Notes about this chapter: Femi is Malik's adopted daughter, whom he found on the streets about three months after Battle City. She's got an amnesia and doesn't remember anything about her life before she became Malik's daughter, aside her name. There's no any recorded documents of her either. Since it so far seems that she's an orphan, or at least abandoned, Malik took her in. He was kind of trying to fill the hole in his heart Marik's death had left there. Femi looks a lot like Malik, except that her eyes are indigo-coloured instead of lavender, her hair a lot shorter (just past her ears), and always really ruffled and messed up, despite Ishizu's countless attempts at trying to tame it.

Warnings: Hints of Bronzeshipping, Malik calling Femi with pet names, angst.

I want a transformer for Christmas: Malik

"Daddy, look!"

Malik blinked softly, and turned to look at where his little daughter was pointing at with her mitten-covered index finger. His eyes hit one of the window displays they were walking past. He'd just picked up the little girl from the day care, and she'd asked him if they could go get some hot chocolate at the city before going home. Not very good at telling no to his little one, Malik had agreed. Besides, he'd been feeling chilly anyway. Honestly, he didn't think he'd ever get used to the winters of Japan.

But getting back to the point. When Malik looked up, what he saw was a very beautiful blonde-haired and green-eyed doll dressed in a Victorian-stylised red dress with lashes and a thick dark pink ribbon tied girlishly around its waist. On top of its head was a brimmed straw hat with a thinner ribbon matching the doll's dress colour surrounding it. The doll had a never-ending smile on its pink lips and cherubic rosy cheeks. All in all, it was awfully cute and lovely doll any little girl would want.

"Yes, it's a very pretty doll, dear." Malik smiled down at Femi.

"Think Santa will bring it to me on Christmas if I wish for it really hard? I've been good this year, haven't I Daddy?"

Malik softly placed his own mitten-covered hand over his daughter's head. "Yes, you've been really good. I'm pretty sure the Santa will bring it to you."

-

That night, when Malik had finished reading a bedtime story about the Santa and his elves to Femi, he quietly stepped out of his daughter's room, closing the door behind him. The Ishtar family lived in a fairly large apartment of four bedrooms for the four people living in it, among with the entrance hall that covered all the other rooms – the kitchen, the living room and the dining room.

"Is she asleep?" Ishizu asked from her brother, peaking her head from the kitchen area.

"Yeah. She always falls asleep in the middle of the story. It's a bit funny actually. She's such a bundle of energy during the day, but at night she sleeps like a rock."

"She needs to draw all that energy from somewhere, I suppose." Ishizu chuckled. She, just like Rishid and Malik himself, completely adored Femi. "I'm making tea. You want some?"

"Sure." Malik replied. Anything to keep him warm. At the sight of his sister disappearing to the kitchen again, Malik followed her there and took his seat around the table. For a moment, neither one of the siblings spoke a word. Then, Malik questioned: "Did Rishid already go to sleep too?"

"Yes. He's got an early waking up tomorrow." His sister answered, as she took out some cups for them.

There was more silence.

Malik broke it again: "Hey, Nee-san…"

"Yeah?"

"Today, when I picked Femi up from the nursery, we went to the city to get some hot chocolate…"

"Yes, you already told me that earlier." Ishizu gently urged him on, this time taking out tea bags.

"Well, we walked past this store window, and there was this really cute doll-"

"No, Malik." Ishizu interrupted him in the middle, rather stern tone in her voice, but still not turning around to look at him. She merely poured the boiled water to the cups and put the tea bags in them.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!" Malik said, making sure to keep his voice down so Femi and Rishid wouldn't wake up.

"Oh, yes I do." Ishizu replied calmly, setting the tea cup in front of her brother and taking her own seat across the table form him. "You want to buy that doll for her for Christmas, right? Malik, we've gone over this. You can't always give Femi what she wants, and besides you've already got her a present, haven't you? We must be careful not to spoil her too much, or it'll corrupt her in the end."

