A/N: I had some "plot issues" but I've solved them now. I have pretty much the rest of the fic figured out. Yes, I actually have a plan, be very afraid xD

I'd like to thank DesertQueen for reviewing me so many times (this is the only way since you're anonymous): Thank you so much :) :) :)

I also have a question: would you mind Ryou/Yuugi as a slight side pairing? If there's no protest against this, I'll write it. (In other words if no one threats to hunt me down and kill me or something, I will do it xD)

Bakura had really tried to think of something for his little brother but failing to come up with anything so he resolved to just asking Ryou what he wanted. The younger boy had been surprised at first but recovered soon enough, now thinking of options he would like to do with his brother. It had been awhile since the brothers had last spent quality time together and Ryou was glad they had a change to do so and that he got to decide what they would do. He had an idea…

"Oh I know!" Ryou exclaimed happily. "You can come with us to the arcade."

"Who's 'us'?" Asked Bakura suspiciously.

"My friends and I, of course. Let's invite Marik too. That'll be so much fun!"

The teen wasn't too happy with Ryou's decision but didn't protest. After all this was for him, for Ryou to have fun. And besides Marik would be there so maybe Bakura could stand spending time with his little brother's friends, just this once. He didn't know why exactly Ryou wanted the Egyptian to be there too but he did have a fleeting suspicion…

After Ryou gave his friends a heads up that Bakura was joining them with his friend and got him to invite Marik with a text message, they were off to the arcade. The arcade in question was a bit out side Domino city center and was relatively large and popular. Bakura hardly ever went there because of all the annoying people but the place was pretty familiar to Ryou who spent time there with his friends. They met up at the entrance, Marik was yet to come, and went inside, everyone else except Ryou keeping their distance to Bakura who tried not to act too hostile, not succeeding very well though.

They sat on one of the small tables near the windows and snack automats, Ryou and Bakura on the other side and the rest four on the other. While the rest chatted cheerily, though a bit cautious in Bakura's presence, the fore mentioned glanced around from under his brow. He was surprised when someone suddenly addressed him.

"Not to sound rude but… I was a bit shocked to hear that you too invited a friend to join us. So um… what is he like?" It was the midget boy, what-was-his-name… Yuugi? It must have been his friendly, I-believe-in-second-chances attitude that possessed him to actually talk to the teen. The teen mentally repeated his new mantra in his head when he answered, trying not to sound too rude. Must try to be nice for Ryou's sake, must try to be nice for Ryou's sake…

"Hmph. It's not like I'm completely incapable to socialize, I just choose not to. And I'm sure that once he gets here you're able to find out what he's like your self." Ryou kicked him under the table and he gave him a quick glare. In his opinion that went rather well, it's not like he had completely bitten Yuugi's head off. It's their problem when they didn't try to speak with him after that.

It was in the middle of a conversation about some new movie when Bakura spotted the familiar blond and called him over. "Hey, Marik!" Everyone's attention turned to the Egyptian who came to their table and greeted everyone. "What took you so long?" Bakura asked voice irritated but actually glad that the other had showed up.

"Nice to see you too, 'Kura." Bit Marik, he too not as irritated as he let on. "I had a bit trouble finding here. It's hard to find a place you've never been at with the directions that went a long the lines of 'Come to the arcade and save me from the idiot squad'. Well, your savior has arrived." Marik smirked when the other glared at him and "the idiot squad" stared at him; they had just witnessed someone back and out talk Bakura and live to tell the tale.

"Don't worry, this is their pretty usual form of communication." Ryou assured his friends once he saw their disbelieving faces. "Let me translate: first my brother says that he's happy to see Marik, then Marik says that he's happy to see Bakura and that he was very glad to be invited here." He explained with a smile, earning some strange and amused looks.

Ryou made room for Marik so that he could be seated next to Bakura and to everyone's, except Ryou's, surprise was able to start a conversation with ease.

"So these are the notorious Ryou's friends. They don't seem all that bad."

"That's it, they're not. They're just so nice it makes me want to puke."

Marik chuckled slightly. "And you live with Ryou."

"That has nothing to do with this."

"We can hear you, you know." Half muttered the blond idiot who's name Bakura had no interest in knowing.

"Yes, I know."

