A/N: Guys. GUYS. When I sat down to start this Thursday night, I noticed that there was already a file saved under "V7" (I always give my stories a letter, then a number after signifying which chapter it is. This one happens to be V for absolutely no reason other than Domino Institution had taken up 'M' and another failed, un-posted story from a year ago claimed 'B'. My document library is a cryptic mess feared by the general population of South Asia) and LORDY ALMIGHTY did I get excited. I was like, freak yes I get to slack off, finish off this chapter that I'm sure is almost done, thanks to I don't even know maybe a drunken, lonely night or something, and then I open the file and guess what it was. Guess what the fuck it was?

"A/N: *Insert random jumble of ideas that isn't even an author's note here.*"

Way to disappoint me, me.

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Mommy, did I do it right?

.

He pointed across the street at a grand two story building. Elaborate columns lined the front of it gracefully, and the double glass doors were framed by a matching arch. The building itself was brick and it looked brand new even though it was almost as old as Malik himself.

"That's the museum where my sister works."

.

"Oh, darn. That's really going to create some moral issues, won't it, Fafi?"

The purr in Lynx's tone was much more evident than usual, so Malik easily and correctly concluded that his rival's latest idea that was coincidentally relevant to Malik's home life wasn't much of a coincidence. But then again, with Lynx, nothing was ever a coincidence.

Lynx was looking for a reaction. Some sort of emotional outburst that would make him chicken out before they even got started. Something that would make Malik think, consider his recent choices, and then come crawling back to Lynxypie in the middle of night to comfort him with sweet villainy competition and too many innuendos for something not to be screwed in loose in his brain.

Or maybe he was all too right about the "screwed loose" part and all Lynx was after was to fuck with him.

Either way, Malik wasn't going to give him what he wanted.

"No. It's no problem at all for me," Malik said, glaring at the general area of Lynx's eyes behind his mask. He felt the look being returned, like a small raincloud had formed between them and was ready to burst any second.

"Great," Lynx said. He moved a little towards the museum, but Malik caught his shoulder.

"Hold on."

"Second thoughts?"

"You'd love that, but no. I think we need to wait a second before we tumble in with our heads shoved in our own anuses. This place has super tight security, and it's going to need more than five seconds of thought before we jump in and trip twenty alarms within the first two steps," Malik reasoned, his mouth set in a stubborn line. He wasn't nervous about the "Ishizu's workplace" thing. There was no way anyone could know it was really him behind Fast Fist's purple mask, so, in essence, there was no harm done. What he was worried about was how Lynx had known Ishizu worked there. Malik had said she worked at a museum, but there was more than one in all of Domino.

"Kid, how many times have we done shit like this?" Lynx asked, not skipping a beat.

Malik almost lost his words, stuck in his own mentality. "Never."

"Exactly. Do you think I'd fuck up our first time?" Lynx accented the words first time with amusement, but Malik knew he was otherwise serious. No way would Lynx allow himself to mess up a simple fifth class felony.

"What'd you do? Take out all the security guards before you brought me here?" Malik teased, though he was genuinely curious about how Lynx could be so sure…other than his natural arrogance and general asshattery glowing in its prime.

"Fafi! That would be reckless," Lynx countered, but Malik could definitely hear a smile in his tone. After a brief pause, he continued. "If you absolutely must know, I had a friend go in during business hours and rig the surveillance and trips."

Malik felt his eyes go wide. "You have friends?"

"If you count the pedestrians I threaten with knives and force to do very nasty, very illegal things for me, then yes, Fafi. Yes, I do." His voice was coated thickly with a brand of fake sarcasm Malik knew well.

"You're totally lying," Malik accused, slugging him on the arm.

Lynx let out a muffled, involuntary sound of surprise and raised his hand to his arm. "About…?"

"You really did have a friend do that for you, not some scared shitless stranger," Malik said, crossing his arms adamantly. "You have a tell, you know."

"Whatever," Lynx huffed, which drew a smile out of Malik, because it was pretty much a confession.

"So…your friend. Are you sure we can trust him?" Malik wondered aloud, even though he knew the answer. Honestly, he was more curious about the friend than the infallibility of him.

Lynx snorted, cocking his head to accent his point that Malik's question was ridiculous. "Of course we can. This friend is particularly close, if you know what I mean."

His last words were drawn out as if to imply something, but Malik had absolutely no idea what, and he wasn't sure he wanted to anymore, judging by the way Lynx's mask was twisting grossly upward at the mouth.

"Whatever that means," He said, then finished with: "Let's do this. I have to get home soon."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to miss church," Lynx taunted as he pushed himself off the rooftop they had been talking on and landing on his feet halfway across the museum's.

