CHAPTER TWO

The force that entered Kaiba Corp that following afternoon was nothing short of thunderous. If his employees had wanted to avoid him before due to his … difficult moods, they were practically falling over themselves to scuttle out of his way now. Kaiba didn't spare a glance at anyone, instead he focused his glare on the elevators ahead. The sooner he got to his office and back to his work, the better. Stepping inside the carriage, he jabbed the button for the top floor before leaning against the wall and folding his arms elegantly across his chest and as waited for the doors to slide shut.

He silently fumed during the swift ascent. Once at the very top, Kaiba wasted little time in exiting. Pointedly ignoring his secretary, he stormed into the office. The slam of his door bore enough force to make her desk shudder. She merely bit her lip and began to type faster. The last thing she wanted was Kaiba Seto on her back in his current mood.

Inside the office, Kaiba was already in his seat, staring down dispassionately at the stack of papers on his desk. Another bunch of reports to read and sign – no doubt, left there for him by his secretary. Somewhere deep inside his mind, he was aware that she was only doing what he'd asked of her and yet, there was no hesitation on his part when he extended his hand forward to fling them off his desk. He watched them flutter to the floor, lying haphazardly on the carpet. The action bought very little satisfaction.

How dare she?

After Atem had fucked off, the little Friendship Squad had scattered. In fact, he hadn't seen a single one in the last five years. He'd moved on, concentrating on his company and his little brother. Domino had begun to feel like a normal city. No rare-hunters lurking in dark corners, no talk of God cards or Millennium Items or magic. He'd begun to feel like he was in control of his surroundings once more. Domino City was his and finally, it appeared that everything was as it seemed.

He'd even given up duelling. As much as he'd once loved the game, he felt it had been sullied by Yugi and the gang. He couldn't even bring himself to lay a trap card down without the memories. Plus, there was nobody there to really present him with much of a challenge after Atem had left. Years had passed and the game had its new generation of duellists. It wouldn't have been right to stand in their way and gloat over his assets and power the way he'd done once before. And besides, all those he'd known when he'd been in his prime had left the duelling world. In all honesty, he'd buried the duellist within him the day Atem had left.

But even so, he'd kept his deck and his three Blue Eyes White Dragons – locked away in the safe at his mansion.

Now, he focused on his simulations and the new, more advanced duel disks and arenas that perfected the holograms into looking and feeling like the real deal. Duel Monsters hadn't lost any popularity during the last few years. In fact, it had become even bigger, resulting in larger and larger profits. Yen, dollars, pounds – he was raking it in.

He had been successfully living his life, moving on – and then that bitch had to swoop in from nowhere and shit all over it.

Reviving his computer from sleep mode, he clicked open the programme he'd been working on and proceeded to type – each tap of the key, sounding slightly louder than usual due to his irritation. He couldn't care less what she believed in – let her think Santa was real, if she wanted – but to force her stupid beliefs onto him?

He still remembered her parting words and he found himself scoffing at the sheer absurdity of it all. He'd come to regret those words, would he? Yeah, it'd be a cold day in hell before that ever happened.

After a further few moments of grumbling inwardly, Kaiba finally lost himself in his work.

oOoOo

Across town, Jounouchi Katsuya was pacing around his tiny apartment, restless.

His life was a hard slog and that didn't bother him too much. Once he got into the rhythm – working, sleeping and trying to eat, it wasn't too bad. The problem arose when he had his days off. His new trick had been to not think about stuff. That's how he survived his days. Don't think, just do. Do what needs to be done, do what it takes to keep a roof over your head and food on the table. But during those days when he didn't have work to distract him from his thoughts … well – those were the hardest. Those were the days he hated.

He was too broke to go out and socialise. His meagre pay check was barely enough to cover rent and food let alone the luxuries like hot water and heating – comforts most people took for granted. Even talking a walk around the neighbourhood just so he could get away from his ratty apartment for a while was a bad idea, especially after it began to get dark. He lived in the poorest, most dangerous area of Domino and a few moments of fresh air wasn't worth getting his ass kicked and being mugged.

Jounouchi had both anticipated and dreaded his future after High School. After Atem had passed his royal ass on over to the other side – or ancient Egypt or wherever he was rockin' it these days – the gang had parted ways.

Anzu had kept true to her word, gone to New York and was now dancing on Broadway. Bakura had gone back to England and was working as an archaeologist. Honda had actually attended college and was now successfully working as an IT manager somewhere in Europe. Yugi had decided to study Egyptology and was digging around in Luxor with Rebecca and Professor Hawkins. Otogi had gone to America – he had moved his company to California and was trying to shove Dungeon Dice Monsters on to American consumers, trying to make the game as popular as Duel Monster ( yeah, good luck with that, bro, Jounouchi had thought sarcastically, when he'd heard the news ). After Battle City, Shizuka's mother ( since Jounouchi had flat out refused to consider her as his anymore ) had taken his beloved little sister back to America.

Aside from several letters, a few text messages and one very brief phone call, Jounouchi had barely heard from his friends. Not that he could blame them. All the new things they were doing sounded so much more exciting than his own life.

