Mentorshipping (Sugoroku x Jonouchi)
(post-series, set a few years before GX)
The game shop hadn't changed an inch. As Jonouchi pushed into the dusty old shop and sneezed almost instantly, he thought that perhaps some of those games on the shelves were the same ones he had seen as a high school kid. They certainly had enough dust on them to have been there for almost ten years.
He grinned, drawing a smiley face in the dust on one of the old wooden game boxes. He remembered doing that when nobody was looking back in high school, although, back then, the drawings he had made had been of a more immature nature.
"Jonouchi Katsuya, are you defacing my products again?"
Jonouchi couldn't suppress his grin.
Sugoroku Mutou had appeared like a ghost, rising up from behind the desk at the far corner where he had presumably been dusting – or pretending to dust, as he liked to do in order to make himself look busy.
"Yep," Jonouchi said, striding into the room so that he reached the glass case.
He bent down to look at the cards displayed there – most of them were rare ones, like the Dark Magician and Black Luster Soldier, but a few of them were more ordinary looking cards, like the Kuriboh.
"Yugi in?" Jonouchi asked, still looking at the cards.
"He went out to buy groceries for dinner," Sugoroku said. "He'll be back soon enough."
"Figured."
Jonouchi stood back up with a groan. Time wasn't being very kind to him – it hadn't been that long, but he could feel every ache and bruise from his fighting days. If he had known that he was going to feel that down the line, maybe he wouldn't have been so reckless as a kid.
Grandpa had given up on the dusting, and tossed the rag into a basket behind the desk.
"How've you been, gramps?" Jonouchi said.
He leaned across the desk, his elbows taking up most of the space.
"Ah, can't complain too much, I suppose," Grandpa said, grinning. "After all, I'm still alive and kicking! What about you, Jonouchi-kun?"
"Eh, same. Can't complain," Jonouchi said.
He stretched and popped his shoulders. He leaned his head back to take in the dim, dusty shop. Didn't seem too long ago that he was sitting here learning how to play Duel Monsters, determined to be a winner. And look at him now: an accomplished duelist who had placed within the top three in nearly every tournament he had ever been in, someone that received invitations to duels every other day – someone who ignored those invitations.
"Duel Monsters still selling strong, then?" Jonouchi said.
"You wouldn't believe," Grandpa chuckled. "Do you know, I have at least three people a day come in here just to buy Kuriboh."
Jonouchi laughed too.
"But hey, you were the one that told me there's no useless card," Jonouchi said. "So it's good that people are taking little ol' Kuriboh seriously now."
"I suppose," Grandpa said. "You trying to teach me now, Jonouchi-kun?"
"Isn't it supposed to turn into one of those full-circle things? Student becomes the mentor and all that?" Jonouchi said with a grin.
Grandpa's laugh was deep and bellowing.
"Only in the movies, only in the movies," he said. "You've still got a long way to go before you whippersnappers can teach me anything."
Jonouchi grinned wider.
"You don't change, do you, gramps?"
"I try not to."
Grandpa winked at Jonouchi and picked up his dust rag again. Jonouchi shook his head as Grandpa turned back to the shelves to dust at them, although there was really no heart to the motion.
"You upset that I stopped dueling?" Jonouchi asked.
He started to draw in the dust again with one finger. Grandpa paused long enough to glance at Jonouchi. He smiled.
"Upset? There's nothing wrong with finishing up a game," Grandpa said. "I haven't picked up my deck since you kids started antagonizing Kaiba-kun."
Jonouchi snorted. He continued to draw smiley faces in the dust.
"Sometimes...I dunno. I get those invitations to tournaments in the mail, and I just toss 'em aside. Part of me feels like I'm giving up."
"On what, exactly?"
Jonouchi shrugged.
"I dunno. That's it."
"Hm."
Grandpa started to dust again. The silence of the shop grew, but it didn't really feel like a horrible silence. It was a gentle one, a place where Jonouchi felt like he was really breathing for the first time in a while.
"Jonouchi-kun," Grandpa said. "Why did you want to become a duelist in the first place?"
"Huh?" Jonouchi said. "Oh. Uh...well...because of Yugi, I guess."
Grandpa didn't respond, so Jonouchi continued.
"Like...Yugi was always this guy that could...forgive everyone, you know? He was somebody that saw the good everywhere. He was...he was a hero. Him and Atem. They were both heroes. I..."
He trailed off. Again the silence grew, but this time, there was a question in it. Grandpa put his rag down. He turned around to face Jonouchi, putting his hands on the desk. His eyes wandered down to the smiley faces Jonouchi had been drawing in the dust.
He half-smiled.
"So?" he said. "Did you find what you wanted from dueling?"
Jonouchi looked up at the old man in front of him, the fire in his eyes despite the hunch in his back and the slight tremble in his arms.
"I wanted to be a hero too."
He didn't have to say that out loud. Grandpa already knew.
Jonouchi smiled.
"Yeah," he said. "I think I did."
Grandpa really smiled this time. He reached across the desk to clap Jonouchi on the shoulder.
"You never really stop being a true duelist," he said. "Oh sure, you may not play that game anymore. But that's not the important thing, Jonouchi-kun. Being a duelist is more than the game. You found what you wanted to be through the game, and now that you've found yourself, you don't need its help anymore. You can grow up on your own power, now."
Jonouchi ducked his head. Then he lifted it again to smile at Grandpa.
"Damn," he said. "You really know how to pull those wise sayings out, don't ya?"
Grandpa laughed.
"Trust me," he said. "I had to learn it just as much as you will. I'm just here to give it to others, now."
Jonouchi laughed as he straightened up.
"Thanks either way, gramps. You never really stop being my mentor, do you?"
"I did warn you," Grandpa said. "Ask me for help once, and you'll never get rid of me."
Jonouchi grinned.
"Don't worry, gramps. I don't want to get rid of you."
A/N: Guys, please, shippers everywhere, learn that there is a such thing as platonic love. Pleeeease. For the sake of my sanity. Please. Next is Mechashipping (Keith x Roba).
