Hey guys! Back to Monday updates. Last time was to win a be, but no worries. I'll be as regular as possible! I'm not sure where I was going with this chapter, but it turned out like this. Hope you like it anyways!

Enjoy!

"Please Tea, I need you to do this for me," pleaded Yugi as she looked out the bus window.

"Not unless you tell me exactly what you're up to," insisted her friend on the other side of the line. "All the secrecy is telling me your going to see Joey. If you're going to Hoshu, there is no way that I'm..."

"No, I promise I'm not," interrupted her friend. "I'm going to the old harbor, and I won't be alone. I'll be back before nightfall I promise."

Tea sighed, making her hold her breath. Out of her two best friends, Tea was clearly the one who was the hardest to convince when it came to Joey. Yugi wasn't sure she'd entirely kicked out the idea of him being nothing but a bully out of her head. But after a moment of silence, she spoke again.

"Alright, fine. But you better be home on time."

"Thanks Tea, I owe you big time."

"You bet your crazy hair, you do! Be careful Yugi. Really."

"I will," she promised. "Thanks again. Bye."

With that, the shorty ended the call just as the bus stopped at her destination. As expected she was the only one to get off at this stop. This was the furthest that the bus went. It was literally called the Old Harbor. As the name stated, fifty years ago, the harbor was moved further up the coast and this places had become abandoned. Since it was pretty far from the center of the city, no one ever came here. Yugi herself had never been here. There were a bunch of hangars, a boat land parking, and a container zone, all abandoned. She made her way to the edge of the water and walked alongside it, looking at the old place. Blades of grass had grown in between the cracks of the old concrete. The metal of the abandoned boats had rusted so much, that it was entirely bronze colored now. The place was deserted, but seagulls were fishing in the water and flying around. Compared to the heavy and choking atmosphere of Hoshu, this was peaceful. Though awfully lonely.

"Yugi!"

Pulled out of her thoughts, she looked up. In front of the last hanger, the owner of Valentina's waved at her. Yugi jogged to get to her faster.

"Miss... I mean, Mai," she said, raising the plastic bag she was carrying. "I brought what you asked for."

"Thank you so much, he owes you one."

Yugi followed the woman inside Hangar 24, wondering what could possibly wrong with Joey that Mai would ask her if she knew anyone that took heart medication pills. Chloro-amphetamine was a heavy drug that her grandfather took for his condition, so the old man had loads of it at home. But she'd just taken a few pills as to not awaken suspicions from Solomon. The hangar was practically empty, aside from a couple of abandoned boats, piled up on giant metal shelves. Mai guided her to the end of the place where a latter that seemed to be going up to a second floor, only noticeable if you broke your neck looking up. It seemed more of an attic than anything else, being this close to the roof. The blond woman turned to her.

"I'm warning you, it's not pretty."

Yugi didn't reply and just gulped before following the woman up the latter. Indeed,the space up there was barely enough for an adult to stand. A bunch of cases had been pushed to the side, and on the other, there was a mattress in front of which a spiky brown haired man was kneeling. Yugi recognized him from the bar.

"Please, tell me you have it," said Valon, without turning around. "If we don't do something now, we won't have a choice but to take him to a hospital."

"Yeah, she brought them. Hold on a bit longer, I'll be quick."

As she knelt down next to him and started looking through Yugi's bag, the short girl approached. And her eyes widened in shock when she saw Joey. Her classmate seemed to be passed out, but his breathing was loud and his face, twisted with pain. He was bare-chested, and Valon was pressing a bunch of cloths tainted with red on the left of his abdomen. And he was visibly sweating buckets.

"Oh my God... What happened?! W-we have to call an ambulance or a doctor..."

Surprisingly, neither of the two adults seem to be agitated. Mai, who was busy lighting what looked like a camping stove, spoke calmly. "Don't worry, we can manage this, thanks to you."

"What do you mean, you can manage this?!" shouted the panicked girl. "Look at him."

This time, the older woman stopped what she was doing and grabbed Yugi's wrist with a firm hand. Throwing a serious look, she ordered. "Yugi, calm down. I know how this looks to you, but this isn't as serious as it seems. We can help him, but you have to let us. Okay?"

The short girl hadn't realized that she'd started panting, and slowly regained her normal breathing rate. But that didn't mean she was any less worried. "Why won't you take him to a pro?"

