Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Chrysalis ❯ If Only... ( Chapter 9 )

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Chrysalis

Chapter Nine: If Only…..

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School- Morning Class

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Yugi looked nervously over his shoulder for the hundredth time, checking to see if Yuai had walked in the front entrance yet and nearly tripped over a crack in the floor. He stumbled a few paces, slammed into a girl carrying a load of books causing girl and books to crash to the ground. The girl's boyfriend turned snarling at Yugi, who scrambled backwards into another student causing that one, a overweight, marshmallow of a boy, to careen into the lockers. Honda grabbed Yugi quickly, dragged the smaller boy upright and pulled him along after him down the hall, calling apologies to the wounded.

Yugi stumbled along after him still looking around for his friend. Yuai hadn't met them. She always met them at the corner by the Game Shop. Today, she hadn't been there, they waited, but she never came. Yugi looked over at the door again and jumped a bit to see over another student who was blocking his view, pulling Honda off balance and into an other student.

"She isn't here, yet, so calm down Yugi." Honda pulled his friend into the classroom and nodded hello to a couple of classmates as he hauled Yugi over to the window. "Why don't you look for her from here. Just don't fall out the window, `kay?"

Yugi plastered himself to the window and peered anxiously out toward the front of the school, "Where is she? She usually meets us at the corner, what happened?"

Honda tossed his book bag to the floor and slumped into his desk feeling tired and ready to go home. "I don't know, just like I didn't know the first thousand times you asked."

Yami, she isn't here! Do you think…. Yugi pressed his nose to the glass jittering from one foot to the other in anxiety.

Be calm aibou, she's fine. Yami murmured, not emerging from the puzzle. He had made a brief appearance this morning just before breakfast, almost looking forward to the morning news, then seeing Yugi's grandfather do the unthinkable, had retreated to his soul room and locked the door in sheer horror of what was to come. And not for the first time, had sincerely wished that there was more furniture in his soul room, just so he could use it to brace the door. Maybe that bed….

How can you be so sure?! Yugi angled for a better look at the road leading to the school still skittering in place.

Because, she's walking in the door with the teacher. Yami retreated further away into the puzzle.

Yugi spun around quickly and nearly decapitated a student, who was sitting innocently in the desk behind him, with his book bag. Yuai was indeed walking in while talking to Mr. Yoshida as he set his texts down on the desk. Mr. Yoshida handed Yuai a piece of paper and smiled. Then she nodded, then turned to see Yugi standing at the window looking at her with wide tragic eyes.

"Hi Yugi," she smiled as she walked over.

" Where were you! Honda and I waited for you and you weren't there. We waited and waited and you didn`t come. And I said to Honda, `Where is she?' and he said, `I don`t know.' and I said `We should wait.' and he said…" Yugi was bouncing up and down in front of her.

"I had to meet with Mr. Yoshida, so I came in early." Yuai watched puzzled as Yugi continued to hop, waving his arms madly. "Are you okay?"

"His grandpa gave him coffee this morning." Honda moaned, "He's been acting crazed since I picked him up."

Yugi nearly jumped over the desk, accidentally slamming his book bag into the crotch of a boy who was trying to edge by him to get to his assigned seat. The boy went pale and wide eyed and fell to the floor gasping in breathless agony and clutching his offended piece of anatomy.

"I am not. Am not. Am not, am not amnotamnotamnotamnotamnotamnot." Yugi waved his hands around, causing the book bag to whiz threateningly around.

Don't forget to breath. Yami called from deep in the puzzle, then fled even deeper, to the farthest most remote sections of the puzzle, far, far away from his caffeine hyped hikari.

Honda mercifully grabbed Yugi's bag and put it under his desk as Yuai stared wide eyed at the fallen student. "If it helps any, he'll be sleepy all afternoon."

"Please take your seats." Mr. Yoshida called.

Honda looked at the injured boy and raised his hand, "I think Haski needs to go see the nurse."

Yugi bounded forward, "I can do it. I can take him. No problem."

Haski cringed and tried desperately to crawl toward his desk, wheezing, "No, no. I'm fine. Just need to sit down."

