[fic] YGO: Guard Dog Con't.
Dec. 1st, 2005 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ickaimpOrginally, all the plunnies ended about here. So, um, yeah. Jou's reaction at the end? That's ours. Cause it just decided to get bigger. Again. ~_~
I'm blaming![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dogmatix_san. Because she not only sent us YGO AMVs, but is currently sitting there in chat working on her own YGO stuff and giving us plunnies. And a bit of finger waving for tdei and ryuutchi for asking about it at Y-con last year, cause other wise it would have died then.
Latest word count for the whole fic? 21,300 words. Course we've been working on it off and on for three years, but still... @_@;; *boggles*
References to Yu-Gi-Oh! R in these new bits. Also, more pervy. Is fun to play with Seto's MIND. Or is that pants? hmm... *cackles*
+++
"Yosh!" Mokuba cheered, sliding out of his computer chair with a stretch. "C'mon, Jounouchi-kun!"
"Huh?" Jounouchi stretched as well, popping the kinks out of his back from being curled up in one position for so long. His tail made an audible pop as he moved, slightly stiff from being curled around him for so long. He'd just now gotten permission to hang out in Mokuba's lab with him and he didn't want his tail getting in the way again.
"You'll see." Mokuba grinned mischievously, hanging on the door playfully. Jounouchi grinned back, gamely following him.
Mokuba lead him out of the labs, then got into the elevator, humming happily to himself. Instead of heading up, towards the older Kaiba's offices, Mokuba pulled a plastic card out of the locket around his neck. He tapped a panel on the elevator wall that Jounouchi hadn't noticed before, then inserted the disk.
The Elevator hummed, going -sideways- for a while before changing directions and moving down.
"Mokuba?" Jounouchi questioned, slightly nervous at the sudden change in the formerly normal elevator. Mokuba stopped humming long enough to give him a smile, then returned back to his humming.
Right. No help there. Jounouchi sighed and decided just to go along for the ride. Mokuba was a Kaiba after all, Jounouchi would find out when Mokuba damn well felt ready.
The elevator doors opened, into a dimly lit lab, one that Jounouchi hadn't seen before. It smelled fairly sterile, dust free but with the overlaid scent of electronics.
Mokuba walked into the room, still humming fearlessly, trusting Jounouchi to follow. He did so, ears twitching under the top hat, leery of surprises.
There were shadowy columns coming up from the floor at even, measured places. Hundreds perhaps. Mokuba lead him between the columns, towards the back, stopping in front of one. "Activate." He said out loud to the air. "Authorisation: Kaiba, Mokuba. She sells sea shells by the sea shore."
Machinery started up, whirring and clacking all around them. The columns started to glow with an eerie pale blue-green luminescence, shadows of figures inside.
Monsters. They were surrounded by hundreds of monsters, each one encased inside of a glowing column. "Mokuba?" Jounouchi asked, feeling decidedly twitching and uncomfortable about this whole place.
"Solid Images." Mokuba said calmly. "A holographic projection system Niisama and I have been working on."
"Yeah, but-" He froze when he realised what, or who Mokuba was standing in front of.
Noah.
Mokuba was noticeably bigger than Noah now, even though Noah was curled up inside a glowing column. The Green haired boy smiled, reaching a hand out towards Mokuba. Mokuba smiled in return, their palms not quite reaching each other because of the barrier of light.
"Hey." Mokuba commented, leaning his head against the pillar. "Long time no see."
Noah laughed silently, mouthing something in return. The columns were partially solid, but didn't have sound yet. Mokuba laughed softly.
Mokuba had been working on this for months and finally, he was able to see his other brother again. Jounouchi smiled sadly, turning away to give them privacy.
After his original freak out and banishment from Mokuba's Lab, he'd gotten some more details on what Mokuba was doing. The base where Noah had been originally stored had been destroyed, by Noah himself, but Gozaburou had a continuous back up feed to a satellite, just in case something happened to the main base, there would be a copy of his son somewhere.
The back up feed had been damaged in the explosion, and that was what Mokuba had been repairing, and making sure that there were no traces of Gozaburou in there as well.
This was the first time the code had been repaired enough for them to meet again, in a way.
Some of the other columns towards the back caught his attention, the figures in side were shaped differently than the rest. Curious he walked closer, examining them.
They were human. There was Mai, Weevil, Rex and a bunch of other duellists. Towards the back he spotted Anzu, Otagi, Honda, Kaiba, Mokuba and... himself.
He stopped in front of his friends in the columns, realising that they were images of his friends... what they looked like several years back.
What they had looked like during Duellist Kingdom, when he had first begun learning how to duel. When they had first met the other side of Yuugi.
Where everything had all began, really.
