A/N: Chapter 12! I was just reading back to find out how long time has passed since the beginning and I counted little less than two weeks. As I was trying to make things advance slowly between the pair, I actually made them become pretty close in a very short notice. Two weeks, or less than that, is such a short time that I don't know if it's realistic for them to be close already. I don't know… maybe I'm just thinking too much but it bothers me a bit. There's not much I can do about it without doing some serious rewriting and I really don't want to go down that road. So, I'll just leave it be… Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Marik was still trying to figure out what had caused his motorbike to go in such a shape and how to fix it when he heard his cell ring. He got it out of his pocket and noticed that he didn't recognize the caller. It better not be one of those phone salesmen, there is almost nothing more annoying and persistent than those people. He answered anyway out of sick curiosity.

"I'm not buying anything so don't even try." He heard a light chuckle from the other end.

"Good for you but wouldn't a simple 'hello' be better?"

Marik recognized that voice. His face lit up automatically before he could even fully realize why; it was the person who had caused so much spacing and confusing thought progress, after all, but for some reason he was glad to hear his voice. "Bakura? How did you get my number?"

"You wouldn't believe if I told you…"

"Try me."

"From your lovely sister who paid me a visit earlier."

His eyes widened; he had no idea that Ishizu was planning to go give Bakura a visit. "She gave you my number? And she was there?"

"Yes to both questions. Oh and did I mention that after speaking with Ryou she offered me a job at the museum?"

Marik really tried not to choke, let his eyes pop out or yell. "Whaaat! You can't be serious!" He managed not to choke or let his eyes pop out.

"Yeah, I wouldn't believe me if I was you either. This must be the first sing of apocalypse." Bakura said fake seriously.

"So what did she want?" The blond asked curiously.

"She… was a bit worried about the nature of our relationship."

Marik raised a brow. "The nature of our relationship?" He actually had a hunch about his sister's worries. Hell, he could have sworn that she was about to give him 'the talk' at any moment now.

"Yeah… You know, she basically wanted to know if we're some kind of fuck buddies."

He felt like choking again at Bakura's interesting choice of words. "Uh…" Cough. "I figured she-." He stopped in mid-sentence. Damn Bakura and his interesting choice of words. Now he had an equally interesting mental image pop-up from nowhere. Last time that happened it had caused him to assault one of his sister's books but that was a long time ago, or maybe not that long time. Before the re-emerging of his other personality, which really wasn't that long ago but so much had happened since then that it felt that more time had passed than actually had.

"Hey, are you still there?" The man of many interesting choices of words asked from the other end causing him to snap out of it.

"Yeah, I'm here. I just… um… So… what are you doing?" That was a pathetic change of subject and Marik knew from the pause before the answer that the other noticed that too.

"Nothing." He said sounding suspicious over the sudden change of subject. "Why you ask?"

"No reason… Did you have a reason to call or…?" The Egyptian let the question hang in the air, waiting for an answer.

"Well, actually…" Bakura sounded a bit awkward all of a sudden. "If… If, say, someone you care about was feeling bad, what would you do to make this person feel better?"

Well, that was a question Marik hadn't expected. He had kind of assumed, or hoped, that this would be about yesterday. He really wanted to clear things up to know where they stood with each other. So that wasn't exactly counted as going with the flow but it would certainly make things easier. Was it possible for them to go beyond friendship? If it was, did they want to? To add in the confusion facture; he wasn't even sure which way the other swung, not to mention he, until this point, had considered himself straight.

Back to the other's question earlier. Marik was pretty sure he knew who was this person Bakura was talking about. How many persons were there that he cared about? Only three as far as Marik was concerned. His little brother Ryou, himself and maybe… Marik. "You're talking about Ryou, aren't you?"

"Yes… How did you know?"

"Oh come on, it's not like there's awful lot of people you give a damn about." That was so obvious it was stupid. "Do something to cheer him up."

"Thank you, I would have never been able to come up with that myself." Bakura's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "What do you suggest I do, oh wise one?"

The blond couldn't help the slight grin that wanted to appear but he managed to make his answer sound serious and knowing. "Whatever you do it has to be something he will enjoy and make sure it's something that you're doing just for him."

There was a pause after that when Bakura seemed to think it over. When he didn't say anything for awhile, Marik decided to take matters into his own hands. "Bakura? Why don't you come over, I can help you to arrange something for Ryou and you can help me with my motorbike."

"Sure, better over there than here doing nothing… What's wrong with your bike?"

"I wish I knew… I have no idea what happened to it either. May have to take it to a professional."

They said their byes and hung up soon after. Marik went back to his bike, wondering how he could lead the conversation to a desired direction. To be quite honest, he had little idea how he should go with this… He just hoped this wouldn't turn out to be a disaster or jeopardize their friendship. But if you thought of it, it was unlikely; if a homicidal other personality or hostile Ishizu could only bring them closer, how big of a change did something like this have braking them apart?

……………………………………………..

Slim to none. At least that was what Bakura was telling to himself as he was making his way towards Marik's. The Ryou and the Egyptians motorbike had been just excuses to give him a reason come over, no doubt. It was good that he hadn't had to think up the excuses, it was conveniently done for him. Though he did want to talk about Ryou somewhat but that wasn't the main reason he had agreed to go, or call in the first place.

Coming closer to the house he could see the blond sitting on the lawn, facing away from him. He smirked a bit and thought that he could sneak up on the other and scare the crap out of him. The teen was just a few more steps away from the other's back when Marik suddenly turned around, bounced on his feet and JUMPED.

