1620
Bura-sama
12.22.02
12.22.02

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine. I don't claim it to be so. The characters I'm using don't even resemble the official ones, so... yeah. Not mine, no infringement is intended.

Warnings: Shounen-ai. Seto/Jounouchi. Death. OOCness. Enough sugary sappiness to choke a hummingbird.

Notes: A Christmas present for my big sister.
I'm not terribly fond of the couple, but she likes them.

Seto is with Jounouchi only. Only Jounouchi! The ending may be misinterpreted, so I just want clear this up.
 Also, I'm totally satisfied with the ending. I might come back later and rewrite it.

Chilled

Ch3: White Sheets

Seto found himself standing against the heartless gray doors for the second time that night. He was just as frantic as the first time, still knowing the importance of seeing Jounouchi before he was gone. Part of him expected him to still be alive, to still be telling him how much he loved him. Part of him half-expected to get another chance to verbalize his own feelings.

He pushed open the gray doors, and his heart seemed to wither away in his chest.

Before, when he had opened the doors, Jounouchi had been lying there. He had been broken and bleeding, but he had still been Jounouchi. Now... it was just a shapeless white sheet, showing nothing of the boy under it. It wasn't Jounouchi anymore.

Seto took slow steps forward, dreading each one.

He reached the sheet-covered form and stopped. This wasn't his Jounouchi... his puppy dog. This wasn't the boy he had held close the night before, this wasn't real... this wasn't...

With a sudden motion, he pinched the corner of the sheet with one hand and viciously jerked the sheet away.

Pale, dead, glassy eyes stared up at him. Seto immediately looked away. Reaching out with trembling fingers, he gently closed his eyes and ended the empty gaze. Hesitantly, Seto looked again. The hair was different... it had never looked like this when Jounouchi had been alive. It was flat against his head, devoid of its usual shaping. The color was much paler than he had ever seen it. The blood was gone. Dimly, he realized that someone had brushed it while he had been gone.

The skin was cold. Chilling. Patches of blue and red mottle his once fair skin, and Seto trembled. He moved his shaking hand to rest against Jounouchi's cheek. He instantly recoiled and let his hand fall numbly to his side. It hurt to touch him... He was so cold...

His skin was covered in bruises -- the impact had thoroughly smashed his beautiful skin. Most the of the smaller bruises were dark red. The larger ones were a dark purple color from so much blood loss. The largest bruises spread across his abdomen. That was where the car had hit the hardest. From there, they crawled up his chest, wrapped around his back, and then jumped to his arms. His hands had avoided all of the crushing force. Still, it was a miracle that Jounouchi had been able to pull the oxygen mask away.

His hips and thighs had been crushed in the hit-and-run. Even if he had lived... he would never had walked again. His feet were scraped badly and covered with scabs. He'd broken his ankle when the car had tossed him into the air and he had landed on the sidewalk. It would never get a chance to heal.

Seto tentatively brought a hand forward and touched Jounouchi's toes. They were even colder than his face had been. He lightly skimmed his fingers along his ankle, his shin, his knee, and finally to the mangle mess of thigh and hips. He couldn't bring himself to touch him there, couldn't cope with the fact that this was his lover. He jerked his hand back as if he were stung.

He stared a moment more, then touched the smooth skin on his chest. Besides the bruising, his chest was free of the marring the rest of his body had taken. He brushed his fingers across the firm muscles, up to his collar bone, then back down to the bottom of his ribcage. There was nothing sexual about the act, and Seto made sure he stayed away from anything erotic. He would never touch Jounouchi that way again.

His hand found its way to the boy's neck. Once, he had worn a collar for Seto. It felt like it had been so long ago... The skin was clean on his neck. Seto resisted the urge to check for a pulse. He continued his trek up to the face.

He stopped at the lips. They were a pale, almost clear white color. And cold... so cold. He brushed his finger across his bottom lip.

I love you, Seto.

The last words that he'd ever said to him. So full of love and sincerity. Seto hadn't been able to return them.

His fingers moved on their own accord. Ears, eyes, nose... they still looked like they had when he had been alive. But they felt... they felt so dead.

