Chapter Eleven
Red Lips, Blue Eyes
Joey, Roux, Duke and Yugi walked down the sidewalk towards the Trading Post card shop. They were distracted because they were talking about how Yugi had defeated Pegasus in a duel match. This had interested Roux very highly.
"Of course it was only for a good cause." Yugi said, beaming and blushing after he had told the story in full detail.
"Ha!" Joey said suddenly. "If you call rescuing Kaiba from the Shadow Realm a good cause Yugi, maybe I should just go give a million dollars to those scum bag fiends in the Kaiba Corp!" Joey crossed his arms over his chest and gave a look of disregard.
Roux smiled softly and looked down at Yugi. "I know Max has made some mistakes in the past, Yugi." She said sweetly. "But he's really a much better person now."
"WHA?" Joey almost flipped out when he heard that, and he gave Roux a very wide-eyed look. "You know Maximilian Pegasus?"
Roux blinked at him. "Well of course I do, I had dinner with him the night I arrived."
Joey looked like he would faint, but he held his ground. "Oh." Joey said thoughtfully.
Yugi looked up at Roux. "How is it you know him, Roux?"
"Oh, well he was my ex-husband's friend." Roux started, and then she searched through her memory to figure out the entire story. She wanted to get it right, she had heard it a million times at least from Kale. "Kale knew his wife Cecilia I believe, and through her she met Max, and they became friends. He was also a good comforter to Max after Cecilia died. They've been friends ever since, and I met Max through Kale. He's a very charming person, I'm surprised that he's done so many regretful things." Roux looked down at her feet. "But I suppose it isn't that surprising. I mean afterall, the poor man did lose his wife. I can't imagine what something like that would do to a person."
They were all very silent. Apparently this was a big shock, to know that Roux knew Maximilian Pegasus. Especially after all the things they knew Pegasus to do in the past. All the heartless, cruel things he had done like kidnapping Yugi's grandpa.
"Well," said Duke breaking the ice of the silence. "I suppose when you work in the modeling world you get around to meet people, eh Roux?" he asked, stepping up to walk beside her without Joey looking.
"Um, sure I suppose." Roux said, looking over at Joey, whose eyes were on the ground below him. She didn't know why he was so upset about her knowing Maximilian Pegasus. She gave his hand a tight squeeze, and he looked up at her and smiled.
"Look, there's the shop." Yugi said, pointing ahead of them, and they all began to walk a little more briskly towards the shop. Roux felt Joey's hand tighten in hers a bit as they went towards the shop.
Duke was the first one in, and he held the door open for Roux. He grinned at her. "Ladies first," he crooned flirtatiously, and then let the door go just as Joey was coming in. The door crashed against Joey's face, and Yugi helped him up after he had fallen down to the ground.
"Hey look!" Duke said, pulling Roux over to one of the shelves. "They're selling Dungeon Dice Monster stuff here!" he frowned. "Who would trade Dungeon Dice Monster cards? It's the best game there is!" he pouted, crossing his arms, and Roux truly believed that he was the inventor after making a remark like that.
"Meh, the game gets boring Devlin." Joey said, coming into the shop and rubbing his nose, which was going purple. He took Roux's arm. "Come on Roux, let's see if we can get your cards traded."
Roux looked around the shop. There were a few people in there. A couple of kids were looking at a bunch of cards in the display case on the other side of the room, and a tall man stood at the counter with the shop keeper, who was on computer.
Roux pulled out her deck and looked through them. She pulled out all the ones she wanted to trade to get some better cards. By the time she had gone through the deck she had quite a few cards to trade.
Joey noticed that she had collected all the cards she wanted to trade, and he nudged her. "I'll get us some service." He said cheerfully, and then he waved his arm at the shopkeeper at the front counter. "Yo! Shop keeper! We got some cards to trade!"
"Joey, shh!" Roux elbowed him. "He's already helping another person, don't be rude."
