Hello! It's Kagome again with a brand new chapter! To tell the truth, I've really been looking forward into writing this one since it has so much stuff about The Past :D. And, it adds to the Puppyshippiness of this fic…kind of. Plus, our little darling Shizuka makes her grand first appearance. Dun, dun, dun!
Btw, want to know what I recently discovered? That I've been writing this story for about half a year now! Wow. It feels like such a long time. I don't think I've ever written a story for so long without giving up on it. I guess determination to write this to the end pays off :). But I'm not going to say "I will finish this story!" before I see it with my own two eyes. I know myself after all, and how lazy I can often get.
However, there is something you maybe should know. My school has started again just this week. That time I began my first year of Senior Secondary (Finnish version of High School). I know I'm going to be much more busy with schoolwork than I was in Junior High, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have for my hobbies such as writing. In other words, I'm not sure how much I will be able to update. I will try my best, but I'm not making any promises.
ONIX-21: Hey to yourself! Thankies! Yeah, Jou has it hard, doesn't he? Even more Jou-angst in this one (kind of) :D. Yeah, I have my reasons why it cracked, though I'm not sure will I ever tell the reason in this story. Atemu, Yami and Yuugi are all great, aren't they ;).
Shia Ghost: Nice to know you liked it :D. Their meeting is going to take a while more, though. Yes, they are :). In the future universes of this story, at least ;). It's alright to go fangirly once in a while, I do that too ;). Oh, it is :D. Very, very much so :). Kaiba himself doesn't appear, really, but he's mentioned more than once. And we even get a glimpse of someone who looks remotely like him…;)
SRRH: Thanks, glad you think so! My Yami is smart and observant, which I think would be good qualities for a good duelist, so he defenitely would've kicked the doll nurse's butt even by himself. Really, I wonder about that too…I need to talk about their getting-together with my beta-reader soon so that we can wonder should I put them together before I had actually planned them to…we'll have to see I suppose.
Nyago: Good to know :). Yup, I do. It's stated in my profile, but I guess you've already discovered it since apparently you found me :). But like I told you in a comment to your Yugioh-gallery, your art isn't crappy! Quite to the contrary, really! I liked your art, they were cute :).
It was, wasn't it? :D. Heba and Yuugi are really different, Heba is far from the innocence that Yuugi has. Well, Yami and Yuugi are so in love with each other that even the smallest affections like those sweet kisses on cheeks can make them fly all the way up to the moon ;D. Yeah, the glass cracked ;). It's a sort of sign for…something I'm not going to tell ;D. Yup, Kisara is very important part to what happened between Seth and Jono all those years ago ;). Read and find out!
Phew! I'm so glad. I don't really want to bash anyone, even if I don't really like Miho. Bashing is getting a little boring in stories, really. Unless it's really mild, then even I can like it ;D.
The Danvers Girls: I'm glad you like it even if it's something you didn't think about reading :D. I hope I won't give up on it either, I really do.
They are, aren't they? :). Of course I'll do Death-T! If I ever make it that far, I mean. It's so important to the plot that it can't just be skipped! But there's time till then ;).
yugixyamiyaoilover: That's great! I look forward to it! I'm glad you liked it :D. It's bugging me too. I need to think about it and talk about it with my beta…
TsukiDragon: Yay! Hugs the list. I can reveal you that I've planned that at least in one chapter, Yami WILL save Yuugi himself ;D. But I'm not telling more, I don't want to spoil it ;). And they will kiss too, later on :D. Sadly Heba can't come back and I won't have lemon either (lime, later yes, but not lemon). I might be kind of perverted nowadays, but I'm still too innocent and shy to put in things like that x).
Still…Puts a video camera inside the closet.
Hehehehe XD.
cheetahkit: Yeah, it is…but not in the way you might think X). Go and find out :D. But don't worry, Puppyshipping will live and bloom.
Sirius-Black-is-not-dead: Aww, that's so nicely said! It means a lot to me. I do work hard and try my very best :). Even though I don't consider myself that great, I do know some people around here who are great writers but haven't got many reviews at all, which is sad. But I'm glad to have even this much comments, this is more than I've ever got! But I'm really glad you like it! I will try my very best with this!
Atemu Yugi Lover34: Yeah, Yami and Yuugi are so sweet, aren't they? Well, at least you have a boyfriend to do that with, I've never had one. But I don't really mind, I'm perfectly fine being a single. I just hope other people would understand it as well. And it's perfectly alright, I always blab about random things in my reviews too :D.
It annoys me too. It's making this story harder to write!
LeShea: Hiya! Thanks, I'm really happy for hitting the 100! It makes me feel so appreciated :D.
Blush. That's so sweet! I'm kind of proud of myself too. I really do try to work hard and do my best so my text would be enjoyable.
So are you :).
-
Thanks for all the reviews once again :D. You all made my goal of getting a hundred comments possible :). I'm grateful :D.
In an almost dead silent and darkish hospital room, no other sound except the beeping that came from the heart monitor could be heard. It made a few very fast beeps, before the line that showed the heart rate went straight and gave one last long beep.
"I'm sorry." A man dressed in a doctor's coat that had a red vest, light blue shirt and a green tie underneath with some grey pants, and who had violet hair and bread, as well as glasses covering his small grey eyes, said to a woman with long yet already greying brown hair dressed in a purple outfit and a younger girl dressed in a sailor school uniform who stood with him next to the bed in which a man whose heart rate had been shown in the heart monitor lay. The man had just passed.
The young girl fell onto her knees and set her head on the sheets of her father's bed, crying out loud in grief with her mother.
In their new sorrow, no one, not even the nurse and the now-dead patient's brother noticed the doctor quietly exiting the room. For a moment he looked sad for his lost patient, standing in silence on the hospital corridor. That however didn't last long, as he put his hands together and swung his body as if he was golfing. He imagined a grass field in front of him, and the ball flying high and far. The man smirked.
"So…what time did tomorrow's competition start again?" he asked from himself, starting to walk ahead on the empty and dark corridor, still practising the golf swings.
Meanwhile, in the nurse centre, some of the hospital's nurses were chatting.
"They say another one of Dr. Gouyuu's patients has died." One nurse told her friend.
"That seems like a lot." The other mused thoughtfully.
Chapter ten: Sudden turnaround! Jou's love rival?!
The next day was sunny and warm, one of those very summer-like days, which was nice for it was summer. There was only a few weeks left of school, to which many were looking forward to ending.
That particular day Yuugi had been asked by his Grandpa to go do some grocery-shopping, which was why he was downtown at the moment. He carried the groceries inside his school backpack and with the leftover money he had bought himself an ice cream, which he was now licking. 'Soft cream really has to be from Domino Store. It's delicious.' He thought to himself, smiling.
