So we come to it at last. There's a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig surprise at the end of this chapter.

Anyway, I need to mention some sort of copyright for the song in this fic. Let's go with this:

Hand Me Down is the property of the band Matchbox 20 and whoever the heck manages them.

There, I think that should do the trick.

Now, enjoy!

Arise Ye Heroes and Tormentors

Chapter 5

Kaiba tossed and turned in his bed. Everyday he lived in physical pain, but the nights terrified him. It wasn't enough that he had to be violated every other day; he had to be visited by Sayuu during the night of his days of rest. As the nightmare dragged on, it got worse and worse. Images got vivid to the point that he was sure he would be able to remember them the following morning. Then the screams started. The dream escalated until Kaiba was actually living his thoughts.

For those of you who have never had a dream as realistic as Kaiba's current one, let me try to put it into perspective. Imagine that you're fast asleep, lying safely in the comfort of your own bed, fields of tulips and marigolds stretched out before you in your mind. You're as peaceful as it is possible to be. Suddenly, the sky darkens. Lightning can be seen over head; the sound of thunder rings in your ears. Out of nowhere, a bunch of murderous beings appear and rush at you with swords, making wild slashing movements in an attempt to divide you in half. You, of course, do whatever you can to not let that happen. In response you start running for your life in the opposite direction (we're assuming that you aren't armed and have no combat experience). This dream might be so intense that your physical self might actually start running. Well, eventually you would run into a wall or something, so the dream would portray your cerebral self running into something. So you see it works both ways. This type of dream is very similar to Seto's current one. The only difference is that his dream is darker, much, much darker.

Kaiba was running. By some miracle he made it out of his room. He ran into the wall shortly thereafter, though. This brought Jonouchi promptly to his side. With much effort from the blonde, Kaiba was back on his feet. He felt weak, and he had to muster more strength than normal to remain standing. Once Jonouchi was sure that Kaiba could walk on his own, he let him go and watched him walk clumsily out to the couch. His lack of confidence had been met with an excessively icy glare from the brunette. Jonouchi followed Seto out to the living room and then exited to the side kitchen where he started fixing lunch.

Jonouchi called from the side kitchen, "Kaiba, we're going out later. Yuugi said something about a karaoke bar."

"I don't want to go out," came Kaiba's blunt reply.

"Well too bad, we're going out," Jonouchi retorted smartly. Seto's lack of response told him that he had won. Kaiba had learned quickly not to try and win an argument with Jonouchi. Jonouchi's stubbornness made him excellent when it came to debates. He simply refused to give up. He congratulated himself on his victory and then returned to his task, smiling all the while.

"What do you mean you're going out tonight?"

Sayuu was conducting a rather one sided interrogation. He had already asked Kaiba a bunch of questions without waiting for a response. He was very put-off by the fact that he wouldn't have a chance to satisfy himself tonight.

"Well, I'm not sure I like the idea of you going anywhere," He said matter-of-factly. You're very tired and it would be better for you to stay inside."

Jonouchi, who was listening intently, snorted loudly. Sayuu shot him a furious look.

"What's so funny!"

Jonouchi shrugged his shoulders and turned around to face the wall. He had learned long ago not to respond to any questions that Sayuu asked him. Jonouchi knew that he had a habit of acting curtly defiant toward people he didn't like, and he hated Sayuu. Sayuu glared a little longer at the back of the blonde's head before resuming his attack on Seto.

"Besides," he said, "I want you here with me." He put on one of the most transparent disconcertion acts that Jonouchi had ever seen. Mokuba snorted for the both of them. Sayuu flashed his eyes menacingly toward the boy who innocently pointed out that Miss Piggy was on the television.

Sayuu didn't take his eyes off the boy. Suddenly a croak broke the uneasy silence in the room.

"Sayuu can come with us," Kaiba's quavering and barely audible voice said.

