[fic] YGO: Guard Dog Con't

[ickaimp]

Mentioned on i_recommend_jxk that the fic is updated on Mischif.net.

Ha. Now we've got more. *ded*

Continued from here.
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Stupid stupid stupid Kaiba, Jounouchi growled to himself as he stormed out of the shower, rubbing a damp towel of the shaggy mess of hair the covered his head. He paused and mentally re-wrote the comment to include the words 'jerk', 'ratface' and 'bastard' in there too.

Stupid Kaiba had woken him up at an UNGODLY hour of the morning, ungodly even if they hadn't been up late chasing the media, to spar.

Jounouchi figured something must have pissed off Ol Blue Eyes after he went to sleep because the elder Kaiba appeared to be in some sort of snit. Or at least intently focused on creeping the hell out of Jounouchi, cause not only did Ol Blue Eyes want to spar, he wanted to spar -outside-, in front of the -media-, without shirts.

Okay, maybe not the last part. Jounouchi had been wearing his gi, he'd slipped his arms out of the sleeves, hiding his tail and tying a plain white hachimaki over his forehead, pinning his ears and hoping no one had a zoom lens. Kaiba had responded by taking off his shirt, leaving just the dark sweatpants and the black bracers on his arms and his own black hachimaki over his forehead, so they kind of matched in a 'Light and Dark' sort of way.

He'd thought that was vaguely amusing until Kaiba informed him that they were practising pins and holds today. When he'd glanced at the people with cameras hidden on the other side of the fence, the bastard had smirked and commented that as Mokuba's bodyguard, Jounouchi should get more pins than Kaiba.

He had too. But both of them were going to have bruises for days for practising on asphalt without any sort of padding. And this was probably going to end up on news too, the bastard. Or the very least, the tabloids.

Geh. Shizuka read the tabloids. He was going to get an earful for this.

He tossed the the towel down in disgust, grateful that Mokuba was still in the kitchen, so didn't have to put up with his grumbling. Last thing he wanted to do was pit the brothers against each other, even accidentally. The only one who'd lose from that would be him.

And dammit, he had started to think that he and Kaiba were possibly, POSSIBLY starting to get along a little better. Yeah, right.

Just as he was reaching into his suitcase to pull out clothing, he noticed something on his bed. A neatly folded pile of blue and white clothing. Curious, he picked it up the top item and unfolded it.

It was a white baseball jersey, bold blue lettering across the chest proclaiming 'Dragons'. Under that was a baseball shirt with blue sleeves, a baseball cap and at the very bottom, a genuine wood Louisville Slugger.

Jounouchi plopped the baseball cap backwards on his head, checking the heft and the weight of the baseball bat and grinned. Oh, yeah. Just right for pounding paparazzi.

Some days, Jounouchi just LOVED working for Kaiba Corp.


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The conversation was going no where fast. The meeting was going no where fast.

Seto was loosing his temper fast.

Tenma Gekkou, Pegasus' heir, on the other hand, kept smiling blandly at him as if all of this could be solved through a nice cup of tea. Seto really really REALLY wanted to wipe that mild expression off the pale haired bastard's face.

And if he was told to 'calm down' and that they could 'solve this like reasonable adults' one more time he was going to... Well, he didn't know what he was going to do, but it was going to be violent, bloody and messy. Very, very messy.

The conference room door opened with a loud bang, causing both of them to startle. It was Jounouchi, quite literally kicking the door down, much to the shock and horror of the security officers behind him. The blond was dressed in the baseball clothing Seto had left for him, grinning broadly in a maniacal sort of way, a large submarine sandwich slung over one shoulder, the baseball bat tucked under an arm.

"LUNCH TIME!" Jounouchi cheered, slamming the sandwich down on the tabletop between Seto and Pegasus. He gave them both a wide grin that showed -way- too many sharp teeth. "Eat. Or else."

And with that merry message, he sauntered out of the room, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

Tenma blinked theatrically, his expression changing for the first time, into one of startled shock. "Your wife is incredibly bossy, isn't he?"

Seto thought about it for a moment. He should argue that Jounouchi wasn't his wife. He should argue that Jounouchi wasn't his anything at all, much less his. He should get angry, rise to the bait and simply argue anything at all, really.

But he was tired of trying to play Tenma's games, he was tired of getting no where and he was simply tired and wanted to go home.

Perhaps a change of tactics was called for.

"Yes he is." He agreed mildly unwrapping the sandwich. As he had thought, it was pre-cut into sections ready to eat. "Sandwich?"

Tenma looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then agreed.

Things progressed much more smoothly after that.

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Jounouchi's mobile phone went off.

Yuugi sighed. Currently, Jounouchi was fast asleep, his head on Yuugi's lap. The blond had wandered in a few hours ago, talking animatedly about their recent trip to America.

That had lasted only a short amount of time before the blond had begun to drift off, hence their current position. The Kaiba Corp plane had arrived in Japan in time to drop Mokuba off from school and Jounouchi hadn't slept yet.

