Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.
Title: Endearment and Enmity
Rating: T-M depending on chapter, M overall
Summary: When you're literally married to the person you despise.
Warnings: Homosexual relationships, vulgar words and adult situations.
Author's Note: I don't know why I wrote this.
Chapter 13: Double Date, Part 2
"Do you want any, big brother?" Shizuka asked the blond nurse as she sipped a glass of plum liquor; he only shook his head. Being that they had grown up mostly separated, Shizuka was unaware of her brothers teetotalism, and he didn't feel like discussing it right now or any time soon. It wasn't that he believed his sister was unable to handle or understand his reasons, she was an adult now after all, but they hadn't seen each other in years, and he didn't want their reunion to be bogged down with the details of his checkered past.
Especially when it came to his aversion to alcohol. He didn't need to go near that particular dark corner of his mind again.
The Baiyu Restaurant was themed after plums, more specifically the period of plum ripening following the rainy season. As such a lot of the interior design of the restaurant was aesthetically rain-themed from the color scheme of the western-style table and chairs, to the framed paintings on the wall that depicted rain in naturalistic settings. The plum aspect was in the food; most if not all of the dishes contained plums in some form.
Each of them had ordered a meal set with Kaiba and Mokuba ordering Unagi onigiri, and chicken katsu respectively. Jounouchi and Shizuka ended up both ordering the curry over rice set. The two brothers talked to each other in hushed voices, probably over business judging by the random words Jounouchi would catch. Meanwhile Shizuka looked slightly to the side as she nursed her drink, her own brother sitting quietly as he wasn't sure what they were supposed to talk about when the Kaiba brothers were dead to the world in discussion.
"So..." Jounouchi turned to look down at his sister "How did you two end up together anyways?"
"We were in the same tutor group," Shizuka answered simply, "We had no idea we were at the same school so it was a surprise to see each other after many years, and one thing lead to another really."
"How is it working with… Him being all the way in Seoul?" He asked.
"We video chat every night, text each other constantly, and he visits me frequently in Kyoto since he has his own plane." Shozuka explained, a distinct sharpness appeared in her eyes as she said "I'm surprised you're curious, considering you must have been doing the same with your husband while you lived in the United States."
Shit. Those two really were just looking straight through their lie. Well, Jounouchi wasn't one to give up. "I mean, of course, I know what it's like Shizuka," He waved off, his tone quickly picking up a jovial edge "Really, I'm just surprised about you and Mokuba being together, I had no idea you were so interested in a toshitas."
She looked back up at him with a hilarious expression between surprised disgust and a guffaw, and shoved her shoulder against his "He's only a year younger than me!" She whispered back harshly.
"I don't know about that I'm pretty sure he was eight years old when you were fifteen." He joked. Only then did Mokuba break his conversation with his brother to glare at him across from the table.
"Bastard, I was a late bloomer. I'm taller than you now." He huffed. Despite his height, age, and intelligence, right now he really was showing his roots as Kaiba's bratty little brother.
"Don't get cranky on me," Jounouchi continued to tease, the sharper gaze from the younger man made him add "if you don't behave you might not get dessert."
Mokuba exhaled sharply through his nose, but then rolled his eyes until they settled on his sibling. "Are you going to let your husband speak to me like that big brother?"
"Are you going to continue to speak to your older brother-in-law so disrespectfully?" Kaiba reminded him in a flat tone; Jounouchi and Shizuka looked to each other because while they were pretty sure Kaiba had just cracked a joke, the oxymoron of his monotone made it extremely difficult to tell.
"Urgh." Mokuba mumbled, then quietly thanked the server as each of them were given their meal sets.
They began eating in silence until Shizuka suddenly spoke up "So what made you two decide to date?" She asked, Jounouchi choked a little on a mouthful of rice and looked up at Kaiba who still had a neutral expression as he slowly drank his glass of ume tea.
