Homelife

I am officially discontinuing this story since it's sick and twisted and...wait...Isn't that what I intended? Lol, I'm not discontinuing, I've just been on Christmas vacation. (As a result, this chappie isn't too long, I'm still distracted by the holidays.)
I'm actually happy with this piece so far, though it troubles me. There's a conflict going on inside, I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing...Will Jou's father be redeemed? Will everything end in bloodshed? Will Jou ever get off the introspective, melodramatic rhetoric kick he seems to be on....well, the last is unlikely, my search for superlatives knows no end.
Sigh...you've managed to bear with me up to this point, let's see how far you can tolerate my excessive vocabulary in the future...
Last note, due to the fact I'm getting kicked off the comp in 2 minutes, I haven't had time to reread and think over my chapter this time like I normally do, so it might not be quite as polished. But I'll go with my original instincts for this part and post anyways. It was spell-checked though, so there hopefully won't be too many mistakes.

REPLIES:
Dragondreamer, REVIEWER #34321, JoeyFanatic, princess, Simply_Kim, Amanda, alostblackcat, DarkQueen, Tik: Thank you for the comments. I'm sorry to lump you all together, but since there isn't anything more than thanks and I'm glad you enjoy the story, I'm not going to use 50 lines to tell you each individually. Sorry, forgive me!


Ashes: Heh, heh. Yup, I'm a sneaky one. I love toying with people's emotions and expectations. It gives me warm fuzzies to use and confuse my readers. lol


Mahayana: Like I said to Ashes, yup, I love to put you guys through the emotional wringer. I write a cute Mokuba? Thanks! I love the little guy...I once wrote a Mokuba POV fic where he's stalking a love interest (not in a creepy stalking way, in a kid's stalking way.) It's actually one of my favourites 'cause my own personality is most like Mokuba.


Jenniyah: Thanks for the reviews! And I hope this chapter manages to resolve what the heck I did to Jou (heh, and my readers) at the end of last chappie.


DarkSyndicate: There isn't a deathfic warning because it isn't a deathfic. I can't promise that everyone will be okay and in one piece (mentally or physically) by the end, but no, Jou won't die. I don't want to kill off my anguished bishonen...I'd really like to take him home and nurse him back to health, but damn it I'm not 2-Dimensional.


Purkledragongoddess: Thank you for the review. You're not the first person to ask if thtorytory has a note of personal experience.


Yaky: You work with this heartbreak every day? I both respect you and have deep sympathy for you. I hope someday to be a psychologist and help people learn to overcome this type of thing. Your comments were most deeply appreciated and I'm thankful you reviewed my story. Good luck in your chosen work.


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HOMELIFE PART 4
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It feels like there are lead weights attached to each of my eyes lids, so no matter how I struggle they won't open more than a fraction. I see hazy images floating in a dark world when I can see anything at all, it's all disconnected and disconcerting. Perhaps it's just better to let my eyes slide shut and relax into the weariness I'm feeling.

"When will he--"

"--Sir you can't!"

"He seems to be--"

"--Sir!!"

"Holy shit..."

"Jounouchi---what the---who the hell---"

Hmm...so many voices, they come and go in the blackness, sometimes no more than a whisper, sometimes I wonder if they're holding a bullhorn to my ear. I catch only fragments, bunches of words in so many voices strung together across the chasm that leads back to the outside.

"We can't--"

"LET ME SEE HIM!"

My eyes flutter again, struggling to rise at the sound of his voice. My mouth is dry and hurts, it feels unsure of the words I ant to form, and my lips refuse to take the proper shapes. I moan out formlessly and hope that someone actually hears me. They all seem so far away.

"Jounouchi!"

"Sir, please!"

