KD: Yeah, my roomie got a new Sims game, and she's now working on making Yu-gi-oh renditions of the characters. I gotta say, it's amusing to watch.

Chapter Six: Reading the Soul

xxxxxx

Song for this chapter:

This is who we are- Hawthorn Heights

xxxxxx

"Pant… pant… pant…"

"How does it feel, pup?"

"K-Kaiba…"

"You've been a bad puppy… I'm going to have to punish you."

"Ngh… ahh… Kaibaaa!"

"Gyah!" Joey shot up in his desk chair, attracting the attention of everyone person in the classroom.

"Mr. Wheeler, is there something you wanted to share with the class?" the teacher asked, appearing thoroughly annoyed at having been interrupted in the middle of the lecture.

Joey hurriedly shook his head before trying to sink back into obscurity by pretending to take notes. As the teacher began to pick up where he left off, Joey felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, Joey," Yugi whispered from behind. "Are you feeling alright? That's the fourth time you've fallen asleep in class this week."

"Yeah… just haven't been getting enough shut eye, that's all," Joey assured him.

When class was over, Joey had some time to chat with the rest of his friends and convince them that everything was fine with him. All except for Tristan seemed convinced, but that was because Tristan knew him better than anyone. Joey hoped he wouldn't press the issue. This was something he would prefer to take the grave with him if he could. He'd just as soon forget it ever happened, but the dreams weren't making that any easier for him. When it was lunch time, Joey got up from his desk and left the room.

"I wonder what's bothering him," Yugi sighed sadly.

"You think we should follow him?" Tea asked.

"Nah, whenever he gets like this, it's best just to leave him alone for a while until he comes around," Tristan said, though he, too, looked rather concerned.

"I gotta stop thinking about this," Joey thought as he made his way to the school rooftop in order to clear his head.

When he emerged outside onto the sunlit rooftop, he noticed someone was already there. What he saw caused him to do a double take. He saw his friend, Ryou… or at least he thought it was Ryou, as well as another guy… or at least he thought it was another guy. The two were in the middle of a heated lip lock, with Ryou's back against the chain link fence while his… partner's hands were moving through his white hair and under his school uniform. Joey felt his cheeks heating just watching it, yet he was so stunned he couldn't bring himself to look away. Well, at least not until one of Ryou's eyes opened and glanced Joey's way, glaring over his partner's shoulder who was preoccupied with devouring Ryou's neck. That was when the blonde made a hurried retreat.

"Did I really just see that?" Joey thought in amazement as he began walking from the school rooftop as fast as his legs would carry him with breaking into a run. "I didn't think Ryou swung that way." Joey recalled easily what the pair was doing and found himself replacing them with himself and Seto in his mind. When he realized what he was imaging he gave a panicked exclamation and ran to the boys' bathroom and began washing his face at the sink hoping to cleanse these horrible images from his mind.

"How much did you see?" a voice hissed into Joey's ear. Joey looked up into the mirror and saw the thoroughly annoyed white haired boy in the mirror. All imagery of him and Seto were instantly washed away by the sight he saw in the mirror.

Joey turned around to face the teenager, much against his instincts. "I…I didn't see anything." Joey waved his hands in defense, flinging water everywhere in the process, not wanting to annoy the guy even further.

"If my host didn't make me promise to leave you guys alone..." Bakura muttered under his breath, so the young blond couldn't hear his aggravation. He has been itching for a good killing; and Joey and company never made that vow to Ryou easy for him. It was a pact between his and his host, that could freely come out and do whatever he pleased so long as he left Ryou's friends unharmed.

"I don't think this guy is Ryou, he might be other one…Bakura," Joey thought, drying his face with his jacket sleeve. He knew the sweet Brit could never hold such hatred in his eyes on his own. Joey knew about the power of the millennium necklace, and understood that Bakura took over Ryou quite often, but it was rare for it to happen at school.

"I don't care much for liars." Bakura started, his arms crossed across his chest, "And if you do tell anyone about what you saw. I will not hesitate to tell about you and dear Seto."

Joey swallowed and looked at Bakura, who obviously didn't buy his excuse for not wanting to imagine the scene he saw on the roof again. "But what is there to tell about me and Seto?" Joey began in thought, "and how much does he know about what has happened?" He was soon lost in his own thoughts, imagery of his and Seto together engulfed his mind once again. "I don't even understand what I saw," Joey started, "So, I won't tell anyone anything." Joey thought that that was the most honest response he could give the guy, without infuriating him any further. "But what makes ya think there is anything going on between me and Kaiba?"

