Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I associated with, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

Authors note: Things are heating up part two! (And not in the sexual way.)

Syrus knew that what he was about to do wasn't honest. In the slightest. But in the time it took him to reach Zane's dorm, a better plan hadn't formed, so he straightened his shoulders and hoped his brother wouldn't see through his lies.

He burst through the door in a display of what was probably overly sugary concern.

"Zane! You're not going to believe what Jaden's done to Chazz!"

The Obelisk boy, who had been diligently bent over homework, whipped around so fast that papers fluttered and skated to the edge of the balcony. Syrus felt a flash of jealousy cut across his chest. He wondered if Zane would react that fast if someone told him something had happened to Syrus. The bitter side of him said that Zane most likely wouldn't care as much, and it made him wonder why he was here, helping out the boy that rarely did more than insult him.

Oh that's right: because he had most likely ground all of Chazz's self confidence to dust, and fixing the situation was the noble thing to do. And Syrus liked to believe he was a good person.

Of course, the "noble thing to do" probably didn't include lying...

"What happened?" Zane's voice was deadly serious, with a hint of nervous energy sprinkled in. "Did he hurt Chazz?"

"Not physically, no. But mentally... Zane that boy is probably wrecked."

Well, that part was true.

"Syrus, you have to tell me exactly what happened. I'll destroy that no-good Slifer."

Zane looked so angry. So worked up and upset that Syrus knew immediately the situation was going to be worse than he thought. There had to be something that happened, something Syrus didn't know of, that was working always-calm-and-collected Zane into this frenzied mess.

Sure Zane had told him what had happened to Chazz, but did he tell him all of it?

"I-I can't give you all the details, but from what I saw it was bad. They were talking, they must've had a fight before because Chazz looked angry, but he and Jaden were arguing and Jaden just... started saying things! Like, he said Chazz was no good at dueling, that the only reason he got to Obelisk in the first place was because of his money and that if he was really any good at dueling he would've made it back by now. And that it must be hard for Slade and Jagger to have such a failure for a little brother. And," Syrus's voice dropped, "that he was worthless, and his friends would never care about him."

It was so quiet for a moment that Syrus thought Zane wasn't really there. Maybe he had been imagining all of this. Maybe he had fallen asleep in his dorm and all the guilt was concocting a very strange, vengeful dream. But..

"You're sure you heard this correctly, Syrus?"

Zane's voice was calm, like he was simply asking how someone's day was.

"Yeah, Zane, I was there!" It hurt that his brother doubted him, even if the whole story was a lie.

"I just... Jaden promised. He said he would never hurt Chazz and now this." Zane trailed off, mumbling under his breath as he scurried around the room in long strides, closing his balcony doors and then leaning over to place the fallen papers back on his desk.

Syrus stood unmoving in the middle of it all.

"I don't mean to just leave you like this Syrus, but I have to go find Jaden. Do you know where Chazz is?"

"No. Jaden just came looking for him. He hasn't seen him either."

Zane cursed. "I really have to go then. If not for Jaden, then to find Chazz. You can stay here until I get back, it's getting late."

He grabbed his white jacket and slipped out the door before Syrus could say anything.

Syrus really hoped this was going to work.

*page break*

From the second Zane opened his mouth, Jaden knew he wasn't here to help him look for Chazz. No, Zane was more on a mission of "beat Jaden into the ground for being a terrible boyfriend."

Just... not for what Jaden expected.

"What the hell did I tell you, Jaden? I said that if you did anything to hurt Chazz I'd be after you. And, I distinctly remember this, you promised not to do anything to him!"

Atticus strummed something on his ukulele that Jaden was certain was going to be his death march. Because from the looks of the older boy, Jaden wasn't going to escape his wrath alive.

Zane shot Atticus the nastiest look Jaden had ever seen. "Put that stupid ukulele away, Atticus, or I'll snap it in half."

Atticus' brown eyes widened dramatically and he cradled the instrument close to his body protectively.

"Hey now, Zane, what's the matter?"

Jaden had been wondering the same thing, but he wasn't brave enough to ask.

"Why don't you ask Jaden? I'm sure he'd be happy to explain himself."

