Hey! For the first time in a long, long, long time, Seventhdaughter (me!!!!!) gets to do this review response thingy. Been looking forward to it forever, but Tramontana's a hogger, what can I say. And by the way- there are two of us! Yes there are. It seems to me that you all review (since you all review, of course) as if there were only one of us, but you be making big mistake! I writing this story too, so don't forgot me!

Now on with the review thing:

Ladywolf: I'm really glad you liked that last chapter! I did too. I never knew you could have so much fun writing fanfictions… usually I tend to go towards original fantasy stories, but messing around with Malik and Bakura and the rest of the gang sure is fun!

Calypso-the-SMG: grins back here ya go!

OBSSESSED Uber Rei Model 07: message from Tramontana Keeper - if you wants to, you's welcome to continue 'opposition'! Aren't you lucky? Good luck! I think we missed New Year by just a bit… sorry bout that. All we can do is try better next time, neh? Plan B… here we come!

Kotori0-chan: we continue, we continue!

Lil-Riter: thanx muchy much for the tip on aerials. I'll remember that. I was in gymnastics, but learning the names to these things in a different language kinda…. limits.

Violet Dust: chapter 8 might have been funny, but they're getting darker each day. Do you think that's good, or should we try to keep them funny? Personally, I find it much easier to write the dark, depressing scenes – the funny stuff is mostly Tramontana's job.

chibichibimalik2: Bakura sees Malik as a special, almost untouchable mystery, and that's what attracts him so much. He only thinks he doesn't love Malik, so sometimes he treats Malik accordingly… and that's what Tramontana and I are trying to disprove… tee hee. So glad you like the story! What about this next chapter? Review like you did the last one and you'll make both of our days!

WolfBane2: cool review!

lilmatchgirl007: tee hee. I love it when Malik shows Bakura, don't you? He's my favorite character… he just has so much potential!

So sorry for the lateness of this update! We been so busy, our calendars just overflowed with stuff… now on with the story! And guyses, just wait for the next chappie… it's a personal favorite!

Here we go…

CHAPTER NINE

Yugi rested his chin on his elbows, gazing out of the classroom window. He seemed deep in thought. Around him, the class was noisy with the talk and play of break time, but he hardly noticed it. Inside, he was busy with his own concerns.

Yami... I don't see why not.

You will NOT invite Malik to the house tomorrow to study! Yami Yugi ground out.

I need help with this material, and Malik's a good student! It makes perfect sense to ask him over. We can also help him catch up on the material he's missing because of the suspension. An undercurrent of thought mentioned the idea of feeding him dinner too, and curiosity.

He's strange. I don't understand his motives.

What motives? Yugi innocently asked.

MOTIVES, Yami answered with grim finality.

Yami, what do you mean? Yugi was definitely confused.

I... Yami would never admit that he had no concrete ideas of what exactly he was worried about. I just worry about you. You never know, you know!

And you do know…? Yugi retorted. You can't fool me, Yami, he said fondly. Now let's just invite the poor guy over and be done with it!

Fine, as long as you don't…

Don't what?

Don't… get too close to him.

Yugi blinked.

Don't try that with me, I know you're not as innocent as you pretend. You and your friends all know how strangely he acts.

Yugi sat up a little straighter. What do you mean by strange?

You know, the way he just seems to be all over your friends.

Yugi, however reluctantly, was forced to agree. He hadn't really wanted to realize the implications Malik's friendliness had. Well, just because he's an awful flirt doesn't mean he's a bad person.

So long as you watch yourself around him, be my guest and invite him, Yami replied, sounding sulky.

Yugi stood and stretched himself, just as the bell to begin the next lesson rang. Thanks. But it's not like he's given us any reason not to trust him.

Yami decided to refrain from mentioning Battle City.

