[…..]-Ryou's memories

Cold as Ice

Steven looked out of the kitchen window and saw the sun beginning to set over the neighborhood. The colors were still vibrant, but there was no pattern to the colors. They seemed jumbled and out of place. He stirred his son's soup and looked into the living room to see Ryou sitting in the rocking chair with a blue blanket covering his legs and looking into the sunset. Ryou sighed as his father approached him.

"What are you thinking about, son?"

Ryou looked down at his fingers playing with his wedding band he continued to wear on his finger. "Bakura….I miss him. We always watched the sunsets together. It's not the same without him."

Steven blocked the sunset with his body hovering over Ryou. "You'll adjust, Ryou. It's not healthy for you to be around him all the time."

"But I have other friends too, dad. Bakura is a part of me and as much as you want to separater us, it will never happen."

Steven glared down at his son. It must be the sickness talking because otherwise, he would not allow Ryou to talk to him in that manner. Steven put his hand to his son's forehead. "Your head is still hot. Where is the thermometer?"

"Upstairs medicine cabinet second shelf left hand side in the purple box."

Steven climbed the steps. "Thank God the box isn't pink," he grumbled.

Ryou sighed even more and looked at the patternless colors outside. He removed the wedding band and read the inscriptions over and over. "Until death do us part. Together forever."

Ryou smiled as he thought of Bakura's breathing brushing his neck, his feather-like kisses along his skin. His yami's warm body pressed against his gave him comfort that Bakura was right by his side. He smiled at the little gold ring and kissed it. "I love you, too, yami."

Steven returned downstairs and gave the thermometer to Ryou.

He returned to the kitchen stirring the soup. Ryou was more stubborn than he thought. The kid did not want to let go! Steven called to his son for dinner and Ryou staggered in holding the wall removing the thermometer. His fever had reduced, but his color was not returning to his cheeks.

Ryou sat down at the table keeping his eye on his father moving around the kitchen. He wiped a tear from his eye and his father sat down at the dinner table. "Stop crying, Ryou," Steven ordered strictly.

"Yes, sir. I promise."

Steven sipped his vegetable soup. "Tomorrow, I am taking you for a ride."

Ryou coughed deeply. "But dad, I'm sick. I couldn't even get out of that chair by myself."

"Take it like a man, son. What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger."

Ryou coughed hoarsely, his thin frame rocked by the spasms in his chest. "But, dad-."

"No buts about it, Ryou Thomas Bakura."

Ryou sipped his soup too thinking that his father should really call him Ryou Thomas Bakura-Itemri. He said that, his father would definitely lose his temper. He was here to make amends with his father, not cry.

"Where are you taking me?"

"You are going to the tavern with me. I'm going to show you real men."

"You mean you're going to drag me out of the house with pneumonia," Ryou coughed again, "to take me to a smoky tavern and be surrounded by a bunch of drunken men who use alcohol as a means of futile escape from reality just to show me how men act? Don't you see anything wrong with that?"

Steven pointed the spoon at Ryou. "Some air would do you good."

"What good is air when I can't breathe?" Ryou asked coughing again.

"When you get up and move, you will feel better. Cinetti will be here to pick us up at noon."

Ryou's eyes went wide. "I have to see Bakura at noon!"

"You are coming with me, Ryou Thomas, and that is final!" Steven said slamming the table with his fist. "This is for your own good, Ryou."

Ryou stopped eating and dropped the spoon on the floor as he stared at his father. [This is for your own good, Ryou] Cinetti's voice rang inside his head. Steven looked at Ryou's face full of fear. "What?"

"Cinetti told me that when Jessica…in the basement."

"No wonder you aren't back to normal! She failed again! What a stupid bi-."

"You! You sent her after me??? Again? Daddy, how could you do this to me??!!"

"I did what I had to to get you back."

Ryou stood up in his chair quickly. "I never thought you would do that to me twice!"

Steven also stood up. "With time and effort from you, Ryou, you will get over this phase."

Ryou began to walk out of the kitchen, but Steven banged his fist on the table again making Ryou freeze.

"Sit your ass back in that chair and eat your god damn dinner." Ryou turned sharply and returned to his seat at the dinner table.

Ryou sipped his soup again and looked up at his father. "Why can't you accept me for who I am instead of trying to change me?"

"Because you are too young and too naïve to know what you did is wrong. How you are living your life will be your destruction."

"But, daddy, I am faithful to Bakura."

"I am your father and only I know what is best for you. You are going with me tomorrow to the tavern."

Ryou ate his dinner and sat at the table until he was excused. "Ryou?" Ryou looked up at his father. "Go to bed. Get some sleep. I'll make a man out of you yet."

At the Ishtar Residence………….

Marik sat on the couch snacking on his bag of pretzels laughing intermittently at the television.

Malik was in the kitchen cooking dinner when Bakura passed him quietly and sat at the picnic table in the back yard. His gaze was fixed towards the sunset. He pitied the other yami as he buried his face in his hands. Malik put down the spoon and went into the living room to the hysterically laughing yami.

"Marik, I think you need to talk to Bakura."

"For what?" Marik abandoned his pretzel bag and followed his hikari to the kitchen window. "I think he needs another "Yami Support Group" session with you."

Marik sighed and went outside to see Bakura whining, "Why does he say such things?"

Marik put a hand on the other yami's shoulder and sat beside him. "Who are you talking about?"

"I'm hearing every word his father is saying. It's echoing in Ryou's head and I can't make it stop."

