A/N: Sorry if it's been long since the last update but I've been plagued by these ideas for an Angstshipping fic (hikari Marik/Ryou). It's kind of hard to write Thiefshipping when you keep seeing all these Angstship scenes in your head… So I started writing an angstshipping fic :D yay? Also I had some problems with one part of this chapter. Not major problems or not minor ones just middle sized.

Since yesterday, Ryou had not left his brother alone. Questions and knowing looks were sent towards certain white haired youth who in turn sent annoyed glares and snappy answers. If he didn't answer at all, Ryou would just make his own conclusions and that was never a good thing since the boy's imagination was so over active. Despise all Bakura's newly found hostility towards his brother; Ryou knew that it was only because he had found a soft spot. It must peeve the teen without end that he actually has one and that his little brother could drive him in a metaphorical corner because of it. Then again, a cornered animal, a person in this case, can be dangerous so Ryou refrained from calling any of his friends over.

The teen was just "enjoying" his time in the living room, entertaining himself by throwing a ball at the near wall and catching it after it bounced back just to throw it again. This had went on somewhere between fifteen minutes to a half an hour and the neighbors were quickly going insane because of the 'thump' sound the ball created when it contacted with the wall. At least five had already come knocking at their door, telling him to cut it out. Some were bounding the walls with heavy objects or just screaming from behind them to make it stop and one had actually dropped a piece of burning paper through their mail-box, telling them to burn in hell. Luckily they already happened to own a fire-extinguisher so not much harm done.

Someone was at the door again and Ryou called Bakura to get it, he was somewhat busy and didn't want anyone to yell at his face again about disturbing the peace and what-not. Reluctant to leave his new hobby, the teen rose from his spot and went to get the door, his expression, which was somewhere between pissed, bored and thoughtful not leaving his face.

After opening the door and realizing who it was he just wanted to shut the door again and continue spending quality time with his new round friend.

"What do you want and how do you know where I live?" He asked rather flatly from Ishizu who was standing behind his doorstep. She, however, was not faced by his blunt rudeness and answered with as much politeness as she could master though failing to hide the coldness in her voice.

"I wish to speak with you, Shadi gave me your address. May I come in?"

"I don't 'wish to speak with you' so no. Goodbye." He tried to close the door on her face but she caught it with her hand before it closed.

"Let me in, this is important."

Bakura stopped trying to close the door and pretended to think. "Hmm… No. Tell Marik I said hi." He tried to push the door closed again while she tried to push it open, telling that he really should let her in. This caught the attention of Ryou and he walked in just to see the strange pushing contest between the Egyptian woman and his brother.

"Uh… What's going on?" He questioned quietly and they both turned their attention to him.

Ishizu was first to address him. "Hello, you must be Ryou. I'm Marik's older sister Ishtar Ishizu. May I please come in?" She spoke with a polite smile from the door crack and Ryou's face instantly lit up and he answered with equal politeness, much to his brother's dismay.

"Of course! Do come in Ms. Ishtar. I'm so sorry for my brother's behavior, I don't know what's gotten into him lately." And then with quieter voice with less politeness. "Bakura let her in. Please." The older teen did so with a grunt. "What brings you here, Ms. Ishtar?" Questioned Ryou after she got in.

"Actually, I need to speak with your brother here." She shot a meaningful glare at Bakura who just pretended not to notice.

Ryou didn't miss the glare. "I see…" He had this knowing look in his eyes as he glanced at his brother. "I'll just leave you two to chat then." He said cheerfully and left, despise the don't-you-dare-leave-me-alone –look from Bakura.

"You have such a nice little brother." She complimented, both still standing near the door, but the teen didn't feel like listening any of this polite crap.

"This is about Marik." He stated, grossing his arms and leaning against the wall, not intending to invite her farther in the apartment. "What? Did you come here to tell me to leave him alone or something?"

Her eyes hardened again. "As much as I'd like to do so, no, that is not why I'm here. I would like you to fill me in on what is going on with you two."

He frowned at that. "Why don't you ask Marik?"

"I tried to already but he's not telling me as much as I'd like to know. Not to mention he's been acting weird even for him."

"Not as much as you'd like to know?" Bakura snorted mockingly. "And here I thought that trust and all that crap was a part of being a family."

"What would you know about that!" She snapped. "What would you know about trust and being a family? You are just a teenage brat who thinks that world evolves around you and that you can just march into someone's life and mess it up!"

Now Bakura straitened up and took a few steps towards the fuming Ishizu, with an expression that would make a lesser person back off as fast as they could. "Don't ever make that kind of assumptions." He growled. "You don't know shit about me or what kind of person I am. Do you honestly think that I wanted to come to anyone's life? No! All I ever wanted was the world to leave me the hell alone, mind it's own busyness and let me mind mine. If anyone has marched into someone's life and messed it up, it's your little innocent brother who has marched into mine by some cruel twist of fate!" Hissed Bakura with a deadly, angry whisper. That's what he first thought and what he still thinks; he and Marik were only thrown together because the fate hated him, it always had. Fate's plan had just gone terribly wrong at some point, making his life a lot better instead of a lot worse and more messed up. Okay, so it was more messed up but in a good way if that's even possible.

