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Kaiba
In a perfectly normal world, watching my brother and my girlfriend kissing at the poolside would have made me more livid than relieved. I had no notions about a normal world – but guessing by the look on Jounouchi's face, he might have. He turned away from them to fix his anger onto me; I thought maybe he was going to shout about how it was my fault, which I could handle. I even had a counter-argument about how it was really his fault for being useless.
In retrospect, I should have seen it coming; I had hit him first, and considering the moment, violence was the closest thing to a decent argument he probably had. Still, that didn't make it any less surprising when my ass connected with damp pavement. I managed to dodge the next blow, took the next in order to catch him off guard, force him onto his back – if he wanted to start a fight –
It turned out to be the first fight where I got pulled off my opponent – by a lifeguard nonetheless. Jounouchi scrambled to his feet and settled a scathing glare on me; not even when I insulted his dueling prowess had he given me looks like that. He took a step towards me, and I tensed, ready to wrench my way away from the lifeguard and –
"Oniichan, that's enough!" Shizuka stepped in front of him, grabbing him by the hand. "We're going. Now." She dragged him out and with some hesitation, Jounouchi followed, eyes narrowing at me one last time before he was out of sight. He didn't say sorry, that he hated me, not even goodbye to Mokuba – and that was when I realized things had reached the peak of awkward; on one side, Mokuba was staring at me, then staring after Jounouchi and Shizuka, probably reeling from that little kiss, and there I was, shoving off a lifeguard. People were staring, whispering to each other; even the lifeguard went off and started talking to someone else. Then again, I want to say it was the first time I'd gotten into an actual fight in public. And I hadn't even been able to put Jounouchi in his place.
"Niisama, I think we should talk," Mokuba sighed, catching my attention; I looked over at him, Jounouchi forgotten as I looked at his posture. He looked nervous, as he set to the task of slowly getting his things together; I joined in, not sure what to say. Mokuba wasn't talking, and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. We made it as far as the car, then the tension finally seemed to break; Mokuba leaned against the passenger side door, looked down at the cement with the heaviest sigh I'd ever heard. I joined him, waiting for him to speak; he didn't keep me waiting. "So this was one royal fuck-up."
"Watch your language," I scolded half-heartedly. For one of the first times I could remember, being right didn't seem to be worth it.
"It was. We weren't… We were going to dump you guys, but I didn't plan to do THAT. We just…" He sighed again; I was quickly growing to hate the noise, and the knowledge that I was at least partially responsible for it. "She's so sweet, Niisama. I like spending time with her, and while she was sitting there, she was so pretty… I couldn't help myself."
He sounded guilty, but I didn't quite relate; as far as I could tell, he didn't have too much to worry about. "I didn't see her protesting."
"That's not the point. It's more… I really like her. It doesn't seem right to have done that NOW, when she's still dealing with you… Why couldn't you have liked her, Niisama?"
Of all things I expected him to ask me, that was the last. My brother was pouring his heart about to me, telling me about how he liked a girl, and all he had to ask me was why I wasn't the one that liked her instead? I shook my head; there wasn't an answer I could give him, nothing that would satisfy him.
"She cried, you know; that's how this whole thing started. I was so mad that I had to do something. You…" He sighed again. "I wish you hadn't done this. I wish Jou hadn't played along. I should have handled it better. I…"
"Don't blame yourself." I put an arm around his shoulders awkwardly; he'd never really needed physical reassurance, but he sounded so dejected… it was worth trying. He didn't push me away. "You can't make everything work just by wishing. Just work with what you've got."
"And what do I have?"
"Well, apparently you have a girl who didn't seem to object to you kissing her. You've got…" I suppressed a growl by sheer will alone. "…a boyfriend – "
Mokuba wasn't so eloquent in hiding his anger – he DID growl. "Ex-boyfriend."
"– Ex-boyfriend to deal with." There was no denying it; that made me smile. Maybe the ends didn't justify the means per se, but Mokuba had just clearly indicated that I'd succeeded at my initial task – bad as things had turned out, it was enough to make me feel a little more justified. Unfortunately, Jounouchi was in my hair now, thanks to the publicity of our disagreement. That would be taken care of with much less subtlety.
"So…" Mokuba nodded. "Does that mean… You know, about Shizuka…?"
"Go for it."
"Just checking. And how do you suppose I approach her? It's not like we ever formally discussed the possibility of being… uh… together."
