Family of Dragons
A Kaiba is WHAT Productions
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh and its characters do not belong to Kaiba is WHAT Productions.
Chapter 18: Unexpected
Note: Continues from chapter 17. Please take note that the previous chapter is the Christmas & New Year Special.
The morning sunshine stabbed at his skin painfully where his low collar could not cover, Katsuya Jounouchi stood hunched over his Outlander. Balancing the small mobile phone between his ear and shoulder, Jounouchi predicted that a neckache along with a backache later in the day was inevitable, "Now, you said, look for the carburetor… how exactly does it look like?"
Honda, at the other end of the line, sounded as tired and irritated as he was. He hadn't planned on bothering him, knowing that he was probably dog-tired currently, considering that the great detective of Domino City had been sleeplessly busy for the last three days cracking one huge fraud case that could propel his reputation to that of the city's greatest playboy, Mokuba Kaiba.
But when his car had broken down like 25 metres away from his shop, leaving him to push it all the way to its usual parking place beside Puppy Love with help from some kind passer-bys, Honda had somehow gotten the news, no doubt from his ever efficient team of detectives stationed all over the city and immediately called him for a over-the-phone car repair service.
Jounouchi was more than thankful to whatever powers-be-it which existed up there for the existence of his best friend Honda who existed to help him at all times. Nonetheless, as much as he appreciated having such a wonderful friend, Jounouchi would rather have sent his car to the repair shop. He was no idiot to mend and repair- he could fix lights, do plumbing and repair stuff, but cars were a complete aliened species that he couldn't really be bothered to work out. Not in his last twenty eight years of life, and not in another millennium unless he sprouted another head.
Sighing at his friend's overly dramatic concern, the young man hunched over once more to examine the engine. "Look Honda, I really appreciate your help but black and round is not very damned specific. I think I'll just send it to – Yugi? I would have asked Yugi but he's in the hospital looking after his grandfather-"
"Why is his grandfather in the—" Honda's shocked gasp immediately warned Jounouchi that he had made a mistake in thinking that the detective, with his huge spy network, would have known about Yugi's grandfather's sudden stroke the night before.. Guilt crawled over him as Jounouchi was reminded that Yugi had specifically instructed him to keep the matter a secret so as not to worry the gang, who were recently all caught up with their lives.
"He came down with something, but he's… alright for now," Jounouchi lied, "Yugi and Anzu didn't want you and the rest of the gang to worry so they chose not to inform most of us. Look, I think I'll just call the repair shop for my car- No, he's all right. And you don't have to come down, really. Anyway, best wishes for the case, I'm sure you can crack it pal! And I'll keep you updated about Grandfather. And erm, try to keep it from the rest of the gang, kay?"
Before Honda could give a reply, Jounouchi cut the line quickly and slipped the phone into his doctor's coat's pocket.
Sighing, much from exhaustion and relief from having escaped Honda's concern and questions, he slammed the hood cover shut, deciding that enough was enough, when the boot popped open without warning. He had barely drawn in a breath when the hood cover flew open abruptly, this time, with smoke fuming out from a particular black and round carburetor.
"Urg!!!" Jounouchi screeched and threw up in his hands in exasperation. Anyone looking at the scene would have found the sight bizarre with a veterinarian cursing aloud in his doctor's coat standing before a smoking car, with his face and hands blackened with oil.
"Having a bad day huh?"
Jounouchi jumped and turned around to see who was interrupting at such an inappropriate moment.
His irritation was gone the moment once he saw the familiar long blonde hair, sweet smile and a growing stomach.
"Shizuka! You're supposed to be on leave! Dad will kill me if he knows I'm letting you come here." Jounouchi smiled.
Looking guilty, Shizuka replied with a wide smile, "Can't help it. I was getting bored at home so I thought I might just as well pop down to see how the shop is doing."
"The shop is fine. Everything is fine. The pets are happy and the new shop assistant loves her work." Jounouchi assured, wiped his blackened hands on his coat, further dirtying it and earning a reproachful look from his sister.
"You're dirtying your coat!" Shizuka lectured.
Jounouchi shrugged. "It's just a coat. I have more of it"
His sister gave him a last scowl before a bright smile burst out on her face.
"Are you having a big date with Kaiba later today?"
Jounouchi frowned.
"What makes you think so?"
"Your clothes, underneath that unforgivably dirty coat." She pointed out. "You usually don't wear them unless you have something important coming up."
"Nah, just thought I should wear them once in a while before they start fermenting in my wardrobe." He replied quietly, running a finger down along the blue cotton shirt absently as he did so. He seldom wore them, except for special occasions. The suit was of high quality pure cotton from some high end brand, clothes that Jounouchi would never bought considering the tendency of dirtying his clothes in his line of job. But Seto… Kaiba had insisted he looked good in it, and had swiped out his credit card before Jounouchi could oppose. He hadn't want to wear them… didn't want to be reminded of Seto… whom he had barely seen for the last few days.
He changed the topic quickly, "So, how're the two dragons doing?"
"You have to ask every single day, don't you?" Shizuka paused and then returned a slightly embarrassed smile. It had been a week since Shizuka revealed that she was expecting twins. It was evidential that twins ran in their genes, but the two would-be-parents refused to reveal whether the pair was boys or girls. "They're perfectly well, just getting a little heavy. And Otogi is now busy painting the children's room…."
"Sounds like the perfect father to me." Jounouchi commented, and then decided that he couldn't give Otogi so much credit. After all he was talking about a man who took away his beloved sister. "Not as good as me, though."
"Ha!" Shizuka teased, "You're the one who didn't even know you had kids until the twins showed up on your doorstep!"
"Yeah yeah. Alright I'm the big asshole." Jounouchi made a face. "Get into the shop; it's getting too warm out here. I don't want to imagine carrying three people in when you faint from the heat."
"I'm not that heavy!" Shizuka protested but willingly stepped into the shop with Jounouchi in tow.
"So what's going on between you and Kaiba? I called Dad earlier today, and mom number two said that you don't seem to be seeing him recently." Shizuka commented, giving a quick smile at her new temporary replacement.
"We are…." He drifted off and decided to stop there, hoping that Shizuka would be too preoccupied walking around the pet shop looking at the pets to notice.
It was a few seconds before Shizuka realized he was not about to continue his sentence.
"We are…?" Shizuka echoed.
"We are…." He removed his stained coat. "Not seeing each other for a while."
"And why not?" Shizuka didn't seem surprised, just genuinely curious.
Throwing the coat into laundry basket, he muttered, "We had a small fight at Kaiba Corp the other day, followed by a small reconciliation. And then we decided to stop seeing each other for a while. Got some issues to think about. And by the time I noticed, we've drifted apart."
"Drifted apart?" Shizuka echoed. "The spark is gone?"
Jounouchi shrugged and flopped down onto his chair, "I don't know."
"Are you going to do anything about it?" His sister probed.
"That… is the problem." Jounouchi sank back into his chair and closed his tired eyes. He could feel Shizuka looking at him intently.
"Millions and millions of years would still not give me half enough time to describe that tiny instant of all eternity when you put your arms around me and I put my arms around you.
"Are you leaving me?"
Kaiba's voice echoed from the depths of his memory. Not very far away. It was kept within reach of whichever part of his brain that processed memories for convenience since he had been thinking of it endlessly.
Are you asking me to leave you?
"We can use a little more time and space to think about our relationship."
To think about their relationship, meant to think about whether or not he should leave.
He almost wanted to laugh out bitterly.
The only time Kaiba actually left the authority over their relationship in his hands, was for him to decide whether or not to end it.
Maybe he should just flush the relationship down the toilet bowl.
Like the ring.
Which, as if by a stroke of fate, dropped into his new auto-flush toilet bowl and was gone before neither of them could react from their shock.
He had no idea to laugh or to cry at that sight, and Kaiba had secured his loosening towel by then.
"I'll get some tools. The ring might still be stuck somewhere in the system." He had then finally said, reaching for the door.
