A/N: Just a fair warning - only the first half of this chapter was given thorough editing, so the latter half of the chapter may have some grammar/syntax errors. But this is the final chapter of Teach Me - thanks to everyone who was along for the ride :)

Bonus Chapter: Bakura

She was crying again, he noticed.

Of course, he was not the only one who had discovered this. Kaiba had walked past and made some scathing comment that had lit her temper and caused her to shout him down as he strode away from her, glaring over his shoulder. Afterward, she had crossed her arms, holding herself and bowed her head, her shoulders betraying the return of tears.

He would not have seen any of this had he not opened the window that looked out the side of the school to where the bike racks were situated and where Anzu Mazaki had hid herself from everyone else's probing eyes. Bakura, trying to find his own peace from Ryou's fan girls, had gone to the far corridor in the hopes of avoiding the pests. He had not expected to see Anzu crying on the side of the building.

Since their return from Egypt, he had caught her in this position more than once. Disgruntled from the realization that unlike the wretched pharaoh, part of his soul was still stuck within Ryou's body, he was not one to make himself known to any of his host's friends. He wanted nothing more to do with them than they would with him; nonetheless, it was impossible to avoid interaction when he had to share a body with Ryou, so he smiled through his performances and took on the impression of a harmless schoolboy.

This scene, however, grated on his nerves.

With his arms folded upon the window sill, leaning lazily out the window as he watched Anzu, a frown of displeasure turned the corners of his mouth downward. As usual when he encountered this scene, he wondered where her friends were when she needed them. It was fairly obvious that she was upset over the loss of the pharaoh – anyone with eyes and any bit of insight into her life could see that – yet Bakura had never seen her cry in front of her friends or express melancholy over him. In fact, he had not seen her around them all too often. She had seemed to remove herself from the after-school meetings that Bakura had to endure, playing as Ryou.

He knew very little of the girl in Yuugi's group of friends, having most of his interactions with Honda, but she had inevitably been within his radar during his association with Yuugi and the others. He had initially thought she would be a good tool to use against the pharaoh. After learning that the pharaoh had no deeper feelings for her than he would one of his harem girls, he dismissed that thought entirely and instead focused on other avenues to get what he needed.

Even so, he had seen the one-sided attachment so common in women towards Atemu and it sickened him. Once he perceived Yuugi's intense love interest in the girl and then a vague, protective nature on Kaiba's part that he would occasionally reveal, Bakura began to watch her a bit more closely. Where Kaiba lied on the scale was hard to say, though Bakura deemed it to be more of a respect issue than anything romantic. The girl's reactions to Yuugi were enough to reveal that she was aware of his sentiments, but did not return them. As for Atemu, if Bakura had not known him so well, he might have considered some of his little comments and manner of treating her as interest, but he had seen the same treatment directed towards Jounouchi and sensed nothing more than a friendly detachment.

And yet here the girl is crying over him, Bakura thought with renewed annoyance. It would have bothered him less if he had not come to expect more out of her, much like Kaiba. He had never seen her cry, even during Battle City when Malik's darker half began to strike down their friends. She had been fearful more than once, but she had never seemed to waver, holding strong in the face of that fear.

In his opinion, the pharaoh was undeserving of these tears.

And again, he wondered, Where the hell are her friends?

She had stopped crying, wiping her eyes and muttering to herself. She seemed as frustrated with her tears as he was watching her. After a time, she clenched a fist, lightly punched her shoulder a few times bracingly and then walked away from the bike racks. His eyes followed her, noticing the straight spine and head held up. He released a brief laugh beneath his breath. If anyone had looked at her, they would not have suspected her of crying only a few moments prior.

He should have left it at that. It was none of his business if the girl was going around the schoolgrounds crying over a dead pharaoh. Yet, as the week progressed, he continued to watch for her friends. When she begged off from the arcade or the game shop, none of them questioned her sudden absence in their group. When she spent more time in the library rather than at the club Yuugi had invented, nobody sought her out. It could have been due to Honda's own disappearances from the group as he began dating a new girl and perhaps Otogi's additional absence made hers seem normal.

In spite of that, Bakura seemed to be the only one to notice the underlying despondency in her words.

He should have minded his own business as he had been, but Yuugi and Jounouchi's thick-headedness combined with her grief over a philandering pharaoh made him react instinctively.

