A light pressure was felt on his neck, then his cheek. He woke up to Tarot literally walking over his face. She looked at him curiously, her nose inches away from his own. Bakura groaned before pushing the puppy away. Why must Ryou punish him so?

He rolled over in bed, face planted firmly in his pillow and away from the offending dog. He could feel her paws digging into his side as she tried to walk over him. It did wonders to his conviction of never having any pets, or children for that matter.

A loud knock was heard. Fucking, Marik.

He chose to ignore the incessant knocking. It didn't take very long for the phone calls to start either. He finally answered on the twenty-eighth ring.

"I know you're in there," the gravely voice came through like a harsh whisper. At least, Marik had some decency not to alarm his neighbours.

"Good morning, Marik," he tried to convey the mask of civility. He wondered why he even bothered though. Lately, nothing felt compelling enough to keep up his charades. They were all just empty conversations, forced upon him by societal expectations when he felt like he was on a different plane entirely.

"Please, let me in."

"Oh, this is new. I've never heard you ask for something politely before." Tarot's whining was added to the noises currently annoying his senses. She didn't like being ignored in the morning it seemed.

Marik ignored the jab. "Is the puppy still there?"

"Yes," he replied through gritted teeth.

"Can I come in to see the cute puppy?" Marik attempted a different angle.

"You're so transparent. Do you really think that line would work on me despite all you've done?"

"No, but can I come in to see the cute paralegal with a melanin problem?"

Whatever scathing words he planned on telling Marik died in his throat and he abruptly hung up, flustered. Melanin problem? Was that an insult?

He shoved a pillow over his head and proceeded to ignore any calls, knocks, or other odd sounds that came his way. At one point, Tarot managed to hop off the bed by herself, letting him fall into a false sense of security. Maybe, he could get some sleep now. Just him and his noise muffling pillow. Perfect.

He was foolish to imagine such expectations, though, as someone got in bed with him, arms instantly circling his waist. Bakura let out a strangled yell as he shoved the pillow against Marik's face. He could suffocate him instead. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

"Breaking and entering?" the blond innocently replied.

"How?" he demanded. Seeing that smirking, attractive, but spiteful face inches from his own was unnerving.

Marik rolled his eyes and tightened his grip. "How do you think I stole my medical files? You should really get better locks. That was far too easy," the Egyptian spoke casually as if there was nothing wrong with any of his actions.

The behaviour made Bakura uneasy and he was starting to feel nauseous. For the first time since this entire disaster began, he realised the gravity of his situation; Marik was insane. "Marik…I don't want to see you anymore. Didn't I make that clear?" This was his flat. He had control over the situation. He could kick him out. Why did he get himself into this situation?

"Didn't I make the opposite clear?" the student countered smugly.

"That's not how it works!" Bakura untangled himself from Marik's hold.

The blond ignored his words, and any sense of logic for that matter. "You know, I've been thinking lately, you're actually really submissive. I mean, you'll put up a fight, but I think I'll end up being the one fucking you."

"Wow. You're so seductive, Marik. How could I refuse such an offer," he deadpanned, slowly shuffling away in his own bed. He wished Tarot was here instead, or even Ryou.

"You can't. That's why I'm here."

He frowned at how oblivious the student was. Did he really think this was okay? "No, you're here because you're deranged and broke in."

"Same difference." Marik shrugged. Despite the blond's nonchalance, Bakura trusted nothing serious would come of this. As long as Marik remained this Marik.

"No, there is a clear difference, Ishtar," he calmly replied in his attempt to remain impersonal.

The blond pouted. "But I missed you."

He sounded too sincere for Bakura's liking. The paralegal closed his eyes and tried his best to clear his mind. "You should break up with Ava," he said.

"Then you'll be with me?" the blond asked not sounding particularly hopeful.

"No, because she doesn't deserve any of this." And neither do I. "Why are you doing this to me, Marik?"

"Doing what?" Despite his criminal entrance, the student looked utterly harmless in this moment.

"Come on, you know what you're doing," he prodded.

The blond shook his head, and Bakura couldn't tell if he was lying or simply that dense. He made the decision to suck it up and talk again. Marik's heard more about his internal workings than he'd ever want to share with one person. "I had a life. It wasn't amazing, but it was stable. I did my thing. I had my minimal interactions. I was left alone. Things were okay. I was okay. Now, I'm a mess. I can't stop thinking about you, about everyone, about fucking Amane. I'm always questioning everything that's happening now. I can barely feel anymore. I thought I was passed this…"

"Bakura…" the blond interrupted him in a soothing tone. He barely registered the hand reaching out to touch his cheek.

"No, you don't understand. I liked you, but I can't trust you."

"Liked? So you don't anymore?" the blond hesitantly asked, quickly retracting his hand.

"How can I? You don't even have the decency to not use me as your-" he frowned at this point, choosing the offending word, "-affair. You bring me out to the museum, buy me coffee, and then spring the date with Ava on me. We were having a nice time until then! And you had planned the date just because I wasn't free one day? What the fuck?"

The student actually looked crestfallen. "No…that's not why I made that date…"

"You actually had a better reason for it?" Bakura narrowed his eyes at the student, not believing there would be any improvement in the blond's rationality.

Marik appeared panicked for a second before deflating. "I was talking to my sister…and…she said it was a bad idea," the Egyptian admitted. "She encouraged me not to get attached, especially not to a certain lifestyle that I'll never have back in Egypt. So, I took things lightly and decided not to get involved. Try things out. I'm not good at relationships to begin with either."

"Are you telling me you told your sister you had some stupid crush on me, and she told you not to get a boyfriend?" It almost sounded ridiculous to his ears. He swore he could see a pink tint creeping on Marik's cheeks. The family already disapproves of me.

