Milk and White Chocolate

Notes: Bad Dimitri with the delaying of the story… But I'm back.

And I've got a schedule now: First this gets done, then I'll put up another chapter or Uke Pageant and How to Lose Your Mind in Five Easy Steps. So those other two are temporarily on hold.

0-0-0-: POV shift from Jou to Honda or Honda to Jou

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0: Scene Shift

Chapter Five

Jou and Honda were both barely half awake when they slunk into school the next day. There was a slight possibility they had stayed up until four hours before school started playing chess and the rest of the night speculating on the givers of the gifts.

Honda was still pushing the idea of Blue being Seto but Jou had his doubts. Because, honestly? How ridiculous was that? He had just 'come out' as being with Otogi only to turn around to start trying to pursue the person he did nothing but insult and put down?

Hell, if that was really the case Jou couldn't just…betray Otogi like that. Even if he was sometimes a pompous jerk and did nothing but grate on his nerves severely all the damn time, he was Jou's friend. Friends didn't steal other friends' boyfriends.

Seto had to know that already. Jou's loyalty to his friends was kind of infamous, with all the world saving they'd been forced to do and Kaiba had seen it in action. Jou would be a lonely virgin all his life before he hurt someone he cared about.

…not that Jou was a lonely virgin now. Because he wasn't. And he didn't want anyone spreading that rumor around, because it was untrue. So there.

He was just waiting for the right person was all. And not even in a hopeless romantic sort of way, because he wasn't. It wasn't like seeing half of his friends find their soul mates and sign up for happily ever after before they even got to fucking college was making him jealous or anything. And it certainly didn't make him angry or picky or long for someone that he just knew was his. That would be stupid.

Because Jou couldn't very well have that. He wasn't half a soul like the others and he shouldn't be whining about wanting a soul mate when he obviously didn't have one. And no, that wasn't depressing thought.

After all, Anzu was doing just fine with Mai without all of that 'destined to be together' crap and he would do just fine too. One day he'd find a perfectly nice guy and they'd have a perfectly nice relationship and stupid things like 'the one' wouldn't matter anymore.

That's what most people ended up with anyway. Who really found that one person for them? …Other than Yugi, Ryou, and Malik of course. But he still wasn't jealous about that. How could he be jealous of his friends' happiness, right?

Right.

"Hey Jou-" Yugi started. He was sitting on the front steps with Ryou, Malik and Anzu.

"I hate you." Jou grumbled before shuffling past the small group. The Hikari's and girl all sweatdropped at his behavior but he didn't care. Honda was too asleep to really notice what the blond was doing and so plodded after him with half lidded eyes.

They were, once again, the first to homeroom. It was really beginning to become a really strange occurrence. It just wasn't…normal for them to be on time more than once a month. The world must have been coming to an end.

Again.

He was going to have to tell Yami about it later and let the spirit handle it. That was pretty much what they did whenever someone was trying to take over. It had occurred to them at some point that instead of doing all of that dueling and traveling they could just have one of the yamis banish whoever was trying to take over to the shadow realm.

Bakura and Marik were always eager to volunteer for such activities. Yami usually let them do it unless someone was dumb enough to upset Yugi.

Jou wondered what it'd be like to have someone willing to kill for him.

…Erhm. Not that be willing to kill was a good or positive thing because it wasn't. It as very bad. Bad. Terrible. …But damn he kind of wished someone cared about him that much.

He slumped into his seat and was about to slam his head onto the desk when he noticed the envelope on his desk. It was a simple blue envelope and had a black postage sticker with carefully typed white ink. Only instead of his apartment address it said:

'Jounouchi Katsuya

Third Seat

Second Row

Mrs. Hartley's room'

He blinked, wondering if he was disturbed that someone knew exactly where he sat in homeroom, before flipping it over and opening it. He pulled out a thick piece of paper and stared at it for a minute, not quite understanding that he was holding.

