Marik dropped his shoes haphazardly by the door, threw his coat to the floor, and furiously strode into the kitchen to snap open the fridge door. He eyed the contents slowly and distractedly, rubbing his temples as the details of his tough day at work continued to resurface.

"Long day?" Bakura piped up.

Marik nearly jumped out of his skin, just realizing that Bakura was in the room. Marik had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that his surroundings had gone completely unnoticed.

"Yeah," Marik said, letting the door handle drop and the fridge shut again. "Everyone's been really stressed around me all day, so I guess I got wound up, too."

"What's everyone so stressed about?" Bakura asked, his hands playing over a deck of cards he'd laid out on the table.

Marik pulled a chair back, joining him and abandoning all thoughts of dinner for the moment.

"Well, it's been a while since the people at the dig site started working, and they still haven't found any of the Millennium Items. None except for the Necklace, which Ishizu found just recently."

Bakura caught Marik's eye. "Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? Technically, only two items have been discovered: the Ring and the Necklace. The items have a certain connection to any of their previous owners, drawing those people toward them. That must have been why Ishizu found the Necklace."

That did make sense, Marik thought. He'd been drawn to the Ring because Bakura had been calling him from the item's confines. And Ishizu had owned the Necklace for many years, so the item must have easily recognized her.

"You're probably not going to find any of the other items," Bakura said, shrugging. "Although, I guess you could find the Rod for them, if you wanted. Or even Kaiba could, since he owned the Rod in Egypt, long ago."

"I'd want to help them find it," Marik said thoughtfully. "But I don't know if I want to look for the Rod."

"Why not?" Bakura asked, looking surprised. "Because you're afraid you'd want to take it?"

"No, that's not it. I really do want to help the diggers, if they'd let me," Marik said. "It's just that the Rod brings back a lot of bad memories for me. It's the last thing I want on my mind right now."

"I see," Bakura replied, sensing that the subject of those memories wasn't something he wanted to breach at the moment.

"Anyway, I guess they'll have to figure something out if they want to find the rest of the items," Marik sighed, as he stood up again. "I'm just glad this day is over. I had a lot more crap to deal with than usual."

"Like what?" Bakura leaned back in his chair, picking up his cards and shuffling through them again. He'd probably been reorganizing his deck while Marik had been gone during the day.

"Mostly annoying co-workers," Marik said, opening the fridge door again and pulling out vegetables to prepare for dinner. "It seems like whenever they say, 'I'm taking a five-minute break,' it always turns into half an hour or an hour break. They just sit in the back and I'm the one taking care of the register and dusting and cleaning up. And then, when I ask them for help, they just give me dirty looks and insult me."

"Sounds like you have some horrible coworkers," Bakura said.

"They really are," Marik continued. He dropped a washed onion on the cutting board and started cutting it up. "And then, when I'm on break, they just sit around talking about their sex lives. And it's like, I really don't care who those bastards have slept with or what kind of girls they've picked up. It's not something I want to hear about while I'm trying to eat my lunch, you know?"

Bakura smiled. He kind of liked it when Marik complained to him about his work.

Half an hour later, dinner was done, and they were still talking about Marik's annoying co-workers while eating and laughing. After the dishes were cleaned and put away, Marik turned to Bakura.

"Hey, so I know we normally don't bet on a week night," Marik started, feeling a little self-conscious for bringing this up. "But I'm not feeling as stressed as I thought I would."

"You're not?" Bakura's eyes lit up. "Do you want to bet?"

"Actually, yeah," Marik said, blushing a little. Normally, he wouldn't have brought this up, but after talking with Bakura for the past hour, he'd relaxed considerably, and maybe sex would take his mind off of his long day.

"What do you want to bet on?"

"How about a blow job?" Marik asked.

"Okay," Bakura smirked. "But to make it interesting, how about the loser has to swallow this time?"

Marik bit his lip, instantaneously remembering the first time he'd given Bakura a blow job, and the salty mess that had shot into his mouth. It's not like the taste was unpleasant. He could deal with that. And if he won and Bakura was the one giving him a blow job, it would be especially satisfying to watch him swallow.

"Okay, deal." Marik smiled.

A minute later, he got out his deck and they started playing.

Half an hour later, Marik watched as the best monster in his deck was wiped out and his points shot down to zero.

