Hi again everybody! I'm guessing that because I only got one review for the last chapter that it was either a) so bad that you couldn't think of anything to say b) I scared you away with my romance or c) you couldn't find the time to respond. Lol =P but that's okay I wasn't offended, I've been having some writer's block lately and my parents blew up on me because I shirked my responsibility to clean the house and took my iphone, ipod and writing privileges away! DX Welp, anyway I'm back with Chapter 9! This chapter isn't going to be like the last one and in fact it has a lot of action in it, but not too much romance, sorry! ;{ As you can tell by the title and the lyrics I picked it has a lot to do with fighting and things like that. Anyhow, crack open that Pepsi or whatever you're drinking and let's get to it!

Disclaimer: I have no right to claim Yu-Gi-Oh! as my own as it does not belong to me. It belongs to the artistic genius, Kazuki Takahashi. And the lyrics belong to Carl Douglas.

Chapter 9

Brooklyn Karate 101

Everybody was kung-fu fighting;

Those cats were fast as lightning;

In fact it was a little bit frightening;

But they fought with expert timing;

They were funky China men from funky Chinatown;

They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down;

It's an ancient Chinese art and everybody knew their part;

From a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip;

Everybody was kung-fu fighting;

Those cats were fast as lightning;

In fact it was a little bit frightening;

But they did it with expert timing;

…make sure you have expert timing;

Kung-fu fighting, had to be fast as lightning.

-Kung-Fu Fighting; Carl Douglas-

Aislynn stood just outside the gates of the Kaiba Mansion, the cool night air ruffling her tied tresses. She was waiting for Joey to show up so they could go on their date and he could teach her how to fight. Joey still didn't know she lived with Kaiba, in fact instead of them walking to school together, she had picked him up in her limousine at his apartment on her way to school. Seto would probably be furious if he knew they were riding to school together, but probably not as furious as he had been when she told him she had a date with Mr. Joseph Wheeler.

The past week living with her new housemates had been wonderful, Seto's wounds had started to heal up and she finally deemed him good enough to go back to work and school on Wednesday though she knew he would have preferred Tuesday. It wasn't until Thursday night that she remembered that she had a date with Joey the next day. They had all been at the dining table, eating bread bowls of clam chowder when she had decided to speak up.

"So, anyway I have to tell you all something." She began. Seto didn't look up from his soup, he just simply said,

"Go on."

"It's about tomorrow night…" She had paused, thinking of how she would word her sentences so Seto wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

"Yes?" He droned, a little irritated as he stopped what he was doing to give her his full attention.

"Um, well you see, I had this previous engagement that I had planned before I moved in here…"

"And?" He prodded, wondering what she had planned that was so important.

"I'm going to have dinner with a gentleman." She said simply, knowing that it was only a half-truth, Joey wasn't really what one would call a "gentleman".

"Oh really? Who is this "gentleman"? He wouldn't happen to belong to the nerd parade would he?" He asked, she could tell he was more than a tad jealous. She realized he was talking about Yugi and the others and she smiled guiltily, her eyes weren't all that great at telling pretty lies either. "It's not that snake Devlin is it?" He'd asked, obviously he'd noticed how much of a womanizer Duke Devlin really was. She shook her head,

"No, no don't worry I'm not going out with Duke."

"Then who is it!?" He demanded, growing impatient. She cringed as she said his name,

"Joey Wheeler." He spit out his soup and looked at her like she was nuts. He started laughing hysterically, not believing for one second that Aislynn would think to go out with someone like Wheeler.

"The mutt? Are you serious? Tell me this is some kind of joke!" Aislynn looked down into her soup feeling a little ashamed. It was then that Seto knew that she wasn't kidding. His mocking smile turned down into a harsh, disapproving frown. "Do whatever you want, just don't bring that dog onto my property. You'll soon realize that Wheeler's not worth your time." That was the last thing he said before stomping off angrily to his office.

