Saturday - Two days to go
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Coel: Heva's sulking and complaining at the moment so just enjoy the story.
Heva: I'm not sulking. I'm just tired and stressed and fed up and ill yet again. Neway enjoy the story.
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Saturday – Two days to go
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Seto was woken by Mokuba bouncing on his bed. He'd been looking forward to having a lie in this morning and assumed Mokuba would want one too. Groaning he pulled the sheets higher over his head as the younger sibling continued to bounce.
"Come on, Seto. I want to get going now," Mokuba whined, knowing Seto would give up in a minute.
"What's the time?" Seto asked, his voice muffled by the blankets that were still over his head. Before his morning coffee he was never in a good mood and it took a great deal of determination to move him out of bed or at least some good reason.
"Seven," came Mokuba's excited exclamation.
"We don't need to get to the shopping centre until ten so go back to bed and let me sleep for another hour," Seto told him before trying to push Mokuba off his bed.
"Fine," Mokuba complained as he fell to the floor and rushed out the room.
Seto sighed and tried to fall back asleep. This may have worked had Mokuba not returned within ten minutes holding a mug of coffee.
"Here's your coffee, big brother," Mokuba announced as he walked over to Seto's bedside and offered the cup to him.
"Ok, you win." Mokuba jumped onto the bed as Seto sat up and took the coffee, nearly spilling it as Mokuba landed next to him. The younger brother snuggled under the covers next to him as Seto sipped the warm liquid.
"Let's go and get some breakfast then," Seto told him after draining the mug.
--
Joey awoke to a pounding headache and felt dizzy as he sat up. He waited for the dizzy spell to end before he got up and walked into the kitchen, in the search of something to drink. It was beginning to show that he hadn't eaten much in the last three days but he still didn't feel particularly hungry. The illness must be messing with his head more than he realised. A cup of hot chocolate later found him in the shower getting ready to meet up with Serenity at the train station. He'd phoned her back last night and agreed to meet her off the train at quarter past nine.
Pulling on a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt he grabbed the remains of the money he'd found last night and shoved it into a pocket. Glancing around the apartment briefly to see if there was anything obvious he ought to take he noticed the folder of work Seto had left him to look at last night. He'd glanced at the contract yesterday evening, and felt completely lost when reading the technical wording. Grabbing the folder and pulling out the five A4 sheets that made up the contract he folded it up so he could put it into his back pocket.
Leaving the apartment he closed the door and locked it before walking along the landing towards the stairs. As he began descending the stairs he thought back to Seto's lack of reaction to where he lived last night. Wondering how Seto had even got hold of his address in the first place Joey failed to notice the man walking up the stairs ahead of him. Without meaning to he walked straight into him and they fell backwards so that Joey was straddling the stranger's hips.
"Watch where you're going, kid," the stranger complained as he shoved Joey backwards onto the hard concrete. Joey glared at the stranger as the guy stood up and began walking up the stairs away from Joey. If it had been a normal day Joey would have ended up punching the stranger, but he needed to get to the station to meet Serenity. He glanced over his shoulder at the guy to fix his image in his mind in case of future meetings. The white hair pulled back in a high ponytail and tight black leathers with slits over the shoulders to free up movement. His retreating back was fixed with a glare as Joey pulled himself upright.
Pushing the incident from his mind he started making his way down the stairs before spotting a piece of paper. He bent down and picked up the crumbled note. As he left the apartment complex he began reading the note and began wondering who had dropped it.
--
Serenity stepped off the train and glanced around the platform, trying to spot her older brother. Eventually she spotted him near the exit into town and hurried over.
"Joey, what's wrong?" Serenity asked as she saw the frown on her brother's face.
"I've been trying to understand Kaiba's contract again and I really don't get it."
"Well let's go and sit in a café somewhere to read it through."
--
Seto glanced out the car window as he pulled up outside the multi-storey car park. Mokuba was still bouncing up and down in the front seat, his hyper mood starting to get on Seto's nerves.
