Dread and the Fugitive Mind
Part 5
"I'll make the arrangements after everyone's gone, just remember-"
"It was my idea. Gotcha." Marik cut Seto off. "Wouldn't want 'em all thinking you care, now!" The yami grinned as they approached the doors to the dining room where Yugi-tachi were eating breakfast.
"I have a reputation, you know," Seto muttered, not really happy with the plan but trusting Marik if he thought it was a good idea.
"Hey," Marik stopped him as they were about to enter. Seto turned back to see what he wanted and the yami took his hand, kissing the back of it with a grin on his lips. "Thanks for doing this."
"I-" Seto began, hand tingling. Marik had already gone into the dining room, though, so the brunette fought down the faint tinge of a blush and followed.
XxXxX
"Oi, listen up mortals. And Pharaoh." Marik demanded, taking a seat at the head of the table. Seto sat down in the only other seat available, next to Yugi and Ryou, and sipped a glass of orange juice thoughtfully.
"Right. We're all going camping. It's a reunion. Completely voluntary, but anyone who doesn't turn up will face my wrath. And Ryou, tell Bakura he's coming too whether he likes it or not." Marik announced, then calmly reached across the table and stabbed a pancake with his fork, bringing it onto his own plate and drenching it in syrup.
Everyone stared at him for a moment before Yugi piped up.
"That's a good idea, I like camping," he smiled happily. Jou, as usual, agreed with him.
"Why the hell do we need a reunion when we see each other all the time?" Malik asked, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Because I'm big, scary and occasionally crazy, and I've decided we're going to have one." Marik smirked. /Go with it, hikari. I'll explain later./ The yami sent through his link with Malik.
"Fair enough, I'm not arguing with that." Malik shrugged, going back to his breakfast.
"Good, good. Any more objections?" Marik demanded.
"Yeah, I have work and I just took a holiday. I'm not gonna get any more time off for a while," Honda explained, looking a little nervous in case Marik had a problem with him not being there.
"Hmph. Fine, you can stay, but don't think anyone else is getting out of it!" The yami pointed the syrup bottle at them all as though it were a dangerous weapon.
"It sounds like fun," Otogi twirled his die earring around his finger idly. "As long as there aren't too many bugs, that is."
"Er…" Ryou began, looking apprehensive. Everyone turned to stare at him, which didn't help much.
"What's up?" Yugi asked.
"Bakura says he's not going. There was quite a lot of swearing involved," the English hikari informed them, having told his yami the news through their link.
"Tell him I'll tie him up and strap him to the roof rack if I have to." Marik cracked his knuckles evilly.
"He says – I can't say that! Hang on a minute, he's swearing again… Oh. He says no." Ryou sighed.
"Well tell him he either changes that answer to a yes or I'm going over there to talk him into it, and it'll involve making him watch The Sound of Music twenty times in a row."
"He says you wouldn't dare," Ryou smiled a little, knowing that Marik always got his own way in the end.
"Tell him I said try me. I have a roll of duct tape so he can't even scream for mercy." The yami threatened wickedly. Seto was quite impressed.
"…He says he'll think about it," Ryou said after a little pause.
"Oh, no. I want a yes or no answer! Right now! I have an entire collection of Disney movies with his name on!" Marik warned, looking quite evil but ruining it by snickering at the thought of forcing Bakura to watch The Little Mermaid.
"He says 'oh, alright then, damn you all.' Er, actually, there was quite a lot more to it than that, but you got the gist." Ryou winced. "He's gone off to plot his revenge now," the hikari smiled weakly.
"I'm so good," Marik congratulated himself.
Behind his hand, where nobody else could see, Seto smiled.
XxXxX
"I've booked three cabins for a week. Now we just need to figure out who's staying where," Seto informed Marik as he put his cell phone down and perched on the edge of the desk in his office. Yugi-tachi had gone home an hour ago, but Marik had stayed behind to help plan, which Seto was grateful for.
"Well, the whole point of this is to keep an eye on 'Kura, so I guess we're sharing with him. Is Mokuba going?" Marik asked, leaning back on one of the couches in the room comfortably, with a pad or paper and a pen. He was scribbling down the names of everyone who was going on the trip and trying to work out which cabins to put them in.
"No, he has school. So does Jounouchi's sister, and Honda has work." Seto said, hoping Mokuba would be alright with a babysitter for a week.
"Right. We can't put the Pharaoh anywhere near 'Kura, he'll probably want to be near Yugi anyway. My hikari has a thing for either Ryou or Otogi, I haven't figured it out yet, so I'm sticking those three together. Jou and Yugi are a couple, so they're together too. Ishizu isn't coming, she says she'll be glad of the peace. And of course Mai's gonna stay with her, Anzu's a definite no…" Marik trailed off and looked at his notepad, chewing the end of the pen for a moment. "Ok, 'Kura, you and I are in the first cabin; Malik, Ryou and Otogi are in the second; and Pharaoh, Yugi and Jounouchi are in the third."
"That should work. Did you tell them we're staying in cabins?" Seto asked.
"Nah, I let 'em think we're spending a week in tents. Heheh. Don't worry, I'll tell them before we leave." Marik laughed. He thought it was funny that Yugi-tachi were scared of him enough that they'd agree to spend a week in a tent.
"Alright, so I suppose all we have to do is keep Yami away from Bakura long enough to find out what's wrong with him, and try not to make anyone too suspicious," Seto summed it up.
"Yeah, 'Kura already has us meddling with his life, I'm sure he'd love it if everyone else started too." Marik grimaced, knowing that Bakura would end up either killing them all or running off for good.
"Then we'll just have to make sure everyone else is sufficiently distracted with the great outdoors," Seto decided, folding his arms in determination. "We're leaving the day after tomorrow."
TBC
Listen to Megadeth. Yes. And review.