Happy New Year 2009! (throws confetti) The year was gone but it has made us strong. The path was long but we walked it with a song. There were fears and tears but we also had reasons for cheers. Wishing you & your family Happy Memories of 2008 and have a great 2009 ahead.

So, without further delay, here's Chapter 4!

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Beta: Sumire Mayonaka

Keys:

"Talks"

'Thoughts'

Chapter 4: Friend

-The next day-

The sun arose out of the Valley as usual, telling the people that it was the beginning of a new day. Flowers bloomed beautifully as their fragrant smell attracted a swarm of hungry bees to drink their delicious sweet nectars.

One of the bees flew towards the violet morning glory and was about to take a sip of those tasty-looking nectar when suddenly, a loud rustling sound stopped its movement.

Before the bee could react, a big black leathery boot stepped onto the morning glory as if it was dirt. The depressed little insect stared at the ruined lifeless plant in despair and flew away, but not before it gave one last look at the man with narrow mauve eyes and smooth golden hair.

'What a boring day.' Thought a lacklustre, browned off Malik.

He was plodding around the woods in the East Side of the forest while letting a yawn escaped from his lips.

Apparently, Malik did not have a very nice slumber because of a person that kept bothering him all night – Marik.

Ever since he met that guy, his life started to turn upside down. Whenever Marik appeared in front of him or somewhere nearby, something bad will happen to him.

For example, the picnic they had yesterday.

Malik was getting a soda can when out of nowhere; Marik appeared behind the bushes and accidentally pushed him towards the table. In the end, his body was covered with food and everyone laughed hysterically except Marik who was grinning nervously with apologetic expression written on his sweaty face.

Then, at night before Malik went to Yugi's tent.

The lavender-eyed teen was going to the lake for a walk and knelt down to have a look of his reflection. At that moment, Marik appeared out of nowhere and accidentally pushed him into the lake. As a result, his whole body was soaked with water but luckily; he did not catch a cold.

"The next time I meet him, I am going to kick his butt and…"

His footsteps stopped abruptly as soon as he saw the guy he was looking for was sitting on a tree branch while swinging his legs in a playful enjoyable way.

"There he is." Malik's smile slowly turned into a sinister grin. Without a second thought, he tardily walked towards the tree branch and spoke in the nicest manner possible.

"Oh Marik. I've been searching all over for you!"

His innocent yet perilous tone caused a waning, chicken out Marik to shriek in fright and tumbled onto the ground with a loud thud.

"Ow!" The older teen cried while rubbing his back but his expression swiftly changed into horror when black boots standing a few inches away from him.

"Aww…What's wrong, Marik? Don't you miss me?" Malik's grin widened when Marik's startled eyes gazed into Malik's devilish glare.

"Erm, hi Malik. What a pleasant surprise."

The cracking knuckles sound sent chills down Marik's spine.

"Indeed, and now it's pay back time."

Before Marik could say anything, the younger adolescent's hand turned into fists and was about to throw a punch down Marik's chest. However, a larger hand grabbed his wrist, caused him to stop his fight.

"Take it easy, Malik. Maybe we can just sit down and…"

His speech was cut short when his look-alike's left leg swung into action but Marik managed to dodge the attack as he jumped and sat on a tree branch effortlessly.

"I have no intentions to speak to an idiot like you!"

As soon as he ended his talk, Malik jumped onto the tree branch and was preparing to kick Marik's stomach but what he didn't expected was that Marik put his index finger on Malik's forehead and said the stupidest thing he had ever heard since childhood days,

"Tag. You're it!" was all Marik said before the older stripling jumped from one tree to another, at the same time he stuck out his tongue towards his look-alike.

"I can't believe him." Malik stood on the tree with a shocked expression.

"An 18 year-old teen acts like a 5 year-old brat?"

Marik stood on a tree a meter away from him and waved in a playful way.

"Alright then. You wanna play tag? I'll play."

In that instant, Malik jumped and began to chase Marik from tree to tree.

'And when I get you, I'm going to make you beg for mercy.' The lavender-eyed adolescent smirked in thought.

-Meanwhile-

Ryou was preparing lunch for his friends while singing and dancing in exhilaration with a white plate in his hands. He was currently in his house-like tent with living room, bathroom, bedroom and also kitchen in it.

Just when he was about to walk towards the large round wooden-like table, his eyes immediately met with similar but narrower dark brown ones.

"Ah!" Ryou cried as the plate began to fell from his hands but the older teen managed to grab it just in time before it hit the ground.

"Don't scare me like that!" The younger adolescent retorted but his angry expression changed as quickly as a flash when he realized whom he was speaking to.

"Oh, it's you Bakura." Ryou said shyly as he took the plate from his look-alike and looked away.

"But please, don't do that ever again. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

The two identical albinos went into the kitchen silently; the sweet aroma went straight into Bakura's nostrils.

