Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ An Argument with Kaiba Seto ❯ Contrivance 4 ( Chapter 4 )

An Argument With Kaiba Seto

By Shella

-^-^-^-^-^-

Contrivance 4.

The second Jounouchi put his hand on the cafeteria door, he knew. Call it instinct, call it precognition, call it a taxi cos it wants to go home, he just knew. There were some things you picked up after hanging around Domino High for a few years, and a knack for predicting food fights was one of them.

Honda, Yugi and Anzu were already on their way out, having sensed the impending disaster and taken proactive steps to prevent bad smells and, consequently, small furry animals from hanging around them for the rest of the day. Yugi caught sight of Jounouchi across the room and made a complex series of signals that he guessed were supposed to convey something like, "Meet us outside, we're not abandoning you, there's going to be a food fight and Anzu says she'd rather not get soy sauce in her hair cos she just washed it, be careful Jounouchi-kun."

The blonde wasn't certain exactly how Yugi managed to add an honourific to his name using cross-cafeteria sign language, but whatever.

He waved in acknowledgement and made his way over to the lunch line, keeping an eye on the most dangerous tables as he did so. Analyzing the projectile qualities and air speed velocities of various types of food, as well as which students were likely to utilize these properties, occupied his attention so that he didn't notice who he was standing next to until he smelled his own aftershave on someone else.

"Watch it, mutt, that's my foot you're standing on."

Jounouchi jumped, then glared. "Well maybe if you didn't have such big ugly clown feet they wouldn't get in my way."

Kaiba smirked and moved along in the line. Almost helplessly, Jounouchi moved with him, just a little closer than necessary. His shoulder brushed against that of the brunette standing beside him, and he planted his heel squarely on said brunette's instep.

He reflected, as he tried to make the little birds stop running in circles around his head long enough to let him figure out which way was up, that it might not have been an extremely smart thing to do. However, Kaiba was favouring his left foot slightly as he replaced the metal tray he'd encouraged to make acquaintance with Jounouchi's head, and that made him think that perhaps it might have been worth it.

"D'you want to sit with us?" he offered, once he'd regained his feet and his inner ears had stopped trying to tell him he was actually waltzing on the ceiling.

"Duck," Kaiba answered, as he stepped - hid? - behind the vending machine.

"Huh?"

SPLAT.

*That's not good* thought Jounouchi, and reached up. Sure enough, there was something in his hair. Judging from the texture, it was either sticky rice or I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Meatloaf. Jounouchi groaned.

Kaiba snickered. "I told you to duck," he said mockingly. "What's the matter, all that shaggy fur getting in your ears, puppy?"

In response, Jounouchi schlopped off a generous quantity of the stuff and held it up to Kaiba's face. "Are you asking me to stuff this in your mouth?" he growled.

"Not unless you want to get it back yourself," came the purring reply.

Jounouchi gulped and dumped the handful of goop onto his tray, glancing around nervously to see if anyone was nearby who could have heard the invitation he'd just been given.

"Relax," Kaiba muttered. "You think I'd say that to you if anyone was around?"

The blonde agreed completely with the sentiment of secrecy, which may have been why he hated Kaiba for saying it. Nobody ever said teenage hormones were logical.

"Come sit with us," he said again, proving once more that his emotions when it came to the other boy were schizophrenic. One second he couldn't stand him and didn't want to see his ugly mug ever again, the next he couldn't stand being away from him and didn't want to leave his side ever again. It was like having two completely different personalities in his head-hm. Maybe he should ask Yugi for advice.

In the meantime, Kaiba was Looking at him. "You don't really want that," he said. "Not yet." He turned away and collected his lunch.

Jounouchi looked at his tray. "I guess," he muttered.

"You coming over tonight?"

So maybe he wasn't the only schizophrenic one. Although that wasn't really a comforting thought - a stable Kaiba was scary enough, let alone an unbalanced one. Running for the hills sounded like a good idea. "Yeah, I'll bring takeout."

Of course, Kaiba being who he was meant that they could have the best home-cooked meals for effectively nothing thanks to his über-god of a chef, but Jounouchi liked to maintain a few token shreds of equality in their relationship since he was the one always going over to Kaiba's house - despite the fact that if he ever called it a relationship out loud, he'd probably find himself in the Shadow Realm faster than the CEO could say "Nyoink! Got your Millennium Ring!" to Bakura.

Kaiba's acquiescent nod expressed a level of understanding that terrified Jounouchi, and so he looked hastily away and piled his tray with what even he knew was too much food. The fact that he knew all the other's takeout preferences by heart was even scarier.

"Just try not to eat it all before you get there. I know you're a growing puppy and need your nourishment, but just remember your training."

He glared at Kaiba's back as the brunette walked away. "Go to hell, Kaiba. Actually, scratch that - you'd probably enjoy it, ya freak."

A chuckle was his only response, and he stomped out of the cafeteria with his too-full tray, dodging airborne food particles, frustrated and confused and maybe just a bit sad. He wasn't sure what he and Kaiba meant to each other - or maybe he was sure, and was just too scared to name it - and it disconcerted him. He didn't want to think about it, and so he went in search of his friends.

Outside, Anzu and Honda were discussing their latest - huge - English assignment. Apparently they'd been paired up together. Jounouchi hadn't been paying attention in class (more than was necessary to discover that he'd been paired with the resident nerd, a situation he found positive but his partner found negative) due to the small distraction of Otogi attacking his chair with a penknife cos he refused to give him Shizuka's phone number.

"Oh, come on, Anzu, I'm not that bad at English!" Honda was protesting as Jounouchi joined them. He returned Yugi's cheerful greeting and tucked into his lunch, listening with interest.

Anzu rolled her eyes. "Honda, last time you had to speak in front of the class, you told everyone you were wearing panties when you meant pants!"

"They sound almost exactly alike!" Hazel eyes widened in indignation as Honda defended himself. Jounouchi and Yugi met each other's eyes and had to cover their mouths so Honda wouldn't hear them spluttering with laughter.

It didn't work. "Oi, knock it off, you two! At least I'm not Kaiba's partner!"

Jounouchi froze. How did he-?

"Hey, it's not that bad," said Yugi, still laughing. "Kaiba's really good at English."

Jounouchi breathed a sigh of relief and attempted to act normally again - well, normal for him anyway. It would have been rather abnormal for anyone else, but his friends were used to it, the way you got used to small furry animals with pitchforks and pointed horns dancing around you chanting obscure and rude things in Mongolian, ie you offered food in hopes of getting them to shut up.

"Whatever," said Honda dismissively. "I'd hate to get paired with him no matter how good he was."

Oh, he's pretty good, thought Jounouchi, smirking inwardly. Out loud he said, "You got stuck with Kaiba? Geez, Yug', good luck. If you make it through the week alive, I'll throw ya a party."

"Any excuse, Jounouchi?" teased Anzu.

He grinned at her, relaxing as he got caught up in his friends' conversation, but his thoughts were only half there. At the back of his mind and his heart, eyes like cold sapphires glinted beneath hair like polished oak.

Not yet, he'd said. And `not yet' meant someday.

-^-^-^-^-^-