"I like this one." Joey held up a green blouse for Tea to look at. The two friends were shopping at the mall together. But they were only window shopping since Joey didn't have cash, but that didn't stop the the two from having fun together.
"Its cute, Jo. I think I have a similar one to it. You can borrow if you like."
"Thanks! I'll remember that next time I don't have anything good to wear." The blond put the blouse back on its hanger. And then the two decided to go get some yogurt.
The cashier immediately recognized Joey Wheeler. "It's you! My daughter is a big fan of yours! You standing up to those bullies gave her the confidence to go back to school and stand up to her own!"
The duelist beamed, "Well tell her that Joey Wheeler is proud of her!"
The woman behind the counter grabbed one of the unused yogurt cups and a sharpie. "Can you write on this cup to prove her that I saw you! She will tell from your written notes in your inspirational videos that you've been posting up! They help my daughter learn how to fight and remain positive! You're really an inspiration unlike how the media portrays you as some violent weirdo!"
"Eh, it's no problem." Joey slightly blushed from being acknowledged in a positive matter.
Tea smiled happily at the exchange. After Joey wrote down a message and his autograph on the cup, the two sat down at a table. The brunette admitted, "I wish Yugi and Tristan would see you like this. Instead they're clammed in their little shell trying to forget what you're fighting to do. Which is weird since it should be kind of the other way. It's usually those guys who would support you to fight on while I'm wallowing in doubt about all this."
"It's different now since those two can't understand. It's not me being a punk or me being a duelist, so they don't know what to do. But I keep telling them to not worry, and let me handle this since I know how."
Tea sadly smiled at that. "I've been trying, too. At first I was against this, but then you gained a lot of followers. Some were negative - I flagged them out -, but a majority of them were positive. They support your decision to continue fighting to dress how you want. Of course, violence isn't a good thing, but they see it as self-defense since I made it clear on the blog that you were dragged into those fights since it's obvious that a group of those guys won't let you through so easily. I showed them to Tristan and Yugi to show that what you are doing is important and is giving other people strength, but they're not listening."
"Of course not, Tea. From how long I've known Tristan, it made him more upset than proud, since he thinks the worse of me."
"That can't be true!"
"But it is. Tristan only sees what's clearly in front of him, and he only supports when he's convinced that there's a winning chance or if anything makes sense. But this sort of thing doesn't make sense to him, and it won't as long as he's being pig-headed like usual." Joey explained, and Tea couldn't disagree. "And for Yugi. He just can't stand the idea of me being hurt constantly for something like this. He just wants it to end, but he should know better by now that it can't end easily like it would be through a card game. He can't see how this ends which is why he's afraid."
Tea understood. She sighed. "At least Duke and maybe Ryou politely understands. And that means our friendship isn't completely over."
"I'm sorry Tea."
"What?" The brunette rewinded in her mind of what she said, and then quickly corrects herself. "No! It's not your fault Joey! I'm on your side! And Tristan and Yugi will just have to suck it up!"
Having heard the girl, who was always the one in doubt, sound pump up, it made Jeoy smile and feel like what he was doing wasn't a complete loss.
"Excuse me, are you Joey Wheeler?" A man in a suit asked.
._._._.
In the middle of an ally, boys were falling one by one on the floor by a fist or a heel to the face. Joey was once again called out to another fight. It's been over two months since he started dressing up, and the fights seemed to be finally dying down. The blond knew that eventually these gang ups would become less common eventually. It was just a matter of time and persistence.
"Joey!" Yugi called out. The two were supposed to meet at the movie theater, but the spiky haired teen had been waiting for over half an over for his friend. He knew that something must be wrong, so asked around until he finally found him.
"Oh hey, Yug!" Joey greeted with a happy tone before stomping down on a guy who was trying to get up. "Just cleaning up some trash over here! Sorry for being late. Let's go, we'll still be able to make it to the movie."
"But you're hurt!" It's not a rare sight, and that's what sickening of seeing Joey's injuries. It wasn't on his face, but his knuckles were bruising.
"Nothing a pack of ice won't do." The blond walked over to the purse, that he set down before the fight, to take out an ice pack. "Can't go out without bein' prepared."
This didn't make the shorter teen feel better. "Do you like fighting, Joey?" Yugi knew that he sounded accusing, but he hated fighting and violence the most.
Joey was aware of this, so wasn't angry. "It's not what you think, Yug'." He looked his friend in the eye without any hesitation in them. "These guys were picking on this squirt, and I let them turn their attention to me. So these guys weren't hittin' me cuz I'm dressed like this, but they knew who I was. After taking down the best gang around here alone, they thought that if they beat me, then they would be considered number one. Heh. But they were a piece of cake!"
"I see." Yugi did believe that Joey was a great fighter, and he should stop worrying now since it seemed that the blond was getting better since the fights were becoming less and less, but he still wished that none of this happened.
The two of them were ready to go back to the movie theater, but then they were stopped by another gang of teenage boys with nothing better to do. "Another win for you, huh, Joey."
