Kiawna: And we are back! Thank you, Rowan and Sakura for the correction in the spelling of Marik ::has watched too much Canucks hockey, thinking of Marek Malik:: Yay. Wow, I started this chapter sooner than I thought.

Orli: Yeah, well, Yami is upstairs. Still not believing that Yugi kissed him.

Kadsuki: Yes, I am back. And I am confused.

Kiawna: ::glomps him:: Kazu-chan! It's okay. You're allowed to be confused.

Kadsuki: Mind filling me in?

Orli: Um.are you going to be here for the rest of the story?

Kadsuki: Probably.

Orli: But you don't even know about Yu-Gi-Oh!

Kadsuki: You're point? I am going to remain here until she finds that book and completes our fic.

Kiawna: ::still clinging to him:: That could be a while. ::sighs:: oh well. Now let's see. What has happened? The basics of it are that Joey and Seto have got a project in Comparative Civilizations, Geology and History.

Kadsuki: ::blinks::

Kiawna: Now.they are about to.. Wait, that's this chapter, Gomen, sorry I can't tell you! I will allow you all to read. ::sits back and shuts up::

Orli: Ok, since she is shutting up. She does not own YGO, (or Kadsuki, who is from Get Backers for those who don't know), although she wishes. Second um.the chapter.

Chapter 4: Just some Duels

Yug and the others turned left as Joey turned right on his street. He honestly didn't want to go home, but he had math homework to do before going over to Kaiba's and if he didn't get it. Which he probably didn't, then he would just bring it to Kaiba's place to get some help. He let out a breath as he walked up the stairs of their puny apartment building.

He stopped at his apartment door, number 24. Pressing his ear against the door, he listened to see if he could hear his father. Nothing. All he could hear was the radio. Joey silently prayed to the gods that he wasn't home. If he wasn't home, then he couldn't get a beating for just coming home from school. That happened often. He came home and his father would yell at him saying he was late, then he would start beating on him. Hell, Joey could rush home as fast as possible from school and he would still be late. Sighing he opened the door, getting prepared to at least protect his face from getting punched. He didn't mind his gut being punched because no one could see the bruises there, but if his face got bruised, he would have to come up with an excuse as to why he had those bruises. Kaiba would know, but his friends had no clue that his father beat him.

Joey glanced around the room before quietly closing the door behind him. He shut it as quietly as possible in case his dad was asleep, then went to his room and locked the door behind him. So far, so good, now he just had to worry about getting out of here at quarter to six to get to Kaiba's. He left his bag by the door and dropped down on his bed. 'I think I will just do math at Kaiba's.' He thought, 'I mean, he has the same math I do.' Joey began to slowly doze off, when there was a sudden pounding at the door. "Who's there?" He asked, just out of habit. He knew it was his dad.

"It's me son." He sounded sober. Which was a first. "I was just letting you know I was going out. I won't be back until late."

"Um," I said slowly. Since when did he tell him that he was going out? "Okay. Um, dad?"

"Yeah?" He asked through the door, he didn't seem to be mad that he hadn't opened the door. 'Odd.' he thought. "I am going over to a 'friends' to work on a project around six, and I'm not sure what time I will be back."

"Ok. Thank you for telling me, Joey. Try to be back by ten though. Later." Joey heard footsteps and the front door shut.

"Okay, that was really odd." He told the empty room. "Since when did he sound so sober?" Joey shrugged it off, just glad that he didn't pound on the door, yelling for him to open it. Just then his stomach growled. "Oh well. At least I could get some food without having to turn my back every couple of minutes. No seconds."

He left the safety of his room to go to the kitchen. On the way there he saw that the answering machine was flashing. 'Hmm, wonder who would be phoning here.' It read that there were 2 new messages. He pressed the play button. 'Hi there, you have reached the Wheeler's residence. We obviously aren't here to take your call, so please leave a message after the beep and we will get back to you ASAP. Thanks.' He heard his own voice say then, beep.

