A Little Fall of Rain
Summary: When the angel Ryou becomes smitten with a mortal who he believes can do no harm, he creates a misunderstanding, resulting in the wrath of the young demon Malik whose unrequited love was never satisfied in life.
Rated: T
Genre: Supernatural/Romance
Author's Note: I love this chapter. It's so cute! Ryou's not really in it …but that's because I don't like- (gets rocks thrown at her) Nevermind. I'll just say that it's my PERSONAL OPINION that Malik has had a HARDER LIFE than Ryou. I mean come on, he lived in A HOLE IN THE GROUND for TEN YEARS and both his parents are dead BECAUSE OF HIM. If that's not the saddest childhood ever, then I don't know what is.
Oh yeah; One thing I've noticed about Yami Malik. A lot of people seem to think that his eyes are completely blank, but in certain scenes (when he's really insane) you can see that he actually has slit pupils. Oooh! Ahh! Impressive no? Yep. That's what I do when I'm not writing this. I look at Yami Malik's eyes. …And I do homework. Lots of homework.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi. Even Malik! …That lucky bastard.
Red and Black
"Get it away from me!"
"Just a little taste!"
"No! No, no, no, no, no! I'm so serious, please-"
"Open wide…"
"Eww! Marik stop it!"
A fourteen year old Marik dangled the innocent piece of ham over Malik's head before shrugging and eating it himself. The smaller blonde, thirteen, gave a sigh or relief and returned to the lunch table, keeping a wary eye on his classmate.
"You're such a baby," Marik scoffed, "I mean it's not like a little piece of cured ham could kill you. I'm pretty sure they make sure the pig is dead before carving it up."
"That's the point!" Malik protested, "Do you know what kind of horrors those innocent animals have to endure just so they can become your lunch?"
"Not really," the other replied, "and to be honest, I don't really care. I mean, the way I see it, pigs are bred so they can be eaten, and if they weren't, then they'd no longer have a purpose for being born."
Lilac eyes glared dangerously at the taller boy, "That made absolutely no sense. What if you were born just to get eaten?"
"Thing is, I wasn't."
Malik growled lightly. Once Marik had his mind set on something, not even a tornado of opposing facts could change his mind. He was stubborn, a trait that the young boy had always found strangely appealing. After all, with a sister like Isis, Malik had learned early in life that stubbornness was not something to be tolerated. In fact, it earned him several nights without dinner.
"Besides," Marik continued, offering Malik a chip, "what about you and vegetables?"
"What about me and vegetables?" The smaller boy said blankly, taking the fried potato.
"Have you ever considered the horrors vegetables have to go through before they get to the supermarket? Picking, cleaning, stickering, some even have to get pickled." Marik shuddered. If there was one thing he wouldn't eat, it was a cucumber that had been sitting in its own brine for so long it turned into something else.
"None of those involve a gunshot to the head!" Malik objected.
"That's because vegetables don't have heads," the other replied, "but if they did… Hoo boy. You'd see a lot more vegetable activists."
The younger teen groaned and gave his old friend an exasperated look. "You scare me sometimes, you know that?"
"I scare a lot of people," Marik replied simply, handing Malik a juice box, "you were one of the few that didn't run crying to mommy the moment I showed you my dead insect collection."
"I don't have a mom," Malik said bluntly, "that may have contributed to some part of it. But… never mind."
"No, go on."
"It's nothing," the blonde insisted.
"Malik! I hate it when people don't finish what they were gonna say, it's so-"
"It's not like I'm any less weird that you are."
"You mean our hair?"
"I mean our little secret codes that only we understand. Like…"
"Our matching Ra plushies?" Marik offered.
"And the way you say hello by ruffling my hair."
"And our uncanny ability to-"
"Finish each other's sentences," Malik concluded. "See what I mean? I think that's what puts most people off."
"Screw them," Marik growled, eyeing a nearby table evilly. "It's not like they'll ever amount to anything. All they care about is conforming to the next big fad. It's only middle school Malik, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to make friends."
"I guess so. I just don't want to grow up to be a lonely old hermit and end up dying alone, you know?"
"You're too pretty to die alone," Marik said, annoyed. "Are you gonna drink the juice or can I have it back?"
"Did you just say I was pretty?" Malik blinked, giving the small drink back to his friend.
"Well, it's true," the other said, their eyes meeting briefly. "Don't consider it a compliment though. It's just fact."