Malik opened the door to the refrigerator and pulled out a cold can of beer. He made a face at the semi-empty fridge and slammed the door, taking the beer with him to his bedroom. His day had been long and exhausting, and boring. Mowing endless lawns in front of corporate buildings all across the city all day was awful work. He leaned against the wall and cradled the beer in his palms. His current problem was figuring out what to do about Ishimura Sensei – the goddamn teacher wasn't going to get off his case until Malik's parents called in, and that was quite impossible, due to the fact that they were both long dead. Staring beyond the fingerprint-smudged window, he watched the clouds float serenely by in a pale blue sky. It might be nice to be a cloud, he thought. All one had to do was float, go wherever the wind led, and occasionally rain down on the annoying people of the world – like Ishimura Sensei, for example. He closed his eyes and willed himself to relax. Breathe. Be ONE with the cloud!

The phone rang.

Malik gave up his short-lived aspirations to be a cloud and hurried to answer the phone.

"Yo," he said dejectedly into the receiver.

"Malik? Would you – is something wrong?"

"I'm a cloud."

"What?"

"I said I'm a cloud."

"Oh." Yugi paused. "That's nice. Are you enjoying yourself?"

"No, not really. Did you want something?"

Yugi suddenly remembered why he'd called. "Yeah… I wanted to invite you over my house for dinner, so that you could help me with some school work I was having trouble with. I figured I could help you fill in what you've missed too."

Malik's mood brightened immediately. "Wow, Yugi. That's really nice of you."

"So you'll come?"

"Sure. When do you want me?"

Yugi looked at his watch. "Uh, now's fine. As soon as you can get here."

"Great! See you soon." Malik hung up, then went to change out of his grass-stained clothes.

Isis returned home from the museum at her usual hour, to find Rishid's black Ford parked in front of their small duplex. She climbed the steps to the second floor quickly and when she tried the knob, the door opened easily.

Rishid stood up from the dining room table to greet her.

"Rishid! You're home! How was the filming trip?"

"We got a couple of good stories for the magazine, but I worked mostly on the scenery shots for the nature section. Got to see a whole lot of this country that I've never seen before." He grinned. "But I'm glad to be home. How's the museum going?"

Isis got them both a drink and sat down at the table. "It's going smoothly enough. We haven't gotten any new artifacts lately, but I'm supposed to go check out one of those digs in the south next week." She sipped at her drink, her eyes shifting slightly. "Rishid, have you heard anything from Malik?"

Rishid looked up from the papers spread out on the table in front of him, his expression grave. "So he hasn't contacted you either."

Isis bit her lip. "I'm worried about him. Who knows what could be happening to him? What kind of trouble he might be getting into? I knew I should have gone after him that day!" She rested her head on one hand as she remembered the day Malik had stormed out of the house, swearing that he was sick of them and would never come back.

"Do you really think that would have helped?" Rishid put down his own mug. "This is exactly why he left in the first place! He couldn't take the overprotectiveness."

"Overprotectiveness! I wasn't being overprotective! I was just making sure nothing happened!"

"You had to know where he was at every hour of the day, who he was with, what he was doing. I think that would start getting to anyone after a while."

Isis stood up angrily. "You weren't any better!" She stormed off toward the kitchenette. "Besides, you saw what kind of trouble he kept getting into! All those fights at school-"

"Everybody has fights at school here, Isis," Rishid interjected.

"Not the kind where one of the kids almost dies!" Isis snapped.

"Well, the other kid pulled a knife on him first. That fight wasn't Malik's fault, he was just defending himself."

"But he'd clearly provoked the other boy into attacking him. That's what scares me the most." She sighed. "Malik has a fiery tongue. It's gotten him into trouble before, and it'll get him into trouble again. He seems entirely too happy when he manages to cause those fights of his."

Rishid placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "He'll be all right. Anyone who can handle a criminal organization for as long a period of time as he did can handle his own life for a while."

"It's his criminal-organization skills that worry me."

They sat quietly for a few minutes, enjoying the silence. Then Rishid opened his mouth, but Isis cut him off. "Well, what about all those times when you acted just as protective as I did? You used to check every night to make sure he was still in bed, and go through his computer history-"

"At least I didn't panic every time he was six minutes late coming home from school!"

Isis started to retort and then made a visible effort to control herself. "Arguing about who did what is not going to fix the problem."

