Angael's back! x3 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 3 And for those who are wondering, being a freshman in high school is AWESOME! So much better than middle school.

After Ryou and Marik had come back up to their complex, Ryou had made a happy comment that he was so glad they all were happy in steady relationships now. In response to this, Bakura had choked on the cranberry juice he'd been sipping, and Malik had burst into a fit of gags, having been chewing on a muffin. They had both sent a glare that could freeze over all the oceans towards Marik, whom had coughed uncomfortably and sat Ryou down.

When they had explained to the kind-hearted albino that it had all been set up, at first the whitenette had refused to believe them, but upon hearing the entire story, had grown furious. Instead of blaming Marik like most people might however, the 'good' twin had sworn revenge on Bakura and Malik! Swearing that he would someday get back at them. The two had been flabbergasted, trying to explain that it was the Egyptian singer's idea the entire time, although Ryou would hear none of it. After that there was a knock on the door, where a man with a message from Kaiba had waited, because apparently...

It was time for Malik to go back home.

Malik blinked, eyes wide as he lunged happily at his sister, hugging her tightly, not caring if he appeared childish. No one was there to see, after all; he'd just been dropped off by a limo!

For a moment his sister seemed stunned, but a second later she kicked into action and wound Malik up in her arms excitedly, squealing and speaking nonsense as her brain tried to catch up with her enthusiasm.

"Malik! I, you're back! In a limo! I mean, th-that's not the surprising part, but- but, I mean, wah! I missed you so much, my little brother..." she finally settled on, eyes appreciative as she gently stroked the back of Malik's head with her tanned small hand, smile soft.

The teenager resisted rolling his eyes, instead looking up at her with a responding grin, a bit flushed from embarrassment, even if they were alone. "I missed you too, Ishizu."

After that, Ishizu had yelled for Rishid to come quick, and their adopted brother had done just that, unable to help but smile kindly at Malik. The youngest of the three siblings had been overjoyed to see them again, even if that had meant being snuggled by Ishizu for hours and being stuffed till he felt he might burst. Thankfully Rishid was more or less the type of person that would give him an approving nod and a small smile, although physical contact was slightly awkward for the older man.

The family of three had rather enjoyed their night that was made up of happy chatter, classic movies, great food and quite a bit of homework. All in all Malik got on with his family rather well, ever since he'd moved from Egypt. That was a different story for a different time, sadly.

After he had finished the homework that was assigned for over the break, Malik stretched, letting out a sigh. "I suppose I should be getting some rest now, considering I have school tomorrow." Such things might be considered odd for most teenager's to say, but he had always been like that; he took pride in the fact that he got good grades easily, and he wasn't one to stay up till 3am IMing friends (although, he had gone through that phase).

Ishizu blinked in surprise, appeared distraught. "Oh no! I forgot to tell you, I am so sorry. I thought you already knew! The area around your school has been surrounded with snow – ever since you've been out in the city it's been horribly cold and snowing like crazy, so you're principal decided to delay the beginning for another week." Malik blinked in surprise, feeling happiness spread through his body until he was smiling broadly, before Ishizu went on. "You'll just be making it up at the end of the year, does that sound alright? This way we can spend Christmas together instead of you being loaded up with homework!"

Malik nodded enthusiastically, a bit annoyed that Ishizu had failed to tell him, but to psyched about the news to care too much so that he would hold a grudge. Immediately he sprang up onto his feet, taking out the phone the Kaiba Corp. had provided. "I have to tell Ryou to tell him! Maybe we can hang out this week if he's not busy!" Ishizu rolled her eyes but let out a warm smile.

"You can invite your friend over for dinner if you want, Malik, or you can stay with him for a while." Ishizu had heard enough about Ryou to know she didn't need to be worried when it came to the kindhearted male.

Malik fidgeted uncomfortably; the latter of Ishizu's ideas would have been fine, and didn't bother him. The former however caused him a little bit of discomfort.

No matter how much he disliked it, Ryou was still six years older than him, meaning even if they both acted like boys going through puberty, it's not like they could enjoy the wonders of Fridays night sleepovers; Ryou was just a little too matured for that, even though Malik was sure the kind hearted albino would beg to differ. If he brought Ryou over for dinner, the difference in their ages would no doubt be obvious to Ryou if he came over, whether it was the fault of Ishizu or himself. If Marik came over? Malik wouldn't be able to even look at the singer thanks to the embarrassment. He didn't want things to be different between his friends on him just because of a silly age difference!

