I still don't own YuGiOh! Any songs I use in this chapter are credited at the end (I hate spoilers).
Yugi stood in the elevator, holding two cups of coffee and humming to himself. He was in an amazing mood, and he was excited to see Yami again. He stepped off the elevator and walked through the living room, heading directly to the hall to knock on Malik's door. He heard her approach from the other side, opening it with a grin.
"Good morning!" She greeted him cheerily.
"Coffee?" He out one of the cups to her and she accepted it gratefully.
"You're fantastic, Yugi." She said, taking a long sip and letting out a satisfied hum. "Coffee is the elixir of the gods, I'm certain."
He laughed at that before following her into her room. He hadn't been in her room yet, and he was surprised to see she had ven fewer items than he did. She had a vanity with various products on it across from her bed, which had a deep purple duvet on it. She had two bowls on the floor with food and water for Osiris, and a side table with a small cactus garden on it. On her desk was a laptop.
"Give me just a second to grab my bag. I want to go check on Mana before we do anything else today." She said, grabbing a small black backpack and putting her laptop and a notebook into it.
They crossed the hall to Mana's room. Yami was sitting in a blue armchair when they walked in. He had appeared to be sleeping, but his eyes opened as soon as they walked in.
"How's she doing?" Malik asked, setting her bag down beside Yami's chair.
"Still sleeping. She should wake up soon though." He replied, stretching casually.
"I see her hand already healed." Malik noted, looking at where Mana's left hand was exposed.
"Yes, it healed relatively quickly. I was worried when she did it that it wouldn't." Yami smiled at them. "Good morning, Yugi." He greeted warmly, and Yugi felt the color rise in his cheeks.
"Good morning, Yami." He smiled back at him.
"Who's this little guy?" Malik asked Yami, and Yugi noticed for the first time a bearded dragon with odd purple coloration sitting on Yami's shoulder, hiding himself in Yami's hair.
"Oh, this is Mahad. Mana and I found him at a pet store last year. You haven't met him yet?" Yami scooped the creature up so it was resting on his hand and held him out to Malik, who immediately placed him on her shoulder.
"Hi, Mahad. You're a cutie, aren't you?" Malik cooed at him.
They heard a moan from the bed, where Mana finally stirred, her eyes opening slowly. Yami stood and left the room, returning quickly with a tray. On it was a plate of waffles, a bowl of chopped fruit, a glass of water, and a mug of cocoa with whipped cream. Mana looked at him like he'd brought her a unicorn.
"You're perfect." She beamed at him, her voice a bit gravelly from sleep.
"That's a bit much, but I'm glad this made you happy." He reclaimed his chair, and Malik sat on the far end of the bed.
"Mana...I seriously owe you for this. I can't even begin to-"
Mana held up a hand and stopped Malik from continuing, swallowing the waffle in her mouth before speaking. "You owe me nothing. You have had enough horrible shit happen to you to last a lifetime. It was beyond time that someone did something to help you. What is happening over at Sennen Records, anyway?"
Yami grabbed the TV remote, finding a news channel and waiting. The four of them watched intently as Mana continued eating. After several minutes, the story they were waiting for finally came on.
"In strange news, Sennen Records has gone bankrupt seemingly overnight. Sennen Records, recently involved in a scandal involving one of their clients, Malik Ishtar, had been taking a lot of heat for their treatment of Ishtar during her time at their label. No official word has gotten out about why or how this happened, but we have reached out to CEO Aknamkanon for comment. We will update this story as soon as we know more." Throughout the reporter's speech, images of employees from the company could be seen carrying boxes from their headquarters, most of them looking lost and confused.
"Malik, is there anyone who worked at Sennen Records that we should try and recruit? Anyone who didn't deserve this?" Yami asked.
"A few. I'll make Kaiba a list." She said.
"Good. If you're all set, Mana, I'm going to take Malik to the studio. Do you need anything?" Yami asked her.
She considered his question, glancing at the lizard on Malik's shoulder. "Leave me Mahad. I could use the company, and we can share." Malik handed Mana the dragon, and she placed him on her chest, picking up a blueberry from her tray and feeding it to him. He ate it happily, snuggling against her happily.
Yami shook his head. "I will never understand your odd connection."
"He listens to all my secrets and doesn't share them." Mana said, stroking the top of Mahad's head with two fingers.
