As many of you may know, I am a strictly yamixhikari pairings writer. Well, that all stops today! Watch as I completely mess up not one, but two of my favorite pairings!! (maniacal laughter)

Holy fuck is this not an AU? When did that happen? Do not be confused by the ancient castles and strange beefy guards with clubs, this is still present time.

You know, the title might have seemed all original when thought of it, but it's totally not. What a loser. (points to self)

This lovely number was inspired by and dedicated to tinkle-time-kelly.

(( Kleptoship ))

"Down," was the harsh command.

A hand smacked Yugi's head to the floor; his bruised nose smushing up against the cold stone.

Yugi held in a cry at the back of his mouth as he tasted dirt. They had been running so long Yugi's throat was coated in a thick, hard chemicals, aching with his continuous, harsh breathing. He took one, two, three breaths through his nose and then shook off his companion's hold on his skull.

Yami no Bakura let Yugi rise to a crouch.

Yugi gasped, savaging for oxygen; his chest expanded repeatedly like bellows disproportionately to his scrawny frame. His muscles hurt, his limbs pained. He was not used to sneaking around in the dead of night, scrambling on his belly over rocks, or climbing severe rock cliffs to break into grand fortresses.

But necessity had overcome his physical abilities.

The Sennen Puzzle had been stolen. Yugi was the keeper of the Sennen Puzzle. It was his job to protect it. And he had failed. Shame and fear made an awful mixture in his stomach.

So he had to get it back. But he had not known where the Puzzle was or who had taken it. He had been lost.

Then Yami no Bakura had approached him.

"You're sure?" Yugi hissed to the dark spirit.

Yami no Bakura did not answer. Perhaps it didn't matter. Yugi didn't raise the question again.

'I'm out of my mind,' Yugi decided to himself as he crouched by Yami no Bakura's side while the thief scoured the area for enemies. 'Of all the people, why him? Why did I come with him?'

The dark spirit beside him was after all, even at this very second, manipulating the body of his friend, Ryou Bakura, using it for his own ambitious devices. Yami no Bakura didn't care about the lighter soul inside of him, the rightful owner of their shared shell. Yami no Bakura had, at one time, even tried to steal the Puzzle for himself. This white-haired antagonist was cunning and had, more than once, lured Yugi and his friends into a trap.

So why had Yami no Bakura come to him on that fateful night and offered Yugi his services? How did he know who had stolen the Puzzle and where it was located? He had explained before that his own Sennen Ring could track other Sennen Items. That sounded plausible.

The cursed golden ring on Yami no Bakura's chest risked a glow and one of its compass pointers clicked and twitched toward the left path.

Without courtesy, Yami no Bakura grabbed the back of Yugi's shirt and dragged him, as he had done most of the journey, down a dark corridor and around a corner.

The Sennen Puzzle, according to Bakura, was in a tower of the ancient castle. Yugi and Bakura had made it into the fortress, now they had to get through the building without being caught.

"Up here," Yami no Bakura instructed. Yugi wobbled up the stone staircase blindly; except for the occasional dim glow from the Sennen Ring, they traveled in the darkness.

They reached another floor. Yugi's heart climbed up a notch; they were growing closer and closer to the Puzzle.

There was more running and Yami no Bakura's grip on Yugi's thin wrist was as tight as death. Yugi's heart was worse than a marching band while Yami no Bakura moved like water, slipping and sliding between hiding spots; while at rest he was as still as a puddle.

Yugi was still gasping. "Where- now-?"

"I need to find the stairs," Yami no Bakura hissed so subtly that at first Yugi wasn't sure if he was actually speaking. "Stay here."

Fear sprung and Yugi flung out an arm, managing to clutch Yami no Bakura's shirt before the thief could get away. "You're going to leave me?"

There was an abnormally lengthy pause.

"I need to locate the tower," the ancient Egyptian spirit explained curtly.

'And I am too clumsy to follow along quietly,' Yugi agreed silently. Shame burned in his cheeks as he let Yami no Bakura's musty shirt go.

Then he was alone. As Yami no Bakura's muffled footsteps melded into the background of whistling wind and creaking wood, fear crept up from the cold floor, up into Yugi's legs, back, skull. All the pain and physical injures he had sustained during the journey caught up to him in that moment.

