Uwaaah! It took me so many tries to write this! TT_TT

Half of this was written on impulse when I got an idea stuck in my head that wouldn't get out… So half of this sucks… A lot…

Chapter 16: Ryou's Sacrifice

Bakura was driving the boat again, and it was sometime around midnight. He was expecting to see Pegasus's island in about an hour or so, and had decided that, if he needed to wake Marik up this time, he would just pull the covers out form under him, causing him to fall on the floor. Bakura smirked, That should be fun, he thought. He looked at the starlit sea. It looked so pretty, and he rarely thought anything was pretty, mostly because he didn't like that word, pretty, it just sounded weird to him. But that was what the sea was, with the starlight tinting off the waves to reveal a sparkling sea of magnificence that reached on for miles and miles on end, only stopping to wash up on the white, tan, or sometimes black sandy beaches of somewhere far away, and some not so far away.

Bakura chuckled to himself, Marik's idea of beauty was starting to rub off on him. He turned to look at the moon. It was pretty too, not just pretty, but beautiful. It looked like a single orb shining brightly in a world of darkness, but really it wasn't in a world of darkness, it was surrounded by big bodies of light that shined on their own, and all of that light bounced off each other, and reflected back to the Earth. Bakura shook his head, why was he thinking like this? Surely there were more important things to think about? But that was the thing, it was like he had stopped thinking about important things. For once in his life, he wasn't thinking about the past, or about what could've been, or about what the future might be, and what he could do to change it. For once, he wasn't thinking about his problems, or about his life, or about what he was planning to do in the first place. No, for once in his life, he was thinking about things that don't really matter, but are fascinating to think about. For once, he was thinking about the present, but not about what he should be doing, he was thinking about what was right in front of him, what was all around him. It was a nice change from all of the heavy thinking he had been doing recently.

Although, maybe that's why he wasn't thinking heavily right now. Maybe he had been thinking so hard that his brain had been worn out, and after yesterday it just couldn't handle it anymore. Bakura sighed. It could also be because he felt happy. That's right, he was still happy after hearing that Marik had been worrying about him. Maybe that's why he wasn't thinking so hard, he didn't want Marik to worry anymore. Bakura sighed and looked at the sea again. I wonder how many fish there are, and what they look like… he thought, and then starting creating his own version of a fish, twisting and turning ideas around in his head until they eventually formed one solid idea that Bakura would always think was somehow true, like so many other children do when they are met with inefficient answers for their questions.

While Bakura was enjoying his leisure time, Marik was downstairs, wondering, wondering. He was still wondering about what had bothered Bakura. Whatever it was is gone now, or just got less irritating, but he still wanted to know what it was in the first place. What could cause Bakura to act so strangely? So moodily? He wanted to know so he could help.

And that was another thing he was thinking about. This urge to help. Why did he want to help so much? Maybe it was because for as long as he could remember, his family (minus his dad) had been helping him through all of his problems, and he had never really helped anyone before. Maybe that was it, maybe he just wanted to know that he could help someone. But it could also be because of something else.

And this was the idea that he had been thinking most about.

Was that the real reason he wanted to help Bakura? Because he had never really helped anyone before? Or was that wrong? Was it because they were friends? Or, perhaps, more than friends? Marik thought about it. He had never really had a friend that weren't his siblings before. Sure he had traveled a lot, but those trips had mainly been all work and no play, with no time to sight-see, let alone socialize unless necessary, so he didn't have much experience in making friends. Actually, there was a lot of stuff that he didn't have much experience in that a seven-year-old probably had. Marik sighed, he wished he had a normal childhood, of course, then he probably wouldn't be here right now, on this boat, on his way to pull off a huge lie with possible the only non-family friend he had made in his entire life.

And to think that he wasn't there right now, couldn't be there right now, was unacceptable to him.

