Author's Note: Argh! Sorry for the delay on this one, folks! I was halfway through with this chapter when my computer picked up a virus. Had to reformat Windows and ended up losing all but the little bit that I had squirreled away in my e-mail. Waaaah!
Minor Spoilers Warning: If you've not seen the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix (or Grand Championship if, like me, you watch the dub) there are spoilers for that story arc herein!
Virtually YoursI'm Looking for Something in Pink
Joey tried not to pout as he watched Seto make an escape with Dartz. He wished that he'd thought of suggesting that they find Weevil first. Then it would be Seto still stuck here with His Royal Pain in the Backside. Pegasus joined Joey in watching Seto and Dartz leave. "Lucky us, huh?" the vampire muttered, drawing a smile from Joey.
"Yeah," Joey chuckled. "The bad kind of luck, though." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Siegfried sulking on the couch in much the same manner he'd been at it during breakfast. His arms were crossed as he sat hunched in the corner of the sofa, scowling at the mirror. It was a decent imitation of Seto's "leave me alone" posture. Joey might have felt sorry for the guy, if Siegfried hadn't brought all of this on himself.
With most people, Siegfried's body language would have made a perfect invisible "Do Not Disturb" sign. Joey and the virtual Pegasus, however, were not most people. Joey took the far end of the couch and Pegasus draped himself over the back, both attempting a stare-down match with the unhappy Siegfried. For his part, once he realized what the two were up to, Siegfried promptly shut his eyes, depriving Joey and Pegasus of that method of annoyance.
Pegasus climbed over the back of the couch, leaning closer and closer until he was a hairsbreadth from Siegfried's face. He cleared his throat to get Siegfried's attention. Siegfried's eyes flew open, and upon finding himself nose-to-nose with the vampire, he yelped, falling backwards over the arm of the couch. "Schiesse!" he swore, and that one word opened the floodgates as he rounded on Pegasus and Joey, shouting at them both in his native tongue.
Leaning forward, chin resting on his hands, Joey tried to pick out which words were the cuss words, but in the end he had to admit to himself that the whole tirade could very well have been nothing but swearing. Seto probably would have understood every word, Joey decided. "So, could you run that by us again in English?" Joey asked when Siegfried paused for breath.
With a frustrated growl, Siegfried stormed out of the house. As the door slammed hard enough to rattle the windows, Joey and Pegasus high-fived each other. The victory was short-lived, however, as Joey began to realize that Seto would not be pleased to discover Siegfried was roaming unescorted through the game. A Seto tantrum fit in the category of "Very Bad Things to Avoid in Life." With a sigh, Joey rose from the couch. "Come on. Let's go get him."
"I thought you wanted him gone," Pegasus muttered as he unfolded himself from his seat.
"I do," Joey sighed in response. "But take a moment and imagine Seto's reaction when he finds Siegfried gone and us telling him that we don't know where he's at." Pegasus beat Joey out the door. From the porch they scanned the landscape, but Siegfried was already out of sight. Figuring that they could cover more ground if the split up, Pegasus began checking the forest and Joey made his way into the town.
Even though Lilyvale was a beginner town, Joey loved it. Lilyvale was the kind of quaint farming town that, if it had been real, it would've been the sort of place where everyone knew everyone else - the exact opposite of Domino City. Lilyvale was, in Joey's mind, the Mayberry of the Age of Heroes world.
Joey began his search by going methodically from house to house. He made full use of the unspoken fact that NPCs rarely cared where a player went or what a player did in their homes. He searched in closets and beneath beds as he charged from room to room. Occasionally, he stopped a player and described Siegfried, but still his search came up fruitless.
When Joey left the fifth house he'd tried - the home of a grumpy old bat named Gammer Gurton and her servant, Hodge - three players materialized out on the street. "Weird," Joey muttered to himself. There weren't any monsters around Lilyvale capable of defeating a group of three - even if the three were beginners. Joey flushed guiltily as he realized that there were no monsters that strong except for the three from the vampires' castle. And if the sphinx was with Weevil and Dartz was with Seto, which meant Pegasus must have run across these three.
Feeling responsible for the players' demise, Joey made his way to the group, deciding to treat them to some time at the inn to heal them more quickly. "Hey!" he greeted cheerfully when they accepted his chat request. "You guys must've run into a whopper of a monster out there!"
