Tiikerikissa here again, with a new story!

Here both (hikari) Ryou and (hikari) Marik are 6! And Ishizu is 19, for the sake of the story! And it's from Ryou's POV! Oh, and Ryou is blind and- well I guess that's enough spoilers for now. ^^;

I'm not sure how the preschool-kindergarten system works in Japan... Just... Live with it and enjoy? ^^;

Warnings: ...none? I don't think there's anything I should warn about right now, probably shonen-ai and language later, but later is later..

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places, actually I don't own anything except my dear notebook I sketched this in.

That day started pretty much like any other day, I think. It was loud, like always. I didn't like it at all, because it was way too loud to actually hear anything.
Suddenly, I heard a voice that was so close to me that it didn't get lost in the mess of scream and laughter. "Heeeeeeey~?" I leaned to touch the voice. It was soft and friendly. It sounded like a boy around my age.
I opened my mouth, carefully thinking before saying anything. "Are- are you talking to me?"
"Yes you. I thought you seemed lonely. Do you want to be my friend?" I nodded slowly and felt my lips turn upwards to a smile.
"Yay!" came his quick reply, and he really did sound happy.
"I'm Ishtar Marik!" he announced. Didn't sound Japanese, and I even recall noting that in my mind back then, as he only mentioned about Egypt to me later. "Bakura Ryou." I replied, still smiling to my new friend.

"How come you didn't notice me earlier? I was trying your attention for hours!" Marik then questioned, with an annoyed tone, which is something I have always been very familiar with. Though I believe he hadn't really been there for hours, as I had only been there half an hour myself. But children tend to overdo things...
"I'm blind." I muttered sadly.
I heard clear confusement in Marik's voice now. "Whuzzat?" My best bet was that Marik didn't know much about the world. Maybe he's rich or something, I thought back then.
"I can't see." I explained blankly. "Anything." I added, just to make sure Marik actually understood.
"Oh..." my new friend sounded really sad now. "Should I fill you in about your surroundings then?" he paused, waiting for my reply.
I nodded. "Yeah." Of course it would be nice to know about things I couldn't see for myself, since nobody bothered to talk to me about stuff like that. Or about anything at all, actually.
"Well let me see.. The carpet we're sitting on is red and fuzzy, the walls are yellow, probably to cheer us up. The ceiling is wood, I think it might be maple or something. Over there's a brunette girl wearing a pink skirt, playing with a plushie zebra. And there's a boy with colorful hair, completing one of those puzzle-thingys, and.. Oh hey, me!" He laughed, and it made me so happy to hear that I laughed too, for the first time in ages.

"I have blond hair, kinda half-longish, and purple eyes, and tan skin. I'm wearing a beige t-shirt and purple pants. Yep. And..." he sounded a little uncomfortable. "...that's my cheek you're touching." he laughed again, and I quickly pulled my hand away. By now, I had already forgotten how I had wanted to touch the voice, the owner of the voice, actually, him. My new, first and only friend. But he grabbed my wrist and took my hand back. "I don't mind." he assured me, and I smiled again, a slight blush warming my pale cheeks, even though I couldn't for my life figure out why. His cheek was warm like mine now, I could feel it.
And it was somehow comforting to know he was there. Not just because I could hear his voice, but also because I could actually feel him there.

It was quiet for a while. Actually it was really loud, as six-year olds aren't that quiet in general, but Marik didn't say another word, and only that mattered. Fortunately I got to keep my hand on his cheek, so I was certain he was still there.
And after quite some time, Marik finally broke the silence long-lasting silence, causing me to sigh in relief. "Why are you here?" was his question. Yes, it sounded weird, but I knew immediately what he meant by that. The kindergarten was not a place for blind kids, you see. It was pretty awful even for kids with two working eyes, I believe.

"My parents died. They haven't found me a new family yet, and I guess they had to put me somewhere." I told him.
Marik made a sad sound, and he sounded caring. Back then I couldn't yet tell what caring sounded like, as I learnt it from Marik later on. "How sad..."
I could feel something wet roll on his cheek (my hand was still there, yes, but it really felt nice in a weird way), and it didn't take me long to realize it was a tear. Nobody had ever cried for me before, so I pulled my friend closer and hugged him tightly, wiping the tears away.
Soon he stopped crying, and I pulled away. "My parents died too." he informed me. "But I'm living with my big sister. Once in a while she needs to take care of shopping and stuff, and then she leaves me here. Like today." he paused here, probably to think. "I will nevernevernevernever complain about shopping again! Without shopping, we wouldn't have met! Yay shopping!" he suddenly announced with a smile in his voice.
I smiled too, and then we started drawing with crayons. He would give me the colours I asked for and talk to me about things.

Marik told me what his sister, Ishizu, looked like; raven-black hair (I found it weird, Marik was a platinum blond and his sister's hair was raven-black? But I didn't bring it up.), tan skin like his own. Here he mentioned how pretty my skin colour was and how fluffy my hair looked. And here he asked me if he could poke my hair. I agreed to it, and he was very delicate when he leant to touch it. It had felt kinda nice, I recall. And he asked about me. What was my favorite colour (Purple was my answer, it felt so weirdly pretty for an eye colour), food (I couldn't think of anything), how long I had been blind (not for long). Stuff like that.

But every day has to end, and after a few hours Ishizu came to pick up Marik. He promised me he would be back the next day, no matter what Ishizu said, and I believed him.
So when we had meal, and I took a few poor attempts at eating... something, I told myself I would meet Marik the next day.
When someone showed me the way to my bed, I told myself I would Marik the next day.
When I couldn't sleep, I told myself I would meet Marik the next day.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, I told myself I would meet Marik the next day.

When the next day finally came, I went back to the room where I had first met Marik.
And it didn't take long before I heard his voice. "Missed me?" And then he hugged me softly from behind.
I believe he had meant that as a joke, since Marik does have a good sense of humour, but I smiled to him and replied: "Yes, a whole lot."
And that day, we were reading. And I couldn't read, naturally, since I was blind, and neither could Marik, since he was six (Another thing I found out on the first day, he was indeed the same age as myself). But he pretented to read the book aloud and told me stories of ancient Egypt, about the great Pharaoh named Atem, about the King of Thieves, whose name was conviniently Bakura. That made us both laugh.

The next few days followed this pattern. I went to that room, and soon Marik came. I learned a lot about him, like that he was quite demanding, but he rarely asked Ishizu for anything. That was also why Ishizu brought him there every day when he asked her. That warmed my heart. And Marik taught me things. He taught me about history (to be honest, his knowledge about history was pretty much what he learned from Ishizu, but I liked listening to him regardless), about culture (this means: why sushi isn't good), about friendship. He said that a friend is there for you when you need them, that they stand by your side, help you... I thought Marik was all that and much more to me.

But on the eighth day, he didn't come. I sat there all day, but he never came.
I ate nothing at breakfast, dinner or lunch. I wasn't hungry at all.
I was just sad. I had thought we were friends. But now he wasn't there for me.
I slept really poorly that night. I hadn't had anyone I could trust in for ages, and now that I had trusted Marik, he had let me down. And I couldn't understand why.

Not at all.

The end.

I have this planned forward, actually, but if nobody reviews it etc. etc. etc. I'll leave it as a one-shot. So review if you want to see it continue? Or even if you don't... Oh, and I'll continue Turn Back Time soon too!

~Tiikerikissa