Yes, yes, back again! Chapter 3, all for you!

4:20pm

"Fuck!"

"What now?"

Jou had been quiet for a very long time. Seto still wasn't talking to him, and so he'd decided to make with the counting. He had started counting all the boxes, but he already knew that there were a thousand of them, and so it seemed pretty pointless. He had abandoned that, and instead started counting the boxes that were occupied. He counted the little blue lights for a while, until he gave that up too. They blinked so much he wasn't sure which ones he had counted before, and he had the feeling that he had counted the same row five times. And that he was getting glaucoma in his left eye.

He would have tried counting something else, but his brain was on freeze. Literally. He had both his knees pulled up to his chest, his arms wrapped around them, and he had been concentrating on his shivering. He heard somewhere that muscle spasms produced heat. But he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Why the hell is it so cold in here? I'm freezing!"

Seto did not seem the least bit sympathetic. Or the least bit affected. "I specified a very low temperature for this room. This is where we keep a lot of our prototypes and – things like that. There's a lot of sensitive equipment in here."

"Tell me about it. My balls are shrivelling as we speak."

"Your balls."

"Yeah. My balls. I think I have a mangina now, they're so far inside my body."

The mental image coupled with Jou's deadpan voice almost made Seto laugh. Almost.

"I guess there's no way to turn up the heat from inside here, right?" Jou asked, not even the slightest bit hopeful.

"Right," Seto said from his corner.

"Right," Jou repeated. He sighed, and thought that he could see his breath hovering smoky-white before him. He was going to freeze to death in here. He should have worn something warmer; his white button down shirt and grey slacks just weren't cutting it. He wished he had taken more into account than looking good (because that was always first priority), like freak accidents and proper insulation.

A few moments passed after Jou's confession of budding frostbite, and then Jou heard Seto clearing his throat from his own lonely, lonely corner.

"I can give you my coat, if you want," Seto offered grudgingly, and Jou snorted. Even when he was offering to help, Seto could make it sound like he didn't care either way. Maybe he really didn't.

"No, I'm fine," Jou said crossly. He sniffed indignantly and put his head down on his knees. He'd be fine, damnit.

5 minutes later

"Gimme the fucking coat."

He listened to the sounds of Seto shrugging off his massive trench and didn't bother to look up.

"Catch."

He raised his head from his knees just in time for Seto's balled up coat to catch him square in the face. His head smacked the wall behind him and he groaned.

"Nice. Real nice," he muttered.

He flipped an amused looking Seto a friendly bird and put the coat on. The sleeves weren't as tight as he thought they would be, and the cuffs brushed the backs of his hands. It smelt great. He wrapped the voluminous and aerodynamic cloak around his legs. It also wasn't as warm as he thought it would have been, either. He looked at Seto, who was wearing even less than Jou had been now. He knew for a fact that that stretchy black top was little thicker than cling wrap.

"What about you?" he asked. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," Seto replied. He really did look fine. "I'm no stranger to cold." He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes again, his face relaxed and his locket glinting gaily.

Jou wondered just what the hell that meant. As far as he knew, Seto had never been to the Arctic regions of the earth. Maybe it was a reference to his wonderfully icy personality, but Jou doubted it. Seto did not make jokes about himself. Maybe it had something to do with his highly mysterious past. If that was the case, then he would just have to chalk it up as one of those things he'd probably never, ever know.

He always wondered about Seto's past more than he would have normally because he and Mokuba never talked about it – never. He knew the basics – they lost their parents, were put in an orphanage and were adopted by Gozaburo Kaiba; but Jou really didn't know anything else at all. They always managed to dodge questions, clamming up immediately, sharing a look of brotherly understanding. Sometimes – Jou was man enough to admit it – he was a little jealous. But he'd make it in to their club one day. He was sure of it.

5:00pm

"I'm still cold, you know," Jou said suddenly, startling even himself in the silence.

"Do you want my shirt too?" Seto deadpanned, but Jou wasn't irritated. Seto looked like he was trying hard to find a solution to their temperature troubles. He really needn't bother. Jou already had one.

"I think it's pretty obvious what we have to do here. You might not want to, but it's all we got," he said confidently. He started shifting, and Seto frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm coming over there!"

"Why?"

"Body heat, baby! I ain't gonna freeze to death here when I could be warm over there with you." With that, Jou untangled himself underneath Seto's coat and groaned. He would have stretched, but he didn't want to chance breaking anything. Instead, he started making his way slowly and painfully to Seto's side of the vault.

"What the – what are you doing? Get up and walk if you're coming over here!" Seto did not seem to approve of Jou crawling on all fours across the floor to meet him. Why, Jou couldn't imagine. It was always a hit in the bedroom. He paused, and sat back on his heels.

