A/N: Ah ha! As with all animes we have the obligatory flashback episode in which we might just find out what ties the characters together.
Disclaimer: I only own Izzy and Alyssa. The plot and storyline belong entirely to Waffles4eva. Everything else isn't ours.
Episode Four: Thief- The Problem of Bakura!
~One Year Earlier~
"I guess I can't tell you everything because I don't know it all. I don't know why he did it. I like to think he had a reason, but..."
The violins gave out a quiet melody, just the right level to be enjoyed without overriding the subdued conversations going on it the room. Champagne glasses inturrupted the rhythm of the restaurant here and there, chiming against one another as someone had a toast. It was mostly older people, people so old they had more money than they knew what to do with, middle aged business men, aristocrats, couples celebrating silver, gold, diamond wedding anniversaries. There were younger people too, mostly up-and-coming entrepreneurial youngsters or the children of aristocrats, spending daddy's money. Only the two young people didn't seem to fit the mould of the average customer of the establishment. They were young, younger than the usual lot, higher schoolers perhaps, middle schoolers maybe. The boy, with his long and unkempt hair, in an ill-fitting suit, looked slightly uncomfortable; but not so much as the girl with him, who was biting her lip anxiously, even as they waited for their food to arrive.
"Are you sure about this?" She blurted, finally. "It's a lot of money. We can cancel the order..."
"We are not cancelling the order!" He snapped in response. "I told you, I got the money, okay? So just enjoy it."
"But I'm worried... Why won't you let me at least pay half?"
"Because I want to give you something." He growled. "You could have any guy, someone who could give you this sort of thing any time they wanted. I'm sick of taking you to places so much more common then you're used to. Why should I have to stay in the pits?! So just eat it and let me pay! I have the money!"
Despite his rage, the girl smiled. "You're so cute." She muttered, kissing him briefly. This was what he normally did to her. The truth was, he loved her accent. "But I've told you before. If I wanted a rich guy, I'd go out with a rich guy. I just want you."
"I want to give you everything." He grumbled in response, still not understanding.
She sighed and sat back, but decided to just enjoy the evening as much as possible. The fact she was wealthier than him was always a sensitive subject to Bakura, who had nothing. He had been thrown out by his parents as soon as he'd finished middle school, and the high school dorms were the only place he had to call home. He was a second year now, what he would do when he finished the third she didn't know. She wished he would save the money rather then spending it on her. He probably had been saving for a long time for the sake of this one evening. She wished he hadn't, or would accept her offers of money, but he always got offended and said he had enough to get by. Whatever the reason, he had worked hard for this. The least she could do was enjoy it.
"I was in my first year of high school at the time. I'd been on the student council for two terms then, Marik-senpai had showed me the ropes the first few weeks and this term I'd handled the first year's finances pretty much on my own. I'd been so careful..."
"Are you finished?" Marik enquired, politely, giving a slight smile to show there was no rush. Alyssa looked up and gave a brief smile, looking down at the books again before she could get too embarrassed.
"Almost." She replied. "Just finishing checking the total." Beside her, a box of money lay, sorted and counted. All she needed to do was add up each month's figures and make sure everything was accounted for. She had meticulously written down every last yen that had come in or out, and checked her calculations over and over. There should be no margin for error.
"Thank you." Marik smiled. "It's been a lot easier than last year, with your help. I was thinking I might even be able to go back to the climbing club."
"Oh, um... you're welcome." She smiled. "It's what I'm here f... eh?"
"What's the matter?" Marik asked.
"Nothing." Alyssa said, hastily. She wished her senpai hadn't been here to see this. "I, um, seem to have miscalculated by... a lot... guess I counted the money wrong."
With that, she unceremoniously upturned the box and began again. Marik hovering awkwardly and periodically asking if he could help until it made her lose count.
"No." She frowned when she was finished, sounding worried now. "Maybe my sums are wrong." Ignoring the careful addition written in front of her, Alyssa dug in her bag for her calculator. Obviously her maths wasn't as good as she thought.
"It doesn't matter if there's a little discrepancy." Marik said kindly, seeing that she was now getting flustered. "That's unavoidable. How much are you short by?"
"...Thirty thousand yen." She answered quietly.
