A/N: And here it is, the second chappy~~
I've gotten a lotta response...
well, more than I hoped for~~~
And so, here it is~~!
The HAPPY (ahem, Cali) conclusion to a HAPPY story
sorry, inside joke
"Hey Kaiba. How're you doin'?" Jounouchi greeted as he stepped within the CEO's room. He was greeted by the sight of Seto sitting up in his bed, his trademark scowl on his face, and that laptop on his lap. He looked up from furiously typing to the blonde for a second, then looked right back. Jou had to focus to keep that smile on his lips.
"It's you."
"It's me, remember?"
"How can I not?" Those words sent a jolt through the blonde. Could it be…?
"You were the first annoying face I saw at the hospital, nagging me to say something."
…Of course not.
Jou relaxed the fist he didn't realize he had made, and leaned back against the closed door, chocolate brown eyes just staring at Kaiba. Feeling the glance, the brunet looked up, scowling at the interference.
"What do you want?"
Jou could laugh, if it wasn't for this hollow emptiness inside him. This was almost like every other morning, when he would sit up on the CEO's bed, staring at him, wondering if it was a dream or reality. He'd always receive a snappy remark about shower, but then a tender comment afterwards. But now… He could only laugh bitterly at the cruel hands of fate.
"Nothin'. I'll just go now." It was the parting he had used within the last month, within the every day he'd check on his lover, seeing if he had remembered… something. He'd tell himself anything was fine… But that'd just be a lie. More than anything in the word Jou wanted Kaiba to remember him again, to softly draw his long fingers through his hair, to plant soft kisses along his skin…
But he has to face the truth. Reality. He probably never will.
Screaming and yelling didn't work. It was the first thing Jou tried. It had taken Yami, Otogi, and Honda to wrestle him away from the bedside of the oblivious… cold… Seto. The stupid therapy thing hadn't helped. It was the first thing Mokuba tried for his big brother. It turned out that the brunet could remember everything up to meeting well, meeting Jou. Even in bed, the CEO worried about his company. It was cruel to the blonde, knowing that work was once again everything in his lover's life. Since then, it had just been everyday greetings and short exchanges of words.
Painful.
Wrenching his gaze away from those harshly unfamiliar cerulean eyes, Jou turned for the door. The first shock came when he had a hand on the doorknob.
His eyes down, the blonde didn't notice at first, what had caused the bang by the side of his head. But when his gaze slowly traveled up, he saw that familiar pale hand, right there, within reach. Subconscious took over, and his eyes automatically started following that hand up those dark blue sleeves. But he once again woke up, and froze at the elbow. Afraid to look past anymore.
"Kaiba…?" Jou breathed, aware said brunet was inches away from himself.
"Look. Mokuba told me you people were just old acquaintances. But the way you come to visit everyday suggests otherwise. When I ask about it, Mokuba panics and wouldn't tell me. So why don't you just come out with it?"
Despite the irritated tone, there was a sense of panic and urgency in Seto's tone. Jou could make out that much. But his words stung. If he didn't remember, and make sense of it by himself, what use would it be to just claim he used to be the CEO's most important person? The stinging in his chest rose to his throat, then his eyes, long enough to delay him that split second to swallow before turning to give Kaiba a piece of his mind. But…
What he didn't expect, was to have soft, familiar lips meet his halfway there. It seemed like a shocking eternity before Kaiba pulled back. Brown met blue, and Jou saw… uncertainty in those icy depths.
"And why…" His voice was husky with emotions, eyes half-lidded. "…do I feel like doing that every time I see you…?"
Jou opened his mouth to speak, but the words – whatever those may be – caught in his throat. When he snapped out of his reverie, hard-concealed tears found there way out and down his cheeks.
"J-Jou…?" The blonde had to laugh. Seto Kaiba distressed wasn't something you see everyday. With the laugh, he turned around fully, and wrapped his arms around the slim torso he knows so well, burying his face within the soft material. He could feel his lover's body tense beneath him, but after a while, it relaxed, and uncertain hands reached out and pulled him close.
"…Kaiba?" Jou muttered after a few minutes of comfortable silence. Said teen gave a small grunt as a reply, head still on the golden tresses. Jou bit his lip. He had to ask… Ask that question that brought him nightmares for so long.
