Ch.7

Jealousy in the morning hours

He wakes up with wrapped in warmth and comfort and it feels like the best place in the world. Jou hums deep in his chest like a large purring cat, pressing himself deeper into the feeling. Setos eyelids are heavy, he wants to to leave them shut and stay asleep til at least noon. However warm sunlight is spilling through his curtain and warming his face, reminding him to get up and make Jous breakfast. He shifts and finds a soft weight weighing down his arms and snuggling into his chest. Grudgingly he scrunches his eyes willing them to open, his vision is blurry but the first thing he sees is a mass of tousled blonde hair.

Kaiba blinks repeatedly finding his breath lodged in his throat, he calms himself when he recalls why Jou is in his bed. Carefully he lifts himself up and slips away sliding the pillow in place of his arm carefully and silently crawls out of the bed. He crawls over Jou and hops to the floor padding along silent as a cat, pausing at the door he looks at asleep on his bed and wishes more than anything that he could just crawl back in.

With his exemplary skill in self control he slips out the door closing it soundlessly behind him. For some reason he feels very much like a teenager out past curfew sneaking back inside in the wee hours of the morning. His heart jumps and lands in his throat when blue eyes land on him like pennies dropped from the empire state building. Any other person would have frozen in place until a voice snapped them out of it, Seto however just smirks in Anzus direction.

She leers at him as he walks off to the bathroom looking far too satisfied for her liking. She glares at the blank tv hanging the wall that shows only her reflection, she watches the reflection of seto step into the living room past her and into the kitchen.

" do you drink coffee?"

Anzu slowly turns her head to look at kaiba with her cold glare, he out strips her with a look of absolute indifference. She debates on rejecting the beverage just to be rude, but she doubts it would do little more then deprive her of her much needed battery acid. So she responds with clipped words.

"yes, I do."

Kaiba turns from her, she just listens to the sound of him popping the lid off the coffee can and loading the small coffee maker. She doesn't like silence, she's really used to the way her mother chatters on about nothing she can decipher. Her mother is a morning person, she is really quite far from it.

"cream and sugar..."

He says it like a statement, in no particular direction as if he where talking to nothing at all, which in his mind is completely true. She isn't a complete imbecile, she can read between the lines better than anyone, only because those are the only lines she reads- even when there's nothing there.

"yes...please."

He sets a small jar of sugar and bottle of powdered creamer onto the center of the very small table alongside two spoons.

"the coffee pot is rather small, so it will be a moment before its done."

"that's fine."

Kaiba stoops in the fridge then pauses and closes it, he leans on the counter to look at the back of her head, knowing damn well shes watching him by the reflection of the TV.

" I presume that miso fish and rice is not to your refined tastes, you would like something else?"

She turns to look at him suspiciously, hes right though. She hates miso in the morning... and in general.

"If it is not too much trouble, that would be nice."

He just nods to her and turns away from the counter, she returns to watching him from the reflection in the blank plasma. Twenty minutes later Kaiba sets down a plate of eggs and toast down on the small table, then places a cup of black coffee beside it.

"mazaki, your breakfast is on the table."

She snaps her head around in shock at hearing herself referred to by that name. In her book its akin to purposely screwing up a haircut.

" all my friends call me Anzu."

He turns from the stove to look at her for a moment.

" I am aware."

She walks stiffly to the table and braces herself for what it is she intends to do. As she scoops sugar into her piping hot coffee and slowly stirs she wills the dreaded words to force their way out of her mouth. She tries to loosen her jaw and winds up balling her hands into fists.

"so, how did you sleep."

His motions slow for a moment, she can hear the low chuckle before he decide he actually wants to respond to that.

"wonderfully, and yourself?"

He can just about hear her bones lock up and cause her whole body to look as though she suffers rigamortis. It amuses him to no end that she is so painfully transparent, her behavior however is quite different from what he recalls and in the back of his mind he wonder's why.

"well enough."

She looks at him from her place at the table where she has forgotten to continue stirring and now grips the handle of the spoon as if it where a bladed weapon. He keeps his back to her grinning inwardly at the sound of her sharp breathes, in haling and exhaling in a highly stressed way. She looks at him and stares, she knows he knows, she knows hes mocking her by doing nothing. So she says nothing until she can regain control of her breathing.

From this view, she realizes that the size of the kitchen makes him look even taller than he is. Are his shoulders really that broad? As he moves about, turning this way and that, she catches onto the fact that there is strong muscle hidden beneath the veil of his pale skin. She looks away because the longer she stares the more she finds that she dislikes him less and less.

She hates the fact that the food is delicious and the coffee isn't burnt. She wants something to bitch about, she wants to whine, but he wont hear it. Damn him. Damn him for being here and ruining everything.