"Joey has no health insurance, not even social security. The money he makes on his own is barely enough to keep him fed properly. He wouldn't be able to afford it. And I won't be teaching you anything by telling you his pig of a father can't even keep himself out of debt with his gambling habit. He'd let his own son die if that could get him through another game."

As she explained, Mai took a miniature frying pan that she placed on top of the camping. After putting a few drops of water in it. She grabbed the pills inside the bag. Yugi had trouble swallowing her own spit before she asked.

"Does he have a heart condition?"

"Not at all. He's as healthy as an ox, and thank God for that. Not many people with heavy condition make it in Hoshu. The main reason being, you guessed it, no health insurance." She forced open the capsule and emptied the medical powder on the floor before dropping the empty container in the small pan. She repeated the movement with all the pills an continued. "I don't need the product. The capsules are made of a material that can be digested and melt in the stomach to free the medicine. I melt them with heat and basically turn it into an organic glue."

Yugi remained quiet for a moment, processing what Mai had just said before looking at the wound on Joey's abdomen. "Like a substitute for stitches?"

"Roughly, yes. It's not as effective of course, but at least it protects the wound as it's closing. Strong medication capsules are the most effective."

"How do you even know how to do that?" asked the short girl, stunned.

"Valon taught me," she said throwing a smile at the man, who mirrored it back.

"I did four years with the military, as a battle field medic," said the man. "I've picked up a few tricks of my own."

"Did his father do this to him?"

"No," replied the bouncer. "Knife work like this is the Scarlet Wolves. The old bastard prefers his fists and bottles. I know that to you, it looks like the kind of thing only a doctor can do something about, but Joey's a tough guy. This is far from the worst state we've found him in. Trust us, okay?"

The two adults focused on what they were doing, and so she sat down, amazing herself at how long she'd managed to stay on her legs. Just looking at the blond boy's painful expressions was hard. No social security? So that's why he'd refused to go to the hospital last time too. In a normal situation, child protective services should be warned. But if she'd learn anything recently, it was that Hoshu was far from working like the rest of Domino. And Joey... Joey was pure product of this place. He had no parents in a way. He fought by himself, for himself all of this time. And despite that kill or be killed mentality, he'd turned out to be so... kind. He fought through hell and storm to be this person. He even played the bad guy to teach her to like herself. Without warning, her eyes watered and she wiped them quickly.

Once Mai finished brewing the sticky substance, Valon removed the cloths and she applied it to the wound. It really looked like she was gluing the cut, but after a few seconds, the substance turned the color of his skin and almost hid it completely. Valon pocked around it to make sure it held well.

"Nice work," he concluded. "This should do."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to used a normal needle and thread?"

"Unlike what you see in movies, kid, it's not clean at all to use non-medical tools for this," said Valon, putting a cover above the sleeping boy. "We would've resorted to that, if you hadn't brought us the pills. But the risk of infection is lessened."

"What is this place anyways?"

"Joey's hideout. When his dad gets insufferable, he comes here," replied Mai. "Which is most of the time."

Joey's second home, huh? That explained the tent, the bundle of clothes, canned food, mattress, and all the camping stuff here. That she thought about it, it stank here. It seemed pretty obvious that Joey wasn't one to do laundry or do housework. But then again, it's not like he had anyone to tell or show him that. Her eyes fell on him again.

"Is he going to be alright?"

Again, Mai smiled reassuringly. "He's Joey. Of course he will. That boy can pull through anything, it's one of his only strong points. Thank you for helping him, Yugi."

"I didn't do anything..."

"Just knowing that you responded when he needed help is huge. I take it you two got over your... disagreement."

Did they? Her perception of Joey had changed spectacularly since the Burger World incident and their talk. But saying that they were friends was, well, awkward. And, not confirmed at all. What with her grandfather wanting to kill him and Kaiba doing his best to keep hr away from him.

"It's... complicated."

"Got ya. With guys, at this age, it's always complicated."

She winked. Yugi laughed nervously, not sure if the bar owner was implying something. But she quickly turned her attention back to Joey. "What now?"

"Now, we wait for him to sleep the fever off. We left him some painkillers, they should do."

"Wait, we're leaving him here? Alone?"

"Sorry, kiddo. But I have a business to run and if I want it to remain the cleanest place in all of Hoshu, I can't afford to be absent. You're welcomed to stay with him, if you're worried. But I'm guessing you have a curfew."

