Disclaimer: Okay, everyone here class? Yes? Good. Now let us proceed. I will now write down some notes on the board. - scribble, scribble- and you, random person in the first row, read them out loud to me. RPITFR: "Remo Con is completely broke and living no where near Japan. She owns more books then necessary, but nothing pertaining to Yu-Gi-Oh. She merely borrows them to toy with them and cause them all misery." -glare- "I mean, make them all completely happy." Better.
CHAPTER 1: Pick a Subject
"Mr. Joey Wheeler?!" Joey turned around to look at the man who was running toward him frantically. He didn't know who it was, however, so he turned away and began to walk again.
"Wait!" Joey stopped, annoyed. He was supposed to be meeting Seto in a few minutes, now he was going to be late.
What? And who are you?" Joey demanded as the man finally caught up, wheezing as middle-age men do when they do not run a lot and are forced to sprint a short distance.
"OH, sorry, I'm Darren Eniwa. I'm a talent scout from the Boston School of Art and I'd like you to go there next year when you start college." The man held out a small business card but Joey couldn't reach up to grab it. His arms went numb. His entire body seemed to shut off. Boston School of art? It took him a few minutes to process this but once it had been completely comprehended the choice was obvious.
"Nope, sorry, not interested." He looked down at his watch. 3: 30. If he hurried, he might be only a minute or two late.
"Please, before you refuse, take this card and sleep on it. Then tell me in a few days." Darren forced the card into Joey's hand and walked off toward his car, which was parked at the other end of the street.
Joey sighed and stuffed the card into his jean pocket. As soon as he no longer felt the paper against his skin he banished it from his mind and concentrated on one thing, getting to Seto before the CEO got some sort of call form his blasted company and rushed away, leaving Joey a note telling him to be on time if he wanted to catch him from now on.
3:34, not bad when you think about it considering Joey had to run down the entire street and across two intersections to get to the restaurant. His cheeks were flushed and his breathing heavy as he pushed open the door and stepped inside. His eyes scanned the tables for his blue dragon, but he didn't seem to be there. He sighed and his shoulders sagged as he tried to lean against the wall.
The wall, however, was bit too fleshy and it snaked arms around Joey's waste.
"Hello, puppy." Hm, definitely not a wall.
"Watcha doin' back here?" Joey asked, leaning back into the embrace, conformably leaning his head under the CEO's as Seto had gained a few more inches over the past year, leaving him at six foot three while Joey remained five foot eleven.
"Waiting for you, love," Seto whispered into Joey's ear. It tingled under the warm breath.
"You're not mad dat I was late den?" Joey said hopefully. Seto laughed softly.
"Pup, your all time record was forty-five minutes. You're only four minutes behind. Believe me, I hardly noticed," Seto said teasingly. Joey pouted.
"Hey, I was doing something important during those forty five minutes," he protested.
"Doing your best to beat some sort of video game if I recall correctly."
"And I did."
"Which makes it so much less of a waste of time as opposed to if you had lost."
"Of course." Joey could feel Seto grin into his hair as he buried his face into Joey's impossible mop.
"Are we going to get a table?" Seto groaned and let go of Joey.
"I suppose," he said regretfully. Joey grinned sexily.
"Don't worry, there's always later."
"Have I corrupted you puppy?" Seto inquired as they walked to a table in the back. "Or did you always have such a wonderfully dirty mind?"
"It's your fault," Joey said dramatically. "I never used to think dis way." TO make his point he dropped down onto the chair, flinging his arms out and doing his best to look traumatized.
Seto grinned as he sat down next to Joey. He looked to the other side of the table and a waiter magically appeared, notebook open in one hand and a black pen poised just above the first sheet of paper, ready to write.
"What can I get you wonderful gentlemen on this fine day?" Suck up, Joey thought. He knows who Seto is.
"The house special perhaps, Mister Kaiba?" Seto's eyes narrowed. HE had nothing against being well known, but he did not approve or even ignore people who tired to get something for themselves by trying to win him over.
"It's on the house." And there it was, the beginning of the monster.
"Actually, now that I think of it, I'm not all that hungry," Seto said icily. "Do you want anything, Joey?"
"No," Joey responded quickly. The couple stood and left, leaving a distraught waiter thinking, "Damn. There goes my huge tip!"
"I'm sorry," Seto said once they were away from the restaurant. "Do you want to go somewhere else? It isn't fair for you not to get anything to eat because of my personal vendetta."
"Don't worry," Joey was quick to assure his boyfriend. "It doesn't matter dat much. Not at all really." Seto looked so depressingly apologetic Joey hugged him right there in the middle of the sidewalk, not caring who was watching.
"Seriously, it okay."
"All right," Seto said almost grudgingly, practically begging to be told he was horrible person.
"Now, why don't we go to a movie?" Joey suggested as they half broke apart, each leaving one arm around the other.
"Sound-" Then his phone rang. "Damn," he muttered as he took it out of his coat pocket.
Joey had to smile, even if this was cutting in on his time with Seto, it was still kind of funny to see the frustrated look on his koi's face. IN truth at times the CEO hated Kaiba Corp. but he held onto it nonetheless just to spite his stepfather, who, even after all this time, he still hated with a passion.
Seto opened his phone and held it up to his ear.