"Thirty thousand! How did you-?!" He repeated, aghast. Then he saw her worried face. She was unable to meet his eye and looked at the floor instead. Marik bit down on his lip to stop the question. What if she started crying?! Alyssa didn't seem the crying kind, but then she was always so uncomfortable around him, that was why he always tried to be nice. If she started crying, he didn't know what he'd do. "...Well, perhaps it's your sums that are wrong. Shall we check them?"
So they checked them. They counted the money again first, then the addition of the monthly sums. Then they checked the weekly sums to get the month's totals. Then they checked the sums for every single week. Then they dug out the receipts and invoices, to check the figures that had been recorded in the book. The numbers in the book were fine, except for the small matter of it being short.
"I don't understand!" Alyssa cried. "I don't see how... it's such a lot of money!"
"Nor me." Marik agreed, sounding serious. "The money was locked away everyday... the only people with access to it should be you and I."
"You don't think I stole it?!" Alyssa exclaimed, somewhere between alarm and annoyance.
"No, no." Marik reassured her. "Perhaps you just... lost it... but I know you wouldn't steal it. You're one of the most honest people I know, Trent-chan."
For a second or two, Alyssa was happy at the compliment. Then she realised he also thought her capable of losing ¥30000 and the happiness ebbed slightly. That and the fact he still hadn't started calling her by her first name.
"What do we do?" She asked, reluctantly pulling her thoughts back to the task at hand.
"Well..." Marik frowned, not quite sure himself. "I suppose we'll have to tell the student president."
"Oh." Alyssa said, for the president had already gone home for the night. "Tomorrow?"
"I think that would be best."
"...Maybe I should take the money home." Alyssa said, despondently. "Just in case someone stole it before- they can obviously get into the safe."
"It's alright." Marik answered, picking it up. "It's a little heavy. I'll take it."
They said their goodbyes, him assuring her it would all be fine, her saying little because she couldn't help but wonder.
Was it that the box was heavy or just that he didn't trust her?
"I think I told you about it. Do you remember? On messenger. You had to run off all of a sudden."
Alyssa 次の時間、英雄は悪人に日付を記入する:
I did something stupid today
Izzy 'The Deeper the Sorrow the More our Hearts Sing' :
Don't you always lol?
Alyssa 次の時間、英雄は悪人に日付を記入する:
Seriously
Alyssa 次の時間、英雄は悪人に日付を記入する:
I've somehow lost ¥30000
Izzy 'The Deeper the Sorrow the More our Hearts Sing':
Aww :(
Izzy 'The Deeper the Sorrow the More our Hearts Sing':
But that's not that much, is it? What's the exchange?
Izzy 'The Deeper the Sorrow the More our Hearts Sing':
gotta go
Izzy 'The Deeper the Sorrow the More our Hearts Sing':
smell burning think it's comp
"You didn't manage to get back online for a month after that, and by then, the damage was done. I guess it was good in a way, because I didn't have to explain the student council or how I was worried Marik-senpai didn't trust me. But... it was a little lonely."
"You're kidding, thirty thousand?!" The President groaned and fell back into his chair. "This is exactly why I didn't want a first year on the council!"
"Didn't you say you'd been on it three years?" Alyssa muttered. "That would mean you joined as a first year too, senpai..."
"Yes, I was treasurer, and I didn't 'lose' thirty thousand yen!"
"Please don't shout, senpai!" Marik inturrupted. "I supervised Trent-chan myself, and we checked all the figures together. The totals are all fine. The money can only have been lost or stolen."
"By who?" The President frowned. "The only one with access is you two, and I trust you." He turned to Alyssa. "Are you sure you didn't just drop it somewhere?"
"Of course not!" She snapped. "It hasn't left the room!"
"Unfortunately, it obviously has." The president sighed. "...Look, if you can replace the money, we'll say no more about it."
"But..." Alyssa began, then realised there really wasn't any more reasonable solution. She had been responsible for the money, after all. "...thank you."
"It's alright." The President sighed. "This time, I'm trusting that you didn't do it on purpose. Just be more careful from now on!"
"Yes, senpai." Alyssa answered. She left as quickly as she could, mind furiously calculating. She had a monthly budget that mostly went on her room and meal tickets for the food halls. She saved as much as she could each month, but...
