Chapter

By the time Seto had left his office building, the sun had entirely set and small beams of moonlight were being filtered by the branches of trees. The light cast upon the frowning CEO as he walked amongst the shadows of lampposts and rooftops. Kaiba Seto did not beg, he did not barter and he most definitely did not succumb to being humiliated. He was too proud to ever accept an apology after being humiliated in his own office. No, the blonde had lost his chance. He would no longer be waiting around for Jou as he had been doing. He would pick himself up and move on.

But there was a part of his that rejected this cold attitude. It was the part of him that has taken over him the first time he had kissed Jou. It had enveloped him, drove him forward, but he wouldn't acknowledge this part of him anymore. He would kill it. Destroy it. He never wanted to hear from it again.

He plopped himself down on a park bench and leaned back as far as he could. There were no stars in the sky tonight, or if there was, he couldn't see them through the city lights.

Seto sighed. What in the world was he going to do? He was an 18 year old billionaire who was severely infatuated with an 18 year old blonde who lived in a beat up apartment on the wrong side of town. The logical side of Seto's mind told him that this made no real sense, he should just drop it and move on, and that the future looked bleak for such a relationship. And Seto usually listened to his logical side; which made him such a miserable person.

He had a fear of letting someone in, letting someone take advantage of him, toying with his emotions, playing with his feelings.

But you already know Jou wouldn't do that. You already know it wasn't his intention.

This whole thing made Seto feel vulnerable. It made him feel weak and trapped and not himself. The feeling wasn't entirely bad, but it was new, and Seto could very well have been afraid of it. He liked to think he wasn't afraid…but…he didn't want Jou to laugh at him. He didn't want Jou to take advantage of him and he certainly didn't want Jou prying into his past.

Seto looked at his clock. It was now 10:10. He knew where Jou lived; he could walk to his house. The thought of sitting in his office and waiting for the blonde to come back wasn't appealing. He had the idea he might be waiting forever, and he couldn't always count on Jou coming back to him. Maybe this time, he wouldn't.

If there was something he learned from this, it was that Jou made him feel things he wasn't used to, or never had felt before. Maybe it wasn't so bad being vulnerable. Maybe he should take a chance. Perhaps it would do him some good.

Seto got up from the bench and began walking east.

You never know until you try.

Jou kicked a pop can into a deserted alley by his apartment building. So much for live and let go. So much for forgiveness. So much for Seto Kaiba.

What did he expect? To just walk into Kaiba's office and everything would be like it used to? Actually, he did expect that. Seto usually was in a bad mood, he also held grudges and it wasn't unusual for him to get angry. But…but this?

Well what the fuck DID he expect? He basically just ran out on Seto, told him things were fun but I don't swing that way, and then just left.

Well, first of all, Jou swung in all directions. Left right and centre. Secondly, he should have known Seto wouldn't have lied to him, because this was Seto after all. Aside from displaying nothing but blunt sarcasm and petty insults, Jou didn't even know he had human feelings. And yet, for that brief moment, when their lips touched, something clicked. Something was right. And that made him afraid of everything he has come to know.

Jou dug into his pocket for his house key, as he approached the door to his apartment. He checked his mail box before walking in and turning left. The walls were dirty and he could hear the television in room 106 as he passed the door. He remembered Seto's house, with its polished wood furniture and spotless white walls adorned with pictures. Jou needed out of here. He had no job, no money and nowhere to go. But he needed out of here.

Jou roughly shoved the key into the lock and pushed the door open. It stuck at the top a bit, and he had to jiggle it to fully open the door. Why was the TV on in his house? His father was usually out, Jou had just wanted to come home and go to bed…

"Why're you home so late?"

Jou walked into the small two bedroom apartment and set his key down on the kitchen table. He walked over to the fridge and grabbed the milk carton, ignoring his father.

"I am fucking talking to you."

"Dad, it is only 10:15. I am not late; I went out for a walk."

"You left the house a fucking mess."

Jou turned around; His father still has his eyes glued to the television. A bottle of bourbon in his hand; an empty brandy beside his recliner.

Jou slowly poured himself some milk, "It was clean when I left it."

"It wasn't fucking clean, you never fucking cleaned it."

Jou shut his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "I'll clean it tomorrow, I'm tired."

"No, you're going to get on your hands and knees and clean it right fucking now."

He did not need this tonight. He had already fought with Seto; he didn't need to take shit from his father. Jou's blood pressure was slowly rising. He just wanted to lie down. He grabbed his milk and headed to his room.

