I LIVE! (See A/N at bottom for further details.)

The song, "Here Alone" is a very good song. :3 Buy the CD or COUGHDOWNLOADITCOUGH.

Disclaimer: I had a dream where Malik was Godzilla once. He ate France. D:

+Desert Descant+

" Who should I trust now?

All I have is me,

It's not easy livin' in this dead world,

But I chose to be here,

Here I am alone."

+ Here Alone, Ben Arashiro

The house came into view suddenly, abruptly, without warning.

They had been riding for quite some time now. He had awoken just before dawn, cushioned on his white-haired captor's chest. His bottom ached terribly, unaccustomed to horseback riding. His mouth was parched, and the motions of the horse were beginning to make him sick, but he was hard pressed to care as he watched the house emerge out of the torrid desert.

As they got closer, he could begin to see structure to the building; the house itself was two stories high and slightly thin. The second story had only two windows, both very close to their respective sides. The first floor had a single feature—the door. There was a relatively good sized, tiled courtyard in the front of the house--it consisted of, simply, a tiled chunk of land, and a water fountain in the center of the courtyard. Three walls of corbelled arches that were built straight into the house enclosed the courtyard, making it look like an open-air room. The arches were high and thin, and the pillars were square and thick. The courtyard walls fell just short of the second story's respective windows—one could easily step out of the window and walk across the pathway that the tops of the three walls formed. The pathway on top of the courtyard walls was wide enough for a man to comfortably walk across, without the fear of falling.

From afar, the house looked out of place in the vast desert. However, when they finally came to a stop in the courtyard he really got to drink in the beauty of the house.

It was totally run down.

The tiles of the courtyard were cracked and scuffed and smashed. Some of them were actually missing; leaving gaping squares of sand that tile should have covered. The magnificent water fountain, shaped like the bottom shell of a clam, held nothing but murky green water. There was a figurine of a woman in the middle of the fountain, but the top half of her had been broken off. The arches looked frail because of all the cracking and chipping, and the pillars looked ready to cave. Worst of all, the house looked like it had gone through many a battle, with stains of red on some of the wall, and minor damage inflicted all over the place.

Marik jumped off of his horse and dropped a bag Malik didn't even notice he was holding. He stretched his arms out and sighed, "Home!"

Malik turned around, only to see that the white-haired captor had dismounted. He obviously noticed his prisoner's distress, as he helped the blonde captive dismount.

"Thank you," The flaxen-haired teen murmured. When he noticed that his less-insane captor wasn't letting go, he blushed. "You can…let go…"

"Huh?…Oh!" And he dropped the hand as if burned.

He watched his captor walk pass and wondered if the white-haired man was blushing because of the heat.

The door opened with a crack and Malik found himself facing the inside of a beautiful house. While the outside was worn and torn, the inside was clean and plainly beautiful. The floor was typically made of wooden floorboards, and the walls were painted an off white. Ahead of him there was an old, polished staircase. To his right there were two rooms—one with an arched, open doorway and the other with a thick door that was shut and bolted.

Bakura turned to Marik, who had busied himself with dropping his bag on the floor next to the staircase. "I'll give our new pet a tour of the house, and you can put away the new score meanwhile, okay?"

Malik was just about to open his mouth and say something, before he quickly shut it at the glare of Marik. He did not like being called anybody's "pet". It was…degrading. Inwardly, he sighed, because he couldn't do anything about it.

"Are you sure I can't give him a tour, Bakura?" The blonde captive almost flinched when he felt Marik's eyes on him, roving up and down his body, making him feel naked—like he couldn't wait to get him all alone and then….

"No, I think it'd be best if you put the score away." Bakura said with a thin-lipped smile. It was kind of scary, actually.

Marik glared at Bakura, but didn't say anything. Malik could sense anger rolling off him in waves as he exited the house again, probably to go to the horses.

Bakura grabbed his hand and he was dragged into the opened room. "This," Bakura made a sweeping gesture with his hand, "is the kitchen." And he was abruptly pulled out of the kitchen. Next he was shown the bolted door—the white haired man made no move to open it. "This is the cellar, which is kept locked at all times."

Just as Marik was entering the house again, Bakura was pulling him upstairs. The grip on his wrist was so hard it hurt—he was sure there were going to be red marks.