He looked up at the empty bed above him. What could bother Bakura so much anyway? Is it the boat? Or maybe he's just not looking forward to being a cat to get inside Pegasus' castle… Hmm… maybe that's it… Somehow Marik knew that wasn't it. He sighed. Simply asking Bakura what had been bothering him would never do. The white-haired boy would just lie and say something witty, causing them to start arguing and making them get off the subject. He sighed again, how was he going to find out? Maybe he could trick him or something…

Meanwhile, Bakura was staring at the sea, wanting to do something, but not sure if he should. He thought about it for another minute, before stopping the boat, dropping the small anchor, taking his shirt off and diving into the hypothermic water. He knew that this little detour would slow down their arrival to the island, but he figured if Marik could ride dolphins, then he could swim for a while. Even though he was a vampire, he shivered at the sudden coldness, but other than that it didn't affect him much. He dived underwater and swam for a while, which is why he wasn't on the boat when an insomniac Marik came above deck.

When Marik came up into the night air and saw no sign of his sarcastic friend, he was immediately confused. He thought that maybe he was dreaming, but he also half expected Bakura to pop out from somewhere to scare him and say, "Got you!" Marik walked around for a little bit, and then heard splashing in the water. He looked over the railing and saw Bakura swimming lazily in the sea with a contented smile on his face. Marik grinned, but he didn't say anything. He just stood there and watched Bakura swim for a while. Although he did make his position more comfortable by leaning over the bars.

Bakura wasn't aware of the Egyptian boy watching him at all. He was enjoying the cool water. He dived under water, remembering how long he could hold his breath for. How long exactly? About a half hour. He had gotten a lot of practice hiding from ancient Egyptian pyramid guards. He smiled at the memory. He imagined their bewildered faces when they were chasing him, and then they turn a corner and see nothing but the Nile River for miles and miles on end. Sure, they searched the water, but they had never found him because of how long he could hold his breath. And whenever the guards had went away, he would emerge from the water and laugh. Sometimes loudly, sometimes softly, it depended if anyone was around to hear him.

He could feel laughter try to escape his mouth, so he surfaced and promptly started laughing loudly with his eyes closed. Although the laugh was happy, it was full of malicious happiness, like he had just killed a man and had gotten away with murder. Marik tried not to laugh with him, he wondered briefly what he had been thinking about.

After laughing for little bit, Bakura opened his eyes, and finally saw Marik standing there. He froze. He dove back under water and screamed into the icy abyss, "How long has he been standing there?" so that Marik would not hear. When he surfaced again, he called up to the spy-in-training, "Are you just going to keep staring at me all night, or are you going to join me?" and then promptly cursed himself. That wasn't what he had meant to say, he had meant to say, "How long have you been there" and "go away!" But what's said is said, and now Marik answered back with, "The water's too cold, I think I'll just stay here."

Bakura couldn't help himself, "Wimp," he said mockingly.

"I'm not falling into your bait this time Bakura."

Bakura looked up at him innocently, "What bait? I'm merely stating a fact."

"You're trying to get me to jump in there with you, and then you'll laugh because I'll be too cold."

"Aw, you know me so well, but seriously, it's not that cold."

Marik rolled his eyes, "Yeah right."

"Fine," Bakura said, "Then just stay up there and stare at me all you want then, since it seems that's what you like doing most."

Marik felt his face start to heat up, he was going to stay quiet, he was going to not fall into Bakura's obvious bait, but he couldn't stop himself from saying, "And just what are you implying?"

Bakura chuckled darkly, "Why Marik, I'm not implying anything other than the fact that you like to goggle at me."

Marik ground his teeth together, convincing himself his face was red because he was angry, "I stare at you because I want to know how someone can be so damn annoying and idiotic at the same time."

"Keep telling yourself that," Bakura said before promptly diving back in the water. He felt like laughing again, after all of those heavy thoughts, he hadn't really changed much, he still liked to piss Marik off.

Marik was grinding his teeth, telling himself to just walk away and go back to sleep, but something made him take off his shirt and jump into the water after Bakura. If he had still been half asleep, he would've woken up as soon as he touched the water, it felt like his body was incased in ice. He came to the surface and felt his teeth start chattering. He started shivering, but he went back under because he knew if he kept moving the cold would get more bearable. He had been trained to handle situations like these, but usually it was a last resort thing, not on purpose.

Anyway, when Bakura saw him jump in, he couldn't help but laugh, And he said he wouldn't fall for my bait. Ah well. He swam towards him and asked, "Enjoying the water Marik?" as soon as he saw the blonde surface.

