Disclaimer: I do not own Just Dance by Lady Gaga.

Bakura stopped running when he felt certain that Marik was too far away to find him. He leaned his arm against a tree, trying to steady his breathing.

"What have I done?" He thought miserably. Marik had discovered Bakura's feelings for him, and he was on the brink of rejecting Bakura before Bakura had fled. He knew that running away had only made the situation worse. By avoiding confrontation, Bakura had only revealed how serious his affections were and how sensitive and weak he was. He realized with a sinking feeling that he would eventually have to go back and find Marik. He couldn't leave Marik alone and practically crippled in the woods for long, no matter how embarrassed he was.

Bakura leaned against the tree and slumped into a sitting position. He decided to wait until he had calmed down a little before going off to find Marik. It wasn't long before he heard rustling in the bushes a few yards away from him. He stood quickly, his hands curling into fists. Silently, he prayed that it wouldn't be Marik. Anything except Marik. He would gladly fend off another swarm of bees, a venomous serpent, even take another dose of stank from a skunk, just so long as he didn't have to face Marik yet.

Unfortunately, Bakura's wish was granted. Lumbering towards Bakura was an adult grizzly bear.

"Man, Karma is a real bitch."

The grizzly stopped upon noticing Bakura and stared at him, inquisitively. Bakura maintained eye contact with the bear as he pulled out his pocket knife. Upon seeing the sun reflect off the blade, the bear attacked. It roared and charged Bakura. Bakura jumped out of the path of the raging bear with finesse and raised his arm to drive the blade into its skull. However, it swiped a great paw into the air and knocked the knife from Bakura's hand, sending it flying far out of reach.

"…Oh, bugger."

The bear used its paw to smack Bakura to the ground before standing over him. Bakura stared up at the bear, panting, sweat pouring down his face. It leaned down and pushed its muzzle firmly into Bakura's chest. Bakura flinched, expecting the bear to start tearing into his flesh. However, the grizzly only made snorting noises as it nuzzled him. Bakura realized that the bear was smelling him. The bear raised its head and looked at Bakura questioningly, perhaps contemplating the identity of this creature with the same luxurious fur, burning eyes, and unpleasant smell of a skunk that the bear somehow knew wasn't a skunk. However, the bear seemed to stop caring about this possibility as it opened its gaping maw. Bakura squeezed his eyes shut and let out an uncharacteristic whimper.

"JUST DANCE, GONNA BE OK, DA-DOO-DOO-DOOM, JUST DANCE, SPIN THAT RECORD BABE!"

Bakura's jaw dropped as he heard a familiar screechy voice. He angled his head to look behind him. Marik was hopping on his good foot, spinning in circles, and waving his arms in the air a few feet away, singing one of his favorite songs at the top of his lungs.

"JUST DANCE, GONNA BE OK, D-D-D-DANCE, DANCE, DANCE, JUST, J-J-JUST DANCE!"

The bear stared at Marik, its body tense. Then, it glanced down at Bakura. Finally, the bear seemed to decide that eating a skunk probably wouldn't be very pleasant anyway, especially with a creature that screeched like a squirrel having a rabies-induced mental breakdown nearby. It climbed off of Bakura and trotted away from the pair.

Once the bear was out of sight, Marik stopped singing and collapsed, exhausted.

"Marik!" Bakura rushed to Marik's side. Marik waved him off and said in between pants, "I'm OK, Bakura. Are you alright?"

Bakura glanced down at himself. "Just a few bruises on my arms. I'm fine." Bakura smiled, grateful to be alive for once. "I never thought I'd be so glad to see you."

Marik smiled back. "I'm glad to see you too." Then, his expression became concerned. "Bakura, why did you run away from me?"

Bakura stiffened, then sighed under Marik's coaxing stare. "Listen, Marik, I know that you just want to be friends or something, but-"

"Whoever said anything about wanting to stay friends?"

Bakura's heart sank. He looked away, his fists trembling. "Alright, so maybe you'd rather I just left you alone."

