, but morbid curiosity drove him to ask.
"So what else did you realise that stopped you from, well…trying to kill me?"
"I'm in love with you."
xXx
Yami blinked.
Then he blinked again.
He opened his mouth to say something – anything! – but all that managed to escape was a strangled squeak. He decided that shutting his mouth was the best option at that moment in time because he knew that all he would manage to do is make a fool out of himself. He collapsed on the bed next to Bakura.
"Well," he said after his heart had moved from clogging his throat to beating wildly in his chest. "What can I say?" He ran both hands through his hair roughly then dropped his head into them.
"Nothing," Came the somewhat subdued voice from Bakura. "I don't expect you to say anything." He smirked again. "I just thought that you might want to know."
"So, ah…when did you realise that you felt this way…about me?"
"Whenever we met up. We'd have arguments and fights but…I realised that I didn't mean the things I was saying." A scowl appeared on Bakura's face. "However I really knew that I…you know, when I felt jealous and angry whenever Anzu threw herself at you." He finally turned to look at Yami and said accusingly, "And you let her."
Yami raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "Hey, it wasn't my fault; she had a crush on me and I didn't want to tell her to get off because I didn't want to hurt her feelings and–" he stopped himself mid sentence and glared at Bakura. "I don't have to explain myself to you, Tomb Robber." He crossed his arms and turned away from Bakura, so he missed the disappointment that flashed in Bakura's eyes.
"So what happens no–"
"Do you want some breakfast?" Bakura interrupted quietly.
Yami smiled, "Yeah that would be nice."
"Great, the kitchen's just through there. I'm sure you can find everything that you need." The smile dropped from Yami's face and he scowled at Bakura's next statement. "I like my eggs scrambled, thank you." Bakura put his arms behind his head and lay back on the bed, eyes closed. When he felt no movement coming from the vicinity of where Yami was, he opened one eye and glared. "Well, hop to it." Yami jumped to his feet, incensed.
"You must be joking; you can get it yourself you lazy son of a bitch." And with that he stormed off towards the kitchen, once again slamming the door behind him. It wasn't until he was looking in the fridge to find food for himself (not Bakura) that he realised what Bakura had done. He managed to diffuse an awkward situation just by being his usual arrogant self. Yami laughed and shook his head. "Sneaky Tomb Robber."
xXx
After they finished eating breakfast, they put their dishes in the dishwasher (Yami did end up making breakfast for the both of them but thoroughly regretted it now, and felt like throwing Bakura out of a plane without a parachute; anything to get that Ra damned smirk off his face.) they made their way back to the bedroom-slash-living room where they both collapsed on the bed.
"So what do you plan on doing now?" Yami found that since finding out that Bakura was in love with him (it still felt weird to say that in reference to himself) and that he didn't really hate him, he was a lot easier to talk to. Oh, he could still piss Yami off very easily, but they weren't constantly at each other's throat.
"Carrying on doing what I was doing before we got sidetracked with this; kidnap Mokuba."
"But why?"
"Hey, I ain't got anything against the kid; it's just that asshole of a brother he has that pisses me off. And besides, Kaiba's practically swimming in it; a few hundred thousand won't put him out."
"Why not just break into his house and steal the money in there, a-and besides, Mokuba will recognise you anyway."
"If I do that I won't get nearly as much as if I kidnapped his little brother. Oh and with a little help from the Ring, he won't remember a thing." Yami licked his lips in apprehension of what he was about to do. He knew he was going to regret this but…Mokuba was such a nice kid who'd gone through so much because of people who wanted to get to Kaiba and chose him as the way to do it. Besides, good people who do nothing are just as bad as the people causing the problems in the first place. He looked at Bakura.
"Um…how about if I…" he licked his lips again and dropped his head, unable to look Bakura in the eye and say what he wanted. "What if I pretended to be your boyfriend? Would that get you to leave Mokuba alone?"
There was silence.
Then, "Okay, if you become my boyfriend, then I'll leave the Kaibas alone."
"Fine." At the grin on Bakura's face he got a terrible feeling in his stomach.
Why did he suddenly feel like he sold his soul to the devil?
xXx
Sorry this was so late but my mum (still very angry with her about this) cut off all internet access in my house just as the summer hols started, so there was nowhere for me to update. In my library, you have to be over 18 to use the computers so…I hope you'll all forgive me.
I can't believe I got so many reviews! 17 for the first 2 chapters, you guys are all amazing. You readers in the Yu Gi Oh fandom are all so very nice.
So, a cliff-hanger (sort of); I love ending my chapters on an ominous note. How will Yami last being boyfriend to the only person that has the unique ability to piss him off? What will he tell Yugi? How will he handle doing the things that boyfriends do? Like kissing (and everything that comes after –wink, wink-)! I'm havingwaaaaaaay toomuch fun writing this fic