"Kaiba. What's the problem now?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you sir," his secretary said, sounding frightened. Idly Seto wondered if he really was that scary or if maybe this girl just had some sort of nerves disorder. He supposed he should be paying attention to her anyway. "-broke in-"
"What?" he exclaimed.
"It appears that s-someone b-broke in," his secretary stammered.
"Was anything stolen?" Seto demanded, quickly running through a list of things that a rival company could want. It was long list.
"That's the strange part sir, the alarm went off and we don't see that anything is stolen, except that we can't get into your office." Seto hissed in frustration.
"I'll be right there." Seto turned to Joey regretfully.
"Pup-" Joey shook his head.
Go. I can tell dat it's important. I'll see ya later."
"All right. I should be back at the mansion no later than eight," Seto said, quickly kissing his puppy as he hailed a taxi (the limo was in the garage for it's annual oil-change).
"I'll be dere," Joey said as Seto stuffed himself into the cab.
"Kaiba Corp." he heard Seto command and he watched as the bright yellow car drove off.
Now what was he going to do? Joey sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. His right hand brushed against something. Oh, that damn thing.
Wonder if Yugi's home…
LETSCALLTHISTHEPRETTYLINETOSEPERATESCENES
Seto strode into the building, his eyes burning with a cold rage. When would these stupid competitors realize that his secrets were not to be stolen and would not be stolen by the petty thieves they sent.
His secretary met him by the elevator on the first floor.
"Sir-" she began.
"Save it," he snapped. And then he stepped into the elevator with her trailing behind like a whipped dog. The elevator rose almost painfully slow and each time the familiar ding came to announce another floor had been passed, Seto become more and more agitated.
"Come on," he muttered. "Come on!"
Ding. 5th floor. Ding. 10th floor. Ding. 13th floor. Ding. 17th floor. Ding. 19th floor. There should be one more, just one more floor. But there wasn't. The elevator stopped with a jolt. Seto became very still. This had never happened before, and he had a sinking feeling that it was not supposed to be happening now.
For a moment nothing happened. It was almost like a state of suspended animation, rather like you might read about in science fiction novel. Then his secretary started to whimper in fear and time began to move forward. The elevator creaked and dropped suddenly. The whimper became a full-fledged scream and Seto felt his throat constrict with terror.
Was this how he was going to die? In an elevator, plunging to a gruesome doom? Joey. The name jarred an unpleasant cord in his train of panicking thought. Would he never see his puppy again?
Then all of a sudden it stopped and Seto tumbled to the floor. His breathing was quick and sharp, his heart beating much faster than normal. He sat up and forced himself to calm down, hyperventilating, passing out, neither were particularly desirable nor helpful at the moment.
Just when Seto had gotten himself back under control and was checking ot see if his secretary was all right (frightened, but otherwise unharmed) the unthinkable happened. The door opened.
Grinding his teeth together. Seto stepped out into the office area. Someone was toying with him and he did not appreciate it.
"Mr. Kaiba," his secretary said, tears rolling down her face as she rushed to catch up.
"Stay here," Seto instructed her firmly. "I think this is probably the safest place for you right now." She nodded numbly, slumping back against one of the outward walls of the cubicle.
Seto, sure she wasn't going to move until God himself came and picked her up (or at least to Seto go back) went on until he reached the end of the floor and opened the door to the stairs. Looking at the number by the door, Seto became even more furious. The elevator had only dropped two floors. Whoever was trying to mess with is mind this way was going to have a serious problem very shortly.
Up one flight, then the next and suddenly Seto found himself in front of door 20. Now, Seto was not stupid. Whoever it was had rigged the elevator in the time from when his secretary tried to get into his office and the time he had arrived, not to mention simply breaking into his office and keeping everyone else was a feat to be applauded with all the extra security he put on it himself. By now it was all to entirely possible this person had done something to this door as well. Maybe he would be electrocuted as soon as he touched the doorknob. An image of himself lying charred on top of the staircase flashed through Seto's mind.
He shoved that thought away and reached out for the handle. HE couldn't just stand there all day while that thief did God knows what in his office.
His fingers barely brushed against it and…it swung open, revealing an empty, desolate room. Seto walked in hesitantly. It didn't appear to be a trap- but maybe, and this he was beginning to think true, maybe this wasn't a normal thief. He had no idea what to expect.
Walking through the empty floor Seto saw the door to his office swing open a crack, and inside he could see the soft glow of a lamp, though it was sunny out still. He took two more steps, and stopped. A few minutes passed with no movement. Then the door opened half an inch more.
Knowing he was being watched, Seto moved forward until he was right in front of the door. It swung all the way open to reveal a long blonde-haired girl.
"Hello, Seto," she said in a pleasant voice. "Long time no see."
Next Chapter:
Joey knocked once, twice, three times on the Turtle Shop's front door. He was a bit worried, the door was never locked, especially now during business hours. There was even a closed sign hanging on the door, declaring that no one was to come in, stating this in big bright red letters. For a sickening moment Joey was reminded horribly of blood…
A/N: I'm back! I hope everyone who read Artist's Window hasn't given up on me and moved on to reading much more talented authors works…that would severely traumatize me. Anyway, since there are no reviews on this story yet, I have nothing to answer, but merely ask PLEASE REVIEW- I like writing back to your thoughts on my story. Remo