"Niisama recorded everything he could during all the Tournaments." Mokuba commented quietly. "So that later, there would be an accurate copy of events. There's talk of maybe turning it into a Television show, couple of years down the road. This way there won't be any disputes about people not looking like they should."
"Ah." Kind of like photographs to remind you, only three dimensional. And possibly solid. He glanced back to see Noah smile and wave at him. He grinned and waved back. Mokuba smiled sadly as well as Noah faded from view, looking like he was heading for a nap.
"He's not completely there yet." Mokuba commented.
"He will be." Jounouchi reassured him."You'll see to that."
He got a bittersweet smile in return. "Yeah."
Jounouchi cleared his throat, looking for a distraction. "So, about these Solid Images..." He spotted himself, wearing that old green coat of his, the old familiar dog tags around his neck.
And wearing what was obviously a head band with dog ears on it.
Mokuba's eyes went wide. "It's not what you think! It's not what you think! Niisama did these were done before everything happened and-"
He chuckled, patting Mokuba's head to let him know there were no hard feelings. "So Ol' Blue Eyes has a sense of humour after all."
"Occasionally." Mokuba agreed. "I'm sorry, I'd forgotten he did that, I'll get it changed."
"Relax, it's not a big deal." He and Kaiba had been insulting each other for years, that wasn't going to completely change because of recent circumstances. Besides, it was fun taunting the Dragon.
He spotted Kaiba's column, with Mokuba's next to it. Just beyond that, he saw... Two Yuugi?
Jounouchi walked closer, verifying that in fact, yes, there were two Yuugi, standing next to each other. Yuugi and his Other Self. Atemu, he corrected. But the Pharaoh had been Yuugi's 'Other Self' for so long, it was still hard to think of him as 'Atemu'. "So Kaiba finally believed it, huh?"
"Yeah." Mokuba nodded. "It got through his thick skull eventually. He still doesn't like the whole Ancient Egypt sorcery and mysticism stuff, but he does acknowledge it."
"Good." Jounouchi patted the smooth column holding the image of the sleeping Pharaoh, dressed in leather and chains. It kind of hurt, in an odd sort of way, to see Yuugi's Other Self standing here like this. He wanted to say 'Hi', mess up his hair, talk with him like they used to. But this wasn't the real Pharaoh. The real one had already passed on, leaving a hole in their lives.
Atemu's leaving had really been the sign of the end. Everyone was still friends, but they weren't friends like they had been before. The group cohesion was gone with their leader missing. "Hey, Mokuba?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't show this to Yuugi, okay?" To see him, moving and walking around but clearly not him, that would just be rubbing salt into the still sore injury.
Mokuba looked at him with eyes that were far too wise and sad for a kid. "... Yeah."
+++
+++
Seto glanced up as the door to his office opened, then quickly slam shut. "What?"
His chair, with him in it, was then quickly spun in a circle, then stopped, right where it had been, as if he hadn't been disturbed at all. "Eh?" Confusion reigned with irritation, he had work to do.
He glanced down to find a pair of rich brown eyes looking at him pleadingly from a shock of golden hair. Right Between His Legs. "Huh?!"
"I'm not here!" Jounouchi hissed. "What ever happens, I'm NOT here!"
"Jounouchi...." Seto raised an eyebrow. "-What- are you doing under my desk?" Between his legs, no less. He really should spend more time out of the office if this was where his brain was starting to go.
"Hiding from Mokuba." The top hat had been knocked off and Jounouchi's ears were laying flat against his head in a terrified posture. "Love your little brother like a little brother, really I do Kaiba, and if anything happens, I will personally roll up the newspaper for you to beat me around the head and the shoulders with but if he asks I'm. Not. Here."
The door opened again, his brother poking his shaggy dark head in. "Hey, Niisama!"
"Hello, Mokuba." His brother beamed at him and Seto detected a hyper-active gleam in Mokuba's eyes. "What can I do for you?"
"Have you seen Jounouchi-kun around?" Mokuba asked, scanning the room.
"I do not see him here." Seto commented evenly, pointedly ignoring Jounouchi's pleading gaze from under the table. "Do you?"
"Hmm... nope." Mokuba agreed, vibrating slightly.
"Mokuba... do I need to remind you of your promise?" He tried to adopt his most severe tone, which wasn't easy considering he had Jounouchi's warm presence pressed up against his legs as a very convincing distraction.
Mokuba looked guilty. "Promise?"
"Not to run Jounouchi off?" He tapped a pen against the desk. "Or do we need to find a replacement for your guard dog and reassign you back to the security officers?"
"No! No!!" That brought a panicked expression to his brother's face as Mokuba held his hands and shook his head vigourously. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere, I must have just turned a corner and accidentally lost him. I'm... just gonna go look for him now. Catch ya later, Niisama! Bye!"
