Author's Note: This story is a blatant excuse to write some Jou/Varon love. My favorite YGO couple by far but there aren't nearly enough stories about it. This was written for a LJ community called 12Christmas. ( There should be an underscore between 12 and Christmas. If you're into the whole community challenge thing then go join! There aren't enough members and I'm the only one working on a YGO pairing )
This story will contain no Anzu/Tea bashing. So, um... if you hate her and you're looking for me to make everybody suddenly hate her and turn her into a raving lunatic bitch that will try to kidnap someone and force them to be in a relationship with her or else she'll send some gang to go beat up their real lover... don't read this. But just search through the archives and you'll find some story that contains a few of those elements rather easily.
Pairings asofar in this story:
Jounouchi – 25 and Varon – 23 ( Jeershipping )
Yami – 27 and Seto – 26 ( Prideshipping )
Yugi – 25 and Anzu – 25 ( Peachshipping(?) )
Shizuka – 23 and Honda – 25
Otogi – 25 and Rebecca – 20 ( I have no canon proof of this besides for the episode where they duel together against Varon )
Briefly mentions one-sided Jounouchi and Mai ( Polarshipping )
Marik – 24 and Mai – 29 ( There's no canon proof behind this at all. Nope. None what's so ever. )
Points if someone could tell me the names of the pairings that I don't have named up there… and points if someone could explain to me why polarshipping is called polarshipping.
Chapter One ( Theme: Decorations )
The weather was turning sour, cold and bitter with winds that slapped at his exposed cheeks. Wrinkling his nose and rubbing the coarse material of his gloves against the sides of his face in an attempt to restart the circulation, twenty-five year old Katsuya Jounouchi sighed and stepped out of the garage. As if knowing that he had left that small bit of protection, the wind howled and whistled through the flaying pines and whipped snow and ice into his eyes. Jesus Chri-, Shizuka, you better worship the friggin' ground I walk on for doing this for you.
It was December first and his sister had called him up, bright and early on a Saturday morning. He had answered, of course - living alone meant that there would be no one else to pick up for him. She sounded happy and cheerful and rattled on about this and that she was planning to do with Honda that day to get ready for the Christmas holiday and could big brother stop by later in the afternoon to set up the outdoor lights? They had the boxes sitting in the garage with all the necessary extension cords and she didn't figure it would take too long. There was a brief suggestion of pay but Jou had adamantly refused. Money really wasn't that big a deal for him being a world-famous duelist and even had it been he would have loathed to take it from his baby sister. So he had agreed without bothering to check the weather and was now paying the price for his stupidity.
Stupid Shizuka taking advantage of her older brother. Stupid Honda for letting Shizuka do that. On that note, stupid Yugi for having plans with Anzu and stupid Yami for wanting to spend the day with Seto. He mentally paused for a moment, his body setting up the metal ladder and pulling out one of the cardboard boxes labeled 'X-Mas White Gutter Lights' in a hasty scrawl ( he had called up Shizuka to inquire just what the merry hell that meant. Apparently they were the ones he was supposed to clip along the roof of the house ). Jou couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that he had gone from thinking of the haughty CEO as Kaiba to Seto but he was pretty sure it was somewhere around the same time the Pharaoh had blushingly confessed that his burning feelings of competition with the brunette weren't based so much around competition. It had been the end result of an oddly intimate conversation and Jou had walked away feeling oddly nervous, worried, and scared. A year later when Otogi and Rebecca announced their engagement he underwent the same gut-wrenching, breath-stopping emotions and realized it was panic resulting from the fear he would never find someone to love.
Four years now and he was setting up Christmas decoration outside his sister's house while she went shopping with her husband and three-year-old baby daughter ( named Katie after Jou, of course ). The rubber, slide-proof feet of the ladder rested securely against the uneven surface of the bricked walkway and he started climbing up, clips in his coat pocket and a string of lights slung over his left shoulder. He was clever and witty and relatively rich and handsome ( in the sort of 'boy next door' way; his blond hair and brown eyes were no competition for the exotic look that Yami or Marik had or even for the swirl of innocence that Yugi and Ryou managed to hold about themselves ) and for a while it had seemed that he and Mai were A Thing. On and off and rocky and not exactly what he had been hoping for in a steady relationship, no, but they both had been trying to make it work. And then one morning he woke up to see her talking on the phone, looking happy and relieved and horrified all at the same time and she gave him this one long pitying look before announcing it was over. Two weeks and she was on a plane to the States. Singer in some band now or so he heard; he refused to keep track of her whereabouts. It hurt too much.
