Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ HOUNDS ❯ The Kiss ( Chapter 4 )

~

HOUNDS. The Kiss.

~By Sweetdeily.

"Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand."
~Unknown.

~

Seto Kaiba, it seemed, was something of a single parent when it came to his little brother. Their parents had died long again and their adoptive father had also passed away within the last four years. His little brother, also a lycanthrope, had been all but breast-fed by his older, over-protective sibling. That hadn’t stopped Mokuba’s need for human contact coming out however. In fact, all the psychotic mothering had only made the young teen lash out even more. He was thirteen, small for his age and emotionally underdeveloped.

Kaiba had tried many times to stop his brother from going to the cage and its associates, but it obviously wasn’t working too well.

All this was explained to a tired blonde somewhere between an interrogation and blood transfusion. The doctor had unwisely declared that Jounouchi would be allowed to talk and the HOUNDS officer had walked in, pulled up a seat and started talking.

“What about the motive? You’ve told me everything but a plausible reason for them doing this.” Seto had just been through the Hot Fang’s one-o-one and was looking for further information. His reaction to his brother being shot had been much like an angry alpha male would be expected to react. He was a growling, snapping dog.

“Honestly.” Jounouchi sighed, he was so pumped full of drugs that he was having trouble focusing. “They’re a gang. They wanted the territory. There’s very little more to it. Of course, this means that it’s going to be an all out war between them and the Lock Jaws. The Mutoh aren’t going to take this sitting down- not with their previous controller freshly six feet under.”

“I don’t understand, it’s like a…” Seto frowned at his notes.

“A pissing contest.” Jounouchi finished for him.

“Yes.”

“Because it is. You might not know this, but becoming a HOUNDS is hard, and if you’re not born into lots of money and a good family name, most of us can’t go up in the world.”

“Is that your story?” The HOUNDS asked.

Jounouchi nodded. “My mother was a stray, my father was a bum. Actually, I’m doing quite well compared to them. But I always wanted to be a HOUNDS. Unless I can get enough cash for college…” The blonde trialed off with a sigh. He wanted to go to sleep, his body was aching.

“It’s not exactly easy to become a HOUNDS. You look like you take too many injuries. A HOUND has to be able to take the punches.”

“I take my punches. I took a few more than I needed today, is all.” Jounouchi shot defensively.

“Whatever. So what are your thoughts about the case, since you know so much about all this stuff?” Seto had his pen back at the little book, poised to start writing.

Jounouchi sighed. “I think this gun problem is more than you’re letting on. Those kids had machine guns. The question is where did the guns come from and how did the pups get enough money to afford them?”

“That’s the question we’ve been trying to figure out.” Seto said at length.

Jounouchi sighed and closed his aching eyes. “Look, I’m trying to help you but unless you tell me what you need me to be looking for, all I can do is speculate. I’m not at the beck and call of the police when they need information their normal contacts can’t get them. I don’t get anything out of helping you guys- the least you could do would be to tell me something about what you want, hell treat me to lunch or something.”

“Alright, I see your point. Fine, lunch time tomorrow at the Bayside Café, on the riverfront. Do you know it?” Seto asked.

Jounouchi shook his head. “No way, that place is like a hundred pop for a cup of coffee. The pizza shop on the corner of West.”

“I don’t know that street.” Seto jotted down the address.

“You wouldn’t. It’s in the poor district.”

“Oh.” Seto said. That was all, just ‘oh’.

Jounouchi opened his eyes and narrowed them on the brunette’s impassive face. “You’re a pedigree, aren’t you?”

Seto brushed a piece of imaginary lint off his shoulder. “How can you tell?”

“Because you smell like one.” Jounouchi sighed.

“But I took a shower this-”

“Not that kind of smell. Your clothing is designer fit, your writing is neat and perfect, you barely smell like wolf. And you don’t sniff the air when you walk into a new room.”

“Disgusting habbit.” Seto shrugged. He was putting his notepad away.

Jounouchi snorted. “That’s what a pedigree would say. It’s a safety measure. You never know where you’re walking into if you don’t test the air.”

Seto’s tongue flicked out to lick his lips, a quick, odd gesture. “Get some rest, you sound exhausted.”

Jounouchi frowned at the evasion. “You’re brother is a brave kid, by the way.”

Seto sniffed. “I know.”

With a roll of his eyes Jounouchi rolled over. If the HOUNDS was going to be like that, then he wouldn’t be friendly.

Seto closed the door quietly behind him and Jounouchi fell into a deep sleep.

