Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Pools of Glass ❯ Old Foes, New Friends ( Chapter 12 )

JG-chan: Yay! I'm getting no reviews! But that's okay! I've got so much inspiration and so many ideas that I just don't care! ^___________________^

Nyoko (JG's yami): O.o you need therapy girl.

JG-chan: Nope, I just have the ability to juggle university, internet, fic writing, fic reading, and a social life all in one! Ahh… the joys of multi-tasking ^_^

Nyoko: -_- kay lets get on with this shall we…?

JG-chan: ^_____________^ ONTO THE REVIEWER REVIEWS!! XD

DugFinn: THANK YOU for reviewing my good friend!! Yes, naughty Honda!! But there is more to come! I'm gonna try and put as much of Malik x Ryou in it for ya as I can ^^ It's a shame that your email is down! But keep up that awesome story of yours! I simply can't get enough of it! I've read the whole thing twice now! XD How was your trip? You'll have to tell me all about it! I'll email you as soon as I can! ^_^

CleverKitty: Thanks for the review!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH!!! IF I DID THEN THE WORLD WOULD EXPLODE AND I WOULD FALL DOWN THE NEVER-ENDING SPIRAL OF INSANITY!!!

Old Foes, New Friends

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Otogi Ryuuji was bored beyond belief. He had no paperwork to do, and his homework was up to date. Even in this lousy weather and in his horrible physical condition, he still wished he had gone to school. For one, he could hardly move his arm which was confined to a sling, his back was in agony, his stitched-up lip was still swollen and he had woken up with a blocked nose and horrendous headache. All he knew is that he had to do something, and soon. His boredom was about to get the better of him.

He looked at the time. Four thirty. In about half an hour everyone should be out of school, Otogi thought. In the meantime, I might work on that song…

~*~

Jou wasn't particularly having a good day. Yesterday at Kaiba's place was a nightmare, to put it lightly. And he had to do it all over again today; if he wanted to succeed in math, that is; which he did. Unfortunately that meant going to Kaiba's again. Sitting in the grand old library reading trigonometry textbooks wasn't exactly his ideal way of learning. When Kaiba said he would "tutor" him, Jou would have at least expected a little more help than just have a few old textbooks that already had completed answers in them thrown at him. Just copying answers wouldn't teach him anything. Guess Kaiba just couldn't be bothered with him.

"So Jounouchi, are you coming for another lesson today?" Kaiba asked arrogantly after the final bell at five o'clock. His ego shone through something chronic with that conceited smirk painted all over his face.

Jou sighed internally and turned around to face the beanpole standing behind him. "Well actually… I was thinking about forgetting the whole idea all together. It was stupid to think you could help me, really."

Kaiba frowned. "How can you just give up on yourself like that after one lesson?"

Jounou crossed his arms. "Well I would hardly have called it a lesson. You didn't even help me! How do you expect me to learn by just shoving prewritten answers in my face?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Alright fine… you want to ace the test coming up next week right?"

Jou nodded. "Of course."

"Then don't give up on the idea. I'm putting my valuable time into helping you with this, so if I make more of an effort, will you?"

Jou was slightly bewildered at the seriousness Kaiba had about the whole issue. There had to be something more he wanted out of this other than to tutor Jou. "Well…yeah I guess I will…"

"Good. It doesn't have to be tonight… but let me know when you want to come over, got it?" Kaiba glared down at the shorter blond.

"Yeah, yeah." Jounouchi muttered. "Will you be home tonight?"

Kaiba nodded. "I'm free after seven."

"Okay, I might come round later then." Jou replied casually before walking off. Although his statement didn't sound too promising.

Kaiba grunted as he watched the youth disappear down the corridor and out into the dusky evening. Tch, whatever. Stupid mutt…

~*~

Honda was still marveling over what he had found at Otogi's last night. He wasn't really sure what to think. Should he be happy? Excited? Shocked or horrified? He was confused to the point that he didn't even know whether to confront the boy or not. I suppose I'll have to do it some time… but he must know by now that I had taken it… damn he's gonna be so angry! Honda argued with himself as he stalked toward the student carpark toward his motorbike. So… he thought as he mounted his motorbike. Home? Or Otogi's place…?

Honda found himself standing outside the Dungeon Dice Monsters department about fifteen minutes later, holding his motorbike helmet under his arm. He contemplated whether to go in or not, but he hadn't come all this way for nothing. Besides, his own apartment was in the exact opposite direction on the other side of town. Don't chicken out now Hiroto… you've come this far. What's the worse that could happen anyway? …Okay so he might hate you forever but you can't just avoid him you know!

