A/N: Wowser. I hope I can write chapter six as fast as I did this one. Okay, I looked again at the title and I have to agree with TheHotChick, the title doesn't fit. At all. It was going to in the first version I was writing but now…well, you guys know how that goes. Anyway, I need a new title. I will dedicate a chapter to whoever gives me something even if I don't use it. Hope you guys can help me out!
Ryou came back into the living room with Bakura close behind him. Bakura had insisted on carrying the tray with the glasses and drinks on it and Ryou had complied. He still felt kind of sick and a little shaky. Everyone in the living room looked a little more relaxed than when they had first entered. Yugi's had lost the tenseness in his shoulders and Yami looked less stiff though he was still sitting with perfect posture.
Kaiba and Joey had stolen the love seat. Yami realized this and moved closer to Yugi to make room on the couch for Bakura and Ryou. Bakura set the tray on the coffee table in front of the couch and plopped down on the arm. Ryou sat gingerly next to him.
"Okay, I have some questions for you guys," Joey said. They all turned to look at him. He looked at Kaiba. "How old are you?"
Kaiba seemed to think about it for a minute. "Five-thousand, three hundred and twenty-three this summer," he answered finally. All the teens' eyes widened.
"He was my high priest in Egypt," Yami explained, "Bakura and Marik were thieves and I was pharaoh." If possible, Yugi, Joey, Ryou, and Malik's eyes widened more.
"Holy shit," Malik said.
"Ditto," the other three said as one. Yami smiled.
"Nira's mother, Queen Alexa came to us and made us into vampires. She said we had a destiny to fulfill."
"Did you want to be vampires?" Ryou asked.
"We weren't really sure, but then we didn't have a lot of choice in the matter," Yami said. Yugi moved closer to him until their sides were touching.
"The first hundred years sucked," Marik said.
"Why?" Malik asked.
"Everyone we knew died," Kaiba said unemotionally. They were all quiet for a moment before Yugi asked a question.
"Do you drink blood?"
"Yes," Yami said. Yugi wrinkled his nose and Yami chuckled, "Not very often though."
"About the whole sunlight kills you thing…" Joey started. Bakura snorted.
"I've no idea who made that one up."
"It hurts our eyes though," Yami explained, "We usually wear sunglasses."
"The no reflection thing is a load of crap too," Kaiba said.
"The only thing that really kills us is getting our hearts stabbed or heads chopped off, but who wouldn't that kill?" Marik said.
"This whole, being your mates thing, I see a problem with it," Joey said.
"What would that be?" Kaiba asked.
"We're guys," he blurted out.
"Anything else?" Yami asked. Joey looked like he wanted to say something else but then thought better. The teens looked at each other and shrugged.
A clock chimed in the house, it was six am. Ryou yawned and that set everyone else off including the vampires.
"I think it's time for us all to get to bed," Yami stated. No one argued.
"Vampires sleep?" Yugi asked tiredly.
"And snore," Bakura said looking at Marik.
"Do not," Marik growled. Bakura just smirked.
It took about an hour but they finally all made sleeping arrangements. Ryou and Yugi got Ryou's bed upstairs, Malik got the love seat, and Joey the couch. The vampires insisted that the boys get the most comfortable sleeping spots and they'd take care of themselves. Marik slept on the chair and Kaiba leaned back against the couch once Joey was asleep. Yami and Bakura waited until they heard Yugi and Ryou's soft breathing before entering the room and taking positions on either side of it leaning against the walls. Yami watched the windows and Bakura the door. They slept in shifts to guard their new wards.
Yugi awoke the next morning with the sun shining in his eyes around eleven-thirty. His first thought was that last night was all a dream. This was proven wrong, however, when he saw Bakura leaning against the wall asleep. The albino vampire blinked his eyes open, looked a Yugi, and promptly fell back asleep.
Gingerly, so as not to wake the teen still sleeping next to him, Yugi got up from the bed and tip-toed across the room and downstairs. He wouldn't have admitted it, but he was looking for Yami. He had the strangest urge to stay by the vampire.