Two voices are combating now, both seem angry and and frustrated. My eyes fight to open and I'm greeted with a strange site that I never expected. My father has a man dressed in a white coat pushed up against a window, he's holding him by the lapels. There's a name tag on his coat, but I can't make it out, but the stethoscope would seem to say he's a doctor. He's short and balding, his glasses have slid down to the end of his nose, and he's struggling, rather pathetically I should say, against my father's death grip. Oddly, Yugi is here too, and he's looking worriedly at my father, he's almost hopping back and forth on his feet and keeps staring out the door. A moment later Honda comes rushing back down the hall, two darkly uniformed men are with him. My eyes slide closed again, but I can hear swearing and grunting in the familvoicvoice of my father, but it's growing less vehement now.

"Is he awake yet?" I barely pick up on Honda speaking quietly with Yugi. They've come around to my other side, probably to get as far away from my father as possible. Honda knows some things after all, he's abouabout to let Yugi anywhere near him. I'm glad Honda's looking out for Yugi, but I hope he isn't making to much of it, I don't need Yugi suspicious and breathing down my neck too.

"'S course I'm awake..y'idiot." I mumble, surprised by how deep and husky my voice sounds. It feels like my tongue is made of sandpaper, and the air is too warm to breath. Perhaps I should've kept my mouth shut, everyone's gonna start bombarding me with questions now.

"Jounouchi-kun!" Yugi squeals, and he grabs my hand from the bed and clutches it tightly. For the first time I notice where I am, and not just the people around me. It's a small room, white and sterile, the very stereotype of all hospital rooms. The blankets covering me are thicker than I'd expected, and feel heavy across my chest. The skin on my arms is pale, and there's a needle in my free hand leading to and IV holder and bag beside me. There are a few uncomfortable looking chairs against the wall, and one pulled up to my bedside, though no one is sitting any more. They've all crowded around me, their faces weary, but they all look relieved.

I cough sharply and my chest hurts, I feel weak and raw and my head falls back against the pillow. "Water..." I croak after, and Honda passes me a cup from the bedside table. Yugi lets go of my hand to let me drink. I feel like and idiot as I grasp at it and manage to soak the top blanket while trying to hold the damn glass steady. I flop backwards in frustration and thrust the cup out to Honda. Of course, it's Yugi who intercepts, he calmly takes the cup and rather than putting it back, he holds it up for me and lets me get a drink. I feel like a little kid and I hate to be so helpless, but Yugi's the kind of person who doesn't make you feel bad for needing help. It's nice to have him here, but I wonder who called him, how he found out.

"Thanks." I sigh and shuffle myself into an inclined position against my pillows. I look from face to face, curiously, wondering who's finally going to start talking first and tell me why the hell I feel so horrible. Yugi's face is full of concern and sympathy, which is a pretty normal state for him. Honda looks pissed off and kind of distant. I'm not sure if it's me he's pissed at or maybe my Dad. The doctor is looking detached, as all doctors do, except when they're looking smug and all-knowing. A frightening thought occurs to me and my heart beats faster as I wonder if this is the detached 'you're wasting my time' look or the detached 'you're about to die' look. Damn doctors.

I run my eyes quickly over to my father, but glance away hurriedly. There's anger boiling in those muddy eyes, deep and penetrating. It might be directed towards the doctor, but I've been on the receiving end enough to make me turn my head fast. I can hear Honda grunt under his breath. For someone who can be such an ass at times he's remarkably perceptive about the subtle things. Damn him too.

"How do you feel, Jounouchi?" The doctor asks in a quiet voice, one hand going to push his glasses back up his nose. He's carrying a chart and he glances down at it every once in a while. His eyes are blank and untelling, and I'm still not sure what's hidden in that look.

"How the hell should I feel?!" I holler and regret it. Another cough tears through my chest and I lean back panting weakly. "Damn it." I whisper after it's passed. "I don't know." I mumble lamely. "I feel..dunno. Weak." I hate that word so much.

"You've lost a bit of blood. It would seem to be the result ochrochronic condition you have."

"A what?"

"Do you often have stomach pains?"

I blink, not quite following, so I nod. Of course I do, I have lots of different pains. Doesn't matter much, does it?