"Hey, you're Roux Matuko, you're a VIP. You should get the first store credit!" Joey said encouragingly, and again he called after the shopkeeper, even after Roux told him not to.
"Quiet down, Joey." Duke said, leaning against the counter. "He's just gonna ignore you until you shut the hell up."
Joey walked up towards the front counter. "Yo shopkeeper, you got some customers over here! You just gonna ignore us all-"
Joey was in mid-sentence when the man at the counter, who was wearing a long royal blue jacket and holding a briefcase, spun around, his briefcase hitting Joey in the stomach, winding him. The man looked at Joey in surprise, and then in disgust.
"Oh. It's you, Wheeler." The young man snarled angrily under his breath.
Roux stood with Yugi and Duke back towards the counter. She had seen the whole thing, but she was paralyzed to move. She studied the young man who had confronted Joey. He was a tall, lean brunette teenager with ivory skin, handsome features and mesmerizing blue eyes. In truth, even in the modeling world, she had never seen a man so handsome.
Joey scowled up at the young man. "Hey, watch where you're going eh Kaiba?" he demanded angrily, raising a fist. "You could take someone's eye out with that briefcase!"
"Or in your case, a stomach." The man named Kaiba chided, and then grinned. "But nevermind, it'd be more of an improvement."
Joey's teeth clenched together. "You have some nerve talking to me like that!" he told him. "I'm a paying customer, I only came in here to get some trading done, not to be insulted!"
"Then maybe you should take a look around, Wheeler." Kaiba said, rolling his eyes. "Technically the important winners are always served first. No wonder you're in the back of the line."
Roux frowned. There was no need for talk like that, and she knew that for a fact. Maybe Joey wasn't the best duelist in the world and even so, this man, Kaiba, had no right to talk to him like that.
She could see Joey going red with fury, but he was lost for words. Roux looked between them, and knew good things would not come from this meeting.
Kaiba laughed. "You know Wheeler red isn't a very good colour for you, maybe you should cool off a bit if you ever want to come close to getting in the tournament!"
"Awright, that's it Kaiba! You crossed the line!" Roux's eyes widened as she saw Joey roll up his sleeves. She burst forward. The last thing she wanted was for Joey to get in a fight and then get hurt. Even though he was a strong confident guy, Kaiba was taller than him, and could probably take him out fairly easily.
"Joey, no! Stop it!" Roux told him firmly, taking his arm in hers and pulling him back.
Kaiba looked at the girl, and was about to shout at her for interfering, but for a moment he couldn't say anything. He studied the girl, a tall thin creature, with long wavy golden hair, sweet beautiful features and misty gray-blue eyes. She looked like a goddess, but Kaiba's lip curled in disgust.
"Lemme go, Roux! I gotta teach this guy a lesson!" Joey told her, trying to break from her grasp but she wouldn't let him.
"No Joey! Cut it out!" she told him angrily, and finally Joey looked over at her. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything, just leave it be."
"He insulted me!" Joey demanded, pointing at Kaiba. "You were right over there, you saw the entire thing!"
"I don't care, Joey! I don't want you to get hurt!" she told him.
"I'm not gonna get hurt! I'll be fine!" Joey told her rather impatiently.
"If you fight here today I won't speak to you until the tournament!" she stated sternly, and those words itself had wiped the angry look from Joey's face altogether.
Kaiba looked between them for an instant. They were both silent with uncertain looks on their faces. After awhile Joey sighed and then let himself go a little bit limp. "Awright, you're right. Yeah.okay." Joey didn't have too much to say. He didn't like the idea of not being able to hang out with or speak with Roux until the tournament. They still had a week left to hang out together.
Roux smiled sweetly and hugged Joey. "Thank you Joey, you don't know how much this means to me." She whispered to him, and felt his arms close around her. She pulled back almost a second after she spoke. She was smiling softly at him. "Come on, we've got some cards to trade."
Joey nodded, and Kaiba watched their hands slip together.