"Guess again, Kitty."

Bakura looked up just in time for Marik to kiss the bridge of his nose, right between his eyes. Marik turned away quickly and gasped, as though he had been holding his breath.

"M-Marik?!" Bakura felt his face burn. He waited expectantly while Marik caught his breath. Then, Marik turned back to him, smiling brightly.

"Bakura, you didn't let me finish before. I'm not gay… but you might be my exception."*

"Are… Are you saying what I think you're saying, Marik?"

Marik nodded shyly. He looked into Bakura's eyes, beaming. "Uh-huh. I think you're cute, Fluffy."

Bakura's blush grew brighter. "And did it never occur to you to tell me until now?"

Marik looked down, twiddling his thumbs. "Well, no, I mean, it never occurred to me that you might like me too."

"My incessant flirting and innuendos weren't enough to convince you?"

Marik raised his hands defensively. "What, I thought you were just kidding! How was I supposed to know you were serious?"

Bakura smirked slightly. "Also, are you positive that your attraction towards another man couldn't possibly be the result of your sexual orientation, not just an 'exception'?"

"Yes, I'm sure! I mean, well, I…" Marik groaned and threw his head back dramatically. "Look, I swear that I've never been attracted to another man before! You're just… I don't know. I just like you… because you're you. I don't like you because you're male. I would like you if you told me that you were a girl."

Bakura managed to hide a goofy smile with a teasing smirk. "Don't worry, I would accept you if you were a girl too. I doubt that I would even notice the difference."

Marik rolled his eyes and folded his arms, sporting a smirk that could have rivaled Bakura's. "Well, that's certainly some big talk for someone who ran away crying when he thought his crush didn't like him."

Bakura looked taken aback by Marik's harsh comeback, but his expression quickly became devious. "I never cried, but it won't take me long to have you crying out." He smirked suggestively and began crawling towards Marik.

Marik's eyes widened. He smiled nervously. "Ah, Bakura, what are you doing?"

Bakura grinned wider as Marik scrambled to back away from him. "I just thought that my sweet little Marik would like some loving."

"Bakura, I'm not making out with you when you smell like that! You'll rub your skunk juice off on me."

"Why not?" Bakura said softly, his smile positively wicked. "Smelling like a skunk isn't that bad, Marik. Besides, you could take a bath with me once we get back to camp."

Marik squeaked as his back hit a tree. Bakura leaned over him with one arm on each side of Marik's head, still not quite touching him. Marik stared up at Bakura, trying his best to scowl, but obviously a little hesitant, since he definitely wasn't opposed to having fun with Bakura, if only his smell didn't make him want to vomit.

Bakura smirked smugly, knowing that he had Marik right where he wanted him. "Now, let's-"

"Hey, there they are!"

Bakura's eye twitched as he slowly turned to the source of the voice. Just as he had feared, Yugi was rushing towards them with Yami not far behind. Bakura growled in aggravation and dropped his head in defeat. Marik gave a sigh of relief and smiled as Bakura climbed off him.

"I knew we'd be the first to find them. We'd better let the rest of the class know," Yami said proudly, happy to advertise any success that he could.

When Yugi was about a yard away from them, he stopped short. He stuck out his tongue and pulled his shirt over his face. "I guess we know who's responsible for that funny smell that's been lingering ever since we set out this morning."

"I'm not responsible for that, you twat! It was that damn skunk."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Wow, we leave you two in the woods for one night and you come back covered in bruises, smelling like road kill, and trying to kill each other."

Marik tilted his head. "Trying to kill each other?"

"Well, yeah," Yugi added, his voice muffled, "Bakura had you pinned against a tree five seconds ago."

"Pinned against- Oh, right, of course. Yeah, we've been driving each other insane ever since we got lost. Thank goodness you saved me from this madman!"

Bakura swore that his eyes were going to fall out of his head if he rolled them any more today.

