A/N: Woot! Inspiration deserves some recognition! I'm free from probation, so I present to you a late Christmas present: This chapter! Enjoy!
Dragonlady222: Thanks for the luck.
Amyrose300: Yeah, it was pretty bad, which is why I took so long updating. I hope you're still here!
LP-lova210: Thanks, and here's a chapter to say I'm sorry.
Aki-Hotaru: I'll be sure to tell Monique you love her role in the story... Eggos kick ass!
Lilrubydevil: Yeah, I overlapped the author's note with this chapter, I hope you like it!
Azarath, Raven of: I'm glad you love the story so far! It's the best I've done!
Jupiter529: Yes, being grounded really sux!
Cat demoness Gin: Oh, wow! Did I really get you hooked on Yugioh yaoi again? Sweet! I was trying to keep Kisara from pissing people off, I guess it didn't work out so well...XP
Enjoy, peoplez!
Chapter 12: Hungry Like A Wolf: An Extravagant Gala, A Bigot Mother
(Mental Note: Whenever someone is talking to Jou's escort, they are talking in English because the guy doesn't know Japanese.)
Jou smiled his wolfish grin as he was escorted down the red carpet to the brilliantly decorated ballroom by a young man.
"Isn't this cool, Dustyn?" Jou snickered at the distraught look on the young man's face.
Dusty pouted his famous pout. "Dude, this isn't cool." Jou knew that Dusty would be very uncomfortable, but it was a last minute thing. He wanted a male date to the ball and needed a cute one immediately. He ran down to Monique's apartment begging for some of her connections but unfortunately too late to do so. Hating the look on Jou's face, she offered to allow him to take her famous skater boyfriend instead, Dusty, to the ball with the promise that he will be on his best behavior.
All in all, Dusty was a cute guy, but sort of contrasts with his roguish qualities compared to the clean shaven gentlemen in the ballroom. He had his wind swept, dirty blond, shaggy hair pulled back with jel and his slender qualities from rapid skateboarding covered by a last minute two hundred dollar suit that was rented. And after practicing the mannerisms of a royal function, he was ready to go, alongside his equally handsome counterpart, Jou, who wore an expensive black suit with a small silver earring on his left lobe.
Now, in any heterosexual's position, Dusty knew he was scarred for life. He was escorting a male to a ball, not to mention, the illegitimate boyfriend of an unmerciful, powerful, CEO. He had just hoped to god that no one would recognize him and send his reputation skyrocketing down the press regarding his sexuality.
He above all else, denied this crazy scheme only to have his beloved girlfriend tell him that she's breaking it up with him if he did not do it. Grudgingly, he took Jou down the stairs to the brightly lit ballroom, his mouth in a thin line.
"I don't have to dance with you, do I?" Dusty hissed quietly, his skater facade showing in his features.
"Not unless I tell you to," Jou whispered back, already scanning the crowd for Seto and Kisara. Hearing a quiet groan from his escort, he answered. "If you're good tonight, you may not have to. Just show a little possession and the night will end quickly, I assure you."
Finally seeing them, they moved pass the many rich businessmen and elegant women, (Dusty scowled at them. He sincerely hated rich people.), toward the spotted couple.
Seto didn't know what the hell Jou was doing, standing so close to his escort like that. He was practically hanging onto him!
Seto wore a very expensive whole black suit with a black dress shirt and dark red tie while his date Kisara wore a beautiful looking, shimmering blue dress to match her eyes. But he didn't pay attention to that...
...Jou was simply beautiful in his attire.
Jou had noticed Seto's subconscious drooling and hooked onto Dusty's arm even more tightly, he heard a growl come his way.
Dusty shifted uncomfortably but managed to keep his cool. How he wanted to break something expensive...
"So," Seto said gruffly, starting a conversation with Jou's escort. "Where'd you meet Katsuya?"
The dirty blond closed his eyes to will the characteristics of his gentleman counterpart. He was used to making many famous impressions for laughs, but somehow, acting like an idiot would get him killed.
Jou covered for him. "He's a British friend of Monique's, aren't you Dustyn?"
Dusty stiffened, but only for a moment. Having a British accent was one of his forte of hilarious impressions, and he remembered using it a lot to make his girlfriend laugh. He guessed he can give it a try.
"Yes I am." Dusty proudly said in his best British accent. Unfortunately, the sound ended squeakily like a boy on puberty. Seto quirked his eyebrow.
Jou laughed. "He's hilarious!" Even Kisara stifled a polite giggle behind her hand.
Dusty let out an inward breath, but stopped short of the intense gaze of the powerful CEO. Sure he was used to his girlfriend's sister's kicking him in the butt, (literally!), but she knew when to draw the line and this guy looked like he had never even heard of a line!
Oh well, it would be Monique's own fault if he was delivered to her in shreds...
