Title: The Twists of Fate

Anime: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Rating: PG, to be safe.

Warnings: Yaoi. It involves death, depression, suicide etc.

Summary: Malik's sick of being treated like dirt by Marik. Yet, he is in love with his yami. A certain unforeseen turn of events causes everything to be thrown out of the norm and true emotions reveal themselves and are put under test. ONE SHOT. YAOI.

A/N: This was originally going to be a fluff, but it seems my fingers have a mind of their own when I'm typing. I most probably made everyone OOC and could have even stuffed up the names. I tried making them all the Jap versions, but seeing that all I'm used to are the American versions, I may have slipped up. Meh. Don't bite my head off over it, I don't care about anything except the actual story.

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Dejected lilac pools stared into the water before them, tears spilling out and then returning.

Malik was on all fours, glaring into his own reflection. His breath was irregular as he struggled for self control.

It was hell.

Ever since the millennium spirits had been separated from their vessels, the young Egyptian boy had to watch his back constantly. He knew his yami no longer needed him, nor wanted him.

But his own feelings towards his darker half…

He shut his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth. He was sick of the repeated rejection.

He wondered why he even subjected himself to it.

"We've changed so much since we were separated," the deep, rough voice of his yami spoke from behind him.

Malik was so used to his dark half sneaking up on him that he no longer flinched.

Shifting his weight to his legs, Malik took his hands off the ground and sat on his legs, still facing the river.

"What?" the menacing voice taunted, "Will my hikari not even place his gaze on me?"

Malik waited for his jagged breathing to return to normal.

"You hurt me, Marik."

A sharp laugh was heard that almost pained Malik's ears.

"I hurt you," Marik said, mocking his hikari, "So?"

"So?" Malik repeated, in disbelief, "You are so right, Malik. You have changed since we have been separated. You can kill me now for all you care and it wouldn't affect you one bit!"

Malik was silenced with a punch.

"I will not tolerate being spoken to like that from my hikari," Marik growled.

Malik glared and took his Millennium Rod from his belt, "I could always give this away, couldn't I? I could give it to someone I knew wouldn't let you lay your hands on it. Like Isis. Or Yuugi-"

Another punch from Marik.

"Fine then!" the boy yelled, "Have it your way! Hurt me! Kill me! I don't care anymore!"

Marik's eyes narrowed as his hikari revealed the hidden blade in his Millennium Rod and thrust it into the spirit's hands.

"I know you want to kill me, Marik," he whispered, "I can see it in your eyes. Perhaps the only good thing about us ever being together was that I can read you like an open book."

"I am not going to kill you," Marik hissed angrily, "Stop being such a coward. Useless creature."

"Am I the coward?" Malik challenged, placing his hands around Marik's hands, which were gripping the dagger, "Or are you?"

Before Marik could protest, Malik made the dagger slide into his side.

"Malik!" Marik cried, his eyes widening.

Sure, he couldn't deny the thought had played across his mind, but he never really wanted to kill his hikari!

"I am the coward, Marik," Malik whispered, his face rapidly becoming cold.

"Stop talking Malik, you need to concentrate. You have to stay alive!" Marik cried, looking panicked.

He couldn't help it. They might have never gotten along that well, but he couldn't help it. Malik was… like a brother to him. More than a brother…

With effort, Malik managed to touch Marik's face, "I… I love you, Marik."

Marik's eyes widened. Just as Malik's eyes fluttered closed.

"HELP!" Marik cried, hoping someone would hear him, "SOMEONE!"

Ironically, Yuugi and Yami heeded the call.

"What's wrong, Marik?" Yami asked in his deep voice.

"Oh my God! Malik!" Yuugi cried, running to the fallen boy.

He noticed the dagger in Marik's hands.

"You murderer!"

Marik's eyes widened, "I… I didn't do it! He did! He… he made me kill him!"

Yami narrowed his eyes, "In any case, we must get Malik to a hospital."

In a few minutes, the three were standing around a hospital bed in Domino Hospital, looking anxiously at Malik, who was announced merely unconscious and whose stab wounds had been tended to and a bandage had been applied to it.

The heard a muffled scream as the ward door flung open, admitting Isis, who immediately ran to Malik and cradled his head, crying.

Marik shrunk into his corner, "I… I'm sorry…"

Isis looked up and glared at him.

"Sorry isn't the word, you beast!" she yelled, "No matter how much you beat him or how much you tormented him, his feelings for you never faded! Do you not remember the last thing he said to you before he closed his eyes? When I saw the scene through my tauk, those were the words that lingered with me. Can you even remember what they were?!"

Marik didn't say anything. Of course he remembered.

"I… I love you, Marik."

He tightly shut his eyes, "How do you know he meant that? He… could have been trying to sound… what's the word… melodramatic…"

"He thought he was going to die!" Isis screamed, "They were his intended last words! He had no time for melodrama!"

Yami and Yuugi looked at each other and then slowly backed out of the room.

