Everytime he decided to walk home, something weird happened.
It was raining, quite heavily. A black umbrella was protecting the CEO from getting wet. It seemed winter was trying to fight its last battle against spring. It was a lost battle, but it was worth it.
He was never much of a spring man, but he enjoyed the soft breeze, rather than the cold, strong winds against his face. It was a lovely night for a walk- that is, if you enjoyed the rain. He had had a long, difficult day. He needed some fresh air.
It was 2 am. Mokuba was home, fast asleep by now. He had made sure before leaving.
Domino City was quiet, empty. The raindrops were his only company that night.
He knew it wasn't exactly safe, walking on the empty streets, but he could protect himself against mostly anything.
The rain stopped. He closed his umbrella- the breeze caressed his face, bringing the sweet scent of jasmine with it.
That was when he saw him.
He would recognise this golden hair everywhere. The street lights fell on his green jacket. He stopped running and looked behind him, trying to catch his breath. He was holding his left arm tightly. He seemed scared.
Seto had frozen on his spot, not knowing exactly how to react. If the boy was injured, he needed to do something. Besides... he was clearly running away from something, or more likely someone. This was serious.
Jounouchi didn't notice the tall young man that was staring at him. He took his hand of his wound, staring at the blood that was turning his white fingerless gloves red.
It wasn't a deep wound... why wasn't the blood stopping?
He looked behind him- no sight of the minions. Still, he shouldn't really stay here. Ignoring his aching arm, he kept running- he knew exactly where to go.
Seto stared at the running boy for a while. His feet moved on their own. He was running after Jounouchi, making sure he wasn't going to get noticed by the blonde duelist.
When was he going to ask himself WHY THE HELL was he doing that?
Oh, yes. Some time later.
Jounouchi kept running, until he reached a tall, dirty white fence. He pushed a big wooden plank with his shoulder and got in. Seto stopped in front of the fence with the broken white paint. This... place, whatever it was, reminded him of the cheap cartoons he avoided at all costs watching when he was younger, in that orphanage.
So... a junkyard?
He pushed the plank Jounouchi had displaced a few moments ago and got in.
A car junkyard. It seems he was playing in a cliche cartoon movie. Oh, Pegasus would have loved that.
He looked around. Its owner was doing a great job with these cars- most of them didn't seem broken. All sorts of cars were placed carefully next to each other. The street lights made the recently washed by the rain vehicles shine.
Said owner was nowhere to be found. But then again, it was nearly 3 am.
Thinking that he was staring in a horror movie, rather than a cartoon one, he walked inside the junkyard, looking around for a certain blonde. Where had that boy gone, anyway?
"Kaiba?!"
He looked around to find the source of the voice. There he was, sitting on top of a red car's hood. Seto walked towards him.
Now what sounds less wrong?
I saw you running, thought you were injured and got worried, so I followed you.
I saw you running, so I followed you.
I was passing by and thought I would fullfill my dream of visiting a car junkyard.
Nailed it.
"What the hell...?" the blonde said, when Seto stood in front of him, throwing his umbrella on the front seat of the car through the pane-less window.
"Aren't I the one who should be asking this?" Seto said, folding his arms on his chest. That was when he noticed the wound on Jounouchi's arm. "Holy shit... give me that..." he said, taking Jounouchi's arm. "Who did that?".
Jounouchi was left with his mouth hanging open. He pulled his arm back softly. Seto had lost his cold mask.
"Let's...just...take it from the beginning. What are you doing here?" he said.
Seto took his arm again. "Did someone stab you?! I followed you..."
Jounouchi blinked fast. He didn't pull his arm away this time. "Why did you...?"
"I saw you running. You looked scared and... in pain. So I followed you to see for myself if you were okay, which apparently, you're not." he said, saphire eyes examining the wound.
"You are forgetting one thing." Jounouchi said.
"What?"
"You...kinda.. hate me!"
He met Jounouchi's gaze. Oh, yes, they were still on that.
"I... don't hate you. I just dislike you deeply." he answered, returning his attention on the wound. It was a big, but luckily, not a very deep wound. He just needed to tie it with something so he would stop the bleeding...