'He has abandoned me,' Yugi decided and he was suddenly so sure of this that he stepped out of the shadowy nook without a thought.

He limped down the dark stone hall, alone.

Or not alone.

He turned a corner and came face to face with a large guard, with an equally large weapon.

"Shit," Yugi cursed as the blunt object smacked his brain out of conscious thought.

(( Kleptoshipping ))

Yugi woke up in a stank dudgeon. An iron collar constricted his throat, and his hands were linked together by a pair of dark iron shackles. The place was very dark; the only light trickled down from three candles, their wax dripping to the floor.

The space was cold. Yugi shivered.

So Yami no Bakura had abandoned him. He was alone. All hope in Yugi drowned.

'Mou hitori no boku…' Yugi pleaded, his forehead bowed into his knees. 'How will I find you now?'

Then the thick dudgeon door clicked and scarped open.

An ancient Egyptian spirit was thrown to the floor at Yugi's feet, but it wasn't the Yami he had called for.

"Bakura!" Yugi exclaimed.

Yami no Bakura grunted. He had a similar outfit of a cold iron collar and shackles. He winced and grunted as he got to his knees. Their prison door was slammed shut and locked.

Yugi, against his own logic, moved forward. "Bakura? Are you ok?"

Yami no Bakura tossed back his mass of white wild hair over his shoulder with a violent jerk of the head. Now Yugi could see those accusing eyes.

"You didn't stay put," the thief spat.

Yugi tried to swallow but the iron collar restricted that movement.

"Sorry," he apologized sincerely.

Yami no Bakura grimaced in a sick sort of way. "You do not trust me."

Yugi's eyes slid to the floor.

"Don't beat yourself up about it," the ancient Egyptian spirit ordered.

"Sorry," Yugi repeated uselessly.

Yami no Bakura did not chose to respond but instead half crawled, half limped over next to Yugi so he could lean up against the wall.

Yugi chewed the inside of his cheek as Yami no Bakura settled beside him. His thieving companion smelled like must and iron.

There were a multiple dark patches on his skin and a large stain on the front of his shirt.

"What did they do to you?" Yugi asked meekly.

Yami no Bakura shrugged. "Tried to get information," he explained simply.

Yugi nodded to give himself something to do, his brain sloshing around in its liquid. "Did they take your Ring?"

Yami no Bakura's head rolled in the iron collar to face Yugi. "If they had I wouldn't be here," the antagonist reminded him practically.

"Right," Yugi choked. "Did they try?"

The thief pulled up the edge of his shirt to reveal the source of the large dark stain. The golden Ring glimmered in the candlelight amongst the juice of blood; its golden compass pointers had buried themselves so deep into Bakura's flesh that they had practically disappeared. There were dark jagged slashes where someone had attempted to dig the pointers out.

Yugi's stomach rolled and he looked away. "I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that." And his eyes were darker than the night outside.

Yugi stopped. He hurt. It was the first time that day that he had heard the thief breathing. Perhaps that was only because the ancient spirit was sitting so close to him.

Yugi wanted to help. He always wanted to fix the situation.

'For me, he did this for me,' Yugi told himself, building up his sympathy.

"What now?" Yugi mumbled after a few dripping wax moments. "Do you have a plan?"

"Nope," the ancient spirit admitted lightly.

Yugi bobbed his head inanely again. Now he was afraid. Yami no Bakura always had plan. He was the master of schemes. Did this mean that their situation was now hopeless? What would happen to them in this place? What would happen to his other self? Would he be trapped forever in the cold confines of the Sennen Puzzle, never able to reach reality again…?

"Do you know where we are in the castle?" Yugi questioned desperately. He got to his feet, his head turning right, left, up, examining their horrible, dripping prison for anything that might help them escape. "Perhaps there's a window up there or we could break the lock on the door…."

"Don't bother," the dark spirit instructed. "Anything you come up with won't work."

"Maybe we can climb the wall," Yugi continued but it was silly and unrealistic.

"Your optimism is charming," Yami no Bakura teased.

Yugi leaned over his iron collar to appeal to the dark spirit. "You're not doing anything! We've got to escape! You know what will happen if we don't. If we don't find him-"

The thief grabbed Yugi's ankles and the boy fell to the stone floor, his elbows sacrificing themselves for the safety of his head.