"I'll come with."

Anzu blinked, pausing in her steps from the group. "What?"

He swore at himself internally, hating her wide-eyed stare that was directed at him. Instead, keeping his Ryou-like countenance in place, he smiled and shrugged, saying, "I'll come with to the library. I could use some extra studying." This, of course, was a lie since he was stuck in the cram classes that Ryou's father had him taking.

"Bunch of book nerds," Jounouchi said with a wide yawn. "Who needs good grades when there's games to be played?"

This seemed to be the joint opinion of both him and Yuugi, as the two boys said their farewells and made their way down the hallway. Anzu watched them with a little frown, sighing through her nose. Her shoulders sagged the slightest bit and for a moment, she looked world-weary, as if the strain of keeping a positive face for her best friends had drained all the energy from her.

Upon feeling Bakura's gaze on her, she smiled and said quietly, "Well, let's get going, then."

In the library, they made little conversation and Bakura was grateful for it. Accustomed to the twittering females of Ryou's fan club, his curiosity was piqued at her comfort in the silence. Other women tended to fill it with nonsense, but she seemed to be comfortable in her own thoughts.

He had rarely been with Anzu alone and the few times he had been, she had not been aware of his presence. More often than not, his one-on-one interactions outside of Yuugi had been with Honda or Kaiba. The only time he had been with her without the others alone had been during Battle City when she had been sitting at his bed after his duel with Atemu. He recalled his entire body aching from the blast of his attack, his arm bleeding painfully, but her cool hands passing over his forehead had seemed to distract his body from the pain. If he had left Ryou in control of their body, he was not sure the boy would have been able to keep his grip on life; instead, Bakura endured the pain and allowed Anzu to administer what little comfort she could in that moment.

It was, he reflected, the first time he had felt any sympathy towards the girl. It was also when he began to grow annoyed with Atemu for leading her on so thoughtlessly.

"Say, Ryou," Anzu spoke up, breaking into Bakura's thoughts, "you have cram classes too, don't you?"

Rearranging his face into one of puzzlement, he answered, "I do! How did you know?"

"I've seen you walking home when I get done at my dance classes. It's right by the cram school." She laughed slightly. "Even there, it seems like you have a fan club."

"I wish I didn't..."

She smiled sympathetically. "You and every guy here, trust me. You would think you were actively stealing girlfriends."

"I don't think it'd be that easy!" He laughed, cursing Ryou inwardly for having a fan club in the first place. "You get that a lot though, too, don't you? Girls thinking that you're dating one of the guys?"

There was a pause in which she surveyed him and he stiffened in the chair, noticing her gaze turn thoughtful and a bit too searching. Whatever edge in his voice he dispelled with a too-bright smile and she returned it somewhat uneasily. For a moment, it had seemed as if she had recognized him outside of Ryou's features.

"You know," she spoke up suddenly, looking away from him, "it didn't used to annoy me as much. I can't imagine how you feel when guys come up to you, but you always handle it really well. Now I hate when people misinterpret my friendship with any of you guys." She tucked her hair behind her ear, her brow furrowing. "Especially with Yuugi."

Bakura, taking advantage of the conversation, said, "And what about Atemu?"

She raised a startled gaze to his face and then laughed, briefly.

"Oh, that." She shook her head. "No, that bothers me the most. Atemu was always more interested in Yuugi and bad guys than dating." She smiled, but there was a hint of bitterness to it. "Anyway! It's been months since Atemu returned to Egypt. That's old news." She brightened up with a smile, waving a hand as if to dismiss the conversation entirely.

He returned the smile, acting his role as Ryou, but inside he was frowning. The shadows in her eyes were not those of a woman spurned from her lover, but of a girl embarrassed of her own foolishness. What she found foolish, however, was unknown to him.

After a few hours in the library, the pair left the school together, walking leisurely in the warm air. It was the second term of their third year and soon autumn would be coming. Bakura inspected the sunset that had arrived earlier with the change of the season, taking note of the warm colours that crossed the sky. Upon seeing the direction of his gaze, Anzu paused on the sidewalk, clasping her hands behind her and looking up at the sky. Neither of them spoke for a moment, taking in the sunset silently, and Bakura's frown deepened. Her presence unnerved him.

"Thanks for coming with me, Ryou," she said after a time, turning her gaze back to him. "It's been kind of lonely lately."

