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 9): 1,915

Author's Notes: Hey, guys! I'm trying to be even and upload one chapter of each of my fics at a time (Legally Blond and Of Blood & Spirit) but as of right now, I have chapter 5 of OB&S up and up to chapter 7 written, so I'm trying to write what I can of this and post it. This is chapter 9 which is weird to think that I'll be in the double digits soon. I hope you guys are enjoying this. I know I'm enjoying writing it. This chapter starts in Kaiba's POV and ends in Joey's.

Kaiba's POV:

"I'm sorry, you cannot see him without an appointment."

I glared at the young secretary who looked up at me, eyes fluttering a bit. It was almost gross how young she really was, my age or even younger, because I knew my stepfather didn't hire her for her extraordinary skills. I wondered if she knew what a sleaze her boss was.

"I know for a fact that it is his lunch break right now. Let me in."

"Like I said, sir, you cannot see him without—"

"Don't you have any idea who I am? Aren't you taught familial emergencies trump a lack of appointment?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Her eyes widened a bit. I should have played the damn Kaiba card for the whole month he'd been avoiding my calls, but while he still owned it, I hated having to. "I'm sorry, I didn't know…Are you one of his sons?"

I held back the shudder at that title. No. I wasn't his son. I was his stepson who hated him more than I needed to breathe. But here, in KaibaCorp. Headquarters, I was his son.

"Yes. Seto. Tell him it's an emergency."

She nodded frantically, picking up the intercom. "Excuse me, sir, um one of your sons is here to see you. He says it's an emergency. No, it's Seto, sir." She nodded, though he couldn't see her, and hung up the intercom. "I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding, Mr. Kaiba. You can go right in." She smiled nervously and I almost felt bad. She probably thought I was about to fire her, as if I had any authority in this building.

Some day. But not today.

I gave a curt nod, walking to the door as professional as I could. I refrained from slamming the door shut once I was on the other side, despite the temptation.

"I'm dying to know what kind of emergency brings you to this office, Seto. You haven't stepped foot in this building in years." Whether it was the tone of my stepfather's voice or just him in general, I didn't know, but I wanted to punch him.

"You know damn well what brings me here, Gozaburo."

He crossed his hands in front of his mouth, but I still heard the chuckle behind them. "You are such a lawyer, Seto. Professional front in public, yet so disrespectful behind closed doors."

"Stay out of my brothers' lives, there's a reason neither of them speak to you anymore."

"Yes, because they followed their wayward older brother on a path to independence. How independent are you now, Seto? Have your own firm yet? Or are you a partner yet? No, from what I hear, you're still following Pegasus around all day."

"At least I'm working on making something of myself, as are Noah and Mokuba. We are not your puppets anymore, we're not even your sons."

"That's not what you just told my secretary, though, is it? Seems you're fine using being a Kaiba when you need to."

"Don't worry, other than in that moment, I never will again."

"I'm not worried, Seto. Not about you or even Mokuba, for that matter. You two always were problem children. Noah, on the other hand, will return when he's meant to. He's always been my son."

"No, he sees you for what you are, just like Mokuba and I do. No amount of money you shove into his tuition or bank account will change that, so take it back."

"If it doesn't change anything, why does it matter if I want to give him some help? He's my son, Seto, and a better one than you ever were. I want to reward him for that. Help him reach his potential in that fancy tech school he's started up in. I know you can't on that on your assistant's salary."

I glared at him, what I could or couldn't do for my brothers wasn't his business anymore. It was our life. Not his. "Because we know how you operate, Gozaburo. You don't do things out of the goodness of your heart, not for us. Especially not for us. You do them to have something to hold over people's heads."

He laughed again and the urge to punch him intensified. "Is this the garbage about me you feed to your brothers? No wonder they follow you so blindly, though I'd hoped Noah would be smarter than that."

I shook my head. "You're pathetic. Stay the fuck out of our lives before I make you stay out." He didn't respond, and I didn't give him a lot of time to, either, so I turned to leave.

When I was halfway out the door, his voice stopped me again.

"By the way, Seto, you should tell my son to come fight his own battles next time. It's a lot more respectful."

"Then it's a good thing none of care about having your respect," I answered, slamming the door like I'd wanted to since I entered. The secretary watched me, a little frightened, but I didn't pay much attention as I walked out.

Joey's POV:

I didn't want to be distracted in class. In fact, when I'd started law school, I swore to myself I wouldn't let myself be distracted in class. Yet, here I was, trying to pay attention to Pegasus' ramble (where he probably talked himself up about five times so far) and I couldn't focus on his words.

I'd spent the entirety of the bus ride from Yugi's job to school (which wasn't that long, but still) thinking about a way I could get him and Atem together. I was certainly no Cupid, but I'd helped Serenity and Tristan, after all. I could help Yugi get the confidence to make a move. Or maybe find a way for Atem to just be less oblivious to everything.

