A/N: I just decided to make things move along a bit faster, so no fillers or anything, stuff is just going to happen, happen and happen. Of course if I get writer's block, then there might be some pointless rambling but I try to avoid that.


Malik just now realized that he wasn't lying on the floor, in stead he was on the bed and wondered how he had gotten there. He couldn't really remember completely what happened last night apart from the spirits. He had the feeling that the thief had been holding him but he wasn't sure... Why would Bakura do something like that anyway? After all, he considered Malik as property. Only an actual person deserved protection.

He decided that he had more important things to ponder on than the thief's strange behavior and got up. How come always when he woke up, Bakura was gone somewhere and he never told where he went? Not that he missed him, but it would be nicer to have breakfast already. The other had gotten angry when Malik had helped himself with the breakfast, so the boy thought it was better to wait for him this time, not to get on his bad side.


Bakura had been out since the early morning, doing some research. It had to be some use to him if the boy could see the damned spirits after all, he just needed to find out what. He knew a person from the town that might be able to help him, so he rode Pharaoh to the town and went to visit the old geezer. He had vast knowledge about ghosts and spirits, being the old member of some death worshiping cult.

The old guy freaked him out a bit but had the piece of info he needed so he was ready to withstand the creepy-ness. After visiting the guy, he indeed came out wiser. Now knowing what to do, he decided to head back to his hideout. Now doubt the brat would already be awake and hungry. He never knew children ate so much...


"Let me guess, you're hungry right?"

Malik indeed was but after he got his breakfast he was pretty much kicked out by Bakura. He had to do something to earn his food so he had to take care of Pharaoh who was tired from the trip and needed grooming. Malik hated the horse with a passion and was not at all happy to be taking care of it... him.

The horse trotted lazily to meet him as he came to the view of the oasis and tried to give Malik a "friendly" push.

"Oh no you won't!" Malik told him. "No stupid crap from animals today."

Pharaoh looked disappointed if possible and just trotted away, not caring if the boy had came to take care of him.

"Hey! Come back here!" Malik ran after the horse, which was a mistake since it only made the horse move faster. Pharaoh clearly didn't feel like stopping as he just kept going, despite that he must have been tired too. Malik chased after him for a good while, but then he got tired of it and just sat down on the sand, sighing.

When the horse noticed that Malik was no longer after him, he stopped and carefully approached the boy from behind. Malik felt something nibble the back of his hair and turned to see Pharaoh playing with it. He was about to shoo the horse away but then realized that he had actually came to him on his own accord. That was to be considered as a small miracle so he just smiled at the horse and reached to give him a pat.

"You're not so bad after all, you just play tough." Pharaoh 'neigh'ed. "Let's go get you washed, ok?" The boy stood up and grabbed a piece of Pharaoh's hair in order to lead him to the water. The horse followed much to his amazement, but as they reached the small lake, the horse stopped and decided that Malik should get into the water first so he pushed the boy into the pond like lake and galloped off quickly.

"Why you little-!" Malik yelled after him and got out of the water. He considered chasing the horse around again but remembered how he had came to him and decided to just fake indifferent. When the horse realized that Malik was not going to chase after him, he carefully approached the boy from behind, as he had turned his back at him.

Malik felt a slight push on his shoulder and turned to Pharaoh. "You little attention seeker." This time around, he got the horse into the water and began to plash him with water. Soon enough, Pharaoh apparently decided that Malik would have to get wet too and playfully bounced so that the water plashed on to the boy. This started a full out water war between the two, where Pharaoh would be plashed by Malik, gallop away and come back for a new assault and to be assaulted in turn.


Bakura had began to wonder what took the boy so long. He just hoped Pharaoh hadn't killed him or anything though that was unlikely. The horse wasn't angry, it was just bratty.

