Hey, I got randomly inspired by Toradora (that anime is my current addiction, along with YuGiOh) and I loved the Taiga-Ryuuji dynamic and I felt like doing a take on it. Thus this fic bopped up. XD I'll be working on it alongside my other fic 'Bloody Brilliant'. In that fic, we're mostly hearing Marik's perspective but here, it's more Bakura-centric. XD It's another AU and this time, the gang are at a boarding school.

For fic purposes, because both Marik and his yami appear, I'll be referring to the hikari Marik as Malik and his yami will be Mariku. He was going to be Marik, but I felt that Malik and Mariku are more different to each other. And anyway, a little more information about the fic. The main shippings are Thiefshipping, Psychoshipping, Angstshipping and Deathshipping. There'll be other shippings too but you'll have to pay attention to the fic to see what they are! X3

Summary: Bakura is bored and frustrated. To him, Mariku is totally exciting and interesting. Due to this, he's developed a crush on the crazy student. Mariku's twin Malik has a bad temper and to him, Ryou is a source of light for him. And due to this, he's developed a crush on him. But fate just has to be a bitch and stick Bakura and Malik in the same dormitory. With the two crushing on each other's twin, they work out a deal to match each other up with their desired person. But Bakura has enough logic to know that things can and will go wrong.

Read on! X3

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter One: The Thrill Seeker

Bakura's POV

There are things in this world that we cannot see. Once you lay your eyes on it, you would yearn for it. But that's why it's been hidden so not just anyone can have it. At some point, someone will find it. That person who is supposed to find it will be able to find it.

That is one of the many mysteries of this world.

That was something I'd been taught when I was young and it was the words I'd chosen to believe in. Your parents always teach you random crap when you're little like stupid proverbs. The classic 'Believe in yourself' stuff? Yeah, heard it all before.

My twin brother Ryou was someone who practically lived off those sayings. I found myself more tempted to the dark side of things. Aspects of life that seemed not so optimistic drew in my curiosity. Drama and rebelling seemed far more thrilling. My dad and I used to watch crime dramas all the time, despite how kids my age back then weren't supposed to be watching things like that.

Mother never seemed to get it right with me. Her words always worked on Ryou and my younger sister Amane. They were innocent and naive like that. The one time her words struck a spark in my mind were those very words. She managed to lure me in with words like 'yearn', 'hidden' and 'mysteries'. I had no idea what she was talking about then but that's exactly why I never let myself forget those words.

One day I was going to find out the meaning of those words.

And I will.

No doubt about it.

---

"Here we are... Domino Boarding School!" Ryou announced as we followed the numerous students off the train and I finally understood why our father bought us suitcases with wheels. They're far easier to travel around with.

"We're at the station; we still have to get the bus out there, dope!" I pointed out with a sigh. Yeah, he said Domino Boarding School. Our mother and sister died in a car crash and our father didn't have the time really take care of us properly. So Ryou became dependant on me and I forced myself to learn how to do home economical crap like get a job and learn to cook and stuff. The job wasn't very exciting though; all I could score was some paper-run gig.

In any case, that lifestyle bored me to death. I was almost relieved when my father told us that we were being sent to boarding school. Didn't exciting things always happen in a boarding school setting? Ya know, like Harry Potter. And I remember reading some mystery novels set in boarding schools. I suppose you could say I was hungry for a mystery or a thrill. Life was boring as it was and I wanted to discover things and mess with it.

So the two of us had been sent to boarding school. It's a 'Guys Only' school. We've already had a year there and we were always in different classes and dormitory rooms. Dormitory rooms were always two people per room and so there were tons and tons of rooms in the dormitory blocks. Last semester, I was with a guy named Yami Muto who was also a twin. He was serious and recommended some good books for me to read.

It was odd. Before mom died, I was more of a couch potato who sat around and watched the television all the time and then at boarding school, there really was nothing better to do than read books. After all, we can't watch TV here or go on the computers in our spare time. So I decided, what the hey, I watch crime dramas and horror films and stuff like that so I may as well read book versions of that kind of thing.

