One step forward, two steps back.
Moving forward in reverse.
Please read the bottom author's notes for important information.
Thank you.
Joey grinned to himself as he watched Yugi and Duke having another of their weekly Dance Dance Revolution match-he didn't remember when exactly these matches had started after the debacle known as Battle City, but...it was better than the green-eyed teen trying to out-duel Yugi, or Yami, in Duel Monsters or Dungeon Dice Monsters.
As if anyone could actually beat either of the Game Kings.
The blond took in the scene immediately around him-Yugi and Duke on the platform, their scores so close that they were bordering on being identical to each other. Tea was standing next to Mako, cheerfully informing him that 'Yes. This is a thing now with them', to the fisherman's confused nodding-the girl even admitted that the two were doing better at the game than they had the week before, though Joey tuned out when she talked about last week's 'incident' where Duke had gotten overconfident and had ended up fallen over the railing, causing a domino effect of soda and snack spillage, and had somehow caused three separate 'rigged' games to hit 'jackpot' for trade in tickets for prizes.
As far as the blond was concerned, the only reason that they hadn't gotten banned for that was because it had clearly been an accident...though he was starting to suspect that the owner had, somehow, realized that one teen out of their group also had a tendency to make things go purple and black when he was pissed and the owner had, wisely, decided that the risk just wasn't worth it.
Tristan was on Mako's other side, doing his now-weekly job as the 'designated Millennium Puzzle holder' so that Yugi didn't injure himself with it while playing the game. They'd all learned that little lesson after he'd ended up with a black eye and the pharaoh almost blamed Duke for it...until Tristan-whom Duke had been hiding, if not slightly cowering, behind at the time, claiming that the brunette was 'tall and generally built like a wall' when Tristan had, after the fact, complained about being a human shield-and Tea, and possibly spirit-Yugi, had managed to talk the over-protective puzzle spirit down
He snickered a bit as he thought back to how they'd decided on who would keep an eye on the puzzle-they'd used the old-fashioned stand-by of rock-paper-scissors and Tristan had beat out Ryou for the job. Joey was pretty sure that the Spirit of the Millennium Ring was pissed after that.
Speaking of Ryou, the white-haired teen was on Tristan's other side and Joey bit the inside of his lip when he noticed how Ryou would keep glancing at the Millennium Puzzle in Tristan's hands-eyes narrowing in consideration-then look back up at his friends with a cheery smile so full of innocence that it would fool a priest. Joey breathed in sharply-well...that was right on schedule; maybe he should tell Yugi to pass it on to the pharaoh that the tomb robber was back again.
He could...but it wouldn't do anything to stop the thief. If anything, ratting him out might just piss the spirit off and, in all honesty, the sixteen-year-old really didn't want to wake up one night with his possessed friend standing over him, pressing a knife to his throat and sporting a smirk full of sin.
Joey shuddered at that thought-that smirk reminded him so much of Marik's dark side's own-and he instinctively shifted to pull his uniform jacket just a little bit tighter in attempt to ward off the internal chill. Slowly, he breathed in, gave a mental count backwards from three, and breathed out-he needed to stay calm. He was safe. He was safe here with his friends, one of whom could regularly kick the tomb robber's ass at a card game and at least two others who could physically kick ass if needed. Furthermore, he wasn't defenseless-he could fight back if push came to shove.
'I'm fine.' Joey whispered like a mantra in his head, trying to consciously shift his posture from tense to relaxed so that he didn't tip off any of his friends that anything was 'off' about him. He couldn't be that burden on any of them-they all had their own things to deal with, especially Yugi and Yami. He needed to stay strong and ready to fend off whatever apocalyptic doom decided to manifest next. He needed to be fine.
He didn't have a choice.
"Joey? Did you hear me?" Tea's voice came from his right and the blond barely avoided freezing-no. They didn't notice. They CAN'T notice. Immediately, he put on a smile and focused on the girl. "Er...not 'xactly. Sorry, Tea-was kinda thinkin' 'bout somethin'. Wanna run it by me 'gain?"
The brunette girl frowned in concern, resting her hand on the other teen's shoulder. "I was asking if you'd help me carry back some sodas for everyone. Yugi and Duke are going to need it-apparently, they're doing 'best out of three' this time."
Joey nodded and turned to follow the girl to the 'Snack Station', chewing the inside of his cheek in worry as the walk over was silent between them. Once at the counter, Tea relayed the soda orders for their group then, once the clerk had gone to make them, she turned to the blond at her side. "Joey...are you okay?"
"Eh? Uh, yeah. I'm fine, Tea."
"You don't look it." She bit the inside of her lip-trying to figure out how to word this just right. "You...you haven't looked like you're 'fine' in a few weeks. Are you sure everything's okay?"
Joey tensed at that-no. He rubbed at the back of his neck, refusing to meet his friend's eyes. "Uh...just ain't sleepin' right's all. Ya know how it goes."
The brunette girl didn't look convinced in the slightest, but she knew that she couldn't force the blond into doing anything that he didn't want to. All she could do was hope that, whatever was going on, he would turn to someone for help before it was too late. "Joey, you can talk to me if you need to. Even if I don't understand, I promise I'll listen. Total judgment-free zone."
Thankfully, in Joey's opinion anyway, he was saved from answering by the timely arrival of the clerk with their soda orders. Each taking a tray, the pair of teens made their way back to their friends-Tea passing out the drinks to their respective person and setting her tray, with Yugi and Duke's drinks, down to await the pair's next break in the game.
Joey twitched as he held his cup in his hands-Tea noticed. She knew something was wrong...but how could he tell her? Could he just pass it off as home life troubles? School concerns? Kaiba still being ten pounds of asshole shoved into a three pound bag? No-that probably wouldn't work since, odds were, she'd already thought of those.
But, if Tea had noticed, then what if Tristan or Yugi, or even Yami, had noticed too? If Ryou had noticed then that meant that the tomb robber knew and...no. No! He couldn't be exposed as that weak! He had to stay strong. He had to be ready to fight at the pharaoh's side-he couldn't afford to be the wimp who got taken out first because of the shadows clawing at his mind!
A strong arm draped over the blond's shoulders and pulled him into a one-armed hug-snapping him out of his thoughts and making him realize that he'd been steadily tightening his hands on his soda cup in a death grip. His first thought was that it was Tristan offering the comfort...until he noticed that Tristan was arguing with Duke-who was sipping at his own soda in between sentences and random gesturing-with Tea, Ryou, and Yugi looking on in boredom at this now-regular occurrence. Joey turned his head, looking up at Mako standing next to him-navy blue eyes focused on the younger in concern.
"Are you alright, my friend?"
"I...jus' in my head 'gain, Mako. I...I'll be okay."
Mako frowned at that, but did not remove his arm from the blond's shoulders-focusing on trying to keep the younger teen grounded in the now. If all that he could do, even now, was help to anchor his friend against the storm, then that was what he would do. If the younger teen actually leaned into his side, seeking more contact between them, then so be it.
If anyone had a problem with any of this, then they could try to take it up with him.
Okay...I know that, last chapter notes, I said that I'd try to have a more consistent update schedule for this, but...in all honesty, I've been dealing with a depressive episode since August. (Admittedly, my support system is also mostly broken down, but it is still there.)
If you are more curious about this, I have a full journal entry on my deviantArt-DemonAngelSakina as the name to look up if you want to-to help explain.
But, in general, I'm taking a break for a while from doing artwork and writing-or at least I won't be posting anything for a while-so I can focus on some self-care and trying to overcome this ongoing episode.
I promise that I will jump back on this when I'm able to, so please keep watching.