Late the next morning, Seto awoke to the sound of his irritating alarm clock, buzzing loudly in his ear. Half asleep, he reached over to his night side table, grabbed the clock and threw it half way across the room.
"Damn alarm clock," he cursed, slowly making his way out of bed. Once his feet were planted firmly on the ground, he saw his brother standing in the doorway.
"Morning Seto!" he chirped, grinning from ear to ear.
"What are you doing up so early?" the brunette inquired, looking up at the wall clock which read six o'clock. "You don't have to be at school until nine o'clock."
"But I couldn't sleep in, knowing that Joey was in the other room…"
"Wheeler will be fine," Seto informed simply. "Although I doubt he will be going to school today. Unless of course he wants to, that is."
"I highly doubt he will, Seto. He's already mentioned the fact that he doesn't want to tell his friends about his life. If he showed up at school with assorted cuts and bruises all over his body, I can almost guarantee that people will start bombarding him with a thousand questions. I don't think anyone would be too fond of that."
"Then I guess he will just have to stay here. Brianna can take care of him while we're gone." Out of all the servants in the mansion, not only was Brianna the only one who had developed such a close bond with the CEO, but she was also the only one Seto actually trusted with such matters.
"I think she's already got that covered. She's with Joey right now, tending to his aid as we speak," Mokuba informed.
Seto sighed. "By the way those two act, you'd think they were more than friends."
"They're best friends, Seto. That's what best friends do; they look out for one another."
"Whatever. I'm going to get ready for school. I suggest you do the same." When Seto looked at his younger sibling, he noticed that he was still in his pajamas.
"Okay…" With that, the raven-haired child sluggishly walked back to his room. Once he was gone and out of sight, Seto heaved himself out of bed and walked over to his private bathroom to have a shower. His school uniform, which he utterly despised, was already laid out along with both a large and small towel. He closed the door behind him and proceeded with his morning routine.
Meanwhile, Brianna was tending to Joey's wounds, just as Mokuba had mentioned earlier. She had been in that room ever since Joey arrived back at the mansion, afraid that something might happen to him when she had her back turned.
"There you go," she said, tightly wrapping some medical gauze around the blonde's wrist.
"Thanks Brie."
"It's not a problem. I just want to make sure that all your injuries are treated so that they will heal properly," Brianna replied with a small smile, collecting all of her medical equipment and throwing them into a small leather bag. She picked it up and headed towards the door. Before she was able to make it out of the room, she noticed Seto standing in front of her, dressed in his blue school uniform. "Good morning Seto. Did you sleep well?" she asked rather cheerily. The brunette only grunted as he brushed past her and stepped into the room.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to have a few words with our guest." Seto tried to refrain from using the blonde's name so as to eliminate any hint of suspicion that might arouse. He didn't want people thinking that he had feelings for Joey, which he clearly did not. If word spread that the great and almighty Seto Kaiba was falling for someone of such low-class, his life would never be the same. He couldn't take that risk; he couldn't and wouldn't.
"Very well." Brianna bowed slightly and took her leave. When the two teens were left alone in the room, Seto sat down on the end of the bed and turned to Joey.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Joey asked, breaking the silence.
Seto kept his gaze locked onto that of the blonde's. His eyes began to narrow as his face became stern. "What I'm about to tell you, you have to swear you won't breathe a word of it to anyone, not Yugi, not anyone. If you do, I can promise you that I will send you out into the street, no questions asked. Understand?" His tone was firm as Joey nodded silently. "Very well," Seto spoke simply as he let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't really want to tell you this, since we are rivals and all, but the sooner I do, the sooner my mind will be rid of the thought."
"What is it?" Ever since Seto had come into his room, Joey noticed that he was acting stranger than usual. He hadn't once insulted him and if it wasn't for his little threat, he could have sworn that he wasn't talking to Seto Kaiba at all. It was all too weird.
"Wheeler – I mean Joey. There's something I've been meaning to tell you but haven't felt I could…" It was then that his firm tone was replaced with a low one.
Now this is getting weird, Joey thought to himself as he scratched his head.
