Please see the author's note added at the end if you've read this chapter before 3:00 p. m. (ish) November 5 (Tuesday).

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Name legends:

My Names = Canon Names

Marik Ishtar

Marik "Malice" Ishtar = Yami Marik

Ryou Yadonushi = Ryou Bakura

Bakura Tozokuo = Yami Bakura

Diabound "Thief" Tozokuo = Thief King Bakura

Yugi Moto

Yami Yugioh = Yami Yugi

Atem Yugioh = Pharaoh

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Pairings:

Yami Bakura x Marik (Thiefshipping)

Yami Marik x Ryou Bakura (Deathshipping)

Tristan Taylor x Duke Devlin (Chaseshipping)

Seto Kaiba x Alister (Revengeshipping)

Joey Wheeler x Valon (Jeershipping)

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I'm not sure who I want to stick Thief with yet. Please note that this will be (mostly) first person, alternating between Marik and Bakura (Probably more Marik than Bakura, but we'll see).

Prologue: Thursday

Something decidedly unpleasant squelched against the back of my head, fouling my hair and dripping down the back of my jacket. Ryou leaned over with his nose crinkled and brushed the disgusting thing away, "Rotten fruit, that's a new low even for them."

"Vegetables."

"No, actually. Tomatoes are a fruit."

"I'm the one that got hit with it, and I say it's a vegetable. Feel free to dispute the matter once you've been targeted. Until then, it's a vegetable."

"Fine, it's a vegetable, now let's get it out of your hair."

I sighed and entered the school, heading for the restrooms with my only friend at my side. Ryou immediately set his books down and wetted a paper towel, wiping away most of the remaining tomato goo. I took some more paper towels and dried my hair, "If I know them at all, they'll probably hit me with pasta at lunch time."

"Do you really think so?"

I gave him a look and went back to cleaning myself as the late bell rang. We threw the towels away and gathered our things, running for the class room. We took our seats and the tardy slip from the teacher, ignoring the snickering of the other students and the cocky smirks of our three primary tormentors. I ignored Ms. Medusa and pulled out my sketch book. This wasn't my best subject, and the teacher hated me anyway.

Ryou got out his text book and started the lesson. I flipped to the latest page and continued my current sketch. It was supposed to be an angel whose wings, fading from white to black, had been broken and was falling, reaching up through the darkness for their lost grace. Ryou had commented yesterday how uncanny a resemblance the angel and I shared. In more ways than one, I thought, but I'd remained silent.

I leaned over the book and started adding drops to the scene. Red droplets, blood, Hell's rain. This would have to be one of the ones I hid, I'd get severely punished if Father found it. But I found Heaven and Hell and angels too interesting to keep from drawing on occasion, Ra forgive me. Maybe Ishizu would appreciate it, given how taken she seemed at the idea of a Savior. I held no such hopes.

I lifted the fine-tipped red colored pen and tried to figure out if the picture was complete or not, crossing my hands over one another. My chair was kicked from behind and I jerked forward against my desk, the pen digging into the back of my left hand deeply. I removed it and licked the blood away, ignoring the attack. It was Bakura, of course, the one in the assigned seat directly behind me. On his left would be his cousin, Thief, and on his right, directly behind Ryou, was my own distant (in the emotional sense: we were cousins) relative. We shared the same birth name: Marik, but I had yet to hear anyone call him by anything besides Malice since my family had moved here from Egypt.

He wasn't the same person as when we were children, but then, neither was I. We were no longer the children playing chase through the halls of the Ishtar family tomb. He had been my first kiss, memories of him was what helped me discover my sexual preference, and he was the one who'd told the whole school I was gay on my first day and made me the personal target of the school bullies he was numbered among. I still had the family treasure he'd given me when he moved away when we were eight: the Millennium Rod. We had gotten our face tattoos at the same time, we shared a name and the same birthday. He'd hung me out one of the classroom windows of the school by my ankles with a climbing rope.

Ryou had tried to pull me up, but lacked the upper body strength to do so, his attempts only managing to undo the knot that was tied inside the classroom and send us both plummeting down three stories to land in the bushes. I'd dislocated a shoulder, and Ryou had gotten a sprained wrist; we were both lucky not to have broken anything. Naturally, the entire thing had been set up as the two of us trying a prank that disastrously backfired. We'd gotten two weeks' detention.

But it was fine, I had already learned not to trust anyone I shared blood with by the time 'Malice' and I met again, at that point I was merely wondering in what form the betrayal would come.

Another kick came from behind me, "Hey, bug-boy, how was breakfast?" I continued to ignore the taunting until I was hit in the back of the head with something hard and rounded. A tennis ball stolen from gym? "Look at someone when they're talking to you." I set my pen down and looked over my shoulder at the glaring russet eyes impassively, unafraid to make eye contact. For some reason I couldn't understand, my stare made people uncomfortable, and Bakura scoffed, "Tch! Forget it, loser." I kept staring until he looked back at me and snarled, "Turn back around!"

I faced forward again and saw Ryou shaking his head out of the corner of my eye, likely convinced I had just earned us more torture after class. Maybe he was right. New students (though I was 'newer' than Ryou by two weeks or so), both gay and having odd looks, Ryou and I had been easy targets. At some point in the first month, not long after the window incident, someone had thought it would be funny to put the science class pet scorpion on my shoulder during class. It had not gotten the desired response when I carefully picked it up, put it on my palm, and held it close to my body to share body heat. Scorpions were hardy creatures, but the science room was heavily air conditioned and I'd worried for it, standing up calmly and putting it back in its tank with its heating lamp while smiling.

I had no fear of scorpions, I'd been raised around them my whole life, and the science room one wasn't deadly to humans by any stretch. My own scorpion, Serket, was more dangerous. Thankfully no one had known of my paralyzing fear of spiders. Deadly scorpions I could handle; spiders, not at all.

I lost myself in my drawings until the bell rang and brought me back to the real world. I packed up my sketch book and left with Ryou following closely. I hated Geography, I hadn't studied anything about the world outside Egypt in my entire life, which left me desperately struggling to catch up, same for our next evil class: World History. I'd have flunked out of both classes if Ryou hadn't been helping me every chance he got.