She went to the little cash point that served the dormitories and checked her balance. Not quite enough. But she had some money in her purse upstairs, and if Seshi in the room next door would float her some...
The next day, she had begged and borrowed her way up to the full ¥30000, though she had yet to work out how she would pay back the ¥5000 she had borrowed from various people. Plus, all her savings were now gone. She would have to get a part-time job. As long as the school, which banned such procedures as they felt studies would suffer, did not find out it. Although, if the head had caught wind of this she might have been excluded anyway, so perhaps it wasn't so bad...
"Trent-chan." Marik's soft voice came from somewhere behind her, coming to meet her outside the Council room. "I don't usually see you here before school. I wasn't going to look for you here, but I just had this feeling..." He smiled slightly.
"Ah, yeah." She stared at her feet, cursing herself for not being able to meet his eye. She wondered if he thought she had taken it. "I managed to get enough money together, so I thought I'd come pay it in."
"You didn't have to do that." He said, eyes troubled. "The President asked me to. I already have the money."
"He asked me to!" Alyssa rebuked, horrified. "I was the one who lost it! You don't owe anything!"
"It's alright." He reassured her. "My parents run a shop. I just have to do some extra hours to make up the loss."
"You're not allowed a part-time job..."
"It's not." He grimaced. "They don't pay me."
At his expression, Alyssa couldn't help but laugh and a moment later, he joined in.
"That's better." He said. "I really thought you were going to cry yesterday. You've got to keep laughing if nothing else."
"Right." Alyssa nodded. "But still, I can't let you pay back the money! It was my responsibility and so I have to do this myself!"
"And supervising you is technically my responsibility." He said. "If you lost it or mixed it in elsewhere or whatever happened, I should have been paying attention."
"You shouldn't have to watch me all the time! I-"
"How about this?" He cut her off, exasperated. "We'll both pay half."
"No."
"It's that or I pay all of it."
"...Fine."
"That day, when Marik-senpai and I paid back half the money each, it was the first day Atem-senpai transferred to our school. He was a loner even then, but everyone just assumed he was shy. They tried to approach him, but he brushed them off. Marik-senpai himself didn't pay him much heed, with everything else that was going on. The President gave us some bad news at break. We didn't know Atem-senpai was just outside..."
"I was looking over our rules." The student body president began, looking grave. "I thought I might have a duty to report this to the headmaster and the governors, and it seems I was correct."
"But we paid it back already." Alyssa said nervously. "So it's just a protocol, right?"
"They'll probably want an investigation." He answered. "The fact is, one of you will be blamed for this."
"It was an accident!" The two treasurers protested in unison.
"I'm aware of that." He said. "But the truth is, you're both suspects now."
"Both?" Alyssa said, eventually finding her voice. "But I... I mean, Marik-senpai didn't..."
"He's your supervisor." The president sighed. "He's responsible too. Look, I'm sorry to say this... you know if it was up to me... but I don't see how that much money could have been lost. I'm sad to say it, but one of you must be the culprit. When I find out which it is, I'm gonna be mad."
"Don't you trust us?" Marik asked, quietly, tone level.
"I can't." The president answered, regretfully. "Maybe this investigation will find it was an accident. I really hope so. But if we find out otherwise, there will be trouble."
The youth outside listened with vague indifference. He half-recognised the boy's voice as one of his classmates, but he didn't know either him or the girl. He didn't particularly care about their situation, but he pondered it out of boredom and curiosity. The girl had been in charge of the missing money, yes, but the guy- Marik, was it?- He had been supervising her. Surely she would have had less chance to steal it than him, if he was watching her.
But somehow, he didn't think that was the case. Neither of them had enough darkness in them to be a thief, he was almost certain. But what did he know? He called the darkness, he did not judge it. Even if he tried saying something, who would believe his talk of shadows? He had only ever hurt people, never helped them. Besides, it was really none of his business. Atem ignored the ajar door and moved on.
Inside, the atmosphere was tense. Work had resumed, but it was far from the relaxed atmosphere that usually prevailed. They were both suspects now. Which meant only one thing. One of them had to be proved guilty if the other was to be proved innocent.
