.:Chapter six - Lost Pets, Apologies, Fights, and Non-Forgotten Memories:.

After drying his hair, Ryou leaned on the counter, resting his head against the cool mirror in front of him. He let out a soft sigh, closing his eyes, wet hair falling around his effeminate face. Gently, his eyes blinked open, only to glance up into their reflection in the metal. Heaving another sigh, he pushed himself up and finished drying off his body, the steam from his hot shower still wafting about the small bathroom, like fog. He wrung his hair out into the sink and repeated this action several times, until his hair was just damp, as apposed to soaking. He pulled on his nightclothes, which consisted of...well...a shirt. A very long shirt, but just a shirt none-the-less. This made him want to rethink his bed-wear.

Rubbing his hair with the towel, his mind wandered off to another place or time, eyes distant. He shook himself out of that, blinking. Sighing, he rubbed at his frizzy-but-clean hair. He hung up the towel and grabbed his dirty clothes, throwing them in the hamper outside the bathroom, once he'd opened the door. Looking over, he found Mariku sitting on the couch, knees drawn up to his chest, and head buried into his arms. He thought he heard something that sounded like a quiet sniffle, but he wasn't sure. Silently he moved closer, frowning. His eyes widened however, when he saw those tanned shoulders shaking slightly. Mariku was...crying?

"Are..." he paused, seeing the other looked up, having wiped his face, no signs of any tears left. "Are you alright?"

'...Well, that might've been the stupidest thing you've said tonight.'

The violet-eyes male stared, and then shook his head, going back to his moping.

"What's wrong?" the pale teen asked, this time sounding much smarter.

"Princess is gone! I can't find him anywhere..." the older one cried, sounding utterly heart-broken.

The smaller boy opened his mouth to reply when he heard a shrill ringing. He winced. Stupid phone. But after what Mariku had said...he felt so bad for him, no matter how silly the problem sounded. 'Even though that cat is evil, he obviously loves it a lot...'

Turning, he moved to the stupid-interrupting-electronic-device, picking up the receiver, speaking into it. "Hikari(1)," he said quietly, so whoever it was calling knew whose house it was. His eyes widened slightly and he blinked. "Hello?" he asked, listening harder. Once more, no one answered. The pale boy frowned more, and moved to hang up the phone, when he finally heard an answer.

"I'm sorry,"

This caused Ryou to blink again and lift the receiver once more to his ear. "Malik?"

"Ryou, I'm sorry...about what I said earlier..." the tanned male fidgeted on his end of the line, looking down. He was never really good at apologies, but he did feel bad about what he'd said to his friends... But he wasn't able to reach Yuugi right now, so he just called up his only other option for relief from his problem.

The white-haired boy smiled kindly, though his blonde companion couldn't see it. "I know, Malik... I know how easily stressed you are," and with this, he grinned, playing with the phone cord with his free hand. Okay... so he was flirting(2). But that wasn't the point.

He heard the other growl, but playfully. "Oh, you," Malik sighed, and he would have said something else, had he not been interrupted.

"PRINCESS!"

"..."

Both were silent, Ryou staring at Mariku, who was clawing desperately at the wall, trying to climb up it.

"...Please, Ryou, tell me those freaks aren't at your apartment..."

"Um...What should I tell you, then?"

"...You're so stupid sometimes," the pale boy flinched at this, but almost smiled when he heard the brown-skinned boy's voice become tender. "Just be careful." And the line went dead.

Ryou hung up the phone, feeling giddy, knowing his friend cared for him, and turned, only to find the sight of the strange blonde male looking up at the ceiling, moving occasionally, but never averting his eyes. The small boy walked up curiously, cocking his head at the other, frowning. "What are you doing, Mariku?" he asked, somewhat worried.

The other turned his violet eyes to him, and pointed up. "Princess! I can hear him!"

Now this made Ryou's eyes grow wide. "What!" He looked up, just like Mariku was, and groaned when he heard the sound of small cat feet pawing around above them. Shortly after, there was a muffled meow. "Oh, my God..." he moaned, raking a hand over his face, sliding down the wall until he was in a sitting position. "Your cat is inside the freaking air vent!"

Mariku gasped and ran over to a small cage-like rectangle on the roof, right above the couch. Ryou looked up and almost fainted when he saw the other yank at it, then growl at his failure and rip the said metal thing off (a few screws falling to the floor), and then use the said couch to jump up, grabbing hold of the ceiling, and pulling himself into the ventilation system as well.

By now, the poor boy was nearly hyperventilating. "Oh, my God, oh, my God, he's in the vent, the cat's in the vent, they're both in the vent!"

After this was said, he ran over to where Mariku had disappeared and looked up, only seeing a few small specks of dust come snowing down. He moved from side to side to try to see the other, but to no avail. "Damn you!" he screamed up, hearing it echo slightly. Sighing, the now-shaking Ryou sat down on the couch, face buried in his hands. After hearing several loud thumps, which echoed as well, followed by more scuffling, sounding further and further away.

A few minutes went by, or at least it felt like it, before Ryou, trembling, got to his feet and went to his room, hoping if he ignored the whole incident, it would just disappear. He pushed open the door to his room, blinking blindly, since his eyes weren't used to the darkness. He reached over and clicked on the light, almost gasping when he saw an unfamiliar sight on his bed.