Just that moment something caught his eye. A blonde-haired head of a boy that was sneaking out of one store ahead of him. The blonde seemed to be checking the streets as if to make sure no one was nearby to see him. Yuugi easily recognised that messy mop of blonde hair. 'Jou?'. Then he took a glance at the store sign to find out what kind of boutique Jou was visiting. He saw it was a toy store. 'What is he doing at this kind of shop?' the small boy wondered to himself.
Just that moment, Jou slowly started exiting the small boutique, walking backwards with something very big, pink and blue held in his arms. He turned around to see where he would be going and that's when Yuugi greeted him. "Jou!"
Jou looked taken off by surprise by Yuugi and nearly jumped a feet to the air. Yuugi saw that big something Jou was carrying was a huge pink teddy bear wrapped in blue paper. "What a big stuffed toy! Is it yours, Jou?" Yuugi asked. That would explain why Jou had been looking around. He hadn't wanted anyone to see he liked stuffed animals. That would've been very insulting to his manly pride.
Jou looked startled and embarrassed, and he nearly jumped again. "No, it's not!"
But Yuugi kept smiling. This kind of thing from Jou was actually kind of cute! "It's cute! Let me see!"
Jou tried to excuse himself and sneak away from Yuugi. "I-it's not that big of a deal. I'm in a hurry!"
Just then, a group of rather large-sized young men had been meaning to walk past the two 15-year-olds, but since Yuugi wasn't quite paying attention to them at the moment, he accidentally touched the shirt of the guy in the lead of the three with his soft ice cream.
When Yuugi noticed what had happened, he immediately apologised. "I-I'm sorry!"
The three thugs glared down at him in a way that couldn't be good. The one with dirty blonde hair pulled on a ponytail that was standing on the left side of the leader with curly red hair leered at him saying: "My, what a terrible thing to do."
As fast as he could, Yuugi started searching for his handkerchief, and was about to try and wipe off the ice cream from the red-head's purple shirt with another apology, but his hand was slapped away by the said thug. "The fee for this is going to be high." The leader assured the small boy with a voice that spoke of trouble.
Just then, an enormous pink teddy bear came just next to his face and behind it someone said: "Wait a minute here."
"What? Go play with your dolls somewhere else!" the red-head yelled at whoever was behind the teddy.
Jou moved the stuffed toy from in front of his face so that he could stare the thugs right in the eye. "Want to play with me?" The blonde asked, smirking at him.
-
Not a long while later Yuugi hid behind a corner of a building that had been nearby and listened to the sounds of punches and kicks Jou pronounced while fighting with the thugs. Anxiously the tri-colour haired boy held his hands and arms close to his body, gulping rather nervously. Sure, he was glad that Jou had stepped up to help him, but did he always have to be so…violent?
Just then he heard some steps approaching his way and turned to see his friend. "Jou!"
Jou was still carrying the teddy bear in his arms. "Man, that took some time."
"Are you okay, Jou?" Yuugi asked with a concerned voice. Jou had a wound across his left cheek that had apparently come from a very violent punch.
"Yeah, it's nothing. The other kids in the palace beat me up a lot worse."
"What?" Palace?
"N-nothing!" 'Why did I say that?' Jou wondered to himself in surprise. But just that moment he was given something else to worry about as the head of the teddy bear he had bought dropped off of its shoulders. Jou yelled in panic, quickly picking the head up from the ground. "I finally got a loan from the super-miser Honda to buy that! W-what should I do?"
Yuugi looked up at him with a guilt in his eyes. "I'm sorry. It was my fault. I'll pay you back."
"I don't have enough time for that!" Jou yelled in desperation. "Yuugi, please come with me!"
"Huh?"
-
Some time afterwards, Jou and Yuugi sat on a train that went to a nearby city. Jou was just explaining Yuugi why he had bought that huge stuffed toy.
"Little sister?!" Yuugi exclaimed at Jou's words. "You have a sister, Jou?"
"Yeah. Her name's Shizuka." Jou confirmed. "My old man and mother got divorced six years ago, and Shizuka went to live with mother. However, she has always been frail. She always goes in and out of hospitals."
Yuugi understood. "So you sometimes go to visit her?" he smiled up to his friend. "You sure are kind, Jou."
Jou blushed at his words, feeling a little insulted in his pride. "N-not really. I can't really do anything for her." He murmured. "But, I still want to make Shizuka smile more. And today happens to be her birthday, so…"
Yuugi gave a quiet chuckle. So quiet that Jou probably didn't even hear it. "You should've said sooner. I would've brought something to give her."
Jou's blush grew bigger, feeling his manly pride getting insulted. "It's embarrassing! I couldn't say that! I get nothing out of it!"
Yuugi just laughed.
-
At the city hospital, in one of the rooms a girl with long reddish light brown hair, hazel eyes and who was wearing a cute pink pyjama was reading a magazine sitting in her bed with turquoise covers on herself. On the nightstand next to her bed were a bottle of water and a glass on top of it to drink the liquid from, as well as a small, hairy and dark pink stuffed bear.
Just then, the girl heard the door of her room open. Strange. She hadn't been expecting visitors today.
Two boys stood at the door, wearing big smiles and red bows each. They greeted her with a cheerful "Hello!". The girl blinked at what she saw.
That time the both boys had walked at the end of the girl's bed, and still wearing those big smiles they started chatting with each other:
"Recently everyone was playing cards." The taller, blonde boy said to the littler one.
"Right, right." The smaller boy with tri-coloured spiky hair replied, nodding.
"So our old man(1) sure is a nut." The blonde boy continued, and the other nodded again. "He carelessly shoved his cards to the neighbouring old lady!" the blonde finished with a voice that sounded like he was just about to burst out laughing.
"Yeah!" the spiky-haired one confirmed.
"That is a true old maid!" the taller yet said before the two finished their jokes with throwing their fists into the air and yelling: "All right!" together.
The girl in the bed stared at them for a while, a slight confusion written on her face, but then she covered her mouth with her hand and started laughing. The two boys meanwhile approached her bedside.
"Shizuka, I'm sorry. Nii-chan wasn't able to bring any presents." Jou apologised to his sister who was still laughing.
The girl looked up at him with a smile. "No, I'm glad you came Onii-chan." She said. "Today Mama said she'd be late with work. Shizuka thought she would be all by herself. Thank you."
Jou smiled down at his sister, looking moved. "Shizuka…" he muttered.
Then the brunette girl examined her brother's face a little better. "But you're badly hurt." She said, sounding concerned.
Jou smiled sheepishly. "O-oh, this? It's nothing!" then he turned to the smaller boy he had brought with him and pointed at him. "This is my classmate, Yuugi." He introduced them.
Yuugi smiled at Shizuka. "Nice to meet you!"
Shizuka smiled back at him. "Nice to meet you." She said. "I'm sure Onii-chan forced you to come. I'm sorry about that."
Yuugi just folded his hand at the back of his head and told her it was nothing.