"You cook?" Bakura questioned and raised an eyebrow. The youth smiled at that remark.

"Yes and I really enjoy it."

Bakura then gave him an odd look.

"You enjoy it?"

"Yes, is something wrong?"

"I thought cooking is supposed to be ladies job. I've never seen any boy who likes cooking so much."

The younger 'twin' chuckled after hearing that comment.

"I'm not born in a rich family, so I don't have maids in my house." He explained calmly while at the same time, placing his all time favorite chicken pasta with mushroom and black pepper sauce on the plate.

"My mom goes to work everyday from morning at 8 until 6 evening so I have to do all the housework. She taught me how to cook when I was seven and from that moment, my likeness towards cooking and baking began to grow even now."

He noticed Bakura nodded in response while staring at the comestibles he had prepared on the table.

'He's not such a bad person after all.' Ryou thought with a smile graced on his lips.

"What's in the oven?" Bakura asked curiously.

"Oh, it's the chocolate muffins. Could you take the tray out for me when it's done?"

The sound of the chiming bell echoed around the kitchen, telling them that the muffins were ready to be served.

"Ok." The white spiky-haired youth replied and obediently did what he requested.

"Thank you!" Ryou's smile widened and thought about what Bakura's cousins had told him yesterday.

'They said he is a greedy, evil, heartless and selfish little 'thief' but I don't see him that way.'

But when he swung round and looked at his tray, he regretted what he thought earlier.

As soon as Bakura reached the entrance of the tent, a shout rang in his ears like a thunder.

"Bakura! Come back here!"

The older stripling grinned in thought and without waiting, scampered hurriedly with two mouth-watering muffins in his hands.

-Meanwhile-

A boy with honey-brown eyes was wondering around the woods, searching for a place to relax. A few minutes later, he found a huge ancient tree standing closest to the lake.

"Ah, My favorite spot!" Joey grinned and without hesitation, sat under the tree and took a deep breath.

"I really love this place." He spoke aloud dreamily but just then, he realized his purpose of coming here was to finish his school project.

"Oh yeah. I have to work on it now or else I'll get a heavy punch from Malik." He said and shuddered in thought.

However, when he opened his notebook, his headache started to 'activate' by itself especially when he looked at the first question he had to solve on his own.

"Transpiration…what is transpiration?" Those three simple words were enough to cause Joey a huge breakdown.

"Argh! Come on, brain." He pleaded to himself while grasping his hair in frustration.

"Transpiration is the process of water being taken into and evaporating from plants."

A stern but familiar voice caused Joey to snap out from his thoughts and swung his head round to face the brunet with the same piercing blue eyes staring back at him.

"I can't believe you couldn't answer that simple question, that makes me wonder how you got to enrol in a good University like Newcastle."

Kaiba moved a few steps closer to Joey until their faces were an inch apart from each other.

"Must have done some dirty tricks."

His remark caused Joey to scowl angrily; the blond-haired teen stood up and looked at the taller youth as if he was just a small evil bug.

"No, that's not true! I didn't do any dirty tricks like you've said. It's just that I have gotten lazy for the past few days so I forgot some of important facts that I've learned during class."

"Yeah, right." The blue-eyed adolescent spoke ambiguously.

Before Joey had the chance to speak, Kaiba walked away and went straight into the woods.

"Hey, wait! I'm not finished with you yet!" Joey exclaimed but the brunet ignored him.

"Stupid cold blooded brunet." He grumbled dolefully before he took his notebook and went to catch up with Kaiba.

-Meanwhile-

A teen with the purest amethyst eyes was looking at a plant with interest while scribbling something in his midnight-blue notebook but a few minutes later, his hand stopped abruptly when he heard a sound behind him.

'Someone's there.' Yugi thought cautiously as his alerted ears picked up more noise but this time, he could hear someone's footsteps drawing close to him.

Without thinking, Yugi changed his pen into a laser and when the bushes behind him started to rustle violently, he swung round and prepared to point his laser at his opponent but as the sunlight shone on the lone figure, he was confounded to see the person he was staring at was none other than his identical look-alike.

"Sorry." Yami said apologetically but when his eyes set on the object Yugi was holding, he unconsciously raised an eyebrow.

"What's that thing you're holding?"

Yugi looked at his pen-like laser for a moment before he quickly hid it into his pocket while at the same time, gazing at him with that usual shy look.

"It's a pen that can be used as a laser, I thought you're an animal so I use it for protection but luckily, I didn't shoot you." He whispered softly and looked away.

'Oh no, I must've scared him and now he probably hates me.' Yugi thought sadly to himself.

'A pen-like laser?' Yami cogitated while putting his hand up to his chin.

'I've never seen something like it when I was in the city. The science and technology must have improved a lot since our departure. I wonder how the city looks like now.'

"It was nothing really." The ruby-eyed youth said with a smile as his hand placed on Yugi's shoulder in a gentle way.