They both stood there in silence for a good while, Bakura had nothing more to say and Ishizu just wasn't sure what to say.

After awhile she couched to get his attention and spoke with a clam, quiet voice. "Listen, Bakura; I didn't come here to fight with you or to insult you and I apologize."

"Hmph, sure you didn't. What did you come here for then?" He gave a sideways glance since he had previously turned away pointedly.

"I just want to clear a few things up." She looked around in the small hall they were standing. "Could we not stand here?" She asked a bit annoyed that she hadn't been decently invited in. The boy reluctantly led her to the living room and they both sat down, making sure to sit in their own corners. They both recognized a peace offering when they saw one; Ishizu had apologized and Bakura had let her in farther than the hall, and silently agreed to try and act at least civilized about this.

"So what has Marik told you, what do you want to know and how is he been acting weird?" Started Bakura with questions, just so that they could get this over with and he wished he wouldn't have to talk much.

"Yes well… I spoke with him yesterday about your little adventure the other day… and night… But I think that he leaves some major gaps and just snaps at me if I try to further question him."

"So what if he doesn't want to tell you everything? It's not like we… robbed a bank or murdered someone."

"That's just it. If you hadn't done anything illegal or anything along the same lines, he would just tell me how you spent all that time."

"Look here," He started tiredly. "We didn't do anything like that. Okay, we did get chased by a couple of cops and a guy from the loony house but that was only because someone thought we were disturbing the peace or something by running around the park and yelling."

Ishizu's brows furrowed a bit. "Why were you running and yelling in the first place?"

"Because Marik was pissed at me and wanted me dead." He told matter-of-factly. "But he got over it when we had to run away from authority."

She stared at him blankly for a moment. "I… see…" she managed to utter before regaining her composure. "That's all?"

Bakura shrugged and tried to look casual. "What did you expect?"

"Actually… How should I put it…?" She thought about her wording a bit. "How would you describe your relationship with my brother?" She asked finally and the teen felt like chocking on air. Was she asking what he thought she was asking? Ryou had been pestering him about "the nature of their relationship", as he put it, as well! Siblings were now officially a pain in his backside.

"We're friends." He stressed the word a little more than he really needed to. "Why do you ask?"

"Close friends?" She pressed on. "How physically close are you?"

Physically close? Once again Bakura wondered if she was really asking what he thought she was and just snapped. First his own mind was pestering him about 'their physical closeness', then Ryou and now this woman. "If you want to know if we're fucking around behind your back just ask for Gods' sake and stop beating around the bush!" He right out yelled, standing up. Ishizu's eyes widened and she just blinked at the teen who was breathing heavily after his out-burst.

"Are you?" She asked carefully.

"NO! It is not like that!" Bakura cried out.

"Then please calm down. I'm not accusing you about anything." Ishizu spoke calmingly. "I just wanted to know if you two were… together."

"And what's made you think that we are?" He asked, calming down a bit but refusing to sit back down. Now wherever had she got that idea from?

"Well, the way I've seen you act around each other for starters and the way he's been lately. You see; he actually dumped all his old friends, just like that. Not that I liked them…"

"They weren't really his friends in the first place." Bakura stated.

She gave him a 'how-did-you-know' – look. "Yes… And he's been in his own little world since… yesterday. Sometimes just staring in space and then suddenly frowning or grinning with no apparent reason."

He slightly lifted his eyebrow. He had been doing that too when he's been trying to sort out his thoughts and feelings and that's what he was doing while throwing the ball too. So Marik was going through the same thing? Bakura smirked a bit, forgetting that he wasn't alone in the room.

"Yes, just like that." Ishizu said, snapping the teen out of his thoughts.

Ryou obviously decided that this was good time as any to come join them. "I'm not interrupting you, am I?" He questioned with a small, polite smile and Ishizu assured him that he wasn't. Then he went through his standard questioning if the guest, Ishizu in this case, wanted something to eat or drink. She convinced that she was just fine without and that she was just about to leave anyway.

"Before you leave, Ms. Ishtar, can I have a word with you?"

"Of course."

"Um, Bakura could you-."

"Fine, I leave you alone." He stalked out of the room to let his little brother and the Egyptian woman talk privately, wondering what could Ryou possibly want to talk to her about. It probably had something to do with him, no doubt.

……………………………………….

Marik was just outside of the house. He finally had time for himself because Ishizu had gone to god knows where and there was no one in the house besides him since Rishid was at the restaurant, helping out Shadi. The Egyptian teen was currently trying to fix his motorbike, which had been broken since he accidentally smashed the tire. It was the first time in ages, it felt, that he had the chance to spend some quality time with his precious bike. So much had happened of late and it was a relief that nothing hectic, for once, was happening. Of course that didn't mean that nothing was going on, no, no. Something seemed to always be going on these days. It was a nice change, that's for sure but also confusing. Or the source of things was. By that he was, of course, referring to who else but his companion, Bakura. Somehow 'friend' didn't seem the right word. Maybe it was because Bakura had asked him not to refer to him like that and friendship didn't count as much in his books. Marik's previous friends had after all been, well, just not very important to him.