That's because your friends are idiots, Bakura thought to himself. "Not a problem! Things have been different since we got back from Egypt, hasn't it?"

"Oh, you noticed, too?" She pulled her bag up her shoulder, tapping the toe of her shoe behind her. "I think it's good for Yuugi, though. He was so dependent on Atemu for the longest time. And honestly, I'm really glad that Honda and Otogi have left Shizuka alone now. Jounouchi was about ready to blow up on them – she is way younger than us."

Bakura said nothing to this observation, instead eyeing her and the small smile that played at the edges of her lips.

"What about you?"

"Oh." She raised her head and gave a casual shrug. "My grades weren't the best end of first year and beginning of second year. Because Duelist Kingdom and Battle City happened at the end of first year and then we went to Egypt second year. After that, things were...hectic. I've had a lot of catch up to do in school and at dance class."

"How is that going?"

"Better, now that my mind isn't so – " She stopped herself, guiltily glancing at Bakura, who had his face arranged in one of Ryou's best, attentive stares. "Sorry. It's nothing."

With a sympathetic gaze, he said, "It's okay. We all miss Atemu."

Anzu blushed, embarrassed, and shook her head. "It's not that. I don't really miss Atemu. It's more..." She trailed off, her gaze sliding from him. "It's more that I wish I had known the end result before I'd spent so much of high school on someone that was going to go away. But that's my fault. I should have known better." She lifted her shoulders in another shrug. "It's all said and done now, though. It's okay."

Bakura continued to gaze at her, not quite believing her words, yet sensing a grain of truth within them. Deciding that any further prodding would reveal himself to her, he instead said, "How about we get some food? I'm starved!"

She blinked and then laughed. "Alright, I'm game!"

This routine Bakura found himself in was one that he knew Ryou would interrogate him about eventually. The boy, even preoccupied as he was with his own internal struggles, had reviewed enough of Bakura's memories before he had finally discontinued to cause his concern to be piqued. While it had annoyed Bakura to no end to have his privacy invaded originally, now it was more of a cause for exasperation than anger. He had expected the inevitable round of questioning. He had been waiting for weeks for Ryou to address it.

Is there a reason you're spending so much time with Anzu? Ryou asked as he cooked. Bakura stirred from his dormancy, hearing the echo of Ryou's question in their mind. It had taken some time to get used to the blackness of a shared mind rather than the soul room of the Sennen Ring. It still disoriented him from time to time.

No.

He could sense the sigh from Ryou without him needing to do it.

I'm not accusing you of anything, Bakura, he said at last. I'm just wondering. You haven't exactly been a fan of taking control of my body during social events and tried to avoid my friends. I saw it in the memory – you were the one that offered to study with her originally.

Then you'll have seen the other memories, too, he shot back. It gets irritating watching her cry all over the damn place.

There was a pause before Ryou asked uncertainly, Is it because of Atemu?

How the hell should I know? She doesn't talk about him.

This part was quite true. Any attempt Bakura made in directing the conversation to Atemu was expertly rerouted by Anzu. It was clear that she had become experienced in doing this not only with him, but her friends, as well. In the past months that he had spent studying with her in the library, walking her home, and joining her for dinners, her conversations had made it seem as if Atemu had never existed. He had been to enough social events with Ryou's friends to know that they, at least, had not tired of talking about him and he had begun to suspect that was part of the reason for her avoidance of them.

She thinks that she's talking to you, Bakura continued, so what's your problem if you're not accusing me of something?

Well... Ryou hesitated and Bakura had to allow himself a grim smile. His host was trying to be fair to him and doing a poor job of it. It's not that I think you're plotting anything against Yuugi, but... He trailed off again and this time, Bakura laughed out loud.

What? You think I'm trying to take advantage of her? he mocked.

It's just unusual for you to take an interest in someone, Ryou defensively answered. And like you said, she thinks that she's talking to me. She hasn't had a relationship before and you know where I stand with my own...situation...with women. I don't want her to get the wrong impression. She doesn't deserve that after what happened with Atemu.

Bakura made a disgusted sound and would have walked away from Ryou had they been physically standing in front of him. Unfortunately, he was forced to remain in the conversation. Give her some credit, Ryou, he said coldly. She's not going to fall in love with you for no reason.

Not me, Ryou corrected, but with you. I'm not the one spending time with her.