"Uh, why don't we go play the games?" Ryou hurried to suggest, not wanting to let Bakura and his friends become too pissed with each other. The friendship gang was more than happy to get away from the situation and they went with Ryou. The older brother wasn't too interested in going with them so he stayed there with Marik.

Together they soon proceeded to watch people who played or walked on the street behind the window and talk about how their lives must suck. It was fun to think up reasons why someone played some particular game or why did that one guy have a walking stick. Most of the reasons they thought up were pretty surreal and would probably never happen in real life but still. They didn't really feel like taking things too seriously now anyway.

After sometime the others came back to have something to drink and Ryou brought sodas for them too, from the vending machine.

…………………………………

Everything went relatively well until a subject of which American superhero was the best was somehow brought up. The blond boy, apparently called Jounouchi, was trying to convince that Anzu girl that Spiderman indeed was better than Cat-woman and that Cat-woman was, in fact a villain, not a superhero. At some point Marik noticed that Bakura had started to mumble something under his breath. It sounded like he was repeating some sort of mantra that was something like 'Must try to be nice for Ryou's sake' and that the volume of the mumbling was increasing until he finally just stood up and yelled.

"To hell with it! You two shut UP! Just go screw your stupid heroes, I don't care just shut the fuck up!" He stood there fuming but that had successfully shut everyone up. Marik noticed the pleading look Ryou gave him and decided that it was up to him to take action.

"Come on, Bakura, let's go blast some zombies." Marik said with a sigh and grabbed the teen's hand, half dragging him away from the gang to the zombie shooting game. They didn't talk much while shooting the undead on the screen with plastic guns and Bakura got he chance to vent out his anger, not just on the zombies but on the gaming machine as well. Where Marik looked it seemed best to stop before any serious damage could be done.

"Calm down or you're going to brake it." He said, placing his hand on the other's arm who did set down his fake gun but was still reluctant to let his anger go. "You know, if you keep acting like this you're only going to ruin it for Ryou."

"I'm trying, ok?" Bakura snapped. "I was trying to be nice. It's their fault if they are so damn annoying."

The blond chuckled a bit. "If that was you trying to be nice, I'd hate to see you trying to be mean."

"So would everyone else, believe me." He was still trying to be annoyed but bit by bit failing to do so as Marik placed his hands on his shoulders, giving him a friendly shake and smiling at him.

"Just hang in there, alright? The next time when you feel like ripping someone's head of, do as I do in those situations."

"What would that be?" The angry annoyance finally slipped away and he returned the smile.

"Just picture yourself strangling the person. I do that when I have to deal with Shadi, it works. Or mentally setting them on fire works just as well."

Bakura raised his hand to tuck some of Marik's hair behind his ear. "Maybe you should start an advise column." The affection behind that simple move was like a silent message of 'Thank you for existing' and Marik returned it with a squeeze on the other's shoulder as 'My pleasure'.

They were starting to get back to the others and soon noticed that only Ryou and Yuugi were left at the table, others gone somewhere to play. They were having a quiet conversation, during which they occasionally glanced at the other two. It looked suspiciously like they were talking about them.

"It's not nice to talk about people behind their backs." Stated Bakura as they reached the table and sat down so that Bakura sat next to his brother and Marik next to Yuugi, opposite to Bakura. The two younger boys looked at them innocently.

"Oh we weren't talking about you. Actually we were just discussing if we should be heading home since the others are getting hungry." Said Ryou, looking so innocent that he didn't look innocent at all. His older brother frowned at him clearly not buying it.

"Sure you were… But maybe we should go home."

Ryou nodded. "Would you like to come with us, Marik?"

The blond was a bit unsure if he should go or not. Sure he wanted to but Ryou's overwhelming innocence was kind of scary. "Yeah… Sure." He ended up answering anyway and the boy seemed very pleased.

"Good! And after we have eaten we can play relationship therapy." The two looked alarmed now.

"What?!"

"Maybe I shouldn't come after all…" Marik was about to subtly get away from them when he heard Ryou's voice and turned to look at him. Now he wished that he hadn't.

"But you promised already."

"You promised to Ryou." Yuugi joined his friend and together they made their Double Puppy Dog Eyes of Impending Doom, which they had practiced in front of a mirror and honed to a point that no one could deny them.

