The X-Effect

- ThiefShipping: Yami Bakura x Malik -

- DeathShipping: Yami Mariku x Ryou -

Here it comes, the next installment of The X-Effect! I'm thinking of quirking the summary just a bit, to fit more with the "wires got crossed" idea of it all. I also need to get around to drawing the "title page" for this. [laugh]

Anyway, I now give you the next chapter! Now with more drama and tension!

Chapter 5: Rumours Spread Fast

Malik always had been the quieter, more passive, and calmer of the twins.

The things people said to his face or behind his back rarely bothered him, past getting angry afterwards, and by the second week into school, many things had been said. Mariku wasn't as laid-back about it and if he heard anyone talking badly about himself, or occasionally his brother, they got their ass handed to them with no exaggeration. He had already been in trouble twice for fistfights, which displeased Ishizu to whole new levels and, really, the elder Egyptian was lucky to have not been suspended yet. Malik figured that is was because of how much of a smooth-talker his brother actually was and could be when he needed.

Despite Malik having that air of general "niceness" to him, it wasn't a surprise to see him mad at someone for an irrational reason (how many fights had he had with Bakura, after all?) and going to extreme lengths to show just how angry he was. What was surprising was just who exactly he was angry with— and that was none other than Yugi Mutou.

Mariku was blissfully unaware of his twin's anger when he came home that night from work, tossing his jacket onto the coat rack and making his way back to their room. He was humming some sort of tune mostly because he had gotten to leave early— he had gotten into a fight at work with another employee, and so he got sent home far before the end of his shift. Luckily he hadn't been fired, but he figured that was due to the people his boss knew. A certain one in particular would be angry with the man if he fired him, so Mariku figured he was in the clear… though, he should try to watch his back a bit more from now on.

"Hey, li'l bro," Mariku greeted with a grin, pushing the door open with a rap of his knuckles. "Guess w—"

"I will fucking kill him!" came the furious response that cut him off, the younger twin throwing the phone down and glaring at it as if it had just bit him. The device managed not to break (somehow).

Mariku drew back and recoiled a bit, blinking in surprise as he leaned against the door-frame. "Whoa. Uh, hello to you, too… What's got your panties in a bunch?"

"Shut up!" Malik seethed in retort, whirling around to take his dark glare to his brother. "Don't even start with me, you psycho!"

"Geez, chill out, will you?" The elder twin shot back, holding his hands up defensively. He frowned, narrowing his eyes a bit in irritation. "I wasn't the one to do anything. What the hell's eating you, brat? You haven't been this pissed off in a long time."

His brother took a few more deep, laboured breathes before angrily kicking the bed. After a couple additional pants, he ran his hand through his bangs, grumbling, taking his eyes back to Mariku. "Sorry. Sorry. No, you didn't do anything. I just got off the phone with Ryou," Malik explained irritably, sitting down on the edge of the bed and tugging at his bangs, which were still entwined in his fingers.

"Ryou?" Mariku mimicked, striding over cautiously and leaning on the dresser across from the bed and his twin. "Here I thought he was the passive type. What'd he say to tick your gears?"

"Tick my what? You know what, never mind," Malik ignored him, waving his free hand dismissively. Untangling the hand from his hair, he pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "It's not what Ryou did, or even what he said."

"… Well, then I fail to see how he's involved in this. Are you PMS-ing or something?"

Malik shot his brother a dirty glare. "I'm not a girl, asshole, and he's involved because of what he knows, something of which he shouldn't know," the Egyptian snapped, gaze hardening. "He called me, saying Mutou had told him about the incident in gym today and he was worried about me."

"Incident, huh," Mariku repeated, unaffected by the dark glare he was still on the receiving end of. "Which star-haired brother was it, older or younger?" He asked offhandedly, and his twin held up 'two' with his fingers before pointing downward. Younger. "Meh. Knew there was a reason I hated that kid, beside the obvious fact that he's too freaking happy all the time…" He paused, cutting himself off before he went off on a tangent rant. "What happened?"

"My sleeve came up."

No further explanation was needed. Mariku let out an "ohh" of understanding, nodding his head gently as he crossed his arms. He got it now, although he wasn't feeling all too sympathetic. "So, pipsqueak saw, then, and decided to play 'hero' by telling Ryou."

"Yeah." Malik fell back onto the bed, flat on his back, with a loud and exaggerated sigh. Lips pursed, he glared at the ceiling moodily as if it was the source of all his problems. "When Ryou asked, I just explained I had a lot of scars from accidents as a kid and rough-housing. Said I was kind of ashamed of them since they're ugly, so that's why I didn't want anyone to know— and I told Mutou not to tell anyone. Obviously, his listening skills suck as much as yours."

