Chapter 13

Ryo sat on the floor in silence against the bed where Bakura's body lay. After fighting the others tooth and nail to let him stay with Bakura's body he had dragged it into their old house, and sat with him, not leaving his side, not eating, not sleeping.

Ryo didn't know what to think anymore. Bakura was dead, anyone could see that. But the last words Bakura had said to him still rang through his mind. No matter what happens, no matter what you think, no matter what things seem, I want you to wait for me.

And wait Ryo had. But Bakura had also said that he would be a week at most. Ryo looked blankly out the window at the orange sky as the sun set on the seventh day. Ryo closed his smarting eyes in despair. They still stung with salt, though he had cried himself dry days ago.

He twirled Bakura's knife between his fingers as he debated what to do. Perhaps he should give Bakura another day, for he now understood what Bakura had meant: wait for him even if it seemed like he was gone. But if Bakura really was past helping, then why should he wait to join him?

"Forgive me, Bakura," Ryo whispered. He tilted his head back and pressed Bakura's knife to his throat. He jumped violently, nicking the skin a bit, as he felt a cold hand grip the wrist holding the knife.

"Don't even think about it."

Ryo dropped the knife in shock. He looked around slowly. Bakura lay propped up on his elbows with his eyes half open, one hand still gripping Ryo's wrist. "Ba…kura?" Ryo said hesitantly.

Bakura smirked. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"Bakura!!" Ryo tackled Bakura, forcing him back down on the bed, burying his face in his yami's chest and hugging him tightly.

"Ack, ribs, ribs! Ryo! Still broken!" Bakura squirmed as his ribs flared, but returned the hug just as tightly.

Ryo pressed his lips against Bakura's, hungrily shoving his tongue into Bakura's mouth. A battle for dominance ensued, which Bakura won. He began mapping out the wet cavern, and Ryo rolled over so that Bakura was on top of him. Bakura rolled over and found that he had reached the edge of the bed. He hit the floor with a grunt of pain, and Ryo squeaked as he landed on top of Bakura, effectively driving the wind out of the latter.

"You okay?" asked Ryo as Bakura hissed through his teeth.

"Yeah. I guess I got a bit more beaten up than I thought," he said slowly. "Ah, well, I'll live. Nowhere near as bad as what I went through back there. Do me a favor, will you?"

"Anything," said Ryo.

"Never make Zorc that angry at you. He's not very nice." A thoughtful expression crossed Bakura's face and after a moment he added, "Also, please remove your elbow from my lung."

Ryo squeaked again and shifted. "What?" he asked as Bakura smirked.

"You make the cutest noises sometimes. I wonder what other noises you can make," he whispered seductively.

Ryo smiled. "Not right now, but do you know what we should definitely do?"

"I can think of many things. Ooh, dirty thoughts, dirty thoughts."

"No. What we should do right now is go freak out Yami. You're supposed to be dead after all." Ryo smirked evilly, nearly matching his yami's infamous grin.

Bakura stared at Ryo in astonishment. "I love you," he stammered, hurriedly sitting up as Ryo laughed.

At the game shop, everyone felt the absence of Bakura. Marik and Malik were miserable and almost never went to their own home anymore. Yugi was trying to keep busy, but the work ethic simply wasn't there. Yami seemed undisturbed at first, but even his mood grew more somber as time moved on. Everyone was feeling the loss of the thief king.

None of them had seemed Ryo since the night Bakura had died. Every time someone suggested that they go see if he was alright, someone else would say, "Give him time."

"I miss Bakura," said Marik heavily.

"I miss Ryo," said Malik. "It almost feels as if we've lost both of them."

"I shouldn't have been so blunt with him!" cried Yami. "I must've sounded like such an ass! All he wanted was to see Bakura and I was trying to protect him from being hurt, I was just trying to…" He broke off and hung his head. Despite his attitude, the death of his greatest rival had hit him hard. He missed the tomb robber almost as much as the Ishtars did.

Yugi wrapped an arm around him and said soothingly, "No one could've protected him from the truth forever. He was grieving and not thinking straight. If you hadn't stood in his way, one of us would have."

"Aibou…," whispered Yami.

The bell on door of the shop area jingled. Ryo entered the living room with his head down.