"Hello, Mr. Wheeler. I am just phoning you to let you know that the meeting for Alcoholics Anonymous has been moved to 4pm today instead of tomorrow. So we hope to see you there."

Joey blinked in surprised for a few minutes. Alcoholics Anonymous? So that is where he keeps disappearing to once a week. And that is why he had been getting fewer beatings each week. He smiled and continued onto the next message.

"Hey Joey. How's it going?" Joey smiled at the sound of his sister's voice. "I was just phoning to let you be the first to know that I'm flying up from Tokyo for the winter vacation. Mom will be coming up around Christmas, but I will see you in about a week. Love ya. Bye."

His grin widened even more. 'Is it just me, or is my life getting better?' he thought. 'I'm working with Seto on the three projects we have, my dad is getting help for his alcohol problem and my sister is coming up for the winter break. How lucky can I get?' He continued to the kitchen, not bothering to erase the messages in case his dad wanted to hear them.

He looked in the fridge for anything to eat. Success, leftover pizza from last night, and it's cold. The best kind of pizza. He took it to his room. It was 4:30, 1 hour before he would go to Seto's, but since he had nothing to do, he called Yugi, seeing if he wanted to do something for an hour.

"Hello?" He heard a voice on the other line.

"Hey Mr. Motou. Is Yugi there?" Joey asked Yug's grandpa as politely as he could.

"Hello, Joey. Yeah, he and Yami are here. Just a moment." He left the phone to go get Yugi. He didn't know how, but he forgot that Yami lived there too. Don't ask me how, seeing as how they are in separable, but he did. "Hey Joey." He heard Yugi greet, "What can I do for you?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out?" He asked, "I have an hour before I have to go work on our project with Se-I mean Kaiba." Damn, he did it again, 'I hope Yugi didn't notice.'

"Sure Joey, should I come there, or will you come here?" He sounded a little too happy. Damn it, he probably did catch it.

"I'll come there, it's easier. That way I can just head to Kaiba's mansion from there."

"Alright Jou. See ya when you get here," Joey said good-bye and hung up the phone. 'Damn it, why do I keep calling him Seto?' He thought to himself. 'Because that is his name, baka.' He heard this voice tell him in his head. Well, it was true, but he never called him that before. 'You have a crush on him. Stop denying it.' "Go away." Joey said out loud and grabbed his stuff quickly and headed to Yugi's.

The whole way he was thinking about what the voice said in his head, "You have a crush on him." Was it true? Nah, it couldn't be. 'Wait, what did I ask myself earlier? I get to work with Seto on the 3 projects I have. Damn. I did.' He sighed. 'But he would never feel the same way about me. Ugh, I have to get to Yugi's quickly.'

Joey hurried to Yugi's and looked at my watch. '5:00pm. Approximately half an hour to do something. Maybe we can duel. He'll kick my ass, but oh well, who knows; maybe my Red Eyes will help me before he gets his Black Luster Ritual out. Shit! I forgot, I gave Red Eyes to him.' Joey groaned. 'Oh well, I'll use Insect Queen if I have to. And I want to duel him, not Yami. And nothing like when Marik was controlling my mind.' He laughed a bit to himself. Both Malik and Marik apologized a million times each after Yami beat them at the Battle City Finals.

He walked into the Game Shop, to see Yugi's grandpa standing at the counter. "Why, hello Joey. How are you?"

"I'm feeling great, gramps." He replied with a smile on his face. "Yugi and Yami upstairs?"

"Yes, but first. I want to give you a couple of cards." He beckoned Joey to come to him. "The first isn't a very powerful card. And I haven't seen anyone, but Kaiba use it and that hasn't even been very often. But here." He handed it to Joey. It was Hyozanryu. "And, here are the other two." He also handed me Turtle Oath and Crab Turtle. Joey was speechless. "Wow, gramps." he began, "Thank you, but why are you giving them to me?"

"Two reasons: one, I heard you gave your Red Eyes to Yugi and I thought you might want another Dragon back in your deck besides Baby Dragon and Thousand Dragon. The second reason is they are 'thank you' for helping Yugi save the world."

