WHY ARE THEY GETTING LONG AGAIN? I mean, hi! Chapter's up a bit late. For the last two days I've been working on updating another fanfic of mine, so I didn't actually sit down to write this chapter until last night. And then finished it today! So this chapter is also a bit more serious, but yay, it's the sequel to chapter two! So if for some reason you didn't read chapter two, or don't remember it, go look at it real quick and then come back!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. Also I do not own "Friday." No siree. I guess I do own Aria and Shuu though. I don't make money off them, either.

Chapter Ten: Gotta Make My Mind Up

"Can you help us out, Mister?"

He hadn't really known what exactly he was going to do when he decided to go outside, but he did know that the plan hadn't been to be intercepted by two young children looking for help. Bakura stared down at them like they were some dirt he'd gotten on his shoes. They were a girl and a boy, obviously siblings if the blonde hair and purple eyes were any indication of the fact. It was the girl who had chosen to talk to him now; the boy was holding her arm tightly and hiding behind her back like he expected Bakura to bite.

"Excuse me?" He questioned.

"I asked if you could help us!" The girl exclaimed bouncily. "We lost our Daddy and we don't know where he went. Can you help us look for him?"

Why, Bakura wondered, had these two children ever came to him looking for help? The past few years of his life hadn't exactly been the easiest: he was dirt poor and not eating or sleeping as well as he should have. He'd gone outside now to get some fresh air, and hopefully find a better job than the dead-end one he was working at the local convenience store. His customers usually took one look at the bags under his eyes and his frightful glare and made not so much as a peep until they left the store, yet here were these little children coming up to him asking for help. At least the young boy had the brains enough to be afraid. The same couldn't be said of his older sister. The girl was lost, but she didn't seem affected by this bad news at all. She was bouncing all over the place like a hyperactive dog.

"…I'm not sure I'm the person you'd want to ask for help," Bakura said at last.

"You're perfect! Please help us find our Daddy!" The girl insisted. Her brother was slowly inching away from Bakura and pulling the sleeve of his sister's shirt as he went, but the girl would not be moved. She was surprisingly stubborn for someone that could be seven years old at most.

Bakura sighed. He'd always hated kids. Luckily, they normally sensed his ill intent toward them and had the brains to stay away. This didn't seem to be the case with these children, or at least not with the girl. A person could have thought he was the kindest guy on the street with the way she was smiling up at him.

He really didn't want to do this. He wanted to just tell the brats to find some other sucker to help them search for their "Daddy" and be on his way, but something deep inside him told him to go for it. He couldn't remember ever feeling such an odd urge to be kind, at least not any time recently, but then the past few years hadn't been kind to him, either. Why help someone when he couldn't even get what he wanted? There didn't seem a point in it. But either way, something was telling Bakura to help them, something he thought he'd buried a few years ago, and he couldn't make it shut up no matter how hard he tried. It was with a disgruntled grimace that he decided to accept.

"Look kids, I'm a pretty busy guy, all right? I'll help you look for your dad for a few minutes, but after that I've got to be on my way," He said, still not quite sure why the words were coming from his mouth as he uttered them. The girl positively lit up like a miniature sun.

"Oh thank you! Shuu, come tell the nice man thank you!" She more or less screamed. The little boy, who's name was apparently Shuu, looked like saying "thank you" was the last thing he wanted to do, but his sister was adamant. She marched behind her little brother and pushed him so he was right in front of Bakura, despite his dragging feet. The kid mumbled something that sounded like "mmnkyu" and then quickly hid behind his sister's back once more. For the second time in oh-so-many second, Bakura sighed again. He asked the girl where she had last seen her father, and she pointed merrily in the location of a large open-air market, much to Bakura's misfortune. Searching that entire place would take a lot longer than just a few minutes.

While the kid's dad sucked at keeping an eye on them, he apparently taught them well to look out when crossing the streets, and keep close to an adult. Bakura was shocked and almost appalled when he felt a tiny hand sliding into his own, and had looked down to his left to see the girl standing beside him cheerfully. Hand-holding was definitely not something he was used to, and certainly not with some kid he was expected to baby-sit. Hopefully he'd find the kids' parent soon enough. He really wasn't cut out for this type of thing.

