(A/N: Yes, I'm back with another Bakura/Seto fic. This one bounces between Egypt and Japan, past and present respectively. It's a bit of an AU... but I hope you enjoy it. Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't mine, and neither is Great Big Sea.)

LOVE

I

When we're together why does something always start?

Are we both better off when we are apart?

Some days you hate me, I can see it in your eyes;

It seems like lately you can't wait to criticize me.

Seto Kaiba lay in his bed – it was a very large bed, expensive, comfortable… empty. He lay on his back, his hands behind his head, his eyes closed. He was trying to sleep, but his mind was refusing him that pleasantry; he was being forced to think of the one who'd been coming nearly every day a few hours before midnight for the past few months. Yes, forced. His brain wasn't being permitted other thoughts. With a loud sigh, he sat up in bed and glared around his room with annoyance, as if it were the cause of his displeasure. He wasn't tired anymore.

After half a moment of consideration, he got out of bed and pulled on a housecoat, walking across the room to seat himself at his desk as he did so. He switched on his computer, thinking vaguely of making a cup of coffee while it hummed and bleeped, starting up. As the login screen popped up, he decided it didn't need it. He wouldn't be able to sleep for a good few hours now anyway.

He typed in his user name and password, then waited for his programs to start up. When the tables of numbers and mess of reminders finally did pop up, he sighed again and closed them. He wasn't thinking straight; damn did he hate it he couldn't sleep or work for the sake of someone else occupying his mind!

"Thinking about me again?" A mocking voice came from somewhere in the vicinity of his window.

"You could at least knock." Seto snapped sharply, though he felt less annoyance than he put on. He stood and went to stand in front of his desk, even though he couldn't see exactly where the visitor was.

There was the soft scuffle of feet meeting the ground, almost imperceptible, and his visitor spoke again, "You should be used to me by now."

"I should, you've only been harassing me every night for the past three months."

Seto could hear the smirk in his visitor's voice, "You like being harassed."

He hardened his words, changing the subject because he didn't have quite the reply he wanted to the previous statement, "What do you want?"

"Take a wild guess." The tone was amused.

Seto glanced at the clock, then said severely, "It's quarter to one in the morning, I'm in no mood for guessing games."

A hand slid around his waist from behind, making him tense slightly, "You should know by now."

"I hate how quietly you can move." Seto muttered, feeling a body press against him from behind.

Lips pressed gently against his neck, the next words coming in a low murmur, "You should be used to that." He paused, nipping with his teeth at the sensitive skin, "You're stressed."

Seto shifted. "That's no surprise. You calling on me every hour of the night…"

"Oh come on. I'll sit outside for hours waiting for you to rise, but I'll never come in or make any noise unless it's you who moves."

"I always know when you're there."

"Except when you're sleeping."

Seto twisted away, rounding on him, "You might think I'd enjoy a little sleep every one in a while!"

He could see the pinpricks of light that were his visitor's eyes narrow as the voice came darkly, "I let you sleep as much as you want."

"Then I would be now." Seto snapped in return.

"You got up! You invited me in by doing that. If you had really wanted to sleep, you wouldn't have turned on the damned computer!"

Seto didn't feel it was the time to point out invitations usually involved words between the two parties, and retorted heatedly "Maybe I had work to do, did you ever consider that?"

"Yes, and I stopped considering it when you closed the windows."

"God damn it Bakura! Do you always have to have the last word?"

"Yes."

Seto fell silent at that, fuming. Quite suddenly, the door to his room crept open some halfway and Mokuba's bright but sleepy eyes peeked in "Seto?"

Seto felt Bakura vanish from in front of him and stepped into the small triangle cast from the hallway, "Yes Mokuba?"

The child blinked a few times, trying to look passed him into the room, "Are you talking to the government again? I thought I heard voices…"

"I was just talking to myself, stating ideas aloud. Kaiba Corp doesn't make weapons anymore, the government's been made aware of that and they won't call again. We aren't going to be taking part in this war, don't worry." He smiled a bit, "Go on back to bed, Mokuba,"

"Okay Seto." He gave a light sigh, coupled with a yawn, and shuffled back down the hall to his own room.

Seto closed the door before going across his own room to sit of the bed with a sigh. When silence settled again, he listened and could still hear Bakura breathing. "I know you're still here."

"Perhaps I'm an envoy of the government who hasn't heard about your change of production. Oh wait, I remember," Bakura's tone was low and annoyed, almost sulky, "You were talking to yourself."

Seto sighed again, noting that he did far too often when Bakura was around, "Because it's completely appropriate for my younger brother to find me with another man in my bedroom at two o'clock in the morning."

"It's only inappropriate because you make it that way." There was a definite petulant note in Bakura's tone now.

"Is there anything you don't argue? Could you just, for once, agree with me?"

"Maybe if you weren't so disillusioned I could."

"Because a thief and a murderer has a better outlook on life than a business tycoon."

"Never heard you call yourself that before."

"It was in a business magazine." Seto put up as a feeble defense.

He felt the bed shift, and then Bakura was sitting directly behind him, "They both sound a little superficial, don't they?"

"I suppose…"

"Who are you, Seto Kaiba?" Bakura asked softly, the question deeper than it actually sounded.

Seto's reply was rather scornful, "Who are you?"

"Answer me first."

Seto sighed, repeating a question he knew he'd spoken already this evening, "What do you want Bakura?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know."

"Oh my, the great Seto Kaiba doesn't know, can't answer a simple question." Bakura said without inflection.

"Why are you always trying to start something Bakura?" Seto demanded, then muttered, "I could throw you out…"

Hands slid over his shoulders from behind, working the robe off before talented fingers started massaging his shoulders, "I'm not starting anything. This has been going on for years. Thousands of them."

Seto shifted under the pressure of Bakura's hands, allowing disdain to colour his words, "Don't talk like you're crazy."

"Just accept it. You remember me, I can tell."

"God Bakura, don't push this. We've had this argument often enough, isn't one conflict a night enough for you?" Seto muttered, closing his eyes and leaning against Bakura's hands.

Bakura ignored the second part of what he said and replied, "Okay. I can argue with you tomorrow."

"You won't be here tomorrow" Seto said with a slight smirk, "You'll be here tonight."

"It's morning now, isn't it?"

"For a good two and a half hours now."

"Mmm." Bakura kissed his neck softly, "Then I'll have to go soon."