Jaazi: Heya, everyone! Contrary to what many may be thinking, no I have not died…or given up on my stories!
KK: Especially since this one is ending soon…
DJ: Thank gods! Stupid, annoying, romance-y filth!
Damian: (duct-tapes DJ's mouth shut) Maybe that'll keep her quiet for a while, one can only hope, I suppose.
Jaazi: I'd like to thank all of my reviewers who have, hopefully, not given up on me! Hikari-Aoi, Atemu's Lover, BakuMarik Fan, Kalimoto, HappyDevil, AnimeLoverAngel, DreamCherry66, Green Phantom Queen, Thief-Joelle, Punkergirl-Aira, Black.Thorns.and.White.Tears., The River Dragon, YaoiFiendEm, Hittocerebattosai, Puffin, Shinigami, Eyes-of-Crimson, Sakura Kamiya101, AngelKelley17, Hathors-Favorite, Celestial Angel, Deadlybeautygoddess, Super-sugarzoom, Cat Paws, LunaBakura-chan, Anaraz, Dartz'LoyalServant, Icy Sapphire15.
KK: Now, go read the long awaited chapter!
Disclaimer: Saying I owned Yugioh is like saying Yami Bakura would never dream of stealing, maiming, or doing anything potentially harmful to him in anyway.
Previously
Chibi Bakura sighed. Diabound and he had their work cut out for them.
Chapter Seven: Royal Gifts Received!
Chibi Bakura stirred in Malik's arms. He rubbed his bleary eyes, yawning cutely. Blinking away the remnants of sleep from his eyes, he looked up at Malik.
"Are we there yet? Diabound and I wanna see our princess, now!" Chibi Bakura scowled moodily. It was true, he and Diabound did want to see Ryou, but Bigger Me wanted see Ryou too. Malik laughed.
"Yeah, we're almost there."
Not too long after he said this, did they come into view of their house.
"See? What did I tell you?" Malik said, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips. He glanced over at Mariku. Mariku smirked back, displaying his infamous video camera(1). Where he got it from was unknown, but Malik was glad he had it. They just HAD to capture Ryou's reaction on tape!
Chibi Bakura struggled and squirmed in Malik's arms until Malik finally set him down. Chibi Bakura snatched the gifts that Mariku had been holding for him and raced towards the house. Malik and Mariku were close at his heels, Mariku holding up his video camera gleefully.
"Ryou, Ryou, Ryou, Ryou, Ryou! Look what I got you, Princess!" Chibi Bakura yelled excitedly, bursting through the door without even bothering to knock.
Isis and Ryou had been enjoying a nice cup of tea when Ryou was attacked by blur of red and white. The blur was shouting his name excitedly. Ryou, who was currently on the floor, looked up into a pair of wide, cranberry-red eyes that shined merrily.
"Khalid! It's very rude to barge into someone's house like that without knocking!" Ryou reprimanded, "Go apologize to Ms. Ishtar."
Chibi Bakura looked away shamefully. Getting up, he shyly shuffled to where Isis was sitting. He clasped his hands behind his back and bowed slightly.
"I'm very, very sorry for being naughty, Ms. Ishtar," Chibi Bakura said guiltily, head bowed. Isis just smiled and patted Chibi Bakura on his head.
"It's alright, little Khalid. Malik put me through much worse when he was your age," Isis replied serenely. Chibi Bakura flashed Isis a bright smile before running back to Ryou.
Malik and Mariku snickered as Chibi Bakura neared Ryou. Isis looked at her brother and his alter ego suspiciously. They seemed much too eager for whatever was going to happen next to be safe. Isis narrowed her eyes at the two blondes. Noticing this, Mariku and Malik both tried to look as innocent as the day they were born. Malik sort of managed to pull it off. Mariku…well, he was born out of hatred and anger, so that didn't turn out as well as he would've hoped.
Ryou had gotten to his feet and was currently looking down at Chibi Bakura, completely oblivious to Mariku and Malik's scheming. Chibi Bakura giggled with excitement. He bounced happily on the balls of his feet.
