The Assassin and The Thief

Chapter 19

(Bakura's POV)
Artist credit: mawika on tumblr

I sit in my Japanese class at my little education centre. I'm making progress, I guess. not gonna pretend I'm a prodigy or a great learner, but I understand how learning another language works since I learned English from Akefia. English was actually more difficult since there're so many dialects and the phonetics is fucked up. Why does America need it's own spellings of things that aren't English, this makes no sense! Then again, 'hello' in Japanese differs depending whether you're answering a phone or talking face to face, so I admit both have weirdly difficult basics. I sit at the back with my arms crossed, staring at the ceiling and waiting for this to be over.

Thankfully I have something to look forward to; Melvin and I are going out tonight, since has massive salary is too much for us to keep up with. And I'm not bragging, it's genuinely an issue. It's s drastic, to suddenly go from poverty to grandeur, adapting to every new thing, like a multi-headed shower. I felt like a path being power washed. I trivialise, but this is something I find myself deliberating for hours. "さようなら," he waves lazily to the teacher and to Zane, who's the only other student in this class who isn't some 'traveller' looking for adventure on their GAP year.

I smile when I see Melvin standing at the corner, reading the menu for a sushi house with that adorable, confused face I love. I decide to scare him, creeping up behind him and placing my hands over his eyes. "Hello Bakura," he sighs in amused annoyance. I huff and pull back, shoving my hands into my pockets. He takes my arm and we start walking towards wherever he's taking me.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"Your gait," Melvin states with a grin. "I have it memorised. I'm an assassin, remember?" he turns into a doorway and I smirk; we're at Kuriya, I fuckin' love this place.

"You were an assassin," I correct as we're ushered to a table, sitting down and struggling to read the long menus. That's another cultural shock for me - the food. It's so different from Egyptian and American food, those two are similar compared to this. I let Melvin order for me, I knows what I like. Once we're alone, something flashes in his eyes and frowns deeply at me. He isn't angry, I can tell. But he's serious, and he's scared. I furrow my brows, waiting for his explanation.

"That's why we're here, kind of," hw shrugs. "It's what I wanted to talk to you about,"

"Okay..." I raise an eyebrow suspiciously, nursing my filling matcha tea. My leg bounces, and I feel the overwhelming urge to smoke. "Go on,"

"I've been offered another job as a freelancer," he states, voice devoid of emotion, his entire body language off. This isn't Melvin, not my Melvin, and I realise I'm sitting here, having dinner with Mariku. The serial killer, the assassin. The deceptive manipulator who's radar I remained on. "And we're on it,"

I can't think for a second, my mind blank to everything. I try to dorm a thought, but smack into a wall, confined to this abyss of ignorance. Until I find myself grinning. Honestly, I should be afraid, and I am, but the adrenaline spikes when I return to that world of adventure. The world I remember from Egypt of fun and fantasy and crime. My grin fades to a smirk and I lean forward, watching the tea powder settle in my mug and stirring it again. "Details," I demand, and Melvin mirrors my grin from before.

"Him, over there," he nods and I drop my bracelet, bending down to catch a glimpse of the man across the room, Caucasian and draped in gold, thick real gold heavily hanging from his pampered, soft skin. I narrow my eyes, I dislike him already, maybe it's the 'rich guy' plate-of-grapes stereotype I watch as he picks hem off his plate one by one. "He's Blue Eyes' brother, Capsule,"

"They have such douche-y last names," I snort, but wave for him to proceed.

"He's an international gold smuggler, not affiliated with his brother's business. His competition Atemu hired me to take him out," Melvin watches him intently, a predator on the hunt as I just watch him, eyes swimming with desire. He's never turned me on so much in his life. "That's why we're here, Kura. I need your help,"