Honda's long legs automatically began to stride forward toward the reception area of Dungeon Dice Monsters whilst in the middle of a mental conversation with himself. Inside, Honda found himself looking into a pair of bright yellow eyes. Otogi had hired a new receptionist about three weeks ago to help with the paperwork and other general duties. She looked just like Shizuka, except with ash blonde hair and lemon yellow eyes. Her name was Kiki.

"Can I help?" She asked sweetly.

"Uh…" Honda began. "Is Otogi-kun here by chance?"

"Yes he's upstairs, but I'm afraid he's not doing too well… could I pass a message on at all?" Kiki replied, somewhat preoccupied in a thick pile of paperwork in front of her.

Honda fingered the piece of crumpled paper in his pocket that had Otogi's song written on it. "No… it's okay. I'll come by tomorrow and see how he's doing." The brunet bid her goodbye then turned toward the exit.

"Hiroto?"

Honda didn't recognize the voice at first, but predicted it was Otogi calling his name. He looked over his shoulder to find the ebony-haired boy standing on the bottom stair, looking toward him. "Hey Otogi…"

"Come on up." Otogi replied before turning on the stairwell to head back up to his residence.

Honda's heart pounded like crazy as he followed the slim teen up the stairs. He noticed Otogi's physique had gone from toned and trimmed to lanky and bony. From being so badly beaten he must have lost a bit of weight. Honda made a mental note to ask gently about it once they reached his dwelling.

On entering the luxurious living room, Otogi immediately curled up into a ball on the couch, trying to hide his flinches of pain as he lay his tender body down. Honda immediately felt bad on seeing him this way. He sat down next to the fragile boy and looked enquiringly at him.

"You don't look so good… is everything okay?"

Otogi cast his gaze downward and hunched up further into the corner of the couch. "I feel worse than I did when I woke up on the football field covered in blood." The raven-haired boy replied bluntly.

Honda didn't know what to say. "Man that sucks…"

"Plus I think I've got a cold from staying in that hospital for so long wearing next to nothing. It was damn freezing in there." Otogi mumbled. "It didn't help that they made me totally strip and made me get up on that freezing cold steel table in the x-ray theatre either."

Honda resisted the urge to moan at the slide-show of explicit images currently going on in his head. "Yeah… but besides that, what have you been up to today? You must have enjoyed your day off of school…"

Otogi snorted. "Hardly. I was bored to the point of going through all my old porno magazines at least twice." He finished with a scheming grin.

This caused Honda to erupt into laughter. "Damn Ryuuji! I didn't know you looked at porno!"

"What guy doesn't?" Otogi replied matter-of-factly. "I bet you do. Jounouchi does, Malik does, Ryou… well I don't know about him, but Bakura probably does. Yuugi's got the biggest stash of porn I think I've ever seen in my life."

Honda reeled. "Yuugi?! No way… Yuugi wouldn't be into that sort of thing…" Honda tried to convince himself that Otogi was pulling his leg.

"You wanna bet?" Otogi smirked. "You should go around to his house one day. There's a stack about this high under his bed." He said, gesturing by holding one hand flat about a foot off the floor in mid air.

"Okay, okay!" Honda cried in defeat. "I think I've heard enough about Yuugi's tensions." He laughed. "So… what else did you do besides… looking at porn?"

The green-eyed boy scanned the ceiling searching for an answer. Then he shrugged. "Jerked off to it."

Honda nearly fell off the side of the couch.

"What?" Otogi asked calmly. "When you're stuck at home all day feeling like rat-shit and all you can think about is sex, what else are you supposed to do?"

~*~

Something had been bothering Bakura for a while now, and Ryou was determined to find out what. The metallic haired yami had been distant toward everyone for quite some time now, and had even gone as far as shutting out Ryou via their mind link. Even Marik, who knew him most, was unable to tell what the matter was.

"It's nothing." Bakura would say. Although everyone knew otherwise.

Bakura's moping was even affecting Ryou's mood, making him feel faintly depressed that his darker half wouldn't tell him what was going on, and making Malik aggravated because of the way Bakura's selfishness was bringing Ryou down. The sooner they found out the problem, the better off they would all be.

"I don't know what more I can do." Marik grunted in frustration. "He simply won't talk… Fuck he's not even that affectionate anymore."

"Or what you might call affectionate… others call sadistic." Malik muttered, flicking through a motorbike magazine, putting circles around the prices of the best buys. He'd had enough of his old motorbike; he'd even thought about asking Bakura to steal one of Honda's. That kid had so many he wouldn't know that one of them was missing.

