VII: The Room They Picked

The room they picked to desecrate his lover's remains is large enough for the show and uncomfortably sterile. Jounouchi can't quite bring himself to look at the corpse that had been Kaiba just a week previous. If he closes his eyes Jounouchi can hear Kaiba's laugh when they shared breakfast on the deck two weeks ago, can feel the press of Kaiba's hand against his back as they slept.

Jounouchi forces himself to honor Kaiba by looking at him. His stomach turns at the right of abraded and rigid knuckles, the curve of one shoulder, the broken line of Kaiba's nose... Jounouchi fights the urge to be sick once more. He wants to go home to the parlor where he had asked the newest butler to restock the bar.

Mokuba watches with his shoulders and spine straight. There's no sign of weakness in him at all. Detective Shintanda seems just as at ease. Jounouchi wants to know what's so wrong with them, that they can just watch as Kaiba is exposed.

Mokuba had picked his own doctor for the examination; the man examines the body from the top down. The detective had wanted to do an MRI to find the object, the Mobuka refused. ("Too many witnesses," Mokuba had insisted. "This remains between the fours of us until we know exactly what we're dealing with.")

"If they don't find anything..." Mokuba doesn't complete the thought as the doctor's examination follows the bath of Kaiba's uneven spine.

Jounouchi breathes deep and realizes that the smell is all cleaner and formaldehyde, Kaiba's scent lost from the world. He nearly weeps for the scent he had never appreciated enough.

"I'll resign," the detective says, all seriousness in his voice. "I'm sure whatever you could orchestrate would be worse."

Mokuba's face is like a mask. "Damn right."

The doctor's gloved hands move with an obvious attention to detail, all his focus on his task. He's an older man, one Jounouchi recognizes - the old family physician, from when Mokuba was much younger. Kaiba had never trusted his own health to the man, but he had always made sure Mokuba had good care. The doctor had understood how much more that was worth.

Jounouchi, after much deep breathing, looks into Kaiba's face. The features seem to be made a wax, a facsimile of Kaiba made by someone who had only met the man once. Jounouchi feels like he's lost Kaiba all over again.

"I've found something," the doctor says as he prods the area just over Kaiba's right hip.

Jounouchi looks away as the doctor grabs the scalpel, but looks back when Mokuba draws in a sharp breath.

The doctor holds up a small square of rubber the size of a thumbprint. The perfect size for a data card.

Jounouchi is too stunned to be angry. "Who would put that there?"

"Our intelligence indicates that Mr. Kaiba arranged to have it put there," Detective Shintanda says as the doctor cleans the pale rubber and sets it aside on a metal plate.

"He wouldn't - "

"Not for a second do I believe - "

Mokuba and Jounouchi stop and look at each other, clearly of one mind. Jounouchi looks at Kaiba again. The rage returns in a rush, and he storms out of the sterile room, from the secrets that Kaiba had kept, after all the years...!

"Jounouchi!"

He looks at Yuugi, sitting in the waiting room. Jounouchi's face burns. His knuckles pop with the force of his fists, and he feels the tension running from his ankles to his shoulders, winding and tightening. All he can think is, What life did he have without me - what secrets had he deemed so worthy, after he had promised that he was done with secrets?

Jounouchi is too old for dishonestly, though he almost feels young again as his fists connect with stone wall, once twice thrice. His knuckles are bleeding when security arrives to restrain him.

Yuugi tries to say something reassuring, his voice raised but still too quiet to be heard over the blood rushing in Jounouchi's ears.

There are no reassurances left. There are no answers.

#

That afternoon, unable to face Mokuba after his outburst, Jounouchi returns to the condo that he and Kaiba had called their home in Domino.

As the door closes he begins to regret the decision, all alone in the three-bedroom "love nest" that had once been so inviting and homey. Kaiba picked it because he wanted "something small enough that I can see it all."

Jounouchi had laughed when he first saw it, amazed at what Kaiba considered "small." He loved it all the same.

Now it feels like a mausoleum, or maybe a museum.

Jounouchi finds the refrigerator stocked, and a three-quarter full bottle of vodka in the freezer. He doesn't even remember when they bought it, but Jounouchi mixes it with a large glass of orange juice and retreats to his bedroom.

As he sips he remembers, with uncomfortable clarity, the singular break up of his early twenties.

[tbc]

Notes:
There's no good reason that this isn't done. Especially since VIII is literally one of my favorite parts.

I wrote the whole thing three years ago. I just kept putting it off, until it's years later. (Did I really start this when my son was nine months old? He's four and a half now, jesus.)

I'm making completing this my pre-nano project. I've already written it all, though I think I may want to change the ending. I'm rereading it now, so we'll see where it takes us. I also think I'll go back and fix parts of the first six parts, but that's a backburner task.

Sorry, y'all. Hope you're still willing to come out on a limb with me.