Mew: I just want to give a huuuge thank-you to everyone who's read this story (and especially to those who left reviews)! My goal when I first started was five chapters, but thanks to you, there's going to be ten, and more! I promise. Just read this and you'll see. Besides, you didn't think that I'd pack the entire conclusion into one measly chapter, huh?

Draiku: I suppose that I'd better thank you all as well. –bows-

Mew: For those wondering how many chapters it will be, I can't give you an exact number. But, I'm hoping that it at least reaches fifteen, which will make this my longest story on That seems pathetic, considering that there are stories out there with 30+ chapters, but it's a big achievement for someone like me. XD Again, thanks for sticking with the story, and I'm glad you all are reading it!

Disclaimer: Mew Draiku owns NOTHING to her name, except for her laptop. But that doesn't include Yu-Gi-Oh, unfortunately.

Badass Boyfriend

Chapter 9: Splurging

Malik stayed the rest of the evening, attached to Marik at the hip constantly. And I don't mean that in a perverted manner like you probably think I do. Marik's parents were pleased that they were together once again, and were glad that Malik would soon be joining the family. Of course, Marik and Malik didn't tell them about the cash they'd found.

During the weekend, I'd sometimes call home, wanting to speak to my father. Of course, as soon as he picked up, I hung up abruptly. I felt too ashamed to speak to him now. But I was glad to hear his voice every now and then.

"You still miss him?" Malik was asking me while he, Marik, and I lounged in the living room. I nodded, sighing. "I'm glad I don't have parents. I don't really have any to miss."

"I've been meaning to ask, but what really happened to your parents?" Marik said.

"Mom died a few weeks before I was born, so I was born premature," Malik replied. "The doctors managed to save me in a C-section, of course. My father killed himself soon after, and Isis and Rishid took care of me." I blinked, staring. Marik was as well.

"You never told me this," Marik stated softly.

"I didn't want you to worry or anything," Malik replied stubbornly. Marik frowned.

"I'm sorry," he said gently.

"Shush," Malik replied a little snappily. "I never knew them anyway." However, I could see in his eyes that he did miss them, even if he'd never spoken with them before. I could understand the feeling; I never knew my mom, but I wished that I could meet her every single day of my life. The same thing went for my dead older sister.

"So," I said, deciding to change the topic, "when do you two plan on getting married?" Marik and Malik both shrugged.

"Probably right after the last day of school, so the wedding doesn't conflict with it," Malik said. Marik nodded.

"I see. That makes sense," I commented. It was about nine months off, but that was good. They'd have more time to plan for it than they did originally.

"Yeah, we figured that it would be best to wait a little longer so we could decide who to invite and such," Marik said and Malik scooted next to him to cuddle.

"Hey, Marik?" Akila said, calling down from the top of the stairs. "Can you three do some weeding for me?"

"We just did that three days ago," Marik called back.

"Yeah, but you know how weeds are," she replied.

"Alright," Marik said. We walked outside and began yanking weeds out of the ground. A black car with tinted windows drove by and stopped in front of the house. I blinked, looking up and staring at it. Just looking at it gave me a bad feeling. After a few minutes, it drove away and turned the corner, disappearing. I blinked again and decided to ignore whatever was bothering me, and yanked out a dandelion at the base of its stem.

-

"Ryou, we haven't gone out since forevvvvvverrrrr," Mana complained to me one day while she clutched my arm as we walked down the hallway. I sighed with annoyance.

"Sorry, I've just been really busy since dad kicked me out," I replied. She frowned.

"Ohhh. Why'd he kick you out anyway?" she asked. I paused a moment. She already knew, so why was she asking? I guess it was just "typical blonde" behavior. (A/N: No offense to any blonds out there.)

"Um…he figured out that I'm an atheist," I said, worried for a moment that she'd give me a long speech on God and why I should be Christian.

"What's that?" she said, surprising me. Maybe her parents brainwashed her over the weekend?

"Um, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in a higher being. So I don't believe in God, basically." She gasped, and I rolled my eyes. Here it came.

"Ryou, how could you! God created you, you have to believe in and love Him or you'll go to…to…" She paused, looked around, and whispered, "Hell."

"Well, whatever then." She gasped again.

"Ryou, I don't want you to go to that place! You need to come to Heaven with me so we can be together forever!" she said, tugging on my sleeve. It was very tempting to shove her away. I can't see why I didn't.

"Look, I really don't want to argue," I said softly, stopping and facing her. "I'm having a lot going through my mind right now, and I'm exhausted. Can we please stop?" She frowned.

"I'm just worried about you, that's all!" she insisted.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," I said.

"Hey, Ryou!" Mai called to me, walking out of her office and waving. "C'mere a second."

"Alright," I called back. "Well, see you later, Mana." I turned to walk off, but she stopped me and kissed me gently. She pulled away, still frowning at me.

"You know, you never kiss back," she commented before leaving briskly. I didn't quite know what to think of that, so I ignored it and went to Mai's office. She was sitting on her desk, obviously waiting for me.

"Yes?" I said, and she motioned towards a chair with her head. I sat down.

