Title: Plush
Author: Shippo-chan
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Jou/Seto Yami/Yugi
Beta: Jennie B, Daisey glomp
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Final world count: 6,907
Summary: Seto and Jou have more in common than they ever realized.
"Come on, Dragon!" Jou leered at his lover. "If we don't get to class we'll have detent-," The clang of the late bell cut him off. "See? Now we'll have to stay after class."
"Why do you insist on worrying, Pup? It's just detention. One detention a year isn't going to keep you from an Ivy League Col-,"
"First of all, Dragon, I ain't goin to some Ivy League College. Second of all, I've been involved with different gangs since I was six. I quit all of 'em when I met Yug when I was a sophomore. In junior year, I tried to turn it around and change, but I still got in trouble, a lot. Now, since the beginnin' o' senior year, I've been late only once, and that's 'cause I was with you. Now you've gone and made me late again!"
"Relax, Puppy. You forget that we have Mr. Zurui. His name says it all. I don't think that that Sensei has given a single detention in his life. He doesn't need to. Mr. Zurui is as sly as a fox, and won't hesitate to keep something off of your record if he can make the situation suit him."
"Then what do you call what happened last time, when we stayed after class?"
"That little 'meeting' never went into our files, Pup. I'll bet on it."
Jou cocked his head slightly and met his boyfriend's gaze. "Why's that?"
"He probably didn't want the school board to know about the little favor we did him."
"Amen to that. It took a lot of guts to ask us."
"Yes. Who knew that our teacher had spent time picketing outside the Mini Mart?"
"I would've never taken the time."
"He really must be against prejudice."
"Well, I really wouldn't want to be turned down for a job just because the manager hates Wiccans."
"Me either."
"Well, at least you owned the company."
"But I didn't personally know the manager."
"Yeah, but I wish I hadn't," Jou grimaced. "Some of my father's former acquaintances are not people that I'd like to know." Jou finished his statement just as they reached the door.
Pulling the door open, he motioned for the blonde to go in first. "After you, Pup," he mumbled.
"Gee, thanks, Dragon. Just throw me to the wolves."
"Well, you are fresh meat…"
Jou strode into the classroom in his usual manner: tired eyes, slumped shoulders, and a frown set into his face. Kaiba sneered at the class as he usually did and strode to his desk. He dropped his suitcase on the hard, wood surface, the thud echoing through the suddenly silent room. The brunette knew exactly what was passing through the minds of his classmates.
"Boys, this is the second time this week." The teacher glared at the teens before continuing. "As I'm not in the mood to hand out a detention, you can present your 'in common' project first.
The two grimaced at each other across the room. Not only were they going to be laughed at for the rest of the year, they had to get laughed at before anyone else. Slumping to the front of the room, Seto grabbed the pack that Jou had insisted he use instead of a briefcase pack, and slid his hand inside to stroke the soft, golden fur of his puppy.
'No, not my puppy,' he thought. 'My puppy is a hundred times more beautiful.' Pulling his hand out of the pack, he dropped it on the floor next to Jou's.
"Ready, Pup?" the brunette whispered.
"Yeah, I'm ready. Let's just get this over with."
"Agreed."
Jou cleared his throat and spoke to the classroom. "Erm, Hi. I s'pose ya'll know our names, so we'll just skip that part." There was a low rumble of amusement. "Um, yeah…We originally wrote down some sentences for our presentation, but then we scrapped 'em and decided it'd be better if it wasn't rehearsed."
'Well, we have them interested,' Seto thought. 'I wonder how long it will be before that interest turns to amusement.'
Jou gave him a nod and they both leaned over to their packs and pulled out their plushies. Setting the small stuffed animals on the empty desk in front of them, the couple stepped back. It was now the taller teen's turn to speak.
"Ummm…This is one of the very few things we have in common.
This time the laughter wasn't a low rumbling, but a large outburst, echoing and filling the room. It was only stopped by the repeated rap of the Sensei's ruler on his desk. When the message finally got through and the laughter subsided, Mr. Zurui gave his class a stern glare and stated fiercely, "I will not have this in my classroom. Do any of you realize the courage it took to get up here and show you these dolls? Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Jonouchi probably have more willpower than all of you combined. I will not accept, under any circumstances, prejudice in my classroom. You students would be lucky if any of you got out of this classroom today without a detention slip!" Satisfied, the teacher sat back down and returned the ruler that he'd been brandishing at his students to his desk. Then, turning to the thoroughly shocked teens standing at the front of his room, he said politely and evenly, "Please continue, boys."
The couple stared at each other in stunned silence for a few minutes before Seto stammered on, deciding to pick up on Mr. Zurui's lead. "E-erm…W-we are both P-Plushophiles, and we have an obsession called Plushophilia. We are both obsessed with a single stuffed animal. For me, it's a small, golden dog. For Jou, it's a white dragon with blue eyes."
"Yeah, and there's a lot o' prejudice against Plushophilia. We are a form of Furry. I s'pose you can guess what those are. Well, there are some people who get enjoyment out of…well, I don't know 'zactly how ta put this…they enjoy…having sexual intercourse with their animal." Before the class could start laughing again, Jou continued. "We are not that involved with our stuffed animals. Seto and I simply feel a connection to our animals and enjoy owning them."
A single laugh resounded through the room, followed by two soft 'thuds' and a pained 'Itaii!' Glancing over, Jou noticed that Oroka was grasping both shins in pain, and that Yugi and Honda, the students who had the bad luck of being seated on either side of him, appeared unusually innocent. Giving a snort the blonde continued. "Yet most of the prejudice seems to be from not understanding the obsession…"
The two continued for about ten minutes before they were satisfied that they'd gotten the message through. 'Funny,' Jou thought. 'Most speeches that last more than a few minutes have at least two people snoring, but I can't see a single dazed look.'
Scooping up his plushie, he slid it into his shoulder pack and turned to return to his desk, only to whirl back toward Seto, who was currently redoing the latch on his own pack.
'Why the hell not?' the blonde thought. 'I'm already going to be a laughingstock.' Striding forward, he wrapped his arms around the brunette's neck, twining them his hands in his Seto's hair. After planting a firm kiss on his lover's cheek, he whispered, just loud enough for the front row to hear, "You did great, Dragon. I told ya we'd get through this."
Flashing his blushing lover a grin, Jou headed to his seat, sighing in satisfaction at the thought of not only owning his precious plushie, but his very own living dragon as well.
And there's the end of my story! I hope you enjoyed it! Jennie was my beta for the first three chapters, and I'd like to say thanks and send her a GLOMP, and, as Jennie-sama was knee deep in other last-minute chappies, the magnificent Daisey-bunny-sama offered to take over this epilogue, so I'm gonna say thank you to her as well and send her a GLOMP as well! Thanks tons, you two!
