Out of the Blue     by: Alena S. Anigor (Sanela)

Chapter IV – Realizations

Ryou nodded understandingly and smiled; finally being able to understand some things he hadn’t had a clue about before. Tea was sitting next to him drinking her juice. She did cast a few glances behind her to see what he was doing, but she wasn’t able to see him, because the wall was blocking the view. She could only see a faint light coming out of the room, and hear voices and sounds coming from the TV. Obviously, he had decided to leave them alone. She snorted mentally, ‘like he would even want to meddle with stupid mortals...’

Ryou raised his head, finished with the last task she had given him to solve, and she lowered the glass to the table, leaning a bit to see what he had written. He shoved the notebook aside a bit and she ran a quick check across the notebook, before nodding and smiling at him.

“Good job, Ryou, you did it!” She exclaimed, happy that he had managed to understand what she was showing him the last hour and a half. Time flew quickly, and they neither had even noticed it, although, someone else had.

Bakura was staring at the screen, not really paying attention to what was on it. His eyes were looking past the screen, somewhere distant. He had been sitting like that, simply staring forward and thinking, for quite some time. Thinking and casually listening to the conversation from the other room. It seemed like that lousy wimp had finally managed to understand what the girl was trying to explain to him, and he snorted silently, thanking Ra for finally making him use that brain of his.

He heard a sudden commotion coming from the kitchen, and the sound of chairs pulling, filled his hearing. He rose from the couch, leaving the TV on, and silently approached the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen.

Imitating his old habits of sneaking up on someone important or something valuable, he let one eye peek around the corner, his sharp looking bangs falling slightly aside from his forehead. His eyes revealed curiosity, as he watched the girl smiling at his hikari, and him smiling back, thanking her for her help and bowing in respect. He let out a snort; he’d never bow to anyone!

He was spying on them, without them even knowing, and silently he observed the girl, the same girl that did something to him, the same girl he knew would be his doom, and his downfall.

But the worst thing was that he couldn’t help it. As much as he tried to block those sensations that were called feelings, he just couldn’t put them away, lock them somewhere safe or bury them somewhere deep like he used to before. He sighed inwardly; it was so much easier before...

Setting his eyes on the girl again, he noticed the intensity of the blue color in her eyes; they were so blue, that they reminded him of the same color of Nile; blue, and crystal. The way she smiled and the way her eyes glistened when she was talking, was something that made his insides burn. He shook his head immediately when he realized in what direction his thoughts were bringing him. What, for Ra’s sake, was he doing? He was letting a puny mortal rule his life? Never!

He was ready to go back to the channel flipping when the soft voice of Ryou stopped him.

“Bakura, I didn’t know you were watching - did you want something?”

‘Damn!’ He cursed mentally, then turning around swiftly, and glaring at him, he opened his mouth to speak, his lips formed into a snarl.

“No! I don’t want or need anything from you, understood?” He spat out, making Ryou flinch slightly, and making Tea stare in surprise. She knew he wasn’t a very social person...at all, but the way he was treating Ryou, who was, in fact, taking care of him, was anything but fair.

She wanted to say something, but a cold glare directed towards her made her mouth close, and she decided not to say anything, for hers and Ryou’s sake. Who knew what he might do to him after she was gone?

She looked at Ryou sadly, but he only smiled softly, knowing that it was Bakura’s way of communicating and that was that.

Bakura leaned on the wall, crossing his arms over his chest, and was now glaring at them both. Tea was standing like a statue in the middle of the kitchen, not knowing what to do. Then, her reflexes kicked in, and she looked at her watch, smiling uncomfortably, and then coughed, looking at Ryou.

“Oh, wow, it’s late, I really should be going.” She said, and Ryou nodded.

“Damn straight.” Was heard from a Yami standing on the right. Tea looked at him, glaring back, then turned on her heels and headed towards the door.

Turning one last time to look at them, she smiled politely and reached for the doorknob, opening the door.

“Good night, Ryou.” His name was emphasized in that certain manner, which meant that the farewell was meant only for him. Bakura growled when the door closed, and, sending Ryou one last death-threatening glare, went back to the living room and stretched out on the couch, grabbing the remote in the process.

Ryou sighed inwardly, glad that he was still alive. He had known that he shouldn’t have asked her to come, that it would anger the ancient tomb robber, but he had hoped that he wouldn’t be so mad, which in the end, was the case. The only thing he wanted was for Bakura to accept Yugi and Yami as his friends, and everyone else who belonged to their little gang, but that seemed impossible. He shook his head and started cleaning the table, repeating what he had learned today in his mind.

Tea was walking silently down the park, although her face wasn’t looking that peaceful. She was fuming, silently muttering all sorts of insults she could think of at the moment. The nerve of that guy! He was really one grumpy, old, annoying, not to forget evil, arrogant, selfish, self-centric...

There she stopped, not coming up with any other word to describe him. She was almost running down the path now, frowning more with every second. Reaching the place where she had met him two days ago, she stopped briefly, looking at the bench where he sat, and actually flirted with her...

