… Eh, usually it's for the better. Heh heh. And this is one of those times! Huzzah.
Tangerine
Motives For The Desperate:
The rest of the night was spent in mostly silence. Well, between Marik and Bakura mostly. Malik tried to talk to his yami, but he was not in a listening mood. He threw a balled up piece of paper at Malik when he came in his room and even though the paper didn't hurt at all, it still made him a bit upset that Marik didn't want to talk to him. And it was a change because usually, Marik never shut up.
And of course, Bakura wasn't about to go anywhere near Marik. There was electricity between them as it is, and although they were supposedly best friends, he didn't want to push his luck or his temper. But Malik and Bakura did hang out that night. Talking about random things and trying to fix the apple pie. Didn't end well, but they had a few laughs anyway.
After a week of strange and unexplainable things happening to all of them, no one really noticed when Saturday arrived. The sun rose over the horizon and the birds chirped and that was about it.
Malik decided to sleep in that day. Actually, he didn't really decide, it just happened. And because it happened, Bakura had no one to play with.
He sighed, looking down at the tanned boy snuggled just beneath the covers, 'Eh… what am I supposed to do now?' Bakura thought that maybe waking him up wouldn't be so terrible. After all, since they'd stayed up half the night and it was about eight o' clock in the morning, Malik had about four hours of sleep. Wasn't that enough?
Just as he was about to tap the hikari on the head, a harsh whisper rang through the room. "Bakura…! Get away from there."
Bakura whirled around and saw Marik glaring at him from the threshold of the door. He groaned under his breath and whispered back, "What do you want?"
"To talk to you. Come here."
"…" He shrugged and followed when Marik left down the hallway. Marik didn't turn around to face him till they entered the living room. Bakura sat down on the couch and Marik sat down on the other side, neither boy brave enough to sit within a foot of the other.
"… So? What do you want to say to me?"
Marik looked like he was caught off guard, he regained his composure quickly and sighed, "Well… uh, first of all, don't go waking Malik up this early in the morning. You've been here long enough to know that he likes to sleeps in late…"
"Tch! Whatever, the only reason I was waking him was because, one, you told me not to, and I love forbidden things…" He grinned, shifting in his seat, "And two, Malik's the only person that talks to me since you've gotten all stuck-up."
"Stuck-up? What the hell! Just what do you mean stuck-up? You're the one stuck ON my hikari!"
"For Ra's sake, he's my friend, okay, Marik? You can't expect me to stay in this house for a week and when you go haywire, and just talk to myself like some kind of loon!"
"Oh, yes I can! A-And I didn't go haywire, I have a valid reason for being pissed at you! For the past three days, you've done nothing but hang out with Malik incessantly! It's like he's the only person you want to talk to!"
"He's the only person who WILL talk to me! Unlike you! For the past three days, you've been acting weird saying things like 'He's mine' and stuff like that. I'll have you know that Malik doesn't like it."
Marik's eyes went wide and he stood up off the couch, "He doesn't like it, huh? And just how would you know that, Bakura? Wait, don't answer that. And anyway, I don't care if either of you like it, it's the truth, he's my hikari!"
Bakura rolled his eyes, half sneering and half grinning, "Y-You are so possessive! Malik is not… some piece of meat! He's a hikari!"
"Uh, yeah. MY hikari! Like I've been saying for the past three days…" Marik stopped and thought to himself. This didn't start right at the beginning of the week, did it? No, it was only when he remembered Bakura keep repeating 'I'm lonely' over and over again. Of course, he was not supposed to hear it, because he was talking to Malik, but Marik knew how to eavesdrop just as good as the next guy. Then an idea dawned on him that he really didn't bother to even think about before. He looked over at Bakura for a minute, an unreadable stare on his face.
"… What?" Bakura winced, "Do I have something on my face or something?"
Marik only grinned, "Why do you think you need to be Malik's friend so badly?"
"I-I don't need anything! I'm telling you, Marik, you're taking this way out of proportion. I mean, I like Ryou and I just want him-"
"Ryou…?"
"What?"
He blinked a few times and walked two steps closer to Bakura, "Ryou. Ha! Oh Ra, you said Ryou! You replaced Malik's name with Ryou's!"
"I... I did not…! I said Malik. I said I liked Malik!"
"Mmm-hmm." Marik nodded to himself, smiling, "I get it now. You're upset about Ryou leaving so, you're replacing him with Malik. Damn, Bakura, who knew you'd be so desperate for a hikari in your life…"
"WHAT? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!" Bakura shot up from his seat, "I'm not using Malik as a replacement! And you want to talk about desperate? You're the one whose jealous because I've been with Malik the whole week! When Malik asked me to stay on Wednesday, you think I didn't see that look of despair, but I did!"