Mr. Yoshida walked down the aisle and gently steered Yugi to his seat, then helped Haski to stand. "I'll see Haski to the nurse. You all sit down and take out your homework. I'll be back in a moment."

Mr. Yoshida helped the stumbling Haski out the door.

Jonouchi scrambled into the room a moment later, followed by a breathless Duke, laughter still tugging at his mouth. He nodded to Yugi and Honda as he slid into his seat and dropped his books to the floor with a muffled thump. He pulled a piece of light blue paper from his pocket and passed it over to Honda.

"Hey, look, school dance." Jonouchi leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs.

"Great. Serenity has been looking forward to this since last summer." Honda smiled and passed the paper over to Yugi.

Yugi grabbed the paper and held it in shaking hands, "WinterFantasyWhatkindanameisthattheyshouldhavenameditsomethinglikeWinterwo nderlandorsomethingormaybetheyshouldhavecalleditSnowballthatwouldhavebeenne at."

Jonouchi blinked and nudged Honda.

"Coffee." Honda whispered.

Jonouchi nodded, "How did he get ahold of that"

"His grandpa got it as gift from a friend that had visited the U.S. and he let Yugi have a cup." Honda slumped further into his desk, "Something like White Mocha Java Supreme."

Yuai settled into her desk behind Honda, "Does this always happen when he drinks coffee?"

Jonouchi laughed and nodded. "Yep, you should have seen him last summer. We got iced coffee down in the arcade (A.N. Arcades sometimes have different meanings in the east. A arcade can often be a underground shopping mall with many, many small, nearly closet sized stores and tiny restaurants. This is what Jonouchi is referring to.) by the subway. He kept running up and down the steps, all hundred and fourteen of `em till he puked. I had to carry him home on my shoulders."

Yuai smiled as she watched Yugi crumple the paper up and stuff it in his pocket. He then grabbed his book bag and started rummaging through it, tossing pencils, erasers and papers onto the floor, finally coming up with a note book and a mechanical pencil with a magician of some kind on it. Yuai thought it was from a game she'd seen around, but wasn't sure.

"So, who are you going to the dance with Jonouchi?" Honda asked as he vaguely looked into his bag for his things, still managing a cool slouch.

"Uh, Duke probably." Jonouchi shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it."

"Oh, well plenty of time, it's in a few weeks."

Jonouchi frowned down at his desk. Originally he had been planning to go with Kaiba, but that, well, wasn't all that likely. Duke, well, yeah, he could go with Duke. Jonouchi's eyes skittered over to where Kaiba should have been sitting. He hadn`t come in yet, probably dropping Mokuba off. Jonouchi felt a stab of disappointment, then squished it, quick. Duke, yeah, he could go to the dance with Duke. They could grab a shake and burgers and maybe after the dance score a few beers and screw each other silly.

Fuck Kaiba. Fuck his blue eyes and sweet mouth. Fuck his exquisite body and his silky hair. Fuck him right to hell and back. Jonouchi's eyes went back to the empty desk. And fuck him for making me miss him so damn much I want to curl up on the floor and scream.

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School-Lunch

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"It's a tostada." Jonouchi peered at the dry erase board with the lunch menu on it.

Yugi was laying on the bench next to him, gently snoring. His head was tossed back, his arms and legs trailing off the side of the bench as he lay face up with a silly grin and a line of drool sliding down from the corner of his mouth. He had finally crashed in third period and nothing short of nuclear war was going to wake him. Even the teacher's snarled reprimands and he snickering of the class hadn't so much as caused a twitch. Jonouchi had had to carry him from there to the cafeteria, slung over his shoulder like a sack of rice with Yuai and Honda trailing along behind carrying their packs and picking up Yugi's shoes as they thumped to the corridor floor in his wake.

Yuai was sitting on the other side of Yugi's prone form with both their packs and his shoes now tucked under her seat and trying to balance both their trays in her small arms. She had insisted that they should try to get Yugi to eat something. Though how they were actually going to get Yugi to do it was still a issue to be worked out.

Honda was easily balancing his and Jonouchi's lunch trays as he slid into a seat across from the blond. He pushed Jonouchi's tray across the table to him and looked at the small round object on his tray that was half covered with a tiny mound of wilted browning lettuce, "You know. I knew I should have been scared when the school started this international kick. I just didn't realize how bad it would really be."

