Chapter Fourteen: Quick, grab it!

Songs for chapter:

The Beatles- I want to hold your hand

The next day, Joey left school a full hour after it had gotten out. His teacher had held him back after class, demanding who he had paid to write his paper for him. It took much referencing from the book and defining his interpretations before the teacher was convinced that it was his work. Joey was a little upset that the teacher would think so little of him to believe he would actually get someone to write his paper for him. He pulled out his phone (it was a habit of his by now) and found that he had a missed call from Mokuba. He hit the speed dial for the younger Kaiba brother and waited for him to answer.

"Hey Joey! About time you called back," Mokuba's voice greeted.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that, pal," said Joey. "So what did ya need?"

"Well, I figured since you had the day off today, and Seto's home early from work, that we could all watch a movie together," Mokuba told him.

"Huh, sounds like fun," Joey said after some thought. "Sure, count me in."

"Cool! Do you want me to send someone to pick you up?"

"Nah, I'll walk."

"Alright, if you're sure," said Mokuba. "See you soon." Then the line went dead.

"A movie with Kaiba. I didn't know he even watched movies." After about a half an hour stroll, Joey finally reached the Kaiba mansion. He didn't know if he should let himself in or press the buzzer next to the gate door. He stared at the bright red buzzer for a few minutes and finally decided to press it. Knowing his luck, Kaiba has some special security defense that would go off if he let himself in.

A few moments after pressing the buzzer, a voice came out of the box, "Hi Joey!" Joey looked warily around trying to figure out how the voice knew it was him. "Joey, it's me, Mokuba. We have a camera on our side. I guess you never knew that because you always came in with either me or Seto. The gates will open in a few seconds and you can let yourself in." The box went silent and the gates quickly opened. Joey hesitantly walked through the gate, still imagining the alarm system in his head.

Joey stepped into the familiar mansion, looking around for Mokuba or Seto. Mokuba came out from the kitchen. "Hey, Joey, do you want popcorn, kettle corn, caramel corn, cheese corn, cinnamon corn…" Joey started to lose track of all the different flavors of popcorn that Mokuba was listing off for him and when Mokuba went on to beverages, Joey's head was spinning even more.

"How 'bout you surprise me Mokuba." Joey finally decided since he couldn't retain all of the snacks he listed off moments ago.

"Ok, the home theater is in the basement. Seto and I will be down there in a minute." Mokuba led Joey to the basement door that was perfectly hidden behind one of the plethora of closet doors in the hallway. Joey walked down the stairs, the lights turning on automatically with every step.

"How far down is this?" Joey wondered, thinking that the stairs would never end. Finally reaching to bottom, Joey was surprised to find a full entertainment room. On one side of the room was a few beanbags, a black couch and two comfort chairs in front of a giant screen and a projector that dropped down from the ceiling and looked like it was wirelessly connected to a desktop.

The other side of the room was more like a game room with a billiards table, foosball table, and a miniature holographic dueling table. There was what looked like a mini bar with four stools in the corner of the room opposing the pool table.

Joey looked around and decided to play a quick game of pool before Seto and Mokuba came down, but right as he started taking off the cover on it, Seto reached the bottom of the stairs. "What do you think you're doing, Wheeler?"

Joey dropped the pool table cover, "I was just gonna play a quick game while I waited for ya." Mokuba came down the stairs cheerily, causing this quick spat to come to a halt.

"So, what movie should we all watch?" Mokuba placed two kinds of popcorn bowls on the table, Kettle corn and Caramel Corn and heading over to the desktop that was connected to the projector. "I was thinking League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Mokuba sifted through the list of movies.

"I've never seen that one before. What's it about?" Joey asked, walking over to the caramel corn and popping some in his mouth.

Seto nodded his head in approval. "We will watch that one then." He sat on the couch, pulled out his laptop and began typing away as Mokuba dimmed the lights and the movie started.

At first, Joey had misgivings about the movie. However, as he watched, he found he began to get into it. He thought some of the characters were pretty interesting, and it had some decent fight scenes. Granted it wasn't action packed like the movies he was used to, but it was something he could live with. Beside him, Seto was working on his laptop, and every now and again he would glance up at the television screen. Mokuba was on the other side of Seto, munching on his popcorn, eyes never leaving the television screen.

Joey glanced at Seto every now and then, seeing his computer screen reflected in his hard eyes. Sometimes Joey would look over at him and would try to will Seto with his mind to return the glance. Seto's mind, however, was closed off from any forms of latent psychic ability that Joey may have had.

Half way through the movie, Seto finally shut the lid to his laptop and rested his head on the back of the couch, closing his eyes briefly. He looked tired, Joey noticed. Why was the idiot such a workaholic? He wouldn't live past his thirties if he kept this up. Joey's eyes shifted, settling one Seto's hand which had fallen to his side. Joey for some reason had the sudden urge to take hold of that hand, warm those cold fingers with his.

"WHAT AM I THINKING!" he exclaimed in his head shaking it fiercely and scratching the sides of it as if to corrode away the thought. "Did I really just think about making a move on Kaiba? Well, I mean… technically we are together… I guess, so it should be considered perfectly natural. But it's KAIBA. Now that I think about it, we skipped several bases." His face became redder and redder with each thought. "I suppose I could do it. What's the worst that could happen? Okay, he could get mad and tell me to leave." He glanced back down at Kaiba's hand just innocently sitting there, waiting to be held.

