I know I said that it would be awhile until I uploaded a new chapter, but I managed to find time. Hooray!
Anyway, I rented Constantine and watched it to death. Long story short, it inspired me to start another fic. It's called Son of Perdition and I'll be uploading the first chapter sometime between now and next Friday. It's a cross fic that will be posted here instead of in the movies section. Our favorite couple will be featured in it as real people that we, somehow, never saw. If anyone wants to help me edit, e-mail me. My e-mail address should be in my info section.
Lastly, there's more karaoke in this one. It'll probably be the last of it for awhile, though. As such, I feel compelled to put up a copyright thing.
Yellow and Coldplay are the property of Parlophone records.
Enjoy!
Arise Ye Heroes and Tormentors
Chapter 6
Jonouchi had always thought, even after he realized that he was gay, that having a boyfriend would be a strange thing. Now that he had one, though, he thought it felt nice. Coming home to a man who knew of your feelings, understood and reciprocated them, as opposed to being completely oblivious, was a welcomed change. It certainly wasn't as it could have been, though. Kaiba had spent the last week mumbling to himself, trying over and over to figure out how to break it to Sayuu that they were through. He himself had never had a boyfriend before, and he certainly had no idea how to break up with one. Besides, Sayuu wasn't a normal man; that much was sure. How many other men could boast, or would want to boast, that every other day they electrocuted someone they were dating? What was ethically required of Kaiba was so simple on a base level, yet the more he thought about this requirement the more complex it became. Kaiba really had to give applause to Jonouchi. He had been so patient. It seemed like he didn't really care how long it took as long as he got to be with him.
Kaiba was absolutely right, too. Jonouchi was more than willing to wait. Something told him that Kaiba wouldn't desert him, and that feeling was all the reassurance that he needed. Kaiba's rock solid devotion to the people he cared about in his life, evident in his relationship with Mokuba and Jonouchi alike, helped to reinforce this belief. Despite his faith in Kaiba's fidelity, however, Jonouchi couldn't help the sneaking suspicion in the back of his mind that however tactful Kaiba's words to Sayuu were, they would not go over well. Indeed, when Jonouchi factored in the eternally poignant fact that Kaiba's boyfriend of six months had spent roughly half of that time using every form of castigation known to man on his partner, the odds that the break up would not go well skyrocketed. Still, Jonouchi had always been an optimist; it's what had kept him alive through all of the things he had experienced. His cavalier attitude toward all of life's mishaps managed to hold his one worry at bay. This woe resembled more of an impossible nightmare than it did a probable reality. At least, it did to Jonouchi. He just wished that Kaiba would end it soon so that he wouldn't be subjected to torture all the time. It wasn't like Jonouchi's patience wasn't being tested. Jonouchi was getting tired of cleaning up Sayuu's mess.
Saturday dawned as early as it had been, and found everyone in their usual place with one exception: Kaiba was on the couch instead of lying battered in his bedroom. Sayuu had announced after the eventful trip to the karaoke bar the prior Saturday that he would be going away on "business" for a week. Not once had Sayuu ever discussed exactly what he did for a living with anyone, Seto or otherwise. Because of this, the news of Sayuu's impending business trip brought snorts from Anzu and Ryuuji who, after a surprising amount of discussion given their obvious skepticism of Sayuu's normality, had deduced that Sayuu was unemployed. The true whereabouts of Sayuu were unimportant to the three boys now enjoying the weekend morning in each others' company. Kaiba was the most thankful of the three for not only was he spared the repetitive masochistic sessions that had been going on for the better part of three months, he was also given time away from Sayuu to think about how to break up with him. This was a most welcome change to his life, indeed.
A series of phone calls the other day had landed Jonouchi and Kaiba in a plan to go back to the karaoke bar that night. The group was eager to hear Jonouchi sing more. Rebecca had scolded him more than once for hiding his vocal talent from her. Yami had laughed. Jonouchi wasn't sure that he wanted to go, though. Between the fan girls, American exchange students, autographs and phone numbers, he felt that he would be much more content at Kaiba's mansion. It was in lieu of this fact that he had pleaded with Yuugi to pick something other than a karaoke bar, but Yuugi had refused. He said that there were too many people waiting to hear Jonouchi sing again.
