Class time didn't change at all even if Joey was dressed as a female. Kaiba's reaction to Joey's transformation was the brunette dumbly staring at the crossdresser. Seto shook out of his daze when the teacher told Wheeler to sit down.
Kaiba had actually expected this to happen after their recent fight, but he had not expected the fool to do it at school. Joey was even more of an idiot than he thought, but damn did he look good in that uniform. Especially those legs. They weren't bony, beefy nor muscular. They were slender and looked soft to touch. Even if the blond didn't pull off the look, those legs were irresistible.
But he will never admit that. If Joey thought that he can make him admit to something so stupid to him, he was not giving him that satisfaction. And the brunette was interested in how far the blond was willing to take this ridiculousness. It would be something interesting outside of his work and dueling life.
The brunette glanced over at the crossdressing blond. Wheeler was supporting his head by his cheek against his fist, and was writing something in his notebook. It was definitely not notes since Joey wasn't glancing at the board. But those amber eyes looked over at him.
It took a moment for the stoic CEO to look away because he noticed that the male's eyes were especially golden brown today. It must be the mascara and eyeliner.
He cursed his curiosity because now the crossdresser was smirking sexily at him.
Joey so saw Kaiba looking at him!
He totally thinks I'm hot! Who can blame him? I am Joey Wheeler and I can totally rule both sexes!
But its not gonna be easy convincing the asshole to admit that. I'm gonna need proof, and Mai told me that the best way is seducing him. Bleh! I don't wanna, but if I don't, I wont get faster results, and graduation is coming up next year! No way that I can stay in touch with Kaiba for as much as I can! I need to step up my game or lose by default!
Joey then went to action. He had to be subtle, but obvious at the same time to give the skeptical duelist a clue!
First he tried to think of something sexy to do. Mai gave him some tips, but he could not work the courage to do those said tips.
As he was trying to store up the bravery, he wanted to cross his knees, but the desk was stopping him so he twist his body to the side - unknowingly at Kaiba - and slowly crossed his legs like a woman since he's wearing a skirt. Kaiba didn't want to admit to himself of what he was expecting when the blond's skirt rose slightly.
Joey began to feel rather hot behind the neck so pushed his weave aside. It left his neck exposed and vulnerable. He tugged at his uniform bow lightly. He always hated these tie-at-the-neck things. So suffocating. When he stopped tugging, he let his hand innocently travel down his body until it settled lazily against his side.
Kaiba watched this with great suspicion. He can't help it. He felt anticipation, but he quickly realized that he was acting silly. He returned his attention to the work that he was doing such as reading through proposals. He found the work to be tedious in comparison to waiting for Joey to act like a fool. But he was the boss so he moved to it.
The bell rang before Joey could try to subtly seduce the rich asshole. He groaned, but was grateful for the free time. His friends went over to his desk with excited smiles. He grinned at them. "So what'dya think?"
"I thought that you were going to do this one time, Joey." Yugi was concerned about his friend's new objective, but was sure that the school wasn't going to go to court about this, since the school had went to court before and lost, so students were allowed to dress as their decided gender except for when physical education is involved. The student must go to the locker room of their physical gender, but be allowed to change in a bathroom to avoid bullying.
"I was, but Kaiba said I looked terrible, so I'm doing this to prove that asshole wrong! Y'see, if he truly admits that I look good, then I win." Joey exaggeratedly imagined Kaiba getting on his knees and admitting that he actually looked darn good in a skirt!
"Then when is it decided that you lose?" Tea inquired.
"Graduation I guess but that's a whole year from now!"
"Graduation huh." The king of games understood why. And then weakly smiled at the thought of graduating. "I can't believe were almost going to be part of the real world. I plan on going to college while working at grandpa's shop."
The only girl in the group added, "And you guys already know that I got a dance scholarship for New York."
Tristan included, "And I'm going to enter the police academy. Duke is going to continue selling dice monsters, and is making a new game now."
Yugi asked his blond friend, "What are you going to do Joey?"
The crossdresser scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I still hafta work to pay off my dad's debts like usual. But I got some of my own money and free money from the gov saved up to get through college and university. When I get enough dough, and experience, then I get to open my own restaurant business."
Tristan pointed out with a friendly wink, "Remember our deal, man. I get the best table of the house when you open up."
"Sure thing." The two shared a bro-fist.
Tea then bought the conversation back around. "So back to what we were discussing, how are you going to get Kaiba to admit that you're pretty?"
The crossdresser gave an awkward smile. He didn't want to tell his friends that his plan was to seduce the CEO. That would be too weird even if they knew that he was gay. "Still working on that."
Just then Duke walked into their classroom. "No way! I thought you were just joking, Joey!" The long haired male looked directly at his chest. "You're not wearing any fake boobs, huh?"
