#yeah this one was supposed to judt be goofy idk what to tell you. i like it a lot tho

[zorcskhakis]

the other ghosts in the apartment unionize against bakura

(Alright no more promises about things turning emo since apparently this happens to everything I touch skfnskfn

This one is still largely silly tho)

Ryou was startled from his quiet concentration as he heard a scrabbling behind him, followed by the loud slamming of the door of his bedroom. He turned, finding Bakura pressed against the closed door, an uncharacteristic look of panic on his face.

"...Bakura?"

"The other ghosts are after me," he said, cryptically.

Ryou raised an eyebrow, spinning his desk chair around to face the door. "The what?"

"You heard me! The other ghosts! Now that I'm corporeal I seem to have lost my sway in this apartment's ghost society and now they're all after me!"

As if to confirm Bakura's words, the light bulb from the lamp illuminating Ryou's desk flickered.

"So there were ghosts in here," he mused, glancing over his shoulder at the lamp. "I knew it!"

"You've got to reason with them for me, Ryou! Convince them to leave me alone!" Outside the bedroom, Ryou could hear objects clattering to the floor from the shelves - he grimaced, hoping it was nothing breakable.

"Well, Bakura, I'm not sure what to tell you," Ryou sighed. "I've been trying to make contact with the ghosts in here for years, and they've never answered. So I don't see why they'd listen to me now. Hold on... if you knew there were ghosts in here why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Well you had me, didn't you?! Am I not ghost enough for you?!" Bakura exclaimed indignantly.

"Oh my god, you are a jealous bastard," Ryou muttered, standing from the desk. "Well, come on then, let's see if we can't have a chat with them."

Bakura stepped aside as Ryou opened the door and made his way to the living room, where the ghosts were purportedly rampaging.

And indeed they were, Ryou saw as he stepped into the room. The lights were flickering, his stacked books had fallen from the shelves and lay strewn about the floor, and the air in the room felt unusually cold. Anyone else might have been shocked, but for Ryou this was oddly routine.

"I don't suppose you've tried reasoning with them already, then?" Ryou asked, turning to Bakura.

Bakura shook his head, his odd hair-protrusions almost fluttering like wings as he did. "Ever since I was separated from the Ring I can't anymore."

"Then we'll have to get creative with our methods."

With Bakura in tow Ryou made his way to the game shelf at the back of the room, on the top shelf where he had stashed a ouija board. It had once been on display in the room as Ryou enjoyed the aesthetic, but it seemed to put many of his friends on edge when they visited (particularly Joey) so in the interest of cultivating a more welcoming space, he'd hidden it away.

He didn't have the urge to use it much these days anyhow, though he could not deny he was somewhat excited for the chance to now.

"Alright," Ryou said as he settled down to sit on the rug in the middle of the living room, setting the board down in front of him and motioning for Bakura to join him.

They both placed a hand on the planchette, and Ryou considered how to word his first question - ghosts could be finicky when it came to semantics. Before he could so much as take a breath to speak, though, the planchette started to move. His eyes briefly widened and followed its path - and then suddenly narrowed as he realized what had been spelled out.

"'Dicks'. Really, Bakura?" Ryou groaned as Bakura snickered to himself. "You know it really is more convincing if you let me ask a question before you move the planchette."

"Alright, fine," Bakura relented as the last of his laughter died down. "Go ahead and ask them something."

Ryou thought for a moment. "We can see you're upset," he offered awkwardly. "Would you mind telling us why?"

Nothing happened for a moment aside from the lights continuing to flicker, and Ryou frowned, feeling a bit silly - but then, the planchette slowly started to move.

"R...I...N...G. Ring. Well, it's definitely something you did," Ryou sighed at Bakura, who scowled back at him with a mild glare.

Ryou continued to follow the letters the board spelled out, the speed and intensity of the planchette's movements increasing slightly. "Gone. Quiet. Lonely." Ryou paused for a moment and pondered. "Well... it looks like the ghosts miss you," he observed. "That's why they're upset."

