Author's Notes: Yeah I decided to update on a whim! I was debating it since I published Unexpected Consequences this week but I decided you guys deserve some more Unreal Truths. We're back to Marik again! Yay! XD Well that's all I have to say! Enjoy!

Unreal Truths

Chapter 17: Home

Marik's POV

I was beyond overjoyed to see Ryou and I's house come into view and I had trouble keeping myself from just running up to the door and going in to do a swan dive on my bed.

"Well here we are. Back home with nothing to show for that hell ride we called a trip."

I scowled and turned my head to glance at Bakura, "Well that isn't my fault now is it?"

Bakura returned my scowl with one of his own and he crossed his arms, "Well actually Marik, I do believe it is your fault." At my incredulous look he continued on, "If you hadn't tackled me and sent your siblings running then maybe the trip wouldn't have been completely worthless."

"Like I would have let you get away with terrorizing the only family I have left and stealing the millennium necklace? In your dreams Bakura."

He gave a frustrated growl before pushing past me and going up to the door, unlocking it and walking inside.

I grumbled and stalked inside, almost walking into Bakura when he stopped dead right in the middle of the family room.

I peeked around him to see what had made him stop.

There, laying on the couch, was Ryou. But that's not what had us staring in shock. Lying behind him, with his hand snaked around Ryou's waist and slipped down into my roommates pants, was my darker half.

Bakura gave a click of annoyance and put his hands on his hips, "Taking my light for another test drive Mariku?"

A single amethyst eye opened and Mariku gave us a dirty smirk, not even bothering to remove his hand from Ryou's pants, "Well, well, well, look who is back! I was hoping you two died or something."

Bakura rolled his eyes, "Sorry to disappoint you."

"Get your filthy hands out of Ryou's pants!" I clenched my fists and glared at Mariku who merely chuckled in response.

"Calm down Omote. You don't see Ryou protesting do you?"

"That's because he's asleep!" I stomped my foot and Mariku just chuckled.

As if on cue, Ryou slowly blinked his eyes open and looked up at me before rubbing them vigorously and blinking several more times. "Marik?" His already big eyes got bigger and a huge smile grew on his face.

I smiled at his excitement, "Yeah we're back." I looked and noticed Mariku's hand still down Ryou's pants and I scowled, "You can smack him you know. He has no right to feel you up!"

Ryou blinked in confusion before looking down and giving a surprised squeak, "Marikuuu!" He laughed and wrestled with my dark half, playfully trying to remove my stubborn yami's hand.

I stared in disbelief. That had definitely not been the response I had been expecting.

Evidently Bakura hadn't been expecting it either because he looked just as shocked.

Ryou noticed our staring and immediately his expression became more serious and he slid off the couch and to his feet.

My darker half scowled briefly but remained lying on the couch watching Ryou with a hungry gaze. I didn't like him giving anyone that look let alone my best friend, "Knock it off Mariku!"

He blinked twice then slowly turned to look at me, "What?"

"Stop looking at Ryou like he is your next meal!"

Mariku cocked an eyebrow and gave me a big grin and I swore I saw Ryou blush.

What the hell had been going on here while we were in Egypt?

I gave a frustrated growl, "Fine. Whatever, I don't care. Do whatever you want. I'm going to bed." Without another word and despite Ryou's protests, I turned on my heel and stormed into my bedroom slamming the door shut and throwing myself onto my bed.

What kind of sick fucking joke was this? I spent five hell filled weeks with Bakura while Ryou and my dark half were bonding? Of all the things I could imagine Mariku doing to Ryou, becoming his best pal was not one of them.

I groaned and slammed my fist against one of the spare pillows. It just was not fair at all! Ryou had never even met my dark half and had been terrified of him when we left. Now, suddenly, those two are palling around and napping together on the couch? What the fuck! Bakura and I were the ones who had a relationship together before this whole fiasco! We should be the ones lying together and enjoying each other's company.

It just wasn't fair. After the whole memory world incident and the final duel, I was the one who went in search of the millennium ring. I was the one who worked my ass off in order to find a way to bring Bakura back and yet nothing I had done worked.

Then, when he actually does return, I get treated like complete shit and taken prisoner in my own home.

I sighed and thought back to all the struggles I had endured in order to try and bring back the stubborn tomb robber with a pang of sadness in my heart. "After all my efforts…this is what I get?" I whispered to myself and stared blankly at the wall, lost in memories.

