OMGosh! Okay, so recently, I've been reading this REALLY good fan fiction called "1st Labyrinth," by Queen Thief, and I recommend that you all read it! It is a very good story, and I am sure you will love it just like I do. And, also, there is some slightly bad news that I have listed below this chapter… read the chapter before you read the news.

Chapter 14: Day Two

It was nighttime under a crescent moon, and Bakura was driving the boat. Luckily, Marik had decided to drive the boat really fast before he went to sleep, and Bakura had watched carefully and was now confident that he knew how to drive a boat. What he was more worried about was the sun, when it started to come up.

And no matter what he did, he couldn't stop thinking about last night.

It had felt, nice, just sitting there. Looking at the stars. Usually that kind of thing bored him, but I guess with the right person…

He shook his head and tried to think of something else, but his thoughts went right back to last night. Being petted had felt so good, he wondered why, did all cats feel that way when being petted? Maybe cats have to be petted in a certain way? Or was it just Marik's love for cats that made it so desirable?

Or was it just Marik?

This was the thought that had been tormenting him for the entire night, ever since Marik had gone to bed. He couldn't get it out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how many times he hit his head, no matter how many times he thought of something even more unpleasant to try and drown out his previous thoughts, it wouldn't escape his mind.

And what about what Marik said?

It had occurred to Bakura during his self-torment that Marik had opened up to him in a way. He had told him that he hadn't seen the stars or daylight for the first 8 years of his life. That was something pretty big to tell someone. And, no one had ever opened up to him before, ever. He wasn't sure if he liked it. Could he make jokes about his 'grounding?"

Bakura shook his head, Doesn't matter to me, he thought, I'm sure he knew right from the beginning that I was liable to make fun of him for it. It's his fault for telling me. He scowled, Why am I actually caring about his feelings? I've never done that before, why start now? Bakura sighed, and decided that he seriously should consider going to a psychiatrist to help him sort out his thoughts. He'd been thinking too much lately, he wished he could stop, but that just wasn't him. He had always over-thought things, always, and he had no idea how to stop now.

Suddenly, he heard something that startled him out of all of his thoughts.

"Hello?" he heard Ryou call, "Hello? CAN YOU HEAR ME!"

"Watch it!" Bakura yelled at Ryou in his head, "You don't have to yell!"

"Finally! I broke through, you have no idea how hard it is to talk over all of your thoughts, not that that's a bad thing! Talking too much…"

"Stop apologizing! It's weak."

"Just because you apologize that doesn't mean your weak."

Bakura scoffed, "Of course it does! If you apologize, it shows that you were wrong, and if you were wrong, then that shows that you are weak and that you speak without thinking or that you can't say anything without double-checking yourself."

"Is that really what you think?" Ryou asked quietly.

"Of course it is! I'm not a weakling who can't say what's on my mind."

Ryou didn't say anything for a few minutes, during which Bakura's mind was racing again. How is Ryou able to talk to him? He had made sure Ryou fell asleep, did it only work for a little while? Had Ryou overpowered him? No, he should have been able to overpower him in his sleep, so why…?

"EXCUSE ME!" Ryou called.

Bakura cringed, someone yelling in your mind was like someone yelling in your ears, "WHAT?" he thought back irritably.

"I'm still here you know, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't ignore me please."

"Oh, well excuse me for trying to think."

Bakura could tell Ryou wanted to say something, and Bakura was getting more and more agitated that Ryou didn't just spit it out, "Speak!" he finally commanded.

"Ah!" Ryou said, "Well… um…" he seemed hesitant to ask, almost like he was afraid, "I was just wondering, who was that?"

"Who?" Bakura asked.

"You know, that tan boy below deck, who was he?"

"Belo- oh, you mean Marik?"

"Yes, him. Who is he?"

"He's my business partner, he's helping me collect the Millennium Items."

"Oh…" Ryou wanted to say more, but was afraid to. He didn't want to offend anyone if his thinking was wrong. He didn't like to hurt or offend anyone, even if they did the same to him. But he was curious about something… "So… Marik… Do you like him?"

Bakura froze, then he said in an angry but controlled manner, "What makes you say that?"

"Ah!" Ryou said, realizing that he upset Bakura, "I didn't meant to pry or anything… It's just that, with the way you've been thinking…"

Bakura snapped his eyes open, "Exactly how long have you been awake?"

"Um… since you turned into a cat…"

"And, have you been listening to my thoughts that entire time?"

"Er… I didn't meant to… it just…"

Bakura growled, and Ryou felt afraid, he had no idea what Bakura could do to him, and he didn't intend on finding out anytime soon. He decided to change the subject.

