Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh ain't mine.
Chapter 4 – Sticky red pasts
"What's happening to me?" The platnium blond boy rasped, gripping his head tightly. There's no way… I could be turning… gay!" He sunk down into Otogi's bed, through heavy breaths.
He heard soft footsteps approaching him from the other room.
"Hey Jounouchi." He heard Otogi say loudly.
The puppy sulked. "What is it now Otogi?"
"I just wanted… to help you out."
Joey looked up an eyebrow raising. "Since when are you so nice?"
"Ah." Otogi twirled a strand of black hair. "I've always been nice."
Jounouchi let out a snicker, as the clearly unamused Otogi climbed onto the bed next to Joey.
"If I wasn't nice, you wouldn't be staying at my house." He added.
"Yea." Joey smiled. "Thanks for that."
"No problem, man." Otogi grinned giving the blond a thumbs up. " I still can't believe your dad beats you though…" He said falling back into the bed.
Jounouchi let out a sigh, his eyes gazed fixedly downwardly at the red blankets that he sat upon. He said nothing, and instead swallowed a mouth full of spit, hand on forearm awkwardly.
Otogi frowned. It was so clear in his memory now… just last month it had happened….
Joey had knocked on his door, a mouth full of blood, pieces of broken glass from a beer bottle stuck into his palm. He looked tired, gashes ran across his face in random spots.
Otogi sat up again looking back at Joey's face. Some of the scars were still there, in big pink lines. One across his cheek, another across his nose, a few others ran down his neck.
Damn. Joey's father at hurt him so bad. Just because… he had brought Shizuka home with him for the night…
Flashback
"Katsuya, do you really think it's okay for me to go to your apartment? I mean… with…" Shizuka heaved a breath in. She hadn't said. that word, in ages. "…with dad there."
"Aww… don't worry about it, Shizuka. He'll be fine… I just have to grab my wallet real quick."
"Maybe..." The girl suggested. "I should wait outside… I haven't seen him in 10 years…"
"We can do this, okay?" Jou said smiling confidently at his sister. She was so beautiful, and she was always there for him. Now he needed to be there for her, and he was ready to face anything. He gently clasped his hand around Shizuka's soft palm.
She nodded in approval. "Okay."
They approached the apartment door labeled: Jounouchi.
The name seemed so strange to her… it was the name of her father.
Katsuya's name.
Joey took a deep breath and pushed the door open lightly. "Dad?" He asked, almost as if he was asking for permission to come into his own house.
There was no answer. " I guess he's not home, huh, Katsuya?"
He nodded though unconvinced.
They entered.
The small apartment wrecked of beer and had traces of cigarette smoke lingering as well.
"Ew! It stinks!" Shizuka let out in a cough.
"My room's this way." He said uneasily gesturing down the hallway. The wooden door had scratch marks on it, the doorknob bent. A sign that read "Katsuya Jonouchi's room" in Joey's sloppy handwriting hung crookedly upon the door,
He flung it open letting go of his grasp on her hand.
"Wow! This is your room Katsuya?" She exclaimed. Although it wasn't much to talk about….
"Eh.. yea."
It was a simple room, square in shape, a small couch shoved into the corner, with stained, holey blankets hanging off of it. A limp pillow lay bent on the floor.
X-Rated magazines were scattered across the floor, in heaping piles. Shizuka gritted her teeth at the sight, and quickly pulled her eyes of off them to his desk.
He had a small neat little wooden desk, his old gang name carved into its side. His deck was stacked with care on top of it, next to some schoolwork and a dim shade lamp. Then her eye's caught the picture that was propped next to the lamp. Actually all the pictures…
He had countless photos of himself and his friends, and countless photo's of Shizuka. She smiled proudly and stared at the one of them holding hands on the beach when they were little. It was surrounded by a metal heart shaped frame, which said, "When life gets you down, you can always count on family."
He caught her gaze on it and looked at it as well. "I spent all my savings on that frame."
She grinned. "The saying…it's true."
"Well... most of the time."
Her eyes came to meet, the sketch he had drawn on lined paper. It was a picture of Kaiba getting bitten in the butt by a dog. She laughed. "You draw really well, bro."
He raised an eyebrow. "Eh.. yea, whatever ya say." He chuckled looking at it proudly. Kaiba's head was bigger then his body, his huge butt checks bleeding from the dog bite. His words were written in a word bubble: "Mokuba help me!" A drawing of Mokuba was in the corner of the page, and he was laughing at his brother.