I stared out at the Egyptian desert where the ceremonial battle had once taken place. Now there was only sand and nothingness.

I had spent the past several hours on my hands and knees digging at the sand in a rather sad attempt to unearth the underground chamber and possibly the millennium items, preferably the ring.

It was all in vain however and I watched as the wind blew the sand across my painstakingly dug hole.

I felt tears run down my face as I realized how hopeless my situation was. There was no way to get Bakura back. I had no idea where to even start. Hunting the ring up was my only idea and retrieving it turned out to be a majorly impossible task.

Why did he have to go and challenge the pharaoh to that idiotic game? We both knew it was hopeless from the start. Of course Bakura would never admit that he knew that but I know he had the same kind of thoughts I did. It was destiny. It had to happen. Blah, blah, blah.

I hated destiny. It had condemned me to a life underground serving a long since dead pharaoh and bearing useless and ugly scars upon my back.

I growled and slapped at the sand and cursed Bakura. Why did he do it? Why did he have to sacrifice himself like that?

It just wasn't fair.

Deciding that I better go home before the sun cooked me alive, I stood and swathed myself in my old rare hunters cloak and held it tight, taking in the smell.

It smelt like Bakura. I smiled and buried my nose deeper within the vivid violet material. I remember we had made love on my yacht and had pretty much destroyed the covers, leaving only this cloak to wrap ourselves in after we were finished.

Memories of better times, that's all I had left of Bakura now.

I wiped at my tears and slowly made my way back to our new home. Ishizu had used money she had saved up in order to buy us a new place just on the outskirts of Cairo. It was a new place for a new life. It was a lovely house. Of course I considered anything better than that tomb we had lived in for all our lives.

I walked up the small path to the front door and let myself in. Neither Odion or Ishizu got into the habit of locking the door. I had tried to teach them but to no avail. We were just so used to being isolated that they never concerned themselves with trivial things such as locking doors. I knew our house would be a gold mine to a thief like Bakura.

There I go, thinking about him again.

It was an endless cycle that only lead to more and more heartbreak on my behalf.

I went in and sat down on the couch and buried my face in my hands and let the tears I had been holding back fall silently down my cheeks. I didn't care if either of my siblings saw me. They were used to my mysterious crying spells by now. I think they thought it had something to do with my darker half and the regret I felt.

Oh it was regret alright; regret that I couldn't stop Bakura. Couldn't convince him to stay behind with me and run off together in search of a better life with just the two of us.

Oh, only if it were so.

I flinched when I felt arms around my shoulders and I heard Odion give a worried grunt. "Are you okay Master Marik?"

And here I thought I had broken him of that bad habit.

"I'm fine Odion." It was a practiced lie that I spit out automatically every time someone asked me that question and Odion knew it well. Unfortunately for me he wasn't going to let it go this time.

"Please tell me what's wrong. This isn't the first time I have found you off by yourself crying and I doubt it will be the last. Please Marik. It's scaring me."

I sighed and looked up into the concerned face of my adoptive brother.

"I…I'm fine."

"People who are fine do not cry."

I began sobbing again and Odion clutched me close to his chest and rubbed my back gently, "Please tell me what's wrong."

I shook my head and buried my face against his cloak. I really did not want to have this conversation but I somehow found my mouth moving without my brain giving it permission.

"I miss him Odion." I sobbed and buried my head further into his chest, "Why did he have to go?" I clutched at my brother's shirt and tugged on it lightly, "I loved him but he still left."

Odion didn't ask questions. He just stayed silent while I muttered on about Bakura, never using his name of course, and rubbing my back in soothing circles.

"Who are you talking about brother?"

I sniffled and shook my head, "No one."

"You can tell me anything, you know that."

I looked up at him, my eyes blurred by my tears, "You wouldn't understand."

"I can try."

I was touched by Odion's persistence, but I was frightened of what his reaction would be. It wasn't like Bakura was on friendly terms with anyone but me.

"Please tell me brother. I just want to help."

I then just finally shut him out and shook my head. "It's no one. Don't worry about it." I slowly got up and walked quickly back to my room and shut and locked the door before getting out a small blue and white sketchbook.

Ishizu had bought it for me for my birthday last year and it had been sitting in my closet unused since then.

My sister said that I had some real artistic talent that it ran in the family.

