#soloshipping

The boy pouted and looked as though he was about to say something in protest but was stopped by a raised hand from Jonouchi. “Sorry, kiddo, but this dragon’s gettin’ kinda tired. Gotta rest and refuel...and I think pizza is just the thing I need to do that. Now, why don’t ya go hangout with Uncle Marik while I go order the pizza, all right?”

He got no complaints and the boy happily ran over to sit on the couch with Marik while Jonouchi got out his phone and stepped into the noiseless kitchen to begin dialling.

Rakin was Marik’s nephew, being Rishid’s son and all, but he’d always liked Jonouchi more. Marik didn’t doubt Rakin did love him but he didn’t exactly run into his arms like he did every time he saw Jonouchi. Or ‘Uncle Katsuya’ as he called him. To be honest, Marik was actually pretty grateful those two got along so well. He cared about his nephew and all but he did not want him clinging to his leg with a vice-like grip every time he had to babysit.

“Uncle Marik, Uncle Marik! I have a question!” Rakin practically shrieked as he hopped onto the couch.

Marik cringed. “Rakin, indoor voice.”

He lowered his volume, but only by a fraction, before continuing. “I asked Daddy how he met Mommy and he said at a tournament. Daddy said he also used to play Duel Monsters like Mommy and Uncle Katsuya! Did you also play Duel Monsters?”

Marik almost dropped the remote. Was Rishid insane? Why did he say tournament when he could’ve easily made something up...actually, no. He couldn’t have. Rishid was possibly the worst liar in all of Egypt and Japan combined. So, of course, he’d say tournament.

They’d all collectively agreed Rakin would never know about the history of the Ishtars and what happened during Battle City. They’d all be better off if he didn’t know his uncle had killed his grandfather and then almost killed a bunch of other people in a false sense of revenge.

“Uncle Marik, you okay? Your eye’s doing that weird twitching thing again.”

Marik hadn’t even realised he’d spaced out until he had Rakin practically in his lap, face pressed up against his own. Rakin’s eyes were wide with awe as he said, “And that vein on your forehead is all big now. I thought you said that only happened when Uncle Katsuya said something!”

Marik couldn’t help but smile at that and placed a hand on Rakin’s head. He was about to tousle his hair but stopped when he saw the way those big purple eyes looked up at him. Rakin looked exactly how Marik imagined Rishid would have look at that age. He was his father’s body double in every way except for those eyes, he got those from his mother, Mai. It had never occurred to Marik how similar his eyes were to Mai’s until Rakin was born.

Marik removed his hand from Rakin’s head to instead cup his cheek and gently rub right beneath his eye with his thumb. If no one had seen Mai and instead only Rishid and Marik, they would assume Rakin simply took after their side of the family, that he had his father’s face and his uncle’s eyes.

Barely a day went by where Marik didn’t think what it would have been like if Rishid had been born into the Ishtar family instead of brought into it. How would he have handled the initiation? He probably would’ve accepted it no problem and they’d all still be living underground in the middle of the desert. Marik was confused about how he felt about all of that. He hated what his father did to him but if he hadn’t would he be here now? Not likely. If Rishid had been the chosen son instead of him, he wouldn’t have a blond man ordering pizza five feet away or a little boy with strikingly purple eyes looking up at him now.

Marik pulled his hand away and sank further into the couch. He flipped over to an all day cartoon channel he knew Rakin loved and he instantly seemed to forget the weird way his uncle had been acting and instead fixed his gaze onto the screen of bright colours.

Jonouchi decided to enter the room at that moment, grinning. “Okay, pizza’s on it’s way and-wait! Is that Super Samurai Bunny Fighters?! I love that show!” Sadly, he wasn’t lying just to make Rakin happy.