"I still can't believe we did it again."

"I can." I went up behind him and squeezed his ass, making him emit a sound that was halfway between a scream and a yelp. "You're just too sexy to resist."

"Well, I can't deny that," Marik said, with a flip of his pale gold hair. I snorted. What a punk.

"Egotistical much?"

"Hey, you said it first."

I sighed, and took a sip of my tea. "We need to shower. Unless you want to go to your sister's smelling like sex."

Marik grimaced. "No thanks, I'll pass."

I left the half empty cup on the table and walked over to the hidden staircase, waiting for Marik to follow. When I didn't hear footsteps behind me, I turned around to see that he was still sitting at the table. Raising my eyebrow in question, I asked, "So aren't you coming?"

He looked up at me in confusion. "I thought you were going to shower?"

Smirking, I replied, "I believe I said that we were going to shower. Implying that you're going to shower with me."

The look of realization appeared on his face, and he walked over to me smiling.

"Are we just going to shower, Bakura?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Marik."

The rest of the morning went by without incident and we were out the door by quarter after ten. I would have drove if we were taking the truck, but Marik wanted to show Odion and Ishizu his new bike, so we arrived around noon. It was my first time riding on a motorcycle, and the experience hadn't been that bad. It was certainly faster then my truck, but didn't provide as much security as I like. I also found out on the trip that motorcycles were extremely hard to have a conversation on. I had to yell to let Marik know that we should eat lunch before we went to his sister's house, but he somehow heard me and we were soon pulling into the ramen shop I always came to on my breaks. Hopping off the bike, Marik pointed to the back door. "It looks like he's getting some action."

I looked where Marik had been pointing and snickered at what I saw. Ryuzaki was standing there with his arms wrapped around another kid's neck, who had short green hair and glasses. I think if he sucked any harder, he would pull the kid's face right off. I shook my head, walking towards the door. Hey, good for him.

A devilish smile appeared on my face and I snaked my arm around a certain Egyptian's waist. "You know Marik…"

He pushed me off, smiling a little. "Don't, not here."

We made it into the restaurant and took our seats, and it wasn't long before lover boy himself came to take our orders.

"Hey Bakura," he greeted me. "I haven't seen you around in a while! How's it going?"

"Yeah, I don't live around here anymore," I replied. "We moved. Anyway, just get me the usual."

Instead of doing that though, the boy's eyes just widened. "Wow, you moved? No way!"

I closed my eyes. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Still though…" His eyes flew to the man sitting next to me. "What'll you have? Marik, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Um…I'll just have what he got." The waiter nodded, and after jotting it down on a notepad, he started walking away. Before he got too far though, I called out to him. "Hey, Ryuzaki!"

He turned back to us. "What's up?"

"Your boyfriend's pretty cute."

Marik burst out in laughter, but quickly covered it up with his hand. The younger boy's mouth just dropped open, but I was impressed when he quickly regained his composure and just smirked.

"So is yours." He winked, and walked off. Marik's laughter faded as his mouth became a little oval of shock, but my deeper chuckle quickly took over for him.

"The kid has good taste, at least." The idea of leaning over and gracing my boyfriend with a kiss had only just entered my head when the prospect was rudely interrupted by a female voice calling our names. There weren't many females I associated with, so I was rather curious at who was so inclined to talk to us. Looking over at the entrance of the restaurant, I saw the one and only Anzu Mazaki. Well that's why I was confused; I don't consider the much too perky woman to be my associate. Marik gave a halfhearted smile while I continued to stare blankly.

"Hey guys! I haven't seen you around!"

Luckily for us.

Marik cleared his throat. "Hi Anzu."

"Oh my gosh, are you guys coming to prom tonight? You tooootally should! It'll be like, so much fun."

Marik and I glanced at each other.

"Sorry, but we're busy toni-"

"Actually, Anzu," Marik interrupted. No no no. What in hell's name was he doing?

"I think we will be there tonight. Thanks for reminding us."

I was going to kill him.

While my face was bursting with anger, Anzu was beaming. "Wow that's so great! It'll be like, so much fun. I'll totally see you guys there!" She rambled on about friendship before leaving. As soon as she was gone, I turned to the boy next to me.

"Why the fuck did you do that?!"

He looked down, away from my eyes. "I don't know…I thought it would be fun."

"You're fucking insane. If you think that's fun, there's something wrong with your mind."

He looked up at me, his violet eyes all watery and glistening.

"Please Kura?"

"I'm not going. You can go by yourself if you like, but leave me out of it."

"You won't even go for me?"

"No. Not even for you."

It was seven o clock.

I was at the fucking prom.

I was going to kill Marik.

After lunch, we had gone to Ishizu's house and hung out for a bit, but when she found out about the stupid prom thing, she thought it was an incredible idea and found some of Odion's old suits for us to wear. I had never in my life thought I'd be wearing even anything as fancy as a polo, let alone a suit.

In the end though, I couldn't say no to Marik and his sister, especially since I get the feeling that Ishizu could be really scary if she wanted to be.

So now we were here, among hundreds of other people badly dancing to loud music that was making my head hurt.

