Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ A Different Kind of You ❯ And Again ( Chapter 13 )

Malik woke up around noontime that same day. He put some warm clothes on and headed for Marik's office. He was disappointed, however, when he heard his lover speaking to what sounded to be a customer through the door. He turned on his heel and walked down the hallway for Ryou's room instead.

About to know the door, he paused when he heard his white-haired friend telling Bakura to take his pills. He turned away yet again, knowing that it wouldn't be a good time for two reasons. Firstly, because Ryou had a hard enough time getting his lover to take his pills when Bakura felt like being difficult without other people there and, two, Malik knew that after Bakura had calmed down is when he and Ryou had their own time together.

He was going to see if Joey and Seto were doing anything, but quickly decided against it after remembering having barged in on them earlier. After all, he wouldn't like to do that twice in one day, especially since he hated interrupting people in the first place.

Finally, he decided to just go outside and walk around for a while rather than waiting for his friends and lover to be free again. Sighing, he stepped outside, shivering slightly against the cold, before walking down the sidewalk with his hands shoved in his pockets dejectedly.

`Sometimes people don't understand how hard it really is for me,' Malik thought sadly, watching a couple go by, huddling close together to keep warm. He looked away hurriedly and continued down the street. `I really am happy with Marik, but sometimes it's so hard to be with him because he's always really busy and when he isn't he's too busy worrying over something even though he tries not to show it. I've already given him a scare earlier when I started freaking out.'

Seeing the park not too far away, Malik decided to hang out there for a while. Upon entering the park he saw the most surprising person to see right then heading in the general direction of the whorehouse. He was moving toward him before he knew it, his breath coming out in short pants and appearing in small puffs in the frigid air.

"Duke," he called after the person. When the person didn't turn Malik called again and was rewarded when the inventory of Dungeon Dice Monsters turned curiously to stare at his approaching form. Before Duke got a chance to say anything though Malik grabbed the shoulders of his jacket ordered in the most forceful way he could, "Tell me what happened between you and Yugi!"

The emerald-eyed creator stared in utter shock at Malik, his eyes wide and his mouth agape at first before he started opening it and closing it like a fish out of water. His eyes than hardened, piercing daggers at the Egyptian for restraining him like common trash; a criminal just released to the streets. "Don't think about telling me what to do, Ishtar. You have no right," Duke challenged back, his tone just as harsh as Malik's had been.

"I've got every right to order you around, Devlin," Malik told him back, "You did or said something to Yugi and I want to know what. You're the only one who could've made him as hurt as he was so I know something must've happened between you."

Duke rolled his eyes, dull with maliciousness and hate as he stared at his captor. Malik glared back with just as much valise and repulsion. Neither man made a move, choosing to stare down the other until one backed down. Finally, green wavered and lowered to amethyst, softening to fill with worry and fear; the emotions confusing Malik slightly.

At last Duke scuffed his shoe on the dirt and refused to look at the Egyptian. "Fine," he grudgingly said, his eyes narrowing in anger, directed more at himself than anything, "I'll tell you what happened, but not because you told me to. It's because you're Yugi's friend and I know you want to find him." From there the one-sided conversation went. Duke admitted everything to Malik about the phone call and the note he'd found later on to the messages he'd called. "I needed to speak with Yugi, but I couldn't come here because I was too worried about him being mad at me," He ended. "I felt horrible after Yugi left. I think I drove everyone in the mansion that saw me crazy because I kept hovering over the phone and then walking away from it before hurrying back over to it. Finally, one of my servants just shoved the thing in my hands and told me to call."

Malik stared at Duke in surprise, not expecting him to be so emotional over a mistake that seemed to be so small for the game designer. Suspicion roused within him and he just had to ask, "Duke, do…do you - you don't feel anything towards him, do you?"

The game creator quickly away from Malik, looking everywhere but at the one person he was being forced to face. Tears dropped from his eyes and seemed to freeze as they dropped to the chilly ground causing Duke to refrain from wiping them away because they reminded him of how fragile Yugi was, or had been, and how he could be breaking just like a crystal figure from how Duke had treated him. "I don't want to break anymore," Duke muttered to himself, momentarily forgetting Malik was tensely standing in front of him with an impatient look on his face as he waited for an answer to his question.

