アイスクリーム: Seinen Style

(Ice Cream: Seinen Style)

Jounouchi sat down on the stone bench outside the ice cream shop. He'd gotten himself one of his favorites—vanilla bean ice cream with gummy bears. He loved how the bears got really hard to chew when they got cold. It made eating the ice cream a challenge.

He took another bite and opened his textbook for history class. It was dull, but he promised his sister, Shizuka, that he'd study harder after getting a mediocre grade last term.

The bench was a long one and a girl with black, waist length hair sat next to him. She opened up her manga and began to read quietly next to Jou. He saw her out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't recognize her from school. So, he went back to reading.

Kaiba Seto walked along with his books and his laptop. Jou had mentioned to him that he and his friends would be stopping by for ice cream after school. Even though Kaiba had been dating Jounouchi secretly for over two months, he still wasn't comfortable with them. It was a hard transition, and he simply didn't know how to cope with the happy campers that Jounouchi called his friends. Sometimes, he felt that just too much had happened to go back. But, Jounouchi had, effortlessly, woven himself into Seto's life. And the happy campers seemed fine with them being together, which also confused him to no end. But, for Jounouchi, the rest of the world didn't need to know, and he wanted his privacy. Seto respected that.

He came walking toward the ice cream shop and saw Jounouchi sitting on the same bench as the girl. He watched her look up from her manga and glance in Jou's direction. Jounouchi took another huge mouthful of ice cream and continued reading, unaware.

Seto stopped and leaned against the side of a building, interested. A smile was forming on his face. This could be good…

The girl scooted a little closer to Jou, who was clueless.

Seto raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to one side. She likes him… Hmmm…

She put her manga down, and looked at Jou.

"She's going to talk to him now," Seto said to himself, smiling wickedly.

"Ummm…hi! Can you tell me what time it is?"

"Lame. Was that the best you could come up with?" Seto purred, vastly amused.

"It's four," Jou said through a mouthful of vanilla. He rubbed dribbled ice cream off his chin with the back of his hand and turned the page.

"Oh," she said, looking down.

Seto approached them and Jou's eyes lit up. "Kaiba, hey, sit down." He moved his text books down to his feet to make room. "So, you decided to come here after all. I'm glad."

"You might want to look a little less happy to see me," Seto whispered. "I thought we wanted to be discrete."

"Yeah, you're right. But, we're not in school. Right?" Hazel eyes danced.

Seto glanced over Jou's shoulder. The black haired girl was still there, trying to listen in on their conversation.

"Bite?" Jounouchi said and offered a spoonful.

"What have you done to this ice cream?" Seto said with distain. "It looks absolutely frightful. What's in this?"

"Vanilla bean and gummy bears," he mumbled, teeth sticking together.

"And you actually eat this…?" Seto frowned. The bears, covered in a milky goo, were starting to separate from the melted vanilla. The bears mocked him.

Jounouchi started to laugh out loud, but stopped himself. He could feel the bears in his teeth. Jou snorted a bit, which, he noticed, amused Seto as well. Seto was fighting back a smile.

"Let me get you something," Jou said, standing up.

"No, I'll get my own."

"I'm not going to let you buy everything," Jou said into Seto's ear. He placed a friendly hand on Seto's shoulder. "Let me guess…coffee ice cream?" Seto's eyes flickered. "Right, I'll be back in a moment," Jounouchi said.

The black-haired girl watched him go with a pout. "So cute," she groaned under her breath. But, then, she looked up. Her bus was starting to leave without her. She grabbed her book bag and took off. "Oh, no! Wait!"

Seto watched her go, still amused.

His heart is taken. He belongs to me. You have no chance.

Jounouch returned with a double scoop of coffee ice cream and handed it to Seto just as Yugi, Anzu, and Honda walked up.

"Hi, guys!" Jou said, smiling.

"Hi!" Yugi and Anzu said in unison. With a slight reluctance, Honda said "hi" too.

I'm going to have to work on Honda, Jou thought. He'll come around in time.

Seto gave them a nod and, for Jou's sake, tried to look politely interested.

"What's this?" Anzu said, picking up the manga.

"Is it yours?" Yugi asked Seto.

"There was a girl sitting here," Seto said taking a bite of ice cream and looking down at it in surprise---it tasted wonderful, "I suppose she left it behind."

Honda took the manga from Anzu and sat down next to Seto, mesmerized. "Oh, this is more than a manga. It's a Dōjinshi called "Strategic Unconditional Surrender."

