Friends and Lovers Chapter 2: Truth or Dare….

Jou thumped his head on the table, he inwardly thought; 'Why me? Why did Bakura have to choose him? What had he done to deserve this terrible fate? But then again he was probably trying to get him back for that time with the custard cream pie…mmmmm' Jounouchi smiled as he un-plastered his head from the table. Everyone else sighed in relief as Jou was chosen to play first. Bakura smiled maniacally at Jou, obviously he already had serious plans for the blond; "So Jounouchi, truth or dare?" the hazel-eyed teen paused for a second before choosing: "Truth B'kura" he decided in his slight American intonation. Bakura looked very much put out by this, obviously the tomb thief had planned an outrageous dare for the blond to undertake, not a pathetic truth.

"Okay then, in that case; why is it that no-one is privileged enough to call you by your first name?" Jou frowned profusely at this question, answering carefully; "I can't explain exactly…" The blond glanced briefly across the plastic cafeteria table at the blue-eyed CEO sitting across from him before continuing; "But if ya really wanna know I used to be called that by someone I kinda cared about.." the blond trailed of, glancing at the floor for a second whilst the whole group stared, transfixed at the for once at the normally tough blond.

"Alright, Yug', truth or dare?" Jou said happily, breaking all gazes held upon the blond bar one cerulean-eyed teenager across from him. As Jounouchi continued the game, daring the small Yugi to talk dirty to his Yami next to him, a certain Seto Kaiba was still staring at the blond transfixidly, for possibly the first time in his life Kaiba was confused, and by the blond of all people, he thought such a time he had left behind, many, many year previous.

The small Seto huddled in the corner of the children's home with a small Mokuba clinging to his ragged jumper, waiting for their 'new dad' to take them to a 'better home'. Seto for once was scared, with only himself to protect his younger brother, taking him into the big wide world outside of their children's home, the only place the two had ever called home. Seto was truly terrified at the prospect of leaving their small sanctuary for a new dwelling which had never been introduced before to them along with their 'father'. Within minutes both Seto and Mokuba were standing, Seto appearing both strong and confident for the two as their father explained that they would be taken out of the home and school the following day in order to introduce the boys to their new home and surroundings..

A five year old Jou with scruffy blond hair was sitting in the kindergarten classroom fashioning a small blue eyes white dragon out of blue and white plasticine, the young blond had always had a flair for art in his own way. Seto walked slowly into the room, looking especially dishevelled and withdrawn, sitting down watching the young blond sculpt. Jou finished abruptly and revealed a huge grin to Seto and threw his arms round him in a welcoming hug as their sensei was not looking in their direction. Jou then pulled away to look into Seto's striking blue eyes, and there he was told that something was drastically wrong, something that would change both their lives for ever. Seto discreetly motioned towards the reading area in the corner; this was a quiet area where the two talked privately, away from all the other children as none of the others could read the books stocked in the kindergarten area. The area was walled off by a Japanese screen.

This was where the cold-hearted Seto cried for the first time in his entire life; on Katsuya Jounouchi's shoulder. Seto sobbed constantly for the next five minutes with Jou gently rocking him and rubbing his back soothingly, slowly dissipating the older boys crying enough to allow the brunet to talk; "Kat…I….." Seto managed to cry out between stifled sobs. Jou continued to rub soothing circles into Seto's back. "Kat…I'm…I…Kat…I have to leave…I have been chosen……" Jou instantly understood the meaning of the older boys' words and quietly sobbed also and there the two boys remained sobbing in each others' arms until break time when they were shooed outside, red faced and bleary eyed. By the end of the day both boys sullenly walked to the school gates so that they might be picked up by parents. Seto spied his father, Gozoboru Kaiba in the small crowd of parents and he shivered, they was something inside Seto that took an almost instant dislike to the man he was to call father. Jou sensed his friends unease and pulled him close for a heart felt hug, desperately wishing that this was not how it would end. Jou felt although his whole world were being ripped apart, he felt a great amount of pity not on the for Seto but himself also, he could make friends easily although he choose them more carefully, from the instance Jou had laid eyes on Seto at the adoption home at the age of eighteen months he had known. They were destined to be great friends forever and when Jou was adopted his mother made sure that Jou visited the children's' home until Seto was old enough to go out on day trips with Jou and his baby sister. Set and Jou eventually pulled themselves apart before they incurred the wrath of any of the other parents or their teacher for hugging another male in public, still both boys paid for that mistake later.