"What are you doing?" Yugi cried indignantly, his elbows throbbing.

Yami no Bakura slithered his hands up from Yugi's ankles to his knees.

Yugi's flesh prickled.

"Your desperation," and his whole ghostly body moved forward, over his prey, "Is attractive, but illogical."

Yugi's body flinched and scrambled away, back to the wall. "What about mou hitori no boku? What about him? Are you giving up because it's him we're-"

"Why are you so concerned about that spirit?" the thief challenged. He shifted over to the wall, his chest up against Yugi's shoulder; blood seeped into Yugi's T-shirt. He whispered in Yugi's innocent ear, "He is just a parasite, like all of us are parasites."

By all of us Yugi knew the antagonist meant the Sennen Items.

"And yet you feel like you can't live without him. Why is that?"

Then the ancient Egyptian spirit moved Ryou Bakura's body so that his pale arms pressed Yugi into the wall behind him.

"Do you love him, Yugi-kun?"

Yugi didn't know why but he felt a sudden chill as though a cross current of cool air had caught in his throat. Did he though? Did he love his other self?

Yugi looked up at the nearest flickering candle. "Yes."

Yami no Bakura chuckled. "Do you think he loves you?" Now the mouth was even closer to Yugi's ear.

"Yes," Yugi answered firmly, his eyes squeezed shut. They shared everything. They knew everything about the other. They completed each other. Was that not love?

"How frustrating," the thief commented.

Then something hot and very wet traced Yugi's ear. In a jolt Yugi's mind jumped to the correct conclusion.

"What are you-" Yugi cried, utterly panicked. He jerked his head away but Yami no Bakura's arms restrained him from escaping again. Instead he found himself face-to-face with the thief; the ancient spirit's dark eyes tunneling into his own with age and knowledge far beyond Yugi's mortal comprehension.

"You two love one another so much," the dark spirit taunted, his eyes memorizing Yugi's attention, "And yet you have no way of gratifying your desires."

"Gratifying our-?" But Yugi was cut off.

He was cut off by Yami no Bakura's mouth intruding upon his.

Yugi yelped, turned his head away and squirmed. "Get off of me!"

At the turn of the teenager's head, Bakura ran his mouth into Yugi's ear again and Yugi thought he heard an urgent message, whispered through the scramble. "They. Are. Watching."

Yugi's limbs went rigid. "What?" he inquired.

Yami no Bakura shot Yugi a violently meaningful look right through Yugi's eyeballs into his brain.

Yugi's muscles relaxed. So. Yami no Bakura did have a plan.

Then the spirit spoke again, "I feel sorry for your darker half. An ancient experienced spirit trapped in the body of a little naïve boy."

Or at least, Yugi had thought he had a plan… Panic was coming back. "What are you talking about?"

Yami no Bakura leaned very far forward. Yugi could not retreat because of the wall behind his head. "What sort of things do you think your darker half would like to do to you when you are asleep? What does he fantasize and create when he is lonely in his soul room?"

And there was another kiss and Yugi was so horrified he couldn't stop the ancient spirit. The kiss was clunky as the thief rotated Yugi's head accordingly to avoid clashing iron collars. Yugi could not move or react to this unwanted touching, his body was frozen as Yami no Bakura explored his resisted mouth. Yugi had to endure clashed sharp teeth and hot lips. Yami no Bakura's tongue flicked at the roof Yugi's mouth; it tasted sour.

Yugi recoiled into himself, disgusted and frightened.

Finally, Yami no Bakura drew away but not before he hissed into Yugi's mouth a single word. "Pretend."

'Pretend what?' Yugi demanded. Did Yami no Bakura have a plan or not? Was this snogging part of his master plan?

"Do you think…" Yami no Bakura breathed in Yugi's face, "Your precious other half ravishes you like this in his dreams?"

Plan, plan. There had to be a plan, right? Right? Yugi didn't know what was real and what Yami no Bakura… "I-I-I- wouldn't…he wouldn't-"

Yami no Bakura rolled his eyes obviously and glared at Yugi this time. His mouth headed to Yugi's ear. His shackled hands cupped Yugi's face.

