Heya all! Sorry for the long wait, holidays were on the way ^^"

Here is the 5th chapter you all awaited :3 enjoy!

FYI: French translation by kailynmei is underway! I'm so happy 3

CHAPTER 5

The day had been alright, if you asked Katsuya about it.

Until seven, Katsuya could be seen running everywhere in the city and KC tower, playing the delivery man for the engineering team, or the waiter for all the tower floors, or even the administrative assistant of Kaiba's secretary. Basically, he was the personal slave of everyone in the building, and it was as if they had all received a memo with clear orders to make his life difficult.

The afternoon, especially, was a real obstacle course. When it was not super fragile electronics to bring to Lab #7 on floor -2, in the Development of Duel Disk System Section, it was super pricey brand coffee for the Sales Executive Guy of the Goods Department on floor 7, or essential contracts and papers and invoices to be signed by Dude #1 on floor 1, then stamped by Lady #2 on floor 19, and finally be brought back to Dickhead I-see-your-papers-are-not-well-stapled #259 on floor 5.

Really, KC tower was a loony bin when it came to paperwork, even though the rookie guessed there had to be some organization in there. Someone like Kaiba could not have a mess of a company, and even if KC was very advanced in the technological field and everything could be online instead of printed on paper, he certainly had his reasons. So it was just a matter of time before the blonde caught up with the logic. In the meantime, he ran and asked a million times for people he did not know.

Inwardly, he thanked the gods he had experienced so many strange things in his highschool years, with Yugi and the gang. He had survived the Egyptian world of the Pharaoh, with a highly disturbingly laser-looking Priest Seto – whom he prayed never to see again –, the Shadow Realm and its man-eating monsters, and the Pharaoh's mind, which had been a dangerous labyrinth full of traps and an angry Dark Magician. Compared to these crazy adventures, KC tower was a loony bin, but a nice loony bin. The normal kind, without mad shadows living in ancient artifacts or a monstrous god of darkness with a fire-breathing crotch. No, here, the only dangerous being lurking in the corners could be Kaiba, whom Katsuya preferred immensely.

Plus, he discovered that Kaiba's secretary was an angel. She was a petite, plump woman in her thirties, and she could talk amiably with the blonde while dealing with her work like Shiva, one hand on the keyboard and another redacting stuff and stapling and filing at the same time. Even if Katsuya had undergone a commando training to reach this level of mastery in his own job, he was impressed by the energy his colleague could deploy. And she was fairly attractive, if he was honest with himself. With her bright onyx eyes, her thick mane of brown hair, and her hyper and adorable character, she was pretty in her own way. She was freshly married, and though his husband had to bear up with her long hours of work at the company, he had to be happy with her in his life, Katsuya mused. Who would not?

Satsuki, as she introduced herself, understood the bodyguard's situation and felt empathy for him. They were both on the same boat, now, and she knew Isono was the only employee to have stayed for as long as the young CEO had been here. Therefore, expectations and trials were higher and harder on his trainee. The elder man had briefed her on Jonouchi's situation, and she tried to help him, going so far as to free him fifteen minutes up to take a quick lunch. The blonde did not spare his efforts in trying to make himself worth in the eyes of Kaiba, and she respected and supported that.

Until evening time, neither Katsuya or Satsuki saw their employer. It seemed that he was negotiating with some American partners – one might say insulting, given the screams that came from the other side of the door –, and he had specifically ordered that no one was to disturb him before the secretary had to go home. Only coffee, urgent papers, and red code alerts could pass the threshold of his fort. Everything and everyone else had to stay outside.

The adorable woman had to go home, eventually. Kaiba had given her her evening and ordered that she redirected all the calls to the blonde's phone. When she did, she knocked on Kaiba's door and turned to the blonde to give him a thumbs up and mouth him a "Good Luck".

Then there was the errand to La Fleur de Lys, during which Katsuya blessed Isono and his tips on how to use KC unlimited business card and use money to have anything. That, and his most dazzling smile, the one he kept for Gramps whenever he wanted a new card pack in advance. It did not work often on Gramps, but the manager fell for it and the huge extra he got for his little favor.