If anyone was to come in, they'd probably get the wrong idea. Traditionally, lending someone your lap was an intimate act, something reserved for married or dating couples. But Jounouchi had always been there for him, ready with a hug or a shoulder to cry on or anything else he needed. Lending a lap to sleep on was the least he could do. It wasn't intimacy, it was just the way their friendship worked.

However, reaching into Jounouchi's pants pocket to retrieve his mobile phone, THAT was intimate. He blushed as he did so. Only two people, Kaiba and Mokuba, had this phone number. Maybe Isono, Kaiba's right hand, but he doubted that.

"Moshi Moshi." He flipped open the phone, bracing himself for an annoyed Kaiba. Instead he was shocked to realise two things.

One, Jounouchi's mobile had visual capabilities. He could see the person calling on the screen.

Two, it wasn't Kaiba OR Mokuba.

"Noa-kun?" The green haired boy on the screen looked as embarrassed and nervous as Yuugi felt.

"Um... Hi." Noa's eyes glanced around the monitor, as if he could see past the screen. "Is Jounouchi-kun there?"

"He's asleep." Yuugi replied stupidly, then tilted the camera down so Noa could see.

"Oh. Oh!" In the screen, Noa's cheeks turned pink. "I'm sorry to interrupt, I didn't mean to, I... I..."

"What's wrong, Noa-kun?" Yuugi asked, his own discomfort set aside in the face of Noa's. "Is there something I can help you with instead?"

"I... um..." Noa sighed. "I just called to talk to Jounouchi. It's nothing."

"Noa-kun." Yuugi scolded. Something was obviously worrying the boy. Jounouchi had explained once, on pain of death if he told anyone, that Mokuba was trying to resurrect his brother. Jounouchi had wanted to get Yuugi's opinion on it, seeing as Yuugi was one of the people that Noa had almost killed in the virtual world. Yuugi still wasn't quite sure what he felt about Noa's return, but he wasn't going to sit by if he could do something to help someone. "What's wrong?"

"It's just... I'm -dead-." Yuugi ached silently at the amount of anguish and conflict in the green haired boy's voice. "And yet... And yet, here I am, talking to you."

Yuugi nodded. That didn't sound so strange to him, he'd had an ancient Pharaoh stuck in his head for quite a while that he'd talked to on a regular basis. But then, the Ancient Egyptians seemed to have an odd out look on the after life compared to modern times. If you failed judgement against the feather of Ma'at, you were eaten by Ammt. If you passed, your life continued on much the way it was in the real world, with your friends and loved ones who had pass judgement as well. "Yes."

"But I've been dead for over nine years now." Noa looked down. "My last memories, keeping my fa- keeping Gozaburou from leaving the virtual world were finally finished being restored today. I was DEAD. I knew it, I accepted it, was even a little happy, because I was doing the right thing. And here I am, I'm back."

"Do you want to be back?" Yuugi questioned. That seemed to be the tricky part. If Noa didn't want to be here, there wasn't much that could keep him here. And yet, something that was alive generally strove to stay alive.

"Yes. No. I don't know." Noa sighed, gripping his forehead with a hand in a gesture that was eerily similar to Kaiba when he couldn't figure something out. "Why am I HERE?!"

The flip answer probably would have been 'why are any of us here?', which was something that each person had to ask and answer for themselves. But Noa had been killed, then re-created, now created for a third time. "I think.... It's because of several reasons." He said slowly.

Blue eyes stared at him like a drowning man failing for a life line. Yuugi smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "But mainly, I think it's because of Mokuba-kun."

"Mokuba?!" Yuugi almost laughed, the green haired boy looked like someone had hit him over the head with a baseball bat.

"Yes, Mokuba." Yuugi took a moment to collect his thoughts, running his fingers through the long fringe that covered Jounouchi's face. "From what Jounouchi-kun has told me, Mokuba's been working on bringing you back since he met you. You're his brother, just like Kaiba-kun, and that's all that matters to him. He doesn't want to see you trapped in the Virtual Realm."

"But if I'm dead, it shouldn't matter." Noa's expression turn perplexed. "I'm not even his real brother. Why should it matter to him at all? I -used- him, turned him against his brother and stole his body!"

"And gave it back and saved us all." Yuugi chided gently. Noa's face dropped. "You're going to have to talk to Mokuba-kun about that, Noa-kun. I don't know what is in Mokuba's brain, I can only guess."

Noa was silent.

"I think..." Yuugi said slowly after Noa didn't say anything for a while. "That really, Mokuba-kun is lonely."

That got a reaction. "Lonely?"

"From what Jounouchi-kun tells me, Mokuba-kun doesn't have many close friends." Yuugi set the phone down on the couch's arm rest. It felt awkward talking while holding the phone like that. "Most of us that he does hang out with are his brother's age, we're all five years older than him. On top of which, Mokuba-kun is a Kaiba, and not many people can understand that. Can you still see okay?"

