As means of a way to thank everyone for putting up with my nearly two month absence because of moving, I present to you a new chapter! This one's a little short compared to the others, but it would have been too long if I hadn't split up the action here. And because this wouldn't be a bonus if you had to wait another month for an update, I've got the next chapter in the final editing stage and will be posted at the scheduled time around the 15th.

Information for this round only concerns the amount of time between the end of the Japanese school year and the beginning of the new one. School ends around March 24th and begins again around the 5th of April, which is roughly two weeks off. As a side note, the sakura blossoming along the southern coast near Nagoya occurs around the very end of March (30th and 31st).

~Tawnya

Chapter 10—

It was close, but somehow, Jounouchi managed to squeak by. He only had to write one history report during the break to pass into the next grade - a paper that was a breeze given Suguroku's archeologist friends. With that taken care of, the group focused on getting the most out of their precious time off. This was accomplished through a series of day (and sometimes night) long parties.

First, it was the "we made it another year" party. Then there was the "Jounouchi's finally healthy again" party. That lasted two days. Next came the "we all have the day off" party and the annual sakura viewing party, which brought about the all-important "visit the temple before school starts again" party. Mokuba was the only Kaiba to join them during one of these get-togethers.

"Nii-sama's drowning in paperwork," he said with a giggle when questioned as to why. "Even though all the numbers are checked like twelve times before they even reach us, he's not satisfied until he's cross-checked them himself. I mean, it makes sense, because those first couple years we found some really big problems. But those guys got tossed a long time ago. Everything's been just fine for a while now, so I don't know why he insists."

"Because he's a control freak," Honda muttered, earning a smack from Anzu, who was the only one close enough to hit him. Everyone else just glared. Mokuba laughed.

"Nii-sama can be pretty OCD some days, but he's getting better. He's only going back three levels now instead of all of them." He didn't stay long after that, just long enough to give Jounouchi some pointers about how to dress and what to bring when he came in.

After recovering from the sixth and last party, which had been an all night table top RPG session at Ryou's apartment, Jounouchi decided to swear off caffeine and that he'd put his "job crisis" on hold long enough. Honestly, he didn't know what to expect. Mokuba had said his everyday wear was good enough to come in with, to have some sort of resume on hand, and to be himself, but had dodged every other question. All he did know was that it was probably a bad idea to show up in his junker jeans and the shirt he'd slept in for the past two days. So dressed in some of his nicer clothes, a clean copy of his work history in hand, and a few last words of encouragement from everyone, he walked into Kaiba Corp. Headquarters feeling like he was going before a firing squad.

The lobby receptionist only said, "Go on up, they're waiting for you," when he approached the desk. A helpful security guard was waiting in the indicated elevator and pressed the top most floor button with a "Good luck, kid." Well, if Kaiba was trying to freak him out, mission accomplished. In fact, he almost turned right around and left again when both of the secretaries stood and greeted him by name.

They were the same as they had been all those nights ago when he's come asking for math tutoring. Two young, twenty-something women that invoked a weird sense of déjà vu if they weren't together. Nearly perfect carbon copies of each other, they wore their long, shiny black hair coiled on their heads, held in place with ornate clips. Both had the same flawless olive skin, intelligent and mischievous hazel eyes, and delicate features. Both wore the same earrings, necklace and dark blue skirt with a white satin top. The only thing that made them different was the thin gold bracelets around their wrists. One wore them on the right and the other on the left. And then Kaiba's little hint of one name but two people kicked in. Jounouchi felt like smacking himself.

"We were beginning to worry you weren't going to come," the one with the bracelets on her right wrist said.

"When Kaiba-sama said he'd finally convinced you to take the position, we were so excited," said the other.

More like forced me into a corner so I couldn't refuse, Jounouchi thought with a grimace. He put on a shaky smile. "Matsudera…"

"Akiko and Yukiko, at your service," they said in unison. Jounouchi felt somewhat light headed. What the hell had he gotten himself into this time? He grabbed what was left of his nerve, walked forward until he stood before their desk, and bowed politely, introducing himself. They both smiled warmly at him. "Please, follow us."

While one walked to a set of doors opposite Kaiba's office, the other touched a small intercom, informing said Kaiba that their appointment had arrived and would be unavailable for the next hour. Without waiting for any sort of response, she joined her sister in opening the large double doors to what looked like an exceptionally large meeting room. The back wall was dominated by floor to ceiling windows, which Jounouchi was beginning to see as a reoccurring theme. The largest chair sat in front of those windows at the head of the heavy oak table. A row of chairs lined the long sides of the meeting table, but he noticed a conspicuous lack of a chair that would have had the person sitting in it with their backs to the doors.

