ZeldaJewel: Holy cow so many reviews, I didn't expect a JoeyxMai fic to go this far! Wow but then again it is rare to have them. Let's see...21 REVIEWS HAHA I LOVE YOU GUYS

I'm so happy...let's see these reviews:

Flame Swordswoman: Ok I'll update...don't have a heart attack. I don't need you dieing of excitement at just the beginning of the action! I love that song to, some way I had to include it and there is a few more songs to go. I like adding songs to portray what the character might be feeling at that time.

Kikoken: I sooo glad that you updated your story! I think your story is way better then mine in every way, shape, and form. I'M DIEING TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!. But I decided to update this fic for you because you kept telling me to update so I will...just for you

Mayako: What kind of idea did this give you may I ask? hehe I love being an inspiration. Don't worry Kaiba scares everybody!

Chibi-Pepsi13: I know...but I love using cliffs to draw the reader in!

JoeyWheelerPup: Yeah I would find it a bit weird just to throw caution to the wind and run off with a guy after being betrayed by a man that suppose to love you. Mai is unsure whether Joey would do the same or not so she doubts her own feelings and rejects him to safe guard her own heart.

Angel-Belle: I know as evil as I could make him...for right know. But you want to see an evil Kaiba? Kikoken's Kaiba's can make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end!

Lina567: You should review more often I don't bite...hard. You actually liked when Kaiba raped Mai (Backs away unsure) There will be future Seto/Mai conflicts as well as lot's of Joey/Mai. I'll take your suggestion to heart...I actually was thinking of heading down that line as well for the story...shhh don't tell...awe hell they find out on their own

Luthien-Anwaman: Well Mai right now isn't sure if Joey is telling the truth if he really loves her. But this conflict will expand!

Galux Kitty: I agree dump Seto go for Joey but then where would be the story? I'm glad your sister got you addicted to this, it's nice to have a fan!

KaibaGurl: HAHAHA that's funny 'Joey has to go and kick the crap out of Kaiba then he and Mai can be together forever and ever and know one will care where Kaiba is...and 3 months later they will find him buried in the backyard under a stump' a stump that's good

Viciously Wicked: Yup Joey will just have to try harder...thanks for the review

Serene Mermaid: Well you'll just have to read to see if that will happen or not

GoddessOfVictory: Your right there isn't many JoeyxMai fic out there and I'm glad you like mine...you'll probably like Kikoken's then her's rocks...like all her other fics.

Crossfire: It's is a sad story so far, but how do you make a happy story with domestic

violence? Thanks for the review and here's your update

ThefutureMrs.Kaiba: I'm glad you like it so far. And thanks for adding it to your favorites!

Chaos Inferno: I like your saying 'DUMB KAIBA CREEPING AROUND SCARING PEOPLE AND STUFF' it's...cute Ok please don't destroy the world...yet

WeirdPerson: I like your account name. This is a AU fic in the real YuGiOh Kaiba is no where near abusive...this just portrays a different side of Kaiba if it were to happen.

To be or not to be: A 20/10? (blushes) awe thanks

Sarav12: I'm sorry I made you cry every chapter, but I can't help being mean (Smirk diabolically) I'm glad you like it any how.

Mai Joey Forever: Thanks for reviewing and I here's that update that I 'just gotta' do.

PLEASE READ

All I have to warn everyone one on is Domestic violence...unfortunately this occurs everyday around the world, it is estimated that every 20 minutes a woman is raped from someone close to her or in a relationship with...it's sad. This fic was made to show the effects that domestic violence can have on people and that this problem is ever growing. Don't ask why people can be so cruel to others but they are! It's also a fact that everyday hundreds if not thousands of people are killed because of a violent act against them by their husbands and even wives as well. Everyday children are corrupted from the sights of their parents fighting and soon they follow in their foot steps. In all honesty we must do what we can to stop domestic violence before someone close to you or even you end up like the people mentioned above. Thank you for taking your time to read this.

