A/N: Hey, ya'll, I was bored, and I wanted to get this chapter up before I left for vacation tmorrow. Disney World, here I come!

Akefia didn't glanced up from his magazine as someone knocked on the door.

"Bakura! Door!" he called, flipping the page. "I have got to get some new reading material," he thought. "This has gotten so boring it isn't even funny anymore."

Bakura came out of the bedroom with Marik following. The pale teen shot his cousin a pointed look.

"Is it really so hard to get up off of your butt and answer the door yourself?" he snapped.

"Well, I don't technically live here. If I answered the door, people would start to get confused and think they had the wrong address and then no one would visit you ever again because they wouldn't know where you lived and you'd die alone because no one ever came to see you."

Bakura raised one eyebrow at the speech.

"Get a girlfriend," he muttered, walking over to the door and opening it. Akefia glanced up as two people entered.

And fell in love.

Metaphorically speaking, that is. He certainly didn't believe in love at first sight, but if he did, he knew who he would choose for his first sight. Not the bald man, of course, Akefia certainly wasn't gay, no matter how much he flirted with his cousin's boyfriend. Whatever the kid's name was. Akefia fell in love with the girl who had accompanied the bald man. Long black hair cascaded down her shoulders, reaching her mid-back. Her grey-blue eyes glanced over him, her nose crinkled slightly in distaste as she glimpsed the magazine he held. She turned away and refused to make eye contact with him as she followed the bald man into Bakura's bedroom. Akefia mentally kicked himself for being seen holding the magazine by such an extraordinary girl. He immediately dropped it and kicked it under the couch. Out of sight, out of mind, he figured.

"Bakura!" he hissed as the two teens sat on the couch next to him. "Who was that?" Bakura gave him a look that clearly said that Akefia had finally gone off the deep end.

"The bald guy? That's Odion, Marik's brother. We figured we'd call him to check on Ryou because he's going to medical school-"

"Not the bald guy! That girl! That beautiful girl!"

"That was Ishizu," Marik said. "My sister." He folded his arms across his chest and glared at Akefia. "Touch her, and you die."

Akefia smirked at the non-threatening threat delivered by the younger boy.

"I'm serious. Between me, my older brother, my twin brother, and my father, you'd be very lucky to survive."

"Marik, Bakura? Could you come in here for a second?" Odion asked, appearing next to the couch.

"Yeah. Come on, Marik." Bakura took Marik's hand and headed into the bedroom. Odion waited for them to leave before turning to glare at Akefia. He leaned closer to Bakura's cousin.

"Stay away from my sister," he growled. Akefia's eyes widened as the bald man stepped back and returned to the bedroom.

"That was possibly the weirdest and scariest thing that could ever happen to me," Akefia muttered as he retrieved his magazine from under the couch. But if the magazine had been dull before, it was flat-out stupid now. None of the women he saw in this, no matter how little clothing they were wearing, could even begin to compare with the girl he had just seen. Unfortunately, just like with these pictures, she was untouchable. At least he knew her name.

"Ishizu Touzokou..." he found himself thinking. He immediately shut down that train of thought. He did not get into serious relationships. All they led to was trouble, more trouble, and then some more trouble.

"Fear of commitment? What fear of commitment?" he thought sarcastically. Since he was a teenager, he had broken up with several girls who were getting just a bit too "serious" for his liking. One girl had yelled at him in front of the entire school for never walking her to class, another girl gave him presents every week for their two-, three-, four-, etc-week "anniversary," hell, there had been this one girl who had given him a promise ring for his birthday, claiming that she would be his "first" and that "it wouldn't be until they were married" or some shit like that. That girl - whatever her name had been - hadn't been happy about being thrown out of her ex-boyfriend's house.

"Maybe if the girls I dated weren't so batshit crazy, I wouldn't be so freaked out about it," he argued with himself.

"It isn't their fault, and you know it."

"Yeah, yeah, I've never liked committing to anything, it's why and I can't hold down a job, or stay in college."

"We've had this discussion far too many times."

"I know. And to top it all of, now I'm schizophrenic!"

