I apologize in advance for the very short update. This took me forever to write for many reasons, and I'm not going to make any promises that the next update will be quick, though I will try my best. I hope everyone enjoys, and that this will hold you over until the next chapter. Thanks for reading!

~TheApatheticEmpath!

You," he pointed accusingly at the teen. Jou didn't look up. Seto already felt agitated, and they hadn't even begun.

"Me," the blond replied quietly, staring at his hands.

Seto stared at the other boy, feeling confusion wash over him. He had no idea what to say or what to think. Jou was here… In the detention center… The place for troubled teens. There was no way that the puppy was a troubled teen. What the hell was he doing here? Seto's agitation grew as a million questions ran through his head. Jou wasn't even bothering to look at him, which really pissed the CEO off. He glared at Jou, but it was pointless. The smaller male seemed too infatuated with his own hands. Kaiba began to wonder if Jou had even recognized his voice.

He had finally stopped pointing at the other, but his mouth was still hung open in shock, and he looked like a gaping idiot. Jou was sitting here, right before him. The CEO felt a mixture of emotions wash over him as he contemplated what had brought the other to this place. There had to be a reason. He knew that it would be pointless to ask. It seemed like Jou was lost in his own world, and he probably wouldn't be willing to answer any of Seto's questions.

He made his way slowly back to the secretary, dreading their chat. Once he arrived back at the service desk, she gave him a funny look. There was no way that Kaiba could counsel Jou. He was already agitated with the idiot, and he knew that if he even tried, he was going to die from stress levels that were off the charts. As it was, he had had to resist his temptation to strangle what was wrong with the other out of him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't work with that boy… I know him personally… We don't have a very good relationship." The secretary practically scoffed at what he had to say. It was well known that Kaiba didn't really have a good relationship with anybody besides his younger brother. She received the infamous Kaiba glare, but shrugged it off. She wasn't the type to be bothered by some bitter little boy that didn't know how to control his temper.

"Look, Mr. Kaiba, he's the only person that I have open for counseling. He was brought in yesterday after he attempted to jump off a bridge." Seto's eyes widened at that new piece of information. The puppy had tried to kill himself… Why? The secretary sighed and handed Kaiba Jou's personal file. "This is everything you need to know about him and his family. It might help you to know a bit more about him. He hasn't been social at all since he came in. He's just been in his room, staring at his hands the way you saw when you went in there." Seto nodded, opening the file and skimming quickly through it. Something caught his eye. Jou's father had recently committed suicide… very recently. It was the same day that he last spotted the dweeb patrol in the park.

Seto continued to read about Jounouchi, soaking in all the information. He had never really known much about the mutt, and to have access to his history… well, Kaiba was in his glory. He returned to the room a bit later, looking at Jou now with full understanding. Seto even felt some sympathy for the other teen. He watched the blond as he stared at his hands, wondering how he was going to break him out of this trance. After a few minutes, Seto got an idea.

He sat next to Jou on the bed, glancing over at him now and again. Jou didn't bother to look up at him, not really caring who was there. He just wanted to be left alone honestly, to be depressed. Kaiba could just barely see his eyes, and they resembled the time that Marik had possessed him. It was almost as if the mutt was… soulless. It gave Seto chills to see the normally fiery and passionate male looking so… so empty.

To tell the truth, seeing Jou like this scared Seto. He didn't know why, but he was suddenly determined to make the puppy smile once more. He wanted that happy-go-lucky attitude to come back. Seto was already missing the boy who always fought back, and no matter how many times he lost, always came back for more. He had to do something about Jou. He had to bring the person that Jou was back, even if it was for no one's sake but his own.

Jou had barely noticed Seto when he entered the first time, or the second for the matter. He kept on tracing over the lines on his hands, trying to figure out why he had been made to suffer so much. Jou had tried so hard to straighten himself out so many times, but he was broken. No one would ever be able to fix him. He had died with his father, and now his body sat there, an empty shell. He no longer felt. He no longer cared. He was numb.

Jou was stuck in a place where he was all alone. No one else existed. He just floated along endlessly, through the nothingness. The area was completely white. He was the only thing there. He needed to break out of this trance, but he couldn't. He didn't want to come back to earth and deal with all the shit anymore. He wanted to be forgotten and die alone, just as he had intended yesterday on the bridge. He had nothing to offer the world.

