Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

Title: Endearment and Enmity

Rating: T-M depending on chapter, M overall

Summary: When you're literally married to the person you despise.

Warnings: Homosexual relationships, vulgar words and adult situations.

Author's Note: I don't know why I wrote this.

Chapter 9: Succor

RIIING RING RIIIING

Muttering, Jonouchi reached over and flicked the alarm notification on his phone off only briefly opening his eyes, he closed them again right away as he sat up in the stiff bed, resting his entire face in one of his open palms.

It'd been a little over a week since the incident with Kaiba at the hospital, and despite what he'd said he wasn't a-raring to face the CEO again. Not because he was afraid of Kaiba, but because he was afraid of his own damn anger. He needed a few days to himself away from his… spouse.

As much as he'd tried to forget, it turned out that some horrible memories from his childhood were buried a lot more shallowly than he thought. He remembered once, he wasn't sure his age all he remembered was that he was small and powerless and his sister was too young to understand much of what was going on… hell, he was too young to understand too, all he knew at the time was that it was bad and he needed to make sure Shizuka wasn't directly looking at it like he was. He remembered playing with dolls with her, dolls he didn't even like, he just wanted to distract her as much as possible, and he'd just turned up the volume on the TV to drown out the sounds of of their parents arguing in the kitchen.

Shizuka asked him for some juice, and though he was hesitant he went to the kitchen to oblige her request; he walked in just in time to see the back of his fathers hand make harsh contact with the side of his mothers face.

It was quick, but it was so slow at the same time. He still remembered the distinctive sound of skin slapping skin with more contempt than he'd ever experienced up to that point in his relatively young life. He had looked up in shock and confusion as his mom backed up with a gasp and gripped the counter, trying to get as far from her then-husband as possible.

He didn't remember what he had said, he had said something, probably calling for the attention of either of his parents; his fathers eyes were unreadable when he looked down to his young son, but his mother looked down to him with a look he would never forget.

Fear.

When his mother had left him with his father, he thought she hated him and he was so confused as to why. Didn't she love him? She would tell him over and over again how much she loved him, but when they all lived together the statement became less convincing over time. And now that he was older, he understood why; she looked at him and only saw his resemblance to his father. And even if he understood now as an adult that she was in an abusive, neglectful relationship and was at the end of her rope, it didn't erase all of the hurt he had felt then, and the hurt he still feels when he looked back.

So to have an domestic dispute with Kaiba that edged on physical, and to feel such a need to beat the shit out of Kaiba, it scared him. It brought back all of the helplessness, all of the sadness and all of the rage he had felt when he was younger, and it brought all of those terrible feelings back with a damn vengeance. It reminded him of his mothers fear that he would grow up to be just like his father, because there was no way he was ever going to confirm such fears. His similarities to his father were skin deep and that was that.

Sighing, he got out of bed, slipping his feet into the slippers placed by the bed. Ever since they went out on that 'date' at Kozue he decided to delve into just how many safehouses Kaiba had. As it turned out, he actually had several safehouses in Domino alone; Jonouchi had decided to hole up in the one that was actually pretty close to Domino High School.

He guessed that this was somewhere Kaiba had frequented back when he, and probably Mokuba, still attended high school. His theory was further indicated by how lived in it was compared to the last Kaiba safe house - the drawers and closets had clothing and school uniforms, all articles looking like they'd be used by either of the brothers, and there were random assortments of textbooks and written-in notebooks spread out throughout the house.

Yawning, the CRNA left the master bedroom and walked down the hall to the kitchen; this house was fairly simple, it had a traditional Japanese architecture but the interior was modern in it's fixtures and decor. It only had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a study, and a kitchen.

He flicked on the kitchen lights and started a pot of coffee; he had to get some food items but the kitchen was otherwise fully stocked with kitchen utensils and appliances. Which was a little odd, because the Kaiba brothers didn't strike him as people who cooked for themselves. But he supposed he didn't know them too well. Hell, he'd been married to Kaiba for over eight months now, and he didn't even know what the guys bedroom looked like (not that he wanted to, but still).

He placed his phone on the kitchen counter and headed to the bathroom, flipping the hot water tap on the shower and slipping in. A large sigh of relief escaped him as the hot water hit his skin; he had an affinity for extremely hot water, which was something to his knowledge was stereotypically more applicable to the fairer sex, but he figured he was already in a profession that was female dominated so it made sense he'd pick up some 'feminine' habits.

Once finished, he grabbed the robe hung up on the wall, put it on haphazardly, and walked back to the master bedroom, rubbing his eyes as he opened the door to it.

"Good morning." A monotone voice greeted him.

