A/N: This chapter does end with some (hopefully ok written) boyXboy make up sex, which has been edited out of this version. For the full version, please go to archiveofourown. Some potty words in here, but that's about it. It's going to start getting a little darker now, just a heads up!

This is Season 0 Kaiba (Dark Kaiba) talking

Kaiba rubbed his eyes, more than ready to go to sleep. After Joey had slammed the door, Kaiba had decided the best thing for him to do would be to stay in his office until everyone had left and then sneak into his bedroom. Hopefully Joey would be in there, and they could hash things out before it got out of hand.

'Not that it matters, he just wants to be angry with you.'

A voice whispered, causing Kaiba to twist around in his chair.

"Who's there? Mokuba is that you?"

He questioned, annoyed that he couldn't see who was talking to him.

'I'm not Mokuba you fool. It's me, you're other half. I've been waiting for you to open your mind back up too me, and it looks like now is the time. I've missed you.'

"Do you actually think I believe in you? I'm just dreaming again is all."

Kaiba answered smugly, rolling his eyes.

'Well then, if you don't believe me, then let me demonstrate.'

The voice answered, and Kaiba tensed waiting for a response. When nothing happened, he rolled his eyes, figuring that the voice had gone away.

Suddenly his left arm shot out, holding itself directly over the candle that had been burning on his desk. Kaiba tried to pull it back, only to realize that his body was not responding to his commands.

'What's the matter Kaiba? I thought this was just a dream why can't you move your arm?'

The voice mocked him, and Kaiba watched in a panic while his arm moved closer to the flame. Odds were it wouldn't hurt him much, but he didn't want to deal with the consequences. The flame danced, the heat it was giving off slowly melting the button on his sleeve.

"Let me go."

He hissed, trying to pull his arm away yet again.

'Not until you listen to me. I've waited years for you to come back, you can certainly give me a few moments of your time.'

Kaiba planted his feet, attempting to roll his chair away to move his arm. He was rewarded by falling out, the chair rolling away by itself while Kaiba smacked his face off his desk and fell to his knees, his arm in the exact spot it had started in.

His lip was bleeding, the coppery taste slowly trinkling into his mouth. His arm choose that minute to move, jerking down so the flame grazed the skin before Kaiba was finally allowed to have control over it again.

He pulled the limb towards him, rubbing his fingers over it surprised at how cold it felt. The chuckling started again and he looked around, ready to take down whatever would appear to him.

'You are weak Kaiba. You let that blond idiot take away every decent part of you until a useless shell was left. Leaving work early, delegating assignments, SMILING? Who are you? I'm part of you and I

can't even recognize you anymore.'

"Maybe I'm just finally happy."

Kaiba muttered, rubbing his arm some more.

'Don't you remember what your father told you? Happiness is the same as weakness. It's not for someone like us, someone who has the potential for greatness. Where is the Seto Kaiba who killed the man who adopted him? The one who was willing to sacrifice his own brother to gain his own company? He's just a fool now. Everyone is laughing at you behind your back, talking about how the mighty Kaiba has been brought down by a nobody.'

Kaiba frowned, clenching his fists menacingly.

"Kaiba Corp is the number one company in the world. Nobody is calling me a fool, an idiot, or laughing at me."

He snapped, pulling himself off of the floor.

"My relationship with my husband has caused me to reevaluate my priorities, and I've realized there's more to life than work."

A burst of air came from no where, hitting Kaiba in the stomach causing him to fall over again. He

gasped for breath, quickly feeling light headed.

'You idiot. You really think he cares that much about you? He's still in love with her, the one that he knocked up. He cries over her at night, I watch him in the mirror while you sleep. He'd leave you for her in a minute, and you need to be prepared.'

"Prepared for what? He's not going to walk out on me, we're married."

Kaiba lost control of his left arm again, except this time it went to one of the drawers in his desk. He watched as it pulled out all the files before pulling out the false bottom and pulling out a stack of papers.

