HD: SO SO SO SORRY!
COH: HD had school and writer's block, but she typed this up as soon as she could.
Bea: It's actually long-ish.
Cole: Not by much.
Alvar: HD no own, please excuse spelling and grammar error and enjoy.
Chapter 14: Prove it.
The bell shrilled overhead and Ryou groaned softly, slamming his locker closed and turned to head to Math, only to come face to face with Ryuu Bakura. Ryou let out a soft strangled 'ep' and his cheeks flushed darkly.
Bakura spoke, breaking the somewhat awkward silence. "Hey."
Ryou nodded and managed a small. "Hi."
"I just wanted to know….you know, are you OK?"
Ryou nodded again, wondering if Bakura was going to bring up the kiss. Ryou wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed when all Bakura did was nod and walk past him towards his class.
With a small sigh escaped his lips and he lent against his locker as the stream of students thinned around him. As he pushed off and headed towards his class, Emi slipped up beside him.
"So what has been going on with you and my brother?" She demanded, looking sideways at the white winged teen.
"Nothing." Ryou ducked his head, letting his bangs fall into his emerald eyes.
"Uh huh. So why was Bakura acting so weird?"
"No idea." Ryou ducked into his classroom before Emi could question him further. He dropped into his seat and fought down his still glowing blush.
Malik rubbed his shoulder as he sat down beside Yugi. A meeting had been called for all the whole school and the tenth and ninth years were sitting together. Beside Yugi were Joey and Ryou, while the seat beside Malik was empty.
He closed his eyes, determined to find sleep when he heard someone sit down beside him. He opened his eyes and groaned. There was Marik, grinning at him in his psycho lopsided way.
"What do you want?" Malik growled.
"Nothing, Juliet." Marik winked, stretching out.
Malik growled and kicked out, hitting the side of Marik's knee and causing him to topple sideways onto the ground. Smirking in triumph, he closed his eyes again, only to snap them back open when an arm wrapped around his waist, only just below his wings.
"What the hell are you doing, Ishtal!?" Malik snapped.
Marik grinned, which was more a grimace due to his pain, and leaned close to Malik's ear, his breath warm against the winged teen's ear, making him shiver. "Nothing."
Malik was about to snap a reply when the Sato began to talk. Growling, Malik turned his attention away from Marik and ignored the arm around his waist and the feel of Marik's breath fanning against his ear.
For Joey the worst thing about avoiding Kaiba was the avoiding part. After their assembly he had cooking. As he made a slow walk to the cooking room he debated silently if he should fake sickness and go home or simply hide or fly away.
Before he could make a decision he was standing outside the classroom. With a heavy sigh he walked in and sat at his usual seat. He could feel Seto's eyes on the back of his neck and he shivered, his wings tightening.
The lesson was agonizingly slow and Joey was tempted on more then one occasion to just fly out of the window. Finally the bell rung to signal the end of the day and Joey jumped to his feet, hurrying out of the door.
He was nearly out of the door when a hand reached out and pulled him into an empty classroom.
"What do ya want, Kaiba?" Joey snapped, not even bothering to look at the brunette.
"Why did you run out the other day?" Seto's voice was dangerously close to Joey's ear. He realized that the older teen was nearly pressed against his back.
Joey shook his head and tried to pull away but Seto was still holding his arm and held him back. "I don't got wings, Kaiba, so jus leave me alone."
Seto's grip didn't relax. "I don't care."
Joey almost laughed. "If ya don care then why do ya keep following and bugging me?"
There was a silence that rained down on them and neither moved or hardly breathed. Joey successfully pulled away and was opening the door when Seto finally spoke.
"I don't care about the wings anymore."
Joey froze and blinked. "Prove it." He demanded. "Prove ya aren't interested in whether or not I've got wings." Then he was gone and all but running out of the school.
Yugi pushed his way through the crowed and to the front of the school. Joey and Ryou were there, both looking depressed and not talking while Malik stood nearby talking to Marik, well more hissing at Marik.
The small teen took a seat beside Ryou and looked around the school. His eyes landed on Yami who was walking out of the school with Bakura. Quickly Yugi looked away and turned his attention back on Malik and Marik.
He wished Malik hadn't pulled up a mind block; he really just wanted to read his mind and understand what was going on with him. He kicked at the ground and absently minded looked back around at the school. The crowds that had been hectic before were now thinned and only a handful of students were left.
"Yug, come on." Joey's voice dragged him back and he followed the others to Isis' waiting car.
The whole ride home was silent. Nobody spoke as each debated over their own problems.
It wasn't like Joey was expecting a miracle. It was Kaiba Seto after all and it wasn't even like Joey liked him!
The blonde rubbed at his forehead wearily. He had hardly slept last night, just lying in bed thinking over everything, and listening to Malik sneak out, as he normally did. Everything just seemed to be more confusing then they had been.
Would Kaiba actually prove he wasn't after the knowledge that Joey had wings? What would he do? Would he even go through with it? Bitterly, Joey knew the answer. No, he wouldn't.
The golden-winged teen sighed softly and headed into the school with Ryou. He glanced around and caught sight of Seto, who was standing with Yami and Marik. The icy-blue eyed teen didn't see him as he walked by and Joey pretended he couldn't care less.
He looked over to Ryou who looked distracted with his own problems. Joey wondered if the change in the group was good for them. Hardly any of them talked anymore, they kept so much from each other.
