I will never own Yu-Gi-Oh, so leave me alone. Seriously.

Jou and Mai is a couple, but Mai leaves with Varon, leaving Jou heartbroken and alone. He moves on and realizes that he has feelings for a certain blue eyed CEO. Little by little, Seto and Jou fall in love with each other, but do not admit it out loud. However, Mai comes back, expecting Jou and her to be together. She breaks up whatever Jou and Seto had and persuades Jou to give her a second chance. Jou is confused. He thought he would be thrilled to have Mai back in his life, yet he cannot stop thinking about a person he left hanging. When Seto decides that it hurts him too much, he makes a decision to leave Domino City forever to get over Jou, and to never return. Will Jou realize his feelings for Seto before it's too late?

Slight Yugi and Yami, Bakura and Ryou, Otogi and Honda, and Mai (possibly Anzu) bashing.

Main couple: Seto and Jou

The Last to Know

Confessions between Strangers

"This guy, Varon, he's a friend of Mai's," Jou paused, thinking of what to say next. "Actually, more than a friend." Then Jou does the unthinkable and started to snicker at himself. He started off quietly, but started to grow louder and louder, bitterness lurking around each cackle. "Apparently, Mai's going to break up with me to be with him. He told me they already kissed."

"Jou..." Seto started off, his voice sounding patient and quiet. His tone was thoughtful as he continued. "Why do you care about Mai so much? You're not a stupid guy, you know Mai doesn't give a shit about you. You still hang onto her. May I ask why?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Jou saw Seto gazing at his own face intently and barely blinking, awaiting his response. Jou almost flushed a dark red color, feeling quite uncomfortable at being the target of one of Seto Kaiba's most intense stares.

"She saved my sister's life."

In that one sentence alone, Jou had now opened up to Seto. No one ever knew—that Mai had done such a thing, nor will anyone find out because Jou never seemed to want to talk about it. He had no idea why he started talking about it now. Perhaps he got caught up in the entire scenario being with Seto Kaiba, or maybe because he wanted to let at least one person know that Mai was good person. .

This had been a secret between Mai and Jou for two years. It was a very painful subject for Jou to talk about without getting that scary feeling in his stomach because he didn't like to think about losing Shizuka.

"That's how we first met," Jou explained, to clarify some of the confusion. "We met through Shizuka. Shizuka's the closet thing to family and to a sister back then for her. That was before my parents got divorced last year right before summer started and before Shizuka moved to live with our mom. They were taking an aerobics class together and got close pretty quickly. One night, they were at a party and while they leaving, they got into a car accident."

Seto slowly nodded, urging Jou not to stop and to continue on. Jou's mind flied back to that horrendous memory and could feel that horrid feeling of dread return. He tried his best to ignore it.

"Mai was injured, but despite that, she still managed to get Serenity out of the car, whose head was bleeding. She was unconscious and there was no way she could have gotten out of the car if it weren't for Mai before it went up in flames. When I got to the hospital, all Mai could think about was whether or not Shizuka was going to pull through. She was in surgery, and it was a pretty bad situation. Mai was crying and shivering, and she was more worried than I was because Shizuka was all she had. She kept saying how sorry she was and how she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something happened. She was crying on my shoulder the while time. I had never seen her like that. I found myself worrying about her as much as I was worried about Shizuka."

Jou sighed, unsure of what to say next. "She was in a coma later and everyday, Mai and I would come and visit her, just to be near her. That was a major comfort to us. We soon started to talk, a lot. We grew closer and closer during the summer, even when Shizuka recovered and left. We stayed in contact throughout June and July, although she was vacationing in the United States." Jou stopped to take a breath and stared at Seto with a serious expression. He rushed to continue.