Marik glared at him, "It's perfect," he managed to say with only a slight stutter.

Bakura sighed, "If you're too cold, go on the boat."

Marik shook his head, he was pretty stubborn, but only when he wanted to be. "It's not too cold."

"That's why you're shivering like a Chihuahua."

"Shut up," he said, and then swam back underwater. Bakura laughed again. He did a few backstrokes, and when he saw Marik resurface again, he asked, "I've been meaning to ask," Marik raised an eyebrow at him, "How did you get to Japan in the first place? Obviously not by plane."

Marik grinned mischievously, making Bakura even more curious than he already was, "I went by boat."

Bakura raised his eyebrow, "You had a boat? Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Marik had a certain glint in his eye that Bakura knew too well, "Well, the boat wasn't exactly mine."

Bakura was surprised, "You stole it?" he couldn't help but feel a little impressed.

Marik grinned again, "Sort of. I stowed away on a cruise liner."

Bakura stared at him. "Cruise liner?"

"Yep. Took a couple days, but I finally got to Japan."

"If you stowed away, what did you eat?"

Marik smiled, "Let's just say… I tricked some people into buying me food."

Bakura smiled, "By "trick" do you mean "mind controlled?"" Marik nodded. "That's evil."

Marik nodded, "Yep. And I just made it look like I fell asleep on a lawn chair on the sky deck every night. That was a wonderful vacation."

Bakura laughed. "I have to admit, that was pretty genius." He looked at Marik, and then splashed him with water. "Consider that payment from when you splashed me yesterday."

Marik splashed him back, "Consider that payment for being yourself."

Bakura splashed him again. Marik splashed him back. Then they started a splash wars. Splashing each other every other second, diving underwater to avoid being splashed. After a while, they both just stopped and started laughing. Bakura looked ahead of him, at the moon's reflection against the cool waters, then he looked back at Marik, and smiled. Marik was just thinking about how he could find out what had bothered Bakura so much. Like he had decided before, simply asking him was out, he had to be sneaky about it. But how? He looked at Bakura, who had still been looking at him. They stared at each other for a while, until Bakura smirked and said, "Can't get enough of my beauty huh?"

Marik rolled his eyes, "You were staring at me first."

"Only because you're still shivering."

Marik's eyes widened slightly, he hadn't even noticed. "Maybe that's because I'm human."

"Really? I had thought you were an alien from the ugly planet."

"Haha, really creative, that insult is so old. And you say my comebacks are weak."

"They are, considering you can't think of them right away."

"It's better than saying the first thing that pops into your head all the time."

"But all of my ideas are brilliant so it doesn't matter."

"Replace 'brilliant' with 'completely stupid' and I agree."

"Are you sure you're not talking about yourself again?"

"Are you sure you're not talking about yourself again?"

"You can't just copy me, that's not creative either."

Marik sighed, he hadn't even asked Bakura what was wrong and they were already arguing about nonsense, "At least I don't have ridiculous hair."

"You know you love my hair. You can't stop stroking it when I'm a cat."

Marik's face went red, "At least I'm not the one purring when their hair gets stroked."

Now Bakura's face was red, he had forgotten that he enjoyed that as well… "All cats purr when they're being petted."

"You especially."

Bakura growled, "At least I don't draw pictures of you."

Marik's face turned redder, "I already told you, I was bored!"

Bakura chuckled, "Whatever gets you to sleep Marik. I saw that picture you drew of me last night, but why did you draw an angel and a devil?"

"Cause that's how you've been acting lately." Bakura was silent, and Marik was sort of happy, Maybe I'll find out about his weird behavior now!

Bakura looked at him, "I've been acting like an angel? Hmm… Are you sure nothing's wrong with your head?"

Or not, Marik thought. He sighed, "You're hopeless."

Bakura raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"I mean you won't even admit that you haven't been acting like yourself."

