Chapter 4: The Cafeteria
---He's chained forever to a world that's departed
It's not enough, it's not enough…---
Malik sighed as he sat down next to Yugi at lunch. He hadn't learned a thing all morning because Merik couldn't fill out a stupid school form. Though that may not have been his fault; he'd never been able to learn those things after all. And Malik wondered whether he should have mentioned some of the other students that went to Domino High.
Merik walked into the cafeteria about fifteen minutes into the lunch period. Whatever that meant. And he still really wanted to kill the mental retard that claimed the title of secretary.
He glanced around the lunchroom, finally spotting his hikari sitting at a table near the back, and started walking towards him. They locked eyes and he stared walking faster. Anything to sit next to his hikari as soon as possible. But unfortunately, the other students blocked most of the rest of the table from view until he got there…and what a nasty shock that was. A white-haired head leaned over the table and claimed Malik's attention, seemly asking about something behind him; Malik laughed and answered casually and almost seductively. They both ended up laughing. And then Merik spotted a mass of tri-colored hair sitting next to the white-haired one and he dropped all his stuff about a foot from the table.
"What are you two doing here?" he exclaimed, staring at Bakura and Yami.
"What, Merik?!" Bakura exclaimed, whipping his head around to stare at the platinum-haired fiend. His next statement was oddly in sync with Yami. "What are you doing here?!"
Merik glared at Malik and began picking up his stuff. "Well, someone's been withholding information…Malik…."
Bakura and Yami stared at the hikari in question as he scooted over to give Merik room to sit down.
"You knew he was going to be coming here?!" Bakura demanded angrily. "And you didn't tell us?!"
"Why is he going to school anyway?!" Yami went on. "He should be in an insane asylum, not a public school!"
"I'm trying not to kill you, Pharaoh. Don't push it," Merik muttered, clenching his fists above the table in plain view.
"Wow, Merik isn't attacking Yami on sight. What happened?" Ryou wondered aloud from his position on his yami's lap. It didn't take a genius to know sitting there had been by choice. But Yami suddenly grinned and stared at the new arrival with an odd look in his eye.
"I think I know what it is."
"Ooo, ooo, tell me, tell me!" Bakura pleaded. Yami leaned over and whispered something in his ear and Bakura almost died laughing when he heard. "You what?!" he exclaimed, staring at Merik incredulously. He burst out laughing again and buried his face in Ryou's chest.
"Koi, stop it!" Ryou scolded, but once Bakura whispered what was wrong in his ear, he started laughing as well.
Well, as you could guess, Merik was becoming very annoyed with all this. He knew somehow that the reason they were laughing was about him, and he didn't know what could possibly be so funny about him. He was supposed to scare everyone he met out of his or her wits…but that obviously didn't work on the secretary. Maybe he was losing his touch. Or maybe the secretary was just extremely stupid like he thought from the start.
"All right, what the hell is so funny?" he demanded. Bakura smirked and leaned over as if to whisper, beckoning Merik to do the same.
"YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH MALIK!" he yelled cheerfully. Ryou and Yami immaturely broke out into a chorus of "Merik loves Malik" almost as soon as the yami said this, and Yugi stared skeptically at him.
"You do?"
Merik stayed very silent, almost wishing he could turn invisible…though wishing more that he could kill them all. But he couldn't do that if he wanted Malik to like him.
Yugi giggled once and smiled. "Good for you!" Then he started giggling again and couldn't seem to stop. This really got on the yami's nerves; it wasn't wrong to love his hikari…right?
"What is so damn funny about it?!" Merik exclaimed angrily.
"It's just…" Bakura gasped and tried to stop laughing before he went on. "You don't seem the type."
"Neither do you, yet you have your hikari on a leash," Merik countered, trying to pique the other yami at least a little bit. Bakura didn't seem bothered by the comment though.
"Yeah, took a while though." Ryou blushed and looked away as his yami said this. Bakura leaned over him and the table to whisper, "Have you two done anything yet?"
"NO!" Malik exclaimed, having caught the point the white-haired spirit had been trying to make. "I still hate him, for your information! He's only living with me cause he refuses to leave!"
"Ooo, you're living together? First step, that is." Bakura lifted Ryou off of him, much to the boy's displeasure, and stood up. "I can help you if you want."
"Really?" Merik hated having to rely on someone else, especially if that 'someone else' was Bakura or Yami, but if he could get closer to Malik… "Okay."
"Good!" Bakura took a long drink out of a bottle he was holding, slammed it down on the table, and pulled Merik away from the table. "Come on, I'll even show you where your next class is."
Ryou pouted as his boyfriend walked away and decided to pick up the bottle sitting on the table. He took a small sip of it and was instantly on his feet. "Bakura put vodka in his V8?! Bakura, get back here!" And with that he ran off in the direction Bakura and Merik had been headed.
"I guess that explains why he didn't kill Merik on sight," Malik laughed.
"Actually, Ryou told me Bakura thinks he'll get dumped if he kills anyone else," Yami answered amusedly. "Though the vodka's probably responsible for the rest."
"Wonder what'll happen when it wears off?" Yugi said just before a "Gods, Bakura, get off of him!" resounded into the lunchroom. The three began laughing as images of Bakura and Merik flitted through their heads.
"Well, he certainly won't be happy when it does," Malik answered, hoping that it might be enough to get rid of Merik.