Yu-Gi-Oh!
Dawn of Fate
.
.
Skyla: ::rocking back and forth, muttering incoheriently::
Y.Bakura: Oy, Ryou, what's wrong with Skyla?
Bakura: Have you checked the calender under next Wednesday?
Y.Bakura: ::reading from calender:: "Blood will flow: Driver's Test two PM". Remind me not to go out for a walk next Wednesday.
Bakura: -_-;; Bakura...
Y.Bakura: ::sniggers:: C'mon, let's do the Q&A. Skyla ain't snapping out of it for awhile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*Anonymous*~
BOTH: NO!!!
~*MollyJean*~
Y.Bakura: You're laughing? At ME!?!
Bakura: -_-;; Shut up, Bakura...
Y.Bakura: _ Oh, yes, we DO get back at the pharaoh. ::evil laugh::
Bakura: ::sigh::
~*Nekostar 2*~
Y.Bakura: I've been getting my own body since the high priest observed it on the train. :P
Bakura: -_- Keep your tounge in will you?
Y.Bakura: :|
Bakura: And thanks for telling us about Prince Charming. Skyla went and ordered it at her local video store.
~*Millennium Dreamer*~
Y.Bakura: She found them at Jenniyah's YGO scantilations sites.
Bakura: But we're too lazy to look up the URL. ^_^
~*AG the master*~
Y.Bakura: Ryou, how many pieces do you think this person would be in if Skyla were doing the Q&A?
Bakura: Too many to count. O_o
BOTH: THERE IS NO BAKURA/YAMI BAKURA!!!!!!!!!
~*Cettie-girl*~
Y.Bakura: No, bad pharaoh! Bad, bad, bad!!
Bakura: -_-;;
~*Chelsea*~
Y.Bakura: ::glares:: You don't like it, don't read it.
Bakura: ::glares:: We don't need nor want gay bashers in the reviews.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Y.Bakura: Well, that's all from us.
Bakura: Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to hunt down Yami Yugi-kun.
BOTH: ::evil smiles::
Bakura: Read, enjoy, and then review!
.
.
.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - MATTERS OF THE HEART
The glaring afternoon sunlight woke Seto the next day. He winced against the offensive light without opening his eyes, shifting under the covers to get away from it...
Wait, since when was he in his bed?
Seto's eyes snapped open in surprise, only to see that he was indeed in his own bed in the Ravenclaw fourth year boy's dormitory. He was wrapped securely in the blankets - though if he had done that in his sleep or someone else had done that, he could not tell - and his head was resting on the lap of his other self. The high priest was still asleep, sitting so he was propped up against the headboard of the four-poster bed; his head was tilted to the side, and he was snoring softly.
The young businessman's face burned in humiliation. He knew someone had to have helped his other self drag him upstairs, and considering he more than likely looked like hell after loosing control like he did last night...
Seto mentally groaned then, the events of the night before burning brightly in his mind. How could he have lost it like that? He never voiced what he felt about what Gonzaboru did to him; he never wanted anyone's pity... but... why did he feel so much better than he had in a long time...?
Suddenly, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.
"Daijobou desu ka, hikari?" Yami Seto asked, his voice still fogged by sleep.
"Aa..." Seto muttered in return, not looking up at him. It was then he realized what time it was, and would have jumped out of bed if the hand on his shoulder had not tightened its grip.
"Don't panic, hikari," Yami Seto assured him. "It's Sunday. Nothing going on today."
Seto relaxed, but only a little bit. He felt... strange... almost as if something inside of him was being torn down. The barriers in his mind, perhaps that's what it was? He did not know - he was far from an expert in these kinds of things; they were more Yugi's department - but it sure felt like something was missing from his consciousness.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Yami Seto asked. Seto cringed, and the priest quickly added, "You don't have to if you don't want to."
There was a long drawn out silence, so deep that Seto could literally feel the minutes tick away.
"You know..." he began quietly. "I can't help but wonder what I would have been like... if my parents hadn't died... or if my relatives hadn't been so greedy and used up our inheritance and dropping us off at that orphanage. Would I be more like Yugi? Maybe even Jonouchi? I don't know... I never will either."
Seto closed his eyes again, feeling trails of hot tears burning their way down his face. What was with him? He did not want to share this, and yet... he could not stop himself from doing so.