He recognized the first one-it was the divorce papers he had given Joey years ago when they had fought over Yami. The second was the papers they had drawn up when Kaiba had been given custody of Lisbeth as a third party parent.

The third one he had never seen before. It was a declaration of neglect, listing charges and allegations against Joey and Mai. He quickly glanced over the papers once, then a second time, not understanding what he was reading.

'You need to get ready for the storm Kaiba. She's coming back, and if you're not careful she's going to take away everything you've worked for. She'll get him alone one night, spread her legs, and let him plow into her until he's forgotten all about you. He won't even have to take his ring off first.'

The voice told him, smiling as it spoke it's poison.

'You should have adopted Lisbeth instead of letting them keep Mai as her mother. It doesn't matter that she signed over her rights. All she has to do is screw the right judge and they'll over turn

everything that she had signed.'

Kaiba froze, looking over the papers carefully. His biggest fear was that one day she would come back, flutter her eyelashes, and take away the family he had worked so hard to put together. Maybe it would be a good idea to re-think his relationship, just in case. Kaiba pulled out a piece of paper and began to write, as a shadow of himself watched and smiled.

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Several weeks pasted, and things were still cool between the two men. Kaiba ended up sleeping a few nights on the couch in his office until Lisbeth had called crying that her dad didn't love her any more. Joey had insisted that he come home and they came up with a solution, sleeping back to back, not touching or looking at each other.

That left both of them very crabby, and the lack of contact between the two was causing Kaiba to retreat deeper into himself, allowing his darker half to step in an poison his mind against his husband and their life, which in turn only made the situation worse.

Joey chased Lisbeth around the house, trying to give her an insulin shot.

"Lisbeth, you need to come over here. You know what will happen if you don't take care of yourself, c'mon baby girl."

He begged, trying to grab her arm as she skirted around him.

"I don't care! I didn't ask for this, I'm tired of being sick."

Joey sighed, shaking his head.

"I know sweetie, but you need to do it. Just remember that I'm just doing this because I love you so much. Besides, don't you want to stay over at Uncle Tristan's and Uncle Duke's tonight? They've set up a special movie night for you guys."

Lisbeth rolled her eyes before stopping and offering her father her arm. Joey quickly finished up, patting his daughter on the shoulder and letting her go. His phone rang and he winked at her.

"That's probably your dad, I called him when you took off."

Lisbeth screamed and took off again, knowing that she was going to be in trouble. Joey laughed at his daughter, watching as she ran around the room. He answered the phone, not even realizing that he didn't know the number.

"Hello?"

"Joseph? Is that you?"

"...Mai?"

A soft chuckling came through the phone line, warm and sensuous.

"You sound so surprised to hear from me Joseph... I guess it's been a long time hasn't it?"

Joey just stood there, not knowing what to say to her. Mai waited a few minutes, allowing him to process things.

"I'm sorry to spring this phone call on you like this, but I've been asked to give a victim impact statement at your father's sentencing and I wanted to talk to you before I came."

"Victim impact statement?"

Joey whispered, still not understanding what she was saying.

"Didn't they contact you? Your father is finally going to rot in hell for what he did to us, and the DA asked me to come give a statement about what I went through."

"I never heard from anyone... why would they contact you and not me?"

Joey wondered out loud.

"Well, maybe they just haven't reached out yet, the date is in 3 weeks."

Mai said, smiling to herself.

"I'm coming into town a week from Friday, I wanted to visit all our old friends and get that part of my rehab over."

"What part would that be? What kind of rehab have you been going through?"

Joey asked, concerned.

"I don't know how to tell you this Joey but... I've been going through a bit of a rough patch, I got addicted to my pain pills and I've been in and out of rehab for the past 4 years."

Joey closed his eyes, trying to block out the pain he heard in his former lover's voice.

"I really don't want to discuss this over the phone Joey. I've finally gotten to the place where I have to make amends to everyone I hurt, starting with you and... my daughter."

Joey's blood ran cold as he realized what she was saying.

