Ashes doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Chapter Four

When Kaiba woke up that morning, he knew something was off. He pulled up his memory like an old file, trying to piece together events. He drank with Jounouchi – warm sake, like respectable Japanese men as they had mixed business with pleasure. They'd gone to bed, tossed the blankets –

There. Kaiba's blankets were on the floor, but he was still too warm, covered... And there was Jounouchi nestled tightly against him, the green quilt Kaiba so hated covering them both. Kaiba's initial reaction was to shove Jounouchi away and ask who he thought he was, but he paused; business has taught him that his initial instincts weren't always the best move. Instead, he took the time to study his enemy while the man was prone, available to scrutiny. Looking at Jounouchi like that, his features so at ease, no one would guess that there was something wrong with him... Except that the bags under his eyes were so prominent; he was practically sunken. Kaiba leaned a little closer; it wasn't often he got so close to Jounouchi and was able to just examine...

Then Jounouchi's eyes snapped opened, and he took Kaiba's first impulse to heart, shoving Kaiba away and scrambling off the bed in the same motion he pushed Kaiba to arm's length. The blanket came off the bed with him, and he pushed that away too. For a second he looked like he was panicking, and then it all seemed to settle – Kaiba watched with interest as he took a deep breath and went, "Ah, what the hell..." He rubbed his face and groaned. "What time is it?"

"About time for breakfast."

"Huh?" Blinking, Jounouchi looked at the clock on the wall, then back at Kaiba. Finally his mouth formed a silent "oh" followed by another groan. "Sunday. Why did I get wound up in this crazy tradition?"

"Preaching to the choir," Kaiba mumbled, swinging his feet over the bed and making his way to the closet. Sundays were the one day that Kaiba had set aside to spend at home. Most of the time he just did his work from there, but he took breaks with Mokuba, and they always had breakfast together. Given that they hadn't even bothered to tell Mokuba their relationship was a lie, Jounouchi became part of the tradition.

It was usually the longest hour of Kaiba's day.

---

"Good morning, Jounouchi; morning, Niisama," Mokuba said with a smile, paper spread out in front of him. "You're late."

"Slept in," Jounouchi mumbled, making an attempt to smile sheepishly; it turned out to look more like a grimace. "Have you been waiting long?"

Mokuba shook his head, reaching over the table to get his juice. "Just looking to see if they've mentioned the Sylph yet." Before either could asked, he added, "They haven't. But I'm starving! Wait here, I'll go let the staff know we're ready."

Kaiba took a seat at Mokuba's right, and Jounouchi sat across the table from him, leaning with his elbows on the table and his palms against his temples the second he was in the chair. "What are you going to tell him when it's all over?" he asked, his voice almost unsteady. Kaiba preferred it when Jounouchi was sick at night; watching him fight it in the mornings was just pathetic.

"The same thing I'm going to tell everyone else – we couldn't work out our differences after all."

Jounouchi snorted, folding his arms and pillowing against them, hiding his eyes against his forearms. "That've worked two weeks in; after this long it just sounds stupid."

"It'll do; everyone knows how hard we both try."

"Alright!" Mokuba said, entering the room with the cook staff pushing in the breakfast cart behind him, looking as cheery as they were paid to. While breakfast was being served he collected his paper, folding it neatly and sliding it down the table; it went to far and fell to the floor with a sort of flutter. "Whoops. Anyway, what's new with business, Niisama?"

Kaiba loved the attention Mokuba set to business, even when they were supposed to be playing family over breakfast. He would forgo it entirely if Mokuba did nothing but ask about Kaiba Corporation. He'd ended up with the perfect business partner; in no time at all Mokuba would be able to legally take over by his side. "The press dinner is in about a month. Are you planning on being there?"

"Yeah; I can't wait to see everyone's reaction to what you've done," Mokuba said with a smile that was sort of fond, sort of cocky; he leaned back as one of the staff poured him some more juice. "Jounouchi, do you have a suit?"

