Late at night

Bakura smiled gently, staring down at his sleeping light. Soon after Yugi had fallen asleep on top of him the party had ended and everyone had gone home. They hadn't even had time to finish the movie. Pity, it had been an interesting story. Perhaps he'd have Ryou get it out for them to finish later. His light had seemed fascinated by the adventures of the seven heroes, and he was sure that the boy wanted to see what happened next as much as he did.

Tenderly brushing a strand of hair out of the boy's face, Bakura retreated and shut the door, leaving his light asleep in the dark room. Ryou needed his sleep. So did Bakura, for that matter, but he had other things that were more important. Moving quickly back to the room that he had used for the ritual last night, Bakura quickly completed the makeshift cleaning and dispelling ritual he had slapped on last night and reinforced the shielding around the room. That done, he moved to lay out the necessary components for his next spell. He had never planned to allow either Ryou or Yugi to be near him while he cast this spell, and now was the best opportunity he had yet found.

He took off the ring and placed it carefully in its place. After carefully setting up the rest of the items, he stood just outside the northernmost end of the circle and began the incantation. Power bled from him as he spoke and he found himself thanking Re that he had written the ritual so that it did not last long time-wise despite the enormous amount of force that went into it. He collapsed as he got out the last syllable, feeling the power being torn from his body as if it were liquid fire running through his veins.

As his eyes closed blearily, he felt and heard the joyful cries of the villagers as they were finally freed from their confinement. Hearing them, Bakura smiled contentedly, and surrendered to exhaustion.

He wasn't sure how long he had been lying there. It felt like only a moment, and he realized that that was a sign of how deeply asleep he had been that he had not been aware of the passage of time. Opening his eyes, Bakura realized that it was also because there was nothing but artificial light in this room. He hadn't wanted to risk the incantations because of a stray sunbeam, he remembered now.

With that memory came another hard on its heels and Bakura bolted up, staring at the circle in the center of the room. There, melted into the floor, were seven puddles of gold: all that remained of the fabled Millennium Items. It was true, then. He had succeeded. His people were free at last, and in their going they had set him free also.

Now that he had lost his driving purpose he was free to live a normal life. Free to play, to laugh, to live, without worrying about what he should be doing for his people or whether the pharaoh's guard would catch him and kill him if he took longer than he had to. He could do whatever he wanted now. Fingers ran through his hair as Bakura hastily dismantled the shields and stepped out of the room.

The smell of cooking eggs hit him in the face, and he followed his nose into the kitchen. "I've put out my spare uniform for you," Ryou told him softly, cutting the omelette into pieces and setting them in the lunchbox on the table. "Breakfast is on the table. I've finished mine, but I kept yours hot for you."

"Thanks," Bakura responded gratefully, tearing into his breakfast. After expending so much energy last night and the night before he was starving. His body needed food to replace the energy that had drained out of him during the spell workings.

Ryou smiled, and replaced the food on Bakura's plate as the voracious thief ate it. The huge smile on his face finally made Bakura ask, "What is it, Ry? You're acting different today."

"I don't know," his light responded dreamily. "Things just felt right when I woke up today." Bakura nodded. Despite the fact that the Ring was now destroyed, you couldn't spend so long bonded as they had been and not feel the effects. It seemed that they had kept the soul bond and could echo feeling at each other still, although he didn't feel up to testing it further.

'Wonder what Yugi's doing today,' he thought absently. 'Now that they're happy…' he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to happen next, but he knew it involved Yugi as well as his light. He'd find out.