A/N: This is the second to the last chapter people! Thank you for reading and reviewing :) I'll most likely thank you again in the next chapter but anyways…

It had been about a week since the date and the situation at Marik's had calmed down a bit but he still wasn't able to get out as much as he would have liked. Or that's what Bakura had discovered while being engaged in one of the long phone calls that would raise their phone bills to the skies above.

The white haired teen was lying on his bed, talking to Marik. Since they couldn't see each other, this was the next best thing.

"Man, that sucks!" Exclaimed Bakura to the cell phone.

/"I know! And now my pocket money is on ice…"/ Marik half whined from the other end.

"Well, you were stupid enough to get couth."

/"Hmph!"/ A silence settled between them and Bakura could guess that the other was probably pouting or something. Time to change the subject then…

"That reminds me; I haven't seen your sister at work for a while. Where did she go?" Bakura asked. He had been wondering that for some time, he normally saw Ishizu every day at work, not necessary a good thing but he was used to it by now.

/"She went to Tokyo. Some business for the museum I think. Miss her already?"/

"No way, just wondering. Now I have to take orders from that skinny old guy, he pisses me off without end." Bakura frowned at the laugh at his misery.

/"Aaww… Poor 'Kura! Better get Ishizu back to boss you around before you get too sick of the old guy."/ Some more laughing was heard. /"Don't worry, she'll be back before you notice."/

"It's easy for you to laugh now…"

/"I have to keep myself entertained somehow, you know."/

A sly smirk took over Bakura's features as he spoke. "I could keep you entertained if only I was allowed to see you…"

"Do I hear a certain innuendo in that statement?" Asked Ryou from the door and Bakura snapped his attention to him.

/"Who's that?"/

"Ryou…" He told Marik before addressing his brother. "Bug off."

The younger brother just rolled his eyes a bit. "About our flight to Egypt; do you want to take the night flight or the day one?"

"Night."

"Okay then. I'll just leave you to your… chat. Tell Marik I said hi." Ryou left the room after a glare from his brother.

"Ryou says hi." Bakura told Marik after Ryou left.

/"Ok. What was that about?"/

"Funeral trip. He's been fussing over it for days now."

/"Oh yeah… When are you leaving?"/

"Three days from now. Ryou got us days off from school, he can ask nicely."

/"Heh, I can believe that."/ They had been kind of putting off the subject of school. On the other hand, not too eager to go back there but on the other, no one could stop then from meeting at school and it was not like there were awful a lot of schools in Domino. /"I'll miss you…"/ Marik whispered and the other had some trouble catching it.

"It's only for few days."

/"Yeah…"/

………………………………..

Ishizu eventually came back from her trip to Tokyo before anything unfortunate could happen to the other museum worker. Work went like it usually did, except for the meaningful glances Bakura got from Ishizu every time their eyes met. It was really starting to bug him and he could wait or lunch hour to ask what the hell was her problem again.

He was just sweeping the floor with a mop and brooding over various things that just needed to be brood over, like how it was boring and rainy today and how the mop was so old and smelly, you know, stuff like that that just begged to be bitched about but since he had no one to bitch to he settled to brooding in stead.

He glanced at his watch again, which must have been the tenth time during the past five minutes, only to see that it was still well over half an hour before lunch and glared at his watch like it was it's fault.

"Stupid watch." He mumbled to him self and kept moping the floor with the old smelly mop. All mops could go to hell for all he cared, along with brooms, vacuum cleaners and other various cleaning objects that all hated him and the feeling was indeed mutual.

Finally, after a period in time that felt like forever, it was time for lunch brake. Bakura hurried to his new friend the coffee machine, inserted coins and got a cup of coffee. It wasn't for long until he spotted the very person he wanted to see, Ishizu, who was also heading towards the coffee machine.

"Oh, you." She greeted in her new oh so polite way and got her cup of coffee.

"Yes, me. Now what the hell is your problem this time?"

"You are my problem as always, Bakura. Why do you ask?"