"Yeah... well, I'll tell you what we end up deciding." Malik gave a fake grin, to which his sister nodded with her own matching smile, and he proceeded to begin walking back to his room.

"Oh, one more thing Malik...

"Do you plan to do anything for your birthday?"

His what?

"Are you sure it's alright? You're just going to spend the day with your friends?" Ishizu asked, nibbling on her lip in a silent dispute. Malik felt his eye twitch, annoyed with his sister for asking him that YET AGAIN, it being the umpteenth time that day.

"Yes, sister, there isn't anything else I would rather do. Alright?" he couldn't help but bite out the last word a little bit harsher than he'd meant too, although his pride kept him from apologizing. His sister let out a sigh, nodding her head.

"Alright... but if you need me, just call the museum's number, oh you have my cell phone in your contacts, right? Maybe you should check, just in-" Malik thanked Ra when their doorbell rang, and all but ran their, grinning broadly as he checked the eye-perch, and saw it was indeed Ryou like had had expected. Enthusiastically he opened the door, and per usual the two of them hugged like it had been years. Ishizu rounded the corner, raising an eyebrow at the obvious show of affection.

The two of them laughed and giggled their hello's, before Ryou seemed to realize they weren't alone, upon glancing back and spotting his sister. "Oh, hello!" the albino said with a small smile, and the woman nodded her head in greeting. "You must be Malik's sister, it's lovely to meet you, and he speaks quite highly about you." Ryou grinned as Malik shuffled his feet in embarrassment, and Ishizu all but cooed at Ryou's polite manners.

"Oh! Thank you, and you are undoubtedly Ryou; correct? Malik speaks of you as well." By this time, Malik was all but red down to his cute little Egyptian toes, glaring futilely as they both laughed at his demise. "Would you like to come in?"

Before Ryou could say anything that would possibly ruin their day, the teenage Egyptian quickly grabbed the Brits hand and started pulling him out the door. "I'm sure he'd love to, sister! But Ryou and I have places to be – people to see!" with that Malik was all but dragging his friend to the door, hearing his sister yell her goodbyes to which he humorously ignored. He quickly opened the door to the light blue Honda Civic that Ryou apparently owned, sliding in to its back seat plastic upholstery. Ryou got into shotgun, and Marik smirked back at him from the driver's spot, the smirk promising more to the day than usual... it made Malik nervous.

"What?" he asked uncomfortably and Marik's large smirk grew evermore, although he didn't respond, simply turning away. Malik grew irritated now, curiosity sparked. "What?" he growled out again, wondering if Bakura was having a bad influence on him subconsciously?

The Egyptian adult pretended to inspect his perfect set of nails, trying to appear innocent. "Oh, nothing, nothing, little boy. Or should I say... Big boy, now!" Malik's eyes widened, a little bit surprised, actually, really surprised.

"Wh-what? How'd you know?" Malik fumed, looking accusingly at Ryou before realizing he hadn't even told the whitenette, and then just settling on a look of befuddlement.

Marik shrugged. "Baku told me." Malik opened his mouth to ask how in the world his nemesis had found out, but Marik went on before he could get anything out, "he said something about Kaiba forcing him to memorize all these facts about you, so he knew some weird stuff."

The teenage Egyptian was not pleased, but finally grumpily crossed his arms. "I don't like birthdays." He stated harshly, glancing down guiltily. "Sorry I didn't tell you two, but can we not celebrate or anything like that? I kinda just want to hang out." Malik scratched the back of his head hopefully, grinning his winning smile.

Marik rolled his eyes. "Nope. You see, little Malik-chan, it's my birthday too!" Malik's eyes widened in surprise, "Which means, as your present to me, you have to enjoy today as much as possible and not complain!"

Malik mulled over this – actually deciding to give it some thought, although it was obvious from his expression that he was rather unhappy with this predicament. "Why can't we just celebrate your birthday instead? I'd much rather just buy you a present..." he stated with a pout, and the older Egyptian rolled his eyes.

