Hello everyone! This is just a short, fluffy deathshipping oneshot that I just had to write because I always lose against plotbunnies when they attack! And it's also my birthday today, so I decided to indulge myself by writing a little deathshipping! I love this pairing to bits! XD!

Warnings: Slash (Marik x Ryou) and one heck of a lot of fluff!

Italics are flashbacks.

Hope you all enjoy it! :D

It was such a simple question.

"Why are you with him again, Ryou?" Yuugi joked, as they watched Marik and Atemu duel, whilst Bakura sat behind Atemu so he could see his cards and mouth them to Marik.

Ryou grinned, and replied, "Oh, come on. You can't deny he's not fun to be around."

Yuugi laughed, and the pair turned back to watch the former Pharaoh throw a cushion at Bakura as he realised that they were cheating, which immediately developed into a full-on pillow war, which afterwards they would all deny that it had ever happened, because, as Atemu said innocently, "Oh, no. There was no pillow fight. We're all much too mature for that."

It goes without saying that no-one believed him.

(It wasn't until later that day that Ryou realised he hadn't actually answered Yuugi's question.)

"He's gone."

Malik turned around slowly from the window of the plane as they flew away from the Battle City island, to see Ryou standing in the doorway. Malik raised an eyebrow with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity; he had come into the small, empty room at the end of the plane for some peace, although that was apparently not going to happen.

"Who?" he asked, faking nonchalance.

"You know exactly who I mean."

Malik was struck by the raw pain in Ryou's voice, the undercurrent of anger, that broken, helpless anger at how he couldn't change anything, there was nothing he could do.

The Egyptian boy fiddled with his bag for a few moments, trying to avoid the other's burning stare.

"Do you hate me?" he asked, eventually, in a whisper. It was no use trying to tell himself that he didn't care about Ryou's answer, because he did. He had been the first person to actually treat him with kindness. Malik had only met the boy a few times when he was sharing his body, but Ryou had always been… friendly? Yes. Friendly. (Even though Malik was helping the spirit that was the reason Ryou was so lonely, so desperately lonely.)

Ryou paused, but then answered in such a definite way that Malik was certain he was telling the truth. "No. I don't hate you, Malik."

Malik didn't smile. "Do you hate the Pharaoh?"

Ryou shrugged. "Why should I? He was doing what was right. It's not his fault that I was so stupid as to… as to…" he trailed off, bitterly, pain etched into his expression.

Malik stared, shocked, as a single tear trickled down the other boy's face.

"I didn't want him to die, Malik," he said, dully. "I wasn't ready to lose him."

Malik walked over to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Maybe Ryou wanted him to tell him that he was 'sorry' that he 'wished it could have been different'. But Ryou would have known that that was a lie.

"I don't understand," he said, finally. "How could you care this much for him? Why, of all the people you could have, why Marik?"

Ryou didn't answer, just buried his face in his hands and wished he could cry.

"I assume that you pretended your soul was sealed in the Shadow Realm after I was defeated, just like I ordered you to?"

"Yes, Bakura. Whenever Yuugi or anyone else came to check on me I pretended to be unconscious, just like you said."

"Hmm. Good. It's best that you play the helpless victim- that way they'll be fooled much more easily into trusting you."

(Pause) "Yes, Bakura."

"So you didn't talk to anyone?"

(A pause) "Well… there was Marik. He realised that my soul hadn't been taken."

"You met Malik's other half?"

"Yes, Bakura."

"And he didn't hurt you?"

"...No."

(A long pause) "Ryou, what happened while I was in the Shadow Realm?"

"You wouldn't understand."

(Laughter) "Oh, you and your human heart. So susceptible to pathetic emotions like love. I imagine it was something of a game for him to play with you for a while. But why would someone like you choose him, I wonder."

(Silence)

"Answer me!"

"No, Bakura."

"I hear that Marik's come back as well," Yuugi remarked to his friends as they walked home from school. "Yeah, Ishizu called me. He arrived at about the same time Atemu and Bakura did."

Ryou didn't hear the rest of Yuugi's sentence; it was drowned out by the roaring in his ears. Marik was… back?

"Ryou, are you all right?" he heard Anzu ask, sympathetically. "You've gone really pale."

He raised his head and smiled, a real smile. "Yes. I'm feeling absolutely great."

