Disclaimer: Again. . .I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
Hey guys, here's the chapter two. This is where we see what happens to Jounouchi after he falls unconscious on the sidewalk.
Anyway, I'd like to thank you for my first two reviewers in this story: Little Leila and the Ghost of Jounouchi. You are very much appreciated. . . thank you so much!
Anyway, that's for now, so enjoy this chapter, and. . . review, review, review!!!
By the way, I don't know the name Honda's older sister, so I'm creating a name for her. . . meaning the name's mine. I saw in the net that she has an older sister, so I'm adding her into this story, only the name came from me.
Some reminders:
Imooto - younger brother
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HOLDING ONTO YOU
CHAPTER 2 - FAITH
Honda looked out of his closed bedroom window. It had been raining hard ever since Jounouchi ran out of his house. It looks like the rain was matching his mood. He sighed as he went to his desk and opened the light. In front of him was a picture of him and Jou weeks after Battle City occurred, side by side and smiling brightly. He sat on his desk chair and stared at the picture. They really were the best of friends, but now. . . he think hey wouldn't be friends anymore. Now that he had told Jou about his true feelings towards him. The moment Jou ran out of the house, he knew things wouldn't be the same anymore.
But something that Jou said before he went out of the house bothered him. You're making a big mistake, Honda. You do not deserve to love someone like me. What did those words mean? He was trying to figure out what those words meant ever since Jou left, but he couldn't. . . he doesn't even know why Jou had said that. A part of him told him that he should have a long talk with Jou because as Honda looked into the blond's eyes when he said those words, he saw that he returns his feelings. Honda saw that Jou loves him as much as he loves Jou. But what's with those words?
"Damn it!" He yelled as he slammed his fist on the desk. He looked back outside. If it wasn't raining so hard, he would've followed Jou and ask him what he meant about those words. Honda didn't even know if he could talk to him tomorrow. Knowing Jounouchi, he might avoid him after what he had done. Honda couldn't take it like this. . . he had to talk to Jou somehow.
Honda decided that sitting and contemplating about his situation would be useless. Besides, he had to go down and make dinner, as his older sister will be home anytime soon. As he stood up, Honda felt a sense of foreboding and the first thing that he looked at was the picture of him and Jou. His heart skipped a beat as he immediately went down and dialed Jou's landline number on the phone. If he was right, Jou should be home by now.
"Jou, answer the phone and tell me that you're alright!" Honda said, voice shaking, as the eighth ring came. The tenth ring, and still there was no answer that Honda had put down the phone already. He shook his head. "No. . . Jounouchi is all right. It's just my imagination. . . nothing's happened with him." But his senses of foreboding when it came to Jou were never wrong. One could feel whether the other is in trouble or not. This was how close they were and those intuitions were never wrong. He looked outside to see that it was still pouring hard, and there was no way that he could leave the house and go to Jou's until his sister came back home. He paced back and forth on the living room as he looked at the clock and saw that it was six-thirty. Where was his sister? She should've been at home thirty minutes ago.
Just when he decided that he'll just leave a note that he'll go to Jou's house, he heard a the front door slam and saw his black-haired sister taking off his her jacket.
"Leika! Where the hell have you been?!"
Leika looked up. "Hiroto! It was so traffic because of the rain that's why I came home late! The rain is poring so hard you might think that there's a big storm coming. Good thing there's no strong wind, or I'd really have a hard time coming home." Then she noticed Honda's worried face. "Imooto, what's wrong?"
"Onesan, I have a feeling something bad is happening with Jou." Honda explained what he felt awhile ago in his bedroom.
"Have you tried calling him?"
"Yeah, but nobody's answering! Leika, I have to go to his house and see if it's okay!"
"But it's raining hard out there, Hiroto! I can't just allow you to go out there and soak in the rain! You'll get sick to death!"
