A/N: A buddyshipping and Jounouchi background fic. I had to do it. I mean it is only the greatest pairing the world has ever known and Mr. J needs attention.
This is my racism is bad chapter. I have one in just about everything I write in one way or another. It seems to shove its way in. Besides the obvious, racism is bad message, I would like to say that there is some rather obvious corpeal punishment in this chapter. Now in Asia, hitting children and often is still widely accepted and used by most teachers. Not often but then not many Japanese students misbehave the way western students do. Just a warning for anyone who is offended. I have a tendency to get upset when I read or see children hit (ToS actually really does offend me in some places) so I'm giving a heads up.
Behold Jewish Honda.
But That Was Then
Chapter 3: Troubles Remerge
Honda slouched as he walked into his primary school. He was only twelve and had around outgrown all of the sizes of school uniform. He was forced to wear a tailored down version of one of his brother's. It looked different than the other kids and he had enough trouble being taller than everyone else without having a different uniform. He pulled off his shoes and replaced them with one's for the classroom. He looked over to see Jounouchi shoving and snarling at a boy twice his size. The other boy really didn't seem interested in fighting with the junior but that had never stopped Jounouchi before. He was a lot like one of those junkyard dogs that always fought for no good reason. "Jounouchi!" Honda said approaching with a smile.
Jounouchi turned quickly and grinned at the other boy. "Honda! What are you wearing?"
Honda blushed and looked down. "I outgrew another one."
Jounouchi pulled back a little. "Are you kidding? You have to stop growing. You're going to be a freaking giant."
Honda growled. "Shut up! You're just a dwarf that's all."
Jounouchi snarled and pulled the taller boy into a headlock. "Whose a dwarf now!?"
Honda squirmed violently trying to get away from the smaller boy. It didn't do him any good. Jounouchi was far stronger than him to say the least and tougher to boot. "Uncle! Uncle!!" With that Jounouchi let him go and shoved him away. "I can't help it if I keep growing. Every one in this school is still under forty kilos. I can't help it."
Jounouchi grinned. "Admit it Honda, you're a freakin' giant. You'll be as tall as the senior students at this rate."
Honda groaned. "I hope not."
The day preceded as it always did. He went to his classes, took notes, took tests, was pestered by Jounouchi for answers and caught by the teachers. Jounouchi was his closest friend. He had met him in years ago. He was the only boy big enough to actually shove Jounouchi back. It made quite the impression on him and they had been thick as thieves ever since. Jounouchi wasn't what he'd call a "problem child" persay. He was spirited for sure and aggressive. He was one of the only students that the teachers had hit in class. He was surprised Jounouchi still had all of his fingers after all the whacks he got. He didn't know why Jounouchi pushed it so much. Even the friendly assault from that morning was overly abrasive. If Honda weren't so hard up for friends, he probably would have avoided him like most of this classmates.
"Hey Honda!" Jounouchi ran up behind the taller boy. "Harutani says he would look into having you join."
Honda looked at the other boy half confused. Hirutani was the leader of the small gang that Jounouchi often tagged along with. "I don't know Jou. He's..."
Jounouchi rolled his eyes. "Fine... I just thought you were more of a tough guy being so big."
Honda groaned to himself.
"I mean you're huge. You're as tall as the upperclassmen." Jounouchi looked over at his friend for a moment. Honda was slouched slightly and his head hung slightly. Jounouchi grinned and shoved the other boy. "Hey! Ya know, there probably wasn't anything open anyway. I mean we aren't always open and how good is my word anyway."
Honda smirked. "Worth about as much as your grade point."
"What!" Jounouchi snarled and tackled the taller boy. Jounouchi had always been stronger than the other boy despite his size.
Honda fell looking around carefully. He really didn't want to get into trouble with any of the teachers. "Jounouchi, get off! You'll get me in trouble!"
Jounouchi grinned in satisfaction stopped pinning the other boy. "Big, bad Honda is afraid of the teachers. You're definitely not cut out for Harutani's gang. He'd eat you alive."
Honda got to his feet with a nervous look. "He's really that tough?"
Jounouchi grinned. "Yeah, they say he'll be in the Yakuza by sixteen and his whole gang too. He does all kinds of stuff that most gangs won't. They're the toughest in Domino."
Honda felt an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. He knew Jounouchi well or better than most but he knew little to nothing about what he did most of the time with Harutani. He was beginning to think that he didn't want to know. "Jounouchi, that's dangerous. We're not even senior students yet. It's dangerous."
Jounouchi smirked over at his friend. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see you later."
Classes passed the way they always did. Honda scurried between classes, scribbled down notes and tried to stay out of trouble. He was only in one class with Jounouchi. It was always tense being in a class with Jounouchi. He made trouble. He did things that most didn't dare in class. It wasn't tolerated of course but there wasn't much that could be done to the boy. The teacher had done the usual thing. He'd hit his knuckled with a ruler. Jounouchi only egged him on. He had broken a pointer over his head once. Though that was hardly as dramatic as one incident where the teacher actually hit him so hard he fractured his hand once. Honda had been shocked. So was the rest of the class. Jounouchi only smiled at him and eyed the rest of the class. Honda had to admit that whole incident had seriously rattled the teacher. Humiliation was the most common punishment and it didn't phase Jounouchi. Harutani had loved that one from what Jounouchi had said.