The second floor was more crowded. After they came around the stairs he saw a small room, then a large room with two doors to his left. Bakura took him to the larger room, leading him into the door farthest to his left.

"This is my room," Bakura spread out his arms. "You're to come in here only if I or Marik tell you to." The grip on his wrist tightened for a fraction of a second, and Malik could feel his bones slightly grind against each other. He nodded frantically.

A dim light that came from some undistinguishable point in the room lighted Bakura's room; the walls were lined with shelves that held nothing, and a small cot was shoved into a corner. It was a medium sized room, not too big. What really caught Malik's eye was the fact that there was no wall to his right—only a large velvet curtain.

Bakura parted the curtain from the wall and drew Malik into the next room.

Malik gasped. This room was huge. The walls were painted blood red—unlike all the other walls of the house. The bed in the middle of the room was enormous—a mosquito net hung over the bed, and silk sheets lay tidily on the bed. The shelves on the walls were overflowing with golden objects, be it jewelry or figurines of animals and humans. Some of the shelves were short and high up on the walls—all of these shelves held a single unlit candle.

"And this is our room," Bakura said proudly, obviously pleased with Malik's awed expression. "You are to enter this room with permission only. If you come into our room without permission, we will be forced to punish you…severely."

The flaxen haired teen shivered. Was it just him, or could he hear a note of anticipation in his voice?

Malik was led out of the room through the door they entered in. This time, Bakura dragged him over to a small room that seemed to almost hunch over itself in the corner. It reminded Malik of someone cowering, curling into a ball. He shifted uneasily.

The door that had been closed was thrown open, and his white-haired captor gracefully threw him in. Stepping in after him, the captor closed the door and locked it. Malik was trapped.

"I think I'll lay down the ground rules. I already explained the first rule—don't go into our room without permission," The white haired man shot a deadly glare and continued. "The second rule will be…"

He paused to think, and then suddenly picked up on his train of thought. "Chores will be done quickly and efficiently."

Malik gaped and Bakura smirked. He was going to have to do…Chores? He'd had enough of that at his past home, and he wasn't about to start with that again. He opened his mouth, as if to object, but closed it when Bakura sent him another deadly glare. Both of his captors reminded him of his terrible father.

"The third rule," his captor continued, "you will not speak…unless spoken to. Fourth rule; When Mariku or I want you to do something, you will do it immediately. For the last rule…you will address us as 'master'."

By the time he was done reciting the rules, Bakura was smirking wildly. Malik hung his head dejectedly, submitting, afraid of any pain that would send him into a nightmare of past memories.

"So, for your first command," A pale hand grabbed Malik's arm in a tight grip. "Kiss me."

Malik's head shot up. "Wha…what!"

Bakura leaned in, and Malik could feel the hot breath on his face. "You heard me. Now."

The flaxen haired teen looked away, noticing the lust in his eyes. The grip on his arm tightened and he cried out, turning back to Bakura. He leaned in, closing the distance, and kissed him. It was hardly a kiss, more of a brush of lips before he pulled back and tried to wriggle out of his grasp.

However, he wasn't that fortunate. Bakura pulled the unfortunate teen flush against him, demonstrating no self-restraint as he caught Malik's lips with his own and began to kiss him.

Malik's eyes flew open and he tried to get away. All the wriggling did was seem to excite Bakura more—it wasn't long before his captor's tongue was trying to pry apart his lips.

Bakura bit the teen's lower lip viciously when he found that he couldn't gain entrance. The Egyptian boy gasped, and that was all the white haired male needed to thrust his tongue in the Egyptian's mouth. Malik whimpered, but Bakura, who was far from terrified, groaned and pulled Malik even harder against his body.

There was a loud crack behind them, almost like someone shooting off a gun. The door shook again as there was another crack, and Malik realized that someone was hitting the door very hard. Finally Bakura noticed the noise and tore his lips off Malik's.

"God dammit!" The pale skinned man roared, unlocking the door and throwing it open. In the doorway stood and equally pissed Marik, who was staring straight at Malik.

