by Lethe
Chapter Twenty-five: Tumbling
"Come with me!" said Anzu. "Yugi's already waiting for us!"
"Wha…why?" said Jonouchi, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"We can have a snowball fight and stuff! Come on, please?"
Jonouchi winced. That look. He hated that look. "Fine, I'm coming… just… let me get my jacket and gloves…"
Score one for Anzu.
"What?" said Seto disbelievingly. "Why would you want me to join your little group?"
"Please,
Kaiba?" said Yugi. "It'll be fun,
really!"
He frowned. "I'm quite busy…"
Yugi sighed. "Okay, I'll tell you the truth. Um, we – Anzu and I – said hi to Mokuba, and he was walking Shingo, so we figured that when you were talking about a dog, you were talking about Shingo. Weren't you?"
"Yes, that is correct. So you want to get Jonouchi and me to that park to reconcile ourselves."
"Um, yeah. Can you come? Please?"
"I don't think so." Seto tried to close the door, but Yugi had already put his foot in.
"You can't be fighting on Christmas!" said Yugi. "Don't you want to even try to make things better?"
"Hey, I wasn't the one that jumped to conclusions!" said Kaiba. "Now remove your foot before I call the guards."
Yugi remained. "You won't call the guards," he said stubbornly. "It's just me, not a psycho killer or anything, and you'll try to get me to leave fairly."
"Oh, is that so?" said Kaiba in a low voice.
"Do you know how long Jonouchi was crying? Do you?" said Yugi. "We tried to talk to him! We called him! And he wouldn't answer! He was in his room practically the entire day yesterday! You have to at least try to tell him what happened!"
"I did, damn it!" said Kaiba. He had finally lost his patience. "I went to his house yesterday, all right? He wouldn't let me explain!"
Yugi let out a small 'oh…' He sighed. "I won't try to persuade you, then. Bye."
Kaiba was silent, watching Yugi's dejected back retreating.
He didn't see Yugi's smile. Kaiba's a good person. I know he will come.
"…Wait!" said Kaiba. "I'm going to get my gloves!"
*
"I'm going to tie my shoes," said Anzu when they had almost reached the park. "Go on ahead. I'll catch up."
"Okay," said Jonouchi without question.
*
"All right, now you go on without me. Good luck."
"Thank you, Yugi."
--------------------------
The park looked surreal. Still-falling snow reflected the streetlight, illuminating everything in soft bluish tones. It was beautiful.
That was what Jonouchi Katsuya was thinking as he walked to it, finding a seat on the old metal slide. He didn't notice the cold.
It was the night before Christmas, but he wasn't at home. He didn't want to be home; he couldn't remember a time when he had.
Snow always made him feel better, though. The silence that seemed to come with it, the way it covered everything in that silence.
The blue-and-white silence.
He could imagine that the world was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He knew that it was silly, but that was another thing it made him think of. He was riding on the shoulder of a Blue-Eyes.
That gave him no pleasure now.
He could imagine that the world was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but the reality lay a few inches underneath.
The streetlight flickered, and he looked up. I hadn't noticed… the moon is almost full.
When his gaze shifted from the sky, he noticed another thing. A shadow approaching.
And he knew that it was Kaiba.
So that's what Anzu was up to. He got up slowly, and the shadow spoke.
"Don't. Please stay."
"Why should I?" said Jonouchi bitterly.
"Because you're going to regret it if you don't. I wasn't talking about you, Jonouchi."
Jonouchi froze.
"Mokuba's taking care of his friend's dog over the winter vacation."
"Then you were talking about the dog," whispered Jonouchi. He turned to face the other boy. "God, Seto, I'm sorry."
Seto smiled, and Jonouchi knew it was true. "It's all right. Would you like to come home with me? I know Mokuba would like some more company – and hot chocolate…" he added temptingly.
Jonouchi ran forward and hugged Seto, his momentum dragging them both down. "Yes!"
"Watch out-" began Seto, but it was too late. A snowball had smacked the back of Jonouchi's head.
Jonouchi got up immediately, hearing Yugi and Anzu's giggles, and grabbed a handful of snow.
Yugi's Millennium Puzzle began to glow.
And that was how they spent their Christmas Eve.