Okay another chap just for you, (grins) anyway enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, and this sounds to me when I type or read this, it's like a broken record.

Warnings: Yaoi, M.

CHAP 10: Borrowed Time

Later that afternoon Ryou and Malik walked up to a building that looked a little run down. Malik pushed open the doors and walked inside and went right for the stairs. They walked up the two flights and walked into a hallway that needed a re-paint and new carpet. Hell the whole place needed a re-doing. Malik put his key in and turned it then the door handle, but it didn't open. He growled and hit it with his shoulder hard, but still it didn't open. He stepped back moving the boy out of the way then kicked it open, Malik lost his balance and was about to fall over on his ass when Ryou caught him.

"I'm fine thanks." Malik said and the need to find his landlord and kill him for running such a place. They walked inside "Have a look around at what you please as this is your place too now." Malik said as he walked to his answering machine and pushed the button. Ryou bit his lip as he looked around and walked off, the living room had a well-used couch and coffee table a stand with a t.v and dvd player and a stereo, a bookshelf full of books that were shoved in and looked like a mess.

The boy went right to the books and started to pull one out and opened it. His eyes scanned the pages but then he held the book flat in his hands and the pages flipped over faster and slammed shut, he put the book back as he finished with it, then he walked down the small hallway and found two doors, he pushed one open that was to his left to find that horrid room that held water, he hissed his ears flattened back and closed the door then turned to the one on his right he opened it and stepped in.

A double unmade bed against the wall, clothes, cd's, magazines, books, posters on the walls, a desk littered with papers, books, drawings and other things, the room was a mess. Ryou walked in and looked around he picked up a magazine and opened it, it had motorbikes in it, his ears pricked forward he placed the magazine on the unmade bed, Ryou walked out to find Malik yelling at someone at the door, he stood right behind Malik. "If you kept the supply of hot water, then maybe I would pay my rent on time." He yelled at the man.

"It's two weeks late." The thin tall man yelled back, Ryou growled and gave him a look; Malik turned his head and looked over his shoulder at Ryou then the man.

"Funny you remember that and not the need for heating and hot water. I'll pay you when I get more than one hot shower a week." Malik slammed the door but stopped at the worried look on Ryou's face. "He's such an money grabbing ass-monkey."

"Ass-monkey?" The boy said.

"No don't you say that." Malik said.

"Malik, this?" He asked pointing to the stereo and tilted his head to the side.

"Oh that's where I can listen to music and bug the neighbours." He said as he then walked over into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry?" Malik asked.

"Yes." Ryou said as he walked in.

"Me too." Malik looked into his empty fridge, Ryou right behind him again and looked over his shoulder, Malik sighed thankful that nothing was alive and moving, he closed the fridge door but bumped into Ryou, who squeaked. "I'll have to go shopping today." Malik smirked and rubbed Ryou's ear.

Ryou nodded his head, and pulled out the money that he was given and handed it over to Malik. "What are you?…"

"For you." Ryou held up the envelope to Malik, Ryou smiled and blushed, all the other animals would give things, mostly food, blankets and bones to their mates to help with living in the labs a little happier, Ryou saw it all the time, and time to time he wished for the same thing. He blushed even more, not that he was offering such a thing to Malik, was he? Maybe Malik would take it the wrong way, and Ryou faulted for a second. He knew that Malik worried about this… paper thing, he could feel it.

"Ryou it's yours, you earned that yourself." He gently pushed Ryou's hands down. Ryou looked at the envelope sadly, Malik refused it, why wasn't it what he wanted? Maybe it wasn't enough.

"Lets get going." Malik said, missing the hurt look Ryou gave him. "So we can cook something together?" Malik suggested.

"Cook together?" Ryou frowned but then broke out into a smile. "Like at work." Ryou said. "I can do the strawberries and cream and take the bread out of the oven, but be careful it's hot." Malik chuckled he liked hearing Ryou go off about something new he learnt that day.

"No we're not doing cakes we're going to cook something else." Malik said walking to the door and grabbing his coat and keys; he helped Ryou into his jacket. The two left the apartment together and headed for the small market down the road.

"Have you been to the park?" Malik asked looking down at Ryou.

"With the little girl." Ryou looked up.

Malik and Ryou walked through the park. "Ryou, where did you live before we met?" Ryou bit his lip and looked away. Malik stopped walking and faced him. "You just…" Malik stopped at seeing the look on Ryou's face. Malik lifted his chin and smiled and closed the distance between them. "Your happy staying with me?" Ryou smiled and nodded his head purring and wrapped his arms around Malik and nuzzled into his chest. "I'll take that as a yes." Malik wrapped his arms around him, they moved apart Ryou looked around more.

