Disclaimer: Yugioh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi, Jump Comics, Shonen Jump, 4Kids and Funimation I assume. All I do is twist it any way I please.

A/N: A buddyshipping and Jounouchi background fic. I had to do it. I mean it is only the greatest pairing the world has ever known and Mr. J needs attention.

Proof I watch WAY too much Doctor Keith. But that I also hate Jou's mum with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns. Enjoy.

But That Was Then
Chapter 2: Unsolved For Now

Jounouchi Katsuya and Jiro sat anxiously in the police station. It had been stupid way too stupid. Jiro was still too drunk to notice to much of what was going on. Katsuya was not so lucky.

"Do you know what kind of trouble you can get me into bringing opium into this house!?!" Jiro said slamming his junior into the door of the apartment which flew open. Katsuya landed in the hallway outside. He quickly reeled though and came after Jiro. Katsuya slammed into his father grabbing him by the upper arms. Jiro staggered but held himself up as he grabbed his son's arms. The two grappled until they ended up in the hallway shoving and clawing at one another in the hallway of the apartment complex. Katsuya had landed the hardest banging his forehead on the lower wall. He sneered under his breath and tackled his senior. "It's not opium, you idiot!"

The argument didn't seem to convince Jiro as it was only met with a firm swing at his face. Katsuya wove away and shoved the man. Jiro grabbed at his son finally catching him in a headlock . "What do you think I am stupid, Katsuya?"

Katsuya was wrestling with whether to answer, debatable. It wasn't really an option though. Katsuya slipped on the top stair as he tried to wiggle his way from Jiro. Both toppled over each other down the stairway. By now, several tenants had come out to see what all of the yelling in the hall was about. It wasn't uncommon for the sound of Jounouchi Jiro to be heard but it wasn't normally followed by so much clatter. "Maybe if you got a job, you wouldn't be so nosey with me?!"

That definitely snapped something in Jiro's brain. He snarled and lashed out shoving his son down the next flight of stairs. Katsuya was sounding just like his mother always bringing it back to his job jumping. Both of them knew what the economy was and they still dug in on it. "Get back up, KATSUYA!"

Jiro was standing over him. Katsuya yelled out angrily grabbing onto his father's ankle and tossing him down onto the floor and started attacking him again.

By that time, several more tenants had emerged out of confusion. Several were scared at that point and two larger men tore Jiro and Katsuya off of each other. "Come down you two!"

Jiro and Katsuya snapped out of it and looked around. A rather large number of residents were gathered in shock and confusion looking at them. A young mother seemed to have been trying to make sure her young children weren't in the halls. Several other teenagers were huddled in trying to see the fight as their parents were too shocked to wrangle them. They could hear comments like about Katsuya's age and how intoxicated Jiro was.

The police had arrived shortly after and had taken them to the station. Katsuya at this point was falling over himself with anxiety. He turned slightly to see himself in the reflection of the window. His left eye was almost completely red besides this marble shaped deep brown iris and his forehead was badly cut. Jiro wasn't any better off. Katsuya restrained a whimper. He hadn't even felt it. He would have shut up if he knew he was hurt but he still couldn't feel it. His eye should be throbbing like mad but it felt fine. They were going to drug test him and he would fail. Add to that the time for assault. Man.. He was in trouble. They have the death penalty in this country.

An officer emerged with something that looked like paperwork on a clipboard. He looked over the two. Katsuya tried to avoid looking at him. Please don't let him know me from my record in primary school. Jiro didn't let the officer pay much attention to Katsuya though. "I don't know what you think happened but this was all a big misunderstanding. Me and the boy fell down a flight of stairs."

Katsuya looked up but only with his eyes. He was feeling sick and he didn't want to encourage an investigation. "The witnesses said you were 'fighting'. Now I don't usually pry but isn't he a minor?"

Katsuya flinched. Jiro shot him a look out of the corner of his eyes. He then smiled to the officer. "My neighbors were exaggerating. We live on the end of the hall on the third floor. I was out for saki. Katsuya came out to see what was going on, I slipped, he tried to help me and we both fell down the stairs." Jiro paused at the gaze of the officer. "He's sixteen years old. I'm not about to get into a fist fight with a sixteen year old child."

The officer sighed and looked from Jiro to Katsuya. The kid looked off way rattled to death probably from being dragged into the station after the fall and the father's story seemed clean. The policeman sighed and turned to the other officer. "What do you think, Uyeda?"

Uyeda was standing across the room with a cup of coffee. He stirred it as he thought to himself. "It did look like they were fighting when we got there but I don't know. The stairway was right there." He paused for a moment. "I think someone just got a little hysterical on us."

The officer with the clipboard turned back to the two men. "Well I'm going to let you off with a warning. If nothing else, you were disturbing the peace. It's a 20,000 yen fine."

Jiro leered at Katsuya and Katsuya looked away quickly. It was going to be a long night.

Katsuya got out of the bus at the stop where he said he'd meet Jiro. His stomach was cramping and he was sweating bullet by that point. He had to calm down. It was lunch. Just a stupid little lunch that shouldn't be happening. Katsuya reeled on himself again. He had to calm down. It was nothing.

He sat down quietly on the bench. A businessman was next to him checking his stocks on this mobile phone. Katsuya only looked out of the corner of his eye. He and Honda were probably the only two people in the world without a mobile phone. It was actually kind of embarrassing to say he didn't own one. He'd have to look into it. It couldn't be anywhere near as expensive as Honda leads on.

