Title: Legally Blond

Pairings: Eventual Puppyshipping (Seto/Joey), past Snareshipping (Duke/Joey). Sideships: Persevereshipping (Duke/Téa), Ardentshipping (Tristan/Serenity), Puzzleshipping (Yami/Yugi)

Rating: T

Words (Chapter 8): 1,840

Author's Notes: Hey, guys. Thank you all for the patience when it comes to this story. I'm updating slowly but surely, working my writing around my classes, homework, and trying to keep a social life afloat. If you're sticking with me, I really do appreciate it more than you know! This chapter introduces Atem, my beloved, and a quick cameo by Marik, my bae. Hope you all enjoy!

Joey's POV:

It was my second week at law school and already I had taken to doing some homework at the diner Yugi worked at. It was never that busy, so he and his coworkers didn't seem to mind me taking up a booth by myself. Occasionally, I'd order something small to eat, or a soda, and when Yugi had breaks or his shift ended, he'd sit with me.

Sometimes he offered to help me by quizzing me (most of which I bombed) and others, he'd pull out a book of his own to read. Once, he brought his Duel Monsters deck, which he learned that day distracted me to no end. (I'd pulled my first all-nighter that night – Hawkins decided to assign three chapters reading and I came into his class caffeinated up and jittery. It was completely worth it, though; he gave me a card that worked wonders for my deck, Time Wizard.)

Today, he had off and was reading a book while eating one of the pastries that his coworker had brought over, on the house. The guy's name was Marik, and I didn't really have a problem with him except that he seemed a little too flirty and I knew that if either Ryou or I had made our uniform into a crop top, we'd have been in big trouble. Other than that, he seemed nice enough, and we chatted for a few minutes about his motorcycle. I was tempted to take him up on the offer for a ride to campus, but I'd caught Yugi giggling and rolling his eyes behind my back, so I held back.

"You know, you haven't turned the page in about ten minutes," my friend's voice broke into my thoughts.

I blinked a couple of times, focusing on the book in front of me to realize he was right. "Whoops," I laughed.

"Daydreaming of your bike ride later?" he joked, tilting his head.

"Funny. Nah, I wasn't. It's just hard to focus on so much reading." Hawkins was killing me, but this assignment wasn't even for his class.

This was for Pegasus, who might very well have been the strangest professor I'd ever had. I was in his class with Duke and Téa, and Téa's very loud blonde friend who tried to overrun every question. I knew they were all after the internship, but I needed it. I couldn't not get recognized by the greatest lawyer in Japan. That was basically a sure path to a career.

The problem was, having those two in class was very distracting, as was the determination I felt to get the internship, because along with determination came stress. A lot of stress.

Really, it was dumb of me not to realize how utterly stressed out I'd be going to law school. If I'd known this, and didn't know Duke as well as I did, I would have actually believed he'd be too busy with school to have a relationship. I don't even know how he and Téa were doing it.

I shut the book and shrugged. "Whatever. I'll just flunk out. Duke can forget about his trash ex-boyfriend, Téa can live her happy life that should have been mine, and that damn TA Kaiba can stop fucking glaring at me every class."

"Language."

I raised an eyebrow at him, remembering the way Ryou almost always chastised me for the same thing. "Really?"

Yugi blushed and shrugged. "I do work here, y'know. You could bite back the swears while you're at my place of employment."

"Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot."

"First of all, you are not trash. Second, from what you said about Téa, she doesn't sound like a bad person."

I sighed and slumped back in my seat. He had a point. She kept trying to be nice every time we saw each other. If anything, that made me not like her even more. It was easier to be bitter and jealous if she was horrible, but her being friendly made me angry she wasn't more hate-able. Was that a word? Hate-able? Able to be hated?

"Maybe you should give her a chance?"

"A chance at what? To go shopping and gossip about what sex positions I've had her fiancé in?"

Yugi blushed a darker red and spluttered. "Joey!"

"Sorry, Yug', I can't help it. I'm crass."

"You're a perv is what you are." He shook his head and closed his book.

I smiled sheepishly and didn't answer, taking a bite from another pastry. The bell on the door opened, which I usually didn't even pay attention to, but Yugi's eyes widened.

"Shit," he practically squealed, grabbing a napkin and rubbing the crumbs from his mouth.

"Language," I responded, eyebrows furrowing. I knew I didn't know him very long, but I hadn't seen him like this before and it was weird.

I moved to turn my head, see what he was looking at, but I felt a sharp kick under the table. "What the hell, Yug'?"

"Don't look! That'll make it obvious!" he whisper-yelled.

"Make what obvi—"

"Oh god, he's coming over here."

"Who?"

If I thought I was confused during Pegasus' homework assignment, I was even more confused now. Yugi smiled a little awkwardly and I must have looked like an idiot, pastry half to my mouth, not moving a muscle.