My eyes wandered away from Pegasus just as my thoughts had, and I ended up glancing over at Kaiba. Yugi's words echoed in my head. 'And after that, you'll end up straddling Kaiba.' I fought down the heat in my cheeks at the thought. The jerk in question was lounging in Pegasus' chair like it was his rightful throne, alternating between reading papers and scanning the class every few minutes.

I looked down as I noticed he was about to look back up at us again. He'd been such an ass even as he was helping me my first day, 'Just don't screw it up. I wouldn't appreciate knowing I wasted my breath.' Like his breath was all that special. I didn't feel like getting glared at again, which he'd taken to doing every time I caught his eyes. (What? No, I didn't do that often. Not on purpose. It just happens. Shut up.) I tried to focus on what Pegasus was saying, along with the slide on the board.

"Mr. Wheeler," oh shit. I'd decided to focus too late, and now Pegasus had called on me. "How would you best strategize a case for the defendant in the reading?"

Shit. The reading. The reading that I couldn't focus on in the diner. The reading that I'd stopped before meeting Atem. The reading that I was supposed to finish reading on the bus on the way back.

The reading I didn't read.

"Uh…"

He looked at me expectantly and a few students turned their heads to me as well. Unfortunately, some of those students were Duke, Téa, and her friend (who I'd heard through the grapevine was Professor Hawkins' granddaughter). To make matters worse, even Kaiba had his eyes fixed on me again.

After a few more moments of agonizing silence, Pegasus nodded. "Okay. Since Mr. Wheeler doesn't, does anyone have an answer to the question?" A few tentative hands went up, including the three sitting a few rows in front of me. "Miss Gardner?"

Téa gave her strategy and Pegasus got a little too excited that she'd answered correctly. He gave her a couple of 'Bravas' and then went on into more detail the best way to have handled the defense. I didn't want to, but I suddenly disliked her even more now.

I got the feeling someone wasn't done glaring at me and I looked back over to Kaiba, who was wearing a smirk and shook his head before going back to his papers. Fucking asshole. Was he in an even jerkier mood today or something? Maybe he just decided to be more of an ass for the fun of it. That was probably it.

I couldn't help but zone out for the rest of the class, occasionally pulling out the book and trying to read (that didn't really work). I couldn't believe I was already drowning and we were barely in the swing of things.

I got that feeling that someone was staring at me again and I looked over to Kaiba once more, but he was glaring at some other student who had his phone out. I looked around to see whose eyes I felt on me and noticed Duke, Téa, and the Hawkins girl whispering and glancing at me.

Great. Because their presence wasn't distracting enough.

When class was over, I was basically desperate to get out of there so I maneuvered my way out quickly. Unfortunately, that meant I was almost directly behind Duke and the two girls, because they'd been in the row by the door.

I tried not to listen to their conversation (and I swear, I really tried) but both Duke and the blonde had loud voices that seemed to travel up, down, and everywhere. They were talking about a get-together in the girls' dorm building, and suddenly I missed parties. I missed that when I went to university, no one was this serious and we would go out and have fun. I missed Tristan and I falling over each other because he was drunk and I was laughing too hard to keep him upright.

I missed home.

I didn't realize how close to the group I'd gotten until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up, eyes focusing on big, blue ones. "Heh?"

Téa laughed a little. "Sorry to bring you out of your daydream. Are you okay? You looked like you were falling asleep before, too…"

I smiled at her and I hoped it came off sincere. "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. Good answer today." I didn't remember her answer, but I knew it'd been good because Pegasus had said so.

"Thank you! That reading was really boring, though. If it weren't for Rebecca, I'd have probably zoned out through it." She pointed out the blonde and I nodded, filing her name away for if I ever needed it. "By the way, we're having a get together tonight, in our dorm common room. A lot of the girls wanted to do it, need a break and all. Everyone's invited as long as it doesn't get too crazy. It'd be great if you came."

I raised an eyebrow at her. She was inviting me to a party. That was actually really nice of her. "Uh, sure. Yeah, I'll try to make it."

"Great! Hopefully we'll see you tonight." She smiled a little wider and walked away, grabbing Duke's hand on the way.

Rebecca held back, watching them go, before coming up to me. "She forgot to tell you, it's a costume party," she said before skipping off after them.

"O-kay, then…" Did I even have a costume here?

Author's Notes: I'm trying to move this story along because I don't want to drag out parts that don't need to be dragged out. I think I'm going to put one of the parts I wrote already into the next chapter, but I need to write the start of that chapter. It's going to have some Duke and Joey moments as well as the babes, Joey and Kaiba. Thank you all for reading, I hope you liked it!