"Marik, wake up!" Bakura whispered urgently, moving his arm out from under Marik. Marik's eyes fluttered open. He smiled sweetly and Bakura and yawned. Before he could say anything, however, Bakura gently placed a hand over Marik's mouth. Marik stared up at Bakura, sudden concern evident in his eyes. Bakura silently nodded his head toward the skunk. Marik looked in the indicated direction. The skunk sniffed curiously at the dead squirrel, prodding the squirrel's head with its nose. Marik's eyes widened before he turned back to Bakura. He took Bakura's hand away from his mouth to reveal a bright smile.

"Oh my Ra, it's so cute!" Marik whispered, grinning. "Don't worry, I won't scare it away."

"Cute!?" Bakura hissed, "Marik, we need to get away from that thing!"

Marik raised an eyebrow, confused. "Why? It isn't bothering us."

"It will do a lot more than bother us if we don't get out of sight. Come on, trust me on this."

Quietly, with all of the sneakiness of a thief, Bakura scooped Marik up and bounded behind the cover of a cluster of nearby bushes. They were hidden before the skunk could look up.

"Bakura, what the frig is wrong with you?!" Marik asked softly, still appearing to be genuinely puzzled.

"Marik, are you not aware of what kind of animal that is?!"

Marik wrinkled his forehead, thinking. "Wait, wait, I know this one. Um…"

Unlike Marik, Bakura knew the characteristic traits of a skunk well. Prior to receiving his own body, Bakura had indirectly experienced the wrath of such a creature. Ryou was being picked on in the park by a group of boys, who shoved him into a bush where a skunk happened to have made its home. The smell probably would've been enough to drive the boys away on its own, but Bakura had been in the mood to play. Although Bakura had taught the boys a lesson about what happened when they messed with Ryou, it only took one whiff of his host's body for him to return to his place in the ring. In retrospect, he had probably been a little cruel in taunting and teasing Ryou through their mind link for his new aroma while Ryou had to sit miserably in a tub of tomato juice for at least an hour before being completely rid of the atrocious smell.

"Right, well, here's a brief biology lesson from someone who hasn't spent most of his life underground. That-" Bakura pointed to the creature in question, "Is called a skunk. Skunks are nocturnal, omnivorous, and, oh, yes, they're also capable of manufacturing one of the most unpleasant odors known to mankind."

Marik sniffed the air. "Oh, is that what that funny smell is? It smells like coffee, although it is a little strong. Is that really all you're afraid of? A fluffy cat with a little body odor?"

"You don't understand, Marik. Skunks are also capable of inflicting their scent upon anyone that startles them. They can spray a fluid from their rear ends that's much stronger than what we smell now."

Marik tilted his head. "So… if I happened to scare that skunk, it would pee on me?"

"What? No, no, it isn't piss that it sprays."

"So it orgasms at people?"

Bakura shook his head, now a little red in the face. "No, the spray is not urine or semen! It's, well, it's… I don't know what it is, but it isn't either of those!"

"Well, gee Bakura, there are only so many fluids that can come out of one's rear end."

"My point is that we need to get away from here. Now."

Marik looked back at the skunk, which was still very interested in the squirrel. "I still don't see what the big deal is, Bakura. It looks harmless." Marik pushed himself up, standing on one foot shakily.

"Marik, what are you doing?!"

Marik smiled and patted Bakura's head condescendingly. "Relax, Fluffy. You clearly have an irrational fear of this animal, so I'm going to show you that you have nothing to be afraid of."

Before Bakura could stop him, Marik hopped out from behind the bush. The skunk's head whipped up to face Marik, its body tense. Staying a few feet away, Marik cautiously sat down, staring intently at the skunk. Then, he began tapping the ground in front of him with his fingers. "Hey there, pretty fella. You wanna come here? Huh? You wanna come?" The skunk didn't move.

Marik smiled reassuringly, still patting the ground gently. "Come on, fella. I'm not going to hurt you. Come here, please? Will you?" The skunk took a step, hesitating. Then, all at once, the skunk trotted towards Marik. Marik looked a little taken aback, but he continued speaking soft words of encouragement. Slowly, he moved a hand toward the skunk and lifted it, palm up, inviting the skunk to smell him. To his and Bakura's surprise, the skunk rubbed its head against his hand, as if inviting him to pet it. Uncertainly, Marik stroked the skunk's head. The skunk seemed to approve, as it began walking back and forth, allowing Marik's hand to run over its back as it passed.

Bakura, who had been watching everything leading up to this scene with grim anticipation, now dropped his jaw in shock. "Marik," Bakura said, trying to project his voice from behind the bush without yelling, "I can assure you that behavior is not ordinary for a skunk. There must be something wrong with it. It might have rabies!"

"No kidding," Marik mumbled, a little stunned himself by this supposedly wild animal's tame nature. The skunk rolled over onto its back, requesting a belly rub. Marik smirked at Bakura as he rubbed the creature's soft tummy. "You're right, Bakura. Skunks are terrifying."

Bakura blushed. "Oh, shut up. That's not a normal skunk. Even you can see that!"