Aislynn checked her watch again, clicking her heels together anxiously. She was dressed very casually, a little too casual to go out to dinner. She'd had to borrow clothes from the Kaiba brothers since she had completely forgotten to go shopping. All of her clothes were to fancy for this outing and she didn't want to feel like she was showing up her new friends. She was wearing Mokuba's sneakers, a pair of his shorts and one of his black hoodies. Of course, Mokuba's clothes had run a little small on her; the shorts that came down to Mokuba's knees were riding up a little on her bottom. Unfortunately Mokuba didn't have any tops that would fit her correctly and she ended up having to borrow one of Seto's white button-up shirts which she had tucked into her too-short shorts and rolled up its sleeves because it ran at least three sizes too big. Seto had casually handed it to her after he'd seen her try on a few of Mokuba's t-shirts, an amused smirk on his handsome face. The shirt was heavily scented with his cologne and it made her wonder if this was some sort of attempt to put his mark on her. She suddenly shielded her eyes as the twin beams of light flashed into her eyes and she saw the maroon-colored Jeep making its way down the street.

Kaiba looked out his office window as the middle-class Jeep stopped in front of his home. He saw Wheeler and Taylor get out of the car to greet Aislynn, seemingly amazed that she was living there. Kaiba quickly retreated to his laptop computer, remembering the small camera he had placed on Aislynn's little blue backpack. She carried it with her everywhere she went so it was only logical to place one there. The camera was implanted in the eye of the blue eyes white dragon patch he had glued there last night. She had obviously seen it and wondered where it had come from, but she hadn't asked any questions. He'd put it there to make sure that the mutt kept his dirty paws to himself. He tapped into the camera's vision and immediately heard the voices of Wheeler and Taylor.

"So, this is how debutantes dress?" Wheeler asked.

"No, it really isn't, I just didn't want you to feel awkward or uncomfortable if I chose to wear something more decadent." Aislynn answered.

'Pfft, why go all the way for Wheeler? He'll never amount to anything.' Kaiba thought, then it hit him, maybe Aislynn really likes the mutt. 'How could she?' He thought, just seduce him like that and then run off with that trashy, low class, poor excuse for a duelist? Maybe she was baiting him, he thought, maybe she was playing hard to get by trying to make him jealous? 'She'll have to try harder than that.' He thought, he wasn't jealous of Wheeler in the slightest, he thought of him as repulsive if anything. If she was going to make him jealous she'd have to date some rich, well-to-do gentleman who was everything he couldn't be.

"Aww, it wouldn't have been too awkward, I would've felt honored to be in the presence of a high-class lady!" Joey laughed. Aislynn had definitely dressed a little too casual for this event. He should have warned her and asked her to dress nice. He and Tristan were both dressed up in nice dress shirts and ties. He was actually very surprised to see her dressed like a tomboy, he'd expected her to dress like she did when she had to appear at political conferences or even at embassy balls; He obviously didn't know her very well. Well, he thought, it's not about how a girl dresses, its how she presents herself as a person. Aislynn was still a very pretty girl even with her offensive choice of attire.

"Anyway, I am only borrowing these from the Kaiba brothers."

"Kaiba wears daisy dukes?" Tristan asked. She shook her head,

"No, actually these are Mokuba's shorts." Their eyes widened,

"Whoa, you must be like really skinny, you can fit into a 7th grader's shorts?" Tristan asked.

"Well it wasn't easy; I had to suck in my breath just to button them." She smiled guiltily. There was a long awkward pause before Joey finally said,

"Okay, I guess we should get going, my sister's waiting." Aislynn got into the passenger seat before asking,

"You have a sister? Why didn't you mention her before?"

"Eh, I guess the subject never came up." He answered, "It's her birthday today, and we're going to take her out."

