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!
Thanks for continuing to read this story that seems to go on forever. As always, I appreciate it ^_^
Dillon: I'm pretty sure Kaiba is his last name. Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba, Kaiba Corp. According to the dub, anyway.
elz: Glad I could be of service!
IntelagentBlond: No lemon in this fic. That would bump it to R, yes? The swearing is already stretching the PG-13 a little, and besides, I don't know how to write lemons anyway ^_^;;
JaguarKitty2006: Thanks for the mints!
KeMu: Joey changed back, don't worry! Hmmm, DragonJoeyxDragonSeto... Joey's on top! I might actually try that in another fic. *blinks* I'm sick, aren't I...
Kimmie: Thanks for defending me, but it's okay, really! All reviews are in some way good because it gives me an idea of what someone thinks of my work ^_^ No reviews is the worst criticism of all, plus, there's no way to tell if it's because it's bad, boring, lacking some undefined something, filled with typos, etc… I had a ghost dream once, I think. I hid my head under the covers just in case it wasn't a dream...
Machi: To tell you the truth, I hate all my chapters. The only way I can tell if they're any good is if I wait a few weeks before reading them again so I can pretend I didn't write them in the first place. The same goes for everything else I've ever written. Glad you liked the rest of the story! And I'm not going to put up two chapters to make up for the lost day :P
Ruri-san: Don't worry, I'll do another chapter no matter how many reviews I get. I *have* to finish this story simply to... well... finish it!
Shade Azuna: Interesting ^_^
Sheron: My website's probably gone by now, I'll take a look at the journal site when I wake up tomorrow, and yes, Seto/Joey are my favourite ^_^ Joey knew about the cards because Tristan told him, and he *did* see Bakura put up the dome using the card...
Tuulikki: Yup, I've heard about the contest. Thinking about it...
No awful cliffhanger this time! Hehehe... that probably means it'll show up next chapter.
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 eyeballs were harmed in the making of this fic.
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Being Dead Ain't Easy
Chapter Thirty-One: Hospital Stay
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Yami Yuugi shakes everybody awake. I try to help too, but it's like I'm just a ghost again. The only guy I can sorta move is Seto, but he's not wakin' up no matter what I do. On the bright side, he's still got a pulse.
The gang's woozy, but they're okay. Mokuba gets the limo driver to come around and we all head over to the nearest hospital.
Ya know, it must be pretty weird for Ryou Bakura; he says the last thing he remembers is getting invited to Seto's, and the next thing he knows, he's waking up with a mangled arm that'll need stitches. Yami tells him that we all got in a big fight with Yami Bakura, and Ryou goes, "Oh, so that's what happened," and shrugs it off. I don't know why he's not worried about it. Is Yami Bakura messing with his head? That Ring is around his neck again, even though it should be lyin' on the road somewhere.
Yami grabs my Red Eyes card from Seto's hand before the poor guy gets wheeled away in a stretcher for surgery. Bakura goes and gets his stitches done. We all crowd into the waiting room and, well... wait. Forever. The clock on the wall doesn't help.
Mokuba's sitting in a chair hugging his knees, crying, but being quiet about it. Tea's trying to read a magazine while Tristan just sits there, thinking. Yami switches back to Yuugi. He's trying to comfort Seto's little brother. I lean against a wall and feel lost, listening to the seconds go by.
We wait for hour after hour. Sometimes we talk about silly stuff to help pass the time. Yuugi does the talking for me. No talk about magic 'cause the hospital people are watching. Yuugi's grandpa drops by to see how we're all doing and he tells Yuugi to come home soon before leaving to open his shop. A few more hours later, and Ryou and Tea decide to leave, telling us to call if anything changes.
Another few hours. Yuugi, Tristan, and Mokuba fall asleep. I look at the clock. They skipped school.
I can stand it for exactly five minutes and twenty-two seconds before I hafta get up and leave the room. I think about checking on Seto, but I don't want to accidentally make the guys working on him mess up if they're not done yet.
I end up standing outside in the rain. It's not raining that hard now, so maybe the sun'll come up soon. It's a good place to think, and it's not like I'm gonna get wet or anything.
I check myself out. It all looks good. I won't say the ritual actually worked, but it did do something. I'm not gonna fade anytime soon, thanks to Yami Bakura. And Seto Kaiba. And all my friends.
Yuugi comes outta the hospital and runs over to me. "Joey, there you are! I was so worried when I woke up and couldn't see you!"
How'd he know I left? "Sorry 'bout that, Yuug'. I just had to... do something, ya know? It was getting stuffy in there."
"Mm, I know what you mean." He stands there, keeping me company. In the rain.
He's pretending it doesn't matter, but his hair is starting to droop. "Wanna go over there?" I jerk my head to the hospital entrance. It's outta the rain, but still outside.
"Well, if you want to..."
