Yugi Motou wouldn't be around here, Marik thought to himself. He was standing next to a smelly fish stand. The repugnant stench alone would assure Marik a leisurely day. Maybe if he stood around long enough, the smell would cling to his clothes, too. I don't have to worry about him, or touching, or ANY of that stuff. I can just steal some nice fish and…

"HEY!" The skeevy, one-eyed man running the stand looked at Marik crookedly. "You're not thinking about stealing me'fish, are ya?" The man's shaky voice sounded as if he was gargling salt water.

"Uhm, no sir. Please excuse me." Marik side-stepped the stand and passed it by. Well, those fish reeked anyway, he told himself. And at least I'm not going to see Yugi today! So huzzah! Rejoice! And all that crap.

"Hey, Joey, how about we buy some food over there!"

…CRAP…!

The bronzed Egyptian watched as Yugi and his taller friend made their way over to a stand that was selling crab puffs. After making their purchase, they headed over to an alley. Even though he told himself he wasn't going to, he followed them. After all, if he could get the money to his shujinkaku today, then Malik would have to take back all of things he had said… ahah! So they were sitting on a dumpster!

o.O So what does that tell me? Marik wondered, as he watched Joey and Yugi sit on a dumpster and eat crab puffs. Finally, when the two were done, they hopped off of the large metal thing filled with trash (well, how would you describe a dumpster?) and started towards the mouth of the alley. Marik made his move.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! –I found you." Marik grinned. Yugi froze.

"Oh, um, hi Marik." Yugi gulped.

HA! I've scared him. GOOD! Although it's probably Wheeler he's worried about more than me…

Marik reached out and grabbed Yugi's shoulder. Yugi turned instinctively and tried to dash away, but Marik gripped him hard, so he ended up jerking backwards. His back was to Marik. What if he had a knife?

Yugi started to sweat. Kuso…!

"Marik!" Joey balled his hands into fists, squishing the crab puff he had been holding so that his palm was a white, gushy mess.

Marik grinned at him eerily, his mouth as wide and as happy as the face on a jack o' lantern.

"Oh, hello, Little Joey! How are you? More importantly—" Marik wrapped an arm around Yugi's neck and pulled him closer to him, "—how is Yugi going to be if you interfere?"

"Leave him alone, Marik," Joey warned. Marik threw his head back and laughed.

"Oh, I will… once he pays me what he owes."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Yugi said flatly. Marik laughed again.

"I think you do… The five dollars you blatantly stole from o-shujinkaku-sama. Give them to me!"

"I didn't steal them!" Yugi cried pitifully.

"You did so."

"…I don't have it anymore, I told you!" Yugi tried to squirm, but Marik flexed his arm muscles in order to lessen Yugi's air flow. "Hahhh…"

"Marik, leave Yugi alone!" Joey shouted. The veins on the side of his head stuck out prominently. "Listen to me, Marik, before I have to come and get'cha!"

Marik rolled his eyes. "Oh, boo-hoo! You have absolutely no power over me, Little Joey. You couldn't even scratch me. I'm stronger than you; I have the powers of shadow… And anyway, I told you not to interfere. It will just make things worse for little Yugi. I—" Marik pulled Yugi closer to him, tightening the chokehold his arm made around the petite blonde's neck, "—I could rape your little friend here, and there wouldn't be a single thing you could do about it."

Joey's jaw dropped, speechless. He looked at Yugi, and he could now see that Yugi was panicking.

He wouldn't, would he? Joey wondered. …WOULD he? I mean, this is Marik we're talking about, and he is a sicko, and he HAS been stalking Yugi for the past week, and…

Yugi pointed his elbow low and stabbed at Marik. If you factor in Yugi's height you can figure out what he hit. -;;;

Joey and Marik both yelled out; Joey from surprise and Marik from pain. Yugi grabbed Joey by the wrist and practically dragged the taller boy down the alley. The alley made an 'I' shape with the main street and a dirt road. Yugi turned left onto the dirt road.

"Come on, Joe!" he said hurriedly, so hurriedly that he was even shortening Joey's name in the event.

"Where are we going?" Joey asked. And then: "Yug', what's Marik talking about? Did you get yourself mixed up with something?"

"Are you likening Marik to the mob? And we're going as far away from that creep as possible. Come on, we'll book plane tickets to Florida."

Joey grinned. "Right on! That would be the way to go. We should do that, just you and me and Tristan."

"And Tea."

"If Tea comes than Yami comes too," Joey reminded Yugi delicately.

Yugi looked at Joey with wide, startled eyes. "Oh, you're right! No Tea then," he said in a girly voice. And then he grumbled grouchily: "Let's just go back to my house…"

"Sure thing buddy." Joey grinned. "A video-game playing we shall go!"

"I just got Resident Evil 4!" Yugi told him.

"AWESOME! Let's go!" Joey started to run. He grabbed Yugi's arm and dragged him.

Marik peered around the corner of the alley, watching them walk down the road. He was still wincing.

Yugi's changing, he realized. Joey looked as shocked and disgusted with what Yugi just did as I was. It looks like the mutt and I have something in common: We don't want Yugi to change.

But why wouldn't I want Yugi to change into somebody more like me or Bakura? It doesn't make sense for me to want to preserve Yugi's former personality. Unless I just wanted to exploit him, but I have a headache, so I can't do that. Maybe next week or something.

Should I just let Yugi change into whoever the hell he's becoming? He's going to lose friends like that.

…Wait, what did I just say? …I thought I didn't care…

Ah, what the hell. No, really, WHAT THE HELL.

And so Marik went to buy some crab puffs to calm down.