But Yami no Bakura's mouth did not make it to Yugi's ear. And Yugi was confused.

Until he heard a very small click coming from his iron collar.

Yugi turned, peered over the edge of the collar and saw Yami no Bakura's teeth gnawing expertly at the lock.

Yugi's head pounded.

"They. Are. Watching."

"Pretend."

Yugi got it.

Yami no Bakura jerked his head up and made it to Yugi's ear. "Make noise," the mouth instructed, hot stank breath bombarding his eardrum.

Make noise? To cover up the clicking of Yami no Bakura breaking the lock? That made sense.

Yugi grasped for some kind of conversation. "What- why are you doing this?"

Yami no Bakura shifted to face Yugi eye-to-eye again. Yugi trembled because he knew what this meant.

"Why? Doesn't it feel good?" Yami no Bakura growled. His face got close again and Yugi instinctively flinched away. But Yami no Bakura grabbed Yugi's collar and dragged his head forward, mouths crashing together like cars in an accident.

Out of the corner of his eye Yugi saw the flash, Yami no Bakura was scratching at the lock on Yugi's neck with a pin.

He would have to play along.

Yami no Bakura drew an inch away and spoke into Yugi's rigid mouth. "I need noise."

"No, stop," Yugi protested drawing away. "I can't do this…"

Yami no Bakura violently jerked him forward again; his eyes were cruel. Yugi was doing something wrong.

"Sure you can," Yami no Bakura snarled, bringing their faces so close that as he spoke his lips moved against Yugi's. "You're a modern teenager, after all. Fresh for new curiosities."

And then he bit Yugi's lip so that it hurt.

Yugi squeaked.

Simultaneously Yami no Bakura twisted his lock picker at a sharp angle. There was a click but no one heard it.

'Oh,' Yugi realized his mistake. 'He wants that kind of noise…'

Yami no Bakura licked the spot he had just bitten with a flick of his tongue. "Can you handle it without your precious other mind, Yugi-kun?"

Yugi couldn't handle it. This was too much. Why did they have to go to such lengths?

For his other self…

Yugi sighed loudly.

Yami no Bakura gave Yugi a mischievously look; he knew that had sounded fake.

"Glad to have you so excited," the thief cooed and then inevitably descended for another hopeless awkward kiss. And Yugi allowed him. He gave Yami no Bakura complete control over his head and his mouth.

Those teeth caught on his tongue and Yugi moaned into the thief's mouth.

Yami no Bakura hummed positively.

This kiss lasted too ridiculously long. Yugi moaned and sighed and Yami no Bakura hummed and growled as tongues and spit were exchanged

In that long time, Yugi tried in vain to imagine that he was kissing his other self instead of this antagonist. But it didn't work. The smell and wetness and taste were far beyond any of the sweet interactions between him and his other self.

This was too different. And Yami no Bakura tasted so different.

Finally Yami no Bakura hissed into his mouth. "Loud…"

Yugi was loud. Shame built up in him.

Then he felt the iron on his neck loosen. The lock had broken.

Yugi breathed as Yami no Bakura moved his face away.

Yugi's lips were tingling.

Were they done now? Could they give up this façade?

"Well, now…" Yami no Bakura's eyes were slipping downward. "Since you've been so good, I think we could do something more interesting."

Yugi opened his mouth to protest and Yami no Bakura's glare silenced him. The thief shoved him up against the wall. Then his hands slid down Yugi's chest, down his stomach, down his lower abdomen to his…

"No!" Yugi cried, swatting the thief's hands away. No. This- this was something he would not do.

But Yami no Bakura was not listening to him. He grabbed Yugi's knees and pulled Yugi's legs apart with surprising strength.

"Come now, don't you trust me Yugi-kun?" the dark spirit taunted mercilessly. He sat himself between Yugi's spread out legs.

There was now less than a foot between their… their… crouches.

Yugi was freaking out. He did not want this.

Then Yami no Bakura grabbed Yugi's hands with his own and stuck them down in that horrible forbidden space in the center of their folded legs and their…

"Don't you think it will be fun, Yugi-kun?" Yami no Bakura leaned forward. "Here, let me help…"

"Stop it!" Yugi squirmed and writhed. He did not like this. He did not like this!

