The biting cold.

Inexplicable warmth.

Jou could have given you the definitions of those vague phrases without batting an eyelash.

"Being alone."

"Being with him."

Shivers would course through the blonde's body at the mere mention of the name. The very name that gave him a funny weightless feeling in the pit of his stomach.

--

The weather hadn't been kind to Jou that day; the rain flowed heavily from the weeping sky, ruining his chances of sketching on top of the school. The beautiful breeze was what he wanted most; sweet and warm against his pale face, creating a type of Feng Shui for the paper and pencil in his hands. It was easier to draw that way: with clear and opulent thoughts.

So, instead of drawing on the roof, Jou went to the level below and chose a seat by the window; one that looked over the heart of Domino: the most beautiful of all artwork.

Settled into a desk by the window, Jou shut his eyes and rested his lengthy, bony fingers on the clear, open sketchpad in front of him.

Jou's chocolate eyes danced behind their coverings as he searched for ideas.

Many things came to mind: Yuugi dueling, Anzu dancing, Honda racing, his father laughing, Kaiba in the rain.

Now there was an idea.

Shaking his unruly locks out of his face, Jou picked up his mechanical pencil and went to work, outlining basic shapes. So intent was he on his work; Jou didn't hear when the subject of his art walked into the room with a broom.

Kaiba stopped short upon entering the room, ambiguous as to why the blonde was hunched over a desk with such intent. Jou's arm was moving in quick, short spurts and there was a loud scratching sound during each spasm. Every now and then there was a pause, a cock of the head, a short mumbling session and then it was back to whatever he was doing. The brunette in the doorway—no matter how much he tried to ignore it—grew too curious for his own good and walked over to stand silently behind Jou's shoulder, peering over far enough to get a good look at whatever was on the desk.

Raising an eyebrow, Seto blinked, looked away, and blinked again. Yes, it was still there.

It was a picture. Still in the works, but it was there—clear as day. It was he—Kaiba—leaning against the side of what looked like the school building. He had one arm raised above his head, bracing himself against the side of the wall. In the drawing, Seto was wearing a long-sleeved, collared shirt that clung to him tightly. His brown hair was stuck to the sides of his face, his forehead and his neck. The icy blue, intense gaze he always held was there—captured perfectly. A frown was in place as the doppelganger Seto in the picture stared off at something unknown. There were some light lines falling from the top of the drawing to the bottom, leaving trails and droplets wherever they touched. Rain.

Jounouchi Katsuya was drawing him—Seto Kaiba—in the rain.

And it was perfect.

From the wrinkles in the shirt to the muscles on his chest and arms, Seto felt as if he were looking in a mirror.

So this was Jou's talent. Just from basic observations, the CEO had seen that Yuugi's forte was in dueling, Honda's in racing, Anzu's in dancing, and Ryou's in school and work. He had never seen what Jou could do. Somehow, he felt a bit privileged to be able to see what the blonde could do.

"Are you just gonna stand there an' look at me, Kaiba?"

The brunette almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the blonde below him speak.

Jou hadn't looked up from his sketch since Kaiba had walked in, but he had sensed the same intense gaze the picture was producing. Curious as to what the rich man wanted, Jou had ignored him, instead focusing on the sheet of paper in front of him.

"I wasn't looking at you, puppy." Was the clipped, cold reply. Tightening his grip on wooden broom, Seto walked briskly to the other side of the room and began sweeping the dirt from the corners. Talk about an inferiority complex.

"Yeah, you were, Kaiba. If you wanted to know what I was doing, you could have just asked."

That simple sentence, so clear yet so…something else that Seto couldn't quite put his finger on. It stopped him in his tracks. With one end of the bristly broom pointed upwards toward the ceiling, like one would dip a lady whilst dancing, the CEO gazed over at Jou, who was looking at him with a cool expression.

Like a cat…almost like he expected this…

With the stiffness of a mannequin, the blue-eyed brunette set the broom against the teacher's desk and walked over to where the blonde artist was turning back around to focus on the piece of paper. Jou was completely at ease, like he and Seto did this every single day. Well, witty banter was one thing that did happen everyday, but the sitting down without the arguing and banter was something that had never happened before.

If felt kind of…nice. Kaiba thought, just sitting there, he and Jou together. There were very few words exchanged between them, except for the few polite commands from the drawing blonde of, "turn your head," or "hold your hand out," with which Seto complied quite complacent.

The amicable silence and the scratching of the pencil on the pad was a comforting massage on Seto Kaiba. It felt weird, to be sure, but it was nice. It was then that Seto took the time to actually study Jou—like actually take more than a glance at him. After all, there was nothing else in the room to look at, right?

For the first time, Seto took notice at how good-looking the blonde was. Fluffy blonde hair piled all over the place—but not in such a way that it made Jou look like a slob. Angry chocolate eyes dominated his facial features. Kaiba noticed that when the puppy got angry enough, those orbs froze over into glaciers colder than his own blue ones. Luscious pink lips that were just begging to be kissed—parted slightly with the concentration of the sketch below. The rest of Jou's body was slender—but not so slender as to make him look effeminate, like Ryou. No, it was a boyish grace he had; well-toned muscles that accented his shape in all the right places. The reason Seto never took noticed of the blonde before was probably because he was always wearing his uniform or some other baggy clothes that didn't light up his looks; that and the fact that there was always some distraction around.

Glancing at the brunette sitting so calm beside him, Jou felt a sudden uneasiness.

Here he was, drawing the guy who was supposed to be his worst enemy, with the real thing right next to him! It was unnerving to say the least, but not unwelcome. Jou was kind of relieved that there was no chair-to-head bashing and many chalkboard erasers being shoved in places unmentionable.

Katsuya's nimble fingers finished the shading and final lines before pulling his pencil away and studying it. His brown eyes went from the actual CEO to the doppelganger, and back, checking for slight differences and mistakes. There were none that he could see.

Initialing quickly at the bottom of the page, Jou slid the paper over to Kaiba for an analysis. The cold, rich man picked it up and scrutinized it.

"It's…beautiful…" was the only decent thing the brunette could think of to say, though it didn't do any justice.

"Thanks a lot…Seto. You can keep it, if you want," Jou answered, hiding a faint blush that was trying to come forth. Seeing Seto's eyebrows shoot into his hairline, the blonde added quickly, "You don't have to if you don't wanna. I just thought…since…you know…"

What a way to ruin a moment, Jou. His mind harassed him. Nothing else came to mind to say, though, so the room fell into an amiable silence once more.

"It's not that I don't want to keep it, it's just…yours…I wouldn't feel right…" Kaiba finally said, not taking his eyes off the gorgeous picture he held in his hands so reverently. The eldest Kaiba really didn't feel like he should take it—he felt like he was stealing from Jou, and stealing was something he frowned on.

However, the blondes face broke into a toothy grin. "Naw, dude! If you want it, you can go ahead and keep it! I gotta run though, so I'll see ya around!" Jou picked up his backpack and walked out of the room before Seto had a chance to argue.

"Yeah…see you around…"

--

So what did you think? I was toying with this idea for a day or so, and finally settled down to work on it during a storm. I hope it came out to your liking, though. And don't worry, I'm not going to leave you hanging here! Took me a little while to figure out where I wanted to go with this, but hey! There'll be a few more chapters. Please leave a review, telling me what you did or didn't like. It's not fair to an author if they don't know whether anything's wrong with their story.