'This won't turn out to be good,' Malik thought as the angry, taller blonde neared him. His fears were confirmed when Marik grabbed his face roughly, the blunt nails digging into the underside of his chin, and began to study his face. Throughout all the studying, the lesser blonde was forced to look into dark purple eyes swirling with rage.

"Breaking in our new slave, are you?" Marik hissed, releasing the teen and turning away from him. He had obviously noticed the swollen lips, and the bloodied lower lip.

Bakura opened his mouth but was cut off by his furious companion. "We've got a meeting with a dealer tonight, and I've been calling you down for about five minutes! I come up here to find you locking lips with our new little whore!"

The word struck Malik hard. Whore? He was going to be a whore for these two? He suddenly felt sick.

Marik whipped around and shoved his slave, who stumbled backwards. His knees met the edge of a cot shoved in the corner, and he fell on the cot. The taller blonde then grabbed Bakura's pale wrist and dragged him out the door.

The door closed, and the fallen teen could hear an intelligible shout—it sounded like Bakura.

Malik's eyes shifted to the window above his bed, the white transparent curtains fluttering in the wind. He looked up, noticing for the first time that the small room was lined with shelves from floor to ceiling. The shelves were sloppily painted white, all shelves bare and nailed to the sides on an angle.

Shutting his eyes and turning to the side, he left his legs rest on the floor as he tried to relax.

He was alone again.

+AN+

I'm so sorry this took so long to get out! But I finally did it. I was lying on the couch in a patch of sunlight, and I was like, huh…reminds me of my story. And something clicked, so I got out my notes and started writing.

Also, I may be getting a job soon...and I also may be joining SWAT! Not THAT swat…South West Aquatic TeamIt's the offseason for me, so I don't want to get outta shape.

Ok! Review responses!

Miosaka, Thank you! I personally thought the intro to Bakura and Malik was way overdone, but then again, people tell me I'm paranoid…oO…. Malik's migranes are….well, you'll have to find out later in the story. It's relevant. Extremely, in fact. :D

Seductive Extinction, You're too kind I've never heard my works described like that. If you don't watch out, you'll give me an inflated ego :D I actually obsess over the fluency. It's quite sad…Em-tan would probably say so too. I'm not annoying by posting poem verses at the beginning of each chapter, am I? just wondering…

AmethystRoze, ok…YOU'RE going to give me an inflated ego. The plot will thicken…maybe too much. I think sometimes I overdo the drama (I enjoy reading drama, but I can't stand real-life drama aka girl 1 did that and girl 2 did this and girl 5 made out with boy 1…ugh!) because I enjoy writing/reading it. :D Thank you for giving me a confidence boost…and reviewing!

Kesshi, Thankyou!

Chibi B-channie, One of my favorite authoresses! I didn't expect anyone like you to review…then again, I didn't expect anyone to review at all. Of course Malik will be happy soon…:D wink wink nudge nudge etc etc I'm sorry I took so long to update! Also, Malik thanks you for the pity. He will need it in the far-off future D (Whoops, I just let that slip)…

Kasbaka, Ooooh! I actually have a good plot? D: I always think I am so predictable…that cheered me up. I succeed! And the Spanish verbs…well, I am also taking Spanish (you HAVE to take Spanish? oo!) and I'm going to do all the city names and maybe some parts of the language in Spanish. I'm not sure about the language part yet, though.

SnowIce, Ah! Thank you! I am at odds with myself some times—I degrade myself often, but I don't want people to think that I just want all the pity from them. I really have to gain some self confidence…And I told my beta-reader, she says thanks! I feel sorry for malik, but will feel more sorry later. :D Once again I must apologize for a long-overdue chapter.

Minako, ok, I will! Thank you for your words of encouragement!

tsuki-neko-chan, I think you should give it a shot! You never really know, you might turn out to be a great writer. Besides, how will you ever start improving if you don't start writing? Thank you, also, for your kind words of encouragement!

Star-Goddess Z, Marik IS evil. XD I'm glad you like him that way…Am I really being that mean to Malik? Bakura WILL make it better…in time :D

SHAMELESS PLUGAGE! Em-tan writes PHANTOM OF THE OPERA fanfics! Go and read them, I command it! (plus, I also write on her account too XD)! Her username is Deadly Serenade!

Review:D If you have the time…