"Do you eat a lot and still lose weight?" That gets anther nod. "Sharp pains?"

"Sure."

"Bloody stool?"

I go beat red. "I'm not answering that!" I exclaim.

The doctor looks directly at me a moment, and then nods as if satisfied. "How embarrassing is this damn quiz going to get, care to ask me about my sexual proclivities next, Doc?" I retort quickly, my frustration growing by the minute.

He blinks suddenly, as if taken aback, then his eyes dart quickly to the chart. Heh, that'll teach him. He fidgets with his pen a moment and clears his throat.

"You have a peptic ulcer, not an uncommon condition."

"Okay." I grunt, interupting the doc-talk. "Do I get to leave now?"

"I'm sorry, Jounouchi, but you'll have to stay longer I'm afraid." His finger ps his his glasses up again, "You had a bleeding ulcer on the duodenal wall, it caused your stomach to discontinuing passing your food through to your intestine, which in turn caused you to discharge blood. He lapsed back into the medical-speak

"I don't get what that means."

"Your stomach was bleeding inside, Jounouchi. Ulcers are a common condition, nearly 2 out of ten people suffer from ulcers, though most are minor and easily treatable. Your condition seems to have gone without your noticing it, and it escalated to a more serious problem, bleeding out opening into your alimentary tract and causing some erosion of your esophageal lining." He sighed. "WE preformed an emergency endoscopy and injected a substance into the mucosa adjacent to the ulcer to minimize the chance of a significant recurrence of bleeding. A blood transfusion was preformed, and you were treated for shock."

Whoa. I was shocked. It sounded pretty damn serious, so how is it I never noticed I was sick. The doctor has asked about stomach pains and stuff, but didn't everybody have that kind of problem? I mean, sure I had it a lot, but it was just because I was always getting into trouble and shit, I got punched around an awful lot, so I guessed that that was why I hurt. As for the other major symptom, well, I guess I chalked that up to my father's entertainments, it was probably natural, right? No way in hell could I just be this sick.
I shook my head vigorously "No way. You got it wrong, I'm not that sick, it's just some stomach bug, I'll be fine in a day or so. These things always run their courses quick and I'll be fine."

"Jounouchi--"

"No!" I hollered and struggled to get up. I shoved my blankets off and stumbled to my feet. I tried to march away in defiance, but my hand was caught up with the IV. I jerked away roughly and felt the pain of the needle pulling in my flesh, but it wasn't much compared to the pain that rocked through my abdomen. My knees felt like water and fell out from beneath me, and I was sagging heavily against the wall. My Dad made a move to come around the edge of the metal frame hospital but but Honda stepped between us and offered me his own arms to help me up. I grabbed on to him gratefully and clutched at the fabric of his brown leather coat. His eyes were dark and thoughtful, looking down on me with anger and concern. I couldn't understand him for one of the few times since we were friends.

"Stop being such a dumbass Jounouchi." he grated softly through clenched teeth.

I nodded dumbly and let him guide me back to the bed and secure me once more under the white cotton covers. He was shaking his head at me slightly and his expression was disapproving, though I could swear there was some sadness in his eyes even if he wasn't letting it show. I was acting like such an idiot, and he knew it but wasn't going to hate me for it. He might be pissed awhile, but he'd forgive me eventually.

My eyes were feeling heavy again, and I settled back thankfully into the soft pillows. A nurse came in briefly and reinserted the IV needle in my arm and then took the glass of water from my bedside and held it for me. "You need to keep drinking fluids." she clucked in a chipper voice. I smiled and thanked her, glad to hear someone who wasn't detached or angry for a change. Then again, Yugi was still here, he'd just gone silent on me, or maybe Yami had taken over. Pharaoh sure doesn't know how to talk a lot outside of the dueling arena.