"She wasn't always like this, you know. She wasn't always out partying, drinking, and skipping school. She used to be this total sweetheart, the straight A's student. She would never drink or touch drugs back then but when she went to the US... I don't know. She was still the girl I met... she was still the girl that I had learned to like and care for. When she came back..." his voice trailed off, leaving a moment of silence. "Before, she had asked me to giver ha chance, with her, to see if there was a chance between us. I told her I would and that I would try my best to keep us together so that we could keep our friendship even if it didn't work out. Right now.. I just don't know what changed or what happened to that girl I met."

Jou started to brush off a bug that had landed on his jeans, not knowing what to say next and awaiting the CEO's answer, wondering if he would even understand.

Yes, Seto Kaiba was a genius. There was not a single person who would say he wasn't. He was known for having the highest grades in Domino High ever since the school started (fifteen years ago) and the highest IQ ever known in Domino City. he was smart enough to own a huge company by himself without any help and he was smart enough to support himself and Mokuba even after his stepfather died.

Yet, Seto's brain was not capable of coming up wiht an answer or some sort of response for Jou. He kept thinking of words he could string together, yet found himself for the first time possible, lost at words.

As if reading his mind, Jou's eye shifted over to him, a smile soon forming. "It's okay; you don't have to say anything."

"I don't?"

"Yeah. It's all right. My sob story is stupid anyway. The only thing I really expect you to say is probably your usual 'Whatever', right?"

Jou didn't mean to offend him by saying that, but Seto felt a bit hurt to hear him say that, like he wasn't capable of offering words of sympathy. Seto recovered and cleared his throat. "There's not much to say. People change over time, we all know that. It's time to start living in the present in the past. You know you deserve much better."

"I do?"

"Don't sound so surprised. Yes, you do." Seto meant it too and was annoyed that the blonde didn't think he did. Based on rumors and the actions he saw with his own two eyes, Mai was not capable of being anybody's girlfriend, especially someone like Jou.

He had to admit that Jou and his friends did get on his nerves every now and then, but with Jou, he felt a connection. Perhaps it was the fact that they both had younger siblings they would do anything for, their intelligence, or their stubbornness that never allowed them to back down from a challenge or a promise.

Sometimes, Seto would find himself looking at Jou and feeling jealous; jealous of his ability to smile and cheer despite the disappointing odds and circumstances, jealous of his carefree personality, jealous of how he was with people... Seto could go on forever about how many qualities Jou had that he wanted.

"You just need to break up with her," Seto said casually, as if the answer was obvious. "Forget about her. You'll find someone much better."

For someone with a grade point average of 4.125, Jou was pretty stupid sometimes. His eyes widened and made Seto think of two golf balls. His mouth dropped open as if he had just seen a pig talk.

"What!" was the only thing Jou could manage to say.

Funny. Seto thought Jou always had a huge range of vocabulary.

"Yes, you heard me right. It's not that much of a surprising suggestion you know," he remarked, taking a leaf off his lap while looking at Jou's facial expression from the corner of his blue eye.

Jou's shoulders slouched a bit more and he pulled his legs back in to sit Indian style. The surprise and shock was no longer there in his face; it was immediately replaced by a look of gloominess. "What's the point? She's going to break up with me anyway so why bother?"

Seto stared at him for a moment, not sure he was hearing correctly. He looked at the blonde's face and examined it, trying to read what was behind those honey brown eyes of his. His own azure blue eyes narrowed, as he came to a conclusion and did the only thing he knew he had to do.

Actually, it was the only thing he could do.

Seto raised his left hand and smacked Jou on the head, hard.

-TBC-

EEK! I am SOOO SORRY! It took me.. how long to update this? Seven months? Wow, this is so horrible, I'm such a terrible author/procrastinator:(... I'm so sorry. I must have lost all my readers on this... gosh, that would be so sad if I did.. I hope I hadn't.. I hope you haven't given up on me!

But if you read this, that must mean you didn't so... thank you very much and I love you :)

Happy Thanksgiving.. again. You know you want to click the review button and say, "LRD, you're so freaking awesome and cool, I love you". Okay, maybe not, but maybe you should give me a comment anyways :

-lilrubydevil-