He pulled on Katsuya's arm. "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm a bit hungry. Let's eat something over there, Katsu." He added the nickname for points, and earned a sharp look from Kaiba.
Katsuya's face lit up at the mention of food and was happily being dragged while saying aloud, "I hope they have Eggos!"
Seto knew what Jou was doing and he was more than happy to play the game. He turned to Kisara.
"Would you like a dance, Kisara?"
She politely smiled but on the inside she squealed with joy. "I would love to, Seto." He took her hand and they proceeded to the dance floor, but making sure they were dancing near Jou and his escort. Seto smirked at the jealous look in his pup's eyes, leaving a Jou a tad bit agitated.
"Please?" Dusty pleaded.
"No." Jou replied.
"Why not! Come on, just a little bit?" Dusty pouted.
"For the last time, you can't count the fat people in the room!" Jou hissed in a whisper.
"But they're soooooooooo fat!" Dusty retorted.
Jou snorted and looked around for Seto. Seeing him dancing with Kisara, he turned to Dusty. "Well, since you're misbehaving, you gotta dance with me."
"Wha! Hell no!" Dusty protested. "Come on man, PLEASE! I don't want to dance with a guy! I'm comfortable around gay guys, but I draw the line when I have to dance with them. Especially a SLOW waltz!"
But it was too late, Jou had already dragged them onto the dance floor and proceeded to right themselves. They began to dance.
Jou was indifferently ignoring the stares, but Dusty got really subconscious with it. What if someone recognized him? After they finished dancing, they proceeded to stand with Seto and Kisara in a small crowd, all of them idly chatting of nonsense. Jou could feel the jealous stare of Seto Kaiba and smirked to himself.
"So as I was saying," a stocky woman continued, Jou didn't fail to see Dusty trying his best to stifle a laugh at the fat woman. "Homosexuals are forbidden by God because they commit sodomy. If they cannot produce children, then they are useless to the Lord and useless to the rest of the world. We need children to keep up religion and bloodlines. If the world was full of queers, than we would dry out. The end of the human race!"
Many nodded or murmured their consent. Others looked away uncomfortably. Jou looked at Seto and the brunet was talking to the waiter and took a glass of champagne, apparently he was ignoring the woman. Kisara looked at her disapprovingly.
"Now really, Mother. Homosexuality is slowly being accepted this time around. There's nothing wrong with it!"
Dusty dropped his jaw and mouthed 'That fat ass is her mother!' to Jou. He shrugged in return.
"That's when your wrong, darling. It's the devil's work to do such a thing, especially to another man! That's why God created women! To produce children! How can we do so if more and more men becomes queer? We would die out! It's wrong and unnatural. This world is slowly being corrupted and there's only a few of us out there that are trying to stop such nonsense!" Kisara's mother replied back with fierceness.
Jou had had enough. "I would like to argue about this subject, madam." Everyone in the group looked at him, including Seto. "Now, I'm not debater of the year, but what your saying is that God condemns homosexuals because they can't bear children. But what about infertile heterosexual couples? They can't bear children—are they condemned by God because of that?" Many people began to listen from outside of the group. "And what about single people who can't find their soul mates and they end up dying childless? Are they also condemned by God?"
"And what about pregnant teens who give their children away because they can't handle them? You don't hassle them when they're abandoning their children for their own selfish reasons instead of living up to their burdens and taking care of them!" Dusty retorted also. They looked at him.
"What?" he inquired, pouting again. "I just wanted to join the argument..."
Jou gave Dusty a reassuring smile which made Seto's blood boil and continued. "As much as this conversation is opening up people's eyes, I find your views on the subject bigot and degrading. You shouldn't worry about the world dying out. There are still the majority of the population who prefer the opposite sex. Now if you excuse me...I'm tired and retiring for the night. Good evening to you all." Happy with the gaping fish look from the woman, he pulled Dusty and proceeded to leave.
Before Jou had reached the doors, Dusty stopped abruptly. Jou looked at him.
"What's up?"
"Dusty? Is that you?" A female voice called out. He saw a pretty young woman with dark brown hair and equally darker brown eyes wearing a nice black dress walking toward them with a male escort on hand.
"Rachel!" Dusty yelped in surprise. Jou blinked.
"Are you Monique's older sister?" (1) Jou asked then covered his mouth. He was speaking in Japanese.
"Yes I am." Rachel chuckled, speaking in Japanese back at him. Jou looked at her incredulously. "What?" She asked. Suddenly realizing, she laughed again. "Oh come on! I learned Japanese years before she did! How'd ya think I can work at Japan's Square Enix if I can't speak Japanese!" She then stepped back and looked at them both. Rachel quirked an eyebrow. "Looks like I'm going to have to tell Monique that not only are you cheating on her, but you're swinging both ways as well..."
