Where Loyalties Lay... (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

Yuugi glanced at the digital clock on the headboard. How long had he been awake now? Half an hour? That was about right. It was easier to keep track of that than how many times he'd looked at the clock. 9:02 AM. If he wanted to make good time the mall, he really needed to get up soon. He wanted to spend some time there before actually meeting Atsuro. The issue was, he was worried about how Atem would react. He was worried about how he would react.

He couldn't stay in bed all morning, though. He pushed himself up and swung over the side of the bed. He'd slept in his school uniform. He'd been so... upset, he supposed, about last night the hadn't changed clothes. The bathroom wasn't connected to the bedroom, so he just changed into something casual. He put the Pendant over his head. He really was used to its weight by now, he supposed. He pushed open the door to the bedroom, pausing when Atem looked up.

"...Partner."

"Atem. Hey,"

"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."

Yuugi blinked, and Atem frowned. Yuugi hadn't expected the former Pharaoh to apologize. Yuugi wasn't quite sure why he was, either. The short teenager was sure he'd sent the wrong signals. Atem seemed annoyed by it. He looked back towards the television. Yuugi did as well, and noticed it was a weather report. It was supposed to rain either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Providing it wasn't wrong, at least. Yuugi remembered the last time it was and it jolted his mind back to the conversation.

"Why are you apologizing, Partner?"

"I was really rude last night!"

Atem sighed, "No, that was my fault. I took advantage of a situation. You're going to the Mall soon, right?"

"Yeah... Wait, aren't you coming?"

"No."

"But Ate-"

"Partner, we've probably spent too much time together recently. And don't look at the Pendant, that wasn't the same. We weren't constantly there, even though I could surface at a moment's notice. Short of actually leaving, we can't leave each other alone like this."

The worst part for Yuugi was how Atem was speaking. He was so matter of fact. He wasn't talking to a friend, he was talking to an ally. Something like the forced way one might speak to a family member they'd never met. Yuugi thought back to other times Atem spoke like that. He could come up with one quickly enough. After he'd faced his Shadow, those tense moments that lead to them admitting their feelings for each other. Was Atem trying to spare his feelings again?

Yuugi nodded, more so Atem wouldn't talk more. It wasn't just that it was a kiss, he had felt Atem's weight against him. It would have been more than a kiss, a night's restless sleep convinced him of that. Had he not pushed Atem away, it would have been way more. Yuugi opened his mouth, but closed it again. Atem kept his vision focused on the television, but he was aware when Yuugi grabbed the COMP and left the apartment.

He let out a sigh as he heard the short teenager's footsteps fading away. He rubbed his right temple. Yuugi probably wanted things to be all better, but they couldn't be. Not for a while. And while he was sure his Partner thought he was protecting him... Atem dropped his hand. Right now he was protecting himself. He still wanted to do what he'd been aiming to the night before, but Yuugi had more than clearly given his opinion on that.

He found himself wearing a very bitter frown. Even if the world got lucky and didn't end, he wasn't the type of person that did "slow" well. For the first time in his memory of having feelings for his Partner, he began to wonder about issues such as compatibility. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Yuugi, but their personalities weren't exactly ones that meshed. They weren't polar opposites like they had once been, but still... they were so different.

-----

"This is... interesting..."

"Dammit, take it out!"

Bakura was standing in front of the bathroom mirror. Adachi had been asleep last Bakura had been aware, which he was grateful for. He had worried his loud hiss would have disturbed the man. He'd opened the door to the bedroom. His hands had been on the Ring for minutes. He had dropped it to take his clothes off for a shower and then went to yank it out. Anpu had reacted more on reflex than not, and suddenly the Ring had taken an all too familiar action. Right now Bakura had the five prongs of the Ring digging into his flesh. A bit of blood was trickling down from all five spots. Bakura was hissing from the pain.

"I'm not sure how," Anpu's presence taunted.

"You're the one that caused it to go in!"

Anpu's presence shrugged, "I'm not sure how I did that, either. I just know I had no intentions of letting you remove it. Trying to help Adachi...?"

Bakura frowned. It hurt like hell. He couldn't really move without causing the skin to adjust and causing more pain. His right was on the wall next to the bathroom mirror. His left was over the Ring, trying to figure out how to pull it out. He hadn't really had a chance to do that last time, the original spirit had taken him over. Before it had been as much a greeting and a taunt as a way to keep the Ring "attached" to him. Bakura looked at Anpu's presence in the mirror.

"I won't remove it, alright? If you can't figure out how to pull it out, I can."

