Carved in Stone

Forbidden Knowledge

*disclaimer- I don’t own the following things mentioned in this chapter (Budweiser, Marlboro,
Rayban, Cheerios and Edelbrock.) So they better not come after me. (Considering I was kind
enough to include them and give them free advertising! LOL)

            Upon his arrival back at Kaiba Corps, Joey immediately noticed Mokuba and Noa
scrambling around the first floor lobby with suitcases. He knew something had to be going on, so
he proceeded to get the scoop.

“Hey guys, what’cha doin’?” he ask them curiously, glancing at the suitcases.

Mokuba looked up and smiled.

“Hi Joey, I’m moving out today.”

Joey didn’t seem surprised that Mokuba was leaving home. It was something he saw coming for
a few months now. Living with Seto Kaiba wasn’t always easy, and how Mokuba did it for 18
years was simply astonishing. Seto’s mood swings had only gotten worse over the last six
months. He’d withdrawn himself from socializing with others more and more. He had never
been much of a social butterfly in the first place, but he used to at least leave his office on
ocassion. His relationships with both Joey and Mokuba had become strained, and instead of
talking and working things out, Seto kept to himself and buried himself in his work

.

“Need any help?” Joey offered politely.

Mokuba shook his head.

“Nah, I think we got pretty much everything already. Thanks for offering though, Joey. Holy shit,
what happened to your face?”

Joey smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“Suit yourself, Mokie-Pokie. It’s gonna be weird without you around. I’m really gonna miss
hanging out with you. I hope you’ll come back and visit your brother and me every now and
than. As for my face, well, I got into a little scrap last night, nothing major.”

Noa chuckled as he passed by carrying two black leather suitcases.

“Mokie-Pokie?”

Mokuba scrunched up his nose and made a funny face.

“Joey! I told you not to call me that in front of anybody!”

Joey grinned impishly and laughed.

“You did? Oh yeah, I guess you did, oops, my bad.”

 

Mokuba rolled his eyes and smiled at Joey.

“I promise I’ll come back to visit, as long as you don’t fucking call me that anymore, okay?”

Joey pretended to ‘zip his lips’ and sighed.

“, yo, your no fun....fine, okay, I won’t call you Mokie-Pokie no more. So where’s my hug? Are
you plannin’ on leavin’ without sharing the love?”

Mokuba set down the suitcase in his hand and opened his arms.

“Bring on the love” he chuckled playfully.

Joey hugged Mokuba and patted his back.

“I’m really gonna miss you, dude. I won’t have anybody to help me drive Seto nuts now.”

Mokuba pulled out of their embrace and laughed.

“I’m going to miss that too. Remember when we put all Seto’s underwear in the freezer and told
we did it because we love him? That was great!”

Joey cracked a mischievgringrin.

“The moment he opened the freezer......that expression on his face....that was priceless! Think he
ever figured out we were the ones prank calling him every night?”

Mokuba covered his mouth to muffle his laughter.

“Uh.......I hope not! I really went overboard the other night when I pretended to be from the
phone company. You think Seto believed it when I said, “Sir, as a customer of our phone
company I am required to warn you: tomorrow we will be conducting a phone line blowup.
Please refrain from answering any calls that may come in no matter whappeappens, because you
will receive a shock of about 375 volts.”

Joey instantly burst out laughing.

“That was too funny! You always come up with the funniest shit, kid. That was way better than
the time I called him and started yelling at him in Japanese and repeating ‘I kill you!’ every few
seconds.”

Mokuba grabbed his sides and doubled over laughing at the recollection.

“Oh no Joey, Seto practically shit his frozen boxers when you did that! You had him so freaked
out! I almost died laughing when you ask him to take us all out for sashimi the next day and he
*insisted* we stay home and cook a frozen pizza instead.”

Noa only caught the tail of of their conversation, but it was enough to make him join in the
laughter.

“You guys did WHAT?!?”

Mokuba smiled at Joey one last time and than turned to Noa.

“I’ll tell you in the car. Let’s get a move on, bro. See ya Joey! Thanks for being at my party last
night, unlike *somebody* else.”

 Joey winked at Mokuba and waved his hand.

“You behave yourself now, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

Mokuba looked back and grinned as he walked out the front doors.

“Right-O Joey-Joe, I’ll see you around.”

Joey turned around and headed for the main elevator. He hesitantly pressed the button with the
arrow that pointing up. He mentally tried to prepare himself for the tongue lashing he knew Seto
was going to give him for not coming home the previous night. How was he even going to
explain himself?

As the heavy metal elevator door parted, Joey looked up and froze. A pair of icy blue sapphire
eyes stared coldly back at him.