"Diesel." Joey said his name with venom. Diesel Kane was his ex-gang leader back at middle school. The two met again during his highschool freshmen year when he began being friends with Yugi, and the two didn't split on good terms at all.
"Nice to know that you still remember me." Him and his gang chuckled ominously like every stereotypical bad guy.
Joey tried not to roll his eyes. He cannot believe that he was a part of their pathetic group. "What the hell do you want? Shouldn't ya be in prison or somethin'?"
"And shouldn't you be arrested for looking like a drag-wearing prositute?"
"Oh, you'd know how they look like considering your mom's one. She might be a woman, but she definitely didn't have the looks for it which is why you look so damn ugly." Joey hit a soft spot on the gang leader, but the man kept his cool.
But he was clearly agitated, "At least my mom didn't abandon me!"
"Pfft. Old wounds, old man."
"Old man?! That's-" When he stepped forward, Yugi immediately jump in with his arms spreaded out to prevent him from getting any closer.
"Leave my friend alone!" He cried out despite the fear being instilled into his spine. Yugi found himself pulled off of the ground by the collar.
"Don't get in my way!"
"Let him go, ya creep!" Joey punched the gang leader down to the ground. The man had let go of Yugi in the midst of the painful impact to the face. The smaller teen landed on his bottom while Joey got on top of Diesel to give him an extra punch before the man pushed him back and then kicked him in the gut to farther their distance.
Joey cringed as he gasp for air. He knew that that was going to bruise, but not to badly that one of his organs might have been damaged.
Diesel got up to further the job, but one of his members called out to him, "Boss!" That person whispered, "Remember why we came here!"
Diesel glared hotly at that member for interfering with his concentration, but he cooled himself off, and then declared, "We came here to give you a message. Come to the city's docks tomorrow afternoon: two sharp!"
Joey got up from the ground, and acted like his stomach wasn't wanting him to bend over to ease the pain. "And why would I go?"
"Heh. A lot of gangs are sore about losing to you, so if you do not show up without the cops or your friends showing up, then they're going to barge into the school and cause straight up chaos." The male pointed out his thumb and finger at the blond. "If you know what I mean?"
Yugi gasped, "No Joey! This is obviously a trap! You can't go!"
Joey ignored him, "You would really go so low just to fix your already broken pride! But I can't take the chance. I'll be there!"
"Good." They turned to leave. Joey then saw something at the corner of his eye, and picked it up.
"Hey asshole! You forgot your phone." The blond chucked the device at the taller man who caught in, and then left.
Yugi was horrified by his best friend's reckless choice. "But Joey-" He tried to be a voice of reason, but the taller male stopped him.
"Yug'." He said. "Don't tell the rest of the gang."
"But-"
"What Diesel said might be true, and he's old enough to buy guns both legally and illegally. I knew that eventually something like this might go down, and I have to face it like a man." Joey said with an inspiring voice, but Yugi was not having any of that.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING?!" Yugi cried out painfully. Tears fell down his cheeks. "I'm trying to be supportive and reasonable, but what the fuck Joey?! You think I'm going to be fine with you going into a trap that might kill you alone!"
"But Yu-"
"Shut up! Shut up! You're gaining nothing from going into this trap alone! I thought that we're supposed to be a team, but these last few months, you've been acting like you were alone since your dad figured out about this! Don't you think that this is enough?!" The teen fell on his knees. He didn't know of what else to do to convince Joey. "If...If Atem was here, he'd..." But he wasn't with them anymore.
Joey heard his last words, and now it donned on him of how much it really did hurt Yugi. The teen was the strongest duelist, but he was truly sensitive of his friends' pain. The blond then wondered of how many times he made Yugi cry when no one was looking, and Atem wasn't there to comfort him.
But he had his own goal to think about. "I'm sorry Yug'."
The king of games was shocked by Joey's half-hearted attempt of consideration to his own feelings. He immediately stood up when he saw the blond walking away. "Then if my words won't reach to you, then let's have a duel!"
Joey looked back at his best friend. "Huh?"
Yugi thrusted a finger at the him. "You heard me! A duel! If I win, you don't go! But if you win, then I'll keep silent!"
Joey considered this, and then replied, "Alright then! Let's duel!"
The two didn't want this duel to go public, so they met at the school's gym. It was a weekened so there was no school, and there happened to be no atheletes training. The two got out their duel disk and started the duel.
The two of them started out strong, and pulled out everything they got from their cards like they did back at duelist kingdom. Both of them pushing each other to their very limit.
In the midst of the battle, Joey successfully takes down one of Yugi's strongest monsters. The duel king asked, "Why do you want to fight with Diesel so badly?! I thought you left all that behind!"
"People's lives are on the line, Yug! You heard of what Diesel said!"
"We can call the police to protect the school!"
"Not good enough!"
Yugi inwardly growled and then set off one of his spell cards which had Joey's recent attack be a bad move, and sent the blond's life points down. But Joey had a comeback to the attack which gave him the advantage to the field.
The duel continued on, until Yugi and Joey had their favorite monster on the field. Dark magician against red eyes black dragon. Joey was down to two-hundred life points while Yugi only has five hundred life points.