"Do you want to go and wait for me in the shopping centre?" Seto asked, wanting to get Mokuba out of the car before he yelled at him to shut up.
"Thanks big brother, I'll see you in a few minutes," Mokuba told him happily as he jumped out of the car. Seto sighed in relief as he joined the queue of cars trying to get into the car park. He hated being at the shopping centre on Saturdays, it was always crowded.
It took over ten minutes for Seto to get into the car park complex and find a parking space.
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Seto walked slowly to the main shopping area, having had to experience the packed lift ride from the top floor of the car park. He glanced around the area, trying to spot an elusive mop of black hair. Failing in this task Seto sighed and decided to wait around for a little while before phoning his little brother's mobile to ask where he'd run away to.
"Seto!" came a yell as two people ran into him.
"Please don't tell me that Mokuba's enthusiasm has infected you too?" he asked the girl hugging his waist.
"Lighten up, Seto," was her only reply.
"Come on, let's go look at the shops," Mokuba told them as he grabbed hold of both their hands and began dragging them towards the nearest store.
--
Seto was trying to decide which was worse; Mokuba's choice of shops, toy and video stores, or Georgie's choice, shoe and unusual clothing shops. He disliked both, but at least the clothing stores Georgie wanted to look at weren't very popular with the crowds so weren't packed full of customers. However these clothes shops had customers that Seto was pretty sure went home and performed strange pagan rituals in their basements, in other words Gothic horror nutcases.
Currently they were in one of these shops; Mokuba looking through the variety of coats, Georgie in the changing rooms trying something on and Seto glancing around at the boots and belts on display. He'd noticed the prices a little while ago and was wondering how Georgie was going to break the news to her parents if she bought something. There was no way a typical teenage allowance was going to cover any of this.
"What do you think?" Georgie asked as she stepped out of the changing rooms wearing a new black skirt and top.
"You look like a witch," Seto told her without turning to look at her.
"Sometimes I wish I was," she muttered putting her hands on her hips.
"I think you look great," Mokuba responded, holding a coat out from the rack.
"Thanks. I think that's a little big for you though, Mokuba," Georgie said as she walked towards him to look at the coat.
"I wasn't thinking of wearing it myself," he told her as he held up the coat and looked over at Seto with a grin. Georgie giggled and whispered something to Mokuba before leaving to get changed again.
"Seto?" Mokuba asked quietly.
"Yes?" Seto replied, turning to face Mokuba who was holding the coat still.
"Try it on," he told Seto as he held the coat towards him. Considering that his long white coat still had the red wine stain from Thursday, and his purple coat was beginning to wear through on the elbows, he needed to get a new one. Sighing Seto took the offered coat and put it on.
The mirror near the changing rooms was full length and Seto stared at his reflection in it. Mokuba had good taste picking this coat out for him, blue was definitely his colour. This coat nearly swept the floor and was very similar to his white one except for it's navy blue colour, long sleeves and buckles to do up the front of it.
"That looks good on you," Georgie commented as she left the changing rooms and walked over to the shop assistant.
'Maybe Saturday shopping isn't too bad after all,' Seto thought as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket to pay for the coat.
--
"You look fine, I'm sure Duke will love that outfit, Serenity. Can we go yet?" Joey complained as his younger sister showed him probably the fourth outfit from this shop alone.
"You don't think it makes me look a bit slutty?" she asked.
"Not at all," Joey told her in an effort to try and leave the store in the near future.
"I think I prefer the green one," she muttered. "Let's go look in another shop, after I get changed." She disappeared back into the changing room.
--
It was only an hour until Joey was sat with Serenity in a café with a couple of hot chocolates but to Joey it felt like five hours had gone by whilst he waited for his sister to make her decision.
"This is really confusing, can't you get Kaiba to explain it to you?"