"W-well, I did promise but…" Marik stammered but soon realized that he couldn't escape the mighty power of Double Puppy Dog Eyes of Impending Doom and with a sigh agreed to go but he wouldn't go alone. Bakura had started sneaking off but Marik grabbed his shoulder and stopped him from escaping.

"If I'm going down, you are going with me." He hissed to the other teen. Ryou changed pleased looks with his partner in crime before he went to find the rest of the gang.

"I swear that my brother is the evil incarnate." Mumbled Bakura to Marik as they were exiting the arcade and Marik just had to agree.

……………………………….

The three arrived to the apartment and ate. Ryou tried to make conversation with the other two but they weren't in a chatty mood, they were more in a mood to worry and threat what this "relationship therapy" in held. They did agree to try and find out about this whatever kind of relationship they had but really wanted to do it by their own terms. This would probably mean that it would take about a couple hundred years to do though… If this was only going to help them, what was the problem? They should have jumped from joy, not getting ready to jump out of the window to escape. Maybe it was that they would possibly find out that scared them. The two had no idea what kind of relationship knowledge Ryou held but he was much more in touch with his emotions than they were.

After they all finished eating, Ryou shooed them to the living room, telling that he would soon join them. The two sat down, nervous and contemplating whether or not they should just run out of the door while they still could. Escaping wouldn't prove to be very useful in the long run though so they just took a deep breath and stayed put. They couldn't just sit there quietly, however. Only sound braking the silence was Ryou's humming coming from the kitchen and Marik had a question that had been bothering him for a while now.

"Bakura?… Has your brother done this before?" He somehow had the aching feeling that this wasn't the first time Ryou had offered to be some sort of matchmaker for his older brother.

"Sadly, yes. He has a history as my personal matchmaker. Why?" Bakura turned to the other, wanting to know why he brought that up.

Marik shrugged as if it was no big deal. "No reason. So who else has he tried to set up with you?"

Bakura had to wonder Marik's choice of words. Who else? It wasn't like Marik was just some random person Ryou tried to pair him up with. "I don't even want to remember… But once he tried to pair me up with the annoying bitch from the idiot squad." He shuddered. "And there was that one guy from school…" Bakura made a face. "I swear he was trying to feel me up so I broke his arm." The teen finished with a shrug. "There were more but I really don't want to talk about them."

The blond laughed, actually sounding more relieved than amused. "Bad memories huh?"

"Right out terrible. I have no idea why Ryou thought any of those people would make a good match."

"You don't like people much, do you?"

"I don't like living things in general but yeah, I hate most people." People deceived, cheated and left you to rot if it would benefit them, only caring about them selves. "You and Ryou are really the only people I can stand. Hey maybe he's finally learning from his past matchmaking mishaps since he's putting so much effort in us; you actually have potential." Bakura even amazed himself when he was able to say that so casually, smirk firmly on his face. The reaction it he got was surprising as well. Instead of acting annoyed or smug about the comment, Marik's eyes widened as he stared at Bakura who could have sworn that was a blush on his face.

"Hm? Something I said?" Bakura inquired and Marik turned away, finding something interesting from the wall.

"Nothing. I just- Never mind."

The humming from the kitchen started to come closer and soon Ryou entered the room. For a moment his eyes bounced between the two, trying to figure out what was going on. He had taken a chair with him from the kitchen so that he could sit opposite the two who had taken over the couch. When he carried his seat the room and placed it on the floor, the other occupants seemed to notice his presence.

"I hope you weren't too bored while I was away."

"Our torturer has arrived…" Remarked Bakura, making Ryou scold at him.

"I'm supposed to be a therapist, not a torturer."

"Same difference."

The game of relationship therapy went something like this; Ryou would play the therapist/counselor person and help Bakura and Marik with their problems. According to his diagnosis they were a good example of two people in denial or just confused about emotional things. He was out to help them to sort things out and if help didn't work he would sort out their feelings for them. You see; Ryou had talked about his brother and his supposed "only just a friend" with his friends. Even his friend Jounouchi, who was not exactly the brightest person, had noticed the difference between Bakura with Marik and Bakura without Marik so it had to be obvious. The only problem was how to get the two people in question to co-operate. It wasn't an easy task but he got them to answer some questions that had been left open and well, some that Ryou was just curious to know. Like how did they end up sharing a couch the other night, what did they do that day and how big was the couch again? And then there was the question of why Ishizu didn't like Bakura? That was a bit difficult to explain because the two soon realized that Ryou didn't know about Marik's other personality. Bakura wasn't sure if Marik wanted Ryou to know so he said nothing about that and Marik preferred not to mention it so Ryou only got a moderated version about the whole thing. He did however have a comment about their day out.

