Her Sweetness: Hi there! You guys really responded fast to that last chapter! I guess that means you liked it and you wanted more?

Fine, fine.

(Warning: This chapter was done late at night. I'm tired, I don't care, and my back hurts… somebody save me!)

Reviews!

LPGurl : … I do? Really? I bash Yami and Yugi? Hmm. I don't mean to… Not much anyway. But, you know, you have to bash at least one person in a humor fic. But. If it bothers you A LOT, then maybe I could ease up.

Ryua Malfoy : Yes, yes. Dirty me.

Sakura Mitsu : I like to burn people, the fire lies in my soul. Remember that.

Call On Me

Chapter 11:

The rest of the morning followed with much teasing from Bakura to Marik. Scowls were involved here and arguments occurred frequently. Of course, Yami woke up with zero to no recollection of the events from the night before. Mostly because he slept like a log and woke for nothing. So, he was totally oblivious to what Bakura and Yugi were complaining about.

Aside from the negatives and arguments of the morning, there… wasn't really much else but negatives and arguments. Oh, but Malik got his wish, though. Amongst all the unpleasantness, Malik managed to steal not one but five sugarcoated doughnuts. It went unnoticed… that is until everyone reached for one and there were less doughnuts than what they had previously seen.

"Hey, where'd they go?"

Malik shrugged, white sugar all over his face.

They left Ryou's house at around noon, and all Sunday long, Malik was trying to tell his yami about Bakura's discovery, but he never found the write way to say it. Either that or Marik was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice.

"So, Marik, what I was trying to tell you about-"

"And I think… we should've been more forceful with what we needed, Malik, we should've both slept on either side of Yami!"

"Yes, but, there's something you've gotta-"

"Of course, it really sucks that Yugi remembered to take his puzzle away from you, Malik. That little runt. And what was with Bakura, anyway? I did nothing to Ryou!"

"That's just it, Bakura-"

"Is a jerk. I bet he'd shut his yap if he knew it was really me!"

"Marik-"

It went on like that all day. Till about midnight when both Marik and Malik fell asleep. Besides the fact that they were deadbeat, they had school the next day and as domestic as it sounds, they wanted to be rested so they could pretend to be happy for Yami and Yugi.

Marik hoped that, with a little luck and a lot of praying to Ra, they would be able to capture those millennium puzzles. Besides that, he'd made a promise to Malik; a promise that they would have Yami and Yugi's trust and the puzzles in three days, tops. But things didn't go as well as he planned and they were stalled.

He had their friendship; there was only one – two more things.

On Monday, it was dark outside. Even though every clock in the school clearly said 9: 32 am, it was dark and gloomy in the blustery cold outside. The streets were wet and sticky with leaves and tar. But inside the large building, it seemed clean and sterile. Quiet, but clean nonetheless.

Marik and Malik had just gotten out of French class and were waiting in the hallway. Other students by passed them in a strange rush for the lunchroom. Heaven only knows why… it wasn't lunchtime yet.

Before they saw Ryou, Bakura walked up to them. His blue and white stripped shirt hanging loosely and his hair tied back in a messy ponytail. He grinned when Malik looked at him, his mouth agape like a fish.

"Hey there, Luigi." Bakura leaned on the wall next to Malik, grinning madly, "What's up with you two?"

Marik was about to make a rude comment, but Malik grabbed his arm, "H-He's fine! I-I'm fine! We… we're all so very fine! Well, nice talking to you Bakura, but we've really gotta get somewhere!" Malik was leading his yami down the hallway at lightning speed.

Marik wasn't used to being lead by the hand like this. It really was an embarrassment. Who has ever heard of the hikari being the dominant one?

"Hey!" Marik almost whined when Malik stopped at another pair of lockers, "What was that all about?"

Malik was panting, "L-Listen… Bakura, he… he-"

"Hi there." Bakura popped up from behind Malik, smiling in what he thought was an innocent and friendly manner.

"AAAHHHH!" Malik shrieked, causing a glass-shattering echo to bounce around the walls. Everyone stopped and looked on as Malik was now in his yami's arms quivering in fear. "B-Bakura! Don't do that!"

He grinned, sticking his face two inches from the scared hikari, "Aw, what's wrong, Kilam? Are you scared of me?"

Marik quirked an eyebrow and dropped Malik on his butt, "What's wrong with you?" He asked, eying Bakura just as closely as Bakura was eying him, "You sick, or something?"

"Nope." He grinned, his face getting closer to Marik's. "Are you, Kiram?"

Marik didn't back down. For what reason, he had no idea, "Nope. I'm peachy keen."

"Me, too."

"…"

"…"

Malik was still on the glossy hallway floor. He starred up at this odd phenomenon in wonder. What would cause his and Ryou's yami to behave so strangely? Before Malik could stop it, Ryou came trotting down the hallway, smiling, "Hallo! Kilam, I – Oh my!"

