Chapter 5-Day 2
Several hours later, Kaiba's mood had yet to improve. In fact, if anything else, it had probably worsened as the seconds ticked sluggishly on. He resisted the urge to groan, wondering when this day would ever end. He checked his watch, and was horrified to realize it was still only early afternoon. He looked frantically around to see if he could spot something that he could use to end his misery. Something sharp preferably, though even blunt would be fine. He wasn't going to be picky.
Why, one must wonder, is the great Seto Kaiba contemplating suicide by bludgeoning himself with the closest available object?
Well. I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.
"Please?" Joey tried not to whine, unsuccessfully. He turned his big doe eyes onto the taller teen. Surely no one could say no to that face!
"No." Kaiba didn't even blink. Though, he did appear to glare more intensely at his computer screen where he was diligently trying to work.
Joey growled. Heartless bastard. "Pretty please?" he batted his eyelashes in an extra effort. Only a man with nothing but a cold, black void in place of a heart could deny him now!
"Do you have hearing problems? I said no." Well, now the blonde could see a vein throbbing in one of Kaiba's temples with the sheer magnitude of his glare at the helpless computer. At least it was a response.
Joey narrowed his eyes. Time to bring out the big guns.
He threw himself to his knees and flat out begged. "Pretty please with chocolate fudge syrup, cherries, whipped cream, sprinkles, and caramel on top?" He smiled sweetly, batting his doe eyes furiously. The ending result was Joey looking like he had a horrible tic in both eyes.
Kaiba paused. Turn around to give the blonde, who was looking suddenly hopeful, the king of all deadpan glares. A reaction, yes! Now he was getting somewhere. "You're a pig."
Joey visibly deflated momentarily. Right back to square one. He muttered sulkily, "At least I'm not a rich pig."
Kaiba raised an eyebrow delicately. "And how is that worse than being an ordinary pig?" He temporarily forgot that he was trying to ignore the blonde boy.
"Eh…" Joey paused in thought for a moment. He couldn't come up with a reason. Well, the perfect defense was a good offense. He pointed his finger dramatically at the unimpressed older teen.
"It doesn't matter why! Now give in! I want you to show me around! I know you have some kind of secret lab where you're doing horrible human experiments or something like that." He looked around him shiftily, as if expecting a human experiment-gone-wrong to come out of some obscured shadow.
Kaiba sat his desk, staring forlornly at the half-typed sentence on his computer screen, realizing it was now a lost cause. He growled at the blonde. He was trying to be patient, he really was. But this had been going on for a few hours already, and the blonde was really beginning to grate on his nerves.
Kaiba thought about that. No, that wasn't entirely true. He had been grating on his nerves for the last eight hours and thirty-seven minutes.
The point was, Kaiba was not happy. And an unhappy Kaiba was a dangerous Kaiba. To say he was running on a short fuse would be an understatement.
Reminding himself that throttling people was not good for his PR, he willed himself to be calm. "What kind of person do you take me for? Do I look like a Frankenstein scientist to you?" The blonde vigorously nodded his head.
Looking back, throwing his expensive glass paper weight at the blonde's head probably wasn't the best idea. He stared mournfully at the pitiful remains of the ornate statue that had once adorned his desk, ignoring Joey as he muttered mutinously, rubbing the spot on his head that broke said statue.
Then a thought hit the CEO, and he bit his lip nervously. A very un-Kaiba like habit. Mokuba had threatened him earlier that if he wasn't nice to the mutt, the little brat, though he loved him dearly, would start showing embarrassing home videos of him to the obnoxious blonde. Starting with the security tapes from earlier that morning in his James Bond Mode, sneaking around an empty house. But Mokuba wouldn't really do that.
Would he?
Giving a low growl, Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose. "What part of no do you not understand, mutt?"
Giving the irritated brunette a blank look, he replied, "The part where you don't do what I say." Joey rolled his eyes. Obviously.
"Why don't you go bother the butler? He's a nice guy." Kaiba ignored Joey's snort of disbelief, and continued. "I'm sure he'll be glad to give you a tour."
"A nice guy? Right. Never mind the fact that he's at least ten feet tall-" it was Kaiba's turn to snort "-built like a linebacker, and could easily break me in half and eat me for breakfast!" Kaiba looked unimpressed, as usual.
"Besides, I tried that already!" Joey cried, exasperated. "He said that there wasn't a secret lab, but I know better! I'm on to you. I know you have him sworn to secrecy. You can't fool me!" By this time the blonde was waving a finger at Kaiba and laughing manically.
The brunette leapt over the desk in one quick motion, grabbing Joey by the throat and strangling him until he couldn't speak. Finally, he would never have to listen to the unbearable blonde again.
Oh wait, never mind. That was just his imagination. His hand twitched slightly as if about to act on that fantasy.
