I'm a student in school saving up money to buy American Eagle Underwear… do I look like I own Yu-Gi-Oh to you? That's what I thought. Ha!

Bakura's never asked anyone out before and desperately needs help. So, he asks Ryou to help him out, even though Ryou doesn't know who it is for... Bakura/Ryou

Teach Me How

Written: about a year ago >)

Ideas on how to ask him out:

1.

Bakura bit his pencil thoughtfully, tapping his long fingers on his desk. After a few seconds or so, he crumpled the notebook paper into a ball with pure frustration and threw it behind him, not really caring where it landed.

He replaced that sheet with another new piece of paper. He stretched his fingers out a bit and then eagerly wrote with a huge grin:

New Ideas on How to ask him out:

1.

Satisfied, he sat back on his comfy leather chair and continued to stare at the paper, as if to command it to start writing out ideas on its own. Bakura's grin turned into a frown. It was not working.

Stupid paper.

He reached over to grab another sheet of paper, but he heard a knock on his door and soft voice called out, "Bakura? Can I come in?" that was no one else but his other, lighter, and better half Ryou. Bakura hurriedly grabbed a random book off the floor to cover the paper. Then he hastily took another book off the desk on his lap to look as if he had been reading.

As predicted, Ryou came inside, politely but curiously. Bakura could feel the curiosity that his other half had. Bakura could sense it from him. Although they were not bound by the puzzle anymore, Bakura could still be connected to Ryou in some way that he knows how Ryou was feeling at certain moments. They have a very special bond.

Ryou. Bakura could go on for all eternity talking about him. Thinking about him. Watching him from afar. Ever since Bakura received his own body, Ryou had been kind enough to take him in even though he could have easily turned Bakura away. Bakura could not believe the amount of kindness and gentleness he had. And forgiveness. Even after all the things that Bakura had put him through, Ryou still took him in. All the danger. The quest for the millennium items (Bakura had given up a long time ago when he nearly lost his soul to the Shadow Realm when he lost the duel with Marik). Nearly killing him at Battle City. Taking over his body.

But still, even after all that, Ryou, with the purest and greatest heart Bakura had ever encountered, offered him a second a chance and a chance to start all over. And to this day, Bakura had never forgotten all that Ryou did for him.

Somehow, between Battle City and now, he had accidentally fallen in love with his hikari, his light, his better half. How did that happen? Bakura would never know. All he knew was that there were feelings for him that no word could describe and it was… weird.

Now, it had taken him a while, like forever, but Bakura had mustered up the courage to start planning on how to ask him out without getting hurt too much if he got rejected, which he hoped with all his evilness that he wouldn't.

Please, Ra, don't let him be rejected.

"What are you doing?" Ryou asked, clearly as curious as a cat. Bakura turned in his chair and showed him a book that he had picked out randomly that was on his lap. Ryou burst out laughing, not intending to, but did anyway. Bakura frowned increased as if to say, "Huh?"

Ryou stopped laughing long enough to explain to his darker self. "Bakura, no offense, but not even you need six hours to read Goodnight Moon."

Six hours? Has it been that long already? No way. He remembered coming home from school then heading to his room… and it was only four when he started… what time is it now?

"It's a ten o' clock," Ryou confirmed, as if he was reading his thoughts.

Wow. "Oh." Bakura felt really stupid to have not picked out a better excuse or at least a better book. Therefore, he attempted another one. "Well, I was only showing you that book so you wouldn't feel bad about yourself," Bakura explained, sounding haughty and arrogant, like the person he was.

Ryou raised an eyebrow to question his statement. "Sorry, Bakura, but why would I feel bad about yourself?"

"Because I was… uh, reading my history textbook! Yeah, that's it! I didn't want to make you feel bad that I was studying so… I lied to you and showed you Goodnight Moon instead!" Bakura enlightened Ryou, grinning. Good job Bakura, I always knew you had it in you.

Ryou did not respond. He, instead, diverted his attention to the floor, his brown orbs practically scanning it. Bakura's focus shifted and his mouth dropped in horror.

The floor was filled with paper balls!

How many papers had he used anyway? Bakura groaned. He could not believe he had used so many papers. Maybe one or two here or there, but wow… it looked like the ceiling was raining papers balls or something.

Poor trees.

Ryou bent down and picked up one of them, unfolding it carefully so it wouldn't tear. His eyebrows came together in confusion as he read it out loud. "Ideas on how to bring up the topic for a date." He paused, tossing it aside to reach for another one. "Ideas on HOW to get ideas to bring up the topic for a date." Ryou looked at Bakura, who had started to whistle while looking at the ceiling. "Bakura? You want to tell me something?"