That day was different though. Jounouchi was later than he was. He usually liked to be the first one in so he could flirt with the girl as they came in and tease Honda if he didn't greet him. He wasn't there though. Harutani was though. Harutani was a year older than both of them and really had no reason to be hanging around their classroom. He was though. He was standing to the right of the door leaning on the frame. He wasn't really doing anything or even bothering any of his classmates as they went. But it still made him uneasy.
Honda approached the entry to the classroom. He was a little taller than Hautani. Not that it mattered. Harutani had been known to challenge senior students and they were twice Honda's size. "Hey, you're Honda aren't you?"
Honda stopped dead. His complection changed from a fair bronze to almost pure white and his stomach seemed to do a somersault. The rather thuggish boy was staring right at him. "Y-yeah, I'm..."
"Jounouchi's friend, right?"
Honda calmed a little. Jounouchi had said something about mentioning him to Harutani. He said he was going to then said he was a loser. Jounouchi... "Yeah, I'm Honda Hiroto. I've known Jou since we were in..."
"Yeah, yeah." Harutani said quickly and put his hand on Honda's shoulder. "Jounouchi said you were interested in... my little social group."
Honda looked down at the floor. "Your gang."
"You could call it that. He said you were interested. A big guy like you would be a valuable asset if you know what I mean." Harutani smirked.
Honda bowed and shook his head. "I'm sorry but I'm not the type. I'm really not as tough as I look." He said politely and turned to go to his class.
Harutani frowned and grabbed Honda hard by the shoulder. "Come on, Honda. I'm sure you're being modest." Harutani said and pulled Honda over to a group that one would only assume to be his gang. They all appeared to be thuggish with unkept hair and messy uniforms. If he hadn't known about their reputation, which he did, he may have equated them to Jounouchi.
Honda resisted trying to get away from Harutani who was still holding him rather tightly by the shoulder. "Really, I'm not. I'm not that tough at all. I'm just... really... tall." It was then that he knew he was in trouble. The gang members' smirks didn't help either.
Before he could say anything else, he was shoved into the restroom and the door was shut behind him. He looked around nervously. Harutani's gang were all in the restroom as well and were eyeing him. It wasn't long before they came down on him. There weren't many options for escape and fighting would have been hard enough if it weren't seven against one. Harutani grabbed Honda by the back of the neck and slammed his face against the sink. Honda was almost sure that his nose was broken. There was quite a bit of blood in the sink. He could hear the other gang members laughing with eachother behind him.
"Did you honestly think that you could join our gang?" Harutani snarled. Honda couldn't see him. He was still holding the back of his neck. "We're in this for the long haul and we can't have some dirty little halfblood screwing that up."
Harutani shoved Honda over. He hit his head on another sink on the way down. He pulled himself up. He didn't want to join the stupid gang in the first place and now he's holding them back. He pulled himself up quickly and slugged Harutani hard in the face. "I never wanted to join in the first place!"
Harutani turned slightly. He was glaring daggers at Honda and so was the rest of his gang. "That was smart, Jew." Several of them cracked their knuckles and two rolled up their sleeves.
Honda whimpered. He really didn't see a way out of this one. "Who you calling a Jew?" Honda turned quickly. Jounouchi had just come into the bathroom. "I thought I told you to lay off Honda." He said and cracked his knuckles.
Several gang members scurried out of the way. Jounouchi had quite the reputation. "For one thing, this isn't any of your business Jounouchi and even if it were, hanging around with halfbloods doesn't exactly make for a good resume. The big dogs don't want someone with that kind of reputation."
"Can it!" Jounouchi said and slugged the closest gang member. He knocked him right out. All but Harutani and the now unconscious boy who was on the floor. "Look Harutani, Honda's my boy and if you don't like it stay away from him!"
Harutani glared at him. "Forget it. I thought you were serious Jounouchi. I guess I was wrong." Harutani said and stalked out of the bathroom.
Honda waited nervously waiting for Jounouchi to get back. He still thought that the whole idea was a bad one. There were a rare few that he trusted with Jounouchi's emotions. Jiro was not one of them. The man from as far as he knew was a self-centered jerk who didn't care either way about Jounouchi. The whole idea of him showing up to make nice boiled Honda. Jounouchi was getting things together. He was making headway and then Jiro came in. It was frustrating to say the least.
Honda turned then he heard the door open. Jounouchi walked in followed closely by Jiro. Jounouchi didn't seem too upset. That was a relief and Jiro was well, clean. It didn't feel right. Honda walked over to Jounouchi and grinned. "So how was lunch?"
Before Jounouchi could answer Jiro chimed in. "Who's this?"
Jounouchi turned to Honda who was resting his elbow on Jou's shoulder. "This is Honda. Honda Hiroto. You met him before."
Jiro was giving Honda a rather unpleasant look.
"Why?"
"No reason. I just didn't think that you would be... he surprised me."
Jounouchi squirmed a little under Honda's elbow.
"It's good to see you have different friends." Jiro said trying to smile. He was obviously uncomfortable.
"Yeah... I geuss."
Please don't flame me.