Yugi and Yami lead Bakura and Marik back to the path, which, conveniently, was only just out of sight of their previous location. While Yami and Yugi ventured out to find the others, who had been instructed to search close to the trail, Bakura and Marik followed the path back to the campsite. Ann didn't seem at all pleased when she saw the boys, but her annoyance quickly melted into relief as she said that they could talk about it later. Marie was sent to the cafeteria to fetch a few cans of tomato juice which they had on hand for what was apparently a common occurrence.

Currently, while the rest of the class was in the Arts and Crafts shack, Bakura sat in a small metal washtub just outside his cabin, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and covered in red juice. The washtub was so small that he had to pull his knees up to his chin to fit. His scowl resembled the grumpy expression of a wet cat. As if putting him on display wasn't embarrassing enough, Ryou had been selected by Marie to give his 'brother' a bath and treat any of his wounds.

Bakura probably would've noticed that Ryou's appearance was a bit comical if he wasn't so busy feeling bad for himself. Ryou's hair was tied back in a messy ponytail, and he wore a pair of swimming goggles (so his eyes wouldn't water), a clothespin over his nose, and an old pair of rubber gloves. Despite this seemingly unpleasant chore, an amused smile graced Ryou's features.

"Close your eyes, Kura."

Bakura obeyed, sighing as yet another cup of cold liquid was poured over his head. Ryou scrubbed his head a bit roughly with the gloves, making certain that none of the oily spray would remain.

Bakura kept his gaze off Ryou. "I know you're holding it in, Ryou. Go ahead, laugh."

Ryou scrubbed a little more gently. "Why would I laugh at you?"

"Why not? Everything else seems to working against me this week. Besides, I'm sure that you find the irony of our situation to be at least a bit amusing."

Ryou removed his hands from Bakura's head in favor of rubbing his back, seemingly taking pity on him in consideration of his emo mood. "I think that you've been through enough today, Kura," Ryou said in a patronizing, motherly way.

Bakura leaned forward, giving Ryou more access. "Thank you, yadonushi."

"Any time, Stinky."

Ryou's last statement was barely above a whisper, and he turned and ran across the grassy field the moment the words had left his mouth. Bakura sprang out of the washtub not a moment later, only to trip over the rim, flipping the tub as he landed flat on his face. The sound of Ryou's giggles pushed him to scramble to his feet and chase Ryou. Luckily, Marik and Melvin happened to arrive on the scene just in time Ryou to hide behind them.

Melvin glared at Bakura as he stomped up to them. "You'd better not be trying to hurt my little Ryou-kun, Bakura."

"Out of my way, Melvin. I need to kill my hikari."

Meanwhile, both Ryou and Marik were laughing hysterically. Ryou pulled off the clothespin so he could breathe. Between laughs, Ryou managed to say, "I blame Marik! He dared me to call you that."

Bakura's eyes narrowed as Marik tried to suppress his snickers. Bakura observed that Marik's wounds had been patched up courtesy of Melvin, although Melvin's handiwork was a little haphazard compared to Ryou's work on him. Bakura was ready to leave some fresh wounds on Marik, in more ways than one.

Marik smiled teasingly at Bakura. "Don't be so upset, Kitty. Say, Ryou, are you done bathing him yet?"

"You tell me," Ryou said, obviously wary of getting too close to Bakura. Marik approached Bakura, leaning forward and taking a whiff. He wrinkled his nose and stood straight.

"Still skunky?"

"No, now you just smell like an old pizza.** Go take a real shower, Bakura."

"Would you care to join me for said shower?"

Marik rolled his eyes, still grinning. "You'd better make that a cold shower, Fluffy."

*Author's Note: Sorry if Marik's line seemed cheesy and predictable. Some of you (randomgirl40) probably guessed that response. But, hey, what was I supposed to do? Make the bear eat Bakura? My laptop isn't exactly waterproof, so I can't afford to flood it with the tears I would shed from even typing such a thing. Besides, I'll bet you didn't guess that bears have a fear of off-key Lady Gaga covers. ;)

**I technically borrowed this joke from Martha Speaks, so, Disclaimer: I do not own Martha Speaks.