Title: Two Sides Of A Coin (Chapter 1) – It Began With A Bite
Pairing
: Ryou x Marik, Ryou x Yami Marik (of a sort)
Rating
: M
Summary
: Banishing part of Marik's soul to the Shadow Realm had more consequences than anyone realized. Two years post-series, Marik's dark side resurfaces with unclear goals and an unnerving focus on Ryou.


"Gotcha!"

"Ah!" Ryou suddenly found himself pinned to the ground by an excitable ball of energy. He struggled playfully against Marik, by now more than used to being drawn into impromptu wrestling matches on the floor of their apartment. Or the game shop. Or anywhere they happened to be, really.

Joey had introduced him to the game back in high school, after a fire drill had left everyone standing around outside Domino High with no Duel Monsters cards and nothing to do. Marik had taken to it instantly, despite being thoroughly defeated, and he now rarely went more than a few days without pouncing on someone.

Ryou pulled his arms free of Marik's grasp, making his own grab for Marik's hands. If he didn't get them now, they could end up anywhere. On Ryou's chest or his back, brushing against the back of his legs...

Ryou may have been putting less energy into the grab for Marik's hands than he could have.

"No, you don't," Marik said, pressing down on Ryou's body to try to regain the advantage he'd had when he'd first pounced on Ryou. "I'm going to win this time."

While Marik was always the one to start scuffling with him, Ryou usually managed to pin him down in the end somehow. If the point of the game was to come out on top, Marik rarely won. If the point of the game was to drive Ryou absolutely insane, however, Marik won all the time, the near-daily physical contests ranging from extreme fuel for Ryou's fantasies to sheer frustrating torture as his friend pressed his body against him, or straddled him, or lay on the ground flushed and panting beneath him...

And all seemingly without any clue of the effect it had on Ryou, despite having plenty of opportunities to feel the evidence pressed right up against him. Ryou had been embarrassed at first, certain Marik would make a clueless comment about it, but Marik either hadn't noticed or hadn't cared. He didn't seem to think there was anything different about doing this with Ryou than there was about doing it with Tristan or Joey, the somewhat less common targets of his exuberance.

Maybe he thinks it's a meaningless involuntary reaction? Ryou wondered for the hundredth time, feeling the not uncommon sensation of Marik's own reaction pressed against his hip. It was just another of the many things about Marik that left his mind treading the same circles over and over again. Is it just a meaningless physical reaction? Does it happen when he does this with Tristan or Joey? Does it mean anything at all? Ryou asked himself, wishing his questions weren't so horribly inappropriate that he could never ask any of the people who would actually know the answers. For all he knew this was one of those things that happened to everyone, but nobody talked about. Largely lacking in friends before he came to Domino, Ryou had no other experiences to go by.

Ryou forced himself to focus on what he was doing – trying to wrestle Marik to the ground. "I'm not letting you win," he said, falling into the pattern they'd developed. He quickly rolled Marik over so their positions were reversed, his knees on either side of Marik's legs, his hands landing just above Marik's shoulders.

Marik attempted to imitate what Ryou had just done, with less success. He brought his hands up to Ryou's chest, trying to push Ryou over, but Ryou didn't budge. Seeing that it wouldn't work, he wrapped both his arms and legs around Ryou, pulling him down on top of him.

Ryou exhaled in surprise, momentarily uncertain about what to do. No matter how often Marik put them in that exact position, Ryou was thrown off balance by it every time. Marik immediately took advantage of his hesitation, easily flipping him over. He kept his legs firmly wrapped around Ryou's body as he settled on top of him.

Ryou fought down the inconvenient urges this set off inside him, using the sudden rush of energy to renew his struggle against the body above him. Ryou put his hands on Marik's shoulders and used his new-found leverage to slide himself right out from under him, trying desperately to ignore the way their bodies rubbed against each other as he did it. It didn't help that Marik's head ended up fairly low on his stomach.

He was trying to think of a move that wouldn't put Marik's head even lower than that when Marik pounced on him again, this time going after his arms. Ryou quickly grabbed his wrists and rolled him over, pinning his hands to the ground.