There was a pause as Bakura absorbed this observation, frowning.

That won't happen, he said at length. If you haven't noticed, she is trying to avoid her idiot friends that aren't bothering to help her. Even Kaiba's said more to her than they have.

Just be careful, would you? Ryou sighed to him, exasperated. Bakura smirked, sensing that he had successfully gotten the conversation to end. Ryou would not touch the subject of Yuugi and the others with a ten-foot pole. To him, it was not his place to judge as he was still hiding Bakura's presence from all of them. That's all I'm asking. I can tell the company is helping her, I just don't want her to get hurt.

Perhaps predictably, though, after this conversation Bakura found his own thoughts toeing the line of casual routine and inevitable interest.

It was not that he had any particular reason for disliking Anzu. He had never talked to the girl directly in the past. When he was assaulted by teenage girls on a daily basis due to Ryou's attractive looks, though, he was forced to compare the intense sexual fervor of teenage girls to her quiet maturity. Occasionally, she would save him from the masses of female fans when walking by and in those moments, muttering under his breath, he thought she sensed something off from his personality. He knew he had slipped up enough that she suspected, though she never questioned it and it never seemed to linger in her mind enough to change her behavior towards Ryou.

When she invited him to her house for the holidays, he began to question whether he had, as Ryou accused, given a different impression. If he had been honest to himself, it was not all that different from him. He found her appealing physically, her company was pleasing and far better than any other modern woman, but he certainly was not about to act as Ryou and become a rebound for a girl who was obsessed over his dead rival. The complications of that situation was all too uncomfortable.

Just like before, Bakura mused, frowning as he stepped into her house. Atemu was always good at dumping his seconds for me to pick up. The bitterness of the thought tasted acrid on his tongue.

"Is something wrong?" Anzu asked in alarm, noticing the darkening of Bakura's expression.

"Oh, not at all!" he quickly reassured, wishing both her and Atemu to the depths of the afterlife. "Just a bit cold out, that's all."

"It is," she agreed and then smiled. "I made some hot tea, come on. It'll warm you up."

As he later sat next to her, sipping the tea and watching the holiday movie, he wanted to hate her. He simply was not up to that level of dark emotion anymore, though. With the banishment of Zorc Necrophades, the only hatred he could reserve was for Atemu and there was a long list of reasons that had nothing to do with the Sennen Items. His time spent with Anzu pretending to be Ryou had added at least half a dozen other reasons.

He was unsure at what point he had developed a mild interest towards her, but when it hit him that he did, he hated Atemu for that, as well. He knew it was nonsensical to blame a dead man for his current predicament, but had he never been involved in Anzu's life, he never would have had a reason to step in. Of course, he blamed her friends, as well. He had not wanted to become involved in any of these modern humans. He had wanted to exist quietly as a half-spirit, die when Ryou's body did, and then move on to the afterlife as was expected.

His frustration and anger, of course, stemmed from the fact that as curious as he was about this girl, he was limited to Ryou's reactions and personality.

"Where are your parents?" he asked in the middle of the movie, taking a bite out of the rice biscuit she had made.

"They had to work," she answered, smiling slightly. "It happens a lot on the holidays. I think the last holiday we had together was maybe four years ago? Every other holiday I've spent with Yuugi." Her expression clouded at this realization and she gave herself a little shake.

"Was he busy?"

"I didn't ask him," Anzu admitted, smiling guiltily. "It's been nice to have some space from him and the others. And I knew that your dad was out of town for work. I didn't want you to spend it alone."

There was a pause as Bakura chewed the biscuit, wondering to himself what it was that Atemu found faulty in her that he had not been interested in her to any capacity. He always was too busy playing hero and making himself feel good to appreciate it in other people, he observed, recalling more than a few girls that, before meeting Atemu, had been just as perfectly decent as Anzu. The difference between them and Anzu was that they had become broken at the pharaoh's rejection. Anzu had healed herself and come to some conclusion about her affection towards Atemu, though it was not one she had shared with him.

"You haven't been spending much time at the game shop," he spoke up in Ryou's friendly tone after swallowing the food. "I was wondering if they had done something."

