Smile
By: Keiren K.
Smile for me even if it's just once…
Jounouchi picked up the small paper and crumpled it up. He looked at the trash can across the room and sighed, it was almost full of small paper balls. He sighed and looked back at the desk he was sitting at after he tossed the paper ball and made it in the basket. He couldn't finish this line; it was all he wanted was to finish this line. His dead line was in two days and he couldn't even get the first two chapters in.
With a frustrated growl he threw the pencil on the table and stood up, looking around at the cold dark room he quickly grabbed his jacket and keys off the side table and ran to the door. He couldn't stand being by himself for so long. He needed to get out; maybe he wouldn't be too late to go see a little friend of his.
He looked at the Lexus sitting in the garage of his condo, and shook his head. Maybe a little to excessive? He smiled and thought of the look his father gave him the day that he had drove home in it.
"Kat-Katsuya!" The elder Jounouchi gasped in shock and surprise as he stood in the door way to the old house. Jou looked up at his father and waved to him, the old man looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Jou laughed and ran up to his father, the man was so shocked and frozen to the spot looking at the shiny, black car that was sitting in front of his house.
"Don't worry Dad, the car is paid for." Jou said and made the man jump. He looked in to the older blue eyes of his father and could see the pride that was slowly returning to them.
"You…You paid for it? Like fully paid or are you making payments on it?" The old man asked, clearly he didn't know how his son had gotten the money to even be able to get in to the car let alone drive it.
"I paid for it." Jou said, he pulled his fathers hand up and placed the keys into the weathered hand and closed the tough fingers around them. "I paid for it for you, I want you to have it dad." He walked the old man out to the car and pulled him around to the driver's side. "It's yours dad."
Jou could feel the old man trembling as he helped him in to the car. Quickly running around to the other side he jumped in and closed the door. "Let's go!"
Rain sloshed under the tires as he destroyed puddle after puddle of water. The windshield wipers slid noiselessly over the windshield flinging the water out of his line of vision. The town passed by him in a slow motion, giving him time to look it over again. He could see people looking at his car in awe as he drove by. He could still see the pride in his father's face as he drove up to his boss in the Lexus and smiled at the older man who was in the process of walking to his car and told him that he quit.
Slowly sliding to a halt on the wet road, Jou glared at the red light and tapped his finger impatiently on the steering wheel. He hated being caught in traffic because it gave people and excuse to be nosy and gossip. He didn't want people to see who he was, so he wrote with a pseudonym. He wanted to stay hidden, away from the world.
Away from him…
The light turned green and he calmly pulled away wanting to avoid a ticket. He pulled up in front of small run down house that looked like it would fall apart at the slightest touch of the wind. Looking around he couldn't see anybody at home so he sighed and was about to pull away when the door burst open and a small little girl with soft looking blonde hair ran out. Her face contorted in to a cry, Jou threw the car into park and jumped out of the door. He quickly rounded the car and caught the little girl in his arms.
"Daddy!" She cried her little face red from the sobs. "Something is wrong with mommy!" Jou held the girl tight to him and walked to the car. Putting her in it out of the rain he strapped her in to the car and turned back to the house. He grit his teeth and steeled himself. This was the last straw.
Locking the door with the remote on his keychain he walked up to the house, carefully making his way across the dying porch he walked in to the open door. It was dark and the house stank of alcohol. Why was everybody in his life a drinker? He shook his head and walked further in to the dark house stopping right at the entrance to the living room. He could hear the grunts and yells of pleasure coming from the dark living room. With a scowl he flipped on the lights and looked at the mess in the middle of the room.
"Jou-Jounouchi!" A small black haired woman looked up from under the tall man on top of her, her face flushed and her pupils dilated. She was high, there was no doubt about it. Jou leaned against the door frame and smiled sickly at her. "Wh-Why are you here?" She asked.
"What time is it Kisa?" Jou asked. She looked at the clock and paled, the man on top of her pulled away and sat off to the side clearly not going to leave or even dress for that matter. "It's seven that means that you were supposed to be at work and Rimi was supposed to be with me for the weekend."
"I-I…"She was at a loss for words. Jou smiled evilly and walked away from the door and up the stairs to Rimi's room. Kisa followed him up the stairs while wrapping a blanket around her naked form. "You-You cant go up here! I have to give her to you that's the judges orders!"
Jou spun on her and pinned her with his glare. "Really? Well then you're just going to have to explain to the judge why my baby girl ran out of the house crying that her mommy was being hurt." He said. Walking into the room he found a little bag that Rimi used to go to school with and walked to her dresser. He picked up all her clothes and packed them in to the ratty bag. He scowled at the torn bag and looked back at his daughter's mother.
"She won't give up that bag…" Kisa said, quickly defending herself against the accusing look in Jou's eyes. "I've bought her plenty of bags." She said and pointed to the closet that was open and Jou could see three brand new bags in the closet. "She says it's special because her worthless father bought it for her."
Jou let the jab roll off his shoulders and finished packing the bag. Standing up slowly he looked around for the little girls favorite bear and found it lying on the floor nearly under the bed. He walked over to the bed and picked it up. The little bear had a eye missing but it was still cute. "You won't see her again." Jou said. Kisa looked indignant as she followed Jou out the door and down the stairs.
