A/N: I decided to start writing this chapter now even though I should be studying to my exams… I have biology, religion, English, Swedish and math, I don't have to study much on the English exam though. This (and the next) chapter is for the emotional development they need to get through the fic to the (happy) ending. Yes, this is going to end happily :) I seriously considered killing them all in the end but that would be wrong and I just can't write that. That would be the easy way out in the sense that I wouldn't have to even consider about making a sequel or anything, which I most likely will not do, maybe a one-shot or a side plot thingy tops.

Silence set between the two before Bakura grabbed the meal and Marik with him to the museum staircase. He sat the Egyptian down on the stairs and started rampaging through his share as if he hadn't seen food for days. Marik sat there watching him rather stupefied. He had expected the other to maybe yell at him, just walk away from him or at least frown at him but he had done nothing of the sorts, instead he just started to munch down his food. The teen vaguely realized that they were sitting right next to sing that said: 'No eating or drinking inside the museum, please' and glanced at Bakura who paid no heed to it. Marik opened his bag and tried to eat some of the food but soon discovered that he couldn't and just stared at it for a good while, not really knowing what to do or say. He thought that he would be happy to eat and for the fact that Bakura hadn't completely shunned him but he wasn't.

"Bakura…"

The teen stopped eating at the sound of his name and settled to listen.

"I'm sorry…" He had the aching feeling that he shouldn't be the one to feel sorry upon reflecting on the things his other half had said but if it would make things ok again he would be as sorry as he needed to be, even for Bakura's behalf.

"That's bullshit!" Spat Bakura suddenly and Marik raised his eyes from his bag to his eyes. "Don't say you're sorry if you aren't." Now the anger Marik had expected was there, whirling in Bakura's dark eyes.

"I was just… I wanted to make things better…"

"By saying an empty sorry after you've been avoiding me? Yeah, that's ought to work, Ishtar."

That was the first time he had ever called Marik by his last name, it stung and the cold tone of voice made it stung even deeper. He couldn't look him in the eye any more so he pretended to find his food very interesting. "What do you expect me to do then? Because if being sorry isn't good enough, I really don't know."

"How about you tell me what the hell is going on and I'll think of a way for you to redeem yourself."

Marik looked back up at the other. He didn't need to…! "For me to redeem myself? What about you?"

"What about me?"

Gods he could be so annoying… "You and your…! You!" He didn't exactly know what he was trying to say so he just threw his hands up in frustration. "ARGH! Forget it! I'm going home!" He stood up quickly and tried to leave but was stopped by Bakura who had reached out to grab his arm.

"You are not going anywhere before I know what's the matter with you."

Marik tried to pull his arm off the other's grasp but he held on too tight. "You are in no position to tell me where can I go and let go off me."

"No! I didn't loose my sleep for nothing! You are going to tell me what's wrong right now!"

Marik stopped trying to get away for a second and blinked at Bakura. So he had lost sleep over this as well? "You haven't been able to sleep?" The teen asked carefully.

"No and I've been a real bastard lately because of it too."

"Heh, like that's something new; you're always a bastard Bakura."

Bakura frowned a bit. "Well, I've been even a bigger bastard then. Enough about me, what's going on with you?"

"Could you let go of me? You're cutting the blood circulation of my arm."

"You promise not to run away?"

"Promise."

The white haired one let go. "Spill."

Marik sighed and rubbed his neck awkwardly. "It's complicated…."

"What isn't?"

"Well…" He didn't know how he should explain this to Bakura or how much he should tell. "It's… I uh… I don't know how to begin…"

"It's about the kiss, isn't it?" Bakura asked, voice blunt but he refused to look at Marik who blinked, a slight pink tint on his cheeks.

"Kinda…"

"Oh." Bakura ran his hand through his hair. "I didn't mean to… If you aren't ok with it…"

"Huh? No, it's not that." Marik hurried to explain. "It's just that um…" Damn, why is it so hard?

"Yes?" The other asked feeling curious about this now and stepped closer to properly hear his answer.

"Well, uh…" There's no way this could be this hard! Marik's face felt hot and he was uncomfortable under Bakura's gaze. Okay, here goes nothing. "How come you kissed my other and… and couldn't kiss me like that?"

Bakura stared. He hadn't expected anything like that and his stare got Marik feeling even more uncomfortable. He just wished that he would react in some way, any way.

The reaction came; Marik was hit upside the head. "Idiot. I didn't kiss your other half for the sake of kissing him; I wanted to get you back."

The blond rubbed the back of his head. "You didn't have to hit that hard…"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Yeah I did. I had to knock some sense into you." He frowned as if realizing something. "Wait… You were jealous?"

