My writing partner and I couldn't wait to post another chapter so we decided to do it. Aren't you all lucky? Well if you like the story that is XD. Another filler but some more stuff happens. Without further delay here is chapter 6!

Unreal Truths

Chapter 6: Revelations

Ryou's POV

These past few weeks have been nothing but hell for Marik and I.

Bakura and Mariku have stayed true to their word and have stuck around our apartment, feeding off of our things like leeches. I have never gone through food so fast in my life.

I look over to see Marik asleep in the reclining chair. We don't get much sleep anymore either thanks to the fact that we are constantly being watched. They divided the work between them the first day they arrived; Mariku babysits me while Bakura watches Marik. There is never a moment when either of us is alone, only the rare instances in which we get to use the restroom.

I rubbed my temples and thought back, trying to figure out any reason as to how Bakura and Mariku managed to show up at my doorstep with their own bodies.

"Landlord, wake up."

I heard his voice but decided to ignore it, I was too tired and my body felt like it was encased in cement.

"Landlord, I told you to wake up."

I felt a none too light slap on my face. Moaning I forced my eyes to open.

Bakura was nothing but a blur of tan, red and white and I had to blink several times before he finally came into focus.

Bakura smirked in triumph and mockingly patted me on the head, "What a good host I have."

I blinked a few more times and shook my head lightly to try to clear out the mental fog my brain was still lost in.

I looked for Marik but neither he nor Mariku were in sight.

I f your looking for your housemate, he's being tied up in a more effective way. He grinned and crossed his arms. "He tried to make an escape but he failed miserably. He could have gotten lucky though and I will not take that risk again.

I felt my eyes widen slightly, Marik had tried to escape? How did he wake up before me and in enough time to try to run before Bakura and Mariku came back? There was also the fact that he was tied to a chair as well.

I shook the questions from my head; it didn't matter now though anyways, we were still stuck here.

I heard footsteps as Mariku emerged dragging Marik behind him.

Marik was gagged and had his hands tied firmly behind his back and his feet were tied together. He growled and cursed as Mariku tossed him onto the couch.

Bakura moved to the center of the room and eyed both Marik and I up, "Now this is how things are going to go from now on. Mariku and I cannot trust you two by yourselves or together without supervision so we are going to have to split you up like children."

He glanced at Marik, "I will be watching you Marik and Mariku will be watching my host. This can work to our advantage since Mariku can pose as Marik and take landlord with him when he goes out. Also, since Mariku carries the millennium rod, if my dear host gets any funny ideas about escaping he can be easily subdued."

I swallowed hard and looked at Mariku and he gave me a chilling smirk in return.

Bakura sat on the couch beside Marik, "Marik and I can bond here." He laughed as Marik tried to kick him and continued on, "Mariku will be taking your room landlord and I will take Marik's. You two can sleep on the floor beside the beds."

"What!" I cried out in protest. "You can't kick me out of my own bed."

Bakura rolled his eyes, "I can and I just did. Settle down Landlord, the sooner you get it through your head that we are going to be sticking around, the easier it will be on both you and Marik."

I frowned and felt my eyes sting with angry tears. Was my life ever going to be normal?

A tear escaped and fell down my cheek as I realized the cold hard truth; probably not.

I felt Mariku's gaze against my back again. I knew it was him since Bakura was out doing God knows what. I fought back a shudder and turned around to look at him.

He had the same look on his face that he always did when he looked at me; His head tilted slightly to the side, eyes narrowed a little bit and his mouth set in a tight line.

Finally I couldn't handle it much more and I squared my shoulders and stared Mariku right in the face, "What are you staring at?"

Mariku seemed taken aback and his eyes widened a tiny bit in surprise, "You of course."

I seriously almost face-palmed, "I know that. Why are you staring at me?"

"Why didn't you just ask that then?" He seemed genuinely confused.

I opened my mouth to give him a sarcastic answer but I stopped myself when I realized Mariku's question had been completely valid. Damnit I hated when the dumbest questions made sense.

Instead of replying I simply repeated my question, "Why are you staring at me."

"You're very odd looking."

I raised an eyebrow to hide the slight hurt in my eyes, "Excuse me?"

Mariku seemed puzzled as to why he had to repeat himself but he did it anyways, "You're very odd looking."

After another internal face-palm I rephrased my question, "What's so odd about how I look?" Even though I knew what he was probably going to say, I wanted to hear it for myself. I always hated people staring at me because of my exotic appearance.

Mariku surprised me by getting up and walking over so he was standing directly in front of me. "Your hair." He slowly reached out and took a small chunk in his hand, "I have never seen hair this color before."

I swallowed back my fear, Mariku had never come this close to me before and I admit I was a bit freaked out, "Uh yeah it's um…rare."

"Does it make you unhappy? To be…unique?"

I blinked a few times in surprise, "Oh um…not…really I guess."

Mariku just stared at me as if he was expecting me to say more, "I like your hair, it's different and I like different." He dropped my hair and stepped back.

I swallowed hard, "Uh thanks…I think."

He nodded and walked back to the wall he had been leaning against originally.

I was still stunned from the odd interaction when I heard Marik begin to stir.

He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes before looking around.

"Have a pleasant nap Omote?" Mariku's voice had a sharp and sarcastic edge to it, completely different than from our conversation.

Marik narrowed his eyes at him, "Yes actually." He then turned and looked at me. His hands were also tied together in front of him and he struggled to get himself into a sitting position, "Where's Bakura?"

I shrugged, "Out destroying the city I suppose."

Marik scoffed, "Wouldn't surprise me." He looked at Mariku, "I need a shower."

Mariku just raised an eyebrow.

Marik took in a deep breath and I could tell he was trying to reign in his anger, "You think you could untie me so I could take one?"