"I got my princess a present! Wanna see? Me, Bigger Me, Diabound all picked it out for you!" Chibi Bakura chirped, accidentally letting the fact that Bigger Me existed slipped. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice.
"You didn't have to, you know…" Ryou said kindly. It was rather flattering that the child would want to get him a gift.
Chibi Bakura eagerly reached into the shopping bag and pulled out a foot long black rectangular box. He gave it to Ryou. Ryou glanced at the boy quizzically.
"Open it!" Chibi Bakura urged.
"Um, okay," Ryou hesitantly opened the box and gasped.
In it was a sheathed dagger. The hilt was silver with the eye of Horus emblazoned in it. The eye had an emerald that stood out amongst all the silver. Taking the dagger out of it's black leather sheath, he noted that the blade was thin and light. All in all, it was very elegant.
"I saw Daddy give Mommy one and told her it was for "just in case" and you didn't have any in your room and you need one for "just in case" too!" Chibi Bakura explained. He was slightly worried because Ryou didn't seem to have liked it much. Unless Ryou's jaw dropping and having him gape at the dagger meant he liked it.
"It seems to me that Khalid feels the need to protect you or at least offer you a method to protect yourself," Isis commented.
"Ryou, I sure hope you like cats," Malik said, seemingly out of the blue.
"Why would you say something like that, Malik?" Ryou questioned. Malik just smirked as Mariku quickly zoomed in his camera on Ryou's face.
"Awww, Malik ruined the surprise," Chibi Bakura whined.
"Did you get me a pet kitten?" Ryou asked, still not understanding why his two blonde friends were giggling.
"Nope!" Chibi Bakura grinned. He took out another, larger box and handed it to Ryou.
"Malik and Mariku and Big- er, um, Diabound said you would really like it!" Chibi Bakura all but yelled.
Ryou was even more reluctant to open this gift, but Chibi Bakura's hopeful face tugged at his heartstrings. Sighing in resignation, he lifted the box and set it on his lap. Opening the lid, he took a cautious peek inside. He frowned, not getting a good view of whatever was inside.
Putting the lid to the side, he picked up the very small piece of what appeared to be some poor excuse for clothing. Ryou's eyes slowly grew wider and wider as he realized what it was. Ryou freaked out. He let out an embarrassed squeak and all but threw the thing across the room. He quickly hid his now bright red face behind his trembling hands. He peeked out through his fingers when he heard his so called friends laughing.
"That…was…priceless!" Malik managed between laughs. Mariku couldn't even speak, he was laughing so hard. Even Isis had to suppress a few giggles. The only one not laughing was a certain red-eyed chibi. Didn't princess like his present? He was supposed to make princess happy, for him and for Bigger Me.
"D-didn't princess like her present?" Chibi Bakura asked quietly as he went to pick up the costume. Ryou immediately felt incredibly guilty. He took the teary-eyed child into his arms.
"Aw, I loved my gift, Khalid. It's just that…I was so surprised! I've never seen anything like it before and I really do love kitty-cats," Ryou said. He wasn't really lying…he just wasn't telling the whole truth.
"R-really? You liked it?" Chibi Bakura asked uncertainly.
"Yeah, I liked it, especially since you gave it to me," Ryou smiled kindly.
"Are you gonna wear it?" Chibi Bakura asked innocently. Ryou blushed hotly.
"I, er, um, well," Ryou stuttered glancing at his other gift once again.
Fishnet stockings and gloves, black gloves and matching boots with white fluff on the cuffs, leather one-piece suit with a cat-ear headband and tail wasn't exactly his type of clothing. He wasn't even sure it was legal to wear in public. Why would Chibi Bakura choose out something like that in the first place? He scowled. Of course, the psychotic blonde duo.
"I can't wear it now, maybe later okay? Now, wait here for a moment, I must go speak with Malik and Mariku," Ryou said. He went towards the blonde duo, who were now looking rather nervous. Grabbing each by the ear, he dragged them to the next room.