"He said he loved me…" Marik said, half groaning, leaning against the wall and slowly sliding down into a crouched bundle, "…after all I did to him."

Isis nodded, "Doesn't that tell you how much he loved you?"

"Brotherly?" Marik suggested.

Isis narrowed her eyes, "Come. On."

Marik sighed and rested his head against his folded arms, which were resting on his knees, "Okay, fine."

"Do you feel the same way?" Isis asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Marik asked, his eyes widening.

He should have anticipated that question, but didn't.

"Do you love Malik?" Isis repeated, looking at him carefully.

"I don't know…" Marik said, letting out a hissing sigh.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Marik sighed again, "When he died… well… when I thought he was dead… I… I felt so empty. It was like… there was no point in living anymore…. It was like a part of me died."

Isis smiled, "That's love."

Marik cursed, "What an evil feeling."

Isis smiled, amused.

"Do you believe I tried to kill him?" Marik asked.

Isis raised an eyebrow, "Marik, I saw him try to kill himself through my tauk."

"Oh…" Marik said, eyeing the gold necklace around her neck, "I forgot about it…"

Isis sighed, "I have to go now."

"Okay."

"Here," she said, indicating the chair next to the bed, "I'm guessing you're going to be here quite a while."

Getting up, he sat in the chair and said goodbye to Isis as she left.

"I'm so sorry," Marik said, taking Malik's limp hand once they were alone, "I… I was in shock. You know I'm stronger than you… I could've stopped you from stabbing yourself any day if I was ready. I just… didn't want to think you'd actually do it."

Not knowing what else to do, he gently kissed Malik's hand, "Please wake up soon."

It wasn't long until Marik was asleep, his head resting on Malik's bed, his hikari's hands still clasped gently in his own.

He woke to the sound of a cough. Glancing at a clock on the wall, he had been asleep for three hours.

"Malik…" he whispered, looking at his hikari.

Another cough came from the smaller boy.

"Malik!" he had to stifle his cry of happiness.

He looked around. Perhaps he should tell someone that Malik was awake…? No. He wanted him all to himself.

"Marik…" his quiet voice whispered.

"I love you," Marik whispered before he could say anything else.

"You-" Malik began, his eyes widening, but his yami cut him off.

"I love you," Marik repeated, roughly kissing his hikari.

Malik gingerly placed his arms around Marik, ignoring the pain coursing through his body from his wound as he sat up.

"I'm so sorry," Marik whispered weakly, stroking the side of Malik's face, still bent over him.

Malik returned the smile weakly, "It's… my fault…"

Marik's happiness faded, "You're so pale, Malik. And you sound so tired…"

Malik closed his eyes. He could ignore the pain… just for a while… he needed to speak with Marik…

"Did you get scared?" Malik asked, lying back down again, his fingers gently curling around Marik's hand.

"I thought I lost you," Marik replied, "Of course I was scared."

Malik looked at his yami with half-lidded eyes. The pain killers were taking their affects again…

"Why…" he whispered, "Why did you always hurt me…?"

"I'm the coward," Marik admitted, "I had no idea of what the feeling I had for you was… I hurt you because I didn't know what else to do."

Malik nodded slowly.

Marik sighed, "I'm sorry Malik."

Malik shifted around so he could sit up. He quietly cried in pain as his wound throbbed.

"Stop moving," Marik said, "Don't you see that you're just hurting yourself more that way?"

Malik shrugged, "If I wasn't prepared for the pain, I wouldn't have stabbed myself in the first place."

"I shouldn't have let you do that in the first place," Marik said, sounding disgusted at himself.

"It isn't your fault, I'm sure you didn't expect I would really keep to my word."

There was a short silence.

"You wanted to die then, didn't you?" Marik suddenly asked.

"I did," Malik admitted.

"Why?"

"Why not?" he asked, "From where I stood then, I thought you hated me."

Marik placed his hand on Malik's forehead, "You're going pale again. Why don't you sleep some more?"

Malik nodded tiredly, "I feel like sleeping anyway…"

"I'll stay here," Marik said, kissing him, "I'll wait for you to wake up again. I hope we can get out of here soon."

"We?" Malik smiled sleepily, "You can leave anytime you want, Marik."

"I'm not leaving this place without you," he replied firmly.

Malik smiled and took a pillow from beside his bed and placed it on the edge of the bed, "You're going to get bored watching me sleep."

Marik rested his head against the pillow, "So true."

Malik laughed and playfully hit Marik's arm.

The darker one mentally noted, with concern, how weak that hit was. Surely his hikari wasn't that pitiful…

"Go to sleep. You need energy," Marik said firmly.

It seemed, from the deep breathing, that Malik already had.

Smiling, Marik also fell asleep.

An hour passed before lilac eyes snapped open. Their owner gasping for air.

"Ma-- Marik!" he gasped for his yami to help him.

But his voice was too quiet. He was too weak…

Malik's hands searched frantically for Marik's. He couldn't move his head. He couldn't breathe.

