16: I build, destroy, and build again

Kaibas didn't apologize.

Saying sorry implied you'd done, said, or were just plain wrong in general. It was admitting weakness. Kaibas didn't need apologies, because they were somehow supposed to bend any moral and universal truths through cunning use of wit and judicious bribery. Gozaburo often said that every man had their price.

Did Jounouchi have a price? If he did, Kaiba suspected it wasn't in any known currency.

Their match had ended minutes ago with the Renato brothers marching off the stage in a huff. As Jounouchi and he took their leave, walking away side-by-side this time, Kujaku emerged to fight the second and final match of the day. She threw Jounouchi a smile and clapped a firm hand over Kaiba's shoulder as she passed them. Now he and Jounouchi stood by the sideline as an expansive space battlefield materialized over the console.

But Kaiba was more concerned with keeping one eye on Jounouchi than watching the battle between Kujaku and Ireland's Patrick Mannequin. Jounouchi sagged heavily against the wall like he no longer had the energy to stand on his own. At the very least, he needed a nap.

A hushed murmur spread through the audience, momentarily drawing Kaiba's attention back to the battle. Kujaku met Mannequin's attack for attack. She and Jounouchi shared one quality in abundance: passion for the sport. How wrong Kaiba had been when he predicted she would never advance past the qualifiers.

He frowned to himself. Lately, he had cornered the market on being wrong, hence why he was even contemplating apologizing in the first place. Maybe he should get Jounouchi a card. Did they make greeting cards that said—

A weight sagged against Kaiba's shoulder, startling him. He looked down. Yes, that was definitely Jounouchi collapsing from exhaustion. Only Kaiba's quick reflexes saved the builder and the Legilis case from an intimate encounter with the floor. He grunted, bracing the extra weight with the help of the wall to his back. Jounouchi was heavier than he expected, but then again, given how he ate like his stomach was a black hole...

With both hands full now, Kaiba huffed in frustration and tried to blow a stray bang now falling over his eye. It stayed plastered between his face and the sunglasses. He glared down at the unresponsive burden in his arms and said with less disdain than usual, "You're an idiot for pushing yourself. But we wouldn't have won that last match without you."

Jounouchi slept on, dead to the world.

The crowd cheered, drawing Kaiba's attention back to the raised stage. A computer prompt and an announcer proclaimed Kujaku and her Jagd Doga as victorious.

Carefully, he lifted Jounouchi in a fireman's hold and started walking. In a matter of moments, the halls would be filled with spectators emptying out of the arena. Before that, he needed to take Jounouchi somewhere quiet so he could get some much needed rest.

-x-x-x-

Jounouchi snored.

Thankfully, it was nowhere near as loud as the first night they slept in the same room. It was almost a pleasant white noise in the background as Kaiba worked on the Legilis. The screen on the wall ran through commentaries and replays of the previous matches since the start of the finals. Kaiba looked up long enough to consider the partial bracket posted on the screen. Tomorrow's battles would decide who would move onto the semifinals along with him and Kujaku. Aila Jyrkiäinen remained undefeated thus far, and she was bound to be one of them. Between Nils Nielsen and the Reiji-Iori team though, Kaiba figured there was a fifty-fifty chance of either side advancing.

"Kaiba?" A quiet and dazed voice called from the sofa. "How'd I get here?"

"You literally fell asleep standing up. I carried you here."

Jounouchi groaned pathetically.

"Don't worry, no one saw us," Kaiba added as an afterthought.

Fabric rustled as Jounouchi shifted and sat up. Kaiba kept his eyes fixed on the table's surface, even though his hands had stilled the moment that Jounouchi woke up. An unspoken pressure pressed in around them, and Kaiba's composure almost cracked when he heard Jounouchi stand.

"Whatcha doing?" Jounouchi asked as he crept up behind him.

Kaiba forced his hands to move again, testing the joint's range of movement. "I figured I'd start on the repairs. The Renatos did a number on the Legilis."

Jounouchi pulled up a seat next to him. "Yeah, well, you paid them back in full and then some. Honestly, the damage's not that bad. It'll be good as new in no time." He tried to smile while reaching for the pin vice, but the motion was lethargic and his smile trembled.

Kaiba dropped the piece and slammed both hands on the tabletop. "Enough—"

Jounouchi froze, eyes widening in shock.

