Satanic Mechanic: FINALLY, its OVER. God. I want to thank everyone who's kept with this, even when the updates were FEW and FAR in-between. Enjoy the ending!

XxX

Seto left after they had shared their long awaited kiss, a scene that would normally have me gagging on the sap, but instead I found it slightly endearing. I had already invested so much of myself into the relationship that I couldn't help but be proud of myself at the sight. Shit, when the hell did that happen? Didn't I go into this with the intention of destroying said relationship? I guess it really didn't matter anyway, fate had a way of working these things out, at least, that's what I believe. Perhaps, for one of the few times in my life, I had actually helped out two almost complete strangers. Hopefully fate would return the favor to me some day.

"Um…Otogi? You awake?" I crack my eye open and turn my head to the side to see Jou, who is laying in a similar hospital bed across from me.

"Yeah."

"Thanks for everything…you know, getting me to the hospital and…about Seto." Jou gets out the sentence a bit awkwardly, settling for looking down at his hands and not at my face as he did so. Hell, I can understand. I'd have a problem talking about the most fucked up relationship in the world if I was involved in it.

"It was nothing. I'm really glad I could help." And it happened to be a lot of fun too, like watching my own private soap opera. Thankfully no one got amnesia or pushed down an elevator shaft. Speaking of near death experiences, that reminds me. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." Jou groaned and let his body fall lax against the mattress, throwing his arms behind his head for support.

"Don't worry, that superior Ryuuji blood they pumped into you should be kicking in soon." I smile with my usual charming grace that I know from experience could have many different effects on an individual, all of which I used to my favor. He snorts at that and sits up again to search for something. "What are you looking for?"

"A remote. We need to get that damn TV turned on or I'm going to die from boredom. And do ya think they could feed me something? Or do they want me to pass out again?" Okay, hungry, check, having ADHD tendencies, check. Looks like Jou really was feeling better, that's one thing I could stop worrying about.

"They said you should be fine to check out tomorrow morning." I explain as I watch the blonde effectively make a mess of the bedside table, as well as his own bed before he gave up his search with a defeated sigh.

"I'm ready to leave now." Jou groaned and began staring back up at the ceiling again. "After this is all over, you wanna get a burger or something?" I'm kind of surprised by the question as he turns to look at me, a friendly grin on his face that I'm sure could easily trump a number of my charming ones any day.

"Yeah…that'd be cool."

XxX

Jou had recovered nicely after we were released from the hospital, and things pretty much went back to the normal routine. The blonde was staying with Yugi now that his father was awaiting trial. The story about what his dad had done to him had already been all over the news, and everyone in school knew about it even before then. I still heard the rumors around the halls even after a few weeks had passed, and I had chewed out more than enough individuals for not knowing how to keep their mouths shut, almost as much as Honda did.

No one in the group really knew how to console Jou after something like that. Luckily, he had chosen me to confide in, for what reason, I didn't know, maybe he was finally beginning to trust me. So I let him know that I understood what he was going through, and sometimes that all it took, that kind of unspoken support. I wish I could have had that. But hell, I'm staring to sound really angsty ere, and I'm sure my life story is really not what you're interested in here anyway, right?

Him and Seto seem to be doing alright, not that they were walking down the street holding hands and skipping or anything like that, but I could tell things were going smoothly. As far as I knew I was still one of the few people who knew about the relationship, bedsides Honda. Of course I had my suspicions about the sprit that was with Yugi, he seemed to be all knowing, but then again, I don't think they really had to worry about him telling anyone. So while most people wouldn't be able to tell that there was anything different between the two, I noticed. The way that Jou would always pull his punches whenever they staged one of their crowd gathering fight scenes. Or how Seto would still spit out venom at the blonde but his eyes lacked the usual ice. I noticed. And it made me feel slightly special.

Almost as special as when Seto had invited me to the biggest tech geek convention of the year. The one were he would invite all the big names in the industry to his mansion, and show off all his sparkly new inventions. As far as I knew even Yugi wasn't invited. I guess that was as close to a thanks as I was ever going to get. Plus I had gotten to pitch a few of my ideas to some of the big leage producers, so it looked like business was going to be picking up for me soon, thank fucking god.