"So… what do you suppose I do? He's driving me insane." Marik spat, and rose up from the table to join his light's side.

"Yami, you are insane." Malik scoffed. "You might just have to drive it out of him with brute force."

"I don't want to have to force it out of him." Marik replied.

"How hard could it be?" Malik questioned. "For one, you're stronger than all three of us put together, and he trusts you the most. I doubt he's going to tell Ryou or I any time soon, and it's affecting us just as much as it's affecting you. He's really pissing me off."

"He's pissing you off?!" Marik nearly laughed. "Let me ask you hikari, when was the last time you got laid?" Marik asked, now leaning on his elbow against the back of the three-seater couch.

"How is that any of your business?" Malik retorted.

"Well it wouldn't matter even if you didn't tell me because I already know." Marik said understatedly.

Lilac eyes bulged. "What?!"

"Call it a yami's intuition." Marik shrugged. "But we digress. The point is this: Bakura has been so miserable that he doesn't even put out anymore, and if he keeps this up, I might just have to fuck you some time soon instead."

Malik recoiled under that statement, now motivated to get Bakura to let the cat out of the bag A.S.A.P. The last time Marik had shown any indication of sexual acts around his hikari had been so horrifying that Malik nearly cried. Though when the roughness and aggression that dominated within his dark half came out behind closed doors, Malik admitted it was sort of a turn on, all the while terrifying and exciting at the same time. Ryou was a lot more gentle and caressing in bed though, and knew all the right spots to hit to make Malik wild.

Malik frowned, knowing now where his dark half was coming from. "I suppose it's been a while for me too…"

"Good, so now you see my point of view right?" Marik asked, receiving a nod from Malik. "So if I say that if we don't find out what's wrong with Bakura within the next couple of days and I'm coming after you instead… will that motivate you?"

Malik rolled his eyes. "Don't be such a rapist."

Marik smirked and lunged at his hikari, pinning his wrists up behind his head against his wall. "Don't ever underestimate my power, my sweet, sweet hikari…"

Malik squirmed under his yami's control, but couldn't even budge. "Let go of me you psychotic freak!"

"So do we have a deal?" Marik near purred. "If you don't find out what's bothering Bakura with in the next… three days," Marik said, grasping both Malik's wrists with one hand and putting up two fingers with his free hand. Malik rolled his eyes. He really needed to learn how to count properly. "I get to fuck you, okay?" Marik finished.

"Okay whatever! Just let me the fuck go! You're hurting me!" Malik screeched.

Marik smirked at the writhing body beneath him, but released him. "Good boy." He then ruffled Malik's hair, snickered, and walked off somewhere with the Sennen Rod in tow.

Malik muttered obscenities under his breath and rubbed his wrists which were already beginning to bruise. "Bastard!"

~*~

Jounouchi was toweling his hair dry in the steamed-up bathroom after having a shower. He wiped the mirror free of condensation and looked at his flushed face; his cheeks tinted scarlet from the hot water. He put some tartan pyjama pants on and a white singlet over his chest before walking out into the living room.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. This startled Jounouchi. Who could that be? He thought, looking at the clock on the microwave. Quarter to seven… who'd come around at this early? The blond contemplated to himself. Another knock sounded at the door before he went to answer it. Before him stood a face he hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Hiya Jou,"

Jou's dark brown eyes fused into the large dark mauve ones peering down at him. "…Mai? What are you doin' here?"

She shivered somewhat and pulled her black leather jacket around herself tighter. "Uh, well is it alright if I come in…? I just thought I'd come by and see how you've been. I've been in America for the past two months, you know."

Jou frowned, but nonetheless stepped aside to let the tall blonde woman into his apartment. Strangely he felt no hatred toward her. It had been too long ago to feel like that anymore. Mai sat down on the couch and crossed her jean-clad legs. She hadn't changed much, save for the fact that she reeked of perfume mixed with cigarette smoke and had very long fake nails on.

"So… what's America like?" Jou asked, somewhat awkwardly.

Mai nodded. "It's great… I was in Los Angeles for the most part; working on my dueling skills and working at a club."

"A club?" Jou questioned. "What were you doing there?"

Mai paused. "I was… well I got offered a job as a stripper for a while, but I didn't stay there for long. I started modeling soon after I left my job as a stripper."

Jou was slightly stunned, but wasn't really surprised. "…So, what sort of modeling is it?"

The blonde beauty sighed. "Well, don't get me wrong, I really only did it for the money, but it was nude modeling."

"What?!" Jou shrieked. "You mean, you're gonna be in dirty magazines?! What'd you do that for?!"