"So! Um… About this necklace, how does it work exactly?"

"This 'necklace' has the power to transfer souls. I put mine in here when I was still alive, 5,000 years ago. I was trapped in here for a long time, until you put it on. I could've taken over your body at any time, but I hadn't felt like it back then." That was a lie, Bakura had taken over Ryou's body before, and he tried not to think about that so Ryou wouldn't pick it up. He wasn't sure how much of his thoughts Ryou could read, so he hoped it was enough.

"So… Whenever you take over, my soul goes inside the ring," Ryou said it more as a statement, as if he was trying to make himself believe it.

"That's what I said last night."

Ryou digested this. His dad had told him stories about how in ancient times people had put their souls inside things, so he didn't have a hard time believing Bakura's story. He just wasn't sure he liked being trapped in this necklace while he knew that some stranger who was supposedly from 5,000 years ago take control of his body. He tried to talk in a stern voice, "I'm going to take my body back now."

Bakura laughed evilly, "I'd like to see you try!" he continued to laugh, until he felt something change inside him. Ryou actually was starting to take his body back! Bakura could feel Ryou's good, clean, pure soul replacing his. Bakura held him back, and he seemed to be winning and he smiled in triumph, but then Ryou tried extra-hard, and Bakura could only feel his head remaining. He pushed back against Ryou with all of his might, and eventually Ryou went back. Bakura then forced Ryou's mind to shut down (which wasn't hard, mentally fighting with Bakura had drained most of his energy), and Bakura tried to make sense of what had happened. Why had Ryou come out now? Why had he actually been able to put up a fight? He's known his host for a good few years, and was sure that he was a spineless weakling who only wanted to help people even if it hurt him in the process.

He massaged his temples and looked out onto the horizon. He saw that the sky was starting to turn purple. That's my cue to leave. He stood up, turned the boat on autopilot, and went below deck into the bedroom. When he walked into the bedroom, he saw Marik sleeping, and he found himself involuntarily smiling, then he remembered Ryou's words, "…Do you like him?" Bakura shook his head, and then he walked to violently shake Marik awake.

"I didn't do it! I swear!" Marik said before he sat upright, opened his eyes and noticed that he had only been dreaming. He looked around and saw Bakura glaring at him with a fiercer look than usual. By this time he was used to Bakura's occasional mood swings, but this one looked more severe, so he asked "What the heck crawled in your cereal and died this morning?"

Bakura growled, and said, "Sun's out. Pilot the boat. NOW," then he went on the top bunk to try and figure out his many thoughts.

Marik stretched and said, "Did you put the boat on autopilot?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm gonna change first." He grabbed a pair of clothes from his duffel bag and went inside the bathroom. Bakura found his eye twitching, and he swore he could see Ryou smiling slightly. He clutched his head and laid on his side so that he was facing the wall. Okay, it's okay Bakura, just look at the wall and empty your thoughts, especially of what Marik's doing right now… GAH! He hit his head in a vain attempt to rid his mind of his thoughts, although he knew that never worked, because if it did, then he would have done this many times before.

Anyway, he somehow managed to focus his thoughts on the boat's wood planking wall, busying his mind with thoughts like, "I wonder how old this wood is?" and "I hope the wood isn't rotted…" but soon, he heard Ryou's voice interrupt him again.

"You know," he said tentatively, "These forced thoughts are not as strong as your natural ones, maybe you should let your mind wander…?"

Bakura cussed under his breath, "I already let my mind wander too much, if I let it wander any more…" he didn't want to think about it, so he stared at the wall again, then his forced thoughts were shunned by a natural thought, "How are you speaking to me again?" he yelled in his mind as he sat up.

"Um… I can't explain it, but something keeps waking me up. Sorry."

"Stop apologizing every minute of your pathetic life. Why can't you blame other people? Or stick up for yourself? If it were me who was asked that questions, I would have responded with, 'Mind your own damn business!'"

"I don't think I can say that… Sorry."

"Ugh," Bakura groaned as he plopped back on the bed, "you're hopeless."

"I'm -"

"Don't even think about apologizing again." Ryou was quiet, and then he tried to take over his body again. He pushed harder than he had ever pushed in his life, and when he opened his eyes again, he could feel his body as he sat up and he knew that he was back into it. However, using up so much energy trying to take his body back caused him to forget where he had been in the first place, and he now wondered where he was.

"Oh dear… This is bad…" he murmured just as Marik walked out of the bathroom.

"Hey Bakura," he said, "What food do we have on this ship again?" he looked at the top bunk and was immediately shocked. On the top bunk was the messy white hair, the regular attire, but his face… his face was so different. Instead of looking evil and psychotic, the face looked innocent and kind. And the eyes. Before the eyes were a dark brown, having a reddish tint to them, but now they were a light, happy brown and they were so round, and huge! When you looked into them, you immediately felt like doing something kind. Marik was speechless. "B-Bakura…?"

