A/N: Since I actually have this all planned now… The fic is going to end after four or five more chapters. There, I said it but even after that you haven't seen the last of me for I have ideas! Muhahahahaaa! -.-'' ahem… Don't mind me, I'm not fully sane but then again, who is?

"Bakura? Why aren't you in bed?"

The addressed teen sat on the couch, empty eyes glued to the TV screen, which showed a document about some sort of wildlife. He didn't react on the question in any way so his brother sat sighing besides him on the couch.

"You should try to get some sleep."

"I'm not tired." He answered gruffly.

"Of course you aren't. You just happen to have bags under your eyes and act like a zombie all the time." It was really incredible how much sarcasm Ryou could muster if he needed it. "What are you trying to achieve? You have work tomorrow."

Tomorrow was Monday, the first of work at the museum. Bakura had thought it over and called to Ishizu that he would accept the job. Ishizu had recommended him to the head of the museum and pulled some strings so he had gotten the job.

"Get off my case and go to sleep already." Bakura meant to snap but it came out as a tired, slightly angry mumble. It had been a few days since the day they went to the arcade and since…

Ryou sighed again and placed his hand on his brother's shoulder comfortingly. "I'm sure that if you just went to see him and-."

"I said leave it be!" Bakura snapped and slapped the hand away. "I don't need your advise so get the hell off my case!"

Ryou looked hurt and bent his head down. "I just wanted to help… I'm-I'm going to get some sleep. Don't stay up too late, ok?" After a last worried glance the boy left to go to his own room.

Bakura groaned and collapsed on the couch. He was so frustrated, with him self, with the situation, with the TV but most of all with a certain other person.

He hadn't slept in a few days at all, he just couldn't so he just stayed up all night and watched TV. Sleep deprived equals a one grumpy, snappy, piss-y teen. He had been in a very foul mood for the past days and since he hadn't left the apartment the only person he could take it out on was the last person he wanted to take it out to; Ryou. He had been all but nice to his little brother, barking and snapping at him, raising his voice for no good reason and just telling him to leave him be. The younger being the understanding and forgiving person he was had taken it all calmly while trying to console his brother, which just made Bakura more angry. He was mostly angry with himself for not knowing what to do and for taking it out on Ryou who had done nothing wrong. The TV didn't help either because it failed to show anything of interest in the long hours of night. He just wanted to take his trustworthy baseball bat on smash the god-dammed contraption to tiny pieces and then burn the tiny pieces sending them to hell. Maybe he had some minor anger issues…

And then there was the source of his current state… Soon after Marik had left, Bakura had tried calling him, no answer. He had tried sending him a text message, again no answer. He had tried both of those several times but received and accomplished absolutely nothing. He hadn't actually visited the Egyptian yet… He knew that was probably the only way to untangle this mess but the other wanted nothing to do with him if anything could be concluded from his lack of cell phone use.

The worst part was that he didn't even know why the other acted the way he did. It was obvious enough that Marik was angry with him but he had no idea why. What had he done wrong? He had thought back to the time when Marik had stormed off and had been able to come up with one reason why the other acted the way he did; the kiss. That just had to be it.

Bakura felt like banging his head on something hard every time he thought of it. How could have he been so stupid and inconsiderate? Of course Matik didn't want to be kissed, not by him and he was probably angry because his opinion hadn't been asked. But he could have swore that the response was there! And what about the time when they woke up on the couch? There was something there! Why couldn't this be easy? Why couldn't other people be simple?

He was tired but unable to rest or sleep, he was frustrated and confused but most of all he was sad. Bakura missed Marik. He missed the time he spent with him, he missed that smug, annoying smirk, the occasional sincere smile or laugh, he missed the small arguments and the warm feeling the other was able to reduce, hell, he even missed the smart-ass remarks the other some times had. He felt so empty and hollow without his companion, like a piece was missing. And to think it had only been a few days… What about if he would lose the other for good because of his action?

Bakura knew that he was in no shape to go to work tomorrow but that didn't mean that he wouldn't go, being the stubborn person he was. Besides, if he wouldn't show up on his first day he was sure to lose the job and he could afford that.

"Damn you Marik…"

……………………………….

"Damn you Bakura…" Marik mumbled to him self as he sat on the kitchen counter and sipped on his coffee. It was well past midnight already and coffee wasn't something you'd normally drink on such an hour but currently the black-brown liquid was the only thing keeping him sane, or that's what it felt like. At least it was the only thing keeping him from going to a full zombie mode. He hadn't slept and only nibbled on his food the past few days and he probably looked horrible. He knew his siblings were worried about him and were trying to find out what was wrong, failing to do so since Marik didn't feel like explaining the situation to them. 'Oh it's nothing. I just thought that there might have been something more between me and this other guy but it turns out that there isn't and I ended up feeling jealous of my self.' Yeah, he could see it now… That would go just swell…

"Hmph, it's not like I care, anyway…" He had also taken the habit of talking to himself recently, another reason for his siblings to worry. "I don't." That was a big fat lie and he knew it. If he didn't care why was he loosing sleep over it? Why was he feeling so angry with the other and with him self? With himself for he felt that he had let himself to be led on and for being so stupid. With Bakura because… Just because!

