EDIT: My apologizes; somehow I accidentally posted the 'rough draft' version of this storyline yesterday evening- a big thanks to Cowardly Dragon for pointing this out! Sorry for any confusion!

(A/N~ Sorry for not posting this sooner; I kindof of lost my inspiration with this story. It was originally going to be much longer with more conflict, but I didn't like how OOC that would require almost everyone to act. So, I've decided the next chapter will be last; rather than keeping it 'on hiatus' indefinitely. I don't want to mislead people, and I know how frustrating it is when a story gets put on a 'temporary' hiatus that lasts for years. -.-; I apologize if the rest of this seems a bit rushed, and I hope it's not too disappointing! And of course, thanks for reading!)

"Ba-ku-ra..."

Someone was calling his name. The voice sounded distorted, echoing unnaturally in the void.

"Ugh... what..." The dazed duelist scowled as he regained consciousness. His scarlet eyes slowly opened, and he saw that he was in an odd, misty area. The grey fog swirling about almost reminded him of the Shadow Realm, but something was duller here. There was no sound, no other movement. Everything felt dead and empty.

"Sh*t..." He tried to raise himself into a sitting position, but found that he was held back by something metal.

He was chained down. Immobilized by thick, iron shackles on his wrists and ankles. They felt cruelly cold and heavy.

'What the...' Confused, the pale yami tried to inspect the bonds further. The chains around his wrists didn't seem to have a welding point. 'But... that's impossible...' The once-Thief King shook his head in bewilderment. 'Any metalworking would require a conjunction at some point... they must have a lock or a joint or something...'

A lean figure suddenly appeared in the mist. The voice spoke again, this time sounding stronger.

"Bakura..."

"Wha- Ryou?" The shackled thief gaped in confusion as his hikari slowly appeared between the wisps of grey.

But this wasn't the Ryou he knew- the boy's eyes were gaunt and tinged with red. His smile was lopsided and deranged, while his white hair was tainted with dark scarlet spots that looked suspiciously like dried blood.

"My memories are back." The hikari declared in a rather sharp tone. "And I remember who you really are- and what you've done." He gave a disdainful snort. "You- you've done so much to me and my friends. So many crimes. So much innocent blood spilt..."

The pallid teen raised what looked like a rusted hacksaw over his head. His disturbing smile widened as the blade mutely glistened. "I think... it's about time you paid back some of that blood."

"NO!" The pale yami suddenly jolted himself awake. Bakura gasped for air as he struggled to return to reality. His body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. "Sh*t!" His limbs were still shaking as he glanced around the room. It took him a moment to remember that he was staying at the Ishtar residence. He'd barely recognized this fact when he heard a loud voice calling out from somewhere down the hall.

"Bakura?" Moments later, two platinum-haired heads suddenly appeared in the door frame. The smaller Egyptian sounded mildly concerned as he explained. "We heard yelling- what happened?"

Without pausing, the quick-witted thief replied,"I got up to take a piss and stubbed my d*mn toe."

"Ah." Malik nodded before guiding Marik back to their room.

With the other duelists gone, there was nothing to distract the now-conscious thief. He groaned as he sat on the edge of the guest bed and glanced out the window. He could just see the Eastern night sky, dotted with stars.

'Ryou always loved looking at the stars... such a hopeless romantic...' The scowling once-spirit noticed the red glow coming from the bedside table's digital clock. The electronic screen clearly read: 3:29.

Cursing under his breath, the frustrated thief stood up and made his way to the room's largest window. 'Dammit... what the hell am I doing; just sitting here, waiting around... it's been three days..." He felt his mind wander as he watched the silent stars blinking distantly. 'What- what happens if his memories never come back?'

It only took a minute for him to realize that this peaceful inaction was NOT his style. Discomfited and impatient, the rash yami decided it was time he returned home. Bakura quietly threw open the window and disappeared into the night.

