Title: A Persistent Shadow (Chapter 4)
Pairing: Ryou Bakura x Yami Bakura, possible others
Rating: M (Overall)
Summary: The Pharaoh uses a spell to force Yami Bakura out of Ryou's body, but unfortunately for Ryou it doesn't work quite as well as intended.
Surprisingly, the spirit didn't make trouble during Ryou's gym class. Well, didn't make much trouble, anyway. Ryou had to deal with comments about his general lack of coordination, but he'd been enduring far worse from his actual gym teachers for years. Add to that the fact that he had real friends to talk to in his class now and it was possibly the best gym class he'd ever had.
He and the others had lunch right afterward. He still didn't feel entirely comfortable as a part of the group, especially since he was by nature much quieter than Tristan or Joey, but they seemed to be making more of an effort to include him today. Ryou appreciated it more than anything else they'd done for him, and he found it far easier to ignore the spirit while eating and laughing with his friends.
Eventually, the spirit stopped trying to talk to him and started wandering around listening to other students' conversations.
Ryou sat down in history class without a word from the spirit. He hoped the spirit would continue to leave him alone; he couldn't afford to keeping missing what the teacher said in every class. He'd had enough problems getting back up to speed after all the times he'd had to switch schools and effectively missed classes due to the spirit taking over his body.
Ryou had half-expected the spirit to make a rude comment in response to his thoughts, but it seemed the spirit had decided to ignore him in return. He got out his notebook and prepared to take notes.
He focused on the teacher at the front of the room, but out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the spirit wandering around the room. Ryou sucked in his breath when the spirit stopped directly in front of Yugi. He nearly had a heart attack when the spirit leaned down over the boy, putting their faces practically nose to nose.
Ryou was tense for several moments. It wouldn't have shocked him to see the Pharaoh decide to take over Yugi's body right then.
But luckily for him, his worries were unfounded. The spirit stood back up straight and walked past Ryou to the empty desk on his other side. Ryou struggled not to follow the spirit with his eyes as he passed in front of him. His will was strained even more when the spirit waved his hand through the desk several times, then smacked it solidly against the top. There was no sound when it hit and the desk itself didn't move at all, but it did look like the spirit's hand had actually hit a barrier.
The spirit turned to the girl in the next row closer to the front, and repeated the process over again on the girl's head, waving his hand through it several times.
Ryou couldn't hold back any longer. What are you doing?
The spirit didn't bother to look at him. "What do you care? I'm leaving you alone."
Ryou winced as the spirit hit the girl's head the way he had the desk, but the girl didn't even seem to notice. That doesn't mean you can go around hitting people.
"I'm hardly hurting anyone. These fools can't even feel it." The spirit turned his attentions away from the girl to a pencil sitting on her desk. He stuck his hand through the pencil a few times before pressing his fingers solidly against it. "Would you rather I spent my time trying to hit you?" The spirit's tone was irritated, but not especially threatening. He seemed to be more focused on the pencil than Ryou.
I would rather you spent your time not hitting anyone. He watched the spirit pushing against the unmoving pencil with what looked like serious effort. What are you even trying to accomplish?
The spirit took his hand away from the pencil. "That's none of your concern, Landlord," he said, sounding frustrated.
True. Ryou returned his attention to the teacher, hoping he hadn't missed anything important. He had, but fortunately for him, this teacher wrote everything on the board as she talked. Ryou copied it all down.
"Why do you have to copy down all that nonsense? These people clearly have no problem producing enough books for everyone. If you ask me, they should write it all down once and save everyone involved several hours of tedium each day."
Nobody did ask you, Ryou shot back, annoyed by the glimmer of logic in what the spirit was saying. And writing it ourselves down helps us pay attention to what we're learning. As if to prove his point, he returned to copying what was written on the board with a new vigor, only to realize a few seconds later that he was recopying what he'd already written.
The spirit broke out in mocking laughter.
Oh, shut up, Ryou replied, though he had to admit that the spirit was kind of justified this time.
When the spirit calmed down, he returned to what he'd been doing before, attempting to interact with various people and objects in the room without success. He remained occupied with this for some time, finally allowing Ryou to focus on what he was supposed to be learning.
A few minutes into his last class of the day, Ryou noticed the spirit was perched on the desk next to him, studying him intently. It grew more and more unnerving as the minutes passed, until the spirit got up and moved to stand behind him. Ryou could sense the spirit at his back, but now he had no idea what the spirit was doing, bringing his unease to a whole new level.
The tension in Ryou's body mounted. The spirit was shifting behind him. Ryou jerked involuntarily when he felt the spirit's hand on top of his head, violently exhaling a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. He saw Yugi glancing in his direction and quickly composed himself. Or at least, composed himself outwardly. Inside he was still panicking. W-what are you doing?
"It seems you truly are the only thing I can interact with. I intend to find out what I can do." And with that disturbing declaration, he ran his hand down the side of Ryou's hair.
