[AN: To make things clear, Yami Marik is referred to as Melvin in this, but he doesn't have the Abridged personality. Marik and Bakura are a combination of Abridged and the headcanons I've come up with my sister. I went with the Melvin name because it just stuck and I prefer to avoid using Malik since 1) Too similar to Marik in spelling and I get confused easily and 2) That was the name of an ex-boss of mine at a job I didn't quite enjoy, eh heh.]

Typhoon

Started 1/9/15 at around 6 or 7AM

Waves crashed onto the shore with such a tremendous force that the inhabitants surely thought it wouldn't be long before fleeing to higher ground would be necessary. The winds whipped trees and signs all over; many of them made their way right out of the ground and were sent spiraling into cars and houses. Only two days before had the tropical storm turned into a category three typhoon. People living too close to the ocean for comfort would feel the effects the most. Several families had evacuated, but more had stayed behind, unwilling to yield to Nature's fury.

Bakura and his roommates were inland enough to feel safer, but the worry was still there. The news warned of possible tornadoes that could form due to the current weather conditions. There was also talk of another typhoon building up and making its way in the same direction. Half of Japan was in the dark from widespread power outages and going out for supplies at this point would be asking for trouble. If it hadn't been for Ryo's insistence, there wouldn't have been any extra essentials stocked up. It seemed like he had been the only one concerned about the oncoming storm. He would've thought that at least Bakura would see reason, considering the Egyptian understood the importance of survival the most.

...

Marik glanced out the window from the kitchen table, only to be reminded that it was boarded up with plywood. He shuddered and his hands shook as he brought a coffee cup to his lips. He almost dropped it all together upon hearing a particularly nasty thunderclap. The entire apartment complex felt like it was shaking as much as Marik was. It wasn't even the storm itself that was causing him panic. Marik was basically trapped within the sealed up apartment. Coupled with the strange shadows dancing on the walls from the candlelight, Marik felt as though he was living in the tomb he once called home.

The others could tell he had been having trouble sleeping; his eyes were bloodshot and no amount of coffee was making him look less tired. Ryo offered to share some sleeping pills with him, but Marik refused, saying thanks, but he was fine. It couldn't have been farther from the truth. He'd even run out of his anxiety medicine just a few days prior to the start of the storm. He wasn't about to mention it to anyone as there was no point in worrying them when they couldn't leave the apartment until the weather cleared up.

Bakura couldn't help but worry about Marik. After all, he was witness to him tossing and turning in bed at night, waking up only to scream in terror. It meant Bakura's usually restful sleeping patterns were interrupted each night, but he wasn't about to leave Marik alone to his nightmares. Instead, he attempted to comfort his boyfriend as much as his capabilities allowed. When he couldn't think of what to say, he'd take to humming softly in Marik's ear and rubbing his back. It appeared to work for the most part, but Bakura tended to put himself to sleep in the process, typically before Marik was fully relaxed again.

...

Melvin was probably the only person in the house to get enough sleep during the storm. Unlike Marik whose fear of the dark had a chokehold on his heart, Melvin shared no such fear. The type of darkness he really feared wasn't comparable to the poor lighting conditions of a power outage. It was the potential of turning into the monster he had once been that occasionally kept him from having a proper night's sleep. Bringing harm to people was the last thing he ever wanted to do again. This was especially true in relation to Ryo whom caused his heart to melt each time their eyes met.

As for Ryo himself, he was currently cuddled up next to Melvin in their shared bedroom. He was breathing quietly as he lied there after having passed out from exhaustion. Not only had he been worried about Marik and the effect the storm was having on him, he was also in constant contact with his other friends to make sure they were okay too. His poor sleeping habits weren't helping matters. Lack of power didn't stop him from writing new RPG campaigns late into the night. He had barely touched his giant pile of homework, yet no one would've been able to tell since his hunched over position indicated that he was hard at work on something resembling actual assignments.

Melvin sighed when reflecting upon Ryo's preferred lifestyle, but he kept his thoughts to himself as he gently combed his fingers through his boyfriend's hair. To this day, he couldn't believe how soft it was without Ryo bothering to condition it. He only wished he could get his own hair to behave. He chuckled quietly at the thought and clung protectively to Ryo as a piece of debris ricocheted off the window. He could hear the distinct sound of Marik yelping from the kitchen. Ryo stirred at the noises, but remained oblivious to anything but the dreams in his head.

...

"Are you alright?" Bakura looked up from the crossword he was working on in the living room. "Also, I need a five letter word for an article of clothing."

Marik didn't respond right away. The tree branch hitting one of the windows was loud enough to be heard through the thin walls of the apartment. In the instant that it happened, he had spilled the remainder of his coffee all over himself. Fortunately it was only lukewarm at this point. He then got up to clean himself off.

"I'm fine," he lied, his voice trembling slightly. "And uh…shirt?"

