Kori: I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated this in so long! I have had total writers block on this but I need to write so I will. I'm also sorry if the characters seem a bit mature for five-year-olds but it's just how it works out. Please read and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh and that's all there is to it.

Just a Kid Chapter 4

Marik dropped his crayon to the ground, letting it fall onto the scribbles of black and purple that covered his paper. He let his violet eyes slide around the room, briefly surveying the other two children.

Atem and Bakura were both working on a picture from the coloring book. It was some kind of monster and, after a quick argument about colors; they were coloring separate parts of it intently. Bakura was coloring the monsters armor and the sky while Atem filled in the monsters skin and the ground.

Marik let out a small sigh. He was burning to know what the older ones were talking about downstairs. He finally pushed himself to his feet, sick of the goody-goody scaredy cats. He turned to go back down the hallway and heard Atem behind him.

"Where are you going?" the boy asked. Marik turned slightly and caught a glimpse of distrust in the other boy's ruby eyes.

"Bathroom," he lied simply, continuing on his way. He rounded the corner and saw the bathroom door next to the stairs. He smirked as a plan formed in his young mind. He went into the bathroom, turned on the light and slammed the door. Now they would think he was actually in there.

After a few moments, he began to creep down the stairs, trying to be as silent as possible. At the bottom, he peeked around the corner to where the strange man was talking to the white haired teen whose name Marik hadn't bothered to remember.

The stranger was tall, taller than any of the others in the room. His skin was as dark as Marik's and he had black stuff around his eyes. He had a cloth wrapped around his head and was wearing a long dress-like thing.

Marik could hear his deep voice, but he didn't understand what he was saying. He took a deep breath and crouched down, creeping along until he was behind the couch. He stayed there and listened intently.

"The Shadow Realm is disappearing," the man said.

Marik heard the teens gasp. What was the Shadow Realm?

"D-disappear?" the only female in the room asked. At least, he thought she was the only female. He had a slight wonder about the white-haired one.

"Disappear may not be the right word, exactly," the man said. "Devoured is better."

"But the Shadows have been around for thousands of years! They've always been there!" said the short one who looked a little like Atem. "How can they be destroyed?"

"I do not know," the man replied. "I wish I did. I do not even know how or why it is being destroyed."

Marik's head was spinning with millions of questions.

"But if it is destroyed…what will happen to the Yami's?" the white haired boy asked.

"Yami's?" Marik muttered to himself, only becoming more and more confused.

"I do not know," the man said. "Nothing like this has ever happened before. They could die, they could disappear, or they could retain the form they are now in. It is a mystery."

Marik backed from his hiding place and back toward the stairs. He didn't understand what they were talking about, but it felt familiar and it made him sick. He silently hurried toward the stairs. When he got there, he looked back once more and froze.

The stranger was staring right at him. Marik tried his best to glare, but he was terrified of this man. He couldn't figure out why though.

He wanted to run, but he couldn't. He waited for the man to tell the others, to get him in trouble, but the man merely watched him for a moment, and then went back to his conversation.

As soon as that man was no longer looking at him, Marik's body relaxed. He put all his concentration into climbing the stairs without a sound. He opened the bathroom door quietly, flushed and turned off the light before slamming the door again.

He walked back into the bedroom. Atem looked up with a suspicious look on his face while Bakura ignored him. The whitette had abandoned his coloring and was looking through what looked like a stack of cards.

Atem got up and went to sit by Bakura. "What took so long?" he asked.

"None of your business," Marik said, crossing his arms.

Bakura looked up before Atem could speak his eyes bright with excitement. "Marik," he said. "We found this stack of cards! They're so cool!"

Marik shrugged and sat on the other side of the boy. The three of them looked at the different monsters. Bakura fawned over the darker monsters, which confused Marik, considering how innocent the boy usually was.

He frowned, thinking about what he had heard downstairs.

He might even ask Malik a few questions later.

X

Ryou watched as Shadi disappeared into the shadows. 'Well, that was the most useless-' he cut off his thoughts. He couldn't think like that. They would get the Yami's back to normal, he knew they would.

He sighed and turned to the others.

They all exchanged confused looks. "W-what do we do now?" Anzu said slowly.

"What can we do?" Tristan said.

"Yeah?" Joey said with a shrug.