Kaiba had then grabbed his arm from behind.
"Forget it, Katsuya. Remember what I said, think about it."
"Uh-huh... I guess so." Jounouchi remembered faintly saying that, before Kaiba's grip on him loosen and the taller man pushed him out of the bathroom.
He had no idea how long he stood outside the bathroom door, but it wasn't long before Kaiba came out of it fully clothed and barely even glanced at him before walking down the stretch to the living room.
Jounouchi had found himself following quietly behind and unexpectedly shocked when Kaiba announced that he had an emergency to attend to and couldn't stay for dinner. Even when Kisara had begged to be left behind, the man had bundled his daughter up and left quietly, leaving behind the Jounouchi household in mild shock and curiosity.
Two weeks had passed since then.
He had rethought their relationship and problems over and over again every day and night until he suffered an incurable headache that did not go away until he fell asleep.
The first day after their last meeting, Jounouchi had instantly realized that Kaiba meant to avoid him when they did not meet in school. After school, Mokuba or some other trusted Kaiba Corp employee would pick up the young princess.
If by that action, Kaiba meant not to influence his consideration over their possible split, it only angered and confused him more.
Every single day.
Everyday, when he sent the children to school, and not see Kaiba there, he had to take a very deep breath to keep his face calm.
Somewhere in his chest felt uneasy when he did not see him.
The reruns in the afternoon only worsened his unease, and agitated him.
Until today, he was actually slightly happy having found Kisara not in school yet when he dropped the kids off and contemplated waiting a while to meet him, even though he had no answers to give yet.
Yet at the last minute, he couldn't imagine how to face him when they met.
It was awkward.
He drove off.
And as if it was punishment for his uncharacteristic escape, his car broke down, he couldn't fix it and now his sister was questioning him about his relationship with Kaiba.
"Are you there?"
Jounouchi snapped back into reality at Shizuka's irritated voice. "Yeah, what?"
"Good, because I don't want to have to repeat myself again." His sister crossed her arms.
"Oh. You were saying something?"
"Yesss. I was saying, that," Shizuka hissed at him in mild annoyance. "You're not going to like what I am about to say."
"Uh-huh."
"I'm not against you and Kaiba together, but I'm not totally into you with him either. And you know what Mom and the other parents think too." She said, waving her hands around as if referencing the parents.
"I know."
"Some of us may seem really supportive of you two together. As in, 'as long as you're happy, we're okay with it'. But really, Brother." Shizuka looked at him in the eye. "I think that many of us feel that it is better for you to be with someone more… feminine."
Jounouchi swallowed hard.
"Yeah, I know. I just…" he drifted off.
He didn't know what to say.
"But!" Shizuka interrupted with a small smile. "If you really like him…"
She paused to fish out a sparkly women's magazine from her bag and stared at the front cover for a few moments before shifting her gaze back onto him. "The way I see it, Kaiba Seto is one really attractive fish in the sea, and he's been biting your bait for quite a while."
"But if you don't reel in your line…" She continued, "There's no guarantee he won't just leave."
With that, Jounouchi watched as his sister pushed the magazine across the table. Kaiba's face, under the large caption 'Domino City's Most Eligible Bachelor of the Year' frowned accusingly at him. He reached for the magazine found himself scowling back at the magazine.
"This," he declared as he pulled back his arm. "Is a total piece of crap!"
The magazine flew across the length of the shop with some pages fluttering behind it as Kaiba's face approached the door—
When the door swung opened.
Whack!
"Ohmyface!"
Shocked, Jounouchi raised his head to see the moaning customer.
"Malik?!"
The Egyptian shorty couldn't possibly be in Domino City.
Or could he?
A slight irritation surged through Kaiba Seto as he spun his fountain pen round and round in his hand, perfecting the habit which he picked up since high school.
The offending question had been bugging him since ten minutes earlier when his chauffeur had to make a huge swerve on the road two streets away from Jounouchi's vet. It killed his initial happier mood and thought of dropping by Puppy Love to talk to Jounouchi as well as caused him to spill his coffee, fortunately, onto nothing important. The cause of the near-accident was a crazy silver-haired man who dashed across the road in a manner that totally deserved him a run over.
Kaiba would have gladly ordered his chauffeur to U-turn back and run down the ungrateful jay-walker but ultimately, decided that disposing the corpse was too much the trouble. The young man, who smoothly escaped certain gruesome death by less than an inch, had threw back a quick glance at the car before dashing off to wherever he was due.
And in that quick glance, Kaiba thought he recognized he man.
But he couldn't be positive either.
Silvery long hair, tanned brown skin, tattoos and a short stature.
If it was Malik, there had to be a reason for him to come in Domino City, Kaiba reasoned.
He flipped through his organizer as if it would give him some clues.
And indeed it did.
Scribbled across in Mokuba's cursives: The Pharaoh's Exhibition, next week, optional attendance.
That would explain if the silver hairball he just seen was really Malik.
If it was Malik….
Kaiba frowned.
There were no reasons for him to feel the sudden unease that had suddenly surged upon him. Malik had no direct relations to him or Jounouchi and was not supposed to be a concern to him, less a threat to him. Yet his sharp sixth sense nagged at him for some catastrophe that may occur with the appearance of Malik.
Frowning harder, Kaiba found himself recalling the episode when Malik's evil self or whatever multiple personality, had attempted to wipe out Jounouchi from the surface of Earth. But all these were over ten years ago, weren't they? And whatever those multiple personalities or ancient personals were, they should have faded away by now. He had then never really questioned Yugi or Bakura's split personalities and one day, it seemed both just merged into one. It was to his benefit that humans have a wonderful ability to deny anything they declined to acknowledge.
Deciding that there was nothing really much he could reap from thinking so much into the matter, he push the uneasiness aside, turned back to his organizer and grimaced at the schedule.
He had two meetings coming up and he didn't like it.
Meetings were generally time-consuming, energy-depleting and not necessarily productive.
Throwing the organizer aside, he checked his watch to make sure that he was on time. He usually didn't have big problems with timings since his reliable chauffeur almost always gets him on time.
This morning, however, he wasn't that sure, due to the accursed jaywalker and a troublesome Kisara.
The young Egyptian girl had slept in late, and then fallen back to sleep after he had woken her up, repeatedly until he threatened to throw away her Kuribo Family Adventures DVD set. After that, she had somehow worn her school uniform inside-out and tangled her hair impossibly. After Kaiba finally had her dressed properly and brushed her hair back into its normal state as much as possible, she had upset the milk for breakfast before declaring that she couldn't find her homework due that day.
It took them a few minutes to search for and give up searching for the homework until Kaiba decided to just write an excuse letter for her. Immediately after finishing writing it, Kisara instantly declared having found it in the bathroom, and she had no idea how it got there.
Kaiba closed his eyes.
Kisara's motive was obvious. Over the last few days, Kaiba had shifted their schedules twenty minutes earlier, resulting in Kisara reaching the school much earlier than usual. Kisara had complained about reaching too early, because it meant 20 minutes of boring waiting for her best buddies to arrive.
His daughter was also smart enough to figure out her daddy's purpose in arriving early, which was the complete opposite of her own wishes. Her daddy was avoiding her buddies, or rather their caregiver.
Hence, his young daughter decided to play back his game at him, and almost won it.
They neared the school much later than they usually would, in time to see Jounouchi's car pulling out of the school carpark and turning down the next corner. While Kisara sighed loudly at having missed her uncle Jounouchi again, Kaiba had said nothing...
Katsuya
He missed him.
Walking along the walkway to the carpark after dropping Kisara off at the classroom., he found himself breathing in the air deeply, as if seeking scents of sweet vanilla mixed with the musky aroma of animals in the air that could have been left behind.
And when he thought he did smell a faint scent, he couldn't help but smile.
Bitterly.
"Do you always try to kill your customers when you're in a bad mood?"
Jounouchi cringed as he watched Malik disappear under the hood cover again, "No I don't, unless some particular Egyptian who once tried to kill me enters my shop- Aw!"
