It had been an incredibly awkward discovery, when Jack had first made it. A mistake, more than anything else. Kiryu had been curled up into Kazama's side, head tucked under his chin, and fast asleep. He didn't just fall asleep for or near anyone--only the people that he truly trusted. And when Kiryu trusted someone, it was only a matter of time before he fell in love with them. 

"I've given up on Yusei," he'd told Jack one day, in a phone call. "So you can finally have your chance. You're still pining after him, aren't you?" 

Jack hadn't had the will to say that Yusei was enamored with someone else already. Even now, seeing them there, with Kazama lazily stroking Kiryu's hip with the tips of his fingers and nodding off, himself, it was going to be impossible to say. 

What was it that made his chest ache more--the fact that he'd lost Kiryu? Or that he'd lost Kazama? He couldn't tell. 

In the end, Jack said nothing at all. Kiryu had been through enough hell--it wasn't his place to take away the love that he knew he needed, no matter how selfish he felt. 

He took one last look after turning away, and tried to imagine himself in the place of either one of them. When Jack found that he couldn't, he simply set out the door, forcing himself not to look back again. 

------

Kiryu woke in the morning to one message on his phone, reading in a tone he couldn't pick up on. 

"I'm so happy for you." 

Was it sarcasm? Honesty? Bitter anger? Jealousy? Coming from Jack, he couldn't tell at all. He'd never heard Jack say anything like that. It seemed like he was the type, though, to resign himself to his fate and leave things alone.