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Deliverance	By : thelostogg Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 8811 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. I don't profit from these ramblings.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Chapter 9

                In the car, Seto sat wedged uncomfortably between Mokuba and Roland. Roland had pulled him into the seat as soon as he seen the empty look in Jou’s eyes, and the hyper, manic look in the eyes of his American friend.
                “Good evening, Jou,” Mokuba said brightly. “Who’s your friend?”
                Jou looked at Mokuba, his eyes dead and his expression blank. Aside from the shift in his attention, there was no indication that Jou had even heard the question.
                Lynn chuckled and sank back against the cream colored leather upholstery. He stared at Jou for a long moment, and then sighed. “That’s disappointing.”
                “Hm.” That seemed to be the whole of Jounouchi’s response to both of them.   He pulled out his new book and opened it to the first page again. Despite the efficiency with which Jou had taken out the man in the library, and the easy laughter he shared with Lynn while disposing of the bodies, a quiet melancholy seemed to settle over him as soon as he sat down. Seto watched him closely. Even though his eyes were focused on the page in front of them, they weren’t moving over the text.
                “Lynn Grayson,” said Lynn, thrusting his hand out toward Mokuba.
                “Kaiba Mokuba,” Mokuba shook his hand.
                “Nice to meet you. Family?” Lynn glanced towards Seto.
                “My younger brother. Forgive me, I should have introduced you.”
                “No, no, he asked Joey after all. You’ll have to forgive him. A new Terry Pratchett novel came out this morning, so he’s beyond distracted.”
                “Yeah, I’ve seen the piles of books, I can believe that.”
                “You know,” said Seto, watching Jou’s still eyes with growing concern, “I think Jou might be too distracted to go out for dinner. Would you mind if we re-schedule? I think I ought to take him home, let him get some rest.”
                Lynn’s smile seemed to light up the entire car. “Oh, you are good. Implications of ownership with the’ take him home’, implications of consent with the use of the word ‘we’, and an almost flawless expression of confidence with the enthusiasm to re-schedule!   And you had the balls to try that with me sitting less than three feet from you, which I must say is impressive after a day like today. Do people in your environment normally take your bullshit at face value, or are you just so powerful that they don’t dare call you on it?”
                Seto quelled the initial, enraged response that rose automatically. It would not do to anger this man—both because he was the only one Seto knew of who seemed to be able to get through to Jou and because he was sitting three feet away and likely to kill Seto if he did. “It was worth a try,” Seto shrugged innocently.
                “I was serious,” Lynn insisted. “Are you normally more composed than you appear at the moment, or are you that powerful?”
                “Both,” Mokuba answered for him.
                “Fun! But I don’t really care.” Lynn tilted his head to the side, appearing thoughtful and like he was trying not to laugh at the same time. “I’m not going to get into a pissing match with a toy maker over who gets to play the alpha male here. You have made some incorrect assumptions about this situation, and it’s not my place to correct them if he hasn’t, but just trust that there is no competition between you and I. Since you’ve told me that Joey’s tried to hurt himself recently, the last thing I’m about to do is leave him with someone who can’t handle the situation when he’s like this.”
                “Like what?”
                Lynn plucked the book from Jou’s hand.
                “Hey!” Jou cried, half-heartedly reaching for the book.
                “Don’t bother. You’re not physically capable of reading it right now.”
                Jou didn’t bother to argue. He didn’t even move. The dead look in his eyes seemed to extend to the rest of his body.
                “Wow. Full blown sympathetic response… Joey, this is ridiculous, you’ve got to get your mind right,” Lynn set the closed book on Jou’s lap.
                “I’m working on it,” Jou whispered.
                “What’s wrong with being sympathetic?” Mokuba asked.
                Seto groaned. Sometimes he wished that he had been as zealous with his brother’s education and training as their father had been with his. It would double his payments to Temari each month, but it would make the rest of their lives so much easier.
