Takashima - So sorry for the very late update... ;;... I've been very busy as of late. Please enjoy this chapter!
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Seto was walking towards them. And just like that Jounouchi stood frozen on the spot like a doe in front of a pair of headlights. Did he hear all the words that were exchanged between himself and Hideo? Had Seto heard all of it? Jounouchi could feel his blood running thin and cold as ice through his veins. The look on Seto's face was the same usual impartial and cold expression... Yet stonier and somehow it was crueler, meaner without so much as a crease appearing on his delicate, smooth skin. Maybe, Jounouchi's mind was playing tricks on him...?
Hideo had seen many pictures of the seventeen-year-old prodigy CEO of Kaiba Corp. but never the real thing and even though he had a moment of awe, it passed quickly. He watched the tall youth in a pure, white long coat with silver studs decorating the collar, shoulders and the linen of the jacket approach Jounouchi and himself and he could feel Seto's blue eyes measuring him, as if deciding what kind of person he was. He didn't quite look his age so unfortunately, he didn't know that he posed a 'threat.'
"Jounouchi," Seto said coolly, "I need to speak with you." Those eyes were still glued on Hideo's face almost as if trying to memorize it into his mind… saving it in a folder in his head marked 'dangerous.'
Looking between the two taller men who were standing on either side of him, he was mentally shaken. Jounouchi 's brown eyes fell onto the dirty concrete beneath his feet. What was he to do? If he left, he would wound his friend… but if he refused, it would mean a bigger shift apart between he and his boyfriend.
As his mouth parted to announce his decision, Hideo, in the softest, yet most defiant voice Jounouchi had ever heard from him, said, "Mr. Kaiba, Jounouchi will be coming with me. He is upset." His voice matched the blaze starting to glow in those beautiful black eyes of his. And he didn't know for sure what was going on between this prestigious, wealthy man and his favorite customer, but he knew that Jounouchi was conflicted because of him.
The blonde's eyes seemed to widen when they looked to the middle-aged man's eyes. To Jounouchi, this person, Hideo was like the father figure he never was able to have when he was a child; a man warm with not just his words but with even a simple pat on the shoulder, he could put your mind at ease… Perhaps this was his gift.. Only Hideo's gift, this warmth. But right now, those words, even if Hideo didn't understand what he was getting himself into and didn't understand the situation between Seto and himself, it seemed as if those words meant more than they should have.
Seto wasn't an expert at love, but he knew that he cared for this blonde beside him. He could hear the tenderness of each word leaving the older man's mouth and it both annoyed him and angered him. Those Siberian blue eyes were glaring at the set of onyx eyes watching him in return. He needed to stay calm and level-headed and not let his emotions get the better of him. His words betrayed no irritation that he held inside. "I'm sure you are not his father but if you don't mind, I have business with Jounouchi-kun."
When did he start using affectionate honorifics, Jounouchi thought quickly before he felt his body move to Hideo's side. He was caught by surprise and his face showed this. He could feel warm blood gathering into his cheeks and when he looked up at Hideo and then to Seto, he could see the fierce glares they were exchanging. It was as if the electricity between the two were sparking in the gap. He could only wonder what was running through both their heads at that very moment.
It was a long, tense minute.. The wind would blow stray, dry leaves by their feet and roll on by. Indeed… autumn was upon them now and just as the trees were souring their color, so was the air of this situation.
Turning on his heel, Seto left, only saying, "Jounouchi, expect a message." And with that, he would continue on his way, the direction opposite of the two men left behind. But he couldn't deny what was inside of him.. This burning rage for this middle-aged man who had interfered between he and his lover.. He would make him regret it later on..
A soft gasp escaped Jounouchi's mouth. His heart was squeezing into itself so tight that he couldn't even yell after the man whom he thought he loved… Seto, he wanted to call out, but no words would form, only air would escape. A desperate look appeared on his face and he wanted to run after his lover but he couldn't. His legs would not move or was it because he was so fearful that he couldn't bring himself to move.
He had doubted his love for Seto and the guilt was eating away at him. Nothing could make him feel better at that moment.. It could only plummet from there on in with hard, painful blows…
Standing beside Jounouchi, Hideo could see that there was more between them than he had first anticipated but he also already knew somehow by the way the blonde had acted; in the 'subtle' way that Jounouchi had tried to defend his 'employer' and how he exploded back at his arcade… Many thoughts floated in and out of his mind. But the most important question that stuck in his mind was why he was doing this. He couldn't completely understand. Sure he cared about the boy but he himself heard himself say 'Mr. Kaiba, Jounouchi will be coming with me. He is upset,' in the most bold voice he had ever used in years… This alone made him come to the realization of what he had done.
This was Seto Kaiba he had just picked a fight with. He hadn't thought it through before when he was in the situation but now that he was gone, Hideo had all the time allotted to him to briefly think. Seto hadn't asked for his name but he knew, somewhere inside that this powerful man would somehow know who he was by just having one of his many employees investigate. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't afraid. That arcade was his life and the people who worked for him and the people who patronized him were like his family… Closely knit and brought warmth as if the whole was a quilt.