Meanwhile, Ryou Bakura was pacing in his bedroom, unable to sleep. He looked around the empty quarters and sighed. 'It's a nice house; but rather lonely, really...' He frowned as he sat back down on his bed. He thought about flipping through some of the television shows downstairs again, but most of the channels seemed to be in that odd language. 'Right... I suppose if I'm really living in Japan, everything is likely to be in Japanese...' His gaze drifted to a handsome hickory bookcase. 'At least some of the books in my collection are in English. They must be childhood left-overs.'

With nothing better to do, the recovering hikari began perusing the assorted English tomes. He glanced over the aging spines, noting the various titles. They were almost all fairy tale-type books- clearly old bedtime stories. One of the larger volumes caught his eye.

'Hmm... this looks interesting- 'Aesop's Fables.'' Ryou took the old book and casually flipped to a random page. 'Oh, it's a collection of moral folk-stories- this one's called 'The Horse and the Stag.'

He sat back down and started to read aloud to himself. It was comforting to find that he at least remembered how to read in English. 'Maybe these old tales will help bring back my memories... hm...' He began to read aloud, his eyes easily scanning the page.

"Once upon a time, there was a young, wild horse who lived on a vast plain. It was a quiet place, and he lived there peacefully for many years. One day, a brash stag came across the field, and tried to drive away the horse. The proud stag wanted the lands for himself and his herd, and he knew he could easily defeat the fledgling stallion. The young horse was angered, and he decided to seek revenge on the stag. But he was too young and small to stop the fully-grown intruder, and the horse would risk being gored upon the other's sharp antlers. So he asked a passing human hunter to help him take down the stag. The hunter agreed, but added, 'first, you must let me put this bit in your mouth, and this saddle on your back. Otherwise, I cannot guide you to your enemy, and I will not be fast enough to hit the stag.' So the young horse agreed, and the man rode down the stag and ended its life with an arrow. The horse then thanked the man before asking him to remove his bit and saddle. But the man only laughed, and tugged on the reigns harder. 'Not so fast, my friend- I have grown fond of your swiftness, and have no desire to release such a useful beast. You belong to me now, and will serve me for the rest of your days.'"

Ryou closed the book, his eyes downcast. 'Wow... that's rather cruel... the stag tried to drive off the young horse, and in the end they both suffered?' He bit his lip as reflected on the sad story. 'But...did the stag even deserve death? And what about the poor horse, being enslaved for his retaliation?"

Feeling slightly depressed, the confused youth decided to place the book back on the shelf. He stood up and started to walk towards the wooden bookcase.

"Hey."

"WAHHH!" Ryou yelped and dropped the heavy tome onto the floor. "Wha-?!" He turned to find that he wasn't alone. The farthest window was open, and apparently the monster known as 'Bakura' had clambered in.

"Geez, all I said was 'Hey!' How the hell am I supposed to not startle you when you're so jumpy?!" The pale intruder sounded annoyed, of all things.

Naturally, the trespasser's gall did little to pacify the startled amnesiac. "Well maybe you shouldn't climb into people's homes at 4 in the morning, for starters! That's a great way to get killed!" The exhausted teen felt his patience waning- this jerk was insufferable!

Bakura let out a huff of disbelief. "Yes, I'm sure you could easily kill me with that book- papercuts being so deadly and all."

"..." Ryou felt uneasy, but something about that story made him curious. He couldn't explain it, but for some reason he had a faint notion that he still didn't know everything. "Bakura."

"What?"

"...Yugi and his friends told me some things. Most things. But I still want to hear your side."

"What." The baffled yami wasn't certain he'd heard right. "You want..."

Ryou nodded twice. "I want to know everything. EVERYTHING. The entire story, in your words."

The once-Thief King felt baffled- no one had ever asked to hear his entire explanation of the ancient events.

"Alright. But be forewarned: it's not a pleasant little fairytale." He pointed to the small book Ryou had dropped earlier.

"I'm listening." The slender youth sat down on his bed, waiting for the former spirit to speak.

Eventually, the dark duelist relayed everything he knew about the history of the Millennium Items.

Although it was a highly biased re-telling, Ryou still discovered several great discrepancies between Bakura's version and the tale he'd heard from the Yugi-tachi.

Namely, he now understood that being possessed by a merciless demon was far different than being possessed by an ancient human spirit.