He noticed what was going on in front of the lockers. Ryou tilted his head in mostly confusion but also in concern. The two yamis' noses were touching and neither stare showed any signs of fading.

"What are they doing?"

"… I wish I knew."

Ryou stuck out his lower lip slightly, resulting in a cute pouting expression as he strolled over to his yami. He tugged lightly on Bakura's batwings, smiling as he did it, "'Kura, why are you Eskimo kissing with Kiram?"

Bakura grunted, "… I-I'm not kissing any Eskimo, Ryou…"

"Hmm?"

"I'll do it later, I promise…"

It was apparent that Bakura was paying no attention to Ryou and his previous comments were just a way of getting the boy out of his hair. (A/N: Literally. Because Ryou was holding onto… you see? Heh heh…? Ah, screw it.) Ryou huffed and turned to Malik, "Well… I haven't had any luck. You try something with Kiram."

Malik blinked and then nodded. He went up to his yami, deep in an odd type of trance. It looked unbreakable, yet Malik had a secret weapon. He whispered, "Hey, look… A stand of free millennium puzzles."

"WHAT! WHERE!" Marik whirled around quickly, seeking the millennium puzzles. The absence of the Egyptian's face caused Bakura to fall without the support of Marik's nose.

He picked himself off the floor and shouted at the oblivious teenager, "What the hell's wrong with you, Ishtar! I could've broken my head!"

Marik, Malik and Ryou whipped their heads around. Malik was saying a quick prayer to Ra and Marik was… well, he wasn't really thinking anything… clean. Ryou looked from Marik back to Bakura, "What are you talking about, Bakura?"

"Um..." Bakura put his hands on his hips, "Sorry. I guess not seeing Marik in so long has made me think of him a lot. I guess Ishtar fell out of my mouth."

Malik blinked, "…"

"Aw!" Ryou ran over and threw himself onto Bakura, arms wrapped around his waist in a somewhat submissive manner, "That's so sweet, Bakura! I know you miss them, but it's okay! I do, too!"

Ryou began to cry and all of a sudden, pink and blue bubbles floated through the school hallway. Soft and sad music filled the ears of the crowd of students who had skipped their classes just to watch the odd scene unfold. Sparkling pieces of sugar landed like snow on the glossy floor.

"Alright, break it up! This is no hootenanny, get to class." Suddenly, a retched and horse voice called through the hallway. The bubbles popped, the record scratched and the sugar dissolved. Sable appeared out of the crowd as she yelled and waved to them to get gone.

When everyone else was gone she looked at the four boys, standing there, not moving. "Oh, Lord, you four again? What's going on here!"

Ryou wasn't crying anymore, simply smiling, "We're sorry, Sable. We got caught up in emotions, mourning our friends who we can no longer contact."

Sable blinked, "… O-Oh, I'm… sorry. You poor student. Friends dying is not something easy to cope with. I should know, my friends die all the time."

Everyone thought about that statement and stepped away.

"Here." She dug into the back pocket of her uniform and pulled out a yellow piece of paper. Sable handed it to Ryou and he looked at it carefully before exclaiming, "Oh my gosh! Is it that time already?"

Bakura looked over his hikari's shoulder, "What is it – Oh, damn it, Ryou! Not that Ra forsaken Friendship Dance again. Didn't we go to that last year?"

"I thought since your… friends' untimely passing, you should go a cheer yourselves up." She left in a somber tone, walking gently down the hallway until she was out of sight.

Marik tilted his head, "… Friendship Dance?"

"Oh, yes. It's tradition here at Domino High to hold an annual Friendship Dance. Oracle T inspired the idea. She suggested it and the school board didn't exactly want to go against an angry toilet-mistress, so they complied and ever since-"

"We've been in pain." Bakura grunted.

"C'mon… We went last year and it was fun!"

"… Pain."

Marik looked at Malik and smirked. Then back at Ryou, "Hey, what do you do at this… um, Friendship Dance?"

"Ah, well!" Ryou clapped his hands and rested them under his cheek. His eyes becoming large and sparkly, "Every year, you invite your very best friend, or the person you would like to get to know more. Then you go and you have a good time. It's not really like a date, just a-"

"Prissy date." Bakura finished the sentence for him.

Malik blinked, "And you can ask anyone you want to it?"

"That's right. Why?"

Marik looked at Malik and he returned the stare. They seemed to be communicating through their minds or something, but really they were just waiting for movement from the other. In a second, Malik and his yami went racing down the hallway screaming and pushing at each other.

"I get dibs on Yugi!"

"You got him last time! Take Yami!"

"He likes you better!"

"No way! He likes you!"

Ryou watched them run and fight with affection in his eyes, "Oh… they remind me so much of Marik and Malik. Why don't we ever bond like that, 'Kura?"

Bakura was to busy banging his head into the lockers to notice Ryou's question.