Yet, Hideo pushed this fear aside and gently slid a hand over Jounouchi's shoulders. The brown eyes looked up at him, glistening with tears that were never meant to be shown and his heart began to ache for him. He wanted to hold him but he was afraid of something inside of him. He wasn't a monster but he was a man and men obey their desires.. "I know you're scared.."
"-Hideo, what you did just now was really stupid! Do you have any idea what you just did?" Jounouchi said incredulously as he flung his shoulder to the side to make the older man's hand fall off in an abrupt way.
Those black orbs stared down at the boy in almost surprise before it was swept away by a gentle expression and sad smile. "I do, but Jou-kun, you looked like you were having a hard time dealing with him. You froze right when he called for you. You feared him… I-I wanted to help you.."
But still, Jounouchi stood in front of him, a defiant look on his face which glowed under the slightly distant golden lamp light. The windows from the shops behind Jounouchi were reflecting the light from the moon to his back. "Helping me?" He struggled to keep his voice from turning into a hysterical scream, "You have to think about yourself first, Hideo! You always think about everyone else! What if… What if he had your store run out of business, Hideo? Just over this! It would be all my fault!"
Hideo's eyes were glued onto the flushed face of the younger boy's. Feeling his face change to surprise, he couldn't help but widen his eyes when he saw that taut, anguished face become streaked with uncontrollable tears. Before he knew it, his hands were holding onto the boy's cheeks in his palms and using his thumbs, began rubbing away the hot tears. He honestly never meant to make him cry and he was believing that he was the cause of it.
Jounouchi, when did you become so… submissive? Never. You were always letting your emotions take the better of you, true, always letting your emotions help you make the best decisions but now they seemed to be out of control. His emotions were like a boiling pot of water with a half-kept lid on the lip. When the pressure was too much, the steam would push against the lid and when that didn't move it, the water would soon follow and overflow, stinging the burner that made it boil.
He would flinch back from Hideo's touch but he felt his body numb and couldn't move. Somewhere deep inside, he knew that he wasn't the only one going through this and yet.. It felt like it was. It felt like the sky was falling and a meteor would come to crush him, destroying his bones, crushing his flesh and his blood staining wherever it would fall… It was close to the end of the world for him.
First, it was Kaiba admitting that he was in love with him, only a short three months ago and up until the current, he had spent little or no time with him and he had felt neglected, unloved and tossed out to dry. Because he was a man with a fleshy organ in the center of his body, instead of possessing a vaginal canal, he knew that he wasn't allowed to show so much affection to another man, not even to the one he loved. Kaiba never said it but he acted as if it were taboo. And it hurt in a way that he knew it would never heal.
Undeniably, he loved Seto with all his heart but not once after that first time, did Seto ever mention loving him again. He would never know if Seto had other mistresses, he would never know if Seto was out of the country or had emotional problems because Seto would never talk to him about such 'trivial' things, as he put it… He would never be the first to start a conversation… Seto was so guarded that even though Jounouchi had told himself that he could break him, to make him more human… that seemed so impossible now and beyond his reach.
These tears weren't just for his own turmoil however, it was for Seto too. Each tear was a hope, infused with words that escaped his body and would not return and fall to the earth and splatter until they dried away into the invisible air.
Jounouchi allowed himself to be pulled into the strong arms and his eyes slipped shut, trying to block the noise in the area until it was just the silence in the arms he so wished for at that moment. His mind was so confused, so jumbled up that he forgot that it was Hideo holding him, instead it was his beloved. His mind's eye made him appear.. And he could almost smell the expensive cologne that Seto usually wore.
The bright sunlight from the poorly shaded window struck his eyes and he winced, as if in pain. It stung them through his eyelids and it hurt even more when he tried to slip them open. The wholes of his eyes were swollen and he found it hard to see clearly. Sitting up, Jounouchi's fingers rubbed the corners and bottoms of his eyes as they began to focus.
There was a tri-door closet that was made of polished wood just a few feet in front of the two posts of the bed he had apparently been sleeping on. Glancing to the right, he found a dual-paned window that overlooked to the horizon with the rising sun. There were no tall buildings obscuring the beautiful view. His eyes would raise up and he found nothing but a white wall and to his left was a broad door with a coat clip screwed into the upper-central part of the body. Looking down at his hands, he found that the sheets were a warm lime green color with white checkers…
Just where was he? Had he fainted the night before…? Perhaps but… Then there was a soft knock at the door. It would open with a gentle swoosh and a familiar face, a gentle smile would appear.
Hideo had a tray in his hands and on this tray was a glass of orange liquid, a steaming bowl of something that smelled sweet and something that looked like a bagel halve. Walking to the bed in a slow pace, Hideo said softly, so not to frighten the boy, "Good morning.. How do you feel, Jou-kun?"
From his hands, he looked over at the raven-haired man and an wary smile appeared on his lips. "G-Good morning.. Hideo.."
Maybe it was the slight nervousness that showed on his face but the man said, in a soothing voice, "You're at my place… I took you here because you fainted in my arms last night from exhaustion. How are you feeling now?"
For the few silent moments that passed, Jounouchi let that information sink into his brain. Last night… all he remembered doing was crying in Seto's arms and he had heard words of comfort.. Comfort?