"How!" Marik shouted, throwing his cards across the table and standing up. "I had three thousand attack points on my monster. There's no way you could take out both my monster and life points in one turn!"

"Well, it's done, and I think we made a deal on this duel, so if you're done throwing a tantrum, I'd like to get my end of it."

Marik pursed his lips, unable to believe his luck. But then again, he'd gotten to fuck Bakura on Saturday even though he'd lost, so maybe he shouldn't look so unfavorably on losing.

"Fine. Let's get this over with," he said before storming out of the kitchen, through the living room, and into the bedroom, while Bakura followed with a wide smile on his face.

"Sit," Marik snapped, and Bakura sat on the bed without question. Without prompting, Bakura also undid his belt and unzipped his pants, pulling them down to his knees. His boxers soon followed, bunching up against his pants.

Marik couldn't deny that the sight of Bakura's erect cock turned him on, just a little. He got down on his knees and ducked his head so that Bakura wouldn't see the blush spreading across his face. He curled his hand around the tip of Bakura's cock and brought his face close. Involuntarily, Bakura breathed in sharply.

Marik laughed, breathing against the tip of it. "I see you're eager. I haven't even done anything yet, and you're already reacting."

"Shut up," Bakura snapped, but he sounded too aroused to really mean it.

Marik decided to make it a game. What sorts of things could he do to get interesting reactions out of Bakura? After realizing that pleasure and not pain would break Bakura, Marik was now keen on exploring this insight.

He flicked the tip of his tongue against Bakura's cock, letting it trail up and down the length several times, loving the feel of the warm, smooth skin. Bakura's breath came in short gasps, but otherwise, the reaction wasn't gratifying enough.

Marik opened his mouth wide and swallowed the head, wrapping his lips around his cock to slowly swallow the rest. He felt Bakura tense as he almost imperceptibly pushed his hips upward, unable to withhold getting deeper into Marik's warm mouth. Marik used his hand to stroke the base, rubbing his fingers leisurely around the flesh, and guiding himself as deep as he could go.

"Oh, gods," Bakura whispered. "Can I-"

Marik moved his tongue around his cock, using his mouth to suck and lick as much of the skin as he could swallow, and felt the bed creak as Bakura shifted and grabbed the sheets between his two hands. He increased the rhythm, going between sucking and stroking, and swirling his tongue over and over, until he finally heard Bakura moan, and start thrusting his hips into Marik's mouth.

So that's what he'd wanted to do, Marik realized, not minding the thrusting. He liked the reaction, but he wanted more. He still had one free hand, which he snaked up Bakura's stomach until he found his nipple, and stroked his thumb across it. He stroked it in time with the rest of his maneuvers.

"Ah," Bakura groaned, his voice now breathless. "Marik."

The use of his name sent a jolt straight through Marik, right to his groin. He loved it. The way Bakura was reduced to helplessly gasping out his name, the way he'd tangled his fingers into Marik's hair, and was desperately trying to withhold orgasm if only for the sake of feeling this pleasure for a little longer. He was close already, Marik could tell. His entire body was quivering, coiled and ready to release under Marik's slurping, wet tongue.

Finally, Bakura arched into Marik, throwing his head back, and moaned again before he came. The liquid spilled into Marik's mouth, and he had to remind himself of the terms of their bet, and not immediately snap away from Bakura's cock. He continued to suck and stroke him until Bakura was done gasping and coming, and then he slowly withdrew his mouth, and forced the come to go down his throat. The taste was strange and salty, but like he'd thought, not unbearable.

He looked up at Bakura and was shocked at the sight. He looked entirely fucked. His face was red. And not just tinged with a slight blush; it was absolutely flushed. His lips were parted and his eyes were dark and dilated, and each breath was a short gasp. No doubt his heart must have been racing. His hands were still clenched in Marik's hair as Bakura gazed down at him through glazed eyes.

Marik's stomach dropped. He ducked his head and dropped it on Bakura's stomach, which was exposed since Marik still had his hand up his shirt. He felt unbelievably turned on just by the way Bakura looked post-orgasm. Before he could help himself, he pressed his lips against the skin of Bakura's stomach, and trailed upward, overtaken by some sort of feeling he couldn't even identify.

It's not like Marik had gotten the blow job, but he felt as if he'd partaken in it, somehow. Last time, he'd done it just to get it over with. Now, he felt that bone-weakening surge of pleasure that came with having sex with another person. And now, he couldn't contain the short kisses he trailed up Bakura's stomach. But he had to stop. This looked weird.

