Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh!
"Who'd have thought Kaiba could be so, well, not creep-like," Joey said, cramming his mouth with a handful of popcorn. Yugi sat across from him on the bed, DVDs spread out between them like playing cards.
"Yeah," Yugi replied, looking deliberately at the cases in front of him. "So which movie do you want to watch?"
"You're not even listening to me, are you?" Joey demanded, spraying Yugi with bits of popcorn that flew out of his mouth as he spoke.
Wiping his face with his hand, Yugi looked disdainfully at Joey. "Hey, I've been telling you all along that Kaiba wasn't such a bad guy. It just took this long for him to actually prove it. Remember, not everyone has such an easy time making friends."
Joey nodded thoughtfully at this. He knew Yugi was referring to the days before they became friends, when Joey tormented him because he was such a loner, always hanging around with his nose stuck in some game. He just never thought of Kaiba as someone who had trouble doing anything. But then again, he couldn't imagine Yugi having difficulty making friends, either, when he knew for a fact the kid struggled with this his whole life.
"Do you even want to watch a movie? I think I'm too bored for that right now," Yugi said, flopping back on his bed, scattering DVDs as they bounced from his weight. He sat up suddenly. "Let's go swimming!"
"Where are we going to swim?" Joey asked, knowing that sparkle in Yugi's eye meant he already had it all planned out.
"Tea's apartment complex has a swimming pool." Yugi said.
"No offense, buddy, but I really don't feel like watching you make eyes at Tea all night again. I get enough of that in school." Joey fake gagged for emphasis.
"That's the fun part. She doesn't even have to know we're there." Yugi beamed at this idea of doing something "dangerous." It wasn't often that he got that daring streak in him, but when he did they always had a good time.
"I don't really have any say in this, do I?" Joey asked, rolling his eyes and standing up.
"Nope," Yugi said as he headed toward the closet to retrieve his swimming trunks. He tossed another pair in Joey's direction.
"Yugi, I really don't think your trunks will fit –"
"No, dumbass, they're yours. You left them at my house last time we went hiking." Yugi continued digging in his closet for his own trunks.
Joey looked at the suit again, finally recognizing it. He hadn't seen this pair in so long, he'd forgotten all about them.
After the boys had changed, Joey decided to call Tristan to see if he wanted to join them. Quietly picking up the phone downstairs so as not to alert Yugi's grandfather that they were sneaking out, he listened for a dial tone. When he got none, he turned to Yugi.
"Is your phone broken or something? I'm not getting – "
"Joey?" a voice said from the telephone in Joey's hand.
Stifling back a scream, Joey resisted the urge to throw the evil possessed phone across the room. Yugi grabbed the phone as Joey was whimpering, "It knows my name, Yugi, it knows my name!"
"Hello," Yugi managed to get out between soft giggles. "Who is this?"
"Kaiba." The voice said.
Bursting out laughing, Yugi tried desperately to get it under control before his grandfather got suspicious. Handing the phone back to Joey, he covered his mouth to try and quiet himself. "It's Kaiba," he said between muffled giggles.
"Hey, Kaiba, sorry about that, I, uh, hey, you actually called us." Joey was finally over his little scare enough to be surprised at who the caller really was.
"Yeah, well, Mokuba's at some friend's house tonight, and the house is really quiet, and, well," Kaiba trailed off, not knowing what to say next.
"Well, Yugi and I were just about to sneak into Tea's apartment complex to go swimming. Wanna come with us?"
"You know, I have a swimming pool here if you guys want to go swimming," Kaiba pointed out.
"Aw, but that defeats the whole purpose of sneaking in, Kaiba. So you in or not?"
There was a short pause on the other end of the line. "Where should I meet you guys?"
* * * * *
"I don't think he's going to show up," Tristan said, leaning up against the street sign at the corner where they had all agreed to meet.
"Just give him another minute. He has farther to drive than you guys did," Yugi said, giggling again after relating Joey's frightening telephone experience to Ryou, who had been hanging out at Tristan's house when they called. All four boys were wearing swimming trunks and T-Shirts, along with good running sneakers in case they got caught. As if Yugi's hair wasn't conspicuous enough to identify him if they did. They were more worried about being spotted by Tea than anything, she would be so pissed that they had come all the way over there and didn't even stop in to say hello.
Finally a fifth boy sauntered up to the street corner, dressed in the same attire as the other boys as Joey had suggested to him over the phone. He hid his nervousness behind his normal cool stare, making everyone none the wiser that this was the first time he'd done anything so, well, typical of others his own age.
"Cool, we're all here," Joey said in lieu of a greeting. "Let's get wet."
* * * * *
The boys got over the fence with no problems, and Yugi and Joey leaped immediately into the cool water, barely stopping to kick off their shoes and without bothering to remove their shirts. Joey knew Yugi felt uncomfortable about his small build so he always left his shirt on while swimming so Yugi wouldn't feel different by leaving his own on.
Tristan removed his shirt and carefully placed it on the back of a lounge chair with his shoes sitting nearby and slipped gracefully into the water with his two friends. Ryou sat at the edge of the pool with his legs swinging in the water. Kaiba hung back close to the fence, not really sure what he wanted to do just yet.
"Come on, Kaiba," Joey called while treading water in the deep end. "Aren't you getting in? Or can't you swim?" At the slightly mocking tone in Joey's voice Kaiba slipped his sneakers off and sat next to Ryou.
"Of course I can swim, and more than just a doggy paddle." Kaiba hoped Joey got the subtle joke in that comment.
Joey glared slightly at Kaiba, and swam off towards Yugi. Kaiba stopped paying attention to them and tried to strike up a conversation with Ryou.
"So do you guys do this often?" he asked.
"No, not really," Ryou said quietly. "Sometimes Yugi just gets these crazy ideas, and we don't actually have anything better to do, so we just go with it."
"Yugi gets crazy ideas?" Kaiba said incredulously. "Hmm, never thought the runt had it in –"
Before Kaiba could finish his sentence he was pulled into the water by and already submerged figure. He really should have been paying more attention when Joey got that look on his face. Kaiba decided to do a little payback and swam towards where Joey's legs were emerging from the pool. So the little chicken couldn't handle what he dished out, huh?
But as Kaiba surfaced he saw all the boys standing near the fence, getting poised to climb. His first thought was that this had all been a joke on him, a ploy to make him look like a fool. But then he saw the look on Joey's face as he turned to him and shouted, "Hurry up! We're caught!"
Kaiba turned toward the gate and saw a security guard using his key to enter. He knew that this kind of trouble would be no big deal, and that running was childish. He'd done things much more illegal than this, how bad could the punishment possibly be? But on the other hand, he wanted so badly to be a part of the group, so he hesitated long enough only to slip his shoes back on and easily leaped the fence ahead of Joey, who had waited for him.
Kaiba in turn waited for Joey as he scaled the fence, watching the others race off in the direction of the corner they'd met at. As Joey hopped down from the top, they heard the security guard calling to them. Kaiba also heard a very distinct tearing sound coming from above him.
"Shit!" Joey yelled as he began to jog the way the others had come. Kaiba followed behind him, holding in a laugh as he saw that Joey had left part of his shorts on the fence post.
As Joey and Kaiba caught up to the others, they could hear Yugi pointing at Joey and laughing hysterically.
Joey looked down at the damage and saw that the entire side of his right thigh was exposed, and immediately flushed red. "Well," he said. "At least none of the girls are here to fight over my manly flesh."
The five of them decided to call it a night, and Kaiba headed back to his car, which was parked nearby. Driving in silence down the road, Kaiba smiled to himself. Sure, it had been immature to sneak into a pool, especially when he had one bigger and better in his own backyard. But it had been fun, and he had the feeling he could get used to this sense of belonging. He thought back to the last thing Yugi had said to him this evening, just after putting one of Kaiba's business cards into his pockets.
"So we'll call you tomorrow for lunch, then." It had been such a simple statement, said as though it had been said a thousand times before. And surely it had, but it was the first time Kaiba had heard it directed at him.
Yes, he was definitely getting used to this.