A/N: Moving forward, as I feel I should. The beginning is slow because of taunting, but I hope its good...
Chapter 2.
The whole of the outside world is sometimes a strange, silent chasm. Not a metaphor. Sometimes I could sit around and not hear anything, as if I were lost in the creases of my brain. The people can pass me, and though I can tell what they're saying, it sometimes doesn't break the barrier.
I may have gotten out of my car, but I was still handing on the door and staring at the bar. People were walking by on the streets, the nightlife abundant. Some of them looked at me, some of them didn't. It was the people that drove me forward. I wasn't a hesitant man, and I wasn't about to let strangers think so.
I folded my jacket together and held it that way as I walked across the street. This was one of those moments where I expected something catastrophic to happen because it seemed so unreal. When I reached the opposite curb I stopped and thought about how all this went from insult to a mild tingling attraction.
The position that I was in was a sticky one. I didn't really think about it until I had attacked Wheeler. Now, as I sat back looking at his reply, I realized that if Mokuba was so close to him that Mokuba was likely to see such things as this. It was a careless mistake; my blood had boiled the moment that I had opportunity. Now, as I settled into the thoughts, I realized that there was something that I would have to do to make it look as innocent as it was. As if I was any other person who had gotten on.
With my work in front of me I forced the laptop away and delved myself into fruitful business. There was no reason for a Wheeler bark to bother me.
That night I was home at the wee hours. Mokuba had called me somewhere around six o' clock to tell me that he had made it safely, and he was about to put someone on the line to prove it. I urged him not to, not feeling like getting into a conversation with any of the dweebs. I could hear them in the background just fine.
I stood in the darkness of the manor rubbing my eyes. Even though it was late, I still wanted to set up deterrent on the site. I sat on the couch, a singular light gleaming in the room, and I got on, fixing up my user page to look like someone who, while mildly intelligent, was about the same age as anyone else on there. I then checked to see if Wheeler had added anything else to his comment. He hadn't, but others had. I couldn't focus on them.
I went to bed shortly thereafter, assured.
I waited. Mostly because I didn't want to seem like I was targeting him. I watched Mokuba mostly, but I acquainted myself with the site. I made comments here and there, but mostly ignored the other users. I didn't intend to get myself too involved.
Nothing exciting went on in the first few weeks. I drew everything out knowing that a good plan had many layers. I knew I thought about all this too seriously, but there was something about Wheeler that kept my mind wholly occupied, at least when I was thinking about it for a few milliseconds at a time.
After that month, that little incubation period that I felt it took for me to look like the average dweeb on the site, I found myself finding Wheeler once again, rebutting a comment that he made. It took him longer to respond, but it was the kind of response that I expected from him.
You goin reverse everything i say or wat?
"Is two times all it takes to tick you off?" I scoffed, quietly laughing to myself. I expected more resistance before he got annoyed, but then when someone had the attention span of, well, a dog, then I suppose it didn't take more than two small comments to set a flame under his ass.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't doing this all the time, only when my mind slipped to it. Most of the time my mind was split in three thousand different directions and I was left to clean up everyone's messes and deal with them as they tried to press their heads into my shoulder and cry that their pencil pushing positions were too hard for them. I never allowed them that much. Not only was their dignity on the line; so was mine. All it took was one glance for them to close their mouths and pivot around and walk away from me. It was either that or I started cracking heads, and they knew that. Most people assumed it was out of pleasure. They thought it was pleasurable for me to yell at under competent workers—or fire them when the time called for it. Only on rare occasion did I get their prideful flutter in my chest for something like that.
So when I was dealing with complaints, proposals, spreadsheets, endless calls or texts, I was happy to have something to turn to in the meantime. Wheeler seemed to be the most appropriate target. Badgering him was like winning the sweepstakes. It made me simmer down amidst all the chaos. Control, I suppose you could say. That was why it brought a grin on my face when I replied back:
If you keep making dumb comments I will. After a minute I refreshed. He was on it.
Im just as right as u are, he replied. U don't have to make a fuss.
Other users were making comment off of our comments. I read them in earnest, laughing as people took sides. I wasn't as well received as Wheeler was, but I wasn't there to make friends.
If you want to help someone, you might want to help yourself first. You play a game that you don't even seem to understand; I don't see how you could possibly tell other people how to play.
Mokuba walked into my study. "Nii-sama?"
