Changes Made
Chapter Six: Head Games

Seto stared in complete (but well-hidden) bewilderment at the six or seven school girls that stood in front of him, all in different states of giddy laughter. Their leader (Seto could only assume, she seemed to be the only one with control over speech) stepped foreword, leaning in to give him an eyeful of cleavage that would have made their school's prime dress-code enforcer, the vice principal, wet himself.

"We just wanted to say, we're big fans of the haircut."

Seto decided at that moment to listen when Mokuba warned him about a tick that was developing underneath his left eye. "Excuse me?"

She pointed upwards, giggling like her simpering cohorts. "Your hair- And here was me, thinken' you couldn't get any cuter."

"Here was I," Seto corrected automatically, more for something to say than to actually teach her proper grammar. He gave the semi-empty halls a furtive glance, half-horrified that he was practically alone with a group of girls that were looking at him in a way curiously familiar to the way starved wolves look at raw meat-

-And half counting his blessings that he was practically alone with a group of girls that were looking at him in a way curiously familiar to the way starved wolves look at raw meat. No one, no one would ever witness the day Seto Kaiba was at a loss for words, and he was stepping dangerously close to that very day at that very second. Best to have the least amount of witnesses possible.

"…Thank you?"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Seto wished he could take them back. Those two simple words, words used a million times a day (in polite cultures, that is) set the group into a gushing, blushing, giggling mess. Yep, the tick was definitely there, below his left eye, twitching madly. Maybe Mokuba was right all along, a vacation was in order.

As Seto was pondering whether Havana would be more relaxing than Sweden, the perpetually late Jou half-ran down the hallway, checking his pace when he saw Seto confronted by the horde of hormonal teenage girls. He made up his mind at once that, however amusing it would be to watch Seto sweat beneath the attentions of the fan girls, Jou would rather get Seto away free so he could ask him about yesterday's math homework, among other things.

"Se- Kaiba!" Jou jogged the next couple steps to the CEO's side. "Hey man, glad I found ya. Your secretary sent y'a note in first hour via d'vice principal, an' it looked kinda important."

Seto knew an escape route when he saw one, especially now when he was desperately in need of one. "Thank you, K- Jounouchi. Excuse me."

With that, Seto wheeled around and fled; the Seto Kaiba definition of 'fleeing' comprised of stalking away at double his normal speed. Somehow he had latched onto Jou's wrist in the process, so the sandy-haired teen was whipped around like a cartoon character before being dragged down the hall towards their shared first-period classroom.

"You deliberately did less of the 'star-athlete' and more of the 'sex-god' when you did my hair, didn't you!" Seto hissed. "I've been getting that reaction from every girl I meet!"

Jou snorted. "Oh, poor guy, getting' hit on by chicks all th' time. I can imagine how'd that'd be tough on ya, man."

"Oh, be quiet." Seto snapped, relinquishing his grip on Jou's wrist, having just noticed he was still holding it. "Bimbos like those hardly qualify as a thrilling experience. They looked ready to eat me."

Jou snorted again, and Seto looked at him. "What's so funny?"

"They're… gonna eatchya… Ha ha…"

Seto looked at him sourly. "You've got a sick mind."

"Yeah, well, guilty as charged. C'mon, we're gonna be late." Jou winked impishly at the taller boy. "Hey, think of it as a tribute t'my talent; when I want a guy t'look fantastic, he looks fantastic."

Seto quirked an eyebrow at the cocky blonde. "You wanted me to look fantastic?"

The master of the double meanings grew bright red, blustering for an answer. He finally settled on "Well, th' lady you came with-"

"My head of advertising," Seto interjected firmly.

"Yeah, her, I did what she told me too." Jou ended lamely.

"Fine. You're off the hook this once."

Their hurried steps carried them to the threshold of their first classroom. Glancing at his watch, Seto noted in satisfaction that even with the delay of the fan girls, they had made it with seconds to spare.

The class was an easy one, a required language class. But by the time the students reached the final years of their high school, English was easily a fluent second language. The sensei had resigned herself to this and hadn't taught the class with the fervor normally applied to school, and as a result, the classroom rules were lax.

No seating chart had been set, but the students all had 'spots' nonetheless. Yuugi, Honda, and Anzu usually sat towards the middle-left-hand side with Jou; whereas Seto normally took the undesirable front desk. He was constantly working on something other than class work, so where he sat was never too big of an issue for him.

Yuugi looked up from Honda's gaming magazine as Jou and Seto entered. "Since when are they friendly outside of tutoring?"

Honda watched the pair through narrowed eyes. "I dunno, but I do know I sure as hell don't like it."

"Relax," Anzu scoffed, flipping her hair. "Jou's probably reciting the quadratic formula in his sleep by now. It won't be long until you can have Jou back twenty-four seven, and then the usual, ridiculous animosity towards Kaiba can resume."

"Yeah," Honda relented. "I s'pose."

Seto made to go to his normal seat, but Jou's hand suddenly caught hold of his shoulder.

"What?"

"Why d'you always sit in the front, not next t' nobody?" Jou's face was molded into a small frown.

"Because, this is the one class I can use my laptop without resorting to blackmail, and I'm too busy working for friends." Seto realized how pathetic his sentence sounded. He really didn't have any friends, outside of Mokuba. He had firmly adhered to the Kaiba family rule: Friends Are Not Necessary. Friends were a hindrance. Only subordinates were allowed.

But subordinates never frowned when you said that you had no friends. Subordinates never got behind you, put their hands on your shoulders, and guided you to an empty seat next to a group of people, as Jou was doing now. Almost forcing the CEO to sit in the empty desk beside his own, Jou leaned over Seto's shoulder and grinned into his face.

