Marik awoke the week before school started, and sat up. No ways had yet been discovered on how to gain Bakura a body. Neither he nor Touzouku had been able to find anyway way of relating the ingredients to other items.
So when said blonde sat up in bed, his first thought was that he needed to figure out how to get everything into place.
Marik slid out of his bed, and looked at Bakura who had just exited the Millennium Ring. The spirit mumbled a good morning, before Marik stood up and got dressed. As soon as he slipped his shirt on, Marik trotted down the stairs.
Bakura followed after him, for once not aiming for the boy's shoulders.
The pair made their way into the kitchen, where Ishizu was making pancakes.
"Good morning Marik! Bakura," she nodded slightly. Ishizu had grown used to Bakura by now, and it didn't even bother her that he was there anymore. It seemed everybody had grown used to the idea of saying Marik along with the name Bakura following quickly after. Even his mother, it seemed, was quite over the fact that Bakura was Marik's shadow.
"Good morning sister," Marik greeted, whereas Bakura just grunted. Melvin was sitting at the kitchen table too, while making a fork and knife attack each other. Marik sighed, before seating himself across from Melvin.
"Hey, faggot, who d'you think would win? The fork or the knife?" Melvin brandished both utensils at once, while Ishizu let out an irritated noise. Marik tilted his head, and pondered over it for a moment.
"I suppose the fork. It has a more versatile way of attacking."
"Are you kidding?" Bakura snorted. "The knife would win, obviously."
"Why?"
"Knives are superior."
"Says who?"
"Says me!"
"SHUT UP!" Melvin yelled, and threw the knife and fork down. "Dammit you two! Fighting like an old married couple! You ruined my fun." Melvin then proceeded to pout as he flopped his head down onto the table. Marik and Bakura both stared mildly at each other, before coming to a silent truce.
Ishizu came over and scooped up the knife. "You don't even need a knife to eat pancackes! Why did you have this out?" The eldest Ishtar sibling then handed out two plates with pancakes and syrup.
"I was bored," Melvin muttered, before seizing the fork and cutting up his pancakes.
"All right then," Ishizu sighed in a defeated way, before grabbing her self a plate as well.
Bakura merely watched the Ishtars eating, as he found himself wishing for food. Marik saw his gaze, before motioning at the spirit. Bakura tilted his head, and Marik rolled his eyes at the spirit's stupidity.
"Possess me."
"Marik-"
"It's all right," the blonde stated, holding up a hand. "I'm giving you permission this time." Bakura just nodded slightly before jumping into Marik. He felt a tingling sensation for a moment, and then he looked down at his body. Flexing his hands, he saw the dark skin stretch across the tendons.
He felt a few of his fingers pop, before wincing. Then he scooped up his fork. He stared at the thing for a moment, before realizing that Melvin and Ishizu were staring at him. Scowling at both of them, he scooped up some of the pancakes, and put them in his mouth.
Marik hadn't lied.
Ishizu made some damn good pancakes.
He quickly shoveled some more in his mouth, savoring the taste, before hopping out of the body. Marik slumped over for a moment, and his head dangled from his shoulders. Bakura felt a slight sense of panic, but then the blonde head bobbed up, and Marik shivered.
"That was kinda cold," Marik confided, before finishing up his pancakes.
"Well, when I touch you it's cold," Bakura said, and ignored Ishizu's look of disaproval and Melvin's girn, "so naturally me going inside of you is cold."
"Wow, just imagine se-" Melvin started to say, but Ishziu quickly interrupted him
"That's enough," she said in a commanding tone, and even Melvin shut his mouth for a moment. He seemed to remember who he was, though, and quickly let his tongue flicker out, before throwing his plate in the sink.
Melvin left, and Marik rinsed off his plate.
"I'm not . . . Sleeping with Bakura, y'know," Marik said, and Ishizu nodded slightly. "Well, not in that sense, anyways." The female Ishtar just nodded once more, before shooing Marik from the kitchen.
"Well, back to studying," Bakura commanded, before shooing Marik up the stairs. Marik let out an exasperated sigh, before setting down to work.
-(-o-)-
It was the last day before school started.
Marik stared at the wall, and looked to the list he'd started making three months ago.
Nothing new had been added.
Bakura sat beside Marik, feeling misery as he watched the blonde boy slowly stand up from the bed. Marik began pacing, before looking to Bakura.
"So, the time has come for me to die," Marik said, tapping a finger against his chin. Bakura snarled slightly.
"Don't say tha-"
"Shut up," Marik commanded, glaring at Bakura. "I need to know what happened when you died, so I can know how to come back as a ghost. I need to choose my type of death as well. I don't want to start a school year and then die. No, no. It'll be easier to get it over with tonight."
"How can you be so calm about this?" Bakura demanded, crossing his arms and legs as he floated in the area above the bed.
"Because I chose this," Marik said calmly. "I chose to die. It's not like you, when you were murdered." Then the blonde got up and put on his favorite outfit. After all, if he was going to be wearing the same outfit for eternity, he decided it'd be one he liked. So, pulling on the lavender midriff and black cargo pants, he turned to Bakura.
"All I know is. . .Don't go towards the light," Bakura mumbled, staring at the ground. Ryou said that was how Bakura himself had become a ghost, was that he veered off track from the light. Would it work though? Could Marik, dying alone, possibly make it to the light, and never come back at all?