"Well, enjoy your bonding time." Yami said, patting her head. Malik walked to her and pecked her on the cheek.
"Thank you again." She said.
Mana waved her away with a smile. "Shoo. Go make beautiful music."
Yugi waved to her as he followed the others out of the room. They went down a few floors and Yugi found himself in a large recording studio filled with different kinds of equipment and instruments.
"This is so weird. I haven't been in one of these with you in years." Malik said to Yami.
"I know. It's exciting, isn't it?" He grinned at her. "Now what have you been working on?"
Malik pulled out her notebook and laptop, and she and Yami set to work. She explained to him what she'd last been working on, and he would ask her questions about how she wanted it to sound or what she wanted to express. They spent almost two hours discussing different ideas and playing each other different beats and sounds, occasionally playing them together. After what seemed like forever, Malik finally started rapping over it, though they were only recording it on their laptops, not using the fancy equipment around them.
As they played it back, Malik giggled a bit. "This is already so much better than what I was working on. This is amazing."
"I'm excited about this. I think you and I are going to make music magic on this album." He told her.
"What time is it?" She asked Yugi.
"It's just about twelve." He said after checking his phone.
"Let's take a break for now. I want to go check on Mana anyway." Yami said, cracking his neck before standing.
Yugi stretched quickly before following them. He felt like he'd learned a lot about what went into making a song today, and he was excited to see what the next step would be.
They found Mana with Ryou in the gym, running hard on the stair climber. They had Malik's last album blasting loudly, both of them screaming along to it.
"YO! What I got to do to show these girls that I own them? Some call me Mali and some call me Melvin!" They both shouted. Yugi saw Malik laugh, watching them both with a large smile for a moment before she turned off their speaker system.
"If you need a bad bitch lemme call a few- HEY!" They both yelled at the same time, turning to see who cut off their music. Ryou squealed upon seeing them and jumped off of her machine immediately. Mana quickly followed her.
"We were going to go grab lunch. Do you want to come?" Malik asked them.
"Sure. I could eat a horse right about now." Ryou said.
"Just let us shower and change first." Mana agreed.
Yami, Malik, and Yugi went down to the restaurant on the second floor, finding a private booth and ordering a huge salad to start. While they picked at it, they somehow ended up taking silly pictures together. They had several with bunny ears, crossed eyes, and weird faces. Yugi cracked up particularly loudly when he snapped a picture of Malik licking Yami's cheek.
"Oh, no, gross!" He pushed her off of him, chuckling and wiping his face with his napkin.
"It's actually a really funny picture." Yugi held his phone out to them so they could see.
"That's amazing." Malik grinned as she looked at it, taking Yugi's phone from his hand to see it better. "You're making the best reaction face, Yami."
"I look horrified." He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too.
Mana and Ryou arrived a few moments later, waitress in tow so they could all order their lunches. They all ordered grilled cheeses and soup, agreeing that they wanted it to be as easy for the kitchen to make as possible. The waitress tried to insist they could get something more sophisticated if they wanted, but they all agreed there wasn't a need.
After they ordered, Mana gasped, "Oh, I haven't heard this song in forever!" Yugi could hear the tell tale sound of Baby Got Back playing. Mana, Ryou, and Yami all picked up the song with Sir Mix a Lot, loudly rapping along. As the song progressed, he noticed Malik seemed to be deep in thought. She pulled her laptop out of the bag she'd brought with her, plugging in her headphones and immediately setting to work on something. The other three noticed and looked over at Yugi, who shrugged.
Several minutes later, the waitress returned with their sandwiches and tomato soup. Malik removed her headphones when she saw her approaching. Yami raised his eyebrows at her, and she smiled widely at him. "Wait until you hear this, Yami, you're going to flip."
"That good?" He asked, and she nodded.
Upon realizing this meant hearing Malik's new song, Mana and Ryou immediately started devouring their food, Yami following suit. Yugi hadn't realized how excited they each got to hear each other's work and see each other in action. They got just as excited as devoted fans did.
Ten minutes later, they were all back in the studio, Yami sitting before a panel of controls and Malik hooking up her laptop in the soundproof booth. Mana and Ryou stood behind Yami, both buzzing with energy. "Is it weird that I'm so excited for this?" Ryou asked.
"No, I literally want to jump on Twitter and tell everyone on the planet that I get to hear new music from Malik before them." Mana said, and Yami laughed.