~

The doctor released him at ten the next day. Jounouchi’s nose was healed and so his broken ribs would be alright to move with, as long as he didn’t do anything too strenuous. Jounouchi’s bad arm was bandaged and wrapped up so it could have time to heal; he was told his body would probably recover totally in about two days if he took it easy.

The hospital bill made Jounouchi cringe and he was glad he’d made a fortune his last fight because the original prize money probably wouldn’t have covered it.

Yami picked him up on the whore’s scooter-bike-halfbreed. It was a little red bike that had been born of either a very warped brain or a mating between a Harley Davidson and a scooter. The seats were large, and the horn was comical. Jounouchi ran out of words when he tried to describe the vehicle to others. They either didn’t believe him or didn’t understand what the thing looked like.

After changing his clothes and playing doctor in the shower with the weretiger he caught a bus, half an hour late, to the pizza shop.

Frank’s pizza shop was a popular place any day of the week that wasn’t actually a week day. The coffee was bad and the garlic bread didn’t smell right, but the pizza was decent enough for Jounouchi’s delicate tastes.

The shop was done up in a low budget copy of a Pizza Hut, only not quite so accurate. The walls were a painful shade of red, the ceiling was peeling and the counter tops had ketchup sauce permanently covering certain corners. The floor was black and white checkered tiles and for the most part, the place was clean. The back area was covered in mostly stainless steel and the oven got cleaned often enough to meet most health regulations.

Seto Kaiba was sitting in one of the booths, looking pissed, when Jounouchi strolled lazily through the doors. He was wearing a loose blue silk shirt and a pair of tight black leather pants that got Jounouchi’s attention straight away. The blonde hadn’t really noticed much when he’d first seen the HOUNDS officer, but Seto was attractive.

“You’re late.” The brunette snapped.

Jounouchi nodded. “Sorry about that. I took a little longer washing than I thought I would.”

“Whatever.” Seto was brushing more imaginary lint from his jumper, perched on the edge of his seat like he was rather uncomfortable.

Jounouchi smirked to himself and opened the menu. “Have you ordered yet?”

“No.”

“I notice you’re not in uniform.” Jounouchi scanned the menu. He felt like an all cheese pizza.

“It’s my day off.”

Jounouchi put the menu down at this. What a workaholic. “I can’t believe you work on your day off.”

Seto blinked at him. “This isn’t exactly work.”

“Cruising the street, looking for bad guys isn’t work to you?”

“This is more like milking a source. What kind of pizza do you want?”

Jounouchi’s face turned red and the blonde buried his head in his menu. “Cheese pizza.”

“And drinking?” Seto asked in a bored tone.

Jounouchi’s ears pinked. Sure, the lycanthrope didn’t mean it in a sexual way, and it was probably just because Jounouchi had noticed that the brunette was attractive but… “Coc-coke.”

He’d been very close to saying cock then. The therianthrope closed his eyes and counted to five before composing himself. It was that damn weretiger. Living with a whore made him think everything that could be taken sexually was intended sexually. That was it, blame it on the cat.

“So, you live with a therianthrope.” Seto spoke after he came back to the table.

Jounouchi nodded. “A weretiger.”

“Isn’t that hard to get along with?”

“No… not really.” Jounouchi fiddled with the little packets of sugar in their basket, sorting through brands, folding corners, avoiding looking at the lycanthrope’s eyes.

“You have good control of your Beast?”

Why did he feel like he was constantly being interrogated by this man. Couldn’t they have a normal conversation? “I have perfect control of my Beast.”

“Hn. Most werewolves would still avoid living with a cat. They scent mark, don’t they?”

Jounouchi inwardly winced. That’s right, werewolves would probably go nuts. But he was a therianthrope. Close enough that werewolves couldn’t tell the difference in his smell, but… “A bit. So how’s your little brother?”

“He’s fine. He recovered overnight. I have him under guard at home.” Seto slapped Jounouchi’s hands. “Stop fiddling.”

The blonde made a small whine at the back of his throat, cowed by the display of the alpha’s control and put his hands in his lap.

Seto frowned at him. “So, you will take me to some of your sources?”

Jounouchi nodded. “We should start with Jimmy.”

“The weasel?”

Jounouchi nodded. “Yeah. I know where he works during the day.”

Seto Kaiba nodded. “He’ll lead us to the bigger fish.”

Jounouchi shook his head. “No, he’ll lead us to another fish, who’ll take us to another fish. They’ll get bigger as we go. That’s how these things work. You have to start at the bottom and go up from there.”

