A/N: Taking a very short break from my KaiJou epic, Beautiful, to write this one-shot. Next chapter for Beautiful will be out in a week or two. That is, if I don't get caught up with university related stuff and planning out my b-day party. Otherwise, please enjoy this one-shot.
Sand Castles
-:i:-
Stuffing his hand into his jean pockets, Jounouchi leaned back against a pole near the bus stop, face hidden from any passerby's view by his sweater's hood. A strong wind blew past the nearly vacant bus stop, causing Jounouchi to glance around in caution. Just standing there alone was creepy, considering he wasn't exactly in the best part of the city, but now he had to deal with the cold winds, too. Shuddering, Jounouchi wrapped his arms around himself.
Right on cue, the bus appeared at the end of the block, and Jounouchi sighed in relief. Eagerly, he moved closer to the edge of the sidewalk so that when the bus arrived he'd be able to get on right away. He wanted to get away from this place.
Not very long after, the bus stopped in front of him and he climbed on without a second thought, choosing a seat in the back and thanking Kami-sama(1) that no one else was back there. For the most part, the bus was pretty much empty, with the exception of a few businessmen and housewives returning from either work or shopping.
All of them were obviously in a hurry to be home so they didn't bother to pay him any mind, and that was a rather pleasant change. Normally his rare head of blonde hair would have gotten everyone's attention by now, but today it seemed like a day's work had really worn out these people. Then again, his hair was hidden by a sweater hood, which still should have raised some suspicion, but he remained disregarded.
Turning his head to the side, Jounouchi stared out the window to see the scenery fly by. Out of the corner of his eyes, however, he continued to survey the other passengers as they got off at their stops until it was only the bus driver and him.
Shifting and slouching in the bus seat until he felt comfortable, Jounouchi looked straight ahead through half lidded eyes. As soon as the others had gone, the noise had ceased almost entirely, reduced to only the bus's engine and the occasional cough from the bus driver. Suddenly he felt like he was riding a ghost bus and he, too, was a ghost just passing by, unnoticed and forgotten.
Strangely enough, he kind of liked that feeling of invisibility, wherein nothing mattered. Not really.
It was getting late, and he was almost at his stop. Glancing down at his watch, Jounouchi guessed that it'd be a few minutes before it was time for him to get off, and he knew he was going to miss this moment of peace and numbing bliss. Indulging his current state of relaxation, Jounouchi wondered how long it had been since he had felt so at rest like this. The answer was immediate: A long time ago…
His thoughts were put to a stop when the bus slowed down, finally pulling to a complete stop in a matter of seconds. Absent mindedly brushing off imaginary dust, Jounouchi stood up and went for the door, but a voice stopped him half way.
"Sir?" Tilting his head sideways, Jounouchi regarded the bus driver in an uninterested manner.
"What?" he asked.
The bus driver laughed nervously, moved to scratch his head but paused to point at one of the bus's many windows. "It's just that," he began. "It's dark out and this is the last bus…"
Realization dawned on Jounouchi, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. Of all things, he certainly wasn't expecting the bus driver to worry about him. As a reflex, Jounouchi flashed the man a winning smile and stepped out of the bus.
"Don't worry about me, mister! I'll just walk home!" he yelled back.
Watching as the bus pulled away, Jounouchi smiled when a hand stuck out and waved bye to him. A stranger being kind and considerate towards him had felt surprisingly nice. With a wide grin Jounouchi made his way down the street to his destination. No cars were around and his mischievous side felt the desire to walk in the middle of the street, so he did.
For a while Jounouchi felt dazed and out of place. It wasn't until his shoes met sand and the fresh scent of sea water hit his nose that he discovered he was finally where he wanted to be. Here, the cold was actually pleasing, so the moment he was hit by a gust of wind Jounouchi felt more refreshed than chilly. Furthermore, he was sure no one else was there aside from him, thus allowing him this rare opportunity to have the beach all to himself.
