Broken

By Katsuya Kaiba

One Shot Series: Seto Kaiba 3.0

Seto Kaiba held the locket in his hands, the one he'd worn for so long now, and simply stared at it in disbelief. How had he done it? He managed to close it, with some difficulty, and then tried to reopen it, but something was wrong with the hinge that caused the front of it to stick and then fall out on one end.

He'd broken his locket. The one that had the picture of Mokuba and his keycard, the locket that was identical to Mokuba's own in every way. Only the picture was different, for while Seto had one of Mokuba, his brother's locket held a picture of Seto. It hadn't been planned that way, the lockets were meant to hold only the keycards that granted the two of them access to all areas of Kaiba Corp., but somewhere along the way Mokuba had cut the old picture taken in the orphanage in two, slipping a piece into each locket.

Seto hadn't done a thing about it, when he'd finally noticed. He didn't want to, but he never told Mokuba that. He never even let on that he had noticed. It was just that Mokuba knew better than to expect a reaction.

But now…

Seto fumbled with the clasp, which was fine and wasn't the existing problem, and he closed the locket as best he could, trying to decide what to do. He glanced up quickly at the front of the classroom, but the teacher was facing the chalkboard and couldn't see that Seto was not paying attention. Not that he ever really did, but he did put forth effort to create the illusion that he was listening. Not right now, though. There was something far more important that required his careful attention.

What had he done to it? He couldn't remember anything happening to it. It had to be fixed, though, if he was going to continue to carry that keycard around inside of it. Wasn't there anything else that he could keep it safe in?

That thought struck something in his chest, and his eyes widened slightly as he realized that he, for some unknown reason, did not want to part with the locket so soon.

Seto gazed down at the necklace in his hands and frowned, wondering what could possibly possess him to feel such a thing. And how foolish it was, Seto thought, that he should find himself feeling anything other than a mild irritation over what had become of the locket. It was only a locket, one that had served a purpose and was therefore useful, and nothing more. That had been the only motivation to wear it.

So then, what was this? Some sort of misplaced emotional attachment, sprung forth from all that Seto had endured whilst wearing it? It had been a long time since Seto had taken it off. And every now and then, when Mokuba was not around, he might have absentmindedly flipped it open once or twice and looked inside, just to see. Perhaps it was memories such as these that forced him to brood over the broken locket, which was never meant to have held so much inside.

Perhaps…but still, it wasn't anything that Seto wanted to feel. Whatever it was, he did not approve, and he immediately set himself to the task of fixing the damage that had been mysteriously inflicted upon the necklace. At least nothing had fallen out.

He lifted the thing up to his eyes and studied the hinge closely, hoping to find the source of the problem. It was obvious that something was broken inside of the hinge, but it was such a small thing, and Seto wasn't able to see just what the problem was. He opened it, closed it, and then opened it again, all the while frowning at the locket in front of his face, looking perplexed but determined. Maybe there was something he could do to fix it, and then he wouldn't have to deal with the fact that he didn't want to let it go, because then he wouldn't have to anymore. Everything would be as it once was, and Seto could easily forget that he had ever felt a thing.

"Hey!"

A voice so quiet that only Seto himself heard it came from behind his back, and he slowly turned his head, cringing at the thought of who the whisper belonged to. He found Jounouchi leaning forward in his desk, which just happened to be the desk that was positioned directly behind Seto's, a seating arrangement that, in Seto's mind, was due to very poor planning on the teacher's behalf.

Jounouchi reached out and tried to grab at the locket, but Seto pulled it out of his reach just in time, causing Jounouchi to miss and then make an exasperated face.

"Give it here!" he whispered once more and then looked up at the teacher, but she hadn't heard him speak and he brought his attention back to Seto and the broken locket that he held.

Seto turned sideways in his seat and glared at Jounouchi, who rolled his eyes and held out his hand, palm facing towards the ceiling.

"I can fix it for you…I think. Let me see it."

Jounouchi's whisper was so near silent that it was almost as though Seto was merely reading his lips, and Seto glanced back to the locket and furrowed his brow, slightly confused, but more irritated than anything else. Jounouchi waited patiently, and when Seto still hadn't moved after a minute had gone by he leaned in even closer and whispered again, trying his best to sound helpful. He only wanted to help, and Seto was having such a hard time with the locket that he couldn't help but notice, watching it all happen right in front of his own desk.