"Ryou managed to take his shower with his hands tied."

Marik looked at me and I shrugged, "It takes longer, and you might not get all the soap out but it can be done. Though you have to let it air dry because using a hairdryer is damn near impossible."

Marik let out a huge sigh, "Fine, then I am going to go take a shower if that's okay with you."

Mariku crossed his arms and nodded, "Knock yourself out Omote."

Marik walked by him scowling and Mariku grinned, "And I mean that literally."

I chuckled as Marik flipped him off and walked into the bathroom.

Yugi's POV

I watched Joey as he paced about my room, picking up and setting down various trinkets, "Thank you for inviting me over Yug, but I am kind of puzzled as to why we are just sitting here in your room."

I took in a deep breath, "Joey, I have something big to tell you and I am trying to think of a good way to phrase it."

He picked up my deck and began to thumb through it, "Alright then." He gave me a puzzled glance then continued looking through my cards.

I took another brief moment to gather my thoughts before deciding that it was either now or never, "Atem has been visiting me in my dreams."

I heard cards hitting the floor and I looked up to see Joey staring at me in shock, my cards scattered around the floor at his feet.

"Yug! How could you keep from telling us that Atem was back?"

I sighed, "He's not really…back per se Joey. I told you, he visits me in my dreams and it's not like its every night." I stood and walked over to my armoire and pulled out a box.

Joey watched me with a puzzled expression on his face, "Whats that?"

"Atem visiting me isn't the only thing I haven't told anyone about yet." I opened the box and slowly pulled out the millennium puzzle.

I was glad Joey wasn't holding anything breakable because the look on his face clearly told me that if he hadn't been sitting he would have been on the floor in seconds.

"Yugi…is that what I think it is?"

I nodded and cradled the millennium puzzle in my hands, "That day I went to visit Bakura I came back and it was sitting on my bedside table like it never had left in the first place." I glance up at him and his jaw was almost to the floor.

"How in the world could you keep this all from us? You know you can trust us, we're your friends!"

I chewed on my lip, "I know Joey, and it's not that I didn't trust you guys. I just wanted to make sure things didn't go up in flames before I decided to drag you guys into it."

He laughed, "Oh come on Yug, it's not like before!"

"I don't know Joey; I mean…the millennium puzzle wouldn't just randomly show up on my table."

Joey surprised me by beginning to pick up my cards, "Yeah well it's not like the other items are back too right? It's just the puzzle."

I froze. I hadn't even given thought to the other items. I had been so wrapped up in Atem and the millennium puzzle that I had completely forgotten about the possibility of the others returning as well, "To be honest Joey, that is the first time I even thought about the other items."

He stared at me, "Are you kidding me? Well if Bakura didn't have the ring when you saw him…"

He did have a point, "Yeah but I only discovered the puzzle when I got home; he may not have found it yet."

Joey seem unconcerned though, "Don't you think that Bakura would have had a shit fit if he found the millennium ring sitting in his bedroom? There is no reason why he wouldn't have called you to tell you."

I felt my shoulders sag in relief at Joey's logic, he was right, I was sure that Bakura or Marik would have called if they had found the ring and rod like I had found the puzzle. "Yeah I guess your right Joey." I smiled and sat down on my bed.

"So what does Atem say? When he visits ya in your dreams?"

I thought back to my dream conversations with Atem and the things he said to me, "Well, he said that he missed us all, and he wished he could come back to our world."

Joey couldn't seem to shut his mouth, "This is so cool man!"

I smiled a little bit, "Yeah I guess."

Joey was still looking completely awe struck, "You guess? This is huge man! You have been talking to Atem! And he said he wanted to come back!"

"I know Joey but realistically it's impossible, I mean I don't know where to even start with getting him his own body."

He seemed to realize this point for the first time, "Well at least we can talk to him! Maybe we can get him back in your body!"

I thought about that for a brief moment, "As much as I miss Atem, I do like having my body and thoughts to myself. It's sort of exhausting sharing a mind with someone else." I played with the millennium puzzle which was now sitting in my lap. I hadn't put it on yet, I was almost scared to, as if the second I put it on this perfect illusion would fall apart and I would lose Atem all over again.

"What else did he say? You said he visited you in your dreams several times now, I am sure he said more than 'I want to come back'. Come on Yugi, spill it."

"He really didn't say a whole lot more than that Joey. He just told me to be wary of the puzzle returning, that maybe this meant that the spirit of the millennium ring could be back as well. That and we just talked about old times."

Joey scoffed at the idea, "We already cleared that up Yug. So just tell Atem to quit worrying and start thinking about how to get back!"

I rolled my eyes, "Joeyyy."

He just shrugged, "I'm just saying! I mean how cool would it be to have him back with us again! And this time he would have his own body and he wouldn't need to worry about saving the world!"

I had to admit, the idea did sound awfully nice, "Yeah your right Joey. I am not going to push it with him though; I never know when I am actually going to see him."

Joey nodded, "Tell him I said hi! Oh man I cannot wait to tell everyone else! Tea is gonna be ecstatic when she hears about this."

Shaking my head I laughed lightly, "Well she better not get too excited, it's only me he's visiting."

Joey stood up and walked towards the door and set my deck on my desk as he passed by, "Well tell him to be a little more sociable will ya?"

I laughed, "He's able to come to me because I have the puzzle Joey." I stood up and looked at him, "Where are you going?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, but this news has me excited and I can't stay cramped in this room any longer!"

I shook my head laughing and walked to put the millennium puzzle back into its box, "You saying my room is small?"

He laughed and gave me a wicked grin, "Just a little bit! Come on! Let's go see those new cards your grampa was going on about earlier."

"Alright sounds good to me." I put the puzzle and its box back into the bottom drawer of my bureau and followed Joey out the door smiling all the way.