I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh…

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Joey walked slowly to his bus stop, angrily thinking about the meeting. His life had begun to take an awful turn, and he finally had issues that he could'nt confide to his friends about. He sighed and got onto the bus, showed his bus card and sat down next to an old lady crocheting.

          "Hold the hook for me, dearie?" She asked him. He nodded and held her tool as she rummaged about in her bag for her money. Once she had got it she handed the 15 cents to the driver, patted Joey on the head, and exited the bus. The bus took off again, and two stops later Joey exited. He walked for a block until he saw a dilapidated apartment building. Home, Sweet Home. He walked past the garage and noticed that his father's beaten up Volkswagen wasn't there. If he had to guess he would say that his father was off having one of his numerous affairs.

          "I don't know what they see in him. Sure he's tall and good looking and suave, but his personality is for the dogs." Joey mused to himself as he climbed the seventeen flights to his apartment (the elevator was broken, as it had been for the past three years). Joey went into the kitchen of his tiny apartment, grabbed a bag of chips, and sat to check the phone messages while munching of the BBQ Lays. The familiar woman's voice came on:

          "You have *beep* ten new messages." She said, and the first one began to play.

          "Hey, Big Brother!" His sister's voice on the machine, in the background incredibly loud music was playing, "The party I am at has gone a bit late, and I know you said I shouldn't ride a bus home after dark, so could you come pick me up at 10 P.M.? That would be great! Give me a call at 899-655-7878 if you can. Thanks! I love you, Joey! Bye! *Click*"

          Joey smiled and wrote 'Call Serenity at 899-655-7878' on a post-it note, and went to the next message:

          "Joey! What were you doing?! Why did you suddenly leave the meeting!? Are you okay?! Call me! Bye!"

          Joey rolled his eyes. Typical Tristan behavior. A husky woman's voice came on from the next message.

          "Hey there, Zachary! This is Elly! I can't wait to see you! Oh and if it is little… what's your name? I know it starts with a 'j'… ummm Jake? Okay, Jake. If it is Jake listening to this message, save it for your father! This is big people stuff, sweetie."

          Joey groaned… Why can they never remember my name?! He continued to listen as the woman continued to try and be romantic, his excuse being that she had told JAKE not listen, not Joey. As the message progressed he began to wish he wasn't listening… this stuff was really nauseating. Once the message was done he saved it, and began listening to the next message, done by a high voiced woman.

          "Hi, Zack! Carolyn here! Oh by the way. If Johnny is listening, please stop. This message is for your daddy, so be a good boy, and save it for him!"

          Joey glared,

          "It-is-JOEY!" He said through clenched teeth, and listened to this message too. If possible it was even more awful than the first one. After that one there were three more "romantic" messages. Not one managed to get his name right. He went from being 'Jeff', to 'Jeremiah, to 'Steve'.

          "Steve?!" He said bemusedly to the answering machine. "How did she get that?" He saved all the messages and wrote on a post-it 'Dad- Your fan club called' and stuck it on the phone. He smiled when he heard the next voice on the machine.

"Hey there, Joey! This is Yugi! I was wondering if you wanna come over tonight or tomorrow! We can have a sleepover or something! I was thinking we could order pizza and have candy or whatever. If Serenity doesn't have anywhere else to go she can come too. Call me, please! Bye-bye!"

Joey laughed, and wrote 'Call Yugi' on post-it. The next message wasn't as nice,

"Joey!!!" A slightly whining girl's voice said, "This is Christy! You haven't taken me out for a long time! Get with the program! I want a nice dinner ASAP! Toodles, darling!"

Joey grimaced, he can't afford fancy dinners! "Why!? Why does she have to get this way?!" The next message was very disturbing,

          "Mr. Wheeler. We have not yet received the check for your water and power. Unless a check for 500 dollars arrives at our establishment at noon tomorrow we will shut down you power and water supplies. Consider yourself warned."

          "DAMN IT!" Joey yelled. His father, obviously one of the more spacey people on the earth, had forgotten to pay the bills again. Joey ran from the room to go count how much money he had in the old ice cream box. The total came to 80 dollars. Not even close. Joey swore foully under his breath, he walked back to the phone and dialed the number to the house that Serenity was at. A guy picked up.

