Thanks everybody for the reviews :) Here's chapter 2!

Hope you like it!

-Lauren

x.x.x

Marik woke with a start. The morning chill made him shiver slightly. As he turned over, he realised that it was 8:34 am. He was late!

Marik hurtled out of bed, put on some clothes, downed his breakfast in one bite, and ran out the door. What was happening? Why was he late? Marik Ishtar was a model student of perfect punctuality. He was never late.

Then it all came rushing back to him. Last night, Bakura...

He was interrupted by a voice calling out his name.

'Marik, where are you going?' Ishizu called out after him. Marik quickly chomped the rest of his food.

'I'm going to school!' he replied, about to rush off.

'Marik, it's Saturday!' Ishizu said, puzzled. Her brother was certainly acting very strange today.

'Oh,' said Marik. Laughing slightly at himself, he returned to his house. Ishizu flicked him affectionately on the side of the head.

'You're so silly,' she said, ruffling his hair.

'Ok, I'm going back to sleep,' Marik announced. Quite happy it was Saturday, and still feeling tired, he walked sleepily back into his room, accidentally banging his back on the doorknob as he closed it.

A jolt of pain ran up and down Marik's back. He tried not to shout. Marik gently touched his back, and the skin whined in protest, causing him to bite his lip in pain. Horrified, as Marik headed to the bathroom, he saw that he was black and blue all over. Beneath his golden necklace, purple bruises festered. His back had random dark blotches across it, and his wrists were red and raw.

Marik cursed.

Bakura had really screwed him over last night.

Shaking his head, Marik decided to go back to bed and see if he hurt less in a couple of hours. He curled up in the blankets and let sleep drift over him.

'And what the fuck do you think you're doing?' Bakura's voice wafted across the room and made Marik's ears ring. Marik cursed. He had almost fallen asleep.

'What do you want?' Marik asked, pulling the blankets over his head and refusing to get out of bed. Maybe if he refused to cooperate, Bakura would leave him alone.

'I've got the plans here. Get out of bed!' Bakura barked.

Marik whined and turned over in bed, away from Bakura. He was so tired, and hurting all over.

'Oi, I said get out of bed!' Bakura ripped the blankets from Marik and tugged at his hair.

'Ouch, ouch, ok!' said Marik, stepping out of bed. Bakura dragged him over to the table by his hair, Marik wincing in pain.

'Here's the plan,' said Bakura, handing him a folded piece of paper as he sat down.

Marik unfolded the paper, and read its contents carefully. He re-read it once, twice, his disbelief increasing.

'You've got to be fucking kidding me,' said Marik.

'Nope,' said Bakura, stretching his arms behind his head and leaning back proudly.

'All this damn piece of paper says is "rob Seto Kaiba"!' Marik shouted.

'So what?' Bakura said, relaxed. 'That's the plan.'

'So you're just going to waltz up the Kaiba Corp. Headquarters, and rob Seto bloody Kaiba, huh?' Marik asked, enraged.

'Basically,' said Bakura.

'Do you have any sort of plan?' Marik asked.

'Nope,' said Bakura.

'You're going to get us arrested and chucked in jail!' Marik exclaimed.

'Oh, come on,' said Bakura. 'Give me at least a little credit. They don't call me the Thief King for nothing, you know.'

'You're not a bloody thief king, you're a delinquent! Kaiba has the best security in this entire country!' Marik complained.

'And I have the stickiest fingers in the entire world,' said Bakura, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

'Okay, fine,' said Marik, crossing his arms. 'You want to rob Kaiba, you go ahead. I'm not part of this.'

'Oh, but you are. Don't you remember the bomb, Marik?

'I'm not robbing Kaiba,' said Marik firmly.

'Well have you got any better ideas?' asked Bakura, irritated.

'Look, can we just take some time out to plan this?' Marik asked. Here was Marik's perfectionist, control freak side showing once again. Marik liked to plan. Bakura liked to dash in unprepared.

'You can take some time out to plan this,' said Bakura huffily. 'I hate planning.'

'No surprises there, I love planning and I hate you too,' bitched Marik. 'Ok, so have you thought further than getting to Egypt?'

'No,' said Bakura, resting his feet on the table and looking bored.

'So we're just going to get there and wing it as we go along?' Marik asked.

'Basically.'