"I won't break it…look…"

Jounouchi leaned over to the side and opened the small outer pouch of his backpack, sticking his hand inside and fishing around through old candy wrappers and random broken things until he sat back up in his seat and lifted his hand proudly in front of Seto's face.

He held a small plastic box, black and long and thin, and Jounouchi opened the lid and let Seto look inside.

Seto peered over the edge of the box and saw that it was an eyeglass kit, and it was then that he realized Jounouchi really did mean to fix his broken locket, and was simply showing Seto the tools with which he planned to accomplish the task. Now Seto became even more confused, but he reluctantly handed the locket to Jounouchi, who took it and set the kit down on the flat wooden surface of his desk.

Seto watched all of the proceedings with a sharp eye, somewhat willing to give the boy a shot at fixing it, but in the same breath prepared to rain down misery and torture if he only made things worse.

Jounouchi turned the locket over in his hands and looked closely at the hinge, and a look of recognition crossed his face that intrigued Seto, and he wondered if maybe Jounouchi actually knew what it was that he was doing.

It would certainly be a first, he thought, but kept it to himself.

Jounouchi caught Seto's eye, but then just as quickly he looked back at the locket. Seto thought that odd, but he continued to observe as Jounouchi sifted through the contents of the small box until he came up with a tiny screwdriver and a screw, one that was so small Seto wondered what Jounouchi kept it for. And why did he keep an eyeglass kit with him, in the first place? Jounouchi didn't wear glasses, or at least, none that Seto had ever seen.

Seto grew too curious and found that he had to ask, and he took a quick look at the teacher before he did so to make sure that his timing was right.

"Why do you have that?"

Jounouchi looked up from his delicate work just in time to see Seto point to the plastic box on his desk, and then he looked back at the screwdriver and twisted it some more, pulling out the broken screw that had been the cause of all the trouble. He shook the locket over his desk and the other piece of the screw fell out, and both Seto and Jounouchi heard it as it fell out of it's hinge and bounced off of the desk with a nearly inaudible metallic sound, rolling off somewhere onto the floor. Jounouchi then set the locket against his desktop and held it on its side, reaching out for the fresh screw with his other hand and carefully dropping it into the hinge.

"For repairs," Jounouchi finally whispered back. "I'm supposed to wear glasses, but…I don't. They look weird."

Jounouchi glanced up at Seto with a grin, and Seto watched him do it without responding, too confused by the confession to react to Jounouchi's expression, which he normally would not have let slide. Why would someone not wear glasses if they were supposed to? Where was the logic in that?

Seto refocused his eyes on Jounouchi's face, but he had already forgotten about the exchange and had the screwdriver in place, twisting slowly. Seto watched him in silence, wanting to ask him, but now knowing if he should. It wasn't at all like him to be interested in the reasoning behind Jounouchi's unreasonable actions, and he closed his mouth firmly and stared hard at the locket as Jounouchi gave the screwdriver one final twist before setting it carefully back into it's case. He then shut the lid of the plastic box and tossed it casually into the open pouch of his backpack, leaning over to zip it shut and then sitting upright with the locket still in his hand.

He stuck his fingernail into the clasp and popped the front open, and sure enough it was fixed, and the locket swung open just as it always had.

Jounouchi took a moment to study the picture that lay inside, and Seto didn't try to stop him, although his initial reaction had been to snatch the locket out of Jounouchi's hands and berate him for prying. But he couldn't, because they were sitting in the middle of class, and besides…as much as Seto hated to admit it, Jounouchi had helped him. It hadn't been such a huge favor, but Seto still appreciated it, in his own way.

Jounouchi knew better, anyway, and he snapped the locket shut and handed it over to Seto, who took it with an odd look on his face. He didn't much want to express his gratitude, which was nearly non-existent in the first place, but he did feel that it would be improper to simply turn back in his seat and ignore Jounouchi as he would normally. So instead, he remained where he was, sitting sideways in his seat, and he asked Jounouchi what he had wanted to ask him before.

"Where are your glasses?"