          "HELLO?!" The guy yelled into the phone, he had to yell because the music blaring in the background was so loud that the people in the next county could hear it.      

          "HI!" Joey yelled back, "CAN I PLEASE TALK TO SERENITY WHEELER!?"

          "SERENDIPITY SQUEALER?" The guy shouted into the phone.

          "SER-EN-IT-Y WHEE-LER" Joey yelled as loud as he could.

          "Why didn't you say so?" The guy asked, and a minute later Joey could hear his sister's voice.

          "JOEY?! IS THAT YOU?" She yelled.

          "YEAH! I CAN PICK YOU UP! I'LL BE THERE AT TEN, OKAY?!"

          "THANKS, JOEY! SEE YOU THEN!" She yelled and then hung up. Joey sighed, one call down. He then dialed Yugi's number.

"Hello? Game Shop." Came the high cheerful voice.   

"Hey, Yug'! What's shakin?"

"Not much. So can you come over?" Yugi said happily.

"Love to, man, but probably not tonight. Tomorrow sounds great though! Thanks a million!"

"Sure thing! No problem! BYE!"

"See yah!" He hung up, and then began washing the mountain of dishes that were all piled in the sink; it was best to use the water while they had it. It was five o'clock. He still had five hours until it was time to pick up Serenity. After doing the dishes, Joey cooked dinner for himself and ate it while watching television.

Around eight he heard a car pull into the drive, skidding and screeching. His brain was sending him warning messages, but he ignored them and moved to the door. A tall man stepped into the apartment. He had yellow blonde hair, similar to Joey's, but he had Serenity's hazel eyes. He had broad shoulders and was wearing jeans and a checked shirt. The shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, and unbuttoned about a quarter of the way. All in all, a very handsome man, unless you looked at his face… his eyes were bloodshot, his cheeks flushed, he looked completely insane… or very drunk…

          "Hey there, Dad…" Joey said nervously.

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Two and a half hours later Joey pulled up at the party house in his father's car. He was wearing a Yankees hat very low over his face and winced as he got out of the car. He walked up the drive and rang the doorbell, being mindful to stay in the shadows. A red-haired girl answered the door.

          "Hello?" She said, while chewing on a huge wad of bubble gum.

          "Hey. I'm here to pick up Serenity." Joey said to her.

          "Okay. SERENITY!" She called into the house. A few minutes later Serenity walked out talking to Duke Devlin.

          "Hi, Joey!" She exclaimed happily.

          "Hi, Puppy-boy." Duke Devlin smirked.

          "Watch it Devlin!" Joey warned, "C'mon Serenity." They walked off together toward the car, while Duke Devlin stared after them while trying to figure out why Joey was limping.

          In the car Joey pulled off his hat and Serenity gasped.

          "Oh, JOEY! What happened?!" For in the light of the street lamp she saw only a fraction of what had happened. Joey sported two black eyes, there was blood running down from a cut in his temple, his nose looked like it might be broken, his lip was split and bleeding and he had bruises all over his face and neck. "Oh my God! Joey!"

          Joey smiled,

"Dad seemed to be in a rather bad mood tonight." He said, lamely.

"JOEY! We need to get you medical treatment!" She cried out in horror.

"No! I'm fine… but I'm worried about going home. We'll spend the night at Yugi's." He said firmly.

"But my pajamas…"

"Got 'em"

"Toothbrush?"

"Yup."         

          "Change of clothes?"

          "Got it all."

          "How did you get out?"

          "Fire escape."

          "Oh, JOEY!"

          "Look! I'm fine! Really! Let's just go!"

As they drove Joey asked Serenity,

          "How do you get 'Steve' from 'Joey'?" Serenity sat in thought for a while…

          "Well a joey is a baby kangaroo… and kangaroos are from Australia, and the Crocodile Hunter is from Australia… and HIS name is 'Steve'. So there you go." She said smiling weakly, still staring at Joey's injuries.

          "Ahhhh…."