"Oh, the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling. It's the unraveling and it undoes all the joy that could be." ~Joni Mitchell

Ryou's bright eyes followed his sister as she ran up the jungle-gym stairs, avoiding the many other children who were scrambling around. He bit his lip, turning away to watch all the other kids around him, but inevitably his eyes were drawn once again to her. She jumped off of the bridge, landing on the ground in a crouch, and was off again in a flash. Her hair bounced around her face, a shining golden halo. And dangling on her chest, too large for her tiny frame, was It.

It glimmered, even more pretty then the bright golden waves around Amane's face. The sun, its warm brightness a pleasant break from the rain typical of early spring, shone off of it, making it glint and toss golden beams of light playfully into the atmosphere. As hard as Ryou tried, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of it.

It wasn't very fair, after all.

Why did Amane get the prettiest gift? Why had daddy brought home nothing but an obsidian statuesque for him, and given her the most pretty, most beautiful thing in the entire world? A frown crossed his innocent features; a frustrated line creased his forehead, making him look far older than his nine years.

"You're it!" a child suddenly screamed loudly beside him, laughing all the while, as his fist punched into Ryou's side. The boy stumbled, tossed out of his jealous reverie, realizing that he hadn't been paying attention to the game. All the other children were giggling, running away from him now. He smiled, the frown disappearing, leaving nothing but the lighthearted child behind. He chased after the boy who'd tagged him, then picked a new target and began chasing them instead.

Always, though, they slipped away at the last moment. And always, always, his eyes were distractedly drawn back to his sister. Almost in a panic, he would scan the playground for her. He wanted to watch out for her, of course. He loved her…but he couldn't help but admit that a portion of his concern was not for her, but for It. What if she'd dropped it? The frown returned to his face suddenly, and he paused, once again, to look for her. What if it got a scratch? What if one of the tassels, so delicately dangling from the circular structure, was broken? Any number of things could happen in the chaos all around him.

A bright voice, like a wind chime, fell over him. "Ryou-nii, you can't catch me!" Amane sang with a giggle. She stood beside the slide, bouncing up and down in anticipation of the moment she knew Ryou would chase after her. She repeated the rhyme. "Ryou-nii, you can't catch me!" She giggled again, cheerful as ever. The song was one his father had made up. (They had played tag too, once. Before his father had decided that he liked to travel) His sister had picked it up immediately, loving the way she could sing it over and over. He grinned in relief (for her, or the pretty item around her neck. He wasn't sure which) and, as was expected, took off after her.

As he fled through the jungle of metal-work, swings, and slides, kids of all ages scattered like marbles from a bag, avoiding him. None wanted to be 'IT'. Ryou passed them all by though, not giving them a second glance. He wanted to catch his sister. It made her happy to be the center of attention, and no one had more attention than when they were it.

He'd almost caught up to her. She took a turn and bolted up a small flight of stairs, turning to see how far behind she was. As she twisted, It came into view. Ryou's eyes fell to it immediately, drawn like metal to a magnet.

"It's not fair!" Ryou had cried to his father, the day it was brought out of the box and handed to his little sister. He'd reached out, stroking the ice-cold metal, before Amane had snatched it away with a vehement "Mine!"

"Ryou, you got your gift, let Amy enjoy hers and be grateful for what you're given." His mother had snapped in an impatient tone, one she so often used with him. She looked down at him, her green eyes chilling.

His father had then nodded in agreement, to Ryou's disappointment. "Your mother is right, Ry-chan." He said kindly, his slanted brown eyes softening as he knelt down beside his son. "Besides, you don't need that. It's like a necklace. It's for girls. You don't want people to make fun, right?"