"Sounds simple enough," Marik said, before pacing again. "All right then, I'm going to go make my final good-byes."
"Won't your family be suspicious that you're all of a sudden telling them good-bye?" Bakura scowled, glaring at Marik's back.
"They might. . . But I'll try and be sneaky about it," Marik winked, before stroking the Millennium Ring. "If you don't mind, Bakura. . . Could you spend the day in the Ring?"
"What?" Bakura shouted, hopping up from the bed.
"Well, this is going to be slightly embarrasing." Marik shrugged. "I'd like you to not be present through any of it." Bakura mumbled more sounds of complaint, before dissolving into mist. He quickly shot into the Millennium Ring, and Marik exited his bedroom.
He could see Ishizu downstairs texting someone -probably Kaiba- and he decided to deal with her first. Making his way down the stairs, Marik headed towards his sister. She looked up to greet him, and noticed that Bakura wasn't there. Frowning slightly, she tilted her head in confusion.
"He's just. . . Feeling a little tired today," Marik said, before patting the faintly glowing Ring for emphasis.
"Oh," Ishizu replied, before looking back to Marik's face. "What is troubling you, brother?"
"Nothing much, I just wanted to let you know that you're a. . . Uh. . . Good sister?" Marik said, before leaning forward and hugging Ishizu.
"You say that like you're going away. . ." Ishizu mumbled, before wrapping her arms around Marik and pulling him close. "Are you leaving us, brother?"
Marik gasped slightly, before he bit his lip. "No, sister," he lied, before giving a false laugh. "Of course not. But . . Even if I do leave, I want you to remember something. I'll always find away back. . ." With that, Marik pulled himself from Ishizu's grasp, gave her a shaky smile, before leaving the living room.
Next, he headed to Melvin's room. Knocking on the door, his brother wrenched it open.
"What is it, fudgepacker?" Melvin questioned, leaning with his shoulder against the doorframe.
Marik took a deep intake of breath, before saying, "I just wanted you to know that despite all of our differences, I think I look up to you. You're crazy, psychotic, and I wish half the time that I could kill you, but you are my big brother and. . ." Marik's voice dwindled. Talking to Melvin wasn't as easy as speaking to Ishizu.
Marik instead reached out and hugged Melvin around the waist. He let his head thump against Melvin's chest. His brother didn't react, but that was all right. Instead, Marik just pulled away, and quickly ran away from Melvin.
He stopped at his mother's room, and gave it a sad smile. He wouldn't be seeing her before he died. Maybe Ishizu would talk to her though. Instead, Marik entered his room, before pulling out his cellphone.
He first sent a message to Tea, telling her that she was a nice friend, and he apologized for that first misunderstanding of feelings between them.
Then, he sent a message to Yugi (he'd gotten the number from Tea), and told him that he'd made his decision.
I hope you made the right one, Yugi sent back, and Marik simply closed the text message.
Lastly, he sent a message to Touzouku, telling the other boy not to bother bringing books over any more, and that Marik had appreciated his companionship. After that, he silenced his phone, set it on the desk, and stroked the Ring.
Bakura took this as his clue to come out of the Ring.
"Everything's taken care of now," Marik smiled sadly. "Except for my actual death, anyways."
"Yes, well, that does tend to put a damper on things," Bakura growled, before settling down on Marik's shoulders. "How are you going to do it?"
"Well . . I don't want to go back downstairs to grab a knife. . . Ishizu's already suspicious, and no doubt she'll stop me. . . So . . ." Marik let his gaze scan around the room, before his gaze flitted down the Millennium Ring.
"What're you thinking. . . ?" Bakura asked, his voice only slightly betraying his nervousness.
"Well. . . I could strangle myself. Hang myself. . . Something like that." Marik stood up then, and made his way over to the back of his door. There was a small little hook there for a shoe rack.
"Marik. . ." Bakura said softly, before floating over to the boy.
"Hey, spirit, can you lift me up?" Marik turned to look at Bakura. The spirit looked torn for a moment, before he nodded slightly. Wrapping his hands around Marik's body, he felt he boy shiver against him. Marik let himself be lifted up though, and Bakura kept them stationary as Marik lifted the Millennium Ring's string around the hook.
"Are you ready?" Bakura whispered, eying the only thing that was keeping Marik alive.
"Yeah. . ." Marik muttered, before Bakura leaned in and kissed him. Marik gave a small smile, before Bakura floated away from Marik. The boy fell down, and Bakura heard a sickening snap, before the Marik's body hung limp like a rag doll.
Bakura stared at the lifeless body of his friend, before sinking to his knees on the ground. No tears came, but he almost wished he could cry. Instead, he merely sat there until Ishizu came to bring them down to supper.
Bakura was sure he'd never heard someone scream so loud.
-(-o-)-
Annd next chapter will be the last. Jeez. . . 21 chapters, hn. . . . Updates updates updates. Actually, the next chapter I might go ahead and finish today just to get this story over with.
I love this story, but dadgummit it needed to end! Ah well. AND MELVIN FINALLY GOT HIS HUG! xD
And this is the second time I've made Marik commit suicide. What the frig? Either way. . .
Rape the review button. It likes it.
See ya!