But Yami no Bakura clung onto Yugi's hands and pulled them down again, in between their… in the center of their… an inch away from Yugi's exposed groin.

"Please, please, Bakura," Yugi practically groveled. His head was back, as far away from the action as possible. "Please, don't do this. I can't…"

"Shhhh…" Yami no Bakura bridged the gap between their heads and this time went straight for Yugi's nice safe ear. And he whispered secretly, "Calm the hell down! Idiot, I'm not going to freaking rape you."

And then Yugi felt the shift of the shackles. Hidden between their bodies, Yami no Bakura was picking at the lock of Yugi's shackles.

Yami no Bakura was telling the truth. Yugi had to trust him.

Yugi swallowed and breathed and his body went limp again, falling forward against the dark spirit's shoulders, to cover up the space between their legs so Bakura could effectively unlock Yugi's shackles.

And Yugi nodded into Yami no Bakura's neck to show that he understood.

"Good," the thief grunted, and then, impossibly, he kissed Yugi again and it wasn't too bad. It was quick and the ancient spirit tasted tart, but not bitter.

Then they leaned their foreheads against one another and Yugi squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the next step.

"Ready, Yugi-kun?" Yami no Bakura growled loudly to the space.

"Yes-s," Yugi agreed shakily. But he wasn't ready.

Yami no Bakura continued to pick the lock, but to keep the illusion that he was giving Yugi a…Yami no Bakura's hands jerked forward in between their legs. To mislead the guards, of course.

And whether on purpose or an accident, for the space between their… pants was very, very small, Yami no Bakura bumped the shackles into Yugi's groin. Reverberations hit Yugi's body too effectively

Yugi moaned like he was supposed to.

"Good, huh?" Yami no Bakura hissed. "Better than anything your darker half could manage?"

Yugi gasped.

The shackles banged into his groin again. It must have been on accident. The pressure, and their awkward positioning, was causing a reaction Yugi definitely did not desire. His own moans became… stimulating. Pretend was shifting over into something tangible. He felt it as his own shackles bumped and bumped against his…

Yami no Bakura was definitely doing this on purpose.

And Yugi's body was responding.

The teenage boy had had erections before, wet dreams, but they were few, small, and over quickly. This… was different. And it maddened Yugi a little to have both his first kiss and his first erection by the hands of Yami no Bakura. But all those superficial worries were whisked away by the confusion, sensation of the experience. And embarrassment.

The erection was still small, still concealed by the folds of Yugi's pants.

A small, very small, part of Yugi's mind was actually grateful that his other self was spared, for now, the knowledge of what was happening to his little light.

'Perhaps Bakura won't notice,' Yugi pleaded as he let out another moan under Yami no Bakura's fake touch.

Yami no Bakura's legs rocked against him, for the illusion. And though no touch other than an unintentional bump had passed between them, the member in between Yugi's legs moved.

"How is it?" Yami no Bakura hissed in his ear.

'How is what? My sanity? My hardening problem?' Yugi panicked and wanted to scream.

Instead, he groaned. "St- ahh."

Yami no Bakura chuckled.

God, the erection was getting bigger. What was Yugi's body so turned on by? Yami no Bakura? His mass? His smell? His dominance? His ferocity?

Was it even him?

It was unfair, really. To corner an innocent teenage boy like this in a dark dudgeon with chains and sultry looks from dark eyes. But a warm- a hot feeling that Yugi had never known before was rising in him, burning him up from his hardened member, up through his stomach, scorching his lungs as he grasped for oxygen. His skin was really hot. Yami no Bakura's skin was really hot…

Yami no Bakura faced Yugi again and he got very close. He was less than an inch away from Yugi's face as he said, "Big moan, make sure to-"

And Yugi didn't know why, maybe it was the poison in the thief's breath, but he cut the thief off in mid instruction. He had bridged the gap between their mouths too soon.

And the two of them kissed for a moment. And everything was rather still.

Yami no Bakura pulled just far enough away to speak again. "When the door opens, run for the-"

And Yugi cut him off again. He expected the dark spirit to be mad. Maybe he was. Maybe that was why Yami no Bakura's kiss turned so forceful that the back of Yugi's head hit the wall behind him and their tongues slid over each other and their lips got into the way of their teeth…

Yugi was feeding his own fire. And it stung his insides like wonder.

