I do not any way, shape, or form own Yu-Gi-Oh! or its characters.

This story is rated Mature as it contains adult language, situations and a couple of sex scenes in later chapters.

Nor do I in any way make profit from this story.

Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 6

"Hey Joey!" Yugi called out as his friend reached the front doors of the school. "Where's Kaiba? I thought you two were staying together?"

"Yeah. Kaiba just had a meeting to run to real quick before school starts," Joey explained to his friend.

"Oh, alright then."

"So," Tea said with a playful grin, "how did the date go?"

Joey's face turned bright red as this question and suddenly found his feet very interesting. He was spared answering by Kaiba stepping up from behind him and snaking an arm around his waist. "Our date went splendidly, as did what happened after." This made Joey blush even more and try to disappear behind Kaiba's back, but the CEO held him firm.

"I though you said you were going as friends, not lovers," Tristan said with a slight growl, still not trusting Kaiba about this whole thing.

Kaiba used his free hand to stroke and cup Joey's chin as he replied, "Can I help it if my Puppy has what it takes to get me going?" To prove his point, he captured Joey's lips in another deep kiss. This not only causing Joey to turn away red-faced, but several other students stopped and gawked at the long time rivals making out.

As they broke apart Kaiba's phone rang. Putting it to his ear, he listened to whatever was being said, a frown growing on his face more and more with each passing second. Hanging up in disgust, he shoved the phone back inside his pocket. Turning to Joey, he sighed and said, "I have to go back to work. Something's gone wrong with our latest game system. If I'm not back by the time school ends, I'll send the limo to come get you."

"OK, just be safe," Joey said. He gave Kaiba a quick kiss on the cheek as the brunette dashed back to his car.

Once he was out of earshot, Tristan spoke up. "I don't trust him. He's planning something cruel."

Joey shoved his friend slightly. "Shut up. Don't talk about him like that anymore. You're my best friend Tristan, but I'm not going to let you badmouth the man I love."

"I'm not entirely sure I agree with Tristan, but you should be careful Joey," Yugi said softly. "Kaiba doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to underhanded moves. And he is being a little too affectionate in public don't you think? We just don't want to see him hurt you."

"You guys don't know what you're talking about," Joey defended. "You have no idea what Seto's been through, the pain he's endured to give Mokuba and himself a good life. Besides, just because he's tricked us a few times before doesn't mean he is now. So if you can't try to be happy for what I might just have with him, then good-bye." Then Joey simply turned and stormed into the school, leaving his friends dumbstruck.

At lunch, Joey was still furious with his friends, so he sat away from them at a table shared by Marik, Malik, Bakura and Ryou. As Joey sat down with them, the four looked at each other confused. Finally it was Ryou who asked, "Joey why aren't you sitting with Yugi and the others? Not that we mind, it's just unusual."

Joey played with his food a bit before answering. "Because they don't approve of my lover. They think he's pulling me along just to hurt me."

"So who's the lucky guy?" Bakura asked absently as he fed Ryou a french fry.

"Kaiba," Joey muttered after a moment, his cheeks reddening.

The four young men around him all spit out their food before they could choke on it. "So you're the kid everyone saw Kaiba kiss outside this morning?" Ryou asked while patting his lover's back. "Well I must say I greatly approve. Kaiba is as much your other half as Bakura is mine and Malik is Marik's."

"Yeah yeah," Malik cut in impatiently, wicked grins on his and Marik's faces. "That's all nice and sweet, but we have questions. How big is Kaiba? Is he any good in bed? How many times have you guys done it?"

"You two should be ashamed of yourselves for asking Joey such personal questions," Ryou frowned.

"Yeah they're real monsters, but I'd kind of like to know myself," Bakura said with a slight smirk of his own.

"I cannot believe I'm hearing this from you. It would seem I haven't influenced your behavior at all."

"It's OK Ryou," Joey said with a chuckle. "But I'm afraid I don't have an answer for any of those questions. We haven't gone any farther than first base, and I've told him that's how it will stay until Kaiba returns my feelings."

"You might have a long wait then. Kaiba only lo-" Malik was cut off by his lover pulling him into a kiss to shut him up.

"Oh I'm not worried about him not falling in love with me. I just hope Yugi and the others come around..."