"They're right," Ryou said. "There's nothing we can do until Shadi finds out more. He'll come back then. For now…we need to take care of the children."

The rest of the group nodded. "We should probably check on them," Yugi said.

Ryou looked up toward the ceiling. "Yeah, I hope they're getting along."

"It seemed like they were okay with each other," Malik said. "Well, except for Marik, but that kid's a handful for everyone."

Joey raised an eyebrow. "I'm just surprised dat Bakura and Atem are getting along."

Ryou smiled a little bit. "Well, Bakura is very different now. He's so sweet now. I just wonder what he would have been like if-if-"

"If Kul Elna hadn't been destroyed," Marik said softly.

Ryou nodded, looking at his feet. How would Bakura have turned out if that hadn't happened? He might have been nice. Ryou probably would never have met him, though. The whole thing with trying to destroy the world wouldn't have happened. He could have been normal. He could have grown up and had a family.

Ryou felt a few tears welling up as he climbed the stairs. They stopped at the room where the children were. All three of them were looking at a deck of duel monsters cards. Bakura and Atem were arguing over whatever card they were looking at.

Marik was watching them with a slightly amused expression.

Surrounding the children were colored pages. They were mostly just scribbles with a few stick figures here and there.

"How did you find my deck?" Yugi said loudly, causing the children to jump.

Bakura's face darkened with blush. "I-I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I just saw a box and looked inside."

Yugi laughed a bit. "It's alright, Bakura. As long as you didn't mess any of them up."

Atem smiled. "We didn't, Yugi." He nudged Bakura.

Bakura smiled a little bit. Then his eyes brightened and he grabbed a piece of paper beside him. He waved it at Atem.

Atem grinned and grabbed one beside him. They jumped up and ran to the teens.

"Look what we drew!" they said at the same time, holding up their drawings.

Ryou almost gasped out loud. The picture Bakura held was a golden circle with a triangle in the middle. There were five spikes hanging off of the circle and a crudely drawn eye in the middle of the triangle.

Atem was holding a picture with a triangle on it with an eye drawn in the middle.

It was the Millennium Ring and the Puzzle.

"W-what have you got there?" Ryou said, forcing himself to sound normal.

The boys looked at each other and shrugged. "I dunno," Bakura said. "It just kind of appeared in my head, so I drew it."

"They're cool looking though, aren't they?" Atem added.

Yugi nodded," They sure are."

Ryou gulped and smiled. "I think it's time to go home."

Bakura frowned. "Do we have to?"

"Yes we do," Ryou said.

Bakura stuck out his lower lip and pouted slightly, but he gathered his pages and stood beside Ryou. "Bye, Atem," he said.

"Bye, Bakura!" Atem said as the two whitettes began to leave.

Bakura pulled on Ryou's pants leg. "Can we visit Atem again?" he asked.

Ryou smiled at him. "Of course we can. What about Marik?"

Bakura frowned and looked at his feet as they walked. "I don't like him very much. He's mean."

Ryou put a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "Maybe he'll be nicer next time."

Bakura sighed. "Maybe." He yawned.

"Are you tired?" Ryou asked.

"No," he said, rubbing one eye.

Ryou chuckled and scooped the boy up. Bakura stiffened for a moment, which still worried Ryou. It was almost as if Bakura was afraid of him.

The boy now leaned his head against Ryou's shoulder. He yawned again and within a few minutes, was asleep.

X

Marik followed Malik home, thinking about everything he had heard. And about how the teens had acted when they saw Bakura's and Atem's drawings. They thought he was a stupid kid who wouldn't notice, but they were wrong. Atem wasn't either, but he was to trusting. Bakura was, though. Either that or he was really good at acting stupid.

The teens had looked shocked and a little panicked. Marik frowned again. Then he smirked. He could easily act stupid.

He ran up to Malik as he unlocked the door to his home. "Malik," he said in the sweetest voice he could.

"What?"

"What's a Yami?"

Malik looked at him, eyes wide. "Where did you hear that?"

Marik widened his eyes innocently. "I heard one of your friends say it before that scary man showed up. Is it bad?"

Malik bit his lip. Marik could barely keep his innocent face. He knew the older was going to crack.

Now he just had to wait.

Kori: Sorry that this is shorter than it should be. I still hope you liked it! See you in the next chapter.