It was nice to see him blushing and knowing that it wasn't over someone I hated. It was just over someone who had every right to hate me. "She likes you," I told him, taking my arm back. "What more do you need to approach her?" I held back the urge to tell him that he hadn't needed much more to go with Jounouchi. Instead, I got in the car; Mokuba followed, seemingly appeased – or at least content – with what I had to tell him. That left me two people to deal with; Shizuka, and Jounouchi. Shizuka would be simple enough; I would take whatever she had to say, and… I'd apologize.
Shizuka
I was ignoring Oniichan's ranting, instead staring out into the road and wishing the bus would hurry up from wherever it was. I had bigger problems than what was bothering Oniichan, especially since he was technically one of my problems – because his boyfriend was a problem. "So stupid," I sighed, leaning back against the bus stop pole.
"That's right," Oniichan seethed. "He's – "
"Shut up already!" I turned away from him and bit my lip, crossing my arms over my chest. "I'm sorry your feelings are hurt, but I have other things to about right now."
For the first time since we'd left the pool, there was silence… for maybe three whole seconds. "While you're at it, maybe you'd clue me in to when you and Mokuba started kissing on a regular basis." He didn't sound angry, but he sure as hell didn't sound happy – like he was choosing his words, probably because it was me. It didn't make me feel better; just because Oniichan was holding back didn't make it all better.
"Never, if you have to know," I snapped. "It just happened – and it's not like you didn't deserve it anyway."
"Deserve…! What did I do to – "
"What do you think you did?" I shouted, twirling around to look at him; he stepped back a bit, blinking like it was the first time he'd heard a girl scream. "Don't play dumb, and don't act like you didn't do anything – I know all about the deal you had with Seto!"
That shut him up; he gaped at me for a full minute, then took a stepped forward, paused… "Shizuka, I – "
"You're horrible, just like him," I filled him in, looking away again. Yelling wasn't helping me feel alright, it made me feel worse, but keeping it to myself wasn't working either… "You cared more about yourself, at the expense of someone else – you deserved to have the feeling returned."
"Don't say it like I wasn't thinking of you at all," he almost pleaded, almost growled. "You think I wanted you to get hurt? The hell I did!"
"Did a great job of showing that," I grumbled.
"You were happy with him! I didn't want him to break your heart… Maybe you're right, but it's not like I was just throwin' you to the big bad wolf and not worrying about you. It was fucking hard, okay? I hated it every bit as much."
"I…" It was hard to angry at Oniichan when he talked like that. He'd always looked out for me; even against appearances, I couldn't believe that he was just giving me up, not when I had so many more good memories of him, better than this. "You told me to be wary of boys when I moved to Domino. 'They're beasts,' you said."
"I remember."
"And I kept it in mind; I never forgot. It just never occurred to me that you were one of the boys I had to be careful of too." Turning, I saw him looking so resigned, maybe finally realizing why he had made me angry to start with.
"Of course," he said finally. "Voice of experience."
I was supposed to stay mad, and hate him for a long time, and make him regret ever treating me like I couldn't handle myself… but I couldn't do it, I really couldn't; I heard his loud "oomph!" as I hugged him, squeezing him tight and trying not to cry against his shoulder; it didn't work. It didn't stop my voice from shaking. "I'm so angry at you, Oniichan. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," he said, sounding more like himself as he patted by back. "C'mon now, don't be like that. Didn't Ma ever tell you that you add years to your face when you cry? You've got to stay young and pretty if you're going to keep a certain someone interested."
"Oh!" I sniffled, shaking my head and trying to wipe my tears with the back of my hand without letting go. "Oniichan, I – "
"Ah, don't fight it," he said sheepishly. "Trust me when I tell you that you won't get away with just kissing him and running. Besides, who would want to?" There was a high squeal behind us, and I turned to see the bus had stopped. "Let's go home; we can get some lunch, and deal with the rest of this ugly business later, okay?"
I nodded, starting to feel a little better – finally.
notes
Okay, okay, so the goal for finishing this is July. Sometime in July. So god willing, even if it means the last chapter is posted on July 31st at 11:59 PM, I want it done in July. :insert much fist shaking here: And it's not even that there's much writing left to do; I've managed to get most of it out of the way. It's just make sure it's presentable and such. And having the energy to do it.
I know, I know; this story has been taking way too long.
Anyway, so this chapter makes me nervous, because the fight feels so stupidly cliché, and an angry!Shizuka isn't something very typical, so… Yeah. Is this when I defend myself with, "My beta liked it!" XD On that note, many thanks to elsalhir for taking time out of her schedule to handle this story. d So ph33rless, our beloved leader.
However, I was rather fond of Jou during Shizuka's POV.
And Nenya: to say that it absolutely made my night that you caught the shower thing would be a complete understatement. XD however, I was going for the opposite end of the spectrum from a cold shower, lol.)