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[personal profile] ickaimp
Continuing from here and here

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Mokuba sighed, absently kicking at his chair leg as he picked at his food. Sitting next to him, at the head of the table, 'Niisama did the same. He'd hardly eaten anything all night, and said even less.

Which just seem to draw more attention to the fact that the the seat across from Mokuba was empty. The three of them usually at dinner together, 'Niisama at the head of the table, Mokuba sitting on his right and Jounouchi to the left. It was a long table in a huge room, and everyone together helped make it smaller.

Where ever Jounouchi was hiding, Mokuba was sure that he wasn't saying much either. He'd been quiet when he dropped Mokuba off at school this morning and even more quiet on the way back.

Which probably had something to do with the black eye the blond was sporting.

"You should apologise to him." He commented softly.

Noa had noticed the change in behaviour as well and had kept an eye on 'Niisama and Jounouchi throughout the day, from his limited access to the Kaiba computers. 'Niisama had worked like he always did, like it was the end of the world if he didn't finish what was on the desk. But Noa had noticed that occasionally 'Niisama would pause and stare into space. Not often, and not for long, but it was strange behaviour for those that knew him.

Jounouchi had hidden himself away in a computer lab he had access to in the Kaiba Corp headquarters, looking things up on the internet. They had a few servants, not like the fleet before they'd had before Death-T, that came in during the day to keep the house clean and cook dinner. The fewer people with access to their house, the less of a security risk.

The only time Jounouchi had left the lab, other than to pick up Mokuba, was to go up to 'Niisama's office and leave a sandwich and some juice for 'Niisama while 'Niisama had been out of the office for a business meeting.

He almost wished Noa had been able to hack into their security, just for a photograph of 'Niisama's face when he'd found that.

'Niisama frowned at him. "What makes you think I need to apologise to anyone?" He growled, but it was a weak attempt at best by 'Niisama's usual standards.

Mokuba smiled back. "Because if Jounouchi had done something bad, you'd be angry instead of looking like someone else had kicked your dog."

On second thought, he didn't need a photograph, because 'Niisama's face when he found the sandwich was probably similar to the expression he had now.

"I'm going to go do my homework." Mokuba announced, scooting his chair back and standing up. He grabbed his dinner plate as he did so, pausing long enough to kiss his brother on the cheek before retreating to the kitchen to put the plate in the sink. "G'night, 'Niisama."

He probably could have helped them patch things up, but 'Niisama had to learn sometime how to deal with other people on a personal level, besides barking orders.

And Jounouchi would probably forgive 'Niisama, once 'Niisama apologised.

Hopefully.


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Pieces of his heart were missing.

Yuugi, the Other Yuugi had shattered it. Taken it from his chest and broken it into pieces, like a puzzle that had to be put back together again.

But you couldn't complete the puzzle if you didn't have all of the pieces. The puzzle stared at him, holes in it staring back at him, mocking him with their emptiness.

Pieces of his heart were missing. There were holes in his heart. Incomplete.

He reached out, scrabbling around in the dark, trying to find the missing pieces, but there was nothing there. He was alone in the darkness.

Darkness....

Seto sat up in bed, wide awake and shaking from the nightmare as cold sweat trickled the back of his neck.

It was an old nightmare, one he'd been having ever since he'd woken up at the end of Duellist Kingdom. Six months. He'd spent six months in that darkness, trying to put the pieces of his heart back together again after Yuugi's Other Self had shattered it.

It was also a nightmare he hadn't had in quite a while. He hadn't had any nightmares to speak of for a while. At least none that had actually woken him up all the way. Usually Jounouchi or Mokuba were there, their presence either banishing the dreams entirely, or waking him up enough to drift out of them when he did have them.

He reached out, patting the bed next to him, where he would generally find Jounouchi's warm body, but found cold blankets instead. No Jounouchi, no Mokuba. He was alone.

For a moment, he wondered if he'd woken up at all, there was no difference between waking and dreaming. He was alone with only the darkness either away.

"Go back to sleep." A familiar voice drawled from the other side of the room.