"I'm shaking like a crack-head on a bad day, okay? I've been sitting there so long, I got cramps in places I never knew I had, alright? My ass is so numb-"

"There are cameras all over this place! If you don't want to be immortalised on tape limping like a mortally wounded dog, I'd suggest you stand up."

Jou's mouth worked uselessly for all of two seconds. "What! You got cameras in here?"

"A few."

He pointed to a couple of spots in the ceiling, and Jou was instantly mortified.

"You coulda told me that hours ago, you baboon! I was just picking my nose like I lost something up there!"

"Like you ever pick your nose any other way," Seto said, clearly annoyed.

"That's not the point!"

Seto rolled his eyes and got up, stretching and flexing. The sound of joints cracking into place was faint, and Jou winced a little. He watched Seto walk along the wall, his eyes on the ceiling, and followed his body down when he sat in a new spot, not so far away from him. Seto's back was to the wall again, and he turned to Jou.

"Whatever. Just walk over here if you're coming."

"What did you move for?" Jou asked, still kneeling in the middle of the floor. He was reluctant to approach Seto.

"People are probably watching. The cameras. This is the only blind spot."

"Jeez! We're not making a sex tape, Seto, we're just huddling together for warmth!" Seto and his damned privacy. He somehow got to his feet and, to his surprise, managed to execute a very respectable hobble up to Seto.

Seto had pulled up his legs and spread them wide, his feet flat on the floor; and Jou sank down in the offered space. He reclined until his back met Seto's chest, and his head found a shoulder to lean on. Probably out of habit, Seto's arms came to loosely rest around Jou's middle, and Jou crossed his arms on top of them. He pushed back into Seto's body with his own, seeking total contact, and nearly shivered when Seto exhaled deeply; a long, hot breath that crept down his neck and raised every pore. He closed his eyes and sighed. Seto's warm embrace was much better than that of the cold, unfeeling metal walls.

"This is much better," he murmured. "Hah! I knew you still loved me!"

"How can you be sure that I still love you?" Seto asked in an entirely frosty manner.

"'Cuz I still got invasion-of-personal-space rights."

"It's disgusting how well you know me." Jou allowed himself a smile at Seto's flat voice, and breathed in deeply.

Seto rested his cheek on the side of Jou's head, his breath stirring the unruly blond hairs. Jou immediately felt warm and comfortable, and wondered why he hadn't suggested this sooner. Oh yeah, the hypothetical homicide.

"Look, Seto, I'm – I'm really sorry this happened," he said in a low voice. He wouldn't take blame for it because it wasn't his fault, damnit, but he was still sorry they were stuck in here.

"Me too," Seto replied, his voice just as quiet. "Some birthday, huh?"

Jou smiled a little, and pondered that statement. "Even though this is a disaster - you know, the really nasty kind you only see in movies - I think I've had worse," he said eventually. He felt Seto's chest vibrate in a silent chuckle.

"I can't imagine anything worse than today," he said sceptically.

"Probably not," Jou laughed. "But at least we're together. It'd suck donkey balls if I was down here by myself. I'm glad I got to spend my birthday with you," he finished softly. He shifted his head and craned it back a little, so he could smile up at Seto.

"Truce?" he asked mildly.

"Truce," came the serene answer, accompanied by a serene, cerulean gaze.

"Good," Jou whispered throatily, reaching up to graze kisses along Seto's jaw. Seto's arms loosened and he put a leg down as Jou manoeuvred around to better reach Seto's face and neck, and his brown head dipped to meet Jou's blond one.

"Just how blind is this blind spot of yours?" Jou asked, nuzzling Seto's cheek with his nose, bracing on the floor with one hand while the other started a slow and steady descent.

"They can only see the top of our heads. Maybe a leg or two," Seto replied absently, snatching swift kisses from Jou's sly lips. They paused their cat and mouse game as Jou's hand tugged at Seto's belt and slowly made its way lower.

"Is that a candy bar in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" Jou asked playfully, running his hands over the bulge in Seto's pants. Seto smiled a wicked smile, and leaned back against the wall.

"It's a candy bar."

Seto had never seen a mood evaporate quicker. Jou pulled back, suddenly angry and quite possibly violent. His hand tightened on the candy bar in Seto's pocket, and Seto was unbelievably glad that it really was a candy bar, and not his sensitive equipment.

"You had food in here and you didn't tell me? You asshole! I've been starving!"

"Then why didn't you say something?" Seto asked, scowling as though he was the sole voice of reason in a roomful of crazy people.

"I was trying to be good! If I complained about being hungry too you mighta used one of your frigging prototypes on me! I been growling since we got in here!"

Seto raised a haughty eyebrow and stared Jou down, but secretly he was impressed with Jou's self-control. Who knew he had any? "Well?" he asked arrogantly.