Marik watched Alyssa working in silence, checking each and every figure five or six times, making absolutely sure. She certainly didn't look like the thief of thirty thousand yen. But then, he doubted they had little signs advertising it. She had been an unusual applicant to be a treasurer, too, maths was not her best subject and she admitted to not wanting to be anything close to an accountant in the future. That was part of the reason she had been chosen. She had seemed to so desperately want the job, and for it's own sake, not just to stick on her CV. Now he wondered if it had been about the access to the money. He didn't doubt her honesty, but perhaps he ought too. After all, criminals only got away with it because people trusted them, and she was the only other one with access to the money apart from himself. He knew he hadn't taken it. He watched her working, and was sure she couldn't be acting the stress on her face. Besides, she was a rubbish actress, he had seen her class play. She wasn't smart enough to think of acting poorly so he would think she wasn't acting now. No, he didn't think she would have taken the money.
Unless she was in some sort of trouble. He bit his lip slightly. He hoped not. He hoped, if she had needed the money, she would have come to him- no, someone for help. He didn't like the idea of her being threatened. He decided to keep a closer eye on her from then on. Just in case.
Little did he know, Alyssa would notice this extra attention and despair. He was always paying close attention to her, making excuses to follow her between classes, always nearby in breaks, watching her work at the council. She didn't notice his concern, and took his watchfulness to mean he blamed her and was making sure she did not strike again. He never said so outright, but he obviously couldn't trust her. She wished he did, but felt too ashamed to confront him, so just pretended to buy his excuses. She just hoped the investigation by the governors would realise she had lost the money by accident and hadn't taken it.
Of course, she wasn't sure how she had managed to lose the money. She knew her own clumsiness and so had been careful, almost to the point of paranoia, because she did not want something like this to happen. It was just typical that it would. But... maybe it had been beyond her control. After all, Marik had time when it would have been easy for him to take the money, when no-one else was around.
It hurt her to even think of it. She couldn't believe that. Not after so much had happened. Not when she felt...
The first time they had met, it had been her first day of high school. A lot of the older students were on hand to help the new first years find their schedules and classes. Most people already knew each other, from the same local middle schools. Alyssa had come from further out, and spent the last sixth months of middle school on a transfer in England. There was only one other person from her old school here. Marik had been in the same position when he first arrived, and it just so happened he was the one who spotted her looking lost in the corridor and helped her find her locker. Conversation had come easily then, before she had started to- she had never believed in love at first sight. It was just curiosity. Something inside her wanted to see more of this guy. Find out more. See as much of him as possible. She didn't have an agenda, she didn't want anything from him, just friendship.
Of course, the more she got to know him, the more shy she felt. But it didn't matter. She knew one thing and that was that Marik would not have taken the money. She had to believe that.
Everyone else certainly did. Between classes one day, Alyssa paused in the corridor to take a drink from a water fountain. Some girls in her class had been walking behind her, but now they stopped; to talk to the second year class coming the same way.
"Miamoto-senpai!" One of them said. Ah. So the school idol was passing by. "I read that book you recommended! Children of the Elements, you know. It was great!"
Alyssa frowned to herself as she listened to the conversation. She had read that book too and hadn't thought much of it. What was more, it was obvious the girls hadn't either- if they had even read it. On a normal day, she might have gone and joined the conversation. But the story of the missing ¥30000 had gotten around. Nothing had been proven, but everyone thought she had done it. Even more obvious then how she had been entirely ignored in class was the way that when they attempted the climbing wall, and she had been unable to reach the top, they had encouraged the others and laughed at her. That had hurt. So she did not join the conversation.
They were not content to leave her alone, though, Miamoto jostled her as he passed by, causing her to pitch forward and hit her face on the fountain. The water entered her mouth and nose, and she spluttered as she stood up.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Miamoto exclaimed.
"Don't apologise to her." One of the girls sniffed. "She deserves it."
"This is the one who took the money." The second explained.
"Really?" He frowned at her. "You know, you abused your classmates' trust. That money was meant for everyone to have fun together, and you've ruined that for all of them!"
"I didn't take the money!" Alyssa protested. "And I paid it back anyway!"
"You know," One of the girls scowled. "If you owned up and apologised, maybe no-one would care so much."
"Yeah." The second agreed. "Don't you feel bad at all? Everyone knows you took it, Haruko-chan. Just admit it!"
