AN: FINALLY! Got this thing going again. SOOO happy about that. I'm really REALLY sorry for the wait, guys. Thanks so much for sticking with it - a LOT of stuff's been goin on lately and it's been impossible for me to write till now. (Literally I've been writing all day!)
A small bit of this chapter was taken from a writing exercise i did with MissYennon - which was a comedy improve for YGOA. We agreed the arcade scene would be good to add to this story. I changed it up a bit to make it fit better, but some people may recognize it. That's why ;)
Ch 4
…
Marik's POV:
…
Ryou said he needed to stop by his locker so Namu took the opportunity to go to the black car waiting for him and let his ride know he'd be going home later. The driver nodded and Namu headed toward the others just as Ryou emerged from the school, rushing to catch up.
"Where's Duke?" Yugi asked, looking around.
"Probably chickened out cause he knows he doesn't stand a chance against dis game king," Joey said with pride.
"Or he's already there and he think's you've chicken out," Tristan said with a grin.
Joey gave a rather animated objection before hurrying down the sidewalk, "Come on, hurry up you guys! No pretty dice boy's gonna make a fool outta Joey Wheeler!"
"Did you just call him 'pretty'?" Tea asked as they all hurried to catch up.
Ryou and Namu were left at the back and began to follow when -
"Marik! Marik, wait!"
Ryou turned to see a young woman hurrying toward them. He stopped immediately when he saw her long black hair and Arabic-style dress. "Namu, wait a moment!" He called.
Namu stopped and turned.
"Is she addressing us?" Ryou asked.
When he saw the woman, Namu froze.
"I've been calling you," The woman said, "Why didn't you answer?"
Ryou turned to Namu and the Egyptian's mouth fell open. His eyes darted between both her and Ryou, before quickly looking over his shoulder. The others were still hurrying down the sidewalk, none of them had heard. A nervous laugh escaped his throat as he put a very forced smile on. For a moment he thought of feigning ignorance, but that wouldn't work.
"Go on ahead, Bakura. I'll catch up." The white-haired boy gave him a quizzical look but Namu just gave him a kind nod, so he turned and started after the group.
When the young Egyptian was sure he was out of ear shot, he turned to the woman and took in a sharp breath before saying through tightly clenched teeth, "What are you doing here, Ishizu?" His tried to keep his tone pleasant, but the dripping sarcasm wasn't exactly hard to miss.
The woman frowned, taken aback, "We told you we would pick you up after school. Where are you going?"
Namu nodded to the black vehicle, "I already told him where I'm going, where were you?"
"I went to the office to get your class information."
Namu held back an aggravated growl, "I've got it all taken care of, we can discuss everything later."
Behind him, Ryou's voice called out across the distance, "Do…do you want to just do this another time, Namu?" He sounded hesitant, as though afraid to interrupt. Namu's eyes grew wide as the woman in front of him quirked an eyebrow and looked from one boy to the next.
"Namu?" She asked.
"Native term!" The blonde said quickly. "I'll be home soon ask Odion for the details I'll call later!" he said rapidly, moving away from her. Before she could protest, he turned and took off running down the sidewalk. He soon dashed past the pale boy and yelled, "Come on, Bakura, let's catch up!"
"Wha -" Ryou blinked and quickly bowed to the woman before running after him, "Hey, wait up!"
…
'Damn it damn it damn it!'
Marik Ishtar scowled as he ran along the sidewalk. 'Why did you have to come with him to the school, Ishizu! That whole thing could've easily been avoided and now you've all but ruined everything!'
"Hold on!" Ryou said, trying to catch up. "What was that? What just happened?"
Marik had no answer. His brain was buzzing wildly, desperately trying to find any feasible excuse to use.
"Namu, please wait!" Ryou said. The Egyptian stopped and turned around, putting his hands on his hips. "Wow, look at that!" he said a little breathlessly.
Ryou stopped by him and looked back. "Huh?"
"Look how far we've gotten so quickly," Marik smiled and looked at the other teen. "I can see why you chose track. You are a fast runner."