“Well, well, look what the cat dragged in.......a mutt. I guess what they say is right: dogs always
manage to sniff their way home. Mind telling me where the hell you’ve been, Wheeler?”

Joey bit his lip and nervously stepped into the elevator with his not-very-happy partner.
Explaining himself was going to be even more difficult than he had expected.

*****************************************************************

            A plate-sized black clock with glowing neon pink numbers and the name “Budweiser”
hung on the wall above the heads of Duke Devlin and Tristan Taylor. The clock ticked away the
seconds as the two young men sat across from each other counting piles of money. The bar was
closed, so they were the only ones in the building.

“Dude! We realakedaked in the jing last night! Hell, we might have to call for a police escort to
the bank today, just look at all this cash!” Tristan exclaimed as he gaped at the massive amount
on money stacked up in front of him.

Duke lit up a Marlboro light and glanced up at the television on the wall behind the bar. There
was a man wearing a white turtle neck shirt and Rayban sunglasses talking about Edelbrock
intakes and nitrous.

“It’s probably a good idea that we don’t have any cops involved in our business, you do realize
probably half this cash came from underage kids last night.”

Tristan sipped his bottle of beer and chuckled.

“True....” he nodded as he looked up at the television. “Hey, did you call that guy about those
new tires for our car? I don’t think she’ll make it down the strip if we don’t get some new
threads on her.”

Duke took a casual drag of his cigarette and nodded.

“Yeah, I talked to Dale this morning. The tires should be in by Monday.”

 

Tristan took a final swig of his beer and set the bottle on the table. He gathered up all the profits
from the night before and started putting the cash into a black leather briefcase.

“Cool! I can’t wait to get behind the wheel again. It feels like a lifetime since my last race.”

Duke tapped the ash at the end of his cigarette into the ashtray in front of him and rolled his
eyes.

“A lifetime, Tris? It was only last week. We’re only missing one race, it’s not going to kill you.”

Tristan finished putting the money into the briefcase and groaned.

“That’s what you think.” he snapped back a little harshly.

Duke stretched his arms above his head and let out a long, satisfied yawn.

“Whatever” he sighed sleepily.

Tristan closed the briefcase and stood up looking down at Duke with an irritated grimace.

“I’m not the one that tried to look cool by roasting the tires down at the race track, bud. Who
was it that did that again? OH! Yeah! It was you! Sometimes I really wonder what kind of dope
you’re smoking, dude.”

Duke rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Same dope as you, babe. Damn, Who pissed in your Cheerios today? So what if I smoked the
tires down to practically nothing? I proved my point, didn’t I? It’s not like we canR aff afford to buy
new ones”

Tristan walked over to the bar and tossed his empty beer bottle into the recycling bin and
groaned.

“Duke, sweetheart, darling, love of my life.....you scare me sometimes. Even Kaiba spends less
money than you! What was your point again for leaving a set of 50 foot blackies on the track
again anyway?”

>
<>

Duke’s bright green eyes sparkled as he grinned up at Tristan.

“My point was that it’s possible to leave 50 foot long blackies, duh. Did you see all the smoke
coming from the tires when I did it? Wasn’t that the coolest shit?”

Tristan ran his hand back over his hair and groaned.

“I suppose it was. I could have sworn the ass end of the car was throwing flames by the time you
came to a stop.” br>

Duke mashed out the rest of his cigarette and glanced up at the clock above their heads.

“Oh shit, we’d better get to the bank before they close. Don’t them white collar snobs realize us
blue collar bar owners don’t like waking up before three o’ clock in the afternoon?”

Tristan nodded his head and started heading for the exit.

“No kidding, man. C’mon, let’s roll.”

Duke stood up and sighed.

“Is there time to catch a buzz before we go?”

Tristan made a sour face at his raven haired companion and grabbed him by the arm.

 “No, dumb ass, we only have about 15 minutes before they close.”

Duke hung his head and pouted.

“Awe damn” he whined as he followed Tristan out the side door.

********************************************************

            Malik casually strolled down the busy streets of Luxor back to the hotel he and Ryou
were staying the night at. He felt 100% better after his walk.

He pushed open the glass door leading into the lobby of the hotel and stepped inside.

“Well hello there, Malik. Did you enjoy your walk?” a familiar voice ask in a pleasant tone.

Malik looked around and spotted Ryou’s father only a few feet away.

“Oh, hi Dave, yes I did. How’s Ryou fairing?”

“He seems to be feeling a little better. He tells me you boys found some interesting artifacts at
an oasis, think you could take me there tomorrow? I’d really like to see your findings.” David
replied eagerly.

Malik nodded his head.

“Yes, we did, and yes, I can. Do you know how to read Sumerian cuneiform?”

