YAY CHAPTERRRRRRR~!

Nothing to really say. Just read and enjoy and stuff!

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series, the song "Remember When (Push Rewind)", or any of the characters/trademarks in those.

R&R

ENJOY~!

They stood there quietly, finally remembering their audience. A moment later, that audience (the conscious part of it, at least) started applauding and cheering, not having seen such an awesome performance in that place in like a long time.

Marik and Bakura exchanged glances and smiled automatically.

What few fangirls they had (like 2) in this particular place threw a single rose at the guy they idolized. Bakura winked at his and she fainted. Perfect for when he planned to erase her memory later.

Marik just smiled and waved at his adoring new fans. He would be sure to sort out the Steves later. For now, he had a fangirl in this place that would do his bidding regardless of her name.

They turned to each other again and their smiles faded. They put the microphones back on their stands. In emotionless tones, they spoke to each other.

"Marik."

"Bakura."

"Nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too."

"How's the council fairing without me?"

"Fine. Just fine. They miss you, but it's fine. How is Dartz's council?"

"Fine as well. Stupid crazy motorcycle accident almost killed Alister and Valon, but everything is going fine. By the way, they're pizza people, not taco people."

"Those frig-tards!"

"I know, right?"

They stood there silently, with both of them trying to keep their emotions in check. Somehow.

Bakura, surprisingly, faltered first. "Nice singing," he said to Marik. "Perfect parody as always."

"Erm... Thanks. You too, I gues—"

"Marik!"

"What?!"

"Did you um... Did you by any chance..." Am I really going to do this? "...mean any of the lyrics?"

Marik's eyes widened and he blushed slightly. Then he averted his gaze. "I um...I..." Marik sighed and met Bakura's gaze with slightly saddened eyes. No point in hiding it when he already knows the answer. It's so obvious... "Yes, Bakura. I meant every single word and I totally miss you. There I said it. But you probably already knew that. I don't care what you say, that's how I feel."

Bakura looked at Marik with a tiny hint of sadness in his eyes. "Marik... I'm—"

"But don't worry. I don't expect you to have meant your lyrics. After all, you are the one who left. Nice to know you're doing fine without me."

Bakura's eyes widened. Did Marik seriously believe that he was making up his half of the lyrics? Seriously?! "But I said—"

As he spoke, Marik's face lost that sad look and it was replaced with hurt and anger. "I know you. You're just as good as I am at making up lyrics. And despite what you tell the rest of the world you're actually a great singer. Congratulations. But I know that you didn't mean a word you said. You would never say something like that in public if you meant it. So have fun with your new council, tell Dartz that I still hate him, and have fun eating pizza when you could have had as many free tacos as you wanted! And we are actually getting tacos; it's no longer just a lie to get people to join. Good bye, Florence."

Bakura's eyes widened and his mouth opened. Marik turned away and walked off the stage. "Marik wait I—"

But the Egyptian was already out of earshot.

~•~

Marik looked back and saw Bakura looking for him. Well too bad.

Marik stealthily pretended to leave the bar, but actually went to some empty corner table. He put his head down and put his hood over his head, hoping that no one would confront him.

Here he was, missing Bakura and singing his feelings out about how he felt about Bakura's leaving the council.

He sighed and thought, And then the cause of my problems has to come in and ruin a perfectly good parody by making up lyrics and pretending to also feel bad. I saw how he acted when he left. He didn't look like he was doing what he had to do, but regretted it. He looked relieved. He just loves messing with me, doesn't he? That's exactly why it's good that he's gone and I should just get over it.

Having admitted that to himself, that he should get over his former partner(-in-crime), Marik did something automatic and involuntary that he always did when he didn't want to deal with certain negative emotions. He shoved them off to a dark part of his mind, separate from his own personal darkness and evil. All of the emotions he didn't want to feel: regret mostly, but also sadness and longing, left him and went somewhere else.

Or rather...went to someone else...

With those bothersome thoughts out of the way, Marik was able to focus on other things. Like those Steves.

Marik raised the Millenium Rod and activated it. Those two Steves were again brought to his attention. The waitress was now somewhere near him and the guy on his girlfriend's lap was no longer passed out but still on her lap. Marik briefly made contact with them and told them to meet him here tomorrow, so he could properly initiate them into the Rare hunters. Then he dropped contact with them.

He was far too exhausted to bother with them anymore.

So instead of messing with them further, Marik simply got up and snuck out of the bar, before anything could worsen his already-ruined mood.

~Meanwhile, back onstage...~

Bakura watched Marik walk offstage and sighed. His heart sank. He had just confessed his feelings to Marik and said that he regretted leaving. But Marik didn't believe him.