"… Ignoring the insult, want me to go kick his ass?" Mariku offered with a grin.

Malik snorted. "And have you expelled? Yeah, no, let's not."

"Fun ruin-er."

"Not a word."

"It is now. How'd your sleeve get pushed up anyway?" His brother raised a brow, somewhat bored but wanting to listen in some way to see if he could find an excuse to get into a fight. Like he'd really listen to his "baby brother" telling him not to beat someone up.

Malik let out a sigh, hoisting himself up into a sitting position and dragging his legs onto the bed. Sitting cross-legged, he gripped his knees and frowned. "Well, it happened third period. We were working out…"

(-)

They had gym class together, which was the only period they actually conversed during, mostly because the Egyptian didn't know anybody else in the class. Malik, self-conscious, always changed in the shower area to avoid the other boys and wore long sleeves because of the cold temperatures (at least that was what he told everyone). That issue had been addressed and luckily put to rest so he could wear them, although it didn't stop some of the teasing from some of the other classmates.

Yugi and him weren't really "friends" per say— they spoke on level ground and that was about it, but they got along well enough. Malik honestly wasn't all too fond of the short Japanese boy with the crazy multi-coloured hair… but Ryou was, and Ryou was Malik's friend. Therefore, he had to at least attempt neutrality. Yugi was too social-butterfly for his tastes, talked too much, and was constantly happier than he really should be for any time of the week, so it was not much of a secret that he did irritate Malik just a bit.

Even so, Yugi never really got that much under his skin— until today, that is.

They had to do crunches in gym.

Malik had no idea what those even were, so the younger Mutou brother opted to go first and explain it by showing him, all while having the Egyptian hold down his feet to 'prevent cheating' and 'make sure he did it right.' Malik just watched, blinking, and eventually let his eyes wander around to see the other kids doing the same thing.

'Okay. That isn't too bad,' he reasoned, returning his gaze to Yugi who was just about done.

Once he finished his 20 or so crunches, he motioned for Malik now to lie down on the (grungy) mat. With a hint of hesitation, the tanned boy did, clasping his hands behind his head and awkwardly mimicking Yugi's movements from earlier while the shorter boy did Malik's earlier job. The blonde boy did a few crunches to the best of his ability, grumbling obscenities in both Arabic and Japanese, before Yugi suddenly let go of his feet with a loud gasp.

Malik lost his balance as he sat up for another crunch, tumbling over onto his back and then rolling onto his side with a hiss. "What the hell, Mutou?" He snapped, glaring at the tri-colour haired boy as he got sat up. "What was that for?"

Yugi looked horrified. "Y… Your arms," he whispered, pointing with visible concern to the boy's left arm. He couldn't see much of the tanned wrist and forearm, but he saw enough— there were scars all over it and some of them looked almost recent. Yugi couldn't really tell that well, though— he was much too fixated on the confused violet eyes. "Your arms," Yugi weakly repeated.

Malik raised a brow before taking his eyes to his wrists— the sleeves had gotten pushed up somehow, the left more so than the right. That wasn't good, but he had to act normal, otherwise…

Taking calm eyes to Yugi's frantic and wide purple-red ones, he forced an awkward laugh. "Mariku and I use to rough-house a lot. Don't worry. This is just from us being stupid as kids, so don't get worked up about it and freak out to anyone." Another laugh. He shoved the sleeves down without another thought. A forced smile followed. "Promise."

"But…" Yugi faltered, eyes distrusting, before he was shaking his head. "Okay."

Malik just nodded, hoping the matter would be completely dropped, before deciding he was done with crunches. His stomach hurt anyway.

(-)

Mariku just shook his head. "Rough-housing? Please, that is an awful excuse, little brother. Here I thought you were a better liar that that."

"Stop that. Would you have rather I told the truth? It's not technically a complete lie, anyway," Malik retorted, pointing to one area on his right arm's underside. "Couple of these are from you shoving me out of that swing!"

"What, you actually scarred from that?" The older twin rolled his eyes. "Thin skin. Tch." He shook his head a few times again, smirking. His twin's scowl deepened, causing Mariku to laugh. "Oh, come on, that pipsqueak is like walking gossip. You know how 'friendship' savvy he is, it was inevitable that he'd end up telling the creampuff."

"… Do you use anyone's actual name anymore?"

