.:Chapter twelve - Missing Links:.

"He went in there, and hasn't come out for ten minutes."

The other rolled his eyes. "He probably just had to take a crap..." he muttered, starting to open the door. "The guy doesn't seem smart enough to do anything other than that." He paused for a second, blinking. "Then again, maybe he got lost in there." A smirk. "Send a search party if I don't come back."

And he went inside.

The woman rolled her brown eyes, blowing some hair from her face. "Jerk."

The culprit wasn't in plain sight... at all. "Damn," the interrogator hissed, looking around. He then moved to the stalls, looking under each one. "Hey, if anyone's in here, let me know!" he hollered, banging on each door as he went by.

Nothing.

"Damn it!"

Suddenly, a faint noise was heard. The man walked quickly to the last stall and looked under it, seeing a pair of boots. He glared. "Open this door!"

Still no answer.

And so, the man did the only thing he found left to do.

He rammed the door in.

There was a shriek from the inside, as the door flew open and nearly smacked the occupant in the face. "Privacy! Do you not know of privacy!"

The man stepped back, almost shocked to see the brown-skinned man sitting there, covering himself, pants down and feet planted in those boots.

There was a growl, but no eye contact to the being at all. "You should have answered me when I said to. Now get up, you've had enough time. I don't want you causing anymore trouble than you have."

And the man turned, walking away, leaving Mariku whining on his seat. "Meanie..."

---

It was a very tense silence that was cut into when the door was thrown open suddenly. "Found 'im." And Mariku was pushed in, stumbling on his feet.

Yami and Bakura shared looks of relief, though somewhat irritated nonetheless.

"Now sit down. We haven't gotten anywhere thanks to you all. You're being ridiculous... and if you'd answer the questions, we'd have a lot less trouble."

Yami swallowed hard, his Adams apple moving roughly. Mariku brushed himself off and then sat down in his seat. This done, he set to playing with his pale friend's hair. Bakura growled slightly and tried to pull away, but tanned hands kept him where he was. Another growl, this time lower and louder -- sounding very much like an angry cat -- came forth. But once again, Mariku ignored the warning. Bakura turned his head around and snapped at the man with his teeth, still growling in his throat.

Yami backed his chair away a bit, knowing better than to stay too close to an impending brawl. The two officers glanced at each other, before they both moved to pull the aliens apart.

"You have some guts trying to start a fight in a police station." one said, almost pompously.

Bakura hissed, his fangs showing to all in the room. The man holding him back faltered slightly. These kids were freaky.

Mariku just whined a bit, and struggled his way out of the officer's grasp, moving back to his seat. "'Kura doesn't love me..." he said, his voice thick with emotion. His eyes gleamed, tears rimming them. "I -- I..." and here he burst into quiet sobbing.

The two police-clad men had no idea how to react.

This man was obviously insane and in need of help. Maybe they should call the hospital...?

While the black-haired humans were busy with their own thoughts, Mariku lifted his head slightly, and made eye contact with Yami.

"Ask about our files again," he mouthed, making sure the two men didn't see. Bakura, who had just jerked his way out of the policeman's grasp, didn't catch this at all. He was fuming, his anger almost tangibly coming off of him in waves. He was already pissed off, and Mariku acting stupid -- as usual -- wasn't helping at all.

Yami was somewhat shocked and anxious at the other's request. 'Dear gods, what has he done...?' But regardless, he nodded. This seemed like the only thing that they could do at the moment... But that didn't mean he was nervous. What if there was still nothing? What if... what if they were figured out...?

"You're sure there's nothing on us in your computers?" the prince asked one of the officers, a look of slight concern on his face.

The black-haired man just blew a strand of greased hair from his face. "Yes, we've looked and looked. But we'll look again if it'll make you happy," he said, though he didn't sound entirely joyous himself. These three were the most suspicious acting people they'd had come in, in a while. A long while. He sighed and opened the door, leaning out of it and shouting to the same female officer as before.