Mai laughed out loud. "Relax Jou! I did it because of the money! I'm rich, Jounouchi! I'm God damn rich!"

"Well I hope you know what you're doing…" Jou muttered.

"I do, Jou. I'm happy…" Mai's voice faded into a low tone. "Listen, I heard about your girlfriend when I got back to Domino, hon. I'm really sorry."

Jou looked at the ground and breathed out slowly. "Yea… I guess these things happen though, huh?"

Mai nodded. She looked at her watch. "Well its quarter past seven, I have to be at a conference with my agent here in fifteen minutes." The elder girl stood up to her full 5'10" height and headed for the door.

"You've got an agent in Japan too?" Jou nodded as he walked her to the door.

"Yeah," Mai replied. "I think he's going to ask me if I want to do a porn video. The money I'd get would be incredible."

"You sure you'd wanna do somethin' like dat though?" Jou asked as he leant on the door frame.

Mai shrugged. "Sure why not? It would be a good experience anyway… But I should get going. Let me know if you wanna hook up sometime, okay? My cell phone number is still the same."

The blond simply nodded, but wasn't too concerned in seeing her again. "Good luck with your interview, then."

"Thanks. Take care alright? This won't be the last you'll be seeing of me." She replied smugly.

"I will."

Mai kissed him quickly on the cheek. "See ya `round hotshot."

Jounouchi closed the door behind him, now even more restless than he was before. There was no way he'd be able to study tonight, and he'd already had a go at his punching bag earlier in the night. He had no money to go and hire video games or in fact to even buy something for dinner. In thinking this, he opened the fridge to see what might be slightly edible for his dinner.

Eew gross… man I really have to clean this thing out one day! Jou thought on seeing something so furry it looked like it was about to crawl away. Hmm… well I guess I'll be having no dinner tonight then. The blond thought glumly as he closed the refrigerator door and slunk down onto the floor against it.

Well… it's twenty past seven, Jou. You're gonna be starved by the time you go to bed. Hey wait - didn't Kaiba say he'd be free after seven? An idea suddenly struck him. Damn that's pretty desperate… going to Kaiba of all people for food?! But it's not like the bastard is lacking in any way… Ah what the hell?

Jounouchi jumped up from the kitchen floor and dashed down the hallway to his bedroom. He threw on some clothes, put a comb through his hair, slapped on some deodorant and grabbed his schoolbooks. Grabbing his car keys and turning out the lights in his apartment, Jou made his way down to the parking lot where his car was currently residing.

~*~

"Hey Nii-sama, somebody has arrived." Mokuba's little voice echoed throughout the large glasshouse where the indoor heated swimming pool was. "Nii-sama…?"

Kaiba had retreated to his relaxation/recreation sanctuary as soon as he got home. He'd finished his paperwork, and then worked out in his private gym for a few hours before taking a swim. Right now he was lying stretched out in the sauna working up a sweat.

"Seto…?" Mokuba creaked open the sauna door to find his older brother lying on his stomach with his head laid on his arms in front of him, eyes closed. They quickly opened though.

"What is it Mokuba?"

"Somebody just pulled up the driveway. I think it's Jounouchi-kun! Want me to go see?" The blue-black haired boy asked.

Smirking discreetly, Kaiba replied, "Let him in and tell them I'll be down soon. I'm going to take a shower."

"Sure big bro!" With that, Mokuba disappeared out of the bath house and back into the mansion.

Kaiba emerged out of the sauna and grabbed a towel. Hm… so the mutt finally came to his senses? Guess he really is desperate to pass that test… Kaiba couldn't think of any other reason why Jou would want to come around other than to get some basic knowledge on trigonometry and such. I mean… he's never exactly been on the best of terms with me, so why else would he come? The blue-eyed brunet asked himself as he smoothed some liquid soap over his hard, toned body. Hmm… oh well. Maybe he still wants to kick my ass in a duel. Kaiba nearly almost out loud at the thought. Almost. He's not likely to ask… so maybe I'll have to be the one to initiate it. This night could turn out more exciting than expected…

Kaiba turned off the faucet, dressed, and went to head downstairs. He saw Jounouchi loitering around in the foyer, looking at the paintings and pictures along the walls. To Kaiba, he was such a vulnerable target for a duel that he felt drunk on his own power, psychologically drooling with temptation.

Well… let the games begin.

* * * * * * *

JG-chan: So what did you think of that?

Nyoko: In other words she can't be bothered writing an end note so just leave a review and she'll get back to you.

JG-chan: -_- you are such a cynic. Anyways, catch you cool guys up! Hope you enjoyed! ^_^