Then he remembered that he'd had an audience. He frowned at them and blushed. He didn't like the fact that total strangers had just witnessed a small part of his (probably non-existent) love life. Not to mention that there was a chance that he might be recognized for whatever reason. He suddenly became very paranoid of these people and what they had just seen.

Without thinking it through, he reached for the Millenium Ring. He was about to activate its memory-erasing abilities, but something stopped him. Something in that room, or maybe someone?, didn't want him to do it. And possibly that same thing or person was someone he didn't want to erase the memory of. He couldn't do it.

Then, of their own accord, his legs started carrying him off of the stage before he could push away the voice of reason telling him not to resort to using Shadow Magic. He panicked a bit, but let his legs move him back to his seat.

When he was seated, he freaked out internally. What just happened?! What stopped me? What moved me? I swear when I find it who I'm going to hurt him. He was fairly certain that it was a he (or was it? lolz).

"Hey, Bakura."

Bakura turned his attention to the person who had walked up to him. "What do you want?" Bakura automatically asked the stranger, who had probably gotten his name from the lyrics. He kept talking, using his most evil and intimidating voice. "I suggest you watch what you say to me, mortal. Do not give me a reason to add you to my ever-growing list of victims who have been forced to spend all of eternity suffering and fading away in total darkness and pain."

"Yeah yeah that's nice and all." The guy slid into the seat next to him. Bakura examined him. In terms of hair color, eye shape, and skin color, he looked like Marik. But other than those things, there was no resemblance. The guy had short almost shoulder-length hair tied into a side ponytail and hiding his ears, dark eyes, and wore a simple tight black tank top and black jeans the same color. He was even more built than Marik. In fact, one could say that this guy was sexier than Marik. If that's even possible, Bakura thought with a mental laugh. But he didn't care. "So, I liked your performance back there with that other guy. Seems sad."

"Shut up," Bakura muttered.

"You should totally apologize to your girlfriend. Seems like he misses you and stuff."

"Shut up," Bakura repeated, a bit louder this time.

"Hey, I'm just saying. If you don't hook back up, at least request a spot reserved for you onstage sometime this week. You two sound great together. You can totally produce evil music. Pretty powerful stuff."

Just like what Dartz always said.

"Shut up. I don't care. Bugger off. And shut up." Bakura put his head down on the table and hoped the other guy would go away.

"What? It's so obvious that you wan—"

"Nope. You're mistaken. I don't care anymore."

Both he and Marik were the type to hold grudges. That was made obvious by their obvious hatred for the same person. True, Marik's hatred hadn't lasted as long as Bakura's had, but that was only because he hadn't been alive as long. But he could still hold a grudge just as good as Bakura could. So if he doesn't want me back, then I won't ask to be taken back. Simple. He thinks I've moved on, so I might as well do just that. From now on, I don't care.

"So piss off before I hurt you."

The guy frowned, then walked away. Bakura didn't watch him go.

He slammed his head down against the table and groaned loudly.

He heard music start up again. His heart skipped a beat, and he shot up out of his seat in a panic. Someone was on stage!

But it was some random stranger, not Marik. Perhaps the performance he and Marik put on had encouraged others to perform?

He didn't care.

He sat back down. He picked up a nearby glass and took a sip of whatever the hell was in it.

"Hey pal," the guy next to him said, in Egyptian. "That's mine."

Bakura gave him the evilest death glare he could manage. "I don't care."

The guy paled a bit and backed off. "Right...it's yours now. You need it after that epic performance..."

Bakura frowned and looked away from him, down at his newly acquired drink. He took another sip.

He heard footsteps approaching him from behind. He turned his head to the side slightly so he could look behind him out of the corner of his eye.

He didn't even register the person's appearance or give himself time to care about trying to care. He didn't want to interact with any mortals right now.

Bakura pushed himself and his chair away from the table a foot or two and stuck out his foot, in the path of the approaching person. The person walked closer still, totally ignoring Bakura.

Then, he tripped over Bakura's leg...

...falling face-first into the mess of broken glass that had once contained Bakura's previous drink.

The moment Bakura drew his leg back and pulled himself close to the table again, so as not to draw suspicion, the guy had started screaming in pain. When he pushed himself off the floor and picked his head up, Bakura could clearly see glass shards lodged into his skin.

Instant mood improvement, Bakura thought with a snicker.

Bakura then immediately silently stood up and stealthily snuck his way to the back entrance of the bar, without being spotted by a single person, then swiftly slipped out of the bar before something could ruin what little improvement had been done to his mood.

He would never come back there ever again.

Oh NOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS~!

Don't worry. Whether they want to or not, they'll go back. Trust me.

But don't worry about that for now. For now, let's worry about the next chapter. Which takes place in each thieves' respective hotel rooms!

And guess what! It's one of the chapters I haven't written yet!

See you next chapter!

BYEEEEEEEEEE~!