Searching didn't take as long as he thought it would, and for that he was grateful. After wandering around a bit in front of the vegetable stands, the girl suddenly brightened like a one hundred watt light bulb given new life, and pointed excitedly in front of her and then darted off before Bakura could even raise a hand to stop her. He might not have been good with kids, but he at least knew that it was bad parenting to allow them to run around by themselves. So he grabbed her frightened little brother by his tightly fisted clammy hand, and more or less dragged the kid behind him as he hurried after his surprisingly fast older sister.

The girl was bounding up at down at the feet of some person that had to have been her disappearing father. When he got there with the little boy Shuu, he ran away from Bakura's side and hide behind the legs of his father. Bakura himself scowled at the little boy, then finally looked up at the kid's father, intending to give the guy a piece of his mind. He wanted to tell the guy off for losing his kids, because if even someone like him knew better than that, then a parent of two kids damn well should, but the minute he looked at the man he completely froze up.

"Bakura…?" The name hung in the air tensely, about as palpable as Shuu's nerves and his sister's excited confusion. Bakura heard his name and thought that he should respond to it, but his brain was short-circuiting. He couldn't even get air to his lungs, and the only thing he could think was that he must be having a heart attack, though he had no idea what one felt like. This wasn't supposed to happen. This was never supposed to have happened.

But it did! The sadistic part of his brain that was still working supplied gleefully.

He had to say something. The male in front of him was still looking at him, though he had yet to say anything for a full two minutes now, and Bakura knew that he wasn't going to get out of this just by remaining silent. If he could move, he would have ran. This was not supposed to happen. He had never thought he would meet Marik again, after all this time. What was most surprising was how much it all hurt.

"Bakura?" Marik sounded less sure now as he let the name fall from his lips again. He sounded relieved, just a bit, like the further he was from being Bakura, the happier Marik would be.

"Yeah," Bakura answered. "It's me."

"What are you doing here?"

The question stung, with all the incredulity and disbelief that was packed into it. While it was true that he'd never expected to see Marik here, much less run into his damn kids, he didn't think he would have ever said it like that. Bakura felt like he didn't deserve to be here with the way Marik dropped the question, like he should have been far far away, so far that not even a wisp of him every would have been caught.

"Those kids of yours ran into me and started begging for me to help find their 'Daddy'. Guess I didn't think he'd be you," Bakura answered, shrugging casually.

"I didn't think you were the type to help kids looking for their father," Marik said. His violet eyes narrowed, though Bakura couldn't tell if it was in a distrustful manner, or he was just trying to gain some understanding of the situation he found himself in. Once he had been able to understand Marik more clearly than he could understand himself, and while the other male had obviously aged since their last meeting, he didn't look all that different. But then…

"Some things change," Bakura replied. Marik didn't respond. Maybe he was going over the validity of that statement, much as Bakura himself. A lot of things fucking changed, but he'd never been one to help anyone, and even Marik should be able to guess that he still didn't now. A lot of things changed, but some didn't at all, and that was why he needed to be going now. He needed to get out of this damn market for forget about what a stupid idea going to get some fresh air had been. He'd go to the store he worked at, see who was working tonight, maybe get some free cheap beer, and then hole it up in his shithole apartment and drink the night away. Right now, that sounded like the best plan he'd had all day, and he was eager to put it into action.

"Well, guess I'll be going now," He said. He had turned and started walking away before the words even finished leaving his mouth.

"Wait!"

Shit. Shit shit shit! Bakura stopped. He sure as hell didn't want to, but his feet had a mind of their own, and they were under the control of Marik's melodious voice, as discordant now as it had been years before. Somehow the nasally sound had always been able to control him more than his own mind.

Marik was just as surprised as Bakura by the words that had come out of his mouth, and he looked at the hand that had outstretched after Bakura's retreating back with equal befuddlement. Maybe when he'd thought Bakura was leaving he'd known what to say, but now that the two were back to standing awkwardly in front of one another, shyly avoiding eye contact like two teens at a high school dance, all words had left him.

"Daddy, let him come over for dinner! Mommy won't care!" The little girl that had been all but forgotten at Marik's feet suggested enthusiastically. Marik blinked and looked down at her, like he too hadn't remembered she and her brother were there for the time being.

It was an awful idea, but for purely masochistic reasons on the part of both males, Marik nodded and phrased the question himself, and Bakura accepted. He knew that he didn't want to. He knew that seeing Marik himself was awful enough, and that hearing the words "Daddy" and "Mommy" in the same sentence had caused that heart attack sensation all over again, but he accepted. He'd never been able to say no. So Marik walked out of the market with his children, nodding absently to them about whatever they babbled on about, and Bakura trailed behind like a diseased leper. It was even more awful than waking up every morning and knowing that he'd done nothing with his life. He could have lived with that. But now he was off to see the happy family in all of its glory. He wondered if the splendor of it would burn him.