'So, he made a deal with the devil when he was just a child... how awful...' Ryou sighed as his 'guest' trailed off.

But Bakura noticed the look on his 'landlord's' face and scowled. "I didn't tell you all that just so you could pity me! Knock it off!"

Ryou raised one eyebrow and calmly replied, "why?"

"Eh?!"

The inquisitive youth stared directly at the strange man from his past. "What are you so afraid of, that you would be angry that someone would pity you? Do you feel like I'm taking some sort of power from you?" The curious youth tilted his head as he spoke. "Do you think that by receiving empathy from someone like myself, you might somehow be weakened, also?"

"N-no!" The flustered thief blurted out, his armor of arrogance briefly cracking. "You just look... ugly when you make that face!"

Ryou felt something familiar returning- he'd played this game before. He sensed that his stubborn yami was just making things up to protect his own ego. Ryou also felt himself recalling how he used to deal with such childish comments. "Oh, I see-" The sly duelist responded, scarcely noticing that he had suddenly switched from English to Japanese; "-so that means you normally find my face attractive?"

"WHAT?!"

The pale hikari gave a small grin as he elaborated. "Well, you said that pitying you makes my face look ugly, and that bothers you. Which means you must find my normal face appealing."

"Wha- NOT AT ALL!" The intruder snapped back just a little too quickly. "I just meant that it looks even 'uglier!'"

"But that's not what you said." Ryou folded his arms, his smile widening. "You said 'ugly', not 'uglier.'"

"Shut up! I'm a Ra-d*mned Ancient Egyptian who died 3,000 years ago, and was recently given flesh again; so excuse me if my English isn't perfect!"

Ryou couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "Now I remember- you always used to pull that 'Ancient Egyptian' excuse when you didn't understand something. You used it for the mailman, the microwave, the toas- ter-" Ryou paused as he felt his memories flooding back. "Oh my..." He gasped as pieces of that afternoon slowly returned and assembled in the front of his mind. "You- you tried to fix the toaster by jamming a metal blade into it... and I got- shocked..." Ryou's chocolate-brown eyes widened as he suddenly rounded on his 'tenant'. "YOU COULD'VE BEEN KILLED, YOU IDIOT!" The normally quiet youth bellowed at his other half. "WHAT were you thinking, sticking a metal blade into there?!" The enraged hikari gestured towards the nearest wall outlet with one arm. "Haven't I told you, time and time again, not to mess with electricity?!"

Bewildered by the sudden shift in attitudes, the pale yami could only raise an eyebrow in disbelief.

"You're... you're not afraid of me anymore?"

"I'm not afraid of you..." Ryou felt his shoulders lower in exhaustion. The ranting had drained the last bits of his energy. "I'm afraid..." His voice softened as he lowly admitted his fear, "...of losing you."

Ryou then glanced at the digital clock on his (now familiar) nightstand- 4:26. He gave a sigh as he looked back towards his darker half. "Look, it's late, I'm tired, and you-" here he poked the other duelist in the chest with his index finger, "-are lucky to be alive." The former spirit watched as the exhausted hikari clambered onto his small mattress. "I'm going back to bed now, but we'll talk more in the morning." With a yawn, Ryou pulled the covers up and mumbled something that sounded like, "G'night, Bakura." It only took moments for the boy's soft snores to fill the room.

Bakura held back a yawn of his own- he hated to admit it, but being returned to a physical form did put him at the mercy of basic needs yet again. He glanced around the quiet room- Ryou was already asleep, his breathe barely making a sound as it drifted over his pillowcase.

Exhausted, Bakura decided it wasn't worth the trek down the hall to the guest room. Ryou was already on one side of the mattress, so it was easy for him to take the other half. He grabbed a spare pillow from the room's tiny closet and placed it next to the slumbering figure.

The once-Thief King sighed as his own head sank into the fluffy white pillow. He knew it was probably 'rude' to just sneak into the same bed as his hikari, but...

'He'll forgive me.' The scarlet-eyed bandit yawned as he surrendered to the world of dreams.

'He always... does.'