Rated: R, for later chapters.
Summary: There isn't one yet, but I'll add one in as soon as I figure out the entire plot myself.
Disclaimer: I don't own it, so you don't sue me.
Duckie: Guess who's back, back again, Hikage (with a new name) is back, tell a friend... I have deleted my other stories because one - I'll never finish them; two - one has gotten entirely out of hand and is unsalvageable and the other simply doesn't compare with my new writing style; and three – this is an altered version of a (real) story I want to begin work on, so I'm going to see if I like the plot/storyline, that sort of thing. So, I welcome all readers (those who read my work before and those new) to my latest piece, Love Wears Converse.
Note I do not know what honestly happened to Kaiba's parents, so this is my own spin on things. If you want to tell me what actually happened in a decent human manner feel free, if you want to flame me like a PMSing woman who's lost her car keys you can do that too. Either way, I'm not changing what I wrote so it doesn't honestly matter.
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So childish...
Pale slender fingers gently reached toward the slate grey sky, painfully flexing and then straightening again, lazily grasping at the tiny snowflakes that danced from the heavens. No two snowflakes were alike, each different in their own respect, completely individual. Sort of like people, the only difference being that all the snowflakes accepted one another, all danced together... People weren't quite so feeling. You didn't want to be too individual, or so his mother had always told him. People who were too different were frowned upon, outcast for being what they were. That's why he'd been home schooled – there were other children who might be too unique and that was no good, because then he might realize he wanted to be distinctive as well, that he wanted to flaunt what he truly was. So he'd been forced to be more like the other boys, normal boys, his sketchbooks and journals had been taken away, replaced by a football that reeked of pigskin.
A sardonic smile found its way across his rose petal lips. Mother wouldn't be able to steal his personality anymore... In fact, she wouldn't be doing much of anything anymore. An icy shiver skittered down his back with spidery fingers, and a fresh wave of pain pulsed in his hand, a million feelings rushing back. Soft flesh, splitting and tearing, warm crimson flowing over his mangled fist, piercing screams wracking her fragile body, louder and louder. He cradled his right hand to his chest and rolled over on his good arm, folding it beneath his head. His body tingled with a jumble of sensations, throbbing with a dull warmth he recognized as power. The word reverberated numbly in his mind; he liked the sound of it. She'd had power over him – never once he retaliated when she hit him, never had he told her to stop. Was this what is felt like, the ultimate high, but at the same time so lowly? His pulse throbbing tightly against his wrist, ready to burst at any moment.
You're just like her...
Sharp blue eyes snapped open, blinking dazedly as the room slowly came into focus. The professor was still prattling on, stopping every so often to run a hand through his balding hair and ask if there were any questions. His chair slammed backward into the row behind him, his boots squeaking on the freshly waxed floors that smelled of Pine-Sol.
"Mr. Kaiba-"
The door in the back of the room slammed shut, and the brunet was already half way down the hall, long trench coat fluttering behind him. When he rounded the corner, Seto immediately slumped down against the wall and let his books slam to the ground next to him. He rummaged in his pocket momentarily and slipped out a small prescription bottle and popped one of the pills into his palm, gulping it down without a second thought.
"Hey Kaiba, what're ya doin' outta class?"
He didn't turn to look at the blonde, but caught him in the corner of his eye. Jounouchi stood with his hands jammed in the pockets of a faded blue denim jacket, his head cocked to one side so his golden bangs fell just over dark chocolate tinted irises. A stripe of fitted orange T-shirt could be seen under the jacket, and a hint of smooth flesh peeked out where his shirt ended and his loose jeans began. Tattered and doodled on green Converse high tops enclosed his feet; a messenger bag was slung over one shoulder. "None of your business, mutt." Seto growled, trying to discretely tuck the bottle into his pocket. It wasn't hidden enough.