"Nah. Everyone knows that I'm a dude, and I'm not doing this for the long run, so I don't see the point of runnin' around with fake boobies everywhere." He said all this with his female voice.
It was the first time for Duke to hear him talk like that. "Damn, you seriously sound like a chick! I know you're a guy, but now I have a hard time believing. Even with your flat chest." Joey grinned widely at his success of even tricking Duke into believing in his hotness. The dice master then questioned, "So are you only going to dress as a girl for school, or is this a whole day thing?"
"A whole day thing! I don't know when I might bump into Kaiba, and plus Mai hand me down a lot of her clothes and shoes, too! No matter what, I won't stop dressing up as a girl, until I win! Unless it's PE or I gotta go home, y'know."
All of his friends wondered of what Joey could possibly get out of all this hard work if he won, but they didn't think to hard on it since they knew that Joey wasn't either.
They day went on like no other day for crossdressing Joey, except for the stares from other people, but he knew that they were going to stop that sooner or later.
After school he couldn't go home to change into something else due to knowing his father would never improve his crossdressing even if he could explain it. So he used the male bathroom stall to change into a pair of woman jeans, a black tank top that is covered by a black flower printed blazer, and a pair of black flats. He then checked his makeup and hair to make sure that he still looked in place and feminine.
He then exited with a bright smile that had a boy that was about to come in stop and stare at him. Joey gave a wink which made the poor boy flush.
The gang and him were going to spend time together at Duke's store to see the new upgrades to his game. "I still haven't chosen the right girl to advertise my new game."
Tea inquired, "Why does it have to be a girl?"
Duke explained, "Because it will reach out to a wide spread of people. If I were to show a guy, then girls or parents might think that it is boy exclusive, but my game reaches out to a kid of any gender. And I want the girl to be preferably around our age, so teenagers will want to buy it also."
"Then why not make Joey, your girl?"
"Shut up, Tristan." The young teenager growled.
Though Duke actually took it into consideration for a bit. "That wouldn't exactly work either considering that not many parents are accepting of crossdressing people. If kids could buy the game themselves, then it would be no big deal, but it's the parents' approval that I have to watch out for. But if Joey somehow became a positive symbol for kids to look up to on the media, then I might consider it."
"Whoa, whoa! I'm not gonna be your show girl!" Joey shouted. "And I don't get what's the big deal about a guy wearing girl clothes. It's not like I'm gonna attack someone out of nowhere. I mean I get that it's a bit freaky, but really? If you don't feel comfortable, then it's not my problem if I'm not doin' anything to ya."
His friends agreed and went on to the store.
._._._.
A few days passed, and Joey was nowhere close to getting Kaiba to say that he was pretty. He just couldn't work the nerve to seduce him. Every time he tried, his stomach felt so weird, and somehow breathing was so much more relaxing to do, just like that night at the party before he fell down the stairs.
When he tried to deny his body's reaction to flirting with Seto, his heart thumped hard against his ribs. One day on the roof, he sighed out sadly.
"What's wrong, Joey?" Yugi asked. He was sitting down on the floor against the roof's fence eating his lunch. His blond friend was standing and looking out through the fence's holes, but then ended up sliding down on his knees where he was positioned like a female in despair. His other friends with Ryou, who was absent yesterday but was filled in the details, were staring at him.
"It's my stomach. I don't know why, but every time I try to work up the nerve to try to convince Kaiba that I'm hot, it feels funny."
Duke asked, "Like butterflies?"
"NO! Not like butterflies! I fuckin' hate 'im!" Joey didn't actually hate Kaiba and the others knew so didn't have to correct his statement. He sighed again in a defeated way, but he wasn't giving up even if he felt like this. "What I mean is that..." It was like butterflies. "Nnngh! I don't know! Tea, if you had no choice but to flirt with Kaiba, what would you do?"
The only girl in the group choked on her soda which left a nasty burn in her throat. She coughed and took the water that Ryou handed over to cool herself down. She then said in a harsh hoarse voice, "Joey Wheeler, what are you saying?! You mean that you planned on winning by seducing him!"
"What?!" Tristan and Yugi were both in great shock.
Duke, on the other hand, considered Joey's choice of action. "That actually makes sense. You can't make Kaiba actually admit to Joey being hot unless you used extreme measures."
Ryou commented, "Wow, it's just like you Joey to take such great risk of making Kaiba confess. I hope that he doesn't end up falling in love with you."
Tristan heard enough of this! "No one is falling in love with anyone!" He took Joey by the collar. "And what the fuck are you saying, man! Are you so desperate to win that you'll degrade yourself to this!"
"Hands off ya creep!" Joey pushed him away hard enough to let go. "And I'm not degrading myself! I mean Kaiba's a dick, but if he thinks he's so much better than us, but can't help but falling for my ruse, then he's not so great after all!"
