The Caged Rose

Disclaimer: Hangs an "I Don't Own YuGiOh" sign outside the hotel room Go away Mr. Lawyer Man!

Pairings: Malik/Ryou, Bakura/Marik, Seto/Joey (Appears in this chapter).

Warnings/Other: Yaoi, Yuri, angst, school-fic, maybe some OOC, completely disreguards story line.

Summary: Ryou is a depressed yet caring loner who just wants some love. Malik is a popular, 'egotistical' honours student. Malik has a secret crush on Ryou, whose trust is literally impossible to gain. The rest is up to fate when they bump into eachother in the halls. YAOI, YURI.

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Malik stared at the door for a long time after Ryou had closed himself off to the world. The soft feeling of Ryou's lips on his lingered still in his mind as his eyes narrowed in mild frustration. "Ryou Bakura! Open the door! Ryou! Come on!" He pounded on the door, angry tears spilling from twin amethysts each time his fist collided with the wood. His fist fell to his side despondently, still shaking in misguided rage. "Ryou! Open the door, please..."

Malik sighed and started trudging away from the house of his beloved, tears stinging every inch of his skin in shame. He turned and gave the house an empty yet pained stare before he dropped his eyes and sighed a second time. He had almost succeeded in winning over Ryou's heart, and then Lady Luck came and destroyed all his chances. Even the cool gaze of the rising moon seemed to go against him as it revealed a couple walking in his direction.

'Goddamnit! Why does everyone have a loved one but me?!'

The couple came closer to him, and he noticed that one of the two was Marik's friend, Seto Kaiba, rich CEO of Kaiba Corporation.

.

"Hey, Marik!" The shorter one approaching him called out, waving his arms around wildly. "Marik! How ya doin'?"

As the blonde and brunette boys came closer to him, amber eyes blinked and looked over who had at first appeared to be Marik. "Oh, you're not Marik..." Joey, the blonde, studied the face beefore him for a moment. "Ohh, Malik, hey! How are ya?" Joey asked, his arm looped around Seto's.

"Been better." Malik replied quietly, reluctantly putting on a pained smile. He envied the way love sparkled in those deep golden-brown eyes every time Joey would mention Seto's name- the blonde's eyes nearly radiated with love, and Malik was growing more and more jealous of Seto with each passing second. He had to keep himself from glaring at Seto; logically he knew the rich teenager hadn't done anything to him. He sighed and turned away from Seto and Joey.

"Hey, Malik, what's wrong?" Joey asked, untangling himself from Seto's arms.

"Nothing," Malik lied in response.

"You're lying." Joey accused, sending Malik a serious expression. "Lying is one thing where I can tell when the person's doing it."

The Egyptian frowned a bit, "Joey? Can I ask you something?"

Joey blinked for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Sure."

"Joey... How did you get together with Seto?"

Joey's face turned serious, and he turned back to Seto, who was waiting patiently for him to finish the conversation. "Well... let's go over there." He smiled softly at Seto before he lead Malik a few feet away.

Malik nodded at bit as he was lead away, "Okay."

"It was hard at first. Really hard. He wouldn't speak to me for a week after I first told him I loved him. He'd glare at me every second he got the chance. Eventually I got fed up with it an' confronted him about it. What suprised me was when he apologized an' told me he was hoping every day I'd come up to him an' say something. Then... well, then he took me aside to the back of the bungalos, an' at first I was kind of wondering what he was up to. I remember feeling pretty scared. But then he turned to me, and his eyes were so full of love I almost started crying. Then what really took me by suprise was when he pulled me close to him and kissed me. Things've been pretty good since then."

Seto came up behind Joey and caught him around the waist, burrying his face into his neck. He inhaled the scent of his beloved, then turned his gaze towards Malik. "If you really want to get this person's attention, then do something they're not expecting you to. Or, if they're really hard to get, or pull that 'I don't want to hurt you.' shit, then just keep trying to win them over."

Malik blinked, "Wait, Kaiba, how do you know all this romance stuff?"

Seto shrugged, "My little brother seems to have his heart set on getting me to read romance novels."

A light laugh escaped Malik's lips, but the happiness was short lived as depression restaked its claim in his heart. "Yeah... Well, thanks you guys. I'll being seein' ya." He waved goodbye to the two until they were mere figures in the distance.

.

Ryou sat on his bed with the pillow clenched tightly in his shaking arms. He hadn't wanted to say those cursed words to Malik, but there was no way he was going to risk having the other's heart be broken by his own incompetence. He had always been one for letting the other person get the better prize, the more desireable gift. But now he felt as if neither path was best for himself or for Malik, as he sighed and wiped at his face.

His chocolate brown orbs fell on the silent form of his single black telephone. He could call. But what if Marik answered the phone? Or if Malik didn't want to talk to him? Then what would he do? He smirked at himself; he'd probably just make a strangled choking sound and hang up. Shaking his head slowly from side to side, he let the pillow fall to rest on his thin legs. The empty feeling in his heart left him with the impression that he was a broken doll, old and pale, who had long outlived its purpose.

He remained sitting in silence as the tears flowed down his fair-coloured face. As he sat listening to his own heartbeat, a sound similar to his heartbeat began resonating throughout the houes. Ryou blinked, he was the only one home, wasn't he? Carefully he climbed out of his bed and peered outside his room into the hallways. When he didn't see anything, he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Ryou slowly motioned to take a step when a hand suddenly slapped itself over his mouth.

Eyes impossibly wide, he thought momentarily of biting the hand that held him still, but thought against it as he was spun around to face the man he thought he would never see again.

Steven Bakura.

"D-Dad?" Ryou asked shakily.

The man's usually friendly face was contorted with anger. "Why didn't you tell me you're one of those..."

"One of... what?"