"Good mor-niin-AHHHH!" Jonouchi shouted, almost falling over the robe and once again throwing his hand over his heart as if having heart attack.

Sitting on the edge of the bed was Kaiba; he casually sat with his arms and legs crossed. Casual for Kaiba at least, because even though he was clearly being nonchalant he still managed to be extremely dramatic. Maybe it was what he was wearing; his overdramatic white trench coat get up that he'd been sporting since Battle City.

"Fucking hell Kaiba!" Jonouchi shouted as he pulled the robe to cover himself better "What is it with you trying to give me a heart attack before the age of thirty?!" He stood up straight and glared at his... spouse, resentfully "Did you consider… I dunno, knocking?"

"I own this house." Kaiba deadpanned, looking back at him with an unreadable expression.

"Well I know that but still." Jonouchi scoffed, leaning against the doorframe.

"You said you would talk to me the next morning but it's been two weeks." Well he definitely didn't waste time with that now he did.

"Look I'll talk about it, but would you at least leave the room?"

"Why?"

Jonouchi stared at him hard "I'm in a bathrobe."

"I can see that." Kaiba answered deeply.

"Dude, let me get dressed first."

"Then do it." Kaiba answered impatiently.

"Not in front of you dumbass!"

"We're both men." Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"You son of a..." Groaning out loud at Kaiba's blatant lack of tact and/or assholish toying, Jounouchi grabbed the clothes he had set out on the desk and stepped into the closet to change, making sure to close the door "What do you want to know?" He asked, though his voice was most likely muffled by the door.

"You beat Yugi?" Kaiba asked.

"Yeah, after battle city." Jonouchi confirmed "How'd you figure? It was years ago."

"The hard storage on your duel disk."

"You messed with my duel disk?"

"Your duel disk is fine," Kaiba dismissed "but, you and Yugi's duel?"

"We dueled over my red eyes black dragon," Jonouchi answered "at the beginning of Battle City, I lose it to a rare hunter… Yugi won it back for me, but I refused it. I realized I needed to grow as a duelist and a person before I deserved to have it back. When battle city was over, we dueled over ownership of it, and I won it back."

"How come you didn't take the King of Games title for yourself?"

"Because I didn't duel over the title. I dueled for my red-eyes."

"You valued a measly red-eyes black dragon card over the King of Games title?" Kaiba sounded incredulous.

"Of course I did," Jounouchi answered as he swung the closet door open; now wearing jeans and a red t-shirt, he glared hard at the CEO even though he knew he wasn't going to intimidate him, he needed to get his point across "I respected Yugi as a duelist. I knew the true King of Games was him, he proved it over and over again, I didn't need to go to extravagant lengths like you to see it." He crossed his arms "And unlike you, Yugi respected me back. We had a great duel, we managed to have fun and have a serious duel at the same time, as unheard of as a concept that you'd know, and I won my red-eyes back. It's as simple as that, Kaiba."

Kaiba looked at him as if he was speaking to a five year old. "But how?"

"If you saw the duel through it's data you know every move that was made, Kaiba," Jonouchi answered, then narrowed his eyes "if you mean how a deadbeat like me could beat such an impasse like Yugi and the Pharaoh, we've told you over and over again how it can be done."

"You're not talking about that ridiculous Heart of the cards or friendship theory, are you?" Kaiba stood up, arms still crossed and thankfully he kept his distance.

"I am." Jonouchi confirmed, standing his ground "Me and Yugi may have been dueling each other, but we respected each others skills, we believed in each other."

Kaiba rolled his eyes, clearing not seeing the point the blonde was trying to make.

"Maybe if you believed in someone besides yourself, you'd understand." Jonouchi said flatly, as he angrily walked out of the room and back to the kitchen.

He poured the steaming black liquid into a mug, and right as he put the pot back into the coffee maker, Kaiba came back into the kitchen. Jonouchi sighed deeply as he stared down at his reflection in drink. "How'd you figure I was here? I mean, I didn't leave a note but I figured you had some Kaiba brand tracking chip on me or something."

"The maids told me." Kaiba answered flatly; Jonouchi chuckled to himself; figures. He did have to get the keys to this house from somewhere, after all.' Silence as Jonouchi continued putting his simple breakfast together, now slicing a grapefruit in half and popping bread into the toaster. "Why did you run off?"

Jonouchi didn't look back at Kaiba, he instead gripped the countertop and glared down at his own hands "Kaiba, what you did wasn't right." He finally said.

"Oh?"

"Don't 'oh' me, Seto Kaiba." He said almost harshly, but willed his voice back down to normal "Look, we can't be how we were when we were young."

