A/N; This was a difficult chapter to keep interesting, but I think you'll enjoy it. Jou is conflicted, and of course theres the whole hostage thing going on,...which is always fun right? Anyways, on with the chapter.

Chapter 11.

"…going on the twelve hour mark, prominent businessman Kaiba Seto and his younger brother, Kaiba Mokuba, have been held hostage in…"

Jou was passing into the waiting room when he looked up to the television. He glanced over at his coworker behind the desk. "Turn that up, would ya?" he asked. The woman looked up at him and then down again. Jou looked back up to the television screen where a reporter was standing in from of the KaibaCorp. Headquarters.

"Little is known about the situation, but it is believed that a worker of Kaiba-san's has been the one to take them captive. The police have surrounded the area, but have not yet been able to get close to the office building in which the two are being held…"

"Twelve hours?" Jou mouthed. He looked back at his coworker behind him. She was less interested than he was, so said the way her head hung toward her work. No one was as interested as Jou was; no one felt like they had as much stake.

The day had been near agony for him because of the words that were being passed around. He could feel everyone's eyes on him. All because of some pointless quibble in a tabloid. But it was Kaiba Seto. Everyone had to know about it—the fling, they were calling it. There were no pictures of them together. The only images were each of them separate, a bad photoshopped job of them together, though it was obvious that they weren't.

His coworkers gave him grief over the relationship, but they knew how sick he had felt about the whole scenario. He practically tore their heads off in the break room when they tried to dog him on it. Needless to say, everyone was walking on eggshells around him.

It was barely nine in the morning. Jou could only imagine what was going on in the the office.

Despite the bad blood that was between them, he couldn't help but be worried about all of this. He was thinking on two tiers. The first was the most obvious (at least for him) was Kaiba alright up there? His condition was moderate at worst, but there were still all of things that were taxing on the body at the same time. The second tier seemed to be the more sensitive. He hated to feel it, but he knew that he had given part of himself to Kaiba, and a lot of it was like a gaping wound that, without something to draw his attention away, consumed it.

There was part of him that wanted to go downtown and watch. He knew that there was nothing that he would be able to do for Kaiba, but all the same, it meant something if he was able to be there. He didn't know if Kaiba would really appreciate it; not after how Jou had treated him in this whole mess. All the same, there had to be someone there for Kaiba, because the only person to comfort him was the one that was inside the office with him, and he had a feeling that Kaiba was left to consoling his little brother and then leaving his emotions to hang out and dry.

Jou lowered his head. What had made him so angry? What did Kaiba really take from him? Time?

He wasn't sure anymore. Maybe it was inconvenient, maybe it was like a rollercoaster. He kept trying to convince himself over and over that Kaiba had no heart and didn't care for him, but why would he let him in so close, let him be so intimate?

Jou felt like he was being pulled in two directions, unable to decide. He bit his lip and found that his thoughts were interrupted by one of his coworkers talking to him. He delved into that. At least he wouldn't think about it for a few moments.

The floor to ceiling windows had small partitions of metal between them, framing them in place. Kaiba leaned against one of these, a crutch under his arm, his good leg shaking from where he had been standing for so long. His knee ached; his back hurt the slightest bit. He didn't let his expression change all that much. His eyes were on Mokuba who sat in the center of the room with his arms draped over his knees. The gun was constantly pointed at him, though Tatsukiyo was keeping at a distance, occasionally trying to be menacing by pointing it at Kaiba as well.

The elder brother clenched his jaw and looked across the room to where Imaki Naoko, his secretary, was. She was also unwittingly pulled into this mess. Tatsukiyo forced her into the office and then pushed her against the door, tying her wrists (with his own tie) together and binding her to the handle of the door. Kaiba was sure that Tatsukiyo thought that the frightened and frail (maybe 100 pounds, probably less) secretary was some kind of blockade against the police.

Naoko's mascara had run down her cheeks in globs which were now half dried up. She hung her head most of the time, muttering something to herself, something like a prayer.

None of them had really spoken other than Tatsukiyo. He had been having his fun by mocking them all. Kaiba could tell something in this man had snapped. He was speaking too quickly, and he was sweating profusely. There was some kind of rush between anxiety and fear that was pushing him to do this.

