"I need help! I can't explain over the phone, just get over here!" Joey pulled the phone away from his ear to check the number that was calling. He hadn't looked at the caller-ID, already waiting on a call from Tea letting him know she was on her way, but quickly realized that this wasn't her. 'Daisuke' was printed neatly across the screen. That explained it.
"Is this the 'you need help because there's someone strange outside and you don't want to have to walk out to your car alone' help, or the-,"
"I'm here alone and the burglar alarm just went off in my house! Orders are coming in like crazy, and if I don't get them out, my boss will fire me!"
"Okay. I'll be right there. Would it be alright if I brought some friends to help?"
"Yes! That would be fine. Just hurry, please!"
The line went dead and Joey dialed Tea's number while returning to the living room, where Yugi, Yami, Duke, and Tristan were waiting. "Change of plans. Who wants to make pizzas to help out a friend in need?"
"What's up?" Yami raised en eyebrow.
"My friend who works down at Tony's Pizza needs to go home, but he's there alone. You guys up for helping cover for him?"
The four shared questioning looks, and then nodded their consent. Tea picked up her phone and Joey filled her in. "I'll meet you there." She said, sounding slightly out of breath. Dance class must have run late again.
The boys grabbed their jackets and Tristan slipped on his motorcycle helmet. Hailing a taxi, Yami, Yugi, Joey, and Duke managed to make it to the local pizzeria just minutes after Tristan. Joey's friend was waiting for them, pacing frantically by his car.
"Joey! Oh, thank you so much for this! You've been here enough to know what to do, and I left a list of orders, deliveries, and chores that need to be done. I've got to go, here's the key." Daisuke handed a lanyard over to the blonde and hurriedly opened his car door.
"Wait!" Duke called. "What about the deliveries? Isn't there a company car?"
"It's out back! The keys are in the console. Make sure it's full of gas when you're done, and I'll reimburse you." With a parting wave, he pulled his car out of the parking lot and onto the road, accidently running over the curb in the process.
"Alright, lets get to work." Joey twirled the lanyard around his finger, before catching the keys and inserting them into the front door. "I've been coming to this place ever since I was a little kid. Know the staff and procedures better than the manager. I'll make the pizzas and Tea can help me when she gets here. Yugi, you've got the best customer service skills, so you'll be manning the phone and any walk-in orders. Duke and Tristan, you can do deliveries, while Yami stays here and cleans up. Everyone got that?"
"Why do I have to do deliveries?" Tristan asked, pushing the door open and holding it for the rest of the gang.
"Because it sounded like there were a ton of orders and one vehicle won't be able to take all of them in time. Your motorcycle-,"
"Has no area designed to hold pizzas."
"I never thought of that." He got to the back and slipped on an apron, then tossed another one to Yugi and went to wash his hands. "Let's see what we have to do before finding something for you to do." He located the list and began reading it and pulling out the correct orders.
"Wow. That's a lot." Yugi surveyed the piles.
"Yeah. No kidding. I'm going to start delivering these so people don't have to wait an longer." Duke began loading the separate orders into carrying bags so as to not confuse them. Yami and Tristan helped. When they were done, they each grabbed a few bags and headed out to the truck while Yugi began chopping vegetables and Joey prepped dough for the orders that hadn't been made yet.
"There it is." Duke walked over to the vehicle and opened the driver door. Or, at least, he tried to. "Um, the door's locked."
"What?" Yami came over in surprise.
"It's locked. I can't get the door open." To emphasize this point, he tugged on the handle a few more times.
"Are you sure there isn't some other way in?"
"He said the keys were stored in the…" Duke trailed off as something shiny caught his eye. "I found the keys." Silently, he pointed through the window at the front seat. "We're going to have to find another way to do this."
Yyyyy
"Come on, baby. Don't die on me now." Tristan coaxed his motorcycle. All the miles it was traveling, while its rider was performing a world-class feat of balancing what were probably too many pizzas to be safe, couldn't be good for it. Finally, his phone, which he had taped to the center of the handlebars, beeped. He had arrived at his destination.
Sighing, he swung his leg over and off his bike, and then set the orders that didn't go to this particular house on the seat. 'I got this. It's not so bad.' He walked up to the door and knocked. A middle-aged man in glasses and a loose tie opened the door.
"Hello, I've got your cheese pizza with a side of garlic bread. That will be 1,275 yen." He put on his best smile as he recited the order and collected the money. He bid the guy a good night and returned to his bike.
He turned the key, logged in the address of the next house on his GPS, and lifted his kickstand. And instant later, though, he stomped it back down and mouthed every swear word he knew, making up a few in the process. Once he had calmed down, he walked back up to the door and knocked.