Yugi looked up and saw Yami smiling charmingly at him and that made him smiled as well.

"That's a relief." He said with a sigh and opened his notebook to continue his work.

"What are you doing by the way?" He asked chivalrously while watching Yugi squatted with his pen scribbling on a paper like it was dancing on a white stage.

"Working on my school project for the summer holiday."

As soon as he finished his speech, a grumbling sound was heard in their ears and Yugi blushed when he realized where the sound came from.

"You must be hungry by now." Yami said with a chuckle.

"You stay here while I go get some fruit for us."

The younger teen gave him a bright smile.

"Thank you, Yami."

"No problem."

Then, he was gone in a flash, leaving Yugi alone in the woods.

While Yami was busy searching for fruits in the West Wing, a small figure with piercing blue orbs stared at him behind the trees before it disappeared in sight.

The tricolor-haired teen was picking a fresh red apple from the tree while humming joyfully in the forest and just when he was about to walk back to look for Yugi, a loud noise caught his attention.

"What's that sound?" Yami said curiously, his red orbs shifted from left to right repeatedly.

He then finally saw a familiar red bird pecking the tree above him but stopped when it realized someone was watching it intently.

"It's that woodpecker from before!" Yami's expression changed into anger as he dropped his fruit onto the ground, careful not to cause any damage to them.

After that, he jumped onto the tree branch the bird was sitting on; each ogled at each other with similar emotions displayed on their features – hatred.

"Now it's time for revenge." He smirked as he formed a blazing fire ball and threw it towards the woodpecker but what he didn't expected was that the bird moved the red fiery object with just a swing from it's wings, thus causing the fire ball to fly to the other direction and instantly hit on the smaller tree.

"What the…" Yami stared at the tree in disbelief, there was no way a small woodpecker could avoid the attack with just a simple swing.

"If that's the case, try to avoid this!"

He then summoned four similar fireballs in his hands and threw them in different directions, surrounding the red feathery prey but the animal was much faster. It flew up towards the top of the tree just in time before the four fireballs collided and disappeared after the explosion occurred.

Yami shielded himself from the explosion and looked up to see the woodpecker gazing back at him while flapping its wings continuously.

"So you're not an ordinary bird after all, but I'm not going to give up just yet." Yami promised himself as his hands slowly formed into a fire bow and a sharp fire arrow.

Just as he was going to point the arrow at his target, the bird was nowhere near the tree.

"Where did it go?"

His question was soon answered when the woodpecker sat on his head and began to peck him with all its strength.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" The red-eyed youth screamed in pain as he desperately trying to get rid of the bird but to no avail.

The fire weapons disappeared into smoke as soon as he dropped them onto the ground.

After what seemed like 20 seconds of fights and shouts, Yami took a deep breath and used all his energy to speak this one word.

"Stop!"

His voice echoed around the forest in all directions, therefore chasing away all the animals and birds that came close to them except the woodpecker that sat on Yami's head and had now stopped its action completely.

Yami sat on a huge boulder with a tired stressed expression displayed on his handsome face.

"Alright, you win. Now what do you want from me?!" He snapped angrily as the bird settled on his shoulder.

Yami's expression instantly switched into surprise when the bird he was fighting against with was nuzzling his neck in a gentle loving way.

"What?" He stared in shock at the sight shown in his ruby iris.

"You are trying to be friends with me all this time?"

The animal nodded in reply and that caused Yami to feel guilty.

"I'm sorry. I thought you are trying to attack me but it seems that I get the wrong idea."

Yami stroked its feather in the gentlest way possible and smiled when the woodpecker leaned closer to the touch.

"Okay then. We can be friends from now on. Deal?"

The bird nodded eagerly with happiness glimmered in its orbs.

"Now that we're friends, I guess I have to give you a name. Calling you woodpecker sounds funny to me."

The blue-eyed woodpecker nodded once again.

"Let's see…which name suits you best?"

He took the bird in his hands and carefully examined it.

"You're a female so I have to give you a female name."

His crimson feathery comrade flew above him in circles, its beautiful attractive body shone in the sunrays.

"Her feathers look like fire when the sunlight shines on them…fire, that's it!"

Yami stood up and called his new 'friend'.

"From now on, you will be named Flare."

-Later, when lunch was ready-

Everyone was staring at the duo with goggling eyes and shock written all over their features.

"Malik, Marik. What happen to you?" Ryou exclaimed but he only received a grunt from his best friend.

The two look-alikes looked down to avoid their gaze; their bodies were all covered with dirty leaves and mud.

"Don't ask why."

To Be Continued…

The end of Chapter 4 has arrived and this time it's longer than the previous chapter, lol. I hope you all enjoy the chapter so far but school is going to reopen soon so I might not have time to update a chapter in one week, probably two weeks if I can.

I hope you like the name of the woodpecker, that's the only name I can think of, lol!

So, stay tune for Chapter 5: Conversation!

Last but not least, review please!