Bakura was silent, "I admit, I haven't been acting like myself lately…" he sounded calm, but right now, Bakura was thinking worried thoughts. Does he know what I've been thinking about lately? Does he know about the Blood Pack thing? Does he know that he makes me feel so happy? Scratch that last part… You see, when Marik said the words, "haven't been acting like yourself," he thought that Marik was referring to how he had been thinking about the tan boy lately, he didn't think that he was referring to when Ryou had taken control.

So when Marik said, "Finally! Could you tell me why?" Bakura almost answered back, "You." Almost. Instead he said, "I can't tell you that…"

"Can't, or won't?" Marik asked angrily.

Bakura thought about it, "Both."

Marik groaned, "Fine! I see how it is, I tell you about my life, but you can't tell me about yours."

Bakura sighed, "That's not it… I just, I need to think about it more…" Bakura looked at the water, and Marik heard the confusion in his voice, the helplessness you feel when you can't find the answers to your problems.

Marik sighed too, "I can't help you think about it?"

Bakura's face went red, Help me think about whether or not I like you? Not a chance, wait, Gah! Stop thinking that! That's not the case! "No, you can't help." Marik could hear the unspoken "sorry" in that sentence, so he sighed and said, "All right, fine, I'm going to bed." He swam towards the boat and Bakura followed him, deciding it would be good to get to their destination soon.

Marik was wondering whether or not he should say something, and then thought, why not? and said, "Remember, while you think about your problem, I'll still worry about you."

Bakura found it hard to look at him, considering that single sentence made his heart feel ten times lighter.

Bakura was completely dried off now from his midnight swim with Marik (although his hair was still a bit damp), and was driving the boat again. He was thinking heavily again. He sighed, Why can't I be brain dead like most people of this century? Of course, back in my day you would be dead if you weren't smart.

"Where and when did you say you were from again?" Bakura heard Ryou ask.

"Ancient Egypt, 5 millennia ago," he said irritably, How the heck does Ryou keep waking up? he thought.

"What did you do anyway?" Ryou asked, because it had occurred to him that he really knew nothing about this person who was in control of his body.

"I was the Thief King back in my day."

"Thief King?" Ryou asked, slightly shocked.

Bakura smirked, "Yup, and I killed people when I was bored."

"K-killed?" Ryou asked, horrified.

Bakura chuckled wickedly, "Yup, stole, killed, and slept, the perfect life." If Ryou was in control of his body right now, his head would be spinning. He k-killed people? He was seriously starting to freak out, and Bakura's next words didn't help with that much, "I killed so many people back then, it was fun, maybe you should try it too."

Ryou was horrified. He had never knew much about Bakura, he just figured he was a typical guy who found some magic. Now he finds out he was supposedly a "Thief King" and killed people? His eyes widened as he thought of something else, How long has he been in my body? he thought frantically, each word a shriek of distress, has he killed anyone else? Oh, gosh… What if he killed my family or something? Ryou was really starting to worry now, and Bakura could hear his thoughts. He smiled wickedly, it had been a long time since he had really freaked someone out. It felt good, considering he'd been acting very different from his normal persona.

"What's the matter Ryou? Can't handle having a killer in control?" he laughed evilly, while Ryou started to go into a fit of hysterics.

He… killed people! And, and I've been acting like he's my friend or something! Trying to help him… And now he's a vampire! Who knows how many people he's killed while I was gone! And who knows how long I was gone anyway? What if he killed my family? Oh my gosh… my sister… Amane… I know I said I'd help him… but I can't have him killing anyone else!

I have to take back my life!

Ryou struggled to take back his body, determination, fear, and the want to have no one else killed fueled him. He tried harder than he had ever tried at anything else in his life, and eventually, he felt control gradually coming back to him. When he finally opened his eyes in his body, he tried to do something that Bakura had done to him.

He tried to put Bakura to sleep.

He didn't know how to do this very well, so he just imagined someone looking like him going to sleep. It appeared to work, and this freaked out Bakura more than anything else Ryou had done. As sleep claimed his mind, so did fear, fear that he would be stuck in the ring for - who knows how long? The fear that as he was getting so close to living again, it would be taken away like that. The fear that he would never see Marik again (1)… and before he could retract his last statement, he fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Ryou was panting heavily. He looked around, realizing that he had no idea what to do now. He was on a boat, off to… somewhere… he didn't even know where they were going!