He reached the oasis and heard laughter and other happy sounds coming from it. Soon he saw the boy running around being chased by his horse, laughing like he was having the time of his life. Both were wet but were quickly being tried by the sun. Bakura watched the two play for a while longer before making his presence known, though Pharaoh had probably noticed him already but just chose to ignore him.

"Hey, brats! It's time for you to stop playing!"

The horse galloped to him, with Malik running in tow. Bakura just shook his head at their childish behavior and told the boy it was time to head back.

"Already? Aw man." He turned and hugged the horse. "Bye Pharaoh, I see you soon I hope..."

Pharaoh nodded his head several times and Malik let go to follow Bakura back to the cave.


"I could start to take care of Pharaoh, if it's ok with you?" Malik asked carefully. That wasn't really what he wanted to talk about but he had to start somewhere and he did have good time with the horse. Bakura didn't say anything for a while but then he nodded his head a bit.

"Sure, I was going to make you do that anyway." He said, Malik didn't really know if he should be grateful or pissed. He just sat on the floor like he always did and hugged his legs, wondering how he should go with the thing he was about to ask. He really wanted to ask about the spirits from yesterday but wasn't sure how Bakura would take it. Malik glanced at the other and saw that he had been watching him.

"What is it?" The thief asked, narrowing his eyes a bit. Malik bit his lip and looked down before asking his question.

"Yesterday... What were those?" He looked up carefully. Bakura had turned his gaze away.

"They were the spirits of Kul Elna." He told quietly, it held a bit finality, like 'Don't ask anymore'. Malik had no idea what he was talking about but decided to leave it be, for now at least. He leaned his head on his knees and sighed, feeling bored now that he had to stay in doors. There wasn't much what one could do here, especially when Bakura didn't like him touching his stuff, he would have liked to look through them again.

Malik just let his mind drift far away, back to his home and to the days when he used to play out in the sun all day with the other children. The time he had spent with Pharaoh had reminded him of those times again, it was almost like playing with an actual human child.

Bakura noticed that Malik was far in his own world, just sitting like that must have been boring to a kid like him. No worries though, he would soon have some excitement in his life. The thief decided to ease his boredom a bit.

"What are you thinking kid?"

"Home... I miss everyone so much..." Malik looked up at him. "Are you going to keep me here forever?"

Bakura shrugged. "For now the answer is yes. You can't expect me to just bring you home, you know the location of my hide out."

"No I don't! It was dark! There's no way I could have seen where we went!"

"That's not the point! People who are abducted normally don't get back home anyway so you can just forget your old life!" Bakura yelled back and the boy curled up and buried his face on his knees.

The boy started to sob silently and Bakura sighed. "Great... Just get to sleep or something, maybe then you won't be so god damn depressed." Malik curled up but just continued to sob miserably. Bakura decided to just let the boy cry and closed his eyes for a bit.


The screams echoed in the streets. His mother had told him to run away and not look back, and he had but not too far away, or far away enough to not see all his villagers, along with his own family, die in the hands of the solders.
Bakura's eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly, breathing heavily.

"What's wrong?" Came the quiet voice of Malik from his side. He looked at the kid and saw that he was standing beside him and looking just a bit worried. How could he be worried about someone who had kidnapped him and just now yelled at him, making him cry?

"Nothing... Just a nightmare, go back to sleep." Bakura just told. Malik looked at him worriedly one more time before heading back to his place and curling up in the covers.

There was a way for him to make the nightmares stop, at least for a while, as well as making the spirits leave him alone from time to time.

Bakura glanced at Malik. The boy seemed to be asleep already, his ability to fall asleep was truly amazing, along with his ability to eat almost as much as his horse did. Despite the slight morbid-y of the situation, Bakura snorted a bit at his thoughts.


A/N: A good as any place to leave it for now. During the writing of this chapter I just listened Body Crumbles by Dry Cell over and over again, I love that song, don't know if it affected the chap in any way though... School has started again, not as much time to write so updates will probably be slower...

Please review!!!