Wah! We're so sorry it took us so long to update! You have to take into account our horrible school schedules, though. I learn over 60 periods a week, which is about 10 per day (7:10 am to 5:30, except it's not quite divided up like that…). And SeventhDaughter has one day where she sleeps in school!
Anyway. Thanks for all your absolutely wonderful reviews! And thanks to Nehti, our proofreader! We love you all!
And heheh, about the snake, which plenty of you asked about…I don't have anything to say, really. But it's an important snake. Yep.
In favor of a faster update, we won't put any reviewer responses this chapter, but we'll put some in next chapter, k?
CHAPTER 6
Malik stared dejectedly out the window of the car. He sat beside Ishimura Sensei on his way to do his community service. The teacher had been unwilling to listen to any of his protestations of innocence, so he would be spending all the days until his parents came mowing lawns around town.
Which looked to be an awful long time.
They finally pulled up in front of the police station, making Malik's face fall. It looked like any ideas of shirking wouldn't work. His disappointment must have shown on his face, for Ishimura Sensei gave him a tight, cold smile before leading him out of the car and towards the immaculately cut lawn.
They stopped in front of a strange green machine, nearly Malik's height, with handlebars at the top and a spiral cutter at the bottom.
Malik stared at the thing. "What's that?"
"It's your lawn mower. Now get to work."
Malik gave the lawn mower (which he privately named 'that ugly thing') an experimental push. It was quite heavier than he expected, and refused to budge. At the glare from Ishimura Sensei, Malik pushed harder, until it finally started moving. Yay, Malik thought sarcastically.
"Have fun," Ishimura Sensei said as he got into his car and drove off.
Once it was moving, it was easier going, but Malik was convinced he had pulled all the muscles in his arms and back by the time an hour had passed.
He stopped at the end of a row, resting his head against the handlebars. Abruptly, the wheel slid forward, making him nearly fall and the handlebars fall on his foot. Malik yelped and pulled his foot out, then cursed and kicked the ugly thing, stubbing his toe. Malik cursed even louder. "You stupid, fucking, good for nothing damned piece of metal! Son of a camel fucking sheep and a glyptodont!" He hopped up and down on one foot. "Oww."
"That was colorful. Want some?" A young uniformed policeman stood in the shade of the police building. He held out a bottle of water.
"Thanks." Malik took it and drank, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I should get back to work."
"Doing community work?" When Malik nodded, the policeman went on. "Watcha do to get yourself into this mess?"
Malik wiped the sweat from his forehead. "A fucking python came out of my backpack in the middle of class," he said bitterly.
"A what?"
"A python, you know, a large snake? And I have no idea how it got there!" Malik said, seeing the look he was getting. "Something that size shouldn't have even been able to fit there!"
The policeman patted Malik sympathetically on the back. "Right. Okay, I've gotta go in, I'm on duty soon." He smiled and waved, leaving Malik to the heartless community work. "See ya around!"
Great, Malik thought to himself. Now this guy thinks I'm crazy, too.
It took him three whole hours to finish the entire lawn. When he was done, he reported to the front desk inside the police department. "You the kid they sent to do community work here?" The policeman on duty asked. "They said you should do the back, too."
"What?" Malik blinked, his weary mind not processing the information.
He trudged back out to deal with moving the huge ugly thing to the back. Life could not get any worse, he thought.
It began to rain.
"Oh, no!" Malik screamed at the sky. "You are SO not raining on me! Quit it this second!"
The policemen inside shook their heads pityingly. "Poor demented kid."
It started hailing.
Malik plodded along the wet road, completely soaked. The rain hadn't stopped all day, and he had no umbrella, so he had no way to dry out. At least it would be warm at Yugi's. Warm was good, he thought, as he shivered. His own house was pretty cold.
A few minutes later, he knocked on Yugi's door. Joey threw it open and dragged him in. "The snake-charmer is here!" he cried.
"Funny," Malik muttered, as he tracked water into the house.
Cheers could be heard from inside. "Make room near the heater, make room!" Otogi sat him down and Tristan heaped a warm blanket over him. Ryou stood in the doorway of the kitchen and looked at Malik. He felt like drooling; Malik's wet hair flopped over his face and his clothes, already tight to begin with, stuck to his narrow frame like a second skin. Malik looked so damn sexy. It should be a crime to walk around wet, he thought. He ran to get a towel.
