MM: Okay, to the remaining people still willing to read Angel's Tears, here's chapter 3!
Marik: Stop being so depressing. My fans will never leave me!
MM, shifting baseball bat: As you say, Master!
Yami pops out of story: Okay! Disclaimer: The Mystic Muses don't own Yugioh—luckily, or else I wouldn't be King—but do own this story! You'll believe that if you believe I am the Pharaoh! Mwahaha! What a good place for advertising! Anyways, here we go again!
Marik, watching the Little Musey: WAIT! The Dark Mystic Muse enabled ANONYMOUS reviews, making life easier for all readers. Now you can review without having to have an account or logging on! Okay, go read now before I start doing something weird to you with the Millennium Rod!
Chapter 3
Violet Viper Veritus
Careening shrilly down the curve in one last, desperate turn, the yellow taxi puffed to a halt in front of the dock floating upon the sapphire sea. Doors groaning open, the taxi coughed out the price for its passengers' journey in deep relief as its driver reached out a grudging paw to accept the mesh of bills from a golden-crisp Egyptian teen. Climbing out from the musky depths of the car into the whisperings of a fresh, briny ocean breeze, the threesome walked down the pier as their ride vanished into the distance with a snort from its exhaust pipe.
"Look! The sun is rising!" Hurling one excited finger at the crimson blob inching its way cautiously into the sky, Andromeda danced with a pirouette onto the dock, smiling at the rosy blush of the waters. "So, Marik, where are we going?"
Snapping his mind away from the appalling fact that he had actually paid the taxi driver with real money, Marik looked up with a barely hidden glare at his charge. "Well, your brother has to get on the yacht and go meet my…second-in-command, Rishid, to fill out a few forms and get a debriefing on our organization and clients. I should probably go along, too," he added as a second thought.
With a leap, the girl landed before her brother's new boss. "Well orchestrated, Marik Ishtar! Except you forgot about me!"
Taking out a silver cell phone from the depths of his battered shred of pants—it hung out from a plastic bag that Derek had given him—the blond gazed at her with cool lilac eyes, each as placid as a bloom. "Oh, yes…you can either go to the yacht, or I can get some money from it so you can stay here and shop."
Lifting his cell phone, the teen dialed in a number. He had a strange fear of storing numbers in the cell phone, since he was paranoid about the hyperventilating girl accidentally sneaking her devious hands on it. With two little beeps, the other end of the line cackled and a deep voice boomed out.
"Hello? This is Rishid speaking."
"Hello, Rishid. This is your manager, Marik," the Egyptian responded, emphasizing "manager" as he noticed Derek's curious eye lingering over him.
"Ah, yes. Have you found anyone for hire?" Rishid asked gravely, "And his…family member?"
"Of course. His name is Derek. Derek Academ. He used to work at Duke Devlin's place. And yes. Definitely."
Andromeda noted with a sour smile that Marik seemed too proud to admit that Duke's store had been robbed by the person who had beat up the manager standing before her. Oblivious of her reaction, the youngest Ishtar nodded to responses from Rishid.
"Yes…get out that packet. Have Derek go with you to meet the ten thirty client tomorrow morning. Great. Are you sure you don't need me? Okay, I'll send him over. Thanks." Rolling his eyes and closing his cell phone with a flip of his finger, Marik turned a weary smile upon his companions. Cocking her head with a strange flutter in her stomach, Andromeda watched as the wind toyed with his platinum hair, the rising sun dying it a lonely scarlet.
"Well, you two. I guess Rishid can handle everything. So if you want, Derek, you can get in the yacht. I'll speak with the captain; he knows where to go, of course. I'll stay with Andromeda and hand out money like Santa Claus, if you're okay with it," he completed, turning a gem like eye upon the little sister. Strangely, her cheeks had transformed into two red lanterns, either because of the bleeding sun or some cripplingly embarrassing blush. Hiding his chiseled features behind a flood of milky hair, he darkly wondered how much money he should spend on building a relationship with a girl that he planned to crush anyways. What is considered "good enough" for repaying a friend's help? After being so indecent all these years, the exercise of thinking like a normal, hormone-crazed boy eluded his grasp with a cackle and a flaunt of its tail. After all, he had never had to please anyone…and he couldn't learn these niceties on the spur of the moment.
