"Son, don't you want anything?" Kenji asked, gesturing at the un-touched menu lying next to Jou's arm.
"Nah. I ain't really hungry," he lied. He didn't have much of an appetite. The only reason he'd agreed to come here was because his father wouldn't stop badgering him.
He'd bribed Jou's old neighbors into telling him where he was. None of them knew, but they'd all seen him being carried while unconscious by the "CEO of the gaming company from the newspaper." It was entirely too easy to connect that description to Seto Kaiba. And, so the man started showing up outside their house and hiding until he could approach Jou.
Jou had lied to Kaiba. He didn't spend the night at his father's house two days earlier. He had gone to the agreed-upon meeting place he had told his father about, but then chickened out at the last minute. Once he saw his father's face, he couldn't go in. Before he knew it, he was running away from the restaurant, sneaking into KaibaCorp, and spending the night under Kaiba's desk, crying his eyes out. His father was still insistent, asking for another hang-out, which led to them meeting up at the burger place that day.
"You're always hungry," the blonde man replied, chuckling a bit before raising his hand to signal for the waitress. Jou's entire body tensed. Memories of being slapped around by this man came back to him, and he started to hyperventilate.
"Son?"
Jou put a hand on his chest, averting his gaze and trying to calm himself down.
"Are you alright?"
"I gotta go," Jou choked out.
Before he could get up, though, his father had reached out and held his wrist to stop him from leaving. The blonde flinched again.
"Katsuya, don't leave. We can go somewhere else if you want," Kenji said.
"What I want is for you to leave me alone," Jou said, looking the man in the eye. "What the hell was so goddamn important you had to hide outside my house five fucking times? Do you know how bad I would've looked if my boss had caught you?"
Do you know how bad it would be if Seto recognized you?
He'd never look at me the same way again if he knew the man that abused me was my own father…
I'm not letting you ruin my life for the thousandth time.
"I needed to talk to ya!"
"About what?" Jou snapped, only to regret it seconds later. Everyone at the burger place was staring at them, a few whispering.
"I'm sober now, and I wanted to make things right with ya."
Jou closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath.
"Congrats on the first one. I'd give up on the second thing if I were you," he said before yanking his arm out of his father's grasp and walking out of there.
His father caught up with him outside, matching his pace. "So, that's it? I slap ya around a few times and suddenly you can't stand to be around me? Let me tell ya something, Katsuya, you always had a roof over your head and food on your plate. Do you not see the kids on the streets? Did you want to be more like them?"
Jou's eyes watered. Slap him around? How could he reduce years of abuse and neglect to that? He ruined the blonde's life, and he wasn't even sorry about it. Jou quickened his pace.
"I-I got sober for you, for us," his father shouted. "I know I can never make it up to ya, never give ya the childhood you deserved, but...Katsuya I had a disease. I couldn't control it. I know I should've stopped sooner, but I was too far gone. I-I didn't even realize there was a problem until the cops arrested me, and I had to face what I did and get better. My disease made me miss 14 years of your life, son. Please, don't let it come between us now. I don't want to lose you again."
Jou turned toward his father. "Do you even remember what happened the last two times we saw each other? Do you remember what you did to me?"
Kenji grimaced. "No, it was very bad a few months back. I know that. I think-Did I take money from ya? I'll pay it back. I'll make it up to you."
Jou closed his eyes. He didn't even remember. He didn't know what he'd done, and even if he did, there's no way he'd be able to make up for it. Ever. Could Jou really hold something against Kenji that the man didn't even remember doing? He had longed to hear these words for so long, wanted his father to get sober and take responsibility for his actions and now he was. Was Jou really going to turn him away?
"I got you a gift," Kenji said, taking out a bag of pizza-flavored cheese puffs from the bag he had and giving it to Jou. "I remember it was your favorite growing up. You used to dip them in ice cream for some reason."
The blonde stared at the gift, smiling at the memories it brought up, happy memories with both his parents and his sister. God, things were so simple back then. "They stopped making these a long time ago."
Kenji chuckled. "I have my ways."
Jou pursed his lips, thinking his options over. If he were careful, really really careful, there won't be any harm to going with the man, right?
"There's an ice cream place near here," he said, "wanna go there and keep talkin?"
—-
"Sorry you had to eat by yourself," Jou said as he took the now empty food tray from Seto's desk.
"It's fine. I don't mind some quiet time. Besides, I could just join you next time."
"No!" Jou blurted before he could think better of it. He couldn't risk Seto seeing his father and recognizing him as the man he'd seen assaulting Jou. "I mean…I can't tell him about us. It's…his generation doesn't really accept that kind of thing, you know?"
Kaiba grimaced. "So, he abandoned you, didn't come back when you got sick, and now he's also homophobic? That's one hell of a combination."
"And that's the second reason you don't get to meet 'em," Jou said with a smile, then continued before Kaiba could argue some more. "So where you takin' me in three days?"
Kaiba furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"
"It's our first date in six months. Thought you had something special planned?"
Kaiba smirked. "Let me guess, I'll go all out and make a reservation at a fancy restaurant and hire a chauffeur for the night and buy you some chocolate, and then you'll say that it's all too expensive and we just should stay in, right?"
Jou chuckled, taking s seat across the desk from Kaiba. "Well…something like that."
Kaiba leaned forward on the desk. "Well, why don't we just skip all that, and you tell me exactly what you want so I can make it happen?"
Jou gazed at Seto for a very long minute. "I was thinking we could just skip everything and instead we can just…have sex."
Kaiba choked on the cup of coffee he'd been drinking, turning to the side and violently coughing into a napkin. Jou winced. Maybe he should've waited until Seto was done with his food.
"I know," Jou said. "I know it's a mood killer to talk about it or...suggest it, I guess, but I thought I'd just put it out there, you know? I'm ready for it...if you want to."
"Of course, I want to," Kaiba started when his coughing fit finally ended. "But we've never done anything like this before. I think we should just start off with something smaller."
Jou grinned. "Smaller? Are you asking me to find someone else for the night because from what I remember-"
"I'd just like to remind you Mokuba listens to all our conversations in here."
Jou clamped his mouth shut, his whole face burning and his eyes wide. "Well you could've told me that a lot sooner."
"Then I wouldn't get to see you turn that hilarious shade of red."
Jou rolled his eyes. "God, you're an asshole. Listen man, be there or don't be there. Eitherway, I'm gonna have a good time."
Just as Jou was about to leave the office, Kaiba's husky voice came from within it. "Oh, I'll definitely be there."