disclaimer: i don't own bakura, or marik, or yami, or hiei. i do own the notebook of doom, the M-squared negative 3000, the lollipop kid and his mom.

Chapter Ten- Paying the Rent

"Time for plan S!" loudly whispered Marik. He led Bakura out of the alley, across the street and through the door of the coffee shop. After breathing very loudly to recover from his run, Marik then dragged Bakura to a vacant table some ways away from Yami.

Bakura looked at him with detest, "Plan S?"

"S is for Steath!" Marik said proudly.

"No doubt that's your word of the day," murmured Bakura. "Well, so long as we're here, we may as well get something to eat." His stomach began growling, even louder than Marik's 'whispering'.

"Hehe," Marik laughed, " Kura's tummy grumbled! It say, 'feed me'! Feed me! Feeeeeeeedddd mmmeeee!" the Egyptian blonde laughed hysterically.

"Waiter!" yelled Bakura. Ra, I've been with this guy for the past two hours and all ready I'm wishing world ended. Hopefully, once I get food in my stomach, I'll be ready for the rest of the day. "Waiter!!" he yelled very impatiently.

A very short guy with extremely gravity-defiant black hair, and a scowl on his face threw menus at the heroic pair, "Welcome to La Grosse Café, where we only want your money. What can I get you?" he asked monotonously.

"How about a new waiter?" Bakura said sarcastically. He found himself looking at the waiter and got a better look at him, "Hey! I know you! You're that guy who co-hosts fanfics with that evil twisted authoress who killed Joey and now everyone hates her! (a/n: breaks down and cries)"

"The name's Hiei," he slammed down the sheet of paper he had to write their orders on. "Ever since business went down with her, I've been needing more cash to pay the rent."

He sighed and shoved Marik over, sitting next to him, "It's such a rough life. I mean, what on earth have I done to deserve a life of petty wages? Back when I was born, nobody liked me. Of course I was the Forbidden Child and…

"…and then after Yu Yu Hakusho ended, well of course Mukuro decided we should part ways," Hiei blew his nose on a napkin, "Well, what could you expect from a human eating demon? I guess it was meant to be-"

Marik sobbed, "That's so sad! I- hic hic- I could ne-never deal with all the tr-trouble that y-you had to bear! I guess I should stop whining about my past! What do you think Bakura?"

The snot bubble coming out of Bakura's nose popped and the owner opened his eyes, "Yaaawwwn, yes, very tragic. Well, do you think you could help us out here? Not that your life story wasn't absolutely fascinating." Bakura rubbed his eyes.

Hiei sniffled a little (kawaii!!) before standing up, "Yeah, right. What would you guys like?"

Marik glanced at the menu for the first time, and started reading it, "Wow. What a selection. Well, I think maybe I'll have the cheese souffle, no wait… cheese gives me gas. Okay then maybe the sausages and mash; nah, I don't like meat-"

Bakura ignored Marik's ranting on the food and started actually watching Yami. He was already eating, which Bakura wished that he was doing, but he was talking with some woman too. The albino listened in.

"Really? You'd babysit him?"

"Of course, Mrs. Kindlestraken. You're our next door neighbor! We really have to look out for each other. Hopefully your husband will be alright after tripping over that tree. Any idea how it fell?"

"No, but I have a hunch it's someone who's after you. I can't imagine why, but that's what I think."

"Odd. So, Timmy, how are you today?"

"Great!"

Bakura's face paled. That's the lollipop kid! The kid I told what I was doing! The kid who could spill to Yami what's going on! I have got to stop him! His quick brain went into action.

"-or maybe the rye bread with strawberry jelly? Or not, rye bread's too-"

"Um, Hiei?" asked Bakura, interrupting Marik who was still looking through the menu, "Could we get jobs here?"

"Hiei!!" yelled Bakura, deeply angered.

Marik walked into the restaurant part of the shop, "What's wrong Bakura? Your uniform not fit right?" Marik was dressed in the same outfit as Hiei was, which was a pair of dark slacks, dark long-sleeved shirt, and an ugly pinkish apron. Marik put his hands on his hips, "Well?"

"Well, what," Bakura muttered, coming out. Bakura, unlike the others, was wearing black tights, a short, frilly black dress, with the same pink apron. He turned to Hiei and glared, "Why do I get to be the cross-dressing one?!"

Hiei just shrugged, "I guess it's something I picked up from my job as a co-host. Besides, we only had one more male uniform."

"Conveniently," the thief muttered. "Now come on Marik. Now, we can get that kid out of here, and away from Yami."

"Kay!" chirped Marik.

Behind the scenes, the stalker of the blackmailers could barely stand up; they were laughing too hard, "Hahahahahahaahah! Oh, oh, ra! Hahahahaha!"

yea! another chapter!

to Sami: boring? santa's boring? wow. no one's ever said that as blatantly as that. this is fantastic! (huggles Sami) see reviewers! saying something sucked is totally cool with me! so go ahead!

review!! review, review, review!!!