The little boy's eyes had misted over, but he wiped the tears away. "Right." He whimpered, and gave a reluctant nod. Because father knew best…

A scream broke Ryou's thoughts. It was shrill with surprise and hurt, piercing the calm park. Parents looked up in surprise, wondering whose child it was that was making the heart-rending cry. Ryou looked to the stairs, but his sister wasn't there anymore. She was sitting in the woodchips, holding her arm. Tears streamed from the little girls eyes, and she gasped through the choking sobs. Children were crowding around her to ask her if she was okay, and the little boy who had crashed headlong into her, knocking her off the stairs and flat to the ground, was now also crying on the ground beside her in childish remorse.

Ryou's eyes went wide as he realized that his sister had fallen. Then a jolt went through him, like a burst of electricity had just coursed into him. The pendant, the pretty gift from father, was missing. It didn't hang where it should've, around his little sister's neck. He bit his lip in anxiety, wanting to go look for it on the stairs immediately, but instead he made himself run to his sister's side. His sense of responsibility to Amane began to kick in as he knelt down beside her, asking her what had happened.

"H-h-he hit m-me!" She sobbed, pointing accusingly at the young boy wiping his running nose a few feet away.

"Are you okay?" Ryou said, patting her. He took her arm gently in his hands, trying to not let his eyes wander to the stairs where, he assumed, the pendant lay abandoned. A red scuff covered her arm, but she seemed fine. "Stand up, Amy." Ryou said, wrapping an arm around her as he lifted her to her feet. "Where's the necklace daddy gave you?" He asked, an edge in his voice.

Amane gasped, surprised, and looked down as though not believing that it was missing. Her tumble forgotten, she rushed back to the stairs and climbed up them quickly.

"It's not here, Ryou-nii!", she said fearfully. The pendant was her most valued possession (as Ryou knew it would be his, if it were his.)

"Well look harder…" He trailed off, a glimmer catching his eye. He jogged over to the stairs, leaning beneath them. There it was again, that bright shimmering. He crouched further under the stairs to where Amane's necklace lay, half hidden in the shadow of the jungle-gym. His hand closed over the metal, which was frigid against his pale skin. A sense of relief settled over him, though he didn't truthfully know why.

Amane ran over to him. "You found it, Ryou!" She said happily, bouncing up and down.

"Y-yeah." Ryou stammered, not looking at her. The tassels tinkled merrily as he lifted it from the ground and brushed the wood shavings off it.

And all he could think about was how it wasn't fair that it belonged to her and not him.

"Give it, nii-san." Amane demanded, making a grab for it. Ryou lifted it above her head though, glaring at her suddenly. "It's mine!" She whined, not noticing his narrowed eyes, and making another grab for it. She failed again though as Ryou put it in his other hand and hid it behind his back.

It was her fault that the pretty treasure wasn't his.

'I should just keep it.' Ryou thought to himself, averting his face and blocking out Amy's insistent demands for him to return it. He knew that, if he kept it, it wouldn't be for long. His mother would never allow him to keep the trinket. And yet…

He turned, a cold film of ice forming over his mind, as frigid as the pretty ring in his hands. He could feel Amane's hands pulling on his shirt, grabbing at his hands, but every time he nudged her aside without really acknowledging her. In fact, all thought of Amane seemed to have vanished, except for the knowledge that she was the only thing between him and the pretty relic he wanted. An irritation fueled by jealousy kept his grip firm on the pendant. That…and something else that he couldn't really define.

"Nii-san, where are you going?" Amane asked, still pulling at his arm.

The boy stopped, standing on the sidewalk as he waited for traffic to cease. "I'm going home, Onee-chan." He said coldly.

Amane paused. "But…but mommy said that she was coming to get us!" She reminded him in confusion. This wasn't like Ryou, and she didn't like it. "She doesn't want us going home alone." She wrapped her hands around her big brother's arm, looking at her necklace that was still gripped tightly in his closed fist.

