It was a warm day in May, the sky was a brilliant blue and big, fluffy clouds were scattered randomly over its surface. It was a Wednesday and the students of Domino High were walking to their first class of the day. Yugi Mouto, Tea Gardener, Tristan Taylor, and Joey Wheeler walked towards the main building, headed for their homeroom class. The four were friends- good friends, and they chattered together and laughed together as they always did. There were, however, a few less interested students. Seto Kaiba, for one, walked briskly towards the building carrying a very expensive briefcase. He wore the school uniform, but didn't bother to button his jacket, revealing a tight black turtle-neck underneath. As his passed the group of friends, he didn't acknowledge them. That was, until Joey got shoved in Kaiba's direction by Tristan as he teased him about his crush on Seto.
The two collided, Joeys back to Kaiba's side. The collision was not hard, but Seto was not happy as his briefcase fell onto the concrete and the leather scuffed and tore a bit on its edges. Joey, less luckily, found himself on the ground.
"Watch it, mutt, do you not see me walking here?" Kaiba growled, his blue eyes narrowed and his shoulders tensed.
"Sorry, Kaiba, I didn't mean nothin'…" Joey said looking back at Kaiba; his cheeks were flushed with embarrassment of the accident. He hadn't talked to Seto in real life in months, just in his dreams and fantasies. Joey found himself looking over the CEO, noting his black slacks and black turtleneck stretched over perfectly toned muscles. He found himself looking at Kaibas face, his unblemished white skin and electric blue eyes. Joey couldn't help but blush as he imagined himself touching that wonderful face, and Kaiba's perfectly styled hair and messing it roughly.
"Whatever, dog. You can't do shit right. Get up and go to class." Kaiba said, he bent over and picked up his briefcase and continued on to class. Joey sat on the ground for a minute, stunned, or rather, love struck.
"C'mon man, I'm sorry." Tristan said, he was Joey's best friend and he offered his hand to his blonde buddy. Joey took the offer and got up, he dusted himself off and noticed that the others had left, and infact, there was suddenly no one around.
"Dude are we late?" Joey asked.
"Yeah, man, you sat there staring off into no where for like fifteen minutes." Tristan said, "I thought you'd gone catatonic or something." Tristan laughed. He looked at Joey and noticed that his best friend seemed less enthusiastic and more in his head now, unusual for the blonde. The two walked together, silently, to their class with their friends.
"Wheeler, Taylor, nice of you to join us." Their teacher, Mrs. Nakamura said pointedly. Her glassed sitting right at the end of her pointy nose. "Take your seats boys; you are awfully tardy though, tsk." She mumbled to herself, Nakamura was always one of the stranger teachers, but the gang almost always found themselves involved with her somehow. Joey and Tristan went to their assigned seats, as far away from each other as Nakamura could get them. It was an idea of Nakamura's to surround Joey by quiet and dedicated students to get him to focus better; one was of course Seto Kaiba. And though they never talked to each other, Joey loved every second he could watch Seto from the seat behind him. He loved the way Seto would shake his knee during exams, or the way he stretched after every class. He even grew to love the way Seto put so much effort into ignoring him. However, today Joey would not be so lucky.
"Had to cry about it before you came to class?" Seto growled under his breath as Joey walked by. Joey rolled his eyes and sat down, he gently kicked Seto's desk leg a few times, enough to bother the CEO. "Knock it off, Wheeler." Kaiba said without even a glance back. Joey continued, testing his luck. His logic told him that if Seto was talking to him, it was a step in the right direction. "Mutt, do you want me to make you stop?" Kaiba said in a threatening tone.
"You can try." Joey replied softly, continuing his busy work annoying Seto.
"Mikako I cannot concentrate sitting in front of this idiot. I need to move seats." Seto suddenly said loudly in the middle of the lecture. His teacher stopped and looked at him, a wrinkle etched over her nose, showing her obvious annoyance of his rude comment and the use of her first name.
"Mr. Kaiba you need to be nicer to your peers. You cannot change seats, there is none open right now." She said simply and turned back to the board.
