A/N

Note: And once again, I was blown away by the number of people who reviewed in such a short amount of time! I hope all of you have at least an idea of the euphoria I get when I see review alerts in my inbox. I'm literally bouncing of the walls! I especially love it when a reviewer takes the time to review each chapter, even when they came in after I've started writing! It makes me all happy, and glowy inside...Well, needless to say, you've all made me rush to the keyboard to furiously type out the next chapter!

Note2: I've just received the belated instructions on how to program an "Instant-Beta". In a nutshell, I blackmail my beta into beta-ing and then voila! You guys get a chapter! So say hello and thanks to my wonderful new "Grammer and Spelling" beta. Find her on here as Completed Irony. She also shares my fanfiction site with me! Yay! She has limited knowledge of anime but a very sharp awareness for...Er, other mistakes. I might request a storyline/canon beta in the future, though! So, I hope those of you who've offered will still be open!

Note3: I don't appreciate people telling me that my chapters were pointless. It hurts my feelings. No matter if you didn't mean it, or just wanted something to stick onto a review, please refrain from telling me what I write has no meaning. I am the one writing, and I know what should belong in the story and what shouldn't. Please respect my opinion. Thank you.

Note4: Enjoy and please review!

DARK PASSIONS


Ch 5 Over My Head

Bakura stared after the rapidly diminishing backside of the former pharaoh, a bewildered expression on his face.

"Bastard," he grumbled to himself, "Didn't even tell me why he was in 'deep shit'. What kind of advice-seeker is he anyway?"

Bakura sat in silence for a while before another thought popped into his mind: I didn't even get to finish my story! He pouted, Not fair.

At that moment, Seto was passing by his table and caught the sullen expression on the other vampire's face, oddly resembling a child whose candy had just been taken away.

Seto cleared his throat. "You know," He offered, amused. "If you keep your face like that, it'll get stuck that way."

Bakura glanced up and made a half-hearted attempt at kicking him. Seto just stepped sideways, out of reach of his boot-clad foot.

"And we both know Ryou wouldn't want that," Seto finished with mock concern, a wry expression on his face.

Bakura grinned horribly. "Shut up, Priest. I'm in no mood for your whining today," He shot back, knowing it would rile the more stately vampire up.

Of course, Seto didn't need to be reminded of his reincarnation status. Nor did he like the fact that he'd been important and well-remembered in his past life, especially by the likes of Bakura and Yami. Add his now immortal life on top of all that, especially the part about him being a blood-sucking vampire, and Seto wondered why he was still sane.

"Don't call me that!" He sighed, exasperated. Bakura just grinned and crossed his arms.

"So, what's up with the Pharaoh?" He genuinely asked.

Seto rolled his eyes in annoyance, he didn't know. Not yet, anyway.

A pressure sounded at the back of the perplexed vampire's mind, like a knock. Of course, Bakura knew it was virtually impossible to enter another vampire's mind undetected, unless you were really wimpy, but it made him smirk nontheless when the Priest was reduced to actually being polite. Now there was something you didn't see every day.

A moment later, Seto was all caught up on the going-ons, reading quickly through the memories Bakura selected for him and imprinting them on his own mind. You know, it never did hurt to have such a fantastic memory, and the mind powers were a plus too. It was no wonder Seto was as big a success as he was, being able to go without sleep for longer periods of time and being able to store more information much faster in his brain as he did. His competition had no chance, whatsoever.

Finally becoming bored with the time it was taking for the CEO to digest the information and produce an answer, Bakura moved things into motion in his own unique way.

"Hey pea-brain, anyone home?" He voiced crudely. It's not like it took careful thought to take a guess; all you needed was some background information, which Seto had just recieved, and common sense, which Bakura wasn't sure if the other vampire had enough of.

Seto just grunted before turning slighty away as well, but not before Bakura caught the expression on his face, which seemed to taunt him in saying 'I know something you don't know'.

It was enough to make Bakura howl. First the stupid Pharaoh, and now the even stupider Priest. Alright Ra, who hates me up there besides you?

"What aren't you telling me?" He demanded of other vampire.

"Tombrobber," Seto was only seriously ticked when he used their past professions, even if only subconsciously, "If you are thick enough not to see what's going on, then I don't see the need to enlighten you."

He strode away on his heel, calling over his shoulder in a loud voice and catching the attention of the whole bar room. "Who knows? Perhaps you might just be clever to figure it out eventually."

Bakura scowled and gave the CEO the one-finger salute, who saw it and chuckled.

"Or perhaps not."

The hotel staff scurried out of the vampire Lord's way as he stomped back to his rooms.

By now, they were sufficiently used to his moods and had been instructed in the 'proper' way to go about handling him. Of course, it had been Bakura doing the instructing, so the management had yet to figure out why their methods were causing more problems than solving them.

But Yami didn't even seem to notice the effort on their part: like how the maids dive-bombed out of his direct path, or the guards dropped their poker cards and saluted him "the military way" as he sailed past.

