Summary: Malik has lived in Egypt his whole life, but after an accident with his brother, the two are forced to move in with their older sister, Ishizu, in Japan. As a 16 year old sophomore, Malik attends Domino High. The worst first day is concluded with a detention in Art, with none other than Bakura, the biggest jerk on campus. After serving his painful detention, his hatred for the albino couldn't be clearer. What happens when the two are forced to partner with each other for a project? Can the pyrophobic and pyromaniac get along?

DISCLAIMER: I pretty much own a whole lot of nothing. I don't even own the computer I'm on. Yugioh and all it's characters belong to the genius that is Kazuki Takahashi.

Prologue

What's it called? That place between being awake and being asleep; what's the word for it? Where you can only remember what happened through nightmares and dreams. Is there a word for it, for that moment when your mind is only semi-conscious and memory is non-existent, a time in which your inhibitions and conscience can fail you? What if you're a boy who awoke in the middle of the night, thirsty and in need of a glass of water, but your mind is in this state? Would it have been his fault for fleeing? Could he be held responsible for leaving them to die when all his brain was able to register was danger?

Groggy. Groggy would definitely describe how he felt. He walked from his room to the kitchen, passing numerous family photos. His feet were cold against the bare wooden floor and he shivered slightly; but none of this was registered by the child's conscious mind. He was thirsty and there was water in the kitchen, that's all he knew. The air was ridiculously dry, even for Egypt, and he was parched. The ground was cold but the air was stifling. Everything was quiet. His parents were asleep in their room and Marik was at a party. Ishizu was probably awake and working, but that wasn't unreasonable for her. After all, it was almost 8:00 a.m. in Japan.

It was hot, way too hot. Smoke was everywhere, twirling, circling, enveloping, choking, killing, and he ran. Malik, the poor, helpless child of eleven years could only remember running. Running away from, running towards, he didn't know. He was just running.

--

The funeral was arranged a few days later. People Malik hardly knew were there. The service was short, but Malik didn't know whether that was because his mind was barely there or because there weren't any bodies to bury. Malik made a point to avoid all the candles that were lit inside that small room. He was terrified of them.

He wandered away from the main crowd to where his siblings were. Marik and Ishizu were arguing again. Ishizu felt that everyone should move to Japan with her, but Marik didn't want to uproot Malik in the middle of school. Marik had just turned eighteen and he had a steady job with average income. He would be able to support his little brother, but just barely. Ishizu knew that her baby brother would want to live more comfortably and she had a great job at a company called Kaiba Corporations.

Malik acted like he couldn't care less on way or the other, but secretly he agreed with his older brother. He understood that he'd have to make sacrifices if he stayed, but he didn't want to leave his parents….again. He knew they weren't really there, and that was entirely his fault. He couldn't leave. He wouldn't.

A/N: HIYA! Sorry, that wasn't the best greeting after a somber mood. (bows head for a few seconds) Okay! I know it was really short! And I'm sorry. Originally I wasn't going to even have a prologue, but I decided it was sort of necessary, unless you wanted to be completely clueless. In the next day (or maybe today, depending on if I actually finish or not) I'll post the actual first chapter, which will be much longer, I promise. I'm almost done with it actually. But I sort of started in the middle with this fic so now I'm stuck trying to glue this thing together somehow. I always suck at beginning stuff.

I won't even bother asking for reviews for such a pitiful excuse of a chapter. But if you –want- to, by all means, go ahead. ^.^