Yu-gi-oh

Disclaimer: I don’t own Yugioh, or the characters there in. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

To Serve and Protect

Chapter

Morning wasn’t a pleasant experience for either Joey or Seto. Joey groaned himself awake and woke Seto in the process. He lay in the bed and wondered if he could move.

Seto got out of bed and carefully helped Joey scoot up in the bed until he was propped against the head board. He stuffed pillows behind Joey until he was comfortable, or as comfortable as he could be in his condition.

“Here. Take these. Doctor Higa gave them to me last night.”

Joey groaned as he raised his arm to take the pills. He hurt all over, his cuts stung and he needed to piss and he was thirsty. He took stock of himself and vowed all over again ‘no more’, no more fighting in the arena. He’d had it. This bare knuckle, all out, kill or be killed style was too hard on a body.

After swallowing the pills Joey let his arms drop to the covers with a soft plop. “Seto I gotta go, bad. I don’t think I can make it to the bathroom without help.”

Seto stroked Joey’s bangs out of his eyes and patted his shoulder. “Ok, here. Take it easy and let me do most of the work. If I can’t manage by my self is it ok for me to call Yukari.”

Joey nodded then got out of the bed by the simple expedient of rolling off the edge and letting Seto catch him. When he stood up he groaned softly, this wasn’t going to be pleasant.

With Seto’s help he got to the bathroom and took care of his most pressing need. When Seto leaned over his shoulder to flush Joey stopped him. He had been leaning against Seto’s chest with his head on his shoulder; Seto’s arm around his waist kept his knees from collapsing.

Joey levered his head off Seto’s shoulder. He examined the contents of the toilet. They were thankfully dark yellow.

“Umm . . . Joey? What’s so interesting about . . . pee? I mean . . . oh, hell.”

Seto waited while Joey managed to get himself sat on the little stool that was common in most Japanese bathrooms.

“It’s yellow, kinda dark, but not too bad.” At Seto’s blank look Joey explained that very dark brown was bad, reddish was even worse. “It’s a sign of blood in the urine. That’s bad. It means that I’ve got kidney damage or something else bad wrong.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I . . . wasn’t . . . “

“Shut up. Don’t apologize for not knowing that kind of thing. You shouldn’t have to deal with this at all. I’m so gonna kill some people. Seto, can you help me back to bed? I don’t think I can stay upright much longer. Call Yukari if you need to.”

“I think I can manage, unless I’m hurting you. What do you want to do?”

Joey groaned. “Seto, what ever. I just need to . . . damn.”

Seto pushed the call button and caught Joey as he slid off the stool, muscles twitching in spasmodic cramps.

“Joey, oh, god. What do I do? Joey, can you talk to me? Tell me what to do.”

Joey had all he could do to breathe, he gasped and coughed, sucking desperately for air that his cramping muscles denied him. Seto scooped him up into his lap and held him, rocking him gently. He stroked Joey’s back trying to comfort him; terrified that he was dying on him.

Roland hurried in followed by Yukari.

“Mr. Kaiba, Sir. You rang for help? What’s . . . oh, shit.” Roland knew exactly what was wrong the instant he saw Joey. “Cramps. Damnit!” Roland sighed. “Well, let’s get him back to bed . . . Don’t worry, sir. He’s not going to pass on. It’s just cramps.”

Seto gave Roland a furious look “Just cramps. This is not just. .”

“Yes, Sir. I . . . well, he’s going to be fine. Painful in the extreme but not fatal. Come. Let us take him.”

Seto relinquished Joey’s still quivering body to Roland and Yukari who carefully carried him back to bed. They settled him on the bed and Seto tucked him back in then settled himself beside him to wait out the storm.

When the cramps released their hold on him Joey went limp. He hated it when that happened. It was all he could do to breathe much less take care of anything else. He was just thankful that he’d made it to the bathroom before they started.

“Joey. Lover. Damnit, talk to me. What do you need? Anything. No matter what it is.”

Joey sighed. “I’m ok. I’m sorry I scared you. It might happen again. I hope not but you never know. Depends on how much fatigue acids are in my muscles. Just hold me for a while. I’m so tired. I’d go back to sleep but I hurt too much. Those pills didn’t help much. What were they?”

“Doctor Higa told me to give them to you the minute you woke up. He said they were muscle relaxants. They were supposed to make you feel better.”

Joey grimaced. He hated those things as they usually made the cramps worse. “Shit. I’m gonna ask more questions. I need pain pills not muscle relaxants. What you got in the medicine chest. Go see will you?”

“Sure, I’ll be right back. What did you do . . . I mean . . .” Seto’s voice trailed away as he went back into the bathroom for the requested pain killer. He came back with another glass of water and several bottles of assorted analgesics.

“Here. I don’t know exactly what you want. Roland made himself scarce and Yukari did too. I’m going to have some words for both of them in a few minutes.” Seto watched horrified as Joey struggled to lift his arm enough to take the proffered containers. “Let me.” Seto read off the names of the various drugs and Joey named one in a soft voice. It was the strongest one Seto had. He’d gotten it for migraine headaches but hadn’t liked it because it nearly knocked him out. In this case he decided that wasn’t such a bad thing. He gave Joey two and held the glass as he managed to swallow the capsules.

“Gah. Damn . . . could they make the damn things any bigger? They feel like footballs.” Joey settled back against the pillows again. “Thanks. Seto, you don’t have to nurse me. I can take care of myself. It’s . . . Mmmmmff?” Seto kissed Joey to shut him up.