He put his hand up to his head, and then realized something - Bakura had been the one who was piloting the boat. We could get lost! Ryou thought frantically. He had no idea how to pilot a boat, or really anything else about the sea. He was freaking out again, thinking that he could starve to death if he got lost, and then remembered that Marik was below deck. He knows how to pilot a boat! he remembered through his foggy memories. He ran below deck and hurriedly shook Marik awake. When the Egyptian boy finally opened his eyes, he looked at Ryou's worried, fearful face and knew that the mood swings were back.

"Ugh," he groaned, "What is it now?" he said irritably.

"Pilot the boat! We could die out here!"

Marik blinked at him, "What?"

"Get up! Pilot the boat!" Ryou started pulling him up and pushing him up the stairs and up to the controls. Marik sat down at the controls and grabbed the wheel. He looked at the map and his compass and noticed they were moving a bit too far to the right. He corrected it, and looked back at the worried Ryou, who had been looking at Marik's movements with worried eyes, and now said, "Are we lost?" scared.

Marik shook his head, "No, but what happened? I thought you were driving the boat?"

"I wasn't, Bakura was," Ryou said, forgetting that Marik probably had no idea what he was talking about.

Marik looked at him curiously, "What do you mean 'Bakura was driving the boat,' you are Bakura."

"Yes, that's true," Ryou said, thinking Marik was referring to his last name.

Marik stared at him, took a deep breath, and said, "Okay, before I get really mad, I'll ask you once more, what the fuck is going on?"

Ryou looked at him with wide-eyes, "What do you mean?"

Marik was getting frustrated, "You know exactly what I mean! The way you're acting right now, explain that!"

"Huh? I've always acted like this…" Ryou said, then his eyes went even wider in realization, "Ooooh! You're talking about… Sorry about that, you see, I'm not who you think I am."

Marik looked skeptical, "You're not?"

"No! I'm Ryou Bakura, the rightful owner of this body thank you very much!" Just then Ryou remembered something. He reached into his shirt and took the Millennium Ring off and put it on the ground. "Maybe the connection won't work now…"

Marik stared at him with an open mouth. R-Ryou? The original owner of that body? But… I thought he was in the Ring…? Marik was looking at him, and almost like his body was on auto-pilot, he picked up the Millennium Ring. Ryou tried to stop him, "He might take you over too!" he said, genuinely worried. Marik looked at him, and neither said anything for a minute. Marik was still sort of confused, Ryou… was this the cause of Bakura's mood swings? Or, did he take over or something? Is the innocent face I met, this guy? He looked into Ryou's face, Yup, that's definitely him. So this is what has been happening! He felt slightly better now knowing the cause for Bakura's odd behavior this entire boat trip, but now he didn't really know what to do. I mean, Ryou, someone who he figured was just going to sleep in the Millennium Ring for all eternity (or at least a long time) and never expected to meet, was standing right before him, probably wondering what the heck was going on. Does he even know why he's on this boat? If Marik had been a little more awake, he might have wondered what had happened to Bakura now that Ryou was in control, but he wasn't that awake right now, and he was still slightly dazed from seeing actual worry and fear on Bakura's face. They stared at each other a little more, then Ryou said, "…Could you please explain to me why I'm on this boat?" Obviously not, Marik thought.

"Well…" Marik didn't know what to say. He could just say they were going to get the Millennium Eye, but then he'd probably ask why, and besides, if he was going to explain one thing, he might as well tell everything right? So he said, "Let me, start at the beginning…"

Marik had just told Ryou what he knew. How he and Bakura first met, their agreement, why they were searching for the Millennium Items, how they already got the Millennium Puzzle, how they found out where Pegasus lived, and finally, why they were on a boat. Although, he didn't say he was afraid of heights, he just said they decided to travel by boat.

For Ryou, this was a lot to take in. Eto… It seems he's actually trying to help people, or, really vampires… But… He said he killed people… Should he really be alive today? Shouldn't he have died a long time ago? I'm so confused… While Ryou digested his mostly confused thoughts, Marik just drove the boat, wondering what the heck he should do.