"That day Gonzaboru came to the orphanage," he continued, "I played a game of chess against him, with him adopting me and my brother as my prize if I won. I cheated horribly to win that game... but I did not even need to. Gonzaboru had made up his mind before even coming there. I didn't know then, but he wanted me as his heir, because I looked so much like Noah. I was going to be his lab rat; if I succeeded as a businessman, then he would displace my soul with Noah's using the virtual reality technology that I had created."
Seto's fist involuntarily twisted closed around the lip of his bed sheets in his anger. Yami Seto reached down and unclenched his hikari's hand, letting him grip his translucent hand instead of the sheets.
"He never got the chance to do it, though," Seto kept going, his voice tight. "I got the Kaiba Corporation board of directors on my side. They chose me to lead the Corporation barely a year before I first met Yugi and the others." He paused a moment, shuddering slightly. "I'll never forget the look on his face, before he threw himself out the window... and I'll never forget laughing about it..."
The drawn-out silence that followed was twice as long as the last, and heavy with the last sentence Seto had spoken. It was broken only when he felt the wetness of tears falling onto his hair, and he frowned heavily.
"I don't need your pity," he growled.
Yami Seto laughed slightly. "It's not pity, hikari, it's joy," he explained. "Nearly nine years you've held in that hatred and despair. Any normal human would have cracked long before now, but somehow you've managed to hold on. But now, the time to let it go has long past, and you finally have. I'm proud of you."
Seto paused, his mouth hanging open slightly in realization. So... that's what was missing from his mind: his hatred toward Gonzaboru. He had carried it for so long, sought physical ways to be rid of it... and all he had to do was tell someone about it? Share his feelings with someone... it was something he only did with Mokuba, and even that was hard. Maybe Gonzaboru had planned that all along... but somehow he did not care about that anymore.
He was finally free.
Seto loosened his grip on his other self's hand... and suddenly the tips of the high priests fingers started to glow. The glow danced along his hand and up his arm as Seto sat up and stared at his other self. The light spread all through his body, making everything it touched shimmer. Then, just as quickly as it appeared the light vanished...
Leaving a perfectly solid high priest behind.
Yami Seto held his hands up to his face, shocked that he could not see right through them. He parted his hands to look at his hikari, who had an equally stunned look on his face.
"Wh... what just happened?" he asked numbly.
Yami Seto swallowed. "Good question..."
~.oOOo.~
Yami Yugi walked down the halls of Hogwarts castle alone, a big grin on his face. If the scream last night was any indication, the tomb robber had found his little "present". Revenge was supposed to be sweeter than Christmas, and considering how much he loved Christmas, revenge was a very sweet thing indeed. He sniggered to himself, getting some concerned looks from passersby. Nothing could dampen his good mood right now!
He went around the bend in the hallway, passing one of the many suits of armor that dotted the hallways. The pharaoh glanced at it, not giving it much thought, until something creamy smacked him in the face. Blinking in confusion, he managed to wipe some of it away, only to have another creamy something land on the top of his head. It took him a moment to realize that the SUITS OF ARMOR were throwing PIES at him, but when he did, he managed to get away with only two more pies thrown at his back.
Yami Yugi wiped the rest of the pie cream off of his face, wondering what possessed them to do such a thing. He heard a squeak, and duck in anticipation of another pie to the face, only to see that another suit of armor was holding out a piece of parchment. Grumbling, he snatched it out of the armor's metal hand, and he read it to himself as it stepped back into its normal place.
This means war, pharaoh!
The Bakuras
A snarl escaped from Yami Yugi's mouth as he crushed the note in his fist.
"You're on, tomb robber..."
~.oOOo.~
Yami Seto yawned as he and his hikari made their way down the hallway a few days later, on their way to the Great Hall for lunch. They had just gotten out of their Transfiguration class, where Professor McGonagall had announced the upcoming Yule Ball before loading them all down with homework. Seto had a cute shade of red staining his face when the high priest looked over at him, about to ask him when he was going to ask Fleur to the dance. He laughed instead, making his hikari turn an even more vivid shade of crimson.
"Urusai..." Seto muttered.
Yami Seto grabbed him around the neck in a playful chokehold. "Aw, hikari, you're so KAWAII...!" he exclaimed, a dorky smile on his face. Seto rolled his eyes before pushing him off. "So, anyway," the high priest continued, still grinning, "how are you going to ask Fleur to the dance?"
