KD: Another week, another chapter. Hooray. Nothing like a little Seto/Joey goodness.

Chapter Seven: Reach out For Me

Chapter Song:

The four tops - Reach out I'll be there

It was another day at work, and another stuffy costume, for Joey. The armor of the Celtic Guardian costume was feeling heavier and heavier as the day went on, but that didn't keep him from putting his best foot forward. Joey did his best to erase the memory of the incident that happened nearly three weeks ago, but he still had nightmares about Kaiba fondling his body. He had not seen the CEO since the incident and that was a relief, but at the same time it was strangely disheartening.

Kids were coming up to Joey, posing for pictures and receiving hugs. Unbeknownst to the blonde, Seto was further down the walk from Joey, clipboard in hand, jotting down notes about everything going on in the park. He made a few glances at Joey, but paid no real attention to him.

The children finally left with the exception of one who got separated from her parents. While Kit left to help the child locate her mom and dad, Joey had a moment for a water break. While relaxing, he noticed that a few feet down the pathway were some kids arguing about a children's card game, duel monsters. The older kid pushed the smaller kid on the ground, ripping up his card and throwing the pieces on the ground. Joey got up, remembering how it felt to be picked on, and decided to step in.

"Hey, kids, what do ya think you're doing?" Joey said, walking towards them, attempting a macho walk. The kids looked at Joey and started laughing.

"Who are you supposed to be?" the leader said in disgust.

"I'm the Celtic Guardian." Joey said with pride, "and you shouldn't…" The kid kicked Joey in the shin before he could continue his heroic speech. "Why you…." Joey started, bending over rubbing his shin. When he looked up he noticed the kids had started running away. Joey started after them, but stepped on a soda bottle and fell on his back. He tried to stand up, but his ankle throbbed with pain and he almost fell over again.

"You ok Mr. Celtic Guardian?" the little kid said hovering over Joey.

"Yeah, kid, no worries here," Joey said forcing a grin as he carefully got to his feet, resting most of his weight on his good ankle. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah… but they tore up my favorite card," the kid said with a sniffle as he picked up the pieces. "They said I could never be a good duelist."

"Don't you believe that for a second," Joey told him. "Anyone can become a great duelist. Ya just gotta believe in yourself, and don't let nothing anyone else says get ya down."

This certainly seemed to cheer the kid up. "Thanks Mr. Celtic Guardian. If I ever get you, I'm gonna make you a part of my deck!"

"Kid's got spirit," Joey thought as he watched him run off. He felt his ankle throb again and decided it might be a good idea if he checked it just to be safe. Sitting down on one of the benches, he gingerly removed his boot as well as his sock from the injured leg. The area connecting his foot and ankle was already beginning to swell up, and he wondered how he was going to finish his shift. The boots were tight, and even he knew constricting a swollen ankle wasn't healthy. Seeing that Kit was still nowhere in sight, Joey decided to limp his way back to the employee break room to rest his foot for a while.

Joey was too busy paying attention to keeping the weight on his good foot and making it into the break room to notice what was to come. "Come on, Joey, the chair is only a few feet away."

*crack*

Joey felt cheap ceramic crack under his bare foot, making him fall back once again. "Damn it." Joey thought trying to stand up once again. Once he finally got back up with many groins of pain, he stepped forward; he felt sharp pains in his bare foot. Joey looked down and saw pieces of a broken coffee mug pierced into his foot. Blood was trickling out of his foot and on top the carpet, and he hobbled over to the chair to sit down. "Should I try taking it out of my foot?" Joey thought, not sure what to do with hit foot at this point.

"What the hell happened here, Wheeler?" Joey looked up and saw those piercing blue eyes looking at his current state with annoyance and almost concern.

"I…I…" Joey started, but was interrupted by Kit blasting through the break room door.

"Oh my God, Joey, what happened? I was looking for you everywhere." Kit rushed over to his side, oblivious to Seto standing in the room.

"Nikita Ivanov," Seto said, clearing his throat to make sure that she knew of his presence.

"Mr. Kaiba," She said, dropping to her knees before him, not looking up for an instant.

"What happened here?" he said, unfazed by her quirky reverence for him. She had done the exact same thing at her interview and Kaiba found it mildly amusing.

"Well, there was a little girl who got separated from her family, so I went with her to find them. After we found them, I got lost, forgetting where I left Joey, sir. So I went looking for him, and found him here. I'm terribly sorry, sir." Kit still had her head towards the ground, imagining the face that Kaiba had this instant.

Kaiba's eyes then drifted back to Joey. "Wheeler?" he questioned wanted a reasonable explanation to why the blond was bleeding on the carpet.

Joey really didn't feel like explaining anything when his foot was being shredded by pieces of coffee mug still lodged in his foot. Gritting through the pain he began explaining how he'd hurt his ankle and came into the break room to rest it. Half way through his story, a messy looking guy with unkempt hair and stubble walked out of the bathroom.