He blushed suddenly as that thought lead him to recall an earlier fantasy about the blonde he'd had just the night before. It wasn't exactly the violent sort, either…
A hand waved in front of his face. "Hello!" the blonde called out. "Listen to me! I don't like being ignored! Hey! Pay attention! Are you…" Kaiba decided this would be a good time to tune out.
Seto sighed, resting his head on a hand. He pinched the bridge of nose once again to stop an oncoming headache, realizing that nothing would get done.
As if sensing victory, Joey immediately began to cheer – Kaiba winced at the loud holler - and prance around the room. Seto could only give another sigh, and silently wonder how the hell he would survive the week when he couldn't even seem to make it through the first two days, and why on earth he had agreed in the first place.
Oh yeah. He'd been tricked, he thought savagely. Damn Mokuba and those puppy eyes of his. Damn him.
He stood up, retrieving his jacket, and took out a mysterious object from inside his desk drawer, effectively hiding it behind his back. Well, if he was going to have to endure the Week From Hell, he might as well get some fun out of it. He smirked evilly. He motioned to for the blonde to follow him as he began to walk out of the office and into the hallway. "Come on. We're going outside."
Oblivious to Kaiba's plans, he did perk up as he tried to figure out what the brunette was hiding. "Hey! What's that?" Joey asked curiously, trying to peer over the taller teen's shoulder to get a better look as they began their walk. Kaiba found himself fighting a blush as the proximity. He would not blush, because that was something a little girl would do. Not a cold, ruthless bastard like himself. He would not blush.
Kaiba could feel his face turn a pretty princess pink at the blonde hairs tickling his face, and quickly shoved him further away. He couldn't help the smirk creeping onto his face as the blonde began to pout. He really looked like cute puppy like that.
Cerulean eyes instantly widened, as he jolted to a stop in his tracks. The hell was that? What was he thinking? This was Joey, for Chrissake! And why the hell was he blushing at just thought of him?
Concerned amber eyes appeared before his vision, just inches away. "Hey, are you alright? You've been kinda spacey lately. You look a little feverish, too." Joey placed a hand on the brunette's forehead.
Kaiba blinked, still for a split second. Then Kaiba jumped back a foot or two, realizing just how close the two were, mentally berating himself for showing any reaction at all.
What was going on with him today? What was this feeling of uneasiness – or nervousness? Restlessness? – in the pit of his stomach? Maybe this was what it felt like to have butterflies in your stomach? But that was silly. Why would some ignorant street punk make him feel like that?
Ignoring the blonde's question, he studied the blonde for a moment.
He wondered what was drawing his attention towards him. Even if it was negative attention, Joey was the only person he enjoyed taunting. There wasn't anything special about the mutt. He wasn't overly intelligent, ambitious, or had any power to his name. He was completely average. So why couldn't he pull his eyes away?
Joey shifted uncomfortably as Kaiba stared at him with an unreadable expression on his face. He wasn't sure what he was searching for with those piercing eyes, but he found himself standing straighter, cheeks reddening, and for some reason he didn't want to dwell on, was sort of hoping that the brunette found whatever he was looking for. He bashfully watched the floor, unable to bring his gaze to those mysterious cerulean eyes.
After a few moments that seemed to last an hour, Kaiba shook his head a little, chuckling softly to himself – which alone almost gave Joey a heart attack - and continued to walk down the hall. Realizing that he was being left behind, Joey gave a little shout of indignation and hurried to catch up to the quick brunette.
Joey shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight as the two stepped outside into the largest backyard he had ever seen. Next to the wall of the mansion there was a perfect garden full of blossoming flowers to the right of the cobblestone path he now stood on. To the left, there was a lush green field that probably could have three football fields in it. Squinting in the direction of the sun, he could make out Mokuba running towards them in the distance. He waited patiently for the boy, grinning and waving wildly.
The raven haired youth stopped in front of the duo, eyes bright and face flushed from running. He looked up at the two older teens, panting with a large grin plastered to his face. "Hey, Big Brother. Hey Joey. What are you two doing out here?"
Kaiba smirked. Reaching into his pocket, the brunette pulled out the secret item he had taken from his desk earlier. It was a rubber tennis ball. Ignoring Joey's growls as he started to catch on, he smirked, handing the toy to Mokuba.
"Now that you have a pet, you have to walk him daily and give him plenty of exercise. Especially since this mutt eats so much. You're gonna have to burn off some of those calories so he doesn't become fat. I hear dogs like to play fetch. Right, pup?" He turned his taunting grin towards Joey.
As expected, the blonde blew up. Mokuba rushed to hold the fuming teen back from strangling his older brother. He dug his heels into the ground, gritting his teeth with the force he put into restraining Joey. It was much harder than he would have thought.
Joey didn't even notice the younger Kaiba. He brandished his fist, and thrashed wildly as he attempted to free himself. "You jerk! I can't believe you! Can't you be nice to me for a friggin' day?!"