"I don't know how good of an idea that is Mai, she doesn't know who you are, she doesn't remember having a mother at all."

Mai's voice came through the phone, tired and sad.

"I know Joey, I just want to see her, I've missed her so much."

She started crying, leaving Joey once again speechless. The silence between the two stretched on for a few minutes before she was able to calm herself down again.

"I know I'm asking a lot of you Joey, and I promise I won't interfere in any of your lives. If you do want to meet, I'll be at the Sky Hotel on the 17th til the 24th. I'll leave instructions at the desk to give you my room number."

Joey nodded, even though Mai couldn't see him through the phone.

"I hope to hear from you hun, I've missed you too."

Mai whispered, hanging up before Joey could answer. Joey stood there for a minute, listening to dead air. His eyes closed, the smell of Mai's perfume once again dancing in front of his nose. Her skin, so smooth in his hands as he explored her body. The little gasps she would make as he touched her and kissed her, the way she would look at him when they laid in bed together was all stored in his head, somewhere deep inside where he could pull them out when he was alone.

He gently whispered her name, realizing he would need to take a cold shower before Kaiba came home. His eyes opened, looking at his ring finger and frowning. His fingers traced over the interlocked stones, remembering the vows they had made that day, the promises to honor and cherish each other for the rest of their lives.

Suddenly, he wanted to call his husband, missing the taller man's calming presence in his life. They would make a decision together on what to do about Mai, as equal parents in their daughter's life. He pulled out his cell phone, texting Kaiba to call him as soon as possible, crossing his fingers that his husband would be able to talk about this rationally.

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"Are you insane? She left you, she left your daughter and you want her to come back!"

Kaiba hissed, glaring at the blond. Joey glared at his husband, crossing his arms in defiance. He had gone to drop Lisbeth off, coming home to find Kaiba pacing around the house like a mad man, having come home only to find the two blond's gone. Flustered, Joey's carefully prepared speech went out the window, leaving him to stutter through the phone call he had received earlier in the day.

"I don't want her to come back Kaiba. I just want to give myself some closure on what happened between us. She left without a word, and I want to know why."

"I know exactly what happened. She dumped her baggage all those years ago and spent the past 8

years running around doing whatever she wanted. Now she's feeling her age and she wants to come back and pick up right where she left off with you. Too bad you're married to the CEO of Kaiba Corp, it's going to be hard to carry on a little love affair with the press always around."

"What the hell are you talking about Kaiba? Why would I want to have an affair with her? I still care about her yes, but I love you you stupid idiot!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and glaring.

"You keep accusing me of passing time til I can sleep with the Pharaoh, maybe that's what you're really doing huh? Letting yourself be a rich man's play toy until your little bitch decides to come back and play, huh?"

"How dare you accuse me of not being faithful too you. I've been nothing but a good husband to you and this is how you repay me! If I did want to sleep with her, do you think that I would bother telling you that she was coming back instead of just going to see her myself? What the hell is wrong with you Kaiba?"

"Maybe I'm just being tired of being played like a fool, Wheeler. Sure you're telling me about meeting her this time, but how many times have you seen her before this? Are you using my money to hole her up in some hotel somewhere, or maybe you stash her in the pool house that you insisted on keeping as a guest house?"

Joey stared at Kaiba opened mouth, not comprehending what his husband was saying.

"You're just a worthless mutt who I should have stomped out a long time ago. Should have screwed you and dumped you like everyone else in your life did."

Joey swung at that, years of aggravation at his life coming out in a quick strike, nailing the brunet on the face. Kaiba staggered under the weight, sliding backwards and hitting his head on the wall before collapsing onto the floor. Joey shook his hand, feeling the burning sensation that came from hitting flesh. He glared down at his husband, noting the dazed look on the older man's face. He knelt down, pushing back the brunet locks as blue eyes opened, eyeing him warily.

"You need to realize that you don't have to fight for me anymore, I'm right here and you're the only person I want to be with, and I need to realize the same thing about you."

