(A/N: Chapter 2! Hooray!)

Disclaimer: Not mine

Warnings: Some bloodshed, swearing, you know...the usual

Chapter 2

Honda didn't even bother to look back as he quickly ran down the three flights of stairs, away from the apartment he had just been inside of. It was only when his foot hit the pavement outside the apartment building that he allowed his pace to slow down to a brisk walk. But he wouldn't allow himself to go any slower than that. He needed to get out of there as quick as possible.

Honda stopped for only a few brief seconds to scan the rows of parked cars that lined the street in front of him. He was shocked when he couldn't spot his motorcycle, but a scowl quickly appeared on his face when he remembered that he never brought it. Jounouchi had completely caught him off guard the other night, so he had foolishly run out of his apartment after the blonde, never even thinking about how much more convenient and faster it would have been to just hop on his motorcycle.

"Guess I'll just have to walk home, then," Honda muttered to himself as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants and continued on his way home. Today was just one disappointment after another.

The incident that had occurred only moments ago had seemed so surreal Honda briefly thought that maybe he could just push it to the back of his mind and say it was a bad dream. He knew the idea would never work, but the way Jounouchi had acted was just so unnatural it was almost disturbing. Honda had only seen Jounouchi act like that once before, but that had been all the way back in middle school.

Of course, it had been under similar circumstances; and by similar circumstances, Honda was thinking of Jounouchi's father. They had been twelve at the time, and the two had gone to the apartment to relax before Honda went home. But when they got there, the elder Jounouchi had already downed at least five beers in the previous hour and was furious that Jounouchi had brought a friend over. Jounouchi had apologized and cried while his father cursed and overturned the chairs in the kitchen for what seemed like an eternity until Jounouchi finally turned around and told Honda to leave. Needless to say, Jounouchi showed up to school the next day with a bright red bruise on his left cheek.

Even though he hadn't really gone to Jounouchi's after that, he was fully aware that the father's habits hadn't changed. Every once in awhile he would spot a new bruise on Jounouchi's arm or leg or he would take notice of the way Jounouchi would constantly try to make up excuses and stall for time to avoid going home. And of course, there was the time that he, Yuugi, and Anzu had actually gone over to the apartment looking for Jounouchi, which resulted in them having a bottle of alcohol thrown at their heads.

But even with all that, Honda had hoped that Jounouchi had at least partially outgrown his fear. In fact, sometimes it seemed like the blonde didn't even have the capacity to hold the emotion of fear. Back when Jounouchi was in his gang, he would take on anyone, even if the person was twice his size. But when faced by his father, it was like all the courage and strength he could possibly possess was instantly sucked out of him until he was nothing more than a terrified, shaking, stuttery mess. Honda could barely believe he used to look up to someone who would just roll over and die like that.

Honda had already walked a few blocks when he suddenly heard the steady beating of running footsteps on the pavement behind him. He didn't slow down, nor did he look back, even though he was fully aware of exactly who he was being approached by.

"Honda, wait!" he heard Jounouchi call out tiredly.

Honda ignored this and continued on his way. His first intention was to keep on going, but was finally stopped when Jounouchi's hand desperately grasped onto his right shoulder.

"Honda, stop," Jounouchi said slowly in between exhausted gasps. Honda finally turned around to stare inexpressibly at the blonde, who now appeared completely exhausted. His face had become noticeably red and a few strands of his bangs were clinging to the beads of sweat that had collected on his forehead.

The two stood there for a moment in silence, save for Jounouchi's ragged breathing. But as soon as the blonde had caught his breath, he looked up to his friend with a perplexed look on his face.

"Jeez, Honda, why'd you run off like that?" he asked wearily, brushing away a few damp wisps of hair from in front of his eyes.

Honda slowly clenched his hand into a fist and then released it, hoping the simple act would allow him to release at least a bit of his pent up frustration before providing Jounouchi with an answer. Apparently Jounouchi had no idea what was wrong, so Honda had to first make certain he was calm enough that he wouldn't act without thinking and do anything rash.

Honda shrugged. "I guess I was just sick of hearing you suck up to your father," he said, and was not at all surprised when Jounouchi' s expression instantly changed from confused to shocked.

"Honda..." was all that came from the blonde's mouth before there was yet another onset of awkward silence.

Honda shifted his gaze to the ground and focused his hazel eyes on a large crack in the sidewalk. "That's not all," he muttered softly. He was sure that Jounouchi was giving his tilted head a wide-eyed stare because he could practically feel the eyes of the blonde drilling into him.

"What?" Jounouchi asked as if he hadn't heard Honda. But before the brunette could pick up his head and reply, he continued. "That's not all? What else is there then?" His tone of voice was gradually starting to change, going from desperate to confused in a very short span of time. And the last two questions to come from his mouth didn't only sound partially upset, but bordered on angry as well.

Honda quickly looked up at Jounouchi and narrowed his eyes a bit. Why had he even been looking at the ground like he had done something wrong? And should the blonde really be the one demanding answers? It was Jounouchi who should be explaining himself, not Honda. A small spark of anger momentarily flickered from somewhere deep inside Honda. He clenched his hands back into fists as he felt his temper quickly slipping away from him.

