"Akia-san! Can I have your autograph?"
"Yugi-kun! Are you free after school?"
"Akia-chan, please go out with me!"
"Yugi-kun, you look so cute today!"
The twins sighed at all the attention they were getting. It hadn't let up at all since the end of Battle City. It even actually seemed like it was getting worse. The amount of confessions Akia was getting made her almost numb to them at this point. With Yugi, the girls would invite him for ice cream, spend lunchtime with him and talk to him more in general, to Anzu's dismay.
It had been almost a week since Marik and her stopped talking. She was getting more sleep, but she was feeling a lot more down than before, which made her quite cranky. She'd gone out with Mai the day before, but, just like at school, both of them couldn't have a moment of peace, considering how Mai had also gotten her fair share of fanboys.
"Let's look on the bright side, Akia-chan. At least our meals and drinks are always paid for when we go out now," Mai had told her after one of their fans offered to pay for them.
"I guess... But I don't know if it's worth all of this hassle," Akia had replied.
"I see you've been catching up on your sleep, at least."
"I have. Never thought it'd feel this horrible, though. I'd almost rather not sleep at all than to not talk to Marik for this long," the red-eyed girl had said in between sips of her coffee.
"Lighten up, honey, the week is almost over. You'll be talking to your boo again pretty soon," Mai had tried to reassure her.
Akia went to sit on her desk, ignoring the horde of fans gathering around her. She almost regretted arriving earlier at school because now she had to suffer through the constant stream of attention from the fanboys for another thirty minutes.
Suddenly, Akia decided to get up and run out the classroom, hoping to lose her pursuers. She ran outside, and was able to get away from everyone after running through most of the courtyard to confuse them as to where she was going. Just as she was able to catch her breath, her back leaning on the school building's wall, she heard footsteps approaching. She quickly looked to who it was and saw a boy that she did not recognize.
"Akia-chan... Is everything alright?" He asked.
She let out an annoyed sigh. "It was, until you found me, whoever you are. Why are you calling me Akia-chan, we're not even friends..."
"I'm a third year actually. The name's Issei Junta," he replied with a smile.
"Well, Issei-senpai, I'd like to be alone, please." Akia replied dryly, not even looking at him.
However, instead of leaving, he just walked closer. "Akia-chan, I was hoping to get to know you better. You're so cute, you're like my ideal type."
Akia was starting to get uneasy with how close he was getting. "Well, I'm not interested, so if you won't leave, I will-"
As she was going though, the boy held her wrist, keeping her from leaving. "Let go of me!" She exclaimed.
"Akia-chan, at least give me a chance. You don't have to be so rude," he reprimanded her.
"I told you I'm not interested, now let go!" Akia reiterated, but his grip only got stronger, causing her to wince in pain. "Ow...!"
"Just one kiss! I'll prove to you I'm worth it!"
"Let go of me, you creep!"
"Get your hands off of her!" A familiar voice ordered from behind them. Akia's eyes widened, wondering if she was dreaming of this was reality.
"Who the hell are you? You don't look like you're even from here," Issei retorted, not letting go of her wrist.
Akia knew then that she wasn't dreaming. She looked up at the newcomer and tears spilled out of her eyes. "Marik!"
Seeing her call out for him he ran to her, causing the other guy back up in surprise, since Marik was much taller and much more built that he was. As soon as he let go of Akia, she ran to Marik who hugged her tightly while she sobbed in his arms.
"W-What the fuck...?" The guy cursed, but he was ignored by both of them. He ended up just leaving, starting to feel very out of place and awkward.
"Akia... My Akia..." Marik called her name while kissing her tears away.
"This isn't a dream right...? You're really here?" She cried, running her fingers though his hair and grabbing at his shirt to convince herself that this was all real.
"I'm here, my goddess. I'm not going to disappear anymore," he reassured her and kissed her lips almost feverishly.
Feeling his lips on hers, his tight embrace, Akia felt as though a big weight was taken off her shoulders. She had a million questions running through her brain but she just wanted to let herself be swept away in his strong arms for now. Akia wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, easily carried by him as they kept kissing.
When they finally pulled away from the kiss to breathe, Akia started to notice what he was wearing.
"Why are you wearing our school uniform...?" She asked with a growing grin.