“I asked you a question. Who took care of you before . . . you know . . . umm.” Seto trailed off. Sometimes he realized that he didn’t want the answer after he’d started asking a question

“Me. I mean I took care of myself. I’d call the pharmacy and have medication delivered.”

Seto sighed, he’d started this and he’d finish, but he really didn’t want the answer to the next question.

“How did you go. . .you know.”

“I crawled. If I could. If not . . . well . . . “Joey flushed bright red. “I managed.”

Seto ground his teeth in fury. Joey was . . . he was everything to Seto. He couldn’t imagine treating anyone the way Joey had been treated. He rummaged on the dresser for his phone and made a few calls.

A knock on the door was a gratefully accepted distraction. Yukari entered with a tray of food. Small servings of different things, oatmeal, oranges, apples and bananas mixed with a dressing of yoghurt and honey. Bacon, eggs, toast, coffee, juice, milk. It seemed that Sakura had sent up some of almost everything in the kitchen.

Joey eyed the tray hungrily but snarled. “Take it away. I don’t want anything.”

Seto caught the look and wondered, Joey was always hungry.

“What’s wrong? The fish last night couldn’t have been bad. You’re always hungry.”

Joey flushed even redder than last time, if that was possible. “I can’t lift my arms. It hurts too much. I can’t feed myself . . . you gonna do it?” Joey couldn’t help sounding sullen.

“Yes, Mr. Sulky Butt. I’ll feed you. Here.” Seto poured cream on the oatmeal and sprinkled on cinnamon and brown sugar. He placed the bowl in Joey’s lap where he could steady it. Then he knelt on the bed facing Joey and dipped up a spoonful, Joey opened his mouth and accepted the proffered spoon.

Seto feed him oatmeal alternating with the fruit. Then he fed him the eggs and toast, spreading the scrambled eggs on the toast. The bacon followed in short order, but Joey refused the juice and amazingly the coffee. He gulped the milk thirstily and asked for green tea, but he fell back asleep before the tea came.

Seto settled in the small sitting area in the bedroom and started on paper work. He wasn’t about to shirk his responsibilities to Kaiba Corp.

He’d managed to cut the amount of work he had to about four hours a day. With Mis Ayami’s aid his work load was less than half of what it had been. She sent quite a bit of work back to the originators, telling them that they needed to make their own decisions or find a job that was more to their taste; supervision wise. The work he now did was work that only he could do. And he did it with quick, ruthless efficiency.

Seto kept an ear on Joey while he worked, but all he heard was an occasional snore or whimper. He was really worried. Joey had put way too much strain on his system for way too long. He wasn’t sure how much more Joey could take before something drastic happened. Seto vowed that Joey wasn’t going to have to last much longer. He was going to find that bastard Letter Man if he had to tear Kaiba Corp. apart with his bare hands. He settled down and thought. There wasn’t any pattern he could find. They needed a pattern, there had to be one, they just weren’t seeing it. Maybe Yugi could find something for them. He hoped so.

His phone rang, or rather vibrated. He had it on silent so it wouldn’t wake Joey. He stood up and quietly opened the doors onto the walkway, stepping out he answered the phone.

“Moshi, Moshi. Kaiba.”

He listened for a few moments. Then told Torrance. “I don’t remember authorizing any such thing. You’re living there full time now so that I don’t have to call you when I need you. It’s more your home than mine. Do as you like. If you don’t want them there tell them I said to leave. . . . oh, Torrance? Yes. Snip stills off the security cameras and send them to me.”

Seto hung up the phone. He didn’t remember authorizing a cleaning crew to do a ‘spring cleaning’ Torrance took care of getting a crew in whenever he felt it was needed. They’d changed arrangements when Joey tightened up security. He tapped the phone against his chin wondering.

Joey gave a quavering cry then settled back in the bed groaning. Seto stuffed the phone into his pocket and hurried to Joey’s side. He was trying to get up again and not having much luck, his stiff muscles protested the slightest move.

“What do you want? Just tell me and I’ll get it for you. Lay down.” Seto pressed Joey back in the bed and smoothed his bangs out of his eyes again. “You need a trim. Tell me what you want.”

Joey grimaced in pain. He was so stiff that any movement was painful. “I need to get up and move around a little. I need the loo again. And I want some more juice. Let me sit up.”

Joey sat, then got up carefully and headed for the bathroom leaning on Seto. They took it easy and Joey managed his business without support. He eyed the shower longingly but when Seto said “get that idea right out of your head. I know you want a shower but last night proved that you shouldn’t. I want to look at those cuts. You should have had stitches in one. Sit on the stool and let me go over you.”

Joey obediently sat. As Seto continued to grumble about stitches. He finally snapped. “Seto shut up. If I needed stitches, the cut man would have sewn me up. He put butterflies on it then sealed it with pseudo skin. I’m fine.”

Seto didn’t want to shut up but he realized that Joey was in no mood for fussing. He grumbled a little, but he quit picking at Joey. The bruises on his face and body, and the cuts; in fact, his condition in general, told Seto that he didn’t need the aggravation so he just tended the bruises, patting a soothing lotion on them and dusting the cuts with some antiseptic powder. He decided that the deepest cut should be redressed so he applied the bandage without further comment. Then he got Joey back in bed, gave him some juice and settled back in the bedside chair.