                “He means Jounouchi-san is experiencing a fight-or-flight response,” Roland explained unexpectedly. “His sympathetic nervous system is activated.   It can result in problems focusing, memory issues, tunnel vision, reduced hearing, it all but stops the digestive process, all sexual function, even the production of tears and saliva.”
                “Very good!” Lynn looked up, clearly pleased. “Exactly correct. That degree of knowledge, from a law enforcement background indicates expertise. And to recall most of the important effects while your own sympathetic nervous system is activated is impressive. “
                Roland glared at him.
                Lynn either didn’t notice or didn’t care. His picture perfect smile took on a goofy, but somehow more genuine, slant. “You see,” Lynn went on, “The entire process begins with an unusual sensory perception. When the right synapses fire, indicating that a threat has been detected and assessed, para ventricular nuclei in the cells of the hypothalamus respond to the synapse signal by secreting two very potent hormones. Everyone knows about adrenaline and its role in the process, but the other hormone released is cortisol. It results in a cascade of effects that make the stress response self-limiting, namely binding with other gluco-cortinoids to produce all of those effects that this gentleman just listed. The goal, of course, is to reduce sensory perception—to inhibit feelings of pain, hunger, desire, and to reduce visual and auditory perception so that those initial threat perceptions can’t continue, even if the threat continues.   That keeps the reaction from spiraling out of control and prevents the body to go into adrenaline-induced cardiac arrest!”
                “Oh Kami, no. It’s that nightmare where I’m back in Bio-Chem in college and I haven’t done the reading…” Mokuba looked honestly horrified.
                “I’m not going into molecular diagrams, chill out. I was just explaining that Joey’s a bit out of it. It’s unusual for Joey to experience a full sympathetic nervous system response from the little headache we just had to deal with, but it appears to have happened nonetheless. He can’t focus visually on the words in the book, he can’t mentally engage in the story, and if he had actually heard and processed anything I just said, he would have smacked me in the head by now. He shouldn’t be experiencing it all, so it’s very disappointing to see him like this…”
                “Little headache? Seto, what just happened?”
                “Nothing, Mokuba. And why not?” Seto asked. “I am, and I didn’t do anything.”
                Lynn’s smile turned into a smirk. “You’re not. Not nearly as bad, anyway. You have some experience or training in controlling your cognitive appraisal of a potential threat. That or you're just extremely cocky. Otherwise, you’d have flinched and panicked when I shot at you this morning.”
                That comment made everyone else in the back of the limo, including Jou, flinch.
                His enthusiasm bubbling over into expressive hand gestures as he spoke, Lynn went on, “A fight-or-flight reaction is great for a zebra. There are only so many factors that have to be considered to evade a lion, after all. For us, though, it destroys out situational awareness! It essentially makes us numb, blind, and deaf—and it does it when noticing details is literally a matter of life or death! But by changing our own cognitive appraisal of the threat, by getting used to it and being absolutely confident that we have the skills and resources to cope, we can reduce the severity of the adrenal response, and the cortisol response that accompanies it! We can train the mind, by repeated successful exposure to comparable stress, to not trigger the response at all.”
                “What? What the hell? You can’t control something like that,” Mokuba insisted.
                “Don’t be ridiculous, Mokie,” Seto said severely. “You’ve studied martial arts for years, you should know exactly what it takes to train an automatic reaction, whether it’s physical or mental. It requires repeated the training sequence tens of thousands of times… to do something like what Mr. Grayson is suggesting, it would mean facing a life threatening situation tens of thousands of times. I’m surprised that kind of training would work, though. I would think the human brain would be able to process the difference between a controlled training environment and the real thing.”
                “Not only can the human mind process the difference, but every single little variable makes the mind appraise a situation differently. So to train effectively requires the training sequence to actually be life threatening, as opposed to a controlled simulation. And something as simple as introducing an attachment into the mix can fuck it all up. Ouch!” Lynn’s face jerked forward as Jou’s book smacked him in the back of the head.