"A stupid, day-walking, blood-sucker," the fighter of the group growled unhappily, confirming Joey's worries. Pegasus must have decided that he wanted a newbie snack. So much for the faint hope that the vampire wasn't to blame.
"Come on. Let's get you guys to the inn. My treat," Joey offered. Giving the newbies a chance to rest and some gold was the least he could do since he hadn't told Pegasus to leave players alone. As he led the way to the inn, Joey added, "By the way, I'm Merry."
"Merry, huh?" The fighter smiled. "Well, I'm Tristan. He's Yugi, and she's Tea. We've never played this game before, but we're trying to find a friend, and he plays." Joey's feet stopped working as the fighter introduced the group. He felt like going to the nearest wall and smacking his head against it.
Joey just knew that if Seto found out Yugi was in the game, he'd pin the blame on Joey somehow. Well, Joey had been the one to tell Tristan that "weird shit" was happening. If he'd taken time to think it through, he should have realized that his friends would come looking for him to make sure the "weird shit" wasn't anything he couldn't handle.
For the time being, Joey decided to keep his identity to himself. If his friends found out that he was Merry, he knew he'd never hear the end of it - especially from Tristan. When they entered the inn, the group froze, staring at the bar. Siegfriend von Schroeder was slouched on a stool, attempting to drown his sorrows in virtual ale. Joey sighed in relief - now that Siegfried was no longer MIA, there was one less reason for Seto to want to kill him.
"Are you sure this isn't the 'weird shit' Joey was talking about?" Joey could easily imagine Tristan gaping in fishlike shock at the computer screen. "I mean, I half expect to run into Pegasus next!"
Joey groaned in realization. If his friends hadn't run into Pegasus, then Dartz must have been the vampire to kill them. But he was supposed to be with Seto! Surely Seto wouldn't...
No, Seto would.
Just as Joey resolved to give Seto a stern lecture about killing friends, a private chat request from Tristan appeared. Joey accepted reluctantly, thinking he'd been found out. He braced himself for his friend's laughter. "Hey, beautiful," Tristan's voice purred. "When this is all over, what do you say we get together for a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I know how to show a girl a good time. Picture it - you, me, and my couch!"
Joey's mouth dropped open in shock at Tristan's indecent proposal. Clenching his fists to keep from throttling Tristan right then and there, Joey tried to think about how a girl would react to such comments. Coming up blank, Joey changed tactics and tried to determine how Tea would react. That did the trick! Joey pulled back his arm, winding up for the mother of all slaps.
A hand grabbed Joey's arm, and he was pulled back against someone's chest. "Is there a problem, Merry?" Seto asked as he wrapped his arms possessively around Joey. Glancing around, Joey saw that the vampires flanked Seto. Tristan closed the private chat, scooting behind Yugi and Tea.
"Nothing I can't handle, Professor," Joey murmured as he leaned against Seto's chest. For the moment this was better than slapping Tristan. Let him think that "Merry" had a kickass boyfriend who'd come kick his ass. Though if Joey found out that Tristan had been talking to his little sister like that, there would be hell to pay.
Seto merely nodded, his expression grim as he glared at Joey's friends. Joey wondered how much of this was Kaiba's ice cold "holier than thou" act and how much was his "nobody hassles the people I care about" act. Reading Seto's emotions, however, was an exercise in futility. "We should go," Seto murmured. "I've got to get some work done today." Joey nodded and Seto turned his attention to the vampires. "You two take that fool back to the house."
Grinning wickedly, the vampires snuck up behind Siegfried and hauled him off the stool. The ignored his indignant, slurred sputtering as they dragged him off. Once the three were out the door, Seto logged off. Joey put on a smile for his friends. "I bet your pal is fine," he told them. "If he wasn't, well, I'm sure he'd let you know. Friends help each other out, after all. So don't worry too much." Joey hoped he hadn't given himself away as he returned to the real world.
Stretching, Joey carefully climbed out of the virtual reality pod. He'd learned from the first time not to bump his head. It felt good to be back in his own, familiar body. Though being Merry was fun, she wasn't him. She was somebody Joey got to pretend to be.