A kick at his shin by the Egyptian stopped Jounouchi and Jounouchi smartly changed the topic, "Say, what are you doing here?"
"So much for repairing your car! Can't I visit Domino City and its inhabitants once in a while?" Malik snorted.
"Yeah you can, just wondering…."
"I'm here for The Pharaoh's Exhibition." Malik explained as he poked a dirty face out from under the hood, "Isis is in charged for it, but she's held up in another exhibition in Prague for now. I'm here on her behalf until she can come down next week."
"I see… So who's hosting you now?"
"Kaiba Corp. Grand Hotel. Biggest hotel in all of Domino." Malik grunted with a huge grin splashed across his face, "And why not? The exhibition's sponsor, Kaiba Corp, is paying for it."
"Oh." Jounouchi briefly wondered if all conversations in Domino City would inevitably include something about Kaiba and his company. Maybe he should consider taking a short holiday outside of Domino City… "How does my car look?"
"Not too bad, I think I can get it back and running in say… another two seconds," Malik replied absently as his fingers ran along wires and the black and round object that Jounouchi finally identified as the carburetor.
Finally, the grease-stained Egyptian slammed the hood shut and beamed, "Give it a try."
Obligingly, Jounouchi got into his car and turned the key. The two were greeted by the healthy roar of the engine.
"Whoa, it lives!" Jounouchi popped his head out of the window. "Thanks a million pal!"
"No sweat." Malik gave him a thumb-up, "Erm, say, have you got a set of spare clothes I can change into?"
Yep." Jounouchi grinned and got out of his car. "I keep a spare set of clothes in my car."
"I have spare sets in the car for circumstances like this."
Jounouchi found himself trying his best to keep his smile from fading away. Since when had he picked up the habit from Kaiba?
Ignoring the strange throbbing in his chest, he unlocked his boot and retrieved a set of clean clothes for Malik.
"A hundred life-points for your thoughts?" Malik probed innocently.
"Uh…. nothing." He smiled weakly. "Oh right, I was thinking, maybe we can have a gathering or something to celebrate your arrival?"
Malik grinned. "Sounds good."
"Jono, watch it."
"Oops…" Jono muttered sheepishly, as the three kids observed the white milky mess that was now pooling all over Seth and Jono's joined desks. Miss Yamato, their form teacher hurried over quickly and proceeded to clean up the spilled milk, but not before passing another cup of milk to the instantly distraught boy.
"Not another glass of milk!" He groaned as Miss Yamato gave a stern look before hurrying over to the other side of the classroom to prevent another food disaster. He hated milk, especially plain milk with no strawberry or chocolate flavors to go with them. They always left a horrible taste after drinking them. His dad knew his distaste for it and their fridge usually contained only chocolate or strawberry milk, but the school's weekly nutritional meal sets always included them and there were no escape.
"But milk is nice," Kisara pointed out, completely amused at Jono's weekly conspiracies to get rid of his milk. He had attempted watering the class rose at the back of the class last week, almost succeeding in permanently maiming the poor plant; tried flinging the milk out of the window into the school yard while Miss Yamato was not looking, only to douse the principal who was walking pass the week before…but Miss Yamato was undeterred and always made sure Jono received an extra cup of milk every Friday when they had their Nutritional meals. "Girls who drink milk are prettier and have nicer complexion. And it makes you grow up faster and stronger! That's what my daddy always says."
"I bet that's why your daddy looks so pretty." Jono sighed.
"Daddy doesn't drink milk." Kisara corrected. "He drinks coffee. He says that men should drink coffee."
"But our daddy drinks milk too, and only drinks coffee once in a while." Jono replied, "Does that make half man half girl?"
"Hmmm" Kisara mused. "I guess that makes him a boy like you and not a man!"
"No way!!!" Jono yelled, "My dad is a great man!"
"Oh yes way! If Daddy marries your daddy, he will become my new mommy!" Kisara pointed out curtly.
"In your dreams Kisara! When my daddy marries your daddy, your daddy will be our new mommy!" Jono retorted.
"Oh, you wait!" Kisara yelled.
"There's no way our daddy—"
"Jono, Kisara!" Seth pounded the table, visibly annoyed, "Can we get back to topic? We were talking about how to get our dads together!"
Kisara and Jono glared at each other before Kisara heaved a sigh of defeat, and the two noisier kids stopped their bantering to concentrate on the very serious matter at hand.
The three good friends had noticed their fathers' reluctance to meet or mention one another over the course of the last few days. It was more than obvious and Kisara was convinced that if they didn't do something soon, their fathers were going to stop seeing each other completely.
And it had all started on the final day of the Annual Senior/Junior High Duel Monsters Kaiba Cup, and no matter how the three had put their heads together; they couldn't recall anything terrible happening between their dads on that day. It was only when Kisara's daddy had came out from the bathroom looking distraughtly calm while the twins' daddy came out of the same bathroom looking calmly distraught, had the three kids caught the first whiff of danger to their alliances of Dragons.
And then Kisara's Dad had then quickly announced that he suddenly had something on and had to made an immediate move; and despite Kisara's plea for a sleepover or to be picked up after her daddy's work had ended, she was roughly bundled up with her bag and thrown into the car and brought back home.
And that was about the last time she saw the twin's father.
Their newly appointed Operations and Intelligence Officer finally spoke. "Private Kisara, report the events of this morning."
"Sir Yes Sir," Kisara pouted, "Private Kisara reporting, that she is ashamed to report that while succeeding in getting her daddy to arrive at school earlier today, she failed to achieve the main objective of letting him meet Sir's daddy. Oh Seth, your daddy left so early today we barely saw him!"
"And to think we've finally gotten Daddy to wear that suit your daddy bought for him…" Jono sighed, "I think my daddy doesn't like your dad anymore."
Kisara gulped in sheer horror, "Does that mean we will never get to play together again anymore?"
"That would be so horrible!" Jono gasped.
"Clam down." Seth commanded. "We can still meet in school after-all."
That only made Kisara gulp even louder. "What if? What if Daddy intends to go back to New York and takes me along?!!"
Seth's eyes bulged.
"I DUN WAN TO BE SEPARATED FROM YOU TWO!!" Kisara's screech rang across the classroom.
"Quiet! Kisara!" Seth quickly cupped his hand over Kisara's mouth. "You are attracting Miss Yamato's attention!"
"But..." Kisara blubbered, genuine worry flashing across her face.
"Did he mention anything like that?" Seth probed.
"I don't know." Kisara moaned. "I haven't been paying much attention to daddy recently. School's been sooooo busy! And waking up 20 minutes earlier mean that I fall asleep 20 minutes earlier…"
"We have no proof that he's taking you away. And anyway, if we can get Daddy and your daddy together, we won't have to worry about this problem." Seth deduced calmly.
"Okay…" Kisara nodded numbly.
"Alright, we have to come up with another plan to make them meet up." Seth continued.
"How?" Jono groaned as he leaned back into his chair and rocked in it, his eyes fixed on the disagreeable milk. "We've tried so hard for today's operation and it still failed."
Seth shrugged. "I have no idea yet... I'm thinking about it. Any ideas?" He turned to Kisara.
"Don't ask me." Kisara pulled her hair both ways. "I'm just as much as lost."
"Maybe..." Jono brightened. "We can get into big trouble, and then our daddies will be asked to come to school again to talk to the teachers and principal. That way they will meet up!"
"Nice one." Seth mumbled. "But I don't think it is a good idea, our daddies won't be happy, and it won't be nice if they can't meet each other happily."
The three kids sighed and fell back into their chairs, their eyes wandering across the classroom looking for inspiration, when Kisara's eyes fell on a messy row of uncompleted clay figurines on a bookshelf at the back of the classroom.
"I've got it!!" She jumped up excitedly.
"What?" Jono jumped up too, looking towards where she was focused on as Seth scowled, signaling at Kisara to keep her voice down.
