~ I know it's hard to keep an open heart
When even friends seem out to harm you
But if you could heal a broken heart
Wouldn't time be out to charm you ~


He lay there in bed looking up at the ceiling, thinking over his last conversation with Seto. It had been two days since that talk, a lot of time to think. He had come to more or less one conclusion, Seto was right. He did need to decide how serious he was willing to be. This was only going to go as far as he was willing to let it.

He knew it had taken a lot for Seto to approach him that first time. It took too much to do that, it was too easy to get hurt by letting someone in. He was going to have to make the next move.

“Hell, he hasn’t even called...” ‘But then again,’ he thought, ‘he did leave it up to me. Shit! Wonder if I’ve thought about this too much?’

He jumped out of the bed and threw on his shoes. Running out the front door, almost forgetting to open it first. He raced down to the store on the corner. Standing at the payphone, he reached into his pocket fishing out change.

It took him forever to convince the receptionist at Kaiba Corp. he wasn’t crazy. When he asked her to tell her boss that there was a puppy on the line she had almost hung up. A moment later, an answer came to the phone, “Kaiba.”

“Hello Seto.”

“Jounouchi?” He waited for an answer. It had to be him, especially after that message that Charlene had given him, but still.

“We need to talk...I know why.” He stood there playing with the phone cord, watching the cars passing by on the road. The long silence on the other end of the line worried him.

“Katsuya, I’m at work...” Actually, he had found himself starring at the flashing screen again, not getting anything done, but looking busy all the same. It wasn’t as if he had done any real work the last few days anyways.

“Oh! That would explain why I called the Kaiba Corporation number huh?” he laughed, hoping for a favorable reaction.

That got a laugh, “Idiot. Fine when and where?”

“What time are you leaving? Your place after that.”

“About an hour. Mokuba will be home then...”

“Then he’ll be the first to know won’t he? I’ll see you there,” he hung up the phone then took off walking.

~~~~~

Mokuba met him at the door when he finally got there. “Hi Jounouchi! What are you doing here?”

“I need to see your bother, is he here yet? He’s expecting me.”

“Really?” Mokuba was puzzled at this. His brother and Jounouchi had never really gotten along, and yet they were going to talk to each other. “He’s not home just yet, but you could wait for him in the TV room.”

“Thanks Mokuba.” The younger Kaiba turned to let Jounouchi in. After closing the door, he looked around ready to show Jounouchi to the room. To his surprise, Jounouchi was already walking in the door.

‘Interesting. Very interesting...’

The front door opened again and Mokuba turned to see his brother enter. “Big brother, how was your day? Mine was fascinating, why does Jounouchi know how to reach the TV room? He’s in there, said he needed to see you and you knew he was coming...” all this was said as Seto made his way past Mokuba, down the hall and into the room where Jounouchi was waiting.

‘And again interesting.’ He paused for a moment wondering if his brother would ever tell him what was going on. “Or I could go listen at the door...’

Jounouchi had sat down on the couch after entering the room. Thinking back to the last time he sat there brought a smile to his face. The door opened and before he looked up he stated tell Mokuba he was all right alone.

“Are you really?” The sound of Seto’s voice, again hard and cold, hit home.

“You didn’t let me finish. I’m alright alone, until Seto gets here.” He looked up at the tall brunet and gestured to a spot next to him where he could sit down.

He walked around the room, sitting down away from the blond. “You said you needed to talk, so talk.”

Jounouchi took a deep breath, “Okay. First off, I’m an idiot.”

“No arguments there...next.”

“The last time I...we were here on this couch...you said something and I missed it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly thinking with my brain at the time. I misheard you and you didn’t call me on it because it took a hell of a lot out of you to say it...and you thought I didn’t care.”

He paused for a moment, looking over for a reaction. Getting none he continued, “You lied the other night, when you said it didn’t matter if this was just sex...trying to protect yourself again after that ‘slip’. Well the truth is I needed to hear that Seto, I needed to hear you say it. And I can’t believe I missed it.”

“Katsuya what are you talking about?”

“Well it wasn’t as if you said you loved me or nothing, but you did ask me to love you. It was a request wasn’t it? You were asking if I loved you...that’s why you’ve been so pissy about me telling the gang.”

“Look mutt, I don’t know what you think you’re up to but...”

“I do.”

“What?”

“I do love you.”

“Right and next you’ll tell me the dice boy and Mutou are screwing each other senseless after school everyday.”

“Well actuality it’s Honda and Otogi but, um, never mind. My point is I do love you. In a ‘You drive me up the walls, I’m either gonna kill ya or fuck you into the ground, and if anyone else was to try I’d have to kill them’ kinda way.”

“Katsuya, I...”

“You don’t have to say anything. I already know, I mean why else would you have put with me this long? Couldn’t have been easy waiting for me to figure all this out.”

“What about your friends?” He knew this would hold the truth to the blond’s feelings.

“They’ll have to deal with it; if they are my friends after all they’ll understand. And we can tell them tomorrow. I think someone else should find out tonight thought that is if he hasn’t been standing outside the door listening in the whole time.”
 

onward