Ms. Medusa taught Geo, and Mr. Titus World History, and both of them despised us. I suspected Medusa's contempt for me was because she just happened to be working on Egypt the week I started and I'd corrected a mistake she made about weather patterns. Ryou was guilty by association. But Titus seemed to have a deep-seated hatred for feminine and effeminate men and/or long hair, and never hesitated to abuse his position as a teacher. I wasn't foolish enough to try and report him, I'd gone down that dead end street too many times and learned my lesson; and Ryou was too terrified of what would happen if we did tattle and no one listened.

I sighed and looked down the hall, "Come on, you know we'll get nailed for it if we aren't in class before the first bell rings."

He winced but nodded, "Right, and we already have one tardy today."

No one else was even in the hallway we headed down, except for the one person we wished wasn't there at all, "Yadonushi. Ishtar."

We both ducked our heads and slid around him into the classroom quickly. If we didn't move fast enough to suit him, he'd wrap his fingers in our hair and lead us around like dogs on leashes before shoving us into our seats. He'd done it the very first day I got here, and every chance he had after that when we hadn't cut our long hair after he'd ordered us to. There were no other boys in the class that had long hair, so I didn't know if he'd already gotten to them, or if we were his first victims.

Ryou sighed and took a bite from his fruit cup, "Why do we have to put up with them?"

"Bakura, Malice and Thief?"

"And Professor Titus. Any of them."

"Because we have no power and any one of them could snap us in half in passing and not even notice?"

"But why? What gives them the right to torment us?"

I shrugged and finished my own discount fruit cup lunch, the one free meal I got a day. I put it down with a discontent sigh; it was filling, or at least it filled me, though I didn't eat much, but it had some weird fruit in it that I couldn't name and didn't like. Continued exposure to the mystery fruit hadn't made it any more palatable than the first time. Ah, well, " 'Proposition: Right or wrong, they have the might, So right or wrong, they're always right. That's wrong, right?' "

Ryou sighed and nodded, then looked up at me and frowned, "That sounded familiar. You didn't get that from Philosophy, did you?" he asked, referring to my occasional use of quotes I heard in one of the two classes we didn't share together.

I shook my head, "Nope. And it should sound familiar, we just watched the movie I got it from the other night."

He looked confused for a moment before his face cleared and he hit his forehead with his palm, "Right, I can't believe I forgot. Actually, I'm more surprised you remember."

"I can't help it. Words, language, numbers; they stick with me."

Ryou's smile was indulgent and mischievous, "It's a shame that dates, times, places and events don't come so easily."

I groaned and hid my face in my arms, "I hate my classes."

"You do awesome at most of them."

" 'Most' implies a majority; 'half' doesn't qualify. World History, Geography, Gym, -ugh- Chemistry. I hate Chemistry,"

"It's a shame it's our next class, then."

I groaned, "Nooo, don't remind me. Give me anything but chem. Give me any form of mathematic equation; I can name pi to sixteen places. Languages: I know Japanese, English, Arabic, and four different dialects of Egyptian. Earth Science: I know the water table as well as any; the properties of light refraction; the differences between animal and plant cells. Hell, give me Astrology: I can tell you what day of the year it is with a single glance at the sky on a given night. Anything but Chemistry." I was set to flunk right out of that class, and Ryou couldn't help because it wasn't his best subject either. All those little colored boxes and letters swam around in my head and I was never sure what the periodic number was for any element, let alone what they could be combined to do.

"I don't think they even have a class in Astrology."

"They do not." I informed sullenly, "I checked when we first moved: I would have taken it if they had. But they didn't, and thus my choice of Philosophy."

My schedule was this (depending on the day of the week): Geography, World History, Honors' Arithmetic (without Ryou) or Social Studies, Earth Science or Languages (which Ryou and I were both excelling at), Lunch, Chemistry, either Gym or Home Ec (which I didn't even consider a class), a free period, Study Hall, and Philosophy. I had little use for Study Hall and skipped it more often than not, leaving me with a large chunk of time to myself since it was right after my Free Period.

Domino Academy's school strictures were brutal: every student had to have gone through the equivalent of four levels (which usually amounted to a year each) of education in at least eight (of a possible fourteen, and one had to be Gym or Phys Ed) base classes, and at least two of a possible six electives. Class schedules were determined by which classes a person was worst at: the worse you were, the more often that class was on your schedule. I supposed it went by the reasoning that the worse you were, the more you needed to work at it, and that it tended to equalize your strong and weak classes so that you finished them at about the same time. Or some psycho-torturous babble like that; it was all just an excuse to torment the students, I was certain. Which just plain sucked, because it meant I was stuck with Geo, World His, and Chem every day! Thankfully Gym was a mandatory three-day-a-week max so students weren't overly worn out.

I sighed, "I'm going to be in the music room later if you want to drop by."

Ryou nodded, "Of course, you'll have Odion and Ishizu with you, right?"

"Naturally." I could have taken Music as a class if I'd wanted, and been willing to give up my Free Period, but that would mean shuffling my schedule so that I only had four classes with Ryou, and not the two I so desperately needed his help in since Music was taught in the morning 'when the kids were bushiest-tailed and before they lost their voices shouting and whatnot'. I was better off making use of it in the afternoon when it was already empty for the day and figuring out my own way with Ishizu, Odion, and Ryou.

When I wasn't stealing use of the music room, I snuck out onto the roof to watch clouds. I'd had a fascination with the sky ever since the first time I'd seen it, an uncontrollable urge to reach up and grasp it in my hands. But, irony of ironies, I was afraid of heights. Ah, well, what else could one expect being raised underground? Or Ryou and I would find an out-of-the-way corner and tutor each other.

