Someone was pounding on the locked door. He knew; he heard. He ignored.

“Did you miss me?”

._._.

The teacher made the transfer sit next to that kid. They both looked so scrawny, and bullies probably picked on them both all the time. They’d be best friends.

“Bakura... Ryo, right?”
“Yes, and you’re... Yuugi?”
“Yeah, how did you––?”
“I... overheard someone call you that. This morning. By the student mural?”
“Oh... yeah.”
“Does that––?”
“To me? Yeah. Sh! If Ms. Chono sees you talking to me...”

._._.

Hands were on his hips, fingers trailing under his shirt, his pants, and he smiled.

“Don’t I always?”

._._.

“Honda-kun, give that back! Give it back!”
“And he passes to Jonouchi!”
“Wait, that’s valuable to me!”
“Look, I’ll give back the box... if you try with all your might to get it!”
“But I––”

There was a crash, and Jonouchi was tumbling across desks and crashing down to the floor, skidding backwards.

“Ba––”
“If you touch him again, I’ll kill you.”
“Bakura-kun?”

Jonouchi was scrambling to his feet, but Bakura was faster, and Jonouchi was pinned with Bakura straddling his chest, his knees pressed atop Jonouchi’s arms.

Yuugi couldn’t see the knife.

“Now give it back.”
“I don’t know––”
“You’re going to need to move a lot faster than that if you think you can steal in front of me. Now give. It. Back.”

Something small and golden skittered across the floor to Yuugi’s feet, like a scarab across stone. Yuugi picked up the Puzzle’s eye, his heart sinking.

“Jonouchi-kun, why––?”
“Scum. Get out!”

Jonouchi had to grab Honda’s arm in his dash out of the room, once Bakura let him go. The new kid’s eyes were sharp, and his face cruel, but he was smiling.

“You alright, Yuugi?”

._._.

The pounding on the door was a tattoo across his senses, but the door did not even shake under the force. It would not yield, though it was clear as glass. If he looked, he would clearly see the man standing on the other side, the pain and anguish etched in his face and the desperation in his actions. But he did not look. He merely smiled.

“Mm, is anyone else here?”
“Just you, and me,” and me, and you.

._._.

“You solved it in just one night?”
“Well, I’ve had it for eight years, but... yeah. Just last night.” Bakura’s already sharp eyes narrowed. He had looked calm, almost gentle the previous morning; maybe he only looked that way when he was tired.

“Yuugi-kun. Do you remember what happened after you solved the Puzzle?”
“Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I went to bed. Why? Bakura-kun, what’s so funny?”
“... ah, nothing. I’ll tell you later.”

._._.

They’d barely gotten to the second floor, let alone his room. He kicked the wooden door shut. The man on the other side of the transparent door kept pounding, and screaming. He did not acknowledge it.

“Mm, so good,” Sharp nails combed through his hair, sharp teeth bit at his jaw, deft fingers ripped off his collar. Again and again they’d ripped off the collar, but it always came back; he was persistent. They were persistent.

“No! Please...”

._._.

“This is the Millennium Ring. When I put it on for the first time, I started... losing time. Bad things happened while I was asleep. It felt like there was something... dark, something terrible inside me, trying to destroy me. But I fought it away. It sleeps. I will not let him take this from me.” Bakura’s eyes narrowed, and his lips seemed to cut into his cheek when he smiled, knives and knives and knives. “Does this sound familiar to you, Yuugi-kun? It should. I’ve met him. I’ve met your other self.”
“... and he... this... you?”
“How do you think I got this?” The hand was dismissive, but the blood was dried and thick against Bakura’s skin. It still bled through his clothing. “You’re the only one I let get close to me.”
“... I hurt you?”
“No. The Other you.”

._._.

The door was hard against his back, and only the press of wood kept his jacket and uniform shirt from falling to the floor. The mouth was hot on his chest, the hands kneading at his hip and his back, hot and heat and the tattoo in his brain was drums and the pounding of a heart and he wanted more. He was pulled against that hot body, desire throbbing through them both. The shirts fell unhindered.

On the other side of the transparent door, the man sank to his knees.

They sank to the bed.

._._.

“Can’t I take it off? Can’t I break it?” He was crying. He’d tried, he’d tried, but his hands would freeze every time until he let go. Bakura just pulled him down onto the hospital bed.

“They never let go. It’s a curse.”
“Then stay away from me! I won’t let him hurt you again, I can’t!”
“And if you go, he wins! He controls your life with your permission. Yuugi––”
“... I won’t. I won’t let him win. If I can’t get rid of him...”
“Yuugi...”

._._.

“I want... I want...” the clink of metal, the scraping of teeth, clink-clink-clink-clink! “I– ah!” clink-clink-clink-clink! The shift of a chain, of chains, as the Items were spun out of the way (always in the way, always interfering). Their torsos were lava and steam and the man was just scratching at the door now, like a weakened cat locked outside after years of rain without end, and they were rocking and shaking and straining against the cuffs and crying and screaming in ecstasy.

The scratching ceased, but the man did not move away from the glass door, did not uncurl from his apparent weeping.

._._.

“Of everyone, he hates you the most. Why?”
“He saw the Ring. He knows the spirit that haunts it, and this body.”
“So he thinks you are... the Dark Bakura?”
“But he is not as evil as yours – you saw the pictures, you know how many your Other self has killed.”
“... he tries to tell me to keep away from you, Bakura. He... his hate for the Other you is so strong... when I’m with you, he can’t even think straight, he can’t see anyone else to hurt. He stops thinking about revenge against the world...”
“Yuugi, what are you–mmph.”

It was Yuugi’s first, and it was painful, and that evil serpent ghost in his heart was screaming so loudly and fighting so furiously that Yuugi nearly bit through both their tongues.

“You’ll have to tie me down, so he can’t... can’t...”
“Yes... he’ll fight so hard to stop you––”
“He won’t win. I won’t let him win. I––”

._._.

His wrists were raw from the cuffs, and the Puzzle was hanging off the mattress and its chain was almost choking him, but when Bakura was inside him none of it mattered. If only it could push that other, dark, evil Yuugi inside him out!

Yuugi screamed when he came, pulled taut, and he heard the glass door open, and he finally actually looked to see the Dark Yuugi watching. Yuugi closed his eyes and tensed at the second wave, and the Dark Yuugi did not cross the open doorway.

Bakura was hissing and growling in his ear, riding out the last of it, but Yuugi did not understand.

Without a door to muffle the words, the curled and defeated form of the Other Yuugi drowned in them.

“The game is mine,” crowed the Dark Bakura, “I win.”