Irateshipping (Marik Ishtar/Jonouchi Katsuya)

. . .

Marik wasn't sure what he had expected from Jonouchi Katsuya's room, but it wasn't quite this.

He stood awkwardly at the threshold of the tiny room in his socks, feeling weird without his shoes. The room was about large enough for a bed, a desk, and a small bookshelf, but not much else. It was immaculately clean, cleaner that Marik even had thought possible from the seemingly disorganized and lazy young teen. If he had judging from the way the boy wore his uniform, he would have imagined a room scattered with piles of clothes and old soda cans that hadn't been thrown away, not a bookshelf organized meticulously by height of book, a desk set out neatly with all of the supplies in their correct places, and a floor so clean that it shone. This wasn't the kind of job that he could have done in just a few minutes in preparation for guests, either, this was clearly the work of careful organization.

Jonouchi slid back down the hall towards his room, sliding across the polished floor in his socks.

"Hey, I said you could go in," he laughed. "Want a soda?"

He held up one of the two cans he was holding and Marik simply accepted it awkwardly, uncertain of how to say no. They waited for another brief, awkward moment before Marik tip toed into the room, just enough for Jonouchi to fit past him. The boy immediately pulled the chair out from his desk and rolled it questioningly towards Marik. Marik felt his shoulders raise up in spite of himself and he shook his head quickly, lips pressed together. Jonouchi shrugged, but didn't push. He twisted the chair around and sat on it backwards, popping open his soda and taking a long sip.

When he tilted his head back down, he glanced at Marik, as though gauging his reaction.

"You're surprised at how clean it is," he guessed.

Marik blinked, drawing back a bit. He pulled the cold can against his chest.

"How could you tell?" he said, after recomposing himself. He didn't like it when people were able to guess what he was thinking...it made him feel vulnerable. He'd have to learn to get over that.

"Everybody does," Jonouchi grinned over the top of his can. "I don't really bring people over that much. Pop's home too much."

He took another sip.

"Man, Yugi just about had a heart attack. Couldn't understand how I couldn't ever find my homework if my room was so tidy."

Marik could not remember feeling more awkward in his life. Why had he agreed to visit with Jonouchi after they had run into each other on the street? He had been thrown off by Jonouchi's incredibly cheerful greeting, how he had clapped Marik on the shoulder with bright, excited eyes at seeing him, like some overexcited labrador retriever. It was a greeting Marik hadn't expected, and frankly, didn't deserve. He had been so flustered that he had only ended up saying yes to Jonouchi's invitation, to the prospect of having Yugi and some of the others come too, a welcoming party that Marik had not been looking for or expected.

He popped open his soda can and quickly pressed the sugary drink to his lips before he could remember what had happened the last time he had been this close to Jonouchi. What he had done—stabbing and cutting his way violently into the boy's head, forcibly wiping his mind clean and pulling him up on puppet's strings without even the slightest hint of remorse. Of course, nowhe felt that remorse. Felt it like a weight around his neck, choking him slowly, or a fog that was slipping down his throat and filling him from the inside out with murkiness.

After he had taken a sip of the soda and let it burn down his throat, he ran his tongue over suddenly dry lips.

"So...why isit so clean, then?" he found himself asking.

Jonouchi shrugged.

"Old man doesn't give two fucks about keeping things clean. Don't wanna be him."

Marik felt his heart pause between beats.

Now thatwas a feeling he understood.

They stood there in an awkward silence for a long, long moment. Marik found himself breaking the silence.

"Why...are you so happy to see me?"

Jonouchi blinked in the middle of another sip of soda. He took a moment to swallow, and then another beat to think about the question, his eyes glancing up towards the ceiling.

"Well, cause we're kinda friends now, right? After all that, we're at least acquaintances."

"Most acquaintances don't start off by possessing you."

Jonouchi actuallylaugheda little bit, a tiny chortling sound that came up with a soft burp. He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth for a moment.

"Yeah, well, ya got me there. But hey...second chances and all, ya know?"

Marik looked blandly at him, feeling his hands shaking.

"Even for someone like me?"

Jonouchi paused. And then he met Marik's gaze, full and hard and with that determination that had gotten him so close to defeating Marik's other self.

"You know, the first time I met Yugi, I decked him in the face."

Marik blinked.

"What?" He had been expecting that to come out of Jonouchi's mouth. For a moment, he was thrown for a loop.

"And after that, I spent a good chunk of my life trying to make his life miserable. Stole his stuff and played keep away with it. Tossed his homework in the toilet once. Called him bad names, almost beat him up a few times."

He took a little sip of his soda.

"I ain't got an excuse for what I did. But Yugi didn't seem to mind. He just...smiled, the whole goddamn time. Didn't give a crap what I did to him. And he forgave me without even asking for an apology."

He smiled then, and it was the brightest, most beautiful thing Marik had ever seen.

"So I guess...I wanna be like him, if I can. Even just being able to have half his kindness would be enough, you know...?"

Marik found an unbidden heat rising in his cheeks. He ducked his eyes back towards his soda can and found his hand shaking. He opened and closed his mouth twice before the words he was searching for came out.

"I think you've already achieved that."

He didn't look up to see Jonouchi's reaction. He wasn't sure what he wanted to see. After a beat, Jonouchi mumbled, "t-thanks." It sounded embarrassed, like he was maybe rubbing the back of his neck. Marik continued to stare at his soda.

Finally, Jonouchi coughed once, slapped his knee.

"Right! So, we've gotta about twenty minutes before Yugi comes, wanna watch somethin'?"

He leaned out of his chair and pulled a random video tape out from under the bed. There was a tiny television balanced on the edge of the bed and he pointed towards it with the tape. Marik glanced at it dubiously.

"Jonouchi-san, is that a porno?"

"What? Noooo, it's not."

"That's a porno. I know a porno when I see one."

Jonouchi grinned sheepishly.

"Man, I was kinda hoping you wouldn't know what that was...thought it'd be funny."

"Of course I know what a porno is. I may have lived under a rock for ten years but the last six I was above the rock."

Marik actually found a satisfied grin crawling over his face.

"And I'm positive I have a lot more experience in the porn department than you do."

Jonouchi actually went red for a moment.

"Oh my god, no," he said, sounding almost awed.

"Yes," Marik said.

"You're not serious."

"Hey, being the leader of a international crime organization has some requirements, you know. Some people want something special in exchange for—"

"Oh my god, stop," Jonouchi said, going red again and covering his face with a hand.

"What? You watch pornos and yet that's embarrassing?" Marik found himself teasing.

"We'll watch something else, oh my god."

Marik found himself laughing—a real one, one like he couldn't remember ever having perhaps in his life.

This wasn't so bad after all.

. . .

A/N: I couldn't resist the dirty jokes I'm sorry. I might not write sex scenes but sex jokes are fair game XD Next is Invalidshipping (Shadi/Ryo).