I sucked at Gym because our coach bandied to the highest denominator in the class, meaning the weaklings either caught up or got left behind. This was bad for me because I was slender and not overly muscled. I had abs from my personal fitness routine, and plenty of stamina, but I was definitely more 'acrobatic' than 'athletic'. That wasn't bad in itself, but we played dodgeball at least three times as often as we ran track, and don't get me started on the Gods-be-damned climbing ropes (heights again, joy). It was even worse for Ryou, who didn't have my stamina, and his stomach was flat without definition because he'd been unable to put up with my own training regimen. Which was not to say he wasn't toned or should be counted out, because there was almost no one better for the hundred yard dash, and I had no idea how he miraculously managed the hurdles every time.

The bell announcing the end of the lunch period rang and I thumped my head against the table, "Dammit."

Ryou gave me a reassuring pat and we carried our trays to the garbage. I sighed as we headed for the second floor and the accursed class, Ryou with his hand between my shoulderblades to make sure I didn't lag and make us late, or run off and hide, ditching the class entirely. Another reason to hate Chem: it was one of the three classes that Bakura, Malice, and Thief were nearly guaranteed to show up for rather than skip. I had come up with the sad little theory they did it just to see me fail. And they never missed a chance at the school-sponsored torture that was Gym.

POV Switch: Bakura

I nearly cackled in anticipation when I saw Ishtar and Yadonushi slink into the room, taking their assigned seats in front of myself and Malice. The mere sight of the tanned foreigner was usually enough to piss me off, like he was above everything that happened around him, but this was the exception. It was fantastic to see him put in his place, squirming in discomfort when the teacher called on him and he never got the right answer.

It was nearly the only time any reaction could ever be gotten out of him. He never reacted to anything we did to him, no matter what it was. Only once had he ever made a stand, on his first day when we were having fun playing with his little pet, Yadonushi. The fool had stalked up to the three of us and proceeded to impassionedly scold us! Malice had made a cutting remark about his little boyfriend, and later that day hung him out a window.

I'd been interested in the fire that had been in his purple eyes while he'd stood his ground and lectured us, the fury at seeing Yadonushi roughed up. I was determined to bring that fire back to the surface... and extinguish it. Break the self-righteous bastard from his protective zen shell.

He studiously bent over his desk to take notes, his hand clenching every time I intentionally jostled his seat. And then I got the ultimate satisfaction when the teacher called my name, and I answered without hesitation, "Hydrogen."

Ishtar's face darkened under his tan, suitably humiliated. That's right, school delinquent knows more than you do, bloody know-it-all.

When class ended, he didn't stomp, he didn't run, showed no major signs of anger, but if his fingers had been any tighter on his books, they'd have left a permanent impression. I snickered as I pushed past him out the door, making sure to hit him hard enough that he smacked against the wall and lost his books. Thief and Malice guarded the door while I watched the pretentious prat kneel down at my feet where he belonged and start picking his texts back up. I kicked the closest one so it skidded away under a desk, and he glared up at me, anger burning in his gaze, only for an instant before his closed them and focused on breathing exercises. Partially satisfied, I smirked down at him and left him to crawl after his books.

My next favorite class of the day was up next: Gym.

POV Switch: Marik

I sighed and held the red ball in my hands, knowing it wasn't going to much matter in the next twenty seconds. The teams were self-chosen, which meant Ryou and I were together, and Bakura, Malice, and Thief were on the opposing team. Other members of our team included Yugi Moto, Yami Yugioh (who might actually be a help instead of a hindrance, as the self-proclaimed 'dark king of games', a title not unearned), and Noah Kaiba (who had been ill when he was young and was about as unathletic as it got, though I wouldn't want to get on his bad side with his computer club skills). Mokuba Kaiba was a distinct disadvantage, being as small as he was, though genius enough to have skipped two grades to keep up with his four-years-older elder brother. And speaking of Seto AKA the one and only Kaiba, he was of course on his little brother's team. But Joey Wheeler was on our side to be with his friend Yugi, and Joey and Kaiba never managed to hit anyone but each other. Any of the others that were on our team (Mako Tsunami, Tea Gardner, and Tristan Taylor to name a few) were basically moot given the ones I'd already named. My siblings weren't in my Gym class; Ishizu being in the one a level below me despite being a year older, and Odion was already understandably in level four, being three years older and all but set to graduate.

We're doomed. I cast my gaze skyward in a wordless, prayerful plea of mercy I had the distinct feeling I wasn't going to receive. The whistle sounded and I held my ball in front of my face, simultaneously getting hit from four different directions. Of course they'd managed to convince the entire team to gang up on Ryou and I first. Two whistle-blasts marked us as out of the game. I warily dropped my ball and headed for the bleachers, taking the half-expected second attack to the back of the head. How many times had I been hit there already today? Ryou looked like someone had punched him in the face and I told him as much, his cheek swelling and already starting to turn colors.

Tweets sounded quickly; Yugi, Mokuba, and Noah being hit almost immediately after Ryou and I. The coach and three teammates had to pull Kaiba and Joey apart after they had predictably aimed for one another and devolved into a fist fight; they were both penalized and sent to the bleachers. And just like that, our team was down over half its players. Yami was the uncontested MVP of our side, dodging and hitting even as his remaining teammates were taken out. But, as I'd thought, the ending was inevitable: we got slaughtered.

I sighed as I waited for everyone else to get get washed and changed. Ryou scouted for me and let me know when everyone else was gone so we could shower. I would never let anyone see me naked, and Ryou was the only exception because he'd already found my secret out, now helping me to keep it from everybody else.

We went our separate ways, Ryou to his locker, while I made a bee-line for the fourth floor music room.

POV Switch: Bakura

I growled and wished I had something or someone to kick and take my temper out on as I stalked the halls alone, avoiding my hated Maths class. I could calculate just fine -business math- and I could tell you the exact dimensions of a room at a single glance -Geometry- but I had no need for -nor apparently any skill at- algebra. I let out an aggravated huff and stuffed my hands in my pockets, wishing Malice and Thief had been able to ditch their classes as well.

I was walking past the music room when I heard voices inside and stopped, carefully moving closer to listen in on whoever had decided to raid the unused classroom. I didn't recognise either of the voices speaking, "Which melody?"