In a blur of motion, Mokuba was back out the door and gone from the office.
"Whew." Jounouchi let out a deep sigh, his head drooping, hair brushing against Seto's inner thigh. Seto had to grit his teeth to keep from embarrassing himself right there.
He wasn't sure if he should curse or bless the fact he was wearing tight leather pants. Just how good was Jounouchi's sense of smell, anyway? They had never tested that, had they? And the olfactory systems were directly linked to the auditory systems via the sinuses, if Jounouchi's hearing had improved due to the accident, what were the chances that his sense of smell had? Could he smell Seto?
"Thanks, Kaiba." Jounouchi shifted, his head resting against Seto's leg as the rest of him shifted away. "Gimme half an hour and I'll be out of your hair."
How about a half hour to put his mouth to better use? All he had to do was pull that mop of golden hair closer and...
"What exactly happened?" He asked briskly.
"Someone gave Mokuba a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans." Jounouchi yawned, sending another puff of warm air against Seto's inner thigh. Seto twitched. "Think it was one of his former baby-sitters, he was talking to a few Security guys before he got the Pixi Stix. Or was that after? Eh. Been chasin' him ever since."
"And how long again was that?" Seto asked as the blond's head drooped tiredly.
"Hour and..." Jounouchi grabbed Seto's wrist, twisting it towards him and for a moment he wondered if the blond had heard his thoughts. Instead, Jounouchi peered at it blearily before realising that Seto didn't wear a watch. "... I dunno. While ago."
"Ah." Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Jounouchi released his arm, falling backwards and disappearing into the depths under the desk. Seto wasn't sure to bless what ever deities were out there or curse. "S'big down here. Wake me in a half hour to Fetch Mokuba?" Came the muffled question.
Seto pushed the chair back, leaning down to watch Jounouchi curl up under the desk, almost in a fetal position, arms tucked under his head. A sleepy brown eye glanced up at him. "m'I in your way?"
"No. You're fine." He reassured the blond. Jounouchi nodded once, then apparently fell fast asleep. Seto watched him for a moment, then sat up, moving his chair back to it's usual place. He refrained from stretching out his legs however, letting the mutt sleep.
It was funny, he'd never noticed that someone could easily fit under his desk before and not be noticed before. That opened up a whole realm of possibly he'd never thought of before...
He stopped that line of thought and hit the intercom button for his secretary. "Send a memo to Security, please." He paused a moment, giving her a chance to switch to what ever programs she needed. He'd heard some faint grumblings about Jounouchi taking over Mokuba's protection whenever he passed. A few people were crying favouritism because the blond had known Seto in school, thus allowing him to 'waltz in' and take over that position.
Regardless of the fact that Jounouchi had to train before taking the position and had a better temperament for dealing with Mokuba than the mindless buffoons there. Which was why he had gotten the job in the first place.
And the fact that Jounouchi worked hard at what he did. It was hard to picture anyone else curled up under Seto's desk fast asleep from chasing after his brother, snoring slightly.
"Ready, sir." The secretary chirped at him.
"Anyone caught giving Mokuba any caffeinated or highly sugared foods will be assigned the job of watching over him until the buzz wears off. That will be all."
"Very good sir."
+++
+++
Jounouchi snickered to himself, eating his ice cream cone. This was a great idea Yuugi had. Simple and he didn't have to worry about sweating like a dog in the humid spring heat. Summer in the top hat and big coats was not something he had been looking forward to, the clothing was -hot-.
Which meant he could pick Mokuba up at the curb, instead of waiting at the car, like he'd been having to do. Double score. Good day all around.
Except for that giant Blue Eyes White Dragon suddenly appearing over the school yard.
... shit.
Enjoying his ice cream cone forgotten, Jounouchi sprinted for the school, vaulting over the fence around it and running towards the the blue-green-white source of the dragon. Several men were running the other way and he took the time to shove the melted broken remains of his ice cream into one of their faces as he passed and pushing another one over.
The last one wasn't on purpose, really. The guy had just been in his way, stumbling between himself and Mokuba. Then he wasn't. Simple.
There was no one within a wide radius of Mokuba, the Blue Eyes Dragon hovering over him protectively and making sure that no one came closer. The dragon made no sound, which was kind of eerie, you'd expect something that large and pissed off looking to be growling or something.
"Yo, Mokuba!" He called. The dragon turned his head towards Jounouchi, showing sharp fangs.
"Jounouchi-kun!" Mokuba waved, looking only slightly mussed. "I'm having some problems here!"
"I noticed." The Blue Eyes shifted, clearly putting itself between himself and Mokuba. Right. Like that was going to happen. "What's going on? And skip the whole 'Goons-tried-to-grab-me' bit."
"Well, they did, only they set off the prototype." Mokuba grumbled. "And now I can't turn it off."
