Author's Note: I do not own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh characters used in this story.
A Dog's Life
It started like any other morning. The sun came up, the breakfast smelled fantastic and yet again Joey asked Yugi to come over… At two o' clock.
Serenity shouted from the down stairs kitchen.
"Hey Joey, Yugi's gonna be around in a couple of hours, get up!" She ordered.
He wrenched his eyes open and tried to stay awake but as he failed to keep his eyes closing he also failed in his mission.
" What about a giant doughnut?" Joey mumbled. Slowly he scuffled out of his double bed, wrestling with the covers as he climbed down.
As he walked to the middle of the room to reach for his clothes, he smelt the most familiar aroma of food.
"Mmmm…" Joey pondered "Sis! What's for breakfast?"
"The full English fry up!"
"Wahey!" Joey thought. He hadn't had a full English breakfast for quite a while now. Joey forced himself towards the cupboard, choosing his most snazzy clothes before racing towards the stairs following his nose down to the kitchen.
As he sat down to the table, Serenity passed him his plate. It was crammed with eggs, bacon, tomatoes, waffles and sausages… sausages!
Joey stared hard and long at the sausage, expecting it to fall off the plate and off the table with the face Joey was giving it. It reminded him of Kaiba, and that reminded him of how he was treated by him. Ever since he met him he called him a dog.
"Why?" he questioned himself "I don't lie down all the time, do I?"
Stabbing the sausage with all his might, he imagined the banger to be Kaiba.
"Why does he torment me!" he exclaimed, cracking the plate with his fork.
"Who torments you dear?" His mother asked.
"Nothing…"
Ding Dong! Rang the doorbell.
"Huh?" Joey slurred, "Oh that must be Yug" He rushed from the table chair to answer the door for his friend.
"Hey Yug, how've you been?" He chuckled.
But to his dismay Yugi wasn't there. Instead his best mate Tristain Taylor stood before him.
"Err… I don't know about Yugi but I'm ok." Tristain laughed.
"Trist, bud, what are you doing here?
"Well I heard that Yugi was coming over so I thought that I might jump in too… actually he's just coming, I saw him down the road."
"Come in then pal" Joey backed off making way for Tristain.
Walking down the corridor, Tristain started speaking once he reached the kitchen.
"Hey, where's my favourite girl Serenity?" He asked.
"I know you want her Trist, but back off for a while huh?
"Ok, ok… you know Joey, you're too protective over her" Tristain told Joey.
Coming from out the fridge with a jar of pickles, Joey looked back at him.
"Oh really? I mean look at what happened in the past, I'm not gonna let her get kidnapped"
Joey slammed the fridge door shut, still eating his pickles.
"Whoa Joey! What's biting you?" Said Tristain, slightly star struck.
Joey pulled up the table chair and sat on it limply, not bothering to sit up.
"Sausage incident" He murmured
"Sausage? Must have been a bad sausage…"
"Don't mock me, I'm not a dog!" Joey shouted.
Joey turned away; he could feel the anger burning in him. Why was he throwing it at Tristain though, his best mate?
He started to cry; just thinking about Kaiba drove him to insanity.
"Joey?" Tristain whispered, "Are you alright bud? You need to de-stress, come on, what do you want to do?"
"I'll just stay here for a while," he answered back.
Through tears, he could just think of what Kaiba said to him, 'Yes Joey, lie down…lie down like the dog that you are!' That was on Duellist Kingdom, if his friends weren't there for him, no one would have helped him.
Joey finally picked up the courage to ask the question,
"What do you think of Kaiba?" he asked.
"I think he thinks too much of himself" he answered.
"Heh, yeah, that's what I think, but only that he's a right plonker n'all!" sputtered Joey
Tristain walked to Joey and stood up beside him and the fridge.
"Is this what's been bothering you? Seto Kaiba?"
"Yep," Joey blurted out "Pretty silly huh?"
Ding Dong! The doorbell rang again. Tristain walked towards the door and then turned again towards Joey.
"Look I'll get that, you help yourself up, ok?"
Joey nodded and headed towards his room.
He remembered this morning, he remembered how he left his room, happy.
That feeling was gone now. He could only feel sadness, loneliness and fear.
Downstairs, Yugi came into the house, but he couldn't meet him in this state, not yet. What if he feared Kaiba for the rest of his life?
Joey slowly turned into a blubbering mass of tears. Why couldn't he help it? Because it didn't stop. He would have to just give in and remain as Seto's little puppy dog.
Turning to the wall on the top part of his double bed, and thumped his head and wailed.
In the kitchen everything could be heard.
"Tristain! What is wrong with him?" Yugi demanded
"Seto Kaiba has been crossing his mind all morning"
"That's been bothering him. The Kaiba show-off! How did it start?"
"I don't think he'd want me to tell you"
Yugi looked up to the ceiling, shaking his head, thinking of how to sort this mess out.
He stood up from his seat and walked to the door.
"Where you going?" Tristain enquired.
Yugi looked up to the ceiling once again.
"I'm going to try and help Joey"
After finishing his sentence, he rushed upstairs towards Joey's room and the sobbing creature in the bed.