A return after a two year hiatus, I hope everything works out well. Sorry to keep you guys from waiting A.N

CHAPTER 5

"Bakura!!!! Come back here!!"

"Wheeeee…!!!"

The animation fair had arrived in Tokyo just recently, and with a lack of anything to do and a need to keep Bakura entertained, Marik had little choice but to take him to it. It was crowded, noisy and filled with strangely dressed people. Marik felt uncomfortable and out of place, though with his looks he could have fitted in without much problem.

Tall, well muscled, tanned with bleached blonde hair in tall spikes, Marik was an anime fan girl's dream come true; and it showed. Since Bakura and his entry they'd been trailed non stop by crazed fan girls whose admiration bordered on stalking.

Bakura on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying himself. Running up and down the aisles, taking pictures of crazy; in Marik's mind, people dressed as their favorite characters and buy tons of posters, DVDs and other merchandise. Bakura was in no way disturbed by the pervasiveness of their situation. He took the fan girls as they came. Patiently posing with them as they snapped away whilst Marik stood in a corner; non figurative corner that is, and waiting impatiently. He couldn't understand how by being meaner and shorter tempered than he usually was, was attractive to these fan girls, but it was. Sweetness and cute looks was apparently Bakura's domain whilst he was to be the dark, brooding guy in the corner.

So that Marik stood waiting in a corner; it was actually not a corner, but a spot in a round booth, where there could be no corners, and pondered on how he could be in a corner when there were none. He cast a look over to Bakura who was chatting nosily with some girls about how hot some girly looking anime guy was and quickly closed his eyes and feigned sleep when he saw one girl glance his way. Drawing in a deep breath, Marik thought back to the events of the past month or so.

After a seemingly unprovoked epileptic attack in school, Ryou discovered that Bakura some how had managed to break out of the shadow realm and was still tied to the Sennen Ring and thus to him. With some help from Marik and the recently named Atemu, they tried to break the spell and send Bakura back. However when Marik saw Bakura in Ryou's room, he found he couldn't bear to send him back. They spent days arguing about Bakura's fate whilst he lay in the room upstairs recuperating. Everyone was opposed to Marik wanting to keep Bakura in the 'real' world until Bakura stumbled weak, sleepy and adorably down the stairs and asked politely if they would keep it down because he was tired, then sat himself down on a step and fell promptly asleep. This uncharacteristic pacifistic and rather cute act startled the rest into believing Marik, finally for none of them had wanted to actually go and look at Bakura for themselves.

However, still no one trusted Bakura so they made Marik his keeper.

He hadn't realized that the moment he set eyes on Bakura in the room was the moment he fell in love with him. He only knew that he had moments of irrationality and jealously where the tall, snowy haired male was concerned. For the lack of anything better to do since neither had nor needed a job he had introduced Bakura to the 'wonders' of anime and manga. Bakura was in a sense, a naïve child. It was almost as if the gods were trying to return his childhood to him, though albeit late. He was easily entertained, but had a short attention span, as well as a short term memory. He was easily placated as well and trusting and surprisingly amongst all the other surprises he was very demonstrative with all his affections. Actually now that Marik thought about it, he was kind of like a kitten, minus the claws and catty-ness. And that worried Marik, for Bakura had made no few enemies while at Battle City and if any of them came to look for him, he would be able to defend himself.

For now, Bakura was content with a sushi and sashimi lifestyle completed with a daily dose of anime, games and manga, and Marik was happy with that. Life was simpler this way.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaarik!" bleated Bakura, startling Marik out of his thoughts, "I'm hungry. Can we get ice cream?"

"Not for lunch."

"Before?"

"No."

"After?"

"Maybe."

"Yaaaaaaaaay."

Marik shook his head and sighed as he followed Bakura out of the exhibition hall at a much slower, relaxed pace. Let Bakura wear himself out running around and going crazy, he would be a lot easier to handle come night, when the nightmares returned.