Chapter 7
Joey sighed and snuggled up to the body next to him, then frowned, brows furrowing together. He could almost swear that someone was staring at him. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking them to get used to the light, then turned his head.
And nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Shit! Nadine! What are you doing?!" he hissed, glaring at the girl staring at him innocently.
She frowned and tilted her head in confusion. "What am I doing wrong?"
"This isn't my room, Nadie! What if Seto wakes up and sees you? He could— …That's a lie. What are you waiting for, Nadie?"
"…You and Kaiba dating now?" she asked, tilting her head and twisting her ears to one side.
"What?! No!" He glanced back at Seto to make sure he was still asleep, then turned another scowl on her. "Kaiba and I don't have that kind of relationship!"
Nadine blinked at him innocently. "Sooo… You guys have angry sex?"
"…Why aren't you asleep?"
"Um… Sorry, Joey…"
The blond sighed quietly and sat up a little, turning his body slightly to face her. "It's okay, Nadie, I'm not mad. But you better get out of here before Kaiba wakes up. We don't want him mad at you for coming in without asking."
"Okay. Bye." And she disappeared out of the room with a flick of her black tail.
Joey smiled affectionately before turning to snuggle back up to the older teen. Seto groaned softly and yanked him closer, rolling to be on his back and causing the blond to rest on his chest, blushing. "Eh… K-Kaiba? You awake?"
"Stop speaking please," the brunet ordered, throwing the arm that wasn't wrapped around the smaller teen's waist over his eyes. "I need to wake up before we start arguing. God…"
The canine boy frowned but decided that silence was in order. At least, it was until the older teen gave him a smack on the ass. "Yai! Hey, that hurt, you jerk!"
"Bad dogs get spanked," Seto replied, finally uncovering and opening his eyes.
"How was I bad?!"
"Thinking that I wasn't going to know Nadie was in here." He couldn't help a smile. "Sweet little thing that she is."
Joey smiled as well. "Yeah. She's a cute kid." He let out another yelp as the brunet gave him a second smack on the ass. "Ow! Hey, what the hell-!?"
Seto smirked and sat up, getting out from under the covers. "That one? That one was just because you've got an ass for slapping."
"Why I oughtta—" the blond began, but suddenly, Kai came stomping into the room, face almost as red as his hair. "Uh… Kai?"
The feline man hissed and pointed to the door. "There is a woman—some stupid smartass bitch—in our living room. She called me a Tomcat! I was this close to ripping out her throat-! …Oh dear God, are you two still naked?" He frowned. "It's after nine. Even I'm awake." He sighed and waved it away. "Whatever. Just go and take care of that bitch!"
Joey sighed and waved him away. "Whatever. Let me find my pants." He scratched his ear lazily and walked over to his pants—because really, what was the point of wearing a shirt?
Kai frowned and raised an eyebrow, holding his hand out to rub the blond's chest slightly. "Are these all hickeys? Shit, man, you look like you've got a communicable disease."
"Huh? Oh yeah? Look at the gift he lift me down here!" he exclaimed, lifting his leg slightly as he was putting his pants on.
The feline man whistled slowly. "Shit, Kaiba, you just wanted to stake your claim, didn't you?" He reached out to touch the hickey in concern. "And it's not even beginning to heal yet—" He let out a yelp as the brunet in question smacked his hand away. "Ow! What the hell, Kaiba!?"
"He's mine now. Don't touch."
Joey scowled. "Say what—"
"Joseph Wheeler! Get yer ass out here now!"
The blond squeaked. "Oh God! Alisa!" And he stumbled out of the room still trying to get his pants up.
Kai raised an eyebrow. "Oh, please. That girl couldn't possibly be that—"
"I'd think twice about messing with her," Seto cut in, walking past him in a button-up shirt and jeans. "And that's saying something; I usually wouldn't think twice."
