{Quarter to Three}

{Chapter 3: You Play Chess?}

Per routine, Jou woke with a start. And coughed. He tried to breathe in, but found that he couldn't through his nose ... it was clogged. He coughed again and turned on his side. He had gotten a cold. As shifted further into his blankets, he pulled them closer. It was particularly cold this morning. He checked his alarm. 5:30 am. Jou coughed again, and shifted in his blankets once more.

He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep again. The blankets seemed to get warmer. He sighed. A few moments later, it seemed as if the blankets were ... were burning! Jou quickly jumped out of them. The comforter caught fire quickly, and spread just as fast. It wound itself through his mattress and out through the carpet. Jou tried to get to the door but found it futile, the fire had spread throughout the room.

"DAD! DAD! Come help me! Please! Dad!" There was no one coming. No evidence, even, that his father could hear him. Had the fire already spread throughout the house? Jou called out for his dad again, but coughed from the smoke inhalation.

"Dad! ... Dad ... help ..." Jou fell to his knees, and leaned over himself. The smoke was getting really thick.

Jou finally collapsed from lack of air and fell unconscious to the ground.

-_-_-

Yugi stared worriedly towards Jou's empty desk. He hadn't shown up today yet, and it bothered Yugi; Jou seemed fine yesterday.

"Mr. Moutou, if you could answer the question?" Yugi's head snapped forward to attention.

"Uh ... uh ..." /Yami ... did you hear the question?/

//The answer is Syria, Aibou.//

/Thank you Yami!/

"Syria, Ma'am."

The teacher looked suspicious for a moment before nodding and returning her focus back to the blackboard.

Yugi snapped his head over to the classroom door as he heard it open. Jou appeared in the doorway.

He looked ... pale. Very pale.

Jou made his way up to the the front desk, towards the teacher. He bowed and mumbled an apology as the teacher reprimanded his tardiness.

"Do you have an excuse as to why you were late, young man?"

Jou stared blankly at her for a moment before shaking his head and walking away to his desk. He could feel everyone's eyes on him. No one just ignores the teacher.

But the teacher didn't say anything. She was slightly unnerved by Jou's obvious change in attitude. He would normally come up with an extravagant excuse, but today ...

Jou sat down wearily in his desk. He placed his head in his hands, and sighed quietly.

He ran his dream over in his mind. It couldn't have been a dream, though; he could feel the flames on his skin. He could recognize the fact that he couldn't breathe in his room. No, it wasn't a dream. And it hadn't been like the ones before where he ended up strangely back in the place before it started. When it stopped ... the ... hallucination, he was on the floor, crouched over. Just like he had been in it. No, it most definitely not a dream, not hormones; he was just going crazy.

He could see his bracelets during the fire as well, but about ten minutes after it ended, they had disappeared again. Jou had decided to ignore his strange bracelets; he found the more he thought about them, the bigger the headache he earned. So he decided not to think about them at all. Or at least try.

He rubbed his hands on his face, wiping imaginary dirt away. He looked over to Yugi's desk, to find Yugi, as he expected, staring worriedly over at him. Jou's demeanor changed quickly, and he smiled a fake smile over to Yugi. This seemed to please him, and he turned back to the teacher. Jou dropped the smile when Yugi turned, and sighed slightly again. He squeezed his eyelids together and tried to pay whatever attention he had back to the teacher.

He didn't notice the second set of eyes that laid upon him. Eyes of whom belonged to Seto Kaiba.

-_-_-

During lunch, Jou did not join his usual group; instead he escaped to the library. He needed to rent more books. Maybe today he'd get more than one. See how long it would take him to read each one. He needed something to keep his mind busy. He kept thinking back to this morning ...

And he would no longer think of it. Nope! He was determined to make his brain occupied. He dropped off For Whom The Bell Tolls, and made his way to back to the classics. Jou began flipping through some, but decided that he'd just read them all. He grabbed four from the shelf and noticed it made a hole through the other side. He leaned down to look through, and saw Kaiba sitting at a table. Playing chess. Jou smiled ... that was something he could do! He could finally try chess, and bug Kaiba at the same time.

He walked over to the table and watched silently. Kaiba had yet to notice he was there. He made his final move, and his partner scowled.

"You know you're gonna win every time, you know?" The boy said.

"Just keep working on it." The kid nodded and left. Jou took this as his chance and slid into the chair. Seto seemingly still hadn't noticed him. Currently he had his eyes palmed into his left hand, leaning against the table.

Jou smiled slightly, and began moving the pieces back into their normal places. He made himself white.

He heard Kaiba sigh, "Yu, I told you that was the last game."

Jou smiled, "Oh, but Kaiba, just once more?"

Seto's head snapped away from his hand to find Jou sitting across from him, with a set board. His eyes widened in surprise, but then narrowed.

"So Kaiba, what do you say? One more game?"