On the other side of the cafeteria Yugi, Tea, and Tristan were deep in conversation. "I don't know why Joey's so protective of Kaiba," Tristan was saying. "It's not like the jerk was ever nice to him before the suicide attempt."

"Because he loves him you idiot," Tea countered. "People do weird things when they're in love. You should have seen some of the stuff Mai did when she was courting me. It worked of course, otherwise I wouldn't be wearing her engagement ring."

"Joey knows what he's doing I suppose," Yugi said. He'd been mulling over what Joey had said outside earlier while the other two argued. "And he can take care of himself. We owe it to him as his friends to give him and Kaiba a chance. I just hope he decides to talk to us again."

"Why should he aibou?" Yami asked as he set his tray down on the table to join them. While he normally was busy running the Kame game shop for Yugi's grandfather, it was his day off and he'd come to school to spend a bit more time with his hikari. "From what you told me earlier, you all basically told him to leave Kaiba. Joey has wanted Kaiba for years, and now that he finally has the chance to be with him, you've more or less bitten his head off for it."

"But Yami how can we trust Kaiba with Joey's heart?" Yugi asked.

"We simply have to aibou. And Kaiba has never proven truly false in the past. Some of his methods have no doubt been highly questionable, but his heart was always ultimately in the right place. Besides, we're always preaching to others about trust and friendship, perhaps we should practice it a bit ourselves."

Yugi thought that over for a moment then nodded. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too." Smiling gently, Yami leaned over to kiss his hikari while the other two looked away.

"So what are we going to do about Joey dating Kaiba?" Tristan asked, interrupting the moment.

"Nothing, Tristan," Yugi said as he fed Yami rice from his plate. "Except ask Joey to forgive us."

*Kaiba Corp*

At that exact moment, Kaiba was typing away at his computer, trying to save his new project's core memory from a virus that an employee had somehow managed to slip past the game's firewalls. Just as he finished securing the data and making several back ups when the video phone on his desk beeped with an incoming call. Sighing in frustration at what was probably another emergency, Kaiba turned on the screen and placed the phone on speaker.

"Greetings Kaiba-boy," came the voice of Maximillion Pegasus as his smiling face appeared on the screen.

"What the hell do you want?" Kaiba snapped. "I don't have time for your foolishness."

"I merely called to congratulate you. Someone let it out to the media that you have taken a lover. Might I ask who the lucky girl is?"

"Joey Wheeler," Kaiba muttered, knowing it would be pointless to try to hide such information from the eccentric creator of Duel Monsters.

Pegasus' visible eye widened in surprise. "Yugi-boy's little blond friend? Oh this is simply delicious. Congratulations indeed. I insist on paying for the wedding when it rolls around, if you make it that far of course. Well Kaiba-boy I shall leave you to whatever it was you were doing. We both have lots to do. Ta Ta."

Kaiba turned off the phone and leaned back in his chair rubbing his eyes. "Great, now I've got that cartoon loving lunatic cheering me on. Oh well, Joey's worth it." After a long deep sigh, Kaiba gave a small smile and went back to work.

*Domino High*

Joey's amber eyes scanned the street both ways, looking for Kaiba's Ferrari or the limo. As he waited, Yugi and the others came up from behind. "Joey," Yugi began, "we're sorry for how we acted earlier. It was just so shocking to see him acting so nice."

"It's OK guys. I guess I overreacted too. But Kaiba really opened up to me last night, so I'm kinda defensive about him these days. I just wonder where my ride is, school's been out for nearly half an hour."

"Maybe he's just running late," Tea suggested.

"Yeah probably," Joey said as clouds began to gather overhead.

"I'll just head back on my own. See you guys around." With a sigh, the blond started off towards the Kaiba mansion, whistling a low tune as he went.

*Kaiba Mansion*

Seto Kaiba sped down the rain slicked road towards his home. He had missed all of school and spending time with Joey because of several now former employees. As he pulled to a halt in front of the mansion's main gate, he spotted what looked like a pile of clothes someone had merely left on the street. His curiosity growing, Seto stepped out of his car and approached the pile.

"When he got closer to it, he noticed that the soaked pile of clothes was breathing. "Hey," he said tapping the now obvious person with his foot. "You can't sleep here." He tapped the person again and watched as the figure's face shifted into view. A bone white face, shivering blue lips and blonde hair that Kaiba recognized instantly now lay before him.

"JOEY!"