"Okay, so after school, I'm going on a date with your dad," she said. I blinked.

"Okay," I replied, wondering why she was telling me this.

"First of all, I want to know what he likes talking about," she said.

"Um…well, as far as I know, he likes talking about the ancient Egyptians, believing in God, and baseball. Dad's a huge baseball fan. But I'm not sure what else he likes talking about," I replied.

"You and your dad don't talk much, do you," Mai said.

"Well, he's at work a lot, and most of his work involves going to Egypt. But he'll be home for a few months now," I said.

"Do you ever call him?" she asked. "I mean, while he's in Egypt." I shook my head.

"I wouldn't want to make the phone bill high for long-distance calling. Plus, I don't like baseball, I'm an atheist, and I don't know much about ancient Egypt, so there wouldn't be much to talk about even if I did call. Sometimes I do call, though, just to check on him, and he calls to check up on me every week or so. But that's it," I explained. She frowned slightly.

"I see," she said quietly. "Anyway, the other reason I wanted to talk to you was because I was wondering if your dad dates much."

"Well, he hasn't dated since mom died, so no."

"So he hasn't been getting any for around eighteen years. Should I--?"

"He doesn't believe in premarital sex," I quickly replied, interrupting her.

"Damn. Because your dad is probably one of the best-looking guys I've ever seen," she said, frowning slightly. "I bet he's a real gentleman, too, unlike some of the other idiots I've dated." I shifted, a little uncomfortable.

"Right, right. Can we move on?" I asked. She laughed and ruffled my hair.

"Well, I'm done anyway. You'd better head to class, kid. Oh, and don't forget this," she said, handing me a pass. I nodded.

"Well, good luck on your date with dad, I guess," I said, smiling. She nodded and I hurried to class. Marik looked at me oddly when I sat down next to him.

"What's with you and the school nurse?" he asked in a whisper. I blinked.

"How'd you know I was there?" I replied.

"I saw you walk into her office. Why do you two talk so much? One would think that you're a couple," he said.

"Oh. She's dating my dad, and wanted to know what he likes to talk about," I replied. Marik blinked, and gasped.

"She's dating him? Dear god. Are you serious?" I nodded. "Damn. That must be seriously embarrassing. Especially since she knows that you masturbate in school."

"That was only once!" I whined, a little loudly.

"Hey, you two! Shut up!" the teacher growled at us. We shut up. Marik passed a note to me, so we used that system of communication instead. Marik went on about me masturbating in the bathroom, so I eventually crumpled up the paper and threw it away. He sighed with annoyance at me. Before he could start writing another note, the bell rang, and everyone left class for lunch. Mana, unusually enough, passed right by me in the hall. I blinked, a little shaken by the fact that she wasn't clinging to me by now. It wasn't normal, but nevertheless, I enjoyed the privacy.

"Hey, nice collar," Bakura said, walking up to me. I smiled, even if I hated the damn thing on my neck.

"Thanks. Marik gave it to me," I said.

"That was nice of him," Bakura commented. "So I hear that he and Malik are back together now?" I nodded.

"Yeah. They reached an agreement about when to get married," I said.

"When's the wedding, then?" Bakura asked.

"Most likely the day after school ends."

"Hn. How will they pay for college? I heard that gay marriage is at least twice the cost of straight marriage," he said. I paused a second, wondering if I should tell him about the case of money. Deciding against it, I made something up.

"Malik's applying for a bunch of scholarships, and so is Marik. They can afford the marriage with the money they have, but they'll have scholarships to help them get through college," I said. "It'll be hard, but I'm sure they can do it." Bakura kept eyeing my neck, probably admiring the collar. I wondered if his fetish for collars was setting in, or at least I hoped it was.

"I see," he murmured, still staring through half-open eyes. I blinked. I wasn't quite used to him looking at me with—was that a hint of lust in his eyes? I blushed a little, and he blinked, shaking his head. "Well, I'd better get to lunch," he said quickly, and briskly walked past me.

"Um, Bakura? You're going in the wrong direction," I called after him. He paused.

"I have to stop at my locker."

"Your locker's this way, right?" Bakura paused again.

"I have to go to the bathroom," he said.

"The bathroom's this way, too." Was he…avoiding me? Maybe he was Christian and didn't want to be around an atheist. Then again, why would he start talking to me in the first place?

"…Right. You're right," he said, and turned around, looking a little pale. We walked to the lunchroom together, though he didn't stop at his locker or the bathroom. Maybe I was right. Maybe he truly was trying to avoid me. I frowned a little, feeling rejected. But worst of all was the fact that I didn't know why he was avoiding me, so I couldn't fix whatever it was.

For the rest of the day, Bakura seemed worried and lost. I suggested that he take a break and go to the nurse's office to lie down a bit. After much persuasion, he finally took my advice and went there. Finally, school was over, and I went to Mai's office to ask if there was something wrong with him.

"I asked, and he just said that he had a lot on his mind, and that he felt faint," she replied.

"He was avoiding me, though," I said softly. She blinked, and an expression that could only be called a "Mona Lisa smile" attached itself to her face.