Jounouchi's green jacket was right in front of him. He took it in his hands- it was torn and bloody. Signs that the boy had been caught in a fight. "I don't think that's salvageable..." he said. Jounouchi nodded.
"Well, sorry about that... but I don't want you passing out due to blood loss."
Tearing the jacket competely apart was easy. Jounouchi didn't complain. He placed the cleanest part of the clothing on his arm, covering the wound and tied it tightly.
"That will stop the blood. But we still need to get it sterilised..." Seto said.
A pair of brown eyes were staring at him. "Thanks...Uhm... It's 3 am, what are you-?"
"Long day at work, needed some fresh air."
"In the middle of the night?" Jounouchi raised an eyebrow.
"Quite so. Now, what on earth happened to you..?"
Jounouchi hid his eyes behind his fringe- Seto knew very well that this was a sign he was about to lie. "I got mugged and-"
"Please don't lie."
Perhaps it was the fact he had said 'please'. Perhaps there was something on the tone of his voice that encouraged Jounouchi to speak the truth. Or maybe...
Jounouchi saw the opportunity to have a conversation with Seto and took it.
He sighed and moved slightly away from the tall duelist. "Wanna come up?"
The brunette CEO stared at Jounouchi and then the slightly wet car. He climbed on top of it and sat next to the blonde. "Listening." he said.
"Okay... I.. My dad... got in trouble. Loan sharks! He should have payed them back about a month ago, but he didn't... I don't know how much he owes them..."
"What best way to teach him a lesson that get to his own son..." Seto hissed.
Even he didn't know why, but Jounouchi was flattered by the fact that Seto sounded insanely angry.
"Sort of. I suppose that was the plan! They sent one of their minions after me, but he wasn't exactly the mafia type... Not very fast, either. I don't know what they expected of me, but getting away from that guy wasn't as difficult as I would have expected. Of course, I didn't get out of this unscathed, but I managed to run away... and I'm pretty sure he lost me." he said.
"I was behind you for some time. I would have noticed if someone else was following you." Seto said.
"I certainly hope so... If we DO get caught here, we-"
"If they know what's good for them, they won't mess with me. Besides... I am armed." he said, putting his hand in his KaibaCorp-designed coat and pulling out a gun.
"It's empty.. but nobody knows apart from you and me." he said, putting it back quickly.
Was Jounouchi supposed to be turned on by that sight? Probably not...
"He had a knife?"
"Yes... He tried to stab me, but he missed... and gave me that." Jounouchi said. He lied on the car's front pane (the only one still intact), using his unharmed arm as a pillow. Seto mimicked him, slightly worrying about the pane's durability.
"Does this loan shark have a name?" he said, staring at the sky.
"Why are you asking?" Jounouchi said, his heart beating fast.
"Just tell me."
"Okiyama... Tarou Okiyama." the blonde said, unsure of whether he should have mentioned that name or not.
"Good."
They were silent for a few moments, staring at the now clean, starry night sky.
"How come YOU were so late out?" Seto asked softly.
"I was going home from Yugi's place. He thought I should stay the night, because it was late but... I thought, what could possibly happen to me?" the blonde said, smiling apologetically. He remembered he was still wearing the blood stained gloves- he took them off and stuffed them in his pocket.
"What's with this place?" Seto asked, looking around.
"Well, it has a really weird story. It seems like a junkyard, but in reality, it's a car cemetary. There's a really weird man in his late forties that lives nearby. Some sort of a crazy car engineer. He comes here most days and... well, fixes the cars! He doesn't get payed, he doesn't intend to sell them... He just... likes fixing them. It really makes me wonder what he's going to do when he's done with these cars- they had been here for some time, nothing new has been brought for more than a year...
There are still plenty for him to play with but sometime... there won't be any more..." he said, looking around.
"Any chance he is somewhere around here and he will appear at the worst possible time?" Seto asked.
"Can you imagine that? A crazy guy with an old black cardigan, a hockey mask and a bloody wrench sneaking up on us." Jounouchi said, widening his eyes, as his imagination wondered in paths of serial killer horror films.
"I actually had something more ghost-like in mind, this being a car CEMETARY. Pale face, black circles under his eyes... Wrench? Yes, not a bloody one though. Covered in grease and car paint, maybe, but not blood." Seto said.