                “You,” Jou growled, “Are a surf bum who likes to live beyond you means. You are not qualified to make broad-reaching comments about this neuro-endocrinology crap. You spend your days working on your tan and convincing every beautiful man or woman you see to pose for nude paintings—paintings you subsequently never finish.”
                Something in Lynn’s smile shifted as Jou spoke. It became less animated, less real. His hands dropped to his lap and he laced his fingers together. “I am going to finish all of them someday,” he said defensively. “I just tend to get distracted by beautiful people. And I’m not the only one…” he said in a sing song voice, while he pointedly glanced across the limo at Seto.
                “Shut up,” Jou growled. He opened his book up again and propped it in front of his face.
                “Oh! Full sympathetic response and a blush! And he says there’s no thing! You are so full of shit!”
                Seto tried to meet Jou’s gaze over the book. The Mutt was blushing. Could Lynn be serious? Not only was Jou blushing over a joke about his relationship with Seto, but it had made him go into a full blown fight-or-flight response in a situation that he would generally have no trouble with? He had been worried about Seto?
                “Seto,” Mokuba nudged him with his elbow. “Are you okay?”
                Seto let out a relieved breath and that turned into a soft laugh. “I’m great. Why?”
                “You look weird,” said Mokuba, studying his brother critically.
                “What? I do not,” Seto tried to settle back and look dignified. It was impossible to do when he was sitting in the tiny middle seat wedged between Roland and Mokuba.
                “Ha! Your own brother doesn’t recognize a smile because all you ever do is smirk…” said Jou, finally looking up over his book. “Told you you’re an asshole.”
                “So,” Lynn forced Jou to lower the book. “Pizza?”
                “No,” Jou insisted. “Pizza sounds disgusting.”
                “Chinese?”
                “No.”
                “Sandwiches?”
                “No.”
                “Jou,” Seto cut in, “When did you last eat?”
                “I had a sandwich yesterday,” the blonde said blankly. “You were there, remember?”
                Lynn pursed his lips and nodded. “How about this, a restaurant or take-out?”
                “Take-out in this town is all crap,” Jou said levelly. “How about that restaurant at the four-seasons?”
                “What?” Seto grimaced. “No! I’ve got a standing reservation at a dozen restaurants in town, let me pick.”
                Lynn glanced sideways at Jou.
                “That’s fine,” Jou nodded. “He’s an asshole, but he’s got good taste.”

* * * * * *

                Seto took them to a five star restaurant on the other end of town, as far as possible from the third man who had taken off towards the train station. He requested a private dining room, and after a few minutes, a few appetizers, and a few drinks, he found that his paranoia was settling down. He expected to be jumping at everything after the day he had, but somehow, being able to glance at Jou and Lynn and know that if anyone but their waiter walked through the door, they’d be dead before they got near the table, made the constant fear he’d been hiding since he woke up in the hospital ebb away.
                The closed environment seemed to help Jou relax, too. Soon, he was laughing and sharing stories about their high school adventures with Lynn. Seto’s version of each story was a bit different from the authorized version, drawing heavily on psychology and chemistry, and even geology and astrophysics, to explain away things he didn’t like. He was surprised, and a little bit pleased, to find that Lynn and Jou both followed the science behind his explanations, even if you did make disparaging comments about it. He was so used to thinking of the Mutt as the quiet idiot from high school that every time Jou said something brilliant, Seto felt like he was noticing him again for the first time.
                The fact that he had felt like he was floating ever since Lynn revealed that Jou liked him enough to be worried about him probably had more to do with his good mood than he wanted to think about.
                When Lynn steered the conversation back around to how Jou and Seto ended up together recently, Jou grew quiet again. Lynn and Mokuba listened in silence as Seto told the full story of how he was kidnapped, and how Jou had come back into his life. Seto caught more than a few glares from his brother, who was hearing a lot of the events of Seto’s kidnapping for the first time.