"Aww, that's so sweet, but why did you want me to come? I don't even know your sister's name." Joey shifted the Jeep into a higher gear before replying,

"I wanted you to meet her, she lives with my mom in another town and I don't really get to see her too much. My mom brought Serenity here to Domino so we wouldn't have to travel too far, she usually doesn't do that." Aislynn laughed nervously at the mention of Joey's mom,

'Great, I'm going to make a fool out of myself in front of my friend's mother with these clothes...*sigh* I guess that's just my luck.' She thought to herself,

"So your sister's name is Serenity?" She asked,

"Yeah, do you have any brothers or sisters?" He asked her. She shook her head,

"Not any that I know of, but when my mom was younger, before she married my dad she was married to an aspiring American rockstar. I don't remember who he was, but I believe that he overdosed on heroine not too long ago. He was quite famous in the states."

"Wait, your mom was married to a rockstar?" Tristan asked from the back seat, "Then how did she get to be the Prime Minister's wife?" Aislynn smiled, she had always loved this story as a child.

"Well you see, my mother wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth like I was. In fact, she came from a normal, middle class family in Osaka, Japan."

"Really, Osaka?" Joey asked, she nodded her head,

"Yes, I was told she was really wild in high school. My mother slept with her first boyfriend and she got herself pregnant with twins, can you imagine that?" The other two were awkward silent at the confession and waited for her to continue. She giggled at their shock, "So anyway, my grandparents didn't like that and they actually estranged her from the family and kicked her out of the house because they were sick of putting up with her delinquent behavior. So she ended up getting a job as a waitress and having to take care of two little girls all by herself because her boyfriend had basically run away from his responsibilities. My mother had never really been very good in school so there was no way she could get into college with her grades. But she realized that she needed to get a better job if she wanted to continue to support her children. Her opportunity came in the form of a flyer advertising that a record company was searching for fresh new singing talent. She used to sing karaoke all the time when she still attended school, she loved to sing so she decided this might be the perfect opportunity for her to get money fast. She went to the auditions and they accepted her. She tried to make a name for herself as a star, but nobody wanted to listen to her music, they all claimed that her music was too "woe is me" and that everyone back then wanted to dance, not feel sorry for themselves. It was when she was working those two jobs and taking care of children that she decided that she couldn't do it anymore. Her children were miserable and she just couldn't provide for them anymore." She paused, causing Joey to speak up,

"So, what happened to the twins?" He asked.

"My mother sent them to an orphanage so they could be adopted by parents who could afford them. She didn't want to do it, no mother does, but she reasoned that it would be better than for them to grow up with nothing."

"How old were they?" Tristan asked.

"According to my father, my mother said they were only two years old at the time, so they probably don't even really remember it. So anyway after that she began working with the record company full time, as a singer and dance choreographer. However it was a while before she began to produce music people liked to listen to and sometimes she even went hungry. But before long she was at the top of the music charts in Japan."

"What was your mother's name?" Joey asked.

"Her name was Sayuri, Sayuri Yumiko."

"Oh, my mom has some of her music! That was your mother? She was smokin' hot!" Tristan riled, leaning over the front seat. Aislynn laughed,

"Well thank-you, I'm glad you thought so! So anyway, how did she become the Prime Minister's wife even after all that?" Aislynn asked rhetorically, "Well, when she met the American rockstar, the only language she knew was Japanese so she couldn't really communicate with him. So he dedicated himself to learning her language and also helped her learn to speak English."

"Why would he go through all that trouble to impress a girl?" Joey asked, clueless as always about romantic affairs. She sighed,

