Mostly Deathshipping here, spot the abridged reference ;) (there are a few floating around in the story actually.)

Disclaimer: Plot mine, Yugioh not mine. Running out of ways to say it. Enjoy!

Chapter 13- Call

"Tell me something about yourself that nobody else knows," Ryou said as he gazed at Marik. He had woken up after a couple of hours sleep to find Marik still lying next to him, stroking his hair.

Marik chuckled softly at the question. "Um," he paused and thought for a moment. "I used to own a little pet bird back in Egypt. I called him Mr Tweetums and he was my only friend other than Malik. I talked to him all the time even though I knew he couldn't understand me… I cried for three days straight when he died. Nobody knows that, not even Malik."

"So you do have a softer side then," Ryou whispered in awe.

"I think that's pretty obvious," Marik laughed, indicating the position they were in. They were lying on top of Joey's bed with a blanket slung over them, their legs were entwined and they had their arms wrapped around each other. "So something about you that nobody else knows?" he asked.

"Um…" Ryou's eyebrows furrowed cutely as he thought. "Ok… I secretly love all things horror. I don't know what it is; just the thought of all the shadows and darkness really appeals to me, I feel like I could happily spend my life in the dark but I don't because there I think it would get lonely." He looked shyly up at Marik, "I probably sound really insane to you right now," he laughed nervously.

Marik thought for a moment. "You don't actually, I understand the appeal of wanting to shut yourself off from everything and hide in the dark. I used to do it in Egypt." His eyes got a far-away expression in them and Ryou was about to say something when they were interrupted by a loud ringing from the other side of the room.

The tall Egyptian growled at the noise and said, "If one of them has got themselves killed I am in no way helping to hide the body."

Ryou giggled slightly before disentangling his legs with Marik's and allowing him to stand and stomp over to where his phone lay in the pocket of his hoodie. He snatched it from where it lay and flipped it open.

"Malik," he grumbled before answering it. "What?"

"Marik, I need to ask you a huge favour," came his roommates voice from the other end, difficult to hear over the loud music in the background. Marik could only assume he was in a club.

"Whatever it is, no," he said, wandering back to the bed and putting Malik on speakerphone.

"You don't even know what it is yet!"

"Still no."

"Please listen, this is serious," Malik said, sounding slightly desperate.

Ryou was watching him with wide brown eyes so Marik decided to take pity on his wayward roommate. "Ok then, you have ten seconds to explain."

"Yugi is about to go wandering around the streets on his own looking for Yami who has just stormed out of here because he saw Yugi being molested by some girl who forced him into it, and now Yugi thinks Yami will never talk to him again because Yami likes Yugi and Yugi just realised how much Yami means to him. He's a mess and he needs to talk to Yami now- he won't have it any other way." Malik paused to breathe so Marik took the time to get a word in edgeways.

"And what do you want me to do about this?"

"Can you come and get him and take him back to Joey's, he'll be safe there and Yami will undoubtedly turn up there soon.

"No way, I'm comfy." This earned Marik a glare from Ryou.

"Please, Marik, it's just this once," Malik begged. "Nobody else is in a fit state to help him and he can't walk around on his own."

"You want me to leave Ryou here to drive into the great outdoors in the middle of the night to help a semi-drunk boy find another semi-drunk boy?" Marik asked. "No way in hell."

"Marik," someone said, but it wasn't coming from the phone. Ryou's voice was as threatening as he could make it. "Go and get Yugi."

"Ryou, is that you?" Malik's voice came from the other end of the line. "Get him to come here will you?"

Marik was glaring at Ryou, but the small Brit had a trump card, which he now used. Carefully, he pulled his face into the cutest, most pathetic expression he could manage and whispered, "Please do this, Marik. For me?" He added a lip-wobble for extra effect, and something in Marik snapped.

"Fine, I'll do it, Malik, but you owe me one you effeminate lilac-wearing git." As soon as he said this Ryou's face reverted back to its normal expression and he nuzzled happily into Marik's chest. He heard Malik laughing on the other end of the line.

"Ryou pulled the puppy-eyes trick didn't he?" he asked.

Marik merely grunted in reply; he didn't want it getting out that he had actually found something cute. "Where am I going?" he asked to cover up his slight embarrassment.

"Devil's Lotus, text when you're outside?" Malik asked.

"You owe me so bloody much," Marik said. "I will not be doing this again." He hung up and put his arms around Ryou. "Shouldn't have put him on speaker should I?" he asked.

Ryou merely laughed before giving him a quick kiss. "Nope," he whispered. "Now go on."

"But I have so many reasons to stay," Marik whined.

"If you do this, I'll reward you," Ryou whispered sneakily and it took most of Marik's willpower not to forget Yugi completely and jump on his little Brit. Instead, he allowed his mind to stray to… inappropriate places and slowly got off the bed.

"There's a good boy," Ryou snickered slightly. "Big rewards for you."

Once again Marik had to struggle not to throw himself back onto the bed and kiss Ryou senseless. But being Marik, he restrained himself and settled for winking at the teen instead.

"I'll be back soon," he said, "Hopefully without too much drama." And with that he left the room, leaving Ryou extremely satisfied but already missing his warmth.

Who would have thought tonight would have turned out like this? Marik had always portrayed a tough exterior and everybody seemed to be too scared to try and find out what was underneath. But earlier Ryou had seen that the intimidating Egyptian was capable of kindness: he had wanted to help Malik, albeit in a roundabout way, and he had comforted Ryou when he had accidentally upset Malik.

At school Marik was known as the one you didn't cross for fear of being beaten up, but he had never wronged Ryou in any way, or anyone he really cared about. As Ryou was a firm believer in there being two sides to every story, he hoped that after the events of tonight he would be able to coax out the more gentle side of Marik and begin to understand him more. Tonight he had already seen him in a way he doubted anyone else ever had- he had been gentle and calm and certainly not threatening.

He turned over under the blanket and pressed his face into the pillow, smiling. It smelt of his Egyptian. Ryou's grin widened. He was already thinking of Marik as 'his Egyptian', and he rather liked the sound of it. He heard the engine of the motorbike roar to life outside and speed off towards the centre of town. Now all Ryou had to do was wait until it returned.