Isis and Chibi Bakura waited patiently in the living room. They heard snatches of the conversation (aka scolding). When the three returned, Malik and Mariku were considerably paler and Ryou had a satisfied smile on his face.
"Thank you all for your time, but Khalid and I must really be going now," Ryou said his farewells, grabbing his gifts and Chibi Bakura by the hand, and left.
Isis turned to her little brother and Mariku.
"What did he do?"
"H-he took the tape f-from the camera and broke in two…over our heads a-and told us to n-not corrupt little children," Mariku whimpered fearfully, hiding behind a couch pillow. Malik peered from behind his yami.
"He's scarier than Bakura when he's angry," he whispered. Isis rolled her eyes.
"That's what you get when you play mean jokes on people," she said as she took the teacups to the kitchen. She didn't hear Malik say that it wasn't even their fault this time, but even if she had, she probably wouldn't have believed him.
Ryou was walking home with Chibi Bakura, when something occurred to him. Pausing, he kneeled down in front of the chibi.
"Khalid, where did you get the money for those presents?" Ryou asked.
"…Mister Tall-Man let me borrow it?" Khalid replied innocently…only this time he wasn't innocent.
"What did Mister Tall-Man let you borrow?" Ryou asked sternly. Chibi Bakura took out the credit card from his pocket and handed it to Ryou. Ryou promptly fainted when he read the name off the card. Chibi Bakura squeaked.
"What the hell did you do?" Bakura screeched. Chibi Bakura winced as Bigger Me once again yelled in his head.
"I didn't mean to! (sniffle) I think I killed him! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Chibi Bakura cried pitifully. Bakura felt like panicking too, but realized that it wasn't going to help much and decided to keep a level-head.
"Okay, calm down, uh, try waking him up! Yeah, just poke his face or something," Bakura suggested. Chibi Bakura let out one last pathetic sniffle and attempted to wake Ryou up.
Thankfully, Ryou did wake up. Poking someone in the eye tends to do that. Ryou sat upright and picked up the almost forgotten credit card. Chibi Bakura was looking very guilty.
"Let's go return this to him, shall we?" Ryou groaned, "Kaiba's going to kill me."
"I'm sorry," Chibi Bakura murmured shamefully. Ryou ruffled his hair.
"I know."
Mokuba was sitting in the kitchen watching the cook work. As usual, the slightly insane cook was muttering to herself about this and that. Her ranting was cut short by the entrance of none other than Seto Kaiba himself. Mokie's face lit up.
"Big brother! You're home! What took you so long?" Mokuba said while hugging his brother. Seto smiled, something that happened very rarely, and ruffled his little brother's thick black mane of hair.
"My limo broke down, I was attacked by a little bratty monster, and one of my credit cards went missing," Kaiba muttered, tiredly pinching the bridge of his nose. Mokuba frowned and scampered to a cabinet where he took out a bottle of aspirin.
"Here, big brother," Mokuba said, offering the bottle of aspirin to Kaiba.
"Thanks, Mokie."
"Sure, just ignore my existence. I don't mind, really, I don't! And I'm sure you haven't forgotten that my paycheck's due today," the cook said cynically. Kaiba groaned, he did not need this right now. Just then, the doorbell rang. Kaiba groaned again and resisted the urge to slam his head against the table.
"Zhira, go get that," Kaiba muttered irritably. The cook scowled.
"Excuse me? I'm a COOK! C-o-o-k! Not some door opener person! You hear me, Kaiba! I'm overworked and underpaid and I refuse to do a single thing you tell me to do until I get my money! I want it now!" Zhira growled, waving a soup ladle around angrily.
"I'll give you a raise."
"I'd LOVE to go get that! Is there anything else I can do for you while I'm at it?" Zhira flashed him a charming smile, trying to look innocent. Kaiba rolled his eyes at his cook's predictability.
Ryou stood before the huge mansion doors nervously. If Chibi Bakura's eyes got any wider, he was sure they'd fall out of his eye sockets. He was hiding behind Ryou, mostly because he was sure that seeing Mister Tall-Man angry was not going to be a pretty sight. Just as he was about to comment about it, the door was slammed open.
