Talyak: I've found that some of the most intelligent people are absolutely clueless when it comes to some things. They'll come across each other soon, but not too soon.

Magicjewel: Ha Ha Yep. Poor Seto. Glad you can't wait because here's more!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Joey huffed as he crossed out another name. His father and him were not having any luck with finding an apartment. The search wasn't panning out well and it was a distraction from work and school. He had been restless all week. The only reason he had been able to keep up in school was the new addition of his hearing aids.

Joey put his pen down in favor of picking up his fork. He pushed his food around on the plate before spearing a piece of chicken. He brought it up to his mouth and chewed absentmindedly on it. He was startled out of his thoughts when Sakura suddenly plopped down across from him. She chuckled as she peeled open her yogurt cup.

"Hawkins give you your first project? You look frazzled," she said while reaching up to push her glasses up her nose.

Joey groaned.

"No. He's a'pposed to start me on my first project next week." Sigh. "I'm trying to find a new apartment."

Sakura frowned as she swallowed her mouthful of yogurt.

"Something wrong with the place you're at?" she questioned.

"Sort of. My dad and I are trying to find me a place to stay."

Sakura was silent as she swallowed her new bite of yogurt.

"Why not move into Blue Towers?" "Huh?"

Sakura laughed as she put her spoon and empty yogurt cup down.

"I keep forgetting you're still new to the business. I'm sure you know Blue Towers is a Kaiba Corp investment?" Nod. "Bet you didn't know three of the floors are reserved for employees."

"What?!" Joey gasped.

Sakura shook her head. She explained the purpose of the eight floor apartment complex. The top two floors were for visitors and business partners of the company. The middle three floors were for general public. The bottom three floors were reserved for employees.

"We're given discounted rent and utilities and all are at good rates. I happen to know they always have apartments available. Most of the employees that rent the apartments are there for short term while they transition between homes. Hawk lives there. Ask him for the number of who to contact," Sakura explained.

Joey grinned.

"Thanks! I'll go ask him now," Joey said, jumping to his feet.

"He's in a meeting with the CEO," Sakura said.

"It can wait," Joey said, slumping back down in his seat.

Sakura grinned as she chewed on her salad. She waited until she was done chewing to speak again.

"I thought you might say that. After lunch, why don't you come with me to the testing area? I can show you some of the ideas we had that are in the testing stages," Sakura said.

Joey agreed. Joey finished up his lunch and looked up the Blue Towers on his kPhone while Sakura continued eating. The apartments sounded impressive and the pictures were equally impressive. He stowed his phone away when Sakura finished eating. They threw their trash away and Joey followed her to the testing area.

He wasn't surprised to find a group of people of different ages working on the modified Rubik's Cube. He found it interesting they were trying different colors to use. One Rubik's Cube reminded him of a Blue Eyes White Dragon. It had black, light blue, silver, white, dark gray, and dark blue.

"You still hold the record for finishing it in the fastest time. We're hoping to finish testing and push this out for the Christmas season," Sakura said.

Joey chuckled. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

The testing area had two other projects being worked on. One was a thin wristband that displayed your phone screen on your arm. It could be used like a phone, but without having to actually be on your phone. It could be used in places like the bathtub that phones couldn't normally be used in.

The other project was an odd, but inventive. It was a set of batteries that after bought, could be charged using a USB port. The current batteries being tested were AA and AAA. Joey could see the potential need for those. Only problem he foresaw was people would only need to buy so many batteries and then not need to buy any more for as long they were able to be charged.

Joey even got to try on the wristband and give it a try. It was weird washing his hands and being able to access his phone on his arm via the wristband.

"That was too weird," Joey commented as they weaved through the cubicles.

Sakura grinned. "That one was my brainchild."

Joey shook his head. She was a quirky coworker. He especially loved her high pigtails rolled into two buns at the top of her head. Her hair was a mixture of bright pink and black. She had a few loose strands hanging down on each side of her face.

They popped their head into Hawk's office, but he still wasn't back yet.

"Long meeting, huh?" Joey commented.

Sakura shrugged. "Not unusual. Come on."

For the remaining time he was on the clock, Joey shadowed Sakura. She showed him some of the software and reports they used for their projects. By the time he was closing in on quitting time, Hawk had returned to his office.

"Guess you're clocking out, huh, Wheels?" Hawk said, straightening some papers on his desk.

"Yea. Hey, do you have the number for the people at Blue Towers? I'm trying to find an apartment and Sakura mentioned 'em," Joey said.

Hawk grinned. He pulled out his phone and thumbed through the contacts. He pulled a mini notebook close, took out a pen, and wrote down a number.

"Here. This is the agent to contact. Very friendly guy. Give him a call and mention my name. He'll hook you up," Hawk said.

Joey took the paper with a note of gratitude.

"Thanks! I'll give him a call soon as I leave here," Joey said.

Hawk smiled, but didn't say anything. Joey looked at him and raised an eyebrow like saying 'What?'

"I'm surprised you didn't tell me sooner. Of course, I'd kinda already figured it out for myself," Hawk commented.