"Our art project!" Kisara pointed. "If we can get you and Seth to my house later, then your daddy can come and pick the two of you up later. Dad has a meeting later today, but he should be home around 10pm."
Seth nodded, following Kisara's plan. "We can come up with some excuse for us to do the art project together tonight, and then we will drag our project until around 10+, and then when Daddy comes and picks us up, your daddy and our daddy will have a chance to meet. At 10+, it is more than likely that Daddy will pick us up personally."
"Sounds good!" Jono cheered from his chair as he tried to swap his full glass of milk with Seth's empty glass while he wasn't noticing only to sense Miss Yamato's disapproving glare from across the classroom.
"Great!" Kisara jumped excited, "I'll call Daddy later during break and inform him that the two of you will be coming over after school and staying late to finish the project!"
"Oh no…" Jono's groan interrupted their discussion as they looked up to see Miss Yamato heading towards their table, waving her finger at Jono, motioning for him to finish his milk.
Rolling her eyes, Kisara sat down back into her chair and pushed the full glass of milk back in front of Jono.
"Come on, Jono…" she encouraged from her seat, "You can do it. Be a man!"
"No…"Jono moaned as he dropped his head onto the desk.
Kisara sighed, almost defeated, before reaching into her school bag and grabbing out an orange soft toy.
"Here, you can drink it with Baby Dragon." She motioned as she plopped Baby Dragon in front of her half-drank glass of milk.
Jono squinted unhappily at the soft toy. "What makes you think he likes it?"
"Because." Kisara explained proudly, "he wants to grow up to be one strong Thousand Dragon!"
Jono paused.
"I'll be strong," he sighed melodramatically, and began gulping the milk down.
"Hey, I'm really sorry about it, everyone just seems occupied or something." Jounouchi apologized as he drove out of the hospital's parking lot.
His plan to hold a welcome party for Malik had been met with little enthusiasm. He had given up contacting Mai, Varon and the Kaibas after his first few phone calls proved that everyone was busy with something or another. Bakura's bakery was having a forty-eight hours bake sale and Honda was of course still investigating the fraud case. Otogi was busy painting the children's room while Yugi was definitely in no mood to go for any form of party in his current circumstances.
With nothing else much to do and genuinely concerned for Yugi and his grandfather, Jounouchi and Malik ended up visiting Yugi and his grandfather at the hospital. Their visit was short, because Yugi and Anzu looked like they were beyond exhaustion alternating between taking care of the children at home with help from Anzu's parents and staying at the hospital with Yugi's grandfather.
Nonetheless Yugi had managed to snag a few minutes alone with him for a few exchanges outside the hospital room while Malik made small chat with Anzu in the ward.
"I noticed things haven't been going well between you and Kaiba."
"Oh." That was startling since he had yet to tell anyone about his and Kaiba's awkward relationship except Shizuka that morning. He was going to have to assume that in the few hours, Shizuka had spread the news to the whole world by informing Otogi and Anzu, and Anzu had told Yugi and… Hell, sooner or later the whole gang would know. "Yeah, but it's nothing much to worry."
"Look, I don't want you to be further stressed by my grandfather's condition. I mean, grandfather knows, and we know, he's already coming to an age and well, he might just… any day you know?" Yugi's voice trailed off.
"I know, Yugi, I know." Jounouchi had quietly reassured. Then, with Yugi keep turning down his offer to help watch the children and seeing as to there was nothing else much he could do there, he made Yugi promise to call him if he needed any help before leaving to pick the twins' from school with Malik.
The ride to the twins' school was almost silent except for a few remarks from Malik about how Domino City had changed and some nods and short replies from Jounouchi. Jounouchi was sorry for his lack of response to Malik's babble. Gratefully, Malik did not probe into the matter and merely remained his cheerful self.
When they reached the school, it was another fifteen minutes before the school bell would ring.
"Want a smoke?" Malik finally broke the silence and fished a box of Wild Seven from his pocket. The two of them were sitting in the school carpark waiting along with several other parents in their cars.
Jounouchi seldom smoked anymore, not since Seth told him straight in the eye one day when he was four year old that smoking was bad for the health and he didn't want his daddy to die early because of smoking.
"No, I probably shouldn't." He drew in a deep breath.
"You look like you need one." Malik pressed and popped a lighted cigarette into his mouth. Figuring that he really needed one, Jounouchi breathed in the smoky air and felt the sweet mild taste accompanying the warmth flow down his throat.
"What's with you and Kaiba?" Malik asked casually as he rolled down the windows of the car leaned against the window frame, letting the wind carry away the ashes of the cigarette.
Jounouchi threw a surprised glance at his friend, "Me and Kaiba? Nothing…"
"The walls of the ward aren't that thick, you know." Malik pulled the women's magazine out of his bag, much to Jounouchi's surprise that he even bothered to keep it.
"Oh."
"You're going out with him?" Malik asked, flipping through the pages.
"…. Yeah."
"Problems?"
"A little… but nothing much really." Jounouchi replied, winding down his side of the window for fresh air.
"Oh really? If it's really nothing much you wouldn't be so damned depressed for the whole day." Malik frowned as he flipped the magazine close to glare at the front page title before flipping it opened again. "What kind of a magazine is this? With such a hunk on the cover page, and they didn't even feature an interview with him?"
"Paparazzi magazine." Jounouchi muttered. "And I'm not depressed."
"Not a very efficient paparazzi." Malik commented, squinting at the small commentaries. "It has nothing but some news here and there about his daily life and schedule…"
Jounouchi continued to stare out of the window and barely noticed when Malik's smoking cigarette went flying pass his head to land on the tarmac.
"It doesn't even say anything about his love life!" Malik threw the magazine onto the floor of the car, disgusted.
"I'm not surprised. They won't dare to cross him." Jounouchi mumbled as his eyes wandered off to the school's parking lot's entrance.
The school bell would ring any time now, and Kaiba's car would turn into the parking—
No, it wouldn't.
Jounouchi closed his eyes and breathed in a lungful of smoke.
He had somehow drifted off and imagined them back when they were happier together, when Kaiba would come and pick up the kids, and they will most likely go for a late lunch or tea together and plan to do some things together.
Something warm and wet made its way down his cheek.
And another.
And another.
He opened his eyes to find his view blurry when his face suddenly was suddenly met with a warm, comforting chest.
Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and buried his head deeper in the bear hug.
"It's okay, Jou, you should just cry it out." Malik's fingers combed through his hair softly, "It's alright to cry. Even as adults, even as men, we can cry things out."
With Malik's encouraging words, Jounouchi's closed his eyes and allowed the tears to flow.
Kisara's eyes widen in horror alongside another two pairs as they burnt holes into a freshly-repaired car and its two occupants, who were sitting and holding each other too closely for their comfort.
"That… is not your daddy, is it?" Kisara asked, shaking her head.
"I hope." Jono answered in dismay as he watched his daddy slowly untangle himself from the silver-haired man after an eternity of watching.
"Was Daddy crying? His eyes look red." Seth asked, but his concern for his daddy was ignored by his buddies who were more concerned about the fact that his daddy was hugging someone other than Kisara's daddy. Though… he couldn't help but also wonder why his daddy had so willingly let the other man hug him.
"He's wearing Daddy's clothes!" Jono drew their attention to the dark blue jeans and t-shirt that appeared over-sized and baggy on the shorter man.
"Who is he?" Kisara asked Jono accusingly.
"How would I know?" Jono grumbled.
Before they could get into a quarrel over accusations, two loud honks from the Outlander summoned the kids.
Half running and half dragging their feet, the three children crossed the carpark.
"No one asks about why Daddy cried okay?" Seth decided as they neared the car.
"Why not?" Kisara perked up, eyes still intently on the stranger that was wearing her potential mommy's clothes.
"Just don't ask!" Seth insisted, and with his glare hard enough to send chills down his twin and best friend's back, the two other quietly agreed and climbed into the backseat.
"No one's picking you up, Kisara?" the twin's father asked, seemingly surprised when Kisara climbed into the car too.