In one fluid movement, the blonde bent down and stole the pills, turning away and observing the label carefully. "Da..Da...Daretrium?" He stumbled over the name and spun to face Kaiba. "What's it for?"
"Give me that!" The brunet snapped, balancing on one foot as he struggled against Jou's arm to get the bottle back.
Jou held it in the opposite arm, stretching it as far out of reach as possible. "Tell me what it's fa-or," he said in a sing-song voice.
"Damn it!" And the next thing he knew there was a loud thud and Seto was laying in a rather awkward position on top of a certain blonde, his arms pinning the puppy's head in place, his own irises meeting with toffee brown, both of them breathing hard. Everything seemed to freeze, and gradually the brunet pushed himself up.
"Here," the puppy whispered breathily, a trembling hand holding out the container.
Their fingers brushed as Kaiba took it, and suddenly time burst into action. The azure eyed man swiftly heading in the opposite direction as Jounouchi adjusted his jacket and rose to his feet. There was a soft snigger and Jou heaved a sigh. "Yeah, yeah... Jus' come make funna me and get it over with."
A short boy who seemed no older then ten or so with sleek locks of crimson, gold, and black appeared behind the blonde, his amethyst eyes sparkling with innocent amusement. Next to him stood a more matured version, as though he had stepped through a time machine, with stormier eyes and a deep voice. "What was that?" Yami snickered and Yugi watched his friend with questioningly.
"Come on Yug, it's not like it was my fault or anythin'... Hell, it was that jerks fault more then mine." Unfortunately, his face refused to cooperate and blushed furiously.
Yugi's shoulders shook and he buried his face in Yami's chest to keep his mirth quiet. Yami himself was gnawing on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, making the heat in Jou's face flare. "It's...okay...we won't tell...anyone..." he managed through heaving breaths, his voice trembling to keep from laughing again.
The brunet snorted; by mid-afternoon Anzu, Honda, Otogi, Bakura, and Ryou would all know and would find some way to torment him with it. When he looked up again Yami had snaked his arms around Yugi's waist and was nipping at the smaller boy's ear while he squirmed and giggled like a school girl. Jou felt something in him ache and gripped the strap of his bag hard. "Guys, I gotta go... see ya later, okay?"
Yugi broke away from the firm kiss Yami had planted on his lips and twisted around, "Okay, but don't forget we're going to the club tonight... We'll pick you up at eight thirty?"
"Yeah, sounds good." He left the pair in the hall and leisurely made his way to the C Wing, which had a formal name for the prick who'd donated all the money to build it, but Jou always failed to remember.
The dorm's industrial style carpet was barely visible through laundry, pizza boxes, soda cans, and trash bags that had piled up over time; the coffee table was haphazardly piled with books, notebooks, pens, and half empty Starbucks cups. There was decent sized TV that didn't get cable but had an Xbox plugged into it and somewhere in the clutter was a stack of games and two controllers. He frowned at the mess and made a mental note to pick it up eventually, then tossed his bag on the navy blue sofa that sat in the middle of the wall. The door to his room was jammed and with some difficulty the blonde roughly shouldered it, nearly falling over when it flew open. His room was clean aside from the clothes hanging out of the dresser from his morning rush to get to class, but the teen shoved them back in their rightful places then stripped down and flopped back on the soft sheets of his bed, springs creaking with age, though it was comfortable enough that he didn't toss and turn all night. The white sheets were cool and crisp on his naked flesh and in less then five minutes, the blonde was lost in sleep.
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Somehow, his apartment seemed lonelier than usual, the whirring of computers in the back room noisier than usual. Playing in to the mood, the brunet quietly took off his shoes and let his trench coat slip off his shoulders, closed the door to the computer lab, then collapsed on the couch, listening to the eerily loud silence, drinking in his 'home'. There was nothing on the floor, and only an open Biology book on the table. A flat screen television was hung on the wall; there was a faded maroon rug on the floor covering the plush burgundy carpet. It was all so pristine and precise...boring. Kaiba massaged his temple with two fingers then stood from the couch and grabbed a towel out of the linen closet.