"Give me your deck," Bakura said holding out his hand to Joey.

"Whach'ya need that for?" Joey said befuddled, his hand moving towards the deck in his pocket protectively.

"Just give me your deck," Bakura said with more force towards the blonde. Joey begrudgingly handed over the deck to him.

"Ya better not take any of my cards." Joey said, a tad cocky; he was, after all, proud of his deck.

Bakura gave a derisive snort before shuffling the deck and setting it down on the sink counter. He drew three cards and placed them side by side. "Tell me, Joseph, have you ever had a tarot reading before?"

"Eh? Like fortune telling?" Joey asked.

"I suppose in laymen's terms you could call it that," Bakura said. "By reading your deck, I can read your soul's past, present, and future." Bakura flipped over the first card, which turned out to be Chasm of Spikes. "It seems you've had quite a trying past. For a long time you were stuck in a dark hole filled with nothing but bitter anger and self-loathing."

Joey felt a little freaked out by the accuracy of Bakura's reading. "N-no way…"

"Next, let's take a look at your current situation," Bakura said ignoring Joey's shock. He flipped over the middle card which was reveal as Baby Dragon. "Interesting… it seems you're surprisingly innocent towards your existing ordeal, but there's still plenty of room for growth. And now for your future…"

"Eh… that's okay, really, I don't need to know," Joey insisted, now seriously becoming freaked out.

"Oh, but I insist," Bakura said with a smirk before turning over the final card.

Joey tried closing his eyes as if that would make the cards disappear but curiosity got the better of him and he peaked. Bakura was holding the card with a quizzical expression. "What? What is it?"

Bakura glanced at him before showing him the card. "Time Wizard."

"Eh? What's that card mean?" Joey asked.

"Only time will tell."

Joey stared blankly at him. "Okay… ya officially lost me."

"You were never on track to begin with," Bakura commented, replacing the cards in the deck before walking past Joey.

"Hey, wait," Joey demanded, grabbing Bakura's shoulder. "Let Ryou go, ya creep. That's his body your hijacking."

Bakura sent Joey a glare that made the blonde teen quickly withdraw his hand. "My host and I have a particular… arrangement I guess you could call it."

"What kind of arrangement?" Joey questioned seriously. "Ryou is my friend and I don't want ya hurting him."

"Let's just say that because of him, your souls are safe…for now." Bakura left the bathroom in a hurry, heading back to the classroom.

Joey looked back down at the deck in his hand, his time wizard on top. "Only time will tell, huh?" Joey put his deck back into his pocket heading back to the classroom. "Ok, Chasm of Spikes relates to my past. Bakura did emphasize that my past was dark, and he was right, I didn't lead on the happy-go-lucky life I do now. Baby Dragon is my present. He said that I was innocent and have room to grow. I really don't get how I'm 'possed ta be innocent though. But my future. That's the most confusing. My Time Wizard. 'Only time will tell.' Maybe only time will tell if I'm able to keep up my current life or I might go back and let my past repeat itself." Joey kept thinking through what happened during class, not paying attention to the lecture at all. "Now I'm thinkin' too much into it."

"Fluffikins, you came back," Malik exclaimed happily upon seeing the white haired thief return to the rooftop where the tomb keeper had waited for him.

"I came back to tell you to leave," said Bakura. "Now go home before you attract more unwanted attention."

"But we didn't finish," Malik groaned in disappointment. "I can't go home when I'm all worked up."

"Then just masturbate later," Bakura bluntly stated back to the Egyptian.

Malik's head drooped down. "But it's not the same. How can you stop in the middle of something?"

"I suppose voyeurism puts me out of the mood," Bakura declared simply.

"Voy… what?" Malik asked, looking at him blankly.

"Just go back home already," Bakura said leaving, knowing that his vessel does not like being late for class.

Malik complied, leaving the school and heading back home to the apartment he and Bakura shared.

He spent the trip pondering about Bakura's unpredictability. There would be some days where he was very aloof towards the former tomb keeper, and then there were days where the thief would without any warning pin Malik down and have his way with him until the Egyptian was too exhausted to even move.

Malik didn't know what incited these brief periods of sexual arousal. Malik wondered if the thief specifically did this just to watch Malik squirm, secretly laughing at his failed attempts to understand him. It was difficult, but that didn't stop Malik from trying.

KD: Doncha just love false hope? :P Well, hopefully Joey will understand soon, otherwise things will just get even more complicated. So how will Joey cope with this odd situation? Stay tuned to find out! Oh, and happy belated halloween! :D