The Long Way

Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Yu-Gi-Oh, not that I think you thought I was.
Warnings: see first chapter
A quick thank you to everyone who was kind enough to review. I’ve never had anyone claim to be a fan of mine before, so that made me rather happy. I hope this lives up to the pressure.

/.../ implies flashbacks to earlier conversations.

As it turned out, a night of drinking till he passed out was not the miracle cure Jounouchi had been hoping for. Sure, it got him to sleep without thoughts of a certain CEO befuddling his mind, but it left him with one hell of a hangover. How his father managed to function like this on such a regular basis was beyond him.

Lost in a stupor of dizziness and one hell of a headache, Jounouchi managed to stop himself just before he stepped off the curb and into traffic- He really needed to focus on paying attention. The blond was out wandering the streets in the middle of the afternoon because he'd only just recently woken up, and had thought some fresh air might help with his hangover. Turns out that wasn't really the case; now he was just hungry and wandering around. A little strapped for cash, he knew if he could just make it to Yugi's he could get some free food. His stomach growled, urging him to hurry and, had the world not already been spinning by, he would have started jogging. As it was, he turned a corner and ran smack into the very solid form of someone in a long white coat...and he only knew one person who could get their coats to flare out like that.

Kaiba placed his left foot behind him to anchor himself when the collision knocked him off balance, and watched as his "assailant" stumbled backwards several steps and grabbed onto the white brick wall lining the street to steady himself. The blond was uttering expletives under his breath the whole time, and when he finally regained his balance Jounouchi turned to regard the one person he really didn’t want to see right now.

"What are you doing here Kaiba?" Jounouchi's voice was soft, more to prevent his headache from worsening than from any actual attempt to be friendly.

"I could ask you the same thing. You look like you should be passed out in an ally somewhere." Seto’s retort held all the icy superiority people had come to associate with him.

Righting himself and stepping away from the support of the wall, Jounouchi took a look around. It was only then that he noticed they were located before a temple, the large ascension of steps just beyond where Kaiba was standing.

"Were you at the temple?" It occurred to Jounouchi that the answer was somewhat obvious, and while it was by no means strange to go to a temple, somehow the thought of Kaiba doing so seemed odd.

Seto momentarily considered ignoring the blond and just walking away, but the part of him that he tried to keep buried insisted he take this opportunity to talk.

"I was visiting the cemetery."

"Oh," Jounouchi didn't really know what to say to that without seeming rude or prying into Seto's personal business. At a loss, he just said the first thing that came to mind. "I hate cemeteries. You know, ghosts and all that."

"Hm," Seto nodded. "I only go because I occasionally like to make sure he's still dead."

Jounouchi didn't have to ask whom he was referring to. Still, it seemed odd that Kaiba mentioned his adoptive father. Jounouchi had always gotten the impression that it was an off limits topic for the CEO.

Suddenly uncomfortable with the situation, Seto did what he did best and just walked away. He didn’t have that far to go since a car was waiting for him just a few feet away, parked along the curb. He shut the door behind him as he got in. With a quick signal to the driver, Seto was on his way back to the mansion and away from the blond and those strange feelings he got being near him.

Kaiba's sudden departure left Jounouchi a little stunned. Compared to the other conversations they’d been having lately, he’d felt that one was going rather well. The way the brunet had just dismissed him was a harsh reminder of how little his existence even registered with Kaiba in the real world. It seemed that the only time he had Kaiba’s attention was when he was arguing with him. Outside of duels and school he didn’t seem to matter to the tall brunet. Then again, nothing seemed to really matter to the teen but his titles and his brother. Wasn’t that what he’d just been yelling at Kaiba about in their last two encounters? Hadn’t he called him a heartless bastard?

So then why was he so bothered that Kaiba had basically ignored him? Why was he confused by the feeling of immense disappointment that gripped him with the brunet's leaving? Shouldn't he just be happy they managed to avoid slinging insults at each other?

So many questions that needed, and perhaps he wanted, to be answered.

Jounouchi didn’t really consider himself the smartest of people, and yet it bothered him that he couldn’t figure this out. His world had consisted of three simple truths; his father was a worthless drunk, his mother had abandoned him, and he hated Kaiba. They were true and that was supposed to be the end of it. But as he’d realized last night that he maybe didn’t hate the CEO as much as he thought, the whole thing had come into question. Was it possible he’d been wrong all this time?

Turning another corner Jounouchi was presented with the reality that he needed to deal with this situation. There in front of him was the large storefront window of a local shop and right smack in the middle was a magazine rack full of that damn tabloid with Kaiba’s battered face on the front. Again Jounouchi felt the rage grab a hold of him, and if he hadn’t thought better of it at the last second he would have stormed into the shop and overturned the rack. Without a doubt, whatever it was he felt towards Kaiba ran deeper than he had believed.

Needing some time to think and sort this out, Jounouchi changed his plans and headed for the place that held some of his most cherished memories.