"I don't care, onesan! I have to go! I love him and I don't know what I'll do if something bad happens to him!" As soon as Honda realized what he said, he covered his mouth then turned back from his sister. Leika, on the other hand, stared at his younger brother's back, open-mouthed.
"Hiroto?" she said after a minute's silence.
"Onesan, I. . . I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shock you like this, but----"
"I knew it."
"Huh?" He turned around. "What do you mean you knew it?"
"I know about your feelings for Jou ever since Otogi told me about what you did when Jou almost died in his battle with. . . who's that. . . Ma---Marik? Well anyway, ever since you and Jou met, I knew someday you'll fall in love him."
"You mean you knew that time that I was gay?"
Leika shook his head. "No. I knew that time that someday you would be gay. As you went with Jou and the others in the Duellist Kingdom, I know that you'll be one soon."
Honda just stared at his sister. If this weren't a serious situation, he would've laughed right now. Remembering about the situation, he straightened up and looked at Leika. "Well, now that you know about my feelings towards Jou, can I go now to his house and see if he's all right?!"
"I told you, Hiroto, I am not going to allow you to go out there while it's raining so hard!"
"I'll take the car!"
"You still don't know how to drive it!"
"I drive the motorcycle already!"
"That's totally different! When I said no, I mean no!"
Honda was angry now and he gasped for breath as glared at his sister. "Fine! You won't let me drive the car. . ." He took Leika's jacket that she hung at the back of the front door. ". . . I'll take the motorcycle then!" Then he got out of the house towards the garage.
"What?! Hiroto, no! Please!" Leika followed her brother. "Please Hiroto! You're not even sure if something bad had happened to Jounouchi! It's just intuition!"
"It's not just intuition, onesan!" Honda yelled through the rain. "It's love! I love him! Even before, I know whether Jou's in trouble or not! This kind of feelings are never wrong!" He put on his jacket and helmet as he went towards their white gate to open it. Nothing prepared him though for what he saw when he opened the gate: someone was lying unconscious in front of their house. Honda's heard skipped a beat the second time that day when he saw the color of blond on the head of the unconscious form.
"Jou!" Honda shouted, going towards the lying person, not caring that he'd be soaking wet.
"Hiroto, what the hell are you----oh God!" Leika gasped as she saw Jounouchi cradled in Honda's arms. "Oh my God, what happened to him?!"
"I don't know, Leika, but we've got to bring him to the hospital!!!" Honda said, getting panicky. "Jounouchi's unconscious and it looks like he has a high fever. And I saw some wounds on his back and chest."
Leika nodded. "I'll go get some towels and the keys of the car!" It was only a few seconds before she was out again with an armful of towels and the car keys on her mouth. She put the towels on the front seat. "You seat at the back and dry Jou off with the towels! C'mon!"
Honda got inside the car and lay Jounouchi on his lap. He could feel the blond shivering, and immediately took off the wet jacket he had on his shoulders and his pants as well. Even if they were wet, his boxers were a bit dry so he didn't take it off.
"Onesan, hand me the towels!" Honda dried him off first before wrapping some dry ones around Jou's upper and lower body and another one on his head. "Are we there yet?!"
"I don't know. . . it's hard to tell with this rain! How's he?"
"Not good!" Honda's voice was shaking. "Even though he's unconscious and I've dried him up already, Jou's still shivering! And. . . it looks like he's going to have a fever!" He caressed his best friend's cheek. "Oh Jou, what happened?" He whispered, though Leika could hear him. "Be strong, Jou. Oh please. . . don't die on me now!" He cried as he embraced and cradled the blond. "I love you! I don't want to lose you again!"
Leika looked at his crying younger brother sadly on the rearview mirror. She then saw how much Honda loves Jou, and couldn't imagine what would happen to her younger brother if Jounouchi dies. She prayed that Jounouchi would be okay, and that whoever had done this to the blond would pay dearly. After a few minutes, Leika saw Domino Hospital and stopped in front of the emergency room.