"But man..." His oldest friend frowned at his friend. "I know that you don't like losing to Kaiba, but sometimes you just got to know when to bail. I mean what if Kaiba does fall in love with you. Not that I see it actually happening, but hell, after everything we went through together, anything can happen."
"Then I'll reject him, and we're gonna graduate anyway!" Joey crossed his arms and looked away from them to the fence again. "He'll get to spend his whole time in his big company while we're doing our own thing, and all of this will just be all over as a bunch of silly memories."
"If it's just going to be a bunch of silly memories, then why bother go through it to the end?"
"I got nothing better to do." Joey responded childishly, yet no one argued.
Ryou suggested that they returned back to a peaceful lunch break. There was still some tension between Tristan and Joey, but that easily subsided when they were distracted by other topics to discuss about.
Then the bell rang, and they had to return to their seats in class. Joey saw that Kaiba was still sitting in his seat like usual. He wondered if the CEO ever suffered butt cramps from sitting so much. Joey also wondered if he ever exercised at all to have his body stay like that with such a handsome face.
Kaiba was handsome. Joey admitted that to himself, and didn't fall into denial. He wondered to himself if he actually had feelings for the bastard if his body would react so strangely due to thinking about him. The ex-gangster didn't like living in denial at all. But to actually have feelings for the male might make him change who he was and ruin the rough chemistry he already had, and make it become something worse. Otherwise they might stop dueling each other, and Joey still wanted to be given the chance to beat Kaiba no matter what. So he kept his feelings in a box, and be happy with how things are now.
._._._.
One weekend, Joey was exiting his apartment in a long brown trench coat. He went to a restaurant nearby to go into the female's restroom, so he could take off the trench coat, and reveal his yellow tank top with a high-waist light blue flare skirt. He took out his handbag from the coat's inside pocket to use his makeup. He reminded himself to not wear too much. He was just going to put on some mascara, eyeliner and lip gloss. He then added a fake bun to his hair.
Joey winked at his pretty self before walking out with the trench coat hanging from his forearm. He felt like nothing was going to ruin his day, but then when he walked out of the vicinity, he surprisingly ended up seeing Kaiba walking down the sidewalk in a business suit. He must be attending business nearby.
The brunette noticed him, as well. He sneered, "Well if it isn't Wheeler? Are you seriously still trying to get me to admit that you look like a girl? I would say that you do, but I've seen more decent looking girls than you."
Joey growled. "Shut yer mouth, moneybags! I'm not afraid to beat ya up in a skirt!" He got in his offensive fighting position. He didn't have friends to hold him back from attacking, so had to hold himself back and settle with a glare of intimidation.
Seto knew that the blond puppy was holding himself back, and challenged this. "Hmph, I better shield my eyes, or else I might see something that I'll regret again. Are you still wearing panties under there?"
Joey blushed by the direct question. "So what if I am?! It's none of your business! I'm not lettin' ya get an eyeful this time unless it's when you're under me as I beat the crap out of ya!"
Seto tried not to think about that scenario. Not because it's most likely not going to happen, but because he was trying not to envision the sight of Joey's lace covered butt being exposed to him. Instead, he chuckled, "Is that so? Aren't you supposed to act like a proper lady? They are far more attractive. Ha, as if you can pull something like that?"
"I can pull anything I set my mind to! But I'm not gonna pull some proper lady bullshit to make you admit that I look good in this!" The blond pointed a confident thumb at his chest. "So kiss my ass, Kaiba!"
"I thought you were doing this to persuade me. Not the other way around. Is it really me you're trying to impress, or do you just wanted a reason to dress like that? There's no shame in dressing like that. The only shame is your poor lack of self-confidence to dress as ridiculous as this. So stop wasting everyone's time by trying to convince them that you're doing this for me when you're clearly doing this for your stupid self, mongrel." Kaiba told him cruelly. Most people would feel verbally struck down, but Joey wasn't like most people.
Before he could speak, someone else spoke for him, "Excuse me miss, is this man bothering you?"
Joey looked to the stranger to see a non-sleazy looking old man. He quickly told him cheerfully, "Oh no! I'm fine! This asshole was just speaking pointless crap just because he has a crush on me!"
Kaiba's eyes widen at this lie. "Excuse me?"
Joey grinned evilly at him for a second before continuing to speak to the stranger, "Oh y'know! The whole bullying on the person you like type of thing! So there's nothing wrong here!"
The old person did find what Joey said to be plausible so told her to stay safe, and then gave a pity glance at Kaiba for his ineptitude to be honest about his feelings. Kaiba glared coldly at him as the man entered the restaurant. He then glared at Joey who grinned at him with those pretty pink lips.
Joey turned to the opposite direction that Seto was walking to with smooth swagger as he strutted away. This was his win! Kaiba knew that, too, but wasn't going to say anything as if he was a sore loser. He continued on his way, but that dog was going to get it eventually.
The blond took the bus to the Domino amusement park where he was going to play at the pool with everyone.