Just then, they all heard the door of the room open and close.
"Shizuka-chan, it's medicine time." Came a female voice and everyone in the room turned to face a fairly pretty young woman with long platinum blonde hair pulled into a ponytail from behind her neck, blue eyes and dressed in a nurse's outfit. Just when he saw her, Jou felt something he couldn't name inside him and a vision rushed into his mind.
The door of the room he was in burst open, and he turned to see who was rushing in with such a hurry. He saw his brunette male friend, carrying a woman with thin frame in his arms in a bridal style. The girl's skin was pale as a moon, and her long and slightly messy hair was the colour of lightest shade of blue, nearly white. He saw she was dressed in old and worn rags that were her dress, and was badly hurt all over.
"Jono, this woman was found at the city being hit by stones by the townspeople. I'm not a doctor but even I can tell she's also badly dehydrated. Help her, please." His guard-friend asked him.
Something inside his heart felt slight pain. He could relate to the woman. She had probably been treated so badly because of the same reasons he had been as a child. Pale skin, fair hair…everyone thought that kind of people were something bad, because they were different. He wondered if the girl had been through the same things he had in the past. Those cruel grey eyes looking at him lustily and that big hand going under his tunic skirt…
No! He mustn't think of that now! There were more important things to worry about.
Gently, slowly he took the girl from the brown-haired man's arms into his own. He carried the girl over to the bed that was in the room. He tenderly placed the girl on it and did a quick examination on her. The wounds on her were pretty bad, but he had seen and cured worse. The first priority was to clean the cuts and give the girl both food and water…but since she was unconscious none of those could quite be done. He felt some kind of sympathy of souls towards the girl, and somehow sensed the girl wouldn't want him to undress her even to clean her wounds…
"So?" he heard his friend ask.
He gave a small smile towards him. "With a right kind of treatment, some food and drink, I think she should be just fine. Just leave her to my care, I'll be sure to make her grow back healthy again."
The brunette smiled back at him. "I have no doubt you can. You've always treated me just fine." He said, his voice soft. "I have to go back to work. Look after her well, Jono."
"I will, Hondo."
Jou was brought back from his vision when the woman who had stepped in continued: "Oh, are these your friends?" she asked from Shizuka.
"It's my big brother and his friend." Shizuka told the older woman, who Jou couldn't stop staring at in awe. Shizuka then turned to speak to her brother: "Onii-chan, this is the nurse currently in charge of me, Miyuki-san."
"H-hello." Jou greeted a little anxiously. Something about that woman just bought the feelings of regret, sorrow and something else he couldn't quite place, into his mind.
Miyuki smiled at Jou for a moment, but then blinked. "What terrible wounds. What happened?" she asked, placing the medicine tray on Shizuka's nightstand.
"Well, that…I sort of fell." Jou tried to make up an excuse rather sheepishly. He didn't want Shizuka to hear he had been in a fight.
"I'll treat them. Come with me." Miyuki offered with a smile.
-
And so it somehow happened that Jou had gone with the nurse into the nurse centre. She had placed a gauze over his cheek and was just now examining his head, while Jou sat on a chair and stared down at the floor.
"Oh? There's also a wound here." Miyuki noticed, putting some alcohol into it.
Jou said nothing, just stared the ground. As the woman treated him, another vision came into his mind:
He was coming back to his nursing room from eating with his lover. 'Seth's been acting weird all day.' He thought to himself, remembering how the High Priest had asked him about the pale-skinned girl. When he had answered that she should be just fine, he had given him a relieved smile.
"Kind of weird for you to worry about someone you don't even really know so well." He remembered himself saying. He had expected Seth to look embarrassed and tell him to shut up, but instead Seth had blushed and with a soft smile he'd said: "She's not exactly someone I don't know…". That look on the blue-eyed man's face bothered him. Seth was usually that sweet only to him when they were alone…
But he had no time to wonder on that more as he reached the door of the right room. Already from the door he could see the girl was awake, and sitting on the bed he had placed her on just yesterday.
"Oh, you're awake?" he said out loud to get the girl's attention. The girl turned to face him. He saw her examine his appearance with a soft curiosity, but also scepticism. Judging from the look on her face he felt he had been right about his suspicion. He felt sympathy towards her, but not pity. He understood her feelings. He could relate to them.
Then he remembered he was here to do his job, so he asked: "Are you hungry? I could bring you something."
The girl mutely nodded back at him, her eyes going slightly wider. He wasn't surprised by the answer. He had already seen she was thin earlier, so he suspected she hadn't got anything to eat for a while. He nodded back at her and left the room once more.
He had went to the kitchens and taken meat, fish, bread and different kinds of fruit for the girl to eat. For drink he had taken milk, since it would be the best for her health. He had taken them back to the room with a cart he had borrowed, and he had just now placed it right next to the bed the girl was sitting on. He sat on the chair in front of his working desk, waiting for the girl to start eating, but she did nothing but to observe him questioningly.
"Eat up, it's all yours." He encouraged her, feeling she needed it. "Try not to eat too fast though, or it might come out very fast." He then advised her.
The girl nodded in understanding and started to dig in. He saw she had taken his advice and was eating as slowly as she could. After a long while, she was done. She had eaten all the food that had been in the cart.
He smiled at her just a little. A good appetite meant she was recovering. Then, he asked: "Would you like to take a bath? It would be better if your wounds were cleaned, but I won't force you."
There was a shocked and kind of frightened look on her face, and he understood she had misunderstood his words. He laughed gently at her. "Don't worry. I'll go out while you are in there and until you get dressed. So how about it?"
Another nod.
"Hot or cold bath?" he asked her, speaking with a gentle voice. "Cold might be somewhat better, since it eases the pain of your burnt skin and cures it, and a hot one might just cause it to sting…"
"C-cold is fine." The girl muttered, sounding amazed. He nodded, stood up from his seat and went to the room that's door was on one of the walls of the room they were in.
He entered the bathroom that was made out of shiny marble, and that had a large bathtub in its corner. He went over to it and poured water into it from the big vases that were in the room standing next to one of its walls. It took a while to fill the tub, but he got it done after some time. He figured the girl would notice the white robes hanging on the wall herself and she would choose the one best for her after bathing, so he stepped out of the bathroom.
The girl looked up when she saw him approaching from the corner of her eye.
"Your bath's ready." He told her.
He exited the room, making sure to close the door behind himself, and waited. He thought about visiting Heba after the girl no longer needed him. The young prince had been rather depressed the past few days since Mahado's regretful death, and he thought the boy might have a use for some distraction. He himself hadn't known Mahado that well, but if Heba needed his comfort, he would give it to him.
Just then, he realised something. The girl's clothes weren't the best, in fact they looked like the material could cut her skin. She needed some new and better clothes. He had a feeling she wouldn't be done for a while, so he probably had enough time to fetch her a better tunic, at least until she could be made and given her new own clothes.