Marik seemed to give in then, not really resisting once his hands were pinned.

"Ugh. I guess you win again," Marik said, though he didn't sound especially upset about it. He smiled up at Ryou, blond hair falling across his face.

Ryou smiled back at him, releasing one of Marik's hands and reaching down to brush the hair out of his face. Their eyes met. Ryou saw a perfect opening for a kiss. He could just lean down and press his lips against Marik's. It was now or never.

Just like it had been all the other times he hadn't done it.

The reasons not to do it immediately filled his head. What if Marik didn't want to kiss him? Ryou didn't want to kiss him unless he wanted to be kissed. He didn't even know what Marik thought about two men kissing. What if he was offended? What if he never wanted to touch Ryou ever again? What if he got really angry?

Ryou knew that last one was unlikely. Marik was the most easy-going person he'd ever met. He'd never even seen Marik get angry in all the time they'd known each other. He'd been told what Marik had been like before the Pharaoh had banished his dark side to the Shadow Realm, but he still had trouble imagining it.

Still, being as thoroughly uncertain as he was about Marik's feelings, Ryou couldn't rule it out as a possible reaction. He sighed softly, dropping his hand away from Marik's face.

Marik's smile disappeared, eyes closing in a pained expression. He brought his free hand up and pressed it against his face, cringing. "Ow..."

Ryou let go of Marik's other hand, pulling away. "Another headache?" Marik had been getting headaches all the time lately. Ryou had tried to convince him to see a doctor, but Marik had consistently refused. Ryou shifted backward, preparing to stand. "I'll get you some-"

"No." Marik grabbed his hand to prevent him from getting up. He smiled at Ryou again. "No, it's oka- ah!" He let go of Ryou, putting both hands over his face as he made an agonized sound, his whole body shaking.

Ryou was too surprised to move at first, but then quickly realized he should do something. This was well beyond a normal headache. "I'll call..." Ryou stopped, suddenly noticing that Marik was growing bigger as he shook. Huh?

But Marik's hands fell from his face, revealing someone who was definitely not Marik. The man grinned maniacally at him, though Ryou could also see the fury plain on his face.

No way. It couldn't be... Ryou backed away in spite of his disbelief, knowing how dangerous Marik's dark side was. He was about to get up and run away when not-Marik tackled him, pinning him to the ground in a twisted echo of what Marik had done earlier. Ryou panicked, hitting back as hard as he could to no avail. He distantly hoped that nothing he did would leave a lasting impact on the real Marik – he'd always hated it when he woke up to find that the spirit possessing him had injured himself while in control of his body – but he knew that if it had been his possessed body attacking someone, he'd have wanted that person to fight back as hard as they possibly could, how ever much it might have injured him.

Not-Marik was utterly unaffected by Ryou's struggle, easily grabbing both of Ryou's hands with one of his and holding them down. Ryou had only an instant to fear what he intended to do before not-Marik bit him hard on the juncture between his neck and shoulder.

Ryou opened his mouth to yell in pain, but nothing came out, the sound freezing in his throat. He was certain the bite had broken skin. He feared he was about to be bitten again, but not-Marik made a small, satisfied sound and collapsed on top of him. He'd shrunken back down to Marik's normal size before Ryou could even push him off.

Marik groaned, lifting his head from where it had fallen on Ryou's shoulder. "Huh? What happened?" he asked. He put a hand to his mouth, then pulled it away and looked at it, eyes widening at the blood he found there. "What happened?" he asked again, voice more noticeably anxious this time.

"You... changed," Ryou said quietly. "And then you... and then he bit me," Ryou added, trying not to make it sound like he blamed Marik for what happened. He'd always hated it when the others had failed to distinguish between things the spirit possessing him had done and things he'd done himself.

One of the reasons he'd gotten along with Marik so well from the beginning, even knowing that he'd been in league with the spirit of the ring, was that Marik had never confused the spirit's actions with Ryou's, something that Yugi and the others had done disturbingly often. It wasn't that they blamed him for the problems the spirit had caused, exactly; though they'd been a little confused about that at first, it wasn't that difficult for them to understand that he wasn't the one running around stealing eyes out people's heads or challenging them to shadow games.