That had happened three years ago and the only communication they exchanged now were highly impersonal cards for Christmas and birthdays. Mai had called once, the first year anniversary of their break-up ( August seventeenth, a day he now spent wasted in a local pub called The Winchester ) and she had sounded desperate to put the bad ground behind them but Jou was relentless in his bitter resentment toward her. The long look and the single sentence were the only explanation she had ever given him as to why the last four years of struggle and heartbreak but mostly love had to end. Maybe it did, maybe it was just poison that was slowly seeping out into all aspects of their lives ( most of their friends had started avoiding situations involving the two of them and Seto had flatly stated that he didn't want their bickering anywhere near Mokuba ) but he deserved more than a lousy 'it's over'.
Footsteps crunched up the broken ice and snow covering the driveway and Jou jerked his head around to see who it was. Probably just some delivery man dropping off a package of presents that the Hiroto household had ordered the week before. He sudden movement caused some of the clips to fall out of his pocket, the white plastic becoming nearly invisible on top of the white ice-snow and his hand, fingers bare and numb ( after several minutes he had come to accept that wearing gloves while trying to maneuver the clips onto the gutter while holding the light strand up was going to be nearly impossible ) slipped from its grip on the gutter and Jou found himself falling back. For a moment he was paralyzed with disbelief and fear and a small voice that was telling him to just let it happen, let himself fall and break his neck and then who would be wracked with misery and guilt?, but then primal instinct won out and he flailed.
The footsteps suddenly broke into a run and in some sort of a weird Twilight-Zone way Jou could see himself falling, puffy green ski jacket open and fluttering in slow motion while the stranger bolted for him. He wondered if the man - or woman - would arrive just in time to see his neck snap and if they would even bother calling for an ambulance before leaving the scene of the crime. He wondered if it would hurt when it happened and, if so, would it be like stubbing your toe after walking barefoot in a cold room or would it be more like sticking your hand over an open flame. He was pretty sure it wouldn't feel like breaking a bone since there was a barest of seconds that passed before the pain sunk in when that happened and he would be dead before that happened. Maybe it wouldn't hurt at all and he'd wake up on a fluffy cloud in heaven where he could spit down on the people who had wronged him during his brief life.
Arms shot out below him and cradled his body into an awkward sitting position. Jou landed half on the cold bricked walkway and half on the body of his savior, one knee jabbing him hard in the ass. He twisted and squirmed and rolled away, his jean-clad butt now aching and freezing from the snow, and glared angrily at the young person who had saved him. The glare slipped into an expression of dawning horror as his eyes took in the spiky brown hair and wide blue eyes, matched with a red winter coat and black jeans and boots. He was missing the trade-mark goggles but even without them Jounouchi still recognized Varon. It was eerie how he still looked like the fifteen-year-old boy who had tried to steal both his soul and his girl while under the command of an insane megalomaniac who thought the answer to every problem was utter destruction and annihilation. Eerie but useful. "What the holy fucking hell are you-?! Where did you, why... why? Why are you-?"
"And a happy hello to you too mate." The off put Australian pushed himself up, boots sliding back on the walk to steady him as he stood, and brushed the faint traces of snow from his jeans. Jou opened his mouth to snap something angry and sarcastic back when he remembered that the younger man had just possibly risked his own life to say his. His jaw shut with an audible clack as embarrassment started coloring his cheeks. Varon cocked his head to the side, looking curious and amused, and held one gloved ( he was wearing white gloves that matched nothing else he was wearing and had the situation been different Jou was sure he would have mocked him for that ) hand. Jou eyed it for a moment before grasping it, accepting the help. "I only did just-"
"I know what you just did. I was there too, remember? Playing the role of the helpless damsel in distress?" Sarcasm and humor were his standard defense mechanism, flare shots that warned his friends to back off and change the subject because he was not in the mood, but Varon either ignored or didn't know what that meant. Most likely the latter as there had been no communication between the two since Doma's Soldiers had disbanded. "I wouldn't have fallen if you hadn't decided to come barging up the driveway."
"That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard," Varon responded with flatly. Jou could feel the hair on the back of his neck rising and his gut churning. It was all he could do not to bare his teeth at the irritating bo- no, eight years later was sure to make Varon a man. "You might as well blame something on the sun for rising or because it started raining. You just weren't paying enough atten-"
"Enough Varon." Jou jerked his hand away - had he really allowed the Aussie to hold his hand for that long? - and scowled, crossing his arms. "If you decided to come here just to give me some stupid lecture about-"
"Ah, no, sorry." The other man blushed faintly and scuffed one boot toe against the walk. "I guess old habits just die hard." He laughed humorlessly, obviously hoping that Jou would join in, but the blond man disappointed him by remaining stoically pissed. He sighed, shoulders slumping. "I want to talk. About... a lot of things. Can we go inside?"