"No!" Since when had he started lying to Bakura? He had been jealous, that's why he ran out on him. Maybe he was just afraid to admit it because that would mean that he liked Bakura more than in just friendly way. Yes, he liked him and cared about him but that's what friends do right? Or maybe his darker half was right… "I hate him and I thought that you might…"

"Do I have to hit you again?" The other asked annoyed. "I wanted to get rid of him, okay? I thought that this was about that you were angry with me because I kissed you but it was about me kissing your other and not you." He paused a bit, frowning again. "Wait… I did kiss you so what's the problem?"

"Uh, you didn't like you did him…"

Bakura looked at him strangely and raised his brow. "Just because I had to?"

"No, I mean you didn't… like, you know!" He yelled feeling frustrated once again because of his lack of words to explain how he felt.

"Actually, I don't think I do."

Marik knew that Bakura was a smart person but gosh, he was so thick some times. "You just pecked me."

"You mean that I didn't tongue you?" Bakura's eyebrow shot a bit higher and Marik blushed. Did he have to be so blunt? He could be a bit subtler; the situation was embarrassing enough already.

"You don't have to put it that way…" He mumbled.

"Okay but that's what this is about?"

Marik sifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Basically, yeah…" He glanced at the other to see how he would react but his expression didn't give away anything. He wished that it would but no such luck. "I can understand if you… I mean you just did it because you had to and the last time you had to Ryou of our backs-." A pair of lips stopped Marik's rambling. The other circled his arms around his waist, pulling him close and pressed his forehead against his.

"Shut up." Bakura whispered, red-ish eyes intensely gazing at Marik's wide purple ones.

"Okay…" He had tensed up first but now he relaxed in Bakura's embrace and wrapped his arms around the other's neck, sighing contently and letting his eyes close. He suddenly realized how heavy his eyelids were and how tired and hungry he really was.

"Hey, don't fall asleep on me now. You'll have to eat first, then you're welcome to crash in my place, it's closer anyways." Bakura continued whispering and led them back to the food. "Here." He handed Marik his bag of food, the teen had conveniently fell to sit on his lap when he sat down on the stairs.

"Thanks." Marik mumbled and actually ate the contents of the paper bag under Bakura's watchful eye. "When does your shift end?" He asked between the bites.

"Soon enough. Wait for me, okay?"

"Sure."

Marik let Bakura get back to his work and waited, looking around the exhibition though he had seen it many times before, seeing that his sister worked there. Time didn't actually fly by but he managed anyway and his sister kept him company when she was able, after she noticed that he was there. She was still clearly worried but it lessened when she learned that he had actually eaten properly for once. Ishizu made a mental note to thank Bakura later for whatever he had done to get her brother back to normal. But she did also have a feeling that this whole ordeal was because of the white haired teen or had something to do with him. Who else had the power to through her brother so out of balance?

"I'm glad you're feeling better, brother. What on Earth did he say to you?"

"Oh he just told me that I'm an idiot." Marik answered with a shrug. He was glad to be an idiot for once instead of the ingenious person who was always right. Ishizu looked a bit puzzled but didn't press on it.

The time unit of 'soon enough' eventually went by and Bakura came to find Marik. At the sight of him, Ishizu came and hugged him with one arm before making her dignified exit, leaving Bakura dumbstruck. He stared after her for a while before turning to Marik for an explanation. "What the…?"

Marik smiled at his stupefied expression. "She was just crateful that someone finally told me what an idiot I am." Bakura blinked stupidly, clearly not getting what was so great about that. He told people that they were idiots all the time but this was the first time someone had thanked him for that.

"Oh come on." Marik took Bakura's hand and started to lead the teen out of the museum, towards his home. "I'm so tired I could fall asleep standing."

……………………………………

Once they made it to Bakura's apartment and Marik immediately crashed on the couch.

"Ryou? You home?" Bakura called out for his little brother but received no answer and wondered where could he be.

"'Kuraaa… There's a note on the table." Told Marik's tired voice from the depths of the couch and his hand was raised to point at the small coffee table in the middle of the living room. Bakura picked the note up and read:

