Summary: Tragedy strikes. Joey Wheeler is gone forever. Or is he? Joey POV. Post Duelist Kingdom AU. Will eventually be Seto/Joey shounen-ai.
Author's Notes: Well, I thought I'd try writing a YuGiOh fic. And it's still going. And whoa, still going. But it'll be over soon!
Wow, people still like this fic! I was kinda worried that you'd all be bored by now after so many chapters. Thank you ^_^
Cecilia: Mmmm, I love chocolate. Thanks!
Darkness Rising: I don't think a lemon is in the cards, sorry... Maybe I'll write an actual SetoxJoey(Jou) fic someday *shrugs*
Hine no Chikyuu: Ooooh, plushie of my fav monster! Thank you ^_^
Kyra Windwood: Yup, want some?
LukeSkywalker'sLady: Neat. I like it!
tenshimagic: Yes, this is my first YGO story, though you can also think of it as my 29th... I'm not a professional writer, but thanks for thinking I might actually be one!
Tuulikki: Tristan won't have any scars, so it's all good...
The Immortal Duelist: Have some ice cream! *puts a scoop in a tiny bowl* And go ahead and use the disclaimer thing ^_^
This one's... strange. Very strange. It will be explained later, promise!
Warnings: Character death (sort of), language, angst, eventual Seto/Joey.
Disclaimers: I don't own YuGiOh or any other brand names you might come across. No drugs were taken in the making of this fic.
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Being Dead Ain't Easy
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Something Completely Different
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I wake up on Kaiba's bed.
Did he carry me here? Did it work?
I feel great, so I get up. No dizziness. Everything's good. I look around. Same bed, same desk, same computer, same chair, same everything. No Seto Kaiba. No anybody.
If he's not here waiting for me to wake up so he can say something Kaiba-y, then there's something wrong with Mokuba. Or Kaiba's dead.
Maybe everybody's dead. No way would they just leave me to wake up by myself.
What the fuck did Yami Bakura do!?
"KAIBA! GUYS! ANYBODY!" I shout. My voice sounds kinda like an echo, like it's coming from everywhere at once. Weird.
I hear nothing back.
Okay, I can't just stand around here all day. I run through the bedroom door.
And end up bashing my nose on the wood.
I sorta reel back with my hands over my nose and land on my butt. It's not broken, but it hurts! I check my hands for blood. They're clean. Solid, too.
No more walking through doors. I'll party later.
I get back up and put my hand on the doorknob and turn it. I don't even hafta focus to make it move. Am I alive? Feels like it.
A tug, and the door opens just like that. Just like a normal door.
But what I'm seein' on the other side...
Holy fucking shit.
This ain't home.
I see stairs. Lots and lotsa stairs. Stairs going everywhere: up and down and side to side and round and round and inside out. Smack into walls, leading to doors in the way too high ceiling, floating in the air, spinning around like tops. Crazy.
I spin around. Kaiba's bedroom. Still there.
I look back. Nightmare.
Kaiba's room is lookin' real nice right now so I run back in there and slam the door. Take a breath, calm down, run up to the window, get the curtains outta the way, and look outside.
Grey. Not rainy or snowy day grey, but flat out there's-nothin'-out-there grey.
I slam my elbow into the window, but... there's no window. No glass. I can leap out if I want.
So what should I do? I can take a flyin' leap out into some grey stuff to somewhere I can't see, or I can... take the stairs.
Stairs it is.
I dig into the dresser drawers for anything I can use. There's clothes and underwear and stuff, so I can go out and face the world looking classy. Not exactly what I'm going for, here, but I take some stuff anyway. The ugly red shirt I found at the bottom might be good for something, ya never know. I check the closet, too, but I don't find anything I want.
I open the door again and the freaky stairs are still there. Time to start walking, but there's lotsa stuff moving around. What if I get lost?
The red shirt might be good for something. I tear a strip off the bottom, rip a piece of cloth from it, and drop the little bit on the floor. Take a buncha steps, drop some more shreds of Kaiba's wardrobe. I can find my way back if I run out.
I go down some stairs, up some more stairs, and I swear I was sometimes upside down on some of the weirder ones. I still haven't reached a door yet and I'm starting to think that maybe this is some kinda messed up dream. Maybe there was no ritual. Maybe I never died in the first place.
I've gone through the red shirt already and I'm working my way through a green one when I think I hear somebody yell. It's pretty faint.
I don't see anybody, but I shout anyway. "YO! SOMEBODY OUT THERE!?"
"JOEY!" the voice shouts back. It sounds closer, but I don't know who it is. "WHERE ARE YOU, YOU DUMB MUTT!?"
It's Seto - I mean, Kaiba – I mean... screw it, it's him! "KAIBA! OVER HERE!" Wherever 'here' is. I wave the green shirt over my head. "OVER HERE!" I'm not alone anymore!
A pause. "I CAN'T FIND YOU! WHERE!?"
Okay, this is gonna be a problem. It's like a maze in here. Seto can't see me, I can't see Seto. What the hell are we gonna do?
JOEY, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"
He's getting closer. I can feel it.