In any case, Bakura and Ryou are one of the three sets of twins at our school. We're the Touzoku twins, apparently. Then there are the Muto twins, Yami and Yugi. Yugi's kind of like Ryou. Innocent, rather shy but big on the friends thing. I've seen him and Ryou hang out from time to time. And Yami, well, I already explained him, didn't I?

Ryou made friends at the school but I chose not to. Nobody excited me. Well, except for one person but I suppose like me, he had this unapproachable thing going on. There was not a single opportunity I had in my first year at this damn boarding school in which I could've properly approached him. But believe me, I wanted to.

"Ryooooooouuuuuu!!" a familiar voice yelled. Oh crap, speak of the devil. It's one of the twins. And not a Muto twin. I said there were three sets of twins. Funny how they're all in my grade. In any case, there were the Ishtar twins. And this one was the one person that truly excited me. Mariku Ishtar. I've never talked to him but he's friends with my brother.

It was something I could never really live down. Mariku was... interesting. I could think of so many terms to describe the guy. Wild, rebellious, crazy, thrill-seeking... Some would say that he spawned from the devil. I say he's the devil himself. Everyone at Domino Boarding School knew his name and heard of the antics he'd gotten up to.

I'm surprised he hadn't been suspended but... every prank he did, I wanted to be with him. I wanted to help pull those pranks. But my stupid personality got in the way. There are many different ways to describe how I felt about Mariku. I thought the guy was brilliant, I loved the sense of danger about him and I wanted to be like that. I'm sure that when I first saw him, the words that went through my head were: Holy shit, I'm in love.

"Bakura? You're spacing out..." Ryou mumbled, nudging my arm. I snapped back to reality and Mariku was looking at me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Fuck, I never knew he had such brilliant eyes... Gah, I'm not going to act all stupid now. We're at the railway station for Domino City and all the students who came in from elsewhere are now heading towards the special buses that take us to Domino Boarding School.

"No, I'm not," I snapped, averting my eyes away from Mariku to the ground. Damn it, I know Mariku likes thrills just as much as I do. He needs to see that side of me.

"I'd say you did! Don't worry; people tend to draw mind blanks around me." The teenager outstretched his arm towards mine and shook my hand vigorously. "I'm Mariku and I presume you're Bakura. You've probably seen me approach your brother here from time to time."

"Uh... yeah... hi," I responded nervously. Goddamn it, I swear I can be more interesting than that!

"Mariku! I want to get on the damn bus already!" another voice yelled. One that I didn't quite recognise. Mostly because it was a voice I never got to hear. Like I said, Mariku was one half of a set of twins. The other half was Malik Ishtar. "We could've gotten decent seats by now!"

Mariku turned and shot a grin in the direction of his bus. "I'll be with ya in a second!" He looked back at us and said that his impatient brother will act up again if he didn't go now. Ryou nodded sympathetically. As Mariku dashed off, he glanced back and added, "See ya round, Touzoku bitches!"

Touzoku... bitches? That's... different.

In any case, like I said: there are three sets of twins at this school. I'd say that Ryou and I were the most identical but then again, the Ishtar twins' sense of style differed from each other's. None of the twins really had the same personalities. For example, there are the Muto twins.

Yami Muto is a lot more confident yet doesn't socialise all that much, gets high grades, I think he's on the student council along with Ryou – my twin brother is joining it this year but Yami was on the council in his first year too. Yugi likes card games, is pretty shy but much friendlier; he's open to everyone and treats everyone kindly. Both of them are decent and I think Yami would have more friends if he took his attention off his duties more often.

They both have crazy tri-colour hair; blonde bangs and the rest was a weird spikey mix of blacks and reds. Yami's had more blonde streaks though. Yugi's eyes are wider and cuter while Yami had that whole bishounen face thing going on as someone once put it. Yami is also the taller of the two. Their heights were enough to tell them apparently, really.

Ryou and I, yeah, I'd say we're different. Ryou's more like Yugi only shyer around others and could really do with more confidence. He needs to stand up for himself more though what I hear, because Mariku's befriended him, nobody wants to bother Ryou now in fear of Mariku. Ah Mariku, I think you're a better brother to him than me.

After all, Mariku willingly watches out for Ryou from what I hear. I've been forced to keep an eye on him. I'm expected to be the big brother and stuff and it's really restricting. If it were up to me, I'd rather cause chaos or fling myself into a crime drama scenario.

I think that's one big difference between Ryou and I. He's content with the way things are. I'm not.

People who don't know us well can't see many differences between us. We're the same height; we both have long white hair, brown eyes... If this weren't Domino Boarding School where there's a stupid uniform, they'd notice that our style is pretty different. Ryou likes his conservative, boring clothing and I prefer black jackets, skinny jeans with some interesting t-shirt. Now that I think about it, I wish I were more exciting with my choices too but I can't afford that. Cash sucks.

But I guess there are four ways you can tell us apart if you observe carefully. One, my hair is almost more spiked up than Ryou's. Two, our facial expressions; Ryou looks smiley and I tend to glare or smirk a lot. Three, the way we talk; Ryou's voice is gentler than mine and a bit higher too. Four, our actions. I tend to charge about or be completely casual, walking around dully with hands in pockets and Ryou... eh, he does neither of those things.

We finally got to the buses and Ryou and I could barely squeeze onto the first bus leaving for our school. We had to have seats up the front and I could see the Ishtar twins sitting at the very back of the bus. I was on an aisle seat so I decided that for the bus ride, I had nothing better to do than observe my surroundings.

God, this bus is crazy. I suppose that's what we get for being a rowdy all-boys school. Hn, most of the boys here seem to be first-years. Freshmen annoy me. They start out crazy and excited, then become nervous and then once they're settled, they think they know the place. Yeah, my year group was like that and for the most part, it ticked me off. The only person who pulled off the rebellious student act correctly was Mariku Ishtar.

That leads me to the Ishtar twins. Both seemed like interesting people but the only one I would hear about regularly was Mariku Ishtar. I wasn't in any of their classes last year so the most I know is what I've heard or seen. Mariku and Malik are both quite the duo. They seemed to both get in trouble but for very different reasons. Malik apparently has quite the temper and has been known to have completely trashed classrooms to satisfy his frustration and he tended to distance himself from everyone else due to his nature.

Mariku... he just got into trouble because he found it fun to do that. He didn't seem to get so stressed out and was happy to express whatever opinion he had on things. He wasn't afraid of being an ass. I suppose that was what made him interesting to me. I liked the fact he's a jerk and fully intends to be. Though I wonder if Malik's the way he is because he bears the grunt of Mariku's actions. Perhaps I'll find out more about the two this year.

It's easy to tell them apart. While they both have brilliant lavender eyes, tanned skin and flaxen blonde hair, Malik didn't have his hair spike up insanely the way his brother did. Mariku always looks like he should belong in an asylum.

Their personalities were so distinctly defined. At the back of the bus there, Mariku's laughing rowdily at something and bragging about what sort of tricks he's thinking of doing this year. He had his gang with him, all going along with Mariku's words. He commanded attention... He's such a bloody awesome psycho, I swear he is. I wanted to be in amongst those friends and have the power to be insane like him.

Malik, on the other hand, was sitting with arms crossed and his face in a scowl. His eyes averted and noticed me staring in his direction. He raised an eyebrow and then glowered. I quickly turned around and paid attention to Ryou at last. I don't know how the heck I'll ever approach Mariku properly but I sure don't want to get in a crossfire with Malik.

"When we get to school, I think the first thing we do is go to the assembly and then we go to the board that shows what our form class and dormitory room number we each got," Ryou told me, noticing that I was paying attention to him at last.

"I know they always split up twins for those dormitory and form class things but we did get Gym and English together so we'll probably have a class or two again with each other," I replied, mulling over my last year's classes. Gah, I was stuck with mostly boring people there. A Mariku in my class would make things so much more interesting. Heck, even a Malik to trash the classroom would've made things even a little more exciting.

Last year, I could never look forward to anything. Here's hoping this year will be different.

---

We arrived at school. It's the same old-fashioned school that it was last year. Hopefully they'll have fixed the air conditioning and brought in new books to their library because I'd read every damn horror genre novel they had. Then we had our assembly. It was dull and Ryou had to drag me to the front row where I couldn't get away with sneaking glances to see what Mariku was doing. Though I did grin when I heard some teacher saying, "Ishtar! Knock it off!" in a low but irritated voice. Oh teachers, your favourite devilish troublemaker is back.