To Bakura; I went to Yuugi's and will be back later today, in time to prepare dinner. Ryou He frowned a bit at Ryou's neat handwriting. He spent way too much time with that midget kid but then again, maybe it was better that he wasn't home. "Why so blue?" Marik asked. He had raised his head from the couch enough to see him. "Ryou is at Yuugi's again." "Yuugi… Is he that short kid with weird hair?" "Yeah…" He started to walk towards his room but was stopped by the Egyptian's voice. "Where do you think you're going?" Bakura turned back at him. "To my room, why?" "Stay with me?" Marik made his own imitation of puppy dog eyes, not managing to pull of Ryou's innocence though. "No way I'm sleeping on the couch. If you want to sleep with me, you'll have to drag your carcass to my room." He vaguely realized hat that had sounded a bit double minded but was too tired to care right now. Marik reluctantly got up from his spot on the couch and followed his companion to the other, messier room. "Do you ever clean?" Marika asked making a face at the room's condition. "If it's not good enough for you, feel free to go back to the couch." Bakura crawled on his bed and placed his arms behind his head, looking at the sealing above. Marik came next to him anyway after a while but kept his distance. "I don't want to be alone…" Bakura glanced at him and reached out to pull him close, Marik curled next to him and nuzzled his head on his chest. It wasn't long until the two tired teens fell asleep

. …………………………………

When they woke up it was already a bit dark out and sounds were coming from the kitchen, indicating that Ryou was home. Bakura glanced at Marik next to him and realized that he was already awake, watching him intently.

"How long have you been awake?" He asked and the other smiled a bit tiredly.

"Awhile. I didn't want to wake you up; you looked so peaceful." The teen reached for a few strands of Bakura's hair and started to play with them absently. "Ryou came home…"

"Mm-hmm…" Mumbled Bakura and closed his eyes.

"Maybe we should get up. It's getting late and I need to get out."

"Why?"

"I've been inside too much, it's driving me nuts."

"Oh… I can take you out tomorrow…" The white haired teen continued to speak quietly.

"Out?" Asked Marik. "Like on a date?"

"Yeah, if you want to… Some time after work." Now the teen opened his eyes to see the other's reaction. Marik looked thoughtful for a second before his face brightened up again.

"Sure. Let's get up, I have to go."

"You can stay for dinner, I'm sure Ryou wouldn't mind." Bakura offered and got up with the other.

"Okay."

They went to the kitchen where Ryou was just about done with the meal. He noticed the two and smiled. "You're awake. It was about time you got some sleep." The last part was meant for Bakura who looked a bit awkward.

"Um, yeah…"

"Don't worry, no hard feelings for the bastard-ness. You had a lovers quarrel, I can understand that." Ryou said while handing the plates and cutlery to his brother to put on the table.

"I thought you weren't-."

"Are you staying, Marik?" Ryou cut his brother's protest short and paid no heed to his angry grumble. Marik nodded and while snickering to Bakura's childish pout went to help him.

They ate dinner together. Ryou was subtly trying to find out what had the fight been about but didn't have much luck since they really didn't want him to know; it would just add steam to Ryou's attempts at getting them together though he had promised to stop bothering them about that. They had a light chat about various things that didn't really mater but were fun to talk about. After the dinner Marik announced that it was time for him to head home and said bye to Ryou and told Bakura he'd be seeing him tomorrow. After the Egyptian had left the brothers cleaned up the dishes and settled to spend a quiet evening.

…………………………………..

Later that evening when the brothers were watching TV Ryou's cell phone rang and he picked it up.

"Ryou."

Bakura continued to watch TV while his brother talked to someone on the phone. It didn't sound like it was one of his friends since Ryou sounded a bit too formal. The TV showed some wild life document again; it was apparently about hedgehogs and about their behavior in modern cities. To Bakura it was really uninteresting but it was the best thing on right now and Ryou thought hedgehogs looked so cute, not huggable, but cute anyway. Bakura had failed to realize what was so cute about large pincushions with feet though.

"Would you like to speak with Bakura?"

The sound of his own name woke him up from his bored state and he turned to Ryou who glanced at him.

"Okay, I see… Okay. Bye." Ryou hung up and frowned at the phone for a while before addressing his brother.

"They have moved dad's funeral to a later point…"

"Why?"

"I'm not really sure but he said something about having trouble organizing them."

Bakura snorted. "Figures. When are they then?"

"A week later then originally planed."

"But that's school week."

The break was coming to an end and it wouldn't be long before they would have to get back to school. The funeral was originally supposed to be next week, a week before school started, but now because of problems in the organizing end they would be held on a school week.

"I know. We'll just have to organize it somehow. I'm sure they will understand, it's our father after all…"

Bakura crossed his arms. "Yeah but that's still very unthoughtful of them."

"Hmph, says the king of all thoughtfulness…" Ryou said teasingly and earned a glare from Bakura.

A/N: There you go :) The next chapter will feature the date, obviously, so stay tuned. As for the funeral being bushed back; I need some time to do the stuff I have in mind before they leave for Egypt so… My Microsoft Word says that 'unthoughtful' is not a word and I could swear that it is. Is it? o.0 I could be wrong…

Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!