And he couldn't find Marik's hand.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Malik reached under his shirt and lightly touched the bandage across his stomach.

It was drenched.

He was bleeding, unchecked.

"Marik!" he whispered, his voice raspy and short of merely dying in his throat.

No-one could hear him. He could barely hear his own cries for help.

He gave up trying to call him yami and focused on getting air into his body as his body spasmed with the jolts of pain.

Two hours later, Isis came to visit her brother once more. As she passed the window, she smiled and shook her head, noticing Marik lying on Malik's bed, Malik asleep.

"Wake up sleepy-heads," she said, but then screamed.

Malik's hands, shirt and blanket were covered in blood.

"Marik!" she cried, shaking him, "Malik… he's…"

Marik's lifeless body rolled to it's side, to reveal the Millennium Rod's dagger deep within Marik's body, the wound no longer bleeding, yet covered with the crimson substance.

Isis cried out loud once more and backed away, into the wall.

"Help!" she cried, running out of the room, "Someone! Help! My brother is dead!"

Dead. The word caused doctors and nurses to spill out from many random rooms and run to her.

"What the hell have you all been doing?!" she yelled angrily, tears streaming down her cheeks, "My brother is dead!"

Once they got her to calm down enough to speak, she led them to Malik's ward.

Seto Kaiba, owner of the hospital, was called and Isis once again unleashed her fury, chastising the hospital system and generally blaming him.

"Calm down, woman," he said in his cold voice, "I'll check the security cameras. Perhaps we'll find out what happened!"

"It better not be fault of this hospital," Isis said through clenched teeth, tears still streaming down her face, "Or else, Seto Kaiba, you'll wish my brother never died here."

"Indeed," he replied, glaring at his staff, "It better not have been fault of this hospital."

Another hour passed. Ryou, Bakura, Yuugi, Yami, Anzu, Honda, Jounouchi, Isis and Seto were all in a small room.

"Let's see what really happened, shall we?" Seto said, pushing the security camera video into the VCR.

The video went. From the moment Malik was rushed into the room, Marik constantly by his side, asking about whether or not his hikari would make it or not, trailed by Yami and Yuugi. The promises that Malik would make it. That they had nothing to worry about, once the bandage was wrapped, there would be no problems. Isis entered the room. Once Yami and Yuugi had backed away out of the room, they saw Marik confess his love for Malik. After Isis had left, they saw Malik wake up and the happiness with which Marik greeted his hikari. They saw the short conversation between the two. How Marik had told him to sleep. After a few hours, through which Seto fast forwarded through, they stopped at when Malik's eyes snapped open. They saw him struggling for air. Trying to call Marik. Only then did they notice the large pool of blood near his abdomen, where the stab wound was.

"He… my brother bled to death…" Isis said through silent tears.

The video played on. Marik had woken up and noticed the blood. He panicked and called out for help. He waited and then checked Malik's status. He realised he was dead.

And then he began to cry.

Everyone in the room felt slightly uncomfortable, watching the normally ruthless yami breaking down into tears like so.

Isis squirmed as she saw him take the dagger out of his Millennium Rod and stab himself to death.

"And… that's how it ends…" Seto said, himself losing the cold edge to his voice.

"Malik bled to death and Marik killed himself when he realised Malik was dead," Isis said in a detached tone.

"That's… pure love…" Yami said off-handedly.

There was a short silence and then Isis once more broke down into tears.

Meanwhile, in Malik's ward, the bodies lay there. Untouched, under strict orders from Seto Kaiba himself.

Malik's eyes were closed, but Marik's were open, with an empty look in them. Despite the fact the bodies were lifeless, it could have been sworn that upon closer examination, they were smiling.

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Koume: ;_; how could I do that to my precious Maliky?!?!

Malik: You're the one who wrote me to die.

Koume: *waaaaaaaah* Noo!! Malik!!! I love you!! *hugs tightly*

Malik: need… air…

Marik: *hostility against Koume*

Koume: Heh… ^_^" guess I got a bit carried away…

Malik: *to the readers* Maybe if you review, she'll stop scaring us.

Marik: Please hurry!! *is getting chased in circles by Koume*

Koume: *stops chasing Marik* Umm… anyways… yeah… this is a one-shot and I SHALL NOT CONTINUE IT!! even though I don't really see how I would seeing that the main characters are, well, dead…

Malik and Marik: *are lying lifeless on the ground*

Koume: … NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *breaks down*

Malgana: I'm one of Koume's nine or so alter egos. I suggest that you all review if you don't want the ghosts of Malik and Marik to haunt you in your sleep.

Everyone: BYE! HOPE YOU LIKED THE FIC! ^_^

Koume: On a more serious note, I don't think I've ever written a fic like this, so I need your suggestions and criticism in order to become a better writer. ^-^ and then I'll be more inspired to write more fics and I can be like some psycho non-stop fic writing thing!!! O_O

Malgana: *chloroforms Koume and carts her off to the insanitarium* No more chocolate for you.