Be Marik

"Wake the BLOODY HELL UP, MARIK!"

Marik's eyes flutter slowly as his eyes tries to unblur his surroundings. Bakura is a few inches away from the boy's head, his body still standing on the side of the bed. Marik is still dazed and his nightmare caused his body to sweat and to be out of breath. Still, Marik manages to whisper a name to his partner in crime,

"Bakura…"

The thief looks at this display and his whole face flushes uncontrollably with red. Bakura quickly jumps out of the bed and backs up to the wall. He tries to play it out cool by resting his shoulders down and look away,

"We got a job to do, Marik. Remember?"

Marik finally sits up from his bed and blinks repeatedly to make himself wake up. He rests his palm on his forehead as he feels a headache coming up,

"What happened?"

"You felt down and landed on your Rod. Luckily, no one saw it, but I think its power must have made you delusional…"

"Really?"

"You kept quoting Kevin Spacey before you collapsed."

"Ooooooh…"

Bakura closes his eyes and smirks, "Maybe you shouldn't hide the Rod behind you next time."

"Oh, it's fine Bakura. If it happened once, it can never happen again, right?"

Bakura chuckles as he turns to the door. Marik starts to put his legs to make contact with the floor. He gives it a second for them to be at the right balance before he decides to stand up.

A voice in the intercom interrupts,

The Duel with Joey Wheeler and Marik Ishtar is about to begin.

"Grr, we're late" Bakura grunts as he slides the metal door to open. "Your bodyguard is dueling Yugi's mutt. You don't want to miss this."

"What about you?"

"I'm asleep in the Emergency Room, remember? I'll be down here looking for who is behind all this."

A voice in the back of Marik's mind starts to laugh. Marik quickly tries to block it from reaching his head, "Oh…right."

Bakura keeps staring at Marik for a long time. He knows something is different from his partner. There is no bright annoying teen that likes to listen to Lady Gaga or stating about his sexiness. Instead, his head is looking down, and his hands holding onto the covers on his side. It is odd for Bakura…he wants to say anything! But what? He doesn't know about these things. And he knows that Marik knows that super evil villains don't express their feelings to one another. He isn't even supposed to work along side anybody! So how would he know how to handle this?

"Bakura?"

The thief wakes up from his mind and looks back at Marik, who is waiting for him to respond. Marik has two of his fingers floating close to his lips, remembering the pressure he felt before waking up.

"You…didn't gave me a Sleep Beauty Kiss when I was sleeping, did you?"

Bakura's batwing hairs rise up as his body starts to shake. He immediately coughs as he tries to recover for an excuse. He turns his body up the door again as he's about to leave.

"N-No, I did not gave you a Sleeping Beauty Kiss."

Surprisingly, Marik chuckles at the obvious lie as he starts to walk to the door as well,

"Good, because I'm not gay."

The way he said that line was different. He is smiling, weak from the nightmare, but genuinely trying his best to smile. Bakura closes his eyes and smirks back,

"Yes, I know."

He leaves the room and starts to head back to the emergency room, where his Host is suppose to rest. Marik didn't even knew how Bakura was able to steal back the ring, but he'll surely get it back as soon as Bakura returns to his supposedly-coma act. Marik keeps staring as the thief walks down the hallway and finally leaves his sight as he turns to the left corridor.

Marik sighs, as he is alone again in a room without light except for the TV hanging on the wall. He looks at the screen and sees Odion walking to the dueling platform. Joey is walking the same on the opposite side. That is his cue, and Marik leaves the room.

Little images of his dream start to flash again in his mind. He can't seem to remember exactly how his dream played out, but his feelings are still present. There is a shadow of himself; an image that he isn't sure who he is. Or maybe he knows pretty well who it is. Yet, Marik tries to make the image leave. Lock again in his mind, where it's safe.

And as he walks into the empty hallway, he starts repeating these words, hoping it would act as an incantation…a spell to keep him awake:

Just a little longer…

Act as Malik for these dumb fools.

Act as Malik to get closer…

Acts as Marik for Odion…for Bakura.

Just BE Marik a little longer…

Just be Marik.

You ARE Marik…

…I am Marik.