Struck down.

Odd. They shouldn't be together like this. The demon that he'd been living together with in that accursed ring should not be present. There were other people here too - A boy whom he could vaguely recognize, odd spikes standing up from his skull, and people whom he could only, at the first instance, hate. Hate so terribly that it burned his lungs and made his eyes water.

But there was another boy there, one who's appearance was so similar to the demon that was right behind him. He wouldn't call him angelic, for such a term would be fat to cliché to describe him with - No. Touzouko rather saw him as something familiar, a turning point, something that he could touch and come home to.

Familiarity was everything to him now. He needed a key point, just a person, a thing, a being that made it easier for him to root, having had no consistency throughout the course of his life.

"Hi " the boy's voice was clear, though Touzouko noted the sideward glance towards the darker being next to him. It seemed that, not unlike himself, he dared not to trust him. Perhaps he couldn't. But he was regarded with the same uncertainty, if not just for being new, it was certainly because perhaps he /did/ know. Perhaps he was conscious of it, the connection that he himself shared with him, that he dubbed as Bakura. For that was how he'd come to call himself.

"I'm Ryou."

"I'm.." he hesitated for a split second before gruffly patting the boy's shoulder, rather unsure of what to do with the situation. "Call me Touzouko."

It seemed to dawn on the boy what the name meant, the alias he'd created for himself so long ago. His gaze flickered between my own and the Pharaoh, while, unbeknownst to him, he was getting closer at the truth than most men that had ever attempted to understood me, could.

He was still not used to it. The nervosity coursing through his body was much akin to adrenaline, only now he'd had to make due with a boy that he usually would've cast aside. A whole stack of people that he wasn't prepared to deal with. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to believe that he had not died, not yet at least.

"Beautiful reunion really." And there it was. That aggravating voice that Touzouko longed for to shut up. At times, he had. Times when he had smashed his lips against the others just to stop that mouth from talking, times where he'd attempted to make him scream as he hurt him in several ways. Bakura often forgot how cruel he could be, but would never forget just what exactly pissed him off.

Hands trembling lightly, he awkwardly positioned them alongside his body.

"Shut up Bakura." The previous doubt that Touzouko'd seen lingering about him, was now gone without a trace. It seemed that, now that the dark spirit had acquired his own body, the boy had decided for himself that he was not to be intimidated. It was the fact that he could now, if necessary, touch him, no longer the separate unreachable entity in his mind, that he felt reassured.

"What was that host? The spirit snapped back, "I haven't seen you this cocky before, your balls must've dropped earlier than I expected."

Ryou visibly flushed, already regretting the decision to say anything.

"Don't pay attention to him." Touzouko's voice, so similar to the spirit that took after his own appearance, still startled Ryou.

"Shouldn't he?" It was clear the other was infuriated. And that was dangerous. "I was under the impression we should now all hold hands and sing fucking cumbaja!"

Ah. Only one glance at the former Pharaoh on the other side of the room made it clear to me. The adventure was over, there was no longer anything Bakura could live for. As an entity, an entity that Touzouko had created in his own foolish attempts for power, he'd only had Zorc to live up to. He'd only had his revenge to live for.

Now it was over. The battle had been fought and it was us who had been cast into a new and unfamiliar world. The taller man understood his inner conflict. With Zorc gone, there wasn't a way for him to plunge the world into chaos. Without Zorc all of a sudden Bakura was forced to accept the fact that he no longer had a purpose. And that was a terrifying force that suddenly pressed upon him.

They were forced upon each other now. The Pharaoh was taken in easily by Yugi, all smiles and laughter as they hugged and rejoiced. As for Touzouko and Bakura.. It worried Touzouko what Ryou would seem to do with two editions of himself. And Bakura definitely wasn't making things better for either of us either.

"So what now?" Touzouko's voice was low and hesitant. His feet seemed to carry themselves over the floor until he was further away from the dark spirit beside him. After all this time, he still caused him relative unease. There was no place to hide here.

"We're going home."

Rough months had passed. For a peculiar reason Bakura had come to live with them too, even if Ryou was not yet used to seeing someone who looked so much like him, walk around. Touzouko wasn't sure if Bakura had wanted to look like this either, judging by the fact that he had taken this form because of his host. Before he had been wandering endlessly, stealing through a realm that was swallowing him completely, but keeping a sense of self that pulled him through it. It was stranger to him to finally have a body of his own now, and sometimes, it was readable in his eyes.