Yugi and Tristan was unsure of what to expect from someone like Joey who actually had a flower bikini ready for a popularity contest among girls before. "Do you really think that he will dress in one?" The shortest boy asked. They were already dressed in their own swimwear at the pool.
Tristan thought about it at first. The idea of his blond friend wearing a flower bikini was not pleasing at all. He groaned, "I hope not. He can pull off a dress or a skirt, but there's no way that he can pull off a bikini!"
Tea chided them, "Oh come on guys! Joey bought the cutest bikini!"
Duke pointed out, "You know this because you shopped together didn't you."
"Yup! It was so much fun! Ryou was there, too!" The girl was ecstatic from the great shopping day!
The platinum blond laughed in embarrassment. "It was quite...educational." He blushed a little which made all the other guys curious.
"Hey guys!" A familiar feminine voice called out to them. Tristan, Yugi and Duke's eyes nearly bulged out from complete shock. Joey was running to them in the cutest cyan blue ruffled bikini. The male's ruffled skirt bikini bottom helped hide the male parts while his ruffled bikini top made up for the lack of a chest. Joey still had on his fake bun and waterproof make up. "So what do you think?! Pretty hot huh!" Joey showed them different cute and sexy poses. "Ryou thought that I looked pretty hot!" The British teen blushed.
The other guys were not sure of what to make of this because Joey was hot, but this was too weird! The blond took their silence as a good thing, so looked to Tea who had a camera in hand. "Pose for the blog, Joey!"
"Blog?" Yugi questioned. He didn't hear of this.
Tea nodded. The girl figured that she could spend her free time filling her new blog with pictures and videos of Joey. So far the blog had over a hundred followers who commented of how they were shocked by how good their known duelist, Joey Wheeler, looked in drag.
This proved to the gang that Wheeler actually had some fans. Though not as big as Yugi's own. One picture of that cutie, and there's over a thousand comments, reblogs, and likes on him from all around the world.
"Aren't you worried that you're dad will know about this?" Tristan questioned.
"No way, my dad doesn't pick up on what I do at all, or even knows how to use a laptop, so I'm safe." After taking pictures of Joey in a bikini, the blond grabbed Tristan by the arm, and teasingly whispered in his ear in a seductive tone, "Wanna swim?"
"Uh..." Tristan didn't want to sound eager or rude so was settled with bashful silence. Joey grinned, and had the two dive into the pool.
Duke shook out of his own shock, and shouted, "Hey, wait for me!" He jumped in after them. Tea wanted to join so pulled both Yugi and Ryou into the pool.
They splashed at each other in the water, and then began playing volley ball. Not surprisingly, a lot of guys began joining into their game before sneakily surrounding both Joey and Tea. Yugi was not happy about this, but stayed silent.
Tea wasn't much of a fan for the attention even if the guys were flattering. But Joey seemed to soak in all the attention. It must be fun for him because he's tricking them into a lie. But fun has to end soon, since this was a fun day with their friends. Not hot men. No matter how hot they looked.
"Excuse us." She pulled Joey to a good out-of-hearing distance away from them. "That's enough fun, Joey. They looked like they were ready to give you their phone numbers."
The blond gave a pleasant smile at the thought. "Days like these, I wish I was a girl, but they're not my type."
This peaked the actual girl's interest, "Oh, so what is your type?"
"Independent, smart, high self-esteem about himself, and I can't lie when I say that I dig skinny pale guys. And it doesn't hurt if they love to duel." Joey knew that he was describing a certain asshole, but those traits were really appealing.
"Sounds a lot like someone I know." The brunette knew someone who fit all those categories, too, but the high self-esteem part was way considerably too high. A Seto Kaiba high.
"Really? Do I know him?" Joey was completely oblivious to who Tea was referring to.
"He's currently too busy for dating," The future dancer supplied, "But hey, let's enjoy being single."
The crossdresser inwardly snorted, but also felt sorry for Yugi. The little squirt still hadn't worked the nerve to ask his childhood crush on a date between just the two of them for fun sakes.
After the fun day, Tea put up the new photos of the blond in his bikini. Mokuba saw the pictures since he was a follower. He was currently on his laptop while his older brother was doing work on his own laptop in his office.
"Whoa, big brother! Joey's in a bikini and actually looks good in it!" Mokuba emailed the picture to his brother's laptop.
Kaiba was not in the mood to be bothered with the mutt that he met earlier and embarrassed him by making him sound like some incapable lovestruck fool! But he was curious so took a look, and damn were those legs amazing. And damn did he look good being wet in that pool and lying against that lounge chair.
"Are you looking at them?" His little brother asked.
The CEO quickly exited them, and replied, "Of course not, Mokuba. I don't have time to waste on seeing the mutt doing degrading things."
"You do realize that I can see what you're doing from the window behind you right."