Anzu is quickly pulled from her thoughts by a soft knocking sound. She looks over and see's Kaiba knocking on his own door before stepping in. she can hear muffled voices and a slight laugh,a strange kind of silence and then Kaiba steps back out. He walks back to the kitchen and pauses, he looks at her empty plate.

" if you are finished, that is the only table, and I would appreciate if you would please return to the living room."

She wants to get mad and shout that she'll sit wherever the bloody hell she wants, instead she just huffs and stomps away, almost throwing herself onto the couch, he follows suit setting her coffee cup down on the table in front of her wordlessly. A thump a groan and then slight shuffling noises can be heard from kaibas bedroom, where Jou opens the door and leans in the frame. His bleary gaze aimlessly wanders the room before he locates the bathroom and stumbles off as if he might have trouble walking correctly.

His sleepy face, tousled hair and seemingly sore body are all that register to her, she leers at the reflection of kaiba setting the small table. He isn't oblivious, he feels her eyes on him and the heat of her glare does nothing to bother him, this fact only irks her further. The sound of someone interrupting the steady flow of running water. Splashing for a moment, the water stops and a moment later Jou steps out of the bathroom feeling much more awake having washed the sleep off his face.

"mornin Anzu, did you eat yet?"

She looks at his cheery face,he must be a morning person. She smiles at him because his cheer is infectious, its easy to forget you're upset when he smiles like that.

"yes I did, it was quite good and I even have coffee."

She raises he still heated mug to him, proving that she is quite well accommodated.

He almost skips off to the breakfast table turning the chair so he can look at both her and Kaiba.

"did you sleep well? I know you have that big bed at home, I hope my little bed doesn't mess with your back."

How considerate, even if he isn't always obvious about it, he is always concerned, even when it isn't his problem. His loud voice and need to always be moving sometimes get in the way of his intentions, but they are always good.

"oh no, yours might be small but I'm pretty sure its softer than mine, I slept great."

Kaiba sets down a plate of braised fish and rice, again served with miso soup. Sometimes he makes onion cakes instead and serves it with broth boiled octopus or squid, those days Jou hops off to work really quite excited and chattery. Today he is already in a marvelous mood, no edible motivation needed. Kaiba brings over small cup of morning tea for Jou as he sets down his own cup of black coffee. Anzu shifts in her place on the edge of the couch to get a better view of the pair at the table, from this perspective she can only smile at the image they make together.

Its very strange, last time she saw them in the same room together it had resulted in Jou giving kaiba a busted lip and bruised cheek, but walked away with a broken nose and bruised ribs. How often where they civil to each other back then? Rarely if ever at all and only for a short period of time. Now they they get along so well, it is as if they where always meant to be this way. She hates her thought process, because she doesn't want to think they are beautiful together. It wouldn't be fair, not to anyone.

She wants to to continue thinking of kaiba as a cold selfish bastard, but as the week wears on she realizes how well he cares for Jounouchi. His work is ceaseless always in the middle of something, washing the windows, vacuuming, laundry and always in the process of cooking something or another. He is always in virtual meetings, listening as people drone on apparently about nothing that really concerns him. He hurries out to go to random interviews with the police regarding information they somehow acquired.

Kaiba proves himself to be an excellent host merely because doing otherwise might upset Jounouchi, he pushes the couch back so that Anzu has room to practice her routine. She watches him leave the apartment with a mop and bucket, he cleans up the hallway because leaving that to some one else has proved fruitless.

She sees all this and knows in her mind she should not be upset. She should hope the best for Jou at all times if she really feels any affection for him at all. In the end however her mind does not control her heart, her heart wishes that something awful would happen- that Jou would be absolutely forced to throw kaiba out and away.

One day as she glared at his back, she heard him heave a heavy sigh before he turned around to look at her with that ever so bored and uninterested expression.

"If you have something to say to me, you should say while Jou is gone."

She tries to will her mouth to stay shut, but that isn't what she really wants so the battle of her will is instantly lost.

" I just can't stop hating you."

"chht"

He gives a wry laugh and leans against the kitchen counter, looking at her with a small smirk that infuriates her further.

" You don't even know what that means."

She snarls, his calm and knowing voice doing nothing but serving to fuel the fire she wants to extinguish. She stands up to look at him from her place in the center of the living room, setting her hands on her wide hips.

"oh yea?-"

She cocks her head to the side tossing her hair needlessly.

" well I know I fucking hate you. You're just- just you. Looking at you pisses me right the hell off."

"that is not hate, you are jealous, because in your mind I am threatening your imaginary romance."