"Sure! I won't spend too much, I promise!" Andromeda exclaimed, hopping from foot to foot like a rabid bunny, who had just discovered an unfortunate mound of sugar. Her brother, on the other hand, did not act half as ecstatic. Eyeing the yacht with awe and bewilderment, he cast an annoyed eye at his sister, his face as carefully expressionless as the frozen arctic sky.
"You certainly look like you're going to cut a hole in Marik's wallet, sis," he answered dryly, grabbing her arm like a flustered dad. "I suggest you come with me. Is that okay, Marik?"
Letting the words roll meaninglessly off his tongue, Derek turned an assured eye upon the last of their party.
The violet gaze ripped past him upon the sea, fatigued as the ever traveling desert sands, tossed everywhere by the eternal wind. His smile lagged, turning itself into a line flatter than the ocean horizon before them. Shrugging his broad shoulders, he gazed from the brother's face to the sister's, both of which stared at him expectantly.
"Sure," he murmured, "If you say so." His breath flying out in a sigh as light as the gasp of a morning bird. With a sweep, his hand reached behind his back.
You fool!
With a groan and a thud, the gears of time slowed in its rusty roll. The sun dangled in the same place above the foaming crests of the sea, the clouds frozen in their flight. The waves stretched their heads up in anticipation of their crash into the shore. An invisible leash suddenly seized their lengthened necks, hauling them back before they could greedily devour the beach. The yacht tied to the end of the dock balanced on tiptoe above the waves, creaking to a halt halfway through its usual bob upon the loll of the sea, head dipped down and tail fluttering in the sky.
A second turned to a million years as Derek's eyes met Marik's. A golden aura surrounded the Egyptian boy, his usually pleasant smile a deep sneer scarring his handsome face. The corners of his eyes jerked up, leaving his suddenly dull pupils glaring out at the world through slits.
"Derek Academ…you will obey me…"
A hand tightened around the victim's rasping mind, closing like a vice around his pitifully struggling thoughts. With a scream, his mind throttled, trying to bash its way through the oncoming slave master. A harmonious chant rose lightly into his frenzied mind, screeching the command as it whirled into an ecstatic howl.
"Obey me! Obey me! Obey me!"
Madmen spun around a blazing fire, their black shadows splayed in pained beauty across the walls of his mind's cavern. The fire flickered and shot upwards, licking seethingly at his quivering will, roasting his freedom like a skewered ox.
"Let Andromeda stay with me…"
Obediently, Derek turned to his sister, eyes blank as the blackness between the stars. Smiling with shallow happiness, he murmured, "Andromeda, you can stay with Marik."
A blast of arctic wind tore the dreamy expression from Derek's face. Blinking, he found himself gagging for breath in the arms of his sister, a strange pulsing irritating his temple.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Derek! I'll buy you a ton of stuff, too!"
Amazed, Derek turned to Marik, who already wore a tortured expression at the words "ton of stuff." He could already feel his wallet deflate like a pricked soufflé.
"What did I…I thought…" blubbering, he shrugged, giving up with a sigh. His expression softened at the sight of the little girl clinging to him, trembling with apparent joy. He eyed her ripped jeans and colorless sneakers and sighed to himself. "Fine. Go with Marik. Ditch me…and have fun!"
Half an hour later, Andromeda watched as the little yacht sped off across the morning waters, a dot of ink sprayed by the waves of mottled sky blue. Marik flipped through his smooth night-black wallet, trying to collect the real bills on one side and the forged ones on the other. Succeeding just as his future-slave turned around, he plastered yet another phony smile across his face for her and patted the cool leather of his motorcycle, remembering her dazed expression as he lugged it out from the yacht with a loving light painted sincerely across his eyes. Sourly, he rubbed his jaws, unused to the "smile" gear being jammed in the "on" position for so long.
"Come on. I think the downtown mall is opening." Don't you dare scrub money off me like dead skin cells, Andromeda…he thought pathetically, knowing it wasn't going to come true anytime soon. Oh, woe unto me…
Swinging one leg over the seat, he carelessly tossed a helmet at Andromeda. Catching it by the swinging straps, she had it on before Marik even reached for his own helmet. Grudgingly, he buckled his own and turned the key in the ignition with an obviously practiced flourish. With a roar that almost deafened Andry, the engine sprung to life.
