Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Watch Over Me ❯ Every Right ( Chapter 8 )

Stwawbewwy: We may have banana and cinnamon. Are you looking for mason jar or votive candles? Our friend, who will also have stuff in the shop, makes them.

Cyn: Yeah, she ruined it. But it was a good lemon.

Ryous mistress: I know…I couldn't stop laughing.

Lady Elfsyke: Coolies! Thanks, babe! We'll make up a brochure and let you guys know what we have available. We are offering a discount for our reviewers, so this way, we can say thanks!

Dark Beloved of Light: Yeah, well Ryou did a good job of keeping Bakura focused until the end. But, it was all worth it. Especially when you guys see what I have planned for the Duel Monsters.

Evil MJ: Yeah, coming is like friendship….hehehehhe…

Dragondreamer: I'm sorry I forgot to log out.

Every Right

Marik sat at the edge of the bed waiting for his hikari to open his eyes. a few times during the night, Marik had to provide a trash can in front of his hikari's mouth. That "vodka" or whatever it was, made Malik sick all night. Marik sniffed the bottle and its bitter scent, finding the smell similari to the sloppy mess in the trash can. in the room next to him, he heard the music of a cheap porn movie and finally, loud, billowing snoring. Malik slept through it all.

The yami held his hikari's hand through the tremors and the whimpers. With every minute passing, Marik became more nervous that his hikari would not wake up. He had to check Malik more than once for a heartbeat. Marik's Millenium Rod was no where to be seen. After searching the room for half an hour, he found it in a drawer beside Marik's bed.

It wasn't until dawn that Marik opened his eyes groggily. Marik turned to his lover, concern plain on his face.

"Tenshi?" Marik pressed his hand to Malik's cheek, rubbing it softly.

Malik rubbed his eyes in shock and looked at Marik. "Yami?"

The spirit pulled his hikari into his arms. "I should have been there for you…Sorry, tenshi."

Malik gasped for breath sobbing quietly into his immortal's chest. "I wondered where you were.and if you were going to come back for me."

"I won't let you go easily, koi. You know that."

Marik pulled down Malik's shirt to reveal a tiny scar…nearly invisible on his collarbone. "That's my mark on you, hikari. You are mine alone and always shall be. Should anyone touch what is mine, they will hay the highest price imaginable. And we both know what that is, right? Hikari?"

Malik bit his lip and nodded sheepishly.

"Tell me what happened last night. Leave out nothing."

Malik rubbed his head and his eyes trying to remember. "The cops left and Joey's dad hugged me and slipped his tongue into my ear telling me `Welcome home.'" Marik gave an audible growl. "He threw me into this room and locked the door. He came back a few hours later with that bottle of vodka and two shot glasses. He said if I was going to be his son, I had to learn to drink like him."

Marik stood up and brushed his hair back. "Why didn't you fight back?"

"I know what Joey went through with his dad. He told me what happened and he told me that when he fought back it made it worse."

"How many shots did you have?"

"All I know is that the bottle was full when he came in. I told him I didn't drink and he grabbed my shoulder forcing me to drink. That stuff tasted awful. I didn't eat all day, so I know it affected me worse."

Marik walked to the door hearing a low voice grumble past the doorway. "I am half a second away from tearing that mortal's insides to shreds. In fact, that sounds like a plan."

Marik removed the cover for the dagger when Malik pushed the covers off of him.

"Wait, yami! Don't!"

Marik stopped and turned slowly and gently twisted the point of the dagger on his finger. "Why not, tenshi?"

Malik staggered off the bed and walked to his yami. He wrapped his arms around him.

"I'm waiting for a good reason, tenshi."

"Because this is Joey's father…not my own. You don't have any right to destroy him without Joey's permission."

Marik took Malik's chin in his hand. "I have every right to protect you, Malik."

"And I am protecting Joey's feelings."

"He isn't protecting you, Malik. You don't see him here, do you?"

"Marik, please."

Marik's eyes narrowed. "I am protecting you from this creep, tenshi. Can't you get it through your mortal skull that I don't want you to get hurt? This wouldn't be the first time I killed for you."

Malik's lip quivered and he backed away to the bed covering his face. "I never asked you to do what you did. I NEVER gave you permission to kill my father! He may have tattooed my back, carving into me like a piece of meat, but he was still my father and you have no right, ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT, to do what you did to him! It's not my place to decide Joey's dad's fate! Joey has to make that choice. But for me…" Malik jumped off the bed clenching his teeth and grinding them harshly and defiantly. "You never gave me the choice! You made the decision for me! The most important decision a son can make for his father's fate and you and Bakura ruined it for me! And I hate you for it!" Malik's lip curled into a hateful sneer.