"But…" Malik frowned.

At that sight, Ishizu's eyes softened slightly, and she put a hand over the table onto her brother's shoulder. "I know it's hard for you to say no to her, Malik, I really do. But still, you understand we can't raise her completely carelessly, right? We need to set ourselves boundaries and rules, and to be responsible for her, because she's too young to do that herself yet. You understand that, don't you?"

Malik looked up, but still slightly sad. "Yeah…I do."

-

The next day, the Domino High's last bell rang as the end of the school hours, and Malik was putting on his shoes and winter coat at his locker near the entrance hall.

"Hey, Malik-kun." The tanned blonde looked up, and saw the rest of the gang. Yuugi was the one who had spoken. "We're going to the arcade together. You want to come too?"

"Sorry, I can't." Malik said as he smiled a bit apologetically and started pulling his colourful scarf around his neck. "I have to pick up Femi from the kindergarten today. I promised her."

Yuugi smiled back at him. "It's okay."

"Tell her we said hi." Yami added.

"I will. Well, see you!" Malik told the, as he took his schoolbag into his hand, waved at his friends and left the school building.

Outside, it had begun snowing. Malik loved the snow. It was one of the few things he appreciated about the weather being colder here than in Egypt. It was so pure and beautiful, and white. It wasn't dark. Watching the snow fall from the sky made him feel at peace and it took his mind off of all the bad things.

As he walked, he thought. He had never really figured out what he had done to get such great friends as he had now, especially from the people he'd treated so badly in the past. He'd done so awful things to them, he couldn't believe he had got such heartfelt companions out of them. But he was grateful either way.

All those things…remembering them, he frowned. Marik…another thing why he was grateful that he had friends now. They understood how he felt about Marik not being around anymore. Ishizu and Rishid, as much as they loved him and he them, didn't understand. They couldn't figure out why he still loved the man who had nearly destroyed this world, among with everything Malik himself loved. Sometimes, Malik couldn't even quite understand it himself, but it was just the way things were. He would always love and miss Marik, until his very death day.

Of course, his longing wasn't as bad as it had been, and that was all thanks to Femi. The cheerful and energetic little girl had been the one to really bring the light into his life after Marik. His daughter was everything to Malik, and he loved her so deeply.

It was for that reason he had so much difficulty in saying no to her. But there was also another reason. He himself had been denied so much as a child, when they'd lived underground. He'd hardly had any toys or even time during which he could have played. Most of his life had been needed to dedicate to reading the ancient scriptures left by their ancestors. Rishid had sometimes played a little bit of ball with him when he'd been very little, but since that one time when a snake had bit him while they'd been playing, such things had become completely forbidden by their father.

His father…the man he both hated and loved. The man Marik had killed, because he'd known that deep down that had been what Malik had wished for. The man he had wanted to take a revenge for, the most of all. His feelings for his father were awfully mixed up. But that man was mostly to be blamed whenever Femi was concerned in Malik's life. He wasn't sure at certain situations how a good father should act, as he'd never had one himself to show him that. He had the most troubles denying Femi anything, and punishing her. He wasn't sure what was alright to be denied and what kind of punishment was rightful to give to such a little girl.

During these thoughts, he had reached the Domino Nursery, and now stepped inside the gates surrounding its huge yard. He walked towards the west wing, where the littlest kids were taken care of, and stepped inside the front door. He turned left and walked towards the right door inside, which read "The starlings". That was the name of Femi's day care group. He peaked his head inside from the door.

"You're just the best at drawing, Femi-chan!" A little girl sitting next to his daughter at a table, said. She had short dark brown hair with and cheerful blue eyes. Malik recognised her as Ayumi, one of Femi's little friends. And as he watched his daughter smile at the other girl's compliment, he knew he'd made the right decision in allowing Ishizu to enter Femi into a kindergarten. He had been really worried about giving Femi up to strangers, but it was just like his sister had said: Femi needed to make friends and live a normal three-year-old's life.

