Gah! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while! Thanksgiving! They MADE me HANG OUT with the family… *twitches* too much social interaction going on there… P

Me… I am NOT a people person… especially on breaks. The rule is: DON'T BOTHER ME! LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME TO MY OWN DEVISING! FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN SOCIAL OVERLOAD FITS AND AGGRESSIVE NAME CALLING! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

…*sighs* had to get that out… held it in WAY too long!

Anyways! I have nothing really to say except… DIS IS THE LAST CHAPPIE TO THE EXPOSTION-E PART!! I CAN FINALLY GET THE PLOT IN MOTION!! *dances* I so happy! FINALLY I can get to the intended story! *is happy* happy happy! *claps*

To add to the whole "hang wit' da hommies' I had a lack of inspiration for awhile (didn't know how to say what I wanted) but I gained it back quick enough… just thought 'depressed' and viola! Here it is!

 Well enjoy! And review when you're done! I want to know what you think!

(Insert Disclaimer)

Unexpected Surprises

Author: Aera-chan

Date: 11-29-03

Series: Yugioh!

Rating: PG-13

Chapter VI: I Wish I was a Bird… Flying, Fleeing, Hiding…

________________________________________________________________________

His eyes shut tightly, emitting small hot crystalline tears to fall.

These tears….

They were the only ones to comfort him now…

His finger nails dug deeply into the freshly stained sheets as his body contorted with pain. It felt like his whole being was slowly ripping in two as pain shot up along his spine to the back of his eyes.. 

His heart shattered in his chest as the figure above him continued to pound into him.

He smelled of alcohol and cheap cigars. The sharp scent of his aftershave burned into his memory. He would always remember that smell.

He thought of his mother just then. He wished he could see her again. He wished she would save him from this place.

'Mother… please save me… stop him! Stop him from hurting me!'

The tall man's dark shadow made no noise. In truth, he couldn't hear anything at all, but he knew he was screaming. His throat burned from his mournful cries.

One word played through his head in a desperate voice.

Why?

Tristan sighed tiredly. The teacher just kept droning on and on. Man she was so BORING!!!

He glanced over to his boyfriend across the room.

'Figures, somehow he manages to fall asleep to these lectures. They're so boring I cant even fall asleep!! Lucky dog.'

Duke twitched slightly. Tristan smiled.

The other boy was so cute when he slept. Tristan remembered back to before they were dating and when he would have the dark haired boy stay overnight. He would sit up and watch him sleep. He was so peaceful. So innocent… and so quiet!

Duke was always so loud and talkative. He ALWAYS had something to say, but when they started going together, he stopped acting like that.

He almost seemed too submissive now. Like a dog on his back, showing his throat to his master. This worried Tristan at times, he was bothered with the thought that Duke would lose himself, become an adoring bitch or something.

He stopped sticking up for himself too. He let people push him around and call him names. Let them beat him up.

Tristan would get angry and then unintentionally yell at him for it.

FLASHBACK

Tristan waited for Duke out in the parking lot. It was their 4 month anniversary and he was going to take him to the restaurant they went on their first date.

'Duke should be here by now. Its almost--'

He checked his watch.

'It has almost been a half an hour! Where the heck is he? Maybe he's having some troubles… better go find him.'

Tristan trotted off to find his boyfriend.

He checked classroom by classroom. Nothing.

'He wouldn't have gone home would he? No, I told him I was going to pick him up like usual. Hmn… maybe he's having teacher trouble.'

He continued to look. Finally he found the boy.

"Duke! What happened?!"

The dark haired boy sat behind some bushes by the back courtyard, nursing his swollen face and beaten torso. 

"…nothing really…" he said into his knees, his head hanging.

"Duke! That's not true! Look at you! You're bleeding! Don't say that 'nothing' happened!" Tristan yelled.

Duke flinched slightly. "…please don't be angry…" He begged quietly.

"Duke, who did this to you?!" Tristan asked, not hearing his request.

Duke was silent for a long time.

"Duke! Tell me who did this!" Tristan yelled as he grabbed the boy by the arms.