Mai greeted them at the front door. If the telling signs of aging were evident in Marik with his dim eyes and blonde hair that didn't seem as bright as Bakura remembered, then Mai had obviously not aged so much as a day since Bakura had seen her last in high school, sixteen years ago. She was as bright and bouncy as ever, and full with the same awful enthusiasm as her daughter, whose name Bakura leaned was Aria. Mai was understandably surprised to see Bakura standing in her doorway, but within seconds she was smiling and giving him a tour of the house, like she'd been expecting him this entire time. Bakura was sickened by it all.

By the time the five of them had sat down around the dinner table, he felt like he wanted to upchuck everything that was in his stomach instead of shoving more down. Mai had made some extravagant looking dish with chicken. Bakura hadn't ever taken her for the cooking type back in high school, but apparently marriage and kids sat well with her.

"So Bakura, how have you been getting along all these years?" Mai questioned politely.

"Oh, you know, I've been getting along," He replied sarcastically. Unlike Mai and Marik, he hadn't retained all of his former glory from his days spent in high school. He'd been working at the convenience store for three years now, and before that he'd held a wide assortment of different odd jobs, none of which had paid well. His shabby appearance this morning was the same as any other morning, and no doubt both Marik and Mai knew that. The only two that wouldn't get his sarcasm were Aria and Shuu, who were both looking at him with interest, though Shuu more apprehensively so.

"What have you been doing?" Marik questioned. His voice surprised Bakura a bit, not only because he hadn't heard it for about nine years, but because the entire time Bakura had been here in his home, Marik hadn't spoken to him once.

"Working at a shitty little convenience store downtown," He answered. Mai's eyes narrowed fiercely at him and covered Shuu's ears, while Aria's eyes widened and covered her own with exaggerated movements.

"Language!" Mai scolded. Bakura offered a shrug, as close to an apology as anyone here was going to get. He didn't exactly care about kids, and he wasn't going to censor his language in front of these ones. He was already trying to censor as much of himself as he possibly could. He didn't have the capacity or the energy to worry about the naïve little kids as well.

"So you live nearby then?" Again the tone with which Marik said the question suggested that he wished he were anywhere but. It stung more than Bakura cared to admit, and he almost flinched at the coolness of it. When had Marik begun speaking to him like that? Of course he knew the answer to that question though. He had brought this new behavior on himself when he'd broken his promise to keep in touch the day of Marik's wedding to Mai.

"Not exactly. I live about thirty minutes away from my place of employment. I get there by bus," He explained dryly. "I don't go out much other than to get to and from work. Probably why we've never bumped into each other before." And he wished they never had. The one thing Bakura wanted more than anything was to never see Marik again. He had purposefully moved far away from his hometown with the idea in mind that he never would see Marik again. But his life had never been very easy, and apparently this was just another way of making him miserable now. Because he wasn't enough already.

"Well what a coincidence," Mai commented. She was trying her best to break the awkward tension that was only apparent to the three adults in the room, but so far it wasn't working very well.

"Apparently so. We've lived here since Aria was born, and we've never bumped into him once. It's almost like you were trying to avoid me all this time, Bakura," Marik replied bitterly. Bakura almost flinched at the hateful tone, and he had half raised his head to look at Marik and gauge his reaction properly before he remembered himself and turned his grimace back to the plate of food in front of him. He speared a piece of chicken furiously and shoved it into his mouth, chewing angrily.

"I'm just living out my life. I had no clue you were here," He said. He was trying to keep the resentment out of his voice, and he masked it all with anger, the way he did everything. Unless Marik had become adept at reading him—and he never had—then he wouldn't know the truth from what he saw.

"No, you wouldn't, would you?" Marik questioned sarcastically. Bakura's eyes flashed. He raised his head to look at Marik defiantly. The blonde returned his gaze with equal fervor. His knuckles were turning white around the piece of silverware he clenched tightly in a fist. This was the angriest he'd ever seen Marik, Bakura realized. The only thing that ever came close to the same level of this anger was when he spoke of his father, and the Marik he'd known had never been fond of doing that. But on the rare occasions he did, his eyes would light up with electricity, as dangerous as a lightening storm itself, and his face would harden into the same furious scowl he wore now. Bakura's own expression faltered in the face of such beautiful rage. He wanted to say something. He wanted to apologize for leaving and breaking his promise, because he'd never wanted to do so in the first place, but it had been his only option! Marik had never felt the same way about him as he did, and he knew that all too well. Aria and Shuu were proof enough of that.