"Oh, Malik-kun, are you picking Femi-chan up today?" the blonde then heard a feminine voice from his right, and turned to see one of Femi's group nannies, Asuka. She was a woman in her early forties, with short curly and brown hair, blue eyes behind glasses, among with friendly wrinkles.

"Yes, that would be my intention, Asuka-san." Malik replied, smiling slightly at the older woman. Asuka-san was one of the few people who hadn't judged him for the fact a 16-year-old was raising a three years old girl, and for that Malik was grateful.

"Femi-chan, look who's here." Asuka called out for the little girl, who turned her head and right that moment her face spread into a wide grin.

"Daddy!" She yelled, quickly rose from her seat and hurried to hug her father.

"Hi sweetheart. You ready to go?" Malik questioned as he hugged his daughter back.

"Yeah! I'll just get my drawings!" Femi responded with a bright smile. She rushed back to the table she'd been sitting around, gathered some of the papers on it into her arms and waved Ayumi goodbye. Then, she came back to her father, hugged Asuka goodbye and they left to dress her into her full-body winter suit to the entrance hall.

-

When they were back at their home (Ishizu and Rishid were still at work), Malik had prepared some snacks for them both, and they were now sitting at the table, ready to begin eating.

"So, how was your day today?" Malik asked from the little one sitting across the table from him in her extra-high chair so she could reach the table.

"It was great!" Femi beamed, and Malik smiled himself. In her childish innocence, Femi's opinion of about every day was 'great' or 'awesome'. "Me and Ayumi-chan played with the dolls of the nursery and Yusuke-kun said we were so girly and then Ai-chan said that we were allowed to be, because we are girls and he went all mute at that! Ai-chan is so smart, she always knows what to say! And then we went outside and Yukio-kun threw a snowball at me and then Yuri-chan got mad at him and threw a snowball at him instead and then we were all throwing each other with snowballs and it was so much fun! But then Nanny Sakura came and told we should stop because we might hurt ourselves, and it wasn't nice. Then we sang a song about a spider and went for the nap, and after the nap we drew and coloured some pictures and I helped Midori-chan to cut off her paper doll since she can't cut the corners very well…"

Malik smiled as his daughter continued to babble on and on. Femi loved to draw, and though very young, she already showed quite a big talent in it. Every single day she would bring some pictures back home that she'd drawn at the day care, and she doodled a lot at home, too. Some of her best pictures hung framed on the walls of their apartment.

Finally Femi stopped babbling, and asked instead: "What about your day, Daddy?"

Malik's smile turned a bit more nervous. "It was fine." Actually it hadn't been. The math lesson today had been awfully boring. And so had been literature, mostly because Malik had no idea what the book they were supposed to be reading was saying. He could speak Japanese fluently, but reading it was a whole other thing. He knew the hiragana and the katakana completely, but he had never learnt all the kanji letters, and since they were in high school, the texture there was mostly in kanji. But Femi didn't need to know that, so he decided to change the subject. "What kind of pictures did you draw today?"

Femi smiled again. "They're at the counter, you can look yourself."

And so, Malik rose and went to take the drawings into his hands, starting to look through them. The first one was a simple one of a sunflower and a butterfly flying next to it in the air. The second one was of a princess with a large golden crown filled with rubies and sapphires on top of her head, and wearing a pink dress. These were the typical little girl things that made Malik smile. His daughter was just so…normal. And knowing it made him happy.

But the next picture in turn made him sad. It was obviously a picture of the doll they'd walked past of. He had decided with himself that he'd tell Femi she might not get the doll for Christmas, so the disappointment she'd have to go through wouldn't be so bad on the big day. This was Femi's first Christmas – or at least the first one she remembered with her amnesia and all – so Malik wanted it to be as perfect as possible for her. But he decided he'd put telling the girl away as much as possible, so he took a look at the last picture.

What he saw shocked him.

"Femi?"

"Yes, Daddy?"

"What is this?" he showed her the last drawing.

Femi beamed again. "It's me, Daddy and Dad, of course! It's our family!"

Malik frowned as he looked down at the picture once more. He'd told Femi about Marik at secret from Ishizu and Rishid, addressing him as her 'Dad', because if Marik had been here with him when Femi came around, that was what he would've been to her. Besides, it wasn't like Femi would ever have a mother or another father either way, so Malik though it was the best she felt she had both parents despite one of them being missing. Marik just was literally the other part of his soul. Loving someone else after loving someone like that, was pretty much out of the question.

What confused him about the drawing was that he'd never completely described to Femi how Marik looked like. Still, in the picture he looked almost exactly the way Malik remembered him, drawn as well as a three-year-old could. He even had his usual wild hair and the dark cape he'd worn at Battle City. In the picture, he and Marik were on the both sides of Femi, holding her hands, and they were all smiling.

"Sweetie?" Malik addressed and Femi looked up. "Could I have this?"

"Of course, Daddy! I made it for you! Now you can always look at it and remember Dad!"

"Thanks." Malik smiled softly. But then his face turned more serious. It was time to discuss about that. "Femi?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember that doll we saw a few days ago at the shop?"

"Yeah! I drew it too, did you see? I'm planning to send that picture to Santa, so he'll know exactly what it looks like and make my wish come true!"

Ouch. That hurt. "Femi…about that." Femi's smile faded at her father's tone, and the look on her face became confused instead. "I'm not sure if the Santa will bring it to you after all."

Now Femi's eyes got filled with fright and shock. "But why?"

"Because Santa Claus is really busy this time of the year." Malik quickly tried to explain without ruining the childish and innocent beliefs Femi had. In order to make his point completely clear, he walked to Femi and lowered himself slightly so their faces were colliding. "You've been really good this year, Femi, but the Santa has so many other things to do that I'm not sure if he'll be able to make such a late wish come true. But I'm sure you'll get a lot of other nice presents."

Even with these words of comfort, the look of disappointment on Femi's face was obvious, and Malik felt his heart breaking a little.

There was a moment's silence.

Finally, Femi spoke up with a broken voice: "If he won't bring me that dolly…will he make my other biggest wish come true?"

Malik blinked. "What wish is that?"

"That Dad would come home for Christmas. I want to meet him."

Her words stuck like a lightning to Malik, because that was what he, too, really wanted for Christmas. But he knew he wouldn't get that. Marik was dead. He was gone…forever, leaving Malik all alone. He loved Femi, Ishizu, Rishid and all his friends, but…it wasn't the same. He wanted to feel Marik's strong arms around himself once more, to have that safe and content feeling of balance in his heart. To know it was alright to be weak, because there was someone stronger who would support him the times he felt vulnerable…and asked nothing in return.

"Daddy? Why are you crying?" Came Femi's soft and confused voice.

Malik hadn't even realised he'd started wailing. But then again, it wasn't so surprising. However, he said nothing as an answer to the toddler, and just pulled her tight into his arms. He heard Femi make some confused noises at his actions, but he just held her tighter, and wept.

-

That night, Malik's sleep was restless. He kept having a nightmare of being in a dark, empty and quiet place, where barely visible black hands and arms kept grabbing and pulling him from all over, and the owners of those hands were all demanding him to give them something precious to him: "Give us your life", "Give us your light", "Give us your body", "Give us your family", "Give us your friends", "Give us your love".

Then suddenly, he hadn't been alone in the darkness anymore, but a small ray of light had appeared in front of him. In that light, stood Femi with a confused expression on her face, asking him where they were and telling him she was scared. He had tried to get to her, but the black arms had stopped him. And then suddenly they were all asking for the same thing: "Give us your child". And just that moment, the black hands had started dragging his little one away, her screaming in fright and agony, and him being unable to do anything to stop her from being taken.

Malik finally bolted up in his bed, waking up and panting, covered in cold sweat. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, trying to calm himself, his breathing and his heart down. 'It's alright. It was just a dream. Everything is fine.' He tried to tell himself, but although his heart and breathing were beginning to soothe, his nerves weren't. He couldn't feel comforted in this darkness.

He had always been afraid of the dark. Ironically, he had also fallen in love with that, in a way. But Marik's darkness had been different, to him at least. To him, Marik had always been kind, gentle and loving. And if he had been here now, Malik would be held in his arms and being comforted.

But Marik wasn't here. He was all alone in the darkness, and there was no one to protect him from it.

There was nothing else left to do for him. The only thing that would calm him down now would be seeing that Femi was still here, sleeping in her room and completely alright.

And so, Malik clumsily rose from his bed, left his room and walked to the door next to his own room's. Femi's bedroom had been put right next to his, so she could easily crawl next to him into his bed if she had nightmares. Those had been pretty frequent when Malik had first adopted her. Those dreams, as she had told him, had mostly been about her being stuck in complete emptiness. Malik figured they were caused by her amnesia. Even for such a little girl, who didn't even have many memories yet, it must be awful not to know who you were.

Malik slowly opened Femi's room's door slightly, taking a peek inside. Despite the darkness, he could see the small lump that was his daughter lying in the bed. She was contentedly sleeping on her right side, her face turned towards the wall her bed was standing next to.

Watching her, Malik felt a bit better, but still not soothed enough. So he opened the door a bit more, just enough for himself to slip inside as quietly as possible. He walked silently over to his sleeping daughter, carefully sat besides her on the bed, and softly began running his fingers through the girl's ever-so-messy but soft sandy locks. Being able to touch Femi calmed him down. She was still here. She wasn't going anywhere.

Still, that was probably Malik's worst fear at the moment – Femi going away that is – so it didn't shock him he'd had such a nightmare. He was so afraid that someday, a couple would come at his door and tell him they were Femi's real parents and had come to take her home. He knew that was unlikely, with the lack of Femi's records and the fact he'd found her in a state that clearly told she'd most likely been abandoned. And besides, they were in a different country now too, and with her dark skin, Femi clearly had to be Egyptian. Still, even knowing those things didn't ease this fear of his.

"Daddy?" Came a soft, sleepy voice, and Malik saw that Femi had stirred awake. Her indigo eyes were only half-open, and still pretty sleepy.

"Shh, it's okay honey. Just go back to sleep."

Femi just nodded mildly and snuggled slightly closer to her father's warmth. "I'm sure Santa will bring Dad home…" she murmured, before her breathing evened and she fell asleep once more.

So there was another thing he'd need to tell her Santa couldn't make come true. Ouch. But not now. It was too late night, and he had to go back to bed as well.

-

"Hey, Malik-kun." Malik heard a voice the next day at school, and looked up. Until now, he'd been staring out of the window he was sitting next to. He saw the rest of the gang standing right next to him. He hadn't even noticed they'd come there.

"Yeah?"

"Is something wrong? You've seemed a bit down today." Yami stated.

Malik frowned. "It's just…"

"Yeah?" Yuugi gently encouraged him.

"It's Femi."

"Oh." They probably had guessed it. Whenever Malik had troubles, they usually concerned his daughter.

"So what's the matter?" Ryou asked.

Malik sighed. "About a week ago, I picked her up from the nursery, and we decided to go get some hot chocolate at the city before going home. We walked past a toy shop, and she saw this doll at the store's window. She, of course, wished she'd receive it for Christmas, but Nee-san thinks we need to avoid spoiling Femi too much, so I can't get it for her. And now I don't know what to do, because it feels like I can't make any of her fondest wishes come true…"

"Any of them? There's more, then?" Anzu questioned.

Sadness filled the blonde's eyes momentarily. "She wishes her Dad would be home just this one time for Christmas." And so do I, Malik added silently in his mind.

"Her Dad? You mean Marik?" Jou asked.

"Uh-huh. I've told her some things about him."

"But not that he can't be around cause he's dead?"

"Jou, honestly." Yami spoke up, hands on his hips. "Femi's still just a kid. She's merely three years old. She can't understand what death means, and she shouldn't either. When you're a child, being blissfully ignorant is usually better than knowing the bitter truth and losing your innocence because of it. Or what do you imagine yourself answering if Mokuba or Shizuka ask you where babies come from?"

"…You have a good point."

"I've planned to tell her when she's ten. I think then she'll be old enough to understand." Malik continued, gazing slightly out of the window once more. "But right now she's still just so childish and innocent and sweet and…I don't want to ruin that. That's also why I wish I could make those wishes come true for her. I'm afraid she'll lose her faith otherwise."

"That's understandable. No one's blaming you for it." Yuugi said sympathetically, placing a hand on the tanned boy's shoulder, earning a small smile.

"So what are you planning on doing?" Yami then asked from Malik.
"I don't know!" The blonde replied, sounding frustrated. "In order to keep Femi in faith, I think I should buy that doll for her, but I feel so guilty about betraying Nee-san's faith in me…"

"But you're the one the most responsible of Femi in the end." Yami pointed out. "That's why you must make your decision thinking about her, and not anyone else. As her father, do you think one more present that could possibly make her very happy and save her innocence, is more important than the fact she might get spoiled, with the keyword being might. It'll depend fully on the decisions you'll make in the future for her, and how you treat her."

Malik thought about it quietly and hard. Everyone waited in patient but a little intense silence.

Finally, Malik looked up to them with a serious expression. "I think I'll be ready take the risk of it possibly spoiling her."

-

Later that day, when it was snowing again, Malik was walking towards the toy store with his wallet in his hands. He would be meeting Yami and Yuugi in front of the store, as they had offered to come with him so he wouldn't back away at the last minute. The others would've come too, but they all had either had other plans or been otherwise too busy this time.

Deep in these thoughts, Malik didn't even hear or notice that someone was following him, until that someone had rushed right past him, and had grabbed his wallet from his hands.

It took Malik a moment to realise what had happened. But when he did, he quickly began running after the one who had taken his money, yelling: "Hey! Get back here, you thief!" He couldn't see what the stealer looked like exactly, as that person was covered in a long white coat and white pants, had a white hat covering the hair and white gloves the hands. Also, the thief's back was turned to him, so he couldn't see the face. The only thing he knew was that the stealer was most likely a man – that body was almost impossible to be woman's – and was slightly taller than him. "Give back my wallet, you bastard!"

The thief turned to his right when he came next to a space between two houses. Malik turned after him, and noticed he'd come to a dead end.

But the thief was nowhere to be seen.

-

"And he just disappeared?" Yuugi asked, after Malik had come to the toy shop and told the two tri-colour haired boys what had happened.
"Yeah."

"Did you lose a lot?" Yami questioned.
Malik shrugged. "Naw, not really. I barely had enough so I could buy that dolly. But that's not really what's bugging me. Now I really can't get Femi that doll." He spoke sadly, frowning.

"Wait a moment. Maybe it's not all lost yet." Yami said, taking out his cell phone and pressed some numbers on it.
"Who are you calling?" Yuugi tried to ask, but Yami shushed him as he put his phone over his ear.

"Hello, Ryou?" Malik and Yuugi's eyes widened. "Is Bakura there with you?"

…

"And he's been there this past hour?"

…

"You haven't left his side once, or he yours?"

…

"Never mind. Sorry for disturbing you." Yami finished as he took the phone off his ear and pressed its button to end the call.

"No clue, huh?" Malik sighed.

"No, sorry."

"It's not your fault. I should've been more careful."

"Malik-kun, maybe you should look at it this way: maybe this is some kind of sign from the above that they don't want you to buy that doll for Femi?" Yuugi suggested.

"Well, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing that has ever happened to us, would it?" Malik chuckled. "To tell you the truth, I don't think Femi coming to me was a mere coincidence either."

"You don't?" Yami blinked.

"No." Was his reply. "It's just too weird. When I found her on the streets, it was raining, though it barely ever rains in Egypt. She looks so much like me, and there just happens to be no records whatsoever of her, nor does she have any memory of her earlier life either. And, though I'm only sixteen, I still got to adopt her! And get this, the other day, she draw a picture of me, herself and her Dad, and that Dad looked almost exactly like Marik had!"

"Seriously?!" The two others exclaimed out loud.

"Yup." Malik answered. "Don't you think all that is a bit too much for a coincidence?"

"Definitely." They replied. Then, Yami said: "What do you think sent Femi to you then?"

"I don't know." Malik responded, before gazing up to the snowing sky. "But I don't really care either. I'm just glad I have her."

-

A few more days later, Malik once more picked Femi up from the nursery, and the little girl had some new drawings with her.

"I'm going to give these to Dad when he comes home." Femi giggled with a bright smile, walking besides her father.

"Femi, about that." Malik put in, as he stopped walking and crouched next to the little girl. He put his hands on her tiny shoulders and made her look straight into his eyes. "Femi, your Dad is unable to come home. He won't be able to come here, not now, not ever." He gulped down the tears and the guiltiness he felt when Femi's eyes once more got filled with even greater disappointment than when he'd told her she wouldn't be getting that doll. "I can't explain to you quite yet why he can't come, sweetie, but you must remember this: your Dad loves us. He would be here if he could, but he can't. But I'm sure if you sent your drawings to the wind, it'll carry them to him."

Femi looked up from her frown. "But the reason Dad isn't here isn't because he doesn't like me?"

"No, of course not sweetheart." Malik responded, hardly believing Femi could even think such manners, as he pulled her into a hug. "You're a very lovely girl, Femi. Your Dad and I both love you, and so do your Aunts and Uncles. So, please understand. Your Dad would be here if he could, but he just can't. It's not your fault."

They departed from a hug. Malik could once more see the innocence and faith in Femi's eyes, but there was something new as well. Relief. "Daddy?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think Santa will bring me new crayons? My old ones are getting kind of small and hard to draw with."

Now it was Malik's turn to smile. The present he'd got for Femi were new crayons, among with pencils and more drawing paper, because he'd noticed the old ones had been used so efficiently that they were starting to get too short to colour with. "I'm sure, sweetie. About that, I'm completely sure."

He hee, surprised you with who this was, didn't I? XD. But Mokuba just isn't that kind of bratty child to fit this chapter (neither is Femi, but this chapter wasn't really implying that anyway).

I hope none of you will slaughter me for using an OC in this ^^;. But the idea was just too perfect in my mind to ignore. So sorry!

The idea of Femi came after I read Family Life with the Ishtars by Itavita, although in that one Malik and Marik had a son, Sei, instead of a daughter. But for some reason I decided to give Malik a daughter anyway. Femi's name means "love" in Ancient Egyptian, by the way. It was the name of Malik and Ishizu's mother in another story of mine, although I never got far enough with it to reveal that. And Femi will MUCH later have two adopted little brothers too, Chike and Sefu.

I freaking LOVE Malik. Seriously. He's one of my favourite characters in Yu-Gi-Oh!. His character is so deep and it makes him so interesting. Under all the evilness of Battle City, there is just a wrongly treated child. And I freaking hate Mr. Ishtar for the treatment he gave Malik as a kid!

Malik fearing the dark is canon, it's stated in the manga. So there.

This was PAIN. It's. Too. Long!

Next is Stale TV specials. That's right, I've decided I'll be skipping Finding parking spaces and Batteries not included, because the schedule is too tight and I don't have any ideas for those two. Please don't kill me!