"Yeah..."

Mai seemed to read her eyes as she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, he'll be fine, I promise. Besides, he's safer here than anywhere in Hoshu. No one is going to find him here. The only ones that comes by are the seagulls. Worse case scenario, he has a phone. "

Yugi wasn't sure. Not at all actually. But these people seemed to know what they were talking about. They had even gone through the trouble of taking care of him. And they were the most decent people she'd seen near him. Looking at her watch, she saw that she really needed to get going if she wanted to keep her promise to Tea. Reluctantly, she left with Mai and Valon, leaving her wounded classmate behind.

The first time Joey woke up, his wound was killing him. He quickly recognized his hideout, but the last thing he remembered was being attacked by that bastard and managing to drag himself to Valentina's, then seeing Valon approaching him quickly before he passed out. After taking the painkillers, he took a look at the cut. Mai and Valon had done their medical glue thing again. He would've wondered where the hell they'd gotten the capsules, but his head was killing him. Checking his watch, he saw that it was late in the evening already. And so after swallowing a can of beans, the bad boy went back to sleep, letting his fever knock him out.

The second time he woke up, it was the early in the morning. He was sweating buckets and the wound was burning. Nothing he hadn't experienced before. It wasn't like this was his first time being stabbed. So he took two more painkillers, and wiped the sweat off of him, before going back to sleep.

The third time, it was late in the afternoon. But finally, his head had stopped hurting, thank Buddha. The cries of the seagulls were bearable again, the sound of the sea was actually pretty appeasing. His fever must have dropped. But something was off. There was something odd. He was an instinctual guy, he could feel it. But it wasn't threatening. Just out of place. Nonetheless, despite the exhaustion, he forced his eyes open and looked beside him... only to be struck dumb. Sitting, cross-legged on the floor next to him, was Yugi. But her eyes were almost entirely closed and her breathing was slow and deep. And she was slightly swinging, back and forth. This was probably the closest state there was to fall asleep, but at the same time, she somehow kept herself balanced.

'What the hell?' wondered the boy, before rubbing his eyes to make sure he was awake.

When he saw that he wasn't dreaming, he sat up and carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Yug."

The instant he touched her, she sprang up like lightening had struck her and let out a cry of surprise. Loosing her balance, she crashed on her side, crushing her shoulder. Joey sweat-dropped, not sure if he should laugh or face-palm. She quickly sat back up, and looked around her, confused.

"Joey! Hi! Uhm, I wasn't sleeping!"

The stunned look on Joey's face hadn't disappeared. "What the hell are you doing here, Yug?" he asked, so surprised, he had trouble blinking.

A slight blush of embarrassment tinted her cheeks, and she looked down. "Uhm, well... I-I wanted to make sure you were okay..."

"How d'you know I was here?"

"Mai called me yesterday, to ask me to bring her pills. Y-You were badly injured. And you were still burning up when I arrived..."

His eyes lowered to the floor, and he saw the ripped packaged of cooling pads on the floor. Bringing a hand to his forehead, he felt the one on his forehead and took it off since it wasn't cold anymore. So that's why the fever had left so quickly. "Just how long have you been here exactly?"

"I came after school, so..." She looked at her watch. "Two hours? I didn't plan to stay so long, but I didn't want to wake you either..."

He just stared at her, unable to recover his capacity of movement just yet. That made her feel uneasy as well, and she was unable to hold his gaze. So to break the silence, she grabbed a plastic bag she had with her and took out a small cardboard box with the Burger World logo on it.

"I thought you'd might want to eat something other than canned food when you woke up."

It took him a moment, but he grabbed the box. Inside was a giant burger. The sight of that seemed to be enough to make his stomach growl loudly. Yugi chocked the unintentional laughter that came up her throat, but not soon enough, and a snort escaped.

"Well, huh, since ya insist..." he declared, probably to hide the fact that his cheeks were turning slightly red too. "Bon appetite to me!"

With that, her classmate started devouring the burger like he hadn't eaten in days. Yugi couldn't help but feel a bit strange. Since she wasn't eating, this was a bit weird. So she turned her attention to the rest of the place. The smell of unwashed laundry was stronger than the day before, probably due to all the sweating. But this places needed a well-deserved spring cleaning. There was so much dust, it'd made her sneeze more than once, even though she wasn't allergic. Her eyes then fell on Joey's wound. It looked like it was holding pretty well. But just because he wasn't complaining about pain didn't mean that there wasn't any. Like Mai had stated, he was a tough guy. The knife cut was long. Going from the lower stomach to the flank, almost reaching the ribs. Whoever did that had wanted him to feel it. Shivers travelled up her spine. But then she realized something else. The presence of a visible six pack. Her eyes travelled up. His arms also had thick rounded shapes.

