Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ This Is Now and That Was Before ❯ Truer Than the Heart of He Who Speaks ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Warnings: cursing, polytheism, slight angst, Bastard!Seto, Moody!Jou, tiny hints of a het pairing (*gasp*)

Full Story Summary: Cursed to wander the four corners of the earth, trapped eternally in an endless circle of incarnations in which he remembers all that is past. It all sprang from one forbidden taste of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and now Jounouchi Katsuya must find redemption and grace in the unlikeliest of places -- a single, tainted human.

Many Thanks Go Out To: Kaneda-Shotaro and Yami Tetsuo, daisy, Hyatt Insomnia, Blue Lagoon Loon, Lady Geuna, Neko-chan, Ishida Kat (Nope, he keeps getting reborn into a new infantile body after he dies, actually. ^.^;), Kakarots-Frying-Pan, and Jadej.j. Thanks so much, you guys! *glomp*

Oh, yes, and What If God Was One of Us, by someone whose name I can't remember right now (Help me?) does not belong to me, either.

Enjoy!

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Admittedly, Katsuya Jounouchi had been in tough or embarrassing situations before, and kept his cool-- well... most of the time. And, also true, he'd been purposefully humiliated quite a few times in his lives; most memorably the first one. Jou was no stranger to spite and revenge, and he made sure anyone who crossed him knew it. But this--

The blond felt the deep flush that spread over his entire body, seething within himself for just one crucial moment. It had been so long since he had been around people-- real people, not that damned brat-- that for a moment he had failed to recall the old saying that one lie did not make someone a liar.

Similarly, one good deed obviously did not make one a saint, no matter what that particular deed happened to be.

The blond leapt at Seto with an outraged growl and fire in his amber eyes, snatching the nearest corner of the no-longer-white sheet and giving a sharp tug, knocking over the small bedside table in the process and sending what was left of that disgusting so-called 'remedy' splashing across the stone floor. But the brown-haired youth held fast to his own side of the cloth and forcibly pulled it towards himself.

"Let. Go."

"Like Hell! Ya perverted bastard!"

Abruptly, Jou felt the other side of the sheet give, and the blond fell back onto the bed with a thud, guided by the misplaced momentum and the exploding pain on the left side of his head from the sharp blow the other boy had just dealt him. The shorter of the two felt a hammering pain rip through his temple and instinctively curled up, whimpering, eyes wide and clouded by pain. He retched, but the movement only made the feeling worse.

Seto sneered at the volatile, whimpering puppy curled up before him. Weak. So god-damned weak. And that remark...

"I assure you, I have no wish to see," and he made sure even the mutt could hear the ridicule in his voice, "anything that you might have to offer."

The blond's head cleared instantly at those words, and he reached out blindly, lucking grabbing the front of the bastard's shirt and pulling Seto's body down until the blond could look up and be staring at Seto face-to-face. So, he was a dog and a whore now, was he?

"If you ever," he hissed, getting so close to Seto that he could see that the other's eyes weren't quite all blue, but had black in there as well. Seto, for his part, was silent. "If you ever touch me, I will personally kill you, ya got that?" With his free hand he reached up and lightly, threateningly, wrapped it around the blue-eyed youth's neck. "If you ever--"

Two things happened then. The first, and the more predictable, was that Seto slapped his hand away as if he had some kind of life-threatening disease. The second, and more important, was--

"Oniichan! Breakfast will be ready soon!" Mokuba's cheerful grin seemed to light up the room when he poked his head in, green eyes shining at the fact that he could be helpful for someone who needed him. "Please wash up, both of you!"

Seto stood up quickly as Jou pulled the hard-won sheets closer around him, feeling naked even with the cloth covering his lower half and not able to stop the dark flush that dusted his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

"Jounouchi-kun, why don't you take a bath? All that dirt looks really uncomfortable. And I'm sure Seto wouldn't mind lending you some of him clothes, cause mine wouldn't fit, right, Oniichan?"