There were little notions. A twitch of the hand when he grabbed a knife, a cock of the head when he noticed his reflection -

And there were his fits of anger. His complete unjustified anger that threatened everyone near him and casually made place for that desperation that Touzouko had noticed within Ryou too. Bakura did not know his place in the world anymore, and Ryou was desperate to make things work. Touzouko, as a human who'd both learned to live in the world and in a realm, and who had lived for a considerably long time with the spirit, had usually tried to calm things.

"Bakura." His tone was threatening, on the edge of breaking when he lost his nerve. "Shut up about it and sit the fuck down." Sometimes he really did feel like a participant of a wrestling match, one where he was certain he could win but where he knew the other would not give easily. Every day with Bakura was a struggle. He hated everything.

"That's NOT my name." he hissed at me, throwing the papers in the air that Ryou had neatly arranged for college.

"You're being ridiculous," Ryou had shied away from the company, just looking from a safe distance where his brown orbs wouldn't look so shocked and perplexed. "Pray tell, what would be your name then? You want to go by the name of Zorc?" A cruel laugh escaped Touzouko's lips, revernating throughout the room. He thought of nights when he'd been shivering in the cold, the only comfort being the creature that Bakura took after. The only thing keeping you warm being the words of revenge he hissed in your ear. There was no use trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.

"Too good for it now huh Touzouko?" Bakura's voice came to a screeching halt, his hands resting at his sides, trembling. "Didn't think that when you called for his help hm? MY help?"

Touzouko felt his mouth go dry. "You're not Zorc, Bakura."

Ryou suddenly showed an unusual interest in his corner of the room. He too, had never been quite sure of what Bakura was exactly.

"Does Ryou KNOW what you did Touzouko?" The voice dropped even lower and Touzouko started to feel really uneasy, his eyes darting back and forth between Ryou and Bakura. He wasn't sure who he was scared of more. The former for what he'd say if he knew, or the latter for revealing everything.

"What do you mean?" Ryou came closer, oblivious to Touzouko's expression, his curiosity piqued.

"Well.." Bakura started to laugh and the papers he had still been holding dropped carelessly to the floor, causing the fluttering sound to unease Touzouko even further. They symbolised the control that the spirit had just let go of, their fluttering representing the utter chaos that he emitted everywhere he went. "Let me show you.." Within an instant he had reached Ryou, prowling over him and Touzouko felt like his heart would stop.

Ryou was instantly taken away, his eyes going blank as hands covered his temples.

Flashes of fire, raising higher and higher until the smoke didn't let the dark of the night in anymore. There were terrible screams all around him, rising in pitch and crying, sobbing with endless human fear and begging for mercy.

"No, no, PLEASE PLEASE DON'T, NOT MY BABY - NOT MY BABY!"

They usually ended fairly quickly only to inspire a new wave of awful cries and running people. There was so much blood, running thickly over the ground and smelling of a sickening iron smell that made Ryou feel nauseous as he saw it. He hastened himself to get near to the source, but when he reached it he felt more sickened than before. Sploosh, sploosh did the bodies entering the golden pot, their screams dying on their tongues as it melted within the substance.

And then he noticed.

The young boy hiding behind a wall, shivering so terribly that he could not even hold still, his small hands grasping a cloak that was draped around his shoulders. One that Ryou instantly recognized as Touzouko's. His heart clenched at the sight of him, eyes that seemed so lost and fearful and a fist propped in his mouth to keep himself from screaming, but yet his eyes could not look away from the terror unfolding before him.

He was ruined, forever tainted.

When he came back he was shaking, terrified by what he'd just seen and looking at Touzouko with eyes that were widened and a breathing that was hitched and irregular. But it wasn't just because of what he'd seen. It was because it all felt all too familiar.

"Do you see now host?" Bakura's voice sweetly called to him. "That's what you are. That is what you were."

"Bakura stop it.." Touzouko managed to hiss, fearful of Ryou's reactions as they were.

"He killed and murdered to satisfy his own pathetic needs you know.." Bakura carelessly added, his body completely relaxed as he noticed the others getting steadily more frantic. "But that was mainly because.. He eventually met Zorc." Touzouko wanted to punch the teeth-baring grin off his face, he wanted to scream, to yell at the world at how unfair everything was. WHY was Bakura here, why did he have to get resurrected too, after all.. After all he wasn't even -

"I'm the part that got lost, when little Touzouko here met Zorc. It's the part Zorc fed off and created." The laugh that followed was chilling now. "How does it feel to know, to have been inhabited by a part so like yourself, and see it standing right before you Touzouko?"