Taking off his shoes and pulling off his hood, Jounouchi stepped into the sea, arms stretched wide in an imitation embrace. Instead of shivering as a reaction to the cold water, he simply kicked and splashed it in childlike glee. This was the place where he had taken Shizuka to when they were young, and this was the place where he felt most at home.
Kaiba Seto was returning from a late meeting with one of his business partners. The meeting itself had been unplanned, but he had sealed a deal out of it, so that made up for mess up with his busy schedule. At the moment, he had just left the city and was now on his way back to Domino City. The streets were empty, his limo being the only exception, so it came as a surprise when he saw someone on the beach just outside the city.
What really caught his interest was the flicker of blonde hair under the moon's soft glow.
In all honesty, there weren't that many people that Kaiba knew who had blonde hair, but upon seeing the head of blonde, he instantly thought of Jounouchi, and the person down at beach was definitely male. On the other hand, would Jounouchi be the type to go to the beach at such a late hour?
'He might,' came Kaiba's automatic reply to his own question. 'He's unpredictable like that.'(2)
Kaiba ordered his driver to stop the limo.
Some curious part of him wanted to see if that was really Jounouchi down there. Besides, after such a long meeting some fresh air would actually do him some good, if the person he sought turned out to be someone other than Jounouchi. With that in mind, Kaiba left the limo and went for where the mysterious person was.
Once he reached the beach, he realized he was still quite a distance away. Still, from where he was he had a good view of the other, taking notice of the fact that the might-be stranger was now working on building a sand castle instead of splashing in the water. He could also hear a soft, lulling humming coming from said person. Kaiba continued on his trek, and the more closer he got, the more he became sure that it was indeed Jounouchi.
All that was left was to find out exactly why the blonde was there so late in the first place. Surely, the beach was something to be enjoyed when the sun was up, not when the moon was out.
While Kaiba prepared to interrogate Jounouchi, the other was busying himself with reminiscing about the castle he made with his sister years ago. Someday, he was undoubtedly going to bring his sister here again. Unfortunately for him, Jounouchi was broken out of thoughts at the sight of dress shoes next to his incomplete castle.
Berating himself for getting so caught up within his memories, Jounouchi hesitantly raised his head to look at whoever had come to interrupt his moment of solitude. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. No, it wasn't anything like that at all. Jounouchi was pissed. Of all the people to be there, it just had to be Kaiba, the last person in the world he'd want to have catch him at his most private moment.
"Kaiba," he snarled.
"Bonkotsu(3)," the brunet greeted with a smirk, pleased to see his mere presence was enough to affect Jounouchi.
"What are you doing here?" the blonde gritted out.
Smirk deepening, Kaiba turned away from Jounouchi to casually gaze at the sea. "I should be asking you that," he said. He had to hand it to the blonde though--he sure was good at picking a time to visit the beach. The sea was incredibly gorgeous at night.
"Nothing," Jounouchi replied, distractedly patting some part of his castle.
At that response, an eyebrow rose in mockery. "Really now," Kaiba purred. "I could have sworn you were… building a sand castle." Opening his mouth to retort, Jounouchi was cut off as the brunet continued.
"In that case, it won't matter if this nothing were to be rid of, right?"
Jounouchi watched with wide eyes as his castle was destroyed by those flawless dress shoes, which after the castle's destruction, were no longer clear and shiny. Instead, their beauty was now marred by castle pieces made of sand.
Maybe it was the cold, and maybe it was Jounouchi, but Kaiba didn't quite understand what had pushed him to commit that act of cruelty. What came next was to be expected, of course.
Loud laughter rang throughout the space of the beach, causing the brunet to stare down in wonder and slight amusement at the hysterical blonde rolling around on the sandy ground.
'Or unexpected,' he corrected with a smirk.
"That's so like you, bonkotsu," Kaiba stated aloud. 'Unpredictable,' he thought.
Halting in his laughter, Jounouchi titled his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Scoffing, Kaiba crossed his arms condescendingly before replying. "What I mean is it's so like you to roll on the dirty ground like that."