Her brother turned sharply to face her, and she pulled back in surprise. His eyes, usually so warm and welcoming, were cold. They penetrated right through her, scrutinizing her. Like frozen mirrors, they revealed nothing of the person behind them, but reflected Amane in a way that made her feel like she herself was exposed. As though for the first time, she noticed how unruly his shimmering white hair was, and how it accented and sharpened his features harshly. To her six-year old eyes, he looked much, much older than he used to be only moments ago. He looked scary.

She pulled back further in alarm, barely keeping her fingers on his arm.

"Only one person can own the Sennen Ring, Onee-chan." Her brother said coldly, his voice unfamiliar to her. "And you can't have it." He finished shortly, turning back to the street.

Amane stood there, looking up at him. Finally, her voice tiny and fearful, she whispered, "You aren't Ryou-nii."

She could see the stranger's eyes, brown eyes that should've belonged to her brother, flare in anger. "No." He agreed icily as he spun around and grasped her arm.

"Ryou-nii, stop it." Amane screamed, a few feet away from her big brother.

"I just want to look at it!" Ryou had snapped, his voice edged, sitting at the top of the large flight of stairs in their house. In his hands he cradled the pendant.

"No, give it back. I want it!" She yelled, and then called out, "Mommy!"

Then, too, Ryou's eyes had flashed in an unfamiliar anger. He'd reached forward as though to put his hand over her mouth and stop her from telling, but at the last minute he'd changed his mind and instead just shoved. Amane had gone tumbling down, down, to the bottom of the stairs.

"What is going on here!" had come the voice of his mother from the bottom of the stairs, where she knelt to aid Amane, who was crying. "Ryou Bakura, come down here now."

Grudgingly, the white-haired boy had gone down to his mother. "I just wanted to look at it." He muttered.

"Give it here, now." She said, her emerald eyes glaring down at her son. Without waiting for him to do as she'd said, she snatched the Ring from his hands and handed it carefully to Amane. "Go to your room, Ryou."

"But—"

"Now!"

A car honked, and Amane drew her gaze up to the unfamiliar figure that was holding her arm. He looked just like he had when he'd pushed her down the stairs, she thought, childish confusion evident on her face. A sneer crossed her brother's features.

"Mommy isn't going to let you keep it." She whimpered, tears coming to her eyes again.

The cynical sneer grew. "And that is a problem, isn't it." The boy's grip on his sister's arm tightened. His eyes flickered up to the street to where a silver car was coming towards them. Within he could make out the piercing green eyes of his mother, her platinum blonde hair, and her features…cold, angry, fixed on him. Already she was probably thinking of how she would reprimand him for bothering Amane.

He looked back down at the crying girl, a sudden impulse coming to mind, and whispered gently, his voice soft and loving, yet cold and cruel at the same time. "I love you, Onee-chan." Then, as he had just a few months previous, he shoved his little sister away from him. The little girl tripped backwards, crying out in fear, into the oncoming traffic. The silver car, their mother inside, desperately swerved. Brakes screeched as the car turned sharply turning to avoid her, ramming instead straight into a large truck in the other lane. Horns blared, people were suddenly in a panic.

The white-haired boy didn't bother to watch the rest of the 'accident' unfold, but put the Sennen Ring around his neck where it belonged.

"It was an accident." He said softly to himself, as though that would make it the truth. "I tried to stop her from chasing the ball into the street…but Amy wouldn't listen to Nii-san. And fate had it that mother was the unfortunate driver who couldn't stop in time to avoid her…"

He turned around, glancing once more at the destruction. People were running toward the crumpled cars now. Sirens in the distance, growing closer, could be heard. Amane wasn't visible in the wreckage. A smirk far too old for the young visage of the boy traced his lips.

Softly, he whispered, "I'll miss you, Onee-chan." Then he turned away, and didn't look back.

A/N: I hope it was pretty evident that Bakura took control, and that it wasn't Ryou who pushed Amane into the street. Anyways, and on that happy note, I've been enjoying writing fics where Ryou is young, like...small. Its a phase. :)