“Seto?”

“Humm”

“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

Seto smiled gently at Joey. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have bothered you. I hired the best in the country. I shouldn’t have been second guessing him. It’s just that I love you and want . . . I . . . fuck”

Seto just crawled into the bed with Joey and wrapped his arms around him.

“I’m not doing this again. No more fighting. Not unless it’s self-defence. You hear me?”

“Loud and clear. No more. Thank you . . . Seto? What did Torrance want?”

“I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t.” Joey nuzzled his nose into the curve of Seto’s neck. “I was just laying there hurting and wondering if I should get up.”

“Malevolent.” Joey snickered. “If you’re hurting you should ask for some more pills.”

“Don’t want them if I can do without. Tell.”

So Seto gave Joey a quick run down of what Torrance had told him. Joey made a face. There was something there, but what?

“If Torrance is there, why would any of the maintenance crew think they were needed to clean. Did they say why?”

“He said that the crew head said that they had been cleaning once a month for several months. Until you tightened up security. I’ve never noticed anything missing, so theft can’t be the reason. It’s odd. Probably just want to be able to say they clean for me personally.”

Joey made a face. When Seto asked him if he wanted a pain pill he absently shook his head. He chewed his lip and grumbled to himself. Seto watched him for a moment then went back to his paperwork. After about ten minutes Joey asked Seto to get him the names and id numbers of everyone on that crew. When Seto asked why, Joey admitted that he was working on ‘an itch in my head.’

Joey curled up in the bed and tried to relax his abused muscles. He didn’t realize that he was absently digging at his ankle. He dozed off again and only woke up to be fed lunch by Seto.

Lunch went much as breakfast had. Joey tried to feed himself but he couldn’t even hold a fork with his knuckles swollen as they were. It felt so good to just let go and allow someone else to make decisions for a while. He watched Seto through slitted eyes as he settled down at his lap top to type out something that had him sighing and squirming.

~ * ~

Joey spent the rest of the day recovering, after his initial stiffness he started loosening up as the stacked pain pills took effect. He moved around more that after noon insisting on getting up every thirty minutes or so and walking around, first with Seto’s help, then alone.

Seto patiently nursed Joey, helping him up and down, steadying him as he walked, and worrying.

Joey lay in the bed or sat in a chair

Finally Seto gave him a game saying, “Here, play this. It’ll keep you from grumbling every two seconds. You’re distracting me.”

Joey took the game and snorted. “It’s awful. I hate it.”

“It’s one of mine. Or, rather, Kaiba Corp.s’ what’s wrong with it?”

“You ever play it.”

“When do I have time for that?” Seto leaned over Joeys’ shoulder to look at the game. The graphics were good.

Joey explained that it took forever to play to high enough levels to actually get a decent deck.

“Well how else would you do it?”

Joey tossed the game onto the table and yawned. “It’s just boring, unless you’re a complete beginner.”

Seto laughed. “Well, if it’s so bad why don’t you write a better one?”

Joey pointed to his lap top. “I did. It’s there. File marked ‘doesn’t suck.’ There’s no graphics, but you can play it.”

Seto eyed the computer then gave in to his curiosity. He looked the game over and realized that it was really good.

“Graphics suck.”

“So? I don’t do graphics.”

Seto smiled, the game was really good. He liked the play but he didn’t understand some things.

“You have all the cards available right from the start? How do you keep them from building a kill-crush-destroy deck and going around whipping up on all the low level players? “

“Built your deck didn’t you? Go try to play that green haired guy.”

Seto did so, clicking on the icon that was all the graphics there were. He was instructed to pick a different opponent or rebuild his deck.

“Well, I never thought of that.”

Joey smirked. “I program good, I just don’t do graphics.”

“This is really good.”

“You want it? You can have it.”

Seto nearly fell out of his chair. Joey was going to just hand him this game? He thought for a moment, then decided.

“Ok, thanks. I’ll send it to the graphics people and get them started.”

“Why? The graphics on this game are really good. You should use them. Keep all the games the same. Kind of like a trade mark. The cards look the same in all Kaiba Corp. games. Malevolent Nuzzler looks like Malevolent Nuzzler, no matter who wrote the game. You ought to copyright the graphics.

“I did. And you’re right. That’s a good idea and a real money saver.”

Seto sent the program to the appropriate people with instructions to clean up the program, and get the graphics package up and running. He projected a release date of three months from that date.

While he was taking care of that business, Joey was heading back to bed again. The time he’d spend up had worn him out. Seto followed to tuck him in and caught him making a face and rubbing his chest.

“What? You ok?”

“Yeah, just a pain. It’ll go away in a minute. I get them after a fight. Wake me up for supper.”

Seto smoothed the covers over Joey’s shoulder and tucked an errant lock of hair back behind his ear.

“Ok. You want to eat here or out on the ‘widows’ walk’?”

Joey snuggled down into the bed. “Let’s wait until I wake up. Depends on how I feel.”

Seto let Joey sleep himself out while he finished the paper work. Then he logged on the Net and started in on his personal e mail. He found the analysis Yugi had done for him, but Yugi admitted that he couldn’t see any pattern. He made several suggestions for further analysis and ended telling Seto to send him the requested data and he’d try again after he got back from America.

He told Seto that he was taking Tristan and Serenity to America on tour with him. Mai was also going, they would be out of the country for at least eight weeks, maybe more. Seto sighed, Joey would miss them, he, Seto realized, would miss them too.