Malik was fussed over, as Ryou toweled off his hair, and Yugi brought him some hot chocolate. He kept waiting for the inevitable questions about why he was so wet, but they never came.
Instead, Yugi said, "You really should change out of those clothes. Want some of mine?"
Malik looked the short boy over with a grin. "No, I think I'll settle on my pajamas."
He reached for his bag, and Joey shouted, "Everybody watch out for some more snakes!"
"Very funny," Malik growled as the rest of the gang chuckled. "Which way's the bathroom?"
He emerged five minutes later wearing black sweatpants with a red stripe on each leg and a large blue sweatshirt with big white English letters on the front. Otogi took one look at him and laughed.
"What? What's so funny?" Malik asked, annoyed, looking down at himself. "Are my socks mismatched or something?"
"No, it's just that… your sweatshirt…" he had a hard time speaking, he was laughing so hard.
"What? What does it say?" Joey asked, strangely interested.
"It says "Bais Yaakov School for Girls."
There was a pause, before everyone burst out laughing. "Hey," Malik protested. "My sister gave it to me! I don't even know what Bais Yaakov is!"
"Is there something you'd like to share with us?" Tea asked suggestively, still laughing.
"Oh please," Malik huffed. "You all are ridiculous."
"But you'd make such a cuuuuute girl!" Tristan said
"You'd make a cute light bulb, but we don't talk about that, do we?" Malik answered.Yugi clapped his hands. "Let's get some dinner now." They all calmed down at the prospect and hurried towards the kitchen. Yugi started digging through the fridge while everybody else sat down on whatever available surface they could find.
"We have some yogurt, some salad... hey, how about leftover stuffed turkey?" Yugi asked, pulling out a platter.
"Yeah, great!" Joey said enthusiastically.
Similar sounds of agreement were heard from everybody except Malik, who looked uncomfortable.
"Malik?" Ryou asked, "is something wrong?"
"It's nothing," Malik said quickly. He didn't want to complain about the food, it was nice enough for Yugi to invite him in the first place, but – "I'm vegetarian."
Oops, was the general thought floating around the room. It was completely counter-productive if Malik didn't eat anything!
Yugi quickly saved the day. "We have some salad too," he said. "Is that ok?"
Malik said it was, and they settled down to eat. Malik tried not to wolf his pineapple yogurt and bowl of salad down too quickly. He didn't notice the knowing and pointed looks exchanged between the others every so often.
"Hey, I have a joke," Tristan said suddenly. Everybody looked up expectantly, encouraging him to continue.
"Ok, here goes. One night the Norse god Thor got lonely and decided to go down to Earth to get laid."
"Tristan!" Tea protested jokingly. Everybody else shushed her.
"So he went and picked up a pretty Norse girl in a bar," Tristan continued his narrative, "and they both went and boinked. The next morning when they woke up, Thor decided to tell her what good fortune she had in sleeping with him. "I'm Thor," he said.
"Tho am I," she answered, "but it thure was fun!"
There was a pause before the punch line sunk in. Then Joey burst out laughing. So did Yugi, Otogi and Malik. Tea tried to frown, but a smile tugged on her lips.
Ryou laughed only a little. "Guys, it wasn't that funny." He regretted having said that as soon as he noticed how cute Malik looked, with his eyes all scrunched up and happy grin on his face.
"Aw, Ryou, that's just like you!" Malik reached over to ruffle Ryou's hair.
Otogi calmed down. "Nah he's right. It was stupid." He looked at his plate contemplatively. "I still laughed, though."
"I wonder why we do that," Yugi asked. "Laugh at stupid jokes, I mean."
"People have a sort of tendency to laugh at stupid things, I've noticed." Tea ate her last bite of turkey and put down her fork. "And DO stupid things also," she added under her breath
"Like what?" Joey said challengingly.
"Like...watch porn!"
All the boys blinked. Joey stared at the ceiling and whistled innocently.
"Um," Ryou coughed, "can we move on?"Malik laughed. "Ryou just doesn't want you all to know about the collection he has at home!"
"Malik!" Ryou cried, "that is so not true and you know it!"
"You're prooootesting too much!" Malik said in a singsong voice.
"That's it!" Ryou crossed his arms. "I'm not going to give you any more chocolate cake!"
"Noooooooooo!" Malik wailed, "anything but that!" He got down on his knees and clasped his hands in front of him. "I'm sorry! I'll never mention the huge porn collection you don't have to anybody ever again!"
