Disclaimer – I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

*Rated M for Mature

Chapter 10 – Tuesday

"Puppy? I'm not going to be able to come with you to Jaden's doctor's appointment after school," Seto started awkwardly.

Joey spun on his heel and stared at him. "Why not?"

The brunet gave a heavy sigh. "I happened to send some sample cards to Pegasus yesterday and he immediately responded to me, saying that he wanted to make a deal on your new cards. He hopes to start production of them this week. I have a video conference with him this afternoon."

"Okay," the blond replied resignedly. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"I should be home by dinner. Hopefully."

"I was just hoping that you'd come with me. I didn't really want to take Jaden to the pediatrician by myself. What if something's wrong?" Joey continued anxiously.

"Just call me if you need me. I can put my conference on hold for a bit to speak with you. And if anything's serious, I'll come get you. All right?"

"All right. Well, what would you like for dinner tonight?" asked his Puppy. Seto presumed that the blond wanted to take his mind off Jaden's doctor's appointment.

"I don't know. Did you have anything planned?"

"I can make spaghetti…with my special meat sauce."

"And your cheesy rolls?" Seto added hopefully. He hated to admit it, but ever since Joey started cooking, he had a new affinity for food…especially eating it.

"Fine," Joey grumbled. "But don't eat them all before the kids even get to them…like you did last time."

"They were good!" Seto argued.

"You're going to get fat."

"If I do, it'll be your fault."

Joey placed his hands on his hips and gave Seto 'the look,' which ultimately made the brunet back down…but only just.

"We…should probably leave for school now," Seto suggested.

"You think?"

"We found a place! We found a place! We found a place!" Malik and Marik chanted as they bounced around Seto and Joey in their substitute Econ class.

"What the he—emp are you talking about?" Seto asked, correcting himself when Joey glared at him midway through his question. The brunet had almost broken one of his own rules: No swearing.

"Joey told us to find a place for this Duel Academy thing!" exclaimed Marik.

"And we did!" continued Malik.

Both Seto and Joey raised an eyebrow, disbelief showing on their faces.

"Where?" inquired Joey.

"We found an uninhabited island! And it has bird droppings!" answered Marik.

"What the—what do bird droppings have to do with finding an uninhabited island?" Seto asked heatedly.

"According to federal law, a United States citizen can take possession of any foreign, uninhabited island as long as it contains bird droppings," Malik stated matter-of-factly. It was a tad scary hearing that sort of technical language from him.

Seto tried to refrain from blowing up at them. "Let me explain something to you. We live…in Japan. Which means…we are not United States citizens; therefore, we cannot possess an island!"

"I can," Joey remarked suddenly. When Seto gave him a confused look, he elaborated his previous statement. "I have dual citizenship. For now, at least."

"What do you mean?" inquired Seto.

"Well…I'm a Japanese citizen, but I also acquired a second citizenship because I was born to my father, who's my non-Japanese citizen parent. I acquired his United States citizenship. But…this will only last until I'm twenty. However, if I don't renounce my foreign citizenship by that time, I'll automatically lose my Japanese citizenship. Japan doesn't allow for dual citizenship, but in some cases there are exceptions…like mine."

"See? So you can claim the island!" crowed Marik.

"I could," replied Joey, but his response seemed distant.

"We'll…look into it," said Seto. Right now, he had to find out why his Puppy had reacted in such a way. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm just…thinking."

"About?"

"If we claim this so-called island they found, would we only have it as long as I'm a citizen of the United States?"

"I'm not sure," Seto replied slowly. "But…if you wanted to…we could always move there."

"Where? The United States?" Joey exclaimed.

"Yes. I've been thinking of expanding Kaiba Corp. there for some time…and in order to do that, I'd have to be there for long periods of time. But now that I have you and a family to take care of…I don't want to. Not unless all of you come with me, that is."

"That's…well…we do have at least two years to consider this as an option. But…we would need to discuss this with Mokuba and Serenity. They have lives here, too, you know."

"I know. It was just a suggestion, Puppy. We don't need to make a decision yet."

Moving to the United States! Sure, Joey had thought of suggesting that they move into a smaller place, but moving to a different country? That hadn't been on his list, but maybe he should consider it. Good things might come of it.

Mokuba was really happy that he was finally home from school. That meant he'd be alone with Serenity for some time before Joey got back from the doctor's with Jaden…and also before Seto got home from his conference.

There was something Mokuba had wanted to ask Serenity, but he hadn't been able to be alone with her for even two seconds so that he could ask.

"Mokuba, since we don't have any homework, do you want to play something?" Serenity asked the younger boy cheerfully.

"Sure. What do you want to play?" Mokuba felt like he could stare at Serenity's smile forever.

"Well…since Joey and Jaden aren't here, that means we can actually play a violent video game. Do you have any fighting ones?"

"You like fighting games?" Mokuba inquired incredulously. Okay, he was falling head over heels for her now!

"Yeah. But no one's been much of a challenge for me, and big brother tells me you're pretty good. Let's play one!"

"O-Okay!"

They ventured into the gaming room and Mokuba found Dragonball Raging Blast for them to play.

"Is this okay?" asked Mokuba.

"Oh! I love Dragonball Z!" exclaimed Serenity.

Yep. Mokuba was definitely falling in love.

Joey and Jaden made it home just in time to hear Serenity scream…and what a bloodcurdling scream it was.

Racing in the direction of where the scream had come from, the blond had made it to the living room just in time—

"Mokuba! Get it! Get it! Get it!" Serenity screamed again.

Taking note of the situation, Joey had concluded that Mokuba had just saved Serenity from…a spider.

"Got it!" Mokuba cried, racing out of the living room with the spider-filled tissue.

"Serenity, did you have to scream like that?" questioned Joey. "I thought something was seriously wrong."

