The next morning, which was a Saturday, things were rather hectic at the Kaiba Estate. Seto had to wake Mokuba up, for he had slept in on his first day of music school.
"Mokuba! Get up!" Seto practically yelled, trying to pull his brother out of bed. The young child, still fast asleep, grabbed onto the bedpost and refused to let go.
"Mokuba!" the older teen shouted, tugging on the young one's leg.
Mokuba only groaned and rolled over onto his side, still clinging onto the bedpost for dear life.
"Mokuba I'm only going to tell you this once and only once! Get up now or no TV for a week! No! A month!" All of a sudden, the raven-haired child sprung, yes, sprung, out of bed and set his feet on the floor.
"I'm up! I'm up!"
"Took you long enough," Seto sighed but let a little smirk shine through.
"Ha ha. Very funny Seto," he said with his hands on his hips, as if to try and look intimidating.
"Well, I'll leave you to get dressed but be quick. You're already late for your classes as it is."
"Aww… Seto do I have to?" Mokuba pleaded, turning the puppy dog eyes on his brother.
"Not going to work this time kiddo. Now get ready," Seto replied, ruffling his younger brother's mess of raven locks before heading out of the room.
"This stinks," Mokuba pouted and walked out of his room to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, in the guest room, Joey was just beginning to awaken. When he sat up groggily and rubbed his sleep-filled eyes, he was confused by his surroundings.
"Where am I?" he asked himself aloud, trying to comprehend all that had happened the previous night. All he remembered was that he left his father for good. Everything else just seemed like a vision of blurry images.
"You're at my house," a voice came from the doorway. Joey turned his head and was shocked and surprised when he realized whom the voice belonged to.
"Kaiba?"
"You were expecting someone else?" Seto replied smugly.
"Well, now dat you mention it, yes. I never expected you of all people to take me into your house."
"It was Mokuba's idea. He was the one that convinced me and I decided that, for him, I would take you in. It doesn't have anything to do with being friendly Wheeler so don't go thinking that." Seto grunted and turned to leave. "Someone will be up with your breakfast shortly. I have to go out for a bit to take Mokuba to his music classes. I won't be long. Don't do anything you'll regret while I'm gone," he informed and then left down the hall.
"Don't worry…I won't," Joey muttered sarcastically and then fell back on the bed. He laid there awake for what seemed like hours.
I still don't get it. Why would Kaiba, of all people, help me? He said it was his brother that convinced him but I can't help thinking that he wanted to help me. It sounds crazy but who knows; dat Kaiba can be crazy sometimes.
Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door.
"Come in," Joey responded accordingly and noticed that it was one of Seto's maids. "Oh, hey. Kaiba told me that you were coming."
"Yes. Mister Kaiba told us to prepare a breakfast for you this morning. I hope you're hungry," the girl, who looked to be about eighteen, replied with a kind smile.
"You bet!" Joey exclaimed and started shoveling down all of the food placed in front of him. He was so hungry that he would have eaten the plate if the maid hadn't taken it away.
"Well, I see that you were hungry." The young woman let a small giggle escape her lips before turning to walk out of the room. But before she did, she turned her head back in Joey's direction. "If you need anything else, just call. All you have to do is dial '56' on the phone beside you and whoever is available will be more than happy to tend to your call," she explained, pointing to the phone on the night side table beside the bed Joey was laying on.
"Thanks," Joey said as the maid bowed her head slightly and then left the room in order to tend to other matters in the mansion.
Joey gave a relieved sigh as he began stretching his arms out in the air. "Well at least I'm not hungry anymore. Dat meal was huge and it was only breakfast! How I can't wait until lunch and dinner!" He then decided to finally get out of bed and head downstairs. The moment his feet were on the ground, a surge of pain shot up through his whole body. He tried as best as he could to not scream, for he didn't want to bring any unwanted attention to himself. Slowly he pushed himself to walk over to the dresser at the end of his bed where he noticed that someone had already laid out a set of clothes for him. As he set his one hand on top of the mahogany dresser to steady himself, he picked up the pile of clothes with the other hand. He noticed that they were about his size, if not a little bigger. He thought that they must be Seto's, for he was the only one he knew of in the entire mansion that had clothes that would fit him. The only thing that mystified him was the fact that he, Seto Kaiba, was actually giving him clothes. Maybe there's a catch, Joey thought to himself as he examined the outfit closer. It was a pair of black cotton pants and a black turtleneck shirt. He wasn't exactly fond of the shirt and just decided to stick with his black hoodie…that was until he realized that his sweatshirt (Which he was still wearing) was still completely drenched from the rain. No wonder he was freezing last night. He never had the chance to change into something warmer. He wanted to grab something out of his duffel bag to wear but it was soaked as well so he really had no choice in the matter.