Seto stopped walking, rubbing the back of his neck. "I dunno," he admitted. "I've never had to ask a girl out before... I don't know if I should let her ask me out even. I mean... she IS a champion..."
The high priest rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "You're asking me? My love advice is a little dated, and incomplete, all things considered," he said, before cracking his knuckles and wrapping an arm around his hikari's neck again, guiding him down the hallway. "From what I do know, flowers speak volumes..."
~.oOOo.~
Marik paced back and forth, sweating in nervousness, a fresh bouquet of flowers he had acquired with help from Professor Sprout in hand. He was in the hallway that Hermione frequented the most often, as it led to two of her classes as well as the library. There was no way that he could not run into her here; and when he did, he was going to apologize, give her the flowers, and ask her out to the Yule Ball. Everything would be all right again, and that's all that mattered.
A door opened down the way, and Hermione entered the hallway. Screwing up his courage, Marik started toward her...
Suddenly another door opened, and Viktor Krum entered the hall as well. Hermione smiled when she saw him, and Marik ducked behind a statue so as not to be seen. She walked up to the Bulgarian, and Marik felt his stomach twist into a knot as he saw that Krum was hiding a bouquet of roses behind his back.
"What's wrong, Viktor?" Hermione asked. Marik blanched; they were on a first name basis? Since when?!
"Hermy-own," Krum began, handing her the bouquet, "vould you like to be my date to the Yule Ball?"
Marik felt his heart stop. Please say no... please say no...!
Hermione giggled happily before throwing her arms around Krum's neck in a hug.
"I'd love to," she said, taking the roses.
Marik's mouth hung open in numb shock as Krum offered his arm. She took it, and the two of them walked off down the hallway, away from where the Egyptian was standing behind a statue. He looked at the flowers in his hand, a vile taste rising up in his throat, before he tossed the flowers onto the ground and stalked off.
~.oOOo.~
Yami Yugi sat at the Gryffindor table next to his hikari, a pleasant smile on his face as he ate lunch. Yugi kept glancing at him, confused by the pharaoh's manner. Harry, Ron, and Draco did not seem to notice; they were too busy rattling off names of girls that they could go to the Yule Ball with to notice the older boy's unease.
"How about Cho Chang, Harry?" Draco offered. "You seemed to like her last year."
Harry frowned bitterly. "She's going out with Cedric Diggory."
Ron winced. "Ouch..."
Draco sighed, taking a bite out of a sandwich before waving toward Yugi and Yami Yugi. "It's a shame that it isn't so simple for us to get dates. I take it you two will be going together."
Yugi gave his other a furtive glance before sweatdropping. "Assuming Yami Bakura-kun doesn't kill him first."
Yami Yugi looked down at his hikari, his eyebrow raised. "Now, aibou, what is it they say? 'He started it'? I'll be more than happy to finish it."
All four of them sweatdropped, when someone from the Hufflepuff table screamed. Yami Yugi chuckled evilly as Yugi and the others either turned or craned their necks to see Yami Bakura spitting something he ate back out onto his plate. Harry frowned, concerned.
"What was that about?" he asked.
Yami Yugi just smiled pleasantly. "I dunno, but I imagine spiders don't taste very good."
Draco and Ron blanched as Yugi made a face. "Mou hitori no boku! That's mean!"
"No, that's payback," the pharaoh corrected.
While they were talking, both Bakura and Yami Bakura made their way to the Gryffindor table. They hovered behind the pharaoh, who was just smiling up at them innocently. Both Bakuras returned the look, before Yami Bakura reached down and patted the pharaoh on the back, discreetly slipping something under the collar of his shirt that made his eyes grow wide.
"How's it going, Pharaoh?" he asked, as Bakura patted Yami Yugi a little lower on the back, slipping the same something into his pants.
"Quite cold in here isn't it?" Bakura asked casually. Yami Yugi sputtered several incoherent swear words, before getting up from his seat and bolting out of the room, nearly running Seto and Yami Seto over as they were coming in. The two of them shrugged, before going on to their own table.
Yugi just shook his head. "You know how horrible it is to have ice down your back when you're wearing leather?"
Yami Bakura just grinned. "I think we just found out."
Bakura frowned slightly. "Yugi-kun, you know that your other self doesn't wear underwear, right?"
Yugi sweatdropped, turning red. "I know... I know..."