"I didn't think the jambalaya was all that bad." Jonouchi shrugged and picked up his tostada, trying to figure out a way to eat it without having the thing self destruct down his shirt in a shower of lettuce and corn chips.

He watched as Yuai, trays safely settled on the table, picked up her tostada and tried to break it in half. It seemed more durable than it first let on, he noticed, as Yuai bent her tostada back and forth unable to break it, then finally put it back on the tray and started sawing it in two with her small plastic knife. She gave up after the knife broke and settled on bending it in half and gnawing on it like a sandwich.

"The jambalaya? You mean the stuff with the hotdogs, rice and tomatoes?" Honda picked his tostada up and tried to fold it in half like Yuai, only to have it explode into bits on the table.

Jonouchi laughed and carefully bit into the edge of his. Apparently, he'd gotten a chewy one. He bent it in half and started to try and rip of a piece. Repeating to himself that school food was nutritious and good for him. Well, at least it was good for exercising his jaw muscles.

Honda grabbed Yugi's tostada and after a little experimenting got it to explode onto the tray in a small pile of nachos, "Here, see if you can get him to eat this."

Jonouchi shook his head, "He's still out cold."

"Do you think he'll wake up soon?" Yuai asked, her quiet voice nearly lost in the noisy dinning room.

"He might. Last time he woke up in about a hour." Honda brushed the remains of his tostada off the table onto the floor and picked up his aluminum covered jello cup and handed it across the table to Yuai. "If he doesn't, then save the jello and give it to him later."

Yuai bent to tuck the cup into Yugi's bag. Honda grinned at the top of her head and nodded to Jonouchi. Jonouchi grinned and nodded back indicating toward Yugi with his tostada. Honda nodded again and then seeing Yuai straiten, made himself look as innocent as possible. Jonouchi, still smiling bit down on his tostada.

"So, you ask Duke yet?" Honda looked over at the line for lunch, wondering if it was worth getting a second meal.

"Nah, I'll ask him tonight." Jonouchi shrugged and turned to Yuai, "Who are you going with?"

Yuai jumped, looking surprised, then looked down at the table. "N-no one. I've never been to a dance."

Honda grinned, "Hey, it's a lot of fun. You get all dressed up. You get a flower. Your parents get to meet your date and say how grown up you both look. Then you go out to eat someplace nice. You go to the dance, drink bad punch and luke warm sodas, then later you get to go out to someplace and ummm….talk. Then you go home. You get a kiss at the door."

Jonouchi glowered across the table. "Ummm…talk? What's that supposed to mean."

Honda glared back. "What do you want me to say. You go up to the look-out on Highway 6 and try to suck your date's tonsils out?"
"Suck their tonsils out!! What the hell are you doing with my sister? C'mere you ass." Jonouchi lunged across the table and started throttling Honda. "You had better be keeping those lips to yer self."

"Gahhh!"

Yuai sat staring down at the table. Meet your parents. No, no one's going to be meeting them. She looked over at Yugi, who was snoring happily beside her. If only I could….

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Midnight- Kaiba

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Kaiba turned off his computer and stretched, arching his back against the orthopedicly correct backrest, feeling his vertebrae crack back into alignment. He then swiveled his head around, rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms over his head. Aching muscles that had been denied movement for too long, protested the sudden activity.

He hurt, he had been working on some initial sketches for the new VR stadium he was planning since he had gotten home from school, and his body was telling him it didn't like being hunched over a computer for nine hours. He sighed, wondering if he could talk Jonouchi into a back rub, then mentally slapped himself. No Jonouchi, no backrub. He pushed back from the desk and staggered out of his home office down the hall hoping his legs would forgive him before he got to the staircase heading down toward the kitchen.

The new VR system looked promising. It would remove the possibility of another rampaging monster incident, as well as add better, even more detailed graphics. The customers would love it. Hell, he'd love it. Part of him couldn't wait to grab Yugi and Yami and give the whole system a try. All he had to do was get the thing up and running, which might be a problem, the current technology necessary to handle the amount of data transfer was difficult to come by. Sure, in a year or so, with a lot of capital outlay, his company might be able to cobble a prototype together. But why reinvent the wheel? A small cutting edge firm in the U.S. had already developed the exact part he needed.

