Disclaimer: (holds up signboard) I wish I owned Yu-gi-oh. But I don't. Please. If I did, this pairing would be so blatant, the series would become NC-17. So I only drool over them.

Author's Notes: Hello, I'm Hypnotic Prism. If you read anything in this fic that disagrees with you, let it be established that your back button is, in all likelihood, functioning properly and you must, at that point, use it. Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames will be ignored. And please read and review—reviews make me very happy. :)

Warnings: This is shounen ai. If you don't like it, feel free to hit the back button.

Shards

Chapter One

"I'll be gone for about ten days."

That was all right. Granted it was a lot longer than his previous trips, but that was all right. It was always all right. He was the one doing the providing, wasn't he? He was, undeniably, the one wearing the pants in the house—in fact, any room he was in; he's probably the one wearing the pants in there too.

"…after that, I might go to Europe to take care of some business. Around three days. Not too long."

Does he go anywhere that wasn't business? Not really. The man was busier than the pope during Christmas. And one trip after another was not uncommon, either. It happened a lot. It comes with being probably the richest teenager in the planet as we know it. He admired him for that, really.

"Mokuba won't be coming home from boarding school this break. You'll be on your own for a while."

And since Mokuba had been packed off to a school that was, in all rights, probably a place to turn adorable, messy-haired ragamuffins into adorable, messy-haired, commercially-competent young men, he had been on his own for a great deal of time. He was comforted to know, at least, that Mokuba's e-mails claimed that he was happy in the school, owing much to the fact that he was terrorizing school administration with his antics.

"I'll see you then."

"Okay, Seto. Have a safe trip. Don't forget to eat, okay?"

He had smiled as the teenage CEO left the manor with suitcase and briefcase for the third time that month. He had waved goodbye, seen him to the door, and watched by the gate as the limousine drove away, down the street, and vanished. For a long time, he stayed there, staring. He must've stayed quite some time, not moving, because the guard at the gate looked at him in concern and asked if something was amiss.

He said no. Nothing was amiss. Everything was as usual. But it was only three hours after he turned around and entered the manor once again that everything stopped being the usual.

He cleaned the entire house, fixed Seto's room; put everything in proper place, then turned around went to the guest room where he'd been staying for the duration of their six-month relationship, packed his bags—everything, waited until nightfall, and left. He didn't leave a letter, but neither did he leave anything that would've made obvious that he had ever been in the house to begin with. All the money he'd managed to save in his bank account, he had already taken.

Everything he did was planned at most a month beforehand. He had bought a plane ticket, one-way, out of the city. He had already found himself a place, an apartment, arranged for him to move in at any time. And for the duration of that month of waiting he stayed in the manor, mostly alone, trying to convince himself that he would never really have to do what he was planning to do, that he was being stupid, spoiled, selfish, and overall ungrateful for every good thing that Seto had ever done for him.

The month ended. And Ryou Bakura, sitting by himself in the manor that seemed so much like a tomb, with crushing silence and emptiness in all directions, with only the knowledge that he was going to be alone and stuck there being absolutely alone with nowhere else to go and having lost the overall battle versus Seto's endless work schedule, realized that he had to go.

And he did. Without a word, without a sound. Radio silence, they called it. Five times in his exodus, he was stung: during the packing, on the way to the airport, waiting for his flight, arriving in the other end, and reaching his new apartment. All five times, he wanted to smack himself, told himself that he was being utterly idiotic, that he should go back, be good and wait for Seto to come home. And all five times he stopped himself. It was easy—all he had to do was imagine what it would be like to sit and wait all over again.

And here he was.

Ryou sat up in bed slowly, wondering why it was so dark and why he was suddenly awakened. He rubbed his sleep-heavy eyes and looked to the digital clock next to his bed. The glowing red numbers proclaimed that it was five forty-five in the morning in a late August morning. He shook his head and pressed his palm to his temple. It was the first time he had dreamed of his last day in the manor since he'd left.

This was, as he now realized, precisely five years ago.

"I don't believe this…" he groaned half to himself, half to the only other living thing in the room, which happened to be a rather tubby black and white cat who was staring at him with big green eyes. At this point he finally remembered what had woken him up. He buried his face into his knees, and glared sleepily with one eye at the cat. "Tell me you didn't wake me up."

Nonchalant green eyes stared back at him. He raised an eyebrow. "Come on."

In answer, the cat dropped heavily but noiselessly down from where it was perched on his cherrywood desk, went to the bed and nuzzled him. After this, it moved casually to the door and sat, waiting quietly for Ryou to get the hint.

