Her Sweetness: Hello. Sorry not to say anything before, I only write at night and usually it's about six hours from six o' clock in the evening to midnight and maybe a little after. So, as you can imagine, I'm not always thinking so clear.

And I don't proof read… usually. I'm too tired.

Anyway, we must carry on.


Tangerine

What A Boy Wants:

After a lot of mild objections and teeth gritting from Marik, the boys went back home, Malik and Bakura laughing mostly and Marik sulking. The rest of the evening was spent doing random things. Including playing video games, in which Marik lost horribly to Bakura, who really had no idea what he was doing and so it made his defeat all the more embarrassing.

It dawned on Thursday, the next day and it went by a little too slowly for Marik's taste. Mostly, Malik stayed upstairs for the most of the morning, doing who knows what. During the middle of the afternoon, Marik called Bakura to a rematch on Mario Party 3. So far, the game was tied, but Marik didn't want to tie with Bakura…. he wanted to leave him in the dust.

Since the fifth turn, they both were very quiet, concentrating only on the screen. Marik glanced at his friend, slightly, only moving his head to the right. Bakura noticed this right away and looked back at Marik. They both starred at each other for a minute, then a crashing sound brought them back to reality.

"Hey! My points!" They both cried, looking back at the screen as both Mario and Luigi fell down the slide, a game over sign appearing.

They groaned and after getting their lives back, and Bakura looked at Marik, "… What was that for?"

"What do you mean?"

"That glare. You've been doing it all day."

Marik thought about this for a moment. He really didn't know the answer. After all, he and Bakura had been best friends ever since they met. But why was there this weird, fiery feeling towards him all of a sudden? And since Marik wasn't really big on thinking about psychological stuff, he decided to change the subject.

"… Bakura." Marik said, when his friend put the game on pause, Marik thought, 'Let's see if he's really willing to tell me everything, like a best friend should…' He turned back to the silver-haired teen, "Hey, where'd you go yesterday with Malik?"

He blinked, "Uh… We went to a coffee place… then a few other places. I don't really remember all of them. But, I don't know why you're asking because you were there."

"Guh…" Marik turned white as a ghost and his eyes rounded, "W-What do you mean I was there? I wasn't anywhere near you!"

"Oh, yes you were." Bakura grinned, then continued to play the game, "I saw you in the bushes. I didn't at first, because I was talking to Malik, but then a saw a blonde spike sticking up out of a plant. And how many plants have rocker hairstyles?"

Marik sneered, turning back to the screen, "Whatever…"

"Aw, c'mon! What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me!" He growled, "And you know what I really think-"

"What's going on down here?" Came an exasperated voice. Both boys looked up and saw Malik looking down at them from the first landing on the stairs. They immediately stopped what they were doing. "There's yelling going on down here and it's giving me a headache…!"

"Sorry, Malik!" They both yelled at the same time, glancing at each other as they did.

Malik tilted his head and then smiled, "Bakura, I need you to help me out upstairs. Can you come up for a while?"

"Yeah." He nodded, walking up and following behind Malik while Marik stood there, stupefied. Malik barely even said hi to him. Actually, he didn't say hi to him, he just came in and collected Bakura. And just what was he going to help out with anyway? Upstairs? Marik didn't like this at all. And he may have just imagined this, but was that a smirk Bakura wore on his way up there?

He shuddered to himself, "It better not have been…!"


"Okay, so what am I up here for?" Bakura was leaning on the side of the drawing table in Malik's fashion design room. When they walked in, Malik immediately went over to the table and started drawing something. It had been about two minutes of silence till Bakura asked his question and Malik looked up, smiling brightly.

"Oh, I just need to adjust another outfit, so here you are!"

"… Am I wearing another dress?" He asked meekly.

Malik grinned and held up a pair of stark white leather pants and a silk shirt that wasn't sewn all the way up in the back. Bakura looked relieved that he could go back to being male again. In less than ten minutes, Bakura was standing on the chair, being poked and prodded with pins.

"So, what was all the yelling about?" He asked, beginning to work on the collar.

"Yelling? Oh, that was just Marik losing it."

"… Behold my surprised face." Malik frowned, noticeably.

Bakura smirked, "Eh, he's going off about something. Did you know that he followed us around yesterday? When we were waiting for all those construction workers to leave the house."

"What?" Malik gaped, "Why would he do that?"

He shrugged, which resulted in a pin going into his shoulder. Malik gasped, "Doesn't that hurt?"

"I've gotten used to it."

Malik blinked, "O-Oh… Well, did Marik ever tell you why he was shouting? Or was it just one of those rants he's so famous for? My bet is on the latter."

"Kind of. I think he thinks we were talking about him yesterday."

"… We were."

"That's why it's so funny."


Meanwhile, Marik had found the door of the attic. He was amazed yet again. This is the first time he even knew they had an attic. This was news to him. And the sad thing is he'd set mouse traps up there about three months ago, and he'd already forgotten. Not knowing exactly what odd things were on the other side of the door, Marik pressed his ear to the crack and listened in.

It wasn't all that clear, the voices were muffled. But, for some reason, he kept hearing his name. Marik growled under his breath, 'Damn it! I know I'm like the coolest person on the planet, but couldn't they go five minutes without talking about me…?' Suddenly, he got an idea. He rushed back down to the kitchen and got a glass out of the cabinet, running back upstairs and using it to hear more clearly. (A/N: Yeah, that works. I saw it on a TV show.)