"Uh…" Whistle. "No." Whistle. Suddenly, Bakura stopped whistling and stopped looking at the ceiling when he noticed Ryou unfolding all the papers. "Uh, Ryou, what are you doing? No, not that one, hey, stop! Ryou!"

Bakura got off the chair as Ryou started to read some more out loud, laughing out loud in the process. "Bakura! Really! Ideas on how to approach him. Ideas that would actually work on how to approach him. And, ooh! Look! This is a good one! Let me read it out loud… ow, hey!"

Bakura snatched the piece of paper away from his fingers before he could say another word. "Ryou! Privacy, here? I never go snooping around your trash!"

Ryou's grin was like an angel, if Bakura didn't know any better. His eyes were innocent, revealing no evil or mischief. "But Bakura," he started, putting his hands on his hips, "don't tell me you have a crush on someone!"

"Ryou, this is not—"

"Oh. My. God. BAKURA, you, YOU, of all people, has a CRUSH on someone? Who is she? Or is it a he? I cannot believe that you…"

"SHH! Bakura closed the door, looking around, glaring at the window suspiciously and whispering, "You don't have to shout it out for the whole world to know, you know!"

"Bakura, it's a Friday night. Everyone is out partying at a club. And there's no one around. You don't have to be so embarrassed you know."

I am. And if you were me, you would be too.

"I'm not, it's just—"

"Could have fooled me! What's with all the papers anyway? Planning to make your move? Literally. I can tell you're planning," Ryou stated obviously, sounding triumphant.

"I don't know how things work in this century! Course I have to plan it out carefully and slowly! But so far, I haven't gotten how to even bring up the topic." Bakura's cheeks flushed a bright red, embarrassed that he was spilling all this to his hikari, especially since he was the one Bakura was planning to ask out. "Look, forget you ever saw this, I'll just continue working on my ridiculous plans, thanks."

"You're getting nowhere." Ryou looked thoughtful for a moment before brightening up again. "I'll help you! Besides, it'll take you all night to even think of one idea anyway, if you're lucky."

"Uh, I don't think it's a good idea," Bakura told him, as Ryou made himself comfy on Bakura's chair and grabbing a pencil off the desk and sticking it behind his ear. Ryou, helping Bakura to ask someone out? And that someone just happened to be RYOU himself? No way, not going to happen. There was no way in Ra that Ryou would help Bakura plan his own date if he agreed. But then again, Ryou would never want to hurt anyone, not even a fly, so maybe he'll agree anyway just for this one time, but… UGH, this was so frustrating!

Now thinking about how awkward it would be, Bakura rushed to think of an excuse to make him leave so he can continue his own downfall. "Really, Ryou, don't you have plans with Yugi tonight? Surely, he'll want you there…"

Ryou shrugged as he pushed several of Bakura's car magazines aside. (Bakura winced at the sound of his precious magazines falling on the floor.) "Cancelled. Yugi had a change of plans. Guess Yami came back early from his trip to Egypt after all. Joey's out with his sister, and Tristan's working anyway. Just as well."

Bakura shuddered at the thought. Yami and Yugi. Ugh. He couldn't believe that those two have been going at it for three years now. Talk about commitment. They'll never be bored as long as they have each other to entertain…

Ew, ew, EW! Bakura, don't go there!

"Come here! Do you want to get started or not?"

No. But how can I refuse his help without any good reasons?

"Er, I suppose…" Bakura answered uneasily, moving himself to the bed which was right next to the desk, and plopping himself down. "So what now?"

"Well, first, you get a new sheet of paper. This," he waved the one Bakura was working on earlier, "has got to go. I don't think you'll be needing this anyway." He stuffed the paper in the trash can. Bakura did not understand why Ryou didn't just throw it behind him or put it on the floor; trash cans were notoriously annoying at times. The floor worked just as well.

"And, okay, first off all, who is this person?" Ryou wanted to know, looking straight into Bakura's eyes. "Maybe that person has a preference on what to do on a first date and stuff…"

"Uh… I don't think he'll care," Bakura mumbled quietly under his breath, cursing himself for getting himself into these stupid situations. REALLY! What happened to all his intelligence? Did it fly out the window?

"Hmm… okay…" Ryou thought out loud in a tone that made Bakura wonder if Ryou heard the he'll at all. Ryou wrote in his neat, cursive handwriting (unlike Bakura's messy chicken scratch) How to Ask Out. Ryou showed him the paper and said, "Okay? Now, think of something. If you were to go up to whoever it is, what would you say?"