Joey stumbled out into the living room just in time to see Nadine handing his cousin a cup of tea. He furrowed his brow and frowned. "Alisa, what are you doing here? How did you know where we—"
"Joey, sweetie, I know ever'thin'." She smiled at him sweetly as she took a sip of her tea. "Just here with some infermation." She raised an eyebrow. "Who was that red-haired Tomcat I met when I came in?"
The dog boy rubbed the back of his head nervously, wondering why his cousin hadn't questioned the marks on him yet. "Um, that was Kai. Feline genes."
"Ah. No wonder he looked so pissed. Well, ya might as well get the rest of yer little ragtag fam'ly in here, Joey. I've got news that I think ya'll should hear."
"…But…" He bit his bottom lip. "…Why do I have such a bad feeling about it?"
Alisa raised an eyebrow at him. "'cause it's bad news, ya dummy. Now, tell me 'bout all these hickeys ya have. Who're they from?"
"Um…"
"They're from Kaiba," Nadine answered, smiling innocently.
"…I see." The blonde girl sighed. "It's yer body, ya can do whatcha want with it, I guess. They're already starting t' fade, though."
Joey shrugged slightly, frowning. "Uh… Faster regenerating cells."
"I see." She glanced at Nadine, who was sitting next to her stiffly, then at Joey. "I see we have two out of—from what I believe—six. So I'm looking for the Kaibas, Kai, and Ryou?"
He nodded. "Yeah."
"I see. SETO, MOKUBA! RYOU! KAI! COME HERE NOW!"
"Shit!" Joey rushed over to the startled wolf-girl beside his cousin and hugged her close. "Alisa! You almost gave Nadie a heart attack!"
The woman turned and pulled the girl from his grasp, pulling her to rest against her chest. Nadine snuggled up to her and hid her face in her chest. "Sorry, Ms. Wheeler. I'm just jumpy. I didn't mean to—"
"Sweetie, do yerself a favor and cool yer jets," Alisa murmured, running a hand through the girl's hair comfortingly. "Just calm down." The large male wolf that followed everywhere lifted a paw to rest on the girl's leg. "Look, even Loop is worried about you."
"Na, why are you molesting my sister?!"
Joey grimaced and grabbed Seto and Mokuba as the came up behind the feline teen, trusting Ryou to dive to safety on his own. "Move, move, move!"
"Ow-! Mutt!"
And then Alisa was up, leaving Nadine on the couch in stunned confusion, as her fist collided with Kai's jaw. She followed that up with an elbow to the stomach, a palm to his chin, and finally kicking his feet out from under him. Whilst the feline man lay on the floor recovering, she turned to Loop and snapped, pointing at the ground, forcing the wolf to lie down when really, all he wanted to do was attack and defend his mistress.
She turned back to the redhead and scowled. "Don't you ever accuse me of somethin' like that ever. Again."
Kai nodded mutely, deciding it was best not to mess with a psycho.
Alisa then turned to the other occupants of the room and frowned. "I've found that the people wantin' ya dead are gonna hire one infamous 'Sniper.' From what I can tell, Sniper never fails. An' seein' as how I don't want ya'll dead, I thought ya should know," she stated, then turned toward Joey and raised an eyebrow. "Anythin' else ya wanna know?"
"…Does Freddy still have to eat that mash crap?" the blond whined, ears folding back in frustration.
She scowled again in response. "Joey, it's been three days. Yes, Freddy still needs to eat that mash crap." She turned and headed for the door, snapping for her wolf companion to follow her. "I'll be seein' ya. Oh! Kaiba!" She turned and faced the brunet, smiling. "You break my cousin's heart, I'll break yer face. Got it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Seto found it in his best interest to nod. "Yes."
"Good! Glad we have that outta the way. Well, I'll see ya later." She waved over her shoulder and smiled before she and Loop both disappeared out the door.
"…Who… the fuck was that?!" Kai exclaimed angrily, sitting up.