"Hey." A voice inturrupted from behind. "Don't talk to her like that. Nothing's been proved."
"Marik-senpai..." Alyssa wanted a hole to open in the ground and swallow her as Marik and more of the second years stopped to watch. She should have known Marik would appear. He had been keeping a close watch on her recently, after all. He didn't trust her at all. Yet, he was defending her. That gave her some small hope.
"Well, it's not like you would have taken it." Miamoto shrugged. "It must have been her. She's just a lying thief."
"I told you not to speak to her like that." Marik answered, teeth gritted. Alyssa watched with a mixture of embarrassment and interest. She had never seen Marik get angry. She wondered if he would now. "We don't know that she took it. It might have been an accident. You shouldn't just make blind accusations."
"He's right." Another voice, smooth, chipped in. Alyssa didn't know him by anything more than sight at the time, but she would come to recognise Bakura in time, as he tormented her. That day, however, he almost seemed to be on her side. "You shouldn't accuse poor little Haruko-chan. After all, you're a suspect too, aren't you, Marik?"
"...Right." Marik said, not quite trusting his classmate and disliking the slightly sinister time. "So there's no need to accuse anyone."
"Then again," Bakura shrugged. "You always seemed like a pretty decent guy. I don't think you'd take it. Besides, she looks pretty suspicious to me."
"Lay off." Marik answered, before Alyssa could say anything.
"Why not? I bet she's accusing you inside her head right now."
"Well..."
"I am not!" Alyssa exploded. "Marik-senpai wouldn't do that!"
"Trent-chan, it's okay, you don't need to-"
"No! I know you didn't take it, so you don't have to listen to him!"
"Hmm..." Bakura pondered. "Now what could this display of faith mean? It could be that you did take the money and don't want to see him get in trouble for it. But I think maybe your protest is to do more with your... feelings."
"W-what?!" Alyssa snapped, stammering. "It's not... I didn't..."
Bakura laughed. "You can't hide it! I know you have all sorts of things buried in your heart!"
Marik wasn't quite sure what was happening, but he could see Alyssa's expression. "Leave her alone." He said. "Why don't you just leave, Bakura?"
For once, he did so, with a smug smile. Alyssa left hastily too, claiming to be late for class. The other bystanders, seeing everything was over, soon dissipated too. Atem, who had been standing unnoticed at the edge of the group, kept his eyes fixed on Bakura's distinctive white hair. He didn't like that guy. There was something suspicious about him. And, Atem could see, this Bakura was surrounded by the shadows, half-consumed by darkness. For once, it was nothing to do with him, Bakura had got into this situation on his own. And that made him very suspicious.
Atem resolved then to keep an eye on that particular classmate. There was just something about him that Atem didn't like.
"I should've guessed then, but I didn't. I was more worried by what Bakura had said. I was worried that it had been my carelessness, and that Marik was going to suffer for it. I decided that evening I would go and resign from the student council the next morning, and if necessary, say it was me. I couldn't stand the idea of him getting into trouble. By then, though, the thief was ready to strike again, knowing the suspicion against us would stop it going anywhere near him. There was just one thing he didn't count on. Atem-senpai."
Bakura was getting cocky. Looking back, he knew it. Pity he didn't at the time.
He had been planning another hit on the school's finance room the previous night, but hadn't managed it. There had been some sort of birthday party going on in another room within the dormitories, and they had look-outs and so on. There had been too many people around to risk heading outside, towards the school, when any of them could be looking out of the window.
However, many of those same people would be too hung-over to be trying to get to school early the next morning; so he decided to simply delay the job by a few hours. This had the added advantage that by then the caretaker would have been around and unlocked all the rooms, including the Student Council office. It would be relatively easy for him to sneak into the room, get the safe and the treasury box open, and slip out again.
At least, that had been the plan. He hadn't imagined anyone else would be at school so early, nor that they suspected him.
Atem had always had trouble sleeping, and it had only gotten worse since he had come to this new place, far from home. Deliberately far from home, but that didn't make it any easier. He had yet to get used to sleeping in a new place, so he was always up early, and feeling too confined in his room, usually went to school. The early morning feel, and the solitude of the endless empty classrooms suited him. He was there that day, and he saw Bakura making a beeline for the Student Council Office.