"Something was seriously wrong! That spider was on my leg! My leg! You know I hate spiders!" Serenity explained.

Joey resisted the urge to let out an exasperated sigh. And when Mokuba returned, things got a little more interesting.

"Mokuba!" Serenity said, springing from the couch and into the startled boy. "Thank you! You're my hero!" And with that, she gave Mokuba a kiss on the cheek.

The small boy then started shaking, a huge blush on his face when Serenity left.

"Sh-Sh-She kissed me," Mokuba stammered to Joey.

"I kind of saw that," Joey replied amusedly. "Have you thought about asking her out on a date?"

"U-Um…yes, but…S-Seto won't let me date. I really do want to ask her…and I almost asked her earlier…but…"

"Are you afraid of what Seto and I might think?"

When Mokuba only nodded, Joey smiled at him warmly.

"I'll tell you what. I'll speak with Seto about you and Serenity dating, okay? However, I have a rule or two. Your dates will be constricted to the mansion until the both of you are in high school. But if it's something like going to the movies or the arcade, we'll need to discuss it. You two are still a bit young and it's a bit too early for the both you to be going out on dates alone."

"So…if I wanted to ask her to dinner, we'd have to stay here?"

"Yes, but I can make sure to set up something romantic for the two of you here. And I promise that Seto and I will leave you alone."

Mokuba seemed to dwell on this new information for a moment. "Okay, let's make a deal. You and Seto can have Friday nights as your date night and Serenity and I will babysit Jaden. Saturday nights will be date night for me and Serenity."

"All right, but you still have one little problem."

"What's that?" Mokuba asked, confused. What had he missed?

"You're making this deal under the assumption that Serenity will say yes to dating you."

The expression on Mokuba's face was priceless.

"Joey?" Seto called breathlessly as he entered the mansion. He briskly walked through the foyer, the scent of cheesy rolls guiding him on his way to find his Puppy.

When he got to the kitchen, he burst into it, panting heavily. It was like he'd just run a marathon or something.

"Seto? I thought you'd be back later," Joey commented when he noticed Seto's presence. "Is…everything okay?"

"I-It's great. The deal—Pegasus—oh, God I need to sit down!" the brunet gasped, grabbing a chair and planting himself into it heavily.

Joey filled a glass with water and brought it to him. "Drink this and tell me what happened."

Seto drank the glass in one gulp, and when his breathing finally calmed, he began speaking again.

"Pegasus loves your cards and I do mean love. He agreed to all of my terms without even batting an eye."

"Well, that's a good thing. So why are you so…so…jittery?" Joey replied.

"He's starting production of the cards tonight! And he said he'd send us the first round of cards by the end of this week! And he wants to know if you have any more ideas! And he said that he loved the new cards so much that the next time he sees you or me, he's going to hug us!"

The blond took a careful step away from his Dragon. Seto seemed a bit unstable for the time being. He wasn't sure what had made him this way. Was it the card productions? Pegasus agreeing to his terms? Or the fact that Pegasus would make physical contact with them?

Sighing, Joey went to the kitchen counter and grabbed the plate of cheesy rolls. Food therapy always worked wonders in these cases.

"Have a cheesy roll," Joey deadpanned as he dropped the plate in front of Seto.

His Dragon seemed to calm some after he picked up a cheesy roll. Taking a bite, Seto moaned. If Joey didn't know any better, he would have thought his cooking was giving the brunet an orgasm…but he knew better.

"Are you okay now?"

"Oh…yes," Seto sighed. He loved his Puppy's cheesy rolls. "Um…how was Jaden's appointment?"

"It went well. The doctor said to keep treating Jaden as we have been already and he gave me some vitamins for him. Other than having a high metabolism, he's fine," answered Joey.

"A high metabolism?"

"It means that Jaden's body burns calories at a greater rate than average. He can eat more food without gaining any additional weight, but I need to start calculating his caloric intake. Jaden needs to gain a bit more weight, so I have to determine how much more he needs to eat. Letting him eat until he's full and giving him snacks when he's hungry seems to be working. We have a check-up in a few weeks to see how much he's gained and such."

"Oh." Seto looked down at the plate of cheesy rolls, feeling bad that he was about to devour the whole thing when Jaden actually needed it more than him. He pushed the plate across the table. "Jaden can have these."

At this, Joey laughed.

"What's so funny?" Seto demanded, feeling as if he'd missed something.

"You don't need to do that. I made that plate especially for you. There are more cheesy rolls over there. I know that we eat a lot, so I've made plenty."

Seto rose from his seat, wondering how much 'plenty' meant in Joey terms. Inspecting the kitchen, his eyes widened. "You made enough food to feed half of Domino!"

"I'm making sure everyone gets their fill!" Joey said, feeling hurt.

"Puppy…I didn't mean to offend you or anything," Seto started, trying to appease him.

"I know…it's just…I'd rather have a lot of food left over than nothing at all. You don't know what it's like not having enough to eat and going to bed hungry," Joey whispered.

Seto didn't like where this conversation had taken them. Joey was probably seeing flashes from his life prior to coming here.

"If we do have leftovers, I'm sure they'll make good lunches tomorrow," stated Seto, pulling Joey into his arms. "I didn't mean to sound insulting. If you want to make feasts for dinner every night, go right ahead. I'm not complaining. I love your cooking too much for that."

The blond chuckled slightly in his arms. "You're a big softy, you know that?"

"Only around you…and Jaden…maybe even Serenity and Mokuba."

"I guess that's a really good thing," said Joey.

"And why is that?" Seto replied amusedly.

"Because it makes it easier to tell you something."

"And that would be?"

"Mokuba asked Serenity out…and she said yes."

"…WHAT?"

End Chapter