A/N: Yeah, I'm well aware that the chapter is later for the 50 billionth time. But I have a sort of legit reason this time... Two weeks ago I posted the prologue of my new story, With Love which you should all definitely go read once you're finished reading this. Especially if you enjoyed the Ryou and Bakura part of this. And then last week I was studying for my provincial, in between watching my little brother's annoying basketball games and seeing the play Wicked in Vancouver which was awesome. Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, or alerted this story.

Anywho, I'm not a big fan of this chapter myself but it had to be done. Whatever, the next one is a lot better. I hope that you enjoy this anyways. Please review :)

Oh, and as you should all know by now. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the character. Nope, not mine.

Reflection
Chapter 11: Long Night

"I am sorry, Ryou but I was unable to delay Bakura from showing up here more than a couple of hours. It's not much, but he refused to stay away any longer than that, no matter what it was I tried telling him," Atemu apologized, politely.

"You don't have to worry about it too much. I knew that there wasn't much that could keep him from racing over here once I found out what you guys thought had happened, no matter what you or anybody else tried to tell me," Ryou responded, an empty look filling his eyes.

A tense silence filling the living room of Honda's apartment, and not a soul dared to break it. Everything was in disarray with only one of them knowing the whole story behind it all. Yugi, Jono, and Honda had gone to have lunch at a place that they had thought would be completely empty, only they found Ryou there, eating lunch with the chef. So, without any explanations, Honda and Jono had almost literally dragged Ryou back to Honda's apartment, while officially scaring the crap out of Marik who had stayed behind to take a nap. Yugi had phoned Atemu on the way to the apartment, and had just arrived with Malik.

"Bakura's only about an hour away right now. It probably won't take him that long though, because he took his motorcycle and it's almost definite that he's speeding," Yugi commented, walking out of the bedroom, "Atemu wasn't as convincing as we hoped, unfortunately. But it's not like Bakura is the type of person to tell the truth on a regular basis."

"All I'm hearing at the moment is 'Bakura fucking this and Bakura fucking that' but I have no idea what's really going on here. The only thing that I understand is that this damn Bakura guy cheated on the you two all but dragged into here against his will but a normal person wouldn't fucking run away because of that type of shit. So, what I'd like to know is why did this damn guy actually run away?" Marik demanded.

The room went silent again for the billionth time since they had brought Ryou here, but this time all of the eyes were on the supposed victim, and none of them were waiting patiently for the answer. Although most of them had only noticed this little fact once Marik had pointed it out, all of them were still desperate to know the answer. It was the reason that he had started the whole thing, after all.

"Hey Marik, you can't just go around demanding things like that from him. Sure, you have a good point but it's his business and we haven't even known him for that long," Jono protested.

"No, Jono, it's fine, really, you don't have to worry about it. It may be my own business but I think that you deserve to know the whole reason why I left. You guys did come all the way here just for my sake, even if I didn't really want you to," Ryou agreed.

"Uh, well, then get on with it and tell us. We're waiting."

"It's true that the incident on Sunday had a little bit to do with me coming here and attempting to hide out from you guys, but there was more than that going on. I may have been more than a little bit hysterical about what happened that night, and then most of yesterday but I do have to admit that I know it was completely because he was drunk. Besides, I was still a bit drunk at that time myself. And I can't grantee that I wouldn't have done the same thing if I was drunk.

"The main reason that left was because of my father. For the past week or so, he's been constantly phoning me, and trying to force me to move back to England. He wants me to be the heir of my family. We're a rich family, so that would also mean that I would not be allowed to ever move back here or even visit again, and that I would have to act like a perfect son, talk like a perfect son, date only people who my father would approve of, and then just do absolutely everything that my father says, in general."

"You know, it would have been really fucking nice of you if you had actually told me this to my face instead of letting me think that this was completely because of me. It was the worst torture on Earth that you could have used, letting me think that you completely despised me," a new voice snarled, from the doorway.

Ryou's head quickly turned towards the sound of the voice, and just as he thought, Bakura was standing just inside of the apartment, leaning against the white walls in the entrance. The man's eyes almost seemed to scream their owner's fury at him, making him turn away in guilt. This fury seemed different than when he had seen Bakura and Atemu fight with each other, and was covered by something else that he hadn't noticed before.

To distract himself, he looked over at Yugi in an accusing way. The short amethyst eyed man just smiled sheepishly, the slightest bit of blush on his cheeks.

"Wait a damn moment. So, you ran away to get away from your father but then everyone else thought that you ran away because of this guy and how he apparently cheated on you a few days ago? Then your apartment was broken into, so they all went searching for you?" Honda demanded to know, his brown eyes narrowed.

Ryou opened his mouth to correct something that the brunet just said, but Bakura interrupted him, "Yeah, that's pretty much the whole damn story. Now, Ryou, please tell me why you didn't mention any of this to me."

The whole room silence once more as Ryou avoided eye contact with the new arrival, whatever he was just about to say gone. Bakura, on the other hand, refused to back down until the other gave him a real reason for all of this.

