Friendship

by Sour Schuyler

7.6.6

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Whatever residual smile was left on Yugi's face drooped. "…You really think my hair looks like that?" he asked defensively. Ryou laughed nervously.

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Friend #2

The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle

Part 1

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"I love this game," Yugi was saying. "I haven't played it in awhile… But it's awesome. Grandpa keeps complaining that the resolution is bad, but it's only a Playstation 1 game, after all, and its still really cool, and…"

Ryou didn't mean to be rude; it was just that he'd never heard Yugi go off in such a rant about, well, anything before, really, and his automatic reflex was to tune out what he was saying, since people who rave about things usually repeat themselves at least twenty times.

"…and so that's why the Spirit and I were thinking about you. Has the Spirit of your Ring done anything lately?"

"Huh?" Ryou made the most unintelligent bleating sound known to man.

Yugi clucked. "You haven't been listening…" He pressed the Power button and scooted back a few feet, sitting on the floor. Ryou followed suit.

"What about my Ring?" Ryou asked, holding his hand over his chest and lightly skimming the contours of the metal under his shirt with his fingertips. He'd promised, one day a long time ago, that he would never wear it again… but he never did remember putting it on. It was just something perfunctory he did in the morning, like brushing his teeth.

"We were wondering about the Spirit of it," Yugi repeated. And then: "Do you want to play as Mint or Rue?"

Ryou opted to play as the shape-shifting lad Rue instead of the selfish ex-princess Mint. Yugi selected Rue's game, and the two of them were quiet while they watched the introductory cutscene, in which Rue's guardian, Claire, was killed by the evil and enigmatic Arm of Death. Ryou felt cold creep up and down his arms, leaving goosebumps.

"…"

As Rue promised to find a way to revive the woman he looked upon as a sister, Ryou became aware that Yugi was looking at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked when the cutscene had ended.

Ryou decided to deliberately ignore the inquiry, no matter how sincerely concerned Yugi looked. "From what I can tell," he said, "Rue is upset because his guardian, Claire, died. Isn't that an interesting name? 'Rue'? And 'Claire' means light in French."

"Bakura…" Yugi stood up, frowned at him. Of course, Yugi standing up wasn't exactly threatening if you were standing up. And still, with Ryou sitting down, Yugi still wasn't very tall. But he had a gleam in his eye that let Ryou know that he wasn't going to let Ryou leave without some sort of information.

Ryou sighed, looking at the screen, at Rue, the boy who Yugi had seemed to have already forgotten, despite being so excited about the game just previously.

"Yugi…" He bit his lower lip. "Yugi, I really don't feel comfortable talking about the Spirit of my Millennium Item."

"Why not? If anybody's going to understand anything about it…" Yugi's eyes softened, "it's going to be me. I have a spirit dwelling within my Millennium Item as well, you know."

Ryou thought about it. It was technically true; Yugi would be the only one who could understand what it was like to have someone else living inside your pendant. "Well… he wouldn't like it if I talked about him," Ryou said swiftly. Yugi's eyes glimmered, and Ryou knew that he'd been just a little bit too hasty.

"You know, the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle can probably help you if you're having problems with him." Yugi smiled. "'Free of charge,' he says."

"That's nice…"

Yugi smiled sadly. Suddenly, without Ryou noticing but not really seeing it, he got a bit taller. "Well," he said in a deeper voice, "I want you to know…"

Ryou looked up to see that Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. He, who always knew what to say and always could vanquish his foes. Of course Ryou wanted his help. He just couldn't have it, was all.

"Yes?" he goaded, despite his whole head buzzing in fright.

"I just want you to know that I'm your friend, Bakura." The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle smiled, a smile that wasn't Yugi's. His eyes shone wisely in a way that Yugi's usually didn't.

Ryou nodded. "I… Thank you," he said softly.