"Hey, Thu? Would you do another check up on these guys?"

The woman turned in her chair and glared at him. "I swear, you target me for every ounce of busy work in this whole place." she muttered before turning back around and typing quickly at her keyboard. Her eyes scanned the screen, flipping through the thousands of names and identities. Suddenly her brow furrowed. "Hey, what'd you say the names were?"

"Bakura, Yami and Mark, I think..."

The tanned male behind him coughed loudly into his hand. "There is no one of the name Mark here, sir." he said, a sweet smile on his face. "But there is a Mariku."

The other sighed. "Bakura, Yami, and Mariku, are their names." he corrected, before muttering under his breath. "That's what they said, anyway."

He obviously didn't believe that anything that came out of the three's mouths was even an ounce of truth.

The brown-eyed woman frowned more. "I don't remember seeing this one last time I checked..." he whispered to herself, before her eyes moved back to her partner, who was standing around twenty feet away. "I think our main computer might have glitched out..." she said.

The man's eyebrows fell, almost mirroring her expression. "What do you mean?" he asked, this time walking towards her and leaning over her chair, staring at the screen. She clicked on the file and opened it, revealing an almost complete background check on "Bakura Touzoukuou."

Both looked at each other. The man lifted a hand to scratch at his head, not understanding how the computer could have "glitched out" in the first place. He scanned everything over, but there appeared to be nothing missing other than a recent picture of the guy's face. But... this didn't make sense! The picture that was of the guy... it looked almost the same, but different hair... Completely different hair.

Mumbling to himself, the man read. "Touzoukuou, Bakura... Age twenty-three... Eyes, brown... hair, blonde... But the kid has silver hair." He paused, glancing back over his shoulder at the three in the other room. None of them were even looking his way. He went back to reading. "Birthplace, California; current job, none..."

He'd seen enough.

"Check the other two," he demanded, and Thu let out an almost irritated sound, though she was puzzled too. Next there was "Mariku Bahir". Born in Thebes, Egypt; twenty-four but has no job... Then came "Yami Oumono". Twenty-three and recently quit a job, and was born in Liverpool, England.

"The pictures don't look like them at all!" the man hissed. Okay, the faces did... look similar, but... The hair, and eyes... He heaved a heavy breath and rubbed at his temple. It have everything down to their social security number... It even showed the records of their plane tickets to Japan!

Frustrated, he turned and walked back into the room, shutting the door a bit loud. "Okay, so your identifications check out... But why the sudden change of hair?" he asked, eyeing them. This smelled off. Very much so.

"As a celebration for getting to travel here on vacation, we went to a shop to get 'modified'," Mariku chirped happily, pointing at Yami's ear, the prince too stunned to do anything at the moment, but somehow managing to keep a cool face. "We all got a makeover!" he continued, still pointing at the other.

Bakura was still glaring at the wall, though he was shocked as well. Somehow... Somehow Mariku had made them files. Had made them identities... He just hoped that the other didn't make him look to be an idiot, or he'd tear his tanned friend a second hole in the ass.

The officer, who hadn't been able to look at the computer files, gave his companion an odd glance. The other just huffed and snapped, "They check out fine. Nothing strange at all."

He turned his eyes to the three once more. "Except that you wouldn't answer our questions in the first place. Don't you think it would have saved us all a lot of trouble?"

Mariku shrugged.

Yami, finally starting to get his wits about him, shrugged. "I suppose... we're still in a bit of shock," he answered, trying to make up a believable explanation. "What with just getting to a place we've never been to before, and getting our things stolen... Then finding them and winding up in trouble."

He hoped that sounded at least a bit plausible.

"Now can we get our stuff back?" snapped Bakura from his chair. He had to keep playing his role of a pissy young man so they wouldn't suspect anything. He wasn't too angry at the moment... But still. He wanted out of here.

Their answer was two unbelieving looks from the two officers that had been, and were, hammering them with questions.

