Darkness of Winter: Confession
Well, the good news is that Bakura's body is now able to produce its own heat, and his temperature should return to normal now. The bad news is that if he wakes up anytime soon, Bakura will gut me and use my various organs and intestines to decorate his Christmas tree.
Yes, we were curled up in the blankets together. And yes, we were both naked.
I swear this was only for his own good! I am not enjoying this in any way, shape or form imaginable! Besides, he should be fine now, so I can just back away slowly and pick up my clothes; maybe not make this seem as bad as it looks now.
OH CRAP! He's waking up!
Bakura blinked a few times, clearing his eyes. While he was struck with his morning blindness, I scrambled furiously to get out of the tangle of blankets and maybe find something to where if I was lucky. Unfortunately, the blankets were too entwined and they tangled me into a… suggestive position… with Bakura. By now he was fully awake.
"WHAT THE BLOODY FREAKING HELL?!" he screamed, grabbing a blanket and pulling it over himself as best he could (Now why didn't I think of that?).
"It's not what it looks like—" I started.
"I FALL ASLEEP FOR A FEW BLOODY MINUTES—"
"Let me explain—"
"PHARAOH, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! ANSWER QUICKLY OR I'LL HAVE YOUR SKIN AS A RUG IN MY APARTMENT!"
"I did it to save your bloody LIFE!" I yelled angrily.
"AND HOW THE HELL DO YOU FIGURE THAT?!"
"YOU WERE HYPOTHERMIC! I had to get you to warm up somehow!"
"AND YOU CHOSE THIS WAY?!"
"I DON'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" I growled, "I mean with my body heat!"
"And so we had to both be NAKED?!" he screamed.
"YES, actually," I protested, "Your clothes would keep in the cold!"
"Like hell," he muttered, somewhat quieter than before, "Like hell would you ever want me to survive."
I was about to reply, but I shut my mouth almost the moment I opened it. For once, it seemed, he was right. He was my bitter enemy, so was I so scared and worried when he became hypothermic? And why was I so concerned that I would actually undress us both to save him?
Maybe it was the fact that I would miss competing with him. Yes, that's it, I would miss having someone to challenge. What about Seto Kaiba, though? I could always challenge him. I didn't need to always challenge Bakura. Ack, no, no, no, I can't be disproving my own theory! Loophole, loophole… ah! Yes! Seto never tries to steal my puzzle! A loophole, yes! I'd miss Bakura because he keeps me on my toes! Yes, that's it! I would miss Bakura as a rival, not because I loved him or anything…
…
…
BAD THOUGHTS! No! I don't love Bakura, I don't! He's my rival! We're so different! Sure, we have some things in common, but his intentions are evil, mine are good, right? Well, no, he was doing it because of his village, so his intentions weren't and aren't evil—no, I'm disproving myself again! But we don't belong together, we're too different, we're—
"Two sides of the same coin." Bakura finished.
Oh crap… those last thoughts were out loud… curse my external voice!
"Bakura, I, er," I stammered.
"Save it," he rolled his eyes, "If I wasn't thinking the same way, why would I have faked sick to come here?"
"FAKED sick?!"
"Duh. Ancient spirits can't get sick."
"How? Why?" My head was spinning. He faked sick… to stay with me? No, no, Ryou was supposed to take care of him, unless… unless I would agree to help my friend and stay behind, because it was obvious I'd do anything to stay….
"Exactly right, Pharaoh. You were always too helpful to your friends."
….
…curse you, external voice!
"But you were so sick before, and your temperature... what about that?"
"All faked," he smirked, "I used Shadow Magic to weaken myself so I'd stumble and all that other weakness crap. I used water to mat down my hair, took a few sleeping pills to appear sleepy, and then used Shadow Magic again to heat myself up for the temperature."
"But… on the third day here you were…"
"Pharaoh, everybody knows that you can make yourself throw up by putting your finger down your throat. Any high school student or person with a boring job could tell you that."
"And you did this all to stay here with… me?!"
"Exactly."
"This is crazy. Insanely crazy."
"You expected less from me?"
"…No, not really."
Bakura just smirked and leaned back against the couch. Damn, with the blanket half-covering him, he does look sexy…
"Okay, this is a bit strange, but I'll go along with it. I'll admit, it is kind of flattering that you'd go to these lengths to get alone with me, and again I'll admit, it is really appealing, but faking hypothermia to get us… like 'this'? There's more to a relationship than sex, Bakura."
"I didn't plan on the hypothermia," he twitched, "It was an interesting turn, though."
"So you really were hypothermic?! What happened to 'ancient spirits can't get sick'?"
"Hypothermia is a condition, not a sickness, Pharaoh."
