Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Overwhelming ❯ Still ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Still don't own it. After last chapter, I think it's a unanimous vote of "whew, that's a good thing, ainnit?"

Notes: I always do this. I have a thought so ingrained in my thick skull that I don't realize no one else knows what I'm thinking. Zolac no Miko knows what I'm talking about. Poor thing. Anyway, my point is, I forgot to mention this last chapter: this fic is gonna be seven chapters long. So this is the second to last chapter; enjoy it, kiddies. Oh, and thanks, Koneko-chan! You're a great reviewer for me when I'm disgruntled at 4 am. Probably because that means its 3pm for you.

SPECIAL NOTE: thanks, Kat, for giving me the heads up!! And everyone, I'm sorry! This is the *real* chapter 6!! …I don't know what the hell happened. The upload on the first try must have screwed up, or maybe it was my fault. Who knows. Anyway, thanks! Enjoy the real deal everyone.

Warnings: If you're reading this, it most likely means that you either aren't bothered by the Kaiba-bastardization, the bishi sex, the bishi damage/abuse, and whatever else goes on in this fic, and more power to ya, even though you are a truly bizarre individual. I would *hate* this fic if I were reading it. The other option you may be is like me: you start reading a fic, hate it, but can't be at peace until you've finished it. If this is you, well, that sucks, donnit? Believe me, I can commiserate.

>><<

When Jou woke up, it was already getting dark. He felt woozy and stiff, and when he tried to move, it seemed like every nerve ending in his body was petitioning against it.

"That sadistic- owwww…" His curse was cut off by a whole new set of angry nerves as he tried to sit up against the wall and remembered the glass in his back. "Shit."

It took another ten minutes of sitting still and concentrating on being upright for Jou to attempt standing up. This, he found to be actually not that bad, all things considered. It was mostly his upper body that had sustained the damage.

He wasn't sure where Seto was, but he didn't think he cared to find out, so he got up carefully and began to slowly make his way to the door.

The air outside was absolutely still and cold. By the time he had gotten halfway down the drive, Jou was walking pretty normally again. Given the number of fights he'd been in, this wasn't really so bad in the scheme of things. At least he had gotten that one blow in before Seto had really come down on him. He smiled to himself and winced as pain shot through his face. He was beginning to feel a bit light headed again, probably from combined lack of food, anemia, and whatever else Seto had managed to accomplish.

He was about two and a half blocks down the street when a wave of nausea and dizziness swept over him and he felt the sudden desire to sit down, which he did; partially of his own volition, partially not.

He sat, leaning against a rock wall with his head between his knees for about five minutes. He was glad no one was around to see this. Luckily, this was the suburbs, and all the dog-walkers were usually inside before dark.

Finally, he fumbled around in his pocket for his cell phone, flipped it open, and scrolled down until he found Otogi's number. He pressed "send". It rang three times before Otogi answered.

"Hello?"

"Otogi? Hi… This is Jou. Could you pick me up? I'm really sorry…"

Otogi's voice changed in a split second from offhand and impersonal to worried and apprehensive. "Jou? Where are you? Are you alright? What's going on? Your voice sounds strange."

Jou coughed a couple of times, bringing the taste of blood back into his mouth. "Uh, yeah, that might be because I could really use some water. I'm on Kaze Street, about two blocks from the Kaiba mansion.

Otogi said two words before hanging up. "That shit."

Jou flipped his cell shut and leaned tentatively back against the rock wall to wait. After about three seconds of this, he decided that sitting up was best. He was very glad when he saw the Mustang's headlights round the corner and come toward him, screeching to a halt. The driver's side door flew open, and Otogi was kneeling beside him before he had time to think.

"Gods, Jou. You're a mess." He brushed some hair out of Jou's face that had been stuck there by dried blood. Jou flinched back at the touch and Otogi gently lifted Jou's chin to meet his eyes. "It's alright, Jou. He isn't gonna ever do this to you again. I promise. Shit; I can't believe you let him get away with this!"

Jou smiled weakly and tried to revert to something like his old humor. "It wasn't all that bad. I got a good one in, myself. …'course that only aggravated him more…"

Otogi shook his head. "You are some kinda stupid, you know that? Alright, get in the car. You're coming to my place and I'll get you cleaned up and see if you need to go to the hospital. You think he broke anything?"

Jou looked down at himself. His shirt was ripped from the splintered glass and wood of the coffee table, and spattered with his own blood. He gingerly prodded his ribs with a finger for a moment. "Nope. Don't think so, anyway. I think its all just bruises."

Otogi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, `just' being the operative word here. Now get in the car." He stood up and reached a hand down to help Jou up, and then led the way to the car.

Once inside, Jou felt it best to lean away from the seat back, which Otogi quickly noticed. "Is something wrong with your back- oh, gods!"

"Yeah, I'm gonna need your help getting the glass out," Jou muttered.

Otogi almost swerved into the oncoming lane. "The what?!?! What in all hell did he do to you, Jounouchi?!"

Jou looked out the window. "He pushed me into a glass coffee table. Or, rather, I fell on it after he hit me."