No. Yami was lost in his own thoughts, more specifically thoughts of flashing amythest eyes and spiky hair. Why, oh why, couldn't he get rid of that blasted human? He was practically stalking the vampire in his mind!

Well, this was an abrupt change of pace, he thought suddenly. Yami was the one usually being harrassed by lovesick and awestruck fangirls who threw themselves at him; even dignified vampire Ladies who didn't blink an eye in the face of danger had no shame!

What kind of god decided it would be fun to mess with the demon lord's head and stick that human in? Ra, he sounded like some broken record!

Yami groaned as the doors closed on the elevator and slowly began moving upwards. He leaned against the cold, mirrored wall and stared at his own reflection.

Yes, he smirked, vampires did have reflections. He'd always found it amusing that the humans had taken to believing, even swearing on their lives, that vampires didn't have any. With all of his years, he still didn't know what had started such a ridiculous myth. He and Bakura had laughed their asses off, during some drunken festivities, at the absurdness of not having anything staring back at you when you looked in a mirror. Those had beed some very funny, lude, and suggestive conclusions that they had come up with, he thought with a smile.

But, he sighed in defeat, that was a thought path his mind refused to take at the moment and quickly reverted back to his earlier contemplations of the human and Da'sara in general.

"Dammit..." he heard himself mutter.

Finally, he focused slightly to realize that the color was draining slowly from his face and he noted that he'd have to go out hunting again. Like last night...

Must not think of that human; Da'sara are to be hunted only. Must not think, not think of Yuugi...Dammit, don't think of his name, you imbecile!

Yami also realized, but didn't care, that he had large, dark circles under his eyes. It's not like he needed that much sleep, but maybe the few hours he'd allowed himself had been too few.

Sleep, he latched onto the one coherent thought. Now that was a good idea. He's sort all of this out later, when hopefully, the human had left his mind.

Yuugi yawned and woke up for the second time that day. He glanced at the alarm clock next to his bed and shrugged. 7 pm; Not bad, considering how late he'd been out and how horrible he'd felt earlier in the day.

With that, he suddenly remembered how he'd been supposed to call Ryou after he'd returned from the party. Of course, that had been before Yami had come along and kidnapped him...And fed on him...And dropped him of at home.

Yuugi scratched his head in puzzlement, the truly bizzare situation finally hitting home. His mind had been mostly muddled last night and he'd not thought things through or questioned his actions. But now, in the full light of the afternoon sun, he wanted to crack up laughing.

Of course the vampire had been trying to kill him! Every vampire book he'd ever read had stressed that vampires kill their prey when they fed, draining them of their blood. Yuugi had been stupid to assume he'd met the only one out of all of them who didn't kill.

And then he'd actually let the vampire into his mind! What was he thinking? Yuugi quickly scanned through hazy recollections of one book that had told him that vampires had great mind power, mind-to-mind communication being only one of the things they could do. It was only limited by the natural barriers around a mind, only taken down with the permission of the owner.

Yuugi sighed, it seemed that any chance he'd had of protecting himself from the vampire, should he come again, were going up in flames. But, he thought logically, Why would he bother himself with me again? I'm nothing special.

Still, it would have felt better to have at least something to use, in case the vampire came back to finish what he started.

Wait a minute. Yuugi backed up in his memory, almost as if he'd rewound a tape in his head.

Yuugi had also learned the vampire's name.

"Yami..." His voice was tentative, trying out the name. Wasn't that a bad thing for the vampire though? Another book, a more recent one, told Yuugi that yes, it was a disadvantage for the vampire if a human knew his his/her name. Something about being able to extend the ability of nonverbal speech to that human as well.

He sighed in frustration then, and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't know what to think or do. His experience last night had been so bizzare and unexpected and so unlike anything he'd ever done before that Yuugi just found it better to forget about it for the moment.

But Ryou still needed to be called, so he grabbed the phone from its stand in the kitchen and flopped onto the couch. It only took a couple of rings before Ryou's cheerful voice called through the phone.

"Hello, Ryou speaking!"

"Ryou? Hey, it's Yuugi."

"Hey there. You're home! I called you before, you know. Of course, you didn't answer. I was getting kind of worried when you didn't call me back right away last night. Bakura did tell me that you probably were too tired to pick up the phone, but then again, he's been acting strange these past few days..." Ryou trailed away as he realized he had been rambling and Yuugi had been silent on his end.

"So, what happened anyways?"

More silence and then Yuugi sighed through the phone. Ryou, in the kitchen at his end, frowned.

"You wouldn't believe it, if I told you." Came the reply, half incredilous and half resigned.

"Well, did you get home okay, at least?" Ryou pushed gently. Yuugi surprised him by snorting suddenly and giving a laugh.

"Oh Ryou, I got home alright. Just differently than I expected. Listen, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Ryou hung up the phone, his imagination already coming up with stories about what could have happened to his friend. He became so caught up in his theory that he was only brought back by the smell of something burning on the stove.

"My apron!"