Joey's face screwed up in great confusion.

"Huh?!"

Hawk threw his head back while letting out a hearty laugh. He stood up to walk around his desk.

"I didn't mean to throw you off. It's just I'm glad to see you got yourself some hearing aids. I could tell they've been a big help to you," Hawk said.

Joey was stunned. "How th-? What th-? HUH?!"

Hawk snickered. He shocked Joey even more when he reached up to his own right ear. From behind his ear, he pulled off a large hearing device with a short cord leading to a circular piece.

"I know how it is, Joey. See, I have a hearing loss, too. I had the Cochlear Implant surgery when I was two," Hawk explained.

Joey was curious as to how he hadn't realized the Cochlear Implant, or CI, sooner. It turns out Hawk had his hair shaved where the magnetic portion was attached, but the other hair ghosted over it. It kept the device well hidden. As he watched Hawk put his CI back on, Joey found that he could now spot the small bit of the clear-colored hook that was visible hanging over the front of his ear.

"You spotted my hooks and tubes," Joey said.

Hawk nodded. "I observed you the few times I saw you before I asked you to move departments. You showed a lot of the same behaviors I used to whenever my CI wasn't working properly or I lost it. Those hearing aids popping up just confirmed my suspicions."

Joey groaned.

"Does that mean Kaiba knows, too?" Joey asked.

Hawk shook his head.

"He doesn't even know Joey Wheeler works here. He only knows you by your nickname 'Wheels.' It's not his business who has a hearing loss or vision loss or whatever. Only if you need accommodations, then he prefers to know. He appreciates knowing, but it shouldn't matter since you two aren't likely to cross paths," Hawk answered.

The side of Joey's mouth quipped upwards in a small smirk.

"You rock, Hawk. Thanks."

"You're welcome, Wheels. You're great, too."

After leaving Hawk, Joey wandered down to the daycare. The kids were having fun with painting. He went right to work with assisting the teacher and aide with clean-up while putting the paintings in a place to dry. As the kids finished, he pulled out a book from his bag.

"Anyone ever been on a bear hunt?" Joey asked.

The children shook their heads while crying out, "No! Nuh uh! Read it, read it!"

Joey opened the book and held it out to the side where everyone could see the illustrations. Joey read it almost like a song.

"We're going on a bear hunt. We're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day! We're not scared."

The kids sat forward almost up off the floor. They started patting their legs to the beat of Joey's words.

"Uh oh! Grass. Long, wavy grass. We can't go over it, can't go under it. Oh no! We got to go through it. Swishy swashy! Swishy Swashy! Swishy swashy!"

Joey put the book down in his lap and showed the kids how to slide their hands back and forth together to make a swishing sound. Each part of the book included a new place where Joey paused and showed the kids how to do a wild motion to go with the piece. They went through the tall grass, a deep river, muddy grounds, a dark forest, a swirling snowstorm, and to a gloomy-looking cave.

By this point, the kids were up on their feet, doing the motions with Joey.

"Tiptoe! Tiptoe! Tiptoe! …What's that?"

The children giggled and the excitement in the room went up. The teacher and aide smiled gratefully over at him as they finished cleaning up.

"One shiny wet nose! Two big furry ears! Two big googly eyes!" Joey read.

The kids started jumping up and down. Many of them were already exclaiming, "Bear! Bear! It's a bear!"

Joey turned the next page. "It's a bear!"

Joey instructed the kids to run in place where they were. They went back through all the places they had been through in the book until they finally collapsed on the ground.

"Get to our front door. Open the door. Up the stairs. Oh no!"

The kids jerked their heads up. Joey clapped a hand to his forehead.

"We forgot to shut the door. Back downstairs. Shut the door. Back upstairs. Into the bedroom. Into bed. Under the covers."

They pretended to jump into their beds and throwing blankets over themselves. Joey didn't realize the aide was recording with her phone.

"We're not going on a bear hunt…again."

The children continued giggling and begged for more reading. Joey read two more books before helping the kids settle down for a late nap. In that time, two of the kids had been picked up, leaving four to remain. The aide giggled. The teacher stared at her.

"Shh! You'll wake them. Besides, what's so funny?" the teacher asked.

The aide only pointed over her shoulder. The teacher turned with an annoyed look on her face, only to break out in a warm smile. Joey was seated on the ground with his back against the wall. One of the more fussy three and a half year olds was curled up fast asleep in Joey's lap. A sleepy Joey had his head lowered, hiding his face. He weakly tried to pull his arm away, but the little one's hand shot out to pull it back.

The teacher continued getting the students' backpacks together. At some point, Seto came in with a box.

"Your new supplies arrived, but they were delivered upstairs to me," Seto said, keeping his voice in a low murmur.

The teacher made an "oh" face and gently apologized. Seto waved her apology off.

"It happens. Who's your special friend?" Seto said, noticing a bigger figure amongst the children.

Due to the dimmed lighting in the area where they were napping, Seto could only tell the visitor was a male and light-haired.

"That's our Storyman. He came down to read to the kids after he got off work."

