Authoress here
All I can do is apologize for the time gap between chapters. What can I say to defend myself? Life is Hell.
Changes Made
Chapter Seven: That Was Then
One Week Later
The rain fell steadily on the classroom windows, setting a soft staccato against the glass that lulled nearly everyone to a doze. There had been reports of flooding around the lower end of the county, but up in the main hustle and bustle of Domino City, the constant rain had only served to get taxi companies more business. No one wanted to walk to work in the downpour.
Seto, despite his expansive practice remaining alert in board meetings, was finding himself lethargic. He tried tickling the roof of his mouth with the tip of his tongue to keep himself awake, but to no avail. Blinking fiercely, he wracked his brain trying to remember when this class had become so boring.
"Jounouchi! Where have you been?" The sensei's voice cut sharply through the tedium-induced torpor, and Seto glanced sharply at the door. Jou had appeared at the entrance, looking a little sheepish and as drowned as a gutter-rat.
Jou didn't answer, choosing instead to squelch to his seat. The sensei glared at his back.
"Jounouchi, I have asked you a question. Where were you? Class started forty minutes ago!"
"Was busy." Jou grunted.
"Busy? That's not an acceptable excuse." The sensei fixed Jou with a steely eye. "Truth, now, or you can consider yourself suspended."
Jou heaved a sigh. "Didn't set th'alarm last night. Slept in."
"That's another detention, Jounouchi." The sensei snapped. "I don't understand why you'd be falling back into your old rut again."
The sensei turned back to the board to continue his explanation of asymptotes, and Seto turned slightly in his seat to view the forlorn teenager a few rows back. Jou's face was pointing downward, so the only view of Jou's eyes available was curtained by his long, golden eyelashes.
Seto felt a small stab of guilt. He and Jou had seen little of one another after Jou's successful test, and-
Realization dawned on the CEO, accompanied by an almost equally strong feeling of doubt. Jou wouldn't fail on purpose just to get back to the tutoring sessions….
…Would he?
Once the bell had rung, signaling the end of the day, Seto caught up to Jou as the sandy-haired teen made a break for the door. "Katsuya! Wait up!"
"What's happenen', Seto?"
"Nothing really." Seto hesitated a little before replying. Truth be told, he had a board meeting, two interviews with foreign game magazine people, at least twenty employees to fire, another thirty to interview, and a never-ending pile of paperwork. He justified putting all of this off until later by the sullen look on Jou's face. If they truly were friends, then it was Seto's job to cheer the mutt up. "Care to… have a duel or something?"
Jou stopped and whipped around to stare at the CEO suspiciously. "What?"
"We could stop by a b-burger place, grab something to drink or… Perhaps an arcade?" Seto tried to sound as natural as possible, the effort becoming harder with Jou staring at him as if he had sprouted an extra head.
"Y'mean, go an' hang?"
"Yes." Seto nodded resolutely.
"Don'tchya gotta work?"
The teen drew himself up to his impressive six-foot-two height and tossed his hair in a manner that would have made anyone else look flamingly gay. "I am the CEO. I own sixty percent of all of KaibaCorp stocks; they get to tailor to my schedule."
Jou raised one eyebrow with a faint grin. "Y'mean it?"
"I never say anything I don't mean." Seto said, a with a touch of impatience. "Unless of course you have other plans."
"I only got one client t'day." Jou shrugged, absentmindedly wringing out on shirtsleeve, "an' that'll only take about an hour, just a haircut…. Sure, after dat, sounds like fun!"
"I can pick you up after you're finished at work," Seto said. His mind strayed to the possibility of how stuffed with innuendo that statement would sound if a stranger overhead.
Jou shook his head. "Naw, I'll meetchya somewhere. Got a place in mind?"
"I'm not familiar with hang-outs." Seto looked at the other teen with a raised brow. "Why can't I just swing by and pick you up?"
"'Gotta go home first;" Jou said airily. However light his voice was, Seto caught a flicker of anxiety in the honey-brown eyes.
"Then I'll pick you up at home."
"No!" Jou's answer was almost angry, but he quickly followed it up with a slightly-forced laugh. "Naw, the apartment manager would have a heart-attack if I brought over company."
"…Fine. Name the place, then."
Jou told him the name of a burger place, and Seto agreed to meet him there. Inside, the anxiety in Jou's eyes triggered a different plan altogether.
"Alright, then, around six 'o' clock?" Seto queried, keeping his thoughts hidden for the time being.
"Yeah- aw, shit." Jou's battered knapsack gave up its feeble attempt to hold up Jou's massive dueling-aficionado collection that he carried around. Dueling decks, crudely held together by rubber bands, Jou's duel disk, dueling magazines, and a hair curler clattered to the ground as the knapsack-strap gave way.