Shizuka took a seat on his couch. "You sleep here, bro?" She pondered eyes still darting across his walls. They were covered in hopes and dreams, ads for dueling tournaments, clips from articles of wins from his football team, messages and words about family and friends… and a picture of a girl in a bikini. Well... whatever.
"Yea." He said nodding and taking a seat behind her, wrapping his legs around her till she was propped on his lap. "It's not much."
"Oh! But I really like your room." She said smiling weakly and gazing at the ceiling… he had painted on sloppy deformed stars. "Hey! You remembered!" She added looking at them.
He looked up as well. "Oh yea. Our old house used to have a skylight…"
"And you could look at the stars when you laying in your bed."
"It was so beautiful."
"We used to name them, Jounouchi? Remember?"
He nodding letting out a happy sigh, and he rocked himself and his sister in a soothing rhythm. "Yea. I remember. I named the brightest one after you, Shizuka."
She grinned, feeling happy tears sneak up into her eyes. "And I named that orangey one Jounouchi. Cause it's one of a kind… like you!"
"When… mom took you away…" He said softly, voice cracking. "…I would sit outside and stare at your star. I missed you so much… I... can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that you're here…"
"Joey. Don't cry..." She said. "If it wasn't for you, I couldn't see any of this. I love you."
"I love you too, Shizuka. Don't ever forget it."
"I won't."
He gave a soft kiss on the cheek, and then tickled her belly and she let out a giggle.
"KATSUYA!" A man roared from the other room.
Shizuka fell off the couch with an "ow!", and Joey completely froze as he stared stiffly at the door.
Shizuka got up, a worried frown residing on her face. She whispered. "What's happening?"
He's breathing became faster as the footsteps bellowed down the halls. He pulled her into him, tightly and protectively as he started to slowly move towards the door.
Before he could get to it, it was torn open.
"SO! Who's the bitch?" Slurred the man, grabbing her red hair and pulling on it gruffly.
She screamed and looked sadly into his glazed eyes. 'Dad?"
"DON'T HURT HER ASS-HOLE!" Joey screamed, attempting to punch him only to be blocked by a swing of a beer bottle that shattered from contact, littering the floor. Jounouchi fell upon it at an angle, the glass slicing his face and hands.
"I can do what ever I want to this Hoe." He laughed.
"Dad!" She squeaked again, still straining from the grip he had on her hair.
"Whaddya call me?"
"Dad. It's me… Shizuka. Your…" She paused. "Your… daughter."
"WHAT!" He roared, louder then ever.
Jounouchi pulled himself up, slowly. He was okay. He wiped a streak off blood out off of his mouth and grunted.
"Remember me-"
He slapped her. Jounouchi let out a gasp and ran to her, catching the limp fallen body.
"Yea I remember you! I spent all my fucking money trying to fix your eyes! I don't know I wasted sperm on you!"
"Shizuka?" Joey breathed. "Shizuka!"
She blinked, her face bright red where the man had hit her. "I'm fine…"
Jou set her down on his couch. Then he let angry eyes fix on his dad. "You'll pay for this…"
"Don't speak to your dad like that, bitch." He grunted.
"Don't you ever hurt my sister again." He growled.
"I can do whatever I want!" He bellowed punching Jounouchi in the face, and watched him topple into his nightstand.
Joey rushed to get up and leapt on his dad, pushing them both to the floor, he grabbed his father's neck and violently shook it, but his father had grabbed something out of his pocket while Joey had been reciting threats to him.
It was shiny.
Long.
But most of all sharp.
He sunk the knife into his son's arm with a heave.
Jounouchi gave a choking sound and fell backwards in pain. Shizuka shrieked.
"Shizuka!" He chocked. "Go... get… help."
"No! I can't leave you here!"
"PLEASE! Go get help." He quickly pulled the knife out of his arm, blood squirting out in a gushing noise as he did, his face withered in pain.
The drunken man laughed from the corner. 'If you tell the cops, I've got plenty of charges I can use against you, you fucking juvenile delinquent." He said pointing lazily at Joey.
"Don't get the cops." Jounouchi panted, gripping his bloody arm tightly.
Shizuka nodded, sprinting out of the room, tears running out of her eyes, and blood speckled upon her clothing.
She ran the fastest she'd ever ran in her life.
Fwuhahaha! Cliffy! Yes… it is so evil isn't it...? I changed my mind about this story. It will be a lot different then I originally planned it. I think it's becoming more about the darkness in human's hearts… and stuff like that.
Oh well whatever. Thanks again for the reviews! Yay!
Sara Ishtar