"Aw, gramps, you don't have to do that. I would have helped even if it wasn't to save the world." Joey said starting to feel emotional. He cleared his throat. "Thanks again gramps." He said before going upstairs.

Once he reached Yugi's bedroom he stopped. He then looked at the 3 cards Yug's grandpa had just given to him and took out his deck. 'Won't Yug be surprised when he sees these.' Joey stuck them in his deck and knocked on his door.

Hearing him say enter, Joey went into his room. "Hey Yug. I only have about 20 minutes now, so how about we duel?" He agreed. "No helping Yami!" He told him as he sat down beside Yugi. He held up his hands, "Now why would I do that? He knows how to duel." He replied in an innocent voice. Joey just glared at him as they shuffled each other's decks. When that was finished, he grabbed his first hand, telling Yugi that he would go first, he grabbed his first card. 'Hey, not bad.' He thought to himself. 'I have scapegoats, Skull Dice, Gearfried the Iron Knight, Alligator Sword, Time Wizard and Fairy Box. That will help.' He laid down his Gearfried in attack mode and set jos two traps down, Fairy Box and Skull Dice. With that, the duel began.

Kaiba got in his car and headed to the nearest dollar store to get the poster paper. They had 2 other classes tomorrow that they just finished units in, so he decided to buy 5 pieces instead of just 3. He didn't have to pick Mokuba up, because he was going over to a friend's place, so he just went straight to the store. Kaiba parked in front of it and went inside.

The poster paper was near the front, so he didn't have to go far into the foul smelling store. 'Now I know why I don't buy things from these places more often.' He said to himself. He looked at the different colored poster paper. 'Hmm. Black would be good for our planet project. And I suppose this light blue would look nice for our History project.' Kaiba glanced at the other colors, looking for a good piece for Ancient Egypt. His eyes scanned over them. They finally rested on this golden brown one. 'Why does that color remind me of something.or someone.' He thought as he grabbed it for their project. As he grabbed it, these golden brown eyes flashed in his mind. "Joey." He whispered to himself and smiled. 'Yep, this is a good color.' He tried to remember the units they were finishing up in Biology and English. 'Let's see. We are finishing Anatomy in Bio. And just finishing up a novel study in English, so,' He grabbed a plain white one for Biology and a red one for English. 'That will do.' He thought and headed to the cashier. 'Hmm, this will come in handy.' He thought and picked up a pack of construction paper. He placed it on the counter to pay for it. The cashier just stared at him.

"What?" He barked at her. "It's for my brother."

"Y-yes sir." She said and quickly ran the stuff over the scanner. I looked at the total. "It comes to 7.50." Kaiba sighed and handed her 10 dollars and waited for his change. She put the stuff in a bag and gave him the change. "Thank you, come again."

"Yea right." He said under his breath. He headed back to his car and put the stuff in the passenger seat. He then turned on the radio, it was playing "I Knew I Loved You" by Savage Garden. The words had so much meaning to him. "I knew I loved you before I met you." He began singing along quietly. "I think I dreamed you into life." He continued to sing a-long until it was over. Luckily he arrived home before the next song began. He wasn't interested in Britaney Spears singing "Oops I did it again".

He parked his car and went inside. He took off his shoes at the front door and headed to his office and looked at the clock, 4:30. 'That took me an hour and a half to do. Damn, I only have another hour and a half before my puppy gets here.' I paused at this last thought. 'Damn it. Did I just say my puppy? He isn't my puppy. He probably doesn't even feel that way about me.' Kaiba sighed and sat at his desk. Staring at a blank screen he thought he might as well get some work done before Mokuba or Joey got there. Whoever comes first. Mokuba never said what time he was coming home, so Kaiba just assumed he wouldn't be home for dinner. In that case he would just order a pizza later.

