Author's note: Umm… as I write this I realize there's a bunch of surrealism in this chapter. Hope everyone understands it… I'm really not trying to confuse anyone.
**
Lost in Thought
Joey knew there was something wrong… but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what it was. He felt like he was floating in a sea of swathing black silk; it was soft and dark, dreamlike. Was he dreaming?
He could be. It was like being asleep, but awake enough to know he was asleep. And he felt so safe, except for that nagging wrongness. Something was wrong.
Maybe he ought to wake up, he decided. How he was to do that was another story. Upward, he could see light. So he swam towards that.
The farther he went, the more it hurt. The darkness pushed him back, no longer gentle, trying to force him away from that tiny gleam he assumed to be consciousness. It burned, he couldn't breathe, the blackness tugged him back and shoved him away, and for a moment he let it. He drifted backwards and the pain lessened. He could float here in comfort and not be bothered by anything.
Except the wrongness. Why wouldn't the wrongness leave him? If he was asleep, then let him sleep. What was that old saying? Let sleeping dogs lie.
Little pieces of thought clicked and linked together, forming the tracks for his train of thought to run on. Dogs? Puppy. Someone called him that. Someone he knew, and rather disliked. But a friend of his was dating that someone-he-disliked. Except he was mad at that friend of his at the moment. Why was he mad at them?
The darkness around him was pulsing, guiding him forward. With each resurfacing memory he pulled from the dark, he got a little closer to the light. It was like a game now, a game to remember, to reach the gleaming light before the darkness pulled him back again.
Why was he mad at them? Because… because they'd tried to set him up with someone. And that someone… was Marik.
He was close to the light now, he could almost reach out and touch it, and if he did, maybe he'd wake up.
Marik. Marik had done something to him. Something wrong. That's where the wrongness came from. He was here in the darkness, because of Marik.
His hand touched the light, and the light enfolded him. It was thick, harsh, gripping him more cruelly than the blackness had ever done.
And Joey opened his eyes.
**
At first he couldn't figure out what was happening. Joey woke up to find himself in a room that was definitely not his. And he was sitting up, which was generally not a position he found himself waking up in. Weirdest of all, he found he couldn't move.
Marik was sitting beside him, and Joey would have glared at him if he could get his facial expression to change. Marik had done this to him. Marik had done the mind-slave thingy on him. AGAIN!
You creep, just wait until I figure out how to make my arms move, I'm going to strangle you!
Joey felt like he was shouting at him, but his lips hadn't moved, no sound had come out. The only one who could hear him was himself. Joey was awake, aware of everything around him, but disconnected from his own body. He'd made himself aware, but he hadn't regained his freedom.
Great, so I gotta sit here and watch while my body does whatever HE tells it to do.
He almost preferred the mind-numbing blackness that had enfolded him earlier. At least there in the darkness of his mind, he didn't have to experience the humiliation of being slave to a psycho. And- hey, was Marik crying?
Joey couldn't do anything as Marik reached out and hugged him close. He hadn't been 'told' to do anything, so he sat there stiff and unmoving as Marik held him tight and cried.
Hey wait a minute, why are you crying? I should be the one crying, I'm the mind slave, remember? Aw come on, don't do that…
"I just didn't want to lose you, I panicked!" Marik was saying, holding Joey in a tight embrace. Joey couldn't even hold him back to reassure him. "But now I can't even let you go… you'd run away and I'd never see you again."
No I wouldn't! Well, yeah I probably would, but only because you're such a jerk for using that Millennium Rod on me!
"Guess I blew my only chance, didn't I?" Marik continued, speaking to Joey but more talking to himself, since as far as he knew Joey couldn't hear a word he said, trapped in his own mind by the power of the Millennium Rod. "I'm sorry, though. For what I did, not just that you found out about it."
Maybe if you'd let me freakin' TALK, I'd forgive you!
Marik wiped at his eyes, regaining his composure. He leaned forward and kissed Joey briefly, despite the fact that he got no response from it. "I suppose it doesn't really matter anyway. Probably wouldn't have worked out, I just… can't change the way I am."
…do I want you to?
That question rolled around in Joey's mind for a while, and he was contented to sit back and muse on it for a while. He didn't think he'd be stuck as a mind-slave for too long. Once his friends found out about this, Marik was toast.
And then… Joey would decide whether or not to forgive what was left of him.
**
Ishizu smiled as she opened the door to find Yugi and Seto on her doorstep. "Yes, Joey is here. Follow me, gentlemen."
"I hate it when she does that," Yugi whispered to Seto as they entered the home of Ishizu and Marik. "Can't she just let me ask the question before she answers it? Just as a common courtesy…"
"Down the hall, last door on the right," Ishizu said, pointing. Seto and Yugi both gave her odd glances as they continued down the hallway. She smiled at them, then called after them, "Oh, and Seto? Thank you for talking some sense into Marik."
Seto gave her a weird look, then ignored her as he followed Yugi toward Marik's room.