Ron sighed, shaking his head. "Bakura, do you have a date for the Yule Ball yet?"
Bakura nodded, grinning slightly. "Yeah. I asked Susan Bones out. Have you seen her recently? She's kinda cute."
Yami Bakura rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if you like farm girls. I'm glad my date's a little less down to earth."
Draco's eyes widened. "Wait... you BOTH got dates!?"
Bakura laughed at his expression. "Yup. We came to the conclusion that if we both had the same date, we'd drive her crazy by the end of the night."
"Before the end of the night," Yami Bakura corrected.
"Whatever."
Harry and Ron exchanged stunned looks. "So... who's your date?" Ron asked.
Yami Bakura suddenly started to fidget where he stood, rubbing the back of his neck, and Bakura giggled at his antics. The tomb robber spared him a glare, before answering, "Don't worry about it, you'll find out."
He muttered something else under his breath, but only Bakura was close enough to hear him. The other boy giggled, before dragging his other self back to their table. Yugi, Harry, Ron, and Draco exchanged exasperated looks, before sighing in defeat. Just another typical day…
"Hey, has anyone seen Marik today?" Harry asked suddenly.
Yugi frowned, concerned. "No... he wasn't in the common room when I got up."
"No one's in the common room when you get up," Ron returned playfully. Yugi stuck his tongue out at him childishly.
"Maybe he finally made up with Hermione?" Draco suggested. "I don't see her here."
"I don't think so," Harry said, shaking his head. "I saw her in the library with Krum before coming here."
Yugi sighed, biting his lip. He hoped Marik was okay...
~.oOOo.~
Late in the night, when everyone else had long gone to bed, found Marik on the observatory tower. He ran his hand along the railing, avoiding the school telescopes that had been set up for some project or other. Gazing up at the sky, he saw the stars winking in the inky darkness, as if they were trying to tell him some secret he did not understand.
He paused a moment at the spot he had waited at for Hermione last year, before he turned eighteen. Soon he would be nineteen, but back then he never imagined that he would be in the situation he was in now. Stuck as a school champion, and without the one person he ever really cared about to support him; he was seriously starting to think that the only reason she would care about him was if he died.
Marik dropped to his knees, resting his head on the low railing.
"Hermione..."
Dawn of Fate
.
.
Skyla: ::rocking back and forth, muttering incoheriently::
Y.Bakura: Oy, Ryou, what's wrong with Skyla?
Bakura: Have you checked the calender under next Wednesday?
Y.Bakura: ::reading from calender:: "Blood will flow: Driver's Test two PM". Remind me not to go out for a walk next Wednesday.
Bakura: -_-;; Bakura...
Y.Bakura: ::sniggers:: C'mon, let's do the Q&A. Skyla ain't snapping out of it for awhile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*Anonymous*~
BOTH: NO!!!
~*MollyJean*~
Y.Bakura: You're laughing? At ME!?!
Bakura: -_-;; Shut up, Bakura...
Y.Bakura: _ Oh, yes, we DO get back at the pharaoh. ::evil laugh::
Bakura: ::sigh::
~*Nekostar 2*~
Y.Bakura: I've been getting my own body since the high priest observed it on the train. :P
Bakura: -_- Keep your tounge in will you?
Y.Bakura: :|
Bakura: And thanks for telling us about Prince Charming. Skyla went and ordered it at her local video store.
~*Millennium Dreamer*~
Y.Bakura: She found them at Jenniyah's YGO scantilations sites.
Bakura: But we're too lazy to look up the URL. ^_^
~*AG the master*~
Y.Bakura: Ryou, how many pieces do you think this person would be in if Skyla were doing the Q&A?
Bakura: Too many to count. O_o
BOTH: THERE IS NO BAKURA/YAMI BAKURA!!!!!!!!!
~*Cettie-girl*~
Y.Bakura: No, bad pharaoh! Bad, bad, bad!!
Bakura: -_-;;
~*Chelsea*~
Y.Bakura: ::glares:: You don't like it, don't read it.
Bakura: ::glares:: We don't need nor want gay bashers in the reviews.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Y.Bakura: Well, that's all from us.
Bakura: Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to hunt down Yami Yugi-kun.
BOTH: ::evil smiles::
Bakura: Read, enjoy, and then review!
.
.
.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - MATTERS OF THE HEART
The glaring afternoon sunlight woke Seto the next day. He winced against the offensive light without opening his eyes, shifting under the covers to get away from it...