The spirit slowly approached his hikari putting his dagger up to Malik's chin growling and trembling with restrained fury. "Never in the six years that I have known you, have you ever told me that you hate me. Need I remind you, my host, that everything I have done for you, I have done to protect you. Your father hurt you. He caused you pain…pain that I felt, too. You died, Malik. When Aria killed you while under Cinetti's influence, I went to the Underworld for you. I brought you back from the dead. This is the gratitude I receive for saving your skin? Would anyone you know go to Hell for you and back besides me?"

Marik looked his yami in the purple eyes. "You know, yami, my father may have hurt me, but he's not the only one who hurt me."

"I never meant to hurt you, Malik. I never did it intentionally to hurt you."

Malik turned away from his yami. "I wish I could believe that."

"Malik…hikari…I mean it. I never meant to hurt you. I love you." Marik slipped his arms around Malik from behind. "I brought you back to me because I couldn't live without you. Because I love you. I would do anything for you…tenshi."

"Yami…please…"

Marik hugged his hikari who rubbed his nose sniffling. Malik felt the arms around him fade. He turned to find Marik gone, disappeared into his Millenium Item.

Malik sat on the bed. "I'm sorry, Marik," he whimpered into his hands. He had never raised his voice to his yami before. Never had he told his yami that he hated him. Hated…such a strong word. Malik opened the drawer on his side table. He picked up the Millenium Rod and kissed it. "I'm sorry, yami. I didn't mean it."

The door to the bedroom was coming unlocked. Malik quickly put the Rod in the drawer to hide it from his new stepfather.Malik moved against the wall sitting on the bed, his eyes wide and his breathing heavy.

"Did you sleep well, boy?"

Malik gulped soundly. "Y..Yes,s-s-s-sir."

"I'm hungry. Go make me breakfast now."

The man grabbed Malik's shoulder and pulled him out of the room. The father staggered down the steps with further grumbling and murmuring of incoherent words.

The man took the boy to the kitchen and threw him against the refrigerator. "I want…..something…………"

Malik's fist tightened as he shook. "What…do you want?"

The man kissed Malik on the lips and ran his hands under Malik's shirt pinching one of the boy's nipples. "I want something….with sausages….do you know where I can have…a sausage sandwich, pretty boy?"

Malik whimpered and punched Joey's dad in the ribcage. The man grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled Marik down to the ground. The man sat on top of him.

"I just have to leave no external marks, boy…but there's nothing to say I can't leave detectable internal marks."

The man grasped Marik's collar roughly pinning him to the ground when the doorbell rang. Joey's dad looked up and back down at Malik on the floor.

"Get up off the floor this instant." Malik stood on his shaky legs against the kitchen counter. "Get me my breakfast, boy."

The man opened the door and saw his son with his backpack over his shoulder. His father stared at his son in disbelief. Within a second, Joey's dad pulled him inside and pinned him against the wall.

"Boy, I should beat your ass from here to hell and back! Where the hell have you been for the past year?"

"Why would you care?"

Joey's dad whipped his hands across Joey's face knocking him to the ground.

"You forgot your manners while you were gone, boy. Do I have to teach you your lessons once more?"

Joey shook his head. "No, sir."

"Why did you come back? I thought you didn't like it here, boy."

"Where's Malik?"

"You mean, my NEW boy, right? He's in the kitchen. Why do you want to see him?"

Joey stood up from the ground. "He's my friend."

"Friend?" The man spit it out like a piece of rotten food. "Who would befriend a kid like you, Joseph Wheeler?"

"Malik is my friend no matter what you say and I can't leave my friend alone with a monster such as yourself."

The man tossed Joey over the couch in the living room to land on the wooden coffee table. Malik ran out of the kitchen hearing Joey's groan as he landed on the table, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. Joey's dad raised his foot to Joey and Malik shielded Joey's body with his own. A grunt escaped from Malik's lips into Joey's ear. Joey instinctively wrapped his arms around his friend Malik who protected him.

The man stopped, remembering his creed: Never leave visible marks on exposed skin. Malik would certainly have bruised from that kick to the back.

He grabbed both blond boys and held them on their feet. "Let's get a few things straight, boys. You both live under my roof…and what I say goes. Joseph, if you say anything about this to anyone, your poor friend Malik here will pay the price. Malik, if you ever say anything about last night or this morning, Joey will feel pain for the rest of his life. Got it?"