"What?" The Spirit actually blinked. "Sorry, I didn't hear you…"

"I said 'thank you,'" Ryou said, louder and with more confidence. "Thank you so very much, but I think I can handle him—the Spirit, I mean—on my own right now. He isn't being a real threat to me—and he hasn't hurt anybody yet, so…"

The Spirit nodded. "I just want you to know that you can talk to me and Yugi. Anyway…" He sat down. "So, what is this game that you and Yugi were playing?"

Ryou's eyes became owlish. "Uh… It's called 'Threads of Fate.'"

"I see." He picked up the controller, fiddled with it. "Ah, now Yugi's screaming at me to let him out. He wants to play the game…" The Spirit smiled. "You know what would really make Yugi scream?"

Ryou looked at the quondam ruler nervously. "What?" he asked, a bit unnerved by the devious smirk planted across the Pharaoh's face.

"If I made a comparison between him and Bes." Ryou blinked at him. "Bes, you see… well." Yugi's other half chuckled.

"Bes, to put it simply, is a supporter of Ra. Bes is a dwarf god."

Ryou flinched, as if he could sense how angry Yugi would be upon hearing this.

The Spirit of the Millennium Ring shrugged. "Then again, Bes was a demon, really. Supposedly he could strangle lions barehandedly. That's my partner, right? Totally."

Ryou blinked for the second time. "You sound quite weird, the way you say 'totally,'" he admitted. "And you're going to get in trouble, saying things like that."

Suddenly Yugi was standing in front of Ryou once again. He was looking very ticked off. "I am not a dwarf!" he screamed, seemingly at Ryou, although Ryou knew better. Ryou chuckled. "Gah… Bakura…" Yugi cringed, then wagged his finger at Ryou. "What he didn't tell you is, dwarves had important roles in Egyptian society! Especially religion."

"And childbirth," Ryou added. "I know that much."

Yugi blushed. "That would have to be the one you know… So!" Yugi sat down and picked up the controller. "A relic-searching we will go."

Ryou smirked. "Doesn't it seem odd to you, that Bes was most prominently a protector of the Pharaoh, and was short… and you, you're also short and you—"

"I've realized the irony in that," Yugi laughed. "But you know, Bes was also lion-like, and could scare the Pharaoh's of the enemies away…"

"Like your hair! It's kind of like a lion's mane."

Whatever residual smile was left on Yugi's face drooped. "…You really think my hair looks like that?" he asked defensively. Ryou laughed nervously.

"No, no…"

"…You know there was a god called 'Mut'?" Yugi smirked as his character shapeshifted into a Poliwog.

"I bet Kaiba would find that amusing," Ryou said.

Yugi looked spaced out for a minute, and then he said, "Yeah, that makes sense." A second later he was taller.

The former Pharaoh beamed. "Yugi gave me permission to talk to you," he said, "since I've never really done it before. Usually when I am in control of Yugi's body and you are near, it is because you… oh, fine, I'll tell him." The Spirit looked slightly cross. "The real reason I took over is so that Yugi couldn't tell you that Joey would not appreciate your comparison—'Mut' was the wife of Ra, who I'm supposedly related to."

Ryou blinked for the third time. And snickered. "Joey would make you a fine wife," he murmured. The Spirit growled just a bit. "Sorry!" Ryou yiped.

"No, it's okay Bakura," he assured the pale boy. "I'm here to help you."

Ryou sighed. "With my Ring problem, right?"

"If you could just tell me what Bakura's done lately…"

Ryou smiled at the Spirit. Suddenly, despite the warmth of friendship flowing through the room, he felt a chill. A warning, sent from the One who could hurt him the most…

"I'd really rather not talk about it, er—right now. Perhaps later…" A sting. "Or, really, I have everything under control…" His stomach muscles tightened involuntarily. After a few moments, Ryou found it hard to breathe. "I… I'm not… you see, I won't… egh…"

The Spirit's eyes flickered with obvious concern, but just then a piercing voice dissippated the impending drama.

"Yugi! It's a phone call! It's for you!"