(I don't own anything)
~Chapter One~
"Bronze is considerably less brittle than iron. Typically, bronze only oxidizes superficially; once a copper oxide- which eventually becomes copper carbonate- layer is formed, the underlying metal is protected from further corrosion. Bronze resists corrosion, especially seawater corrosion, and 'metal fatigue' more than steel and is also a better conductor of heat and electricity than most steels. It is a very important material, and is used in a wide variety of fields, from boat and submarine propellers, to springs and car parts, to beautiful works of art."
Alright, then. I'd been sitting there for at least 20 minutes, and I was already dying of boredom... how would I survive a whole freaking semester of this crap? I don't I care about the properties of bronze. If there are gods, then please, please--BANG! What the hell was that?!! Oh, just the door being slammed open... there was a guy standing in the doorway, looking totally pissed off. He dragged his feet and his backpack to the back of the room, the professor resuming the lecture after glaring at the newcomer. He glanced at me, and I realized that I had been staring unabashedly, my mouth open slightly. I blushed and went back to my doodling, my heart racing. His eyes... I hadn't ever seen anyone other than myself with eyes that color. His hair, too, and his skin tone... he seemed to match me. I glanced across the room, and I saw Ryou looking at me; he, too, had noticed that the guy looked like me. This was very strange; never in my life had I ever heard of anyone else with purple eyes. As far as I could tell, they just weren't normal. People weren't supposed to look like me. My sister looked like your average Egyptian woman: long, smooth, dark hair, tanned skin, and dark, beautiful eyes. Both of my parents, too, had looked like typical Egyptians. None of us could figure out where my eyes and hair had come from. Okay, Malik, I told myself. Pay attention. Failing this class was not an option if I wanted to get out of this hell.
I caught up with Ryou after class.
"Malik, did you see that?" he asked quietly. "That guy looks just like you!"
I nodded. "I know... I wonder where he's from?"
"Egypt," a deeper voice said behind us, making us jump. Oh, gods- it was him, and he'd heard us talking about him. "You could have just asked, you know. It's really rude to talk about people behind their backs."
Ryou looked like he might pass out. "S-Sorry," he stammered, but the other guy just laughed.
"Dude, chill. I'm just fucking with you. I don't really give a shit about who talks about me." He started to walk away, and I could feel myself start to panic.
"Wait!" I called. He turned around to look at me, his expression bored.
"What is it?" Yeah, Malik. What do you want? Think fast! Gods, I didn't even know what I wanted to say to him!
"Um..."
"C'mon, spit it out..."
"W-What's your name?" I sounded totally lame.
"Marik."
"Seriously?" He looked irritated.
"No, I'm lying. Yes, seriously."
"I-I just am surprised. My name is Malik..."
"Cool story. You should tell that one at parties."
"No!" I burst out. "Don't you see how similar it sounds? And why are your eyes purple? And your hair the same color as mine, and you said you were from Egypt! Egyptians aren't supposed to look like we do, and the rest of my family looks normal, and-"
"Shut up! Holy fucking Ra! Give me a chance to answer! Yeah, weird thing with the names, but I can't help you on the rest of it. I don't know why I look like this at all. Now I don't want to spend any more time here than I absolutely have to, so let's get the fuck out of here." Oh. I hadn't even realized that we were still standing in the classroom.
"Sorry." His expression was a cross between irritation and amusement. Ryou had already slipped away; that jerk had left me to deal with this slightly scary guy on my own. Thanks, Ryou. I followed him out of the room.
"Gods! Knock it off already!"
"Knock what off?"
"You keep giving me weird looks. What do you want, anyway? I got better things to do right now." Stupid me, shouldn't have opened my mouth...
"I just- I wondered what part of Egypt you were from... My family is from northern Egypt, but I don't look like anyone there, so... I just wondered..." He was watching me stutter with amusement.
"Listen, kid. I dunno what to tell you that you haven't already heard. I'm from Cairo, but I don't look like anyone there, either. Caused me some trouble when I was younger, but now that I'm as sexy as I am, the eyes are just the icing on the cake. They're great at attracting the ladies, you know?" He nudged me, winking. "And the guys." Oh, gods! My face was burning! I attempted to stammer something, but just managed to make myself sound like more of an idiot than I already did. "Dude, chill. Don't get all freaked out about it. It's not that big of a deal. Anyway, I'll see you later. Take it easy, man."
"Wait!"
"Now what?" He turned, rolling his eyes.
"S-Sorry for bothering you!!" I managed to spit out, before practically running away. Smooth, Malik. Really smooth... I wasn't sure what had gotten into me. Yeah, I was a shy person, but I wasn't usually this painfully awkward around people. I sighed as I flopped down on the bench, waiting for the bus. I wasn't really looking forward to being home. Isis probably wouldn't be there, and although her boyfriend, Patrick, was always nice enough to me I could always tell that he didn't really like having me around. Of course, it probably didn't help that I hadn't been able to help pay any of the bills or anything. But I was having a hard enough time paying for my college with my pathetic job. The only good thing about it was that I sometimes got to bring home pizzas from work.