"You're ripped."

Interrupting his move to grab another bite, the blond froze, mouth open and threw her another surprised look. Realizing what she'd just let out, the short girl's face turned scarlet.

"Sorry! That came out on it's own! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! Well, I did mean that you have a nice physic, but... no that's not what I meant! Arg! I'm sorry, please forget I ever said anything!"

A moment of painfully embarrassing silence went by. This time, the snort came out of Joey's mouth, who then exploded in laughter, nearly choking on the piece of burger in his mouth. It was so bad, he fell back down on his mattress, and held his stomach. Meanwhile, Yugi felt like her head was going to melt.

"S-Stop laughing!"

"Hahaha! I'm sorry, Yug, pfff... HAHAHA! That was too good! You should see your face!"

Covering her face with her hands, she wished she was mouse again. Why did she just have to say stuff like that? Now of all times! He was never going to let her live this down. Her self-mortifying kept her from noticing that Joey had (almost) stopped laughing. But a warm hand rubbed the back of her head.

"Oh come on, don't feel bad," said the boy. "Never expected ya to say somethin' like that. Specially not to me! If anythin', I'm flattered."

Somehow, his words made her feel worse. He seemed to understand that lingering on the subject wouldn't help and removed his hand.

"Seriously though Yug," he asked, his mouth full with the rest of his burger. "Why d'you come here? Ya could have just dropped off the pills and take off. Thought you'd be glad to be rid of me." he swallowed. "I know moneybags and yar grandpa are."

"Kaiba hates you and grandpa only know you from what Kaiba told him."

"Doesn't really change the fact that I picked on ya. Any parent in their right mind would've reacted like yar grandpa. I'm no pissed about it. Got no right to be. Got anythin' to drink?"

Reluctantly, removing her hands from her face, she reached for the water bottle in her bag and gave it to him. He emptied it in one go before continuing. "Honestly, I don't get it. Ya bring me food and ya worry about my ass. Why do ya bother?"

"I don't know," she replied, honestly incapable of answering that with a straight response."I just... Well... I don't want you to be alone."

A sad smile stretched across the blond boy's face. "Ya feel sorry for me."

It wasn't a question.

"No!" she exclaimed. "Well, I do. But that's not all. I-I don't want you to be misjudged. You're not the person everyone thinks you are. I don't want anymore misunderstandings. And... I couldn't help but notice, you didn't even try to defend yourself in front of grandpa."

He smiled again and grabbed a shirt that he quickly put on. Then, he went down the latter and automatically, she followed. Joey stepped out of the hangar and went to face the sea. It was a cloudless day, so the water reflected the sun's brilliant light. A nice breeze played with their hair. Indeed, it was much nicer than Hoshu. But that sad atmosphere still hovered in the air around them. Yugi wasn't sure of her theory, but she wanted to know.

"Joey..."

Almost immediately, as if he felt the storm coming, he interrupted. "Don't feel sorry for me, Yug. I hate it. I always take care of myself."

'But you're not, Joey. You're enduring.'

She didn't find the courage to say these words out loud. But she wanted him to hear them. Joey Wheeler was so much than met the eye, despite what everyone thought of him. Yugi wanted to know. Know just how much he was hiding. How much he was carrying. Because she could feel that weight on his shoulders. There was no way he was really as laid back and worry-less as he looked, and there was definitely a reason behind him wanting to make her stand up for herself. The idea hit her on the spot. If she wanted to really help him, then she was going to need a good excuse to keep seeing him. Turning to face him this time, she put on the most serious look she had in store.

"Joey, you owe me."

The face he made when he turned to her almost made her laugh. He looked like a half-asleep sloth that was trying to discern reality from dream. But she was too focused to let it get to her. Soon enough though, he regained his composure and threw her a confused look. Again, her nature took over and her request came out in the form of a plea and she almost shouted.

"Can you please teach me how to defend myself?"

O.O Well, that was unexpected. I wonder how that's gonna turn out? Next chapter, suspicious figures appear. *insert evil laugh here*.

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