"Because, I'm turning 26, whereas I'd much rather be your age. It's really nothing to be proud of and I would like to not be reminded of it..." Mariku paused, a playful smirk adorning his features as his eyes lavished over Ryou, "I already got what I wanted in terms of presents~." He stated huskily, and somehow, Malik couldn't help but burst into laughter at the way Ryou's face lit up like a tomato. He recalled the time at Mai's Masquerade Party when he'd been absolutely stunned to learn about Bakura and Ryou's sexuality, and quite embarrassed. Now, the most surprising thing in the world would probably be if one of his three friends went out of their way to complement a woman – that would truly be when pigs flew (and a lot of shit was going to go down when pigs actually learned to fly, if he did say so himself).

"If you're sure... I just hope you guys didn't get me presents or anything like that." Malik said while finishing his laughter. But from the look that Mariku and Ryou shared, he had the feeling they had, to which he could do nothing but sigh ruefully, beginning to wonder if it would have been wiser for him to have just stayed home that day.

Mariku started the car up, and for once they drove for a few minutes without any conversation existing between the three of them (where was Bakura anyway? Did the authoress randomly forget him? Surely not!), instead a pleasant silence that only remained not awkward among the best of friends. He furrowed his eyebrows when they took a turn he didn't recognize – where exactly were they going? Before he could question the couple about their destination however, Ryou spoke up. "Ehem... Malik, there is one more thing." Ryou began carefully, and Malik blinked in curiosity, nodding his head for Ryou to go on suspiciously."You wouldn't mind if we... that is to say, you wouldn't be offended or put off if I decided to put a blind fold on you?" Malik stared, waiting for Ryou's lips to twitch, as if he were holding off a smile. When no sign of it came, and instead just one of Ryou's usual meek and polite smiles, Malik looked for other signs of Ryou joking. When seeing none, he let out a baffled laugh, not believing Ryou was serious.

"A blind fold? What the bloody hell for!" he asked with furrowed eyebrows, a bit bemused. His friend simply gave him an apologetic face.

"Please Malik... would you? For Mariku and I?" at the moment, Malik was cursing Ryou's bloody huge eyes, that managed to implant guilt in any person, anywhere (they should test it out on Kaiba sometime), therefore obviously causing any wariness he'd held upright to disappear with a sigh. Grouchily he turned around- well as much as he could in the car- muttering a 'make it quick, you bloody Brit' much to his fellow passengers entertainment.

Following soon after Ryou had tied a pitch black sash around his eyes, and much to his disappointment it was rather large so no light was visible whether he looked up or down, and the stitching was tight enough therefore he could see not the slightest bit of light. "How am I gonna walk like this?" he mumbled to himself, scratching the back of his head as he squinted futilely at the blackness which had overwhelmed his vision.

Ryou laughed shortly at his demise, "don't worry, I won't run you into a wall!"

Mariku's quiet (but heard!) "I will!" did not comfort him very much.

The stairs had not been a fun mountain to climb. And Mariku's inconveniently placed foot had definitely not! been funny, no matter how hard Mariku and Ryou had laughed (and yes, he'd probably let out a chuckle or too as well). That being beside the point, his newly found birthday bruise and limp were not appreciated, something he'd made sure the newly found couple was well aware of. As they got to the top of who knows where, he heard Mariku start slamming on some... metal door? Iron, from the sounds of it. But what did he know about doors? Maybe it was plastic? This was all a little bit beside the point, because his first question should probably be why he was in front of an iron door in the first place. Oh well. He had learned that when it came to his friends, he should probably just not begin to wonder.

He heard nothing, but because he was once again pushed forward softly, he assumed that someone had very quietly managed to open the door. He felt a smidgen of respect for whoever had oiled its hinges, and he began to wonder if he was losing it. As he felt someone (Mariku, probably, considering it was none too gently) begin tugging at the knot at the back of his head, the black cloth that had been impending his view to the outside world was removed, and he was met with all religious fanatics most horrid nightmare:

Nothing.

Before he could begin to panic and question the existence of heaven and the lacking continuation to his vision, even after his blindfold was removed, the lights were snapped on and the world as he knew it was revealed, leaving an imprinting vision of all his loved ones, and some sexy body builders there just for show (surely Mariku's suggestion, Malik knew) screaming a happy, yet still almost as scary, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISHTAR!"

