Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Rule the Game ❯ Party of One ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in Yu-gi-oh!, but I do own a kitten named Shizuka :D Just like WacDonalds and Burger World, Mal-Mart is totally an original creation, really.

 

AN: I bet no one ever expected this to be updated! I got a pretty motivational review recently, from Nny2you on ff net, and I decided that maybe I'd better give this story another go (I'd almost forgotten about it...). On another note, have any of you ever read the doujinshi manga `Rule the Game'? Neither have I, but I've seen some scans. So cute! Hence the title. That's right - the title of this story has absolutely nothing to do with the plot... but there's a good reason for this. You guessed it... there is no plot :D I'm still working on that. More angsty in this chapter, I think; I'll try to keep it under control o.o;

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XoooooooooooooooooooooooChapter One: Party of OneoooooooooooooooooooooooX

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It had just sort of slipped out. That was, after all, the way Jou said most things.

 

It had happened about a month ago. He'd been over at the game shop after hours, watching movies, just him and Yuugi. They were talking idly about a cute new transfer student, and he'd just sort of... said it.

 

`I have a crush on someone.'

 

What he hadn't expected, though it would have been obvious had he actually bothered to think, was how persistent Yuugi would be. Jou supposed, in retrospect, that he'd said it because he had wanted advice, and Yuugi was his most trusted friend. Maybe he'd also been hoping that, somehow, Yuugi would say something that would damn him to hypocrisy - something really wise, like, `no matter who she is, I'm sure she'll accept you, if she's worth your attention in the first place'... But as it turned out, he wouldn't say anything without a name. When Jou wouldn't answer, he tackled him - playfully, in spite of the size difference - and had pinned him to the floor...

 

Jou's problem, he later mused, was that he had such a horribly open, innocent face. It made it so impossible to lie, especially to friends. On top of the already overwhelming evidence of his expression - shocked and so vulnerable on his back - the fact that he never did say anything at all just proved it.

 

Xoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooX

 

So. Christmas Day. Giving. GETTING. Santa Claus.

 

Jonouchi lazed in bed Christmas morning, though he had in fact been awake already for some time. He knew without looking that there were no presents under the tree to go bounding off towards. There wasn't even a tree. This just wasn't that sort of house, really.

 

As he examined the pattern of cracks on his ceiling, he wondered without any real interest what he should do today. He wouldn't mind staying here all day, maybe finishing up that homework, except his dad was bound to wake up eventually. Maybe he could go hang at the arcade, if it was open...

 

These hazy plans were abruptly shattered, and Jou was suddenly jolted into action, when the phone rang.

 

He kept the receiver in his room for faster access. He fumbled for it and answered it on the second ring, fairly confident that it had been fast enough to not wake the old geezer up. “Yo?”

 

“Hi, Jou.”

 

As simple as that. He didn't even say `um', though his voice was a little quiet. Jou sat down heavily on the floor, and took a moment to respond: “Hey, Yug'...”

 

The awkward silence only lasted for a few moments, just enough to be undeniably noticeable. Then Yuugi laughed at nothing in particular, and said, “Well, I just wanted to know if you were coming to the party tonight. Honda, Anzu and Ryou are all spending the night, too.”

 

Jou felt a helpless, terrified grin tugging at his lips, and he wondered just what exactly he was afraid of - there were so many possibilities, after all. “Cool. What time?”

 

“Six. There'll be dinner.”

 

“Okay. I'll be there.” Then, almost without meaning to, Jou added: “See you then.”

 

“Okay. Bye.”

 

“Bye...”

 

The line went dead. Jou dropped the phone to the floor and lay back in a pile of mixed clean and dirty clothes. He had a bad habit of cross-examining and psychoanalyzing every conversation he had after the fact, at least when it was a conversation with a certain someone... But in this case, there was really nothing to examine. Yuugi had called for an answer to a question, and nothing else. No friendly conversation. No friendly intimacy...

 

Jou was startled to realize that he actually didn't want to go to this party. A month later, he was starting to get really disgusted with this whole situation. He felt ashamed of himself - especially if not only because he'd hadn't even been brave enough to actually say anything, to explain his feelings at all. It was more than that, though. He couldn't really understand it, but he could swear that he was actually starting to hate Yuugi...

 

So it was very odd indeed that the thought of seeing his face was what moved him to stand, sighing, and head out to do some very belated Christmas shopping.

 

Xoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooX

 

Odder still was the way that, by the time he'd finished his shopping and blown the rest of the time left until six just messing around (the arcade was closed after all), Jou was actually feeling pretty good. He'd bought pastilles for Anzu - fashion designer was her second choice after dancing - a new bike helmet for Honda - he had just dented his old one a couple weeks ago, to no one's surprise - and some chocolate for Ryou - because he didn't know him as well as the others, but he did know that the guy really liked sweets. Yuugi had taken a little more thought than maybe he should have, but in the end Jou had swung by Otogi's shop and picked up a few packages of Dungeon Dice. Perfectly ordinary and careless. He was totally broke now, of course, but he thought he'd done well.

 

As he walked down Yuugi's street, he diligently ignored the steadily growing feeling of nausea deep in his stomach.

 

Yuugi's jii-san let him in at the door and pointed him to the back room, though he could have found it on his own by following the sound of teenage laughter. Everyone else was already there; he greeted them with a cheerful `yo', and plunked the Mal-Mart bag of hastily wrapped gifts down on the table. As they drew him into the conversation they'd been having, he made a special effort to make eye contact with Yuugi, but he couldn't really find anything much to say to him.