Akiko and Yukiko took seats at one side while Jounouchi sat across from them. When asked for his resume, he slid the paper to them, wishing he'd printed two copies that morning. He tried not to fidget while they looked over his work history.

"You've done a lot of physical labor for someone who's only seventeen," one commented.

"They're one of the few jobs people are willin' to hire anyone to do the work."

"But why labor?" asked the other. "Shipping freight, goods delivery, packing and sorting… Aren't teenagers supposed to have paper routes or work in dinners and cafes?"

"I do have a paper route in the mornin', but haulin' stuff around pays more. Besides, I like workin' with my hands and the people who work the shifts I need tend to be the guys with better senses of humor."

"So this would be a secondary job?"

"Only if the pay isn't enough." He snapped his mouth shut. It was never a good sign when money came up in the first ten minutes of an interview. He kicked himself mentally while the twins exchanged a look. Someday, this honest streak in him would be the death of him.

They folded their hands on the table. "And what would you need to be paid in order to make this your only job?"

He closed his eyes and thought about it. The government check had already come and gone. He'd managed to squirrel away rent and most of his school tuition, but he was still a couple thousand short there. Not only had he been out of work for the last three weeks, but his dad had apparently been kind enough to cash his last paycheck for him. Now there were hospital bills to pay along with the utilities. Top that off with the weeklong bender his dad was on right now, there was no way to know how large the debt had become. He sighed and said, "More than this job is probably worth."

He was given a curious look. "What exactly do you think this job entails?"

"Honestly? Don't have a clue. Kaiba made it sound like I'd be an errand-boy, which I assume means any task you point me to, though I can't really imagine me helpin' you two with anythin' in this place. Go-fors are like interns and apprentices - all the work for half the pay."

"And yet, knowing that, you still came here for a job?"

Financially, it as a bad move, and he knew it. Granted, a job was better than no job, and if he really needed to earn some extra cash, he could moonlight a third position somewhere. However, that wasn't the reason he'd finally accepted Kaiba's invitation. He felt bad for letting his temper get the better of him, for being the reason they could barely sit in the same classroom again. If taking this job and doing whatever it was he was supposed to do in it was a way to make it up to him, then by the gods, that's what he'd do. But how did he say that without completely offending someone?

"I want this job," he said after a moment, "because I owe him. He tried to help me, and I just made a mess of things. I don't think I'll ever be able to work it off, but if this job means I can help him somehow, what I'm paid doesn't matter."

The twins held another silent conversation, though this one continued much longer. Jounouchi found himself relating them to the Roba Brothers, a thought that eased the freaked out feeling their synchronized movements and speech caused. Roba's ESP had been nothing more than a one-way radio and a pair of binoculars. Mai had used perfumes to scare her opponents in a similar way. Now that he thought about it, odds were that Akiko and Yukiko's identical patterns were a trick, too, meant to confuse and disorient someone didn't know them.

He was still puzzling it all out in his head when they turned back to him. "We'll have to discuss a few things with Kaiba-sama first, but we would both very much like it if you would come work for us. If you'll please come by again next week after school, we'll iron out the details of your schedule and get you started."

The next thing he knew, he was walking out of the building, trying to remember how he got there. All he had was their business card in hand and the vague impression that he'd just been tricked into something. As soon as he had said "I accept," everything had turned into a blur. They had thanked him for his time, all but shoved him into the elevator…and now he was here. Shrugging, he pocketed the card and started towards the train station. If he hurried, they could get one more party before having to face another year of high school.

()~()~()

For the most part, they avoided being separated into different classes their junior year. Honda ended up in a separate class to start his training towards being a mechanic while Anzu moved into an advanced class that was designed to support studying abroad. Everyone else stayed in Class 3-C, but were forced to sit alphabetically, and thus away from each other. Only Jounouchi and Kaiba remained together. Between seeing one another all day in class and working relatively close together all evening, it seemed the universe was conspiring to make them get along.

It was only really awkward for the first few weeks, in which Jounouchi did nothing at his job. While it was cool to be paid relatively well to sit and "observe," as his task had been described, it was also extremely boring. There wasn't much the Matsudera girls couldn't handle, though it was endlessly amusing to watch them call Kaiba away from whatever he happened to be doing to haul some heavy object, or reach into a space they were too short to reach. Kaiba had grumbled once that they had someone to do this for them so he wouldn't be disturbed. Without skipping a beat, Yukiko had told him that if he spent much more time sitting in front of his computer, he was going to start growing mushrooms.

He starting to see through the twin secretaries' trick. The most noticeable tell were the bracelets; one always wore them on the left wrist and the other on the right. But it was a false lead as they'd switch who wore them where every few days. No, it was much more like telling the difference between Yugi and Atem, the subtle differences in personality, mannerisms, and the way they would carry themselves.