Until four years previous the two boys hadn't been reunited and they hadn't exactly taken off where they left off all those years ago. Beneath, the two boys were still extremely sensitive although this was now masked by their own experiences and tortures they had to endure. Kaiba was trained by his father to mask all emotions and be cold hearted and calculating and so that's what everyone saw, with the very occasional expression revealed when he spent time with Yugi and the gang. Jou's mask was that of false happiness, he'd had his mother leave him, taking his sister with him at the age of four leaving him with his adoptive father who was an abusive alcoholic and beat Jou up when in a drunken stupor. Because of this abuse Jou dove deep into a life of crime, joining a street gang, binging and taking drugs. It was here he met Hiroto and they were partners on the street, they looked after one another and then Yugi showed them 'the light' after they prevented the smaller boy getting beaten up three years ago. Seto thought about this, how he wanted to be good friends with Jou again, they didn't get along at all anymore but he suspected that this was more due to their now clashing attitudes rather than an actual dislike for one another, however Kaiba would never admit this.

"Kaiba! Woohoo! Anybody in there?" Anzu waved her hand in front of his face which snapped Seto out of his Jou induced trance; "Where were we?" Kaiba asked. All off them excluding Jou stared at Kaiba in disbelief, since when had he ever let a conversation slip him by? Kaiba inwardly cursed, now they'd know there was something wrong with him; "I apologise, my mind was on an important business matter, so where were we?" All of the gang then relaxed, assuring themselves that Kaiba was in fact still Kaiba, all business, no play. "Anzu just asked you S…Kaiba, it's your turn" Jou faltered, catching himself before he called Kaiba his given name. Seto smirked at the irony, Jou, he wished so much that the blond was his friend and here he was, ignoring him and all those he almost called friends. "Truth" the brunet proclaimed making Anzu looked slightly disappointed. Jou and a couple of others smirked at Anzu, they all liked to put a damper on her spirits once in a while to keep her under control and Kaiba had just taken care of their job for the next week or so. The school bell then rung out and they all groaned and stood up ready to go to their final class of the day. Just as everyone was collecting their belongings and starting to walk away Anzu called them all back; "Hey guys, you want to get together later to continue this?" everyone mumbled replies of "yeahs" and "oks" which unfortunately made Anzu positively beam. "Ok guys, we can meet at outside the game shop at Yugi's at around half five ok?" Then she positively hopped away to class, leaving the rest of them frozen to the spot, staring after her before realising they were now late for class and started running in opposite directions.

Kaiba was frustrated, 'honestly did this women think that all the people in the ADVANCED art class were complete idiots, I mean common they had passed an exam to get into this class!' the brunet swept his gaze across the rest of his class and rested it on Jounouchi, he was interested but not surprised to see the puppy in one of his advanced classes this year, the blond had pulled up his grades dramatically last year after getting off coke and it just goes to show what he could do if he put his mind to it. When they were younger the two of them were way further ahead achedemically and socially in Jou's case than anyone at their school including the two years above them. Kaiba had already seen Jou in two of his classes today; Maths and English and now Art, all advanced classes. Of course Jou had always been good at art, even in his drug induced days he'd create real works of art about how he felt when he was high or drunk. But recently his work had become more pure again, in the same way that his art was when he was younger, with no outside influences, his works in watercolour and fine pastels represented to Kaiba what he thought a child's life should be like. Jou's canvases depicted scenes of brothers and sisters playing in the sand and parents happily strolling through a park hand in hand, friends allowed to walk hand in hand with one another and friends playing happily together, left to their own devices. Kaiba wished this was how it could have been for them, instead his life was ripped apart by Gozoboru and all remnants from his previous life were taken away and before he could see what was happening his father was training him to be the head of his huge franchise. He was beaten in to shape, quite literally and there was only one thing that Kaiba was thankful for; Mokuba, Gozoboru had never laid a hand on his brother, spoilt him silly with his huge income and treated him whilst Kaiba was controlled and sculpted into something beyond his comprehension.

