I wake up in a white room, white sheets, white pillow, white tiles and a nurse in white uniform comes in to my room. My head hurts and my vision is fuzzy much like my memory of what happened to me. I have casts on my legs and arms, stitches on my forehead and lip, and a few wires to keep my casts where the doctors want them to be, and bandages covering the rest of my body. My hair unevenly cut off in some places, weird. The last scene I remember is Yami, and Yugi playing dual monsters, I'm waiting which one of them I'll have to lose against because I just beat Tea, that was the 15th , but how would that ever lead to me in the hospital?
The nurse notices that I'm awake, maybe she can tell me something of interest, she smiles a kindly smile. She's an old woman that I imagine is a grandmother by now.
"Oh good you're awake. You're injuries weren't fatal." She looks at her clip board. "50 stitches, 5 broken bones, and a minor concussion. But no lost teeth, at least you're smile is still there. Found with nothing but clothes on your back." I try to smile, but it hurts too much to. She continues.
"You were lucky for the young man to find you, he was lovely and polite as can be. He also seemed to know you, Joey Wheeler?" I nod. Who the fuck could that be? Why would anyone that gave a shit about me be around, I'm guessing, my apartment. It does answer why I'm here though.
"Oh good, he had the right person. The gossip in the lunchroom is that he was very concerned for your well-being and angry at who, or whatever did this to you. He also said that he found you in the trash. I'm a bit of a gossip. From what I've heard, he was extremely good looking." She giggles the last part. The nurse has already created a heart felt romance about a mysterious savour sweeping me off my feet and taking me to the palace. I do wish I knew who it was though.
But when I come right down to it, the whole situation is extremely strange, why would someone put me in the trash or hack off my hair. Or the biggest question, why did someone beat the ever living shit out of me, could I have pissed off someone that much? Obviously I did, but why?
The door opens, pulling me out of my confusion, and reveals the gang. Yugi, Yami, Tristan, Tea, Duke, but the person I'm happiest to see is Serenity. She runs up to me, and hugs me, which hurts a lot. The nurse leaves.
"Ow, Ow, I'm fine, well, alive at least." She lets me go, and smiles from ear to ear. Her face is tearstained and snot has taken up camp. Her hair doesn't look like it's been combed in a couple days, and her clothed wrinkled.
"Well, that is something. So, what happened?"
What probably everyone was thinking. I want the abuser to be Kiaba in some way, but can't imagine it. I hate his guts and I would like punch him the arrogant look off his face more then once a day, but why in the world would he beat me up? The logic tells me it's an asshole in my neighbourhood that was too hopped up on something to realize that I meant him no harm. I keep my suspicion to myself; partly no one else here dislikes Kiaba quite as much I do. If he knew, he would probably be say "I guess a mutt really can't go up against a pure breed."
"I really can't remember anything, after the time I was playing duel monsters."
"Wait, that was at least two weeks ago. I knew you had a bad memory, but that's ridiculous." Yami is trying with all his might not to show relief in his face; Yugi makes no secret of his concern and relief at my conciseness Tea puts a vase of flowers and a box of sweets on my side desk.
"First, My memory isn't that bad. Second, Nothing, blank."
"Strange, but I'm glad you're alive. You're been out for 24 hours or so, well that's how long it's been since Yugi got a call from Serenity, hyperventilating on the other end of the phone." Serenity blushes slightly, and chimes in,
"You can't blame me, my brother is in the hospital. I'm defiantly going to be calm about it." I smile, it's been a while since I was able to relax and just chat with the gang without any real time constraints. I'll admit I'm euphoric. Then Duke also comes in with a gem of male wit.
"You can make you hyperventilate without your brother being in the hospital." I'm not sure what that was supposed to be, but it gets everyone laughing. But 24 hours, puts me at Saturday night, what I could have been doing on Saturday night that could have gotten me beat up? I normally try to get home before 9 on Saturday, after 10 is affectionately called "Raping Time" in our neighbourhood, unless I stay over whomever house I'm at, Kiaba has better things to do, and my father always goes gambling and drinking somewhere else and passes out whatever girl he goes home with, so he's never home on Saturday or Friday for that matter. Plus, why would he spend so much effort on abusing me, he always gets bored after one or two strikes, not once has he ever stoke me more the twice. Nothing is making any sense, but is partly medication though.
"Duke, just no. And, how's grandpa?"