Seto jumped slightly at the sudden noise, then masked it by reaching for the lamp on the night stand next to the bed. "Jounouchi?!"

The blond was straddling the computer chair next to the desk, blinked slowly at him as his half-lidded eyes adjusted to the light. The blond yawned, his tongue curling abnormally as he did so. "Go back ta sleep.'' Jounouchi repeated, resting his head on his folded arms on top of the chair's back, closing his eyes.

"What are you doing over there?" Seto asked dumbly.

"Sleepin'." Jounouchi growled. "M'not getting smacked again."

Oh. He flinched. His fault. ".... I apologise for that."

Jounouchi was quiet and for a moment he thought that the blond had fallen asleep. "... what?"

"I..." Was it really so hard to say? He grabbed the blanket, trapping the fabric in his fists. "I... apologise. For striking you."

They had hit each other before, during sparring. That was the nature of fighting. He'd hit people before too, with his fists, or his case, or what ever was laying around. But he'd never hurt someone on accident, there'd always been a reason or a purpose for the action.

He'd also never hit anyone that actually -mattered- before either.

Jounouchi's eyes were half-mast, the only sign that he was awake at all was a little glimmer of reflection from the lamp from under his lashes. "You... don't say that very often, do you?" The blond murmured, obviously not quite awake.

"I... no." He scrunched up the fabric in his hands more. There were going to be dents in the duvet later. "Rarely is there someone, some -thing- worth apologising for."

The body guard -had- said 'hold'. And he'd been too caught up in his thoughts to be paying attention to what they were actually doing.

"Heh." Jounouchi smiled. A slow lazy one that did funny things to Seto's stomach. "All right." The blond raised his head, propping it up with an arm. "You're forgiven. This time. Next time I won't be so easy on ya though."

"Ha." The tone was disdainful, but he could feel a smile of his own trying to creep out. Fortunately, he doubted the blond's night vision was good enough to actually see it.

"Hmm." The fond expression faded from Jounouchi's sleepy face, replaced by a more serious one. "I should apologise too. For bringing up Death-T. That's not who ya are anymore."

Seto's own smile faded as he gripped the duvet again. "But it is a part of who I am." Not one of the nicer, kinder parts, not that there were many of those, but he believed in being able to look at himself, his past, head on and without flinching. They were all choices he had made with his own will. They had been the wrong choices, but they were still choices he had made. To deny that was both idiotic and futile.

Jounouchi looked at him, and for a moment, he wondered what Jounouchi saw. The angry self-assured boy of five years ago, or the person he was today? A combination of the both?

There were very few people he could say had seen him at his worst and his best and still stood by him. Mokuba was one of them. Jounouchi was another. So was Yuugi.

"Did you ever hear about how Yuugi got his puzzle?" Jounouchi asked, apparently at random.

"No." He relaxed his hands, pressing his palms against the formerly bunched up fabric.

"Yuugi's 'Jiichan gave it to him. To Yuugi, it was his treasure. He worked on it for eight years before he completed it, in order to gain a wish."

He'd gotten a severe case of schizophrenia instead, in Seto's opinion. "Did he get it?"

"Yeah." Jounouchi grinned fondly. "'Something you have seen, but cannot see'."

A riddle. Not his Other Self then, because even the casual observer could see the difference in the two. "I see."

That startled a chuckle out of the blond. "No, ya don't." The words were friendly, taking the sting out of the slight rebuke. "Ask him about it sometime, when he's in a good mood. But my point is... I spent a lot of time thinking about this today. How old were you when Gozaburou adopted ya?"

"Ten." That was an apparently random question.

"That was what, six years before we metcha, right?"

"Yes. I had taken over the corporation six months before." An apparently random question to be followed by a completely random thread of conversation.

"Mokuba told me once that yer folks died when you were eight."

"... Yes." That was when he had taken over caring for Mokuba.

Jounouchi's eyes glittered, like he had just spotted a weakness in a player's strategy. "That's eight years."

He was completely missing the point. "So?"

"So... I'd think that at the end of eight years struggling by yourself as a kid ta fix things, you should get a wish of your own."

