Chapter Title: Partying

Chapter Genre: Drama

Chapter Summary: Pretty much what the chapter title says, but with a little more boom boom!(if you get my drift...)

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh

Dedication: None

Reviews: None

Notes: Well I couldn't wait to finish the on-going parts, so here it is! Hope you enjoy...as always...

"Thank you come again" Jou said smiling for the umpteenth time that day, handing the guy his mocha latte. It's not that he didn't like smiling, he had to do it every minute of the day. The blond man sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose and massaged his mouth.

"Hey Rose! We need another thing of coffee in here, thanks" he murmured the last part. The strawberry blond haired girl came bounding into the counter, fixing the filter of Coffee, chuckling.

Jou wrinkled his face in confusion, "what are you laughing at?"

"Your massaging your mouth, the way your mouth turns in different directions was funny, so I was laughing..." Rose looked through her brown lashes at confused yet amusing honey eyes "...you know what never mind..." she said going back into the kitchen

Jou stopped massaging his mouth in time to, fix another round of coffee for the next customer, his back turned to the counter

"May I be of service?" Jou asked

"Yes; black no cream"

Jou smirked, he would know that voice anywhere...

Haphazard black hair flailed in the wind, the owner yawning and stepping out of the private jet

"it's good to be back" green eyes sparkled in merriment

"Sir, this way please"

"Yes; of course" black boots clinked as it strides towards the limo and entered the sleek interior.

"Home, pronto"

"Of course sir"

"Duke! My man, my man, how have you been holding up lately?" Jou asked while hugging the man to his chest

"I just got back from America" Duke said letting go of Jou's embrace

"No word since forever man, what happened man?"

"You know life, business, and work"

Jou nodded, going back to the counter "so how did the business trip go?..."

"Good, I finally have a branch over broad" green eyes sparkled

"That's great! Meet anyone? You look more fruity than before.."

Duke punched Jou on the arm, lightly and they both chuckled

"Naw man, too much work, but there was this one guy..." Duke said thoughtfully, making Jou laugh "Who's he? I want juicy details..."

"Just this guy I met in one of those tight ass promotional parties..." Duke noticed Jou was chuckling "What are you laughing at fruitcake?"

"You should never put ass and cock-tail in one sentence, sounds too wrong..." Jou said trying to muffle his laughter

"You have a sick mind, Jounouchi Katsuya!" Duke said laughing, ruffling Jou's hair lightly

"Yeah well...your a bad influence on me Duke Devlin" Jou said swiping at the side of his nose, smirking

"If I'm such a bad influence maybe I should just go..."Duke said about to get up from his stool

"I'm just kidding..."

Duke looked back and smiled "I know..."

"We'll talk later!"

"Whatever man, just call me later in the evening, jet lag—and just maybe I'll give you those juicy details" Duke laughed walking out the exit doors

Katsuya laughed it off, but quietly meeped when his next customer came in

Kazuya packed the last of his things, sighed then sat on one of his suitcases, he really didn't want to go back home, but he had to. The woman would surely kill him (literally) if he didn't. Kazuya put his hands on his head and shook it back and forth, tears streaming down his face, he didn't want to go back, he just didn't but he had no choice, the only thing he could do now, just to delay time, is rescheduling his flight. Surely, to maintain and check his sanity.

After his flight arrangements over the phone, blond hair splayed over white pillows, Kazuya curled into his self, and eventually slept off.

"Ryou! Marik! Calm down!"

"Are we almost there?" Ryou and Marik were almost bouncing off their flight seats

"Yes, I'm sure, no sooner the pilot will announce were there" Malik explained, and surely it did occur

Bakura just looked annoyed and uncomfortable "what's wrong, Kura?"Ryou asked holding his boyfriend's waist

"I'm tired of this damn plane, that's what!, and you two aren't helping, bouncing off the ceiling and all..."

"Sorry Kura, but I'm so excited! I can't believe were back at Domino City!" Bakura frowned "there we go again..."

Ryou smiled sheepishly and half hugged Bakura, his hands still around his waist

Marik and Malik were just making out even when the plane came to a jerk "Cut it out! We here!" Bakura shouted over the platinum blond heads

They unlocked their lips enough to eye Bakura's furious face, they completely unlocked from the embraces, they didn't want to face Bakura's wrath.

They all called a cab later on, and their first destination was home.

Jounouchi pretended to be extremely busy, when Seto Kaiba came through the glass doors.

"I'll be right with you sir!" Jou said running into the kitchen, breathing heavily

Of course, Kaiba thoroughly read Katsuya's body language: the way he became stiff when he emerged through the doors, the way he pretended to be extremely busy when he was approaching the counter, and finally the way he ran into the kitchen. Kaiba simply smirked, very interesting.