                “The ridiculously grandiose explosion was you? A toy maker?”
                “It was supposed to be a show of force,” Seto argued. “More like a mob tactic, because I figured I was dealing with organized crime, not… not you guys.”
                “Ah… Well, that is one of the few appropriate uses of remote explosives,” Lynn conceded. “Still, far too big. And amateurishly positioned if your cover was a gas leak. Also, what kind of gas leak produces an electromagnetic pulse? You’re damn lucky that the police here don’t investigate any murder where they don’t already know who’s guilty.”
                “I made some mistakes,” Seto admitted. “I really thought that Jou had spent his whole life trapped in the service of the Yakuza. He saved my life, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him afterwards. I… I wanted to give them such a show of force that no one would ever consider interfering in his life again.”
                Lynn turned towards Jou. “So why the hell did you agree to let the old man sell you?”
                Jou frowned. “I’ve had a bad year. Everywhere I go things just don’t feel worth it anymore. I’m not broke, and there doesn’t seem to be any point in working if I don’t need the money. Every book is starting to feel the same, every city too. Every place I go people are always the same, scurrying around obsessing over petty problems and forcing each other down every chance they get. I guess I’ve been in the kind of mood where you look at mankind and think it would be a good idea to wipe them all out and start over again with amoebas.”
                “Even I couldn’t work out the logistics to pull that off,” Lynn commented.
                “I know, but I can dream… “
                “About destroying the world…” Mokuba was turning pale again.
                “Yup. I would destroy all of existence, if I could pull it off.”
                Beside him, Lynn snorted. “That’s no excuse to let your sister’s father-in-law treat you like a commodity.”
                “I’m getting there, I’m getting there. See, Sasano-san has had a bad couple of years. Three of his clubs were shut down, a few of the younger street gangs are killing off his long term customers with some nasty combination drugs, he had some loose cannons in his own family to deal with, including a friend of mine… I should have let ‘Tani kill you, Kaiba, I really should have. I don’t know why I bothered. Afterwards, Sasano saw right through me. He’d been listening to me whine about ending things for weeks, but he kept bringing up my obligations as a member of his family to make amends for letting Kaiba live, and my obligations to Shizuka. When word came that Kaiba wanted me, well, I figured he wanted me dead and that would be an easy way out. I manipulated Sasano into agreeing, said I’d go willingly and allow Kaiba whatever revenge he wanted. Sasano’d have the money, I would have done one last service to his house to make up for not killing Kaiba, and his son would take care of my cats. Even then, he spent a week trying to make me feel guilty enough to reconsider. But, then his uncle, he operates out of Tokyo, he called up some of Sasano’s debts. He couldn’t afford to say no.”
                “You assumed he was going to kill you?” Lynn asked.
                “Yeah.”
                “What about weapons and shit? It would nearly impossible for me to keep my promise if I had to dig your corpse out of a landfill.”
                Jou shrugged. “It don’t matter. It was just a theory, anyway. Kaiba’s probably right about the nature of existence.   We’re both gonna lose that one, you know it as well as I do. And if by chance there is something real, well, I’m good with my hands.”
                “I don’t intend to lose.” Lynn took a bite from a gigantic plate of vegetables. “I am still a Catholic, Joey. I stand a much better chance of success than you do. Easy point of entry and only one target.”
                Seto scoffed. “You’re a Catholic? What about all of that ‘thou shalt not…’ mumbo-jumbo?”
                “That’s old testament. Jews have to deal with that crap. I just need to confess my sins really quick before I die and I still get into heaven. Theoretically. If not, I can fight my way in.”
                “Fight your way into heaven? What is it you’re not going to lose at?”
                Lynn took another drink and sat back, his smile faded to a sad frown. “It’s just a joke, really. I’m sure we’re all just random collections of energy that dissipate after we die. But, just in case, and since neither of us knows what to expect after death, we made a little bet.”
