Notes: as ever, thanks for the reviews. Especially Flamethrowerqueen - your reviews make me sound a lot less thick than I actually am. Anyway, I'm glad it's going down well, and if you lot keep reading it, I'll keep writing it.

Use the Man

Chapter 5

Bakura opened his eyes and regretted it, the remains of whatever Seto Kaiba had darted him with making his vision swim and his thoughts feel like they were being filtered through a layer of cotton wool. He could feel that there was someone else in the room and he turned his head to the side, realizing before he saw the man who it would be.

"Kaiba." The thief growled, slowly remembering the events leading up to him waking up in this unfamiliar room. "I hope for your brother's sake that you have life insurance."

Struggling even to sit up but refusing to show in front of Seto Kaiba how weak he actually felt, Bakura ran back through everything that had happened, trying to figure out what Seto might want. He remembered Seto yanking his sleeve up in the empty classroom and seeing the track marks on his arm, and then the CEO must have followed him after he'd run out of the school towards Ryou's house. He'd raced around a corner far too fast, not paying attention in his panic. That was something he was going be kicking himself for later, once he'd figured out what to do about his current predicament. He should have been more aware, he should never have been caught so easily.

What had happened after he'd been stuck with that dart? He'd felt tired, but he knew he'd fought back. He could remember slashing at Seto, and he looked down at the CEO's legs, noticing that he was sitting with one of them stretched out straight as though bending his knee was painful. So he'd gotten one hit in before he'd passed out, at least. The thought of wounding Seto Kaiba lifted his spirits a little and he sat up straighter in the bed, ignoring the swirl of dizziness the movement caused.

"Before you do anything drastic, hear me out. I bought you here for your own good," Seto claimed, knowing that Bakura probably wouldn't be feeling a hundred percent yet, but also knowing that was unlikely to stop him lashing out.

"You darted me like an animal for my own good?" Bakura snarled, eyes flashing with malice. He wanted to kill the man in front of him. His knife was gone, but he could do it with his bare hands if he needed to. Blades were a preference, but he certainly knew his way around unarmed combat. As soon as he knew he could move quickly without being overcome by the dizziness caused by the drug Seto had used, he was going to break Seto Kaiba's neck. Actually, that was too quick a death. The thumbs in the eye sockets method was always drawn out and painful, as was being strangled. Bleeding to death was also an option, if he could get his hands on anything sharp enough to draw blood. A quick scan of the room revealed a tray on the bedside table next to him, laden with sandwiches and tea. There was a blunt little table knife on there, but he could make it work. In fact, the more blunt the knife was, the more painful it was going to be for Seto, who was watching him intently.

Seto could see Bakura's wicked eyes lingering on the knife and told himself firmly that he was in charge of the situation and he could make Bakura understand why he was here. He'd already been on the receiving end of one of Bakura's knife attacks today, and he had no desire to relive the experience.

"How else could I have gotten you to come here without the dart?" Seto asked, trying to get Bakura to see that he hadn't had a choice in the matter.

"You could have asked me," the thief hissed, eyes narrowed in anger.

"Would you have come?" Seto asked, already knowing the answer, hence the dart.

"Not in a thousand years, but it would have been polite." The grave robber sneered, flexing his arm back and forth and hating the heaviness of his muscles. It felt as though lead weights had been tied to his arms and his movements were sluggish, much slower and clumsier than they should have been.

"I didn't realize manners mattered so much to you." Seto couldn't suppress a slight smirk, counting himself lucky that the thief seemed to be having trouble moving with any great speed. For the moment, at least, he would be able to see any attack coming and get out of the way.

"It must be Ryou's influence. Now, give me a good reason not to kill you. And if you manage it, don't get your hopes up. I'm not in the best of moods – for obvious reasons – and I may do it anyway." The thief instructed, wanting more than anything he could think of to just murder Seto right then and there. It was always prudent to find out why one had been kidnapped, though. Not that he really considered himself a prisoner, since as soon as he could move properly he could walk right out of there. His wrist was chained to the bedpost, but he was sure that wouldn't stop him for long. He'd always been good with locks, after all.