Jaden felt like he was in the middle of a spotlight now. Two pairs of eyes were looking at him: one in contempt and the other in curiosity.

"Jaden? What did you do?"

"I-I don't know! I told Zane before and he didn't seem upset then! I just told you too, all that happened between me and Chazz was the carrot incident and then he ran off and I haven't seen him since!"

He couldn't help the way his eyes darted from Atticus, who held his ukulele like a baby and scrunched his eyebrows in concern, to Zane, who had his hands on his hips and eyes that looked positively on fire. He had the same sassy position as the first time he had yelled at Jaden to befriend Chazz.

This time though, Jaden didn't think there was anything slightly funny about his pose, and wouldn't dare laugh.

"Don't lie, Jaden." Zane spat, "you did a whole lot more than that."

"What? No-I swear-"

"Why don't you just confess? You remember what I said, don't you? The sooner you tell me the story the less of a punishment you get."

Jaden balked.

"Why are you getting so angry? There is no other part to the story!I just tried to feed him that carrot! It wasn't harmless, and I told you, Zane, that I was going to apologize! But I couldn't find him, and now I'm trying to see where he is but I can't because you're trying to get me to confess to something I don't think I ever did! What are you even talking about?"

"Why am I getting mad? And what did you do? Seriously Jaden? I know what you said to Chazz, you made him run off! You, the person he trusts most. His closest friend. His boyfriend!"

Jaden hesitated. Something about what Zane was saying seemed completely off. He hadn't said anything to Chazz...

"Wait, we- we are talking about the same thing, aren't we?

"What?"

"'Cause I don't think we're talking about the same thing."

"You heard me, Slacker. A little birdy just told me that you and Chazz got in an argument and you started to insult him. It has nothing to do with that stupid carrot! Apparently you thought it was okay to go off on Chazz just because you two were a little angry at each other." Zane stepped forward and grabbed Jaden's collar in one hand. He yanked Jaden's head up and forced him on his tiptoes so that they were eye-to-eye. "You don't know Chazz as well as you think you do. You think it's all sunshine and roses now that you have each other, but it takes more than a boyfriend to erase what's been done to that boy. What happened, what you did, is how his brothers treat him. The brothers that beat him. So if Chazz does anything, one single thing that says he's hurting more than he already is, you'll be off this island so fast you won't even know it. Don't think I don't have the power to make that happen."

He released Jaden, who crumpled to the ground and pulled his jacket collar away from his body. Atticus lilted forward nervously. The way Jaden looked at the ground, the emotions in his eyes, were all wrong for someone who had supposedly just run off their boyfriend.

"Zane?" Atticus said, hesitantly. "Who exactly did you hear this story from?"

*page break*

The door to their dorm definitely wasn't supposed to swing back hard enough to dent the wall.

But it did, and following it was an equally forceful Jaden, whom Syrus thought would have no problem denting his face.

"Syrus."

"Jay?" It was a squeak, and no, Syrus was not proud of it.

He didn't have time to dodge the first punch, because it came so fast that Syrus didn't see it. Jaden's fist connected with his cheek hard and threw him onto the floor.

The ceiling hadn't even stopped spinning before his eyes when Jaden lunged down and pinned Syrus' arms to the floor. He straddled his roommate and threw another punch that made Syrus' head whip to the side.

Jaden's fist connected with his stomach, and although it hurt, without his head being tossed around, Syrus could see tears trickling down Jaden's cheeks. The boy on top of him sniffed and brought a hand- a hand dotted with Syrus' blood- to wipe his eyes.

Jaden had let go of Syrus' arms and slid off to the side. Both hands covered his face and he shook as he cried into his palms.

Syrus groaned and rolled onto his side, cradling his cheek with one hand as pain flared down his neck at the movement. He managed to sit himself up and reach a shaking hand toward Jaden, who flinched away and shuffled on his knees closer to the door.

"Jay-"

"No."

Syrus' hand dropped back down. Jaden stood, towering above his blue haired roommate. His eyes were red from crying and he looked about as miserable as Syrus felt.

They looked at each other, neither breaking eye contact, both looking rather pathetic to the other, until Jaden lowered his head and walked to the door. He paused in the doorway, his back to the boy on the floor.

"I'm never talking to you again, Syrus."