He didn't have to tell or even acknowledge his reasons. The only thing he needed to acknowledge was his time to time aching head and the small fact that he occasionally was able to hear his other personality's taunting voice. The medication wasn't keeping him away like it should and Marik felt like there was a thin wall between himself and his other, the meds were helping to strengthen the wall but it was still wearing more thin and would crack given a small poke. Too bad the wall wasn't sound proved; the voice of his other was driving him up the wall. Of course he hadn't told about his problems to anyone. He didn't need his siblings to fuss over it, he could handle this by himself.

"You're just angry because he doesn't want you the way you want him to."

And there it was; that god dammed, rip-your-hair-off annoying voice back to taunt him. "Shut up, leave me alone."

"Tch, tch. It's no use denying it. You want him to want you, to love you, to put his tongue down your throat and kiss you, you want him to fu-."

"Didn't I tell you to shut the hell up already!" Marik snapped at the voice. He didn't want to hear any of this. He didn't need to hear any of this. Too bad the voice didn't want to shut up just yet.

"Oh but you know I'm right, my other. Funny how he's even willing to kiss me rather than you, isn't it? Ah, it felt so nice, he tastes so fine and isn't a bad kisser at all…"

"SHUT UP!" He cried, only to hear the voice laugh cruelly. Suddenly a light went on in the previously dark room.

"Marik! Are you alright? What's wrong? Why are you yelling?" The worried, slightly panic-ing voice of Ishizu came from the door and she rushed to her brother's side. "Marik?"

"I-it's nothing, really… Sorry I woke you up." He shooed his sister away from him and quickly ran to his room where he could be alone. He wanted so desperately to be alone. No, he wanted to be with Bakura. He wanted his other to go away, to leave him be. Oh how he loathed him! He was the sole reason why his life was so fucked up!

"Bakura…" He whispered to the darkness of his room and pulled his legs to him, sitting on his bed, and leaned his head to his knees. His room had been in terrible shape after his other personality's come back but it had been fixed by now and was once again livable. He felt so cold, hungry, tired, in other words right out miserable. Marik remembered the warmth he and Bakura had shared when sleeping on the couch back then. He suddenly felt even colder and hugged his knees tighter. He blamed his misery on his other personality. He hated him!

"I hate you…" Marik turned and punched the wall behind him. "I hate you! Hate, hate, hate!" With every 'hate' he uttered, he punched the wall until his knuckles were starting to bleed. The teen looked at his knuckles before he leaned his head back on his knees and a violent shudder ran through him.

He couldn't do anything about his other, not at the moment but maybe… maybe he could fix things with Bakura… He was so tired of not being able to be with him, being able see him and talk to him. Finally, after staying up for so long, Marik felt sleep taking over his tired being. While he slept, curled up in a tight ball, he dreamt that a pale hand came and pulled him out of the darkness he was falling into.

…………………………………

The morning had eventually come and the teen had left to work. It was nearing midday now and he was currently located in the storage room in the back of the museum. He was supposed to make some sort of list of the things there. So there he was, carrying a notepad and a pen, writing down the stuff he saw. The work was really boring… Earlier he had run some errands for the other workers and filled some papers. Thank god for the vending machine in the back office, it was a regular lifesaver and kept him awake. He brought the coffee cup to his lips while filling in a name of some ancient artifact he wouldn't be able to recognize without the convenient nametag it had on it. Ishizu, who was his supervisor by some freaky twist of fate, yay, had told him not to touch anything. He hadn't, really, but some of the objects looked very interesting and valuable. Finally he listed the last piece of ancient crap and left the stinking storage room.

Bakura was supposed to hand over the list to Ishizu so he went looking for her. He found her explaining something to a few visitors of the museum and lifted his notepad to wave at her, indicating that he was done. She noticed and nodded before turning back to the visitors. The teen decided that it was time for a break and headed to his friendly neighborhood vending machine. He inserted a few coins and pressed for the regular coffee.

"How many cups are you going to have?" Ishizu spoke from behind him.

"Enough."

He could hear her sigh. "It's not healthy, to not sleep and being powered by coffee. You have to be able to do your job properly, you know."

Now Bakura turned to look at her. "What are you, my mother?"

"Thank god I'm not…" She said with mock relief. "But I still think you should take better care of yourself. You can't go on like this."

