AN: A reviewer said that the last chapter was confusing, so I only hope that this one is clearer – aside from the bit where Malik is very confused too, and Ryou has no clue what's going on and no-one's telling him. *cough*

Apologies for the delay. Many thanks for the comments!

See chapter one for the disclaimer.

Chapter Six

(In which people play card games.)

Jounouchi screamed as the card fell into the water; Malik wasted no time, and had the boat accelerate to the maximum.

A few moments later, the helicopter was far out of sight.

Malik leant back against the border, enjoying the sense of danger, and couldn't quite manage to feel anything but an entrancing sentiment of victory.

"Tell him to hurry," Bakura told him. "The spell won't last for long."

He looked up at the thief who seemed quite pissed, actually. He had every reason to be, Malik knew, considering they had been found out – how had they managed that so fast, even with Rishid not staying quiet for a minute longer than ordered? –, but he really should be able to enjoy himself a little more.

"Why not?"

"This isn't Honda's soul-card – the binding won't last. Why didn't you do something with that rod?"

"It didn't work on Kaiba," Malik answered, hoping that would be enough of an answer; he could have blasted Jounouchi with it. But he had promised Ryou that no-one would get seriously hurt, and he might already have broken that promise, if Honda didn't wake up...

He straightened back up. Starting to worry about the spirit's host had definitely not been part of the plan – he never had before, no reason to start now!

But then, he hadn't known the host at all; and it had been beyond weird to talk to that version of the thief that was so different; he'd never given Ryou – the actual person, as opposed to the convenient body – much thought. He certainly hadn't expected him to be ready to betray Bakura, or to try to talk him into doing the same. He had seemed nothing but weak and helpless when he'd met him.

Bakura didn't say anything in answer, and instead studied him through narrowed eyes.

"You really are useless," he eventually remarked. "So much for your incognito."

"You're the one who contacted me," Malik threw back; the thief had no call belittling him now.

Bakura snorted.

"It's not you I need." He glanced at the rod in Malik's hand meaningfully.

"Well, you wouldn't have found a way to get it. Unless you actually beat the pharaoh for once."

"The least you could have done was to get us the necklace as well."

"And leave my sister without protection?"

"She doesn't even still have it."

"Well, she should. We guarded those things for three thousand years. The least the pharaoh could do is letting us keep them for a while."

Bakura raised an eyebrow at him.

"For a while?" he asked, curiously.

Malik clenched his fist around the millennium rod angrily and looked away, his face contorted to a painfully grimace, the ring spirit noted interestedly; Malik was nothing if not conflicted, and didn't that make him a hazardous ally.

"He'll need them, eventually."

Bakura narrowed his eyes, but they had reached the coast, and he restrained from further comment.

"We better get moving before Kaiba catches up. Send the boat away, with a little luck they'll follow it."

Malik opened his mouth for another angry retort, before deciding they should indeed hurry if they didn't want to get caught, and decided to leave the argument for later.

The door to his soul-room dashed open, to reveal an angry looking spirit. As he had remained conscious, but blind to the outside world, he had no way of telling how much time had passed, let alone where he – his body – might be. It hadn't felt like a very long time, but he had learnt in the past that he was often wrong about it.

The door shot close behind the spirit, while the latter walked up to him; Ryou winced, instinctively pressed his back against the wall behind the bed on which he was sitting. The spirit had never hurt him, and most likely would not do so now, but the knowledge didn't really make him seem less threatening when he wanted to appear so. Besides, the fact he was able to open and close the door to his soulroom at will while he himself wasn't always made him bitter.

"What do you want?" he asked, when the spirit stopped in front of his bed, and looked down at him in silence. The spirit was weird like that: he would come for whatever precise reason, and then wait for him to speak first. Ryou had never been able to figure out if it was some game of patience he was losing or an odd kind of courtesy.

"I'm going to let you back into control. You're in a hotel, still... in Japan, three days after last time you were in control. That's all you need to know. I do not want to try to leave your room under any circumstances."