All through school Joey didn't have one run in with Seto, and was torn between being relieved and disappointed. At lunch he and Yugi headed into the cafeteria to get more food.
Joey spotted Seto sitting with a group of tenth years in the center of the room. He was sitting at the end, typing on his laptop. Joey turned away and didn't bother to even glance at him again.
Yugi looked up at him curiously, his eyes flashed to look blank before they turned back to normal and Joey knew he had read his thoughts.
"What do you want Kaiba to do?" Yugi asked curiously.
"It's nothing." Joey shrugged. He kept his mind empty, incase Yugi tried to read it again.
There was a break out of cheers, whistles and shouts of astonishment. Curiously the two looked back to see what everyone was looking at.
"Is this what you wanted him to do?" Yugi asked, looking up at Joey.
Joey shrugged, unable to answer Yugi and to only watch. Seto had pushed his laptop away and was now standing on the table and looked impassive at the reaction from the school.
"Joey."
The school went quiet and every person turned to look at Joey who shifted under the attention but kept his eyes on Seto.
"Yea?" Joey asked.
The edges of Seto's lips curled into what Joey presumed, was a smile. "I'm proving it." He held out his hand and Joey, without much thinking, walked over to him, but didn't take the offered hand.
"So dis is your way of proving it?" Joey inquired. "By standing on a table?"
"No." Seto jumped down, landing next to Joey. "By doing this." He cupped Joey's face in his hands and pulled him close and gently capturing his lips.
The crowd let out a cheer and everyone laughed, clapping and catcalling as Joey kissed back, resting his hands against Seto's chest. When they pulled away Joey grinned at him.
"Now I see."
Seto smirked back. "Go out with me on Friday?"
Joey pretended to consider the question. "Well ya did just act like a human so I guess I'll jus have ta."
"You did what!?" Malik yelled.
They were all seated in Malik and Ryou's room and Joey, with Yugi's help, had retold the whole lunch incident.
"Mal, it isn't that much of a deal." Joey tried to reason.
"Not a big deal!? Joey do you realize what this means!?"
"Uh….that I have a boyfriend?"
"NO! That he could find out about us!"
"Uh….about dat…He sorta suspects I've got wings."
"WHAT!?"
"Malik calm down." Yugi begged, looking scared.
Malik visibly calmed and took a deep breath. "Does he actually know, or he suspects?"
"Suspects." Joey confirmed, hoping he'd get off with that.
Malik nodded, trying to stay calm. "Alright, here's what we'll do. You don't tell him anything and everything should be alright."
"I can't exactly make em disappear." Joey pointed out.
"Then just don't let him touch your back, or take off your shirt."
Joey was about to argue further when Ryou, who had been silent through the whole discussion, spoke up. "I think I have an idea."
They turned to look at him expectantly.
"Here, I'll show you." He left the room and returned latter with a long length of elastic bandage.
He pulled Joey into the middle of the room and instructed him to take off his shirt and fold his wings in, and then he proceeded to wrap it around his body, covering his wings.
"You just put a shirt on and when Seto touches your back he won't feel them."
"Thanks, Ry-Ry!" Joey grinned, hugging the smaller teen tightly. "You're da best."
Ryou smiled up at him. "It's no problem really."
Malik sighed. "Well now you can go, I suppose."
"Don sound excited." Joey teased.
The Egyptian just rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"Hey, don't ya have a date with Ishtal on Friday, too?" Joey asked innocently.
Malik glared at him. "I'm not going."
"Why not?" Yugi asked.
"Because I hate him."
"No ya don't." Joey pointed out. "Ya love him."
Malik glared at him. "Never."
"Stop fighting it, Mal." Joey told him.
Malik rolled his eyes. "There's nothing to fight, because I don't like him."
"Ya say that now, but we know better."
-TBC-
HD: One pairing down, now just three to go.
COH: Please review!
Alvar: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! And to our anonymous reviewer:
S2Teennovelist: Thanks for the reviews! I am so sorry. I was going to type it up last weekend but I went away and didn't see a computer for three days. Hopefully this chapter will help. That sucks, badly. Well good luck, I hate Math too, so horrible! But I have it everyday except once on Wednesday YAY! XD Reading Maximum Ride is always a good read. I would love to see it if you get it finished. I would love to read them all! Sure, it'd be an honor. I loved your Seto/Joey idea (I'm a sucker for romance) I'm going to use most of it on their date ;) Thanks a lot for that.
Yea, the last update was fast, only because I wanted to post before I went back to school and got swamped with work. Thanks. Malik does need rescuing. No problem. The Yami/Yugi is coming up soon. Same, it's a killer. Yep, I thought it was about time their relationship moved on. Hehe, yep, Ryou can be bold. Yea, very confusing. Yea, Yami isn't that much of a bad boy. Yep, the first kisses, so sweet! Yep, he does and Yami does, let's just hope Yugi can forgive him. Yea, Malik has changed heaps; let's hope Marik can change him back. Suggestive? Hehe, I'm sure they thought it was innocent enough. You'll find out what they're designed for soon enough. I hate it too, but it's less then a month to autumn holiday and my birthday! YAY! That's awesome, I can't wait to read it, and hopefully it'll be published soon. (Make sure it gets to Australia ;) ) I'll try to make them longer, I think this one was longer then most….anyway, please review! Much thanks.
Alvar: And to signed reviewers, Thanks and PLEASE REVIEW!
Cole: If you want to waste your time.
Bea: Pretty much.
HappyDevil, Cole, COH, Alvar and Bea.