Marik frowned to himself when he realized that he was thinking of the other teen. Again. What else had he been doing lately except thinking and analyzing the situation? Okay, let's see… Eating, spacing, sleeping, staring into empty space, spacing around some more… Yeah, that's about it.

He didn't really want to think anymore; it was no use and only served to make everything seem more complicated, so he had decided to stop dwelling and just let things evolve for a while, just see how they worked out and go with the flow.

Luckily he had his trusty motorbike to take his mind off of things. Marik had no idea how had his precious got into this shape. This wasn't a neighborhood where people went and wrecked some else's property nor did he remember it being in this bad shape before; it was only a broken tire.

When he tried to reach for the screwdriver, he accidentally knocked down the garden gnome. He glared at it and it just grinned rather maniac-ly back. The Egyptian picked it up to see it a bit better. He'd never really paid much attention to it before. He had no idea where had they got it in the first place. Who would want a homicidal looking gnome in their yard anyway? Marik placed it back on the grass and glared at it some more, not so surprisingly it only smiled back.

Suddenly his glare turned into a soft, amused smile. The gnome actually reminded him of Bakura. The though made him laugh as he wondered how would Bakura react if he told him that he was like that gnome, or the gnome was like him. He felt pretty affectionate towards the gnome now and let it watch him fix his motorbike, with that stupid, insane smile on it's face.

……………………………………………..

It was apparent now that the discussion indeed was about Bakura. He should never let Ryou speak to any more-than-a-bit-hostile-towards-him-Egyptian-women. Something was clearly up when said woman knocked on his room's door and let herself in. What had they talked about exactly? He had no idea but Ishizu offered him a smile and alarms went off in his head.

"What did he say to you?" He asked but she just smiled a bit more.

"Your brother told me that you are looking for a job. There is a spot open in the Domino museum I work in, I could recommend you." She offered and Bakura tried to decide between raising his brow, frowning suspiciously and dying from pure shock. She offered to recommend him for a job? In the place she worked in?

When Bakura failed to comment or do much else, she continued. "You would be running some errands for the other museum workers and such but I think it pays rather well."

The teen had decided not to die from shock and just tried to raise his brow and frown at the same time instead.

"Hey, don't look like that now, I'm giving you a one time offer to prove me wrong and to prove your brother right about you."

Now what had Ryou said exactly? Sure he probably meant well and all…

"I leave you my number, think about it and call me when you reach decision." She handed him a slip of paper with numbers on it and he looked at it suspiciously. Turning the slip around, like searching for something, maybe a bomb, he noticed the other numbers written on the back. He looked at Ishizu for an explanation.

"That's my brother's cell phone number, call him before he exhausts himself by spacing around." After that she just left. Bakura could hear her saying goodbye to Ryou before going out the door.

A laud yell of "Ryou!" was heard after Bakura got over his first shock. The little brother soon peered into the room.

"Yes?"

The older stopped staring at the slip of paper stupidly and turned to his brother. "What the hell did you say to her?" He asked, not really sounding pissed, just shocked.

Ryou smiled at him mysteriously. "Oh nothing much. Did you take the job?"

Nothing much? Nothing much! "No! I'm thinking about it…"

"Okay, I think you should accept. It would be good if you got to know each other better. She's not a bad person, you know."

"Ryou, you don't think anyone is a bad person." He felt like pointing out; he didn't want to learn to know this Ishizu woman nor did he want to get along with her.

"Yeah well, how else would I be able to live with you?" Ryou counter pointed out. He did have a point there… "Besides, it would make things easier with Marik if his sister didn't hate you." And once again, a good point. Ryou dismissed himself, knowing that he had made his point, which he had of course.

Sighing and flopping on his bed in utter defeat, Bakura couldn't help but feel annoyingly grateful that there was someone who could be rational when he couldn't. Ryou always wanted the best for him and for him to be happy, even over his own happiness. He knew that while his brother was acting more cheerful now, he really was feeling quite miserable. Their father's death had of course been a huge blow for him and when he drove for his brother to have someone special in his life, Ryou had no one it seemed. Sure he had tons of friends but he didn't have a love, as far as Bakura was concerned anyway and he doubted that Ryou would keep something like that from him. Bakura felt a bang of guilt; it wasn't fair for him to be happy when Ryou was so unhappy. The younger boy had far more right for happiness than he did.

Bakura sighed again, feeling quite bad. He lifted the hand, where the phone numbers still were, absently. His eyes rifted to Marik's number in the back. Maybe he should talk to someone about this all and work things out.

A/N: Weekend! Yeah! Finally… I hoped you weren't too bored :) There's most likely more action in the next chapter. Well not action action but action xD But you know this was important for the future events and all.

Tell me what you think, please! In other words; review :)