"If I ask that jerk for help he'll never let me live it down, sis," Joey complained.
"He's not that bad, Joey. I'm sure if you ask him nicely he'll go through the contract with you. Maybe, whilst you're working with him next week, give him my number," Serenity said with a grin.
"What?" Joey asked, quite shocked at Serenity's boldness.
"I'm only joking, Joey. He may be extremely attractive, rich and have great connections but I would never date him. His workaholic lifestyle and arrogance would drive me mad."
"You sure that's all that's wrong with him?"
"Nope, I was trying to be nice."
"Why?"
"Come on, Joey, it's obvious you like him."
"What?"
"Please tell me that you have come to terms with it already." Joey just stared at her in shock.
"Does everybody know about this and no one decided to tell me?"
"Probably, you've never been very good at hiding anything, Joey."
"Oh, great," Joey muttered sarcastically.
"Come on, Joey, it's not that bad. I'm not sure who knows, really, other than Duke. He was the one to point it out to me actually."
"He's bound to have told the rest of the group as well then."
"He promised me he wouldn't say anything to them, actually."
--
"Hey Mokuba!"
"I didn't realise you were in town today."
"Yeah, well I'm never sure if Seto's going to come up with a reason to skip our shopping trips."
"Why don't you go off with your friends?" Georgie asked.
"Can I Seto?"
"I don't see why not," Seto replied to his younger brother, receiving a hug and claims of being the best brother ever in return before Mokuba ran off with the group. "Wait a moment so…" Seto fell silent as he realised Mokuba was out of hearing distance.
"I'm sure you can just phone him when you want to leave, he's got his mobile with him hasn't he?" Georgie asked, knowing what Seto was likely to be worried about.
"Fine. What do you want to do now?" Seto sounded fed up, but it wasn't something Georgie was unused to hearing from the CEO.
"Well, it's nearly eleven so I think we should go and see if Kay's around." Seto groaned at Georgie's enthusiasm, reminding him far too much of Mokuba that morning. What was it with people and enthusiasm today? Everyone except him seemed to have caught it, maybe he was just immune.
"Lead the way," he growled out.
--
Kay huffed as she glanced around the shopping centre. She'd got a lift there early as her mother was going to the airport and had been worried about traffic. Glancing round the shoe shops she'd already seen a pair of shoes but wanted to ask Georgie's opinion before she bought them.
"Kay!" came a yell from behind her.
"Georgie!" she yelled back as she saw the culprit.
"Oh great, I'm out numbered," Seto muttered, earning an elbow in the ribs from Georgie.
"How long have you been waiting?" Georgie asked to distract from the way Seto was now clutching his side in pain.
"About half an hour; Mother decided she wanted to set off early en case the traffic was bad."
"You should have rung, we've been in town for the past two hours."
"Well we've met up now so how about I show you the most gorgeous pair of shoes I spotted earlier." Kay grabbed Georgie's arm and began to drag her towards a nearby shoe shop. Seto sighed and followed the pair, hoping this wouldn't take too long.
--
Shoe shopping was torture Seto had now decided, especially when Kay and Georgie tried to choose shoes for him to try on. Kay had decided that Seto's boots needed changing for a new pair that matched his new coat; apparently a matching outfit was of extreme importance and would take a lot of careful consideration. Seto had tried to argue that he liked the first pair of shoes that had been picked out by Kay but they hadn't been quite right according to the girls' more fashion conscious minds. They hadn't chosen to explain to him what was wrong with them; his masculine mind would be unable to understand it apparently.
"These might work," Kay told Georgie as they walked back towards where Seto was sitting holding a few pairs of boots and shoes each.
"Try these on first, Seto," Georgie said as she handed the recommended boots over to him.
"Fine," Seto complained, having realised that arguing with these two wasn't an option he would live through, he had decided that for pure self preservation he should agree with any commands they gave him. Pulling on the boots he noticed the size of the heels they had and wondered how the girls expected him to walk in them. They were surprisingly comfortable and he amazed himself by being able to stand up without any problems at all.