Fuck. He was even closing in on the picture. He needed to do damage control. "I was simply checking if this was actually the puppy."
"By closing in on his legs?"
Double fuck. "A lot of editing centers around the legs."
"Uh huh..." Mokuba didn't believe him, and Seto knew this. Dammit.
._._._.
Joey was walking home alone. He was going to change at the restaurant first, of course. He wasn't surprised that five big looking guys from another school intercepted his way.
One of them said, "So the rumors are true. Tough guy, Joey Wheeler is dressed like some pansy!" They all laughed at him.
Joey kept his cool. Showing signs of agitation was a sign of weakness, so he coolly asked with his feminine voice, "Then would you guys be a bunch of gentlemen and let me walk home. It's getting pretty late."
Someone else spoke, "Oh whoa whoa whoa! Now that's freaky! How about you make some moaning noises for us, huh? Or do I have to duel you in submission?"
The blond giggled as he removed the fake bun from his hair to put it in the trench coat that he was still holding onto. He held his cool tone, "Nah. I think we should have a fair fight with our fists. It's far less humiliating." He threw the coat aside on the ground so it wouldn't get blood stains on it. "So how about it boys? Think you can take me in a skirt?"
The fight wasn't easy, but it wasn't too tough for someone like Joey who could handle more than ten guys in a fair fist fight. He was given a few lucky punches, but he came out as the ultimate victor in the end. He looked down at the unconscious guys on the ground with a small amount of satisfaction in putting them into shame. Though he admit that he was given a handicapped since he was wearing panties under his skirt. That would distract him, too, if he was attacked while given a peep show of them.
He turned around to get his coat, and then saw a person standing there with a camera. Being in a good mood, he gave his best star-like smile at the person as he put on a pose. He announced with his male voice, "Hey kid! Remember this!" He then said with his female voice as he gave a cute pose, "In a skirt or whateva! No one messes with Joey Wheeler, the third best duelist in the world!"
He then walked away without thinking of the consequences of what he did due to being arrogantly happy that day.
._._._.
The next day, Joey wasn't going with his friends, since he had a job to do during a morning shift. He worked at a restaurant as a cashier and was dressed as his female self. His manager allowed this since the woman was fond of him, and as long as there weren't any complaints from the costumers.
The teenager noticed that a lot of the restaurant's older customers were giving him disapproving, or bug-eyed looks like some of the kids as the day went on. He figured that someone among their friends knew that he was actually a male, and that they spread it around them. But it must be a wide range of friends because a lot of them were either leaving the place after getting their food as if they wanted to escape, or were whispering among each other while glancing or rudely pointing at him like a zoo animal.
Something was up, so asked his co-workers during lunch, but they weren't aware of anything solid. Joey figured that he must be paranoid. It's only been about a month since he's been crossdressing that everyone was bound to realize a thing or two about his appearance. Should he put on more makeup? No. That would put him in bad taste.
So he ignored all the looks and whispering until it was time fore the people working the afternoon shift to come in. He changed out of his uniform, and put on a white blouse with a big black waist belt, a short black pencil skirt, leggings and white mary janes. He also put on a blonde wig with curls at the bottom to look much more feminine instead of having the hassle of always putting on extensions.
He then went to his second job of dog walking. His clients didn't give him any strange negative looks since they already knew him, and was aware of what they considered to be his new phase as a teenager.
After doing that job, he had to go home to get ready for his third job where he had to take the nightshift at a store. Those shifts were dangerous, but he needed the money.
He wasn't worried about going home since his dad was at some bar drinking or gambling all of his own hard earned money away.
But when the blond entered his own place in his female outfit, he was greeted with a spontaneous punch to the face. "So de news was 'ight." Joey's heart stopped when he realized that his own dad was actually at the apartment and seeing him in this outfit. "My own fuckin' son-" The man stomped down hard on Joey's thigh. "Is a fuckin' fag!" The teen gasped at the pain, and then yelped when he was kicked at the face to have him on his back.
Joey glared at the old man who thought he was so big just because he towered over him. "Shut the fuck up old man! I don't need your fuckin' permission to do what I want!" He got onto his feet. He winced at the pain in his thigh, but stood straight despite the strain. "I'm the one even paying for this shit hole of a home!"
"Shut yer faggot hole!" His father grabbed his wrist hard, and dragged Joey into the apartment before throwing him recklessly to the bottle littered floor. "I dot I already taught ya of what happens to dirty faggots like you! They get-"
"Shut the fuck up old man!" Joey got on his feet, and was immediately hit with a glass bottle to the arm, and then slapped across the face so hard that the teen fell again. But the blond was used to this sort of abuse, so was able to wipe the blood falling down his chin. He was ready to get up, but then he felt a hand grip his blouse, and then felt the tug and heard the sound of tearing. "Dad?!"
The man explained, "Like I was gonna say! Bitches and faggots like you are jus' askin' to get it!"