It was strange to know that someone was sitting right next to you, but not to actually feel them there. He had no idea who it was. All he knew was that he'd heard a familiar voice not too long ago. He couldn't place the voice, but he knew it was someone he wasn't happy to see. Then again, the blond was no longer happy to see anyone. He wished that the world would just go away and leave him alone. The fact that, as he walked through the streets yesterday, and climbed onto the side of the bridge without anyone noticing said more than enough.

Jou heard a voice after a little while, slowly pulling him back into reality. He recognized it instantly as Seto Kaiba, and he gave an audible groan, not wanting to deal with the jerk CEO at the moment. He would rather swallow rat poison… He would have to save that idea for later. He looked up slowly at Kaiba, who was rattling on about something or other. Jou could really care less at the moment. What was bothering him was the fact that Kaiba was sitting next to him at all.

His eyes had a small amount of fire in them, just enough to make him defiant. He didn't want to deal with anyone at the moment, but especially this man. Why was it that the one person that he couldn't stand had to be the one sitting next to him, going off about… Did he just say algorithms? Why the hell was this idiot talking about math at a time like this? Jou glared at him, and Seto suddenly looked at him a little surprised. The blond caught a glimpse of soft blue before they became steely again, as if Seto had just put his barrier back up.

He found himself getting more irritated with Jou by the moment. He wanted to smack him, to shake him, to get some sort of reaction other than this. Why was the blond so… blank? It was as if he had lost his soul. In order to avoid hitting the mutt, he exited the room, and then the building. He just couldn't deal with this. The irritating secretary that he had met earlier called after him, but he simply ignored her.

He pulled open the limo door himself and slammed it shut, startling the driver from his sleep. He looked through the mirror at his boss, and was met with a deadly gaze. He began to head for the mansion, expecting their ride to be silent. However, soon he heard Kaiba talking to himself. The brunet was pondering how Jounouchi had gotten that way. So he had seen his love interest at the center.

He wondered himself what would have happened to put the high spirited teen at a place like that. Seto had taken his paperwork and was looking over it at the moment. Perhaps that was the reason that the secretary had been calling after him. Patient information was supposed to remain confidential. It wasn't like Kaiba was going to spread this information around or post it on the web though.

One thing he noticed in the description made him see red. According to Jounouchi, at first his friends had tried to be helpful and supportive. But when they weren't able to pull him out of his depression, they got sick of this new person and abandoned him. He felt his body tense in anger as he thought about that. Why would they claim that the mutt was their best friend and that they would stick by him through thick and thin, and then just leave him like he was nothing all of a sudden? It was obvious that when the hard times came for the blond, they wanted nothing to do with it. That bothered Seto greatly. If it was him, he would hold Jou and allow him to cry, talk to him about the problems and listen to what he had to say. He would be there to comfort the mutt, even if they didn't get along most times. Why? Because Seto understood what it was like to feel completely alone.

As he thought about it, he realized that he had just left Jounouchi there alone. He began to feel guilty about it, but he had left with he intention of not losing his temper with the dog. He decided that he would try harder tomorrow. Knowing a bit more gave him a bit more to work with. After a moment, he found something in the notes. Jou was on suicide watch. Seto's eyes widened at the sudden revelation. He couldn't believe that someone like Jou would really try to kill himself. Underneath was his reason for everything. His father had killed himself. Seto didn't know what kind of relationship Jou had had with his father, but he knew that something like that could easily drive someone to depression.

Seto came into the mansion and immediately received a strange look from his little brother. He looked down at Mokuba with a small smile, giving him a hug like he usually did when he returned. Mokuba didn't mind, but he wanted to know why his brother was already back home.

"Big brother, how did it go?" Seto sighed and rubbed his temple.

"It happens that I'll be working with the Mutt. I ended up getting very frustrated and left. It's Jou's body, but it's not him. It's like he's an empty shell or a puppet." Mokuba looked a little surprised by that.

"Odd. Seto, remember, the reason you're a counselor there is because someone needs you. In this case, that someone is Jou. He wouldn't be there if he didn't need help. Try your hardest to be patient Seto. I know that's not easy for you, but I know you can be when you want to be."