Once again Kaiba sighed and turned on my computer, not really wanting to do work, which was another first. When it arrived in windows, he just stared at it. Mokuba and Joey were right. He did work too much. He had no idea why he started thinking that. 'I am a work-o-holic. I don't stop until the work is finished. And work for Kaiba Corp was never finished.' He shook his head and decided to check out his deck instead. He let the screensaver come on, a BEWD one, of course, and took out his deck. He got out of his chair and crossed the room to the leather couch and sat down.

Kaiba looked through it. His three Blue Eyes were at the top of the deck. He put them there at the end of each duel. He hasn't been able to duel since Battle City, where he lost his Obelisk the Tormentor to Yugi. In the end, he won them all. 'Or should I say Yami.' Now that he thought about it, he was glad he lost Obelisk. His Blue Eyes were what helped him beat Ishizu. He continued to stare at his BEWD. He treasured this card, as well as his deck. He had this sudden urge to duel. 'Maybe I will just duel Joey when he gets here before we start on our Jupiter project.' That sounded good to Kaiba. He looked at his watch to see what time it was. 5:45. He should be arriving anytime now. He continued to look at his deck. Making adjustments where he thought necessary. 'Yea. I'll duel Joey.' he thought. 'Maybe I will make conditions too.' Kaiba laughed to himself and thought of some good conditions.

Joey was so close to defeating Yugi. He never got his Black Luster out, but he did get Black Skull Dragon out. He forgot he owned Summoned Skull. That didn't help. Of course he never suspected he would use Red Eyes. However, he was able to get Hyozanryu out in defense mode. It surprised Yugi when he attacked with his Dark Magician. He never managed to get Crab Turtle out, but he told Yugi about it.

"You got what?" He asked surprised. "Why did grandpa give you those cards? He wouldn't give them to me."

"Well, you do own all three Egyptian God cards." Joey pointed out in a matter of fact tone. "I suppose he didn't think you would use them or need them."

He sighed and said quietly, "Well it's not like I use the God cards." Joey laughed. "True, but hey, I gotta go. It was a good duel."

"Yeah. Alright Jou, see you tomorrow at school." He winked, "Have fun a Kaiba's."

"Ha, ha, ha." Joey replied sarcastically. "Later Yami." He waved and quickly left the room because Yami had grabbed Yugi and began to kiss him. Joey rolled his eyes and left the Game Shop. He headed in the direction of Kaiba's mansion. "'Have fun.' He says. "I think I can do that." Joey thought about the possibilities of what fun he could have and smiled.

Before he knew it, Joey was standing out in front of Kaiba's mansion. He felt somewhat nervous. Although, he didn't know why, he had 3 projects to work on with Seto. 'Well, I suppose it is okay.' He thought, 'I mean, we haven't been fighting. Well, not since Comp Civ any ways.' He brought up his hand to knock on the door. He was just about to pound on it with his fists when it opened, and in front of him stood a tall, blue-eyed boy.

"You made it." He said, "I was just about to go out and look for you, mutt." When the words caught up to his mind, Kaiba held his breath, hoping Joey wouldn't notice. 'Damn it. I really have to watch what I say. I can't call him that anymore.'

"Damn it Kaiba!" Joey yelled, "I am not a dog!"

He released his breath. At least he wouldn't have to worry about having to comfort him. 'Now why doesn't that thought comfort me?' He asked himself, 'Do I want to comfort him?' He thought about it for a moment then decided, 'No, I have to watch what I say, otherwise I will just end up pushing him away, and I don't want to do that.' He turned to Joey. "Well, follow me."

Joey went in and took his shoes off. He then followed Kaiba. 'This is a really big place.' He thought. He kept looking at all the pictures, mostly of Blue Eyes, on the walls. 'He really does love that monster doesn't he?'

Kaiba stopped outside his office suddenly, causing Joey bump into him. "Watch it, mu-Wheeler." He said, quickly correcting himself. 'Why did that simple bump make me want to just hold him even more than I already do?' He shook off the thought and opened his office door and went in.

