Altershipping (Bakura Ryo/Marik Ishtar/Yami no Marik)

. . .

Sometimes, Marik threw darts at a blown up picture of his own face. Ryo tried not to say anything about it. Everyone finds their own ways to cope, right?

Ryo could hear the soft thunk-thunk-thunk of rapid fire darts in the next room, even over the music in his headphones. He turned the music down a bit just to check that it hadn't been a part of the screamo. When he heard the thunk-thunk again, he popped out the earbuds, set down his pencil on top of his notes for their next DnD campaign, and went out to put on some tea.

Marik didn't acknowledge him when he walked out into the living room with two steaming mugs.

"Need one?" Ryo asked.

Marik only grunted, and threw another dart into the propped up image of his face pasted to a piece of wood on the other side of the room. Ryo set the mug down on the coffee table next to where Marik's feet were thrown on top of it. He sat gingerly down on the other end of the couch, and brought the mug to his lips, blowing on the steam softly.

He watched Marik throw his darts one after the other. He got up when he was out, slouching across the room to start yanking them out, ripping the photograph.

"It doesn't really look like him," Ryo said. "You don't really look like him, I mean."

Marik only grunted again, and returned to the couch to start throwing his darts once again.

"It's the eyes," Ryo said. "Your eyes are much different. You have warmer eyes."

Marik still didn't respond. He had dark circles under his eyes, blood shot in the white, and Ryo knew that he hadn't slept for a while. He ran out of darts again, but this time, his hands just fell into his lap and his head slouched back onto the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Ryo set his mug down on the coffee table.

"Shall I go get them for you?" he asked.

Marik responded by slumping over to the side until his head fell onto Ryo's lap. Ryo automatically began to run his fingers through Marik's tangled hair.

"No," Marik mumbled. "But...if you could stay here for a bit...that'd be nice."

Ryo smiled down at him, working at some of the knots.

"Don't worry," he said. "He won't come back. Not if I have anything to say about it."

. . .

A/N: This is just Angstshipping oops lol. Next is Alliumshipping (Dark Magician x Yugi).