Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! I'm simply using the characters for my and my muse's entertainment.
Notes: I'm not sure how old the characters actually are (around 14-15?) but since this is mainly about Bakura and Malik, I made them 17, so the others are around that age too...^_^;;
Four and a Half Blocks Later
by Yaoi Girl"I'm sorry, Bakura. She's usually not like this."
The white-haired boy glared down at the calico cat sitting in Malik's lap while he licked the blood from the scratch marks on the back of his hand.
The calico cat seemed oblivious to the glare and the punishment Malik was determining for her, as she rubbed his head against her master's hand, obviously wanting his attention.
With a sigh, the blonde decided that beating the cat would get him a yelling from his sister, so he simply picked her up and threw her from the couch where the two boys sat.
"Why exactly did you come here? Not that I mind, but I'm sure my sister will want to know. She can be so nibby sometimes," Malik said with a roll of his violet eyes.
"Ryou had his friends over, and considering the fact that I can barely tolerate any of them, I decided to come here."
"So you're saying that you prefer me to them?"
"Evil attracts evil, as they say," Bakura said with a smirk, once again licking the crimson streaks away.
"I guess. But I don't really have anything to do here."
"That doesn't bother me. It's better than aimlessly walking around in the cold all afternoon while Ryou and his friends sit and jabber all day."
"They could be talking about how to get rid of you, you know."
"Let them try what they might."
Both boys sat there, not knowing what to say.
A few moments later, the cat jumped back onto Malik's lap, kneading her clawing into his pants and legs while she hissed at Bakura with her ears back. For this, she received a 'thwap' upside the head and was again thrown off the boy's lap.
As Malik rubbed his legs to ease the pain from the claw wounds, he watched as Bakura again licked his hand.
"You know, I could get you some band-aids for that."
"Why bother? They just get in the way. Besides, blood tastes great," he replied with a wicked grin. "Wanna try?"
The blonde backed his head away from the offered hand. "No, thanks."
"Suit yourself," the spirit said with a shrug, removing his hand from the boy's face.
A few moments past, both boys sighing a couple times before Malik finally spoke.
"What are you doing for Halloween this year?"
"Do you really have to ask?"
"Well, last year you didn't do much of anything but occasionally steal some of Ryou's candy."
"Obviously you don't know what I did after you and his friends left."
"What -did- you do then?"
"You remember the area between 23rd and Kickapoo (1)?"
"You mean that you're the one that toilet papered those five blocks?! Alone?! In just one night?!"
Bakura laughed, the evil tone to it giving Malik the verification that yes, this boy had TPed five blocks between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. last Halloween.
"That's just the beginning this year. Not only am I going to top five blocks, I'm tripping the older kids that don't need to be out trick-or-treating and taking their candy. 18 and 19 year olds don't need to be taking the candy from us deserving 17 year olds!"
Malik laughed. "And that's it? You tripped people last year, too."
"Only a couple."
"Only a couple my foot! You tripped at least eight people and got into a fight with one."
"And who happened to win that fight?"
The blonde rolled his eyes. "You."
"And no, that's not all I'm doing this year. I'm taking pumpkins from porches and smashing them in the roads. I may even through them at the older kids. Maybe do some egging…"
"I'd hate to be with you when you get caught by the cops."
"That's why you're coming with me."
At this, startled violet eyes locked with the evil brown ones next to him. "What?!"
"With your powers, no cop or any kind of authority will be able to stop us."
Malik looked uneasy, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to go, but his sister…
"What about Isis? She won't let me go out with you. Especially on Halloween!"
"So it's a date now?"
The blonde blushed ever so slightly and averted his gaze, having realized what he had just said moments before. "You know what I mean!"
"C'mon. You've never let you sister stop you from doing things before! Why chicken out now? You're 17! You're old enough to choose what you want to do."
"But I'm not 18, and since she's my legal guardian, I have to abide by her rules."
"Who says that she has to know that you're going to be with just me? You could always tell her that we'll be Ryou and the others."
"She knows as well as I do that you can't stand to be around them."
"We'll say that they blackmailed us into going with them or we're passing out candy at my place while everyone else is out trick-or-treating."
Again the blonde looked a little uneasy as he thought this through.
"We still have a couple more days, so let me think about it."
"You better not let me down, Ishtar," the white-haired yami warned.