And although I hate to admit it, it was nice when Yugi would call me over his house for movie night with the rest of the gang. Or when Honda would give me a ride home from school on his bike whenever he had it. Or even just when me and Jou would cut class to go get lunch at burger world. It's not like they had never included me in their activities before, but it was different now. I actually felt like one of them. Not saying if that's a good thing or not, but it was as close to real friendship as I had ever gotten. So at least this whole painstaking experience wasn't an entire waste of time.

Yeah, so like I said, everything was back to normal now, or maybe better. I made some new friends, I got some good business, everything is just dandy. At least it would be if one goddman spirit would leave me the hell alone.

"Shit do you realize how late it is Bakura?" I glare at the man standing on my porch through the opening of my front door, wisely leaving the chain lock on for the time being. Even though we had managed to become allies recently, I didn't trust him not to go psycho on me, especially after I noticed how he had been stalking me for the past few days.

"Unlock the damn door already, I just want to talk." He hisses out and sticks his hands in his pocket, looking dangerously close to pouting and I try not to laugh.

"Just to talk?" I ask skeptically.

"Come on, you never call, you never write," He grins, the moonlight reflecting off of his sharp white teeth slightly disturbing to me, "And here I were thinking that we were friends." Although I can't tell if he's serious or not, I sigh and open up the door for him anyway, not being able to stand that wounded look on his face, be it fake or not. Maybe I really should have my head examined. How the hell do I wind up getting involved in all these things?

"Want some coffee?" I offer as he takes a seat at my kitchen table, watching me go over the counter with a glint of amusement in his eye.

"No thank you, that stuff will kill you." He comments before pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting up.

"At least use an ashtray for that." I scold and put a coffee cup down in front of him, my version of a make-shift ashtray. "And since when do you smoke?" I ask curiously and sit down next to him with a hot cup in front of me, the smoke not something that usually bothers me.

"Life gets more aggravating by the day." He makes a show of puffing out the smoke in several rings before looking back at me from beneath those long pale bangs. "And boring."

"Well, I don't know what you expect me to do about it. I've given up on the Seto and Jounouchi case, if you haven't already noticed."

"Yes well, they were not really interesting me anymore anyway." He frowns like a child who had just lost his favorite plaything. "Besides, it's probably more detrimental to them if we just let them stay together." I laugh at that, taking another sip of my coffee.

"You got that right."

"There's just one small problem." He leans a bit closer to me over the table, tapping some ash into the cup absently as he locks his gaze one mine. I sort of just stare back at him like a deer caught in headlights before I break the staring contest and look back down at my coffee cup.

"Huh? What's that?" I try and play it off like I'm not getting the hell intimidated out of me by stirring some more sugar into the cup below me, using the most casual tone I can.

"The whole point of me making this deal with you was to see that idiot priest squirm, and seeing as how you didn't follow through with you plans, I was denied that satisfaction. I am ever so disappointed."

"Yeah well…I changed my mind is all, you got a problem with that?" I shrug and continue to stare down at the beige liquid, watching the way it swirled around like a whirlpool from my recent stirring.

"No problem at all. You're just going to have to come up with another way to appease me, that's all." I don't look up but I don't need to just to visualize that life-threatening grin he must be sporting.

"I don't know what else you want from me." I mumble pitifully.

"Oh, I could think of something." I jump slightly as I notice something drop into the cup, accompanied by a slight hissing sound. "Look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you, idiot." I take the time to study the now wet half smoked cigarette that's floating around on the surface of my coffee.

"Hey, asshole, that was…" I look up to glare at him, but apparently, that's exactly what he was waiting for because the next thing I knew there was a pale hand clenching my jaw and a psycho with a tongue down my throat.

"God…It's like kissing an ashtray." I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand as he pulls away, but doesn't release the grip on my shirt or the one that's bruising the side of my face for that matter.

"Yeah well, tough shit. That crap that you're drinking doesn't taste to hot either." He grumbles, but apparently the taste can't bother him too much because he licks his lips and goes in for another one. Even though I really hate that taste of cigarettes on his breath I find it damn hard to protest once he has me pinned to the top of the kitchen table. Fate really had a funny way of returning favors to me.