A/N: I like this first part quite a bit. It makes me smile.

(I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh)

~Chapter Thirteen~

"Yugi, wake up!" Huh? What was going on? "Yugi!"

"Wha's goin' on?" I heard Bakura mumble next to me.

"It's almost noon," Yami snapped. "Why are you two even here?" Bakura put his arm around me, glaring at my brother.

"Hey! Don't talk to Yugi like that!"

"He's my brother! I'll talk to him however I want to!" Yami sounded pissed, but I could tell that he was at least a little impressed with how protective Bakura was being.

"No fighting in my house." Oh, I hadn't even noticed Seto standing there. I yawned. "But seriously, why are you two here? I thought you were at your house..." Bakura shrugged.

"You're gonna have to ask your brother. All I know is things were getting kinda... interesting... with him and Ryou when we left. Didn't really wanna know. So Yugi said it would probably be okay if we crashed here." Seto looked like he might pass out... I guess he was pretty shocked. "Don't worry. We didn't do anything bad to your couch." Yami made a weird, choking noise before his face turned bright red, and I could feel mine heating up as well. But, of course, Bakura wasn't done embarrassing us... that would be far too easy. "What's wrong, you jealous that your little brother gets more action than you? Don't worry, I'll explain it when you're older." Shut up, Bakura! Just shut up already!

"Thank you, Bakura, for your generous offer, but I do believe that Yami understands perfectly what you mean," Seto said as he put his arms around my brother's neck. Ugh. I really didn't want to be thinking about that this early in the morning... not at all. Ugh. Bakura, being Bakura, found this extremely amusing.

"Oh, man," he said, laughing. "I like you." Hey! I whined a little, and he spun around quickly to kiss me. That was better. I heard my brother moan.

"Ugh. That was something I could have lived a full and happy life without seeing..."

"Agreed," Seto answered. "Let's get out of here. Hey, please don't mess up my house, you guys..." I tried to answer, but Bakura wouldn't let me breathe, let alone speak. He only let me go when we heard the door slam shut.

"There. We got rid of them. Now we can relax."

"You were just trying to get rid of them?" I teased, pouting a little.

"Well, that was part of it..." He pushed me back onto the couch, kissing me forcefully.

"Hey!" I protested, pushing him away and laughing. "I'm not even all the way awake!" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"I could fix that..." I rolled my eyes. "You wanna take a shower?" Yeah, a shower would probably help to wake me up...

Three hours later, after we had showered (and done some other things, too, if you get my drift. It doesn't usually take me three hours to shower...) and eaten breakfast, we were hanging out around the house when Bakura's cell phone rang. It was Marik, wanting to hang out. Bakura tried to say no, he was hanging out with me today, but I invited Marik over to the house. Bakura hadn't seen him in a while, and I knew what good friends they were. Besides, I liked Marik. He was a cool guy, even if he did talk to bicycles.

"Hey, Yugi."

"Hey, Malik!" I hadn't seen Malik, Marik's brother, in a while. He kind of had some problems too, but not as severe as Marik's were. He got really bad anxiety attacks, so he hadn't been to school in a while. He was a good friend of mine, though, and I'd missed him. "How're you?" He shrugged, smiling at me shyly.

"I'm okay. You?"

"Good, good." I nodded.

"So... I heard about you and Bakura," he told me, grinning at me as he elbowed me in the ribs. I groaned.

"Just what have you heard?" I asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I've heard quite a bit. From Bakura himself." That was what I'd been afraid of. I moaned and covered my face with my hands in embarrassment.

"Ugh. I can never look you in the face again," I moaned.

"Sure you can," he told me cheerfully, patting my shoulder. "I'm sure he hasn't told me everything."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"That I know Bakura." Oh? "He's an interesting one... but my brother and I can tell that he really cares about you... none of his other relationships have been like this."

"You mean that in a good way, right?" He nodded.

"Of course! I think you two are a great couple. I'm just saying that this is the happiest we've seen him in a long time. I mean, he's been coming to our house and stuff for... years and years. We see a lot of him, and we know how he is. Trust me, he absolutely adores you." I smiled.

"That's nice to hear... I like him a lot also," I told Malik. "Quite a bit..."

"That's good. He's a nice guy, but people never really seem to get that. He takes good care of my brother. And me, to an extent, I guess." We heard a crash from the next room as the two older boys wrestled over something.

"Hey!" I shouted, fearing that they would break something. "Careful! We're in the Kaiba mansion, remember? This isn't our stuff to break!"

"Yeah, yeah. They can afford new stuff," Bakura argued.

"Not the point! I don't want to piss off Seto-"

"Hah! He's always pissed off. When your brother's not around, at any rate..."

