Notes: I'm feeling perverted and stressed. I have no excuse. Cliché romance (if it can be called that), here we come. Someone asked how many more parts this will have... Well, it was supposed to have seventeen chapters total, hence the total missing of the deadline. Yes, more stuff will actually happen, eventually.

Also, apologies to anyone waiting for updates, I recently started a second job that involves me getting up at 5.30am six days a week, walking two miles, working two and a half hours and then walking home again before opening the shop. I'll get used to it eventually, but at the moment I feel like I'm about three hundred years old and British winter isn't helping. Hate cold weather. Ok, those are my excuses, I'll shut up and go write something now.

Not checked, again. Too tired...

Use the Man

Part 8

Bakura actually managed to sleep through the night, too exhausted to be able to wake. When Seto got up to finish the coding he'd buried himself in the previous night, the thief was still deeply asleep, curled up on his side with one hand splayed against the pillow. The flush that had marred his pale skin the day before looked to have lessened slightly, and after sleeping so long Seto hoped the thief might be feeling better. Not needed for the moment, the CEO headed back to his office to continue writing code, the image of Bakura's long, elegant fingers firmly planted in his mind. Thankfully, scanning through twenty four pages of relatively useless code to find the single syntax error could dampen anyone's lust. Temporarily, anyway.

After a few hours of work that he really could have had some underling take care of, Seto was almost thankful for the distraction as soft sounds reached him from Bakura's room. Saving his almost non-existent progress and closing the precious laptop, the brunette stood up, stretched – with a painful hiss at pulling the wound on his leg – and headed out of the office. Entering Bakura's room, he paused in the doorway and stared at the scene before him. He should have felt guilty, he was sure.

Bakura was writhing on the bed in a distinctly boneless way, the sheets having fallen down to reveal a smooth expanse of pale, well-toned chest and slim stomach. Those long, skilled fingers were clutching at the sheets to the thief's sides like a lifeline and as Seto watched, Bakura growled and turned his head to one side, leaving his elegant white throat on display. The movement left Seto longing to go over to the bed and just run his fingers across Bakura's exposed collarbone, up his neck to the attractively sharp angle of his jaw, wanting to know how the sleeping thief would respond to the touch. Unable to resist the temptation, Seto settled for the slightly more innocent option of laying his hand across Bakura's forehead, checking to see how the fever was progressing. It had gone down, although the skin beneath his palm still felt hotter than it should have.

The touch against his forehead caused Bakura to still with a last, low growl and after a drawn-out moment of waking, the thief opened his crimson eyes slowly. He seemed to lean into the touch slightly, looking a little glazed before he realised where he was.

"Bad dream?" Seto asked, drawing his hand back reluctantly. Bakura let his eyes drift closed again, feeling less ill than he had the previous day but still not anywhere near a hundred percent yet. His throat didn't feel as sore, at least. The nausea had gone as well, at least for the moment. His blood still tingled with the strange itching feeling, but he could ignore that if he put his mind to it. Waking up to Seto was certainly a welcome distraction. He felt a little cold, and it took a moment before he realised the cause. The sheets covering him had fallen down in the night, leaving him laying before Seto with his chest bare, feeling far more exposed than he should have. He never usually cared. Reaching down as casually as he could manage, the thief pulled the covers back up and set his mind to remembering his dream.

"I... do not remember." He lied after a moment, not particularly relishing the though of admitting to Seto what he'd really been dreaming about. He hadn't had a sex dream in years – especially not one so vivid. His skin still tingled with the ghosts of fingers touching him, and suddenly he couldn't meet Seto's eyes. Dropping his gaze to the sheets, he coughed self-consciously and tried to sit up, finding it easier than yesterday.

"Alright," Seto smirked slightly, not pushing it. "Are you hungry? Your fever is going down."

Bakura raised a hand to his own forehead and couldn't tell anything was different, but he felt better and he supposed that was the best indication. What he really wanted was a hot bath, but he knew that after eating only crackers for over forty eight hours, he needed to eat something. The fact that the mere thought of food didn't bring on a wave of nausea was a definite plus, too.

"I... Yes, I think I could eat something." Bakura said, stretching and listening to the click and pop of the muscles in his back. He noticed with slight amusement that Seto's eyes followed the movement closely, although what to make of that escaped him for the time being. His head still felt like he was thinking through a layer of cotton wool, which was anything but conductive to working out what not being able to meet Seto's eyes after a sex dream meant. Lust. It was definitely just lust.

