Title: She was a wallflower

Pairings: JouAnzu, JouMai, SetoAnzu

Summary: Jounouchi and the beginning

Notes: Now the story truly begins here. This and the following chapters will recount how Jounouchi and Anzu met, the growth of their friendship, when Jounouchi and Mai started dating, up to the point when Anzu writes her letters. That will be the first arc. The second arc will contain SetoAnzu and skip a few years into the future. However, the story will always be a JouAnzu first and foremost.

This story beings at the point when Jounouchi and Honda are still delinquents and have yet to meet Yuugi, Ryou, and Kaiba. They're roughly 15-16 years old.

And 1 million yen is equivalent to $1000 US dollars, right?

If you see (She was a wallflower) that means scene change!


She was a wallflower

Chapter One: He meets her


Everybody was surprised when Jounouchi Katsuya – a delinquent right down to the undershirt hanging out of his uniform and his scabbed fists – walked up to the front of the class with his presentation tucked sloppily under his arm.

His voice was in low feral tones throughout the five minutes Orimoto-sensei gave him, and some of the boys gulped when he directed his face to them – the face that had preceded bloody noses, broken limbs and even as the rumor went, comas – but no damage was done in the end. Jounouchi walked back to his seat in the rear of the room and slumped into his chair.

The fact that Jounouchi had actually done his homework scared the class but there were other presentations to listen to, sleep through, and to cram last minute for exams in the following classes. After school the gossip would start flying and the groups devoted entirely to erasing Jounouchi's existence would get to work trying to manipulate this latest revelation to get him expelled. But for now, the subject of Jounouchi was left alone though questions gnawed at their minds: Why is he doing this? What does he hope to gain from this when it's almost the end of the year and grades are being handed in next month? Does he actually think he can pass on to next year like this?

The blond slept through the rest of the class as expected. Ah, everybody seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when Orimoto-sensei went out of the room at the ring of the first bell and they turned their heads to look at him. Hell hasn't frozen over yet. Jounouchi's still the same hopeless case. Just wanted to surprise us a bit, that's all.

They laughed meekly to themselves at first, then the laughter grew stronger, crueler. He's going to be the 30-year old delinquent in the back of the class years from now. He's never going to advance! Why doesn't he just drop out already? Stupid worthless Jounouchi.

Sakuya-sensei had never liked Jounouchi, so when she entered the room considerably disheveled from climbing the stairs, she rapped her ruler against his back and ripped up his homework, five problems out of forty only finished on the scribble-filled sheet.

Girls and boys settled into their desks, smug and pleased that the world hadn't changed after all.

(She was a wallflower)

Jounouchi's presentation had been on society's treatment of abused and neglected children. Two days later when Orimoto-sensei got around to grading the projects, she marveled at the amount of statistics he had framed with orange construction border and at his scrawled conclusion on the bottom of the board:

Society doesn't recognize that these children – no matter how goddamn screwed-up or crappy their lives were when they were young – can become productive citizens (whatever you call them) just like normal kids when they grow up. Hell, some normal kids grow up to be murderers and rapists, you know. Doesn't mean you give up like that on those other kids who don't have parents or got beaten up by them or by some sibling or relative.

Just give them a freaking chance first.

(She was a wallflower)

Jounouchi took out the death threats, the scraps of worksheets and the challenge letters to find his shoes in a corner of the locker. He pulled them out and studied them. They looked fine. Must be the gum he stuck on the heels and the soles – nobody wanted to touch sticky balls of spit and stretchy sugar after all in order to cut holes in his shoes. Wasn't really worth it. Peeling off the pink wads, the boy slipped them on and walked out of the hallway.

"Yo, Jounouchi!"

He ran over to the curb. Honda sat on a motorcycle outside the entrance, admiring the girls' skirts.

"Got it fixed?" Jounouchi slid his fingers over the slick red surface. "Wasn't red before."

Honda shrugged. "Stole it from some guy named Ushio who tried to get me the other day. Didn't take care of it properly." There was a rag in his pocket and he ran it over the spot Jounouchi's hand had been. "Was all caked with dirt and grass until I got the hose and cleaned it off. Watch where you're touching man. You'll make it all oily and shit."

He laughed. "Jeez, you treat this ride as if it's Nozaka herself."

"Miho-chan! The most wonderful girl to set foot in this crap school! Did you see her today?"

His friend's face flushed red like the motorcycle and Jounouchi thought he saw a box of Godiva in another pocket of his trenchcoat – with white ribbons and a small card probably filled with mushy sweet nothings underneath the frilly bow. He punched Honda in the shoulder.

"I don't get how you got a girlfriend when you cut more class than me! What the hell's that about? And no, didn't see her today."

Honda wilted and Jounouchi thought about how Miho had made him all soft. Men didn't wilt like tulips – they were weeds. Whack them and spray them with herbicide all you wanted and they kept growing back stronger than ever to infest every last bit of garden.

But a woman was more potent than herbicide and Jounouchi wanted to taste some of that essence, see if it was worth dying for. Honda groaned and said, "Get on," without answering Jounouchi's first question and when he was in this mood, the blond knew he wouldn't get an answer until he either snapped out of it himself or when Miho popped out of nowhere to accept his chocolates.

"Is she sick? Did you hear anybody say she's sick?"

"I don't know!" Jounouchi yelled above the deafening rev of the engine.

"I'll buy her a get-well card! And maybe some flowers? Let's go to the mall first!"

"But Shizuka's visiting today - "

The motorcycle was already rolling down across Domino with Jounouchi clinging to Honda's back and the blond hoped that the trip would be quick because he needed Honda to drive him over to the station to pick his sister up.

Miho. God, Honda was so lucky.

