I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh because if I did, this story would be an episode instead of a story. I would make this VISUAL! So yeah. Ignore me and please leave me alone, I'm just a hopeless fanfiction writer.
Jou thought he knew Seto Kaiba really well. When Jou realized that he didn't, it was too late for the both of them.
Never Knew Everything
It was Friday afternoon, three o' clock. Jou was at his locker, getting ready to leave for the day. He was in happy mood. Yugi was going to come in any second to hand Jou his final exam papers back so he can finally figure out what he got. He studied all week for the exam and he felt as if he had done pretty well. He couldn't wait to finally get a good grade and know how it feels like to work so hard for something and to have gotten it.
"Jou! I got the papers!"
Jou grinned. There was Yugi now, running towards him. He stopped, panting and shoved the papers under Jou's nose, breathing hard. "Here," pant, "you go." Yugi started to fan himself with his own paper. "Whew! I am so glad that I got a ninety-six! I was so worried that I was going to get bad since I studied so little for it and I had spent most of the week before hanging out with Yami." Yugi stopped, seeing Jou's sudden frown that had appeared and had wiped off the smile on his friend's face. "What-what's wrong? How did you do?"
"I got a sixty on the exam…"
Jou groaned and slammed his locker shut, making Yugi jump suddenly. Jou punched the lockers in frustration, feeling the strain of school. He bowed his head a little bit, using his blonde bangs to hide his eyes, to hide the tears of stress and disappointment he had for himself. It was his only hope… he was on the border line of failing biology and this final would have pushed back into passing… but why hadn't it? What had gone wrong? He worked so hard for it, staying up after hour and hour reading so many chapters over and over… and he got a sixty? That's all he had to prove his hard work? All that for this?
Yugi patted Jou on the back. "It's okay, Jou. Maybe the teacher made a mistake…? I knew how hard you studied for this! There has to be some mistake, right? Don't get upset… come on…"
Jou wiped his eyes and struggled to smile. "Yeah, you're right… I-I did the best I could. You know what, man? I'm going to… I don't think I can… you know what? I think I'll skip the arcade today. I think I need some time to myself for a while, just to be alone…"
"Are you sure Jou? Maybe you just need time to forget about it. You know, relax. You've done nothing but study and…" Yugi's voice trailed off for a moment. "Jou, I just don't want you to upset and be by yourself. I'll go with you!"
Jou shook his head. "Nah, Yuge. I'm not upset, really." He smiled as if to prove his point, although he hoped his smile wasn't too fake and too unreal to believe. "Really. I'll be fine, I promise."
Yugi nodded unsurely and waved. Jou watched as his best friend hurried out the door to meet up with the rest of the gang to hang out like they had planned. Jou finally dropped the fake smile, finally relieved that he no longer had to put up a happy face when he was the exact opposite of happy and cheerful right then.
It was hard to smile when he felt like frowning instead, but he couldn't let Yugi see that. He'll only get even more upset and insist on staying with Jou and Jou couldn't let the little guy do that for him. Yugi deserved a break too.
"Well, well, well… looks the puppy needs to be trained again. How surprising is that."
Jou turned around to see Seto Kaiba's smirking face. Even if Kaiba didn't say anything, Jou could tell that Kaiba was laughing at him, just by looking into his eyes and his snobby smirk. He must have heard the entire conversation about his exam grade. How could Jou not have noticed that he was around?
Jou balled his hand into a fist, his honey eyes burning. "What did you just moneybags?"
"You heard me, mutt. I didn't think that your so called 'friends' would leave you after you little boo boo you made. Are you hurt that you made such a poor grade? Do you need someone to cry on?" Kaiba made a fake sympathetic face and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. "But even I would have thought you would have made a better grade, at least a sixty-one, just one point higher. Too bad, I overestimated you; I'll make a note of that next time. Still, Jou, you shouldn't give up so early, you just have to get used to it. I actually thought you would have been by now. Who knows? Maybe if you're lucky, your daddy can pull some strings and get you into a community college. Isn't he the only reason why you even got into this high school? Just have some hope, that'll be the only thing that'll keep you still hanging on. Maybe he'll do it for you again."
Jou listened, his rage growing and growing with each word he said. His dad was the mayor of the city and he had the highest expectations for Jou that any other parent could have. His father wanted Jou to follow in his footsteps and became just as powerful as he was. He put lots of pressure on his son, his only son, pushing him to do his best over and over, often making Jou lose hope and confidence in himself.
