Author's note: Hear ye, hear ye! This is important, fo' shizzle! I'm glad everybody's been enjoying this fan fiction so much! It's one of my few stories to make it past 100 reviews. Tell your friends about this fic and tell them to review. ;) But I'm not here to try and brainwash you. I'm hear to tell you something that might make some people sad. If it does, I'm doing my job right. This chapter is the second-to-last chapter. The next chapter is the end, la fin, Das Ende, owari, slutten. It's an especially long chapter, though, and I think that it's a pretty good ending, all things considered. I'm really glad that everyone has been enjoying this fan fiction so much, and I just wanted to thank all of my reviewers, including the ones that I reviewed nearly every chapter and the ones that have just started reading this story. I love y'all! …In a, you know, non-romantical way. O.o;;

Japanese:

Shine- die;

Boku ga kirai; (you) hate me;

Wa boku ga kirai; as for (you,) you hate me

As it so happened, Yami did not have to wait long for his particular "game" to come to an end. Three days later, his light and he were walking toward the gêsen, where they were going to meet Tristan, Joey, and Tea, and then "go get sushi or something." This plan didn't entirely suit Yami; there wasn't anything competitive about sushi, you see, unless you counted Joey and Tristan's fourth monthly sashimi eating contest… which Yami didn't, because he wasn't in it.

"Maybe we could go bowling afterward," Yami considered.

"Uh-huh," Yugi said apathetically, trying hard to listen but just unable to keep a grasp on Yami's one-sided discussions. Yami had been true to his word; he'd spent tons of time with Yugi ever since he figured out that Yugi was upset because of his absence. For that, Yugi was worlds happier, knowing that Yami was truly sorry; he just couldn't seem to show it. He was a lot less angry than he had been those few days ago; now, he was just bland, unable to focus, very quiet, trying to pay attention to the man who he once again considered his best friend. All of that was about to change, though, right about… now.

"Or maybe we could go bowling before! Or, wait, isn't that the game where I dropped that big ball on my foot? What do you think Yu…" Yami paused, "…gi?"

A shadow hulked over them… sorta. Marik was kind of too skinny to do any hulking, but he sure tried. He gave them a scary rictus that more than made up for it; he also stretched his eyes out like taffy.

"Hello, Pharaoh," he greeted in his static, menacing voice. "I need to borrow your little friend there."

The Pharaoh jumped. "That's mine! You can't touch it—"

"He didn't mean THAT, Yami!" yapped Yugi. (A/N: XD Yami's so stupid!) This caused Yami to comically jump again, this time even higher.

"Oh… Sorry." Yami's ears turned beet red. Marik took a full three minutes out to laugh at him, while Yami stood there embarrassed and Yugi stuck his hands in his pockets, bored.

"AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHA—Okay Yugi, let's go."

Abruptly, Marik grabbed his official crush's arm and dragged him down an alley.

"……..Blink." As stated, Yami blinked, suddenly realizing that Marik was dragging his aibou down a shady-looking alley. There was even a female bum doing dance solos on the dumpster. If ever there was a time to spy on Yugi, this was it. Yami seized this opportunity, dashing after the two… and nearly running into the bum. Then, he ran around the bum, and then followed after the two more carefully. A few seconds later, he turned and hid behind the side of another dumpster, sans the bum, except for his bum, which was still attached. Ten feet away from the other side of the dumpster, Marik had Yugi up against the wall. He was holding him by his neck at first, but when Yugi first started to choke he moved his hands downward, and pressed against Yugi's shoulders. Yugi was not very happy about all of this. Yami couldn't hear all of what Yugi was saying, thank goodness—

"You motherf— shine— boku ga kirai!"

Yami's eyes widened. "Where did Yugi learn to use such rough language?" Yami asked himself, tut-tutting and shaking his head. "It must have been from Joey…"

"I just wanted to talk to you."

"For what? To make me cry again?"

Yami winced. Well, there's clue one, he noted mentally. It is Marik's fault.

"No, I just wanted to fix something."

"Are you telling me that you think I need fixing? Your brain is like one huge inoperable brain tumor!"

"I'm gonna fix your mouth if you don't shut up and LISTEN TO ME! Rrr." Marik scowled. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." He let Yugi's shoulders slip a little, but felt Yugi's steadfast resistance and pushed them back again. "I know what I did was really rude… and… uh…"

"Stuff. Say stuff. It would be funny," Yugi egged him on sarcastically.

Marik scratched his head with a third arm that came out of a plothole and then disappeared. "Er, right. I know it was rude and stuff, but, see, I had a reason."

"And that reason for making me go home and scar my grandpa and scream at my yami and swear a lot, and the reason for stalking me for the past week and hectoring me for money that isn't even in the national currency, and the reason you didn't do anything, anything at all, is—"

Marik was quiet He dropped Yugi, who stood against the wall, looking up at Marik with uncharacteristic haughtiness. Then, the platinum blonde went on to say, very eloquently: "Look, I'm not sure why I stalked you, either. Malik just wanted his five dollars back, and I just thought you were a neat person to follow. Also, I… uh…" Marik pretended to adjust his pretend spectacles. "I kinda have a thing for your glasses…" He sweat dropped as he said it.

Yugi blinked twice. "But I only wore them once."

"Twice," Marik corrected. "They were quite cute…"

Yugi sighed. "Yeah? And what else? Are you saying you like me or something?"

Yami leaned in and tried to hear better. That stupid bum was done dancing and was now singing Britney Spears 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' in a high, nasally falsetto that rivaled a stray cat wailing.

What did Yugi just say? Marik likes what?

"I…" Marik paused to think about this. "I don't know if I even want to know the answer to that. But, to answer your other questions, I… Uh, I… I didn't do anything because I…" Marik turned red.

"…Wa boku ga kirai," Yugi finished for him. Marik shook his head.

"I don't think I could hate you anymore," Marik confessed. "Not after seeing you in those glasses."

What? Yami struggled. Something about molasses?

Yugi glared at him, a hawkish glare. Marik half-expected him to start tapping his foot impatiently. "I… uh…" Marik blushed and looked at the ground, his voice softening. "I didn't know what to do…"

Yugi blinked, evidently confused. "When?"

Marik didn't want to use the word kiss, so instead he just blurted roughly: "On the floor."

Yugi blinked. "Oh. Then?" Marik nodded. "How can you not know what to do! You did all right. It all depended on how you felt. You don't like me, and so you just sat there. You did perfect. In fact I'm glad you didn't laugh at me, because I'm not even sure I liked you then."

Marik gulped. "Well, uh… actually, gaki-me…"

"Yugi. My name is Yugi, thank you. That's yu, gi. Two kanji. It means 'game.' Maybe I should get my own meishi? Everyone else can remember my name just fine."

Marik nodded. "Right. Yu…gi, um… see, I…" Marik looked up at the sky. "DAMN IT! I AM MARIK AND I AM EVIL AND I CAN DO THIS WITHOUT BLUSHING! DARN YOU FACIAL EXPRESSIONS! DARN YOU!"

What happens next? Review!