Marik put his arm around Bakura's shoulders. Bakura looked into the sunset again. "The sunset is so…different without him. It just feels so….empty. Like something is missing."

The other yami looked into the haphazard colors. "Malik and I enjoy the sunrise. The beginning of a day can be very romantic." Bakura wiped a tear away and began to laugh. Malik removed his arm from Bakura. "What's so funny?"

"Five Thousand years has changed you in a lot of ways, Marik Ishtar. You used to enjoy our nights together."

"Well, it was safer at night. We couldn't get caught in the desert at night. Don't forget, most of the time we were running from Yami's soldiers." Bakura nodded. "You always enjoyed the sunsets. I never understood your fascination with them."

Bakura brushed back his hair and turned to see Marik. "Before I met you, I was a slave as a child. Sunset was always the end of our work day. They were beautiful sunsets. The colors would rise above the pyramids. I yearned to see those colors every day. Each sunset was beautiful like our freedom when we finally escaped together."

Marik chuckled once or two. "Well, when I screamed, "They'll never take us alive!", I guess the guards took that literally."

Bakura sighed. "I don't know how I'm going to make it through tonight without Ryou. I've always been there to hold him at night."

"You'll have us for company," Marik winked moving his lips to Bakura's ear and planting a small kiss on the earlobe. Malik, who was watching in the kitchen, dropped his jaw, his eyes went wide, and he dropped the spoon. He was kissing Bakura! Is this some kind of new therapy???

Marik brought his hand up to Bakura's neck brushing his fingertips against the skin.

Bakura turned his head to the other yami. "What is this all about? You know I love Ryou."

"And I love Malik, so what is the problem? I just figured I would cheer you up a bit. You know, Yami Bakura," Marik paused. He never called Bakura that! "You know, just because five thousand years have passed, doesn't mean my feelings for you have died. You used to love me like you do your hikari."

Bakura's attention returned back to the swirl of disorganized colors.

"When you were gone, Bakura, I stood up to protect Ryou. I felt that if I protected him, I was helping you, protecting you, too."

Bakura turned back to Marik. "You…stood up to Steven?"

"For Ryou's sake, yes."

Bakura smiled at Marik. "This sunset has just substantially improved."

Marik leaned over to Bakura. "I do what I can. After all, you never forget your first love…or your first time."

Marik cupped Bakura's chin and kissed him. Bakura closed his eyes as his former lover moaned into the kiss. Marik moved closer to Bakura who allowed his former lover's tongue into his mouth. Bakura opened his eyes as Marik's tongue curled around his and stroked the underside of his tongue. He also noticed Malik watching from the kitchen in complete and utter shock, his face aghast with disbelief. Bakura broke the kiss.

"You kiss like Ryou. I didn't know you could kiss that way."

Marik caressed Bakura's neck. "Even I have my tender moments, Bakura. Just ask Malik."

"What about that time Malik couldn't walk right for a few days?"

"The baka didn't look where he was going and slipped on a patch of ice."

"Well if that's your excuse, than he must slip on ice all the time, even in the summer," Bakura said laughing into his chest. Even Malik in the kitchen managed a snicker.

"Hey, like you said, Bakura, I've never heard him complain."

"Treat your hikari any way you wish, but let me handle my own hikari. The last thing he needs from you is not being able to walk properly."

Marik stood up and turned away from the sunset. "Greedy, huh? Gonna keep the prize all to yourself? Be that way."

Malik put dinner on the table and ran into the yard jumping onto his yami and wrapping his legs around Marik's waist. Marik almost didn't capture the boy in time. With a proud exclamation, he proclaimed.

"Dinner's done, guys!"

Marik smirked. "Are you the main course, Malik? What do you say, Bakura?"

Bakura passed the couple. "I'd say, better watch out and not slip on any ice tonight, Malik." Marik shrugged and wrapped his arms around his yami's neck giggling like an imp.

At dinner, Bakura watched Marik eat as if he hadn't eaten in millennia. Malik slapped his yami hard on the hand. "We have company! You can't eat like a rabid jackal!"

"He saw me eat a crocodile once. This is nothing."

Malik raised an eyebrow at Bakura. "I don't even want to know the details."

"We were hungry, Malik!" Bakura explained. "We just escaped our master! You try finding food in the desert that's not poisonous."

"Actually, it was quite good."

Malik pushed his plate away. "What part of 'I don't want to know the details' do you not understand?"

The yamis shrugged off Malik's outburst. After dinner, Malik was left to clean up. Marik went into the living room. Bakura put his plate on the countertop. "Do you need help?"

"Thank you, Bakura. Usually Marik falls asleep after my cooking, especially my chicken fettucine."

Malik scraped the plates into the garbage can and Bakura washed the plates.

"I heard what you said to Marik. Do you still love him?"

Bakura turned to see Marik on the couch snoring loudly. Marik's head was tilted back, his right arm was on his stomach, his legs were spread one on the couch and one on the floor.

"We've been through hell together. Literally. I still have feelings for him, but Ryou will always be the one I love."

Malik nodded. "I know he cares about you. I care about Ryou."

"Time has changed us both. We have separate lives now. I married Ryou because I love him. I want to spend the rest of his mortal life with him."

"Marik loves me, too. Sometimes he has interesting ways of showing it. And you're right. You both have separate lives now. Times change."

"I wish some people changed as easy," Bakura sighed still thinking of Ryou's dad.