"It's pointless, Joey! I will win this so I can protect you! Because you're my friend! I have my black magician destroy your red eyes black dragon!"
"Ugh!" Joey was now only one-hundred life points now.
"You're left wide open Joey! There's nothing you can do to take me down! But for now, I'll put one card face down!" Yugi put that one card down.
Joey sighed out. "Sorry Yug', but I'm going to win this duel. I know that you dueled your hardest to stop me, but it's not good enough. That's because I'm going to play this! Mystical space typhoon to destroy your one face down card! And then I play Monster Reborn to bring back red eyes black dragon from the graveyard. And then I activate my other spell card, graceful dice!"
The dice was rolled to a six which gave Red eyes black dragon three-thousand attack points. Joey attacked, and won the duel. Yugi was completely shocked at having lost. He did not expect Joey to pull out that first spell card.
The tri-colored teen was so shocked that it was hard to breathe. He fell on his knees as his tears began flowing out, and he didn't know of how to stop them.
"YUGI STAND UP!" Joey shouted. His very words echoing hard throughout the gym. "Stop being a baby and stand up!"
"Bu-But I lost! I couldn't protect you! I'm not the king of games when I can't even-!"
"Don't you understand Yug'! It means that you're not supposed to stop me. Not when your mind wasn't even in the right place. You thought that you were fighting for me Yug', but really you were fighting for yourself. You were so worked up with the idea that you'll lose me like Atem but worse." That put a ping of pain in the shorter duelist's heart. "But that's not going to happen buddy." Joey's strong words had Yugi look up to him. "We've been in a life or death situations before, and I know of what Diesel is trying to pull. And I know of what to do to keep myself safe. And you know why?"
Yugi was lost.
"It's cuz duel monsters taught me of how to pull a trick or two up my sleeve."
"But duel monsters is a game! It's-"
"Listen to what you're saying Yug'! You sayin' that is like you saying that everything we went through because of or with dueling was all a lie! But it's the truth! And you know what made me get through all those and learn from them, it's by you supporting me all the way even if you thought it was hopeless. So come on Yug'. I need you now to believe in me."
"But what can that do?" Yugi stubbornly held onto his doubt.
Joey approached him. "In case things don't go down the way it's supposed to be, knowing that you believe in me to come back to you, will encourage me to get out of whatever the situation is." He knelled down with a look of confidence that possessed no such thing as doubt. "And I'm gonna come back to you, because I love you."
Yugi felt his pained heart be filled with something that flowed out into the rest of his chest, and it wasn't a bad feeling. It felt like it was cleansing his own body from all the stress that was put into him. He held onto Joey to help ease the rush of his body. The blond held the little teen close in his arms until the small guy passed out.
The two lie against the gym's wall where Yugi was using Joey's shoulder as a pillow. Tea entered the gym, and saw the affectionate display of her two friends. She also saw their duel disk that was attached to their forearms.
She whispered, "Did you two duel?"
Joey whispered back, "Yeah, and Yugi lost."
"He lost?!" Tea quickly covered her mouth. Her words echoed for a second. The teens looked to the sleeping Yugi who did not stir. They were both relieved.
Joey placed his finger against his shushing lips. "Shhh."
The girl apologetically frowned. "Sorry, but did you duel because Yugi..."
"Yeah," Joey nodded. He thought briefly of whether keeping a secret of Yugi was right or wrong, and chose that it was right. "And now he has to keep his mouth shut about this."
"Does he know the full story?"
"No. And it's better that it stays that way for now. It'll only make him worried more."
The teenage girl wanted to voice out against this, but she knew better. "...I guess I can't scold you with a friendship speech, since you're right." She forced a smile, and bought both of them home.
The next day, Yugi spent most of his day in his room where he was playing a video game to distract him, but he was losing the game due to losing concentration every now and then. He looked at his hand that held the red eyes black dragon card. Joey had left this with him on his nightstand after having bought him home.
It was a message for Yugi to have faith in him, and the teen infused the card with as much faith as he could muster.
Later, the small teen fell asleep against the side of his bed while he was in the middle of looking through his duel cards. He then heard his telephone ring. He was immediately woken up, and as he shifted himself, he felt a twinge of discomfort in his shoulders. He got up and answered the phone. He groggily greeted, "Mutou residence. Yugi speaking."
"Hey Yug. Did I wake ya?" A familiar male voice told him.
That immediately knocked out any feel of discomfort or sleepiness in the young man. "Joey! Are you okay?! Where are you?!"
"Calm down! I'm fine and at the hospital."
"The hospital?! How bad is it? Wait, I don't want to know! I'm just glad that you're okay. You are okay, right?" Yugi heard the blond said that he was fine, but exactly how far did the 'fine' go exactly.
"Yeah, Yug'. Perfectly fine. Except for some bruising, but not too serious where I need surgery or nothin'. I just have to stay in the hospital for about a week before I can return to school and work." Joey sounded cheerful, so Yugi shouldn't be worried at at.
But the teen couldn't stop himself from shedding a tear out of relief for his best friend. "I-I'm so glad. I'm sorry, Joey."
"Hm? For what Yug'?"