So, he went to see Teana in her chambers, and found the girl practising her dance moves (no surprise there). He asked her for a simple dress to borrow, one that wasn't too revealing. She gave him one that he checked through and accepted, thanking her. Then, he went back to the door of his nursing room to wait.
He wasn't sure how long he'd stood there with the dress in his arms when the girl called for him, saying she was done.
He re-entered the room. "I brought this for you." He said, holding out the dress. "You can wear it until we get some better clothes made for you. I borrowed it from a friend of mine, you two are about the same height…" He paused. "O-of course you don't have to wear this or anything new, I just thought we could at least wash your dress…" he stuttered. He didn't want her to think he was forcing anything on her.
"It's fine…I could use some new clothes…" the girl said quietly. He smiled at her again, and set the dress on the bed she was sitting on.
"I'll go out again. Put it on when you're dry enough."
He went to wait outside the room again until the girl called for him once more, and he could re-enter the room once again.
"You'll get new clothes of your own in just a few days. I'll get a dressmaker make them for you." He then said with a small encouraging smile. "Now, I think I need to look after your wounds, in case you don't mind."
The girl shook her head as a sign that she didn't mind, so he took some bandages and curing herb oils from his working desk, and approached her. "If the bandages are too tight, or I'm hurting you, tell me." With the girl's nod, he began.
He put the curing oils into the wounds so that they wouldn't get infected, wouldn't cause so much pain and would heal faster. Then he bandaged the wounds as gently as he could. He could feel the girl's gaze on himself, but he didn't mind. He was used to it. After some time he was finished, and he stood back up straight.
"I am done now. Is there anything else you need right now?" he asked gently. The girl shook her head. "Alright then. If you need anything, just think about it and me. I will hear you through my telepathy." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" The girl's voice stopped him. He turned around. "What is your name?"
He smiled softly, gently at her. "I'm Jono, the healer of the palace."
The girl's eyes widened slightly and she brought a hand over her mouth in surprise. There was a small silence, until the girl broke it: "I'm Kisara."
He smiled at her again. "It's nice to meet you, Kisara. Get well soon."
And then he left the room.
"Hello? Earth to Jounouchi-kun!" Jou blinked, brought back down the Earth by Miyuki's voice. The nurse smiled down at him. "What were you thinking about so deep in thought? Your lover?"
Jou frowned. "Not really. The one I love doesn't feel the same way about me, anyway." He murmured. He didn't really know why he had told that to the nurse, but he supposed he had really needed to say that to someone. He couldn't speak about it to his friends because they all hated Seto, and Shizuka was out of question because he didn't want to worry her. But Miyuki was an outsider to his situation, and Jou felt he could talk to her.
Miyuki gave him a sad, understanding smile. "I know how it is. I'm engaged now, but it took me six long years to make my betrothed notice me the way I noticed them. I only observed them from afar, admiring their beautiful blue eyes and soft brown hair…"
Jou nearly jumped. 'Blue eyes? Brown hair?' he quickly shook the thought off. 'Now I'm just being paranoid. Or am I? It's not like there is a reason for him not to move on, and blue eyes are really rare around here…'
"Um…Miyuki-san?"
"Hm?"
"What is your betrothed like, if you don't mind me asking?"
The look on Miyuki's face turned somewhat dreamy. "They are…sweet, but only when it's the two of us. Towards the others they appear a bit cold and abrupt, but that's not really true. They work very hard, too…"
Jou wanted to cry, just there and then. All those descriptions fit Seto! Could it really be true?! He couldn't believe it. How could he have been so naive? Of course Seto would've moved on by now! And Seto was so perfect and amazing, he could have anyone, whereas Jou was just…himself.
"Okay, I'm done." Miyuki then informed him. Then, she lowered herself down enough that her eyes met Jou's, who was still sitting on the chair. Her eyes were narrowed in a way that told she saw right through him. "You got these from a fight, didn't you?" Jou was just about to tell her no, but Miyuki beat him to it. "That's no good. You'll worry your sister."
"R-right." Jou muttered, even though he was still only half-listening.
-
Later when the sun had already set and it was dark, Yuugi and Jou had left the hospital and were waving their goodbyes to Shizuka who was standing in front of her hospital room window, waving back at them with a smile on her face.
"See you later!" Yuugi yelled up to her, before he and Jou started making their way off. "Let's come visit her again sometime." He then said to Jou.
"Yeah." Jou replied. But while they walked, the look in his eyes was still a little depressed. He gently placed his hand over the gauze Miyuki had put on his cheek, and thought about her earlier words. 'I wonder if her betrothed is really Seto? That would be fast work…' he thought to himself. 'But there is no way I'm giving up this easily! Until I make sure it's Seto, I'm not backing away!'
-
Meanwhile, back inside the hospital, Miyuki was walking through the corridor carrying a file of patients in her hand and a small smile on her face. But when she was about to reach the crossroad of the corridor, her walking was stopped by a golf club put in front of her. She turned to look who had placed it in front of her, and saw the head doctor of the department she was working in.
"Doctor." She greeted him mildly. "Going golfing again?" she asked as the male doctor approached her closer.
"Man, my drive sure was good today." The doctor called Gouyuu told her with a smug grin on his face. "Miyuki-kun, I wish you would've been there to see it. It's like the goal was sucking the ball inside of it!" he finished his talk with an impressive golf swing across the hallway.
But Miyuki wasn't really interested in that. In truth, she didn't really approve of her superior's behaviour, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it. But she tried, anyway: "Doctor, about patient number 302, Minagawa-san. Did you forget it's important that he's being watched?" She asked.
Gouyuu turned back to her. "Work is work. Recreation is recreation." Was Gouyuu's reply.
"I see." Miyuki answered to that with a slightly irritated look on her face. But as she was about to leave, she was once again stopped by a golf club.
"Miyuki-kun, you don't need to work so hard. It's not good for your body." The doctor told the nurse. "What do you think? You can accept one of my invitations just once."
Feeling more than slightly irritated, but keeping her cool, Miyuki pushed the club away from her way, saying "Doctor, I am busy." and leaving. But after her back was turned to him, Gouyuu was left smirking.
-
A couple of days later, Shizuka was outside in the hospital garden, sitting on a bench and enjoying the warm summer breeze, until she heard her name being called by a familiar voice. She turned to look and saw even more familiar face. "Onii-chan! You came again?"
"Actually, they just wanted to come." Jou said, jerking his thumb towards his five friends who had came with him. They all greeted her with smiles and a "Hello!".
"They are all my classmates. Yuugi blabbed to them." Jou explained to Shizuka.
Yuugi laughed in a bit embarrassed matter. "Well, keeping it secret would make you seem too stand-offish."
"Yeah!" Honda agreed. "If you had told me the real reason, I would've given you the money."
