Amaya: Well I'm back, after such a long time. I had previously deleted the original chapter one for this story because I could not, for the life of me, finish the second chapter, and I did not want this story just hanging around unfinished. I would have not completed it. Also, the first chapter has been edited, so you'll probably notice little differences.

Amaya/Yasu: Hope you enjoy!

Happy Birthday to You

Dashing down the street, Joey found himself in his usual predicament. Possibly being late for school. As always, his morning started with him waking up late and cursing his alarm clock for not going off loud enough. This caused him to rush to get ready and run to school.

Today, the blonde hoped things would be different. He wanted to get to school on time so that he could escape the chance of getting a detention. That way, Joey's plans to see Serenity after school could happen earlier than usual. His hopes had fallen when he spotted the red numbers flashing upon his alarm clock.

In his rush, he ended up bumping into countless things – mostly people walking by– but did not stop to apologize. Instead he opted to ignore their angered cries and continue on. A quick glance down to his watch signaled, surprisingly, that he had about five minutes to make it to his classroom before he was officially late. Taking a Look up ahead, the blonde spotted the school building, and felt relief start coursing through him. Maybe he would actually make it on time.

Reaching the school lot, Joey glanced down at his watch, again. Three minutes. He smiled, inwardly cheering as he knew for sure he would make it.

The blonde's thoughts halted as he found himself crashing into a hard body, which was also running. They both fall over, with Joey landing on top of the other. He is then shoved onto the ground. The blonde brought his head up to glare at the person, but ended up stopping in shock as he came face to face with an angry, disheveled Seto Kaiba.

"Kaiba?"

"Shut up, Mutt. You are going to making me late." Said man growled as he stood. He quickly wiped the dust from his clothes.

"Eh?" Joey pushed himself up to stand beside him. "You, late? But you're never late."

Kaiba gave him a scowl. "Precisely, which is why I shouldn't be wasting my time talking to you." With this, the brunette turned and ran toward the school.

"Why I oughta..." Joey started, stomping toward the man, but stopped when something white on the ground caught his eye. It was a piece of folded paper. He leaned over and picked it up, unfolding it. His eyes widened and his cheeks felt warm.

The first and biggest thing he noticed when looking was that it was a picture of him, dressed scantily clad in a black and white maid's costume. The second being that his expression was flushed and…lustful.

"what the…? How…?"

The loud school bell rang, snapping him out of his thoughts. He was now officially late. Cursing to himself, he hastily placed the picture into his pocket and took off toward the school.

As soon as he entered the class room, his teacher handed him a detention pass without a word. Joey groaned, took the pass, and made his way to his desk. So much for being on time.

On the way to his desk, he managed to catch a glance at Kaiba, finding the man seated at his desk. He looked a lot calmer than he had before, and he was reading a book. The blonde tore his gaze away from the rich man and plopped heavily into his seat, dropping his head into his arms and letting out a sigh. A loud tap on his desk caused him to jump and look up. His teacher stood looking down at him, clearly irritated.

"Mr. Wheeler, you already have one detention. Don't make me give you another for sleeping in my class."

Joey felt himself blush when he noticed everyone in the classroom was staring at him, and he could feel someone watching him from behind. He raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck, nervously.

"Uh...sorry, teach."

The teacher let out an irritated huff and moved back to the front of the class. He continued on with the lecture that had been interrupted when the blonde had come in.

Joey easily droned the lecture out, his thoughts moving back to the mysterious picture. He had no idea how Kaiba even managed to make it in the first place, but then he scoffed. Kaiba could do anything he wanted. He had the money to do so. Even make a picture of him in a maid's dress. As he thought more about the picture, he didn't seem to notice the two blue eyes that had never left him.

Joey stretched pleasantly, finding himself grateful that both class and now detention were over. He had completely forgotten about the picture, since Yugi had volunteered to share detention with him. Now they were both walking home. Well Yugi was going home. Joey still had to stop by and see Serenity, like he did every Thursday when she was home alone. He would go over, chat a bit about life, while enjoying her company, and then he'd leave to go home. Simple as that.

As they reached the game shop, Yugi gave him a smile and a wave goodbye before quickly running into the game shop.

'He's probably excited to be home with Yami' Joey thought, amusedly.

Placing his hands in his pockets, Joey made sure to greet Grandpa Moto, before starting towards Serenity's house. He suddenly found himself thinking of Kaiba again. Not of the picture. Just him. He found himself fantasizing about a dangerous look starting in those normally cold blue eyes, as he used them to pin Joey to his spot, advancing on him like a hunter with its prey. The boy would squirm under his stare and try to look elsewhere, but that would be the time that Kaiba managed to appear in front of him, pulling his chin up and crashing their lips together-

"Joey!"

Said boy was snapped out of his fantasy as he heard his name being called by a familiar, definitely female, voice. He spotted Serenity waving to him from her front door, a smile was on her face. He gave her a smile back, and jogged the rest of the way.

"Hey, Serenity." He stopped inches away, and pulled her into a big hug.

