Falling To Pieces

Kaiba sat outside the bedroom hugging his knees to his chest.

How could I lie to him?! I can't keep that up! He'll...

"Not going to tell him, are you, nii-sama?"

"..."

"You were so determined to get him to be honest with everyone and here you lie to him?! I..."

"It's not like I'm proud or anything, I just don't want to lose him..."

"He'll find out you know. News, papers, friends..."

"You're right... damn it... I-I have to... tell him..."

Mokuba put his ear to the door, "I think he's awake. His head must hurt pretty bad..."

"Y-you think I should tell him now?"

"Better soon. It wont' be long before it's all over the news about some foreigner getting offed by the yakuza..."

"Shit! Ok..."

As he entered the room, Honda was up and stretching.

"Man, what a nightmare!"

"About that..."

"?"

"Wh-what exactly do you remember?"

"Why? Think it's telling the future or something..."

"Hiroto, you may want to sit down..."

"O-ok... what's going on?"

Kaiba took a deep breath and swallowed, He's going to hate me..., "I-I ordered..."

"Huh? What...?"

"I... I ordered the hit on Seig."

Honda felt his heart stop and his body go numb, "No...n-no! It was a nightmare! None of that happened! Seto, tell me...!"

"I-I'm so sorry... i-it was me..."

"I watched Seig go down! I saw the blood! Gods, he was just killed right in front of me...!"

"I-I'm sorry! Honestly! I told you I may have to do things I wouldn't be proud of..."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?! That you're not proud of it!"

"P-please, Hiroto, when they found you, you were tied up and your belt undone..."

"I actually saw someone get killed?!"

"It... it was only a matter of time he go after Mokuba or even ojiisan! I couldn't risk that, or what he could have done to you!"

"So you have him killed?!"

"I-I didn't expect you'd forgive me..."

"Understatement!" Honda exclaimed as he began packing his bag, "I'm so outta here...!"

"No! Please! I'm not explaining this right... just give me... I..."

"Shut it! I can't stay here!"

"You're perfectly safe! I've never used the number before... I never will again, I swear!"

"What number?"

"Not too long after you all left for Japan after the Grand Prix, someone gave me a number and told me if I ever needed anything, for a price, they did good work..."

"What?! What would someone in America know of the yakuza?"

"Who said anything about the yakuza? This person hated Seig..."

"German mob? Ok, so is this supposed to make me feel better?!"

"N-no... I..."

"I have to go..."

"Where will you go?"

"I-I don't know..." he had completely forgotten what Jounouchi had told him, "Jounouchi's, I don't know..."

"Please don't go there!"

"What?! Why not, and what do you care?!"

"J-Jounouchi-san..."

"He spends half his time drunk anyway..."

"And the other half beating on Jounouchi! Please, as one last request, don't go there!"

"Fine, I won't go there... but I'm not telling you where..."

"I didn't ask."

"Right." he said coldly and quickly ran from the room and down the hall, leaving Kaiba to drown in a mass of tears.

Mokuba saw Honda run for his bike and knew right away what had happened.

Damn it! I'm so sorry, nii-sama! he decided to check on his brother.

Cautiously he knocked on the door, "Nii-sama?"

"G-go a-a-away..."

C-crying?!, "Please, Seto! I'm sorry!"

"I-I don-don't blame you..."

Mokuba couldn't take it anymore and let himself in finding his brother sitting on the floor next to his bed, his face burried in a pillow.

"S-Seto, I'm so sorry..."

"N-no, you... you were r-right... h-he would have... found out an-anyway..."

Mokuba found himself wrapped in a tight embrace as his nii-sama cried on his shoulder.

Wh-what?! N-nii-sama?! Don't worry, I'll talk to Honda...

"Honda?! What...?"

"Please, Otogi, can I stay here for the night?"

"Huh? O-ok, sure..."

"Thanks."

Otogi led him to a spare room to get him settled in.

"There's extra pillows and blankets in the closet..."

"Thanks so much, man..."

"Uh, I don't want to pry, but..."

"Yea, pretty big fight. I-I probably hurt him pretty bad leaving, but..."

"I-if it's all the same, I didn't want to be right..."

"About what?"

"About you two not working. You guys looked so happy, I kept hoping I would be wrong..."

Honda smiled and patted Otogi on the back, "Thanks man. You're alright."

"You know, you can stay as long as you need to..."

"What about your parents? I don't want to be a bother..."

"No bother, my parents are hardly ever home..."

"Oh, sorry..."

"Yea, last I talked to my mom she was in Madrid and my dad was in Montreal..."

"Must suck..."

"Nah, we get along well enough when we are together it's pretty much a non stop party!"

"That's cool..." Honda's demeaner, not that it was great to begin with, seemed to dwindle more.

"Oh, Honda, I'm sorry! I forgot... I didn't mean to..."

"No, no, it's alright... my own fault... oh, and don't tell anyone I'm here, ok?"

"No problem. Just let me know if you..." he started when he was cut short by the door bell, "Uh, he wouldn't follow you, would he?"

"I-I don't think so..."

Otogi answered the door to find a visibly upset Mokuba.

"M-Mokuba?! Uh..."

"Is Honda here?"

"Uh, well, I..." he motioned for Honda to the door.

"It's ok. What's up, Mokuba?"

"Can we talk?"

"Of course..."

"I'll just finish getting you set up."

"Thanks, Otogi. What is it Mokuba? I'm not coming..."

"I know, I just was hoping you'd listen to me..."

"You knew about this, didn't you?"

"H-he told me, and no, I don't agree with it and I am upset with him, but he is really sorry..."

"'Really sorry' isn't going to give a guy not much older than us his life back..."

"I know. But niether is leaving someone who loves you so much he did what he did for you..."