Malik simply willed himself upward, finding the task to have become much easier since his guardians had started monitoring his eating. But being strong made no difference if he was too fat to fit into his costume. God help his future victims of he ended up having to sew himself a new one.

When Malik touched ground, Lynx had already broken into the building's rooftop entrance, and he was leaning against the open door, arms crossed like he'd been standing there for hours.

"Took you damn long enough. If it's that much of an effort to use your powers, you should probably consider going on a diet consisting of more than your own saliva."

Malik rolled his eyes, shoving Lynx into the door with his elbow as he passed by him. "Fuck you."

He hadn't told Lynx about his family's new habit of practically shoving food down his throat, and some part of him thought the reason was because he actually enjoyed the berating. Well, not really the berating itself, but the suspected reason behind it. If Lynx bothered to tease him so much about his totally-not-an-eating-disorder, then that meant he cared whether or not Malik ate.

The twisted side of him found comfort in knowing that someone outside his family cared that much about him, and he let himself cling to it.

"I know you want to, but jeez, kiddo, we're in the middle of a burglary, here." Lynx's voice was hushed as they made their way down the fire escape-like stairs, their footsteps causing small echoes throughout the small space.

It wasn't a terribly long walk, but the place was pretty creepy.

The inside wasn't much better, either. The main lights were turned off, but the lights surrounding the exhibits and a few emergency lights remained stubbornly aglow. The radiance surrounding the artifacts made each a hundred times more enchanting, especially a certain exhibition in the ancient Egypt section of the museum.

"This place is like a secondhand store," Malik whispered, as if terrified to break the eerie silence in the normally very lively and well-off public treasure. It would be all over the press when it was discovered the place had been robbed.

Lynx nodded, not entirely paying attention to his partner in crime. He was very much distracted by a golden artifact from the same Egyptian exhibit Malik had been scoping out. The one he was looking at seemed to be a necklace, albeit one that was extremely gaudy. It was on a thick chain, and the charm was a full ring the size of Malik's entire torso. In the center, a pyramid shape met the inside of the ring at each point and an eye-looking symbol was engraved in the center. The ring was rimmed on the bottom half with spikes that looked much too sharp to be so close to one's vital organs, but Lynx seemed entranced by it.

"I'm going to take this," he said, putting a hand to the glass encasing. With his other, he pushed past his glove and reached into the sleeve of the offending hand. Malik wasn't sure if he was surprised when the other extracted a knife.

"What are you going to do with that?" Malik asked, eyeing it a bit nervously.

"Obviously I'm going to gut you clean if you don't hurry and find something," Lynx threatened, but it was definitely empty. Probably.

Malik looked around. Where they were at, they barely had a fourth of the museum's contents in view, but he figured that if Lynx was going to rush him, he had to choose from what was in front of him.

"This," he said after some consideration. He pointed to an artifact in the same exhibit as the one Lynx had chosen, except his was a lot cooler. It was clearly a scepter, with a sphere at the tip, and shapes that resembled bat wings protruding from it. It bore the same eye marking as the ring, which was a bit creepy. The handle tapered into a point, almost like a blade.

"Alright. Let's blow this popsicle stand," Lynx said. Before Malik could question his wording, his crazy rival smashed the hilt of his knife into his artifact's glass encasing. An alarm blared, but Lynx didn't hesitate to break the barrier blocking Malik's new possession from him. They scrambled out of the museum, treasures cradled in their arms.

"Welcome to stage two, Fafi. Panic," Lynx said breathlessly as they hitched it, the cool night wind slapping them in the faces.

They could still hear the alarm by the time they were well down the street.

.

Monday morning came too quickly.

At first, Malik had kind of been looking forward to seeing Ryou's cute, flustered face when they had their "morning after the morning after the morning after" moment, but now that the school's front doors were in sight, as well as the white-haired teen in question, he found himself overtaken by a firm sense of guilt.

When Ryou had kissed him, that's where it should have ended. The guy was nice, but Malik knew during foreplay that Ryou would regret having sex with him, which was something Ryou hadn't, oddly enough, seemed to consider. It was weird because the kiss was bold for him. Lying about why he'd been out so late was bold for him. Coming out, though indirect and very much forced, was bold for him. Even sticking up to the third-rate villain that night had been pretty daring for someone like Ryou Bakura.

That night, he just hadn't been at all like himself, and the curiosity about that is what drove Malik to catch up to him at his locker and tap on his shoulder.

Ryou closed his locker gently, chocolate milk eyes meeting Malik's piercing lavender.

He smiled. He freaking smiled, and not even awkwardly. "G'morning, Malik."

"Good morning yourself," Malik said, though he heard a tint of confusion in his own words.

"How are you today?"

Malik searched his face, but the only sign of any awkwardness he was displaying was a light blush peppering his nose and cheeks like cinnamon on powdered sugar.

