Chapter 8-Day 3

"What!" Joey spluttered.

Impassive blue eyes stared levelly at the shocked and outraged blonde in front of him. He silently raised an eyebrow as if to say, You heard me the first time, mutt, and I will not repeat myself for the likes of you. Now do as I say.

"You—you…just can't do that! It's not fair!"

Kaiba's stare began to turn into a glower. A glower that clearly said I can do whatever I want, pup. I didn't force you to agree to this bet. You did that all in your own stupidity. He turned his head away, already bored with this mental argument.

"But-but—"

Kaiba sneered over his shoulder. "I don't want to hear anything else out of you, unless it's an actual bark."

"You bastard!"

"I don't believe that was a bark, mutt."

Joey stomped his feet in frustration and resisted the urge to growl like a rabid dog. "This is unethical, Kaiba! There has to be some kinda law against this!"

Kaiba smiled in amusement. Today would be a very good day, indeed. "You can always try to sue me later. I'm sure the lawyers, not to mention the press, would just love to hear you explain this to them."

Joey's eyes widened. This was true. If word got out that he...that he did…this…well, Joey Wheeler would be the laughing stock of the town. No, scratch that…this story would probably make it onto every news station across the globe. He would be as famous as Kaiba, only without all the money, and instead of people asking for his autograph, people would just point and laugh.

Not that people across the globe would really care, but he wouldn't put it past Kaiba to bribe everyone from CNN to the most scandalous gossip magazine to print the story, just so he couldn't move to another country where no one would know who he was.

Joey hung his head in defeat. He did lose the bet, after all. He groaned inwardly. Why him? He wondered silently if someone up in the heavens was conspiring against him.

"But Kaiba…your dog for the day? Come on. Don't you think that's going just a little too far with this?"

Kaiba's smile turned into a smirk. "Not at all. I always wanted a pre-trained puppy that came with tricks and all." The smirk turned into a predatory grin, and he patted his thigh. "Now, heel."

Joey growled angrily. He imagined himself taking a bodily leap and tackling the CEO to the ground and brutally wiping that smirk off of his face via horrible, bloody means involving sharp implements. Sure, it wasn't a very realistic daydream, but it was still nice to think about. Joey giggled sadistically.

"I'm not your stupid dog, Kaiba. And I'm sure not doing any tricks for the likes of you. I'd much rather just bite your leg off."

The brunette gave a fake look of disappointment, and shook his head solemnly. He chuckled inwardly as Joey became even more irate, and nearly foamed at the mouth. He tutted, "You are not turning out to be a very good dog. Don't make me whack you with the newspaper. Or buy you a muzzle."

That shut Joey up. Kaiba was taller than him, and in case of a fight, Joey could possibly lose. And that would put him into more trouble than he already was. Besides, Kaiba could probably just summon fifty heavy-weight wrestling champion bodyguards out of thin air with the snap of his fingers. Being tackled by ten tons of muscle, and then having a gloating Kaiba force a muzzle on him did not sound like much fun. It did not sound like much fun at all.

So for once, Joey did a smart thing, and didn't utter another word. And that small logical part of his brain burst into weeping tears of joy that he was finally noticed. Then burst into tears of agony as it was violently shoved back into the dusty corners of Joey's mind, to never be seen again.

Kaiba took a moment to mentally pat himself on the back, for being the first in history to accomplish such a feat as silencing Joey. It was rare indeed, for Joey to not speak. Not that he found himself minding too much when he did talk, of course; his voice had a strange comforting sensation to it.

Kaiba growled inwardly. Wait. That was a lie. He couldn't stand the thought of Joey's voice. Why would he think there was anything positive about it? Something was obviously wrong with his brain. He would need a CAT scan after this week, along with some serious therapy. He needed to get away for a little while, if nothing else than to clear his head. This strange entrancement with the mutt was starting to grow to an unhealthy level.

He stood up, deciding to do just that. Besides, he needed to get something from the pet store. Sure, he could send the butler to do it, but this way he could kill two birds with one stone. He stalked over to the nearby closet to grab his customary trench coat.

"Where are yo—" Joey started, but Kaiba turned swiftly around with a glare that sent Joey's very soul running away wailing like a little girl, cutting him off.

"I have a few errands to run. Stay here, stay out of trouble, and try to stay out of my room." Kaiba intensified his glare as he added, "If you know what's good for you." His cold, icy blue eyes promised slow and painful deaths if he didn't 'try' hard enough. A brutal and gruesome murder that probably involved slow disembowelment using a butter knife and a spork.

