It seemed… comical, really. He had never learnt how to swim.

He stared at the dark, cold water; its surface was stained by the city lights' reflection.

Dawn was three hours away; the city was asleep… Except maybe for a few distant noises that reached Pegasus's ears. Every now and then, a car would bypass him, unaware and uninterested in the man that was standing on the outer side of the bridge rail, barely maintaining his balance on what seemed to be a narrow piece of metal .

His cold fingers were tightly clutching on the black metal. He stared at what would soon be his watery grave…

Some people would probably consider it ridiculous… pathetic. Why would a young, successful billionaire wish to take his own life?
To some, it would seem surreal… The eccentric, artistic cartoon-lover, who would always smile for the cameras… committing suicide?

He had everything… he didn't have the right to feel lost… and empty…
He could just go back home… to his huge… empty mansion. Were famous, successful doctors would prescribe him new medicine that just like any other, wouldn't work… Were Kuro would bark out orders at him… He would order him to carry on… to keep fighting… to live.

In reality, of course… Kuro was merely begging. Begging for him to stay…
Why did those pleas sound like orders, really…?

Oh, yes. His mansion… were his only company would be his beautiful ghost…

He lowered his head, letting his hair cover his face.

One step… just one step… and it would be over…

"Seems… cold, down there…"

The voice was smooth… calm… and somehow, familiar.
He shook his hair away from his face, trying to get a good look of the newcomer.

His first thought upon looking at the stranger's face was… warm. Warm eyes… a warm smile.
The street light hid in his blonde hair, as he approached slowly.

"Jounouchi-boy…" Pegasus muttered, wondering if his mind was playing some sort of trick on him.
Was the young duelist really standing there…?

He was now standing next to him, his arms resting on the bridge rail, his eyes piercing through the dark veil underneath them.

"It… certainly is a long fall…" he said quietly.

Pegasus was shaking. "Jou…Jounouchi… please, just go… I don't want you to see this…"

Jounouchi kept staring at the sea. "It's… cold, you know. The water will be freezing… I hear it feels horrible… falling in cold water…"

Pegasus scoffed, chocking back his tears.
Why had the urge to cry his heart out come… now?

"Jounouchi, please…" Pegasus said loudly, hiding his face behind his hair again.

"So… you want to jump." Jounouchi stated, trying to catch Pegasus's eye.

"No, Jounouchi, I am up here to admire the view." Pegasus said, trying to sound sarcastic. He smiled bitterly. Such a tragicomic situation…

"And… will I be in the funeral? I mean…" he hesitated, "It's not like you will hand out invitations or something. But… would you want me to be there…?"

"Funeral…" Pegasus muttered, staring at the blonde boy with widened eyes. "What are you- Jounouchi-boy…" he blinked fast a few times, unable to turn his eye from the boy that was staring at him with a small smile.
"If you want to… go… do so…" Pegasus said, unable to process what exactly it was that he was discussing with the blonde… and under what circumstances.

"Okay… I will go. But… I don't really know you that well…" Jounouchi shrugged.

"Jounouchi, I really don't-" he interrupted his own sentence. What was he supposed to answer…?

"How about you talk to me about yourself a little bit?" Jounouchi said in a cheerful tone.

Pegasus stared at him, with his mouth left hanging open. He blinked fast, trying to understand what exactly the young duelist wanted… and trying to understand why hadn't he just… taken that step yet…?

"You know things about me…" Pegasus muttered.

"Not as much as I would like, no…" Jounouchi said, moving slightly closer.

He took a short breath. "What… do you want to know?" he said quietly.

Was Jounouchi trying to stop him from killing himself…? It didn't exactly seem that way…
But then again… what could he possibly be doing…?

"Small things… personal things… How do you take your coffee… what's your favorite movie…" he shrugged.

"I am standing here, ready to jump to my death… and you want me to talk about how I take my coffee…?!" Pegasus inquired loudly.

"If you fall… I will never have the chance to ever get to know you…" Jounouchi answered, resting his chin on his forearms who were still on the bridge rail.