"I know what you've been doing." Seto stated, opting to get right to the point before the drugs wore off and the violence began. At the moment he had the advantage, being physically stronger and bigger than the thief. Speed was Bakura's main weapon, along with the knowledge he'd collected over his long existence on the many ways to hurt, maim and kill people. The chain holding him to the bed would only keep him there for so long.

"How is it any of your business?" Bakura demanded, instantly defensive – even more so than he already had been.

"What would Ryou say if he found out?" Seto played his ace, hoping it was enough. To his relief, Bakura's eyes widened and he paled slightly, the thought of Ryou being disgusted with him clearly his worst nightmare. In fact, it worked better than Seto had expected. Bakura stared at him with pure hatred in his eyes for a long moment and then shuddered in defeat, bowing his head a little so that his hair fell to shield his eyes.

"Alright. What is it you want of me?" He asked in a slightly huskier tone than usual, knowing that Seto had the upper hand. As long as Ryou continued to believe that he wasn't an evil person, he could deal with anything. Even if he usually believed that Ryou's image of him was far from the truth. It didn't matter, as long as Ryou thought he was worth something. If Ryou stopped smiling at him he didn't know what he would do. The thought of calling the Shadow Realm occurred to him, but if Seto had told anyone else then Ryou would still find out. Even the thought of that happening made him feel physically sick, and his skin paled another shade lighter as Seto watched.

"What I want is for you to get clean. I want you to stay here until you're off whatever it is you've been taking. If you do this, Ryou will never find out." The CEO proposed, watching Bakura's head jerk up in shock, his ruby eyes filled with a mixture of mistrust and anger.

"What are you getting out of this? Why should you give a damn about what happens to me?" Bakura demanded, confused and suspicious.

"For once, I'm not doing this to get anything out of it." Seto smirked, knowing how odd that must sound coming from him. "And don't take it personally, this is more about the drugs than you. If you feel the need to kill yourself, I won't stop you once you're clean." The brunette said, noticing the slight relief in Bakura's eyes when he realized that Seto wasn't helping him because he cared. It would have been a heart-wrenching thing to see, if Seto had been anyone else. As it was, he picked up the tray from beside the bed and passed it to Bakura, casually taking away the knife. It wouldn't stop Bakura, but there was no reason to make it easy for him.

"You can call Ryou tonight and tell him you won't be around for a few days. Eat something first, it'll help the tranquilizers wear off quicker." Seto advised.

Bakura looked down at the food in front of him and frowned, feeling helpless and hating it more than he could've imagined.

"I have not agreed to this yet." He growled, picking up the tea in a slightly shaky hand because it was something else to focus on.

"You don't have a choice." Seto pointed out. Bakura snarled quietly in annoyance, rattling the chain around his left wrist.

"And this?" He demanded, not liking the fact that Seto had darted him and chained him up like he was a dangerous animal. Then again, that was what the pharaoh viewed him as, why should Seto – one of his lackeys – feel any differently?

"I'll take that off after you call Ryou." The CEO promised, "It was purely a safety measure."

"I could still kill you," Bakura threatened, raising the cup shakily to his lips and watching Seto with narrowed eyes.

"What would you tell Ryou? If anything happens to me Yami will know it was you. I'm sure he'll tell Ryou everything."

Bakura looked away, unable to even imagine how much it would hurt Ryou to find out that the only person around that he really considered family other than his absent father had killed someone. The pharaoh would kill him and Ryou would be forced to go through his things – the thought of him opening the drawer in his bedroom and finding that one syringe he had left sent a stab of panic through him. He clenched his teeth and looked back at Seto, placing the tea back down on the tray.

"You have your way. I will do whatever it is you want, but if a word of this reaches Ryou I will put every fiber of my being into making your death as horrific and painful as I can." Bakura warned, his eyes showing that it wasn't an idle threat.