~*~
"Have you decided yet?"
The blonde nodded.
"Well?!" the white-haired boy asked rather impatiently two days later as he and Malik were again sitting and talking.
"Yes. I'll go with you, so long as you don't leave any evidence for Isis to know I was lying to her. She barely agreed to let me go because she knew I'd be with you, even though I said we'd be with the others as well. She thinks you're a bad influence on me."
"Well, that may be true, but at least I know how to have fun. And since when did I ask you to go out with me?"
Malik blushed. "You didn't. But you're supposed to know what I mean!"
"Of course I know what you mean, but I have to have some fun in twisting things around with you."
"You can be so mean sometimes, even to your best friend. I don't know why I put up with you," Malik teased as he playfully pushed the boy next to him.
"You put up with me because I'm a bad influence that knows how to have fun."
"Yeah, yeah. By the way," he said, taking Bakura's hand in his own as he examined the scratches from the other day. "How's your hand doing?"
A strange wash of feelings seemed to flow through Bakura as the boy held his hand, something new and exciting to him.
"It's just a cat scratch. It's not like I needed stitches or anything."
"I know, but I just want to make sure you're not getting an infection or get cat scratch fever."
"Where is that wretched fleabag anyway?"
The blonde looked up at Bakura, who was searching the room, not letting go of his hand.
"Isis took her to the vet. She's getting de-clawed."
"It's about time someone took care of that sister of yours," Bakura said with a wicked grin.
Malik laughed. "The cat. Not my sister."
"I know, I know. But why? You said your cat never attacked anyone but me."
"She's been tearing up furniture lately, so Isis decided that the shredding of her mattress had to stop."
"Well, if you're going with me tomorrow night, we need to stock up on supplies."
~*~
"Can't we just buy all the toilet paper here and buy eggs somewhere else?"
Bakura rolled his eyes at his idiot of a best friend.
"If we bought that much toilet paper in one place, they're either going to think that we have serious bathroom issues or we're TPing seven blocks."
"Oh, right," the blonde said with a goofy grin.
"You wait out here while I go buy some toilet paper. If we both go in, you won't be able to hit this store for more later today. Got it?"
Malik nodded and sat back in his seat as Bakura climbed out of his car.
About five minutes later, the white-haired spirit returned with a 24 pack of TP from the local department store, tossing it in the trunk before climbing back into the passenger's side.
"Where to now?" Malik asked as he started the car.
"Let's either go to a gas station or another big store with 24 packs. The bigger the store the more TP we can get in one go."
~*~
Four hours later, the boys had a packed trunk and back seat of toilet paper and six-dozen eggs resting in a bag in Bakura's lap.
"We'll drop the stuff off at my house so you're sister won't see. Ryou already knows what I plan on doing, and there's nothing he can do to stop me. Not that he's ever tried to stop me from doing anything, except for flushing his new fish down the toilet. It was an eyesore."
"Everything's an eyesore to you, Bakura."
"Not quite everything," he said while looking Malik up and down with lust filled eyes, the blonde oblivious to the wandering eyes, as he was driving.
Sure, he thought the Egyptian was hot, but that was it. He had no more feelings for him than he did for Ryou. Just a simple friendship with a totally gorgeous Egyptian. Right?
~*~
"Meet me here tomorrow around 5. We'll load everything into your car and leave it in the parking lot until we get back from treat-or-tripping," Bakura said as he leaned in the driver's side window, his elbows resting on the bottom of the window area. He then stood straight up and gave a slight wave as Malik nodded and began back out of the driveway.
After his friend's car was no longer in view, Bakura walked inside and flopped onto the couch, laying with one arm laying across his forehead while the other lay across his stomach and a leg bent with his knee pointing towards the ceiling while the other was off the couch, his foot on the floor.
'I have to admit, for being gorgeous, he's also kinda cute, in some evil sort of way. Evil attracts evil. But I don't like him like that, do I? I mean, we're best friends, nothing more. So what if I felt something that actually felt nice when he touched my hand? I don't want to get involved in a relationship anyway, at least nothing more than getting him in my bed and screwing him senseless at least once, hopefully twice.'
"Bakura…"
The spirit looked over to his hikari, glaring slightly as he knew what was coming from that tone Ryou had used.