Malik took Joey's hand tightly as the man held them up.

"I do not tolerate insolence. I will not tolerate smart asses. You speak when you are spoken to and punishment will be dealt accordingly. Got it?"

Both boys nodded. The man looked at Malik's trembling hand holding Joey's steady, but sweaty hands.

"Don't go holding each other like a couple of fruits! Boys don't hold hands! Hands are used for manly things like this." The man threw Joey against the wall and Malik to the floor. Joey dashed for Malik trying to pull him to his feet. "Hands are used for this." Joey's father punched him in the jaw again sending him to the ground covering Malik's body. "I hope you don't need a further demonstration on what hands can also do to the human body."

Malik crossed his arms in front of his body and buried his face into Joey's chest. Joey's dad disappeared into the kitchen.

"Joey….you came back…."

"…couldn't leave you here….a….alone……"

"Malik, is my breakfast ready yet, boy?"

Joey moved off of Malik and Malik stood up trembling. Joey hugged his friend and wiped a trail of blood that he felt trickle down his chin. Malik jumped to his feet and ran into the kitchen. Joey limped after him seeing his father sit down at the kitchen table with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand.

[My father is starting already and he hasn't been fed breakfast yet.] Joey thought.

"Make me a scrambled eggs and some bacon, boy, and don't dare burn any of it. Son, give me a glass from the freezer."

[Geeze, dad, you haven't changed.]
Joey brought his dad a chilled glass and sat at the table.

"Where have you been, boy?"

[Something tells me I shouldn't say, `I moved in with my lover, Seto Kaiba, CEO of KaibaCorp and on a nightly basis we have sex with wild abandon.'] Joey thought.

"You know…here and there…I'm doing well."

"There's a shock. I always thought you'd be one of those street bums we see walking down the block. Why didn't you tell me where you were going?"

Malik put his breakfast in front of him and hesitantly poured himself some milk from a gallon, but the milk came out in chunks and the stench filled the room. Joey and Malik held their noses as the man downed a shot of his old friend Jack. He didn't even notice the putrid smell of old, yellow milk.

"Maybe I should try the orange juice." Malik checked the date on the orange juice and found it expired the week before. With a sigh, Malik poured a glass of water and sat beside Joey.

"How did he get accepted by Child Services as a foster parent with rotten milk and old orange juice?"

Joey's dad slammed down the shot glass. "I applied months ago. I got some false contacts and references. They checked all the references and contacts. My references were old friends."

"Your bar friends?"

"Why not? As long as I looked legitimate, they couldn't deny my claim."

"Why did you want a foster kid when you have your own kid?"

Joey's dad stood up and gripped the neck of his bottle. "Because my kid left me! I figured if my real son didn't want to stay with me, then I would get a better kid than the one I have."

"You beat the living snot out of me! You locked me in my room! I couldn't take you anymore! You weren't happy until I was a bloodied mess on the floor!"

"If you hated it so much, why would you come back?"

"I heard that Malik was with you and I came to protect him from you."

Joey's dad snickered. "Why would he need protection?"

Joey stood up and Malik hid behind him. "Because he is my friend. And I didn't know what you would do to him."

"Get to your room, Joseph."

Joey sneered at his father, who chugged the rest of the drink. "Get to your room, boy!"

Joey's dad threw the bottle at his son's head. Joey had become an expert at dodging flying bottles and he ducked. The glass shattered and Malik fell to the ground holding his head.

Joey grabbed a towel and tried to pry Malik's hand from his forehead. "Let go, Malik. Let go. Let me see how bad it is."

Malik removed his hand trembling as Joey picked out a piece of glass from him. Joey put the towel to Malik's head.

"Let's go. Be careful." Joey helped Malik to his feet and turned to his dad. "I came back for Malik's sake. Not for yours."

Joey helped Malik to his room. He helped Malik lay down on the bed and cleaned him up.

"Mill…Millenium Rod….Joey…side table…"

Joey looked in the side table and found the golden item. He handed it to Malik.

The blonde sat beside Malik and smirked. "Maybe if you rub the Rod, Marik might come out of it…like a genie…get it?"

Malik held the Rod against his chest. "That was a bad joke. Marik?" Malik kissed the Millenium Rod and whimpered. "Marik, please come out of the Rod….I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Updates: Wednesday or Thursday.

Next Chappie: Anzu in the Shadow Realm…What in the name of Ra has she done to the Dark Magician???