                “We both have issues with religion,” Jou explained. “Lynn and I, when we first met—after we managed to start a conversation, agreed to a cease fire, ditched the cops, stopped all the major bleeding and got cleaned up—we hit it off and got very, very drunk. We ended up making a bet about which of us was the best at our jobs. We competed in just about everything for a few years. He won most, because he’s better with damn near every weapon known to man. I’m better at hand-to-hand, and I think I might be a better tactician.”
                “We tied, when it was all said and done.”
                “So, we figured out the ultimate final competition. But, really, it’s just a joke. And it’s just because we both have issues with religion. Shizuka became a Christian towards the end. She got really depressed when she was told that if she just prayed enough, she would be healed. The swelling in her brain would stop, her vision would be restored… When she didn’t get better, she was told that it was because she just didn’t have enough faith. When she overdosed, I went to see the priest where she went to church, and he said that he couldn’t perform a service for her because she killed herself. I stayed and watched a bit of the sermon he did, and he actually talked about her, talked about how pursuing religion for selfish means would only lead to disappointment. He said that she didn’t really love the god she prayed to, and that she was just looking for a selfish solution to her own problems. He insisted that people are here to serve god, not the other way around, and that expecting too much was the work of evil in our souls trying to corrupt us… I never hurt anybody without being paid to do it before that night.”
                “Lawyers work pro bono occasionally, why not us?” Lynn smirked.
                “I didn’t kill him. But, I came close. I did it just because I was mad. He was honestly trying to help people, I think. I just… I was kind of out of it… Anyway, I figured that religion’s just another make believe hammer, just something to hold over people’s heads and threaten them with if they don’t act they way society says they have to. But there is no hammer, not really. Of course, believing that doesn’t help. And after high school, well, I can’t shake the faith that something exists that’s behind everything. A real creator, the only real hammer in the universe. And when I die, I intend to smash it.”
                “Smash the hammer?”
                “Yeah,” Jou smiled. “If there is an afterlife, I’m going to devote mine to killing, or at least maiming, every higher being I see.”
                “Wow,” said Seto carefully. “That’s kind of crazy… And not very original, since Yugi pretty much beat you to it.”
                Jou shrugged. “That’s why I’m confident I can pull it off. It’s something to look forward to, anyway.”
                “And you…” Seto turned towards Lynn.
                “I’m a closet atheist,” he admitted. “But, of course, that still means believing in god. If there really is no god, then there’d be no point in thinking about divinity, even in terms of denial. Lame as it sounds, my issues with religion are pretty much the same. I watched my parents become ravaged by disease, watched them deal with the guilt, the constant ‘What did we do to deserve this?’ and I got sick of it. If the god they believed in exists, I’m going to kill him, it’s as simple as that. Besides what else would I do for eternity? It’d be the ultimate challenge.”
                “And the ultimate torture after you fail, if I remember my Christian cosmology correctly.”
                “I have only ever failed once.”
                “Corbin?” Jou asked.
                “No, I got him in Finland,” Lynn said casually. “I mean Dominic.”
                “Oh, that’s right! That thing with the dog… But he’s a friend, he doesn’t count.”
                “I still failed. The fact that I quit trying after I failed doesn’t mean I didn’t fail to begin with. Imagine my surprise when a kid who apparently couldn’t tell the difference between a poodle and a military dictator at three hundred yards turns out to be reasonably talented after all… And incredibly hot. That was a fun day.”
                “Fun night, too,” said Jou with a whimsical smile.
                Lynn beamed at Seto. “So, that’s our bet. Our last competition. Since Joey tends to see the universe in poly-theistic terms, I promised that if he died I’d see to his remains and make sure that a few dozen interesting toys are buried or cremated with him. A lot of religions buried weapons with the dead, on the assumption doing so would make them available to the dead in the afterlife. That’s why I flew over here so unprepared, I figured I was coming to arrange a friend’s funeral and take care of his cats,” Lynn explained.