It was a gift certificate to Madam Monroe's dress shop for a thousand yen. A nice gift, as Madam Monroe's was a very expensive very high-class shop. It would have been even nicer if he had any interest what so ever in wearing a dress.

He wasn't Ryou for god's sake. And even if he had been he wasn't sure he would have indulged Bakura's cross-dressing fetish as much as the albino did. Not that Ryou didn't look disturbing good in a skirt…and, really, if he were Ryou he probably would indulge Bakura, because he'd be Ryou and since Ryou did indulge Bakura…

Ouch. He felt a headache coming on.

That was neither here nor there. The point was that there was no way in hell he'd be wearing a dress anywhere for anyone.

"What an interesting gift." He jumped and nearly toppled out of his seat before turning to glower at Ryou who just smiled sheepishly while blushing. "Sorry Jou-kun didn't mean to frighten you."

"Right. Well. You…didn't." He blinked at him while trying to command his heart to stop making attempts to leave his body through his throat. It really didn't want to obey him it seemed. "I was just…startled. Not scared. Heh."

Ryou's smile was only a little bit condescending. "Of course not. How silly of me to suggest such a thing, right? You scared of little me."

"If this is the part where you try to stab me again, Bakura, I am not impressed or fooled."

Bakura blinked slowly then shrugged and then once again he was looking at a slightly dazed looking Ryou. Jou smiled wanly and turned his attention back to the certificate.

"You want it?"

Ryou flushed bright red and Jou had to suppress the brief flash of sadistic pleasure he got from it. Served his psychotic yami right for always tormenting him. At least if Kaiba tormented him he got to snap back without fear of losing his soul or anything like that. (Honda had suggested at some point last night that Jou got off on the arguments with Seto but that was something he found he didn't want to think about too much, least he end up delving into some deep dark parts of his psyche.)

"Um, no that's-"

"Wow, is that for Madam Monroe's?" Anzu was there suddenly and plucking it from his fingers. She flipped it over to see…well, he didn't know what, then blinked. "Wow Jou, someone must really like you a lot to send you this for your sister."

He stared at her. "What?"

"Well, it says Shizuka on the back, on the 'Receiver' line and the post-it note says 'I know how much you care for your sister and I thought you'd like her to look stunning for the White Ball. Yours always, Blue.' See?"

She peeled off the blue sticky note and held it out to him He took it from her and let his eyes absorb the loopy script, the first 'clue' to the identity of Blue. After all, the other note had been typed.

"Your sister is going to the White Ball?" Ryou asked head titled off to the side. Jou nodded, still staring at the note.

The Domino White Ball was a city wide party held every year and sponsored by the big companies in order to make themselves look good. The entire Domino Hotel was rented out, each of the twenty ballrooms by a different company, and people went insane trying to get tickets.

"Mokuba asked her to go." He smiled slightly at the memory of the breathless and excited call his sister had graced him with. He didn't think he ever recalled hearing her so happy, not even after finding out her eye surgery had been a success and…well, he was happy for her. And Mokuba was probably one of the only people he'd trust with his sister.

And, considering he wouldn't have trusted Otogi or Honda with her that was saying a lot in the younger teen's favor.

He carefully took the certificate from Anzu and was about to place it back into the envelope. He'd tell Shizuka about it as soon he got home and find a way for her to get to Domino to go shopping as soon as possible.

He didn't know who this Blue person was, wasn't even sure if it was a guy or a girl just yet, but wherever they were he owed them a lot. This was going to put a smile on his sister's face and there were few things more important than that to him.

Then Anzu ripped away the envelope and he nearly shrieked while clutching the certificate. Was she trying to give him a heart attack of what? She rolled her eyes at him and pulled something else out of the envelope. Funny how he hadn't noticed that before.

She stared then showed it to Ryou who actually gasped before putting a hand over his mouth. The brunette girl shook her head then looked at him again.