Joey was horrified by what his father might be planning to do that he punched the man in the face, so he could get on his feet. He dodged the glass bottle again, and then punched him right in the gut. He dodged the putrid vomit falling on the floor as his father hunched over holding his stomach. Joey took this chance to elbow him on the back. The man easily fell over onto his own vomit.
Joey spit at him before limping away to his own room where he packed all the stuff he needed including his own money before leaving the house and his father without a care. He had the trench coat on to cover his torn blouse.
He kept walking until he finally reached Tristan's house. He didn't want to impose on his friend, but he needed him right now. He limped to the door, and rang the door bell. The person to open the door was Tristan's mother. The woman was all smiles, but those smiles immediately fell when she saw him. "Oh my god! Joey! What happened to you?!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Taylor, but can I stay here for the night? I don't have enough to afford a hotel room." He requested. The woman immediately understood of what had happened to the male.
"Joey!" Tristan heard his mother's scream, and could see the bruises forming on the duelist face. "What happened?! Who did this to you?!" The brunette grabbed his upper arms which made Joey yelp in pain and move away from the touch.
The blond quickly responded with a request, "Sorry, but can I sleep at your room for the night, Tristan?"
"Y-yeah, but what about your wounds?! You need to go to a hospital!"
"It's just a few bruises." Joey reassured him. "He didn't hit me anywhere that's vital."
Hearing that it was a single man who hit him, Tristan immediately understood the situation, and led him to his room where he put on medical gauzes and such for the blond's face. Joey then removed the coat to reveal his torn blouse. The taller teen was shocked, but didn't question it since it must be a sensitive subject to cross.
Joey painfully stripped out of his clothes until he was left in just his panties, but he also changed that to his comfortable boxers. Tristan gave him three cold compresses for his thigh, upper arm, and black eye.
"Thanks man." The blond told him gratefully. He was lying against the head board of the teen's bed, holding the compresses at their places.
Tristan was sitting at the edge of the bed, facing his bedroom door. Rage was bubbling inside him. He didn't feel like he did anything right to be appreciated. Instead he said, "I guess you didn't see the news."
Joey let out a tired breath. "The old man said somethin' 'bout that."
"Did you happen to tell someone holding a camera to not mess with you in a skirt or not after beating some guys up on the way home?"
Joey faintly remembered that moment, but was too tired to strongly react. "Oh shit. Did that video go viral?"
"Yeah. It has over a million views since it was posted on youtube a few weeks ago. I didn't see the news until this morning. I figured that you must've seen it eventually, but I guess not."
Joey caught the tone of guilt at the back of his friend's throat. "It's not your fault, man."
"But still...I could've at least given you the heads up or something!" Tristan held his head down in shame.
Joey sighed before crawling across the bed to hug his friend from behind. As guys, they'd keep their distance, but when Joey would dress up, he'd teasingly hold onto him. But now, was it manly or girly, they just didn't care. Joey wanted someone to hold because he was still shaken from having his blouse torn.
Tristan didn't push him off. They stayed that way for awhile until Tristan was able to bring dinner to the room, and the two chatted about other things to occupy their thoughts from less depressing or angry things. Eventually the two laughed, and the night wasn't so bad anymore for either of them now that they were together.
._._._.
The next morning, Joey woke up from the shining light from the window. The blond immediately knew that something was wrong because it's usually daybreak when he has to get up and get ready for school. He looked for Tristan to find the brunette nowhere, and the clock saying that he only had thirty minutes to get to school!
Joey jumped out of his bed to put on his school uniform. He didn't have time to put on his makeup, so put on a pair of sunglasses, and then rushed out of the house before Tristan's mother could talk to him. He sprinted as if his life depended on it.
It was a good thing that Taylor lived close, so he had time to at least put makeup on in the bathroom. He entered the men's bathroom without a second thought, and got out his makeup kit from his bag to cover up the bruises. But then he was interrupted when the bathroom door creaked open.
"Shouldn't you belong to the women's bathroom instead, idiot?" Seto questioned with his usual sneer.
Joey immediately looked away from both him and the mirror to not show his face. "What do ya want, Kaiba! I'm not ready yet, so get out!"
The CEO crossed his arms as he smirked. "As if you can make an improvement to your monkey looks already? It's already been a month, and I can clearly see from here that you are not progressing at all with your mediocre skills."
Wheeler really wanted to turn around and yell at him, but he couldn't let Kaiba see him like this. However, he wasn't given the choice when Tristan barged right in. "Joey! What the hell are you doing here?! Didn't my mom tell you to stay home?!" The brunette -in his blind anger- grabbed Joey's bruised wrist which made the blond yelp as he turned around to remove his hand.