"Er… uh… let me… Maybe… Ughh… I don't know!"

"How about, 'Hey, are you busy tomorrow? If not, you want to hang out or go do something…'"? Ryou suggested, shrugging his shoulder and placing his head on his hand.

"Hey.. yeah! That sounds good! How come I never thought of that?"

"Cause I'm smarter than you? I'm joking, Bakura," he quickly added seeing Bakura's face. "Okay, so we'll just use that and if not, I'll add a backup…" He then wrote underneath it, 'Let's do something tomorrow to get to know each other better'.

"All right, we got that taken care of. How about… the place? Like where do you want the place to be held?"

"Uh…"

"Never mind. I got it. I'll plan this out for you," Ryou reassured Bakura. Bakura could only nod, grinning sheepishly and groaning silently inside. If this kept going on, Ryou would have planned his own date himself!

"Uh, Ryou? How about… a picnic at the park? You know? Just me and him… I'll cook something!" Bakura quickly told him, an idea that just happened to pop in his head. He didn't expect Ryou to think it was good, but as it turned out, Ryou loved it and wrote it down hurriedly, complimenting Bakura. Bakura smiled embarrassedly, enjoying the compliment inside and was practically glowing.

"What are you going to cook though? Wait, back up, CAN you cook?" Ryou asked him, with an unsure look on his face. Bakura was sure that he was remembering the time that he was attempting to get bread out a toaster. He had almost burn down the entire house…

"Yes, yes," he said carelessly, "how hard can it be? I'll just borrow some cookbooks from the dreaded library and all will be set." Bakura watched as Ryou's face became more and more worried and Bakura added, "I promise I'll follow instructions this time."

Last time that Bakura had tried to make cake, he had decided that mixing the eggs and sugar together sounded disgusting so he decided to add the eggs on top of the cake after it was baked into… a deformed solid looking thing. Gross.

"Okay… you know what, on second thought, a movie sounds better… is that okay with you?"

That continued throughout the night; Ryou asking Bakura for ideas and half the time, Ryou ended up thinking up the idea himself because Bakura was answering with an, "Uh… I can't… hold on, let me think…". He figured it would be faster to do it himself and like always, Ryou was right.

In the end, Ryou had done about 83.9745 of the work and this is was the final draft in the end:

How to Ask Out: "Would to give me the opportunity to get to know someone as intelligent, funny, and cute as you?"

Place: Movie and dinner

Movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Pick Up: 7, movie starts at 7:30

Dinner: Approximately 8:15

"Great," Bakura said, lying down on his bed. "I'm done!"

Ryou yawned and looked at the clock. It was 2 a.m. That had taken up several hours. He stood up and stretched. "Bakura? I'm going off to bed." Ryou leaned forward and kissed Bakura on the cheek, kissing good night. "Sweet dreams."

Bakura had two seconds to recover from the shock of getting kissed by Ryou and he quickly sat up. "Ryou?"

Ryou turned around. "Yes?"

Bakura got off the bed and stood in front of him, looking unsure of what to say. "Listen, do you mind if I changed my words on how to ask out a little bit?"

Ryou blinked in surprise that he would ask such a stupid question and shook his head. "No, Bakura, why would I mind?"

"Good. Well… listen… tomorrow, we have no school, and…"

"Yes… so?"

"Look, I have to confess. I liked you ever since… you let me stay here, okay? Every day, I dream about standing in front of you, looking at you straight into your eyes and telling you I have feelings for you." Ryou's eyes opened slightly in shock, but Bakura ignored it, fueled by a sudden rush of determination that came out of nowhere. "Can you… will you give me the opportunity to… maybe show you how much I care?"

Ryou stared back at Bakura's serious eyes and finally smiled. "You know, that was a perfect line. You didn't need my help after all."

Bakura could only respond when Ryou leaned towards him to give him his answer. Closing his eyes and feeling Ryou's lips on his, made him realize…

Screw it, he can't think anymore.

-OWARI-

Bakura and Ryou… one of my favorite couples, yet THIS STORY IS SO CORNY! Why can't I think of something better :(...

Oh well, I told myself that I would somehow write a B/R story and I just did. I'm trying to break out of the SJ stories and expand my... err... yeah... I'm trying new things.

Please review with constructive criticism on this story, I know I need it. I actually wrote this story a year back, but I never had the intention of posting it up... I really wonder why... oh well... guess I just forgot about it...

Always thankful for you guys who read this :)

-lilrubydevil-