Chapter 15

It didn't make sense.

No matter how much he worked out, no matter how little he ate, or what he ate, he was getting bigger.

Not everything, just his waist.

And he'd woken up a couple mornings feeling queasy. He'd only thrown up once and it was while pretty much everybody else was in class so no one caught him.

But Anzu's crack about 'the family way' kept bugging him.

It wasn't like it was possible.

Still….

Yakomo-sensei was alone in the infirmary when Joey went in.

"Jounouchi-kun. What's up?" Her voice was so deep, she could do movie promos, but she was pretty much the only normal woman in the building as far as Joey could tell.

"...uh, yeah. Um. So if you have a period, like, twice and then, like, not again, is that a big deal?"

The nurse sighed. "Were you sexually active?" Joey nodded. "Were you using any form of birth control?" He shook his head. Yakomo sighed again. He opened one of the desk drawers and handed the boy a sample cup. "First pee of the morning, have her leave it on my desk before first period. Come back around lunch time."

Joey took it and ran. He sat through his last classes in a daze.

Babies - even G-Bomb babies - need an egg. There has to be more than just sperm. And the tests they did said no ovaries. A womb, yes, but no eggs.

So he can't be pregnant.

Unless they were wrong.

"Joey?" Honda shook him. "Joey, you really don't look ok."

"Huh?" It took him a few seconds to focus.

"Class is over."

"Oh." Kaiba, he thought. I need to tell Kaiba. "I gotta go!" He popped out of his seat and began flinging his books in his bag. "Later!"

Outside, he caught the train and went to the KaibaCorp office. Kaiba could avoid Joey at school and ignore his calls, but it would be hard to dodge him here.

He told security he was there to see his mother. They let him in. Once on the elevator, however, he selected the top floor.

There was a single woman at a huge desk, with an impressive door behind her.

"...um, hi. Um, I'm Katsuya Jounouchi. I'm here to see Seto - uh, I mean, Kaiba Seto."

She looked at him curiously. "Jounouchi Katsuya-san." She said with a ghost of a smile. "I see. I'm afraid, Jounouchi-san, that Kaiba-sama is out of the country this week. Would you like to leave him a message?"

Joey hesitated. Kaiba had complained that he couldn't trust some people at the office. "Nah." Joey shrugged. "I came to see my mom; figured I'd say hi while I was here."

"I see."

"Thanks!" It was awkward, standing there with his back to the woman, waiting for the elevator, but he didn't turn around.

He went to his mother's office and hung out there until she was ready to go home.

"You want to tell me what's wrong?" Mom asked as they walked from the train station to their apartment.

"I -" His mind raced. She'd freak out. Then she'd be cool. But, if I'm not, then she'll be all worried for nothing. He shook his head. "I'm still working on it."

"Ok." She nodded. "I'm here, when you're ready."

They got closer to their building.

"Who was it?" Joey asked. "You or Dad?"

She was silent for a moment, which told Joey she knew exactly what he was asking. "Your father is male recessive, I am female recessive. I had two wombs. When you were born, the second one tore. We lost your brother."

"Brother?"

"You were about three months apart. They had to remove my second womb entirely. Your father had your vaginal surgery done while I was still in recovery."

Both of them were G-babies. And a brother he never knew about.

"I wanted to tell you, but your father went a little crazy. And then he started drinking. And then I met Kawaii, and I must have gone a little crazy because the next thing I knew, I was pregnant with Serenity and your father was suing for divorce and custody of you. I wanted to take you with me back then, but they were able to prove infidelity, so I lost."

The anger he felt when he first realized that his parents had known about his condition was gone. Lots of couldas, lots of shouldas. He shrugged and let them all go.

"So, what were you going to name him? My brother, I mean."

"I don't know. I remember being fond of Jesse. Joey and Jesse. But I was also thinking about Takahashi after my favorite writer. Or Kazuhi - Katsuya and Kazuhi."

"Ok." Joey nodded. "Jesse Kazuhi."

xXxXxXx

"You did have a visitor today," his secretary said. "A Jounouchi Katsuya. He said he was in the building to see his mother and wanted to say hi."

"Did he." Seto was torn. He wanted to ask for more details, but he refused to pine. Katsuya was straight to begin with. The relationship was most likely an experiment on his part. "Anything worth noting?"

"Very handsome," She stated the obvious. "Very fit."

"He's getting fat, as I recall," Seto sniped.

"I see. Well, he did seem a bit disappointed that you were out of the office, but he didn't leave a message."