Title: Legally Blond

Pairing: Eventual Puppyshipping (Seto/Joey), past Snareshipping (Duke/Joey). Sideships: Persevereshipping (Duke/Téa), Ardentshipping (Tristan/Serenity), probably Puzzleshipping (Yami/Yugi) but I haven't decided yet.

Rating: T

Words (Chapter 1): 2,226

Author's Note: The things I have done instead of finish The Final Duel include but are not limited to: finish another fic on a different account/fandom, start reorganizing my room, rewatch 5 full seasons of another show, get halfway through the first season of GX, watch Bonds Beyond Time, have multiple nights out, and start this. If you thought I was kidding when I say I hate endings of shows, I was not. Why I was inspired by this, I'm not entirely sure, but I was so here is my start. This is probably going to be a mix of the movie and musical and I've tried to make it my own so it won't be too boring. Also, I'm not sure how much attention I'll be giving the sidepairings or if all of them will be endgame (2 of them are set to, just not sure about the third) and I'm officially rambling so I hope you enjoy this.

Joey's POV:

The sky was cloudy when I got out of class. It was almost dark, I took mostly all night classes and this was the one day a week that I got out while it was still light outside. I liked night classes better than early ones, partly because I was tired in the morning and that made it even tougher to focus when I was sitting for extended periods of time and partly because I had two jobs to keep up with. The first was a paper route I'd had since I was young, that I was surprised I'd been kept on for and I think it was just that my boss felt bad for me, and the other was as a waiter.

If you ever want to lose all hope for humanity and hate the world, go into the service industry. Some people really did think that waiters, waitresses, busboys, and the like were all well beneath them. Of course, not everyone was like that, and we had some really good regulars in my diner. I knew I could have worse jobs in this world, and I was honestly grateful.

I shifted my bag on my shoulder, looking up at the sky and hoping I would make it home before the rain started. I really didn't feel like spending the extra money to take public transportation, and I'd been in a rush this morning and didn't check the weather and know to grab an umbrella. Typical me, I guess. Thinking things through wasn't always my strong point.

I walked by an electronics store, the only one anyone in this neighborhood could afford anything from (and that's only because they usually had outdated merchandise. I'm pretty sure the newer stuff had 'fallen off a truck' if you know what I mean) and smiled softly at the commercial playing on the television. It was for Valentine Cosmetics with the founder and face of the company modeling and talking about her stuff, though I couldn't hear the words. I smiled softly at the beautiful blonde holding up the bottle of anti-aging cream and chuckled fondly.

Mai Valentine was, believe it or not, from Domino as well. In fact, she used to babysit me and my sister, Serenity, back when we were kids. I remember my mom hiring her when she was at work and my dad was 'out' (sometimes that meant work, other times it meant a bar or something) and we'd always had a lot of fun with her. She taught us about the card game Duel Monsters, which became a favorite pastime of mine, and helped teach Serenity things about makeup that I never understood. She became a big sister to us, and stuck around even after Mom died and Dad never really had spare money to pay her.

The sense of pride that filled up in me every time I saw one of her commercials was overwhelming. We hadn't talked to Mai in a few years, since she went off to college to learn chemistry and then to cosmetology school (though we did get a condolence card with some money to help us with expenses when my Dad passed away last year), but when Valentine Cosmetics started popping up, we knew why she was too busy to talk to us. Besides, we were just happy she made it out. Domino wasn't really the best place to grow up, but most kids didn't really move on up in the world. Most ended up stuck in the low rate life they'd grown up in. I never wanted that for my sister or myself.

There were three big ways people got out of Domino. The first was dying which, yeah, no, not doing that. I had a lot to live for. Broke or not, I had my sister and my friends, and a really cool boyfriend. The second was doing what Mai did – get good grades and snag entry and hopefully a scholarship to a good school, and if you could make it big or at least big enough to live in a decent or good city, you were set. The third, which a lot of girls I went to high school with did, was get married to someone not from here. I don't know if the reason this happened more for the girls I knew was because straight guys are stupidly proud and wouldn't let a woman take care of them or just because rich guys are more likely to buy into this idea of needing to save a poor girl than a rich girl would for a guy, but. I digress.

I shook my head as I noticed the commercial changed and was no longer displaying my former babysitter and once-friend, deciding to go on my way. I needed to get home, get to Serenity. I was lucky when my dad died, we were at the age that we were allowed to take care of ourselves, because she and I didn't have any other family and if she'd still been underage, I don't know if I would have gotten to take custody of her. Nearly three years later, though, we're making it work, and I'm decently happy with where I am in life.

I started picking up speed as I felt the first drop on my head from the rain, tightening my hold on my bag so it didn't fall down my arm. I knew myself, if I could just start sprinting I could make it, the apartment wasn't far. As predicted, I was putting my key into the building's lock right as the downpour really started, whooping in victory as I shut the door behind me.

I walked up to the third floor, smiling at the kids playing in the hallway. They were brothers who lived next door, and the older one was teaching the younger how to play Duel Monsters. I couldn't help but miss Mai as I began opening the door to my apartment and heard a small glimpse of the conversation. "Wait, Syrus, remember the special ability of your card, you could have destroyed mine." "Sorry, Zane…"

"Big brother!" Speaking of siblings, as soon as I opened the door, I heard my sister's cheerful voice. I smiled and shut the door behind me, going over to the small table we had. I put my keys in my bag and draped it over a chair before hugging her from behind.

"Hey, sis. Whatcha doing?"

