Ashes doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Chapter Nine

The first thing Jounouchi did on his lunch break was pull out his laptop and do a search for a name he'd never quite forgotten: Lynn Mae. Apparently, she'd moved on to bigger and better things – after writing an exposé on the "secret life of Seto Kaiba." Twice Jounouchi was described as "the paid lover," and once as a whore. Nori was cited as a source, but Jounouchi recognized her quote as a doctored version of the last thing she'd said to him.

It was slander, and she'd used the story to hit it big.

All of a sudden, Jounouchi was finding forums, fan sites, and people's opinions of "the love" he and Kaiba supposedly shared – and all it had taken was putting their names in a search engine. Flipping closed the cheap laptop, Jounouchi threw himself back on the bed. This was madness; he'd fled to Tokyo to get away from all that. He hadn't expected it to go on without him, to jump unexpected into his cab, going to school and talking about life.

And he had about half an hour to cope with it and get back to work.

--

He didn't think about it until nearly five o'clock that night; his last call of the night took him directly downtown, into the lanes of an expensive Indian restaurant. His fare had him waiting ten minutes, but eventually a tall suit with a big briefcase slid into the backseat. "Ramada..."

Their eyes met for the second time in eight hours, and Jounouchi said the only thing that jumped to mind: "What the fuck, Kaiba; don't you suits have limos and chauffeurs?"

Kaiba's shoulders visibly loosened. "I find it's more inconspicuous to take cabs when I can."

"And exactly when did you become inconspicuous?"

"This trip is to find a place for Mokuba to live, not business." Kaiba settled back and added, "The meeting was just conveniently timed."

"Ah, like hell; it's always been business with you; I wouldn't be surprised if Mokuba had been planned around the meeting."

Kaiba huffed quietly but importantly, commenting off-hand; "I wouldn't expect you to know better. I believe you're getting paid to take me back to my hotel, not criticize my work."

A few moments passed in awkward silence as Jounouchi made his way into traffic. Of course it was awkward. It'd always been awkward, even when they were together. As much as Jounouchi told himself to drop it, forget the Kaiba brothers and wait out their visit to Tokyo, he had to wonder what was going through Kaiba's mind. He'd never really been able to grasp that. "How'd the Sylph take off?" Stupid question; the media hadn't shut up about it, especially with –

"We're releasing it again with updated graphics and hardware. The old system has ceased production, and in a week the new one will be out with the same name."

It made Jounouchi nauseas; everything about the system reminded him of home. "So good, then?"

"Yes."

Night clubs and ramen shops passed by, and Jounouchi kept his eyes on traffic; it was particularly nasty, and he was likely to end up in another car's front seat if he didn't keep a quick foot on the breaks. A group of foreigners lurched out in front of him at a green light, and he was lucky he didn't end up with a bus attached to his bumper in the ensuing stop.

"How's your father?" Kaiba asked, shifting in his seat and looking out the window. After the group flashed Jounouchi a couple of rude gestures and sauntered out of the road; Jounouchi ignored them and continued driving. He had to focus on that first.

"Dead," he said, surprisingly not choked up about it; it always rubbed him raw to say it out loud. "He went last year."

"It..." Kaiba fell silent, and Jounouchi let it go without asking. He didn't want to know that they thought the same thing – and he was sure that they did.

It could have been him.

The rest of the ride passed in silence; it wasn't until they arrived at the Ramada that Kaiba spoke again. "Mokuba wants to see you."

"Huh?" Jounouchi pulled up in front of the hotel and shifted the car into park. "Why?"

"He likes you, I guess." Kaiba said it as though it was trivial. "I've heard nothing since yesterday but, 'Let's get together with Jounouchi again.' He thinks we'd have a lot lot talk about."

"I..." Lost for thought, Jounouchi swallowed and gripped the steering wheel with his right hand, other still resting on the gear shift.

Kaiba seemed to take that as an affirmative response. "How is tonight for you – around eight o'clock?"

Jounouchi floundered, looking at the people filtering in and out of the hotel. He didn't want to spent time with Kaiba again; it had been long enough that Jounouchi hardly ever thought of their time together. It was like ripping open an old wound, and he didn't -- "Sure."