If Marik had continued to look at him the way he was, Bakura might have lost himself completely and done something stupid. As it was, the moment those violet eyes were off him, Bakura was released from the trance he'd been held in and recomposed his face to give away nothing. He watched out of his peripherals as Marik ate his own food, then turned back to his own when he felt like he would be caught. Whatever Mai had cooked, it was the best tasting meal he'd eaten in a while, but now it weighed heavily in his stomach. He shouldn't be here. He wasn't supposed to have ever found Marik again. Marik was meant to be with his beautiful wife, and take care of his beautiful kids, and live in his beautiful house, and Bakura was not meant to be a part of that at all. His own life was miles away from this, and he couldn't help feeling like by being here he was bringing his infection with him. He shouldn't have accepted.

"I should leave," He said abruptly, placing his silverware down on the table beside the plate. Beside him Aria took in a gasp of air so huge he thought the young girl might choke, but that was not the case. Instead she clutched tightly onto his arm, to the point where it actually hurt.

"No! I don't want you to go! We're having fun!" She protested. Bakura blinked.

"Aria, let him go!" Mai hissed from across the table. All the little girl did in response was stick her tongue out at her mother and clung tighter.

"No no! He's Daddy's friend! He should stay!" The girl yelled. She turned dramatically to look at her younger brother, who shrunk back in his seat at the sudden influx of attention that was being directed to him. "Right Shuu? He should stay here!"

"Aria!" Mai said. The older woman looked half a second away from getting out of her chair and dragging her offspring off Bakura's arm, but the girl didn't seem to mind at all. Marik seemed just as stunned as Bakura himself was about the sudden outburst from Aria, who had been relatively quiet during the dinner, except for when she'd thrown a noodle at her brother earlier. Shuu was still staring incomprehensively at his sister, like he couldn't believe she was expecting him to say something here.

"Shuu! Say something! Shouldn't he stay here?" Aria demanded, and then kicked her brother for good measure. The younger boy squeaked and jumped up in his chair, but it got his lips moving.

"I… think it's good Daddy had friends. He should stay," The young boy said nervously. Aria beamed brighter than the light hanging above them.

"Right! So you should stay mister Bakura!" She said triumphantly.

"It is nice that Daddy has a friend, but his friend might have to leave, so we should let him if he needs to, Aria. You should let him go now," Mai said seriously.

"Only if you promise to come back!" The little girl said, with a persistent tug on his arm.

"Umm, yeah, sure," Bakura agreed half-heartedly. He wasn't used to dealing with children. Normally they avoided him, but for some incomprehensible reason, Aria seemed to genuinely like him. He almost felt bad for having to lie to her, but he wasn't going to be coming back any time soon. He shouldn't have come here in the first place. Why he had was a question he would ponder back when he was at his apartment and no longer having to worry that he would give away something his shouldn't. Aria didn't know that of course, and she released his arm without exhorting any more false promises out of him. Mai was there by her side in an instant, and she gathered both Aria and Shuu's hands in her own.

"Okay, why don't we let Daddy and his friend have some time to themselves now? It's about time for you two to get ready for bed, so go upstairs and start brushing your teeth and changing. I'll be up with you in a minute," Mai suggested. Aria smiled and Shuu nodded solemnly. Then both small children hopped out of their chairs and pitter-pattered up the stairs.

"Bakura, could you grab all of the dishes and bring them into the kitchen for me please?" Mai said next. Bakura's brow crinkled, and he was halfway to opening his mouth and stating that he wasn't about to do her job and clean up after everyone, but then he saw the sharp gleam in her purple eyes and thought better of it. He'd never encountered Mai outside of a few classes when they'd gone to high school together, but rumor had it that she had a temper and a tongue that could cut down even the most egotistical of people with just a word. While she might be a housewife now, the look in her eyes suggested she had still retained all of her sarcasm and wit. So, with a drawn-out grumble, he stood out of his chair and grabbed the half-completed plates of Aria and Shuu and piled them atop his and Mai's.