He seems to consider her not worth his full attention, because he returns to washing dishes. She walks around the couch up to the counter and slams her fist down on it, demanding undivided attention, he doesn't even bat an eyelash. Not a single long dark exquisitely curved eyelash. She places both hands on the counter and just screams.

"I FUCKING HATE YOU! And you don't even give a crap of course you don't- you don't FEEL ANYTHING!"

"you dislike me...you do not know hate."

"well then tell me genius, what is hate?"

This question seems to get his attention, he lets go of the plate and scrub letting them go their separate ways in the water, he turns to face her. His eyes are blue like deep ocean water and just as unreadable, when he looks at her she quiets. Staring too long in those... you might drown in the cold abyss of that darkness.

"Hate...it means with every fiber of your existence, that you wish nothing but death on a person. I have felt hate, it was all I knew for the longest time. You do not understand how deep you must feel to know hate at all. Why should I care what you think? Who are you? You're only just a spoiled little girl-"

"girl!? I am not a lit-"

His glare darkens and his voice becomes sharp and dangerous.

"child! Your body has nothing to do with being an adult! My eleven year old brother is more of an adult than you are. You do not know personal accountability or responsibility. You make these horrible messes and don't clean up like its not your problem- you showed up out of the blue and just expected Jou to be able to take you in for a week a whole week where you have done nothing to explain why you needed to be here a week before your audition. You have not so much as lifted a damn finger to assist with anything. As if you expect people to just take care of you.

That is the mentality of a child, you are no one that merits my attention. You want to go to school an ocean away from home- and you have a clue how to take care of yourself- no one is going to carry your weight for you. Child. you are just a child.

You have not in all the time I have seen, made any attempt whatsoever to become an adult. To become a person- to become your own person.

Anzu mazaki, why are you worth any ones attention?"

Of course she just stands there quietly, who the hell has an answer for that at seventeen?

That night Jou comes home and finds the place feeling cold in a way that seeps into him, he wonders what they fought about. He wants to knock on his door an see if Anzu is alright, but when he knocks and peeks into the room she is curled up tightly under the blankets, sleeping fitfully.

In the kitchen dinner is cold on the stove.

Jou worries his lower lip and rather than knock, he just pushes the door to kaibas room open and looks at an empty bed. His blood turns cold and his heart drops to the floor.

"SETO!KAIBS WHERE ARE YOU!"

He runs in the room and rips the fluffed blankets off the bed, nothing. He runs into the hall way and shoves the bathroom door open, the curtain is pulled shut, but the water isn't running. He bolts away and into the living room, he slams the window open and peers outside, hoping to spot him.

Nothing. A stray dog and a scantily clad woman pacing the corner.

"nNO! YOU- YOU CANT JUST L-leave..."

He falls down on his knees, hot angry tears spilling down his face, all contorted with fear and anger and confusion. Anzu stands in her almost shut door way frozen in place, looking at him she hates herself. Hates herself for ever wanting kaiba to leave him. He curls against himself sobbing with his face in his hands and his forehead against the floor.

"BIRDY!"

Something heavy hits the ground and whips his head around when he hears quick footsteps. Kaiba drops down beside Jou quickly pulling him into a tight hug, his strong arms hold him like a vice.

Jous grips the back of kaibas shirt desperately as he says between hiccuping sobs.

" I – thought – you – left- m me!"

kaiba brings up one of his hands and begins softy petting Jous hair. He rocks Jous terror racked body back and forth cooing in his ear.

"I'm here, I'm right here, sshhh... no tears no tears I'm right here."

Slowly slowly the tremors violently running through Jous body begin to fade and mumbles into kaibas chest as tears still spill down his face.

"you... cant disappear too"

They don't hear Anzu slowly press her door shut, not wanting to see anymore of them. She lays face down in the bed and cries quiet as she can into the pillow. Her fault, this is her fault- she is why Jou was hurt this way. If she hadn't spent so much damn time screaming and yelling and arguing with kaiba, she wouldn't have thrown off his schedule and he wouldn't have had to run out to finish the laundry at such a late hour. If he wasn't out doing that, than Jou wouldn't have come home and been petrified.

Jou cries until he cant keep his eyes open, until he falls asleep in kaibas strong arms. He lifts jou up and carries him off to the room, something grips his heart when he looks around and sees the panicked mess. He lays Jou down and in the time it takes him to go and pick up the blanket, Jou has begun whimpering in his sleep.

Kaiba lays himself down pulls the blanket over them and hold Jou close to himself. In this moment he hates himself, knowing that eventually he will have to go home. Although he has been calling this home for some time now.

He smiles to himself when he feels Jous grip on him tighten for a moment.