A/N: Bleh, me no like this chapter. D: Review anyway?
Disclaimer: "This is a fanfic that is proud to have been written... IN AMERICA." - Bandit Keith, America's most obnoxious patriot since July 4th, 1776.

Also, I've altered the deal. There will now be six chapters. I have it all mapped out. So pray that I do not alter it furthe- /murdered

He awoke the next morning to a steady beeping.

Ryou's heavy eyelids snapped apart with a sudden sense of urgency as he leapt to his feet, clutching at his forehead (as if that'd help). He whipped around, only to pause, morbidly fascinated, when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

Hair sticking up every which way and spiked oddly. Eyes wild and frightened like a cornered rabbit's. Tinged-red cheeks littered with drying tear tracks. He was - he was the perfect picture of -

Insanity ~ insanity ~ that's what you look like!

Completely belying his fanatical breakdown of yesterday, the only reaction was a low moan that ghosted between lips that were clenched far too tightly for that sort of thing. It had never been this bad. Never, ever, ever been this bad. What had he done to set his Yami back on the warpath?

I never left it.

"I think I noticed," he murmured, so softly he wondered if he had even said it.

(the laughter in his head told him that he had.)

Luckily, Ryou had the insistant beeping of his cell phone to distract him, otherwise, he might have never left the bathroom. Absently wondering when he had fell asleep in the first place, he rubbed blearily at his eyes before stepping back into his own room.

He also wanted to say that it had felt good to break down. That now he was okay again, and could try to push Bakura back into the deepest recesses of his mind. But he couldn't, because it didn't. It had felt like everything else. Hell.

You know nothing of Hell ~ but it's rather flattering that you think that I'm so wonderful at raising it.

Not acknowledging the prompt with anything more than the odd leftover shudder, Ryou hit 'answer', now trying to think of someone who would be so persistant as to stay on the line as long as they had.

(Nobody came to mind, and that was kind of depressing.)

"Hel-"

The words were barely out of Ryou's mouth before the overenthusiastic reply was shoved through the phone and down his ear.

"Oh hi Ryou I was wondering if you were ever going to pick up because everytime I call nobody answers and so I was thinking that maybe you weren't up for visitors and that just made me even more worried, and, uh, anyway I was going to ask you something now that you finally picked up which is a relief because - "

Normally, a shy and polite guy like the one currently being subjected to this torture would have let the rambler finish before awkwardly waving aside mumbled apologies, but under the circumstances, the albino figured that he could excuse himself just this once.

"Uh..."

He mentally slapped himself. Very suave, very cool, he thought bitterly as he stalked across his room to sit on his bed.

"Oh! Sorry," came the embarassed reply, and Ryou finally got himself together enough to note that it was indeed Yugi on the other end.

Of course. Who else would bother?

"It's me, Yugi," the voice continued rather unnecessarily.

"I figured," Ryou muttered, reazling too late that this would probably further distress the other.

"Eh? Ryou? What's wrong?"

Bah. He says it like he actually cares.

Said teenager vaguely remembered the first time someone had asked him a question whose answer was 'Bakura'or some variation thereof. He had been nervous, panicky, and plain weird about it, because he didn't know how to lie. Angels don't lie. Good people don't lie.

Now it came naturally.

"Nothing," he answered, not too quick and not too slow. (Tempo.) Letting his eyes fall shut, he continued.

"A bit tired, is all." (And a plausible reason.) One and one is two. There was no room for doubt.

There's always room for doubt ~ Haha ~

"Didn't sleep well last night?"

A more pronounced understatement had never existed.

"No," Ryou answered, this time proud to say that he hadn't had to lie.

"Ah."
There was an awkward pause.

"Er... Yeah. So I was wondering how you were holding up now that Ba- I mean... the entire Millennium Items thing is gone - I mean. Over. Wow, I'm not doing well at all," Yugi laughed.

Ryou cringed regardless.

"Well, that was very nice of you. Just fine, thanks."

Please hang up please hang up please please please please please -

"Have you been lonely, though? I don't see you around anymore, and I asked the others and they haven't seen you either -"

"You don't have to group me in with the others, you know... although it is nice, you and I both know that I'm not exactly Mr. Popular."

...

Wisely, Yugi ignored this comment and continued. "... To get to the point, could I come over? Just for a bit? To see how you're doing. Oh, and to talk."

To make sure I'm not suicidal, yeah, sure, he longed to say. But he didn't need homicidal spirits in his head to let him know that he hadn't the guts.

"... Of course. One o'clock would be great."

There was a muffled sound of surprise, startling Ryou.

"Is there... something wrong with that time?" Cautious, nervous. A 'did I miss something?' kind of voice.

And there it is-! It was almost a delighted shout.

"No, but isn't that kind of soon?... That's only in ten minutes."

Eyes nearly popping out of his skull, Ryou instinctively glanced towards the spot where his alarm clock used to stand proudly before thanking the gods that the broken thing was still face-down, making him unable to see the cracked display screen and frozen red numbers.

(Gah, why is everything red?)

Because red is beautiful.

Figuring he'd just have to take the other's word for it (on both counts), he cleared his throat to buy time before speaking. "Well, I have nothing to do, as you said... unless you have something else?"

"No, that's okay. I'll be right over."

Beep.

Maybe it was rude, maybe it was uncalled for, but Ryou figured that his sudden hang-up would just be filed underneath 'depression'.

"Nothing else for it," he said, mainly to himself. "Better get presentable."

XXX

The first thing, straight off the bat, that Ryou had noticed that it was, indeed, 12:50. Meaning he had slept until about 12:45.

Somehow 'I needed it' didn't seem to work in this case. He could already feel a migraine coming on.

That's hilarious. You're going to leave this world with a headache.

"Who says I'm going to be leaving?"

I do ~ Unless you feel like you can contest that?

A warning. A challenge. A - a game.

And suddenly, he sat bolt upright. A game. He had been thinking about that earlier -! Okay. Okay. About the numbers, 12:00, broken between the one and the two on his alarm clock.

"..."

It was like his Monster World traps. So he could think about it like that. In Monster World, specific types of puzzles had specific sets of rules. What kind of puzzle was this?

The answer came to him immediately. Numbers. This challenge was a number puzzle. That meant that all variations of the numbers affected the answer. What variations were there?

A crack.

So including the crack as part of the answer, the clock now read:
1/2:00

1:00 to 2:00.

He could feel his heart slamming against his chest once again. Hopefully today would be the last time, and notnotnot for the reason Bakura predicted, that it would ever have the need to get so agitated.

In ten minutes, it would be 1:00. Then he would have -

One hour.

This time, it really was Ryou who had made the horrified realization.

One hour? That was - it?

An hour to escape eternity. Amn't I ever so generous?