"Imooto, we're here!" As soon as those words were out, Honda went out of the car, Jounouchi on his arms, and towards to the emergency room.
"Nurse, there's an emergency here!" Honda called out inside. And soon enough, about four to five nurses immediately went to him and took Jou into a stretcher. The fifth nurse, a blond girl, asked questions.
"What happened to him, sir? Is he your relative?"
"I'm his best friend. We don't know what happened, but I found him in front of our house unconscious and wounded. Even we were surprised and shocked when we saw him there!" Honda said as he saw Jououchi being taken to one of the rooms.
"I see." She said as she wrote down what Honda had said on the clipboard she was holding. "We have to observe him, sir. How long had he been there in front of your house?"
"I don't know. I just saw him there when me and my sister got out of the house."
The nurse nodded. "Okay sir, that's all we need to know for now. We have to observe him first. If you want, you can wait here until we've finished observing him."
"Okay. Please, nurse, save him."
"We'll see, sir. I have to go now. By the way, what's the patient's name?"
"Jounouchi Katsuya."
"Okay. We'll get back to you later." With that, the blond nurse went towards the room where the other nurses had brought Jounouchi.
"Imooto, I'm sorry. . . I had to find a place to park and called Anzu on her cell phone to tell her what happened. She'll tell Yugi and the others immediately. Where's Jounouchi?"
Honda nodded towards the doors in front of him as he sat down. "They're observing him" Then he looked up to Leika. "What do you suppose happened to him, onesan?"
Leika sat beside his younger brother. "My only guess is that he was beaten."
"Beaten?! By who? And that's impossible because it's usually Jou who beats up people, not the other way around."
Leika shrugged. "I don't know. Actually, you should be the one who knows since you know him more than anybody else."
"Yes, but lately, I feel he's been keeping secrets from me. I know he's not telling me everything and that he's hiding something." Honda sighed.
"Don't worry, we'll find out who did this to him when Jounouchi wakes up. Then we'll make sure that someone will pay."
Honda nodded. He looked at his watch: it was just seven-thirty. He thought that it was already really late. Oh Jou, please be all right. Even though it was still early, Honda felt exhausted that he dropped his head on Leika's shoulder and, after a last glance at the room where Jou was, immediately fell asleep.
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Honda didn't know how long had he been sleeping, but when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a boy with tri-color hair.
"Yugi?"
"Honda, you're awake!" Some other voices yelled. By the sound of their voices, it looked like he was the one who got unconscious instead of Jounouchi.
"Uh. . . yeah." He straightened up and stretched. "Easy guys, I'm not the injured one here. And speaking of the injured one, what happened? Where's Jou?"
"No news yet. We just got here fifteen minutes ago." Ryou said.
"What? How long had I been sleeping?"
"Almost an hour. We don't know what's taking so long." Leika said worriedly.
"Damn!"
Don't worry, Honda. He'll be okay." Anzu said, holding his hand.
Honda sighed as he looked at his friends, and saw that only Yugi, Anzu and Ryou were there. "Only the three of you? Have you told his mother and Shizuka?"
Yugi nodded. "They said that they'll be here in about 2-3 hours. You know that they're back in Germany, right?"
"Yeah. Jou told me."
After a few minutes of talking and waiting, a doctor finally went out of the room where the blond was taken awhile ago, and was asking the nurse who bought the blond in the hospital.
"They're over there, doc." The blond nurse pointed towards Honda.
"Excuse me, are you relatives of," The doctor, a brunette girl, flipped at he clipboard. "Jounouchi Katsuya."
"We're all his friends." Honda explained. "His mother and sister will be here in three hours as they're in Germany. We don't know where his father is."
"Hmmm, I see that you're all close friends with the patient. I'm Dr. Aoi Mizuro. Can I talk with all of you privately in my clinic?"
All five exchanged worried glanced at each other as Honda said yes. Why did Dr. Mizuro have to speak to them privately? She can just tell them then and there that Jounouchi is okay and they can visit him immediately. It's just some wounds and a fever, right?