Kisara looked up just as surprised. "I called Daddy earlier. Seth and Jono are coming over to my house for an Art Project due tomorrow. We might have to do it till quite late."
Seth raised a brow to Kisara's skills at lying perfectly calmly since the project was actually distributed only today and due two weeks later. But since it was all in their plans…
"Yeah." He himself added. "It's a really important project.
"Hmm..." His daddy frowned.
"Daddy said he will inform Uncle Mokuba and have him inform you about it." Kisara added. She rolled her eyes as she mentioned Uncle Mokuba. Her daddy was acting childish. He could have just informed Uncle Jounouchi himself instead of having Uncle Mokuba pass the message!
And no doubt, Uncle Mokuba probably forgot all about it.
"Your uncle Mokuba must have forgotten it about it." The twin's father quipped since there were little chances of Kisara's daddy forgetting to inform Uncle Mokuba.
"I'll call your uncle Mokuba and check with him again." The twin's father added, fidgeting with his hands-free set. "By the way, this is Uncle Malik. He's a very old friend of mine, Uncle Yugi, Uncle Honda, even your Uncle Mokuba and your dad, Kisara."
"Really?" Kisara asked, slightly skeptic. She did not like the way Uncle Jounouchi was looking at Malik, before turning to the strange, tanned silver-haired man sitting in the passenger seat in front of her. "So, says Uncle Malik, where are you from? Are you really very very old? You've got really strange white hair!"
Beside her, she could hear Jono stifling back a chuckle while Seth watched her in slight shock over her mild discourtesy.
"Really?" The strange chuckling man turned back in his seat to observe them, his strange light purple eyes causing hair on her neck to rise. "You've got some really pretty light bluish-white hair yourself too, princess. I'm from Egypt, have you been there before?"
Her mouth dropped open slightly as she silenced, mulling over the horror of sharing heritage with him.
As if things could get any worse!
Jounouchi punched Malik lightly on the thigh as he silently mouthed, "you're scaring her.", while waiting for Mokuba to answer on the other side of the line.
The backseat was now silent and he could see the twins throwing quick glances at Kisara and Malik nervously. But at least, they didn't seem to notice anything about his still runny nose or slightly sore eyes. He didn't feel like he could muster up enough brains to come up with any explanation right then beside the classic 'sand got into my eyes'.
"Good afternoon, Mokuba Kaiba speaking." Mokuba's voice came over from the other side as the irritating ringing ended.
"Hey, Mokuba, Jou here."
"Ohmygosh. I forgot all about it! Jou! The kids, they are with you?"
"Yep. Kisara explained something about having the twins go over to your place for a project."
"Yeah, that's it. I'm so so sorry pal." Mokuba was beginning to apologize a mile a minute. "I just kind of forgot to inform you about it. I meant to call you after my conference but it's been dragging like hell."
"No problem. I just wanted to confirm with you in case there's anything."
"I'm really sorry about it. Meetings, problems... Ahhh….Life's all hell."
"You sound like you're in hell." Jounouchi replied smoothly. He wondered if he should cut the conversation short in case Malik got bored staring out the window but found the visitor busy playing with his CD player. Figuring that Mokuba probably really needed some advice, he turned back to his phone and prompted, "What happened?"
"Too much." Mokuba quickly acknowledge.
"Uh huh." Jounouchi nodded, tapping Malik's hand away from a particular heavy metal CD that he was in no mood to listen right now. Not in front of the kids, he mouthed to the bemused visitor who promptly popped a classical music CD into the player.
"Women… I just can't understand them sometimes... So much that I'm starting to consider going for men recently." Mokuba continued.
"Ha!" Jounouchi grunted, reminded that things don't go all sugar and honey between men either. "I'm guessing it is about Rebecca?"
"Yeah. Big problem this time. "Mokuba confessed. "She is so going to kill me."
"What happened?"
Malik was now flipping through his other stash of discs.
"Usual stuff, you know. Remember that girl I met about one month back at the pub?"
He couldn't really remember which girl it was, since Mokuba always had some girl one month back. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was curtly replaced by Yanni's Reflections of Passion. Appearing to be finally satisfied with the choice of music, beside him, Malik closed his eyes and drifted off into a short nap.
"The really gorgeous one, long legs, dark black raven hair and soft doe eyes. I've been trying to get her to go out with me for one month and she finally agreed to a date last night." Mokuba's dreamy voice floated over the phone.
"Uh... And Rebecca is in town, isn't she?" Jounouchi could already predict what happened as he turned up the volume slightly.
"Jou, you would understand won't you? I mean, this lady, is once-in-a-lifetime drop-dead gorgeous, and if I don't get her this time, a second chance just doesn't drop by around the street corner!"
"Uh-huh. And Rebecca?"
"And Rebecca turned out to be meeting some friends at the posh hotel restaurant where we were at and saw us entering the lift to the suite with that girl draped all over me like a scarf."
"Uh-huh." The kids at the back of the car were now discussing animatedly about some big plan in hushed whispers. Jounouchi made a mental note to himself to do some interrogation later… just in case.
"She went mad."
"Any damaged property in the hotel?"
"No. She was really calm in the hotel. It was after that, when I got home when she started flinging things and yelling at me."
"And then?"
"And then my brother reached home and she obviously didn't want to make a din in front of him, since no one likes to cross Kaiba Seto and so she went ahead to lock herself up in my bedroom."
"I have a question. Did you get it on with your scarf after Rebecca saw you at the hotel?"
"Erm." Mokuba answered sheepishly. "Yeah."
Jounouchi seriously sweat-dropped.
"I didn't see the point not to. Rebecca was going to be mad whether I did it or not!"
"That's not the point. In this case, you deserved every bit of reprisal Rebecca is giving you."
"Hey, don't tell me you never did it before."
"I don't exactly remember but if I did, I probably deserved whatever I got."
Silence over the line.
"And right now?"
"She's not answering my calls and not receiving the flowers I sent, and I can't go back home to meet her until after this meeting." Mokuba grumbled. "And they are starting to fling files and papers across the conference table. Hopefully that means the conference has come to an immediate settlement."
"You're in a middle of a meeting now?"
"Yeah."
Jounouchi briefly wondered how Kaiba Corporation survived with Mokuba's incapability to prioritize things, but heck, that was Kaiba's problem. "Look, you don't just call and send flowers and expect to be forgiven after such a big thing… Fidelity and loyalty are important in most women's point of view, especially Rebecca, since she seems genuinely interested in you." He finally pointed out.
"So, any advices on what I can do?"
Jounouchi shrugged as if Mokuba could see him. "I don't know. Mokuba. Honestly, having been one great Casanova myself, I think I can only tell you to stop being Casanova! Time to grow up!"
He could hear Mokuba groaning over the phone. "I don't like that advice. Let me know when you come up with something else."
He grinned. "I've got no other advices for you."
"Ha! So then, have you been all loyal to my brother?" Mokuba probed.
Jounouchi felt his grin melt off. "Yeah sure, doing my best."
"Jou, is there something wrong between you and my brother? I heard about the punch you threw the other day."
"Yeah." He mumbled into the phone. Malik appeared to be well asleep. Probably jet lag, he figured.
"He's not happy. He's my brother. I want him to be happy. He doesn't show it explicitly, but I know he is not happy." Mokuba maintained.
"Neither am I." Jounouchi muttered, his eyes falling on the long, sparse highway ahead.
"You didn't talk to each other after the punch? I mean, it is just one punch. My brother can surely take more than that." Mokuba argued.
Kaiba hadn't mentioned their little rendezvous with the ring in the bathroom then, it seemed.
"We did, it ended off only fairly pleasantly, and then we came to some sort of an agreement to stay away from each other for a while."
"How long? It's been two weeks."
"I don't know. Until I figure out what he wants me to figure out, I guess."
"Have you?"
Jounouchi sighed, "Not really."
"What did he ask you to figure out?" Mokuba sounded really perplexed on the other side.
