Adult-FanFiction.org : Yu-Gi-OH

Powerless	By : Ochodre Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Het - Male/Female Views: 2661 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
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- 8
Wait, I thought I had this down

I built all my cages and my hide out

And I covered all my bases

I locked the door, I shut all my windows

But you, you creep in like a whisper

I try not to listen, but I hear you

I'm not really sure just what it is you do

But do it again...

~Poe, 'Amazed'
Ryou took a deep breath. He squared his shoulders, lifted his head, and slowly unlocked the door to his apartment. He had closed his eyes, prepared to take the brunt of a verbal attack, but he blinked them open as he was met with silence.
He considered calling Bakura's name, but his courage failed him and he kept quiet. He slipped into the apartment soundlessly, looking over the living room. The television was off, and the kitchen was untouched. She should have come flying out at him as soon as he entered, shouldn't she?
His eyes happened upon the floor, and he noticed the book missing. Curiousier and curioiuser...
Ryou took off his shoes and set them by the doorway, then headed down the hall on stealthy socked feet. The door to her room was ajar. Did he dare...?
Biting his lip, he pushed the door open just enough to peek through, fully expecting something to be launched at his head.
The most obvious thing was the room's disarray. He winced at the broken picture frames on the floor, but he knew the most important photographs were either in his room or storage. Ryou didn't recognize the jewelry and other valuables scattered across the carpet, and he could only assume they were stolen. She must have noticed him by now, but there was only stillness. Emboldened, he took a step into the small room so he could look at the bed.
Bakura sat atop the disheveled bed, slumped into a curled position that made her look very small. She held the library book in one hand, holding the pages down with her thumb, her other hand cupping her cheek.
Ryou's heart sank. She looked horrible, miserable beyond words. Her face was red with tears and scratches, and she still had the a bruise on her temple from last night. Too stricken by her sad appearance, he approached her without considering the consequences.
He forced himself to stop just short of her bed. What are you doing? Do you have a death wish? She'll be furious...
Ignoring himself, he sat down on the edge of the bed and spoke in his softest tone. "Bakura?"
She lifted her head, staring at him. She didn't seem surprised, or even angry. The only thing in her eyes was an overwhelming look of shame, and it dulled her crimson eyes to a ruddy brown.
"Hey," he softened his voice to a whisper, tilting his head, "You okay...?"
"What's it look like, you idiot?" she croaked quietly, glancing away.
Unperturbed, he inched closer. "What's wrong?"
She shook her head slowly, lowering it until all he could see was a crown of white hair. The book hung limply from her hand.
"I can't read it," came the quiet, bitter voice.
"Is it too much? I'm sorry, I should have gotten something better... Maybe I could go back --"
"I can't read it," she repeated in an irritated tone, though she was obviously ashamed. "I can't read anything, apparently!"
Ryou blinked in confusion. "But... how did you play Duel Monsters...?"
"I was in your head then. Your subconscious brain recognized the characters and told me what they meant, but now this is all just a bunch of scrawling meaningless crap," Bakura muttered, shifting her weight.
"You can speak my language now, though, and you couldn't do that before, right?" Ryou wondered, tilting his head.
"Yes, but I know how to talk, I got the language from you. I never read - All these useless symbols - Who the hell could make any sense of this?" She lifted the book and smacked her free hand against it in pointed frustration. "How can you communicate with paper? I don't..." she trailed off, growling to herself and winding her fingers into hair tightly, "I have all these damn half-ideas I absorbed from your mind, but they're broken and jumbled. They told me reading was easy, I wouldn't know, I hadn't bothered to try before..."
Ryou thought for a moment, before something came to him. He hesitated, aware of how insulted she might get at his suggestion, but he didn't know what else to do.
"I could... Um..." he started, quietly, looking down, "I could always, well, read it to you..."
Silence fell over the room once again, and Ryou swallowed hard. Great, now she'd probably kick him out again, and it's night, and he didn't have anywhere to stay --
"Fine."
Ryou looked up in disbelief, and saw Bakura staring at him over the edge of her arm. She waved the book at him, eager to be rid of it, and he couldn't help but smile. Finally, he could do something. He sat up a little straighter, taking the book and opening it. "Okay, let's st-"
His gusto was stopped dead in its tracks as he read the table of contents.
Ryou didn't know what he had been expecting, but he already felt himself blushing furiously at what he found. Between frequent moves and being possessed, he had managed to miss that particular unit of health class. He wasn't completely in the dark about female habits and personal life; he once had a sister, after all, but he was no expert.