"See? Dat wasn't so hard." Jou plopped down next to Seto, smirking like a cat who had managed to snag a particularly fat canary. "Me, Yuug, Honda an' Anzu don't pay attention in this class, either, so y'don't gotta worry abou' distractin' us."

Seto had never been one to feel self-conscious, but if he ever had acknowledged that the feeling existed it would have been right then. Honda was glaring at him as if he were something particularly foul on the bottom of a shoe; Anzu was looking between Seto and Jou with a decidedly odd, calculating expression on her face, and Yuugi was beaming as if Christmas had come early, and why not, Santa was real too.

Jou was talking as if he didn't notice the tension. "- An' you gotta loosen up, man, 'cause I heard stress can kill ya."

"Nice haircut." Anzu broke the silence that stretched uncomfortably after Jou's last comment. "Where'd you get it done?"

Seto took control of his discomfort and banished it. If Jou was willing to bring him over to his friends in an effort to include him, well, Seto wasn't going to insult him by being stand-offish. "Jou, here, did it for me. It's actually a pretty funny story."

With the air of someone unused to small talk, Seto proceeded to tell the entire story to Yuugi and the other two members of his Cheer Squad. Jou interjected on different parts of the story, and soon Seto found words rolling out of his mouth much easier.

"- And once Katsuya had my hair dried, and I was getting ready to leave, one of the other customers recognized me-"

Jou cut in, sniggering. "She just about fell over herself trying to get your autograph."

The corners of Seto's mouth twitched. "Actually, she did fall over. I believed she tripped over her purse, which she had dropped seconds earlier."

Yuugi started chuckling, and Anzu vainly tried to suppress a giggle. Even Honda cracked a reluctant smile.

Anzu composed herself, noticing the teacher had stopped her pointless lecture at the front of the room. "My goodness, it's almost time to go already!"

"Whoa." Honda stood up abruptly; ready to bolt from the classroom at the sound of the bell. Seto had the feeling he had wanted to do that for awhile.

"Cool. I'll see y'all later." Jou stood as well and headed towards the door, Seto following suit.

At the bell, Honda paused to wait for Yuugi and Anzu. "Time to eat your words, Anzu. When Jou passes that test, I ain't so sure he'll severe all ties with the Rich Bitch. I mean, did you guys see that? Jou practically dragged him over here!"

"Don't be like that," Yuugi chided. "I've been saying for ages that we ought to be nicer to Kaiba-"

"Kaiba doesn't know what 'nice' means, he wouldn't notice if we were nicer." Honda muttered.

"He seemed okay today." Yuugi reminded him. "He was almost cracking jokes."

"So he's suffering from severe sleep deprivation and it's messed with his brain," Honda said impatiently. "Of he's got cancer from staring at computer screens for too long. Whatever. Kaiba has never liked us, and now he's stealing Jou!"

"He is not stealing anybody!" Yuugi sounded slightly irritated at Honda's stubbornness. "So lay off, will you?"

Anzu spoke up, quietly. "Did anybody else notice?"

"Notice what?"

"Kaiba called Jou 'Katsuya,'" Anzu said in the same soft voice.

Honda locked eyes with Yuugi. "We don't even call him that."

The smaller boy shrugged. "We call him Jou as a nickname. I've called him Katsuya before. It's nothing."

Trailing her friends from the classroom, Anzu sighed, speaking to no one. "It may not be."

Three classes later, Jou winced as the sensei placed a paper face-down on his desk. The results of the last math test were in, and Jou had never remembered feeling nervous, as he did now.

Tentatively, as if the paper might suddenly develop fangs and try to bite him, Jou slid the paper onto its back. A bright red letter had been written in caps at the top of his test, and it had been circled.

B-plus.

Jou stared. The letter didn't change.

On a pre-calculus test, Katsuya Jounouchi had gotten a B-plus.

His initial reaction was to gape at his test in shock, which he did promptly. The second thing he wanted to do was jump on top of his desk and wave his spectacular grade around like a victory flag. This he did not do, out of respect for classroom rules against desk climbing.

The third thing he felt was (oddly enough) disappointment. Unsure of how to handle this ridiculous feeling, Jou simply ignored it.

Seto, a few rows ahead of him, turned around, an inquisitive look on the usually-stern face. Wordlessly, Jou held up the test so the CEO could read the grade.

A grin slid on to Seto's face, an occurrence Jou was beginning to get used to. The way the afternoon sun lanced through the windows and hit Seto's face only highlighted the expression, making Seto's skin glow. His eyes sparkled, catching the light, and the perfect smile almost glowed.

Glowed? Jou shook himself mentally, responding to Seto's smile with a thumbs'-up. This test grade is messin' with my head. Seto Kaiba's eyes do not sparkle. Mokuba's, maybe, but not Seto's. Anzu's; yeah, Yuugi's, perpetually, but Seto Kaiba? No way in hell.

A surge of disappointment washed into Jou's chest again, and this time he recognized its source. Passing a test meant that the sensei's deal was over. Seto got full credit for taking the class, and Jou passed.

No more tutoring.

No wonder Seto smiled. Jou thought sourly. This means he's rid of me.

A few rows ahead of Jou, Seto absentmindedly played with his pen. So Katsuya passed. He had worked hard; he deserved the grade. Seto could even venture so far as to say he was proud of the blonde. And now; the afternoons were no longer tied up. Seto could stop antagonizing his board members by showing up late; he could resume with picking Mokuba up after school… all sorts of options opened up.

And to think Seto had considered Katsuya… the Mutt… a friend. Friends were unnecessary. Only subordinates allowed.

So why did he still want this… friendship, if he could callit that...to continue?

End Chapter

Authoress here.

Sorry about the long update wait. Finals. There is my reason. Accept it.

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