Gathering up Marik's plate was another task all together. The blonde man himself had yet to move from the head of the table, and as Bakura quickened to him it didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. His head was bowed slightly, so that Bakura could not see his face or the expression on it. Even with this blockade, Bakura felt his heartbeat elevate as he grew closer. He'd hoped that Marik would just offer his plate to him, but that didn't seem to be the case here. The other male almost didn't seem to notice him, though Bakura knew that if Marik cared about him even a fraction of how much he cared about Marik, that couldn't have been the case. He was all too aware of Marik this close up. He could smell the unique, exotic scent of him that flowed from his pores, see every single separate strand of silky blonde hair, and could picture his face crystal clearly in his mind, despite the fact that he could not see it with his eyes.

He grabbed for the plate hesitantly, fumbled around the raised edge of it and missed, then had to go back for a second grab. Marik shifted slightly in his seat and Bakura almost froze rooted to the spot in front of him. He gulped, scolded himself for acting so foolish, than grabbed for the plate with renewed determination and took it away. He darted away faster from Marik than he ever had before, and when he could no longer smell the other male his head cleared. He was able to remind himself that he was an outsider here, and that Marik did not love him. If anything, judging by the male's earlier behavior, right about now Marik probably hated him. That thought stung enough to cause Bakura to visibly flinch, but it only served to solidify his resolve. He shouldn't have come here, and now he needed to go as soon as he dropped these plates off with Mai.

When he got to the kitchen, Mai took the plates out of his arms and deposited them in the sink, then turned on the faucet as fully as she could.

"Well thank god that's over with," She sighed. She waved away a thick strand of blonde hair from her face, and leaned against the sink counter. Her eyes were fixed directly on Bakura, and Bakura himself raised an eyebrow in question.

"What are you doing here, Bakura? I know you don't want to be," She said.

"That's why I'm leaving," He responded dryly. Two could be blunt here.

"No, you're not," Mai said, crossing her arms. Her expression immediately became more serious, and out of amusement only Bakura took up a spot alongside her against the counter.

"I know you don't want to be here, yet here you are. You tried so hard to run away from him, and you found him again despite all that. You're obviously here for a reason. And I'm not letting you go until you tell him," The older woman stated.

"Oh really? And what exactly is it I'm supposed to tell him? Since you seem to know what I'm thinking, why don't you enlighten me?" Bakura questioned sarcastically. Mai only smiled.

"Defensive mechanisms only make it that much more apparent, you know. I think pretty much everyone who saw the two of you together knew about it, except him. He's always been a bit dense about those sorts of things though," She chuckled softly. Bakura only rolled his eyes and fixed her with a look that pointedly said to get on with it. Mai complied without fail.

"I'm talking about the way you feel about him. It's really obvious. Hell, I wouldn't put it past even Aria to have noticed you like him! It's been how many years since you first left him, and you still can't get over him? There's something wrong with that. You need to tell him. This whole thing needs to be over so you can get on with your life and stop pining away for him. And I'm not letting you go until you do so."

Bakura was so stunned by her words that he forgot to interrupt her before she said anything too incriminating. The water was still running in the sink, but Marik was only sitting in the next room over! Bakura's eyes instinctively looked at the doorway he had entered in through, but there was no stunned Marik standing inside in, so he was still good. His dirty secret was still concealed from the one person that needed to hear it the most. He remembered to breathe again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," He said, and even as the words came from his own mouth they sounded flat and unconvincing.

"You really going to try that with me?" Mai asked snidely. "I'm a woman, Bakura. I have a sixth-sense about these types of things. You're not going to convince me of anything." Something about her casual dismissal of his excuse infuriated Bakura, and before he could hold it in he was shaking with barely concealed rage.

"So what would you want me to do?" He hissed, barely able to keep his voice below the clamor of the sink faucet. "You seriously want me to go out there and tell your husband and the father of your children that I love him? Why the hell would I do that?"

"Because you need to," Mai responded coolly.

"No I don't!" Bakura growled. His fist slammed into the tile of the counter and he pushed himself away from it to look Mai right in the eyes. "No I fucking don't. I've gone all these years without tell him because there's no fucking point to it! He doesn't fucking love me! He probably hates me now for how many times I've ignored his calls and letters! I don't need to tell him shit, and I'm not going to let you stand there and preach to me about how I do! It's easy for you to say, isn't it? You already have him."

"You don't know what the outcome will be until you give it a try," Mai said. Her voice sounded soft and gentle in comparison to the rage Bakura was in, but it didn't soothe him or calm him down. It felt like a slap in his face, and he took a step backward.