"Are you just going to stand there the whole time?" My golden haired boyfriend walked up to me, grinning. I just scowled back.

"What else am I supposed to do? I'm sure as hell not –"

"Dance with me!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him.

"Marik," I growled. "Let go of me."

But of course, he ignored me.

"Come on, we'll go to the back."

We ended up in the corner of the large room, where there weren't many people and most of them were either standing around or making out.

Marik wrapped his arms around my neck. "Please, Kura?"

I sighed, and reluctantly placed my hands on his waist.

"You're lucky that I love you so damn much."

He smiled. "I know."

His lips brushed against mine, barely there. I kissed him back, only a little bit harder, and we went back and forth like this for a while.

After several minutes, his lips moved to my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

"I love you," the words were hardly more then a breath. We rocked back and forth to the music, most likely looking like complete idiots, our hips almost touching.

Honestly, the tension was killing me. Apparently he could read my mind, because Marik moved back closer to me and asked if I wanted to leave, in that damn sexy voice of his.

"Of course I do. I never wanted to be here in the first place."

Luckily we were standing close to the door, so we exited the room quietly and it was then that I realized we were nowhere near home. The prom was being held at some banquet hall about 20 minutes away from where the school was, and Ishizu had dropped us off so we would have to call her for a ride back.

"Marik –"

"It's ok," he interrupted, again knowing as if he knew what I was going to say.

I followed him outside, still unsure. He circled around to the back of the building, and there was a little pond surrounded by trees. We sat down by the edge and Marik dipped his hand in the water, and I stared at the ripples it had created. The few fish that held residence there had darted away as soon as he had done so. The moonlight shined down on us, just enough so that I could see Marik's face. His pale violet eyes shone in the darkness. He really was beautiful. It seemed that ever since Ishizu had dropped us off here, time had slowed down, and nothing in the world mattered anymore. It was just my boyfriend and I, and I could see more clearly every reason that made him perfect. I had been gazing at him for a couple minutes now, and sensing such, Marik looked at me and smiled gently. "See, the night didn't turn out to be that bad, did it?"

I waited for a minute before shaking my head. "No, it really didn't. Tonight has been perfect. And who knew this is where I'd be two months ago."

That was shocking. It had seemed like such a long time ago that I had been dealing with my drunken ass father, bitter at the world and hating my life. I never would have that that this one strange boy from Egypt could change my life like he had. I never would have thought people who I had just met could treat me like family. I never would have thought I could fall in love.

"I love you," Marik said.

I chuckled softly. "Devil knows why."

He was quiet for a minute. "Because you don't take shit from anyone and you're amazing to have lived this long in the conditions you've been in and you understand me and you're incredibly talented at thievery but you can be really adorable sometimes and you're funny and I get the feeling that you'd do anything for me." He looked me in the eyes, nearly breathless from his spiel. "And a million more reasons."

I shook my head. "Incredible."

In that second I heard the snapping of a branch behind us, and I wheeled around, standing up in the same motion. If anyone from school had heard that I would kill them. But the silhouette I saw was much too familiar.

"Well, look who the slut dragged in."

It was Malik, of course.

Behind me I heard Marik stand up and I pulled him behind me.

"What the fuck do you want, you bastard?" My voice was a venomous hiss, and I went between being furious that this creep was here and just the tiniest bit afraid for what he might be here to do.

I felt Marik's grip on my arm tighten, and I refocused on the situation. I couldn't afford to be nervous now, I had someone to protect. I had been in plenty of fist fights before now and had never been afraid before, so why should it start now?

A voice in the back of my head told me that it was because now I had something to lose, but I pushed the thought out of my head and gritted my teeth while waiting for a response.

The freak in front if us cocked his head and gave us that psychotic grin. "You know. I want him."

I clenched my fist. "Well that's not-"

"Wait Bakura." Marik stepped in front of me. The grin got bigger.

"I need to tell you this myself," Marik said to the monster with us. "I don't love you and I never will. I don't even like you. There is no future for us. I'm completely in love with Bakura and there's nothing you can do about it. I have no intention of ever leaving him, so give it up and get over me."

Malik's smile had disappeared. "So you really do love this piece of filth then. You know, it really makes me wonder, just what would happen if he were to disappear." As soon as the words came out of his mouth my instincts kicked in, and I grabbed Marik and pushed him out of the way as the bulkier man came running towards me. I saw the glint of metal in his hand and dodged out of the way before the knife could cut my face. I didn't hesitate for a moment, spinning around to land a kick in his ribs. If there was one thing being abused by my father had taught me, it was where kicks and punches really hurt. Malik had fallen down from the blow, but surprisingly quickly was able to stand up again and came at my stomach with the knife this time. Shit, I hadn't expected him to be as agile as he was. I had just righted myself before I had to dodge his next attack, and started thinking of how to land my next blow. It only took five pounds of pressure to the knee to break it, so if I could only land a hit there….

I spun around, grabbing his arm from behind him and twisted it hard enough to dislocate it. He cried out in pain and now I could tell he was getting desperate, because he barreled towards me with the knife, his attacks sloppy. Before I knew what was happening, the silver flash of metal was thrown through the air and then there was an intense pain in my leg.

