Living With Maniacs
Chapter 12- The Awakening
Here's Froggy! "Yes, yes,I won't keep you waiting. I just wanted to extend my sincere apologies for the long wait. Personal promblems, please forgive and please enjoy the chappie!"
The gravel crunched steadily beneath the wheels of the Cadillac as Bakura drove slowly down the abandoned road through the woods. Crickets chirped, cicadas buzzed, and Bakura grumbled under his breath.
"As soon as I get this stupid guy out of my hair, I'll have to do something about that bloody hikari of mine," he mumbled to himself. "I don't trust him alone with Misty. He's gonna tell her, I know he is. Ah! Here we are." He slowed the car to a halt in from of a broken metal bridge. He got out of the car, leaving the headlights on, and walked around to the back of the car and dragged the unconscious guy out of the trunk.
"At least Misty isn't here to tell me I can't kill him." He sighed as he dragged the man toward the bridge. "Huh. I wonder what she and Ryou are doing. ..I mean, if he isn't telling her about…" He shook his head. "Never mind. I don't want to know what they might be doing." He looked up at the black, starless night and, while staring, tripped over a stick. "Ow!" He kicked the unconscious man, as though blaming him for his fall, then crawled to his feet and dragged the man to the bridge and dropped him through a huge hole without a second thought. He waited a moment and was rewarded by a pleasing splash. He smiled and glanced down at the man as he slowly sunk to the bottom of the foot-deep river. He saw two dark shapes moving slowly towards the man: garpike. "Ooh, I'll want to watch this," he said delightedly. He crouched next to the hole in the bridge and prepared to witness what he hoped would be a bloody scene, when he heard it.
"Ribbit."
"Eek!" Bakura shrieked. He stood up in a rush, spun around, lost his balance, and fell backwards through the hole in the bridge. -SPLASH- He landed right next to the man he had dumped, and the two garpike darted away into the murky waters. "Shit," he hissed, shoving away the body and getting to his feet. He waded to shore, fuming, and began climbing the steep bank. "Damned frogs, they're after me, I swear!"
"Ribbit."
"What the f-" He jerked away from the sound, lost his balance, and tumbled down the embankment and back into the river. He sat up, now soaking wet and covered in mud, and proceeded to release the most vile string of English and Egyptian expletives that made even the crickets go quiet. The he sighed and raced up the embankment. He stopped at the top and blinked in the headlights. He took a deep breath.
"Alright. I'm okay. I'm okay. I am-"
"Ribbit!"
"Holy shit!" Bakura leaped for the Cadillac, made a wild U-turn, and sped back to Misty's house with the lid of the trunk banging the whole way.
----Back at Misty's----
Misty sat nervously on the couch, digging through Bakura's bag of weapons and glancing at her stopwatch ever five seconds. Ryou sat on the couch next to her, whistling contentedly and peeking at the contents of the bag.
"Wow, what are all those things?" Ryou asked in an attempt to strike up a conversation.
"Weapons," Misty said simply, glancing at her stopwatch.
Ryou frowned. "Uh…yes, of course. ……what kind of weapons?"
"I dunno. I've never seen most of this stuff before." She pulled out a decently sized, uh, thing, and handed it to Ryou. "Here. Figure out what this is for me."
O-O Ryou held the weapon carefully, staring at it. "Uh…heh, how am I to figure out what it is, Mistaya?"
Misty began making a small pile of hand grenades. "I dunno. Push buttons, pull triggers, whatever."
Ryou gaped at her. "But…but…but I…" He shut his mouth. "Fine then." he held the weapon up delicately and studied it. "Hmm, I wonder what this does…" FWOOSH "Ai!" Ryou tossed the weapon aside and leaped up and down in a panic. "Mistaya! Mistaya, your recliner is on fire!"
"Uh huh."
"Well what should I do?"
"I dunno. Put it out."
"Okay!" Ryou raced to the kitchen and filled p a bucket of water, then hurried back to the living room, sloshing, and dumped the bucket on the chair. Smoke filled the room, and the fire got smaller. "Ack! Need more water!" Ryou rushed back to the kitchen to refill the bucket.