"Nicknames are more fun," the spiky-haired boy replied defensively, huffing.

"Whatever, you psycho," Malik muttered dismissively. He paused, realizing he was just somewhat hypocritical, before shaking his head. His brother hadn't caught it. That was no surprise. "Anyway, that's that. Hopefully I won't be the school's walking rumour. That's the last thing I need right now."

"You sure you don't want me to kick his ass?" Mariku pushed, offering a toothy and stupid grin.

The younger twin rolled his eyes, scoffing. "'Riku, he has an older brother too, you know."

"So?"

"Yami-san would beat you up."

"Pfft, that scrawny-ass starfish? I doubt it."

"… Starfish," Malik repeated slowly, raising his eyebrow in bewilderment. He just stared at his twin, who gave him a look that said "duh" and "what's the problem here." Malik, figuring that his brother must be clinically insane, decided to drop the topic and hope that the nickname he'd get from his brother wouldn't be worse. It was inevitable that he'd get one too, unless "brat" counted. He doubted it did, when it came to Mariku. He didn't understand his twin.

Then again, who really understood him in the first place?

(-)

Bakura hated group projects almost more than anything else in the schooling system.

As if history in general wasn't bad enough, the last thing he needed was the problem of a partner to do a stupid project with— and if his luck was as great as it had been (that was sarcasm if you couldn't tell), he would end up with either the over zealous Anzu, deadbeat Katsuya, or the bratty younger Ishtar twin.

But as it turned out, lady luck seemed to have some shred of humanity left to her as she smiled on him that day— Bakura ended up being paired with an Ishtar all right, but it was none other than Mariku.

While said blonde wasn't exactly the best student, and neither was Bakura by any stretch of the imagination, Bakura was sure that between the two of them they could ace the project. He needed a good mark too because already his grade was getting dangerously low. Mariku was already at a lower spot, but he seemed confident enough that he could raise it up— in addition to the fact that he used the "can't speak Japanese well" excuse like it was tinsel on a Christmas tree, he somehow managed to smooth-talk his way for extra-credit. He was a strange one, all right.

Bakura inwardly was wondering which classmate Malik would be partnered off with, but in the end and after mulling over it for a few moments, he decided he didn't care that much. He moved desks to sit next to Mariku, the two absently chatting about what topic they'd do— it sounded like Satoshi-sensei wanted them to an ancient culture.

Immediately, Mariku had thought of Egypt because he knew the most about that. He shot his hand up and waved it around to catch the teacher's attention. When Mr. Satoshi finally looked over to see what his transfer student wanted, he knew almost immediately why his hand was up. Before Mariku could even open his mouth, he announced that they were picking topics tomorrow.

Mariku sullenly lowered his hand.

The bell rang as if to reiterate the fact class had flown by, and the history partners went their separate ways off to third period.

Malik decided to just not confront Yugi about yesterday's incident and subtly avoided him. He was too focused on cringing in pain from the "suicides" (1) they were doing, anyway. Never before had he wanted to murder someone that badly, and that was saying something because Mariku got on his nerves a lot. He'd hold a grudge against the gym teacher for a long while.

He was limping into literature class, holding his side with angry Egyptian-Arabic curses escaping his lips as he sat down in his desk. He could already feel the muscles aching and the stitch in his side shouting in protest. Malik tried to ignore it and just set his head on the desk, only half-listening to Ryou who had wandered up to him.

"Uhm… Malik-kun?" The boy started softly, raising an eyebrow. He reached out a hand cautiously and set it on the boy's shoulder, shaking him a bit. "Are you all right?"

The blond shifted a bit before he finally raised his head, jutting his lip out angrily. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just tired," he admitted, still panting a bit from gym. He couldn't ignore the feeling of being sweaty and nasty either— having gym so early in the day was really obnoxious. "We did, er, suicides in gym."

"Oh." Ryou seemed to have a look of understanding pass over his face. "I see… Ah, shoot." He laughed a bit, letting out a sigh. "That means I'll have to do them. My, I just don't have that much energy today."

"Good luck. Don't die."

"Your empathy is overwhelming."

Malik, despite himself, grinned at the white-haired boy who only smiled back, both starting to laugh. "I do my best," the Egyptian finally said with a wink. Ryou only shook his head, the soft smile still on his face, before sitting down in his seat right next to Malik.

(-)

Malik walked into the cafeteria with Ryou right next to him, the two chatting about literature class and the upcoming test they had as they sat down. Mariku and Bakura had gone ahead of them and were already seated, although they were silent until the rest of the table, which was a convoluted mess of happy conversation.

