The truth, part of the truth, and evasions

"I need to talk with the professor," Bakura told her, and practically fled, collapsing on the other side of the door. How was he supposed to deal with this? He wanted to tell her, but he had been told not to let anyone know.

Shaking his head, he took the stairs up to the headmaster's office, and knocked on the door. "Come in," Headmaster Dippet called, and Bakura entered, feeling as though there was a ball in his chest, chocking him. "You have something you want to talk with me about?"

"Yes sir," Bakura's lips curved in a sardonic smile. "The… You wished me to hide the circumstances of my arrival here, correct?" Dippet nodded gravely.

"I feel it would be for the best," he agreed.

The youth shrugged, looking at the desk so that he didn't have to see the ancient professor's face. "It probably would, but I'm not sure I can, not from everyone. There have been a few complications, and, well, I think Myrtle's beginning to suspect."

"I see," The Headmaster looked up at him seriously. "If you feel you can trust her to keep a secret then I suppose I cannot stop you. I feel, however, that the fewer people who know what you are the safer you will be."

"Yes, Professor," Bakura responded mildly, already heading out the door. "I'm sure you're right."

"Hey Myrtle." Bakura caught up to the girl as the crowd headed into the Great Hall for lunch. "Can I talk to you about something? Privately?"

"Eh?" She turned to him in surprise, then nodded slowly. "Hey, did you really skip classes to talk to some professor?"

"Yeah," He shrugged, and pulled her over to their usual seat, glaring around at anyone who came close until they were on their own. "There are more important things than schoolwork, even if I am behind." When she began to look guilty he continued, taking a piece of bread and buttering it slowly as he spoke. "I suppose it would have come up sooner or later, but for some reason I just wasn't expecting it. Still, you deserve to know."

Bakura shifted on the seat until he was facing her, wanting to see the expression on her face as he told her the truth. "Remember when we first met?" The girl nodded, looking surprised that he'd brought that up. "I'm still not really used to this place, or to this time, but I know I was even worse then. That's why I cut our 'conversation' short so quickly, but also why I asked you questions to begin with. I wasn't –" His lips curved upwards in a mocking smile, knowing that was a lie already. "I still don't really trust the Headmaster, and I wanted to make sure his story about this being a school was true."

Myrtle was still looking a bit dazed, but he figured that would just get worse as he told more of his story, so he didn't bother waiting for her to finish taking it in. "I really am from Kemet, before its name was changed – to Egypt, you said? Anyway, I don't know how exactly it happened, but the Pharaoh's guards caught me trying to sneak into the palace, and I ended up as the sacrifice in some ceremony – only I didn't die. I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was in the infirmary were we first met and the headmaster was bending over me speaking in a language I'd never heard before."

Noticing for the first time the piece of bread he had been shredding as he spoke, Bakura dropped the remainder onto his plate and finished quietly. "So Headmaster Dippet performed some spell that made me able to speak English, and made up that story I gave you about being from some backward country somewhere. I'm still not sure why I'm here and not locked up or something, but I suppose it's because I don't know what happened to bring me here. I'm glad that I'm here now, but it's still difficult sometimes because everything's so different and I don't know what I'm supposed to do." He tried to smile at her, although he knew the expression was weak and unhappy, and waited for her response. Would she accept what he'd told her? He hadn't lied to her, but he hadn't told her the whole truth either. She'd been shaken enough by the idea that a demon might be making him want to kill people. She didn't need to know how often he'd done just that on his own.