Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Naming the Flame ❯ Bond, Meet Bakura ( Chapter 3 )

Naming the Flame

Trei

Chapter Three

--Note: While I'm striving to stay loyal to the Japanese names, I rather dislike the name Otogi [oh-toe-gi *cringe*], so I'm going to call him by his first name, Ryuuji [Ryou-gee] (it has Ryou in it, hehe). For those unfamiliar to the Japanese version, Otogi Ryuuji is Duke Devlin in the dub, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters and a downright sexy bishie. ;)--

While Malik put the very crème de la crème of his persuasive talents to work on making Ryou cross the walkway between Eien and An'ya (in his mind: the barrier between dancing and making out), two subjects of the careful reforming of one Yugi Motou were swiftly reverting back to their former, more devious selves. Against the ankle of An'ya leaned one of these boys, a strikingly handsome teen studiously keeping his presence locked in the shade An'ya's hefty bulk offered.

Several passersby - mostly female - pointed and whispered breathlessly. But they didn't dare approach the mastermind of Dungeon Dice Monsters while he looked ready to detonate the core of the Earth. Some things autographs just aren't worth.

By no stretch of the imagination was Ryuuji all that frightening to begin with, but with the "I will eat your heart" (1) look he had stubbornly plastered across his rather elegant features, it was enough to ward away his skittish cheerleaders. And in truth, though he wasn't paying much attention to the hesitant glimpses cast in his direction, Ryuuji wouldn't have minded all that horribly that he was keeping his fans away. On the contrary, he preferred not to see any of his dice cult tonight. There was only one person he had any desire to see presently and that individual was avoiding him.

And not without reason, either, the sixteen-year-old reflected with forced diplomacy. While absently trailing ginger fingertips along his golden armband, he admitted inwardly (the only place he ever admitted anything) that his behavior tonight had been a little selfish. But he had more to concern himself with than a teenage romance…that wouldn't last for much longer anyway. His career was more important than some fleeting crush. Em…right. Fleeting crush. That was exactly what it was…. Oh, look! Ryuuji has a dice earring!

A flash of brilliant light that Ryuuji instantly knew hadn't come from the lit fountains distracted the dice player's concentrated attention from his drawn-out internal musings. Tilting his chin slightly, Ryuuji sought out the diversion with vague annoyance. He never enjoyed being part of a fight he knew from the start he would lose. And emotions, damn the lot of them, were bound to defeat him once again.

To Ryuuji's disappointment, the flash he'd seen was a spotlight of gold from Eien mirroring off of the china-white and feather-soft hair of one Ryou Bakura. Uninterested, Ryuuji sulkily looked away. Halved seconds later though, Ryuuji started and shot his sparkling emerald gaze at the crimson-tinted walkway between An'ya and Eien. Quite promptly, Ryuuji's jaw dislocated and dropped.

Ryou, though, wasn't the main attraction (though he was cute, Ryuuji mused with a grin). The real source of interest was the one kissing him. Malik Ishtar. Dear dice they were dating?! Or at least, one had to assume, given that Ryou wasn't fighting the casual embrace. At all. In the slightest. In any way. …Squeak?

"Interesting turn of events. The master of dice has become the master of mice. A vast improvement, if you ask me."

Ryuuji, still on edge from catching the holder of the Ring and Time Magazine's Schitzo of the Year playing an avid round of tonsil hockey (2), spun around to find yet another unexpected - and wholly disliked - surprise. Seto Kaiba. Oh goodie.

"No one did ask you," Ryuuji snapped acerbically.

The other boy smirked vaguely in the annoying manner that hinted had he been twelve years younger he'd be skipping around Ryuuji shrieking, "I KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON'T KNOW!"

Ryuuji didn't like Kaiba. At all. In the slightest. In any way. …Blech.

To see Kaiba detached from his own shadow, so to speak, was uncommon. To see him in public without weapons of mass destruction was eerie. To see him without his laptop in sight was cause for large streams of panicked civilians to rush from Domino in hordes to the nearest bomb shelter 'cause Armageddon's a-comin'!

Ahem.

"Don't you have some low self-esteem cases to macerate?" Ryuuji inquired coolly.

Kaiba's smirk sharpened hostilely. "Not enough of a challenge. Why do you think I avoid contact with you?"

"Remind me what's stopping me from killing you," grated out Ryuuji.

"Several things. Not the least of which is your astounding fear of tousling your…distinctive hair."

"Better to be distinctive than mainstream in a society you pretend to fight against, hypocrite."

Chords struck: one. Score: Kaiba: 3; Ryuuji: 3.