Wait, since when was he in his bed?
Seto's eyes snapped open in surprise, only to see that he was indeed in his own bed in the Ravenclaw fourth year boy's dormitory. He was wrapped securely in the blankets - though if he had done that in his sleep or someone else had done that, he could not tell - and his head was resting on the lap of his other self. The high priest was still asleep, sitting so he was propped up against the headboard of the four-poster bed; his head was tilted to the side, and he was snoring softly.
The young businessman's face burned in humiliation. He knew someone had to have helped his other self drag him upstairs, and considering he more than likely looked like hell after loosing control like he did last night...
Seto mentally groaned then, the events of the night before burning brightly in his mind. How could he have lost it like that? He never voiced what he felt about what Gonzaboru did to him; he never wanted anyone's pity... but... why did he feel so much better than he had in a long time...?
Suddenly, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.
"Daijobou desu ka, hikari?" Yami Seto asked, his voice still fogged by sleep.
"Aa..." Seto muttered in return, not looking up at him. It was then he realized what time it was, and would have jumped out of bed if the hand on his shoulder had not tightened its grip.
"Don't panic, hikari," Yami Seto assured him. "It's Sunday. Nothing going on today."
Seto relaxed, but only a little bit. He felt... strange... almost as if something inside of him was being torn down. The barriers in his mind, perhaps that's what it was? He did not know - he was far from an expert in these kinds of things; they were more Yugi's department - but it sure felt like something was missing from his consciousness.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Yami Seto asked. Seto cringed, and the priest quickly added, "You don't have to if you don't want to."
There was a long drawn out silence, so deep that Seto could literally feel the minutes tick away.
"You know..." he began quietly. "I can't help but wonder what I would have been like... if my parents hadn't died... or if my relatives hadn't been so greedy and used up our inheritance and dropping us off at that orphanage. Would I be more like Yugi? Maybe even Jonouchi? I don't know... I never will either."
Seto closed his eyes again, feeling trails of hot tears burning their way down his face. What was with him? He did not want to share this, and yet... he could not stop himself from doing so.
"That day Gonzaboru came to the orphanage," he continued, "I played a game of chess against him, with him adopting me and my brother as my prize if I won. I cheated horribly to win that game... but I did not even need to. Gonzaboru had made up his mind before even coming there. I didn't know then, but he wanted me as his heir, because I looked so much like Noah. I was going to be his lab rat; if I succeeded as a businessman, then he would displace my soul with Noah's using the virtual reality technology that I had created."
Seto's fist involuntarily twisted closed around the lip of his bed sheets in his anger. Yami Seto reached down and unclenched his hikari's hand, letting him grip his translucent hand instead of the sheets.
"He never got the chance to do it, though," Seto kept going, his voice tight. "I got the Kaiba Corporation board of directors on my side. They chose me to lead the Corporation barely a year before I first met Yugi and the others." He paused a moment, shuddering slightly. "I'll never forget the look on his face, before he threw himself out the window... and I'll never forget laughing about it..."
The drawn-out silence that followed was twice as long as the last, and heavy with the last sentence Seto had spoken. It was broken only when he felt the wetness of tears falling onto his hair, and he frowned heavily.
"I don't need your pity," he growled.
Yami Seto laughed slightly. "It's not pity, hikari, it's joy," he explained. "Nearly nine years you've held in that hatred and despair. Any normal human would have cracked long before now, but somehow you've managed to hold on. But now, the time to let it go has long past, and you finally have. I'm proud of you."
Seto paused, his mouth hanging open slightly in realization. So... that's what was missing from his mind: his hatred toward Gonzaboru. He had carried it for so long, sought physical ways to be rid of it... and all he had to do was tell someone about it? Share his feelings with someone... it was something he only did with Mokuba, and even that was hard. Maybe Gonzaboru had planned that all along... but somehow he did not care about that anymore.
He was finally free.
Seto loosened his grip on his other self's hand... and suddenly the tips of the high priests fingers started to glow. The glow danced along his hand and up his arm as Seto sat up and stared at his other self. The light spread all through his body, making everything it touched shimmer. Then, just as quickly as it appeared the light vanished...
Leaving a perfectly solid high priest behind.
Yami Seto held his hands up to his face, shocked that he could not see right through them. He parted his hands to look at his hikari, who had an equally stunned look on his face.