"No, that won't do." It was hard to tell if Bakura was talking about the crossword, Marik's state of mind, or both.

Once he deemed himself adequately stain-free, Marik walked into the living room and sat on the left side of the couch, which was closest to Bakura's armchair. He didn't want to be alone anymore even though the kitchen was the most lit room of the apartment. He drew up his legs so that they curled up behind him and grabbed a blanket resting on the other side of the couch. He draped it over his body up to his chin and took to watching Bakura for a few moments.

"When do you think this storm will pass, Bakura?"

"Hm? Oh, I don't know. These things don't tend to last too long."

"The reporter on the radio said there may be another one."

"There very well could be. I haven't been listening to the news though."

"So you're not worried?" Marik flinched when another object hit the building.

"I've experienced far worse. We'll be okay, Marik."

Bakura looked up again and gave Marik a small, warm smile. It faded when he saw that his boyfriend had looked away just in time to have it be missed. He bit his lip as he tried to think of something that might bring Marik out of his fear for a little while. The crossword was starting to bore him so he lightly tossed it on the end table to his left. He stood up and moved to the couch, cuddling up to Marik once he was close enough. His knuckles brushed his cheek down to his neck. After doing this two more times, he kissed him in the same areas.

Marik shivered when his skin was touched, but it was definitely a nice change to the shivering he had been doing minutes before when his fear really started to get to him. He got on his knees and turned his body to Bakura so he could press his lips against Bakura's thinner, cherry-flavored Chap Stick ones. The blanket fell off his chest in the process and his hands planted themselves on Bakura's waist in an awkward manner as the latter was sitting facing forward. This didn't last long before Marik had Bakura underneath him on the couch.

Bakura spread his legs apart and propped them up so that he was at the optimum comfort level. As he received kisses in a random pattern all over his face and neck, he grinned mischievously up at Marik.

"And here I thought that I was supposed to be the one cheering you up," he remarked, adding a little laughter to the mix.

Marik smiled. "This works just as well." He kissed the tip of Bakura's nose and giggled. "See? I'm already feeling a little better."

The motorcycle enthusiast didn't want to admit that he still had copious amounts of anxiety bubbling around inside him even as the two of them quickened their pace. Having Bakura worry about him more was the last thing he wanted to do. He was aware that his boyfriend would wake up several times during the night because of him. He told Bakura to sleep in his own bed until the storm passed, but Bakura always refused this option.

"Love you, Marik," Bakura breathed out between kisses.

He sat up without breaking away from his partner's lips and only released them temporarily to remove both of their shirts. He pulled Marik back down, going right back to kissing him, this time having much more skin to get in contact with.

"You too," Marik said, replying when he was able. He had no qualms about the removal of his shirt, but he was mildly surprised at the action since his mind had been elsewhere.

...

Melvin had been ready to flock to the kitchen to see what was wrong, but as he hadn't heard any more yelps of terror coming from Marik, he figured Bakura had dealt with it. Then there was the fact that he had a Ryo curled up next to him. In the time between the yelp and now, Melvin's kitten, Raoul, had jumped up onto his stomach and fell asleep immediately. Needless to say, Melvin was much too busy being a pillow to warrant him leaving the bed. He kissed the top of Ryo's head and softly scratched Raoul behind the ears.

'My two favorite buddies sleeping on me…no complaints here.'

...

Marik had been in the middle of unbuckling his belt when one of the wooden planks covering a kitchen window tore away from the wall due to the wind increasing in intensity. The worst of the typhoon had caught up to them at last. Marik shrieked and flattened himself on Bakura's body, clutching onto him in fright. He buried his face into Bakura's chest, coating it with tears that started to form.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

Bakura lifted his head to see what had caused the interruption, but Marik and the couch were blocking the view into the kitchen. He ran his fingers through Marik's hair to calm him, but he did it distractedly since he was concerned about the weather's new temperament.

"M-make it s-stop," Marik whimpered into Bakura's chest.

"I'd like to, Marik, but I, ah-"

...

The sudden noise made Raoul spring to his paws and fluff up as big as he could get. To further prove how freaked out he was, the little kitten rasped out several hisses in Melvin's face. Melvin reached out to pet him, but he got nipped at instead. Melvin flipped off Raoul as he hopped off his stomach and scurried under the bed. Ryo was a little confused when he blinked his eyes open.

"Who're you flipping off, Melvin?"

"Raoul bit me!"

Ryo shook his head and laughed. "I bet he's going to be so offended. You really are a ding-dong." He lightly pushed Melvin's shoulder. "By the way, what was that noise? Unless I dreamt it?"

"I'm not sure. I think we should check it out though," Melvin said, ignoring the friendly insult.

"Good idea."

Ryo and Melvin rushed into the living room just as Bakura was about to finish replying to Marik.