"In what regard?" The CEO inquired, Jonouchi imagined him raising his eyebrow even if he wasn't looking at him.

"Look..." Jonouchi sighed "I can't fight you, it..." He resisted the urge to curl his hand into a fist "It sets me off."

Kaiba said nothing, but the question practically hung in the air for all to see.

"I know you didn't take much interest in our personal lives when we were young, but you know I wasn't in the best financial situation. Hell, I was permitted to have a job in middle school because of how poor me and my dad were. My dad… he's not the greatest, he's a drunk and he got into serious gambling debt that only made him drink more and gamble more, he just kept digging this big hole and never seemed to stop digging. Well, when I was a kid, when he was still with my mom, they would fight over his drinking and gambling, and the fights just kept getting more intense until he became physical." He admitted.

His spouse still said nothing, he figured he was trying to be just a tad more respectful by letting him talk.

"But… I saw it, I saw him smack her around, maybe only a few times but I knew it happened a lot more than I saw. My mom, she doesn't really hate me, but I know when she looks at me she sees my dad."

The brunet spoke up "And what does that have to do with you and I?"

"I don't like you," Jonouchi replied bluntly "but we're still married. You are my spouse, and I'm yours. We can't just fight each other like we used to, that's domestic abuse and it's wrong."

Silence.

"You… You take it that seriously?" Kaiba asked; Jonouchi caught the surprise in his tone, he wasn't sure if he was referring to how seriously he took their sham marriage, or how seriously he took fighting him.

Jonouchi whirled around and faced him "Of course I take it seriously! Kaiba for god sake, I-" he gripped his head "god you frustrate me so much, you're such an asshole I swear." He shut his eyes hard "Can't you see?" He fought hard against his emotions, because there was no way he was about to lose it in front of Kaiba "I-I'm not..."

Oh god the tears were coming, he was starting to lose control over his emotions.

"I'm not a-an abuser." He spat between gritted teeth, the edges of his eyes now moist "I'm not my father."

He started breathing deeply in an attempt to calm himself down, now not even paying attention to Kaiba at all.

Maybe the CEO just didn't understand. His own early childhood was tragic in the loss of both of his parents, and then the abuse at the hands of Gozaburo, but he didn't have the same history of witnessed spousal abuse. Even if he understood it on a conceptual level, he might not understand the emotional level that Jonouchi was going through.

One hand gripped the edge of the counter, and the other hand was now covering his face as he was hunched over, still breathing deeply. The shame he felt showing all of this emotion in front of Kaiba of all people just served to compound how upset he was. He didn't sniffle, but tears were wetting the palm covering his face, and Kaiba most likely had pieced together that he was crying.

He felt arms wrap around him, almost softly, as if to barely touch him, only enough to make the gesture felt. He was surprised, but that didn't lessen his stress. He sighed heavily and said nothing to the other man.

The arms tightened and pulled him into the tall, lithe, albeit slightly cold body of the brunet. He wasn't sure how to react, because, he wasn't expecting this, and would never in a million years expect this kind of thing from Kaiba. And clearly Kaiba hadn't been expecting to do this either, because he didn't make any further moves.

"I'm… I apologize." Kaiba told him, Jonouchi didn't reply.

Slowly, Jonouchi pulled back the hand that was on the countertop and drew it around Kaiba in return; his heart was starting to pound both from the distress and the unexpected comfort being offered to him from the least likely person.

"No violence." Jonouchi muttered quietly, tightening his arm around Kaiba as he drank in the physical affection, something he sought in most relationships, but been starved of in this loveless contract marriage. "No physical violence again." His eyes were still moist but the tears had stopped flowing, so he pulled his hand away from his face and wrapped it around Kaiba as well, almost reluctantly. He dare not look the brunet in the face, it would only make the awkwardness more obvious.

"Alright, Katsuya," Kaiba agreed, as he, surprisingly softly, tightened his arms around him as he held him "no more physical violence." Jonouchi closed his eyes and rested his head slightly against Kaiba's chest. He would be tempted to tell Kaiba that his BPM was too high, but he'd save that for another time.

Right now… he just wanted things to be calm between them.

To be continued...

Authors note: Finally some positive physical interaction. Well, bittersweet really, but still. Looks like Kaiba has a comforting side, and maybe a guilty conscience after all.

So Jonouchi has a lot of complicated feelings because of the abuse he experienced and witnessed as a child. So even though he used to be so ready to physically fight Kaiba back when they were younger, the fact that they are now married and Kaiba is his husband changes things completely from Jonouchi's perspective, even if Kaiba could wipe the floor with him. Trauma's a real bitch. But seriously, don't hit your spouse no matter what gender they are.

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