"For not being there for you from the start. I shouldn't have doubted you."
"Hey, there's no need to apologize. I guess I would also be on the fritz if any of you guys were in my situation. But I'm Joey Wheeler. These sort of things are a breeze! And you don't have to worry anymore. Diesel and his gang got arrested for owning illegal weapons, and attempted murder as well as arson since one of the buildings went on fire cuz of him. We won't be seein' him for a while. But that's not the best part."
"Best part?"
"It's never a secret to other gangs about how another gang got arrested, and knowing that Diesel got schooled by a guy wearing a skirt, those gangs won't bother me anymore cuz messin' with me and losin' ta me will make them an even bigger laughing stock than when I beat them before. So..." Joey let silence hang in the air for a moment which he knew made the little teen anxious. He then finished with, "No more fights."
Yugi breathed in a cool fresh of air as if he's been breathing through a straw this entire time. "Y-you rea-really mean that?"
"Yeah, Yug'. I used to be a gang member, so I know how they think, so I'm absolutely positive."
Now Yugi had a whole different reason to cry out streams of tears. "Tha-that's great. That's awesome! I'm going to see you right now! Which hospital are you at?"
"Sure, and call the rest of the gang."
"Of course!"
._._._.
Seto Kaiba was continuing to do work like the workaholic that he was. He heard his phone ring, and picked it up before the second ring without looking away from the screen. His brain hitting the pause button before processing his words, "Who is this?"
"Kaiba! It's Yugi!"
"I'm busy."
"I know, but I just want you to know that Joey's in the hospital."
"Wheeler?" Kaiba was worried for a moment. He secretly kept tabs on Joey's blog that Tea worked on, and the latest knews of the blond was a picture of those two shopping at the mall. The blond had on a cropped denim jacket that covered over a cute flower pattern dress, and a pair of gladiators. Remembering that picture almost fooled the Kaiba corp owner into believing that Joey to end up in a hospital next was almost impossible to have happened. But this was Wheeler that they were talking about. "What did that baffoon do now?"
"He got in a really tight spot against his former gang back in middle school, but he's fine. I just wanted to ask if you would like to visit him. I can give you the name."
"Not interested." That was a lie, but he was not going to suddeny show any concern for the dog. He hang up his phone reluctantly, and then searched through his computer of which hospital kept his blond, and see the medical records.
It seemed that his puppy was in a rather rough fight. His stomach, wrists and his right cheek was heavily bruised, but there was no internal or external bleeding except for the cut to the cheek. Other than that, Joey was going to be completely fine except for the scar left on his cheek.
Even if the results were positive, Kaiba was not happy with it at all. Joey got these injuries because he was most likely in a situation where he was outnumbered and without a weapon to defend himself if those bastards were to have any with them.
Just then his little brother walked in and saw the stern glare he had pointed at his laptop. "Is something wrong Seto?"
"No, but just so you know, Wheeler's in the hospital?"
Mokuba gasped. "Why?! Who hurt him?!"
"Apparently his old gang back when he was more of a punk."
"Is he alright?"
"Yes. He only suffered minor injuries." Seto shortly wondered if he should not have used the word 'minor' since the injuries may not require surgery, but they weren't a simple scratch.
His younger brother sighed out his troubled feelings. "That's a relief. I should go see him. Do you want to come, Seto?"
The blue-eyed brunette considered this for a moment. He wanted to see the blond to see his injuries himself, and then give him better medical care if he was satisfied with how the injuries were being dealt with. But Yugi and the others must be at the hospital now. Instead he replied, "I have too much work on my hands. You can go if you like." Not that Mokuba couldn't go if he wanted, too, without his permission. But certainly make his older brother know before doing so.
The black haired teen didn't believe him, but he wasn't going to chide him for it since Seto might actually be too busy to visit. "Right. I should probably get him a get well gift. What do you think, Seto?"
"If it's for the dog, then getting him food should suffice as a gift. Hospital food is deplorable." Or so he believed by rumor. He never had to go to a hospital building before. If he needed any type of doctor, he will have them come to him. "Perhaps a chew toy while we're at it."
"Uhm..." Mokuba didn't bother to question his brother's choices. He knew that his older brother cared about Yugi and his friends to a certain point, but how he shows his affections for Joey was a little dog obsessive. He just played along.
._._._.
Joey was on his hospital bed where he was surrounded by his friends: Yugi, Tea, Tristan, Duke and Ryou.
He explained the good news of what he told Yugi to everyone. Everyone was really relieved to hear it, though Tristan was still peeved about the whole thing. He made his unsettleness clear. "You know, this all wouldn't have started in the first place if you hadn't started this stupid farce in the first place."
"Tristan!" Tea yelled at him! She could not believe his attitude! "We are here to support Joey to recover as soon as possible! We don't need your negative attitude here!"
"It's okay Tea." The hospital patient told her reassuringly. "I made all of you guys worried, but I can't say that I regret that I'm doing this. I just hope, Tristan, that you'll understand someday of why I'm doing this."