"What was that noise?" They said in unison. Neither of them batted an eye at the initial stages of what was meant to be a fun time for the other couple.

"It came from the kitchen. Marik won't let go of me so you'll have to see for yourself, I'm afraid." As he said it, Bakura rubbed Marik's back. "I'm right here," he muttered just for Marik's ears to hear.

Melvin nodded and walked into the kitchen with Ryo. He found the source of the trouble when he saw a gap in the window where a board had been. He drew closer and inspected this side of the screen for damages. There were several small holes in the mesh, but most of the issues were with the outer part of the window. Numerous scratches had formed in the wall from where the nails had dragged along the surface.

"That's going to affect the safety deposit," Ryo groaned. He was always the one to mention money even though all four of them contributed to the rent. However, it was really just his way of saying the situation was really weighing on him.

Melvin peered out the window again, this time to get a reading on the weather. The wind had picked up greatly since he'd looked outside last. Rain lashed against the building in a side-ways and threatening manner.

"We'll have to get a new screen, but for now, I think we should re-board the missing section. Don't want anything harpooning through," Melvin said.

"Let's not risk getting impaled by doing it from the outside like before. I say we just cover up the window with wood from this side."

"That could work."

Ryo watched Melvin grab some leftover planks and bring them over to the window.

"Help me get these up."

Ryo nodded and found the hammer and nails. "Alright, you hold them up; I'll hammer them in." He didn't sound too thrilled about ruining the wall anymore than it already was.

"What's going on in there?" Bakura called from the other room.

"A plank came off the window. We're re-boarding it!"

...

"See, Marik? It's going to be okay. They're making it safer than it was."

"You mean they're suffocating me even more," Marik whispered. He had since turned his head so that his cheek was resting on Bakura's chest as opposed to his whole face.

Bakura squeezed his shoulder. "This isn't like before. You're not being forced to stay."

"I want to go outside and I'm not allowed to! What part of that isn't like before?"

"Let's see…it's been too dangerous to go out, and that's a hard fact." Bakura paused for a beat. "More than that though, we all care about you. Your feelings matter here. If I could make this badness go away, I would do it in a heartbeat. But it'll be gone in a matter of days and we'll be able to remove the boards." He kissed Marik's forehead.

"I hope so," Marik said, sniffling a bit.

...

"Well, that's taken care of," Melvin stated as he and Ryo went back into the living room. The two of them sat down on a couch opposite of Marik and Bakura.

"Sorry for the interruption by the way," Ryo said with a snappy undertone. He and Melvin were always being chastised for fooling around in the living room.

"And yet you're still here," Bakura replied with an annoyance to match Ryo's.

In truth, he had a feeling Marik had simply been going through the motions and would've been much too tired and anxiety-ridden to finish.

"Be nice, Bakura," Marik said. He smiled up at him tiredly and turned onto his other cheek to face the other couple.

The four of them sat or lied in a comfortable silence for a while as howling winds raged around them. Thunder and lightning waltzed among the clouds, their dance heated and frenzied. Nearly fifteen minutes later, Melvin jumped off the couch to steal the radio from the kitchen table. The station was already on the Weather Channel and they listened to it for a few moments before Melvin turned the dial to a frequency boasting upbeat pop music. He sent a hand in Ryo's direction and the two of them were dancing within seconds.

"You are bloody nuts!" Ryo laughed as he was twirled around multiple times under Melvin's arm.

"I'm the biggest nut of all!" Melvin half-yelled, laughing his head off.

Marik and Bakura stared at them like they were crazy, but even they brightened up at the sight before them. They watched as Ryo and Melvin changed up their dancing styles from one song to the next, the laughter never stopping.

"Join us!" Melvin demanded it more than he asked.

"Yeah, stop being couch potatoes!" Ryo was beyond slap-happy at this point.

Bakura shrugged and slipped from underneath Marik to join in the fray even though he would normally need a drink or two first before taking it to a dance floor. He took Marik's hand and pulled him off of the couch. He placed his hands on Marik's hips and started swaying back and forth. As soon as he did that, Marik's pants fell to the floor, having been loosened from the attempted sex venture of earlier. Everyone laughed and shook their heads, but Marik just kicked his pants off the rest of the way and went on dancing in his boxers and socks.

The previous station reported that the second possible typhoon had dissipated and the current one would be on its way out before the week was up. For now though, all any of them cared about was getting their minds off the bad weather and memories that had been keeping them from enjoying the finer things in life…such as dancing in their underwear in the living room.

End

Christina Price. Age 25. 1/9/15. Friday. 12:33PM.

[AN: Well, I hope this was enjoyable to you! It's certainly not the first Yugioh story I've written since becoming obsessed last Fall, but it is one of the first to be completed and submitted. Constructive criticism is encouraged by the way! Thanks for reading!]