She shook her head, telling herself that it wasn’t flirting; he was simply playing with her, toying with her. She remembered suddenly the little pencil that jerk didn’t want to give her back, and she leaned forward, lowering down to see if it was still there by any chance. After looking under and all over the bench, and finding nothing, she sighed.

“Figures,” she muttered, putting her hair behind her ears, “what did you expect?”

She got up, and, looking one last time at the bench, she hesitantly sat down on it, not knowing herself why she did it. She leaned on the back of the bench, relaxing slightly. She looked around a bit, wondering why was he here in the first place, what was he looking for right here, on this bench? She put the book aside and inhaled deeply.

Spending some time thinking and observing the surroundings she sighed, telling herself how stupid she was for sitting down, and yet again thinking about him. What was going on with her?

She leaned forward, still sitting on the bench, clasping her fingers and letting her head rest on them.

She just didn’t understand; since that evening when she met him here, she’d been having weird dreams about him, and she couldn’t stop thinking about him or those dreams...

Then her eyes widened a bit as one thought crossed her mind as a possible reason. She gasped, raising her head, and staring at the tree in front of her.

‘No,’ she thought, ‘I’m not...I’m not attracted to him now, am I?!’

It all made sense: the way she was dreaming about him, and the way she was thinking about him...it all made sense!

Tea let out a soft noise, something between a sigh and a moan, that sudden realization dawning on her, and totally catching her unprepared and confused.

She leaned back again, her back hitting the bench almost audibly, as she let the realization sink in.

She had actually developed a crush on Yami Bakura!

She averted her eyes to the sky, watching a shiny orb on it, breathing rapidly, eyes widening again. That just couldn’t be! He was a tomb robber; an ancient one, and an evil one, on top of it all, and he had tried to hurt her and her friends several times already. There wasn’t even one single good thing she could think of about him. Not even one!

“This is insane...” She mumbled, covering her eyes with her hands, head lowering down to her knees.

“Maybe I am insane, too...” She uttered, and then a cold shiver ran through her body. It was getting cold, and she realized that it was really late already, and that she should be home in bed.

Slowly, she got up, clutching the book slightly, and started walking home, the thoughts about Bakura still filling her mind, and her brain having some difficulties processing those thoughts.

It simply...made no sense to her at all...

 

Closing the doors behind him with a loud bang, and making Ryou cringe in the next room, Bakura sighed loudly, the ever present frown on his face, softening a bit. He leaned on the door, putting his hands behind him for support.

What was his life coming to?

He got away from the doors, and approaching the table in the middle of the room, he lowered his head, and his eyes fell on the little blue pencil that was still lying uselessly on the table. He picked it up, feeling a sudden need to crack it in half and then throw it away for good. That way it wouldn’t haunt him anymore.

But then again, something inside told him not to do it, that it was just a pencil... the other part of him yelled back, telling the other that it was her pencil, and that he didn’t want to have to do anything with her, or any of her friends!

The internal battle lasted for a minute or so, making Bakura stare helplessly at the pencil, twirling it vigorously between his fingers, not being able to decide about its fate. Finally, frustration got the best of him, and the pencil landed on the table, thrown away again.

He sat on the bed, growling silently in anger.

He couldn’t allow that to happen...he just couldn’t. A part of him that was kept locked away for a very long time, rebelled, filling him with a need and the desire to feel those things, to just feel how it felt...just once, to know how it really felt to have friends, to have someone who lov –

“No, damn it!” He yelled his frustrations out loud, and then quickly shut his mouth. He heard doors opening, and he got up from the bed quickly, turning his attention to the doors.

“I’m fine, damn it!” He growled, hearing footsteps coming his way, and then they stopping, hearing his warning.

“Go back to sleep.” He added in somewhat, civil tone, and Ryou hesitated for a moment, before going back to his room. The doors closed, and Bakura sighed, trying to calm his anger. He sat on the bed again, straightening his pointy bangs, and leaning down to rest on the bed fully. He put his legs up, deciding not to change into those stupid, absurd looking clothes they called pajamas, and closed his eyes.

The worst thing was that when he closed his eyes, the only thing that came to his mind, was Tea Gardner. Her hair, her eyes, her smile; his vision was full of her, and Bakura had to open his eyes to stop the images from coming. He gritted his teeth, putting his hands behind his neck, staring at the ceiling.

He knew exactly what was going on; somehow, that girl was able to wake those damn feelings of his, somehow, she was able to make his insides burn with something he, quite frankly, had never experienced before. And on top of it all -  she was making him feel jealous. Suddenly imagining someone else with her made his eyes burn with the desire to kill, and made his fists clench unconsciously.

Realizing that he had managed to, once again, come too far with those thoughts, he growled, closing his eyes and forcing his mind to create images of Millennium Items.

And he frowned, thinking about Yami and the midget version of him, telling himself once again that he would get that Millennium Puzzle one day, and that he would make the Pharoah feel pain and suffer.

And he closed his emotions once again, there where they, in his opinion, belonged – in the dungeon called his heart.