***Quick note if you didn't read the manga: Johji is Tristan's nephew. It was a terror in the original, so I figured pre-teen Johji wouldn't be any better. But hey, no one got electrocuted to death this time, so progress!***

A week later my phone beeped while Ryou and I walked to work together. I held my breath. It could have been Bakura sending over a pun. It could have been someone from work sharing a gym meme. But somehow I knew it was Marik asking for the conversation that we needed to have.

But that neither of us wanted to have.

"It's okay." Ryou squeezed my bicep, at least what he could grab with his slender hands.

I nodded and pulled out my phone. One message, from Marik. I held my breath as I read it.

Let me know when you want to meet and talk.

Never. I never wanted to to talk. Not about killing that asshole. I wasn't going to apologize, if that's what Marik was expecting.

"The sooner the better, right?" I asked Ryou, knowing he could see the message.

"If that helps."

"Yeah. I want to get this over with." I started texting back.

Tonight?

Yeah, I'll be there when you get off work.

Okay.

I crammed the phone back in my pocket, sighing.

"Is there anything I can do?" Ryou asked.

"No." I shook my head.

I stopped and grabbed him in a bear hug. He squeaked, always so squeamish about PDA, but I wasn't Japanese and I didn't give a fuck. We weren't making out at the park or anything, so people could frown at us. They already hated everything about me- foreigner, gay, non-monogamous, wings poking out of my tank top that looked like tattoos (although they weren't)- so I might as well give them something to scowl about. Ryou relaxed after a moment and squeezed back.

"I know this is hard, but I think you'll feel better afterward."

"Yeah… probably."

Just because I knew it was true, didn't mean I wanted to accept it.

We broke apart and finished our walk. I buried myself in my workouts, and in between I scrubbed down the equipment so I could move instead of think. Kyubi came around and plopped down on the bench right as I was trying to clean it.

"Hey," he lay back as if he were about to do a set- though he didn't have any weights- and looked at me. "What's up?"

"Just cleaning," I muttered.

"You can talk about it."

"Not really." I snorted and moved over the the incline bench. It didn't do any good. Kyubi jumped over to block my path again. I plopped down on the flat bench, setting down the spray bottle and cloth.

"You going to make it the whole day?"

I nodded.

"You want to hold some mitts for me?"

"Sure." I laughed.

I could remember when mitts were hard. When I almost killed Kyubi for daring to make me uncomfortable by telling me to hold them for him while he punched at me. And it never goes away, feeling uncomfortable, but the things coming at me now are much bigger than fists. Marik, the past, my own emotions, what are a pair of boxing gloves to that?

So we went several rounds, and then sat at the edge of the ring with water bottles.

"Feeling better?" Kyubi asked.

I nodded, and I was. He'd helped put things back in perspective. I changed into dry clothes and took a lunch break before all the kids piled in for afternoon class. Today we practiced keeping up our guard. I demonstrated, had them show me their version, bopped a few heads of people who weren't paying attention, and then paired them off to do practice drills. Keeping an eye on twelve kids wasn't easy. I walked through the groups, making sure they were practicing, making sure no one's form was awful, and above all else making sure no one was trying to turn into a super saiyan and get into a brawl with their partner- that happened a lot. I noticed Yui all by herself with her fists up in front of her face.

"Good form, but where's Johji?"

She pointed over to the weight equipment- which none of the kids were supposed to go near, and I saw Johji balancing on the top of the squat rack and trying to climb the fucking wall. Sweet baby Horus, that kid was going to be the death of me one day.

"Johji! What are you doing? Get down!" I jogged over to the squat rack, grabbed him around the waist, and set him on his feet.

"Hey! Don't touch me."

"Burpees. 50 of them. I'm watching."

"But I-"

"Right now."

"This class is so stupid!" The kid screamed, but started doing burpees as I stood over him with my arms crossed over my chest.

Every fucking week. Every. Fucking. Week. It was something with this kid. Last week he grabbed Haruka's ass and told her she had nice tits and I had to arrange a sparring match between them hoping that getting his ass kicked by Haruka would teach him some damn manners. It at least taught him to leave the girls alone, but now apparently we're doing this.

After 50 burpees I had him go back to practice his drills with Yui while I checked on the other kids. I was trying to get Souta to understand that he still had to keep his eyes on the opponent or he was going to get hit, but he kept trying to hide behind his fists instead of using them as a guard. I looked up for a second as he continued to practice- and noticed Johji's ass clambering up the squat rack again.

"Johji! What did I just tell you!"

And then we went again. Me pulling him down. Him doing 10 push ups, 10 squats, 10 starfish, and another 50 burpees, and then me having to stand there and watch him and Yui practice for a moment.

"I can't spend the entire class staring at you, Johji. You have to let me help the other kids out, okay? Just stay off the equipment. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Okay senpai!" Johji gave me the sweetest, most innocent smile.

I would have trusted Bakura's smile before this brat's. How the fuck does Kyubi deal with people without murdering them? He's so good at it. I'm internally screaming and about to make everyone run laps until-

I heard a shriek and cringed. Johji was wailing. I didn't even look, pivoting and running straight to the squat rack, knowing that's where he was again. He was on the ground with a knot on his forehead and holding his arm. Didn't have to be a doctor to know that it was broken.

"What's wrong?" Kyubi stopped his own training and shouted from the ring.

I didn't even have a chance to answer as 11 kids started screaming the story all at once. Kyubi called an ambulance and I followed Johji to the hospital as we tried to contact his parents. We called once at the gym, and I called again on the trip, and twice in the waiting room, but I only got answering machines at their house and their cell phones. I was ready to break their arms by the time I hung up again. What was wrong with people? No wonder Johji was such a brat!