A moment later, I figured out who the who was. A man who looked a little shorter than me, with tan skin and red eyes came over. He was pretty handsome, wearing a black shirt with no sleeves that showed off his biceps.

I was no longer confused. I could completely understand why Yugi was so flustered.

"Hey, Yugi," the man greeted, and I kid you not, his voice was like honey. That probably doesn't even make sense, but if a voice could sound like honey, his did. He balanced a box on his shoulder, shirt hiking up a little. I could tell Yugi was trying not to glance down, staring at his face, but the guy wasn't looking at me so, hey. I sneaked a look. Nice.

"H-hey, Atem."

Smooth, Yugi. Way to play it cool.

I glanced back and forth between them for a moment before they finally seemed to remember I was there.

"Oh, uh, this is my new friend Joey."

I smiled, putting my pastry down. "Nice to meet you."

"You as well," he answered. "I'd shake your hand, but these are a bit heavy." He motioned to the box and I nodded.

"Understood."

He turned back to Yugi. "So, uh, we have the delivery."

Okay, so neither Yugi or Atem seemed to understand how to flirt. Noted.

"I see…Oh! I'm not working today," Yugi said, looking visibly upset.

"Oh," and so did Atem. "So who is?"

"That would be me," Marik said, making his way over. "Hey, you. Long time, no see." He leaned against Atem, his hand going to his bare bicep. The delivery man looked like he had no idea what was happening, and Yugi looked a little peeved.

"Yes, it's been a while," Atem agreed.

"Yeah, it's weird, it's almost as if you only do deliveries when Yugi's there to take it in." Marik laughed. "Usually it's Mako coming in when I'm here. Weird coincidence." Atem nodded. "Alright, time to take these into the back." With that, Marik took Atem's hand and practically dragged him to the back, with no regard for the heavy box he was carrying.

As soon as they were out of our vision, Yugi let his head fall down in his arms. He whined, though the sound was muffled by the bed his crossed arms had made.

"So. Atem, huh?" I asked, smirking a little. I leaned back against the seat again and Yugi looked up.

"I'm pathetic."

I racked my head for a supportive word, but all that came out was, "Yeah." That just made Yugi whine again. "But for what it's worth, so is he."

"Don't say that! He is not!"

I rolled my eyes. "Really? According to Marik, he only comes in here when you're working to greet him."

He squinted at me. "Yeah? So? That's probably just because Marik's shameless."

I couldn't believe it. "Yugi, you're very dense. He likes you."

"No, he doesn't."

"Yes, he does. Why don't you ask him out or something? He'd say yes."

He laughed. "Yeah, sure, and after that you'll end up straddling Kaiba."

I glared at him. "That is absolutely not a comparable scenario."

"Yes, it is; they're both as likely as pigs flying."

"Why do you think so?"

"Kaiba, in your own words, 'has a stick up his ass'."

"Not that. I meant Atem and you going out."

"Because I'm me." That was actually kind of heartbreaking to hear, as if that itself should be enough of a reason for a guy not to like him. "Marik and him are probably hooking up in the back as we speak."

For what it was worth, I didn't think Marik was actually going to try something on Atem, but seeing as I had just met both of them today, I didn't want to speak my thoughts. If anything, Marik seemed like he was just trying to get under their skin.

"Then go back there and ask your coworker to keep his tongue in his own mouth because Atem's yours."

Yugi rolled his eyes and laughed. "Joey, you couldn't even keep a guy. What hope do I have?"

It took me a minute to realize the implications of that, during which Atem and Marik came out of the back room. "It was nice seeing you, Yugi. Hopefully you're working next week," he said, giving my friend an award winning smile. "Nice to meet you, Joey."

"You, too," I mumbled, but I wasn't really paying attention as he walked out. Marik went over to one of the other tables, checking in on the customers.

Yugi really thought that highly of me that he honestly didn't think he had a chance with a guy like that because Duke had fucked me over. I don't even think Serenity or Ryou thought that way about me. (Sure, Serenity already had a boyfriend, and a pretty great one at that, but still…)

My watch beeped and I dazedly looked down at it, eyes widening when I saw the time. "Shit. I gotta go, or I'm gonna miss my bus back. Can't be late." I grabbed my book, tucking it under my arm. "Yug', listen to me, okay? You are a great guy and if he doesn't see that, he's an idiot and isn't deserving of you, not the other way around. Got it?" He nodded, but the look on his face told me he didn't actually believe it. "But for what it's worth, I really think you should take the chance."

I fished a couple of bills out of my pocket, slipping them into Marik's apron on my way out.

"Wait, I thought I was giving you a ride?" I heard called after me. 'Maybe next time.'

Author's Notes: I don't know why I had that brief moment of Marik flirting with Joey, it just happened and I thought it was fun. Completely awkward Yugi and Atem were fun to write, too. Anyway, thanks again for reading, I hope you liked it. If you can/want to let me know your thoughts, I try to respond to all of them!