Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Fragile ❯ Fragile ( Prologue )

:: Kitzaku-san ::

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Gi Oh! Or it's characters. All I own is the horribly pictured abuse scenes. O.o;

Authoress Note: As most people may know... I do not write angst. I'm horrible at it. But lately, my life hasn't been a bed of roses so I've been too depressed to write... happy stuff. So here's some horrible angst to... make you not happy. U.u

Pairings: Jou/Seto

:: Fragile ::

"Stupid boy! Can't do a thing right!" Jou's Father's hand came crashing to the side of Jou's face. The youth was flung across the floor, stopped only by the wall. He curled his knees to his chin and held the burning mark on his face. He could feel the bruise already forming through the sting.

"I'm... sorry!" Jou choked through clenched teeth, forcing himself to ignore the throbbing pain he'd grown quite used to.

"Sorry won't fix what you've done!" his Father slammed the cabinet door shut, causing the dishes inside to rattle and clang against one another. "I can't bring home a girl tonight because the house is a fucking mess! What did you do? Throw a party?"

Jou shook his head. "I was only-"

"Shut up. I don't want to hear your pathetic problems." His Father drew a cigarette from his back pocket and lit it. "As a matter of fact, I don't want to see you. I need to get out of here." He puffed a cloud of smoke. "And you... when I get home, I had better find a clean house and dinner on the table. Or you'll find yourself wishing you were adopted."

"I already do." Jou muttered under his breath.

"What was that?!"

"I'm only talking to myself."

"Stupid boy." His Father mumbled, grabbed his coat and headed for the door. "It's a wonder he has any friends." And with a slam, the door shut.

On the floor, Jou slumped over. Tears were trying to force their way down his face, but the blonde had long since forgotten how to cry properly. He managed to push himself up and begin his chores on cleaning up the house.

In his father's rage, there had been a lot of broken dishes. Almost all of the glass dishes were gone, and they would now eat mostly off of plastic or paper plates.

Something wet ran down Jou's cheek and he reached up to wipe it away. Could it have been a real tear? When he looked at his hand, he saw it was only blood. That would have to be cleaned up first so he wouldn't bleed over everything.

Jou made it to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. There was a huge gash on his left temple as well as that bruise where his Father had slapped him. But where did the gash come from? Jou strained to remember.

The memory suddenly flew back at him with full force. Jou's father had come home to find the house a mess and had thrown his beer bottle at Jou to express his anger. It shattered on contact, sending shards in all directions.

Tentatively, Jou cleaned his wound and bandaged it. If anyone at school asked, he would casually explain that he'd fallen and hit his head. This wouldn't be the first time it happened, but he was running out of ideas.

He went back to cleaning up the shards of broken glass, and continued to sweep the rest of the kitchen. At times, he was surprised at how calm he was, his father had gone rather easy on him that night. At least he had the house to himself for a few more hours. But why didn't Jou just run away? He would never admit it, but he was scared. He was so scared his Father would find him the moment he left home. And besides, Jou may have appeared to be a source of his drunken father's anger, but he was also a stress reliever. Or, in other words, the punching bag. If Jou left, his father might try and hurt someone else.

--

Jou's stomach growled as he trudged along the sidewalk to school. He'd gone to bed last night without any dinner on his father's orders. He wasn't to have any breakfast either on account of his father wanted him out of his face.

"Hey, Jou!" a voice called from behind him. Jou turned around to see Honda running to catch up with him. "What's the deal? You were supposed to wait with me on the corner."

Jou's eyes widened. "I completely forgot, man. I'm sorry." Jou normally waited for Honda just outside his house on the corner, but this morning, he wanted to be as far from his home as possible.

"Ah, it's a first offense, don't worry." Honda grinned and the two continued to walk towards the school in silence. After some time, Honda spoke up. "You're awfully quiet today, what gives?"

Jou shrugged. "I'm just tired, I guess."

Honda looked over, concerned. "You've been acting weird lately. And it's not just today. Is something going on?"

Jou forced a laugh. "No, no. I'm just fine. It's like I said, I'm tired."

"Holy shit, and what did you do to your face!? You didn't run into another wall again did you?"

"Jounouchi ran into a wall again? Goes to show how stupid dogs can be." A sinister voice made it's way over to them.

Honda whirled around to see Seto Kaiba leaning against the wall of the courtyard. "Listen, Kaiba! You just watch it!"

"Watch what? The dog? Is he going to do a trick?" Seto laughed.

Jou didn't say anything, he didn't even look up. Instead, he shifted the weight of his backpack and continued to go toward the school. He had enough problems at home, and he didn't want to make anything worse at school. Perhaps if he just ignored Seto, he'd eventually leave him alone.

"Doesn't look much like a trick," Seto sneered. "And it looks like he got into a dog fight-not running into a wall."

Jou closed his eyes and continued walking. He'd never done anything to Seto in the first place, so he didn't understand why the multi-billionaire chose him to pick fun at. Since Jou's guard was down, Honda rushed to defend him.

"Kaiba, why don't you just go consult your laptop if you want to see any tricks. But until then I suggest you leave Jou alone!"

"And if I refuse?" Seto grinned.

Honda took a deep breath and raised his fists. "Then we fight."

"Fight?" Seto laughed whole-heartedly. "Hardly! You know very well I can beat you; hands down."