"I was kind of worried" Serenity said, pulling back. "You're late. Did you get a detention again?"

He moved to follow her into the house and shut the door.

"Yea, damn alarm didn't wake me up this morning, and then I bumped into that damn Kaiba on the way to school…." His face went red at the memory and he stopped talking.

Serenity seemed to notice the pause.

"Hmm? What happened after that?"

Joey quickly cleared his throat, feeling awkward.

"Uh…n-nothing you need to worry about"

Serenity gave him a suspicious look, but decided to drop the subject. Instead she pulled him into the kitchen for a drink. As he took a seat, she poured him a glass of apple juice. She set it on the table and sat across from him, playing with the table cloth.

"So, besides detention, how was your day at school?"

"It wasn't bad" Shrugging, he took a drink, and immediately regretted the action when he felt cool liquid spill upon the front of his pants.

"Aw crap!" He quickly stood, setting the glass on the table. Serenity stood as well, rushing over to him.

"Oh my, that's quite a spill. Um, I think I might be able to find some pants that will fit you. Then I can put those in to wash, if you want."

"Uh…Yea, thanks Serenity. That would be nice."

"Okay be back in a second." With that, the girl rushed out of the room and up the stairs. Joey just stood there, cursing himself for being so clumsy. He hated burdening his sister with even the smallest of things.

Five minutes later, Serenity came back into the kitchen with a pair of brown slacks on her arm. She handed him the pants and waited patiently for him to change in the other room. With the wet pants now in hand, she told Joey to wait in the living room, and made her way to the laundry room. The girl spotted other clothes in a basket waiting to be washed, and found it the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

As Serenity went to put the pants in the washer, the paper fell out of the pocket and landed on the floor. Dumping the clothes and throwing in the pants, she spotted it, and picked it up. At first she was surprised, and curious about why her brother had dressed up so provocatively, but then turned the picture around and encountered the Kaiba Corp mark. Her eyes widened. Joey couldn't have…modeled for Kaiba, could he? Were they together or something?

Making sure to turn on the washer, she quickly made her way to the kitchen and grabbed the phone. She knew Joey would probably deny it if she asked, so she would have to get info elsewhere. Stepping out the back door, she made a call to Mokuba. He answered on the first ring.

"Kaiba Corp, Mokuba speaking"

"Mokuba, it's Serenity, and – wait, why are you talking like that?"

Mokuba blushed on the other end as he heard his crush's voice.

"Uh…Hi Serenity. My brother's secretary took the day off so I'm covering."

"Oh, I see" Serenity flicked off a leaf that had fallen onto her shoulder. "There's something I need to know, because I know I won't get it out of Joey."

"And what's that?"

"Did Joey…pose for pictures for you brother?"

Wracking his brain, Mokuba couldn't remember seeing Joey anywhere near the Kaiba Company.

"No…why do you ask?"

Serenity felt her cheeks warm, and lowered her voice. "Well, I found a picture of him in a maid's uniform, and on the back there's the Kaiba Corp mark."

Mokube looked around, making sure that no one was about to hear what he was about to say. Just in case, he lowered his voice.

"Well, I do know for a fact that big brother has multiple pictures of Joey and I know he did go off somewhere that relates to manipulating photos."

"So, Kaiba made this without Joey posing?" The girl asked.

"Probably"

This made Serenity confused. "But why would he do that? And you said he has other pictures too?"

"Well," Mokuba started, looking around again as he had the feeling someone was watching him. "I think big brother has feeling for Joey"

"Hmm… now that you mention it, I think Joey might have feelings for Kaiba too." She remembered seeing some of their past encounters, and it was now making sense. All the tension and supposed hatred between the two. "Whenever I mentioned Kaiba, he always seemed to get so flustered or wouldn't look me in the eyes for a few minutes."

"Well I guess were in the same boat then"

"Yea I-"

"Hey, Serenity!" Joey called her from kitchen.

"Uh… I have to go, but I'll talk to you later on, okay?"

"Okay, Bye"

"Bye"

It's then that Joey opened the back door, looking surprised to find her here.

"Hey there you are. I've been calling you for a few minutes. What are you doing out here?"

Serenity fidgeted with picture, instantly bringing it behind her back. "Oh, nothing. I was just phoning a friend I hadn't talked to in a while, that's all." She gave a nervous smile.

"Oh, I see. Well, uh, I should probably be heading home now. Dad will get mad if I stay out too long"

"Um…well I don't think your pants are quite ready yet."

"Eh, its okay, I was just gonna ask if I could borrow these anyways" 'it's not like the picture can stand being in the washer and still have the ink on it, anyways.'

"Okay, that's fine"

With that, she followed the blonde out to the front door, waving to him as he began his walk home. Once he turned the corner, she brought the picture out from behind her. A sudden idea popped into her head and it caused a mischievous smile to spread across her face.

TBC…

Amaya: I bet you can't guess what she's planning! Though it's hard for me to imagine Serenity as a little schemer, she did a pretty good job with Mai on the actual show.

Amaya/Yasu: Next chapter will be longer!