Marik's ear had been getting worse as the days passed by. He sometimes had screeching episodes for up to 5 minutes. They always seemed to happen at the worst of times, like when he was in the middle of a conversation. Just now he had been talking to Bakura about something pointless, and his ear started to screech greatly. He tried to pretend like nothing was wrong, but it was as if Bakura could see right through him.
"And then we went to- hey Marik are you ok? You look like you're in pain." The white haired teen interrogated. Marik faked a smile and resisted the urge to cover his left ear. (The episodes happened in a different ear each time)
"Yep I'm ok." The Egyptian forced out.
"No, I don't think so. You should go to the nurse." The Brit replied. Then he gently applied his palm to Marik's forehead. He pushed the bangs back lovingly and felt for a fever. He quickly realized what he was doing though, and corrected himself.
"I mean not that I care, you just can't seem to hold up your friggin side of the conversation, and that's annoying." Bakura forced out, quite bitterly. Marik frowned, surprised that the words hurt him. Unconsciously, The Egyptian's hand moved to cover his ear, as the screeching was still raging on. The white-haired teen didn't miss either gesture.
"Alright that's enough." He stated, then he promptly stood up and pulled Marik along with him. The whole class turned their heads when they heard the chairs squeak.
The teacher cleared his throat.
"Um where are you two planning on going?" He asked them.
"To the nurse, cause this one seems to be having issues." Bakura stated while pointing at Marik. The instant this was said, the Egyptian's cheeks flared up. Now he was purely pissed. Who was this guy, just embarrassing him in front of the whole classroom like that? As soon as they were in the hallway and a safe distance from the classroom, Marik turned and punched his friend smack in the nose.
"What the hell Marik!" The whitette screamed. Blood was gushing everywhere, making a mess.
"You fucking embarrassed me in front of the whole classroom! You're such a dick!" The Egyptian yelled back.
"I'm the dick?" The other retorted. In a matter of minutes their argument had escalated, and Bakura had run off to the bathroom to stop the bleeding. Marik sighed. The screeching had finally stopped. He absentmindedly rubbed his left ear. Then he'd decided that was enough. He was going to skip school, even though he knew they would call his dad... It was worth it to Marik. He needed a break, if only for a few hours. He fled the building and made his way to a nice park in one of the richer neighborhoods. He relaxed for about a half an hour before he had a realization.
Bakura would probably never talk to him again.
Part of Marik loved this thought, the idea of really reaching his goal: no emotional attachment period.
But another part of Marik screamed out in pure agony, and the Egyptian couldn't seem to figure out why that was.
After pondering his predicament for nearly an hour, Marik decided to just leave It be. He would see how things would be between them tomorrow.
The blonde didn't even notice when he fell asleep.
He woke up to his cell phone ringing wildly from his bag. Still drowsy Marik fumbled with the buttons, but eventually got the call to connect.
"Hello?' He didn't check the caller ID first.
"Get. Your. Ass. Home. Now."
Marik's stomach dropped. He was so dead. With that he jumped up and began the sprint for home. Maybe if he got there on time, his dad would take it easy on the bruising. As always, the Egyptian's hopes were dashed. The instant he stepped in the door, he was pushed down violently. His back had crunched a bit under the pressure.
"I GET A CALL FROM YOUR SCHOOL SAYING YOU DITCHED. IS THIS SOME KIND OF BULL SHIT?" His drunken father yelled, words slurring together. Marik didn't respond, it usually made things worse.
"ANSWERME!" His dad screeched.
"N-NO, I DITCHED!" The Egyptian yelled back. The foot on his back slowly moved towards his neck. Marik bit back tears, this was it. His father slowly applied pressure to his neck, more and more until Marik surely thought it would snap.
"You want to leave school so badly, you can stay home with me tomorrow. Just the two of us." His father said, his voice scarily calm.
Then he moved his foot from Marik's neck and scattered kicks all along the teen's body. He then forcefully shoved the teen's nose into the carpet. Marik cried out as he heard a sickening crack. On top of that, Marik's ear was doing something entirely different from normal. He couldn't hear at all out of his right side. The blonde was internally panicking, and he was so distracted with himself that he didn't hear his father yell something. That earned him another kick to the ribs.
"I SAID ANSWER ME BOY!" His father yelled. Marik gulped. "I-I didn't hear the question." He mumbled.
"What did you say?"
"I SAID I DIDN'T HEAR YOUR QUESTION!" The blonde screeched. Rage bubbled up in his father's eyes. He pulled Marik up by his shirt and slammed him hard against the steel front door. Then he stepped on Marik's wrist until he the teen cried out.