"What was that," Malik asked him, somewhat annoyed, "I couldn't quite hear that."

Duke finally forced himself up into the identical eyes of the one he'd hurt so much already. "I do," he admitted at last, "I do have feelings towards Yugi. I hadn't realized it until I got the note though. I'd always been fascinated by him and always wanted to be around him because he made me feel good about myself," Duke was sobbing now and could barely hold himself up so he just let himself collapse on the ground as he continued ranting of as he pounded the hard pavement with a fist, not caring at the stinging bite it left after each hit. "I didn't know what I was doing, but I thought I had loved Serenity so I was going to tell Yugi in the morning that I wasn't going to be able to be his customer anymore."

"So you sized him up to think it was some treat to be there," Malik shouted accusingly, fires burning within his raging amethyst eyes.

"No," Duke shouted, looking at Malik before shame overtook him once more and he continued to sob, but no longer hitting the ground. "No, that's not what I wanted at all! I wanted to be close to him, I guess, but not be at the same time! I didn't even realize his feelings towards me until I even read the note and he confessed to being in love with me!"

Malik wasn't sure what it was that set him off and his mind to begin wandering. The train station was the only thing in mind and his best friend somewhere, living with his horrible family. `Who knows what could be happening to him,' he thought, tears coming to his own eyes at the horrible images playing before his eyes only. `No! I won't let that happen! I will see him again!' "Train station," was the last thing he said aloud before, he turned on his heel and ran for all he was worth, leaving the crying puddle of a game creator to his shivering fit of sadness.

~~

Marik saw Malik run from the park at high speed and was about to chase after him when he saw the initial cause of Yugi's pain huddled in the middle of the walkway. `What the…' He hurried over to Duke and knelt in front of him. "Mr. Devlin, what happened? Where's Malik going?"

"I don't know," Duke shook violently, wiping his eyes so forcefully Marik believed he was trying to rub off his very skin. When it actually started turning a harsh red, even in the dimness of the lighting beneath the shade of trees, is when he grabbed Duke's hands and held them away at a safe distance.

"You'll hurt yourself if you continuing doing that. I know that if I were Yugi right now I'd be terribly upset, but I wouldn't want you to be hurt either no matter how much you hurt me. Yugi's too good of a soul for something like that. Now, please, Duke, tell me where Malik went."

"I think he said something about the train station just before he ran off," Duke told him after a minute, his voice still cracking, but not in complete hysterics.

The owner of the whorehouse and lover to Malik Ishtar froze, releasing the game creator's hands unconsciously and his eyes widened considerably. "Malik," he stood and took off on the path Malik had taken, calling his lover's name loudly.

~~

At the station Malik was begging with the ticket booth person to remember any kind of person with Yugi's description. "Please, sir, you've just got to recognize him. There aren't many people out there that look like him. Spiked up hair with three different colors in it, violet eyes, kind of short; do you remember anybody like that?"

The man in the ticket booth scratched his gray beard and then covered his wrinkled forehead in deep thought. "Let me see," he rasped out, his voice shaky with age, "I know I was here all of last week so I had to have seen the lad." He scratched his thinning hair and suddenly his eyes widened, "Yes, I remember the boy. He seemed really depressed and didn't really have anything with him."

"Please, do you know where he went," Malik asked desperately, his heart racing and beating uncontrollably against his chest at the thought of finding Yugi and bringing him home.

"I believe it was Sin…Sin…er, it was Sin-something Park," the man scratched his balding head once more and closed his eyes in concentration.

Malik's eyes scanned the ticket board behind the man and his eyes widened at the only city with `park' in its name. "Sinisterous Park; tell me, was it Sinisterous Park?"

"Yes, I believe that was it," he paused, "Yes, I remember now. It was Sinisterous Park that he went to. Mighty worried I was about him, I was. That place has become pretty dangerous and scarce of people living there nowa," he was interrupted when a few bills were shoved into the ticket booth and he looked up confusedly at Malik's determined place.

