capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

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WHO: Bakura and Alastair
WHERE: Hell Towers
WHEN: Late Friday night after Ben's dinner
SUMMARY: After staying at Ben's for the last few days, Bakura is finally ready to come home and face what he ran away from.
FORMAT: Para

Bakura paused at the door to 1006, his over night bag over his shoulder, Pelor in her travel case. There was a small flutter of his pulse, but it was nothing like it had been before.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door.

"I'm home!"

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"Uh..."

Alastair sat for a moment, not sure how to answer. He was feeling pretty awkward. "What...exactly were you thinking...?"

"Sorry, just... with everything..." Bakura fidgeted, looking utterly embarrassed. "Never mind," he half mumbled. Much as he wanted a hug, he'd forgo it if it were going to make Alastair uncomfortable.

Alastair's concession was to reach out and pat Bakura on the shoulder, and then ruffle his hair like old times. Nothing too drastic. "It'll work out," he said quietly. "I mean, look at me and Kyosuke. We're back on good terms, like nothing ever happened. It's not fatal or anything."

Bakura ducked his head slightly with a warm smile. "Un," he nodded. "Now we just need to hope Saitou-san doesn't decide he likes you too, else we know there's something to be worried about," he joked.

"Oho, no worries there," Alastair laughed. "Saitou's got that straight-as-an-arrow look about him. And even if he wasn't, I'm pretty sure I'd be last on his list."

He made a loose fist and jabbed Bakura lightly in the arm with it. "You'll find somebody someday, I'm sure. Especially if you get stuck here for the long haul. You're date-able material."

Bakura gave a soft laugh, mock flinching from the punch with a smile. "You really think so?" he asked, sounding almost shy about it. "For other guys too, not just stalker fan girls?"

"Psh, of course," Alastair said boldly. "Turn those girls to your advantage - tell 'em you're looking for the right guy and some of 'em will be all too happy to help you find another cute boy to hook up with."

"Eh?! For real?!" Bakura exclaimed, eyes wide. "They won't try to-- well, you know how girls can be when they get an idea in their heads, right?" he said awkwardly, rubbing his cheek. Last thing he wanted was girls here trying to convince him that he was just mistaken about not liking them.

"I've heard rumors," Alastair smirked. "No, really, sometimes you run into the type who think it's cute. I've never known any personally, but. Eh. Even if you don't, there's plenty of people around here who understand. Just, uh, be careful who you take advice from, from now on." His lips twisted into a bit of a sulk. "I swear, I should go to those idiots and tell them to stay out of it. Did they want you to get your heart broken? Honestly!"

Bakura rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I was the one who asked," he admitted, ducking his head a little. "And... it wasn't all bad advice, I think... just not really very helpful for this situation. And I doubt most of them really realized..." he trailed off a moment before rubbing the back of his neck again. "And even people who realized who I meant didn't exactly... I mean, Anzu-chan and Ben..."

He trailed off again. Yeah, there was no real non-awkward way to say anything he was trying to say there.

"Yeah, no. Something tells me Yuugi's gal-pal there especially would be all hearts and flowers and encouraging you not to give up. Nooooot the right advice for this." Alastair shook his head slowly. He'd reserve his ire until a better time, when he could say frivolous things about people not messing with love lives and not get ignored or shouted down because life-or-death was more important.

"Did you actually tell anyone it was me?" he wondered, vaguely worried about his own reputation coming out of this intact. Whatever parts of Bakura's posts he had hacked, there was still some private stuff he couldn't get into.

"Aaa..." Bakura faltered a bit before ducking his head. "Most of them guessed..." he admitted sheepishly. "The ones who knew me, anyway."

Alastair clapped his hands over his eyes again. "Oh god. No, no...how many guessed?"

He could only hope that imminent destruction would make them all forget in the meantime. Hopefully.

"Aaa...." Bakura faltered. "Maybe... three?"

He looked almost timidly over at him. "... is that a bad thing...? Just others knowing that I had a crush on you?"

Alastair sighed heavily. "No, no, it's not you. But now I'm gonna get no end of people bugging me about how'd it go, are you two together now, blah blah blah. They better not give me shit when I tell them no, and thank you so much for ruining Bakura's day, week, and month."

Bakura shook his head. "Ben knowns how it went already and I don't think Anzu would bother you about it." He couldn't quite remember if Hiruma had guessed the first or second post, but he knew that wouldn't be a problem.

Though he was probably dead wrong about Anzu.

"She better not," Alastair muttered with the air of someone who did not want to be bothered by one of aforementioned boy-on-boy fangirls right now.

"I guess I'll deal with that if it happens. Right now people are pretty distracted, so...we may escape notice just fine. We can get on with our lives and no one will be any wiser."

Bakura nodded. "Un..."

There was a small hesitation. "Ne... are you going with Hiruma-kun?"

"Going with?" Ah, turns of phrase. "Oh, you mean...leaving the City for a while? Probably. We talked about it a bit tonight but...kinda depends on my vacation time from work and Kyosuke's plan to go to Peru." Alastair was rather nonchalant about it - he had no trouble running away, he could consider it evacuation.

Bakura gave a small nod. "That's probably for the best," he said quietly, fidgeting again. "It's going to be quiet in here again, with you and Hiruma-kun gone."

"You're staying?" Alastair almost couldn't believe it. "Even if the place gets full-on attacked? Bakura!"

"Probably..." Bakura said softly, looking down at his hands. "If someone gets hurt and I could have saved them...."

He trailed off a moment. "There are too many people I care about who I don't think would-- or could leave."

"But what about you? What if you get hurt?" Alastair shot back. "Saitou and Kyosuke I can understand because they probably want to fight, but you could get hurt! I don't want any of my brothers to get hurt, including you!"

Deep down he knew it was pointless to protest, since Bakura was a healer and could probably do some good, but he had to express his concern nonetheless.

Bakura fidgeted with his sleeve a moment. "I can't promise that I won't get hurt, because no one can really know how things will go, but I'll be doing my best to avoid any actual fighting. I know I can't fight anyway. That was what--" He broke off. It'd been a long time since Kogenta had gotten Ported out, since he'd had a partner to do the fighting while he'd been the support. He needed to stop dwelling on it. "I'll be doing all I can to stay safe."

He was clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing. He'd much rather be running away with his brother and friends and avoiding the conflict. But he knew he couldn't. He'd come back half way through last time to help. And if someone died because he was afraid...

Alastair sat silent for a little bit, wilting back into the couch. When he spoke again, his voice was much more gentle. "I know. You're more useful than I am. Hiruma and I...we can't fight, we can't heal, we can't do shit." He took a deep breath and let it out, shaking his head slowly. "It doesn't stop me from worrying. You say the word, and I'll hijack the nearest cargo plane and come back and pick you up. On the spot. All right?"