"Those really suit you. Kay you have an amazing taste in shoes," Georgie told her companion as Seto took a few hesitant steps in the new shoes.
"I'm glad you noticed. What do you think of them, Seto?"
"They're comfortable, but they're quite hard to walk in."
"You'll get used to it," Kay assured him with a smile. Seto considered telling them both that he had no intention of getting used to walking in heels but self preservation was still fairly important to him so he kept his mouth shut.
"Now, while Seto gets used to walking in those I think we should choose some shoes for ourselves, Kay," Georgie suggested, leading Kay towards a rack of shoes. Seto walked around the shop a couple of times, marvelling at the ease of walking he found despite the heels.
--
Joey looked away from the couple as Duke greeted Serenity with a kiss. He felt like walking over and hitting Duke before yelling at the guy to leave his little sister alone, but Serenity would never forgive him if he did.
"Hi Joey."
"Hi Duke, what've I missed while I've been ill then?"
"Not much really, all anyone's been talking about recently is work experience."
"Sounds boring."
"It has been rather dull, but one interesting thing has happened. This rumour's started about Kaiba and that Georgie girl you were talking about on Wednesday. No one can work out where it started and I didn't believe it until I spotted the two of them in town this morning."
"They're in town?" Joey asked, he knew the rumour was a load of rubbish but if Seto was in town then maybe he could get a chance to talk to him in a place where he had the upper hand. There was no way Seto would be comfortable in town so Joey would be in control of the conversation, unlike how next week would be when Seto would be the one in charge.
"Yeah, someone else was with them as well. I didn't recognise her but Kaiba looked rather fed up. I'm not really surprised he was annoyed though, they were in a shoe shop, but he's got to be getting something in return or he'd never stay there for long."
"I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation why he's in a shoe shop with this girl that has nothing to do with them dating," Serenity said forcefully glaring at Duke, worried that the conversation might be upsetting her brother.
Joey felt a grin appear on his face at the thought of Seto having to put up with two girls in a shoe shop.
'I won't be in the office on Saturday, I'm taking the day off.'
So he was in town with Georgie, it made sense that he wouldn't want to admit that on the phone, and why he'd rather be at work. Pulling himself out of the entertaining thoughts of Seto being dragged around the shops by Georgie and Mokuba he followed Duke and Serenity towards another clothes shop.
--
"What shall we do now?" Georgie was asking Kay as they walked out of the shop.
"We could get something to eat. It's past lunch time and I'm starving. What do you think Seto?" Kay asked, turning to look at the third member of their group who was now stuck carrying their shopping. The argument hadn't lasted long over who carried the bags and Seto was considering whether this self preservation was really that great as it seemed to be the root of his current problems.
"Fine," was his one word answer, his vocabulary seemed to have dropped to just that one word over the last couple of hours.
"That's settled then. I think the restaurants are upstairs," Georgie started saying as she looked around for a staircase.
"I'm not going up stairs," Seto complained, causing both girls to turn and look at him.
"I suppose you aren't used to the shoes yet," Kay said with a smile whilst trying to look thoughtful. She didn't manage to fully pull it off.
"I never thought that I'd see you here, moneybags," Joey commented as he saw the group.
"Hello Joey. I didn't realise you were in town today as well," Georgie greeted him. "Who are your friends?"
"Hi, I'm Serenity, Joey's sister, and this is Duke."
"It's nice to meet you, Serenity, and I think I've seen you round school before, Duke."
"Probably, congratulations about you and Kaiba by the way," Duke replied, shaking Georgie's offered hand. Kay started laughing as Georgie and Seto looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" Georgie asked, glancing around the group for clues.