"Yeah, I can see you. But... " Noa nodded, then frowned thoughtfully. "I'm really the same age as Seto."

"Minus the these past three years-?"

"I'd be.... oh." Noa's eyes went wide. "Sixteen. Mokuba's..."

"Turning fifteen soon." Yuugi smiled. "Not so much of an age difference."

Noa looked down, presumably at his virtual body. "I think... it may be time for me to grow up a little."

A new appearance would probably heal some bad memories for all of them as well. "Talk to Mokuba-kun." Yuugi agreed. "And Noa-kun?"

"Yes?"

"I don't think you have to worry about disappearing again for a long time." Now that Mokuba had Noa back again, he wasn't going to let go any time soon.

Dragons were like that.

Noa smiled back, a look of awed relief on his face. Yuugi smiled back. Or perhaps it was that the green haired boy was trapped in a cycle of rebirth until he found Nirvana. Just a much faster cycle of rebirth than most people attained...

Yuugi shifted the topic away to other things, answering questions and clarifying things that had changed since Noa had last been aware. It wasn't just the past three years that Noa was unaware of, but nearly the last decade, since his physical death. He had truly been isolated in the the Virtual World. No wonder he had gone mad.

He was surprised when Mokuba appeared, quietly sneaking into the room. A glance at the clock revealed that a couple of hours had passed since they had started talking and that Jounouchi's cellphone was almost out of power.

"Noa called me." Mokuba whispered, sliding off his backpack. "Said that Jounouchi was here."

"He is." Yuugi agreed. "And thank you, Noa-kun."

"Welcome." Noa smiled.

"Noa!" Mokuba's face lit up with a wide grin. "How did you-?"

"I figured out how to place a phone call." Noa smiled back, raising a finger to tap the screen from the inside out in an 'ET phone home' gesture. "Yuugi-kun and I have been talking."

"I'm glad." Mokuba looked relieved.

"I'll see you when you get home, Mokuba! Later, Yuugi! And thanks!" Noa waved, then disappeared, the screen going blank. The mobile chirped, informing them that it was out of battery power, then shut itself down.

"How long has Jounouchi been asleep?" Mokuba questioned, kneeling down to peer at the blond.

"Most of this afternoon." Yuugi frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so." Mokuba rested his hand against Jounouchi's forehead, his other hand on his own head. "The average adult is supposed to get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. The average dog gets between ten and thirteen, so it could be that he needs more sleep than most people do now. And he really didn't sleep much on the plane."

"Jounouchi-kun has always slept more than most people I know." Yuugi commented, half teasing.

He got a brief smile from Mokuba in return. But the truth of the matter was that they still weren't completely sure of what all the effects on Jounouchi were. The doctors said he was 'stable', but that didn't necessarily mean that he was always going to be so. For all they knew, he could be dissolving from the inside out and they wouldn't know until it was too late.

Jounouchi made a grumbling sound, rubbing his cheek against the leather of Yuugi's pants leg and muttering about tennis balls. Yuugi raised an eyebrow and Mokuba shrugged.

"Jounouchi-kun." Yuugi leaned forward, shaking his blond friend's shoulder. "Jounouchi-kun, time to wake up. Mokuba-kun is here."

"Nuh? Mokuba?" Jounouchi's eyes opened blearily for a moment, then he sat straight up. "Mokuba! Holy shit, I'm late to pick him up!"

"I'm here." Mokuba pointed out dryly.

"Oh." Jounouchi slumped back against the sofa with a yawn. "Sorry, Mokuba. I could have sworn I set an alarm..."

"Noa-kun probably turned it off." Yuugi assured him, his legs suddenly cold without Jounouchi's body heat. He stretched, finding they were partially asleep too. Ow.

"Still..." Jounouchi frowned. He took his job as protecter seriously.

Mokuba straightened as much as he could while still kneeling, looking serious. Or as serious as he could while trying not to laugh. "Just don't let it happen again, Jounouchi-kun."

"Your brother would kill me." Jounouchi agreed, looking properly apologetic until he grinned and stretched. "Oh, that feels good. So, what did I miss?"

"Yuugi playing councillor to Noa." Mokuba said cheerfully.

"I was not." Yuugi muttered, turning slightly red. "He just had some questions. About death and other things."

"I'm not surprised he would ask you about that." Mokuba poked Yuugi's black tank top. "Mr. Wears All Black and Egypt-y."

Jounouchi let out a bark of laughter, covering his face with a hand. Yuugi felt his face turn even more red. "Uh, Mokuba-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"To Egyptians, Black wasn't the colour of Death." The Nile flooded it's banks every spring, leaving behind a layer of fertile black soil that they then grew their crops to survive on. "... It was the colour of Fertility."

Mokuba's eyes went wide. "...Oh."

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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

*hearts* Just what I needed after my low-grades induced grounding from the computer. Of course, THAT didn't last very long seeing as how if I hadn't snuck on you wouldn't be reading this...

*HEARTS again* <3!!! =D!