"You should get some rest now, Jounouchi." The doctor said quietly and then turned cold eyes on my father and Honda. "He should also have no more distractions from his healing. If you cannot conduct yourself properly then I recommend you not come back to visit." With that he turned and walked out with a self-important swagger. My father grunted angrily in Honda's direction before he stormed out the door, his footsteps echoing loudly in the near empty halls. I feel hurt that he left without saying a word to me, at least while I was awake enough to understand. I'm not sure anymore if his anger was only at the doctor, or if I was included in that glare. It makes me shake to even think of what I might have done now to ruin the recent good mood he's been in. Things were going so much easier, so sure, count on me to screw things up again.

"I'll come visit you tomorrow, okay Jounouchi?" Yugi asked eagerly, coming up beside me. His violet eyes were large and shone slightly, he was holding back tears over me and I silently berated myself for doing anything to worry him.
"Yeah, I'd like thalot.lot." I whispered hoarsely, smiling up at him like everything was alright. He smiled back and patted my hand. "Bring your cards, I've got this killer new combo planned and I'm gonna mop the floor with ya."
He sniffed and nodded. "Sure thing."

"Considering the idiot doesn't have his deck here with him I'm betting Yugi'll kick his ass pretty quickly." Honda muttered to no one in particular. He grinned and looked over at me with glinting eyes. "Not that Yugi wouldn't anyways...perhaps this is better, at least Jounouchi'll have an excuse for not winning."

"Jerk. I'm sick and your insulting me?? Remind me why we're friends again."
He eyes flashed dangerously for a moment, but then he shrugged "'Cause we got tired of swapping punches."

Yugi laughed. "You still do!"

"Yug, Yug, those are love punches." Honda's eyes lit up for a moment, turning to me and they seemed to pierce my skin. "Jounouchi knows all about those kind of punches, of course."

If I had the strength I'd have leapt out of bed and tackled his ass, but I could barely keep my eyes open.

Yugi sighed a long suffering sigh and gave us a long suffering glare. "You two make no sense. I guess it's up to me to keep you in line..." he smiled and walked towards the door. "I hope you feel better soon Jounouchi -kun. I'll see you tomorrow." He reaches up by the door and turns off the lights so that I can sleep easier.

"I'll catch up in a sec', Yugi, I just need to say something to the blockhead alone for a bit."

Yugi nodded solemnly and walked out, closing the door behind him quietly. The room was filled with heavy silence and I wanted for all the world for Honda to just walk out without saying anything, but for some reason the usually reliable Jounouchi Luck deserted me.

"Damn it Jounouchi, why the hell are you acting like this!?" he exploded finally, his hands waving emphatically. I scowled and buried myself deeper in my blankets. Honda strode to the head of the bed and grabbed me firmly by the shoulders, pulling my body to face him. I cringed back, not wanting to be touched, not wanting to look him in the eye.

"You have to stop this shit before you let yourself get killed! Do you really think that it's worth your health and sanity to just pretend like nothing's happening!?" he was almost hollering in my face, pining me down so I couldn't writhe from his grasp. I wanted to sink into the bed and right down through the floor. My stomach was hurting and I was feeling nauseous. I tried to let him know, but he wasn't ready to let me get a word in edge wise. "You might think I'm dumb and blind Jounouchi, but damn it I'm not! Why the hell don't you ever tell anybody about this stuff? Why do you defend him when I insult him, go back to him night after night? Damn Jounouchi you aren't that dumb!"
"This isn't anyone's fault!" I screamed back at him, my hands reaching up to twine around his arms, trying pointlessly to push him off me.

"Jounouchi!" he hissed, his voice changing and going quiet and soft. "Come on man, I'm not dumb, I know that your home life is shit." I shook my head stubbornly but he continued on ignoring my protests. "He's a bastard man, he hits you!" I opened my mouth but he cut me off before I could speak. "Don't lie to me! We're supposed to be best friends...if that means anything to you then you won't lie to me, I know you won't do that to me."

He looks down at me with sad eyes. "He hits you, doesn't he?"