(She was a wallflower)

Jounouchi stared across the table in the restaurant to his sister and mother.

"How have you've been doing, nii-chan?" Shizuka's long chestnut hair was combed and fell in straight tendrils across her shoulders. Her uniform must have been ironed and pressed the night before, no crease or wrinkle marred his sister's perfect image. He looked into her eyes – gray and blue mixing together into the scene of the ocean's waves washing over rocks.

And there was his mother. Sitting next to his sister.

"I'm fine." His mother being there made his words came out quiet and weak. "I got a promotion at my job. The next time you come I can buy you something like a – like a dress or s-something like that. Are your eyes better?"

She shook her head and even then her hair remained perfect, the uniform white and spin-and-span, and her hands folded before her on the table's surface. Jounouchi was wearing green instead of the usual blue Domino uniform, had on ratty sneakers with bits of gum leftover on the heels and there was a stain on his untucked white undershirt. He was a long way from being prim and pure like her.

"If it wasn't for your hair, I wouldn't be looking at you right now. Maybe at some stranger." Shizuka smiled gently at him.

Jounouchi thought, 'I am a stranger to you. This is the first time we've seen each other for a year.'

But outside, he faked a chuckle and leaned closer to her, pretending not to see his mother draw Shizuka away when he closed the distance between them. "Well, guess that's the only thing from otou-san I'm grateful for. Hair the color of straw." He felt a vengeful sweetness when he saw the woman clutching his sister recoil at the mention of his father - the subject was still like walking over thin eggshells for her and he was glad.

Shizuka didn't know whether to laugh along with him so she changed the subject to school, asking him if he was doing well and if he made any new friends. As the two traded small talk, Jounouchi's resentment of his mother rose until anger frothed over the edges of his being and he clenched his fists beneath the table. You couldn't stand me so you make Shizuka take over for you. Make her ask all these questions. She's my sister! She's not supposed to be my mom for you, you goddamn bitch. So what if I look like him? Looks don't mean anything!

When the conversation hit a lull, Jounouchi turned to his mother who tried to feign interest in her tea when his eyes scouted her out.

"So okaa-san. How have you've been doing? Job treating you good?"

Shizuka was like a barrier for her against him. His mother pressed herself against her arm now and whispered back, "It's going well. Katsuya." She added his name as an afterthought; Jounouchi was only checked by the presence of his sister and everybody else in the restaurant not to hit her hard across the face.

"So you still can't afford Shizuka's surgery? After seven years, okaa-san?"

He was a fountain gone wrong, spouting a hot steam of hatred. Shizuka whimpered in her chair and she – detestable creature, his mother – dug her nails into his sister's arm and murmured, "No."

"Huh. Are you sure you really care about Shizuka? 3 million yen shouldn't be too hard to get with a salary like yours. I'm living with otou-san who always get tax collectors at his door and I still managed to save up at least a million yen in the last few years."

There were crocodile tears cascading down his mother's face. Though Shizuka couldn't see well, she must had felt the pinpricks of wetness on her sleeve in order to say, "Stop, onii-chan, she's trying!" and for her hand to grope around the table for a napkin to give to the woman. Jounouchi was as passive as brick.

Then his mother had to say something back to him to crush his victory over her.

"Thank you." She sniffled into the napkin. "Thank you…"

He was long past caring about causing a scene. His chair fell over as he pushed it away and he ran out of the restaurant wondering if Shizuka caught his hair moving away from her field of vision.

Wondering if his mother enjoyed screwing with him so much.

(She was a wallflower)

Jounouchi came upon an empty park, panting and chest heaving for breath. Sweat beaded on his forehead and neck, and he fanned himself with his hand while looking around for a water fountain.

The sun was drowning in pinks, oranges, and reds and Jounouchi wanted to die along with it. Goddamn mother. She always managed to get under his skin and make him feel like the most worthless piece of shit under the sky in front of Shizuka.

He sighted the water fountain next to the blue jungle gym and he walked over there slowly, studying the park all around. Basketball court next block down. Fences barricading the baseball field from the track field from the jungle gym. Seemed like the park was owned by a nearby school. The tall black ugly things were everywhere keeping kids in that one space and in that one other space, never letting them mingle together.

Jounouchi knew the park would be a huge mess of kids and playing equipment if the fences were put down, but they made him think of him and Shizuka on separate sides of a fence he labeled "mother" and he kicked one facing the water fountain before taking a drink.

When he was in the middle of splashing his burning face with water, he thought he heard a creak of wood bending and the clatter of chains untangling. Just as suddenly as the sounds came, they left, and Jounouchi thought he was going crazy. Who else was it but his mother's fault for making him imagine things? That was how much she unwound him.

Seven years ever since the divorce and Shizuka's eyes still weren't any better now. She was his dearest sister – his only sister – and how dare his mother deny her the sight of faces, the beach, and all the beautiful colors of the world. If he was going to get the other two million yen, he was going to work his ass off because wouldn't it be worth it to see Shizuka experience an actual sunset and not the faded version through her weak eyes for the first time in so long?

Jounouchi sighed into a fence.

And did a double take.

This fence separated the jungle gym from the swings and the sandbox. On the second swing from his left, he saw a girl sitting on the wooden seat, hands clutching the chains, legs crossed at the ankle, looking at him. She couldn't be older than thirteen, and he recognized her uniform to be from Domino Intermediate.

She said with a smile, "Isn't it a bit late for the two of us to be here," and laughed. From her lips it came out hollow.

Jounouchi looked back at her, breathing in surprise. He let it out, then answered:

"Yeah. It is late."

Their laughter melded like ice and broken bells and both appreciated the emptiness of the sound.



A/N:
Please review! Like I said before QuickEdit sucks. More on Jounouchi and Anzu next chapter.