"Mother's lullaby?" that was a girl speaking.

There was a group agreement that muffled individual voices, but I thought I could count at least four people in the room total. Then the music started. Just a few piano notes, then what sounded like a gentle, kind of haunting violin joining in. A more emotionally well-adjusted person might have shivered when a female singing wordless vocals joined in; I didn't, of course. It lasted about a minute and a half before tapering off into silence with the vocalist.

I thought that was the end of it and turned around to leave, jerking in place when a skilled piano solo started, going up and down the note scale flawlessly. Then the violin and vocals started again, even more hauntingly, but the piano playing a more active role than before, the rest seeming to pay it complement. The song took a surprisingly rock-and-roll turn when drums started in, the vocals stopping, with occasional notes from the piano. Then the piano started in strong again and the vocalist continued. The violin and drums became center stage, complimented by the piano, when the singer again dropped out. Then it was only the instrumentals, played so well that the voice's loss was barely noticeable. Then near the end, the piano disappeared again.

The music crescendoed with the drums ending almost half a beat before the violin's final note, stopped for a moment, then the piano came in again, ending with a small solo that left a sad feeling after it faded.

I stood still afterward, unable or unwilling to move for a moment. You'd almost think the music had an impact on me. I shook my head and felt a tremor go through me that I shrugged off. Nonsense.

"Thanks for letting me play with you." that voice I recognised: Yadonushi.

"It's no problem, you are excellent with the violin. I'm more grateful that I got to sing with you all, since you two usually go off alone to study. And that you let me pick the song." that was the female voice.

"Me as well, I needed to practice." said the second voice I didn't recognise.

"I just felt like it. Don't get used to it, you know I don't like playing the piano much." My eyes widened. Ishtar!

"But you play it even better than I." said the still-unknown male voice.

"But I don't like it, I only play it because you went through the trouble of teaching me. I prefer other ways of expressing myself." there was a sigh, "Speaking of which, you two have a class to get to in less than ten minutes."

"Yes, we should go. Good bye, Ryou. See you after class, Marik."

I stuck my hands back in my pockets -when had I taken them out?- and walked off down the hallway with a smirk. So, Ishtar comes this way at least semi-regularly, eh? That's a handy little piece of information... Plans were already forming in my head of how I could put such a juicy tidbit to best use.

POV Switch: Marik

I sighed at the end of the final hour when the bell rang, trudging to my locker. Sometimes (most times, actually) I wished the school day would never end so I would never have to go home. School, with all its bullies, evil teachers, and awful classes, was still infinitely preferable to my home life. It was easier to avoid my sister and limit my exposure to her to nearly only when she was singing; that on its own gained the building points. But the primary reason I never wanted the day to end was because being in school kept me and my siblings away from our father.

I shuddered and Ryou cast me a curious look. I turned away, using my locker door as a shield, and started putting my books in my bag, "Home sweet home."

He winced, "Marik..."

I shook my head and stood up with my bag on my shoulder, "Forget it. Let's just get going." Ryou was the only one aside from my siblings that had any idea (and cared) what my father was like.

Ishizu and Odion were waiting for us outside in the car. A, ahem, cozy thing that, technically speaking, sat four people, so long as they were rather friendly. It was a blaring fire-engine red eye-sore that threatened everyday to just give up and put itself out of everyone's misery, but somehow Odion managed to get it moving each morning. It was technically the family car, but Ishizu didn't use it much, and I was waiting until the day I could finally buy myself a motorcycle as my first thing to drive (that didn't include training vehicles). Also, I didn't want to be the one holding the keys when the thing finally gave up and keeled over.

Ryou and I climbed in the back, our packs squished between our chests and the seats in front of us (there was barely enough room on the floor for our legs). Which reminds me... I rifled through my bag and pulled out a sheet from my sketch book, handing it to him, "Here, I finished that drawing you were interested in."

His face lit up when he took it and saw what it was, "Brilliant!"

I smiled, "Glad you think so."

"What are you going to call it?"

"Mm, I'm think maybe something like a 'Dark Necrofear'. I know that the darker and more morbid it is, the better you like it."

"That's true."

I laid my head on my pack and smirked, "Hey, that's why you like me, after all. Nothing much darker or more morbid than my family dynamic."

Ryou frowned and I saw hurt flash in his eyes, "That's not true, Marik."

I winced. Dammit, will I ever learn when to keep quiet? There I go sticking my foot in my mouth again. I swear the only time I can shut up is when I don't speak at all. "No, Ryou, I didn't mean it like that. You're my best friend, I was just joking. Obviously not well."

He smiled at me, "It's okay, I understand."

I let out a sigh of relief and waved goodbye when we dropped Ryou off at his place. Ishizu and Odion let me out at the house before taking off, Ishizu to be dropped off at her part-time after-school job, and Odion to his own job down at the docks. My grades didn't give me the option of having any sort of employment during the year, though I'd had one during the summer when we first moved.

The front door was unlocked, partly because we had nothing worth stealing, and partly because Father had broken the locks by throwing Ishizu and I against the door one too many times. She'd taken the top lock off when it got caught in her shirt, and I'd had the honor of hitting the doorknob so hard it partially bent and jammed the lock in the open position.

Bottles, cans, and other miscellaneous and equally dangerous trash littered the floor. Dirty needles had been dropped and ground into the carpet, various drugs had wound up on the floor when vigorous activity had knocked them off whatever surface they were laying on, blood belonging mostly to me and my siblings, and other bodily fluids. If I'd had a choice, I wouldn't even have walked across it in a hazmat suit, but I wasn't going to stand in the doorway and wait for Father to come home.

There was little point in even attempting to clean up the place before the weekend, it only seemed to encourage more filth into existence to fill the space. So long as it was gone by saturday when Father was off and around the house all day, it didn't really matter anyway. He was usually too tired and/or smashed to notice.