"Could you please take that mound of toilet paper to you room or at least move it off of the kitchen table? Or rather, out of the kitchen, period? I can't put dinner on the table with it in my way."
As his hikari left the room, he sighed and stood. Usually Bakura wouldn't fulfill his hakari's request and would mock Ryou when he complained about having to clean up his messes. But this involved food, thus, a whole different story.
Five minutes later, the 'mound of toilet paper' was packed in a corner of the living room. Bakura knew he would get scolded for this later, but he didn't care. He was just asked to remove it from the kitchen.
~*~
Dinner passed and Bakura found himself staring up at his ceiling from his bed as he lay under his blanket, clad in nothing but his ring and a pair of flame boxers.
'Why can't I stop thinking about him?' Bakura's mind screamed as he violently rolled onto his side, slamming his pillow down as he did so.
He brought his hand with the scratches to his lips, gently letting his lips brush over the wounds as he stared off into nothingness.
'He was actually concerned for me because of a little wound like this. No one's ever given a care about me, no matter how badly I was hurt. He was kind enough to take me to Ryou's friends when he beat the crap out of me that time back during Battle City, but that was part of the plan. Too bad it fell through though. I may not have the power I want, but no one can TP like I can! That's at least one thing to be proud of. And to think that I talked Malik, of all people, into helping me with this year's soon to be masterpiece of white and lie to his sister all in one go. I don't think anyone else could ever get him to do anything fun like this. So I guess that's something else I have to be proud of.'
A knock came on his closed door a moment later, disturbing his thoughts.
"What?"
The door creaked open and Ryou came in, offering the phone in Bakura's direction, the hikari's glare not visible due to the lack of light. "It's Malik."
The white-haired boy stared at the phone for a moment before taking it, Ryou leaving a moment later.
"What do you want?"
"I wanted to ask you something."
"Don't tell me you're chickening out."
"No. That's not it at all. I was just wondering if you mind that I come over earlier than 5 tomorrow."
"Like how much earlier?"
"Say around 2?"
The yami's eyebrows furrowed as he sat up, pushing the covers aside.
"Why?"
"If you don't want me to, that's fine. I just wanted to know."
"Why?"
He could hear the boy fumbling with something on the other end, almost as if he were nervous about something.
"Because I want to spend some time at your place. You've been over her a lot lately and I've only been to your house a couple times."
"Are you worth me waking up an hour early?"
"You seriously sleep that late?"
"Well yeah. It's three in the morning now and I'm still wide awake, and I usually sleep for about 12 hours." Something then clicked in his head. "You're calling me at three in the morning to see if you can come over early?"
"I can't sleep," the blonde said softly. "I keep thinking about something and I can't clear it from my head."
"Like what?"
"Just something stupid really. Something I shouldn't be thinking of at three in the morning, or any other time, for that matter."
"You're thinking about me, aren't you?"
He could hear the boy's sharp intake of breath on the other end before the hesitant reply a few moments later.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"How should I know? I just am…"
"I think you have a crush on me," Bakura said matter-of-factly.
"I think I might…"
"I know you do. Haven't you realized how much you blush whenever you say something wrong and I catch it and tease you about it? Any other person would brush it off and come back with something."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Do you like me?"
"Well, you are my best friend."
"You know…"
"I know what you mean. And to tell you the truth, I…"
Brown eyes glared darkly at the plastic object now in held in front of his face. 'Ryou left the phone off the charger again…Now Malik will think I'm mad at him and just hung up. Great. What if he thinks I'll never speak to him again because he just admitted that he likes a guy?'
~*~
'I guess that's it then. It finally sunk into him that a guy liked him and he couldn't take it…I shouldn't have called,' Malik thought as he sat the phone down, tears filling his eyes. 'Now what should I do? Should I just show up tomorrow and see what happens? I guess, if nothing else, I could go with Ryou and the others. I'm sure they won't mind. I just hope that he's only temporarily mad at me.'
He threw himself stomach down onto his bed, crossing his arms under his chin. "Bakura…"
TBC
1. A road name in a city not far from my own. I laugh at it every time I drive past it.
~*~
A very, very early Halloween fic, but with as slow as I am at updating, it'll take that long for me to finish the whole story...^_^;;
So what did you think? This was my first YGO fic, so sorry if the characters are a bit OOC...