Hey guys!

Since NK2 and Ore no Gakuen have been undergoing major edits (and the block is being chipped away every day), I decided to post up a series of one shots of MarikxRyou stories. They range from Marik and Ryou as adults in AU worlds, or as them as children growing up. At any rate, this is just a collection of quick Deathshipping one-shots just to tide anyone over of a Deathshipping fix. Plus, I wanted to see if I could experiment with Marik and Ryou as children, without having any types of limitations set.

Hopefully you guys will enjoy them. The first one is a bit angsty 'cause I haven't managed to break free of my 'mature-er' narrative. Hopefully the next segement will be shorter, flufflier, and funner. Right now, I think Marik's a five-year-old who thinks derangedly like a twenty-year-old.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Modern Memory Days – The First Segment: Marik's First Day At School

(a sappy story).

Marik was a 'special' boy.

He had always been told he was one, so thusly, he became to associate himself as someone who was a very 'special' boy indeed. As a toddler, he always got what he wanted, so long as he yelled and screamed violently at the top of his lungs and said certain special words that made everyone do whatever he wanted them to do. His father was a temperamental and unstable man, prejudiced, strict, and unloving. His mother was kind and endearing woman, but she was always too weak to stand between him and his father's fist.

So when Mrs. Ishtar was hospitalized, Marik was sent to a new school under a 'special' foster care program. But here, 'special' meant 'mentally unstable' and 'prone to violence'. But Marik, being five years old at the time, hadn't quite understood that.

It was his first day at school that September. He found himself in a strange world of emotionless, white walls. There was a courtyard full of flowerbeds, lunch benches, and a basketball court encased in chain-links. Marik, despite himself, longingly liked looking out the window for hopes that he could play out there.

He was gently pushed into a classroom, colorfully pasted with paper and other crafts. Marik winced and scowled. He didn't like the unfamiliar brightness in the school.

"Hime-sensei? Here is your new student…"

Marik looked away from the walls and finally towards his front. His scowl deepened when he saw a carpet laid out in front of him, with twenty-some staring eyes at him. He took a step back, feeling instinctively uneasy and upset.

"Kanya-sensei? Really?" A woman came into view from behind a bookcase, holding several picture books. She had long, straight brown hair and an oval face, coupled with great circular glasses. She smiled. "Oh! How wonderful! Come on in, Marik."

Marik didn't like being asked to come in. He stayed put.

The counselor behind him gave him another nudge. He reluctantly stepped onto the carpet. Immediately he felt like he had stepped on some forbidden 'bad place' territory and wanted to run. But before he could, Hime-sensei had come up and gently took his hand, leading him to the front of the classroom. His anxiety and he wanted to run even farther. He considered screaming but by then, he was already in front of the class, in front of the chalkboard. The twenty heads and pairs of eyes swerved slowly after him and followed him like robots.

"Class – we have a new student. Let's all say hi to Marik Ishtar."

The class chorused monotonously: "Hiii, Marik Ishtar."

Marik shuddered.

Hime-sensei bent down on her knees, so that she was looking up at Marik. She had a soft and young face that made Marik feel a little bit more better than he had been before. She smiled at him.

"Would you like to say anything about yourself Marik?"

Marik blinked at her and slowly shook his head. Hime-sensei smiled again and stood up.

"Our new kid is very shy, class," she said. "Let's all be nice to him and make him feel welcome. Would anyone like to be his New Buddy?"

There was silence. Marik fidgeted and for a moment, felt something hurt in his chest. No one wanted to be his buddy?

He heard the teacher sigh behind him. She got on her knees again and looked at him friendlily.

"Everyone's just shy right now, I'm sure you'll make friends quickly," she assured. "Why don't you sit over - …there?" She pointed in the corner, where there was a spot next to a small little boy. "Ryou, can you be Marik's New Buddy for today?"

Marik followed her finger and found that the little boy she had called was the smallest, weakest looking thing he had ever seen. The little boy nodded his white hair, but didn't say anything.