And for him to realize that his son, his only son, was a failure… a major disappointment… a huge let down…
Jou shoved Kaiba into the lockers, their faces inches apart. "Back off Kaiba, I'm not in the mood," Jou growled. "My grades are my business and you do not have any goddamn right to comment on it, got it? Why don't you have a heart and leave it alone? I don't need to hear your stupid insults right now; I have enough going on without you making me feel worse."
Jou stopped pinning him and took a step back. "Just leave me alone," he said quietly, letting the rage slip away silently and letting the pain that he had started to feel when he saw Kaiba take its place instead. Jou turned away and started walking, but not before Kaiba caught a glimpse of a single tear that had dropped accidentally without Jou knowing it.
Kaiba couldn't help but watch him leave.
Jou knocked on the door. "Dad?"
Mr. Jounouchi looked up from his papers he was reading and grinned. "Son! I see you decided not to go to that filthy arcade after all! Good for you. Come in, sit down!"
Jou nodded uneasily and sat down, his eyes roaming the room and looking anywhere except his father's eyes. "I… uh, I got my exam back today…"
Mr. Jounouchi reached for his coffee cup and resumed reading. "And? How did you do? I don't expect anything less than one hundred percent from you."
"Give me another beer, RIGHT NOW!"
Jou slammed his fist down on the counter, taking his last sip from the cup. His head was spinning and he knew he should stop drinking, but he could not help it. After his conversation with his dad, he had gotten kicked out of the house and was demanded to "never come back". He hadnowhere else to go. He didn't want to go find Yugi or Honda, and he didn't know where else to be.
So he went to the one place he could think of. The one place that he could drown himself and be happy and just forget about his current problem at the moment.
He went a club.
"Here you go," said the bartender, taking his cup out of Jou's way. "You know, you look like you could use some fun. Maybe I could help you out…" she told him in a flirty way.
"Back off," Jou mumbled, shrugging off her advances. She looked at him with a disgusted expression and left him alone once more to drink. Jou glanced around the room. The music was killing his head, it was so loud. And there were so many people talking all at once… it was driving him nuts.
He was on his fifth beer, blowing his dad's credit card without really caring. He tried to remember why he tried so hard to please his dad, but failed to remember. He started to laugh and continued to drink as a coping mechanism for his problem. This was the second time he had ever gotten so depressed to actually come and drink. Thank goodness he had put his fake ID in his wallet, otherwise he would have screwed over.
Why was he so depressed anyway? Who cares about what his dad wanted? He shouldn't be so upset. He did nothing wrong.
"Jou? What are you doing?"
Jou looked up and nearly fell off his chair. He grinned stupidly and raised his cup at him. "Hey Kaiba! Whatcha doing here? Are you here to drink too? Come, sit down." Jou patted the bar stool next to him. "Sit down next to me." He raised his hand and yelled, "Yo! Give me another beer for my friend here." Then he turned back around and shrugged. "Slow people. Why are you still standing?"
Kaiba stared at him in disbelief. This was Katsuya Jounouchi, son of the most powerful guy in all of Domino City, and he was getting drunk and drowning in a couple of beers. "All right, Jou, come on, let's go." Kaiba took Jou's hand and led him out of the bar, with Jou giggling all the way as if something was hysterically funny.
Kaiba led him outside to an isolated alley that was close by. He shoved Jou against the wall. "What is wrong with you? What the hell are you doing here, Jou? Are you crazy? You could get arrested!"
To Kaiba's horror, Jou laughed as a reply. "Wrong? What's wrong with getting a couple of beers? Come on Kaiba, even you need a break sometimes. Let's go back inside."
"No Jou, you're going home."
Jou shrugged. "I have no place to go. My dad kicked me out."
"I find you someplace else. Let's go."
As Kaiba made a move to pull Jou away, Jou pulled Kaiba in instead and forced his lips onto his. Even in his drunken state, Jou could feel Kaiba respond back, pushing him back against the wall, fighting for control. Jou put his arms around his neck and started to play with his hair.
Sensing that they went to far, Kaiba moved away from Jou as if he was on fire. "This is wrong. No, Jou. You are drunk. You don't know what you're doing and we need to get out of here. I'm taking advantage of you, and that is not right to you or me."
