We liiiiiiive! And here's chapter 11! Sorry it's a little shorter, but it definitely has a lot happening. Please pay special attention, this is a very important chapter, yep yep! And we officially passed 100 reviews! We love you guys! Do you want something? A fanart of Malik and Ryou and Binky or something?
Ding Day Partay- uh…what original characters? I don't remember there being any oc's in this story…except for some of the teachers…wah, maybe I'm getting senile.
Tsuki-Neko-Chan- American football. We call British football 'soccer'. Actually, where I live, we call American football 'futbal' and soccer 'kaduregel' (lit. football) XD.
DojomistressAmbyChan- If you thought last chapter was crazy, wait 'till you see this one!
Akuryounoseiki- muahaha. We are eviiil. So we make things much worse….
Epiphany Under Moonlight- OMG, how did you guess!
Obsessed Uber Rei- Oh wait 'till you see what Ryou has to say!
LadywolfTerri- Wow, you also guessed!
Sharone- yay, I get to write you a review response! But I can't think of anything to say now. Oh well. Bais Yaakov rocks. Yay.
And also thanks to Kotori chan, chibichibimalik2, SonnyGoten, Maedhros, and Dark Magician Girl Hikaru, we love you all!
CHAPTER ELEVENThere was something warm and smooth beneath his cheek. Ryou snuggled closer to that soft warmth, sighing contentedly. He trailed his fingers down the side of Malik's face, wishing this dream world could last forever...
Hold on a second. MALIK'S FACE? He jolted upright, his heart pounding. Malik was in his bed! Even worse, he'd been lying on top of Malik's chest!
Completely terrified and utterly confused, Ryou tried to wiggle off of the Egyptian, only to have Malik link his arms tightly around his waist.
Ryou fell back onto Malik's chest, his mind whirling. What the hell was Malik doing in his bed? And why had they been sleeping like this?
And the worst part was, he didn't think he minded very much at all.
Malik shifted slightly, a breathy moan escaping his lips. Ryou froze nervously, praying to whatever gods existed that Malik wouldn't wake up quite yet. At least they were still clothed, he thought feverishly. What if they'd bonked! He might've lost his virginity and not even remember it! How unfair!
His body was starting to become uncomfortably hot at the thought of being naked in bed with Malik. He exerted control with difficulty to keep from shivering. Lying still on Malik's chest, Ryou concentrated on the soothing rhythm of the Egyptian's breathing, watching Malik's chest rise and fall beneath the printed t-shirt.
Malik suddenly shifted again, his arms tightening around Ryou, lavender eyes cracking open. Ryou couldn't even jerk away, terror freezing him where he was.
"Mmm... 'Kura, you stupid idiot..." Malik mumbled, seeing the white blob of hair above him.
What? Since when did Malik call him 'Bakura'! A nasty suspicion filled Ryou's mind, only to be strengthened at Malik's next words.
"Oh...Ryou...hi...RYOU!"
Malik jerked awake instantly, staring at Ryou's angry face. This was not good.
Ryou clenched his fists in Malik's shirt. "You bastard!" he screamed, both vocally and inwardly, waking up his yami.
Ryou? Bakura said groggily.
"You knew! All this time you knew, and you didn't tell me! And then you go and pull something like this!" He wasn't even sure who he was talking to any more.
"Knew what?" Malik and Bakura asked simultaneously, perhaps not very wisely.
"You knew I liked him! He's my friend! How dare you start with him? Were you going to screw him too? In MY body!"
And you," he turned his attention to Malik, "All this time I've worried you'd think I was crazy because of my yami! And you couldn't even tell me you knew him?"
"I-"
"Shut up!" Ryou snapped, furious. "I thought you were my friend! How can you go and do something like this behind my back! This is MY body! MINE!"
Well Malik is MY boyfriend! Bakura snarled.
"He should have been mine!"
"What?" Malik asked, confused.
Ryou drew in a shaky breath before diving straight back into his accusations. "You did this on purpose, didn't you? It's not enough that you screwed up my life all these years, but you took away the one person I finally managed to get friendly with!"
Malik was staring at Ryou, speechless, not understanding what he was talking about at all.
Eat your heart out, hikari! Bakura said gleefully. He's mine. You waited too long.