"But—" Jonouchi began in protest. He was cut off by glares from not only Sayuu but Seto as well. Jonouchi sighed and surrendered, not wanting to argue with a man who was as capable of violence as Sayuu was. He nodded in agreement. While the man was occupied with an increasingly sloppy kiss with Kaiba, Jonouchi's eyes caught Mokuba making a number of obscene hand gestures in Sayuu's general direction.

"The karaoke's going to start soon," said an excited Honda, placing an arm around Shizuka and pulling her closer to him. He was the only person who heard the statement, though. Ryuuji was off autographing the t-shirts of a group of very anxious and excited American exchange students. Marik had his tongue shoved so far down his hikari's throat that even if the two had heard Honda, they would have been unable to respond. Ryou and Bakura were in a similar predicament. Rebecca had her nose buried in a text book that her grand father had bought for her. Seto was too exhausted to comprehend much of the world around him and Sayuu was looking around the club with a very smug look on his face. Yuugi, the only one whose Yami still didn't have a body of his own and who had resumed control of his own body after nearly two months of rest, was looking greedily across the table at Malik's abandoned root beer. Anzu, meanwhile, only had eyes for Jonouchi that night. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Kaiba since the moment they sat down at the booth. Anzu could tell that Jonouchi was upset about something. She was just about to question him about it when someone spoke into the microphone up on the stage.

"Okay," said a slightly short woman, "we would like to start the karaoke session off by picking someone at random to get the ball rolling." The woman looked around the bar and finally pointed at someone who wasn't even looking toward her. "How about you, with the blond hair?" she said rhetorically. Her question was more like an order than anything else, and her arm was pointed toward the gang.

Malik, who had stopped his make out fest with his yami once the woman started talking, slowly began to get up. As Marik quickly pointed out to him, though, the woman wasn't pointing at Malik. She was pointing at Jonouchi. Jonouchi, however, was unresponsive having still not taken his eyes off of Kaiba. It wasn't until Anzu nudged him out of his seat that he realized that had just transpired. Highly embarrassed, he blushed and rose slowly. His feet refused to move properly and turned his walk into something of a waddle. Eventually he made it up to the stage and took the mic from the woman. Smiling and patting him on the back, she exited the stage leaving Jonouchi alone.

I don't know what to sing, he thought to himself. The crowd was cheering though, and all his friends were beaming. Everyone except for Kaiba, though. The brunette was still unreceptive to what was going on. Looking at Seto, it finally it him what he wanted to sing. Excitement rushing through him now, he walked as calmly as he could over to the man running the karaoke machine and gave him the name of the song. The man, having heard the selection, placed a CD into the machine and then ran off to operate the lights. With an air of experience, Jonouchi grabbed a stool and placed it in the center of the stage, upon which he sat with great posture. Suddenly, all the lights went out and a single spotlight turned on and cast its beam upon the man who now radiated with professional confidence. The introduction began and Jonouchi brought the microphone to his lips:

Someday they'll find your small town world on a big town avenue
Gonna make you like the way they talk when they're talking to you
Gonna make you break out of the shell cause they tell you to
Gonna make you like the way they lie better than the truth
They'll tell you everything you wanted someone else to say
They're gonna break your heart, yeah

From what I've seen
You're just a one more hand me down
Cause no one's tried to give you what you need
So lay all your troubles down
I am with you now

Jonouchi resumed gazing at Kaiba, but this time found that Kaiba was gazing at him in return. Jonouchi's voice had worked like an aphrodisiac, and Kaiba found himself not only waking up to his surroundings but also curiously intoxicated by the man who was now singing, it seemed, only to him. Their eyes met, and as this happened, something unlocked inside of Seto, something that he hadn't ever been able to sense before. He wanted that mutt up on stage.

None of this had gone unnoticed, and an increasingly malevolent Sayuu was failing miserably in his attempts to mask his malicious intent. Neither Kaiba nor Jonouchi noticed this, though. Their attentions were solely on each other as Jonouchi continued to sing.