                “And it means a lot that you came,” Jou said honestly. “It makes me feel better to know that they wouldn’t be totally screwed if I didn’t come back.”
                “You’re both insane,” Mokuba whispered. He glanced at Seto. “You’re all insane. You’re joking about trying to destroy all of creation? Who jokes about something like that?”
                Jou shrugged.
                Seto rolled his eyes. “Who said they were joking? The key is belief,” said Seto, with a bright, self-satisfied smile. “Look at the existence of a god in terms of Schrodinger’s cat, the whole the cat is both alive and dead until you open the box and observe it thing—then if enough people perceive a god to exist, if enough people believe, it does. So, to kill it, all you’ve got to do is shift that perception so that they don’t believe. Start some atheist charity or something.”
                Jou turned towards Lynn with a bright smile. “Ha! Told you I wasn’t the only one to think of that.”
                “No! No! No!” Lynn pulled at his hair. “It doesn’t work that way! It’s the physical act of observation that changes either the direction or velocity of a particle, making it impossible to measure both variables at the same instant! The cat is a bad analogy!”
                “I know, but it’s a fun theory,” Seto insisted.
                Lynn sat back in his chair, practically pouting. Jou was giggling beside him. “Damn it, I need to go back in time and rip his fucking eyes out before he ever thought about that damn analogy!”
                “After killing Thomas Hardy,” Seto laughed.
                “Damn straight!”
                He was happy to see Jou laughing, too. After a few more moments of pouting, Lynn sat up and smiled again.
                “So,” Lynn took a deep breath. “Making you smile doesn’t make this go away… How would you suggest I deal with you this time?” he asked Jou.
                Jou shrugged. “I don’t want you to deal with me. I just…” he shrugged again.   “I don’t know. Honestly, shoot me, collect the money my brat of a brother-in-law is offering and donate it to some atheist charity somewhere.”
                “Joey…”
                “There’s nothing you can do, Col’. There’s no point to anything anymore.” He leaned back, his smile gone. For an instant, Jou’s mask vanished and what Seto saw in his eyes could only be called agony. “Every time I run out of things to read, I get so mad at the entire world, I look around and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything worthwhile anywhere, and then I realize that it’s not the world that’s worthless… It’s me.”
                Lynn took a deep breath, looked like he was about to say something, and then slapped Jou in the back of the head.
                “Stop that!” Jou insisted. “I’m trying to be serious. I’m not like you, Col’. I don’t have anything else. The only thing in the world that I can do that anyone considers of value is to destroy other people. I can rationalize the act itself, I can brush off the social constraints and hammers that lead to hesitation and guilt, I can control everything I feel about it. But that doesn’t change the fact that there’s nothing else.”
                “You need attachments, Joey. You need attachments beyond your cats, anyway,” Lynn said simply. “No one can function without them, not even me.”
                “Attachments are a weakness and a distraction. Tonight proved that.”
                “Unknown variables are a distraction. Attachments make us stronger, Joey.”
                “Attachments lead to pain! They’re just as worthless as everything else!”
                “Don’t you dare say that,” Seto snapped. He was glad that he was sitting across the table, because listening to Jounouchi put himself down, and talk about caring about Seto like it was something horrible all made Seto so angry he was ready to attack the blonde. With the table between them, he had to try and find the right words for the situation rather than tackling Jou. “Attachments are what give a life worth, moron,” Seto threw down his napkin. “Your life might not be worth anything to you, but it’s worth something to me! Twelve million and the risk of going to prison or getting killed! And putting up with your cats in my home! Do you know how much damage your angora can do to a hanging candelabra? And I’m willing to keep and love the little monsters if it means keeping you! That’s what I already paid to get you into my life! Can’t you see that?”
                “I never asked you to, Kaiba. I did not need or want your help. I don’t need or want your help now.”