"Ryo!" said Yugi. "Are…are you okay?" Ryo nodded mutely.

"Oh, Ry," said Malik. "Come here." He pulled Ryo into a tight hug.

"Ryo, I never should've tried to stop you from going to Bakura!" said Yami, leaping up. "You were so upset and, oh, I'm so sorry!"

"Why? What'd I miss?" asked Bakura, walking into the room and throwing himself down on the couch.

Marik fell off the other end of the couch with a cry of shock. Malik and Yugi shrieked and Malik glomped Bakura. Yami sank down on his old seat as his knees gave way. Bakura and Ryo were laughing; the reaction was priceless.

"Bakura…how?" asked Marik.

"I found out that the way to end this was with Zorc," said Bakura, pushing Malik off of him. "So I figured someone, meaning me, had to go to him in Hell. And there was only one way to get there."

Malik slammed his hands down on the coffee table and stood up. "On a super special roller coaster with loops and twists and turns!?" he asked.

Bakura stared at him. "Only you," he said.

Malik looked around at everyone giving him funny looks. "What?"

"Anyway…," said Yugi after a time.

"So, yeah, I allowed myself to be killed, destroyed the thing, and pissed off Zorc," Bakura finished. "No roller coasters were involved," he added to Malik.

"Aww," said Malik.

"But that doesn't explain how you got back," pointed out Ryo.

"Before I died I split my soul and sealed half of it in the Ring," explained Bakura. "I put it in a dormant state that would only activate and inhabit my body when the dominant half in Hell was destroyed, which I had planned to do myself if Zorc didn't, but he was more that happy t-"

"Question," said Marik, raising his hand. "How exactly did Zorc kill you?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Nothing, besides breaking all my ribs, shredding my organs, and ripping out my still-beating heart. Quick and painless. I highly recommend making him mad." He gave an involuntary shudder. "Oh, hikaris, don't do that, it's not good for you. Now, does anyone have a non-stupid question to ask?"

Malik raised his hand. "So there wasn't a super special roller coaster with loops and twists and turns?"

"No," said Bakura impatiently.

"Goddammit, Isis lied to me!" exclaimed Malik.

"Ooh, pick me, pick me!" said Marik. Bakura looked at him. "Will you tell us a story about a bunny?"

Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Once there was a little white bunny. He met an annoying Egyptian with ridiculous hair and his hikari. They asked the bunny stupid questions about getting to Hell on a roller coaster. So the little white bunny ate their heads. The end."

Yami snorted with laughter and Yugi and Ryo giggled. Malik looked offended. Marik looked confused.

"Marik gets a cookie if he can figure out the subliminal messaging in that," said Yugi.

Bakura got to his feet. "While Marik tries to figure out why the Baku-bunny is omnomnomming on his head, I am going to KaibaCorp."

"Any particular reason why?" asked Yami.

"Yep. We all have trashed houses, we all need money to fix them, and I am the only one who can effectively sweet-talk Seto." Bakura ruffled Ryo's hair. "You wanna come with me? I might even get Seto to get me one of his trenchcoats if you give him the Eyes. This one is a little…fucked. Pity, I liked this one."

Ryo hopped to his feet and they were out the door and gone.

A/N *sniff* that's it. It's over. I'm is sad. But when you run out of plot, there's not much else you can do. I really do think that Bakura's death and return hints I dropped EVERYWHERE were too subtle. Ah, well, you can't have everything in life. I hope you liked Bakura's bunny story. Oh, and "A super special roller coaster with loops and twists and turns!?" was a line written by LeanMeanWaffle, and this is the only chapter of this fic she has read XD Just to see her line and the plays on it later. That was our conversation. I said there was only one way to get to Hell and she slammed her hands on our lunch table and stood up and said it. I lol'd hard.

Don't own the Yugioh, but Ra knows I wish I did.

I think my Author's Note at the end says everything I want to. Except that I want to cry right now. You guys have no idea how much I loved writing this and how much fun I had. I don't know what's next. I have a pre-written oneshot and am writing a second, but I don't really have a big project in mind. I'll think of something that isn't stupid, like some of the shit I've thought of. In Algebra today I thought "I should make one of the Egyptiant Gods change Ryo's sex out of spite to bakura and Ryo gets pregnant!" And then I thought "What the fuck have I been smoking?"