He loosely grabbed Jounouchi's hair. It still felt as soft as it had... still as dead as it used to be.

His hand was shaking violently, his whole body was trembling. Taking a deep breath, he backed away from the body and picked up the sheet. He gently spread it over his body, then left, trying to escape the sudden stench of death.

Seto shut the doors behind him. He walked quickly, determined to get away from that thing... that body that used to be Jounouchi's. The waiting rooms were even more crowded, the people there even more determined to hinder his way, to ensure that he stayed in that room. He pushed past them and took a deep breath once he found a place where he could breathe. The old man with the cigarettes was gone.

Seto looked around, recognizing no one that was there earlier. He took another calming breath.

He still reeked of death.

He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost six o'clock. He'd been there for almost eight hours. Knowing that he needed to go home and be with Mokuba, knowing that he needed sleep, knowing that he was going to be tired for the rest of his life... Seto sat down once again on the hard plastic chairs. He leaned forward and tried to drown out the world. He couldn't go home -- had no desire to go to an empty bed and a house that would never welcome Jounouchi through its doors. He leaned forward a bit more, and let the tears fall from his eyes.

Before... before he couldn't stop them.

Now he wanted them.

They fell freely from his eyes, cascading down his face and pooling on his hands. It had been so long since he had willingly cried in public... so long.

His body was still shaking, and his sobs did nothing to help the situation. He wanted to cry the world away... to just sit there for eternity, or at least till Jounouchi came back to him...

He felt someone stop in front of him, saw the person's white heeled shoes standing next to him. He just wanted to be left alone, he didn't want the sympathy from that little blonde doctor. He felt her hand touch his shoulder, but didn't have the energy to shrug it away.

"Seto... Seto Kaiba. Please, look at me. Please."

He slowly brought his head forward. It wasn't the doctor... it was even worse. Jounouchi's little sister.

He couldn't look at her. He couldn't tell her how much he had disappointed Jounouchi in the end, how he had let him die virtually alone.

She sat down on the floor in front of him, and reached forward. She curved her fingers around his chin and then pulled him into a hug. She was shaking, too, he realized. There were crystalline tears streaming down her face.

Softly, slowly, she spoke. "The hospital called last night." She held Seto tighter and cried softly on his shoulder. "They couldn't find anyone's number but yours on him, so they called Mokuba."

Mokuba... they didn't tell him. Say that they didn't tell him...

She pulled away slightly, but they were still holding each other. "Mokuba called me and told me that Jounouchi was in the hospital... Mom said..." She started crying again. Seto held her numbly, "Mom said that he was probably just in a fight, and that I could come by in the morning..." Her tears fell onto him and mixed with his own. "When I came here... the doctors told me he was dead." She was trembling, her voice was cracking with each syllable. Seto held her in his arms.

He pulled her closer. She was possibly the closest person to Jounouchi, besides himself. She could feel the same grief he was feeling. Slowly, he spoke. The words felt like glue in his mouth, "Drunk driver. He was leaving my office building. The driver came around the corner and killed him." He shuddered slightly. "I saw it from my office window."

She pulled him close and let the tears fall.

He did the same.

"The doctors said... they told me that you were with him when he died..."

Seto nodded slowly, unable to speak.

She sobbed quietly, "I'm so glad he wasn't alone. Jounouchi always hated to be alone..."

Seto wiped her tears away, then his. He pulled her into his arms. They stayed like that for several minutes, just sitting there, rocking slightly.

She finally pulled away and looked at Seto. "Can I see him?"

Seto shook his head slightly, "You don't want to do that."

She nodded slightly, then shook her head. She struggled off of his lap, "Will you call my mother, please? I want to go home now."

Seto reached into his coat pocket and pulled the cell phone free. He handed it to her, not knowing the number. She dialed it with shaking fingers, and spoke quietly. Seto sat motionless as she talked.

She stood, and he followed her. They walked toward the elevator.

Seto did not look back to the heartless gray doors where his lost lover lay, nor to the clock on the wall that ticked the seconds away.

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end part three of three. At last, Pandemonium has struck us down. We have arrived. ===|