He decided to call Mokuba just to talk for a while. He regretted it the instant he told Mokuba about the fight. By the time Mokuba was done chewing him out, he felt ragged. In more ways than one.

Mokuba was trying to get Joey reinstated and with the commissioner right there, the chances had gone from good to slim. He wasn’t best pleased and let Seto know it.

Seto replied that he didn’t see Joey going back anyway. The betrayal was too great. Joey felt abandoned by the department. Mokuba’s reply left Seto in no doubt that Mo’ was grown up.

After a little more conversation Seto snapped his phone closed and walked over to the bed to check on Joey again. He was still sleeping so Seto slid into the bed beside him and dozed off himself.

When they both woke up, it was dusk and Yukari was calling them softly from the walk. He’d already brought up supper. It was cold foods; rice balls, fruit, smoked sardines and sweet cakes. He’d also brought up tea, of course.

Joey got up stretching cautiously and found Seto putting an arm around his shoulders, he didn’t need it but he didn’t complain. It was nice and he had no intention of spurning help. Especially when it was offered by Seto.

They seated themselves at the table and Joey picked up his chopsticks, he fumbled for a moment then cursed. Seto watched as he grappled with them for a few more seconds then snarled, “Damnit, my hands are so sore I can’t manage. I hate eating with my fingers. Shit!”

Seto, who found eating with his fingers not acceptable, scooted his chair next to Joey’s and reached out to pick up a sliver of melon. He offered it to Joey who opened his mouth and took the offered fruit delicately between even white teeth. He ate the tidbit then accepted a bit of fish; finding the contrast of salty, smoky fish with the sweet melon to be interesting. “Good. Strawberry?” Seto offered the requested fruit but when Joey tried to take it off the chopsticks Seto withdrew the berry. Joey followed the path of the morsel until he found himself biting into the strawberry and nose to nose with Seto. He didn’t draw back instead he pressed his lips to Seto’s around the berry.

They wound up clearing the table. Seto alternately fed himself then Joey, occasionally placing the bits between his teeth to earn another kiss. Joey let Seto know how much he appreciated this, his soft sighs and low moans were erotic enough that it was all Seto could do not to jump him. This wouldn’t have done either one of them much good as Joey was still sore enough that it would have been an exercise in futility for both of them.

“Humm. Rice ball? I like the shrimp paste ones best. You gonna feed it to me or just look at me like a sex fiend.”

“How ‘bout both? And I’m not a fiend. Or I would have crawled all over you by now.”

Joey bit into the ball and grinned around the bite. “Doctor Higa said I should talk to you. Now is as good a time as any. You said you were going to write stuff down. Ok. Where is it?”

Seto ate the other half of the rice ball and ambled, still chewing, into the room to pick up several pages of printout. He brought them back to Joey and handed them to him.

He spent the next few minutes studiously examining the remains of food on the table, his chopsticks and the bottom of his tea cup.

When Joey finished he was slightly taken aback and very surprised. “Well if that doesn’t take the rag offn’ the bush, as the maid said to the man.” Seto swallowed convulsively. “I don’t see a problem. I think you do but what it is I can’t figure out. So talk to me. Come on.”

Seto mumbled something that Joey didn’t understand. He gently lifted Seto’s chin with a gentile hand. Seto licked his lips and sighed. “Now you’re disgusted with me. I’ve lost you. . . I’m sorry I’m. Mmmmmm.”

Joey carefully pressed his lips to Seto’s. He spent a while convincing Seto that he wasn’t disgusted at all. Then he settled the problem simply. He confessed.

“You know I told you I have my own kinks. I told you . . . I can’t take it. There’s something . . . not wrong . . . but . . . well, I can’t stand to be penetrated. It’s not a prejudice. It’s physical. It hurts. I don’t like it much. So . . . I think we fit fairly well. There’s lots of things we can do that we both like.”

Seto went nearly limp with relief. “You’re sure? I . . . ah . . . you don’t. I do. I .. . you. Aw shit, if we flounder around too much more I’m gonna lose my mind. Why can’t we . . . you . . . ”

Joey nearly hurt himself he laughed so hard. Seto looked shocked for a second, then started to laugh too. Here they were, two fairly mature adult males stammering and stuttering like kids.

Joey wiped his eyes with a napkin and shook his bangs out of his eyes. “Look. Why don’t we just go along and see what happens? If you do something I don’t like I’ll just say so, and you do the same. I promise not to be mad if you only do it once. You ask, I’ll answer. You do the same. Ok?”

“Sure. God, Joey, I was so afraid you’d think I’m some kind of pervert.”

Joey smirked at Seto. “I don’t think you’re a pervert, I’m sure of it. But then I’m a pervert too. So what? Safe, sane and consensual. You don’t like it, I don’t do it, and visa a versa. We’re both grown up and what we do behind closed doors is no one’s business but ours.”

Seto snickered as he poured some tea.

They spent the rest of the evening drinking tea and discussing things. Lots of things. The discussion ranged from Joey’s police training and his hopes for his future to Seto’s favorite ice cream (black a cherry almond crunch).