The silver-haired young man groaned and got up. "Crazy cat…" He went to the door and opened it, and the cat hurried along out into the darkness outside, its paws making barely heard hollow thumps on the wooden spiral staircase almost immediately. Ryou blearily padded after it, making out shapes in the dark—the short hall, the staircase, down to kitchen.

For some reason, his cat seemed to have a fondness of swiping him with a clawed paw at ungodly hours of the night just to have him wake up, open the door, go downstairs, open the kitchen doors, so it could go out. He hadn't had the cat for very long—it came with the bookshop that he had found himself being the owner of one day.

Ryou yawned and opened the door and the cat bounced out. There was a pet door, but the feline stubbornly refused to make use of the convenience. It seemed to dearly prefer waking Ryou up, and did so just to do this about once or twice a fortnight. And most unfortunately, Ryou had to stay up and wait for it to come back, otherwise its yowling would wake everyone in the hillside.

As soon as the cat was gone, Ryou slumped down into a chair and dropped an arm over his eyes and let out his breath. Five years, he decided, isn't entirely a very long time.

It might be odd to be alone, run away from it just to be alone again, but really, there was a better reason than that. After all…was what they had really what you could call a relationship? According to Ryuuji Ootogi and Katsuya Jounouchi, Ryou seemed to be a maid, not a boyfriend. Seto's reason for keeping him in the house, apparently, was that so he had someone to come home to. Fascinatingly enough, that was the only time Ryou ever really had contact with him. He didn't dare call him on the phone just to talk because that phone seemed to love ringing every five minutes for some important call.

They talked about his being away so much—but only once. It ended in a bit of mess, but they made up. And in the end, Seto still went off to another string of endless business trips.

There was also the one time Ryou snuck out and went off with Yugi and the gang—mostly, it was Ootogi's doing. He wouldn't take no for an answer. Ryou landed himself the biggest guilt trip of his life when he arrived home dawn the next day, drunk (again, mostly Ootogi's doing) and found Seto there, waiting for him. After that, he could never leave the house again.

But that house… Ryou shook his head just thinking about it. Sure, it had every comfort known to man, but it was empty. Seto and Mokuba were almost always away at some point or another. And it was so big that even if they were there, they wouldn't be able to see each other anyway. Seto was always in his office, working, and Mokuba—

He stopped himself. What was he doing? After five years, he was now trying to justify leaving that manor? It was a little late now, wasn't it? And why in the world was he making Seto look like the bad guy? All the guy ever did was, after all, give him a roof over his head, feed him, clothe him, and, apparently, be his boyfriend. He had no right to say such things about him, right? He hadn't even seen him—forever. What had happened, really? All those moments of being alone…it reminded him of a time when he was someplace else… Also very quiet, alone—except he wasn't alone… There was a dark presence there. One he didn't want to remember anymore.

There was no use justifying anything now. He had done what he had done, and it was either very stupid or very smart—he didn't know. It was also more than ancient history. He was just going to have to live with it. Although there was no denying it…sometimes he would still wake up in the night, half-asleep, ridden with painful pinpricks of vague regret, roll over and expect to feel someone human breathing next to him. Someone tall with the most incredible blue eyes he'd ever seen.

Niiru, which was the name of the charming feline, returned with a heavy thump on the door, effectively waking the sleeping male in the kitchen. Ryou jumped with a start and groggily pulled open the door. Along with the cat came in great golden beams of early-morning sunlight, fresh wind and the twittering of birds finally starting up their morning chorus. There was also the sound of shops opening, early-risers tramping down the paved road and kids on bikes.

Ryou rubbed his eyes and knew that it was time to get up. With Niiru weaving in between his steps, he went back upstairs, putting on some proper clothing and hurrying outside. He was greeted by the usual sight of a small farming town getting up for the day. He picked this place for three reasons—one, he wanted peace, two, he wanted to be far away from Domino as possible, and three, he wanted to start differently. He became used to this place, feeling as though he was a different person. And as a result of the distance and remoteness, Ryou had no contact with his friends or anyone in Domino City for the past five years.

"Good morning, Ryou," said an elderly woman in a shawl as Ryou passed by. She smiled, her face wrinkling up happily as she did.

He smiled back. "Good morning, Mrs. Harada," he said. "Need some help?" She was opening up her fruit stand. Ryou asked this question every morning, and every morning he helped her open shop. He always got free fruit from her. Everybody in the town knew everybody else, and he met everyone in his first two months of stay. He was relieved to find that they liked him.