Bakura just turned his head to the side and pretended that he didn't hear her. He knew she was right, he wouldn't be able to go on like this for very long but it was not like he wanted to stay up all night and watch crappy TV shows, not being able to sleep. He didn't exactly have a choice. To get some sleep he would have to take action but he didn't really know what he should do… Go to Marik and say; 'Hey, I'm sorry I kissed you. Can we still be friends?' ? It was very unlikely that he would do something like that, the changes were slim to none. So what could he do? He wasn't the kind to just sit back and wait for faith to work everything out; it wouldn't anyway.

A familiar voice cut through his musings. "Hey, Bakura!"

The teen noticed now his brother and the midget boy coming towards him and absently lifted his hand in greeting though he did wonder why was Yuugi here. He decided to voice his thoughts as well.

"What's he doing here?"

"Oh, Yuugi and I were just hanging out and decided to come and see you. So how are things?"

"Boring but hey, at least I can get coffee." He answered and drank from his cup. "After… five cups I'm actually starting to feel better." He continued a bit sarcastically.

Ishizu had her brake then as well so she stayed and chatted with them. The discussion somehow lead to neighbors and such as Ryou told about the many times Bakura had pissed off their neighbors and almost got them kicked out of the building. Like last time when he threw the ball at the wall repeatedly, driving the neighbors nuts and almost getting their apartment burned by a pissed of neighbor. Ishizu had fun listening to the tales while Bakura didn't.

"That reminds me." She started and glanced meaningfully at Bakura who turned his guarded gaze at her. "I heard an interesting complaints from a couple of elderly people who live down the street from us."

He felt that he might know what she was talking about. Why did she have to bring that up now?

"You see, they came to talk to me last week, telling that they didn't want to watch my brother and his 'boyfriend' doing any 'questionable activities' in public in our otherwise decent neighborhood."

"Oh that…"

Ryou and Yuugi were now both watching him intently, eager to hear what was this all about. Bakura could have swore that she had done this on purpose to embarrass him. It was probably some strange from of revenge. Were everyone possessed by some kind of evil spirit these days?

"I don't know what did they tell you but that was done as joke, you know, to freak them out." He shrugged trying to look casual. "They did call us faggots after all."

Ryou and Yuugi changed glances and Ishizu raised an eyebrow.

"Had they some reason to call you that or…?" She left the question hanging in the air and Bakura realized that he should have just shut up.

"Well… uh…" Damn, what was he supposed to say? "The situation was kind of suggesting, I guess but it was not like we… did anything."

"Hey you, time to get back to work! Ishtar, your doing a tour and new kid is going with you!" It was some other worker who called out for them, saving Bakura for now. He did really appreciate being called 'new kid' though…

Ryou and his friend decided to leave since they had work to do and with a quick bye were off. The tour was rather uneventful. They just walked through the museum, Ishizu mainly telling stuff to the people and answering their stupid questions that any kid in pre-school could answer. She had an amazing amount of patience with them and was specialized in what else but Ancient Egypt but could answer the questions about other historical stuff also. Bakura would have never had the patience to do her job and slightly had to admire her for that, of course he would never admit it in a million years.

………………………………….

Marik was hungry. He had slept a couple of hours last night quite peacefully and now he was out to find some food. He however soon discovered that there was little food in the house so he would have to go out to get some if he didn't want to starve. The teen decided to go to The Ankh and Scale because he could maybe get a discount.

The restaurant was near the center, in a smaller street and it didn't take long for him to get there since he had been there many times before.

Shadi had his shift behind the counter and Marik wasn't very happy about this but he was hungry enough to go in anyway. The turban clad Egyptian noticed him soon.

"Hey, Marik! What brings you here?"

"I'm starving."

"It looks like it's your lucky day, then." Shadi pointed at the sign, which said that if you bought a meal you could get another with half the price. "Special offer. Only today."

Marik thought it over and got an idea. He was a bit unsure about it but maybe he could just not starve and make up with Bakura. He ordered two meals to go and headed for the museum.

………………………………….

After the tour was over Bakura realized that he was starving. He hadn't eaten anything the whole day, seeing that he had skipped breakfast and had been powered by coffee. In the morning he hadn't felt too good and didn't feel like eating so he had just left to work without breakfast. Now the not eating was making itself known and his stomach was making displeased noises.

The teen thought that he could skip out quickly to get something to eat, he didn't have anything to do now and no one would notice. He was just heading out when he smelled something; food. He turned to see the source of the sent and spotted him coming towards a bit awkwardly, carrying something. Bakura just stopped on his tracks and waited for the other, wondering what he wanted. Marik soon reached him and placing an apologetic on his face, he held up the two bags of food.

"Um, hi… You hungry?"

A/N: The perfect place to leave it, right? lol Don't skip meals kiddies, it's not healthy. I didn't think I would be able to write even the amount of angst in this chapter, I'm no good with angst, but by some miracle I managed to write it anyway and feel almost pleased with it.

Please press the pretty purple button before you go and leave me a review!