"We have a deal." Seto nodded, standing up a little stiffly. "Eat that, I'll go and get a phone for you to call Ryou. You'd better think up some excuse as to why you won't be around for a few days – I've already contacted the school for you."

Bakura looked down at his plate, ignoring the CEO as he left the room but noting idly that Seto was walking with a slight limp. The thought cheered him up slightly – clearly he'd done some damage.

Shifting the tray a little – rather awkwardly because of the handcuffs keeping his wrist bound to the bedpost – Bakura picked up one of the sandwiches and took a look at what was inside before making his mind up that it was edible. He wasn't really hungry, but he never really was anyway and he felt as though he should probably eat something if he was going to have to go through what Seto was about to put him through. He didn't really know what happened during withdrawals, but the thought was unpleasant anyway. He expected it to be painful whatever happened, but he considered it punishment for starting taking the heroin in the first place. It had gotten him through the day and let him sleep – or pass out, which he considered to be close enough – but it had made him careless. He'd been a lot sharper before, and he wasn't actually any happier with his life now anyway. In fact, the added stress of making sure Ryou didn't find out was just making things worse. Having to see Keith every so often wasn't exactly a bonus, either.

After ten minutes of picking at the food and wondering what to tell Ryou, Seto returned with a cell phone and passed it to him before going to lurk beside the door, making sure that Bakura was doing as he'd been told. Feeling like a child who'd done something wrong, Bakura placed the tray back on the bedside table and dialed Ryou's number, the only phone number that he'd ever bothered to memorize. It seemed to take forever for the hikari to pick up the phone, and Bakura couldn't remember the last time he'd honestly felt nervous. Having Seto watching him like a hawk from over by the door wasn't helping.

"Hello?" Ryou answered the phone in English as usual, and Bakura thought about having the entire conversation in the language just to stop Seto eavesdropping. Seto excelled at English though, so it was unlikely to do more than make Ryou suspicious.

"Ryou." Bakura murmured, glad to hear his light's voice.

"Bakura!" Ryou said with a smile in his voice, always glad to hear from his yami. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Bakura lied, always hating not telling Ryou the truth, but knowing that usually the truth would upset him. "I'm going out of town for a few days, will you be alright without me?" The thief asked, refusing to look up at Seto.

"I'll be fine, but where are you going?" Ryou asked curiously, a little upset that his yami wouldn't be around to hear all about his upcoming date with Malik, but knowing that he would sit and listen patiently to all the lovestruck rambling when he got back.

"Camping." Bakura lied, closing his eyes. "I thought I'd get out of the city for a while. Are you sure you'll be alright? You know how to use the link if it's an emergency, and make sure you stick with the pharaoh when you're leaving school." Bakura instructed, wondering if he sounded like he was mothering his light. Seto would probably be laughing at him.

"Of course, you know I'll be fine. Make sure you eat properly, I worry when I don't get to feed you." Ryou laughed softly.

"I will. Take care, hikari." Bakura said, his voice gentler than usual.

"You too, yami. Have a good time, I'll see you when you get back. Bye!" Ryou said, and Bakura listened numbly to the dial tone that followed Ryou hanging up. That settled it, he was really stuck in Seto Kaiba's house until he could live without the only thing that managed to get him through the day.

"Ryou seems about as difficult to fool as Mokuba." Seto observed, snapping Bakura out of his thoughts.

"I count it as a blessing." Bakura said, looking up wearily at Seto. It was only a couple of hours off the time Bakura usually took his nightly hit and passed out, and already he could feel the familiar tremble in his hands starting. "Unchain me." He demanded, too tired to sound very threatening.

To Bakura's surprise Seto did as he asked, fetching the key from the dresser on the other side of the room and getting close enough to potentially be attacked as he unlocked the handcuffs. Knowing that it would cause more problems than it would solve, Bakura resisted the urge to ram his knee into Seto's stomach while the CEO leaned over to free him. Once his wrist was out of the chains he shook it to get the blood flowing again and rested his head back against the headboard, eyes sliding closed tiredly.

"So," The thief murmured, a bitter little smile on his lips. "What now?"

TBC