"One of those freaks! The men for men! You're one of those unhuman freaks!" Ryou stepped back from his father's livid face, fighting back the tears threatening to build in his eyes. "I know you never had ay male influence around, but for the love of all the Egyptian gods, did you have to become gay?!" Steven nearly roared, shaking Ryou's shoulders violently.

Ryou's sad puppy-dog eyes met his father's. "Father, what... What are you talking about?"

"Don't think I didn't see you with that whore! I thought you could do better than some man. What about a girlfriend, huh? Don't you want children!"

Slowly, the boy shook his head, biting back the tears. "H-He's not a whore."

Steven grabbed Ryou by the collar of his shirt and slammed his son back into the wall, eyes alive with a burning fury of destruction. "Don't backtalk your father! Now answer my question, don't you want a nice pretty little girl to show a good time to? Settle down, have a few kids?"

Ryou shook his head again, eyes dropping to his feet as his hands fell limp to his sides. "Father, I... I don't want any of that. I just want to be with the person I..." His eyes widened slightly. Did he really almost just say he loved Malik?

"With the person you what?! The person you want to have a good fuck with then drop on the street!"

His large brown eyes met his father's in horror. "What's happened to you? You never used to speak like this, never! I just want to be with the person I love! There! I said it! I love him, alright?!" Ryou's heart was pounding in his chest as he spat the last few words, the anger he once felt towards Malik resurfacing, but this time directed at his father. "Goddamnit! I hate you! You lousy fuck! You don't even see me for nine goddamn years, then you decide to show up out of nowhere and tell me who I can and cannot have feelings for?!"

Steven's grip went lax around his son's collar, and he stepped back a bit. He had never seen the boy so angry.

"I can't believe you! You don't have the right to even call me by my name. You left me alone when you know very damn well that you were the only family I really had left! You fucking bastard. You fucking bastard! This house isn't even yours any more. You don't live here. I do. And since this is my house, I'm telling you to get out right now! And don't come back!"

It almost felt refreshing for Ryou to let out some of the anger he still kept burried deep inside. True, he had never exploded quite the way he just had, but he figured everyone was entitled to their chances. A smirk formed on his lips. Sure, Malik had changed his old ways of anger and darkness, but that didn't mean he couldn't call upon the experiences of his past to give him the strength to fight and win when he needed it.

"Listen, son--"

Ryou's fist collided with the wall, and he had to admit the feeling of being in control was one that filled him with hightened senses and a burning passion, so different from his usual passivity and calmness. "You are not my father, you bastard! The only thing you have in common with me is your last name. I don't even know who you are anymore. I never want to see you again."

"Fucking homo," his father muttered quietly, glaring at Ryou. "You do not tell me what to do and what not to."

Before he even knew what had happened, the fire within Ryou exploded even more, filling him with such drive and animalistic fury that he couldn't control it. His fist that had once been smashed into the wall was now flying wildly at Steven. Bone was heard cracking as Ryou's punch knocked Steven to the ground. He stood, breathing wildly, staring at the scene in shock. Ryou quickly regained his composure and turned his back towards the man sprawled on the ground.

"Don't ever call me that again. Don't ever visit me again. You are not my father. I do not love you as one. The only thing I feel towards you is ultimate hatred. You should really be glad I managed to pull my punch. Just get out of my house now, before I decide to lose my temper again."

As Steven picked himself up, he shoved Ryou against the wall and held him in place, a malevolant glare on his face. "And you should really be glad I don't act on my wish that you perish."

"Whatever." Ryou scoffed as he watched his father's retreating back. Once the man was all the way downstairs and standing in the front yard, Ryou picked up a pebble and bounced it in his hand. "Go on. Get out. Good fucking ridance."

Ryou sprawled himself out on the couch and took a number of deep breaths, trying desperately to calm himself down. 'Okay, think,' he told himself, 'what just happened was my father appeared out of nowhere, bashed me for my orientation, pissed me off like all hell. Then I yelled at him and punched him back, told him to get out. He left. Okay.'

He had forgotten the rush of the fight, the fuel that came from deep within his soul at every confrontation. As he lay staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression on his face, a strange feeling overtook him. It felt almost as if something was drawing his loud, rambunctious spirit back into forcibly subdued silence, back into the pit of loneliness and despair. Ryou sighed. He tried to hold on to the anger, to anything that would keep him from getting depressed again.

His racing mind wandered to Malik, and he found it strange how thinking of the blonde seemed to calm him down. So he focused on Malik some more. He directed his thoughts towards the way the other smiled, breathed, walked, communicated... loved. Turning his softened brown eyes towards the phone, Ryou reached out for it slowly, and once he had grasped it, his fingers dialed Malik's number out of habit.

There were a few rings before someone picked up. And to Ryou's amusement, Bakura once again picked up the phone. "Yeah?"

"Hi Bakura, can you put Malik on please?" Ryou asked casually.

A moment's pause. "Hold on." A few seconds later, the phone was picked up again, and Ryou heard a different voice.

"Ryou?"

He smiled at the voice on the other end. "Malik."

"What's up?" Malik asked. Ryou could hear the slight trepidation in the other's voice.

"I wanted to apologize for earlier... Malik, can you come over for a bit? I really need to talk with you."

Ryou could almost see the uneasy look on Malik's face. "Sure. Be there soon as I can."

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GAH! I CAN'T BELIEVE I FINALLY FINISHED THIS!

NOTE! -- TCR is going to be ending in less than four chapters. I barely have any ideas left for this fic. Besides, I think you all are getting tired of it (j/k, I should hope not). Aaanyways, Thanks to my reviewers. You guys are what make me wanna continue writing.

Special thanks to Wittle Marie-can. Without her muse-ness, you wouldn't be getting this chapter for Ra knows how long.

x Shori