"—Stop pushing yourself."

"I'm not..." The protest trailed off when Kaiba pinned a glare on Jounouchi.

Kaiba tore off his sunglasses and threw them down on the table. He had forgotten he was still wearing them until he became all too aware of the tension centered around his temples. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he squeezed his eyes shut and struggled to calm his breathing. Bright spots danced behind his eyelids. He counted backwards from twenty, and eventually the strain ebbed.

When he opened his eyes again, Jounouchi was watching him with shadowed eyes and a full-face frown. He leaned forward in his seat, but not too closely, to examine Kaiba's bruise. The concealer Kaiba put on earlier must finally be wearing off.

"I shouldn't have hit you," Jounouchi grumbled darkly.

"I deserved it."

"No matter how big of an ass you were being, I shouldn't have done that. I swore I wouldn't—" Jounouchi cut himself off with a curse and pushed his chair away. He jumped to his feet and started pacing back and forth, but he took special care to maintain his distance from Kaiba. His fatigue continued to shine through in every dragging step and every sluggish swing of his arms.

"No need to be melodramatic about it. This is hardly the worst injury I've received," he scoffed. Kaiba had experienced his fair share of bruises, scrapes, and sprains over the years, courtesy of Gozaburo's tough love approach to teaching kendo and judo. Noa never went easy on him during their sparring either. Mokuba was the only Kaiba brother spared the brutal treatment.

"No, you don't fucking get it. I could have really hurt you!" Jounouchi suddenly pulled at his shaggy hair. It was unclear if the pain on his face was self-inflicted or the result of something else.

Discovering this new side of Jounouchi was alarming. The self-loathing was the worst part, because Jounouchi should have no reason to hate himself like that. Not when Kaiba had knowingly escalated the situation to goad a reaction out of him. Kaiba stood and walked toward him, who flinched and shrunk back. For every step that Kaiba took forward, Jounouchi took two back until he collided with the sofa.

"Sit down before you faint again," Kaiba ordered as he planted both hands on Jounouchi's shoulders and thrust him into the cushions. Jounouchi crumbled like a castle wall under catapult fire. "I'm fine. Stop overreacting. It's not as if you broke my jaw."

Jounouchi turned his troubled gaze away. He hugged himself, his blunt fingernails digging into the sleeves of his work uniform. "But I could have and it wouldn't be the first time. I've hurt people before."

Kaiba debated with himself before taking a seat on the sofa. He was careful to leave one whole cushion between them. "Was it due to your past involvement in the underground battle scene?"

Jounouchi tensed again and leaned away. "You know then."

"Kujaku hinted at it." Kaiba figured that he shouldn't mention the minor hacking he did to gain access to that information.

Jounouchi loosened his arms and resettled his hands into his lap. He wrung his fingers nervously before replying, "When I was younger, I ran with a rough crowd. I have a juvenile record."

"How rough?" Kaiba asked neutrally. He already had his suspicions though.

"I ran with one of the local gangs, okay?" Jounouchi huffed. "My old man used to bet on Gunpla battles. It was one of the reasons my mom left him. He lost like nobody's business, so he always owed money to somebody. Working for the people who owned his debt kept us afloat for a while."

Kaiba could already guess the outcome. Gambling addiction and gang activities rarely went hand-in-hand with happy endings. "Until it didn't anymore."

"I did things I'm not proud of, but at least it felt like I had a reason for it. Then my mom found out about what I was doing after my first arrest. She cut me off and kept me from seeing Shizuka because she thought I'd be a bad influence. She was probably right, but I was so angry and Dad kept going back and losing more and more money. Everything kinda spiraled out of control from there."

By this point, Jounouchi had a faraway look in his eyes. Then he blinked it away, looking around the workshop as if he couldn't believe he was really there. He sucked in a loud breath of air and spun to face Kaiba. Jounouchi's defiance returned in full force. "So I get why you acted the way you did yesterday. When shit keeps piling up on top of more shit like that, you lose your mind and lash out at whatever's close by. It doesn't make it okay, but I get it and I forgive you. I'm sorry I hit you, Kaiba."

The tightness inside Kaiba's chest unfurled. He licked his dry lips. His stubborn pride be damned, but it needed to be said now. "No, I owe you an apology. I was combative and hostile. You're not my enemy, Jounouchi. I should have never treated you like one."