Jou finally gathered the courage to re-enter and settle himself behind the counter, ready to take Kaiba's orders

"I didn't know you worked here mutt..."

Jounouchi tried to ignore the insult, and forced a smile on his face "What would you like..sir?"

This could get...interesting Kaiba thought "Well since your suddenly calling me sir...it is only fair calling you Katsuya right..." kaiba noticed Jou's body freeze "or...Jou..."

A mop of blond hair unknowingly shook it's head

"Well I'm not" Jou's body froze

Kaiba chuckled "your so easy to read..." Kaiba said tipping up Jou's face, looking directly into shame filled eyes

"Why are you doing this?.."

"Because it's fun...why else?" Jou's honey eyes turned into molten lava, that's it Kaiba thought.

Jou pushed Kaiba off his chest, and Kaiba almost smiled now that's the mutt I know

"You know what Kaiba? I'm through playing these games..."

"what games Katsuya...?" Kaiba smirked

"You know the same routine: call me a mutt and we start fighting.."

"I'm tired Kaiba! I don't even know I bother with you anymore, your a prick you know what? your more than a prick, and you deserve everything you get in life!" Jou said striding into the kitchen

Kaiba frowned well it wasn't supposed to turn out like that..when did that mutt grow some balls...

Kaiba was about to leave when he remembered what he came in there for...his coffee. He dinged the little bell and Jou came out of the kitchen

"I would like my black coffee, mutt" Jou gave it to him, and unexpectedly Kaiba sat in on of the booths at the back

Jounouchi groaned "great just my luck, Mr. Prick is here to torture me" he murmured under his breath "and your totally right mutt" Kaiba said taking a sip out of scalding hot coffee, while looking at Jou's reaction over the Styrofoam rim.

After they finished unpacking, the four couples headed to the Kame Game Shop, a place where Marik and Ryou were willingly happy to go , but for Malik and Bakura, let's just say it's not the same.

-----

Yugi heard the little doorbell ring, he dropped the magazine he was reading to open the door, what he saw, shocked him, there was: Bakura, Ryou, Malik and Marik standing at the other end.

"May we come in?" Ryou asked, Bakura just pushed past little Yugi and entered the small shop

Yugi gathered his wits about him "Hey guys, I didn't know you where gonna be back today..."

"Yeah okay, now you know" replied Malik "this place didn't even change, same old dingy place, where's the rest of the gang?"

"There in the living room..." they all clambered into the living room, and they only saw Tea and Tristan watching some horror movie

Tristan was the first to recognize the four standing in the doorway "hey guys!" he hugged Ryou and Marik, but wasn't too sure about Bakura and Malik, he might have suddenly find himself in the shadow realm, so he was not to take any chances

"Where's Blondie?--" Marik cut off Bakura's question "and more importantly where's the pharaoh?"

Yugi called out Yami, and he didn't look none too pleased with their presence and they instantly recognized it

"What? you don't want us here?" Malik barked

"No; surprised is all.." Yami muttered

Ryou and Marik just immersed themselves into the horror movie Tea and Tristan were previously watching, even as to taking over the couch and popcorn bowl, without even realizing it.

"So where's Jou?" Marik asked joining in the conversation

"I don't know...I don't keep tabs of him..." Yami said, his face defiant. Ryou was floored I thought they were best friends, or he just doesn't know where he is...

Ryou shrugged, and resumed the movie. "I thought you were guys were joined at the hip, what happened?" Bakura asked, his brown eyes filled with amusement

"I don't know..." Yami asked. Malik and Bakura smirked "I feel like your not telling us the whole story...now pharaoh tell us...what really happened?" Malik sneered

"I told you, I don't know! Now if you don't mind...can you please excuse yourselves out the door..." Yami sneered. A smirk just plastered itself on Malik and Bakura's face, while everybody else just looked dumbfounded

Tristan and Tea, where behind the counter, looking after the shop, until Yugi came out

"Bye...guys.." they both said, but before a word came out of their mouth, the small group exited the small shop. Tristan and Tea just looked at each other, and shrugged.

So far nothing happened, customer's came in and went on their way, without a peep from moneybags in the corner. Jou sighed, and rubbed at his bridge of his nose, and cast a sideways glance at Kaiba. He noticed, he was working, on his laptop, and sipping at Coffee probably just playing Solitaire or something...Jou thought, chuckling at the thought.