"I…" Seto hesitated for a minute, which was most unlike him. He was never one to stutter or pause in mid-sentence, which made Joey even more suspicious. "I…love you…" The CEO practically spit out the last couple words as Joey went wide-eyed in shock.
"What did you just say?" he managed to blurt out after remaining silent for a moment or two. He couldn't believe that those words had come from Seto's mouth. Seto Kaiba, the Seto Kaiba was admitting his feelings towards him. A Wheeler. A plain, run-of-the-mill, average person like himself. It just didn't make any sense and the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. If this didn't make him feel awkward, I don't know what would.
"You heard me. Don't make me repeat it. It was hard enough the first time," Seto replied harshly.
"You're kidding, right?" Joey asked, hoping that he was. As he spoke, a thousand images flooded through his mind, all of both Seto and himself…and they were together! The blonde tried to shake all of those thoughts out of his mind, not wanting to think about anything that passed through. He already felt weird, having a guy confess his feelings to him; he didn't need to feel any weirder. Besides, this was his rival, the one he competed against in everything: Duel Monsters, popularity, etc, etc. If there was one rule Joey always obeyed it was this: Never fall in love with your own worst enemy. Okay, so maybe that rule just came into play now, but it was still to be obeyed. Joey was looking for a girlfriend, not a boyfriend. In fact, to tell the truth, Joey wasn't looking for either. After his rather painful break-up with Mai, he hadn't wanted to feel love since. He felt love once, and only once, and it had let him down. He wasn't about to try it again.
Seto, on the other hand, was getting rather annoyed with Joey. He hated being bombarded with so many questions. It was hard enough to confess his love without having that person ask a million questions about why he said what he did. Okay, so maybe being the CEO of Japan's largest technological company had something to do with Joey's reaction. People such as himself aren't exactly known for doing what he had just done. He had a reputation to uphold and love was not part of the deal. But for some reason, as much as he tried to deny it, Seto just couldn't push the image of him and Joey out of his mind. It was like they were destined to be together. That's a loud of bullshit, Seto mentally swore. Destiny was for fools like Yugi and his nerdy friends. Seto was no fool. Still, he couldn't help feeling the way he did. Love is a powerful emotion and is hard to avoid. Even the great Seto Kaiba wasn't strong enough to avoid its clutches. He would have to give in eventually, as much as he despised doing so.
"Um…I asked you a question…" Joey, too, seemed to getting rather annoyed with the silent treatment that Seto was giving him.
Seto looked up at the blonde and stared into his chocolate brown eyes for what seemed like hours. He then broke the gaze and stood up from the bed. "I'm not going to get into any of that so just let it be." His voice had changed back to his regular hard voice as he sauntered over towards the door. "I'm going downstairs until it's time for my brother and I to leave for school. I take it you're not going?" he asked with a hint of concern.
"No," the blonde responded simply. Seto just grumbled under his breath and left the room without so much as another word. Joey slid down into the blankets that were covering at least half his body and decided to get some well-needed rest. He closed his eyes and in a minute he was out like a light. As he slept, the only thoughts running through his mind were the same ones that he had had earlier, when Seto was in the room. He still couldn't understand why such images were overflowing in his mind but he was unable to avoid them. Whatever they were trying to tell him, he didn't want to think about it. He just pushed everything to the back of his mind so that it wouldn't bother him any longer. Those images kept distracting him from things that he should of been focusing on instead, like how he was going to explain his current state and absence from school to his friends and teachers. That was going to be a task in itself and Joey had to think of a good excuse; one that wouldn't backfire and that people would actually believe. This was going to be harder than he thought. And with Seto now admitting to loving him, whether that was true or not, it made things even more complicated. His life always seemed to get worse by the minute and this time was no excuse…
Luna, Princess of the Shadows: I bet this was the chapter that you've all been waiting for. Seto finally admits his feelings to Joey, even though our favourite blonde-haired puppy doesn't believe it. Oh well, he will in time. I hope you all liked this chapter and I hope that I kept everyone in good character. I thought Seto might have been a little bit OOC but I think I made up for it when I added a few 'Seto-like' comments in there. But tell me what you thought. I'd love to hear more of your opinions because they're always so nice to see. Anyway, I shall let you review so I can get started on chapter twelve. Luv ya'll! Ja ne!