"Guess we're both sorry about being an ass."

Jounouchi cracked a small but encouraging smile, and Kaiba felt himself respond in kind. It still hurt, but the pain dulled and the wound was scabbing over. Dare Kaiba say it, but he had hope that what they had could be mended.

"Will you tell me the rest of the story?" he asked. Jounouchi must have distanced himself from the gang at some point. Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to enter the Gunpla Academy or work for a prestigious company like PPSE.

Without hesitation, Jounouchi nodded and scooted closer to tell the rest of his tale.

-x-x-x-

"You broke into Allan Adams' home to steal his Gunplas?" Kaiba stared at Jounouchi in disbelief. His builder may not be the brightest person, but even this was a stretch for him.

The mood between them lightened over the course of Jounouchi's story. The content wasn't always happy or family-friendly, but Jounouchi was able to utilize hindsight to examine his past misdeeds. He was open and didn't make excuses for what he had done.

Jounouchi leaned back, his shoulder brushing firmly against Kaiba's. "What? Gunplas made by famous builders sell for tons on the black market, any underground fighter would have killed for one. They saw it as a golden ticket to victory. It wasn't like I could break into PPSE, you've seen our security, so I figured I'd try the next best thing. That was also the year that he and Yuuki-san won their first world championship. If I managed to get even one, it would have been enough to square away my old man's debt for a whole year."

At least until he went out and lost more money. But Kaiba chose to keep quiet and not point that out. Jounouchi must already be aware of that. Shaking his head, he nudged the story back onto its track. "I'm gathering from your tone that you failed."

"All the lights were off, so I was sure no one was home," Jounouchi protested.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Figures you'd be a shit thief. You can't even case your target properly. Adams caught you red-handed, didn't he?."

"Worse," Jounouchi winced. "Yuuki-san was actually with him, and I kinda walked in on them."

Kaiba wasn't sure he heard right. It almost sounded like Jounouchi was implying... "Excuse me?"

This time, Jounouchi went pink and gritted his teeth. "You heard me, Kaiba. I walked in on them doing it on the living room floor."

"You're telling me you didn't hear them?" It was probably not the detail he should be fixating on, but his brain was working hard to steer clear of the image of Adams and Yuuki mid-coitus.

"No! Shit! Did you really think I would have picked the lock if I knew what was on the other side?!" Jounouchi exclaimed indignantly.

Kaiba yelled back. "You were stupid enough to try and rob PPSE's chief engineer!"

Jounouchi buried his head in his hands and groaned. "Which makes me a thief, not some fucking pervert! Look, nobody was happy about what happened. But long story short, they didn't report me to the police for some reason. They sat me down and talked to me— after they got dressed! It was, ya know, a turning point for me. The Chief took me under his wings after that, helped me clean up and get my act together."

"You're insane," Kaiba said deadpan. "All three of you are certifiably insane."

Three little insane peas in a pod— Kaiba wondered if it was contagious. Then after seeing Jounouchi's content expression, he decided that it might not be a bad thing.

The corner of Jounouchi's eyes crinkled with good humor. "No arguments there. But I'm eternally grateful to them. I wouldn't be here today if they hadn't helped me. Only God knows why they did it, but they did help me leave that life behind."

So Adams was (still?) in a relationship with Yuuki, which explained why he was a part of the charade. As for Jounouchi, his loyalties were hard-won. A tiny voice in Kaiba's head dared to point out he should also be grateful for the two older men's interference. He shut it away for another day.

"This is why you were helping them?" Kaiba asked.

"The Chief asked me to. How could I not?"

No, Jounouchi would never turn his back on someone in need.

An electric shock raced through his system when Jounouchi suddenly took his hand. "We're all on the same side, Kaiba, so please don't forget that. I'm not going to Gozaburo hurt you or Mokuba. We'll find a way to deal with them," he said fervently.

Kaiba wanted nothing more than to lean in, press his lips to Jounouchi's, and bask in his warmth. For now, he fought the urge because he— they were still fragile. Instead, he squeezed the hand cradling his fingers lightly and disentangled himself, while asking about dinner. Jounouchi's stomach growled as if on cue.

The sentimentality would probably only get worse from here on out. It was inevitable, because there was a world of difference between wanting Jounouchi and needing him.