"Money?" Shizuka questioned in confusion. Jou quickly covered Honda's mouth with his hand, calling him idiot. But Jou was spared from explaining things further to his sister, when a nurse with long fair hair approached them.
"My, how lively." Miyuki commented Jou and Honda's actions. Yuugi recognised her from before and greeted her. Miyuki greeted him back with a smile before turning to Jou. "Jounouchi-kun, come to the nurse centre later. I'll change your gauze. See you then." She said, leaving Jou look after her a bit sulkily. Sure it was nice to have someone to care for you, but he really didn't want it to be his possible rival in love!
"Do you guys have something going on?" Miho immediately asked, sounding enthusiastic. Honda and Anzu's eyes widened slightly, Yami and Yuugi's didn't. They already knew Jou still liked Kaiba deep down.
Jou turned around with the soft sorrow visible in his expression. "That's not it…" he murmured quietly, his eyes mostly hidden by his bangs. Form that everyone knew he must be serious, as they remembered his reaction when they had teased him about Kaiba some time back. He had been denying the fact rather hotly and loudly, and not maturely and quietly as now.
"In any case, Miyuki-san is already engaged." Shizuka's voice caught everyone's attention. "She's told me she doesn't really like the way things are done in this hospital, but that she needs to stay because her patients need her. 'If I wasn't here, they wouldn't have anyone' she always says."
At her words, Jou finally smiled a little. Miyuki might be his possible rival, but it was a relief to know that she at least took a good care of his sister. Shizuka deserved only the best treatment, and if Miyuki-san could give her that, there was no way Jou was allowing his own jealousy to stand in the way of it.
-
Later that day, when the sun was already starting to set, Miyuki was walking up the stairs of the hospital, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder that came from upwards. She turned to look and faced none other than the head doctor.
"Doctor…" she muttered.
"I've finally got a reservation at the Hokkaido dream course." Dr. Gouyuu told Miyuki, showing tickets between the fingers of his free hand. "Want to take a vacation and go? I've already got a golf set for you."
Now Miyuki was getting really irritated, and she slapped the hand Dr. Gouyuu had set on her shoulder off. Gently, but still. "This is unbelievable!" She nearly yelled at him, but tried to keep it down so she wouldn't disturb the patients. "Are you just going to abandon the patients?!"
"If I have to schedule around the patients, I'll never get a day off." Gouyuu explained himself. Then he brought his face closer to Miyuki's with an arrogant smirk. "I was promised the seat as the future head of the entire hospital. Don't say anything harmful or it might not do good for your position…" he came even closer to Miyuki. "You know how I feel about you, don't you…?"
Gouyuu might've kissed Miyuki right there and then, but his attention was taken by a hand grabbing his shoulder. He turned to see a boy with a mop of blonde hair.
"Quit it with the shameful behaviour, if you're such a big doctor." Jou growled. He had been going to the nurse centre to meet Miyuki as promised, and had noticed Gouyuu was trying to come onto her. Miyuki might be his rival, but that didn't mean he couldn't help her. Besides, he knew how bad it felt to be touched by someone you didn't want to be touching you, even if he wasn't quite sure why.
"You bastard!" Gouyuu muttered angrily. They probably would've started fighting right there in the middle of the hospital corridor, but Miyuki slapped Dr. Gouyuu across his cheek so hard that his glasses fell off and onto the ground.
"Doctor Gouyuu!" Miyuki semi-yelled. "Though we are both in the same medicine, I'm different from you! Please don't ever talk to me again!" then she bowed, excused herself and left.
"M-Miyuki-san!" Jou yelled and ran after her.
After they were gone, Dr. Gouyuu picked his fallen glasses up into his hand and cleaned them with his handkerchief before putting them back on. "That damned cheeky nurse…" he muttered under his breath. But then, he smirked again very smugly this time. "Very well then. You're going to regret rejecting me."
-
A few days later, the school day was just ending at Domino High. Jou was leaving, walking through the schoolyard and staring at the ground with a sulky look on his face.
Unknown to the blonde, his friends were watching him go from their classroom's window.
"That Jou has been blue since that day." Anzu commented.
"I wonder why it is…" Honda thought out loud.
Yami wondered about that too. He bought his hand on his chin and thought about it hard. He had seen that look on someone's face before, but when had it been…?
He didn't have to think for long. He snapped his fingers in realisation and yelled "Heureka!" out of nowhere. Everyone turned to face him and looked at him strangely.
"What?" Anzu asked.
Yami grinned in a confident manner. "I think I might know what's wrong with Jou. I'll go find out if I'm right. See you tomorrow!" and he grabbed his back and rushed out of the classroom.
-
Yami followed Jou to the downtown, waiting for a good chance so that no one they knew was around to hear. He checked one last time to be completely sure, and then called out Jou's name from behind him.
Jou turned around and saw his second-smallest friend. "Yams. Hi. What are you doing here?"
"Looking after you, it seems." Yami replied, crossing his arms. "Jou, the fact that you've been depressed these past few days has something to do with Kaiba, doesn't it?"
Jou's eyes seemed to widen twice their usual size. "How did you know that?!"
Yami just chuckled. "It's fairly obvious you still have feelings for him. Every time someone even mentions him, you suddenly leave the room and come back after a while with red and puffy eyes. You've been going somewhere to cry. Don't worry, I haven't and I won't tell anyone." He promised after seeing the startled look on Jou's face. "So…tell me what's up."
Jou frowned slightly. "Say, Yami…" now Yami knew it was serious. Jou only hardly called him by his name, and not by the nickname he'd given him. "Have you ever had a suspicion that Yuugi was dating someone, even though you didn't really have proof?"
Yami smiled softly, sadly. "Yeah, I have. That's actually how I knew what was wrong with you. I'd seen that look you wear on my own face in a mirror." He paused. "Remember the time a few months ago when there was that Digital Pet contest?" Jou nodded. "Well, that time I kind of thought Yuugi and Haiyama had something going on because I had seen them holding hands earlier and…" He was interrupted by a muffled sound that came from Jou trying not to laugh by covering his mouth with both of his hands. "It's not funny!"
Not Jou really did burst out laughing. "Yes it is! I can't believe that mind of yours! Yuugi and Haiyama?! Come on!"
"Look, do you want my help or not?" that silenced Jou right up.
"Yes, yes, I do! Please, Yami, help me out here! I have no idea what to do!"
"You're suspecting Kaiba has someone else, correct?" Jou nodded. "The nurse who looks after your sister, right?"
Jou eyed him suspiciously. "Say, Yams, are you sure you're not psychic?"
Yami chuckled. "I'm sure. It's just pretty obvious the way you act, if you can pay attention to it well."
"You'd make an excellent judge. Or a detective."
Yami smiled. "Thanks. Now, I think you should talk about this with Kaiba. You need to find out whether it's true or not before you start angsting."