"Sounds more like a tech manual," Seto said vaguely and took another bite.

Honda flipped through the pages. They were new and didn't bend very well. "Hey, Yugi, this character looks just like you!" he said with a monkey grin.

"No way!" the pointy haired blond said back, shocked. "And I refuse to 'surrender.' See," he said pointing to the page, "it can't be me. It looks like a girl! A really cute little girl." Yugi, looking kind of sick, "a really 'young' little girl. Ick…"

"A really flat-chested 'girl' with pointy, tri-colored hair, macho boots, and tight leather pants!" Honda laughed. Jounouchi laughed, too. He was standing behind Seto, now, leaning on his shoulder. Honda noticed it, and shrugged—back to the book.

"Oh, wow, sexy dialogue!" Jou said, needling Yugi who shot him a shocked look. "It's not me, I tell you!"

Seto took a bite of his melting ice cream.

"Well, you are a public figure as a duelist," Jounouchi said back, smiling down at the manga. Seto smirked, too, before taking another bite. Anzu saw the look on his face and grinned at him in return.

"Hey, look, this one is Kaiba-kun's twin!" Anzu announced.

Seto's face quickly drained of all color. Seto, who was sitting next to Honda, looked over his shoulder. His eyes were huge. "This looks nothing like me," he lied as the others started to laugh.

"How can you say that?" Anzu was turning pink now. "Look at page 3 and tell me what he's wearing. It's that white, Kaiba Corp trench coat without the sleeves!"

"But, he's not wearing it on page 13," Honda noted, flipping the pages. He gave a knowing smile to Seto—who returned his gaze with a blank face. "Actually, he's not wearing much of anything at all on the next page…and neither is Yugi!"

"No way!" Yugi said, pulling the book in his direction.

"Kaiba's got you by the wrist," Anzu said. "He's got your back, Yugi… Well, sort of…"

"Hey, that hand worries me…" Yugi complained.

"Oh, Yugi, no!" Honda shouted, blushing wildly. "Look what he's doing to Kaiba on page 18!"

Seto choked on his ice cream.

"See, I told you it was a girl and not me—a guy!" Yugi said, arms crossed.

"Nope, it's a boy! Look at the next page," Anzu said, hiding a smirk behind her hand.

"Whoa!" they all said at once.

"How are they doing that?" Honda asked no one.

Everybody turned their heads to the right to see the tangled images better.

"Their dialogue is mostly 'ah' and 'n…' right now. Does this move the plot along?" Honda asked.

Yugi and Seto shot each other awkward glances.

Jounouchi's eyes got big when Honda turned the page. "Oh, I am so not doing page 21. That looks uncomfortable."

Everyone looked at Jou and then cast their eyes to Seto. Nobody said anything. They slowly turned their heads back. A mail truck drove by. Jounouchi crossed his arms and felt his face getting hot.

"Wow, look at this one!" Honda said while Yugi and Anzu stared in horror.

I guess I can't joke with them anymore, Jou thought, feeling his blood boil.

Seto stood up, circled around the bench and stood next to Jounouchi casually. He leaned over and gave Jou's shoulder a supportive nudge. "Cut them some slack," Seto said levelly between bites of ice cream. He'd seen this kind of thing happen too many times in business negotiations. So, it was impossible not to notice anger when he truly saw it. "They're your friends. And you were joking, too, this whole time. It was really funny when the topic wasn't you." He offered Jou a bite. Jounouchi cast a slightly worried look at the others. Seto shrugged. Jounouchi ate the bite.

He's right. I guess… I was a hypocrite. Seto and Yugi took the worst of it and didn't get mad.

"That tastes good. Thanks."

"No problem."

"Well, I think that we should just leave it here…in case she comes back," Anzu said wisely.

The others nodded and Honda dropped the manga on the bench. It flipped over to page 23 as everyone left.

Seto glanced down at the page and narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, that one… The sense of scale is totally off. Yugi isn't tall enough to do that to me."

He turned his head again before following the others. "Come to think of it," he mumbled, "the plot seems bad, the perspective leaves a lot to be desired, and it's not aesthetically pleasing at all—Oh, and like that would really happen in real life—not." He walked off with his melted ice cream in search of Jounouchi.

As soon as everyone left, Honda's thick hands came back and grabbed the manga. It lived in the back of his closet, like a treasured secret possession, for the next three years.