Five years later, and he was still here – in the same shitty apartment, dealing with the same shitty problems. How the hell was he supposed to get out of this neighbourhood, if he couldn't even feed himself properly? He would have attempted college after school, but it had been out of the question. The cost – to Jounouchi anyway – had seemed astronomical. And so, he'd settled for just getting whatever job he could and doing whatever necessary to make ends meet. What other choice did he have?

There'd been one blessing at least – his father had died from a heart attack a year after his friends had left. Sure it was a sucky way to go, but it was quick and at least the old man wasn't around to blow his money on booze or worse still, beat him senseless every time it struck his fancy. In his more nostalgic moods, Jounouchi actually missed the old man. However, those moods were rare and for the most part, he was glad his dad was gone for good.

Domino had begun to feel smaller after his friends had left. The excitement, the colour had vanished and now his days were dismal. He was alone and that hit him hard, taking a toll on his once bright personality. He'd always had people around him before. He'd gone from his sister's side into the arms of the gang he used to run with and when that was over, he'd found Honda. And then Yugi and Anzu.

But now, there was no one left. Loneliness settled in around him like a heavy curtain and he'd found himself hating it. Now that he was alone, he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. Aside from working and sleeping, there wasn't anything to do.

It's not like it was worth having dreams or anything – not for him.

Tired of pacing around the small room, Jounouchi sank down upon his old futon, biting his lip at his next thought. The only familiar face he'd seen that had remained consistent – always in the papers, always on television – was that of Kaiba Seto. It seemed he was still as popular as ever, making headlines with just about every little thing he did. And although Jounouchi would never admit it, seeing that familiar face every once in a while gave him some much needed comfort despite the tumultuous … friendship? – or whatever it had been – they'd had in the past.

Kaiba's presense made him feel like he wasn't completely alone in the city.

Not that he'd even spoken to Kaiba since that day in Egypt, much less seen him on the city streets. But that was expected seeing as they lived two completely different lifestyles. But knowing he was out there somewhere was enough for Jounouchi.

With that thought firmly in his mind, he settled down for the night. He had an early morning shift at the coffee shop tomorrow and going to sleep a few hours earlier would help him feel less drained in the morning especially since he'd be skipping breakfast for the next few days.

Pay day couldn't come soon enough.

oOoOo

Kaiba couldn't really pinpoint the moment when he'd left his office. It had happened in a blur. He could just about catch vague memories of closing his laptop lid, of getting into the car and then, the dark Kaiba Mansion. However, he couldn't recall ever getting into bed or even taking his shoes off at the door. Perhaps, he'd been working too hard.

Or maybe, he'd still been royally pissed off to notice.

Whatever. All he'd wanted was to sleep and continue on with the next day as though nothing had happened. Despite getting a fair amount of work done that day, he had still felt a little … off. That run in with Ishizu had put him off his stride and that had been something he'd hated more than her stupid words.

Nothing affected Kaiba Seto.

He must have been sleeping. His thought pattern was fuzzy, as though he was lazily musing while on the verge of walking up. If that was the case then dawn must be nearing. His internal body clock was just as accurate as an actual clock and he'd long ago stopped relying on such things to rouse him from slumber. Stretching languidly, he opened his eyes – and realised immediately that something was wrong.

Dead wrong.

For a start, the light was different. It was blinding and he found himself screwing up his eyes in discomfort. His bed felt strange. It was harder … and sticky. There was the sound of traffic – as though he was hearing cars drive by just a few feet away from him. A cold wind ruffled his hair. And last but not least, the smell – or rather, the smells. He could smell fish frying somewhere, flowers, animals, perfume and even the faint stench of vomit.

What the hell?

Kaiba jumped to his feet in panic, only to topple over again. He blinked, bringing his hand to his face except – it wasn't a hand but a brown paw. He frantically looked for his other hand, only for his gaze to meet another brown paw.

This had to be a dream. Carefully getting to his feet, he found himself standing in some part of Domino he wasn't familiar with. Had he been sleeping on the fucking street? Taking a few careful steps towards a flower shop, he peeked into its window – and there in the reflection he saw something astonishing. He was there in the reflection alright, but not as a human on all fours, no. Instead of his own face, he saw a chocolate brown kitten with startlingly blue eyes – his eyes – staring back at him.

Calm down, it's a dream. Biting his lip hard, Kaiba winced at the sharp pain. He'd momentarily overlooked the fact that along with his new paws and tail, he'd also be getting a set of new, sharp teeth. Feline teeth. And if he could feel pain in a dream then this was no dream …

What the fuck? He had meant to growl but instead it came out as a pitiful mew.

Oh, he was going to make somebody shit bricks for this.

Didn't plan to update this soon but there ya go! Please R&R! If you guys show enough enthusiasm I may update the next chapter just as quickly! :)

Also, I've skimmed a few of these fanfics where either Kaiba or Jou get turned into an animal and it always becomes really cracky or humorous? I want to try and write something a little more serious. I know, getting turned into a cat ain't serious business but. I don't know, I guess I wasn't really happy with the way the fics I've read in the past had panned out ( no offence to the authors! ) so I thought I'd try writing my own.