No, the real confusion came from the times the spirit hadn't been doing anything obviously evil, just pretending to be Ryou as he was normally. They'd be talking about some fond memory or other, and someone would prompt him for his part of the story: 'Hey, Bakura! Remember when you...'

And Ryou would force himself not to cringe, put a polite smile on his face, and reply: 'Um, actually...'

Eventually they'd just stopped reminiscing about such things when he was around, anything involving him before the spirit had been destroyed becoming generally off-limits as a topic. Sometimes the taboo seemed to spread beyond that time onto anything that had happened while they were still in high school, as though they weren't quite sure when some things had happened and just didn't want to risk it.

Marik, however, didn't have that problem. He'd known that the spirit was imitating Ryou the entire time they'd been working together. He'd never even properly interacted with Ryou until the spirit was gone. Marik had no trouble distinguishing between things he'd done with the spirit and things he'd done with Ryou, because there was a neat, natural line between them.

Ryou knew it was kind of unfair to hold it against his friends – particularly since the reason for their confusion was that they hadn't been working with the spirit possessing him, while Marik had – but what Marik had done could be forgiven and moved beyond, while what the others did still affected every interaction he had with them.

Either way, Ryou wasn't about to cause Marik the same kind of pain, especially since his other form was so easy to distinguish.

"He bit you?" Marik repeated, sounding horrified. He felt the bite mark on Ryou's neck, as though hoping it wasn't real.

Ryou winced slightly. The area both ached and stung, feeling both like a bruise that came from being hit very hard and a ragged cut or scratch at the same time.

Marik pulled his hand away. "I'm sorry," Marik said, though whether he was apologizing for the bite itself or the pain he'd caused by touching it, Ryou couldn't really tell. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay," Ryou said, sitting up on the floor. He put a hand to the bite, feeling the extent of the damage. He could feel the blood, but he could also tell that it was only coming from a few areas of the bite, so only a few teeth had actually penetrated his skin.

"We need to clean that right now," Marik said, standing up and offering Ryou a hand.

Ryou nodded once, stopping after he felt the pain it caused. He allowed Marik to help him up. They walked to the bathroom, where Marik immediately started unbuttoning Ryou's shirt. Ryou fought his embarrassment. While Marik often didn't have any problem wandering around their apartment with his shirt off, unconcerned even with his scars being seen, Ryou was a little less free about such things. He already had to deal with Marik pouncing on him at random, he didn't need to make things more difficult for himself by adding the possibility of being half-naked at the time.

Of course, attempting to look normal while allowing Marik to undress him was a trial he'd never anticipated having to endure. At least the feeling of Marik's hands repeatedly brushing against his bare chest was distracting him from the pain of the bite.

Once Marik had Ryou's shirt unbuttoned, he put his hand under the fabric near the bite, rubbing Ryou's shoulder as he moved the shirt out of the way. He took a clean washcloth and dampened it with soapy water. He held Ryou's uninjured shoulder with one hand while softly rubbing the cloth against the bite to clean it.

Ryou bit his lip. Why couldn't they be doing this in a less horrible situation?

Marik misinterpreted his response and lifted the cloth away. "Am I hurting you?" he asked, concerned.

Ryou shook his head. "No," he said. "It feels okay."

"I'm sorry," Marik said, running the wash cloth under the faucet to wash out the soap. He wiped the cloth over the bite again, cleaning the soapy water off. "I don't know what happened. It shouldn't even be possible." His eyes focused on the bite as he cleaned it, but they also flickered up to Ryou's face several times, as though he was still expecting Ryou to turn on him.

"I know," Ryou said. He wished Marik wouldn't look at him like that, but he knew all too well what it felt like to be in that position, nervously awaiting his friends' reactions to attacks he hadn't even been properly present for, and he couldn't really blame Marik for it. He patted Marik's hand. "It's not your fault."

Marik's shoulder's relaxed, but he still looked troubled. "Thanks, but that's only so comforting..." he said. He stopped cleaning the wound. "Did he say anything?" Marik asked. "Did it seem like he wanted to continue where he left off?"