"Wh... what just happened?" he asked numbly.
Yami Seto swallowed. "Good question..."
~.oOOo.~
Yami Yugi walked down the halls of Hogwarts castle alone, a big grin on his face. If the scream last night was any indication, the tomb robber had found his little "present". Revenge was supposed to be sweeter than Christmas, and considering how much he loved Christmas, revenge was a very sweet thing indeed. He sniggered to himself, getting some concerned looks from passersby. Nothing could dampen his good mood right now!
He went around the bend in the hallway, passing one of the many suits of armor that dotted the hallways. The pharaoh glanced at it, not giving it much thought, until something creamy smacked him in the face. Blinking in confusion, he managed to wipe some of it away, only to have another creamy something land on the top of his head. It took him a moment to realize that the SUITS OF ARMOR were throwing PIES at him, but when he did, he managed to get away with only two more pies thrown at his back.
Yami Yugi wiped the rest of the pie cream off of his face, wondering what possessed them to do such a thing. He heard a squeak, and duck in anticipation of another pie to the face, only to see that another suit of armor was holding out a piece of parchment. Grumbling, he snatched it out of the armor's metal hand, and he read it to himself as it stepped back into its normal place.
This means war, pharaoh!
The Bakuras
A snarl escaped from Yami Yugi's mouth as he crushed the note in his fist.
"You're on, tomb robber..."
~.oOOo.~
Yami Seto yawned as he and his hikari made their way down the hallway a few days later, on their way to the Great Hall for lunch. They had just gotten out of their Transfiguration class, where Professor McGonagall had announced the upcoming Yule Ball before loading them all down with homework. Seto had a cute shade of red staining his face when the high priest looked over at him, about to ask him when he was going to ask Fleur to the dance. He laughed instead, making his hikari turn an even more vivid shade of crimson.
"Urusai..." Seto muttered.
Yami Seto grabbed him around the neck in a playful chokehold. "Aw, hikari, you're so KAWAII...!" he exclaimed, a dorky smile on his face. Seto rolled his eyes before pushing him off. "So, anyway," the high priest continued, still grinning, "how are you going to ask Fleur to the dance?"
Seto stopped walking, rubbing the back of his neck. "I dunno," he admitted. "I've never had to ask a girl out before... I don't know if I should let her ask me out even. I mean... she IS a champion..."
The high priest rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "You're asking me? My love advice is a little dated, and incomplete, all things considered," he said, before cracking his knuckles and wrapping an arm around his hikari's neck again, guiding him down the hallway. "From what I do know, flowers speak volumes..."
~.oOOo.~
Marik paced back and forth, sweating in nervousness, a fresh bouquet of flowers he had acquired with help from Professor Sprout in hand. He was in the hallway that Hermione frequented the most often, as it led to two of her classes as well as the library. There was no way that he could not run into her here; and when he did, he was going to apologize, give her the flowers, and ask her out to the Yule Ball. Everything would be all right again, and that's all that mattered.
A door opened down the way, and Hermione entered the hallway. Screwing up his courage, Marik started toward her...
Suddenly another door opened, and Viktor Krum entered the hall as well. Hermione smiled when she saw him, and Marik ducked behind a statue so as not to be seen. She walked up to the Bulgarian, and Marik felt his stomach twist into a knot as he saw that Krum was hiding a bouquet of roses behind his back.
"What's wrong, Viktor?" Hermione asked. Marik blanched; they were on a first name basis? Since when?!
"Hermy-own," Krum began, handing her the bouquet, "vould you like to be my date to the Yule Ball?"
Marik felt his heart stop. Please say no... please say no...!
Hermione giggled happily before throwing her arms around Krum's neck in a hug.
"I'd love to," she said, taking the roses.
Marik's mouth hung open in numb shock as Krum offered his arm. She took it, and the two of them walked off down the hallway, away from where the Egyptian was standing behind a statue. He looked at the flowers in his hand, a vile taste rising up in his throat, before he tossed the flowers onto the ground and stalked off.
~.oOOo.~
Yami Yugi sat at the Gryffindor table next to his hikari, a pleasant smile on his face as he ate lunch. Yugi kept glancing at him, confused by the pharaoh's manner. Harry, Ron, and Draco did not seem to notice; they were too busy rattling off names of girls that they could go to the Yule Ball with to notice the older boy's unease.
