Part 2 - Coming Out: Marik

"Do you recall going to Egypt?" Yugi asked, as he snuggled closer into Seto. This was a rare moment for him, Seto only allowed him to get close like this in private.

"Mm," Seto replied.

"Do you recall the sort of outfit he was wearing?"

"Why would I pay attention to such a small detail like that? It was irrelevant at the time."

"But it is the beginning of the story to understand the complexity of Marik's coming out. Do you at least remember his purple midriff-bearing shirt?"

"That I do remember, only because he was the only male on board that blimp who decided to dress like a girl," Seto scoffed.

"Well, when we went to Egypt, Marik was wearing his black shirt, tan khakis and...this odd black-grey vest, I can't quite remember. Either way, it struck me as quite a straight outfit, compared to what he was wearing on your blimp."

"And?"

"And that is where the story begins. Behind that outfit. Previously, while we were battling on your blimp, he had lived his life pretty much underground, he didn't know the world above him. He didn't even know what gay, straight and lesbian was. And because of this, his sister Ishizu felt it was no threat to allow him to wear what he wanted."

"Why is Ishizu important? Why would she even care?" Seto asked flatly.

Yugi turned to face Seto, "Would you let me finish? It will make as I go along if you stopped asking so many questions, Seto." He stared at his face, thinking he had done quite a lovely job of the makeup. You couldn't even tell that it was Seto under that mask he caked on. However he had wished Seto didn't select such a name: Blaire Dragoon. Not only did it sound bad, it slightly hinted at the Blue Eyes White Dragon, which therefore would associate this drag to possibly being Seto. "You do realize that your drag identity could 'out' you?" Yugi asked.

"I will only become the female I want to become, not something you create," Seto snapped back.

"Alright, however, if someone recognizes you or puts two and two together, don't come crying to me!" Yugi teased.

"Just get on with the story."

"Oh! Right." Yugi turned to snuggle back into Seto's long, warm embrace. "Ishizu is homophobic. And therefore, while they lived underground and Marik was in bliss, he could do whatever. However...the moment they started to live above aground, according to Marik...she started to 'suggest' things to him. Such as to avoid wearing his favourite purple shirt. And perhaps try and look more 'manly' to attract the women. So, Marik, thinking his sister had good intentions, asked her to help him. And there you have it, arm and wrist bands gone, neck bands gone, all replaced with this dull, unfashionable grey vest. She tried to shield him as much as she could from being gay."

"I'm confused. Did she even know he was gay?"

"Oh right! No no, she didn't know at all. But she was speculating based on Marik's behaviours, how he dressed and such, and it scared her. So she reacted. Unfortunately. At the time Marik thought nothing of it."

Suddenly there was a very loud thumping of somebody running up the stairs followed by a slamming of a door. Shortly there was the soft sound of somebody gently running up the stairs, and as they reached the top Bakura yelled, "Mariiiiiiiiik! Give me my shirt back! I want to wear that tonight you little bugger!"

"You'll have to come and take it from me then!" a muffled, Mariks voice replied.

Seto and Yugi could hear Bakura knocking on the closed door that contained Marik. "Open up! Or do I have to force myself in?"

"Ooooh wouldn't that be SO nice!" Marik giggled.

Finally they heard the opening of a door, the shuffle of feet, followed by a swift slam and a lock.

"Anyways!" Yugi said, trying to get back on track. "Marik decided to move here, to Japan. Apparantly his sister told him to 'find a girlfriend,' so that was what Marik had in mind. Come to Japan, settle down, get a girlfriend. Alright. Keep in mind he still didn't know what gay was. So he came here, met all of us, and of course, he didn't find any of the women attractive. Now, all this time, Bakura of course, found Marik to be the hottest thing on the planet, and wanted him. He pined after him, tease him, play with his hair, flirt, all of that. Marik thought it was completely 'friend' behaviour, thanks to his lovely sister sheltering him so much. Then came that one night of the party we had all those months ago, where..."

Suddenly Yugi was interrupted by an extremely loud moan followed by rhythmic thumping from the neighbouring wall. "Of course," Yugi muttered, "they just had to go into the bathroom." The moaning continued along with the thumping, and Yugi got up from Seto's safe arms, walked to the wall, and banged on it. "Can't you guys wait until after tonight? It's too early!" Yugi teased as he yelled across the barrier.

"There is no such thing as 'too early sex,' you wanker!" Bakura yelled back.

"Well do you mind going elsewhere?"

"Can we come into your room and do a three-way?"

"No!" Yugi laughed, "No, go downstairs on the couch or something, just not there where I can obviously here you."

Shortly after they heard some ruffling, a door opening, and the sound of Marik and Bakura slowly making their way downstairs.

"Sometimes I wonder about them..." Yugi muttered. Kaiba had reopened his arms, waiting for Yugi to sit back down, "you were just getting to a good part, I want to know what happened at this party" Seto asked sarcastically.

