Thank you for all of your reviews! They really inspire me to type faster! I would also like to remind anyone who might not know, even if you don't have an account, you can still review and tell me what you think. By the way, just a heads up, I will not be able to update or type for spring break, so there will be maybe a while where you don't hear anything from me, but I will be back. And while I'm at it, I am so sorry, but I realized after I updated last that I had forgotten to include a chapter preview. I will do my best to make sure that this does not happen again, and, also, here is an extra- long chapter. On with the story!
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Joey and Tristan had the TV volume down to three so it wouldn't disturb anyone. I was in the kitchen, making dinner for everyone. Yugi was still asleep in bed. And Duke. Duke hadn't left his side since he first saw him. When we'd questioned him, tried to get him to explain further, all he'd said was that they'd both been in a bad situation together. He had managed to escape, but had given up hope of seeing his friend again.
"Hey," I looked up, coming out of my thoughts. Duke stood in the doorway.
"What's up?" I asked.
"One thing has been bugging me. Why do you act so oblivious? You act like you're just now finding out that we exist. I mean, you've had Yugi for years now, right? Being his second Master and all."
I cut him off there. "I'm not his second, I'm his third. And what do you mean, 'we'?"
"You're Yugi's third? But that means," he dropped his gaze to the floor. "Wow. Poor kid. That means his last three lives only lasted him two and a half years."
"I've had Yugi for about two weeks now. He mentioned something about his previous Masters. Do you – "
"I'm sorry. It's not my story to tell." Before I could respond, we a knock sounded from the door, prompting an argument from the other room.
"Joey get the door."
"You get it. You're sitting on my feet."
"Because you didn't move."
"Make Duke get it."
"Duke get the door!" Tristan called.
"Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses." I put the lid back on dinner and followed Duke . he opened the door and let Tea in.
"Hey, guys. So since my phones being a jerk, I'm going to have you fill me in now. Tristan, I was only able to make out a few things you said, and I think I got out that someone's hurt, or Joey got a cat, or something like that."
"Are you sure she can be told?" I glanced at Joey and Tristan, who were still seated on the floor.
"Yeah. Don't worry. Tea's one of the most trustworthy people we know."
Meanwhile, Duke was filling Tea in on why she had been called out to her friend's house. "Your patient is a wounded neko. He is over here-" He was cut off as she began to laugh.
"Oh, my God. You almost had me there."
"You don't believe we exist, do you?" I moved to sit beside Yugi when I heard the dark tone Duke had suddenly taken on.
"We? Wh- What do you mean?" Tea had stopped laughing, sensing something was wrong. Nobody had joined in.
"What I mean is, nekos, werewolves, vampires, dragons, they're all real. And one of them needs your help. Are you going to do something, or- "
"Oh, please. Do I look stupid to you? Vampires and dragons, real? Are you insa-" She trailed off as Duke apparently lost his temper. He whirled around, now facing everyone in the room except for me and Yugi, unfurled two huge, dark grey wings. I couldn't see his face, but I heard him as he snarled, "Do I lookreal to you now?"
"Duke!" Tristan snapped, standing up. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
His wings dropped as he realized what he'd done. Tea looked absolutely terrified. "I'm sorry, Tea. I tend to act without thinking sometimes. Please. We really do need your help."
"You'll have to give me a minute to process all of this." She said, backing back out the door.
"Don't worry, Duke. Tea's probably the most adaptable girl I know. Just give her a minute, and I'm sure she'll be right back." Tristan reassured him. Meanwhile, Joey seemed to recover from where he'd apparently frozen.
"Vampire!"
"Thank you, Capitan Obvious. I had no idea." Tristan rolled his eyes.
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It was now two days after we had first brought Yugi to the apartment. Tristan had been right. Tea had returned about five minutes later, checked Yugi out, and re- dressed his wounds as if everyone she saw had cat parts.
Joey had calmed down and was now cool with Duke, although he still found reasons to avoid him if the Vampiric teen mentioned food or blood. And everyone had taken to sleeping over, except for Tea, being the only girl.
Yugi had woken up and was ecstatic about seeing Duke again. He was healing nicely, a lot better than if I had been trying to help him on my own. He flatly refused to talk about what had happened, though, so all we had were our ideas.
