"It's only ridiculous if you don't believe it." Kaiba shook his head annoyed.

"Why'd you have to bring this up now?" he scowled.

"Because I thought you cared about your brother and that you wouldn't want to do anything that would hurt him," Joey pushed.

"And I'm not. If Mokuba had a problem, he'd tell me."

"Well maybe he hasn't found the right time...or the right way. I just think you need to talk to him."

"Fine." Kaiba pushed a button to page the driver. "Pull over," he ordered. The limo pulled over and Joey looked at him confused. "Get out." Confusion warped into surprise.

"What? I don't even know where we are," Joey protested.

"Walk that way to the end of the street and you'll know," Kaiba pointed. Joey narrowed his eyes at him as if looking for something inside of him that couldn't be seen, but that wasn't really there at all.

"You can't be serious."

"I'm always serious. Get out," the order became more forceful. Joey reached for the door handle. "I'll call you." The words only made Joey more confused and he looked at Kaiba again as if looking for something that wasn't too easily spotted. He climbed out of the car unsure of how he should feel.

"Don't bother. I won't be home," he said and closed the door. The limo turned around and went back the way they'd come. Joey kicked a rock that was on the ground angrily. "If I knew him differently I'd say that this was a joke. What could he possibly be thinking?" Joey shook his head and started walking in the direction Kaiba had indicated.

At Yugi's house

"Tea!" Yugi cried cheerfully as the brunette walked into the kitchen. Yami peaked out of the refrigerator to watch her sit down at the counter.

"Hey guys! I got off of work early so we could all go see Serenity together." Yami just gave a small smile and went back to looking for something to eat for lunch. "So what's been going on?"

"Not much. Grandpa came home. He said he was leaving again tomorrow to go back. He only came home to make sure everything was still whole here," Yugi replied sitting down across from her at the counter.

"What'd you do to your face? Playing too rough with Tristan again?" she joked. Yugi looked down.

"Something like that. But it's alright now," he looked up again and smiled. Yami scowled but nobody could see it through the door. Yugi may think that everything is okay now but Yami couldn't stand the thought of that. He just kept seeing Duke standing over Yugi victoriously, waiting for him to get up so he could attack again. He hated the fact that he'd been the one to start the whole thing. Well Duke really started it by making all those false accusations. Yeah, Yami just couldn't get the whole scene out of his mind.

Yesterday night

Tristan and Serenity had left early because Serenity needed to be home and Bakura had decided he had more important things to do, so Yugi, Yami, and Ryou were walking home together. The conversation at Burger World had gone fairly well. It was decided that everyone was willing to accept Yugi and Yami for what they were, with the exception of Duke of course. Tristan had just been caught off guard but with everything that was now going on with Joey as well, he'd decided it was better just to get used to it rather then lose all of his friends just because he didn't agree with the fact that they had different tastes. Ryou was okay with it for hidden reasons but finding out what they were wasn't the point of the meeting. Yami and Yugi just wanted to know who their real friends were so another situation like Duke threatening Yugi didn't happen again. What happened as they walked home was just another reason why they needed to know that.

Yugi and Ryou were having their own conversation about a game or something that Ryou's father had brought home on his last visit. Ryou was explaining how the game worked and Yugi was trying to picture it in his head. Yugi had been about to ask if he could see it some time, when Duke walked up and blocked their path. He'd said he just wanted to talk but the conversation turned from talking to yelling very quickly and Yami had said something to calm Duke down. Only it must have come out wrong because instead of doing that, it seemed to just make Duke worse. He yelled something about Yugi not being able to fight his own battles and then his fist was colliding with Yugi's face. Yami stepped in front of Yugi before Duke could attack again, and knowing that Yami could do so much worse then just give him a few bruises, he'd backed off.

There was no way that after that Duke would just want to say he was sorry. Sorry just wasn't good enough.

The phone started to ring bringing Yami's mind back to the room.

"I'll get it," he said not wanting it to interrupt Yugi and Tea's conversation. He closed the refrigerator and went over to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Yami? It's Joey."

"Joey? Where are you?" At the mention of Joey Yugi and Tea stopped talking and looked over.

"I'm not quiet sure but it's near the beach. I can hear the water but I can't seem to find it."

"Where's Kaiba? I thought you two were together?"

"What's going on?" Yugi broke in concerned. Yami motioned for him to be quiet again.

"He had to go. Could you just come get me?" Joey said impatiently.

"How can I come get you if you don't even know where you are?" Yami asked turning his back to Yugi and Tea so he could concentrate more on Joey.

"Well there's a large fish sign and the payphone I'm using is painted with waves all over it. I'll try to find the..." he was cut off.

"Joey?" No answer. "Joey?" He hung up the phone and turned back to his friends. "Do you know anybody with a car who knows their way around the beach?"