Hime-sensei smiled. "Why don't you sit over there. Ryou will show you everything about the school and the classroom at recess, okay?"

Marik didn't say anything, and after Hime-sensei got up, he shuffled over to the little boy. He felt scared as all the eyes of the other twenty children stared up and followed him. Quickly he sat down in the corner and brought his legs up to his chest.

As the teacher sat down on her stool to read a story, Marik felt a little hand tug on his shirt. He looked up sharply and glared at the person, only to be met with large, brown eyes and a shy little face. The little boy sat a little closer to Marik and slowly bent over to whisper in his ear.

"Muh name's Wyou."

Marik blinked but didn't know what to say. He supposed he should've said "Muh name's Mawik" or something of the sort, but he didn't like being with so many kids at once. So he simply grumbled and stuffed his head into his knees.

He didn't even hear the teacher's story.

Recess came with a joyful ring of a bell. Suddenly the silent room burst into scrambling, laughter, and squeals. Marik had forgotten he had a New Buddy and hesitantly followed all of the outer kids out the door.

The little boy behind him followed him, as though as shy as he was. Marik didn't like being followed and felt it very awkward. When they reached outside the school and was looking onto the playground, Marik turned onto his New Buddy.

"Why're you following me?" he yelled at Ryou. Ryou looked scared and upset. Marik felt a strange sense of happiness. Good. Maybe the boy would be afraid of him now and do whatever he told him to!

"H-Hime-sensei says I've gots to show you around…" was the meek reply. Marik wanted to say something back but his New Buddy had grabbed hold of his hand, and was slowly pulling in the other direction. Marik reluctantly followed.

"That's the washroom…and that's the office…" Ryou pointed at each different thing. But Marik wasn't so interested. In front of the office were a long, wide window and two double-paned doors that lead to the courtyard. Marik could see the older kids playing basketball and some little kids eating snacks.

"Waitaminute." Marik pointed to the kids outside. "Who's them?"

Ryou looked towards Marik's pointing. He wrinkled his little nose fearfully. "Uh - …those are the big kids…" He shyly pulled Marik towards him and barely whispered in his ear, "…they're 'bad' kids."

Ryou's frightened whisper was really supposed to scare Marik, as it would scare most kids (cause they would never want to be bad), but Marik just got more interested. Bad kids? Sweet! Maybe they could fight and play ball and stuff!! He'd be a big boy, just like the type his father always yelled at him to be.

"Cool!" Marik burst through the door and into the courtyard. He was about halfway towards the crowd of boys when one of them looked behind him, and sneered at the approaching Marik.

"Lookit, if it isn't a little kindergartener coming up to us," the boy laughed. He was considerably bigger than Marik up front, nearly twice the boy's height.

"I can play! Let me play too!" Marik insisted. The boys merely laughed, and leered down at him.

"You want to play with us, pipsqueak? The ball's bigger than you!"

Marik kept on jumping up and down. "I wanna play! I wanna play! I wanna – "

And that's when the ball hit him in the nose.

Flying back, Marik landed onto his bottom, and pain blossomed across his face. Immediately, he started crying, but then he got mad at himself, because he was crying. Big boys didn't cry and big boys just toughed it out! Big boys didn't cry!!

"Aww, lookit, the little baby can't even catch a ball right," the eldest boy leered. "Take a hike, baby."

"Yeah, go away, you little twerp!"

But Marik couldn't get up, still rubbing his nose which was beginning to bleed. Faintly, he saw another boy pick up the basketball and aimed it at him again.

"Get lost, you little – "

"GO AWAY!"

Tumbling out of nowhere came his New Buddy, tripping in front of Marik and holding his arms out. Though Ryou looked frightened out of his wits, he stood his ground.

"GO AWAY!"

The boys laughed again. "Awww, look, it's another one of them kids, look how stupid they are!"

The insults and the usages of bad words overwhelmed Ryou and he couldn't seem to control his shaking. He began to cry too, and Marik gaped up at Ryou in surprise. This little boy was trying to help him?