"NEXT TIME LISTEN TO ME!" He commanded. And with that he went into the kitchen, grabbed a whole six pack, then staggered off to his bedroom.
As soon as Marik's father was out of sight, he forced himself to a standing position. He held back his reaction to the pain until he made it to his own room. That was when he collapsed down onto his bed and let the tears fall. Everything was aching or bleeding. He was pretty sure he had a cracked rib, a sprained wrist, and a broken nose.
He tried to gather himself but it didn't work out well. Instead he crept into the hall bathroom, as to not make noise and disturb his father. He had brought one of his shirts with him to use as a rag to clean up blood. Once he could look in the mirror he also noticed some bruises by his eye that he didn't even feel. That was weird. The tears slowed as Marik's mind clouded with worry. He lifted his fingers and gently brushed a bruise near his right eye. That was odd. He couldn't feel it even with his fingers. Then he slowly brought his fingers back to his actual ear. He couldn't feel that either. He quickly realized he was still deaf in his right ear. The blows to the head obviously hadn't helped. Marik noticed something else.
A tiny drop of blood had just fallen from the same ear.
He began to panic again. Tears started to fall more frequently as Marik worried he would never hear from that ear again. What was the matter with him?
He gingerly took to cleaning the blood off of his nose in order to distract himself. That helped get his mind off things. Marik quickly learned that his nose was broken though. So he scampered off to his room to look for duct tape. He rummaged through his closet until he found it.
Then he made his way back to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. He drew in a deep breath and gripped the bone in his nose. He slowly started seizing it to the middle where it belonged. More tears fall, and it was ever-so-painful, to the point of screaming even. But Marik did it successfully. After it was back in place, he managed to rip off a piece of duct tape using only his right hand. Then he took the tape and placed it over the bridge of his nose. It hurt so bad.
But the more Marik let himself cry, the more he despised himself. Pain was merely a reaction from the brain. He was letting it get the best of him. He was being ever so weak. But Marik's tear kept falling, because he no longer had control over them. He examined himself again just to make sure he wasn't missing anything important. Oh right, his ear was still bleeding ever so slightly. He searched the bathroom drawer and quickly found a gauze ball. Then he stuffed it into his right ear. He was slowly getting used to the numbness that spread from his ear to his eye. At least he couldn't feel any bruises that were there. And his hair covered the ear so nobody would be able to question him.
Thinking twice, Marik took the whole box of gauze balls and set them on the bathroom counter. He would need those later. Once last look in the mirror and he realized he couldn't do anything more to help himself. Bruises had to heal on their own. He would have to cover up any visible ones with makeup the next time he went to school. He sighed, grabbed the box with the gauze, and crept back to his room. He put the box in his dresser drawer, so his father wouldn't see it. Then he collapsed onto his bed once again. His eyes began to close on their own accord, and soon he was drifting off to sleep.
Marik awoke to the sound of glass breaking. He glanced over at his clock and saw that it was only 5:13am.
He pushed himself out of bed, and turned his alarm off early, just in case it decided to go off when he wasn't in the room. The Egyptian groaned as all of his aches and pains made themselves known again. He felt his ear, but was disappointed to find its state hadn't altered. Then he remembered why he'd gotten up. His dad must've broken something.
He quietly left his room and wandered into the kitchen. He could see his father standing in the room, staring blankly at a shattered bottle on the ground. Then suddenly, just as Marik was going to go clean that up after the moron, something odd happened. His father threw a fit. Over a mere beer bottle. There was now glass and liquor scattered everywhere. Marik winced at the thought that he would have to clean it up later. But he decided to leave the man to his tantrum. The Egyptian tiptoed back to his room. He looked around a bit. Then he remembered something.
His father might try to keep him home from school.
That thought alone didn't really bother Marik. The thought that did though, was that he would be home alone with his dad. All day long.
And they would be by themselves completely.
Neighbors would be at work or school. There would be no chance of them calling cops to report noise. (That had happened a few times before) Marik would be at complete and utter mercy. He wouldn't have that. Quickly, he grabbed his bag and stuffed the gauze, some extra clothes, and his homework in. After that, he put on his shoes, and grabbed a thick jacket. Then he crawled ever so carefully out of his bedroom window.
He let out a sigh of relief after he was miles from his household. Once he had the opportunity, he sat on a park bench in order to catch his breath. He viciously ripped the duct tape off of his nose, as it was starting to make the skin itch. An hour or so later, it was time to head to school. And so he did. He actually made it to Domino High pretty fast.