Kaiba heard the distant chuckle, and saw the mutt smiling at something, his curiosity was instantly peeked. "What are you laughing at mutt?" "Nothing Kaiba" Jou responded cleaning at the table top

"Why are you so mean Kaiba?" the question cut Kaiba off guard. So it took a while, for him to gather his thoughts "Mutt, now what concern would that be of yours?"

"I was just asking...because your usually mean to me, and only me, not even annoying Yugi, your supposed to be bad-mouthing him, more than me" Jou responded. And yet again Kaiba was cut off guard the mutt speaking ill off his so called best friend, today is full of firsts...

For once Kaiba didn't really have an answer, to that statement, Jou sighed, and went on break. Kaiba returned to his precious laptop, thinking of what the mutt asked. He dumped his work, and played a warm-up game of solitaire.

Jounouchi waited outside for Mai, to pick him up. He really didn't know what got into his head, asking Kaiba that question, sometimes he was stupid. Jou looked at his watch, again and sighed. He crushed the cigarette, beneath his feet and entered the shop again, and sat at a booth, drinking coffee.

Kaiba looked at Jounouchi over the top of his laptop. He noticed, he was unusually stressed and fidgety, tapping his feet against the cold floor. "stop that inane tapping mutt"

Jou muttered an apology, and indeed stopped, but picked up another habit Kaiba equally hated, smoking. Kaiba growled. Jou didn't even notice he had an audience, a very annoyed one at that.

Kaiba growled, louder this time. Jou looked at Kaiba "what?" "Crush that thing, I hate it when people smoke in front of me"

"Whatever, Mr. High and mighty" but Jou did as he was told "so why did you decide to stay here instead of the office?"Jou asked looking directly into Kaiba's cerulean eyes. "Even though its none of your business, it was getting too stuffy, and I wanted to get out a little bit"

Jou smiled. "I didn't know you would consider that place stuffy, not in a million years"

"Yeah well, things change mutt" Kaiba smirked, Jou frowned "You calling me that name will not be one of them, will it?" "Not in a million years" Jou chuckled.

"But one thing changed between us, our conversation, if we ever had one.." Kaiba said, almost smiling. "It's nice" said Jou, looking out the window. Silence lasped between both, Jou was about to smoke another cigar, but Kaiba growled "I tried to stop, but that only brought depression and sickness"

"Really now?...is that why you didn't come to school today?" Kaiba said raising an elegant brow

"Maybe but not exactly, I just didn't feel up to it" Jou said, fiddling with his MP3 player.

"Oh this is for you" Kaiba brought out a yellow folder and handed it to Jou. The blond boy took it, raising a brow in curiosity and peered inside "Homework?"

"Well yeah, what did you think it was?"

"Something that isn't homework"

Kaiba chuckled "Too bad"

Jou grinned at himself, proud that he got a chuckle out of tight ass Moneybags. Just maybe, he hanging around here, wasn't torturous after all.

Mai packed a duffel bag full of her clothes, and put it inside her car. Speeding to the nearest star bucks, which was 20 blocks away, Jou would surely kill her for being late.

When she reached her destination, the picture she saw, was shocking, Kaiba and Jou smiling and talking. And for once in her visit, she saw Jou actually smiling and laughing, even if it was with the enemy, she felt happy for him.

Perfectly manicured nails pushed open the doors, and strode over to where Jou was residing "Hey Hon ready?" Jou looked up at Mai "Yeah, but your like 20 mins late, we can only order Chinese now..."

Kaiba just sighed and went back to work, when Mai came in. He knew the moment wouldn't last "Kaiba do you want some?" Jou asked. Kaiba didn't even notice someone was asking him a question "want what?"

"Chinese..." Kaiba shuddered "just don't order a bad one, but sure, pork chicken fried rice with chicken lo Mien and a side of coke, please"

Jou and Mai just looked wide eyed "You sure do know what you want..." Kaiba smiled behind his laptop, while Jou and Mai were on their way.

Kazuya woke up around 6pm at night, and decided to visit Jou. He went casual with a pair of Khaki pants, a white shirt and black Birkenstock clogs, with a black hoodie.

No one was home, but Mai's car was parked outside strange...he thought. He checked at the back but no one was there.

When he heard a murmur of voices in front of the apartment residence, he went to check it out and saw a black limo, and Jou was coming out of it with a huge bag of groceries, and Mai as well, with a bag full of several alcohols. I told Kaiba not to come near Jou again, he'll pay but that thought, was turned upside down when a small boy, about 12 years old, came out of the limo, then instructing the driver to return at Jou's house, around 9:00 pm what is Jou planning now?