The younger of the siblings had retracted his head and was halfway down the hall before Seto could even formulate a reply-- not that he could have denied Mokuba anything. This once, though, the idea was starting to look tempting.

Very tempting.

The blond mutt shifted on the bed-- Seto's bed; his bed-- sending a sly gaze the brunette's way. " 'Oniichan'? What tha hell is that?"

Seto resisted the urge to deck him again. Barely. Can't hurt him right now, Mokuba's in the next room. "Mokuba learned it from some girl we met in the village when he was young; 'Sakura' or something like it. [1] It means 'Big Brother' in some ancient tongue. He's been using it ever since." Although why he bothered to explain anything to this buffoon was beyond him. He should have just kept his mouth shut; it was amusing to watch the blond squirm, and now he looked positively smug, as if the mutt had taken something Seto wouldn't usually give.

"And what was that 'Jounouchi-kun' shit?"

"Also from the ancient tongue." He answered shortly, not really answering at all. Let the blond wonder. Perhaps it would keep him out of Seto's way for awhile.

"A--" Jou sputtered as a small pile of clothes hit him square in the face, glaring at the other but not feeling up to getting into another brawl just yet. At the moment, Seto had the advantage, since the bastard didn't hurt all over or have Jou's pounding headache-- and not all of it was from his almost dying, either.

"Washroom's down the stairs and two doors down, on the right. Don't break anything, or you'll have to work for it. And make it fast."

Convulsively crumbling the thin clothing into a ball, Jou said nothing, just watching Seto intently as the other youth strode calmly out of the room, opposite the way he had told the blond to go.

It took him awhile, but soon enough Jounouchi found himself standing-- limping, rather-- in front of the washroom door, panting heavily and aching in a hundred more places than before. The stairs had been the real killer, and twice he had to pause to cause his breath and steady his noodle-like legs before he could go even a step further. It seemed he had really worn his body down.

Jou did not like feeling weak, but he supposed it was his own damn fault this time.

He found a bar of unscented soap, a rusted iron bathtub empty of water, and a small pail full to the brim upon entering. There was also a small washrag hanging over the edge of the tub, which he picked up and dipped into the pail of water.

The water was warm, but there wasn't nearly enough to wash oneself with, and especially not to fill the tub. Jou glanced around and finally spotted a spout protruding from the wall about the washtub. He grinned.

Bingo.

The elation died rather quickly when the found the switch and released a sudden rush of water onto his still-clothed body. If you could really call what he was wearing clothes anymore.

Damn, but that water was cold. He bit his lip to keep from shrieking like some girl and instead used the saved energy to shiver uncontrollably as he quickly stripped out of the dirt-and-mud-stained rags he still wore. That explained it; he was supposed to rinse off most of the dirt and grime with the spray, and them wash more thoroughly with the warm water.

He would take a warm, relaxing bath over this any day.

Thankfully, the spray warmed up a bit after awhile, and he could concentrate on other things rather than being frozen to death-- not that he wanted to, because thinking always lead him to the inevitable.

"If God had a face, what would it look like, and would you want to see, if seeing meant that you would have to believe, in things like Heaven and in Jesus and the saints, and all the prophets?"

Well, at least this unnatural memory was good for remembering the tunes and lyrics of songs, so that he'd never be entirely bored.

...dirt blood darkness falling death--

He jerked up and accidentally swallowed a mouthful of water, coughing and sputtering as he flailed, felt the smooth, supportive walls, calmed just a bit even as he couldn't escape.

--dark why is it so dark a smell a bad smell... please leave me alone I don't like you where am I--

--dark always dark there is no light LEAVE ME ALONE please... just please...

...curled up into himself, crying floating going everywhere nowhere TRAPPED--

GO AWAY!

With a gasp the blond blinked, panting and hurting again, every ache multiplied. Light. He could see again.

"Hey there, hon. You look lost."

He swallowed, and suddenly the pain in his chest had nothing to do with physical injuries.

"Here, let me help you with that."

Sunshine, leather, smoke and silk--

The blond's knees gave way then, and with a mental sob-- not out loud, never out loud, even though he could always tell-- Jou sank to his knees and wrapped his arms around his shivering body.

