AN: Hm, fourth of July is tomorrow! Have a great holiday with lots of awesome fireworks!

Thanks to…

The Vampire Prince: I thought so too! Thanks for the review!

FlyingShadow666: I agree with you, though Bakura would make a great big brother if he could open up a little more. Thanks for the review!

Tails7651: Bakura is a little moody, huh? I wonder why that is…(hehehe). I also thought the lunchbox was cool! Thanks for the review!

dragonlady222: His mother is a little…erm, yeah. Lol. Thanks for the review!

Chapter Two: The Park

A car horn blared as Bakura sprinted across the street. For someone who had almost gotten hit by a speeding Benz, Bakura was quite calm. He didn't react when the driver skidded to a halt and cursed at him as he coolly walked away, or when people stared at him as if he were crazy.

Bakura ignored everything outside of his bubble as he glanced at his wristwatch for the fiftieth time. Shit, I'm so friggin' late! The teen's mind was somewhere else as he jaywalked yet again, cutting straight through a two-way road. More cussing and staring followed, tailed by more ignorance.

Relief washed over him when he spotted the gates of Ryou's elementary school. He slowed his jogging to a walk, unconsciously nervous about picking up the boy. His feet took him up a bricked staircase and into a covered area with multitudes of kids romping around.

He was a little surprised by the number of screaming and giggling children, and uncertainly stood near the entrance of the school as he scanned the many faces for a familiar one. Sweeping over the entire populace of little people once, Bakura frowned at the pathetic result and tried again.

It was no good, since there were too many within too small an age range. Bakura muttered some extensive colorful vocabulary under his breath, glaring at the kids now. He gritted his teeth and was about to try again when he saw a woman watching him suspiciously.

"Are you pedophile?" was written clearly on her face. Bakura huffed and finally gave up his silent searching method. He brought his hands to his mouth, about to bellow Ryou's name, when white hair and a Blue Eyes White Dragon backpack caught his eye.

He made a direct beeline for the kid, 'gently' shoving other tykes out of the way. Now that he was closer, he knew why he hadn't been able to see the boy – he had been crouching in the sandbox. "Ryou!"

The child glanced back at the calling of his name, and immediately stood up. "Bakura!"

Almost instantly, the teen turned on his heel. "Come on, let's get out of here," Bakura grunted.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ryou's outstretched hand.

Ryou swallowed hard and instantly pulled his hand behind his back as Bakura continued to walk away. Blushing, Ryou clenched his backpack straps as he slowly started forward. Did he see it? Oh god, how embarrassing… For some odd reason, he felt a little disappointed. After the great bento lunch and wonderfully new school supplies, he was expecting…well, anything but the cold shoulder.

Ducking a little to hide his frustration, Ryou focused on Bakura's heels the whole way out. Some of his peers called out to him, and it was all he could do to mumble a goodbye back.

Why did he feel like he wanted to cry?

"Which way are you going? The house is this direction."

"Huh?" Ryou looked up, rapidly blinking away tears.

Bakura fell silent as he studied the boy, who busily stared at his shoes. What the hell? Bakura raised an eyebrow, but he didn't comment.

Ryou felt Bakura move away again, and only dared to look up when he was positive that the teen wasn't watching. Keeping a safe distance from Bakura as they walked home, Ryou mentally scolded himself for being so naïve. What had he been expecting? A hug and a kiss? Of course Bakura wasn't going to be nice to him! The teen had said all those mean things at the dinner table the night before! Why'd you bring home a mutt like him? Ryou's shoulders drooped as he convinced himself that Bakura didn't like him. Why would he? He was just taking care of him to lessen the burden on his mentally ill mother and stressed father…

"We're here."

Ryou whisked his thoughts off as he stiffened, glancing around. Trees, bushes, monkey bars, swings…wait a minute…He didn't see the house...?

"Where-"

"This is the park," Bakura explained, his back turned to the child. "Every day after school, we're going to stay here until seven thirty."

Ryou's curiosity acted before his own mind comprehended the situation. "Why?"

Bakura glared at him. "Because I said so." Because I don't want you in the house…you'll just have to stay in my room again.

The child mumbled an okay as he looked away, pretending to view the park. It actually looked quite fun, with a huge jungle gym complete with the biggest outdoor slides he had ever seen. There was even a small, mock rock climbing wall.

People ranging from crawling babies to adults flooded the park, laughing and shouting at the same time. Ryou watched them for a minute, feeling the bitter spring wind weave in and out of his coat. I ought to move around before I start freezing…

Sort of reluctantly, Ryou took his backpack off and placed it on an unoccupied bench before he slowly made his way to the jungle gym. Hoisting himself up the small staircase, he glanced back to see that Bakura was watching him. He blushed and quickly brought his attention to the monkey bars ahead of him.

As he reached for the first rung, a chubby girl pushed past him and tried to swing across. Ryou stumbled back, caught off guard. The girl didn't get past the third rung. She fell. Ryou pursed his lips as he got ready to try the bars himself.

Then a red-headed teen no older than twenty came forward. Ryou couldn't tear his eyes away as the girl sobbed while the teen comforted her. Eventually, the teen carried her off to a bench, and pulled out a band-aid for her small scratch. The girl smiled, laughing even.

Ryou suddenly felt like he should have shoved the girl off the jungle gym before she had reached for the monkey bars. It was his turn, anyways, and she had cut him, right? So he should have shoved her.

Envy and jealousy.

"Go already!" a boy whined from behind him.

Ryou snapped back to realty and released his death grip on the first bar. "You can go…" he murmured, feeling guilt ride down on him. He didn't wait for the boy's reply as he turned around and climbed off the jungle gym. That was a rotten thought…To actually want to hurt someone…

Running from the play structure to a corner of the park, Ryou came across an empty row of swing sets. He plopped himself onto a swing, far away from the rest of the park visitors, and started trembling.

Then he cried.

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Bakura felt a little bad about ditching the boy, but he had to do this. He won't notice I'm gone…I'll be back within the hour, anyway.

"Hello sir! How may I help you?"

"Oh, yes…uh, I need a fire safety ladder."

"The ones that you just drop from your window during a fire?"

"Yeah…a sturdy one."

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AN: Whew, that chapter was a little difficult. I kept getting interrupted during the editing part, since we just got a new dog. Hehe, he's so cute! Anyways, the next update will be…on either Friday or Saturday night. Thanks for reading, please review!