Jou was tired, not physically but mentally, he had finally conquered his fear, he'd confronted his old gang last night, they'd had unfinished business but when he'd gone to their old spot they weren't to be found, he'd looked all round his old neighbourhood, he'd even walked past his dad's flat. He'd found one guy he used to know; Akira Toriyama also an ex gang member, though he'd left long before Jou, before even Hiroto had joined. Toriyama was leaning against a broken lamp post on a street corner just outside the bad part of town; "Hey Jou man, what's up? You still in with Ushio and the gang?" The slightly bearded man pulled out a cigarette and placed it between his dry cracked lips, then lit it slowly with a green lighter that matched the colour of his eyes. He waved one in Jou's direction who took it and grabbed a lighter from his pocket, placing his now lit cig in his mouth and took a long deep drag; "No man, I got out ages ago, I'm even clean now man, what you up to, you still in the smuggling trade?" The blond sat down on the corner, leaning up against the wall of the corner warehouse smoking silently, waiting for Akira to reply; "No I'm clean now too, well done man, I know it's not easy!" He moved towards Jou and gave him a firm hand shake before asking the blond why he was in the area if he was clean; "I wad lookin' ta find the gang, I kinda have some unfinished b'isness with them, I wonder, d'you know where they might be dude?" Jou quizzed the handsome brunet in front of him. Akira paused to think for a minute before answering; "I don't know, last I heard they hung out in a warehouse on the quay but I haven't seen any of them in months, they might have moved. Sorry dude and good luck with the unfinished business, see ya round!" The blond walked away into the night, in the direction of the quay which was situated only a mile or two down the road, easy distance in Tokyo.

Jou found his gang hangin' in the warehouse he'd been directed to, they were sitting on plastic crates, drinking beers and doing something he'd never seen them do before; laughing! "Hey guys, what are you doing?" The entire group jumped at his presence, they obviously hadn't notice him skulk in through the door. This was when Jou knew that his old gang had definitely changed and broke out in a wide grin. His five old gang members broke out in grins and voiced their greetings before all rushing over to greet Jou with big hugs which completely surprised the blond. Ushio then motioned for Jou to sit down on a crate with them and handed him a cold beer, Jou obliged. "So why so happy guys? You just score big or something?" At this the entire group frowned. 'What have you done Jou, now you've put your foot right in it!' Ushio choke up, instead Violet had to answer for him; "Since we all got done for drug smuggling and Crystal got shot by the guy we were working for, well we decided to give it up and get clean, all of us together so we could get regular jobs and get our feet before we got too deep like most of our parents." Violet grinned widely at the blond as the rest of the group nodded sadly in the background. "Wow guys I never woulda' thought youd've done it, I only came back to see Crystal ta be honest, I thought it was about time I told her the truth, I guess I'm late huh?" Jou joked sadly. Violet walked over to Jou and gave him a huge hug; "Don't worry cutie, she knew you were gay and it wasn't anything to do with her why you left either, but she still loved you very much and wished you luck in your new life." Vi paused for a second and sniffed; "You know she loved you like no-one else could and she more than anyone else wished you to get clean and to get a decent, honest job." Jou started sobbing and hugged Vi before strolling off into the night, leaving the gang slightly subdued by Jou's visit.

Really sorry guys I haven't updated in absolutely ages, you have no idea how sorry I am, I haven't been able to write and it's been killing me! So I don't blame you for losing faith in me, I certainly would! I love you all lots please review and help me! xx