Seto nodded. Perhaps he had just needed that peptalk from Mokuba. His little brother had always been an expert in making him feel better. He gave a soft sigh as he thought of the stupid mutt. How was it that he had ended up in such a place? Why did it seem like his friends no longer gave a damn about him. His father had committed suicide according to his information. It was like everyone in Jou's life had decided to just up and leave him. Seto wasn't going to be one of those people. The mutt couldn't get rid of him that easily.

He knew that his frustration level would probably grow with Jounouchi before they made any progress. The idiot had a way of getting on his nerves. Sometimes Seto swore that he did it on purpose. He sighed as he sat on the couch, placing his head in his hands. This was going to be hard... harder than he had thought.

Jou hadn't paid much attention to anyone or anything that had been going on around him. He had simply forgotten. Somehow, the blond had managed to block out his friends, his family, the man that he had fallen in love with. No matter how much he wanted to think differently, in the end, everyone was just going to leave him. He was just a worthless mutt. No one would want to stay for him. Even his counselor, who was supposed to help and support him, had left in the end. Jou was at a point that he could never return from. Perhaps he wasn't meant to return. He was so deep in his own depression that nothing could get through to him. He had been almost certain that he had heard Kaiba's voice earlier, but as he continued to ignore it, it too faded away into nothing. Just like Jou. Soon, Jou would be nothing.

He never stopped staring at his hands. He had never gone to sleep. He just sat there, staring at his hands, no reason to really move, think, or speak. A few people had come by, but like everything else, they disappeared. He was alone. Always alone, always invisible. No one wanted him anymore. No one cared what happened to him. Why couldn't he just kill himself? After all, who was there to care that he existed?

Seto returned to the center the next day, more determined that he had been the day before. Instead of talking to the woman at the front desk, who did nothing except piss him off, he headed straight for Jou's room. The blond hadn't moved an inch. Seto sighed as he though over how to try and get through to the mutt. Then an idea popped into his head. In his deck was Jou's Red Eyes.

-Flashback-

Seto and Mokuba were out shopping for some new school supplies. The brunet was not too happy about being out and about, but he could never bring himself to say no to his brother's pout. So he found himself at the store, waiting impatiently while his brother picked out everything he needed and then some. Seto decided that since it was Mokuba, he would spoil the kid a bit, though he reminded him several times that it wasn't going to happen often. He didn't want his brother to think he could have anything he wanted without working for it.

They had walked to the store due to the gorgeous weather. Seto had hoped that he might get away with a quick ride to the store and back, but Mokuba insisted that the fresh air would do him some good. He had agreed, though irritably. Now the two brothers were on their way home. They passed a pawn shop, and something caught Seto's eye. In the window of the shop was a familiar card, one that he had seen many times when he faced a certain duelist. Jounouchi Katsuya had never won against Kaiba, though a few times he had come close. Seto didn't know what possessed him to do so, but he went into the shop and picked up the card.

Mokuba had noticed, and he had pestered his brother all the way home to tell him what he had bought. For some reason, Seto wanted to keep it to himself, though he wasn't really sure why. He put the card in a pocket, careful not to bend it. Perhaps it would come in handy someday.

That had only been a couple of days ago, and Seto found it strange and coincidental that he had bought Jou's favorite card, and now was suddenly having to pull the blond out of a tight spot. This card seemed like it could be the answer if used properly. Seto sat down next to Jou, not looking at him, but instead at the bed. He placed the card down, and watched out of the corner of his eye as Jou snatched it up and held it to his heart. That was the reaction that Seto had been hoping for. He placed a hand on Jou's shoulder, speaking in a low voice.

"I'm not going to give up on you Mutt. Not like your so-called friends." He was going to be sure that the dog got the attention he needed, even if it exhausted Kaiba. He was determined to get back the mutt he knew, the idiot that never gave up, never backed down, and didn't know when to shut up. He spent the entire day just sitting there with Jou, talking nonsense to him about different things. Seto relieved stress that was pent up from work, told Jou about his own past, and read something to him. When night fell, Jou had moved only a little from his spot. Seto got up and laid him down, pulling the blankets over the smaller male.