Joey had gotten all the way through fifth period with no problems. He'd hung out with Kaiba for part of the day and his friends the other half. He was on his way to sixth when a fist shot out of no where and knocked him into the lockers. He dropped his stuff and spun around to find who had punched him. He was expecting some peer to be standing there, not his father. He backed into the lockers and stood there scared out of his mind. He didn't want a confrontation in the middle of the school hallway with his father.
"You snuck out last night boy!" his father bellowed, "I didn't give you permission to leave the house!"
Joey felt so small right now, his father was causing a scene and EVERYONE was watching.
"Well explain yourself!" his father yelled, before slapping Joey hard across the face, splitting open the bruise from yesterday.
Blood trailed down Joey's face, mixing with his tears. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't even look at his father.
"Answer me!" growled his father.
"No," said Joey.
"What did you say?" his father growled angrily.
"I said NO," said Joey defiantly, glaring up at his dad.
"Why you little fuck!" yelled his father, as he attacked Joey.
Joey found his father's hand around his throat and his body pinned on the lockers above the ground. He tried to pull his father's hand away, he couldn't breath. Everything was going blurry, his lungs begged for air. His father was going to kill him, right here in the school, in front of everyone, in front of his friends, in front of Kaiba.
Seto walked around the corner as he heard the commotion in the hallway. His eyes grew wide in horror at the sight before him. Joey was pinned to the locker with some man's hand around his throat, straggling him. That must be who's hurting him. Seto stalked up to the man and grabbed his shoulder.
"Release him," said Seto.
"Fuck off," said the man, glaring at Kaiba.
This pissed Seto off, he hauled back his fist and punched the man in the face, knocking him away from Joey. The man looked shocked and Kaiba smirked at his victory.
Joey hit the floor, gasping for air. His vision came back and he looked up at Kaiba. His body trembled, everyone was watching him, watching Kaiba save him. He didn't want this. He didn't want anything except to die. He got off the floor and took off down the hall, pushing past people.
Seto watched as Joey ran away, Kaiba realized he'd done the wrong thing in helping Joey. He found watching Joey take off was the wrong thing to do. The man he had punched managed to get to his feet and tackle Kaiba to the ground. Seto was extremely angry, who in the hell did this man think he was?
"Stupid little punk, getting involved in my son's business, well you won't once I get rid of you," said the man.
"Fuck you," said Seto pushing the man off of him and kicking him in the side for good measure as a bunch of police officers arrived. Seto watched as the officers handcuffed the man and take him away. That was Joey's father? he thought.
Joey lay in the middle of the city park on the grass and cried. Everything would be worse at home, now that Kaiba had gotten involved. His father would be furious and would no doubt finally let his buddies have their way Joey. Joey lay there upset and hurt, he didn't want to move, he just wanted to lay there and die.
Joey didn't know how long he had lain there until he finally sat up and looked at his watch. It was six o'clock. He realized it was getting cold too and he had left all his stuff, including his coat, at school when he'd fled. He stood up and headed for the nearest restaurant, he was hungry and he knew he had enough money for a least a burger.
Seto saw Joey walking down the street and quickly skidded to a stop. He wasn't sure he should confront Joey after what had happened today.
"Hey Joey!" he yelled since the blond was on the opposite side of the street.
Joey looked in the direction of where his name had been called. He saw Seto and looked shocked. He noticed the brunette was holding up traffic to talk to him. He quickly crossed the street and leaned against the driver's side door.
"Yeah?" he said.
"Hop in we'll go get something to eat," said Seto.
Joey looked at Seto warily before walking around the car and hopping into the passenger seat. He was glad he put his seatbelt on, Kaiba had road rage.
Joey and Seto sat in a very expensive restaurant. It had been Kaiba's idea even though Joey said he didn't have to pay for all this.
"Joey you deserve this after what happened today," said Seto arguing with Joey.
"Kaiba this place is expensive, why couldn't we have gone to a burger house or something?" said Joey.
"First off I'm paying for your meal, second off no one will think to look for you here and third..." Seto paused, he couldn't think of a third reason for once in his life.
"And?" said Joey waiting for Seto to finish his sentence.
"And third you'll be living with me for now on," said Seto, it was the first thing that came to him.
