His Name is Katsuya
Summary: The friendship (and maybe something more) of Jounouchi Katsuya and Honda Hiroto, through Honda's eyes. Buddyshipping for Computerfreak101's contest.
AN/ I failed miserably with this story. It is shameful.
My name is Honda Hiroto.
I am not gay. That's one thing you should know about me. Fine, I'm bisexual. I mean, if you like someone, why should you care if that person is a guy or girl? That's stupid. I always knew I'd love anybody who was good for me. I just always hoped it would be a girl.
Things didn't work out that way.
But that's another story. Another part of it, and it isn't as important as these other things I'm going to tell.
I like clean, shiny, beautiful things. That's another thing everyone should know about me. I also like strength even more. When there's strength in a person, strength and character. And beauty is nice too.
Character. I mean, I don't want just anybody walking into my life and tuning into my friend who has no personality. If someone like that even called themselves my friend, their ass would be kicked before they could say 'loser'.
Which is why I became friends with a pretty cool guy called Jounouchi Katsuya.
He never liked the name Katsuya. I did, though, so for a long time I called him just that-Katsuya. Until one day he told me to stop calling him that. We got into an argument, because I really liked the name. But then, the next day, I gave him a nickname. I started calling him Jou. At first he didn't like Jou either, but I threatened to start calling him 'Kat'.
He shut up after that.
The way I became friends with Katsuya was simple. We were in Kindergarten, I walked up to him, and I said hi. Nothing to it. We were naive in those days, we thought that we were invincible. I think that in a way we still do. I think I'm gonna be invincible forever.
I feel bad about the way things were with Jou. It was him who lured me into gang activity, but I should have tried to stop him. I really, really should have, but I couldn't.
That's the way things are. I've never really bent to his will, but sometimes he could charm his way into disaster, which is strange, because he's the least charming person I know.
When we were ten, his mother and sister left. He was inconsolable. He had loved his sister more than anything. His father was a drunk, and sometimes he would slap around Katsuya. Then we started to learn to fend for ourselves. Jou was the only one who actually joined a gang, but half the time it felt like I was one of the members, with all the times I saved his ass from being kicked.
At night I would worry about my one and only friend, hoping and praying that he was okay, that he hadn't been gunned down, that his father hadn't strangled him or done something equally unforgivable.
I knew and still know it's not manly to worry about him. He's a guy. He can live on the street, he's survived lots of things. But back then we were each others' lifeline. One couldn't exist without the other. We completed each other.
So, I would watch his back in fights, make sure he didn't get too hurt, carry around my trusty first aid kit in my backpack. My wounds weren't as important compared to his, because he was more important, because, among the slums and projects of Domino, we had each other's backs. We fought the same guys, we had the same bruises. When one of us got hurt, the other did too. It wasn't like 'I must protect my own' or anything. He was like the brother I never had. We were strong.
But we were wrong. I mean, gang activity obviously was going to make us mean. Well, not mean, exactly. Tough and cynical, I'd say. But beating up on little guys like Yuugi Motou, now that was totally against my principles. But for a time, I was just blinded. Both me and Jou were blinded.
After all, it's kind of nice having a punching bag. Or more than one punching bag. But it's not like I look back on my bullying days and laugh saying: "Now that's what a good time is!"
No way. I'm not like that anymore, never will be.
But I thank Yuugi Motou for that. Sure, at first I didn't like him. He was this weak little thing who wouldn't last a minute in the gang that I was almost an honorary member of. I never stopped to think he was a person with feelings, and then suddenly he became one of my best friend's. That was Katsuya's fault. And Yuugi's, for being so goddamn sweet. He actually saved us when Ushio beat up on us. He called us his friends when we were nothing of the sort. I suppose Katsuya and me thought this warranted kind of getting to know him better, but I don't really do things that way. When I'm guilty, I just stay away.
But Jou isn't like that. When somebody helps him, he helps them back.
And then we met the Pharaoh. It hurt, becoming Yuugi and the Pharaoh's friend, because Jou became Yuugi's friend, suddenly, and I was out of the loop, kind of like a tag along. But I knew Katsuya still cared for me more than he would show. I've always been good at reading emotions and I could see it in his eyes.
When I met his sister, I put on an act.
Sure, I love Shizuka, but not like I pretended to back then. Back then I just wanted to be seen as more manly by everybody in my life. Ogling a pretty, younger girl was going to make me seem like a bastard, but a macho one, nontheless. I wanted to have some purpose, I wanted to be known for something.
I'm not a good duelist. Sure, I've helped save the world sometimes, but I'm not that important.
I think I wanted to be happy.
I wanted somebody to love.
One day, I had an epiphany. It kind of came to me.
Actually, not really. It was Katsuya that made it happen.
We were walking home together because we live in the same part of Domino, a few weeks after the Pharaoh left to the afterlife, feeling like shit.
Now, I'd like to say that it was Katsuya who broke down and started crying on a bench while I watched on nervously, wondering what the hell was wrong, but nope. That was me. It was easily one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Jou asked me what was wrong.
So I asked him: Am I your friend? He answered, as I felt like an idiot: Sure Honda. My best friend. And then I sealed my fate: Well, I'm not! I cried: I...I don't want to be just your friend.
Then I realized what the strange feeling I always felt around him was: desire.
And then I lunged at him and planted my lips to his.
I've always been a straightforward person, and I had realized, while we kissed.
I was in love with the one person who had been right in front of me all of these years. It was so ironic. I always thought love at first sight existed, but it doesn't, really. I thought I would never get love because I'd never get the perfect girl or guy, but there he was staring me in the face. When I figured it out, under the weakness of unhappiness and loss there came something else, realization that I really was in love. A love that could and eventually would work out...
In love after all of these years, with a really, really great guy.
His name is Katsuya.
The End