"…Do you remember me?"
It was a heart-stopping moment when Kaiba's fingers stopped its soft caress on his back (when did it start?) and pulled away slowly. Jou almost didn't want to let go. But if this was the way it is…
"…No… I'm sorry…"
…That was the answer. A harsh, bitter cry came out of the blonde's mouth as he fell back against the door, sliding to the ground slowly. Choked sobs rushed out of him, replacing inaudible words that never made sense. The agony tore at his heart, his chest… everywhere. It hurt to breathe, to blink… It hurt to hurt. It's been a month now. He just can't take it any longer…!
"It doesn't mean I won't try!" In his agonized stupor Jou didn't notice Seto's pained expression. His shocked and guilty one when he broke down crying. He didn't notice the CEO slowly drop down on his haunches besides him, excruciatingly morbid eyes watching each painful wrench of his lover's body.
"What's there to try…?" His voice sounded pathetic to the blonde himself. Even the current him couldn't impress Seto Kaiba in any way. Perhaps the two's relationship was doomed to begin with.
The thought brought a fresh round of tears to his already puffy eyes.
"I remembered up to Battle City with that kiss Jou," Seto admitted, gaze dropping to the side. This new piece of information snapped the blonde's head up in two seconds flat.
"What?!"
"…More might come to me if there's the right trigger…"
Jou stared at Seto, eyes wide with shock. When has coy been in the CEO's dictionary?! But he had to give in to him. He did so with a small muted laugh and a minute smile; the gentle one even his friends seldom saw.
"Alright. You win. Just promise me you'll remember, alright?" Seto smiled inwardly at the school-teacher tone Jou had on, then leaned in for his "trigger".
"Alright…"
--
Seto sat up on the bed, eyes gazing at his sleeping lover besides him, fingers fondly brushing through the soft locks.
"You didn't even stay awake long enough to ask…" he muttered gently. The time with Jou was the only time when he truly lost the cold CEO façade to the softly shining warmth of the blonde beside him. Indeed, the ah, events of the previous night worked well as a trigger for his memory, and within blurry segments of the evening, it had all came back to him, including the plane crash. The previous Seto Kaiba would've stopped whatever he was doing immediately and e-mailed the police about it right away. But right now, all he wanted to do was to bring his arms around his lover's warm back and pull him close, sharing the warmth. And that was what he did, reaching down for the top of the sheet to pull over them. But his fingers clutched around instead, a crumpled piece of paper that came from Jounouchi's back pocket.
He mouthed the two words written on that single sheet of paper. Those two simple words brought a fresh wave of emotions onto him: adoration, guilt, fondness… Seto laid back down on the bed, putting the card beside him, pulling Jou in a tight embrace. For the first time since he was small, the brunet let a single tear escape from his eyes. It was just too much… The plane… his memories…
Jou…
"Kaiba…" the puppy muttered in his sleep, arms curling around his lover's waist. A light furrow topped his eyebrows.
"Don't go… Don't leave…"
After a tender moment of swallowing the lump in his throat, Seto leaned in, pressing his lips softly against Jou's brow.
"Never puppy…" he whispered. "Never again…"
A gust of wind blew in from the opened window. But it didn't matter, for that time, Seto was also asleep besides his puppy. The soft breeze carried the forgotten postcard up into the air, then slowly drifting down onto the carpeted floor. The simple photograph laid face down on the carpet, so the two words were exposed for the entire world to see, if it wasn't for the lock on the mahogany door. Indeed, it was the postcard from Jou, that never got to its destination.
"Remember me…"
…Or did it?
A/N: The two words, incase someone still hasn't figured it out
xDDD
Thank you Lissa, for inspiring me in this chappy
I realize Seto was somewhat OOC at the end
But hey, bear in mind that this was the hidden Seto... The one he doesn't usually let people see
Not even Jou
I mean, Jou is after all, asleep right here
At first, I wanted something dramatic, something that just goes BAM!
like that
but then I realized...
I've got a stack of manga waiting for me to finish downstairs
so au revoir~~~!
xD
Nah, jk~
But well, I'm not saying that's the whole reason...
R&R, please~?
Tell me how my conclusion was... sucky...?
