Title: Broken Wings

Author: Yugi's Tenshi

Rating: R

Warning: hints at child abuse and rape, angst

Pairing: Kaiba Seto / Jounouchi Katsuya

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

A/N: I guess this chapter will be some kind of turning point
for this story, but you'll see yourself. Enjoy reading
and thanks for the reviews!

--- Chapter 6: Memories Part II ---

They sat like that for quite some time, Seto bathing in the warmth that was purely Katsuya, eyes closed and a content look on his face.

"You know, you should get into bed again unless you want to catch a chill," Katsuya softly said after a few moments of happy bliss.

Smiling, Seto lightly nodded his head, still not moving.

"I was serious about it, Mr. Big-Ass-CEO." Katsuya couldn't keep a smile from creeping upon his face as Seto frowned, slowly starting to sit up properly. With the blond's help, he was able to sit on the bedside and to lay down in bed again, pulling the covers back over his naked legs.

"You're acting like a mother hen," Seto grumbled under his breath, eliciting a small chuckle from Katsuya.

"This sounds so much like lovers-quarrel." Immediately after finishing this sentence, he brought up a hand to cover his mouth, eyes wide with shock. 'Why did I have to say that?! I'm so stupid, I should have kept my mouth shut!'

Seto looked indifferent for a moment before he sighed deeply, turning to look out of the windows. Deliberately slowly, he spoke, " Katsuya?" It really was more of a question, but nonetheless, honey eyes shot up to follow Seto's distant gaze out into the jungle of skyscrapers and highrisers, the hustle of the busy streets and the many people hurrying along crowded sidewalks.

"I'm not the right person to fall in love with." It was a whisper. Just a few hushed words which, when listening closely, definitely held a huge sadness within them. "You know just as well as I do myself that I'm not capable …"

"No!" Katsuya stood, looking more infuriated than ever and rushed around the hospital bed to face the other boy. "Don't you dare say something outrageous like that!"

"Katsuya, please listen to me," Seto tried to reason, voice still low.

"Not as long as you're talking like that! I won't let you talk yourself out of this shit so easily! I'm in it, too, wether you like it or not!"

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm …" Yet again, Katsuya interrupted him, kneeling down beside the bed and taking one of Seto's hands into both of his own. He ignored Seto's surprised looked altogether and unwaveringly began speaking. "Now, just for a moment, listen to me, Seto. You keep telling me that none of this was my fault …"

"Because it wasn't." A small smile adorned Katsuya's face, which quickly faded away again. The blond sighed, continuing with what he wanted to say. "Yeah, I know, kind of. But that's not all of it. I know what you are thinking right now, but I won't have that. Not now, not ever. And I know it's related to the dream you had when I came to your office earlier."

Seto stiffened, body immediately going rigid and tense, much like the atmosphere in the still hospital room. You most definitely could run against it like against a brickwall built out of nowhere within the blink of an eye. "It has nothing to do with it," Seto objected after a few deep breaths.

"Then why were you about to tell me that you weren't capable of taking care of an other person, which is wildly ridiculous by the way, and that this'd be what I needed, if it wasn't for the reason that you closed yourself off from the rest of the world after what happened when you were a child?"

The one and only Kaiba Seto was rendered speachless, if only for a moment. But it was too long to interrupt what was to follow Katsuya's very demanding question. "Instead, you should see that I'm the one person to understand what happened to you, that I'm someone to talk to, no matter what. You even had a vivid demonstration of what is happening to me every day of my life, twice when I'm 'lucky'." Katsuya sighed, looking into wide azure eyes. "And I do know that this must have been not even half of what has happened to you," he added in a mere whisper as the first tears slipped from Seto's normally cold eyes. He didn't cry, no sobs were shaking his body, just small tears running down his cheeks. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, or maybe to chase away the memories rushing over him, Seto lightly squeezed Katsuya's hands.

"They came back, you know?" he said after a moment, voice a bit rough from the lump in his throat, which he didn't know was even there. "The memories, I mean." Seto smiled sadly, brokenheartedly. "Every little piece of what I thought I had long burried deep in my mind, everything returned the moment your father laid hands on me, though it wasn't nearly as bad as the things I had to endure earlier in my life. It wasn't even as bad as the dream." Seto stopped abruptly, taking in an all but shakey breath. Katsuya just held his hand, wanting Seto to continue but not to scare him by beckoning him any further.

"The beatings … I could endure them, they weren't as bad. I'm still so much ashamed of it … of falling victim to something like that." The tears were coming stronger now, streaming down Seto's cheeks in rivlutes, steadily dampening his hospital gown. His normally cold eyes had an uncharacteristic hue of vulnerability, looking distant and forlorn but at the same time mirrowing fear, pain and anger. Katsuya didn't know what to make of that expression, placing a soft kiss on the back of the distressed boy's hand.

"He … the bastard raped me." It was a breathed whisper, just loud enough to be discerned when listening closely. Katsuya jumped to his feet, immediately enfolding Seto in an embrace, clinging to him as much as the other held onto the blonde.

- tbc -