While Ryou ran back and forth trying to put out the fire, Misty sat calmly, packing the weapons away. "I guess I shouldn't let these catch on fire or blow up or anything…" She hiked the bag up on he shoulder and trudged out the door. And bumped into a very muddy, very wet, and very disheveled Bakura.
"Hey Misty, I did what you asked," he grunted, then shoved past her and plopped down on the couch. He stared at the burning recliner and Ryou running back and forth with buckets of water. The fire was slowly dying. "What happened here?"
"Oh, nothing much," Misty said, setting the bag of weapons just outside the door and safely away from the fire. "Ryou found the flamethrower."
"Oh." Bakura sighed. He was in a foul mood, and the sun hadn't even risen yet. What a day this was gonna be.
Misty straightened suddenly, as though remembering something. "oh yes. There's something I want to talk to you about."
Bakura didn't like the sound of that. And that frown she was wearing wasn't too encouraging either. "Yeah?" he asked tentatively.
"Come here." Misty marched out of the living room and down the hall to Ryou and Bakura's room. Bakura trudged along behind her, and Ryou, having put out the fire, gleefully crept along behind him.
Misty opened the bedroom door. "In here." Bakura entered the room uncertainly, but he stated chuckling at the sight of Marik's drawn-on mustache. A glare from Misty silenced him. "I don't think it's funny. I'm very disappointed in you, harassing poor Marik when he's completely helpless!"
"Me!" Bakura protested. "But it wasn't me, it was-" He glanced over Misty's shoulder and saw Ryou , grinning sadistically and mouthing the word "frogs." Bakura froze. He suddenly found himself caught between total humiliation and a false accusation. Oh, he abhorred vacations.
"Well? I'm waiting!" Misty said, tapping her foot impatiently. "Did you do it or not?"
Bakura inhaled deeply, and said through clenched teeth, "Yes. I'm sorry."
Misty glared at him disapprovingly. "Don't apologize to me! When Marik wakes up you'll have some explaining to do! Now go get a washcloth and clean off his face!"
Ryou began dancing in circles in the hallway behind Misty's back. Bakura clenched his fists. "Alright." he would have his revenge. Regardless of the promise he'd made, he would have his revenge. And with that grim thought settled in his mind, he strode to the bathroom to get a cloth for Marik's face.
Mist turned to you and sighed heavily. "I'm so disappointed in him!" she said. "I was just beginning to think he was really a sweet guy…but maybe he is just a bad guy and that's all."
Ryou smiled gently and put his hand comfortingly on Misty's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Mistaya. But if it's any solace to you, I'll always be sweet."
Misty grinned and shook her head. "you're so cute." She hugged him softly, and Bakura walked up behind the two of them and stopped short.
"Am I interrupting something?" he growled, the washcloth in his hands slowly dripping on the carpet.
"No," Misty said coldly, letting go of Ryou. "We were just discussing how much more considerate Ryou is than you. He's so sweet, compassionate, respectful of other people's feelings- what is wrongwith you?"
Bakura's face was bright red and progressing towards purple, and he was squeezing the washcloth so hard a steady stream of water was soaking the carpet. "What…is…wrong? You know what, I can take some humiliation. I'll tell you what's wrong!" Ryou's eyes began to lose their shine. His big advantage was doing him no good, and as soon as Bakura told on him, he wouldn't have a snowman's chance in Death Valley with Mistaya- or anything else, for that matter. Bakura threw the washcloth across the room and against the wall above Marik's bed. "You wanna hear about your sweet, compassionate Ryou!" -SPLAT- The washcloth slid down the wall and landed on Marik's face. Everybody went suddenly quiet.
Marik sat up, pulled the washcloth off his face, and tossed it aside. "Hey gang." He smiled evilly, eyes narrowed. "Long time no kill -- I mean see."
Ryou whimpered. "This is it," Misty whispered dramatically. "The final stage."