"I'm leaving," He said, and turned to walk away.

"If you don't do it I will!" Mai called after him.

In the kitchen Marik still sat at the dinner table. If he had heard any of the conversation that had taken place just beside him, he didn't give any indication of it. Bakura was in too much of a hurry to take much notice of him. All he wanted to do was leave this house and hurry back to his empty apartment.

"Bakura loves you!"

The words made him freeze. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe; it was the same phenomena that had happened just earlier but suddenly so much worse and frightening.

"What?"

"Bakura loves you. He's loved you for years now, Marik, since high school. That's why he left."

He heard both Marik and Mai talking, but neither of them seemed to be saying words that he could understand. His mind was blank. All he knew was that all around him the fragile life he'd made for himself was crumbling. He was visible for them all now, and everything he'd hidden, no matter how pathetically, was bare for everyone to see. For Marik to see.

"Bakura?"

He heard a chair sliding out across the floor, and knew that would be Marik's.

"Bakura? Is that true?"

He heard the wooden floorboard creak as Marik's weight and presence approached him. His eyes were wide. He was breathing heavily. He couldn't think of what to do. He could hear his heart thudding violently in his ears, and he couldn't think of what to do with all the noise it was causing. Marik knew. Marik knew. For years he'd kept away the truth and now Marik knew, and he couldn't try to say that it wasn't true, because he silence had already proven that it was.

"Bakura?"

He did the one and only thing he could think to do in the situation. The word screamed at him, only because it was the one thing that was so familiar to him, and the one thing he'd already been doing this entire time. Bakura broke his paralysis and ran.

00000

Marik didn't know what to do. The only thing that was going though his head right now was just that; that he didn't know what to do. That, and the horrible, awful feelings of a surprise he wished he'd never gotten.

He took a rigid step forward from the spot Bakura had left him at, and that seemed to clear the fog, if only a little. After nearly ten years of hearing no word from him, he'd accidentally bumped into Bakura today. Okay, got it. Then there'd been an awkward dinner, and Bakura had disappeared into the kitchen with Mai for a bit. Simple enough to follow. Then things got confusing. When Bakura came out of the kitchen, he'd been in a much angrier mood than he'd gone in, and just as he were about to leave, Mai had said something that made everyone in the room stop. There'd been a fragile sort of calm in the few seconds that followed, until Bakura bolted out of the door, and now here he was, still trying to wrap his mind around everything.

This was stupid. He was just standing here. He still didn't quite know what was going on, or what Mai had meant by… what she said… but he knew that standing around was going to get him nowhere.

He took another step to the door, and this time didn't stop moving. Bakura had run through that same door. Bakura did what he did best, and that was run away. And now Marik was realizing that just like all the other times Bakura had ran and left him alone, he didn't want to let his friend go. He didn't want Bakura to keep running away from him. He didn't want to be left alone, confused, because every time he thought things were going fine, they always got worse. He ran too. His feet really started moving, and then without a word or look at Mai, he ran out the door after Bakura, because he knew this was the one time he didn't want to be left alone and without an idea of what was going on in his friend's head.

He had no idea where he was going, but that was okay because he didn't think Bakura knew either, and by that logic alone they were destined to meet up somewhere. So Marik ran down streets he only vaguely registered the name of, and didn't stop even when he began to get tired, because he had not found Bakura yet.

Once he thought he caught a small flash of white hair, and illusion or real, Marik ran faster after it. He wasn't going to let Bakura get away from him. Not this time. Not now.

Marik turned a corner and came to a screeching halt when he saw Bakura standing under a streetlamp, breathing heavily. The second Bakura caught sight of him, however, he started running again. Marik was not going to have any of that. Not when he was so close.

"Bakura!" He screamed. "Stop!"

He didn't know if it was going to work, but apparently the command did the trick. Bakura stopped, frozen as still as he had when Mai said the words. His back was to Marik, and the only thing he could see of the other under the harsh light of the streetlamp was the tension straining his back. Marik took a few uncertain steps forward, until there was only a space of about five feet separating them. He didn't know what to do now. It was one thing chasing Bakura all the way out here, but now that he'd caught him his mind was just as empty as before.

"Is it true?" He questioned. Bakura visibly jumped, then curled into himself even more.

"Is what true?" He parroted hoarsely.

"…What Mai said. Is it true?" Marik asked.

"You so disgusted by it that you can't even bring yourself to say it?" Bakura asked. That hurt. Marik winced, because a part of what Bakura said was true. He didn't know if disgusted was the right word, but it definitely was a shock, even more so if…

"Turn around," Marik demanded. He saw Bakura shake his head, so he repeated the command. He knew the exact moment when the other male gave in. His shoulders sank and he grew even wearier and tired than he'd seemed when Marik had first bumped into him earlier today. Bakura shuffled slowly around to face him, though large chucks of white hair still settled in front of his face. Marik wanted to push them back so he could see clearly, have an accurate understanding of what was going on now, but he didn't dare move forward. He could sense a delicate string of balance between them now, and if he upset it in any way, he knew that Bakura would turn and run again. And this time, he doubted any words he could say would make him stop.

"Bakura… Please tell me what Mai meant with what she said."

"Everything," Bakura said, with a small gesture of his arm. "She hit the nail right on the fucking head. Damn smart woman you've got there." Marik ignored the comment, and focused instead on the beginning part of the statement. He felt his heart clamor in his chest, and now he was beginning to think about running. He did not know what was going on here, but he didn't want to allow himself to escape from it. Not before he knew.

"So then you…" He started.

"Love you?" Bakura finished, looking into Marik's eyes for the first time since they'd began talking. His gaze dropped back down to the floor again in a second. "Yeah, I guess I do."

Marik didn't say anything. He didn't know what he could say. There'd been a time when he'd thought… But then Bakura had run away and he'd gotten married, and since then he hadn't seen Bakura for nine years. Now he was hearing that all along, Bakura had loved him.

"Not that it matters," Bakura spoke up. "You're married. You've got kids. You're fucking happy, right? So it doesn't really matter, not in the least. So why don't you just say it already? Say that you hate me and never want to see me again, and then I'll leave and you can do whatever the hell you want with the rest of your life."

"I'm not married," Marik said. It wasn't what he wanted to say, and it certainly wasn't what Bakura was expecting him too. The white haired male's head shot up to look at him and this time remained there, overcome by curiosity more so than he was fear.

"Mai and I got a divorce a little over a year ago. We love each other, but… She was always in love with Jounouchi, from our class? I knew it when I started going out with her, but it didn't seem to matter then because she said nothing was ever going to happen between her and him, even though they both loved each other. Two years ago she met up with him, and they started talking, and the old spark between them came back to life. She told me that she wanted to get a divorce, so she could marry Jounouchi, and I said okay. I love Mai, but sometimes it kind of feels like I don't love her in the way I should, not like a husband should. And Mai loves me, but it's the same kind of feel with her. So we got a divorce. I offered to move out and let her and Jounouchi keep the house, but Jounouchi said he wanted to get enough money to buy his own house for them to live in. Until then, we decided it would be better for Mai to stay here with the kids and me. But we're not married anymore."

After that rather long line of dialogue, the two of them fell into an uncomfortable silence. Marik didn't know what to say next. He didn't know what had prompted him to say all of that in the first place. He should have said something along the lines of what Bakura had been expecting. He should have said that he didn't care about Bakura's feelings, and that he didn't want to see him anymore. Every time Bakura showed up he felt worse and worse when he left again, and it always happened. He should have told Bakura to just remain gone so he wouldn't ever have to deal with the hurt, but he didn't want to. He didn't want him to remain gone. He liked it when Bakura came around, even if it was brief.

"So what does that mean?" Bakura asked. The question startled Marik back to the here and now of their conversation. He hesitated. He didn't know what it meant.

"I… don't know. But I don't want you to leave. Every time you do, it hurts, and it feels so good to see you again when you come back, but I also know that you'll be leaving again without telling me. I don't like it when you do that. I don't want you to run away from me again," Marik confessed. He couldn't tell what Bakura's reaction to that was. The other male continued to look at him from across the gap between them without saying anything. Finally, Marik began feeling too agitated by the silence. He took a step forward without thinking, and the effect was immediate. Bakura's brown eyes widened with a fright Marik had never seen on his face before, and for a terrifying second he thought he'd pushed too far and Bakura would bolt now.

"Don't leave!" Marik cried, throwing his hand out. Bakura looked at the hand suspiciously, but he stayed put. Marik took another step forward.