Before he even had the time to fully understand what just happened Bakura found himself back against the grass, breathing heavily, heart bounding in his chest. Focusing his eyes in his attacker, he found whom else but Marik grinning victoriously while sitting on him, pinning him down by the shoulders. Damn, his plan to scare the other had completely backfired and turned upside down.

"Why hello there 'Kura." Said the blond still grinning. "You weren't trying to scare me now were you?"

"How did you-?" There was no way Marik could have heard him coming and this unfortunate turn of events had damaged his ego a little. He was supposed to be the attacker, not the attacked one.

"I just paid a bit more attention to my surroundings." He answered while looking smug as ever. Bakura snorted and crossed his arms in annoyance, starring at the other as if trying to get him get off by just the power of his thought and hard stare. This had no affect on the Egyptian however who just stared right back, a smirk-ish smile dancing on his face. After awhile of stubborn staring from both parts Marik's eyes lit up like he had just thought of something sadistically funny and Bakura had a bad feeling.

"What's the matter? Don't like being on the bottom?" Marik asked teasingly, his expression now impish. The last tactic, if it could be called that, of acting annoyed had not worked but two could play this game.

Bakura put his smirk on. "I'm just used of being on top of things."

An angry shout snapped them out of their own little world. They had completely forgotten that they were in a public place.

"Get a room you faggots!" Yelled a couple of narrow-minded elderly people who lived down the street. The two glanced at them with raised eyebrows then at each other. Upon realizing that their position really was rather suggesting Marik gave a sideways glance to the old people, who had stopped and were whispering something to each other, then he looked back at Bakura and mouthed, "Play along." The teen gave him a questioning look.

The Egyptian leaned close, so close that their faces were just millimeters apart and moaned loud enough for "the audience" to hear. Now Bakura also caught up and placed his hand on the other's waist who leaned to his touch. He arched his body to meet Marik's, letting out a pleased sound for good measure. For someone who didn't know better it looked like they were in the middle of a heated make-out session; that's exactly what it looked like to the old people on the street who gasped in horror as they dumbly watched the show the two put on.

Silent agreements passed between them through heir locked gazes as they moved in sync, so very close but never really touching. Breath tickled their faces as they uttered their much exaggerated moans and gasps, all part of the show, making them smile along with the horrified sounds from the audience. They actually had to fight the urge to giggle like schoolgirls. The elderly people finally decided to leave and they did it very fast too, now probably traumatized for life.

Once they were gone Marik had to press his head on Bakura's shoulder to muffle his laughter. The other teen laughed too. They both may have assumed that the laughter was because of the reaction they got out from those people but actually it was more like that kind of laughter people laugh when the tension brakes, like when you get off from roller coaster and realize that you're still alive after all the spinning around. They stayed like that for a while, feeling rather nice and secure, much like the other night.

Bakura moved his leg to a better position, kicking something down while doing it.

"Crap. What was that?" He tried to see but seeing how Marik was on top of him it proved quite difficult. The other teen turned to look what he was talking about.

"Oh no! Gnome down." He removed himself from Bakura who now too was able to get up and see that the freaky looking yard gnome had been kicked down. The blond picked it up to see if any harm was done. "You should be more careful, you could've broken him."

"That would've served it right." He really didn't get why it would be such a terrible lost if the gnome would brake. Apparently it was a big deal to Marik who cleaned the blasted thing from grass and placed it back in standing position, looking at it affectionately. Bakura glared at the thing. He was partly covered in grass too but Marik wasn't even helping him up and holy hell; he was jealous at the gnome!

"Why is it such a big deal to you anyway?" The white haired teen asked grumpily, indicating at the gnome. The other looked at him grinningly.

"I just love the little thing. He's so much like you."

Bakura just stared at his companion stupidly for a while, not quite progressing what he had said. Marik loved the gnome? The gnome was like him…? No way… The teen looked away, suddenly finding the grass very interesting.

"It's nothing like me…" He mumbled and glanced at Marik, who looked puzzled, before concentrating on the grass again.

After a moment of awkward silence Bakura heard the other to stand up and soon after he found a hand in front of him. He looked up the arm to find that Marik was indeed offering to help him up with a small smile. He took the hand pulled himself up.

"Come, I'll… make us some coffee." And without letting go of Bakura's hand, Marik took him inside and in the kitchen. The Egyptian started the coffee and sat on the kitchen counter and the other followed his lead. They sat in silence; the sound of the coffeemaker was the only thing that broke the silence.

Once the coffee was done Marik poured it in two cups, hading the other to Bakura who took it but just looked at it, not drinking.

"What are we?" He asked the question that was hanging between them, just not spoken aloud until now. Marik took a sip of his coffee before answering quietly.

"A couple of stupid and emotionally handicapped people, apparently." They both laughed and took a sip of their coffees. That settled it at least for now. Neither of them knowing any better yet but willing to find out by any means. It was one of those silent agreements that could be made only if the people who were part of it were close enough.

"You know," Marik spoke again "you should take the job at the museum."

The other nodded. "Maybe I should…"

"And what about lil Ryou?"

"I'll think of something." He drank from his cup again and made a face. "This coffee tastes like shit."

"Sugar?"

"Thanks."

A/N: Ok… I really have nothing to say about this chapter xD Except "emotionally handicapped" might be my own term for certain type of people but you all understand what it means, right? And sorry it was so short and took long to update, again -.-''

Leave me a review before you hit the back button, please :)