(NOTE 3/8/06: Chapters have been restored to their original order! Assuming nothing ELSE goes wrong, here ya go!)

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Man, I loves ta be loved!

Disclaimer: Yugioh not owned here

Claimer: Dammug Beasts and other completely made-up stuff owned right here!

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There was a momentary pause, during which Yami was reminded of his headache as it thrashed what remained of his brain cells, before the nice-looking Bakurah stepped forward and introduced himself.

"My name is Ryou," said the human, "And…Yugi said your name is Yami, right?"

"That is correct," Yami replied, glancing at Yugi.

Yugi - and Jou as well, actually - both had dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Finally Jou spoke up.

"Ryou, I know ya said ya had a way ta keep dat guy in line," Jou said, "But what's with da whistle?"

"Well," Ryou admitted with an embarrassed expression, "I had this book, you see, and -"

"Okay, don't wanna know," Jou immediately interrupted, "Hey Yug', can I use yer phone? I wanna check on Honda."

"Sure," Yugi replied.

Once Jou had left the room, Yami became aware that Ryou was watching him with a thoughtful expression.

"You're the same as Bakura is, aren't you?" Ryou finally asked.

Had he been in any other house besides Yugi's, Yami would have immediately honored the old tradition of spiting on the floor in disgust, but instead he hissed in disbelief.

"Me? If I was the same as that carrion-crow, I'd slit my own throat. Or his," Yami added as the second image was much more appealing, "Yes actually, I'd just kill him in that case."

"I love you too, Pharaoh," Bakurah jeered from inside the kitchen doorway.

"Then again, I think I'll just kill him right now," Yami said as if no one had spoken, "Ryou, may I borrow that whistle?"

Bakurah snarled something under his breath and retreated from the doorway.

"Where did you get this thing, anyway?" Yugi asked as he held up Ryou's whistle, "This looks like a regular whistle to me…"

"It was, but I had this spell…it worked on anything, the first thing I grabbed was that whistle, and I needed to do something before Bakura completely trashed my house," Ryou explained.

"Ryou's really into magic and stuff," Yugi explained to Yami as he gave back Ryou's whistle.

"I see," Yami said, eyeing Yugi's suddenly completely nonchalant expression and wondering where the upset-looking Yugi that had been here five minutes ago had gone to.

The boy wasn't suppressing his emotions, was he? That was unhealthy…for mortals. Yami did it all the time and he always felt fine about it, but he wasn't a mortal.

'At least -'

"Hey, when's dinner gonna be ready? I'm starved!" Jou suddenly yelled, breaking into Yami's thoughts.

Which also reminded Yami to take a look at the time. Now it was past sunset…which made no sense, because the incident with the Korikosos had taken place around dawn. Jou, in his cluelessness, provided the answer.

"Yam', I bet yer really hungry - afta sleepin' for two whole days and then some, I know I'd be!"

Even though Yami's body felt glad for the rest - the longest he'd slept for quite a while - the other news he picked up over the hastily prepared meal was not so good.

The forces of whoever was after Yugi were flooding the city in such numbers now that even regular and otherwise uninvolved humans were becoming aware of them. Jonouchi and Yugi had been stuck inside the last couple of days, being joined only this morning by Ryou and Bakurah.

"Now that the Pharaoh's finished his little nap," Bakurah said around a mouthful of meat - still bleeding, his favorite kind - "We'll be able to go kill something. Although His Highness isn't good for much besides Dammug bait…"

"Why'dya keep callin' Yam' 'Pharaoh'?" Jou inquired, barely pausing in his engulfing of all the food in arm's reach to ask the question.

"That's none of your business," Yami said, not forgetting how much he still disliked the blond at the moment.

"Pharaoh's got a secret, see," Bakurah snickered.

"You watch your mouth as well, Grave-Digger."

"That's Tomb-Robber," Bakurah corrected, "I steal treasure, not bodies."

"Sure, sure," Yami agreed, "That army of the undead you used to order around was just on loan from Lord Osiris, right?"

"You're just jealous that I'm on first name terms with the underworld and you're not," the white-haired necromancer sneered.

Yami remained expressionless.

"Why do I want to be known personally by Ammit? Were you and her on…ah, intimate terms, then?"

Bakurah leapt from his seat, ready to start the physical part of this debate, but when Ryou pulled out his magic whistle the tomb-robber/necromancer froze, and with an expression of pure hatred for all things whistle-shaped Bakurah slowly sat back down.

The room was very quiet for a while, before Yugi broke the silence.

"So, how is Honda? You said they wanted him there for observation…"

"He's gonna be let out in a day or two," Jou answered, "It was da weirdest thing, too - when da docs saw how bad his arm was dey took X-rays right away - ta see if whatever was infectin' da muscle was in da bone or something' like dat. But as soon as da X-rays finished, his arm was almost as good as new! 'Cept for the teeth marks, I mean."

Here, Jou eyed Yami.

"Ya knew it would fix 'em, didn't ya?"

"Oh, that cure's an OLD one," Bakurah sneered, jumping into the conversation before Yami could answer, "Except we used to stake out the victims in the hottest, brightest, driest part of the desert and leave 'em there for a few days. And if you didn't fry," And here Bakurah made very realistic sizzling sound effects, "Then you were cured! Ah, the good old days…"

Jou looked distinctly green. However, since everyone had seen him just eat twice his weight in food, the other humans looked quite concerned that he might throw it all up again.

Especially since if he did, he'd probably be hungry again afterwards.