*15* Jounouchi *15*
As I watched Kaiba fall asleep I begin to wonder when he became comfortable enough to fall asleep in front of me. It had been by experience that he never showed any weakness around those he considered to be enemies. Okay, I knew I wasn't an enemy but I was someone he never really enjoyed being around.
If I had stayed alive would we have ended up trusting each other this way? No. of course not. Things would have gone on as they always had. It made me sad to think that though.
I don't have the luxury of feeling this way, I told myself. I had to find a way to help Kaiba get his company back first. This war, if it was allowed to happen, would endanger everything my friends and I had fought for in the past. This time we couldn't call on an ancient power to save us. This time we were alone.
I looked over at Kaiba and sighed, it was just the two of us. The others couldn't know what was going on, it would only hurt them. I had to succeed with Kaiba for the sake of everyone I cared about. For the sake of my friends, for the new family I would never know, for myself. It was my turn to show everyone what I could do even if they could never really know it was me.
I hovered over Kaiba's sleeping form and studied his face for a moment, it was as peaceful as the first time I looked at it. I stuffed the urge to touch him down and took to studying the rest of him. He really was perfect. Then his eyes opened and he backed away as far as he could.
"Whoa, I'm sorry." I said, Kaiba took a breath and ran a hand back through his hair.
"What are you doing?" his startled breath coming out in short bursts.
"I was just checking on you. I didn't want your fever to come back." I said, hoping he'd believe me. He nodded.
"I'm fine." He said for what had to be the billionth time that week.
"You might be fine now but you did push yourself a lot, making yourself drive all the way out here."
"Speaking of which, we should get going now."
"Are you crazy?" I asked. "You were only out for about an hour. You need more rest than that."
"We can't waste time here." Kaiba said.
The Young CEO swung his legs over the edge of the bed and went to stand only to see that his right leg was twice the size it should be. "Shit."
"See, it's swollen. If you don't heal enough then the only thing you'll be able to do is watch while they take over your company and start a war in your name." I said.
Kaiba sat back down on the bed and let out a frustrated growl. "This is absolutely the worst."
"I understand how you feel."
"How?"
"Seriously?" I was getting real fed up with his attitude. "You aren't the only one who has lost here."
"How hard was your life, really?" he said. "All you've ever had to do is live a normal life."
"Normal life?" What was he talking about? "My life was anything but normal."
"True, you were in a gang after all."
"You want to know why I was in that gang." I was pissed now. "My father spent all his extra money on booze, sometimes I went without food for days, I joined the gang because they gave me extra spending money. They gave me a place where I could have control over my life… that is until I found out that I had given most of the control to the gang."
"You think that's easy? Well, getting in is easy. Getting out of a gang is near impossible." I continued. "I won't go into details but while you were being fed stuck-up French food from a silver plate I was trying to escape the hell that I trapped myself in. Yugi helped me through it. The only thing that makes life easier is friendships to help carry the load."
"My life wasn't all French food and silver plates, as you say." Kaiba said. "I had to raise my brother after my parents died. I got us out of that hell hole of an orphanage and into the biggest building in the city. It came with a price though, thankfully I was the one who got the brunt of it. If it weren't for my brother I would be…god knows where."
"Look, I don't want to fight." I said finally. I was right, Kaiba and I weren't that different after all. "I want us to solve this so we can save all the people who saved us."
"I want that too." He said.
"So stop fighting me at every turn and rest up so we can be at our best when we take on those Americans."
After a few hours of resting on the bed, with the T.V. on some foreign channel, Kaiba finally decided to ask me something I wasn't prepared to answer.
"Is everything okay with your family?"
"What? Of course, why are you asking that?" I was flustered, what was he getting at?
"A few days ago, your father came to one of my finance offices for a home loan." He said.
"Well he doesn't want to live in a place that reminds him of his dead son." I said.
"No, there's more to it than that." He said, "Your mother and sister were there."
"So what?"
"Well, the story you told me earlier is really gnawing at me."
"Apparently he's a changed man. They are all going to be a big happy family." I cringed, I was angry and raw. "I don't want to talk about this. It's pointless and doesn't matter, I'm dead. They can move on a start a family. A new family, with a new son, who isn't going to be a screw up. A son who will live to see thirty. A shiny new replacement."
"…you aren't going to be replaced. No one could replace you." Kaiba said softly, carefully, I had only heard him talk this way to Mokuba.
"Shut up." I said. I was feeling very exposed and I could feel myself fading.
"Hey, don't fade away. I can't go back to Domino and get you." He said and suddenly I was in his arms. "I'm holding you. You won't fade. You are real and are not going anywhere." He said but I got the feeling he was saying it to reassure himself more so than me.
"You are holding on too tight." I said. I could feel his touch giving me my strength back and I shoved him away as hard as I could. "Don't be crazy, I'm not going anywhere. I told you that. I am serious about stopping this threat."
"As am I." Kaiba said. "They can't get into the weapon's room without my handprint. We have a little time."
"Speaking of that, how do they know about the old weapons and why do you still have them?" I asked.
"They might be old partners of Gozaboro, he may have told them about the weapons, as for the second question, the materials used to make the weapons are extremely dangerous and there is no way to destroy them safely. I have to keep them guarded and locked away so they don't fall into the wrong hands."
"Your stepfather was really something…" I said as I imagined a world where Kaiba Corps was a place of pain rather than enjoyment.
"I will give my life to prevent this war from taking place." He said. "We have to get to that bunker."
"Bunker?" I asked.
"Yes, one of my secret bases. Where did you think we were heading? Back to my company? No, it isn't safe there. I can take care of what I need to at my base."
"So you haven't lost your ability to think things through." I teased. I was so relieved that we weren't going straight for the company out of some blind revenge.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that." He said. "The swelling has gone down significantly." He added. "I think it's time we get this party started."
"I really think we need at least one more day." I said but that plan was soon cut short by the banging that sounded from the front door.
"We know you're in there. The door man, rest his soul, told us there was a Seto Kaiba look-a-like in this room." The voice from the other end of the door was slimy and dark.
"Shit. How the hell did they find us?" Kaiba asked.
"I have no idea." I answered, "Maybe they put out a hit on you from the underground."
"I guess they know more of my stepfather's friends than I figured." Kaiba got up and started searching the room.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I need a weapon." He said.
"Try the fridge." Jou said
"The fridge?" I popped open the mini fridge but all I found were bottles of beer. "I don't know what else I expected to find in there."
"No, those are the perfect weapons." He said. "You never play video games do you? What am I asking, of course you don't?"
"I grabbed the pocket square from Kaiba's suite pocket and popped open the beer bottle and dumped the contents onto the silk fabric."
"Hey, do you have any idea how much those cost?" he glared.
"Your life if we don't use it." I said and noticed a box of matches on the counter. "Hand me those matches." The banging on the door was getting louder and more frequent. I shoved the fabric into the bottle and used it as a fuse, I lit the fabric. "Open the door." I said to Kaiba
"This is nuts." He said but pulled open the door anyway. "Two men in black outfits came tumbling in, they were not ready for the door to be toss open so violently. I took the opening and tossed the Molotov cocktail toward them.
The bottle landed between them and crash into tiny glowing shards of fire and glass. While the men were distracted by the fire Kaiba slipped out the door and hopped into the car. I floated after him and just like that we left the motel behind.