The look on Otogi's face was frightening.

When they got to the house, Otogi got out first and tried to help Jou to the door, but was waved away. "I can walk just fine." He grumbled.

Otogi shook his head, sighing. "Stubborn."

>><<

Jou sat on the floor with Otogi behind him, gently picking at the dried bloody fabric of his shirt. When they had finally gotten it off, Otogi gasped. "Shit, Jou; you must have really hit that table." Jou said nothing.

Otogi got up and left the room. When he came back a minute later he had a bowl of warm water, a pair of tweezers, and a washcloth.

Jou sat stiff as a board, eyes closed, as Otogi first dabbed off his face, streaked with dried tears and blood. When he had finished, Otogi leaned forward and gently kissed him; only maintaining contact for a second or two before moving to sit behind him again and beginning his work with the tweezers.

"You really should go to the hospital, you know," Otogi said quietly as he picked out the first piece.

Jou hissed in a breath but shook his head. "No. I don't want to go. They'd ask too many-Ah!-questions." He gasped as Otogi extricated the glass.

"Yeah, I know. And I respect your not wanting to have to deal with that, which is why I'm doing this. But don't think that I'll keep doing this. You have to get away from him. You have to make sure he'll never do this to you again." He began work on the second piece.

Jou clenched his teeth. "Yeah, I know. But I don't think you have anything to worry about there. He told me before he left that he didn't want anything to do with me ever again. I sure as hell hope he meant it. He sounded like he did." Jou yawned.

Otogi paused in removing a piece of glass. "You must be tired. You wanna lie down? I can do this with you lying down if you can stand to lie on your stomach."

Jou nodded. "Yeah, but could I get something to eat first? I haven't eaten anything since yesterday."

"Oh! That's right!" Otogi dropped the tweezers and stood up again. Disappearing, and then returning a few minutes later with some toast and a cup of what seemed to be tea. "Here," he said, placing both down in front of Jou. "I don't really have much in my fridge right now, but will this be enough until I can find something decent?"

Jou began attacking the toast, nodding.

Otogi sat down again. "Alright, then." And he went back to the tedious process of extricating the glass.

>><<

Two hours later, the last piece of glass had been removed, and Jou's back cleaned off and bandaged. Two pieces of glass and a number of splinters had also been removed from the side of his face that had hit the table as well. After a bit of poking and prodding that had caused Jou to create some interesting new curses, it had been determined that aside from bruised ribs, that was the extent of the damage.

"You're damn lucky, you know," Otogi told him, swabbing at the side of Jou's face with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol.

Jou winced away from Otogi's hand, the alcohol stinging in his open cuts. "Explain this logic."

Otogi ignored Jou's attempts at avoiding his cotton ball and lifted Jou's chin with a fingertip, kissing him. When he pulled back, he used Jou's temporary disorientation to take another swipe with the swab. "You're lucky he didn't put you in the hospital; that you weren't hurt worse than you are. This is Seto Kaiba we're talking about here. And also," he added as an afterthought, "That you have me taking care of you." He grinned at Jou's scowl.

Jou narrowed his eyes. "I'm not so sure about the last part. That was a pretty low stunt just now." He couldn't help but smirk at Otogi's smug expression. "But yeah, I guess you're right. He's Seto Kaiba, and I suppose there are a lot worse things he coulda done. Not that I'm validating any of this." He waved a hand idly at his numerous abrasions before yawning widely.

Otogi stood up. "You wanna get some sleep? Come on." He reached down and gave Jou a hand standing up. Then he led the way to his room. "You can sleep in my bed." He paused. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the police about this? He committed a pretty serious offense."

Jou followed, shaking his head. "Nah. All I want is to have done with it all; with him. Well, that and a really long nap." He lay down gingerly on Otogi's bed, careful to stay off his back, even though his bruised ribs presented an only slightly better alternative.

"Alright." Otogi sat down in a chair beside the bed, smoothing a few stray hairs out of Jou's eyes. "But promise me you'll never let anything like this happen again. Promise me, Jou."

Jou's eyes were already closed, but he nodded. "I promise. Believe me; I don't want anything to do with him ever again."

Otogi watched him until he had fallen asleep, and then he went into the living room and sat down on the couch to think. At around 3 o'clock in the morning, he finally let himself fall asleep, curled up on the couch.

>><<

Jou woke up early. He could tell by the way the sun was slanting in the window, and the lack of traffic activity outside in the street.

He carefully rolled himself off the bed and made his way to the door. He paused before he got there, however, seeing a dark green shirt with a note pinned on it folded neatly on a chair by the bed. The note read:

-Jou

I left to take care of a few things. I'll be back later. Not working today. Keep the shirt.

-Otogi

The note had been left about an hour earlier.

Jou un-pinned the note and pulled on the shirt, glad that it was a little too big and fit loosely on his back. Then he went in search of a phone.

>><<

Otogi slipped around a column, glancing at the receptionist's desk. She was on the phone, as usual, and filing her nails, looking very, very bored. Good; this was very good.