Ryou looked taken aback by the sudden compliment and looked sheepishly down at his feet, "I'm not really…"
"You were right behind me the whole way," Marik added. "I'll have to keep my eye on you if I don't want to be left in the dust."
Ryou's eyes widened and he stared at the blonde, no longer aware of the ever-growing blush staining his complexion. Marik laughed.
"Let's see if I have what it takes to be in your club." He turned and bent his knees. "Race you to the others - Go!" In a flash he was off and Ryou stumbled in the attempt to follow. He managed to keep his place a few feet behind, though he was too distracted by the wind blowing through the many shades of blonde hair to bridge the gap.
They approached the plaza and Marik quickly came to a stop behind Yugi's group. The others turned in time to see Ryou attempting to skid to a halt. His shoes slid over the pavement and nearly went out from under him just as Tristan reached out and caught him by the arm.
"Whoa! Where you going?" the brunette said playfully. Instead of answering, Ryou looked back at Marik who was laughing again. He idly thought he could get very used to that sound.
"You're good," Marik said, wiping his arm across his forehead. "You're really good."
"Heheh," Ryou chuckled coyly.
"Come on, guys!" Tea yelled, dashing in through the open arcade entrance. The others followed after. It had been a long time since Ryou had been inside the arcade. He'd forgotten how flashy and loud everything was. Kids and teens everywhere were talking over one another, their voices melding with the continuous beeps and sirens of high and low scores, digital character dialog, and electronic firepower.
"This way, Namu," Yugi said and his group headed to the counter to buy tokens. The Egyptian was dazzled by the virtual party going on around him in the dim building. He followed after them and leaned over to see what they were in line for.
Tristan looked back and noticed this. "The video games need tokens to work so you pay for them here before you play."
"Oh…" Marik straightened up and looked thoughtful. "I probably don't need to stand in line then, huh?"
"Why not?" Ryou asked from behind him.
"I don't have much money on me today."
"Don't sweat it, we'll spot ya," Joey said before the pale teen had a chance to offer. "Hey, Yug, got some money for Namu?" Yugi gave him a look.
"It's alright, don't worry about it. I'll just watch," Namu said kindly.
"No, it's no trouble at all," Yugi said, reaching into his pocket. "This is you're first time in an arcade, isn't it?"
"Yeah, ya gotta live it up the first time," Joey winked and gave the other blonde a thumb's up.
Defeated, Marik shrugged and looked back at Ryou. "Friendly bunch, aren't they?" he said absently.
"Yeah," Ryou said with less enthusiasm. He sighed to himself and made up his mind to get some extra tokens anyway.
"Where'd Tea go?" Joey asked when they'd gotten out of line. She'd been several spots ahead of them to get tokens and had long since disappeared.
"You have to ask?" Tristan said. "She's been going on about DDR all day."
"Whatever… Where the hell is Duke!" Joey looked all around and made his way through the randomly placed video games to find his opponent. Tristan followed while Yugi stayed behind.
"You've played video games before, right?" Yugi asked Namu as he passed him a handful of tokens.
"Uhh… Once or twice. But nothing like this," the tan one admitted.
"Well, have a look around. They have a lot of different kinds of games."
"What kind do you like?"
"Oh, there's target practice games, battle games you can challenge another person to, sports ones like basketball, driving, racing-"
"They have driving?" Ryou heard the excitement in his voice and turned to see Marik's eyes widened significantly.
"Oh yeah, you like racing games?" Yugi asked. "There's some this way." He led the way with Marik eagerly following and Ryou trailing behind.
They stopped at two game consoles side by side, one of which was already occupied by a younger teen with his hat on backwards. Yugi gestured for Marik to take a seat.
"Tokens go here," he explained. "This one wants two coins."
The other kid watched as the Egyptian selected simple settings for his machine. "Wanna race?" he asked.
"We can race each other?" Marik asked. The kid nodded with a sly smirk. "Alright!" Marik grinned, "Let's do it!"
