Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Do You Dream of Me? ❯ Chapter 58

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh.

 

This epilogue is a gift for Angel's Nocturne, who is writing a sequel to DYDOM covering the Duelist Kingdom manga. Please check it out, there's a link on my bio. She requested B/R.

 

I'm hoping there will be at least one more kiriban (reviewer prize) earned, but don't count on an update next weekend. It's possible this is the last epilogue.

 

I really hope you've enjoyed this fic.

 

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Ryou (Bakura was the spirit's name now), looked in the bathroom mirror as he brushed his hair. The new conditioner really was making a difference: the brush went through it as though he had gone through and gotten rid of all the tangles yesterday instead of last month.

 

He'd looked up the price of this special conditioner (and the matching shampoo) online. He would have never been able to afford them, even if he gave up buying Monster World accessories for months (which he had never possessed the willpower to do).

 

It was a much better gift than comas.

 

His sheets were silk now, his uniforms tailored (he must have paid for that, but where did he get the money?), a cleaning service came when he was at school on Wednesdays, his locks took five minutes to open (Bakura had controlled his hands, showing him how to open them), different restaurants delivered his food (his favorites), his thin body was acquiring muscles (Bakura exercised for him), and all for the price of the two hours before he went to bed each night.

 

Bakura called it paying rent. Ryou knew it was more than that.

 

Still, Bakura had lost a game, thrown a game that would have allowed him to destroy someone he hated, so Ryou wouldn't die.

 

To someone normal that would have been absolute proof of Bakura's good intentions but dying wasn't that important to Ryou. After all, he would get to see Mother and Amane again.

 

He might have just not wanted to lose Ryou as a host. No, it was more than that, but that might have been a big part of it. They fit together somehow, Ryou could feel it.

 

He didn't like the idea of being linked to a murderer. How many orphans just like him had Bakura left behind?

 

He seemed to want forgiveness. Ryou didn't want to give it to him.

 

Not when he still wanted to hurt Yugi's and Seto's spirits. Which would hurt Yugi and Seto.

 

Now when he was willing to do so by attacking their friends. Jou had been the one to invite Ryou into the group. Tall, blond, muscular… and straight. Though he seemed to be fine with gay people (it was hard to miss how Yami and Yugi felt about each other, or how the ice prince Seto seemed to regard Seth as a part of him and therefore safe), how would he react to knowing Ryou was attracted to him?

 

It would be awkward, so it was simply a matter of him never finding out. And never letting Bakura find out. Bakura seemed to regard Ryou as his. Knowing he had competition might make him arrange an accident. Ryou would be angry with him, but what was done was done, unless raising the dead was yet another of the Ring's powers.

 

Part of him, Ryou knew, liked having Bakura here.

 

He'd found out about Bakura on the same day he'd met his friends. In a sense, Bakura had come with them since it was Yugi's Puzzle that allowed Bakura to communicate.

 

The Items. Ryou and Bakura had heard what they said about Yami's and Seth's parents. Bakura wanted vengeance. Ryou didn't want them held responsible for the sins of their fathers.

 

After all, what did Ryou have to do with his father?

 

Bakura didn't see Father as competition. He was safe as long as Ryou kept him away. Besides, Bakura said he liked his host's father being a tomb robber.

 

Bakura.

 

Before that day he'd come to his new school he'd been so alone. Now he was never alone. Bakura was curled around his soul and never would let go. It was… terrifying, he was always watched by the soul of a killer, and intoxicating at the same time. He would never be alone again.

 

Addictive.

 

And Bakura seemed to know it too, flexing his powers broke Ryou's concentration, the slip of soft shadows against his soul. It soothed him while he slept, so deeply: he didn't know what Bakura did with his body the two hours he lent it to him every day, but he was always tired afterwards.

 

He was woven in a net of spells, meant to guard him. The thief king's prize possession.

 

A far cry from the girly nobody who could only attract friends with games.

 

That was the deal, two hours a day for Bakura to live while Ryou slept in exchange for two hours for Ryou to play with his new friend without Bakura watching.

 

As he was watching now, approval. You should wear the kohl.

 

“Long hair is already against school rules. I'm not wearing make-up.” As though enough people didn't already know he was gay.

 

Rules are made to be broken, the voice almost like his own whispered in his soul. I can get away with anything. We have power, Ryou.

 

“You have power.” After he brushed out his hair he started arranging it messily enough he didn't look quite like a girl. Girls said he was a bishounen.

 

And you should take advantage of it.

 

“This isn't Ancient Egypt. Men don't wear eye shadow.” He eyed the makeup Bakura had arranged on the counter, brought out every time Ryou put it away. It was a minor contest of wills.

 

You look much better with it on.

 

“…You put it on when you go out, don't you.” He knew Bakura was vain.

 

Of course.

 

Ryou looked at himself in the mirror and imagined his eyes outlined. “Yami and Seth's eyes look darker.”

 

They use illusion. There was a sense this was cheating. It's not a proper disguise. No one thinks I am you when I walk the nights.

 

“I don't want to know what you do when you go out.” There was a dark satisfaction sometimes that he sensed from Bakura.

 

Innocent little light. Possession in that thought.

 

“I'm not a pet.”