It didn't take much to put two and two together. He had been right about the darkness.
Atem waited a few moments, and headed over to the Student Council room, to literally find Bakura with one hand in the money box and the other stuffing some into his pockets. Bakura froze as he entered, and slowly withdrew his hand.
The two stood and looked at each other in silence, Bakura glancing aside now and then to gauge the distance to the door and if it was worth running. It wasn't. Atem knew who he was. On the other hand, Bakura hardly knew this guy. No-one did. So maybe there was hope.
"How much?"
Atem's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"How much do you want to keep quiet?"
"Sorry. No deal." Atem answered, flatly. He turned to leave. "Wait here. If you move..."
"You'll what?!" Bakura moved like a flash of white lightning, reaching him before he could turn around. This was exactly why they said you should never turn your back on a foe. Atem reacted, but it was too late, Bakura's arm was around his neck, presumably trying to deprive him of air until he blacked out. Or just to hurt him. He was rammed into the wall next to the door, face pressed to the plaster. This didn't make him panic, just angry. He elbowed his captor in the stomach, kicked and struggled, but he was winded and Bakura had caught him before he had taken a breath. His vision was beginning to blur.
And then Alyssa hit him with the door as she walked in. Bakura pitched to the left, off balance for less than a second, but the slight loosening of his grip was all Atem needed to draw in a deep and much needed breath and then rip Bakura's arm away, elbowing him hard in the stomach. Bakura doubled over, and Atem stood, satisfied.
"...Should I come back later?" Alyssa blinked in confusion, before noticing the open safe and the money that had been dislodged from Bakura's pockets in the tussle. "You!" She gasped.
"Me." He agreed, suddenly lunging forward and gripping her hard under the chin and the jaw. "What are you going to do about it?"
She spat in his face, but he only laughed and shook her hard. She managed to use this to her advantage, however, using the momentum to get free. In that moment everything happened at once.
Atem got hold of Bakura's arms, twisting them behind the thief and restraining him without much apparent effort. Alyssa, slightly off balance from jerking free, stumbled slightly against something in the doorway. Only it wasn't the door because it held on even after it steadied her and did not let go.
"What's going on?" Marik asked. He had seen Bakura holding Alyssa by the chin, and could see the bruises starting to form on her cheek. He let go a little, but kept a loose grip around her shoulders, wary of any other trouble in case he needed to get her out of the way.
She was blushing so badly at that point she thought she might spontaneously combust. Luckily, he was too focused on the events in front of them to notice.
"He caught the thief." Alyssa said, smiling slightly even as her heart pounded embarrassingly. "It wasn't either of us and now we have proof."
"Thank you, Atem-kun." Marik smiled too, letting go of Alyssa and taking a step forward. "But Bakura-kun, how could you? Not only did you take the money, you tried to get us blamed? That's low."
Bakura said nothing, just glared. The two boys promptly escorted him to the head teacher's office, leaving Alyssa to clean up in the room and check the money- although not before she had emptied Bakura's pockets. It seemed all would end well.
"Things worked remarkably straight-forwardly after that. They'd had discipline issues with Bakura before, so I think they were just glad it wasn't one of their supposed model students on the council. He was suspended for a week, with the understanding that any further pushing of the boundaries would lead to him being permanently excluded. He had to pay back the money too. As for Marik-senpai and I, I'm sure it strengthened our friendship. Unfortunately, we couldn't make that extend to Atem-senpai."
"Trent-chan." Marik said in surprise, seeing the girl at his classroom door. "Hello. Did you need something?"
"I was actually looking for Atem-senpai." She replied. "Is he here? I wanted to thank him for yesterday."
"Oh, you're right." He beckoned her in, and the two of them made their way over to where Atem's desk was, sat in the back corner. He glanced up at them warily.
"Atem-kun." Marik greeted. "Trent-chan and I just wanted to thank you for yesterday. One of us would have surely gotten the blame if you hadn't helped."
"Yeah, thanks a lot." Alyssa agreed. "I want to thank you properly, so if you want to go somewhere or do something, or just have lunch here, it's on me!"
"On us." Marik chipped in. "We owe you, after all."
"No." Atem answered.