"Are you guys all set?" Malik said into the microphone so they could hear her. Yami pressed a few buttons and gave her a thumbs up.
Malik pressed something on her laptop. "My anaconda don't!" Came Sir Mix-a-Lot's infamous line, but Yugi quickly realized that it had been mixed, so it didn't quite sound like the original. Iconic sounds were left, but the track had been stripped down to the barest of the original production.
He'd been so focused on the track playing that he jumped when Malik came in with, "Boy toy named Troy used to live in Detroit…" He watched Malik let loose, finally starting to see what she'd meant by being different when recording.
While he'd gotten to know Malik as a person, he hadn't really gotten to know her stage character that well. He'd gotten to see her feeling insecure and sad, but working to be optimistic and be better as a person. This Malik was fierce and powerful, emanating confidence and sexuality like he'd never seen. Ryou and Mana were watching her, completely entranced and clearly enjoying her interpretation of Baby Got Back.
Malik kept going for almost three minutes, finally stopping when the track cut out abruptly. "That's all I've got." She said, looking at them expectantly.
Ryou and Mana immediately started talking at the same time, gushing over how great it had been. Malik laughed, "It was the first take and it wasn't fully produced. It can't have been that great." Yami started shaking his head while she was talking, pressing several buttons and moving sliders up and down the soundboard.
"No, that was fucking brilliant. It needs a little production, and we need to figure out an outro, but...you're really on to something with this, Malik. That was...out of this world." He said, and Yugi noticed how proud he sounded as he complimented her.
"Really? You liked it that much? I was a little worried it would be too much." Malik explained.
"Honestly? Take it further. You're on your third album, you can be as outright with what you want to say as you want." Yami continued pressing buttons, finally playing what he'd been working on.
He'd added a few bass lines and new sounds, particularly the sound of a drop of water, which steadily kept time. He'd also added Sir Mix-a-Lot's lines in around the chorus, as well as the girls from the original track saying, "Oh my god, look at her butt."
Malik made a delighted noise as she heard the additions he'd made. "It sounds so good!"
"I'm glad you like it. Want to do a take two?" He asked, and she nodded. "Okay. You wrote your lyrics one your laptop?" She nodded again. "Email it to me before we start again. I want to be able to reference them." She did as he asked, and then he started the track over.
Malik went through the song again, making small changes lyrically as she went. Yami noted them on his laptop as she went, and when she finished they immediately started talking about ways to make it better.
It was a totally different process than what had happened that morning, where they'd mostly discussed what her new music would sound like. The actual song writing process took a lot longer and was very nit picky. Malik had redone several takes just because she hadn't liked the way a certain word sounded when she spoke or one of them had come up with a better line to use. Occasionally, Yami would add in new instruments or sounds, and depending on how Malik felt about it, they either got to stay or developed into something else.
Finally, it was at a place where they were satisfied with it. Malik asked what time it was, and upon realizing they'd spent five and a half hours working on this song. It was crazy to Yugi that a song that lasted less than five minutes took such a long time to make, but Yami and Malik were both definitely perfectionists, and Yugi knew he'd probably have this song memorized by the time anyone outside the studio heard it.
They returned to the penthouse, and what they saw when they got there made all of their jaws drop. Bakura was having tea with Isis and Rishid, all of them getting along quite amicably. Bakura had just said something to make them laugh.
"What is going on?" Ryou asked, clearly baffled.
"Oh, hello, everyone. We were just having tea with Bakura here." Isis explained, smiling at him. Bakura seemed almost too proud of how Isis and Rishid had taken to him.
"Bakura? Being social?" Yami questioned.
"I can be nice." Bakura said defensively.
"Yes, but what's your angle?" Yami asked.
"Hey! That's rude! Couldn't I just want new friends?" Bakura looked a little annoyed as he glared at Yami.
"It's just different, is all. It's not bad." Ryou said, trying to diffuse a potential fight.
Yugi noticed Bakura look over at Malik, his eyes softening almost instantly and a small smile forming on his face. Malik smiled back at him and walked over to their table to sit with the three of them.
"I wish someone would look at me like that." Mana whispered in Yugi's ear, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "Look at how Bakura's looking at Malik. He clearly adores her. He's looking at her like she's the most precious treasure in the world."
Yugi had noticed it too, though he was certain Malik hadn't. Ryou agreed from beside them. "I've never seen him like this with anyone. I can't decide if I should be encouraging this or not."
