There was absolutely no way Jounouchi could've known there was a blizzard coming.

If there had been any warning signs -- any at all -- he definitely would've noticed them. He's not the most observant of people, but he has eyes. However, there were none. It was cold, sure, and cloudy, but that's to be expected. It was unusually windy, but it's always windy mid-January. Everything had been normal and then he storm blew up in a matter of minutes, thick flakes falling so hard and fast that it was difficult to see through them as the wind escalated into a gale.

For about fifty steps, Jounouchi thought he was probably doomed. They'd find his frozen remains on the side of the road, one icy hand stretched out toward the treacherous sky in an obscene gesture.

Then, out of nowhere a black car had materialized through the swirling snow, headlights cutting through the darkness.

Now he's sitting on a plush leather seat, next to a certain CEO whose eyes are just as cold as the storm outside, and he can't decide if he's better off than before or not.

The view through the windshield is slightly frightening: it's almost impossible to discern that they are, in fact, actually on a road. Jounouchi sneaks a sideways glance at Kaiba, and hopes that he knows what he's doing. Because if not, Jou has seen enough disaster films to know what happens when people try to drive in snowstorms, and it usually involves a lot of screaming and skidding and driving off of cliffs.

Jounouchi really, really hopes Kaiba doesn't drive off of a cliff.

To his left, Kaiba still hasn't said a word. The silence isn't awkward, not exactly. Jounouchi isn't entirely sure that Kaiba is capable of awkwardness, honestly. He'd probably laugh in its face as he ground it into the floor with his heel. It isn't awkward, but it's -- pointed. Jounouchi doesn't know if he wants Kaiba to say something, or not. The only sounds are the soft roar of the motor, and the wind whipping against the windows of the car.

Thanks for picking me up, Jounouchi wants to say, but the words don't want to leave his mouth. It's just so unexpected. This is Kaiba sitting next to him, Kaiba who appeared out of nowhere to snatch him away from the terrible dangers of frostbite and wet socks. And to be completely honest, Jounouchi has absolutely no idea why he would do that. Kaiba isn't really all that fond of him, to put it gently.

Maybe he does have a heart after all, Jou thinks with some amount of wonder, though obviously chained up and hidden from daylight beneath miles of concrete. Unless, of course, Kaiba's real motive for picking Jounouchi up is to take him somewhere remote and leave him for dead, which isn't entirely out of the question yet. Jounouchi still doesn't know where they are, they could definitely be on the road to barren wilderness. However, that seems moderately unlikely.

Jou wonders briefly if he should thank Kaiba for picking him up, and decides that he'll do it as soon as he's sure of their destination. Just as he's becoming vaguely anxious about the possibility that they really are headed off into the woods, where Kaiba is clearly planning to gut him like a fish and leave him in a ditch, Kaiba speaks. His voice is curt and abrupt, startling Jounouchi out of his thoughts.

"Which way is it to your house?"

"Uh," says Jou, surveying the scene through the windshield. On the left is what looks remotely like some unrecognizable buildings, on the right, trees. Everything is masked nearly to the point of invisibility by the snow. Jounouchi squints futilely out of his window. "I think you go, uh. You know, I'm not exactly sure."

Kaiba's fingers tighten slightly on the steering wheel, and Jounouchi wonders suddenly why he's driving. He'd have thought that Kaiba would consider himself too rich to drive, and have a fleet of drivers at his beck and call. It is puzzling, and probably inappropriate to be thinking about when he's supposed to be divining a way to get home, but Jounouchi never was very good at controlling his thoughts.

"How am I supposed to drive you home," Kaiba is saying, exasperation pulling at the edges of his voice, "if you can't tell me where you live?"

"I can tell you where I live," Jounouchi says, unable to keep his temper from flaring up slightly at Kaiba's tone, "I just don't know where we are."