"First things first, if we want this to work out, we'll both have to cut the caste crap."
"I thought you loved being Pharaoh?" Bakura smirked, "And I thought I was moving fast. Are you so quick to accept your greatest rival as your lover now?"
"Stranger things have happened… and it's been a long day," he sighed.
"And it hasn't occurred to you that this long day happened to be Christmas Eve?"
"WHAT?!" I exclaimed.
"Tomorrow's Christmas. I don't know much about it, but the mortals here seem to hold it in high regards. There was something about gifts, and then some crap about friends and family."
There was a long silence in which we both just stared at each other. I wanted to say something—anything—to him, but the words didn't come. Finally, Bakura got tired of the long silence.
"To hell with it," he snapped. He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a long, heated kiss that could have defrosted the whole upper floor.
Well I'll be damned, he tastes like strawberries.
Meanwhile, Up in the Mountains…
"I can't get through to them!" Yugi exclaimed, putting the phone back down.
"The power must be out," Ryou sighed, "Let me try my apartment."
Yugi nodded and handed the phone to Ryou. Ryou accepted it and dialed his apartment number. All he could hear was static, so he sighed and hung up. He thought for a moment and picked it up again, dialing a different number.
'Bakura's cell phone,' he mouthed silently to Yugi, noticing his look of confusion.
He waited for a few moments while it rang, before there was a click and Bakura's voicemail picked up.
"…bloody freaking machine, how does the damned thing work? Stupid thing, what does this button—" Ryou heard a beep and Bakura's voice stopped. He sighed and hung up without leaving a message (not that Bakura would know how to check it; why did he even have a cell phone in the first place?).
"Let me try Yami's cell phone," said Yugi, taking the phone.
"I thought his name was Atem…?"
"He said I could still call him Yami if I wanted. Besides, it sounds kind of cute," Yugi giggled. Ryou smiled. He sometimes called Bakura ''kura' when he wasn't around. Calling him 'kura to his face would result in a slow, painful death.
Yugi dialed the number and listened.
Meanwhile, at the Game Shop…
I groaned and lifted my head slightly at the sound of my "Desert Rose" ringtone (A/N: That's my ringtone ). Bakura was still asleep from our… activities… and I was still groggy, having just woken up. I slowly got up in search of my cell phone, which was lying amidst the pile of supplies from grandpa's closet.
I picked it up and answered hazily, "…Hello?"
"Yami!" A familiar voice squealed through the phone, "We were worried about you!"
"Yugi was worried about you, I thought you would already be dead with Bakura," Ryou's voice interrupted.
"Ryou!" Yugi squealed. I heard the sounds of a struggle, and was slightly annoyed by this. I hope they knew how many minutes they were costing me, and sheesh, the bill is long enough…
"Hey guys," I yawned, "Having fun?"
"There was a blizzard yesterday, so we were trapped inside, but they said we should be allowed out by tomorrow! Which is Christmas, did you know?"
"Yeah, I knew."
"I'll give you a call tomorrow to wish you a Merry Christmas then, and we'll bring you and Bakura some presents, okay?"
"Okay," I yawned, "That'd be great, aibou,"
"You sound tired, are you okay, Yami?"
"Fine, fine, just a bit drained."
"Bye! Hope you and Bakura don't kill each other! Have fun!"
"Same to you, aibou, have fun with Ryou," I smirked.
"YAMI!" he yelled. Heh, I could practically feel his blush from here. I heard him hang up, and at the same time I felt Bakura fidgeting beside me.
"Who?" he asked.
"Yugi and Ryou," I answered, tossing my cell phone back into the pile of stuff.
"You know Ryou likes Yugi," said Bakura, rubbing his eyes.
"That's what I meant by 'have fun'," I smirked.
"Ah," he grinned.
Up on the Mountain…
"What exactly did Atem mean by that?" Ryou grinned.
"Well, uh, that is to say, well," Yugi stammered, turning several interesting shades of red.
Ryou giggled. "It's okay, Yugi, I think I have a pretty good idea already." He gave Yugi a quick kiss on Yugi's flushed cheek.
Yugi just blushed and nodded.
At the Game Shop…
Bakura and I roared with laughter, rolling around on the couch.
"That'll be an interesting relationship," I laughed, "Two lights! Think they'll be too nervous to kiss?"
"I wonder who would be dominant," Bakura cackled.
"Ouch," I winced, "That just put some disturbing images in my head."
"Did they look like… this?" Bakura smirked, pulling me into another kiss.
"Not yet," I muttered, pulling the blankets over us, "But it will."
Yay! Some fluffiness and they are actually TOGETHER! Phew, I never thought I would get to this stage! Next chapter will be the Christmas chapter, so expect lots more fluff!