Jou looked shocked for a moment but then grinned again. "Come on, who cares? Besides, by the way you were acting and responding to just a minute ago, I would say that you don't care what is wrong and what is right."
"Jou…"
Suddenly, Jou's face fell and was replaced with a look of anger. "What are you doing here anyway Kaiba? Why do you care what I'm doing and whether or not it's right? Does it look like I care? Because I can promise you that I don't fucking care about anything right now!"
Kaiba gazed intensely at Jou for a second, his heart practically breaking at Jou's words. "Jou, I followed you. I-I wanted to say I'm sorry for the things I said earlier and… Oh Jou, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have said any of those things today… just let me just take you home."
Jou shifted away from Kaiba's outstretched hand. "Why would you be sorry?" Jou asked with pure hatred flowing through his veins. "You don't care about anyone, you don't care about me! You don't give a damn about anything!
Kaiba dropped his hand in incredulity. "Do you really think that I don't care about anyone? Or that I don't care about you? Of course I do, Katsuya, why else would I be here?"
"Yeah right, don't give me any of your stupid lies, Kaiba! You hate me, that's all there is to it." Jou started to walk out of the alley and started to walk towards the street. "Just leave me alone and don't call me Katsuya, EVER."
Kaiba followed, protesting, "I don't hate you, Jou! I love you!"
Jou continued to walk away, covering his ears with his hands. "You don't fucking love me! Before, you never cared how much you hurt me, no! All you cared about was hurting me with those things you said. You think it doesn't hurt me? You're wrong! It hurts me more than you think bastard!"
"Jou, come back!"
As Jou started to cross the street, he turned around and shouted, "No! I'm so sick of your lies! I know all about you! You are a heartless, cold son of a bitch! That's all you are so don't try to convince me other wise! You would never do anything for anyone. You would never help anyone if they showed up on your doorstep dying and asking for help! Don't try to convince me that you're a different person when you're not! I already know who you are! I already know all there was to know about you!"
Jou turned and saw a car coming his way. Before he could do anything else, he felt something push him out of the way. Jou watched as the car hit Kaiba with a loud noise. He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
The car stopped and the driver came out to call the ambulance. Jou saw Kaiba lying there, with blood oozing out and staining his clothes. Jou hurried over to him and clutched him close to his chest, sobbing. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry…"
"It's okay Katsuya."
Jou opened his eyes and saw Kaiba smiling at him weakly. Kaiba closed his eyes and continued to speak, carefully trying to breathe.
"Well, Katsuya, now you know that…" Kaiba opened his eyes and raised his hand to wipe away Jou's tears. "…that I'm willing to die to save the one person I love more than anything in the world. And that… you don't know me was well as you thought you did."
Jou hugged Kaiba, not caring about the blood and just wanting him as close as possible and continued to cry. He started to say something but was interrupted when he heard Kaiba whisper one last time, "I love you" and then he felt Kaiba's body go limp. Jou started to shake him softly trying to get him to wake but when Kaiba's eyes remained close, Jou felt all his feelings go numb.
Jou couldn't help but cry and cry when he remembered his harsh words just a few minutes ago.
You don't know me as well as you thought you did.
Jou started to whisper into Kaiba's ear even though Jou knew that he could not hear him. Even when he heard sirens approaching, he closed his eyes and hoped that somewhere, Kaiba could hear him now and hear what he had to say, even though it was too late.
"I wanted you to know… when I kissed you, it was because I was too cowardly to do it when I was sober… I could only do it when I'm drunk and know that I could always blame my drunkenness on that… I just wanted a chance to kiss you… just once, that's all… and I love you… I always have… and I can't believe that… you're gone because of me… I thought I knew you and I can't believe that all this time…"
Sometimes, people think that they know someone better than they know themselves… sometimes people think that they know them better than anyone else in the world… and that sometimes, people think that they know them… when in reality… they don't know them at all.
And that's the saddest part of all.
-OWARI-
(sniff sniff) I'm going to start crying over my own story! I know, how pathetic… Yeah, I've been meaning to upload a story for a while but I've been procrastinating… yeah, you guys know me… and plus, I've been having writer's block (OH NO! THAT DREADFUL THING!) and… ugh…
You know the drill… read the story… love the story… review the story… and give me an E-hug for my typing abilities! And if you don't love the story, then you can review and give me your reasons for hating it and constructive criticism! How's that?
Click the purple button… you know you want to…
-lilrubydevil-