"We're on the edge of the west bank," Kaiba tells him with his eyes straight ahead, staring into the snowy darkness. The headlights are reflected in the white, like something staring back at them. Jou swallows.

"Where's the west bank?" he asks, and watches Kaiba's jaw tense. It's not fair, he really doesn't know where they are! He'd been on the right track walking, more or less, it's not like he asked for this.

"You're completely hopeless," says Kaiba brusquely without looking at him. Jounouchi glares at his profile, fingers curling on his thighs.

"It's not my fault that I don't know where we are! You didn't have to drive so long before asking me where to go!"

"I was trying to outrun the storm," Kaiba tells him in a seemingly patient voice, but Jounouchi recognizes from his ever-tightening grip on the steering wheel and the way his lips barely part to let the words out that it isn't just Jou's temper firing up. Those are warning signs, Jounouchi knows it, but it only serves to piss him off more.

"Oh, great job. We're still in the middle of a blizzard and now we're lost, too."

"I'm not lost!" Kaiba snaps, a momentary break in his usually implacable calm. He regains control in an instant, eyes directed pointedly ahead. "I know where we are," he says with his jaw clenched, words sounding slightly crushed, "I just don't know how to get to your house. I don't even know why I picked you up, you ungrateful mutt. I should've just let you freeze to death."

"Yeah, well, why didn't you?" Jou can't help but ask, hands curled into almost-fists in his lap. He knows he should be grateful to Kaiba for saving his butt, but more overpowering is the desire to punch him right in the mouth. However, that action would probably not be conducive to him getting home in one piece, or them even staying on the road in this madness.

Kaiba doesn't answer, his features tight and furious. Jounouchi doesn't know if he's trying to be mature, or drive responsibly, or if he's just too angry to speak, but Jou still wants to hit him almost more than anything. Instead, he settles for glaring out of the window into the blinding white. Only Kaiba would do this, pick him up in the middle of a snowstorm for the sole purpose of having someone to insult and hypothetically later abandon. Jou'd probably be better off still trudging through the snow, freezing his ass off. At least there wouldn't be anyone next to him calling him names, making him feel inferior and stupid at every turn.

Although, well, it was sort of nice of Kaiba, to stop for him in the first place. He doesn't want to be grateful, because it's Kaiba, but he knows he should be.

Jounouchi sighs, and relaxes his fingers with some amount of effort. "Look," he says finally, "if we go to the school, I can get us to my house."

For a moment, he thinks Kaiba is going to yell at him, or at least say something harsh and cutting, which isn't fair at all. But instead, Kaiba takes one hand off of the wheel and runs it through his thick hair. "You realize that's miles away, right?" he asks with just the slightest hint of condescension in his voice, as if Jounouchi should've known better than to suggest something so dumb.

If looks could kill, and Jounouchi very much wishes his could, Kaiba would be a very dead man. Of course Jounouchi didn't realize, it's a simple side effect of having absolutely no clue where he is. The pressing need to punch Kaiba is growing again, it had receded momentarily, but his fingernails are beginning to dig once more into his palms. "Of course I know that," he snaps, scowling at his own reflection in the window.

"Then why, pray tell, did you tell me I should drive there? This is a blizzard, I'm sure even you realize that driving right now is dangerous."

"I don't -- know where -- we are," Jounouchi tells him through gritted teeth, nails cutting red crescent-moon shapes in the skin of his palms. How it is even possible that someone could be so unreasonable, he has no idea. All he knows is that punching is the only viable way to rectify the situation. Kaiba is glaring furiously forward, knuckles white on the wheel.

"Maybe if you paid the slightest bit of attention to our surroundings, that could be resolved! In case you forgot, you do live here."

"Yeah," says Jounouchi, considering actually sitting on his hands to keep them from flying at Kaiba's head, "except I can't fucking see anything."

"You are absolutely impossible," Kaiba growls, stepping on the accelerator.

