Later that afternoon, when the bell rang to signal that the last class of the day had ended, all the students scurried down the halls and to their lockers. Yugi, on the other hand, was in the biggest hurry of them all. At lunchtime, Seto had told him that he could visit Joey again to see just how his best friend was holding up. He hadn't been able to see him in the past couple of days due to an overload of schoolwork and the fact that Seto was busy himself. So this chance to see Joey meant everything to the young King of Games. He stuffed all his books into his rather small-sized backpack, grabbed it off the hook, along with his coat, slipped them both on, shut and locked his locker door behind him and hurried down the hall towards the spiral staircase.
When he got outside, he saw Seto's limo parked at the side of the street. Seto was standing in front of it, leaning against the vehicle with his arms crossed looking rather impatient. Yugi knew full well that Seto wasn't the most patient person in the world so he decided not to delay any longer. He ran over to the brunette with a wide grin plastered across his face. This expression was typically seen on the spiky-haired teen's façade. Seto only looked down at the male and sighed.
"Get in," he stated simply, or much less demanded. He then opened the door and motioned for Yugi to get in first as he followed suit, closing the door behind him. Once their seatbelts were tightly fastened, Seto ordered the driver to head to Domino Elementary School so that they could pick up Mokuba. He normally got out at three but Seto had called the school and explained to them that he would be leaving early due to certain issues that he was not about to mention. He saw the whole Joey situation as too private and to not to be shared with the likes of anyone except the blonde's close friends, Mokuba and of course, himself.
When the limo arrived at the public school, Yugi was the first one to notice Mokuba standing at the front of the school, his backpack thrown over his shoulder and waving ecstatically in their direction. The young, raven-haired child then broke out into a run and in less than five seconds he was standing right in front of the window that Yugi was currently staring out of. Yugi rolled down the window so as to hear what the seemingly excited child had to say.
"Hey Yugi! Hey Seto!" he exclaimed happily. "What's up?"
"Nothing much," Yugi replied. "You coming with us to check up on Joey?"
"Of course! I want to make sure he's okay just as much as you do!"
"Okay, then hop in!" Yugi said as he rolled the window all the way up and opened the door. He slid over closer to Seto so Mokuba would have enough room to climb in. As Mokuba got it and closed the door behind him, Seto gave Yugi a rather awkward glare. Seto turned away and faced the other way as soon as he noticed that Yugi returned the glance. This was also something Yugi had known. Seto Kaiba absolutely despised it when people, especially his long-term rivals got exceptionally close to him, whether physically or whatever the case may be. As soon as Mokuba and Yugi had their seatbelts fastened, Seto ordered the driver to now take them to the Kaiba Estate. It would only be a matter of time before they were back to where Joey currently resided…
Meanwhile, at the Kaiba Mansion in Joey's room, Brianna had just walked in with a tray of steaming hot food. The already prepared meal consisted of homemade beef stew, two buttered rolls, a glass of orange juice and two homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert. She carefully placed the tray on the small foldout table next to Joey's bed and took a seat by the blonde's feet. She looked at him with a radiant smile as he tried to return the emotional gesture. His smile only turned out to be a half-smile, if even that. It was more like a smirk than anything. Then again, after everything he had been through, even though it was all in the past, it was still hard for him to laugh or even burst into a wide smile.
"So, how are you feeling today?" Brianna inquired, rubbing her hand up and down the blonde's leg in a comforting motion. By the look on the blonde's face, he was thoroughly enjoying it.
"Good. I'm still a little sore, but overall I'm feeling much better than I was before…well, physically at least…" Joey then lost himself in thought as his words began to trail off so that Brianna wouldn't be able to hear just what he was mumbling to himself.
Even though the young teenage girl couldn't understand the words coming from her best friend's mouth, she knew what he meant. Ever since the day that Joey's father had abused him, it was hard for him to cope with the fact that the one he thought he loved turned their back on him…most likely for good. Then again, according to the blonde, ever since Joey started living with his father, things were never the same as they used to be with his mother. He was happy living with his mom and Serenity…why did they have to force him to live with the asshole he called his father? She knew that it wasn't anyone's fault (Except, of course, his father's) but she always knew that he would probably be better off if he was never sent to live with his dad.
Suddenly, both teens heard the doorbell ring as Brianna slowly pulled herself up off of the bed.
"I'll be right back. That's probably Seto, Mokuba and Yugi. Seto told me yesterday that Yugi was coming to visit you today."
"Really?"
"Yep. So hang on and I'll be right back." With that said, Brianna walked out the door and down the hallway, eventually coming up to the spiral stairs. As soon as she descended to the main floor, she headed over towards the front door and opened it up to see just who she thought would be standing in front of her.
"Hey Yugi, Mokie, Seto," she said cheerily. She then realized that the only one with a smile upon his face was Mokuba, and that wasn't unnatural for the young child, for he was always bright and energetic. "What's wrong?" she questioned the two older teens.
Seto looked his friend straight in the eye and after a minute's pause, he replied. "It's nothing. We're just going to head upstairs to see how Joey's doing. How's he been holding up all day?"