"Aw, that sounds almost like a date."

"Uh… well… It wasn't…"

Ryou sighed. "You are impossible… Look, see this?" He pulled out a banana from somewhere. "What color is it?"

"Where did you get that?" Asked Bakura.

"Where was he keeping it?" Asked Marik from Bakura raising his eyebrow and the other chuckled.

"Oh be serious!" Huffed Ryou. "Answer my question."

"It's yellow, so?"

"Ok, good. Now if you were colorblind, what color would it be then?" He pressed on, determined to make his point.

"Still yellow. And your point would be?"

"Exactly. Even if you can't see the color it doesn't mean it's not there. If you don't see something it doesn't make it disappear."

"Yeah but if I was colorblind the banana wouldn't be yellow to me." Said Bakura crossing his arms, stubbornly refusing to see Ryou's point.

"Yes but in reality the color would still be the same whether you saw it or not."

"You do realize that you're having almost philosophical conversation about the color of some fruit, right?" Marik cut in.

"I'm using the fruit as a metaphor." Explained Ryou, his long fuse was starting to burn out. The two were even more stubborn and blind than he had expected.

"I know that but it's a strange one to use in this situation. Banana is usually used to-."

"Yes I know!" Ryou interrupted before Marik had time to finish his sentence.

……………………………….

It wasn't long after the banana discussion that they actually managed to make Ryou run out of patience. They would have never thought that it was possible but apparently, it was. Even the normally nice and polite boy could snap and yell. Maybe he just spent too much time with his brother…

"Argh! How can you be like this? You can't just go through your life ignoring all feelings towards others!"

"I'm not ignoring all feelings." Informed Bakura, Marik was just surprised to see the boy like this. This must be a big deal to Ryou…

"Yes, only the positive ones."

"Hate is a positive feeling, it gives you strength."

"It's negative strength!"

"No it's not! Strength is always positive!"

Ryou wasn't the only one who was out of patience…

"Is not! Besides the strength you get from positive feelings like love is much greater."

"Give me a break, Ryou! Don't lecture me about love!" Bakura spat.

"Would you two just calm down!" Marik yelled over the voices of the two brothers before things got more serious. It seemed that they didn't quite share the same visions about things and would be ready to try to prove the other wrong, even if it took forever and Marik really didn't have that kind of time.

Ryou sat back down, he had stood up earlier with Bakura, and took a deep breath, rubbing his temples.

"Bakura, please." The blond reached to tuck him by the hand and he actually sat down with a huff.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that." Said Ryou smiling awkwardly at the Egyptian.

"That's ok." It's natural to have a fight between siblings, Marik should know; he had two siblings after all. Besides, that wasn't the worst one he had seen. It was just a bit surprising that it was Ryou who was the first to raise his voice. Now the boy was studying him with a thoughtful expression and Marik had to wonder what was going through his mind. A quick glance at Bakura confirmed that he was still angrily glaring at nothing in particular, arms crossed on his chest.

"Marik? Could you calm him down?" Ryou asked suddenly and quietly.

"Sure…" But why it had to be him? It's not like Ryou couldn't calm his brother down if he wanted.

The Egyptian moved to sit a bit closer and placed his hand on the other's shoulder gently.

"What?" Bakura was still a bit snap-ish but at least his glare wasn't so hard as he looked at the one who was asked to calm him.

"Hey it's not me you're angry with, remember?" Marik smiled at the other's frown and began to draw small circles on the shoulder with his thump. Bakura sighed and let his hands fall on his lap. He ran his other hand through his hair.

"I know…"

"Tch, now your hair is even messier. You look like some kind of troll." The blond laughed a bit and tried to pet the hair back down but it just bounced right back up the way it was. "And your hair is just as stubborn as you."

