(A/N: Thanks to all of you for stickingwith this, what with sparodic updates and all. Sirithiel, darkmetaldragonfangs and Ankhutenshi, you guys rock! You keep my spirits up, so thanks for the reviews!)
Chapter 7: Domino City
Ring... ring...Jounouchi looked up from the floor, "Kaiba, your phone's ringing."
Kaiba grunted and continued typing.
Ring... ring..."Kaiba! Your phone!" Jounouchi said with more urgency; he'd been stuck inside this house for who knew how long and the only thing he'd been able to do was sleep... when he was awake it seemed like everyone except Kaiba was asleep. Other than that, he was hungry, which made almost anything very irritating very quickly.
"I heard you the first time." Kaiba remarked dryly, his eyes not moving from the computer screen.
"Aren't you going to answer it?"
"Who is it?"
"How should I know, I haven't picked it up." Jounouchi shot back sarcastically, then added, "I don't even know where it is."
"Idiot, it has call display." Kaiba muttered, then cocked his head in indication to the telephone's whereabouts.
Jounouchi went over to it and picked it up, "It says private caller."
"What's the number?" Kaiba asked, still not paying attention to anything other than his computer.
"261-"
"That's the area code for Madagascar."
Jounouchi didn't have the time to marvel at how Kaiba knew these –apparently useless- things, "665-8225."
"Give me the phone!" Kaiba snarled suddenly, his arm shooting out and seizing it from Jounouchi's hand. He pressed it to his ear and said quickly, "Mokuba, why the hell are you in Madagascar?"
"Seto!" Jounouchi blanched when he heard Mokuba's high-pitched voice crackling through the phone. How had that kid gotten mixed up in all this disappearing stuff? "I don't know what's going on, where am I?"
"Hold on and I'll track your signal." Kaiba said, putting the phone down so he was hands-free to type. Two seconds and a map appeared on screen. Five more and a loading-indication later, a blinking red dot appeared on the northern-most tip of the island of Madagascar. Kaiba picked up the phone again, "Mokuba, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Seto. The people here are sort of afraid of me, but they haven't hurt me or anything." Mokuba sounded rather cheerful for someone halfway across the world with little to no idea of where he was.
"Listen to me carefully, you need to go South. It looks like you're just outside of Antsiranana, and you need to get to the capital, Antananarivo. It has the only airport on the island."
Jounouchi blinked. Long words, and lots of a's. He hoped Mokuba had better memory than he did, for the kid's sake.
Mokuba didn't sound daunted, "Okay Seto, so I need to go to Antananarivo? I'll try something. Do you need me to keep my phone on, because I don't know how long the battery will last..."
Kaiba looked like he thought about that for a moment, then said, "Turn it off for now. Call me every few days so I know you're alright and so I can update your location. It won't change while the phone's not signalling."
"Alright." Mokuba's voice suddenly went wavery; it seemed he had realized just how far he was from home and his brother. Hanging up would mean making that distance even bigger.
Jounouchi had an idea. He poked Kaiba on the elbow, waving at himself. Kaiba raised an eyebrow. 'Let me talk to him.' Jounouchi mouthed, giving his most winning grin. Kaiba shook his head, replying to Mokuba, "You sure you're alright?"
It sounded like Mokuba was putting on his brave face for his brother, "Yeah, I'm good. I should go figure out how to talk to these people..."
"Wait Mokuba! Don't hang up!" Jounouchi yelled from the other end, causing Kaiba to look at him with complete disgust and thrust him the phone; how could he hang up now? Jounouchi took the phone and spoke into it, "Hi Mokuba!"
"Jounouchi? Why are you at my house?" Mokuba now sounded rather confused.
"We got a bit beat up around here. Long story, and I don't know it. Listen, you'll get back no problem, so don't worry."
Jounouchi thought he could hear Mokuba smiling. "Yeah... thanks Jounouchi."
"No sweat. And hey, where do you keep your food? Your brother isn't a very good host." Oops. He hadn't meant for that last comment to come out.