Marik saw the boy begin to aim the ball again. Quickly, he jumped in the way and threw Ryou onto the side. The ball missed them and a sharp TWEEEEEET was heard in the distance. Marik raised his head to see a teacher wearing a bright orange and yellow vest come out, yelling her head off.

"WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!!!"

As the supervision-teacher dealt with the ten-year olds, Hime-sensei had come out and brought both Ryou and Marik to the nurse.

They were in the nurse's room when Marik felt that his cheeks were dry. He was holding a cotton ball to his nose to stop the bleeding, but he wasn't crying anymore and felt strangely good about it. Meanwhile, Ryou was sitting on the other bed, knees to his chest. He wasn't hurt, but he got bandages for his little minor scrapes that had soccer balls on them. Marik found it funny that Ryou got bandages with soccer balls on them, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because he thought Ryou was going to pick the pinky bandages.

They were sitting in silence when Ryou finally broke it. His little voice could be barely heard by Marik, but Marik, who had broken free of his anti-social attitude because of the fight, caught up on it quickly.

"….You's was brave out there," Ryou mumbled out. Marik blinked and looked towards him, hand to his nose with cotton ball.

"Uhr?"

Ryou shyly looked up at Marik from his curled up position. "Yous was brave out there. Those were bad boys – bad scary boys…" Ryou hugged himself. "Yous was so cool…so big and brave! Didn't your nose hurt tho'?"

Marik blinked, but he decided that he liked it when Ryou called him big and brave. Marik smiled despite himself and puffed out his chest. Boo-yeah!! He was big and brave!!! That'll show his dad!!!

"No," Marik lied, grinning through his cottonball. "Didn't hurt at all!"

Ryou gawked at Marik, mouth open. "Didn't hurt at all??"

Marik shook his head. "NOPE!"

The two got to talking, or more so Marik bragging about how "not-scary" the whole ordeal had been. Eventually they ended up talking about their favorite toys and animals. Marik found out that Ryou liked bunnies because they wouldn't bite or scratch like dogs and cats would. Marik wanted to sound cool, so he said he liked lions, even though he wasn't actually sure he did.

Eventually both mothers came to pick Ryou and Marik up. The nurse had informed each of them of their injuries, which were minor. As Marik watched them come in, he felt afraid of Ryou's mom. She was beautiful and very neat, with gorgeous long white-blond hair and gentle brown eyes. Her clothes were immaculate, her make-up done perfectly. Marik was afraid that she wasn't real.

His own mother came in to dote on him. Marik temporarily felt safe in her warm arms, her weathered face and her long, black hair. He remembered that his mommy had just been discharged from the hospital, so he insisted that he was a 'big boy' enough to not have to let his mommy carry him. His mother, quiet as she was, let Marik do as he wished.

Ryou's mommy saw Marik and his bloody nose and smiled. She picked Ryou up and held him gently in her arms, and brought him over to Marik.

"Thank you for protecting my little boy," she said. She ruffled Marik's hair; he squeezed his eyes tight and pretended not to like it. "Ryou, would you like to give Marik a kiss for his boo-boo?"

"Okay!" Ryou suddenly said excitedly. Ryou's mommy then gently lowered him, and closing his eyes, Ryou gave Marik a quick kiss on the nose. "Boo-boo gone!"

Mrs. Ishtar smiled as she bade farewell to Ryou's mommy and Ryou as they walked out the door. Marik was too busy blushing and looking down at his nose with wide eyes. The kiss had made him feel fuzzy and good – like most kisses did… He touched his nose and realized that his nose didn't hurt anymore. He looked at his mother.

"Mommy - …are kisses magic?" he asked earnestly.

Mrs. Ishtar smiled widely, though her eyes were tired and wearied. She hugged her son tenderly.

"Yes, my son," she said softly as Marik hopped down from the nurse's bed. "In a way, yes they are."

Ending of Modern Memories Days: The First Segment