Unlikelyshipping (Marik Ishtar x Insector Haga)

. . .

There was something immensely satisfying about blowing things up with just a few flicks of the wrist.

Marik worked the joystick with a expert flair, eyes focused on the arcade game's screen. It was among the oldest machines in the room and thus had been ignored by most of the younger crowd. They were all crowded around the more high-tech, high graphics games with the gun shaped controlled that you would point at the screen. Marik wasn't interested in those. He already knew he was an expert marksman and he had proved it with real weapons. There was something infinitely more challenging in aiming and firing and moving with nothing more than a joystick and a few buttons, timed exactly right to deal the most amount of damage.

He smiled with a little too much satisfaction as his efforts brought an entire building down on screen. Level Clear, the screen read. He was doing incredibly well today. He wondered vaguely how far along Rishid was on collecting Puzzle Cards, and for a moment sent out the feelers of his mind to check on the vast web of Ghouls all around the city. After having satisfied himself that everything was still working smoothly, he glanced back down at the game and moved his finger over the continue button.

"Freaking asshole, like he thinks I'm going to play that freaking spider stomp game after what happened? Or ever?"

The high pitched, grating voice was surprisingly close, and Marik glanced over his shoulder.

A short boy with cropped green hair and too big glasses was shuffling irritably towards the line of the older arcade games. As he started shoving quarters into the machine, Marik flipped through his mental files—the boy looked familiar.

Ah. Insector Haga. Japanese national champion—or at least, former national champion. He could hardly be called that after the devastating losses in both Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. He had lost his first matches in both already, not to mention his last one being against the unknown Jonouchi just a few hours ago. Jonouchi hadn't even been supposed to be in this tournament, according to Marik's intel. His Ghoul had thought it a good idea to enter him just to get a hold of the Red Eyes Black Dragon, but how idiotic was it to enter him in the tournament for that reason alone? He could have simply been ambushed later. Marik's lip curled at the thought and he turned back to the game. He didn't want to think about how stupid his Ghouls were right now.

He began to navigate his character through the next level. A harbor; how appropriate. A grin grew across his face as he expertly struck the explosive barrel, taking out the entire first wave of enemies with a single shot. He was aiming his gun at the next wave when a ticklish feeling attracted his attention.

His eyes half flicked down.

"Shit—!"

He spasmed his arm reflexively—he had no idea what the hell was on his arm but he didn't want it there. Of course, the motion caused him to lose his grip on the joystick and he took about ten shot wounds in a second. Swearing again, he drove his character behind a shipping container and smacked the pause button. He needed to regain his bearings.

What the hell had that thing been? He glanced down to look for the offending creepy-crawly. And immediately swore again because there was a giant centipede wriggling on its back on the floor. That thing had been on his arm!

He made to smash it with his foot.

"Oy! Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

It was the boy, Haga. Perhaps Marik's swearing had caught his attention, but he had seen the bug on the floor and without even pausing his game immediately shot forward. He scooped the bug into his hand away from Marik's shoe.

"I was going to kill it," Marik said.

"It's just a gejigeji, it can't hurt you, you dumbass," Haga retorted.

He cupped one hand over the bug protectively, but Marik could still see its little feelers sticking out between the fingers and a shudder went down his spine. He was not a fan of anything with more than four legs.

"It's still a little devilspawn," he said. "What the hell do you care?"

"It's a freaking house centipede. They don't even have any venom. Geez, the second anyone sees something with 'too many legs' they flip out and turn into little girls!"

Marik's fists rolled up at that comment, but Haga was too busy checking on the centipede through his fingers to notice. His game was flashing a "game over" in large letters, but he didn't even seem to care.

"And people wonder why I hate them," he muttered, half to himself. He looked up at Marik and glared. "Asshole."

And with the little bug still cupped in his hands, he headed for the door. Marik watched him go. He fingered the Millennium Rod for a moment, but it wasn't like he was considering wasting it on the useless duelist. It was more of an absent, considering motion.

"What a weird kid," he muttered.

Then he turned back to his game and didn't think of him again.

. . .

A/N: Hey, I'm back! This one was shoved in out of order because again I found a more complete version of my list. Geez, this ship was hard to write. They're not getting any easier either, next up is another one that I missed, Unbelievableshipping (Amane x Strings). Yeah. Ryo's little sister and the mime. This'll be fun.