I realized I needed to text Ryou. He'd be worried sick that I didn't meet him to walk him home. After a second of thinking it over, I decided to call him instead.

"Kek?" Ryou answered after the first ring.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. There was an accident-"

"Are you hurt?"

"Not me. One of the kids at the gym. He broke his arm. I'm at the hospital. I think he's okay, I mean besides the broken arm, but he's not going to die or anything."

"I'm sorry," Ryou said.

"Um, hey, could you text Marik for me? I'm still trying to get ahold of the kid's parents. We can still meet, but let him know why I'm late."

"Of course. Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"No. It's fine. I'll text you when I can make it home."

"Okay, I love you."

"Love you, too." I smiled. That was nice to hear. I'd never heard it on the phone before.

Just then Johji walked down the hall showing off his sick new cast. I sighed, and grabbed his free hand so we could check out.

"Hey, I can't get ahold of your parents?"

"Of course not. They're working."

I made a hum, trying to hide my aggravation as best I could. "So they work a lot?"

"Who cares?" Johji snorted, looking away.

Ah, it made sense.

"Well, I guess I'll call a cab, and-"

"I don't need you. I'm walking home myself."

"Oh no no no. I'm escorting you home. I don't want you getting into any worse trouble." I refused to let go of his hand.

"I don't have to listen to you! We're not in class anymore."

He'd pushed me as far as I could go. I was already stressed about Marik; I did need this. Bending over so we were closer, I let him have it.

"You're damn right we're not in class anymore, which means nothing's stopping me from kicking your fucking ass if you don't listen!"

His eyes grew round and his mouth dropped. "Senpai, you just said fuck."

"I sure the fuck did. Now come on, I'm going to make sure you get home safely."

I ended up having to sign all of his paperwork myself. As a peace offering, and perhaps as a bribe in hopes he wouldn't tell his mom that I swore and threatened to kick his ass, I winked at a few nurses and got them to bend over and sign the cast. He was pretty happy about that.

"How'd you do that?" He asked as we started to walk towards the exit.

"Do what?"

"Get those nurses to be so nice to you. Girls usually slap me."

"That's because you're an asshole, Johji. Try treating girls with respect and see if they like you better."

"Sounds fake, but whatever you say."

"And leave Haruka alone or I'll let her wail on you again."

"You're so strict, senpai."

I chose to ignore him as we walked towards the door. It opened a moment before we got to it and Honda of all people burst in like he was escaping a fire. He rested his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. I wondered if he'd gotten into some kind of trouble, but then he looked up and shouted.

"Johji! I got here as soon as I heard the message. Are you okay? What happened? What-" He stopped, seeing me, and his face twisted into a nasty frown. He ran to Johji and yanked his hand out of mine. "You! Get away from my nephew! Did you do this to him?"

Okay, but thank the gods he said nephew, because if he had said son I would have, a) smacked my head against the wall, and b) broken his fucking arm.

"Honda, what the hell is wrong with you? This is Keku-senpai. He teaches me boxing." Johji jerked away from Honda and, to my great fucking surprise, took my hand again.

"What. Happened?" Honda grit his teeth, hands in fists.

"Your nephew is an asshole." I gave Honda a cool stare. "I told him twice to stop climbing on the equipment. He didn't listen."

"It's true," Johji grumbled, digging the toe of his shoe into the linoleum.

Thanks for not throwing me under the bus, kid, because had you started crying and pretending like it was my fault you got hurt, it would have caused a fist fight ending with your uncle being dead and your senpai being in jail for murder. Not that Johji understood that we knew each other. Or that I kinda, sorta killed his uncle's best friend a few years ago and tried to drown the world in darkness and pain.

Which, I should add, was significantly more fun than this awkward moment, or the conversation I was going to have with Marik when this was all over.

"Johji, why?"

"I don't know." Johji kicked at the floor, and I recognized the body language- anger.

"What have I told you about listening to your teachers?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, lay off me already!" Johji screamed.

"Hey," I snapped. "He came down here because he was worried about you."

"I'm sorry." Johji muttered between clenched teeth- also anger.

"Look." I crouched down so I could look at the kid eye-to-eye. "You're going to be in class next time, right? Don't think I'm going to take it easy on you just because you're in a cast."

His face changed from barely held-together rage to surprise. "You're not… kicking me out?"

"Is that what usually happens to you? You piss off the teacher until they kick you out of class?" He didn't answer, but I could see on his face that I was right. I took the pen from his cast-hand, the one he filched from the information desk, and wrote my name on the dried plaster. "Well, Kyubi-sensei has taught much worse than you, so I doubt he'll throw you out."

"But I can't box like this."

"But you can do walking lunges."

"But I hate those."

"Well, next time I tell you not to climb on the squat rack- don't do it." I stood up, handing him back his pen and glanced at Honda. "Do you need me to call you a cab?"

"No, we're fine…" Honda looked like he'd been hit by a car. He was actually pale.

Must not have talked to Yugi recently or he wouldn't be quite that surprised. His entire family must have had to work a lot.

"Okay, then I'll see you around." I waved and headed out the door, but Honda called out to me.

"Why?"

I turned, raising an eyebrow.

"I know he's hard to deal with. Why didn't you kick him out?"

"Why should I? Kyubi didn't kick me out, so I'm not going to kick out Johji. More than any of the other kids, he needs to stick with boxing. It'll teach him discipline." I snorted. "And hopefully keep him from being as bad as I was when he hits his teens. So don't let his parents pull him from class, Honda."

With that, I walked away before he could say anything else. I was ready to find Marik and get our talk over with.