He found that in the living room only Joey and Kaiba were still sleeping. Like Bakura had done, Kaiba opened his eyes and glanced at Yugi before closing them again and falling back asleep.
Past them, Yugi could hear faint voices coming from the kitchen. He recognized Malik's at once.
From where he stood he could smell bacon and the thought 'I hope Malik's not at the stove' crossed his mind.
As he walked into the sunny kitchen he was only looking for one person. There he was with his back to him at the stove stirring a pan full of scrambled eggs. Something inside of Yugi loosened as soon as he saw Yami who turned and smiled at him, partly because it wasn't Malik playing with fire and partly something else.
"Good morning," Yami said. Yugi smiled brightly back.
"Morning," he said back. He caught Malik rolling his eyes at him and Marik's smirk and blushed suddenly. Yami's smile widened. Yugi looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. Well, his mouth anyway.
"Retractable fangs," Yami said in answer to his unspoken question. Yugi nodded.
"How're you feeling?" Malik asked his friend. Yugi looked at him. He was seated at the kitchen table perched on Marik's lap.
"Fine," he said. He walked over towards Yami and just stood beside him. The movement just felt so right for some reason. He wanted Yami to put his arm around him. Instead he asked, "Can I help?"
Yami moved to the side and handed him a spatula to flip the bacon with while he watched the eggs. By the time they were done everyone else had woken up and congregated in the kitchen. Malik and Marik set the dining room table since the kitchen one was too small while Ryou made toast.
Soon they were all seated at the table chowing down as only teenage boys can. Breakfast/lunch was soon gone and they all pitched in to clean up. Since there was eight of them this didn't take long at all.
"So what are we doing now?" Joey asked. They were once again in the living room in the same spots as last night.
"I think I need to get out of Ryou's house and go home for a while," Malik said, "Isis is gonna kill me if I don't get back soon."
"Yeah, I need to change my clothes and shower," Yugi said looking down at himself. He was wearing the clothes he'd had on yesterday and they were wrinkled from sleep.
"What about you guys?" Ryou asked the vamps.
"We're staying with you, duh," Bakura said as if that were obvious.
"How do we explain that to our families? Hey mom, this is the vampire that bit me the other night, I'm going to be his mate and we're going to save the world from some kind of evil. That'll go over real well," Joey said dryly. Kaiba had to smile at that, it sounded like something he would say.
They decided to meet back at Ryou's house that evening around six. Once this was decided they were off all going their separate ways save for Ryou.
Ryou stood at the door and watched everyone go while Bakura watched him. The vampire couldn't help but think that the sunlight shining on Ryou's white hair made him look like an angel.
Ryou could feel Bakura's eyes on him and it made him blush. He fought as hard as he could to keep the blush down and heard the man chuckle.
"I can smell the blood rushing to your face," Bakura said. Ryou turned around closing the door. He was suddenly very uncomfortable; this was all happening so fast. Only the other day it was the start of summer vacation and he was excited to be able to spend time with his friends but now this…Two days ago seemed like a lifetime. Where did he go from here?
Ryou jumped back suddenly when he realized Bakura's face was only inches away from his own. He was bent slightly and looking up into Ryou's eyes.
"You're frowning," was all Bakura said as Ryou tried to quiet his pounding heart.
"S-sorry," he mumbled in a voice that Bakura would have been unable to hear had he not been a vampire and gifted with super human hearing.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" Bakura asked straightening up. Ryou just shook his head.
"I-I need to grab a shower," he blurted and hurried upstairs to the safety of the bathroom. He locked the door behind him. It probably wouldn't be effective against the man downstairs but at the moment all he really wanted was a little space to think.
He put his clothes in a pile on the floor and adjusted the water until it was just this side of being too cold. For some reason found cold showers more relaxing than steaming ones.