The dragon roared at him, but he was standing just out of range for it. "How solid is it?"
"Solid enough to toss one of the goons." Mokuba reported back, his voice a mixture of pride and anguish. Pride at the fact the prototype worked and anguish that he couldn't turn the damn thing off.
The Blue Eyes dragon moved again and Jounouchi moved in return, keeping just out of reach. While he didn't think it could pull a Burst Stream like this, he wasn't going to be the first to find out. And despite their bulk, Blue Eyes could move damn fast.
"Have you tried-"
"I already hit the power button, attempted to disconnect the power source and removed some of the circuit boards!" Mokuba snapped.
"Didja hit it?"
The younger Kaiba blinked. "No?"
"Well, try it!" Jounouchi grinned, dodging a strike from the Blue Eyes Dragon. Jeez, the damn thing was temperamental. Just like it's biggest fan. "It always works for me!"
Mokuba shrugged, stood up, bumped his head on the Dragon's belly, then kicked the back pack.
The Dragon flickered, then began to fade out. It thrashed in anger, but now it passed through things harmlessly. Jounouchi took the opportunity to duck past it and finally get to Mokuba. "You okay?" He asked, ruffling the kid's hair.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Mokuba waved it off, doing a brief check of the electrical components in his back pack with resigned air. "But I know I'm going to get detention for this. I'm not supposed to take stuff out of the labs to tinker on."
At the school's request, not Kaiba's. Although some members of the Kaiba Corp stock holders fussed about their precious technology leaving highly secured premises in the back pack of a adolescent teenager, Kaiba himself really didn't give a flying flip. He still remembered how boring school had been for him. And so Mokuba bringing projects to work on to challenge himself didn't bother the elder Kaiba.
The school on the other hand, was terrified of some of the things Mokuba came up with to make, and so he was requested not to bring any of the 'dangerous' things Kaiba Corp created on to school premises.
Personally, Jounouchi thought it was because the school board wasn't a fan of Duel Monsters. Evidently some of them had been terrified by the whole 'monsters on the streets' thing during Battle City.
"Not if we run fast enough." Jounouchi declared, grabbing the back pack in one hand and Mokuba's wrist in the other. "C'mon!"
Mokuba let out a breathless laugh as they ran out of the gates and down the sidewalk to where the limo was waiting. People scattered at their advance, no doubt having seen the demonstration in the school yard and not wanting to end up horribly splatted or some such.
The limo driver saw them coming and hit the button for the back door to open. It didn't open up fast enough for them to get in comfortably, but they squeezed through, Jounouchi pulling the door shut after them. "Go!" Mokuba cheered at the driver, bouncing happily.
Thankfully, and almost gleefully, Jounouchi sometimes got the feeling that Mokuba's driver wanted to be an Indy sports car racer in a previous job, the driver did so, quickly leaving the school behind. Mokuba sprawled out on one of the limo's seats with a contented sigh. "It's Friday."
"So it is." Jounouchi grinned. Yay, weekend. Maybe they could actually get a chance to sleep in.
Mokuba suddenly sat up right, peering at him. "Nice outfit!" He grinned, pulling the sunglasses off of Jounouchi's head. His ears, freed from the glasses acting as sort of a head band to keep them pressed down and hidden, popped up. "Good disguise too. And it stayed on while you were fighting."
"Yeah, it was Yuugi's idea." Jounouchi grinned, tugging at the long sleeved shirt tied around his waist. it was slightly buttoned up, the tail hiding on the inside of it. It was kind of uncomfortable, the fabric kept bunching up at the base of his tail which was a pain, but it worked as effective camouflage. And as Mokuba pointed out, it worked while he was fighting.
Even if it did make him look like some sort of surfer bum. Yuugi had insisted he wear some of his old leather bracers buckled around his wrists to match the leather collar, to give him a more menacing look, but he still felt like he looked kind of silly, not like a threatening body guard.
"Have to thank him for it." Mokuba grinned, handing him his glasses back. "And hey, you can wear it while we're in America!"
Jounouchi did a double take. "AMERICA?!"
+++
+++ To Be Continued +++
I'm blaming
dogmatix_san. Because she not only sent us YGO AMVs, but is currently sitting there in chat working on her own YGO stuff and giving us plunnies. And a bit of finger waving for tdei and ryuutchi for asking about it at Y-con last year, cause other wise it would have died then.Latest word count for the whole fic? 21,300 words. Course we've been working on it off and on for three years, but still... @_@;; *boggles*
References to Yu-Gi-Oh! R in these new bits. Also, more pervy. Is fun to play with Seto's MIND. Or is that pants? hmm... *cackles*
+++
"Yosh!" Mokuba cheered, sliding out of his computer chair with a stretch. "C'mon, Jounouchi-kun!"
