Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Digimon Fan Fiction / Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction / Tokyo Babylon Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction / Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Silver and Cold ❯ Aw, Bloody Hell ( Chapter 3 )

Title: Silver and Cold

Chapter: 3/?

Chapter Title: Aw, Bloody Hell

Current Rating: Still PG-13 (For blood! Blood!!)

Author: YumeRyu

Archive: FF, Dragon's Lair, AFF, Mediaminer

Genre: Uhm...

Chapter Summary: The others get to see Jouno's neck wound, and then... Jouno goes for a walk. A long walk. And then there's blood. Lots of blood.

Disclaimer: Don't worry, I don't own them... yet.

Author's notes: Uhm, I'm kinda mean to Jouno in this chapter... And honestly, it didn't turn out as gut wrenching as I had wanted it too...

Warnings: For this chapter? Blood. Lots of blood. And ouchies. And more blood. (Okay, I might be exaggerating...)

Timeline: AUish, after Noa Arc. Some years later.

~*~*~*~*~*~

~Life

Like the flutter of wings

Feel your hollow bones rushing

Into me

As you're longing to say

So I

I will paint you in silver

I will wrap you in cold

I will lift up your forces aside~

~~Silver and Cold

"So," Honda paced beside Jounouchi, following his beeline to an outside table, the same one at which their other friends sat in various states of relaxation. Said friends waved at them, gesturing them closer. Yuugi and Otogi, sitting opposite of each other, looked to be playing some sort of new game that Jounouchi hadn't even had the chance to try yet.

"So what?" Jouno asked sourly, in a somewhat foul mood. It would have been just fine, if it hadn't been for the fact that he had had a test to take the day before, so it wasn't exactly in the best of moods in which he approached the usual table. Freshmen scattered at his mere presence, so heavy was the dark cloud hanging around him. It seemed that the only one that didn't notice was Honda, who pestered him over the bandage wrapped around his throat.

"So, what happened? Kaiba said 'neck injury'. I was half-expecting a neck brace." Honda leaned right into his face. It was one of those things Jounouchi hated for people to do to him. With their face so close, he couldn't see the rest of them, especially the hands, and it always made him nervous. Not that he didn't trust his friend... it was purely instinctive. "What kind of 'neck injury', anyway? Can I see?"

"No! Can't you jest let it be fer once!?" he yelled, exasperated. Honda was one of those people who could never leave 'well enough' alone. Of course, if it weren't for that, he would never have even become friends with the tall and stocky brunette.

"Not really," murmured Yuugi, looking up from his game with Otogi. "We're your friends, so we worry about you." Huge amethyst eyes glittered at him, and he was reminded of Kaiba's story. One would have thought that some sort of vampire cum stalker would be much more interested in Yuugi than in Jouno.

He deflated. Just a word from Yuugi, and all of the anger just... dissipated. "Yuug'... you should be a diplomat. 'Cause ya know how to ruin someone's anger with just a phrase." It was vaguely frustrating at times, but it seemed to work on almost everybody... so who was he to complain?

Honda scratched his head. "I thought that was Anzu's line, Yuugi." His attention focused back onto Jounouchi. "So..."

Jouno sighed, "You really want to know?"

The denizens of the table leaned forward.

"I had a tragic accident with a blender," he said insincerely.

Yuugi tipped his head to the side. "Somehow, I'm not really sure why, but I don't believe that. You're not a good liar, Jouno-kun."

Jounouchi sat down in the place next to the diminutive duelist. He put his face to his hands, mumbling between his fingers, "You wouldn't believe it, even if I told you... Let's just say I got bitten by a... well, you all believe in ghosts, right?"

Honda leaned in again, eagerly. "Can I see?"

"Fine," Jounouchi muttered, leaning his head back and pulling the bandages up and away from the wound. "Nasty, huh?"

"God, how did that... it looks burnt too," Honda murmured sympathetically. "Burns are terrible, and on the neck... God that had to have hurt like hell..."

Anzu cringed away, wincing, as Yuugi turned a light shade of green. There were several gasps from further down the table, as others leaned forward to get a look. Mai refused to even look at it. "If I wanted to see that kind of thing, I'd watch more TV."

"Ouch," was all Otogi had to say about it.

Jouno pulled the bandages back into place, aware of Kaiba staring at him from the not-so-distant cover of several nearby trees.

Otogi gave him a Cheshire Cat grin, "Looks like Kaiba's worried about you."

"Screw off," said Jouno, without any heat. After Yuugi's 'Friends' declaration, the urge to pick a fight had utterly left him. He stared back at the brunette leaning against a cherry tree. "He's the one who made sure I was okay... and I think I gotta talk to him fer a minute, 'kay, guys? Then I'm leavin'. Took that damned test, and I wanna get out of here."

He was aware of the confused sets of eyes on his back as he walked over to Kaiba.

Kaiba's eyes were on him as well, even as he paused next to him. "So, are you guarding the barrow (1)?"

"What are you smoking?" was Kaiba's acidic reply.

"There's supposed ta be this guy that guards the bodies buried under the sakura." Jounouchi smiled slightly. "You're gonna have to start reading on that kind of thing. The lack of knowledge on such a subject... when the knowledge may be to your advantage... Let's jest say that I'm disappointed in you."

Kaiba snorted softly, then frowned. "You're rarely so sarcastic. Are you feeling well?"

"I'm alright. I'm gonna take off though. I ain't in the mood to hang around here... 'kay?" Jounouchi grinned, to prove that he was just fine.

