Author's Note:

Hey everybody! Hope you all had a good winter break. Sorry for the late update. I'm going to be busy the next two months with Robotics since our building season just started and were required to work at least 70 hours. I'm also on the bowling team and our season just started too so. Free time is not my time. Don't worry though I have the next few chapters written ahead. I just won't be able to get them up very fast in the coming weeks.

Anyway here's chapter 3 more fluff and the first meeting of Yami Bakura and the rest of the Bakura family. Amane is about two, so any lack of actual character comes from that. I don't have stuff planned for her in the future though promise.

This chapter is the first chapter to officially be edited. Yay! It was edited by the wonderful Miz Maples. She writes yugioh fics as well so you should check her out if you want actual Tendershipping.

That's about it. I don't own Yugioh and Enjoy!

Chapter 3

The next day Ryou once again ran up the stairs to his room this time yelling a "we'll see you at dinner," behind him. The Spirit decided not to have Ryou waste time with the summoning circle and instead just laid back on Ryou's bed as the boy opened the door.

"Hi Mr. Spirit! I have an idea of what game we should play today!" Greeted Ryou cheerfully, not even questioning why the ghost was already here before he summoned him.

"What game would that be kid?" Questioned the Spirit, relieved he wasn't immediately asked about dinner. That was something the Spirit had been semi-worrying about since he found himself unable to asleep the night before.

"Well I say that you were really good at Checkers. So I thought maybe you would like another super smart game and I was thinking of all the really hard games. Like those that are for seven and up put I play them anyway because I'm really smart. Then I decided the best hard smart game I had was Battleship. So that's what we are playing today Battleship." Said Ryou all in one breath as he got two black boxes off the shelf and brought it over to the bed.

"Kid, you know you talk way too fast sometimes. I could barely follow all that." Stated the Spirit, once again overcome with how fast this kid could talk.

"Sorry," said Ryou, slightly embarrassed. "I tend to talk fast when I get excited." He talked quieter than he ever had before around the Spirit. The Spirit then realized he had said something the wrong way when the silence between the two became awkward.

"Umm, so, you want to explain the rules of this game to me or just have me guess at what to do." The Spirit said, trying to break the awkwardness that had surrounded them, but not wanting to apologize.

"Oh yeah right. Uh, this is how you play. So, you have one box and I have the other. After the game starts you can't look at each others boxes. Inside there's two sides the bottom is where you put your ships and the top is where you put the guesses for my ships. The goal is to guess all the right spots for your opponents ships and sink them all. Including their battleship. That's why it's called battleship. You use the white pieces to mark where you or I called a spot but didn't hit anything and red is to mark when you hit something." explained Ryou, making sure not to talk as fast as he had before. He didn't want to confuse The Spirit again.

"If this is a secretive game, how are you suppose to move my pieces?" Questioned the Spirit, already coming up with a solution as he talked.

"Oh... I forgot you can't touch things. Maybe we should play a different game," said Ryou quietly, embarrassed for forgetting that. He grabbed the two boxes planning to put them back and began thinking of a different game to play.

"Now hold on," said the Spirit, pausing Ryou's motion towards the shelf. "I didn't intend that to mean we couldn't play. You've got me intrigued. I'd like to play this game and I have a solution to our problem."

"Really?" Asked Ryou curiously, excited about the prospect of actually playing this game with someone who couldn't touch the pieces. He set the boxes back on the bed and sat down again.

"Yes, I was planning to test how well I could touch things anyway. This seems like the perfect time to do that." Said the Spirit as Ryou opened the two boxes and turned one to face the Spirit.

"Okay, just put your ships on your board and we can start," said Ryou, getting excited once again. The Spirit focused and was surprised when he was able to pick up the plastic ships on the first try. Once they got their pieces set up they started to play. The game took longer than Checkers and they only played one game before the sound of Ryou's Mother calling ended their play for that night.

"Aww, we didn't get to finish! Now we'll never know who would have won that game of Battleship." Complained Ryou to a non-attentive Spirit as he started to pick up the game. Playing with the kid had been a good distraction from dinner, but now that they weren't playing and the confrontation was glaring the Spirit in the face. He was suddenly nervous again and that was something he didn't like. How dare this woman have the power to make him feel this way. He was the thousand year old Spirit of the Millennium Ring he would not be put off by a young woman in her late 20s.