Joey didn't say anything, instead he thought about what he felt when he accidentally bumped into Kaiba. 'What did I just feel there?' He asked himself as he followed Kaiba into the office. 'Where are these feelings coming from all of a sudden? I know I have had a little "crush" on Kaiba, but I thought that was all it was. It seems the more I hang around him, the deeper my feelings grow.' He sighed concluding that it was just too complicated to think about right now. Then his eyes widened seeing the office.

There were more pictures of BEWD on the walls, a few pictures of Mokuba as well. He looked at the desk. It was huge. It had a computer with a screensaver of BEWD. 'Why am I not surprised.' Joey thought and continued at the desk. There seemed to be more Blue Eyes carved on the drawers. He looked around the rest of the room. There was a leather couch, along with bookcases filled with a lot of books. Joey's eyes fell last on the table in front of the couch, with 2 chairs sitting on either end. On the table a deck was waiting. He looked at Kaiba.

Kaiba was just standing there, smiling to himself as he watched the puppy look around the room. 'He looks so cute with a look of awe on his face.' He mused to himself. He continued to look at Joey. He hadn't really been paying attention when Joey looked at him. His face turned a light shade of red when he realized that he had just been looking at Joey, and not what Joey was doing. "What is it?" he asked.

"Why is your deck sitting on top of the table?" Joey asked.

"And how do you know it is my deck and not Mokuba's?" Kaiba countered.

"Unless you gave Mokuba one of your Blue Eyes, then I have good reason to believe it is yours."

Kaiba looked at him confused at first, then looked at the deck. 'Damn it. I forgot to put it face down.' He thought as he looked at the deck. Sitting face up on it was, indeed, a Blue Eyes White Dragon. He sighed, "Yea, it is mine." He said. "I haven't dueled in a while and I was hoping that you would duel me. If you brought your deck?" He raised an eyebrow questionably, but he was hoping inside.

"Of course I brought my deck. I was at Yugi's dueling him before I came here." Joey explained, making Kaiba relax secretly.

"So, will you duel me?" Kaiba asked, probably sounding too hopeful. Joey raised an eyebrow, "Why?" he asked back, not knowing what Kaiba would want if he lost. Kaiba just looked at him. "I told you," he explained, "I haven't dueled since battle-city and I just wanted to see if I could still beat somebody.

Joey crossed his arms across his chest. "And you want to beat me?" He asked quietly. Seto looked at him, almost sympathetically. It was almost true. He wanted to have a duel against Joey, but mostly to see if he had gotten any better since the finals and if he can hold his own without his friends to cheer him on. "How are you so sure that I will beat you?" He finally asked. All Joey did was shrug, still having his arms crossed. 'He looks a lot stronger that way. He probably got those muscles fighting off his pathetic father.' The thought just made him angry inside, how could anyone hurt something, or in this case, someone, so beautiful. It just wasn't right. He had an idea, although, he didn't like it very much. "How about you duel with my deck, and I will see what I can do with your deck." He suggested hesitantly. "That way, if I beat you using your deck, you'll know that you will be able to defeat me. And if I lose, then I will see what I can do to help you make your deck better." He looked at Joey, hoping that suggestion would make up his mind.

Joey just looked at him and blinked. After about a minute, he finally said, "The great Seto Kaiba is willing to allow me, a worthless mutt, to touch his precious deck."

That hurt. He had never called Joey a "worthless mutt". He looked at Joey, and this time, he showed sympathy in his eyes. Seto looked into those soft, golden brown eyes. He then said quietly. "I have never called you a worthless mutt, nor do I think you are." Joey looked back at him, and he continued, "Nor do I think that you are a second rate duelist. You beat Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor, hell, you even beat Mai Valentine, and we all know she isn't easy to beat." Joey blinked a few times, then whispered, "how did you know I beat Mai and Rex? I never dueled them at battle-city. The only ones I dueled were Weevil, Esparoba and Mako."

'Oh, great, how am I going to answer him without telling him that I was secretly watching all his duels?' Kaiba thought, then he decided to just lie, "Yugi and Tristan were talking about it in the halls during lunch one time, and I just over heard it. That's all." Joey raised an eyebrow, 'That was a stupid lie. Joey hangs out with them everyday at lunch. Damn it, I should have said in between English and Physics.'