Ryou fidgeted in anticipation as he stood in the hall. "Hurry up, Bakura, we're going to be late for Malik's plane!" he called up the stairs, for what felt like the fiftieth time.

Bakura, grumbling at being woken up at the unearthly hour of eight o'clock, stumbled down the stairs.

"Would you shut up, Ryou? They are moving here, you know. You'll get to see plenty of them, you don't need to be waiting at the airport for them to arrive."

Ryou scowled, and threw a coat in Bakura's general direction. "Look, Malik's my friend and I'm excited about this. And you like him too, don't you?"

"Not enough to get up this early," Bakura muttered.

Ryou grinned in spite of himself, and grabbed his coat. "Oh, come on."

He opened the door, and turned to see Bakura looking at him with a strange look in his eyes. "Ryou, could you do something for me?" he asked, suddenly.

"What?" Ryou asked, in surprise.

Bakura looked like he was about to say something, before shaking his head, and pushing past Ryou to get out of the door.

"Just… try not to get your heartbroken, okay? I still don't understand why you like that psycho so much, but I'll try to restrain myself from killing him as long as this infatuation of yours keeps up."

Ryou smiled faintly at his yami's back. Knowing Bakura, that was the closest he would ever get to saying that he cared.

Ryou was listening to Yuugi's chatter as the group walked across the school courtyard, before he suddenly noticed a familiar figure with spiky hair leaning against the gate, glaring fiercely at a group of giggling girls that were eying him with a little too much interest for Ryou's liking.

Ryou barely processed Jou's angry mutter of: "What's he doing here?" and Yuugi's worried expression, before he ran right up to the boy.

"Hi," he said, angry at the way he blushed fiercely as soon as Marik turned his eyes on him.

"Hi. So I'm guessing the midget and his fanclub don't know about us, judging by the way they're staring at you now," he jerked his head at the small group standing a few metreslooking at the pair in confusion.

Ryou bit his lip and shook his head. "I was worried about what they would say… wait, there's an 'us'?" he said, trying to sound casual.

Marik shrugged, and grinned (in that way that made Ryou feel slightly faint), eyes sparkling. "I thought so. Isn't that what they call it?"

Ryou didn't have time to answer before Marik had pulled him in close, and was kissing him fiercely. Ryou immediately wrapped his arms around Marik's neck, hands fisting in his hair, his mind going blank as the familiar feeling of Marik's lips on his overwhelmed everything else.

After a couple of seconds they broke apart, Ryou going rather red as he glimpsed his friends' shocked expressions out of the corner of his eye.

"Now you don't have to worry about telling them," Marik pointed out, practically, before slinging an arm around Ryou's shoulders. "Come on, let's go."

Ryou grinned, and leaned his head on Marik's shoulder, feeling better than he had in a long time.

"So Marik, huh?" Yuugi asked, awkwardly as he dumped his bag on the desk next to Ryou's.

Ryou nodded, shyly. "Yeah."

He waited, worriedly, for Yuugi to tell him that he was making a mistake, that Marik was evil, that it would all end up badly, but Yuugi merely nodded back, smiling slowly. "Well, I guess that's your choice. And if you trust him, then I do too."

Ryou shot him a grateful look. "Thank you, Yuugi," he replied, quietly.

"But I don't know what you see in him, Ryou. I really don't," he said, shaking his head and smiling ruefully.

Ryou grinned, but didn't answer, and just continued to sort his books for the next lesson.

"Ryou, I don't understand you," Marik said, in his usual straight forward way as the pair lay in bed later that night.

"Hmm?" Ryou asked, sleepily, shifting slightly as he buried his face in the crook of Marik's neck.

"Why are we together?"

"What?" Ryou asked, sitting up in surprise.

Marik shrugged and pulled himself up into a sitting position. "I mean, we couldn't be more different. I was just wondering why you're with me."

Ryou stared at him for a split second, then his face broke into a smile and he kissed Marik gently.

"It's because I love you, idiot. Now go back to sleep."

It was such a simple question.

With such a simple answer.

Was it okay? I hope it didn't seem too rushed... Anyway, if the beginning was confusing, it was basically the idea that Ryou wasn't unconscious during the Battle City Finals, and actually met Marik then. Make sense? I wanted to give them a bit of a history and I just got thinking: What if they did actually meet in Battle City? and then this came out! :)

Thanks very much for reading! :D

Bookworm