"Hey, Bakura-san!" said a high-school girl riding a bike, waving at him as he was on his way back, carrying apples and peaches. "Do you have any books on Egyptian Mythology? I need some stuff for homework—Mr. Izumi is killing me."

Ryou couldn't help but smile at that one. He had a great deal of books of that sort of thing—for obviously personal reasons. "Yeah. I have some in the shop. Want to go take a look?"

At first, he only used to work at the only library/bookshop in the town. But the owner, the elderly Mr. Hashiguchi, had passed away. Mr. Hashiguchi had no children of his own, and he'd grown to like the helpful young man who'd come from the city, so he left the shop to Ryou completely. The shop was a great relief to the students of the town—Ryou loved books, and apart from placing his entire collection in the bookshop, he got all sorts of interesting books, not to mention things that the students desperately needed for homework. When the school library wasn't enough, the nearest bookstore and library lay in the city which was miles away. The bookshop let the students buy or borrow books they needed.

The bell tinkled as they entered, waking Niiru from his nap. The high-schooler, Sayoko, immediately went over to pat the tubby cat. "Hi, Niiru!" She scratched behind his ears as Ryou got on the stepladder to get the big hardbound on Egyptian Mythology on the shelf. She looked up at him and said, "Bakura-san, is it true that you're half-British?"

Ryou paused for a moment, not recalling telling anyone that little fact. "Uh…where did you hear that?"

To which Sayoko answered cheerfully, "It's the way you talk. Some of the other kids heard you speak English in a class at school. You have this…accent. You know, when you talk."

In a country wherein English is not a first language, Ryou almost forgot about that accent of his, and nearly laughed. He had been asked to sub one time when the English teacher was down with fever. He now laughed, finally understanding the curious, interested looks the students were giving him whenever he would speak.

"What's so funny?" Sayoko blinked.

"Nothing," Ryou smiled, glancing at her. "Yes, I'm half. Here—this book'll help." He stepped down from the ladder and set it on a table, blowing some dust off it. It was one of the old ones.

"But it's ancient!" Sayoko exclaimed, staring at it.

Ryou laughed. "That's the point. It's Ancient Egypt. Trust me, it'll help." Already, Sayoko was flipping through the yellowed pages, looking through the texts. The amateur shopkeeper looked out the window and saw a big to-do going on near the school gymnasium. Students were racing on bikes or on foot towards it, all armed with decorations, posters, not to mention cards and Duel Disks. Apparently, Duel Monsters' sphere of influence was far reaching.

"What's going on up at the school?" Ryou asked, looking at Sayoko, who was already scribbling onto the rental card. She glanced up at him and said, "Oh. It's the Festival." She laughed. "Everybody wants to have a great time in it. There's even going to be a Duel Monster's tournament. I'm planning on being in it!" She held up her deck.

"Is that why you want to get your homework done so badly?" Ryou laughed. "I guess I can understand that. You should do your best—there must be a lot of you very good out there."

"Yeah," she nodded, then snorted and rolled her eyes. "The boys don't think much of me, because I'm a girl and all. They're all huge fans of the Duel King and all pattern themselves after him or something."

Ryou burst out laughing at the mental image of Yugi clones all over the school. Apparently, even Yugi's influence goes where Duel Monsters goes. All of a sudden, he found himself wondering how his friends were doing and if they were okay. He missed them, even though he wasn't as close as the rest of them were. Mostly it was due to his psychopath of a yami, but there was no denying that they were friends.

He smiled at Sayoko. "Well, that should be easy for you, right?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sayoko blinked.

"Well…they all can't be the Duel King…" Ryou shrugged, looking over a new shipment of books that had arrived. "So mostly they'll just try to copy what he does. Have you seen how Yugi Motou plays?"

"Yeah—loads of times, on TV."

Ryou smiled. "See? They won't all be exactly as good as him, but if you look into the strategies and the cards they'll most likely pull, you'll be able to counter them. And if they're all the same, then you can practically mop them up in one sweep." He put a book into a shelf. "Admiring someone is good…but if you really want to be a great Duelist you're going to have to find your own methods… Copying from someone can only take you so far."

He picked up another book, and found that it was another Egypt book. He handed it to her with a smile. "And if they think that way about your being a girl, show them up. I happen to know that there are very talented women duelists out there." And of course, Mai Valentine and Vivien Wong come to mind. He heard they were a tag-team now, and that just made them too dangerous to leave unsupervised. And of course, he meant that in the best way possible.