"Well… it's a funny story actually..." Jounouchi began slowly as he racked his brain for an excuse, as soon as an idea came he fired off "When I went to the United States for nursing school, I didn't have Honda to fix my Duel Disk right? So originally I looked at the users manual, but the manual didn't help so I called the help desk instead, but the help desk kept leaving me on hold for like an hour at a time, and when someone finally answered they just kept transferring my call to a supervisor, and then I kept racking up foreign call charges on my phone bill.
"So one day I angrily called K- Seto instead, and he left the call open but just ignored me while I was ranting over the phone and after like half an hour of this he gets mad and tells me he's coming over to fix it, right? And I ask how the hell are you going to fix it, I'm in the USA. And he hangs up and like the next morning there's an angry knocking on my door. And it's like, four in the morning or something so I'm wondering who the hell is bothering me at four in the morning. I open the door and it's him, he looks frustrated, I'm just staring at him in silence because I didn't think he was actually going to come over.
"He demands to see my duel disk and invites himself inside and starts fixing it. It's awkward to just have someone sitting there in your apartment fixing your duel disk for you and we start talking. By the time he's done he still has jetlag so I offered to let him stay with me over the weekend while he gets ready to fly off again, and I don't expect him to say yes because it's a shitty college town apartment but he says yes and we hang out a little with him pretending to hate it.
"One thing lead to another and we just started talking, and kept talking even after we left, and decided to start dating long-distance after like… two, three months of chatting? And then some time passes and we get engaged, and then when he found the right amount to bribe the japanese government with, we got married in Japan shortly after getting married in the United States."
Jounouchi sharply took in a breath after he finished, and took a long drink of his ume-infused water.
"..." Kaiba said nothing as he processed Jounouchi's on-the-fly, rapid fire story.
"...Huh..." Mokuba replied, his face was showing the amount of surprise his own brother was probably feeling inside. "That's… interesting." He then turned to Kaiba "Who popped the question?"
"Me." Kaiba answered without missing a beat; because as he and his husband both knew, this sham marriage was his idea. He finished the last onigiri of his meal set.
"I still don't see why you kept it a secret from me." Shizuka said quietly, but harshly, looking slightly to the side as she pressed the call button to summon their server.
"Shizuka..." He said quietly back, but the back of her head that she presented him told him she wasn't in the mood to hear his excuses, and the fact that his excuses would also be lies just made him feel more guilty.
"I'm disappointed they don't serve chocolate desserts." Mokuba sighed after the server took their dessert orders and left.
"The KitKat Umeshu Tsuru-ume you've been drinking like water this meal wasn't enough for you?" Kaiba chided as he looked at the fruit and white chocolate flavored liquor his brother had been drinking.
"No." Mokuba answered simply, taking a big sip as if to prove his immature point. He really wasn't the evil genius Jounouchi had been pegging him for this entire visit. "Hey big brother, after this we should go to a bar."
"Maybe another time, this is a family visit." Kaiba answered.
"We're all old enough to drink." Mokuba pointed out.
"Katsuya doesn't drink." Kaiba said, and Jounouchi stiffened as his sister looked at him in surprise.
"Why didn't you say so?" The redheaded coder asked.
"It didn't come up." Jounouchi replied quickly, and distracted himself with another long drink of water.
His sister was so young when their parents divorced that she never really knew what their father was really like. For the first few years, their father was granted limited supervised visits with her. The same with Jounouchi and their mother, but she never took those visits. Those visits would be the few times he would sober up and act like a pleasant, dutiful father. Once she left however, the facade was up.
"You don't refrain from drinking because you're some religious nut, right?" Shizuka asked. Jonouchi swore he could smell the pungent aroma of anise characteristic of absinthe, but he knew it was all in his head and he had to change the subject fast.
"I'm in a legally binding, homosexual marriage." He said just loudly enough to get some dirty looks from other tables, and he had the sense to turn the volume of his voice down. "If God didn't already disaprove of me for what I did when I was young and dumb, he definitely doesn't approve of me now."
"I'm surprised you consider the Christian God first," Mokuba observed "after all of stuff with the Egyptian Gods and the afterlife."
Jounouchi put his water down - he'd already drunken like four of those glasses. "Honestly, I don't even know what to really believe, I haven't thought too hard about it."
