I wish I had an angel

Chapter 2 – Second encounter

After getting back into classes again, Malik is faced by an angry Joey who wants to avenge the insult at Théa and the pains of the BC duels by a fight after school. Malik accepts the challenge, but finds himself being in a more dangerous situation than expected. But when things get worse, he receives unexpected help..

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"You stupid bastard!" was the first thing Malik heard when re-entering the classroom.

Of course he had spent the whole lesson outside with Kaiba, talking and reflecting about this and that. Now he still had to endure some hours, before weekend was at hand. Still some few hours..

"I wish you a nice afternoon, too," Malik smiled at Joey; who confronted him at his desk; and awaited further words from him. Calmed down, as he was now, things couldn't get so much worse.. Or could they?

"You said some things to Théa which I cannot forgive you!" the Blonde spoke in a fury, "You insulted her without any reason! And.. and there are a lot of things from BC unfinished! " Joey was enraged and, as far as Malik could tell, eager to hit him at once.

"I HAD a reason, you fool.." the Egyptian growled dangerously and noticed how his temper got the hold of himself. Although he had not intended to let go of his self-control he just couldn't prevent it, hearing such silly comments.

"And what reason?", Joey frowned and shot Malik a puzzled look. Still confronting the almost – as - tall – as - himself youth.

"She was going on my nerves and if she doesn't recognize a clear NO, it's not my fault. If she had listened, I wouldn't have yelled at her," Malik just eyed Joey scornfully and paced forward to his seat - Ignoring the threatening class-mate.

"And if you don't even have the courage to face me yourself, then all is lost, I guess," he smirked devilishly and got a step further towards Joey. Staring him into his eyes, he spoke:

"Let me speak plain: SHE is a nuisance, and YOU are an idiot."

"You.. you.. bastard!" Joey yelled at him and darted towards the slender youth, but got stopped by a sharp

"Joey, OUT!"

At once the Blonde froze at the place and turned to see who dared to give him orders. It was Seto, who had watched the whole thing for a while, but finally decided to take part in it. After all, he had the position of the class-speaker, and because of that it was his duty to keep matters under control.

"I won't allow you to start a fight in this class-room, nor school either," he spoke with an icy pitch in his voice, darting death glares at Joey with his cold blue eyes. "If you want to settle that, do it somewhere else."

"Same for you, Malik," he pointed to the Egyptian whom he had watched carefully and already anticipated his mood for fighting. The Egyptian had sharpened his senses in awaiting the coming attack, muscles tensed for hitting or dodging, if necessary. He remembered Seto of a Wildcat, somehow. Odd, but intresting.

"You won't start a fight here. Get it?"

"Yeah," he hissed back at Joey and, grumbling, took his seat.

Joey, who remained there standing for some minutes, finally sighed and drew back the same way. "We'll talk after school, okay?" he whispered to Malik when passing by.

"As you like it."

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Of course the missed class didn't slip out off the teacher's notion. The stout and elderly woman directed him to her bureau, telling him how to behave and giving him some extra homework to make him think about it. Not to mention sending his sister a note to tell her. Malik listened to her complaints half-ear, his mind drifting away again and occupying itself with the white and rough-structured wallpaper in the room.

Way more intresting.

After having been dismissed from her, he slowly trotted home, knowing that Joey would await him somewhere on his way. He had wanted to settle that, and as far as Malik knew him, he would never keep him in peace until his wish was granted.

Stupid lad. Stupid and stubborn. Almost like himself.. he had to grin.

Humming some tune he took out his earplugs and turned the music on. If he would quarrel with Joey in short time, he could at least be in the right mood for that. So he switched the menu of the mp3-player on and selected the fitting music: RAMMSTEIN.

Although he did neither speak nor understand German, he somehow felt that this music was quite.. provoking. And of course he had searched a bit for the texts in the net, curious to know what they sang about. He took the first song he found and started speaking the words simultaneously to the player.

"Getarnt wird, wer Schmerzen kennt.. vom Feuer, das die Haut verbrennt.. ich werf ein Licht.. in mein Gesicht.. ein heißer Schrei.. FEUER FREI!"

Reaching the edge of a small, almost not visible block of flats, he finally encountered Joey. But not for Joey alone, Tristan had joined him, obviously in order to make the blonde feel secure. Cowards.

"Hey, Malik!" Joey exclaimed, and waving frantically with his hands, "Stop right there and settle this with me!"

