Fever Dreams
a short one by The Pop Tart Spirits

F.A.Q.:
Will I ever stop writing this pairing? No.
Do I love them? Very much.
Do I own them? snort

This was going to be a PWP... but it begs chapters. It'll still be rather short, but I want to see if people are intrigued.

The amusing part is that as I'm writing this, I'm eating gummy handcuffs. $1.00 at Walmart, yo.

The empty plain stretched out before him; a symbol, he supposed, of the life he led. Here and there sparse underbrush struggled to survive in the harsh, scarlet-tinted elements.

He'd been trudging for the eternity between dozing off and now, but his feet were not tired. He was not out of breath, nor sweating from what should have been a punishing heat. He was wearing clothes the likes of which he'd never before owned - a shirt with a very high thread count and not a hole or stain, and trousers that felt like heavy cloth but breathed like they weren't even there. His shoes were sandals, but the sand between his toes did not irritate.

He didn't quite understand.

Then, in the distance, loomed a what looked like a sparse oasis. A few scraggly palm trees and the sparkle of water. He didn't let his hopes be raised, however, because he'd been at this particular scenario long enough to know it could just as well be an illusion. So, patiently, he trudged.

Amazingly the speck of paradise turned out to be real, and he gulped the clear water gratefully.

Suddenly, someone sneezed behind him, and he whirled around -

- and woke up.

Grumbling, Jonouchi Katsuya bunched his pillow and rolled over, clenching his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to return to surreality. It didn't work and for awhile he just lay there, perfectly still, with deep, even breathing.

"You won't fool me, mutt," came a familiar voice. Jou's eyes flew open. "Kaiba? What the fuck're you doing here?"

"I came to visit you," was the answer, and as Jou's sleep-crusted eyes focused, he could make out Kaiba's trademark smirk.

Jou sat up slowly, and rubbed at his face like a child. "Why you, of all people?"

"I can leave..." And Kaiba uncrossed his legs, made to stand up.

"No!" Jou said quickly, cursing himself. He knows, he knows I've been alone for so long, he knows no one ever visits me anymore...

Kaiba settled himself, the everpresent smirk deepening, and had opened his mouth to say something when a nurse came in. "Jonouchi-san? You're not supposed to be awake for another half-hour and - sir, who let you in?"

Kaiba turned in his seat and fixed her with a glare. As predicted, the blood in her veins turned to ice and she faltered. "J-Jonouchi-san is supposed to sleep until six," she said faintly. Kaiba turned back to Jou, dismissing her from his presence, and she backed out hurriedly. "I don't suppose another half-hour would have done you any good," Kaiba said. Jou sighed. "Nothin's doin' me any good," he groused. "I've gotten pretty far, and they say that I'm near where all of this is supposedly taking me... but the desert has been going on for about a week now. All I've found is oases. I thought I heard someone behind me before I woke up, but..."

"Desert?" Kaiba was doing a very good job at not looking totally lost, but Jou chuckled. "That's right, this is your first visit, you don't even really know why I'm here. At least it's not a loony bin; then you'd really have the wrong idea.

"I started having these weird dreams about a year back, one after another, and they all seemed to be leading me somewhere. It felt like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, honestly, but no matter where I go there are no sentient beings. Plenty of monsters, and stuff - I've gotten pretty handy with all kinda opportune weaponry." Jou grinned at this, but just as quickly the grin faded. "I wish I could bring someone in with me, but then I remember that it's all in my head."

Kaiba gave no outward reaction; he never did. "Why are they convinced that you need to play this out?"

"I have no fuckin' clue, to be honest," Jou said helplessly. "At first I thought Pop'd had me committed, for whatever reason. These people who work here study dreams, but only ones that show signs like this. There are about fifty of us dreamers here. Trust me, I ask every day - they won't tell me why I gotta do this. I guess they're afraid it'll fuck with the results."

He sighed, leaned back on the headboard. "I gotta tell ya, though, you are a sight for sore eyes. I think I stopped hating you after about the first four or five months of virtual solitary."

Kaiba allowed himself a small smile. He would never tell the mutt the truth, that he had missed Jou more than he had words for. He had tried to tell himself it was because with the mutt gone, he had no one to take his frustrations out on... but he hated himself when he so blatantly lied.

Instead of everything else he could say, he asked, "When do you have to sleep next?"

"Eight o'clock," Jou answered promptly. "They give me the strong shit then, and I'm out like a fucking light until around ten the next morning."

"So we have a few hours, then," Kaiba said. "I imagine you're curious about what's going on in the outside world?"

Jou's hungry eyes spoke for him.

"Well, the -"

The door flew open. Two burly orderlies and a doctor rushed in, and the orderlies grabbed Kaiba.

Or tried.

He had them sliding down the wall and groaning in three moves, and was advancing on the doctor before Jou had even registered movement. The blonde's jaw gaped open.

Kaiba cornered the doctor and slammed a hand against the wall beside the doctor's head. "What is the meaning of this?" he hissed. The doctor quivered.

"Jonouchi Katsuya is to be allowed no outside visitors or information until the - the duration of his installment," the doctor said in a rush. Kaiba quirked an eyebrow and the doctor cringed. "Why is that?"

"Because it might interfere! Please, the experiment -"

"The experiment is a live and functioning human being, who is starved for human contact and doesn't even know why he is here," Kaiba said in low, murderous tones. "You owe him at least the sight of a friendly face."

"But sir!" The doctor cried. "With so much outside influence, we have no way to properly assess the data! We may never reach the end of his journey if the paths are allowed to branch indefinately."

"So you believe that by confining this young man to a bed for however long it takes for his dream to end is an apt solution?" The doctor had no answer for this; Jou was sure that a lesser man would have pissed himself. To the doctor's credit, he was white and trembling, but holding his own against (in Jonouchi's opinion) the scariest person alive.

The doctor nodded. Kaiba snarled in disgust.

"Get out of my sight. I will be gone by the time he is to take his next medicines, but I will be back this day and time every week, do you understand me?"

By now the doctor had figured out who was threatening him, and nodded. "Yes, Kaiba-sama! Yes, of course!" And Kaiba let him leave.

Jou's grin was wider than his face when Kaiba sat back down, and the sight brought a smile to his own thin lips.

They talked incessantly, all traces of former enmity now forgotten, until a nurse knocked hesitantly. Jou watched with a sadness he didn't understand as Kaiba's cold mask locked back into place, and he left. Still, after so long in this white room and his dreams, it had felt good to be in the company of someone who seemed to care.

The pills went down easier this time.

He glanced around, seeing the oasis empty. He knelt at the water's edge, cupping his hands and drinking again. He knelt there, letting the water settle, until he could see his face. Unlike other dreams, it was the same as though he were looking into a mirror.

The sun caught a sparkle and he squinted, peering past his reflection and into clear depths. There seemed to be something silver at the bottom of the pool.

Looking around once more, this time to make sure he was alone, Jou stripped off his dream-clothes and dove in.

In his lonely room, the monitors he was hooked to registered the moment he began to hold his breath.

Reviews, please. Thanks.