'Are we going to book a hotel room? How long will we be staying there? How are we going to get back? What are we going to eat?' Marik asked. Even though he wouldn't admit it, the planning made him excited. He had completely forgotten that he had been manipulated into this plan. There was something to look forward to in the future. Planning made Marik feel alive.

'I have no bloody idea!' said Bakura, becoming irritable. He forgot how anal Marik could be.

'First of all, how much do two tickets to Egypt cost?' Marik had whipped out a notepad and had titled the page: "EGYPT TRIP" in big, curly letters which Bakura looked at in disgust. Under that was a subtitle saying "tickets".

'Couple of thousand bucks,' Bakura said, shrugging.

'Exactly how much?' Marik asked.

'Bloody hell, Marik, how the hell would I know?' Bakura asked angrily.

Marik jumped up to get his laptop and looked up the prices for two return tickets to Cairo.

'$4570 USD,' Marik muttered as he wrote.

'Can't we just steal the money and head off?' Bakura asked.

'No!' protested Marik. 'Ok, now, hotels? Which one do you want to stay at? How long are we staying?'

After an hour of Marik's planning, Marik declared happily,

'Okay, done!'

Bakura breathed a sigh of relief. He had been getting more and more irritated. Marik's incessant questions had driven him quite mad. Bakura was never one for planning – he liked to wing it as he went along.

'The total amount of money we'll need is... $8025, if we're staying for three weeks, for the plane tickets, hotel rooms, including food – breakfast lunch and dinner – but you can't pig out, $200 for the car hire, and let's just add another $200 for other expenses... so... $8225.'

'How about we just steal a round $10,000?' Bakura asked.

'And how do you propose to do that?' Marik asked,

Bakura simply pointed at the piece of paper.

'Absolutely not!' Marik said firmly. 'We'll need to plan it out...'

'Oh, to hell with the planning, Marik!' growled Bakura. 'I'm sick of it, and I'm hungry,' he complained.

'I'm afraid there isn't anything in the house at the moment,' said Marik. 'Ishizu usually goes out to get the groceries sometime this evening, and I'm not usually too hungry.'

'Figures,' said Bakura, snorting, grabbing Marik's arm. 'You're all skin and bone, anyway. What are you, anorexic?' he asked.

'No!' Marik said, offended.

'Well I'm hungry, and I'm going out to eat something,' Bakura declared.

'Fine, I'll come with you,' Marik said, putting away his notebook and gathering his things. 'Don't you dare do anything crazy in public, like pulling your knife on me or anything,' Marik warned.

'I'll try to behave myself,' Bakura teased.

As they left, Bakura turned back to Marik and added,

'By the way, I didn't ask you to come with me,' with a smirk adorning his handsome face. 'Guess you're quite eager for this plan, despite me forcing you into it,' he said playfully, leaning in closer to Marik. Marik felt heart quicken slightly. 'I knew there was still some evil in you,' said Bakura, ruffling Marik's sandy blonde hair in a mock fatherly way.

Marik suddenly imagined a tangle of limbs, and Bakura running his hand through his hair...

He shook his head and followed Bakura out the door.

x.x.x

'I just need to stop at the bank quickly,' said Marik.

'Got $10,000 in your account by any chance?' Bakura asked, pretending to be innocent.

'No fucking way,' said Marik. 'You're not getting a cent out of me.' They stepped into the bank, which had shiny polished floors and great marble columns. People's shoes click clacked on the floor and the whole place screamed 'money'.

Bakura followed Marik closer, and Marik could feel his warm breath on the back of his neck. Bakura slung an arm over Marik's shoulder, and Marik felt slightly trapped.

'You know,' Bakura whispered in his ear, 'I could just pull a gun on you right now, use you as a hostage to rob this place, and we'd have our ten thousand bucks, easy peasy.'

'Don't you dare,' Marik hissed. He pushed Bakura's arm off and crossed his arms, rolling his eyes. He got in line and tapped his foot impatiently. Bakura stood beside him, resting his elbow on Marik's shoulder and standing with his weight to one side.

'This is going to take a long time,' Bakura groaned.

'Why don't you just go to the shops next door or something?' Marik asked, irritated.

'What's there to buy? I don't have any money, anyway, so I'd have to steal.'

'Actually, you'd make a scene, and that would be bad,' said Marik.