The others, meanwhile, were watching this by-play in great astonishment.
"Uh, guys?" Joey said. Malik and Ryou looked up, to find that everyone was staring at them weirdly. Both of them blushed furiously; they had completely forgotten there were other people around. As Malik stood up from the floor, Ryou noticed how incredibly adorable he looked, his dark cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"Speaking of chocolate," Tea suggested in the following awkward moment, "Yugi said he got us something special."
"Really?" Joey said, ever excited about anything concerning food. "What?"
Yugi pulled out a largish square box. "Doughnuts!""Dibs on the chocolate one with sprinkles!" Tristan called, reaching across the table to grab one.
"Wow, I haven't had doughnuts in ages!" Tea said excitedly, grabbing a chocolate-filled one.
Malik took a caramel-filled doughnut. "What are these things?"
Everyone stared at him in shock.
Joey stopped mid-bite. "You don't know what doughnuts are?"
"I can't believe you're so deprived!" Otogi said tragically.
Malik picked up his doughnut and sniffed it. "Smells.... sugary."
Ryou patted him on the back, voicing what everybody else was thinking. "That's the idea, Malik."
Malik was horribly conscious of the six pairs of eyes focused on him as he went to take a bite.
He chewed it slowly, an unreadable expression on his face, and swallowed.
The gang held their breathes.
"It's pretty good," he said finally. He grinned at their disappointed expressions. "Just kidding. It's awesome!"
"Now your life has been fulfilled," Joey said
He chomped down on the doughnut and it disappeared under ten seconds.
"You can have mine too," Yugi offered, "if you want. I really don't have any room left."
"Really?" Malik's eyes lit up. He snatched it from Yugi's plate. "Thanks."
"Be careful Ryou, your chocolate cake now has a competitor!" Tea said.When the doughhnuts had been finished, Joey stood up. "Time for the movies!" he announced.
They trailed into the living room, licking the last bits of sugar from their fingers.
"So, what have you got, Joey?" Otogi asked, settling himself down on the couch.
"Lessee..." Joey shifted through his backpack. "I have Splash, the first Star Wars movie, and Kill Bill one..."
"Kill Bill!" Tristan chose immediately.
"I dunno, I heard it was kinda violent," Tea said dubiously.
"I heard it was really good!" Yugi said enthusiastically. "I really wanted to watch it!"Malik grinned. "Sounds good to me. I like Quentin Terentino."
They settled themselves on the couch and floor as the movie began, opening with the scene of the bloody Bride.
Otogi had plopped himself down in the middle of the couch. Ryou sat down on his left, and Tea on his right. This left the floor to Joey, Tristan, Yugi and Malik, who sat on some cushions.
"I'm not liking this already," Tea muttered.
Yugi passed around a bowl of popcorn.
The roving bowl of popcorn ended up between Otogi and Tea. Reaching for it during a suspenseful part in the movie, Malik leaned backwards over Otogi's lap, resting his elbow on Otogi's knee.
The movie was fast-paced, exciting, and certainly violent enough. Tea's worst fears came true. Most of the boys, on the other hand, were enjoying it immensely.
Yugi, however, found it slightly more violent than was necessary, and Ryou didn't like it much either.
Otogi didn't voice a protest when Malik left his elbow resting on his knee even after the popcorn was done. However, when about half an hour into the movie Malik decided he wasn't comfortable enough and put a pillow against Otogi's knee and rested his head on it, Otogi decided it was a little too weird. "Malik?" he whispered uncertainly.
The blonde's gaze left the screen for a minute as he turned to the other duelist. "Hmm?"
Otogi bit back the comment when he saw how comfortable and content Malik looked. "Nothing."
Truth be told, Ryou wasn't enjoying the movie very much. It had its funny parts, sure, but the excessive blood and gore really wasn't his thing (though he had to admit it had cool fight scenes).
He turned his head away in disgust during the particularly pleasant scene where somebody's head got chopped off and the blood was fountaining up to the ceiling.
Malik glanced his way, saw his revulsion, and patted his knee, flashing him the sweetest smile he'd ever seen.
"C'mon Ryou, don't let it affect you like that! It's hysterical!"
"What's funny about it?" Ryou whispered back.
Malik cocked his head to the side, grinning. "I dunno, it just...is." He turned back to the movie. "Besides, it looks like it's almost over."