"Homework for my literature class. After that, I'm finished and I'll start dinner. Tris just got back a few minutes before you, he's in the shower now."

I gave her a kiss on the top of her head and nodded. Living with my little sister and best friend was a little weird sometimes, mostly after they started to date. Before that, Tristan and I actually shared one room of the apartment, giving Serenity her own bedroom, and I vividly remember my reaction when they decided to move him into hers. Though, to be fair, me having my own room was pretty cool and helpful when I had my boyfriend over, but it took me a while to be okay with him and her sharing as well. I was wrong, because basically nothing changed, except now I have more space, and if they're doing anything inappropriate, you could never tell. But I hoped they weren't anyway. At least not when I was in the next room.

Tristan and I had been friends for as long as I could remember, he was basically my brother. Honestly, he's probably the only guy I could imagine trusting not to break my sister's heart, he was just so good. Not to mention, he had dreams and goals, to some day own his own auto garage. Right now, he was running his brother-in-law's, which was just outside of Domino, and one day he hoped he'd be able to buy it. His brother in law had more than one, the other being closer to where he lived with Tristan's sister and their son, so he left Tris in charge of this one. The one complaint I had as his roommate was that he almost always came home dirty, hence the showers basically as soon as he walked through the door.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and dug into my bag. I pulled out one of my books and sat down to start my homework and a few moments later, Tristan came back out, fully dressed and oil free. "Hey, man, didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, you were already in the shower when I did," I answered.

Serenity closed up her stuff and stood up, putting her books away. Tristan chose to lean against the counter. When she made her way into the kitchen, she poked his stomach and giggled. "Move over, Tris, it's my turn for dinner and I can't cook if you're blocking the food."

He smiled at her and scooted over, opening the cabinet next to him and getting out the measuring cup on the top shelf. I never understood why we kept putting it back where she couldn't reach. He kissed her softly before moving to take the seat she'd gotten out of.

I could tell he wanted to talk but was holding back due to me actually doing some of my homework. After miraculously getting my slacker ass through high school and college entrance exams, I told myself going on to higher education, I wouldn't screw around, and I was glad he was respecting that. However, that look he was giving as he seemed to be waiting for me to take a break was pretty distracting, so I looked up at him with an eyebrow raised. "Spit it out, I'm not going to be able to get this done while you're watching me anyway."

He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "It's no big deal, I guess. I just wanted to say I saw Duke today."

My eyebrows crinkled slightly. My boyfriend and best friend didn't exactly get along despite my best efforts. I knew that and I was never sure why, and Tristan always just said he rubbed him the wrong way. "Where? Did he come into the shop? Was something wrong with the convertible?"

"No, he didn't come in. I went out to lunch with my sister, actually. It was this nice place close to her job, she insisted. Anyway, he was there with what I assume was his grandmother. Or maybe his birth mom, I don't know, his dad's kind of old, right?"

I nodded slightly. I hadn't actually met Duke's mom, he didn't even like to talk about her, but I'd been briefly introduced to his dad and stepmom. They weren't exactly the nicest people, not outwardly snobby, but they knew just how to talk to you to make you feel inferior. I'd told Tristan about that one interaction and he had been a little furious that Duke hadn't butted in and stuck up for me, so I'd kind of lied and said they were nicer the next time we met. There hadn't actually been a next time.

"You two didn't do anything stupid, right?" I asked cautiously. I knew they were both more levelheaded than I was, but I wouldn't put it past them to end up in a fight, or at the very least, a snarky argument, in a nice place.

"I didn't, I promise. I was very courteous, if I do say so myself. Waved and said hello as I walked by his table, that's it. Felt kind of rude to not introduce Gemma, but at least I didn't fight."

"I'm proud of you, Tristan," Serenity said from the counter where she was measuring out ingredients. I hadn't realized she'd even been listening.

"Yeah, me too, buddy. Thanks for that." I was about to go back to my homework, wondering whether or not I should ask Duke about his lunch later when I called him, but as I turned away, I noticed Tristan still seemed like he had something to say. "I get the feeling this story isn't over, so what else did you wanna tell me?"

He bit his lip, looking from me to Serenity and back again before he sighed. "He seemed pretty shady, honestly." There it was. I loved Tristan to death, but I didn't know how much more of this I could take. "No, wait, listen okay? The woman was giving him something and when he noticed I saw him there, he hid it and got all sketchy. I can't explain it but I think something's up with him, and it's not just me being protective this time."

I closed my eyes and thought for a minute. "Tristan, I know your heart is in the right place, but what could his grandmother have been giving him that he didn't want you to see that means he's hiding something? Maybe it was just some family heirloom thing and it felt weird knowing someone was watching him with it."

Tristan just shrugged and let it go, pulling out his phone and playing a game. I went back to my homework, not giving anymore thought to Tristan's suspicions of Duke's family lunch until Serenity piped up as she was mixing something.

"What if she was giving him a family ring?"

Ending Notes: Alright, here we go. I don't know how slow this fic is going to burn or not, I'm just writing it as I go. I know this is long and that's why I stopped it where I did, I felt like I was going overboard. Anyway, I gave a special nod to non-DM characters so I hope you appreciate that, and other than them, the other characters I named in here are important (other than Tristan's sister, whose name I totally made up here), and of course, that's not even all of them. Next chapter will be about Duke and Joey and I want to bring in Ryou because in my plotting this out, I had him as Tristan and Joey's other closest friend from Domino. Anyway, I don't mind if you don't leave a review but I'd love it if you guys put it on alert or fave if you don't just so I know how it's being received. Thank you! -Wondergirl.