Jounouchi regarded Seto with a curious look and raised one of his eyebrows while he slowly lifted his hand and pointed down to his backpack. Seto's eyes followed the direction until he found the backpack that Jounouchi motioned towards, and then looked back up at Jounouchi and spoke, feeling very apprehensive about doing so. Seto knew, deep down, that he didn't really care in the least, but he supposed that it wouldn't be beneath him to entertain Jounouchi with small talk, in exchange for the repair that Jounouchi had performed for him.

"Let me see."

Jounouchi frowned at Seto when he heard what he'd said, and he shook his head and mouthed the word 'no'. There was something else, another emotion that Seto could see clearly in Jounouchi's eyes, but he hadn't been able to catch what it was, exactly.

Seto glared at Jounouchi and then leaned back in his seat, reaching out for Jounouchi's backpack and unzipping the part that he had just closed. He didn't have enough time to get his hand inside the bag, for Jounouchi had seen what Seto meant to do and he had reacted, grabbing at Seto's hand and pulling on his uniform sleeve in defense, an anxious look in his eyes.

Seto caught the look and then smirked, watching the fear on Jounouchi's face fade into irritation and begrudging acceptance as he leaned away again and watched as Jounouchi stuck his own hand into the open backpack. He gave Seto a glare, but after a few seconds had passed he sat up in his seat and set a black case down on his desktop and waited silently for Seto to pick it up and look inside himself.

Seto did take the case, after watching Jounouchi to see if he was actually mad, but Seto had somehow known that he wouldn't be. Feeling strangely victorious, Seto lifted the lid of the long case and took a moment to study the glasses before he did anything else.

The very first thing that Seto noticed was that the lenses in Jounouchi's glasses were thin, so they probably weren't meant for much more than reading, although he noted that both boys were supposed to be reading at that exact moment, and Jounouchi wasn't wearing the glasses.

In truth, Jounouchi hadn't ever worn the glasses, save the one time that he had tried them on at the optometrists and had decided that these were the pair that made him look the least like a nerd.

The frame was a thin gold wire, and the lenses themselves were long and oval shaped, and overall, they didn't look very noticeable at all. From the way that Jounouchi had reacted to Seto's desire to see them, Seto had thought that they would have been horrendous things, but these were…these glasses were nice.

Seto knew that they wouldn't look awful on Jounouchi, and he had done well in choosing the gold wire over anything else.

And then Seto had an idea.

He picked the glasses up and lifted them from their case delicately, unfolding them and nonchalantly handing them to Jounouchi, who stared at Seto with murder in his eyes, but Seto only smiled back. Jounouchi eventually took the glasses from Seto's hand with a very low and deep-throated growl.

"Put them on." Seto spoke softly but commandingly, and Jounouchi frowned and looked down to his desktop.

"I know!" He whispered back, just a bit too loud, but no one noticed.

Jounouchi lifted the glasses and held them up in front of his eyes, looking once desperately in Seto's direction but knowing full well that Seto didn't care if he was embarrassed or not. Jounouchi wasn't even sure why he was indulging Seto like this, but he felt that if he didn't try the glasses on that this moment would be lost, and Seto might never be anything other than a complete jackass to Jounouchi for the rest of their lives. Jounouchi was tired of it; and not only that, but he also found that he was willing to put up with this version of Seto much more easily than any other version that he had ever encountered. Maybe it was because he had helped Seto with something, or maybe not, but either way this moment was just a bit different than all the others that the two had shared, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Jounouchi wrapped his fingers around the two gold curves and closed his eyes in defeat, sliding them around the backs of his ears and setting the lenses down lightly on the bridge of his nose and then waiting. Waiting with his eyes shut, for Seto to do something that would let him know that it was all right to take the glasses off. Jounouchi listened for Seto, but he never said a word, and he was motionless for so long that Jounouchi got too curious and opened one single eye cautiously, taking a peek at Seto to see if he was laughing at him or not.

Seto wasn't laughing, and he wasn't even smiling, and Jounouchi allowed his other eye to open and searched Seto's blank face for some sort of a response.

Seto watched as Jounouchi reluctantly set the glasses down over his eyes and then stared, wondering hwy he found the sight so intriguing. It certainly hadn't been anything to cry over, and now Seto was confused and just a little bit irritated with Jounouchi for refusing to wear the glasses. He would have demanded to know the reason right that instant if he hadn't been so wrapped up in making up for lost time.

