Furious Angels

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Judas remained -- you turned and fled
Hah, you left me for dead
And it didn't trouble your mind
It did not disturb you to see me decline"

Domino International Airport had twenty-four gates; Bakura, Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda were at the seventeenth. Yuugi's mother was there as well. His grandfather hadn't been able to come since the game shop had received a new delivery the day before, and he was in the middle of restocking.

Malik was there too, which had surprised everyone -- except Yuugi's mother, who had no clue what was going on or why her son had needed to skip off to Egypt for a over a week. In fact, it had taken several days' worth of arguing from both Yuugi and, surprisingly, Sugoroku, to get her to consent to Yuugi missing so much school.

But Honda and the others knew that Bakura had offered to let Malik stay at his apartment, so when he had shown up at the train station alone they assumed that the darker teen had remained behind. That was why it came as a surprise to see Malik already in the terminal.

When Jounouchi tried to ask, in his usual blunt way, why he looked so trashed, Malik ignored him and moved several seats further away from the group. He stared out the windows at the planes.

The group still wasn't certain how to act around the Egyptian -- his departure from Domino had been abrupt, and his return even more so -- so when their first few attempts to chat were ignored, they looked to Bakura for an example. And upon seeing that Bakura had only nodded Malik a greeting before continuing his conversation with Honda, they left him alone.

Unlike the others, Bakura wasn't surprised to see the Egyptian -- he'd told Malik the day before yesterday when Yuugi's plane was coming in. There had been no doubt in the paler teen's mind that Malik would show up, no matter what had gone on between them.

Just like Bakura, Malik had to see Yuugi walk off that plane, had to be presented with tangible proof that it was really over, before the nightmares would even begin to taper off. Bakura had actually been counting on the blond's presence, since he'd brought with him the bag Malik had left behind yesterday morning. He was planning to give it back when they weren't surrounded by the others, to avoid a scene. Or, to at least keep the scene between the two of them.

When flight 147 pulled into the terminal, Malik finally sat up from the slump he'd sunk into. Bakura, who had casually fallen out of the others' conversation, shifted and fixed his eyes on the gate doors.

It took a while for them to open, and it took even longer for Yuugi to appear and make his way through customs, but eventually they spotted him among the mass of tourists, returning vacationers, and people racing to catch connecting flights.

"i!"i!" Anzu called, standing up and waving cheerfully. Yuugi looked up at the sound and smiled, but Bakura and the others could see the dark circles under his eyes.

Yuugi's mother reached him first, hugging him tightly and chiding him about jet-lag and how she knew she shouldn't have gone off on his own and why on earth had he wanted to go to Egypt, anyway? --And where was his pendant?

Yuugi flinched at that, and Jounouchi and Anzu both jumped in to change the conversation, creating a noisy confusion that only served to further mystify Yuugi's mother and to make Yuugi himself shake his head rapidly.

When the shorter teen caught his gaze a moment later and nodded briefly, Bakura gave him an empathetic smile. Yuugi tried hard to smile back, but a moment later he let his gaze slip away from Bakura and onto Malik, who was lingering as far from everyone as he could get without being too far from Bakura.

Stepping away from his mother and the others, Yuugi rooted through his suitcase for a second before pulling out a letter. "Ah, Malik-kun, your sister asked me to give this to you," he explained, holding it out.

Malik took the letter and ripped it open without a 'Thank you.' Yuugi seemed a little off-put at that, but no one really expected a whole lot of tact from Malik, so he just shrugged and mumbled "You're welcome" before turning back to the others.

In the mess of greetings and hugs and questions of how things had gone -- the questions and their answers both having to be carefully chosen to keep from freaking out Yuugi's mother -- Bakura managed to slip away and enter the men's bathroom.

He was washing his hands at one of the sinks when he heard the sound of footsteps on the hard floor. Bakura glanced in the mirror, saw Malik watching him, and shut off the water. Then he turned around and let the duffel bag slip off his shoulder, holding it out to the other teenager. "You forgot this. You can't walk around town with just a t-shirt; it's too cold for you."