"Oh!" Ryou said, not knowing what to do, "Um… hello there… would you mind telling me where I am?"

Marik was even more shocked by the voice coming out of this Bakura's mouth. It was laced with kindness interwoven with politeness, unlike the usual speech, which was laced with snide remarks and interwoven with rudeness. Marik blinked a couple times, and because of this drastic change in speech, he answered the question instead of wondering why he was asking it, "Um, you're on a boat, remember?"

Ryou closed his eyes, trying to remember. A boat… he thought, I faintly remember coming on a boat, but why? He was trying to figure this out, when he heard a harsh voice come inside his head, "Well, I must say, I didn't think you would be able to do that, but if you'll excuse me I'm taking this body back!" Then Ryou felt a darkness enveloping him, and he couldn't help but have a feeling of déjà vu. Hasn't this happened before? Darkness… coming into me… His eyes went wide as he remembered everything that had happened to him. He gasped, but it was too late, Bakura had taken control again. He looked at his hand and sighed in relief, then he noticed the expression on Marik's face.

For Marik, this transformation was far more fantastic. He watched as Ryou's eyes seemed to change shape and give them a more square-like quality, and he saw the innocent face give way to a more hardened face, and then he saw the eyes open and the reddish tint was back.

Needless to say, he was staring at Bakura with a confused, awed (and slightly freaked-out) expression, with his mouth gaping and his muscles all slacked. Bakura looked at Marik, trying to recall the last thing that was said, and when he couldn't recall it, he narrowed his eyes and said, "What are you waiting for? Pilot the ship!"

Marik shook his head and walked upstairs in a daze, still trying to figure out what exactly had just happened.

As soon as Marik was out of ear-shot, Bakura sighed and plopped back down on the bed. He scrunched up his face, and put his "sleeping-spell" on Ryou, this time determined not to let him wake again.

Marik was above deck behind the controls. He was driving the boat, but he couldn't help but wonder what the hell had just happened with Bakura. Maybe he was just incredibly bored and this was his way of dealing with it. He seemed to enjoy messing with the blonde's head. But surely Bakura wasn't this good of an actor? I mean, he could obviously act kind and polite, but how could he change his facial features? And the voice, before when Bakura had acted like that, his voice still had a touch of it's old roughness. But this one wad devoid of all evil, of all unkindness… the exact opposite of Bakura's.

He shook his head. Maybe I just half-dreamed it… wouldn't be the first time I've dreamt something weird. He looked out at the sea, and decided he should check the map to make sure he was going in the right direction. He took out his compass and map that he kept under the captain's seat and started reading the map. He was going the right way, just like he had thought. He sighed. This was kind of boring now that he was older… He wondered why it wasn't when he was younger. I was such a weird kid back then, he thought. He looked back at the sea, wishing that he would see those dolphins again. He shook his head, but no sooner he did that when he saw water fly up above the boat and splash back into the water.

He stared at where the water had been, then put the boat on auto pilot and rushed to the side of the boat. He looked over the side and saw a pod of dolphins. He smiled like he had all those years ago, and when the dolphin started to walk on the water again, he laughed like he had back then. He held out his hand and the dolphin went under it, allowing him to feel the smoothness that had surprised him all those years ago. Then he felt a splash of water hit his face, and he had to wipe it off with both hands. But while he was wiping the water away from his eyes, he heard a male voice say, "Ahoy! Could your vessel maybe take a different course?" Marik looked out were the voice had come from, and saw a muscular, tan, black, spiky-haired, man riding a dolphin with his shirt off. Marik was staring at him (because he was riding the dolphin) and he called back, "Why?"

"Because!" the man said right before the dolphin went under the water, he continued his sentence when the dolphin surfaced again, "This is the dolphin's migration pattern, I came out here to make sure they got through safely!"

"If the dolphins are migrating, why are you riding one?"

"Because this is my pet!" he called, the dolphin went under water again and jumped up in the air, which is when he said, "I'm Tsunami Mako, what's your name?"

"Ishtar Marik!" Marik called before Mako landed back in the water.

"Well, Ishtar-san!" he said as the dolphin walked on the water again, "Could you turn this boat around?"

"To be honest, if I do that I might get lost."

"If you show me where your headed, I could find you an alternative route!"

"Ok!"

Mako's dolphin dived under the water and jumped back up into the air mere inches away from the boat. As the dolphin was still in the air, Mako jumped off and landed on the boat's deck. Marik wondered briefly if he could do that. Mako looked at him with a smile, "So," he began, "where are you headed?"