Currently, though, Yugi and Duke were home alone while Tea and Joey were at the local library. Ever since she'd been put in charge of the health of a being she had had no previous knowledge of having even existed, she'd devoted all her free time to learning absolutely anything of even minor importance. Tristan and I had decided to make a food run. Apparently, six teenagers go through a ton of food. Although Duke choses to fly out every night to hunt animals, a fact that turns Joey white, if he can't find anything, Tristan will let him take a bit of his blood to tide him over. (That explained his strange 'sickness' from the day I'd met Yugi).
"Do you think we got enough? I mean, you know Joey's appetite."
"Oh, and yours isn't trying to compete?" I teased. We both had our hands full with shopping bags, so when we reached the door of his apartment, I tapped my foot against the door instead of knocking. I turned back to Tristan, intent on continuing our conversation, when the sharp report of gunfire suddenly sounded.
We glanced at each other, already ridding our hands of the hindering bags. Immediately after the guns went off, came a voice. A voice we recognized. "Ha ha! Take that, Yugi!"
"Ah! Duke, knock it off! Stop shooting at me!"
*BAM*
We burst through the door, ready to attack, only to see a very confused Yugi sitting on the floor. Duke, grinning, was by him, video game controllers in both of their hands. "Yami? Where are the groceries? I thought you two went shopping?" Yugi tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"Uh, yeah. They, they're . . . I'll go get them." I shook my head and retrieved the bags with Tristan's help, and headed for the kitchen.
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"Hello," Joey called, "Anybody home? We got pizza!"
"Welcome back Joey, Tea." Yugi pounced playfully on Joey's shoelaces, accidently untying them.
"Oh, my God. Yugi! You're so cute!" Tea scooped him up and hugged him, being careful of his bandages. She stopped when she noticed us, (minus the resident vampire, who had fallen asleep on the floor) staring at her first encounter with kitten Yugi. "What?" She demanded. "As much as I may not act it, I do happen to be a girl, you know."
"Yeah. Anyway, how about some dinner? We've got pepperoni and ultimate. And it's going to be just us guys for dinner tonight. Tea's just here to drop her things off before she has to go cover for another intern at the hospital again."
"I will be coming back here, though. So try to save me some pizza?" She set her book bag on the floor out of the way and looked Yugi over. He was a bit stiff, but we were making sure he got plenty of rest, so he was expected to be back to normal in no time. Satisfied that he was well, Tea set him down, called a quick good- bye to the rest of us, and headed out.
"I'll put these in the kitchen. Don't want my house becoming even more of a sty." Tristan relieved Joey of the pizzas and took them into the kitchen.
I found myself laughing slightly at Yugi. "Girls really do love kittens, huh?"
"Yeah." Joey replied, "Lucky bas- Ahh!" Joey tripped over his shoelaces, falling right on Duke, who woke up instantly on the defensive thinking he was under attack. When he realized that it was just Joey, he began wrestling, both making a bit of a mess. Yugi and I watched from our spot on the bed, legs pulled up and out of the way.
"Duke, Joey." Tristan called, "Duke! Joey! Oh, for the love of . . . Wheeler! Devlin! Clean up that room now! Stop trashing my place!" both boys froze. Tristan stood in the kitchen doorway. When he spoke, it was slowly and clearly. "I pay the rent. I bought the furniture. I allow you the luxury of not sleeping on the streets," he looked pointedly at Duke. "I allow you to eat my food, drink my blood, play my games, but for God's sake, get along or I swear you'll be out. Start acting more like Yugi and Yami. They haven't gotten on my nerves since they moved in. Grow up!" We all stared.
"Tristan,"
"Just clean up in there, Duke. Dinners ready." And with that, he walked back into the kitchen, hands clasped behind his head, sighing. The boys on the floor looked at each other, then silently began placing everything back where it went. A broken plate was deposited in the trash, along with old snack wrappers and a stale waffle.
Once that was done, Duke silently slipped into the kitchen, while Joey sat on the floor, leaning against the bad by me and my little neko friend. "Are you alright, Joey?" Yugi placed a paw on his shoulder.
"Yeah, Yug'. I'm fine. Just going to give Tristan some time to cool off. I guess its not easy taking so many people into your home at once, not to mention everything else that's been going on. I'll apologize as soon as Duke's done talking to him."
"Which would be now. And I accept you're apology. I was just venting. As you said, everything has been happening at once."
"Well, we're all a team now, so we'll just deal with whatever comes next together." Everyone smiled at my words.
"Deal." Replied Tristan. Then Duke. Then Joey, and Yugi. With that resolved, we all migrated to the kitchen for pizza. That lasted for about five minutes before we returned to the living room with our food. What can I say? We're teenagers, with no adults around.