Of course he believed in the Egyptian Gods after all that happened with Yugi, the Pharaoh, Bakura and the god cards. However, he didn't actively worship them because after seeing all that the 15-year-old Pharaoh went through, and all that happened to him and his friends who got caught in the crossfire of 'destiny' also at the ages of 16-18, he'd long since come to the conclusion that every single diety ever was a massive cunt.
"Didn't you go into the Afterlife?" Shizuka turned to Kaiba.
"I did." Kaiba confirmed.
"How did you… come back?" She asked. That question did make Jounouchi a little curious himself, as he hadn't even thought of asking.
"I had a recall program in my dueling system." Kaiba explained cooly "Once a duel was initiated, a program would launch to pull me back to the point I originated from, but would stay pending until the duel was complete. It was only set to last for one duel."
"Have you ever thought of sharing that technology or further researching it? Time travel has been a big ambition of the scientific community for years." She continued to probe; Jounouchi himself thought about it; it was true, Kaiba was the first and only person to figure out time travel and travel into the realm of the dead, and yet... he used it for a duel.
"Because I know humanity would use it for war, or politics. After I'd completed my mission, I destroyed everything and anything that had to do with that project." Kaiba explained.
"I'll be right back." Jounouchi said, excusing himself to the bathroom as the excessive liquid consumption caught up to him.
The bathroom was also mostly traditional in design and decor, the only 'plum' aspect seemed to be in the incense that was currently burning.
As he was washing his hands after finishing his business, Kaiba came in. "That was an interesting story you came up with." He stated.
Jounouchi dried his hands with a hand towel "I don't know if you really mean that dearest or if you're trying to be cute."
"Cute isn't a word for what I' trying to be." Kaiba deadpanned.
"Well that's what you're being." Jounouchi teased.
"Are you flirting?"
"Are you trying to have a conversation or take a leak because I don't like having conversations with people on the john."
"The what?"
"The toilet, sorry."
Kaiba cleared his throat and walked over closer to his spouse "They are onto us." Kaiba stated blunty. Jounouchi didn't need him to elaborate to know what he meant.
"Yes," he sighed in agreement "they know us too well for our own good. I feel so guilty lying to my sister."
"My brother has always prided himself in knowing me better than I grave him credit for, but I don't want him thinking he has the upper hand."
"An upper hand? Like in catching us in our lie?"
"Yes."
Jounouchi stared at him incredulously, before blinking slowly. "Don't you… feel even a little guilty? For lying to him."
"Mokuba is an adult."
"He is still your brother."
"My brother of all people should know that if I decided to do something like this - get married to another man out of the blue in a country where such a marriage isn't even legal, that I would have a good reason for it. He should trust my judgement."
"How can you expect someone to trust you when you're so brazenly lying?"
"How can you be so judgmental of my relationship with my brother when you barely even know your sister?"
Their argument had brought them inching closer together so their voices wouldn't raise high enough for anyone outside of the bathroom would hear them. Jounouchi had his back turned to the sink while Kaiba was standing right in front of him basically hovering over him.
When Jounouchi heard someone messing with the door he acted om reflex - putting his hands on Kaiba's waist and yanking the CEO closer to him to make it look like they were embracing.
And his action was the right one, as the person who came in was Mokuba.
Jounouchi looked over at the younger man with an exasperated expression he wasn't faking. He was almost reminded of the incident with Ito a few weeks back. "It… Isn't what it looks like?" He offered. He technically wasn't lying.
Mokuba blinked hard for a moment. "I didn't think you were the type to be into screwing in a public bathroom, big brother." He said directly to his older brother, whose face remained stoic.
"Get out." Kaiba responded. He was a bit stiff in his spouses 'embrace' but not anymore than would be usual for him.
"I have to take a piss." Mokuba returned, walking over to the urinal. "You two should really save it for the hotel room, you know." Jounouchi let go of Kaiba's waist and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, sliding out from under Kaiba.