Marik took out his map and pointed to Pegasus's island. Mako looked at it, and then asked, "Do you have a sextant(1)?"

"Um, no…" Marik only had a slight idea what that was. Mako looked at him and asked, "You wouldn't happen to know the constellations would you?"

"Actually I would," Marik said proudly.

"Do you know their positions?" Mako asked hopefully.

"Yes, but that only helps at night."

"Yes yes, you're right. Hm, well, until it's night time, how about you follow me and Flipper?"

"Flipper?"

"My dolphin," Flipper made the sound all dolphins make at that time, almost as if to prove Mako's point.

Marik smiled, "That'd be great, but if you don't mind, I would like to do something first."

In the course of a half an hour, Marik was wearing trunks and was riding Flipper almost like a pro. "You're doing great!" Mako called from the water. He turned back to the boat, "Are you sure you don't want to ride Flipper too?" he called to Bakura who was driving the boat in his day attire (trench coat, hat, leather gloves, and sun-glasses, in case you forgot).

"No thanks," Bakura called back.

"He doesn't like to get wet," Marik said before Flipper dived under water, he barely had enough time to get another breath.

Mako laughed, "If you don't like to get wet then you shouldn't be on a boat!"

"Tell me about it," Bakura said, "Originally, I wanted to take a plane."

"Why didn't you?" Mako asked just as Marik and Flipper emerged and jumped about fifty feet in the air. "Woohoo!" Marik called.

Bakura found himself struggling not to smile, "I wanted to try riding a boat for a while," he finally answered Mako. Besides, it was kind of worth it to see Marik acting so happy. Bakura chuckled, and then stopped, realizing what he just thought. He turned his attention back to the boat, which was anchored right now, for Marik's dolphin-riding lesson. He remembered how he got stuck here above deck. Marik had come running down the stairs digging through his duffel bag, and Bakura had asked if the boat had sprung a leak or something, and Marik turned around with a smile saying, "I'm going to ride a dolphin!" Bakura didn't believe him at first, so he went above-deck, and when he saw all the dolphins, he was kind of stunned, but it didn't show on his face.

Then he had met Mako, and he had insisted that Bakura stay above deck to watch. "The dolphins are amazing!" he had proclaimed, "And it would be better if someone was watching the boat." So Bakura had stayed above deck, and he now wished, for perhaps the first time since he had become a vampire, that he could go out in the daytime again. He wanted to ride the dolphins too. He sighed, wondering if Yugi had found a cure yet. Then a splash of water woke him from his reverie. His eyes flashed open, and immediately spotted the culprit: a grinning Marik, who quickly dived back into the water. Bakura's eye started to twitch, he actually did hate getting his clothes wet, but it was fine if he was swimming. He shook off most of the water like a cat, and then walked to the side of the boat and leaned on the railing.

He called out, "Splash me again and your get a knife through your neck!" as soon as Marik surfaced again.

"Whatever you say 'Kura!"

"I mean it this time!" Marik laughed, and Flipper dived back under water. He did another super jump, and when they were at the peak of their jump, Marik jumped off of the dolphin and dived into the water himself. When he surfaced, he was grinning ear-to-ear, and he decided that he would try jumping on the boat next.

Marik, Bakura, and Mako were looking at the map. "By my calculations," Mako was telling them, "We are right here," he pointed to somewhere on the map, "the dolphins migrate along here," he traced a part of the water, which was what route Marik and Bakura were going to take, "So, since you don't have a sextant, you should go in a straight northwestern line to this island here," he pointed to a small island that you could barely see on the map, "and then go straight northwest and you'll be where you want to be."

"Thanks," Marik said as he took the map back.

"If I were you, I would go and get a sextant the moment I land, it'll be easier for your trip back."

"I think we'll do that," Bakura put in, wondering what the heck a sextant was and decided he'd find out later.

Mako smiled, "The dolphins and I appreciate you taking a different route, and if you ever get lost, just look at the constellations. Well, I'm off!" Mako jumped over the railing into the water, and was seen not a moment later riding Flipper back the way they had come. Marik wished that he owned a dolphin, riding them was so much fun.

Bakura was smirking, and he said as soon as Mako was out of earshot, "And you wonder why people call you a kid?"

Marik glared at Bakura, "I've always wanted to ride a dolphin," was all he said.

Bakura chuckled, "Whatever, I think I'll stay above deck for a while. Just to make sure you don't get us lost."

"I wouldn't get us lost, you would get us lost."

"As if, I'm not the one who's a complete idiot."

"I know you don't really know how to pilot a boat," Marik said smirking.

