Tangerine

It'll Be Easier:

It was Wednesday and, earlier that morning, Malik spoke to Jack, one of the construction workers. He said that he'd be there as soon as his wife got dressed and made his coffee (which was more than Malik really needed to know). Marik, being the sleepy soul he was, decided to stay at home and let Malik let the workers into the house. He was a little more than confused when Bakura opted to go with Malik.

"…What do you mean?" He asked, sitting across from Bakura on the couch. Bakura looked at him for a second and then said something that Marik really didn't get.

"I don't know, I just wanna go. I-I mean, after all… it is my hikari's house they're fixing, shouldn't I be there?"

"Pheh. Yeah, right. The day you give a flying flip about Ryou's house is the day I become Mr. Terrific." Marik noticed his friend's glare, although it was not meant to be seen. Before Marik could say anything, Malik came bopping down the stairs, smiling.

"Hi you guys, I'm going to go over there now. Jack should be there any minute. Bakura, are you coming with me?"

Bakura got up and rolled his eyes, "Duh, I'm not going to let you screw up my house without my supervision."

"Sure, whatever." He smiled and walked out the front door with Bakura following, leaving Marik scratching his head and thinking about what had just happened. Since when did Malik and Bakura become so friendly? They usually couldn't stand each other. But he shrugged it off, thinking about more pressing matters. SpongeBob was on… again.


There was a large orange truck parked in the driveway of Ryou's house. Bakura and Malik had gotten there rather quickly, talking idly. A man, leaning on the door frame, who Malik supposed was Jack, looked up as they neared him. He had a beer belly and a tan that didn't cover all of him… in short, he was the basic construction worker.

"'Ello, Jack Marsher here. Malik Ishtar, I presume?" He held his hand out to Bakura, mistaking him for the boy next to him.

"Uh, no."

Malik rolled his eyes and took Jack's hand, "I am. You're here already, that's good. Here, I'll let you in." He got the key out of his back pocket and opened the door. Everyone, including Jack's crew, whistled at the large hole in the middle of the room. The couch was moved over to the other side of the room and the floor boards were completely destroyed. They quickly inspected the hole and a few of the men jumped inside, climbing back up in a hurry because it went so deep.

"Ey, Jack, this hole here looks like a auger went through it!" On of the workers yelled, wiping dirt off his pants.

Malik held his head, "Uh, yeah, about that… We had a little accident with an auger and-"

"No need to explain, mate. We deal with this stuff all the time." Jack pointed to the truck and a few men went over and began getting tools and such. He looked back at Malik and Bakura who were standing idly by, "Looking at this hole, I say this might take a while… a long while. No worries, though, we'll be done by six o' clock. Maybe even earlier. I've got your cell number, right? You all gonna stay here or go off?"

He looked at Bakura, "Um, do you wanna stay?"

Before Bakura could answer, Jack smiled and said, "We could use the help, filling up this hole. A lot of cement's gonna need to be poured and the floor boards need to be replaced-"

"No thanks!" Bakura's mind was made up when he heard that staying meant doing something along the lines of physical labor. When Jack gave a wink and a nod, Bakura turned and left out the door.

Malik waved at Jack hesitantly, "O-Okay, then. Just call me when you're all done…"

"Yeah, yeah!"

He followed the way he saw Bakura go and caught up with him on the side walk. They looked at each other for a minute, and then Bakura shrugged, "Well, since they're not going to finish till the end of the millennium… What do you want to do?"

Malik blinked, "Do?"

"Oh, great, an echo." Bakura groaned, "Do as in, go somewhere. Don't you and Marik ever do anything other than try and take over the world and watch SpongeBob?"

"…" Malik had to think about that for a minute.

"W-Well!"

"Give me a minute!" Malik said, aggravated and continued to his thoughts. 'Let's see… have we ever done anything that doesn't pertain to those categories? Um… No, I don't think so. Damn it. Okay, okay…' Malik looked up as Bakura was impatiently tapping his foot. "Uh. I don't think so. Wait, does taking over an ant hill count?"

"… No! I-I mean, yes! Wait… Ugh, can't you ever give a straight answer!"

He smirked, "No."

"…" Bakura glared at him.

Malik got his cell phone out of his pocket and waited for it to ring. "… Yeah, hi, Marik."

"Want do you want, Malik? I'm looking for some more nuclear weapons on the internet and you're breaking my concentration."

"Real nice, Osama. I was just letting you know that the guys wont be done with Ryou's house till later on in the afternoon, maybe early evening."

"Oh, that's cool. So, you're going to help me with these anthrax missiles I just bought? I need to try them out on Yami and Yugi first."

"… Uh, well, actually me and Bakura are going somewhere to wait for the contractor to get done. I'll help you out later, okay?"

"WHAT!" Marik almost dropped the phone. Actually, he did drop the phone, but picked it up with great speed, so he could yell at his hikari, "WHAT IN HELL'S NAME DO YOU MEAN?"

Malik sighed, "… Marik-"

"WORLD DOMINATION CANNOT WAIT FOR YOU TO GO OUT AND HAVE A HAPPY PARADE WITH BAKURA!"

"What? You're so mean! I don't want to rule the world all the time!"

"Oh, I'm sorry…" His voice dripped in sarcasm, "I forgot this was just a part-time job for you."

"Well, I'm sorry that you think I should feel the urge to destroy anything and everything ever created! I'm not as sadistic as you are!"

"… It's okay, I forgive you."

Malik eyes widened, "Ooh! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you, drop dead!" He slammed the top of the phone down and shoved it into his pocket, yelling obscenities for about two minutes, before sighing and looking at Bakura who had just recovered from his laughing spell.