"I see," Malik replied sullenly, his moment of sunshine quickly clouding over with a haze of disappointment, "you didn't have to get my hopes up like that though."
"I got your hopes up?" Marik asked. "How so?"
"I thought you'd actually said something nice about someone," the smaller blonde sighed, "but I guess even that's too much of a stretch, huh?"
"You make me sound like such an ass," the other teen grinned.
"Don't consider it a compliment, it's just fact," Malik mocked, eye twitching.
"Hey, hey! Come on, I was just kidding! You aren't mad are you?"
"I dunno does it look like it?" The tanned blonde hissed, standing up to leave. Just as he was about to walk away, Marik grabbed his wrist, causing Malik to look back. For the first time in a long time Malik had known the odd boy, he noticed the student's dark eyes shining with sincerity.
"Don't leave, please? I'm really sorry! Here, if you sit back down, I'll give you a real compliment."
Interested, but still suspicious, Malik slowly sat back onto the plastic bench, making sure to stay a good distance away from his unpredictable classmate. Marik rolled his eyes and motioned for Malik to come closer, which the younger boy did, however he was ready to beat the living daylights out of the older boy should he try anything disgusting.
The small blonde all but melted as Marik planted a small kiss on his lips. Malik flushed and shrunk back from the other boy, holding a hand up to where the gesture of affection had hit. Marik crumpled up his empty lunch bag and tossed it into a nearby trashcan before walking toward the school building. Malik lingered behind him, speechless, flattered, happy and confused all at the same time. People only gave kisses to people they loved, didn't they?
"What? What the hell was-?"
"That," Marik called back, "was a compliment. Come on, we're gonna be late for fifth hour!"
"I…I'm coming!"
Bakura was ecstatic; Ryou had not only bought him a book, but some new clothes, a Nintendo DS (very hard to come by in Japan), a couple of games, and iPod, a cell phone, and for some reason, a large orange teddy bear. The med student staggered up the steps to the dorm room, fishing around his pockets while also trying to balance his new toys. He and Ryou had parted at the college entrance; why the polite young teen hadn't even bothered to offer any help was beyond him, but Bakura supposed he had some other business to attend to. After a full minute of searching, Bakura finally found his keys and shoved them eagerly into the door, wanting nothing more than to rub all of his good luck in Marik's face. He burst into the room, a toothy grin plastered on his lips.
"Heya guys! Look what Ryou got me! Bet you wished you were a bit nicer to him huh?"
Bakura blinked. No heavy textbooks were flung in his face, no biting expletives, not even a groan of annoyance. Confused, he checked the hanging clock on the opposite wall, only to have his jaw drop. It was ten thirty.
Marik had told him to return at six.
He was over four hours late.
Bakura came down to two possible reasons for the blondes' absence. Either they went clubbing without him and would come back too drunk to even care that he didn't show up, or they were standing behind him right now in an attempt to castrate him. Mahogany eyes darted over his shoulder, and the med student gave a sigh of relief when he realized the latter was void.
Bakura walked quietly into the dark room, setting his bags beside a few others that Marik and Malik had brought in. Eye twitching, he picked up a crumpled piece of paper and tossed in into a trash can, only to find several other pieces of paper underneath Marik's bed. Bakura growled and moved to reach under the wooden frame, when a soft glow caught his attention. Looking toward Marik's mattress, the boy could see a faint purple light coming from underneath the white sheets. Quickly forgetting about the mess, Bakura instinctively ripped the sheets from the bed in an attempt to see its source.
What he got instead was an unwanted nosebleed. The two blondes hadn't gone out clubbing. In fact, they were sound asleep right under Bakura's sensitive nose. Marik was lying on his back, arms wrapped around the slim Malik, who was sleeping on top of him. The source of the glow was the odd pearl necklace Malik had refused to take off ever since his arrival, which was now resting innocently on Marik's toned chest. It was all so precious and sweet that Bakura could hardly stifle his laughter. A single drop of blood dripped onto the floor, catching the slumbering demon's attention. Malik's eyes slowly flickered to life, only to find a scary looking bleeding Bakura above him and a very dead looking Marik below.
"AHHHHHHH! I'VE KILLED BOTH OF THEM!"
"OH MY GOD! YOU TWO WERE HAVING SEX! "
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO SCREAMING ABOUT?"
"I HAVE TO CLEAN THOSE SHEETS!"