It didn't take too much longer before they were walking out of the doors with their bags in tow, the man who stole them going to have a nice, long talk with some very frustrated police officers.

After they were clear of all trouble, Yami turned, eyeing Mariku heavily. "What exactly did you do?" he asked, now holding a new respect for the seemingly insane man. The blonde only frowned, tilting his head as if confused.

"Mariku did something?" he asked, pointing at himself to clarify. Yami's face dropped.

"You know what? Never mind... it's probably best that you didn't tell us, anyway."

Just then the short prince was nearly barreled over by a blur that looked strangely familiar. "Oh, Yami! I'm so sorry I thought bad about you!" Yuugi cried, hugged the older man. Said man blinked, highly shocked at the other's clingy behavior.

"It's fine... I'm not mad," he answered, not really knowing what else to say. What had Yuugi thought about him, anyway...? What had the police told him?

The gray-eyed teen suddenly pulled back, feeling awkward. "Sorry, but... I'm just glad that you're out of there... They realized you three were innocent, right? And you got your stuff back!" he asked, now looking over the other two aliens.

Yami smiled and nodded, before his own eyes moved over, meeting the honey-brown ones belonging to the male standing behind Yuugi, hands in his pockets and blonde hair mussed. He smiled and waved at them.

"Yuugi's been telling me about you guys. Sorry to hear you're having such trouble on your second day here! Geez. The cops don't do a very good job, huh?" he joked, though part of it was serious. He knew from personal experience... but now wasn't the time. He had comforted Yuugi when the boy had confided in him, and it seemed to put him at ease. They were heading down to the police station to check up on them when they saw the three walking out, unharmed for the most part.

Suddenly he noticed something and glanced up, seeing two other familiar figures coming down the street. "Hey, it's Ryou and Malik!" he called, waving energetically at the two, before pushing his way past the group and jogging towards them. "Hey, guys!" he grinned, now oblivious to Yuugi and the aliens behind him.

Ryou smiled lightly at the loving dirty-blonde, before holding out his hands. "Yuugi told you about this morning, right?" he asked. Malik stood behind him, looking down at the ground. He seemed a bit guilty, but of what was obvious.

Jounouchi blinked, reaching out to touch the finely painted glass flowerpot. "Uh, about the police-fiasco, yeah... But what's this for?" he asked, confused.

Ryou smiled and was about to explain before Yuugi came running up next to Jounouchi, the three newcomers following at a more relaxed rate.

"Oh, my God! Ryou! You found one! Oh, Thank you so much!" he gasped, now hugging his light-complexioned friend; avoiding very carefully the highly breakable treasure.

Malik snorted, still not looking up, while Ryou's smile got bigger, unable to hug his friend back since he was holding the pot.

The whole scene seemed to be like the ending to a corny movie -- everything was fine and dandy and everyone was happy and all problems were sorted out... And it would have stayed that way, had the moment not been interrupted by a rather loud growling. All heads turned to look at Mariku, who was staring down sadly at his stomach.

"I'm hungry..."

Bakura snorted and threw his bag over his shoulder, carrying it like a student might a backpack. "Then let's go get something to eat before you start whining any more," he muttered.

Yami nodded, seeing a general agreement among the group. "Besides," he added, making Mariku turn to look at him. "You've earned it."

.:Chapter end:.

It's rushed... highly... I'll go back and revise it tomorrow... It's past midnight, here! I have to get some sleep before I DIE tomorrow at school! xD

Um... yeah. Sorry guys, but they're not out of the deep end, yet! Stay tuned to see what other problems they get into! And thank you all SO much for reviewing! I love you all... seriously. Heh, but if you wanna see my random babblings or updates on my life and fanfiction(s), then go to my profile and I have a link to an online journal (from Gaia... ha!) that I keep regularly updated.

Hope you guys are having a good school year so far (if you've started back). I am... kinda. xD But I'll shut up now. Hope you all enjoyed chapter twelve of Illegal Aliens! I'll try to update soon!

-Cecilia