~ * ~

“Seto I’m going to the firing range after my exercise routine. I’ve got to spend sometime there or I’m going to be off.“

Seto nodded absently, he had a new flurry of data from the trace program on the Letter Mans emails. They hadn’t eased off, nor changed in content. They were still vaguely threatening and insisted that Seto should stay in Kaiba Towers. All sorts of disasters were hinted at unless he stayed where he ‘should be’. He was so sick of this mess that it was all he could do not to smash the monitor just from sheer temper.

Joey kissed the top of his head and admonished him not to work too hard then went off to the dojo.

Seto would have been surprised to see Joey work out. He spent a few minutes just walking around the perimeter of the room bouncing on his toes from time to time. After this somewhat odd procedure he spent the next half hour doing ti chi, working his way through a full long set. Then he turned to yoga, slowly stretching through a sun salutation and into a long series of steadily more difficult assanas until he finally settled into corpse pose to relax for ten minutes, allowing his mind to wander through his consciousness, evaluating his ‘self’.

All in all, he felt well enough. Over the last few days the soreness had faded to a distant twinge once in a while. He was in much better shape than he thought he’d be. Bare knuckle brawling was a lot different from boxing, he hadn’t realized what a difference gloves made until he fought without them.

He showered then headed for the firing range. Kishimoto-san handed him his Berettas and then a long gun. Joey looked it over and smiled. It was a very nice target model pellet rifle. The small caliber made it easy to handle which Kishimoto-san felt would help Seto gain confidence.

“This is nice. I’ll take it over and give it a try. You could be right. Seto is real flinchy. I wonder if the kick . . . he had some nasty things happen to him early on. I’d so like to get my hands on Gozaburo. Too bad he’s dead.”

Joey took the .177 on first. He found that it was a cartridge style, fired by compressed CO2. It was also adjustable, the charge could be set from 1 to 10. The higher the number the more power behind the pellet. Joey set it on ten to see how it handled. It was almost as powerful as a .22 it had a nice flat trajectory and a solid feel.

It was also hot, with a light trigger and a squirrely safety. The clip held ten shots but it didn’t look much like a clip it was just a rather plain and funny looking plastic strip with holes in it for the pellets.

Joey worked with the rifle for a while then turned to his Berettas. He didn’t hear Seto come in through his ear muffs so when the pellet hit him in the shoulder he nearly shot him. He froze, then completely lost his temper.

“God damnit. Seto, what the fuck do you think you’re doing? You know no one is supposed to touch a weapon they’re not checked out on. You just shot me and I nearly . . . go back to the house. NOW! DO NOT STAND THERE GAPING AT ME LIKE A CARP!” Joey was so scared and furious that by the time he was finished he was shouting.

Seto took one look at Joey and headed for the donjon at a dead run.

Joey handed his kit to the nearest man and told him to take it back to check out. The man took one look at Joey and just nodded.

Joey followed Seto more slowly, he was pissed and showed it. No one was supposed to touch a weapon until they were checked out on it and Seto knew it. Joey chewed over several ideas, then recalling some of the things Seto had written, he made a decision. Depending on how Seto acted he was going to do one of two things.

When he reached the ed room Seto was standing in the middle of the room wide eyed.

“Seto, come here.“

Seto sidled up to Joey head hanging. He was in deep and he knew it.

“Seto, you know you weren’t supposed to touch that.”

“What difference does it make? It’s only a BB gun.“ Seto knew he sounded childishly sullen.

“It’s not a BB gun.“ Joey knew which way he was going to have to go. He sighed. “Seto you don’t pay attention. I know I told you about pellet rifles. So . . . Here’s the deal. You broke it, you fix it. Then you decide on your punishment. Any questions?”

Seto jerked his head up and stared at Joey for a second. “What? What are you talking about? Broke what.”

Joey turned his back to Seto, letting him see the blood on his back for the first time. He was really getting tired of bleeding.

“Oh shit. Joey . . . it’s all . . . what happened?”

“You happened. You shot me. That BB gun is a pellet rifle. You didn’t pay attention last time, so here it comes again. The difference between a pellet rifle and a .22 is only . . . Do the math yourself. Now.” Joey was coldly furious and Seto knew it.

Seto blinked “Ok let me see . . . add a zero to .22 to make it .220 and subtract .177 that’s .044 short of a . . . that’s not much. Joey, you need something done with that now. I’ll call . . . “

“You’ll do it yourself. Call Roland if you want, but you’re fixing what you broke.”

Just then Roland slammed in the door swearing.

“Mr. Kaiba what happened. All I heard was that Joey had an accident and yelled at you. . . son of a bitch. Who was . . . Kaiba Seto. You didn’t. . . you couldn’t have. Tell me he didn’t . . . ”

Joey solemnly shook his head. Roland eyed the bloody shoulder with disgust. This was the first time Seto had disappointed him and he said so.

“Well, let’s get you cleaned up and asses the damage. Come on.”

Joey followed Roland into the bathroom with Seto trailing behind. When Roland started to help Joey off with his shirt Joey told him that Seto was going to do the job.

Roland looked from a slightly green Seto to a stoney faced Joey and took the cowards way out. He didn’t argue.

Joey told Roland what he wanted, Roland just nodded. When he finished getting Joey out of his shirt, he examined the wound and told Seto to wet a wash cloth and wipe off the blood. Seto didn’t argue with either Joey or Roland. He understood that he’d really screwed up this time. He wasn’t careless with guns, he just didn’t have any sense of a point. He was never sure exactly where the muzzle was pointed.