He didn't join in on the laughter that ensued as a result because of his face that plain out spelled 'what the muck?' in pure English (or Japanese, whatever floats your boat, really) across his face. After the initial surprise kicked in however, he couldn't help but let out his biggest (and goofiest) smile. Sure, he was going to go, find the person that organized this party, and punch them across the face later, but for now he could enjoy himself. Unless that person was Kaiba or Ryou. For obvious reasons. Ryou was too cute to punch. Kaiba was... well, enough said.

And enjoy himself he planned to do! He had to say, whatever idiot that had put together this party had done a heck of a good job. It was in a nice place too – it wasn't huge, and upon glancing back he could see it was indeed and iron door that Mariku had knocked on. It was the size of an apartment – a large one, and it seemed to be a loft, if Malik's guess was serving him correctly. And the decorations weren't over the top – there was a few balloons in the corners of the room, a huge banner hanging across the ceiling that read "happy birthday, kid!" in sloppy paint hand-writing, with a smiley face next to it. There were some presents on a table over to the side, along with a huge chocolate cake that Malik's mouth watered over.

A wide assortment of people were there – Mai, Akefia, Atemu... was that-? Yes, even Seto was here! He smiled upon spotting Keith as well, and (of course) there were his two best friends whom had undoubtedly organized the party, Ryou and Mariku. Oh and look, Bakura was there too. He sniggered at the white haired man, who had a scowl on his face as Akefia laughed and attempted to keep Bakura from taking off the recently placed birthday hat from his furry white mane. Malik waltzed over to them, sitting in the chair next to the one which Bakura sat. Atemu, upon spotting him, elegantly walked over and proceeded to drop himself upon Malik's lap.

"Happy birthday Malik," he said, batting his eyelashes. "Would you like sixteen kisses to commemorate it?"

Akefia shoved Atemu off of the birthday boys lap, making a face. "Oh please! If he was to receive kisses from anyone, it would be me." He winked, "Isn't that right, Malik?"

Bakura growled at the both of them "Can't you two leave him alone on his birthday? He shouldn't have to babysit the both of you."

Atemu and Akefia shared a mischievous glance and sighed sadly in unison.

"Well thief, I guess there are some things even you can't steal."

"Yeah, I mean my cousin's hatred burns so bright for this here birthday boy; just seeing one of us kiss him would mean he wouldn't ever look at us again." Akefia said ruefully.

Atemu seemed to ponder that for a moment, before continuing, "You know what's odd though, love?" The tri-colored haired Egyptian didn't wait for an answer. "It's almost as though he didn't want us kissing poor little Malik because he wanted the honors himself!"

Akefia gasped. "You think so? I think you might just be on to something! Should we tell Malik?"

Atemu considered this. "Naw... It might scare him too much, sweetie. We should keep it as our little secret.

Twitch.

Twitch.

"We're sitting right here you know."

Akefia and Atemu winked simultaneously before both chorusing "Cake time! Cake time!" and running off.

Malik let out a smile anyhow, and then stared at Bakura expectantly.

The little color in Bakura's cheeks already began to drain. "I'm not actually giving you birthday kisses, damn it!" A sentence that caused a look of horror to dawn on Malik's face.

"I was waiting for a happy birthday, but if that's really what's on your mind..." they both let out matching smirks.

"Yeah yeah. Happy-one-year-closer-to-when-you're-going-to-die, shortstuff." Bakura snorted, and Malik let out a grin and thanked him kindly by shooting him with silly string. Of course, Fluffy would have none of that, so he proceeded to run around the room until he found his own can of silly string. An all out silly string war arose between the two, and anyone caught in the cross-fire was quick to also locate more and more cans of silly string. This went on until Keith aimed for Ryou in the hair, but was pushed harshly by Mariku therefore sending the offending blast of string straight down Mai's shirt to dwell with whatever other monsters lived down there with her cleavage. Mai let out a shriek and ducked to the ground to try and fetch it out which caused the blast of silly string (shot by Malik himself) that had been going towards the back of her head to narrowly miss Bakura and hit Kaiba straight in the forehead.

The following silence that resulted was most likely heard in China, where they wondered if another president had died in the United States (or Japan. Whatever floats your other boat).