"What did I ever do to you? If this is about Marik again-!" Bakura started but was interrupted by Ishizu.

"Indeed it is. You are bad influence."

"And I'm damn proud of it too!" He declared proudly and Ishizu rolled her eyes.

"You just have no shame, do you? That's exactly why I don't like you."

"Feelings mutual, it's Marik I like and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't hang around you Ishtar people."

Ishizu stared at him for a while. "You really like him, like, like like?"

"Yes, enough to put up with you." He sipped his coffee and waited for her reaction.

"How much do you like him?" She finally asked.

"I already told you; enough to put up with his annoying relatives!" He yelled.

"Enough to leave him alone if I tell you that your company is not good for him?"

"If I hear that from him then I might consider it."

"You are so selfish! Don't you ever think of anyone else besides yourself?"

"Who are you thinking when you tell me to leave Marik alone?!" Before he could quite grasp what happened he found hot coffee on his face, Ishizu had thrown her remaining coffee right at him and stormed off.

"Bitch!" Bakura yelled after her and wiped coffee off his face. "Shit, this burns."

"Bakura!" Called a familiar voice and through the coffee mess he could see Ryou looking worried and coming towards him. "What happened? I saw Ishizu running out cursing you and… Is that coffee?"

"Yes and it's hot too. Care to help me?"

Ryou hurried to help his brother out and wiped some coffee out with a tissue. "So what's going on? You didn't fight, did you?"

"Of course not! She just threw her coffee at me for the heck of it!" Bakura spat sarcastically.

"Oh, Bakura…" Ryou sighed and shook his head. "Here, wipe the rest of it off, I'll go find Ishizu and see if I can talk to her." He handed some tissues to Bakura and headed in the direction he had seen Ishizu going earlier.

"Watch out or she'll throw burning stuff at you!" Bakura yelled after him but Ryou paid no heed. Bakura grumbled to himself and wiped off the coffee, which was all over his shirt. It would leave a nasty stain.

"Damn that bitch…"

Ishizu and he weren't in the best of terms before but it had never been this bad. Now they surely hated each other. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Why did you have to be in good terms with the person's family you were interested in? It wasn't the family you were going to date anyway…

Bakura didn't know if Ryou ever got to talk to Ishizu or how it went because no matter how nasty stain he had on his shirt he was still stuck at work. The smelly mop waited him where he had left it unlike he had hoped for, he had hoped that someone would steal it or something but then again, who I their right minds would want to steal an old mop? So he was back to his work as the cleaning guy, going through the floors of the museum. There were a lot of floors since the museum was so large. Wouldn't it be nice to just cause a flood or something? That would clean the floors in no time flat! But then again, that would most likely get Bakura fired and despise his certain distaste towards his workmates he still needed the job and doubted that he could get another one in any time soon.

He started to whistle a song that Ryou always hummed when he was doing something and actually felt a bit better. His whistling was maybe a bit off tune but he didn't really care, just continued the merry little song he didn't know the words for and doubted that there were any.

Then all of a sudden the mop's handle snapped.

"Oh this is just great!" He cursed some more under his breath and went to get another one. When he reached the closet the mops and brooms and such were supposed to be he had already thrown the old mop out, along with it's broken handle. He found another mop and took it with out thinking much and closed the closet. On his way back to the spot he had been earlier he spotted a familiar looking hair sticking out the crowd.

It was Yuugi.

Bakura wondered what was he doing here but concluded that it has to have something to do with his brother. The two were always hanging out together these days for reasons Bakura failed to understand or didn't want to understand. It had something to do with that mushy friendship stuff anyway…

"Hey, Bakura have you seen Ryou?" Yuugi asked when Bakura passed him.

"He ran after Ishizu a couple minutes ago." Bakura replied shortly leaving Yuugi stand there and going back to work.

………………………………..