The tall brunette wasn't happy to hear that. He usually understood Joey, so this was irritating to him. He needed time alone. "Right. I need some air." He walked out of the room just as Mokuba was going to enter it with a gift basket and three bento boxes being held in a plastic by another hand.
"Did I walk into something?" The younger Kaiba asked when he saw the grim yet tired face on Tristan.
Joey happily replied, "Nah! Just Tristan bein' Tristan. He'll get over it." His eyes brightened at the sight of his gifts. "So is that for me? You shouldn't have!"
"Yeah!" Mokuba placed them down on the overbed table. "I thought that you would appreciate some real food if you can eat them. The basket is from my big brother though."
"Your big brother huh." Joey looked at the foggy plastic. The blond felt happy to have gotten something from the cold hearted bastard. That sort of thing was never known to happen. But despite the charity, Joey knew something was up. He suspiciously glared at the opaque plastic. "I bet its something dog related." He tore the plastic apart, and in the sky blue basket, there was a pair of golden dog ears and paws, a big bone chew toy, dog food approved for human consumption, a dog bowl, a red collar with a leash, and a squeaky burger toy.
Joey's eye twitched. "I fuckin' knew it!" He growled while everyone else was laughing. "'Ey! It's not funny! That Kaiba! When I'm out of this bed, he's gonna get it!"
Mokuba scratched the back of his head. He felt a bit responsible for the basket since he helped Seto arrange and order it. He apolgized in both their stead, "Sorry, but Seto actually put a lot of thought into this gift."
"Huh?" Everyone was somewhat shocked. Kaiba plus hurt Joey which equals giving kind gift did not apply to their minds.
The younger Kaiba continued. He knew that revealing the truth wouldn't hurt Seto's reputation. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but Seto was actually worried about you, Joey. I didn't had to ask about you. He just flat out told me about what happened and knew that I would visit you, and then ordered all of this for you. He acted like he didn't want to come see you, but I could tell that he did."
Everyone in the room was staring at the kid before almost all of them smiled warmly at the special rare discovery of Seto's true heart.
Joey, on the otherhand, looked at his dog gifts with a new perspective. A blush creeped across the bridge of his nose. He scowled at his feelings. It wasn't the right time to burst out yet! He groaned. "That damn prick. He really needs to grow some balls and visit me next time! But not til I have my makeup on so you betta heads me up Mokuba if he's comin. A'right?"
Mokuba nodded. "I'll try my best!"
Duke then asked, "So you're still planning to play your little game with Kaiba?"
"Hell yeah!" Joey pulled his fist up midair. "Now that I got those jerks off my back, I can go at this at full throttle!" He punched straight out to display his full determination.
Tea gave a wink as she humorously asked, "Which means you're gonna ask him on a date, right?"
Joey flinched! "Nngh?! No!" He denied vehemently, but his face was bright red. A clear sign of reluctantly liking the situation to happen. "I'm gonna do something else!" He didn't know of what to do.
Mokuba generously suggested, "Maybe you can come to another Kaiba corp party. You looked really good the last time."
Joey remembered that he did, but beauty wasn't enough to get him into Seto Kaiba's party. "Yeah, but I doubt your brother will let me stay."
"Why not come as Alexir De Gon's date." The kid didn't forget of who started this whole thing. "He can't kick you out if you're his date. It'd bring bad publicity if he did since Alexir is a somebody this time."
Joey ignored the indirect insult. He ranked second place in duelist kingdom! Fourth place in Battle City! And one of the top eight at the grand championships! Where was the respect?!
The blond next remembered the actor, and he hadn't heard from his since they didn't exchanged phone numbers. He was glad that they didn't since Joey didn't hold any romantic feelings for his favorite actor. They could simply become friends, but reaching to that point would be awkward. "Uhm...yeah. But he must be busy with his career and stuff. And I don't wanna use him."
The dice master slyly suggested, "Then maybe you can go as your own celebrity." Everyone weirdly looked at him. The male explained, "Your blog is getting more and more popular by the minute where you're a real role model now. So Wheeler, I'm asking if you'd like to be my girl to advertise my game. Not only will it get you an invitation to the party, but also give you some extra cash."
Joey thought that Duke was taking a huge leap in choosing him just because he's getting more popular. "Are you sure 'bout that, Devlin? Cuz I remember ya sayin' somethin' about parents not accepting me?"
"Yeah, but have you been reading your comments, man?" Duke whipped out a laptop from a bag that he bought. It showed that he was planning this discussion. The long haired duelist showed them Joey's blog site that was decorated with the ex-gangster's favorite dueling cards in chibi form such as the red eyes black dragon, scapegoats, Jinzo, panther warrior, sword of landstar, time roulette, flames swordsman and many others. The mouse took the form of either the graceful or skull dice rollers. They switched places depending on the change of pages.
Duke pressed on the tab that led to reading everyone's comments. Tea made this page to have a clear idea of whether Joey was truly giving a postive impact with this blog. How it worked was that a person could enter in a comment which she will see and place it into a column.
There were three separated columns that stood side by side. The left column was the positive column. The middle column were the critical reviews where there were complaints but written in a positive and reasonable way. The right column were the flagged negative comments. At the top of each column showed the numbers for each of them. The positive column at the left had the most comments while the middle column had the least of them.