Seto pretended to ponder that for a moment. He tapped his finger to his chin, as though he were deep in thought. Scratched his head, as though he might consider it. Scrunched his eyes in concentration, as if he were weighing the pros and cons.
And then laughed at the complete absurdity of such a request.
Kaiba leered at the fuming Joey. "No, don't think I can. Life wouldn't be as much fun." Kaiba then narrowed his cold blue eyes at the blonde. "Now play nice." And if Joey was any good at reading Kaiba's glares, he definitely meant that if he failed to play nice, he would be strung up by his ankles and be forced to watch as Kaiba would gladly remove all of his entrails to use them as a noose to hang him by. All while performing the Chinese Water Torture.
And then the bastard would probably castrate him, just for good measure. Ouch.
Joey whimpered.
Kaiba deftly tossed the ball to Joey, who caught it reflexively. Then the blue-eyed brunette walked back inside without another word. Though he did pause to shoot another warning glare at the blonde, who immediately crossed his legs as though in pain.
A few hours later, Kaiba smiled to himself, as he finally finished the report that he had been working on. He stretched a bit, arching his spine, hearing a nice pop in his lower back. Glancing at the clock, he realized with a start that it was nearing 5, and that the blonde hasn't bothered him in quite some time.
This, of course, could only mean one thing.
Joey was up to no good.
He quietly - but quickly, as his brain was all too happy to supply a multitude of scenarios of all sorts of trouble and destruction the mischievous blonde could have gotten himself into - walked back to the garden area outside, fully expecting to find his beautiful backyard in a post-Armageddon state.
What he did find, however, was highly amusing. Kaiba quickly stomped down on the smirk that was fighting its way onto his face.
"Like I said before, pup. You are a pig," he chuckled.
Joey and Mokuba had watered down an empty section of the garden, turning everything to mud. The hose was still on, squirming around on the ground like a live snake, spraying water everywhere. The two boys were both laughing and throwing mudballs at each other. Joey couldn't even bring himself to get angry at the brunette's comment. Instead, he donned a large, lopsided grin.
Don't get mad, get even, right?
Seto blinked as a particularly large mudball landed on his face. He had a sudden sense of deja vu as the brown goop dripped off his face. Better than chewed up dog food, he thought vaguely. Another drop of mud slipped off his nose, and he decided that no, actually, it was not better.
Seto took a menacing step towards the grinning idiot, and was about to wipe that stupid smile off his laughing face when he lost his footing in the slippery mud and fell in face first.
Kaiba laid there for a moment, stunned, trying to think of how he had ended up on the ground. He was pretty sure that he was about to do something important. Like, murder. At least he had landed on something soft…
A strained voice came from below him, and Kaiba remembered. Yeah, that's what he was doing. About to kill an obnoxious blonde who didn't know what was coming to him.
"You're heavy." Joey sounded like he was very much put upon.
Seto glared deep into honey eyes. "You're filthy."
Joey grinned suddenly, very pleased with himself. "So are you." No dry cleaner in the world would ever be able to get the muck out of those clothes.
It was then, as the brunette looked down to assess the damages of his wardrobe, that Seto realized that he was fully sprawled out on top of the other teen, in what could be a very compromising situation. His eyes widened as he realized that nothing but a scant inch of air was separating him from the blonde. The thought instantly turned his face red. Not good. This would be a good time to get out of here.
Kaiba hastily attempted to get up, scrambling for a foothold in the mudpit that was slowly turning into a pond with all the water from the hose, which was still going. Getting up took more than a couple of tries. Joey was quickly out of breath because the brunette kept slipping and falling back on top of him. Kaiba may have been a skinny little prick, but he still had quite a bit of weight to him.
Finally, around attempt 15, the two were able to stand back up again, Joey looking the worse for wear. Seto looked over the blonde, not knowing whether to be mad – the whole mud incident was his fault, after all - or amused. The blonde was covered from head to toe in mud, which was a funny sight to behold. Seto frowned slightly. However, the once unstained white t-shirt and jeans that Joey had been wearing belonged to Kaiba. The brunette sighed lightly.
"Time to give the dog a bath, I suppose," he chuckled. He looked at the blonde, who was pouting once again. This time he gave a real laugh. Not a small smirk, or sinister snicker. He laughed out loud, eyes crinkling with the force of it. It sounded, for the smallest of moments, like he was just a normal, carefree teenager.
Joey was been about to retaliate in response to the dog insult but froze at the foreign sound coming from Kaiba's mouth. Anything he might have said died on his tongue, and kept quiet, finding he'd rather listen to the brunette laugh. His eyes widened with the realization.
It was only because it was such a rarity, after all. That's what he kept telling himself. It was not because he enjoyed the sound.
Joey didn't even realize it as his mouth curved upwards into a soft smile. No, it wasn't that at all.