Well, fuck. Who thought he'd actually get me.

I let out a loud cry of pain, but I had been through this before. It would be fine. I just had to beat this guy for Marik to be safe. I had never killed someone before, but if that was what it had to come to, that's what I would do.

The good side of this was that now my opponent didn't have a weapon. The down side was that I could hardly stand up. By this point he had come around to my side, thinking he had won, a smirk on his face. Grimacing in pain, I put all of my weight on my good leg and threw my arm out, landing the hit right across his neck and forcing him to land on his back. As soon as he was down I sunk to the ground, not being able to stand much longer, and elbowed him in the stomach. That was when I heard the sirens, and felt Marik come over next to me.

"You idiot," I muttered. "Get back! He could still get up!" Although even I had to admit it was unlikely, considering he had at least a couple broken ribs and had just had the breath knocked out of him. Marik ignored my warning though, and told me he had called the police and they were on their way, explaining the sirens. I could still hear Malik struggling to breath again, coughing quite a bit. I couldn't let there even be the chance of him hurting Marik though. I had to finish him off. Before I had the chance to do anything though, the sirens grew deafeningly loud and several sets of heavy footsteps came running towards us, and I was being lifted up onto a stretcher. This was okay. I could rest now. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the blaringly loud sounds around us. Ambulance doors slammed behind me, and before long I was asleep.

It was so bright.

I opened my eyes slowly, blinking several times before fully opening my eyes. The fluorescent lights and smell of anesthesia told me I was in a hospital, and the next thing I noticed was a tight pressure around my hand. I turned my head slowly, finding that it wasn't too hard to move, and saw my golden haired Egyptian prince sitting on a plastic chair next to my raised bed. As soon as he felt me move, his head snapped up to meet my eyes.

"Bakura! You're awake!" He was grinning brightly, his teeth almost as bright as the lights above me. "I mean, it's not like you were going to be out for long, just until the anesthesia wore off, but still!-"

At that point he stopped himself from rambling on about nothing like he always does, and just smiled at me. As I became more awake, the more I was made apparent of a dull throbbing in my lower leg. It was wrapped in clean, white bandages, and there was an I.V. sticking out of my right arm.

"How are you feeling," Marik continued. "I think there's some painkillers in the drip you're on but I'm not really sure, oh! I should tell the doctor you're awake."

Not really paying attention to his voice droning on, I interrupted with "Marik, how long have I been here?"

"Not too long," he continued without even catching his breath. "They just stitched you up but you didn't need surgery or anything. It's been about three hours."

By my estimates, that would make it roughly three in the morning.

Thinking about this, my brow furrowed. "Marik, aren't visiting hours over?"

He shrugged. "I'm really persuasive."

I smirked, as a nurse walked briskly into the small room. She asked me how I was feeling, and I had to pretend to care as she gave me instructions to change my bandages and a date I had to come back and get my stitches out. After throwing several bottles of painkillers in a small bag, and handing Marik a stack of paperwork where we both had to initial too many damn times, I was free to leave. Thank the gods I didn't need crutches or anything like that, it would've been absolutely miserable. Odion was there to pick us up, but he knew me well enough to be silent for the entire ride home. When we got back I thanked him, and immediately passed out next to Marik on his bed.

He woke me up with a kiss the next morning, and I groggily got out of bed to start the trek home. We stayed for lunch, so we could talk to Ishizu and assure that everything would be fine now. The conversation continued and she said that she was thinking of moving out and commuting to college from an apartment somewhere. Marik told her that she better call as soon as she moved in, but she gave him no promises.

As we were leaving, Odion told Marik to get a helmet for the bike. He told me to cut down on the hickeys.

I gave him no promises.

We pulled into the driveway around 2:30, and it felt like a breath of fresh air to finally be home, where everything was calm.

"You know," Marik said as we walked through the front door. "It's messed up to say this, but it's comforting, knowing that he's dead."

I wrapped my arm around his waist. "I know. We can finally live in peace. You don't need to feel threated anymore."

"Yeah." We sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"It still sucks though." Marik rested his head on my shoulder. "We were having such a nice time until he showed up."

"Oh, calm down," I scoffed. "We have the rest of our lives for that stuff."

I made sure not to look at him as the words came out of my mouth, but I felt him kiss my neck.

"I love you, Bakura."

"I know."

He looked up at me, so I had no choice but to stare down into his violet orbs, the ones that first fascinated me the day we met. "Say it."

I smirked. "I love you, Marik."

"I know."

And I knew it, too. After all, we were partners. Forever.

Well guys, there it is! The last chapter!

It feels so good to be done with this, I originally wrote it five years ago and have been typing and uploading the chapters here since then, so this has been a long time coming!

Please leave reviews, I'd love to know what you thought, and I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe if there are enough requests for one I'll write an epilogue~

If any of my original readers are still here who have been reading it since I first published it, this is as much a victory for you as it is for me. XD

Thank you for reading and sticking with these two idiots for this long!

Bye for now!~