Marik immediately pulled away and stood up, turning quickly so that his half-formed erection wouldn't be visible.

"Alright, well," he started, his voice feeling a little shaky. "I have homework to do, so I'd appreciate it if you let me do that for the rest of the evening."

With that, he left the bedroom without waiting to hear Bakura's response.

Almost as soon as Marik had sat down at the computer and started the homework for his online classes, Bakura came out of the bedroom and stood beside Marik.

"What are you doing?"

Marik frowned. He really didn't want to be around Bakura right then. It felt awkward. But now here Bakura was, interrupting his work.

"I'm doing my homework. Go away. I need to concentrate."

"All you ever do is work," Bakura said. "Do you really think it's going to get you anywhere? It hasn't gotten you anywhere yet. It's a waste of time."

"Your opinion has been noted," said Marik sarcastically. "Now, can I please get back to work?"

Bakura sighed in exasperation. "When are you going to give up on this stuff?"

"What stuff?" Marik growled irritably. "School?"

"All of it," said Bakura. "School, work, trying to be a nice little productive member of society...come on, Marik, this isn't you. You know it's not."

"I've already made it clear to you what my goals in life are," Marik said. "Do you really think I'm going to change my mind? You know that the entire purpose of you stealing these tokens for me is so I can win the tournament and better my place in society."

"Oh, yes, working with a criminal like me and cheating your way into a tournament," said Bakura sarcastically. "That's definitely the path to righteousness. See, you'll never be what you're trying to be. You don't have it in you."

"Shut up," Marik said, whipping his head around.

Bakura smirked at him, and then Marik felt irritated with himself for letting Bakura get to him.

"Fine, think whatever you want," Marik said, turning back around to face his screen. "I'm going to finish my homework."

There was silence for a moment. Marik stubbornly refused to turn around or acknowledge Bakura at all, hoping he'd give up and go away.

But then Bakura said, "So, what are you working on?"

"You wouldn't be interested," Marik said stiffly.

"How do you know?" asked Bakura.

"Well, for one thing, you already told me that you think it's a waste of time," Marik said, fighting to keep the irritation out of his voice.

Bakura leaned in over Marik's shoulder, trying to look at the open document on his screen.

"Bakura, seriously, are you trying to annoy me into giving up on my life goals?" Marik said. "Get the hell out of here! I need to work on this. I'm already way behind on my school work. I never have time to do it anymore because you're always around bothering me."

"Bothering you?" asked Bakura, raising an eyebrow. "I thought I was helping you prepare for the tournament."

"Fine, you're helping me in some ways," Marik admitted begrudgingly. "But you're still a distraction, and you spend most of your time just sitting around here doing nothing. You can't even be bothered to do any housework."

"Hey, our deal was that I'd steal tokens for you, not that I'd be your maid."

"You rarely even do that," Marik said. "You've been here for months, and you've only stolen three tokens."

"This is an extended tournament. I still have plenty of time to steal the rest," said Bakura. "But you know, it would be a lot easier for me to steal tokens more often if you'd give me back my damn Ring."

"Bakura, I really don't want to have that discussion right now," Marik said. "Now seriously, can you just shut up and let me concentrate?"

"Fine," said Bakura.

Bakura didn't say anything else, but he didn't move away from where he was standing. He pulled the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, took one out, and lit it. Marik heard the click of the lighter.

A couple of minutes later, Bakura still hadn't moved, and Marik finally turned around again to look at him.

"Are- are you really just letting your ashes fall right onto the carpet?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Bakura said calmly, blowing out a puff of smoke.

"What the hell is with you constantly trying to destroy my carpet?" Marik burst out. "Do you have something personal against the carpet?"

"Well, I have something personal against you constantly bitching about the damn carpet, if that counts."

"See, this is what I'm talking about," Marik said. "Not only do you not do housework, you create messes that Ihave to take care of. I let you stay here for free, and you have no respect at all for my home."

Bakura only shrugged. The fact that he was being so nonchalant just enraged Marik further.

"Put that fucking thing out and go do something that doesn't distract me or mess up the house," Marik said. "Seriously, how many ways can I say 'leave me alone' before you get it?"

"Alright, whatever you want," said Bakura.