He sighed to himself and fidgeted his feet. He idly watched them, his head hung a little. "Katsuya?"

Katsuya's head shot up right away. A thinner, cleaner and more well groomed version of his father was standing beside the bench. Katsuya just sat for a moment, his mouth slightly a gape and blinked in confusion. He knew his father. His father was an unshaven, disheveled alcoholic who rarely what on a clean shirt. "J-jiro...?"

Jiro smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, it's me. I guess I should have warned you."

Katsuya was still reeling from the shock of his father actually looking like a member of society. He blinked several more times before he said anything. "You... gonna buy lunch?"

Jiro tried not to laugh as he looked over his son. Katsuya was not the most put together person in the world. That was for sure. He was wearing a Gacht t-shirt under a greenish jacket and rather unkept jeans. He still had the same shoes from secondary school, the one's with the knife cut. He also had a pair of dog tags on with something scratched onto it. That was his boy though to the letter. "Yeah..." Jiro said and looked over. "How does ramen sound?"

Katsuya shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, I guess. You know a place around here?" Katsuya asked dully looking around.

"Yeah... down here." Jiro said and began walking.

Katsuya followed with his hands in the pockets of this dull grenade colored coat. Both didn't speak until they reached the ramen bar on the end of the block. Katsuya sat down slouching with his arms resting on the counter. Jiro sat up awkwardly straight and sighed to himself. He flagged down the cook and ordered two bowls. Both men sighed and Jiro scratched the back of his head. "Shizuka is doing well."

Katsuya nodded. "Yeah... she's in her first year at school."

"Ha... I didn't think any of the Jounouchi's would ever make it to university, did you?"

Katsuya grunted. "What just 'cause I didn't. Not like you're any genius." Katsuya flinched slightly.

Jiro squirmed alittle uncomfortably at the flinch. "Don't act like that, Katsuya."

Katsuya snorted. It was more involuntary than anything. A habit he had whenever he mouthed off to his father. "Yeah, we're in public, right?"

Jiro began to fume a little. He really wished he could have a drink at that point. "Hey! That was a long time ago, its not like you were perfect anyway brat." Not he wasn't allowed. "Now, I came all this way to see you. Even after all the trouble you caused for me when you were growing up."

Katsuya snarled. "Oh yeah, you're just some poor over stressed parent with a problem child. Who just happened to try to bash my head in from time to time. I guess it was my fault you gambled Shizuka's tuition and couldn't stay sober long enough to get a job. Sorry for being such a burden."

Jiro really wanted a drink. He felt like screwing that lovely forty day mark he'd invested in. "The economy was in the hole. There wasn't any... Why am I even telling you this? That was a long time ago, I don't drink anymore. Just ask your sister. Or even better, your mother, even she isn't whining about it anymore. So don't give me any of that about..."

Katsuya felt like someone had ripped his stomach in half. He had more than enough to say to him but somehow he couldn't bring himself to. The whole idea of Jiro not drinking was insane. Jiro was a drunk. That was that. He was glad that the ramen was finished. He didn't have to talk to him when he was eating.

Jiro took a breath and looked over at his son. He really did look a lot like him. He reminded him a lot of him too. Never finishing school. Working wherever he could. "Katsuya..."

Katsuya didn't look at Jiro. He was focusing more on making sure that he kept his lunch down being as angry as he was.

"Katsuya, don't act like that. I came down here because... I wanted to see you. You're my son." Jiro paused nervously. "I see a whole lot more of your sister than I do of you."

"She doesn't know any better."

Jiro tried not to be bothered. Katsuya was like that almost always with him. "I never did anything to Shizuka and I never will, you know that."

Katsuya couldn't argue with that Shizuka had never received any of the wrath which was Jounouchi Jiro and never would. She was his favorite, his little girl. "Why didn't you keep her if she was fine with us?"

Jiro slutched a little. It was obviously an unhappy topic for him. "Your mother insisted on taking her. I think she was trying to get back at me for something. I can't remember. I told her that if she was going to take my little girl than to take you too but she wasn't having it."

Katsuya took a deep breath. It wouldn't have hurt as much if it had been in the legal fight or if it was because his father was some heartless drunk, no that wouldn't have been so bad at all. It would just of been another notch in the belt of the Jounouchi's messy divorce. However, that wasn't the case. "You separated us to get back at each other. How could you? How could my mother!?! How could you!?!"

Jiro was snapped out of it. He revealed what he had just blurted out. Katsuya didn't have to know that. He didn't have to know that at all. He didnt' have to know that his mother had done more to ruin his life than he knew and that he hadn't done anything but get himself smashed even more than before. He didn't have to know. "Katsuya..."

"Shizuka almost went blind! She sent a letter saying that she wanted to see me. What were you going to tell her? You can't because I had a fight with your mother?!"

"Katsuya..."

"She used to say that she missed the beach too."

"Katsuya..."

"And that she wanted to see you."

"Katsuya..."

"She said that she missed you. She always asked. Always. Even when I told her not to."

Jiro winced and rubbed his forehead. "I don't have anything to say, Katsuya. It wasn't right. Your mother and I didn't do anything right for you two kids." Jiro paused. "And you got the worst of it. I'm not surprised your sister isn't as angry. Or isn't angry at all."

"She gets sad more than angry. I was always the one that got angry." Katsuya sighed to himself. "Are you sorry for what you did, Jiro?"

Jiro looked at Katsuya squarely. The man was dead serious as he looked his son in the eyes. "It was a messy divorce."


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