Yugi leaped back into his lovers arms and nestled in. "You were actually there, but I doubt you remember much of it. Basically, we were all drinking, and Bakura, being able to tolerate his alcohol, remembers the most of it. But I do remember this. We were playing truth or dare. Marik had passed out on the couch, he was extremely tired that day for some reason and took a couple of sips of his vodka and just passed out. Anyways, we were playing, and Bakura was up. He wanted a dare. So, I dared him to go kiss Marik laying there on the couch. Bakura, being the way he is, smiled and got up, crawled over the arm of the chair straight onto Marik, and started to make out with him. Of course, this startled Marik very much, for he was asleep and not expecting such a thing!" Yugi was laughing at the memory, he would never forget the face Marik made when he woke up, that face of complete shock, surprise, and what-the-fuck-are-you-doing look.

"Are you done laughing?" Seto asked.

"Hah..yes, well, anyways after Marik woke up, he found he liked it, and continued to make out with Bakura! And, as always, Bakura took him by the hand, led him upstairs, and shut the door. I'm not sure what happened behind that door, but ever since that night they hooked up."

"So...did he ever 'come out?"

"Well...once he was dating Bakura he was already 'outed' so to speak. He never explicitly said anything, but completely accepted being gay. Bakura taught him everything about the queer community, and Marik was extremely happy with who he was, happy to have found himself. However, he needed to come out to his sister, which is the whole point of this story."

"So what happened?"

"Well, Ishizu visited Marik once. Marik had told her he had 'found someone' but didn't tell her who. During the three days she visited, Bakura basically had to dress up in drag and pretend he was Mariks "girlfriend." Bakura only saw it as an excellent opportunity to practice his acting skills, to see if he could fool regular people into thinking he was a girl. He also respected Marik's decision very much, and understood why. Marik understood why his sister wanted him to get a girlfriend, and all of her actions, he basically put two and two together. You know, he's sometimes a really bright guy."

"When he's not being an idiot that is" Seto remarked.

"Hah! That is true! And he came out to Ishizu during trip number two. He was visiting for the whole week, and his plan was to play it 'straight' for the first few days, then come out. He told me that while he was there he still pretended that Bakura was his girlfriend, and when they would chat on skype, he'd use a headset and close his door, avoiding saying anything really 'gay.' However, he came out to his sister. "

"How tough was it?"

"Extremely though for him. The moment he came out his sister didn't acknowledge he existed. She completely abandoned him. He finished the trip, and left coming back very depressed. The original plan was Ishizu would come back with him, however she didn't. Odion did though. It was amazing how supportive of Marik he was. It was after he came back we went into a very dark period."

"I recall there being something wrong with Marik."

"Something was wrong with him, he was depressed." Yugi sighed. "Bakura and I would watch him, try to talk to him, he seemed disinterested in anything. Even Odion tried to talk to him. Imagine loosing someone you loved your whole life, someone who tried to protect you, try to save you from yourself once, suddenly turn on you and cut off all communications. To get to the chase though, Bakura told me he once found Marik in their room, knife in hand..."

"He tried to kill himself? What a low move" Seto retorted.

"Look who's speaking," Yugi remarked. "Thankfully, Bakura caught him in time before he even tried anything. Bakura told me Marik didn't want to be taken to the hospital so as a compromise, Bakura was with him 24/7, and if Bakura needed to leave for a few seconds, I would watch Marik. It was a really interesting change too, Bakura had locked up the whole house. Anything Marik cold feasibly kill himself with, was padlocked, and he had the key. So if I wanted to cut up some meat, I had to ask Bakura for the key."

"Don't you think that was a little overkill? I actually remember that."

"No, no I don't think so. Bakura just loved Marik very much, and would have hated to loose him. Marik is his other half, he can't bear to loose that. Eventually though, Marik came out of it, realizing just how much he really was loved, and came to. Odion stayed the entire time, having to re-book his flight, just to make sure Marik was alright, and to show that he still cared. Marik was very grateful for Odion, and of course, still talks to him. He is still upset about his sister, but he said it's her choice and it is really quite a shame. Well, he still gets emotional about the situation if you talk to him about it, so...yeah. That's basically his story."

"Intriguing. I didn't realize Marik went through so much."

"No, but I am glad he is still with us and as gay as can be." Yugi leaned in to kiss Seto lightly on the shoulder, afraid to ruin is beautiful make up job. "Now that I know yours and Marik's story," Seto said, "I wonder how Bakura came out."

Yugi giggled. "Oh he never came out really. He was born out!" Yugi laughed at this, "But!" he said, "If you really want to know his story, it might be best to ask Bakura himself!"

Yugi and Seto hadn't realize Bakura was already standing in their now opened door, with a little smile playing at his lips, "Ask me what?"

Bakura looked enormous in the doorway with his 5-inch heeled Lady Gaga-esque shooes on, and a general Lady Gaga look to him. Ever since Gaga came into existence, Bakura would do drag shoes as her, or dress up in similar outfits, connecting as a little monster.

"Don't you ever do anything other than Lady Gaga?" Seto asked snidely.

"Oh of course, but you know Gaga is AMAZING and I've got the mighty hair to do it, I don't even need a wig!" Bakura said, while whipping his hair around. "Was that all you wanted to ask? That really wasn't much of a question."

"No...but I was wondering. What is your 'coming out' story?"

"Oh!" Bakura smiled wide, "I suppose we have time for that, it is awfully early to get going. However, I came up here to ask you, have you seen Marik's shoes? He seems to have misplaced them!"