"Well, yeah," Bakura scoffed. "We pretty much had a whole ghost club going in here when I was still a spirit, and I ran the show."

"Somehow I doubt that," Ryou muttered. "But... it does look like they considered you a friend regardless. I suppose now all that's left to ask is... who are you?"

There was another long pause, and then the planchette spelled out a single word in response.

Family.

The realization slowly dawned on Ryou. "Family..."

He glanced over at Bakura. "Bakura... I don't think these are apartment ghosts at all. I think they're the spirits of Kul Elna."

Bakura seemed taken aback, raising an eyebrow. "What, really?"

Ryou nodded. "I guess after 3000 years some things must have gotten pretty muddled for you, so you might not have recognized them... but I think they've always been clinging to you. Even now that the Ring is gone."

Bakura fell silent, looking befuddled. For once, Ryou genuinely couldn't parse what he was thinking.

The planchette moved again, spelling two short words this time. Come back.

Ryou hurried to answer before anyone - Bakura or the spirits - could speak again. "I'm sorry," he blurted, "But Bakura isn't a spirit anymore - and we can't go back to the way things were before." Even if they could, Ryou realized he didn't want to. He felt for the ghosts, knowing well what it was like to lose family - and he thought perhaps it was selfish of him to keep Bakura from them, but even for all the trouble he'd caused, Bakura was his family now. He didn't want to - and couldn't - give him back.

Bakura didn't interrupt Ryou as he stumbled through the rest of his words. "I know you miss him, but he can't be the same as he was before. He has a new life - with Marik... and with me. We're his family too." Ryou looked up at Bakura. "Right?"

Bakura didn't hesitate, and nodded. "Right."

Ryou let out a shaky breath. "So... you understand all that, right?" He meekly asked the spirits.

There was one more long pause, and the planchette slowly came to rest on an answer. Yes.

"He can still talk to you sometimes... like this," Ryou assured the ghosts. He looked over to Bakura again. "Do you want to say something to them?"

Bakura looked oddly sheepish for a moment before replying, "Yeah. I love you guys."

The answer came more swiftly this time, but the movement was gentle. We love you.

The lights stopped flickering then, and Ryou glanced around, slowly lifting his hand off the board.

"Well... I guess we've solved that issue," Bakura said as he stood, taking the board with him and placing it back where it had been before.

Ryou watched him absentmindedly, feeling somewhat guilty for jumping in to speak for him so quickly, to his own family - it wasn't as though Bakura hadn't done the same many times, but...

"Do you wish you could go back?" Ryou asked suddenly.

"What?" Bakura shot back, one eyebrow arching. Ryou didn't often directly ask him such questions, so it must have caught him off guard.

"To the way things were before," Ryou clarified. "Before we split up. When you were still in the Ring. Would you go back to things being that way... if you could?"

Bakura scoffed as he began to cross the living room again. "What, are you afraid I'll leave or something?"

Ryou wanted to shoot back that no, of course he wasn't afraid of that, in fact he had been trying to get Bakura to leave for years - but the lie proved too weak to pass his tongue. "Yes," he admitted. "Sometimes."

Bakura laughed at him, and condescendingly ruffled his hair. "You can't get rid of me, Ryou. You've tried, even! Come on, I think I've more than proved that we're friends at this point. It's not as though anyone else would put up with me - aside from Marik, and he likes having you around too. So, if this is some veiled attempt to kick me out... I won't hear it, and I won't respond to it."

Ryou sighed, relieved to see Bakura was as... himself as ever. "It's not. I just... think about it and wonder sometimes, is all."

"Ryou, literally nothing good has ever come about from thinking, so I suggest you stop that. Now you should get back to planning for tonight's game. Maybe I can convince my ghosts to mess with the lights while you're narrating the spooky scenes..."