'I would not make a scene,' Bakura argued, offended. 'I'd get away scot-free. I'm the Thief King. What's a little shoplifting to me?'

'Oh?' said Marik. 'It's not Ancient Egypt, you know, the art of stealing has evolved. There are bloody CCTV cameras everywhere. It's a whole different ball game now. You can't just outrun the guys shouting "thief!"'

'Thievery is the same in any age,' said Bakura, nonplussed. 'It's a battle of wits and talent. Nothing more, nothing less. And since I have both in copious amounts...'

'You're so full of it,' said Marik.

'Oh, and have you stolen anything recently?' Bakura asked.

'Keep your voice down,' hissed Marik.

'Have you?' Bakura whispered.

'No, I told you I was finished with all of that!'

'You keep saying that, and it intrigues me,' said Bakura. 'Why the sudden change of heart?'

'Why do you want to know?' Marik asked, sighing. Bakura was wearing his patience thin.

'Because it's a mystery to me,' said Bakura. 'You were so devious in Battle City, it was actually quite impressive, then your evil side takes it all one notch higher, we get defeated, and suddenly you're a goody two shoes and pals with the Pharaoh,' Bakura said.

'I didn't see the point of it anymore,' said Marik, honestly. 'Why blame the Pharaoh for my shit childhood? He's a guy that's been dead a couple of thousand years, and has really had nothing to do with me living in a tomb for half my life. Plus, Yugi's quite nice,' said Marik.

'Oh, you've been won over by the charms of Yugi,' Bakura teased.

'No,' said Marik. 'I just don't hate the Pharaoh. He was the one who defeated my dark side, you know.'

'So now he's your saviour,' said Bakura mischievously. 'Well, you know, I could've beaten him, if only you'd actually told me about that bloody God card.'

'Not my fault,' Marik said defensively.

'Was your fault,' Bakura argued.

'Was not!'

Bakura shook his head in annoyance.

'Anyway, even if you don't hate the Pharaoh anymore, what about other evil plans? You were a pretty good thief, not as good as me, but you managed to nab those God cards using those Rare Hunters of yours.'

'I don't know,' said Marik. 'I never found the passion to pull anything off. Plus, I found out how nice it was to have a simple life.'

'God, you sound like a country bumpkin,' complained Bakura. 'What the hell do you mean by a simple life?'

'You know,' said Marik thoughtfully, 'Just buy a nice house, find someone you love, live normally. Have breakfast together and watch reruns. Go to the movies, go shopping. Drive to work. Have holidays every now and again. Go to sleep with the one you love.'

'The one you love? What the hell are you going on about? You hiding a girl from me?' Bakura asked. 'Probably Tea or something, knowing you. You like that? Do those friendship speeches turn you on?' Bakura teased.

'No! Hell no!' said Marik, slapping Bakura on the arm.

'Well then what the hell are you talking about?' Bakura said.

'I don't know, I just like the idea of getting a steady job and settling down someday.'

'You sound like a fucking moron,' Bakura said. 'What about ultimate power, wealth, revenge?'

'Those things are difficult,' said Marik. 'I don't need it. I have a nice life now, with Odion and Ishizu. I go to school and do my work, and I've made friends with Yugi and stuff, too. Well, I had a nice life until you turned up yesterday night.'

'My pleasure,' said Bakura wickedly. 'I like to turn things upside down.'

'I've noticed,' said Marik, rolling his eyes.

'Don't you get bored of your "simple life"?' Bakura asked.

'Not really,' lied Marik, smiling slightly. 'It's nice.' Little did Bakura know he'd been living through insufferable boredom all these days.

'That's it, you've gone totally soft,' said Bakura, disgusted.

'I have not,' said Marik. 'I've just realised things.'

'Allow me to go to the bathroom so that I can throw up,' said Bakura, removing his arm from Marik and walking swiftly off. Marik shook his head. His old partner had not changed one bit at all, but then again, Marik was kind of glad for it. If Bakura had changed, he probably wouldn't even be here now. If he had been content with his life in the Millennium Ring, simply living in people's memories for eternity... he wouldn't be back for his deadly revenge.

'HANDS UP!' a gruff voice shouted.

It all happened so fast that Marik didn't even realise what was going on. Five black figures, all in balaclavas, were pointing guns at the people in the bank.

It was a hold-up.