Joey's mouth fell open, he was going to what with Kaiba? Did he just say live with him? In his house? With him? Joey sat there gapping like a cod fish.
Seto realized what he said and his mouth almost fell open too. He looked at Joey and laughed, not a cold laugh, but an actual kind laugh, like he was happy or something.
Joey shut his mouth and laughed too.
"That was good Kaiba, real good. So why don't you tell me the real third reason," said Joey thinking Kaiba was joking.
"That was the real reason, course it wasn't a reason, it was a statement," said Seto deciding Joey living with him couldn't be that bad, as long as no one found out about it.
Joey couldn't believe Kaiba wasn't joking. He's really going to let me stay with him. But I don't think I should. If my father's buddies find out where I'm staying they could hurt Kaiba or even Mokuba and I don't want to put them through that. I should just get a job and get an apartment. That would be best.
"Kaiba I can't stay with you. As much as I'd like to I can't. My father's not the only who abuses me, he has friends too ya know. If they find out I'm staying with you they could hurt you or Mokuba and I don't want to put you two through that. I need to be on my own, handle my own problems. I can't let anyone get involved. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if someone got hurt because of me," said Joey looking down at the table.
"Joey," said Seto running a hand through his hair, "I don't know if you realize it or not, but you'd be in more danger living by yourself than if you were living with me. As for Mokuba and I, I won't let anything happen to us, I'm more than capable of taking care of my brother and myself."
"Kaiba, I just don't think I should," said Joey looking up at Seto.
"Well I'm not giving you a choice," said Seto looking right back at Joey.
Joey glared at Kaiba slightly, but their food came and they remained silent for the rest of the meal.
Joey walked through Kaiba's house, it wasn't as big as he had expected it to be. Yeah it was three stories, but he had been expecting a huge castle or something. He couldn't find any spare rooms. Kaiba must not have any guests spend the night, he thought. He jumped as Kaiba came around a corner, he hadn't been expecting that.
"Oh there you are," said Seto.
"You scared the crap outta me," said Joey eyes still wide.
Seto laughed before saying, "I'm guessing you've noticed there aren't any spare rooms."
"Yeah," said Joey, "is there a reason for that?"
"Only Mokuba has friends spend the night and they normally stay in his room or they all sleep in the living room," said Seto.
"So is that where I'm gonna sleep?" asked Joey.
"Actually," said Seto, "if you don't mind, you can stay in my room."
Joey looked at Seto, he could tell Seto had totally changed his attitude toward him after what he'd found out this morning. But Joey could tell there was something else but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"You've been acting strange since I talked to you this morning, what's up?" asked Joey.
"What!" said Seto shocked, "I'm fine, I'm not acting strange."
"Yeah, yeah you are," said Joey walking up to Seto.
Seto took a step back. Even though he was the big bad Kaiba, didn't mean he didn't have secrets. One being that he was gay, the other that he really like Joey. But he wasn't about to tell the blond that, god only knew that Joey would hold it over his head forever and ever. The blond would probably tell the whole school too, not that he couldn't say it wasn't true, but he wasn't one to lie.
"How am I acting strange?" asked Seto.
Joey noticed that Kaiba had taken a step back. Is he backing down from me? Is he afraid of me?
"Kaiba why're you backing away from me, if I come closer to you are you going to continue to back up?" asked Joey walking towards Kaiba, watching as the brunette took a few steps back.
Seto realized what he was doing and stopped, but Joey had him backed up against the wall of the adjoining hallway.
"I...I...What's the big deal?" asked Kaiba, now he was just making a fool of himself. Damn it! What the fuck is wrong with me? Why can't I stand up to him? I've never backed down to any one, yet now I'm backing away from him because I have the hots for him? Come on Kaiba snap out of it!
Joey just shook his head and walked away. He figured Kaiba would tell him what was wrong later.
Seto walked into his bathroom and turned on a hot bath. Well actually it was like a hot tub, it was huge and only had hot water and there were water jets you could turn on. He peeled off his clothing and slid into the hot water. He went under, let the hot water soak into his whole body. He surfaced and yelped as he came face to face with Wheeler.
"What..." he started, "Why are you in my bath?"
"One it's huge, two if we bathe at the same time it conserves water and three I think we need to talk about what went on today," said Joey sitting on the engraved seats of the tub.