So it was at eight that evening that Jonouchi and Kaiba met the rest of the gang down at the bar. Mokuba had been filled with such a sense of peevishness when he heard that he would once again be left behind that Kaiba had given him use of the limousine and 500 dollars spending money to shut him up. Mokuba had promptly snatched the money from Kaiba's outstretched hand, then escorted them to the gated entrance.
The gang, Yami in the lead and Jonouchi desperately trying to hide his face behind Honda, made their way to a table in the front that was just being vacated by a group of very drunk men. Their slurred voices were just drifting away as Marik, the last person to sit down, did so. After a few minutes Rebecca stood and offered to get everyone drinks, something that everyone scoffed at before pointing out her ridiculously minuscule stature. Frankly, they were all surprised that she hadn't been accused of using a fake I.D. to gain entry into the bar.
"No bouncer in their right mind would expect a child my height to know what a bar is, let alone try to gain access to one with a fake I.D.," Rebecca had said with her usual all knowing manner. Honda nodded as wisely as he could, a look that was so transparent on him that more scoffs were heard around the table. Honda glared; the table tumbled into silence.
Plucking up courage, Anzu decided it was time to usher in a proper conversation.
"What are you going to sing tonight, Jou?" she said as delicately as she could. She knew that he did not want to be here.
Sighing and giving in to the realization that he would not be able to squirm his way out of performing, Jonouchi replied with "it's a surprise." The truth was that he had no idea what he wanted to sing. He had been given 24 hours to think it over, and he had used every single one of them, not sleeping a wink. This was partly because Mokuba had been having a nightmare and Seto wouldn't wake up to take care of him, but that was beside the point. The fact remained that even 24 hours of time had not been enough for Jonouchi to make a definite decision. He had pondered and pondered and still not come up with anything exact. He had, however, narrowed down his choices to two songs. It was at this thought that Jonouchi figured that he might have just told Anzu the truth. He supposed that he would make his final decision once he got up on stage, for at that time he would have to have a song no matter whether he was torn or not. Still, he hoped that some stroke of inspiration or perhaps just a random feeling would sway him enough to simply pick one of the two. He didn't like this indecisiveness. It wasn't like it was terribly uncharacteristic of him, but it didn't happen often. He certainly didn't like when it did.
Hours passed and arbitrary takers at the karaoke machine came and went. Jonouchi gave a surreptitious look around the club and noticed that it was swelling with people staring intently at the back of his head. With one last odious look at the group for dragging him down to the bar, he stood slowly with a groan and made his way through the mass of people towards the edge of the stage. The man, singing a song by Frank Sinatra with the voice of James Earl Jones, flashed menacing eyes at Jonouchi as he approached. With a sizably befuddled look on his face, he looked around the club and found the reason for the stranger's animosity. The entire club was completely fixated on Jonouchi, utterly ignoring the man on stage. The loss of peoples' attention was causing him to loose focus and confidence, which in turn caused his voice to get rapidly raspier. This of course made him loose even more audience, which made him loose more confidence; it was a demonic whirlpool of continued failure, or so he thought. The audience was quite glad to be given something else to pay attention to. Eventually the DJ cut the song short, and the man stomped off stage, making sure to hit Jonouchi with the full force of more than half his shoulder. All eyes followed the man as he stormed from the bar.
The moment the door closed, cheers erupted from the patrons. Jonouchi took it as a sign that it was now his turn. With one final deep breath, he put one foot, then the other onto the stage. Heaving himself up, he made his way over to the DJ to make let him know what he would be singing. Nodding, the DJ fiddled with the karaoke machine, and Jonouchi made his way toward the center of the stage. Jonouchi nodded toward the side of the stage, and a woman brought a stool out for him to sit on. He sat down to calm his nerves, and the introduction began:
Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah they were all yellow,
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow
So then I took my turn
Oh all the things I've done
And it was all yellow
Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know you know I love you so
You know I love you so
I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh all the things you do
Cause you were all yellow
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow
Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know for you i bleed myself dry
For you i bleed myself dry
Its true look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine
look at the stars look how they shine for you
"I know I've said it, but that was awesome."
"You're right, you have said it."