I scowled and gently touched my back. I had a feeling why the males in our family had a knack for art and I wanted no part in it.

I looked down at the sketchbook cover and gently ran my fingers over the white swirls. It had been nice of Ishizu to buy it for me and it would be a shame to just let it go to waste.

Sighing in defeat, I picked up a pencil and cracked the cover of the sketch pad and I smiled as the smell of new paper slowly reached my nostrils.

I had always loved that smell.

I lightly ran my pencil over the surface of the paper, making a rough sketch before I would do any finalized inking.

I didn't have to think long before I knew what I was going to be drawing.

Bakura.

I sighed happily as my pencil seemed to move on its own accord and Bakura came to life on the formerly blank page.

And here I was, staring at that very first picture once again, my eyes scanning the pages and noting how much he has changed. How different his body is from Ryou's.

I then flipped to the back of the book, where there were a few blank pages left and began to rapidly sketch out another picture of Bakura, but this time it was him in his original body, the one he had now.

My pencil curved and glided effortlessly along the paper's surface, and slowly but surely, Bakura's figure began to appear.

I drew him as I first saw him that fateful day he returned to my life.

I became frustrated when I couldn't provide more details than the basic shape of his body and muscle tone. I had committed his old body entirely to memory from vast amounts of time touching, caressing, and licking every single inch of it, but it was different this time.

I sighed and gave up, slamming the cover shut in frustration. I would probably never get to know Bakura that intimately again.

What had happened to Battle City and the times we spent together there? Did it all mean nothing to him?

I thought back on our last night together and tried to think of any reasonable explanation whatsoever as for why Bakura had acted the way he did both then and now.

"Let go of me Marik!"

I cried out as Bakura yet again shoved me away and I lost my balance and crashed to the hard surface that was the deck of my ship.

I looked up, my eyes watering in shock, "Bakura why are you acting this way?"

I was so confused; it was if the former tomb robber had lost all sense of himself.

"Can't you get it through your thick skull tomb keeper? I don't love you."

It felt like he had taken a knife and slammed it directly into my heart and wrenched the entire thing out, stomping and spitting on it.

"W….what?" My mouth was slightly agape from shock.

"Did I st…st…stutter?" He gave me a dark glare, "I don't fucking love you."

"B…but….the other night…" I swallowed hard. Two nights ago we had spent the entire evening on a small private island beach off the coast of Japan. We had just held and loved on each other as we watched the sun set together.

"A minor inconvenience at best I would say." He crossed his arms and gave me a dark smirk.

I suddenly found it hard to breath. No. This couldn't be true. Bakura…he told me he had loved me! This…this wasn't like him, something was seriously wrong.

"B…Bakura this…this isn't…what's happened to you."

He shook his head and turned away from me, "Nothing Marik. I have always been like this."

"No you haven't!" I stomped my foot and ran to him grabbing his arm once more, "I know you haven't! You've told me you loved me every time we got together!"

"If you believe that then you are truly more delusional than I first thought and if I'm not mistaken, which I am usually not, then you seem even more out of touch with reality than your dark half! You're imagining things that never happened and never will."

I fell to my knees and clutched my head, "Bakura! Please! This isn't you!"

I cried out as I felt him strike me hard across the face and I fell the rest of the way to the ground.

"Marik. I'm leaving now and don't bother trying to follow. I'm going to go fight the Pharaoh and win and reign hell down onto this pathetic planet and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

And with that he left. Just left. Turned on his heel, walked off my ship and straight out of my life.

I found myself crying again. This time a bit more steadily. He had been so cold that night, so different. Bakura had never hit me or even expressed any sort of hatred towards me before. It just hadn't made any sense and still doesn't to this day.

I looked at the door and sighed, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few months. Bakura coming back should have had me jumping for joy and instead it had me in my room, crying my eyes out.

It shouldn't be this way. It just shouldn't.

I threw the little notebook across the room and buried my head in my pillow and just let all the tears I had been holding back all my life come pouring out.

I do not want to live this way anymore. I refuse!

I looked to the door and frowned. Bakura would never be what he used to be and I was an idiot for believing that this whole situation would have a story book ending.

Bakura and I hated each other now and nothing would change that.

I looked up and glared at the blank wall behind my bed.

It was then I knew what I had to do, and now was my opportunity to begin the planning.

I was going to escape.