It's time for chapter three of After The End! I hope your excited cause I know I am. Yet again the usual rules apply.

Disclaimer: Would I be doing a disclaimer if I owned this? Feel free to sue for all that I can give (besides my wonderful plots) the sum of 1 pound of lint. Who knows, maybe you'll get a penny or two if I happen to soon find some.
This chapter is not a flashback!

Chapter 3

When Kaiba finally found Jounouchi, it was during lunch brake and somehow Jou had climbed a tree with no branches in reach. And this was odd because if you have ever seen the two, you would have quickly noticed that Kaiba was taller. By about 6 inches. The only clue that Jounouchi was actually in the tree was that it had seemed that the tree was raining, and trying to muffle low sobs and sniffles.

Calling quietly because there were other students nearby, Kaiba said, "Mutt I know your up there...But how you got up there with your dog paws I can't even begin to guess."

What he got in response was a pinecone thrown at his head which the older teen easily caught.
Because he knew that Jounouchi could somehow see him since he had had a great shot at his skull, Kaiba held his hands up in surrender, even if he himself could not see past the first few branches.

"Alright, alright I get it; no more dog jokes...And how did you get up there anyway?" he asked with his interest mostly hidden.

This time he got an answer. The still slightly sniffed and husky voice of Jou said, "I hooked one of my book bag straps onto a branch and used the other to pull myself up while I walked up the side of the building."

Kaiba was impressed,he hadn't thought of that but then again he didn't have a book bag but his lovely silver briefcase. He was even more surprised that Jou would answer while he still sounded so...absorbed in his depression, was the closest Kaiba could come to. It even made him feel sorry for the mutt. So the C.E.O. (or should I call him the president?) of Kaiba corp. decided to ask something he had never asked anyone in his life and that he knew would probably leave a very bad taste in his mouth.

"Want to give me a hand here?"

And with the blondes snort in answer, he could just see Jounouchi rolling his eyes but shrugging, giving in anyway. Kaiba had always been able to read Jounouchi Katsuya. It was just another weird fact of his life in his strange relationship with the now late Yugi and his friends. But it was always Jou he could read the most. There was just something about him. He was the only person who could really get under his skin without ever being under his employment and without kidnapping Mokuba. In fact, the blond had even helped his brother.

The blue eyes suddenly snapped into focus when he heard Jou's voice say, "Umm Kaiba...my arms kinda getin' tired here."

And indeed Jou's hand was right in his face, so Kaiba got a good grip on his hand and put his feet up against the school building. When Jou gave a small tug on his hand, he started walking up the wall. While he was being pulled, he looked up and finally saw the mutt. Jounouchi's face was in complete concentration of what he was doing as his face started to perspire from the strain of hauling him up. And somewhere in the back of his mind Kaiba thought, 'If he drops me there will be hell to pay...' But his thoughts were unfounded as he soon found himself sitting on a thick branch in the middle of the tree. He gazed across him to the boy wiping his arm across his forehead and letting out a loud breath.

"What's the matter mutt," he asked, "Tired already?"

Jou only said, "What have you been doing with Yami gone, eating doughnuts? Man you gotta lose some weight."

"Excuse me?" Kaiba asked, getting annoyed.

"Calm down moneybags I was only kidding...a bit."

"Shut up."

The two sat I relative silence for about five minutes, Kaiba trying to find something to say, and Jou working up the courage to ask a question that he really wanted an answer to. They would glance at each other, wishing they knew what the other was thinking; the thought that they were contemplating the same thing, never crossed their minds (confusing sentence, ne?).

Finally regaining his legendary street-punk courage (which only amounted at this moment to about what Yugi's was when he had first met him), Jou asked, "Soooo...why are you here?"

Kaiba's head shot around to look at him.

"Truthfully...I have no idea why I even followed you out of class."

Jou looked confused and more than a little shocked. "You followed me out of class, and have been looking for me, for three periods?"

Kaiba gave him a strange look. It had annoyance, anger, but also a look of humiliation.
"Do you mean to tell me that you went back to your classes after that," he said in outrage.