I threw my bag in the corner by the hallway and scavenged for something edible in the pantry and fridge. The cupboards were bare of anything but spices, and the fridge only had a roll of hamburger meat, a few sodas, and what was probably cheese in a carton that at one time could have called itself milk. And beer, of course, one mustn't forget the endless bottles and cans of beer. On a whim, I got out the hamburger meat and put it on the counter, fishing a skillet out from under the sink. I let the skillet heat, broke the meat up into it, let it brown a bit, and added a cup or so of water. The hamburger meat we could afford was not the healthy, low-fat kind of hamburger, and there was nearly a half inch of grease in the pan when the meat was finished cooking.

I considered for a moment, then got out a bunch of spices, and the flour from the cupboard. I sniffed each container, going by what flavor profile I wanted in my head, adding things until it looked right (the scientific method of measuring!) since I couldn't exactly taste it without ruining my tongue. I added flour as well, not draining off any of the grease, hoping to turn it into a semi-edible gravy. Hey, we needed the fat. I let it simmer for another few minutes to get the floury taste out, getting out a bowl and more flour in the mean time. I mixed up some flour and water into a batter, got out another pan, poured a little of the 'gravy' into it to grease it, and fried the mixture.

I put some of the meat onto my fried disks, put the lid on the pan, and put the rest of the fried disks into the oven with the skillet of meat so Odion and Ishizu could have something when they came home. And voila: tacos! (Or whatever this particular configuration of spiced meat and flour tortilla was called.) I thought it had turned out pretty tasty, if I did say so myself. I wound up eating four of them, which was lot for me, since I wasn't normally so hungry. I'd had stomach issues for years and felt immediately nauseous if I ate too much (like until I actually felt full).

I cleaned up all evidence I'd been in the kitchen, confident that Ishizu and Odion would put the rest away after they came home and ate, and headed for my bedroom, grabbing my bag on the way. My pet Serket made a clicky sound from inside his tank on top of my 'desk', what had actually been a chest of drawers with the bottom-most drawers removed to make room for my legs when I sat down at it. Serket's modest terrarium took up over half of the space; I was more than a little convinced that his constantly watching me do and check my homework was the reason he was such a smart (odd) creature. Serket just liked me, I supposed, since he let me pick him up and pet him and didn't sting me. I could put him on my shoulder or head, forget he was there, and walk around the house with him (when Father wasn't home, of course), I'd managed to scare the ever loving hell out of Ishizu at least a dozen times by doing just that. I also had a hamster ball that I put him in on occasion to get his exercise.

So it was a little (or alot) weird. What could I say, though? That insect had been my best and only friend for years. I valued him enough that I didn't question our dynamic. And there were several ways I could have, like the fact that I didn't recognize his species, and I knew alot of scorpions, or his odd behavior, or... but I wasn't going to question it.

I pulled out my homework and borrowed his heating lamp to see while I studied. I was finished and snapped it off by the time I heard the front door slam open, flinching despite myself. I remained perfectly still and held my breath, waiting. Nothing good happened when Father got home early. It was usually myself, Ishizu who would walk home from her job just before it got dark, and Odion much later in the evening.

I let out a relieved breath when I heard him stalk past to his room without checking to see if any of us were home. That suggested that he hadn't been drinking, yet. He was a scary drunk, because he didn't act drunk, even when he was, he just got progressively angrier and more irritable. He didn't slur his words, or sway on his feet, it just seemed to give his evil side complete free rein. It was a given that there was a certain amount of controlling temper waiting to be unleashed that came with the excised former leader of a devout religious sect that he had been raised all his life to order around. But there was something in him beyond even all that plus being a violent drunk who cleaved to the Old Scriptures...

Or maybe it was just living my entire life under his thumb that had warped my perceptions and made me paranoid. That, too, was a possibility.

I sighed and flopped face-down on my bed, exhausted.

I woke up at the slightest sound of my bedroom door opening and looked up sleepily, not realizing I'd even fallen asleep 'til I'd woken up, "Odion?"

He smiled at me, "Thank you for making dinner."

I smiled back and closed my eyes again, "Mmm-hmm, glad you liked it."

"Marik?"

"Hmm?"

"You should change for bed, and it might be more comfortable under the covers."

I yawned, not hearing even half of whatever he'd just said, "Uh-huh."

I was already drifting off again when I felt myself being picked for a moment and put back down. I snuggled my face into my pillow and warmth enveloped me. I felt Odion brush my hair away from my face, "Good night, Marik."

I yawned again, "Mmr, night, big brother." the last thing I remember was hearing the click of the door closing.

Chapter one Friday

Ryou got to school on his own, normally waiting for me by the front doors, which was probably a bad idea as it made us easy targets for pranks that would otherwise be detention/suspension-worthy in the halls. He wasn't there and I looked around, worried for him. Ryou was never late, ever.

When I found him, he was being subjected to one of those pranks by (who else?) Bakura's gang. I found him among the throngs of milling students, over by the fence under the trees, pushed up against the fencing with his backpack opened and papers scattered across the ground. I pushed through the crowds to get to my best friend, some people intentionally bumping me and others getting out of my way when they saw me coming. I broke out of the student body and almost fell on my face as someone shoved me from behind.

Ryou looked ready to cry, and I saw right away the reason for it: torn in pieces on the ground was the picture I'd drawn for him. It didn't affect me much personally; I made hundreds of drawings and sketches, but I'd made that one just for Ryou and he'd cherished it. Bakura, Malice, and Thief moved out of the way to see what I would do as I approached Ryou and knelt on the ground. I started gathering up the various papers and notebooks, handing them to him without looking, "What happened, Ryou?" I whispered.

He took the things from me and stuffed them in his pack without concern for their state, voice just as quiet, "Thief tried to take my backpack and string it up in the tree. I held onto it by one of the zipper tassels, and then things just went everywhere. Then Malice saw my picture and tried to take it from me, but I didn't want him to steal it, so I grabbed it and..."

"It ripped. Don't cry, Ryou, I can make you another one."

He shook his head and discreetly wiped his face, "It's not the point."

I looked down, "No, it's not." I picked up the pieces and handed them to him, "But they'll just hit harder if you let them know they got to you."