Seto knelt hastily to help Jou gather up the contents of his knapsack, noting Jou's frantic movements to get the incriminating hair curler out of the public eye as fast as possible.
"Thanks, man." Jou reached out to take the magazines, but Seto held on to them a fraction of a second, eyes flashing down the various covers. Then, as if it had never happened, he relinquished them, fingertips brushing Jou's hand in the process.
Jou bent his face, stuffing things back inside his knapsack. He was blushing a red that would have put a self-respecting stoplight to shame. Not only had Seto's touch sent a thrill through his body, culminating in his lower stomach, but Seto had seen the magazines.
Jou's favorite dueling magazine, Hatashiai:Senshuken, ran two covers for each of its issues. The latest copy had been a cover of a brand-new duel system, and both covers were different photos features none other than Seto Kaiba himself.
Jou knew he was asking for trouble when he had purchased both covers available for the magazine, and even more so when he forgot to take them out of his bag and leave them at home.
Seto didn't act as if he had noticed, but shortly made his excuses and took his leave.
"That's him." Seto felt slightly ridiculous as he issued a hushed command to his chauffer. Watching Jou saunter out of the salon exchanging cracks with the receptionist from three blocks away, Seto wondered if this was what stalkers did. Brushing the thought from his mind, he watched silently as Jou dodged from awning to awning, saving the roll of newspaper he held under his arm from the ever-steady rain.
The limousine pulled smoothly away from the sidewalk, following the teen discreetly. Seto briefly entertained the question of why his chauffer was so good at following people until Jou took an unexpected turn down a side street. The blonde had unrolled the newspaper and was holding it over his knapsack, to keep the contents dry.
The slow-motion chase continued into the city's ghetto and welfare housing neighborhood. Children with dirty faces greeted Jou affectionately and exuberantly, and he returned the gestures, ruffling a head of hair, lifting another child into the air with a brilliant grin.
The teen continued his journey, fearlessly walking through the worst part of town. He turned down another side street, and Seto bade his chauffer to wait at the end of the street for his return. He slipped from the backseat, wondering at the lack of rain. Looking up, he saw a criss-cross of ramshackle porches and overhangs that created a relatively dry walkway beneath.
Jou had slipped a pair of battered headphones on, and was walking to the beat, bobbing his head slightly to the tune. Suddenly, to Seto's surprise and personal delight, Jou started to dance. It was nothing too outlandish or wild; just a slow, somewhat graceful stretch of his arms, a cock of his head, a slight tilt of his hips.
Seto watched Jou move to a music only he could hear, a smile claiming his lips. The moment lasted only a moment, though; Jou stopped, slipped the headphones off, and abruptly turned and hurried up a staircase to an old-looking apartment. He opened the door without having to unlock it and came inside. When Seto came closer, he could see that the lock was broken.
Some madness made Seto slip the door open and come inside. He could hear Jou's heavy footsteps on the wooden stairs, as they creaked and groaned at every footfall. Seto hurried upwards, avoiding the middle of the steps and avoiding most noise.
Jou climbed another two staircases, and then finally stopped on a narrow landing. Seto was half-relieved to hear the jangle of keys; at least the individual rooms were locked!
"Heya Pops, I'm h- oh, fuck, Dad!"
At this Seto vaulted up the next few steps so that he was level with the landing. Jou had bolted inside, leaving the front door wide open. A haze of smoke floated out, and Seto saw its source with a thrill of horror. An old man, with heavy scarring over closed eyelids, was sitting with a twist of paper in his mouth. Seto could only surmise that it was some form of joint. But the worst smoke was coming from stacks of paper that were piled haphazardly around the man's feet. One of the stacks had caught fire, and was burning at an alarming rate.
Jou had seized a glass of water and had thrown it onto the paper, and was using an old pillow to beat out the rest of the flames. Once the crisis had been averted, Jou rounded on the old man, presumably his father.
"Wha' tfuck where y'thinkin,' Dad? Y'could have burined the entire fuckin' buildin' down!"
The old man mumbled something that Seto couldn't catch. Jou's voice rose in anger.
"How much?-!"
Another unintelligible mumble.
"Dat's half the savings, Dad! I don' believe ya, Dad, y'said y'were clean, miserable liar! How long have y'been buying this shit?-!"
The old man made to take another drag of his drug, but Jou snatched it from his hand, and flung it to the ground, mashing it into the threadbare carpet with his tennis-shoe.
"Y'wonder why Ma took Serenity and scrammed! Fuck Dad, y'burned y'fuckin' music!"
And at that very point, Jou spun around, and caught Seto's gaze.
End Chapter
Authoress here.
So sorry about the wait! Hope this chapter made up for it! Inspiration by the song 'Say Goodnight and Go' by Frou Frou. It's like my theme-song right now…. 'tis kicking! Note: the translation on the magazine title is Dueling: Champion
Cheerio!