Inu Kaiba: Angstshipping for the contest I'm in.

It wasn't Bakura's fault. But no matter how hard he tried, Ryou never looked his way that day. When Ryou told me about it later, he said he'd been staring at my back the entire time to give him confidence. It must've been some confidence…

It had started out as a beautiful, sadistic game, or at least that's what Bakura thought. Ryou had been his host, and he had used him, and not cared. But when he gained a separate body, he'd had nothing better to do but stick around.

Ryou's house had been the base to house his criminal natures. And Ryou had been forced to suffer. At first, Bakura would steal and hide the items in Ryou's house. Eventually, however, he was tailed all the way back to the house. He hid in the yard.

It was the middle of the night, and when Ryou answered the door, blearily rubbing an eye and trying to stay awake, a police officer tackled him. The house was searched, and upon finding the items, Ryou was dragged off to jail. And being half asleep still, no protests were uttered from the small boy.

When he woke up the next morning in a jail cell, with a large man gazing hungrily in his direction, Ryou spontaneously began to weep. He used his phone call to call Yugi, who helped take care of everything.

After contacting Kaiba, bail money was gathered. Ryou and Yugi visited Kaiba after to graciously thank him. Kaiba smiled, informing the pair that they'd better come to the next tournament he held as a reward, and then slammed the door.

Yugi and Yami took Ryou home, leaving him to sit quietly and fidget on the couch while they tried to talk sensibly with Bakura. Yami ended up beating the shit out of him.

Things only got worse from there. Bakura stopped stealing, but he beat Ryou every day and night. The torture became unbearable, and eventually Ryou stopped speaking. He tried to hide from it, but it did him no good.

After a month, I began to get suspicious. Ryou never talked in class. He wore long sleeves, even though it had been warm enough to wear a t-shirt for the past 2 weeks. He barely spoke to his friends when they gathered for lunch, just ate his lunch and left. Yami and Yugi figured he was doing his homework in the library, but I knew better when he followed Ryou to the bathroom, listening to him sob.

I invited Ryou home with me that day. Correction, I dragged Ryou home with me, and then locked him in my room with me, shutting and bolting every exit. I demanded Ryou explain what was wrong, and when Ryou said nothing, I proceeded to take his shirt off. When Ryou backed away from me, I pulled out a knife and cut a right down the middle of his shirt.

Deep blues, blacks, purples, and reds covered Ryou's pure white skin. I could only stare in horror, a lone tear falling down my cheek as I could only imagine what he had been through for the past god knows how long. I made him stay there with me.
I'm sure Bakura began looking long before he found Ryou. But by that time, Ryou was comfortable with me. And to be completely honest, I don't think Bakura looked very hard because he only found Ryou months later.

I lied to the teachers at school. I told them Ryou was sick, and that since his parents were away, he was staying with me. The teachers didn't care, as long as Ryou got the work and the tests done, they allowed him to pass. Ryou went in and did the tests secretly after school, and he certainly looked sick enough. He was psychologically traumatized from being beat senseless for a good month.

The bruises and cuts may have healed after the first month, but the few scars he sustained, mentally and physically… They would never go away.

Another month passed, and finally Ryou began to speak. I was shocked by that time that he trusted me enough to talk. At least he realized there was no one here to hurt him. Bakura was gone, and my Yami had been banished to the Shadow Realm. He'd been wearing my clothes for the past little while, and so his first words were to ask if he could go buy some clothes.

Some more time passed, and we began to grow closer. Ryou eventually returned to school, to the surprise of everyone. He was all smiles, just as he had been when Bakura had occupied his body. Yami and Yugi who had seemed a bit on edge while he was gone seemed to have lost that edge.

When Bakura showed up at my door, I wasn't surprised. What surprised me was Ryou's reaction. I hadn't realized just how confident he had gotten until Bakura smiled, saying "Time to come home Hikari."

"I'm not going, I'm staying here," said a voice from behind me.

Bakura smiled sadistically, "But who's going to pay the bills?" He asked, in a disgustingly sweet voice.

"Why should I care? You don't matter anymore."

The voice astounded both Bakura and I. I don't know if the shock was prominent in my face, but it certainly showed on Bakura's face, even just for a split second.

"But as my Hikari, you should care."

"Well I'm not your Hikari, and I don't."

Bakura was even more shocked this time. He was losing his playing field. I set about shutting the door in Bakura's face, deciding to stop a really bad fight before it started. And, because of that, I completely missed the smirk on Bakura's face.

A hand shot out, stopping the door's progress mid-halt.

"But Ryou, I love you."

I think all of us were shocked. Ryou and I at Bakura's choice of words and tactics, Bakura at the fact that he had chose those tactics.

And still all of us were shocked at the response, "Well, I love Malik, and I'll never love anyone else."

Ryou hadn't meant to say that. But it wasn't a lie. I realized by that time it was pointless to keep the door open. It was torturing Bakura more than necessary. I closed the door, and this time, Bakura made no protests.

The door was shut in his face. He stood there, staring at it.

What he said…It wasn't really a lie…. It wasn't a scheming plot to get Ryou to return… But, he knew, Ryou hadn't believed him. And he knew Ryou was telling the truth. And he hadn't meant to say it then. But it was too late.

He had meant to one day stop beating on Ryou. Then, Bakura would nurse him back to health, implementing in his mind that someone else had been beating on him.

The psychological trauma would have Ryou focus on the fact that someone was saving him, and he would latch onto that person bit by bit until his complete faith was in them. Eventually, Ryou would fall for Bakura and the two would be together forever. But Malik had taken his role.

And it had been the cold hard truth. Bakura loved Ryou; he'd loved him for a long time. And Ryou was supposed to love him.

Everything was too late. And love wasn't meant for 5000 year old tomb robbers, anyway.

So, Bakura used all his strength and walked away, right into the path of an oncoming car.