"I take it back. Whoever this 'Blue' is they like you a lot, have great tastes, and are loaded. And probably gay." He was back to confused staring. "Well this is two thousand yen for Dolls Boutique and that's in the…erhm…Ryou help me out here?"

"Gay part of town." The albino said that without so much as a slight blush. He shrugged as he spoke. "Kura and I go to clubs down there sometimes. Kura 'shops'-" Which was code for 'steals' and or 'pays for with stolen money/credit cards. "At Dolls. So do Yami and Marik, though I think Yami actually pays for stuff. Ancient pharaoh treasure goes for a lot on the black-market according to him."

That made Jou pause in something resembling surprise and fear. None of the yamis really dressed…normally. Yami was clearly some kind of bondage freak, what with all the straps and buckles and leather (not that Yugi was any better); Marik usually went for too-tight to breath and showing off as much skin as humanly possible (Then again so did Malik); and Bakura was…well, he was a lot of things that kind of added up to 'Punk'.

"…You don't shop there do you?"

Ryou blinked at him then looked down at himself. He was in his uniform so it wasn't exactly the best example. Jou decided to just give him a minute to realize he wasn't talking about the sweater and khaki combo he wore when they hung out either.

Then Ryou blushed again. Yep, he'd caught on. "Sometimes. I prefer the place across the street, Matchbox Fashions."

"Just checking." Jou frowned for a moment. He was really a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy but for the White Ball he wouldn't mind dressing up. Besides, Kaiba Corp always had a room and it'd be nice to see Seto in something other than his school uniform or a trench coat. And as long as Ryou didn't shop there regularly for whatever it was he wore out clubbing (save a few rare occasions Jou never went out with the others. He always felt out of place among the couples.) it should be okay.

In theory.

"Don't worry Jou, we can all go with you." Ryou said with a sort of sympathetic smile. "None of us are going of course, we couldn't get any tickets but-"

"I don't have tickets either." Jou's brow furrowed. "I don't get it. Why send this but not a ticket? He-" And he'd decided it was a he. If Anzu and Ryou were right about the shop it was probably a guy, right? "Said something about White Day in the first note."

"First note?" Anzu looked excited all of a sudden, like she might start that creepy fangirl bouncing she did whenever the conversation turned to sex. "This isn't the first one? You officially have some rich guy trying to woo you? How romantic."

"Did you just say woo?" Jou asked, frowning.

"Unless it's a rich fat old guy looking for a boy." Malik said with a smile that bordered on sadistic. Jou, Ryou, and Anzu all shivered. Yugi and Yami, who were just hanging back and listening thoughtfully, looked like he was going to be sick all of a sudden. Malik just shrugged. "It's possible. Jou's cute, young, athletic, and would probably look good spread out over someone's silk sheets, tied up…mmm."

Jou shrank back, suddenly afraid. "Ryou make him stop."

Ryou was Malik's best friend and the only one who seemed to be able to control the Egyptian, his yami, and Bakura. However the white-haired boy just kind of shrugged.

"He has a point Jou. Even Kura agrees and you know how much he doesn't like you."

"Really?" Malik looked surprised. "I thought wanting to see Jou bleeding and crying was sign that Bakura had a thing for him."

"Well…"

Jou just whimpered and sank low in his chair, hoping to block out the ensuing insanity. He so didn't need to be hearing any of this. Ever.

0-0-0-

Jou wasn't the only one to be graced with a gift. Honda, still in his half conscious state, slide into his seat and put his head down on his desk, hoping to be able to sleep straight through to his first class. Maybe even through that if he was lucky. It wasn't like he really needed to be awake to pass algebra.

And then he heard the excited voices of his friends and tried to will them away so he could catch just a little bit of sleep. But the voices only grew as more people were added and they got louder with each passing second. Finally he lifted his head off the desk, ready to tell them all to shut the fuck up when he realized there was something stuck to his forehead. He narrowed his eyes at it then reached up to peel it off.