He should have said 'no' considering this was Shizuka's house, no his, but standing there focusing on the here and now instead of allowing his thoughts to wander into the past events that made his life so miserable allowed him to become reacquainted with the cold. And it was cold. Very cold. Shivering and nodding, he brushed past the younger man and headed into the garage. A brief pause to make sure Varon was following and then he headed to the door that would take him inside the laundry room. ( Shizuka had insisted on a western-styled house, something that she called a 'rancher' and something Jou was grateful for since it was only one story. He wouldn't let himself even begin to imagine the hell he would have had to go through putting up lights if there had been two or more stories )
"Nice place," Varon said softly and Jou grunted his response as he struggled to pull his boots off. Melting snow made a dirty puddle on them but he didn't care and couldn't be bothered to try and mop the mess up. There was a momentary hesitation before Varon did the same and then scurried after him in socked-feet, nearly slipping on the immaculate kitchen floor.
"Thirsty? Hungry?"
"No, I'm good..."
Jou shrugged and took a can of coke out of the fridge before sitting down at the kitchen table. Varon took a seat across from him, looking around the kitchen to take in the various Christmas decorations that were stuck on the fridge or that hung from the ceiling lights and fans, not to mention the numerous drawings by Katie that Shizuka had magnetized proudly to the front of the fridge. He waited a moment, bubbly coke burning down his throat, before asking: "Okay, what? Talk."
The brunette fidgeted before clasping his hands together, resting them on the wooden table. "It's... it's a lot of things. Jou... I'm the reason Mai broke up with you." Jou's eyes widened and something cold and nasty twisted up in his gut. He would have launched across the table there and then if the shock didn't keep him rooted in place. "And not because of what you're thinking. I'm not with her or anything. She, um, she's actually started dating Marik of all people and it's not that you were a bad boyfriend or anything like that but she just never loved you." Jou still stared, eyes wide and panicked, and Varon sighed. "She just didn't want to hurt you. But she was just gonna hurt you more by staying and I... well, I gave her all the more reason to break it off with you."
"You... you..." His mind didn't seem to be able to process anything beyond that and Varon recoiled, bracing for the impact he was sure to come. "What reason did you give her? Did you tell her how much of a worthless person I am or, or did you tell her-"
"NO!" Varon's hand shot across the table and he grabbed one of Jou's tightly. He shook his head emphatically to further emphasize his point. "I didn't say anything like that! It was just, we got to talkin' about what everyone was doing with their life and eventually the topic turned to how we were trying to start a band and I asked her if she wanted to sing."
His train of thought was derailed once again and Jou was struck by a mental image of Rafael, Amelda, and Varon all dressed in drag while lip-syncing to the Spice Girls' "If You Wanna Be My Lover." He giggled and pulled his hand away, covering his mouth to muffle the slightly-hysterical laughter. "You... you guys are... you're the band she's with?"
Varon scowled. "It's not that funny. And yes. It's, well, when I was at the orphanage music was pretty big, they tried pushing it on all the kids there and I was talking with Amelda and Rafael and it turned out Raf had gotten some lessons as a kid with the guitar as a kid and was continuing with that and Amelda actually could play pretty well and I wanted to get back into the drums. This was years ago - well, maybe five. After a bit we wanted to actually, well, get serious but none of us could sing and then I remembered how Mai would sometimes sing when she thought she was alone when we were with Doma and she had a pretty nice voice so I looked her up, called her, and now we're the Warriors of Oriekalkos. That's, er, our band name... we couldn't really think of anything else." Jou stared, disbelieving. "I can't believe you didn't know. I mean, I figured you all would have looked into something with that name and we've actually made a deal with Kaiba corp to perform at some of their events and-"
"That's enough." All the humor had drained from his expression and Jou held up one hand. Varon stopped and bit his lower lip, eyes cast down at the table. "So you called her and offered her this dream job and that was enough for her to end it with some guy she didn't care about to begin with." He nodded and sighed. "She should be the one telling this to me, not you." He pushed his chair out, the padded feet scrapping angrily over the linoleum floor. "Though thanks, I guess..."
"I'm not done." Varon seemed to draw back into himself and Jou looked at him curiously. "See, if it was just the band thing I think Mai would have stayed with you. She doesn't love you Jou but she really does care and it's been breaking her heart that you won't talk with her." Jou mentally decided to plan a visit to see Mai after Varon left. If he was here she might be in Domino as well but if not she had only mailed him her address five times. "But I..." Another pause and he sighed. "It's almost Christmas."
"Er, yeah." Jou felt like he was getting verbal whiplash from talking with Varon. "It is. That was why I was outside nearly killing myself to put decorations up on my sister's house." He then wondered if Varon had gone to his apartment before coming over here and how had he known he would be here or where here was, anyways? "Is there a point-"
"There's something I've wanted for Christmas for awhile now and, well... I think I'm going to get it this year." The Australian man nodded to himself and smiled. Jou still felt lost and off put but he strained to try and follow the course of conversation. "What I want... Jou, it's you. That's why Mai broke up with you. I told her... After what happened with Dartz, you... I love you."
There was a moment of static. Jou heard the garage door closing and he realized Shizuka and Honda must have come home. Varon looked nervous and the garage door opened but Jou couldn't quite absorb anything that had happened because Varon, Varon loved him.
What the hell…?