Make Yourself
Chapter 15: Happy Birthday to Me
By: Maiya Asuka

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

Emi and Taro Miyako were subjects that seldom came up in Bakura's conversation. Emi Ryou, Bakura's mother, was almost as famous as her son; she produced a handful of world-renowed music artists, singers, and bands of all varieties and genres. Bakura's parents, from Ryou's understanding, had hardly a role at all in Bakura's life now that he was a grown man and living on his own. Plus, it's not as if Bakura and Emi ever had any time for each other. No matter how close they were and had always been, there simply wasn't any time.

The thought saddened Bakura a great deal.

As for Taro Miyako, he often served as a voice coach for some of Emi's singers and popstars. But Taro had grown tired and weary having his only son go off into the world of the entertainment industry with none of their guidance. It was a worse feeling than Bakura's leaving for college for the first time, even.

This is why Bakura always invited his parents over for his birthday. At least it guaranteed the three that they would see each other no less than one time a year. They were, spiritually and emotionally, a very close family.

Bakura was born to a teen mother--15 years old, to be exact. Unable to care for a child, he was left to be put up for adoption. Cue Emi and Taro Miyako, who take the young child under their wing. Therefore, that would make Bakura's true name "Bakura Miyako." However, shortly after falling in love with Ryou, he found himself changing his last name to "Ryou", simply to honor his partner. Ryou, finding the idea to be very sweet, decided to also change his family name from "Kita" to "Bakura." (Well, actually, the change wasn't legally official since his parents would be furious with such an act of "disrespect.")

Emi, who adored Ryou and thought the name change was cutely romantic, also made herself an alias in her profession. Now, instead of "Miyako Emi", she was "Emi Ryou." It also helped others make the inference that she was the proud mother of Bakura Ryou of the smash hit band, The Sleep. Taro, however, held onto the family name in order to maintain the family's true origin; that was just fine with Emi and Bakura.

Now, Ryou was "meeting" Emi and Taro for the first time. Bakura's parents had heard about his predicament almost right after the entire mess with the car crash and the ordeal with Ryou's overly-strict parents. Emi knew it would take a lot of restriction to pretend she was just now being introduced to Ryou. She greatly approved of Ryou and embraced the two as a perfect couple.

Taro was not as crazy for Ryou as Emi was, but he saw nothing wrong with the couple either, and supported Bakura's decisions when it came to his relationships.

"R-Ryou, right?" Emi said shakily, extending her hand equally as nervously.

Ryou was confused by the strange woman, but forced a weak smile regardless, shaking her hand. "Miyako-san? It's nice to meet you; you're such a brain behind some of the greatest bands these days. You're doing a stellar job."

Emi squealed lightly and hugged Ryou almost a bit too tightly. "Thank you! Ryou, it's so nice to s—meet you. I've, I've heard so much about you from Bakura. H-he talks about you all the time, he does." She could almost sense tears coming but she managed to hold them back better than she had managed to hold back her excitement.

Ryou gave Bakura a confused glance, and the older man answered: "You know. Moms will be moms. She's been dying to meet my boyfriend for forever." As he began his last sentence, he wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him closer.

Ryou smiled at Emi and Taro, but then quickly turned back to his lover and hissed, "Are you sure she isn't spazzing because she's homophobic or something? I mean, honestly, you can tell me."

Bakura felt his teeth bite down on the side of his tongue. He could not tell the truth now, but how could he lie to him either? "N-no, they're just stressed from countless amounts of hard days' work. You know? A little overdose and caffine will make you stutter a lot, you know? No worries."

As the two similar looking teens whispered a conversation, Taro and Emi also appeared to be having a frantic conversation of their own. What words were being used, Ryou could not say, but it was certainly about him (this based on the glances the couple kept throwing at him) and he did not like it. Still, who was he to call Bakura a liar? That would not be very fair when he had no absolutely solid evidence? "Okay," he said slowly, "but if things get too odd…"

"They won't. They won't."

In his pariphial vision, Ryou noticed Emi snatch Taro by the arm and drag him off to a more private location a few steps down the hallway.

"Can you believe we're finally seeing him again? I thought it would be years before we were able to see him! But look at him, Taro. He's so skinny. I really hope Bakura has been making him eat plenty. You know how Ryou really never did have a large apetite. Oh, do you think that Tanak and Kuro have been bothering him or giving them trouble? You know how much he likes him and everything. There's sure to be some drama."

"You're worrying too much. Bakura's a good guy. He knows how to handle all of this. And he wouldn't be so careless as to let Ryou not eat enough."

"I guess you're right. Well, I hope you are, anyway."