Jou just looked down as he dropped his hands to his lap and the older one finally got a good look at his posture. Jou was sitting with his back to the tree, his arms had previously been behind his head. One of the long legs, but defiantly not as long as his, was stretched out along the branch in front of him while the other was hanging off. If Jou was at all frightened of the height they were sitting at or the way he was sitting at that height, he didn't show it.

Kaiba himself was sitting upright with his back leaning against a branch behind him. One of his legs was dangling while the other was up against his chest, his head leaning on it, and his arms wrapped around it. He was not afraid of heights. He had pushed his step-father out of a top story window without falling out himself hadn't he. Or that was the rumor.

"To tell you the truth, "Jou answered after the long pause, "I came straight here after grabbing my backpack out of my locker."

Kaiba took a quick scan of the other boys bag. It seemed as if he had nothing in it, and the boy himself looked like he hadn't eaten, even though he was usually stuffing his face right now.

"You haven't eaten yet." he stated.

"Me and Yug used to sit up here all the time after he wasn't crushing on Anzu. It was to get away from her friendship speeches. We never told Honda about it. Poor guy. This was just a place for me and Yugi..."

It wasn't that Jounouchi was ignoring him. It was just that he was suddenly caught up in his memories. They had laughed all the time, played tricks on the people who would walk under them. Talk about duels, practice strategies on each other, and all the while Jou would carry on about how one day he would finally beat 'that jerk Kaiba'. Yugi had always made sure to bring enough food for three people, since Jou would almost never have the money or bring food himself, and because Jou could eat enough for himself and another. That was just the way their life was, and Yugi wasn't about to ruin the relationship with his best friend (the one that didn't share his body) with awkward questions. They had promised they would be there for each other forever. But that wasn't the case now. Yugi wasn't lost as many people referred to his death as, because if he had been lost, Jounouchi would gladly scrap together all the money he could to hire a search team, even if he had to ask the person who was now silently watching him. Yugi wasn't lost. He was gone, and Jou would never see him again even in death, for he was sure he didn't have a chance to go to where the Egyptian pharaohs flew. For Yugi was absolutely a king.

"You haven't eaten anything Jou."

Jounouchi turned to look at the person next to him with glazed eyes (a/n: not ears with cheese sadly Gail).

"Yugi?"
Realizing what must have been happening in the mutt's mind, the older teen simply said, "No Jou. Kaiba...Here. Eat this." (a/n: I know. Short sentences. Heehee) He was holding out a baloney and cheese sandwich.

Kaiba watched as Jou's eyes seemed to clear without him even blinking. It was kind of like when he had been under Malik's mind-control. Only now, Jou wasn't about to die. But this time, Kaiba couldn't save him from drowning. Jou just continued to look intently at his eyes with no expression what-so-ever.

"Come on mutt. Eat. I don't need you to die from starvation on me."

Jou suddenly snapped into reality and stared at Kaiba with the more hatred that he had ever seen (a/n: and I think that that would pretty hard to accomplish). Jou had not even looked at Malik and/or Marik like this. He was almost scared when Jounouchi said in a voice that matched his look, "Don't you ever joke that that again, understand."

Kaiba felt a shiver that didn't only have to do with fear go down his back, and the reason why there wasn't only fear, was because he enjoyed it. He also jumped slightly as Jou fiercely snatched the sandwich from his hand and started to wolf it down while still glaring at him.

"What's the matter with you?" Kaiba said forcibly. "It's not like I said anything offensive."

"Offensive! Offensive! No. What you just did goes beyond offensive. You deserve to go to hell for that!"

Kaiba's eyes shot wide as he realized that he had missed something and said, "If you would be so kind as to explain why you have condemned me to hell. It would be a nice gesture."

Jou looked in shock and blinked a few times before he said, "You don't know? How could you not know? But of course you were too busy to even go to there...I cant believe you haven't heard. And Mokuba didn't tell you?"