Marik shrugged and returned his focus to his new little friend. Less than a minute later, Bakura saw the bushes behind Marik move. He stared silently at the shrubs until he saw a furry head poke out. Bakura started, then squinted his eyes to get a better look at the creature. It was small, and its coat was perfectly white. At first, Bakura thought that it might be an albino squirrel. However, he felt his stomach drop when the animal crawled quietly out of the bush, revealing its short, squat, cat-like form and long, furry tail. The creature in question stared at Marik, its red eyes narrowed, as Marik scratched the skunk gently and cooed affectionately. It bared its teeth, hissing threateningly. Marik turned his head and gasped at the sudden appearance of this hostile creature. Bakura grabbed Marik's walking stick and sprinted to Marik's rescue, just as the animal charged at Marik. Bakura blocked Marik from its bite with the stick. When it sunk its teeth into the stick, Bakura swung the stick around to shake it off, sending it flying into the underbrush.

"What the frig was that thing, Bakura?!" Marik yelped, still sitting on the ground, his expression alarmed and the skunk sitting by his side.

"That, Marik, was an albino skunk."

Suddenly, the same albino skunk burst out of the bushes into which it had been slung. Bakura raised the stick and approached the skunk, determined to keep it away from Marik. Unfortunately, while Bakura had surprised the albino before, it was now well prepared to use its special weapon. The skunk had thumped its front legs once, whipped around, and shoved its backside into the air before Bakura could even skid to a stop. He only had time to turn his head so the spray wouldn't get in his face or burn his eyes. Predictably, Bakura was covered from head to toe in the stench, and at such a close range, the smell was almost unbearably strong. Bakura stumbled away gagging and gasping for air.

Marik stared at the display, unblinking. The skunk who had been resting next to Marik gave his hand a lick before waddling over to the albino. Marik's skunk gave the albino a quick lick on the nose before they shuffled away together without looking back.

Marik came back to reality when he heard Bakura choking. He jumped up and stumbled to his friend. "Oh my Ra, Bakura, are you OK?!"

Bakura punched his own chest and sniffed, grimacing. "Just fan-fucking-tastic, Marik."

Marik gave a sigh of relief, but it turned into a cough as the full force of Bakura's scent hit him. He staggered backwards and pinched his nose. His voice sounded like Serenity as he spoke. "YUCK! Oh man, I didn't know it would smell that bad! That's really strong."

"Did you think that I, of all people, would be one to worry about something trivial?"

"No, OK, I admit it, you were right. Frig, you really stink, Bakura. Great, now I'm going to have to wander around the forest with that smell following me."

Bakura growled. "You realize that I could have just let that skunk attack you, right?"

Marik blinked, then his face seemed to light up in realization. He smiled kindly. "I know. Thank you, Kura. That was very sweet of you."

Bakura blushed and looked at his feet. "Whatever, don't mention it."

Marik giggled and leaned down to retrieve his walking stick. "Come on, Stinky. We still need to find our way back to camp."

Bakura held in a groan. He had a feeling that 'Stinky' was going to be Marik's nickname of choice for him for a while. Still, he followed Marik in his trek in a random direction. Marik asked him to stay a few paces behind him so he would be able to breathe. Bakura begrudgingly obeyed, already missing the closeness with Marik that he had become accustomed to this week.

"By the way," Marik asked, after a few minutes of hiking through foliage, "Why do think that albino skunk was trying to kill me?"

"My guess is that the skunk you were cuddling with was its mate. However, I still have no idea why that skunk was so social."

Marik nodded, then turned his head. Bakura thought that he saw Marik smile.

"What? What's so funny?"

Marik looked back at Bakura, trying not to snicker. "I was just thinking, that albino skunk reminded me of you."

"What?!" Bakura growled, "We're nothing alike."

"Sure you are, Bakura. Both of you are fluffy, aggressive, and very protective of your crushes."

"I'm not like a skunk. Alright, maybe I do have a little more hair than the average person, and maybe I have a hobby of torturing people, and maybe… Wait, did you say crush?"

Marik stopped and turned around to fully face Bakura. Now, he wasn't even trying to hide his devious smirk.

"W-What are you talking about, Marik?" Bakura stuttered, in spite of himself.

"Oh, nothing," Marik drawled, fiddling with a leaf on a nearby bush. "I just happened to think of someone with a lovely singing voice, clothes that flaunt his attractive body, and eyes that I've caught you staring into before."

Bakura gulped, the back of his neck beginning to grow warm. "How… how long have you known?"

"Since just now, when I realized that a smelly jerk like you wouldn't risk any form of inconvenience for just anybody."

Bakura decided to ignore the 'smelly jerk' comment and asked the more pressing question, "So… what does that mean for us, Marik?"

Marik smiled sympathetically at him. "Bakura, I've already told you that I'm not gay, but you-"

Bakura was running before Marik could finish. Bakura ignored Marik's cries for him to come back. He fled faster as he heard the clop of Marik's stick against the hard ground behind him. He didn't want to hear the end of Marik's statement. Whether it was, "But you and I should just stay friends," or "But you and I should probably stop seeing each other," Bakura couldn't face rejection. He cursed himself for being foolish enough to serve someone who was only humoring his little crush. The sound of Marik yelling and the pounding of his uneven steps faded gradually as Bakura continued to run at top speed. Soon, they were completely separated from each other.