My first Yami Bakura x Marik fanfic :D I've recently gotten back into Yu-Gi-Oh! and these two have always been my favorite couple, which is surprising since I've never been much of a yaoi fan. Please review and tell me how you like it!

Life had become . . . different, to say the least. Two or three years ago Marik would probably laugh if someone told him he'd be living the life he was living now. A year had passed since the Battle City Tournament and when Ishizu had said they could start over, she hadn't been kidding.

Marik now lived in a small house in Domino City. Ishizu lived with him too, but she was constantly moving between Egypt and Japan which made it seem like he lived more alone than with someone. Odion also lived in Domino city too, though he didn't live as close to Marik as one would think. Marik had told him that he shouldn't chain himself to him and live his own life, which be had reluctantly agreed to.

"Oww." Marik winced, holding up his hand, inspecting a cut that was now present on his finger, blood slowly starting to seep from the injury.

A sigh emitted from beside him, two small hands taking ahold of his arm, tugging it over to take a look. Marik watched the small female that stood next to him. She was gently holding his hand, looking over the injury and assessing the damage, "I honestly don't think I'm going to die from it."

Smiling, she looked up at him, "Not this time, but I'm running out of band-aids for you." Her name was Reina and he had met her about eight months ago just a little while after the tournament. She had shoulder length white hair and deep green eyes. The two had gotten along well and had been around each other a lot since and Ishizu had even called them a couple a few times.

"I doubt I'm going to die from a cut, Reina."

"Well at the rate you're going, you're going to chop off a finger or something." Reina shook her head, letting go of Marik's arm before pulling a band-aid out of her pocket. He had accidentally cut himself so many times while cooking that she had now carried around a supply of band aids for these occasions.

"I doubt I'd do that." Marik said as she wrapped the band aid around his finger.

"With you? Anything is possible." The small girl laughed as she turned back to the food, "Don't tilt the knife like that or it makes it harder to cut without harming yourself." She leaned over, adjusting his hold on the knife.

"Would have been nice if you told me that before."

"I did, but you insist on going against my instructions." She grinned as she began cutting up her share of the vegetables again. It was amazing that despite his time here, he still failed miserably at normal everyday things. Reina never seemed to let him forget it either, but she was always quick to show him the right way to do whatever he was trying to accomplish.

Reina stopped, looking at the clock hanging on the wall before looking back to Marik, "When are Ishizu and Odion supposed to be here?"

Marik shrugged, "Ishizu should be arriving in three or four hours. Odion will probably be here in about two hours." Ishizu had gone back to Egypt, having taken it upon herself to check on the pharaoh's tomb. Ever since the incident in Battle City Ishizu had become even more protective of the tomb now that it had been proven the pharaoh had returned. One would think Marik had been happy, but honestly he was starting to detest the whole situation. He had thought that they could live normal lives for once, but that was slowly starting to crack.

"The food should be done by the time they get here then." Reina smiled as she dropped the cut up vegetables into the large pot on the stove before she began cleaning up their working area.

"Anything else we need to get done, then?" Marik questioned, though he hoped she'd say no. His head was now pounding loudly, an unwelcome head ache starting to come up out of nowhere. Reina seemed to notice this and gave him her trademark concern gaze. She worried over nothing half the time so of course whatever he had done to grab her attention would set her off. She took a step over to him, wipping her hands off on a cloth sitting on the counter before she pressed her hand against his forehead, a frown marring her face, "Your head's a little warm. Do you feel alright?"

"Of course I don't feel alright, idiot." He snapped, swatting her hand away from him.

"Well sorry." She stepped back, shaking her head at him as she continued to clean up the kitchen, "I was only asking, Marik. No need to bite my head off."

Marik let out a sigh, pressing his own hand to his forehead. He hadn't meant to snap at her, his words had just slipped out without him giving a second thought, "I'm sorry, Reina. I didn't mean it."

"I know." She nodded, glancing over at him through the corner of her eye, "Maybe you should go lie down until Odion and your sister arrive. You should probably take some medicine too."

"Yeah..." He glanced around the kitchen before his eyes landed on Reina, who smiled and shook her head, "I'll take care of everything else, Marik. You'll just get grumpy if you keep pushing yourself and don't rest."

He nodded, uttering a soft 'thanks' before he headed down the hallway to his room. His room was bland, honestly. The walls were an off-white color, nothing too interesting. His bed was pushed against the wall on the right side of his room while a small dresser sat in front of the bed. An old tv was on the other wall, resting on a small tv stand. Other than that, there wasn't much else in the room. Ishizu's room was nearly the same, mainly because she rarely spent time in her room and was gone half the time.

Flopping down onto his bed, Marik quickly realized that he had forgotten to take Reina's advice and take something for his headache. He really didn't care at the moment, figuring sleep would be enough to cure the constant pounding in his skull. Closing his eyes, the blond buried his face in the pillow, blocking out what little light was in the room and slowly drifted into a welcoming sleep.

Like it so far? I hope so, and don't worry. Our little Yami Bakura snookems will be in the next chapter, and no, if any of you were wondering this is not going to be a Bakura X Marik X OC story due to Reina.

Review please! :D