"Better to be a revolutionary against the more idiotic details of conformity than to be a sheep to the reincarnation of a malnourished runt of a tyrant."

Ryuuji winced. Foul shot for team Ryuuji. Two shots.

"I wouldn't bring up dependency, Kaiba. How many guys your age you know keep a necklace with his little brother's picture in it? Most guys wouldn't even wear a necklace like that unless he had a picture of his girlfriend to keep in it. But you don't have a koi, do you, Kaiba? Now why is that? Oh, that's right. You frighten girls."

Kaiba's jaw had visibly tightened, the fists by his side no longer comfortably resting but strained and white.

Score: Ryuuji: 5; Kai -

SLAM.

Game called off due to spinning world.

**

Ryou only consented to crossing the walkway after Malik promised to shield his eyes the whole petrifying expedition over. Even then, the Egyptian couldn't shield the images of both plunging to their deaths from Ryou's mind. Thus, he was vastly confused when Ryou abruptly yelped and tore across the remaining stretch of walkway like a cheetah on speed.

Bewildered, Malik jogged after him, stopping at the darkened staircase leading downward into An'ya's belly. He smiled and leaned on the topmost banister, watching his adorable koi shake a few stair lengths down, so near to whimpering that Malik had to laugh. "Even if the bridge was rickety, which it isn't, it wouldn't have fallen under your weight, kichou (3). I don't think you in your heavyweight glory of one hundred fourteen pounds would have done much to impair the structure of the bridge."

Ryou's ingenious retort of "venomous scowl" promptly silenced the Egyptian.

"I don't like being high up," the younger boy said after a glaring moment (literally). "I don't trust heights."

Malik noted the delicate implication and asked uncomfortably, "I've never, um, given you the impression that I'd try to throw you off a cliff or anything, have I? Lately? Ever?"

Ryou froze, studying Malik tensely. "Of course not." He raised his hand to block a passing ray of neon azure and asked suspiciously, "Is this your way of breaking up? Or just breaking?"

Malik laughed and laced an arm around Ryou's waist, kissing his koibito's nose. "If it was anybody else, it would be foreshadowing. But for you…hm. I might just slip arsenic in your cream puffs."

"Aww, a sweet death," deadpanned the younger. He poked Malik in the chest teasingly, leaning his weight backwards onto Malik's bracing wrists with an unconscious trust. "Don't you touch my cream puffs."

Had the banter continued, Malik would have conjured a way to subtly escort his preoccupied kojika to the lanais, but Mother Seduction was tired of seeing the insatiable couple successfully receiving more than their fair share of each other that night. Thus, moments before the idea of suffocating Ryou's better judgment with another lip locking duel surfaced the entry hall of An'ya echoed with a familiarly unwelcome voice.

"Bakura?"

Malik cursed vehemently as Ryou split from his arms and staggered half-gracelessly into the lit walkway. "Jounouchi-kun!" he greeted amicably, smiling serenely. "What are you doing here?"

Malik was floored.

Jounouchi was apparently only just passing the access of the walkway, pausing at a temporary rest. He didn't see Malik in the shadows - he would have arched his back, hissed and ran into a corner to growl and sharpen his claws if he had. Smiling exasperatedly, the blond duelist replied, "On my way to divorce Kaiba's fist from Ryu - Otogi's face."

Apparently Malik was second in line to catch the slip. The scented candle he had relocated to his back pocket jolted from its snug tavern and pummeled the floor with a raucous vengeance. …Whoever gave An'ya hollow metal floors would have a stick of vanilla sticking from both ears before this night was over.

"What was that?" asked Jounouchi, peering over Ryou's shoulder suspiciously.

"I don't know," answered Ryou with a naïve tone. Malik smiled with a fierce kind of pride. Ryou shouldn't have been able to lie so easily, but then - that was the advantage. No one would ever believe Ryou had the capacity to lie. "Let's get out of here. Kaiba could take down a lion if he wanted."

Malik gawped indignantly. Ditched! For another blond!

"Hai," Jounouchi answered with a suspicious glance at the shadows. Malik melted deeper into the darkness.

In a quiet voice, quieter than could have been heard over the music if Malik hadn't been so close, Ryou said, "What happened between you and Otogi-kun?"

Jounouchi sighed, looked around for standbys listening in and murmured back, "He doesn't want anybody to know. He made sense…he doesn't want us getting any shit about it at school - plus there's his career in the way. But I couldn't just give up, you know?"

Ryou arched an eyebrow and Malik snickered silently. That gesture was a neon sign of danger. "What did you do?" the diamond-haired teen asked.

"I, em, started crying and ran out on him. I uh, kinda lost him somewhere along the way though."