Jounouchi looked up from the crook of his arm with the expression of a dying man, blinking and taking a deep breath. Inwardly Kaiba cursed him for having such an obvious hangover. However, better hungover than drunk; of all things Mokuba wasn't going to see, Jounouchi when he was drunk was towards the top of the list. "A suit?" Jounouchi asked; the girl serving breakfast sat a plate in front of him as well as a glass of water, and he sat up further, taking the glass and ever so slightly pushing the plate away. "What for?"

"The dinner," Mokuba replied in exasperation, sighing heavily. "Geez, I'd think you'd be used to this stuff by now."

"How's school been?" Kaiba interrupting, pulling Mokuba's attention back to him, leaving Jounouchi to lie his head down. He curled into himself just slightly, and Kaiba could hear him take another deep breath.

Jounouchi interrupted the beginnings of Mokuba's answer with, "I'll be right back – nature calls." He managed to rush without looking like he was in too much of a hurry, and it went without comment from Mokuba; he just went on about a project he was working on. It was for science, or maybe social studies. Kaiba couldn't keep listening, distracted and responding on autopilot rather than actually comprehending. It wasn't that he didn't care, just that he kept replaying the last twenty-four hours.

Perhaps the last two years.

Something about Jounouchi had always been... magnetic, even though he'd never been terribly interesting. He'd always just been the right hand of Yuugi, a punk, maybe even a bit of a comic relief sometimes – the things he did when he thought he was hot shit always amused Kaiba on some level. The fighting was always like Jounouchi thought he could prove himself better if he just fought back enough, fought just right, hit the right soft spot... He probably kept it up past high school, after the dueling and after the rivalries, because he had never succeeded. Everything else was over, and Jounouchi had never gotten better than Kaiba.

Now... Now he was pathetic, he was boring. Reflexively Kaiba's fist clenched, because it wasn't the Jounouchi with some semblance of strength that had caught him, it was the Jounouchi that had lost self control. It was a shadow of the Jounouchi who had fought him years ago.

That was the Jounouchi that was dragging him down now, sharing his bed and pulling Kaiba closer.

Jounouchi returned without Mokuba noticing that Kaiba hadn't been paying attention, and he looked like he felt better – he looked like shit, but at least he was sitting upright and pretending to pick at his food.

"Niisama, can Jounouchi and I go out to get something for the dinner? He needs a suit, obviously, and all mine are getting to be too short." Mokuba beamed at the statement as though it was his greatest accomplishment.

Holding in a smile of his own, Kaiba asked, "Why today? It's not for a month yet."

"Well, we're got to take time to get measured, look around, and then hope they actually get them modified and ready in time. Plus, it'll give you time to finish whatever work you brought home early, that way the afternoon can be free for you and me."

"That'll be fine." As a rule Kaiba tried to restrict the time Mokuba and Jounouchi spent alone together as much as he could without rousing suspicion. He didn't want it to look like he didn't want his lover to bond with his family, but he didn't; he didn't want Mokuba to accept Jounouchi as family so it would be easier on him when it all fell apart. "You two can even stay out for lunch – it'll take me about that long to finish what I have to."

"Great!" With that Mokuba turned contentedly back to his breakfast. He kept the conversation going to some extent, trying to get Jounouchi into the idea of wearing a suit; from the colors of the undershirt to why colored suits were tacky, he talked it out like a pro. He even asked Kaiba where the best deals were.

"Your brother can buy anything he wants," Jounouchi not-quite-quipped, looking up at Kaiba. "Deals don't matter."

The terseness of the comment wasn't wasted, but Mokuba forwent replying and said, "I'll make sure you buy a good suit – it's not like you'd have the experience to know how." With that breakfast ended, and Kaiba walked with them to the foyer. Mokuba dropped down onto the step to retrieve his shoes, and sighed. "Jounouchi, didn't anyone ever teach you any manners?" he asked, motioning to the heap of green jacket on the ground by the coat rack. Jounouchi only shrugged, standing beside Kaiba with his arms crossed. He didn't move to pick the jacket up, and Mokuba didn't persist.