Ryou shook his head, a little awkwardly due to the bite. "No, he didn't say anything, and he didn't seem to be thinking about anything other than attacking me," Ryou said. "And anyway, the Pharaoh and the items are gone," he added quickly, after seeing the pain flash across Marik's face. "Wouldn't that mean he couldn't use shadow magic anymore?"

"I don't know," Marik said, setting the cloth down on the sink and getting a towel to pat Ryou dry. "I thought so, but I also thought there was no way he could get back from the Shadow Realm..."

"All he did was bite me," Ryou said. "If he still had that kind of power, wouldn't he have used it?"

"Not everything he did involved shadow magic," Marik said, still visibly alarmed. He took a few band-aids and started covering the bite with them.

"That's true," Ryou said, wondering if he should be worried about Marik's dark side trying to kill him. A bite was just a bite, but Marik's other self didn't sound like someone who'd leave it at that, and he had already killed in the past. "Do you have any idea why he'd want to bite me?" Ryou asked, hoping there was some way to avoid triggering Marik's dark side again.

Marik shook his head. "No idea. He never really bit people before. And I don't know why he would attack you specifically, other than because you happened to be there. It's not like you did anything to me." Now finished with patching Ryou up, he grabbed his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth.

"Maybe he thought I was the one attacking you," Ryou said, remembering that he'd had Marik pinned down when his headache started. "Or he was just angry about the position I had you in." Ryou had the sudden uncomfortable thought that Marik's dark side might have noticed his feelings where Marik himself hadn't and was pissed off for that reason. Ryou had no idea what to do if that was the case.

Marik spit the toothpaste out and rinsed his mouth with water, then shook his head. "He knows how I feel. He would have known that I was enjoying myself." Marik frowned. "It's more likely that he just wanted to show me he's here."

"Maybe..." Ryou said, not having enough knowledge of Marik's dark side to really speculate about his true motives. For all Ryou knew, he was secretly a vampire. "It... it seemed like he actually did want to bite me, though," Ryou added, not really wanting to give Marik more reason to be upset, but not wanting them to waste time going in the wrong direction, either.

Marik shuddered. "He's just like that," Marik said. He sighed, closing his eyes and leaning against the sink. "I... I don't know what to do," he said, more quietly than Ryou ever heard him say anything. "I thought he was gone."

Ryou put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't have any useful advice – he hadn't been exactly adept at keeping himself from being possessed. He'd been able to fight it in some of the worst situations, just like Marik had eventually, but he didn't even know if it was even possible outside of a shadow game. "Yugi's still coming over later. Maybe he'll have an idea."

Marik perked up a little at that. "Yeah," he said. "He'll know what to do." His voice had far more confidence than Ryou was feeling.

After Yugi had won his game against the Pharaoh, he'd taken on a higher status in Marik's eyes. Marik's gratitude, having lost its original target, had shifted onto Yugi, as though he had been the one to send Marik's dark side to the Shadow Realm. He didn't roughhouse with Yugi the way he did with the others, and he often asked Yugi for advice about things he considered important. Yugi hadn't realized how much weight Marik gave his opinion at first, but he'd gotten very uncomfortable when he eventually noticed.

It made Ryou feel a little guilty about pointing Marik to him now, but it had given his friend some reassurance. Perhaps Yugi really would hold the answer, or could at least get Marik to give his own answer to the problem.

"Um. Before..." Ryou struggled to find an inoffensive way to continue his statement. "Before we got distracted, I was going to ask if you wanted to start studying...?"

Marik blinked, then let out a short, uneasy laugh. "Right..." He rubbed his face. "Right. Midterms."

"Are you alright?" Ryou asked, concerned by the weary expression on Marik's face. He wondered if it was just the emotional effect of having his worst nightmare return, or if the physical transformation had strained his body as well. "Do you want to... lie down, maybe?"

"No..." Marik said. His voice grew firmer. "No, I'm okay for now. I'd rather study. It'll be better not to obsess over it while waiting for Yugi to get here."

"That's true," Ryou agreed, not particularly wanting to think about it himself if he didn't have to. "My books are already on the coffee table," he added, walking back out into the living room.