"Oh, encourage it, Ryou. Look at that. It's so sweet it hurts my soul." Mana said, and Yugi noticed the slight look of longing in her eyes.
"You'll find someone someday, Mana." Ryou said, patting her back.
"I know. I'm going to go get Mahad." Mana said, quickly heading toward Yami's room to fetch him.
Yugi wasn't sure when it happened, but sometime after they ate dinner, their group somehow ended up playing Truth or Dare. No one had to answer anything dramatic or do anything that threatened their day to day life, they mostly had to do things like tell the story of their worst fan encounter or sing "I Will Always Love You" at the top of their lungs from the balcony.
About half an hour into their game, Yami asked Ryou to tell them about her scariest experience, which as it turned out was at this very haunted college she'd visited at the beginning of her career. "I was at a costume party, and I ended up talking to this guy named Henry who was dressed like a Civil War soldier. He kept telling me he couldn't go into the new part of the house, but I didn't understand why so I ended up ditching him accidentally. When I asked if anyone had seen him, the students were all like, 'oh, that's just Henry, he's a ghost.' They said it exactly that casually." Ryou told them.
"That's fucked up." Mana said, shivering slightly. Mahad, who was sitting on her shoulder, snuggled in closer to her like he was also weirded out by the story.
"Okay, Yugi, truth or dare?" Ryou said, grinning devilishly.
"Truth. I am not doing the Cotton Eyed Joe for ten minutes again." He said, and their group giggled at the way he'd been previously tortured by Mana.
"Okay. What would be your ideal first date?" Ryou asked, trying to seem innocent, but Yugi could tell this question was deliberately for Yami's benefit.
"Oh, I don't know. I like doing things I haven't done before, so I guess as long as it's not completely unreasonable, I want to try something new." Yugi shrugged as he said answered.
"That's actually a good way to bond." Malik pointed out, and he nodded.
"If I'm going out with anyone, I want it to be someone I actually want to bother knowing." He said. "Is that a good enough answer?"
"Yes. That's perfect, actually. Thank you." Ryou said.
"Good. Mana! Truth or dare?" He asked, grinning at her. He had an idea of what he wanted to make her do in revenge for making him line dance earlier.
"Dare." She said, standing to prepare herself for whatever he was going to make her do.
"I dare you to kiss that bearded dragon." He said.
"What? That's a silly dare." She said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Have you ever done it before?" He asked her.
"Well...no." She said, lifting the lizard from her shoulder and holding him in front of her face.
She stared at Mahad for a long moment, like she wasn't sure if she should do it. "C'mon, Mana, this is a two second dare." Bakura egged her on.
"Okay, okay, I'm doing it." Mana said. She looked at the lizard for a moment, who seemed to be waiting pretty intently for a lizard.
Mana lifted the lizard to her lips, and quickly touched hers to the front of his mouth. There was a flash of light, and then all hell broke loose.
When Yugi's eyes refocused, he realized Mana was kissing a tall man with long brown hair, and he wasn't wearing clothing. Mana's eyes popped open, and she shoved him away from her with a shriek. Everyone else seemed to realize he was there at the same time, immediately leaping to their feet and and screaming.
The man grabbed a blanket from the couch by where they were sitting and wrapped it around himself. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Let me explain!" He tried to calm them down so he could speak, and their group did silence to listen to him, except for Mana.
"Who the fuck are you?! Where did you come from?! Where did my lizard go?!" She screamed at him, horrified and confused by what had happened.
"I can explain! Just let me explain-" He started to say, but Mana was hysterical at this point.
"How are you here? This doesn't make sense. What is going on?" Mana was almost in tears, she was freaking out so badly.
"My name is Mahad. I got turned into a bearded dragon two years ago by...well, I'm not really sure who she was. But you kissed me and it broke the curse." He explained, but Mana just shook her head.
"No. No. This is insane. Absolutely not. No." Mana said, before she ran to the elevator and disappeared.
Everyone else was gaping at Mahad, clearly very disturbed. "Ah...hello." He said, awkwardly. "I hate to ask this but...could I borrow a pair of pants?"
I don't own Pound the Alarm (Nicki Minaj), Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-Lot), or Anaconda (Nicki Minaj). I rock out to them frequently, and I like to pretend I'm Nicki Minaj, but that's an entirely other story.
I'll have more to come soon!