"You can't take her from me! She's my daughter!" Kisa yelled. Jou rounded on her and pushed her against the wall, his soft eyes glittered with malice.
"She's my daughter too, and I'm more of a parent to her then you'll ever be, all that money that I am forced to pay you as child support goes right to drugs and alcohol." Jou snarled. "When was the last time you actually took her to the park?!"
"Last…Last week?" She couldn't remember ever taking the girl to the park, which was what Jou was for when he came to take her for the week end. With an exasperated laugh Jou turned away from her and started out to the porch, the rain had let up a little and he could see Rimi's little blond head poking out the window of his car.
"Hurry up daddy!" She called and waved to him from her seat. Jou smiled at her and forgot all about Kisa as he walked over to the car and climbed in behind the wheel. "Can we go to the mall today?"
Jou gave her the bag and pulled on his seat belt and checked to make sure that Rimi had her' s on too, then nodded at her and turned the car on. "Yeah, we'll go to the mall and I'll buy you a nice dress, okay?" He asked. Rimi nodded fast and smiled as she faced forward, her violet eyes glowing with excitement.
Pulling the car out in to the road and easing it to the intersection he noticed a crowd of cars starting to surround him, he cursed under his breath as he recognized the paint and the type of cars that surrounded him. The engines roared around the black Lexus as they surrounded him like a hawk circling his prey.
"Daddy? What's with all those cars?" Rimi asked. Jou laid a hand on her head and smiled at her, she smiled back at him.
"Ever wanted to know what it's like to ride in a race car?" Jou asked. Rimi looked up at him her eyes shining with more excitement.
"You're gonna race them?" She asked and laughed when Jou nodded and checked her seat belt before looking back out the window and judged the road conditions. He revved the engine, the roar seemed louder then all the other cars and seemed to drown them out. Jou smiled proudly and knew how powerful his car's engine was.
"Hang on!" Jou said as he slammed on the accelerator, the car squealed out of the intersection and quickly threw the car into second gear as he pulled on the hand break and drifted into a sharp turn. He could hear the other cars quickly giving chase and slammed the car into motion, and peeling out into the highway from the neighborhood. Rimi screamed with laughter and Jou smiled, it made him happy to make her happy. He quickly lost the other racers and pulled off of the highway and into a mall parking lot.
He looked at Rimi and shook her head as she smiled up at him. "That was fun daddy! I want to do it again." She said. Jou shook his head and leaned back against the car, he would have to have a talk with those guys later. They should know better then to challenge him out on the open road. If they had been caught then they would be in more trouble then they could handle. At least he would be able to buy his way out and get away scot free.
"Not right now, Rimi, I promised to take you to the mall remember?" He asked. She nodded and Jou turned to park the car somewhere near the store so that it would be easy for the security to watch and keep Rimi from getting too wet.
They walked through the mall and looked around, Rimi had bought three dresses and Jou carried the bags as she ran to another shop. Jou heard the barking and mews of all the kittens before he even got to the shop.
"Daddy!" Rimi waved him over to the spot where she stood with the shop owner and a little black puppy in her arms. "Look daddy! This man wants to give me a puppy!"
Jou looked at the man and then at Rimi who stood with the puppy in her arms. The man walked up to Jou and shook his hand.
"I saw her walking around and then she came running to my shop and looked at the puppy, she looked so lonely." The man said. "I thought she might want a little friend."
"Can I keep him daddy?" She turned on her huge puppy eyes and focused them on him with full force. "Please!?" Jou looked at the man and then at the black puppy in her arms, its amber gold eyes looked back up at him.
"What kinda breed is it?" Jou asked as he reached for his wallet. The man shook his head and walked over to a stand and pulled a collar and a leash off it.
"I don't know, I actually found him up in a mountain that I go to, to walk my own dogs." The man walked over to Rimi and put the collar around the dog's neck and attached the leash to it. "What are you going to call him?"
"Blackie!" She said. "Thank you Daddy!"
"Don't worry about paying for him, I'm just glad that he found someone he likes, all the other people where chased away, for some reason he seems to be able to sense when he was really wanted by people." The man said. Jou nodded and thanked the man before walking his daughter and her new found friend out to the car. He sighed as the puppy bounced in to her lap when she climbed in to the car. This was going to be a long week.
"Cant you ever get anything right?" Seto yelled at the smaller man in front of him. The smaller man cringed and backed away from the enraged man.
"Kaiba-sama! I apologize for the mistake in the paper work, I'll get after the corrections immediately. " Seto looked at the man that was almost cowering in front of him and sighed as he turned away not wanting to look at the pathetic worker he had hired out of pity for the man's family and sick son.
Walking back to his office Seto sat down heavily in his chair and looked at the book that was sitting on his desk. Its red cover almost smiled at him the words taunting him and pulling him towards the book wanting him to read it. The title was simple enough and it was an easy read, but what really bugged him was the author. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the author's name but picked up the book any way.
"What kind of name is Puppy?" Seto whispered.