Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Cold and Lonely ❯ 9 ( Chapter 10 )

"You're positive this'll look alright?" This question was aimed towards a buxom green-haired woman who had her hands, up to her wrists, in Bakura's white hair. Well, previously white hair. Right now, it was a rather impressive foamy purple and green. Yugi sat nearby, head cocked to one side and his newly braided hair hanging below his shoulder blades.

"Sweetheart, " at this Bakura flinched, "You're gonna look absolutely FAN-TAST-IC!"

"But it's purple and green. PURPLE and GREEN!"

"Don't 'cha worry……..it'll be great, you'll see!" Yugi, from his seat on the counter, decided that this woman was WAY too enthusiastic. Looking for a distraction from Bakura's feigned (Well, Yugi hoped it was feigned) thrashings of terror as the woman dunked his head in the sink, the braided teen wandered over to a rack of hair products and claimed two bottles of black dye and one of blue.

Drifting up to the counter, Yugi plunked down his acquisitions. "Can I pay for these, and his, " he pointed at Bakura, " hair now?" The cashier looked over the counter and raised an eyebrow, seemingly oblivious to the startled swearing of the teen being tortured by an emerald-haired vixen behind him.

"No problem……..The grand total comes to forty-seven fifty." Yugi produced the bank card, swiped it quickly in the proffered machine, then punched in the code. As he had guessed, Kaiba hadn't even noticed the loss of the card, and it was of yet still unblocked.

At this point, Bakura staggered to the front of the salon, looking slightly dazed and not just slightly drownt. Behind him, the lady with the jade mane chased him with a battery powered blow-dryer.

The pale (and now seeming paler) Egyptian shook the muzziness from his mind and reached up to touch his new black, blue-tipped hair, before smiling down at his cheekily grinning companion.

"It look good?"

"Looks great. No one will recognize you……..wasn't that worth it?"

"No, and I could say the same about recognition about you, midget."

"Oh god………don't call me that. ANYTHING, but not that……….anyway, shall we continue on?" Yugi grabbed the bottles off the counter and dropped them into Bakura's backpack.

"Sounds good………Kitten." Yugi grimaced.

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" I want THAT!" The 'that' in this case happened to be a barbell tongue ring adorned with a behorned devil smiley.

"Well Kitten, (Yugi visibly winced) do you have a tongue piercing?"

"Well, no…….."

"You realize that you still need parent or guardian permission?"

"Yeah, but it's easy enough to get around that. Like when I got my tattoo, I paid a bum to come pose as my uncle."

"……………………You have a tattoo?" Instead of answering, Yugi pulled up the back of his shirt to reveal, tightly curled around a green gem, a white dragon in the small of his back. Tiny red eyes glared out from the safety of the teen's skin. Bakura, kneeling, reached out and ran a finger along the tiny, exquisitely detailed scaled spine, seeming to have forgotten that they stood in the middle of a body-piercing parlor. Yugi hadn't, and quickly pulled away, dismissing the burning trail along his dragon that his friend's touch had inspired as he turned slightly to face Bakura.

"What's…what's wrong?" There was an expression closely resembling awe on that face, and a hint of?.....yes, that was definitely amusement. Bakura, not turning his gaze away from the tattoo, reached into his backpack and pulled out an extendible plastic file. From within that he pulled a single sheet of starkly white paper, handing it to the small duelist as both hands moved him back into a position from which the Egyptian could examine Yugi's back.

"Some guy named Charley that I met in a bar gave me twenty-five dollars for a photocopy of that design…." There, in Yugi's hands, was a vibrantly dramatic ink drawing of his dragon. "I'm glad to see that he was a skilled as he boasted he was, if a slight bit…inattentive. I never realized that it would look so luminous, so…." The other teen leaned close, his nose barely millimeters from the skin, his warm breath sending shivers down his hapless victim's back. His voice lowered to a whisper, "So very alive…Like your very own guardian."

Abruptly he straightened, releasing Yugi and sitting back on his heels. "The transfer went really well…do you mind if I take another look at it later?" Yugi, shivering at the thought, nodded and handed the drawing back. Bakura's sheer intenseness was unsettling, almost frightening. If Yugi hadn't been so secure around the other, he most likely would have run screaming long since.

Unnoticed, an impatient customer stood tapping his foot, "If you two are done with your little love-fest, do you mind MOVING? Some people are trying to shop…." Muttering foul obscenities, seemingly in several different languages, Bakura shot to his feet, bowed mockingly to the irate customer and slunk off with roommate and backpack in tow. Yugi caught snippets of English and French, and possibly a recipe in German, but otherwise, the majority of what was being said was unintelligible and foul, or at least sounded that way.

Plopping themselves down on a bench near the front of the store, Bakura wasted no time in retrieving yet another drawing. Seemingly of the same dragon, only larger and wrapped around an ornate sword, he gestured towards his left arm.

"I want to get that extending from wrist to shoulder." Yugi let out a low, appreciative whistle as he studied the drawing, before giving an approving nod and passing it back to his companion.

"Nice. You know who you're going to get it done by?"

"Probably Charley, if you can take me to his place."

"No problem whatsoever. I've been meaning to get another one done. Hey, do we really need anything here?"

"I almost forgot! I need to get some sterilizing solution so I can re-pierce my ear. Stupid thing got infected last time…."

"…………………….what?"

"I've got two earrings, a nosering and two eyebrow rings on each side." He leaned down and pointed out the nearly invisible holes to Yugi. "Give me a sec, I'll be back."

"Okay." Yugi watched as Bakura snagged the attention of an attendant, talked to him for a few seconds before being pointed towards the back of the store. The braided teen hesitated for a moment, then strode over to the front counter.

"What can I do for ya, Chibi?" Yugi winced at the use of yet another lame nickname. He had to admit that Bakura dubbing him 'Kitten' wasn't quite as irritating as he'd lead himself to believe. Better than being called 'Chibi', at least.

"I'd like to buy this……" Yugi pointed to a blue-white iridescent fang earring, "…….and this." The other object was a small blued steel ring set with a greenish gem-like bead.

"That'll be $32.95." Yugi pulled out his wallet and fished out a twenty, a ten and a five. He accepted the bag containing the jewelry and slipped it into a pocket just as Bakura returned with his prize. After paying with Kaiba's card, the two left the store.

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LD: That'd be it for now. This is the start of three or four chapters worth of short little scenes, so beware. Now press the button below that says "GO"!