Dr. Mizuro led to the elevator, then to a hallway in the fourth floor until they reached to a brown door that had a sign "Dr. Aoi Mizuro" hanging and a "The Doctor is Out" sign. Honda noticed that she didn't flip it to "The Doctor is In", so that meant that she really intended to talk to all of them only.
"Please take your seats." She said as she took one behind her desk. "You're. . ." She looked at Honda.
"Oh, I'm Honda Hiroto. And my sister, Leika, Anzu, Yugi and Ryou. . . Jou's friends as well."
Dr. Mizuro nodded. "Okay, I'll go straight to the point. Katsuya's condition is not good now."
"What do you mean by 'not good', doctor?"
"Well," she flipped on her clipboard, "The reason we took an hour to observe him is because there's more to his condition than the wounds and high fever. Plus, he hit his hard that it was a miracle he didn't get unconscious immediately and was able to reach your house. If I'm not mistaken, someone beat him up before he came there."
"Beat him up? Who would beat him up? And is that all, doc?"
The doctor shook his head. "No sir. When we observed him, we also found out that. . ." She flipped her clipboard again. ". . . Katsuya is anemic and malnutrition as well. And because of this, his high fever is still there. He has a very weak body, and without enough iron in his system, Katsuya is in a bad condition now."
The others gasped when Dr. Mizuro was finished. Honda couldn't believe it. "Oh God!" Honda said, voice shaking. "What will happen to him, doc? Will he live?"
"The fever won't go down for a few days and his wounds won't heal that easily. I'm afraid to say this, but there may be a possibility that Katsuya won't make it. As simple as having a weak body, being anemic and having a fever can let a person die. I'm so sorry." Dr. Mizuro looked at everyone sadly. "Let's just pray that he'll make it. He'll need all the prayers that he can get."
"NO!!!" Honda stood up and went out of the clinic, ignoring his friends and sister calling him. As soon as he stepped out, he banged his fist on the white wall, frightening a few passersby and patients that were in the hallway. "No! This. . . this can't be! Who would do such a thing to Jou?! Why is he anemic?! He always eats. . .he's such a glutton! Why can't he make it?! Why did this have to happen?!" Honda yelled as he banged his fist so many times on the wall until it started to bleed. Leika and the others got out of Dr. Mizuro's clinic when he heard him yell and stopped Honda from hurting himself more. His sister shrieked when she saw the blood on her brother's hand.
"Hiroto! What the hell are you doing?! This won't solve anything!"
"Hmph!"
"Imooto. . ."
Honda turned back from them.
"Imooto, Dr. Mizuro said that we visit can Jounouchi now. She'll be out in a minute. . . she'll come with us 'coz she has other things she has to say about Jou's condition."
"You go ahead with her." Honda said, his shaky voice telling that he was crying. "I don't want to hear any of her talk about Jou's condition. I'll. . . I'll be in the canteen downstairs."
"Honda. . ." Ryou said. "I'll. . . I'll go with you." The brown-haired boy faced him, his face streaked with tears, then nodded.
Ryou faced Anzu. "Anzu, can I borrow your cell phone so that Leika can call and tell us where Jounouchi's room will be. We'll go there when Honda wants to." Tea nodded and handed her phone to the Ryou. "Thanks. C'mon Honda."
Leika, Yugi and Anzu watched as the two headed towards the elevator. The tri-colored boy faced Leika, "Is there something about Honda that we don't know?"
The black-haired girl just stared uneasily at her younger brother's two friends.
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"Here, Honda." Ryou handed him the Coke.
"Thanks, Ryou."
"So," Ryou took a seat across his friend. "You going to tell me about why you reacted that way awhile ago. By the looks of it, there's something more that you're not telling us."
"There nothing to tell, okay?!" Honda snapped, facing his side stubbornly.
Ryou quirked an eyebrow. "Why are you being so defensive?"