"MARIK! YOU'RE ALIVE!"
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!"
"Bakura!" Malik panted, pointing an accusing finger, "You bastard, you're four hours late!"
"Well it looks like you two were having plenty of fun without me," the white haired teen sneered, crossing his arms, "don't let my presence suck all the fun out of your sexual escapades."
Marik blinked and assessed his position with the blushing Malik and hastily withdrew his arms.
"I-It's not what it-"
"Looks like, I was just really cold and-"
"We were really sleepy so-"
Two shades of purple met in a desperate search for an explanation, but to no one's avail. Bakura grinned maniacally .
"Caught you two in the act!"
"What about you? Bet you had to make that kid feel real good before he bought you all that stuff," Marik retorted in an attempt to change the subject.
"For your information," Bakura snorted, "he bought this stuff for me because he, quote, 'admired my ability to resist the temptations of evil.' By evil, I'm assuming he meant you two. He had a super special bone to pick with you Malik; apparently your presence has tainted my innocence. I suggest you run away with Marik into the nearby woods so you can go contaminate something else."
Malik fist clenched, "He said what? What a little bitch! Ooh! If he was here right now I'd pull his intestines through his nose stuff them into his eyelids so he couldn't see me chop off his tongue! Rrgh! Son of a bitch thinks he can judge me? That stupid ugly-!"
"Now look what you did," the other blonde sighed as his companion ranted, "He'll be up all night because of you!"
"Why don't you just calm him down with those magical hands of yours," the medical student teased, "You know, give him a big hard squeeze and then deny that you have any feelings for-"
"Shut up Bakura!" Malik snapped, still fired up with hearing Ryou's comments, "You cheated me out of clubbing twice! When we finally go, and believe me we will go, you're paying for our drinks!"
"I don't have any money!" Bakura protested, "That isn't fair, I didn't know what time it was!"
"I don't care! You've got a billion new techno toys, I'm sure that ugly little tart bought you a watch!"
In a huff, the smaller blonde walked over to Bakura's bags and began to dig through them in search of something relatively easy to break. Bakura rolled his eyes and gave his roommate a dirty look before shaking his head. Marik opened his mouth to object, but was interrupted by the shattering of a porcelain angel.
Malik had his back against the wall, eyeing the broken figure fearfully. Bakura raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow as Marik instinctively moved to comfort the shivering demon. The medical student irritably stooped down to sweep up the shard and noticed a small amount of moisture on his fingers.
"What is that?" Marik asked accusingly, trying to pry a stunned Malik away from his spot on the wall.
"This was the angel figurine that Ryou bought me in order to ward off evil," Bakura scoffed, sweeping the pieces into a dustbin. "It's filled with holy water, blessed by a Catholic priest or something like that. I dunno, I never really understood that religion…"
Unbeknownst to the two humans, Malik had received a powerful jolt of pain when he had picked up the figurine. Finally catching his breath, the demon thought quickly of a way to cover up his random act.
"I'm sorry Bakura," Malik sighed, "It's just…it's so late and I was really sleepy-"
"Whatever," the other snapped, "save the excuses, I'll just go buy a new one tomorrow. Though, I'd keep one eye open tonight if I were you Malik. Wouldn't want your necklace to accidentally go missing."
Malik whimpered.
"Lay off Bakura," Marik said, unwilling to continue the argument, "I'll pay for a new one if you want, just keep Malik out of it, alright? Now go to sleep already."
As the two blondes climbed back into bed (in a noticeably less suggestive position) Bakura cracked his back and slowly ascended up the short ladder to his own mattress, dreading the incoming Monday. Shutting his dark eyes to block out the dull glow of Malik's necklace, he wondered if he'd ever get another chance to see Ryou again; they had parted so quickly that Bakura didn't have a chance to thank him for his generosity. The boy had been so enthusiastic about their little shopping spree, and with every toy purchased came a piece of moral advice. It was slightly annoying at first, but Bakura had managed to tune him out, focusing instead on Ryou's charmingly sweet face. He assumed that's what Marik had learned to do when Malik was being difficult. Just focus on the face.
Shallow? Yes. Effective? Very.
5 Reviews to get Chapter Seven! This is where things start to get steamy… The plot thickens, Phase Two of Yami's plan goes into action, and one of the boys makes a move! Will it Be Bakura? Malik? Marik? Ryou? Review to find out! The reason this chapter is so short is because Seven's gonna be huge!