Bakura, Seto, Yami, and Marik worked together to rent out an entire club for the night for his exclusive "1-9." Naturally, being exclusive, it was invitation-only, and beyond that fairly small list, there were only a handful of people on the VIP list. Among that VIP list were: Ryou, everyone from MassoKissed, everyone from The Sleep, various Japanese bands that were affiliated with The Sleep, Bakura's parents, and some other cool artists they met through Emi.

Mike and Ran arrived together with their arms linked in one another and a 12-pack of beers in the guy's other hand. "I got the freak fuel right here."

Bakura smirked, slapped the back of Mike's hand lightly and snapped, "Shame on you, Mike! Alchohol is disgusting and potentially deadly. What if one of us were to go out driving drunk and got killed? Would you like to carry such a heavy burden on your shoulders?"

Mike only blinked in confusion of this lecture, but then Bakura leaned over to Ran's ear. "The club policy doesn't allow others to bring beer in. We've got plenty inside, though, so don't worry about it." He looked at the black-clad bouncer and said, "They're okay. Let them in."

The main room, while plenty of fun with good music to dance to and hot guys and gals, was beginning to pale in comparison to the things going on in the VIP room. Events scheduled for the VIP room included wet T-shirt contests, many more free drinks, visual kei cosplay contests, karaoke/lap-dance contests, shot-girls (much like what Ran was dressed up as on the boat a few days ago) and more.

However, the biggest event of the night was a concert planned to last from nine to about one in the morning. Seto managed to reach visual kei legend Niikura Kaoru, who had miraculously agreed to join the guys in putting on this concert. So the itenerary consisted of The Sleep, MassoKissed, and Dir en Grey. Not too shabby, Bakura told himself.

That was about two hours away, however, so in the meantime, Mike latched onto Bakura's arm. The pounding bass made it almost impossible to hear any voices, so as loud as he possibly could, he screamed: "Let's go be judges for the karaoke and lap dance contest!" He smirked. "It'll be cool. Let's go?"

Bakura frowned for a moment, looking at Ryou, who had heard Mike as well. The Birthday Boy did not have to say anything. "Don't worry about it. It's your birthday, after all. Have fun."

Ryou, who found himself bored relatively quickly without Bakura, took a seat at a stool by the bar counter. A tall and thin man, unaware of who exactly Ryou was, leaned over the counter and said, "You don't seem quite old enough for anything I've got back here, guy."

Ryou opened his mouth to say something, but was covered for by Emi, who seemed to come from nowhere and reply, "You got water, don't you? Please bring us two."

The bartender obeyed. After reaching for his glass of water, he smiled at Bakura's mother. "Thank you."

"No problem," she winked. "Vin's a perv. He only pays attention to the legal ones."

"O-oh." Ryou chuckled a bit to mask his blushing.

Emi leaned over on her left elbow and spoke to Ryou between sips through a straw. "So, Ryou. What's your story? How long have you been with my son?" She planted this question in order to test whether or not he had his memory back yet.

He was not sure of the answer to that question himself. "Oh, I don't know. A-a while."

Emi studied Ryou's face gently for a moment before grinning broadly. "Is the ice water making you tremble or do you always stutter this much?"

Ryou, feeling more and more uncomfortable, only laughed.

The woman offered back a small laugh, but focused on her inquiry. "Honestly, though. You needn't be nervous around me, or worry that I'm always judging you, or anything like that. I'm a mother, not a boyfriend appraiser. Ah, but what is the difference, you may be thinking?"

The two of them laughed at her light joke.

Her face reverted back into a serious state once again. "Really. I'm not like most mothers of young adults, who hog their children for themself and lecture their children all day about how 'bad' this girlfriend or that guyfriend is for them. I try to lead my son by example, but I give him plenty of room to make his own victories and mistakes. And, most importantly, I do believe that you are a '10' and therefore a victory that my son has met."

Ryou blushed again and scratched the back of his head. "Thank you, Miyako-san. I am flattered."

"You were feeling a bit uneasy when you first met myself and Bakura's father, were you not? I could tell. Anyway, you can let your guard down, you know. Otherwise you might be exhausting yourself. Nobody's judging you. And if they are, then it's always a satisfied judgment."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure," nodded Emi. She looked around the dimly lit VIP room for a moment before continuing. "You really should find your boyfriend now. Or at least get up on your feet and have some fun." She said nothing else, as she had finished her beverage, and strode off with a pat on Ryou's shoulder.

But Ryou, feeling a bit out of place with this whole party scene, did not end up getting to his feet for a while.

In the meantime, Marik took a seat next to him.

"Why don't you go play some grab-ass with your beau, or something?" He smirked.

"Uhh, I'd like to, but I don't really feel comfortable here. At this club, I mean."

Marik looked around and shrugged. "All the more reason to go out and do something crazy. The more people know you and warm up to you, the more 'comfortable' you'll be, man. That's how night clubs work."