"Oh, nothing like that," she reassured him. "It's more that I just need some time away from us and our history. I love all of my friends – you're all great – but I can't just let our stuff in Duelist Kingdom and Battle City define me, you know? Yuugi and Jounouchi have a career in Duel Monsters and even though there was some terrifying stuff that happened, they gained a lot from doing those tournaments. I don't know about you, but that period kind of set me back, especially after Atemu left. That was kind of the finale, where I knew real life, as it is, had to continue." She laughed nervously. "I don't know if any of that made sense. But I just don't want to be stuck in the past. I have my own goals and they don't really have to do with them."

Carefully, Bakura asked, "And you think they don't support you?"

She shrugged and leaned over the kotatsu, drawing the blanket up to her chin. "Kind of. They've always said encouraging things, but they never came to my recitals and didn't seem too concerned about how the tournaments would change my life – or Honda's or yours, for that matter. Everything always kind of revolved around Yuugi and Atemu. It made sense since there were these people trying to take over the world and whatever. They still never asked afterward, though. For Jounouchi and Honda, it probably didn't matter because their grades were already awful, but you and I both have goals outside of Domino. You want to go to med school and I want to go to Julliard. That could have really ruined things for us."

A brief silence fell, the only sound being the movie in the background.

"Sorry," she said suddenly, smiling. "I didn't mean to dump all that on you."

"No," he said, and this time, he did not try to portray Ryou's reassuring smile. "Those are all valid points."

She blinked, staring at him a moment and then lowered the blanket, her eyes warming with gratitude. "Thanks, Ryou." Turning away, she dropped the blanket and reached over to take a biscuit. "I've been feeling selfish lately and I don't want to take it out on Yuugi and the others. It's not like they forced me to go with them during the tournaments. I don't regret it. It just would've been nice if they apologized. Atemu didn't even apologize for anything we went through when we left. That didn't even occur to me until a bit ago, after I'd had time to think about it."

He wouldn't, Bakura responded silently, returning his gaze back to the movie. He was too busy thinking about himself and Yuugi to apologize to anyone else.

At the beginning of fourth year, Anzu had returned to the Kame Game Shop, explaining it off with, "I finally got my grades caught up." To Bakura playing as Ryou, she winked conspiratorially.

In spite of the return of normality, though, she still waited for him after school for them to walk together and he found himself offering to walk with her from the game shop. The routine was comfortable for him, but it began to test his limits of self-control. He sensed no increased interest towards Ryou from her and while he had seen Otogi's curious gaze on them from time to time when they left, nobody else seemed to question Anzu's sudden companionability with him. As he had predicted to Ryou, she had not fallen in love with his host simply due to the time together.

The problem in this was that Bakura was developing an increased interest in her as a female.

Knowing himself too well, though, he had suspected that might happen. As any other man, he could appreciate her features and figure. That was never enough to tempt him outside of a one-time fling, which he knew was far from what was expected from her as he doubted she had even been kissed. He had watched her long enough and taken note of her reactions to where he began to know her better than even Ryou. She was interesting for a modern, teenage girl and that was where he began to grow discontent with his performance as Ryou.

While he could predict her personality towards him or her friends, he wondered at her reaction if she faced him as he was rather than as his host. Experimental though it may be, he would have more free range on his own actions. It would either put to rest his interest in her or could go in another direction entirely.

And so, when he left the game shop shortly after she did with the intention of meeting her, he did not think to analyze the second possibility too closely.

"Why am I so jumpy?" he heard her mumbling as he approached her.

"Good question."

And all too suddenly, when the light of recognition lit her eyes, he realized he ought to have considered closely on the second possibility. She did not look terrified to see him, nor did she appear altogether surprised to be facing him. She seemed wary, though no more so than the few times he knew she had sensed him within Ryou.

The reaction, though unexpected, pleased him. The frustration of being pent up in Ryou's body and playing to his image combined with his slowly developed consciousness of Anzu faded to satisfaction. He had experienced the women of Atemu after he had been with them and certainly none of them had looked so confident or self-assured as Anzu did in that moment. The thief lord was always just a little something to get back at the pharaoh, but they always came to him bitter, rejected, and often just finished crying. If he was going to succumb to involving himself with one of Atemu's cast-offs, Anzu seemed to be the best option out of all that he had experienced. She was not a harem girl with no self-esteem, nor was she a modern female looking for an attractive man's attention.

In spite of himself, a slow smirk lifted his lips.

It appeared that this time, it was he who had not given her enough credit.

Bonus Chapter: End