Ch.14

The breaking of us

one month.

That is how long it has been since Kaiba has slept properly. In his massive bed, with its silky sift sheets that retain the cold so well. The first night was horrible, he couldn't believe himself as he lay on his back that night with his arms pulled over his face as he cried without shame. The second night was not unlike the first, as his clock struck two am he found himself sitting in his dining room. At his long wide polished oak table, alone. Again he cried. He tried to return to his office but everything he looked at made it painfully clear that Jou was not here, and he would not come through the door exhausted from work and excited for dinner.

On the third night he stood in his window looking out across his vast lush green lawn, with copious trees and technicolor flowerbeds. He doesn't go outside, but he knows someone who would love it. The following Monday he looks at his laptop as he sits in his office, remembering the much smaller one that Jounouchi had purchased for him. He liked that one because it was a strange kind of blue, with a sticker Jou had put on the front. A small fuzzy looking kuriboh. He places his hand gingerly at the top of his own, after a moment of staring at the blank screen he slams it shut violently, enjoying the sound of the screen cracking.

Mokuba asked him to make dinner on this night, excited because he missed his brother so much. His cooking just another reminder of the fact that he was home again. Mokuba couldn't be happier about his brothers presence in their house, even if he does hole up in his office or in his room. Its alright he has lots of work to catch up on.

The boys jubilance is brought to a shrieking halt when he hears the sound of glass shattering against the floor, the tinkling of silver spilling across the clean white tile. He sprints quick as his small body will permit, he shoves open the swinging kitchen door and is horrified. His brother, so strong and unshakeable sitting his knees with his back against the wall and his face in his hands, sobbing hysterically.

Taking a tentative step spewed across the floor is a dented pot of rice and in a colorful streak beside it is chicken curry. Mokuba stands there, wondering what it feels like to only have half of your soul- for your heart to collapse and shatter in on itself with nothing left to support it. He looks down at the wasted food, Jous very favorite.

The immovable tower of strength, the spine of the city that was Seto kaiba just sitting there in a heap crying. Sobbing as if mourning the death of ones own heart. He cant help it, he doesn't know what else to do- no one has loved him the way that Jounouchi- Katsuya... the way that his Katsuya did. Mokuba finds himself moving with out thought, to sit beside his brother and wrap his arms around him. It is strange when he feels the weight of him shift and fall onto his slight shoulders, sobbing freely.

On the other side of the world Jounouchi has failed to eat almost every day, at work he eats only because the women urge him to. They bring him food from home that they made themselves with him in mind. It should and normally it would cheer him right up. However when he looks at the familiar translucent tupperware containers it reminds him of the one at home, empty and collecting dust. The man who had been eating lunch with him almost everyday is not surprised to find him sitting in the bathroom he should be cleaning, crying silently.

After awhile they notice his pants dangling off his hips as they did when he first started working there, he no longer glances anxiously at his watch in a hurry to go home. He knows when he opens the door it will be dark and cold, the air will be stale because no one opened the window. His stove will be empty, nothing will have moved because no one was there. On his way every step is a reminder of his return lonesomeness, the hallway leading to his door no longer meticulously cleaned. Dust settles on the tile, cobwebs build up covering up the fact that kaiba was there, obsessive cleaning habits an all.

The worst part is the bed they slept in, the blankets they used to keep warm together by doing nothing at all. The closet is still as organized as kaiba left it. All his things still sitting in the room that he never really used, drawers filled with his clothes, shoes by the door and the laptop with that silly sticker on it.

He watches his phone vibrate on the coffee table, buzzing and sliding to left. It is caught and stopped by the placement of the glassless framed photo that kaiba loved so much. He doesn't know the number, so he just watches it buzz in place until the little white envelope appears on the small screen. A voice mail.

The sound makes his eyes flood and spill over with stinging hot tears. Its kaibas voice, his beautiful voice. Usually soft low and rather smooth, this time rough and cracked, with such a short message.

" I miss you."

He immediately dials the foreign number, closing his eyes when he hears that sound. Its different, uncared for and hurt sounding. But he knows, with every fiber of himself that its him, its kaiba on the other line.

"...Birdy"

" I miss you too"

The sound of breathlessness, he can hear kaiba place his hand over his face, can almost see him trying not to give that broken up smile. Their words trade in a shy way, trying to stop their own voices from giving away the desperation in each word. The call only ends when the two of them fall asleep on the line, the ongoing use killing Jous battery and cutting it off.

Two days later Jounouchi grins at the image of his whole life stacked up in large brown boxes that Honda Anzu Yugi Otogi and even Bakura help him heave down the stairs to the front door where Isono loads them up into a large moving truck with a big silver KC logo on the side. He laughs with them and talks, he finds himself shocked that haven't seen each other in so long. They stop and go in the congested traffic all the way to the airport, they drive past the front where the public goes. At the back where private planes land stands a small group of the airport staff waiting to unload the truck onto the plane, it drives past them.

They round a corner and see a massive shock white plane with the familiar logo on its long tail. This beast is the same size as the commercial liners, they drive around to the rear of it where the hatch hangs open. Standing in front of it is a familiar slim figure all dressed in black with knee length boots trimmed chestnut hair and eyes so blue its like a glimpse into the ocean. The truck rolls to a halt to let every one out of the small cab, they come tumbling out laughing at their own unbalance. Anzu laughs along, pausing when she sees a face she swore was gone forever. The laughter dies in general as the group turns one by one to see Atem staring with burning pride at the way Kaiba reaches out gripping Jou close and kissing him as if he might die without it.

He looks away from their tearful and joyous union Atem looks to them and says in a hushed voice.

"do you know what you've just witnessed?"

"Atem... I thought."

" you have just witnessed the creation of soul mates"

"...?"

" soul mates are made when two souls converge, they unite and become one. They have given themselves completely and utterly to each other. Do you know what this means?"

" um..."

" that from this life on, they will be together. Even the afterlife cannot sever those bonds"

Bakura smiles as he looks at Atem, understanding dawning on him, why he can still be here even he was to have passed on. Otogi smirks inward praising yugi for having such good taste.

Kaiba has his arms wrapped around Jounouchi whispering sweet nothings in his ear while grips him tightly in return. Their lips ghost over each others, pausing to look into a deep gaze before eyelids fall closed and they find themselves in way where they have forgotten where one ends and the other begins. This the way in which they spend their time, the remainder of their inch long lives brought together the fibers that build up twine.

The life time and every one thereafter, blue eyes are born searching for place to make safe, a person to protect and cling to. The other soul is born following the other, the tether that holds them together only a few years long, it happens every time they find each other. The tether winds tight around their hearts and they bind themselves to each other, finding happiness in no other place but in warm embrace that they didn't realized they missed so much. It is in this way that they find eternity is not long enough to be with the other, not when you have this, this spectacular love that they have created with each other.

- because the story ends does not at all mean it is over.

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