Ryou pressed his lips together and nodded.

"And you will not make another attempt of turning Ishtar against me. Otherwise there will be dolls for you to take care of – or less. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes..." Ryou murmured weakly.

The spirit stared at him for another moment, before wordlessly turning round and leaving the room, without locking it this time. With a deep breath, Ryou let himself slip back into the real world.

He was laying on his back, on a large double bed; the pattern of the curtains behind him was painted over the wall on the other side of the room in light and shadows.

Someone was half laying half-sitting beside him, watching a football-match on TV.

"Malik?" he murmured, while sitting up.

The blond slowly turned his eyes to him, looked him over critically, and nodded. He was glad it was Ryou who woke up, not the spirit: for someone who seemed to have been around for three thousand years, Bakura could be surprisingly inpatient. Since they had arrived in the hotel where they were going to stay for a while, to give Pegasus time to paint, he had been reckless and snappy, and generally annoying, and was killing Malik's enjoyment of the situation: Malik liked hotels, especially expensive ones. It meant a room that he pretty much owned, but could leave in a mess someone else would have to clean up – especially if he didn't plan on coming back – , a TV and other devices to keep running, and people there to wait on him. These things were lost on Bakura. Malik did wonder why he was so eager to gain power that would permit him to take over the world if he didn't get any pleasure in ruling it...

"Where are..." Ryou interrupted himself. "Where's Pegasus?"

"My room. Don't worry about it." He straightened up. "Are you all right?"

"Yes..." He glanced down on himself worriedly: there seemed to be nothing wrong with his body. "Why?"

"Just checking. He wore your body out pretty bad."

"Oh..." He didn't dare asking, feeling that this might already be going too far, and maybe he didn't want to know; you had to learn to pick and choose. "What are you watching?"

"Some recap about Nakata's AS Roma season in 2001." He yawned, and switched the TV off, while Ryou blinked at him listlessly. "Oh, I asked your spirit what he wants with the card."

"You did?"

"Mm-hm. He's trying to revive the dragon, so he can use it without owning the card."

Ryou frowned. The idea of the spirit with a pet Blue Eyes White Dragon was not a pleasant one, but not all that horrible either: after all, he still wouldn't have the card, and outside of duels, lesser monsters he already controlled already seemed as bad as it could get...

"Are you sure?"

Malik shrugged.

"That's what he said, anyway."

Ryou said nothing. He wasn't supposed to ask questions, and even less to state disagreement.

"So..." Malik stretched out lazily. "Anything you'd like to do?"

"What... what do you mean?"

"What I said. We don't have anything to do until Pegasus' finished."

"I'm rather hungry..." Ryou offered hopefully.

"Oh, of course." Malik grinned happily. "I'll have something brought up. Wait, there's a menu here somewhere..." He began to search in the commode right next to the bed.

"I thought you don't have any money."

"Hm?" He looked up briefly. "Yes I do. Not much, but I blackmailed Isis into giving me some. Along with the rod."

"Oh..." He pushed away the menu Malik tried to show into his hand, while trying to make sense to this latest piece of information. "I think I'm not that hungry after all..."

"Oh come on! I sort of kidnapped you. The least I can do is getting you something to eat. It's not like it's your fault the money's stolen."

"...all right..."

About an hour later, Ryou was finishing the menu for two people he had eaten almost alone by stuffing his sixth cream puff into his mouth, and regained awareness of the world around him.

"He... never really eats enough," he explained, flushing a little, as he finally noticed Malik's aghast look. "Or maybe it's because I can't taste it..." He trailed off. "Sorry?"

Malik shook his head.

"No, it's alright... do you want me to order more?"

"N... no..." Ryou murmured, still embarrassed, and looked down. "I'm fine..."

"Is there anything else you'd like to do then?" Malik asked, looking at him insistently, but unable to look into his eyes, and nervously twisting his fingers against each other.

"I... don't know. I'm not supposed to leave the room..."

Malik blinked at him.