"Great. A perfect manager like me, turned to a spoiled brat's chauffeur," he muttered aloud, intending for the motor's roar to devour his words.
"HEY! You volunteered, you hypocrite!" Andromeda howled, her voice barely beating the grating of the wind and noise.
Rolling his eyes in deep distaste, Marik cursed her sharp ears. "Just for your information, if I am a hypocrite, I would not be on my motorcycle now!"
Receiving Andromeda's punch on his shoulder with barely hidden rage and a twitch of his temple, the pained boy wisely put this scheme as one of the most pathetic on his long and extensive list.
"Get on!" Waving for Andromeda to climb on after him, Marik frowned at the reluctance furrowing her brows. "What? Too embarrassed to ride with me?"
Arms akimbo and tapping her toes, she flashed a you-wish-jerk look at him before taking her seat behind him.
Wide azure eyes turning onto Marik's back, she shivered at the icy breeze running down her spine. From this angle, he looked far more formidable than his soft gaze and pleasant smile let on. She eyed the black shirt and belt, the khaki colored pants and the head of flaming blond hair.
"Hold on!" Marik's annoyed voice carried over to her, half drowned by the whistling wind and the thrum of the engine.
With a crick, Andromeda screamed. An invisible hand planted itself against her chest, propelling her backwards off the motorcycle, wrenching her spine as Marik's back grew smaller and smaller in her vision. Arms suddenly flailing for anything to hold onto, she found her nails digging into warm cloth and flesh. Mind triumphant at this discovery, she wrapped her arms around it, pressing herself up against the warmth of the body before her.
"Umm…Andromeda?" whispered a wheezing voice that struggled to sound itself above the rush of the air.
Opening one eye, she pressed herself harder against the saving piece of flesh, a vine clinging onto its tree as it stretched upwards for sunlight. "Yes?"
"Not so…enthusiastic?" he managed to breathe, voice barely reaching her oblivious ears.
Paling till her skin resembled the snow, Andromeda loosened her arms, hearing Marik sigh in obvious relief as air once again flooded his desperately deflated lungs, reminding him darkly of that night in the storm, when rain choked his voice and drowned his soul.
"Your fault for trying to throw me off," she muttered, smiling lightly. "I would fire you today if you really were my chauffer."
Quietly, Andromeda leaned as far back from her driver as possible. The road curved, enslaving the hillside. The sea glittered to her right, a vast gem languishing in its own glory beneath the jealous eye of the sun. Skimpy clouds dusted the blue dome above, content to simply dangle and drink in the view. A tree or two gawking out at the ocean sighed, rustling their leafy heads. Goosebumps happily established spheres of influence upon her arms, setting up pitched white tents on her usually smooth tan skin.
Reminding herself that she was definitely not flirting with the "dismal excuse of a man" before her in any way whatsoever, she inched closer to the oven of his back. Closing her eyes, she let the deep rumble of the ocean sooth her nerves, the constant hum of the motorcycle a gentle tug on her ears. A yawn won its way out from between her lips, only to be quickly seized and taken captive by the conspiring wind.
Marik smirked, leaning forward and picking up speed. His passenger leaned against him like some little pillow, half asleep. With a last swerve around to the left, he zigzagged through the alleyways of Domino toward downtown. The noise of shoppers on the streets already echoed against the tall buildings, seeping into the quiet of the area around. Randomly cutting through a clique of girls walking across the street, he chuckled to himself as they screamed like a dozen ghouls, then sized him up as he rushed away as if he were some stalk worthy prey. Slowing down so he didn't crash through the wall of Domino Square, he ripped the keys from the ignition and dumped them into the depths of his pocket to jingle and chat with his cell phone. Unwrapping Andromeda's arms from around his waist, he took off his helmet as a blubber and a moan rose from behind him.
Rubbing her back with a fist, Andromeda unclipped her helmet and dangled it from a handle bar, blankly gazing up at the teen standing to her side.
"Awake yet, sleeping beauty?" he teased, taking her hand and dragging her off onto wobbling feet. "Ready to shop me till I'm broke?"