"Huh?"
"No, I don't want anything." He said, voice clipped.
"It's fine, we want to." Alyssa smiled.
"I don't want anything!" He snapped. "I just want to be left in peace..."
"...I was only trying to be friendly."
Atem sighed and looked away. "You would be better off not making friends with me. Please go."
"I'm sure that's not true." Alyssa started.
"It is." Atem inturrupted. "Go away."
Not sure what else to do, she withdrew reluctantly, Marik walking with her as his desk was in the same direction as the door. As he sat down, she turned and paused.
"You know..." She said, a little shyly. "You really could start calling me Alyssa."
"Oh!" He answered, startled. "Oh, yes, thank you, Alyssa-chan."
At least, that's what he tried to say. He stumbled slightly on the unfamiliar sounds of her name and messed them up. She tried to hide her disappointment.
"Of course," she said, hastily. "Haruko is fine too. That's what most people call me!"
"Oh... yes."
He waited until she said her goodbyes and then let his head fall to the desk and connect with a heavy thump. He couldn't believe he had mispronounced her name. She had finally let him switch to her given name, and he had messed it up. He had wanted to in the past, but had been too scared to, worried it would seem presumptuous. She had actually told him to. She wanted him to. And he had ended up saying some sort of phonological mess, closer to Eliza than her name.
He resolved there and then he would never call her Haruko. He would learn to say Alyssa if it killed him.
"Anyway, I guess Bakura couldn't take it. When he got back to school, it was like he was only there to make life difficult for the three of us. He can't stand that we won. I think... it was all just a game to him, and he lost."
"Why were you suspended?"
"Leave me alone."
"Bakura..."
"...They said I stole from the council." He looked at the floor, not at his girlfriend, who was entirely focused on him. Her eyes filled with worry and her brown hair fell forward as she leant towards him; she had not tied the band tightly enough.
"And did you?" She asked, after a long pause, hating that she even had to.
"No."
"Don't lie to me!" She flared up. "Tell me the truth."
"No!"
"...It's how you paid for the fancy restaurant, isn't it?! I told you I didn't need stuff like that!"
"What was I supposed to do?!" He said, furious. "I want to be a good boyfriend!"
"By stealing?! You are not a good boyfriend! You know what? You're not even my boyfriend any more." She stood up and headed for the door. "I'm going home."
"Hey..." He started.
"All the way home." She added. "I'm going back to the UK."
"What?! No! You can't!"
"I have too!" She said, nearly in tears. "You're like this because of me!"
She ran.
Bakura chased her at first, but it was clear she really didn't want to be caught. So he let her run, out of his life forever. He watched her until she disappeared, fists clenched.
And he swore revenge on those that had done this. If Atem had been watching, he would have seen Bakura swallowed completely by the darkness.
A/N: (Waffles4eva) Seems like however Atem and Bakura are incarnated, they are always going to be pitted against one another. In this case, Atem defeats Bakura's evil plans yet again. Although, are they evil? I always thought with Bakura that there was this idea that yes, he was evil, but he was out seeking revenge and it was his desire for revenge that had twisted him and corrupted him. (Look out for this sort of idea in later episodes! :P) Anyway, I tried to keep some of this idea, in that Bakura is still looking for revenge- although he deserved what he got- and he's been twisted by it and all the sucky stuff that happened with his girlfriend/family. Yeah. That's about the only similarity to the original so I figured I'd just point that out. XD
A/N: (scooby2408) I guess somethings never change - he can't keep his hands away from the treasure/gold/money in any incarnation. Well, at least we know now what the secret the characters kept hinting at, and maybe the possible reason behind Bakura's motives. Somewhere in this episode is a hint for what happens next time in Over the Rainbow. Thanks for reading and I shall leave you with the preview for next time:
"...Hey... Where is everyone? Alyssa?"
"She's not coming."
"Huh? What?"
"She's not coming and I don't blame her."
"... Why not? Marik?"
"He's gone."
"Ahhhhh, what am I supposed to have done?!
"Read the script?
"Don't tell me you're mad too..."
"... No."
"You are, aren't you? ...What do I do?
"..."
"... Atem? Please don't leave too... Over the Rainbow Episode Five: Shock- The Changes in Relationship."