“I see.”

“Now tell me about these weapon shipments.”

Seto shifted uncomfortably. “A few months ago the army had a shipment of guns and ammo imported into the country that went missing. We’ve been worrying that the weapons would start to surface in the underground, and they have. The heist was really clean- no witnesses, no prints. Not even a letter of claim for the job.”

Jounouchi nodded, mind mulling over these thoughts. “Sounds like a professional robbery.”

“It is a professional robbery. A few months ago, a few big members in the shifter gangs have started turning up-”

“Dead. Yeah, I saw on the news. Killed with the imports, I gather?” Jounouchi finished.

“Yes. We’ve been trying to track the crimes to the original robbers but-”

“No one will talk to you and anyone you send undercover keeps getting blown?”

Seto nodded and their conversation halted for the pizza to be placed on the table. Seto was eating a pizza with the lot on it, everything from egg to ham and fish to celery. It didn’t look particularly apetitizing, but Jounouchi had the strange thought that the brunette had special ordered it. Frank’s pizza shop didn’t usually serve something that looked like that- besides the waitress was looking a little confused about the contents of the pizza as well.

Somewhere between bites of their pizza the conversation continued.

“We had one undercover cop in the Lock Jaw’s circle, but he showed up dead a few weeks ago after saying that he’d gotten the new boss to trust him.”

Jounouchi snorted. “The Lock Jaw aren’t responsible for this. Their like the mafia. They take care of there area. They wouldn’t have sold those guns. And the fact that they’re having problems with upstart gangs isn’t a good thing either. It means that the people behind this whole thing are not local.”

“How do you,” Munch, “Figure that?”

“The local gangs don’t have the manpower or the desire to get lots of guns. They wouldn’t be able to sell them and they’d probably get caught straight off. I don’t even know if it’s shifters that stole the guns in the first place. Most human gangs consider themselves too ‘pure’ to sell shit to shifter gangs. And they certainly wouldn’t think of selling guns to a bunch of shape-shifters.”

“We have reason to believe that that crime is shifter related.” Seto said, finishing his second piece of pizza like a hungry werewolf.

Jounouchi paused, thinking. Now why would they think that? “Is this a current theory or one that you guys thought from the start. No, it has to be a theory you guys have had for a while- because HOUNDS have been working on this, not human police which means…”

Seto was watching him, as though he were fascinated.

“Something about the shipment that was stolen related to shifters.”

The brunette actually smirked then and nodded. “You’re not as dumb as you look.”

“What was it?” Jounouchi asked eagerly.

“HOUNDS classified.” Seto bit into another piece of pizza.

“Oh come on! Was it a new weapon of some kind? Drugs?”

The brunette shook his head, still looking pleased with the blonde’s conclusions.

Jounouchi growled in frustration and sipped at his coke savagely. “Fine. So it’s shifter related. I’m ruling out human gangs for the moment, but that’s on the provision that I’m right about it being a group of shifters that did the heist to begin with.”

“Shut up and eat the pizza. Enough talk. We’ll go and interview this Jimmy once we’re done here.”

Jounouchi grinned and took his second slice, amazed that the werewolf was on his fourth. “You sure like pizza.”

“I haven’t eaten since yesterday lunch time.” The lycanthrope growled.

So they sat there eating in complacent silence. Jounouchi was eager to find out what had been in the cargo, and Seto was obviously impressed that the street mongrel had figured out it was something to do with the cargo.

~

Jimmy the weasel worked at an automotive repair shop. The place was run by an old man who’d seen better years on his back.

It was a slimy, grime covered store that got few customers and few break ins. The windows were dirty with lack of washing and the white-wash on the walls was peeling. The name, ‘Automotive services’ had not been the most creative invention in the past sixty years.

Seto parked his blue Porsche in the guest parking slot and locked the car behind them a few times, like he was paranoid.

Jounouchi grinned but didn’t say anything. It was kind of fun to watch the brunette flounder like a fish out of water.

They entered the little air conditioned office to the blare of the miniature television that Jimmy was sitting, half watching and half gaping at the Porsche parked outside.

The therianthrope sat up so fast when the pair of them walked in he knocked his coffee off the desk. He didn’t even glance at it.

“Joey! Fancy seeing you here. Who’s the ped?” He glanced suspiciously at Kaiba.

Joey grinned and leaned over the desk completely relaxed. “One of Yami’s clients. He’s shouting me a treat if Yami and I do a threesome for him.”