"Bakura?" he asked, shocked.

The white-haired Althasian turned slightly, looking at the smaller boy a few seconds before holding up something consisting of a dull, faded pink. "What is this?" he asked, brown eyes flashing in curiosity.

Ryou inhaled sharply, gaining an uneasy look in his eyes. "Oh... That's a stuffed animal..." he said quietly, fidgeting.

Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Not an actual animal, I assume?" He was still holding the small fluffy thing quite roughly.

"Please, don't tear that," the younger boy begged, stepping forward. "It was my sister's," he trailed off, lifting his hands to pick at his shirt.

And now, Bakura's other eyebrow was raised. "'Was'?"

Ryou's green eyes shifted to the floor. "She doesn't live here anymore." was his only explanation, his eyes dimming as he said this, a far-off look in them.

"She's dead, isn't she?" the other stated bluntly.

Ryou flinched visibly, as though he'd been physically struck, though nodded slowly, pained, pulling gently at his damp hair.

The other snorted softly and turned, going back to staring at the wall. It was obvious he hadn't really moved much at all on the smaller one's bed, since the covers were still folded neatly, not crinkled from use. Slowly, his chocolaty eyes turned downward, glaring quite fiery at the small, worn-out rabbit. One of its 'eyes' (which were really black buttons) was coming off, and the seams were almost busting in some places, showing how much it had been loved on. With a growl, he threw it, the poor thing crashing against the wall, earning a shocked gasp from Ryou. The boy ran forward and tenderly lifted it up, as though it were a living child, and cradled it to his chest.

"You ass," he said quietly, small form trembling in anger. Looking down at the thing, he noticed that the button had come completely off. He turned, trying to find it, but fell over when the toy was roughly ripped from his arms.

"Give her back!" Ryou shouted, eyes blazing, before he realized what he'd said.

Bakura stared down at him, his own eyes afire. "This isn't your sister," he said, teeth clenched. "It will never be your sister." he continued, watching as the other's form curled in upon itself. "So get over it."

Suddenly, a rip was heard, and both watched as the stuffed rabbit fell to the floor limply, its arm still in Bakura's large hand. Apparently, holding it by that alone wasn't very smart... it was worn out, and the weight caused it to tear.

Ryou was now shaking all over, looking like he'd witnessed his sister's death twice over. A single tear fell down his cheek and he got up, pushing past Bakura, and darting from the room.

'How could he!' Ryou thought desperately, 'That was... I hate him!'

Bakura stood in shock. He hadn't really meant to hurt the other that badly... he'd only been trying to get through to him... Angrily, he threw down the toy onto the bed, folding his arms. After a few seconds, his eyes trailed back to it, and saw the sadness shining in the single button-eye it had left... and he felt a strange form of pity.

"Oh, for the love of..."

Okay, so maybe he could understand how someone could care about a toy...

---

Ryou sat one the couch, knees up to his chest, and arms wrapped around him, his head buried deeply in them for comfort. If one hadn't been looking close enough, they wouldn't be able to see that he was crying.

He heard several loud, hollow thumps from above him, and looked up, eyes tinted pink and over-shined from his salty tears. Some dust flittered down next to him, and then a rather large mass of it fell all at once, and at a very fast rate, before something even larger fell out. Mariku, a whole powdery-gray color coating his body, held his precious feline close to his chest, having landed on the couch in a sitting position next the young teen. He sneezed, and then looked over to see the other not looking back at him. He frowned, almost sensing the angst from the other and reached out, lifting the other's chin and turning his head to face him.

"What is wrong, little nice-Bakulookalike?" he asked quietly.

"My name's Ryou," the other said, pulling his face away from the larger male's touch. "And Bakura is the problem!" he said, eyes filling up once more. "My...my mother made that toy for her..." and he then buried his face again, going back to his crying.

The tanned male looked sadly at him, before lifting his Princess up the smaller boy. "Ryou?" he asked, using his name for the first time.

The boy looked up, only to meet the sight of a dust-covered cat in his face. He blinked back, and was utterly shocked when Princess leaned out and bumping his head against Ryou's face gently.

"Go tell Ba-Ra not to hurt you anymore--you look bad when you cry."

Ryou, not sure how to take the comment, only shook his head. "But...he doesn't listen to me..."

"Of course he does! Baku-Baku has thick head, but he listens." Mariku replied, poking his temple a few times, smiling down at him, holding his cat in one arm.

The pale-haired teen looked back at him, and the smiled slightly in return. Maybe, just maybe, Mariku as smarter than he let on. "Thanks," he whispered, before getting up and walking back down the hallway, to his room. He noticed that the door was shut once more, but not all the way... He pushed it open, like before, and met quite a sight! His eyes widened, and then softened at the scene of Bakura, the asshole who had caused him so much grief in one afternoon, lying down on the bed, above the covers, asleep, cradling what was left of the bunny plushie tenderly in his arms.

And maybe...just maybe... Bakura wasn't such a bad guy after all...

.:Chapter end:.

(1) I made Ryou's last name "Hikari", meaning Light. :3

(2) You'll understand this later.

-wipes forehead- Whew! Sorry for the wait, guys... heh... I know this was all about Ryou-tachi, but the next chapter will be solely Yami and Yuugi time!

-Cecilia