Seto finally stirred for a moment cause Joey to freeze in his thoughts. Seto opened his eyes once again, and got up moving to the mini bar area, pulling out some coffee and a coffee pot. Joey sighed in relief and tried to focus on the movie once again. But as soon as Seto came back, coffee in placed on the table in front of them, all of Joey's thoughts went back to the hand that was placed on Seto's lap. "OK, Joey, you can do it, just grab it." Joey slowly extended his hand out to Seto's but Seto's hand moved towards the coffee cup, causing Joey's to slither back with a slight disappointment.

Seto's hand was back in place after his finished his coffee. "It's like he's messing with me without even knowing it." Joey mentally clenched a fist. "Ok, Joey, one more time." He said still looking at the hand from the corner of his eye. After a few moments of the hand still not moving, Joey decided to strike again. His hand got a few inchers closer than the first time, but Seto stood up this time, picking up his coffee cup to refill it. "Come on now, Joey, you waited too long this time. Ok, third time's the charm right? Right?" Seto came back to the couch, sipping some of his coffee before once again, placing it down on the table. "Ok, Joey, now or never."

Joey reached out as soon as Seto's hand was relaxed in place, and quickly grabbed it. "Oh yeah, I did it!" He said, thinking out loud. Almost jumping up, causing him to lose it again. Mokuba looked over to see what the ruckus Joey was making was about. Seto still with Joey's hand in his, lowered it so Mokuba couldn't notice it. Joey laughed nervously and waved at Mokuba with his free hand. Mokuba stared at Joey as if he was crazy, but shrugged and turned his attention back to the TV screen.

"Really, Wheeler, do you need to make a spectacle of everything? Just watch the movie." Seto's eyes drifted back to the movie, but oddly enough still didn't let go of Joey's hand. This caused Joey to flush for a brief moment, and his heart to beat faster than before.

They got through the movie, and Joey was a little annoyed at the cliffhanger. Once the movie ended, Seto stood up, his hand easily slipping from Joey's. "It's bedtime, Mokuba."

"Okay," Mokuba said disappointed.

The three of them made their way back upstairs and Mokuba skipped off to bed after telling Joey goodnight.

Joey and Seto stood alone for a while, and Joey was struggling with something to say, but Seto beat him to it. "I assume you know your way out by now, Wheeler."

"Uh, yeah. I think I'll be fine," Joey said lamely. He supposed he should just get used to the fact that Seto was about as tender as his luster dragon.

"Hn, goodnight," Seto said, before turning to head to his own room.

"Night," Joey mumbled as he turned to leave.

"And Wheeler, the next time you decide to try something like that, do us both a favor and be more subtle about it," Kaiba added, before ascending the stairs.

Joey stared after him for a moment before exiting the Kaiba mansion. "Huh…" Joey mulled as he walked out the gates and began his journey home. "So does that mean…?"

Ten minutes later as Seto was getting ready for bed, he felt his phone go off. He fished it out of his pocket and saw there was a text from Joey. Wondering what in the world he could possibly want, he opened it. It read:

"Does that mean I can do it again?"

Seto shut the phone. "That idiot." The text would never ever receive an answer.

Joey was once again at the Kaiba mansion, testing a new simulation game with Mokuba in the living room. Both of them had virtual reality headsets on their face, and were swinging their bodies around as they fought off monsters in the virtual world. Seto arrived home from work and heard the ruckus in the living room. He sat on the chair watching them as they were oblivious to the rest of the world around them. "Aw, man, lost again," Joey grumbled, taking the glasses off.

"You did better this time than last time." Mokuba took off his. "Wanna play again?" Mokuba asked, still revving for a challenge.

"You're on." Joey was eagerly about to throw the glasses back on, until they both noticed that Seto was sitting there staring at them. "Gah! Kaiba when did you get here?" he dropped his glasses in shock.

Seto picked up the glasses off the ground, "If you are going to test my games, you should be more careful with the equipment." Mokuba sighed, knowing that it was time for Joey's tutoring session. He put the game away and then ran off upstairs to do his homework.

Joey and Seto opened up their biology books and started to answer the assigned questions in the back. "I still don't get when I'm ever going to need to know what the inside of the frog looks like." Joey said with a sigh, leaning back on the couch.

Mokuba came hopping down the stairs a few moments later. "Are you guys done yet? I wanted to ask Joey a question."

"What is it?" Joey said, picking himself back up.

"If you're not busy Saturday, I thought the three of us could do something together again, like when we watched the movie." Mokuba's eyes were gleaming with hope for another chance to see his brother and Joey become better friends. After all, Joey seemed to be Seto's first real friend.

"Sorry, Mokuba, I promised Serenity I would take her out on Saturday. We still don't get to see each other very often and we both are free on Saturday."

Mokuba's face got saddened a bit, "Oh, okay, Joey. You have fun with your sister."

Seto noticed the disappointed look on Mokuba's face but said nothing for the moment. Once Joey had finished memorizing amphibian anatomy, he went home, his brain feeling as though it would start oozing out of his ears at any moment.

"Mokuba, did you still want to go out on Saturday?" Seto asked him.

Mokuba's eyes brightened. "Yeah, would you be able to, Seto?"

"I think I can manage to clear a day," Seto told him. "So long as I can get what I need finish early."

Mokuba ran over to his brother and hugged him. "Thanks, Seto. You're the best."

KD: Yay shopping! What fun shall ensue? Stay tuned to find out!