"I-I see…" Jounouchi said, believing what he was told. "Thank you and.. I feel.. Tired still and my eyes sting, but other than that, I'm okay." Rewarded with a smile, his cheeks flushed and found himself looking down at the sheets until the tray with the palette of food was placed over his lap.
"You don't talk about what you like to eat so I decided to give you what I had in the fridge. I hope that you'll eat it…" Hideo pulled a foldable chair out from under the bed and assembled it before sitting on it. His hands were on his lap and Jounouchi could see in plain sight that Hideo was already dressed. Perhaps it wasn't his usual, professional attire but it was close with those tan, yet wrinkled dress pants, Gucci slippers and a partially unbuttoned dress shirt on his upper-body.
Jounouchi smiled after taking a glance at what he was served. It soon slipped into a modest smile. "I-I'm not very hungry, Hideo.. Last night was…"
"Just eat and let me worry. You're the kid," Hideo said in a tender voice with a matching smile.
In some way, he had found a little comfort in how he said it. Like they were still in a 'father-son' relationship like before the affair from last night happened. Some wonder had lingered about the night before, however, and in some section of his mind, he was questioning, in silence, just how friendly this man really was…
Lifting up the glass of orange liquid, he could taste the tartness of the citrus juice. It was cold in his mouth and it stunned his teeth enough to make him want to use his tongue to rub against it in hopes to 'warm' it up. Then his fingers took a hold of the spoon settled on a neat napkin and scooped a little of the tan, steaming mush in a jade lacquer bowl. Instantly, Jounouchi was overwhelmed by the delicious taste of brown sugar and honey against his tongue… Oatmeal with the sweet spices were his guess.
"This is really good, Hideo!" Jounouchi exclaimed as he spooned another portion into his mouth.
Hideo had a pleased smile on his face but he didn't say anything, only remained silent to watch him. For some reason, he couldn't stop watching, those eyes watching this young boy in his bed, eating his food… It made him feel happy and he didn't want to let it slip by.
Later that morning, Jounouchi had gotten dressed and gotten ready to leave. He was feeling much better thanks to Hideo but still, he felt like he owed him something for helping him. "Are you sure you don't want me to pay you back?"
"I'm sure," Hideo said as he walked the blonde to the door of the modest apartment. "Just keep going to the arcade and visit me, okay? That would make me more than happy, Jounouchi-kun!"
"I can do that!" Jounouchi said with a smile. He watched the older man smile as well and soon he would walk through the door and follow along the corridor from the apartment. He easily found the staircase that descended to the lower floors and disappeared thereafter.
As he watched him leave, Hideo could feel a weight sink onto his shoulders and wrap in a tight ball in his chest. He was afraid for himself and Jounouchi. Shutting the door softly behind him, he would go to the den and sit on the plush sofa and let out a sigh. Seto Kaiba worried him and he was curious still. What was Jounouchi and Seto's relationship exactly? Were they close friends?
"It's none of my business!" Hideo said abruptly, as if forcefully trying to convince himself that it was the truth. "Besides, I'm just an arcade owner! I'm not… impressive.."
The moment Jounouchi got home, later that afternoon, he didn't even bother to remove his shoes as he went to the answering machine. Just as he thought; the red light was blinking and the digital numbers on the machine were flashing. It read: "Two unread messages."
'Two?' He thought. He knew that he would get one from Seto, but the second message was a mystery. Maybe it was Shizuka? Maybe it was his mom…? His finger pressed the playback button and jumping over the arm of the couch, he landed in the plush cushion of his sofa. He waited in anxiety for the messages to play.
"Message one," the machine said autonomously.
"Jou-kun! Yug', Anzu and I are gonna go to the museum tomorrow!" It was his best friend, Honda. "If ya gonna come with us, call me before one tomorrow!" And there followed a click as the phone was hung up.
Jounouchi looked up at the clock and it was still pretty early. It was a quarter past eleven. And he decided that he would call Honda after he heard the second message. The pause between the messages made his heart drop. He was expecting it to be from Seto… Expecting Seto to yell at him for not following him the other night…
However, it wasn't. It was his mother. She was informing him that she was going to be depositing money into his account again and that was it. There was a click, the hang-up, and then a silence as his amber eyes stared at the black machine. Jounouchi's heart had been jumping so fast in his chest that he thought it might have killed him. But it didn't, he was still standing there.
"W-What.. were you.. expecting…?" Jounouchi said to himself shakily, "Seto to.. call….?" He shook his head and at that moment, the phone rang. Being consumed by self denial, he forgot to caution himself when he picked it up. "Hello?"
"Jounouchi." A cold voice said in a statement, rather than a question.
The blonde's blood ran cold through his veins. He found that his voice would not respond with his demand to speak and only air would come forth.
"Come to the door."
Jounouchi's eyes would widen with the said command. Before he even had a chance to think about it, he found himself at his front door. The phone was in his left hand as the right reached for the knob of his door. He wanted to stop, stop from opening the door, but it didn't work. The doors latch clicked and slowly, it opened to reveal…
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Takashima - o.o...