Mokuba shuddered in his place and unwound himself. He looked to Tatsukiyo and said: "I have to go to the bathroom…"

"You're wearing pants aren't you?" The gun was once again poised and ready.

"I don't have to only pee," he said. His voice had resiliency in it.

Tatsukiyo was quiet. He went around Kaiba's desk and sat down in the chair. He had done this several times; mostly to keep himself comfortable, swiveling around and looking at his three captives as if they were prizes. This time he seemed to have a purpose. He began opening the drawers to Kaiba's desk, pulling out the contents and reading through them, dumping most of them on the floor. The front drawer, a shallower centered drawer, was pulled completely out of the desk. "I've always wanted to do this…"he muttered to himself.

Kaiba wasn't watching. He looked over this shoulder to the media storm that had gathered outside the cooperate building. All of the employees were evacuated from the vicinity, but he was sure that most of them were standing outside and watching, awestruck, behind the police barriers. He smirked. He could see them, but they couldn't see him. Not through reflective windows.

"Do you know how long it takes for the kidneys to become damaged when you hold in urine?" he asked, finding himself thinking about Jou. Tatsukiyo dumped all of the contents of the drawer out on top of the desk and was sifting through them like a child would sift his fingers through sand.

"Longer than how long you've been here," he said. He plucked at the paperclips that were falling out of the box.

"You should have thought before you did this. If you want to take your boss hostage, try and think things through."

"I thought everything through. All I need is a gun and a bullet. As long as I can hit my target, everything is right on mark."

"You didn't account for Mokuba or Imaki-san. Or for the fact that you have barricaded us in a room with no amenities like a bathroom, food, or water."

"Why don't you just be quiet! I'm the one making the orders." He pointed the gun at Kaiba. Twelve hours had made the man go a little bit crazy, he was certain.

"I'm stating the facts. It would have been reasonable if you had brought food for yourself and made us suffer…but you didn't even account for that. I wonder why you were hired in the first place. You can't even get a simple hostage situation right…"

Tatsukiyo angled his arm downward and pulled the trigger. Kaiba couldn't help but flinch. When he looked down, there was a smoldering hole in the carpet just a few inches from him exposed toes. "You shouldn't even be here right now." He said between his teeth.

"I shouldn't? Enlighten me as to why." Finally, Kaiba gave his attention to Tatsukiyo, but it wasn't full. He was wavering a little bit, at least in his own mind. Even if he was a little tired from standing, he could feel his hands shaking as he held tight to the handle of the crutch, his other hand obscured in his pocket. Mokuba didn't need to see him looking frightened. But it wasn't fear, he knew.

The pain was intensifying. His leg throbbed, and the incision around his hip was becoming extremely sore. Twelve hours was nothing, he knew, because a human could survive up to three days without water. For him, the lack of something to dull the pain was, though he hated to think of it because it made him sound like a junkie, causing a small bit of detox. It wasn't horrible because he had only been taking the medication for so long, but sweat was still forming on his brow.

Tatsukiyo had turned away and leaned down under the desk, pulling up Kaiba's briefcase and flipping up the latches as he placed in on the desk. Inside it looked like nothing all the interesting. It was the same as the drawers. A few supplies and a lot of paper; except the papers were fiscal reports. Tatsukiyo began flipping through them with interest, noticing where the changes in numbers had been circled so they would be made obvious.

"You just found out all of this while you were off?" Tatsukiyo asked.

"Answer my questions and maybe I'll answer yours," Kaiba said. Once again the gun was poised at him.

"You're not in the position to be making negotiations. Answer the question and maybe I'll answer yours." Kaiba cocked a brow at the man before turning his head towards the scene that was below them. He pressed his lips together tightly. Tatsukiyo stood and got up in his face, the gun positioned under his chin, the hammer pulled back.

"Seto!" Mokuba gasped.

"You really think you scare me, don't you?" Kaiba smirked. "Shoot me and you won't have anyone to answer your questions; but you know that, don't you? You know Mokuba doesn't know anything, so shooting me wouldn't be in your favor."