He said softly to the other man, placing his left hand over Kaiba's so their wedding rings touched. Not knowing what else to do, he pressed their lips together, stroking Kaiba's face as the brunet slowly responded to him. Joey ran his hands down the others body, reaching towards Kaiba's belt. He slowly undid it, pulling the leather piece through Kaiba's belt loops and throwing it to the side.

Kaiba moaned, closing his eyes as Joey gently thumbed over the lump in his pants. The blond grinned, looking around the room quickly to see if there was a more comfortable place to continue this.

"How about we take this back to the bedroom?"

He whispered, standing up to brush himself off and offering a hand to help Kaiba up as well, quickly pulling the brunet into their room and firmly shutting the door.

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Joey giggled, pinning Kaiba down on the bed.

"Are we ok?"

He asked quietly, placing his head on Kaiba's chest, listening to his heart beat slowing down. Kaiba rested his chin on top of Joey's head, smiling to himself.

"Yea, we're ok. I guess we both need to stop acting like jealous idiots all the time huh?"

He asked, kissing the top of the blond head gently. They laid there for a few minutes, basking in the after glow of connecting with someone you have a deep bond with. A thought crept back into Joey's head and he sighed, knowing that this was going to be the best time to bring this up.

"So can we talk about seeing Mai rationally or do we need to pick up our fight from where we left

off?"

Joey asked, running his hands up his husband's body before kissing him yet again. Kaiba had his eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of relinquishing control to the blond after weeks of self-loathing and cold showers.

Joey smiled, sliding off to the side of the brunet and running his hands through those silky locks. Kaiba started to fall asleep, worn out as usual. Joey glanced over at the clock, noting that it was almost 5 and he should probably start dinner.

Joey would cook a good meal, then give Kaiba a chance to vent his frustrations about Mai seeing them and hopefully they would come to some sort of agreement that would work.

He hadn't realized how badly he wanted to see the other blonde until he had heard her voice on the phone. She was always around somewhere in the back of his mind, reminding him about what life was and what it could have been- the visions of the two of them married with several kids playing around them, entering tournaments and building decks off of each others strengths.

Of course, it was too late for that now, but part of Joey would always love her, and he had to admit that so he could move on with his life.

Right now he pulled chicken out of the fridge, deciding that since Lisbeth wasn't there he would make some pasta instead of using the spaghetti squash as a special treat for the two of them. Placing the water on the stove, he let it boil while starting the Alfredo sauce and slicing the chicken.

He whistled to himself, relaxing as he pulled together a chicken Alfredo meal that Kaiba loved. Once everything was done, he tossed a quick salad, placing it on the counter while he went to see what the other man was doing. Seeing that Kaiba was still dozing, he gently roused him, telling him that dinner was almost ready before leaving to serve it.

Kaiba stood silently in the bathroom, worn out from the argument they had had before. He looked at himself at the mirror, noting how exhausted he looked. It would definitely be an early night, hopefully for both of them. He blinked, and the image in the mirror changed back to his younger, green-haired banished self.

'Looks like Mai's not the only whore around here. He comes to you once and you forgive him for everything huh? Your adopted father was right about you. You are just as weak and pathetic as that mutt you married."

Kaiba shook his head, trying to dislodge the voice in his head.

"I love my husband, and I trust him completely, now leave me alone."

He snapped, glaring at the other version of himself. The image began to fade, as the green-haired younger man smiled smugly.

'I'm sure you think you do. It's too bad you didn't hear whose name he said in the shower this morning.'

Kaiba glared at the mirror, not wanted to admit how much he was hurt by the thought of Joey still thinking about Mai.

'I have to admit, I was impressed that he managed to say your name while you guys were 'making love' after what I saw beforehand.'

Kaiba's glare turned dark, and he lifted his hand, punching the mirror before he was able to stop himself. A dark chuckle filtered through the room as he continued punching, ignoring the blood beginning to drip down his fingers.