The boys looked at each other and burst into laughter. "You have a vivid imagination, don't you Kaiba?"
"Seems so." he answered.
Hoping the pane would support his weight, he moved upwards, his back now resting on the cold glass.
"He comes here only by day. When I have troubles, or I need to go somewhere nobody can find me, I come here." Jounouchi said, looking into Seto's eyes. "Of course you knowing this defeats the purpose, but anyway..."
"You know... You need to get that wound sterilised... It might get infected." Seto said, his eyes on the young blonde.
"Oh, forget my wound. You know...", he moved slightly upwards as well, although he was still on a lower level than Seto was, "I'm surprised... We have been here all this time, discussing.. instead of being on each other's necks."
"We are in a car cemetary which is regularly visited by a crazy engineer, lying on a mostly paneless and broken red car... and the weirdest thing is us talking?" Seto asked.
"Yes."
"You're right." Seto smiled.
"Wow. You actually do smile. And it looks pretty great on you." Jounouchi said, his eyes on Seto's lips. Their eyes met- they were silent for a few more moments, until
Jounouchi spoke again. "You didn't tell me why you followed me, though..."
"Well... I saw you... looking scared and hurt and I wanted to make sure you were okay. I told you in the beginning of this conversation." he said quietly.
"Well... thanks. For all your help." he said, smiling, moving closer to Seto.
"Don't mention it. You're gonna get sick anyway..."
"Why?"
"It's early spring and you were running around without an umbrella- you're soaked, your clothes are drying up on you. Maybe I should get you home..." Seto said, failing miserably not to sound worried.
"Firstly... You're exaggerating. Secondly, I don't think going home is the best solution. You know I'm not a coward, but I don't like the thought that perhaps there is someone waiting for me back home... and I don't mean my dad. I'm pretty glad he's out of town and they can't reach him at the moment." Jounouchi said.
"I wasn't very clear, was I? I keep forgetting you're not very sharp..." Seto said, smirking... in a tone nothing but offending or mocking, though. "You will stay at my house tonight. You will go home when your troubles are solved."
"And how is this possible?" the blonde asked, moving even closer to Seto. Their bodies were now softly touching.
"Don't worry about that."
Jounouchi widened his eyes. "Seto... don't get involved in-"
"No need to worry. I won't be doing anything dangerous. I will simply tell Okiyama to leave you alone. Don't worry about the money, or yourself... or your father."
Seto of course, didn't care at all about Katsuya senior. There were rumors going around he had been hiting his son and if that was true...
Seto tightened his fist.
Luckily, that went unnoticed by the blonde duelist.
"You don't have to..."
"Oh, shoosh, puppy." Seto said, removing blonde locks of hair off the boys eyes.
"...Puppy...?"
Puppy, alright. Judging by his expression, if he had a tail, he would be wagging it happily.
Seto straightened his body. "You prefer mutt, then?"
"Well... I kinda like that... "puppy" thing..." he said, smiling.
Seto turned his face away. Blushing wasn't like him, but right now he was red as the Slifer.
"Seto..."
"Hm?"
"Thanks for everything... You actually just offered me a safe house-a pretty huge one, I might add- to spend the night, you... are apparently planning to get me rid of my problems... You even tied my wound." he was smiling- his face was close to Seto's.
"My house is big enough. I don't necessarily have to see your face for as long as you stay..." he said.
Jounouchi tilted his head. "So.. will I be pushing this too much if I kiss you?"
Saphire eyes met dark brown ones. "Most definitely." he whispered. Jounouchi felt his hot breath on his lips.
"You know I will kiss you anyway, don't you?" he whispered.
"You'd better..."
He held the puppy for a few moments, kissing him, stroking his chest...
After breaking the kiss, Jounouchi sneezed.
"I said you would get sick, didn't I?" Seto whispered, stroking his skin, under the still wet shirt.
"Oh, shut up, Kaiba."
"How about we get some place warmer, so you will change clothes?"
"Or simply remove the ones I am already wearing..." he said, brown eyes giving him a beaming look.
"That sounds much better, yes..."