"We're in room 617; I'll tell Mokuba to choose a restaurant." Kaiba dropped a couple bills on the passenger side as he exited, slamming the door a little too hard behind him.

The drive was boring after that; Jounouchi's only passenger was his thoughts, and compared to that, Kaiba was good company. Moving to Tokyo had been the best decision he'd ever made; two years clean attested to that. Sure, he thought about home – he missed it. What he didn't miss was how it'd made him feel. Like he was suffocating under the pressure of everyone's success. Now, with the Kaiba family butting their way back into his life – Not that you put up much of a fight, he reminded himself – he had to think about it.

Where was Yuugi? Who missed him? Did anyone honor his father's grave? Having such tangible reminders of his past only showed him that he may have put Domino behind him, but that didn't mean it had stopped moving.

Jounouchi whiled away most of his evening thinking about it – if he was better now, maybe he could go back. Now that he was recovered, he could jump back into the life he remembered with his friends, before everything had gone downhill. At 7:00 PM he remembered he had a dinner appointment, and at 7:45 PM he found himself on the sixth floor of the Ramada, down the hall from room 617, and determined not to be early.

He sat in the stairwell, debating what to do with the necklace clenched in his fist. After a time he'd buckled down and slipped it over his head, confident that it was hidden beneath the collar and front of his shirt, which he'd buttoned just a little bit too high. He felt like he was going to a job interview, or a funeral. Suddenly the last two years on his life were going to be evaluated and put on the chopping block in front of one of the most judgmental men Jounouchi had the misfortune of being intimate with.

Intimate. Fuck. It all came crashing down at once, and Jounouchi stormed into the hallway for air, undoing his top button. After spending two years of his life pretending all the misfortune he'd brought on himself had never happened – the booze, the things he'd said, Kaiba – it confronted him all at once, demanding the attention he'd never paid it, and he had to compose himself enough to handle dinner with the devil.

In fifteen minutes.

It was about the corner booth of Tragedy's End, it was about whiskey and pizza, it was fuck, his dad was gone, and he'd fled everything without even saying goodbye.

It was that once again Kaiba invaded his life and shaken things up when he'd been perfectly content to let all the bad things settle to the bottom.

Jounouchi found himself facing the golden script numbers: 617. Behind that door was Kaiba – was everything he'd tried to forget, everything about himself he'd tried to ignore. Because above all it was that without Kaiba around to remind him of what a piece of shit he'd been, he might not have gotten out of Domino in one piece – or even alive.

With unsteady feet and shaking hands Jounouchi knocked on the door; it took Mokuba less than a second to answer. He'd always been a punctual kid.

"I'm glad you're early, 'cause I'm starved! Niisama," Mokuba shouted back into the hotel room, "are you ready?"

Kaiba appeared a second later; Mokuba dashed back into the room for his jacket – just a track jacket, comforting in it's simplicity. It was something Jounouchi would've picked up when he was Mokuba's age, reminding him that if he stripped away all the business and the upbringing, Mokuba was normal. It was relieving, because it gave Jounouchi something he could relate to.

"I called a cab; it should be downstairs," Kaiba said, leading the way to the elevator. The whole way down Mokuba chattered – about how they were going to look for an apartment tomorrow, about a girl he had met, about how much he'd enjoy Tokyo when he lived there – all the way to the backseat of the cab and into Denny's.

"I had it in New York once," Mokuba told Jounouchi as they entered. "It's not the same, but it's still awesome."

Jounouchi was noticeably vacant during dinner; he nodded and responded to Mokuba's questions, he munched on the appetizers they got – he was methodical and decidedly happy (if he said so himself)...

And Kaiba was looking at him funny.

It finally fell silent, midway through their main meal; in the middle of cutting his dinner Mokuba heaved a sigh. "Look, I can't be responsible for conversation all night, guys. I've got to go to the bathroom."

Before Mokuba was even out of sight, Kaiba asked, "Do you still drink?"

"Nope; I smoke. Lesser of two evils," Jounouchi said stiffly, taking a bite of his burger. "I could use one now, actually. Think the kid would miss me for ten minutes?"

