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 15: Stonewalled
"How are you already doing that much weight?"
"I'm just rusty, geeze, it's not like I shriveled up and became decrepit you know." Jounouchi reminded Ryuzaki as he finished his tenth rep, setting the bench press back down. He slid out from under the bar and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. Since he'd gotten back to Domino all he'd been doing is jogging, but after Ryuzaki suggested he join the gym he was going to he couldn't really refuse. He hadn't done any strength training in almost a year. Most of his strength itself was still there, but his muscular endurance was definitely lacking.
"What do you want to do next?" He asked Ryuzaki as the other man reset the weights of the bench.
The brunet hummed in thought "How are you at boxing?"
"Ah- you do boxing?"
"Me and Haga were assaulted shortly before we joined Dartz. I started taking self defense soon after all of that Orichalcos nonsense." He explained, and a stab of guilt panged in Jounouchi's chest; he knew Ryzaki and Haga had a fall from grace when their popularity dropped, but he didn't think they'd get physically attacked. "Anyways, there's a boxing ring, would you mind some light sparring - and I mean light."
"Sure thing." Jounouchi agreed "I know some basics on boxing, but only simple stuff like jabs and hooks." When he ran with gangs when he was a teen, he didn't have formal training; he was street fighter who used instinct and dirty tactics to win fights. Now, he actually did know a fighting style that he had been formally trained on when he lived in the states, but he wasn't going to use it against Ryuzaki in a light sparring match.
Seeing the boxing ring was empty for now, they quickly donned some gloves and headgear, Jounouchi grabbing a shield so Ryuzaki could practice on him.
"I hope you're reflexes aren't also rusty." Ryuzaki said, slightly teasing.
"I'm no pushover." Jounouchi explained with a grin, blocking a sudden right hook and backing up slightly with each blow from the shorter man. He was going to let Ryuzaki get the practice he needed… but when he wasn't going to let him get all of them easily.
After a few jabs and kicks, Jounouchi could see the former duelist was sufficiently warmed up and began to actively evade his hits. "You're going to have a be a little faster, mighty mouse." Jounouchi jeered, but in a good-natured way. Ryuzaki grinned at the challenge and punched his gloves together before lunging at him again.
Being so engrossed in their practice session, they didn't see a tall man sitting on a bench nearby at the freeweight portion of the gym, who wasn't even using the weights, instead he was watching them with a curious look in his violet eyes.
"You're pretty good." Jounouchi told his friend as they left the boxing ring and walked back to the racks to deposit the protective gear, first wiping them down with the gyms disinfectant wipes.
"You're too much for me." Ryuzaki muttered.
"Hey hey hey don't be hard on yourself; I've always been a brawler. If I had just jumped you or something, I wouldn't stand a chance." Jounouchi reminded him; one of the biggest weaknesses of any brawler was their tendency to underestimate their opponents. Gang fights used a lot of dirty tricks including ambushing, and a lot of the time they didn't expect their victim to fight back, at least not with technique like Ryuzaki could with his trained self-defense. A combination of his low center of gravity and solid footwork, he was extremely hard to actually knock off of his feet.
They two put their gym towels behind their necks and walked towards the locker room, passing by the free weight section.
"Hey - what's that note say?" Ryuzaki said, noticing a loose leaf white paper on the empty bench. Curious, Jounouchi picked it up and it was obvious why it had caught his friends attention - it had an English message on it. "Well?"
"It says 'Nice fight'." Jounouchi explained, confused. Why would someone leave a note like this? Or at all?
"Weird..." Ryuzaki commented as the blond crumpled up the paper and threw it away along with the disinfectant wipes.
"Whatever. Same time Thursday?" Jounouchi inquired. Making time for the gym was going to be busy since he typically didn't do much at the end of his work days, but he already had Monday, Wednesday and Friday as his jogging days.
"Sure." Ryuzaki confirmed as they walked into the men's locker room.
The nurse and the primary school teacher parted ways after the gym - Ryuzaki heading towards the subway, and Jounouchi instead taking his (Kaiba's) car. However, the gym had no parking of its own so he was actually parked about a block away.
Jounouchi still had his earbuds in and was carrying his gym bag under his arm, he didn't notice he was being trailed after.
As he was putting his gym bag in the back seat of his car, he grabbed his keys from inside of the bag and packed away his earbuds.
"Joey?" He heard behind him in a clearly American voice.
His entire body simultaneously went stiff but sprang into action - with his keys between his fingers in a makeshift weapon he whirled around and pointed them towards the stranger.
...Who wasn't a stranger at all.
"...Stoney?" Jounouchi drawled out slowly in shock; the other man was standing a good two meters away, and although Jounouchi had to look up a bit to see him he'd recognize him anywhere; caucasian, standing tall at 6'3, brown hair in a medium fade that curled slightly at the tips, eyes as violet as wisteria, and a lopsided grin that reflected the amused glint in his eyes.
Staff Sergeant Jackson Anthony Stonewall. A 25-year-old American soldier.
"Yeah," Stoney confirmed, speaking American English "funny to see you again, Joey."
"Why the hell are you here?" Jounouchi asked in a harsh whisper in English. Currently Stoney and himself were seated in a mostly vacant Cafe, Jounouchi had a glass of bubble tea while the American had a ceramic mug of plain black coffee.
"What a nice greeting. Are all of the Japs as straightforward as you?" Stony asked, amused, as he blew on the steaming liquid, making Jounouchi glare at him.
"You're in the wrong place to be racist, Jackson." Jounouchi hissed at the other man's lack of tact.
Stoney simply shrugged "Anyways - I'm stationed in Okinawa." He explained.
"Then why are you in Domino?" He demanded, trying to keep his voice as low as possible, he wasn't going to assume they were the only two here who could speak English.
"I'm taking leave," Stony explained "the way you described Domino and Kaibaland, I figured it was worth visiting… And speaking of Kaiba-"
"Oh, jesus." Jounouchi swore under his breath, he knew this was inevitable.
"Since when were you a gold-digger?"
If they were in a more private setting, Jounouchi would have definitely laid out his shit at the audacity. He narrowed his eyes "I'm no gold-digger." He stated firmly.
"Yeah right… I can't read the Japanese tabloids, but I've heard things here and there and pieced it together. You married Seto Kaiba a little less than a year ago." The brunet crossed his arms as the amused look on his face instantly vanished.
"What about it? I told you we went to high school together." Jounouchi reminded him, but he knew his deflection was only delaying the inevitable
"But how could you have been dating Kaiba for three years before you were married when we were dating eight months before that?"
Authors note: Short, but awkward.
Yes! Introducing Jackson Anthony "Stoney" Stonewall. If you remember from a few chapters back, this is the violet-eyed brunet who told Kaiba he was a lucky guy after the tag team duel against Mokuba and Shizuka.
Stoney's name is derived from Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, who like Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler (who was seemingly where Jounouchi's English name was derived from )was a confederate general. It's important to note that most active duty enlisted American soldiers usually go exclusively by their last name instead of their first name, even with friends who aren't in the military.
Let's just say that while he was in nursing school, Jounouchi was studying anatomy and physiology in more than one way.