I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Chapter 6 is up hurrah! Updates probably won't be as fast now that school is gonna start but i'll try to keep to at least once a week. To anyone who read chapter 5 as soon as it came out, I edited it. Now the infirmary scene is longer and makes a bit more sense. When I was posting it I was going as fast as I could so I could get it up before bed... so yeah.

Chapter 6

Marik was still a little dazed as he exited the school's infirmary that afternoon. No, it was not because of one too many blows to the head during the fight he had been a part of that morning. After Bakura had, left Marik started to realize what exactly he had gotten himself into by accepting Bakura's offer.

This man was rumored to get in trouble with gangs on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. That's ridiculous! He told himself. Rumors can just be rumors. They don't need any truth behind them. He remembered then what Jonouchi and Honda had told him. He could now assume the part about pulling knifes out was true, he had seen it with his own eyes after all. I think he would have beat Ushio anyways though. He was winning. But he scared him off instead of finishing him. Why?

However, Marik had most definitely seen that look in Bakura's eyes while he was in a fight before, this was a much more toned down version though. A look that made it easy to believe that Bakura had also sent many people to the hospital before. It was the same look Marik had seen in his own brother's eyes the day he almost murdered their father.

But Jonouchi said something about him fighting to protect his brother, right? If that's true he can't be all bad. Plus, he helped me. He's got to have a heart deep down somewhere then… Why did he help me? He was able to feel a connection to the older boy in this way. His own twin brother did the unthinkable to protect him. He wasn't going to say Bakura was misunderstood or anything like that, but Marik could at least get where he was coming from.

For now Marik would head to the cafeteria for lunch. If he recalled correctly Jonouchi and Honda invited him to sit with them this lunch and Marik planned to take them up on it.

"Hey, 'Kura! Wait up!" A voice called out from behind him.

Bakura turned around to see a slightly smaller and more pleasant looking version of himself standing directly in front of him.

"I didn't see you in class this morning. Where were you? Did you skip?" Ryou questioned, standing on his toes and leaning in to meet his older brother's eyes.

"Do you really want to know?" He asked with a sly grin forming on his face. Ryou seemed to ponder this for a moment, analysing his brother before sighing and answering, "With you I guess it's best not to ask." Ryou knew his brother too well to continue his pointless questioning. Either Bakura would make up a completely ridiculous story to tell his concerned, innocent, little brother or he would tell him the horrifying truth. The sad part was that Ryou couldn't always tell the difference between the two.

"There's a good Ryou." He said teasingly. "But if you really want to know I will tell you."

"I doubt you'll tell me the truth… but let's hear it anyways."

Bakura plastered an absurdly fake smile on his face (Almost as an impression or mockery of his brother's kind smile). "I made a friend!" At the dumbstruck look on Ryou's adorable porcelain face, Bakura broke out into a maniacal fit of laughter. He knew that this is what his brother had always wanted of him. The younger of the two's body language as he crossed his arms and pouted seemed to say something along the lines of 'I knew you'd lie to me'. Little did he know that this time his twin wasn't technically lying to him.

"Whatever would make you think I was lying dear brother?" He questioned in English so that he could let his British accent shine through completely. This time his Ryou impersonation being spot on, signifying that he actually made an honest effort at it this time.

It was obvious Ryou still didn't believe him and it would probably going to take proof to get him to (Something Bakura wasn't going to bother himself with quite yet.). You can't blame Ryou, his brother wasn't one most people would put their faith in. And when the younger of the siblings ever tried to investigate further it was usually a failure. But who knew that this time it would be more like 'a boy who cried wolf situation'.

"Whatever 'Kura" Ryou shrugged brushing what he assumed was a joke from his twin to get a reaction out of him (Still was a joke to Bakura even though it was true.). "Now I'm just going to make sure that you don't skip our next class." With that he proceeded to grab hold of his brothers' arm and pull him back in the direction he had originally came from (1).

