Rating: M (for language)

#27 Overflow

Jounouchi wasn't really paying attention to his sister. He was too busy flirting with their waitress, trying to gauge whether she was flirting back merely in hopes of getting a better tip or because she might actually be interested in going out with him. But when Shizuka hissed in a sharp breath of air, he forgot all about the waitress and looked at his sister, alarmed to see that her eyes were huge and round and her face drained of all color.

"What's wrong?"

She didn't answer, but was staring beyond him, so he turned to look over his shoulder… and almost dropped his coffee cup.

Their father had just walked into the coffee shop.

Their father. Jounouchi Raidon. Into a coffee shop. Where they didn't serve any alcohol. What were the odds?

"Shit," Jounouchi swore under his breath, his head snapping back toward his sister as he slid down in his seat, hoping they wouldn't be noticed, his eyes already searching for another exit while Shizuka gripped her napkin so tightly her knuckles were as white as her face.

"Everything all right?" the waitress asked.

"Yeah, we're good, we just need the check if you don't mind," Jounouchi replied through clenched teeth. She gave him a quizzical look, then laid their tab down on the table and left. He dug into his wallet without looking at the total, pulled out a thousand-yen note, and slapped it down on top of the check. "Okay, let's just get outta here before—"

"Well, well, wouldja look here. If it isn't my very own son. How long's it been, boy? A year maybe?"

Jounouchi gritted his teeth and stood up to face his father, putting himself between him and Shizuka. "Been busy, working and stuff."

"Too busy to stop by and visit your old man?"

"Hardly seemed worth the effort," he shot back. "It's not like you knew I was there when I lived there."

Raidon's face darkened. "Watch how you talk to me, boy."

Jounouchi pulled himself up to his full height. He'd grown an inch or so in the year since he'd graduated high school, putting him a good two or three inches taller than his father, and he easily was in much better shape. "Or what?" he growled.

"Katsuya, don't," he heard Shizuka whisper behind him but he ignored her, trying to keep their father's attention on him.

Raidon met his gaze a moment, answering the challenge, and then he backed off with a smirk, his eyes darting past Jounouchi to Shizuka. "Aren't you gonna introduce me to your little girlfriend here?"

Jounouchi's eyes widened in surprise. He didn't recognize her! Well, of course not. She'd been all of seven the last time he'd seen her. "No, Dad, I don't think so. We was just leaving." He looked over his shoulder at Shizuka, indicating with a jerk of his head that they should go. She nodded and stood up and he put his hand protectively at the small of her back, guiding her past their father.

He scrutinized her as they went past, then suddenly he frowned. "Wait. Shizuka?"

They both froze.

"Shizuka, is that you?"

"Hi Dad," Shizuka squeaked.

"Holy shit, girl, just look at you! All grown up! You look just like your mother."

"I… thanks," she stammered.

"Dad, we're kinda in a hurry here," Jounouchi cut in. Please just let me get her the hell out of here, she doesn't need this shit.

"I think you can spare a minute to let me get a look at my own daughter who I haven't seen in, what, seven, eight years?"

"Ten," Jounouchi bit out, "and it's a little late to take an interest now, so if you don't mind—"

"Ten years," Raidon whistled. "No wonder you're so grown up."

"Thank you," Shizuka said again, so ill at ease that Jounouchi was wishing the place would just catch on fire or something, anything to distract his father so they could get the hell away from him.

Then Raidon frowned, leaning in to look at her more closely. She flinched and instinctively backed away a step while Jounouchi slid in front of her, putting himself between them once more. "Wait a minute," their father said, "Shouldn't you have a cane or a dog or something? I thought you was supposed to be blind by now."

Jounouchi clenched his fists. "She had an operation when she was fourteen, Dad. They fixed her eyes."

Raidon seemed to consider this, then shook his head with a nasty smile. "You gotta be kidding me. You gotta be fucking kidding me. Just like that. 'They fixed her eyes.' All of that shit your mother put us through over this. All of that drama and that whining, 'Shizuka's eyes this' and 'Shizuka's eyes that.' All for fucking nothing. What a fucking waste."

Jounouchi heard Shizuka suck in another sharp breath of air and then he snapped. All of the rage he'd held in for ten years—no, seventeen years, since the day she was born—overflowed into his fists and with a roar of fury he launched himself at his father, hitting him in the jaw hard enough to send him flying backwards into the next table. Coffee shop patrons scrambled to get out of their way and he heard the waitress he'd been flirting with shout something while Shizuka begged, "Katsuya, please don't, let's just leave," but he was too angry to care. He just stood over his father as the older man tried to get to his feet.

"You stay away from us, do you understand? And you especially stay away from her. You don't get to even so much as say her name, am I making myself clear?"

Raidon looked up at him, his eyes full of hate as he rubbed his jaw.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" Jounouchi shouted, leaning over him.

His father said nothing.

A burly man from the kitchen approached them. "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave or I'm gonna call the police," he said in a voice that left no room for debate.

"Fine, we were just on our way out," Jounouchi replied, still glaring down at his father. The kitchen guy tried to take him by the arm to usher him out, but Jounouchi shook him off. "Get your hands offa me, I'm going!" he snapped, then put his hand at Shizuka's back and guided her around their father as he was getting to his feet. The kitchen guy stayed with them until they were out the door, then Shizuka grabbed his arm and dragged him away as quickly as she could. As soon as they were well clear of the place, he shook out his aching hand. "Owww," he complained, pressing his hand to his mouth and kissing his sore knuckles. "That hurt."

"It serves you right, you idiot," Shizuka chided him, but her voice sounded weak and shaky. "You shouldn't have done that, Katsuya. He's so not worth it."

He stopped abruptly and turned to face her, dropping his hand from his mouth and taking her by both her shoulders. "You're right, Shizuka, he isn't worth it. But you are. And don't ever doubt that. Not ever."