A/N: Wow, can I just say that the reviews for this story are amazing? I didn't get very many for the last chapter, but the ones I did made me incredibly happy so thank you all so much! I haven't been this encouraged to continue writing a story in a long time, so hopefully you're all enjoying it and like this new chapter. Things are about to get confusing, so strap on your seatbelts and get out your aspirin!

Disclaimer: Not Mine!

He found Ryou after a good minute of searching again, seated relatively close to the doors she had pointed out and he memorized the spot so he wouldn't have to flirt with anymore annoying strangers to find it again.

Didn't most almost-sixteen-year-old-guys like flirting with girls? He tried to remember if she'd been good looking. Fairly pretty but Malik found himself liking more of the unique type lately. Did the Thief King count as unique?

Well he was sure one of a kind except for his mostly-identical twin who he was now standing right in front of. Ryou's long shockingly white locks looked more frazzled then they had before as though fingers had been run through them and as he watched a ghostly white hand reached up to tug fruitlessly on them. Ah, that explained the messiness.

"Come here often?" He asked blandly, and then plunked himself down in the chair next to Ryou's. The other boy glanced up in surprise before despair drowned those soppy brown eyes once again. Malik felt guilt twinge in his gut even though he'd done nothing wrong but when Ryou looked sad there was nothing you could do but feel bad.

"That's the head of the table. My brother and Mariku always argue about who gets to sit there," Ryou murmured quietly and the insignificant detail made Malik realize just how close these three must be.

"I like a good challenge," Was his response and Ryou laughed a little though it had a sad lilt to it.

"Now you sound like my brother. He's always getting himself in trouble but Mariku's always there to...help him out...God, I have no idea what to do!" A slight wail crept into his voice and Malik flinched.

It wasn't that he blamed Ryou, nothing about the situation they had just escaped from had been good, he just wasn't sure how he was supposed to be helping. He was only here because the Thief King had asked him to!

Otherwise he'd rather have been the one staying to tough it out with his upset brother...still, worth a shot, he'd dealt with Mariku, how much harder could this be?

"Well...what do you want to do?" Malik asked as the first thing that popped into his head and Ryou groaned slightly, pushing his untouched food away to bury his head in his arms.

"I want to make the whole thing go away. I want to pretend I don't know Mariku likes me and I want to pretend it doesn't matter how I feel about him!"

Malik thought over those words carefully before responding. It sounded an offal lot like Ryou was saying he had feelings for Mariku and just didn't know how to deal with them, but that might be self reflecting on his part.

"Do you like him?" He finally asked outright and Ryou raised his head to give him a tortured look. O...kay...wrong question. He decided to try again, fingering one of his heavy weighted golden earrings. It was completely smooth from all the times he'd fiddled with it in the past to sooth his nerves.

"I know we just met and I'm kind of –I mean I probably didn't come off as the type of person you'd want to be friends with but keep in mind I'm just trying to help," He said quickly and to his surprise a small smile tucked the corner of Ryou's mouth.

"The type of person I'd want to be friends with? Have you seen my closest friends?" The whitette asked with a small giggle as Malik blinked blankly, not sure what that meant and finally unbidden the image of Mariku and the Thief King making his official 'class introduction' popped into his head making him snicker slightly until they were both laughing quietly.

"Okay I see your point," He said when Ryou stopped laughing enough to sigh again. "I think, if my brother and possibly your brother will let me, I'd like to be someone you can trust Ryou," He said honestly and at the moment it felt honest.

It felt good to be a regular almost-sixteen-year-old trying to help out a friend in need instead of trying to fit into an upper grade classroom or figure out his other confusing emotions. What really scared him was that the feeling might not stay honest.

Right now he wanted to help...later he might want to take advantage of Ryou's trust. It was the reason he had worked so hard to move up a grade. Other kids his age were just too easy to work with, get along with and then steam roll over when he decided he wanted something.

His ambition was one of the things he had always clung to because it was one of the things he understood about himself. Unfortunately he didn't always like his ambition.

