SANDCASTLE
By Starflower Sakura

DISCLAIMER: Yuugiou doesn't belong to me. We clear on that? Good.

To readers/reviewers: Technically… this is not a new fanfic… I had the first part written on paper for quite a while now and have just decided to type it up. Hurray for me! –dodges rotten tomatoes- Alright! I shouldn't have started a new one, but after reading the first chapter—tell me truly— can you blame me? –smiles sweetly-

Started: Friday, July 22, 2005
Completed: Saturday, September 17, 2005

Sandcastle
Chapter 1 – Rain, Rain, Go Away

It was downright pouring, and oh, how I abhor the rain.

I was dressed in my regular attire: a sleeveless lavender shirt (to match my stunning violet eyes), black leather pants, and my school bag was carelessly slung over my shoulder. Unfortunately, the weather did not agree with my clothes—or was it the other way around?—and left me cold and in a terribly bad mood. I would be shivering as well if I had no self-control. I would not let myself shiver at a bus stop with too many people waiting for the bus.

Where is that damn thing, anyway! I've been out here for fifteen minutes already. Have I mentioned that Isis-neechan shoved an umbrella in my hand before shoving me out the door? No? Well, let me tell you something. The umbrella has ducks on it. Bright, yellow, ducks. Thrilling.

Oh, right! Ishtar Malik at your service. Well, not really. That is my name, but I'm not really at your service. It sounds nice though, doesn't it? I guess I forgot to introduce myself in my earlier ramblings of the still-not-stopping rain. I scowled at the rain and then at the people staring at my ducks. Yeah, that's right! Mind your own business, you little brat! And… did that little boy over there just laugh at me? Well, your hot pink umbrella isn't any better! My day is going off to a fine start, isn't it? Pfft, stupid kids… I'll squash you all someday.

Is that… it is! It's the goddamn bus! Finally! I hurried on, pushing everyone (especially the kid with the pink umbrella) aside and dropped in a few coins before going to search for a seat. My eye catches sight of my best friend (and sometimes worst… no… second worst enemy) Ryusaki Bakura sitting at the back of the bus with his usual killer smirk. As I walked towards him, I noticed that he didn't notice me, and also that he's completely dry (this umbrella does not, and I repeat, does not stop the wind from splashing raindrops on me), and not to mention the fact that he is definitely not holding, or even close to holding, a duck-covered umbrella. I hate him.

"Malik," he greeted as I approached him, still wearing that smirk and (the nerve of him) not even turning from the world to give me a glance.

"Bakura," I curtly replied.

One thing about Bakura: he doesn't use honorifics. He deems it useless and a waste of breath. Of course, this doesn't go well with most, but Heaven and Hell will have to switch places before he gives a damn. As for me… I use the honorifics… just not for some people, and it's not because any of these unnamed people and I are close. Usually, it's the other way around—Bakura being the only exception. Funny, he doesn't seem to notice this honor bestowed upon him.

During the bus ride to the torture chamber er… I mean, school, Bakura said only one thing to me: "What's with the ducks?" I grumbled and turned away, refusing to answer. Bakura has this creepy instinct of what subjects would get on my nerves—and he brings all of them up. Another reason to hate him today.

So here I sit on a bumpy bus with a load of people next to my best friend—Is it just me or is the rain falling harder?—who isn't paying me any attention. The nerve of him. Nobody ignores me! As a sign of my reluctance to be ignored, I grabbed a handful of his long, spiky, white hair and tugged. Or I was about to tug…

"If you don't want your hand detached from your arm you better let go of my hair," Bakura said, his expression blank and his eyes still focused on the blurry images outside.

I crossed my arms across my chest. "Then you shouldn't ignore me."

I swear I saw him roll his amber—it could almost be mistaken for red—eyes. Sure, he wasn't facing me, but his face was reflected quite clearly on the window. So the rest of the bus ride, we rode in silence. Actually… it was quite loud on the bus and to achieve silence was near impossible, but—I glanced at Bakura—it might as well be silence if my best friend won't talk to me. Hmm, I just noticed, the handle of the umbrella was also a duck. Great. Just why did we have a duck umbrella anyways? Oh right… Jounouchi Katsuya gave it to me for Christmas. Said something about the ducks reminding him of me. "Ducks go 'quack.' You're a quack…" I got him back for that, got him good. If anyone else thinks I'm a quack, you better start running.

The school—torture chamber—came into view and I glanced over at Bakura. Suddenly, a feeling of superiority swept over me. The rain was falling even harder and Bakura had no umbrella while I had an umbrella (sure… it's still full of horrid ducky goodness, but at least I'm not the one that's going to be drenched). The bus stopped and the students that attended Domino High scurried off. I walked off the bus (I don't scurry), my umbrella already opened and I waited at the side for Bakura to get off. When he finally appeared in the doorway, he held a black umbrella in his hand and opened it right before he stepped out.

What the hell? Where did he get that umbrella? And here I was waiting to see him walk, completely drenched, into class.

He walked right past me and after a few feet he turned around to face me and asked, "Well? Aren't you coming?"

I hurried after him and when I caught up I inquired about his suspiciously obtained umbrella which, might I add, didn't have any ducks or anything else.

"You didn't have it when I got on the bus. How is it that you have an umbrella now?"

"I have my ways."

Damn him and his ways.

Reaching the steps of the school, I proceeded to go in, but stopped with my hand on the handle when I noticed that Bakura wasn't following suit. Instead, he was looking out into the rain and directly at the last person who got off the bus.