"I don't know."

Marik watched Bakura, who was wearing a plain white T-shirt, get beer poured over him. What happened to girls doing those contests? he thought, shaking his head. "You're right," he said whistfully and slowly. Reverse psychology was becoming his forte. "I mean, Ran and the other guys seem to be having so much fun with him. I'd hate to go and actually claim my boyfriend's ass if I were you. What was I thinking?" He stood up. "Have a good evening."

A bit more sarcasm than reverse psychology, Marik mumbled to himself.

Only a few more minutes passed before Bakura's whisper crept over to his ears. "Guess who won the Wet T-shirt Contest for the guys' division?"

Ryou jumped and then turned to observe him. That white shirt was long gone, leaving Bakura in a pair of alchohol-soaked jeans. His white hair was tossed and tassled, as well.

Bakura wrapped an arm around Ryou's waist. "I've been lonely all night without you. Why don't you get up and dance with me?"

"I-I'm not a big party person."

"Yea, right. Did you tell that to everyone on the boat right before you got a major hangover? I think not."

Ryou put his hand on Bakura's but shook his head. "That's because I started drinking."

"Didn't you become my boyfriend so you could spend more time with me? Besides, you've done more 'indecent' things than dance with me at a club. We could go into the main room of the club, too. Where it's not as crazy. Please?" He smiled at Ryou and kissed him quickly on the lips, then poking his cheek with an index finger and making a "pouting" face.

This was the first time in a while that Bakura was acting… cute.

"Okay," said Ryou, coaxed.

Immediately, Bakura took Ryou's hand and lead him to the larger room. And, as the two of them danced at the center of the floor, Ryou smiled slightly and told himself that he had really been dying all night to dance with Bakura.

"What's the order of bands tonight, Bakura?" demanded Seto, impatient.

"Mike and them all are going first, then us, then Kaoru-sama."

"Mike?" the brunette almost shouted. "Marik said we were going first!"

"Does it matter?"

"No, but I'm getting sick of not being able to rely on that guy. I swear…"

"Don't worry about it right now. This is the first I've heard of us going first. We can change it if it's cool with Mike." Bakura was perched on a stool in front of a mirror, using one of those Conair doo-dads to put temporary color streaks in his hair—this time, they were hot orange, yellow, and red like flames.

"Bakura," Yami changed the subject lightly as he applied his familiar eye make-up, "do you think we should open up the concert to the main room, instead of just the VIP room? You know, it is a lot easier for us to work with a large crowd. Same goes for MassoKissed."

"That's fine. Let's do it."

Ryou walked up to Bakura from behind and, when spotted in the mirror, was waved to. "Do you need something?" asked the older man.

The younger shook his head. "Actually, I came to assist you. You know, if there was anything you needed me to get. I know how hectic things can get back here for you guys."

He looked thoughtful for just a moment. "Hmmm. Could you please go to my closet and get all of the accessories I need for Outfit Seven? Everything for Outfit Seven has an orange tag on it."

After being mystified by Bakura's enormous bureau of jewelry and gloves, he returned with a choker, five necklaces, ten rings, and a pair of black knuckle gloves and set them on the vanity table in front of him.

"'Kura, your hair looks amazing," Ryou noticed in awe.

"Thanks." Bakura turned his head at different angles in the mirror. "Don't you love Conair? Bullshit that you have to have expensive products to get the job done."

A few minutes of silence passed, and then Bakura turned his stool to look back at Ryou.

"Oh! Right. The Sleep has decided we want to go first of the show, so could you do me one more favor? Please go talk to Tanak and ask him if we could swap time slots with them. I'm sure they won't mind."

"Mm-hmm. Is there anything else?"

"Yea. Please announce to the main room that we'll be performing, but don't mention Dir en Grey--that's for the VIPs only. And, you don't need to come back after you've done those things. After all, tonight is probably the last time you will hear us play live in a while."

Marik tilted his head at Bakura once Ryou had left. "Tanak? Why? Mike is the leader of their group."

"Yea, but Tanak is going to be much more of a pushover with Ryou than Mike, what with how much I know he digs him and everything."

"And you do not think that will bother Kuro?"

"Everything bothers Kuro," the band's leader snickered. "But he's just overly possessive. He'll get over it."

Yes, I've returned. I know what you're thinking: "stupid old Maiya hasn't updated in FOREVER!" Actually, I've had a little plan going for a while, but it's hard to submit to when you don't have any HOME INTERNET ACCESS! So, because I'm so generous, I'm giving you--not one, not two, but--three new chapters tonight! (Though I will disclaim that number 17 is an "empty-calorie" chapter as I say, because it was necessary but very short.) I hope everyone enjoys.