WARNING: This chapter contains . . . [Language / Suggestive Narration]
Edit Update: 1/1/2016
Did some majorly minor editing.
"Are you, uh, feeling better?" Bakura asked. This wasn't something that a lot of villains asked very often. Especially to each other.
"I'm okay." He certainly did look a lot better.
As it turned out, Marik had simply gotten carsick. Or, horsesick in this case. And by the time they arrived at their current destination - a chasm with a waterfall next to it, which was drowning out the sounds of the jungle that they had grown so accustomed to - Marik was already nearly fully recovered. Bakura was just grateful that Marik had had the sense of turning his head away from him before puking. Cleaning vomit from his jacket wasn't exactly what he would call a good time. He made a mental note not to let Marik ride with him when the horse had to do a lot of jumping. And luckily, the chasm didn't require any major movement on the horse's part. There was a tall tree that had fallen at one point, creating a bridge that they could cross.
It took a bit of coaxing, but Bakura was somehow able to convince Artax to carry them across the fallen tree that would hopefully stay intact. But it looked solid enough, so Bakura wasn't worried. Unlike Marik and the horse, who both stared at the raging waters and jagged rocks below as they made their way to the other side.
"Hey." Marik poked Bakura's shoulder when they had made it halfway. "Hey, Bakura." Another poke. "Hey, hey Bakura." Another poke. "Hey, Bakura."
"What?!"
"We're on a bridge, Bakura!"
The pale boy groaned. Why did Marik have to be so-
Bakura's train of thought was broken when he noticed how dark it had suddenly become, and it was only a few measly seconds before rain began to plummet like liquid bullets, instantly drenching them. But they had bigger problems. The rain had made the tree underneath them slick, so Artax was losing his footing with every other step. If they didn't make it to the other side soon, they would probably end up falling off and either drowning or having their brains bashed in. They had to risk running for it. Bakura slammed his heels against the horse's sides, making Artax bolt.
It seemed like eternity, but it was only mere seconds before Artax got close enough to jump to safety, where he clumsily landed and stopped as he panted, both from exhaustion and the realization that they had almost died. Bakura was also breathing hard, but not from fear. He had gotten rid of all traces of that emotion thousands of years ago.
"Are you alright, Bakura?" Marik asked his companion, who was covering his face with his hand.
No, he wasn't. In that brief moment, when they had thought that they might meet their demise, all Bakura could think about was getting Marik to safety; and that he would have happily faced death if it meant Marik would survive. He had never felt this way before. Except maybe for when he had watched his friends and family's blood spill out of them like juice from crushed fruit.
Why did he feel this strongly about him? It had been fine when he thought of it more from a sexual point of view, but Marik was now making him . . . soft. In other words, weak. But that seemed little in comparison to the other realization he had. The same one he had idly thought about when they had first set sail on the rowboat. Marik was a mortal. Just one wrong step and his life would be snuffed out. If Bakura had fallen down the chasm, the Millennium Ring would just have to wait until a new host appeared. It would probably take a few hundred, if not a thousand, years for that to happen. But all-in-all, Bakura would still be alive through all that time. While Marik would have been swept away by the currents before his body sunk to the bottom, where it would decay and become nothing but bones, torn up fabric, and gold jewelry that would try to shine in the murky waters. And no one would ever know what had happened to him. No one except Bakura. What would have happened if all of that had accrued? If he was forced to live all those years inside the Ring, knowing that Marik was dead?
That's when he knew that he had allowed himself to become too attached. His only purpose was to make the Pharaoh pay by giving him the painful death that the bastard deserved and to collect all of the Millennium Items. Those two goals had been the only ones to consume his mind for so long. And then he had met Marik. At first, he had thought that he was an easy ticket to finding an easier and faster way to get to their enemy and the Items. It was business and nothing more. But he soon found himself constantly looking at Marik's exposed midriff because the boy kept flaunting it day in and day out. But it was just casual lusting. The same way that men tend to watch young women walk by and undress them in their minds. How could he help it? Marik was constantly going on about how sexy he was, and it was impossible to disagree. And then somewhere down the line, his feelings for him grew into something more than just physical desire. Was it when Marik had one of his Melvin dreams and Bakura had found himself hugging the sobbing Egyptian? It could have even been a combination of all those nights when he had to step in to chase the boy's demons away. Or maybe it was from wanting him for so long. Maybe he had simply gotten too used to him, like a child with a new pet that he knew only had a few years to live but had somehow convinced himself that they would live forever.
Many more theories rushed through Bakura's mind, and he wondered if this feeling was anything like seeing your life flash before your eyes. Except the only moments of his life that he saw was his time with Marik.
"Come on, Bakura. Say something for frig's sake!"
Bakura turned his head around to face Marik, who was glaring at him. Any other time he would have thought that Marik's pouting looked cute and he would have felt that urge to kiss him. But not now. Maybe not ever again. It would be better for the both of them if he went back to how he had seen him when they first met: a stupid boy who was the foe of his worst enemy. Nothing more and nothing less. If he did that, it would save him a lot of heartache later on.
"We had better find some shelter." Bakura said before getting off the horse.
"Okay." Marik slid off and the two of them began their search.