Seto just stared at Jounouchi. A -wish-?

"Sometimes..." Jounouchi smiled sadly at him, like he understood the confusion. "Sometimes when dealin' with people, you just have to tell them what you want."

A wish. "And... if people don't want the same thing?" He asked, feeling slightly dizzy, the blood rushing through his head as he stared at the dark fabric of the duvet. It was the night, the lateness of the hour. He'd never consider this even entertaining the question in daylight.

"You won't know until you ask." Jounouchi's voice was soft, almost coaxing. "If you could have one wish... one thing in the entire world... what would you wish for?"

"I...." The business man in him immediately declared wealth. Power. No one could touch him or his if he was powerful enough. If he was strong enough to protect himself and Mokuba.

But Mokuba was growing up now. He was strong in his own way, stronger than Seto. Mokuba didn't need his protection quite as much any more.

"I want..."

And he had all the money he could want. He had more than he knew what to do with really, once you got past all the spread sheets and accountants.

Power he had. Same with success. Fame, if he so chose to grasp it.

"I want..."

What did he want? He had everything anyone could want in this day and age. Didn't he?

"I don't want to be alone."

It took him moment to realise what he said. That he had spoken it at all. Startled, he turned towards Jounouchi, who was looking at him with a bland expression on his face.

Silence. He could feel his heart beat in his chest. Weak, he could hear Gozaburou's voice rebuking him. Weak idiot. The strong never relied on anyone except themselves. That was something a child would say, not a twenty year old man.

But once said, he couldn't take the words back.

Finally, after a small eternity in the near-darkness, Jounouchi let out a small breath. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay." Jounouchi smiled warmly at him. "Go back to sleep, Kaiba."

Seto hesitated, his limbs wanting to move in two directions at once before he finally just lay back down. There didn't seem to be anything further he could think of to say. There was probably something, but his mind was too mixed up to do so at the moment. He turned off the light, pulling the covers up to his neck.

Silence. Just the darkness. Perhaps this really all was just a dream. Wishes didn't happen.

Then the bed moved, Jounouchi's bulk moving to it's usual place on the bed. "Stop thinking so damn hard." Jounouchi grumbled sleepily. Seto grunted back. How could he -not-. Jounouchi reached out and gave him a slight push, not enough to actually move him, but enough to realise that the blond was in arm's reach. "Keep forgetting yer younger than Mokuba." Jounouchi commented.

"I am not."

"Emotionally, ya are. That time with jerk-face Gozaburou, ya stopped feeling things with yer heart, didn't ya?"

That was... an extremely odd but accurate observation.

Silence was taken as assent. "Right. So you're younger than Mokuba, emotionally." He didn't have to look to know Jounouchi was grinning. "So... really... you're just hitting emotional puberty. Gonna start noticing girls now?"

He reached out and gave Jounouchi a shove of his own, like when Mokuba, Yuugi and Jounouchi were teasing each other. "Unlikely." For one thing, he had apparently started to notice one person in particular, who happened to be -male-. For another, most women in his acquaintance were only in his acquaintance because they wanted something in one form or another.

... actually, that could be said of most people in his acquaintance.... Although most people in his acquaintance were also employees, and they wanted paycheques.

Jounouchi not quite giggled, but it was the closest description Seto could think of for the happy sound. The sound faded, replaced by silence again. It wasn't an all consuming silence like it had been when he'd woken up, it was more of a muted sensation.

He belatedly realised he hadn't removed his hand from Jounouchi's side either. "You can sleep under the blankets." He commented softly. "If you want."

The blond stirred slightly, probably mostly asleep again. "Ask me that..." Jounouchi yawned. "... on another night. It's been a long day."

Part of him was bizarrely grateful. If Jounouchi had taken him up on his offer to actually -share- the bed, he would probably wonder later if it had been a lapse in judgement in a moment of weakness. The rest of him, however, was illogically disappointed.

"G'night, Kaiba." Jounouchi whispered, his voice heavy with sleep, one of his hands resting on Seto's arm, trapping it there. "Pleasant dreams."

