Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh!
"Okay, turn left up," Joey said, pointing as his street went flying by. "There. You may want to slow down next time we come up to my turn."
Kaiba smiled inwardly as he relieved some pressure from the gas pedal, slowing the car down. He circled the block and this time didn't miss the turn he was supposed to make. He came to a stop in front of the house Joey pointed to and waited uncomfortably for Joey to vacate the vehicle. Having never had friends or even friendly acquaintances he had no experience in the proper way to bid farewell.
"Well, I guess I'll see you in school tomorrow," Joey mumbled, climbing out of the car. "Thanks for the ride, Kaiba."
Kaiba nodded as the door shut next to him. He began watching the blond trek across the front yard, then thought twice and took off down the street. He had often wondered what it would be like to have a friend, but rarely allowed the thoughts to surface to the front of his mind.
Ever since early childhood, Kaiba had distanced himself from others. He'd been hurt often, first by his parents who had left him feeling deserted when they died, then by his adoptive father, who crushed Kaiba's dreams of belonging to a family when he began to abuse Kaiba both emotionally and physically. It was then that Kaiba decided that if you never let those people inside in the first place, there was no way they could hurt you. So he devoted his entire life to his little brother, the one person he knew would never betray him. But although having no friends prevented being hurt by them in the long run, he wondered if the pain of feeling alone and empty was worth avoiding the risk.
Lately, Kaiba Corp had become much more self sufficient, and Kaiba was needed less and less as crises diminished. And Mokuba had become very sociable in school, and spent more and more time with his friends. Being alone with plenty of free time for the first time in his life, Kaiba was forced to confront the loneliness head on. It pushed him to rethink his position on friendship, and he began to crave the lifestyle of the teenagers he went to school with. They went to movies, burger joints, arcades, they dealt with losing friends every day, and they still enjoyed their lives, so why shouldn't he? The problem was that he had alienated himself to the point that nobody would even talk to him anymore. Sure, he was well respected at school. He was smart, good-looking, and the others laughed on the rare occasion he made a joke. But he sat alone at lunchtime, and no one jumped at the opportunity to talk to him in class.
But then Kaiba realized that there were a handful of people who made the effort to befriend him, several times in fact. Yugi Mutou and his friends had frequently attempted to engage him in conversation, and often invited him out to movies and such, even though he always refused their offers. So when his loneliness reached an all time high, Kaiba had decided to open the door a crack and let these few people peek in. The trouble would be developing a friendship when they were sure to be suspicious he had other intentions.
So he decided to begin by befriending Joey. Of the group, he was likely to be the most suspicious, and had the most reason to be. If Kaiba could convince Joey he wasn't such a bad guy, the others would surely trust him as well, right?
* * * * *
Joey went inside his house, trying to figure out how in the world he'd had so much fun driving around with Kaiba. They'd flown a lap around the city before arriving at Joey's house, and they'd had a good time doing it. The bickering and insults were still there, but they were all in fun rather that fighting. He shook his head to empty it of these thoughts and went into his bedroom to begin his homework.
The next morning, Joey woke up and dressed for school, proud of himself that for once he had all his homework done and wouldn't have to rush to finish it in homeroom. Waving good-bye to his father, who handed him two toaster pastries on his way out the door, Joey was further proud that he would be on time to meet Yugi and the others to walk to school.
Turning the corner of his street and looking up at the threatening clouds above him, he realized that there was no way the others would be walking to school today. He'd been in such a good mood that he forgot about the rain, therefore forgetting to call Tristan for a ride to school. Joey crammed the remainder of his breakfast into his mouth, tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack and trudged along, hoping the rain would wait until after he was under the safety of the school's roof to release.
Just as he was thinking this, thunder clapped overhead, and the downpour began. Joey started to run, but after a few moments he was soaked anyway and decided he may as well save his energy if he was going to have a wet day at school regardless.
Joey felt a car whiz by and looked up to see a red Jaguar pulling over in front of him. Scrunching his eyebrows together, Joey knew he shouldn't get into a car with someone he didn't know. But the rain was soaking his clothes and at that point he would have done anything to get out of it. He sauntered up to the car as the passenger door opened. Looking in he realized he needn't worry about being abducted, because the driver of this vehicle was the very same who gave him a ride home yesterday.
"No offense, Wheeler, but you really do look like a wet dog," Kaiba said, looking very amused.
Joey shook his hair, droplets of rain spattering the windshield and Kaiba himself. Kaiba put his hand up in self-defense, smiling for the second time in two days.
"So what's up with the fancy wheels today, Kaiba?" Joey asked, climbing in and looking at the plush leather interior that surrounded him.
"Just because I have one car that wasn't expensive doesn't mean I don't have any that were," Kaiba shrugged.
Joey nodded thoughtfully. The boys rode in silence for a while until Joey finally spoke up. "So what are you doing tonight, Kaiba? Big Friday night date?"
Kaiba shook his head. "Friday's just another day for me, Wheeler. I usually don't do much but work on the weekends."
"That's pretty sad, you know. Weekends are when you're supposed to be hanging out with your friends, celebrating the fact that you survived another week of school!" Joey joked.