"Huh?" Jounouchi stretched as well, popping the kinks out of his back from being curled up in one position for so long. His tail made an audible pop as he moved, slightly stiff from being curled around him for so long. He'd just now gotten permission to hang out in Mokuba's lab with him and he didn't want his tail getting in the way again.
"You'll see." Mokuba grinned mischievously, hanging on the door playfully. Jounouchi grinned back, gamely following him.
Mokuba lead him out of the labs, then got into the elevator, humming happily to himself. Instead of heading up, towards the older Kaiba's offices, Mokuba pulled a plastic card out of the locket around his neck. He tapped a panel on the elevator wall that Jounouchi hadn't noticed before, then inserted the disk.
The Elevator hummed, going -sideways- for a while before changing directions and moving down.
"Mokuba?" Jounouchi questioned, slightly nervous at the sudden change in the formerly normal elevator. Mokuba stopped humming long enough to give him a smile, then returned back to his humming.
Right. No help there. Jounouchi sighed and decided just to go along for the ride. Mokuba was a Kaiba after all, Jounouchi would find out when Mokuba damn well felt ready.
The elevator doors opened, into a dimly lit lab, one that Jounouchi hadn't seen before. It smelled fairly sterile, dust free but with the overlaid scent of electronics.
Mokuba walked into the room, still humming fearlessly, trusting Jounouchi to follow. He did so, ears twitching under the top hat, leery of surprises.
There were shadowy columns coming up from the floor at even, measured places. Hundreds perhaps. Mokuba lead him between the columns, towards the back, stopping in front of one. "Activate." He said out loud to the air. "Authorisation: Kaiba, Mokuba. She sells sea shells by the sea shore."
Machinery started up, whirring and clacking all around them. The columns started to glow with an eerie pale blue-green luminescence, shadows of figures inside.
Monsters. They were surrounded by hundreds of monsters, each one encased inside of a glowing column. "Mokuba?" Jounouchi asked, feeling decidedly twitching and uncomfortable about this whole place.
"Solid Images." Mokuba said calmly. "A holographic projection system Niisama and I have been working on."
"Yeah, but-" He froze when he realised what, or who Mokuba was standing in front of.
Noah.
Mokuba was noticeably bigger than Noah now, even though Noah was curled up inside a glowing column. The Green haired boy smiled, reaching a hand out towards Mokuba. Mokuba smiled in return, their palms not quite reaching each other because of the barrier of light.
"Hey." Mokuba commented, leaning his head against the pillar. "Long time no see."
Noah laughed silently, mouthing something in return. The columns were partially solid, but didn't have sound yet. Mokuba laughed softly.
Mokuba had been working on this for months and finally, he was able to see his other brother again. Jounouchi smiled sadly, turning away to give them privacy.
After his original freak out and banishment from Mokuba's Lab, he'd gotten some more details on what Mokuba was doing. The base where Noah had been originally stored had been destroyed, by Noah himself, but Gozaburou had a continuous back up feed to a satellite, just in case something happened to the main base, there would be a copy of his son somewhere.
The back up feed had been damaged in the explosion, and that was what Mokuba had been repairing, and making sure that there were no traces of Gozaburou in there as well.
This was the first time the code had been repaired enough for them to meet again, in a way.
Some of the other columns towards the back caught his attention, the figures in side were shaped differently than the rest. Curious he walked closer, examining them.
They were human. There was Mai, Weevil, Rex and a bunch of other duellists. Towards the back he spotted Anzu, Otagi, Honda, Kaiba, Mokuba and... himself.
He stopped in front of his friends in the columns, realising that they were images of his friends... what they looked like several years back.
What they had looked like during Duellist Kingdom, when he had first begun learning how to duel. When they had first met the other side of Yuugi.
Where everything had all began, really.
"Niisama recorded everything he could during all the Tournaments." Mokuba commented quietly. "So that later, there would be an accurate copy of events. There's talk of maybe turning it into a Television show, couple of years down the road. This way there won't be any disputes about people not looking like they should."
"Ah." Kind of like photographs to remind you, only three dimensional. And possibly solid. He glanced back to see Noah smile and wave at him. He grinned and waved back. Mokuba smiled sadly as well as Noah faded from view, looking like he was heading for a nap.
"He's not completely there yet." Mokuba commented.
"He will be." Jounouchi reassured him."You'll see to that."
He got a bittersweet smile in return. "Yeah."
Jounouchi cleared his throat, looking for a distraction. "So, about these Solid Images..." He spotted himself, wearing that old green coat of his, the old familiar dog tags around his neck.
And wearing what was obviously a head band with dog ears on it.
Mokuba's eyes went wide. "It's not what you think! It's not what you think! Niisama did these were done before everything happened and-"
He chuckled, patting Mokuba's head to let him know there were no hard feelings. "So Ol' Blue Eyes has a sense of humour after all."