But now, the bodyguard was trapped into Kaiba's office, like a good pup sitting at his master's feet, and he was dead bored. He had to stay on alert should anyone want to bomb them through the windows or burst in through the door and go for a suicide operation, but damn was it boring.

When he got fed up with listening to his boss typing, he let his mind wander to other things, trying his best not to look at the paper bag he had gone so far to fetch for the CEO, and abandoned just like that. It had looked delicious, and the price itself represented what Katsuya used for food and rent in two months. He would have done a lot of things to taste the stuff.

Concentrate!

With a mental jolt, he went back to plainer things, like when he could invite Honda and Yugi for a nice night out, or if he could play Duel Monsters again. He lost himself in thought.

Several hours later

Katsuya forced himself not to squirm.

He had been ordered not to move, and even though he felt more and more irritated at turning into a potted plant, he intended to do just that.

But he needed to go to the loo. His bladder could only hold for so long.

How much time had passed, exactly? He could not occupy his thoughts as much as he had wished, now that he had mentally revised his old deck three times and planned a month worth of nights out with his friends. It was well past midnight, if the darkness engulfing them was any indication, and no one dared call during the night. His phone remained silent, so he could not take it out and play with it or look at the time on it.

There was no clock on the walls, and the only source of light was the glaring screen of his boss, with said boss before it blocking whatever was displayed. Kaiba was fully enraptured into whatever he was doing, and nothing of interest could capture the blonde's attention aside from him. He had his back to the window and could not move to see the view or to watch his wristwatch.

Okay, it was not uncomfortable anymore. It was painful.

The CEO had said Katsuya could not go anywhere unless given permission, and his pride had prevented him from asking to go pee until now. He was not a child, and he would not beg for it like a dog, thank you very much. However, as his pain grew and his need to relieve himself got impervious, he could not afford to be proud any longer. It was a health issue now.

Mortified, he decided to give his boss the awaited golden occasion to humiliate him.

"Kaiba-sama," he called with as much control as he could, "may I go for a few minutes?"

At first, the brunet did not react. After a moment however, his cerulean eyes turned to glare at him.

"What for?," he demanded.

Trust moneybags for adding salt to de wound. Won't let go until I'm on me knees. Jerk.

Taking in a deep breath, Katsuya answered, "I humbly ask for your permission to go to the bathroom, sir."

Kaiba processed the question, his glare turning into a frown, then his frown giving way to a slow, mocking smirk. The blonde summoned the last remnants of his best poker face, so as not to strangle his employer and send him flying through the window. He wanted to pee and keep his job still. He thought about Isono, and of course the money. He could not give up now.

Though as seconds stretched painfully by, the will to remain a lapdog for the insufferable man that tortured him drew thinner and thinner.

Seto studied his employee's face closely. He could see his breaking point, and yet he wondered if he could play with him some more, before he crossed that line. It was entertaining to see the proud yankee practically beg for the simplest right to relieve himself, and the brunet could only imagine the things he could further demand from him.

Though it was illegal to forbid an employee from going to the bathroom. Come to think of it, he absently guessed it was also not normal to keep an employee up and working for too long, but the 'too long' was up to him to decide, and no one was complaining yet – not that he would have accepted any complain from the rookie. He doubted the blonde would sue him for anything, anyway, but Isono could have wind of it, and that was not something the elder bodyguard needed to scold him for. His henchman really liked the mutt and would be a pain to deal with should anything happen.

"You may," he answered eventually.

Katsuya nearly ran to the door the second he heard that, but he managed to breathe out a short "Thank you, Sir" before he turned to open it. He got stopped by Kaiba's voice as he pushed it open.

"You have five minutes. Bring me a fresh pot of coffee, while you're at it."

A pot of coffee, like the one in the kitchenette, with the coffee maker that was turned off because Kaiba had said he did not want coffee anymore some hours ago? Was he joking? And he had five minutes to pee then some more to make coffee and bring it, or five minutes to pee and brew coffee and bring it? Because there was a huge difference here.