"Did you guys hear?" Jounouchi suddenly began, hands splayed out in front of him for effect. "The librarians gonna get fired, I think!"

"Oh?" Ryou looked up, quirking an eyebrow curiously. "I haven't heard, although…" He shook his head. "I suppose I'm not entirely surprised."

Bakura nodded in subtle agreement, but said nothing while he ate.

Malik and Mariku exchanged a look of confusion before taking identical violet eyes to Yugi, who had begun to speak next. "I can't believe she's getting fired," the star-haired boy added with a frown. "Sure she isn't always the most, well, pleasant person, but to lose her job over it? What did she do?"

"Nah, Yug, that's not it at all," Jounouchi replied, waving his hand in a "no" motion.

Honda nodded fervently, happily indulging in the gossip. "Yeah, I was listening to the supervisor and principal talk and it sounded like she stole one of the school's laptops!"

"What? Really?" Anzu looked shocked. "I wouldn't have expected that from her!"

"You've obviously never seen her mean side," Jounouchi remarked with a snort, smirking as he rubbed his nose with his thumb. "I'm jus' surprised she wasn't gone earlier for somethin' like dat!"

Kaiba, who had been silent up until this point, only shook his head and looked over to the group. "It's about time. For once, I agree with the mutt," was all he added with a mutter. He ignored Jounouchi's sudden glare and snapped response of "stop callin' me dat!" as he went back to eating.

The conversation flitted to various things from that point on— other teachers that were randomly mean, past teachers that had been fired, the one teacher that everyone loved because she was hot as hell (the Ishtar twins didn't catch her name although Mariku was suddenly curious), and other teacher-related things.

Ryou eventually pulled himself out of the conversation, and turned to Malik with a smile. "So, about our literature test. Think it'll be hard?"

Malik was somewhat relieved to finally get his own word in edgewise on a topic he wasn't completely lost on. "Ah, maybe?" He smiled lightly, shrugging and looking to the table. "I read the book, but admittedly I didn't entirely grasp the plot. I still have my notes, but I don't know how much it'll help. I might do okay, though. What about you?"

"Oh, same," Ryou laughed. "I'll have to study really hard to pass, I'm sure. Harper-sensei's tests can be quite the obstacle, just a forewarning— I would be wary."

"Thanks for the heads up," Malik replied with a light laugh. He glanced to his twin, prodding the boy's shoulder with the unused end of his chopstick. "Hey. Do you have Harper-sensei for lit?"

Mariku seemed to snap out of his thoughts. Looking over, seemingly annoyed, he scowled. "Uh, no. So, I can't study with you, and even if I did have him, I wouldn't study with you anyhow."

"Geez, I was just curious. No need to be an ass about it," Malik snapped weakly, beginning to turn away. The snort that came from Bakura stopped him in his tracks and he took his eyes to the white-haired teen, frowning. "What?"

Bakura only shook his head, smirking. "You're just one to talk," he remarked, quirking an eyebrow.

Violet eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly how it sounds," Bakura retorted, his smirk widening. "You aren't exactly the, ah, nicest person around either, really," the white-haired boy rest his elbow on the table, cheek cupped in his hand. Malik huffed, scowling bitterly at the other teenager.

"You should look in a mirror, then," Malik snapped back detachedly. He turned his head away, trying to ignore the now-laughing Bakura.

"It's a wonder how you ever get anything done," the white-haired teen continued, cocking his head with that same arrogant smirk gracing his face. "You always get so pissed off at each and every insult thrown your way. How do you manage to get through the day?"

Malik glared at him from the corner of his eyes. "Do you ever shut your trap?"

Bakura ignored him. "I mean, your brother at least does something about it. What do you do? Pout, scream, and walk off angrily?" He snorted in amusement. "You're basically a girl."

"Shut up," Malik seethed in retort, his eyes narrowing as he fully turned towards the other boy.

"Here we go, you continuing to prove my point," the mahogany-eyed teen continued, aimlessly rotating his hand as he closed his eyes with a fake look of thoughtfulness. "You simply tell me to shut up, but do nothing to alleviate the situation." One piercing eye opened, focusing solely on the frustrated blonde in front of him. The smirk returned. "You can't actually defend yourself, can you?"

Malik bristled even further, growling.

"Bakura," Ryou snapped shortly, taking an annoyed gaze to his brother in an attempt to be forceful. "Stop that."

Mariku's eyes were narrowing dangerously at his friend, murmuring darkly: "Cloudy, you better watch your tongue or else I'll be tempted to rip it out."

The boy in question only snorted. He opened his other eye, glancing to Mariku before looking back to that boy's twin. "Now he proves my point. See that? Brat, you're a walking target. It's no wonder that all those rumours floated around about you." Bakura's smirk darkened as Malik suddenly looked shocked, mouth dropping open. "Ah, yeah, I heard about that little problem you seemed to be having?" He pointed absently to the arms of the tanned boy. "Not only do you not defend yourself, you do stupid things like that—"

"Shut up!" Malik snapped again, fists clenching and teeth grinding together dangerously. "I didn't do anything to my arms, where the hell did you even hear that?"

"Eavesdropping on my baby brother's phone conversation," Bakura replied simply, shrugging. He didn't look the least bit ashamed, unlike said "baby brother" who was gaping.

Ryou looked at his twin, visibly upset. "B-Bakura! I never said he did those things—"

Malik ignored the younger Bakura twin, eyes narrowing in the older boy's direction. "It was a rumour and a falsified lie," he seethed. "You have no right to judge me for something inaccurate in the first place."

"Are words your only defense?" was all the white-haired teen replied with, seemingly bored with the entire conversation as he looked away and off into the distance. "Then again, your words are barely able to be called that, anyway. Like I said… a girl."

"Stop calling me that, you asshole!" The younger Egyptian boy hissed, slamming one hand onto the table. "So I don't go around punching people when they say stupid shit about me, what the hell's the big deal?"

Bakura took irritated eyes to the blonde boy, gaze narrowing. "One day you're going to get into real trouble, and you'll just stand there and take it like some little bitch," he grumbled darkly, ignoring the shocked look on Malik's face as he continued. "You'll get mugged, beat up, or even raped and the most you'll be able to do is scream and cry."

"Bakura!" Ryou gasped, looking horrified. Both feuding boys ignored him as the tanned jaw snapped shut.

"Don't talk about shit you know nothing about," came Malik dark and snarled reply, fists clenching dangerously. He was really tempted to reach across the table and take Bakura's thin, pale neck into his hands and simply snap it. That was a line Bakura shouldn't have crossed, but it didn't look like he intended on stopping anytime soon. He'd cross over that line so far that it'd only a blur in the distance and that wouldn't be the end of it.

Yugi worriedly looked over, holding his hands up in a 'hold on' sort of motion. "H-hey, guys, now let's not fight—"

"Stay out of this, Mutou," Bakura snapped without even looking at the star-haired boy. Brown-red eyes were focused darkly on only Malik. "White-knight somewhere else."

"Leave him alone," Malik retorted quickly, pointing at Bakura with a glare. "At least he has some shred of manners, unlike you, who couldn't give a sideways damn even if that rumour of me cutting was true!"

Bakura snorted. "You're right, I couldn't and don't give a damn. And please… You defend him, and yet don't defend yourself. You're some sort of fucked up, aren't you? Face it, brat. You can't stand-up for yourself. One of these days, you're going to get into some major trouble and big brother won't be around to save you like he always seems to."

Mariku bristled at that, taking hard violet eyes to his friend. "You leave me the hell out of this argument," he said shortly.

"I won't," Bakura argued back, eyes shifting to the elder Ishtar for a moment before they returned to Malik. "Brat needs to get this through his thick skull. Life won't be handed to you on a silver platter like you seem to think it will be, you bloody git," he muttered off-handedly. "Stop acting like some spoiled rotten rich-kid."

Malik's jaw dropped, and their lunch table was stunned into silence.

This wasn't going to end well.

AUTHOR NOTES:

(1) Suicides are… not what they sound like? [laugh] Well, obviously… At my old school, back when I was a wee little tyke (read: 14, haha), suicides were when you had to sprint— yes, sprint, not run but sprint— back and forth across the gym, from wall-to-wall, for basically the entire period. By the end of it, I wanted to commit suicide. Ew.

… In which Mariku gives every single character he knows of a nickname. Haha, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter despite it all [mopes a bit]… Either way: uh-oh, I sense a fight coming on. Bad cliffhanger? Possibly. I couldn't find a good way to transition into the next scene, so this is what you get. Apologies!

I tend to write more seamless things rather than actual chapters. It's been a long time since I've done a chapter fic...

Anyway: Read & Review & Critique please!

Thanks again to everyone who is reviewing, favouriting, adding to story-alerts, etc! It really makes me smile, you have no idea how happy it makes me to know it's being enjoyed! So thank you thank you! I hope you'll all stick with me until the very end~