"…….whether to leave him or not." He finally said after a long pause.
He could imagine Mokuba's shocked face. "Why would he—"
"We have a lot of problems." He interrupted, wary of having to explain the problems that he had been mulling over repeatedly. "Can we talk about this another time?"
"Okay…" Mokuba sounded very reluctant. "Then, are you alright?"
"Yeah, sure, why wouldn't I be alright?"
He could see Mokuba shrugging. "I mean, surely you do feel at least a little upset?"
"Yeah. I'm getting over it."
"You should let it all out, you know?" Mokuba suggested helpfully.
"Yeah, I mean, I already feel much better after I cr-- " Jounouchi barely finished his last word, deciding to protect the last scrapes of pride and self-respect that he still had after crying so shamelessly in front of Malik. "-after I had a talk with some friends."
"So Yugi and the rest of the gang all know about you and Kaiba?"
"Yep, most of them I guess." He sighed inwardly. Sometimes having a closely-knitted group of friends did have its disadvantages.
"Anyway, I guess I'll be bringing the kids for dinner before sending them to your house for the project."
"Okay, that's fine with me." A pause, then, "Will the kids be staying late?"
Jounouchi frowned. Knowing the kids, they would probably dilly-dally their way into a sleepover. In the past that would have meant a simple sleepover for Jounouchi too at Kaiba Mansion, but now with the state of his and Kaiba's relationship… "I think I'll just leave the kids there, and pick them up tomorrow afternoon or when they've finished the project tomorrow. Is that alright?"
With that sentence out of his mouth, he swore he heard three loud audible gasps from the back of his car followed by a muffled "no!!"
"Well of course it's alright…" Mokuba's voice sounded observably disappointed.
"Oh, and just to let you know," Jounouchi added, "I'm bringing Malik around town tonight."
"Malik!? Oh right! The Pharaoh's Exhibition."
"I wanted to plan a gathering tonight but I guess most of us are pretty occupied…"
"Oh… I –shucks, I got to go now, they are starting to stare knives into me."
"Ok, see you around!" Mokuba cut the line faster than he could say bye. Jounouchi pocketed the phone and glanced back at the three kids, who were back in heated discussion again. No doubt they were hatching one of those plans again… Jounouchi sighed inwardly; having smart kids around was sometimes as bad as it could get.
By the time they reached Kaiba Mansion, Kisara was wishing that she had a Blue Eyes White Dragon along with her right now to gobble up Uncle Malik.
Frowning, she glared daggers at the back of the Egyptian when Uncle Jounouchi was not looking. Her potential mommy was currently carrying Seth and Jono's bag of clothes into the house, with the Egyptian visitor tagging behind.
Dinner had not been a happy event for Kisara. Uncle Malik had sat himself beside Uncle Jounouchi upon reaching the restaurant, foiling her plans of separating the men as far apart as possible. And then when the twins had argued that they wanted to go along the Domino City tour with their father that night, their father had sternly brushed off their attempt pointing out that they had a project to complete that was due the very next day, even if the next day was a Saturday, and that was when Kisara realize that Uncle Jounouchi had already busted her lies…
Frustrated, she crossed her arms and trailed behind the adults, both eyes glued onto the shorter man to make sure there was no chance of Uncle Malik taking advantage- whatever those words meant- of her daddy's boyfriend. Didn't Uncle Malik understand the simple fact that Uncle Jounouchi was with her father?! Couldn't he understand that the two dragons, Red Eyes Black Dragon and Blue Eyes White Dragon were simply meant for each other?!
Apparently Uncle Malik didn't. For he kept close to Uncle Jounouchi, throughout dinner, and on the car when they were traveling over to Seth and Jono's house to collect some clothes, and on the car on the way back. It was a losing duel. Their life points were down to less than a hundred and they had no more cards on the field!!
"Wow." Uncle Malik commented as they entered the house. He sounded really sincere at the sight of the size of the mansion and the front yard. But Kisara wasn't impressed, and with Jono, they continued staring at him hard enough to burn holes. Somehow, the strange Egyptian man just chose to ignore them, or was simply blissfully ignorant of their dislike for him.
"Hey, can I borrow the washroom?" Malik suddenly asked.
"Sure." Kisara muttered under her breath as the housekeeper directed him to a nearby washroom while the twins looked wistfully at her, as if hoping she could come up with an emergency plan.
"We've got to do something." Kisara hissed at the twins when Uncle Jounouchi was out of earshot up stairs unpacking Jono and Seth's clothes in their room.
"How?" Jono shrugged. "I don't like the guy either, but I can't think of anything. He kept looking at Daddy just now."
Beside him, Seth bit his lip and remained quiet.
"Did you see how he talked to me just now?" Kisara asked, slapping her hand on her forehead. "I bet he's plotting how to get rid of us now!"
"Kisara, you think too much." Seth rebuked. "He may be just a friend of Daddy's. They seem to be pretty good friends."
"No way." Kisara folded her arms. "He definitely has something up his sleeves!"
"Yeah." Jono agreed, folding his arms too. "We've got to do something."
Seth sighed in defeat. "Alright, what do you two have in mind?"
Kisara grinned. "I was thinking of scaring him actually."
"How?"
"Water." Kisara said confidently.
"Water?" Jono and Seth echoed in unison.
"Yep!" Kisara confirmed as she led them down the hallway to the pavilion overlooking the swimming pool.
"What about it?" Seth asked, confused.
"When Daddy first adopted me" she admitted, "I was afraid of water."
"Hehe," Jono chuckled. "Why was that?"
"Because I didn't know how to swim! Of course!" Kisara rolled her eyes. "We don't have much large pools of water back in Egypt, and even if we did, it was for drinking, not for swimming."
Seth's eyes widened. "You want to push him into the pool?!"
He swore he could see Kisara's eyes sparking with pride and evilness.
"Yes!" The triumphant girl declared.
"But," Seth sputtered. "What if he can't swim?"
"That's exactly the point!"
"No! What if he drowns?"
"I don't think he will." Kisara answered thoughtfully. The pool is only 1 meter deep over this end. He has to be really really stupid to drown in it."
Seth bit down on his lower lip as he turned to see Jono, who seemed just as oblivious as Kisara to the dangers of the plan.
He watched as Uncle Malik returned from the washroom and was now staring out and beyond the open floor-length French window. No doubt at the big pool of water.
"Wanna see the pool?" Kisara quickly piped up, grasping the hands of her self-declared enemy of the state and pulling him towards it, "We have a really big pool and it's not really that deep. I bet you don't get to see them much in Egypt!"
Uncle Malik appeared to follow her in deep interest and Kisara proceeded to point out the functions of the pool as they stood at the edge of the water. If he was surprised at her sudden change in attitude, he didn't show it.
"We have lights in the pool so we can swim at night, and there's a heater so that we can swim during winter too, and there's actually a mini Jacuzzi water massager the end where you can see seats, and over there…."
And while Kisara continued on with her pool orientation, Jono crept up from behind, rubbing his hands in anticipation as he inched closer to push the unsuspecting villain into the pool. Uncle Malik was so close to the edge of the water. It would just take one small bump and bye bye!
A few feet away, Seth watched Jono crept within inches of the man, biting his lips as his brother did so.
One more inch.
And another inch.
And another-
And he could not take it anymore.
It just wasn't right to go around pushing people into the pool, especially people who didn't know how to swim!
"Jono! No!" The older of the twin suddenly yelped and ran across towards the three startled people. But just at one brick away from them, one foot stepped onto the shoelaces of his other shoe which had came off, and he fell forward, bumping into and effectively pushing a particular Uncle Malik, who was in the middle of looking away from the pool, forward into the water.
SPLASH!!
"Brother?" Mokuba's voice was uncertain over the phone.
"Hmm?" Kaiba answered quietly as he tapped away at the keyboard. He had one hour to complete the report before his second meeting of the day in the evening. "Did you manage to appease Rebecca?"