"Bakura, I was just so scared of… of everything," Ryou admitted, quietly, "After I got over how angry I thought I was at you about what had happened the other night, I realized that I… I was more jealous of Malik than I would be if you were someone that I was merely attracted to. And then on the side, my father has never been exactly supportive of my sexuality. I guess in the end, I was also scared that he would come and take everything away that I've gained in the past few weeks. I needed time to think about just how much you meant to me."

"I really don't want to interrupt you two, but well, I kinda really do want to before it gets any further than this. Sure, this place has seen a lot of gay stuff in the past year or two that I've been living here but you guys are almost complete strangers to me and I'd eliminate the possibility of you two making out or anything of the sort in here," Honda hesitantly butted in.

Bakura simply smirked, making Atemu roll his eyes as the whitette strolled over to Ryou. Moments later, Ryou was standing up and had an arm possessively wrapped around his waist. A hard kiss was planted on his lips, both effectively and quickly taking his out of his shock.

"Seeming one of the brat's idiotic friends seems to be kicking us out because he's afraid of any of the homosexual activities that we may or may not initiate and participate in. so, I think that we'll just have to go to the hotel room and… talk a bit more about all of this, in private," Bakura announced in a loud voice, before dragging the stunned Ryou out of the room.

"That was rather interesting but I was expecting a bit more with how much he had been freaking out about this when you guys weren't here. Only Bakura would be able to act like an extremely worried lover when hardly anyone is around, but then when he's around a crowd of more than two, he feels like he has to show the whole world how badass he is," Malik commented, from his seat on the floor.

"And I can tell that they aren't the only interesting ones that have walked into this apartment today, kid. Nor do I quite understand what the fuck you're doing here… or even who you are, for that matter," Marik added in.

"I overheard Atemu and Yugi talking on the phone and decided to come with Atemu to root for Ryou in this little… situation. As for who I am, well you might just have to find that one out on your own won't you, old guy?"

Marik smirked evilly as he noticed the slightest bit of blush on the usually composed teen's cheeks, proud of his ability to make him do so. Everyone else had escaped into their own little conversations, now that the single factor of stress and awkwardness had been taken out of the room practically the same way he came in. Just with more kicking and screaming the first time around. And that factor of stress and awkwardness was most likely being ravished in the middle of the street, if that guy was actually going through with what he said. He doubted it.

"Shit, it's already 2 PM and I have to go to work this evening! God damn it, Malik, you had better come back to Domino City with me because Atemu's told me about some of the things that your sister has done and I doubt any of us want to be the object of her wrath anytime soon," Jono announced, jumping out of his seat.

"Why, why did you just do that, Bakura? I thought that you were angry with me after everything that just happened. So, why are you doing this to me? Is it some kind of strange and unusual torture you just came up with?" Ryou tried to demand, his voice wavering.

The taller of the two laughed to himself and placed an uncharacteristically sweet kiss on Ryou's forehead. Ryou blinked, and looked up at him, his hands held above his head as Bakura pinned him to the bed in the hotel room. He couldn't seem to understand just why or how this had all happened, especially when Bakura had seemed so mad at him just minutes ago.

"Yugi wasn't lying to me when he mentioned that you could be a bit dense at the best of times, was he?" Ryou blushed and stammered a denial but Bakura ignored it and just kept going, "How the fuck could I stay angry at you when you forgive me for doing that damn stupid mistake of mine. And to answer your damn question, all I'm doing in completely ravishing you to my damn heart's content like I've wanted to since the first time I saw your fucking dense self, you little bitch," the taller explained.

Bakura had gotten so wrapped up in what he was saying to Ryou that he didn't even noticed the look on Ryou's face change from one of confusion and embarrassment to something completely different. He had long since stopped biting on his bottom lip and his eyes were filled with two things: acceptance and lust.

It made a lot more sense to him now.

"I think that I've just realized something that you'll really enjoy, Bakura," he was given an odd look as he continued, "I really, really enjoy it when you to me like that. It definitely… excites me," Ryou breathed out.

Bakura smirked as he realized what the other was trying to say, Ryou turned his head away to try and hide the blush on his face. However, the taller whitette wasn't about to have any of that, and he grabbed both of Ryou's wrists in one hand and used his free one to turn Ryou's head back towards him. Another kiss was placed on Ryou's lips, but there was a single difference this time around. Ryou completely gave into it, kissing back as hard as he could.

His boyfriend was definitely different than anyone else he knew.

It was quiet, the only sound being the constant ticking of a clock somewhere in the room. The bed was a bit on the cold side, and the space beside him was completely empty. It couldn't have been any later than 11 PM, but Honda had insisted on going to bed early because he had work or something in the morning and he didn't want the twins keeping him up any later than absolutely necessary. Not to mention that Atemu had convinced him to take the bed, while he took the couch, leaving him all by himself which was what he had wanted to avoid in the first place.

The door creaked open a couple of inches.

"Yugi, are you still awake?" his twin asked, in a whisper.

"A-Atemu, what are you doing here? I thought that you were going to sleep on the couch, seeming you seemed so insistent on that earlier," Yugi asked, bitterly.