Hang on. I can feel it?
"STAY PUT, KAIBA!" I yell. I close my eyes and slowly spin around. I feel a sorta rush when I'm pointing the right way and I just know. I pound up the stairs. "I'M COMING!"
He's running to me too, I know it. The guy just can't take orders. Can he feel me, too?
I look from side to side as I run. I know he's around here somewhere. I can hear him getting closer and closer.
We both stop at the same time. I know he's here, it feels like I'm right on top of him, but I don't see Seto anywhere.
"Joey?"
"Seto?"
"Where are you?"
"I'm right here. What about you?"
"I'm... right here, too."
Don't tell me he's gone invisible. "Yeah, where?"
"I'm on the stairs. There's a floating door to my right next to a spiral staircase that leads down into a pit."
"Okay." I look around. "That stuff's on my left. But the pit's in the ceiling." What's going on, here?
...These stairs can go upside down.
I stick my head over the side and look under the stairs. No way. What kinda crazy world is this!?
"Seto?"
Upside down Kaiba spins around and sees me. "Joey," he whispers. He lunges, grabs me by the arm, and drags me down. Up. The world flips on me.
He looks great. No bandages, no bags under his eyes, no blood. "Seto." The one and only Seto Kaiba. I want to... I dunno what I wanna do. He's the only thing I can count on in this screwy place.
Seto's still holding my arm and he's not letting go. He latches onto my other arm. He gets this intense look in his eyes and I drop the shirts I was carrying. He's shaking and so am I.
He loses it and gives me the hug to end all hugs. We drop right there on the steps. I couldn't get away even if I wanted to.
Seto buries his face in my hair. "You... stupid... chi..." he manages to gasp out. He gives up on the rest and just holds me even tighter. It takes some wiggling around to get my arms free so I can hug him back. I can't say anything at all. I'm glad to see him, so glad... He's holding me so close I think I'm getting funny little patterns on my face where his trench coat is pressing into my skin. I don't mind.
We stay like that for a while until we're both under control. Kaiba pulls away first. "So where are we?" he asks me.
You're asking me? I get outta his arms. "I dunno. I woke up in your bedroom, opened the door, and saw this. What happened to you?"
"I woke up in some sort of fog, walked until I saw a door, opened it, and... felt... you. I was yelling your name for what felt like hours." He glares at me. "You took your time answering me."
So it's my fault now? I shove him. "Well excuuuse me, I couldn't hear ya! You coulda yelled louder, ya know!"
"My throat was getting sore!" he snarls.
We glare at each other.
This is stupid. I know it and he knows it. "Wanna see the room I woke up in?"
He nods and gets up. "Show me." He gives me a hand up.
We go back to my side of the stairs and follow the bits of shirt that he says are way too ugly to be his all the way back to the bedroom. I sit on the bed while Kaiba checks things out. He shakes his head. "It looks very similar, but this is not my room. All my documents, binders, and paperwork are missing."
"I sorta figured this wasn't your room when I looked out the window," I say. "So what now?"
"Simple. We find a way back."
"Just like that."
"Just like that. I have a... feeling... that the doors are the key." He sorta smiles at me. "Surprisingly enough, I think you had the right idea earlier." He lifts up another ugly shirt. "We can use these to mark each staircase we explore. When one of us finds one that leads to a door, we'll memorize what colour shirt we used, and then we'll signal each other."
"How?"
Seto stares at me, thinking. I feel a sorta tingle in the back of my head.
That's it!
I concentrate on him and try to feel the same thing I felt when I was looking for him before, but this time I try to send out.
He jumps. Glares. "What did you just do, chihuahua?"
I grin. "Signaled ya."
He glares at me some more, but then he takes a deep breath...
...And a shock runs right up my spine and I twitch off the bed. "YOU BASTARD!" I yell. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"
The prick smirks at me. "That will be my signal. Don't worry, I'll be more gentle next time."
"You'd better! It's no good if ya make me fall off the stairs!"
He laughs at me.
Crazy freak.
After we're done arguing, we split up and get to work checking out where all the stairs go. Most of 'em are dead ends, so we don't end up twitching all the time from the other guy's 'signals'. Gentle, my ass.
We meet up again when we're done and check out what's behind every door. We can step through the doors and come back out no matter what's on the other side, but we only tried that the first couple of times. Ever step out into space? It's totally nutso.
Door Number One: Total blackness.
Door Number Two: Lava pit.
Door Number Three: Grey. Where Seto woke up.
Door Number Four: Room with seven more doors. We'll save that for later, maybe.
Door Number Five: Drooling, snarling monsters. We closed that door mighty fast.
Door Number Six: The bedroom where I woke up.
Seto opens the last door and we look at what's inside.
It's the view from the inside of a dome, like if you were lyin' on your back. You can see the rain through it. We can hear Yami Bakura laughing his head off. I'm guessing everybody's in some serious trouble. Whadda ya know, Kaiba was right about the doors being the way out.
This is it. "Kaiba."
He nods. "Let's go."
We're gonna kick some Bakura ass.
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