"Ow!" I shouted, falling out of my chair. "What the fuck, Bakura!"

"There was a Black Widow on your jaw line." As proof, Bakura held out the hand he viciously assaulted me with. Sure enough, in his palm was the now splattered, and very large, spider. I could see the hourglass design in its back. I shuddered and looked myself over for more bugs, self conscious now. Bakura climbed off the table to grab some paper towels, wiping off his hand. He extended the other one to grasp my arm and help me stand. "Sorry." He apologized, ripping off another paper towel and wiping off some spider goo on my neck. His fingers brushed against my jaw and lingered there for a moment.. I couldn't hide my shiver and clutched his hand, still wondering how a man could have such soft skin. I felt like I was holding a newborn baby. "It's alright. Thank you for saving my life a second time in 24 hours." I cracked a small smile, in hopes of lightening the situation. He gave me a smile in return and we both seemed to remember that we were holding a tissue of spider goop in our hands. I looked down at our fingers and retracted. "A shower couldn't hurt after this little accident." I shuddered again. "I hate spiders."

"I'll see if I can't splint your foot." He offered. "Showering in a cast isn't real smart or convenient." I nodded. "That'd be great, thanks." I subconsciously ran my hand over my face and neck again before turning to go up the stairs. I reached my room and dug my Three Days Grace shirt out of my bag. I reached to pull out my jeans, too, when Bakura entered with that pipe again. I drew my legs up (or drew up one leg and sat the other up on the bed) and pressed my back to the headboard. "…Whatchya doin?" I asked nervously, in a fashion resembling a small school girl.

"Taking the cast off." He replied in his own mocking children's voice. "I promise I won't cackle again." "You're gonna promise me alright!" I said. "Promise you're not going to hit my -AHHH!" I screamed out. Bakura cut me off by lifting the rod up over his shoulder and slamming it down against the cast that protected my precious leg. I tensed when I heard a loud 'crack' and closed my eyes, expecting the mind-blowing pain to take me over and send me into a seizure of some sort. I heard the pipe fall on the floor, but didn't move from my position. "…Violet?" Bakura said. I was surprised. It sounded like a bit of guilt, there wasn't any joking tone in his voice. "I didn't really hurt you, did I?"

I dared a small glance and opened up my eyes. I looked at my leg and saw the cast had split down the middle, revealing my leg, which was untouched. I let out a breath of relief and looked at the Brit again. "No." I said. "But you did scare me, again." He smirked a little and turned back to the cast, his silver bangs obstructing his face from me. Lifting up the broken cast, he let it fall down with the pipe and stood, extending a hand to me. "Can you stand on it?" He asked. I shrugged and gently swung my legs over the edge, watching the items on the ground.

Tentatively, I locked my fingers with his again and stood. "Ah! No, no that was a bad idea, no I can't…." I exclaimed, falling back in the mattress and letting go of Bakura's hand. I gripped my head and kept my leg still as I waited for the pain to subside. Letting out an exasperated groan, I rolled onto my side and huffed into the pillow. "Of all the things to break, it had to be my heel. My damn heel, you'd think I'd done a back spring on some broken glass. People don't break their heels; they break their feet or hell, even their ankles sometimes."

Behind my back, I could swear I felt Bakura's annoyance, and it made me feel a bit bad. I was growing into a bigger burden than I originally thought. I accidentally blurted out at him in class, I didn't really make a good impression after school, and I got hurt in the rain and he felt bad for me and brought me here, was even nice enough to dry me off. Then I gave him hell for that and told the mail man he was a cannibal…then gave him an even worse rep over the phone, which lead to my landing on the front page, supposedly having been kidnapped. And then I found this room he hadn't seen in years, I still don't know what's up with that magic necklace. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why the fuck he hadn't kicked my ass out of the house yet.

I sat up, ignoring the pain shooting up my leg, and stood on the other one, hopping over to my things. "…'The hell are you doing?" Bakura asked, looking at me in subtle amusement. I shook my head and lifted up my clothing, turning and bouncing to the bathroom. It was a good thing I'd taken two months of Ballet after all. I hated the time I spent there, which is why I quit, but I did learn how to hop on one leg for an hour if need be. "Changing my clothes." I replied, opening the door and jumping inside. "Can you close the door for me?" "But your splint-"

"Don't need it." I quickly cut in, reaching out and shutting the door myself. I took a seat on top of the toilet and unbuttoned the pajama shirt, slipping on my own top before carefully moving to take off the pants. I accidentally touched my heel a few times and bit back a whimper as I slipped on my jeans. Dressed in my own clothes, I folded up his jammies and slung my bag over my shoulder. Opening the door, I was surprised to find Bakura sitting on top of the stairs a few feet away from me, phone pressed to his ear. I couldn't help but catch some of the conversation.

"Miss Okayama," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I didn't eat Violet." I rolled my eyes and hopped over to the stairs. "Let me have the phone." Bakura looked relieved to be away from Ali's threatening demeanor, which she could reinforce quite well when pissed off enough. I put the phone to my ear and sat down. "Alison?" I called. "Violet, you're alive!" she exclaimed, sounding relieved. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you? You're in the paper!"

