Raventhedarkgoddess: I can't wait for summer break... sigh Anyway, thanks, once again, for the reviews, they convince me that I should keep going. And in regards to a few reviews, glad you liked my Rock-A-Bye Malik song, but that was actually just something I randomly added in quick-edit that I thought up out of nowhere, so it took no time whatsoever. Anyway, you don't care what the crazy authoress says, you want to read the fic, so here's your fic.

Chapter Seven: Bearly Buddy

"Get your hands off of Bearly Buddy!" Malik cried out, rushing forth to attempt to seize the bear from Serenity's hands. The bear was obviously worn, one eye stitched back on, apparently Ishizu's work. Yami could feel Ishizu turn her head away and lean into his shoulder, obviously embarressed for her younger brother and at her own poor stitching job being so obvious in the patches covering it's body, her face burning red.

Marik, on the other hand, hooted with laughter. "I always told him someone would find out about that stupid bear," he chuckled through his hysterical laughter, his face also beet-red, only from laughter, not embarressment. "And he loves it too, always cuddling it..." More laughter came from his throat, cutting off whatever other embarressing facts he had been about to add to the end of his statement.

"It's name is Bearly Buddy?" Yugi asked quietly, his face totally bewildered. "So that's who he was talking to in the hotel... For a while, Yami and I thought he had an imaginary friend... He would always tell it about the day, and ask it to beat people up when they weren't nice... He sounded a little crazy..." Everyone sweatdropped except Marik, who began to laugh even harder at this statement, slapping his knee in his obvious joy at his host's discomfort.

"So that's it's name, is it?" Serenity side-stepped him, holding the bear out of his reach behind her back, and he began to struggle, vainly trying to get the bear back, almost knocking Serenity to her knees. He's actually able to care about things... "How'd a guy like you get landed hauling a bear around, is it the only thing in this world that loves you?"

"She's really cold to him," Mai whispered quietly, and Joey knew there was no point in aurging with Mai when she was, as usual, right. All he could do was nod mutely, both of them listening hard for Malik's comeback, even Joey thinking that Malik didn't deserve to have to put up with his sister taunting him like that.

Instead of an actual reply, however, all that was heard was an inhuman cry of rage. There was no almost about it: This time Malik took direct measures, jumping to his feet, attempting to retrive his bear. "Give him back!"

"Rock-A-Bye Malik..." Serenity began to sing. "Why don't you just admit you made some of that up? Not all of it was in my diary and you know it!" She glared at him with her grey eyes narrowed, holding the battered brown bear behind her.

"All right, all right... Just give me the bear already! So what if I made it up?" Malik moved and his hair flashed around his face. "I want the bear back, Serenity! You can't tell me you don't have something that's important to you!"

"Nothing like a bear! Just people who actually have faith in me, and YOU had to go and mess it up!"

"I did not! Most of that stuff was actually in there! And that bear means something to me! Stop acting like a heartless bitch and GIVE IT!"

"Oh, big bad Malik with his evil BEARLY BUDDY OF DOOM!"

"Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!" Duke and Tristan both looked sheepishly away when they saw the evil glares they were reciving: Everyone was listening intently, waiting for the comeback. Aside from Marik's still-insane laughter, in fact, no one said a word.

"Just give it back! It's one of the only things left from when I was a kid!" He lunged, this time managing to grab the bear and cuddle it to his side, protecting it with his other hand. Instead of firing a clever insult at her or hitting her, however, he went and sat down on his newly laid-out blanket.

"And so he went to bed, holding his bear, which was so 'important' to him..." Serenity sat down on the other side of the room, ignoring him, her back to him.

"I was just a kid when I got this, and Ishizu nicknamed him Bearly Buddy so that I, a kid all alone in a home I couldn't leave, could have a friend. Is it so wrong of me to want to keep something like that? You can't tell me you don't have something like that!" He had, for no apparent reason, turned to face her. "At least you have friends! I was always the outsider!"

"This is getting good," Tristan commented, earing himself a hard SMACK from Tea, her hand hitting sickly off his head.

"SHUT UP!" She hissed at him, burying her head in Bakura's side, Ryou snickering quietly, Bakura threatening him within the mind that if he said one more word he was going to have his eyes ripped out through his skull and be left there to bleed forever.

"I never realized..."

"THAT'S RIGHT! YOU NEVER REALIZED!"

Yami felt Ishizu recoil slightly and held her closer to him, knowing she was watching with growing intensity.

"I'm sorry you had a rotten childhood, but you don't have to scream at me just because we're trapped in this hell cell doesn't mean you had to steal my diary and beat the hell out of me!"

Malik got up, moved across the room, and held out the fraying bear. "Here." He turned away from her, his hair glistening in the light from the overhead track light. "Take it and hold it tonight: Considering that outburst, you could use it more than me." His form ducked under the blanket, turned away from her. Instead of rejecting the bear, though, she held it close.

"Good night, Bearly Buddy, at least I have a friend now," Serenity whispered.

"No fight!" Tristan and Duke cried together. Ishuizu looked thougtful, Marik was sulking, and Joey's face was a comical mix between laughter, rage, and pain. ((Mai was pulling his ear to shut him up.)) "I suppose that's all we'll see. We ourselves could use some sleep," Yami said, and everyone agreed.