But it was all for the illusion. So that the people looking in didn't suspect their plans to escape.

The thief pulled away again and this time his hands left Yugi's shackles and grabbed his face to prevent anymore interruption.

"… run," the dark spirit breathed, air carrying the stank of his sweet insides to Yugi's nostrils, "For the stairs. Turn right and keep going until you hit them. I know you will."

Yugi's body was trembling. "What about you? How will you-"

But he was cut off by Yami no Bakura coming back to kiss him.

And why were they kissing? The iron on Yugi's neck was open. Yami no Bakura's hands slid tantalizing down Yugi's chest, down his stomach, down his lower abdomen to his…

Yugi gasped through their locked lips as Yami no Bakura's fingers hovered around his still growing erection and the thing tingled and burned. Yugi couldn't help but feel disappointed when the thief's hands missed Yugi's hot spot entirely.

But as Yami no Bakura's hands reached for Yugi's shackles, they met Yugi's hands instead.

Their fingers hooked, curling around the other.

They were holding hands. They were holding hands.

And while Yugi and Yami no Bakura's tongues reached for the other across the expanse of their mouths and managed to touch each other's at the soft tip, Yugi's stubby little fingers examined Yami no Bakura's palms through touch alone. They were broad though the thief's fingers were long and slender; their skin was firm, yet soft, yet calloused.

They were the most perfect hands Yugi had ever felt.

There was a bang on the door. A guard outside? Someone yelled something at them that Yugi didn't catch.

The softness and kindness of their congenial touch was broken. Yami no Bakura sucked viciously on Yugi's mouth, on his tongue, on his teeth. Yugi's head smashed against the wall again.

His hands left Yugi's and returned to pick the lock.

Another bang, the prison door shook. The guard outside yelled again.

Yami no Bakura's mouth left Yugi's sore, empty, and cold. Then the thief pressed his own forehead into Yugi's small shoulder.

"Are you ready for this, Yugi-kun?" Yami no Bakura growled and there was something vicious about his tone. "It's time for the big climax."

Yugi gulped. Big moan this time.

Bang, bang on the door; the walls of the dudgeon trembled.

Yami no Bakura simultaneously shoved Yugi's shackled wrists into his already hard erection and broke the lock.

Yugi's sound was more like a high-pitched cry than a moan. Partly because of the hurtful hit to his groin again. Partly because the conflagration in him roared like a tide.

It seemed to satisfy Yami no Bakura.

However it did not satisfy his hardened member. Which was now was so so obvious, even through the closed pants material.

Yugi dug his own face in Yami no Bakura's shoulder out of embarrassment. Perhaps the thief wouldn't notice…

"What is this?" the dark spirit inquired in a voice that Yugi could not read. Was Yami no Bakura angry? Pleased? Confused? What? Why did Yugi need to know?

"So… this why you were so easy…" Yami no Bakura reasoned and again his voice was blank.

Maybe because he wanted to end his humiliation, maybe because that erection was stinging and hot and his body was curling against the surge of the inferno inside him and it made him want to be satisfied, Yugi didn't know why but he spoke up, "Please… please…"

The door shook again. "Stop that!" the ugly voice commanded.

"You can't have this, Yugi-kun?" Yami no Bakura cooed in Yugi's ear. "You can't run with this at all."

"Step away from each other!" the ugly door voice commanded again.

Yami no Bakura sighed. "I suppose I'll have to…"

And that cool, firm hand pressed itself against the front of Yugi's pants. The shameful erection.

Yugi actually flinched and his body jerked both away and toward the thief. He didn't want this! He did! He didn't!

"Steady," Yami no Bakura instructed. "I know exactly what to do."

Another surge, Yugi curled in on himself, the boiling ocean churned and swept a moan, Yugi had not meant, out of his throat…

As this storm raged, rotting his innocence, Yugi wondered childishly, 'Why doesn't Yami no Bakura have an erection like mine? Do I not excite him?'

Then, perhaps because the thief was so skilled, had he done this before? But Yami no Bakura pinched the head of Yugi's member, ruthlessly, through his pants!