Kaiba laughed to himself and shook his head. He knew that he was treading on thin ice, what with this girl here and everything, but he was Kaiba, he could do anything he wanted. "Isn't that adorable?" he taunted. "And who is this...has Joey wheeler got a date, I never thought I'd see the day."
Roux looked back at Kaiba for a moment, and Joey scowled at Kaiba. "Hey man shut up, this is a good friend of mine and my sister!"
Kaiba smirked. "Like you have any real friends."
Roux's eyebrows flinched in confusion. "Sorry, what did you say?" she asked, letting go of Joey and turning her body to face Kaiba.
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "You know very well what I said."
She put her fists on her side and gave him a curdling glare. "Joey doesn't have any friends? That's an interesting sentiment coming from someone who comes to a card shop all alone."
Kaiba looked over as Joey, Yugi and Duke all clenched their teeth and hid their faces away. They all knew that what she had just said were by far the worst things you could ever say to Seto Kaiba.
"Oh really?" Kaiba asked, shifting his position on his feet so that he towered over her like a tall forbidding shadow. "Listen to me, I don't know who you are, and it's none of your business, but I don't need any friends!"
"Well, don't talk to Joey like that," Roux told him sternly. "It hurts his feelings."
"Ha, Joey Wheeler? Feelings?" Kaiba laughed pitifully. "Sorry girlie but feelings are for people who care and as you can see in my eyes," He looked right at her, nose to nose. They were close enough to kiss even. "I don't care." He told her.
Roux scowled at him. "No. You don't. And that's pathetic."
"Whoa, okay!" Duke said running up beside Roux and taking her arm. "I think that's enough trading for one day, wouldn't you say fellas?" Duke looked over at Yugi and Joey.
Kaiba pouted. "Humph! I was just leaving, I wouldn't want to ruin your precious trading!" Kaiba pushed his way past Roux and then he stopped at the door and looked back at all of them, a dreadful sneer was cast over his lips. "See you all at the tournament." He mumbled, and his eyes narrowed at Roux before he left them standing in the shop.
Red Lips, Blue Eyes
Joey, Roux, Duke and Yugi walked down the sidewalk towards the Trading Post card shop. They were distracted because they were talking about how Yugi had defeated Pegasus in a duel match. This had interested Roux very highly.
"Of course it was only for a good cause." Yugi said, beaming and blushing after he had told the story in full detail.
"Ha!" Joey said suddenly. "If you call rescuing Kaiba from the Shadow Realm a good cause Yugi, maybe I should just go give a million dollars to those scum bag fiends in the Kaiba Corp!" Joey crossed his arms over his chest and gave a look of disregard.
Roux smiled softly and looked down at Yugi. "I know Max has made some mistakes in the past, Yugi." She said sweetly. "But he's really a much better person now."
"WHA?" Joey almost flipped out when he heard that, and he gave Roux a very wide-eyed look. "You know Maximilian Pegasus?"
Roux blinked at him. "Well of course I do, I had dinner with him the night I arrived."
Joey looked like he would faint, but he held his ground. "Oh." Joey said thoughtfully.
Yugi looked up at Roux. "How is it you know him, Roux?"
"Oh, well he was my ex-husband's friend." Roux started, and then she searched through her memory to figure out the entire story. She wanted to get it right, she had heard it a million times at least from Kale. "Kale knew his wife Cecilia I believe, and through her she met Max, and they became friends. He was also a good comforter to Max after Cecilia died. They've been friends ever since, and I met Max through Kale. He's a very charming person, I'm surprised that he's done so many regretful things." Roux looked down at her feet. "But I suppose it isn't that surprising. I mean afterall, the poor man did lose his wife. I can't imagine what something like that would do to a person."
They were all very silent. Apparently this was a big shock, to know that Roux knew Maximilian Pegasus. Especially after all the things they knew Pegasus to do in the past. All the heartless, cruel things he had done like kidnapping Yugi's grandpa.
"Well," said Duke breaking the ice of the silence. "I suppose when you work in the modeling world you get around to meet people, eh Roux?" he asked, stepping up to walk beside her without Joey looking.
"Um, sure I suppose." Roux said, looking over at Joey, whose eyes were on the ground below him. She didn't know why he was so upset about her knowing Maximilian Pegasus. She gave his hand a tight squeeze, and he looked up at her and smiled.
"Look, there's the shop." Yugi said, pointing ahead of them, and they all began to walk a little more briskly towards the shop. Roux felt Joey's hand tighten in hers a bit as they went towards the shop.
Duke was the first one in, and he held the door open for Roux. He grinned at her. "Ladies first," he crooned flirtatiously, and then let the door go just as Joey was coming in. The door crashed against Joey's face, and Yugi helped him up after he had fallen down to the ground.
"Hey look!" Duke said, pulling Roux over to one of the shelves. "They're selling Dungeon Dice Monster stuff here!" he frowned. "Who would trade Dungeon Dice Monster cards? It's the best game there is!" he pouted, crossing his arms, and Roux truly believed that he was the inventor after making a remark like that.
"Meh, the game gets boring Devlin." Joey said, coming into the shop and rubbing his nose, which was going purple. He took Roux's arm. "Come on Roux, let's see if we can get your cards traded."
Roux looked around the shop. There were a few people in there. A couple of kids were looking at a bunch of cards in the display case on the other side of the room, and a tall man stood at the counter with the shop keeper, who was on computer.
Roux pulled out her deck and looked through them. She pulled out all the ones she wanted to trade to get some better cards. By the time she had gone through the deck she had quite a few cards to trade.
Joey noticed that she had collected all the cards she wanted to trade, and he nudged her. "I'll get us some service." He said cheerfully, and then he waved his arm at the shopkeeper at the front counter. "Yo! Shop keeper! We got some cards to trade!"
"Joey, shh!" Roux elbowed him. "He's already helping another person, don't be rude."
"Hey, you're Roux Matuko, you're a VIP. You should get the first store credit!" Joey said encouragingly, and again he called after the shopkeeper, even after Roux told him not to.
"Quiet down, Joey." Duke said, leaning against the counter. "He's just gonna ignore you until you shut the hell up."
Joey walked up towards the front counter. "Yo shopkeeper, you got some customers over here! You just gonna ignore us all-"
Joey was in mid-sentence when the man at the counter, who was wearing a long royal blue jacket and holding a briefcase, spun around, his briefcase hitting Joey in the stomach, winding him. The man looked at Joey in surprise, and then in disgust.
"Oh. It's you, Wheeler." The young man snarled angrily under his breath.
Roux stood with Yugi and Duke back towards the counter. She had seen the whole thing, but she was paralyzed to move. She studied the young man who had confronted Joey. He was a tall, lean brunette teenager with ivory skin, handsome features and mesmerizing blue eyes. In truth, even in the modeling world, she had never seen a man so handsome.
Joey scowled up at the young man. "Hey, watch where you're going eh Kaiba?" he demanded angrily, raising a fist. "You could take someone's eye out with that briefcase!"
"Or in your case, a stomach." The man named Kaiba chided, and then grinned. "But nevermind, it'd be more of an improvement."
Joey's teeth clenched together. "You have some nerve talking to me like that!" he told him. "I'm a paying customer, I only came in here to get some trading done, not to be insulted!"
"Then maybe you should take a look around, Wheeler." Kaiba said, rolling his eyes. "Technically the important winners are always served first. No wonder you're in the back of the line."
Roux frowned. There was no need for talk like that, and she knew that for a fact. Maybe Joey wasn't the best duelist in the world and even so, this man, Kaiba, had no right to talk to him like that.
She could see Joey going red with fury, but he was lost for words. Roux looked between them, and knew good things would not come from this meeting.
Kaiba laughed. "You know Wheeler red isn't a very good colour for you, maybe you should cool off a bit if you ever want to come close to getting in the tournament!"