Ryou stared incredulously, unknowingly accompanied in that action by his shadowed koibito. "You started crying?!"

Jounouchi shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "I didn't exactly…uh. Well, I…. I faked it."

The other teen was silent for a moment and Malik wondered if his tenshi was about to unleash a sigh of disappointment. Instead, though, Ryou said with a slow smile, "That was wrong of you, Jounouchi-kun."

Malik's eyes widened. He better not be picking up tips, he thought. Ryou glanced over his shoulder and winked at Malik. Oh, shit. The Egyptian resisted the urge to sneeze - just to see how Ryou would wriggle his way out of that.

But he missed his chance, unfortunately, and Ryou led Jounouchi out of sight by the wrist, commenting, "Otogi-kun's going to kill you when he hears this."

As soon as their voices and footfalls were torn to ambiguity by the thrumming music, Malik materialized into the gaping swallows of light, leaning over to retrieve the troublesome candle. After straightening, the Egyptian regarded the scented cane skeptically. Then he muttered an ancient Egyptian curse he'd learned from his sister, Isis, and chucked the candle down the dark stairwell, stalking off to enjoy the brawl.

**

Kaiba hovered over the ebony-haired dice player dispassionately. While Ryuuji struggled to ward away the pain in his jaw by massaging the tender area with his hand, the CEO said with an enlightening tone, "That was a fist that hit you."

"I couldn't tell," hissed Ryuuji, glaring poisonously at the taller boy. Then, with a small grunt, he climbed to his feet. Though he swayed slightly, Ryuuji reminded himself that he backed down to no one. His koi when he was mad, maybe, but not Kaiba. Or his math teacher…but not Kaiba. Or…well, let's just say Ryuuji didn't back down to Kaiba.

"You may say anything you like to me," said Kaiba coolly, making it a point to look down at his rival, "provided that you have the spine to back it up. But if you ever take a jibe at my brother again, the only comments you'll be making will be served directly to your maker, whatever you imagine that to be."

Still nursing his jaw with a gentle hand, Ryuuji snapped painfully, "I'll say whatever I wish to you, Kaiba, provided you have the spine to handle it."

The CEO smirked in either amusement or warning, glancing sideways to acknowledge the crowd gathering. "I can manage anything you throw at me, onna-tarashi (4)."

"Then manage this," Ryuuji snarled, launching a fist at Kaiba's face.

"KAIBA! RYUUJI! STOP!"

Ryuuji's fist paused, but Kaiba didn't. As soon as the shorter boy was properly distracted, Kaiba hooked a kick round the back of Ryuuji's knees and sent the raven-haired teen to his knees with a stunned yelp.

Jounouchi, followed closely by Ryou, cut through the crowd and immediately dropped beside Ryuuji. Ryou hung back slightly, tensing at the sight before him. Under the weight of Kaiba's glare, however, the younger boy was prompted to shift closer to Jounouchi and Ryuuji.

The blond was murmuring to Ryuuji, his arm draped protectively around the younger teen's back. What he said was too quiet to be heard by any spectator present, but the comforted nod Ryuuji offered was evidence enough that Jounouchi's words had been mostly reassurance.

Kaiba relaxed into a nonchalant stance, lazily crossing his arms over his chest. "Strange couple," he commented. "A dog and a mouse? However do you manage foreplay?"

The swarm of teenagers surrounding them chortled and "Oooh"ed mockingly. Ryuuji, a panicked look on his face, lifted his head and unconsciously reddened furiously. "What are you blathering on about, Kaiba?" he snapped weakly.

Jounouchi's arm tightened imperceptibly around the younger teen.

Kaiba watched the interaction between the two teens with openly displayed interest, smirking reflexively. "So, puppy, you found a toy. Or perhaps…it's the other way around?"

Ryuuji dismissed embarrassment and launched at the other boy, successfully tackling Kaiba to the ground. From all curves of the besieged area, chanting arose from the silence. "Fight! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

But before the din and skirmish could advance beyond moderately harmful, a familiarly Egyptian-tinged accent rang out through the pandemonium, "RYOU!" The screaming and chanting died down and all eyes turned to the fallen form of Ryou Bakura, Ring lifelessly clutched in his hand.

**

Yamis were curious things. Their name, "yami" was Japanese, a language belonging to a country they had not even known existed. An island continent, they heard. Oi, an island. A miserable patch of land surrounded by voracious, life-sucking water. But this was no bountiful Nile River. Ohhh no. This was an ocean! Eugh. Damned Pharaoh. Sure, he built pyramids, ruled over Egypt and made monuments that had yet to be destroyed - so? Yami no Bakura could have done that easily. Why couldn't he have drained the ocean? How difficult could it have been?

And as the Pharaoh would someday have the challenge of yanking the plug from the Pacific Bathtub, Yami no Bakura currently had a predicament of his own on his metaphysical hands. At one time, Malik Ishtar had owned a Sennen Item himself - the Sennen Rod. But following Battle City, both the Rod and the spirit within were lost to him forever. Or…em…so it had been assumed. The spirit of the Sennen Rod was presently restored to the streets of Domino. And it was all thanks to Yami no Bakura. Now…how was he supposed to weasel out of this?

Well, since no one can really follow the logic of a madman without then tumbling into the same disease of lunacy himself, the narration will detail his movement and expression rather than the pattern of his psyche.

Currently, said spirit was prowling the darkened edges of his soul room, absently curling adroit fingers around the artifact lying tranquilly against his chest. His face reflected his thoughts - dark and labyrinthine.

Finally, after several minutes of this restless pacing, the darkness residing in Ryou Bakura's mind ripped the Sennen Ring from his neck. In the next moment, the artifact's glowing encompassed the room like a Biblical flood. And when the blinding light faded back to its golden origin, the spirit was gazing absently at a patch of the floor where his younger counterpart sat, blinking in mystified awe. But not fear.

Neither spoke for an alarmingly stretched span of time, spirit and child sizing each other's next actions and thoughts. This meeting was the first either would have face to face without the sword of Damocles (5) hovering over their necks. At length, the spirit crouched before the younger boy, impassive as Ryou's hand slowly rose to clutch his own Ring protectively. The real Ring.

"You prefer life to death," the former tomb robber stated, studying Ryou's eyes.

The boy once again expressed confusion by shuttering the lids of his eyes, seemingly not noticing exactly how effeminate the gesture illustrated him to be. The spirit took this bewilderment rather well considering the sporadic duration of his explosive temper and climbed to his feet fluidly.

Abruptly, Ryou, still seated on the floor, asked, "Em…why - uh - why do you ask?" in a curious, yet wary, tone.

The spirit smiled. Or rather, the corners of his mouth lifted into what could have been a smile - if they hadn't stretched to his cheekbones and revealed an enviable set of fang-like teeth. "It wasn't a question," he said with a dark chuckle. "It was an observation. Most mortals of this age fear death." A dagger pinched the hollow of Ryou's neck. "Do you?"

Ryou slowly allowed his eyes to span the shimmer of the blade. "Yes," he said quietly.

Seemingly satisfied and smiling in the same disturbed manner, the spirit brought the dagger back to a concealed sheath underneath a rather Egyptian-looking garb. Unexpectedly, he said to Ryou, "Death is not to be feared. It is what makes death a blessing that should be feared."

Ryou edged back anxiously. "What do you mean?" he asked.

The spirit reached out and elegantly brushed a few wisps of silver from Ryou's eyes. Frowning with concentration, the Egyptian said, "You should consider cutting your hair. The August heat will make it unbearable to tame."

Ryou stared dumbly. Death to suffering to hair care. Baka (6) father giving him a baka Ring with a barking lunatic inside….

"Barking?" asked the spirit curiously, withdrawing his hands from Ryou's hair. His eyes narrowed. "Are you calling me an inu (7)?"

The boy shook his head vividly. "N-no. It's just an expression…. It means - "

"The spirit of the Sennen Rod has been released from the Shadow Realm. And he is in mortal form."

Taken aback by the spasmodic conversation and the lurches it took in terms of topics, Ryou stammered out, "He - he's free?! And human?! How!?"

The spirit tilted his head and the eerily demented smile returned in full flourish. "Consider what I suggested regarding your hair. The temperature will rise dramatically soon enough." Then, leaning his mouth close to Ryou's ear, the spirit whispered, "And not simply owing to the season."

Ryou was further mystified by the dark spirit's cryptic words, but failed to carry on questioning as the dark version of his own Ring around the spirit's neck began to whistle and beam with intense light. And then the soul room was dark and the spirit was alone, studying his nails. "Anuksa (7)," he spat. "A hangnail."

To be Continued…

1 - *Snicker* For fans of Little Nicky

2 - Try-outs this Friday, boys. Bring your friends. ;)

3 - Kichou (precious…sssss)

4 - Onna-tarashi (playboy)

5 - Sword of Damocles - analogy meaning imminent danger

6 - Baka (idiot)

7 - Inu (dog)

8 - Anuksa (shit) - it's meant to be ancient Egyptian, but since there's no "Profanity Guide" on Egyptian slang, I had to be creative. :) Gomen!