Well, there was nothing else for me to do but go home. I didn't work tonight, which was actually kind of unfortunate. Usually, my nights off were filled with homework, but as it was the first day of the semester, there had been nothing assigned. I found the house empty, a note from Patrick saying that he would be back later. Well, that was okay. Maybe I could do something useful for once. I began cleaning, first in the kitchen and then moving my way through the other rooms. The house wasn't very big, but it was enough work to keep me busy while I listened to my iPod. I had it turned up so high, I almost didn't hear Patrick come in.
"Hey, Malik. What's up?"
"Nothing much... how'd work go?"
He rolled his eyes. "Ugh. We're not even going to talk about it."
"Ooh... sorry."
"Hey, there was something I wanted to talk to you about..." He looked a little uncomfortable.
"Yeah?"
"Well... I was thinking, and, um... well, I wanted to sorta kinda ask your-your sister to marry me." I wasn't sure what to say. Sure, I'd been expecting it for a while now, but why he was consulting me was beyond me.
"U-um, that's great, Patrick. But uh, don't you think you should be talking to her about it?"
"Well, yeah... but I had kind of wanted to make sure it was okay with you, and... um... look, Malik. Your sister and I want to start a family, but we don't really have enough room or money at the moment..." Okay, so that's where this was going.
"So you want me out of here?"
"No! I mean, that's not exactly it." He seemed really uncomfortable. Good.
"Please don't sugarcoat it, Patrick. It's okay, I understand."
"You do?" he asked hopefully, his expression brightening.
I nodded. "I... I mean, this was always a temporary situation. I wasn't going to be staying here forever. I mean, it's fair that you want to have your own house to yourself. You deserve to have privacy."
He looked so relieved. "Malik, I don't want you to think that we're kicking you out, or anything like that."
Hey, man. It's cool. I'll just go live with my relatives. Oh wait- they were all dead. Too bad.
"No, no. It's okay," I repeated. "I'm pretty sure Yugi and Ryou won't mind me staying with them for a few weeks. Don't worry about it." I turned away from him before I said something that I might regret.
"Are you hungry?" he asked me, trying to break the awkward silence that had fallen upon us.
"No," I lied. "I got something with Ryou earlier." I wasn't really in the mood for eating after being told by my sister's obnoxious boyfriend that he would be stealing the only living family I have away from me and kicking me out of my own house to fend for myself. Okay, so maybe that was a little too harsh. I was happy for them, really. Patrick did love Isis, and he made her really happy. The gods know that she deserved it, after raising me from childhood and sacrificing so much for me.
"When are you going to ask her?" I asked, feigning cheerfulness.
"Um.. I was hoping to do it tonight," he confessed, rummaging in his briefcase for a moment. "You want to see the ring?"
"Sure." He opened the little box, and I couldn't repress a gasp. It was absolutely beautiful; a plain gold band sporting the design of the Eye of Horus, an inlaid diamond forming the pupil of the eye. On either side of the eye design were chips of lapis lazuli, and around the band were tiny hieroglyphics that read something along the lines of "On the Eastern bank, our love flourishes; on the Western bank, it continues." Rough translation, but close enough.
"Do you think she'll like it?" Seriously? He really had to ask me?
"She'll love it," I assured him, knowing that he was a good choice for her.
He smiled. "I hope so. Hey, thanks for cleaning up! You should go relax; I'm going to start dinner."
Oh, thank you. Once again, I had been dismissed. Whatever. It was probably for the best. I didn't really want to be around so much joy and excitement when I felt so down. If I stuck around, I would just kill the happy mood, so I retreated to my room. Better that only one of us was miserable than all three.
A/N: Okay, so here's my promised bronzeshipping fic. I love this pairing, and there isn't nearly enough of it for me. I'm not going to do as much with side pairings in this fic as in my others, but... oh well.
as for the info on bronze, wikipedia gets all the credit for it.
*many thanks to soundofmadness223*
~Little Ryuu, thank you for being so enthusiastic about the idea of this. ^.^
hmm, what else... OH! as for Patrick, I based him entirely off of Patrick from The Amory Wars, which is the graphic novel series that accompanies Coheed and Cambria's music (written by their lead singer, Claudio Sanchez). He's Josephine's fiance in it, and he meets a sort of gruesome end (of course, so does almost everyone, but that's totally not the point here). I am.... a little obsessed with that band, and if you don't like them, then... well, you should. :P but yeah. sorry to those of you who read many of my other works; I throw references here and there in all of my stories, and one of my other YGO ones (Save Us from Sleep, and What We Are) is a Coheed and Cambria songfic. so yeah, if you do read them, then you've already heard this little spiel (I had a hell of a time spelling that word just now), so I apologize.
but anyway, sorry for that sidenote, but thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and I would really appreciate any feedback; let me know what you think! I try to respond to reviews, so it's helpful if you sign in.... I feel bad when I can't thank people properly. but whatever. I'm in a great mood. :D probably b/c I'm wearing my prideshipping t-shirt... it's got Yami and Seto on the front, and on the back, it says "Prideshipping... YxS." I made it on some t-shirt website. had to go through three to find one that didn't freak out about copyright... :/
thank you again!!!
~alex~