Marik quickly recovered though. "I never said I wanted you to be my boyfriend."

The paralegal sighed. "And so we return to square one."

"I thought you didn't want anything serious either?" the blond argued.

"No, but I wanted you only seeing me!"

The student paused before asking, "Even if we weren't together?"

It was Bakura's turn to become sheepish, casting his eyes down to the sheets. "Well…how else could we reach that point…"

Marik gave no response and looked lost. As if on special cue, Tarot pattered into the room and let out a demanding bark.

"Can you pick her up? She wants in the bed," Bakura told the blond who was blocking his way.

The Egyptian bent over, dark shirt riding up to reveal the beginnings of scarification, and let the puppy down gently. Tarot provided a sufficient distraction as Marik silently observed her, and gave her a few pets, until she became bored and settled into Bakura's lap.

"You're her favourite person now," the student said almost dejectedly.

"I am most definitely not," he dismissed with a tired laugh.

"She's looking up at you." The blond nudged his elbow.

A quick glanced proved that brown eyes were indeed staring at him with unknown intent. "Don't make me want to keep her. It's not going to happen."

"Well, you won't keep me anymore," Marik mumbled.

"Piss off," he replied with a light slap to student's arm.

Realising his misguided guilt-trip wasn't going to work, the blond took a different route. "Bakura?"

"Hmm?" He gave Tarot a scratch behind her ear, but she reacted by trying to bite him. Definitely her favourite person.

"Who's Amane?"

Those seemingly innocent words tumbled out of the Egyptian's mouth like an ice cold shower, freezing him to the core. Or, like the frigid waters in July. Automatically, his hand reached up to clutch that jagged scar marking his left shoulder. "She's my sister. Was my sister." He couldn't recognise his own voice as he spoke. Robotic. Automatic. Dead.

"Oh…I'm sorry. It's just that you mentioned her earlier. She sounded important-"

Bakura cut off the nervous rambling, much calmer than he thought he would be, "No, it's fine. I should talk about it eventually." He noticed Tarot was gnawing on his index. He gave her nose a small flick to make her stop. She quickly retreated with an undignified sneezed, and appeared to be insulted by his insolence.

Marik was fidgeting, still in his bed. "Is eventually now?"

"I think you should go."

Marik had an irritating ability to not be deterred by social grace. "She's dead, isn't she?" he replied bluntly.

He was about to reply when Tarot pounced against his chest, his words catching in his throat from a weak cough. Quickly, he trapped her in an embrace, wet nose painting his collarbone and all. "Yes," he finally answered, ignoring the squirming puppy. He wondered if Ryou had this much trouble.

"What happened?" Marik tried his best to maintain a serious conversation, even with a dog searching for attention.

Bakura contemplated on a sort of deal where he would reveal his scarring and Marik his own. A paw almost hit his chin though, and he found the situation complicated enough as it is. "You know I grew up in a seaside town, right?" he began his slow decent into his own personal hell with such a quaint phrase.

The blond nodded.

"When mu-…mother died, I was seven, going on eight. Amane was three years younger than me. She was so young. Ryou is two years younger than me. You get the idea; I was the closest they had to a parent, really. Father was absent and no one liked the sitters." Tarot got a hold of his shirt between her teeth and tugged at the material.

Marik remained patiently quiet.

He continued his tale. "I don't care what Ryou says, I was Amane's favourite brother and we both know it. I was the braver one anyway. If there was thunder, Amane would sneak into my room at night. If someone pushed her, I punched them. I felt incredibly responsible. I was trying to replace mum, and I didn't even know it."

Low growls could be heard from Tarot's imaginary war with the shirt. She'd given up on escape temporarily.

"It created a sort of mild tension that father never noticed. Ryou was jealous at times, but I packed his lunch, too…anyway, I'm rambling now," he stopped himself from diverting too much from the actual story. A quick glance revealed the student looking at him fondly. He decided to ignore that as well.

"For about two years, it was just the three of us and an unfortunate older woman charged with tolerating us. Like most kids, we spent a lot of time at the beach, and I spent a lot of that time doing things I wasn't supposed to. There was a little cave by the cliff side, but you had to swim to reach it. Of course, I showed my siblings. It was mid-July and Ryou stayed home that day. A lot of my friends were on holiday and Amane really wanted to go to the beach. The sitter at the time was old and boring. She was napping. She never minded when we went out anyway, as long as I was there. She put a little more faith in me than my father, but I digress." He could feel that day. The way the air felt hot and suffocating, the humidity threatening to envelop them until they could no longer breathe. The elements felt too still, heavy, electric almost. Marik felt too hot, their shoulders almost brushing.

"She really wanted to see the cave that day. We'd been there hundreds of times, so it wasn't special. I didn't pay attention to the odd haze or the way the air cooled down. It was the signs of an oncoming storm. I tried to reach her, but the waves bashed me against the cliff wall, and she was pulled under. That's how I got my scar. I kind of wish I'd died that day. I almost did. I rightfully should have. Ryou didn't talk to me until the new year. Having to tell people what happened was the hardest."

His arms slackened enough for Tarot to break free. She'd lost interest and left the room again.

"You're so tragic," Marik whispered, closer than he had been, encasing him in comfort and betrayal.

"It doesn't matter to you," he murmured.

Lips found his temple. "You matter."

"Then who are you with?" He would have scoffed if he didn't feel so drained.

"Anytime you want me…" Fingertips ran smoothly across his skin.

He narrowed his eyes. "I like it better when you're angry. You don't lie to me then."

Marik immediately stopped his movements.

"It kills me every time you insert yourself into my life and give me expectations, but you're never really there."

"I…I don't think I can ever be all there," the student meekly responded.

He'd never felt so alone in the world. "Then leave."