He forgot that he hadn't a chance to cover up his bruises before he left. The instant he ran up to his group (desperate for a break from the drama), he remembered. All of his friends were looking at him with purely stunned expressions, their jaws dropped.
"W-what happened to you?" Ryou stuttered. Marik's fingers absentmindedly brushed over one of his bruises.
"I...got mugged." He responded. Marik was worried it wouldn't be a buy-able excuse, but all of his friends suddenly seemed to understand. They all made 'O' shapes with their mouths, or nodded in agreement.
"That makes sense." Yugi concluded.
"But are you ok?" Ryou asked. Marik stifled a laugh at that question. Was he ok? Was he ever ok?
"Yeah I'm fine, the bruises barely hurt, they'll be gone in a week." Marik spoke before choosing to. It had become automatic for him to lie to his friends, and plaster that smile on his face. They never even doubted him. While his friends chattered on, the Egyptian was busy adjusting to only being able to hear from one side. It was awkward for him. He found himself tilting his left ear towards the group, and occasionally getting weird looks from them in response.
When they asked what he was doing he smiled and said "Just fidgeting." Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, and his 'fidgeting', he caught the eye of Bakura. He hadn't noticed before, but the whitette had been staring him down since he walked into the building. Marik blushed unintentionally. He internally slapped himself when Bakura smirked at him. It was like nothing happened, except that there was an unusual looking emotion in the crimson eyes of his friend.
That was why Marik found himself wandering away from his group. He didn't even give them an explanation, especially because he couldn't hear them questioning him. As soon as he was face to face with Bakura, he frowned. What was wrong with him? He just blushed, smiled, and intentionally walked towards somebody to start a conversation. That was odd for him. Bakura said something, but it sounded muffled so Marik started angling his head again.
"What in the bloody hell are you doing Marik?" The whitette asked, trying and failing to hold back laughter.
"Uhh nothing..so you're not mad at me?" The Egyptian replied. Bakura briefly frowned in confusion.
"Why would I be mad? It was a measly punch and I am the thief king." He responded. Marik laughed a bit.
"You keep believing that." He said. Bakura's expression soon became serious, though.
"What happened to you?" He asked. Marik froze for a moment trying to figure out what he meant.
"Why are you all beaten up?" Bakura clarified.
"Ohhh that." Marik voiced his understanding. Then he realized this was a problem. He didn't actually want to lie to his only friend.
"I'm waiting." Bakura groaned.
"Uhhhhhh...I got beaten up." Marik smiled because technically he wasn't lying..as long as Bakura didn't-
"By who?" The whitette answered the Egyptian's inner thoughts.
"Dammit..um a person." Marik responded and laughed a bit. Bakura snapped. He forcefully grabbed Marik's shoulders and stared him dead in the eyes.
"Who. Did. This. To. You." He asked, in his most threatening tone of voice. Marik would have feared the teen before him, except that he saw worry buried deep in his companions eyes.
"Awhhh." He said aloud before thinking.
"You're worried about me." The Egyptian concluded. Bakura's jaw dropped as he figured out what Marik had meant. A blush found it's way to his face as well.
"N-no." He stuttered. Marik's smile only grew. It was so damn hard to avoid someone who was this caring towards you.
"That's not the point, just who did it?" Bakura asked, trying to change the subject. Marik decided to let that happen.
"I got mugged." He lied straight through his teeth, feeling an instant pang of guilt.
"Oh." Bakura responded.
"Yep." Marik said, smiling. What was it with always wanting to smile around Bakura?
"Alright then, can't beat that guy up can I." The whitette finished. Marik released a small gasp, surprised.
"You wanted to beat him up for me?" He asked. Bakura seemed to ponder this question before speaking.
"Yeah, because I'm a possessive little fucker." The Brit settled on, while smirking.
"What does that mean?" The blonde asked.
"Figure it out." Bakura retorted, then he slung an arm casually over Marik's shoulder. They continued random conversation until the bell rang. Then they both went to their separate classes. As Marik was walking, his smile somewhat faded. He gently brushed his fingers against the place that Bakura had touched him. He already missed the contact. This was getting bad.
Marik was beyond attached.
A/N: There another chapter, real quick too. I just couldn't seem to stop writing. Oh and I don't actually know if you can fix a broken nose like that...I just saw it on TV..so..yeah. Hope you enjoyed, and please review!