He snuck around the side of the room, and waited until the receptionist was looking the other way before hurriedly slipping past her desk and heading for the stairs. At least there was one good thing about his history with Kaiba; he knew where the CEO's office was.

He climbed the stairs as quietly as possible, careful not to alert any security personnel, and finally stopped at the fifth floor, changing his walk from a slink to a stride as he neared Kaiba's office door.

He leaned against the door a moment, listening, and when he heard no sounds of activity issuing from within, he knocked twice before letting himself in and shutting the door behind him, leaning back against it.

Kaiba was sitting at his desk facing the door, scribbling on some papers. His pen stopped mid-scribble when he saw Otogi.

"Usually when a person knocks, it is to imply that they wish to be polite, which, I may assure you, barging into someone's private office unannounced is not." Kaiba's tone was icy, and he placed his pen down on his desk, leaning back and folding his hands in his lap.

"Oh, skip it, Kaiba. You know I was never one to be polite. And anyway, you're one to talk." Otogi's tone matched Kaiba's in coldness, and his green eyes flashed. He crossed his arms over his chest.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Before you start accusing me of things, will you at least tell my why you felt the need to sneak into my office? To what do I owe the honor? I take it my receptionist doesn't know you're here."

Otogi stared levelly at Kaiba. "No, as a matter of fact, she doesn't know. But that's beside the point. I'm here because I need to talk to you about something; a business matter, of sorts."

"A business matter? My, my, Otogi; you certainly have changed in the past year since you and I ceased our little trysts. You sound so cold." There was a warning edge to Kaiba's voice that Otogi recognized as a danger sign, but he ignored it.

"I'm not here to reminisce, Kaiba. I'm here to tell you to leave Jounichi Katsuya the hell alone. Don't call him, don't talk to him, don't look at him, don't even think about him; because if you do, I will go straight to the police and he will tell them what you did. He'll show them the scars and he'll tell them all the details. And I know you, Kaiba; I know how bad for your company it would be for you to be brought up on charges like those. Now do we have an accord?" Otogi leaned back against the door in a deceptively relaxed position. In truth, his whole body was tensed in apprehension, waiting for Kaiba's reply.

Kaiba stared at Otogi a minute, taking in the information and weighing his options. Finally he spoke. "Otogi Ryuuji; come on, you wouldn't actually pull a stunt like that. Not with me. You don't have the guts. Why don't you come over here and relax; we can have some fun, and then talk some more about this little `deal' of yours."

Otogi pushed himself off the door he had been leaning on, and walked over to Kaiba's desk, hips swaying seductively. He placed one knee on the desk-top, using the other leg to push himself so he was leaning forward, supporting himself with both hands. "Listen to me, you sadistic snake," he hissed, eyes narrowed dangerously. "How dare you even think of propositioning me? I know that all you want is to get out of this free, and maybe screw me senseless as a bonus prize, but let me tell you something: Don't you ever tell me that I don't have the guts to do something, because that might just be all the initiative I need to get off my ass and do it. I'm offering you one chance: either take it, and leave Jou alone for good, or leave it and quit wasting my time so I can get out of this office, go down to my car, and call the police on your sorry ass. Now I'll ask you again: Do. We. Have. A. Deal?"

Kaiba's eyes narrowed and the blue of his irises flashed dangerously. "Fine." He growled. "At least now I know who that little slut was screwing around with. I should have known it was you, Ryuuji. You're more of a whore than he is." He spat the last sentence, leaning in close to Otogi's face.

Otogi didn't move; he didn't even flinch. "I'll ignore that last comment out of the goodness of my heart. I'm glad we have a deal, Kaiba, and I'll see you at the next gaming convention."

With that, he slid off the desk and turned, letting himself out of the office without a backward glance.

He strolled past the receptionist, hands in his pockets. She stared at him in confusion for a moment before going back to her nails.

Alright, so maybe he had taken some creative liberties by threatening to go to the police, but he was pretty damn sure that he had accomplished his objective. He allowed himself a grim smile.

>><<

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ryou. This is Jounouchi."

There was a slight pause on the other end, then, "Jou! Hi! How are you? What's up?"

Jou took a deep breath. "I need to talk to you. Can you pick me up? I'm at Otogi's."

"Uh, yeah," Ryou sounded more than a little confused. "Yeah, sure. I'll be there in half an hour."

Jou closed his eyes, smiling faintly and pushing his bangs out of his eyes. "Great. Thanks. See you then."

He hung up and allowed himself a moment of nerves before finding some paper and a pen and leaving Otogi a note telling him where he was. He wondered what those "things" Otogi had written about needing to do were.

TBC

A/N: The bit with the glass-extrication was for Zolac no Miko, a wonderful and now homicidal Hikari. *runs*

I know I said that there will be seven chapters; however, the last part may end up being long enough for two chapters, in which case, this fic will have eight, instead. Just a heads up. I really wanna do well with the last two, and I'm especially looking forward to writing ch.7, as it will have one of my all-time favorite characters in it.

I know this chapter is going up fast (for all you FFN and AFFN readers, anyway), and that is because I started it about ten minutes after I finished ch.5. I'm re-hooked.