"… and I haven't even been in touch with Ryou since he left." It sounded like Malik, "Not that I had a choice, he didn't give me a number to call."

"Why would you try to call him?"

"I'm a baby-sitter… What if something happened to you? I'd have to notify your par-"

"Don't you dare say parent."

Malik laughed, "I'm sorry, I guess I'm a yami-sitter, then. And anyway, if something happened to you, I'd have to call… your hikari."

Bakura said nothing and soon after the silence came the sound of a rip or a tear.

"Oh no…!" Came Malik's little shriek, "My pants…! I worked forever on those you know! Damn, now I'll have to redo the seems a-and pick out a new-"

"Hey, hey! Can we hurry this up? I'm almost naked because of your faulty clothing and I'll have you know that it's cold in here."

When Marik heard that last bit, he all but blew up. Immediately, he kicked the door open, yelling randomly, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!" Once the door was open and Marik was inside, he blinked slowly. In the center of a room with many different shades of colors and pictures on the wall with clothes all around, stood Malik and Bakura. Bakura on a chair with a white silk shirt, lacking pants. Malik was bending down right in front of him, holding a pair of pants in his arms protectively. Everyone in the room was silent, locked in a three-way stare.

After a lot of blinking and blushing, Marik was the first to speak. "… I… don't like this."

"Uh, M-Marik!" Malik managed to stutter, "Don't you have common decency? What's wrong with knocking?"

"What's wrong with knocking! I'll tell ya what's wrong with knocking! If you knock, you miss all the important stuff like your hikari in a dark room with your best friend! D-Doing…! D-Doing… STUFF!"

Malik folded his arms, throwing the pants inside, "We weren't doing the stuff you think we were, you pervert! I'll have you know, Bakura was modeling for me!"

"I have a pretty good idea of just what he was modeling..." Marik sneered and then turned to Bakura, "And what do you have to say about all this, Mr. Model?"

Bakura rolled his eyes and hopped off the chair, he grabbed the jeans he was wearing earlier and scratched his head, "… Well, I don't get what the big deal is. We didn't do anything, and I've been modeling CLOTHES for the past two days. And besides that, you should be thankful that you didn't walk in on Tuesday... Unless you wanted to see me in a dress or something."

Marik held his head, "… This is too much."

Malik tried to sneak out of the room, unnoticed, but he was caught by his yami, "Malik. What is this room? Why haven't I been in here before?"

"You're just like Bakura, asking so many questions…! But if you must know, this… is my designing room. Uh, fashion design."

He blinked, "And this is where you and Bakura go to try on clothes?"

"No! I just make them is all. Bakura is like a live manikin or something, he stands there and I adjust the clothes on him. He really is a wonderful model."

Bakura beamed and Marik scowled at him, and of course Bakura noticed this. Thus triggering a glaring and scowling contest between them. After two minutes, the tension was unbearable and Malik shouted, "Both of you just cut it out, for Ra's sake!" he turned on his heel and stormed out. Bakura started to go after him, but Marik stopped him.

"Just let him go. Sometimes, he just needs to wallow in his drama."

Bakura rolled his eyes, "You can't just leave him alone all the time!"

"I don't leave him alone! And how would you know, anyway? Before you moved in here you couldn't have cared less what Malik did!"

"Whatever…" He walked out of the room and down the hallway. Marik sighed and looked around. This room totally seemed like a place where Malik would feel at home. And maybe he did overreact just a tad… Bakura did have boxers on and everything. Pants aren't that important, anyway… Then Marik growled in aggravation at his thoughts. Not a thing made sense. He walked out of the room, going to where he knew Malik would be.

When Marik got to the bedroom, the door was open and he decided to go in even though he knew that Bakura would be in there. "Suck up…" he muttered under his breath. He soon was standing shoulder to shoulder with Bakura, although they didn't pay each other much attention. By the time Marik got in there, Malik was already pacing the room laying down guidelines.

"I can't imagine what you two's problem is. The day Marik drilled through Ryou's floor, you two couldn't wait to be together and do who knows what, but lately, I don't know… it's like you have some kind of vendetta against each other! I can't stand it!"

Marik mumbled, "He started it…"

Before Bakura could retaliate, Malik raised his hands, "Zip it. Both of you. No more of this, I'm warning both of you, one word and you're both going to sleep in the crawlspace under the house!"

They both shut up quickly, noting the dangerous tone in the young hikari's voice.

"Ah…" He sighed contently, "Exactly what I want… silence."

About an hour later, Malik managed to get both Marik and Bakura to apologize, though they did it stoically and without any feeling at all. They actually were civil to each other for a while and agreed to be silent while watching television. This night, they didn't watch SpongeBob, it was Golden Girls because Marik wanted to please his hikari, subliminally rubbing it in to Bakura. He barely noticed.

During the commercial break, Marik lazily looked over on the opposite side of the couch. His jaw dropped when he saw Bakura's eyes half lidded, and Malik nonchalantly rubbing circles on Bakura's stomach with the palm of his hand. Marik gritted his teeth and chanted in his head, 'Only two more days… only two more days…'