Then we went to the giant boards to check our form class and dormitory rooms. What they did was list the classes and beside each name was a room number. I did a quick search and found my name listed as being in class 2KD. Oh yeah, form classes had the year group plus two letters which are the teacher's initials. I have Kawamura Daisuke as my sensei? Oh bloody hell, he's the same damn boring teacher I had last year!

Ryou seems to have the same form teacher too. Hn, he's in 2TY and his room number is 234. Speaking of which, my room number is 255. Right, now I can take my bags and head to my room. The first day is always an assembly followed by everyone settling into their dormitory rooms. Then it's lunchtime and then we go to our form classes and get our timetables and find out if we got the subjects we wanted, etcetera.

---

Huh, I'm in my dormitory room and it appears to be that my roommate hasn't arrived yet. Did I mention that each room could only fit two people? In any case, I got stuck with a stupid room that doesn't get much light coming in through the windows. Uneven floorboards, old wooden desks, uncomfortable mattresses with ugly sheets... Yeah, I'm back at Domino Boarding School for sure.

Suppose I should go and check on my brother, see who he's rooming with. Maybe I should've checked the list to see who my roommate was supposed to be. So I got out into the hallway and walked along it, scanning the doors for my brother's room. Many students were going in the opposite direction, coming towards me. They're probably all finding their rooms. One of them has to be my roommate.

I felt a thud against me suddenly. Someone shorter has walked into me? I could hear some whispers immediately. "Touzoku's got it real bad now!" Huh? What? I finally looked down and saw a heap of flaxen blonde hair, staring at the ground. The student looked up and I saw an Egyptian boy raise his fist. Like Mariku, this kid had gold wrist cuffs and other items of jewellery. There is only one other student in this school that would wear their uniform and yet wear those.

Malik Ishtar.

Shit, I'd just walked into the angry twin. Oh fuck, yeah, I've got it bad now, haven't I? The next thing I knew, a punch connected with the bottom of my chin and I was sent to the ground. Malik then began to continue his way down the hallway and all the other students backed away, not wishing to meet the same fate as me.

...This guy better not be my roommate.

I got up and glared. Nobody gets away with beating me around. I suppose me and Malik will just have to start out on bad terms. "Oi, Malik! Don't think you can just punch me and walk off like that!" I shouted after him. Perhaps this would be a mistake. A lot of the students around me seemed to think so.

Malik stopped and looked back at me. "Do you want to debate over the matter?" I bit my lip, unsure what a wise reply would be. We both waited. Eventually, he grew impatient and continued his way down the hallway. "Idiot!"

Ugh, what a repulsive guy. Mariku is clearly my favourite of the Ishtar twins, for sure. I managed to get up and I ignored the looks of sympathy others were shooting me. I stormed into room 234 once I found it. Ryou looked up and asked what happened. Oh yeah, I got my pissed off expression on. But that immediately changed when I saw who was sprawled out on the bed beside the window.

Oh god, Ryou! You bitch. How could you get the same room as Mariku Ishtar? Mariku sat up and smirked at me. "Hey! It's the other Touzoku! Try to tolerate your roommate, okay?" Wait, what? Now why would he be saying that? Shit, no! It can't be!

I immediately dashed out of their room, forgetting why I initially went to Ryou's room anyway. Oh freaking hell, this must be a sick twist of fate. I think I understand Mariku's words. Entering the room was a familiar teenager tossing the contents of his luggage around the place. In reaction to my entrance, he threw a book at my face. Luckily it was only a notebook so it didn't hurt.

"Bloody hell! Do you beat up everyone or something?" I yelled out in frustration. Yes. My roommate is Malik Ishtar. It just had to work out that way, didn't it? And because dormitory roommates are always in the same form class and tend to share a good deal of classes... That means I'm in for a screwy year. Fuck.