"Occasionally." Mokuba agreed. "I'm sorry, I'd forgotten he did that, I'll get it changed."
"Relax, it's not a big deal." He and Kaiba had been insulting each other for years, that wasn't going to completely change because of recent circumstances. Besides, it was fun taunting the Dragon.
He spotted Kaiba's column, with Mokuba's next to it. Just beyond that, he saw... Two Yuugi?
Jounouchi walked closer, verifying that in fact, yes, there were two Yuugi, standing next to each other. Yuugi and his Other Self. Atemu, he corrected. But the Pharaoh had been Yuugi's 'Other Self' for so long, it was still hard to think of him as 'Atemu'. "So Kaiba finally believed it, huh?"
"Yeah." Mokuba nodded. "It got through his thick skull eventually. He still doesn't like the whole Ancient Egypt sorcery and mysticism stuff, but he does acknowledge it."
"Good." Jounouchi patted the smooth column holding the image of the sleeping Pharaoh, dressed in leather and chains. It kind of hurt, in an odd sort of way, to see Yuugi's Other Self standing here like this. He wanted to say 'Hi', mess up his hair, talk with him like they used to. But this wasn't the real Pharaoh. The real one had already passed on, leaving a hole in their lives.
Atemu's leaving had really been the sign of the end. Everyone was still friends, but they weren't friends like they had been before. The group cohesion was gone with their leader missing. "Hey, Mokuba?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't show this to Yuugi, okay?" To see him, moving and walking around but clearly not him, that would just be rubbing salt into the still sore injury.
Mokuba looked at him with eyes that were far too wise and sad for a kid. "... Yeah."
+++
+++
Seto glanced up as the door to his office opened, then quickly slam shut. "What?"
His chair, with him in it, was then quickly spun in a circle, then stopped, right where it had been, as if he hadn't been disturbed at all. "Eh?" Confusion reigned with irritation, he had work to do.
He glanced down to find a pair of rich brown eyes looking at him pleadingly from a shock of golden hair. Right Between His Legs. "Huh?!"
"I'm not here!" Jounouchi hissed. "What ever happens, I'm NOT here!"
"Jounouchi...." Seto raised an eyebrow. "-What- are you doing under my desk?" Between his legs, no less. He really should spend more time out of the office if this was where his brain was starting to go.
"Hiding from Mokuba." The top hat had been knocked off and Jounouchi's ears were laying flat against his head in a terrified posture. "Love your little brother like a little brother, really I do Kaiba, and if anything happens, I will personally roll up the newspaper for you to beat me around the head and the shoulders with but if he asks I'm. Not. Here."
The door opened again, his brother poking his shaggy dark head in. "Hey, Niisama!"
"Hello, Mokuba." His brother beamed at him and Seto detected a hyper-active gleam in Mokuba's eyes. "What can I do for you?"
"Have you seen Jounouchi-kun around?" Mokuba asked, scanning the room.
"I do not see him here." Seto commented evenly, pointedly ignoring Jounouchi's pleading gaze from under the table. "Do you?"
"Hmm... nope." Mokuba agreed, vibrating slightly.
"Mokuba... do I need to remind you of your promise?" He tried to adopt his most severe tone, which wasn't easy considering he had Jounouchi's warm presence pressed up against his legs as a very convincing distraction.
Mokuba looked guilty. "Promise?"
"Not to run Jounouchi off?" He tapped a pen against the desk. "Or do we need to find a replacement for your guard dog and reassign you back to the security officers?"
"No! No!!" That brought a panicked expression to his brother's face as Mokuba held his hands and shook his head vigourously. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere, I must have just turned a corner and accidentally lost him. I'm... just gonna go look for him now. Catch ya later, Niisama! Bye!"
In a blur of motion, Mokuba was back out the door and gone from the office.
"Whew." Jounouchi let out a deep sigh, his head drooping, hair brushing against Seto's inner thigh. Seto had to grit his teeth to keep from embarrassing himself right there.
He wasn't sure if he should curse or bless the fact he was wearing tight leather pants. Just how good was Jounouchi's sense of smell, anyway? They had never tested that, had they? And the olfactory systems were directly linked to the auditory systems via the sinuses, if Jounouchi's hearing had improved due to the accident, what were the chances that his sense of smell had? Could he smell Seto?
"Thanks, Kaiba." Jounouchi shifted, his head resting against Seto's leg as the rest of him shifted away. "Gimme half an hour and I'll be out of your hair."
How about a half hour to put his mouth to better use? All he had to do was pull that mop of golden hair closer and...
"What exactly happened?" He asked briskly.