Seto was surprised to see the dog's face being covered in black and blue injuries. Joey's black eye was not so bad as the night before, but it was still very evident of having been a painful hit to the face. And his cheek was the same. The taller teen also saw his bruised wrist that he identified to be a hand print and then noticed the bruising to the teen's thigh. The blond knew that the rich bastard noticed his extra injuries, but he didn't care about his opinion, or his stupid friend's worries at the moment! These were just bruises that he can handle!
He told brown-eyed brunet off, "Leave me alone, Tristan! This is nothing!"
His friend growled, and then grabbed the blond's collar. "See here-"
"Joey!" Yugi rushed in. "What are you doing here?! Tristan told me about what your dad did-"
"It's nothing new!" Joey barked, and made Tristan let go. He saw Yugi immediately clamp his mouth shut out of fear. Guilt settled into the blond's chest because he didn't like yelling at someone like Yugi who was strong, but also sensitive at heart. Yet, what happened to him was definitely nothing new, so he shouldn't be told of what to do! He shouted at all of them, "I'm fine! Just let me put on my makeup before class!"
Tristan's balled fists tightened so hard that they shook. "Tch!" He exited the room. Joey looked to the mirror and took out his concealer to start with his black eye first.
Yugi spoke to him as a good friend, "Are you sure that you're alright, Joey? The bruise on your thigh looks really bad."
The blond sighed through his nose. "I'm alright Yug'. It's nothin' new. I know that's not a good thing, but I'm not letting a few bruises keep me away from living my life the way I want it."
"C-can I help?" The tri-colored hair teen stuttered because he tried to hold back his tears, but they poured out of his eyes without any effort at all.
Joey smiled sweetly at the little guy. "Yeah." He ruffled his strange hair. "Can I copy your homework after I'm done?"
"Y-yeah. I-I'll get it out right now!" Yugi walked out of the bathroom after brushing his tears away.
Seto still stood in that bathroom staring at the blond. That blond asked, "Want somethin' Kaiba? I'm all ears."
The blue-eyed male closed his eyes for a moment, and then turned away. "Hmph." Was all he said before exiting.
Then Joey came out of the bathroom with a clear beautiful face that looked like it wasn't harmed at all. He was also in a chipper mood as if he wasn't assaulted last night. His friends weren't sure if this was healthy, but Joey had always been living a hell of a life that they shouldn't be surprised. Yet, they felt like they've been blind-sided this whole entire time in their friendship of how bad it was for their honey eyed duelist.
The day went normally, but Joey knew that Tristan was still miffed about this morning, and Yugi felt unhelpful despite having provided his homework. So he cheered them up by teasing them by making flirtatious advances or making them angry about something else out of nowhere. The two acted like such baffled blushing idiots.
Seto Kaiba stayed at his seat doing his work. Yet, his mind was filled with this morning. He admired Joey's strength to not self-pity himself, but he was also bothered that his father dared hurt him that way. Gozaburo was not his father by blood, so he couldn't exactly empathize with the blond. Not that he wanted to. But he couldn't stop the anger bubbling in him. He wanted to do something about this...After everything they went through together, why not do a single act of kindness for once? But what sort of act should be done?
He was given an answer during after school when Joey left. His group of friends stopped him from exiting the school so that they could talk.
Yugi spoke for the group, "Kaiba, please tell Joey that he's pretty, so that he can stop dressing like a girl!"
Seto arched an eyebrow at this request. "And pray tell of how that's going to change anything. I doubt that him changing hobbies will make him and his father come to a reconciliation."
Tristan explained, "It's so that he won't get hurt again and again! Joey is becoming more popular by the second, so is making even more enemies. He was never a popular guy with other schools since he was in a gang before, and this sort of thing could become an excuse for the whole lot of them to come after him."
"Please Kaiba," Tea reasoned, "We just don't want Joey to get hurt anymore. Dueling is one thing, but getting into a serious fight is something else entirely."
That was true. But Seto wasn't going to play along with them. "If your poor excuse of a duelist wants to be targeted, then it's his problem. Not mine." He walked past them.
"Why you-" Tristan was stopped by Duke's raised arm. The dice duelist said, "Leave him. He's right. This is Joey's own problem. We already warned him, and the only one who can convince Joey to give up is himself."
"But we're not asking him to give up!"
"But that's how it sounds like to him. Remember, Joey did this to win a game against Kaiba. And if there's anything Joey will never do, is lose without giving his absolute all. Whether the objective may be big or small, nothing will change his mind unless it endanger us, too. We may be friends with him, but none of whoever's coming after Joey will target us since it's easy to lure him into a trap."
"But that's why we need to try everything to make sure that doesn't happen! We can't always be there for him when he's being beaten for an inch of his life! Or worse..." Tristan remembered Joey's torn blouse.
Seto caught onto that fading sentence before entering his limo to go to work. He knew what Tristan meant by his last words, and it pierced his heart to think of such dark images.
Days went by, and Joey had bought his own apartment through the permission from his mother. Whatever happened to his father was not known or asked about. It was to simply be left in mystery.
