A/N I don't know if you would call this fluff, but it's not angst, and that's good enough for me! I don't really like this one but I hope you do. Review?


The trouble with normal is that it always gets worse. ~ Bruce Cockburn.


It had all started a little over four months ago.

Ryou, after having had a completely normal day, was just returning from school. Ryou's school bag fell to the ground with a thud when he open the door.

"You," he said in awe and a hint of malice.

"Me," the spirit (who by the looks of it was no longer a spirit) said.

"But Yuugi – ," Ryou paused and took a step forward only to take two back. "How?"

The spirit shrugged, and arose from the chair he had been seated in. He began to walk towards Ryou in slow strides, deliberately trying to instill panic in the boy. Ryou eyes widened as the spirit moved closer and closer.

The phone rang.

Ryou dodged the spirit and quickly answered it.

"Hello?" he said.

"Bakura!" Yuugi chimed, "You're not going to believe this but – ,"

"Yuugi," Ryou sighed, eyeing the spirit up and down, "I know,"

"So Yami, I mean Atemu was right? He's there isn't he?"

"Yeah,"

"What?!" Ryou heard the Pharaoh bellow even from the other end of the phone.

"Are you okay?" Yuugi whispered.

Define okay, Ryou thought feeling a migraine coming on.

"I think so," Ryou said.

"We're coming right over!" Yuugi declared.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Ryou said, eyeing the spirit, who was scowling at him, suspiciously.

"I won't leave you there alone with him!" said Yuugi.

"Honestly, Yuugi-kun I'm fine. Besides I don't think he'd take so well to your presence…"

That earned a hiss from the spirit in question.

Over the phone Ryou heard Yuugi sigh.

"Listen you just try to figure out what's happening, mmkay? I'll make sure he's…under control,"

(Was Ryou the only one who thought it was ridiculous to think that he could keep the spirit under control?)

"Alright, Bakura-kun. Be safe,"

"You too," Ryou said and after a thought said, "You should call Malik too, just to be safe,"

"Okay,"

And Ryou hung up.

Cringing, he turned towards the spirit.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked.

"Not today," That was a good enough answer for Ryou.

"Are you hungry?" Ryou inquired, and the spirit shrugged.

(How could he be so nonchalant about this?)

Ryou took off for the kitchen, the shock of everything finally starting to get to him. The voice in his head that had tried to kill his friends on multiple occasions was here, in his living room, and Ryou was about to get him some dinner. Things couldn't get any weirder.

Only, they did.

About three hours later Ryou received a call from a frantic Yuugi who confirmed that yes, Malik's other personality had gotten his own body. Out of everything, this perplexed Ryou the most. The spirit of the ring and the Pharaoh had both existed outside of Ryou and Yuugi but Malik had created his other. (It only then just occurred to him that the other personality didn't have a name and neither did his own spirit.)

Ryou sighed and looked towards the spirit who was happily rummaging through his cabinets.

"Where are you going to stay?" he asked.

"Here," was the spirit's response, and Ryou's migraine was far too severe to make him want to argue.

"If I go to sleep, are you going to kill, maim or steal anything?"

"Probably not," the spirit said.

Ryou had low standards, and this answer meet them.

To Ryou's horror, when he awoke he found that the day before had not been some nightmare and the spirit was there, by his bed, waiting for him.

"Make me breakfast," the spirit demanded. Ryou glared.

"I'm not a housewife," he said, barely awake.

"We'll see about that," the spirit said, smirking.

Ryou eventually did make the spirit breakfast, as he had every day since. It didn't take him long as long as he originally would have thought to get use to the spirit's bizarre choice in food either ("You're eating that steak raw?").

It did, however, take longer to get use to calling the spirit 'Bakura'. He was hesitant at first, calling someone by his own last name was strange enough – but calling the spirit that? But the more he thought about it, the more it had made sense. He was his darker half, it seemed only fitting that the spirit take half his name.

It had taken even longer to get use to Malik and 'Marik'. (Malik had originally named his other that as a joke, most people commonly mispronounced his name, but it stuck). Ryou didn't like the pair for two reasons.

1. Battle City. Not only did Malik convince Bakura to stab him, Malik had been inside Ryou's head, using it like some sort of vessel. Ryou was not amused by this.

2. They were a horrible influence. Ryou spent most of his time trying to stop the spirit from doing all the things Malik and Marik did on a daily basis.

In fact, Malik and Marik would have still been in Egypt if it hadn't been for those stairs. Ryou had gone to the grocery store, about three days after Bakura's arrival. The stairs were slippery and he fell breaking his arm.

But he didn't just break his arm, Bakura, Malik, Marik, Yuugi and Yami (they had all given up on calling him Atemu, partly because Yuugi always forgot and called him Yami and the fact that whenever someone would say Atemu, Bakura got a look of death on his face.) did as well.

They soon realized that whatever had given the two spirits and one split personality, separate bodies had bound the pairs together as well. Whatever happened to one, happened to all.

(This put a bit of a damper on Bakura's kill the Pharaoh plans.)

This caused Malik and Marik to move to Domino, so they could keep a close eye on the other pairs. If fact, it was the sole reason why Marik and Bakura started attending high school.

Despite all of Malik and Marik's flaws, Ryou had to admit that they had succeeded in making sure Bakura didn't kill Yami. Not that Bakura needed a lot of convincing, he liked living.

However the lack of eternal rage didn't stop Bakura from insulting Yami every time their paths crossed.

That was fine with Ryou. If truth be told, Ryou had come to expect it.

(But then again, Ryou was starting to expect and accept a lot of things.)

Regardless of all the changes, some things stayed exactly the same. Bakura still called Ryou 'yadonushi' it was just more literally now. He still wore that black jacket that billowed ridiculously out from underneath him. And occasionally, Ryou would find things in their apartment he was sure hadn't been there before.

If anything, living with the spirit was better when they had separate bodies. This way when Ryou didn't have to deny things he knew he did and he could hang out with his friends without having to worry about some evil spirit stealing their souls. Always a plus.

Yuugi loved Yami having his own body.

"It's amazing how well everything has turned out, isn't it?" Yuugi said, positively beaming at the sight of Yami. Even though they still didn't know how, what or why behind the separate bodies, Ryou was beginning to accept it. This was his life now and he would life it.

(With Bakura, instead of against him.)

"Yes, amazing,"