Akefia smacked himself harshly. He wasn't schizophrenic, and he didn't have a fear of commitment. The voice in his head was too many years of looking at the same porno magazine and lack of communication with females. And as for his gamophobia(1)...he just couldn't stay tied down. That was it.

He glanced up as Odion, accompanied by Ishizu, walked back into the living room. Odion was carrying Ryou, still unconscious.

"Is he alright?" Akefia asked.

"No," Odion replied, heading for the door. "I'm taking him to the hospital."

"Do you need me to help with anything?" the college drop-out asked, glancing at Ishizu.

"No, thank you." He felt startled when she spoke, probably mainly because she was speaking to him. "We can take care of it." Her voice sounded like music, so soft and beautiful.

"Marik, stay here until I come back to get you. I don't want you walking home alone after this," Odion said, opening the door.

"Alright," Marik said, standing by the couch. "I understand. I wouldn't want to walk home by myself, anyways."

"We'll be back in half an hour at the latest," Ishizu said, following Odion out the door and shutting it. Akefia glanced at Marik.

"Your sister's hot," he said bluntly.

"She's off limits, especially to you," came the equally blunt answer. Akefia rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna touch your precious sister. I know better than that."

"Plus he's gamophobic. He couldn't hold down a relationship if he handcuffed himself to the girl," Bakura muttered, taking Marik's hand and pulling him back into the bedroom. Once they were in there with the door closed, Marik wrapped his arms tightly around Bakura's torso, finally allowing himself to cry. Bakura rubbed his boyfriend's back gently.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. Everything. I don't know."

"You're crushing my ribcage. It's difficult to breathe."

"I'm sorry," Marik said, making no move to let go. "I...I'm just scared that if I let go, you'll disappear." He let out a short laugh. "I know it's crazy, but I am." Bakura sighed.

"Marik, I told you, I won't be gone forever. I'll come back someday."

"That isn't good enough!" Marik cried. "Bakura, you know as damn well as I do that Kaiba did this to Ryou. If you leave, it could be even worse for me without you here to protect me."

"You think I don't know that, Marik? I know. And you know that if there was any way for me to stay-"

"There is a way, goddammit! There's several ways! Move in with me, let my family help you, or ask your father for help! Dammit, Bakura, you can't fix everything by yourself!" Marik glared at Bakura, eyes shining with unshed tears. Bakura met his gaze for a few seconds, before dropping his eyes to the floor.

"Damn," he muttered. "I hate when you do that."

"Do what? Try to talk some sense into your thick skull?"

"No. When you look at me like that. I can never say no, especially if you're crying." Bakura's face remained passive, but the tell-tale reddening of his cheeks told that he wasn't used to speaking to people in this sentimental, intimate way.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Bakura sighed. "That you win. I'll let my mother ask my father for help if it means I can stay here with you. But just this one time."

Marik smiled, hugging Bakura tightly once again, this time out of joy.

"Okay, okay, enough of that," Bakura said roughly. "I do kind of need oxygen to live, Marik."

Marik released Bakura with a smile.

"Sorry, 'Kura," he said. "It's just...you have no idea how happy I am that I have you. If I didn't...I don't know what I'd do."

Bakura sighed, but his lips twitched up into a smile.

"Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without you, either," he said, kissing Marik gently. "But if this is going to work, we need to get rid of Kaiba somehow. Especially if he did that to Ryou."

"There's no 'if.' You and I both know he did that to Ryou. But what can we do? He's got money, power, a whole city under his thumb, a gang of homophobes around every corner, he's got everything we don't have." Bakura held out his arms and Marik stepped into them.

"We'll think of something," the pale teenager said. "We usually do, don't we?"

"Yes..." Marik said. "I just hope we can think of something before it's too late this time."

(1) I think this is the name for fear of commitment (and marriage, as the website I found this on tells me) but if I'm wrong, please correct me.

Sorry it's so short. I'm leaving at 3 am, so I've gotta get to sleep soon. The next chapter will most likely be a bit longer and if it's not...free brownies for everyone!

Oh, one last thing: RIPSHIPPING! =D I love AkefiaXIshizu, I just had to add it in here.

R&R, please!