The glasses themselves were hardly noticeable, just as Seto had predicted, but the parts of them that did show only served to compliment Jounouchi's tanned skin with the glint of gold, and the light and parched sandy streaks in his dark blond hair came out strongly against the contrast, letting the rest of the strands blend in with the bronze color of the frame wire.

Seto blinked, and then noted that it wasn't the glasses that made Jounouchi look different, but something else did and he wasn't sure what it might have been. Jounouchi looked a way that Seto had never seen him look before, but after another moment passed Jounouchi slowly let one of his eyes slide open, and then the other one followed to see what Seto was doing.

Two things struck Seto in the same moment, and he wasn't sure which one of them he should respond to first.

The first thing that Seto noticed was that he had been staring at Jounouchi for so long that the other boy had gotten curious as to what was keeping Seto from responding, and now so much time had passed that Jounouchi had opened his eyes just to see what Seto was up to.

The second thing that passed through Seto's mind was the completion that he felt when Jounouchi did finally open his eyes, and the amber in them shone clearly through in a way that just hadn't ever happened whenever Seto had looked in Jounouchi's direction in the past. Maybe it was because Jounouchi was so close…or maybe it was because Seto had never bothered to regard Jounouchi in this way. He had originally planned on telling Jounouchi if the glasses truly did look badly on him or not, and going into the situation with the intention of seeing Jounouchi in a positive or negative aspect…may have been Seto's mistake.

"What? Are they that bad?" Jounouchi whispered nervously at Seto, who still hadn't moved or spoken, or even so much as made a facial expression that wasn't either blank or still.

Seto's mind was running through a great many things, the order and names of them being Fear, Confusion, a small sort of Irritation, and classically, Denial, but for all of those things inside of him he was still able to shut them all down systematically, one by one, and eventually he responded to Jounouchi's fearful question.

"No…they're not so bad." Seto whispered back to Jounouchi, a mask of indifference pulled over his face, and Jounouchi gave him a relieved smile and lifted his hands to his ears.

Seto saw this, realizing that Jounouchi meant to remove his glasses, and he reacted suddenly and without thinking, not truly seeing what he was doing until it was already done.

His hand darted out and caught Jounouchi's left, holding tightly to his wrist and then freezing suddenly when he saw what he had done. Jounouchi paused in his motion and regarded Seto strangely, and Seto tilted his head to the side and acted as though he'd meant to do it, although his head was swimming with the reality, and the sight of this unseen Jounouchi that was new and unfamiliar.

Seto leaned in, lifting his hand from Jounouchi's wrist and whispering quietly.

"Leave them on for a while."

Neither of them moved or spoke for a few seconds, and then Jounouchi nodded slightly and sat back in his seat, looking ahead to the front of the classroom. Seto, too, turned in his desk until he was facing forward once again, and he didn't look back at Jounouchi until the end of the class, and in doing so he found him with his glasses still in place, looking back at Seto questioningly.

The other students filed out of the room noisily, but neither Seto nor Jounouchi noticed them all that much, and then Jounouchi reached out and picked up the black case that still sat on his desktop.

"Can I take them off now?"

There was no more reason left to whisper, and Jounouchi's voice returned to it's normal and obnoxiously loud volume, although the irritation that Seto had once found in it was slipping slowly into a place that was swiftly becoming unreachable in the depths of Seto's ignorance. Seto stood up from his seat and grabbed the handle of his briefcase as he rose sharply, but he didn't turn away from Jounouchi, and Jounouchi didn't move or stand.

"If you want to."

Jounouchi stared at Seto and watched his eyes, and saw that the blue inside of them was dark and unreadable. After a long and silent moment of debate, Jounouchi finally moved, leaning over to his backpack and slipping the empty black case into the open pouch. He then stood up, his arm entwined in one of the straps, and he slung the bag over his shoulder before pushing the glasses up on his nose and giving Seto a mock glare.

Seto smirked at that, and then followed Jounouchi out of the classroom, slipping the string of the locket over his head and around his neck on the way out.

I love this one shot so much, and I don't even know why. It's just so simple, but it feels like much more is happening than just what happens, you know? It's really just a 'can Jou fix Seto?' thing, but you know it's cute. Give it up. It's one of my favorite things that I have ever written, fanfiction or original. It really stuck with me, and I finally found it so I could share it.