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Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh
Pairings: Joey/Kaiba, Yugi/Yami

Warm

Chapter 7: My past life

"Hey Tea" Joey said as he sipped the iced barley tea Yugi's grandpa had made for them. Tea looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading, the sounds of Tristan yelling as Yami kicked his butt in a video game loud behind them. "Kaiba's step-dad died?" He asked carefully. Tea looked confused but then laughed.

"What rock have you been living under? That news is so old." She teased. "I was what, a freshman then?" She thought aloud, her finger tapping her chin. "Yeah, Kaiba's step-father died two years ago. That's how Kaiba has the company now." Joey felt pretty dumb, and really that news wasn't so old. "Why do you ask?"

"Eh, just curious. Read it at some magazine at the convenience store today that Kaiba was responsible for the death or something." Joey lied with a shrug. He really just reworded his conversation with Kaiba that morning. Tea rolled her eyes.

"Yeah I saw that too. They'll write anything won't they?" Tea sighed.

"Was he responsible?" Joey asked. Tea gave him a pointed look. "Just asking." Joey said sheepishly.

"Well no one actually saw what happened, but apparently Kaiba's step-father fell out of the executive office of Kaiba Corp. Speculation is that Kaiba pushed him, others claim it was suicide. Kaiba looked pretty shaken up about it on the news back then. It was probably some freak accident." Tea pondered aloud as she let Joey in on the secret that apparently everyone knew.

"Wow that's kind of rough." Joey commented absent-mindedly. It was pretty hard dealing with the death of his father in his small world, he couldn't imagine the whole word tuning in on it and trying to blame him for it. Kaiba went through a lot too. "What did his step-mom say?"

"There is no step-mom." Tea said, a strange look on her face. "It's not like you to be interested in Kaiba. What's going on?" She pressed. Joey grimaced.

"I… uh-" Joey sputtered trying to buy time, but no good excuse was coming. "Just curious is all. Don't worry about it." He said lazily trying to pull off he wasn't really interested, turning his head to the side. She snorted, obviously annoyed but instead of pushing it, she turned a page in her magazine and went back to reading. Joey relaxed. Tristan plopped down in the chair beside Joey looking undeniably defeated.

"I didn't stand a chance. Go avenge me." Tristan said with a distant voice.

"Stop being a big baby." Joey laughed and stood up. "You ready Yami? I'm going to wipe the floor with you." He announced as he took the controller off the floor and sat in Tristan's chair. Yami smirked and Yugi wished Joey good luck.

Of course he lost. Joey put his hands on his head as he wandered down the street to work. Tokimasa's schedule didn't really match up with his today and instead of running the poor guy ragged, Joey insisted on walking. Yugi offered that he and Yami walk with him halfway but Joey declined. One reason being because he didn't want Yugi knowing he worked for a construction company the other… Well, Yami still kind of freaked Joey out. He hadn't really been all too certain about ancient spirits and all that jazz, especially after Ryou's seemed to have kidnapped him out of their lives. Yugi seemed really happy too, always extra cheerful when pharaoh Yami burst out of that pyramid, blushing and smiling.

Joey stopped in his tracks. Wait, was his friend Yugi in love with the spirit thing? Joey cocked his head and kept walking. As he thought about it, things started to make more sense. He really couldn't see Yugi dating a girl, and by how protective Yami was over Yugi, they might already be together. That, or maybe Yugi fell in love with Yami because he was so protective. How would that work though? Could he really find happiness like that with a thousand something year old spirit? Joey shook away the thought.

"Sup' guys." Joey greeted his co-workers as he reached the site. It was the Dynamite tou building. "Oh man, I didn't know we were working on this place." Joey whistled.

"Prime example of why you should be good or be good at it." One of the guys chortled. "Got caught red-handed doing illegal deals with overseas companies. They were secretly making arms for war without permits or nothing." He informed. Joey's jaw dropped.

"Were they dealing in dynamite?" Tokimasa asked, covered in dust from knocking out drywall. The guys howled with laughter.

"No they dealt in guns." The guy laughed.

"Missed a chance." Tokimasa commented winking at Joey. "You get here alright?" Joey nodded. "That's good. Boss man wants you to work on wiring. The other guy called out again." Joey sighed. He was good at wiring, but he hated going in the walls. Sometimes there was some pretty nasty stuff in there- dead animals, garbage, bugs or all three. Joey saluted Tokimasa and went inside the building. They already hollowed out the inside of the bottom floor except for the support posts and there was blue prints showing some pretty extravagant changes. Why the guy didn't just bulldoze and start from scratch was beyond Joey.

Joey saw the wires hanging haphazardly out of the wall with tools everywhere. He looked at the blueprint again and took to work pulling out the wires and replacing them, making sure the sockets were exactly where requested. The sounds of drills and hammers filled the silence in his head.

"Right this way." Joey heard his boss say. He must be showing the customer around but it was almost 2am now and the workers were doing some gritty work. Who in their right mind would want to check building progress now except for the actual workers? Joey looked up and his heart almost flipped out of his mouth. Kaiba stood in a crisp suit, his face stern and focused as his boss explained the issues with the blueprints. Kaiba seemed to be entirely unimpressed.

"If your company is incapable of performing the task at hand there are other companies that can." Kaiba said coolly. His boss looked like he was sweating pretty hard. Joey turned, deciding to make himself small and busy so that Kaiba might not notice him. His fingers worked quickly, finishing his bit of wiring faster than he anticipated but he soon forced himself to stop. His anxiety over Kaiba's presence might make him mess up the wiring and he didn't want to get yelled at or fired. He looked up again and saw Kaiba explaining how something needed to be done with a semi-irritated tone. Kaiba glanced up briefly in Joey's direction and turned back to the blueprint to explain again but he seemed to stop with realization. Joey bit his lip and looked away.