Yuugi's such a good friend he's gonna make himself sick for me. I just know that if I stand here, he's just gonna stand here too, so I run over to the entrance. He follows me and, once we're there, he squeezes the water outta his hair. Sneezes.
"You need to go back inside?"
Yuugi shakes his head, smiles. "No, I'm fine." The smile fades. "But I'm really worried about Kaiba. He... didn't look very good."
He looked dead. "Yeah, I'm kinda worried about him too, but the guy's like a giant roach. He's gonna be okay."
Yuugi giggles but tries not to. "Joey, don't call him a roach! That's not very nice!" It's hard to think of him as the same age as me. He's like the kid brother I never had sometimes.
"It's not like he's very nice to me, Yuugi! Have ya heard some o' the names that guy calls me? Chihuahua? Puppy-boy?"
He blinks. "Puppy-boy? I... um... don't think I've heard that one before."
Did Seto ever call me that in front of Yuugi? I don't think so. "Eh, he calls me that in private."
Yuugi coughs to hide a laugh. "Well, that's not... too bad. He's called you worse things. Actually, I think Kaiba's gotten a lot nicer."
I snort. Seto is not nice. He'll never be nice. "Yeah, right."
"No, really! I don't think he hates you at all, Joey."
I look down at my shoes. "We sorta worked out that we didn't hate each other a while back."
Yuugi beams at me. "That's great!"
No it's not. Seto's got some weird twisted thing going where he treats me like Mokuba... when he's not too busy bein' a prick. And me? I don't want him to die, and I think it's not just 'cause of Mokuba. I... I don't know what's goin' on in my own head. Maybe, one of these days, me and Seto can sign up for some serious help and go get our heads screwed on right.
"Joey, are you okay?"
I give myself a shake. "Yeah, I'm okay, just spaced out for a sec. The ritual must've messed me up."
Yuugi gives me a worried look. "What happened? Yami says Kaiba dropped your card and you disappeared." He frowns. "How'd Kaiba get that, anyway? I thought I'd lost it."
"He swiped it from ya. Little klepto likes his cheap thrills."
"He stole..." Yuugi shakes his head. "I'll talk to him about that later. What happened when you disappeared?"
"I woke up in some place that looked like Seto's bedroom, but wasn't. Went outside, wandered around some stair-maze thing, found Seto, found the door out, and here I am."
Yuugi's eyes widen. "You know, that sounds a lot like a soul room!"
I blink. "A... what?"
"It's a... a... um..." Yuugi chews on his lip. "I'll let Yami explain it."
The Puzzle flashes and Yuugi changes into Yami. "Huh? What's this about soul rooms?"
I'll never get used to how he switches back and forth. "I was tellin' Yuugi 'bout where I went during the ritual. Seto's bedroom, freaky stairs, doors that go to some weird places. Ring a bell?"
He opens his mouth, closes it, glares at me. Ever been glared at by a guy with glowing red eyes?
"What'd I say?"
Glare. "You called him Seto."
Damn. "I mean Kaiba." How long have I been calling him Seto? That freak messes me up even when he's lyin' on some operating table getting glued back together.
Yami narrows his eyes, but drops it. "What condition were you in when you awoke in that place?"
"Solid. Real." I think for a bit. "Se – Kaiba wasn't hurt or anything."
The other guy nods. "Then it probably was your soul room, or something similar."
"So what's a soul room?"
Yami blinks. "A room. For your soul."
"I figured that out already." I'm not that stupid.
"Ah. Well, it's... a place that a spirit can return to in order to rest. A safe haven shaped by your personality." He pulls out the card he swiped back from Seto. "I assume this contains your essence now, as well as your soul room."
I touch the Red Eyes Black Dragon and feel a tingle. I get the feeling I could go right into the card if I wanted to. "This is where I was before, huh."
"Yes. I saw the dragon, or rather, you, come forth from it. You changed back when Kaiba lost consciousness. I suppose he summoned you."
"So it's... what? The Millennium Duel Monsters Card?"
Yami takes a closer look at the card. "Not exactly. It 'feels' different from the other Millennium Items. I have no idea of its capabilities." He gives me a funny look. "Why in the world would your soul room contain Kaiba's bedroom, anyway?"
"Maybe I was in his soul room? I mean, he was wanderin' around, too."
He frowns. "Perhaps the Millennium Eye merged your soul rooms together. A maze made of stairs would seem to reflect Kaiba's personality more than your own."
Maybe those clothes I found weren't Seto's, but mine. They were so old I just forgot about them. I hope that doesn't mean I've got the personality of an ugly shirt.
"So if the maze and stuff is Se - Kaiba's, and whatever's left over is mine, where'd the doors and freaky rooms come from?"
"I suspect those came from the card itself."
"Huh." Looks like I've got some more soul room searching to do later.
The hospital entrance doors slide open and Tristan walks out. "Yuugi?" He looks around. "Joey?"
"What is it?" asks Yami.
"The doctors say he's still out, but he's gonna be fine."
This is the best news I've heard all day.
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