Seto made an hmm sound. He chose not to step closer, lest he disturb the children. He made a mental note to try to come by sometime and observe his employee in action.

/…/

The apartment was great. Joey had met with the agent in charge of renting the apartments to Kaiba Corp employees. The deal had been more than perfect and after touring the apartments, Joey signed the paperwork. His father called him out sick from school on Monday. This allowed him time to pack up what he had and move it to the new apartment.

Joey had been relieved the apartments came furnished. That was something neither Hawk nor Sakura mentioned. His father gave him things he hadn't expected to have. He shared with him dishes, cups, silverware, and other small momentos.

"You're the best, Dad," Joey said, wrapping his arms around his father.

His father returned the hug. He brought his hand up to pat his son firmly on the back.

"I'm just trying to do right by you, Joseph. I know I haven't made things easy on you," he told him.

Joey hugged his father even harder. His eyes were getting a little misty as he stepped back from the embrace.

"You tried. I know you have, Dad. And that's all I could ever ask for," Joey said.

His father nodded.

"What say we have Thanksgiving here in your new apartment? The old apartment should be finished with the selling process and I'll be moving out to the country that weekend," he suggested.

Joey nodded.

"That'd be awesome. I know Yugi and Yami would love to come over and Gramps, too. I bet my team leader Hawk would love to come, if he ain't joinin' his family for the holiday. I already requested that day off. Could we…" Joey paused. "Could we invite 'Ren and Ma?"

His father patted his arm. " 'Course we can."

Joey's eyes began to blur again. He swiped his hand across them.

"Thanks, Pops."

Thankfully, he wasn't working that afternoon so after making sure his father got home okay, Joey wandered over to the Game Shop. The whole gang was there except Mai and Bakura. Mai was out on a modeling assignment and no one was sure where Bakura was.

"Joey, man, where you been? You missed school," Tristan greeted, pulling him into a playful headlock.

Joey laughed before breaking free. He brought his hand up to straighten his hair, but partially to make sure his hearing aids were still in place.

"I got an answer for that and a couple of da ot'er questions you've had," Joey said.

Duke looked up from the magazine he had draped across his lap.

"Like this secretive job you've been working at? Only work school nights and weekends, got to wear a uniform…" Duke hinted.

Joey gave him a nasty look. "I can toss ya outta the room."

Duke shrugged and raised his magazine up to hide his face. The group all sat down in their places as Joey took in a deep breath and released it.

"First off, y'all should know I've been hiding a secret for a long time," Joey said.

"We already know you're gay," Duke said from behind the magazine.

"I will throw you out!" Joey exclaimed, throwing a water bottle at him.

Duke expertly ducked it without dislodging his view from the magazine. Tristan chuckled as he patted Duke's knee.

"We all already knew that, Duke. Go on, Jo," Tristan said.

Joey nodded.

"I've been hiding that I got a hearing problem," Joey said as he tucked his hair back, revealing his hearing aids.

His friends, with the exception of Yugi and Yami, all had different reactions.

"No way! What the fuck, man?!"

"Wha—What?! Joey, why wouldn't you tell us before?!"

"…huh?"

"…knew it."

After Joey finished threatening to deck Duke, he went on to explain his history of loss and recent events with buying his hearing aids.

"That's really cool, Joey," Téa remarked.

Joey scratched the back of his head. "Thanks. I'm sorry I didn't tell ya guys sooner."

Ryou shrugged.

"We get it, Joey. We just wish you had let us know so we could help you sooner," Ryou said.

Joey nodded.

"I know."

Ryou tilted his head.

"So if you were able to save that much money, then what kind of work have you been doing?" Ryou asked.

Joey smiled awkwardly.

"Well, I started as a janitor," Joey said.

A small snicker emitted from behind the magazine. Joey didn't have to throw something this time. Tristan nudged against Duke, earning Joey a small mumbled, "Sorry."

"Then I guess I made a big impression on one of the Department Heads. This last week, I started working with the Research and Development Department. I'm helping with coming up with new products…at Kaiba Corp."

The reactions he had been expecting came. Ryou's eyes bugged out and his mouth snapped shut. Téa gasped loudly with her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Tristan's bottom lip quivered as he tried to come up with some sort of response. Duke's reaction, however, was the icing on the cake for Joey.

The man's magazine had dropped from his hands to his lap. He looked like a cross between pissed off, disbelieving, and disgust. It reminded Joey of a Picasso painting.

"What. The. Hell? I've been trying for over a year to get a meeting and contract with Kaiba and the asshole goes and hires you!"

Joey's glare intensified. He'd had enough of Duke's mouth for one day.

"You know what, Devlin? You open that big mouth around me, but you don't got the guts to tell Tristan you're head over heels, on cloud nine, crazy for him!"

Duke's face turned a deep red while he was (finally) speechless. Tristan was still trying to figure out what to say, but now his gaze was shooting from Joey to Duke. The others looked equally shocked. They had all thought of saying something, but not quite in the manner Joey had.

"Things just got interesting," Yami murmured.

Yugi nodded. "No kidding."

END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN