Sweet In Disguise
Written by OtakuChild
Disclaimer: If I did want to own it I'd have to fight my way through the crowd of 2859127148 other fangirls who want it just as much as I do.
Wow, chapter 7. We're getting there!
I am having formatting issues. It won't let me indent paragraphs. Does anybody know how to fix this? Any pointers would be most appreciated. This place has changed so much since I last logged in. Wow:D Lots of new stuff to get used to and awesome new fics and writers out here. :)
Okay, we've had lots of wonderful fluff going on here, but it's not going to stay that way for long. Don't worry though, I'm a sucker for happy endings. :D
As for Malik's eyes in the anime, I am unsure as to whether or not they are tattoos. I don't like to think that they are, and so in my fics he uses eyeliner.
I initially made Malik a vegetarian, and then realized that he really is a vegetarian, and promply fell off my chair laughing hysterically at my lack of brain. :D
And just for clarity...everyone is slightly older in this fic. I put Malik and Ryou in college, and the Yugi-crew(Tea, Tristan, Joey) as seniors in high school. This will be fixed in 'Sicky.'
Chapter 7: Not As it Seems
The two boys continued to see each other on a regular basis. The nights were filled with adamant talking and chatting that lasted well into the early morning hours. They talked about everything from candy to world peace to politics, and once spent the night picking apart everything they felt was wrong with straight people. On a particularly odd night, they discussed Seto Kaiba's odd ticks and working habits, and came to the conclusion that he was asexual(1). They went over how the particular day had been, what Bakura had accomplished at work, and how Malik was doing in school(2). While neither one actually said 'I love you,' it didn't stop the two of them from snuggling, kissing, making out, or sleeping in the same bed on the nights they had off from work and school. Both seemed perfectly content to keep things going slow, and enjoyed what they had with each other.
In the meantime, Ryou and Marik continued to see each other in secret, Malik being the only person who actually knew the details of what was really going on. Out of understanding and respect for the two, he kept all details hidden away from Bakura, feeling that when the time came, it needed to be Ryou or Marik, or both, who came clean about their little secret. Malik wondered sometimes just why they had kept it a secret to begin with, and at times it made him uneasy. He knew they wouldn't be able to hide it forever, and he knew that Bakura would be none to happy to find that his hikari and best friend were keeping something of this magnitude from him. He had a horrible, sinking feeling about it all. He knew that eventually, their secret would backfire.
He had no idea just how right he was, or how soon it would happen.
At work, Bakura was typing furiously, ignoring everyone and everything around him. He had decided long ago that Seto Kaiba could easily take the Guinness World Record for being the most anal, nit picky boss, although he had also reasoned that the large paychecks and benefit packages he handed out gave him a right to be anal and nitpicky. Sometimes it was just downright annoying, like right now.
The lines of code and programming were starting to blur. He'd been working on the same file for what felt like weeks, and wondered if the project, and the game it was tied to, would ever be completed and released. He rubbed his eyes and kept going, tuning out the footsteps that make his way past the open door of his office, failing to see that they had abruptly stopped just outside the door.
"Bakura?"
Yami's deep voice wafted into the office.
"Hn..." Bakura kept typing.
"Bakura..." Yami tried again.
Tappity tappity click click tap tappity...
"BAKURA!"
"What!" Bakura snapped out of his work-induced trance, and looked up at Yami. "Oh, hi. When did you start working here?"
"I don't, I just stopped by to drop off Kaiba's lunch."
"What are you doing with Kaiba's lunch?"
"Mokuba called me and said he left it on the counter again, and I was in the neighborhood, so I swung by and picked it up." He held up the nondescript brown paper bag.
"I see..." Bakura nodded.
"You look exhausted. I think you're working too much." Yami trotted into the office and sat in the chair on the opposite side of the desk and faced Bakura.
"Oh jeez. Now you're sounding like Malik." Bakura thought of Malik's pretty face for a split second and grinned.
"Maybe he has a point. You should come to movie night this week and unwind. Bring Malik."
"Yeah, maybe I should. Ryou goes a lot, seems to have a lot of fun." Bakura paused thoughtfully.
Yami raised an eyebrow. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes...why?"
"Well, it's just that Ryou hasn't been to movie night in about three months."
After the conversation with Yami, Bakura threw himself back into his work with renewed fury, and kept at it until Seto Kaiba himself came by the office to send him home, telling him idly that becoming a workaholic was no solution to family problems of any kind. Bakura responded with a snide remark that went along the lines of the pot calling the kettle black, and the spat ended with Bakura getting kicked out of the office, with orders to not work overtime for three weeks. With no choices left, Bakura went home and called Ryou.
Malik and Ryou were sitting on the couch, working on homework, when Ryou's cell phone rang. Ryou absentmindedly picked it up, failing to check the number.
"Hello?"
"Ryou Drake, come home RIGHT NOW." Bakura's voice growled through the phone.
Ryou's eyes widened. "Um...I can't right now, we're on our way to Yugi's house..." he lied.
"No you're not. You can drop the charade now, Ryou. I had a rather interesting conversation at work with Yami today. You haven't been going to Yugi's house."
"Oh, well..." Ryou paused. "No, I haven't..."
"Yes, there we go. I like the truth. It's a rather beautiful thing. When you get home we'll find out just what else you've been hiding from me."
Ryou quietly slid through the door, and tiptoed into the living room. He felt dread and the nausea that often comes with it. He hated when Bakura got mad. Especially over things like this.
"What were you THINKING?"
Bakura glared at Ryou, furious, hurt, angry, sick, and so many other feelings he couldn't put together at the moment.
"What if something had happened to you? Nobody would be able to -"
"It's not like I was ALONE!" Ryou shot back. "Marik was with me the whole time! He ALWAYS walks me home so I'll be safe!"
Silence.
"You were with Marik?"
"Yes..."
"And just what were you doing with Marik that didn't seem to be worth telling me?"
"Well...um...things..." Ryou trailed off and stared at the floor.
"What kind of things?" Bakura growled.
"I don't feel like telling you."
It suddenly dawned on Bakura that this wasn't the first time Ryou had told a cover story or acted suspicious. He replayed the last few months in his head, and realized that Ryou had been seeing Marik in secret and keeping it hidden from him. He felt new anger swirling around in the pit of his stomach.
"Tell me something, Ryou. Were you ever planning on telling me you were seeing someone?"
Ryou swallowed hard. "Eventually..."
"So basically, the answer is 'no.'"
"That's not what I said!" Ryou snapped.
"WHEN, Ryou? When were you going to tell me about this? And Marik! Why didn't Marik tell me? He's my best friend! How could you keep this hidden from me?"
"I don't know! It started out...not much really. We thought it would be too awkward at first, to tell you, in case it didn't work. But then it got serious...really serious, and we just kept hiding it...and now..." Ryou went back to staring at the floor.
Bakura took a long, shaky breath.
"Suppose I needed to get ahold of you because of an emergency! You don't even take your fucking cell phone with you! I had no way to get ahold of you!"
"No emergency ever came up!"
"It could have!"
"But it didn't!"
"That's NOT THE FUCKING POINT RYOU!" Bakura roared. "I got you that cell phone so I could be in contact with you at all times! So I'd know where you were when you went out!"
"Maybe I wanted some fucking privacy!"
"THEN YOU COULD HAVE PUT IT ON SILENT!"
"BUT YOU MAKE ME CHECK IN ALL THE FUCKING TIME! I just wanted some time where I didn't have to worry about it! Besides, Marik had his phone, I could have used it."
"Bullshit! Why call Marik when you tell me you're at Yugi's house? Then I find you're not there!"
"You still could have called Marik!"
"That's not the point! You lied to me! You fucking lied to me and it HURTS!"
Ryou gasped. Hiding this from Bakura was bringing about far worse consequences than the two had originally thought. Things had gotten out of control. He wished he could redo everything from the beginning. He couldn't, so now he had no option left but to take what Bakura had to dish out, which was a lot of anger and hurt.
"Yes, Ryou, it hurts," Bakura sneered. "You lied to be because for whatever reason, you felt you couldn't trust me. But what you failed to see is that you just proved to me that I can't trust you. So what else are you hiding from me?"
Ryou started to shake. "It-it's not like you wouldn't have been able to f-find me."
"Didn't we just go through this, Ryou?"
"But I told people where I was! They would have been able to find me!"
"Really? And just who did you feel obligated to share this information with?"
Ryou looked down at the floor.
"Well?" Bakura snapped.
"Malik."
Malik was in the kitchen reading the paper when Ryou burst through the door in a sobbing mess.
"Ryou! What happened to you?" Malik ran to Ryou, pulled him through the door and shut it behind him.
"He knows! God, he knows! He was talking to Yami and mentioned the 'movie night' from awhile ago and he found out because I wasn't there! Now he knows everything and he knows you're in on it and he's so mad!" Ryou started sobbing all over again.
"What's going on?" Marik called from upstairs. He jogged down the stairs and found his koibito a mess in the living room.
"He knows, Marik. And he's none too happy about it." Malik let out a sigh.
Marik grabbed the phone and headed back upstairs. "Well, too bad. I'm calling Bakura." Marik returned about twenty minutes later, with a grim look on his face.
"He wants to talk to you, Malik."
Malik felt a sick lurch in his stomach. "Shit..."
"I think you should talk to him. Don't let this wreck what you have with him. If he does anything rash, just call me."
"Okay." Malik took a shaky breath, slowly stood up, and headed out the door.
When Malik arrived at Bakura's house the door was unlocked, but the house was dark, save for the light on top of the stove range. Malik gingerly opened the door.
"Bakura?"
Bakura emerged from the living room, eyes bloodshot, hair a tangled mess. "You." He glared at Malik. "You were in on this." His voice was low, and quiet. Too quiet.
"I..." Malik shut the door behind him, heart pounding.
"I didn't lie to you, Bakura..."
"You hid things from me!" Bakura yelled. "To me that's as bad as a lie! You lied to me just like Ryou did!"
"Ryou's my best friend! Of course I'm going to stick up for him!" Malik yelled back. "He swore me to secrecy; I wasn't going to stab him in the back!"
"I TRUSTED YOU, MALIK!"
"Why are you freaking out about this?" Malik continued to yell to match Bakura. "This is so stupid! So Ryou's been seeing Marik. So they have a relationship. So fucking what? It's not like he's smuggling drugs or killing people! This isn't the end of the world!"
"YOU LIED TO ME!" Bakura screamed. "YOU AND RYOU BOTH LIED TO ME! Do you have any idea how that makes me FEEL? It HURTS! But that's something that you or Ryou fail to understand!"
"Did it ever occur to you why he kept this from you? Maybe because he knew this was how you'd react!"
"OF COURSE HE DID! And he didn't care, did he?"
"OF COURSE HE CARED!" Malik screamed back. "He didn't want you to worry that some guy was going to fuck him over or do him wrong! He didn't want you to feel awkward around Marik! He wanted things to stay as normal as possible, so he kept quiet."
"I notice you're not bothering to defend yourself," Bakura growled. "Does that mean you don't care?"
"Don't even think that this has to do with us!" Malik snapped.
"Maybe it does! You're sticking up for Ryou and you hid things from me? What if you hide other things from me?"
"I won't hide things from you! I thought Ryou and Marik should be the ones to tell you, not me! Shit, Bakura! You're out of control and you're flying off the fucking handle! Look at yourself! You're so angry you can't even see straight, let alone think straight!" Malik moved forward so that he was inches from Bakura. "Tell me something," he said, voice even and low. "Is this what you're going to be like every time we fight? Because if it is, maybe it would be pointless to defend myself. You seem to lack the ability to listen to reason."
"I..." Bakura felt completely blindsided, and now had no clue what to say.
"You question MY trust, Bakura? You're the one who hit on me when you were drunk. Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't trust you anymore."
Malik walked out the door, slamming it behind him.
It suddenly dawned on Bakura just how badly he'd overreacted to the whole situation, and how he'd not only pushed away his hikari, but now Malik as well. How he'd seemed to have blown everything he had in the course of three hours.
"DAMMIT!" He screamed. He kicked the couch repeatedly, then collapsed on it, sobbing.
The next morning was overcast and cold. Malik didn't feel up to doing anything and he knew he'd be worthless in class, so he slept through most of the day and, later that night, went to the park to get away from all the yelling of the night before and the negative vibes that had set upon the house. He sat, quietly, and just stared at the fountain in the middle of the park.
"I've never gotten that angry before in my life, you know."
Malik let out an exasperated sigh. Can I get no peace? he thought bitterly.
"Congratulations," Malik shot back sarcastically. "Call the fucking media."
"Listen," Bakura continued. "I slept on this whole thing, and yes, I overreacted. A lot. It was ridiculous, really."
"You think?" Malik said coldly, making a point not to look at the Brit. "Nice how you failed to see the repercussions it had. You scared me and Ryou shitless; you've alienated just about everyone and fucked up your friendship with Marik. I really don't know if this is worth it now. I don't know if I can keep going with us. I don't like this side of you at all."
"I understand why you're upset. I...I'm sorry, Malik. I wish I could take it back. I should have listened. They had a valid reason for keeping it from me. I don't even know why I got so upset now. "
"That's what worries me. You don't even know why you got so mad. I can understand you being upset. Ryou and Marik and I hid something from you that was very important. But we didn't do it as a personal attack on you, or do it to hurt you. I'm sorry that we did hurt you, but I'm still angry at you for overreacting."
"I...I still have a lot to sort through."
"Them maybe you need to sleep on it some more," Malik said quietly. He got up and faced Bakura. "Call me when you've figured it out. Otherwise, I think we need to take a break from whatever the fuck it is that we have. But don't call me until you've fixed everything with Ryou and Marik. Goodnight."
Malik turned and walked home, leaving Bakura to stare at the fountain in the park and the empty space where Malik once sat.
(1) Asexual means having no sexuality of any kind; gay, straight, or otherwise.
(2) College, not high school. Malik's major will be determined in later fics. :)
Short chapter, I know. But the chapter ending just seemed to work perfectly. :D Chapter eight is in the works, and it will hopefully be longer. :) I don't know if it will be the last chapter or not, just have to figure it out, and see. :) In the meantime, please read and review. Ja ne!