"Didn't you hear me? I said clean the fucking mess!"

Jou slammed his glass onto a table in the hallway, nearly breaking it. He marched back to the kitchen and shouted at his father. "I didn't make any fucking mess; everything is your fucking mess. I am not going to clean it up, I am going to bed. Now leave me the fuck alone."

"Don't talk to me like that!" His father shouted back, slurring his words.

Jou sighed around, "I am going to bed now."

His father got up from his chair, stumbling over his feet. He still had the bottle in his hand, and he used the same hand to point his finger at Jou.

"Little to me you little rat, I didn't make no mess in here. It was a sty when I came in. I told you to clean it up and you're going to fucking clean it up."

Jou's head was throbbing painfully. Not tonight, he didn't want this tonight. He hung his shoulders in defeat and reached under the kitchen sink for a garbage bag. He made his way for the living room, and began to pick up the empty beer cans that hadn't been there when he left.

"Fucking talk back to me," he could hear his dad mutter under his breath. Jou ignored him. This wasn't his father. His father would wake up in the morning with a throbbing headache, begging for forgiveness for whatever he had done to Jou the night before. That is how it was every time. His father telling him he would change.

Jou never believed it. The monster that took over his father would always be back, if not the next night, then the one after.

"You really should stop drinking." He reached down for a crushed can of beer.

Jou's father grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and breathed his stale breath to his face, "It ain't your job to tell me what to do boy." Roughly, he threw him to the floor and Jou landed with a thud.

"It isn't you job to drink yourself into stupidity either!" He got up and dropped his bag of cans, a few rolling to the living room floor, and marched to his room. He didn't care about it anymore, he didn't care about the alcohol, he didn't care about Seto, and he didn't care about the other pair of feet following him to his room…

As soon as Seto turned off the main street in Domino, he instantly felt like he was out of place. All the main hussle and bussle of city life on the main drag vanished to decrepit apartments and low class food stores. Which house was it? Which of the many building that looked the same as the ones on the rest on the street? He remembered a convenience store across the street, the lawn in front of the building was dirty and the colour of the brink was a rusty yellow…

Seto saw the store and looked across the street. He knew that was the building, he remembered it. No one was outside. Jou didn't come in early; he always was telling Seto of staying out late. The bench beside the building; Instead of knocking on ever door in the building, Seto would just wait for Jou. He could wait all night, but Jou didn't stay home. He didn't like home. He told Seto this. He could ask someone if he knew their room number, or would that be too creepy? Either way, he couldn't sit there all night, he had left his brother home and he also didn't stay out past 11:00.

The bench had derogatory words carved into the wood among the smears of a sharpie. Seto checked the bench for gum before he sat down and then placed himself on it. How long would he have to wait?

He could hear a door being shut in the building. Was someone coming in or going out? Could he ask him if he knew where Jou's room was?

He stood up again and straightened himself out. His manners told him to be polite to whomever it was that was barreling down the stairs. Quite quickly indeed. Seto was beginning to make an effort in asking whoever was making a racket down the iron steps of the apartment building where he could find his friend, but he never did get the chance to say anything.

His intended posing question was forgotten as someone hit him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. He didn't fall, but staggered for a moment until he realized who it was.

"Jou?"

The blonde looked up at Seto, with sudden fear in his eyes.

"What happened to you?"

His nose was bleeding slightly, a minor cut on his lip was making it swell and the beginnings of a red bruise was forming on the right side of his upper arm. Jou didn't answer him as he swiftly moved past Seto in a desperate attempt to flee.

Seto stopped him by grabbing his arm. Jou flinched, but Seto didn't let go.

"Get off me!" Jou was angry, he just wanted to get away, he didn't want to see Seto… he was the last person he wanted to see. Why had he come? Why now of all time.

"You're hurt."

Jou was trying to wretch his arm out of Seto's grip. "I don't care!"

"I do."

Jou finally got his arm free and took a few steps back from Seto. He stood for a moment and was going to say something, but turned around and walked towards the street rubbing the spot on his arm where Seto had been grabbing him.

"If you didn't realize it before, I came here to talk to you."

But Jou wasn't listening; he had put his hands in his pockets and was walking up the street.

Seto jogged behind him to catch up. "Would you at least listen to me?"

"You didn't seem to want to listen to me earlier."

"Yeah, neither did you," Said Seto catching his breath.

"Go away."

"Make me."