Curiously blinking at him, Malik indeed stopped at the instant and furrowing one eyebrow, he spoke to him: "Why, you think, should I listen to you?"

"Come on, I told you we didn't finish. And we will finish it here and today!" Joey gestured further and made a fist. "We will do this like real men and fight until one of us gives up."

Being proud of this proposal, the youth beamed a smirk.

"And why did you brought Tristan with you?" Malik didn't believe him for a second.

"He will cheer me up," came the instant reply. "After all I will show you what friends are good for."

"Ah, okay," the Egyptian shot him a scornful glance. "I get it. If you wanna do it that way, be my guest."

"You won't have time to laugh, when we will finish you!" Tristan spoke for the first time, encouraging Joey as well as himself. Malik was this kind of person who sometimes still gave him the creeps..

Joey came up to Malik and placed himself in front of him. "Let's start this duel. This time without cards and without any magical powers. Fair play."

Grinning, and being self-conscious like never before, he stretched his hand out.

Hesitating, the Egyptian considered for an instant. Had he really fallen so low to quarrel with a lad such as Joey? Did he not have any pride left? Probably not.. he sighed inwardly, and finally took the hand to shake it.

"Fair play."

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After some amusing exchange of insults and drawing circles around the opponent, Joey was the first who leapt forward to attack the Egyptian.

Although Malik had anticipated that, he didn't have time to dodge properly and could barely avoid the blow aimed at his stomach. Painfully he twitched and made a grimace. It had been long since he had really fought with somebody..

"First score for you!" Tristan cried with delight and smirked at the Egyptian. Joey, delighting in seeing Malik hurt, didn't pay attention to his self-defense for a moment and turned his back at him. Not a second later he felt himself being kicked in his very ass, which caused him to stagger and almost fall down.

He got a hold of himself and shot an angry look at Malik, who was grinning wolfishly. "I thought YOU were the one who wanted to kick ass."

He dodged back as Joey aimed a second blow at him, this time at his face. He missed for inches but got a hold of the Egyptian's waist to drag him down. It was no easy struggle for the youth to keep himself on solid ground, for Joey being obviously stronger than him.

Nevertheless Malik managed to wriggle out of his grip and leap a step backwards. Tensing again, he made a fist and tried to give Joey a hook to the chin. But the youth dodged his attack and counter-attacked with a punch at his cheek.

Great God, this guy had some power.. Malik thought and shook his head to get rid of the momentarily nausea. That would create a fine pain afterwards..

"You're gonna feel the pain you inflicted on us!" Joey now fully felt in his element and made the next attempt to hurt the Egyptian. But this time Malik paid better attention and leapt to the side so that he got behind the youth. With a swift movement he kicked him into his hollows of the knee so that Joey really lost the ground under his feet and came down, yelling for pain.

"You don't have any imagination of what PAIN really is..!" Malik hissed at him and in the next instant Joey felt himself being punched in his side, yelping helplessly.

He hadn't planned it to turn out that way.. the youth managed to get up and slowly rose to his full figure.

Taking a deep breath, and knowing that his opponent was still behind him, Joey suddenly stretched out his arm, gripped Malik on his, and threw him over his shoulder in a quick movement.

With a painful sound the Egyptian hit the concrete ground with full force on his back. Drawing in a deep, hissing breath, he suppressed the shock of pain, but was for a moment unable to get up.

It was exactly that moment which brought him into deeper trouble than he had thought of. For seeing his opponent helplessly lying on the ground, Joey didn't waste any second longer and pinned the Egyptian down at his arms. When he saw Malik trying to defend himself at least with his feet, Joey shouted at Tristan who got a grip of Malik's legs.

"Now tell me again!" the Blonde knelt on the Egyptian's wrists with full force, causing Malik to cry for pain. "Does that hurt?" he hit the Egyptian on his cheek with quite some power. "Does it?"

Malik, who tried to wriggle out of this grip like a cat, just hissed at Joey: "Let me go and I'll tell you what!"

"Wrong answer," Tristan, who held the legs down with his own body, joined in and gave Malik another punch. This time at his ribs, causing the Egyptian to twitch painfully.

"You fucking cowards!" Malik yelled at him and shot him a menacing death-glare. "Is that what you call fair?! You are no better than any other of those bastards!"

Whack! Came the next blow down, this time on his forehead, and Malik could feel blood trickling down..