"Did you find out about the money while you were off?" Tatsukiyo asked again, ignoring Kaiba's commentary. The CEO took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Yes, I found out about the money then. But you seem to think that you're clever that I haven't noticed it until now. But why would I notice it? We do fiscal reports quarterly, so that gave you three months of time to steal money, especially when there was a sudden influx so the numbers would be constantly changing. It sounds clever, but either way you would have been found out."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a prick?"

"I was saving you the hassle of a pointless explanation that may have only enlightened Imaki," Kaiba said. "Now tell me why I shouldn't be here. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that it has to do with the money as well, since I can't see any other logical explanation."

Tatsukiyo lowered the gun and returned to the desk, going through the contents of the briefcase again. He was checking in all the little pockets that were inside of it, and when he reached the bottom he clutched his hand around something and got a maniacal grin. "Well, well, well, what have we here?"

Kaiba clenched his jaw. Set on his desk was a small pill bottle. "Hydrocodone, eh? Strong stuff. No wonder you look like you're ready to pass out. You must be needing one of these by now."

Kaiba looked to the floor for a second before, again, turning to look out the window. Tatsukiyo shook the bottle, the sound much like that of beans in a rattle. "Do you know exactly how much money was taken? Do you know how long I was taking it?"

"For those three months. As soon as the fiscal reports came out last quarter. It was the same time that I changed the budget for the R and D. No, I don't know the precise amount, but collectively I'm going to say close to 8 million yen."

Kaiba sighed. "You won't get a cent of it. All 8 million is going back into our accounts as soon as this investigation concludes. I don't know why you're gloating about taking it."

"Because it took you nearly three months to find out. Not even your genius little VP could figure it out, and you were telling him something was wrong, weren't you? You tried to get his attention and he just thought you were insulting him. I played it out perfectly. Except…"

Kaiba gave a mild acknowledgment to Tatsukiyo. He began thinking about the entire thing, and he pursed his lips. "Just before the accident."

"That's right. You called several of the heads into a conference, remember? You started to yell at us; told us that we weren't doing our jobs; that employees were taking advantage of us. That we were weak links and that if we didn't straighten up that you would fire us all. And then you started talking about money…about how it was us that was causing losses in the quarters, causing dips in the stocks. You held three of us back. Me, Fujisawa of accounting, and Tezuka in marketing. You told us it was our fault, mine and Fujisawa's especially, and then what did you do…?"

Kaiba looked at Mokuba and Naoko, both intrigued at this new twist. "I gave you incentive to do your jobs better."

"You cut our salaries!" The CEO was still smirking. "Mine the most." Kaiba closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the metal partition.

"You tried to kill me, didn't you?"

Tatsukiyo was quiet. The gun was poised and fired once again. This time it bounced against the window. The window didn't shatter, but a dent was made in the glass and little cracks began to form. Kaiba looked over at it. Naoko began sobbing again.

No one else could hear it, but Kaiba's heart was pounding so loudly that it was beating in his ears. His shaking was getting just the slightest bit worse, and he was pressing his fingernails into the palm of his hand. "Do you want to know how?"

"Tried to poison something I ate?" he asked sarcastically.

Tatsukiyo stood, the pill bottle clutched in his hand, and he walked over to Kaiba with the gun pointed at the CEO's chest. "It was perfect, right down to the minute. You received a message about a meeting on your little day off; some other company head wanting to see you immediately, so you rushed for it. The great Kaiba Seto doesn't want to make a bad impression, does he? And no matter what way you took, there was one road that came right to HQ that you had to take, and there was a four-way intersection there. So I had a guy called, and he had a truck…" he grinned. "Get the picture?"

Kaiba clenched his teeth, but before he said anything, he thought about the moment that it happened. He hadn't seen anyone coming until he was hit with such a force that it almost felt like he passed out for a moment. If the force had struck him just a little more centered, it was very likely that he would have died considering how fast the other car was going.

But if Jou hadn't been in front of him, hadn't forced him to hit the brake….

Blame turned to shame in his mind, and he turned his attention to Mokuba thinking about the early conversations while he was still hospitalized. He tried his hardest to blame Jou for all the things that had happened; Mokuba tried to contradict his brother's hateful feelings.