Everyone watched fearfully as first Kaiba's left eye twitched, and then his right. And many thought the apocalypse was soon to occur and Seto would explode within seconds.

And then he took a deep breath...

"I think it's about time we opened presents, don't you all?"

No one argued.

First came Mai's, whom had given him an absolutely fetch pair of sparkling purple high heels, those she had claimed could be one if he ever felt curious. Then Keith's, whom had kindly given him a gift card to the store where they had first met, a thought Malik couldn't help but think was sweet and had smiled largely at the American-flag wearing man. Soon afterwards, a beautiful iPhone 4 was gushed over, courtesy of Kaiba whom claimed no employee of his would be found without a phone. Seto stated that he had wanted to buy him a car; however he hadn't wanted to mess up Malik's face, to everyone apart from Malik's amusement. Following Kaiba's, a bag of condoms was dumped onto Malik's lap, with a snickering Akefia and Atemu in its wake, and a card that read "Don't want you getting pregnant, after all!" He had snorted and thrown a few at them, to which they had politely stated they would be right back and ran off to the bedroom, to which everyone had looked disturbed. Mariku's present was an iPhone 4 with a horrible wrapping job.

"I got a little... distracted, in the making, if you know what I mean." Marik wriggled his eyebrows, eying Ryou.

"The fact that you're bad at wrapping presents has nothing to do with me!" Ryou stated haughtily, and Malik burst into laughter.

Speaking of Ryou, the whitenette had very sweetly thought to get him two tickets for anytime in the next year to the fair they had gone to the other day, a smoking choker gold necklace (Ryou knew him so well!), an adorable picture of Marik, Bakura, Ryou and Malik surrounded by a purple frame, and an iTune's gift card for his new phone.

The Egyptian teen had stared for a while, before sniffling (he steeled himself into not tearing up) and resisting the urge to hug the sweet whitenette. Not knowing what to say, he stupidly remained silent, before saying the cliché'd "You shouldn't have..." but however cliché it may have been, it was accompanied by a much more gorgeous smile than anyone else could have pulled off, surely.

Ryou snorted, an unusual sound to come from him that was for sure. "What sort of best friend would I be if I didn't get you at least four presents?" Malik rolled his eyes then turned expectantly to a very awkward looking Bakura.

Silence ensued.

"You see, the thing is..."

"You forgot to get me a present, didn't you?" Malik asked bluntly, and glares from every corner of the table targeted the British model.

Bakura panicked. "No! No, I didn't forget! The present is just... Well, you know, private." Malik raised a lone eyebrow, apparently not impressed, although he didn't miss Marik's suggestive growl. "Plus with the party I didn't know the brat would be so picky. It's going to take me hours to clean this all up!" Bakura told the rest of the table grouchily, while Malik watched in surprise. He hadn't known his fake-boyfriend had been the one to put together the party; however a pleasant (but ignored) warmth filled his chest upon learning this.

"Don't worry, Bakuuuu! Marik, Malik and I shall help you clean up!" Ryou said helpfully, drawing out the 'oooo' syllable of the Brit's nick-name, although the aforementioned Egyptian's didn't look thrilled at the idea. After that, the cake was cut, a loud and tone-deaf version of happy birthday was sung, and the shirtless body-teasers told Marik regretfully that they had to go unless they were paid for more hours. Akefia and Atemu also shared regret in saying that if the sexy body statues had to leave, as did they. Next was Kaiba, followed shortly by Mai and Keith, until finally the four friends were all whom were left.

And then, after everyone had left, Ryou turned on them, eyes glinting evilly, handing them all hair-ties.

"First, you tie your hair up."

They all stared at the ties placed in their palms as if they were aliens, clearly not getting what Ryou was getting at.

"What was that love?"

Ryou looked at Marik, eyes dead-pan. "I said first, you tie your hair up. Cleaning 101!"