Jimmy’s shoulders eased. “Oh, that’s cool. Didn’t know you were into that kind of thing…”

“It’s good enough money for me.” Joey grinned dopily. “I heard about Bonky. Shame that, your best client.”

Seto was frowning, but he remained silent and let the blonde work.

“Yeah. Damn shame. I just got some real money running through too.” Jimmy glanced at Seto anxiously.

“Hey, the sugar daddy’s cool. Speaking of money…” Joey turned to Seto. “Bonky said he got a toy off you that was too sweet. I’ve been thinking, a good looking boy like me needs to protect himself on the streets… could you hook me up, maybe?”

Jimmy shrugged. “I dunno, Joey. You’re a little too…”

“Five hundred dollars.” Seto took his cue.

Jimmy paused, biting his lip. He obviously smelt something was wrong, but he was gutter trash and five hundred dollars was a lot of money for him. “Maybe I do… maybe you leave the ped here and we go into the showroom out back.”

Joey grinned. “Sure. That’ll give him a minute to get the money ready. That cool with you?” He asked, leaning on Seto’s shoulder.

The brunette surprised him then by grabbing Jounouchi’s chin and kissing the blonde.

It wasn’t a quick, dramatic smack of lips that a straight guy might have given him to prove that he was in role, it was a long, very tongue-involved kiss that stole most of Jounouchi’s breath.

Jounouchi pulled back before he really wanted too and had wide eyes staring at the brunette for a few seconds before Jimmy gave a whistle. The weasel was already at the door.

Jounouchi’s mind slowly surfaced under the sudden rush of blood going downward and he quickly gave Seto his back. Trying not to hyperventilate, he followed Jimmy into the backroom.

“So you know me, Joey, I’m not really a business man, but I was busy doing some shit at this party the other day when this guy approaches me. Says he’s got some heat that he’ll sell for a good price. I got a few pieces off him…”

Jimmy continued talking but Jounouchi wasn’t listening, he was touching his lips in a daze, absently walking after the therianthrope in front of him.

They stopped in front of an old chest of filing cabinets, which Jimmy unlocked with a key and opened the bottom drawer. A bunch of rag-wrapped parcels sat there. Jimmy selected one and passed it to Jounouchi.

“Only a few bullets in the gun already. Don’t set it off in here.” Jimmy says.

The gun is awkward and big in Jounouchi’s hands, and he realizes that he’s never held one before. He tried to be careful not to get his prints on it. “This is sweet. What else you got?”

And jimmy shows him the other three guns. Joey has no idea what make and model they are, but Jimmy tells him that they’re all Bersa’s the rounds are silver too. Expensive shit.

“I’ll take the second one.” Joey finally says, he’d managed not to actually touch that one. “But what if I wanted more ammo or something?”

“Oh, then you should probably just go to the guy who sold these to me. He had a shitload of the stuff.”

“Alright, lets go get Mister hanky-panky to pay for this and I’ll be sleeping safer tonight.”

Jimmy gave him a card with a name and a phone number handprinted on it. “Tell him I sent you.”

“Will do.” Joey grinned.

Seto was watching the television when they came back out. “Did you get it?”

Joey nodded. “You got cash?”

Seto nodded and opened his wallet, forking out five hundred like it was pocket change.

Jounouchi vaguely wondered if the brunette carried that kind of money around all the time.

They left Jimmy smiling ear to ear, and Jounouchi watching Seto out of the corner of his eye.

They didn’t speak until they got to the car.

“Did you touch it?” Seto asked.

“No. Just the cloth.” Jounouchi placed the gun in the brunette’s cup holders gingerly and buckled his belt.

“For future reference- I am not your pimp daddy.” Seto spoke blandly.

Jounouchi couldn’t help himself, he grinned. “Sure thing.”

That wouldn’t stop him from making the brunette a sugar daddy.

Seto shot him a quissical look. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.” Jounouchi sing-songed.

“No. I mean what next.”

Jounouchi held up the card, reading the name. “We pay a visit to Mr. Phillip.”

~Tsuzuku…

Sweet notes: OMG! So gangster like. And the kiss… just… *hugs Seto* good timing!

Seto: I don’t like you *peels her off him*

Sweets: But I like youuuu…

Jou: Piss off bitch! He’s mine! *throws her off Seto and glomps him*

Seto: I don’t like you either. I’m joining a monastery. Where no evil author bitches can get me.

Sweets: Don’t join a monastery!

Quick, donate reviews to the ‘don’t let Seto join a monastery foundation and keep the smut alive.’