The Long Way

Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue. If I said I owned Yu-Gi-Oh, they'd probably sue.

Author’s note: No, your eyes do not deceive you- I actually updated. I only stopped initially because no one seemed that interested, but as I watched the hits steadily increase and I finally got a few reviews I decided it was worth reviving. So here’s the third chapter. I couldn't get it to upload so I tried entering it by hand. I hope it turned out alright. Also, there’s no sex this time (in fact, it barely warrants a PG rating), but this story’s not supposed to be about the sex anyway. It’s about the characters (they just occasionaly happen to have sex). So please enjoy. One more thing. I didn't know Jounouchi's parent's names so I just used my own.

"Get back here you stupid little brat!" The deep voice reverberated throughout the Jounouchi household, chilling the addressed 'brat' to the bones.

"Mommy!" Eight year old Katsuya raced down the hallway away from the angry voice of his father, seeking the sanctuary of his mother's loving arms. If he could only find her before his father caught him...
Sprinting around a jutting corner, the child's frightened eyes spotted his mother quietly watching television with his little sister.

"Mommy!" He wailed as he launched himself onto the couch and his chubby fingers grasped at her shirt. "Please don't let him get me."

Delicately feminine fingers stroked his messy blond hair. "Hush Katsuya, it's going to be ok," she soothed, the child drinking up every word. "I won't allow him to-"

"There you are!" Jounouchi Tomoaki's slurred accusation cut off his wife's reassuring words. His lips formed a cruel smile at the sight of his son's form pressing closer to her body. "If you think your mother can protect you brat, you're sorely mistaken."

"Tomoaki what on Earth are you doing?" The woman rose from the couch and placed herself between her furious husband and her frightened children.

"Stay out of this Nari," Tomoaki warned. He could hear Shizuka's confused whimpers, but in his inebriated state the effect he was having on his family escaped him. All that mattered to him now was his anger, and he knew just who was the cause of it, or at least who he deemed to be the cause of it. "I caught that sorry excuse for a son going through my things. Now he has to face the punishment."

The man tried to step around his beautiful wife, but she moved with him and continued to block his path.

"Leave him alone Tomoaki," she begged. She'd only seen her husband like this a few times before. He was usually so careful when he drank, but lately he had been getting more and more careless. "He's just a little boy."

"Get out of my way," he snarled.

"I'm not letting you touch our children." Nari would do anything for her children, and if that meant facing her drunken husband in a violent rage, so be it.

Tomoaki grabbed her by her curly auburn hair and flung her aside. As she tumbled to the ground, she let out a desperate cry for her son.

"Katsuya! Take your sister to your room, hurry!"

Tomoaki delivered a swift kick to her ribs, and she was pushed back so that her head cracked against the couch loudly. Her vision blurred as darkness surrounded her.

Wishing he could stay and help his mother, Katsuya knew that it was now up to him to protect Shizuka. Grabbing his little sister's hand, he managed to sidestep his drunken father, whose reflexes were slowed by the large amounts of alcohol he had consumed, and bolted down the hallway once again.

He could hear his father's footsteps storming after them, but didn't dare look behind him. He felt one of Shizuka's crystalline tears land on their conjoined hands, and wanted to kick himself. This was his fault. If he hadn't been looking for the action figure he had lost in his father's den, they wouldn't be in this mess. He was so stupid!

Reaching his room, he ushered Shizuka inside and then closed and locked the door behind him. No sooner hand he taken his trembling hand off the lock, then he heard his father's fist collide with the slab of wood.

"Open the door Katsuya!" Tomoaki was pounding so hard the door rattled in it's frame. "You open this door right now!"

Katsuya slowly backed away from the door, his child's mind overloaded with fear. He could hear Shizuka crying in the corner, and knew that her tears would only further incite their father's fury at this point. Big brother instincts kicking in, his eyes scanned the room looking for something, anything to help.

A flash of white out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Scooping up the Hello Kitty doll she must have left in his room earlier, he approached the sobbing six year old.

"Shizuka?" He whispered softly, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Kats, I'm scared," came the tearful reply. Her normaly soft brown eyes were red from her crying, and her small frame was drawn up into a tight ball. She just wanted it to all stop.