"Are Seto and your brother... um..." Malik fidgeted a little. "Like, together?" I nodded, and he narrowed his eyes. "What kind of person is this 'Seto Kaiba?'" I laughed, but I appreciated his concern.

"He's... well, he's kind of an ass, to stupid people at least. He's very nice to Yami and me, and as you can see, he's generous... I mean, he invited us to stay at his house!"

"And his parents were okay with that? I think my mom would be a little ticked if I invited people to live with us..."

"His parents are... everything that mine aren't," I told him truthfully. "They are the nicest people I've met in a long time, and they really just want to help. Plus, his mom thinks that Yami and I are adorable... especially with our boyfriends." Malik's eyes widened.

"What? So they know and everything, and they're okay with it?" I nodded.

"Yep. And, in his mom's case, thrilled." He laughed at that, as I shook my head. We heard another crash, followed by a muttered "oh shit" from the next room.

"I think we better keep an eye on them," Malik suggested, wincing at the sounds of destruction.

"Most definitely... what the fuck are you two doing?" I asked incredulously as we walked into the kitchen. We should have known better than to leave them alone in a room with food. Well, Bakura mostly. Marik's medication lessened his appetite, but Bakura never stopped eating. Or throwing stuff, apparently. There was food everywhere. Everywhere.

"Marik!" Malik scolded. His brother stuck out his abnormally-long tongue at our glares. Seriously, he could lick his nose and everything! But anyway, Bakura was standing there, the picture of innocence. I swore that it must have been a family trait or something, to be able to look so totally innocent when they were most definitely not. He blinked at me sadly.

"Sorry..." he mumbled. I shook my head.

"Nope. Not gonna work. Ryou's tried that look on me too many times. I'll forgive you when you clean up the kitchen, though..." He groaned loudly.

"Fucking hell," he mumbled. "They're rich as fuck. Why don't they have a housekeeper or something like that?"

"Because, unlike you, Seto and Mokuba aren't total slobs." I paused. "So, Bakura. Tell me, just how rich is fuck?" He blinked, confused. "You said they were 'rich as fuck,' but I don't know how rich fuck is." He narrowed his eyes at me, and I put up my hands. "Hey, I'm just saying. You two had better get this kitchen back to how it was before anyone gets home," I warned them, eliciting a laugh from Marik.

"Damn, Bakura," he teased, punching him in the shoulder. "Like an old married couple already." Hey! He turned to me, looking me directly in the eyes, and said seriously, "Yugi, someday, you'll make a wonderful wife."

"What the fuck does that even mean?" Malik asked his brother, laughing at the expression on my face and the fact that I was now bright red. Marik shrugged.

"You know. He's keeping Bakura in line and out of trouble, and I'm guessing he's a lot more tidy than Bakura, although that's not hard. And you have to admit, you know that he's bottom." Haha, funny. Wait, did he just say-

"Marik!" Bakura shouted, tackling him, both of them hitting the counter. Oh, God. I put my hands on my cheeks, and I could feel the heat radiating from them. Malik smiled apologetically.

"Sorry about that." I nodded. He paused before shooting a sly glance at me. "So," he began. "Are you bottom?" I glared at him, but he just continued to smirk back at me. Jeez, speaking of people who look innocent but are actually pure evil...

"What do you think?" I shot back, making him laugh even more.

"Hey. Don't get all touchy about it. Nothing wrong with being bottom." Oh, man. If looks could kill, I would have killed him a million times over. "Just making sure." Well, it was good to know that the Ishtar brothers were concerned with my sex life. And that they actually discussed it. "So..."

"No! No more questions!" I shouted, throwing my hands in the air.

"Fine, fine," he sighed heavily. "I guess I'll let you off the hook... for now."

"Jesus. Since when do you care?" It sounded a little harsher than I'd intended, but he didn't seem bothered by it.

"Well, you know me. I don't get out much, and I've never dated at all. I have to live vicariously through someone, and you seem to be a good candidate." He said this all very matter-of-factly. He wasn't trying to evoke any feelings of pity for him, and for once he wasn't teasing me; he was just stating a fact. Of course, what do you say to that kind of thing? How are you supposed to respond? Very uncomfortable. He saved me from stuttering out a response by turning to the still-wrestling duo. "Hey, you morons! Knock it off!"

"And clean up!" I added, just for good measure. Amazingly enough, they actually listened to us and cleaned up. Not without excessive amounts of whining and complaining, but they got the kitchen clean.

"I'm hungry..." Bakura moaned, rubbing his growling stomach.

"What the hell?! Didn't you eat any of the food? Or did you just throw it around?" I could hear his stomach from all the way across the room.

"Yeah, we ate food, but that was breakfast."

"It's two in the afternoon."

"My point exactly." I sighed and Malik shook his head in disappointment.

"Well," Marik cut in slyly. "We could all four go get something to eat..." He sounded a little off, and Malik turned to him.