"It's not...trust...I mean I want to get to know you and I already feel like I sort of do having spent so much time around our brothers but...it's just not something I can...deal with. I know Mariku thinks he loves me but it's not true."

Ryou's words slapped Malik in the face and he looked around nervously, almost expecting to see another shattered Mariku standing there. Seeing the expression on his face, Ryou's immediately turned to one of alarm.

"I didn't mean it like that! It's not that I think your brother is intentionally lying to me, it's just we have a bit of a past and...I barely know you but I can trust you because you haven't hurt me."

"He hurt you?" Malik immediately asked and Ryou shook his head but the tight line of his mouth and the way he averted his eyes screamed liar.

"He never laid a finger on me," Ryou said shakily but there was fear in those wide brown eyes and had Malik been a less intelligent person he would have narrowed his eyes openly but instead he just nodded slowly.

"He always has been a bastard, I don't blame you for not liking him back but you should tell him," Malik advised seriously as much as he itched to ask what exactly Mariku had done to earn so much distrust from someone like Ryou of all people. He wondered if it had happened back during Mariku's 'bad days'.

Like he said though, they had only just met even if with the seriousness of the situation it didn't feel that way. Maybe he'd ask his brother. Or maybe he'd just wait like a normal person and hope Ryou opened up to him on his own. Ryou moaned again, tugging his hair in both hands in clear frustration.

"I do like him though!" He blurted and Malik felt shocked all over again. It was sort of like being electrocuted, sharp and mind clearing but also painful and numbing at the same time.

"..." Was all that came out of his slightly open mouth which was less than nothing.

So Mariku was 'in love' with Ryou despite some sort of shady not-so-pleasant past they shared, Ryou was civil but obviously slightly terrified of Mariku and yet also liked him enough to push himself to his limits...yah that made a ton of sense.

"No! I didn't mean to say that," Ryou mourned, then his head shot up, releasing his hair in favour of holding Malik's hand in death grip that conveyed along with those expressive eyes just how afraid he was.

"Please...please Malik...don't ever tell anyone I said that. Especially not Mariku, please, I can't raise his hopes when I don't...when I can't...just don't tell anyone, please!" Malik's head spun and he lost count of how many times Ryou had said 'please' in one sentence, tone terrified and begging all at the same time.

"Um, of course I won't, it's your secret. I hate to see you on bad terms with my brother since you clearly both...care about each other...to some degree, but Mariku will bounce back on his own, he always does," He said in what was hopefully a somewhat reassuring way, patting Ryou's hand awkwardly.

Ryou relaxed with an audible sigh, the pulled his hands back hastily.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to" –

"No biggie," Malik waved the useless apology away. Ryou still looked pretty melancholy but Malik could see the twisted relief on his face as well. He clearly hadn't been lying when he said he thought he could trust Malik and besides, who better to tell your problems to other then an almost-stranger?

No doubt the truth had been suffocating him for awhile now, sitting on his chest and just waiting for a chance to be released.

"You really think he'll forgive me?" Ryou asked after a long moment and Malik almost said the generic 'of course he will' but thought better of it. Ryou was fragile but he wasn't a child.

"If I tell you the truth will you tell me one truth?" He bargained and Ryou shot him a strange look then gave a small nod. Malik immediately felt guilt shoot through him again. Already he was abusing that trust.

Well at least he had good reason for it this time...his ambition had decided rather forcefully that this pathetic situation could use some cleaning up and hopefully some resolving. Maybe the Thief King would even be up for helping him in his conquest. The thought made him want to laugh bitterly but he thought better of it before the sound could escape.

"First tell me why you can't tell Mariku how you feel," He 'requested' and there, bam, fear, like a flashing caution-this-guy-is-about-to-have-a-mental-break-down sign flashed across the softer Touzoku's face.

"You don't have to tell me exactly why or anything I just want to know what it was that you were feeling that made you freeze up when Mariku got upset earlier," Malik clarified. Ryou's face shut down, drawing closed behind his blank brown eyes that now seemed like shutters instead of open windows.