Kaiba pulled a waitress aside, saying, "If the young man asks where we went, tell him we'll be right back." Much to Jounouchi's combined surprise and anger – he certainly hadn't asked for the company – Kaiba followed him outside casually. They leaned against the wall together, and Jounouchi lit up as quickly as he could; he fumbled trying to get the cigarette box open. The Kaiba he remembered was stiff, wound tighter than a coil; in all the years Jounouchi had known him, he'd never been the type to lean against walls.

Out of politeness Jounouchi offered Kaiba a drag; the brunet took it like he'd been doing it for just as long. "You still pop aspirin like candy?" Jounouchi asked as he watched Kaiba inhale. Kaiba shook his head and handed the cigarette back, coughing lightly – either against the cold hair or the smoke, Jounouchi wasn't sure. "Good. The shit was bad for you."

"Uh-huh," Kaiba muttered noncommittally, crossing his arms across his chest and watching the cars around the parking lot. In one far corner there was some kids laughing and swearing, sitting on the trunk of a car. Jounouchi offered his cigarette again, and found himself watching Kaiba's fingers. His memories of Kaiba's hands were second only to his memories of Kaiba's words. The hands were familiar, but Kaiba didn't bite so hard anymore. "You remember that night in Tragedy's End," Jounouchi said slowly, licking his lips; he hadn't mentioned the bar in years, "with the cute girl and the old guy? Hell, I barely do; I remember the guy really needed someone to talk to, and I blew him off the second the girl came in."

"Boo hoo," Kaiba said flatly, and it put Jounouchi at ease; a snarky Kaiba, even lightly so, was something he could handle.

"Well, a couple days later I was at Yuugi's place, and Anzu reads me this article about a guy who drunkenly stumbled off the pier – drowned to death."

"And it was him?"

"The picture certainly looked like him. I felt like a piece of shit, but more than that it scared me. I didn't want to be some lonely guy in a bar, or my -- "

Kaiba pushed himself up stiffly, setting his shoulders back. "I don't need to hear about your life-changing revelations, Jounouchi. They don't matter."

Jounouchi glared at him, tossing what was left of his cigarette to the ground and smashing it under his toe. "You know, you could just appreciate a little closure."

"As far as I'm concerned, the issue was closed when you left Domino. If you had unfinished business, it should have been taken care of then."

"Who says I have unfinished business?" Jounouchi countered, louder than he meant to as he stood straight, poised to take Kaiba head to head. The punks in the corner of the parking lot quieted down and took notice.

"That," Kaiba replied, reaching a finger just under his collar and hooking a finger around the chain of his necklace. Jounouchi pushed him back, but he didn't bother hiding the necklace. "If you'd really cut your ties, you wouldn't have kept anything. But you've never been very good at follow-through, have you?"

"It was a gift," Jounouchi said. "Why wouldn't I keep it?" Kaiba shook his head and went back into the restaurant. Self-consciously, he tucked the necklace back under his shirt and buttoned the top button. "Unfinished business my ass," he grumbled under his breath. He ducked inside long enough, trying to keep out of sight of the table as he went to the hostess.

"Can I help you?" she asked, smiling. Jounouchi dug out his wallet and laid a bill down in front of her.

"If you could take this to table ten and let them known that I apologize for leaving early, I'd appreciate it."

-end chapter nine-

notes
I've got a lot of apologies to make. A) I apologize to all the reviewers I haven't replied to yet -- it's been busy, but more on this later. B) Sorry this chapter took a little longer than anticipated!

Also, thank you for the beta job, purkle! purkle is my hero.

The name order flips for a brief moment in this chapter, because the author of the article is writing for an American paper -- hence, American order. :D Carry on with your everyday life. Early in the drafting of this chapter, I had determined they went to Denny's, and later went, "Huh. What if there's not a Denny's in Japan?" Alas, there is: http/ speed of part two is different than part one, because instead of being spread out over a large amount of time, these are set in about the same one-week period. oO;;

Anyway, the next update might take a while, I won't lie. I've got to move in six days -- woo hoo, five blocks away! -- and then comes a doctor's appointment, my birthday (woo hoo, twenty on the tenth!), and (hopefully) a short trip to see my relatives in Wisconsin. I hope to get it out before school starts, but if I don't, you at least know why. ;;