"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" a pair of golden eyes flashed angrily.
"I-I'm Ryou and I would like to see Kaiba. I have something to return to him," Ryou said shyly. The girl growled and stormed back into the mansion, never once noticing Chibi Bakura. Not knowing what else to do, Ryou followed.
"Yo, Kaiba! Some albino wants see you!" Zhira hollered as she marched back into her kitchen. Chibi Bakura glared from behind Ryou. He didn't like how this person treated his princess.
Kaiba grumbled to himself as he went to see the "albino". If he was lucky, it'd be Ryou and not Bakura. It was Ryou, thank god.
"You wished to see him," he said in his usual business-like tone. Ryou blushed.
"I think this belongs to you. I'm very, very sorry, but please don't press charges. Khalid doesn't know any better and I'm sure he won't do it again," Ryou said hurriedly, handing Kaiba his credit card. If Kaiba hadn't been as practiced at concealing emotions as he was, he would've let his jaw drop in surprise. It was then he noticed a certain red-eyed chibi.
"You," he snarled. Chibi Bakura came out completely from behind Ryou and faced Mister Tall-Dragon-Man (as he now thought of him) mustering all the courage he could to do so.
"Please don't yell at Ryou. I promise never to take it away again," Chibi Bakura sniffled, giving Kaiba his best teary-puppy-eyes. Kaiba was unpleasantly reminded of Mokuba when he had his toy taken away that one time at the orphanage.
"Don't do it again, you may both leave now…" Kaiba said as he all but fled the scene.
Ryou blinked confusedly. That was odd. Shrugging to himself, he took Chibi Bakura by the hand and left.
Ryou and Chibi Bakura were sitting laying in bed. Ryou had already put away the cat suit. He put it far, far away. The dagger however, he placed on a shelf near his bed where he could admire it. Suddenly, Chibi Bakura turned to face Ryou.
"Princess?"
"Yes, Khalid?" Ryou replied, slightly worried because of the solemn expression on the young one's face.
"Who's Bakura?"
"Silly, you're Bakura."
"Nuh-uh. I'm Khalid B'kra, I wanna know who Bakura is," Chibi Bakura objected. Ryou sighed.
"Bakura…Bakura is my yami. He looked a lot like you with white hair and red eyes. He was mean and vulgar but…I know he can be nice, I know he can. He always ignored me, no matter what I did and I wanted him to notice me so much," Ryou's voice cracked, "It was okay, because at least I could watch him, just look at him and take care of him, but now…now I can't even do that."
"I know he'll never care for me the way I care for him, but I still want to be with him," Ryou murmured. He then put on a smile, "Let's not talk about sad things like this. We should get some rest."
Ryou rolled to his side and fell asleep quickly. Chibi Bakura gazed at his princess sadly.
"But what if he loved you too? What if he hurt a lot just like you and wanted to help make the hurt stop?" he whispered.
Unbeknownst to him, Bakura had been listening the entire time. He now felt more confused than ever. Ryou cared for him? After all the mistreatment he made him suffer? He wasn't worthy of Ryou's caring heart, it'd be better for both of them if he just disappeared. With that thought, Bakura closed in on himself also failing to hear Chibi Bakrua's last comment.
"That would only make the hurt get worse, Bigger Me."
TBC
(1) I call it his infamous camera, because in my other story "Yugioh Gets Charmed" Mariku's camera always manages to make an appearance at the most inconvenient moments…for the other characters, that is XD
Jaazi: I finally got over my writer's block…sorta. No thanks to my muses (glares at DJ, KK, Damian).
DJ: We took a well-deserved vacation! You work us like slaves!
Jaazi: Oh please! You never do anything and KK doesn't do much other than encourage me and Damian's always lost in his books!
KK: (sniffles) Sorry.
Damian: (bows) I'll try to be of more use to you.
Jaazi: (sighs) You're forgiven, I guess. By the way, REVIEW PLEASE!
KK: Hey that's my line!