"I know, but everything's going to be fine," he assured her. The banging on the door became even more forceful, and both children flinched. Katsuya held out the stuffed animal, and watched as her small hands, fingers painted pale pink in imitation of her mother, clutched at it. Seeing her relax slightly, he carefully helped her crawl under his bed.

"Stay under here until I say it's ok to come out alright?"

Wiping at her tears, Shizuka silently nodded her head. In actuality, she wanted to stay by her brother’s side. She felt safe next to him, and she knew he was the one in danger if that angry man made it in. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that the angry voice belonged to the same father who carried her around on his shoulders and read her bedtime stories. That father was nice, and kind, and smiled, and showered her with love and kisses. This man was loud, and angry, and scary, and mean. Therefore, they couldn't be the same person.

Katsuya gave his little sister a brave smile and stepped away from the bed. He was hoping to captivate all of their father's attention should the furious man make it through the door.

The pounding grew louder, and the beating of Katsuya's heart matched it in a terrible, haunting echo. He heard his mother's voice return suddenly, pleading with his father to leave them alone, followed by a loud thump.

He no longer heard his mother's voice.

"I've had enough of this Katsuya! You'd better hide, because when I get in there I'm going to teach you a lesson about being a man!"

Jounouchi sucked in air as his eyes sprang open. His chest was rapidly rising and falling, and his strong limbs were deeply tangled in his cotton sheets. Closing his eyes to block out the harsh light of his bedroom, he thought back on the dream he'd had.

Technically it wasn't a dream--it was a memory. A memory that often haunted his nights. He couldn't remember wether or not his father made it into his room that night, but what he DID remember was that his mother had left shortly after that, taking Shizuka with her.

Sitting up, Jounouchi ran a hand through his hair, tugging through any small snarls he encountered. He took a deep breath, inhaling nothing but the stuffy air of the apartment, and tried to clear his thoughts. He wasn't like his father. Maybe he had been before Yugi showed him they were friends, but not anymore. That 'incident' with Kaiba Monday had been a fluke, a mere release of all his built up anger.

He stopped himself. Wasn't that what is was with his father? The man spent so much of his time taking shit from just about everyone that he was only able to express his anger when he was drunk. Of course, by then it didn't matter to him who he took it out on. Jounouchi had specifically gone after Kaiba, hadn't he? And was that in a way worse?

Jounouchi swung his legs over the side of his bed, and brought his head to rest in his hands. If he was so mad at Kaiba though then why had he felt so bad about it? Shouldn't he have felt better afterwards if he truly did hate the CEO, and why had he covered for him? Twice. Not only did he refuse to admit that he had fought with Kaiba, he also took responsibility for the broken mirror in the boy’s bathroom the next day. Mr. Narita had been so livid Jounouchi had thought the man’s head would explode. He'd suspended Jounouchi for the rest of the week.

Yugi told him Kaiba hadn't been back all week either. Then again, Kaiba often missed long stretches of school at a time, what with running a successful company and all. He just sent one of his underlings to pick up his assignments.

Jounouchi concluded that he was going to stop focusing on Kaiba because he still didn't have any answers to explain his recent actions toward the CEO, and thinking about it just left him more confused. Besides, it was finally Saturday, and that meant Yugi's party was today.

Even though he had just decided not to think about him anymore, Jounouchi couldn't help but realize that it was Kaiba's refusal to attend the party and his subsequent attack on Yugi that had started this weird chain of events.

"Why couldn't that rich bastard have just agreed?" He asked himself. It seemed he couldn't even go thirty seconds without thinking about Kaiba, because he now found himself wondering if he wanted Kaiba at Yugi's party. And if so, why?

Jounouchi was saved from pondering the issue further by the sound of the phone ringing. It took him a few minutes to find the cordless, which he eventually located under a pile of what he could only assume were dirty clothes, but since they didn't own an answering machine, the phone just kept ringing.

"Hello?" Jounouchi practically snapped when he finally brought the phone to his ear.

"You just woke up didn't you Jounouchi?" Honda could tell from his friends sluggish and slightly irritated tone. He'd spent the night at Honda's often enough for him to know that the blond was grumpy when he first woke up.

"Yes ‘Inspector’ Honda, as a matter of fact I did."