"I'll get you some breakfast," Seto announced, since it was still before noon. As he left Bakura watched him move, once again noticing the slight limp from the wound he'd inflicted. He refused to feel guilty, since he'd only done what came naturally to him in circumstances where he felt threatened. It was his natural instinct to lash out at someone when they were trying to hurt him, and that was what he thought Seto had been trying to do. He would not feel guilty over it. He wanted to see the wound, though, and he wasn't sure why. He could probably tell better than Seto if it was healing right, having had more than his fair share of injuries over his long existence. He shouldn't even care, he told himself firmly.

Not knowing what Seto was making or how long it would take, Bakura stared over at the doorway to the bathroom and wondered if he could make it over there on his own. If he couldn't, it was going to be an interesting situation explaining what he'd been doing to Seto, when he returned. Still, he didn't want to have to be helped just to cross a room, and he wanted to see if there was a bath in there that he could use later. The cold sweat that had drenched him the day before had dried against his skin and he hated the feeling – his hair felt grimy and it disgusted him. He wanted to be clean, and he wanted to know if he looked as run down and ill as he felt.

The first obstacle seemed to be what to wear. He didn't particularly want Seto returning to find him naked, although the thought did make him smirk slightly.

His clothes had been washed at some point and were draped over the back of a chair next to the desk, which held everything he'd had with him when Seto had darted him. It was mostly just what he'd had in his pockets. His deck – the game itself didn't bother him, having the fate of the world rest upon the outcome of it did – the knife he'd lashed out at Seto with, his keys and a few other odds and ends. Changing back into his clothes would probably take all the energy he had left, so instead he slipped out of the bed and, after a moment of dizziness simply due to standing upright, stumbled over to the chair. It was easier just to wear the shirt on its own, it was long enough that it covered him anyway. Getting it on proved a challenge because every muscle in his body ached, but he reasoned that a bath would help soothe them anyway. The walk across the plush, white carpet to the bathroom wasn't as hard as he'd thought it would be, although once he reached his destination and opened the door he had to cling to the door frame for a brief moment to keep himself standing. He wanted to congratulate himself for making it so far on his own, before he realised how pathetic that would be. Instead he cleaned himself up a little and took a look at himself in the mirror, surprised to see that he didn't look anywhere near as bad as he felt. His eyes looked weary and he had a generally ragged look about him, but other than that he just looked slightly flushed. He'd half expected to find himself bleeding from the eyes with the way he felt.

A noise back in the bedroom caught Bakura's attention and he stumbled back to the doorway, exhaustion dragging at his limbs because he'd been moving around for a good five minutes. Seto had returned and placed a tray of something down on the bedside table, looking around in confusion for his guest.

"Over here." Bakura murmured, watching Seto turn to him and suddenly wishing he'd opted to wear more than just a long shirt. Now he just had to make it back to the bed without making a complete fool of himself, and from the way his body protested it wasn't looking hopeful.

XxXxX

Seto turned to find Bakura leaning in the doorway to the bathroom, wearing nothing but a long shirt and looking tired. Unable to help himself, Seto's eyes drifted to the thief's long legs briefly, appreciating the sight far more than he knew he should have. The thief leant heavily against the door frame for a moment longer before he visibly gathered his strength to begin the walk back across the bedroom. The movement snapped Seto out of his daze and he strode forward to help, draping an arm around Bakura and silently enjoying the excuse to touch him. The exhausted grave robber sagged gratefully against him, closing his eyes for a moment. Seto worried that the thief might pass out, but Bakura pulled himself together and made it back to the bed, the warm covers draped over him once again.

"Are you alright?" Seto asked, concerned despite himself.

Bakura sat against the pillows looking a little more flushed than before, keeping his eyes closed for a moment as he recovered from the dizzy spell that had almost made him collapse. After a while his eyes slid open and he nodded, smirking slightly.

"Yes. Perhaps I should not push myself quite yet." The thief replied in his husky voice, eyes drifting over to the tray Seto had placed on the bedside table. It held tea, toast, miso and a bowl of chopped fruit. Simple things, which Bakura was grateful for.

"What would you like?" Seto asked, handing Bakura the mug of miso soup when the yami picked it over the other breakfast possibilities. Sitting back against the pillows, Bakura sipped at the hot soup and smiled slightly, watching Seto pick at some of the toast.

"You are being far more hospitable than I had expected," Bakura admitted, enjoying being able to eat hot food instead of barely substantial crackers.