Joey winced as the front door slammed shut. He clutched tightly to his stomach, where he hoped that kitchen utensils would never be used to take out his innards. That wasn't fair. Why did Kaiba get to leave, and he couldn't?

The blonde sighed. What to do now? As he walked out of the kitchen, he could hear the echoes of his footsteps reverberating across the walls. He fought down a shiver. Creepy. Leave it up to Kaiba to probably have ghosts living in his house.

Joey continued walking, repeatedly looking over his shoulder suspiciously—not that he was afraid of ghosts, mind you, because he was so not a sissy little scaredy-cat like that—until he found himself in the main foyer. He could explore, do a little searching for blackmail material to supplement his newfound college-at-the-expense-of-Kaiba-fund, but the chances of him becoming lost were high. Almost as high as the chances of him being blonde.

He checked his hair. Definitely blonde.

Exploring was off of his list of options to do.

He walked back up the stairs to the hall where the bedrooms were located, perfectly content with the idea of spending one of the days of his week from hell sleeping away. As Joey reached his bedroom, he glanced at the door next to his, which lead into Kaiba's room.

His eyes widened, surprised, as he saw that the door was ajar, opened just a sliver of a crack. Just enough to where he could see that all of Kaiba's closest, personal, tightly guarded secrets were not locked safely shut within.

He mentally debated whether or not he should venture inside. It was a perfect, golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Who else could say they had snuck inside of Kaiba's bedroom and lived to tell the tale? Then again, who was to say that he would survive? Joey's brain was all to happy to supply a multitude of scenarios that involved Kaiba slowly torturing the life out of him.

He stood there, silently debating with himself, and didn't even notice a slight movement below his line of vision.

As if having a mind of its own, his right hand started to reach for the doorknob. He nearly screamed when he saw it aiming for the Forbidden Door. He quickly slapped it down with his other hand. He started to chastise the disobedient limb on having moral ethics, and the value of having said limb not being detached from the wrist by said Kaiba. Somewhere in the back of his head, he silently hoped that the Kaiba brothers would never watch the security videos of him scolding his own hand.

He had a reputation to uphold, after all.

Unfortunately for Joey, and fortunately for the younger Kaiba, watching security videos of the two idiots living with him was a favorite pastime of Mokuba's. The footage would be the death of his college fund before it ever began.

Then, as he was busy giving his right hand a lecture on just exactly how many ways Kaiba could kill him for entering his room, Joey's left hand decided to stop paying attention at Death Scenario #485, and wandered to the knob and turned it in.

Joey stopped mid-sentence about being brutally strapped upside-down to a pole with no underwear or food or water, and stared at the now open doorway. Then he looked at his left hand, which was looking rather guilty right about now. He glared at it, and it curled up pathetically.

He decided to give up on scolding both of his hands, because scolding both could be considered grounds for being insane. Scolding just one could pass off as being weird. Eccentric, you know.

With no more scolding to do, he glanced up at the door. And his own views of morale ethics and fears of being mauled by a vicious brunette flew out the window, and a strong surge of curiosity took over.

He took a deep breath, and walked in. He instantly cringed, expecting futuristic laser beam rays to disintegrate him immediately. After a few agonizing seconds of not feeling his molecules turn to ash, he slowly pried one eyelid open. He relaxed visibly at the lack of Kaiba's army of space alien robot monsters waiting to devour his flesh.

He looked around him, taking in the vaguely familiar surroundings. He saw the same blue bed sheets, which had cued him in that he was in the wrong room the night before. He blushed slightly, recalling the fluttering sensation in his stomach as Kaiba leaned so close to his face, whispering in his ear. He recalled the way Kaiba's breath had smelled so minty fresh…

Joey's left hand slapped his face hard, and the thought died instantly. He thanked the appendage for restoring his sanity.

He continued his surveillance of the bedroom, and his eyes finally rested upon the majestic-looking bed in front of him. He nervously looked both ways, to ensure that no one was there to watch him—blissfully unaware of all security cameras—and took a good half dozen steps back.

Joey took in a couple deep, calming breaths. What he was about to do would be a monumental moment in mankind's history. No one before had ever dared to do this before. This was beyond any sort of sick extreme thrill that could be attained by sky diving or climbing Mount Everest. Compared to this, they all seemed like child's play.