The crimson eyed twin didn't dare to answer and merely took the two steps from the door to the bed once he had gotten the confirmation that Yugi was still wide awake. Yugi didn't need an explanation anymore once his twin climbed into the bed with him, and wrapped his arms and his waist, without a word. It was nice, being able to feel the soft breath of Atemu on the back of his neck as the other got comfortable.

"I'm sorry that it took so long for me to get there, Aibou. I had to make sure that your friend, Honda, was fast asleep before I dared to sneak into here. It turns out that he's a very light sleeper, he spent the last hour or pacing from his bedroom to the kitchen and back again. I came as soon as I was able to," Atemu explained.

"That's fine, mou hitori no boku. I'm just glad that you did get to come here at all. Honda must have fallen asleep by now, anyways, because as you just noticed, he's a very light sleeper."

His brother didn't bother responding to his comment, and tightened his grip on his waist. He listened for a little while as their breathing fell in sync, closing his eyes. It was so much better sleeping here with him than sleeping by himself, left to listen to the ticking of the clock. He was able to hear the steady beating of his or Atemu's heart – he wasn't able to tell whose it was. He had just been about to fall asleep when a question popped into his mind.

"Mou hitori no boku… I wonder if Bakura and Ryou are okay. Nobody has heard from either of them since Bakura practically carried Ryou out of the room. I'm sure that Bakura would be taking good care of Ryou but… what if they got into another fight and left each other again?" Yugi asked, quietly.

"I'm sure that the two of them made up hours ago, maybe even before Bakura had dragged Ryou off to god knows where. It's never been straight forward with that guy, he always feels the need to manipulate people in one way or another," Atemu reassured his brother, trying his best not to let sleep take over.

He turned so that he was facing towards Atemu's chest, effortlessly snuggling up to him as the thin sheets rode down to their waists.

He seemed a lot more resolved now than before he had had the reassurance that everything was going to be alright between Ryou and Bakura. He knew that Atemu knew Bakura well enough that he knew that Bakura would just put it behind him without another thought. Not to mention that he had made sure to tell the man personally that he had better take better care of Ryou this time around.

Minutes later, his breaths evened out as he fell asleep, Atemu following only moments later.

Jono tossed and turned in his bed, the events of the night running through his mind for some strange reason. After speeding back to Domino City from Duelist, he had gone straight to work, only a few minutes late, luckily. Malik had insisted on walking home from the restaurant's parking lot, not wanting to be any more of a burden than he already was. He didn't have the time to argue with the younger boy, and dropping him off would have only made him later than he had ended up being. Not to mention the boy's sister's wrath if he wasn't there in the morning just because he had decided to take a little… trip all the way to Duelist.

The blonde man groaned as his mind started to replay the events from earlier, when he had finally gotten off of work at about 2 AM.

It couldn't have been any later than 2 AM when the last customer in the bar part of the popular restaurant left for the night. It had been a long evening racing all the way back to Domino City and then dealing with picky, cranky, and downright idiotic customers and then bitchy coworkers. And that wasn't even mentioning some of the other servers, such as this guy Valon or something, who had made it his personal goal in life to get on his nerves.

"Well, look eh here, someone is certainly grumpier than they should be. What crawled into your ass, Jonouichi? Did some blonde bimbo reject you at the bar last night? Or maybe you got into a fight with whoever was idiotic enough to agree to be your lover," the brunet laughed.

"Like it's any of your business what I do outside of work, asshole," he snarled, grabbing his backpack and opening the back door of the restaurant.

However, as he tried to walk through the door and leave Valon behind, he just ended up walking into something else – or rather someone else. In front of him was the tall blue eyed brunet that he had met the other day, who also happened to be known as his boss. And by the looks of things, Seto had been just about to enter the restaurant himself, for whatever reason he had.

"Katsuya, I would highly suggest that you learn how to watch were you're going before the next time that I have the honour of bumping into you. I'm sure that it won't end as nicely next time," the brunet sarcastically requested, ignoring the gawking face of the other server in the background.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Seto. What are you doing around here anyways? I thought that you did most of your rounds at prime business hours so that you could see everything at its busiest or some other shit like that. And you're not exactly one to come in from the back door either, now that I think about it," the blond questioned.

"I'm sad to say that you are correct about that one. Under normal circumstances, I would never enter through the back door of my own restaurant, mutt. My cousin phoned me a few hours ago and requested that I drive you back to your apartment, after explaining the… short version of the most recent events. He also mentioned something about you being barely coherent when you're running on next to no sleep, not to mention that he apparently doesn't trust your driving on a normal day. Oh, and if you were anybody else, you wouldn't have lasted long after being later when you were only hired not too long ago."

Valon started to demand to know what was going on, but neither Jono felt like dealing with the annoying server, so he was ignored by not only his coworker but his boss too. Jono quietly followed Seto out of the building and into the fanciest car in the parking lot. He knew that Yugi had been right to phone Seto.

"Thanks a lot for the ride, Seto, now, do you mind waking me up when we get there"

That was the last time that he had slept, hours ago now. And it had only been for about 15 minutes or so at the times.

He tossed, and he turned.

His mind replayed the memory once more.

Sleep was unlikely to come to him tonight.