"No! What would you know anyway? Jumping to conclusions like that when you've only met me for the first time! Who are you anyway?" the Egyptian snapped at me. I sighed. I suppose he doesn't know that everyone knows who he is. Mostly known as being Mariku's violent brother and also for being snappy with teachers and trashing classrooms. Yeah. One's a thrill seeking jerk while this one is simply just a jerk.

I sighed. "I'm Bakura Touzoku and I already know that you're Malik Ishtar and that you have constant PMS or something. Seriously, what is your deal anyway? Bumping into you was an accident and you think a good way to react is to punch them in the face?"

Malik nodded at me. "Sometimes a person has to assert themselves and make it clear that you don't want to get on their bad side. PMS, huh? That's a new one."

"Shock. With your pretty blonde hair and your behaviour, you look like a pissy teenage girl," I grumbled. "A flat one at that too."

The Egyptian looked ready to knock me dead with that comment but he fell back onto his mattress too with a groan. "Why did I end up with the asshole Touzoku?"

With a roll of my eyes, I replied, "Why did I end up with the bitchy Ishtar?"

"Touzoku-kun's not nearly as irritating as you." I raised an eyebrow at this? Touzoku-kun? Is that how he chooses to refer to my brother? Well, that's different. I finally acknowledged the mess Malik made of the room and began to pick things up. "Hn? Why are you cleaning up?"

"Because I don't want to come into the room and see your damned boxers and shirts scattered all over the floor?"

"...Stupid."

"Yeah, that word fits you."

"...Your bag was open and I saw your diary."

"Oh yeah?" I came to a halt when I finally realised what he just said. "Shit, what the fuck is wrong with you? Going through my stuff! You better not have read it!"

It was Malik's turn to roll his eyes. He sat up and smirked at me. "It was wide open, how could I have not read it? You're a perverted freak, aren't you? Reading it was hilarious. All these stupid reviews of books. Are you a nerd?"

I shook my head. "Reading books doesn't automatically make someone a nerd."

"No, you're more of an otaku, I guess. Into the fads of lame horror genre and random dramas but you have the brain of a stupid mutt," Malik sighed, crossing his arms once more. He raised his eyebrows and smirked at me. Fuck, this Ishtar knows how to be real irritating. Yeah, my grades are pretty sucky because I'm not interested in paying attention to class but I hate it when people pick at me about it. The sad thing is that Malik doesn't even know my grades and yet he makes conclusions like that.

"Where's my diary now?"

"Oh, I returned it the bag in a rush when I read a paragraph about you crushing on my brother. Don't worry, your diary's safe now."

My jaw dropped. Shit, why the hell did I write that in my diary? I rushed to my suitcase and found my diary lying on top of my clothes. Opening it up, indeed, I did write an entire page on him. I must have been feeling freaking hormonal that day. If I remembered that this page was still in the diary, I'd have torn it out or left the diary at home and used a new one for the school year.

"You're not to tell anyone about what you read, okay? Or I'll tell everyone that..." I tried to think. Any old rumour will do. "...I'll tell everyone you like my brother Ryou!" There was a silence in the room. Malik stared at me. The look was indescribable. He froze, stuck on what to say. I slapped my forehead. "You have got to be kidding me..."

"W-Wait!" Malik raised a hand and tried to hide the dark pink blush that was forming on his cheeks. "Where did you hear that from?"

I shrugged. "I think you just gave yourself away, stupid."

"...Fuck!" The Egyptian got up from his bed and flipped my bag so that the contents of my luggage became a mountainous pile on the floor. I glared at him but before I could scold him, he continued to speak. "I can't believe I did that! Well, I suppose we both screwed each other over now."

"From my perspective, you're the one victimising you. First you punch me, second, you chuck a book at my face, third, you read my diary and fourth, you just emptied all my stuff onto the floor and making even more of a mess!" I sighed, going back to picking things up. He didn't reply.

Fifteen minutes later, we still weren't speaking to one another. I finished tidying up my stuff and making use of a set of drawers and a small wardrobe to be the storage space for my things. Then I started to tidy up Malik's things and once I sussed through his things, I finally spoke, mostly to tell him how I've organised the drawers.