Jou frowned again. "I can't. I just…I just don't have enough courage to call him. I've tried the past few months, even before this whole thing came up, but I'm just afraid that he might say 'I don't want you anymore'…I couldn't bear it."
Yami sighed, but nodded. He could relate. He didn't know what he would do if Yuugi would ever leave him. Which was one of the reasons he hadn't told him how he really felt.
Then, he looked straight up to Jou's face again. "In that case, you need to ask Miyuki-san herself whether it's Kaiba, or not. You need to find out the truth, don't you?"
"Yeah…I suppose you're right."
Yami smiled a little. "Let's get going then. The next train will leave soon."
"You're coming with me?" Jou sounded surprised, but grateful.
"Sure. You need someone to give you mental support, don't you?"
-
Some time later, they were again in the hospital where Miyuki worked and Shizuka was staying, walking on the corridor towards the nurse centre which would be the best place to wait for Miyuki, as she would surely come back there sooner or later.
"Y-Yams, is my face strained-looking?" Jou asked suddenly, his voice sounding tense and his shoulders being just that as well.
Yami looked at Jou's face, which looked quite stiff. He couldn't help but chuckle just a bit, even if the situation was supposed to be serious. "A bit, yeah." He muttered, still laughing under his breath. Jou slapped himself lightly on the cheek to calm himself, before taking a deep breath to finish the deal.
Just then, they heard someone calling "Onii-chan!" and saw Jou's sister.
"Shizuka!" Jou called back at her in a manner that asked 'what's wrong?'
"Miyuki-san was forced to quit working here at the hospital!" Shizuka told them rather hastily, sounding worried and sad. Jou and Yami's eyes widened at her words.
-
Not very long after, Jou was walking towards Dr. Gouyuu's office with an angry scowl on his face. He had asked for the directions by some nurses he had come across to. As he walked, he remembered Shizuka's words of explanation why Miyuki had been fired:
"Because Miyuki-san forgot the head doctor's orders, a patient was put in a danger, it seems." She had said, before continuing: "I don't really believe it, but the doctor said that when he gave the order, Miyuki-san was with a man in the nurse centre so she forgot about it."
When Jou came to the upstairs corridor where Miyuki had earlier turned Dr. Gouyuu down, he remembered what had happened after that incident. He had followed Miyuki-san across the corridor, who had then invited him to the nurse centre to change his gauze as earlier promised. Jou had been with Miyuki the entire time they had been at the nurse centre, and he hadn't seen Gouyuu after Miyuki had rejected the man that day. Gouyuu had lied about Miyuki forgetting his orders.
Jou walked ahead towards the doctor's office. He wasn't sure why he was doing this to help out Miyuki, but he just felt it was the right thing to do. Despite Miyuki perhaps being his rival, she had looked after his sister well and was a good person. She didn't deserve to be fired for something she hadn't even done. Jou couldn't let his own feelings to stand in the way of doing the right thing.
"I must treat him. It's not good to let your feelings cloud the importance of your duties." He remembered someone saying. Someone that was, yet wasn't him.
He had come across the right door, and with a determined look in his eyes, he opened it, revealing Dr. Gouyuu sitting behind his desk in a rather relaxed manner, polishing his golf club with a white cloth. "What is it?" he asked, not even looking at Jou and sounding rather annoyed that he had been interrupted.
"You bastard." Jou muttered, walking closer to Gouyuu's desk and slamming his hands on it, looking straight at him with a piercing dagger gaze. "You fired Miyuki-san because she turned you down! What is the meaning of this?!"
Gouyuu smirked, and with an amusement in his voice he replied: "What are you talking about? How silly. She made a mistake. This is how we deal with it."
"Shut up!" Jou yelled. "When Miyuki-san and I were at the nurse centre, you didn't give any order! I am a witness. I'll expose everything! Including the part where you were hitting on Miyuki-san!"
Gouyuu just kept burnishing his club, calmly keeping his eyes closed. There was a small pause between them, before the doctor calmly said: "If that were to happen, your little sister might no longer get to be in this hospital."
Jou stopped at that, feeling the fear fill himself. 'What?'
Gouyuu stayed calm, still polishing his club. "Although what you say puts me in a bad spot, I can still get rid of a patient I choose, if I want to."
"You bastard…" Jou muttered furiously under his breath.
"Your little sister is still under observation. That examination is best with this hospital's latest equipment. It would be too bad if she couldn't get the right treatment because something went wrong in the examination because the equipment wasn't good enough, wouldn't it?" he said with a sickly pleasant and sly voice. Then, after a moment's silence, he stopped polishing his club and pointed it at Jou's face. "What'll you do? Do you want this hospital to keep treating your sister? You decide."
Intensely, Jou stared at Gouyuu's face in fury while Gouyuu laughed evilly just a bit. In fear and anger, Jou rushed out of the room, slamming the door closed behind himself. Gouyuu stared at the door for a while before going back to his club with a sick smirk on his face.
Meanwhile, Jou was running down the stairs, not knowing what to do. He couldn't allow Shizuka to be dropped off the hospital, but he couldn't just let Gouyuu get away with a thing like this either! He felt tears coming up, but he tried to bite them back. 'I'm sorry, Seto.' He thought while running. 'I can't help Miyuki-san, just like I couldn't save Kisara…'
Yami was standing on the downstairs corridor, leaning against the wall, waiting for Jou to come back. He heard fast steps coming closer and looked up to see Jou running. "How did it go…?" he asked, but Jou paid no mind to him and just ran past Yami. Yami rushed after him. "Jou! Where are you going?!"
He followed Jou outside the hospital and its territory to a beach that was nearby. Jou had stopped near a tree that was growing close to the shore. Yami stopped just behind him, trying to catch his breath as quietly as possible. Jou slammed his fist on the tree.
"Yami, I…I…" Jou murmured suddenly, his head bent down. "I have to keep my mouth shut."
"Jou…" Yami muttered, not knowing what to say. 'I just can't say anything.' He thought to himself, bending his own head down in shame. 'Jou is suffering, yet I can't say anything to comfort him…' then, he looked up, and saw tears lingering in Jou's eyes. 'He is crying!'
Just then, a single teardrop dropped down from Jou's chin, and Yami felt deep fury for the one who had made his friend cry. Gouyuu would pay! The Millennium Puzzle around his neck gloved, and Yami's form grew. That moment, the wind chose to blew, and it gave an ominous feeling to what would happen to a certain doctor…
'Yami' quietly walked away and back towards the hospital building.
-
Atemu walked across the corridors of the hospital, and up the stairs, before reaching Gouyuu's office room. He pressed his ear against the door, and listened. It sounded like Gouyuu was talking to the phone.
'It's my chance.' He thought to himself, before focusing come of his powers to create a recorder and a tape inside of it. He opened the office door just slightly and as quietly as possible. He put the taping volume to the maxim, and pressed the recording button.