Kaiba called the driver from the service phone by the door to let him know that Mokuba and Jounouchi were waiting out front, and that Mokuba was in charge. He watched as Jounouchi sat to put his shoes on, but didn't look at Kaiba when he stood up; his eyes stayed cast down when he kissed Kaiba's cheek – a weak ploy for familiarity, but enough to disgust a watching preteen.

"Okay, okay, mushy time is over, sheesh. Let's go."

After the door clicked shut behind them Kaiba turned to look at the jacket by his feet. "Stupid," he muttered, leaning down to put it up before he headed up to his bedroom. He didn't know why he hadn't just left it there, or even just put it on the coat rack. If he had waited long enough, one of the housekeepers would have hung it up for him. Still, he went to his room and tossed the jacket onto his bed, going to the computer. He had to get a lot done for the upcoming dinner. The company was in a frenzy of final checks on the system, the first dozen games they had prepared – not to mention that half-done ones – and last minute tweaks in the design...

It was a mess. Kaiba's least favorite part of business was his magnetism, the flair with which he could get the world's attention. If they would have let him sit in the basement and design products all day, he'd have been much happier.

Within ten minutes of sending out memos and approving different tests and changes to the system, Kaiba came across an e-mail about Jounouchi – from Nori: "I know it's a little of a ways away, but the end of the contract is approaching. You need a plan of action."

The end of the contract. Kaiba leaned back, rubbing his eyes a little. There was going to be a backlash from the public no matter what they decided to do to end the relationship. Kaiba's preference was just to say that Jounouchi had been a cheating liar, but the blond has refused to have that branded to him. It hadn't really mattered, though; whether they said that things just didn't work or went out in a blaze of fists it would please some and enrage others. Nori had suggested a duel, but Jounouchi had hated that even more. "You'd want me to lose," he said, "and that means playing like some heartbroken chick who couldn't duel my way out of a paper sack. I'm not sticking that to my reputation."

Secretly, Kaiba had agreed. Hating Jounouchi hadn't extended so far as expecting him to ruin his name – whatever was left of it.

And then there was a noise -- Kaiba looked around, going through his mental catalog of devices that gave off two rapid beeps. There was a humming, and again, the quick beeps. His eyes wandered to the bed, and he went towards it without really thinking about what he'd find until the cell phone was in his hands. It was flipped closed, but that wasn't something to stop Kaiba; he opened it, musing aloud, "How long has he had this?" There was one new message; the background screen and color scheme of the phone was generic, nothing flashy or distinctively Jounouchi. Even the ring had been boring. Hell, the message was probably a generic "Welcome to Our Service!" message... but that wasn't enough of a reason for Kaiba not to read it.

"Great news! Call me after I get off work."

Normally Kaiba didn't consider himself nosy – he stuck his head in where it was needed – but he would admit to having a healthy dose of curiosity. That was his excuse for taking out his own phone and calling the number in the 'from' field of the message.

It went to straight to the voice mail: "You've reached the phone of Takagawa Yuumi; I'm not available – " Kaiba hung up and set his phone down and put Jounouchi's back in the jacket pocket where he found it.

Takagawa. What sort of good news could Takagawa possibly have for Jounouchi; certainly not, "I'm bearing your child;" if so, Kaiba was definitely making Jounouchi out to be a cheating liar. Going back to his desk, Kaiba found his aspirin, took two dry. After making a hefty effort to ignore his headache, he reply to Nori's e-mail:

"We'll wait and see what happens."

-end chapter four-

notes
I love Mokuba; he's this great character, sometimes as a balance to Kaiba's extremism, and other times being complimentary to it. I've always ended writing him more independent, making his path in the world without Kaiba, so it was a lot of fun to work with Mokuba when all he wanted to do was work with his big brother. I imagine even Kaiba couldn't hide the hit KC has taken in this story from Mokuba; the kids crafty.

And he doesn't seem to like Jounouchi very much right now. ;

Thank you to purkle, who took time to look over it and give me such wonderful input about how the story seems to be headed; I'm worried about making wrong turns! ..;