Bakura shrugged, "I know enough, and I'm not the one who lost us time by riding a bloody dolphin."

"You're just jealous."

Bakura rolled his eyes, "Yeah, that's totally it."

"I know, thanks for admitting it." Bakura just walked away and sat down on the only other chair on the deck. He checked to see if Ryou was still sleeping, he was, so Bakura decided he could take a rest for a while. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to a land of dreams. Before he was completely asleep, he wondered briefly what the last dream he had was, it probably wasn't important anyway.

He started snoring softly, and while his guard was down, Ryou tried to take over again. He wanted to find out what was going on, and to see if he could stop it. He decided he should take back his life, since he now remembered what exactly had happened last year.

He was just having trouble figuring out how to do that. He had no idea how to continue from this point, he supposed he could still help search for the Millennium Items, but he wasn't sure how much of a help he'd be and he wasn't even sure why Bakura was looking for them in the first place. He was still having trouble remembering some things. He put his hand to his head and just noticed how hot he felt. He started to take the gloves off, but then he felt a white hot sensation appear on his hand, and he put the glove back on. What the, what's going on? Why is my hand burning? he cradled his hand, wondering why it hurt so much, and then he remembered that he was a vampire. His hand was really starting to hurt now, and he decided to go below deck to figure out what to do. However, he passed Marik, and you kind of notice a man wearing a trench coat cradling their hand walk by you. "Something wrong Bakura?"

Ryou looked at Marik and winced, "My hand…" he whispered. Since he whispered, Marik didn't hear the innocence in the voice, so he figured it was still Bakura, so he said, "Did you take off your glove?" Ryou nodded. Marik laughed, "And you call me an idiot?" he laughed some more, but was shocked into silence when Ryou said, "Please… it hurts, how do you make the pain go away?" Ryou was starting to see colors swim before his eyes the pain was so bad. And this was only his hand, imagine if this white-hot burning sensation was all over his body? Ryou winced some more. Marik stared at him, Please? he thought, Bakura never says please. He knew something was wrong, so he left the controls and walked towards him. "You know how to end the pain, you just drink my blood."

"D-drink your b-blood?" Ryou was horrified at the thought of drinking someone's blood.

"Yeah… You've done this before, remember?" Marik had heard the innocence now, and was getting wary.

Ryou looked into Marik's eyes, but because of the sunglasses and the trench coat's high collar, Marik didn't see Ryou's expression very well.

But Ryou saw Marik perfectly.

He saw these brilliant violet eyes and an honest worried face, and Ryou figured that this "Marik," whoever he is, was probably a pretty nice guy, but he still couldn't just drink his blood out of the blue like this.

"Um…" Ryou found it hard to talk while looking at Marik, so he looked down, "I-I don't think I can do that…"

Marik raised his eyebrows just as Ryou cringed from his hand again. Marik sighed, then he reached inside his pocket and took out a Swiss Army Knife. Maybe it was the voice, but Marik knew that at this rate Bakura, or whoever this person was, was going to faint before he'd drink his blood, and he didn't want that, so he cut his wrist, wincing slightly at the pain, and held out his hand below "Bakura's" nose.

As soon as he smelled the blood, every cell in his body froze. He wanted it. He wanted it so badly right now. It smelled so good, it smelled better than any dish he had ever prepared in his life, but he still tried to resist. He didn't want to do something so, so, repulsive! Even so, he found himself leaning forward, until he eventually licked the blood from the cut and then bit down. Marik was surprised. Surprised how much it had taken for Bakura to finally drink his blood, but more surprised about how he felt about it. When Bakura drank his blood, (no matter how much he wanted to deny it) he actually wanted Bakura to drink his blood. Honestly, it felt good, and not just afterwards. But when this Bakura drank his blood, he just felt like it was, almost natural. Like he didn't care either way if his blood was sucked out or not.

He stared at this Bakura and wondered…

Meanwhile, Ryou couldn't believe what he was doing. He wanted to stop, he did, he really did, you must believe him, but he also wanted to drink more. It was just so delicious… Somewhere in him, he knew that blood was meant to taste good, he knew that, and somehow, he also knew that he had to keep drinking until the pain in his hand stopped. Somehow, that would heal him. So he continued to drink, until he felt the pain in his hand start to go away, and then he drank more, until his hand felt normal again. He stopped drinking, and then he remembered something, although it was more Bakura's memory than his. He remembered that Bakura only had to drink a little blood to feel better, and his burns had been worse than his, why did he have to drink more? But then he remembered something, something important.

It was something he wrote, something he wrote a long time ago.

A little book called, A Vampire Story.

And then he knew.

He only thought this for a second though, because Marik looked like he was about to fall over. Ryou reached to help him stand, but then he felt Bakura start to take over. And, was that a, a, growl he heard? Ryou closed his eyes as he felt the darkness close in on him again.

Bakura opened his eyes and reached for Marik. He cussed under his breath, realizing that he couldn't sleep anymore, and then he sat Marik down on the driver's seat. He sighed, at least Marik hadn't fainted, that would have sucked. He scrunched up his face, remembering how he had felt when he found Ryou drinking Marik's blood. He had felt, protective, like he didn't want anyone touching Marik- ever. And he had read Ryou's thoughts too. Apparently, Ryou has a thing for purple eyes… Bakura was slightly surprised when a protective growl escaped his lips. He shook his head, and then thought of Ryou's other thoughts. Apparently the blood was delicious, but… Bakura closed his eyes tight to try and think better. He had actually tasted what Ryou had tasted, and he remembered Marik's blood tasting much better than that, what does that mean? Shouldn't he taste the same to all vampires? Was Marik's blood only the most delicious to him? And what about how much blood had Ryou had to drink? Bakura had had worse burns than a hand, and he hadn't had to drink half as much as Ryou had to. Bakura groaned in frustration, then decided that he should test out these finding ASAP. He also knew that Ryou had thought of something else, but he had felt rage at how Ryou was drinking Marik's blood and didn't quite catch it… He opened his eyes and stared at Marik. After a few seconds Marik's eyes started to open, and he saw Bakura glaring at him with one hand on his hip.

"Finally you're awake Sleeping Beauty. Have a nice nap? You better have, because you need to keep driving the boat."

After a while, Bakura and Marik were arguing. "We should turn left," Bakura was saying.

"No, we should turn right," Marik argued.

"We are supposed to go around this island right? So we should go around them by turning left."

"We could just as easily go around the island by going the right way."

"It's faster to go around the left way."

"How would you know? It's probably the same length." This fight had been going on for a while. Mainly because Bakura didn't want Marik to suspect anything about Ryou, so he figured he should argue with Marik about something stupid, luckily the island had acme up just in time. Before he had started arguing with Marik, he hadn't cared which way they went, but now he really wanted to turn left just because he wanted to be right.

Marik was still kind of freaked out by Bakura's mood swings. Did he just want to mess with his mind? Or is something wrong? He wanted to figure it out, but he couldn't, which made him irritable, which is why he was arguing about something so stupid. And he knew that Bakura wouldn't say anything, he would never admit if something was wrong. Honestly, he hadn't cared which way they went, he kind of just felt like yelling at Bakura. But the more he argued the more he wanted to go right.

SO they continued this idiotic fight, until the time came where they had to either turn right or left, and Bakura pushed Marik out of the driver's seat and turned the boat to the left. "Ha!" he called down at Marik.

"Bastard," Marik said angrily.

"Don't be such a baby," Bakura said as he got up and walked down below deck. As soon as he went into the bedroom, he took off his day attire and started yelling at Ryou.

"You idiot," he thought, "Why did you take off your glove?"

"I forgot…"

"Forgot? How could you forget?"

"I'm sorry…" Bakura cussed and laid down on the bottom bunk. He closed his eyes and started to make Ryou sleep again, to which Ryou said, "Wait!" Bakura stopped his spell.

"What?" he asked frustrated.

"Eto… it's just that… have you finished, A Vampire Story yet?"

Bakura froze. "No, why?"

"… You should read the rest of it…" Ryou said before Bakura decided to make him sleep again.

Bakura was staring at the cover of A Vampire Story, almost afraid to open it.

Almost.

He just didn't want to because he wasn't sure what he would find or if he would like it or not. He stared at the cover for a little longer, then decided to check his cell phone first.

He searched through his suitcase and found his phone. He turned it on, and no sooner than that it started to ring. This surprised him so much he dropped the phone, but he caught it before it hit the floor. He didn't recognize the number, but he answered it anyway, because he didn't really want to read the book just yet.

"Hello?" he said.

"Bakura-san?" said a female voice.

Bakura's eyes widened, he knew this voice, "Anzu?" he said surprised, "How the hell did you get my number?"

"You gave it to me the last time I came over, remember?"

"I did?" Bakura thought about it, and vaguely remembered doing that. "I guess I did, what do you want anyway?"

"Um, I just, wanted someone to talk to…"

"Did you and Yugi fight again?" Even though Bakura didn't know the whole story, he could tell that they had been fighting more than Yugi would have liked, considering how much he had come over to play games, so he just assumed.

"… Yeah…"

Bakura ran his hand through his hair, "How is that my problem?"

Anzu ignored that, and said, "It's just that, we've been fighting a lot lately, and I don't mean to, I just…"

Bakura sighed, realizing that he wasn't getting out of this easily. "What the hell could you two fight about anyway? You seemed like such a happy couple, it made me sick."

He heard Anzu sigh, "Well, it's just that… sometimes I feel like he's only trying to find a cure because he doesn't love m anymore."

"Why would you think that?" Bakura was genuinely curious.

"Because, he works all day and when he doesn't make any progress he gets really upset with himself, and…"

The phone line was silent for a little bit. Then Bakura said something that surprised Anzu, and himself, "Listen Anzu, I don't really know much about this sort of thing, but to me, you and Yugi seem perfect for each other, but that's just my opinion. I mean, you're a couple, you're bound to fight about something, whether it be stupid things or big things. You just need to work through it, try to see this from his point of view. He probably just wants to find a cure so that you can have your life back." The phone line was silent again.

"…Thanks Bakura-san, you may not think you know much, but you know a lot," Bakura heard Anzu hang up. He stared at the phone. The reason I know so much… he thought, No, he closed his eyes, that was in the past, I'll never see her again, just forget about it Bakura. He turned his phone off. He wanted to save the battery for emergencies in case they needed something.

Bakura sighed, and finally opened up A Vampire Story again.

Bakura was staring at a certain page in his book with disbelief. He couldn't believe what was written there.

It was a conversation between the main character and another vampire.

"… I have a question…" the main character, Hanashima, said ata park at midnight.

"Shoot," a red-headed vampire answered.

"… You know, that girl I'm dating?" He was referring to a girl he had run into one night. She had been walking home from night school when Hanashima had run into her. He wanted to apologize, so he offered to buy her a coffee. She told him it was too late for coffee, but Hanashima insisted that he needed to apologize in some way.

They had been dating ever since.

"You mean Kineme?"

"Yeah, her…"

"What about her?"

Hanashima was silent for a while. "Why, why does her blood taste so good?"

"Because it's blood!"

"No," Hanashima got more serious, "her blood tastes better than anyone else's I've ever tasted. Why is that?"

The red-head stared at Hanashima. "This is just a legend," he said, "But some say that for every vampire, there is a human whose blood, is, different somehow. This human's blood is the most desirable to that vampire, and they say there are certain, perks, that come with this human. For instance, only one drop of that human's blood will heal any wound a vampire has, and get rid of their thirst. We call these types of humans "Blood Packs," because of what their blood does."

"So your saying that Kineme is my Blood Pack?"

"If what you're telling me is true, yes." Hanashima was silent. The red-head sighed, rubbed his hand through his hair, and said, "There's more to these Blood Packs. For instance, you'll know yours is near because your mark will turn redder faster because your vampire body wants to taste the delicious blood. And, they say that if you drink your Blood Pack blood regularly, then they'll live as long as you do, at the same age you are. And, you can also heal their wounds or headaches or whatever by drinking their blood, so it's a win-win situation. Also, you'll also be very overprotective of you Blood Pack because you don't want anyone else taking your delicious supply of blood.

"However," Hanashima warned, "because this human's blood is so delicious, most vampires just end up killing them upon their first drinking, even though they only need a drop, they just want to drink more and more, until it's gone. But they say if you don't drain them right away, then this desire to drink more an more goes down after the first drinking. So if you keep your Blood Pack around, then it's very beneficial."

Hanashima was reeling, he wanted to know just one more thing. "What decides who your Blood Pack is? Is it just random? Or what?"

Hanashima looked up at the stars thoughtfully, "That is what has been confusing the most wise vampires for generations. Some think it is just random, but others, they think differently." He looked at Hanashima. "Some think that Blood Packs are chosen by their compatibility with you. In other words, they are "your perfect match."

At this point Bakura had closed the book. He didn't want to read anymore, he had already read more than he had wanted to. And even though the proof was right there, even though everything led to one, ultimate, final conclusion, he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to admit that maybe, possibly, perchance, somehow in someway, Marik was his…

He threw the book against the wall, again not caring that it was a library book, and decided to go above deck to get some fresh air and clear his head.

He was walking up the stairs just as Marik was walking down them and they bumped into each other.

"Oh, sorry 'Kura." Usually, Bakura would have liked to be called that, but with what he just read…

He didn't say anything, instead he just stared at Marik.

Marik looked at him as well, waiting for him to say something, and when he realized he wasn't going to, he said, ""I was just going down to tell you that the sun went away." Bakura still didn't say anything. Marik shuffled his feet, this silence was making him uncomfortable, so he walked past Bakura, but he cut the tip of his finger on something sharp. It was Bakura's fingernails.