"Choose a level."
"Whichever you want."
"Think you can handle 'Expert'?"
"Ooh," Marik raised his eyebrows with intrigue.
"This is his first time on a driving game," Yugi explained. "Why not do it on 'Medium'."
Marik looked up at Yugi, unsure which option was preferable. "I think I can take it."
"Yeah, 'Medium's a sissy level," the other player said. Marik made a face of disapproval.
"Choose 'Hard' then," Ryou piped up. The others looked at him. "There's a 'Hard' option between those two, go for that."
"Good idea," Marik said, switching the settings.
"Alright," the kid said. Ryou couldn't help but smile.
The game began it's countdown and Ryou sniggered as both players revved their cars in anticipation. The teen in the hat kept his foot on the gas, while Marik let up as the countdown said "GO!" before slamming it down again. His car ended up with a few seconds' advantage and he sped off, quickly passing the computer-driven opponent cars. But the teen's car was close behind and they raced along the windy road, occasionally passing one another at the turns. After they'd done one lap, the teen tried to pass on the inside of a turn, while Marik moved to cut him off. Nose hit tail and Marik's car was spun off the road leaving animated skid marks everywhere. The others groaned in amused defeat.
"Come on, Namu!" Yugi said excitedly. With a wild burn out, Marik spun the wheel hard and sped off after his target. It took almost a full lap to catch up but he was finally on the verge of passing him again. Before he knew it, the white line sped by underneath and his console flashed "2nd Place!" Marik blinked at it, a bit stunned.
"It's over already?"
"Yeah, this level only has two laps because the road is longer. Good try though."
"Yeah, not bad," the teen said as he got up and went to search for another video game.
"Aw," Marik mumbled. "I was just getting into it."
"I'll race you," Yugi offered, moving around the take the empty seat.
"Yes, great!" Marik squirmed in his seat and quickly added more tokens.
"Same map?" Yugi asked.
"No, let's try another one."
Ryou put his arm up on the back of Marik's seat and smiled at the blonde's excitement. He was silently grateful to be here at the arcade with his school mates instead of at home by himself in that dark, quiet house. He felt his usual despair creeping up on him and quickly shook his head, tuning back in to the race. They sat through two more races, before Tristan showed up on Yugi's side. He waited until the race ended before announcing, "Joey found Duke. You won't believe what they're challenging each other to."
Yugi got up from his seat, and Marik did the same.
They followed Tristan to where a notable crowd had gather around -
"Oh, no way!" Yugi yelled as they approached the DDR platform. Joey was gasping for air against the bars, his screen filled with a large, flashing "FAILED!" Tea stepped down from her side of the platform, laughing so hard her eyes were squinty. Her skin glistened slightly from the exertion of her exercise and she fanned herself with one hand with the other clutching at her ribs.
"You -Hahaha! You missed the funniest -" she doubled over in front of Yugi, unable to finish through her laughter.
Over the noise of the crowd, Joey panted, "I de-…mand a… rematch!" Unable to respond, Tea merely waved her arms to decline.
"Want a drink?" Yugi asked her. She nodded and they headed to the counter.
"Hurry back," Tristan called. "It's about to get better!"
"I take it you lost?" Marik asked, leaning in to be heard by Joey.
"Man! I lost my shoe and everything!"
Marik laughed, "You lost you're shoe?" Joey held up his foot, from which his shoe hung half way off. Marik laughed.
"It's not funny," Joey said, running his hand through his hair.
"Don't worry, Joey," Tristan called. "It's not you, she's just too good at this game." He turned to Yugi as he led Tea back through the crowd; her mouth devoted to the end of a drink straw.
"Yeah, she only lives off of this game," Yugi added with a grin.
"Hey," Tea said, giving him a playful swat.
Yugi put his hands around his mouth and called, "What's this I hear about 'It's impossible a human being could dance this bad, a dog must be rolling on the game pad!'? Did you break the machine, Joey?"