"Joey come here." His boss called out. Joey groaned. He was done for. He got up grudgingly and plodded over to his boss and Kaiba. He glanced at Kaiba to find the blue eyes set on him and looked back at his boss. "Our employer would like to speak with you." His boss said, even though he looked unsure about the whole situation, he looked rather relieved to be able to sacrifice Joey so that they could work in peace.

"He won't be coming back for the night." Kaiba informed his boss, who agreed very quickly. Tokimasa stepped up.

"Hold it, where exactly are you taking him?" Tokimasa asked, his cigarette almost burned to its end between his lips. Kaiba regarded him for a moment the same he would a bug before squashing it. Yikes.

"It's alright, he's a friend from school." Joey said awkwardly, though he couldn't hide the pleading look of desperation on his face that was probably screaming something like 'help me!' Tokimasa looked really confused.

"Our employer is your friend from school?" Tokimasa inquired.

"Er… yeah." Joey shrugged, though friend was the exact opposite of what he considered Kaiba to be. Kaiba began looking rather impatient. "Anyway, I'll see you in a bit? Don't worry about me." Joey tried, him putting two thumbs up. Tokimasa didn't look like he was buying it but he let Joey go much to Joey's dismay.

Joey walked out into the warm night air following Kaiba to a black corvette. It was the first time he really got to look at Kaiba. Kaiba was so tall; he looked to be about eight centimeters taller. Kaiba opened the car with a button on his keys and told Joey to get in. Joey reluctantly opened the door and sat in the passenger side and Kaiba started driving but didn't say a word. He looked like he was uncomfortable which was weird to Joey. Why the heck would the rich brat drag him away from work if he didn't want to be around him? "So uh… I read some articles about your step-dad." Joey said.

Kaiba's knuckles went white as he gripped the steering wheel harder. Joey mentally kicked himself. Joey knew he'd hate it if someone suddenly brought up his dead father and made him talk about it. It was the only thing he was able to think of, that or Mokuba, and the Mokuba thing probably wouldn't get him far. How's Mokuba? Fine. End conversation.

"I killed him." Kaiba said suddenly. "It's not as tragic as you think." Joey was a bit startled by the news but didn't find it surprising. Kaiba seemed like he would kil- Joey stopped himself. Kaiba didn't really seem like someone who would do that.

"How'd it happen?" Joey asked, not accusing him or trying to deny what Kaiba thought to be truth, but he wanted to know.

"I took over his company." Kaiba said simply. Joey frowned, very informative. Not. After a short silence, Kaiba spoke again. "I had been completely obsessed with taking it, all of my childhood was consumed with the ambition to free us and the only way to accomplish that was to take the company. With perfect grades, a skilled sharp tongue and some backed threats I managed to get the team of idiots below my step-father to grant me his position. I won and then fired all of them. Knowing that he lost, he threw himself from the Kaiba Corp window." Joey's eyes were wide, he hadn't expected Kaiba to open up to him, especially not like this, not in a million years.

"He killed himself?" Joey asked.

"I pushed him." Kaiba said. "With my words, I made him jump."

"That's not the same as killing someone. Even if you want to pretend to be that cold, you aren't." Joey snorted. "You're no killer." He continued and looked at Kaiba who looked really troubled and strange, as though he wanted to cry but forgot how to. Joey hesitated. Kaiba pulled into the shoulder on the highway of the mountain they were cruising on. The view was pretty awesome, though Kaiba didn't seem to notice it.

"I was abused by my step-father. That's why I did what I did. An eye for an eye. I just didn't realize he'd jump." Kaiba continued. Joey tensed. Kaiba was abused? The idea seemed absurd to him. Kaiba was someone grown men cowered in fear from not the other way around. Then Joey realized if he met himself on the street it'd be hard to imagine that the blond with the stupid grin and killer right hook was abused by daddy at home.

"Don't blame yourself for that idiot jumping out of a window." Joey said, realizing that Kaiba was doing just that. It wasn't right. "My dad's dead too, you know? He beat me pretty bad and I ran away. He overdosed while I was gone. I've been keeping him from doing too much for years, pulling his hand away, sneaking his drugs from under him and trashing them. And you know what? I might be why he's dead too. I didn't come home even though I knew he just got paid. I knew he'd go buy a full arsenal of crap to get messed up on." Joey paused, tears welling in his eyes. He realized he had been blaming himself. Kaiba's hand rested itself on his forearm. It felt strange and yet comforting.

"Joey he's a grown man who made poor choices. If I'm not allowed blame myself for my father's death than you're not allowed to blame yourself for yours mutt." Kaiba said, his voice cracking a bit. How long had Kaiba held this in? Joey had only held in his fears and blamed himself for the last three days, had Kaiba been doing it for the last two years? No wonder the guy was such a jerk. Joey laughed bitterly through his tears. They were so lame. Here they were in the middle of the night crying together over dead family. The next twenty minutes or so they sat in comfortable silence, taking in the view.

"You alright?" Joey asked looking over at Kaiba. The brunette's expression was pretty twisted. Joey leaned over to check and see if Kaiba was crying and Kaiba turned to look at him, he wasn't crying, but suddenly their faces were pretty weirdly close. Joey's eyes widened. Kaiba's did too, but only briefly. Then, without warning Kaiba's lips brushed against Joey's. It was like a ghost's whisper there only for a moment and then gone so fast that Joey wondered if he had imagined it. Kaiba sat up straight and pulled the car out of park, driving back down the mountain road. The only other words Kaiba said to Joey after that were to ask for an address to where he wanted to go. Kaiba input it in his GPS and dumped Joey off at Tokimasa's house without even saying goodbye.

Thank you for reading Ladies, Gents, and Non-binary Friends.

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