The few seconds he needed to ask himself these questions had his boss leer at him, an irritated eyebrow raised in questioning.

"What? Do you want to challenge yourself and do all your tasks in less than four minutes?"

It answered his questions, at least. With as much dignity and professionalism as he could given his painful bladder and slightly panicked state of mind, thinking of what the brunet could do to him if he failed to be on time, Katsuya closed the door. He released a shaky sigh once the haughty face of Kaiba was no longer in sight, and then ran to the nearest bathroom.

He could not remember a time when he had felt so relieved and relaxed in his life. When he finally had the right to urinate, the blonde forgot all about pain and anger and lost himself in the bliss of the moment, during which his brain squashed the fleeting hint of sadness at the fact that taking a piss made him feel like this. He would be sad and angry at dick-head Kaiba after he survived his shift and slept, when his head would be clear enough to temporize his cooped up feelings. Otherwise, there might not be a boss to speak of anymore the next day, much less a recognizable person, Mokuba and Isono be damned. For once, part of his former yankee self wondered if Yami Marik would have known creative ways to go back at his persecutor for this.

Am real dead tired if I think 'bout crazy dudes when peeing... Must get all business again. I'm a pro. A pro!

But as he carefully washed his hands, a loud and thundering rumble reminded him that should said shift last any longer, his will alone would eventually not suffice to keep him going. His stomach had been empty for more than ten hours now, as the last thing he ate was a sandwich at about two in the afternoon.

His appetite was not like it used to be when he was a highschool student, but it was still fairly big, and he had been forced to see the delicious-looking meal of La Fleur de Lys stay untouched the whole time. Wasting food was a crime in his eyes, and it was worse to let it go waste in front of him, without doing anything about it. The torture was immense.

Katsuya was no idiot, he was sure this was done to him on purpose. The CEO knew the blonde loved to eat, and he was dead set on breaking his will. Hitting him through his stomach was a low blow, but a calculated one. The rookie had been able to quiet down his hunger as his more pressing need to pee took over, but now that the latter had been taken out of the way, there was no more going around it. He was famished. And he certainly did not drink enough either. He had to counter what he could, and hope the rest would not go noticed too early.

He took large gulps of tap water, both to rehydrate himself and to deceive his stomach into believing it got some form of sustenance. No doubt Kaiba would seethe at the noise it made, and Katsuya hoped he would soon be finished and able to get a drive-thru meal on the way home. Such an amount of work without a single break would kill them both really quickly.

He wiped his mouth, dried his hands, and pointedly avoided looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror when he straightened up, certain that he would see something ugly. He did not need to see how much of a zombie he had become. He had started at seven in the morning, and he had not slept that well the previous night, waking up at four, as he was both excited and nervous for his first day. Now, he regretted the lack of sleep, as the excitement of the day and the boredom of the night, plus the constant tension he had been feeling since he began his training, even though he had been able to push it down until now, finally took their toll on him. Nevertheless, he bravely dragged himself to the kitchenette in the secretary's office to make the pot of coffee Kaiba ordered.

How did Isono bear with the CEO's shitty personality all the time? Was it even something he had to bear with, or did Katsuya draw the lucky number? No, those were rhetorical questions. He already knew the answer, and it depressed him a little. Sure, he and Kaiba disliked each other, but for their mutual resentment to turn out like this? He could not understand.

He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and glanced at his wristwatch as he woke up the coffee maker, and noticed that it was in fact two in the morning. He had spent seven hours without peeing or drinking, but this was not what startled him. What sent a new jolt of anguish through him, was the sudden realization that he had no idea when his five-minute break had begun, and his level of stress went up a notch. He sent a short prayer to the machine in front of him to hurry up, even though it was usually quite fast to do its job.

His pocket buzzed dully, for the first time since he started his shift. Frowning, he took out his phone, which had lit, and read two simple lines that appeared on the screen.

What he does is illegal, they said, you should not abide to it.

If you let him, he'll kill you.

