Change of spell
Purple eyes narrowed as they stared at the page, and pale fists clenched as if Yugi wanted to rip the information they needed out of the paper. Laughing softly, Bakura leaned over and wrapped a hand gently around Yugi's smaller one. The tension in the other's body was instantly replaced by tension of a different sort, and Bakura took care not to show just how much knowing he could make Yugi react tempted him.
"Frustrated?" he asked instead, letting some of his sympathy leak into his voice. Yugi nodded silently, staring at him with wide, dark, amethyst eyes.
/Stop teasing him/ Ryou ordered, sounding annoyed. Bakura obeyed, but not because Ryou had ordered it. He hadn't meant to loosen his control enough to allow Ryou to see what he was doing. Snarling silently, he loosed Yugi's hand and, smiling reassuringly at the boy returned to his work. It seemed that Yugi wasn't the only one whose concentration had been shot to bits.
The words on the page blurred for a moment, then refocused as Bakura concentrated. This spell would be the base for the main spell he wanted to cast if he could find a way to make it work. The problem was that whoever had created this spell had read the advanced books but had never learned the basic rules of magic. Technically the spell would work, but the way it was written the casting of this spell would warp the magic in the area around the user until the spell was reversed.
His brow furrowed slightly as he spotted an inconsistency in the spell. That was something he needed to change, then. Bakura's eyes widened as he realized what he was looking at. He didn't need to change the seeming inconsistency; he needed to change the rest of the spell to fit with that inconsistency. Quickly snatching a piece of paper and a pen he began to scribble his alteration of the spell onto the pure surface, purposefully leaving a few words unfinished. This was powerful enough that he didn't want to write it out fully. Writing was a form of magic after all.
He felt eyes on him but didn't stop until he had finished the transcription. He didn't want to risk messing it up – not this spell. If he cast this spell it would not only kill him it would leave his family trapped in their golden prisons forever. The first was acceptable; the second was not.
It was not until a gentle hand pressed against his shoulder that he realized he had been staring at the paper blindly, trying to banish the image of their pain from his mind. Stupid, he berated himself silently. He should have lived long enough to have learned just how stupid and suicidal that was by now.
"Bakura?" If he hadn't trusted Yugi as much as he did he might have broken the boy's arm for touching him like that. Yugi was different, though. It might have taken Bakura long enough to realize it in his obsession with the damn pharaoh, but the boy was truly remarkable in his ability to trust.
"Yes, Yugi?" Bakura looked up at Yugi over his shoulder. The boy was staring at him with wide worried eyes and Joey was walking up behind him. A sigh escaped his lips as he shoved Ryou back into control. It had been his light's idea to do this in the public library, so he could deal with the consequences.
/What? Bakura/ Bakura let his rich chuckle roll through their shared link at his host's indignation. /And stop calling me that./ Ryou was definitely pouting now/I won't be your host for much longer, so you'd better get out of the habit./
/Yes, yadonushi/ Bakura taunted him in return, then sat back to watch the show. Joey was not happy about losing his best friend's presence at the arcade and he seemed to have decided to blame Ryou. Why Ryou and not Bakura was not something that Bakura cared to examine too closely as he suspected it had much to do with the teen's fear of him. Bakura watched through Ryou's eyes as Yugi tried to calm Joey down, carefully not mentioning Bakura's name.
The boy was far too forgiving. Bakura would not have forgiven himself the multiple attempts on his life. But this was not Egypt, and he was not on the run. Perhaps it would even be safe to live here when he created a body for himself. Perhaps…