Honda sighed to himself. Yep, definitely grumpy.

"Whatever, do you need a ride to Yugi's party?" Jounouchi's apartment wasn't exactly on his way, but it wasn't a bother if it saved his friend from having to walk.

"Sure, anything else?" Jounouchi asked.

Honda wanted to ask him about several things. Was he still worried about becoming his father? Did he really break that mirror, or was he covering for someone else as he suspected? What was really going on between Kaiba and him? Was he in some sort of trouble?

"Nah, nothing. I'll swing by around eleven-thirty," Honda informed him instead.

"Bye," Jounouchi said as he hung up. After the search he had just gone through trying to find the phone he really should have put it back in the charger, but he just let it fall on his bed instead. This time he'd just remember where he left it he assured himself.

Glancing at the clock, he noticed it was nine-fifteen. That left him plenty of time to eat, shower, and wrap Yugi's gift before Honda got here. It was a good thing he had pretended to get up and go to school every morning because if his father had found out that he was suspended, he was certain he wouldn't be going to Yugi's party today. And he really needed to have some fun.

Yugi was happy to find that everyone he had invited had arrived. Everyone but a certain businessman that is. Not that he had expected Kaiba to come, he just invited him because he would have liked the teenager to come. Because no matter how mature or superior Kaiba acted, he WAS a teenager.

Glancing around at his friends, Yugi couldn't help smiling from himself. Just a year ago his birthday had consisted of his family and Anzu. Frankly, it had been kind of embarrassing. But now the living room and kitchen were filled with smiling faces. Honda and Otogi were off in the corner gambling on some game Otogi had invented with his dice, and from the looks of it Honda was losing terribly. He made a mental note to go break it up should the stack of dollar bills in front of the ponytailed student get any bigger. Personally, Yugi hoped Honda would make a comeback and he wouldn't have to bother them. It seemed as long as Shizuka wasn't around that those two were perfectly capable of getting along.

Anzu and the girl Otogi had brought as his date were seated on the couch, probably sharing the latest in gossip. Not that Anzu was a gossip, it's just that she spent so much of her time hanging out with boys she was happy to have another girl to chat with--even if it had to be about who was a real blonde or who got caught kissing who at some party. When she saw Yugi looking her way she smiled brightly at him and gave him a little wink.

Yugi had to look away as his face suddenly felt a lot hotter than normal, a sure sign that he was blushing. He safely focused his attention on Jounouchi instead. The boisterous blond was happily chatting away on the phone with his sister. Shizuka had called to wish Yugi a happy sixteenth birthday and Yugi had been unable to pass up the chance to let the two siblings talk. Of course, that had been thirty minutes ago...not that it mattered. Shizuka had called him after all so the Kawai residence would be receiving the bill.

Isis was seated at the kitchen table with his grandfather, patiently listening to a story the old man was telling her about one of his trips to Egypt when he was younger. Earlier grandpa had gotten out some of his old research books and artifacts and Yugi had just about been ready to go and rescue her when the beautiful Egyptian had reached into her oversized bag and pulled out a few artifacts of her own. Yugi had just let them be after that.

The final pair, Malik and Ryou, were seated across from each other in the middle of the livingroom's blue carpet. Yugi had been a little nervous about inviting Malik, he liked the boy and considered him a friend, but sometimes he was a little hard to relate to. Plus, he kind of got the impression that Malik was mad at him about something.

Ryou laughed at something the Egyptian told him, and Yugi felt his other self appear beside him. He too was eyeing the pair on the floor.

'Are you certain that is not the spirit of the ring aibou?' The spirit asked him.

Feeling terrible for doubting his friend Yugi took a closer look. Not that he would be able to tell if the spirit of the ring didn't want him to know, he did such a good job of pretending to be Ryou that it was creepy. However, Yugi saw no signs that the boy sitting their wasn't his quiet friend so he just had to conclude that it was.

'As far as I can tell,' Yugi told the spirit at his side.

The spirit seemed to consider this thoughtfully for a moment before smiling down at Yugi.

'Ok then. Happy Birthday Aibou.' That said, the spirit disappeared.

Yugi almost jumped when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Turning slightly, he saw Jounouchi grinning mischievously. What was the blond up to now?