During the seemingly endless paperwork involved in starting a new job and getting it ratified by the school, it had come out that neither had distinguished themselves as to who was really who. Akiko had blushed slightly and apologized. Yukiko had laughed and made the proper introductions. This variance had started the pattern Jounouchi was mapping out. Akiko, who was the elder of the sisters by fifteen minutes, was the more reserved of the two, with a quieter, dryer sense of humor. Yukiko on the other hand was more outspoken and had a razor wit to go with her tongue. To those that knew them well, it was a set of glaring differences, but anyone one else would miss them without paying the strictest attention.

After nearly losing his mind to the tedium of office work (which wasn't any different from any other office work he'd seen other people perform at other offices, secretaries or not), he jumped at the chance to play "go fetch." At first, it was small things, like water for the ikebana arrangements Akiko brought in twice a week from her class. Or maybe it was a box of pens from the supply closet because Yukiko had the bad habit of putting hers down and walking away from it. In less than a week, he went from doing nothing to practically running all over the building, taking this folder to someone in Accounting or that piece of mail to so and so in Research. There were only two rules to this game: don't touch anything he wasn't handed and don't look at whatever he was.

In the time that he wasn't running something somewhere, he sat being the massive desk that dominated most of the main floor in a small spot they had prepared for him. It was just a floor pillow, a lap desk, and a drawer he could put anything he wanted in crammed into a space that was out of the way and out of sight. The purpose was so that he could attend to his homework in his downtime, but Otogi made the uncomfortable comparison to kenneling a puppy that couldn't be trusted by itself. He had endured a couple more dog comments from his friends before Kaiba, without looking up from whatever it was that he was reading, pointed out that putting in a desk for someone who wasn't a secretary was both wasteful and distracting, as would be a body that was just hovering around. With the limited space available, they had done the best they could to accommodate both the needs of their office and their employee.

Kaiba then went on to say that if the sisters were treating him like a dog, he should be happy. Dogs got respect and praise; gophers were usually exterminated. The CEO managed to keep a straight face until Ryou snickered. Despite the fact that it was a groaner of a joke, it was nice to see some of Kaiba's sense of humor returning. After that, things pretty much returned to the way it had been before the hospital.

Jounouchi had been working steadily for a month and a half, earning new tasks and responsibilities on almost a daily basis, when his run of good fortune dried up. The day had started badly, day being a relative term when Jounouchi had showed up at Honda's house at about three in the morning. He was scuffed up and pissed, but nothing serious. By the time he'd calmed down enough not to snap every time someone talked to him, it was time for school. Because of his middle of the night run, he had no homework and kept falling asleep in class, which got him intimately acquainted with the hallway outside and two buckets of water until it felt like his arms were going to fall off.

Work wasn't any better. A train malfunction cost him almost an hour in travel, and when he finally got there, he wasn't the only one in a foul mood. Akiko and Yukiko were both spitting mad, harassed by an endless barrage of demands. He didn't see Kaiba, who had also been absent at school that day, so much as he felt the malevolent aura Kaiba was radiating. He could only guess whatever meeting was being held in the conference room across from Kaiba's office was not going well. A glance at the schedule Akiko kept on her desk showed that there wasn't anything planned for the day, which explained a lot of the aggravation everyone was feeling.

Yukiko had just disappeared (for the eighth time in the last hour) into the ever mysterious "Records Room," grumbling something unkind about senile old men when the elevator doors opened to reveal a woman in a dress that could only be described as gaudy. Without preamble, said woman tried to walk into the conference room, only to become very irate when Akiko stopped her. She threatened everything under the sun, moon, and stars if Akiko didn't allow her to see her husband about something that very minute. Jounouchi didn't catch most of it. He was just doing his best to keep out of the way. He did catch the "punk kid" comment as Akiko started escorting the woman back to the elevator to show her the nearest powder room. There were two, of course, on the floor already. One was the perk of being CEO and President of the company. The other, smaller but no less nice, was an inconspicuous door by the supply closet. Akiko was showing her to the ones on the floor below.

In the absolute still that followed the closing elevator doors, Jounouchi was struck by the fact that this was the first time he'd been left completely alone. Before now, there had always been one sister left at the desk to field phone calls, people, and paperwork while the other did something else. He was starting to help with paperwork, but was still forbidden from answering the phones under threat of death. If someone did arrive, he was to differ that person to either woman.

And then the worst thing of the day happened: the elevator chimed and Yamato Iori stepped onto the floor.