"I can't concentrate with such a big-headed asshole sitting in front of me." Joey said, equally as loud as Seto, mocking him in a whiney voice.
"Mr. Wheeler, language!" Nakamura said sharply. "If you two have a problem, you can go sit in the hall and work out your differences." She said, narrowing her eyes behind her glasses. "As in leave my classroom, now." She emphasized the 'now' by pointing to the door. Both boys, confused by the sudden trouble, got out of their seats and walked to the hall. Kids in their class 'ooooh'ed at them as they left. Seto walked out into the hall first and turned around to look at Joey as he closed the classroom door. Joey sighed and walked to the closest bank of lockers, he sat down and leaned against them, closing his eyes and rolling back his head.
"Wheeler, we were sent here to do something and I want to meet the objective." Seto said in his professional voice, Joey swallowed hard. He couldn't bring himself to look at Kaiba, he was alone with him and it was an intoxicating thought. He imagined himself pushing Kaiba against the lockers and kissing him senseless. Running his hands under Kaiba's school jacket and feeling the hot muscles under his fingertips, going lower and feeling the one thing he wanted most. He took a deep breath shakily. This wasn't going well.
"Well, Seto, what are our differences?" Joey said calmly, still keeping his eyes closed and imagining dead puppies and grandma's in underwear, trying desperately to keep himself under control.
"For one, I'm a duel monsters protégé and a rich genius CEO, while you are a terrible student and a poor peasant of the modern age." Kaiba said. Joey heard him rustle around a bit, so he opened his eyes. He wish he hadn't.
Kaiba sat across from him, his knee's bent and his jacket removed. Joey studied the fabric covering Kaiba's arms; it was tight enough that Joey noticed the ripples of working muscles and the lock of brown hair that fell on his face, partly covering his left eye. For the first time, Kaiba looked a little more unkempt and a little more human. And much more sexy.
"Yeah." Joey said blankly, his mind was elsewhere.
"Well then, mutt, I'm leaving. See you tonight." Kaiba said, got up and put his jacket on and briskly walked away.
"But it's only first period…" Joey said, staring at where Seto had just been.
See you tonight? What did that rat bastard mean? For being so smart, he's such a weird guy…. Joey thought, he sighed as the bell rang. How long were we out here? He thought to himself, Yugi, Tea, and Tristan were the first out of the classroom; Tristan walked in front of Joey and kneeled down,
"Have a nice time?" Tristan asked with a big cheeky grin on his face, Tea and Yugi sighed when Joey gave Tristan a grimace instead of a smile.
"That dude is weird." Joey said, still in his spacey state. He nodded his head a few times, as if he were agreeing with himself mentally.
"C'mon man, let's get to second period." Tristan said and for the second time that day, offered him a hand. The two boys walked together with Yugi and Tea close behind. Joey and Tristan teased each other, shoved each other, and almost jumped on each other before they reached their next class, laughing the whole way.
"Those two sure are good friend, huh, Yugi?" Tea asked, smiling at the two and nudging Yugi on the shoulder.
"Hah, yeah. I'd say they like each other if I didn't know how much Joey likes Kaiba." Yugi said thoughtfully, "Come to think of it, who does Tristan like?"
The door unlocked and swung open, Joey trudged in his dark house and tossed his heavy backpack towards the shoe carpet. He took his shoes off and walked into the kitchen, the house wasn't particularly big or fancy, it had a great sense of family and an eternal smell of good cooking. The kitchen was large and inviting with an island to eat off of that separated the living room and the kitchen. The cabinets were all oak-like and the floor was a material made to look and feel like wood- though it was not. He opened the fridge and grabbed a soda, he walked into the living room and flopped down onto the large couch, he looked for the remote, which sat lonely on the coffee table.