I'm trembling and wriggling under his body, trying to escape him and his questions but my body is too tired out. I can feel my eyes tearing up and I'd do anything not to cry, not to confirm his thoughts. I can't lie to him now, not after what he said, if I did I'd be going against everything that matters to me. If I answer with the truth though I'll destroy everything my life is built up upon. He lets up suddenly sta stands hovering over me, his hand reaches out and brushes the hair from my eyes and I flinch from his touch, a gesture that holds too many painful thoughts.

"You don't have to answer me Jounouchi, I understand that you can't." he sighs and in the dark it almost looks like he's crying, but Honda never cries. At least, he's never let me see him cry before. He walks to the foot of my bed and bends down to grab the chart that has my symptoms, medications and personal information, then he comes and sits in the chair beside me.
He's reading through it casually, flipping it with disinterest. "Y'know, this is the edited version, just for the nurses." he speaks up suddenly, eyes still on the papers. "You're father and I were having a fight before you woke up, and then the doctor broke us up and our dad decided that it was good enough to take his anger out on him instead. The chart he was carrying got dropped, so I went anckedcked it up." He sniffed slightly. "I had a lot more to say than this copy. I almost want to throw it out, it says so little about what the hell is really the matter with you."

I shiver and pull the blankets under my chin, and shut my eyes tightly, trying to block out the sight of him, the sound of his voice quietly pounding against my carefully constructed defenses. "Aren't you curious what it said?" he asked.

"No. I'm tired, Honda, just go away. I wanna sl--"

"Signs of prolonged physical abuse. Numerous contusions and deep bruising. Several fractures of the ribs revealed during X-rays." His hand latched on to mine and squeezed painfully until I opened my eyes and looked up at him. His eyes were bright in the darkness, but filled with hurt and sympathy. "Signs of sexual abuse." I tensed and tried to pull my hand away, since my eyes were helplessly locked on his.

"Jounouchi...what the hell have you let him get away with?" he whispered hoarsely and I could see for certain now that he was crying. My best friend was crying over me and I hated him for it. For knowing everything about me and not being able to keep quiet about it. I hated him for seeing through all my desperate lies and pathetic acting. I hated him for being smarted and more perceptive than I thought he was.

He bent down over and kissed my forehead once, a throughly alien gesture coming from my friend. He pulled away from my hand slowly, and I realized I was gripping him tightly, not willing to let go. He stuffed one hand deep into the pocket of his jacket and walked slowly to the door. He looked over his shoulder once and smiled at me. "Don't worry Jounouchi." was all he said and then walked out the door.

"No! Honda--please!" I called after him but he continued to walk away from me as though he couldn't hear me. I knew somehow that it was hard for him to just walk away and ignore me, but he felt he was doing something right. Honda always tried to do what he thought was right, what needed to be done regardless of the consequences. I'd always admired that about him.

I could feel my tiredness pulling me down with it into the relief of sleep, but as I went I could still feel fear gnawing it's way through me. I was afraid for myself, and afraid for my best friend.

And I damn myself for it, but most of all I was afraid for my father.

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A/N: Sigh...there we have it, the mysterious illness revealed. I did my research and so I hope the information isn't too inaccurate. Please do bear with me however, I'm not a doctor so I was winging the medical-ese and I can't be certain I got all my details right. A Peptic ulcer can cause bleeding from both the mouth and rectum, so that was the cause of the blood. Really the reason he's sick is for dramatic purposes in ending last chapter and to confirm Honda's suspicions. To be honest, Honda never gets enough credit, so hopefully he'll come off alright in this story. TO those thinking --uh, are we now reading Yaoi?--my answer is--I plead the fifth. I'm not certain. There were kind of intimate moments here and there, but that wasn't my primary intention. Devoted friendship and platonic love, yes. Romantic leanings...um...still, not clear on it. This story is taking me far from my normal field. I write Jou/Seto fics, so if I'm writing a yaoi here, well it's a surprise to me too. So far though, I don't have romantic plans. If you have a problem with it, well heck, you put up with incest, why the heck would a little bit of HonJou innuendo be all that disturbin§ g