"Uh, great, but can we cut the pleasantries? We seriously need to talk," he said, deciding that if Ryou wasn't going to react on his own, then Malik had to make him.

At that moment, the bell rang, signifying the start of first period. Ryou glanced from the speaker above their heads to Malik's set eyes a few times before nodding, deciding that talking to a serious Malik was worth missing a few minutes of notes.

Malik backpedaled into an empty outing in the hallway where the door to a long-abandoned janitorial closet was. The crowd of sleepy high school kids passed by without a single glance, which was what he'd been aiming for.

"Are you okay?" Malik began, taking in every part of Ryou's face, which was wide and chubby, open and innocent like a young child, yet to be jaded by the cruelty of humankind. Malik knew he wasn't naïve, but he sure looked it.

"Of course I am," Ryou replied. The lack of confusion on his face told Malik he knew what the discussion was about, but if that was true, why wasn't he reacting?

"Why?" He felt bad that that was all he could think to say, but it was a legitimate question.

Ryou chuckled, his wide, cute smile seemingly permanent. "What we did Friday…it helped me. I mean, before that, I was really confused. I know I kind of said I'm gay, but honestly it had just been a suspicion, but I knew you wouldn't accept that answer, so I just outright said it, and then when you told me that thing about gay not being a plague, I just felt so…"

"Turned on?" Malik tried, eliciting the deep blush he'd been searching for.

"Not quite, no," Ryou said. "More like…inspired. Yeah. Inspired that you could be so at terms with your sexuality."

"So you're not upset?" Malik said, his eyebrows knitting together. He leaned against the wall, head cocked in curiosity.

"No, not at all. In a way, I needed that. It really made me think about who I am."

"You're not upset in the least." Malik must have been missing something. He searched Ryou for the answer, coming up painfully short…

…Until Ryou spoke his next words:

"Malik, it was just a kiss."

There was a long silence in which Malik flipped almost every shit he owned. Surely, Ryou was pranking him. Or he was dreaming. Or he'd dreamed Friday—meaning the part where they'd hardcore screwed in a side alley.

"What's wrong?" Ryou prompted, stepping closer to catch Malik's downcast gaze. He gripped Malik's jacket sleeve in the process, which was what forced him to look Ryou in the eyes again.

"I don't know which one of us is missing something, but I remember a hell of a lot more than a kiss," Malik said. He watched as Ryou's expression turned from worry to downright terror, and he slightly regretted mentioning the sex.

"Oh no…" Ryou breathed, pulling his hand away from Malik and running both through his long hair. "I am so sorry."

"No, it's fine, don't—" Beat yourself up about it.

"I am so, so, so, so sorry," Ryou said. He looked downright near tears, and his expression was molded with nothing but fear.

"Hey, calm down…"

"I can't believe I did that. I am never leaving my house again. It's not safe anymore. No, that wouldn't solve anything. Oh, God, I'm so sorry!"

Malik quirked an eyebrow as Ryou ranted for almost an entire minute, not paying any mind to anything he said to comfort him. Eventually, Malik got tired of hearing him ramble, so he interrupted him with a last resort move: mimicking what he'd done on Friday, pinning the short, but broader boy against the wall and looking his directly in his wide, panicked eyes.

"Look," Malik opened. "It was just sex. It happens every day, to millions of people. Hell, I bet some people are probably having it in this school right now."

Ryou's panic didn't dissolve, but he looked slightly calmer. Calm enough to glance down and realize how close they were to each other, which made Malik realize how minty-sweet his breath smelled past his chubby lips.

Malik did the wisest thing he could think of, releasing the shorter boy and taking a big step back.

Ryou tucked some of his bangs behind his ear, his movement made irrelevant when his bangs tumbled back into his eyes. "It's not the…the relations I'm worried about."

Malik cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head, prompting a silent, "Then what is it?"

Ryou glanced behind the taller, tanner boy at the latecomers passing by in the halls. "I've been having blackouts," he said, lowering his voice so Malik could barely hear him over the small crowd of passersby.

"Like, blanks in your memory?"

"Exactly," the white-haired teen replied. He licked his lips, then pulled his bottom one into his mouth to chew on.

"So what you're saying is…" Malik began. "You had a blackout Friday, and you don't remember anything."

Ryou tilted his head from side-to-side. "Kind of. I remember running into you, then going into the alley, then talking to you, then kissing you, and then you saying good night, putting your hands in your pockets and leaving."

"Huh." Malik grinned. "Cool."

.

A/N: This chapter was a blast for me. Surely it had nothing to do with Ryou and that last scene that I've been planning since the moment the twisted idea of the alley scene entered my brain. :P

Thanks for supporting me, my loverlies. *Hearts all around, baby.*