Anzu glared at Ryuuji. She had been praising Jonouchi all the way back to the Kaiba mansion. Her mindless worship had fallen on deaf ears, though. Or rather, they had fallen on ears that weren't being used at the moment. Jonouchi had put all of his energy into his performance with the result that as soon as they left he fell asleep. Kaiba had been carrying him.
"You should probably wake him up now, Kaiba," Yami suggested when they were a few feet from the entrance gate. Kaiba nodded in agreement and coaxed the blond in his arms awake. Reluctantly, Jonouchi allowed himself to be set down on his feet, and he stumbled the rest of the way toward the gate. Kaiba opened the gate via remote.
"Well, this is were we stop," said Kaiba with a yawn.
"Lucky, we've still got a ways to go." Anzu was fishing. Kaiba seemed too tired to recognize this and cater to the negative.
"Everyone should stay here. I know that you're all tired, and as Anzu has pointed out, the game shop is a ways away." Everyone stared bewildered at Kaiba as he said this.
"What?" Kaiba asked, confused.
"Kaiba," Jonouchi responded, "did you just invite everyone to spend the night?"
"Yeah, so?"
"As in, people coming in and staying in bed and then getting breakfast in the morning."
"Yeah, so…?"
Jonouchi put his hand against Kaiba's forehead.
"Jou, what are you doing?" Kaiba asked.
"I think he's checking to see if you're feeling alright," said Ryuuji.
Satisfied after a few seconds, Jonouchi shrugged and concluded that Kaiba must have been being genuine. Either that or he was drunk.
Jonouchi led the way to the door. Kaiba, meanwhile, assured everyone that there were enough rooms and more than enough food for the breakfast the next morning. Everyone was stunned by Kaiba's uncharacteristic hospitality. Still, they were not about to pass up the opportunity to get off their feet earlier than they would have.
Kaiba opened the door and they all filed in. After many good nights, everyone managed to find a room and went to bed.
It was close to one in the morning when Kaiba was awoken by a knock on the door. Grumbling, he lifted the covers off of himself and made his way quietly towards the front door. He had no idea who could be calling this late at night, and frankly, he had a feeling that the person on the other side of the door was something that he wouldn't want to see.
"Do you have any idea what…Sayuu!"
His stomach dropped. He hadn't counted on Sayuu returning for another couple of days. His mind instantly flashed to all of the complications that were sure to arise. One thing was sure, if Sayuu found out that he and Jonouchi had started a relationship of their own this way, it would not go over well. Fate was working against him though. As if in payment of bad Karma, Jonouchi came waltzing out of Kaiba's bedroom with the comforter wrapped around him and walked right up to the brunette.
"Hey, Seto, who's…there." Jonouchi face turned stony and fixed. Time stopped. No one moved, but emotions began to surge through the three that stood there transfixed by what they saw. For Sayuu, the emotion was pure rage. How dare he lie with Kaiba, he thought.
For Kaiba, the emotion was fear. It was fear on many different levels. He was afraid of what Sayuu would do to him. He was afraid of what Sayuu would do to Jonouchi. He was afraid of what Jonouchi would do to Sayuu. And mostly, he was afraid of the fact that he had no control over the situation. Lack of control had always been one of his biggest fears.
For Jonouchi, his emotions were a mixture of both. He was afraid for himself and for Kaiba at the same time. That fear fueled his feeling of rage. Protection was the only thing on his mind, and the man standing outside the door was a hazard to his and Kaiba's safety. He wanted to hurt him, tie him up, turn him in, do whatever it took to get him as far away from Kaiba as it was possible to be. It was Sayuu who made the first move, though.
"Seto Kaiba…you have betrayed me.
A simple sentence was all he said, but hatred radiated outwards from it, and in a flash, Jonouchi was on the floor. He didn't even have a chance to see where he had been hit. Darkness closed around his peripheral vision, and soon even that was engulfed in black. Meanwhile, Sayuu had knocked Kaiba out cold and hoisted him onto his back. With one final sneer at the blonde on the floor, Sayuu took off into the witching hour air. Kaiba was gone.
So that's that. I personally thought that the ending was poorly written, but my editors insist that it's great. Anyway, I hope you liked it regardless. Remember, if you're interested in helping to edit Son of Perdition e-mail me.