Warnings: Bad language, 5am fic, one mention of Malik reading backwards out of the bible, me insulting every clique I could think of. I'm kidding, right? It's a comedy. Possibly.
Notes: Just a scary little insight into the strange relationship between Bakura and Seto. Completely spur-of-the-moment, not much plot and may possibly be continued if it gets any kind of feedback. I've never been in an American high school, but this is based off what the movies would like me to believe. Inspiration came from listening to Motley Crue at 5am Monday morning.Dedications: Yes, I am tacky enough for that. For Flamethrower Queen, Spyder (a wonderful writer) and everyone who reviewed the last 5am fic I posted. Yeah, the sandwich thing.
Shout at the DevilBakura POV (The yami…)
Every school has these 'clique' things, according to what I've seen on the television. There's something inherently fucked up there – if the magic box didn't advertise for cliques would we still have them? I don't even know why I'm going on about them so much, I make an effort not to give a shit. There's a weak paradox for you.
So, Domino High is no different. Here's a brief outline from the doorway into the ordered chaos that is the cafeteria – I'm just full of those paradoxes today.
In the middle we have the in-crowd. Most people hate those bitches, which makes it hard to understand how they're still the most popular people in the school. I think it's because if everyone suddenly turned around and said 'hey, you know what? We hate you!' Then the whole social hierarchy would collapse and something even worse might ooze in to fill the void left by those skinny little split-pins. Perhaps nerds would come to rule, and with no idea how to cope with popularity they would be driven mad with the power. Although, quite a few people would probably choose insane, rampaging nerds over the cheerleaders.
Well, after the in-crowd and the nerds we have the Goths, who sit at the table in the darkest corner reading suicidal poetry; the Emos, who're like a slightly less credible version of Goths and cry eyeliner; and the Jocks, who truly believe the Earth is flat. If it were round, wouldn't the ball just keep going? Anyway, it doesn't look round. You get the picture.
Next to the window is the metal music table, which has a split down the middle because they're having creative differences. No, nobody has overdosed. At one end there's the guys who look at least a month dead and listen to screaming death metal, and at the other end there's the rest, who look like hell's angels without the bikes and listen to music that's actually half decent.
The last table is the misfits' table, where people who don't fit in any of the cliques end up. There are more cliques than the ones I've just been through of course, they're just generally not important enough to warrant having their own table.
So, where do I fit? The misfits table, because that's where the interesting people gather. At the moment I see Seto Kaiba, who doesn't even acknowledge the existence of most people at this school let alone the cliques, reading Voltaire and looking bored. Next to him is Marik, who looks like he belongs somewhere in the middle of the metal table. He's wearing sunglasses and it's raining outside, so he must have a hangover.
He sees me standing by the door and gives me a grin right out of Near Dark. I flip him off and he laughs. Seto looks up from his book to see what's so amusing and we have this God-awful cliché moment where our eyes meet across the hall.
We have this complex little thing going on that's almost like romance, only with a guy who could out-think the entire nerds table in his sleep and a guy who died in some desert wasteland five thousand years ago.
Getting tired of what's now become a staring match, I raise an eyebrow at him. He just shrugs and goes back to his book. I could go over there but I'm enjoying watching everything from here – I feel like a God; I can tell what's going to happen because it's almost down to routine now.
Ryou – small, delicate and breakable – walks past me so I reach out and snag the apple from his lunch tray. He pauses, thinks about telling me off then decides he didn't want it that much anyway and carries on towards the leather end of the metal table, where Malik and Otogi are waiting for him. They were flicking things at the nerds, but I can tell one of them is about to do something stupid. It's that time of day.
I catch Marik's eyes behind his sunglasses and flick them over to his light, smirking. He nods, then gestures to where the Pharaoh's light is coming towards me. I hiss like a snake when he walks past me and he squeaks, running off to where Pharaoh and his group are sitting.
They have half of the in-crowd table. It's like… the gay, male, non-cheerleader in-crowd.
I don't have to wait long for Malik and Otogi's daily stupidity, because when I turn back from hissing at Yugi it's already begun. I flip my headphones down around my neck so I can hear them. They've climbed up on the table and Malik's gotten a bible from one of the Goth kids. He's yelling at people to pay attention to the word of God, and trying to read it backwards. Ryou looks mortified, which is amusing.
Otogi, who's done something to his hair that makes him look like he should be in Bon Jovi, walks along the table to the death metal end and points at them with a fork.
"IN the beginning, good always overpowered the evils of all man's sins!" He rants. "But in time, the nations grew weak and our cities turned to slums, while EVIL stood strong!"
Malik strides up next to him and points at the traumatized kids with his bible.
"In the dusts of HELL lurked the blackest of hates, for he who breeds fear awaits you!" Marik's light screeches. Otogi takes over again, and the entire cafeteria is watching them. They seem to be enjoying it.
"Now, many, many lifetimes later, lay destroyed, beaten down, only the corpses of rebels remain! Ashes of dreams and bloodstained streets! It has been written - that those who are the youth have the future!" He turns to Ryou's end of the table and everyone there starts ranting along with him, which is quite disturbing.
"So come now, Children of the Beast! Be strong, and Shout at the Devil!"
The death metal kids finally get the joke when the other end of the table goes nuts, and they glare up at Malik and Otogi, who're dancing. Apparently someone bought a stereo.
"Motley Crue suck." Somebody says, and Malik screams, diving off the table and knocking the guy out of his chair.
