6th September 2013

Time

You're kidding me, Joey thinks when he enters his office and sees new flowers standing on his desk. With a sigh Joey walks over to it and sits down before starting to look through the paperwork Kaiba placed there along with those damned flowers. Joey glares at the flowers before starting to read through the papers, still hardly able to belive that he gets part of what he's reading. He's sure that he's still a far cry from a proper vice president but he starts to believe that he might be able to become one, given enough time.

After a while V walks into the room to bring him a hot chocolate. "Thanks V, you're really a sight for sore eyes ya know." Joey says right after seeing him enter with a steaming cup in his hand.

"I know I'm the best." V says with a grin, "Can I do anything else for you? You're strange ever since you're back after that fire."

"Why strange?" Joey asks.

"Less noisy." V says after a moment of thought. "But that's not all. You and grumpy don't fight so much."

"We still fight." Joey says, "Just that he says strange things during those and I make a run for it."

"Strange like what?" V asks curious.

"Like calling me a loveable little stupid head or adorable little puppy." Joey says with a grumpy look on his face. "But the look when he tells me to bite him is even more scary. He really needs to get that smart mind of his out of the gutter."

V just laughs. "Well I guess he's finally starting to make his move. But don't worry, I'm sure he'll give you all the time you'll need."

"But that won't be enough." Joey points out. "Time won't change how I feel. I can't make myself fall in love with that jerk, so nothing will change."

"We'll see." V says calm. "But if it's true that you'll never fall for him, then he'll eventually give up again I guess."

"And he'll start to hate me because I didn't give him a chance or something like it." Joey wonders worriedly.

"I doubt that." V says smiling, "He'll still be there for you."

"What if you're wrong?" Joey asks.

"Then I'll be there for you and kick his ass." V replies, "Then he'll be there for you again."

Joey smiles a little before saying, "I wish it would be that easy."

"It will be." V says, "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Nope." Joey says, "Nothing else."

Joey returns to his work looking through the papers and makes notes to each of them until the door to his office is opened again. He looks up and sees Seto Kaiba standing in his doorway wearing his white suit and leaning relaxed against his doorframe. "How are you doing?" He asks.

"I'm fine." Joey says with a slight blush."I'm just starting to worry that I'm getting hayfever, my nose is tingeling every time I'm in my office."

"In that case I'd be more worried about your mental state." Kaiba replies, "Because I'd fear that you'd start halucinating that since there are way more flowers outside then in here."

"Yeah, I'm sure I'm imagining things!" Joey grumbles ironically, "Just like I mistook those flowers for flirting when you just wanted to teach me how they look."

Seto just grins "How silly of you to ever assume that."

"Yeah how silly." Joey grumbles even more "Oh well, is it already time for lunch?"

"Yes." Kaiba replies, "And as far as I remember you have a policy to always accept free food. Even though I more or less believe that to be a necessety since no one can afford to feed you alone."

"Currently you're proving that theory wrong." Joey reminds him considering that ever since he got back from Germany he hadn't bought himself any food.

Joe-Joe managed to puppy eye Joey to move into the place Seto had set up for him when he returned rather than moving to Yugi. At least for the time being. Joey is still looking for a new place since the one grumpy got him is the south wing of the Kaiba mansion. It does have a seperate entrance and the door that leads towards the rest of the mansion on the inside can be locked too. But whenever Joey dares to lock it Joe-Joe is throwing a fit that would scare stronger men than Joey and Seto together.

Joe also always wakes Joey in the mornings and puppy eyes him into eating breakfast with them and in the evening insists on him joining her for dinner. At the same time Kaiba always invites Joey for lunch and as Kaiba just pointed out, Joey has a really hard time saying no to free food.

By now Joey is considering to move into the garden shed that's at the back of the mansion, just to get a bit more space between him and Grumpy. At least Kaiba never came into the south wing himself. Just Seth and Joe visit him all the time when he's not working and Joey actually likes it that they're able to see him whenever they want to. Epecially now that he caught on to Kaiba's plan to have Joey adopt them as soon as he's vice president, which he knows since Seth explained it when they picked him up. It's the first time that Joey can actually hope to adopt them at some point.

"What would you like today?" Kaiba asks when Joey silently stands up to get ready for lunch.

"Burgers." Joey says. "I hate that healthy stuff ya always eating."

"Strange it always looked like you liked it." Seto replies, "Considering how you stuff everything down. We definetely have to work on your table manners before I can even consider to take you to a business lunch."

"In that case I refuse to work on them." Joey says, "I really don't want to go to some uptight five star restaurant where they serve just about enough food to fill a hole in a tooth."

"Don't worry, even though it looks like little." Seto points out, "It actually is rather filling and you get more than one plate, so don't worry. I always was quite satisfied."

"No surprise there," Joey says, "You might consider yourself to be a dragon but you lack the matching appetite. That rather reminds me of a little kitty cat."

Seto glares at him for a moment while walking past a grinning V, who doesn't dare to make a sound to keep the mood between the two lovebirds intact. "How about we go to the little italian restaurant we went to on Monday? You seemed to like it last time around and it's a little more respectable than a burger joint but not a five star restaurant either. That way we can work on your table manners a little."

"I told ya I don't wanna work on those." Joey grumbles.