Bakura merely smiled and walked up to Marik. "Hey man, you woke up just in time! Malik'll be here in--" He glanced at Misty.
"--one hour, twenty two minutes, and thirty six seconds," she informed him promptly.
"Yes." Bakura nodded. "He's got your Toybox, and he wants to play games with you."
Marik's evil grin widened. "I'll kick his ass."
Bakura nodded. "I'm sure you would. If--"
Marik's head snapped up. "If?"
"If…you had weapons."
"Oh." Marik scratched his head. Where can I get some?"
Bakura smiled. He was so good at this. "Here's the deal. We have a tank and a bag of some of the best weapons, all of which we'll be happy to share."
Marik raised one eyebrow. "But?"
"But, you're not allowed to harm Misty, Ryou, or myself in any way. Deal?"
Marik stood and put his hands on his hips. "Does the said bag have a flamethrower?"
"Yes," Misty said blandly.
Marik nodded approvingly. "And a chainsaw?"
"Uh…" Bakura and Misty exchanged worried glances. And Marik noticed.
"No chainsaw, no deal," Marik said, crossing his arms.
"Our neighbor has one!" Misty said quickly. "We could, uh, borrow it from his garage for some time…but we'll have to return it, cuz he's a preacher…"
"It's settled then," Bakura said, cracking his knuckles. "Deal?" He held his hand out to Marik.
Marik stared expressionlessly at the offered hand for a moment, then a smile spread across his face and he shook the hand vigorously. "You strike a tough bargain, my friend, but you've got yourself a deal!"
Bakura grinned, satisfied. He turned to Misty and Ryou, both of whom were quite amazed at the simple genius of the transaction that had just taken place. "That's okay, you can thank me later," Bakura said graciously. "Now. Misty. Go get this man his chainsaw." Misty hurried off to do so, and Bakura turned to Ryou.
"Heh. No hard feelings, eh chum? I mean, we can just let this whole incident go, no need to dwell in the past," Ryou said hurriedly.
"Save it," Bakura said, cutting Ryou off before he could continue. He pointed his finger at Ryou. "You. Clean off," he pointed at Marik, "his face." Ryou gulped.
"Wait-- my face?" Marik put his hand to his face. "What did you--" he stopped short and ran into the bathroom. "AUGH! What the hell did you do!" he screamed.
Bakura folded his arms. "Ryou did it."
"Why you little…" Marik growled. He marched to Ryou, grabbed him by the throat, an started shaking him. "How dare you touch my ace, you rotten little--"
"Hey!" Misty cried, running into the room with the chainsaw in her hands. "Stop that! What are you doing?"
Keeping a firm grip on Ryou, who was slowly going blue in the face, Marik said, "Did you see what he did to my face!"
"Let him go! You made a promise that you wouldn't hurt any of us in any way!" Misty ordered.
"Fine." Marik shoved Ryou away and took the chainsaw from Misty. "But I don't like him."
The feeling's mutual Ryou thought to himself, hand on his sore neck.
Misty took a deep breath and glared fixedly at Ryou. "I think we all feel the same way right now. I can't believe you lied to me Ryou. And Bakura, I'm sorry I blamed you." She walked over to him and hugged him while Ryou eyed them both jealously. "Why didn't you say something right away?"
Bakura grimaced. "Well…"
"Because he didn't want you to know he was afraid of frogs!" Ryou blurted out.
Misty stared at Ryou. "You were blackmailing him?"
Ryou flinched. "Sort of."
Misty threw up her hands in disgust. "I can't believe--"
Bakura put his hand up. "It's okay. Don't worry about it Misty. Now, I think we should all get a little sleep before Malik arrives."
Misty nodded, and Ryou and Marik mumbled an agreement. They all trooped into the living room; Misty curled up in her recliner, and Bakura and Marik each claimed a couch, leaving poor dejected Ryou to sleep on the floor. Despite the seemingly uncomfortable situation and accommodations, they all fell asleep quickly.
A little more than an hour later, as the sun began its ascent into the cloudless sky, Misty's stopwatch and the Apache tornado siren went off in unison.
