It was a crisp morning in Domino city. The sky was still dark, as the sun wouldn't peak over the horizon for another hour. Every living thing should have been tucked away in bed, every sane living thing.
"You serious Yuge?! The birds aren't even awake yet, why run at this time?" Joey whined. Yugi smiled at his old friend's half-hearted complaints. This is about the tenth time Joey had mentioned sleep since the two had left the game shop.
"You didn't have to come with me, Joey. I know I'm the crazy one here." Yugi replied. A combination of jet lag and the rumbling from the Ener-D reactor had stopped Yugi from getting any true sleep these last few nights. So, he did what he always did when he couldn't sleep, he ran.
"No way Yuge, how could I let my friend do somethin' as stupid as run dese streets at night, alone." Joey grinned through his ragged breaths.
"Technically it's not night. It's only four o'clock am." Yugi said.
"Don't remind me." Joey groaned. The pro duelist had to stop and take a breath. Yugi stopped too and handed his own water bottle to Joey.
"Thanks." Joey breathed as he nearly gulped it all down. This entire jog Yugi had to go at a much slower speed than he was used to, all to stay with Joey. Yugi didn't mind this in the least.
"I haven't woken up dis early since I did paper routes. Seriously Yuge, why jog?" Joey eventually gasped.
"Oh well, it helps your cardio and your endurance. I also like the mind clearing effect it has." Yugi started to list.
"Mind clearin'? All I can think about is how tired I am." Joey groaned as the two started jogging down the docks again.
"Well, you're doing great Joey. We'll be back at the shop soon and we can stop." Yugi smiled.
"I don't just mean the runnin' Yuge. Seriously, when did the game addict dat I had to pull out of the locker room every gym turn into an early mornin' runner?" Joey asked.
"Huh, that's actually a good question. It was a very slow process I assure you." Yugi answered.
"Slow process or not, you have to have some idea of what started it. Because right now, all I can think of is dat you went crazy and are tryin' to slowly kill me." Joey puffed. Yugi laughed and slowed down a little more for his friend.
"Hmm, I think it started sometime after high school. I figured since I no longer had a alter ego to protect me from bullies, I'd do it myself." Yugi smiled, Joey didn't smile back. In fact, his face became much more serious. "I think… As I said this was a long process of whining and procrastination, there was no real starting point." Yugi quickly added. Joey continued to look over Yugi, probably looking any sign of hidden pain.
Yugi was one of the slowest when it came to accepting Atem's parting (only beaten by, surprisingly, Kaiba). It made sense, Yugi and Atem had shared a bond that Joey could only begin to understand. A bond like that, you don't just move on from. Joey had gotten pretty good at noticing when the pain was getting too much for Yugi. Something that had helped Yugi immensely through the last year of high school. Years later, Joey was still keeping an eye on Yugi's pain.
"Err, Joey... you might want to watch where you're-" Yugi started, but before he could say more Joey crashed right into a light post. A torrent of unique and strange profanities soon filled the morning air.
"You ok Joey?" Yugi asked as he bent down to help his friend up.
"Ya, ya I'm fine," Joey grumbled as he got to his feet. "Just why would dey put a lamp post dere?!" This was followed by another tapestry of curses aimed at the innocent light post.
"That's good." Yugi sighed, "I don't want to be the reason why the pro dueling circuit lost their best duelist. How is that going for you by the way?" Yugi asked as the two started to jog again, hoping to change the subject.
"Huh? Oh, it's goin' great. I'm goin' to another world championship in a few months. Dis one's going to be held in Rio." Joey smiled. "If I win, it'll be my third world title. I might just be challengin' you soon, so watch yourself Yuge." Joey said. Yugi nodded.
The two continued to run in silence for another half a mile. They were inside the city at this point. Many of the tall skyscrapers had great LED screens on them that ran constant ads or news reports. When Joey needed another break Yugi couldn't help but look at these multicolored screens. One advertisement even caught Joey's attention.
"Heh, look at dat smug jerk." Joey pointed to an advertisement for the next line of Duel Disks. Half of the ad had the duel disk; the other half was covered with Seto Kaiba's cold face.
"He really hasn't changed, has he?" Yugi said. And not just in ego.
Seto Kaiba had been the CEO of KaibaCorp for the last twenty-two years. Yet, he still looked like the nineteen-year-old Yugi had grown up with. The last time Yugi had seen him, he was at Yugi's game release party. The only thing even hinting at Seto's age is the limp he now had in his right leg. Yugi was never quite sure where Seto got that limp. After the Diva incident, Kaiba disappeared for eight months. Only Mokuba seemed to know where his brother went. Then, just as suddenly as he left, Seto was back. With only that limp to hint that he was even gone.
"He must be usin' all the plastic surgery money can buy to stay lookin' dat young." Joey laughed. "Don't know why he'd do dat though, because to me he just looks like a snot nose teen dat just a got a hold of his dad's money."
"I don't know what's going on, but the public seems to love him. All he needs to do is put his face on something and it immediately sells like crazy." Yugi added.
"And I'm usin' dat to my advantage," Joey said as he pulled out his pro dueling license. On it, in bold letters, it said sponsored by KaibaCorp. Yugi's eyes widened at the sight of the sponsorship.
"You-you finally managed to get sponsored by KaibaCorp?!" Yugi gasped. "What happened to your old sponsorship? I thought you liked being sponsored by the Truesdale Brothers?"
"Eh, dey were fine, but dey were trying to start dis weird style of duels on motorcycles. I really didn't want to be a part of dat, so I thought I'd ask Mokuba if dey'd take on an amazin' duelist like me." Joey said proudly. "Dey have been sponsoring me ever since. And you know what's the best part of it? Dat jerk Seto doesn't even know!" Joey laughed as he pointed to the ad. "You hear dat ya snob?! You are now payin' for Joey Wheeler, Joey Wheeler to travel the world in luxury!" Joey continued to laugh.
"And you now represent that snob and his entire company," Yugi added with a chuckle. Joey's back immediately stiffened.
"Nyeh, I don't like to think about dat part. Let's just keep runnin', we're almost to the shop anyways." Joey quickly said before racing off.
The ground started to shake again from the Ener-D reactor, but Joey didn't seem to react. Yugi was offset by the shaking but quickly caught up with Joey (even though Joey's legs are about the length of two of his legs). This time Yugi decided to stay just a little behind Joey. There was no way that Seto did not know what duelist his company sponsored. True, Mokuba could try to hide it from his brother, but Yugi didn't see him doing that.
"Seto, you big softy," Yugi said under his breath as the two rounded the corner.