So this was Ryou? Marik had no idea what to make of this… Why did Ryou come out now anyway? Marik had always just assumed he would be in the Millennium Ring forever, he never really expected to meet him. But why didn't Bakura just tell me? Did he not want me to meet Ryou? And if not, why…? He was thinking hard, but his thoughts wee interrupted when Ryou asked quietly, "About Bakura… Has he killed anyone?"

Marik looked at him, "Ah, probably…" He was shocked when he saw Ryou's sad face, "Ah! But, I'm sure it wasn't on purpose…!" Eh, why am I comforting him? And how does he make such a cute face… Marik was even more confused, He's the exact opposite of Bakura… "I take it, you don't like… people being dead?" That was a stupid question…

Ryou sighed, "I just think, the world is sad enough already with all it's problems, why add more by killing unnecessarily? That's why I wrote happy stories, to show how we could just all get along…" he stared off into space, remembering his first taste of the sadness in the world.

~~~{Flashback: Ryou's sad memory}~~~

A young Ryou was walking along with his mother hand in hand. She wasn't in a big hurry, she just wanted to walk around town with her son. But then they passed this one corner, and they saw a man grabbing a young girl by her arm.

He was also pointing a gun to her head.

They were talking quietly, so they couldn't hear what was being said, but the mother was horrified, and Ryou didn't really understand what was going on. The mother walked backwards until they were out of view from the man. She told Ryou to stay put. She called the police, but it was too late. They heard struggling, and then a gun shot. The mother started crying, and Ryou, even though he didn't understand what was going on, he could tell his mother was upset. He went up to her, and pulled on her sleeve. The mother looked at him, and then pulled him into a hug. She was close to the corner though, and Ryou could see over her shoulder.

He saw the girl lying on the floor with a pool of a red liquid around her head. The man was nowhere in sight. Ryou started to cry as well, he was a child, so he didn't really understand death yet, but he understood pain, the kind of pain you get when that red liquid comes out of you. He remembered how much it hurt when he had cut himself and seen that same red liquid come out, he wondered how much she had hurt it that much had come out.

It wasn't until a few years later when he understood what had really happened.

~~~{End flashback}~~~

Ryou stared sadly at the deck. "Why, why do people kill…?" he said talking to himself. His eyes were watering, and Marik had no idea what to do now. He had never been in this situation before, he was usually the one being comforted…

He put his hand on Ryou's shoulder. He didn't say anything, but Ryou began to snap out of his sad memories. He looked at Marik, "How long have I been in the Ring?" he asked, he didn't really expect Marik to know, but he wanted to say something, to make Marik stop worrying about him, he didn't really like people to worry about him.

"Um," Marik said, "I'm not really sure…" it then hit him that he had no idea what happened to Bakura and he probably should have been worried about that before.

"Um…" Marik began, "What happened to Bakura anyway?"

"I don't really know… Somehow I made him sleep in the Millennium Ring."

Marik stared at him. Sleep? He made him sleep in the Millennium Ring? But how? He picked up the Millennium Ring that was still on the ground and Ryou tried to stop him again. "Don't… I don't want him to control me anymore."

Marik looked at him, and realized that he had a huge problem. He wanted Bakura to be back so they could continue their plans, but how could he just shut Ryou up in the Millennium Ring like that? Marik looked at the Millennium Ring, then back at Ryou. The sad looking, wide-eyed, worried Ryou.

It really wasn't fair what that face did to you.

He put the Ring back on the ground, at a loss for what to do now. Ryou sighed in relief, then he said, "So…" and stopped. He had no idea what to say now.

Marik was at an equal loss, so the atmosphere got awkward real fast. Eventually Marik couldn't take it, so he said, "T-tell me about yourself!"

Ryou looked at him, "Ah, well… I like to play games."

"Games?"

"Yes, especially RPGs, they're so fun," Ryou's whole expression lightened up as he said that, which made Marik sweat drop. He gets happy fast…

"Ah… So, do you play Duelmonsters?"

Ryou nodded, "Yup! But you probably don't want to hear about that, what about you? Tell me about yourself."

"Myself?" Marik looked off into space, remembering his own horrible past, "Ah, my life isn't that interesting…"

"Oh, okay," Ryou could tell Marik didn't want to talk about it, so he said, "In that case, um…" he had no idea what to say now, "Maybe, I could help you get the Millennium Eye? In place of Bakura."

"Ah…" Marik looked at him, "Well, me and Bakura kind of had a plan…" he glanced at the ring. Ryou noticed, which sent him into his thoughts.

To him, Marik seemed like a nice person, it made him think that Bakura couldn't be all bad… Could he? He looked at Marik, who was still looking at the ring. He said they had a plan… But, I can't have Bakura killing anyone else… He was having an internal war with himself, should he let Bakura take over? Or not? He knew which one he'd rather have… but would that be good? If he took over now, what would he even do? What had Bakura done with his life? Plus, he was a vampire now. If he took back his life now, would he be able to continue normally? He probably would find a way… But then what would Marik do? Should he just give him the Ring and go back home? Would that be fine? He looked at Marik. He wanted to help him. He really did. He seemed like a nice person, and he really wanted to help him… but he didn't know how useful he would be. And, he didn't really want to collect the Millennium Items. He knew it was to help vampires, but he didn't know if he could just drop everything and go on adventures like this, plus, he wasn't use to being a vampire, he would probably just get killed right away. It all came back to one question, should he let Bakura take over? He didn't know if he could… He didn't know if that was the right thing to do… He didn't know, he didn't know…

Eventually, he looked at Marik and said, "Could you promise me one thing?"

Marik looked at him, "What's that?"

Ryou picked up the Ring. "Could you make sure, that Bakura doesn't kill anyone?"

Marik blinked, "What are you talking about?"

Ryou smiled sadly, "You need Bakura right? To carry out your plan I mean…"

"Uh… That might help…"

Ryou put on the Ring, "Do you promise?"

"Uh, yeah, I'll make sure he doesn't kill anyone."

Ryou smiled sadly, "Thank you," When you're done collecting the Millennium Items, I'll take control again, were his last thoughts before he put the Ring on.

He waited.

Nothing happened.

Ryou sweat dropped, he kind of just thought that Bakura would take over as soon as he put the Ring on, but it seemed he was still sleeping. He looked at Marik, "Could you tell me a little more about these Items?"

"Uh… sure…"

It was daytime now, and Ryou put on the trench coat and the other necessary items. Marik had told him more about the Millennium Items, and Ryou was taking it all in.

"So, each one gives you a power?"

Marik nodded, "Yup, my Rod gives me the power to mind control people."

"What does the Ring do?"

"It allows you to transfer souls into things."

"Ah, so that's how Bakura lives in here…"

"Yeah…" he looked at Ryou, "Are you really okay?"

Ryou as startled, "What?"

"I mean, you said you would let Bakura take over, but are you okay with that?"

Ryou looked away sadly, "Honestly, no. At first, I was still confused, and I didn't really know much about what was going on, so I acted happy. But later on, I realized that I knew nothing about what was happening, and that I knew nothing about the man who had taken control of my body. When he told me he killed people…" he looked at Marik, "It's scary, knowing you have a killing maniac living inside you. It's scary, and I didn't like it."

Marik looked at him. "…Then why did you put the Ring back on?"

Ryou was quiet for a while, "…Because, you need Bakura to help you, right?" he said, barely above a whisper. He closed his eyes, he had developed a slight crush on this boy, and he did want to help him with his quest. So, he was willing to help in anyway he could, and, Marik had promised to watch and make sure Bakura wouldn't kill anyone anymore, so that made it a little better… A little.

Marik stared at Ryou. He stood up and hugged him, not knowing what else to do. He wished there was a way for him to live separate from Bakura, have his own body, that way he wouldn't be so sad…

They stayed this way for a while, but not everything lasts forever, eventually, Bakura awoke. And when he saw the position Ryou was in right now… he felt angry. He growled, and Ryou barely heard it before he felt Bakura start to take over again.

Bakura opened his eyes, and realized his plan had not been very well thoughts out. Ryou wasn't in Marik's arms anymore, but now he was.

"Oy," he said while his face went a little pink.

Marik looked at him, "Bakura? You're back?"