Implosion. Explosion. Pain. Yugi closed his jaws around Yami no Bakura's shoulder and screamed the fire in his gut out into the thief's fabric and flesh. Ow. Yeah, there was a rush, a vacuum of heat and feeling and hormones overwhelmed his little teenage body.

Shit.

What was this? The pleasure had vanished. And Yugi felt disgusting.

Yami no Bakura was good.

Like a drain, Yugi was released from his predicament.

"You can fix yourself now," Yami no Bakura said.

Yugi extracted his mouth from the thief's shoulder. Then he looked down, careful not to meet Yami no Bakura's eye as he rearranged his pants, boxers, and penis. But the humiliation was impossible to mend.

And he didn't have time to feel disgusting.

The dudgeon door burst open and one of the large guards entered. "Stop that, you animals-"

Yami no Bakura grabbed Yugi and practically tossed the teenager at the guard. "RUN!" he screamed.

And Yugi, unprepared in both mind and body, hit the floor and scrambled out the door. When the guard dove at him Yugi grabbed the open iron collar around his neck and threw it at guard's large ugly face.

It was enough. Yugi was out the door.

'Turn right,' Yugi told himself.

But then he remembered who had given him that advice.

'Bakura-kun…'

Then guard had already given up on Yugi and headed back into the dudgeon to get the prisoner he could punish.

"Bakura!" Yugi screamed, running back. He had no plan, no reason, he just had to.

The ugly guard turned and Yugi caught sight of Yami no Bakura's enraged eyes because Yugi was not following the plan and now they were both going to get killed.

The guard charged at him. Yugi ducked out of the prison room and looked around for something… anything…

A suit of armor down the hall. Yugi ran for it.

The guard was right behind him, so close Yugi could smell him.

Yugi dashed down the hall, skipped around the suit of armor and with a shove aided by a burst of adrenaline, toppled the statue onto the guard.

The guard fell to the floor but was not dead, or unconscious.

Frantically, Yugi snatched up the armor's metal sword and, while the guard was still dazed, smacked it on the head. Then Yugi smacked the thing's head again, and again, and again, and again, and again…

"Stop it," a cool voice told him.

Fear, like obstructing barbs of metal in his brain, made Yugi jump, flinch, so that he swerved around, swinging the large weapon with him-

Yami no Bakura had to block Yugi's accidental attack with his shackles.

Yugi dropped the weapon with a loud clang that hurt his bones. "S-s-sorry!" he squeaked. He was in horror. He had almost hurt Bakura.

The thief's eyebrows rose. "For?"

Yugi opened his mouth but then saw the chain between the thief's shackles had snapped.

Yami no Bakura shrugged, rubbing one of his wrists, crisply examining Yugi's handiwork. "Your impulsiveness was, for once, convenient."

"Bakura, I'm sorry," Yugi repeated. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Yami no Bakura dismissed. "We must go."

"But you still have that collar-" Yugi protested.

Yami no Bakura glared at him. "Do you want to get your precious other half back or do you want to look after me?"

Yugi was speechless.

Yami no Bakura just turned and began to run down the corridor.

Yugi followed.

They found the stair that spiraled up into the tower. As they climbed upward, Yami no Bakura picked at the lock on his neck. He managed to break it by the time they got to the landing. Yugi, out of fear mostly, was still carrying the large sword as a weapon.

They reached the top of the tower without a word. Inevitably, there was a guard. Yugi was terrified but dizzy with adrenaline and willing to fight. He was, however, not needed. Yami no Bakura knocked the creature out with iron collar and then choked him with the chain of Yugi's discarded shackles.

After the guard's neck snapped, there was silence.

Yugi only had eyes for Yami no Bakura.

The thief let the shackles he had used to kill the guard drop to the ground with a resounding clang.

"Well?" Yami no Bakura's back was to Yugi as he grunted, "What are you waiting for?"

'What am I waiting for?' Yugi wondered for a moment the question ricocheted off his numb brain cells. He was treasuring Yami no Bakura's back right now.

"Your other half is in that room. Go and get him," Yami no Bakura ordered gesturing imprecisely to Yugi's right.