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Dieing Embers

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"Mokuba!" Mai stood wide eye, watching the raven haired boy smile as he still held the card just out of her reach.

"The one and only" he replied, slowly letting the card drop to his side with his hand. Mai's heart continued to beat ever so fast; she knew Mokuba held a very close relationship with Seto, therefore, would tell him everything including that card. Argh...why did I take that card in the first place?

"Wha-What are you doing home?" Mai asked mentally cursing herself for stuttering in front of

Mokuba.

Mokuba's smile instantly turned to a frown; he took note of her trembling and stuttering, "I was suppose to come back last night" he stated, internally he was confused as to why they would have forgotten him.

"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot...I had my mind on...other things" Mai forced a smile through the pain of just shifting positions uncomfortably. Her mind started to wonder to the events of last night, the horrible scream that she only realized at the end it was herself. She remembered tears and blood, a dark chuckled, and sickening moaning. She remembered being thrown to the side like a toy that a child grew bored of playing with. Mai flinched before being distracted by her

thoughts when Mokuba spoke up once again.

"What other things?" Mokuba asked getting more curious by the second, especially because of

Mai's weird reactions. In all truth he didn't know of his brother's abusiveness. It seemed that Kaiba was able to keep it under wraps while Mokuba thought everything was fine around him. That was also something that Mai didn't mind, she didn't want Mokuba to find out what type of monster his brother was. Mokuba always looked up to his brother and if for some reason Mokuba knew then he would be crushed just like she was. Besides what could a kid do to stop this? She couldn't even stop this. Mai's eyes wondered back to the card in his hand.

Mokuba followed her gaze to the card once realizing he wasn't about to get his answer to his question anytime soon. He raised the card back in his view; observing it with interest. Mai swallowed the large thump in her throat as his eyes roamed over every little detail. She shifted positions on her feet looking at the ground with intense interest.

"This is Joey's, is it not?" at the mention of Joey's name Mai's gaze shot up to met Mokuba's. She instantly paled as she saw that Mokuba was looking at her like trying to read her mind.

"Uhh" Mai was at a loss of words,

"Yes, I remember now, he owned the Red Eyes Black Dragon, it was his favorite card...did he give it to you?" he asked softly noticing this change in Mai's skin color.

Mai nodded her head in agreement as she looked back to the ground in shame. At that point she was expecting Mokuba to go running 'Seto...Seto!' but it never came, she just stared at the ground nervously and more then afraid.

"You must have meant a lot to him if he gave you one of his most powerful cards, not to mention his favorite" Mokuba continued

"Mokuba please...don't tell Seto!" Mai cried, she shook in fear and was about ready to get down on her hands and knees to beg...I should have ripped the blasted card up.

"Don't tell Seto? Why? I'm sure Seto would get mad but then realize it's not worth his energy and forget about it" Mokuba smiled naively. Mai slumped her shoulders, at all cost she must make sure Mokuba does NOT tell his brother without him knowing what's happening.

"No Mokuba you don't understand. You must promise me that you won't tell Seto" Mai demanded out of fear

"Why are you so afraid of what Seto might do?" Mokuba asked suspiciously

"Because...I just do. You know Seto hates Joey, they will never get along even if their lives were at stake, so please just don't upset your brother"

This was just getting Mokuba confused. Why is she trying to hide things from my brother? What's going on around here? Did someone die? Why is she so afraid?

Before Mokuba could responded a loud voice roared from behind Mai.

"WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?" Mai's eyes widened as she let out a loud scream. She just back before turning to see Kaiba standing before them looking pissed.

Shit

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The air was extremely tense, not one word was spoken in the Kame game shop. Yugi nervously glanced over at Joey who slammed the new gaming packages in the rack mercilessly. Yugi dare not mention to Joey that he should easy up on the products; for he knew Joey had a short temper as it was and by the looks of it someone pushed him a little too far. With a sigh Yugi turned back to his own job of putting up the new posters. He was thankful that Joey now worked for him, but ever since their dueling day were slowly drawing to a close, he guessed that Joey had nothing to fight for anymore, which made him most of the time grumpy. He occasionally noticed Joey rubbing his eyes like he was crying and this also worried him.