In truth, Tristan didn't mean anything malicious about the way he was dealing with this. He only had good intentions, but that didn't make up for the way he was scaring Duke.

"Tristan please… its not a big deal…" Duke said starting to sob, fresh tears starting to fall down his rosy cheeks.

Tristan blinked. Had he caused him to cry? Or was it from before?

"Aw… I'm sorry… Duke." He pulled the boy into a hug. "Duke I didn't mean to yell, I was just worried. I'm not angry at you or anything… please stop crying." Tristan's throat hurt terribly as the boy cried harder. He rocked the boy in his arms gently. "Come on Duke, I'm sorry okay…"

Duke nodded his head but Tristan wasn't satisfied. "Hey, why don't I take you out for ice cream okay? That'd taste good don't you think?"

Duke nodded again. Tristan sighed. Once again he made the dark haired boy cry.

'I always manage to screw up… why did he ever want to go out with me in the first place? I'm such a jerk all the time… I always make him cry! Damn I hate being so mean to him… but he does seem to be so weak now- No! Its my fault! I cant just go blaming him! I'm the one yelling! …God I hate myself…'

Duke sniffled quietly. He was calming down. Tristan hugged him again.

'Its my fault… I wish… I wish that he had somebody better than me… he deserves that at the very least…'

END FLASHBACK

Tristan felt the familiar feeling growing in his throat and chest. It tore and swelled. Burned and bled.

'Duke deserves so much more than what I give him… he deserves someone who can love him like I cant… cause I cant do anything right!' Tristan's head fell down to his desk. He felt tears swelling under his closed lids.

'Why am I such a loser? Why cant I just be somebody worth while? Somebody worth something?'

Small tears surfaced from their restraints.

'Why cant I just be better? And why must I be so weak?!' he furiously wiped the tears away with his knuckled fist.

He opened his eyes to look out the window to his left. Small birds pecked at the ground. They hopped around playing some kind of game. He smiled sadly.

'I wish I was a bird sometimes… I wish I could just fly away from here… I wish I didn't have to care… just be so oblivious to everything… to feelings. To not care about anything in the world, just caring whether or not I ate… or got eaten… '

He sighed quietly, a single hot tear running to meet the hard wood of the desk beneath his head.

'Why?'

Small tingles of pleasure ran up his back along his spine. Small hands ran through the hair behind his ears.

He was quite surprised that the blond would be the first one to make a move. He was sure that Joey hated him up until now.

'Could Joey… like me? Seriously? But I'm such a jerk, I've been too mean for him to really like me… Is he… does he want me for… money?'

Kaiba would have blinked if it hadn't been for his eyes being closed.

'Joey's pretty poor… and I'm really rich…'

Kaiba's stomach, once filled with new found happiness and butterflies, churned violently. He thought back to when he had once dated a girl.

She was beautiful, charming, cute, happy-go-lucky… and blonde with dark brown eyes…

He loved her so much, he wanted to give the world to her. She made him feel happy, she filled part of that emptiness in him.

They never fought, not until she started to want to sleep together. He wasn't ready for that kind of commitment that could come about. He just wanted to keep it simple until he was ready to possibly marry her. He loved her that much.

But apparently the feelings weren't mutual.

She left him… draining him of some of his funds.

It killed him when he woke to find that she was gone. They got into a fight the previous night, she had wanted to have sex, but he told her that he wasn't ready. She said she was sorry and that it was okay. They went to bed normally, and when he woke up in the morning… he was missing around $10,000 in cash from around the house and his credit cards.

He had to call in to cancel his credit cards and the bank to close his bank account.

She had also found his savings and checking account numbers too.

After that, he swore to never trust another woman.

He hated them. They were so shallow in his eyes.

Everywhere he went, he met women. They asked him if they could go on dates with him, to the most expensive restaurants. But who did they expect to pay the tab? Why him of course.

They begged him for jewelry. Even when he took a leisurely stroll through the park.

There they were.

He hated going outside. They were everywhere.