Joey took one last breath, and then made a running leap for the bed. At the last second he took a giant leap onto the top of the mattress, just to see how high he could jump. He took great pleasure in the fact that he could almost reach the ceiling of the very tall, cathedral-like bedroom. Joey thought to himself with a chuckle that he had invented a new extreme sport: Kaiba Bed-Jumping.

After a few more gravity-defying jumps, Joey calmed down enough to just sit on Kaiba's bed. He took a moment to revel in the softness. It felt as though he were sitting on a fluffy cloud. Not that he expected any less. The billionaire teen could probably bribe mythological Greek gods to give him an actual cloud to sleep in. He felt a sudden urge to check underneath the sheets to make sure there was an actual mattress under there, but shook his head. He had more important things to do. He needed to think about why he suddenly acted the way he did around Kaiba.

He counted off his strange symptoms on his fingers. He knew that whenever Kaiba came unusually close, his face flushed, and his heart would beat faster. Granted, the only other times he had gotten so close to Kaiba was during their fights, so maybe his body was just unused to not punching the brunette's face at the proximity. That could be an explanation.

He also got the strange sensation of butterflies in his stomach. Big, huge, monstrous, kamikaze butterflies that were rampaging into his walls of his stomach. And the most incriminating part of all was that he didn't mind the feeling. He actually kind of enjoyed it. He couldn't really think of any explanation to that.

He knew that he didn't feel this way because he feared Kaiba. Sure, he could be a real prick, but he was beginning to see a different side to him. A few days ago, he would have said that there was a better chance of there being a three-headed monster living under his bed than Kaiba ever dreaming of possessing a heart.

Now he was beginning to think it might just be possible. Even scary monsters have hearts, so it was plausible that Kaiba might actually have one too. Who knows, he might even be a softie under that thick shell of ice.

But what did all of these signs mean? There was only one thing that Joey could think of, but he quickly shoved that thought away. No. It wasn't possible. There was just no way. He couldn't actually be…attracted to Kaiba, could he? He nearly gagged at the thought. No. Kaiba was a cold, heartless bastard who called Joey dog names. He would never think there was anything good about him.

He quickly shook his head. He had to get out of this room, it was doing weird things to his head.

In a small portion in the back of his head, his rebellious mind, however, pointed out to him that the thought of liking Kaiba wasn't as disturbing as it should have been.

Joey decided not to dwell on it for the time being. He needed fresh air. He needed out, now. In his haste to get out of the room, he jolted the bedside table, knocking over an ornate silver frame.

He leaned over to grab the picture off of the ground, praying to God that he hadn't broken it and left evidence of his daring breaking-and-entering into the Kaiba bedroom. After doing a quick inspection of the frame, he sighed in relief to see it was still intact. Then he took another moment to look at the picture, and he smiled softly. It was a picture of the Kaiba brothers from when they were younger. It wasn't funny like the one he found on the refrigerator the first day, but he still found himself staring fondly at the picture. He could see the innocence radiating from the young brunette's azure eyes. Too bad he was a bastard now.

Chuckling softly to himself, he brought his finger up to trace the outline of his cheek. He shook his head, smiling at the irony of it all. He murmured softly to himself, "I used to hate you. I think I still do. But, I'm not sure. Why am I so fascinated by you now?"

He softly placed the frame back to its original position. Joey took great care to put it back in the exact same place he found it. He wouldn't put it past Kaiba to do a complete inspection of his room to make sure everything was where it should be, down to the centimeter.

Joey made to stand up once again, and a reflection of sunlight from the window glinting off of something metallic caught his eye. He spied a small, sleek, black phone innocently sitting on the table. He blinked at it.

Kaiba's cell phone? Left at home? It was the equivalent of Kaiba removing his own head and walking around without it.

Joey picked the small device up, and could feel the weight of the hundreds of dollars Kaiba must have spent on it. An evil grin wormed its way onto the blonde's face. Now then, should he place an eight hour call to Antartica, perhaps? Or maybe Australia? He smiled contently to himself, planning to extract his revenge on the brunette by wracking up thousands of dollars on the CEO's phone bill.

Business before play, however. First things first, he told himself. He quickly dialed a number he knew by heart, then listened to it ring happily as he wondered how much longer it would take before Kaiba got back.

"Motou residence," a familiar, cheerful voice greeted his ears.

Joey let out a huge sigh of relief. "Man, oh man, Yug'! I've never been so happy to hear your voice before!"