The bathroom was probably the biggest room in the entire apartment, with a massive shower and huge round bathtub in the corner that had three steps leading up to it and had a jet setting. The other wall was completely filled with black granite countertops that glistened under florescent lights had a long sprawling mirror hung over it. In the bathrooms entrance was a door with a tiny closet-like area connected to it where the toilet was hidden. The brunet tossed his clothes on the floor and didn't bother wrapping the plush towel around his waist while he waited for the shower water to heat up. Within minutes steam drifted out of the glass door and the mirror was partially fogged.
The azure eyed teen groaned blissfully as scalding water poured over his tense muscles and matted his shaggy brown hair to his cheeks. He leaned the right side of his body against the cold tile, his head resting on the washcloth bar. The incident with the mutt kept playing through his mind like a tape on replay, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't block it out. Finally, his thoughts drifted incoherently, not even trying to make sense.
"S-Seto, what's going on?"
"Mokuba, Leave. Now."
The raven haired little boy looked at him with big watery eyes, his frame trembling. "What's wrong with mommy?"
The icy boy stared at his mother's collapsed body that was layed out face down on the checkered linoleum. "Nothing. But you have to go now, okay?" His voice softened and he hugged his baby brother tightly. "I'll meet you at the clubhouse across the river; do you remember how to get there?"
"Mm...hm..." He sniffled, snuggling his face into Seto's shirt. Then he ran, the screen door slamming shut behind him.
There was a loud groan and his mother shoved herself up on her elbows, dark crimson dripping from a wide gash on her lip. The brunet's stormy eyes blinked, and he cracked his knuckles. "Something wrong, mother dearest?" He felt no remorse, no guilt, only a shiver of pleasure. Pleasure...A strange emotion for murder he supposed. The strings controlling his emotions weren't tugging the right way, but he thought maybe once it was over he'd feel something, one of the strings might snap.
"Seto, you-you know I didn't mean to hurt you – I didn't mean to hurt you or Mo..." She didn't even remember his name. And somehow, that drove into him harder then any time she had ever hit him, any words she'd ever screeched. Seto slammed her back against the wall, a picture of a country side landscape falling from its hanger and smashing in five long fragments. His eyes glistened dangerously, an idea taking shape.
Tears rolled down his cheeks, mixing with hot water and swirling down the drain. He turned off the water and stood there for a long time, slumped against the wall and when he finally moved, Seto knew he couldn't stay alone in his vacant apartment tonight. There was a club downtown...Corbas. He'd been there once before, and it hadn't been so bad. And if nothing else he could get insanely drunk and it would deaden the pain. He climbed out of the shower and swallowed down another pill before slipping into a pair of tight leather jeans and a dark navy tank top. As he sat on the edge of his bed, tying the laces to his boots the brunet glanced at the tiny silver cross dangling from a hook in the dresser. There was still a tiny blood stain on the back he'd never been able to get off. Kaiba clicked off the light and there was a faint tinkling noise; the barren hook reverberating as the chain clinked against it in removal.
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When he woke up, it was already eight. Jou cursed and stretched languidly, arching his back and rotating his shoulders to work out the stiffness.
He fished through his closet and finally settled on black pants... or were they shorts? He wasn't really sure, seeing as they were too short to be pants and they were too long to be shorts but at the same time they weren't capri's. The blonde shrugged nonchalantly and fastened a black and white checkered belt around his waist, frowning when he realized there was only one shirt hanging clean in his closet; it was white and said Blue October in sketchy maroon lettering. It was also just a shade small, crawling up over his stomach to expose smooth, flat stomach muscle. Jou scowled and muttered under his breath, completing the look with the same ragged Converse high tops he'd had on earlier that afternoon. A long toll rang through the dorm, tied to a shorter ring. "Comin'!" The mahogany eyed teen yelled, hopping over the laundry basket in the middle of the hall and stumbling into the door way.