I closed the laptop after submitting the comment. "Yeah?"
"You alright?" he asked. I had stood from my place and was walking around the desk.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" I knew why Mokuba was coming to get me. It was likely dinner time and I had promised him, after missing so many days of getting to eat with him, that I would go out to a restaurant of his choosing.
"I knocked and you didn't answer," he said. "You get zoned out or something?"
"I was working on something," I said.
"I knocked pretty loud Nii-sama," he said. I nodded.
"Like I said, I was working on something." Mokuba walked out in front of me, preventing me from going forward. I kept waiting for him to say something to me, but he just looked at me strangely. "Something on your mind kiddo?"
"Nothing, I was just looking at you," he said.
"Looking at me? Whatever for?"
"You look like you've got something on your mind," he replied. He was back at my side and we were walking towards the main entrance. He was already ready, his coat on. I looked out the window, winter flecks starting to blanket Domino. I grabbed my coat too.
"There's always something on my mind," I told him. "I've been working on a new prototype that should be pretty good." Usually this sufficed him.
"It's more than that."
"Oh? Well how do you know?" I asked playfully.
He smiled. "I just know nii-sama. That's what I'm here for, to know you," it was heartwarming, to say the least. Mokuba was about the only person in the world that had that affect on me. He was the only person that I found myself brightly smiling over.
"Yeah well, know me as you do," I began. He hopped into the passenger side of my car and I went around to the driver's side. "There's nothing spectacular."
"If you say so," he shrugged.
I pried the restaurant out of him and we went, being seated quickly. It was a nice café-like place that I'd taken Mokuba to before. I knew he wanted to come for the dessert.
Mokuba and I had gotten knee deep into conversation by the time we reached the café. I switched the topic to him and he was being especially awkward about everything. He was a junior high student, and he was starting to have all the natural reactions as of a junior high student. When I brought up girls and the prospect of him "possibly, maybe, kinda, and sorta" (his words) having a crush on a girl, he looked to me sincerely and said:
"When are you ever going to find your special someone?" we had already been seated at the café and I was on the lookout for a waiter to drag me out of this topic. It wasn't the first time that Mokuba had ever asked me, but I always found a diversion. This time I couldn't.
"Well now," I rolled my shoulders a little. I had to look him in the eye just so he didn't think I was nervous about this topic. "Sometime," I said. He frowned.
"Nii-sama!"
"What? You said when."
"I'm being serious," he crossed his arms. "I wish you'd find someone you could spend time with."
"I spend a lot of time with people already," and speaking of such, my phone was buzzing in my pocket. I let it go.
"Yeah, but I mean…you know…someone who you can be…"he was turning a few shades of off red, and I smirked at him. "Stop it!" he demanded.
Luckily, to save both of us from this embarrassment, I saw that there was a body standing beside us. Relief washed over me and we ordered.
I hadn't been with someone. I had been too busy building my life to think that I ever needed anyone other than Mokuba. Of course I'd heard the bad rumors in magazines or on the news. People wanted to speculate if I was with someone, or if at any moment I was seen with a female, client, employee, or otherwise, I had managed to find someone. I'd never given it any thought.
"…-sama?"
I drew back towards him. "What?"
"You didn't hear me?"
"Hear what?"
"I was just asking you something," he said. "You didn't hear a word I said?"
"No," I replied. "Like I said; I'm busy."
When I looked back at Mokuba, that same heartwarming look was no longer heartwarming. He was sad, and when he was sad I reacted just the same. "I swear I won't work myself to death. I'll find someone," where was a good question though.
"It had nothing to do with that," Mokuba said. "You can tell me if something's the matter."
"I'm fine," but I wasn't. I just didn't know it.
When we got back home I had something waiting for me. At the site, like most sites, there was a PM system, and Wheeler had decided to grace me with one.
From: RedEyes_BD
Subject: You're a jerk.
I'm just as right as you are, so stop being so annoying and be nice to the others that are on here cuz all youre being is a childish prick who needs to cool hit jets. I don't care if you're the damn creator of the game….its just a game. Leave me alone and ill leave you alone.
-REBD.
I shook my head at the irony of his statements. My fingers itched and I let them work.
To: RedEyes_BD
Re: Subject: You're a jerk.
I'll leave you alone when you can fess up and say you're wrong.