Duke explained, "I've read all of the comments including the flagged ones, and came up with the conclusion that a majority of the positive comments are from parents who are praising you for being a role model to them or their kid to be able to stand up for themselves. Some of them are against you being dressed like a female, but your videos where you explained your situation with these gang fights, videos of teaching them how to fight or dodge one, and giving positive messages had helped them or their kids get better."
Joey already pretty much knew that he really did give a good impact to the world by doing this, but for Duke to want to expand his popularity was something of a surprise to him. He was really convinced to do this despite already having a hectic schedule. He knew that he had to sacrifice his jobs to do this, since quitting highschool wasn't an option. But it would be worth it.
The dice monster creator continued, "So how about it Wheeler? Want to be my girl?"
Joey did not like how he was asked, but wasn't going to complain about it. Instead he smirked, "You got yourself your girl!"
"Great! Here's the contract." Duke took out a pile of clipped papers out of a folder from his bag. "You can read over that, and then give them to me tomorrow when I visit again. Then I'll send you the rest of the details when we have everything else planned out."
Joey took the papers, and began reading with a critical eye. He already knew what he didn't want out of a job like this, so watched out for those flags.
Yugi didn't want to rain on the parade, but he had to be reassured about this. "Are you sure, Joey? You're already busy with everything else in your life even if the gang fights most likely stopped."
Joey looked away from the papers to grin at his naive little friend. His eyes shined with excitement. "It's okay, Yug'. I can handle whatever Duke throws at me!"
"You better." The mentioned male said seriously. "I expect you to give one hundred percent into this commercial! If you do it with your all, the sales would be tremendous!"
"Don't worry Duke! I'll-URGH!" Joey held his stomach. He was simply straightening himself to look triumphant, but that caused a revolt in his stomach.
Ryou lightly laughed at this. "Let's not get excited now, shall we? You need to rest Joseph, or you might hurt yourself more."
Joey agreed. He did feel like he needed some pain killers, and that stuff would pull him to a good sleep. Mokuba told Joey that he would have the staff keep his bentos from getting spoiled before leaving. The rest of his friends left after telling him to get better soon.
Tristan soon came in after they left. He thought that this would be an opportune moment to have a heart to heart talk. "Hey." They already greeted each other, but they knew that that meant that they were having a do over. Whatever ill feelings that had, they're going to push it aside, and having a reasonable talk.
Joey said, "Hey."
Tristan was silent before he said, "I'm sorry for being an asshole."
The patient replied back, "I'm sorry being being an idiot."
The two of them stared at each other and then broke into smiles. The two hugged each other gently to not give the duelist any more pain. "Get better alright." The brunette told him endearingly. Joey agreed mirthfully.
The non-duelist was about to leave, but then he couldn't stop himself from asking, "What was the real reason why that you went after Diesel?"
Joey arched an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"I know you left your past life behind. You wouldn't go after him even if he threatened you like that because you know better after what happened with them last time. So why did you really go, Joey?"
The blond looked out the window and then back at Tristan. "I'll tell ya but ya gotta keep this top secret. No one but me and Tea know." Tristan nodded. "So y'see, the police approached me and knew about my past affiliation with Diesel, and wanted me to help them out by getting to know of whose sellin' him the illegal stuff. I was able to bug the phone that he was using under another name, and then I knew that bastard was actually trying to get me back in his gang again since he knew that he wouldn't be able to beat me in a fair fight. Forcin' me in his gang would have his gang become the best in the city. The title slippin' in like a glove."
Joey wasn't boasting. He was just stating the facts. Tristan asked of why Tea knew. He replied, "The police approached me while I was with her at the mall. They had tried to approach privately a lot, but I've been avoidin' them because I didn't want to deal with their bullshit when I had things to do. So they took their chance in public."
Tristan sighed out. He was glad that he wasn't a police officer yet. He wouldn't have had the heart to pull Joey into that sort of mess without going mad and ruining the mission altogether. "Damn, man, I thought all the dangerous shit that happens to us would happen to all of us together." The brunette didn't add that it made him feel like Joey was pulling himself away from them, and the duelist didn't know it.
Though Joey could sense that he wanted to say that. He reassured his longest friend, "I'm not going anywhere Tristan. We'll always be pals. But ya gotta accept the fact that we're all gonna take our own adventures without each other at some point. We're almost graduatin' afterall, so get used to it already ya big log." He gave him his biggest goofy grin.
Tristan didn't know of whether to roll his eyes or smile. He settled with both. Joey told him to get out already so he can get some rest. already. The non-duelist left after he said his goodbyes again.
._._._.
A week had passed since Joey had to stay in the hospital. His bruises were changing color, but it meant that he was healing. His own pinkish scar showed to be a long, slim, and diagonal bumping one. It was barely noticeable when Joey was able to hide it by his makeup, but the blond wasn't putting any of that on.
That had given Seto a clear look at the blond's cheek. The brunette had worked hard, so he could make a visit to the blond secretly at night. Mokuba didn't know about this, so he wasn't able to alert Joey about this.