David nodded his head.

“Yes, I do, why do you ask?”

“I can’t, but for some reason I knew what the words on those stone tablets said. Do you know
about the Sumerian people at all?” Malik ask politely.

David nodded again.

“I’ve studied them almost as extensively as I have the Egyptians. The Sumerian people lived in
Mesopotamia and were involved in many wars. Mesopotamia itself was settled and conquered
by numerous ancient civilizations, including Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Akkad. Other
civilizations who threatened or invaded them included Egypt, the Hittites, and Elam.”

 

Malik looked up at David with awe.

“Wow, that’s deep. Who were the Sumerian’s though, and why would they have been in Egypt?”

 

David chuckled and patted Malik on top of the head.

“I’ll tell you what Malik, I’ll give you a history lesson tomorrow when you take me out to the
site. I really need to get going right now.”

 

Malik shifted his weight from one foot to the other and smiled up at Ryou’s father.

“Okay, thank you, sir.”

 

“Anytime” David responded as he waved goodbye.

 

Malik quickly headed up to the room Ryou and him were sharing for the night. He was looking
forward to rubbing Ryou down with a special herbal ointment he’d purchased from an
apothecary named Senbi [1] who lived in Luxor.

Senbi was the same apothecary that had provided the special healing ointment Malik’s father
used on Malik’s back after he’d carved the ancient scriptures into it. The ointment was derived
from an ancient recipe used by the Egyptians for centuries. It had special healing properties, and
Malik knew it would help Ryou’s sunburn heal much more quickly. It was the least he could do
to make up for his yami’s behavior.

 

Malik quietly walked into their room. He noticed all the lights were off except for in the
bathroom. He heard the water running and Ryou humming to himself. Malik knocked on the
bathrooor.oor.

“Ryou? Can I come in?” he ask politely.

“Malik? You’re back so soon? I wasn’t expecting you for a while yet. Sure, come on in. I’m glad
your back.” Ryou responded cheerfully.

Malik entered the bathroom carrying the special ointment he’d purchased from Senbi and smiled
when he saw Ryou relaxing in a tub of cool water.

“I thought I’d take a nice cool bath while you were away.” Ryou smiled as he sat up.

Malik kneeled next to the bright white bathtub and handed Ryou the ointment.

“I bought this for you, it’ll help your sunburn go away faster. It’s the same thing my father used
when he cursed me with these damn carvings on my back.”

Ryou reached up and took the small glass vial and looked it over.

“Thank you Malik, you’re such a honey.”

Malik touched Ryou’s cheek lightly and smiled.

“It’s the least I could do for you. I feel really bad about you getting burned so bad.”

Ryou reached up and placed his hand over Malik’s.

“It’s not your fault. I should have put some sun screen on before Bakura took over my body.”

Malik bit down on his bottom lip. His eyes shifted over to a book laying on the floor next to the
bathtub. The title caught his eye- “The Kama Sutra.”

He picked up the book and started looking through it’s explicit pages.

“Where did you get this, Ryou?” he ask curiously.

Ryou nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders as he poked his head up to look at the book with
Malik.

“I brought rom rom home, want to give that position a try sometime?” he chuckled playfully.

Malik set the book back down and laughed.

“Maybe after you’re healed up, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Ryou glanced at the vial of ointment and looked back at Malik.

“I’m sure there’s a position we can try that won’t hurt....and if this stuff in this vial works as
good as you say, the possibilities are endless.”

Malik wagged his eyebrows and grinned.

“Move over, I’m coming in there with you!”

 

 

[1] ancient Egyptian name meaning “healthy”

 

**************************************************

 

            In the confines of his soul room, Bakura flipped through the pages of a book he’d swiped
from Ryou. It was a complete compilation of the Sumerian gods and goddesses. The book also
contained a list of the kings that ruled during pre-history. As he was looking through the pages,
one name in the kings section blew his mind: Malik. After reading the entire story about the
ancient king, it left him with a strange feeling that he couldn’t get rid of. He had to share his
findings with his hikari immediately.

 

**************************************************

 

*Hey folks!* I hope you enjoyed this chapter! In the next one I’ll be delving deeper into what
Bakura read about “King Malik.” I’ll have that chapter up Monday along with my responses to
your reviews. As I’ve said many times before, I love hearing your feedback!! One quick note
before I go though- Ryou and Bakura were in Ryou’s soul room getting their groove on. If
Ryou’s on top, they’re in his soul room. If Bakura’s doing the job, they’re in his. I hope that
helps:-)

*hugs n’ kisses to all of you*

 

P.S. I’ll be fixing boo-boo’s hopefully tonight or tomorrow.