"Oh, dammit, Bakura. Why not?"

Ryou just shrugged sadly.

"We could play Duel Monster?"

"You can play?" Malik asked.

"Of course I can! I hope so, anyway," Ryou added sheepishly. "Actually, I haven't played since... several years..."

"Really?"

"Well, I... I planned strategies, and built a deck, but I never got to play..." He trailed off, and his shoulders sacked down. "Sorry, I – I'm usually not like that. We could just watch TV..."

"It doesn't matter... We can still have a duel, and see," Malik said, encouragingly. "Just for fun."

"I won't be much of an adversary for you. You made it to Battle City..."

"So did you."

"It wasn't me," Ryou said, sounding a little cross.

Malik shrugged.

"It wasn't really me either. My brother won the locator cards for me."

"You brother?"

"Rishid. You... met him... I think..."

He stopped. Those conversations would not stop being awkward anytime soon...

"The one who impersonated you when you were Namu?"

"Yes. That's him. He's really good. He should play on tournaments."

There was a pause.

"Why doesn't he?"

Malik shrugged.

"I don't think he's interested. He would if I told him to, though," he added, looking into space; there was another silence. "Should we start then?"

Ryou nodded with a smile, and they exchanged their decks.

At first, Malik thought that maybe he should hold back; it was true that he wasn't such an exceptional duellist, he was willing to admit as much now, but he had mastered a god card, and Ryou still seemed rather unsure of himself – that, and a victory didn't really count for anything, and seeing Ryou be happy about winning might...

But he decided that it would be both too risky, and unfair to his adversary, and after a few turns, he was glad he had decided so: once he got into the game, Ryou's timidity was pretty much gone, and his deck was scary; his own, stripped of the fake cards he had owned during Battle City – not to mention Osiris and Ra – was feeble next to it.

Ryou was down to five-hundred life points when he still had lost only three hundred; but he was aware that Bakura's deck had powerful moves that were playing from the graveyard, and that the destroyed monsters meant he would be able to call Dark Necrofear to the field (Ryou had been rather prudent, and currently had a defence monster on the field, which made him guess he hadn't drawn the card yet), and he decided that since he hardly had anything in his deck to counter it, it would be better to try and bring him down to zero before he got the chance...

By the triumphant smirk that appeared on Ryou's face at his next draw, he guessed that he had failed.

"Now..." Ryou began, while his index finger ran over the top of the cards, and he threw him a glance from behind them. "I sacrifice my three dead servants, the Headless Knight, the Lady of Faith, and Necro Jar." He flashed the cards at him while he drew them, before putting them aside." – to call..." His voice lowered to a sinister whisper. "...Dark Necrofear!" He placed the card in attack, and smirked again. "I don't think your monster stands much of a chance..."

"Could you stop being so creepy?" Malik snapped, while he put his own monster card on his graveyard and scribed down his new score.

"Huh?" Ryou blinked, as if waking up from a pleasant trance, and Malik narrowed his eyes at him, suspicious. "Creepy? Uh. Sorry." He ducked a little under Malik gaze. "I just... like the role-playing part of it."

He smiled sheepishly.

"Role-playing? It's a card game!"

"Yes but... That's why I didn't think I'd like it too much at first, but you can pretend you're commanding an army of undeaths!"

He smiled sweetly.

"Okay," Malik said slowly. "Is your turn over?"

Ryou nodded. Malik inwardly cursed himself for having brought this up: without meaning to, he seemed to have destroyed a good part of Ryou's enjoyment of the game, as the boy tried a few times to get back into "acting" – but never quite managed, probably too self-conscious now, and Malik didn't know what to do about it.

It had one positive effect, though, even if Malik felt guilty – he wondered if he would ever get rid of that feeling around Ryou – for thinking so: when the change came, he noticed almost immediately.

"It's your turn," his adversary told him.

To be fair, he only half-heartedly tried to hide his presence when Malik's last defence had fallen, leaving him open for the next attack. Still, as soon as he looked up at him, a triumphant smirk twisting his lips, Malik knew. He was proud.