He let them in and for a minute the two leather clad duplicates stared at him. Not directly at him, but at the vast spread of flesh that his shirt showed. It seemed the shirt had betrayed him and ridden up to the point he might as well have been wearing a bikini top. "Stupid too tight..." he mumbled a short tirade and adjusted the fabric.
Yami and Yugi traded glances, Yugi blushing. "Don't you think that's sort of...erm...revealing?"
Yugi wasn't really one to talk, his own shirt intentionally climbing half way up his chest, but Jou knew he what he meant. The blonde rarely wore anything that didn't cover up most all of his upper torso. Sure, he usually had a tiny bit of skin showing, but nothing that left so little to the imagination. "It was all I had clean." Jou replied haplessly, considering finding something in dirty to change into.
"No, no! It looks really good on you, it's just...you know..." Yugi burst into a fit of giggles, his naivety getting the better of him. Jou playfully punched him in the shoulder earning a startled yelp followed by a second yell as the smaller boy knocked into Yami, sending them both to the ground.
This time it was Jou's turn to laugh, shaking his head at them and then laughing even harder when Yami shot him an irritated glare. Yugi grinned and helped Yami up. He hadn't seen his friend genuinely laugh in a long time. "We better get going – I promised Ryou and the others we'd meet them there in ten minutes and that was-"he glanced at his watch, violet orbs widening, "oops, fifteen minutes ago." The tri-haired boy grabbed Yami and Jou's hands, dragging them out of the apartment and outside into the warm, late August night.
Since the club was only ten minutes down the street, Yugi suggested they walk. None of them had earned scholarships, and it would save money not wasting the gas. It was a Friday night and though the streets were lined with cars and voice and music poured out of every opening door, the sidewalk wasn't jammed with people like it was in the afternoon and the three teens messed around and darted around the sidewalk all the way to the club.
A pink neon sign hung over the building that read Corbas, the front windows were tinted dark so only moving shadows could be seen from the outside. They ducked into the alley way and entered the club through its side entrance, the noise suddenly deafening. The music pulsed in the walls and shouting and drunken cheers flooded Corbas,and it was Jou who first noticed the ring of people in the middle of the dance floor. The club was famous for it; competitions were held every five to ten minutes and there weren't any prizes, hell, the club wasn't even regulating it, it was simply crowd favorite or whoever gave up first.
What he wasn't expecting to see was a brunet with piercing blue eyes dancing with a girl only a year older then him, their bodies pressed together and moving swiftly with the fast beat. The act wasn't sensual at all, both of them had needed a partner and that's all there was to it.
"Wow, I didn't know Kaiba could dance," Yugi murmured, in awe as his amethyst irises tried to keep up with their rapid movements.
"Yeah, me neither..." Something flamed in his eyes and Jou found himself wishing it were him on the floor, surrounded by the crowd. Was he jealous? ...But why would he be jealous of Kaiba – he couldn't stand that bastard. He frowned and yelled at Yugi over the dim roar, "I'm gonna go over to the bar, I'll see you later!"
His friend nodded, moving toward the area where Anzu and Ryou were waving to get their attention and Otogi, Honda, and Bakura were shrinking away from, pretending not to know them.
Jou pulled up an empty bar stool and ordered a beer, idly spinning in circles while he waited. About the eighth time he spun around he was greeted with a set of startlingly blue eyes and a small smirk. The blonde's own eyes grew as big as saucers and he nearly fell out of his chair. "Kaiba! What're you-"
He was cut off as the brunet fastened his lips onto the mutt's, twining his fingers in Jou's glossy blonde locks, his mouth tasting of alcohol, desperation, and lonliness.
To be continued...
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Duckie: I'm planning to have chapter two posted by Saturday, depending on how much homework and stuff I have, and how much creativity my mind is willing to share.