"I wanted to keep it a surprise for when the teacher would introduce me to your class, but I couldn't just sit back after seeing you running around the courtyard and being approached by that weirdo. Yes, I am now officially a student at your school," Marik replied with a smirk and gently put Akia down.
Before Akia could ask any more questions, the bell rang.
"Time for class, then. Can you actually show me where the faculty office is?" Marik asked his girlfriend.
"I still can't believe you're here... And you're a student at my school? What about your clan? And the ritual you were supposed to conduct?" Akia kept questioning him as she guided him, hand in hand, to the faculty office.
"Slow down, princess. There's a lot to cover, so let's talk about all that after classes," he replied to her with a chuckle.
"Fine, but you better tell me everything. I'm so happy, though, my heart feels like it's going to burst out of my chest..." The red-eyed girl let out a small squeal.
"It was so hard not talking to you about all this because I wanted to surprise you."
"So you've been planning this for a while, haven't you?!"
"I won't answer your questions until later! It'll take too much time to explain everything."
"Fine..." Akia grumbled.
When they reached the faculty office, they reluctantly let go of each other's hand. Akia explained to her homeroom teacher that the new student was lost so she offered to bring him to the faculty office. Her teacher told her to head to class after thanking her and, after exchanging a longing gaze with Marik, she left the office to go back to class.
When she did, her friends noticed the wide smile that she had on her face. Of course, some of the guys in her class whistled and called her name as soon as she entered the classroom. She ignored it all and sat at her desk.
"Where did you disappear to?" Her brother asked her.
"I was trying to escape the mob of rabid fans," Akia answered.
"Did something good happen? You look unusual chipper," Anzu inquired.
"Oh something way better than good happened..." The red-eyed girl giggled.
Her friends shared a confused look. "You're acting strange, Red Eyes," Jounouchi narrowed his eyes at her.
"It's nice to see you happy after all this time, though, Akia-chan. Did you finally get over that guy?" Bakura questioned, not referring to Marik by his name out of spite.
"As if she'd ever be over him," Honda retorted.
"Oh I'm not over him, but I was all over him earlier," Akia smirked.
"What does that mean?" Her brother inquired.
"It means that... Marik is here at our school!" The black-haired girl exclaimed.
"...You're joking, right?" Bakura asked, starting to feel the irritation rise.
"I would never joke about that!"
"Akia, that's awesome!" Yugi replied. He felt relieved and happy for his sister.
"He actually relocated and got into our school? Not bad. Seems like he really cares for you," Jounouchi added.
"Oh man, that means we'll be witnessing a whole bunch of PDA at school now. You guys better behave," Honda joked.
"He came all the way here for you? That's so sweet!" Anzu said.
Bakura frowned, not sharing their enthusiasm. Even though he was slowly moving on from Akia, he still had feelings for her and had a strong aversion to Marik.
The door of the classroom opened and the teacher walked in, forcing everyone to go back to their seats and end their conversation.
"Before we begin with class, I'm sure some of you already heard, but we have a new transfer student. He's not from here, so be nice. Come on in," the teacher briefly said before inviting Marik to walk in.
The young Egyptian man walked confidently to the front of the class, turning to face everyone with a friendly smile. His gaze stayed fixated on Akia, though, who kept his eye contact with her own. Bakura, on the other hand, couldn't help but glare at him. Marik didn't notice him there, though, his full attention lying elsewhere. Some girls started squeaking and murmuring about how handsome he was.
"So tall...! He looks like he works out too..."
"We have Bakura-kun and Otogi-kun, but now we have this new guy too!"
The teacher cleared his voice to get everyone's attention. "Alright, enough chitchat. Please introduce yourself to the class."
"Of course. Hello everyone, my name is Marik Ishtar. I look forward to spending our school days together," he confidently introduced himself.
"Marik? Sounds exotic! I wonder where he's from."
The murmurs and squealing continued.
"Settle down!" The teacher raised his voice to get everyone to shut up. "He's come a long way from Egypt so I trust you'll kindly show him how things work. Now, for your seat, you can go sit in the empty seat next to Yugi. He'll help you with anything you're not getting during class."
That seat coincidentally happened to be diagonal to Akia's and right in front of Bakura's. As he got to his seat, Marik winked at Akia before sitting down.
Bakura let out an annoyed sigh. "Great... I'm stuck looking at this asshole for the rest of the year..." The white-haired boy mumbled.
"I'm not exactly thrilled to have you in my vicinity all day long either," Marik quietly retorted without turning around to look at Bakura.