Ryou put everything back in his bag, stood up with it slung over his shoulder, and slunk away through the students with his head down, "Excuse me."

It hurt to see Ryou so sad, then I saw the trio responsible standing there smirking and felt hot anger flare to life. What had standing up for myself ever gotten me except for a more complete beating? Attempting to protect others had only backfired even more disastrously, but Ryou was my best friend, and they had hurt him. I was mad, and I couldn't just let it go, not this time, but attacking head on wasn't going to get me anywhere. I stood up with my back straightened, hand clenched around the strap of my own pack, and decided to see if I could hit them where it would hurt the most: their pride.

I stalked up to Bakura, invading his personal space and staring fearlessly up into his eyes, more than close enough to highlight the differences between us for everyone to see. His crossed arms made his bountiful muscle mass obvious through his uniform, when nearly everyone knew my slender build. I was eye-level with the base of his throat, Bakura towering just slightly over an entire head taller, smirking down at me. I stared expressionlessly, "Do Ryou and I intimidate you?"

He scoffed, "Hardly."

"Are you afraid of us?"

"I could break you in half with one hand tied behind my back."

"Probably more than that. You're stronger than us, Bakura; all three of you: stronger, taller, maybe faster than Ryou and myself, certainly more dangerous. Each of you has probably fifty pounds on us."

He shifted and frowned at me, sensing something behind my words but seemingly unable to puzzle out what, "Your point?"

"We are no threat to you at all, in anything. We are the bottom rung of the ladder. Why do you feel the need to push us lower? Are you so insecure with yourselves that you have to pick on those that can't fight back? Would breaking me make you feel stronger? More powerful? I could probably try to tackle you to the ground and have you not even notice."

He grabbed me by the collar of my uniform and lifted me to my tiptoes, leaning down until we were face to face, "You just haven't learned your place yet, have you? It's kneeling at my feet. You still haven't figured it out: never oppose me, or I will crush you."

"I'm not afraid of you, Bakura. If you really feel the need to crush me, to break me, I invite you to try. Others have made the attempt, others far more intimidating than you. You may make some of the other students tremble, but you don't scare me. Now put me down, the bell's about to ring."

He glared venomously at me for several seconds, until the bell rang, then threw me so I landed on my back with a huff of all my breath leaving my lungs, stalking away with Malice and Thief flanking him. I glanced up in surprise at Ryou leaning over me to help me up. I groaned as he helped pull me back to my feet, "That was a very foolish thing to do, Marik."

Yes, it was. And yet, for some reason, my body was buzzing and I found myself grinning at my friend, "Yeah, but every tiger needs poked with a stick on occasion, don't they?"

He shook his head and smiled back at me, "You're bloody loony, you know that? Come on, let's get to class." I was still smiling when Professor Medusa glared at us and handed out our tardy slips.

I was tense with anxiety for the rest of the day after Titus dragged Ryou and I through the halls by our hair when we were late, tossing us through the classroom doorway with no warning when we'd gotten there. Ryou and I had only each other to try and steady ourselves, and only managed to overbalance each other, crashing to the floor gracelessly. I had a nasty bruise on my elbow, examining it at our usual lunch table for two, "Sorry about your thigh."

Ryou shook his head, "Nonsense, sorry about your shoulder."

I shrugged, grimacing at the soreness from my left shoulderblade where Ryou had tried to catch himself, shoving me into the floor, "I'm well enough. Dark skin is rather good at hiding bruises, unlike your own fair complexion. Your cheek has some rather spectacular colors, by the way." what yesterday had been only red and slightly darker was today glorious purple and blue.

Ryou stared at me incredulously, "Uh, Marik."

I glanced up from the inspection of my elbow again, "Hmm?"

"There's a disembodied arm waving our way from the hall."

"Huh?" I turned around to see exactly that, a pale arm waving from the hall. I recognized that arm... I sighed, "Save my spot, I'll be right back."

I pushed up from our table, warily looking around for the troublemakers and not seeing them, I headed for the hallway. The arm that had been waving was instantly around my shoulders and gone just as quickly at my wince, "There's my favorite artist! What happened to you?"

"I fell."

"Organically, or with help?"

I sighed and gave him a reproachful look, he knew I didn't like talking about myself, "What did you need, Alister? What are you even doing at my school?"

The redhead put his hands up in surrender, "Alright, then, I'll shut up. I just came by to see if you maybe had any good sketches for me."

"You mean you came to ogle your wannabe boyfriend, Kaiba."

His cheeks flushed, "I'm here on a mission, scout's honor."

I snorted, "You were never any kind of scout." I looked around the empty hall, "I'm surprised Valon isn't here to sneak a glance at Joey." Alister's face darkened even more and I smirked up at him, "Unless... he's already gotten his perv on today. Just how long have you been out here 'waiting for me'?"

He coughed, "It's, uh, been a bit."

I raised an eyebrow at him, " 'A bit' like, a few hours 'bit'?"

"Something like that..."

"Ahhhh, I see. Valon find an empty classroom where he could properly stare down at Joey and his group eating outside?"

"Maybe..."

I smiled, "And you came looking for me only after failing to find Kaiba."

He held his hands up again, "We really were sent here to see if you had anything ready for us."

"But there's nothing wrong with multi-tasking, right?" I shook my head, "Kaiba rarely eats outside, and he doesn't show up in the cafeteria much, either. If you're really looking for him, he's usually in the third-floor science room with his brothers since it's his first class after lunch. You might find him there." Alister's face lit up and he turned to go until I called him, "Uh, Alister?"

He turned back, "Yeah?"

"My sketches?"

He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand, "Right."

I snickered and shook my head, "Forget it, I only have my current sketchbook with me at the moment. Ryou and I have plans tomorrow, so I'll stop by and drop them off afterward."

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver."

"You mean an ass-saver. Raphael would beat you if you'd gone back with some half-made excuse."

He winked at me, "Nah, not our Raph, he's even worse. He'd look at us, shake his head, and tell us how disappointed he was in us."