"I'll take a round trip one plus an extra ticket back here from there," the teen told him, his hands wavering slightly at his sides where they were clenched tightly.

"Are you…"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure. I've got to go find him," Malik intervened once again, before the man could start going off about how dangerous the place at become. He didn't have to be told to know that place was scary for anybody, even when they had already lived there. He took his tickets when they were cautiously handed to him, as if the man was trying to wait out to see if Malik would change his mind. "Thank you kindly, sir," he nodded politely, placed the tickets in his pocket and hurried to the steaming train. The whistle was already calling people aboard and Malik was going to get there as soon as possible. The faster he got to the hellhole Yugi had fled to the sooner he could save him from his parents and, possibly, a murder. Who knew what people in that horrid town would do for a few extra bills in their pocket?

However, just before Malik was going to step on the train somebody grabbed his wrist and pulled him back against a strong chest and familiar somewhat muscular arms tensed around him. Malik was surprised at first, but calmed down when he realized who was placing butterfly kisses gently on his neck. "Marik," he whispered shakily, tears coming to his eyes at the realization of what he was doing hit him.

"What do you think you're trying to do? Just leaving like that, I would've worried myself sick when I found out you left somewhere," Marik whispered into his ear, his arms tensely more firmly around him.

Malik swallowed around the ball in his throat and said in a determined, yet wavering voice, "I'm doing what feels right, Marik, and what feels right right now is that I have to find Yugi. I know I have to go get Yugi now when I've been given the chance of knowing where he went." He shifted slightly in Marik's embrace and placed a small kiss on his lover's cheek before pulling away and heading into the train.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye," Marik called after him, tears welling up in his eyes.

His lover appeared in the window with a sad, watery smile and shook his head. "I'm not going to say goodbye because that would mean I'll be gone for an extended period of time and if I do that than I'd miss you too much," he explained. He shook his head and looked down, the whistle blowing once more. "No," he said, "I'll be coming back and I will have Yugi with me. So don't cry or be sad, because your life is also mine and what you feel I do too. So wish me hope and I'll be back." The train began to move and Malik smiled one last time at his lover before he disappeared around the corner.

~~

It was hours before the train finally stopped and the conductor called out, "Next stop! Sinisterous Park!"

Malik rose from the seat and hurried to the door. It didn't take much to notice that everyone was staring at him and nobody else was getting up. He inwardly laughed nervously and hurried out into the chilly gray air.

He immediately blanched as he looked around. The air was stale around him and he knew it wouldn't help his…condition (Malik refused to call it an illness). The entire area looked deceased and gray, even the few people waiting for the train looked like walking dead. Malik hurried along and onto the street. It didn't look any better. If anything, the air was even staler and the teen coughed as he struggled to breathe the polluted air. His chest was tight and his breathing shallow as he walked along the sidewalk, being wary of his surroundings.

The teen searched every building he believed Yugi would go to, down all the streets he came to, even resulted in shouting his name loudly many times, but he stopped as soon as glass bottles were thrown at him and people shouted at him to shut up, and none in a polite manner. `It's a wonder how Yugi turned out how he did with the place he grew up in,' Malik couldn't help but think as he hurried away from the place where the bottle smashed on the pavement.

Beginning to think it was hopeless he collapsed onto a bench and let his long held back tears fall carelessly to the cracked pavement. "You shouldn't be staying there looking so vulnerable," a woman's voice reached his ears.

Malik looked up dejectedly, about to ask why, but his eyes widened and his jaw went slack as he stared the black-haired Egyptian woman standing in the same state as him in front of him. He wanted to ask; he wanted to know if this was the lady he had forgotten when he left home, but he couldn't find his voice around the large lump in his throat, still growing rapidly as more tears leaked from his eyes at the emotions racing through him in chaos.

"Hello," the woman paused uncertainly before, "brother."

Blackness crept into Malik's vision and he collapsed against the back of the bench.