This brought forth another fit of laughter. Uncrossing his arms, Kaiba frowned. "What's so funny?" he asked.
"Hahahaha… says--says the guy whose shoes are filthy!" the blonde half wheezed half shouted. Frustrated, Kaiba glared down at Jounouchi.
"Aren't you angry I just destroyed your castle?" he demanded.
"No, not really." Jounouchi grinned up at him, gathering up a pile of sand in his hands and presenting it to Kaiba. "Look, there's plenty of sand."
"So?"
It appeared very briefly, but Kaiba had caught the sad look that crossed the blonde's face.
Grinning again, Jounouchi spread his arms wide and gestured at all the sand around them. "That means I could always build another castle! Or as many as I want!" Just like that, Kaiba had a feeling that Jounouchi wasn't just talking about sands and castles. Oddly enough, he found that he understood a little of what the blonde meant.
"It's like magic!"
Or maybe he was giving Jounouchi more credit than he deserved. Glancing down, he watched Jounouchi gather sand together, getting ready to make another sand castle. Upon seeing this, though, Kaiba decided that he had had enough, and reached out to grab the blonde's wrists to stop him. The only problem was it resulted in a full view of Jounouchi's eyes.
Before, he hadn't seen it because of the dim light, but now that the moonlight was shining directly at Jounouchi's face he could see the tears. "You're crying," he stated blankly, a bit taken back himself at the sight of tears.
"Who's crying!" Jounouchi screamed at him and wrenched an arm out of Kaiba's grasp to angrily wipe away his tears. A bit disturbed by the fact that the disappearance of those tears disappointed him, the brunet retrieved Jounouchi's other arm and pulled him closer to him, staring meaningfully into those soft brown eyes.
"Jounouchi, let's go home. I'll give you a ride."
Since it was whispered very gently, Jounouchi thought that he had heard wrong at first, but when Kaiba didn't relinquish the hold on his wrists, he knew that wasn't the case. Very slowly, a smile crept onto his face. When the smile appeared, Kaiba felt a little unsettled. He didn't like that smile; It made him feel like the blonde knew something he didn't.
"Come," Kaiba ordered, letting go of the wrists to offer Jounouchi a hand. Gazing at the hand before him, Jounouchi couldn't help but wonder if it was a trick, but he had nothing to lose so he went for it. When the blonde was up, Kaiba pulled him forward into a chaste kiss, startling them both.
Releasing Jounouchi from the kiss, the brunet abruptly started to tug him to where his limo was parked and waiting, never once letting go of the hand in his. On their way, Kaiba snuck a look at Jounouchi, interested in what the blonde thought of their kiss. What he got was a big smile, that same smile that made him feel like he had missed on something.
Shifting his eyes away from Jounouchi, Kaiba muttered quietly to himself, "Stupid bonkotsu."
"Hey, Kaiba," Jounouchi said.
"What?"
"Want to come build a sand castle with me tomorrow?" Biting back the urge to say something degrading, Kaiba chose to remain silent.
"Hey, Kaiba! Did you hear me!?" Jounouchi poked the unresponsive brunet. "Kaiba!"
"Maybe…" At that, the blonde grinned and squeezed the hand holding his. As Kaiba continued to drag him to his limo, Jounouchi couldn't help but notice something.
Kaiba's hand was surprisingly warm.
(1) Kami-sama: "God"
(2) Well, I don't know if this was said in the English dub, but in the sub, Kaiba does remark that Jounouchi's so unpredictable that even the Kaiba Corp computers can't predict what he thinks. /smiles/ (From episode 127--Got her info off the yu-jyo website and watching the subs :P obviously.)
(3) Bonkotsu: "mediocre", Shirohane's translation (the one I prefer) is "proletariat".
A/N: Mmm… I always saw Katsu-chan as the humming type. How about you? Well, I do hope you enjoyed this little ficcie! I'm on a quest to revive the KaiJou fandom! Yes, this one-shot is WTF-ish to me too, but I had to get it out!
BTW, aside from the WTF-ness, could you tell this was written at night?