Kazuya acted as if he just arrived there, and entered through the front doors "Hey guys..." Kazuya chimed. Jou looked surprised "Hey I thought, you were going back today..."

"well I wanted to say bye one last time..." Jou looked confused "your coming back right..."

"Yeah, but never mind"

Jou thought nothing of it, and shrugged. Mokuba came into the small kitchen, and saw a copy of Jou and almost fainted "Jou? Who's this?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you, Mokuba this is Kazuya, my twin bro" Jou grinned.

Mokuba eyes sparkled "Oh cool! I wish I had a twin brother!" Jou laughed "thats the exact same thing Mai said, besides if you had a twin brother, it'll be double trouble...at least for Kaiba" Mokuba grinned "Yup!"

"What are you doing Jou? What's with the food?"

"Oh well, it's for a party, for four of my friends I haven't seen in over 3 years now, they went to Egypt, for some archaeologist thing" Kazuya looked intrigued "Ooh I can't wait to meet them now" Jou chuckled "trust me, you'll be freaked out, when their here..."

Mokuba came out of the living room again "Jou when are they gonna be here?"

"Maybe around 7:45 why?"

"Well..."

"Did you tell your brother, that you were gonna be here?" Mokuba's eyes looked huge "Well...what had happened was..."

"Mokuba...your brother would kill me if you were here...but then again, you need to get out more, I'll keep this secret if you will..." Jou said putting his index finger on his lip. Mokuba giggled "sure"

Jou went back to cooking his fried rice, thinking about how this whole thing occurred

.:Flashback:.

After the surprisingly good Chinese food, and cool coke Kaiba burped,when Jou raised an eyebrow, he blushed a furious red "sorry"

"Yeah you should be..."

"Don't even talk Katsuya, you burp more than twice a day" Mai said, and they all chuckled.

"Mutt, another coffee to go, with a little sugar and cream" Kaiba said, packing up his stuff. Jou bristled at the name, but did as he was told all the same.

"So Kaiba how did you end up here?" Mai asked

Kaiba stopped in mid packing "ask the mutt, I'm tired of talking"

Mai pouted "I wish you would stop calling him that...but sure" she relaxed back in her chair, until Jou came with his coffee.

Kaiba stood up and dropped something on Jou's lap, and left. Jou blinked repeatedly, before opening the envelope, and it was a letter?...of apology? Strange... Jou read it out loud, and it was apologizing, about what he said about 3 or four days ago? But why? Jou shrugged, he couldn't find an answer, so he tucked it at the back of his mind.

Jou's shift was about to end, when four people came into the shop. Jou didn't think too much, about them, besides his shift was about to end, home...home sweet home Jou thought.

When they clambered to get their orders, Jou noticed it was the Yamis and their lights, he rushed to them, and hugged each of them, he even jumped on Malik and Bakura.

"I missed you guys so much!" he said happily okay something is definitely, wrong with the gang...thought Ryou

Jou climbed down from Malik, before he got sent to the shadow realm "Okay...I came into my favorite coffee shop to get coffee, and I get jumped...what is Domino city coming to?"

"Sorry guys, I really did miss you guys, even though a lot happened in the past...you guys want anything?"

"Yeah...coffee?" Bakura said rolling his eyes

"I can see you guys didn't even change at all..." Marik and Ryou laughed, while Malik and Bakura just scowled

"A black Coffee with cream and a lot of sugar, one espresso, one vanilla French roast coffee, and another black with nothing"

"Coming right up!"

When Jou handed them their coffee, they sat in one of the booths. "So guys...when did you come back?"

"Like 2 hours ago..." Ryou said "but first we went to the game shop, and you weren't there...what happened, Yami practically through us out"

"Oh that prick? It's a long story, but if you come by later, I'm sure to tell ya the whole story...right now, I'm done with my shift and I gotta go" Jou said cleaning the counter, he handed them a small sheet of paper, with his address and phone number, Marik took it and pocketed it.

"Okay...later Jou!"

"Bye!"

Rose came out to clean up the tables and booths. "goodnight Jou"

"Nite rose, see ya tomorrow"

"Yeah..."

Jou strides out the store, with the envelope and homework in his backpack.

Later on, he called Duke and asked him to come over, so they could talk and catch up. He agreed, Mai and Mokuba suddenly barged into his apartment, and hauled him of the couch, in the middle of his work

"I have the most brilliant idea!" Mokuba said. Jou just looked confused "what is it?"

"Since Duke, the Yami's and Lights are back, so I have told...how about we throw them a surprise dinner/ party, it'll be great!" Jou looked uncertain, but agreed "since I already invited them to my place unknowingly...sure why not? But how did you know?..."