"Malik can I." Ryou pointed to the trees, Malik frowned.

"What?"

"I like the trees." Ryou said, and it dawned on Malik being part neko he would be slightly attracted to things that real cats would be.

"Sure go for it." Malik smiled, Ryou hugged him then ran off.

Malik tapped his foot and looked at his watch it was five in the afternoon and he had been waiting for Ryou for half an hour. Malik sighed he would have to go in and look for him; it was a large plantation of trees in the park you could walk through it on a path.

Malik walked in along the path looking around. "Ryou come on it'll be getting dark soon!" He called out with his hands cupped around his mouth, to project his voice more. He looked up as leaves fell around him, he saw a shadow move above him, he frowned and slowly started to walk, his eyes scanned the area warily. He jumped as the bush he passed moved. "Ryou lets go." He called out.

Malik walked deeper in and it got darker a lot darker, like he was in some deep jungle were the leaves were so thick they blocked everything out, he got the feeling of being watched and the shadows seemed to move not by the movement of the trees and the wind as there wasn't any, his heart pounded, why was he feeling so nervous, it would be just Ryou, right? He never liked this place. But the corner of his mind told him he was being hunted, like a cat and mouse game, he being the mouse. "That's ridiculous." He hissed at himself, he didn't fear Ryou at all. But the thought of something else in here with him that wasn't Ryou, he started to walk faster.

'SNAP!' A branch fell a few feet from him, he gasped turning and stepped backwards, keeping his eyes where the branch fell. "This isn't funny Ryou!" Malik called out again, and he cursed himself for letting his imagination run off with him. He turned back around and stepped forward his foot snagged on something and he fell, with a thud, he pushed himself up and tried to untangle his foot from a vine.

He looked up as a bush moved and Ryou crawled out on all fours towards him, eyes locked, Ryou reached out a clawed hand and ripped the vine off, he moved up Malik's body more, Malik's heart was pounding in his chest and found he was having troubles breathing, not only from the fall and the scare that he had, but how close Ryou was.

Malik used his hands to move himself backwards, but Ryou was still there, and they were so close Ryou's ears were flat against his head, and their noses were almost touching, Ryou slowly licked his cheek, Malik's eyes widened slightly and he blushed. "We should…Ryou!" Malik found himself being pushed back and leaning on his elbows on the hard ground to support his upper body, Ryou was hovering right over him. "Ryou!" Malik found the rest of the other words die in his throat, something was different about Ryou.

"Sorry Malik." Ryou blinked a few times and pulled away standing up and offered a hand, Malik took it and stood up, brushing off the dirt on his rear, elbows and knees. "I got a little carried away, I was having so much fun." He smiled.

"What were you doing?" Malik asked calming down.

"Playing." Ryou said and took Malik's hand and the two started to walk, they found Ryou's hat on the way, as they came out of the trees he looked back over his shoulder, that was the most tense and scary thing that he had ever felt. They walked through the rest of the park as parents and kids ran about getting ready to go home.

They walked up to a street if anyone could call it that, it was a street but it was dedicated to people selling or buying goods of any kind, known as a market. "This is were you by your food and anything else you want or need." Malik said as he walked about putting stuff into a basket.

Ryou followed, but stopped at seeing a clear crystal statue, and it's wings spread out to full length ready for flight, its long robes hung nicely over the body and pooled at its feet, its arms were down by its side as it was looking up and the small statue was on a small round wooden stand.

"It plays music." The man said coming around and picked it up. Ryou watched it was so pretty never seeing anything like it before. The man wound a small key on the back of the stand and it started to play a soft tune. He held it out to Ryou who took it and looked it over more closely as it turned on the stand.

"What is it?" He asked not taking his eyes off it.

"It's just a music box." The man shrugged not seeing what was so special about it.

"Is this real?" Ryou touched the wings gently as if they would fall off with a slightest bit of pressure.

"No it's an angel." Malik said as he walked up to Ryou and took it from him and held it out so he could see.

"Angel?" Ryou was fascinated with it.

"Yeah an angel, they have wings to fly in the sky." Malik pointed to the wings and watched Ryou with a grin as he awed at it.

"Can Malik fly?" Ryou asked looking up at him, he hadn't seen Malik with wings yet, could he be hiding them?

"No."

"But it's nice." Ryou said, Malik nodded in agreement, then turned to the man handing it over. "I'll take it." He waited as the man put it into a box, Malik dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet and handed over the money, and Malik was handed the box along with his change.

"Since you liked it it's for you." Malik held it out to Ryou with a smile.

"It's mine?" Ryou took it with wide eyes then looked at Malik.