Joey could hear the wide, innocent smile in the abnormally short teen. "Joey!" he chirruped happily. "How have you been?" His voice took on a slightly admonishing tone. "I hope you and Kaiba are getting along. Oh, hang on. Tristan's here. He wants to say hi too." He heard Yugi's muffled voice as he told the larger teen that he could talk with Joey once he was finished.

Joey rolled his eyes with a smile as he heard Tristan give a war cry, and judging by Yugi's surprised yelp, probably did a flying leap to tackle the shorter teen to the ground and wrestle for the phone.

"Joey buddy! How's it hanging! Has Kaiba killed you yet?" came Tristan's breathless voice as he could hear Yugi muttering darkly in the background, and Yami consoling the disgruntled boy.

Joey mournfully explained about Kaiba's punishment for losing the bet. "I'm telling you, Tristan. He says I've gotta be an actual dog for a day! Like, no talking. Just barking."

"What!" Tristan exclaimed. "That's messed up!" Yugi could be heard in the background jumping up and down, trying to understand what, exactly, was so messed up.

Joey sweatdropped as he heard Yugi tackle Tristan down, in his world famous move that he dubbed The Tick Attack, where he would leap onto his victim's back, sending them flying from his momentum.

"Joey, tell me what happened," Yugi gasped breathlessly, but smugly for having won the phone back. After Joey laboriously explained, he begged them to help him with an escape plan.

"I can't take it here; I'm seriously going crazy! You gotta help me out. Kaiba's acting really weir—" Joey stopped, blood going ice cold, as he felt a smooth, but strong, hand grip his own that was currently holding the forbidden cell phone to his ear.

The hand freed the phone from Joey's ninja kung fu death grip, and he could still hear Yugi's voice gurgle from the ear piece. An irritated voice growled. "You must be suicidal, pup." He shut the phone with an ominous snap. And Joey thought that the innocuous sound of a phone shutting was the single most scariest thing in the world that he had ever heard.

"K-Kaiba…what are you doing here?" Joey laughed nervously, trying to act like he had every right to be lounging around in the billionaire's private bedroom.

The brunette narrowed his eyes. "I think I should be asking you the same question, mutt. Did I not tell you to stay away from my room?" Joey could see his eye twitching. This man seriously had a short temper.

Joey scratched the back of his head, trying to think of a quick ingenious plan that would allow himself to smooth talk his way out of death's evil clutches. "Would you believe me if I told you that aliens abducted me and dumped me in here?"

"No."

"How about if I told you that this was actually a parallel dimension where this is my room, and yours is on the other side of the bathroom?"

"Doubtful."

"If I said that I work for the Men In Black, and this is all a figment of your imagination?"

"You watch too many sci-fi movies."

Kaiba sighed. He set a plastic bag on the bed. "Here I was, being thoughtful, getting you a present…now I don't think you deserve it. You've been a very disobedient puppy today."

Joey's ears perked up at the word 'present.' And he knew that if he had a tail, it would be wagging happily in excitement. "You got me something? For real?" He paused a moment. "Are you feeling okay?"

He felt the brunette's forehead, but when said brunette started to snarl at the invasion of his personal space bubble, Joey took a step back. "Okay, I don't think you have a fever. Just had to check you know? Sooo…what is it?"

Kaiba smirked and shook his head. "I don't think you deserve it anymore."

Joey's eyes immediately sprung up giant crocodile tears and grew to enormous proportions. "Please!" Joey wailed. "Please, I really want my gift! I'll be good, I swear!"

He noticed a moment too late, the thick piece of heavy fabric Kaiba slipped around his neck. When he felt its presence, however, and reached up a hand to feel a foreign object that felt suspiciously like a collar attached to the leash that Kaiba was currently holding, his eyes widened in surprise before quickly narrowing to angry slits.

He then proceeded to effectively use every curse word known to mankind, and even made up a few of his own. After he was finished, twenty minutes later, Kaiba did not look very happy.

Grabbing the back of his new collar, Seto dragged Joey into the middle of his own room. "I am not amused. You're going to stay up here, alone, doing absolutely nothing, until my headache that you caused me goes away."

Seto turned to leave, about to make his very dramatic exit stage right, but he barely made it a step closer to the door when he was almost bowled over by a very large, very heavy something attacking and attaching to his legs.

Seto gave a very audible growl. "Get. Off. Me. Now. Mutt." He glared at the blonde hair that was attached to a body that was currently wrapped around one of his legs, making it very hard to move.

Joey pouted. "No. You are not going to leave me up here alone, as in by myself—" as if the CEO needed clarification to the meaning of the word,"—with nothing to do."