/'Yami?'/

Yes Yugi?

/I'm worried about Joey...again. Just as it seems like he's becoming his old self something happens and now he won't even speak to me/ Yugi whined through his mind link

Hmm, I believe Joey has to deal with this on his own. Only he can make himself feel like his old self

/How is that? Doesn't it take other people/

In one sense yes, but Joey must be willing and wanting to feel happy to make himself happy, understand?

/Yeah kind of. I just can't believe him, his mood swings are annoying, he's acting like some woman/ Yugi joked

Ha, I have to agree with you thereYami laughed followed with Yugi. It was at that point that

Yugi realized he was laughing out loud and instantly tried to quiet himself down.

Joey's head looked down to the ground, his blond hair limped into his face covering his glossy brown eyes. His back faced Yugi as he slammed whatever game needed to go there. Sure he was thankful that Yugi was able to hire him just until he finished college. How else was he suppose to support himself. But today there seemed to be a thunder cloud hanging over his head.

It wasn't that he was mad at the world around him, he was more or less angry at himself along with the events that happened that morning. He didn't think with his head, he thought with his heart and that lead him to more pain. A small sob escaped before he could stop it, he automatically whipped his eyes from the small tears that ran down them. He could feel Yugi stare at him from his back and he was worried if Yugi didn't look away fast he would burn a hole in his shirt. So instead of acting like a crybaby, which he wasn't, he started slamming more card packages in their rightful places.

Joey's mind kept flashing back to his somewhat cruel rejection he got from Mai that morning.

(FLASHBACK)

"JOEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Mai broke free from Joey's grip and ran over to where he through her ring.

"WHY ARE YOU HOLDING ONTO HIM? WHY ARE YOU CHOOSING TO BE A SLAVE TO THAT ENGAGEMENT RING?" Joey snapped irratated at her stubbornness

"YOU DON'T KNOW...YOU'LL NEVER KNOW?" Mai shouted back

"KNOW WHAT MAI?" Joey yelled

"YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ALONE"

"Alone?...Mai your never alone" Joey explained, Mai waved him off in anger

"SAVE IT JOSEPH" Joey's anger soon found it's way back

"WHY DO YOU LET HIM CONTROL YOU? HE HAS YOU CONFINED TO THAT RING ON YOUR FINGER...IT'S NOT YOUR DAMN HANDCUFF'S MAI, YOU HAVE A CHOICE...WHY DO YOU PICK HIM?" Joey yelled, Mai stood where

she was anger flaring from her.

"HOW DARE YOU COME OVER HERE AND TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME THEN ASK ME TO MARRY YOU WHEN I'M ENGAGED THEN TELL ME IT'S EASY TO JUST WALK AWAY"

"MAI YOUR MAKING A BIG MISTAKE, EVERYONE KNOWS YOU ARE, EVEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE. THE PROOF IS LITTERED ON YOUR BODY...Please

Mai don't do this I love you please"

"Joey you don't understand were just to different form each other" Mai whispered

"No were not, we are human beings, we all have feels and thought we laugh, we cry, we hope, we hurt and we fear what else could there be that we need?"

"Empty promises" Mai muttered under her breath, but it didn't go unnoticed by Joey who let go of Mai's chin still keeping an eye on her.

"What?" Joey asked softly

"THERE EMPTY PROMISES, THAT'S ALL THEY ARE. YOU JUST WANT ME TO LEAVE SO YOU CAN HAVE YOUR WAY WITH ME THEN THROUGH ME AROUND LIKE HE DOES...THERE EMPTY PROMISES...and...I don't want anything to do with them or with you" Mai trembled as her tears were mixed with anger and heartache.

"No Mai that's not true, not all men take advantage of the ones they are suppose to love..."