Jou was almost to the school doorway now. Kaiba was standing next to the door and Jou was forced to walk past him before he made it to the door. As he passed, however, Kaiba's arm show out and he grabbed Jou by the collar. "How come you won't fight back?"

Jou didn't answer. He looked down at the ground. Kaiba shook him furiously. "Answer me!"

"Leave Jou alone!" Honda ran towards the multi-billionaire, but his other fist shot out and moment later, Honda was on the ground, holding his gut and writhing in pain.

In the meantime, Seto's attention was back on Jou. He shook the blonde again. "Look at me!" When Jou didn't respond, Seto forced his face up so their eyes met, but only for a brief moment. Seto's eyes went wide with shock and he raised his fist. "Stupid dog."

And he punched Jou square in the jaw. The boy hit the ground and didn't bother to get up. Jou was tired, hungry and his body ached all over. "Aren't you going to get up?" Seto growled. Jou only wiped the blood from his mouth and shook his head.

"If I got up, you would only hit me again."

Seto's face went stern and Jou recognized it to be of the same anger whenever his father was about to hit him, and hard. Jou flinched and held his eyes shit tight, bracing himself for the attack.

Instead of receiving the anticipated blow, two gentle hands latched to his shoulders and helped him up. Gentle? Slowly, Jou opened his eyes to see Seto Kaiba's soft gaze. It appeared to be a miracle as to how only moment before, his face was so full of anger and it was now filled with compassion. Even more so, Jou was confused to see just a nice look on Seto's face.

"So then, it really is true..." Seto said.

"I... told you." Honda gasped from his spot on the ground. He was now in an Indian position, arms folded. "But you didn't have to go far enough to hurt us both."

"It was all I could do to make sure me accusation were correct." Seto pulled a very confused Jou to his feet.

"What are you talking about?" Jou asked. Instead of answering, Seto turned to Honda.

"Honda, thank you for your insight, but I will take things from here."

Honda hesitated. "But you hate him. I can't trust you, ass."

Seto narrowed his eyes. "I would re-consider that comment."

Honda opened his mouth to shoot something back, but changed his mind. "See ya later, Jou." He called behind his back and he disappeared inside the school.

Jou blinked a few times, trying to pull everything together, but things were swimming around in his brain and nothing was sorted out. "Excuse me, Seto. But I really need to get to class." Jou pushed past the grip of the brown haired boy and half ran to the doors.

"Jounouchi!" Seto called after him. "We have to talk!"

"Since when do you want to talk with me?" Jou scowled and opened the doors to the school and went in. Seto followed in the same manor. "You only want to pound my face into the dirt!"

"Stop running, Jou." Seto said calmly and Jou ignored it, of course. A sudden rush of anger surged forward and Seto grabbed Jou's upper arm and whirled him around. "Damn it, listen to me!"

Jou tried to escape Seto's grasp once more, but his grip was too tight and firm. He figured only pain would follow. He'd lived long enough with it to realize the pattern. Jou closed his eyes and braced himself.

Seto's voice softened again. "Jou, please hear me out. Don't do that, I'm not going to hit you."

"Nothing's stopped you before." Jou gritted through his teeth.

"That was when I was the only one who hit you... or so I thought."

Jou opened an eye. "What the hell are you getting at?"

"I mean someone is hitting you before I get the chance to. I can see it in your eyes, and in your body movements." Seto said slowly. "At the orphanage, there were a lot of children who'd had abusive parents. I'm saying that you show all the symptoms. And what happened in the courtyard just proved my point."

Jou realized and his arms dropped to his sides. His joints ached still from the hours of scrubbing he had performed the night before. "But, why would you care if someone else beat you to...abusing me?"

"Because." Seto let go of Jou's arm. "You are mine. Only I can get under your skin. Only I can irritate you. And anyone who dares try to deprive me from that they will answer to me."

Jou growled under his breath. "Sadist."

"And damn proud of it. My point is, someone is turning you into something else. You're not the same Jounouchi I love to torture." He pointed to the gash on Jou's temple that had opened and was now bleeding freely again. Jou hadn't realized the pain until Seto pointed it out. "Tell me, who is doing this to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"If you won't let me help you, things will only get worse."

"You said yourself I belonged to you! How come you want to help me?" Jou snapped.

"Fine." Seto shrugged. "I'm not helping you. But you are mine and you're obligated to tell me what I want to know."

Jou sighed. Seto's cold personality may just be the thing Jou needed to take to survive his own father's beatings. Could Seto possibly know how to help him after all? He did say that there were other children at his orphanage that were abused. Jou stared at the ground for a brief moment before clenching his fists and looking straight into Seto's eyes.

"My father."

TBC!

Ending Notes: Oh wow... angsty.

Yami Muse: I didn't do it! I'm not her angst muse!

Yugi Muse: I'm... halfway innocent too. I gave her the perverted ideas.

There weren't any perverted ideas in here...!

Yugi Muse:...oh.

If neither of my YGO muses made me write angst then who did?

Aracd: Huh? I was too busy reading the newspaper.

Malik Muse: ME! MUAHAHAHHAHAHAAA!

Yami Muse: Malik-y poo!

I gotta new muse?... oh no....

Malik Muse: R&R please! ^.^