"Bakura, what are you waiting for?"

He didn't answer as his focus was still on the boy. I took a clearer look and noticed that the boy had no umbrella and his only protection from the rain was a small book that proved to be no protection at all. The boy reached the steps of the school and stopped in front of Bakura.

"Thanks for letting me 'borrow' your umbrella," Bakura said, handing back the umbrella.

"N-no problem, Ryusaki-sama," the kid stuttered, obviously shivering from the cold and being utterly drenched didn't help the matter.

"Let's go Malik or we'll be late."

I shrugged and followed with the kid hurrying after us. Reaching our lockers, we all changed into our school shoes and promptly put our regular shoes into the locker (the boy and I also stuffed our umbrellas in) and we proceeded on to our classroom. Reaching our classroom 1-B, Bakura slid open the door and walked in. Hmm, seems like the kid is also in the class. Funny that I never noticed. The teacher wasn't there yet, but our class president, Bakura Ryou, was and most of our classmates as well. His head turned toward us as we walked in and when he saw the boy who looked like something that cat dragged in he immediately rushed to his side.

"Yuugi-kun! Why are you so wet?"

Leave it to our class president to be caring to his fellow classmates. From our seats, Bakura and I watched them exchange a few words and it ended with Moto Yuugi shaking his head. Our president left Yuugi alone, and stormed towards us. Okay, so he wasn't storming, but he wasn't looking very happy either.

"Ryusaki-kun, Ishtar-kun, did you two deprive Yuugi-kun of his umbrella for your own purposes?"

"Bakura-kaichou," I began coolly, "I have no need for his umbrella since I already have one, but Bakura on the other hand…" I trailed off and earned a glare from Bakura.

In the beginning, it was really hard for me to call one or the other without both of them responding. Other students didn't have much of a problem because they called Bakura "Ryusaki" and our class president "Bakura." It's easier now, though, ever since Bakura-kaichou became class president because of the new honorific attached to his name.

It was downright uncanny how those two are so similar in outer appearances, and yet so terribly different in personality. Both had a little longer than shoulder-length silver-white hair. Both had brownish eyes (I swear that Bakura-kaichou used to have green eyes) and the only difference is that Bakura's features are more sharp and harsh while Bakura-kaichou's features are softer and he could be more easily mistaken as a female. Don't say that to his face though. He may be kind and perfect to a fault when he's calm, but when he's angered… believe me, it doesn't end pretty.

"Is it crime that he let me borrow his umbrella? Or maybe it's a crime that I took his offer," Bakura said.

Bakura knew that Moto would agree with everything he says, and even Bakura-kaichou wouldn't be able to pull the truth from him. Sometimes I wonder if, us being only in the tenth grade, Bakura has too much power. Even most of the upperclassmen don't bother him in fear of his wrath. It's a good thing I'm his best friend.

"But did you have to take away his umbrella altogether and make him run through the rain?"

"So I wasn't thinking…" Bakura replied nonchalantly.

Bakura-kaichou took a deep breath, brushing back his bangs and I swear I heard him counting to ten before giving Bakura a response.

"Then hopefully next time, if someone lends you their umbrella, you will be more considerate."

Bakura gave a half-grunt, half-snort reply that really didn't mean anything at all, but Bakura-kaichou that took it as a sign of agreement and left the topic, and us alone. He went back to Moto and, from the looks of it, gave him a pass to go and dry himself off.

Bakura and Bakura-kaichou has an unspoken contempt for each other. Bakura's loathing increased greatly when Bakura-kaichou won as class president. Both of them were running, and Bakura was quite confident that he'll win, but as you can see, that isn't the case. Since the votes were anonymous, Bakura didn't know who voted for who so he just took out his anger on the whole class in general. As to why Bakura-kaichou dislikes Bakura… well… since we're really not that close, I'm not quite sure.

I glanced at the clock. 8:03. Class started three minutes ago, but the teacher still wasn't here. Not that I care, but it's unusual for Shimokawa-sensei to be late. She's usually here before any of the students.

I looked around the classroom. Some of my classmates were joking around, especially Jounouchi Katsuya and Honda Hiroto, the two class clowns. Mazaki Anzu looked like she was about to explode as those two ran in circles around her. I have to admit that she's a pretty girl, but not my type. Way too bossy for my taste and such a temper. I found myself shaking my head with Bakura looking at me weirdly.

The door slid open and Moto returned, mostly dried, and with his hair sticking up in three spikes and instead of one color, there were three. I'm seriously questioning how I ever missed him before. I'm also wondering whether or not the rain dyed his hair that color and the hairdryer (or whatever he used to dry his hair) made his hair stand up like that, or if it's naturally that way. No one seems to think that anything is different about him as he approached his friends (Jounouchi, Honda, and Mazaki) so I'm assuming that's how his hair usually looks. Freaky.

The classroom door slid open again, but I paid it no heed until I hear a familiarly irritating voice that belongs to someone who is bent on my destruction, or at least driving me crazy.

"Malik-chan!"

Ugh… why me?

To be continued…

Notes:

1. 1-B is Yuugi's class in the manga so I decided to take that classroom for this story as well.

2. In the anime, Ryou had green eyes in the first season and it suddenly turned brown.

Yay! This story is from our darling Malik's POV. I do believe that I write better stories when it's in someone's POV, but I usually don't prefer it. Why? Not quite sure. That's just my opinion, of course. Hopefully you enjoyed the first installment of Sandcastle and hopefully you'll wait patiently for the next chapter!

- Starflower Sakura