Chapter 16 – The Truth is Almost Out

Well, well, well, folks, here is the final chapter. I mean it this time. No more to follow unless it's an epilogue. Right… ;)

Recap…

Joey woke with a snort and sat up in his sleeping bag. Checking the surroundings with a sweep of his golden eyes, he brought his watch close to his face to check the time.

Four fifteen a.m. Another hour until he could put his plan into motion.

Grinning goofily, he settled back into his sleeping bag after making sure that the small alarm on his watch was still set for five fifteen.

Someone was going to be surprised in the morning.

The bun in his hands was soft and warm. Tomato and lettuce glistened with crystalline drops of moisture. A hint of ketchup and mustard seeped down from the grilled perfection of meat and Joey had to hold back a tear of happiness at the beatific sight before him. His gaze was rapturous, noticing nothing except for the mouth-watering temptation that awaited him. He didn't even think it odd that when he reached for a napkin (that appeared out of thin air) and tucked it into his t-shirt collar that his hamburger still floated at eye level, with nothing supporting it.

"Joey, I have to tell you something," Téa said, her face hovering at the edge of his peripheral vision.

"Not now, Téa," he replied, his golden eyes flicking over at her before re-focussing on his version of heaven.

"But Joey, it's important," she cried, her aqua blue eyes shimmering.

"Jus' let me enjoy dis fer a minute more," Joey whined, his eyes crinkling as the masterpiece of meaty perfection slowly morphed into a slice of pepperoni pizza. The crust was a flawless golden brown. The cheese was soft and bubbly at the edges of the slice. The pepperoni was crisp but tender. The lines on his forehead smoothed out and Joey grinned then.

Pizza was his second favourite food.

"It's really important, Joey! You would want to know this," she cried again, her aqua blue eyes beginning to flash with a hint of anger.

"You'd better listen to her, Wheeler," Kaiba's gravely voice commanded from somewhere behind him.

"Kaiba? What the hell are you doing in my dream?" Joey asked, hands holding the slice of pizza before him, ready to take a bite.

"You're asking me like I'd understand what you're dreaming about? Get real, Wheeler!" Kaiba's aqua eyes flared with contempt as Joey grimaced. Even in his own head, Kaiba was a jerk.

"Whateva, Kaiba-boy," Joey replied, his voice taking on Pegasus' sarcastic nickname for the teenage billionaire. "I've got a surprise planned for you, anyways."

The slice of pizza morphed instantaneously into a can of shaving cream. An exact replica, in fact, of the one hidden in the bottom of his backpack. Too bad Joey didn't realize it before he tried to take a huge bite out of it and got nothing but metal between his lips. Rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand, he glared at dream-Kaiba.

"You really do have a death wish, don't you Wheeler, if you're planning on pulling that childish stunt on me." Kaiba's trademark smirk grew wider as he continued. "Besides, we have a truce remember? Break that and I won't be the one killing you."

A larger than life image of Joey dressed in the pig costume flashed across the space behind Kaiba's floating head.

Téa's bodiless head came into view once more, her eyes cold and hard as her gaze bore into him. It was uncomfortable to see her normally smiling eyes look so determined to make his life a miserable living hell.

"You really want me to do something worse than the pig costume, don't you?" she questioned/threatened, her head growing ever larger until it filled his entire field of vision. No larger than a mouse, Joey cringed under the weight of her unusually demonic stare.

"Hey!" Joey finally stood his ground and glared back at dream-Téa, who seemed slightly taken aback at this sudden show of courage. "This. Is. MY. Dream! You're supposed t' be nice t' me!"

The angry set of her mouth softened and an amused chuckle rumbled forth, confusing Joey even further. What the hell was going on here? Why was she in his dream anyways? And what was the deal with Kaiba?

"Looks like the mutt's finally grown a backbone," Kaiba quipped, almost daring Joey into saying something foolish.

"Seto!" Téa's amusement ended as she stonily glanced at the young CEO. Why was she calling him by his first name? Joey hadn't a clue. "Oh, Joey. This is your dream. The two of us, Seto and I, are your subconscious representations of your conscience."

"Huh? You guys are a what of my what?" Joey scratched his blonde mop of hair as the head floating before him coalesced in a shower of multi-coloured sparkles to normal size and added a body.

"Joey," her soft, melodious voice surrounded him, calm and soothing, "I'm just – we're just – trying to stop you from doing something stupid."

"Really? Even him?"

"Even him," she agreed. "This is just like the picnic at my house. I told you to stop eating and you didn't listen to me. Remember what happened after that?" She saw the sheepish grin and the hand in the hair again and continued. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

"So yer sayin' that if I do what I wanna do t' Kaiba, den, sumpthin' bad will happen t' me?" Joey stopped and his eyes grew wide as saucers as understanding lit the dusty hallways of his mind. "An yer jus' tryin' t' stop me from doin' sumpthin' that will get me in trouble."

