"Alright then, tell me what's really going on."

"Um, it was one bloody big staircase?" Honda narrowed his eyes.

"You sure because that bruise on your face clearly looks like a mark that a punch would leave."

"Oh, that? Some guys were fighting on the way home and I got in the way." Jou replied. Honda wished he could believe Jou, but he just couldn't. he held out a hand for his friend to help him up and turned to keep walking. Jou let out a sigh. This day just got worse and worse. The rest of the day passed with Honda glancing at Jou quite frequently and the others looking pretty worried.

"Um, I better get going now. It's nearly dinner time." Jou said, trying to sound carefree. They said their goodbyes with Honda offering to walk home with our blonde friend, and Jou giving in after only a few minutes. Once there Jou said goodbye and made his way up the steps to get to the door. Honda made no move to leave so soon though. He waited for 5 minutes after Jou had entered the house until he left.

Mokuba skipped into the dining room to greet Seto.

"Hi, have a nice day at school and work?" He chirped. Seto smiled.

"Hardly." He said with a shrug. "What's it to you?" Mokuba grinned.

"I wanna know every detail of the bad bits." He cheered before sitting down. Seto sighed before doing the same.

"Do I have to?" Mokuba nodded. "Okay, well at school as usual I had the twirp Yugi bugging me to be nice to the mutt before school, maths we had some bi-creep take our class because the teacher called in sick, then that damn dog decided he wanted to get pummelled-"

"Awe you beat up Jou? Why?" Mokuba asked curiously. "What did he do?"

"he pissed me off, alright?" Mokuba shrugged.

"And work?"

"some creep came and tried to hack into my project file so he could change it and make it a disaster." Seto said boredly. Mokie nodded and jumped up.

"Okay then. Are we going out for dinner?"

"It's up to you." Seto replied simply. Mokuba nodded over enthusiastically.

"Hell yeah! My choice where too?" Seto nodded, this would be a good time to catch up with his brother.

"Cool…"

Jou sighed before stepping into the dining room. It was 5:15 he had ten minutes until dinner. He was relieved to see his father asleep on the couch and not waiting for him. Quickly he and quietly he made his way to the kitchen to prepare for dinner and get an icepack, his stomach was killing him as was the rest of his body practically. He got out some plates, knives and forks, placed them on the table, and took out the ice pack before sitting down and resting it on his face. He sat like that for 5 minutes before picking up the phone and dialling the number for the pizza place and ordering. About ten minutes later the pizza arrived. Jou wasn't quite sure if he should wake his father yet, he found it a bit risky, but he still did it.

"Dad. Wake up. Dinners ready." He said while he tapped his father on the shoulder and stepped back. Jerry stirred to life as Jou grew more nervous.

"Ugh, what do you want you runt?" He snapped in annoyance. Jou tried to smile.

"Dinners here." He said simply before heading back to the kitchen. Jerry growled and stood to get his food. Jou had already dived into his food, it seemed to cheer him up a little. Grunting Jerry took his plate and went back to the couch with a can of beer he'd gotten from the fridge, and sat down to eat.

"Mokuba, can we go now? It's getting late and I have more work to do before going to bed." Seto inquired of his younger brother. Mokuba shrugged.

"Okay then Seto." He chirped happily. So off they went to the limo, and once in they headed home. Seto practically had to carry Mokie back into the mansion.

"Seto…don't beat up Jou any more." Mokuba commanded his brother lazily. Seto sighed and put his brother down on his bed.

"Why not? He deserves it." He said simply. Mokuba shook his head.

"No he doesn't. he gets enough from- oh look at the time. Goodnight." Seto narrowed his eyes.

"He gets enough from who Mokuba?"

"sorry, a promise is a promise. G'night." He replied before pushing his older brother out of the room and closing the door. Seto thought on this for a long time before something popped back into his head.

"YOU'RE LATE AGAIN!" came a thundered yell. Jou stepped back slightly before nodding. A hand reached out and gripped Jou's arm roughly and pulled him into the house quickly.

"Mokuba, get ready to be questioned." He said simply before retreating to his room for some well earned sleep.

Seto walked into the kitchen half asleep that morning. Mokuba giggled at his brothers stupidity.

"Seto, you shouldn't pull all nighters just to finish work you know. It's bad for your health." He chirped. Seto rubbed his eyes lazily.

"It's not my fault I couldn't sleep. And I wasn't doing paperwork either.

"Then what were you doing?"

"I had something on my mind." He replied shortly before sitting down and eating the cocopops that he had just put in some milk. Mokuba shrugged and continued to eat his toast. He watched in amuesment as Seto got up to go to the bathroom and walked staright into the door.

"Grrrrr! Whoever put that there is dead." He growled as he opened the door and left for the bathroom. Mokuba giggled and quickly got his stuff for school ready.

"Mokuba?" Seto inquired as he walked back into the kitchen. His brother wasn't there. Shrugging he went to look for him, and once he'd found him he started a conversation.

"So, last night was nice wasn't it." He said casually, not wanting it to look as though he was eager to find out the answer to his other question. Mokuba nodded in agreement.

"Yep." He chirped.

"And speaking of last night…"

"No Seto!"

"Why can't you tell me?"

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

"You promised who?"

"I'm not tellin'."

"Why not?"

"I told you I promised Jou I wouldn't tell anyone."

"So Jou made you promise?"

"Hey, since when do you call him Jou?"

"I don't, I'm just really out of it today."

"Oh."

"Mokuba just-"

"No." Seto growled in frustration as he left the room to get ready for school.

Jou sneezed again for the 12 time.

"I swear someone's talking about me! I haven't sneezed like this since, well, never."

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! And I'm sure you're all glad too, because it wouldn't be as good if I did! .