Maybe I ought to have a shower first. I'm sure Kaiba won't mind. He then grabbed the clothes and walked out of his room to the bathroom, moving his one hand along the wall for support so he wouldn't fall.
When he got into the bathroom, he noticed that there was a steam room shower and decided that it would be perfect in order to relax his cold, aching muscles. As he closed the door, he leaned up against the back of it, wondering how long Seto would let him stay here. He really didn't want to go back to his father but he didn't want to be a burden on Seto either…even if he was his worst enemy. He then figured that when Seto got home, he would ask him…even if the answer might not be the one he was looking for.
Later, when Seto arrived back at the mansion, he started walking tiredly up the long, spiral staircase to his room. After dropping Mokuba off at his music classes, he had to go to Kaiba Corp. to attend a rather urgent meeting. He really didn't feel like going, since it was Saturday and he already had too much on his mind to begin with, but being the CEO of a world famous company he didn't have an obligation to refuse. It was a long and boring meeting anyway. All they talked about was new advertising techniques and other ways to promote the company. It only took an hour but to Seto it was more like three hours of endless boredom. If he wanted to develop new ways of advertising their products, he could just do that at home instead of wasting his time sitting at a table with a bunch of idiotic associates.
Before he went into his room, he decided to check up on Joey, just to see if he was still in bed or if he was downstairs raiding his fridge. However, in order to prevent such happenings like that, Seto had a little fridge put into the guest room with a few snacks, some pop and water inside.
When he peeked into the room, he noticed Joey sitting up in bed watching TV.
"Well Wheeler, it looks to me like you're feeling a little better," Seto smirked, knowing full well that Joey would try and make up some excuse and say that he was still not feeling well.
"A little but the pain's still there," Joey replied. Surprisingly, the two teens were able to have a decent conversation with one another without any yelling or sarcasm involved.
"Have you tried getting out of bed?" Seto raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
Joey just glared at his enemy but remained calm. "Yes, for your information I have. I got out of bed to have a shower, even though it was rather painful. Good thing you had a little bench installed in your steam shower otherwise I'd probably be lying on the bathroom floor in a heap right about now."
"Well…" Seto hesitated for a moment before continuing. "As much as I'm probably going to regret saying this, you're…welcome to stay here for as long as you need to." Seto practically spit out the word welcome, for he really didn't want Wheeler staying at his house very long. But he knew that Mokuba wouldn't appreciate him sending him out while he was still injured.
"Really?" And then Joey paused for a moment. "Wait a minute. Why are you being so nice to me rich boy? I thought you hated me?"
"I do but thank Mokuba. Like I told you, he was the one that wanted to take you in, not me. I only went along with the whole plan because I knew that if I didn't my little brother would be angry with me."
"So you're scared of your little brother? Is that it?" Joey arched an eyebrow, mentally laughing at the thought of Seto Kaiba being scared of a ten-year-old.
"No, I'm just willing to do anything for him, including taking someone like you into my home," was Seto's harsh-sounding response.
"Uh huh," Joey muttered under his breath and turned back to his TV show.
Seto then turned to leave the room. "I'll be in my room if you need anything, but it better be important because I hate to be disturbed for unimportant matters." He then walked out and headed down the hall a little ways to his room.
"Just like Kaiba to be a stuck-up jerk," Joey murmured. But at least he's letting me stay here for a while longer so I don't have to return to that drunken idiot I called my father anytime soon…
Meanwhile, in the old wreck of an apartment, Mr. Wheeler sat in the living room, thinking aloud. "That bastard. He thinks he can escape me. I'll show him. When I find that little punk, I'll make him pay for everything he's done to me. He's why I'm living the life of a fucking homeless idiot. If he would just do as I tell him, everything would be fine. But no, he chooses to rebel against me and make things harder for himself. He'll come home eventually and when he does, he'll feel the pain that I feel everyday. He'll know what it's like to be me…"