Anpu stared at Bakura for a few hard moments. In truth, it was hurting him just as much as Ryou. The teenager seemed to forget how linked they were sometimes. The big difference was that he had an far far greater pain tolerance. He nodded, and the Ring seemed to respond by going lax. The prongs were still dug in, though. Bakura looked a bit relieved and began carefully pulling the five glorified spikes out of his skin. The would bled a bit more as they were pulled out. Bakura grabbed the trenchcoat off the ground and dabbed them until the bleeding stopped.

"You're civil this morning," Anpu smirked.

"The Ring is out, don't talk to me anymore..." Bakura hesitated and squeezed his eyes shut, "Why did you kill her?"

"That was an unfortunate miscalculation on my part. Her body didn't react as well to the poison as I'd expected. I wasn't trying to kill her. Ryou."

"What?" Bakura growled with the voice in his mind.

"Take the vial into the shower with you. I'll do it for you if I have to."

Bakura scowled. Anpu had caught onto what he was trying to do. Or at least hoping would happen. He turned the water on to let it heat up and dug the clear vial out of the trenchcoat. He stuck it on the small shelf with the shampoo and bar soap. After making sure the water was fine he turned on the shower and climbed in. To his surprise, Anpu's presence had fully suppressed himself. Well, at least the man wasn't a pervert. He didn't go after the Ring again, though, even as the water made the rope it hung from wet. Anpu wasn't the sort to let something so small stop him from surfacing.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

It was soon after Bakura stepped into the shower that Adachi finally woke up. He took a look at a wall clock, and groaned. He would be late for work at this rate. Man, he really needed a day off, but he doubted that he'd be getting one any time soon. Especially considering he was about to add extra work for the force on top of the strange case of the poisoned kids.

He sat up, and sighed. It sounded like Bakura was in the shower. The previous night hadn't been very fun for them both. He poked the still very sore bruise on his chest. Yeah. Getting kicked in the chest like that wasn't fun. Man, that kid was insane.

He jumped as his phone suddenly began to ring, and Adachi scrambled up off of the couch to grab it.

"Hello, Adachi speaking."

"Adachi, where the hell are you?"

Adachi's expression fell. Takahashi. "...I'm on my way to work now."

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago!"

"...Sorry. I'll hurry there," Adachi said. Damn. Was he actually feeling bad about killing Takahashi? All the man had done was cause him trouble. Without waiting for a response from Takahashi, he slammed the phone back on the reciever, a bit harder than he'd expected. He flinched, and looked toward the bathroom door.

"Ryou-kun, I've gotta go! I'll be back later tonight. Try to stay out of trouble!" Adachi yelled loud enough for Bakura to hear him over the shower. After unlocking all of the locks on the door, Adachi headed out of the apartment and out to work.

Thankfully, the Seta kid was not lingering outside in the hallway like he had been the previous night.

[mugenginga]

Bakura was letting the water hit his face. It wasn't a high pressure shower, and right now he was just trying to drown out his thoughts with the pattering of water against skin and shower floor. He heard his little used given name in some corner of his mind and pushed the shower head away to turn his head. Adachi had to go out.

Well, it had seemed odd he was still in the Apartment. Bakura had gone on the assumption he had a day off. He still wasn't used to the different time of the Island, it had been early in the two week summer vacation in Japan, but he was pretty sure it was Sunday. Well, someone had to work on Sundays, and Adachi seemed to be worked a lot. Bakura frowned. He probably had overtime thanks to Anpu.

Bakura looked down at the Ring again. He had no intentions of trying to remove it again. Still he found the rope that it hung around his neck with. He was a bit surprised Anpu hadn't changed that when he got the clothes. It was a pretty sturdy rope, but it wouldn't last forever. He sighed. Anpu would take care of it before it ran the risk of breaking. He reached over towards the shampoo Adachi had and began to work it through his hair. He would have loved to talk to Yuugi about his current hell, but he didn't want to put him at risk from Anpu. Besides that, Yuugi actually got along with his "other self".

----------

Ryoji was sound asleep still. Some part of his mind, the part that was aware of his surroundings despite being asleep, had thought he heard Minato get up earlier. It had drifted back into his dream consciousness shortly after. Minato had given him the bed, and Ryoji was currently well wrapped up in the covers. He'd gotten his clothes taken off last night, so he was just in boxers.

He'd probably dreampt, but if he wre to wake up he wouldn't remember it. Ryoji knew of some of the psychological studies done about those that didn't truly dream. They tended to go loony pretty quickly. Still, being able to sleep without knowing you were dreaming, or the occasional truly dreamless night? It was a bit of a blessing. Not that Ryoji could really think that right now. He was very out, the only movement being the rising and falling of his chest.