"He just makes me feel so...and he knows the way he treated me before...he makes me feel so..." It was like that hollow voice was on replay but Malik didn't have half a heart to be annoyed. He could only pity how lost and hurt Ryou suddenly looked.

He wondered momentarily if Ryou was just as confused as he was but no, Ryou knew what he was feeling, he just didn't seem to be able to get the words to come out.

"He makes you feel so...?" Malik prompted gently, sliding a golden hand over Ryou's strikingly white one that lay on the table limply now, the other supporting his chin.

"So dirty," Ryou whispered in a scarred, frightened almost childish tone, dark fear flickering across his face as he looked to Malik with wide eyes. Malik blinked, not having expected that. He almost blurted out more questions, that horrified tone of voice that expressed deep pain the only thing stopping him.

Dirty in what way? Sexually, mentally, physically? Or was it that past he had mentioned before? Why did he have to say 'dirty' so damn vaguely? But he promised not to ask.

"It's okay Ryou," The look on Ryou's face said it wasn't okay, not at all, but Malik still had to try. "Whatever Mariku did to you...of course I don't know so it's hard for me to say but I do know he really honestly thinks he loves you and you clearly have some feelings for him as well. My brother can be a bit of a bastard and hard to get along with but he cares about you and whatever it is your feeling I'm sure he'd at least try and understand."

More of that terror flickering over scared brown eyes that melted into that fear Ryou seemed oh so familiar with.

"You can't" –Malik's finger was on his soft pink lips, stopping his words. Wow, okay, bad idea, Malik could feel the heat of his delicate skin, his breath against his finger...he pulled away, not wanting to think about his own issues right now.

For Ra sake, he was a boy and Ryou was a boy and...not the point! Ryou was a boy who had problems that he was supposed to be helping with. All the same he pulled his finger away quickly.

"Shh, I'm not telling anybody, I already said I wouldn't, didn't I? Just know my brother would try. That said I do think he can bounce back from what happened earlier, but only if you give him a little room to move. You have to try to if you want this fear to go away."

Okay, where the hell had that come from? Maybe not understanding his emotions was alright because the psycho babble that just came out of his mouth from Ra knew where had the fear melting away from Ryou's soft face. He wasn't smiling; he still seemed a bit stunned but he wasn't flashing mayday signs anymore.

"Right...I can try," He said almost absentmindedly then stiffened up, pushing himself off the table with his elbows so he was sitting straight. He flashed a sheepish grin to Malik with a small wince then said, "Thanks for that, I guess I kind of needed someone to put me right side up. I don't deal crisis well if you can't tell."

They both laughed at that simply because the choice was laugh or have another emotional breakdown which neither wanted. Malik got the feel that what he had just witnessed was something usually dealt with by the Thief King –not the most sensitive person in the world as far as Malik could tell.

"Uh, I don't know much about this whole 'trying' thing so...what am I supposed to do exactly?" Malik grinned, glad that Ryou had asked. Whatever that emotional support stuff had been obviously threw the switch bringing Ryou back down to earth but as confused as he had been lately, Malik had always been a man of action and Mariku was even more so.

"I have an idea..."

A/N: Okay, was that utterly confusing for anyone? Well don't freak out or abandon this story, please! This chapter was just the introduction to some deeper more confusing issues that will be brought up. If you're ARE utterly confused these are the things you should take from this chapter: Malik is avoiding his feelings for Bakura (the Thief King). Ryou is avoiding his feelings for Mariku because he is completely terrified of him. Ryou and Mariku share some sort of not-so-pleasant past that makes Ryou feel 'dirty' for some reason. Ryou knows Mariku is still upset with him and he wants to reconcile with him but he's nervous about it because he's never been brave enough to really try and make their 'relationship' work before, so Malik has come up with some sort of plan to help their 'relationship'. Interpret all that if you dare ;)