"What look of despair!"
Bakura batted his eyelashes and flounced around the coffee table, "Oh, poor me…! My best friend is stealing my Light and there's nothing I can do about it! So, I'll just make up digesting lies about him replacing his hikari…!" He stopped his imitation of Marik and folded his arms, "That's what I mean."
"Oh, drop dead!"
"Make me!"
"Fine, I will!" Almost immediately, Marik jumped on top of Bakura and wrestled him to the ground. Yesterday's two fights were nothing compared to this. It seemed that they both hit the wrong button on each other and were now paying the price. Bakura kicked Marik in the stomach and tackled him, when they rolled over, Bakura's back hit the television and a lamp fell off and hit the floor with a loud crash. It broke into a million pieces and that's what caused Malik to sit up in his bed suddenly. He held his head and moaned.
"Oh… What was that?"
It was then that another sound registered, and it was yelling. One sounded familiar… his yami. And of course the only other person he could possibly be yelling at is… 'Oh, Ra, they're not fighting again, are they…?'
Malik threw the covers aside and was about to run out the door, but he forgot that he was naked. So, he had to quickly tug on a pair of jeans and then stumbled down the staircase, tripping over the last stair. He fell face first into the living room and landed on the coffee table, breaking it and falling into Marik and Bakura's fistfight.
"S-Stop it! It's m-me, Malik, please stop!" He shielded himself from falling punches and teeth that were biting all too hard. "Cut it out!"
Marik eased back and pushed Malik out of the way. Before Marik could attack Bakura again, Malik stepped in the middle of them and yelled, "ALRIGHT, STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"
"Get out of the way, Malik." Bakura ordered, scowling at the boy behind him, "This is between me and your 'yami'."
"I am his yami and don't you forget it you hikari-stealer!"
"Don't start that again, Marik!"
Malik looked from teen to teen, "Just what are you talking about? Spit it out, I wanna know, for Ra's sake!"
Marik raised his eyebrow at Bakura, "Well, Malik, Bakura has been hanging around you so much the past week because he's using you as a replacement hikari. You know, since Ryou's gone and everything. Instead of just toughing it out, he goes and tries to steal you from me!"
"…Huh?"
"That's not true!"
"Yes, it is!"
"Ah, stop! Listen, I don't want to have to-"
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Malik stopped and looked at the phone that was ringing by the edge of the couch. He inched away from the spot in between Marik and Bakura, while telling them both to be absolutely still while he answered the telephone. They didn't say anything just continued to glare at each other.
He picked up the phone and started, "Hello? Ah, Ryou…!"
"Hello there, Malik." Came Ryou's perky voice, bright with enthusiasm, "I've just come out of the airport and I'm heading back to my house! Where are you?"
"Uh… Um, I-I…" Malik was really in a predicament. He distinctly remembered Ryou telling him not to let Marik and Bakura mix. And here he was in a house with two yamis who couldn't keep their hands off each other. And not in the comforting way, either. He decided to try to tell the truth and see if it sounds less damning when he said it out loud. "Well, Ryou… I'm over at my house…"
"Oh, okay. Well, after I stop by my house to check on Bakura, then I'll come over and say hi to you!"
Malik nodded unsurely, "A-About that… If you want to check on B-Bakura, you're going to have to… come over here."
"WHAT!"
He cringed. But before he could explain to Ryou who was having a nervous breakdown over the phone, another crash was heard in the back round. He whirled around and saw that Bakura had bit Marik and he, in turn, slammed him against the wall. Bakura pushed his hands off his shoulder and yelled, "Alright, Ishtar, if you really want to go down this road then I have no choice…!" His millennium ring began to glow and slowly lifted off his chest, "You're going to the shadow realm!"
"Pheh." Marik grinned, pulling out his millennium rod from his belt loop, "Bring it on, hikari-stealer."
"Oh no!" Malik threw the phone down and ran over to them, "NO! Cut it out right now, stop! You can't do this! Marik! Bakura!"
The millennium rod began to glow and Marik quickly glanced at his hikari, "Malik, will you stay out of this? It doesn't concern you!"
"Like hell it doesn't!" He got down on his knees in front of Bakura and pleaded, "Please, Bakura, can't we talk this out?"
"Marik's way too hardheaded to talk about anything!"
"I tried to talk to you first, but you went ballistic on me, Bakura, and now it's too late for you to turn back, this is it! Malik, go!"
"U-Uh… How about this, whoever stops trying to send each other to the shadow realm first, gets a piece of candy…! Yummy?"
Bakura took Malik by the shoulder and pulled him aside. Although Malik was struggling against him, he was being held with minimum strength. He's screaming was muffled as a flash of white light came, generated by two millennium items.