Marik was sitting in the house alone once again. He had positively read every book and magazine in the house, tried watching TV and even cleaned the entire place twice during this week only. He was just so bored he felt like dying. Currently he was sitting on the couch, eyes clued in space. The room was dim lit as it was starting to get dark out and he hadn't bothered to turn on the lights. He was his only company at the moment when the others went to do their own stuff. Marik hadn't cared to join them, he wasn't in the best of moods and still angry with his sister. He only wished he wouldn't have to be alone all this much, locked in the house. Sometimes it felt as if the walls were falling down on him. His own room was getting too small so he occupied the living room when the others weren't at home.

Marik hugged his knees and sighed.

"There's no use whishing him here, he doesn't care anyway."

"You shut up." The wall between him and his other was getting thinner and the voice was closer now. It had been taunting him about how Bakura made so little effort at coming to see him and claimed that he didn't care.

"He does care, he's just busy at the work and when he gets off so does Ishizu and she'll be home before he has the change to come here." Marik explained at the voice who laughed.

"That's your childish naivety speaking."

"No, that's reason. If he wouldn't care, why would he call me on almost daily basis?"

"Maybe he wants to get into your pants."

"That's not the case here." Marik crossed his arms. "And maybe I want him in my pants, have you thought of that? Just leave me alone already!"

"I thought you didn't want to be alone."

"I want to be alone from you."

"You know that I can't leave you alone, ever."

"Can you at least shut up?"

"No."

Marik threw his hand in the air in frustration and buried his head in a pillow. He just couldn't take it anymore! The always taunting voice was driving him nuts.

"You can't shut me up like that."

He pressed the pillow down harder and pretended not to listen. It was no use though since they shared a mind. His other was just lurking there, always waiting for a chance to take over but he couldn't if Marik kept taking the medication and he knew it. The next best thing, if he couldn't take over, was mentally tormenting the current host.

"You're so pathetic! I don't get what he sees in you."

Marik just pretended not to hear him but it wasn't so easy as the voice got nearer. He started to hum a random tune and when the voice spoke again, he just hummed lauder. It was working for a while but he was running out of songs to hum.

"You know, maybe your sister is right; he's bad news. You should just listen to her and stay away from him. Tell him to back off and see if he gives a damn. I bet he wouldn't, he'd just shrug and walk away, abandoning you for good, just like you deserve."

"Shut up!" Marik sprang up from the couch and went to turn on the lights and TV, hoping to block out the voice saying those horrible things. He buried his head in his hands and focused on the sound of the TV. It was showing the news, something about a fire and missing persons, nothing good on the news as usual.

A sudden ring of his cell phone startled him and he picked the phone up. The caller ID said 'Kura' and Marik smiled a bit before answering. "Hi 'Kura, what's up?"

/"Nothing much. A bit weird at work, your sister threw coffee at me."/

"She did? Why?"

/"I'm not really sure but we were arguing about you again so I guess that's why."/

Marik sighed. "I should have known… I wish that she would just let it go already."

/"Yeah… What's that noise?"/

"What noise? Oh, it's just the TV."

/"Well, could you turn it off, it's distracting."/

"No… It'll become quiet if I do…" He said sounding bothered. The sound from the TV was preventing him from hearing the sound of his other. Bakura must have detected the stress in his voice.

/"Marik, are you alright?"/

"Yes… I mean no… I can hear him, Bakura! He's hunting me and won't shut up!"

/"You don't sound alright… Wait, I'm coming over."/

"What? You can't! What if- Bakura?" All he could hear was the peeping sound. The other had hung up.

………………………………..

Bakura quickly got out of the apartment, leaving Ryou to yell after him. Something was not right… He didn't need to ponder long who this 'he' was; it was obvious when he heard the distress in Marik's voice.

He hurried through the darkening streets towards the general direction of Marik's house. The shadows were tall around him and he had this eerie feeling the pit of his stomach. If the other was in trouble, he wanted to be there for him, he cared for him and didn't want any harm to come to him. Least of all he wanted the other to be taken over by his other personality. The memories of their last encounter were anything but pleasant and he didn't want to go through that again, nor did he want Marik to go through it. He knew that Marik hated the other personality with a passion and he really couldn't blame him.