Then when he stopped showing interest in women, the media caught up.

He saw many articles on him, so many false headlines, too many mistaken news reports.

FLASHBACK

Kaiba sat in the living room settled on the dark leather of the couch. His coffee was set on the glass coffee table, cooling.

He flipped on the TV. The news, as usual.

A woman with dark reddish brown hair was giving the news report. He took a sip of the still quite hot coffee.

"Good news for the men out there…" She said, her smile fake, her eyes displaying disappointment. "The CEO of Kaiba Corp. Seto Kaiba, may in fact be particular to men."

He coughed.

'What?!'

She continued. "Although this is just a speculation, many of us seem to believe that this is the case. Last week at the DGC, the Domino Gaming Convention, this clip was taken."

They showed a clip of him getting out of him limo and heading to the doors, totally blowing off every female fan there.

'What does that prove? What morons. I try to get rid of the women fans and now I will probably have to fight off both.' He sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose. 'The women will probably try to get me to reconsider and the men will just try to get me. Total chaos. I sometimes wish I didn't have so much money, then maybe I could find someone who would love me for me… like how Mokuba does… He's the only person who isn't interested in money.. yet.. sometimes I wonder… does he really like me? Or is it because I'm his brother and he has to…'

He sighed desolately laying his head down on the couch seat.

'Can anyone truly ever love me?'

He let his eyes close as he fell asleep letting the TV drone away from his mind and consciousness.

END FLASHBACK

These words replayed in his head like a taunting mantra.

'Can anyone truly ever love me?'

His throat tightened.

'No. No one can ever truly love me. No one can ever love a person like me. No one, and definitely not Joey.'

He didn't want to have to believe it, but he knew it was the truth.

Joey? Loving him? Since when was such a thought plausible?

Never.

He felt Joey tightening his grasp around his neck.

'Never!'

Kaiba pushed Joey away from him, it hurt, but the pain was much less than the pain he had felt before.

His heart tore into pieces when he saw the confused and hurt look of the blonde positioned on his butt on the floor.

'….never… never… he will never love me and I refuse to be hurt like before..'

He knew what he had to do. He had to apologize, make up an excuse.

But since when was such a thing easy to do? Since when was it an easy thing to look someone in the eye and tell them that they are unwanted?

Since never.

"Kaiba… I- I'm…"

'Never!"

Kaiba turned and fled.

To be continued…

Ah… so… what did you think?

Did I add more angst? When I was writing it I thought "Gee, why does everyone in my fics hate themselves?"

Anyways! So, did you like it? Hate it? Think it sucked?

Well, ya… *glances around nervously* I cant think of anything to say…

Aerik: Why don't you tell them of your predicament?

Aera: His big words… Ya! Okay! Um, see I'm having a problem everyone… see when I type Duke or Tristan… Otogi and Honda always come out…

So… if I type Honda or Otogi in the fic randomly… or just keep doing that… (which by the way I wont probably do since I, being the paranoid individual I am… I reread it around 10 times at the very least so I would catch it..)

But I am contemplating on whether to not necessarily repost but edit the chapters and re-put them on there…

So, time to vote…

Otogi and Honda

or

Duke and Tristan?

My hands naturally type the first two… but it makes sense for me to type what I have been since ya…

Plus Joey would change to Jou with the first choice…

Thanks to Seto! I don't have to change his name!

Anyways! In other news! Just to let you know… I started with Otogi and Tristan… (WTF?! Now I'm doing a mix!)

Instead of Jou and Seto because I told you earlier of that demi-writer's block… and when I have those (in Seto Jou fics) I resort to plan B, Otogi and Honda time!

It gets me to write till I think of something! Oh well! If that's what I must do, I will! And I also must update on their story too! So a two in one deal!

Well, seeing as how its 2:00 am… I think I'm going to stop talking and drop off to bed… I still have to get up at 7:00... damn…

Well! Later! And please review! I'll love you forever!

Reviewers response thingy next chappie… too… tired… *falls asleep on keyboard* Z Z Z z z z z