'Why is he lying?' Joey thought to himself, 'He shouldn't have a reason to lie. Oh well, I won't push it.' He didn't. "Fine, we will duel using each other's deck, but no looking at the cards. We have to go on pure talent."

Seto breathed out. He had been holding his breath hoping that Joey wouldn't press the subject. "That is fine by me." He went and sat down in the chair across from his deck. Joey sat in the chair in front of Kaiba's deck. He took out his and handed it to Kaiba and then took Kaiba's deck and shuffled it. When they had both shuffled the decks, they each grabbed their first hand. "Shall I go first?" Kaiba asked. Joey nodded.

Kaiba picked up the first card. Joey's deck wasn't that bad. He had in his hand Baby Dragon, Time Wizard, Graceful Dice, Graverobber and, what is this, a Turtle Oath? He stared at the card. Joey never had any ritual cards. He shrugged it off temporarily. The next card he pulled was Flaming Swordsman. 'This could be a very interesting duel.' He thought. "Okay," I announced, "I set one card face down and send out Baby Dragon in attack mode." This time, winning against Joey was going to be hard to.

Joey picked up a good first hand; Monster Reborn, Lord of D, Flute of Dragons, polymerization, and Battle Ox.

Kaiba set his cards down. 'Baby Dragon, huh?' I thought. 'He probably has Time Wizard in his hand as well. Those two always seem to be together.'

"My turn." He drew his card. Another Flute of Dragons, Yugi once told him what Kaiba did with these. To summon Obelisk against a couple of rare hunters, he sent out Lord of Dragons, then attached 2 Flutes to him as well. Allowing him to summon 4 dragons. "I send out Lord of Dragons, and attach not one, but two Flutes to him. Allowing me to summon 4 dragons. If I am not mistaking." Joey looked at Kaiba. He nodded to my statement. His eyes were wide in shock. He laughed quietly to myself and looked for his three Blue- Eyes. He found them and set them on the field. He then looked for his Hyozanryu. "A ha." Joey set that on the field. "Now, I place 2 cards face down and end my turn."

He didn't attack because he wanted to see if he could turn this around. They were playing by battle city rules, so he couldn't have summoned those 4 dragons without sacrificing a total of 8 weaker monsters. Joey looked at Kaiba again. 'He is really kind of cute when he is shocked.' He thought and watched as he drew his next card.

Kiawna and Orli: ::Laughing hysterically::

Orli: I don't think I can see Seto singing along to a Savage Garden song.

Kiawna: Yeah, same here.

Orli: ::giggles a bit::

Kiawna: There, Chapter 4 done. I just have to figure out what is going to happen with the duel. The Comforting Begins was the original title. But then, I changed my plan while I was writing. Instead of Joey's dad beating him, I decided to put him in rehab. Although, he might get a beating later, sorry Jou fans.

Orli: It depends on if I help or not.

Yami: ::has finally come back downstairs::

Orli: So, you are awake.

Yami: Yes. I can't even remember why I was asleep.

Orli: Well, Kiawna here was writing a story and you were getting all am- mmph ::Kiawna clamps his mouth down::

Kiawna: ::whispers:: Don't tell him, he might faint again. ::she smiles at Yami::

Yami: ::eyebrows raised:: I was getting all what?

Orli: Nothing, you can always read this chapter if you want it to happen again.

Kiawna: ::hisses:: ORLI!

Yami: ::very confused:: x.x

Kiawna: Never mind

Yami: I want to know ::crosses arms and pouts::

Kiawna: Just tell them to review.

Orli: Then you can read the chapter.

Yami: ::sighs:: Fine. Okay everyone. You know the drill. Use your mouse to click that pretty blue button at the bottom.

Kiawna: Thank you. ::hands him a Yugi doll and he faints:: Damn it. Thank you in advance for your reviews and thank you for your previous reviews. I love them and you all! - Now I gotta help Yami.