Chapter 6: His and His Alone.

"MARIK! CALM DOWN!"

"DESTROYING THE HOUSE WON'T MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER!"

"WELL LET ME SEE HIM THEN! DO YOU WANT ME TO KILL YOU, ISHIZU?!" Malik flinched when his younger twin grabbed Ishizu by her neck. "Master Marik, please calm down-!" Marik's dark-lavender glared at Odion with sheer hatred. "You're the last person I want to hear anything from, Odion." He hissed dangerously.

"M-Marik, let go of Ishizu…" Malik asked his younger sibling. Before Yugi came, Malik was the only other person besides Kisara he actually listened to in the middle of his rage. "Marik, please, I can hear your voice all the way from inside." Kisara came out from Yugi's room, looking calm but exhausted.

"KISARA! How is he?" Marik asked, grabbing Kisara by her shoulders (and therefore letting go of Ishizu). "He will be fine. Anzu's inside now, healing him. My spirit's affinity is not for healing, after all." Kisara sighed. "I think the reason why he is still not waking is because it was his first time exposed to such a large amount of shadow magic. It's such a sheer luck that he isn't dead by your attack yet, Marik."

"So, Yugi's now in the shadow realm?" Malik asked, sounding afraid. Kisara nodded. "I'm afraid so… well, I think I will ask Anzu to guide him back-"

"No."

Kisara narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?" She asked. Marik clenched his fists so tight that they started to bleed. "I'll get him back. He's my life partner. Besides, I don't think Devlin would have liked it if I endanger his life partner."

"Since when do you even care if Duke like what you did or not?" Malik asked under his breath. "That's enough, Malik." Ishizu said, resuming her position as the head of Ishtar family. "Marik, you've never done this. Even though you do not like me, I am still your sister and your safety is in my best interest. I do agree that you should go because you're Yugi's life partner, but I also think that it's best if we leave it to Anzu because she travelled the shadow realm before."

"Most honorable sister, I love you," Ishizu gasped, clearly taken aback by her youngest brother's statement. "I love you so much I sometimes want to kill you… it's the same with Malik too. It's just what my instincts told me to do. But this is the first time in my life that… that my instinct told me to go the shadow realm and save him, not to kill him! I'm going, Ishizu, and you're not going to stop me." Nobody in the room could move after what Marik said.

The dark lavender-eyed man entered the room where his life partner was panting and shivering under a blanket. A girl with lightly tanned skin and blue eyes looked up to him, surprised. "Loony- I mean, Master Marik…" Anzu said as she took a deep breath.

"Thanks for healing him, woman." Marik said, not looking at her at all. "You can go now. I'll take over from here." But Anzu stayed and shook her head. "You're going to the shadow realm, right?" Marik looked at her. And even without nodding, she smiled. "I don't know you're such a good person, Master Marik. You're willing to go there to find Yugi, ne?"

"I summon my spirit, Magician of Faith." A pink-haired magician appeared, hovering over Yugi. "Place your hand on top of his head, Master Marik." When she was about to guide his hand to Yugi's sweaty forehead, he slapped her hand away. "I… Don't touch me." Anzu smiled, understanding the fact that Marik was unaccustomed to people being kind to him.

Marik touched Yugi's forehead and felt how cold it was immediately. He looked towards Anzu, who was chanting some prayer to her Magician of Faith. "Once you get there, you need to find him. And you need to convince him to return to the real world. I will have to remind you that he will act without any restraints there, he will act like how he is without common sense or anything." Marik nodded. "When you convinced him, summon your Revival Slime so it could guide you back here. I will open the portal. Good luck."

With a smile from Anzu and her Magician of Faith, Marik delved into the darkness.

The place was foggy, but Marik was no stranger to the purple clouds.

After all, he liked the shadow realm; he'd visited here on many occasions (outside of Ishizu's knowledge, of course). When his instincts took over for him, he resided here. But this shadow realm was different than anything he had seen before.

It was cloudy all right, but it wasn't as thick as it usually was. And as he walked the void, he was met with a pure-white door.

This must be where Yugi was, he could tell by how his Eye of Horus was scorching under his ear.

Taking a deep breath, Marik opened the door. He didn't know what to expect since he never came to someone else's shadow realm, but when he surely didn't expect anyone's shadow realm to look like… this.

He was in a room of pure white with blotches of colors here in there. He felt pleasant when he saw the yellow, green, and blue but he felt irritated and angry when he saw the purple, black, and other splotches of dark colors. The room was spacious, and had various toys and dolls scattered here and there. The most noticeable one was a humongous dragon doll with red stones all over it, and there were other dolls as well. A small swordsman was on the corner of the room, but there were other dolls there with the same swordsman, only a growing at each phase.

