Author's Note: Chapter 2 has undergone the 2018 edit! Hehe. We get a bit more of Kaiba's perspective in this chapter!

'...' yami to hikari

"..." hikari to yami

Ryou ran a small but fluffy towel through his thick mass of hair, drying off his silver tresses.

He loved taking baths, especially when he felt particularly sticky before he did. The water washed away not only the oil and dirt from his skin, but also took away irritation, stress, and even fatigue from his senses - even if all this was just temporary.

Too bad even soothing bath could not take away a certain annoying spirit from his midst.

'D'oh, I sensed that, you know…'

"I bet you did, Einstein, since we do share a body, and technically, a mind as well."

'Whatever. I still can't believe you took up that Priest's job. It's degrading. Extremely so.'

"It isn't even confirmed if I get the job. Just going for the interview this Saturday. Plus, if I do get the job, we'd be able to pay off all the bills and get everything repaired in a month."

'May I remind you that those are your bills, not mine. Also, after we get things repaired, they WILL get broken in time, that I sincerely assure you, my dear hikari.'

"YOU were the main reason why I even needed the McDonald's™ job!" Ryou growled mentally in frustration. "Another word from you about this job, and I shall dream of flying pink unicorns and grasslands full of pansies. It will NOT be pretty for you."

'Ahh…Fair is foul, and foul is fair…'

"Stop quoting Macbeth, please, and quit fooling around in my head. You do remember how horrible I can make your life in my head be if I'm stressed, right?"

'Fine…Sissy bitch…'

With that, the spirit retreated to his soul room.

Ryou sighed. As strange and irritating as those situations could get, he still could not imagine what life would be like without his dark. He could not seem to remember how his life had been when the ancient spirit was not around. For the past few years, he had been used to his lurking presence in his mind. The predictability of it all gave him a sense of calmness, in some strange way.

Earlier that day, Ryou had called Kaiba Corporation to inquire about the job. The secretary on the other line seemed to be extremely busy, and tersely gave a few additional details on the interview, like what to wear and the exact time and date of the appointment, before hastily hanging up.

Kaiba's employees could learn a thing or two about etiquette, Ryou thought. But then again, they were Kaiba's employees...

Ryou's interview was to be held three days after he made his phone call, at 3pm, in Kaiba Corporation HQ.

Great, he had three days to learn interview skills, speak normally, and make sure his yami would be too occupied to interfere on that particular day.

It was starting to look like the 72 hours leading up to the interview wasn't enough.

It did not bother him that he was trying to get a job from who was probably Yugi's greatest rival, as well as the person who ranked high in his yami's list of "Annoying Re-incarnations of People from Ancient Egypt".

Well, there weren't a lot of people who qualified to be in that list to begin with, but still...The possibility was quite high that the spirit would go all-out to spite the members of said list whenever the opportunity arose.

Ryou couldn't understand his dark, sometimes. He doubted he ever will.

Seto Kaiba was not as heartless as people give him credit for, with his stoic attitude and seemingly arrogant behavior.

His steely cobalt eyes and towering stature easily make anyone intimidated by him. And even a fleeting glare from the young CEO would instantly make anyone under its reach scamper from his sight.

Kaiba found a teeny tiny space in his heart to forgive people who were naturally hopelessly idiotic, but not to those who intentionally acted retarded, often giving others a false impression of themselves.

(He did not include Jounouchi under this category, as dogs are known to be of a lesser species than humans, and have an IQ slightly higher than those of goldfishes and guppies. He hated animals. They gave him allergies).

He accepted the fact that there were people who had certain mental illnesses, such as multiple personality disorders, for one. He could make sense of that; life isn't perfect.

What sickened him, however, was if people did nothing to rectify their problems, and intentionally burdened everyone around them with their incompetence. Their indolence provoked the older Kaiba to be more than a little annoyed with these people, given the sacrifices he made to be as successful as he was at the present day.

He didn't dislike imperfection. He just disliked those who didn't work on themselves, despite the many opportunities to do so.

Seto Kaiba wasn't a fan of many things. In particular, he was never fond of those who craved attention and made a racket anywhere they went, their voices blaring as though amplified through loudspeakers.

Given this pet peeve of his, it made sense that Kaiba never had a soft spot for Yugi and his retinue of cheerleaders.

What added salt to his ire what when the smaller boy began beating him at Duel Monsters despite his own superior deck, and he could do nothing but watch his Duel Monsters career careen into the abyss. Taking the series of defeats all too personally, he began insulting spiky haired boy's close-knit group of friends. They, in turn, started distancing themselves from him too.

Even the "friendship lover" Mazaki stopped trying to be friends with him, after he publicly humiliated her at school, "unintentionally" making her trip down the school's main entrance steps while she was halfway through one of her brain-killing friendship speeches.

Kaiba didn't mean to be rude. He didn't mean to be anti-social. It was just a defense mechanism of sorts, his way of making sense of the new reality he found himself in. The new reality that he wasn't the absolute best at everything - Duel Monsters in particular.

And hey, it wasn't as if his rudeness wasn't appreciated. He noticed one of Yugi's friends - Bakura, he thinks - betray a split-second snicker when Mazaki "tripped", before quickly hiding all evidence of amusement beneath a facade of concern for the group's lead "cheerleader".

Speaking of his white-haired schoolmate, Bakura was listed as one of the candidates Kaiba was to interview for a new opening at Kaiba Corporation in a few days. Bakura's application certainly piqued Kaiba's interest enough - he didn't have the impression that Bakura, or anyone in Yugi's group other than Jounouchi, was in want of cash.

Kaiba didn't reserve the same extent of irritation for Bakura as he did for the rest of Yugi's group. In fact, Kaiba reserved a bit of respect for him. The mysterious duelist never cheered as wholeheartedly (read: annoyingly) as the rest of his comrades, and was quite the able duelist who won his fair share of matches. He held his own weight in the game, even when circumstances turned bleak. Despite his capacity to sometimes laugh maniacally on the Duel Monsters area, Ryou Bakura seemed the most sane out of Yugi's little group, usually quiet and anti-social on most occasions that didn't involve the card game.

Ryou Bakura was an interesting specimen, Kaiba thought. And given his history with Duel Monsters, we know that Seto Kaiba never takes his interests lightly.

For his own reasons, Kaiba was looking forward to the interview as much Ryou was.

Chapter End Notes:

Chapter 2 done! What awaits our two lead characters in their fated meeting? More to come in the next chapter!