As he stood under the water he couldn't help but think how improper all of this was. There was a strange man downstairs and here he was taking a shower.
That made him blush again. He had a thought of how disappointed his father would be in him if he only knew his son was gay. Ryou had always known, girls made great friends but he could never bring himself to see them as more than that. It wasn't them he looked at as adolescence set in, oh no. His first crush had been a handsome boy called Tom…
He leaned his head against the shower wall and sighed as his mind switched gears again. What the heck had happened to being a normal teenager? What were these 'powers' that Nira had told them about? He'd never thought of himself as anything but ordinary. What was this strange feeling he got whenever he looked at the white haired man downstairs?
Around and around these thoughts spun through his head. He couldn't seem to stop them so he just let them run their course.
When he stepped out of the shower approximately twenty five minutes later he realized something that made him stop suddenly.
He hadn't brought a change of clothes to the bathroom with him. He hesitated reaching for the door. His bedroom was right down the hall, just a few short feet.
So why did it seem more like a mile?
Ryou shook his head. 'Even if Bakura is out there, we're both boys,' he thought to himself. He'd used this argument on himself all his life. It felt about as true now as it had every other time.
After another minute of internal debate he secured the towel tightly around his waist and stepped into the hall…
Bakura, having lived for a very, very long time, found modesty to be both an amusing and totally useless trait. The feeling of intense embarrassment coming from just up the stairs was just too big of an invitation to resist. Grinning wickedly he used his inhuman speed to be up the stairs and right in front of the bathroom as the door opened.
Ryou let out a small gasp upon seeing him and flushed. He saw the smaller boys hand grip the towel tight. He took in the pale, pale skin still dripping, the damp hair smelling strongly (at least to him) of some shampoo that he didn't recognize, the small frame. Really, didn't this boy ever eat?
"Excuse me," Ryou said softly. Without a second thought the teen pushed past Bakura and practically ran for his room closing the door sharply behind him. Bakura grinned wider, that had been way too much fun.
Joey kept stealing nervous glances at the tall man beside him. He wondered how people didn't notice the brunette, who seemed rather…for lack a better adjective, remarkable. Just in the way he carried himself, graceful yet confident, you could tell he wasn't like anyone you'd ever met.
He saw Kaiba nod briefly to a couple wearing sunglasses like him and caught them nodding back. With a start he realized they must be vampires also. How many of them were there exactly? How many people did he walk by everyday just around town who weren't what they seemed?
Quickly, he looked back at the two figures now behind them, two women it looked like, both with long hair of brown and both wearing long, black, leather jackets.
When he turned back around Kaiba was smirking at him in amusement as if he was reading his mind.
'Probably is,' Joey mused. He wasn't sure but he thought he saw the vampires lips twitch right after he thought that. They turned down a street, now less than a block away from Joeys' house.
"So how are we going to explain if my mom or sister's there?" Joey asked.
"If anyone is home I can make them not see me," Kaiba said.
"Become invisible?" Joey asked. That would so cool!
"No, more along the lines of if they do see me their minds won't register that I'm there," Kaiba explained.
"Okay…" Joey said pretending to understand.
They walked in silence giving Joey time to think a bit.
He had to admit that Kaiba intrigued him. The night crawler, though not really a night crawler since he could go out in sunlight, seemed to be one of the two out of the group of vampires that was sane; Yami being the other one.
Thinking of Yami, he thought of Yugi. How were they hitting it off? He smiled at that. Then he pondered briefly imaging the rest of his friends. Marik and Malik, he didn't even want to know…Ryou was probably at a loss right now. He was just so shy. But still, if Joey swung that way he'd have to say Bakura wasn't bad looking. Neither was Kaiba for that matter…
But he didn't. Swing that way that is. Joey was the straight man in this group of teens. That's what he kept telling himself anyway. Looking at the vampire next to him though he could make an exception-
That thought was cut off right there. He was heterosexual and that was that. Still, the seed of doubt had been planted, or would that be the seed of desire?