Seto was in the middle of rewriting a part of his company’s latest program someone in the graphics department hadn’t done properly when the phone rang. Knowing that the only people who would have his phone number as well as the audacity to call him on a Sunday was a member of Kaiba Corp’s board of directors, he reached out to pick up the receiver. At the last second he looked at the display on the caller ID and his hand stopped. Suddenly he was grateful he hadn’t mindlessly answered the phone.

There was no mistaking the name and number: Malik was calling him.

Seto didn’t bother to wonder how the blond had gotten his number, he knew the Egyptian could be rather resourceful when he needed to be, but he did wonder what had prompted the sudden phonecall. He was always the one who sought out Malik, and this sudden change in routine didn’t sit well with him. Granted, Seto knew Malik had gotten attached. He’d known it since they’d first met at Battle City. Back then he had simply ignored it and focused only on what mattered- winning the tournament. But now, as he found himself needing the blond more and more in a strictly physical capacity he began to wonder if it was really such a good idea.

He’d always made it very clear that he wasn’t interested in any sort of relationship, and he thought Malik had accepted that. He needed a release, an escape, and between Malik and his sadistic counterpart he had found it. If the blond suddenly wanted to push the boyfriend issue, he’d just have to be replaced.

/You’re a heartless bastard Kaiba! I know it, you know, everyone knows it... /

Once again Jounouchi had been right. He was cruel enough to use Malik for his own selfish purposes and then easily throw him away. What the hell was wrong with him? He knew he should feel bad about toying with the blond, so why was there no guilt?

Guilt is the first sign of weakness. That’s what Gozaburo had told him. Guilt meant you felt you had done something wrong, and a strong person, a worthy successor, only did what they wanted and was never wrong. Do what you have to and screw the people you hurt in the process. Wasn’t it their fault for having allowed themselves to be hurt?

That lesson from the businessman had been made clear to him when he’d come home from school one day, this was before Gozaburo had decided his own private education was better suited for what Seto would need to learn, devastated that his friend had blabbed his secret crush to the entire class. It had been humiliating and crushing to be so completely betrayed. He could still remember the hope of comfort he had foolishly held in his heart when he stepped into Gozaburo’s office that afternoon.

Comfort that of course had never come.

Gozaburo’s harsh laughter had cut deeply. Instead of soothing words and hopeful advice, Seto had been treated to a lecture on how the entire thing was his own fault. He’d been told that this was the sort of thing that happened when you put your trust in people, they used it against you at the most opportune moment. As a businessman it was important to earn people’s trust and yet confide nothing. That way you were the one with all the power and no one had anything to hold over you.

“And yet you’re completely alone,” Seto sighed to himself. He’d learned the lesson that day; he committed it to memory and as soon as it was necessary had put it into practice. He needed to provide for Mokuba, and to do that he needed to be the best. In truth Gozaburo had taught him to be the perfect CEO- living and breathing to better the company and be number one. It was almost jokingly that Seto thought he could program a computer to do the same thing.

Realizing that Malik had probably left him a voicemail, Seto picked up the phone and accessed his messages. Sure enough he found several new messages, all of them from the Egyptian. Skipping ahead, he listen to the latest one.

“Hey Kaiba it’s Malik...again,” the last word was stressed as if he knew that Seto was merely avoiding him and screening his calls. “I’m sure you’re pissed that I got this number, but that’s no reason not to call me back. I’m just worried about that tabloid article. I know you hate any sort of bad publicity and I just thought you might want someone to talk to.” Seto flinched at the slight hopefulness he could hear in the teen’s voice. “I’m really sorry this all happened. Marik can just be such an ass sometimes. Anyway call me back when you get the chance. I’m going out later this evening but I’ll be home all afternoon.” There was a pause and then the sound of the caller hanging up.

Seto leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. It was as bad as he thought; Malik was worried about him. And even though he didn’t want to be, the brunet was a little touched by the idea. Besides Mokuba, no one else ever seemed to be concerned about him.

/Tell me what happened./

Jounouchi had only wanted to know because he was being blamed for it. Seto closed his eyes as his thoughts turned to the mutt. Safe in the privacy of his mansion, Seto could admit that the loudmouthed blond was the one person he wished was a little concerned. It was probably wrong, and it was never going to happen, but he still couldn’t stop the longing that was there. He always did everything he could to show his superiority to Jounouchi, but he knew that the blond was probably the only person who could ever understand him. And in the same way the idea intrigued and fascinated him, it also completely terrified him.

He knew if he ever got involved with Jounouchi it wouldn’t be like it was with Malik. That sense of detachment wouldn’t be there. Jounouchi would never accept such an arrangement. The blond would want someone he loved and who loved him in return. Seto wanted that. Wanted that kind of intimacy and unconditional support, but he didn’t know if he was even capable of it.

Even Mokuba, the person he was closer to than anyone, didn’t know all his secrets. How was ever supposed to entrust them to someone else?

And so, faced again with the impossibility of anything happening with Jounouchi, Seto was able to take a strange sort of comfort in the fact that the mutt hated him.