"Yes, I'm joining the competition. Of course I put off the surgery." Gouyuu spoke to the phone. "Hm? The nurse? I had her quit. She turned me down. That's the natural penalty for that."
'Just what I needed.' Atemu quietly thought to himself, pressing the right button to stop the recording. Then he pressed the play button.
"Hm? The nurse?" the recorder spoke just like Gouyuu had before. Hearing his own voice repeat his earlier words, Gouyuu's attention was taken. He looked at the door, and saw someone with a tri-coloured hair standing against it, a recorder in hand. "I had her quit. She turned me down. That's the natural penalty for that."
"You! You heard that conversation?!" the doctor yelled at the one at the door.
"Indeed I did, Doctor." Atemu said, his voice calm. Then he turned to face Gouyuu, a self-confident smirk on his lips. "Now, it's game time."
"Huh?"
-
Back in Shizuka's room, Jou had returned to be with his sister. Shizuka was lying down in her bed and Jou stood next to it. They were in silence. Worriedly, Shizuka gazed at her brother's frowning face, and broke it.
"Onii-chan." She said. "Miyuki-san said she's leaving the city today with her betrothed." That took Jou's attention. Shizuka smiled up to him a little sadly. "If you go to the station now, you can still catch them. I don't know exactly what has been bothering you lately, just that it has something to do with Miyuki-san's betrothed. And I also don't know what else has happened, but Onii-chan…I just don't want you to have any regrets."
"Shizuka…" Jou whispered, seriously considering her words.
-
At the other hospital building, the one where the rooms and offices for nurses and doctors were, the lights were lit. Atemu and Dr. Gouyuu stood in the now-lit corridor.
"Golf here?" Gouyuu asked Atemu, after Atemu had explained what they would play.
Atemu held up two white golf balls. One of them had a red 'G' on it, the other had the same eye that was in his Millennium Puzzle, which was of course yellow. "It's your speciality, right Doctor?" Atemu asked with a smirk. "We'll use these plastic balls. The prize is the tape from before. You decide the course."
Gouyuu chuckled rather arrogantly, and smirked smugly. "Very well." He said. "The course will be to the nurse centre that is directly below us right now." He held out his club of which he was very proud of. "So, where is your club?"
Atemu just smirked and started approaching the doctor. When he was close enough to him, he took the stethoscope from around the older man's neck. "This will do."
For a moment, Gouyuu just stared, not believing what he was hearing and seeing. But when he did, he laughed out loudly. "In that case the match is decided before it has even begun!" He took the hold of his club with his both hands and looked down at Atemu with an intense look in his eyes. "Let me warn you. My skill is on par with the pros." Atemu just kept a collected, cool look on his face. "Well, just watch."
Gouyuu took his ball from Atemu, placed it on the floor carefully so it wouldn't go rotating on its own, placed his club next to it, concentrated for a moment, and swung. The ball flew rather far.
"Nice shot." Atemu commented. "Then, I'm next." He bent down to the floor, set his own ball on the ground with his hand. He took the stethoscope and pulled back the end of it kind of like you would a slingshot. Gouyuu eyed him carefully, curious to see what Atemu was doing. Atemu aimed, fired and sent the ball bouncing of off of the walls and zooming into the room nearby that's door was left open.
Gouyuu laughed arrogantly. "Out of bounds?! I'm going on ahead. Come as soon as possible." He said, walking ahead still laughing. But as his back was turned to him, Gouyuu didn't see Atemu still smirking after him in a manner that he knew better.
-
Meanwhile, Jou was running on the streets, hurrying to the train station. Luckily he was in a good shape, so he was able to run quite fast for a pretty long while.
Running brought more memories that weren't his into mind.
He watched them from the doorway while they were talking to each other and his lover was holding her hand. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he didn't need to. The way Seth looked at Kisara said enough. It was different in every way from the way he looked at him.
After a while, he couldn't take it anymore and quickly ran off crying, headed for the Wadjet Shrine. He couldn't let anyone see him crying.
'Seto…I will find out whether it's you or not. If it is you, then…I will move on. I will not repeat the mistakes of the past.' Jou thought, and fastened his speed.
-
Back at the hospital building, Gouyuu was walking down the stairs after his ball that was jumping down them before him. "What a piece of cake." He said to himself, looking to the upstairs. When he didn't see his challenger, he muttered: "It was no competition, but that is to be expected."
The ball rolled on the floor and stopped right in front of the nurse centre's door, with Gouyuu following not far behind. "Now it's over." He said, ready to bend down and pick the ball up. But just then he saw something that shocked him. From the nearby corridor, the ball of his challenger circled on the floor, and stopped right next to his own. "What?!" he exclaimed.
"The hospital has something that is quite handy." The doctor heard a deep voice coming from behind himself. He turned to face his challenger. Atemu smirked at him.
Gouyuu wondered for a while what he could mean, but then he realised. "The nurse centre's mail drop?!" He exclaimed, realising the mail drop duct began from the room Atemu had aimed his ball to go into.
"Hole in one. I win." Atemu said, his smirk never fading. "You may be knowledgeable in golf courses, but it seems you don't know the way around the hospital course."
"You bastard!" Dr. Gouyuu yelled, approaching Atemu. He lifted his club in the air. "Give me that damn tape!" he yelled, trying to hit Atemu on the head with his club, but Atemu gracefully stepped aside, so that the club hit the floor instead and broke from the end. At the cause of the unbalance, Gouyuu fell down onto the ground.
From further, Atemu glared at Gouyuu with the Wadjet Eye glowing golden on his forehead. "The door of darkness has opened."
Gouyuu heard the door behind him open and undead corpses wearing the white hospital pyjamas came stalking towards him, calling him doctor with their inhuman voices. From this, Gouyuu immediately understood that they were the patients that he had neglected. He shouted for help as they surrounded him completely, then screamed in terror, but Atemu paid him no mind and simply turned and walked away.
-
Meanwhile, Jou was just about to reach the train station. He stepped inside, and saw Miyuki dressed in her regular clothes of greyish violet skirt and a matching coat that was over her light green shirt, and was carrying some bags. "Miyuki-san!" he yelled.
Miyuki was taken by a surprise by the voice calling her name, and slowly turned around to see a panting Jou behind herself. "Jounouchi-kun!" she exclaimed, rather surprised.
Jou looked up to face her. "Miyuki-san, please return to the hospital. I'll prove you didn't make that mistake."
"Jounouchi-kun…"
"Please, Miyuki-san. You've been so good to my sister…please return to her. Your betrothed lives here too, can he just go like that and leave his job and life behind?"
"He?" Miyuki questioned, blinking. Jou blinked as well, at her words.