With the subject of his brother suddenly brought in, Kaiba snapped out of his awe of the new seen side of what was now becoming 'the puzzle of Jounouchi Katsuya' and snarled, "What didn't Mokuba tell me?"

Jou was about to answer as the bell for the next period start to ring.

"Well if you want," Jou said instead as he spun his legs to the side to sit and face Kaiba. "We can talk about this some other time." As he started to slide off the branch Kaiba grabbed his wrist. Jou's head shot up to look at him.

"What does my brother have to do with anything?"

Jou got his balance on a branch below but still kept his grip on the others warm hand.
"He the one in your family who went to the funeral!"

"Who's funeral?"

"Who's do you think you cold-hearted bastard?! Yugi's!" Jou snapped out of his rage as he realized what he had just said. Tears formed in his eyes as he looked into Kaiba's and whispered in what seemed a defeated voice, "Just let me go."

"And what if I don't want to?" Kaiba's response was a surprise not only for Jou, but mostly for himself.

Jou started to shake slightly he noticed, as the cold grip on his hand tightened, and Jou asked, "What do you mean?"

Kaiba shook his head to try and get rid of the strange burning feeling in his ribs. He didn't like that feeling.

"I want you to come to my house. Now. And explain this to me." he said as it seemed to leave.

"Why?" But when Jou said that it seemed to return.

"Because 1) I want to know what happened while I was away, 2) I want to know why you went ballistic over it, and 3) because you went so ballistic over the not eating thing, your coming over for lunch since I know you can eat more then a sandwich which you only ate half of before dropping it to the ground I might add."

"You really do want to know."

Kaiba knew it wasn't a question, but still gave a short nod.

"What about school?"

"You already skipped three periods."

"Well...so did you."

Kaiba blinked at the true statement, only just realizing that he had skipped three periods to look for the mutt. "I guess I did. So lets go instead of wasting time here. I can always teach you what the school lessons are myself."

Jou looked unsure but said anyway, "Good. Now can you let go...I'm kinda afraid of heights and you've had me dangling from a high one for about 10 minutes."

"Sure" was all he said as he let go of the now pleasantly cool hand and heard Jou land on something with an 'oof!' But whether he had landed on the ground or another branch he couldn't tell.

Kaiba slid off his branch and climbed down the tree with a feline grace. When he landed on the branch that had helped them climb into the blasted tree in the first place, he saw Jounouchi sitting against the tree again but this time he was rubbing his ribs.

"Landed on them." he said with a pained grimace.

Kaiba just rolled his eyes and hoped off the branch to the ground. When he straightened up from the crouch he had landed in, he looked up to see Jou looking at him like he didn't have it in him to jump at that moment.

Kaiba rolled his eyes again before he said " Come on and jump. I'll catch you."

And to his surprise, Jou actually did, and was caught with ease.

Kaiba blinked down at the boy in his arms. "You actually trusted me to catch you?" he asked, trying to understand why.

"Yes." was his simple answer.

"Why?" the brunet asked incredulously.

"Cause you're the only one who came after me." the blond pup answered as he shrugged his shoulders and slid from Kaiba's arms.

Kaiba didn't think that this was such a good answer but he went with it. He took hold of Jou's hand again and started to lead him to his car so that he could drive them back to his place.

"Nice Mustang." was all Jou said after Kaiba had unlocked the passenger-side door for him, and the ride to the Kaiba corp...C.E.O (or president's) mansion.

End Notes

In the manga, Serenity (Shizuka- I'm not sure I spelled her name right-) doesn't do a lovely swan-dive to save her brother. She doesn't even take off her bandages until he's safe and unattached from the anchor. It's actually Kaiba who takes Katsu's key and drops it into the water where he sank from (causing Katsuya to kind of rescue himself as well) and I think he says something like "cant let the mutt die" or something like that.

So that's the new chapter from the puppy. Gotta go now. Gotta go "bother" Gail inta getting me a new chew toy. Maybe this time it can be Seto or Karama (from YYH) flavored! YAY!