Cruel and unusual, yes, but fun all the same. I looked through some of Wheeler's old posts in the meantime, waiting for him to reply to the PM. It was about that time that my stomach began to feel as though there was something growing in it. I ignored it, continuing on with what I was doing. When he finally replied, he was just as aggravated as before.
From: RedEyes _BD
Re: re: Subject: You're a jerk.
If youre just gonna harras me the whole time im on, Ill have no problems going to the admins. All this isis friendly banter and youre being a jerk and ruining everyones fun. Its people like you that piss me off the most. You take things waaaay to seriously and don't know when to just sit back and relax. I bet youre just some stuck up little emo brat who thinks hes gotta be right all the time.
Get a life.
-REBD.
I lowered my head and felt the corners of my mouth tug upward. I had gotten him where I wanted him; I had him cornered and now all he could do was bark on his chain but couldn't bite me. But it wasn't as rewarding as it could be. In the pit of my stomach the feeling grew, and my pleasure was torn by the disgust.
I composed a reply.
To: RedEyes_BD
Re: re: re: Subject: You're a jerk.
Don't be ignorant and act like you know what kind of person I am.
I shut my computer after that. I knew that the twisting and churning in my stomach wasn't going to go away, and I was gathering a headache on top of it. I figured that there was only so much of Wheeler that I could take in one sitting. Even though it was funny at first, I could only take so much of his "friendly banter" without feeling myself be consumed.
I went into the kitchen turned on the faucet, my hands sinking under the water. I splashed it up on my face and sighed. The headache was getting worse and the nausea wasn't subsiding. Footsteps padded into the kitchen. The light buzzed on. "Nii-sama?"
I turned off the water and leaned against the counter. "I'm going to bed," I told him, and walked with my hand holding tight to the counter. He walked alongside me, his hand on my wrist. "I don't think dinner settled with me," I added, hoping that he wouldn't get concerned with the suddenness.
Mokuba sat next to me for almost a half an hour after I had turned in. I don't know what he was waiting for, but I was grateful that he did. Even though he was sitting there and I could find something to draw my attention away from what I supposed caused all this, I couldn't keep myself from thinking about it. I didn't know why I had even written that as a reply. It seemed irrelevant in retrospect to what Wheeler had said to me. All the same, it felt necessary. But, how would he reply? Probably some kind of way that dodged it, and went around it, or he would just keep gnawing at me.
What if he just didn't reply? He would. He would do anything to be confrontational with me.
I think my biggest worry was if he actually addressed it and asked me who I was. That made my heart pound the hardest. Why? I don't think it was fear…I think part of it was fear, but I think, like the entire situation, I was seeing opportunity and knew that I had to seize it. Still, if he did ask, what would I tell him?
I fell asleep before I could answer myself.
My hand was clutched at my heart. It was beating too fast or too slow. There wasn't any sweat on my face, and I wasn't feeling myself grow cold. On the outside I was as flawless as usual. I took a good look at the bar which, in truth, seemed so out of the way and so small that I wondered how I had found it. I looked through the windows and saw peeks of the place through broken blinds and I got glimpses of the inside, dark and somewhat welcoming, as people entered and excited from the place. I crossed my arms and looked up to the deep night sky. The temperature was dropping just as I stood there, and the wind was blowing ceaselessly. When I looked through a small square window, that was when I saw him. He was wearing a jean jacket and talking to the bartender like they were friends for years.
Once I'd been through every obstacle in life; stared down the people that I most feared, felt the most incredible pain pass through my body, felt as everything had been ripped away from me in an instant, a chill seemed to grow over my heart. Time made me learn how to face these things, and worse, with a straight and unwaivering feeling of self-confidence, maybe even so much pride that I was smug. In my heart I knew I was right and that there was nothing else that I could go through that could possibly make me feel so weak and distraught.
But then love is different than fear. It was the same, but it was different. And Joey Wheeler, well, I could only wonder how he was going to react. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone as it buzzed. I didn't want it to be a manager, but I didn't want it to be Joey either. I wished it was just as phantom tingling, but it wasn't.
Thoght u said u were an ontime person. Haha...
I thought I was, too.
A/N: Let me just start by saying that this was a little difficult because I didn't want it to be boring.
Also, at the beginning and ending where Kaiba is doing the narrating as he descends upon the bar, tell me what you think about that, cause I'm not sure its alright.
Till next time, KenSan out.