"… I'm okay now." He said calmly and then began to walk down the street, "Let's go Bakura. I'm going to Starbucks. You can come, if you want to."

"Tch. It was my idea, you're acting like I'm tagging along."

He smirked, "You are."

"Whatever."


Back at the house, it was about twenty minutes after the conversation Marik and his hikari were just engaged in. Marik was fuming mad, although he'd calmed down a considerable bit. After he finished ordering the anthrax missiles (on sale for $5.99), he decided to go out and figure out just what was going on with Malik.

It seemed that lately Malik was PMSing a lot more than usual, with made Marik worry just a little. He knew his hikari was known for his theatrics and drama all over the city, but that "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you, drop dead!" thing he yelled made Marik anxious. Malik didn't know how to do curses, did he? He had been hanging out with Bakura lately and maybe he was teaching him death spells.

Just for safety's sake, he decided to go out and see what they were really up to.

He grabbed his binoculars, hit the side walk and was searching around the block, though trying to keep a low profile. He didn't want to be seen, so, using his expert spy techniques, he hid in the bushes.

It had been about two hours, roaming the streets, with his binoculars. He didn't see them and, without much to do, decided to people watch. Although, looking into open windows of woman's bathrooms and laughing got him stares and disapproving glares. After seeing an old woman take a long, steamy shower, Marik felt sick and sat down on a park bench.

He sighed, "Maybe they went in some dark alley and are robbing first graders…"

Marik always tried to look on the sunny side of things.

"You're joking, aren't you? I don't think I could stand that." There was a voice coming from near by that Marik recognized. It was Bakura's, and it sounded really close. Marik turned around and he was right in front of a Starbucks. At one of the tables outside the window was Bakura and Malik, talking about something or the other.

"Well, Ryou tells me you're not much better." Malik smiled, "Stabbing things and howling at all hours of the night."

"… I only did that howling thing once, it was an experiment."

"And the stabbing?"

Bakura winced, "You have to use what you're given. I'm given a dagger, I'm going to stab things."

"Heh. Remind me to sleep with one eye open."

Marik's jaw was hanging rather low. He couldn't believe this is what Malik said no to him for. And hanging out with Bakura no less. Since when did they become such good friends? And it was worse than he thought. They weren't out maiming and robbing people. They were talking in front of some coffee shop!

Marik growled, "What the hell…? How can you talk for so long? They must've been here for hours!"

Careful to not be seen, he hopped from bush to bush until he was two feet behind their table, so it'd be easier to hear their conversation.

"But really, I think you're the one who encourages this world domination thing." Bakura threw another plastic spork at a car driving by, "It's like… you're resisting too much, so he wants to do it more."

Marik gasped, "They're talking about me!"

"Well, wouldn't you resist when someone was forcing you to take over the world everyday?"

"…No. It'd be really cool, you're lucky."

"Lucky?"

"Yeah. I know you guys don't get your little plans right all the time. (Malik raised an eyebrow) … Okay, none of the time. But the point is, you'll get it someday. You know that and I know that. And when you do rule the world, I'll be right there sponging off of you."

Malik held back a few giggles, "Yeah, well… And anyway, how'd you know about all this stuff? This resisting and things like that, you sound a lot smarter than you are."

Bakura did his best to control his glaring muscles, "… I'm not an idiot, you know! I… I know… things. Really good things a-and… smart things, too!"

"Okay." Malik said and sighed, laughing as Bakura chucked another spork at a car, blinding the driver and causing a four way car-crash. Mangled metal upon mangled metal… the cops started to arrive and Malik thought it best if they leave.

Marik followed them everywhere they went that afternoon. From the boardwalk to the movies and back to the park. In total it was around six hours and Marik was stupefied at how two people could possibly talk about things for more than two minutes. And how they hardly ever touched the subject of world domination was beyond him. Although they did often talk about him, and he didn't approve, but it did seem to make Malik calm down. Maybe he wasn't mad anymore.

While they were kicking the ducks at the park, Malik cell phone rang, "Hello? …Oh, Jack!… You're done already? Oh… No, okay, we'll be there in a few minutes… Thanks, bye."

After that call, the walk back to Ryou's house took about ten minutes and the large orange truck was all packed up. Marik followed them to the door, hiding behind a garden gnome and watched as they went inside to see the entire living room look like new.

"Wow…" Malik looked around in awe, "This is great, you guys. Jack, you did a wonderful job."

He grinned, admiring his handy work, "Yeah, yeah! I even vacuumed too, you know, to go the extra mile." While going on in explanation, he noticed Marik peeking into the house, "Oh, ey, mate! C'mon in!"

Marik turned white as Malik and Bakura looked back at him. Bakura tilted his head, "What're you doing?"

"I-I…! Well, you see, I… was just dropping some landmines around the perimeter and decided to check on the house work…"

"Oh." Malik turned around, brightly, it seemed like he had forgotten their argument earlier, "Well… Jack, I made the check out to your company and it's all mailed."

"Thanks a lot! Well, I'll be seein ya." He waved and piled into the truck with his workers and the three boys watched as they drove away. After a moment of silence, Marik cleared his throat, "So, Bakura, your house is all better. I'll go get your bags, kay? Kay." He started to walk back to his house, but Malik's voice stopped him.

"You know, Bakura… You should stay out the rest of the week. I mean, if you want to, that is."

"WHAT?" Marik blurted out, covering his mouth when he received a glance from Malik.

"Why?" Bakura asked.

"… I'm still your baby-sitter, you know!" He laughed, "I'm just saying… it'll be easier. To keep an eye on you when you're staying at our house. Sound okay?"

"… Yeah, okay." He walked past Marik, a serene look on his face, "It's okay, Marik, you don't have to get my bags, now!"

Marik's eye twitched, "W-Wonderful…!"