"What do you mean talk about what happened?" asked Kaiba.
"In the hallway a couple of hours ago," said Joey, "I said you were acting odd."
"I'd rather not talk about that," said Seto.
"Hey Kaiba I ain't doing this, I talked to you, now it's your turn to talk to me," said Joey waiting for Kaiba to talk.
"Unfortunately I know for a fact you would not understand what I would like to tell you," said Seto.
"Like what you're gay," said Joey jokingly.
Seto's eyes widened, as Joey said that. How in the world did he figure that out? Am I that obvious? I thought I could hide anything. Seto didn't say anything to Joey. Joey noticed Kaiba's silence.
"You're gay!" exclaimed Joey realizing why Kaiba was so silent, "But I was only cracking a joke, I...I can't believe you're actually gay."
"Shut up Mutt!" growled Kaiba.
"Whoa watch the name calling would ya?" said Joey, "So who is it you've got the hots for? Is it someone at school? Or is it a college boy? Or do you already have a lover?"
"It is someone I go to school with and they happen to be sitting in a bath tub with me," said Seto glaring at Joey as he sat down as far away from Joey as he possibly could.
Joey's mouth dropped open for the second time today. He likes me! Me! Why in the world would he like me? Was Yami right when he told me last week that Kaiba liked me? I mean, I've always liked Kaiba, but I sure as hell didn't expect this.
"Me? You like me?" said Joey.
"Well there's no point in me lying now is there?" said Seto blue eyes growing dark.
"You could have but then I wouldn't be able to tell you that I'm also gay and that I like you," said Joey.
Now it was Seto's turn to have his mouth fall open. If he's lying I'll fucking kill him if it's the last thing I do.
"You lie," said Kaiba.
"No," said Joey, "If you don't believe me call Yami, I talked to him about it last week."
But I talked to Yami too. Is that why he asked me to help Joey? Is he playing Mr. Matchmaker? That'll really piss me off.
"No, I believe you," said Seto, he didn't know what else to do let alone say.
"Now that that's settled...ya wanna play a game?" asked Joey.
Seto's mouth fell open again. We just admitted we liked each other and that we're gay and he asks me if I wanna play a game? What the hell happened to kissing and hugging and gropping? Kaiba was too shocked to think now.
"I guess," he said hesitantly.
"Okay, let's see who can stay under the longest," said Joey, "Last one under's a straight boy."
Seto laughed and followed Joey under the water. What he didn't know was that Joey had something planned and that plan was to kiss him. Joey's lips locked with his under the water. The blond's lips were soft and gentle. There was no lust or hunger in them, just gentleness. Unfortunately Seto was so shocked that he jump up and ended up losing the game.
Joey came up laughing, "You...you should've seen the look on your face." He grabbed his sides as his lungs hurt from his laughter.
Seto growled before grabbing Joey and pulling the blond into a kiss, sneakily sliding his tongue into Joey's mouth, exploring it. Joey's eyes got big for a moment, but went back to normal as he kissed Kaiba back.
Joey lay in Kaiba's bed, the silky sheets felt wonderful against his hot skin. He ran a hand through Kaiba's soft mousey hair. He felt so safe with Kaiba, so protected.
"Joey...I know I'm probably going to ruin this moment but what exactly did your father do to you?" asked Kaiba, looking up into Joey's big brown eyes as he lifted his head off of the blond's chest.
"He just abused me, you know like he beat me up," said Joey, looking down into Kaiba's blue eyes.
"He never raped you or anything like that?" asked Seto as he searched Joey's eyes.
"He didn't, but..." Joey trailed off.
"But what?" asked Seto urging Joey on.
"But his friends did sometimes, if he was really mad and didn't want to beat me, he let them have their way with me," said Joey closing his eyes as painful memories came back to him.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, but you shouldn't of had to go through that kind of stuff either," said Seto moving up to gently kiss Joey's forehead, before rolling off the blond and pulling Joey into his arms.
"It's okay, I'll live at least, that's really all that matters to me," said Joey snuggling closer to Seto, "Besides I have you to protect me."
Seto's eyes got big momentarily and he looked down at Joey, about to say something, but the blond was already asleep. Seto smiled and pulled the covers tighter around them, before drifting off himself.