"Bakura?!" he snapped, astonishment and anger fighting for dominance in his voice.

"Huh?"

The smirk disappeared, replaced by a clueless, confused look not unlike the one he had made half an hour earlier, when Malik had first called him on his odd behaviour, but he wasn't fooled (admittedly, he wasn't completely sure either; but he'd rather react when he was wrong than failing to react when he should have).

"You're not Ryou."

The spirit smirked at him.

"It's still your move, Ishtar. What?" He smirked again, as Malik looked around suspiciously. "Scared?"

"This isn't a shadow game?"

He was annoyed by his sudden panic, this wouldn't make any sense, Bakura still needed him, and he would have noticed – but these things could be started in the middle of a duel... Maybe he shouldn't have told Ryou he was a lousy duellist.

Bakura leant back.

"If it was, you couldn't get out of it anyway... So...?"

"Fine..." Malik snapped, his pride finally getting the better of him. "I play Wall of Illusion in defence mode. End turn."

"Good..." Bakura didn't seem able to stop smirking. "Good monster. Too bad you won't get to use it." He laid down a card on the magic field. "Change of Heart on your Wall of Illusion."

"Isn't that Ryou's soul card?" Malik looked at it with a frown.

"How do you know?"

"He told me about it."

"Yes, he did. But I didn't think you'd remember. You were looking at him when he was talking, I wasn't sure you were actually listening as well..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Malik snapped aggressively.

"My host – " Malik fought a sudden urge to throw his shadow magic at the spirit for the tone of possessive pride with which he was saying these words. " – has talents he's not aware of himself..."

Malik was about to snap at him again, but contained himself.

"Isn't it still his turn?" he said instead, glaring at the spirit.

"Mm-hm," the latter agreed, still grinning, and went on immediately: "I sacrifice Wall of Illusion to call the The Earl of Demise. Direct attack on your life points – which brings you down to zero..."

"I don't care."

He reached over to retrieve his card from Bakura's side of the field, put it back into his deck and put it inside his pocket, all of it without looking at the spirit.

"You should check on Pegasus," Bakura said, in a more serious tone. "You're supposed to keep him under control, and you haven't checked on him this whole time, have you...?"

"Yeah, I will. Now get lost."

There was a brief pause; Malik instinctively reached for his rod, in case the spirit tried to attack him; instead, he suddenly disappeared. Malik was positive he could see the change right away.

"Ryou!"

The other boy blinked at him, reminding Malik of the first time they had met during this journey, and he had to admit he liked the sight of the change (maybe more worrying was the realisation he did like it the other way round as well, the sudden appearance of arrogance and danger in the other's demeanour...)

"Yes," Ryou answered, smiling weakly, before he looked down on the cards, noticing only his were still there.

"He finished the duel instead of you," Malik explained, feeling bad for even having agreed to finish playing.

"Oh... I guess I should have expected him to take over. Did he win?"

"You won," Malik snapped unhappily. "He only played your last move."

"Oh. Doesn't really matter." He shrugged, and glanced up at Malik, who was looking at him intently. "What?"

"I just... A few days ago you tried to tell me to stop him, and now you talk as if... On whose side are you?"

"I'm on no-ones side," Ryou said calmly, and recollected his cards.

Malik looked at him. He seemed oddly out of reach all the sudden, calm and collected and almost cheerful, but so... He'd assumed Ryou would hate the spirit, like he had hated the foreign entity that had become so strong inside him that it had chased what was left of him now from his body. And Ryou's actions had seemed to confirm that. But he didn't know.

"I have to go check something," he said hastily. "I'll be right back." He paused. "If that's all right with you."

Ryou nodded at him without looking up from his cards.

Comments are great! I'm secretly just here for the comments. Or, well, not so secretly now. :p

In the next chapter – which is relatively short – Malik can't sleep. And then I shall begin to panic about the fact I haven't written ahead far enough.