He Crawls Like a Worm

Chapter Four

"Hello Yadonushi."

Ryou sat frozen as he heard the familiar, cold voice. He remained that way for a moment, before hesitantly turning around, shaking slightly in fear. He gasped in slight perplexity as his eyes set of the semi transparent figure that he had only ever seen before in his soul room, who now was standing in front of him.

"It's nice to finally see you on the physical plane," Bakura said in a rather smug manner, with a taunting smirk.

Ryou finally snapped out of his bewildered state, and backed up slightly as he spoke out quiet, stuttered words, "H-h-how are you h-here?"

Bakura simply rolled his eyes at him, his smirk widening. "Why that, of course, is none, of your concern." He chuckled slightly as he glanced at Ryou's clearly terrified expression.

    Ryou's frown sank. "But.. I have every right to know!" He protested, though Bakura only narrowed his eyes as he heard Ryou's words. His smirk fell into an vexed frown, as he scowled at Ryou distastefully. "Yadonushi.. Shut up," He admonished, with a low growl, crossing his arms.

    "No, I will not," Ryou said defiantly with a frown, though it only seemed it anger Bakura  more.

    "I SAID SHUT UP," Bakura snapped with a dark expression, drawing his hand back, though only after a slight moment's hesitation, Ryou not noticing the reluctance that shone slightly in Bakura's eyes for a millisecond. Ryou squeezed his eyes shut as Bakura's hand shot towards him, roughly making contact with his cheek, which erupted in slight stinging pain as he was slightly send backwards. Ryou clutched the red welt, shakily sitting back up.

    "Do NOT disobey me," Bakura growled again, his shadow looming over Ryou as he added with a sneer, "Or else.." Bakura recomposed himself though, sitting down next to Ryou. He tried to scoot away from him, but Bakura grabbed his arm firmly, holding him in place.

    "Look, Yadonushi," Bakura sighed, lifting his hand, wrapping his slender fingers around the hand Ryou was nursing his cheek with, moving it away from the boy's face. "As long as you follow my commands, I see no need to punish you,"

    Ryou didn't meet his eyes, instead averting them away from Bakura, not wanting Bakura to slap him again.

    Bakura frowned though, Ryou's fear clear to him, despite Ryou's fruitless attempts at hiding it. He sighed internally, grabbing Ryou's chin bruisingly, forcing their eyes to meet. "Do you understand?" He asked softly.

    Ryou slowly nodded the best he could, resisting the urge to whimper at Bakura's grip on him, though Bakura only rolled his eyes in response. Bakura let go of his chin, and moved his hand up a bit more, ruffling Ryou's hair in a similar fashion to how someone would do to a dog. "Good Yadonushi.."

A/N: I'm sorry this took so long... I couldn't get it to how I wanted it...  I rewrote it nine times. I planned on this being longer, but I am not quite sure what I want to happen next.. So yeah..  I did hide a message in there, though it isn't just random. It actually plays important to the plot. Whoever figures it out first, and comments it, will have the next chapter dedicated to them. ^-^