"Erm, no. My meeting just ended. I called home earlier and the butler told me that she's heading for the airport. She has also burnt all my clothes, from the underwear to the tie, along with some of yours, which she probably thought was mine." Mokuba answered sheepishly.
Kaiba frowned as he adjusted his hands-free set.
"Anyway, I just wanted to inform you that I forgot to inform Jounouchi about the twins coming over to our house tonight, but he has picked Kisara and the twins up for dinner and has probably dropped them off at our place by now."
"Hmm." Kaiba grunted.
"Oh, and Malik is in town."
Kaiba frowned harder.
"And Jou is playing host to him around Domino tonight because it seems like the bunch of us are all pretty occupied, like I have go look for Rebecca, whom I'm worried is already on a plane and flying back home…"
"Hmm."
"Brother?"
"Hmm..?"
"How long are you going to stay away from him?"
Kaiba remained silent.
"I heard from him, you asked him to decide whether the two of you should end the relationship or not."
There was accusation in his tone.
When there was no response on his side, Mokuba sighed. "I'm not the world's greatest advisor on love and relationships, but I think the two of you should meet and talk it out."
Kaiba closed the file he was working on and sank back into his chair.
"I want to meet him…" He whispered.
"Then go and meet him." Mokuba's tone softened.
"Meeting him doesn't solve anything."
"Not meeting him doesn't solve anything either." Mokuba argued softly.
Kaiba sighed.
"You are running away, Brother."
"I don't know." Kaiba finally said "Whether or not I am apart from him, I get more and more lost about what he thinks and wants, until the extent that even I am lost at what I think and want about our relationship too..."
"So you left him alone to decide on the fate of your relationship!" Mokuba accused. "You are letting him shoulder everything! If he should choose to split and in the future regret his decision, it would be entirely his fault for letting you go. Is that what you want?"
"No." He said quietly. What Mokuba just said had not occurred to him previously.
"I worry that I'll hurt you, in the end."
Was that what Jounouchi had meant when he had said it?
Perhaps, he only really understood it now.
Cold water rained on the still startled Kisara and Jono and a Seth who was now kneeling stunned by the pool. Water bubbled from the pool, and it only dawned on them then that they were at the end of the pool where their fathers had always forbidden them to enter.
Seth started screaming first, "I killed him!"
Then Kisara, who seemed only then to realize what she had almost done, started shaking and stepping away from the pool in shock.
Jono, still dazed, only registered something flying across the pool, hitting the water with another big splash and more water raining down on him.
Then more air bubbles surfaced and then after an eternity of wait, his father's head popped out of the large pool of water, panting heavily and dragging an in all probability dead uncle Malik along with him.
As dazed as he was, a million possibilities raced through his mind about what would happen. Perhaps Daddy would be kind enough not to send him, Seth and Kisara to jail. Maybe they could bury Uncle Malik's corpse in Kisara's backyard and never talk about him again. Surely Kisara's father wouldn't find out would he? And even if he did, he would never tell right?
Jono bit down on his lip.
But then again… Daddy was a really good guy. He might just turn them over to the police, and they would be the youngest murderers ever in history. Daddy would never forgive them for killing Uncle Malik, who was most probably their daddy's new boyfriend or something. And looking at how Kisara's daddy and their daddy were right now, Kisara's daddy would most likely not allow them to bury Uncle Malik in his backyard! Oh!! This was soooo the end for them!!
Almost in tears, Jono watched as his father pulled both himself and Uncle Malik onto land before kneeling down beside the corpse and putting an ear on the chest.
"Is he dead?" Seth managed to ask between sobs.
"Not yet." Their daddy replied in a hush whisper and the three paused their sobbing in relief, only to see the twins' daddy bending down over Uncle Malik's face, lips less than a hair away from Uncle Malik's open mouth.
And then the mouths touched.
The kids gasped.
The lips were still attached.
The kids' heart sank.
And then Uncle Malik's eyes fluttered open.
Three shocked screams pierced Kaiba mansion…
…as a laughing Uncle Malik pushed a startled Uncle Jounouchi away and sat up.
"You….. Liar!!" Kisara was the first to stop screaming soon enough to screech.
Jono and Seth were about to start when they found their father staring at them... into silence.
"All three of you are grounded!" He barked.
The children's eyes widened.
"But we-"
"We only meant to-"
"We just didn't want you to-"
"No TV, no videos and no games tonight!"
The three kids immediately shut their mouths and looked away from the twins' father very furious glare.
"I think…. It was quite an accident." Uncle Malik finally spoke. Kisara frowned. Just why was Uncle Malik helping them now? Was he really a good guy whom she had misunderstood? But he just tricked Uncle Jounouchi into kissing him!
"Malik! Was it fun pretending to be dead?!" The twin's father glared at the grinning man.
"Cool it man! Just trying to get back at the kids. Say, is there any clothes for me to change into. It's very cold."
"You may well freeze to death." Uncle Jounouchi snorted, in which Kisara, Seth and Jono silently cheered. But their happiness was short-lived as they watch Uncle Jounouchi pulling Uncle Malik back into the house for a change of clothes.
When they saw Uncle Malik again, Kisara would have flung herself onto Uncle Malik in an attempt to pound him if Seth hadn't held her back.
"He's wearing my daddy's clothes!! Why is he wearing my daddy's clothes?!" Kisara screeched, almost shaking with anger and shock. "Only Uncle Jounouchi can wear my daddy's clothes!"
She turned to glare at the housekeeper who only calmly explained. "I would have liked to give him young master Mokuba's more fitting clothes but Miss Rebecca has burnt all of young master's clothes earlier this afternoon."
Her mouth in a wide O, she stomped her feet as she watched Malik turned back to give her a victory sign before leaving the house with Uncle Jounouchi.
"Still furious over the little joke?"
"What in the name of Ra were you thinking? Scaring the kids like that!"
"Alright I'm sorry. I didn't think it would freak them out to that extent." Malik admitted, "I certainly didn't expect you to perform CPR on me either."
"Yeah," Jounouchi snorted, "Next time I should just try pounding the water out of you."
"Hey, I'm sorry!"
Jounouchi scowled a few seconds more, then sighed, "And I'm sorry about what the kids did just now. They are not bad by nature, just probably…"
"Worried for their dads?" Malik teased.
"I guess so." Jounouchi replied, his hands wrapped around his jug of beer. After leaving Kaiba's mansion, they had settled for some local cuisine back in town before Malik commented on hitting the bars. Jounouchi's current down-mood and disinterest in the louder, more crowded bars had them skip Jounouchi's usual hangout at Iced Fever and settle for the quiet comforts of Malik's hotel bar, Casanova, instead.
So much for Casanovas today, Jounouchi thought silently to himself, recalling the earlier conversation with Domino City's greatest Casanova.
"Anyway, feeling much better now?"
"Compared to the last few days, I guess I do feel much better," Jounouchi gave a faint smile as he spun around in his high chair along the bar, "Pouring out everything in my mind helps. Thanks for listening… and earlier in the car, I mean. It really helped a lot… thanks."
"Anytime, Jou." Malik smiled and then Jounouchi found the Egyptian staring at him thoughtfully.
"Erm… anything on my face?"
"No," Malik replied, his arms leaning on the bar table, "Just, I'm wondering where Kaiba and your problem arises from."
"If only I knew," Jounouchi sighed, "The answer seems so many things but yet so simple things. Maybe we're just incompatible…"
"Actually I was thinking more of something else…" Malik admitted.
"Hm?"
"Jou you're not really the conservative type, right?"
"I guess you can say so." Jounouchi replied sheepishly, recalling the many girls he had slept with back in college, some whom he barely remembered their names.
"Then why is it so hard to sleep with Kaiba? Is it because he is a man? Or because he is Kaiba Seto?"
"Both." Jounouchi answered truthfully after a second of thought, "But I think us being both men play a pretty big part too."
"Ever thought of kissing or having sex with another man other than Kaiba before?"
As open as he usually was, Jounouchi found the idea not very inviting, though the idea wasn't revoking either.