"Hey Yugi, want to open your presents now?" Jounouchi seemed more excited at the idea than Yugi himself.

"You know it!"

Jounouchi bent down so he could whisper in his shorter friend's ear. "Remember, I'm more than willing to take any you don't want later," he teased.

Yugi smiled. "Don't count on it."

The blond pretended to be heartbroken, earning a laugh from Yugi, and then he put his loud voice to use getting everyone's attention.

"Attention party guests. Our esteemed host Mutou Yugi will now open his presents. He invites all of you to join him on or around the couch as he does so." Jounouchi ended his overly dramatic speech with an equally dramatic bow.

There was a collective rolling of eyes and laughter before the guests made their way to the couch.

Fifteen minutes later a very happy Yugi was seated between Anzu and Jounouchi with only three presents left to open. All around him were the gifts from everyone else: a home version on Dungeon Dice Monsters from it's esteemed creator Otogi, a seemingly fascinating book on Ancient Egypt and it's Pharaohs compliments of Ryou, several CDs he had mentioned wanting from Honda, an at home board game casino that had just about every game a real casino would sent from Mai with a note enclosed telling him to practice because she was pretty sure if she couldn't beat him in a duel she could beat him in at least one of these next time they saw each other. Shizuka had sent a scrapbook filled with photos and articles she had collected of him while doing the same for her big brother, while Otogi's date had opted for a birthday card with money in it since she didn't know him that well. Anzu had gotten him a front row ticket to an upcoming concert saying she had kept the other ticket for herself so they could go together (Yugi had once again found himself blushing). Isis and Malik had teamed up to get him several DVDs that Anzu had informed them Yugi wanted, and Jounouchi had given him an impressive assortment of manga which Yugi noticed were mostly of the adult nature. Jounouchi's gift had quickly been slipped under the couch for later retrieval and enjoyment.

Reaching for one of the three gifts left, Yugi unwrapped it to find a portrait someone painted of him and his other self. In it they were standing back to back, arms folded across their chests, smiling out at whoever happened to be looking at the portrait.

Yugi was speechless, the painting was beautiful. He frowned though when he noticed there was no card to tell him who the wonderful gift had come from.

As if sensing his confusion, Anzu filled in the blanks.

"It's from the other you. He came to me about a month ago saying he wanted to get you something for your birthday but couldn't think of anything that wouldn't also be like a gift to himself. We finally came up with this," she explained. She left out the part about the spirit having to tell the artist he wanted a picture of himself as a child back to back with him as a teenager. She figured Yugi wouldn't take the slight to his height very well.

Yugi silently thanked his other self and reached for the next gift, which was actually just a card. Inside were year long passes to Kaiba Land for him and four friends and a note wishing him a Happy Sixteenth Birthday. It was signed from both Mokuba and Seto, but it was obvious that Mokuba had signed both names. Still, it was a great gift and Yugi was excited to put them to use.

The final gift turned out to be Yugi's favorite after the portrait from his other self. The eighteen inch action figure of the black magician was breathtaking. No one in the room had ever seen anything like it, and the fact that most actions figures stood at only about six inches suggested that it had been custom made. Again, there was no note and this time no one spoke up to explain where it had come from.

Jounouchi did question everyone about it though hoping to find out if he could have ones of some his favorite cards made. No one seemed to be able to explain the gift’s presence however. Grandpa claimed the box had arrived in the mail yesterday addressed to Yugi, but that was all he knew.

Carefully gathering up both the portrait and the action figure, Yugi rushed them up to his room so that he could be certain nothing would happen to them. He then went to join his friends in the kitchen for cake and ice cream, hoping Jounouchi and Honda wouldn't have polished it all off by the time he got there.

By eight o'clock, the group had sat through several of the DVDs Isis and Malik had bought him and it was about time for most of them to head home. Although Jounouchi would sooner get tortured than admit it, he was glad Honda was giving him a ride home. The last movie they had watched had been a horror movie about a haunted mansion, and well frankly, it had creeped him out! Walking home by himself certainly wasn't high on the list of things he wanted to do. They were walking through the game shop to the front door when Jounouchi noticed it.