"Wha----no! Wait! Monique's the one who put me up to this I swear!" Dusty argued. "I'm totally as straight as an----"
"Octopus' tentacles." She finished for him with a smirk on her face. Dusty scowled. She ignored him and smiled at Jou. "I had heard a lot from Monique, and I'm quite a fan at the pairing between you and Mr. Kaiba." Jou blushed.
"Why are you here anyways?" Dusty asked with a grunt.
She cocked her head to the side, preparing for a squabble. Jou had heard that sometimes they don't see eye to eye, but that's mostly because she doesn't want to give up her little sister just yet. "It's a gala for the gaming corporation, dum dum. I do work for a gaming company, and one of the head ones to boot! My boss gave me an invitation because I'm more of a negotiator in the business world than he is. And look! I brought Alex along!" She cheerfully pulled at her escort's arm.
Jou looked at the handsome young man and blinked in surprise. The man was black? And with blond hair?
Rachel noticed the look on Jou's face and explained. "Alex is my bodyguard/best friend/squabble buddy! He's half black, half white! See, he's got blond hair and semi dark brown skin?" She happily pointed them out.
Alex snorted.
"Not to mention he's her childhood sweetheart..." Dusty whispered to Jou and had to stifle an awww. "Don't tell either of them that. They're both to stubborn to realize that—I mean, even though she's practically living with him!"
Rachel chose the moment to ignore the remark and continued. "He's not the muscle man of the block and I'm not really much of a fan for a lot of muscles anyways..."
"Thanks..." Alex rolled his eyes sarcastically.
"You hate parties as much as I do, don't ya man?" Dusty said in happy companionship. Alex nodded in absolute agreement. "You have no idea, dude."
"But you'd do anything for your girls, wouldn't you?" Jou said jokingly. They both glared at the floor, their manliness insulted. Jou laughed.
Rachel laughed with him. "No duh!"
After a bit of chatting, Rachel began to pull on her bodyguard/best friend/squabble buddy/childhood sweetheart's arm. "We gotta go! Jessie should be arriving about now and she wants to catch a glimpse at the Kingdom Hearts 2 Cels that I snatched from the office!"
That's when Jou realized something. "Hey Rachel?"
"Huh?"
"Would it be too hard if you can get the Kingdom Hearts 2 Strategy Guide for me? See, Seto's brother Mokuba, and okay I, would like that and since you are one of the head game designers in that area..." he stressed the gloating on her behalf. "I just thought that it would be cool ya know? For the little bro? I know it won't be out for another few months but..." he was afraid that she wouldn't be able to. But was relived at the smile on her face.
"–That's no problem, Jou. Of course I can get it to you! And if you want, I can throw in the autographs of the voice actors in there as well!" Rachel nearly laughed at the gushed out look on Jou's face. "But ya gotta recommend us to your boy-toy, okayz? We need the money! They've been cutting our salaries, even Tetsuya Nomura's(2)!"
Jou laughed. "Okay then!"
"Well, see ya guys later!" She gave out a cheeky grin and pulled the discomforted Alex along into the crowd holding what suspiciously looks like the folder carrying the hush hush cels of the popular Disney video game.
"I'm tired." Jou yawned. "We'll call it a night."
"Good!" Dusty replied in utter excitement. "Now can I?"
"Huh?"
"Please?"
"...whatever. Be my guest. Just make sure you only do Kisara's mom's car. You wouldn't want to hit Seto's or Rachel's car, do you?"
And thus, Dusty pulled out his skateboard to begin trucking the expensive Lincoln. (3)
Seto looked at Jou's retreating form and gave him a half smirk for a job well done. Unfortunately, the conversation jump started a lot of the women and hassled him about his male lover which gratefully, he coldly said that that was none of their businesses.
Calling it a night and after speaking with a few business associates, and after witnessing an amusing argument between a young brown haired woman, a half black half white young man defending her, and an angry boss over confidential gaming equipment that wasn't supposed to be shown in public yet, he concealed a smirk as the woman later threatened to quit and began the crocodile tears while her escort believed it true and began to yell at the man. As he took Kisara and proceeded to the limo, he could hear the boss pleading the young woman to reconsider and how he couldn't lose the head of the gaming design committee right after production of their rapidly popular game, the woman stopped crying automatically, and the escorts wild threats died down.
He let out a sigh at such an amazing evening. He made a mental note to finish what his pup had started the night before. And even if he didn't get the chance to dance with his beloved...
...he sure enjoyed the soap operas between gaming associates.
(1): I hope you guys remembered that Monique had an older sister that worked in Square Enix for Kingdom Hearts...
(2): For people who didn't understand the joke, Tetsuya Nomura is the mastermind behind Kingdom Hearts.
(3): Trucking means bashing with a skateboard.
A/N: Again, sorry it took so long! Please review!