Chapter 5!

Ryou POV

I stared at myself in the mirror. This is a huge mess. How am I going to fix this…? I've upset Marik and Melvin is cold again… Bakura is really my only hope. And even then… Will he really help me? I doubt it. My hands tightened on the sink, my knuckles slowly starting to turn white. I didn't realise I was crying until a tear splashed down into the sink and rolled down the drain. I reached up and touched the wet trail trailing to chin where it dropped off.

Then there was a knock on the door.

I jumped about three feet. And may or may not have squealed a little. Shut up.

After I clamped my hands over my mouth I spread my fingers slightly and let out a high pitched and quavering, "Yes..?"

A deep voice answered with a, "It's me."

I was at the door opening it before he finished. When I saw the look on his face I immediately rethought it and slammed the door. Right on his foot. Fuck.

I stared at the bronzed foot wedged between the crown moulding and the door and winced as the toes curled in pain.

"Let me in Ryou." Melvin said, his voice strained.

"I'd really rather not, you know." I said with a gulp. Wow, I was certainly clever today.

"Then you leave me no choice." Thank god I recognised the tone in his voice and I let go of the door in time, hiding in the shower. Just as I stumbled into my porcelain sanctuary I heard the door splinter behind me and I hid.

After the chunks of wood clattered to the floor and I heard him step into the bathroom, my breathing echoed in my ears. I couldn't remember ever being this scared and I had no idea why. I liked Melvin! A lot! Why was he scaring me like this…? I'm strong! I can stand up and face him! I have no reason to be afraid. None at all! I leapt to my feet and jumped out of the tub, which would have been a tad more impressive if I hadn't of tripped and hovered above the floor. Had Melvin caught me?

I looked up hesitantly and as soon as our eyes connected he looked away and dropped me. I thankfully landed on the white fluffy bathmat. I loved that bathmat even more now that it wasn't only warm on my feet but saved my life as well. Although realistically it was only a drop of about three centimetres.

"Um… hey Melvin. I'm sorry about you're foot…" I said with a blush. "I really do apologise…"

He raised a blond eyebrow. "I'm fine. It's not like the door had enough force to hurt me anyway. It felt like you barely touched it. Oh sorry? What? That was all your strength?" He sniggered. "Oh weak little Ryou. How will you ever protect yourself?"

Most days, that would offend me. If it was anyone else, it would. But this was Melvin and the 'Ryou is a weak pussy' joke was a constant for him. It was almost a relief to hear him kidding with me again. Okay so it wasn't kidding, it was more like teasing? Oh fine! It was downright mean spirited but-

"Are you afraid Ryou?" He questioned, his eyes running over my face as he took in details like how wide my eyes were, how quickly I was breathing.

"I… no?" It came out as more of a question than the firm answer I had intended to give.

"Why aren't you?" His eyes flared, mouth moving into a fearsome sneer.

In that second, I was. More so than ever before. I just turned and ran, out of the bathroom, wrenching the door open with all of the strength in my tiny body. I raced away, panic making my moves jerky and unnatural. My adrenaline was pumping so hard I was shaking violently. This isn't right! I thought, trying to rationalize and force myself to stop running. This is Melvin… he wouldn't hurt me! Would he..?

My thoughts went back to that look in his eye when he asked why I wasn't scared. They were filled with such intense emotions. What were those emotions…? I saw flashes of images as I sprinted. His eyes, his lips, his surprisingly expressive eyebrows… Then I realized it, far too late. The emotion in his eyes was hope. He was hoping, trusting, that I had faith in him and that I trusted him back.

"I'm such an idiot!" I yelled, stopping in my tracks. I whirled around to run back to M, to tell him I was sorry, that I didn't mean it, that I had the biggest crush on him! I wanted to tell him everything in that instant. And I would have, if I hadn't run into a tall, tanned boy and fallen right on my rump. But this time I didn't squeak! Well, not loudly anyway. I hoped.

My head slowly lifted and looked straight into Marik's purple eyes. "Marik…" I stood hurriedly, trying to hide my embarrassment. "I wanted to talk to you, and apologize…"

Marik smiled and lead me to the kitchen. I sat on a stool as he got out a glass and wondered over to the sink, filling it up with cool water that churned and bubbled under the pressure of the faucet.

"I really am sorry about all of that Marik… I was… Out of line. I was really, really out of line." I looked down at my pale hands, wishing I could disappear.

Marik took a sip from his drink and set it down on the counter top. "I was too Ryou, and I feel bad too. But I haven't forgiven you yet. And I'm pretty damn sure I'm not forgiven for the bull shit I said about you and M… You changed him into a better person, I shouldn't be angry with you about that, I should be congratulating you."

I let out a soft laugh at that, "I'm really starting to doubt that…"

Marik sighed and took another drink. "I'm sorry if I made him relapse doctor…"

"If he relapsed it's of no fault of yours... Don't worry. Now here is my idea." I looked at him, making sure his eyes were on me as well, "We're all going on a picnic and mountain biking day trip."

Marik brightened instantly. His face lit up and excitement was already making him bounce from foot to foot, "Oh that's such a good idea Ryou! We need this so badly… A day trip for all of us! It's going to be more fun than… than… Eating an elephant tusk!"

I debated giving him a strange look, but I knew that wouldn't help matters, so I simply said, "I have to go talk to Melvin…"

Marik raised an eyebrow, "How are you going to do that?"

"What do you mean…?"

"I mean he just grabbed a knife and went out the back door with his 'free hugs' sign."

"Seriously?" I cried, desperate and slightly angry at the spiky haired devil. "Right… Well I guess it's my turn to get him… Do you know where the cattle prod went…?"

All done folks! Finally! And this was supposed to be one of the shorter chapters… *sigh* Oh well. Right, well I have some unhappy news for you folks reading my story. Im going to be away at camp for a whole month and there are NO ELECTRONICS ALLOWED. So I'm SOL un updating in July. Sorry. BUT! I plan on taking our free time to scrawl chapters out longhand or at least get a basic idea of what's going to happen specifically in each chapter.

Okay! Hope you guys liked the chapter! And review… please? I need some 'fare-thee-well's for this camping trip, I've never been away from my friends and girlfriend this long and Im going to miss everyone so much.