Chapter 4: Blackout

"I never pegged you as someone that would go to a bar, Kaiba," Joey said, taking a gulp of his beer, his eyes scanning the room. He seemed to be looking for someone, even as he was conversing with Seto. Seto was happy that Joey was distracted because Seto felt uncomfortable looking directly at Joey. The years between when he had last seen Joey and right now had done a number on the joke of a duelist. While he was trapped at the bar with him, however, Seto just wanted to get through the night.

"Believe me, I'm not."

"Then why are you here?" Joey reached over and grabbed the shot of vodka Seto refused to touch and brought it to his mouth.

Again, he made the same 3-second motion of launching the liquid into his mouth before swallowing in one gulp and Seto felt almost impressed. Seto had tasted pure vodka once or twice before and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Joey, however, didn't seem to bat an eye gulping it down.

"I felt like getting out for a bit and seeing what this whole bar thing is about. I should've known I would hate it." Seto twisted his head back to take a look at the crowd behind him. It was still massive with the amount of people crowding the route between the bar and the exit. Seto determined there was still no way for him to get through the crowd without making human contact so he turned back to his half drunk beer instead.

"First time at a bar, huh? And I could've told you that you would've hated the bar scene," Joey pushed the empty shot glasses forward for the bar tender to pick up and looked around the room again. Seto was certain Joey was looking for someone and it wasn't the bartender. A thought popped into Seto's head in that moment.

"You know, I would've never pegged you as a 'going to a bar alone' type. Where's your beloved geek squad?" Seto asked; his voice riddled with condescension.

Joey gave the room another look through before his eyes came back to Seto. He didn't seem bothered by the tone Seto was taking… he was too distracted looking for whomever it was he was looking for. "Various places. Everyone went somewhere after graduation. I was the only one that stuck around in Domino City. Well, other than you."

Seto watched with amazement as Joey took up his glass and finished half a beer in under a minute. It was beginning to click in Seto's mind that Joey seemed to be much more familiar with the bar scene than Seto, and he regretted the conversation he was having. He didn't know why he was even talking to Joey, of all people, to begin with. He supposed it was because listening to Joey was less painful than the roar of the music and drunken screams that filled the atmosphere surrounding him. Seto didn't even attempt to take another look to see if a clear path was made for him to get to the exit. The mere cacophony was enough to convince Seto that conversing with Joey was the best way to bide his time until he could depart.

"And what ever happened to Muto? Does he still duel?" Seto asked, only because he was the slightest bit interested in knowing what Yugi was up to.

Yugi remained the only duelist to have ever defeated Seto and it was a defeat Seto still carried around with him. However, the passage of time and the lack of dueling tournaments in recent years meant that Seto didn't know where Yugi was or if he was still a formidable opponent. If Seto was going to be stuck at a bar, he might as well find out what his adversary was up to.

"He went to New York. He says it was to go to school, but I know he just wanted to follow Tea after she moved out there for dance school in hopes that they'll get together. I love my pal, Yug, but he really doesn't have confidence when it comes to the ladies. Who knows if he'll ever get around to asking Tea out, but with his name and reputation, he could really go to any college he wants to. He got a bunch of scholarships, too… I guess because he's smart and did well in school," Joey tapped the counter and made eye contact with the bartender.

Within a couple minutes, a new glass was filled and was in Joey's hands. Joey turned himself towards Seto and looked directly at him for the first time. Joey swiped open the phone in his hand and shoved the phone in Seto's face, revealing a picture of a girl with red hair in a graduation cap and gown.

"Speaking of smart and doing well in school; look at my sister! This was taken a couple years ago at Serenity's high school graduation, but in a year, she'll be graduating from the University of Tokyo and I'm so proud," Joey started swiping his phone so that Seto could see various photos of Serenity, but Seto only half paid attention.

He pushed Joey's hand down, "Did you say that Serenity is attending the University of Tokyo? That's where Mokuba is going. He just started summer classes a month ago." Joey's eyes grew wide with some mixture of drunkenness and excitement. Seto had not expected his comment to inspire such a reaction from Joey.

"No way! Are you serious?! The little guy is off at college now? Wow, the time really has flown by. I can't believe it's been that many years already!" Joey looked down at his phone, swiping through the photos of his sister and smiling.

Seto didn't know if it was the alcohol or Joey's own emotions that changed his smile to a frown as he swiped through the photos. Some of the photos weren't of his sister anymore, they depicted different people, but Seto couldn't tell who they were.

"It's crazy, isn't it? How much things change as time flies by? It feels like yesterday my sister was glued to my side, always looking up to me and wanting to hang out with me. Now she's all grown up and a total heartthrob and I don't even want to mention the boys I had to beat up to keep their paws off of her, but…" Joey's voice trailed off and he clicked off his phone and drank some more of his beer. Seto had lost count how many beers Joey had at this point and he wondered how many more he would have before the end of the night.

"She just means the world to me, you know? I'm so happy that she's found her way, but I can't help that I miss the way she used to look up to me. I used to protect her, you know? Now I feel like she doesn't need me, much less anyone else now that everyone is gone," Joey looked up at Seto for comfort, but Seto looked uncomfortable.

Seto didn't know what to say and wasn't sure that if he did know what to say, he would say it to Joey. His situation sounded rough but Seto had a hard time being sympathetic towards people he found unbearable. Seto also suspected that alcohol was the biggest factor in Joey's change in mood. Joey's eyes looked glazed over and he looked like he was unable to make direct eye contact with Seto.

"Maybe you should slow down on the beers a bit, Wheeler. You seem like you're sort of in and out right now," Seto advised.

It was starting to get very late and Seto was tired of hearing Joey blabber on and on about his life. It was then that he decided he was going to make a run for the exit. He got up from his seat and turned to leave, but the moment he twisted around, his hands knocked the beer glass out of a man's hand and onto the floor.

"Hey man, don't you watch where you're going?!" The big, burly man raised his fist but his face was met with a different fist. His body went crashing to the floor and people suddenly stopped dancing and chattering to look at the scene that was unfolding. Joey hovered over the man, his hands still balled into fists.

"Why don't you watch where you're going? Can't you see that my friend is trying to walk over here?" Seto grimaced at the notion of Joey calling him a 'friend,' but also started to slink away when he saw the burly man rise to his feet.

A fight was about to go down and lucky for Seto, a path had cleared because of it. Seto didn't wait around to see what would happen—he got out of there as soon as he could just as security ran in. Seto promised himself he would never go to a bar again and he hoped to never run into Joey Wheeler again. That night was enough. Seto didn't look back before sneaking out of the bar, leaving Joey to fend for himself.

Joey, on the other hand, didn't look the slightest bit distressed to have the big, burly man standing opposite to him. Joey's lack of distress continued on, even after a fist went straight into his face and knocked him to the ground. The girl the man was with grabbed him by the arm, urging him to stop. That was at least what it sounded like. For Joey, the room was spinning, but the alcohol had made him somewhat numb to the pain in his face. Joey looked back up, ready to fight back, but the moment he tried to get up, he collapsed forward. The crowd that surrounded him started clearing out when security came.

"Alright buddy, you're done for the night. Go home," the security guard said, dragging a disoriented Joey onto his feet and towards the exit of the bar.

Joey turned his head to say something snide, but he couldn't remember what he wanted to say to begin with. He let the security guard continue to drag him towards the exit until Joey saw a head of curly, blonde hair in the distance. He leaped forward, towards the girl he was sure he knew, grabbing her arm.

"Mai, you came. I didn't think you would but I'm so happy you did," Joey gushed, tripping over his words with happiness.

The girl turned around and Joey took a step back, realizing he had grabbed a total stranger by the arm. The girl looked at him with pure horror and Joey immediately let go. The security guard grabbed him by the arm and jerked him away.

"Listen kid; quit it with the funny business. You need to get out of here."

Joey let himself be dragged all the way to the exit and then thrown out, in a very literal sense. Joey fell to the ground and his vision became as black as the night sky overhead.

-YGO-

It felt like someone had been beating Joey's head with a hammer for an hour when he opened his eyes the next morning… or what he thought was morning. His blood-shot eyes looked over at the old digital clock beside his bed that read 2:40pm. Joey groaned as he sat up—both relieved and impressed that he had managed to get to and fall asleep in his own bed last night. He couldn't even remember getting home.

Joey shifted his feet from the bed to the floor and looked down. All of his limbs seemed to be in the right place so that was a good sign. He reached for his pants that had been thrown to the floor and sifted through his pockets, searching for his phone. Looking through his phone was possibly the most frightening part of a night that ended with a black out. Joey never knew what he was going to see when he looked through his call and text history.

He checked the text messages first and to his relief, he had only sent a few random, incoherent texts to both Yugi and Serenity last night. Joey chuckled to himself when he saw one text to Yugi that read "You're the nest" when he knew he meant to write "You're the best." Joey continued to chuckle to himself when he opened up his call history, thinking he would find that he tried to contact only Serenity and Yugi. His chuckling came to a halt when he saw that he had actually called Mai 22 times.

"How could I be so stupid?!" Joey yelled to himself, throwing his phone onto the bed and stomping into the kitchen.

His headache was getting worse so he went for the cabinet above the sink and grabbed a container of Advil. Joey begrudgingly popped two of the pills into his mouth and filled a glass with water before taking a huge gulp. The pills went down with ease but his head was beginning to pulse with pain. The hangover was the worst part about a night of drinking, aside from the embarrassing phone calls and texts.

Joey collapsed onto his couch, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for the pain to go away. His eyes traced the cracks on the ceiling while he tried to piece together what had happened the night before. He remembered sitting at the bar, having vodka, talking to some guy and then another guy punched him. Joey winced from the realization of whom he was talking to the night before. He buried his face into his hands.

"It could've been any one in the world but it had to be Kaiba I got wasted in front of?!" Joey lamented to himself.

Seto Kaiba was the single most annoying and judgmental person Joey knew and after six years of not having seen each other, why did they have to run into each other at a bar of all places? The more Joey thought about it, the more he realized he couldn't stay in his apartment and stew. He had to go out and get some fresh air. Joey threw on some clothes and shoes and went out the door without a second thought.

Getting some fresh air and being outside would do him some good. Joey was hopeful that it would even cure him of his hangover or his embarrassment from the night before. Joey was willing to try anything to forget running into Seto at the bar.

-YGO-

A/N: Oh man… it is so cold outside right now. Hope you guys are feeling warmer than I am right now and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm not sure how I feel about the title of the chapter this time around but it seemed appropriate so I went for it. I'm heading into a very busy month so I wanted to give you guys a new chapter before I lose track of time. I appreciate the reviews and I hope you have an awesome Saturday!