Title: Stress Therapy – 5?

Author: Telpei

Rating: M

Pairing: Seto/Jou

Beta: Jennie (You STONE! No wait, that's not right...) Thanks SO much for getting this back to me uber!fast with tonnes of helpful comments. offers SETO GRATEFUL PLUSHIE (TM) You're my heroine! (er, not the drug...)

Spoilers: None. This is AU.

Disclaimer: It's not mine. The idea's not even mine. But I'm going to use it all the same and have fun with it sticks out tongue So there! Muahahahahaha... (Many thanks, though, to calico1019, for offering up this delicious bunny for feasting! presents pocky)

Summary: Kaiba's work-related stress lands him in the hospital and the good doctor prescribes a month's worth of vacation. The first week doesn't go very well, so Mokie decides to step in and send his brother away so that Seto won't be anywhere near his company. But what kind of 'spa' has Mokuba chosen? Seto's in for quite a sexy surprise...

Author's Notes: Thanks to Wishful Thinker, again, for her help! This fic would have stopped last chapter if I hadn't had her to talk to about plot stuffs. So, thanks! hughug Also thanks to Coolmorphs for threatening me until I got off of my lazy ass and wrote this chappie offers pocky It would have been another month without her! sweatdrops I'm sorry it is so late though. Computers are evil, and bad things happen when the batteries in your wireless keyboard start to die .

OoooooooO

Chapter 5 – The Ring

When Seto woke up the next morning, he showered and dressed, and then he settled down for his cup of coffee. His censored paper was waiting for him, and although he was a little put off by the rainbows and flowers, it was the only way he was able to keep up with the outside world. He put on his glasses and then flipped through the pages, looking for anything that seemed mildly interesting, but his thoughts were a little preoccupied.

The night before, he'd paid a visit to Liz and had requested two documents belonging to the spa. One belonged to Jounouchi Katsuya and the other to Otogi Ryuuji. He had scanned them briefly, right in front of her, and then had made his request. She had seemed surprised and had almost refused – Seto could only assume that it was to protect her friend – but the CEO's money had come through for him as it always did. The two documents were sitting on the table beside his mug of coffee, each one tucked neatly inside its clean, white envelope. Seto had already read both files thoroughly, but he set down his paper and pulled one of them out again anyway. He sighed as his eyes scanned over the now familiar text, lingering slightly on Jounouchi's name. He couldn't help but notice that a whole year of information seemed to be missing...

Just then, he heard the tail end of his cell phone ring from the other room and frowned.

He glanced at the clock on the microwave and his frown deepened. Mokuba should have called him already; it was almost noon in Japan...and he usually kept his cell phone close at hand. In fact, the last time he had seen his cell had been... Seto's frown evolved into a full-fledged scowl.

An impatient knock then sounded on the door of his suite.

Still scowling, Seto made his way across the room and swung the door open, just as his phone started ringing again, this time from the beginning of the song. It was a tune that Mokuba had programmed into the device, and the CEO just hadn't had the heart to change it.

Jounouchi was staring back at him through bleary eyes, and he thrust the phone in Kaiba's face. "This fucker has bin goin' off fer an hour, I swear," he grunted, brushing past the brunet and into the room. "It's five fucking am! Who th'hell's callin' ya now?"

The brunet frowned as he flipped open his phone, bringing it up to his ear as he watched Jou flop gracelessly onto his couch. "Nice pajamas," he commented as he shut the door to his suite, eyeing Jou's pink flannelette covered rear end. The blond flipped him the bird and Seto snorted, finally turning his attention to his phone. "Kaiba," he greeted.

"Seto!" Mokuba's voice exclaimed. "Are you all right! I've called you twenty-two times and you didn't answer! Is anything wrong? You didn't have another attack, did you? Seto, I've been so worried! How come you didn't answer?"

"Mokie, calm down," Seto replied tiredly, moving towards the bedroom so he could have a little privacy for his conversation with his brother. Maybe when he was finished, the blond on his couch would be gone. "My phone...got misplaced. I only heard it ringing a moment ago."

Mokuba was silent for a moment, and Seto could hear the gears turning in his little brother's head. The brunet knew that he hadn't given enough details, even though what he had said had been the truth. The younger Kaiba was bound to be suspicious.

"Misplaced?" Mokuba finally asked. "Seto, you never misplace anything, much less your cell phone..."

Seto sighed, closing his bedroom door and moving to sit down on the bed. "Jou, my therapist, and I had a bit of an argument about it yesterday, and I accidentally left it in his office overnight."

"Don't tell me you took a Kaiba Corp. call!" Mokuba groaned. "Seto, I've told you a hundred times that you aren't allowed to-"

"I know," Seto replied with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Mokie. I know that you have things under control. I promise it won't happen again."

The younger Kaiba was silent for a moment, and then he grunted his approval. "All right, I trust you Seto. I'll have a word with your secretary and 'remind' her that she's not to forward your calls." Mokuba paused for a few seconds, and when he spoke again Seto could have sworn he heard the grin in his younger brother's voice. "So, you're already on a first name basis with your therapist? Are things going well?"

Seto sighed. "Yes, Mokuba. But if I had known exactly what kind of therapy you were signing me up for, I never would have come."

"I know," the raven-haired boy replied. Seto could definitely detect a grin. "That's why I didn't tell you. So, you said his name was Jou? What's he like? You didn't give Liz a hard time, did you? She sounded nice when I spoke with her on the phone."

The elder Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Yes, his name is Jounouchi. He's not a bad person; I suppose...I can tolerate him, at least." Seto wisely decided to keep his initial confrontation with Liz to himself.