"Oh, the horror." I said tonelessly.

He nodded, "I know."

I smiled and waved him off, "Well, good luck with your stalking."

"Anonymous admiring!"

"Stalking!" I got the last word in just as I went back into the cafeteria.

I sat down next to Ryou and told him about the whole encounter, the two of us snickering over Alister and Valon's crushes. My anxiety returned when we started out for Chemistry. It was the last day of the week, and Bakura and the others had yet to hit either of us with one of their at-least-once-a-week day-altering pranks. The tomato from yesterday didn't count anywhere close to big enough to qualify. These were the same people that had snuck into the girls' locker room, stolen their underwear and bras, broke into the school trophy case, and swapped said objects. The same students that had vandalized the school sign so that we went 'Do-A-ho' Academy for three days until the staff managed to get it cleaned off. A bad tomato to the back of the head was child's play.

There was rarely a week that went by when Ryou and I weren't hit with something that meant we had to walk home so we didn't ruin the inside of Odion's car. There was the time we had been tarred and feathered with honey and pillow down, and the time we'd had tye-dyed hair for a week because we'd been paintballed with food coloring... Point being, given what I'd done this morning, I was in for it, and in for it bad. I wonder if I'll be hanging out another window sometime within the next few hours.

POV Switch: Bakura

I'd seethed in silent fury as I watched the back of Ishtar's head. He'd seemed to get more tense with every passing moment I didn't strike. I'd left him alone, not bumping his chair the whole class, and he was wound tighter than a spring because of it. When the bell rang, I waited by the door and held my arm out like an old fashioned gentleman, "After you."

He stared up at me warily before inching past me. I bared my teeth, he didn't seem to mistake it for a smile.

Now I heard him coming up the stairs. It was time to strike. I was going to get a reaction out of him today. I listened to him round the corner and walk down the hall, coming around my own at the opposite end of the hall. He saw me and turned around only to see Thief blocking any exit the way he'd come from. Thief herded him backwards toward me, I opened the door to the supply closet we'd already picked the lock open to, my cousin pushed him so he went tumbling inside, and I followed with the door closing behind me.

My keen hearing picked up the sound of tumblers being moved behind me and I turned around, "Thief."

I heard him snickering through the door, "Sorry, but I've got somewhere to be. See you later!"

I tried to turn the knob and smashed my fist against the door, "Thief!" Dammit! He was only supposed to guard the door from the outside, not lock me in a room with Ishtar! I'd specifically chosen this closet in this hallway because it was on Ishtar's route and often overlooked or ignored. The chances of someone besides Thief letting me out were nonexistent. I kicked the door with all my strength, "Bugger!"

Ishtar picked himself up off the floor and stared at me, "Even your own 'friends' turn on you."

I spun on him and shoved him, he flew backwards into a set of steel shelves that rattled ominously, crumpling to the ground and covering his head as things fell. I stomped over and pulled him up by his collar, slamming him back against the shelves again, "You say something?"

"Your friends lack loyalty."

The little idiot really never learned when the hell to shut up! I snarled and tossed him again, sending him careening into the wall between the shelves surrounding us. I went over and picked him up by the throat, above his three gold necklaces, holding him on his toes. I saw it in his eyes for a moment before he hid it: the fear, and a rush went through me followed by anger at how easily he seemed to hide it. I raised him higher. His hand grabbed my wrist, but he didn't dig his nails in or try to push me away, "You never know when to shut up. If you keep going, I may just have to fix it so you stay quiet. Maybe cutting out your tongue." I pressed harder, "Or just crushing your voice box. Which do you think?"

He shuddered, but I still didn't see it in his lilac eyes again. I pulled him forward and smacked his head back against the wall, and he closed his eyes in pain. I snarled, "Look at me!" his eyes snapped open and I watched them as I pressed on his throat harder and harder, watching his pupils change size and his face twist. I glared at him, "Are you scared yet, Ishtar?"

His eyelids fluttered and I felt his fingers go slack on my wrist. I set him down without releasing him and he gasped for air. I moved like I was going to turn away, then punched him on the cheek. He crashed hard into the shelves and they rattled, things falling on the floor. He grabbed them to keep from falling, there was a sound of something ripping, and the entire steel structure started toppling over.

POV Switch: Marik

He looked at me like an insect squirming under a microscope, cutting off my air just to see what my reaction would be. The side of my face exploded with pain and I landed against the shelving unit, automatically trying to keep myself from falling. I glanced up when I felt the structure give way and start toppling. It weighed at least eight hundred pounds with everything on it! If I curled into a ball, I might be able to slip between the gap on the bottom shelf, but every shelf on the top half was filled to capacity and set to land directly on my tormentor.

There was no hesitation, no decision, just instinct. I was about to see if I'd been right earlier. I threw myself forward, "Bakura!" I tackled him around his middle and we both went sprawling as a deafening crash split the air behind me and shook the floor.

Wait, actually, maybe that was me shaking. I peeked open my eyes to see the door above our heads, Bakura propped against it, staring behind me with his mouth agape. The brightness in the room dimmed as the ceiling light shattered from the shelves falling, leaving the only source of light what was coming in from the outer hallway. I looked and saw the shelves on the floor, less than half a foot from my feet, boxes and other things scattered around us. Chalk rolled around our legs from a top-shelf box that would have hit him if I'd curled up on the floor to avoid the fall.

I unwound my arms from his stomach and scooted away, leaning against the wall beside the second of the three sets of shelves. If the room were three feet shorter from front to back, there'd have been no escape. If one of the other two shelves on the shorter walls had fallen, they'd have lost everything on them, but the unit itself would have caught on the other one. I hugged my knees to my chest and tried to slow my breathing. We had almost died. There had been far too much luck involved in our survival.

POV Switch: Bakura

I couldn't stop staring. A huge box of chalk, solid stone, would have hit me if Ishtar hadn't pushed me out of the way. It didn't make any sense. Why had he done it? What was his game? I shook my head and looked over at him where he was curled up next to one of the standing shelves, "Are you insane?!"