He was right.

"But you're… Bakura…" Ryou weakly protested, making an effort to walk towards him but again Bakura skittered away. This wasn't the reaction he'd sought for.

"Are you mad?" he whispered, carefully treading around the table until he was backed into a corner, looking at the both of them with an insane look in his eyes. "Are you mad inviting me? Were you out of your mind?"

"Yugi asked me," Ryou replied thickly. "Until you knew what to do with yourself. But I guess that moment won't ever come, will it?"

"Be quiet." Bakura snapped at him, refusing to accept the fact that he was right. He had no clue of what to do with himself anymore. He wanted to tear people apart, rip at their throats until they bled to death and hear their cries to soothe his own woes. At certain occasions, he'd come fairly close to it.

"No." The boy was creeping closer and Touzouko merely watched from a distance. "You have a purpose here."

Mad. He was entirely mad. Bonkers for wanting him, needing him there to ensure him that everything was going to be fine.

He wanted to strike him. But right as he raised a pathetic hand, another stopped him from trying. A stronger one that pulled the body flush against him.

Bakura didn't even realize they were kissing until he felt a harsh bite drawing blood. There were gasps and groans, and hands trying to pull away, but this was a battle that had not been fought yet. They'd been doing it for ages, building up frustration over three thousand years, and never had Touzouko given up on trying. On perhaps trying to understand what on earth he was, that got him so worked up.

After a while they'd broken apart, huffing and panting and refusing to look at each other.

With that, Ryou just simply stared.

There was a feel there that he could not share. They'd been a part of one another, shared the common goals and hatred, yet there was an almost lurid hatred creeping over them, the atmosphere here. It was strong enough for them to look away, but it couldn't stop them from wanting to tear into each other heads on. As a child, Ryou had always been alone. For them to share this relationship, no matter how disturbing it was, was to be envied. By him. He felt petty, like falling – He might've wanted to cry.

Wherever he went, wherever he was he had always been alone. And he didn't even have a reason to justify it.

"Don't.." he made a weak notion to the right, trembling with suppressed emotions. "Don't even.. dare speak of your name.."

"What?" Bakura couldn't seem to catch on, too busy trying to not focus on what had happened just now, his brain whirring around too much to even grasp anything else.

"I was alone too!" the boy suddenly yelled, his pale face turning red with anger, embarrassment, jealousy. It lashed out like a snake, coldly, towards those who should be closest to him yet again only had one another. "You – You have no idea what that feels like!" his voice overstretched the capacity of pitch, making it sound awfully screechy. He was upset. He had a right to be upset.

"I've had no one there for me!"

"And you want me to cry about it?"

"Shut UP!"

Whack.

Dead silence.

A red welt struck against another pale face.

And then Ryou was crying. Tears streaming down his face so brilliantly that it nearly looked like he was crying for Bakura. But he wasn't. The raw truth was that he hadn't been crying for anyone in particular really. Perhaps it'd been the death of his mother and sister, the ever present feeling of feeling too much, a waste, pushy, needy – whiny little… But he was surprised to find someone gently stroking the tears away and a chaste kissed pressed against his own lips.

Unlike Bakura, Ryou wasn't so surprised to find Touzouko kissing him. He craved the kiss, wrapped his arms around Touzouko's strong shoulders and feel the fire burn stronger in his chest, even though the anger had now changed into a slower burning. A tongue carelessly scraped over his palate and it was all Ryou could do but moan quietly against another pair of lips, writhing beneath strong arms that never failed to hold him.

A loud cough didn't stop them.

A hand carelessly going up Ryou's spine didn't either.

Perhaps their relationship wasn't perfect. It had no beginning, their middle was chaotic, and their end would be drastic.

But they'd work out the kinks. They'd withstand the crazy whirlwind of emotions and tears and anger – because that's who they'd all been. That's who they'd all continue to be.

Author's Note: This was written for a drabble challenge on tumblr. I've never written this pairing before, and I'm aware of the fact that they literally don't end up together all cuddly and fluffy. It was quite a challenge. But I really hope that, for those who do enjoy the pairing, it was at least acceptable.

It winded up too long for a drabble, so here we are. I hope you enjoyed.