Thank you all reviewers! You are the best! Oh, just in case any of you are wondering why Joey isn't filthy rich after the tournament, I'll let you know! The dubbers are fools! Fools I tell you! In the real show, Joey gets 3 million YEN. This is around 15,000! After buying Serenity's eye operation, he'd have maybe a thousand left at most, and this would quickly be spent! Okay! On to the next chapter! (Oh! I hope you all are impressed about how fast I update! ^__~)

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"You're insane!" Joey protested as he and Mai snuck around the huge music shop.

"Aha! There it is!" Mai crowed when at the very back, a beautiful electric guitar sat on display. Joey moaned.

"You aren't supposed to touch those! Look at the sign!" Mai waved away his protests. After first making sure no one was looking, she handed him the guitar.

"Play something for me." She said, smiling. Joey reluctantly slipped the strap over his head. He fingered the strings lovingly, then played a loud chord. A few people in the store glanced his way. He blushed, and made to put the guitar down, but Mai stopped him. "Please, Joseph?" He sighed.

"Fine." He began playing "Born to be Wild" very loudly. Most of the people in the store began walking over and staring with awe at this nobody playing so well. The manager finally noticed the disturbance and rushed over. He began to stop Joey, but Mai pointed to the door of the shop. Many people were coming in to see who was playing. This was great for business. The manager sighed and walked away, leaving Joey to play in peace. Joey finished the song, and everyone applauded. He looked up, and when he saw them, he resembled a deer in the headlights. People were even tossing coins to him.

          "Oh no… really… I don't want…" He protested. But they kept applauding, and demanding an encore. He looked around, then winked at Mai. He began playing the familiar tune of "So Happy Together." Mai laughed. Joey began singing the song; his voice was low and smooth. Mai really enjoyed hearing it, and she didn't want it to stop. When the song came to an end, she wanted to make him play it again, but the manager said they had to leave. Mai sighed. Oh well. Another day perhaps.

          They walked out laughing.

          "You don't know how good it felt to play a guitar again." Joey said. "I didn't realize how much I missed it."

          "You were great!" Mai said, enthusiastically.

          "Thanks, Mai. That really cheered me up."  He said, grinning. "I guess I've been pretty low lately."

          "What are you doing today?" She asked him.

          "Well, I was going to take Christy out, but I guess that isn't going to happen." He said, sighing. "Maybe I'll take Serenity to the beach. It's a nice day." He looked above him at the cloudless sky.

          "Are the beaches nice here?" She asked tentatively.

          "Oh, yeah! They're great! Very warm." He said. "Hey, why don't you come along? We could have a picnic or something." Mai grinned.

          "Really, Joey?" She asked. "I wouldn't be imposing or anything?" Joey shook his head.

          "Nah, you're okay, Mai. Look, I'm really sorry I didn't come to pick you up from the airport…" He was blushing slightly as he talked.

          "Oh, it's fine, Joey. I know I've never been that nice to you. But you're a great guy, let's be friends now." She said, smiling. Joey smiled back. "Do you want to call Serenity on my cell phone?" She asked, pulling it out of the glove compartment.

          "Yeah, that'd be great!" He said, taking the purple phone from her. He dialed the number of the friend's house that Serenity had been sleeping over at. He quickly told her their plan, and said he'd pick her up in an hour. She was overjoyed to go to the beach, as it was her favorite place in all of Domino.

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An hour later, as they drove to the beach with a picnic and beach chairs, Serenity and Mai chatted happily about clothes, boys, and movies. They arrived at the sparkling water, and set down their food. After eating Mai lounged on a blanket reading a magazine, and Serenity and Joey began making a huge sandcastle.

          Joey had gone to get some water for the castle in a bucket. Mai wasn't paying attention, and suddenly he snuck up behind her and dumped the bucket over her head.  Mai yelled as the cold water soaked her. She leapt up, laughing, and dragged Joey by his ear to the water and dunked him in. He then grabbed her leg and pulled her into the water too. She landed about an inch away from him, and they sat there for a minute, their faces mere inches away, as the waves lapped around them. Simultaneously, they blushed and looked away.

          "Joey!" Serenity called. "While you're down there, could you get more water? The main wall is falling down!" Glad for a task, Joey jumped up, and filled the bucket, as Mai wrung out her soaking wet sarong. 

          They continued talking and laughing at the beach, and they watched the sun go down over the water. Joey sat with his arm around Serenity as the glorious colors faded from the sky. The drove back home, happily talking and laughing. Mai dropped Joey and Serenity off a few blocks away from their apartment, and made her way back to the hotel.

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The next day Joey lay alone in his room, listening to the radio, and reading Howl's Moving Castle, from time to time he would glance at the picture that sat on his bedside table. It had been taken many years ago. It had his father, mother, him, and Serenity, all standing together in front of the Statue of Liberty. They were all smiling, and he and Serenity were doing peace signs. His parents had their arms around each other, and his mother was resting her hand on Serenity's shoulder, and his father on Joey's. Joey treasured that picture. It was the only picture he had of them as a whole family. He went back to his book. He heard his father come home from work, but didn't bother getting up. After a while he heard a knock on his door. He jumped out of bed, and opened it. His father, who looked very tired, walked in.

          "Er… Hi, Dad." Joey said to him. "Um, why are you here?"

          "Can't I come in to my son's bedroom once in a while?" His father asked, and sat on the bed. "I haven't been in here for years." His eyes traveled around the walls taking in all the posters. He pointed to two posters that were right next to each other, one of the Flame Swordsman, and another of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. "What are those things?" He asked. Joey smiled, glad to have something he could really talk about.

          "Those are called 'Duel Monsters,' Dad! It's a really cool card game where you have these monsters and they battle each other, and you use magic and trap cards to power them up, and destroy your opponents monsters!" He said, enthusiastically. "And get this, Dad! I'm the runner up to the champion of the world!"

          His father laughed. "Well, that's something to brag about; second place in a card game. Well you were always good with cards; you used to like gambling if I remember correctly." Joey nodded.

          "I still do, Dad. But it's nice to have a card game that it's legal for me to play." He pulled a box out from under his bed, and handed it to his father. "Those are Duel Monster cards." His father opened the box, and examined the cards.

          "Interesting." He said. "How do you get these things, anyhow?"

          "You buy them in booster packs. They have nine random cards, and you can add them to your deck." His father nodded in understanding, and continued examining Joey's room. His eyes fell on the family picture.

          "You still have that?" He asked.

          "Yeah, it reminds me that we were a real family once." Joey said, sadly. His father glared at the picture for a minute.

          "We were never a family." He said, angrily. He stood, suddenly, and knocked the picture off the table, and crushed it beneath his foot as he left the room.

           Joey fell to his knees by his treasure. He picked it up gingerly, since the glass from the frame was everywhere. The picture had been ripped right down the middle by his father's foot, so on one half was his mother and Serenity, and on the other half was himself and his father. Joey felt tears threatening to leak out of his eyes. He got out some tape and tried to mend the picture, but all it ended up doing was making it worse. He finally cut himself and Serenity out of the picture and taped those pieces together. They would always be family, no matter what his father said. He threw out the remaining pieces depicting his parents. He didn't need them anymore.