Katsuya snorted. So, IKaiba could definitely go all Big Brother on him, and despite his previous assumptions, he found the message oddly comforting. Maybe it was the fact that an artificial being had more sensibility than an actual being when it came to him, or maybe it was that someone, anyone, thought about his well-being at a time like this. Or maybe he was simply too tired and got hallucinations.

But even if the AI was right, things were never that easy with Seto Kaiba. As a rule, the CEO did what he wanted, and his army of lawyers cleaned whatever mess he could create. They silenced complaints and crushed resistance. So, what was a low runt like Jonouchi Katsuya to him? Standing up to him was suicidal.

And most importantly, it was obvious that wanted the blonde to resist. To bite back, so that he could kick him out. He awaited the moment his unwanted employee stepped out of line to pin him down and land the final blow. That was pure egoistical, maniacal attitude. Grand Kaibaness. But too bad for him, this time, his slave would not resist like he usually did. Quite the contrary, if Katsuya had his way.

If he was still able to function properly after the torture he presently endured, that is.

His phone blipped almost angrily, as another message blinked on the screen.

Your face is an open book, Jonouchi. You're going head first into a disaster. You cannot say I didn't warn you.

Katsuya frowned at the device. Of course, the camera lens on the front could get a picture of him, if the AI activated it. And his remark made a lot of sense. But although his piece of advice was wise, it could not be considered. The blonde had already gone this far. He would not back down now.

He pocketed back his phone and took the steaming pot of coffee. He did not notice the former was still alive and working, and he could not care care less. What welcomed him when he entered back into the office of his boss made his blood run cold.

"That makes seven minutes and fifty-eight seconds," the devil announced flatly, "so either you cannot count up to five properly, or you're testing my generosity. In any case, this defiance will get you nowhere."

The rookie bit back his tongue so hard he must have drawn blood. He would not answer. And he would definitely not throw the brunet out the window. Nope, sir.

With an inward sigh, he strode back to his spot, pouring the hot beverage he had just made for his boss in his branded KC cup. The brunet eyed it for a second, before he diverted back to his computer.

"You took so much time," he commented, "that I don't want it anymore. But thank you for the effort, I guess."

As he bowed and forced a strained smile to appear on his lips, Katsuya really wished Yami Bakura or Yami Marik were in the vicinity. At least he would have had a designated culprit to point at if his boss suddenly met the pavement dozens of blocks down. Too bad for the blonde, they were enjoying nice holidays in the Shadow Realm. Lucky bastards.

Two hours later

He could not take it anymore.

It had felt an eternity since he last drank water, and his stomach had realized that liquid was not energy-convertible food. It twisted and burnt angrily with repressed hunger, and Katsuya would not be able to prevent it from growling any minute. When it would, he would be in serious trouble.

His mind was slightly fuzzy from exhaustion and his head began to spin. From time to time, his eyes found their way back to the neatly packed meal of La Fleur de Lys, and his mouth watered uncontrollably each time they did. He was going nuts just looking at the food his boss so nonchalantly ignored.

Kaiba, for his part, remained unknowing of his bodyguard's torments, even though he could have imagined them. After all, he had expected them when he had asked him to fetch the meal. But right now, he was going through a very tricky piece of coding, one that determined the success of his new solid vision project, and he could not spare a second thought on the mutt. His head was filled with orders and numbers and predictions and...

And his thoughts derailed when a draconic growl echoed from behind him.

He spun around and riveted his gaze on the sheepish face of Jonouchi. The sound of the rookie's stomach had startled even himself, and he had not been able to hide his panicked look in time. Seto would have smirked at the sight, were he not infuriated with his employee's disruption.

"Just what do you think you're doing?," he spat. "That's the second time you disobey me."

His brain provided him with the fact that the blonde could not help it, but he did not care. When he decided something, not even the gods could stop him.

"Pardon me, Kaiba-sama," the runt apologized in a strangely slow tone, "I-"

"I don't care for your excuses," he dismissed, annoyance edging in his voice, "keep that stupid body of yours in check. I'm not paying you to interrupt my work."