It was a manila envelope and the top flap was tied shut with red string. He unwound it from the metal things it was twisted around then flipped it open. He dumped out the contents, eyebrow arching at the multiple slips of white paper. He picked on up and, eyes crossing at the tiny print on the one side, flipped in over to the front.

And swore.

Loudly.

Everyone looked his way, including a miserable looking Jou. Honda arched an eyebrow at him, temporarily forgetting what he was holding. What had he missed while trying to sleep? Jou looked all of two seconds away from jumping out of the nearest window and never returning.

Ryou and Malik must have been having another one of those strange and kinky conversations that they were becoming kind of infamous for. But at least Bakura and Marik were nowhere in sight otherwise Jou may had fled already.

They seemed to like tormenting the blond. Honda didn't really understand why that was, but he did his part to try and get them to leave Jou alone. …Unless the conversation proved to be educational and enlightening in…certain areas, in which case he usually let them talk for a while before trying to save Jou from them.

He couldn't be blamed for appreciating the educational value of their sex lives, strange and twisted though they were.

"What's wrong?"

He handed Yami, who'd been the one to speak, the ticket. Ten tickets for the White Ball had fallen out of the envelope. And not just any tickets, but Total Access tickets that granted them access to all twenty of the ballrooms instead of just the General Access that gave permission to enter only the ballroom of the company you bought the ticket from.

They were pretty expensive.

"Wow." Yugi was looking as well. "Where'd you get these?"

Honda opened his mouth then shut it and looked back at his desk. It took a moment to pick it out, but a piece of red paper was in the pile of white and so he plucked it out.

'Honda,

I want to see you there and tell you who I am.

Bring your friends to keep you company.

SA'

"His secret admirer." Jou said, sitting up some. "I guess you guys are going to the ball."

"Looks like." Anzu said while titling her head off to the side. "If Honda wants to take us all with him anyway."

Honda smiled slightly. "Of course. Who else would I take?"

"This is going to be great." Yugi was bouncing. "We can go shopping after school on Friday, if everyone else is free. Yami and I work this week …and I'm sure Mai and Anzu wouldn't mind taking Shizuka."

"Not at all. It'll be fun, a girls night." The brunette girl was beaming at the thought. It was common knowledge that Anzu loved to shop and was a professional at it. Shizuka would be in good hands.

…Wait.

"Why're you taking Shizuka shopping? And where are we going?"

Everyone sweatdropped. Then Yami clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it Honda. Jou will fill you in after school."

Honda nodded his agreement to that and, after handing out the pairs of tickets and placing the ones he and Jou would apparently be using into his wallet, put his head back on the desk. Maybe he could get some sleep now.

And he did. A blessedly forty-five minutes of sleep, about halfway in math class, before the door opened and everyone turned. It was been noted upon, while Honda was sleeping, that both Kaiba and Otogi were strangely absent from the class which, considering what had happened on St. Valentines day, had people talking.

So when they walked in together the chatter began earnest. It effectively woke Honda up form his much-needed nap. He looked over at the door and when he saw his crush standing next to Kaiba he had to admit it hurt.

A lot.

He couldn't understand what Otogi could see in that asshole. They were just…so much alike. They had to be driving each other insane. It was just…it had to be like dating yourself. Not even Malik and Marik were as similar as Otogi and Kaiba tended to be.

It didn't make any sense to him. But hey, maybe he was just biased.

"Is there a reason you two have seen fit to walk into my class late?"

"My car had a flat." Otogi said mildly. She nodded, apparently accepting that, then looked over at Kaiba who flashed her a slightly insane grin.

"I had to pick up Otogi because his car had a flat."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're telling me that, at some point this morning, your car got a flat and so you went to get him and were somehow thirty minutes late for this class and, factoring in homeroom time, almost an hour late for school. In spite of the fact I know Otogi only lives ten minutes from the school, five with your driving habits Kaiba, and that if you got him on your way here you still should have been on time?"

Otogi and Kaiba exchanged looks, as if considering the story. And they nodded in unison. She snorted and nodded towards their seats.