Lightning struck overheard as Bakura tried to concentrate on the task at hand, but he found himself glancing in Marik's general direction as he told himself that he was simply making sure that he didn't get lost. Now that he was trying to forget about him, he wanted Marik even more. This is how it always is when someone is told to stay away from something. They instantly want to break the rules and go for it, even if it might be life threatening. Why couldn't he just forget about him? And it didn't help that Marik wasn't the type you could just ignore, what with his loud voice and revealing clothes.
Bakura stopped looking as a sudden thought came to him. The only reason why he was going to El Dorado in the first place was because it would make Marik happy and he had made that promise. But he didn't want to let himself care about him, and wanting Marik was one of the reasons why it was so hard to be around him.
The earth shook under his feet as thunder boomed overheard. This wasn't exactly the most romantic of settings, but who cared about romance? He was simply going to make Marik fulfill a promise. And then once that was over, he would convince him to forget El Dorado and go back home. If he refused, Bakura would just leave him here. Maybe that would even be for the best. He was planning on parting ways with him, so why not do that sooner than planned? Leaving Marik behind in this fanfiction would probably be the easiest thing. A part of him wondered if he should forget about the promise and try to leave right now. But he needed something, and he wanted to be able to convince himself that he had no regrets.
"Did you find something, Bakura?" Marik asked as his companion walked towards him.
Bakura placed his hands on the Egyptian boy's shoulders. "Marik." He watched droplets travel down the boy's tanned face and drip from his blond hair. "About that promise you made."
"What about it?" Marik asked, clueless as ever.
Now that he was so close, Bakura found himself faltering. Was it because he had been unable to get to this point for so long that he now expected something to happen to prevent him from advancing? Or was it because he knew that after this, they would never see each other again? And the constant downpour wasn't helping either.
"Well, out with it!" Marik demanded. "I command you to speak up! The power of my midriff compels you!"
Bakura let go and looked away. "Never mind."
Marik gave him a quizzical look before shrugging it off, continuing his search for a dry place to wait out the storm and once again complaining about there being too many trees as he did.
'You did the right thing.'
Bakura knew that voice. He grabbed the Millennium Ring and glared at it. "What do you bloody want?"
'I just wanted to tell you that you would have regretted what you were about to do.'
Bakura smirked, but there was no emotion in it. Just strain. "And is that supposed to make me feel better?" He forced himself to chuckle and let the Item sway back and forth. "I think you have spent too much time cheering on the sidelines. You're beginning to forget that I'm the one who is going to murder all of your friends."
'I haven't forgotten.' He replied coldly.
"Then why are you trying to help me?"
'It's because I care about my friends that I can see how much you care about yours.'
Bakura glared at the Item before giving it a vacant expression as he put the Ring between his chest and shirt. "He is not my friend."
"Bakura!" Marik was waving at him, Churro and Artax standing nearby.
'You shouldn't push him away.' Ryou told him.
"And you should know when to shut up." Bakura growled before making his way towards Marik and his animal pals.
"Look what we found, Bakura!" Marik grabbed Bakura's arm and began to drag him off.
Even though it was still raining with no end in sight, Bakura felt as if the clouds had suddenly parted. "Marik."
"It took us for-frigging-ever to find it."
Bakura felt the defenses that he had tried so hard to put up crumble around him. Like the walls of Jericho crashing down from mere trumpets being played, Bakura had become vulnerable from Marik's touch and idiotic smile. What was it about this boy that made him want to release his hatred and actually let himself be, dare he say it, happy?
The two teenagers came to a stop and Bakura looked at the giant leaf that lay in front of him. No, it wasn't a giant leaf. It must have been one of the biggest leafs in existence! Just that one leaf alone could shelter him, Marik, Churro, and even Artax! How did this freak of nature come into being?
As Bakura raised an eyebrow at this strange phenomenon, Marik let out a big sneeze.
"Even my sneezes are sexy." Marik said before letting another one loose.
"Let's get under here." Bakura grabbed the leaf and held it up as everyone took cover. And once Marik was sitting under their shelter, Bakura found himself sliding over and pressing himself against him.
"Why are you sitting so close to me?" Marik asked in annoyance, despite the fact that he had done the exact same thing the last time it had rained on them.
"There isn't enough room." This was a lie, of course.
"Then get your own overly sized leaf to hide under."
"There aren't any others."
"There's like a huge pile of them right there, Bakura!" Marik gestured at the pile of leafs that wasn't even five feet away from them.
"I don't like them as much."
"Get out of my frigging shade!"
"Marik."
"What?"
Bakura pointed at the sky. "It stopped raining." Sure enough, the rain had stopped as quickly as it had started.
"It's about frigging time!" Marik said as he and the animals stood up and began making their way towards the trail, not noticing that Bakura was still rooted to the spot.
'Does this mean that you're not going to abandon him?' Ryou asked.
Bakura got on his feet. "After we arrive at El Dorado, I'll have him fulfill his promise and then I'll leave him here." That way Marik won't have to live the life of a cursed villain that was destined to lose anyway. And most of all, he won't have to watch Marik leave him behind.
'You're going to regret this.'
"Tell me something I don't know."