On the counter was what he could only assume was a tabloid, with Kaiba's picture on the front. The photographer had gotten a great shot of the CEO’s black eye, and the headline read: KAIBA FINALLY GETS WHAT HE DESERVES?

Jounouchi felt the rage boil up inside of him. Snatching the paper up he scanned the article that accompanied the photo. Apparently whoever wrote the article felt that not only had someone done the world a favor by slugging Kaiba, but that more people should follow suit and do the same.

Malik noticed Jounouchi reading the article, which he had seen earlier, and felt a lump in his throat. He knew now why Kaiba always insisted he not leave any visible marks. The media wasn't that fond of Kaiba since he rarely did interviews and tried his best to avoid them, so when a chance to write something bad about him came up, they jumped all over it. The only solace Malik could find in the situation was knowing that Kaiba could care less about what these stupid papers wrote about him.

"You feeling alright Jounouchi? I don't think I've ever seen you voluntarily read anything in your life. Is it some sort of school assignment I'm not aware of?" Honda teased as he peered over the blond's shoulder to see what had caught his attention. What he saw was a familiar sneering face that was plastered on the front page.

"He probably just wants to see if they managed to find out who did his job for him and hit Kaiba," Otogi interjected.

Jounouchi finally raised his eyes from the paper and studied Otogi with a dangerous gaze. The other boy didn't seem to notice though because he continued-

"Personally, I think they should track the person down and give them some sort of reward. They did the world a favor. That arrogant jerk needed to be brought down a few notches"

Otogi's date was just starting to laugh when Jounouchi pounced.

Malik had his hands clenched at his side trying to refrain from punching Otogi for his comment, when Jounouchi did it for him. The blond tackled the gamer to the floor and landed a good right hook to his jaw. Otogi was too stunned to even try and block it.

"Don't you dare talk about him like that!" Jounouchi raised his fist to deliver another blow when Honda grabbed his arm and pulled him off their friend.

Otogi's hand came up to his jaw to try and alleviate some of the lingering pain, and he got to his feet. He stalked over to the fuming Jounouchi who was still being held back by Honda.

"What the hell was that for?!" He cried. Jounouchi hadn't even been this angry when he'd caught the raven haired boy in his sister's room in the middle of the night back during Battle City.

Jounouchi was about to answer, when he realized the looks he was getting from everyone. His friends were mostly confused or concerned, but Malik's lavender eyes seemed to burn with an anger that matched his own. He would have questioned the Egyptian about it, but he realized Otogi had asked him a question and he still hadn't answered.

Forcing himself to relax, he broke Honda's grip on him. Otogi never took his eyes off him as he approached. The blond no longer seemed as angry, but he wasn't going to get caught off guard again.

"Sorry," Jounouchi apologized, but he didn't seem all that remorseful. In fact, he just seemed confused.

"Whatever," Otogi huffed. He then took his date's hand and led the stunned girl out the door.

Jounouchi and Honda hung back long enough to say goodbye to everyone, but Jounouchi seemed to once again be lost in his own thoughts. As they stepped out into the night Honda tried to figure out what had happened back there.

"Since when did you start attacking your friends?"

The blond stopped in his tracks.

"I don't want to talk about it." He couldn't explain why he had attacked Otogi. Something about the thought of the teen being happy that someone had hurt Kaiba just pissed him off. It was hypocritical though because he himself said horrible things to and about Kaiba all the time.

But he didn't really mean them.

Jounouchi reeled as the thought echoed in his mind. Was that possible? Did he really hate Kaiba as much as his actions suggested he did? Or was it true that he didn’t mean the words he said in anger? But then if he didn't hate Kaiba, why was he always fighting with him?

Jounouchi climbed onto the back of Honda's motorcycle and held on as they took off. He didn't want to think about Kaiba anymore. He wanted to go home, and he wanted a drink.

And if there was one thing apartment 301 was never short on, it was alcoholic beverages.


More Author’s notes: I’m a little out of practice with this story, but hopefully it doesn’t show too much. I included the party in this chapter because the invitation back in Affirmations was what started all this and I thought it would be weird to just forget it. Also, I realize it’s a bit of a pain to leave a review, but I can still hope right? Who knows, with enough encouragement maybe it won’t take me nine months to update this time!