"If you want to do something, just say it. You don't have to be so indirect about it! It's not like we're going to yell at you," he scolded, earning a death glare.

"Yeah? Look who's talking, Mr. I-can't-order-in-restaurants," he shot back. This was getting kind of out of hand.

"At least I don't talk to bicycles." Okay, Malik. Way out of hand. Marik narrowed his eyes at his younger brother, and I prepared to sacrifice myself, just in case I had to jump between the two of them.

"Malik, that was kind of a low blow. Maybe bicycles have a lot to say. Not the point. The point is, we're going out right now, and we're getting food." It was in situations like this, when things were getting chaotic, that Bakura always surprised me. "And I'll order for you," he added after seeing the panicked look on Malik's face. "Sound good?" All three of us nodded, Bakura grinning widely. "Good. Let's go."

We piled into his car. I let Marik sit in the front, because he was still glaring daggers at Malik. Not that I blamed him, but I didn't want either of them getting hurt on the way. They were certainly an interesting pair. Obviously, they each had their fair share of... of problems (I was trying to think of a nicer way of saying it, but whatever), but they each know what makes the other one tick, what sets them off. Which could be good, because I'd seen Malik calm Marik down when he was freaking out, and vice versa, when Malik was having a panic attack. On the other hand, it turned normal sibling bickering into a psychological tangle of tempers. Basically, they just tried to set each other off. It could get nasty. Once, Marik locked himself in his room for two days because of something Malik had said. I remember being very impressed with Bakura's heroic efforts as he brought his friend food, climbing up to the second story and breaking into Marik's room. It was pretty impressive. I'd been hanging out with Malik that day, and just "happened" to see Bakura. Okay, so I heard that he was there and went on an all-out Bakura search. But that's totally not even the point here, right? So anyways, we went out to eat, and true to his word, Bakura ordered for a blushing, cringing Malik, while Marik smirked in the background. Once we were done dealing with people, the atmosphere relaxed. Or rather, Malik quit biting his lip and picking at his skin. Summer was a bad time for him, because the mosquitos come out. Normally, a mosquito bite is just really annoying, but with Malik, whenever he gets a sore, he picks at it continuously, and it can't heal. He had all kinds of scars from it, and they stand out against his dark skin. Then, he gets self-conscious about that, and fidgets/picks even more from anxiety. When we dropped them off at their house, Bakura waited until they were inside before whipping out his cell phone, quickly dialing. To my surprise, I heard the phone ringing from the open window of the Ishtar house. Why was he calling Marik? Made no sense to me.

"Hey. Just letting you know, they've been pushing each other's buttons." He paused, then smiled. "Yup. You're welcome. Talk to you later." He shut his phone. "Their mom," he explained to me.

"Ah. And how does Marik feel about you having his mother on speed dial?" He laughed loudly, ruffling my already-ruffled hair.

"Marik is the one that put it in there." He paused, before coughing violently, although the cough sounded more like "that's what she said." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, then..."

"But seriously, though. He said that it would be good for me to be able to get ahold of her in an emergency. Which happens quite often." I nodded and he smiled, kind of sadly.

"Well," I said, trying to change the subject. "Now maybe we can finish that movie we only watched part of." He laughed again.

"Come now, Yugi. Let's not kid ourselves. You and I both know that we're not going to be watching the movie." He laughed and dodged my half-hearted punch, and I could feel my face heating up.

"You," I said accusingly as he started back to the house,"are impossible. But you know, that's probably why I love you."

A/N: Marik in this chapter is pretty much me, except that I'm not quite as bad as he is. I kind of based the two of them off of these people I know; the brother is bipolar and his meds are all fucked up, and his sister missed almost an entire year of school because she kept having anxiety attacks.

Ugh, so the last oh, third of this chapter is probably kind of messed up. I was having some insomnia issues (don't take more welbutrin than you're supposed to!), and I got up at one thirty, wrote this, went back to bed, couldn't sleep, got up, went downstairs and camped out on the couch, where I finally fell asleep at like, three... for about two hours, before my dog came and licked me and sneezed in my face. BUT- I got up and took a shower, which is a good thing, and I got to school super-early, and got a good parking spot for once in my life. Also, I feel like throwing up. Not that you wanted to know that or anything... oh! Speaking of throwing up (a sentence starting off like that can never turn out well), I have this shirt that has Yami and Seto on it (I had to try three different websites before anyone would print it b/c of copyright issues), and I was going to wear it today! and then my cat puked on it. It was revenge, because she was angry that I slept on the couch. She's a very bitter, vengeful individual. Not even kidding. but enough of my rambling! Thank you for reading my chapter and allowing me to talk about totally inconsequential things. I hope you like it!

*many thanks to soundofmadness223*

~alex~