"Ow!" Marik said, he looked at his slightly bleeding finger, "Look at this! When was the last time you cut your nails?"

Bakura was frozen, he had smelled the blood. He thought about how it was so delicious.

He thought about what he had just read.

He thought about how he wanted to drink some blood, but not all of it, even thought it was so delicious.

He thought about what he had read.

He grabbed Marik's writs and brought his hand up to his face. He leaned forward, and gently licked the blood from Marik's finger.

Marik found the touch to be quite, pleasurable, and his body tingled with the pleasure, and his face heated up and he found that he couldn't speak.

After Bakura was satisfied that he had licked all of the blood from Marik's finger, he thrust Marik's hand in his face and said, "See? All better," then let go.

Marik looked at his finger. It was completely better. Marik blinked disbelievingly. He looked at Bakura, "Did you know that would happen?"

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have done it," then he went back inside the bedroom. Marik looked at his finger for a little bit longer, then went back to the controls, slightly dazed and his face still slightly red.

Bakura was sitting up against the wall, cradling his head in between his hands. He was thinking about what had just happened, and he remembered what he had read.

He moved his right hand slowly to his left. He lifted up his shirt sleeve and looked at his mark.

It was completely clear.

He remembered what he had read.

He knew that he could no longer deny it, not when all the signs pointed to one explanation.

Marik is my Blood Pack.

(1): A navigational instrument which replaced the astrolabe and was used for measuring the angle between the horizon and the sun or a star in order to find out the latitude (of a ship). I actually looked it up.

I hoped you liked this chapter… I really do…

~~~{REVIEW REPLIES!}~~~

Bec: Why thank you! =) I'm glad I'm improving! To he honest, I didn't really notice how I made them act in the first few chapters, I just write what I think sounds right to me. And I'm glad it's suspenseful, because I have a lot of ideas and plot twists for this story, although they might now be plot twists, they're still surprising. I try to be as funny as I can, although I think I fail at that =( Horribly… I'm glad I could lighten your day though! =)

Also, regarding the future Puzzleshipping… after I re-read my story, I realized something that was painstakingly obvious and was a MAJOR story sup-plot and I can't believe I forgot about it (considering I WROTE the dang story). So I probably won't do the puzzleshipping as the (incredibly long) explanation (and apology) below states. Why I originally changed to puzzleshipping though was because I didn't understand Anzu's POV, I mean, she likes Yugi, but she also like the Pharaoh and that just confused me, but I think I understand it better now…

Also, my friend told me that vampires can change into bats AND cats, and after I heard that I'm like, "Bakura is totally a cat."

MimeGirl69:Lol, thank you! I'm glad the romance is good, because I thought it sucked… And yep, watching stars is classic, that's why I wanted to do it. And thank you for introducing me to "1st Labyrinth!" It's really good! =)

That's What Cheese Said: Yay! I made someone dance! ^^ And I'm sorry you're grounded, that really sucks. But I am slightly happy that you risk your dear life to read this fan fiction =) That makes me very happy… but please don't die, Because then I would never know how your fanfic ends!

Isis and Rishid are very cool! I love how they always look after Marik. And I'm glad you liked the Princess of Doom! I had trouble coming up with what the Princess could do to torment people…

NamiFluffy: Lols, I'm glad you're a fan! =) And Domino Institution rocks.

Now for the bad news… I'm extremely sorry to say this... but I may not necessarily do the puzzleshipping... Again, I'm very sorry, it's just that I completely forgot about why I chose Yugi+Anzu pairing in the first place until I re-read my story, and if I change it now I sort of feel like I'm contradicting my own story... Again, very sorry to all of you puzzleshippers out there... I really am sorry... but it will make sense in the later chapters! I promise! TT_TT I feel so bad for changing my mind like this... Like, I feel really, really bad. Like my heart's a black hole and it's slowly sucking me into it, making me feel all heavy with guilt and sadness… I'm not kidding… I hope you all can forgive me…

So basically, what I'm saying is, I'm probably not going to do the puzzleshipping. If you want me to REALLY explain why, shoot me a review and I'll get back to you, because I have an actual reason (I'm not a flimsy writer, just a forgetful one) and I also have a TON of different plans of how this story could go. I could go this way, that way, up down, left, right, I have a ton of ideas, and only some of them I actually use. For example, I had a HUGE amount of ways the first bar scene could have gone… And I mean HUGE.

See you next time! And I hope you can all forgive me, it's just that I forget a lot of things all the time and I change my mind on a daily business, so I hope you can forgive me…

Basically I'm asking for forgiveness… PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME! (Starts crying uncontrollably and begging on the ground)