Right now, the blond duelist was sleeping calmly after having taken his pain killers to ease his body. Kaiba was glad for this because he wasn't sure of what he was going to talk to the blond about. They were most likely just going to insult each other until Joey wanted him out of the room, and the CEO would leave to not make the idiot think he actually wanted to visit because he was worried.
God, they're stupid.
Seto looked at the stomach bruise, and almost vomited at the purplish-yellow sight. He settled with a prominent scowl.
It upset him that the dog was stuck in the hospital bed when he could be making more of a fool himself at school or public. Although, Joey hadn't stopped making videos on his blog where he just talked about random things for a good half hour. A half hour that the Kaiba elder could never get back. He tried to deny at first that he watched the video because he was glad to hear the mutt's upbeat voice, but then he had to be real to himself and stop being an idiot, too.
He cared about Joey to a point where Seto wouldn't mind acknowledging that the monkey was out there doing whatever he wanted, but not being harmed in any sort of way, unless it was hilarious. And this was not hilarious.
He knew by sources of what the police had his dog do, and he felt angry that the dog put his life at risk for the police to bust some immature gang leader. Wheeler just wasn't cut out for that; cut out for the real world, while before they were being played with games. The idiot shouldn't be given that sort of job in the first place since he might have died. He knew that the bruise on his stomach was mostly due to shots being blasted against a bulletproof jacket.
What if he wasn't wearing it?
Seto didn't like that. He didn't like the idea of living in a world without Joey. He might be able to live his life with just running his company, aiming to finally defeat Yugi, and taking care of Mokuba, but Joey gave him something unique. He made the cruel CEO laugh at the stupidity of the world in a brighter view.
The poor idiot was the joke of his world, and he wanted to laugh. Plus everyone knows that no one can genuinely laugh without giving a genuine smile at the same time.
Seto sat on a chair as he watched the blond sleep for almost an hour before he had to return home to sleep. Before he left, he whispered, "Get well idiot. And next time, don't pull yourself into these stupid stunts again...Heh. As if a dog like you will ever learn."
._._._.
After about two weeks, Joey was allowed out of the hospital. He could have gotten out sooner if the staff wasn't told to keep him in due to the fact that the over zealous male would most likely overwork himself again.
His friends walked with him out of the hospital, and then he returned back to school in his female uniform. Joey didn't bother covering the scar on his cheek since it didn't look gruesome. He thought it gave him character, and no one seemed to be bothered by it except for his blog commenters who quickly noticed it and went on a comment rant about who dared to try to ruin his beautiful face.
The blond quickly told his awesome followers to calm down, and then explained that the scar came from one of his many cornered fights. And then gave the good news that there would be less fights from now on, and then told them about him appearing in a dice monsters commercial. The spoiler sparked out a few debates, since some news reporters had to do their research on what dice monsters was before they could try to seriously discuss of whether this was appropriate or not.
Duke had gotten some heat by the media for allowing a crossdresser to be the star of his next commercial. The teenager was barely effected since this sort of outbreak meant that his game was being given more publicity, and that led to everyone turning their heads to the game. This also renewed the popularity of Joey's first gang fight video.
And so when Joey returned to school, he was immediately crowded be other female students who were incredibly happy to have him in their school, and being such a cool person!
"You're the best, Joey! I'm rooting for you to be in the commercial!" One of them said. The rest agreed.
One of the other girls told him, "We're making a school club in honor of you, Joey Wheeler! You are a great inspiration to the many of us! Both females and males!"
The duelist eyes lit up. "Really? For me?" He pointed at himself, dumbfounded. The group of girls nodded eagerly. Joey blushed feeling embarrassed. "Eh, but you really shouldn't! Even if I am a kickass, I'm not all that great! Maybe just a little bit." He laughed.
His friends were watching this from afar. Ryou commented, "Oh my. It seems that Joey is going to end this senior year as the number one idol."
Tristan proudly said, "He deserves it. He worked hard to keep that skirt on." He mischievously added, "And that means girls will be gratifying towards us, too!" He charged toward his popular friend. The others merely watched him go with their deadpanned facial expressions. "Move aside ladies. Best friend of Joey Wheeler needs to escort him to his class!" The brunette wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders.
"Hey Tris', I'm not done here!" Joey complained, but Tristan whispered to him, "You missed a shitload of school and homework these past two weeks. Better get to them now."
"Oh right! Sorry gals! I have important work to do if I wanna graduate." He gave a wink which had some of the girls' hearts skip a beat. The two ex-delinquents walked away to their classroom.
Joey immediately laid his eyes on Seto Kaiba. He remembered what Mokuba told him about the cold guy caring about him. He stopped himself from blushing when he approached the senior student.
Seto was in the middle of typing away on his laptop. He noticed someone next to him. He side glanced at the person to see that it was the dog. He asked, "What do you want, Wheeler?"
"Wow, it's nice to see you after so long, too, bastard." Joey sarcastically said, and then seriously told the male, "I just wanted to say thanks for the basket. Even if it wasn't funny."
