Worlds Apart

by Droiture LeReve

A thunderstorm rages outside when Seto gets a knock at the door. Who could it be, and could this fateful encounter grow into so much more? Rated M for language and violence, puppyshipping.

Note: Well this is going to be like every other fanfic I've posted and never finished, but I had no choice. The evil monkey robot ninja pharaohs demanded it, and you don't cross the evil monkey robot ninja pharaohs. Not if you value your left nostril, anyway. So, here you go, an unimaginative carbon copy of every other SetoXJoey fanfic out on the internet. Sorry internet, I'm usually much more creative than this, but for some reason my brain said "WRITE THIS! WRITE IT NOW!" So here I am.

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, but that rich and famous Kazuki Takahashi does, the lucky sonnavagun. He's a Japanese bazillionaire. I'm an American teenager with a laptop and way too much free time. I also don't own the song "Worlds Apart". I don't know who does, but it's not me.

Worlds Apart

Seto Kaiba glanced vaguely at the pouring thunderstorm raging on outside. Branches and debris were scattering along in the wind, and the crash of thunder echoed through the mansion as if it were coming from somewhere inside. Seto was about to go back to his afternoon tea when the doorbell rang.

Who the hell would be out there in this weather? Seto thought quickly before getting up to answer the door.

A bleeding, soaking wet Puppy fell into his foyer and lay there, unconscious.

"What the hell did you do to yourself this time, Mutt?" Seto mumbled to himself. He kicked the blonde lightly, calling, "Hey! Hey, Mutt! Wake up, I want to know why you're in my house and making my foyer smell like wet dog. Hey! Wheeler! Did you hear me, I said wake up!"

Suddenly a hand grasped Seto's ankle tightly, as if in warning.

"Heard ya... rich bastard... can't... ahh...." The hand went away, releasing Seto's leg. Joey shakily picked himself up from Seto's floor, looked all too unstable on his own feet. "I... hate ta admit it.... I need... ya help." He rasped, his mouth and nose bleeding freely and his eyes nearly swollen shut.

"God, you look like you've been through a meat grinder. Here, wipe up that mess of dog food you call a face." Seto chucked a handkerchief at Joey, who caught it in mid-air. "Now what are you babbling about?" Seto asked as Joey wiped his face clean off all the blood and fluids.

"You gotta a lotta money, right?"

"Where are you going with this?"

"A lotta... influence... with authority..."

"Wheeler, for God's sake--"

"You can get anyone ya want put away, even if they didn't do nothin'."

"Wheeler, what do you need? For Christ's sake, you're stumbling all over yourself, you crashed in here during a thunderstorm asking for my help and now you're pointing out my political influence? Yes, I'm rich and powerful. We've established that. I mean, I don't even like you. Consider yourself lucky I haven't called security already, but then again, maybe I'd better call animal control."

"Enough with the bullshit, Kaiba, I need your help!" Joey suddenly shrieked, finding strength in himself that he thought had all been destroyed. Seto jumped at the sudden outburst, slopping his tea all down his shirt front.

"Jesus, calm down! What?" Seto asked, wringing out his wet shirt, obviously more irritated than necessary.

"Look, I can't take it anymore. Ever since my parents split, my father's been drinking and drinking, and it's gotten worse and worse. I don't normally reveal anythin' about my home life, so listen the fuck up because this is the part I need you for. And you better not laugh at me or-or tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, capisce?"

Seto was silent, already getting the idea when Joey mentioned his father's drinking.

"Look, I need your help. I tried goin' to the police before, but my dad always pulled out the same bullshit story. 'Oh officer, did my son say that? He's mentally ill, bipolar, schizophrenic, all those bad problems you see on the news. I have him on a set regimen of medicine but he just hasn't been taking them! Thank you for finding him, officer. I'll make sure he takes his medicine and gets some rest right away.' Then he'd force a few pills down my throat and throw me in a corner while I slept off the pain. I figgered since you got the money and power to put him away for good, I could ask you fer help and you could get him put away. But ferget I said anythin', it was stupid to think you'd ever help me with anythin'." Joey mumbled the last part to himself, turning to leave.

". . .How long has this been going on, Wheeler?" Seto said in his trademark business-like tone.

"Since I was eight, I reckon."

"And you say you've tried to contact the authorities before but never could get through?"

"Not once. I live on the shit-hole side of town where murders and rape are just part of the scenery. Can't walk 15 feet down Blue St without seeing a chalk outline or five. The police don't give two shits what goes on over on that side of town. Try to report shit, they just don't care."

Seto stood up and walked over to the shivering, wet blonde. "Come sit down. I think you and I need to talk a few things through."

After sitting Joey down and handing him a cup of tea to warm him up and a towel to dry himself off, Seto sat across from him in the squishy recliner. That chair was one of Seto's guilty pleasures. Some people have chocolate, he had The Big Squish, as Mokuba had affectionately nicknamed it.

"Now tell me why you came to me. After our history together, I would have assumed you'd rather live with your father."

