• He was almost there. One more attack and Bakura would have beaten this goddamn game for good. Chewing the side of his mouth, he lined up the controller perfectly... Marik wasn't even past level five... His finger hovered over the X button...

    A piercing shriek from upstairs shattered his concentration at the crucial moment. His attack flew off on a tangent and hit a wall, as his opponent's attack hit him square in the chest. Throwing down the controller angrily, he watched as his health gauge slid to zero. Grinding his teeth in an effort not to shout out every obscenity he knew in every language he knew, he stormed to the foot of the stairs.

    "What is it, shrimp?" he yelled up the stairs, crossing his arms. Ryou appeared at the top of the landing, his face the vision of terror.

    "It... it's horrible! It's... Help, Bakura!" he begged. His knuckles were white from the effort he was putting into digging his nails into his palms. Sighing, Bakura flung himself up the stairs two at a time, pushing Ryou out of the way.

    "Where am I going, what am I doing?" he demanded wearily. Ryou pointed mutely at the bathroom. With another sigh, the taller man began to push the door open, which was closed tight. Ryou squeaked in terror and pulled it shut again.

    "Don't!"

    "How the hell am I meant to get in if I can't open the door?" Bakura inquired icily, batting Ryou's pale hand away and pulling the door open all the way. Glancing around, his first impression told him the room was empty. "Ryou, the bathroom is empty. This leads me to the conclusion that you are either going mad, which is likely, or you saw a ghost, in which case closing the door would have had no effect whatsoever." Ryou shook his head and squeaked again.

    "It's on the wall, above the sink..." Rolling his cold eyes, Bakura dutifully looked on the wall above the sink. And promptly burst out laughing.

    "That's it?" he snorted, pointing at the daddy long legs that sat innocently on the wall. "That's the big emergency that made you scream like a girl?"

    "It's not funny!" Ryou insisted, his cheeks colouring. "You know how I feel about insects!" Bakura smirked- the fact that his little landlord had rather severe entomophobia was a matter of supreme amusement to him.

    "Alright, keep your hair on, I'll get rid of it," he sighed, walking through to is bedroom. Ryou practically wailed.

    "Don't leave me alone with it!" he whined, following Bakura. "What are you doing in here?" Bakura grinned widely, brandishing the shoe he had just picked up. "You can't kill it!"

    "What the hell do you want me to do, then?" Bakura groaned.

    "I don't know, just... get rid of it!" Growling in exasperation, the spirit threw the shoe down and went back into the bathroom, staring at the offending bug bemusedly. It stared back at him.

    "Sorry about this, Buggy," he sighed, closing his pale hands around the insect, "but I'm not going to get any peace till you're gone. Ryou, open that for me, yeah?" he added, nodding towards the window. Ryou nodded weakly and pulled the handle that opened it, making sure to keep well away from Bakura's hands.

    "Keep it away from me, 'Kura..." he whined, staring at his closed hands fearfully. Smirking, the taller man waved the captured insect nearer to his little host, feeling it flutter madly against the inside of his hands. Ryou screamed again. "Bakuraaa!!!"

    "Aright, alright, it's going," he laughed, throwing the insect out of the window. It fluttered away in the spazzy way common to its species, apparently unharmed. Closing the window, he turned back to Ryou. "Happy now?" Ryou attached himself to Bakura's neck forcibly, grinning happily.

    "Thank you, 'Kura!" he beamed, ignoring the half-hearted beating Bakura was delivering to his skull to try and make him let go of his windpipe.

    "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Bakura muttered, unhooking Ryou's arms from around his neck. "Go... paint, or cook or study, whatever it is you do..." Ryou grinned again and practically skipped into his room, leaving Bakura to stare blankly at his closed door. After a few seconds of blankness, the spirit shook his head wearily and thumped back downstairs, picking up the PS2 controller and beginning the level again. He was just beginning to get back into it when...

    "KURAAAAA!"

    "For God's sake, Ryou, if you don't want them to come in don't leave the window open!"