Akia would be worrying about this, but she was way too happy to care about their bickering right now.
The whole class, Yugi helped Marik with anything he didn't understand and shared some of his notes with him as well. The latter would glance at Akia here and there and they would both share bashful smiles whenever they made eye contact.
When the bell rang, signalling lunchtime, before Akia, Marik, or Yugi could get up from their desk, all three were surrounded with a different group of people. Akia mostly had a bunch of guys asking her to eat lunch with them, while Marik and Yugi had mostly a bunch of girls trying to eat lunch with them.
Akia frowned and sighed in annoyance. That was when the group of guys around her were pushed a bit to the side, making way for Marik who was not going to let anyone or anything get in the way of his time with Akia. He extended his hand to her and she immediately took it. When she did, he pulled her up towards him, wrapping his arm around her waist. He gave her a quick peck on the lips, which caused an uproar among the other students.
"Let's eat lunch together," he said with a cheerful smile, ignoring the gasps and grumbles of the students around them.
"S-Sure! Damn that was pretty hot..." Akia mumbled, impressed by his confidence and boldness.
"Gotta make people know that we're each other's, don't we?" Marik replied with a wink. He then unwrapped his arm from around her waist, but kept holding her hand.
After Yugi was able to get out of the mob of fangirls, he got out of the classroom with Anzu, Honda, Jounouchi, Bakura, Akia, and Marik, all of them heading to the rooftop where they would have a bit more peace. Soon after, Otogi joined them as well.
As Akia looked around, surrounded by her friends and her boyfriend, she thought to herself how she'd happily get used to this, even with the death glares that Marik and Bakura were giving each other.
"When did you arrive in the country, Marik?" Yugi asked.
"Actually it was this morning at 5AM. I didn't have time to unpack much before heading to school," he answered.
"Here, let's share my lunch," Akia offered as she sat down on the floor next to him.
"Thank you, princess," Marik beamed as she started to feed him.
"Get a room, you two," Otogi chuckled.
"You didn't see what this man did in front of the whole class!" Honda replied.
"What did he do?" Otogi inquired.
"He straight up pulled her in his arms and kissed her. You should've seen how red her face got," Jounouchi laughed.
"Shut up, Jounouchi!" Akia yelled out to hide her embarrassment.
"Akia-chan, you look so happy now," Anzu smiled to her friend.
"I am very happy..." Akia mumbled, feeling her face heat up as she looked down shyly.
Marik found her reaction so adorable that he couldn't help himself from kissing her cheek, causing her face to become redder than ever as she hid it in her hands.
"I really don't know how I feel about seeing my sister be kissed, but I'm pretty relieved to have you here. She always looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion most days," Yugi stated.
"And whose fault do you think that was," Bakura sighed as he frowned at Marik.
"That's part of the reason why I decided to move here," the young Egyptian man proudly stated, smirking at Bakura.
"Move?!" Everyone exclaimed, each with a different reaction. Most were surprised, while Bakura was annoyed, and Akia was overjoyed.
"Yeah, I even got my own apartment," Marik added. "Of course, when you need to go to Egypt to unlock the Pharaoh's memories, Yugi, I'll come with you to help guide you along with Rishid and Ishizu."
"Yeah, I'm looking into going after the semester ends. We can't afford to lose any more school days," Yugi replied.
"So you're planning to live here? Forever?" Akia asked expectantly.
"Yes, my queen. I told you I won't be leaving you anymore," Marik replied with an endearing smile as he tucked a bit of Akia's hair behind her ear.
"What about your clan? And your traditions? And-" The red-eyed girl started asking, but Marik softly placed his index finger on her mouth.
"I'll answer everything after school. There's too much to discuss and we have a lot of catching up to do too," the young Egyptian man told her.
"Fine..." Akia nodded.
Everyone kept talking, eating and laughing together until the end of lunch break. As they got back to class, Akia already couldn't wait for it to be over, wanting answers, but mostly wanting to find herself in Marik's embrace once more.
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So it's going to be a few chapters before the pharaoh's memory arc. I know some have voiced how I should skip the waking the dragons arc (I guess along with KC Grand Prix as well) and jump to the memory arc. So for the next few chapters, it could either be a normal(ish) school arc until the end of the semester or I can do the two filler arcs if enough people want them. Tell me your opinions everyone :)