Yugi blinked, then turned. There it was. The prison door was open and Yugi could see the dim light glimmering off the Sennen Puzzle's shiny surface.

Then he turned back to Yami no Bakura and he wasn't quite sure why.

Yugi noticed the dark spirit was holding his left wrist tightly. "Are you ok?" he asked.

The thief stopped holding his wrist and let the appendage dangle off his arm. "It's nothing."

Yugi hesitated. He felt… like he was hanging. His stomach empty and ready for flight. All that fire from before had scoured out his insides. He stared at the back of Yami no Bakura's head some more.

"Why did you do this?"

The dark soul was practically still as he responded, "Do what?"

"Help me and mou hitori no boku," Yugi answered.

Yami no Bakura's shoulders shrugged. His back was still turned. "You are the chosen one. The container for the king's soul." Now the thief's weight shifted. Yugi almost thought he was going to turn and face him. "All those who control a Sennen Item are connected to you."

Yugi gulped.

He had to say something.

"Thank you."

There was an awful pause. And Yugi knew he was waiting for something but he wasn't quite sure what it was.

Then the thief turned. But Yugi barely had a chance to see his face because it came rushing up to him before he could react.

Cool fingers tilted Yugi's chin upwards.

There was a kiss but it was very still, almost no movement. Tongues did not try to bridge the gap; teeth did not cling greedily to fleshy lips. It was very… soft. Yami no Bakura's other hand pressed into Yugi's lower back and brought the two bodies together. Yugi's feet were practically lifted off the ground.

Yugi felt a warm throbbing in his chest, his head giddy. Yami no Bakura tasted tangy and interesting. And the comfort of another body…

Yugi's hand moved, reaching for the thief's face.

Perhaps he had seen Yugi's movement. Maybe that was why the ancient spirit jumped away.

Yugi's feet landed hard on the floor.

Yugi didn't get to see Yami no Bakura's face again because a second after that, Yami no Bakura sped down and out of the corridor. And disappeared.

Yugi was left, once again, cold.

Yami no Bakura's spit was still on his lip. Yugi licked it off, then wiped his mouth.

There was only one thing left to do now.

Yugi trailed into that ominous room and clasped the chain of his Sennen Puzzle in his small hands. He felt the weight of the pendent as he swung the chain over his head and as it hung, once more, upon his neck.

The second he put the thing on, Yugi was immediately yanked with fierce desperation back into the depths of his mind. But he had expected this.

He was in that mysterious hallway between unconsciousness and awareness, in the space between of his soul room and his darker half's.

And Yugi saw him and his red eyes.

/Aibou!/

And Yugi smiled. After all, he was happy to see his other half, the spirit of the Puzzle, the king…

'Mou hitori no boku,' the teenage boy acknowledged. The artificial projections of their two souls met and Yugi's other self held his arms around Yugi's body.

His fake, non-solid arms.

Souls didn't have bodies.

/Aibou, I was so worried,/ the other admitted, clinging falsely to Yugi's transparent form.

Yugi placed his arms in a circle around his other self's waist, not that the other could feel it. 'Why? You knew I would come and get you.'

His other half, still "holding on" to Yugi's shoulders, looked into his eyes. /I was concerned for you, aibou. I was afraid something might happen to you./

Yugi reached up to touch his other half's face, which was impossible but he held the image of his hand next to the illusion that was his other self's cheek.

'Mou hitori no boku,' Yugi began.

/Yes?/ his darker half asked.

Yugi smiled. 'I love you.'

The other was speechless and stunned. /I- I love you too, aibou./

Then, and Yugi had seen this coming, his other half leaned down and held his face very close to Yugi's.

Wait, no, that was supposed to be a kiss.

Their first kiss.

Atemu's mouth was, unknown to its owner, hovering through Yugi's nose.

Yugi didn't correct his darker half. He let the illusion last. After all, what mattered was the thought, right?

(( Kleptoshipped ))

Yeah.

In some ways, I love his more than air, and that's not just because I take air for granted. In other ways, I kinda want to stab myself in the eye socket.

Don't even start. I've already written the sequel to this. I am having so much fun going outside my realm of pairings.

Remember to REVIEW!!! Because it's nice, and you should tell me if I'm putting crap on the internet. (points at readers)

REVIEW!! (please)