It was weird, though. He'd tried to sleep on the boat ride to the temple and again on the airplane, but both times it had proven impossible. Somehow he had the feeling that, no matter how tired he was, as long as there was this empty hole inside him where his other used to be, he wouldn't be getting any rest.

This trip had left scars for most of them. Kaiba-kun had been unusually quiet from what he'd been able to see, never letting his little brother out of his sight - well, more so than usual. Jyonouchi-kun had been acting oddly ever since they saw Malik-kun again. Anzu-chan seemed to be bordering on depression. Yuugi-kun... was hiding whatever he was feeling rather well behind his usual smile. And he felt like he'd been ripped in half.

As he stumbled across the living room, the phone began to ring, but he ignored it. A moment or two later, the machine picked up, just before he started down the hall to his bedroom, and Yuugi-kun's voice filled the apartment: "Bakura-kun? Are you home yet? I have the best news! Are you sitting down? Guess who's-"

He entered his bedroom and pulled the door closed behind him, effectively cutting off the rest of the smaller teen's words. He nearly tripped over a pile of clothes on the floor but ignored that too to flop down on the bed still dressed. The oddest sensations floated up through his sleep-deprived mind: his pillow didn't smell like it usually did; the covers on his bed were awfully rumpled; the mattress was tilted slightly, like it was bearing more weight than just his. None of that compared to the bed shaking and the sheets pulling back slightly to reveal a shock of white hair and silver eyes glaring at him in sleepy irritability.

He bolted back upright, staring down in surprise. "What-? Who-?" But he knew who it was, in his soul if nothing else.

An arm slung itself around his waist and pulled him back down. "Don't be stupid, yadonushi." Bakura's voice was gravelly with exhaustion but definitely a slightly higher pitch than his own despite that.

"Are you... real?" he had to ask.

"Didn't I just say 'don't be stupid'? Of course I'm real. I'm not some figment of your imagination or anything. However, I am a very tired thief so let me go back to sleep."

He bit his lower lip then hesitantly spoke again. "Just one question, please." Bakura sighed but didn't object. He took that as assent. "How are you here? Are you the only one that came back? Is that your... real body."

"That's more than one question." He opened his mouth to apologize but was cut off. "The Pharaoh's back too, but I think maybe we're it. How? We struck a deal with the gods. And of course this is my real body. I wasn't keeping that one Atem conjured up for me."

"So you're..." He trailed off, unsure how to say what he wanted to in the least offensive way.

A hand grabbed one of his, and the next thing he knew, it was filled with warm, soft flesh. "Yadonushi, meet tits. Yes, I'm a woman."

If he hadn't already been contemplating passing out from exhaustion, it was definitely in the realm of possibilities now. Oh, he'd known the spirit living in his head was female; she'd had no qualms about telling him that on a regular basis (usually followed by 'Stop looking at him/her; I'm sexier') when they'd shared a body. But it was one thing to know that with a spirit, but it was a wholy different matter to have the tangible proof in his hand.

"Y- Y- Yami!" he barely managed to squeak out. He hated to think how red his face was, but he was pretty sure it had to be about the color of ketchup because he was starting to feel a bit lightheaded.

She gave him a dirty look, releasing his hand, though to be fair, it seemed to be frozen in place. "What? Not good enough for you?"

"I- I- It's good enough proof for me! I mean, I knew you were a girl before." He forced himself to take a deep breath and release it slowly. "But, yami, it's one thing to know it and another thing to see it."

She quirked an eyebrow and glanced down at his hand. "And another thing to grope it, yadonushi-dear?"

His breath caught in his throat as he realized he'd been squeezing and releasing the flesh in his hand. He yanked his hand back abruptly, tucking it behind his body before she could take a notion to relieve him of it. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't realize-"

"I didn't say it was a bad thing," she interrupted him. "Just not too hard."

"Yami?" She couldn't be saying what it sounded like she was saying, could she?

Silver eyes slipped closed again, and she tugged him closer. Nervously, he crawled beneath the sheets with her and held his breath as she arranged herself, her head on his shoulder and a leg thrown over his. He was almost positive, if he'd been breathing, he'd have missed her next words: "If I can't trust my other half, who can I trust?" They were spoken so quietly that he couldn't be completely certain, though, and she'd drifted off again.

Well, he was awake now, that was for certain. He didn't think he could go to sleep any time soon if he tried. She'd given him way too much to think about.