Jounouchi awoke to the grinning face of his dear friend Yugi.
"You ready to get out of here?"
"Hell yes."
Happiness pushed past the blonde's underlying doubts at the thought; Yugi and his grandfather had offered to let him stay with them for the next month or so until he got back on his feet. The idea of not going home to his empty apartment was one that cheered Jounouchi up to no ends, and he grinned back at his short companion. As he sat up, Yugi noticed two things. The first was that Jounouchi was no longer in restraints; this he put down to it being his release date, and his having come far in his counselling. The second was that Jou was wearing dog tags that had not been there the last time Yugi had visited him.
"Where'd you get those? I don't think I've seen them before."
"What, these?" Jounouchi slipped the tags down underneath his hospital gown, cringing mentally at their coldness. He didn't know if Yugi could read Latin, but he wasn't taking any chances. The Pharaoh might be able to read it too, considering how he lived in ancient times, and all. He was faced with a dilemma. His mind quickly concocted a story about how they were the ones from his father he wore during their most recent tournament, and he'd asked someone to go to the apartment to get them for him. But there was nobody who'd do that for him that Yugi couldn't check the story with. He could say a pretty nurse had taken a liking to him and had bought him the tags as a get-well gift. Or maybe he could claim they were a part of his therapy.
But all of those involved lying to Yugi. Wasn't that what had gotten him here? Lying to his friends to save them from worrying? Concealing things that worried him and never going to anyone for help?
"Y'can't tell anyone, a'right?"
Yugi nodded, an inquisitive perk to his eyebrows.
"Kaiba showed up with'em. Not sure why, but he did." It didn't take Yugi long to get the joke.
"Kaiba brought you dog tags. What a jerk. Why're you still wearing them? You do get what the implication is, right?"
"Of course I do. It's just... I dunno, they're kinda nice quality and I feel like I'm stealin' from him. Like the joke's on him for wasting money on something so petty." That was partially true, but he still wasn't being completely honest with Yugi – or with himself, for that matter. The idea that he could start over after this, that he had a clean slate... well, it appealed to him a hell of a lot more than the reality that this could haunt him for the rest of his life and permanently cripple his friends' ability to trust him with anything potentially lethal.
"Oh, I get it. Yeah, that is true!" Yugi's eyes lit up with the pleasure of knowing Jounouchi hadn't taken to heart a jab from Kaiba Seto, and that he'd even been able to turn it around and see the silver lining. This was a good thing! "So, are you ready to ditch this joint? I brought you some clothes from your apartment to change into, and grandpa will drive us by your place so you can grab whatever you need for the next few weeks."
"Thanks, man. Gimme a second, I'll just change real quick."
o o o o o
"Surprise!" Shouted the group in semi-unison, crowding around Jounouchi as he stepped through the front door of the Motou residence. It seemed like everyone was there; Yugi had collected together all of Jounouchi's friends for the 'welcome back party', including some of the more distant people like Ryou and Otogi. A number of them grappled him in hugs that ranged from gentle to back-breaking, while others hung back with smiles that were sad for his plight, but happy he had been rescued from that particular precipice.
Almost as exciting as seeing all his friends out of the oppressive atmosphere of a visit to the hospital was the fact that on the coffee table was a fair deal of junk food, of which Jounouchi had been painfully deprived for much too long. In the merriment of the party, his brush with death and struggles with depression seemed all but forgotten, and for this he was thankful. Although having it completely ignored would have thrown him further down the path of unhappiness, being fawned over and constantly reminded of it would have done him no better. The only small snag that made the evening slightly less than perfect was the odd feeling he had to endure every time the tags hidden under his shirt brushed against him and made his mind flit to those nights spent with Kaiba at his side.
He wondered what sort of person he'd be like at parties, and tried to imagine him on the couch, squashed between Anzu and Otogi, laughing at the dice-master's animated storytelling or smiling at Honda as he passed the chips. Jounouchi identified the mental image for what it was; pure fantasy. He'd been to parties where guys like Kaiba couldn't fit in, stood on the corners unable to socialize because of their own ego or intelligence, and as much as he hated to admit it, it was simply an established fact that Kaiba was damn smart- so much so that people who should've been his peers probably looked to him like inferiors. He'd never be able to get along with Jounouchi and his friends in the environment of the real world, and as he came to that conclusion the blonde teenager felt a surprising more amount of regret that he would've expected himself to feel. It wasn't a big loss, really.
So the party went on, happy smiles covering up concern and unease, but genuine pleasure at Jounouchi's return to health welling up in brief moments here and there within the hearts of his companions. At about one in the morning, Yugi's grandfather gave the guests a subtle nudge towards the door, and they departed with a few last hugs and murmured sentiments for dear Jouno. Once Yugi had gone to bed and he had settled himself in the guest room, Jounouchi sat up for a little while examining the dog tags in the blue glow of the alarm clock he'd brought from his apartment. That night he masturbated for the first time since he'd been hospitalized, feeling guilty. He told himself the guilt was for doing it down the hall from Grandpa Motou, and while that was certainly part of it, the majority of that uncomfortable, self-conscious feeling was because of who he fantasized about while he brought himself to climax.
o o o o o
"Kaiba Seto."
The young man raised his hand automatically at his name without looking up from the book he was reading. There had been no communication between him and Jounouchi that Monday, although many people who'd had even less contact with the blonde welcomed him back. Everyone seemed to know that he'd been in the hospital, but not why. There was a rumour floating around that he'd caught mono from his last girlfriend, a gorgeous but fickle college girl who'd enjoyed his company physically but grew weary of his personality after about three weeks. That was a good enough reason to miss half a month of school, the student populace decided, and Jounouchi saw no harm in letting them think that.
He and Kaiba had glanced at each other a few times, naturally, but their timing was such that their eyes never met, and there was no recognition there of anything special, anything sustainable, anything worth pursuing. Both of them decided that the nights in the hospital had meant nothing to the other. Both were certain that the other had no interest, and convinced themselves it would probably be easier to continue life as they had been doing.
That didn't last long.
As things went back to normal, Jounouchi's attitude towards school began to slip back into apathy. The teachers tried to be understanding, but they never understood anything. Yugi tried to be supportive, but it wore on his nerves and stressed both of them out when he tried to explain the homework and Jounouchi continued to struggle with it. He recognised that he friend was falling back into that state of mind, and did what he could to help; they went to parties, visited the arcade, saw movies, and even tried doing walks in the park. The only thing that changed was that Jounouchi started getting into fights again, taking out his frustration on the other kids with shitty home lives and miserable grades, the kids he hated to look at because he knew he was becoming one of them. It was during one of these after-school scuffles that his relationship with Kaiba finally took a new turn.