"I know everything..." Mokuba laughed. Jou just looked a little scared

"How about we go grocery shopping? Instead of ordering bad Chinese..." Mai suggested "sure"

So here was Jou, working his butt off, trying to cook three things at the same time: fried rice, fried chicken and sauté corn. After half an hour, Duke arrived. At least Jou finished with the main courses, and table was set, and the fruit kebabs were done, now he would make a dessert, the fastest thing he could do know, was baking chocolate chip cookies(...big ones...), besides he already got the cookie dough, he just have to put them in the oven.

After 20 minutes of that, Jou put everything on the table, and removed his apron, wiped the sweat on his forehead, he went to take a shower, before the rest of his guests arrived, he looked at the clock, and it was 7:40 pm.

Jou took a five minute shower, he adorned, dark blue jeans, a white shirt, his dark brown Birkenstock clogs, he peeked his head into the kitchen and heard a loud murmur of voices they all must be hear...

Jou dried of his hair, and hung his towel in the bathroom, the entered the living room and awaiting guests in tow.

He saw all them getting acquainted with themselves, especially with Kazuya. But the Yami's just looked distant. When they saw Jou at the door connecting to the dining room, they stopped introducing themselves, enough to listen to what Jou was saying "Guy's if you can step in here, please the food is this way"

After they got themselves settled in the dining chair, some ate in the living room, since the dining table wasn't big enough.

They talked, chatted and smiled, "Dang! Jou this food is really good!" Duke complimented

"Thank Kazuya, he taught me everything I know" Kazuya just smiled. Bakura just glared at him, Malik noticed and looked at the back of Bakura's head until he turned

"What's wrong?"

"I don't like him, somethings off with his aura"

"We'll talk about this later, Jou's looking at us weird"

Before any of them knew it, the night was dieing out and the morning sunshine peeked out of the clouds. The door bell rang, Jou was still sober enough to go open the door, and was throughly surprised to see who it was.

"Where's Mokuba?"

Mokuba went into the kitchen to take something, and instantly heard his brother's voice, and instantly panicked. He peered slowly at the clock, expecting it to be hours back, but instead read 12:00am shit! he thought

Kaiba didn't bother with the mutt, he pushed past Jou and entered, the living room, taking in what he saw: Kazuya passed out—thank god he thought, Malik and Marik were making out—ugh, Kaiba didn't dare voice his repulsion, Bakura and Ryou were playing with a bottle of Vodka, Mai was watching a soap opera, with a box of tissues next to her and Duke was drinking Vodka with lime wedges, but where's Mokuba?

Blue eyes thoroughly scanned the small living room space, but no Mokuba.

"Mokuba I know your here...come out, this instant! I don't have time for this!"

Mokuba whimpered some more and tried to hide behind Jou, before his brother noticed, but it was too late, Kaiba was just too sharp and instantly spotted him.

"Mokuba! You know to always go to bed by 9:00 pm sharp! And no later than that!" Kaiba instantly screeched. Jou tried to shush him, before his landlord barged in there asking what was going on

"I'm sorry Seto!"

It seemed that even made Kaiba even more angry. "Sorry won't cut it mokuba, this tests my trust in you, and right now it seems your failing, now go back into that limo and before I come home, your already in bed! And god help me if you hadn't finished your homework, before coming by to this...party, you'll be a dead boy!"

Kaiba huffed and tried to control his breathing, he hadn't screamed at Mokuba like that for a long time, and he instantly felt guilty, when he saw the pained expression on his brother's face but he had to learn his lesson he thought, trying to shake out his guilty feelings.

Kaiba had an audience by the time he was done ranting, he almost snapped at them, but the glares he got, made him back down.

"Kaiba that wasn't necessary, I was taking care of him, that should tell you enough that I'll take care of him"

"I'm sorry Jounouchi, I don't trust anybody, especially a mutt like yourself" Kaiba said strutting out the apartment

Jou just stood dumbfounded, I can't believe he just said that he thought, putting his head down and I thought we were getting along this afternoon

Kaiba I will always hate you for making my very soul ache, for you he added as an after thought.

He was the only one, in the kitchen, eating a tub of banana split ice cream, the others retreated to their previous activities

Jou finally settled in his room in the wee hours of the morning, after drowning himself in a tub of ice cream, his other guests either passed out or went home, surprisingly.

I really hate you Kaiba for always making me yearn for you, I hate this feeling, why do you keep putting me at arms length? But then again, who am I to ask for Seto Kaiba's attention, he said it himself, I'm a mutt. I think I need to write in my diary again...Jou thought, before finally drifting into sleep.

TBC