"Getting you clean is worth it." Seto replied, wondering if Bakura still believed it was all because of his hatred of drugs. "Why did you feel like you needed them?" He asked, trying to take his mind off his growing attraction for the white haired yami. It only occurred to him after he'd said it what a personal question that was, but Bakura didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed oddly relieved to be able to speak to someone about it, and Seto realised that Bakura was a lot like himself in that respect. They both had only one important person in their lives, Mokuba and Ryou, and as close as they were to them... Seto knew he would never talk to Mokuba about anything too personal. Mokuba would tell him, but he would never do the same. Bakura must have felt the same way about Ryou, the CEO surmised. That meant, just like Seto, that Bakura had nobody he ever really spoke about such things to. It had been nice to talk to him yesterday, perhaps there was something to the whole concept of conversation after all.

"I'm fairly sure this will sound pathetic to someone in charge of an entire corporation," Bakura sighed, continuing anyway. "I cannot deal with normality. No, perhaps that is not it... Things that must seem normal to you confuse me. Taxes, bills, college, other people. Working out how the world functions now and trying to fit into it is more than I can handle. I have to look after Ryou, I can barely look after myself. In fact, I think I have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I cannot look after myself. Things were much simpler when I was fighting for survival. Fighting I can do." Bakura sipped at his soup again, calming a little. "This place is so far from what I know. I loved the desert, but the only place I remember enough of to call my home is the Ring. Inside it..." Bakura paused again, unsure if Seto would believe him, let alone want to hear it.

"Inside it...?" Seto prompted, interested. Bakura smiled slightly, never having had someone to talk to like this, and continued.

"I have been inside the Puzzle, did you know that? It is ridiculous. So... complicated. My Ring is nothing like that. It has only a few rooms – warm and dark and with everything I would need. I miss that, I could not function properly here. Everything is so over-complicated, and when Keith offered me a way to cope I was weak enough to take it." Bakura admitted. "It made everything seem like it would be alright, if only for a little while. It... the feeling when I took it..." Bakura trailed off and ran a hand through his long hair, sighing. "It made me feel good, I suppose."

Seto wanted to tell Bakura that he didn't need the drugs to feel that way, that he could make Bakura feel that way. He wanted to press Bakura down onto the bed and give him that rush of ecstasy again, only with no needles involved. Only his lips and teeth and tongue, but Bakura still believed this was all about the drugs. Scaring him off was the last thing Seto wanted, because his top priority had to be to make sure that the thief was well before he left.

Not wanting to think about Bakura leaving just yet, Seto took the empty soup mug and handed him the tea, feeling oddly flattered that Bakura had told him something so personal. He made a mental note that Keith was the one who'd first introduced the yami to heroin in the first place, as well. He was not going to forget that, he could make Bandit Keith's life a living hell if he felt the urge. At the moment, he definitely did.

"At least you're strong enough to know that you needed to stop," Seto said, changing the subject before Bakura could mention his involvement with that choice and how it hadn't exactly been much of a choice at all, to begin with. "Do you want me to run a bath for you?"

Bakura nodded, letting the subject lie.

"Yes, thank you." He placed the tea down, more than ready for a hot bath. Seto got up and headed over to set the bath running while Bakura sat on the edge of the bed, picking at the bowl of fruit on the tray because he was sure he needed vitamins, or some such. When Seto came back he was glad of the help standing, having drained what little energy he'd built up earlier. It was also nice having Seto's steady arm around his waist, although he would never have admitted it out loud.

Upon reaching the bathroom, Seto helped him lean against the bathtub and then backed off a little, looking thoughtful.

"Are you going to be all right getting into the bath?" The CEO asked, not sure what he would do if Bakura needed help there. He wasn't sure he would be able to control himself, just seeing Bakura's long, smooth legs again was hard enough.

"Yes," Bakura answered after a moment, seeing the way Seto was staring at him and wondering if it was just his imagination. Well, lust was all fine and good, but he didn't think he could handle anything that strenuous quite yet.

"All right, call me if you need help getting out. I'll be in my office, but I'll leave the door open." Seto instructed, making Bakura smirk slightly at the mothering. Seto was the last person he would ever have expected that from, even having seen the way he acted around Mokuba. It was nice to have someone other than Ryou worry about him though, even if it was only temporary and had nothing to do with actually caring about him, as such.

As the CEO left him, Bakura slid the shirt off and slipped into the hot bath, giving a groan of relief as the water warmed his skin. There really was nothing like a hot bath to soothe aching muscles.

XxXxX

On his way out of the door, Seto paused at the sound of a pleasured groan from in the bathroom. He wondered if Bakura knew how sexy he sounded, and guessed that he didn't. The thief seemed almost oblivious to his own beauty, which was strange because he was definitely one of the most attractive people Seto had ever seen.

It was going to be really, really difficult to get any work done after that.

Again.

TBC