Marik followed him. "I'll get my stuff," he said. He left the room for about a minute, returning with his bag in hand. The two quickly got to work.


Yugi knocked on their door about an hour after they'd gotten down to business. Ryou and Marik stared at each other for one long moment before standing, both suddenly reminded of what they'd managed to forget for the short period they'd been absorbed in studying.

Yugi knocked on the door again. "Uh... guys? Are you in there?"

"Yeah," Marik said, rushing over to open the door. "Yeah, we're here. How did you get up here?" he asked.

"Someone propped the front door open again," Yugi said as he walked in and took off his coat. "You should really..." Yugi noticed the intense looks both Marik and Ryou were giving him. "Um. What's going on?" he asked, looking at the bandages on Ryou's neck curiously.

Marik closed the door. He said nothing for a moment, then glanced at Ryou.

"Do you want me to tell him?" Ryou asked. "You weren't even really there..."

Marik looked like he was going to turn down the offer at first, but then changed his mind. "Yeah. You know what happened better than I do."

"We should all sit down first," Ryou said, returning to his seat on the couch. Yugi joined him there, while Marik took a spot on the floor next to the coffee table.

"So, what happened?" Yugi asked.

"Well," Ryou began, "It was was fairly normal at first..." He gave a quick account of what had happened.

Yugi let him finish with barely any interruptions, seeming too shocked by what had happened to even think of it at first. Marik had watched Yugi's face the whole time, practically ignoring Ryou as he spoke in favor of focusing on Yugi's reaction.

"You're sure it was him?" Yugi asked. At Ryou's nod, he turned to Marik. "And you don't remember any of it?"

Marik shook his head. "Nothing."

Yugi frowned. "What's the last thing you do remember?" he asked.

Ryou was surprised by the question, but he supposed it was logical enough; whatever Marik remembered last might be whatever caused his dark side to force his way out.

Marik stared at the ground, concentrating. "Um... it's a little fuzzy," he said. "I remember everything up until the headache started, but I don't remember saying anything after it started."

"He was probably already taking over at that point," Ryou said.

"Yeah," Marik agreed, looking a little sick. "I used to get headaches like that a lot when he was still around," he added, not looking at Ryou.

Ryou thought he knew why, too. Marik had never mentioned that part to him before. His instance on not seeing a doctor about his recent bout of headaches and not wanting to worry anyone else with the problem were starting to make sense. Ryou didn't say anything, however; he'd ignored signs of far worse when he himself had been possessed, so he didn't feel in much of a position to judge anyone about such things.

"And before the headache started, you two were just talking?" Yugi asked.

Marik nodded. "We'd already stopped messing around," he said. "So it wasn't that."

"I don't know about that," Yugi said. He tapped his finger against his head absently. "If it took him time to get out, he could have been reacting to anything that happened before then, couldn't he?"

"Maybe," Marik said, looking uncomfortable. "I don't know what it could be, though. There hasn't been anything like what caused him to come out before."

"Well, he came out before when you were upset, right?" Yugi said. "Did you two have a fight recently?" he asked.

Marik shook his head. "We've never had a fight."

Yugi looked surprised. "Really?" He scratched his chin. "I really don't know, then. We don't have much information yet."

Marik cringed slightly on the 'yet', but soon recovered. "Hopefully, we'll never need to know..." he said, not sounding especially confident.

"Look at it this way," Yugi said. "He only stayed for a minute or so, right? So either he's not strong enough to stay for long, or he just doesn't want to. I don't think there's any immediate danger."

"You mean, we have time to figure it out," Ryou said. He hoped Yugi was right. He didn't like possibly being in danger from Marik's dark side, but he wasn't about to abandon his friend, either.

"He was limited at first," Marik said, looking the calmest he'd been since the incident. "It took time for him to build up to where he was last time."

"We'll just have to stop it from ever getting that far this time," Ryou said. He didn't know how they'd do that, exactly, but if there was a way, he was determined to find it.

"Yeah," Yugi said, looking just as determined. "And you shouldn't let him interfere with your life in the mean time."

