A/N: Oh my, I guess it's my turn to do dark and serious. For the third round of Compy's pairings competition, Buddyshipping.
He flinched slightly as the arm encircled his shoulders lightly but only because it pulled fabric over the fresh wound on his arm. He didn't move though, not as he felt Honda's forehead rest against the top of his back.
"You gonna be ok?"
"Just give me a minute."
Jou did as instructed though he put the moment to good use, sliding open the chamber of the revolver and sliding the replacement rounds into place, taking an odd sort of comfort from the steady scrape and click of the metal. He snapped it back together and reached up to give his friend's arm a squeeze. He sincerely wished they had more time but it was important to keep moving.
The pressure between his shoulder blades disappeared and so did the arm around him though Honda stopped to examine the sleeve of his shirt.
"You're bleeding." The tone was flat and Jou caught what lay underneath it.
"Hey man, it's not your fault. Those things are fast and they have a long reach. We only made it this far because we had each other's back, right?"
Honda was force to nod reluctantly as he wiped some of the grime, red and green and other unnatural shades not found in any warm blooded creature, from the crowbar he had recently learned to use as a weapon as well as a tool. His gaze was distant and haunted until Jou had enough of the moodiness, and with fumbling a makeshift bandage onto his arm.
"Help me with this. I'm not action hero enough yet that I can tie one of these things with my teeth," he said lightly, patented lopsided grin forcing it's mirror image from his best friend as Honda complied, knotting the length of clothing over both the wound and the rest of Jou's sleeve, leaving as much of the tattered fabric covering his arm as possible, rather than tearing it off. The creatures went for skin first, hands and faces, something they had learned the hard way. He purposefully didn't look down to the blank spot where a finger should have been, more red stained bandages covering the stump between two of the remaining digits on Jou's right hand, another failure in his eyes and one he'd had to deal with himself, knife separating mangled, infected flesh before the disease could spread, the tearing and popping of joints sounds that would become fixed in his nightmares but there had been no one else to do it. No doctors, no nurses, no hardened action heroes, just the two of them and they had to take care of themselves.
Jou noticed the shift in mood again. "Hey," he turned to face Honda, his good hand gripping his friend's should. "Stop moping-" he started but was cut off by the expected denial.
"I'm not moping."
"Stop not moping then. Look, Yugi's already got Anzu safe, we just have to find Atemu and get out of here, something we're perfectly capable of as long as we stick together."
Another nod though it still wasn't a good enough answer for Jou who leaned forward impulsively to kiss his friend on the lips.
The way Honda lept back, shock and revulsion on his face and looking far more his usual self, was more closer to what Jou had been looking for.
"-the hell man?!" Honda practically shouted as he scrubbed the back of his hand over his mouth.
"That was for comfort only. Don't get any ideas." Jou grinned.
"Who would."
"Because we're not like that."
"Damned straight, you weird bastard."
"We're just facing a bad situation but it's nothing we can't handle if we watch each other's backs."
"Right. Let's rip those nasty assholes a new one." He gave the crowbar an experimental swing, ready to do something destructive and manly after having his heterosexuality threatened.
Jou chuckled to himself and Honda, realizing exactly how he had been manipulated, took a mock swipe at him, one that was easily ducked.
"Ready?" Jou asked, readying his revolver.
Honda's grip tightened around the crowbar and he took a defensive position at the door, preparing to leave their temporary safe haven.
"Ready."