Rishid said, "I think we should try to find him. We don't have to contact him or anything, but we should know where he is in case anything happens."

"Where do you think he could have gone? And why shouldn't we try to contact him?"

"Because obviously, if he hasn't contacted us yet, he probably wants to be alone."

"Even if he's still angry at us and doesn't want to talk to us, we should still let him know that we care!" There was a tremor in her voice. "It might make him want to come home."

Rishid chose not to respond that, for fear of saying something that might upset Isis. "I'll go call some of my contacts, and see if they can do anything to help us."

He headed out of the room, but turned around in the doorway. "Isis, where do you think he could have gone? Where would it be most natural for him to run to?"

Isis had a contemplative look on her face. "Maybe… Japan."

"Japan?" Rishid asked. "Why Japan?"

"Well…" Isis bit her lip again. "Remember in Battle City? Those kids were all from Japan… someplace called Domino City, I believe."

"Right." Rishid turned around again. "I'll see what I can do."

Malik stepped into the game shop. All around him were Duel Monster cards, more cards than he had seen in quite a while. Memories suddenly flooded his mind, and his head started aching with the effort of suppressing them. He remembered his own deck, tied together with a rubber band and stuck in the back of his closet. How long had it been since he'd last looked at it? He looked at the shelves, remembering the time when this game had practically been his whole world.

"Hello, you must be Malik!" The cheerful voice of Yugi's grandfather startled him out of his reverie. He snatched his hand away from the cards on the shelf.

"Yugi's been waiting for you, go on up," Sugoroku added, forestalling any response from Malik. The Egyptian nodded, and climbed the steps that led to the second floor of the game shop.

Yugi did seem happy to see him. "Hey! Thank you so much for coming." The diminutive duelist dragged Malik into the room, before starting to busily pull books and notebooks off shelves. "I'm really struggling with these English phrases Kanato Sensei gave us for homework. And this math's no joke either."

"I'll do my best," Malik said.

They plodded their way through the schoolwork, until they got sick of it.

"Geez, I'm starting to see English letters floating in front of my face" Yugi pushed the books away. Malik just sighed and put his head on his arms.

"Is something wrong?" Yugi wondered.

"Nah," Malik muttered.

Yugi poked him. "Really?"

"Stop that."

Yugi poked him again. And again.

"Quit it!" Malik glared at Yugi. At the angry expression on Malik's face, Yami took over and glared right back.

"Don't talk to my hikari like that!"

"Shut up, Pharaoh! Who asked you?"

Yami, please stop fighting with him! You know that he doesn't like you! Yugi begged.

With almost visible effort, Yami swallowed the retort and sat down. Taking a closer look at Malik's face, he noticed the same thing Yugi had. "What's wrong?" he asked gently.

Malik looked surprised at the tone. "I'm sick of mowing lawns," he finally answered. "And the only way to get out of it is if my parents call in or something. Which won't be happening in the near future."

"Can't your sister go instead?"

"No," was the flat, final response.

Silence reigned supreme for several minutes, disturbed only by occasional chirping of little blue birds from outside the window. And honking of cars. And chattering of squirrels. And mooing of cows. And-

"I have an idea!" Yugi suddenly cried.

"What?" Malik asked, sounding very, very coughcough interested.

"My Yami can call the school and pretend to be your dad. He'll give some excuse why your parents can't come to school, and get you back into school!"

Malik's eyes brightened slightly. "Sounds like it might work," he said. "But… is your Yami going to agree to this?"

A troubled look crossed Yugi's face, one that Malik associated with an internal conversation. "Hold on, I'll try to convince him."

Yami?

No, no, no, no and NO.

Why noooooot?

It'll never work!

Actually, I think it will. It's not like the teacher knows what Malik's father would sound like! And you sound old-

I don't sound like a geezer! Yami protested.

You sound older than me, Yugi placated him. If you don't agree, I'll give you the puppy dog eyes until you do!

I'll never give in!

I'll get Malik to give you puppy dog eyes!