"I don't know if you've noticed," Kaiba started, "but I really don't have any friends."
Joey looked at Kaiba, sort of shocked that the high and mighty Kaiba would admit to not having any friends. Although Joey knew this to be true, he never expected him to admit to a weakness such as not being able to win over friendships.
After another short silence, Joey spoke up again. "Well, me and the guys are going to the arcade after school. Since you don't have any plans, you're more than welcome to join us."
This was the olive branch that Kaiba had been secretly hoping for. But he still wasn't sure how to go about accepting without looking like a pathetic loser. "Sounds like a plan," he said, groaning inside at how lame that sounded. Luckily, they had just pulled into the school's parking lot. Kaiba found two spaces near the front and parked his car diagonally across them both.
Laughing as he shut the door, Joey pointed at the car. "You know, I don't even have a license yet and I'll bet I could park better than that!"
"I told you, it's so my car doesn't –"
"I'm joking, Kaiba. Sheesh, lighten up a little." Joey headed for his locker, which was the direction he knew Kaiba would be heading, too.
"So why don't you have your license yet?" Kaiba asked, jogging to catch up with Joey.
"My old man doesn't have time to give me driving lessons. I've got my learner's permit, just no one to teach me." Joey looked over his shoulder at the expensive red car parked beyond the school. "I'd let you teach me if I got to drive that baby!" Joey said, laughing.
"You must be joking," Kaiba said, sounding colder than he meant to.
"Teach me please!" Joey said, lunging to grab Kaiba's arm and looking up with puppy dog eyes. He was joking, but a part of him was hoping Kaiba would say yes, too.
Kaiba jumped at the sudden contact. "Yeah, right, mutt. It's not that I don't want you driving my car, which I don't, it's that I value my life too much to risk it giving you driving lessons," he said, shrugging Joey off his arm as they reached their lockers.
Kaiba opened his and pulled out a thin notebook and a pen. This was all he would need for his first few classes. He was ahead of the class on all of his work, so he usually just sat there jotting notes to look as if he were paying attention.
Joey, on the other hand, pulled out a mountain of books and papers and threw them on the floor, sorting through to find which ones he would need for his first classes of the day. Kaiba looked down at him, a smile playing on his lips. "Looks like you could use some housekeeping in there, Wheeler," he said, nodding at the disaster that was Joey's locker.
"That's an understatement," a voice said from behind them. Looking up, Joey saw his best friend advancing toward them.
"Hey, Yugi," Joey said, scooping what papers and books he didn't need yet back into his locker. He shut the door fast so that nothing would fall back out onto the floor.
"Hi Joey. Hi Kaiba," Yugi said, waving. "How are you today?"
"I'm fine, Yugi. And yourself?" Kaiba asked, trying his hand at being friendly.
Yugi's face lit up at the fact that Kaiba was actually responding to him. "Great! So did you finish your homework last night, Joey?"
"Yeah, I did," Joey said as the bell rang. "See you after school, Kaiba," Joey said as he and Yugi turned to go into their homeroom.
"I thought we were going to the arcade after school, Joey," Yugi said, looking slightly hurt that his friend would forget about their plans.
"We are. Kaiba's coming with us, is all." Joey laughed as his friend's eyes widened in surprise.
"That's awesome, Joey! I'm glad you both could overlook your differences and be friends."
"I wouldn't call us friends quite yet, Yugi. But I'm trying to be nicer to him, just like you told me to." With that, the two boys sat down in their seats and waited for class to begin.
* * * * *
"I'm so glad school's finally over," Joey said, stretching his arms above his head and yawning.
"Me, too," Yugi agreed. They headed towards Joey's locker so he could shove his backpack inside. He'd been lucky enough to end up with no weekend homework, which meant the load on his back could stay at school. He saw Kaiba leaning against his own locker, obviously waiting for the boys to get there. Joey was a little surprised, he partially expected Kaiba to avoid the arcade and just go home. But that didn't mean he wasn't pleased to see him waiting there. Maybe the two of them could be friends, after all.
"Hey, Kaiba," Joey said, spinning the combination lock and opening his locker. "Ready for me to kick your rich butt at every game in the arcade?"
"Dream on, mutt," Kaiba said, his trademark smirk gracing his face. "You'll never beat me at anything, haven't you realized this yet?"
"Hey, there's a first time for everything, right? Your first time hanging out with a lowlife like me and my first time for kicking your ass." Joey laughed at the look on Kaiba's face when he said that.
"Look, there's Bakura and Tristan! Now we can head over and see who kicks who's ass around here." Yugi jogged up to his friends to say hello.
Walking outside, they decided that Bakura would ride on the back of Tristan's motorcycle, and Yugi and Joey would ride with Kaiba. About halfway to the car, Joey was stopped in his tracks by a hand dangling keys in front of his face.
"What're ya doing, Kaiba? You about took my nose off with those things."
Kaiba just dropped the car keys, at which Joey deftly caught them and looked at Kaiba with a very confused look on his face. "Knock yourself out," he said, opening the passenger side door and sitting down.