"I'm going back to my sister before she thinks we ditched her." He said to Kaiba, and to make it appear more genuine in front of Mokuba, he gently grabbed the collar of Kaiba's shirt and dragged his head down, and very quickly kissed his cheek, which seemed to surprise the taller man as the tips of his ears quickly flushed red.
Jounouchi briskly ducked out of the restroom. 'His skin's actually pretty warm…' he thought, amused, then quickly shook his head to clear the intrusive thoughts; he wasn't some love struck schoolboy.
Shizuka was still waiting, but she looked slightly annoyed to have been left alone. "You sure took your time." She scolded gently as her older brother sat back down.
"I had to take a dump." He said, loud enough to again get glares from the other patrons, and cause his younger sibling to scrunch up her nose at him.
"Gross." She fake-whined; he grinned at her and put his arm around her shoulders.
"Also, I didn't wash my hands." He added, as expected she tried to jerk away from him, but he tightened his arm over her preventing escape.
"You're disgusting." She said, bumping her shoulder hard against his chest, pouting.
"Relaxxx, relax." He said, pecking the top of her head "I'm just joking. I'm a nurse you know, I'd never skip out on washing my hands."
"You're still gross." She said, much calmer now, but still not looking at him so she could focus on the plum wine she ordered.
"You know..." He started after a few moments of silence, hoping they could catch a quick sibling moment before the brothers returned "You turned out really well… I'm proud of you, you know."
Shizuka stiffened a little, and looked up at him - Jounouchi was taken aback, because the way she was looking at him now… immediately brought him back to the look in her eyes back to when she'd first regained her vision. So unsure of the world around her, and blindly trusting. "Big brother..." She began.
'Oh shit.' Jounouchi thought, she was using a voice that he could never lie to.
"Do you really love him, Katsuya?" She asked, straight to the point "I know I didn't tell you about me and Mokuba before… But I love him, I really do."
She was being sincere.
Was it really too much to ask of him to be sincere too?
He looked away "I-"
He stopped himself when Shizuka put a hand on his cheek and gently forced him to look back at her. Right in the eyes.
"Katsuya." Her voice was still soft, but it was firm. "Do you love him?"
He knew the look in his own eyes were betraying him. He put his hand over hers to remove him his cheek and clasp it between both of his hands strongly. "I'm trying really hard." He answered vaguely, and he probably sounded really choked up; but he knew that she understood him, at least partially.
"I see..." She replied. He let go of her hand and straightened up when he saw the Kaiba brothers returned.
"Are you ready to go?" Mokuba asked Shizuka as he sat back down, kissing her cheek.
"Yeah..." She replied, seeming distant. Mokuba frowned but he didn't question her.
"What about you?" Kaiba asked, Jounouchi simply nodded and stood up.
After they paid, the two couples left as a group, but while the two brothers were talking to each other, Jounouchi and Shizuka were silent.
To be continued...
Authors note: Believe it or not the real reason this chapter took so long is because I was really unsure about writing a dinner scene. You see a couple chapters back I put in Mokuba's name in Kanji as a joke and I did so wrong it was like half of the reviews I got. I mean, it's on me because I was wrong but I really hate being so ignorant, and I don't know much about how Japanese restaurants and meal serving goes so yeahhhh. I tried.
I think I had the most fun in this chapter writing the scene where Jounouchi was making up a story on the fly how he and Kaiba got together. Maybe in an alternative fanfiction universe, that really is how they got together lol. If you can't tell, Jounouchi has some nervous/anxious habits, his being that he drinks a lot of water or really any drink when he's stressed, also stuff like tapping his fingers, or clicking his pen when in uniform.
Unagi onigiri is rice ball with eel. I'm not sure if the eel is served inside of the riceball or on top of the riceball because of conflicting sources, let's say for simplicity it is the riceball filling, and the rice ball is grilled and brushed with plum vinegar since it's a plum restaurant. Kaiba's favorite meal is filet mignon with Foie gras sauce which tells me two things - not only is Kaiba a big meat eater but he's also got expensive tastes. The eel is the expensive part because the eel traditionally eaten is actually endangered due to overfishing, and because it's incredibly difficult to farm.