YUGIOH

Getting Back to Square 1

Chapter 9.

It had been quite a few hours, and Joey had not returned, yet. During that time, Kaiba had been living off of coffee. He had also by now turned on the satellite TV, keeping up to date with his present death.

"The Militia group was known as the OABB, The Organization Against Big Business. It had not been seen for some time, but obviously it was still alive, yet in hiding...controlled by a mad man, known as Stephen McCullon. And sadly, Seto Kaiba...CEO of Kaiba Corp was made a victim of this terrorist organization."

"The new CEO of Kaiba Corp, Mokuba Kaiba has been reported to still be resisting all the evidence that had been found, insisting this attack had nothing to do with the OABB. Despite that fact, the police have been moving forward with their investigation."

Mokuba: "Since the police refuse to listen to their key witness in this event, Kaiba Corp will be conducting their own investigation in the possible whereabouts of Seto Kaiba."

"Experts believe that the new CEO may be suffering from trauma over the loss of his brother, and pressure has been on him to seek professional help over this event. Fear over the possible instability of their new CEO has been causing a drop in Kaiba Corp stocks..."

"Just great..." Kaiba muttered sourly.

Suddenly, the door burst open, causing Kaiba to jump and instantly reach for one of the hidden knives. But, he relaxed as soon as he realized it was Joey. But, he then did a double take after seeing what he was doing.

Joey was huffing and puffing, dragging in what looked like a shark with part of the fishing pole sticking out of it. He gasped. "You know...I can use a hand here!"

Kaiba put down the controller and his coffee, then lifted his hands back up and slowly clapped.

"That aint what I meant!" Joey snarled.

Kaiba offered a smirk, saying. "I can't believe you caught a shark with a fishing pole. What the hell did you use for the bait?"

"Myself, I guess..." Joey said, as he grunted, dragging it further into the door. He then laughed, saying. "Ya know...you weren't shitting me when you said I can use my luck to fish. I can barely believe it, myself."

Joey then let go of the shark, getting ready to tell his story. "Well, first I tried to string the thing, but the damn fishing line got all tangled. But I all ready had enough line out to fish, so I figured 'hell with the real, I'll just use myself to pull it in'. So, then I dug up a worm for bait and shoved it on there, went further in the water figuring if I was deeper I had a better chance of getting a fish, then tossed in the line. The next thing I know, this shark shows up out of nowhere, trying ta eat me!"

Joey got into some stupid pose as he continued, saying. "So, I put the pole up like kind of a shield, but as he lunged at me he snapped the damn thing clear in half. So, I took the thicker part of the pole, and when he came at me, I stabbed it in him! So, he was thrashing, trying to get away, but I hung onto the pole and wouldn't let him go, until he finally stopped moving."

He then grinned and pointed down at the shark, saying. "So, there we are...shark food. Hope you're hungry."

Kaiba walked over, looking down at the shark. "You certainly have a flair for the dramatics." He stated, referring to the way he waved his entire body around when telling the story.

He still couldn't believe Joey had caught a shark, though. It was a pretty impressive feat, he had to admit to himself…though he'd never admit it to Joey.

"All right." Kaiba said, grabbing onto the tail. "Get to the outside and push the other end."

After both of them fought with it, they finally succeeded to get it inside. For Kaiba, it was more painful to force his muscles to work that way again, though he hid it well. Despite Joey not noticing, it bothered him the amount of pain he was still feeling. He feared it could cause him problems the day after, when he went back to the base. He could only hope the element of surprise would give him the edge he needed to succeed.

"Okay…we got it in." Joey said. "Now what the hell do we do with something this big?"

Kaiba shrugged. "Chop it up and stick it in the fridge, obviously."

Joey gave him a look as if thinking Kaiba had a dumb moment. "Did you forget, genius? The fridge is filled with beer."

"Then empty it, moron. Beer's not perishable and we're not going to be drinking it, anyway. We'd be better off chopping this up and sticking it in the fridge to eat later." Kaiba replied.

Joey argued. "There's no way we can eat all this in one day. And I don't think we got enough wrapping paper for this."

"So?" Kaiba asked. "Then wrap what you can and drag the rest out to sea. I don't care. We're not leaving its remains to sit here and stink up the place."

"Alright, alright..." Joey grumbled.

Joey found some cling wrap, while Kaiba expertly did the cutting. Joey watched as he cut, seeming to be very good at it. "Where'd you learn to do something like that?" Joey asked. "You do cooking at home?"

Kaiba glanced up at him for a second, before looking back down at the shark. "Something like that." He muttered, leaving it at that. Any teaching about cutting that he learned was from Gozaburo and his private tutors which also consisted of assassins.

Either way, Kaiba got to the best 'meat' of the shark, giving those chunks for Joey to wrap and put in the fridge and freezer. Joey had to empty a few cases of beer to fit what he could of the shark meat, but eventually they ran out of wrapping paper.

"Well, that's it…we're going to have to dump the rest in the water. I suppose I'm going to also have to do that part, right?" Joey asked, knowing Kaiba could not be seen.

By this time it was starting to get darker. He might be able to slip out, but he didn't want to take the chance. Plus, he really wanted to avoid getting any more fish smell on him if he could avoid it.