"Hey, where'd my waffle go? Joey . . ."
"Sorry Tristan."
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If we'd known, none of us would have let him leave.
"Its getting pretty dark out. Plus, Tea's got a long walk back here."
Not in a million years.
"So you're going to walk her home? Awfully gentlemanly of you."
"Shut up, Tristan."
But we didn't know.
"Yeah, yeah. Get going, already."
And we let him walk out that door.
"See you in about twenty minutes, guys."
Not knowing we'd never see Joey the same way ever again.
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Joey walked down the street, focused on getting to the hospital. 'Man, can't she get a car so I don't have to worry about her being out after dark?'
Joey and Tristan had met Tea when they were eleven, and she was like a sister to them. The boys' argument about Tristan getting a roommate had torn her apart as much as, if not more than the both of them.
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. 'Finally. Almost there.' He silently cheered, spying the lights of the hospital about a block away. 'Tea, girl, you'd better not have left yet. I don't want to find out I walked all this way for nothing. Gentlemanly. Ha! I'll show him. I'm more gentlemanly than-'his thoughts were cut off as he was pulled into an ally. A pair of huge, muscle- bound arms wrapped him in a vise- like grip, but what shocked Joey the most was the fact that the arms were covered in thick, coarse, fur. Claws ensnared his wrists and held him tight against a shaggy chest. A low, gravelly voice whispered in his ear, what felt like whiskers tickling it. "Show me the neko, and maybe I'll let you go."
The mention of Joey's little buddy caused his fear to turn to anger, then rage. Quickly putting to and two together, he realized that this must be the thing that attacked Yugi. And not only was he still after him, he was trying to get Joey to betray him.
"Don't try to deny it. I can smell it all over you. Now, where is it?"
"It? It? What right do you have to talk about my pal like that?" And with a mighty battle cry, Joey swung his legs up, using the tight hold on his upper body to his advantage, and swung them back down into his enemy's knees. Being a werewolf, his knees naturally bent backwards, but the force of the blow did knock him down, causing him to release his captive. The teen whirled around, ready to deliver a powerful kick to his to the beast, but was unprepared for how fast he recovered. The last thing he saw was a flash of white teeth, before the still night air was broken by a harsh, pained, scream.
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"Hi, guys. Miss me?" we were all gathered in the kitchen, cleaning up before the others got back. Well, Duke had left to go hunting, but Yugi, Tristan, and I had things handled.
"Welcome back, you two." I stepped into the living room, only to see Tea looking at me, confused.
"Um, two?"
"Joey didn't walk you home?" I was beginning to worry. Joey had left over half an hour ago. It only took about ten minutes to get to the hospital, but we'd just assumed that Tea hadn't been done yet by the time he'd gotten there.
"No? I mean, maybe I passed him, but I don't think so. The streets were pretty empty. When did he leave?"
"About thirty minutes ago." By this time, Yugi and Tristan had joined us.
"You think somethings happened to Joey?" Yugi asked worriedly.
"I don't know, Yugi, but Joey's strong. I'm sure he'll be fine." I could clearly hear the front in Tristan's voice, trying to reassure the small neko when he himself wasn't even completely convinced.
"But what if he's hurt? O-or somethings happened? We should go look."
"I agree with Yugi. I can't picture him just getting distracted. And theres already been enough time for him to reach the hospital, find out Tea's not there, and get back here. He wouldn't just let you walk all the way here alone, so something must be wrong. Yugi, Yami, you check the road from here to the hospital. He may be along there, somewhere. Tea and I will . . ."
*Slam*
The front door burst open at Duke's kick. He stood in the doorway, Joey's arm slung over his shoulder. "Help. I found him in an ally. He was attacked. "We all stared at the two. Duke's eyes were terrifies as he supported the unconscious Joey, who was bleeding heavily from a wound on his left shoulder.
I looked down at the sound of a whimper. Yugi's eyes were glassy, as if he was seeing something else. Tristan, Tea, and Duke had moved Joey to the bed, and were now working on him. "Yugi?" I placed a hand on his arm. "What's wrong?"
"Atem." Was the only thing he whispered before his knees gave out and he curled into a ball, shaking.
"Yugi?"
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And that's the end of that! Thank you all for reading and please review. Your reviews encourage me to type faster!
NEXT CHAPTER- Duke spills his guts, and Joey wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
I'll see you there! And what do you think Atem has to do with all of this?