Seto smirked, "Oh but it was plenty funny to me."
Joey's eye twitched, and fists balled, but he kept his cool. "I bet it was." He said bitterly. "Anyway, that was all I wanted to say." The crossdresser sauntered to the front of the class to get his missing work from the teacher. Kaiba watched him walk. Those legs still being attractive despite all the violent past confrontations. The CEO secretly wished that his skirt was shorter so he could watch those thighs brush against each other and work with that butt.
Kaiba's breath hitched when Joey had to place his hands on the desk, and leaned forward to get a closer look at whatever the teacher was trying to show him. He saw the skirt rose slightly which revealed more of those soft looking bite-able thighs. He just wanted to run his hand in between those thighs teasingly.
He imagined him entering a classroom where Joey was alone doing his missed work. The two have eye contact. Joey questioned of what he was still doing here, and Kaiba replied with something insulting instead of a real answer, so he can see that cute angry face that the stupid mutt would make.
The two enter a battle of insults. The brunette's own being articulate and mocking while the blond would try to snap back with something he would perceive as clever or good enough. When the blond couldn't take it anymore, he would stand up from his seat and charged toward him. He grabbed him by the collar where he dared the man to try to mouth him off again.
Kaiba merely chuckled and continued to mock him. Joey dared him again with both hands gripping his collar. Their bodies coming closer in physical contact. Seto would smirk down at those burning honey brown eyes glaring at him. Those eyes that irritated the brunet because he wanted to diminish that burn once and for all like he could do to all the other second-rated duelist. But he knew that that was impossible, and that made the CEO both angry but excited as well.
In one bold move, he moved his leg up so his thigh grazed the crossdressers crotch. Joey's eyes widened in surprise as he quietly gasped to the sudden intimate contact. He tried to move back, but Seto wrapped his arms around the blond's torso and continued his assault on the male's crotch.
Joey audibly groaned, and yelled of what the fuck was the asshole doing?! Seto merely smirked as he had his hands grabbed a hold of those buttocks; fondling them and then every now and then giving each a good squeeze. The blond tried to punch him, but the black belt rich kid caught his wrist and turned them around so the second-rate duelist was held against the teacher's desk. His butt protruding out and wiggling as the male below him tried to free himself but was met with only a firmer and painful hold on both his wrists.
Seto would have leaned down to whisper something seductively in his mutt's ear. His hot breath ghosting over that sensitive shell. He then teased that shell by licking and nibbling softly on it. His own crotch moving itself forward to rub against the male's inviting ass. Joey gasped and moaned. His face flushing red from the embarrassing acts being done against his body.
But his helpless face quickly turned to one of determination when Seto leaned back with a condescending smirk. He would raise his head as he glared hatefully at the male, but behind those hateful eyes, there was an insecure puppy. It turned out that the monkey had also been wanting this from the bastard, but under different circumstances where they both knew that they mutually liked each other. But Joey didn't know.
So Seto knew that they would have to have a heart to heart about their feelings, but the teenage boy skipped that part in his wonderland, and went straight to where he convinced the teen to submit to being bend over the teacher's desk and being fucked with his own female uniform ripped open and nipples sticking out like ripe cherries that were ready to be assaulted by his pinching fingers. The second rate duelist's cock was sticking and dripping out of his crotchless panties.
Oh god, the cries of pleasure that Seto tried to think about in the guy's male voice. But would have screamed high pitch since he will make the blond feel so good and not regret being fucked like some complete whore as they both came. The teenaged boy pondered on whether he should have their first time end with his cum inside of the blond or cum over the male's butt crack and clothes. Either way was hot and messy where the teen had to take a trip to the bathroom and wipe the mess off or try to keep the cum in his ass so he could clean it better at home
Seto didn't realize that he was sitting with his elbow against the desk, cheek against hand, other arm lazily lying on the desk, and eyes glazed over with his naughty daydreams. He snapped out of it when he noticed a hand waving motion in front of him. It was Joey now facing him and giving him a bewildered face. Seto was sporting a peaceful distant facial expression facing at his general direction which was really weird for the always stoic male.
The CEO almost blushed, and hastily returned back to his work. Joey thought that the rich guy probably worked late last night, so dismissed the weird attitude.
._._._.
A/N: Feel like I need to make Seto's feelings clear. Before this story, the two merely had a friendly one-sided rivalry, and haven't really thought about their true feelings about each other until Joey decided to cross dress.
At the first chapter, Seto merely thought that the blond looked hot, and fell in love with those fantastic legs! If you watched season 0 yugioh episode 19, you'd understand why I think Joey has amazing legs!
At the second chapter, Seto still finds him pretty, but also an annoyance due to Joey's's troubling life troubling him, too. But it also surfaces the blue-eye hottie's concern for the honey-eyed duelist.
And this one shows that Seto is genuinely showing his concern for our hot-blooded idiot, but still trying to keep his cold facade against him. And sneaking in to the boy's hospital room to see how he was doing himself. And after admitting to himself that wanted Joey to stay in his life, Seto's own sexual desires begin to rise.
I figured that Seto's love would be taken by steps. And thanks for reading this far.