"Well, if you only brought cash, I may have to watch myself, but I do think I caught a glimpse of a few credit cards…" she hinted sweetly rubbing her palms together evilly as if trying to light a fire between her hands to burn his wallet with.
With a roll of his eyes, Marik seized the girl by the elbow and dragged her inside, ignoring the strange glances from a few people behind him who seemed to wonder if he was kidnapping the girl. A blast of bone rattling air smashed them in the face, sending Andromeda out of her sleeping spell with a mental howl.
"Let's go get you a jacket," the Egyptian began cheerfully, not at all sensitive to the cold despite the fact that he grew up in a very warm place. He rubbed her arm with one hand, suppressing the goosebumps trying to reclaim their colony.
Andromeda stopped studying a furred coat glzed by the sheen of a glassy window and snapped her jaw closed. "Wow, things here are freakishly expensive!"
Scowling, Marik pushed her away. "If you like it, you can have it."
"But I'm not used to buying expensive stuff! I don't want you broke! If you are, how are you going to pay my brother?" she asked, miffed.
"My supervisor will! Now, be thrifty but use money when you have to." With one last shove, he managed to chuck her onto the escalator, which rose with a smooth and silent motion. Someone played upon a piano far, far away, a gentle tune that hummed in their ears like the whirl of the galaxies. Yellow lights danced upon the floor, shining off the milky gleam of the polished marble and the soft strands of Marik's hair. The high ceiling arched over their heads, windows opened to a clear crystalline sky, a perfect cerulean gem to awe Andromeda's eye.
They stepped off onto second floor. Clothing of a million kinds crowded Andromeda's vision like a flash flood, dancing at her mind till every wooden model seemed to be a real person walking toward her. Thoughtfully, she considered a proper revenge for when Marik tried to toss her off the motorcycle, which, if it had succeeded, would have obviously resulted in Marik saving a few hundred bucks. With an attempted evil chuckle, she caught Marik's suddenly worried eye. Seductively, she wrapped her fingers around his arm and squeezed with all her malice. "Let the games begin…"
Sliding into the first store, Marik quickly found himself locked out of the fitting rooms as Andromeda tried on a dozen outfits that she had somehow managed to pile high up on her arms, in mounds fit to break the world's record as the tallest mountains. Since the mirrors hung outside the fitting room doors instead of inside, the purple eyed boy had to suffer through watching Andromeda's various outfits flash by, his irises crumbling under the pain of such a torturous exercise. It wasn't that she didn't have a fine body—in fact, her curves were the only things keeping Marik from bashing his head on the table, bemoaning this horrid plan—just that the look of immense joy on her face tore at his very soul. How can I be the cause of happiness! He groaned mentally. Lifting his head, he clenched his jaw as, swirling out like a model in each new item of clothing, she asked for his approval with fluttering eyelashes.
"No…don't like it…that one's okay, I guess…hate it…hate it…too loose…you look like a whale…any smaller sizes on that one…?" Yawning, the man of the pair plopped against the wall, waiting for Andromeda to dance out in the next insane Halloween costume for him to scold.
"Ta-da!" With a full twirl, Andromeda pulled on Marik's hand, waking him up from a wonderful daydream of crushing the Pharaoh and practicing his evil chuckle, as usual.
A strange and entertained expression fluttered across his lips as he looked down upon her white shirt and tanned Jamaican skirt. Andromeda frowned, suddenly feeling like a three-eared bunny under the vet's scrutiny: when the vet had a pair of scissors in his hands…
"Do you like it?" she asked, wondering if she should look in the mirror for an extra arm or leg as Marik licked his lips darkly.
A wicked smirk painted itself across his beautiful eyes. "No…but I do like your bra."
With a woosh, his hand shot up. A flash of pain dashed up Andromeda's arm, sending her temples into a frenzy and a moan flying out her lips. Her hand twitched next to Marik's cheek, her wrist crushed to smithereens in an iron grip.
"Why are you trying to slap me? I didn't tell you to try on half-transparent clothing," he murmured, turning his perverted gaze from her torso to study her palm with fascination.