Bakura could see the park in the distance and hurried his steps; he didn't want to get there too late… The worry was making him sick inside. Who would have thought that some day the other would come to mean so much to him? He wasn't sure of the depth of his emotions for he had never felt this way and had never been in love. Bakura had considered that he might just be in love with the other but didn't know for sure.

He could already see the house and fought the urge to run rest of the way; he could be all out of breath and panic-y when he got there after all. He was already walking as fast as he could without running and would soon reach the house.

When Bakura got to the house he faced a problem of how to get in. He couldn't just go knock at the door; they wouldn't let him in. After a quick look through the first floor windows he discovered that all of the family was at home, even Shadi was there though to his knowledge he didn't live there.

He traced the widow of Marik's room and spotted a drainpipe he could use to climb there. Once Bakura reached the window and glanced through it he saw Marik in the dark room, sitting on his bed, hugging his knees and rocking himself. The window wasn't locked so he opened it and climbed in to the room. The occupant soon noticed him and he could see fear in his eyes, they were wide and glassed over from time to time as if he had trouble to keep himself in the reality.

"Bakura… You shouldn't be here…" Marik whispered feebly and Bakura did something uncharacteristic. He ran across the room and sealed the other into a tight hug.

"Shhh… It's alright…" He spoke soothingly and sat on the bed in front of the other. He pressed his forehead against Marik's and placed his hands on the sides of his head. They didn't say a word, just sat there close to each other, enjoying the fact that they could be so close and listening to the other's breathing. This lasted for a while and Marik let go of his head and wrapped his arms around Bakura. He placed a small kiss on his lips and held on tightly.

"Thank you…" He whispered with a small smile tugging his lips.

"No problem." Bakura whispered back.

Neither of them wanted to let go but knew that they couldn't stay like this forever, eventually someone would come to the room and if Bakura were to be caught that certainly wouldn't bode well for them. They pulled away enough to look each other into eye but didn't let go.

"I can't just leave you here." Bakura said determined. "You're coming with me."

Marik blinked. "To where? Your place?"

"To Egypt. We're leaving tomorrow night. I can't leave you here for so long."

"But! They'll notice before that and know where to look."

Bakura shook his head. "We'll keep you hidden, I'm sure Ryou will agree with me if only you're willing to tell him about… your situation."

Marik looked down. "I don't know…"

Bakura forced him to look back up at him. "You can't stay locked in here! You are coming with me and that's final." He announced, not leaving Marik much choice in the matter.

"Ok…" Marik nodded.

"Pack your bags, we're leaving now."

Marik did just that, he quickly threw some clothes and other necessities into his bag and was done in record time. Meanwhile, Bakura put the extra pillows he could find under Marik's covers to make it seem that he was in bed. That would cover for him for some time but wouldn't work for long if someone were to look under the blankets.

"Ok, I'm ready." Informed Marik and Bakura nodded.

"Let's go then."

Quickly they climbed through the window and down the drainpipe. They took extra care to be as quiet as possible not to alert the other occupants of the house. They ran for the first part of their way to Bakura's apartment and settled to walk the rest of the way. Neither spoke a word before they reached the door of the apartment.

"Are you going to tell Ryou or will I?" Bakura asked.

"I'll tell him." The other answered and they went in. Ryou came to see them to the door and looked puzzled when he noticed the Egyptian with his brother.

"Um, hello Marik, nice to see you again." He sounded a bit uncertainly and Marik looked awkward.

"Hi…"

Bakura stepped in to enlighten the situation. "Marik is coming with us to Egypt."

A/N: There you go! Sorry for the long wait… I had a bit of a writer's block while doing this but I try to get the next chapter done sooner. I just noticed that Bakura and Marik's relationship isn't very psychical but I've been so concentrated on the emotional side that the psychical side has gotten less attention. Sorry if you wanted more action, maybe I'll try to find a vacant spot in the next chapter where I can fit some in.

Please review!