Needless to say, reading this book - aloud - to Bakura - was going to be easier said than done.
"Well?" Bakura's expectant voice broke his horrified trance.
"U-uhm, s-sure, this is, um, just a-a list of subjects in the book..."
"Tell me what they are," Bakura ordered dispassionately, scratching her head.
"All right, um.. one, introduction, two, self-esteem and confidence, three, friendships, uh..." he read off the list, wincing as the chapter titles rapidly expanded to uncomfortable territory, "Four, anatomy and.. nevermind - Five b-boys, five.. um.. c-contraception and.. er.. h-having se-"
"Why is there a chapter about males in a book about girls?" Bakura cut in, and Ryou had never before been so grateful to be interrupted. His relief quickly faded as he tried to think of how to answer her.
"Well... I think that's self-explanatory, because... you know," he squirmed, looking anywhere but at his now-female roommate.
"Who needs a book to teach them how to have sex?" she snorted nonchalantly. If Ryou's face got any warmer, he was afraid his skin might start melting.
"I really don't think most of the stuff in this book will apply at all," Ryou said quickly, hoping to avoid reading the rest of the chapter titles. It was the truth, though, and he started to feel incredibly foolish about the whole thing.
"Why did you get it, in that case?" Bakura asked skeptically.
"I don't know, I just wanted to do something for you," he mumbled without considering his words, and his face became hotter still, "I mean, I, uh, just felt bad for making you upset, and I wanted to cheer you up or help or something, and I didn't know what to do, and..." he kept sputtering, trying to explain himself, but the truth was that he found his brain disturbingly nonfunctional. Had he been so concerned with Bakura that he forgot to think about just what he was doing? It wasn't really like him to make such rash decisions. He looked down, and saw the table of contents again. He cringed and quickly set the book down.
Bakura was staring at him. "You're certainly red in the face."
That just made him go even redder, ducking his head in a desperate attempt to hide his fierce blush.
"What's your problem?" Bakura's tone tried to be taunting, but he could have sworn he heard a note of genuine curiosity in it.
"Sorry," Ryou murmured, covering his nearest cheek with a hand, "I'm just... terribly ignorant about, um, girls, and things of that nature," he closed his eyes, "It's a bit difficult to read."
"Oh? Did you ever notice all those girls that crowded around you in school?" Bakura huffed, as though annoyed with his oblivious nature.
He clenched his eyes shut at the memory, wishing he could vanish, "They just liked me because they thought I was mysterious."
"And a pretty boy," Bakura smirked.
"Yes, and a pretty boy," Ryou sighed, remembering, "Once they realized I was only mysterious because I clamed up when anyone so much as looked my way�"
His voice had dipped into self-pity without him realizing it, and he felt a knot in his throat. He couldn't help it that he was so unused to attention, could he? Bakura should know better than anyone why no one would want anything to do with him; she was the one that had put names to all of his bad qualities.
Ryou just felt overwhelmingly stupid, flustered and useless. He waited for Bakura to add to his list, but she said nothing. He raised his head to glance over at her, and was surprised to see her staring downward, looking either saddened or nauseous.
"Bakura? What's..."
She shook her head quickly and closed her eyes. "Nothing," she mumbled in a gloomy tone, then added, more to herself, "I hate this body."
Ryou frowned. How could he choose now, of all times, to feel sorry for himself?
"I'm sure we'll find a way to change you back..." he gently assured her, and his hand started to reach out for her. Luckily, he realized what he was doing and quickly pulled it back. His blush returned full force, and then some. But her eyes had been closed the entire time, and he let out a silent sigh of relief.
"Just tell me what it says about emotions," she said quietly, "I'm sick of this."
Ryou started skimming through the book, wisely deciding against asking her what she meant by 'this'. He finally came to a paragraph that talked about mood swings, and he read over it once before re-reading it aloud.
"Girls are not necessarily more emotional than boys, it's just more socially acceptable for them to show emotions. However, surges in estrogen have been proven to cause spikes in moodiness for some women, but these are usually controllable, unless compounded by stress, depression, personal conflicts, or other outside influences. Commonly, many women feel short-tempered, tired, and generally unhappy during these times. More extreme cases include paranoia, severe depression, and violent outbursts. Unfortunately, there isn't much that can be done. Certain drugs may ease mood swings, but the best way is to be prepared. Try making a calendar chart of your... um... I think that's all on the subject," Ryou finished the passage, coughing.
There was another period of silence, and Ryou looked to his side when he felt the bed shift from Bakura changing positions. She moved into a reclining position on her back, folding her arms over her chest and staring at the ceiling.