Andromeda stared. A gentle fluttering tripped up the steady beating of her heart. Smoothly, a numbing sensation sailed through her nerves, paralyzing her from head to toe with a gentle tingle, as if dulcet fingers brushed against every square inch of her skin. The world trembled and disappeared into the canvas of the universe around her, as if swept clean by white out. Only her hand remained, Marik's steamy breath shrouding her fingers. Two violet abysses bore into her indigo ones, daring her to move away. He tilted his head, leaning toward her captive hand a little, still testing her with those enticing eyes. She tried to open her frozen lips, to say something that would scare him away, to free her hand from its mortal shackle. Instead, she found herself stiller than a wax statue, breathing stopped altogether as she wondered if he would drop her and laugh. The pain in her wrist flared to a sudden burn, sizzling through her skin and singing her senses. Thin strands of bluish lavender rose in his irises, twisting themselves until they merged together, rising up in violet vipers that hissed hungrily at her. Stars twinkled maliciously across their writhing bodies, pleased that they held her future in their nonexistent hands.
Transfixing eyes still rooting her to the ground, his lips met her fingertips. Lightning flashed through bones, sending her stomach reeling. Instinctively, her arm twitched, reaching for support as her vision wavered and her knees turned to jello.
Just in time, Marik's grip loosened as if in apology, the startling light fading fast like a supernova from his narrowed eyes. As if the whole world had been put on slow motion, Andromeda watched as her hand dropped onto his sturdy shoulder.
With only the lingering feel of his lips on her fingertips she lifted the hand, running it through the silky mass of his hair. With a quiver, she suddenly realized how much she loved his warmth and those wide violet eyes. Quietly, she studied the red streaks across her wrist, admiring the strength in him that took away all her power. Her legs trembled unexpectedly, loving her own helplessness. Her thumb brushed beneath his eye, the thin black scar there but a gentle ripple against her skin. With all memories of Yami long since fleeing away to a forgotten place, she stepped toward her new companion, feeling heat radiate out from his form to warm her cool body. Her free hand found its way up his chest as he breathed in, winding its tortuous path up to squeeze his other shoulder. Eyes fixed upon his firm lips, she pushed herself up to balance upon her tip toes.
Stumbling back two steps, she blinked, confused. Looking up, she stared into Marik's sad eyes as he gripped both her wrists with a soft but sure firmness. Eyes downcast and far from her face. Gasping, she gazed at the lips that she had missed, their touch a whisper against her fingertips and the ghost of a pleasant dream upon her own prickling lips.
"I…I'm sorry. Go get changed, okay?" His hands touched her shoulders, sending tingles down her spine as he turned her around. His hands tightened as if in reassurance, sending nothing less than two more streaks of pain crashing through her palpitating soul. Heart flopping with a dejected wail, Andromeda stepped into the changing room, fearing to look back upon his gorgeous gaze.
As the door closed behind her slumped form, the boy leaned back against the wall. Marik smirked, closing his eyes as he recalled her wide indigo eyes, that expression of startled pleasure flashing across her face. He caressed his own soul, searching it for a hint of true passion that could stand alone from greed and lust. Turning up with a gracious blank, he sighed contentedly, mind dwelling in pure pleasure on the stricken hurt in her eyes. Amusedly, he recalled her strange white shirt, reveling in the look of horror that would haunt her face if he forced her to wear it around him. He fed his egregious soul with midnight black imaginings of her in the very near future, twisted in his senseless arms and struggling to pull out a nonexistent word of love from his mouth…
He chuckled, ignoring the cheerleader eyeing him from a nearby rack. "This isn't half as hard as I thought. Didn't even have to use the Millennium Rod…"
Two minutes later, Marik, still reveling on his recent victory, paced before the door, too lost from this world to pay attention to the fascinated passerby.
Whish.
Hand shooting up for the second time within the last five minutes, Marik closed his fingers around the giant orange projectile as it neared his eye, cool rubbery skin rubbing his fingers.
"What the—"
Gazing at his hand in surprise, he found himself staring at half an orange, the acerbic juice running down the grooves of his palm to pool at his wrist. Sighing, he looked up into the fuming sorceress planted in the doorway before him.
"Darn it! That was an A plus aim!"