"I'll clean up the small parts." Kaiba atleast offered, finding some plastic garbage bags to throw some of the left-over's in.

Joey took a moment to lift the removed head and play with the jaw, opening and closing. "Maybe I can keep the head. That would look cool on my wall at home."

"You're not keeping it, unless you can find a place to put it that wont smell up the place." Kaiba snapped.

Joey really wanted it, though. As Kaiba cleaned up, Joey emptied the rest of the fridge and shoved it inside with hope that he could come back later and have the thing possibly stuffed.

Joey then had to do the hard part of dragging the rest back to the beach and tossing it into the ocean, for the fish to eat.

The knife Kaiba used for cutting he tossed into the sink as he looked over his hands, feeling the aching in his arms from the simplest task of pulling a heavy weight and cutting something up. Was he going to be ready for this? He only had one day left to be ready…he had to be sure of it.

His hand went to the other, snapping his knuckles on both sides as he considered what he should do to ensure he would be ready.

When Joey came strolling back, he stopped in the doorway noticing it looked like Kaiba was redecorating.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked, coming in.

Now that he observed a bit more, he noticed it looked like Kaiba had decided to move the furniture closer to the walls for some reason. When Kaiba finished what he was doing, he looked Joey's direction with an odd intensity before approaching him.

Glaring down at him, he finally said. "Hit me."

"What?" Joey asked, finding such an order insane. "Why the hell would you want me to do that?"

"Since when do you need an excuse?" Kaiba asked back. "Don't argue with me, just do it."

"Screw you, man…I aint hitting you!" Joey snapped.

Kaiba approached closer, grabbing him by the arm. "I need to know what I can handle. Now, do it before I give you a reason to!"

Joey hesitated…he was serious. And Kaiba had a point…if he asked him to do that before he was wounded and he nursed him to health, before he made out with him…he probably would have jumped at the chance. But Kaiba had been wounded, and he didn't want to cause him anymore pain.

"Joey…trust me." Kaiba said, attempting not to get pissed off to the point of hurting him in order to make him react.

He blinked…did Kaiba just say his first name? That had to be a first. He was asking for his trust, he couldn't turn that down. He grudgingly nodded, understanding Kaiba felt an odd urgency and for some reason needed to do this. Joey formed a fist and struck him in the face…practically flinching from doing so.

Kaiba had been wounded practically everywhere from what Luther and his men did to him, and still he barely felt that. Joey was definitely holding back.

"You call that a hit?" Kaiba snapped. "Your sister could probably hit harder than that!"

That was enough to set Joey off enough to make him try again, this time hitting him harder.

"There, you feel that one?" He snapped. He still felt bad for hitting him, though Kaiba's words had a way of alleviating such guilt.

Kaiba's hand came up and rubbed at the side of his face Joey hit, seeming satisfied. He was pleased…despite the swelling still partially evident in his left eye, he seemed to be able to handle it.

"Good." He said, tensing himself up some. "Now the stomach."

"Oh, come on!" Joey snarled.

"Do it!" Kaiba ordered. "Relax, mutt…I'm braced for it."

Joey gritted his teeth, not liking doing this at all. He didn't understand why Kaiba wanted him to cause him harm, when he wasn't yet even fully healed. But he did as Kaiba requested, despite not wanting to. He clenched his hand, then looked back up at Kaiba to confirm he was certain. When Kaiba nodded, he struck.

That didn't go over so well. He could hear the grunt from Kaiba as he buckled from it…his right hand grabbed onto Joey's shoulder to keep from falling over.

"I'm sorry!" Joey cried, grabbing onto him to help keep him up and hoping he was okay. He didn't think he hit him 'that' hard. Just like when he hit in him the face the first time…he was holding back.

This wasn't good for Kaiba. He was obviously still not fully healed inside, which was causing him problems.

Forcing himself to break away from Joey, he gasped out. "It's alright."

No…it wasn't. If his opponents hit him there, it would not be good. But he needed to know that ahead of time, to know what to better guard from them. This was not going to be fully healed by tomorrow…it just wasn't physically possible.

Forcing himself from Joey, he stumbled over and leaned against the kitchen sink to recover from the hit, taking breaths as he took the time to let the pain subside.

Joey quickly followed, wrapping himself around Kaiba, and gently rubbed at his stomach as he leaned against his back. "You sure you're okay?"

Actually…what Joey was doing felt pretty good. His left hand came out automatically, touching those soothing limbs that had wrapped around him.

"I'm fine…it's just still sensitive." He lied, not thinking it would help to tell Joey he probably had more serious internal damage. "I just need to better guard that area. It'll be okay."

"I can move the furniture back. Maybe you should get some rest." Joey said.

But Kaiba shook his head. "No. I don't have time for that. I need to be ready."

He thought a moment, considering Joey's offer, then looked back towards him, stating. "Go ahead and move the furniture back. It's dark enough now that I should be able to be outside unnoticed. You get some rest."

"Wait a minute…what the hell are you going to do?" Joey asked.

"Make sure I'm ready." Kaiba answered, pulling himself away from Joey.

Joey felt good to be near, but this was not the time for pleasure. Mokuba would be his main and only focus until he was sure his brother was safe. Without another word, Kaiba left the house.