"Suck it up and deal with it." Seto orders, "And if you aren't satisfied with the food at your first five star restaurant, I promise I'll take you to wherever you want to go and buy as much food as you can eat." Seto looks at Joey's grin and adds, "Or as much as I can afford before going bankrupt whatever comes first."

"Very funny." Joey says, "I doubt that even I can eat enough to get you bankrupt."

"A year ago I would have agreed." Seto grins towards his little puppy, "But by now I saw you eating."

"Jerk." Joey mumbles with a blush while they get into Seto's car to drive to said restaurant.

During the short drive it's rather quiet between them and like every day during the last week Joey just watches Kaiba driving his sports car. Kaiba usually drives to and from work with Joey sitting next to him, since they're living close by. Not together, as Joey insists at every chance he get's to do so!

Once there the bickering starts again slightly. Mostly about Joey's table maners or rather the lack of those. By now Joey knows perfectly well how to behave and would if the occation would really require it but it's just too much fun to annoy Kaiba during everyone of their lunch breaks.

Once back they bicker all he way up to their office until Kaiba disapears into his own with a fresh cup of coffee. Joey looks after him for a moment and wonders why he's not against living that close to him and spending so much time with him. More than with any of his other friends.

"How was lunch?" V asks with a huge grin on his face.

"Fine." Joey replies, "He annoyed me again about my table manners but the food was good."

V just grins, "You really love to annoy him, don't you?"

"Yeah, it's pretty fun to drive him crazy." Joey chuckles and takes his hot chocolate from V before leaving for his own office. By now V brought all of the papers that Joey already looked through over into Kaiba's office to be reviewed. Kaiba still wouldn't trust him with his company, but then again, Joey wouldn't trust himself with it yet and his training hasn't started that long ago so it's probably not a bad sign and simply to be expected.

Joey sits down and looks over the next papers. These are the ones he did the previous morning that Kaiba already corrected. Or rahter, pointed out if Joey made a major mistake and returns it to be fixed by him. Sometimes Kaiba simply writes down what would happen if Joey really had done something and it wouldn't have been a copy of something Kaiba already did perfectly himself. And then Joey has to fix the trouble he would have caused in theory. Like always he's left alone with it. He could ask V but Joey wouldn't like to trouble him since V has his own work and this way Kaiba will see how much, or rather how little, Joey can do by himself if anything were to happen to him.

Later that day Kaiba takes Joey home with him and Joey manages to return to his own place for the time being. Probably only because he knows that Seto will keep Joe busy until their dinner is ready.

Joey looks out of his window after hearing the happy laughter of his little girl. Outside he sees Kaiba playing catch with her. It's clear that Kaiba has to run as fast as he can to catch up to the little wild thing who runs around like a little rabbit, changing the direction of her run whenever Kaiba gets close. After a while he catches her and starts to tickle the little girl to the ground until both of them just lay there still laughing. "I love you papa." Joe suddenly says, "And you have to marry daddy, promise?"

"I promise to try." Seto replies, "But you have to promise to accept it when he starts to love someone else. I'd rather see him happy from afar than see him unhappy with us."

"But what about us?" Joe asks, "And what about your happiness?"

"You'd still be able to visit me." Seto tries to calm her, "I promise to always be there for you. And don't worry about me, I'm happy as long as Joey is happy. He was with someone else before, and it was fine with me then too. That is until that guy hurt his feelings. But I made him pay for that so I'm good now."

"Why?" Joe asks, "How did he pay for it? Did he give you money?"

"In a way," Seto says with an evil grin on his face, "I took his job away, his money away and he lost his appartment too. But don't tell anyone or I'll get in trouble."

"Why? He was mean to Joey too so why can't you be mean?" Joe wants to know.

"Because technically, it is wrong to be mean to someone, just because they're mean." Seto replies, "There are rules for everything and you remember how you accidentily hurt that boy in kindergarten and he hit you and got in trouble for it? It's sort of the same. Joey's ex-boyfriend did something that hurt him badly, but we don't really know if he meant to hurt him or just accidentily got weak and did something wrong without thinking about it. In that case I would have been just as bad as that boy that hit you."

"You're a bad boy, papa." Joe grins, "But I am glad you did it for daddy. Cause you love him, right?"

"Yes I do." Seto says and looks up towards the sky, "But I doubt that he'd ever love me back, so don't get your hopes up too much sweety."

Joey watches them laying in the grass. Or rather watches Seto laying there while Joe wiggles around for a moment before hunting after a butterfly. 'He really does love me.' Joey thinks and wonders if Kaiba really could be happy if he likes someone else. V mentioned that he was crappier while Joey had been with his ex. Did he assume that Joey would get hurt or was he simply hurt himself? The last one is much more likely since V also said that he's in a better mood when Joey is around.

Either way, Joey finally admits to himself that Kaiba is truly and madly in love with him. At the same time he's just praying that Joe won't start calling them papa and daddy to his face yet. At least not yet.

Authors Note: Thanks to dancing elf, Violet-Eclipse, Angel Dove1, XxDeathShadowXx, mandapandabug,
theabridgedkuriboh, sherabo, Cascade00, Eriasa Jun, PartheniaTargaryen and SailorDeathMoon for the reviews.

Next chapter will be out on the 13th and will be about Joey who will tell V his deepest and darkest secret by accident. Some of you might be surprised...most probably won't.