Shaking his head as he peeled and bit into the orange, he savored the sweet and tangy taste running across his tongue, closing his eyes and letting out a soft sigh of satisfaction just to annoy her more. Tossing another piece in, he bit down gently upon the watery contents, feeling it cave beneath the pressure from his teeth. The gratifying flavor burst in his mouth again in a dazzling whirl. Forbiddenly, he wondered how her lips tasted…
Muttering something that sounded awfully close to "what a hateful jerk," Andromeda Academ stomped out of the store.
Unfortunately, as the Egyptian found out, buying a simple jacket did not turn out to be a good idea at all, especially when the shopper has a nasty incident or two in mind that she needed payback on. Two hours later, Marik Ishtar collapsed on a bench outside Banana Republic, six bags from different shops dangling from a limp hand and thanking Providence that he hadn't yet mentioned the cell phones.
"Let's see, that makes three shirts, two pairs of flip flops, a pair of sneakers, one bag of undergarments that I will not state to your shy face, and two pair of jeans for me; ten shirts and three pairs of pants for Derek, plus some shoes that look proper enough for work. Oh, and this!"
Digging through one of Derek's bags like a toddler after her lost hamster, she pulled out a pair of long black pants that looked somewhat familiar. Steeling herself as she shoved the fitting room incident out of her mind, she tossed the pants onto his lap.
Amazed, he unfolded them, not at all recalling paying for those pants—not that he really paid every time anyways, he had managed to mind control his way around half the payments when Andromeda wasn't looking. They were an exact duplicate of the pair that he had ripped to tatters the night Derek had taken him to the Academ household.
"I saw those earlier. You were in the bathroom, so I bought them the second time around. I had a little pocket money on me," she added, blushing redder than a bouquet of roses and praying desperate that he would not call her a flirt and dump her back with her brother. Who, of course, would roar his lungs out about it.
A golden smile touched his lips, the amethysts in the desert sparking with pleasure deeper and more villainous than Andromeda suspected. Unconsciously, his fingers stroked the fabric in constant circles, leaving marks like the eddying of a rasping tide.
"It's just to show you that you're the jerk and I'm not: I can apologize," she sniffed daintily.
Back straightening, Marik cocked one brow. "I said sorry at the fitting rooms," he reproached.
Flaming, Andromeda crossed her arms faster than a wood chucker could chuck wood. "But not for trying to throw me off the motorcycle before I had my arms around you!" Her anger-narrowed eyes suddenly popped wide open as if someone had slipped an ice cube down her back. "Darn! That sounded weird, didn't it?"
Leaving the bags in a pile upon the floor, Marik climbed to his feet, staring down at the little girl currently plotting his demise. Two indigo eyes shooting strands of lightning blue met his smooth and non-turbulent ones, successfully carrying up his other eyebrow. Leaning forward, he grinned.
"I'm sorry."
Before she could fume back something else destructive like a regular mini-volcano, he deflated her lungs with a friendly hug, sending blood rushing up to her face.
Surprised, Andromeda breathed in his lavender-and-myrrh scent that tickled her nose, cheek plastered against his warm body. A little patter reached her ears: the beating of his heart. His firm chest rose and fell with each breath that swooped into his lungs. The rush of the crowds melted into the roar of the waves that pounded her mind, leaving her in a little world with the muscular arm snaked protectively around her tiny waist. His other hand slid up her back, sending a shock up her spine that further impeded with her breathing. She felt it glide through her hair, his fingers rubbing out familiar circles across her skull that lit the fuses of fireworks in her stomach. Yawning, she settled against him, tendrils of sleep and comfort weaving across her body.
"I forgive you, Marik…"
Not at all astonished by the sudden departure of the warmth from her body this time, Andromeda shivered at the cold that bit her skin where Marik had been, her lips still smiling up at his toothy grin. Holding her at arm's length like some curious but dangerous toy, he studied her innocent smile, trying hard to paint streaks of tears down her cheeks to satisfy the craving in his mind. Finally deeming her purchase-worthy, he detached one hand from her arm and used the other as a convenient leash to drag her down the hall, far, far away from clothing or cell phone stores.
"Good, Andry. Now let's get some lunch before another orange plants itself on me."
MM: Yay! Done! Hopefully that was better than last chapter!
Marik: Yay! I get to test out torture tactics on someone!
MM: errrr…………………..anyways, please give suggestions, review and recommend…We may like to torture characters, but aside from that, we're decent people. Otherwise, until next time!