There was no way to tell whether the wetness on his cheeks was from the shower or his tears.

When the blond finally made his appearance in the kitchen, Seto and Mokuba had already finished most of their meals. The older Kaiba brother looked up as Jou entered, ready to toss some scathing remark about taking such a long time in the washroom, but did a double take the instant he set eyes on the mutt. What--

"Jounouchi-kun! Why are you wearing--"

For one moment, Seto was completely speechless. Was the boy crazy?

Jou flushed. "Sorry 'bout that, I just..."

The blond was wearing what looked like every single piece of clothing Seto owned, barring the ones the blue-eyed youth was already in. Granted, he didn't have a whole lot of clothing, but this was...

Ridiculous. The boy had gone through his property without so much as a 'by your leave', when Seto had already given him something decent to wear.

"I was... cold," Jou finished lamely, avoiding Seto's narrowed gaze and sitting quickly in front of the plate of untouched food, correctly guessing that it was his. "Thanks for the chow," he muttered, then started mechanically shoveling it into his mouth, not caring what it was or how it tasted.

After a moment of strained silence Mokuba went back to his own meal, but Seto kept staring at their unwanted guest, seething inside though his face betrayed nothing. What had possessed the boy to do something so stupid and juvenile he--

He caught himself, and stared at the puppy awhile longer before looking away. Could the mutt actually--

He smirked. That must be it.

Quickly finishing off the rest of his meal, Seto stood up and stretched languidly, feeling the muscles in his back pop and feeling better for it. "I'm going to bed," he announced, mainly for Mokuba's benefit, and turned to head towards his room, despite the fact that it was only midmorning. He had been up all night, due to a certain puppy. As it was he would have to sleep with no sheets. It would take a week to wash the blond's smell out of the cloth.

As he passed Jou, he paused for half a second, smirked, and muttered, "Doesn't it unnerve you that, underneath all that clothing, you're still completely naked?" before casually continuing onward, pretending to ignore the blond's startled intake of breath.

Score another for Seto Kaiba.

The instant Seto's head hit the pillow he was sound asleep-- so deep a sleep that nothing out of the ordinary would have wakened him, and even something out of the ordinary would have a hard time doing so.

As it was, he was vaguely aware of a familiar sound about halfway through his slumber-- familiar, but not something he should have been hearing right then. The noise dragged him briefly to some sort of semi-consciousness before he dismissed it as nothing and fell back into the welcoming arms of sleep.

He was awakened rather rudely sometime later by a yell of 'oniichan!' right next to his ear. Seto groaned and rolled over, trying desperately to escape the owner of that voice, but it was to no avail.

"Oniichan! Wake up! It's important!"

Moaning something under his breath, Seto opened bleary eyes and groggily sat up, blinking to focus his gaze on his treasured little brother. "Mm... what is it, Mokuba? I'm trying to sleep..." He vaguely noticed a pile of his clothes out of the corner of his eyes and inwardly grimaced. If the mutt thought to run around his house naked just to spite him, he had another thing coming to him.

"Oniichan, Jounouchi-kun's gone!"

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[1] - Sakura - A reference to Kinomoto Sakura, from CLAMPs 'Card Captor Sakura'. I love that show, and Touya and Yukito make the most adorable couple. Sakura does call Touya 'oniichan'. No, this will not be a crossover. No characters from other animes will show up, because I despise crossovers most of the time. -.-; They have to be really believable for me to like them.

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Nozomi: *bursts in maniacal laughter*

Jou: *sweatdrops* Oh great, now I'm some freak who wears too much clothing, huh?

Seto: *massages his temples tiredly* Tell me I get to strangle the puppy when I find him, please? Because I know Mokuba's going to make me go look for the inconsiderate mutt.

Mokuba: Oniichan, please! *big shoujo starry eyes*

Seto: *melts* Alright.

Nozomi: *continues to laugh* C&C, minna-san! Onegai! Tell me what you think and if everyone seems IC~!