"Keep going," she commanded in an unusually soft voice.
"B-but that's all there is," Ryou's face flushed, looking for any way out of reading the next paragraph.
"I don't care," she said simply, "Read."
"I didn't think you were interested," he countered, confused.
"I couldn't care less what that book says," she closed her eyes, lacing her fingers together, "But I want to hear you."
"W-what?" Ryou's face was getting warm again, "Why?"
"Your accent gets stronger when you're reading," she explained, as though it should have been obvious.
"I..." he trailed off, dumbfounded, "But you've said you hated my accent, on multiple occasions..."
Bakura had no reply. Her face sank into a scowl, and she opened one eye to glare at him for questioning her, but it was faint and lackluster.
A tiny smile tugged on Ryou's lips, and he got another idea. "Why don't I get another book?"
"Makes no difference to me," Bakura dismissed him and shut her eye.
Encouraged, Ryou set the library book down nearby and stood, carefully navigating his way through the debris of Bakura's earlier rampage. Normally, he would have stopped to clean the mess, but he was too distracted by the possibility of his roommate willingly tolerating his presence. He wasted no time in getting to his room across the hall, pulling an old favorite off the shelf, a fantasy with a well-worn spine.
He stepped back into Bakura's room, picking up her tossed pillow as an afterthought and sitting down on the far side of the bed. When he offered the pillow, she took it and propped it under her head. Ryou leaned against the headboard, and opened the book to the first page.
He had experience reading aloud; when they were both little, Amane had regularly insisted that he read to her in lieu of their busy parents. Granted, it had been years since he last read to someone, but it came to him easily.
Bakura was mostly silent at the beginning, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. Ryou didn't even know if she was listening then, so he started out tentatively, casting furtive glances in her direction. As he fell back into his old routine, though, he became more relaxed. Emotion and flare trickled into his reading, and it wasn't long before he started giving each character a distinct voice and providing sound effects.
This got a low snicker from his companion, and as time passed, she started making actual comments. She had no qualms about interrupting him to question the point of something, or ask for an explanation of something in a roundabout, dismissive manner. Bakura didn't hesitate to voice her opinion, either, and demanded he skip ahead through lengthy exposition or dry dialogue several times. Ryou had to allow himself a tiny smile at the fact Bakura appreciated the antihero thief character, and rooted for the villain. She had taken to likening Ryou to the escaped princess, since they were similarly squeamish and hapless. When Ryou pointed out that the thief and the princess end up together by the end of the book, she scowled and made no more comparisons.
It wasn't long before they were having small discussions at the end of each chapter, on anything from character motivations to poking fun at some part of the story, or reading between the lines. Ryou was delighted to talk about his favorite book, and quietly resisted Bakura's attempts to pry spoilers about later events out of him, even if it meant getting hit with a pillow. Begrudgingly, Bakura had allowed her mood to improve, and soon their conversations bordered on being amicable.
Night overtook the sky outside their window, but aside from retrieving the bedside lamp from where it'd been thrown, they paid no heed, entrenched in an author's fantasy world. But perhaps even more engaging than the story was the fact they had managed to put their angst and animosity aside for the night, let their walls of introversion and defensiveness come down just this once, and forgot their troubled history.
By the point of Chapter Three, Bakura had become interested enough listen to Ryou read instead of interrupt, turning onto her side and watching him. He was too caught up in his reading to notice and become self-conscious, but when the end of the chapter came and his companion had nothing to say, he looked over at her.
Bakura's eyes had closed, and her breathing was slow and even. And for once, she had a peaceful expression on her face.
Ryou felt himself smiling, only then realizing he was on the verge of sleep himself. He closed the book and set it down, and being too tired, content and comfortable to be aware of his actions, turned the light off and set his head down right where he was.
Sometime in the night, his sleeping form moved to rest its head on the lone pillow, and found something warm and moving instead. His subconscious decided this was far more comfortable, and he soundly embraced the body attached to his makeshift, fluffy pillow to keep it from squirming away. His captive's breath tickled his throat, but stilled and leaned against him.
He'd never had more pleasant dreams.
---

Author's Note: Not those kind of dreams, pervs. XP
- 6
- 7
- 8
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Powerless