Hadn't Jou given him flowers?

"But as they say: the best laid plans…"he sighed, pulling the hammer back again. "Next time it won't be the window or the floor…"

Naoko let out a little scream. "Please! Please don't kill us…please…"

"The embezzlement would have cost you a few years of your life. But you would trade the safety of getting out to confessing to attempted murder." Kaiba shook his head. "Obviously you were thinking of murder before. You have a gun, so these plans were premeditated. You have some deep seeded issues you might want to work out."

When Tatsukiyo advanced close enough that Kaiba could smell his breath, there was an instinct. He dropped the crutch and shot his hands forward grabbing the lapels of Tatsukiyo's jacket. The man's arm shot up as he pulled the trigger, the bullet striking the window just above the previous. Kaiba twisted around and pressed Tatsukiyo against the wounded window. He struggled to hold this position, his posture unbalanced. There was a look of fear that flashed into Tatsukiyo's eyes, but it didn't last too long.

It felt like something stabbed into his wounded leg. He took a moment to looked down and register that Tatsukiyo had kicked him. He kicked again. Kaiba clenched his teeth and fell back against his desk.

Though Tatsukiyo was hovering above him, muttering something that he wasn't really paying attention to, he could only look at the cracks in the window, thinking first about how they were going to need repaired. For a second, it seemed like there was a large hole in the window. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His leg throbbed. He rubbed his thigh.

"Seto, are you okay?"

"Fine, Moki. Just fine."

At his lunch break, Jou darted out of the office and began to make his way into the heart of the city, following the beacon that was the Kaiba Corp. building. He grabbed a quick lunch and ate it as he walked, but he was more focused on the thick globs of people that were standing around the building as a barricade held them back. There was a heaving sound above him; propeller blades whopped in the air as a helicopter hovered near the top of the building still trying to get a look.

"Kaib'…"he muttered.

"Jou!" His name was piercing through the mumbles of the crowd. "Jou! Over here!" The blond turned in the general direction of the sound, and he could clearly make out Honda standing in the distance. He carefully weaved his way through the people until he came up to his friend. "What are you doing here? Don't you have a job or something?"

"I'm on lunch," he said. "I should be asking you the same thing anyways."

"I'm passing through, thought I could see what was up," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "How long have they been up there like that?"

"I don't know…they said like…12 hours at nine. 15 or 16 hours I guess." Each moment that ticked by scared him even more. Each time that he realized that he was scared he tried to retract it. He tried to conjure the feelings of humiliation, the reason that he had left. The idea that he had been played and that it was all just some sick game for Kaiba's pleasure. He tried to make those emotions well up in his chest, but they would never stick.

"I heard something about bullet holes. You think the police got in there?"

Jou sighed. "I don't know. I think they'd be out by now if that was true."

"So…maybe the guy holding them has a gun?" Jou visibly shuddered. Honda didn't notice. "I keep wanting to say that Kaiba deserves this…"

"How can ya say that?"

"Considering everything that's happened recently?" he asked with scrutiny. Jou pressed his lips together. "I know it ain't right to say that about the guy but…"Jou didn't expect Honda to fully retract what he was saying. He didn't see it fit to really defend Kaiba either. He was stuck in a strange little chasm where people were sticking their hands in, willing to help him, but he had to pick the right hand to lead him out.

"Look…I gotta go Honda. I'll see—"

"Jou!"

Jou had barely gotten two feet from Honda before his attention was called back, but not to his friend. He looked up to the building and saw one of the high windows looked as though it suddenly burst open. He kept watching, realizing almost too late that there was someone that was falling out of the window. At first his heart stopped.

Kaiba!

He kept looking, kept waiting for some indication, some sign. Something.

There. In the window, hanging out the side of it where the glass sat in jagged pieces, he saw an arm, or what he thought was an arm. It grasped the side of the window despite the glass, and it pulled the body up with it, gazing outward to the crowd that had gathered. Jou couldn't make out the image clearly, but he felt he knew what he was looking at. He could see the blue cast.