"You mean, I should keep studying?" Marik asked, staring at the books on the table with more genuine interest than Ryou had ever seen him give anything school-related.

Yugi nodded, taking his own notebook out of his bag. "No time like the present," he said.


By the time Yugi left, they were all completely sick of studying. "I don't ever want to see another textbook again," Marik said, stretching out his arms.

"I don't either," Ryou replied, gathering his into a neat pile and putting them into his bag.

Marik paused for a moment, scanning Ryou's face for... something. Ryou looked back at him curiously. Marik crossed his arms, then uncrossed them again. "Um. I'm sorry I didn't say anything about the headaches. I didn't want to think about what it might mean."

"It's okay," Ryou said.

"It really isn't," Marik said. "But thanks."

A silence fell on the room. Ryou remembered more of the conversation they'd had with Yugi, and something stuck out in his mind. "Is... is there anything I've done to make you upset before?" Ryou asked. He didn't like having to ask, but what Yugi had said made a certain amount of sense. Too much sense to simply ignore without exploring further. "Even if it doesn't seem like something he would care about, it might be important."

"No, there's nothing," Marik said immediately.

You didn't even think about it, Ryou thought skeptically. "Nothing? Not in the whole two years we've known each other?" he asked doubtfully. He did his best to be polite to everyone, but that had never really stopped people from getting angry with him. He'd managed to anger some people just by being physically present – in fact, it had been a common occurrence before he'd come to Domino.

Marik paused before responding, actually seeming to give the question some consideration this time. "No, there's really nothing," he finally replied. "Why? Did I do something to you?"

"Not since we became friends," Ryou assured him. "What about the time I ruined your favorite shirt?" he asked, grasping at the only thing he could think of.

Marik shrugged. "It was an accident. And he never really liked my clothes, so I don't think he'd attack you over it."

From what Ryou remembered, Marik had been just as unconcerned about the incident when it had happened. Ryou had been the one to get upset about it, apologizing profusely until Marik had made him stop. "Um. Does anyone else annoy you?" Ryou asked, just hoping to find anything at this point.

Marik shook his head, though Ryou thought he looked just a hint less certain about it.

Maybe it's because I'm starting to annoy him right now, Ryou thought, feeling incredibly but pressing on anyway. "Ishizu? Odion?" he asked. Everyone got annoyed with their siblings every once in a while. Even he remembered arguing with his sister on occasion before she'd died, and they'd barely been old enough to even have anything to argue about. And given the way Marik had jumped at the chance to move out of their shared home when starting college, Ryou knew there had to be something.

"No..." Marik said, a little more slowly this time.

Ryou was starting to wonder if he might just not want to talk about it, though he couldn't see Marik actively lying about something that could help against his dark side, particularly after what had happened when he ignored the headaches. "Yugi?" Ryou asked, then thought of a better example. "Joey," he said, thinking of the confrontational way Joey had treated Marik just after he'd moved to Domino. He'd been mostly fine with Marik in Egypt, but having Marik come back to his town and try and become friends with everyone had been too much for him. The way he'd acted in those first few weeks would have tried the patience of a saint, however well Marik had handled it on the outside.

"Um... I... I don't know," Marik said softly. "He..." Marik's face went completely blank, as though every thought in his head had shut down. His eyes stared out at nothing.

"Ah..." Ryou suddenly felt terrible. He'd seen Marik react this way to certain things a few times before, but he'd never caused it himself. I shouldn't have put so much pressure on him, Ryou thought. Not after what happened today. He put a hand on Marik's arm, shaking him gently. "Marik..."

Marik shook his head, then blinked at Ryou. "Sorry... what were we talking about again?"

"Er..." Ryou wasn't so sure he should tell him. "Nothing," he said. "Don't worry about it."

Marik blinked a few more times. "Um. Okay," he said, sounding slightly confused. He yawned. "I'm going to bed," he added, shuffling off to his room.

"Good night," Ryou said. He headed off to his own room, knowing that he'd be spending a lot of time thinking before falling asleep.

He was still disturbed by the incident earlier, but somehow the conversation they'd just had unsettled him even more...