"Well what?" Jou asked angrily.

"Aren't you going to take it?"

"Hell yeah I am!" Jou rummaged in Seto's pocket with unnecessary force, and his hand soon resurfaced clutching the much-coveted candy bar tightly.

"Ohhhh, Mr Nutty Fudgy Choco Peppermint Marshmallow Candy Bar, I love you so much..." he crooned, kissing the bright wrapper ferociously.

"Hey. You want any?" he asked Seto entirely too gruffly for it to be considered a genuine offer.

"No, thank you." Seto shook his head and looked at Jou in amusement. He watched Jou peel back the wrapper and take the first bite, making the most delicious sound he'd ever heard, to accompany the most satisfied face he'd ever seen.

"That's so fucking good…" Jou sighed, and Seto almost laughed. Almost.

"Jou, it's barely been four hours. One, you can't be that hungry, and two, if you eat all of that now, you'll be hungry for the next eight hours." Jou paused, looking like he was trying to do a difficult math sum in his head, and failing horribly.

"I – you're right," Jou said grudgingly. He sadly finished his mouthful, folded the candy bar closed and handed it back to Seto. "You are now the keeper of the candy." He looked like he was about to continue by detailing the candy keeper's duties and virtues, but Seto took pre-emptive measures and just grabbed it.

"Shut up," he said firmly, shoving the candy bar back in his pocket. 'Why do I always feel like his mother?' he asked himself seriously, reclining again.

Jou looked more than annoyed, but settled back against Seto's chest once more, albeit rather stiffly. They were both quiet for a while, and Seto was sure that Jou was thinking about the Mr Nutty Fudgy Coconut Pineapple Whatever Bar in his pocket.

"What the hell were you doing with a candy bar in your pocket?" Jou asked suddenly. The loud echo sounded vaguely accusatory in the stillness of the vault and Seto smirked openly. He loved being right all the time.

"It was for you. Something for you to snack on while I was in the meeting with the board." He looked at his watch. "Which would have been coming to a close any minute now." For the millionth time since the vault doors swung shut Seto suppressed a panicked vision of KaibaCorp burning merrily to the ground because he wasn't there.

"Damn. Lucky me. You think of everything, huh?"

Seto snorted loudly. "Sometimes there are things that even I don't think of. Obviously." Unbeknownst to Jou, this is actually what was upsetting him so much. Alright, he was mad that Jou had locked him in his vault, but he was even madder than he had somehow been caught unawares; that he didn't have a plan like he always did. Like he always should.

"Don't worry about it. One out of two ain't bad," Jou said, patting Seto's knee in a slightly patronising manner; and Seto found it more comforting than he thought he should have.

5:50pm

"Ooh! What's in that one right there – that – what number is that?" Jou squinted at a vault somewhere on the far side of the opposite wall. "Number 176!"

There was a short silence in which Seto reluctantly plumbed the depths of his memory. "The prototype version of the Stormraider game, I believe."

"Great! Umm, what about that one! Number 651!"

Seto was getting fed up of this game. He should never have told Jou that he had committed most of the vault's contents to memory, and he should really stop encouraging him by getting every question right. Not that Jou knew if he was right or wrong anyway. He supposed it was better than doing nothing, but it was really beginning to get on his nerves.

"There isn't anything in Number 651," he said.

Jou got to his knees and leaned forward, palms down. He squinted in safety deposit box Number 651's general direction and harrumphed. "Huh. You're right. These damned lights are getting to me. Alright, what's in Number 433, then?"

"Gozaburo's deformed love child! Who gives a shit? Just sit down and shut up!"

"Screw you, Grumpy! I'm just trying to kill the boredom, here! You got anything better to do?"

"I'm sure I could find something a lot less annoying."

Jou turned to face Seto, pulling his legs up to his chest. "Oh yeah, smartass?" he said defiantly. "Well, answer me this!"

Seto waited for Jou's question.

"What's in Number 284?"

Seto made a strangled sound of frustration and had to restrain himself from smacking Jou in the head. He would refuse to answer, that was all. He wouldn't say anything. But Jou just kept looking at him expectantly. And looking. And looking. And even when Seto had stopped staring back at Jou to scrupulously inspect his nails, he still felt the gaze like a hot, incessant finger poking his face.

"Old Duel Monsters cards. Most of them from my first deck," he muttered finally. He was barely done saying the words when he glimpsed Jou's wide grin, and helped himself to a slice of the revelation pie that Jou had no doubt just eaten. It seemed that there was some other way to occupy their time after all.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jou asked with a special twinkle in his eye.

"I believe I am," Seto said. He threw a smug look over his shoulder as he made his way to safety deposit box Number 284. "I told you I could find something less annoying."

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