Chapter 36, Piece 46 * * * * * * * *

Roland opened the door to an elegant lounge. "Kaiba-sama and Kaiba-san will join you shortly," he said as the staff of Half-Hearted Mangazine entered. "May I get you anything while you wait?"

"A baseball bat," Jounouchi muttered.

"We're fine!" Yugi said brightly. "Thank you."

Roland bowed and left.

Jounouchi punched the wall. It left a large dent.

"Jou!" Everyone in the group was surprised, but Honda was close enough to grab him before he hit it again. "What the hell, dude?"

"He stole my shot!" Jounouchi tore away from his friend and hit the wall a second time. "That sonovabitch stole it!"

"What?" Several people cried out at once.

"Jou, calm down!" Yugi stepped in front of the wall. "Simple sentences. Who stole what?"

"Fucking Kaiba stole my fucking sketch pad!"

"Your sketch pad?" Bakura's brow furrowed. "When could he have even done that?"

But Yugi's eyes flew open wide. "The class trip! That missing pad? You think he took it with him?"

"What class trip?" Honda

"Third year?" Bakura asked. "That was, what, almost ten years ago? Even if he did take it, why would he have it now?"

"'Cause he's an asshole, and he probably thinks I forgot, or that I wouldn't know my own damn art, or some bullshit like that!"

"Wait, wait!" Eric stepped over to Jounouchi. "Joey, put that in some perspective. This guy is worldwide. I mean, yeah, nobody likes to see their art swiped, but why would he do that? It's probably just a coincidence."

"And if it was just the two dragons, I'd be pissed, but I'd deal," Jounouchi agreed. "But the damn logo - that is MINE! I was never able to get it right a second time, but I know my work when I see it."

"Okay," Mokuba said, surprising the whole group, as he stepped into the room. "Give me one reason to believe those dragons are yours, not my brother's."

"Sketch pad has a drawing of a red-eyes-black on the inside cover. How I signed all my books."

Mokuba shrugged, pulled out his phone, and speed dialed someone. "Yeah, that Artist's Contract I had you file? Pull it and everything related to the logo. The artist is Jounouchi. Yeah, that Jounouchi. Oh. Hang on." Mokuba looked at Jounouchi. "Check or wire?"

"...what?" Jounouchi seemed more than a bit stunned.

"I've seen Seto's art my whole life. His dragons never have that much detail - he always leaves that for the art department. It could have been his, but I figured someone might be able to prove a claim, so I wrote up a standard contract, just in case." He went back to the phone. "Send it to Half-Hearted's account. Jou can square up with them later. Mail a copy of the deal to Jou's home address." He hung up the phone. "Done."

"You must really think I'm stupid," Jounouchi smirked. "Where is he? If either of you think I'm accepting some half assed payoff after he stole my one shot at being a professional artist -"

"Jou! Chill!" Mokuba smiled, every bit the business man. "The contract is, of course, negotiable. Think of the wire as a good faith payment. And that couldn't have been your only shot because you are an artist now, aren't you?"

Jounouchi laughed. "You think this is paying the rent? I'm an artist when I'm not a waiter."

"Well, if your rent's not too high, you should be okay."

"Yeah? What's good faith?"

"Two-hundred thousand. US. I figured on what we would have paid for the R&D at a top level marketing firm."

"Hold up," Eric seemed to recover from the shock before anyone else. "You just wired Joey two-hundred thousand dollars?"

"Bank should be open in Denver, so yeah."

Otogi pulled out his phone and began typing. After a moment he gasped. "Oh. My. God. Mokie-kun, someone did a serious typo. Jou's money is there, but there's also a million dollar credit. And I am not exaggerating. KaibaCorp deposited an actual -"

"Seto said a year's worth of issues. So that's salary, facilities, supplies, production. Enough for Half-Hearted to grow."

"Mokuba," Yugi crossed the room to him. "That's way more than we could possibly need."

"And way less than the number I was arguing for. I wanted to include international travel." Mokuba's smile warmed. "Seto and I owe you a lot, Yugi, let us do this."

"Yay, warm an' fuzzy." Jounouchi said in a distinctly cold voice. "None of that explains why your asshole brother stole my pad in the first place. What, was he trying to get back at me 'cause I told his skinny ass to get bent?"

"Jou, quit saying he stole it," Mokuba huffed. "In the first place, he's never stolen a damn thing, and in the second, even if he did for some insane reason steal anything of yours, he has no clue that he did it, so there's no point in bringing it up." Mokuba tilted his head curiously. "And what do you mean, get back at you? For what?"

"He knows. Trust me, he didn't forget that."

"I didn't forget what?" Seto asked, entering the room with Anzu. "It would be nice to remember something."

"Remember where you got my dragons!" Jounouchi snapped.

"The blue and red are yours?" Seto smiled. He handed Anzu the envelope he was holding. "Beautiful and talented. Extraordinary. I found them in some of my personal effects that were in storage. I knew when I saw you that you were special." Seto crossed the room. "After the accident, I lost a lot." He took Jounouchi's hand before the man realized he was going to. "I hope we can fill in the missing details together." Seto's eyes met Jounouchi's.

"Brown eyes." His smile faded, replaced by an expression of confused panic. "Brown eyes."