"There's been a rumour about you and Seto going around school," Kay explained. "It's complete rubbish, anyone who actually knows you two knows that there's no chance you two would ever get together. I mean for a start Seto's gay and"
"Kay, I think it might be best if you were quiet now," Georgie suggested as she moved so that she was stood between Seto and Kay.
"Oops, sorry Seto," Kay said with a grin, obviously not particularly sorry for kicking him out of the closet.
"Georgie, you know that when I ask you not to tell anyone that does include your gossip loving friends," Seto said in a quiet threat.
"Yeah I know, only I didn't tell her, I just confirmed her suspicions when she asked me if I knew," Georgie grinned up at Seto's glare.
Joey smiled to himself as he felt his confidence returning; Seto had more or less just admitted to being gay, meaning that he never felt any attraction to that news reader and there was just that bit more of a chance he could say yes to Joey.
"Joey, are you ok?" Serenity was asking him.
"Yeah, I think so." Joey placed a hand to his forehead, pretending to feel a bit faint.
"Do you want to go and sit down?" Serenity asked, concern showing in her voice.
"It might be a good idea."
"We were just about to go and get something to eat so you can come with us," Georgie suggested.
"I think that's a great idea," Duke said quickly, eager to get to spend time alone with Serenity.
"I've got a better idea," Kay spoke up. "Seto didn't seem to want to go get food so why don't him and Joey go to that coffee shop over there until Joey feels better?" A grin was exchanged between Georgie and Kay, while Seto glared daggers at them both.
--
Joey glanced around the café, looking anywhere but at Seto. It still mystified Joey how mesmerising Seto was, if he looked at Seto it just seemed impossible to look away. He accidently let his gaze drift back to the guy on the other side of the table and watched Seto sip his coffee. Joey stayed transfixed as he saw the muscles in Seto's throat move as he swallowed the warm liquid. The coffee cup was lowered and Seto's lips were moving again, it took a moment before Joey realised Seto was talking to him.
"Are you even listening, mutt?"
"Sorry what?" Joey asked as he shook himself out of his daze.
"I was asking why you were watching me, but I assumed you passed out again when you didn't seem to notice."
"I could have been ignoring you," Joey pointed out, glad Seto had just assumed that it was his illnesses fault that he'd appeared to be staring at Seto's lips instead of the real reason.
"I suppose a mutt like you might do something as immature as that."
"I'm an immature mutt now, am I? Well now that I've found some new dirt on you that I'm pretty certain you wouldn't want spread to the press I'm not feeling so immature."
"You're still immature if you think that you can make blackmail work on me, mutt."
"It was a long shot, I suppose, if you could be intimidated by threats you wouldn't still be in charge of Kaiba Corp."
"Probably not, but I think I'll add not talking about my preferences to your contract."
"Oh and speaking of the contract could you," Joey paused, looking sheepish, "explain it to me?" 'I'm never going to live this down, he's not going to shut up about how he had to explain it to me.'
"I suppose so, have you got it with you?" 'He's not making fun of me? He actually agreed to help me? I think there's something wrong with him at the moment, maybe he's ill.'
"Sure." Joey pulled the contract out of his pocket and dropped it onto the table. As the contract fell to the plastic surface the note fell out with it. Having forgotten abut it Joey unfolded it and scan read the first few lines. "I forgot about this, this guy dropped it this morning on the stairs, what do you think it's about?" Joey handed the note across to the CEO.
"It's a note from someone to their 'dear friend SKF'. I should think it's just a note from one friend to another, nothing particularly interesting," Seto said as he dropped it back to the tabletop.
"I suppose so," Joey agreed, suspicious at Seto's quick dismissal of the piece of paper and insistence that it's a perfectly innocent note, even with the comment at the end that was most definitely meant to be suggestive. 'Looking forward to reigniting the sparks from the past with a fitting explosion.' In Joey's mind there was no way this sentence could be anything except flirting, and the rest of the note was about meeting up for diner together.
"Ok what do you want me to explain?"
"All of it," Joey admitted with a sigh as Seto began the laborious task of explaining the complicated contract.