"I'm impossible?" asks Jounouchi incredulously. "I can't help my lack of superhuman vision. It was you who picked me up, remember?"

"A decision I'm regretting more and more," Kaiba mutters angrily, squinting at the road ahead. Or at least, what Jou assumes is the road ahead. "This is so typical. I should've anticipated this kind of thing from the moment I saw you walking, I should've known not to stop -- "

"Why don't you fucking let me out, then?" Jounouchi spits, one hand already on the door handle. They're going faster now, he recognizes dimly, but it doesn't mean anything to him at the moment. A dull rage has settled around his brain like a haze, making it nearly impossible to think about anything other than how badly he wants to get his hands around Kaiba Seto's throat.

"Maybe I should," Kaiba bites out, and they're roaring through the night now, snow whipping past the windows at lightning speed.

"Then do it!" Jounouchi shouts, pounding his fist against the door, "I can't stand being in here with you for another minute, anyway!"

"So that's the thanks I get for saving your sorry ass?" Kaiba all but shouts back, voice rising in pitch and volume to match Jounouchi's.

"You didn't save me!" yells Jounouchi, completely infuriated at the thought of being in any way indebted to Kaiba, who it is currently his preeminent duty to kick the ever-loving shit out of whenever possible, "I was absolutely fine!"

"Oh, yeah, fine," replies Kaiba sarcastically, voice just barely bordering on a yell, "you pathetic puppy, you probably would've frozen to death by morning -- "

"At least that would've been better than this!" Jounouchi yells more or less at the top of his lungs, scrabbling with the door-handle. If he has to choose between jumping out of a moving car into a blizzard and staying in here with fucking Kaiba for one more second, he'll take the broken ribs.

"You mongrel idiot, stop that!" Kaiba snarls, reaching over to pull his hand away from the door.

I hate you! Jou is about to shout, the words are on his lips as Kaiba's hand closes over his, but suddenly the terrain beneath the car is different, rough and yet also slick, and Kaiba's eyes widen in a way that scares Jou for reasons he doesn't immediately comprehend. It all seems to be in slow-motion, suddenly, and he wonders vaguely why they aren't driving straight anymore.

And then they're sliding, no, rocketing through the snow sideways, and Kaiba is swearing as he turns the wheel violently, and there's a rushing in Jounouchi's ears which has nothing to do with the wind outside. It's a whirlwind of snow and darkness and black shapes around them and they're spinning on the ice and oh God, Jounouchi is too young to die! His elbow knocks hard off of the window and he squeezes his eyes shut, holding on to the door handle for dear life.

Then, all of a sudden, everything is still.

Slowly, Jounouchi pries his eyes open. Outside of the window is completely, completely white. But, that can't be. He looks to the other side of the car to where Kaiba is sitting with his hands still on the wheel, as white and shaking as Jounouchi feels.

"Are you, uh," Jou says, voice more than a little unsteady and anger completely forgotten, "are you okay?"

Kaiba doesn't answer, taking a deep breath and switching the gearshift into reverse. He looks once out of the back window before jamming on the accelerator in reverse so hard that the engine squeals in protest.

The car doesn't budge.

Jou watches as Kaiba unwraps his long fingers from the steering wheel and unbuckles his seatbelt, eyes still on the back window. He can't be going to leave him here, can he? That would be illogical, and crazy, and mean --

"Kaiba!" Jou says, resisting the urge to reach out and grab his sleeve before he can get out of the car. But it's too late, Kaiba's already pulling the door handle and pushing out. Except -- something's wrong. Jounouchi can't exactly tell what, yet, his thoughts feel muddled and disjointed, but something is definitely off, here.

"Fuck," says Kaiba, with real feeling behind it.

"What?" Jounouchi asks, although the answer is already beginning to dawn on him, with slow, seeping horror.

For once Kaiba doesn't treat him with any condescension whatsoever. His eyes are flat, cold, and his voice is the same.

"We're stuck."