Bakura began to laugh, smirk growing. "No way in hell am I-"

"I said, first you tie your hair up!" They all quickly did as they were told, no longer questioning Ryou's instruction, with a slight frown on Bakura's part, of course. Marik's hair refused to be tamed however, and it took approximately two hair ties and a good amount of gel to tame the wild thing. When done, he appeared more like a five year old boy that had decided to get into daddy's cupboard than a man who wanted to clean, but Ryou was happy, so Marik just laughed it off. Bakura had poked fun at him for what seemed like hours, while Malik had just eyed them both wearily. They were all assigned jobs after that. Ryou had purposefully kept Malik's simple considering it was his birthday, asking politely if he could please sort his presents. And who was Malik to complain? Bakura was ordered to pick up all the silly string from the walls and ground (and ceiling), while Marik was instructed to find all the paper (like wrapping paper) and put it into a recycling bag.

Ryou tackled everything else, and how he managed to finish first still baffled them today!

Malik let out a yawn just as they were finishing, and Marik gave him a sympathetic look. "We'll take you home now, kiddo. I forget that you're just a baby sometimes." He said while make gushy noises and pinching his cheeks. Bakura laughed at his demise while Ryou waited by the door, giggling. "Come on Marik! We need to leave so Bakura can give Malik his present!" Marik seemed to just remember this himself, and excitedly jumped over to Ryou's side, with Malik's presents in a back hung gracefully over his shoulder.

"Alright you two, don't take too longer! W-wait should I get out Akefia and Atemu's present?" Marik asked Ryou, who rolled his eyes but nonetheless whispered a 'maybe just in case?' to his boyfriend. Malik through one of Bakura's shoes at the two of the laughing men as they exited. When the door (the iron door!) to the loft closed, an awkward silence followed.

This enclosed a distracted Bakura playing with a sexy picture of a hot naked man on his wall and a fidgeting Malik. When Bakura began to walk towards him and stood there with his hands in his pockets, Malik burst into chuckles.

"You forgot to buy me a present didn't you?"

"Uhh..." Bakura replied smartly, to which Malik smirked and turned around, right at the same moment the whitenette had seemingly leaned in. The birthday boy let out a noise of surprise as a forehead bonked the back of his head, and turned around to stare at Bakura with wide eyes. The man was staring at him with just as huge of mahogany eyes, before letting out an embarrassed "Ryou, um, missed a piece of trash!" Bakura said quickly, holding up a slice of wrapping paper, looking away with a scowl. Malik laughed at him, before pulling his hair.

"Whatever you say, fur ball! Just don't forget next year!" And with that, Malik was out the door, having no idea what had just happened at what inner turmoil and swearing the said fur ball was going through on the other side of the iron door.

Tonight we lay under the midnight sky.
Just as a shooting star catches my eye.
I'm making wishes that I want come true.
My favorite one is being here with you.

The grass we lay turns silver by the moon.
Warm summer winds blowing in early June.
Looking into his eyes I see them shine.
My heart left thinking soon he will be mine.

Crickets are chirping in the fields nearby.
Out from the grass a single firefly.
A heart is formed from the light left behind.
When visions of the future flood my mind.

Hand in hand he has his head on my chest.
In the comfort of my arms he will rest.
I can hear and feel every breath he takes.
The night is young and no more sounds it makes.

The scent of his perfume tingles my nose.
Beautiful smell like a freshly cut rose.
His skin is soft as my lips kiss his cheek.
When he kissed me back my body felt weak.

As we kiss and giggle under the night.
I knew that everything would be alright.
The hair on my arms and neck stand on end.
For I know I have found my one true friend.

By Darien

So this was kind of a special for everyone.

Alright guys, here comes the excuse. So my beta was my best friend in the entire world. Entire. World. But like... She decided she didn't want to read my stories or beta anymore and she really started being mean and talking about me behind my back according to my other friends and I just lost all my inspiration to write because she was my inspiration. But that's no excuse and I know the smile that lights my face up when I see someone updates a story I love, so I guess I'm hoping I can bring you guys a little joy.

LONG STORY SHORT I NEED A NEW BETA.

Did anyone else know you could check how many hits a story had? I DIDN'T!

5,000. ALMOST 5,000. *faints* So I'm sure at least 2,000, most likely 3,000 of those clicks are from the same people. But to think that 1,000-3,000 people have actually clicked on this story... I can safely die happily. (: 3

Merry Christmas!

READREADREADREADREADREAD.

It's Christmas.

My gift to you guys was this chapter.

Will you write me a review as your gift? The next chapter should be out soon.

Date Completed: 12/1/11

Word Count: 5,249 :( Next one will be longer! I promise!