"Because to him she wasn't just any girl, she was someone he could relate to and share his feelings with. I do not know his story, but I am told that he shared similar hardships in his life as well. So the two hit it off right away and went on tour together, this was when she started producing her first English album. She earned tons of money from this endeavor and fell in love with the American. The two then got married and moved to New York City where they had a little girl. But unfortunately however happy their lives seemed, there were always ups and downs to their relationship. It was when her husband got involved in drugs that she decided to leave him. Their child however did not want to go and Sayuri left her with her father like she wanted, yet she had always wondered if she had made the right choice. She moved back to Japan but she lived in Tokyo, not wishing to relive her past in Osaka. Now that she was a star, she was allowed in all of the exclusive rich parties, which she frequented at least twice a week. It was at one of these parties that she met my father. My father was a big fan of hers and really liked her music, even the "woe is me" songs, in fact if I remember correctly he liked those ones a lot more than the upbeat ones…" She paused shaking her head in remembrance, "They became really good friends and went partying together when they weren't working. My father had always wanted to find a woman and settle down, but he would have never guessed that the woman he settled down with would be a starlet. And so the two decided to get married and a year later they had me. And that's the story." She finished as they pulled up to a Chinese restaurant where a young girl and her mother were waiting for them. Joey jumped out of the car and threw a hug around the young girl, startling her mother. Aislynn watched them for a moment, realizing how happy Joey was to see her.

'He must really adore her.' She thought, a smile spreading across her face. Tristan and Joey were waving her over to get out of the car and come meet Serenity. Aislynn hesitantly got out of the car, immediately embarrassed at what she was wearing and extremely envious at what Serenity was wearing. Serenity wore a short, pale yellow dress, with lace that lined the hem, the spaghetti straps and even the yellow ribbon in her hair. Compared to everyone else, Aislynn felt tremendously under-dressed.

"Serenity, I want you to meet our new friend, Miss Aislynn Mirasaki." Serenity and her mom's eyes widened at the mention of her name,

"Mirasaki?" Serenity said, looking up at her mom, "Mom, isn't that-

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Mirasaki; I was a huge fan of your mother back in the day." Serenity's mom said, merrily shaking her hand. Aislynn smiled; maybe her clothes wouldn't matter after all.

"Thank-you, it's a pleasure to meet you as well." She replied with the grace of a lady.

"Hi there, I'm Joey's sister, Serenity." Serenity said, introducing herself.

"It's an honor to meet you." Aislynn replied, bowing slightly in respect. Serenity stared at the girl in awe; she couldn't believe who was standing before her, and in common street clothes!

"So are you wearing that to hide from the paparazzi?" Serenity asked. Aislynn looked down at herself then shook her head in denial,

"Oh, no no no, you see originally Joey said he was going to teach me how to be a street-fighter, I didn't know at the time that we'd be having dinner with you, Tristan or your mother."

"A street-fighter?" Serenity asked, looking at Joey.

"Yeah, Aislynn's having trouble with this bully at school and I wanted to teach her some moves so she can defend herself, that's all." Joey answered.

"Well, you kids have fun on your little date, I've got some shopping to do, I'll see you back here at 10 o'clock alright?" Serenity's mom said, looking at Joey to make sure he'd heard her.

"Ah, don't worry mom, we'll stay out of trouble, I promise and I'll have Serenity back here by ten." Joey answered. Satisfied their mother nodded,

"Alright," She kissed Serenity on the forehead, "you kids have fun now." She called, walking back to her car.

"Don't worry we will!" Serenity called back. They watched Joey and Serenity's mom drive off before going into the restaurant.

The restaurant was really nice and the food was indeed expensive. Aislynn had asked Joey how he was able to afford all of this; he just smiled and said that the bus boy owed him. A small cake with a candle in it was brought to their table and the staff sang happy birthday to Serenity. Serenity, being the thoughtful person she was, cut her cake into sections and gave everyone a piece. They were all stuffed when they left the restaurant and Aislynn found herself having to unbutton her shorts. It wasn't until they all got back into the Jeep when Serenity asked,

"Joey, where can we go next?" She exclaimed excitedly, all hyped up on sugar.