As Joey looked around to get his bearings, he saw Seto already waiting by the door. How the guy was able to adjust so quickly to the change from virtual body to real body, Joey couldn't begin to guess. Though Joey suspected that the fact that Seto wasn't changing genders might play a part. "We going to let the roach stay in there all day?" he asked as he stretched.
"He's fine where he is for now," Seto murmured with a faint smirk. "We can drag him out for lunch."
"So you're planning on eating today? Quick! Someone call the press!" Joey chuckled as he crossed the floor to Seto. In response, Seto pulled Joey against him, touching his finger lightly against Joey's lips. Joey crossed his eyes to watch that finger for a moment. Then, with a devilish smirk, he planted a quick kiss lightly on Seto's fingertip.
Seto's face reddened briefly and his eyes widened in shock, but quickly the ice prince mask reformed. Still, Joey felt pleased with himself. He'd gotten a reaction, and that was always a rare treat where Seto was concerned. Joey was so pleased that he let Seto grab his arm and drag him off without a protest.
When they reached Seto's office, Seto relieved Mokuba of paperwork duty. Figuring they were going to be in for another dull rest of the day, Joey started up his laptop to check on his virtual pals. Soon he was looking into Dame Chat's home. Siegfried was once again sprawled miserably across the couch, the vampires having successfully managed to drag him away from the virtual lager. "I hate this place," Siegfried moaned. "I want to go home!"
After several minutes of Siegfried's "woe is me" act, Seto snarled and jammed his pen into his desk with such force that it remained standing straight up. "You selfish bastard!" he bellowed. Joey watched on the screen as the vampires dashed for the safety of the bedroom and Siegfried sat up on the couch. "You, you, you! That's all you care about! Nevermind that your little brother is the one in the hands of this monster!"
Siegfried made a dismissive noise in the back of his throat. "He is just an old man, Herr Kaiba, not the boogie man. How dangerous could he possibly be?"
"How dangerous?" Joey watched Seto jerk off his tie, worrying over the way his voice rose, as if it were bordering on hysteria. But that couldn't be right. Seto Kaiba was never hysterical. The tie was tossed aside, followed shortly by the suit coat. Seto's fingers fumbled madly with the buttons of his shirt.
Just as Seto seemed ready to rip the damned shirt off, Joey moved to help. Much to his surprise, Seto didn't try to smack him away. Button-by-button, bit-by-bit, the pale, scarred flesh inched into view. Joey stared at the skin that should have been smooth and flawless, but was instead streaked and puckered. Now Seto shoved Joey aside as he pulled free of the shirt. Bare from the waist up, he executed a slow turn in front of the computer screen, allowing both Siegfried and Joey to see that the back was even worse than the front.
"Mein Gott!" Siegfried gasped, his face echoing the same mixture of horror and anger that Joey felt churning inside.
"Do you see how dangerous one old man can be now?" Seto sneered mockingly. "When Gozaburo decides he's ready to train an heir, he will demand perfection. Anything less will be punished. Your brother will be leashed like an animal, forced to study day and night. Any time he makes a mistake, Gozaburo will be hovering right there, ready to take a riding crop to his back for the tiniest error. If he does well at his studies, Gozaburo may allow him a few hours sleep at night, provided he is not hurting too much to sleep. But if he does not, then Leon will be kept awake night after night until he can meet Gozaburo's standards! He will train your brother in martial arts, supposedly to hone body and mind. In actuality, Gozaburo will be using these lessons to beat any and all resistance out of Leon. Your brother will be alone. Gozaburo will not permit friendship, for friends are weakness. He will be told that he is stupid, worthless, weak... And Gozaburo will be the only example of strength he has to follow. This is how dangerous one old man can be!"
Joey shook at Seto's description. This was what Seto had grown up with? With that kind of psychological baggage, it was a miracle he was even half as well adjusted as he was. As Seto re-armored himself in his clothes, Joey shot a glance at Mokuba. The child's face was carefully blank, but when he noticed Joey watching, he nodded his head in confirmation. Yes, this had been Seto's life.
"Herr Kaiba," Siegfried said softly when he found his voice; Joey was still searching for his. Seto glanced in the direction of the computer screen, expression completely unruffled, as though his outburst had never happened. "Herr Kaiba, if there is no other way... If Leon cannot be protected from Gozaburo... Kill my body. Wipe out the monster that inhabits it."