Ryou forced himself not to fidget. It was like the spirit was... petting him. He supposed it was better than any number of things the spirit could be doing to him right now, but that didn't mean he wanted the spirit to pet him.
He felt the spirit stroke his hair once more before burying his fingers in it. Ryou could tell his hair was physically shifting in place the same as it would if anyone else had been doing it. Ryou had never been more glad to have a seat in the back row. He snuck a glance at Yugi out of the corner of his eye, but fortunately the boy wasn't paying him any attention. If you keep doing that someone will notice my hair moving itself around.
"Do give me a little credit, Landlord. I would never be caught for such a foolish mistake." The spirit slowly raked his fingers through Ryou's hair. He paused, then took a single hair between his fingers and tugged on it hard.
Ryou expected to feel the short, sharp pain of having a hair ripped out of his head, but it never came. The spirit just wasn't strong enough to pull the hair from his head. The tugging itself wasn't much worse than what he felt from simply combing his hair. Ryou was comforted by this fact, since it meant the spirit wouldn't be able to threaten to pull out his hair.
"Why would I bother to do such a thing?"
To get me to do things for you. Ryou had a bizarre vision of the spirit sitting next to him in his bed, pulling out his hairs one by one through the night, until he was half bald in the morning. Don't pretend you wouldn't do it if you could.
The spirit chuckled. "Such a devious idea, Landlord. I believe my influence must be rubbing off on you."
Ryou was too horrified by the thought to make a coherent response.
The spirit abandoned his investigation of Ryou's hair, instead moving his hand down the side of Ryou's face. He traced Ryou's ear, then drew his finger lazily across Ryou's cheek and down his neck, finally dropping his hand on Ryou's shoulder.
Right through his clothes.
Ryou stiffened. After a moment's thought, he supposed it made sense. His clothes couldn't be considered a true part of him. The spirit's hand felt peculiar on his shoulder, and not only because of its normal inhuman characteristics. The strangest part was that he could still feel the fabric of his shirt touching him in the exact same spot he felt the spirit's hand. It confused his entire sense of touch, as though his body couldn't quite figure out whether there was bare hand on his shoulder or just his shirt.
The spirit lifted his hand and slowly brought it back down again, this time on top of his shirt. Ryou felt his shirt pushed against his skin. The spirit moved his hand and the fabric moved with it, rubbing against his shoulder. Eh?
"Your clothes are not completely separate from you. If they were, I would be naked all the time, not only when you are."
Ryou ignored the slightly lascivious tone of the spirit's last statement, instead choosing to be grateful that spirit was not in fact naked all the time, even if it meant the spirit could mess with his clothes. Um... but they're only a part of me when I'm wearing them, right?
"Yes. So you needn't worry about me tampering with your precious clothes while you sleep."
Ryou relaxed a little.
"Other than those clothes you wear to sleep, of course."
Ryou sighed. Of course.
The spirit lifted his hand and brought it over to the collar of Ryou's shirt. He flicked his fingers through the collar, brushing them lightly against Ryou's neck. He did this a few more times before catching hold of the collar properly. The spirit turned the collar every which way, folding it down and bringing it back up, seemingly just to find out if he could. His hand kept touching Ryou's neck, almost caressing it.
Ryou felt a blush rising in his face. What the spirit was doing felt almost pleasurable. Almost.
Maybe a little more than almost.
"So you like what I'm doing, do you?" the spirit purred in his ear.
Ryou squirmed. Not like. It's just... not entirely horrible, he thought resolutely. He never liked anything the spirit did, no matter how good it felt. Which was not to say that it felt good. Really.
Ryou had a sudden mental image of the spirit continuing the caress beyond his neck. He squashed the image as soon as it arose, embarrassed by what his mind had come up with.
The spirit laughed; it was a far softer sound than his usual laughter, but just as full of mockery. Ryou suppressed a groan. It wasn't fair that the spirit knew every thought in his head.
"Life is never fair. But I don't see why you have cause to complain in this case," the spirit said, bringing up his other hand to stroke Ryou's back through his clothes, just as he had in Ryou's imagination.
Ryou leaned forward over his desk, not so much to get away from the spirit as to pull his back away from the chair. It was still strange having the spirit touch him through his clothes; the combination of that and a chair pressing into his back was even more disconcerting.
The spirit continued his exploration, hands wandering over Ryou's neck, back, and shoulders in no particular pattern. Sometimes his hands were on top of Ryou's clothes, sometimes right on his skin. He fiddled with the uniform as though trying find out exactly how much he was capable of affecting Ryou's clothing. Ryou gave up any hope he'd had of paying attention to his teacher – he'd missed nearly half the class already anyway – and put his head all the way down on his desk.
The comfortable feeling combined with the lack of sleep he'd gotten that morning soon lulled him to sleep.