Suddenly, the person disappeared, and Jou found himself looking at the crowd as it pressed and pondered against the barrier. He'd almost forgotten that a man had fallen out of the window.

"What the hell just happened?" Honda asked. He became one of the many that was pushing and pulling to get closer. Jou stayed stagnant, looking upwards again for another glimpse of Kaiba.

"I…couldn't tell ya…"he muttered, and suddenly he burst forward, pushing through the people, spreading them so he could get closer to the front. Once there, he wasn't sure that was where he wanted to be. There was nothing to see but a swarm of emergency personnel that blocked everything from view, although everyone could tell that the someone that crashed through the window was being taken away. That was a sight that Jou knew he didn't want to see. He just wanted reassurance that Kaiba was alive and well, just so his mind would leave him alone. But even after it seemed that everything had drawn to its close, there was neither Kaiba brother to be seen.

His heart was beating too quickly; it made his head pound. He took deep breaths to try and keep from the shallow. He tried to keep his hand away from massaging his heart.

When he looked back he could see as Mokuba bolted toward Naoko and released her, the secretary reverting to coiling up on the floor, half in prayer and half in sickness-like as she cried. Mokuba was saying something to him, but he couldn't hear it. All he knew was that the gun was lying inches from him and that there was a shattered window that he clung to so he could stand.

He was allowed to sit now, his chair was only a few feet away, but he refused. He leaned down and picked up the crutch, working his way back to his desk so it was more comfortable to lean on. His leg was throbbing, but he brought his hand up to his neck and rubbed where he had felt the hands for a few moments. A torrent of emotions was welled up in his chest and he was trying to swallow them back to their depths.

After so many more hours of waiting, Tatsukiyo seemed to lose it. He charged, and Kaiba responded by trying to hold him off. He was pushed against the window; hands were around his neck. The gun was nearby. Mokuba was frozen; Naoko was screaming.

He pushed back, flipping Tatsukiyo against the wounded window. He heard it crack. He kept pushing. His injury was forgotten; all he could feel were the hands as they still pressed against his neck. The feeling flooding back; everything seemed so blank yet…

The gun dropped away. The window cracked more. He felt weightless. Tatsukiyo cried as he fell backward. He stumbled back into the office. Tatsukiyo wasn't taking him down too.

"Nii-sama, why don't you sit down?" was the first this he heard when things seemed like they were getting back to normal.

Why not? He was still light headed. His throat was dry from thirst. How long had it been since he'd slept? Of course, he'd spent countless nights awake because of insomnia. The pain was coming back.

"I don't want to," he replied.

Mokuba touched his arm and held the second crutch. It hit him suddenly. It didn't matter what he was holding onto, he was tired and his body wasn't going to let him stay standing. His good leg buckled from beneath him, and even Mokuba was surprised at the fall.

He was on the floor, still conscious but ready to pass out.

"Nii-sama?" Mokuba was next to him, pushing against his shoulder. "Nii-sama? Nii-sama!"

He was focusing hard on staying awake.

The crowd had been dispersed by the police, but Jou was still watching from a distance. There were only a few emergency personnel lingering, but there was no sign of anyone else coming out. He should have left long ago; his job was easily in jeopardy, but he risked it. He wanted reassurance and it had yet to come. Not even from the media.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the front doors opened. Something like a gurney was coming out, though he couldn't immediately make out the person that was propped up. The blond took a few steps closer and was able to see a little more clearly. The brunet CEO seemed almost too obvious despite the obscurity that those around him were trying to create. It became more so when Mokuba was shortly behind, running to catch up.

Jou turned away after that, and he looked a bit away to see a stand that was peddling newspapers and magazine. The image of the tabloid alone was enough.

What right did he have to be near Kaiba anyways?

A/N: Of course the tabloid thing hasn't been figured out, but that's for later. Did you expect that it was planned? Also, if there is anyone curious...8 million yen at the going rates is currently about 100,000 US Dollars, give or take so it's actually not that much which is probably why it wasn't caught immediately.

Also, the reason that Jou and Honda first assume that its the police and not someone with a gun is because handguns are illegal in Japan, so the police would be the logical first choice.

Anyways, till next time, KenSan out!