"I am. . . I am not. . .I. . ." Honda sighed. "Damn! You're just like Otogi!" he muttered.
"Huh?"
"Nothing." And with that, Honda told Ryou everything about him being in love with Jounouchi. From the time when Jou almost died, to Otogi's talk with him, to not having the guts to tell Jou, until now in the present when he had told the blond about his feelings.
Ryou frowned at Honda after he finished telling everything. "You mean all this time you never told any of us except Otogi that you're in love with your best friend?! Otogi's not even your friend; he's your rival with Shizuka! And speaking of Shizuka, you're in love with her!"
"Ryou, I told you awhile ago, that was just a cover up, just as Otogi had predicted. And for your information, I never told Otogi. He himself put two and two together and found it out for himself." Honda ruffled his hair, locks of it sticking out from different directions. "Believe me, I plan on telling you. I just wasn't ready yet to tell everyone."
"I see. Sorry about scolding at you."
"It's okay. You have the right to. . . after all I didn't tell you immediately and you're my friends." Honda sighed. "I just don't know what'll happen now. I don't want to happen what happened before to him."
"You mean when he almost died? But he didn't die, Honda."
"Yeah, but I don't know if he'll even live now. Dr. Mizuro said that he might not live---"
"Dr. Mizuro said that we should pray for hi to live. That means that we have to be strong and believe that Jounouchi will live." Ryou held Honda's hand. "Let's have faith, Honda. And. . . "Ryou hesitated. ". . . I know this may sound crazy, but when you get to his room, talk to him about anything even your love for him. Even though he's in a coma, I'm sure part of Jounouchi would hear you. You know, for me, it's good when you talk to a comatose person. It can let that person be determined and fight for his life, knowing that someone believes in him. And while doing so, believe that he'd wake up. Then, when he's okay, settle things with him."
Honda just stared at the former Millenium Ring holder. But despite that, he listened to every word that he said and was somehow touched by it. Ryou was right; he must believe that Jou would wake up because he desperately wanted him to wake up. Honda wanted to tell everything that he wasn't able to tell to the blond before, whether in a coma or when he's awake already. Honda nodded determinedly.
"You're right, Ryou, I should believe that there's till hope even if he's in a bad condition now. I don't when he'll wake up, but I'll wait until he does so." He smiled at his white-haired friend. "Thank you so much. You're such a great friend. And you would make a great prophet as well."
"Honda!" The white-haired boy punched his friend playfully on the arm. "But, it was nothing. I just don't want to you to get so depress and lose hope because of this. Neither any of us wants to see you like that." Ryou looked at his watch. "By the way, aren't we going there yet? Leika called awhile ago to tell Jou's room number while I was buying us some drinks."
Nevertheless, despite Ryou's touching speech and his vow that there's still hope, Honda couldn't help be afraid on what he'll see when he gets inside Jou's room. He didn't know what he'd look like in the hospital bed, and just thinking that made him hesitate to go further.
"Honda?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to go now? It's okay if you don't want to. I know you're scared of seeing him in that hospital bed." Honda frowned at him. How come he knew almost everything.
"No. . .let's go. I have to see him sooner or later." Then he stood up, as well as Ryou and, though scared to what he'll see, bravely walked out of the cafeteria and got into the hospital elevator. The moment it stopped on the fourth floor, Honda let out a breath and hesitantly stepped out of it.
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AN: Well, that's it. . . nothing much. Just bringing Jou to the hospital and a speech from Ryou (one of my favorite characters!). And I was a bit crny in the part where Honda was saying "I love you" to Jou in the car. Well, I thought it was like that....well just review about it. Questions, suggestions, and comments just out it in the reviews then I may answer you back or thank you through email. You can also email me if it's something private. If there's something wrong with my grammar and way of words, or just anything you want to say, just review. Man, I'm being redundant here.
Well, that's all.
Please, please review! Byers! ^_~