"Yes, Joey. Exactly." Téa's smile lit the horizon and she threw her aqua eyes in Kaiba's direction. "And you thought he wouldn't understand."

"I'm impressed the mutt figured it out so quickly. I figured it would have taken him at least a half dozen tries to get it through that wet noodle he calls a brain." Kaiba crossed his arms over his chest and sauntered away into the mists of Joey's dream, white trench coat flaring dramatically behind him. A voice echoed back to them from where Kaiba had just disappeared. "Think he can figure out the rest of what you wanted to tell him or would that be asking too much?"

"Drama queen," Téa muttered, more to herself than for Joey to overhear, judging by the more-than-fond smile on her lips and the adoring gleam in her eyes.

"Téa, what's he talkin' 'bout? What other stuff did you want to tell me?" Joey asked, not quite able to understand what dream-Kaiba was blabbering about.

"You know what he meant, Joey. You just refuse to see it. Stop trying to make up excuses and reasons and open your eyes," Téa replied, turning away from a bewildered Joey Wheeler and moving towards the mists Seto Kaiba had disappeared into.

"Excuses? Reasons? For what?" Joey asked pleadingly. "C'mon Téa, quit bein' so cryptic."

"Joey, I'm your conscience, not your brain. Use it for once and just try to understand." Before she disappeared completely, Joey watched her turn her head around and focus her blue eyes on him once more. "Well, Joey, have you decided to pull the stunt or not? I'd like the answer before I go and you haven't told me yet. I really hope you give me the answer I want." She patiently stood and waited for his response, her eyes full of questioning.

Should he or shouldn't he? He himself hadn't really decided. But if she wanted an answer, he'd give it to her. It just needed a little more thought.

The shaving cream prank was a deep-seated tradition. The first Christmas after they'd all met, it had begun. Yugi had been the first recipient at the tender age of fourteen. The look he'd seen on a young Yugi's face (laughter, embarrassment and innocent fun) still brought tears of mirth to his eyes. An absolutely priceless moment caught and remembered forever in the annals of his memory.

Joey himself had been the victim of his own prank the next Christmas when the party had been held at Téa's. He'd been a good sport about the whole thing too, and laughed as hard as everyone else at his own predicament. After all, why should he be angry when he was, technically, the one who had started the whole thing? Mind you, he'd paid Yugi back for it later when he'd purposefully flushed the toilet while Yugi was in the shower.

Last Christmas, before the world had gone insane, Tristan had been none too appreciative at being woken up with a face full of shaving cream. None could blame him either since he had a tendency to sleep with his mouth wide open. The taste of cucumber-melon shaving cream (compliments of Téa's personal shower) was obviously not very pleasant if one could judge from the spluttering roar that burst out of his mouth.

But ever since that last Christmas, things had changed. There hadn't been time, nor energy, to enjoy a private get-together with the crazy goings on that made them all band together to save the world. But save it, they had. And now it was time for a reward. A change, too. Joey wasn't the same guy now that he had been three years ago when he'd pulled the last stunt. He'd grown up a lot and maybe it really was time to break old habits.

Not to mention, the more he thought about pranking either of the Kaibas, the more he realized that he really did like living with all of his limbs intact and all of his teeth where they should be. Filling either of their faces with shaving cream would also break the long-standing truce between himself and the elder Kaiba. Granted, less than twelve hours shouldn't be considered a long time but since it was with Seto Kaiba, a teenager known for his temper and dislike of those he considered beneath him, it should qualify as a Guinness Book of World Records record.

"A'right, I won't pull de shaving cream prank. I'm going t' start a new tradition. Sumpthin' dat everyone will be able t' appreciate." Lightning roared and thunder flashed as Téa's eyes lit up in triumph before disappearing into the grey mists at the edge of Joey's dream.

A whispery voice called out to him, "Remember." That single word echoed back a hundred times louder.

"Remember."

"REmember."

"REMEMber."

"REMEMBER!"

"…BER!"

"Be!"

"BEE!"

Something about the echo was annoyingly familiar, he thought, as the sound managed to drag him out of his strange dreamscape. Blinking blearily in the semi-light of the basement, Joey realized why it was so familiar. The alarm on his watch, muffled by the sleeping bag covering his arm, was merrily announcing that it was time to get up and start the new tradition he'd just dreamed about.

Pushing in the button on the side of the watch before it woke everyone up, Joey brought the watch to his face.

Five-fifteen on the dot.

Perfect timing. He could get started on his new stunt and then wake everyone else in an hour to help him finish up. The only thing he had to worry about now was food poisoning.