"Hey!" Joey snarled, causing more laughter to erupt from the group. "Get your lazy butts up here and win it then, huh!"
"Nah, I'm good," Tristan grinned.
"Yugi?" Joey gave him a challenging look.
Yugi shook his head, smiling.
"That's what I thought!"
Tea shook her head, "Jeez, Joey. I've seen you be a klutz time and time again, but that…!"
"That was the saddest display yet," Duke Devlin's voice added as he finally approached the available dance pad.
"Bout time, ya coward!' Joey barked.
"Don't flatter yourself, blondie," Duke flipped his hair back. "I was signing autographs."
"Whatever!"
Shouts rang up from a cluster of girls behind duke, all waving papers in the air with a signature on them. "Go Duke, go!" "We love you, Duke!" "Win it for me! Win it for me!"
Joey gaped at this and then clenched his teeth angrily. "Dat's it! You're goin' down, Devlin!"
"Might want to tie your shoe first!" Marik said.
"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Joey knelt down and double knotted his laces, inspected his other shoe, then stood up again. "Alright! Bring it, pretty boy!"
Tea gestured with her hand, "He just did it again!" Laughter erupted along with taunts from all the onlookers.
Ryou decided to move up closer, toward where Marik was standing. The tan one was once again dazzled by the spectacular neon colors lighting up the platform and screens.
The beginning signs flashed as Joey prepped his footing, and Duke simply shifted his weight to the other side. "Somebody's Watching Me" began and Joey leapt right into it, determined to use his whole body to win. He heard cheers rising from the crowd and glanced over - Duke was doing little more than smoothly moving his hips and legs, hitting every square perfectly with minimal effort. Joey gaped at him then heard a noise saying he'd missed a step. He refocused his attention on his screen.
"Tell me who's watching me!" the computer sang.
"Everybody's watching me," Duke said with a wink over his shoulder at his squealing fan girls. He then pulled out a pair of fuzzy dice and swung them around like some bizarre nun-chuck or string baton.
"God, he's a cocky bastard!" Yugi said, his expression a mix of amusement and mild distaste. He didn't notice Tea's hungry stare as she agreed, "Uh-huh!" She danced in place to the beat, her eyes fixed on Duke's rear.
"What the hell?" Joey glanced over and saw what Duke was doing.
"He's not even looking at the screen, Joey!" Tristan shouted.
"Is that dice thing part of the game?" Marik wondered out loud. He looked over and saw Ryou moving in place to the music; eye's fixed on the two players while he lip-sinked the words as they sounded over the game speakers. The white-haired boy was smiling slightly to himself.
Marik grinned and leaned toward him. "You like this song?" he asked over the music.
Ryou stopped short and blinked at him. "Oh… Oh my! Was I -?"
Marik laughed and nodded.
"Oh bugger," Ryou put a hand over his eyes.
"It is a catchy beat!" Marik said. Ryou was glad there was red amongst the flashing lights shining on them, but it didn't hide his embarrassment.
"Look man!" Joey yelled to Duke. "Dis ain't no cheerleader's tryout. You're suppose to just work with you're feet!"
"Joey, stop trying to stifle his sexy! I mean, creativity!" Tea shouted. Yugi's head shot around to look at her, an eyebrow quirked.
The song ended, Joey landed with a punctuated stomp on the last notes and threw his arms in the air as his screen flashed multiple colors.
"Yeah! Only missed six! Eat that, Diceboy!"
"Yeah, well I didn't miss any. Duke Devlin never misses a beat, right girls?" His fans squealed as he tossed the fuzzy dice toward them - they about killed each other to get to it.
"You did so! You ain't got no perfect score!"
"I got a higher score than you, Spaz. Doesn't matter the points, winning is winning. And you lost."
"Grr," Joey clenched his fists while Duke stepped off the platform.
"Come on Joey, you'll feel better after some pizza," Yugi called as the onlookers began to break away and go back to their preferred games.
"After dat, I'll never feel better again," Joey grumbled as he hopped down from the dance pad.
"Coming, Namu?" Tea asked.