Kaiba closed his eyes, trying to keep his growing anger in check. "Let go of me now, before I make you let go."

Kaiba gave another sigh. Joeys were very stubborn species. He tried to take another step towards the door, but it was no use. His other leg could have been cemented to the floor, and it would have been easier to move. "Mutt, how much did you eat today? I think you need to lose some weight. You can't possibly be this difficult to move."

Joey huffed crossly and pouted. "I'm a growing boy. I need to eat to sustain all of my energy!"

Seto decided to ignore him, and continue his futile attempts to the door. He fell flat on his face. True, he was now closer to the door, but he also couldn't get back up. Somewhere in Kaiba's soul, he wept for the loss of his dignity.

Feeling something snap from all sorts of tension, which were all caused by said blonde attached to his leg, whose face was very near his upper thigh. He began to viscously shake his leg, until the blood-sucking leech that masqueraded as a human was tossed unceremoniously across the room. The blonde created a loud thud as he used the wall to stop his impromptu flight.

Joey rubbed his nose. That had really hurt. He could feel the tears building up in his eyes already. He looked at Kaiba with those large chocolate orbs, looking very much like a kicked puppy. Which, ironically, Kaiba thought that was exactly what he was.

Kaiba felt his heart perform a summersault, before taking a flying leap off a cliff without a parachute that was at the top of a pit full of razor-sharp rocks that would impale the poor organ, at the pained look in those puppy-dog eyes before him. Cursing himself for his weakness that he would wait until later to analyze, he walked over to the whimpering puppy on the floor. He gave a small apologetic smile. "I'm…sorry, mutt." Sure, it sounded like Kaiba's molars had been ground into dust, but he was making an effort here. Sort of. "I just lost my temper. Don't be upset, okay?"

Joey continued to cry, face covered by his hands.

Kaiba began to freak out, as the foreign sensation of remorse – though Kaiba wouldn't recognize the emotion if it bit him on the nose. He just thought he was having heartburn. – began to wrap its tendrils around his heart.

"I'm really sorry, Joey! Really I am! Look, you don't have to do the dog thing, okay?" There was only a slight improvement in the blonde's sobs. He sighed. "Please stop. I'll even let you pick how we spend our day tomorrow, okay? Anything you want!"

Not lifting his head, Joey gave a loud hiccup, that sounded a little off. Around this time, Kaiba would have normally realized that something was not going right, if he wasn't suffering from what he dubbed as heartburn. "Promise?"

Kaiba eagerly nodded, even though the blonde couldn't see it. Which was probably a good thing, as an eager Kaiba is paramount to seeing one Marik Ishtar volunteering at the local soup kitchen. I.e., a sight that should send the witness running for the hills, as it could only mean the end of the world as we know it. "It's a promise."

Joey quickly lifted his head, bright and cheery grin covering his face, and not a trace of tears. "That's a fantastic idea, Moneybags!"

Kaiba growled menacingly, but as usual it had little to no effect on the blissfully oblivious blonde. This didn't stop Kaiba from stomping his feet in embarrassment, simultaneously obliterating Joey's every preconception of the highly poised, dignified, elegant billionaire. "You little cheat! You were faking!"

Joey didn't even look slightly abashed. "You bet! Now I don't have to be your stupid dog, and I get to pick what we're doing tomorrow. It's great. I've already got a plan! Just you wait!"

The brunette narrowed his eyes. "Don't think you've got out of your leash just yet. You may not be my dog, but I can still make you wear it. Just you wait."

Joey gulped, thinking again of the fifty sumo-wrestler bodyguards that were just waiting to be summoned. Hiding in the shadows, watching their blonde prey, waiting for the okay to go ahead and pounce, smooshing Joey into a not-so-yummy pancake. His look of horror, however, turned into one of glee.

"Yeah? Well, I've got all the control for tomorrow, and it's going to be one helluva day. You won't even know what hit ya!"

Kaiba didn't look very sure of himself. He silently wondered to himself, for the umpteenth time that week, if Mokuba would approve if he used murder to solve his problems.

Joey patted him on the shoulder, telling him that he would take care of all the arrangements, as long as Kaiba would pay for everything. He reluctantly agreed – only because he would much rather face the doom that Joey had planned instead of the doom that would be awaiting him at the hands of Mokuba if he discovered Joey's dead corpse lying around - as long as it wasn't too much.

And when Joey happily announced where they would be going, something is Kaiba's soul broke, and he sobbed.