Ryou looked down, barely noticing he was still sitting on Malik's stomach, hands fisted in the Egyptian's shirt, trying vainly to keep in the tears of anger and pain that run down his cheeks. "You should have been MY boyfriend! How could you! How could you use me like this!"
"I-I didn't use you! I didn't even know you felt that way about me!" Malik stammered, relieved that at least Ryou was making some sense now.
"You'll be my boyfriend now!" Ryou suddenly said. "It's my body! I get first dibs!"
Malik bit his lip, struggling to keep his shock from showing. What should he do? What could he do?
Bakura was struck speechless. No WAY he was handing over Malik! How dare you say that! he roared at Ryou. You have no right-!
"And you had no right to use my body without permission! But do you ask? NO!"
"Fine," Malik suddenly cut in, "I'll be your boyfriend."
Both Ryou and Bakura were struck speechless, before Bakura suddenly took over.
"You two-timing bastard!" he yelled, "You dare say that right to my face!"
"But what do you want me to-"
"Hah! Take that!" Ryou crowed.
"-he's right, what I did-"
"Shut up hikari! This is coercion and you know it! He's MY boyfriend!"
"-was wrong WILL YOU QUIT ARGUING WITH YOURSELF AND JUST LISTEN TO ME FOR A FUCKING MINUTE?"
Malik's shout snapped Ryou and Bakura out of their personal argument, as the albino stared at him.
"I will be Ryou's boyfriend," Malik said evenly. "Because Ryou is right – I treated him badly. AND," he forestalled Bakura's imminent protest, "I will also be Bakura's boyfriend. Because Bakura asked me first. And that's all for now. Now get off my stomach, dammit! I can't breathe!"
"I still can't believe we're going to go to school late," Ryou said for the fiftieth time that morning.
Malik rolled his eyes and sighed. "Oh, your poor record is now shot for the rest of eternity! Repent sinners! The end of the world is coming!"
"Not funny," Ryou said flatly.
Malik fell to his knees and raised his arms to the heavens. "We're going to die! Diiiieee!"
"Oh quit it," Ryou grumbled, shouldering his backpack. "Let's go and get it over with."
Malik likewise grabbed his own. "That's the spirit! Onward to the guillotine!"
"Maliiiiiik," Ryou complained, "I said quit it!"
They left the house, still arguing, and caught the 11:35 bus to Domino High. On the bus, Ryou, sticking a mental tongue out at his yami, laced his fingers through Malik's. Malik seemed surprised, but smiled at him. Bakura growled.
Ryou and Malik arrived at school in time for the lunch break, and tried to sneak in without being noticed by any of the teachers.
Sadly, the failed miserably.
Even more sadly, it was Ishimura Sensei who noticed them first.
"Ishtar. Bakura. Fancy meeting you here," he said, an odd expression on his face, as if he couldn't decide whether to smirk or to frown.
Malik gulped. "Ryou, I'm counting on your wonderful reputation to save my skin," he murmured on the way to the principal's office.
They got off relatively lightly, with a single detention that afternoon writing a thousand-word essay on being on time to school. Malik grinned as they headed toward the cafeteria, in time to catch a few bites before the bell rang. "That went well," he remarked too brightly.
Ryou trudged behind him gloomily. "Detention!" he whimpered, "I got detention! I'm a delinquent!"
"Oh knock it off, Ryou. At least you're not spending it alone!"
"Even worse! I'm going to be in the same room as all the criminals!" He shuddered. "How could I have fallen like this!"
Malik sighed, and gave up on him.
As they walked into the lunchroom, Ryou shyly took hold of Malik's hand once again. He wanted people to know that Malik was his.
You mean MINE, Bakura hissed.
"Hey!" Tristan caught their attention, waving from a table. The rest of the gang looked at them, noting the linked hands with interest.
"Heard you got into trouble for being late," Otogi observed with a grin.
Malik sighed. "Is it just me, or does gossip travel faster than light in this school?"
"O' course," Joey echoed Otogi's grin, "what did you expect?"
Malik shrugged, and leaned down to give Joey his customary peck on the cheek.
"Malik!" Ryou protested, jerking him back, "what are you doing?"
The blonde looked confused. "Saying hi to Joey?"
"Are you guys...together?" Joey asked.