Ryou raised an eyebrow at him. "Maybe that will teach you not to assume that all girls are going to be weaker than you."
"I like her," Nadine said, unable to help smiling, which in turn caused her brother to stare at her in disbelief.
"Wha…? Why?"
"She's tough! I wanna be just like her!"
Joey slapped a hand to his forehead and sighed, shaking his head slowly. "Here we go… I'm getting breakfast." As he walked into the kitchen, Kai exploded.
"Why would you want to be exactly like her?!"
-z-z-z-
Later in the afternoon found Seto literally throwing Kai out the door, shouting for him to come back only when he was ready to stop sulking and face the fact that he got his ass handed to him by a girl. This then caused a chain reaction of laughter from the other occupants of the house, until they, too, were thrown outside, because 'it was a nice day, damn it, so leave some peace for those of us that still have to work!'
…So they began shooting practice, with Kai's supervision. It went well, until Nadine finally whined her way into letting Kai allow her to shoot.
In which case she absolutely blew everyone away by her accuracy when she shot each and every target exactly through the center of the bull's eye.
"…Why? Why is my little sister better at shooting than you!?" the feline man shouted, pointing at Joey.
Joey scowled. "You say that as if it's my fault! Well let me tell you, I had nothing to do with her outrageously good aim!"
"…I don't believe you."
"Whaaat?!"
Nadine blinked at them as they began to fight, then looked up at Ryou and Mokuba helplessly. "Oops."
"…I'm sure they'll calm down soon!" Mokuba stated, smiling, as he tried to make her feel better. "Don't worry about it, Nadie. It wasn't your fault!"
Ryou sighed as the blond and redhead began to throw rocks, sticks, metal targets, and other various and close-by items, then grabbed both Nadine and Mokuba by the hand, leading them back toward the house. "Let's get out of range before they start throwing dangerous and large objects."
"Sorry Kai and Joey!" Nadine exclaimed, before the albino whipped her inside and the door snapped shut.
-z-z-z-
Seto sighed loudly as he heard something crack against his window and turned his head sharply, sending a glare at the poor glass that had really done nothing wrong. Judging by the screaming, it must be Kai and Joey's doing. …They shouldn't throw things if they weren't going to hit each other. They could have broken his window.
Standing up, he sighed and slammed his laptop closed; it was obvious he wouldn't be getting any work done today. At least, not until he had somehow had Kai and Joey effectively debilitated and silent.
He stalked out of his room to find Nadine, Mokuba, Ryou, and Freddy all staring out of the window at the scene the dog and cat were making. "…What are you doing?"
"We're waiting to see if Joey grabs that boulder behind him and throws it at Kai," Nadine answered, not taking her eyes away from the window. "So far it's only been minor damage."
"…Minor…?"
"They've drawn blood but they haven't broken any bones; if bones are broken, bets are off and we make Nadine go out and start crying," Mokuba added. "Joey and Kai melt at tears."
"…Whatever." Seto waved it away and began toward the door leading outside. "I'll be right back."
Nadine turned to watch him go and frowned, then looked up at her companions, brow furrowed. "You don't think he's going to try and stop them, do you?"
"I think he's going to die trying," Mokuba answered, resting his chin on his hands. "They should stop before he gets hurt, though. They've got the good sense not to drag anyone else into their battles."
Ryou bit his bottom lip nervously. "I don't know about that…"
-z-z-z-
Seto crossed his arms and frowned, watching the volley of insults and strange items between the two genetically enhanced males. After a few minutes, he sighed and took a few steps forward. "Guys, could you just—"
Kai turned quickly, letting out a squawk of alarm, and lost his grip on the rock he was holding. "What the—!"
"Kaiba, look out-!" Joey began, then cut himself with a wince and a gasp of horror as the rock collided with the brunet's head. "Kaiba!"
The last thing Seto saw before everything went dark was the blond running toward him.