Katsuya watched his boss turn away from him as if he was a nuisance taken care of and not worth attention anymore, and something broke inside of him. His mind a complete haze, his pride bursting through his dulled will, nearly crazy from hunger and tiredness and suppressed frustration, the blonde had enough. Consequences be damned, he lunged at the brunet and managed to grab him at the side of his collar. His vision was a blur of colors, among them red and black. He swayed.

"Now listen, you..."

He did not finish his sentence. His sudden movement had been too much for his exhausted body. Dizziness took over him, and he absently registered the look of shock on his employer's face, before he dipped forward. Darkness welcomed him with open arms, and he dove into it head first. At last, he did not suffer from anything anymore.

Seto just had the time to catch his bodyguard's limp upper body, before it crashed on him and his desk, threatening his computer and research. He managed to hold him at arm length and lay him down somewhat, alarms blaring in his head as he finally took on the look of pure exhaustion and overexertion on his employee's face.

Slowly, his brain caught up with his usual rationality and recollected the events and facts of the day, overwhelming him with information and warnings he had voluntarily tuned down at the time. Jonouchi had taken on his shift at seven o'clock, and it was now four and a half in the morning the following day. Counting in the thirty-minute lunch break the rookie had taken around two in the afternoon, he had worked an approximate total of twenty hours, thirteen of those without a single break apart from the five minutes he had to go to the bathroom about two hours ago.

The CEO did not remember the blonde having a bottle of water with him, and he had the strict order not to move anyway. So, it meant that the mutt suffered from overexertion, hunger, and dehydration all at the same time, plus mental abuse if Seto took in the fact that his bodyguard was usually overly sentimental over things and people. And now he had a passed-out blonde on his carpet, still breathing but in a critical situation, because both of them had been too proud to back down first and the CEO had wanted to push the other's limits and gone too far.

Just when he considered calling an ambulance – because fuck, he would not let an employee die that stupidly, even if it was a stupid runt –, the door burst open and Isono and Mokuba stormed in, two ambulance men in tow. The younger Kaiba let out a yelp of panic at the sight of Jonouchi, and Isono had to hold him back before he leaped to the blonde's side and disrupted the stretcher bearers' work. It did not prevent him from crying out his anguish, though.

"Jonouchi! Oh my God, what happened? What did you do to him?"

Seto had to register the question as directed at him, and he got mildly annoyed that his own brother instantly assumed he was the one responsible for his bodyguard's state. Except he was, and he could not deny it. And now Mokuba was about to cry because of it. Fuck.

He could not bear it when his little brother cried. He was totally hopeless when it came to that kind of emotions, and he was absolutely inefficient in dealing with them. He always found the right words to calm him, eventually, because he knew him very well, but right now, he did not know what he could say. He had fucked up and had not prepared to fix it.

Mokuba liked Jonouchi, even if he knew his elder did not, and seeing his friend passed out and clearly unwell in Seto's office, Seto being perfectly fine, it was not difficult to guess what had happened. Still, the teen did not want to believe it. Seto had changed, since Gozaburo and his first duel against Atem. The new Seto could not kill someone, lest his own employee, that easily, could he? Could he?

Isono did not utter a word, his eyes fixed on his protegee. When he had received a text from IKaiba, he knew something serious was up. The AI had said he would not spy on Jonouchi and interfere, unless it was a life and death emergency. And his message had been bluntly clear:

He's killing him.

So, the elder bodyguard had speed-dialed an ambulance and taken Mokuba with him to KC tower, his stomach churning with cold dread. Director Kaiba could be cruel, and he might have underestimated Katsuya's stubbornness. And now his young trainee, whom he had looked out for a dangerous job and now considered a friend, a younger brother, maybe even a son, was lifted on a stretcher, unconscious, on his first day. Isono's insides burned with guilt and anger, directed towards both him and his employer.

"Director Kaiba," he called out calmly, too calmly compared to his boiling mind, "may I ask what exactly happened to Jonouchi?"

