After convincing the receptionist at the front desk that, yes, he really did need to visit someone and, no, he was not an escapee from the psych ward or anything equally strange, Honda finally got inside the hospital. Hopefully this would be the last time he had to come here for a long while. Scanning the door labels in the long hallway, he found the one he was searching for. Taking a deep breath, he knocked and pushed the door open slightly.

Having just woken up not long before, Jou was still tired and still sore. He poked at the breakfast he'd been brought up, hoping by doing so it wouldn't taste so gross. He sighed and put the plate on the table next to him, hearing the door to his room open. He saw Honda poke his head in the door. Jounouchi gave him a short wave. "Hey, you came."

"Hey." Honda gave him a small smile and walked in. Jou seemed to be in a fairly good mood, all things considered. He slumped down in the nearby chair and glanced over. "So, how you doing? I'm sure everyone's asked you that only a hundred times already."

"About that much, yeah... I'm okay. My side hurts, but y'know, can't do anything about that." Jounouchi glanced around, recalling his past few days in the hospital. "I, uh, saw Anzu... she's..." he trailed off, implying that the meeting wasn't exactly one of his best times with Anzu. Especially after what she said about his other self. "And... Katsuya talked to me... " The way he said 'Katsuya' showed that he was still weirded out by this whole other-self thing. He looked at Honda in a concerned manner. "Which is kinda why I wanted to talk to you."

Honda looked away nervously. "Yeah, so I guessed from your journal entry." He sighed and closed his eyes as he tried to lean back even farther into the chair. "Everyone else has had their chance to tell me how much of an insensitive, heartless, idiotic bastard I am. Go ahead and say it. You might as well have your chance too."

Jounouchi's happy demeanor switched to annoyed as he took in what his friend had just said. "Honda, you know me well enough to know I wouldn't say somethin' like that! I just wanted to tell you that other me really, really cares about you." He crossed his arms, mindful of his stitches. "You're just gonna ignore that?"

"Well, I didn't think other people would say it either, but they did." Honda opened one eye a slit to gauge how Jou was reacting. Seeing how annoyed his friend was, he sat up and opened his eyes completely. "And I don't want to ignore his feeling, I just...don't know how to deal with it all."

"...what d'you mean by that?" Jou asked, hoping to clarify Honda's statement. He pushed himself completely upright in the bed.

"I don't know anymore." Honda found the whole situation frustrating. "If I try to think about it, I get myself even more confused and my brain decides to just shut down. The only idea I can get into a coherent sentence is that he deserves better...and I guess I can't even make that understandable. I don't know why I was hoping I could make anyone else understand what I'm thinking if even I can't figure it out."

"Oh..." Wow, this was frustrating. Jou tried to understand exactly what it was that Honda was feeling. "Well... maybe you should try talking to him about this, 'cause... he's really upset." Jounouchi sighed. "I think he thinks you hate him now or somethin'... I told him you didn't, but I think he'd believe it more comin' from you."

"Yeah, I should. I know he's upset, and I want to make things better, but..." Honda trailed off as he lowered his gaze, and started tracing patterns on the chair arm. "But, I don't want to end up making everything worse. I don't want to hurt him, and I don't want him over-reacting again like this. Don't suppose you have any idea how he jumped from me leaving in a panic to the idea of me hating him, huh?"

"I dunno how it'll turn out; ya just gotta try." Jou shrugged. He sat and watched Honda, thinking for a moment. "I hope things end up okay between you two." He was silent, not able to think of what else to say to his friend. After a minute Jou went back to poking at his food with his fork.

Honda continued tracing patterns on the chair for awhile, despite the fact that his finger was starting to go numb from the friction. He debated voicing what his gut instincts were saying about the whole relationship mess, but decided that his friend had probably heard more than enough about his inability to figure out what to do next. "Heh, I just thought of something...I'm going to have to figure out what to call you and him when I babble in my journal, or everything's gonna get even more confusing."

Jou didn't take his eyes off of the lumpy mass of 'food' but laughed. "Yeah, that would be kind of awkward. This 'other self' thing is really confusing sometimes." Jounouchi looked at Honda questioningly. "Do you have one?" He tried to imagine TWO Hondas running around the city. Jou wondered if the other one would be as different as Anzu and Katsuya...

Honda glanced up and snickered a little. "If I do, no one's see him. At least, I don't think anyone's told me that they've seen another one. I'll take that to mean that I probably don't." He glanced around the room. "Not everyone has one, as far as I know, so I think I'm safe. Not sure whether to be relieved or jealous, honestly." He looked at the clock on the wall. "Guess I should get going, let you rest and all."

Jou sighed. "That's what everyone says... all right, seeya later then." He smiled. "And don't forget to talk to Katsuya, okay?" He flashed Honda a thumbs up as he leaned against the head of the hospital bed - thank god he was leaving tomorrow; he was sick of this stupid bed. "And I'll tell you if I see any Honda's that ain't you around."

"Heh, sounds like a plan. See you later." Honda ducked his head to try to hide the smile on his face as he slipped out the door.