Then he put his cigarette out directly on the back of the chair that Marik was sitting in, leaving a smoking hole. He dropped the cigarette on the floor and walked off.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Marik yelled. "I can't believe you just did that. I-"

But Bakura had already left the room, and was obviously ignoring Marik. Marik turned back to his work, struggling to put his annoyance with Bakura out of his mind and regain his concentration so he could finally get this done.

About an hour later, Marik's homework was finally finished. He found Bakura sitting by the window, smoking another cigarette. This time, he was actually using an ash tray.

Marik felt a little bad about how much he'd snapped at Bakura earlier. Though he didn't know why, since the entire thing really was Bakura's fault. Still, he sat down next to Bakura, watching as tendrils of smoke rose towards the ceiling.

"So, do you want to know what I was working on?" Marik finally asked, breaking the silence.

Bakura shrugged. "Whatever."

"It was nothing, really," Marik said. "Just some general education class I have to take that has nothing to do with my major."

"Oh," said Bakura, putting out his cigarette and not really looking at Marik.

"One of the students in the class was sending around a joke on the subject," Marik said, trying again. For some reason, he really didn't want Bakura to be cross with him. They had to live together, after all. And besides, he still needed him around to help him out with the tournament.

"I think that student is actually majoring in the subject," said Marik. Bakura still didn't seem to be paying much attention to him, but Marik pushed on anyway. "Alright, so a chemist, a physicist, and a neoclassical economist are all stranded on a desert island. They have a can of food, so they need to try to figure out how to open the can. The physicist wants to use a rock to smash open the can. The chemist wants to heat up the can so it bursts open. After he hears the suggestions of the other two, the neoclassical economist says, 'Why don't we just assume we have a can opener?'"

"What?" said Bakura, finally looking at Marik.

Marik laughed a little, mostly because he'd managed to get Bakura's attention.

"How about we go into the bedroom and see if we can disprove the law of diminishing marginal utility?" said Marik.

"What?" said Bakura.

Seeing the expression on Bakura's face, Marik couldn't contain it anymore and burst out laughing. Bakura looked at him in irritation, but after a little bit, he finally smiled.

Marik's laughter died down, and Bakura was quiet for a moment. Then he pulled another cigarette out of his pack.

"So...wanna see a cool trick?" Bakura asked.

"What kind of trick?" asked Marik, seeming slightly suspicious.

"You'll see," said Bakura. "You'll like it."

With that, Bakura led Marik over to the kitchen counter, and Marik followed somewhat reluctantly.

Bakura set his cigarette down on the counter and pulled out his lighter. He began rotating the metal wheel on the lighter, but he was rotating it the wrong way. It didn't appear to have any effect other than to make an annoying grinding sound.

Marik looked at Bakura skeptically. "This isn't something that's going to further destroy my home, is it?"

"I told you, you'll like it," said Bakura. "So the answer to that question is no."

Bakura turned the lighter upside down and tapped it on the counter. A bunch of grey dust fell out- tiny specks of metal. Bakura then turned the lighter right side up and went back to grinding the wheel some more. As he tipped the lighter upside down and tapped it on the counter a second time, he chanced a look at Marik. Marik was beginning to look intrigued and curious. Bakura smiled, repeating the routine a few more times. When he judged that it was enough, he took his cigarette and used it to push the gray powder into a neat line on the counter. Then he rolled his cigarette in the stuff, coating the entire tube save for the filter.

"Now watch," said Bakura. And he lit his cigarette.

As he inhaled, tiny yellow sparks flew from the end of his cigarette. There were only a few sparks, and they went out long before they could hit the floor and damage anything. It looked like a holiday sparkler in miniature.

"I guess that is pretty cool," admitted Marik.

Bakura inhaled again, and more small sparks lit up the air.

Marik couldn't help but smile.

"See?" said Bakura, taking another puff.

"Where did you learn that?" asked Marik.

"Smokers' secret," said Bakura, inhaling again.

A moment of silence passed between them, and then Bakura said, "Hey, so...I'm going to go out and steal another token this weekend."

"Thanks," said Marik. "You were right, though...there's really no rush."

"Yeah, sure," said Bakura.

Bakura looked up at Marik and took another hit from his cigarette. Marik smiled again as he watched the little golden sparks popping in the air between them.

AN: No, the angst hasn't happened yet; the fighting here is setting up for future fighting and angst. Thanks for reading, please review!