"Weren't you even in that apartment a few minutes ago?!" Honda demanded. The little spark of anger had now become a small flame and was burning brighter and more fiercely with each passing second. "Don't you even listen to yourself talk?!"

Jounouchi gave an incredulous stare. But without a moment in between, he matched Honda's outburst with his own. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he yelled. "What's wrong with you?!"

The corner of Honda's lip twitched slightly. "I should be the one to ask that question, not you."

"Nothin's wrong with me, you stupid prick!" Jounouchi shouted right before reaching out an arm to wrap his right hand around Honda's shirt and pull him a few inches closer. He was so worked up that he was now panting and Honda could nearly see flames of anger burning behind the irises of Jounouchi's light brown eyes. "Why are you sayin' stuff like that?"

A bitter smirk appeared briefly on Honda's lips. "Glad to see you got your temper back," he said sarcastically. "Mind telling me where it was about five minutes ago?"

Jounouchi's eyes widened and the flames in his eyes momentarily disappeared as his hand loosened his grip on Honda's shirt. But in an instant the anger had returned, and was now absolute rage.

"You-!" Jounouchi cried out. The hand that was previously gripped tightly onto Honda's shirt now flew forward and made firm contact with the brunette's jaw with a sharp crack. Honda hadn't been expecting the sudden burst of violence from Jounouchi, and because of it was sent reeling backwards.

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed loudly as he instinctively brought his hand up to clutch his throbbing jaw. Jounouchi was still breathing heavily and his head was lowered so that his mop of hair hid his eyes, which were no doubt narrowed and full of wrath. He had also brought both his fists up, ready to fight.

"Do you really want to fight me?" Honda asked. As he spoke he felt something sliding down from the corner of his mouth and instantly knew it was blood.

"No, but I don't know how else to knock some sense into you," Jounouchi responded as best he could in between gasps. He looked like he was ready to lunge at Honda again, but after a minute of the two boys staring angrily at each other, he eventually lowered his fists and shoved them into his pockets. Then the topic was slightly shifted again. "And what did you expect me to do earlier, huh? Just give my father a play-by-play of what happened last night? Don't you know that he would have hit the both of us if I did? I wasn't just trying to protect myself. I was trying to protect you too!"

"But did you have to take it so far? I mean, the first explanation you gave was that the whole thing was an accident." He spit onto the sidewalk, not at all surprised to see the generous amount of blood mixed with his saliva. He sighed heavily. "You know, maybe it really was an accident," he said disappointedly, his pensive gaze still fixed on the dark crimson blotch as it spread over the cracked cement.

"Honda, don't say that."

I didn't really need to, considering you were the one to say it in the first place, Honda thought to himself, but decided not to voice his statement. And had Jounouchi really said that he was trying to protect the two of them? Honda would never say this, but it was Jounouchi's own words that caused him more pain than any physical punishment by the elder Jounouchi ever could have. So much for being protected.

"Well, what am I supposed to say, Jou? After hearing you talk about your imaginary girlfriend and how much being with me would be a disappointment, I can't honestly say that I don't feel pretty worthless."

Obviously frustrated with the brunette's words, Jounouchi clenched his fists and stamped one foot on the ground like a child about to throw a tantrum. "Being with you isn't a disappointment!" he blurted. "I've wanted it to be that way for so long now! It's just that... tousan..."

"You seem to know so much about what he doesn't approve of. Do you even know what would make him proud?"

Jounouchi's face went blank. "I..." he began, but his voice trailed off and seconds later he broke his eye contact with Honda.

Honda frowned. "That's what I thought. Jou, why do you even bother to impress him when you don't even know what he wants?"

"I know what he wants," Jounouchi said after a few seconds of silence. "But it doesn't matter, because I'm always going to be a failure anyway. No matter what I do, I'll never be able to make him proud of me. But if I don't at least try...then...then things will get so much worse..."

"You can lie now, but if we keep this up, don't you think he's going to find out sooner or later?" Honda asked. "Did you plan on keeping it a secret forever?"

Honda could have sworn he saw Jounouchi flinch and for the first time since his father's expectations had been mentioned, the blonde lifted up his head. He looked lost and defeated.

"I...I don't know. If he finds out for sure, I don't think I would ever be able to do anything to make him forgive me," he said, and Honda's frown deepened at these words. It seemed like his father's approval was more important than the two of them staying together.

"I really didn't think about it that way," Jounouchi continued, his brow scrunched in confusion. "I guess you could say that. I really just don't want him to find out."

Honda sighed. He had taken Jounouchi's answer into careful consideration and decided what needed to be done.

"Well, if that's how you feel, you can have it your way, then," he said tonelessly, "Now he'll never have to."

With that said Honda slowly turned, having ignored the absolutely baffled expression on Jounouchi's face, and began to walk away. It wasn't until he was a few feet away that Jounouchi responded.

"Wait, you don't mean...Honda, wait!"

But the blonde's protest was wasted as Honda continued walking, not even bothering to look back until he knew that Jounouchi was completely out of his sight.

(A/N: Aw, poor Jou. What's gonna happen to him now? Well, only I know the answer to that, and if you wanna know to you gotta REVIEW!!!

I'll try to post the next chappie next week.)