Heartaches

Chapter 17

By Kellyq

After Mina, Trudge, and Martha left the room, Crow looked over at Kiryu to see him staring at him with curiosity. Kiryu poked his cheek which was painted of a lightning bolt.

"Like it huh? Kids always like to paint my face," Crow explained, smiling. Kiryu smiled back, amusement in his amber eyes as he pulled on Crow's ear. "Hey! Don't do that," he scowled lightly. "You only do that when someone is being bad." Kiryu chuckled and flicked Crow on the head. "Why are you so mean? I didn't do anything," he whined, a hint of teasing laced in his voice.

"F-friends?" Kiryu finally spoke up.

"Yep. We're good friends. I'm Crow."

Kiryu nodded his head. "Crow," he repeated, taking in at what his friend looked like.

He had red bushy hair that spiked out liked a porcupine, and brown cloth around his head to keep his hair up. In the middle of his forehead was a tattoo in the shape of an "M". The earrings he had on both ears were in the shape of bolts to a wrench. The look in Crow's eyes was hazel green with a lot of personality, and the shapes of his eyebrows were like question marks. The color of Crow's shirt was orange, and to top it off his style, he had on fingerless gloves and dark blue jeans with knee high combat boots.

Kiryu smiled and took Crow's hand and laced their fingers together. "G-Good f-friends," he repeated.

Rally walked back into the hospital to see Mina scowling and Trudge had a sour look.

"I just don't understand why you have such a negative approach toward Mr. Fudo? What did he do?" Mina asked.

Trudge grumbled. "I did catch him doing some illegal things with his motorcycle, and I've tried to stop him, but I wasn't successful at it."

"Did anyone else get hurt or was he just by himself?" Mina asked.

Trudge sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to win the argument. Mina was going to defend Yusei despite what happened between them.

"Uh ... Mina?" Rally spoke up, getting her and Trudge's attention. "Can we go back to Jack's place; I want to play on the computer."

Mina smiled. "Sure. I'm sure this whole thing is boring you."

Rally smiled. "Don't worry about it. I kind of got the gist of what's going on now." This way I can help Yusei find out who that guy was.

Trudge sighed. Maybe I shouldn't grumble and help if it means getting Mina to smile again and getting her to see that I'm not that bad. "If you're ready to go, I'm ready."

When the three made it back to the condo, both Jack and Yusei's motorcycle's were there. Rally was the first to get out of the car and made his way to the front door. He opened it and walked in to see Jack sitting on the couch, talking on the phone. Mina came up behind Rally and noticed right away that Jack was talking to Godwin.

Rally quickly walked past the living room, and down the hallway to the computer room. He stopped when he saw Yusei turning the monitor off. He turned the chair around. Rally didnt like the sad look in Yuseis eyes.

"Hey Rally. Do you need something?" Yusei asked, rising to his feet. He hopped that he didn't see what was on the screen. Rally took hold of the door and closed. He stepped up and hugged Yusei. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"I should be asking you that," Rally spoke up, after a moment of silence. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Yusei smiled at Rally. "You don't have to worry about me, I'll be fine," he reassured. "Besides I don't want to drag you further into this mess than I have."

"I want to help! You helped me - you gave me a home, clothes, and food," Rally said, tightening his grip around Yusei. They both stared at each other for a moment. "You're like a big brother to me, Yusei - and seeing you in pain hurts me - please, let me help!"

Hurt flashed across Yusei's eyes and his heart contracted in his chest. He knelt down and hugged Rally, kissing him on the forehead. "I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to hurt you."

"Don't worry about it," Rally murmured. "I want to help you find out who this Rudger person is. He gave you a creepy look when we were waiting to know about your friend Kiryu."

"I'd rather you didn't," Yusei murmured back, pulling away so that they were eye level. "Rudger already targeted one of my friends, and I don't want him to hurt you either."

Rally sighed out of disappointment. "Who is Kiryu?"

"He's a friend of mine I've known for a very long time," Yusei explained. "It wasn't until four years ago he told me that he loved me, but I was already going out with Jack by the time he told me." Rally nodded his head. "And things just went downhill with our relationship. Kiryu and I ended up fighting with each other. He would blame me for his life going up in flames, and that part hurt more than our fights did."

Rally hugged him. "At least you have someone like Jack to love and protect you."

Yusei smiled a look of thanks in his expression. "That's good you're not afraid of Jack. He can be grumpy at times, but he does have a good heart."

Rally chuckled. Uh can I ask you a question?

And whats that?

Just before Rally could ask how Jack and he ended up together, the blonde walked in and closed the door. Godwin is going to have Trudge monitor the floor so that nothing else happens, and I'm going to have Mina and Akiza find out by using Kiryu's medical information of who Rudger is, Jack explained, not paying any attention that Rally was watching and listening.

"Yeah," the little boy pepped up. "And the three of us can use the net to see what we can find out, just like you were doing just a few moments ago."

Yusei closed his eyes and his expression darkened, as he sighed. Jack watched his boyfriend for a moment, and narrowed his eyes when he read the vibes he got from Yusei. He advanced toward his boyfriend and Rally moved out of the way, not liking the hostile vibes.

"You were thinking about handing yourself over, weren't you!" By this point, Jack had taken hold of Yusei's shirt and pushed him back in the chair and leaned over him with his hands each armrest. The blonde-haired teen had an intense expression and his eyes held jealousy. Yusei's expression didn't change. He looked down as his body started to shake. "You do that, I'll kick your ass - so don't even think about it! Besides, you know that's what Rudger wants you to do!"

"It's just that I don't think I can take anymore of this," Yusei finally spoke up, his voice soft and fragile.

Rally watched with concern in his eyes. Jack, on the other hand, leaned closer to his boyfriends face. He made sure that Yusei was staring at him. "And you think that you're the only one affected by this? What about Crow?" Yusei cringed, and his body tensed up as he tried to press into the chair. "That's right! You haven't thought that maybe he's in more pain than you, considering that he has feelings for Kiryu!"

Hot tension was in the room for a moment. Jack cursed inwardly for creating it or hurting Yusei. The black-haired teen shifted in the chair, and Jack's cell phone went off. The two boys knew that it was Crow. Jack pulled back and allowed his boyfriend to answer it. Yusei grabbed the phone and walked out, closing the door behind him.

To Be Continued