AngelicMouse Girl: I’m so glad you like the lemon scenes and the fluffyness. Fluffyness is like friendship! Sorry, Anu is rubbing off on me. I now love to declare in work “Yeah Friendship!” It’s sad really, but Oh well! Keep reading!
Lise: Thanks for reviewing servant yamis. My yaoi seems popular even with non-yaoi fans and for that I am very grateful. Thanks for the support!
Hato-Chiisai: I AM EVIL!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I try my best to be evil! But let’s face it, you keep coming back for more because I am so evil!!! You are the best!
Dragonseye: It was a great place to stop! That’s my cliffhanger. Now you will have to wait until tonight to read the next chappie!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHHAA!! Sorry. I’d love to be on your fave’s list!
Eternalangst: YAY! YOU’VE COME BACK FOR MORE! I don’t think I’ve been called evil in so many reviews before---and I LOVE IT!!!! I heartily agree with you, though. I am evil—but not evil like Tea. Wait! I AM!!
Moonnymph: Yes. Bakura is very happy. Very very happy. What could threaten to tear them apart? Read on, my illustrious reader!
Ssjgoddesschico: I wrote that in twenty minutes. I was listening to my sister’s track on media player and it came on and I was like THAT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR A NIGHT OF KIND OF THING!!!
Digi: Yes, my dear, more Rod jokes. Mayhem ahoy!
Diamond: Thankies! The fun’s just begun on this one!
Blah: Thanks, blah! Glad you liked my lemons. Read away! Keep the reviews coming!
Carry the Torch
Ryou blinked as his father stood before him with open arms. Ryou smiled and jumped into his father’s arms. “Daddy!”
Bakura watched the teary reunion. He wished he could have known a father to hug like that. The father hugged his son tightly and rubbed his son’s white hair. He held Ryou at arms length and looked at his thin, frail-looking frame. “Well, boy, you are nothing but skin and bones!” He turned to Bakura. “Are you feeding him?”
“He eats like a mouse, it’s not my fault he doesn’t eat.”
“Well, I just not hungry all the time.”
Ryou picked up his father’s luggage and brought them inside. Ryou’s dad went into the sink and splashed cold water on himself. “Bakura, could you take father’s luggage upstairs?”
Bakura took the luggage upstairs and moved the fish to Ryou’s room. Where could he hide them? He returned to his father’s room and removed his new clothes.
Ryou poured his father some tea and he sat at the table. “Why didn’t you call me and tell me you were coming home? You said you couldn’t make it this year.”
“My partner’s going to continue to document the finds. We found a rare stone in our tomb. Supposedly, it was a stone that brings good luck and fortune to whomever wears it around their neck.”
Ryou’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s exciting!”
“I know. We think the tomb may have been robbed at some point.”
Ryou couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe that was one of Bakura’s robberies. We could ask him, but I doubt if he could remember which ones he robbed and which ones he left alone.”
Ryou laughed, but his father was not taking the subject of Bakura lightly. “How is he treating you, Ryou? He isn’t beating up on you?”
“No. He’s changed,” Ryou assuming the serious façade of his father. “He hasn’t raised his hand to me in anger in about three months. Bakura isn’t the monster he used to be, dad. Please give him a chance to prove himself.”
“I’m glad to see you boys patched things up.”
“We have, dad,” Ryou smiled at him.
“I wouldn’t miss my only son’s birthday!” Ryou’s dad looked at him smiling innocently.
*******Flashback********
Dad’s POV
Ryou is my only child. I was so excited when it happened. It was almost like a dream. I took his mother to the hospital. Rhea was in a lot of pain with her pregnancy. The baby was early and I held my breath waiting as I tried to comfort my wife. How she cried! In the hospital, they rushed her to the maternity ward, then the emergency room. The baby was in distress and would be born too early. They had to do a caesarian section on her or risk losing our child.
After thirty hours of labor and surgery, they pulled the small, crying life into the world. They cleaned the baby’s windpipe and I heard it…Ryou’s first cry. His first contact with the outside world…..a cry. With much joy they turned to me, “It’s a boy, Mr. Bakura.”
The wrapped Ryou in the blanket and handed him to me. My baby cried and flexed his tiny fingers.
He was beautiful. He was mine. My son. My special boy. I showed him to my wife who kissed both of us and looked with adoration on this life we have created. She held him and gazed down at him as if nothing else mattered in the world. And for those few brief moments, nothing did and time seemed to stand still. The doctors didn’t allow us to hold him for long. He was small and they wanted to monitor his vital signs. His wailing pierced the walls as he wa separated from his mother’s arms….for the first time and unfortunately not the last. The next time I saw him he was behind transparent glass. Connected to every type of machine imaginable, the doctors didn’t expect Ryou to make it past the first week.