"Hey, don't touch the do." Said Bakura, now only faking to be annoyed.

"Aawww, you guys are so cute." Half squealed Ryou. To be quite honest they had already forgotten that he was in the same room.

"I'm not cute!" They both said at the same time and Ryou smiled even wider.

"Oh yes you are. And I'm glad to inform you that my theory was right."

They changed glances. "What theory?"

"It's the contact that matters, you see." He grinned rather mysteriously and just a bit impishly. He looked surprisingly much like his brother, actually. "Have you two kissed, by the way?" He asked as if casually and out of nowhere but that was not a 'by the way' question by any means. Earlier when they had told Ryou about that day, they had conveniently left out the part where they kissed at the roof. And of course they didn't mention about the time when Bakura gave Marik his medication, though maybe that doesn't count as a kiss between them since it was Marik's other personality in control of Marik's body at the time.

"What?"

"Excuse me?" They both spoke the same time again and it sounded like they asked "Whexcusteme?" or something the like.

"It's all in his kiss, you know. I think you should, it might just help you to discover the true colors of your relationship."

Bakura had a strange expression. "Have you been listening to Cher again?"

"No… But that's true."

"You expect us to just- This is almost a public place!"

"No it's not, it's only me here." Ryou smiled innocently. "Besides, if you're so sure there's nothing else than friendship between you, what's there to be afraid of?"

"We are not afraid!" Stated Marik and Bakura nodded, they weren't looking at each other though.

"Yes you are." Said Ryou in a sing-song voice.

"No we're not!"

"Then prove it."

Silence filled the room and the two stared at Ryou in some sort of weird two versus one staring contest. No idea how Ryou was able to stare at them both at the same time but he just was; he was just good that way.

"You want to find out, don't you?" Ryou whispered and grinned knowingly. He had a good reason too since he was pretty much right.

"Will you stop pestering us then?" Bakura asked after a moment of silence and Marik turned to look at him but his eyes were firmly at Ryou who put his other hand on his heart and raised the other.

"Promise. I will no longer bother you about this."

"You will not even mention it and this will stay between us."

Ryou sighed but promised anyway. Marik's eyes sifted from Bakura to Ryou and back again. Apparently no one cared what he thought but that was probably good because he really wasn't sure what he thought exactly. Bakura finally turned to Marik and placed a finger under his chin. The Egyptian felt like laughing at his serious expression but found that he couldn't when the other leaned close. Instead he closed his eyes and felt Bakura's lashes brush his cheek as he did too. When the warm lips met his, Marik's heart skipped a beat before starting to beat rabidly. He leaned to response but just then it was over already as the other pulled away.

"There, happy now?"

The question was directed at Ryou who had a grin on his face. Marik just stared at Bakura and blinked. That was it? Marik felt like saying that no, he was not happy. That wasn't even a proper kiss! It was like just a small peck. He absentmindedly darted his tongue out to wet his lips and detected a small, faint trace of the other. The taste was the same as that time when he had woken up after regaining the control of his body, except that time it had been stronger. The Egyptian was suddenly angry and a black wave of jealousy washed over him. The others didn't notice the change in his demeanor as they bickered about something or other.

Marik rose to his feat. "I think I should go home." He stated, turned on his heals and rushed to the door. Bakura ran after him, catching him before he was out he door. He grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Marik, what's wrong?" The teen asked slightly worried.

"Nothing. See you later, 'Kura." Marik spat icily and jerked his arm off the other's grasp. He exited the apartment, closing the door rather violently behind him, leaving the other standing there dumfounded, the door almost on his face.

……………………………

"Heh heh, looks like I've got something you don't my other."

Shut up.

A/N: I actually updated much faster than I expected and the chapter is a page longer than my average chapter. Looks like thirteen is your lucky number, dear reader :) But aw poor Marik, jealous of himself xD I realized that I actually bash most characters in this, heh, I hope no one gets offended by it. It's not my intention to bash some particular character just because I don't happen to like him/her or offend anyone. Oh and while I still remember; does anyone have a good nickname for Marik? I mean, in the fic, Marik has nickname for Bakura and Bakura needs a nickname for Marik too but I have trouble coming up with one. If any of you could help me, that would be nice and I will of course give you credit :)

I always appreciate reviews, you know ;)