Fuck! Now he stuck deep in shit. If he couldn't do anything useful in the next instants, this might really turn out ugly..

"You are the right one to tell us!" Joey's fist swung in front of Malik's glance, searching for a new spot to hit. "It's all your fault!"

Anxiously the Egyptian awaited the next blow which would probably break his nose, when suddenly he heard the deep and dangerous voice of someone he least expected to appear.

"I must say, you two have courage. Beating up a youth, pinned to the ground and unable to defend himself. Brave, really brave.."

"Kaiba!" Joey growled at him. "This is not your business! Piss off!" he knelt stronger on Malik's wrists who bit his lip but didn't say one word. This was embarrassing! In front of Seto!

"And you hold still!" Tristan and Joey had quite some trouble to keep the rearing youth pinned to the ground. He was slender and didn't look like it, but his fighting spirits were even to his.. Joey thought for an instant.

Having no other chance than this, Malik tried to turn his head and bite Joey in his arm. With a yell Joey dodged back when he felt sharp teeth piercing his flesh, notwithstanding kept his hold of Malik's wrists by kneeling on them.

"Ah, you bastard! You bit me!" he slapped the Egyptian on his cheeks, who did nothing but sparkle at Joey with a dangerous glitter in his eyes and licked the blood from his lips.

"Sweet," he grinned like a wolf but twitched when he saw the enraging youth and his nearing fist again.

This would do it.. he knew it instinctively. This blow would end the whole misery..

Until: "Joey, Tristan, get away from him."

"Huh?"

Stepping forward and dragging Joey at his collar up, Kaiba repeated: "Did you not hear me? I said GET – AWAY – FROM – HIM."

Perplexed and surprised at the sudden grip, Joey didn't even try to defend himself. He let himself be lifted up and thrown down with a fast and forceful movement, kissing the ground.

"Now go."

Darting an icy look at them both, and obviously being able to fight for himself, Joey and Tristan seemed to consider a strategic withdrawal. "Joey, let's go.. I'm not sure about Kaiba.." Tristan murmured and helped Joey up, who only shot Kaiba a scornful glance and then turned to leave.

"Hey, you.. everything alright?" Kaiba just looked at the slowly recovering youth, emerging into an upright position.

"Yeah, sure," Malik checked himself for some instants and touched his aching cheek and forehead. He at last got up, but hissed for pain the first instant. "I never felt better."

"I wanted to hear that," Kaiba smirked and eyed the Egyptian suspiciously. "And you do look beaten, I can't deny it."

"My fault," Malik tried to suppress the pain, but limped a bit at the beginning. "I left my back unguarded. But thanks anyway."

"I passed by chance. It was quite entertaining to watch you for a while."

"I know you were a real friend," Malik sneered at him. "Wouldn't suspect it otherwise."

"So what? I doubt you would've wanted my help."

"Me? You're kidding. I'd rather be beaten up by those amateurs than giving myself the humiliation to cry for help," Malik stated and wiped the trickle of blood away. "If I can't help myself, than I don't deserve it otherwise."

"You see.. and that's what I like in you," Seto smirked again and took out his cigarettes. "Want one?"

"No thanks.. but a Whisky would do," Malik considered the idea but shook his head. "Fuck, I don't have any at home, and my sis doesn't want me to buy some.."

Now it was Seto's time to be surprised. Well.. he was, but not visible to the human eye. He kept his self-esteem, but Malik had noticed the short flicker in his blue eyes.

"Yes, I do drink schnapps sometimes," he shrug his shoulders and touched his swelling cheeks. "It would help me getting rid of this pain and forgetting this fucking day.."

"Hmm.."

After thinking about it some minutes, where both kept silence, Malik broke the ice and gave Kaiba an almost friendly look. " You know what? It's a late Friday afternoon.. what about we search for a nice little bar, take a seat somewhere in a corner and drink some? After all I owe you some cigarettes."

Again Kaiba felt puzzled. This guy was surely the strangest he'd ever seen.. And did he just hear right?

He had invited him to have a drink? With him, the most hated person in this entire class?

"What's the matter? Yes or No, I'm not patient."

Malik didn't know why he all of a sudden returned the favour to Seto. He seldom did, at any rate. But well.. this whole day had started off crazy, had passed crazy, and would probably end crazy as well..

In the end.. who cared?

"Okay, I'll accompany you," Kaiba finally grinned, "But let me tell you one thing: This evening will become painfully expensive for you.."