Her Sweetness: Long time no see, right? Sorry, babes, a lot's been going on. Still love me?


Slide

Chapter Eleven


The fact that there are all kinds of freaky has nothing to do with me.

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It had to be around midnight when we finally got back to East Domino. We had left the beach when the tide began to go out and it was still a beautiful sight but the aroma had become worse than Bakura's feet which, upon closer inspection, really did smell like low tide. There weren't many people on the streets as we walked back to our street and that suited me just fine. Too many strangers make me feel self-conscious.

The street lights were on and it had actually started to snow again. Once again, gorgeous, but not pleasant to be in since I had once again forgotten my hat. Marik and Bakura seemed to enjoy it however.

"I remember when I had first started to eat snow," Bakura said, looking up at the white stuff falling down all around us. His brown eyes seemed to soften.

"You eat snow?" I asked.

"Of course! It's like an unflavored snow-cone. Right, 'Ri?"

"Pheh. Don't look at me, I don't eat snow. It's dirty."

"How?"

"It comes from clouds, clouds are in the sky, the sky's polluted. So, the snow's polluted. You could be eating bits of shit."

I flinched at my yami's bluntness but he did have a point. I certainly wouldn't eat snow if only for the fact that it just doesn't seem all that tasty, or filling and that thing Bakura said about it tasting like snow-cones seemed a bit odd.

Bakura shook his head, saying, "I'm surprised at you, 'Ri. Where's that lovely child-like, wide-eyed look on life that you usually have?"

An unexpected laugh at that from me, "What? When have you ever had a child-like out look on life?"

Marik frowned. "I'll have you know, I'm not old and salty yet. I'm still young and it is possible for me to have a wide-eyed outlook on life."

"It's possible," I said, "but it's not happening."

Bakura chuckled. I felt his hand come down on my shoulder and I looked up at his deep brown eyes and bared white fangs. "You're too cute for your own good, kid."

My lavender eyes were caught in his chocolate orbs. Kind of halting. Bakura is, as I've said before, extremely good-looking, if not a tad bit annoying. I don't know if I would have been caught for longer had Marik not been standing right next to us, which he was. Which is why I turned away and shrugged Bakura's hand off. "I'm not cute," I said, "you just need glasses."

"Let's have a vote. Who here thinks the kid is cute? Raise of hands."

I blushed furiously but before I could object, both of their hands were raised. Well, what do you know. I was awestruck. Marik was grinning at me. "What?" he asked. "Of course, Malik, you're hot. You do look like me after all."

I sweatdropped and Bakura almost died laughing. We kept walking.

We made it back to me and Marik's house some way or another. The lights were on. Marik opened the door to see Ryou sitting on the couch, the television on in front of him. I came in right after Marik and Bakura after me.

"Hey, Ryou!" I called, full of joy and jumped onto the couch beside him, causing his cushion to fly up. I hugged him and he hugged back, but it was a little less enthusiastic.

He laughed. "Hey, I guess you had a good time."

"Yep." I smiled.

"Yeah, so hey…" Bakura sauntered over from the door and stood in front of us. He bent over, his nose two inches from mine. "Malik, where's my goodnight kiss?"

I was all eyes. "Huh?"

"What, come on," he said smoothly, sliding on the couch next to me. "I paid for dinner and even bought you a churro-"

"That he didn't ask for," Marik said, idly.

Bakura shrugged. "Oh well. C'mere, boy," he said aggressively and grabbed my shoulders. I was to stunned to do anything but make a small, pathetic squeaking sound and before I knew it, Bakura was on the ground with a pillow that Ryou had just thrown at him.

"What was that for?"

"For trying to kiss him," Ryou said coolly. "And just a minute, were you with them the entire time?"

"Well, not the entire time-"

"Yes," I interrupted, "the entire time!"

Ryou looked at Bakura as if he'd just driven a bus over a burn-victim.

Bakura scowled. "What? Can't a guy hang out with his two bestest friends?"

Marik snorted.

"Come here," Ryou said, getting up from beside me and dragging Bakura by his arm into the kitchen. Both Marik and I could hear Bakura's shouts of protest until they were beyond our ears.

Marik, who had been standing by the coat stand throughout the entire exchange, finally came over to take up Ryou's empty space. He picked up the remote and began to flip channels. He said to me, eyes not moving from the screen, "So did you have fun?"

I blinked. Never expected that. "Oh… Oh, yeah, of course."

He smirked. "Even with Bakura around?"

"Yeah." I smiled thoughtfully. "He's… weird. But he's not bad."

"Weird is an understatement."

"You think?"

"You have no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes."

I gave this consideration. The way it was said made me want to sleep with one eye open even though Bakura sleeps across the street. Well, he usually does anyway. One morning, I found him in a bush out back. But that's something probably par for the course.

"So, um…" I was blushing. I didn't want to ask this, but I knew I had to. Just to be sure. "So, you and Bakura… you two aren't…?"

Marik looked at me. "What?"

"Um…" I made hand-motions.

He paused. "Baking a cake?"

I made the hand-motions slower.

"… Screwing?"

"I would have chosen a better word for it," I coughed.

Marik laughed suddenly and loudly. "Yeah, right! With Bakura? Come on, are you serious?"

"But he's so, um, good-looking…?" I didn't want to assume.

"Yeah, but we're too alike. Plus, he's into some freaky stuff."

"And you aren't?" Oops, didn't mean to say that.

"There's all kinds of freaky."

"Oh."

Marik stopped flipping the channels and put down the remote. He looked at me for a second and I could feel heat rising in my cheeks. Once he saw I was turning blue, a slow-forming grin broke out on his face and he leant in. "Does that make you happy?"

"W-What? Happy about what?"

"That he and I aren't screwing," he said and his voice was getting lower, his eyes more intense. Ra, this is too much.

I swallowed in my throat and croaked out, "Why would I-"

"I mean, I'm free, right? Anyone can have me." His hand found my thigh and clutched it tight. Good thing my erection was on the other side. His hand felt like a heating pad turned on level 10 and I thought any minute he might take pity on me; just throw me on the floor and (for lack of a better word) screw my brains out. "But I probably won't stay on the market for long, so someone who, say, might be interested, has to ask themselves… how bad do they want me?"

"I… I…"

"What is it, 'Li?" he hissed in my ear.

"M-Marik, I wan-"

"Hey, Malik, where're the Cheetoes?" came Bakura's voice from the kitchen. And wherever there's thunder, there's lightning. Bakura came whirling into the living room and jumped over the back of the couch, planting himself in between Marik and I with a big bag of Doritos. "Couldn't find the Cheetoes, so I got these. You need to go shopping, Malik. What's on TV?"

I could have strangled him.

Ryou came in half a second later, his hair mussed up and out of breath.

"What happened to you?" Marik asked, an eyebrow raised.

Ryou ignored him, "Bakura, I told you-"

"Hey, let's watch Saw 3!" Bakura shouted, mouth full of chips.

"Listen to me," Ryou insisted.

I tried my best to hide my erection but it was shrinking fast, anyway. What in the world is going on in this house?


To be continued…


Her Sweetness: Short, I know. But hey, baby, I'm back. Review?