SetoJouFan: Yeah I'm having fun with Kaiba's possessive side (mmhh... is this just me or this sentence sounds a bit weird? XD). And you should definitely be worried about Tristan's reaction XD
Daydreamer-Of-The-Unknown: I'm really glad about this nice (and long, which seems to be a good thing) review ^^ Yugi is really too sweet to be expected to freak out just because he finds out that Joey's gay. But Tristan, mmmhh... that won't be so pretty!
Atom: Haha exactly, it won't be good at all!
Jiggary: Thanks!
Animeangel088: Thank you very much, I'll do my best to keep on updating quickly!
Whiteinu1: I will!
Chapter 10: I am
Tea woke up when someone knocked on her door. She had fallen asleep on her couch while trying to read her English book.
"Yeah, I'm coming", she said as she tried to rearrange her hair with her hand.
She frowned when she opened the door, her hand still in her brown hair.
"Duke?"
"I, can I, uh... I mean, am I interrupting something?"
"No, I was just trying to read that book and..."
The brunette frowned even more.
"Did you need something?"
"Just maybe... well... I don't know..."
He seemed pretty confused. When she looked more carefully at him, she noticed that his eyes were red.
"You ok?"
Duke shook his head in silence. Tea grabbed his arm and pulled him inside, closing the door behind him.
"What's wrong, Duke?"
"Aimi, she..."
They sat on Tea's couch.
"She broke up with me."
Tea blinked several times.
"Oh. But... why? I mean there's got to be a reason..."
"She said I didn't love her."
"Was it true?"
"Well I..."
He scratched his head, then shruggled.
"Thought I did, but she told me she didn't feel this way... she says I always looked like I was thinking about someone else... or something like that, I didn't really understand..."
"But did you love her or did you not, Duke?"
"I dunno... as I said, I thought I did, but, quite obviously... well I was feeling something for her, that's for sure..."
"But love, Duke? Have you ever been in love?"
His gorgeous green eyes stared at her for a while, before he finally replied:
"Yeah..."
Tea slightly smiled to him, and then she asked:
"And did you feel the same way with Aimi?"
Duke didn't say a word, but he shook his head.
"Then it wasn't love, Duke."
"I guess..."
The brown-haired girl noticed that she hadn't locked the door.
"Excuse me", she said as she stood up.
Tea headed for the wooden door, but her wrist was caught by her guest's hand after a few steps. She slightly frowned as she stared down at him. He looked at her in silence for a while.
"What is it?" she finally asked, feeling that the situation was becoming kind of awkward.
Duke slowly stood up, without taking his eyes away from her. His other warm hand touched her cheek, and she shivered. Tea blushed like she had never blushed in her entire life when he kissed her. Duke's lips were incredibly soft, and the kiss was extremely tender. Speechless, she remained perfectly still, her heart beating suddenly very fast.
"Are you toying with me, Duke Devlin?" she muttered without daring to open her eyes. "'Cause I swear to God..."
"You're the one."
She opened her beautiful blue eyes, giving him a very confused glare.
"When I fell in love for real, the only time I was sure about it... that was you, Tea."
Tea was still unable to speak. He slightly bobbed down.
"I'm sorry, maybe I just shouldn't h-"
"Don't", she simply said with a broken voice.
She touched Duke's hand.
"Don't be sorry", she said. "The only thing that you should regret... is that it took you forever to tell."
He smiled and kissed her again.
-----------------
Two days later, Tea, Duke, Tristan and Yugi were at Tea's house, organizing Joey's birthday party - which was supposed to be a surprise. Fortunately, he had been too busy lately to be able to find out.
"Tea, can I ask you something?" Tristan asked.
"Yeah?"
She lifted her eyes from the phone book to stare at him, after hunging up the phone for the 100th time. Who would have known that finding a birthday cake at a decent price could be so hard?
"Why the hell are you inviting Kaiba?"
Tristan was in charge of the invitation letters, and he was holding Kaiba's with a strange look on his face. Tea blushed. She had totally forgotten this little detail. Shit!
"Uh, it's because uh..."
"They kinda became friends in Tokyo". Duke said. "You know, sharing the same suite and all."
Tea mentally sighed with relief, glad to be saved by her new boyfriend.
"Yeah, exactly!" she said, her cheeks still red. "That's why I thought inviting him would be a good idea!"
Tristan stared at them in silence for a while.
"I don't believe you. This is about the most unlikely thing I've heard. Kaiba being friend with someone else than his own ego? Come on!"
"But it's true!" Yugi said. "Kaiba's a nice guy. Deep inside."
"You mean very deep inside", Tristan replied as he rolled his eyes. "So deep than no man ever came back to tell the tale."
There was an awkward silence.
"I didn't mean it in this weird sexual way."
They simply nodded.
"How come you guys would know about this friendship and not me? I'm his best friend!"
"He thought you might be jealous", Duke said.
"This is ridiculous and you know it."
Duke sighed.
"Tristan, just believe us and shut up. You don't even want to know the truth."
"I do!"
Exasperated, the handsome young man finally said:
"Kaiba is Joey's boyfriend, ok? They're gay! H-o-m-o-s-e-x-u-a-l! Now can we get back to this fucking birthday party without you asking questions about things that you don't want to hear?!"
Tristan blinked several times, his face very white, and then he grimaced.