The beach was just as calming as Jounouchi remembered it. He hadn’t really had a chance to come here since Shizuka’s surgery, but it was still as peaceful as it had been then. Of course at that time he had come here to escape from the reality that he hadn’t been there for his sister, abandoning her just like his mother did him, but the golden sand and soothing blue waters had offered him solace. It was also here that he’d had an epiphany about what an ass he was being.

And once again the solitude of this place straight out of his childhood memories had helped to clear up the many tangled thoughts in his head. He’d passed the afternoon just laying in the sand or trying his best to skip stones along the crest of the waves, and as he had given into the relaxing environment he had started to see things a little more clearly.

It started with a simple question- why was it exactly that he hated Kaiba? So many instances had immediately come to mind, moments where the brunet had refused his help or found an infuriating way to insult him, but none of them were the true answer. If he truly thought about, he’d say that the feeling he had always classified as hatred had been there from the beginning. From that moment in Yugi’s grandfather’s shop when Kaiba had refused his offer of friendship.

Jounouchi tried to justify it by reasoning that Kaiba had been exceptionally rude in his refusal to join them, but it was a weak excuse. He’d been just as insulting if not worse to Yugi after that and the champion duelist still treated the CEO like a friend. But not Jounouchi. No, he had given up any attempt to befriend Kaiba after only one try. Looking back, Kaiba’s response was completely natural considering what little he could claim to know of the brunet’s personality. So was one bad first impression reason enough to hate someone?

But Kaiba hated him too right?

It seemed like a truth, but he couldn’t recall a single instance where Kaiba had started a fight with him. Wasn’t he always the one getting in Kaiba’s face or taking the CEO’s natural abrasiveness like some kind of personal affront? Yes, if you really got down to it, his problem with Kaiba had started over a bad first impression. Everything since then was just part of the prejudices he had picked up that day.

Not wanting to take on most of the blame, Jounouchi tried to counter this revelation with the Death-T fiasco, but he just didn’t have the heart to. Even he had realized that something was wrong with Kaiba back then, and whatever it was it no longer manifested itself in such a harmful way. Maybe someday he would get the chance to ask Kaiba about it, but until then he didn’t feel right holding it against him.

Even having realized the root of the problem, he still didn’t have the ultimate solution. Just because he realized he had probably been wrong about the CEO didn’t magically make them friends. Yugi had been supportive of Kaiba the whole time, and the brunet only begrudgingly helped the shorter teenager and could only barely bring himself to respect the boy’s dueling ability. Or at least that was the image he portrayed. And wasn’t it all about image with Kaiba? Did anyone know what Kaiba Seto the teenager, not Kaiba Seto the duelist or Kaiba Seto the CEO of Kaiba Corp, was like?

Mokuba was the only likely candidate for having that kind of information and wasn’t the raven haired preteen always insisting that his big brother was a good person? Didn’t he always say Kaiba was only the way he was because he’d had to throw everything else away to get what he had? Jounouchi tried to image what it must have been like, but he couldn’t. Most of the things in his life had been taken away from him without his consent, but Kaiba had willingly given them up and that was something he’d never understand.

But in truth it was simpler than that. Kaiba had done what was necessary to protect Mokuba, and as a big brother, that was an instinct Jounouchi could understand. So maybe if you looked at it from that level they weren’t so different after all.

Never thinking that he’d have anything in common with the boy he had considered his worst enemy, Jounouchi was shocked to be able to relate to the brunet. He’d found some common ground, and he was almost positive that he could built off it if he had enough determination. So the question became did he want to get to know Kaiba?

/It’s not yours or anyone else’s place to judge me./

/Does it bother you to know there’s someone else out there who hates me more than you do?/

/Why didn't you tell the principal you were fighting with me yesterday?/

And then there was that look in Kaiba’s eyes. That look that made the captivating blue orbs burn with self-loathing. It was a look that was ten times more terrifying than the teen’s patented glare. Yes, he wanted to get to know Kaiba. He wanted to know what his past had really been like, what his hopes were, what he dreamed of, and more than anything he wanted to know what put that look in his eyes. If he found the cause maybe he could make it go away.

Brushing the sand off his jeans, Jounouchi turned his back on the sea. It wasn’t going to be easy, and it was practically guaranteed to test his patience, but he was determined to find out what was going on with Kaiba. Yugi’s friendship had saved him at a time when he needed it most and he was now going to pass along the favor.

Like it or not, Kaiba was about to make himself a new friend.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: The original version of this chapter was entirely about Jounouchi and involved him seeking out Anzu under the guise of needing advice for his sister. I kind of liked having her point out of the revelations he came to in this chapter since she often seems to get a bad portrayal and I wanted to use her for something positive. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that happy with how it came out. I ended up keeping the first part but then just thinking about what I thought Jou might do if he wanted to think. That’s when the beach idea hit me. I wasn’t really too sure about it, but I think it works especially since his past is such a part of who he’s become in this story. I sure hope you guys agree. Also, I’m willing to admit that I just threw Seto in here because I missed him, but there is some pretty important insights there if you look hard enough. At least that’s what I think. I really shouldn’t babble like this, but without emailing all of you this is my only chance to explain myself before facing your judgement. Anyway, please review so I can write some more of this.