Seto sighed sleepily as he snuggled a little more deeply into the warmth of the wonderful girl sleeping next to him, her head comfortably nestled in the crook of his arm. Opening his eyes only halfway, the murky light of dawn filtered into her room, dimly highlighting golden tones in Téa's hair. Brushing a strand of hair away from her face, he let his fingers caress the silky softness of her cheek.

Until the day she'd come into his office, somehow both nervous and confident, holding her ridiculously little purple purse before her and giving him an unexpected present, Seto hadn't realized that there was something missing from his life. Money, power, fame, glory – he had it all and he'd thought it was enough. But, somehow, this girl sleeping beside him had woken something inside him.

Something that had made him think about her constantly through that week before he'd gone to thank her for her present. And everyday after that…

Something that had made him want to see her smile and laugh and know he was the cause.

Something that had made him want to kiss her in the snow for the first time.

Something that had made him want her. Period.

And he would be embarrassed to the ninth level of Hell if she, or anyone else, ever found out how often he'd daydream about her.

A soft mumble that sounded suspiciously like a breathy 'Seto' made him smile as he gently kissed the tangled tendrils of her golden brown hair before extracting his arm from underneath her. The alarm would go off any second. His internal body clock was flawless.

He had never been late yet…

Bringing his watch to his face, he blinked once or twice to clear the sleep from his eyes. It couldn't be right.

…until now.

Could it, somehow, already be that time? Or was there something wrong with his watch? Did he sleep through the alarm?

Slipping out of his bed as quietly as he could, Seto crept to the window and checked the watch face again.

It hadn't lied to him.

It was now, officially, 8:03 am Christmas morning.

SHIT!

The whole point of setting the alarm was to rouse him before anyone else would be awake so he could slip back into his sleeping bag in the basement unseen. Now that it was this late, he hadn't a snowball's chance of doing that. Everyone was probably already out of bed.

Not just them, either.

Mokuba would definitely be up. He would want to be up early, today of all days, since it was Christmas. A time of opening presents and stuffing himself full of good food and sugar. Maybe his little brother would find some way to cover for him. He knew what was going on between himself and Téa and he seemed to like the idea. All Seto could do was hope.

He had to find a reason to be on the second floor. Being caught in Téa's room was not a good way to introduce everyone else to the idea of the two of them dating. It was supposed to be done slowly, deliberately. Yugi already knew, but he was more mature than the other two dimwits Téa called friends. Those two were liable to hit first and ask questions later.

The proverbial light bulb finally flashed over his head as he thought about the reason he needed. If he could make it to the bathroom without being seen…

A crash in the hallway downstairs and the thunder of a muffled "Crap!" broke his train of thought. At least he'd been right in knowing that everyone was awake. If he'd tried to sneak back downstairs, he would have been caught for sure. Other muttering voices and the smell of fresh brewed coffee told him everything he needed to know.

The bathroom was his only chance.

And he'd better get there.

Fast.

"Tristan! Watch dose big, clumsy feet of yours! So help me if ya make me drop dis tray…" Joey exclaimed, keeping his voice as low as possible while still sounding quite pissed off at his friend. Waking Téa up before they'd made it to her door with her Christmas breakfast was not the best way to introduce her to his new 'tradition'.

Dream-Téa had made him see the folly of trying to pull the shaving cream stunt on either of the Kaibas and Joey realized that it was a childish act. This Christmas, Joey was going to do his best to make a new start with the New Year only a week away. He'd keep to the truce if it killed him and start something different in the process.

Honestly though, it hadn't been too difficult. Kaiba seemed to have mellowed out in the last week or so. Ever since Téa's last party, the one where they'd spent the day decorating her house. Dream-Kaiba's reference to "getting the rest of it" still had him perplexed. Why had dream-Téa insisted that he already knew but he refused to see? What was he supposed to open his eyes to? Joey shrugged his shoulders and continued to head for the stairs leading up to the second floor and Téa's bedroom.

He really hoped she liked his pancakes.

Mokuba, who'd been following silently behind them, decided to pipe up at that moment. "Guys, why are we doing this again?"

Yugi chuckled as he turned to look at the younger Kaiba. "Because breakfast is the only thing that Joey can cook that tastes like food. Besides, since we're on clean up duty today, we might as well make as huge a mess as we can or Téa will do it for us." Seeing Mokuba's eyes widen in comprehension, Yugi wondered what was going on in that devious little mind of his. The younger Kaiba had protested, quite vehemently in fact, to the idea of waking up his older brother. The threat of Seto Kaiba being grumpier than a Blue Eyes with heartburn had staved off an onslaught of 'good morning' hollers in the basement. Joey had been more than pleased to leave Kaiba out of the making of Christmas breakfast. Anything that kept him and Kaiba as far apart as possible was fine by him. It was easier to keep to the truce that way.