()~()~()

This had not been a good day. It had started with a phone call from some secretary for the Yamato family the night before, demanding some sort of meeting. After being put off by both Akiko and Yukiko, said secretary had somehow managed to call his personal line. After a short verbal altercation there, he'd received another set of phone calls, one from the disgruntled secretary's boss and one from Yamato Isshin. After a few minutes sorting out who wanted what, it was agreed that all parties would be meet the next morning at Kaiba Corp.

Oh, what a mistake that had been. Isshin had called to reschedule later in the day due to something not being complete. Mildly annoyed, Kaiba had just started getting ready to go back to school when Yamato Ikkaku, Isshin's son, had showed up, apparently with a mission to see how pissed off he could make Kaiba. Instead of arguing in the open, they had moved to the conference room. It had only gotten worse from there. It was a dance Kaiba was beginning to despise. Isshin was older, somewhere in his eighties, and his health was starting to fail. As such, the first son, Ikkaku, was slowly taking over for his ailing father. This was most of the problem, as Ikkaku seemed to think that his family's holdings in Kaiba Corp. made him able to demand anything at any hour. Dealing with the man second hand had always been annoying, it was only more so directly. If his company wasn't so deeply involved in the Yamato Corporation's holdings as well, he'd cut all ties. As it was, he was considering it anyway.

He didn't know how long it had been since the migraine kicked in. Probably about the time Yukiko had made it known she was unhappy with the situation by "accidentally" dropping a stack of papers that had been requested in such a way that they scattered all over the floor. It was bad enough that he was locked in a room with a blathering idiot, having to explain every nuance of how the two companies interacted. Now he had to deal with a pissed-off secretary who could crumble his office in five minutes flat. His frustration level only jumped again when he was informed that Isshin was waiting in his office. He was just about ready to scream his aggravation when another scream echoed through the walls.

Whatever he had been expecting when he threw open the doors, it had not been Jounouchi standing over Iori, who was pale and kneeling on the floor, his face twisted in agony. Jounouchi had a crushing grip on Iori's wrist, which had been twisted behind his back. Smoothly, he straightened the limb out in a direction it wasn't meant to go, a loud snap and Iori's howl of pain filling the air as the elbow was snapped.

That broke the spell and several things happened at once. Ikkaku roared in anger and charged into the room. Yukiko emerged from the Records Room with a loud curse. Akiko ran from the elevator for the security switch while Ikkaku's wife screamed. Jounouchi seemed deaf to the racket, changing his grip before snapping both bones in the forearm. Kaiba felt himself moving forward without really being connected to the moment. He grabbed Ikkaku and swung the man back towards the conference room while shouting orders to his secretaries. The two women complied seamlessly, Yukiko to quiet the screaming women as Akiko reached the phones for paramedics. Jounouchi had shifted his grip again, this time methodically breaking several of the smaller bones in the hand.

At this point, he was close enough to see exactly how messed up Iori's arm was, as well as how calm Jounouchi was. His face was completely lax, eyes glazed and dark. When he called the blond's name, those hollow eyes barely shifted to him. It was similar to the look that had started them both down this path so long ago. But where a thousand emotions had clouded his gaze before, there was nothing now. Kaiba felt his heart trip-hammer. Though he'd never admit it, it was as terrifying as staring down all three of his dragons. He hadn't hesitated then, and he didn't now; he stepped forward and wrenched Iori free, snarling, "Enough."

Jounouchi refocused on him and lashed out. The movements were quick and precise, with barely enough room to dodge around. They grappled for what seemed like a long time before Kaiba finally managed to restrain his classmate against his chest, arms pinned between them. "Enough, Jounouchi," he said, trying to calm his voice. "It's over. You can stop."

Slowly, Jounouchi stopped struggling, blinking in confusion. And then the panic around them sunk in. Security filed out of one elevator as paramedics exited the other. Akiko was holding off Ikkaku while her sister was still guarding his wife. A glance opposite showed Isshin standing in the doorway of his office. Suppressing a sigh, Kaiba started the process of clean up. He waved off security as he pulled Jounouchi away from the still screaming Iori. Without a word, the paramedics stepped in to assess the situation. The Matsudera twins were then called over and Jounouchi was dumped into their care. "Out," he commanded, and Akiko did just that, dragging Jounouchi with her. "They don't come in," he told Yukiko, pointing to the two frantic adults pestering the medics. She nodded and he turned to his office. The door was closed again, Isshin nowhere to be seen.

He took a moment, back turned to everyone, to take a deep breath and clear his mind. The adrenaline seemed to have eased his headache, or maybe it was just the fact that he was so focused on other things now to notice it much anymore. Still, it loomed in the background, increasing in strength as the multitude of questions he had joined the swell. Bracing himself to defend actions he had no knowledge of, he walked into his office.

To be continued.