"Good. He seems to doing quite fine and his appetite surely hasn't left him…" Brianna said these last few words with a small giggle. Seto smirked as Yugi forced a small grin onto his tiny façade. It was hard to even smile when his best friend was suffering not only physically, but emotionally as well. From what Seto had told him before and what he had seen the last time he visited Joey, most of the blonde's external wounds had healed over completely and he was now only suffering from the inside, the worst kind of pain any human being can experience.
"All right, let's go," Seto said as he led the way up the stairs and down the hallway to the room where the blonde currently resided in. Mokuba still had a wide smile across his face, trying to make light of the current situation.
When they all arrived at the end of the hallway, they turned into the bedroom where they saw Joey sitting up watching a program on the television that rested on the dresser located at the foot of the bed.
"Hey Joey," Yugi greeted somewhat happily.
"What? Oh, hey Yug. What's up?" Joey asked, sounding much better than the last time the pair had been together.
"Nothing much, just came to see how you were doing, that's all."
"Oh. Well there's no need to worry, I'm doing perfectly fine. Everyone in the mansion, including Kaiba, is doing such a great job of taking care of me," Joey explained. Yugi nodded his head in response as he waited and listened for what else the blonde had to say. "I'm glad you decided to come and visit me, though. It can sometimes get rather lonely all by myself. Of course, Mokuba and Brianna often keep me company but when everyone's off at school, work, or running errands, there's no one to talk to. That's why I'm always so happy when Kaiba tells me that you'll be coming to visit, 'cause I know that when you are here, you'll always stay and talk to me. That's why I consider you one of my best friends…because you're always there for me, no matter what the circumstances." Everything that Joey had just said nearly brought tears to the teen's bright, amethyst orbs.
"Joey I…I never knew…" Yugi choked out, a few tears trickling down the one side of his face. Seto only crossed him arms and grunted.
"Oh save the tears, will ya Motou? I allowed you to come here in order to visit Joey, not to start crying up a bloody storm. Now stop that, right now." Seto knew that his words sounded harsh, but deep down he couldn't bare to see anyone cry. He knew that if he did, his own tears would force themselves to fall from his icy, cold blue eyes. He couldn't afford to let that happen. He had a reputation to uphold and he wouldn't allow it to be ruined all because he couldn't control one single emotion. It just wasn't happening.
Yugi glared at Seto as he wiped the tears that were now beginning to sting his cheeks. Seto returned the emotional gesture and turned his back to everyone in the room, including Mokuba.
"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my office. I have some paperwork to catch up on and if I leave it any longer, it's going to pile up even more, leaving me with mass amounts of homework to do." With that said, the CEO walked out of the room with his head held high. He didn't even bother to say good-bye to anyone. Suddenly, as if he had just remembered something, he turned back and looked at Yugi. "By the way, when you're done visiting with Joey, I have already talked to Brianna and she said that she would be more than happy to drive you home." The brunette turned to his girl friend, nodded his head, as she did in return, and turned back around to head down the hall to his office. Everyone just looked at each other, wondering what his problem was.
"He's never acted that way before, ever since Joey got here… I wonder what could be wrong?" Brianna pondered aloud.
"Who knows? Maybe he's nervous about something. He did mention that he had a lot of paperwork to do so maybe that's what's stressing him out. I get that way too sometimes when I have a ton of homework to do," Joey responded, trying to make sense of the situation at hand.
"That could be true, Joey. Anyway, I guess I should get going. I have some homework to do myself and I better get it finished. Grandpa told me this morning that he had some chores for me to do and they'll probably take a good couple of hours…" Yugi sighed, wishing to himself that he could just stay a little while longer, but knew that that wasn't possible. He needed to get home as soon as possible if he were to finish his work and complete his chores before bed.
"Okay, I'll get ready to take you home," Brianna said as she walked out of the room and down the stairs to the front door where she slipped her shoes and jacket on.
Meanwhile, Yugi was still in the room with Joey.
"I'll see you later, okay? I'll call Seto later and ask him when the next time I can see you will be. I don't want to bother him right now because he seemed to be in a bad mood when he left the room just a few minutes ago…"
"I know what you mean, and yes, I'll see you later. Tell the gang I said hi and that everything's going good. I don't want to worry them…especially Ren. She'll flip if she finds out what happened," Joey pleaded.
"Don't worry, I won't tell a single soul. The only person that knows is me and I intend to keep it that way unless you tell me otherwise."
"Okay, thanks bud," and with those words, Mokuba and Yugi headed out the door and down the spiral staircase to where Brianna was, ready and waiting to go. Once the two teens got their coats and shoes on, all three of them headed outside and over to the light pink convertible sitting in the middle of the driveway beside Seto's limo.
"Wow… I never knew you had your own car, Brianna…" Yugi said, rather mesmerized with that fact.
"Yep. Seto bought it for me when I got my G2. I love it!" she smiled as she climbed into the driver's side and closed the door, urging both Yugi and Mokuba to get in. Once both the guys were in and their seatbelts were tightly fastened, Brianna slowly pulled out of the driveway and headed in the direction of the Kame Game Shop.
When they finally arrived at Yugi's house, the spiky-headed teen unbuckled his safety belt and got out of the car, lugging his backpack with him. He thanked Brianna for the ride before heading inside. Once the girl made sure that he was safely in the house, she pulled back out onto the road and headed back towards the Kaiba Estate.