"Are you coming Mr. Spirit? I forgot to tell you since I was excited to play battleship, but you're invited to spend family dinner with us tonight. Since you don't have a ghost family and all." Said Ryou, interrupting the Spirit's thoughts from the doorway as he left his room.

"Sure," replied the Spirit. "Your family dinners can't be that boring. Spending one night with you all won't end me." He steeled himself and started to follow the boy out the door, pulling the knob shut as Ryou headed down the stairs.

"Oh yeah, Mummy said it had to be every night that you come over, not just tonight," remarked Ryou as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Darn it." Thought the Spirit. He had forgotten that. Not only did he have to muscle through tonight, but now it was expected that he join them every night for dinner. The Spirit finished these thoughts as he floated down to the bottom of the stairs. He paused at the entrance to the kitchen. Maybe he could wait out here until Ryou got distracted by eating his dinner then return to the Ring without a confrontation. That was still a possi-

"Mr. Spirit, are you coming? I want you to meet Amane!" Yelled Ryou from the kitchen. 'There goes that plan', thought the Spirit grudgingly. He wasn't going to let this women make him feel this way, and with that final resolve, he marched into the kitchen as well as a spirit could march.

The Spirit immediately regretted that decision, because as soon as he walk through the door Ryou yelled, "there you are Mr. Spirit!", causing his baby sister to look up to where her brother was talking and caused Mrs. Bakura who had been dishing out food to look up. For the first time in a millennia, the Spirit found himself at the center of attention and it certainly didn't feel as good as it had the last time he had been the center of attention.

The silence lasted for a few minutes the Spirit was frozen in the doorway and Mrs. Bakura was busy looking. Trying to see if there was anything or if her son really did just have an imaginary friend. The silence was broken by Amane chapping and giggling towards what she probably saw as another member of her family.

With the silence broken Mrs. Bakura quickly collected herself and said "Would you like to come over and join us Mr. Spirit? We'd be happy to have you." With a sweet smile on her face, she continued to dish out food. She was planning to go along with it even if she couldn't see Ryou's imaginary friend. Why Amane reacted that way confused her though. Was there really something there she couldn't see? Should she be worried?

As soon as Mrs. Bakura offered him a place at the table the Spirit started to move. Heading towards the seat beside Ryou. The boy quickly moved back the seat so the Spirit could sit before sitting himself.

"Thank you." said the Spirit, trying to be polite as he was their guest and didn't want Ryou's mother to pick up there was an actual spirit sitting at her dinner table.

"You're welcome!" Said Ryou cheerfully, happy the weird silence was gone. He didn't know why it happened, but he hoped it didn't happen again.

By this point Mrs. Bakura was done setting up the table and sat down. She was sitting across from Ryou, and Amane was sitting across from what was usually her father's seat, but was now occupied by a spirit. The baby didn't seem to be able to take her eyes off their guest, smiling and giggling every time he so much as moved. It surprised the Spirit he was able to tell the mother couldn't see him. Even if she pretended too, that was suppose to mean no one other than Ryou could see him. Yet this little toddler couldn't seem to stop staring at him.

Mrs. Bakura said a blessing over the food and everyone started eating except for the Spirit of course. Even the baby seemed to understand to wait until Mummy was done talking. The food looked strange to the Spirit. The only thing he could recognize was the green beans on the side. Luckily, he had Ryou's memories to help him name all the others there was chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and a fruit cup.

"So Mr. Spirit where are you from? Not the backyard I hope," asked Mrs. Bakura after everyone had a chance to eat some food.

"No, I'm from the city of Memphis in Kemet part of the Lower Kingdom." Answered the Spirit. Ryou told his mother what the Spirit had said. When Mrs. Bakura heard Ryou stumble over the name of Ancient Egypt and it's ancient capital she began to get suspicious. Since when did Ryou know those names.

"If you are from Ancient Egypt how do you know English?" Was Mrs. Bakura's second question.

"From your son, I learned what the kid knows of the language." Answered the Spirit, noticing Mrs. Bakura's suspicion and figuring this answer would ease her.

"How did you get here? Egypt is quite far away after all." The Spirit's last answer did ease Mrs. Bakura, but she was still suspicious and still had questions.

"..." The Spirit didn't want to give away how he was here at their dining table. If he told them then they could get rid of him and that was something he couldn't let happen. "The boy summoned me."

It was technically the truth if the boy hadn't called him that first time he wouldn't have ever revealed himself. The Spirit figured this would be a good enough answer and told Ryou to tell it to his mother.

"Now for the final question for the night. Mr. Spirit, Ryou has told me you don't have a family and if you're as old as I think you are. I can understand that so my final question is. Would you like to be part of our family?" offered Mrs. Bakura, feeling as if she had gotten enough answers that night. She had plenty to think about later as she was starting to question whether this was an actual imaginary friend or something else.

The Spirit didn't know the answer to this question. It shocked him just as much as it had last night when Ryou had asked. He knew the right answer, the answer the darkness would agree with. That would be no, but he also knew a straight out no would upset the kid and make the mother nervous. Which was the last thing he needed, but he couldn't say yes either getting attached to this family would not work with the plan.

"I don't know yet," was the answer the Spirit decided to give. It wasn't a straight no or yes and gave him more time to find the right answer.

With this final answer Mrs. Bakura decided to move the conversation away from "Mr. Spirit" and asked about what they did that afternoon. These questions were ones Ryou readily answered and the Spirit didn't have to input his own opinion. So the Spirit started to get bored and look around the kitchen. He hadn't had a chance to really look around the house before. The Spirit knew the general set up, but there were certain things that weren't very well remembered in Ryou's memories. For example what was that strange red machine on the counter. Ryou didn't seem to know or care so the Spirit didn't know.

The Spirit was trying to make out the words on the side of the strange machine when he started to feel eyes on him. Which was a very strange feeling when invisible. The Spirit looked down to see little green eyes once again staring intently at him. The Spirit was getting annoyed. He had gotten over the fact that the baby could see him as well and just wished for her to stop staring at him. Never backing down from a challenge he started to stare back. The staring contest went on for a few minutes unnoticed by the other people at the table. The Spirit wasn't going to give in, no way was he losing to a baby, besides as a spirit he didn't need to blink. He could do this all night.

"Mr. Spirit, what game do you want to play tomorrow?" Asked Ryou, breaking the Spirit's concentration and causing him to blink, losing the game. Amane immediately started laugh and clapping once the Spirit had turned away, apparently understanding that she won that game. The Spirit simply sighed and mumbled something about not caring what game they played. This caused Ryou to go on a tangent listing different games they could try that "Mr. Spirit hadn't played yet", which, of course, included many games.

"Next time brat. Next time I shall win our little game." Whispered the Spirit to the baby with a not-quite-glare on his face. Amane just smiled and looked at the Spirit without the slightest hint of fear.

Dinner quickly ended after that and the Spirit told Ryou to thank his mother for having him at dinner before returning to the Ring for the night. It was getting harder and harder to return to the too-loud-and-dark Ring with every night the Spirit spent outside of it.

Once Mrs. Bakura got Ryou and Amane to bed, she started her nightly routine. Her mind kept wandering back to dinner and their "guest". She still wasn't sure what to think. She wanted "Mr. Spirit" to just be a imaginary friend Ryou thought up. The boy had always been interested in the supernatural and she saw no reason to hinder his interest. But the facts were piling-up against Ryou's spirit being imaginary and instead an actual ghost.

Mrs. Bakura went over every thing she saw at the dinner. Amane seemed really excited when Ryou introduced Mr. Spirit and Mrs. Bakura had seen her looking at the seat the entire night. Could Amane see something she couldn't? Not to mention the answers Ryou had given were a little to detailed. She was pretty certain her husband hadn't told Ryou about the ancient cities of Egypt yet. Ryou was more interested in the book of the dead and afterlife after all.

If Mr. Spirit was in fact a ghost from ancient Egypt what did that mean? Did that mean her son was being possessed? What was she to do? Call a Priest? An Exorcist?

Mrs. Bakura needed to stop. She was panicking herself about something she didn't even know to be true. The Spirit hadn't harmed her son (yet) if he was indeed real. Mrs. Bakura could just be overthinking everything and Amane could have been looking at something else. She decided she would wait see if this really was a ghost and if it was haunting or possessing her son. She would react once she got the full picture, not before. If this Spirit was harming her son she would get rid of it anyway she could and if it wasn't, well, who knows. She assumes she'll figure it out when she gets there.

The story should be picking up soon promise. I have some angst that should be showing up soon, so look for that. Hope the way I wrote Mrs. Bakura makes sense and if it doesn't. That's okay I have more planned for her character later. It should explain why she's handling this the way she is.

I don't know when the next chapter will come. Probably not until next week.

Thanks for reading!

Darkhorse out!