"Why mutt? Looking for something else to fail at?"

Jou's mouth twisted at the comment, but he said nothing. Instead he reached for a pawn, and moved it two spaces forward.

Seto blinked. He really wanted to play? Fine, he would play then. Seto moved for the knight. This would be easy. He would beat Jou in seven moves, and Jou wouldn't even know what hit him.

However, Jou recognized the strategy, but did nothing to counter it. If he wanted to win this, he'd have to play dumb for the time being. Instead he just moved a second pawn.

"You know ... I was thinking."

"Oh, joy." Kaiba moved a pawn.

"..." Jou moved a rook.

Kaiba frowned at Jou's silence. He'd been acting weird today. Weird all week. He moved his bishop and castled his king.

"Why is it ..." he paused to move another pawn, "That whenever you see me, you insist on insulting me?"

Kaiba didn't answer. Just moved his queen diagonally.

"I mean ... we're both mature young adults now, right?" Jou moved his bishop.

"I would have thought we would get over the name calling by now, you know?" Jou looked back up to Kaiba.

Kaiba sighed, and moved his knight. "Checkmate."

Jou looked down to the board. "Not quite."

Kaiba frowned in confusion and noticed his mistake.

Jou smiled a bit, and moved his queen to take Kaiba's. "Check."

Kaiba's eyes widened in surprise. The dog was keeping up well.

And ... truthfully, he knew the mutt was right about the name-thing, but he wasn't about to agree out loud.

Kaiba moved another pawn and defended his king.

Jou's mouth twitched. He had just made a rather large error, and knowing Kaiba, he was sure to have seen it.

Jou moved his rook to defend, but it wasn't enough. Kaiba moved his bishop, and knocked over Jou's king.

Kaiba smirked. "Checkmate."

Jou's mouth twisted once more, and nodded. That was rather fun.

He stared at the board.

"Can't believe you lost, Jou?"

Jou caught the name changed and smiled inwardly. "No, just memorizing the move I did to mess up. Make sure it won't happen again."

That caught Kaiba off-gaurd. The dog was definitely acting weird now.

"--here tomorrow?"

Kaiba blinked. "What?"

"Will you be here tomorrow?"

Once again ... caught off guard. "... Yeah."

The bell rang, but neither moved.

Jou ran things over in his mind. Seto hadn't been that bad to him today. Maybe he should ask him to play again. He wasn't sure if any of his other friends even knew how to.

A silent minute passed by.

"Well, can I play you again, then?" Jou looked away slightly, chewing on his bottom lip.

Wow, the shocks just kept coming.

"Yeah ... I guess." Jou nodded, and stood up quickly. He grabbed his bag and strode out the front door, once again forgetting to check his books out.

Seto just watched, confused, as he went.

-_-_-

Jou made his way to his last period. No headaches all day. It was nice. Oh ... damn. He always did speak too soon.

He dropped his books to the ground, and clenched his head in his hands. He dropped to one knee and hunched over.

This was most definitely the worst. He felt himself grown very hot again, and his back began stinging. But it seemed as if it was a mere second, and all his pain vanished. He looked around. No, this was most definitely not school.

He got up slowly and took a step back. All around him were ... what seemed like mini markets. And in the distance-- pyramids. ...Where was he? People yelled out to him in some foreign language he couldn't understand. He looked down. Was he wearing sandals? What the hell was going on? Fanfare sounded out, and Jou noticed the people around him all come from around their stands and fall to their knees. He stared strangely at them. What were they doing?

People were yelling at him. He glanced around again. Maybe he should be doing what they were doing ...?

Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. He caught himself before his head hit.

He looked around again in confusion. He heard footsteps coming ... marching. He looked down the pathway to see a procession. It seemed ages before they finally reached Jou. ...Wait. Was that ...

"Kaiba?!" Jou jumped up and ran over to him. The man who looked like Seto stepped back in slight shock.

"Kaiba! What's going on!?"

He stayed silent until, "... Jou, what are you doing?"

Jou blinked. He could understand him just fine. Plain Japanese.

"What the hell is going on, Kaiba!?"

"Why are you hanging on me, dog?"

Jou blinked again and looked around him. School. Fuck.

He glanced to Seto, who he had a firm grip upon. He looked down at his hand that was gripping Kaiba's arm. He glanced at his own. Bracelets.

Jou was speechless. He opened and closed his mouth hesitatingly. This time it was just too much. Jou passed out cold.

{End Chapter 3}

Ezra: *blinks*... ...*blinks again* Oh my gosh! O_O 35 reviews for two chapters!! And all of my favorite authors!! O___________O

Betty: ... I guess this means they like it. ^^; And for those of you who think Jou's going to have a Yami... Muahahah ... You'll have to wait and see.

Ezra: ..ï_o. Thanks so much to everyone! =D

Betty: Yup! Thankies! Chapter 4 will be out soon!