"Sure. I don't care what you two do before, or after, school with each other but try to be on time from now on."

They both nodded and sat down, seemingly oblivious to the whispers and looks directed towards them. Honda glanced over at Jou who was staring at his desktop grimly. He turned away and put his head back on his desk, hoping for sleep.

He just…didn't even want to think about why those two had really been late. It hurt too much to think about.

And things were going to well until the end! Oh well. Store names were blatantly ripped off from the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox Twenty. I'm sure not that creative.

Adult fan fiction dot net

Yukkio: I'm glad everyone is so glad that Jou's dad is a nice guy. I thought it'd be good to have Jou's dad in a happy place, in order to give Jou some support. He sure as hell needs it…

Reyn: Yes, White Day is a real holiday. The little blurb in the first chapter explains it pretty well. As for Kaiba and Otogi's 'talk'…Could be. We'll know soon enough won't we.

Anon: Ask and thee shall receive!

Euphoria: Yes, the Lost Prophets are big in Japan, which is cool because they are an awesome band. The mushy-ness with H/J is pretty much my problem. I tend to roll my eyes and go 'Jesus Christ, they're teenage boys! Come on…' and O/K is creepy. I agree completely. Just not right. And I also agree about Yami…at least with Bakura and Marik you know you run the risk of being gutted, you never know with Yami. He's just a freak. But I liked the way you said it 'killing streak problem'. Made me laugh.

Nicky: LOL. Had you scared did I? Awesome. I'll scare you a few more times, trust me.

Mehla: Ahh, the randomness that is 'Stream of Consciousness' you know? That's why I love that POV so much. People don't have linear thoughts, but rather go off on tangents and it's so fun to just throw in random things. The random part of this chapter was Ryou cross-dressing, should anyone have missed it.

Fanfiction dot net

CHOW: You're right, Kaiba isn't the more subtle guy in the world. I mean, he arranged a whole tournament just to challenge Yugi/Yami…subtle that is not. Jou must have forgotten. And Jou's dad giving him the talk was faintly reminiscent of my mother's own attempt at that…

Yugi-Is-My-One-And-Only: …Jou is a dumb ass. But you love him anyway, don't you? Heh. And apparently Jou thinks it'd be nice to have someone willing to go all psycho for him as well, so you two agree on that one.

Hikari DS and Muraii: Hikari, you are correct. Otogi might be the prettier of the two (and proud of it I'm sure) but he's a stubborn stubborn bastard and Honda would probably roll his eyes and go 'As long as I get laid'. And yes, convert to the wonder of Chaseshipping…convert! BWAHAHAHAHAHA. ….ahem.

Mechante: Well, my boyfriend claims to think about me 24-7 but I doubt it because I know he has a comic obsession that rivals my own. (Ah, when geeks fall in lust.) And about my guy, we have a system: I don't write/update on Fridays or Saturdays because he doesn't have class or work those days. Systems are fantastic. And the sexual innuendo shall run rampant because…well, they're teenagers.

Cross: Yes, the plot thickens! Cue the weird organ music! Heh.

Misura: Actually keeping Jou and Honda to the friends only level isn't as hard as it is with say…Malik and Ryou because I think Jou and Honda have one of the greatest friendships I've ever seen and can't see them ever risking it on anything else. I guess in kinda shows in the writing. And I'm glad you like Jou's dad. It's fun to do something a little different.

Zeto: Soon…is a relative term. But I try.

Cherre: No I'm not going to wait until White Day to update. That would just be mean and, while I may have masochistic tendencies in real life sadism is a bit beyond me. Though sometimes I get called evil for cliffhangers…

Man: So you have a hunch do you? Well, I'd love to hear it. It's always great to know what goes on in the head of the reviewers.

Smile: Seto and Otogi clueless? Maybe. Most people seem to think it's Honda and Jou who are clueless. But who knows, maybe it is Seto and Otogi… We shall see.