"Dare?" A voice- Yugi's voice, speaking a foreign language that Marik had never heard before. "Dare desuka, Onii-san?" When Marik brought his attention to the farthest corner of the room, he saw his life partner- a very much smaller version of him, at least.

The kid was… cute. The smaller Yugi hugged a small magician and a pink-furry monster with huge blue eyes. He was leaning to a much bigger version of the magician he was hugging. Big, wide (even wider than the usual Yugi's own) and utterly adorable-look amethyst orbs looked at Marik with sheer innocence and curiosity. He gestured Marik to come closer.

"Asobitai nanoka, Onii-san?" Marik wanted to click his tongue. He didn't appreciate his life partner using a language he didn't understand. But Anzu's words filled him. This was Yugi. The true essence of Yugi's soul. The kid looked so Ra-damned fragile, who knows what'll happen if he as much as raised his voice here.

With a wide smile on his face, the smaller Yugi gave him the pink-furry monster as he cradled the magician one with his small arms. When the magician fell, he giggled cutely.

As much as Marik would have liked to indulge in the kid's innocent presence (which contradicted his own malicious one), he put the pink-furry doll on the floor and scooted closer. "Come back, Yugi." He said sternly, and very awkwardly, as he never spoke to a kid requiring intense care before. Yugi seemed to understand him, because the kid tilted his head as he frowned.

"Doushite?" Why. Marik knew the kid would ask. "Because this isn't your world. Come back, the real world needs you. I need you." He felt… weird, and somehow disgusted at himself for saying such a thing. But, when the smaller Yugi scooted even closer and hugged him, he instantly felt better about what he just did.

"Why though?" Yugi whispered, using the Arabic he was familiar with. "I'm happy here, and if you stay here… you'll be happy too!" Fear flashed briefly on the kid's eyes before being replaced by sheer warm and content. And also a glint of determination to keep Marik here.

"Look, kiddo, I get it." Marik ruffled the kid's soft hair. "You're scared of the shadow powers. You did get a full-blast of my aqua move. But I assure you… You're mine, and I don't let anyone else harm my things." Anyone else. But that excludes me. "Yours?" The kid asked, biting at his lower lip as he did so. "Yeah. Mine, and mine alone."

Not even the Pharaoh, his damned priests, or even the whole Egypt will fuck around with him. This kid was his. Yugi Mutou had burrowed his way into people's hearts in the past few weeks. But none of them would be able to have him, because he was his life partner. His.

A proud smirk made its way to Marik's face before kissing the kid on his forehead. "Leave it to me, kiddo." He said, ignoring the constant itching of the Eye of Horus under his ear.

"If it's you… we can entrust Master to you…"

The kid in front of him turned into the magician Yugi was hugging earlier. The entire room lit up and cheered, they all said the same thing: "If it's you…"

Foreign emotions: such as joy and fulfillment flowed into Marik's nerves. He had never feel something like this before. Someone depended on him. That was more than enough.

Suddenly, the room shattered into pieces, leaving only he and the little magician… only, it wasn't little anymore.

A fully-grown magician with white robes and silver hair was beside him, smiling. "You're… Yugi's shadow spirit." The spirit gave a simple nod. "I am Silent Magician." The magician's voice echoed within his head. "Go, my Master's life partner. He is just over there." The magician pointed to the darkness, where his life partner was searching in the dark.

Marik gave one last look to the magician, who nodded with a smile. The platinum-blond haired male ran to the lost kid and grabbed him on the shoulder. "A-ah?!" Yugi asked, clearly confused. "It's me, kid. Let's go home." Marik's hand gripped Yugi's wrist, clearly unwilling to let go.

The kid gave a relieved smile and a content sigh. "Marik-san…" he whispered gratefully. Marik summoned Revival Slime, who brought them back to where Anzu and Duke was with their spirit out in the waiting, clearly opening the portal from which he came out from.

Pretty much everyone was in the room, even the Pharaoh and his fucking Priest. They all shouted his name, but he couldn't care less.

When he felt a grip tighten around his hand, Marik turned around to see his life partner sleeping with a tear and a smile upon his face, a small transparent magician hovered on top of him protectively. The magician smiled to Marik. "Yours." It said with sheer confidence.

"Mine." Malik replied with the same undeterred confidence as he ran a hair through his life partner's tricolored hair. Of course, he purposefully made it loud enough for a certain Pharaoh to hear.

Japanese:

Dare? - Who?

Dare desuka, Onii-san? - Who are you, big brother?

Asobitai nanoka, Onii-san? - Do you want to play, big brother?

Doushite? - Why?