"How about Cho Chang, Harry?" Draco offered. "You seemed to like her last year."
Harry frowned bitterly. "She's going out with Cedric Diggory."
Ron winced. "Ouch..."
Draco sighed, taking a bite out of a sandwich before waving toward Yugi and Yami Yugi. "It's a shame that it isn't so simple for us to get dates. I take it you two will be going together."
Yugi gave his other a furtive glance before sweatdropping. "Assuming Yami Bakura-kun doesn't kill him first."
Yami Yugi looked down at his hikari, his eyebrow raised. "Now, aibou, what is it they say? 'He started it'? I'll be more than happy to finish it."
All four of them sweatdropped, when someone from the Hufflepuff table screamed. Yami Yugi chuckled evilly as Yugi and the others either turned or craned their necks to see Yami Bakura spitting something he ate back out onto his plate. Harry frowned, concerned.
"What was that about?" he asked.
Yami Yugi just smiled pleasantly. "I dunno, but I imagine spiders don't taste very good."
Draco and Ron blanched as Yugi made a face. "Mou hitori no boku! That's mean!"
"No, that's payback," the pharaoh corrected.
While they were talking, both Bakura and Yami Bakura made their way to the Gryffindor table. They hovered behind the pharaoh, who was just smiling up at them innocently. Both Bakuras returned the look, before Yami Bakura reached down and patted the pharaoh on the back, discreetly slipping something under the collar of his shirt that made his eyes grow wide.
"How's it going, Pharaoh?" he asked, as Bakura patted Yami Yugi a little lower on the back, slipping the same something into his pants.
"Quite cold in here isn't it?" Bakura asked casually. Yami Yugi sputtered several incoherent swear words, before getting up from his seat and bolting out of the room, nearly running Seto and Yami Seto over as they were coming in. The two of them shrugged, before going on to their own table.
Yugi just shook his head. "You know how horrible it is to have ice down your back when you're wearing leather?"
Yami Bakura just grinned. "I think we just found out."
Bakura frowned slightly. "Yugi-kun, you know that your other self doesn't wear underwear, right?"
Yugi sweatdropped, turning red. "I know... I know..."
Ron sighed, shaking his head. "Bakura, do you have a date for the Yule Ball yet?"
Bakura nodded, grinning slightly. "Yeah. I asked Susan Bones out. Have you seen her recently? She's kinda cute."
Yami Bakura rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if you like farm girls. I'm glad my date's a little less down to earth."
Draco's eyes widened. "Wait... you BOTH got dates!?"
Bakura laughed at his expression. "Yup. We came to the conclusion that if we both had the same date, we'd drive her crazy by the end of the night."
"Before the end of the night," Yami Bakura corrected.
"Whatever."
Harry and Ron exchanged stunned looks. "So... who's your date?" Ron asked.
Yami Bakura suddenly started to fidget where he stood, rubbing the back of his neck, and Bakura giggled at his antics. The tomb robber spared him a glare, before answering, "Don't worry about it, you'll find out."
He muttered something else under his breath, but only Bakura was close enough to hear him. The other boy giggled, before dragging his other self back to their table. Yugi, Harry, Ron, and Draco exchanged exasperated looks, before sighing in defeat. Just another typical day…
"Hey, has anyone seen Marik today?" Harry asked suddenly.
Yugi frowned, concerned. "No... he wasn't in the common room when I got up."
"No one's in the common room when you get up," Ron returned playfully. Yugi stuck his tongue out at him childishly.
"Maybe he finally made up with Hermione?" Draco suggested. "I don't see her here."
"I don't think so," Harry said, shaking his head. "I saw her in the library with Krum before coming here."
Yugi sighed, biting his lip. He hoped Marik was okay...
~.oOOo.~
Late in the night, when everyone else had long gone to bed, found Marik on the observatory tower. He ran his hand along the railing, avoiding the school telescopes that had been set up for some project or other. Gazing up at the sky, he saw the stars winking in the inky darkness, as if they were trying to tell him some secret he did not understand.
He paused a moment at the spot he had waited at for Hermione last year, before he turned eighteen. Soon he would be nineteen, but back then he never imagined that he would be in the situation he was in now. Stuck as a school champion, and without the one person he ever really cared about to support him; he was seriously starting to think that the only reason she would care about him was if he died.
Marik dropped to his knees, resting his head on the low railing.
"Hermione..."