"Dude… is that my coffee cup?"

"Jackson," Kit and Seto said at the same time. This caused Kit to go into a momentary fan girl moment for saying a word in sync with her employer.

"So," Seto said, stooping down and picking up the handle of the broken cup. "This mug was yours?"

"Yeah, like, I was having a drink and then, like, the mug slipped from my fingers and spilt coffee all over me, so I like, went to the bathroom to wash off my clothes. I was totally gonna pick the cup up, honest. I'm against all forms of littering. Pro environment man." He then noticed Joey sitting and the pieces began clicking together. "Dude… your foot's bleeding."

Joey did not respond; he was trying not to inhale the prominent smell that was coming off the guy.

The glare Seto gave him was smoldering. "You're fired."

"You have no idea, man."

While the guy was kindly escorted out by security called by Seto, he had two of them cover Jeoy's foot with a towel before picking him up, causing him to yell in protest. "Get this mess cleaned up and find someone to replace Wheeler for the day," he told Kit, who more than happily obliged, before going out to his vehicle with the guards carting Joey behind him.

Finally, when they were away from the park in the employee area, Seto graced Joey with an honest opinion. "You need to go to a Hospital, now." Joey was thrown in the back of Seto's limo by the guards, and Seto gracefully sat next to him.

"No! No hospitals," Joey stated forcefully as he tried to situate himself without causing more damage to his foot.

"What are you whining about now?" Kaiba said in annoyance.

"I don't want a hospital. That's not something I can afford," said Joey as he was doing his best to keep blood from dripping all over the back seat. "I'll heal just fine on my own."

Seto gave him a look that clearly said, 'you're an idiot and I don't know why I even bother to have you in my presence'. He reached up and pressed a button that closed a window so that the back seat was completely closed off from the driver seat.

"You and your fancy limos," Joey grumbled.

"I could always put you back out on the street," Seto offered.

"Yeah, you would, wouldn't you?" Joey thought. Didn't matter that Joey's leg was twisted to kingdom come and he was bleeding all over his outfit, Kaiba would make him belly crawl his way home. During Joey's silent lapse Kaiba had reached beneath the seat and opened a little compartment where he pulled out a first aid kit. "Oh, heck no!" Joey exclaimed already seeing where this was going. "I'll take my chances, thank you."

"You have pieces of ceramic lodged in your foot, Wheeler, and to top it off your ankle was sprained. If something isn't done, it could cause permanent damage, and then you wouldn't be able to do your job, and I would fire you. Then you would be even more useless than you are now," Seto expelled. "Since you refuse to go to a hospital, you should at least accept some first aid."

Joey begrudgingly accepted Seto's help and just laid back and relaxed as much as he could being alone in the back seat of a limo with Seto. After getting Joey situated, Seto carefully unwrapped the towel to expose the foot. Then came the not so fun part, and that was Seto pulling the fragments out of his foot. When Joey questioned if he knew what he was doing he just sent Joey an annoyed glare. Joey had to clench his teeth as Seto extracted the pieces one by one, and soaking the blood up with gauze before it could touch the seat. When the last piece was out Joey breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now we just need to disinfect it," Seto stated as he shrugged off his jacket and began unbuttoning his shirt.

"Kaiba. What are you doing?" Joey shouted confused why the CEO was stripping in front of him. Seto just ignored him as if it were nothing. Seto took the shirt off and began to wrap it up in a cylinder shape. Joey looked on suspiciously, not knowing what to expect from the guy any more. "What's that for?" he finally asked after Seto had it perfectly folded.

"Your mouth, Wheeler," Seto said pushing it between his lips, "And trust me, you will need it." As soon as the shirt was in Joey's mouth, Seto grabbed the rubbing alcohol and poured some on a cotton ball. Joey was thankful that the shirt was in his mouth because he could feel the coming pain radiating from the tiny ball. Seto started to rub the alcohol on the open wounds and was surprised how calm Joey was about it. He could still feel all the muscles in Joey's body tense up, but he didn't fidget once. As soon as Seto was done cleaning the wounds and took large cotton patches and sports wrap and began to cover up the wounds thoughtfully, making sure to not cut off circulation to the foot completely.

Finally, he pulled out some Icy Hot and placed the patches perfectly around the slightly swollen ankle. Joey enjoyed the coolness of the patches, reminders of Seto's hands against his skin a few weeks ago. Joey mentally hit himself for thinking of Seto like that. Joey awkwardly handed Seto the shirt back. Seto didn't even bother, but instead placed his jacket over his bare chest. This for some reason pissed Joey off even more.


KD: Yeah, you can totally tell Kit is a reincarnation of us. :P But is that not precious or what? And trust us, it gets better. So stay tuned for the next installment. And Please Review. ^_^