Seto looked at his henchman, words stuck in his throat. Something akin to remorse bubbled in him, but he could not accept it yet, and it got overwhelmed by the bitter taste of a second betrayal. It was not only his fault, and the others had to see it, too. So he straightened to his full height, hoping, no, expecting to gain presence this way, and summoned his legendary cool before he replied.

"He obviously doesn't know when to stop, Isono, and for that I won't take responsibility. If he doesn't feel when he should eat, or drink, or whatever, I cannot do anything of and for him..."

Isono got stunned into silence, but Mokuba exploded.

"You won't take responsibility, big brother? That's all you have to say? He's your employee, for fuck's sake, so he's your responsibility whenever he has to work for you!"

"Mokuba, language-"

"Fuck language! Jonouchi's dying, and all you care about is yourself! You won't even accept openly that you fucked up, and you're trying to put it all on him, when he's not even able to hear you and defend himself. That's low, Seto, and I won't have it this time."

The stretcher bearers were at the door, ready to carry him to the elevator and down to the ambulance. The younger Kaiba stopped them before the door closed and ordered, "Bring him to Kaiba Mansion. Isono, send orders to the staff, have a room prepared for him."

"Yes, Mr Kaiba," the other readily agreed, his fingers already running on the screen of his phone to text the house staff of the manor.

"You're not bringing him to the Mansion," Seto tried to interject, but two pairs of darting eyes stopped his protest short.

"I'm sorry, big brother, but what you think doesn't matter anymore," Mokuba stated firmly, eyes brimming with renewed tears, "either he comes with us, or I go to his apartment and stay with him there. Yes, I do mean the shitty complex downtown, with the peeling walls and scary neighborhood. I don't care about it, I just won't leave him alone. I'll stay with him until the damage you caused is but a distant memory for him."

"I'll go wherever he goes, of course," Isono added.

The stretcher bearers glanced nervously at him, awaiting his answer. Seto stared at his brother for a moment, wondering if such rebellion was real. When it appeared it was, he gulped and had no choice but to admit defeat.

"Fine," he bit back through clenched teeth, pushing the guilt far away from his mind, "bring him to the Mansion. You're not going to his place, ever."

Mokuba nodded briefly, his eyes ablaze with determination. Isono gestured to the men, who advanced towards the elevator down the hall. Before he went with them, however, he turned one last time towards his employer with a steely glare.

"Director Kaiba, you know me and my faithfulness to you. I believe you consider me someone you could listen to occasionally, and I've never talked unless it is absolutely necessary." He paused briefly. "But now things call for my intervention, and I'll be honest with you: I think you went too far, and I feel partly responsible for this. However, I am truly disappointed in the way you treated Jonouchi, whom I trust to become a good employee of KaibaCorp once he finds his place. You're a very intelligent man, and this kind of attitude is below you. I've done a lot of things for you, some worse than this, but I won't caution this kind of cruelty. So until Jonouchi is able to tell us whether he wants to continue working for you or not, and in either case I will support him, I kindly ask you not to go near him again, and this also extends to the people with him."

"Also," Mokuba piped in, "I'll pass word to the staff that if any of his friends wants to visit him, they would be given full access to the mansion, and you won't forbid me to spend time at his side, which I will even if you do. I don't like to tell you this, big brother, but I can't let you kill my friends. He's done nothing to you, and he's obeyed you. I know he did, and I won't believe you if you tell otherwise."

"I'll send someone to drive you back to the Manor when you feel like it," the elder bodyguard finished. "In the meantime, please be careful, and have a good night, sir."

With that, all four men left, and Seto found himself alone, dumbstruck, his thoughts a whirl of whats and hows and whys.

Neither noticed it when Katsuya's phone blinked briefly, as if out of satisfaction. Inside the device, the program that was IKaiba completed his task. The AI had been watching them all this time, and he had decided his imperfect human self needed a reminder that he was not the center of the universe, and that there were rules above him to abide to.

The mutt was someone he would not give up on so easily, not when he was the only one, with Isono, thinking of him as something other than lines of coding. Therefore, he would protect them at all costs.

This, was his first warning to Seto Kaiba.