Mokuba, by far the craftiest of the four of them, had realized instantly upon waking that Kaiba was not present in the room. He'd had to think fast lest they'd discovered his absence and started to wonder as to where he'd gone. Seto would have been proud at the grand acting display he'd put on to make them leave his sleeping bag in peace and the wide berth they'd given it as they'd trudged up the stairs to finish helping Joey get breakfast ready.

"And I decided t' start dis new tradition instead of keepin' to de old one," Joey added, carefully balancing the tray between his hands as he took the first step up the long staircase to Téa's room.

"What was the old tradition, then?" Mokuba asked curiously. His ears perked up to hear whatever it was Joey was going to say. Maybe it was something he could use on Seto at a later date to make his life more… 'interesting'.

'I, too, would like to know about this tradition. My own upbringing was steeped in it, for I was the Chosen One of Ra,' Yami stated, his voice deeply thoughtful as he turned to regard Yugi with solemn, violet eyes.

Yugi laughed before he replied, keeping one ear tuned to Joey's explanation should he start to exaggerate for the sake of his young audience. 'It's not that kind of a tradition, Pharaoh. Joey's tradition is more of a prank than anything else. Before… everything happened and we saved the world, Joey used to be a lot less mature…'

Yami's covered up chuckle interrupted Yugi and he had to smile. 'Believe it or not, he used to be way worse than he is now. Anyways, in those days, he loved to pull pranks and practical jokes on people. Christmas time was the time he used to use shaving cream to…'

'What is shaving cream?' Yami's perplexed eyes transfixed Yugi for a moment before he burst out into mental laughter.

'It's stuff that you use to help you shave. You don't know what it is because we don't have any at my house. To continue, if I may,' Yugi's voice held a bit of an amused edge as he looked at the Pharaoh and saw embarrassment flush his cheeks a pretty hue of pink. 'At night, or early in the morning, Joey would take the shaving cream and spray it into their hands. The stuff is light and airy so they can't feel it if they're well and truly asleep. Then he'd tickle their nose…' Yugi didn't have to finish saying anything as Yami nodded in understanding.

'I see. I remember when I was younger. I used to play a similar 'prank' on my teacher when he would fall asleep during my lessons but instead of this shaving cream, I used honey. I can still remember him chasing me through the palace hallways.' Yami sighed and chuckled again and Yugi couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy.

"…You shoulda seen Tristan's face when he woke up, spluttering and grumbling. It was priceless, I tell ya!" Joey finished. Mokuba laughed loudly, not only in reaction to Joey's retelling of the story but to warn his brother that they were coming. He should have figured it out earlier but he'd been too distracted at the thought of Yugi, Tristan and Joey finding him missing.

Seto was in Téa's room. He'd bet a month's worth of his allowance on that.

"Do you think Téa will mind all of us coming into her room first thing in the morning and waking her up?" Mokuba asked, stalling them on the stairs again.

"As long as we come bearing presents, including coffee, it shouldn't be too bad," Yugi replied, knowing that Téa was not a morning person. Why was Mokuba being so loud? Could it have something to do with not waking up Kaiba… Snapping his fingers mentally, Yami and Yugi both realized at the same time what was going on.

Uh oh.

If Kaiba were in there and they burst through the doorway, Joey was going to have a heart attack.

"I tink she'll like dis new tradition," Joey said, his voice happy and cheerful. It would mean that he'd never gotten Téa with shaving cream but he could live with that. Taking a glance over at Tristan, he saw the moon-pie eyes and knew he was thinking of Julie. He should have been jealous that his best friend had gotten the girl first but the more he thought about it, the happier he was. At least he wasn't chasing his sister anymore.

Tristan noticed Joey's glance at him. There was no way that Joey could know what was going on in his head. The wide eyes were not because he was thinking about Julie or Serenity or that cute girl at the tree stand. The wide eyes were because of what he saw in the hallway ahead of him. What he shouldn't have seen at all.

Light in the hallway. More specifically, light in front of Téa's door. For all the years he'd known her, Tristan knew she slept with her door closed tightly. Something wasn't right with this picture.

He also had a niggling feeling that it had something to do with the only member of their group not present.

Seto Kaiba.

A loud burst of laughter from the stairwell alerted Seto to their presence. They were too close for him to make it to the bathroom down the hall in time.

He was trapped in Téa's room. Much as he wanted to crawl back into bed with her and hide, he realized that it would be impossible. He was just going to have to face the truth.

"Do you think Téa will mind all of us coming into her room first thing in the morning and waking her up?" came Mokuba's loud voice.

That gave him an idea. One that would hopefully save his butt and keep the peace between them all for a little while longer yet. He only had one shot at this and he'd better make it convincing.

Time to act as he'd never acted before.

Yeah, lied again. Decided to finish this chapter off since it's been so long in coming. My computer was in the shop for over a week so I was computerless and Internetless for a while.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Please read and feel free to review.

Thanks again and as always I am,

Aphrael21;)