Mokuba didn't seem to notice, "Upstairs, in the kitchen. When you come in the front door, it's the second door on your right."
"All right! Thanks Mokuba! You take care of yourself, okay?"
"Of course. Bye!" Mokuba sounded more cheerful than he had a few moments ago when talking to his brother, so Jounouchi considered his job done and hung up.
Kaiba rounded on him, "What did you do that for?"
Jounouchi blinked. "Do what?"
"Talk to Mokuba like that! He's not your brother!"
"No but... well, let's be honest Kaiba, you're not the best in the sympathy department." Jounouchi shrugged, heading for the stairs.
"Where are you going now?" Kaiba demanded, returning to his computer but not typing anything. It'd take a moment before he found something else to do.
"The kitchen. You need a few lessons in hosting, we've been here hours and nothing to eat. What do you live off of, coffee and peanuts?" Jounouchi didn't wait for an answer and bounded up the stairs, any boredom and lethargy forgotten in the face of food.
Interlude 7.1
Sault Ste. Marie
José stared. "So dude... Dude! That's so awesome!"
Yami had to smile, just a little. "I remember very little."
José shrugged, "Hey, don't sweat it. I'd forget a couple of things if I'd been... dead for like a thousand years."
"I think it's been a bit longer than that." Yami said delicately, but he really didn't care either; José believed him and that was all that really mattered.
José shrugged again, swinging his arms back and forth. After a moment, he said, "Your turn."
Yami blinked, then remembered what he was talking about. They were playing twenty questions. "I don't know... how did you start working at a beavertail place?"
"Hmm... now that's my long story." José appeared thoughtful for a minute, then replied, "Well, my mom used to own it and she married Kolin's dad. My parents got divorced when I was young." He added at the confused look on Yami's face, "Anyway, Kolin and I became 'brothers', except we don't get along so we never really considered ourselves related. Mom and Kolin's dad moved somewhere... and we haven't heard from them since. They talked it over before they left and decided that Kolin was more responsible, so now he owns the beavertail place. I work there because I have since I was old enough to walk. I wasn't getting paid back then, but you know what I mean, eh?" José finished with a cheeky smile; his spirit really wasn't one to be dulled by anything.
"That's really interesting." Yami said politely, and it was, at least to him. He'd never heard of this sort of brother and divorce business.
"If you say so." José grinned, then said, "I just got my next question! How'd you get your hair to look like that, it's awesome!" He indicated the tri-coloured spikes on Yami's head.
"Good question. I really don't know. It's how it grows." Yami replied even, with a self-conscious brush of his hand through his hair.
"Lucky. That's awesome, man!" José exclaimed, then looked up at the building they were next to, "This is my apartment building. I'm on the fourteenth floor." He opened the door and let Yami go in first.
Yami looked around; it wasn't a really fancy place, but what could you expect so close to downtown? There was a potted plant near the window, and a bunch of buzzing buttons on a panel on the wall. Yami was about to go over to them when José called him over to a second set of doors.
"We go through here, then up the elevator. We don't need to buzz, and if you did, you wouldn't get an answer anyway. I'm not in my apartment right now, so how could I answer you?" He grinned and slid his card into the reader so the door would open, "Besides that, you'd need to be a pretty good guesser to get my number!"
Yami smiled weakly as he followed him into the elevator and said nothing until they entered Jos's modest apartment. It looked like any bachelor's place would; dirty in a half-decent sense, organized so hat no one but who lived there would know where things were. A map hanging on the wall caught Yami's eye. He went over to it, looking at all the places listed. Then he put his finger on Tokyo. "There."
José looked up from the fridge. "Whatwhere?" He said, wandering over with two cans of ginger ale.
"Tokyo. Domino City. It's there." Yami said softly
"Oh, home, eh? I get it. And we're... here." José replied, putting his finger on a dot in Ontario.
"I've got my next question. How far is it from where you're pointing to where I'm pointing?"
José almost fell down. "Whoa! That's going to take some figuring... But I'll get it for you, no worries..."