"I-I don't even want to think about me being his reason for this!"

"Seto has always been, well, you know how hot headed he gets and sometimes it clouds his judgement..."

"Mokuba, I..."

"Please think about it; he did what he did for you... and me. And think about the kind of person Seig was; they told Seto when they brought you back you were tied up and your belt buckle was undone. He wanted Seto to meet him there at the hotel right? He probably wanted him to walk in on you two..."

"Mokuba! Please, I..."

"He wanted to hurt Seto... badly... and he came too close..."

"D-did he tell you about..."

"Yea, he did. Thing is, Seto knew he'd never go around bragging about something like that, that's why he let it go, but when Seig called him to tell him he had you, he lost it..."

"I... this is way too much..."

"One last thing, please?"

"?"

"I've seen him upset. I've seen him angry. I've even seen him scared..."

"?!"

"I've never seen him cry."

"!!"

"Thanks for listening to me, Honda."

"..."

Honda watched the way to mature for his age boy run for his limo, leaving him with more to think about than most of his classes combind.

He wandered into Otogi's kitchen where Otogi was making a quick snack.

"Honda, you alright? Want anything?"

"N-no... thanks... I think I need sleep... yea..." zombie like, he made his way to the room and collapsed onto the bed. Gods, what am I going to do?!

The next morning was rough. With them ignoring eachother it was obvious to everyone they were done.

Kaiba went back to his old self.

Honda had as well, except he seemed to feel the need to make sure everyone knew he was fine.

Though he wasn't.

He laid the "I'm fine! Everything's cool!" thing on so thick, everyone, especially his friends, knew he was pretending.

"Honda-kun, honestly, you don't have to keep up this..."

"Keep what up?" he said through the phony smile he had plastered onto his face all day, "For the last time, I'm fine! No worries!"

"How's your dad taking you being back?" Jounouchi asked, then was instantly jumped by Otogi.

"Uh, why would his parents take him back, Jounouchi? Hmm? Owe me something?"

"Huh?! Ah, no, I..."

"Oh shit! I forgot!" Honda exclaimed, "Thanks, Jou! I can't believe I forgot, but..."

"What did he forget Jounouchi?!" Otogi had Jounouchi in a head-lock, practically trying to strangle the answer from him.

"I-I gu... guess it... slipped... my mind to... tell you..."

"Otogi, let him go!" Anzu demanded, "Jounouchi, his parents were going to let him, weren't they?"

"Y-yea..." he choked.

"I still can't go back..." Honda said solemly, his smile all but dissapeared, "I can't face them now..."

"So, where are you staying?" Yugi asked, "I mean, if you need somewhere to go..."

"Thanks, Yugi, but I have a place. I just don't want it getting around... not that I don't trust you, I just don't want to risk it..."

"We understand." Anzu sat next to him and hugged him tightly, "Just so long as you know we're here..."

"Yea, thanks... so, what's up for today?" he tried to get back into his "good mood". He didn't want Kaiba seeing him upset; he wasn't going to ghim him the satisfaction.

"I don't know. I guess Kaiba Land... oh, sorry..." Jouncouchi could feel his face begin to melt off, "I'm sorry..."

"It's alright..."

"I guess we could..." Anzu started, when she spotted a girl running toward them, waving and laughing, "Who's..."

"Hey!" she exclaimed as she tackled Honda, "I've missed you all so much!"

"Uh... y-you..."

"Oh, I didn't expect you to remember me..." she said softly, yet still with a firm grip on Honda.

"No! No! "Ribbon-chan"! Of course I remember you!" Honda had never been happier to see anyone in his life and hugged her tightly back, Ok, things are looking up!

"Miho! How have you been?!" Anzu asked, "I remember you moved..."

"Yea, we moved a lot! I'm so happy to be back!"

She snuggled deeper into Honda, who eagerly returned the embrace.

"I read so much about you all; Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, The Grand Prix. I was in America when the Grand Prix was going on, but I couldn't go..."

"It was interesting." Jounouchi said, still rather annoyed with his experience there.

"You must be Ryuugi Otogi?"

"The one and only..." he said taking her hand, "And you must be Miho?"

"The one and only." Honda answered, taking her hand from Otogi's.

"Oh, congrats to you Yugi-kun and Jounouchi-kun!"

"Thanks..." Yugi couldn't help but notice Kaiba at the other end of the school yard. It was hard for him to tell if he was noticing the little display of affection going on, or if he really had just slipped back into the old Kaiba, Sorry, Kaiba-kun. I don't like what Honda-kun's doing either...

What's that, Aibou?

I think Honda-kun is trying to make Kaiba-kun feel bad. That's why he's been acting so happy and now he's all over Miho...

Maybe they weren't getting along as well as they wanted everyone to believe. Maybe Honda-kun is happier. And remember Mih Miho left, he was so upset...

I guess...

"Yugi-kun? You still with us?"

"Oh, right! Miho doesn't know!" Jounouchi said, "There's two Yugis!"

"Uh, Joun... um... yea..." Yugi flushed.

"T-two...?!"

"Never mind, "Ribbon-chan", long story." Honda said, taking her hand and helping her up, "Want to go for a walk? Catch up?"

"Sure! Actually, I was hoping you'd ask..."

I was hoping you'd say that..., "Alright. Later, everyone."

"Later, man! Now, where were we, Jounouchi..." he hooked his neck back into a lock.

"R-rig...right... a-about... h-here..."

"Morons." Anzu sighed.

Yugi watched Kaiba's reactions as Miho and Honda walked across the school yard; he pretended to be reading, yet his unmistakeable eyes were fixed on Honda and he shiffted uneasily.

I hope you know what you're doing, Honda-kun...