It didn't take Marik all that long to find Jonouchi and Honda's table once he entered the cafeteria. When he arrived, his eyes were immediately drawn to a mass of multi-coloured hair in the shape of a star sitting to the right of the door. Marik found his friends (Even now weird for him to say) sitting there next to the small boy who was the owner of said hair. When they noticed him standing still, looking around nervously in the doorway they waved him over to their table. This is what friends do I guess. He wondered. I have more than one all of a sudden. What is it three or four? If Bakura can be counted. So I guess Jonouchi, Honda, Bakura (I guess), and if family counts then I have Melvin, Rishid and Ishizu.

"Hey Marik, what's up man?" Jonouchi said when Marik walked over to join them.

"Not too much, I guess." Obviously a lot had happened since Marik had last spoken to him but nothing he felt comfortable sharing with them. There would be too many difficult questions to answer if he told them about either.

Honda then joined in. "I heard you were in the infirmary, what happened?"

"Nothing really, it was nothing! I fine." Marik responded trying to get off that subject.

"Who was it? Come on, we'll make 'em pay!" Jonouchi added enthusiastically.

"It's okay, I'm pretty sure they're already sorry for it." The last part was quieter that the first to show that he didn't want to go into detail about it. Jonouchi had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with The Thief King.

"Fine then, but if anyone's bugging you, you tell Jou-!" Honda interrupted him with a smack to the head accompanied with: "Yeah right! What could this knuckle head do?" They continued their banter with each other for a while Marik decided to acquaint himself with the other boy at the table.

"Hi, um, I'm Marik Ishtar." He managed to get out.

"My name is Yugi Mutou! It's nice to meet you Marik!" Yugi said brightly, holding out his hand to shake Marik's.

The Egyptian awkwardly shook his hand and offered an equally as awkward smile in return.

"You're new here, right? Have you been adjusting to Domino well? Where are you originally from?"

Marik couldn't take all of those questions at once. Jonouchi and Honda had never asked him questions like this yesterday. He decided to start from the bottom. "I'm from Egypt." Marik struggled to remember what Yugi had asked him. "I guess I'm adjusting well, I've made a couple of friends."

"That's good." Yugi smiled at him once again. God! What's up with this kid? Is that smile permanently on his face or what? He's too nice!

They continued talking like this for a while after Jonouchi and Honda finally decided to join them. They ate lunch together and went their separate ways once the bell rang. Marik assumed that Bakura didn't have this lunch because his messy snow white hair and trademarked smirk were nowhere to be seen. He wasn't disappointed for he knew he would be seeing enough of Bakura as the, what was it again… Apprentice of the Thief King.

Because of Ryou, Bakura suffered through Math class. The thief found it boring to say the least. He really didn't see the point in getting a proper and full education when he was already well enough educated and street smart. Ryou always insisted that A. Bakura wouldn't be a thief his entire life and B. Bakura was extremely smart when he made an effort. He didn't very much care for what he called his little brother's bullshit.

The whitette was now heading with his twin to the cafeteria for his lunch period. His normal routine was to grab his lunch, ditch Ryou so he wouldn't feel guilty when his friends would act awkward around Bakura (as he scared most people) and wreak havoc on unsuspecting teachers.

As he wandered through the halls he, out of the corner of hi eye, saw a familiar head of platinum blonde hair being confronted by several of the boys' classmates. Bakura's loud, confident footsteps resounding through empty hallway both of the boys tormenting poor Marik turned around to see him. One icy glare from him and they ran away with their tails between their legs.

"Can't you do anything for yourself, kid?" The Brit said.

"I was about to…" Marik pouted and muttered under his breath.

As soon as Bakura noticed how undeniably cute that looked he tried to shake both image and thought out of his mind.

"Whatever, I'll go now." The older boy said.

"Hold on!" Marik called after him as he took his first step away.

"What?" Bakura asked irritably.

"You're nicer than I thought you'd be, Bakura." This earned him a whack on the head.

"Believe me starting tomorrow you won't think that anymore." Once again he walked away, uninterrupted this time. He didn't offer even a wave of his hand as a goodbye.

(1) Here's hoping it's obvious Bakura was going to skip class!

The next chapter will probably be up Sunday just in time for Ryou's Birthday!

Please review so I can get it up in time!

-Witch 12