Thank you, oh mighty reviewers! *Bows in worship*

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Joey and Serenity pulled up at Yugi's house about fifteen minutes later. Serenity rang the doorbell while Joey stood in the shadows behind her, his hat still pulled low over his face. After about a minute Yugi's grandfather opened the door, looking a bit cross that someone would be calling this late.

      "Yes? Who is it?"

      "Hello Mr. Muto!" Serenity said cheerily.

      "Why it's little Serenity! And is that you Joey?" He asked to the tall boy standing behind her.

      "Hey there, Gramps."

      "What are you two doing here?" He asked, very confused. Joey hesitated and then said very quickly,

      "Yugi invited us over to spend the night and I thought I wasn't gonna be available tonight, but then it was getting late and we were in the area and I thought if it wasn't too much trouble that maybe we could possibly stay here…" He trailed off, and Serenity looked cutely hopeful.       

      "Well I suppose you can…" Grandpa said slowly and before he had finished his sentence Serenity and Joey were inside the shop, and thanking him profusely. Yugi came down into the game shop to see what was going on. When he saw Joey he gave a happy cry and ran up to him.

      "Joey! I thought you said you couldn't make it!"

      "Yeah well things change, little buddy." Joey said happily to him, giving him a brief one-arm hug.

      "Hi, Serenity!" Yugi said beaming, "Come on up everyone!" They all followed him up to his room, where in the bright light of Yugi's Dark Magician lamp, Joey's lacerations were much more visible. Yugi gasped with horror.

      "Oh my goodness! Joey! What HAPPENED!?" He cried out. Joey's eyes went wide.

      "SHH! I just got into…err… a fight. Yeah a fight. And… um… I got most of the guys but there is always the couple that come behind you, right Yug'?"

      "Joey, you should stop being in a gang then this would stop happening to you." Yugi said, seriously.

      'What the hell? How do you know that I am in a gang?"

      "It's pretty obvious." Serenity said, "You always are going off at all hours, you talk like a boy in a gang and you mention it. A lot."

      "No I don't!" Joey protested.

      "Yeah you do." Yugi said, laughing. 'Well never on purpose, but you say stuff like 'Gee I hope it doesn't rain. It would be a shame to miss such a good fight', or 'Mike said maybe sometime I can lead an ambush'. Then you make some weird excuse that you're in the Chess Club or something, and when you said 'fight' you meant 'bite' because you were going out to dinner at an out-doors restaurant, or something. But really, Joey it's pretty obvious. And I think you should stop." Yugi had stopped laughing at this, and then looked Joey straight in the eye.

      Joey faltered as he was about to deny everything, then was going to say that he loved being in a gang, but his mouth had other plans.

      "You know somethin', Yug'? I totally agree with you. This may sound odd, but I never really liked it. The thing is… well… I do it for… for my dad."

      "What?" Yugi said, unbelieving.

      "Yeah I know it sounds dumb, but he thinks ever boy should be in a gang. That it's some how part of growing up. He was actually proud of me. It is like how normal parents feel about violin lessons, or the science fair. I know it's insane." He said, sighing. Yugi looked at him with a look of confusion.

      "But why would your dad think something like that? It's a bit odd." Yugi asked tentatively. Serenity looked from her brother to Yugi and back, and then said quickly,

      "Hey, Yugi? Um would you happen to have anything to eat? The party I was at only had potato chips…" Joey smiled at her, he knew that the party had actually been a four-course supper, but he wasn't about to protest. Anything that got Yugi off the subject… besides he was really hungry himself. Yugi beamed at her.

      "Sure! We have some pizza and soda if you guys would like!" He offered. Joey and Serenity nodded fervently then followed him to the kitchen to prepare the snack. While they ate it in Yugi's room, they discussed duel monsters. They also taught Serenity as much as they could about the game. She was a fast learner, and soon they were all dueling each other. That is until Grandpa came in and yelled at them for being up so late.

      "Where do you want to sleep, Serenity?" Yugi asked her. "The only room that you could be private in is the living room, you could sleep on the couch if you like." Serenity looked nervously at Joey.

      "The couch sounds great, Yugi. But how about I sleep on the floor in there too, so she doesn't get nervous. This is the first time at your house for her, yah know." Joey winked at his sister, and she visibly relaxed. As long as her brother was there, a kinda scary room was no problem.

      "Sure, Joey!" Yugi said bouncing up and down slightly. He gave them blankets and pillows, made sure that their room was all set up and then headed off to bed. Serenity sank gratefully onto the couch, while Joey slowly and carefully lay down on the floor next to her. When his back touched the ground he gave a low groan.

      "Are you sure you don't want the couch, Joey?" Serenity asked sounding worried.

      "Yeah. I'm fine, I guess. Just a bit sore. Goodnight, sis.

      "Night, Joey."

      Later that night Serenity heard Joey tossing and turning. He didn't seem to have slept at all.

"Joey?" She called softly.

"Yeah?"

"You asleep?"

"What do you think?"

"Well I dunno. Once I had a fifteen minute conversation with you, and then realized you had just been talking in your sleep."

"Really? What did we talk about?"

"Race cars."

"Okay then…"

"Are you serious about quitting the gang?"

"That was a big leap from race cars." Joey said, laughing quietly, then turning over to look at her.

"Well? Are you?"

"You know. I think I am. Heh. I can't wait to see the expression on Dad's face when I tell him." He felt one of his black eyes, winced, then said, ruefully, "Well, maybe I can."

"You do know that it doesn't have to be like this don't you? One call could put him behind bars." She said, vehemently.

"And what good would that do? Just get me turned into a 'ward of the state'. I'd go from foster home to foster home. Leave my friends and you behind. Don't pretend like Mom would take me in. She never loved me anyway."

"Don't say that, Joey! Of course she did!"

"Huh. Yeah right."

      Serenity changed tactics immediately.

"Ever think of hitting back?" She asked.

"How can you say that? He's my dad. You don't hurt your parents. It just doesn't happen."

"Even if they hurt you? Joey! This has been going on for seven years!"

"Eight."

"Whatever. You should stop this!" She said, her voice full of passion and anger. Joey didn't respond. He merely turned over and pretended to be asleep. Serenity glared at his back, then fell into a troubled sleep.