                Seto rose to his feet. “Well I need you! I don’t do charity, in case you somehow forgot! I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for months! Every time I see you I want to be with you! And just hanging out around you is the only thing that makes me feel—“ Seto stopped himself cold. He was about to say the word ‘safe’. Temari’s description of Stockholm syndrome, of how hostages often come to identify with and care about the very people who take them hostage, echoed through his mind again. But it was true. Being around Jou made him feel illogically safe. The shock of what he was about to say dropped him back into his chair.
                Jou stood up and sneered down at him. “Finally figured it out, did you?” In an instant, Jou was over the table and was hauling Seto out of his chair by his shirt. Seto found himself thrown to the floor face down, his head yanked back as Jou pulled on his hair. The cold metal end of the silencer on Jou’s pistol pressed into the base of his skull so hard that it hurt.
                Out of the corner of his eye, Seto saw that Roland and Lynn both had weapons drawn as well. Roland’s was pointed at Jou, Lynn’s at Roland.
                “Roland, don’t move!” Seto yelled. “I don’t care if he shoots me; you are not to hurt him!”
                “I’m surprised Mr. Genius Kaiba didn’t figure it out earlier,” Jou hissed, his mouth right beside Seto’s ear. “You don’t feel shit for me. You’re almost as incapable of feeling anything as I am. But make no mistake, Kaiba, you mean nothing to me, and when you get over this delusion, you’ll remember that I mean nothing to you. You are a variable that I haven’t learned to account for mentally, and the easiest way to solve that problem is to remove you from the equation altogether. Do not tempt me right now. Now, where are my cats?”
                “East Broadway Veterinary Hospital,” Seto gasped.
                Seto felt Jou’s weight disappear and sat up in time to see him quickly backing towards the door to their private dining room. “Jou, wait!”
                “No.”
                “Joey,” Lynn sidestepped around Roland, both men never lowering their weapons, “I don’t think you should go anywhere.”
                “I didn’t ask for your opinion, Collin.”
                The pistol Lynn held on Roland swung towards the door. “Joey, you need to stay here. You need to take some time to think about this.”
                “Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can stop me.”
                Lynn shifted the pistol to a one-armed gripped and pulled out a small, double-sided knife. He twirled it until he held it with the blade along his forearm. “Maybe I can’t,” he conceded. “But I can slow you down.”
                Jou edged out of the door and shifted his weight. “You’re welcome to try.” And with that, he was gone.
                Lynn kept his gun trained on the door for a few moments, then put it away and strolled towards Seto. He dropped down to his knees beside him and patted him on the shoulder. “Come on, he’s on foot so we can beat him there.”
                “He’s psychotic!” Mokuba shouted. “You can’t be considering following him.”
                “Maybe you should go after him alone.” Seto looked up at Lynn. “You can use my car so you can get there first.”
                “No. If you’re willing to face the risk that he might hurt you before he comes to terms with whatever this is you two having going on, you should come with me. If he didn’t care about you, you’d be dead. The last time I tried that, he shot me in the leg and kicked me out a window, and I know he likes me.”
                “Seto, he could kill you!” Mokuba cried.
                Seto rose to his feet and dusted himself off.
                “Is he worth the risk to you?” Lynn smirked.
                Seto stared at the door Jou had just run out. It couldn’t just be Stockholm syndrome. Seto had liked Jou in high school, he had wanted him in high school. The fact that Jou made him feel safe now, illogical as that feeling was, couldn’t destroy what had been there before. It amplified what had been there, and now the whole tangle of emotions churned inside of him and left a feeling of desperation in Seto’s chest when Jou wasn’t around, but it wasn’t the source of Seto’s feelings.
                “He is,” said Seto with absolute confidence.

A/N: Thank you for reviews! Hopefully updates will be once a week until this in done, probably over the weekends. Sorry that this chapter is shorter than most. also, sorry for the whole turning Jou into a psychotic villain thing...
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Deliverance