"Awright, that's it Kaiba! You crossed the line!" Roux's eyes widened as she saw Joey roll up his sleeves. She burst forward. The last thing she wanted was for Joey to get in a fight and then get hurt. Even though he was a strong confident guy, Kaiba was taller than him, and could probably take him out fairly easily.
"Joey, no! Stop it!" Roux told him firmly, taking his arm in hers and pulling him back.
Kaiba looked at the girl, and was about to shout at her for interfering, but for a moment he couldn't say anything. He studied the girl, a tall thin creature, with long wavy golden hair, sweet beautiful features and misty gray-blue eyes. She looked like a goddess, but Kaiba's lip curled in disgust.
"Lemme go, Roux! I gotta teach this guy a lesson!" Joey told her, trying to break from her grasp but she wouldn't let him.
"No Joey! Cut it out!" she told him angrily, and finally Joey looked over at her. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything, just leave it be."
"He insulted me!" Joey demanded, pointing at Kaiba. "You were right over there, you saw the entire thing!"
"I don't care, Joey! I don't want you to get hurt!" she told him.
"I'm not gonna get hurt! I'll be fine!" Joey told her rather impatiently.
"If you fight here today I won't speak to you until the tournament!" she stated sternly, and those words itself had wiped the angry look from Joey's face altogether.
Kaiba looked between them for an instant. They were both silent with uncertain looks on their faces. After awhile Joey sighed and then let himself go a little bit limp. "Awright, you're right. Yeah.okay." Joey didn't have too much to say. He didn't like the idea of not being able to hang out with or speak with Roux until the tournament. They still had a week left to hang out together.
Roux smiled sweetly and hugged Joey. "Thank you Joey, you don't know how much this means to me." She whispered to him, and felt his arms close around her. She pulled back almost a second after she spoke. She was smiling softly at him. "Come on, we've got some cards to trade."
Joey nodded, and Kaiba watched their hands slip together.
Kaiba laughed to himself and shook his head. He knew that he was treading on thin ice, what with this girl here and everything, but he was Kaiba, he could do anything he wanted. "Isn't that adorable?" he taunted. "And who is this...has Joey wheeler got a date, I never thought I'd see the day."
Roux looked back at Kaiba for a moment, and Joey scowled at Kaiba. "Hey man shut up, this is a good friend of mine and my sister!"
Kaiba smirked. "Like you have any real friends."
Roux's eyebrows flinched in confusion. "Sorry, what did you say?" she asked, letting go of Joey and turning her body to face Kaiba.
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "You know very well what I said."
She put her fists on her side and gave him a curdling glare. "Joey doesn't have any friends? That's an interesting sentiment coming from someone who comes to a card shop all alone."
Kaiba looked over as Joey, Yugi and Duke all clenched their teeth and hid their faces away. They all knew that what she had just said were by far the worst things you could ever say to Seto Kaiba.
"Oh really?" Kaiba asked, shifting his position on his feet so that he towered over her like a tall forbidding shadow. "Listen to me, I don't know who you are, and it's none of your business, but I don't need any friends!"
"Well, don't talk to Joey like that," Roux told him sternly. "It hurts his feelings."
"Ha, Joey Wheeler? Feelings?" Kaiba laughed pitifully. "Sorry girlie but feelings are for people who care and as you can see in my eyes," He looked right at her, nose to nose. They were close enough to kiss even. "I don't care." He told her.
Roux scowled at him. "No. You don't. And that's pathetic."
"Whoa, okay!" Duke said running up beside Roux and taking her arm. "I think that's enough trading for one day, wouldn't you say fellas?" Duke looked over at Yugi and Joey.
Kaiba pouted. "Humph! I was just leaving, I wouldn't want to ruin your precious trading!" Kaiba pushed his way past Roux and then he stopped at the door and looked back at all of them, a dreadful sneer was cast over his lips. "See you all at the tournament." He mumbled, and his eyes narrowed at Roux before he left them standing in the shop.