"What did you tell them?"

"Jest said that they must believe in ghosts, right?" he chuckled, waving at Kaiba as he walked away. "See ya!" he called out, loudly enough for everyone in the near vicinity, and beyond, to hear.

~*~

A silver nimbus of light followed a lanky figure through the woods outside of Domino. It was cold, and he hadn't gone home to get a warmer jacket, so he kept walking at a brisk pace that would keep him warmer than he would be otherwise. He wondered if anyone had told his father what had happened. Then he wondered if his poor overworked father had even noticed that he had been gone for two nights, and tonight would be the third, without so much as a word.

It was one of the things that made Jounouchi regret staying in school. It was against the rules of Domino High to have an after school job (2). That way, he couldn't do anything to help his father pay for everything.

A slight shift in the air, and Jouno thought that he could hear Nox sighing. A brush of icy air ruffled his hair, and the moonlight _rippled_. A shiver ran up his spine as a deeper breath of sound escaped into the night. He nearly jumped out of his skin at the nearby sound of a wolf howling. He growled. "Damn Lizard Brain (3)." He really shouldn't be so jumpy.

He stared up at the moon and scowled. Three moon dogs. Again. And this time, the moon was completely full. If it had meant bad luck that night... The wolf howled again and he set off running in the direction of town. He skidded to a halt as something silvery flashed through the shadows ahead of him. 'Not now, not now!' He backed away as the creature came forward. A huge wolf, three and a half feet at the shoulder, stalked toward him from the shadows. It circled partially around him, eyes lit with an unnatural gleam.

According to his training, it was bad to let the enemy out of sight... ever. He leaned forward, and pulled two of his butterflies (4). He circled with the wolf, unable to properly back away. This creature before him... Whatever it was, there was something about the wolf that was wrong. On such a deep level that the 'Lizard Brain' screamed continuously about it.

The wolf circled closer, then lunged toward him, the unnatural gleam turning to an unholy glow. Everything slowed down, and Jounouchi turned to the side, jamming one of his stainless steel blades into the wolf's chest. A spray of blood, and the butterfly in his other hand went flying. That was a secondary concern though, as he was driven into the ground with such force that he could feel the bones in his shoulder shatter.

A strangled scream wrenched itself from his throat as blood splattered in every direction. His jaw clenched as he swallowed his voice. His head lolled to the side, and he was greeted by the sight of his now ruined shoulder. White shone amongst a river of red-black. Nausea rose and he couldn't breath.

Black creeped around the edge of his vision and his mind blanked but for two things: panic and pain. A flash of bluish light, and then the darkness completely overtook him.

~*~

Kaiba Seto had stopped pacing in his bedroom a little over an hour ago, and was currently pacing down the street. He'd managed to get a hold of Jounouchi Sr., but Jouno's old man hadn't seen him since before the park. Apparently, he hadn't even realized that his son was missing.

Kaiba's feet moved faster, as he followed his nose. Jounouchi had a distinct scent, a lot different than that of most people, and a very pleasant one at that. Yet... he could find the scent in some places, but generally, these were only places that Jouno had hung out at a lot. The scent would fade as soon as he tried to follow it.

He growled when he realized that he stood at the top of a wall... before realizing that he had just run up it with so little trouble that he hadn't even recognized the change in scenery until he stopped. He sighed, plopping down on the roof's edge. Well, there was something to try out. Test his newfound capabilities while looking for the missing blonde.

~*~

It was nearly dawn when he finally caught scent of Jounouchi Katsuya. He was on the edge of town when the sharp scent of blood attacked his senses. It was really strong, and that generally meant that there was a lot of it. Following the scent was as easy as if there had been a visible trail of it, leading back to it's owner. His heart clenched in his chest, a nearly physical pain, at the thought of what could have caused such an amount of blood loss.

In no time he had reached Jouno, and was shocked to see the blonde still standing. He staggered forward, towards Kaiba, though it was obvious that he couldn't see the CEO. His honey-brown eyes were glazed over, in either pain or shock, and his entire left side was drenched with blood. And the right side wasn't in much better condition, unless Kaiba's eyes were wrong. The position of his right shoulder and the entire placement of his right arm just screamed -WRONG!-. Blood covered the right shoulder to a lesser degree, and there was something...

Jouno's dragging feet caught on a limb and he fell forward, right into Kaiba's arms, as the billionaire had charged forward in order to catch him.

This close, the smell of blood was both intoxicating and just plain too much for him to handle. He nearly passed out at the heady smell. And for the third time in as many days, (other than briefly,) he lifted Jounouchi into his arms. He balanced the other teen carefully, pulling out a cell phone, in order to call an ambulance. Then he realized that he could probably get Jounouchi to the hospital before an ambulance had time to reach them.

There was so much blood that the front of his shirt was already soaked with it. With a rather sour smirk, he told the quiescent form in his arms, "Hang on." And then he ran like he never had before.

~*~*~*~*~*~

(1) The cherry barrow. There is a Japanese superstition that says that the reason a cherry tree's petals are pink is that the tree feeds off of corpses buried beneath it. If one watches Tokyo Babylon, or X/1999, Sakurazuka Seishirou was the "guardian of the cherry barrow", or Sakurazukamori.

(2) In the manga, Anzu had gotten an after school job, and it was mention that it was against school rules.

(3) The part of the brain that holds the instincts.

(4) Butterflies, as in butterfly knives.

~*~

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