There was a moment of silence.

I don't want to see that. I really don't.

Me neither.

What a disturbing thought.

True. They both shuddered.

"Uh…Yugi?" Malik's voice broke them out of the train of thought.

"What?" Yugi blinked, "Oh! Right! Yeah, he agrees."

I did?

Shhhhh

"I don't have his phone number, though," Malik said.

"We can call the school and ask," Yugi suggested.

They got the number, and Yugi immediately began dialing. Malik crossed his fingers.

"Hello?" Ishimura answered the phone after the second and a half ring.

"Hello," Yami nearly stammered, "I'm Atemu Ishtar, Malik Ishtar's father." He pretended not to notice Malik, who was pretending to throw up. "I understand that my…rather wayward son," he dodged Malik, who tried to hit him over the head, "has been causing problems at school?"

"He brought a ten-foot python into class." Only after he said it, did Ishimura realize how ridiculous that sounded.

"Uh…hem. Right. Ah…." Yami tried to come up with a suitable response. Malik was hitting himself on the head repeatedly, which wasn't helping.

It's a pet! Yugi suggested.

"That's Binky!" Yami said decisively. "He's our pet grass snake! He wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"You expect me to believe that thing was a grass snake?!" Ishimura demanded furiously.

"I," Yami said imperiously, "am a trained ornithologist! Do you presume to tell me what I do or do not know in MY area of expertise?!"

Malik stared at him in dread, mouthing "Idiot! Idiot!" and waving his arms.

"Oh, no sir!" Ishimura said quickly. "If you say that everything is fine, I take your word for it! I simply wanted to make sure there was no danger-"

"Rest assured I will not let Malik bring any dangerous creatures to school," Yami said archly. "I presume that he may return to school now? Education for the younger generation is a very important thing, and with wonderful teachers like yourself I'm sure he has much to learn."

"Of course, of course," Ishimura preened. "Your son is an exceptionally bright student! I'm sure we will manage fine the rest of the year. I am so glad to have made your acquaintance! I-"

"Yes, thank you, thank you. I'm afraid I must go now," Yami said hurriedly, and hung up.

Yami….I can't believe you pulled that off…

"I don't know who's the bigger idiot. Ornithologists are bird specialists, you mummy!" Malik said flatly.

"I knew that!" Yami said quickly. "It was the best I could come up with on such short notice." He crossed his arms. "You ingrate. It worked didn't it?"

Malik shook his head, and muttered about stupid pharaohs with their stupid blind luck.

That teacher really is stupid, Yugi commented. You know what? I don't even feel guilty about lying to him.

Malik stood as if he were ready to leave. He turned to Yami and said with difficulty, "Thanks, Phar-" he stopped, not knowing what to call the other any more.

"It's fine." Yami attempted a small smile. "Anything for a friend."

Yugi took control and smiled widely. "Glad we could help."

Malik, relaxing slightly, stood over him and ruffled his unruly star of hair. "Thanks a bunch. Because of you I can say goodbye to that stupid lawnmower. Maybe I can use it to break Ishimura's windows with…" He grinned. "Well, see ya tomorrow at school!"

"Thank you for helping me with my homework!"

"You're welcome!" Malik yelled back up the stairs before he headed for home.

Wednesday at school went well. Thankfully, nothing strange appeared, and he even managed to avoid getting into trouble with old Mrs. Shimojima, who had this thing against students.

He stuffed his books into his bag at the end of the day and made a beeline for the door. The list of homework he had, from today and from all the days he'd missed was longer than the ten-ft python, now commonly known as Binky. He wondered how long it would take him to complete it all…

He hurried home and sat on his bed, trying to prioritize the work (and trying to convince himself that the biggest priority was not sleeping). The math problems were for Sunday, the Social Studies questions for tomorrow… there was a knock at the door.

He stretched and went to open it, snagging a half-empty can of ginger ale from the table on his way. He opened the door to meet a very familiar annoyance.

He finished the ginger ale and tried to close the door.

"Wait." Bakura stuck his foot in the crack. "Just hear me out."