"This man will now be forced to eat something horrible as punishment for his blasphemy!" Otogi jabs a finger at the guy Malik is sitting on, then gets down off the table and whips out a bowl of…I think it's called jello here. Ryou calls it jelly. It doesn't look like something a death metal fan would enjoy eating, and from the look on the guy's face I'd say I'm right.
I don't know why they feel the need to do this kind of thing every day, but I suppose it makes this tedious 'learning experience' more interesting. People fear Malik and Otogi – they don't quite live in the same reality as everyone else. Ryou follows them around because he's worried that one day they might blow up the school. They probably will, but I doubt my light will be able to stop them. They're like Bonnie and Clyde, only male and more likely to live through it.
Alright, they're choking the guy with jello now, so I stalk over to my favourite table and sit across from Seto and Marik.
Seto completely missed the Shout at the Devil speech because he's enjoying his book again now and he has coffee. Marik is going from watching Otogi and Malik torture the blasphemer to grinning at my light reassuringly. Well, I'm sure it would be if his grin wasn't so naturally threatening.
I watch Ryou try and figure out of Marik wants him naked or dead for a while, then get bored and stare at the Jocks. They don't like being stared at, I'm hoping one of them will take offence and do something stupid, like threaten me. I feel like starting a riot, some huge, all-encompassing fight that'll get us all sent home or suspended or whatever.
Seto looks up from his book and glares at me until I choose to notice him.
"Don't." Is all he says.
"You want to be here?" I ask, smirking. With anyone else I would've played innocent, but not him. He's too smart to be treated like an idiot. If it's not done specifically to annoy him, it really does annoy him. It's… complicated.
"No." Apparently he's in one of his 'one word reply' moods. Really, I'm almost insulted.
"Well, then perhaps you don't want me to get hurt? No," I laugh, "that's not it."
He narrows his eyes at me.
"How do you know?" He demands. This has nothing to do with him caring about me on any level – it's about me assuming I know what he's thinking. I'm going to change that, I think.
"Well, let's test it!" I grin, slamming my palms down violently on the table and getting up. "Come stop me getting myself hurt, Seto." I hiss his name – I'm one of the few people who can get away with calling him that.
He stares after me with this look on his face that's somewhere between pissed off and amused as I walk up to the Jock table, grab the biggest one by the front of his jacket and yank him right out of his seat. The other Jocks back off, watching to see what I'm going to start with their alpha male, who shakes my hand off and stands up properly, scowling. He's taller than me – I'm small therefore I must be helpless. I can see that running through his tiny little sport-fixated mind, right behind his eyes. Gods, I'm starting to sound like some teenage social reject with all this 'jocks/cheerleaders bad' crap. To be perfectly honest I hate everyone at this school with the exceptions of Seto, Marik, Ryou, Otogi and Malik. It's just easier to classify people I don't care about by using their social groups.
Anyway, I draw back my fist to take some of this guy's teeth out the quick way, but Seto grabs my wrist. I didn't even notice him get up; I'm starting to get too caught up in my own mind.
"No." He says, with no particular tone in his voice. I think he can feel the tension in the hall today – people want a fight but nobody wants to start it. They just want a riot, and I just want the chaos.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, freak!" The Jock guy growls at me. Seto keeps his hold on my wrist and gives him this really scary look, then leads me back to our table. I sit down obediently because I proved my point and I don't care about it anymore. Seto is the only one who gets to control me like that, and he knows it. It's great when I start going off the deep end – he just takes over and I can shut down and do what he tells me. We have such a fucked up relationship. It's not even a proper relationship yet either, because neither of us has gotten around to the physical part. It's creeping up on us, I can feel it getting closer but we just haven't had the right sort of moment yet. We're not normal, average people. We can't just kiss, just like that. It doesn't work that way with us.
"So I take it you two still haven't fucked yet?" Marik is watching us. Seto ignores him and goes back to his book, so I just shrug and start drinking Seto's orange juice. He doesn't drink it – he brings his own coffee. He still gets the juice though, because I drink it. It's not romance, doing something sweet or anything like that. He just thinks it should be drunk by someone and if that's me then so be it. I wouldn't drink it at all if it weren't right there in front of me on his tray.
"Don't you ever want to just have a normal relationship?" Marik asks. He likes to try and pick apart this thing we have going on, but most of the time it just makes him more confused.
Seto won't answer. His answer is 'no', but he won't say it, that would be far too predictable.
"What would you suggest?" I ask Marik, who blinks at me.
"I don't know, getting thrown across the table and screwed might work for you." He says sarcastically.
Seto raises his eyes from his page and gives me a long, thoughtful look. I wonder if he'll actually do it, but he just goes back to reading. It's not quite right yet.
"That would ruin the game." I say to Marik. Seto looks up again, eyebrow cocked, and I honestly don't think he's really reading that book.
"What game?" He smirks, knowing full well he's playing it right now. Some day someone's head is going to explode from doing this.
"This. The word games." I smirk right back, still sipping my juice.
"What makes you think they're word games?" He asks, raising his coffee to his lips to match my juice.
"All the word games, mostly." I grin. Marik looks so lost, it's hilarious. Seto just nods slightly and goes back to pretending to read Voltaire. I won that round.
"There's something so wrong with you two." Marik mutters, getting up to go harass Ryou.
I just keep sipping my orange juice, thinking about my riot.
"Don't."
He doesn't even look up this time.
End
The weird rant Malik and Otogi were doing in the middle there is on the beginning of the Motley Crue song Shout at the Devil, hopefully that clears that up for you if you don't know the song already. I just happened to be listening to it as I wrote this and it wormed its way into the story, because apparently I'm very impressionable this morning.