He flinched, glanced up at me briefly and shrugged, "Probably." it wasn't said snidely, like the kind of response I'd have gotten from Thief or Malice if I'd asked them the same question. He sounded like it might have been true, or maybe not, and it didn't matter to him either way. The hair on the back of my neck raised. He looked over at the mess and shuddered, "It's not a very big room."

I shook off my discomfort and raised a brow at the obvious statement, "It's a supply closet, not a wardrobe leading to a mystical alternate dimension."

"Shame, I could use a vacation." he quipped, then became serious again, "If it had been any smaller, we'd be dead right now."

"Three minutes ago, technically." I went to stand up and groaned, "So much for me not noticing you tackle me." it felt like I'd bruised a couple of ribs, maybe even cracked one.

He peeked over at me again, "There are times where it's better to be wrong than it is to be right."

"This changes nothing, got it?"

He nodded and looked away, "I didn't think it would."

We sat in silence for over an hour. I kept looking over at Ishtar, but he never looked up from the floor between his feet. My long-dead conscience tried to prod at me, but dammit, I wasn't feeling guilty! The shelf never would have fallen for if it weren't for his high-and-mighty attitude in the first place!

Yeah... I was able to convince myself for all of ten minutes with that argument. But no matter how much anger I threw at him, he just accepted it without fighting back, and that pissed me off more than if he'd told me to bugger off. It annoyed me, "Why don't you ever fight back? You stand up when I push Yadonushi around, but nothing ever seems to faze you!"

I glared at him as he looked up at me in shock, "You'd just push back even harder. I tried to go after your pride, it almost got me strangled." the corner of his mouth lifted as he looked away, "It was fun, though. Like poking an angry tiger with a stick."

I laughed at being compared to a deadly hunting animal, "Roar. So you got away with it once, are you going to poke me again?"

He glanced over at me, "I'm not afraid of you. I knew you would do something big to get back at me for it but... it felt good."

I smirked, "Makes you feel alive to know you're doing something that has the potential to kill you."

"Maybe that's it." We descended into silence again. The bell announcing the end of the last class rang, all that was left was detention and the school would be empty. Ishtar looked at the door behind me, "Is there anyone you can call to get us out of here?"

I shook my head, "No reception in here, it's one of the reasons I chose it."

"I don't have a cell phone anyway."

"Well, that would have been handy to know three hours ago when I was planning this."

We were quiet again for a while, but I was actually rather thankful it didn't last, "Do you think we'll get out?"

"Thief's bound to come back at some point." It was just a matter of when that 'some point' was. Since there was no keyhole on this side of the door -just a smooth knob- I couldn't pick the lock to our little prison.

Silence once again engulfed the room for uncountable minutes, or at least, I didn't feel like counting them. "What's wrong with my eyes?"

"What?"

"People always seem to get uncomfortable staring at my eyes. I was wondering if you could tell me why."

I stared at him, "What do you see in mine?"

"Right now, confusion. Your brow is furrowed, but you aren't glaring. Usually, hatred and anger. You're angry alot."

"Every time I look at you." I ground out. All he had to do was open his mouth and I was already thoroughly ticked off again! I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a sigh.

"My eyes?"

I looked back over at him and considered my answer for several minutes before replying, "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

I nodded, "You show nothing. It's what makes you so annoying. You get pushed, you get pranked, you get hung from your ankles, and none of it shows in your eyes. You really aren't afraid, and it pisses people-" Like me. "-off. Books slapped from your hands, reports stolen, shoved into walls; you just take it all, sigh, and go on with your day. Your expression almost never changes."

"Oh."

I was on too much of a roll to stop there, "When your desk gets kicked, or someone bumps into you, or makes you look at them; you don't look afraid, or apprehensive. Like you don't really give a fuck what they want, just so that they get it over with already so you go on your merry little way."

He tried to say something but I ran over top of it, fully invested in my rant now, "You have this infuriating self-righteous aura around you that absolutely nothing could possibly be important enough to acknowledge with a normal freaking human response!" I ended my tirade, panting, and looked to see him staring wide-eyed at me, blinking. I huffed and looked away, "Your eyes are just... empty. Like-"

"A dark pool you can't see the bottom of, or guess at what might be swimming within? That's what Ryou said when I asked him."

That was a disturbing set of imagery, if somewhat accurate. I grunted noncommittally. Did this kid respond normally to anything? Then again, I had to admit I was impressed my punch hadn't put him down. When I cold cocked someone like that, they had a tendency to go down and stay down. Thief and Malice had been the only exceptions so far. And now Ishtar.

We were both quiet for a long time after that, time I spent imagining how I was going to get Thief back for this little trick. I had pretty well decided on locking him in a coffin, sitting on top of it and listening to him bitch for hours on end, when the final bell of the day rang.

We were about to be left alone in a school closet. On a friday. With no one but my cousin knowing where we were. Bugger. I suppose if I were anyone else, I'd take this as a sign of what my wickedness could bring upon myself, reflect on my past wrongdoings, and promise to change my ways.

I snorted. Right. All that I decided was the need for better and more thorough planning in the future, with multiple escape routes. And for doors that had locks on both sides.

Please read this notice! It's come to my attention (yesterday) that this chapter didn't upload right. This is my fault for trying the download option instead of my usual copy/paste method (But I hate having to un-italisize and re-italisize everything! T-T) but I will be going back to the surer way of getting my docs up. That said, the entire chapter has been re-re-edited and I promise there are no errors (via my spell-check and a thorough read-through)! If you've read this chapter previously and some things didn't make sense or you thought words were missing/squished together, that should be fixed now if you'd care to reread it. Thank you for your patience! (Special thanks to: YamiBakura1988 , 13579Marik , and LadySunami for their kind reviews even on the compromized chapter!) The next chapter should be coming out (of the closet! lol) thursday.

P.S. Figured out what the problem was: Stupid ffn autoedit! I wasn't trying to put in a website domain! Cautionary word to other authors out there: Watch your periods!

Ja ne!