"Believe me, Kaiba, I wouldn't be here if I had a choice. I'd just go to Yugi's or Tristan's like I usually would for the night and wait for my dad to sober up in the morning. But with the rain and all the buses not running, I had no choice. Plus no one's got the room for me anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since the Pharaoh's got his own arms and legs, he's takin' up Yug's guest room. Tristan's guest room is occupado due to Duke's shop goin' under at the moment, Tea's mom ain't too keen on a guy stayin' the night, I don't know the Bakuras well enough to spend the night there, and God only knows what the Snowy Psycho'd do ta me in my sleep if I'm not careful." Seto had to suppress a chuckle; Snowy Psycho, that was an interesting way to refer to the tomb robber.

"I see your point. But have you even asked them? I mean, they're your best friends, one of them has got to make room for you at some point."

"I...I dun wanna be imposin' r' nuthin'." Joey said. Seto groaned in exasperation. "So you see why I came ta you. You're my last hope, Kaiba. My only hope."

An image flashed through Seto's mind of a movie his brother made him watch once, and Seto had to laugh as the image of Joey with his hair in buns and wearing a dress entered his mind.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me! Ya know what, forget it! I'll go sleep in a Dumpster like usual." Joey got up to leave, and Seto had to pull him back down, still chuckling.

"Hehe, It's not you I'm laughing at, Puppy. It was something else."

"Bullshit."

"No, I'm serious. It was just the way you said that made me think of something Mokuba made me watch once and then I saw you in my head wearing a dress... long story. Anyway, sit back down, you're still soaking wet and I refuse to send even you out there in this weather. You'd be picked up and dragged off; the winds are insane out there. I still don't quite understand how you managed to get here in this kind of weather from your side of town if the buses aren't running."

"Believe me, Kaiba, the buses weren't runnin', but I was. In fact, I think I should just leave and go hide someplace before Pop figgers out where I am. He was followin' me tha' whole time, throwin' shit and screamin'. Think I lost him around Niles Avenue but he's sneakier than you'd expect a fat, middle-aged, drunk guy to be. Like a fuckin' fatass ninja with a beer."

"That's an interesting analogy."

"I got a million of 'em."

Joey fell quiet. Seto took the moment to study his broken face. Joey's mouth was open slightly, his teeth stained with blood. His nose was off-center, probably broken, which would explain the need to breathe through his mouth. Both of his eyes were black-and-blue and nearly swollen shut; Seto found it impressive how the mutt was able to get the tea into his mouth without seeing it. He was covered with fresh cuts and bruises. Seto tried very hard to not pity him, to turn away coldly as was his way, but found he could not. As he reached for Joey to try and comfort him, a sudden bang rang through the house, like a gunshot. Seto looked up and saw a smoking hole in the wall very close to his head, and Joey immediately froze and began whimpering pitifully. Three more bullets shot through the wall, window, and door, each nearer and nearer to hitting their mark, which Seto estimated was about Joey's head.

"Oh God, he found me, I told ya he'd find me, shit shit shit shit shit shit--" Seto grabbed the babbling blonde and shoved him towards the staircase.

"Wheeler, go to the second floor, third door to your left. In that room you'll find a walk-in closet. Go hide in there. I'll come find you after I've taken care of your father."

Joey didn't even try to protest as he bolted up the stairs. Seto watched him go. God, he'd never seen the Pup run so fast from anything in his life. The door burst open and a fat old man with a dirty, wrinkled wife-beater and jeans came plowing in.

"Where's that ungrateful fuck? Where's that boy? I saw his worthless ass comin' this way! I'll find him if I hafta blast through every rich fuck's mansion in this city!"

"Your son is under my protection, and if you value your freedom and your life you'll get out of my house!"

"Who's gonna make me, sonny? You?" Wheeler Sr lifted his rifle and took aim at Seto's chest.

From his upstairs closet hiding place, Joey could only gasp in horror as he heard a gunshot and the strangled sound of a billionaire CEO's voice as a bullet dug it's way somewhere in his body. He buried himself underneath a pile of old clothes and blankets, using one of Seto's old blue trench-coats as a cover for his head as he tried to disguise himself as a pile of laundry. He shivered and cried in his closet prison.

Seto dropped to one knee, holding his shoulder, which bled freely. He dug his long, thin fingers into the wound, hissing at the pain, and pulled a bullet from his body. Wheeler Sr smirked at the man's pain and took aim again. This time, Seto knew what was coming. He dived out of the way fast enough that Joey's father didn't have time to pull the trigger before Seto was already behind him. Seto used his foot to smash open an ornate decorative sword case on the wall, pulling out an expensive-looking jeweled dagger he'd bought on a trip to Egypt once. He shoved it through Wheeler Sr's rib cage from behind, piercing his heart. The man fell to the floor with a thump and gurgled in pain. Seto dashed upstairs to find Joey. He knocked on the closet door.

"Puppy? Puppy, it's me, open the door. It's only me. I'm fine."