Ryou caught himself wishing then that Malik would turn and smile that beautiful smile at him again. He shoved the wish down his throat to his fluttery stomach and told it to stay there.
Kill Bill ended gloriously. With the end of the movie, everybody sat up to stretch, including Malik, something that Otogi was thankful for.
The clock on the wall read 9:17 when they sat back down after a short break to watch Splash. Joey plopped himself down on the floor at the foot of the couch. "Start the movie, guys."
Malik was already tired from his long day, and about ten minutes into the movie, he decided he was too tired to stay upright. He crawled over to Joey and curled up against him, putting his head against Joey's arm.
Joey stiffened slightly, then relaxed. He had gotten slightly used to Malik's tendency to lie all over people, but was still uncomfortable. He was also horribly aware of the strange looks he was getting from the rest of the gang.
Malik, however, remained oblivious.
Ryou shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and realized what it was that bothered him about the scene: jealousy. His eyes bore angrily into Joey's back. He wanted Malik to be leaning trustingly against him, not against Joey.
Bakura, watching through his unknowing hikari's eyes, also felt the stirrings of jealousy. Scratch that -he felt positively murderous. What right did the mutt have to touch HIS Egyptian like that?
Sometime around the middle of the movie, Malik crawled off Joey and headed out of the room. As he passed, Yugi asked softly, "Where are you going?"
"To the bathroom," Malik whispered back.
Bakura's eyes followed him until the dark hallway beyond the living room swallowed him up. He left his soulroom and easily overpowered Ryou, then stood up.
Everyone turned to stare, startled.
"Joey." He gestured. "Move."
"Wha...?" Joey stared up at him.
"I said move!" Bakura grabbed Joey's arms and dragged him away from his spot on the floor.
"What the-" Otogi began.
Yami grabbed the front of Bakura's shirt. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Bakura shoved Yami away. "Switching places with the mutt, asshole. Sit down and keep your big mouth shut for once, you goody two-shoes!"
'Yami!' Ryou protested. 'What are you doing?''Shut up. You know you want this.'
"What's going on?" Everybody turned at the innocent question. Malik stood in the doorway, a puzzled look on his face.
Swiftly, Bakura retreated. 'I'll leave this to you. I just gave you a chance, don't you dare screw it up!'
Ryou gulped. "Uh... nothing. Joey wanted to switch seats with me." He sat down to prove the point.
Joey nodded quickly, making himself comfortable on the couch, almost glad that Malik would no longer be leaning on him.
Malik looked between Ryou and Yami, sensing that something was wrong, then shrugged and lowered himself to the floor next to Ryou. He put his head on Ryou's shoulder. "It's a good thing this movie's almost over – it's too girly."
"Boys have no appreciation for good movies," Tea sighed.
'Put your arm around him,' Bakura commanded.
Ryou, flustered, already uncomfortable at the closeness, flatly refused. 'Yami, The others will notice!'
'It's dark. They won't notice. Besides, who are you more scared of? Me, or them?'Ryou shivered. It had been ages since his yami had openly threatened him.
"Cold?" Malik asked him.
"A- a little." At his response, Malik snuggled closer. "Here, let me help."
Ryou blushed as Malik wrapped his arms around his waist. Slowly, nervously, he draped his arm around Malik's shoulders.
They stayed close throughout the entire duration of Star Wars, A New Hope. Ryou relaxed and began to enjoy having the beautiful Egyptian pressed close up against him. He was glad that Bakura had made him switch places with Joey.
Bakura, now that he was so close to Malik, and could feel and see and smell him through his and Ryou's connection, struggled to resist the urge to take over, shove Malik onto the floor and do something unmentionable. He managed to resist till the end of the movie, but only barely.
When it finally did end, at around twelve-thirty, they crawled into sleeping bags. Ryou noticed that Malik, who had fallen asleep immediately, had placed his sleeping bag in the coner of the room. As he dragged his over and lay down in it, he wondered why Bakura had helped him get close to Malik. Since when did Bakura ever help people when it wasn't in his best interest to do so?
'Yami' Ryou began experimentally, once he was lying down, 'why did you do that?' Receiving no answer, he tried again. 'Yami, why did you make me sit next to Malik?'
His yami finally answered with a snicker. 'Wouldn't you like to know, silly hikari.'
Whew! Hope you enjoyed that chapter! And don't forget to review!