Somebody ought to take you in
Try to make you love again
Try to make you like the way they feel
When they're under your skin
Never once did think they would lie when they're holding you
You wonder why they haven't called
When they said they'd call you
You start to wonder if you're ever gonna make it by
You'll start to think you were born blind

From what I've seen
You're just a one more hand me down
Cause no one's tried to give you what you need
So lay all your troubles down
I am with you now

I'm here for the hard times
The straight to your heart times
Whenever it ain't easy
You can stand up against me
And maybe rely on me
And cry on me, yeah
Oh no, no, no

Some day they'll open up your world
Shake it down on a drawing board
Do their best to change you
They still can't erase you

From what I've seen
You're just a one more hand me down
Cause no one's tried to give you what you need
So lay all your troubles down
I am with you now

Lay them down on me
Oh yeah
You're just one more hand me down
And all those nights don't give you what you need
So lay all your troubles down...on me

Jonouchi was met with a roar of applause from the crowd. Anzu, followed by almost a million other girls, came rushing up to him and nearly knocked him off the stool when she hugged him. Jonouchi took the reaction that he got as a sign that he had done well. People were pressing pens, paper, pictures, and even random phone numbers into his hands, which he tried to refuse as politely as possible. There was only one person he wanted to talk with right then, and he began to grow worried when he didn't see Kaiba at the table where he had been only moments before. Bypassing all of the club patrons, he squeezed his way to the door and exited the building.

Jonouchi found the brunette leaning against the outside wall. He was staring at his leather shoes in a most uncharacteristic fashion. He sensed that someone was there, and his intuition told him that it was either Sayuu or Jonouchi.

Plucking at a random thought, he said nonchalantly, "You know, they killed cows to make these."

"Yeah, I know," came Jonouchi's reply.

"I would hate to be a cow. Any type of cow, really. If I was a dairy cow, my entire life would be filled with trips to the milking station. If I was simply meant to give birth, that's all I would do, have babies. If I was a beef cow, I would be fed and fed and fed to get fat and then I would be killed. Kind of monotonous, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it is," Jonouchi replied again.

"That's why I like being human. I have the chance to get what I want. It isn't all about the other people. It's a lot more about me and my wants and needs."

"Yeah, it is," Jonouchi repeated.

Suddenly, Jonouchi felt lips upon his own. Jonouchi opened his eyes wide in surprise and tried feebly to pull away, but Seto wouldn't have it. He kissed him harder, more intently, the newly unlocked feeling inside him overwhelming his emotions. Gradually Jonouchi stopped fighting as the kiss seemed to drift out of the realm of time. Jonouchi found himself pouring all of his pent up feelings into the moment; his hands drifted to the new territory before him, inspecting every curve and bump until finally nestling on Kaiba's hips. Then, slowly, Kaiba pulled back, Jonouchi's lips clinging desperately to his own. He brought his cheek right up against Jonouchi's own. This placed him at ease, and he closed his eyes in response. He inhaled the scent exuding and drifting upwards from the rest of Jonouchi's body and felt his body shiver. Jonouchi's hands were still at Kaiba's hips. Taking much care not to ruin the perfect moment that had been created, Seto inched his mouth closer and closer to Jonouchi's ear before once again resting his head.

"You're what I want. You're what I need," he whispered, closing his eyes again.

In the distance, the moon rose above the buildings for everyone to see.

So, I hope you liked it. Let me know what you thought of the ending. I'm anxious to see just how bad I am at this romance stuff.

I wont be able to even start writing another chapter for quite awhile. I will be computerless for two weeks starting Monday, and then I have to concentrate on finishing this reading stuff that I have to do. Hopefully these other books will be better than what I've had to read so far. Blech, I hate reading when I'm forced to!

Anyway, it might be as late as early September before I can start writing Chapter 6. Hopefully it will not come to that, but it might, you never know.

Once again, I hope you liked it, and let me know what you thought.