Joey tentatively opened the door, still wearing Seto's old coat on his head, looking much like a sad dog. "I'm sorry, Kaiba. I should never have come. It's only brought you more aggravation than you ever needed, and all for a guy you don't even give two shits about. I'll just go back home."

"You won't have to. I'm here to report you officially don't have a home to go back to. Your father's dead, Joey. He tried to shoot me more than once and in my self-defense, I rammed a knife into him. I apologize for murdering the only family you've got, but-- OOF!" Joey had wrapped his arms around Seto in an impulsive hug.

"He's dead? He's finally fuckin' dead? I don't hafta go home to a man who beats me and calls me a worthless fuck? I don't hafta avoid havin' friends over, or worry about them gettin' hurt, or nuthin'? I'm free?" Tears flowed freely down Joey's face. "I'm finally free... But wait... where will I go? I ain't got a home now." Joey let go, leaning against the wall and staring out the window at the rain.

"Look, seeing as how I was the one who killed him, and you spent all this time and effort trying to get me to help you anyway, I see no reason as to why you cannot sleep here. At least until you find your own apartment."

"Y-Ya serious, Kaiba? Fer reals? But I thought ya didn't--"

"Look, I've said a lot of things in the past, but the way you revealed your hardships to me just... well it opened my eyes, to say the least. In my life, I didn't have it very easy either. I suppose, listening to your story, it made me remember mine and made me remember that I wasn't the only one in the world with an abusive worthless fuck of a father, though mine had a few more bucks to his name, bucks he spent on various ways to torment myself and Mokuba."

"Fer reals?"

"For reals. Now, before anything, however, I think the two of us should get to a hospital. I have a bullet hole in my shoulder that to be perfectly honest, hurts like a motherfucker right now and you've got a face that looks like it was beat with a meat tenderizer. Also, we'll get some cops to drag away your old man's corpse, okay?"

"Yeah, but, lemme see it first. I wanna finally do to him what he's done to me all these years."

"Kick him while he's down?"

"Damn straight."

Joey ran downstairs to see his father's bloated corpse leaking blood onto the floor. He grabbed the knife out of the flesh and began mercilessly stabbing at and beating the corpse. "And this was for blaming me for the divorce! This is for taking away my sister! This is for all the slices! This is for all the dices! This is for all the long, arduous years you've put me through, and this... this is for finally dying, you worthless son of a bitch." With a final plunge, Joey slammed the knife into his father's face, tearing apart the last meaty strings of muscle that trapped him in his past and severing himself from his memories. He stood up and turned to face Seto. "Now we can go to the hospital."

"Shall we?" Seto said simply, not even fazed by Joey's act of extreme violence. He placed the old coat on Joey's shoulders, the same one Joey was using to hide from the world just a few moments ago, put his own white coat on, and led Joey out of the mansion, over his father's bloody corpse, and into the car, as he drove them to the nearest hospital.

Two months later, Joey sat at the baby grand piano, playing a complicated piece from a popular song. His face had healed nearly perfectly, leaving nothing but a small couple of scars.

"Good work, puppy, I never knew you could play the piano so well."

"I always had a thing fa' music. I can play just about any instrument ya put in my hands."

"Ok, the violin."

"Done."

"The electric guitar."

"Done and done."

"The didgeridoo."

"Ah, don't go gettin' crazy on me, Moneybags."

Seto and Joey shared a healthy laugh. In the two months since Joey had come to him, bleeding and begging for assistance, the two had grown very close. Seto sat next to Joey and played a similar piece in a higher octave. Joey recognized the old tune and began to sing.

"I see the same stars through my window
That you see through yours
But we're worlds apart
Worlds apart
And I see the same skies through brown eyes
That you see through blue
But we're worlds apart, worlds apart
Just like the earth, just like the sun
Two worlds together are better than one
I see the sun rise in your eyes
That you see in mine
But we're worlds apart, worlds apart"

Seto took up the next part of the tune.

"I see the same stars through my window
That you see through yours
But we're worlds apart, worlds apart
And you see the same skies through brown eyes
That I see through blue
But we're worlds apart, worlds apart
Just like the earth, just like the sun
Two worlds together are better than one."

The two of them looked at each other and sang the last part in harmony.

"I see the friendship in you eyes
That you see in mine
But we're worlds apart, worlds apart
Together, but worlds apart
And a mockingbird sings in an ol' yonder tree
Twaddle-ee ah dee dee dah dee dee dee"

"We're not really worlds apart anymore, are we, Seto?"

"Not unless you want us to be, Pup."

"Not again. Never again. You saved my life. On that day, I owed you my life. I can never repay that debt in full."

"You never have to. All you need to do is stay here beside me. Do you think you can do that, pup?"

"Always and forever."

A sweet kiss sealed the deal, and what was once thundering rain outside the newly-fixed window was now sweet snow, glistening off of the colossal lawn and reflecting the sunlight onto the forms of two lovers curled up by the piano, together but no longer worlds apart.