Mom decided to clean up… Joey thought, noticing that the usual magazines that were spread messily over the table and the old cups were gone. This place doesn't even look lived in anymore Joey rolled his eyes, he wondered why his mother even bothered. He reached for the remote, finally noticing a small post-it stuck to the front, he raised am eyebrow and peeled the small yellow paper from his controller, it read;
Hi Honey! Thought I'd get you here. Got the house cleaned, we have a guest tonight. I'll be home by 4 to start cooking, Luv, Mom
Joey rolled his eyes at the note, she didn't even clean the house, someone else did. He flipped on the TV and found a duel monsters tournament. He watched for an hour before the front door opened and his sister, now able to see, walked in.
"Joey?" She called from the other room.
"In here, sis." He said without bothering to look up. The first duelist was just on the brink of losing before he was able to summon Red Eyes Zombie Dragon, and the other competitor's Celtic Guardian didn't stand a chance. "Yeah!" Joey yelled at the screen as the Dragon blasted away the warrior and the life points went to 0.
"So you know we're having company tonight?" Serenity inquired, leaning her forearms on the back of couch over her brother and looking down at him.
"Yes. Mom left me a note; she'll be home at four." Joey said, looking back at his sister. He was proud he'd helped her get her vision back because she really was a beautiful girl, her sparkling brown eyes and chestnut hair, lean frame and long legs. Joey vowed long ago never to let any boy touch his baby sister. Serenity smiled and kissed her brother on the head.
"So you'll be very well behaved no matter what?" She asked as innocently as a baby sister can, "And you'll wear something presentable?" She asked again.
"Sure…" Joey mumbled as he watched the introductions of the next duelists come up. "Wait, who is it?" Joey asked suddenly, but by the time he did Serenity was gone and up stairs, he could hear the shower start to run. He shrugged, Who cares whose coming? It can't be that bad. Joey figured.
Two and a half hours later- 6:20
The wondrous smell of Mrs. Wheelers cooking had enticed Joey to over around the kitchen, drooling at the Italian meal his mother had created. The smell of garlic break wafted to the house and the blonde boy pleaded with his mother,
"Mooooom! Let me have some! I'm STARVING." Joey asked, giving his best puppy-dog look.
"No Joseph. Wait until our guest gets here. He should be here any minute. Why don't you set the table and help me move this food to the dining room?" Mrs. Wheeler asked he son, and as a mother, it was more a demand than a question.
"Fine..." Joey sighed, he would wait. He set the table, making it all look perfect. He put the food in its respective place and asked his mother if there was anything else he could do to pass the time.
"Go change, honey, put on a clean shirt." She replied, noting her son's stained shirt from the food he'd eaten earlier in the day, this was not unusual for Joey.
"Fine." Joey pouted and walked upstairs. He walked into his small room, it was bigger than Serenity's but not by much considering the queen-sized bed he insisted on cramming into it. The walls were painted a soft blue, he had a window facing the compact back yard and there were duel-monsters posters covering the walls almost completely. His deck was locked tightly in a safe box, though it wasn't as valuable as some, he liked to treat it as such. Joey pulled off his shirt and flung it into the corner where he flung dirty clothes, and opened his drawers to find a clean one. He chose a basic green shirt, forest green with no design. This should make those chicks happy. He thought referring to his mother and sister. I bet dad didn't have to change shirts… Joey grumbled inwardly. He walked into the upstairs hall just as his father was walking out of the master bedroom, adjusting his tie.
"Hey dad," Joey said softly, he and his father were not on the closest terms.
"Son." Was all the man said and he walked down stairs. Joey went into the restroom, the counter that was clean just minutes before was covered in makeup and other girly crap. Joey shoved it all the side and splashed his face. This is so weird. Are they trying to hide this from me? What kind of guest are they avoiding telling me about? He shook his head, I'm just imagining things! Crazy, Joey, crazy! I'll walk downstairs and it will be no one special… Joey left the restroom and walked down the stairs which lead, conveniently, to the front door just as the bell rang.
Joey jumped at the opportunity to open the door, however when he did his eyes opened wide and his heart skipped a beat…. Or 5.
It was Seto, wearing black jeans, a stark white shirt, a black leather jacket (Though not too flashy, of course) and, shockingly, carrying a bouquet of blue irises and pink tulips.
"Mutt." Was all he said.