 

And as soon as those words passes his lips his body was no longer his own. Bakura winked at him in the mirror. I can do with you what I please, and neither of the other spirits could stop me.

 

As suddenly as it had been stolen, Ryou's body was his own again. He hugged himself, checking. “Then why do you tolerate me?”

 

You make me almost remember… Don't worry, little light. You're mine, and I want you sane. I like that fire of yours. Brave kitten, to fight me. Approval.

 

It had been so long since anyone had approved of him. Bakura knew all that he was, had explored Ryou's soul before Ryou knew he was there to raise barriers, and still approved of him.

 

Bakura was a victim as well, his family killed and turned into the Items. Was he wearing Bakura's mother around his neck?

 

What would Ryou have done if it had been murder?

 

He knew what Bakura was. A thief and a stealer of souls. But he still wanted to trust him.

 

“I had to fight you. You were going to kill them.”

 

You're brave and you're willing to fight. You remind me of myself.

 

“I'm not like you.” Ryou tried to stay calm.

 

Oh? I wanted to die once, when I was alone. But they cried out for vengeance. To think I was used! Bakura growled in his head, causing Ryou to shiver.

 

He was a wild beast, so powerful. Ryou had only found tricks before, now Bakura knew Ryou was such a good gamer he would have counters to anything Ryou could do ready. Ryou couldn't stop him from doing anything he wanted.

 

Their deal… Bakura allowed him the illusion of control.

 

He bargained with the devil, and Ryou knew his soul was slipping.

 

That voice, in his mind… the blood-soaked promise of protection, of never being alone.

 

He remembered being the game piece, looking up at Bakura, so powerful, so clever. A game master.

 

So much more experienced than Ryou.

 

Was dying the only way he could win?

 

But he didn't want to die anymore.

 

You're not like my other hosts. The Item found you for me. Now I know he's trying to control me I won't let him. I won't hurt you.

 

“I can't believe that.”

 

Am I really so evil?

 

“Yes.”

 

Arms wrapped around him from behind and Ryou looked up from his clenched fists to see Bakura there. He froze, like a scared rabbit. Now Bakura didn't need a host anymore, what would happen to him?

 

Bakura chuckled, warm breath in his ear, and Ryou tried to suppress a shiver. Ah. So that was Bakura's next move in the game. He tried to push away but was held tight. He stopped struggling as shadows joined Bakura's arms around him.

 

They looked like Yin and Yan in the mirror, Ryou's dark eyes in a white-clothed body with a white face and Bakura's face in the middle of darkness.

 

The shadows were dangerous, deadly dangerous. It felt like he had snakes crawling over him.

 

Cool and smooth and strong. He met Bakura's eyes in the mirror and Bakura smiled.

 

Snakes wouldn't feel this good against his soul. They moved, and it was hard not to moan.

 

So this was the next move in the game they played.

 

Lust was one of the seven deadly sins for good reason. Like the others, it trapped you into self-destruction. Though he didn't have to worry about pregnancy or, given this was a made body, about diseases. Probably.

 

Not that he would ever find out.

 

He was only a teenager and Bakura had had millennia. Tanned face with that scar, threat and promise.

 

Ryou couldn't restrain a shiver, and Bakura's smile deepened. You're mine. Soul and body.

 

And he wanted heart and mind to complete the set.

 

Ryou knew now why vampires were so alluring.

 

So different from Jou. Cheerful Jou. Jou that saw him as a friend. Bakura would never see him as a friend. Bakura saw him as a possession.

 

All these gifts… and Ryou saw his future if he gave in.

 

A big house, the finest luxury. Perhaps the Kaiba Mansion after Seto and Mokuba were dead with Seth. Alone with Bakura, no friends to take away Ryou's attention. No one else to support him, so the only one he relied on was Bakura. Whenever Bakura would go away he would do nothing but miss him.

 

Bakura in his bed every night, or more often. Ryou had no doubt he was very, very good. Millennia of practice, and the thought excited him as much as the danger did.

 

Ryou was a virgin, and Bakura would take great pleasure in taking it. If anyone else had ever loved him, Ryou knew, Bakura would kill them.

 

He would wear kohl and linen in Egyptian style, jewelry, Bakura would teach him Egyptian and in time he would forget Japanese, perhaps.

 

How much time? Would Bakura bind Ryou's soul to the ring as well? Would Ryou eventually take a host, an empty shell that Bakura had prepared, and think nothing of it as long as Bakura loved him?

 

It would be easy to mistake this for love. It wasn't love. Bakura wanted him, even needed him in some way, just as Ryou now needed Bakura.

 

That need was a weapon. He would need every weapon he could get.

 

“I have to finish getting ready. My friends are coming soon.” He had to swallow before he could say it.

 

Bakura licked his cheek and vanished. I'll keep our bargain.

 

And the longer he kept it the more Ryou would trust him. If he didn't know what Bakura was… were Yam and Seth simply more skilled at hiding their natures?

 

Yugi had offered to teach him magic. He should invite Bakura to teach him, Bakura would be pleased at the kitten growing fangs. Not to mention Ryou following his instructions. But he would have to bargain something for the lessons.

 

Ryou resolutely put away the kohl. He had won the first battle. He was not going to lose the war.