"Ewww, Duke, if it's a joke, it's a pretty creepy one."
"That's not a joke and that's not creepy!" Yugi said.
"Joey's gay?! I mean, for real?"
"Yes."
"With Seto Kaiba?"
"Yeah", Duke said as he dialed a number on his cell phone for the party's food.
"Like they do stuff together? Like... blowjobs and all?"
"Yes, Tristan, now would you please get over it?" Tea said. "I'm trying to find a cake here. A cake that wouldn't cost me an entire week of working, if that's ever possible."
Tristan grimaced even more.
"But that's totally disgusting!"
"What's your problem?" Duke asked. "Are you concerned about your sexuality or what?"
"No, but that's just so gross! I slept in his bed! With him!"
"So what? You think you can catch homosexuality like a cold?"
"No of course! But who knows what he was thinking about..."
Duke rolled his eyes.
"For heaven's sake, Tristan, he wasn't thinking about anything! Would you sleep in my bed if you had to?"
"Yeah", he replied after a second of hesitation. "But you're definitely not gay."
"I think I'm gonna regret this later, but what if you knew I tried once?"
Tristan blinked several times and the disgusted grimace came back on his face.
"Ewwww, Duke, spare me! Jesus Christ, am I surrounded by fags? Yugi, please tell me you're straight! I need one straight friend! Just one!"
"I'm not gay Tristan, all I said is that I..."
He sighed heavily, then shook his head.
"Ok. Just forget I ever said anything. You're a lost cause."
"Just gimme a break! Geez..."
"I said forget I ever said anything. You're definitely a lost cause, you can't be saved. But if you hurt Joey with your stupid attitude, I'm gonna kick your ass. Big time."
"What for?" Joey's voice asked.
"Joey!"
Tea leaned over the table to hide the invitations made by Tristan. She gave a huge, fake smile to her friend.
"Don't you know how to knock on doors?"
"I did, but no one would answer! What were you guys doin'?"
"Nothing! Nothing, really!"
She put the papers in the first drawer that she saw. He frowned.
"Yeah, whatever. What was that threat for, Duke?"
"Oh, I was just-"
"HOW COME I DIDN'T KNOW?!" Tristan yelled.
Joey raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't know what?"
"That you... and Kaiba... are... you know! Don't force me to say it!"
The blonde stared at his friends in silence, a glimmer of anger in his hazel eyes.
"How the hell did you know?"
"Who gives a fuck?!! What matters is that you didn't even bother telling me!"
"Well, I don't know, maybe I was thinkin' you'd react like that, what do you think?" he said with a mocking tone.
Tristan stood up.
"So you think I have no right to know that my so-called best friend is a faggot?"
"Tristan", Tea started with her most threatening voice.
"No, forget it, Tea."
He stared at Tristan.
"What are you going to do now about it anyway, uh?! Are you gonna try to 'beat the gay outta me' like my father did? Is that what you had in mind?"
Tristan walked towards the door.
"Fucking queer", he mumbled as he slammed the door.
Tea tried to speak, but Joey stopped her with a slow move of his hand.
"Forget it. I don't even want to know how he learned it."
He sighed and headed for the door too.
"I need a walk. Alone."
When the door closed for the second time, Tea shook her head and looked down at the floor.
"I knew this was going to be bad", she sadly said.
------------------
That son of a bitch!
A very angry Joey Wheeler was walking down the street.
Can't believe he spoke to me like that!
He took the street that was leading to Kaiba's manor.
Talk about being loyal to your friend... pure bullshit!
Joey's hand barely had the time to touch the door's handle before it was opened by Ethan himself.
"Welcome back, sir. I wasn't expecting you to come back to early."
"Yeah... me neither."
He looked around. The mansion was very silent. Guessing what he had in mind, the butler said:
"Mr. Kaiba has not arrived yet."
"Mmmhh", the blonde simply replied before heading for the stairs.
He opened the dark wooden door and droped on the deep blue bed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
It could be worse, I guess. I could've lost all of them... or him...
----------------
Joey slowly woke up when he felt that someone was kissing his neck - in such a delightful way that it could be no one else but Kaiba. He kept his hazel eyes closed and didn't say a word, but his arms and legs wrapped around Seto's body.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
He had tried to hide it, but somehow, the CEO always managed to figure him out. Joey sighed very lightly and opened his eyes.
"Tristan knows."
Kaiba raised an eyebrow.
"And?"
"And... well he doesn't like gay people. He says it's not normal."
Seto's eyebrow raised even higher.
"And?" he asked with the same neutral voice.
"Well he won't speak to me anymore, and he was my friend!"
Kaiba stared at him for a while with his spellbinding blue eyes.
"That person doesn't accept you the way you are and you call him a friend? With such friends, you don't need any enemies, that's for sure."
The blonde didn't reply, and Seto caressed his cheek.
"Joey, you are gay, which means that many people will disagree with your sexuality, regardless of past friendship or any other connection that you may have with them. Even some who say that homosexuality doesn't bother them will be secretly thinking that what you're doing is wrong and praying for you to change. Just... just consider yourself lucky that your other friends don't care. If you start giving a shit about what people think about your homosexuality, then you'll never be truly happy."
He kissed him.
"And I want you to be happy..."
End of the chapter: Yeah I know. Tristan's a jerk XD revieeeewss please it's so good to read you ^^