"Someone gave Mokuba a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans." Jounouchi yawned, sending another puff of warm air against Seto's inner thigh. Seto twitched. "Think it was one of his former baby-sitters, he was talking to a few Security guys before he got the Pixi Stix. Or was that after? Eh. Been chasin' him ever since."
"And how long again was that?" Seto asked as the blond's head drooped tiredly.
"Hour and..." Jounouchi grabbed Seto's wrist, twisting it towards him and for a moment he wondered if the blond had heard his thoughts. Instead, Jounouchi peered at it blearily before realising that Seto didn't wear a watch. "... I dunno. While ago."
"Ah." Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Jounouchi released his arm, falling backwards and disappearing into the depths under the desk. Seto wasn't sure to bless what ever deities were out there or curse. "S'big down here. Wake me in a half hour to Fetch Mokuba?" Came the muffled question.
Seto pushed the chair back, leaning down to watch Jounouchi curl up under the desk, almost in a fetal position, arms tucked under his head. A sleepy brown eye glanced up at him. "m'I in your way?"
"No. You're fine." He reassured the blond. Jounouchi nodded once, then apparently fell fast asleep. Seto watched him for a moment, then sat up, moving his chair back to it's usual place. He refrained from stretching out his legs however, letting the mutt sleep.
It was funny, he'd never noticed that someone could easily fit under his desk before and not be noticed before. That opened up a whole realm of possibly he'd never thought of before...
He stopped that line of thought and hit the intercom button for his secretary. "Send a memo to Security, please." He paused a moment, giving her a chance to switch to what ever programs she needed. He'd heard some faint grumblings about Jounouchi taking over Mokuba's protection whenever he passed. A few people were crying favouritism because the blond had known Seto in school, thus allowing him to 'waltz in' and take over that position.
Regardless of the fact that Jounouchi had to train before taking the position and had a better temperament for dealing with Mokuba than the mindless buffoons there. Which was why he had gotten the job in the first place.
And the fact that Jounouchi worked hard at what he did. It was hard to picture anyone else curled up under Seto's desk fast asleep from chasing after his brother, snoring slightly.
"Ready, sir." The secretary chirped at him.
"Anyone caught giving Mokuba any caffeinated or highly sugared foods will be assigned the job of watching over him until the buzz wears off. That will be all."
"Very good sir."
+++
+++
Jounouchi snickered to himself, eating his ice cream cone. This was a great idea Yuugi had. Simple and he didn't have to worry about sweating like a dog in the humid spring heat. Summer in the top hat and big coats was not something he had been looking forward to, the clothing was -hot-.
Which meant he could pick Mokuba up at the curb, instead of waiting at the car, like he'd been having to do. Double score. Good day all around.
Except for that giant Blue Eyes White Dragon suddenly appearing over the school yard.
... shit.
Enjoying his ice cream cone forgotten, Jounouchi sprinted for the school, vaulting over the fence around it and running towards the the blue-green-white source of the dragon. Several men were running the other way and he took the time to shove the melted broken remains of his ice cream into one of their faces as he passed and pushing another one over.
The last one wasn't on purpose, really. The guy had just been in his way, stumbling between himself and Mokuba. Then he wasn't. Simple.
There was no one within a wide radius of Mokuba, the Blue Eyes Dragon hovering over him protectively and making sure that no one came closer. The dragon made no sound, which was kind of eerie, you'd expect something that large and pissed off looking to be growling or something.
"Yo, Mokuba!" He called. The dragon turned his head towards Jounouchi, showing sharp fangs.
"Jounouchi-kun!" Mokuba waved, looking only slightly mussed. "I'm having some problems here!"
"I noticed." The Blue Eyes shifted, clearly putting itself between himself and Mokuba. Right. Like that was going to happen. "What's going on? And skip the whole 'Goons-tried-to-grab-me' bit."
"Well, they did, only they set off the prototype." Mokuba grumbled. "And now I can't turn it off."
The dragon roared at him, but he was standing just out of range for it. "How solid is it?"
"Solid enough to toss one of the goons." Mokuba reported back, his voice a mixture of pride and anguish. Pride at the fact the prototype worked and anguish that he couldn't turn the damn thing off.
The Blue Eyes dragon moved again and Jounouchi moved in return, keeping just out of reach. While he didn't think it could pull a Burst Stream like this, he wasn't going to be the first to find out. And despite their bulk, Blue Eyes could move damn fast.
"Have you tried-"
"I already hit the power button, attempted to disconnect the power source and removed some of the circuit boards!" Mokuba snapped.
"Didja hit it?"
The younger Kaiba blinked. "No?"
"Well, try it!" Jounouchi grinned, dodging a strike from the Blue Eyes Dragon. Jeez, the damn thing was temperamental. Just like it's biggest fan. "It always works for me!"