"Sleep well, Jounouchi." He listened as Jounouchi's breathing evened out, falling into it's usual night time pattern. And eventually he fell asleep listening to it.

When he woke up again, moments before his alarm went off as was his usual wont, he was certain that he had dreamed the whole thing, a sign of an over taxed mind brought on by an extremely long day.

Except that when he rolled over, he found Jounouchi still in his bed, fast asleep on top of the duvet, still holding on to Seto's arm.


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Up next on the YGO front is either we go back and finish the section with Jounouchi's sister, or we go on and we find out what happened with Yuugi after his Other Self left at the end of the series.

And then something silly, dammit!!!

Date: 2006-04-04 03:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dogmatix-san.livejournal.com
awwwww. :)

He'd also never hit anyone that actually -mattered- before either.
Uhhhhh.... Mokuba. Repeatedly. For good reason, what with diverting Gozaburo's attention and all, but... yeah. Also insulted Mokuba and, coming up on Death-T, tried his best to dive his little brother away from him. Also left him to die after the duel in Death-T. Admittedly this was right before Yuugi-oh did the whole heart shattering thing, so he was at his worst right there, but... yeah.

Date: 2006-04-04 08:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ickaimp.livejournal.com
That's true, the whole flashback in the Noa story arch, where he hit Mokuba, Mokuba joined Gozaburou, then changed sides so his brother could take over...
I always got the feeling that was staged... hmm...

Should I change that to 'accident'? Usually when he hit someone, he HITS someone, and it's on purpose. (think there's a running joke on one of the YGO forums about Seto and his breifcase of doom, and him using everything that's NOT a weapon as a weapon as he refuses to touch 'real' weapons)

Yeah, now that I have some of the Death-T scans... brrrrr...

Date: 2006-04-04 04:32 am (UTC)
ext_97246: (wicked)
From: [identity profile] vera-dicere.livejournal.com
oo yay! progress!! kinda wish we'd had some of jou's thoughts about that conversation...would be interesting to see what's going on in his head- as far as thoughts of kaiba and his wish. they're so cute!

Date: 2006-04-04 08:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ickaimp.livejournal.com
#^^# Cute is something that you don't hear very often used around Kaiba Seto...

Actually, Jou's thoughts were running along the fact that he's got not such a nice history as well... he's broken jaws and possibly killed people before.
He was also in a gang that we don't know what he did in, but the gang showed up later with tazers. And yo-yos.
But we don't talk about the yo-yos.

And I kinda think he knew what Seto's wish was gonna be, not sure. *scratches head* Generally if it's from one character's POV, I don't get the others. ^^;; Otherwise he wouldn't have offered.

Date: 2006-04-04 07:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] misskat.livejournal.com
on a different note :) the coat didnt sell. wanna come over and try it on sometime. im leaving for auckland on monday, so before then. if u like it, say $30?ish

Date: 2006-04-04 08:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ickaimp.livejournal.com
Sweet as. Any time in particular to meet?

Date: 2006-04-04 08:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] misskat.livejournal.com
oh what u doing tomorrow? i can take it into coffee with me (was cancelled today due to bad weather) i will be at the usual place after 1.30pm ?

Date: 2006-04-04 08:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ickaimp.livejournal.com
Sounds like a plan to me. ^____^

Date: 2006-04-04 08:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] faerydragonet.livejournal.com
Hey! Something funny to read.

http://faerydragonet.livejournal.com/97537.html

Date: 2006-04-05 02:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tinitinytina.livejournal.com
Hey Icka? Randomness, but that Al is not a Dildo icon...is that referring to FMA?

Date: 2006-04-05 06:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ickaimp.livejournal.com
Um... no... actually it was in reference to the fact that Al kinda looks like a dildo in some chibi-pics.
And all those spikes on him are not to be used as sex toys. #^^#

Date: 2006-04-05 06:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tinitinytina.livejournal.com
Well...I meant is this the character from FMA?

Date: 2006-04-05 10:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ickaimp.livejournal.com
Yeah, that's Alphonse. Scanned him from either volume 7 or 8.

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Icka! M. Chif

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