"Hmm, well first I wanted to stop at the pet shop." He said, looking back at her. She gasped excitedly,

"Really!? You're going to let me get a pet?" Joey shrugged his shoulders,

"Sure, why not?" Serenity threw her arms around his shoulders from the back seat, hugging him tightly. Aislynn was smiling at their display of affection, thinking it to be extremely endearing. Tristan was in the back seat rubbing his stomach,

"Uh, you guys I think I ate too much." He groaned. They all laughed.

They soon arrived at the pet shop and Serenity jumped out of the car almost immediately, Joey not too far behind her. Aislynn got out a little later with a bloated Tristan in tow. Soon enough Serenity was standing in front of a pen full of puppies, trying to decide which one she wanted. She ultimately decided on an adorable male golden retriever puppy with a large red and gold bow around his neck.

"Joey, I want this one!" She exclaimed, hugging the puppy tightly. Joey laughed at her eagerness,

"Okay, what are you gonna call him?" He asked.

"Hmm," She thought, looking down at the furry ball of cuteness nuzzling her neck, "how about Rover?"

"Alright, Rover it is." Joey said. They paid the man at the cash register, and then headed off again in the Jeep.

"So, now what should we do sis?" Joey asked her again. Serenity put her finger to her lips in as if in deep thought, trying to figure out what to do next.

"Aww, isn't she cute?" Tristan cooed. Aislynn giggled at Tristan's obvious affection for Serenity and Serenity glared at Tristan,

"Tristan, Rover's a boy not a girl." She said, hugging the puppy to her and not getting the fact that he had been talking about her. Serenity's head snapped up as she finally thought of where they should go. "Joey, I've got it! Let's go to that karaoke place downtown!" Joey sighed in dismay,

"Karaoke huh? You really wanna go that badly?" He asked, hoping she'd change her mind.

"Well, I've wanted to check it out for a really long time and this is the only day I'll be here in town for a while…" Serenity pouted to her older brother. Joey groaned, complying with her wishes.

"Alright, we'll go." Serenity giggled,

"Yay!"

When they got there Joey paid for everyone but Tristan, telling him he'd have to pay his own way because he was running low on funds. It was a half-hour later when Tristan and Serenity were singing a duet that Aislynn reminded Joey of their fighting lessons.

"You promised you'd teach me how to fight remember?" She pouted, crossing her arms. Joey rolled his eyes dejectedly, too many women wanted his attention at once and instead of it being extremely endearing, it was extremely exhausting! He sighed,

"I guess I did kind of promise you that didn't I?" She nodded, "Alright, let's go find somewhere to practice. Tristan!" He called, interrupting the song,

"What do you want Joey? You're messing up our song!" Tristan declared through the microphone.

"Aislynn and I are gonna go practice some fighting moves; we'll catch up with you guys later!" Joey shouted over the music.

"Whatever!" Tristan shouted back.

Aislynn's eyes widened in surprise as Joey was suddenly leading her by the wrist out of the karaoke bar. Once outside, Joey looked around for a good spot to practice,

"Aha! Over there at the park! It's perfect!" He exclaimed, dragging her along with him.

They made their way to an empty picnic table and Aislynn set down her stuff. Meanwhile, Joey ripped his necktie off and opened the front of his dress shirt to reveal a white t-shirt underneath. He sighed with relief,

"Finally, I think that thing was cutting off my airway." Aislynn giggled, trying to imagine him at one of her fancy society parties in a tux, he probably wouldn't have lasted the night. "So, I guess we'll work on fighting stance first." He began. Joey rolled up his sleeves and got into position, "Of course, if you do happen to get attacked you probably won't be able to easily get into this position." He mused. Aislynn tried to mirror his pose,

"Like this?" She asked, unsure of herself. He chuckled,

"That's close, but here let me show you." He said, coming up behind her to show her what she was doing wrong. "Okay, your feet are a little too close together, this leg needs to come back here," He said, moving her left leg back into position. "And your arms need to be locked into position, they can't be held loosely or else your opponent's gonna get in on ya." She nodded, tensing as he helped her lock her arms in place. Joey hadn't noticed her tense up and moved around in front of her, mirroring her pose, "Okay Aislynn, show me what you got!"