"Why would you want to get to know me?!" Pegasus shouted, his hands gripping tightly the rail.

Jounouchi was silent for just a few moments. "My favorite color is green."

Pegasus stared at that strange, smiling face.

He certainly had never heard of a man stopping somebody from committing suicide… to get to know their favorite color.

"Red." he stated. "And for the record… I take my coffee with lots of sugar…"
"Oh, I get you." Jounouchi shook his head. "I'm a sucker for any sort of sugary treat."

Pegasus could barely believe he was having this conversation. "I… suppose I am, too."

"You also like cartoons, don't you?" Jounouchi said loudly.

The silver-haired man tilted his head slightly. "I am pretty sure you have witnessed yourself many times that… I do… I have a Toon deck… Remember?"

The younger male smiled and took his eyes from Pegasus, losing himself into the dark ocean once again. "I love cartoons. No matter what the theme… I mean, they make you smile… they defy life as we know it. Some of them have beautiful meanings…" he looked at Pegasus once again. "Cartoons are awesome."

"Jounouchi, what are you saying?" Pegasus whispered, searching for his answers in the dark, warm depths of the boy's eyes.

"I have no idea." he smiled softly. "I am literally blubbering."
"Why?"

"Because… I don't want you to jump…" he whispered. "I can't tell you that it's not worth it… because I don't know what got you here in the first place. I can't disregard your pain… I can't pretend I know how you feel."

Those tears again… Why couldn't he just hold them back?

"I can't tell you that the people that love you will miss you… You already know that. Besides… if I simply say that they will miss you… I won't do them any justice. They will be in terrible pain… They will lose somebody important…"

Kuro's face appeared in Pegasus's head. It was a miracle he had managed to get away from him tonight. How long was he gone…? What if Kuro was worried…? But if he stopped to think of Kuro, then…

"So… I will just tell you this…"

He looked at the boy through his tears.

"If you do this… you lose any chance to get better. You lose the chance to let people show you how much they care… You lose every small thing you used to enjoy. Your terribly sweet coffee, the cartoons that used to make your day… It's the small things that count, right?" he whispered.

"Nobody would really miss me…" Pegasus managed to mutter. "I… don't really have anybody to-"

"You have that bodyguard of yours, right? Kuro… was his name…?" Jounouchi responded fast.

"I do, but…"

"I will miss you, too!" he protested loudly.

"Jounouchi-boy… you barely know me… you couldn't possibly-"

"Then… give me the chance to get to know you. Give me the chance to know that if you leave me… I will miss you."

"That doesn't make any sense…" Pegasus mumbled.

"That's why it will work…" Jounouchi smiled.

He let his eyes travel inside the dark ocean. It somehow seemed more threatening now… The cold metal he was standing on was suddenly too narrow…

He hadn't realized that he could barely feel his frozen fingers… his feet were aching from standing completely still at the same spot and trying to maintain his balance.

"And if you fall… I'll jump after you…" he heard the blonde's voice again.
"Why?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that I will." he stated.

"I'm scared…" Pegasus whispered, shaking, lost in the macabre beauty of the sea.
"You're human."

"I'll fall…" he gasped.

"I won't let you. Turn around, very slowly… you'll see, you can do it. And I promise not to let you fall…"

His frozen limbs had a mind on their own. He was slowly turning around… Jounouchi was holding his arm. He found himself climbing the rail… and slipping.
As he promised, though… Jounouchi caught him.

The moment he managed to go over the rail, he simply collapsed on the boy, who held him tightly and pulled him on the other side of the bridge. They both sat down; Jounouchi was holding the shaking man in his arms.

It seemed like ages before Pegasus got the chance to speak. "Will you go?" a faint whisper escaped his lips.
"No." Jounouchi stated. "You owe me a cup of coffee… with lots of sugar…"

"I… suppose I could go for some chocolate… If I manage to get up… and we don't get run over" Pegasus muttered, a ghost smile appearing on his face, his eyes following a single red car that bypassed them.
"You're on…" the blonde whispered in his ear, holding him tightly.

He had promised he would catch him if he fell…
And that was exactly what he would do…