"I am very sorry sir, but my delivery bike is out of gas. If you would drive me to the nearest gas station, I have a bunch of coupons to give you in return."
Yyyyy
"Mom, the pizza delivery guy's hot and driving a limo! Where the hell did you order from?" Duke did his best to remain smiling as the door slammed in his face so the girl could have a 'private' conversation with her mother. With little other option, he had been forced to wake his driver and have him bring the car out.
'This is so not going to be good for my reputation.' He thought to himself.
The mother opened the door and, after he convinced her that yes, she had called the correct pizza place and no, the 'hot delivery guy with the limo' didn't cost extra, proceeded to blush and miscount her money several times. Her daughter just peered out the living room window blinds with wide eyes.
Yyyyy
"Yes, sir… alright. Can do! Your pizza will be there in thirty minutes. Please have your payment ready for our driver." Yugi hung up and relayed the order to Joey, who was now flipping dough above his head, and Tea, who was chopping vegetables with terrifying speed and precision.
"Yami, are you done with the tables yet?" Joey called out towards the lobby.
"Almost. Just one more to go."
"Alright. When you're done, would you mind making a few deliveries? Tristan and Duke won't be back in time to take these. You can head out as soon as I'm finished with this latest order."
"I can't drive." Yami straightened up and turned to face the blonde chef, rag hanging down at his side. "And even if I could, the keys are locked in the truck."
"We've got to get these out somehow. You're the most resourceful. Try to figure something out."
Yyyyy
"Where to, kid?" The taxi driver looked in his rearview mirror and blinked in mild surprise at the stack of pizza boxes on the bench by his latest fare. "Throwing a party?"
"Delivering pizzas without a license or car. Can you take me to this address, please?" Yami handed up a note detailing where the first order was to go.
The driver stared at it for a moment, and then raised his eyes to the teen. "How many of these do you gotta do?"
Yyyyy
"Here's your pizza. Your total comes to fifteen hundred yen-," Yami broke off when he realized that the teen that had opened the door was staring with eyes as wide as his mouth. "Umm."
A small sound, maybe a whimper, escaped his throat as he, to Yami's shock, toppled over backwards and fainted.
"I'm pretty sure I totaled that up correctly. Sir? I'm just going to… check my math." He shuffled awkwardly as another teen, this time female, descended the stairs.
She saw him standing at the door and screamed, completely ignoring her brother lying on the floor. "Oh, my god! Yami Motou is our pizza boy!" She bolted for a table midway down the hall and returned with a marker. "Autograph! Can I get your autograph?" Without waiting for a response, she yanked up the sleeve of her sweater and thrust the marker into his hand, making him have to fumble to not drop the pizzas.
"You want my autograph?"
"Yes!" She gestured excitedly to her bare arm, smile wide enough to see almost every tooth. Carefully, Yami uncapped the marker and wrote his name on her arm, just above her wrist. Still standing over her unconscious brother, she examined her arm and squealed. "I'm going to have this tattooed! I have to call Tetsu and get him to his parlor! Cell phone!" She ran off back up the stairs, holding her arm like it was on fire, very nearly tripping over a young girl coming down to the first floor.
"Here." She handed him some bills. "Mommy says you can keep the change." He handed her the boxes and she stared at her brother, unimpressed. "Could you just push him out of the way of the door?"
Yyyyy
"I'm alive!" Tristan threw his hands up in the air as he walked through the front door and slumped exhaustedly into the nearest booth. "My bike is never going to be used as a delivery vehicle again."
"What happened?" Joey boxed up the last order of the night, pick-up order.
"I had to ask three different customers to take me to the gas station and by the end of it the last pizza was so cold they refused to pay me."
"You should have tried it my way." Duke smirked happily from where he was filling up his soda cup. "I got so many tips showing up in a limo."
Yami finished wiping off the prep counter and stretched, popping his back, grunting in satisfaction. "I got a taxi driver the day before he retired and he turned off the meter just because he'd never had to help deliver pizzas before. He thought it was funny."
"Why didn't you just take the delivery van?" Daisuke walked in.
"We would have, but someone locked the keys in it." Tristan swiped Duke's soda and took a swig.
"Wait. You're talking about that old Ford out back. The delivery van is parked on the curb. Oh! And apparently it was just the stupid neighbor cat that tripped my alarm."
Silently, the temporary delivery boys looked at each other, then got up and walked out the back door to see. There, on the side of the street, was a blue van with Tony's logo on the side.
"Joey, do us all a favor next time a friend of yours needs help and forget about asking for help." Duke glared at the blonde.
Yyyyy
Requested by my 300th reviewer, Pocketmage!
I hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you thought! Review and you get pizza delivered by your favorite duelist! :3