Seto wiped the blood off the wound and eyed it carefully. His stomach was rolling and he wasn’t sure he was going to make it. Joey snarled “Don’t you dare. I don’t care if you choke.” Roland handed him a pair of forceps and explained how to pull the pellet out of Joey’s back. Seto pressed a finger on either side of the hole and the pellet rim appeared just above the edge. Seto clenched his teeth and managed to get hold of the skirt with the tips of the jaws. He pulled slowly and the pellet came out of Joey grudgingly. Roland handed Seto styptic powder to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wound.

Seto finished dressing the puncture and dismissed Roland, who started to say something, then looked at Joey nodded and left.

Joey took Seto by the hand and led him into the bedroom. He sat on the bed and stood Seto in front of him.

“Seto, you do realize that you could have killed me. Don’t you?“

Seto opened his mouth, then shut it. Taking a deep breath he started to bluster. “It’s only a BB gun. I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. But it’s not as if it’s a real gun. I . . “

“Seto shut up before I loose my temper. I don’t want to do that. Listen to me. Gun safety is not a game. The power behind that pellet is enough to kill small game. That’s what they were invented for. Assassins in WWI used them. Think. That has a muzzle velocity of 420fps, a .22 has 610fps. What if you had shot me in the eye or the temple.

“I’ll tell you what. I’d either be blind in one eye or dead. You’re too smart to act so . . . stubbornly stupid. I don’t understand why you can be so good with a knife and so bad with a gun.”

Seto sullenly mumbled something.

“What? . . . I didn’t hear that.”

“I said I’m sorry.” Seto turned sorrowful azurine eyes to Joey’s copper penny ones. “I really am. I don’t know why, but I just . . . I’m . . . damnit. I don’t know why I’m having so much trouble with guns. I shouldn’t be. I’m not really stupid. Joey’s I’m sorry. Really.”

Joey just looked at Seto. He didn’t understand his attitude at all but he was determined to make an impression on Seto. Explaining hadn’t made a dent.

“You’re going to punish me, aren’t you?”

“Yes. You can either take it like a man, or refuse. I’ll be very disappointed in you if you do.”

Seto bit his lip and looked at Joey. “You won’t . . . leave . . . I . . . please?”

“No, Seto I won’t ever leave you. This . . . I just . . . either yes or no. If you say no, that’s all. But if you say no, you’ll never touch another gun as long as I’m around. I mean it.”

“Ok. What do you want me to do? I’ll do anything you want, just don’t be mad at me anymore. Just . . . don’t make me chose. I hate that. You chose. Please?”

Joey sat down on the bed and motioned for Seto to stand in front of him. Seto hesitantly moved to stand at Joey’s knees like a penitent child.

“Take off your clothes and fold them. Put them on the bench there. Then come back to me.”

Seto obeyed, not hurrying over much but not dragging it out either. He returned to Joey naked and red faced. Joey settled himself more comfortably and motioned for Seto to lay across his lap.

Seto crawled onto the bed. He stretched out, trying to brace himself so he wouldn’t slide off. Joey scooted back a little and dragged Seto into position.

The first smack reverberated around the room. Seto instinctively stuck his hand behind him. Joey took him by the wrist and held his hand, he rearranged Seto so that his left hand was trapped under him and pressed his elbow between his shoulder blades.

The next swat made Seto flinch. Joey wasn’t playing around, this was going to really hurt.

“Seto, I’m going to give you twenty swats. If you kick around, I’m going to add five. Keep your hand under you. I don’t want to hit it. That’s not good. Pay attention and count, at twenty, if you’ve held still it’s all over. But I mean no kicking. If you slide off the bed, you could get hurt.”

Neither realized the irony of that statement.

Seto just nodded as best he could and waited for the other eighteen swats. He wondered why Joey wanted him to count, but he would obey. Joey smacked Seto again and, alternating sides, delivered the required swats with quick efficiency. Seto didn’t kick so it was over at eighteen.

Joey sat Seto up and sighed, his face was tear streaked and red.

“Seto I’m sorry. I won’t say that hurt me more than it did you. I will say I didn’t like doing it. But you really left me no other choice. I can’t understand why. But I’ll tell you this. You’re going to drill until I can trust you to handle guns. If I didn’t know better I’d think you were just pushing me to see if I’d really do it or not.”

Joey went still eyeing Seto and wondering if that wasn’t exactly what he’d done. Perhaps he didn’t even realize what he was doing.

Seto blinked at Joey for a second, then just shrugged. “You know what I like. I . . . maybe I did do it on purpose, subconsciously. I . . . “ Seto rubbed tears off his cheeks and sighed. “I’m so pathetic. Joey, you sure you want to fool around with me?”

Joey smirked at Seto. “That is one of the stupidest things you’ve ever said. Do I want to fool around with you? Give me a break.”

Seto snickered. Then his face fell and he started to sob. Joey just gathered him into his arms and held him. He stroked his shoulders and rubbed his back. When he finally got himself together Joey handed him a handkerchief and waited as he wiped his eyes and blew his nose.

“Seto, you together?“ Seto nodded and sighed “Out in the open, no holds bared. In the boardroom you’re the boss, in the bedroom I am. Yes? “ Seto looked Joey square in the eye, then kissed him, putting all his love and passion into that meeting of lips and tongue.

“Mmmm, yeah. Seto . . . I. God, I love you so much. I’ll never do you any harm. I swear it. You can trust me. More.”

