Title: Stomach Bug
Summary: Marik's home sick from school and Bakura volunteers to take care of him.
Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh, Thiefshipping would be canon, Bakura would have won, and there would be a lot less card games and more plot. Kazuki Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh, so he is the one who is getting all the money from it.
Marik lay curled up in bed. His head was pounding, his throat felt like a knife was stuck in it, and his stomach felt like he had just spent six months at sea and wasn't used to being on land yet.
Sweat dripped down his forehead, stinging his eyes. He was too hot...but if he took the blankets off, he would be too cold.
It was all that Yugi Mutou's fault! They had been lab partners in Science class, and that midget just had to go and sneeze in Marik's face, and then not come to school the next day because he had caught the bug that was going around the school.
And now Marik had it.
"I hate that kid!" Marik thought angrily. "If he had any common sense, he would've covered his mouth!"
Just remembering how he hd gotten sick made Marik's throat hurt more. He started coughing, sitting up in an attempt to clear his lungs a little.
He heard footsteps coming up the stairs as he hunched over, still coughing. He felt someone place a hand on his back, rubbing it gently. When his coughing fit subsided, he looked up at his best friend, Bakura. Bakura had offered to look after Marik while Odion and Ishizu were working. They were worried about him missing school, but Bakura cut school often enough, anyway, and if the teachers gave him a hard time about it, he could just say that he was sick, too.
"You okay, Marik?" Bakura asked. Marik nodded.
"I think so," he responded. In actuality, he felt like absolute crap, but didn't want Bakura to worry too much. Frowning slightly, Bakura brushed Marik's hair away from his forehead and laid his hand across it.
"You still have a fever," he said. "Try to get some sleep."
It was somewhat unnatural, for Bakura to be acting like this. He was by nature a cocky, rather rude, "I-don't-give-a-damn-what-people-think" kind of guy. Yet here he was, standing beside Marik's bed, telling him to get some sleep. But then again, Marik was one of the few people who actually knew Bakura's soft side. Scratch that, Marik was one of the few people who knew that Bakura actually had a soft side.
When Marik had first come to Domino City, he was labeled as a foreigner, a weirdo, a dork. He was ridiculed for his accent and the way he dressed, the way he didn't look like either of his sibling. Then, one day, the teasing suddenly stopped. Marik later found out that one of the toughest kids in school had taken pity on him and had personally put an end to it all.
Bakura.
Marik had never quite understood why, but from that day on, Bakura had become his best friend. There were times that Marik wanted Bakura to be something more than just a friend - the rumors flying around school that they were secretly sleeping together certainly didn't help this matter - but he would never admit his feelings out loud. If Bakura ever found out about how Marik felt, their friendship would be ruined. Bakura was the only friend Marik had in this city. He didn't want to lose him.
"Call me if you need anything," Bakura said as he walked out of Marik's room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Marik lay back down, pulling the blankets around him. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, but all he could think about was Bakura. It had felt so good when Bakura was rubbing his back. Marik wished his friend hadn't just been doing it because he had been coughing. Marik wanted Bakura to put his arms around him and hold him close until he felt better.
"Stop with the fantasies!" Marik scolded himself. "It's never going to happen. You're just hurting yourself."
Marik settled further under the blankets. He might not be able to fall asleep, but he could at least rest a little...His eyes suddenly shot open.
"Oh, gods, no," he muttered. He curled up into a tight ball and tried to ignore the churning in his stomach. A wave of nausea enveloped him and he leaped out of bed, bolting for the bathroom down the hall.
He fell to his knees beside the toilet, emptying the contents of his stomach into the porcelain bowl. As he was retching, he was dimly aware of someone pulling his sandy blond hair back, holding it away from his face.
When he was finished, Marik slowly pushed himself to his feet and leaned against the sink. A bottle of mouthwash was placed in his hand. He took a small swig and swished it, allowing the cool flavor of mint to overtake the disgusting tang of vomit. He spat the mouthwash into the sink and looked up into the mirror. Bakura was standing behind him.
"How you doing?" the albino asked with a small smile. (It looked more like a smirk, but Marik was too worn out to care.)
"I've been better," the Egyptian admitted.
"Can you get back to your room okay?"
"Of course I can!" Marik couldn't help but feel the slightest bit miffed, despite his crush on the pale teen. He wasn't that sick; he could walk perfectly fine! He pushed himself away from the sink and started for the door, only to have Bakura place one hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"What?" Marik asked. He didn't want to stay in the bathroom. He was tired, he wanted to go to bed. Throwing up must have worn him out more than he thought.
Much to his surprise, he was lifted off the floor, now held bridal-style by Bakura's strong arms. Marik blushed, clinging to Bakura's shirt. This was an unexpected turn of events.
"If this is a dream, please don't pinch me!" he thought.
"You looked like you were going to collapse," Bakura told him, carrying him back to his room. Marik barely heard him. He was much too busy concentrating on the fact that Bakura was actually carrying him. Holding him. Of his own free will. Bridal-style, no less! It was so unlike Bakura to do something like this.
"Bakura," Marik murmured as he was laid on his bed and the blankets were pulled around him. "Why are you acting like this? It's not like you at all." Marik was almost asleep, he wasn't even sure if he had spoken.
"Why am I acting like this? I figured it was pretty obvious."
Marik was so tired, he could scarcely tell dream from reality. He could have sworn that he felt cool lips brush against his burning forehead. Just before he finally fell asleep, he thought he heard Bakura's silky British baritone saying one last thing:
"Because I love you."
God, it's been forever since I've written to this story...I forgot my ideas for about half the one-shots I had planned for this...Gotta make up a new list.
R&R please!