 

Now that they had all shown up, they left the small den for the equally small dining room/kitchen, all in the back of the store. It was fairly cramped with five teenagers and a man, but they made it work as always. It was a cheerful meal, Jou knew, with good food and pleasant conversation, but most of the latter was over his head because he was busy ignoring the fact that he'd somehow wound up sitting next to Yuugi.

 

This... isn't working...

 

The awkwardness between them really amazed him. It never used to be anything like this. Even when they'd seen each other at school afterwards, it hadn't been this awkward. It seemed that things had somehow gotten worse instead of better after spending the last week apart... When their hands crossed paths reaching across the table, Jou had jumped, as startled as if someone had suddenly shouted. Infinitely worse, though, was how Yuugi had ignored it, hadn't even looked his way.

 

What amazed him most of all was the way no one said anything. He felt like he was carrying a big sign around his neck that weighed him down and announced his shame and strangeness to the world, but even if they couldn't see that, surely they could see the tension between these two supposed best friends? The conversation continued normally. `But then again,' he thought, `tension between the two of us is so crazy, they probably think they're just imagining it...'

 

By the time they got to the gifts, he was feeling pretty miserable. He would never have thought that being around Yuugi could make him feel like shit; life was just full of surprises these days... He still managed to keep on a good face, however. People gave him various things and he thanked them accordingly, but he really wasn't paying attention. Then he handed out his gifts. They all seemed to go over pretty well... and then Yuugi actually spoke directly to him for the first time that evening.

 

“Oh, thanks... Actually, jii-san is carrying these now. He just started a couple weeks ago; I thought I told you. Can you believe it?”

 

Jou laughed cheerily. “No way, who'd have thought... sorry, I guess you have a million of these already, then...”

 

It wasn't a real apology. `It's his own damn fault!' snarled a malicious little bit of him that he didn't recognize. `He knows he didn't tell you, he always would've told you something like that...' For the rest of the evening, Jou became increasingly withdrawn as he festered in secret irritation.

 

The rest of the evening was a long time to smolder. They sat around the table talking for a long time after all the gifts had been opened. A few card games were played, and a few games of Dungeon Dice as well - everyone else had apparently started playing it as soon as Kami game shop had started carrying it, which made Jou a very sore loser indeed. Add to that a couple movies and massive amounts of popcorn, and it was nearly two o'clock, December 26th, when they finally got to bed.

 

Anzu got the living room all to herself, and the four boys crowded in to Yuugi's room. There was enough space that three of them could sleep on simple futons on the floor; Yuugi gave his bed to Ryou. Jou was tired, but the futon just wasn't that comfortable. He tossed and turned...

 

Yuugi was just on the other side of Honda. Just over there. He... really, really hated him...

 

He was just being such a jerk about this, Jou reasoned. Yuugi was supposed to be his best friend; why did he have to freak out like this? He was sure he wasn't overreacting; this nervousness was real, so obvious in the way that Yuugi didn't look at him now when he talked. Yuugi could've at least asked... He was supposed to be his best friend; didn't he even want to know what he was feeling? If he'd just asked, Jou was sure he would have told him. He would have told him about how Yuugi just seemed so perfect to him, so innocent and brave and smart and something he wanted to protect forever... But maybe he wasn't everything Jou had thought he was.

 

Somehow or another, he wound up on his feet. He hesitated, because this was another stupid thing that he really needed to think through except that he didn't want to and he was trembling and he'd just caught sight of Yuugi's sleeping face in the moonlight... He looked away, because it was really too much for him right now, and that was enough to get out of there - out of the bedroom and then out of the game shop...

 

Xoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooX

 

A door slammed downstairs. It wasn't loud enough to wake anyone else up, but Yuugi stirred. He knew the sounds his own house made, so he knew when something was out of place.

 

When he opened his eyes, he immediately noticed that the bedroom door was open. It took him a moment to put two and two together, but then he sat up to take a quick head count and came up one short.

 

Yuugi stared at the empty futon for a long time. He was so tired... it was so late - and cold... Even so, he told himself, he wanted to go after him, but he had to be practical. How would he ever find him? Jou knew the streets so much better than he did, and it was dangerous out there at night-

 

`I will help you, if you want...' a gentle voice whispered to him.

 

“I... don't-” He drew a deep breath with some difficulty, and started over. `Okay. But I only want to check his place, and then I'm coming back. I wouldn't know where else to look, and it's really cold.'

 

Of course he knew that, a couple months ago, he would have been waking everybody else up to help him, and they would've searched every building and alley in the city if necessary. It was only the logical thing to do. He also ignored that he had actually thought about not looking at all. It was just that, well... he was so tired...

 

Xoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooX

 

AN: Ooh, drama-rama. I can't decide if this story is really good, or really bad. This may depend on who's reading it. I think I'm drawing overmuch on personal experience, I hope I'm still managing to keep everyone IC. I also don't think this sounded much like the first part -.-;; The problem is, I got a hold of a plot during this chapter, and it's screwed everything up. Plus, of course, it's been like five months, heh. I hate the drama! I know I need to tone it down, but I'm not sure how. (sweatdrop) I guess I should work in some funny parts...? Well, please let me know what you think, mina-san. It's my birthday, so review!! (I turned seventeen today, w00t).