"Yes, no, I know." I answered calmly. "I overreacted. Bakura's completely normal, Alison." "Is he forcing you to say that? Does he have a gun to your head? Blink twice if- wait, that's not right, we're on the phone." She muttered. I laughed a little. "No, Ali. I'm actually on my way out the door. I'll meet you at the police station to explain the story in an hour. Sound good?" There was a small pause. I sensed Alison was trying to think the situation over, wondering if what I said was all true. I finally heard her sigh in defeat and agree to meet me in an hour.

"Don't be late, or I'll assume the worst." Was all she said before hanging up. I shook my head and pressed the 'End' button on the phone.

"On your way out the door?" Bakura repeated. I turned my head to see him standing several feet away with the splint resting in his hand and one eyebrow raised in that 'mm hmm' kind of way. "Not with that heel." "I took Ballet, I can hop on one leg for an hour or more without breaking a sweat," I said. "Besides, I've already overstayed my welcome. Thank you, Bakura." I stood, careful of my leg. "Do you know where my shoes are? They're the only things I can't find." "I dunno." He shrugged, crossing his arms. "I might if I knew why you were suddenly acting distant. I apologize for scaring you with my pipe, alright? I hadn't thought it would frighten you into booking it out of here."

I shook my head. "The pipe's fine, that's not why I want to leave." "Is it the ring, then?" he guessed. "It's not going to stab you, I promise. It only does that to people I don't like. And so far you haven't made that list." "No, I forgot about that thing. I don't think it's moved from the kitchen yet." I looked over the railing where I could see the ring in the kitchen, still resting beside Bakura's chair. As if on cue, it flashed again and I gasped a little to find it slung around my neck. "It doesn't want you to leave either," he joked with a small smirk. "I can't read minds, Violet. Can I have at least a hint?"

I looked away and fumbled with one of the millennium ring's pointers, suddenly paying attention to each carving within the artifact. "I'm just, such a handful." I murmured. Bakura's laugh vibrated through my chest. I looked up and blushed, angry he'd laugh at me. "What's so funny!" I demanded, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. "It's just…" he puffed, holding his forehead. "I was actually concerned that something was wrong with you. What in Ra's name made you think you were burdening me?" "Well, what else isn't burdening you?" I sat back down and explained the whole ordeal to him about school, finding me in the street, housing me and putting up with my shenanigans that led up to being put in the paper and ending with the necklace that hung from my neck.

"Well, yeah, I'm pretty pissed that this thing is back," he admitted, gesturing to the ring. "But what are you gonna do, Violet? You have to look at this from all sides. You woke up in a practical stranger's home. And it didn't help that that stranger happened to be an albino with a weird range of medical knowledge and a morbid sense of humor." "So you're telling me you're not annoyed at all by my presence here?" I asked. It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "Nah. You're actually kind of funny when you look at how you react to certain situations. It's like watching some sort of deranged tv show."

I sighed and looked at the ring again. "You're really weird, Bakura." I said flat-out. "I'm really weird for not being creeped out too much by your weirdness." Behind me I heard Bakura walk away and into a room I hadn't been in. Moments later, I saw one of my shoes dangling in front of my face. I tilted my head backwards and looked at Bakura in confusion. "You can't put the other one on until I splint your foot. We've established this."

He's letting me go, I thought with a small grin, and gently took my shoe from his hand, slipping it on. Bakura walked down a few steps and knelt in front of me to lift up my foot. He poked my knee. "Let me know where it starts to hurt." He said, before proceeding to poke down my leg. I tried furiously not to laugh and stopped him when I felt a dull pain at the bottom of my shin.

Bakura seemed satisfied. "The swelling went back down where it should be. You might only need this for a few weeks after all," he explained. "I'm glad you're okay." For some reason, my chest locked up. "Thank you, Bakura." I managed to respond, curious as to why I reacted the way I did. He didn't seem to notice, which was good, and I eventually passed it off as myself being relieved the accident wasn't too serious.

Having a splint on my foot felt really weird. It didn't hurt or anything, but it was one of those things that just bugged you and stayed in the back of your head all day long, like how you'll put on a shirt, and the sleeves near your armpits feel really annoyingly tight. Bakura gave me my other shoe and watched me slip it on, before I stood and slowly placed my foot on the ground. The pain wasn't as bad this time, so I adjusted to walking on one foot normally and just my tiptoes on the other one. As I opened the door, I was greeted with sunlight in my face. It felt nice.

Everything was glistening brightly, still damp from last night's harsh storm. I walked down the stairs and took several steps down the block when a hand landed on my shoulder. "You didn't think I was going to let you limp your way to the police station, did you?" smirked the male. "We can take my car." "You can drive?" I asked. "Fully licensed and accident free." He turned away from me and outstretched his arm towards a very expensive looking 98 Camry. "That's my girl." I had to laugh. Even a guy like him referred to his cars as a female.

"You haven't done me wrong yet. I'll have to take your word for it." He accepted that as a 'yes' and we headed towards the glistening car. I slipped into the passenger side and strapped on the seatbelt, and Bakura started the car. "Of course, I am new to this place." He said. "You'll have to tell me where to go." That would be a problem. I'd never been in this part of Domino before.

"Er…you're going to have to do a lot of driving." "Gasoline better be cheap here, then. I love my car, but it's only about 10 miles to the gallon." "I hope you think $2.15 is cheap." "Maybe you should walk after all."

We chuckled a little bit as he pulled out onto the road.

Yay, a new setting other than the bathroom, the guest room, and the front stairs!