Methodical
written by Dekora
Notes Written as a drabble for my friend, Hanna's, birthday. This one-shot takes place during Battle City before Yami no Bakura's duel with Yami no Yuugi. I haven't written anything in the canon verse in a while, so I thought I'd give it a try again. Please enjoy!
It seemed to be a common belief that with age came wisdom. Malik had long since decided that the spirit of the ring proved this statement wrong on many levels. To Bakura's credit, he was cunning and he was certainly manipulative, but 'wise' was a compliment that would Malik would never be able to throw his way.
Bakura's confidence was over-bearing and Malik had difficulty trusting that things would go as smoothly as Bakura claimed. Malik was satisfied enough with his own plan and with the safety net he had in place just in case Bakura disappointed him (relying on one person alone, especially someone as untrustworthy as Bakura would have just been foolish) that he managed to muster up a decent level of enthusiasm for Bakura's upcoming duel.
It was a pleasant change of pace to have someone who was equally eager to defeat the Pharaoh, so even with the myriad of things that annoyed Malik about Bakura, the Egyptian did enjoy his company to some degree. Thus far, they'd discussed how they expected things to go during Bakura's duel, and the conversation hadn't gone any deeper than that. The more Bakura spoke, though, the more curious Malik got about his motives for what he was doing. It was possible that Bakura was simply cruel and power-hungry, but given his own reasoning behind what he was doing, Malik was stuck thinking that it was probably something deeper (power was just the bonus that came with it all, in the end).
Malik's drive for revenge was motivation enough that he knew he wouldn't give up over something trivial. Bakura had given him no reason to doubt him in that regard, but trust wasn't something that Malik gave away so easily. It was for that reason that he had to ask: "Why are you doing this?"
The sudden shift in mood only led Bakura to give Malik an odd glance, raising an eyebrow as if that would somehow persuade Malik to elaborate. When it didn't, Bakura responded, "Is that really relevant?"
"It is," Malik insisted, giving him a stubborn glare. He sunk back into the arm chair he'd been sitting in, propping his feet up on the ottoman before him. "You aren't curious about anyone else's motives?"
"You know my motives," Bakura responded simply, flashing Malik a cocky smirk. "I'll defeat the Pharaoh tomorrow, get your god cards, and then you'll give me the Rod."
Those were only partially the motives behind things for Bakura, and Malik was very aware of that. "Why are you collecting the Items then?" Ultimate power and darkness seemed like a weak goal – didn't everyone have a deeper meaning to their lives than just something like that?
"I don't remember," Bakura responded, dismissing the question. Unlike the Pharaoh, he hadn't forgotten his past, but the truth was that his original reasoning for doing things no longer seemed to matter. Somewhere along the line of thousands of years had left him no longer caring about the revenge he'd hungered for in the past and instead made his goal solely what Malik had thought. Power and destruction had become more important than anything else.
Bakura stood up then, brushing off his jeans and grinning at Malik. "Like I said, that's all irrelevant. If you get your goal and I achieve mine, the little stuff in between doesn't matter." Besides, he had absolutely no interest in why Malik was doing the things he was; why should Malik care about his motives?
It was clear that Bakura really wasn't going to explain, so Malik let the topic drop. "Fine," he replied, making no effort to get up and see Bakura out. "Just don't disappoint me."