"Joey!" Yugi said immediately.
Ryou ignored them both. "You know what I was talking about! I don't want you all over other people!"
"I'm not 'all over' anybody!" Malik snapped, now beginning to get angry.
At that statement, the whole gang frankly stared at Malik. That statement coming from him of all people!
"You!" Ryou snapped, "You're always 'all over' people! Or don't you define randomly hugging, kissing, and snuggling other people as being all over them?"
"I don't..." Malik grew pale, his gaze darting quickly from one face to another. "You mean...that's what you've all been thinking about me! I thought we were friends!"
"We are your friends!" Tea said, "but you've been acting a little more than just friendly!"
"No, you don't understand!" Malik looked really distressed now. "In Egypt, that's what friends do! Everybody hugs and kisses each other all the time! I just thought- I-" he backed away, a frightened, lost-kitten look in his eyes before turning and bolting from the room.
As Malik heard the whole lunchroom suddenly erupt into renewed babble, he realized that the whole school had witnessed the event, and shuddered. How could he ever show his face in there again? All this time, everybody had been thinking he was some kind of... some kind of slut! He hadn't even noticed the behavior, he had just been acting the way everyone did back in Egypt! How could he have been so stupid!
He could only imagine what people had been saying behind his back all this time...
The Egyptian found a deserted classroom, and absently went in and sat down on the teacher's desk, pulling his knees up to his chest.
He was drawn out of his morbid thoughts by footsteps. Kaiba stood in the doorway, looking slightly surprised to find him there.
"Malik?"
"I bet you think I'm a slut too," Malik said bitterly.
Kaiba, shocked, kept his face carefully blank as he stepped into the classroom and closed the door. "Why would I think that?" he asked, sitting down on the desk next to Malik.
"'Cause I'm always all over people," was the harsh answer. "I swear I didn't mean it that way! Why didn't they just say something before?"
"People who aren't familiar with different cultures often have misconceptions about the different behavior. It means that they're uneducated boors. Actually," Kaiba continued, "they're uneducated boors regardless. But you shouldn't let them get to you."
Malik turned his face away. "That doesn't change the fact that everybody in this entire fucking school now thinks I'm a slut!"
"If anything, now they think you're not a slut."
"But-"
"And you definitely shouldn't let idiots like them make you cry."
"I'm not crying." Malik rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes.
"Crying is just the way we let feelings out," Kaiba said quietly. "Don't worry about it. If there's anger, and pain inside of you – well, you can let it show sometimes."
Malik glanced at him, then looked away. He turned his gaze everywhere but on Kaiba, suddenly glad to have met the calm, cool and collected CEO. With a shaky sigh, he leaned his back and closed his eyes. He hoped the moisture beneath his lids wouldn't leak past them and give away his gratefulness. After all, he didn't want to seem like too much of a nice guy. "Yeah," he said shakily. "Thanks for reminding me what big assholes they are."
"Any time," Kaiba responded with a grin.
For the rest of that afternoon Malik was unnaturally silent, refusing to look at anybody.
It was only by the end of the day that Ryou managed to corner him as they walked to detention together.
"I'm sorry, Malik," he said softly, "I guess we really misunderstood you."
"It's fine," Malik said automatically, which really meant that it wasn't quite fine.
"No," Ryou drew a breath, "it's not. We really hurt you back there, and it's my fault. We shouldn't have judged you like that."
"Ryou. It's okay, I don't blame you." Malik kept his eyes on the road in front of him. "Part of it is my fault – I was acting inappropriately for my surroundings. I should have known better."
"I still like you a lot, and I'm sure the gang understands." Ryou scuffed his shoes nervously.
Malik gently arched an eyebrow. "You like me?"
"Ok, fine." Ryou giggled. "I love you."
There, in the middle of the schoolyard, Malik kissed Ryou. He ignored the hoots of laughter and rude shouted remarks from students all around them, and looked gravely at Ryou. "Thanks," he said. "Because I think I'm going to need lots of love to get through this."
Ryou's eyes grew huge and round, and he pointed over Malik's shoulder. Malik whipped around to see Ishimura Sensei, a glower on his ugly face. "BOYS!" His angry yelling made them lower their heads guiltily. "What despicable behavior on the school grounds! Add an hour to you detention!"