[Closed]

[morecowbell]

Characters: Nanami & Yami Bakura
Location: Nanami and Clair's Condo
Rating: PG
Time: May 17th 4PM
Description: Bakura's got some 'splainin' to do.



Nanami was sitting on the couch turning the pages of detective novel when she heard the knocking at door. "It's already four?" She thought to herself glancing over at the clock. The blond hadn't intended to spend the entire afternoon reading but somehow it had happened again. After marking her page, she set the book on the coffee table and made her way to the front door checking through the peep-hole first. One could never be too careful these days especially after the riots and then there was that creep, Zagi.

Even though she could clearly see Bakura she still paused before finally opening the door for him. "Hello, please come in."

Comments

[morecowbell]

"Venezuela?" For a moment she was confused but it clicked, "oh for our next mission. No India, Egypt or Bora Bora, huh? Well then, what's in Venezuela?"

[feelsgoodinyou]

"I was looking for an exotic island, but Venezuela was the closest they got." He took another bite and chewed it carefully before he elaborated. "Some supposedly haunted tree-houses and some breathtakingly beautiful beaches, or so I heard. Would you go with me?"

[morecowbell]

Her eyes lit up at the mention of tree-houses which sounded totally awesome. The haunted part was not as awesome. "Well it sounds interesting enough, sure, sounds good to me." She looked back at him and laughed a little remembering their last mission. "Hopefully this one will go a little better than the last one."

[feelsgoodinyou]

"Excellent," he smiled brightly at her. "I'll sign us up right after this in that case." Gesturing with his fork, he laughed a little which ended up confident under his breath. It was the noise of somebody who knew how to win and how to win well. "And no worries, I'm not planning on repeating those past mistakes. For one," he smirked, "there's no open water or beach involved in this one."

He took a sip from his wine before he looked demonstratively around the room. "Are you sure your new Meister doesn't mind us going out together?"

[morecowbell]

"Different location, different dangers," she said sensibly before taking a bite of her food. Sadly the worst part for her had not been their many near death experiences during the mission it was the part where she was covered in monster slobber. In a way she didn't think much about it but she might have enjoyed the danger a little more than she should have.

"Huh? You mean Clair? We're just roommates. I mean, he's a Meister but we haven't even tried resonating yet."

[feelsgoodinyou]

"Ah." He commented nonchalantly as he noted the name for later looking it up. Time had taught Bakura to be careful till borderline paranoid when it went to keeping his prospective pieces in check. The thief couldn't prevent any outside influences, but that didn't mean that knowing of them would not improve the cards in his hand.

"I was wondering since usually only people who have teamed up for serious are living together."

[morecowbell]

"Well, I'm not that interested in having a permanent partner and I can't afford to live here by myself. I just happened to run into him one day and found his interests aligned with my own so there you have it. Besides, if either of us ever do happen to end up with a more permanent partner, there's still a bedroom that's not in use. Of course they'd have to pay their fair share," she added.

[feelsgoodinyou]

"And there you just moved in with a strange man?" He made a small amused noise at the back of his throat. "I don't know whether that would have been called brave or careless back in my era."

[morecowbell]

She frowned a bit since his words rang true, "it was kind of a moment of desperation really," she mumbled behind her wine glass. Besides it had worked out all right in the end.

[feelsgoodinyou]

"Mn." He concentrated on eating for a couple of minutes, his cutlery softly clattering against the plate as he consumed the food without really caring for its taste. "Desperation has always gotten one strange bedfellows. I once shared rooms with a tomb guardian for similar reasons. 'Was quite a looker, but not the sharpest tool in the shed."

[morecowbell]

Nanami did the same while recovering from a the little embarrassment she felt from being called out, only a tiny blush was apparent on her face. In a way, she had done the same thing with Bakura hadn't she? Not the being desperate part but jumping from resonating one time to suggesting a full on mission with someone who was pretty much a stranger even after seeing a bit of his soul.

"Hmmm?" She hummed with an interested smile, "well I guess that simply makes up both adventurous and there's nothing wrong with that." Right? Way to spin it Nanami.

[feelsgoodinyou]

"Of course not." He admitted freely. "It just means that we don't shy risks for getting what we want and are good at adapting."

He took a gulp from his wine. "Although I'm more of the solitary kind when it comes to things like living spaces."

[morecowbell]

Nanami nodded, "exactly."

"Don't you get lonely sometimes?" She asked curiously. Even if they were several rooms away, Nanami always felt more comfortable when someone else was somewhere near by. She had some abandonment issues.