"I see," she said, and the expression faded. "Well, I don't know what to do about that. Just wait until he starts talking to you again."

"Alright," I said, sighing.

"Well, I gotta go. I don't want to be late to my date," she said with a wink. "See you, Ryou." I nodded and we left. Marik was waiting at his car for me, along with Malik.

"There you are. Took you long enough," he commented.

"Sorry," I replied, "I had to stop at Miss Kujaku's office for a bit."

"Ahh," Malik said, and we climbed in. I stretched, lying down in the back seat, and we drove to the mall.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, sitting up and looking around.

"Well, we figured that you need some more shirts and pants," Marik replied.

"I don't have enough money to afford it," I replied.

"I know, but Marik and I are treating with 500 dollars of the two hundred grand we found," Malik said with a wink. I gasped.

"You really don't have to! I said that you guys could keep all the money!" I said, obviously quite surprised.

"Exactly. And since you're letting us do that, we're not going to let you get away without a prize," Marik said, grinning. "Oh, and you have to spend all of it." I groaned.

"You know me, guys! Seriously, you really don't need to do this!" Marik and Malik hopped out of the car and tugged me out towards the mall. Of course, we went straight to Hot Topic, as they'd planned. I continued to protest, but they ignored me. Finally, to make them happy, I bought a few items of clothing (mostly pants, since Marik's were quite loose on me), and a pair of boots to match.

"Wow, you have good taste, Ryou," Malik commented, holding up one of the boots and admiring it at the checkout. He set it back down. "Well, the total came to 499 dollars, so you still have a buck. Spend it, Ryou."

"It's only a dollar," I replied, wringing my hands. Marik pointed to a box of small paraphernalia on the counter.

"Get something from there," he said. "The money goes to keeping art and music in school." I got a keychain that looked like a tape, to keep them satisfied. Finally, we left, holding a couple of bags of merchandise.

"See, now was that so hard?" Malik asked, grinning and nudging my arm with his elbow. I had never spent that much money in one day, so yes, it had been, but strangely, it felt nice to spend so much at once. I figured that that was why girls liked to splurge.

We climbed back into the car and began driving to Marik's home.

"Aww, this'll look so adorable on you, Ryou," Malik said, smiling as he held up a collar with a small, silver skull dangling from it. "I thought that you hated collars, though."

"Bakura seems to like them, so I may as well get it," I replied with a shrug. Maybe I could learn to like collars someday. Or at least I hoped that I could. If Bakura and I did end up together, I'd want him to think I look nice. Sexy, actually.

"So what do you want to do now?" Marik asked, turning up the volume when "Animal I've Become" came on. (He'd forced me to learn all of Three Day's Grace's songs one day. By now, I'd become quite a fan of them.)

"Let's just hang out at your place," Malik replied. I nodded in agreement. Truthfully, I wanted to try on some of the clothing.

"Alright. While we're there, we should try dying Ryou's hair. I think it'd look cool," Marik said, looking like he was pondering something.

"Uh, no way," I replied. "I'm not going to dye my hair. Not in a million years."

As you can probably guess, by six that night my hair had been dyed. Every "spike", as Marik called it, had a black tip. I suppose that it did look cool, but I'd never dyed my hair before, so it was definitely an odd experience for me.

"Wonderful!" Malik said, grinning. "Now we'll just let it dry and be finished."

"Finally," I stated dully.

"Oh, come on, Ryou," Marik said with a laugh. "It looks awesome. Hey, we should go outside. It's kind of windy out, so it'll dry faster." We went outside, like he suggested, and a black car stopped in front of the house. I blinked, staring at it. Suddenly, five men jumped out of nowhere and immediately gagged and bound us. They carried us to the car, placing Marik in the front seat, and me in the back with Malik. A man wearing sunglasses and a trench coat sat in front, grinning evilly.

"Good job, boys," he said to the men who'd captured us. "Leave 'em to me. I'll take care o' this."

He drove away quickly, just below the speed limit as to not draw attention. Then he took us out in the middle of a parking lot next to a deserted store. Using the electric windows, he opened Marik's window wide enough so someone's head could fit through it. I blinked, wondering what he was doing, but I feared for the worst. Then, he shoved Marik so my friend's head was sticking out the window, and he quickly put the window back up. The opening was large enough so Marik wasn't choking, but small enough so he couldn't get out.

"MMMH!" Malik made a frantic noise, sitting forward. The man immediately pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

"Don't say a word, kid," he growled. "Jus' do as I tell ya, and you'll live. Probably, if I'm feelin' nice. Y' see?"

This couldn't be happening.

TBC

Mew: Yet another cliffhanger. Nyahahahaha.

Draiku: Wait—what??! No! I wanna know what happens! –tugs on Mew's shirt collar-

Mew: I shall never tell! NEVER!

Draiku: -chokes Mew-

Yoko: Good going, Draiku. Now we'll never know.

Draiku: …oh. Crap.

Yoko: -sighs- Fear not, fellow readers! All you must do is leave a review, and Mew shall be resurrected! Well, not really, but it increases the chance of a quick update. –evil grin- Sooo, go ahead and R&R! …Please?