"Want to try it with me?" Malik's suggestion came so abruptly Jounouchi found himself choking on his beer.
"Are you kidding?" He managed to ask between coughs.
"Hardly." Malik replied with such certainly that Jounouchi could see that it was no joke. "I'm offering you a one-nighter, and I'll willingly take the position of 0."
Jounouchi found himself in a state of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Here was a man offering him a one night gay sex. One night stands were nothing rare to him, but with a guy…
"Look, if you're thinking about why I let you be 1," Malik interrupted, "since supposedly by default you should be 0 since you are less experienced and all the crap, I can actually tell you that in a real stable male-male relationship, unlike in most manga and anime or fanfictions that you see, there is actually no real clear-cut line between who is to be 0 or 1. Usually we alternate. But granted, there may be certain preferences to be a certain position so that one person ends up being 0 probably double the times of the other person, but the more predominant 0 will most likely have plenty of chances to be 1 too."
Jounouchi blinked as he stared at Malik and digested the words. He hadn't had sex for a long time, be it men or women since he had met Kaiba. And while the idea of sleeping with Kaiba had its come-along package of pressure, Malik's one-night-invitation was kind of … liberalizing, with a wee bit of challenge. And observing Malik now, he found himself pretty enchanted by the tanned Egyptian whose light purple eyes appeared to glimmer in the bar's warm, sleepy light. Now to think of it, Malik was pretty good-looking with certain feminine features.
Feminine huh? Shizuka and his parents would like that – Wait, back to Malik. He continued scrutinizing Malik… really not bad actually…
Even the long, tanned fingers stirring the cocktail with a cherry were seductively charming.
"Alright, let's go."
His words shocked himself as much as it seemed to startle Malik, but the shorter man recovered smoothly, drinking down his purple cocktail at a go before ordering the bartender to charge it to his room.
Before Jounouchi knew it, they had made their way out of the bar and were sitting on Malik's large super-king-sized bed.
"Just relax, alright, Katsuya?"
Jounouchi blinked, now they were on first-name terms, as he watched Malik rummaged around the room's bathroom and bedroom drawers.
"Hey," Malik suddenly piped up. "I've got to get some stuff, why don't you go take a shower first? It will help you relax."
"Okay." Jounouchi mumbled and stumbled into the bathroom.
His mind was still quite numb though second thoughts were beginning to slip in as he stripped and showered himself in water as warm as he could stand it.
There was nothing to lose, wasn't there? He wasn't playing the bitch, and Malik wasn't likely to go around spreading stories about them. Moreover, it gave him a better picture to what he was supposed to do in the real circumstances.
Huh? So doing it with Malik wasn't 'real'. Doing it with Kaiba was 'real'.
A sudden realization dawned on him.
His reluctance to do it with Kaiba mostly stemmed from his fear of doing it all wrong. He didn't want to disappoint Kaiba.
What about fidelity and loyalty.
The question popped into his head as he turned off the tap and stepped into the warm mist.
This would be a great betrayal of Kaiba's trust in him, wouldn't it? Yet, he actually felt little remorse or guilt.
Was it the logic that he was doing it in order to continue his relationship with Kaiba that spurred him on?
He wasn't sure.
Tightening his robe around him, through the bathroom door, he could hear the door open and close as Malik thanked some hotel personnel for delivering some items.
Then he stepped out of the bathroom.
Kaiba walked out of the conference room, seemingly unruffled by the long day and exhaustion accumulated despite it being 2am in the morning.
That was how the CEO of Kaiba Corporation appeared, always calm, dignified and fresh, even if inwardly he was beat and dying to hit his bed and sleep away the next forty-eight hours. It was only natural as it gave him the appearance of an edge over other competitors and furthermore worked as an inspiration to his aspiring employees. Moreover, as much as the idea of a forty-eight hours nap appealed to him, it irritated him knowing that it would not come true. He would be awake, typing away a report on his notebook the next twenty minutes as his chauffeur drove him home, hit the bed after a shower and kissing Kisara goodnight in her sleep, and sleep only about four to five hours before rising to another busy day.
The meeting had dragged and ended much later than expected due to his client oversleeping because of jet lag. And he was one too important client for Kaiba despite his intolerance for tardiness, to wake him up.
Heading for the hotel's revolving door, Kaiba stopped in his tracks when he saw a man only too familiar stepped out of the hotel's elevator.
He could feel his heart beating faster than usual, as his eyes never left the man.
Jounouchi Katsuya.
Disheveled hair, as if he just woke up, but wide awake eyes to prove that he had not slept, and walking towards the revolving doors, too deep in thought to notice someone staring at him.
The door to another elevator opened, and a flurry of silver hair ran passed him towards Jounouchi.
"Hey Katsuya," The other man called out as he reached and caught hold of Jounouchi with an arm, panting hard as he tried to catch his breath. "I wanted to return you your clothes first."
Did he just call you Katsuya? I didn't know you knew each other that well!
Kaiba felt a cold draft down his spine while somewhere in his chest, a heat was surging as he watched Malik talk to Jounouchi wearing nothing but a robe.
They weren't so far that Kaiba couldn't hear them from his spot near the conference room about ten meters away.
"Oh yeah." Jounouchi smiled back at him. "Thanks!"
Kaiba felt his forehead tighten as he watched the two men.
They were standing too close to each other, and talking too affectionately to each other.
Calm down, Seto Kaiba, it is your over-jealousy working up having missed Jounouchi so much until you can't stand seeing Jounouchi speak to another man.
He watched as Jounouchi waved goodbye and stepped out of the hotel and glared into the short Egyptian who turned and stopped in his tracks when he saw him.
"Kai… Kaiba." The other man drew in a breath, looking shocked and sounding almost apologetic.
"Malik." Kaiba acknowledged, his eyes still focused on the revolving door which Jounouchi just stepped through.
"Jou and I." Malik started, sounding really apologetic now.
Kaiba could feel his blood rushing to his head while the coldness down his spine continued to chill him.
"I'm sorry Kaiba…Jou and I went to bed." Kaiba heard as Malik walked passed him, and all was left was Malik's footsteps fading away the door of the lift closing.
His world was spinning, and it was taking him all his self-control to appear as calm and cool as he did. He couldn't even move, because if he did, he knew he would shake with anger.
"Sir? Mr. Kaiba?" His chauffeur appeared through the spinning revolving door.
Kaiba's eyes traced the patterns of the tiles on the floor as he answered, "Is the car ready?"
"I'm sorry Sir, the car broke down suddenly. The carburetor needs a replacement. I've sent for another car. It should be reaching any moment now..."
Kaiba nodded quietly, his head felt so heavy that he felt like just lying down on the floor and curling up.
And if someone would off the lights, he would just lie there and sleep. It didn't matter if people watched him, the great CEO of Kaiba Corp, lying on the floor of the hotel.
He owned the hotel after all. The floor was his property. He could sleep on it for all he wanted.
And he wasn't thinking straight.
"Sir, are you alright?" His dependable chauffeur asked, sincerely concerned.
"Yes." He answered as he pushed tried to push the anger and illogical thoughts away, trying to clear his head.
"I need to take a break." He mumbled and simply closed his eyes. "Get me home."
To be continued….
Authors' comments:
Three years have passed since the beginning of this work. And it's finally coming to an end!! Soon! briefly wonders in guilt how many readers have followed all the way till this chapter and how many readers have moved on to other stages of their lives and other interests. The ending was long already decided when the first chapter was written, but coming to this point of the story was hard, with the two authors' flings with other interests and school schedule.
Much love and thanks to everyone who has supported Family of Dragons throughout!! We'll be very happy if we can see any of our readers from 3 years ago still around. And hello to new readers!
This chapter has been particularly difficult to write because it was angsty and sad… let's hope the next chapter would be better? And for readers out there who are screaming at us or cursing Malik for his involvement hugs and protects Malik from flying eggs, you will look forward to the next chapter. This is a KaiJou fic and will remain a KaiJou fic.