Mokuba snickered. "Well, I guess if you can tolerate him, then you're getting along fine. Listen big brother, I've got a lunch meeting with those stuck up pricks from the States in a half an hour, and I still have to get some charts ready. I've got to run but I'll talk to you later, ok?"

Seto nodded, smiling slightly. "All right, Mokie. I'll call you tonight."

"Ok! Bye Seto! Love you!"

"I love you too," the brunet replied, still smiling as he hung up. He stood and pocketed his phone, and then headed out of his bedroom...only to have his smile fade into a frown when he saw that a certain blond was now sitting at his table with a mug of coffee.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Seto demanded, moving towards the table and sitting down in front of his paper, pulling it out of Jou's reach. "This is my suite and I don't remember inviting you in."

Jou shrugged, staring into his coffee. He looked a little more awake now that he'd had some caffeine, but there still wasn't much life in him. "I figured since yer phone woke me up so goddamn early, you owed me a cup a coffee at th' very least."

"Well, you figured wrong. So if you'll kindly leave..." Seto said threateningly, fixing an icy glare on the therapist.

Jou rolled his eyes. "I ain't doin' ya no harm by sittin' here," the blond murmured, taking another sip of his hot beverage and leaning back into his chair with a sigh of relief. He eyed Seto carefully, noticing that the brunet was wearing his glasses again. He was finding them increasingly attractive.

"I happen to like peace and quiet in the mornings," the brunet replied with a frown. He didn't like the way the therapist was watching him. It was unnerving, and Seto Kaiba did not like to be unnerved.

The blond shrugged, sensed Kaiba's discomfort, and turned his gaze back to his coffee mug. "Otogi will be aroun' soon 'nuf," he commented. "He's one of them early risers, too. Betcha he can't wait ta get started with yer sorry ass." Jounouchi sighed as he set down his mug and started fiddling with a package of stapled papers that were on the table. Damn, he thought. My first real client in almost a year and Otogi has to go and mess it up for me... He sighed again, and then suddenly his eyes narrowed as he actually focused on the papers his fingers were playing with. "Hey..." he said, frowning. "This is-"

"Give that to me," Seto cut in tersely, snatching the papers from Jou's hands and stuffing them unceremoniously back into the envelope. "You are invading my personal space and breaching our contract."

"That was my resume!" Jou cut in, jumping to his feet to lunge for the envelope and knocking his chair backwards in the process. It landed with a crash, but neither blond nor brunet seemed to notice. "What the hell are ya doin' wit' my resume?"

Seto frowned. Jounouchi was currently leaning on the table with both hands and breathing heavily. It seemed that the therapist was no longer suffering from the early hours of the morning. "It's not only your resume, but your history at this establishment and any previous establishments where you have been employed," Seto explained, deciding to just tell the blond the truth. "I also have Otogi's file. If you would calm down for a moment and stop damaging my property, I'll tell you why I am in possession of both of your records."

The blond took a moment to reign in his temper, and then he angrily righted his chair and sat down. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Kaiba, waiting for the brunet to speak.

Seto sighed heavily and wrapped his hands around his cooling coffee mug before he started his explanation. "I went to speak with Liz after Otogi interrupted our session yesterday afternoon."

Jou snorted. "It wasn't much of a session. Did you go tell 'er that I was a waste a yer precious time and you wanted Otogi as yer therapist?"

Kaiba sat through Jou's accusations with a calm expression, waiting for the blond to finish before he continued, "I did no such thing. I do not make rash decisions, Jounouchi – my company depends on my ability to react quickly and decisively for the best outcome to any situation. This was no different. I have reviewed both of your files extensively, and you will continue to work with me for the next three weeks. Liz seemed eager to pass me on to Otogi, but I convinced her that we had already developed a client-therapist relationship. I also informed her that it would be more damaging to my health to start over with another therapist when you and I had already started my treatment."

Seto watched in amusement as Jounouchi slowly reacted to his explanation, but he didn't allow the blond to get a word in before he spoke again. "However, I was surprised to find that you describe yourself as 'perhaps the most accomplished sex therapist'. Oh yes, and we can't forget how you mention that your bible is the kama sutra. I should really speak to your employer and ask if they were so desperate they had to hire you, or if all of this shit is true."

Jounouchi groaned and dropped his forehead onto the tabletop. Although he was excited and relieved that Seto was going to be his client and not Otogi's, he could tell that it was going to be another one of those days...

Ooo TBC ooO

Oh, sidenote: here's the actual plot bunny again...I actually managed to stick in a few of the lines that were given in the evil thing ;; Just so you know I can't have all the credit for the genius in this chapter (sweatdrops Usually I'm a modest person, I swear!)

Message # 16605: After a workaholic Kaiba Seto goes too far, Mokuba decides to take action and books a three week spa somewhere deep in the mountains, hoping it would reduce his elder's BP a little. So, Kaiba goes (is tricked into going, w/e) and finds the spa is just a li'l bit out of the ordinary, especially since it's most famous for its variety of unusual therapies. Enter Katsuya Jounouchi, perhaps the most accomplished sex therapist (at least that's what his resume says) whose bible is the kama sutra. And he has his sights on a certain blue-eyed newcomer who is wound up tighter than a psychotic terrier on crack (his words, not mine). Can Seto deal with him and try to find out how to claw his way back to civilization? Bit open ended. Can be changed around quite a bit.

Sorry it's taken me soooo long to update...I had a really hectic semester at school...we'll see how the next chapter comes along... I've had this one sitting around and forgot to upload it. Sorry guys! offers pocky all around