"...You actually bothered to tidy up my stuff?" Malik asked in disbelief. I decided to plonk down on the bed next to him but I didn't dare look him in the eye. We weren't on good terms but at least he wasn't trying to beat me up or try to be a total jerk towards me. "...Geez, is that how it's going to be?"

"What?"

"I'll mess up the room and you'll be left to tidy it up."

"Unfortunately, that will probably be the case."

"...Psh, you're turning yourself into my slave if you let that keep up."

"I know. Sadly, I probably have nothing better to do."

Malik smirked at this and finally looked me in the eye. He had some kind of evil look going on with that grin and the glint in his eyes. If only it was Mariku here, giving me that look. That guy would be entertaining to be around with while this bratty twin of his is disagreeable. "I guess you don't mind being my slave, then?"

My jaw could've dropped right through the floorboards. "Are you kidding me? I don't serve anyone."

"All you have to do is be my slave and help me... with... you know..." He suddenly turned shy, his eyes averting to the ground and his cheeks going pink. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. His eyes lit up when he continued to speak. "In return, I'll help you out with Mariku. I won't tell the bastard that another weirdo is after him."

I groaned. "Oh, go to hell. I don't like bargaining or anything like that."

"Like you got anywhere doing things yourself as a first year!" Ugh, I don't need to hear that from a guy like him.

"Ryou hardly ever talks to me about you. If he talks about an Ishtar twin, it's always Mariku."

Malik stuck his tongue out at me. "He probably gets amused at how horny you get at the mention of Mariku's name!"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, don't tell me that you don't know!"

Ugh. I just know that this school year will be spent bickering all the time. The bell rang, indicating lunchtime. Malik stood up and prepared to leave when he slipped over and fell on his face. Don't tell me that this guy is klutzy as hell.

I approached him and grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet. "You're pretty hopeless, aren't you?" I expected the blonde Egyptian to turn around and punch me or at least snatch his arm back out of my grasp but he didn't. "Oi, this is why we can't have the room too messy."

"Are you used to picking around after other people?"

I thought about it then shrugged my shoulders once more, taking my arm away from his. "Ryou's kind of klutzy too so I guess."

"Only unlike me, he looks cute when he trips up, doesn't he?" Malik's voice was different when he said that. He sounded calmer, at the least. I guess at the mention of Ryou, his softer side can be brought out. Perhaps a guy like Ryou would be good for him. Malik could do with someone calm and friendly. Someone he just can't get irritated with.

The dormitory rooms should've been different. I should've been with Mariku and Ryou should've been with Malik. That's how it was supposed to be.

"...I'll help you." What? Did I just say that? Eh, I did. Now I ought to prepare myself for a world of hell. Or something along those lines.

To my surprise, Malik swivelled around with a more pleasant expression. Crap... his eyes seem a little more innocent. If he used this look more often, I'd probably have more appreciation for the guy. He actually looks... cute with that expression. What the fuck am I thinking?

"Seriously? I thought I'd have to pummel you until you say yes but I guess we can skip that step!" he exclaimed. Forget it, just forget it. He's not cute at all! Malik reached a hand towards mine. "Let's shake on it. Confirm the deal."

I sighed and took his hand. Unlike Mariku, Malik's way of shaking hands was surprisingly more gentle. Maybe underneath that temper, that scowl and his repulsive words... maybe there's a half-decent person.

In any case, I think this school is going to get more interesting. This partnership could either throw me off the edge or be a great thrill. Probably both. Malik may not be like Mariku, but he's a different kind of interesting, I'll give him that.

This damned plan better work out in the end!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And that's the first chapter. I always love sticking Bakura and Malik as partners in crime. Especially since in the anime, they were actually partners in crime and all. ;D And yeah, I made Bakura less of a psycho cuz I wanted him to look up to Mariku for fic purposes. But he's still going to be crazy in his own way. Like I said in the summary, he's an aspiring psycho. He wants to be a psycho. XDDD

So yeah, I'll probably take turns between updating this and 'Bloody Brilliant'. And I seem to like sticking Bakura and Ryou as twin brothers. And the other boys in the YuGiOh gang will appear, promise. :3

Anyway, if you enjoyed, a review would be nice. *shot*

Adios!

Mel-Girl.