"Yeah all yours." Malik put an arm around his shoulders and started to walk. Ryou smiled as he held it to his chest. No one had given him anything before to call his very own. Malik had given him a name and now the music angel, it seemed that whatever made him happy Malik would get for him. Ryou stopped him and lent up and softly licked Malik's cheek, smiled at him with a 'thank you.' and kept walking looking at his angel.

Malik smiled and it amused him that the licks that Ryou gave him weren't wet as he though it might have been the first time he did it. "Oh before I forget." Malik said snapping out of his dazed look making Ryou stop and faced him. "I got you this as well." He blushed as he held out what looked like soft-square and stood close to Ryou. "This is a wallet, you keep your money that you get from the cake shop, and your address." Malik opened it. "See I have already put your phone number and address in for you and the money you got." Malik said handing it to Ryou.

"But I don't have a phone number or address." Ryou said looking at it.

"Their mine, so if anything happens they look in it and call me and then I'll come to you." Malik turned and started to walk again. Malik got everything that he needed and headed back home with Ryou in toe.

"I know, it's hard I'm trying but they haven't found him yet." Boots sighed as he looked at the doors.

"Do you know were he is?" Asked a voice in the cell phone.

"Japan, I haven't pursued him yet in risk that Gozaburo will have his hands on him again, to many lives are at risk if he uses 482's again." He sighed.

"Just make sure that you cover yourself. We'll move in and watch him."

"No avoid all contact with him for now." Boots said the lift stopped. "I can reason with 482 on my own, just have the labs ready for him when I bring him back…I have to go." He hung up and walked down the hall and into the office of Gozaburo. Once inside he noticed there were two other men. It had been a week and that's how long 482 had been missing and Gozaburo had come back and he wasn't too happy at all. Boots put down the folders onto the table and looked around the room. "Good morning," He greeted them then opened up a folder and sat down.

"Just under a week our test subject 482 escaped us on a live field experiment, I can't stress enough how important it is to get him back here." Boots said reading off a piece of paper.

"We know that, get on with it." Gozaburo growled.

"To retrieve 482, we are sending out….. 305." Boots gasped. "You can't he'll kill 482."

"SIT DOWN!" Gozaburo yelled and slammed his fists on the table. "482 is a monster you have seen his handy work, what if he falls into the wrong hands? The world could be destroyed." He closed his eyes and lent back, "Once we have 482 back here he will be destroyed and his body will be used for further testing… besides if 305 does a good job then he'll take 482's place."

"This is a mistake, you can't let 305 run about unsupervised." Boots stood up and glared.

"He won't be, he has a shock chip in the back of his head, if he doesn't respond to us then we can kill him on the spot." He smirked as he said, "we should have put one in 482." Boots shook his head, 482 was created over two years ago and from the minute he opened his eyes he was put through everything that a human couldn't stand.

"482 has been located in the city of Domino." One of the other men said. "We are preparing to get him back."

They all stood up and walked out of the room and to the lift the same instrumental music played from the hallway as in the lift they all stood inside and waited Gozaburo opened a silver panel and put in a key and turned it, the lift started to move downwards.

It wasn't long when the doors opened and the small group stepped out into another hall with white walls and floors they started to walk again. Boots closed his eyes this was where 482 was created DNA of a few animals mixed with a teens, cats eyes and ears for sight and hearing, and mobility and agility. But 305 was something that went wrong, they stopped outside two steal large doors the two men in dark blue uniforms stepped to either side of the door and put the keys in from around their neck and turned them.

The large doors opened with a hiss and the group stepped back, they looked in to see a man sitting in the corner of a room chains ran from his neck, wrists and ankles to the wall. "This is subject 305, he was made to have the looks of a twenty four year old." The woman said holding a file in her arms and approached them. "He was the best we have for the more brutal missions, but found him to be not so compliant with orders as 482 is." She said.

"Why is he here like this?" One of the men asked.

"All these subjects are dangerous and unstable." Gozaburo said. 305 stood up he had blue eyes, blonde hair, and was well built in muscles and size.

"305, you have orders." Boots stepped forward, taking a photo from the girl, then said, "You are to hunt down 482 and bring him in."

"No you are to kill him, and anyone that stands in your way." Gozaburo grinned. "This one was always my favourite." He chuckled.

"Yes Sir," 305 said.

"I also like to call him Keith, Bandit Keith." Gozaburo said as he patted Keith on the head, Boots shook his head, why couldn't he have given 482 a name.

"Have him prepared for his mission, he leaves as soon as possible." Gozaburo turned to the other men. "Well talk more over drinks and dinner." They started to walk to the lift, Boots sighed and followed them.

TBC

Okay things are starting to move along a little faster now, R&R for an update.