Malik glared at him and refused to take the. \. "I thought you didn't care," he said bitterly.

Bakura didn't reply, and kept holding the duffel out. The only other man in the restroom gave them a stranook ook as he walked out, but they ignored it.

Malik got sick of the staring contest first, and wrenched the strap out of Bakura's hand before slinging it over his own shoulder with a violence that would have made most people wary. Bakura's face remained emotionless as he turned to the side and started to leave.

He only made it two steps before Malik grabbed his upper arm and tugged him forward, his free hand wrapping around the paler teen's head to pull him into a kiss. Bakura remained still for three seconds before punching him in the stomach.

Malik let go and stumbled back, folding his arms reflexively over his torso, but Bakura hadn't had enough mobility to do serious harm.

The paler teen's face had gone from blank to icy, and Malik glared at him again before suddenly shoving him backwards and pinning him against the wall. "I'm stronger than you," he hissed, his fingers clenching the light fabric of Bakura's long-sleeved shirt tightly.

Bakura's eyes were still cold as he replied, "I have friends outside."

Malik just stared at him, and the only reason that Bakura could see the actual hurt behind the anger and the walls the blond almost always had up was because he knew him that well.

Malik shoved away, pushing Bakura further back against the wall as he did so, before stomping out. His boots were excessively loud on the linoleum.

Bakura sighed in annoyance and shook his head once, before beginning to smooth out the wrinkles in his sleeves that Malik had caused.

"Bakura?"

Bakura tugged the sleeve quickly, but before he could reply, Honda had already barged into the restroom. "Oi, Bakura!"

Bakura gave him a curious look. "Yes, Honda-kun?"

Honda looked him over suspiciously. "Are you all right?"

". . . um, yes?" Bakura replied in confusion.

"You sure?"

"Yes . . . why, what's wrong?"

The brunet jerked his head towards the exit. "That guy came storming out of here like he was really pissed, or you two were fighting . . . I just wanted to make sure nothing'd happened."

Bakura shook his head with a smile, even as he noted that Honda must have been keeping on eye on him. He hadn't minded when he still wore the Ring, since he was sure that it had kept the thief from taking over some times, but for it to still be going on was a little . . . unnerving. Unnerving and remindful of something he didn't want to remember. "Ah. . . . No, I'm fine. We aren't fighting or anything."

Honda still looked suspicious. "Does he know that?" he asked, glancing at the exit again.

Bakura chuckled under his breath. "Yes. But thank you for your concern."

Honda started to say something, but then frowned. "Hey, what happened to your bag?"

"It wasn't mine," Bakura replied. "Are Yuugi-kun and the others still waiting?"

Honda gave him an irritated look, the one he always gave when Bakura changed the subject, but he let it go. He had no reason to worry that the other teenager was trying to cover for some evil murdering spirit anymore. "No, Jounouchi and Anzu talked Yuugi's mom into letting him go home with them, since he'd be stuck taking stock or whatever otherwise. I think they went to get hamburgers."

Bakura tilted his head. ". . . You mehey hey already left?" he asked. "You didn't have to stay here -- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry or anything."

Honda shrugged and slid his hands in his pockets. "Naw, it's not that. I just figure . . . Jounouchi and Anzu are the best people to be with him right now. I'll go see him again later tonight. Or tomorrow, probably, if he's sleeping off jet lag and stuff."

"Ah, yeah . . ." Bakura said softly, looking at the floor. "That's true. . . ."

There was a pause, and then Honda looked at his watch. "The next train's leaving in fifteen minutes -- or were you headed somewhere else?" he asked.

"No, I'm going home," Bakura said, heading for the exit. The brunet fell in step beside him.

"Your shirt's wrinkled," Honda added casually.

Bakura straightened the sleeve without replying.


~