"Yes… Would you mind releasing me?"

Marik blushed, "Ah, right!" he let go and backed away.

Bakura stoop up. "So, you met Ryou, huh?"

"Yeah, is that why you've been acting strange?"

"Yeah…" he looked away, "I didn't want you to meet him."

"Why not?"

Bakura didn't say anything. The truth was, he didn't know why he hadn't wanted Marik to meet Ryou. Maybe it was because, he feared Marik would like him too much. If he remembered correctly, almost everyone Ryou met like him instantly, and he didn't want that to happen with Marik.

He cursed himself. "I just didn't want you to," he finally said.

Marik looked at him, he could tell Bakura didn't want to talk about it, so he said, "Okay…" He remembered Ryou's sacrifice, the promise he made, "Um, about our bet…"

Bakura raised his eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"Instead of killing the guards, could we just knock them out?"

Bakura looked at him curiously, he hadn't heard his promise to Ryou, "Why not? Why don't you want to kill them?"

"Well.. If we only knock them out, it would show greater self control. Which, frankly, I don't think you have."

"Are you kidding me?" Bakura said incredulously, "I have a ton of self control! You have no idea how many times I've wanted to kill you."

Marik chuckled, "You have no idea how many times I've wanted to kill you either!"

"Like you could."

"I could and you know it."

Bakura smirked, "Actually I've never seen you fight, so I don't know it."

"Well I've never seen you fight either, so you could just be lying about your fighting skills."

Bakura glared at him, "You doubt me?"

"Yes."

"You'll find that's a big mistake."

"Whatever," he looked ahead of him, and saw it.

Pegasus' island.

He looked at it amazed. There was a freaking castle on the island! "Bakura…" he said, slightly out of it.

"What is it?"

He looked back at his partner, "We're here."

(1): This is the line that made me realize that this really IS a romance story…

…The next chapter will be better, I promise.

~~~{REVIEW REPLIES}~~~

That's What Cheese Said: Heh heh, I don't know if I even can fit Bonz in here, but if I do, I do, that's the way the cookie crumbles. I was worried that Bakura's crush would make him out of character, so I tried to fix that… And yeah, in my world, Marik likes cats ^^ I have a perfect back-story as for why too, hee hee.
Sadly, I don't get cookies, because I couldn't decipher it… And please don't burn your school down with a flamethrower… use a grenade, they're much easier =) And I've seen the new Harry Potter! It was so good! Really close to the book too :D

Bec:Yeah, I've always imagined Ryou as a Matchmaker, don't ask me why… Although, I think I need to work more on Ryou's character. And Bakura's probably going to be in denial for a while… XD
It would make more sense for Bakura to win, but I don't know… The bet thing kind of just happened as I wrote it, so I don't have anything planned… But before they fight, I have something good planned =) I just need to work out the details. (Actually, I need to work out a lot of details…)

This was the sad memory I thought of first, but it saddened me too much, and I couldn't make it happen. I decided to share it with you anyway.

~~~{Flashback: Ryou's sad memory}~~~

"Papa," a young Ryou said, "Where are you going?"

The father would not meet his young son's gaze. "Ryou," he said, "There are some bad people in the world, I'm off to fight those bad people."

"Bad people…?"

The father knelt down and placed his hands on his son's shoulders, "Ryou, I will be gone for a while, I need you to take care of your mother and sister, can you do it?"

"H-hai!"

The father took something out of his coat pocket, "Here son," he said handing him a golden object, "I got this for you. Take it, may it give you courage, and when you're lonely or hurting, think of me…"

Young hands took the golden object. The father got up, and left through the front door.

A few months later…

Ryou's mother answered the door. "Yes, what is it?" she asked a man in uniform.

"I'm sorry Ms. Bakura, but your husband is dead."

She was shocked at first, but then she started crying silently. "H-how did he die…?"

"He got shot while he was on guard duty. He tried to fight them off, but they ambushed him."

Ryou had been eavesdropping, and one single tear escaped his eyes and landed on the floor. He closed his eyes, and clutched the golden object his dad had given him.

Ryou was looking at the deck sadly.

[Note: Ryou's father is not dead because I did not do this memory.]