Joey's lesson went on for about an hour. During that time, he taught her three different fighting stances and a number of different kickboxing and defensive maneuvers. Joey wiped the sweat off his brow, panting from their workout,

"Well, I think that's enough for now, if you keep practicing, you'll become a seasoned pro in no time." She laughed,

"Oh no, your not getting off that easily Joseph Wheeler, we're practicing that kickboxing move one more time!" She said, getting into position.

"No, please I really couldn't!" He laughed, holding up his hands in defense.

"Oh whatever!" She shouted disbelievingly as she knocked him down with the powerful kickboxing move, thinking he'd be able to defend himself with all of his experience. Apparently she'd been wrong. He was lying in the grass groaning in pain half-laughing.

"Oh my gosh! Joey are you okay!? I didn't mean to kick you so hard!" She exclaimed worriedly. Joey caught her hand and pulled her down on top of him. Aislynn squealed in surprise as she came in contact with Joey's muscular physique.

"Nah, I'm alright you didn't kick me that hard." He lied, restraining a groan of pain. Dammit, that woman had a nasty kick! Joey suddenly wondered how Ushio felt after Aislynn kicked him where the sun doesn't shine. He shuddered just thinking about it. Aislynn felt his body shake and looked down at him in concern,

"Joey, are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, yeah don't worry about me I'm fine." He assured her, circling his arms around her tiny waist.

'She's so small and fragile,' He thought, 'yet I can sense she has some kind of strength inside of her that hasn't surfaced yet. Her heart is kind and caring, yet her soul is deceiving. You cannot tell this just by looking at her, you have to know her first. But she's so pretty, her eyes are like the sparkling pools of youth you only read about in storybooks, completely turning you away from the fact that she might belong to someone else.' After minutes of staring into those aquamarine orbs, he shook his head, turning his face away, 'Who am I kidding? She's too rich for my blood; to think that we could ever be together in that way is a fool's dream. And rich boy, what about him? What kind of hold does he have over Aislynn?' He looked back over at her; she had turned her face away as well, blushing at their inappropriate position. Joey decided that he needed to ask this question before he tried to move their relationship any further.

"Aislynn?" She looked back over at him,

"Hmm?"

"Aislynn, what's up with you and Kaiba? I mean why are you guys living together?" Aislynn twirled the ends of her hair around her finger and bit her lip nervously at his sudden intrusion into her private affairs.

"Well, um you see, I was living at home alone for a few weeks and I just didn't feel very safe and when I went to Seto's home to check up on his wounds he asked me if I wanted to stay with him."

"So, why did you say yes?" He asked. Aislynn scrunched her eyebrows together in thought, realizing that she wasn't all that sure herself.

"I don't know, I guess that I just needed someone to be there for me and Seto happened to be in the right place at the right time."

'I think I might be hurting Joey's feelings.' Aislynn thought, he was a nice-looking guy with a good heart and lots of ambition but she just didn't feel that way about him, she thought of him as more of a friend than a lover. As for Seto, she didn't know what she felt, at this point, he was just someone that had offered to take care of her. And yet she knew she was hopelessly infatuated with Seto, she didn't know why, there was just something about him that made her heart go all aflutter, it was almost the same effect Damien used to have on her. With that thought, Aislynn got up off of Joey and offered him a hand,

"Friends?" She asked. Joey smiled and nodded, taking the hand she offered,

"Friends."

Wow, that was really long and there is more to come! Originally this chapter was going to be longer, but I looked through it and realized it was probably a little too long! So I split the chapter in half and the second part should be coming soon! Anyway, I thought that Joey waxing poetic was a little OOC but I don't know it turned out really well and I just didn't have the heart to delete it…anyway, I promise to get back to you ASAP…if you promise to leave me a review! =D (he he gotcha! But I'm just kidding really! :])