Jou turned around and took a hard look at the CEO. He might have almost caught the faint hint of a grin on his perfect face. He shook his head and continued up the street.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Jou laughed, "Whatever it's supposed to mean."

Seto continued beside him for a few seconds, before he spoke. "Your nose is bleeding, onto your shirt."

Jou looked down to see a few red stains on what was a clean blue shirt. "Shit happens."

Seto didn't say anything for a moment. He almost missed the way Jou took things so lightly, before he remembered how much it used to annoy him. Whatever, he could change the subject.

"Where are you going?"

"Yuugi's."

Seto paused as if to think, but he already had it in his head what he wanted to ask. "Come over to my house?"

Jou stopped in his tracks yet again, "What? No, no I don't think so. I am tired and I don't want to deal with you."

"Deal with me?"

"Yeah. What did you want anyways? You shouldn't be walking around here."

Seto raised his eyebrow.

Jou glared at him. A car pulled in the parking lot in front of them and drove to the other side. "Well?"

Seto started walking again. Jou stayed put for a moment, then he was the one following. Seto didn't follow. "You didn't come back."

The blonde shook his head in annoyance, "You always think I am the one that's going to come back?"

Seto grinned, "That's usually how it works, the puppy's' the one that comes to the master."

Annoyed furthermore, Jou added "I wasn't going to."

"I bet you would have."

"Would not."

"You always do."

"I already did." Jou was back in the lead again, in front of Seto. Seto didn't follow.

"You'd have come back."

Jou shook his head, "I didn't want to Seto." He walked a bit further until he could only hear his own footsteps on the sidewalk. He turned to see the brunette stopped a ways behind him.

"You don't make things easy."

Jou was suddenly so angry he could hardly help himself from hitting Seto in the face. He opted to push him instead, which caught Seto completely by surprise. "I finally got sick of you. You're crazy, you're insane, and I have no idea how to read you. You expect me to know what you're thinking all the time and you blame me for just not getting it? Hello Seto, wake up. You don't exactly make things easy for me!"

Still fuming the blonde continued his track.

Seto knew what was going to happen. He didn't care. He also had a right to be angry.

"You don't make things easy either Jou. You always going around with whatever her name is—"

"She works in your office for one. And secondly, I never knew you were fucking jealous!"

"I was not. Jealous. I don't get jealous."

"Come off it, I could tell. You'd tune me out every time I'd open my mouth. I didn't care because you were doing it to yourself. You could have just told me but being as your Mr. High and Mighty, I knew you never would. But you'd sit and wait forever—"

"You blew the whole thing off! Like it just didn't matter. You didn't want anything to do with it. I don't wait around for people to come back. I was the one moving on and you think you can just pick anytime you'd like? Like, you'd think I would be ok with simply waiting on your return? I wasn't going to—"

"You made it seem like it just didn't matter Seto. You're too good at deceiving everyone around you to make them think you don't have any feelings. And you're damn good at it too. What the fuck did you want me to do? Tell me, I am interested; just what exactly was I supposed to do?" Jou wasn't talking as loudly now. They both had stopped walking in front of a grocery store. The lights were out and there were only a handful of cars in the lot. Jou put up his hands in defeat. "You win. You're better at everything, at feeling or doing, or living for that matter, you're better than me. You couldn't have made that any clearer. Now you need to stop playing with me, because it fucking hurts."

"I didn't want to. I never did. And I don't want to stop." Seto could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Vulnerable, it made him nervous. Not afraid…

Jou didn't look at Seto. He had turned his eyes downward to avoid his gaze.Seto sighed and closed his eyes. "My house in this way," he pointed down Emerald Ave.

"I don't—"

"I don't care," said Seto, "I am just telling you. You can walk down the street with your bloody nose all the way to Yuugi's house, or you can catch a ride with me." He didn't wait for a response, but turned down the street and was gone.

Jou cursed himself. Stupid Seto with his pride, he still couldn't break him. Jou seemed to think he would be doomed to following Seto around wherever he went. Like a dog. And Seto expected him to come back every time. Even if he wanted to avoid it, Jou didn't think he ever could.

Maybe it'll always be like this.

It sort of worked…everything in life you had to work for. The rewards for your hard work are better the harder you work…

But if I ever didn't want to, then we'd just be…

He wouldn't think of that, by all rights, he should walk the other way. He didn't see something easy in the future; it was almost a doomed thought that crossed his mind.

But you want to.

Did he really want to this time?

He looked at the silhouette of Seto walking towards the half moon suspended in the sky. He'd never wanted anything so much in his life.