"Please don't leave," He said softly. Bakura said nothing. Marik took step after small step that brought him closer and closer to the male in front of him. Five feet quickly diminished and became one, and then the distance closed even more. Marik stopped only a few inches away from Bakura. He could feel his friend's breath fanning hotly against his face. His breaths came rapid and short, betraying just how skittish Bakura was feeling now. Hesitantly, Marik brought his hands up to Bakura's face. When his palms touched the skin of the other man's cheeks, Bakura completely stilled and his breath stopped coming.

"What are you doing?" He asked quietly.

"I don't really know," Marik responded. He leaned in close to Bakura's face and closed his eyes. Bakura's hair brushed against his forehead, and their noses skirted around one another. He could actually feel the tension coming off the body in front of him, but he ignored it. Standing so close to Bakura like this, it quieted all the noise going on in his head. He still had no idea what he was doing here, but right now it didn't matter.

"Marik…" Bakura sighed. Hesitantly, arms crept around his waist. They wavered in the air away from his body before coming down to touch him. Marik could feel the trembling in those arms just as easily as he could hear the uncertainty and longing in Bakura's voice. He moved his face closer to Bakura's still, and for only a second pressed his lips to the other male's. He heard Bakura's intake of air, registered just for a second the softness of his lips, and then Marik pulled away from Bakura and his grasping hands.

"I don't know what I'm doing," He admitted softly. He shook his head. "Bakura, I…"

"I shouldn't be here," Bakura said.

"No." Marik was quick to go against that notion. He didn't know what was going on both inside and outside of his head, but he did know that he wanted Bakura to stay right here.

"We should go back to the house. Maybe… we can make sense of things there," He suggested.

"No. I should just leave. I shouldn't have stopped, I shouldn't have said anything to you about—"

"Bakura," Marik interrupted sharply, "Shut up already. I don't want you leaving. I know that. I don't know much of anything else, but I do know that. You're going to come back with me, and then we're going to figure something out."

Bakura's brown eyes trailed away from Marik's face, and down to the ground they stood on. He was still unsure about the entire thing, probably even more so than Marik himself. He wanted to laugh at the awkwardness of the situation and how incapable the two of them were at handling it, but he knew that Bakura would take it the wrong way if he did. He needed to say something. He needed to do something to convince Bakura to come with him. Because that thin line of balance hadn't widened any, and now it was only shortening more and more. He would lose his chance before long.

"I don't know what it feels like to love you, Bakura. I don't love you. Not in the way you do me. But… I love you as a friend, if that makes any sense. I always thought that when we got done with high school we'd both get jobs somewhere and continue to go through life hanging out with one another. I didn't really think of anything else other than that. And then you left, and I didn't know what to do. I was really messed up. Ask Isis, she'll tell you. All I did for a long time was sit around the house watching television. Then I started going out more, and met Mai, and things got better, but I still missed you a lot. I was ecstatic to see you on the day of my wedding. I thought things would go back to normal again, but then you ran away for the second time, and I sank into that funk all over again. I don't want you to go away anymore. So please come with me back to my house? Let's… talk about all this. Maybe… we can give it a try?" He pleaded.

That was all he could do now. He couldn't say any more, because if he did, it wouldn't be truthful, even if it were what Bakura wanted to hear. He didn't know how he felt about all of this, but he did know that he didn't love Bakura. Not yet. But maybe…

"All right," Bakura agreed. "We'll talk." His head lifted back up to Marik and he tried to give a shaky smile. It wasn't even close to being one, but something in it reminded Marik of the Bakura he'd known back in high school, and he felt lighter, somehow. He smiled back, and then before he could lose his nerve linked his hand with Bakura's own.

"Let's go," He said. Bakura nodded, and they started the long walk back.

So. this was a bit better in my head, so I think it kind of drags a bit and might not be as dramatic and tension filled as I want, but eh. I think the kids detracted from that. They played more of a part than I'd initially thought they would. I also tried to capture Bakura's personality from the first chapter, but it seemed kind of different in this. Maybe more sarcastic, which I guess is okay because some time has passed since that chapter. The bit from Marik's POV was also somewhat unexpected. I knew that it would happen, but it's a lot longer than I wanted it to be. The ending just seemed to drag! I need to work on that, I think.

But anyways! Next chapter will finally be back to the humor (I don't think even I could come up with something angsty for "Which seat can I take?" unless it was like, some existential crisis where the seat was some symbolic concept for the helplessness of life and the inability to really decide on what course of action you want to take, that ultimately results in suicide, but anyways...) So yeah, humor! So until next time, remember to review, and thanks!