"Miyuki-chan? Are you coming?" came a beautiful, feminine voice from nearby, and Jou looked at the form approaching the two of them. He saw a tall, beautiful woman around Miyuki's age, with brown hair and blue eyes. And when he looked at their left hands, he saw the engagement rings they wore were identical.
The woman approaching them put her arms around Miyuki from behind, and Miyuki smiled up to her.
"Jounouchi-kun, meet my fiancée, Akemi." Miyuki introduced them. "Jounouchi-kun is the big brother of the girl I've been looking after, Shizuka-chan." She explained to the taller woman, who nodded and smiled a bit at Jou. But Jou could do nothing but stare.
Miyuki then turned to speak to Jou again. "Jounouchi-kun, I appreciate your offered help, but I had long beforehand decided to quit in that hospital. Akemi lives on one of our country's small islands and we met at the medical school, where she studied to be a doctor and I studied to be a nurse. Now we are going to her birthplace to start a new life together, and I'll work in the hospital her family owns there. I'm sure I'll like working there." Jou kept staring in awe, but managed to nod in understanding.
"Miyuki-chan, it's time to go." Akemi said, letting go of her, and starting to walk towards the train.
Miyuki smiled at her again. "Yes." She spoke to Jou one last time: "You are a wonderful young man, Jounouchi-kun. If the one you have your heart set on doesn't realise what they are missing when they won't return your feelings, they are idiots." She smiled at him. "Come visit me on your summer vacation, okay? And give my best regards to Shizuka-chan too." The whistle of the train blew.
"Miyuki!" Akemi called for her.
"Coming!" Miyuki called back. "So then…goodbye!" she told Jou, hurrying off and entering the train.
Jou stood there in the station, and when the train was already gone, he murmured a small, quiet "Bye". That moment, one more vision rushed into his mind.
He stood there in a place completely white, waiting for the moment he would move on to be judged by Osiris-sama and Anubis-sama. He felt…empty. Happy to know that Seth had loved him all along after all, but sad that he had been so distrusting towards him and so stupid to let his jealousy cloud his judgement. There he stood on the floor he couldn't see, and on what his shadow wasn't cast on.
Just then, he heard a small echo of someone being placed behind himself on the white unseen ground. He turned his head slightly and saw the light-haired and pale-skinned woman with blue eyes called Kisara. He turned around properly to face her. He guessed Akhenaden-sama must've killed her too, like he had accidentally killed him. He wanted to be mad at her and hate her. If she hadn't come to his and Seth's lives, all this never would've happened. He was about to yell that to her face, when she gave him a sad small smile, and murmured those three little yet so significant words: "I love you."
He stared. All of the pain he had gone through, all the efforts and finally his own death, they had all been just for this? But at her words, he felt his anger melt away. He understood now. It wasn't her fault, nor it was Seth's. It was only his own, for not trusting Seth enough that he wouldn't cheat on him, and for not being brave enough to even ask him about it. He wasn't mad at anyone anymore. He felt anger no more, just sorrow.
He returned her sad smile, and said a simple, quiet "I'm sorry."
Then, he pulled her into his arms. They held each other tight and wept together, mourning for everything that had happened, and for the ones they loved.
Jou understood. Whoever those memories belonged to was trying to give him some sort of message. He needed to learn to trust Seto more, or else their relationship would fall and end up in even more tears than he had shed up to now, just like the one giving the message and his lover's had. Jou reached for his pocket with his hand, and pulled out the Red-Eyes card, smiling down at it a little.
'Seto…I promise you that I won't let our relationship end this way. I will become stronger, and show the entire world that you're not evil, and that I love you.' He put the card back to his pocket, and walked away from the station smiling.
-
A lightly tanned blonde man stared at Jou's image in the river he was sitting besides of, in front of a little more deeply tanned brunette man whose arms were around him and who was a little taller than he was. They both seemed to be in their early twenties.
"Do you think they will be able to sort things out?" the brunette man asked from the blonde one.
The smaller man considered it for a moment. "They have a very good start. Or at least he does. But they need to put a lot work on it if they want to have a normal, loving relationship. But the fact they are willing to try is a very good sign and a beginning."
"True." The taller man said, kissing the blonde's cheek before taking his arms from around him and lifting himself up from the ground. "It's getting late, we should probably go back. You coming, beloved?"
"You go on ahead, Seth. I'll just stay here for a little while longer."
"Alright, Jono." Seth said, turning around to leave, but stopped then. "But don't stay too long or Kisara, Kafele and Hondo will have my head."
Jono chuckled. "I won't." he assured, and stared down at the water again. 'Good luck, Jou. I hope you won't repeat my mistakes.'
-
The next morning Gouyuu was found lying on his back on the hospital floor, the recorder next to him repeating his earlier words of: "Yes, I'm joining the competition. Of course I put off the surgery."
"That's right! I like golf more than my patients!" Gouyuu confirmed from the floor, his eyes wide open, and laughing in a rather insane way as some of the hospital's patients plus one nurse stared down at him in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Jou stepped inside his sister's hospital room. "I brought the cake!" he announced with a bright smile to his sister and his friends who were in the room.
"Aren't you in a good mood." Yami commented, smiling a little himself.
"Got a problem with it?" Jou asked, setting the cake box on Shizuka's nightstand, his grin never fading.
"Now you're scaring me." Honda said, eyeing Jou suspiciously. "What happened to you?"
Jou grinned even wider if that was possible. "I just saw the light. I'm not telling anything more."
It didn't take very long for Honda and Jou to start arguing about the manner, and everyone else watched them with neither amusement or boredom.
"It's good to have the old Jou back, right?" Yuugi asked from Yami.
Yami took a one more look at Jou and Honda arguing, and smiled. "Yeah."
-
Preview:
Yuugi: There is this female teacher in our school, the beautiful Madonna that everyone respects.
Anzu: But actually she is trying to rule the school from the shadows!
Yami: We are driven to a cowardly trap. I need to do something!
All: Next time, The approaching beautiful teacher! Secret mask!
Anzu: Yami, be sure to expose that woman's ugly true face!
(1) He says "Jii-san" which is the term for when just addressing an elderly man, so this isn't in the fatherly form of the words.
Phew! That sure took its time. The flashbacks made this chapter a few pages longer than it probably otherwise would've been. Either way, I had quite fun time writing this one :). I just hope you enjoyed it as well.
Yes, Kisara loved Jono in this universe, not Seth. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? :D. But it sort of made more sense for her to love Jono, who had taken care of her, nursed, fed and clothed her. Besides, it's kind of hard not to love my Jono. I should know x). So, the 'thing' between Seth and Kisara wasn't really real from either side, it was all a misunderstanding. I hope everyone understood that.
If you want to know who Kafele who I mentioned is, visit my DeviantArt gallery. But if you want to, try and guess before you go to see ;).
Not much Puzzleshippiness in this one, but oh well. I hope all the other goods made up for it :). And I'm sorry that Jou's a bit OOC.