For the bullying problem, the teen had gotten in trouble with other gangs, so was getting more bruises and cuts. Eventually the stubborn dog had to go to a hospital, and miss days at school to make up for work days in order to pay for his living expenses. Tristan tried to be by the blond's side, but Joey told him off that he had his own life to live, and if he's going to follow him around, it better be for a good and different excuse. Yugi, Tea, Ryou and Duke weren't fighters so they can do nothing but try to be the voices of reason. Not even his little sister, Serenity, could convince him to stop. He convinced her instead that he had to do this.
Seto would've ignored all this, but he's been berated by Joey's friends almost every day when he was at school to do something. Nothing they did could sway the idiot from stopping this game between them. It was all up to him.
The blue-eyed duelist did not feel responsible since the honey-eyed male put this on himself, but then he could no longer ignore that Joey was becoming too ridiculous when he arrived at the school with crutches after spraining his ankle during a fight, and using the makeup to hide his sleep deprivation. It would work if the blond wasn't sleeping or dozing off almost everyday at school that the teachers began questioning of why he bothered coming at all. Eventually the teen developed a high fever and fell unconscious spontaneously from overworking himself.
But Joey didn't heed the warnings of the school's or hospital's nurses to take better care of himself. He couldn't have the luxury to do that unless he wasn't attacked on the way to wherever he had to go to.
Kaiba would ignore this at home and work, but then Mokuba would tell him about the put up videos of Joey being in a fight. The news was keeping tabs on these videos, and it seemed to have spark other news channels to discuss the issues with this. Yet no one was known to be arrested for assaulting the blond since he wouldn't press charges. The reason being that the stupid duelist think that they had already been punished and humiliated enough.
Kaiba had enough.
._._._.
"You're beautiful."
"What?"
Joey was standing and looking bug-eyed at the CEO who had surprisingly told him during lunch to meet him at the side of the school where no one could see them together. He jokingly thought that the brunette was finally going to confess to him, and was now completely surprised to have been given one so bluntly.
Seto repeated with his stoic voice, "You're beautiful. You win. Congratulations."
Joey blinked at him, and then replied, "Fuck you, Kaiba." This answer completely caught the taller teen off guard. The cross dresser pointed an indignant finger at him. "Those guys told you to tell me that so I can stop dressing up, didn't they?!" Seto knew that he should have kept a poker face, but he showed a moment of weakness which the shorter teen caught on to. "Well, I don't need any of this bullshit! I can handle myself, and won't have some half-ass confession stop me! I'll win when you get that stick out of your ass, and tell me with much more endearment that I'm hot! Not this dramatic 'you're beautiful' bullshit!"
Joey turned away angrily. He added, "I bet if you said that to one of your fangirls, they'd be head over heels, but I'm not one of them, so I'm sayin' it like I see it! You're like a fuckin' damn robot with no romance or any other fuckin' emotion at all in your egotistical selfish heart or yours! You're beautiful?! Ha! As if I can believe it with that face! If you really want me to stop, then get some heart or a fuckin' acting coach cuz I'm outta here!"
But he stopped, when Kaiba declared, "You're right." Joey squinted his eyes at him as he wondered if he was being deceitful. The brunette projected his voice to explain, "You're an idiot. Can't you see that your life is falling apart because of this! You're already a worthless nobody as Joey Wheeler! But now you're like the annoying stain on my favorite coat that I can't get off unless I put acid on it! Let go of this meaningless game already so everyone else can have a peace of mind!"
Joey showed a face of pain and guilt the he didn't hide. He knew that what he was doing was making his friends needlessly upset. But he knew what he was doing. "It started out as a game, but now it's something else entirely." He looked straight into Kaiba's eyes. A fire flowing out of control in his own. "If people think that they can kick me down just because I chose to dress like this, then they have another thing coming! Joey Wheeler won't back down just because it's too hard! You don't know this, Kaiba, but others are looking up to me to give them strength to be who they are and look the part!"
"You don't even know these people! Think about it you fool! You're not some great catalyst who can inspire the world to change!"
"That's your fuckin' opinion which, for your information, I don't give a fuck about! My friends may be worried, but they understand that I'm doing this for something bigger than myself. So don't try to stop me, you prick!"
With that, Joey strutted away with determination. Kaiba just watched him go, and then couldn't help a small smile as he followed since it was the shortest way back to the class. The blond never ceased to act like a bigger fool, and that wasn't such a bad thing.
Back at the classroom, the two returned to sitting at their desk. Yugi and the others could immediately deduce that nothing changed. Kaiba's attempts were futile. But that may not be a bad thing for what Joey might bring to the future.
._._._.
A/N: Sorry for the lack of flirting but how do you flirt with SETO KAIBA? HOW?!
I keep forgetting that Ryou goes to the same school, and I could've just made him move to Britain, but here he is.