"Come on Yug!" The blonde whined to his best friend.
"You're not getting out of this one Joey!" Yugi was determined to have his best friend do this job for him, no matter how much he hated it.
"You can't be serious?!" Joey begged.
"I'm afraid so…" Yugi held out the suit, "put it on and get it over with."
"I'd rather die in hell!"
Joey had been out of sorts as of late, his friends looked into it and found he had been obsessed with a certain multi-millionaire named Seto Kaiba.
"You been talking about him in your sleep!" Tristan complained.
"If I am I'm kicking his ass!" Joey pouted and blushed in embarrassment.
"Not from what we heard." Tea added.
"I'm not going on a date with that asshole!"
"You will, we have the reservation for the restaurant!" Tristan grabbed the suit and forced Joey to place it on with Yugi's help as Tea left the room.
"Honestly… We have 10 minutes to get him out of here before we should be at the movies Yugi..." Yami just sighed as he watched his own boyfriend struggle to place Joey in the suit.
"Oh shit! Can you guys handle it from here?" Yugi asked in a panic.
"Yeah we have it all under control Yug, go have fun-"
"Get off me!" Joey wailed and struggled.
"Alright then." Yugi left taking Yami's hand and leaving for their own date.
"Kaiba's guards will probably have to escort him home early knowing him." Yami commented to his boyfriend.
"Oh don't be so pessimistic! Now I have to go knock on wood 'cause you jinxed it!"
Yami chuckled and gave the shorter male a kiss to the lips as they left the house.
On the way to the restaurant, Joey complained about the tie being too tight.
"Come here then!" Tea helped Joey loosen the 'Tie of Death' Joey was calling it in his thoughts.
"Can't believe you two are making me do this." Joey sighed.
"Stop complaining! You'll thank us later." Tristan added.
"By setting me up on a date with the worlds biggest douche?"
"There he is, be nice or try to!" Tea left him with that as she walked off with Tristan.
"I will murder them." Joey thought to himself.
"Mutt." Joey growled at the nickname and glared at Kaiba with a burning hatred, yet he also felt a bit of relief he was there, for reasons unknown to him, seeing him in a white, fancy tux that he thought suit the taller male.
"Prick!" Joey still decided to keep his behavior the same despite how much he almost didn't want to fight him.
"Let's just get this over with I have a meeting in the morning and I should be in bed but Mokuba insisted that I join you on this miserable evening." Kaiba explained as they both walked in the restaurant.
"I'm forced too, pal. I sure as hell don't want to be here but my friends say it would do me some good."
"By convincing you that I'm your master?" The taller male teased with a sly smirk on his face.
"Fuck you Kaiba!" Joey barked.
Kaiba smirked and followed the waitress showing them to their seats. The two boys placed their orders and remained silent after the waitress took their menus.
"So how did Mokuba convince you to come on this tragic evening with me?" Joey asked trying to start up a conversation with the brunette.
"None of your business mutt." Joey scowled at the response.
"Hey, I'm just trying to be nice for once here!"
"Whatever pup." Joey growled in response.
They sat there arguing for a few minutes when they noticed people starting to stare and they held their tongues until the stares reverted back to their meal. By then their food had arrived and they remained silent as they ate, Joey wanted to try and work things out with Kaiba but everytime he tried it was deflected back, like he had a shield that refused to let anything enter.
Kaiba on the other hand, secretly appreciated Joey was at least trying after several years of fighting and arguing with the shorter male. He was growing weary of the constant attempt to seem cold to someone who was trying to befriend him after these long and painful years.
"So how is Mokuba?" Joey finally broke the silence.
"He is doing good… Still complaining I don't spend enough time with him like I normally would." He refused to look at the blonde.
"I don't blame him, but I also can't blame you either with the way the economy is at the moment and with the demands from the people you probably have your own hands full. Especially with the people being laid off and supply issues and the sort-"
Kaiba stared at the male in shock as he rambled on about how he actually, slightly, understood his situation.
"Why haven't I seen this side of the pup before?" Kaiba wondered as he listened to Joey, for once, interested in what he is saying.
"Something wrong Kaiba?" Joey asked feeling uncomfortable under the brunettes gaze.
"Huh? Oh yeah…. It's just that… well that was the smartest thing to ever be heard from your mouth." Kaiba mumbled as he returned to his food.
"Yeah… thanks…. I think?" Joey returned to his food also.
"Don't get used to the compliments just because you are suddenly smarter pup." Kaiba added.
"Whatever rich boy." Joey muttered under his breathe.
"So how come you don't show your smart side more often?" Kaiba asked wanting to know.
"The middle school I went to had a bunch of bullies and if you were smart then you get pummeled. I didnt want to be that kid." Joey answered then stared at his empty plate of food.
"I see. Everything alright puppy?" Kaiba looked at Joey's eyes.
What he saw was surprising in the blonde's chocolate brown eyes, depression, sadness, hopelessness… That was so different from the Joey he knew. The Joey he knew was like an ever burning fire, always blazing and ready for anything coming his way, what he saw; however, was quite the opposite. He saw this Joey as nothing more than the ash and leftover of the original, small, humble and can easily be extinguished.
"Yeah… I'm fine." Joey played with the fork in his hand.
"No you're not… I know you would rather go to Yugi with your problems but…. I want to hear the full story, from you." Kaiba said, which in return surprised the blonde male.
"I had e-enough abuse…. I didn't want to suffer through any more beating than I already went through." Joey began.
"Already went through? Who else abused you?" Kaiba asked and watched the younger boy's body language, he noticed Joey biting his lip and how he looked off to the side apprehensively.
"My dad…. he is a drunk man with gambling problems."
Then it struck Kaiba, perhaps they weren't as different as he originally thought.
"That's horrible…. I'm sorry I brought it up."
"No it's alright… It's not really a secret at least from those who know me well." Joey laid back in his chair.
Kaiba sat there thinking for a while, in the meantime Joey looked at Kaiba. He was surprised that Kaiba actually seemed to have some deep, underlying form of caring. He could see it in the normally emotionless blue eyes of the man he was on a "date" with. He normally saw the man as nothing but ice and he froze everything he came in contact with, like a blizzard, harsh and unrelenting. But this Kaiba, he saw was more like a gentle snowy day in Joey's eyes.
"Hey pup," Joey looked at Kaiba, "why don't you spend the night? That way Mokuba has company, but if I find one thing out of place or you make a mess then you will get a beating."
"Nothing can be worse than what my dad gives me, sure why not?" He looked at the dessert menu.