Rhea and I prayed for the child to be healthy. We finally decided to name him in case….
We finally decided to name our child Ryou Thomas Bakura. I had such great expectations for his future! Birthday parties, girlfriends, proms, a marriage of his own some day gave me hope for him. I wanted him to have the same experiences I had. Now my baby survived and has become a young man. He looks like his mother……Ra rest her soul.
************
I’m so glad to see you are OK, son. I was worried about you left alone here.”
“My friends helped out a lot. I’m getting older now,” Ryou said fiddling with his ring.
“What’s that ring?”
Ryou looked at the gold wedding ring. “It’s a present. I felt sad one day and I went out to buy it.”
“It has hieroglyphs on it.”
Ryou shifted his eyes. He forgot his dad could read Egyptian hieroglyphs! Ryou quickly took the ring off. “The ring is very tight. I don’t wear it for very long.”
“I thought it was your mother’s ring.”
Ryou examined it closely. It did look like his mother’s wedding band with the exception of the glyphs. There was a small diamond on his mother’s ring. Ryou didn’t have the diamond. “Yeah, they do look similar. Well, I had the jeweler make a ring like mom’s. This way I could always have her with me, you know?”
His dad pet his cheek softly. “You are a good boy, Ryou. I’m sure your mom appreciates it.”
“Are you hungry, dad?”
“Shower and lunch don’t sound half bad.”
“I’ll get the towels ready for you.”
Ryou ran upstairs and removed the candles from the bathroom and found Bakura in his room. Bakura turned quickly after covering something with a blanket. “What are you doing, yami?”
“Nothing.”
Ryou opened his jewelry box. “Yami, put your ring in my jewelry box.”
Bakura shifted his eyes. “Why?”
Ryou sighed. “I don’t know what my dad will say if he finds out about us.”
Bakura approached Ryou and grabbed his shoulders. “Are you afraid he won’t love you? He won’t accept you?”
Ryou sat on his bed. “He always had such great expectations for me. I don’t want to let him down.” Bakura followed Ryou and stood before him. Ryou wrapped his arms around Bakura’s waist. “At the same time, I don’t want to let you down. I love you, yami.”
Bakura rubbed Ryou’s hair. “If he loves you the way I do, why would he mind?”
Ryou looked up at Bakura with tears in his eyes. Ryou poured his heart out muffling some of his words in Bakura’s shirt covering it in tears. “Because I want him to be proud of me. I never see him, yami. He never comes home as it is. If I see him angry at me, he’ll never want to see me again! I don’t know what I’d do if I lose him! All we have is each other since mom died. He’d never come to see me again if he got angry at me. I couldn’t bear that.”
Bakura kneeled before Ryou. “Your father should accept you for who you are. He shouldn’t deny you anything because you do not fit into his expectations. Ryou, you are a good son.”
“My dad always wanted me to meet a girl. ‘when I have grandkids..’ and ‘did you find a nice girl yet?’ is all he asks on the phone. I never told him about us or our wedding.”
“Well, I would hope you could be honest with him, but when you put it like that, I don’t want you to risk your relationship with him.”
Ryou nodded. Bakura slipped off his ring sadly and began to put it in the box when he hesitated.
“I still want to wear this, Ryou. I have a better idea.” Bakura used one of Ryou’s sliver chains and threaded the ring though it. He clipped the chain behind him. “Now we can still wear our wedding rings.” Bakura hid the ring under his shirt concealing it. Ryou hugged Bakura gain.
“What were you hiding behind you, yami?”
Bakura sighed. “I wanted to wait until your birthday, but…Happy Birthday, Ryou!”
Bakura pulled back the material to reveal a fishbowl. Ryou smiled and threw his arms around Bakura again kissing his cheek. “I love them, Yami! I love them!”
“That’s part one of your birthday present.”
Ryou smiled. “Part one? How many parts does this present have?”
“I can’t tell you that. It’s a surprise. You know, Ryou, you are not just a wonderful son. You are more than that to me.”
Ryou smiled and rested his head on his yami’s shoulder looking up at him. “What am I, yami?”
“You are my lover.” Bakura kissed Ryou gently stroking his cheek and tracing his jaw line. Ryou felt Bakura’s warm breath hit his cheek as they kissed. Bakura’s hands floated under Ryou’s shirt in the back. Ryou pressed his body close to him. He needed his yami. He wanted his yami. Ryou wrapped his arms pulling Bakura’s head closer to him to deepen the kiss.
Ryou broke away hesitantly. “I have to get the towels for father’s shower. I’ll be waiting for the rest of my birthday present.” Ryou ran from the room to prepare the towels for his father’s shower.