Mokuba shrugged, stood up, bumped his head on the Dragon's belly, then kicked the back pack.
The Dragon flickered, then began to fade out. It thrashed in anger, but now it passed through things harmlessly. Jounouchi took the opportunity to duck past it and finally get to Mokuba. "You okay?" He asked, ruffling the kid's hair.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Mokuba waved it off, doing a brief check of the electrical components in his back pack with resigned air. "But I know I'm going to get detention for this. I'm not supposed to take stuff out of the labs to tinker on."
At the school's request, not Kaiba's. Although some members of the Kaiba Corp stock holders fussed about their precious technology leaving highly secured premises in the back pack of a adolescent teenager, Kaiba himself really didn't give a flying flip. He still remembered how boring school had been for him. And so Mokuba bringing projects to work on to challenge himself didn't bother the elder Kaiba.
The school on the other hand, was terrified of some of the things Mokuba came up with to make, and so he was requested not to bring any of the 'dangerous' things Kaiba Corp created on to school premises.
Personally, Jounouchi thought it was because the school board wasn't a fan of Duel Monsters. Evidently some of them had been terrified by the whole 'monsters on the streets' thing during Battle City.
"Not if we run fast enough." Jounouchi declared, grabbing the back pack in one hand and Mokuba's wrist in the other. "C'mon!"
Mokuba let out a breathless laugh as they ran out of the gates and down the sidewalk to where the limo was waiting. People scattered at their advance, no doubt having seen the demonstration in the school yard and not wanting to end up horribly splatted or some such.
The limo driver saw them coming and hit the button for the back door to open. It didn't open up fast enough for them to get in comfortably, but they squeezed through, Jounouchi pulling the door shut after them. "Go!" Mokuba cheered at the driver, bouncing happily.
Thankfully, and almost gleefully, Jounouchi sometimes got the feeling that Mokuba's driver wanted to be an Indy sports car racer in a previous job, the driver did so, quickly leaving the school behind. Mokuba sprawled out on one of the limo's seats with a contented sigh. "It's Friday."
"So it is." Jounouchi grinned. Yay, weekend. Maybe they could actually get a chance to sleep in.
Mokuba suddenly sat up right, peering at him. "Nice outfit!" He grinned, pulling the sunglasses off of Jounouchi's head. His ears, freed from the glasses acting as sort of a head band to keep them pressed down and hidden, popped up. "Good disguise too. And it stayed on while you were fighting."
"Yeah, it was Yuugi's idea." Jounouchi grinned, tugging at the long sleeved shirt tied around his waist. it was slightly buttoned up, the tail hiding on the inside of it. It was kind of uncomfortable, the fabric kept bunching up at the base of his tail which was a pain, but it worked as effective camouflage. And as Mokuba pointed out, it worked while he was fighting.
Even if it did make him look like some sort of surfer bum. Yuugi had insisted he wear some of his old leather bracers buckled around his wrists to match the leather collar, to give him a more menacing look, but he still felt like he looked kind of silly, not like a threatening body guard.
"Have to thank him for it." Mokuba grinned, handing him his glasses back. "And hey, you can wear it while we're in America!"
Jounouchi did a double take. "AMERICA?!"
+++
+++ To Be Continued +++
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 03:49 am (UTC)Mai attempting to grope Jounouchi's ass.
but that's another chapter. ^^;
Glad you're enjoying it! XD
no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 12:27 am (UTC)Hey...!
Date: 2005-12-01 03:43 am (UTC)Re: Hey...!
Date: 2005-12-01 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 05:35 am (UTC)....and do I see a crossover with TGZ coming up? I mean, America and all that..... :D
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 07:08 am (UTC)A Wonkavator is the elevator Mr. Wonka uses to get around in the factory with. It doesn't just go up and down like a normal elevator, it can go sideways, back-ways, cross-ways and any other way you can think of ^.^
And that is a Wonkavator.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 09:41 am (UTC)You're right! He does!!! Hadn't realised that!! *laughs*
Sorry, heard 'Wonka' and thought 'Chocolate', which just didn't click. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 09:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 10:07 am (UTC)I don't know what I was thinking when we typed this up... it was just 'they get in the elevator and they go SIDEWAYS!! Just to freak Jounouchi out! MWUahahaa'.
-_- Yeah. We're not much brighter than that usually. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 07:34 am (UTC)Does it take voice commands? I mean, can you get inside it and just say "R&D" or "Marketing" or "Executive Director's Office"?
(Of course, if it does, I expect Jounouchi would go inside it and see whether it went anywhere if he said "Sickbay.")
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 08:34 am (UTC)*snickers*
He would too! XD
Um... honestly, I don't think it does take voice commands. If it is, I don't think Jounouchi's included in those... hmm...
Dammit, now you're making us think!!!