"No thank you, I'm not that hungry."
"If you change your mind, we're over here. Oh, same to you, Bakura."
Ryou looked after her but said nothing. He looked back at Marik and was startled to see a shocked expression on the Egyptian's face.
"What's wrong?" Ryou asked.
"Is that-?" Marik hurried past Ryou and toward a motorcycle racer. Ryou followed him.
"It is! They have motorcycle video games!" he cried excitedly.
"Yeah, you like those?"
"Does this do the same as the car one? How many tokens does it want?"
"Right there," Ryou pointed to where it instructed. Marik's face fell.
"They want two?" he checked his pocket. "I only have one left."
"Here!" Ryou quickly dived into his own pocket and brought out a handful of tokens.
Marik immediately beamed. "Thank you! But I don't want to take all your coins-"
"It's okay!" Ryou said quickly. "I got them for you."
Marik met his gaze and Ryou smiled at him. "I thought just in case you ended up really liking the games." He shrugged.
"Wow," Marik looked down at the tokens. "Thanks a lot, Bakura."
"You can call me Ryou if you want," the confidence was short lived and he looked down shyly again.
"This is excellent!" Marik quickly deposited the tokens and then hopped onto the bike, testing the handles.
Ryou stood happily by, watching the tan one play his game. He'd marveled the way his blonde hair and bronze skin looked against the black seat of the car game, now he admired Marik's form as it rode almost naturally on the shiny blue bike. He really was pretty, though Ryou wished there was another word for it… hot? … yes, that could work very well. Namu was very hot.
"This is a lot better when you have wind coming at you," Marik commented.
"You've ridden a real one?"
"I have a real one."
"Really?" Ryou raised his eyebrows. "Wow."
"I love it," Marik grinned into the game screen as he rode the streets with perfect ease. "It's the greatest feeling I've ever experienced. There's just nothing else like it." Ryou's heart felt warm as he heard the genuine affection in Marik's words. But something caught his eye and he looked up to see a group of girls whispering and giggling to each other as they watched the new student lean from one side to the other on the bike. Ryou's face fell but he stood with his head up, his hands behind his back.
"Can I go again?" Marik asked hopefully.
"Of course, as much as you like."
"Thanks," Marik turned back and added two more tokens. "I feel bad with you just watching though."
"Oh, I'm fine," Ryou said, looking sidelong as the gushing girls. He got the feeling they would try to come close soon. He didn't want that. He finally had his turn alone with Namu, and dammit, he was going to keep that time. Casually, Ryou moved around the back of the bike and stood between the girls and his comrade. He didn't care if they hissed and griped; he'd had enough interruptions.
He watched Marik continue to race different maps for a while. "You sure you're not hungry?"
"I have food at home."
"Do you not like pizza?"
"That has meat on it doesn't it?" Marik asked as he leaned to the far left, turning a tight corner.
"Usually."
"I don't eat meat."
"Ah, I see." He continued to watch as he thought some more. "There are other places that have vegetarian pizzas."
"Hmm," Marik hadn't blinked once, his eyes fixed on the graphics before him. "Is that good?"
"I've never had it."
Again and again, Marik raced - every time getting first place and high scores. When he finally used the last of his tokens, he sat up and stretched.
"Impressive," Ryou said with a nod.
"Yeah -whoa!" The tan one rubbed at his eyes. "My vision's fuzzy."
"It's not really good to stare at a screen for too long, especially up close. I'm sorry, I should've said something sooner."
"It's fine," Marik chuckled. "It was a lot of fun."
Ryou smiled warmly. Marik blinked a few times then stared at the pale teen in front of him. Ryou raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Marik smirked, "You should smile more often."
Ryou blinked at him in surprise. Marik shrugged.
"You have a really nice smile."
The whitette didn't know how to respond. His face was very red now. There was no hiding it. He opened his mouth but nothing came out except, "Hu- I- it, um…mm."
Marik laughed again.
…
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter :D please let me know what you think. I'm dying for some feedback.