Sayoko smiled. "So it's true."

"What is?" he blinked.

"That you're a Duelist."

Ryou smiled a little and turned back to the books. Really, it was Bakura who did the Dueling. He hardly ever dueled by himself. Every time he'd enter a battle, Bakura would butt in and there it'd end. "I used to be, yeah."

"No, you still are," Sayoko smiled. "You don't really grow out of it, right? Hiroshi said he saw your deck. Why don't you Duel anymore?"

Ryou paused for a moment. There were many reasons. Memories he was trying to keep hidden mostly. Bakura was another. He smiled at her. "I don't know, really… I just don't."

"Maybe we can duel sometime," she grinned, putting the books into her backpack and slinging them over her shoulder. "Me and my friends will come over. Hope you're not rusty."

"Oh, I terribly am," Ryou laughed, embarrassed.

"Come to the Festival, okay?" she chirruped as she headed to the door. She waved as she got on her bike. "See you! Thanks for the books!"

"Take care!" Ryou waved as she pedaled off, making a beeline for the school in the distance. Ryou watched her go, shook his head and laughed. He was starting to feel like he was old. That was a bad sign. Mr. Hashiguchi did tell him jokingly that being hunched over books all the time will make an old man out of him. And Mrs. Harada chimed in saying that it would be a pity for such a pretty young man. It was incredibly embarrassing.

"Maybe I should take a peek at that festival…" Ryou murmured as he climbed the stepladder again to crawl into the little box-like storeroom above the shelves. "What do you think, Niiru?"

The fat cat just mewed disinterestedly, pawing at the blossoms on the little potted plant on the store counter. He gave it a tentative sniff, and his whiskers perked along with his ears as there was, unmistakably, a car pulling up the curb a short way from the store. Niiru had never seen it before, so he watched interestedly.

The car stopped a little across the bookstore, and a tall man in a black suit and Ray-bans who looked like some sort of bodyguard walked out of it. A few more came out, but these only stood around the car while the first man wandered around. He looked confused, scratching his head, and from the looks of him, he was a city fellow—city people had that expression of confusion on their faces which meant that they weren't used to a rural area when they get there.

He walked around a few times, shaking a cellphone then peering into it from time to time. Finally he stopped, scratched his head again, and looked up to see the sign on the store. Tentatively, the tall man peeked in.

"Excuse me!" he hollered into the store. "Anybody in here?"

Ryou jumped from where he was in the storage area and crashed his head on the low ceiling. "Ow!" he rubbed his head, frowned at the offending ceiling, and then called kindly, "Hai! Sorry, I'm just getting something in storage—what may I do for you?"

The man walked in, still looking puzzled. "Ah, sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you have a working phone here. Cell phone doesn't seem to be working."

Ryou laughed, realizing the dilemma common to city folk as he peeked from the storage. "Sorry—but cell phones don't work very well around here. You could try further up at the school…"

He trailed off here. He blinked, staring at the man, trying to remember. He knew him. He really knew him. The man, however, hasn't recognized him yet. He was still looking worriedly out at the car outside. "I'm sorry, but the call is urgent—isn't there anyplace nearer?"

Ryou snapped back to his senses. "Oh! Well…there really isn't… But you can use the phone here, if it's really urgent…"

"Thank you, that would be fine…"

Ryou ducked down under the counter to retrieve the phone—he had put it there owing to the fact that he usually had so many books cluttered up on the counter that there was no room for it. It kept nagging him, that voice. Did he really know this guy…? Maybe he was just imagining it…

"I'm sorry, this is going to sound crazy but I keep feeling we've met before," said the man in the shop. "Uh…Are you a duelist? Participate in any tournaments or something?"

"I think— " He stopped as it was only then that the realization hit Ryou so hard that even when he bumped his head on the counter in shock, he didn't feel the pain. He did know that man! His heart slammed into his ribcage as it all came flooding back. The man in the sunglasses—was Isono! He was the bodyguard-slash-attendant-slash-employee of none other than—

"What's taking so long?"

He straightened up from the counter at the new voice, only to meet an intensely blue gaze that he hadn't seen in five years. A tall young man in a billowing white coat had walked into the store while Ryou had ducked down. And he had looked at him in the exact same moment Ryou looked back. His heart stopped altogether.

He was staring into the eyes of Seto Kaiba.

Here ends chapter one. Please review!