The U.S. was far away though, twelve hours on a plane. What of Mokuba? Sending one of his R&D people might work, but then, he knew the technology better then they, he was the creator of it after all. It would probably save time in the long haul to go himself. But then what about Mokuba? He couldn't very well drag his little brother out of school and across the Pacific to sit in a hotel while he negotiated for computer parts, just to haul him back across the ocean the next day.

Kaiba stumbled down the stairway and wobbled toward the kitchen on half numb legs. If only Jonouchi were here, he could almost feel his love's arms around him, steadying him, nearly hear his laughter as they tumbled toward the kitchen for a late night snack, he'd probably insist on something like hot fudge bananas, then they'd laugh as they tried to lick the chocolate off each others fingers and mouths. Why? Why am I such a jerk! I should have been down on my knees thanking him and what did I do? Idiot!… Idiot. Why Duke? Couldn't you just wait, just for one day?

Kaiba pushed through the kitchen door and managed to wobble over to the refrigerator trying to shake some feeling back into his legs. He pried open the large frig. and peered inside at the neat rows of labeled containers his chef left behind, knowing that his employer often ate at odd times. Yakatori chicken wings, good enough. He opened the container and wandered back upstairs munching on salty, sweet wings.

He walked toward his room, pausing a moment to listen at Mokuba's door before going down the hall into his room. Aaah…another happy night of pretending to be asleep. He thumped himself down on the edge of the bed still nibbling as he kicked off his shoes.

Duke, you bastard. Now, that's going to be fun. Kaiba smiled as he dropped the denuded remains of the last wing back into the container and set it on the night side stand. He pulled off his clothes and threw them on the floor carelessly, a habit he'd gotten from Jonouchi. Duke still thinks I don't know. Still playing it cool. But I think I found your weak point. You delighted in taking what I loved best away from me. Well, my friend, turn about is said to be fair play and I figured out how to take the one thing you love best away from you.

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Midnight- Honda and Serenity

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"Why are you defending him? I thought you hated the guy!" Serenity yelled, her long brown hair flaring behind her as she rounded on Honda.

"I'm just saying that Jonouchi should have at least talked to Kaiba one more time before he threw himself in bed with Duke." Honda snarled back.

The fight had started innocently enough. They had been sitting in the park watching the star after making love under the old cherry tree near the lake, talking about the dance and whether or not they should split the cost of a limo with their friends. Things catapulted down hill when Honda mentioned that he didn't want to share a limo with Duke. Serenity had jumped in to defend her brother's new lover and….

"Why should he! Kaiba used him! He was nothing but a live-in sex toy!"

"Bullshit, Kaiba nearly worshiped Jo. Any idiot could see that!"

"So, I'm an idiot! Well the idiot thinks her brother should have dumped that looser Kaiba months ago. Why stay with someone just because they're a great screw!"

"Kaiba was probably the best thing that slut you call a brother ever had."

Serenity's palm smacked into Honda's face, "How dare you call him a slut! He's your best friend!"

Honda stepped back rubbing his cheek and glaring at the slight girl, "It's pretty easy. Jo acts like a slut. He had someone who loved him and tossed it aside to fuck like a bunny with somebody else. Slut."

"Kaiba never loved him! He just wanted a quick lay."

"Jonouchi is the one that wanted the quick fuck. He's the one who couldn't take being in a real relationship."

"What relationship? To let Kaiba use him? To let Kaiba fuck him whenever he wanted? To be treated like a whore?"

"Well if he acts like one then perhaps he should be treated like one."

"Jonouchi isn't a whore." Serenity raised her hand to strike again.

Honda stepped back out of range. "Don't try hitting me again, bitch. Next time you do I'll hit back."

Serenity spun away and stomped off. "This…discussion…is over. I'm leaving and don't bother trying to call tomorrow and apologize. I'll be busy. For the rest of my life."

Honda narrowed his eyes as he watched her leave. "Don't worry babe. I'm not calling. I have nothing to apologize for."