Seto gave him more. In fact they spent several minutes reassuring each other that their love was undiminished. But when Seto reached for Joey’s fly he gently stopped him.

“No comfort sex. I’m not making love to you like it’s a reward for smacking you. It feels . . . weird.“

“Ok, but . . . I like it, you know?”

Joey kissed Seto again. “There’s a difference that I can’t explain. If you want . . .” Seto put a finger on Joey’s lips

“I do understand. Fine . . .. I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”

Joey rolled his eyes

Seto gathered up his clothes and started dressing. As he pulled his boxers up he gave a slight hiss. His buttocks ached and burned, unpleasantly. He wondered at that, then shrugged and finished dressing.

When they entered the kitchen, Roland was there drinking coffee. Joey flopped down on a chair and blatantly snitched Roland’s coffee right out of his hand. Roland laughed and got up to pour himself some more. Seto sat gingerly in his chair, wincing slightly as his abused posterior protested the hard chair. Sakura just put an omelet in front of Joey and another in front of Seto. Roland smirked and left the room returning almost immediately with a donut cushion which he handed to Seto without comment.

“Roland, I want the firing range cleared this afternoon. I’m drilling Seto. He’s going to learn or I’m going to wear him out.”

Seto blinked at Joey not understanding what he was talking about.

Roland eyed Joey for a second, then shrugged. “You think it’ll work?”

“Worked on us didn’t it. You were specials until you retired, weren’t you?

“Yeah.“ Roland contemplated Joey for a second. ”You trained at the academy? Who was your officer?”

Joey grimaced “Old Man Kimura. Bastard had us drilling in our sleep. And I had high school classes the next day. Thought I’d die. But I don’t make mistakes and neither do you. So neither does Seto or he never touches a gun again. I won’t have that happening with a larger caliber.”

Rolland groaned in sympathy, he’d heard about Kimura. He was well respected, but he was merciless. He’d wash out at least half his classes. Some would quit, some wouldn’t live up to his demanding requirements.

“Where did you place in the ranks.”

“I was number one. He even told me he wouldn’t mind me at his back. I nearly fell over . . . shock and exhaustion will do that.”

Roland goggled at Joey. Kimura wouldn’t let anyone behind him with a weapon of any kind. The complement was huge.

Seto interrupted. “Drill? What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to drill you into the ground. I’ve been taking it easy on you because I figured you wouldn’t make it. But if you want to handle guns, you’ll go through the same training Roland and I did or you’ll never touch a gun again.“ Seto rolled his eyes, that was about the third time Joey had said that. “Don’t roll your eyes at me Kaiba Seto. I mean business. Think. . . what if that had been a different rifle? Say a .223 or worse a .30-.30. I’d be in a world of hurt, or dead. Think dead . . . dead . . . no more Joey. Get it through your head . . . this is serious. That . . . “

Seto clamped his hands over his ears “Joey, enough . . . no more . . . stop it. I get the picture. I . . . Whatever you want. This comes under the heading of bed not board. Please.”

Joey pulled Seto into his arms for a hug. “Ok I’m done, but some how you don’t seem to . . . Seto, you cover up too much. I’m never sure if you take things to heart or not. “

Seto nodded. “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

Joey groaned. “No old movie references, especially one’s I don’t get.”

“I need to . . . I’m not sure how to put it. “

“Seto, I can usually read you as well as you read me. So you’re hiding things from me and I don’t like it. Stop it.”

“Ok I’m sorry. “Seto made a face. He’d apologized more in the last two hours than he had in years.

They finished lunch and Joey chivied Seto back to the range

~ * ~

Joey picked out a .9mm Taurus and a smaller .32 Colt snub nose ‘bulldog’. He told Kishimoto to mark them as Seto’s and never issue them to anyone else. Kishimoto-san just did as he was told engraving Seto’s initials on the back strap.

Then Joey opened the gate into the shop and sat Seto down at a bench. He gave him a thousand dummy loads and set him to loading clips. He watched as Seto fumbled around with the shells.

“Here, give me that. I swear I showed you this a least twice. Now watch.”

Joey slid shells into the clip easily. Seto watched closely. Then wondered why he had to learn to do it. “Kishimoto-san will do it for me. So . . .” SMACK “ow. What’d you do that for?”

“Seto, you’re going to get a smack every time you say something that stupid. You going to put the man in your pocket and drag him out to load clips for you? I don’ think so. You learn to do it yourself, then you know it’s done right. Load.”

So Seto loaded clips. And loaded clips and loaded clips. Until his fingers were sore. Then he loaded some more. Until there were sixty-six clips and ten rounds left over. He looked over the clips in the ammo tray and sighed. Joey started stripping the rounds out of the clips, showing Seto how it was done. Then he told Seto to strip the clips. Seto stripped clips until he thought he’d blank out.

“Re load” Seto took one look at Joey’s face and started loading again. They spent the entire afternoon loading and stripping clips. Or Seto did. Joey spent the time nit picking every motion. Seto finally groaned. “Joey, please. I feel like I’m on auto pilot. I could do this blind folded.”

“Ok.”

“Huh?”

Joey produced a bandana and handed it to Seto. Seto didn’t pretend he didn’t know what it was for, he just blind folded Joey and watched as he took a clip and loaded it without a single fumble. He pulled off the blindfold

“Now you.”