"AND HOW DO YOU KNOW?...YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ABUSED...TO BE RAPED...TO BE CUT DOWN TO A HOLLOW SOUL WITH NO PURPOSE FROM THE ONE WHO IS SUPPOSE TO LOVE YOU AND CHERISH YOU!" Mai screamed

"Yes I do" Joey whispered under his breath

"YOU DO? WELL THEN YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT IT'S NOT EASY TO RUN AWAY!...NOT FROM THE MONSTER HE HAS BECOME...HE'S CHANGED"

"NO HE HASN'T, FOR AS LONG AS I'VE KNOW KAIBA HE WAS COLD-

HEARTED HE WILL NEVER APPRECIATE ANYONE BESIDES MOKUBA AND EVEN HE IS SCARED FOR THAT BASTARD...YOU CAN'T SAY HE'S EVER LOVED YOU...BUT MAI I DO...I LOVE YOU." Joey was firm, he wanted her to see why wasn't she seeing?

Images flooded into Mai's mind, her childhood, alone and cold no one loved her, her parents never paid attention, she was a mistake to them. She thought on all that she lost and suddenly anger clouded her mind.

"I DON'T LOVE YOU JOSEPH WHEELER...JUST LEAVE ME ALONE" Mai

shouted at Joey

(END OF FLASHBACK)

Once again he cursed himself as he had to wipe another tear away. His father said "People cry because they are weak and pathetic, men don't cry, stand up and face me like a man" Joey remembered the crushing kick to the ribs and his father continued to kick him while he was down. He flinched at the thought. In his fathers eyes he would always be weak.

"...feels are for the weak, therefore you are weak" his father thought that every time he would hit him, it would make Joey stronger. With every punch, kick, slap, push Joey was knocked to the breaking point. There was no way out for him, he thought, that he couldn't run away that he will be forever trapped with an abusive father.

He was told never to love women, that it was their trap to men, "...they say they love you and you believe them with all your heart and soul, and just as it seems no one could break your heart, she rips it out in front of you and tears it apart, then leaves with everything you have"

Joey gritted his teeth, he could feel his tamper starting to lose control. He never wanted to admit that his father was right about women. Never...he never wanted his father to win.

'I don't need her, if she wants to be with that bastard then let her, it's her own life she's screwing' Joey heatedly thought

'I can find another woman just as good if not better than her, she'll never appreciate me anyways' Joey's shoulders slumped once again. Joey couldn't stop it anymore, tears ran down his cheeks like he just witnessed one of his closes friends dieing in front of him. Large gasps and shaken sobs escaped freely out of his mouth; there was no use in resisting them now.

"Joey!" he heard Yugi's worried voice, he didn't want to be questions, not now, not ever.

With his last strength he jumped from his spot of the hard floor and made a dash out the shop entrance before Yugi could even catch him.

Yugi tried his hardest to stop Joey before he left the shop. As Joey flew by him, Yugi with his small legs tried to take off after him.

His muscles strained to try and keep up with Joey, but his legs were to small to keep up to Joey's large ones. At that he stopped, "JOEY!" he yelled one more time hoping that Joey would come back...but he didn't, the blond was gone.

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Joey didn't know where he was going but he just needed to run. His tears flew from his cheeks, combining with the wind as he tried to pick up speed. His legs were burning but he didn't care he had to get away from whatever he was running from.

The pain

The hurt

The heartack

He didn' t know, maybe it was both.

Finally he came to a stop in one of Domino's back alleys, once where he ruled these alleys in his gang days, but that was over. Now it seemed that he entered a battle he could never win.

His fists connected the cement walls and Joey shoulder shook with anger, he would not give up. Mai needs him, she needs to know there's something better then Kaiba. An idea instantly came upon Joey as his eyes shot up with defiance.

He would not lose to Kaiba...

He started making his way out of the alley, determined to stop all of Kaiba's ways at that moment.

'Get ready Kaiba, because this will be the last day of your abusiveness'

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ZeldaJewel: Well there you go for all that wanted me to update, hopefully it was interesting in some way.

Please review