Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi

Author's Note: And finally - the end.

What Is Love?

Afterward

--

Needless to say, when Malik and Ryou showed up in the morning, neither one of them heard the knock on the front door, or the preceding phone call to see if it was safe to come home, or the slight probe on their mind links to check if they were awake yet. Bakura was sprawled on his stomach with Marik draped over him in a half-embrace laying among the rumpled sheets, the bed surrounded by burned-out candles and one empty bottle, tipped over on the nightstand, half on the surface and half off of it. And on both of their faces were the contented smiles of two lovers, sated, and comfortable, soaking in each other's warmth in a state of peace that neither had ever known before.

--

Ryou slowly eased open the front door of his house, calling inside and only when he received no reply did he step in, leaving the door open for Malik behind him.

"Think they're still here?" Malik asked.

Ryou was about to concede that it was possible they might have left…but at just that moment his eyes fell on the articles of clothing nearby and his eyebrows hiked to his hairline. "No, I'm pretty sure they're still here." he answered quickly, looking elsewhere. He was afraid to look on the couch. They were in Bakura's bedroom, right? Without their clothes…

Malik sighed exaggeratedly as he caught sight of the clothes on the floor and stooped to gather Marik's clothes. "Come on." he said, exasperatedly. "Better take these to them, unless you want Marik streaking through your house while you're here."

For some reason, that last part made Ryou twitch.

Ryou gathered Bakura's clothes and followed Malik up the staircase. "Maybe we should just leave." he tried. "We don't really need to…" But it was too late, without any warning at all, Malik threw open Bakura's bedroom door and tossed the clothes on the floor inside, turning to go without pausing to converse with the two yamis. Ryou laid Bakura's clothes on the floor next to Marik's and bit his lip, about to follow Malik out when he saw Bakura slide one eye open.

Ryou hesitated. "So…how'd it go last night?" he asked awkwardly, voice muted as he didn't know if Marik was awake or not.

"Good." Bakura answered tiredly.

"So did you…"

"Yes, yes, yes, and … probably." Bakura answered, closing his eyes once more.

"Probably?"

"Ryou, I can't count that high this early in the morning."

Ryou's eyes widened but he said nothing of it, instead he said "Oh, well…um…I'll make you an early lunch if you want it. I just needed a change of clothes…but we'll have a bite to eat if you're getting up…"

Marik tightened his hold on Bakura, pulling him closer until his ear was within nuzzling distance and said "You have such a sweet hikari. I wish mine was nice like that." he pouted.

"I heard that!" Malik called from somewhere else in the house, startling both Bakura and Ryou, and Marik snickered.

"Malik says I can find my own food or starve."

"Shut up!" came the call from downstairs and Ryou turned toward the hallway, trying to figure out how he could possibly have heard Marik only to realize that Marik had probably opened their link so he could.

"Ok….so, I'll make lunch then…" Ryou said, almost to himself, moving to leave.

"Thank you." Marik said, causing Ryou to pause, turning to smile back at the Egyptian.

"It's no problem."

"Quit sucking up!" Malik shouted and Marik grinned.

--

Bakura followed the smells of Ryou's cooking to the kitchen, rubbing at his wet hair with a towel and ignoring Marik who was trying to walk next to him and play with his hair at the same time. Eventually, he swatted Marik's hand away, putting the towel down as they entered the kitchen.

Ryou was at the stove, stirring something in a pot and Malik was leaning against the counter next to him. Marik hopped up on the counter next to his other and looked over at what Ryou was cooking. "Smells good." he said approvingly.

Ryou smiled. "Thank you."

Malik frowned. "Get your butt off Ryou's counter." He ordered, giving his yami a harsh, disapproving look and poked his thigh for good measure.

"I'm not bothering Ryou." Marik countered, squirming a little on the hard surface.

"It's impolite." Malik argued back, removing himself from the counter entirely to face his yami. "You don't just park your ass on other people's kitchen counters."

Bakura tuned them out, moving to Ryou's other side. "So how did your night go?"

Ryou blushed. "Good." he answered shyly, staring at the spoon he was holding. "The concert was good and Malik and I had a good time."

"There's too many 'goods' in that sentence." Marik observed with a grin, interrupting both their conversation and his own. "Malik…" he added, his tone just screaming dirty thoughts "what did you do?"

Malik turned red. "I didn't do anything." he answered defensively. "We didn't do anything, ok, not that it's any of your business."

"I jumped him." Ryou said softly. "I think I might have been feeling a little bit of… Your emotions might have leaked across a little." His blush deepened as he flicked his eyes in Bakura's direction.

Bakura's eyes widened as he stared back at his hikari. Marik burst out laughing and slapped Malik's shoulder. "Were you molested?" he snickered.

"I'll have you know that people would pay be molested by Ryou and it was the best night of my whole fucking life!" Malik shouted back, embarrassing Ryou further but…also flattering him.

"How far did you go?" Marik asked, interested.

"Did you two…?" Bakura echoed.

"No!" Malik shouted back. "You think I would take advantage of him like that?!"

"We just…made out." Ryou added.

"What about you Marik? Care to tell us what you did last night?" Malik returned.

Marik took a breath. "Well, I…"

"Never mind." Malik interrupted, holding up a hand to silence his other, knowing he was about to get every heated detail. "Heat of the moment, sorry."

Marik pouted and Bakura rolled his eyes.

Ryou smiled as he remembered the event in question. "He kissed me and when I kissed him back I threw him against the wall and tore off his shirt." Ryou's smile widened happily. "I totally snogged him." Ryou snickered and Marik's grin widened.

"As long as we're sharing stories…" Marik started but Malik interrupted him again, patting his leg as he spoke.

"No, that's alright. We're good."

Marik gave Malik a dirty look but let it drop.

"Lunch is ready." Ryou said, changing the subject as he took his pot off the stove and Marik hopped back to the floor, his disdain forgotten as he took a seat at the table.

Marik grinned to himself as he watched Bakura take his seat and receive his bowl of food, giving Ryou the smallest of appreciative smiles. Bakura was powerful and wild and beautiful. He never really cooked and Marik doubted he even could. He smelled like the soap he used and the shampoo and a little of the incense that reminded Marik of last night because it had gotten into his clothes. He tasted nice too. He made Marik feel like he needed nothing more to live happily the rest of his life. Bakura made him feel as though his destiny was not consumed in darkness.

Bakura looked up to see Marik staring at him, smiling, and gave the other a rare smile (rare now, rather than non-existent). Marik blinked back, only realizing a fraction of a second after Bakura had looked away, back to his food and the others present, that Bakura's general reaction might have been to demand what he was staring at rather than returning his gesture and Marik felt blessed. He felt…whole.

--

Incidentally, Marik did find that cock ring two weeks later, around the wrist of a neighboring four year old who had painted over it in pink nail polish and glitter. He let her keep it.

The End

Post whatevers: Cookies to anyone who knows where the quotes I used as chapter titles came from. ...I wish I had cookies whine ... I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and apologize for any errors that you might have found in all this - like the lack of page breaks and paragraph indentations that the site robbed me of. I'm sure I had something else to say but, of course, I won't remember until five minutes after it's too late.

As always, if you liked, please review. Ja!