--
"Why would anyone feel the need to even say that in a contract? Of course I'm not going to kill you."
"I'm glad to hear it."
"What have you two been up to?" Kay asked with a suggestive grin as her, Georgie and Mokuba entered the cafe.
"I've been explaining the contract to the mutt," Seto replied, ignoring the grin from Kay.
"Seto?"
"Yes Georgie?"
"Can I talk to you outside for a minute please?"
"Of course," Seto said as he stood up from the table and followed Georgie outside the café.
"What are they talking about?" Joey asked the two newcomers as they pulled over some more seats and sat down.
"I'm not sure," Kay said as she helped herself to the plate of biscuits in the middle of the table, Joey had left a few of them for Seto but the CEO hadn't made any moves to eat them so they were fair game now. "What's this?" she asked as she picked up the note that was still on the table.
"It's a note someone dropped this morning," Joey told her as he took one of Seto's biscuits from the plate.
"Who's SKF?"
"That was Seto's nickname in the orphanage, it stood for Freaky Kid Seto, except backwards. I can't remember the reason for it being backwards."
"Why'd anyone call him freaky?" Kay asked Mokuba as Joey stared at the note. Seto really did know more than he was saying then, the note was meant for him.
"You have met my brother, haven't you?" Mokuba asked her. So Seto had realised that the letter was for him and hadn't wanted Joey to know.
"Yes, and he's not that different from anyone else in school." Why didn't Seto want Joey to know that he had a boyfriend? Did Seto think Joey would tell everyone?
"He's the youngest CEO of a multinational company ever; he's not just different, he's beyond being just different." Did Seto not trust Joey with that kind of information? Did Seto really just think of Joey as an 'immature mutt' who wasn't worth telling things too?
"Are you ok, Joey?" Georgie asked as her and Seto walked back into the café.
"Not brilliant, I think I ought to go home and get some rest."
"I hope you feel better soon," Kay told him. "Physics just isn't the same without you."
"Thanks."
"I'm sure Seto wouldn't mind giving you a lift home, would you big brother?" Mokuba asked, a slight hint of annoyance could be heard behind the usual happy tones of the youngest Kaiba.
"Of course, do you want to get going now?"
"Have fun next week," Kay said as the three boys walked towards the door.
"Bye," Georgie told them.
"I hope you enjoy your work experience," Joey replied as he followed the two Kaiba's.
"Good bye you two," Mokuba said happily. Seto remained silent, glancing at his younger brother occasionally as the group made their way to the car park.
--
Joey fell into bed almost instantly, his clothes still on and thoughts of the car ride back in his mind. Mokuba's comments were haunting his consciousness as he tried to make sense of it all.
'"Why didn't you tell me that Tsume was back?"
"I didn't think you liked him that much."
"You were eight, Seto!"'
It was the last comment that was confusing Joey, they'd fallen silent after that statement leaving him completely baffled by the exchange. What had happened when Seto was eight? Had this Tsume guy taken advantage of him or had Seto consented? Remembering how he'd felt like raping Seto at one point he wouldn't be that surprised that someone else had thought the same way, but thinking and doing were two very different things. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. Seto and Tsume may have just started dating and Mokuba blamed the guy for warping his brother's mind into liking guys not girls.
Joey closed his eyes and felt himself drift off to sleep, his dreams filled with images of Seto and some faceless stranger taking advantage of him.
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Heva: The plot thickens. What will happen next I wonder?
Coel: Are you suspense building again?
Heva: I was trying to. I don't think I'm very good at it though. Please review, reviews make me happy.
Coel: When do you think you'll be able to upload the next chapter?
Heva: No idea. I'm sorry but it may not be up until next Saturday, it depends on how much work I have to end up doing this week as I'm back at sixth form and have to finish my personal statement and university applications. Oh well, I'll try and upload when I can, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
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Date: 31/08/08