"He's good. He's home and resting; we had to hire a nurse to help us because everything got too time consuming to do. Truthfully, everything's been pretty calm. Yugi isn't panicking any more. Besides the onslaught of letters wanting Yugi and I in a competition or talk show of some sort and the tabloids swearing that Yugi and I are twin brothers. Besides the genetic tests that say we are not. Everything is calm." They do look surprisingly similar and during Halloween they did come to school as each other, that confused the teachers, well, until they spoke.
When Yami came on the duelling scene, and took everyone by surprise at how well he did against Yugi, the king of games. This handsome, rich guys kid, who no one knew as anything other then the son of the C.E.O of Atem Inc, the other 20% of the children's gaming market, walks out on the floor of the most prestigious Duel Monsters tournament of the year, only the best of the best get to join, including Seto fucking Kiaba, who's ego can't be contained. I got front row ticket because of my relation with Yugi, but Yami walked out on stage, with no titles to his name, I needn't have to say that he stuck out and looked like a kid with too much time and money.
And he did lose, to Yugi.
The tabloids had a hey day with that and jump-started Yami career in professional duelling, I haven't asked if he has beaten Yugi yet, well in duel monsters.
His and Yugi's courtship was by far the cutest I've seen. Both were much to shy to actually ask each other out and they were publicized as rivals. Even when they did officially get together, Yami's family wasn't too pleased when he told them he was dating Yugi, but they couldn't complain all that much. Unfortunately the fees for those competition were always much to expensive for my family to afford and plus, I'm not great at Duel Monsters anyways.
"Sounds like fun. Are your parents bugging you to come back home yet?"
"When haven't they? Anyway, want to duel?" He hands me his extra deck, I take it with some difficulty and remind myself what exactly is in it, as he lays out the portable duelling mat. It's a new product from Kiaba Corp, not full release yet, that using the same holographic technology that everyone is accustom to in the duel disks but creates holograms that about five inches tall. Because as everyone knows, no one can play card games with super advanced holograms at least that's what the commercial tells me.
"So, I can lose against you?"
"Want a handicap?" I shake my head, but sealing my demise in the game.
They leave when I start making really stupid moves, like trying to attack Dark magician girl with Kuriboh or trying to trap my own monsters, minus that I didn't even get the joy of taking one life point away from Yami. While Yugi ransacks my sweets before I do. Serenity stays after to tell me that Mom doesn't know what happened, nor has she told our father. Sometimes my sister really knows how to cheer me up. Why...
I fall into a medicated sleep before I finish that thought. The doctor comes and makes sure I'm not dead, from what I could get from the visit. My friends, Mia and Ryou included come and go, Mokuba comes by with Serentity to visit, Serenity taking over feeding me and Mokuba luckily not teasing me too badly, I even get the delightful gift of a week's worth of homework when Yami and Yugi come to visit. My gifts are pilling up, a few compliments from Valentine Inc, a marketing firm owned by Mia's mother, most of them are children's toys. Well, I now know what Mia thinks of me.
Finally, the day of my release comes. Serenity and Mokuba, of weird people, show up to pick me up from the hospital. Mokuba is a normal 13 year old in most cases, more intelligent then most true and bit more obsessed with duel monsters, but his brother owns the damn game no one can blame him. He doesn't know the value of a dollar but he's not some spoiled kid. Also, how that nice of a kid is ever able to live with that bastard of a brother, is something I don't think I'll ever understand or how he turned out to such nice of a kid.
They're armed with a duffle bag for the few clothes I was brought.
"Ready to go? You've been here a week and half, I hope you are. The hospital isn't that amazing of a place." Mokuba teases. I nod. My meds have been eased up, and I can finally think slightly more clearly.
I'm not looking forward going home, back to that apartment that smells of shit and piss. Where used condoms and empty beer bottles are perpetually a part of the scenery, where you can't sit on the couch for fear of bodily fluids. Back to the cockroaches and bed bugs, back to asshole neighbours who beat me up for the few dollars I have. Most importantly, back to my father. My heart speeds up for some reason, my palms start to sweat. Strange, I've always hated him, never afraid of him. I suppress it to the back of my mind. Serenity takes care of my follow up appointment, and takes my prescriptions for pain meds. Our mother never had decency to come to see if I'm alive nor did our father for that matter.
"Thanks for taking care of me." I say. She's a great sister, I regret making her worry from geting myself hurt.
"Don't worry, Joey. Someone has too, you obviously can't." She teases as we walk out of the hospital; a black car comes up in front of us. It's a luxury, with tined windows and chrome trim, Mokuba rips open the door and climes in, with my duffle bag. Then Serenity. Then with a lot of difficulty, I clime into the car.
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My incredibly creative corporation names. =)