Seto allowed himself to be blindfolded and patted around for a clip. The required items were pushed into his hands and he managed to do the job without dropping anything. It wasn’t as smooth as Joey, but he got the job done.

“Not bad.” Joey pulled the cloth off Seto’s eyes and gave him and intense kiss as a reward.

“Again.”

Seto moaned, but started loading clips again.

At midnight Joey tested Seto again. This time he accomplished the task to Joey’s satisfaction.

“Ok, let’s go to bed. I’m pooped. Tomorrow you’ll learn to disassemble and assemble the Taurus. From now on you’ll clean your own weapons, until I’m satisfied you can do it in your sleep. Come on.”

True to his word, the next day they had breakfast and headed to the range.

Joey took an old .45 from a rack.

“Um m m. Mr. Wheeler. That’s just an old junker I keep around.”

“I know. But it’s identical to the Taurus. By the time I get through with Seto he’d have the .9mm ruined. This one, it doesn’t make a difference.”

“You’re drilling him on assembly, right?”

“Yeah. And drilling until he not only gets it right, but can do it in the dark.”

Seto flexed aching fingers and sighed. He had expected something, but not this relentless drilling. He wasn’t about to protest, he valued Joey’s good opinion too much and he didn’t want to make another mistake

“Ok, here. Watch. You get one chance, then I’m taking every mistake out of your hide. This is too important to mess around with.”

Joey took his time, so Seto could see exactly what he was doing. Then Seto copied him. He did well, not making any mistakes, but he fumbled a lot.

“Ok, not bad. Now . . . do it one hundred times. Go.”

So Seto took the .45 apart and put it together one hundred times. Joey corrected several things that he was doing the hard way.

“Fair. Again” Joey watched Seto and stopped him several times, correcting him again. “If I have to tell you the same thing again, I’m going to find a rod. Do you understand me?”

“Yes I do. Did . . . umm. . .”

“The Old Man wasn’t cruel, but he was harsh. As harsh as a mistake on a firing range. They don’t call it the seat of learning for nothing.”

Seto managed to avoid any repercussions. After he wore the .45 out, Joey handed him the Taurus.

“This is slightly smaller and the springs and OS clips are stiffer. Go.”

Seto took the pistol and started to disassemble it.

“Damnit Seto! After everything I tell you, you . . . stand up.”

Seto cringed, he’d forgotten to check for a round in the chamber. He knew better, so he didn’t protest when Joey produced a rod from somewhere and gave him four lashes across his still sore backside.

“Bet you don’t forget to check again. Right?”

Seto grumbled.”Ow! You didn’t have to hit so hard.”

Joey gently turned Seto around and held his face between his hands. “Are you bleeding? You want to quit, ok. other wise . . . I’ll never give you more than you can stand. You know that, right?” Seto nodded. “I’m not messing around with you. You do, or you quit. I lived through my training, and . . . I remember you teasing me once about not sitting still in class. You want that cushion?” Joey kissed Seto and took his hands away.

Seto sighed and shook his head. “No, if you managed, I can too.“

Seto reached out and picked up the Taurus, checked the chamber and started stripping it down.

He stripped it and reassembled it to Joey’s satisfaction the first time.

“That was good. We’ll have lunch now then you’ll start on speed loaders for the .32. “

Seto didn’t even flinch.

That afternoon they went through the same procedure with speed loaders for the .32 that they had with clips for the .9mm. Seto was bleary eyed and exhausted by the time Joey was satisfied.

“Joey? I’m not complaining, but when do I get to actually shoot something.”

“Next week . . . maybe.”

Seto made a whimpering sound. “But. . . .”

“Seto. I didn’t actually get to shoot off a single round for three weeks . I’m rushing you, but it’s just you and me. Not one instructor and twelve students.”

“Twelve?”

“Yeah, this isn’t the US. We’re a lot more picky about who gets to qualify and who doesn’t. I trained here; then, when I got into the yakuza, I had opportunity to learn about different weapons. I spent an ungodly amount of time shooting. Not much else I could do for amusement. The boss payed for the ammo. So. . . . besides I’m a natural.”

“But twelve and you’re bragging about being top? Not that I’m not impresses but. . . “

“Of the thousands of officers in Japan there are around five thousand allowed to have fire arms. The rest make do with batons, tonfa. Every officer is tested for ability with firearms. I tested high so they sent me to sharp shooter school. I’m one of forty or so who qualify to use long guns in a populated area. And I’m one of the top ten of those. They lost a lot when they fucked with me. So learn or don’t. But don’t come crying to me when you want to shoot and you’re not allowed.”

Seto started to say something but, at Joey’s warning look, he wisely shut up

“Now, supper then speed loaders, and don’t tell me you can hand load as fast as a speeder.”

Supper was accomplished with Seto eating off the counter. Miss Sakura gave him a funny look but, catching sight of Joey shaking his head, decided not to comment.

They returned to the smithy after supper and Seto groaned, the pile of speed loaders made him shudder. The rest of the evening was a repeat of the day before. He had to load and eject shells until he though his arms would wear out.

“Ok, bed. You’ve got that down pat. Tomorrow you get to draw and aim. Come on.”

Seto just followed Joey to bed. He didn’t even feel it when Joey gently brushed his messy bangs out of his eyes and kissed him on the cheek nor did he feel the single tear that fell there.
~~~~~~~~

Foot notes.

for more info:
http://www.airguns.net/fuoaa.html

Movie is Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman.