Part 3 – Coming Out: Bakura
"Which ones?" Yugi asked. Marik had many, many shoes. Bakura needed to be more specific.
"Oh! The ones that sort of look like mine, except gold," Bakura responded, coming further into Yugi's room to show off his shoes. Yugi looked at the shoes, remembering Marik did have a pair very similar, the three of them bought them at the mall about a week ago, came home and...
"Oh! They're still in my closet. Sorry about that, I'll go grab them," Yugi remembered, dashing towards his closet. He rifled through some things until finally pulling out a pair of high-heeled, twisted, sparkling gold shoe. He handed them to Bakura who had now come into Yugi's room and sat on the end of his bed, with Seto sitting at the head. Seto had closed his arms, since there was now "company" in their presence. There would be no further cuddling or touching until the reached the club.
As Yugi handed the shoes to Bakura, Bakura yelled, "Marik we found your shoes! They were hiding in Yugi's closet the whole time!" Bakura chuckled, "he'll be here any moment, I think he's still getting dressed."
Yugi noticed Bakura was holding a drink in his hand, that reeked of alcohol. "Goodness Bakura, drinking already? We haven't even gotten to the club yet!" Yugi exclaimed.
"It's called pre-drinking you dork. And I've still got my wits about me. Remember, I'm British, I can tolerate alcohol, much, MUCH better than you ever could." Bakura stuck out his tounge and took a sip, his face flushing slightly. "Mm!" Bakura exclaimed through his sip, "Marik, here are your shoes!"
Marik was standing in the doorway of Yugi's room, leaning on it slightly. He smiled and walked towards the shoes, and grabbed them from Bakura, "Thanks, fluffy-kins" he teased. As Marik approached Yugi noticed he smelled slightly of alcohol, and it suddenly hit him as to why Marik was acting especially like an idiot tonight, "Bakura how much did you give him to drink?"
"I can still think ya know!" Marik exclaimed, "Just a little tipsy is all" and he fell onto the bed next to Bakura, nestling his head into him.
"Not much," Bakura said, "Same thing as what I've got. He only had one."
"Let me try that," Yugi asked reaching his hand out towards the drink.
Bakura smiled, and handed it over. The moment the intoxicating drink hit Yugi's mouth, Yugi's frowned and forced one sip down. "Exactly how much alcohol is in there Bakura? It tastes awfully strong!"
"Well, not alot. I'm on my second, and look at me!"
"Yes but Marik isn't you."
"Well, he's dating me. So he'll have to get used to it! He'll sober up before we leave. I have a fabulous story to tell, remember?"
Seto had now sat up, intent on listening to what Bakura had to say. "Well, get on with it, some of us don't have all night," he said curtly.
"Hm, very well," Bakura said taking one more sip, "But it's not much of a coming out story, I'll tell you. I never really confessed to anybody I was gay, I've just been gay my whole life."
"Then just tell us your 'story."
"Very well. Lets see, well I guess I could start by saying that ever since I was very young, I found men attractive. I would always ask my mummy and daddy why a boy and girl would always get married in the movies – why couldn't two boys get married? It just didn't make alot of sense to me. So, my parents told me that in order to have a child you needed a boy and a girl...of course I kept asking so many questions like why couldn't two boys have a child? I think they kinda got it from early on that I wasn't going to be straight, but that was good for them because they started to adjust early, taking in the 'warning signs' so to speak!"
"Were they at least supportive?"
"Extremely. When I got to the age of puberty, of course I had taken health classes and now understood why you needed a boy and a girl to make a baby. But, my parents, being the wonderful beings they are, God bless their souls, told me that sometimes two women or two men could love each other very very much, and that was ok! It was called being gay for me, lesbian for women, bisexual for both. So they told me that I could make the decision of who I wanted to date, and just because everybody else was dating a girl didn't mean I had to. But if I wanted to, I could."
"Interesting."
"It was. But at school many people didn't take too kindly for me. I asked many straight men out, and as a result got beat up alot. However, that didn't put a damper on me. Alot of kids told me that I should be asking girls out, and not boys. I just told them that 'My mummy and daddy said it's ok to like other men though, and that's good enough for me!' And it was! It didn't matter what the other kids said. What my parents said was true, and therefore I didn't veer from my sexuality. I knew deep down inside that I was born gay, and that's just the way it was."
"This pretty much sounds like it's going to be your whole story."
"Unfortunately, no. See, I started living on my own a long time ago..because of what my parents did. My father went on alot of trips as did my mother, so they would set up an apartment for me so I could stay in one place and go to school. Well...of course one day I got the Millennium Ring and life suddenly became one huge blur for a couple of years. That bloody spirit trapped me in my own mind, I don't really recall much of what happened."
"But you're free now," Marik said, slightly sobering up. He reached out for Bakura's drink, who handed it to him. Marik took one sip, handed it back, then nestled into Bakura again.
"Bakura, do you really think Marik should be drinking any more?" Yugi asked, concerned that if Marik kept drinking, he would be wasted before even getting to the club.
"I know what I'm doing Yugi, trust me, I know his limits. He probably won't be allowed much more anyways," Bakura responded. "But yes, I'm free now! Anyways, I distinctly remember before getting the ring I got my ear pierced, simply because being gay was so important to me. But, after I got the ring, things started to get weird. I became really shy, and introverted because I was afraid of what the spirit would do to people. As a result, I became a loner, and essentially became 'closeted.'"
"So you do have a coming out story so to speak," Seto remarked.
"Kinda! I guess you're right, because when I transferred to your school, I never told anybody I was gay, let alone talk to alot of people, out of fear of the spirit. The spirit really controlled me. So if I kept hidden away, avoiding people...then I wouldn't have to deal with the spirit doing his crazy things. Nobody knew I was gay. Alot of girls tried to ask me out. Hah! Oh dear, that was quite funny. I rejected all of them, however, I still hid my earring because sometimes if a girl finds out your gay..."
"Then want you to be your gay best friend," Yugi chimed in.
"Exactly. So to avoid that I just rejected them. Well the spirit knew I was gay too, and shockingly could care less...mostly because in this new environment nobody knew a thing about me so he could create my identity for me. I hated it. However, once it was all done and over, there were a couple of things on my mind."
"Getting back your gay status!"
"Yes! I hated the closeted feeling. So I went around finally telling people I was gay. There was no spirit controlling me, I could do what I wanted. I started to do drag again, started dating around again, it was wonderful."
"Hold on, when did you start doing drag?" Seto asked.
"Oh goodness, I started when I was...I want to say 15? Yeah, around there. And I was bloody good at it too!" Bakura giggled at the memories. "Speaking of which, Yugi, when are you going to do drag again? You're mighty good at it but we rarely see you perform! I mean even Kaiba is dragged up right now, but not for performance purposes, but still!"
Yugi flushed, "I'm not sure to be honest, when it comes to that I still get really embarrassed on a stage, if anything that's always been with me."
Bakura pouted, "Well do it with me next weekend. I'm doing Lady Gaga."
"Again? You've done that so many times!"
"But it's so easy – and you can imitate her dance moves way better than I can."
"But you're the best drag in town!"
"Why thank you, but you can shake that ass of yours quite well. Come do it with me, Marik, you and I will imitate various costumes of hers from different songs. We'll do something like a 'Bad Romance,' 'Poker Face,' and 'Paparazzi' mix. It'll be fun!"
Seto nudged Yugi, "I would like to see that. Do it. I'll come."
Yugi blushed quite deeply and gave in, "Fine!" he said, "but only because Seto said he would come!" Yugi was grinning wide now.
"Excellent! Then we'll work on our performance this week and drag it up next weekend, I'll get us a slot. Anyways, back to my story. I was going to tell you guys the second part of my 'getting back my gay,' although nobody really knows about it...except for Marik. And I'm willing to share it with you guys if you can keep it a secret."
Seto and Yugi looked at each other, "I'm sure we can," Yugi responded.
Bakura looked at Seto, "And you?"
"Sure." Seto replied curtly.
Bakura took the last sip of his drink and set the cup down. "Very well," he said, while standing up. He turned around and lifted his shirt up to expose his back. "I got this almost immediately after we returned from Egypt."
On Bakura's lower back was a mix of black swirls sprinkled with black stars, and at the center on his spine, were two black male symbols intertwined, side by side. "You got a tramps tamp" Yugi asked, impressed.
"Yeah, I sure did. It was to symbolize my gayness to myself, and, to be honest, I was a bit of a slut. I slept around alot before I met Marik, and I guess I wanted a symbol of that? I was young, I was stupid, but it's important to me still. What can I say, I'm a gay slut!" Bakura laughed, and sat back down onto the bed, wrapping his arm around a waiting Marik.
"If nobody knows about it, how the hell did you keep it a secret from all of those people you slept with?" Seto asked.
"Easy. Cover it with bandages, say I got hurt, you know nobody would be surprised if I said that at all, I've been in the hospital a couple of times. Or the room would be dark, nobody would know in those conditions. Or, I would simply keep my shirt on and try to stay 'on the bottom.' Those were usually only for quickies. But that's all I've really got to say. In the end I still wound up as the well known, gay slut. Even without my tattoo, alot of people knew me for sleeping around. I was still shy in school, mostly because I didn't know anybody and it was hard to start talking to people after such a long time forcing yourself not too. But in the queer community I don't know! I just bloody opened up, I felt so comfortable with them. It was amazing! But yes, that is my 'story.'"
"Did anybody beat you up in high school when you came out?"
"Not really. I mean we were all older when we went back so I had some status. And alot of people knew I was shy so they felt sorry enough for me. But I think by the time we graduated I had become outspoken and crazy enough that people were just afraid to beat me up, haha! I mean I did come out of my shell, heck I think I did a drag performance for our senior year talent show...do you recall? Before that I was receiving some hostile feelings from guys, but it didn't bother me too much, they didn't beat me up. However after that talent show...I fooled so many of them that I was a girl, that at the end when I told them my name and who I was, they were just utterly shocked. I got so many cat calls that night, I even flirted with some straight men in the audience! But, after that night, since alot of them had admitted to their buddies during my performance that, 'oh she's hot!' and that 'she' wasn't a 'she' at all but was really a 'he,' they just couldn't bring the courage up to beat me up. They were attracted to me for a brief moment in time! It was fan-fucking-amazing. Oh look at me, it's getting late and I'm rambling away, we should get going!"
At this point Marik had sobered up a bit more, relaxing into normal idiocy, or at least what was typical for him. Marik put his shoes on, and stood up, holding Bakura's hand. Bakura stood up with him, and as he got up, gently kissed him on the mouth. "I love you," Bakura whispered to Marik, who smiled and whispered back, "I love you too," while they touched foreheads.
Yugi watched the two of them with longing eyes. How he wished he could do that with Seto so easily in front of people. In front of his friends. In front of these two blokes who knew Seto was gay, that wasn't even so bad.
"So, when are you thinking of coming out, Seto?" Yugi asked gently.
"When I'm ready. I'm not ready at this point in time, but at some point. I'm not sure when," Seto replied.
Yugi nodded, "well, when the time is right for you it'll come. It's sometimes not always easy. But you already have the support of your little brother, so in essence you are partially 'out."
"I guess, but I'm not out to the rest of the world like you three are."
"Hey guys we should get going," Bakura said, "the line will be getting long, and Marik is pretty sobered up now."
"You're right, let's get going," Yugi said while standing up.
Seto stood up and all of them exited Yugi's room, and headed downstairs. Yugi grabbed his leater silver spiked jacket and put it on, along with his knee-high 2-inch heeled boots.
Just as they were exiting the door, Yugi said, "Didn't Serenity just come out not too long ago?"
"Oh you're right! She did! But what was nice was she hooked up with some Canadian chick, so sweet! I'm glad she found someone," Bakura exclaimed.
"I can only imagine how Tristan and Duke feel, they have nothing to fight over!"
"Well, they have each other!" Marik joked, arm in arm with Bakura. They all laughed.
"Those two are some of the straightest men I've seen, we'll see what's in store for them down the road," Bakura giggled.