[feelsgoodinyou]

He gave her a mildly confused look for a moment, his face saying exactly that that wasn't something he ever wondered about. After a long moment, he simply shrugged his deceptively thin shoulders. "I don't think about things like that to be honest. I spent years being sealed into the Ring and was always on my own even back when I was still alive."

[morecowbell]

Nanami's face was equally as telling, no matter how much you didn't think about something like that, being alone was lonely, her logic told her so. Being alone meant you had to face yourself the entire time and that in itself was pretty terrifying for her. "I couldn't imagine being in solitude a week let alone years," she laughed halfheartedly, "I'm sure I would have gone insane by the first month."

[feelsgoodinyou]

Bakura made a little amused noise under his breath. "Thirty centuries. That's long long I've been sealed into the Ring without any options to communicate with the rest of the world. No way of contact, only watching at best."

His expression turned serious at the memory and he focused his gaze on the plate in front of him. "That's also why I was that off when I finally got out again. After a while you begin to forget things even when you don't want to..." He shook his head as if he needed to wake himself. When Bakura looked back up his storm-grey eyes very clear. "It was maddening, but I never missed anyone."

[morecowbell]

Bakura felt incredibly distant as he spoke and before she knew it, she had reached out and set her hand gently on his like it was some way of anchoring him down to where she was. She wanted to ask if she were to be sent home tomorrow, would he miss her but she was afraid of hearing his answer so instead she said, "But you're here now, right? Surely there's someone here you'd miss if they were suddenly gone."

Even though Nanami didn't want to get attached to people here it had happened anyway. Bakura had been in Death City longer, there had to be someone who's company he enjoyed even if it wasn't hers.

[feelsgoodinyou]

He startled a little at the sudden touch, his hand tensing under hers before he relaxed it again very slowly. It was a subtle but still telltale sign of him having lived a life where touches were very rarely something gentle.

"Nanami", for a moment a myriad of emotions danced behind his eyes and a damn threatened to be breaking somewhere. But then the ancient thief took a deep breath and shook his head lightly with a smile. When he met her eyes again there was only firm confidence left in his. The same kind of determination echoed in his voice.

"It doesn't work like that for me. I never regret" Because he couldn't. The moment Bakura started to question his actions, the way he lived, would be the day he himself started to unravel and become undone. He had come too far to give in to such temptations anymore, as pleasant as they sometimes appeared when he was weary like today. Despite that it didn't take much acting to make his voice a tone gentler when he continued. "...and I also never forget."

[morecowbell]

The hand tensing below hers didn't deter her from keeping her hand there for the time being. Although there was little to no expression on her face her eyes returned a cool confidence before squeezing his hand and withdrawing. He was just being stubborn, which would make sense since he had lasted as long as he had as a vengeful spirit. She picked her fork back up and closed her eyes with a somewhat over dramatized miffed expression she teased him a little. "So you're saying if I were to be sent home tomorrow you wouldn't miss me at all? That's pretty rude."

[feelsgoodinyou]

"Hey, I'd be a pretty bad evil spirit if I shed parting tears every time I liked a person a bit more than usual leaves my life!" He played along, pretending to be insulted. The truth was that he really wouldn't. He'd be miffed over the lost chance and tool, but he'd regret her department no longer than a cat would regret that of a mouse that had escaped into a hole before it had been able to catch it.

He quickly took another sip of wine to hide his smile at the mental picture.

[morecowbell]

"Well I suppose it's good to know where I stand in the grand scheme of things," she replied flatly returning to her food in silence. There were a number of things running through her mind regarding the situation but for now she chose to keep them to herself.

[feelsgoodinyou]

He set his glass down.

"I care about you enough not to lie to you just to gain an advantage." Which was a lie in itself. His pokerface was perfect when he turned his attention towards the food as well.

"I broke up with my former partner."

[morecowbell]

"I appreciate your honesty, there's nothing worse than someone going out of their way to be nice to someone they don't like for personal gain." She'd just about had enough of that back home.

"Your former partner? Who was that?"

[feelsgoodinyou]

"A clingy self-important Weapon I don't want to talk about." He made a displeased face. "He blamed me for telling the truth, for him thinking that I wasn't telling the truth, for not being who he decided I should have to be, for confusing him, for going on a mission with you..."

He shrugged his shoulders. "In the end I had enough of his constant yammering and ditched him."

[morecowbell]

Wait, for going on a mission with her? "I thought you weren't in an exclusive partnership?" The idea of being a home-wrecker, or whatever the partnership equivalent was here, was a completely foreign idea to her. Of course with that glowing description of his former partner, Nanami could completely understand why he would dump him.