KD: New chapter! Hope everyone had a good holiday.

Chapter Thirteen: Pray to the Blue Eyes!

Chapter Song:

Brick in the Wall- Pink Floyd or Korn (your choice)

The next morning Seto awoke to find his arm around the blonde teen snuggled up against his torso, mouth hanging open, dead to the world. Seto's eyes softened a margin as he unconsciously ran his fingers through the thick blonde hair. "He really is like a puppy," Seto thought almost begrudgingly. Kaiba checked his watched and slid away from the mutt who stirred a little but mumbled some garble about Kaiba stealing his waffles and turned over in his sleep. This caused Seto's lips to quirk as he got dressed. Once he had dressed himself, he reached down to pick up his laptop and noticed Joey's phone on the floor next to his pants. He stared at it thoughtfully for a moment before straightening up and leaving the room.

Joey rolled over, falling off the bed hitting the hard floor. He rubbed his head where he felt a bump starting to take form. "Where am I again?" Joey said, looking around. "Right, I fell asleep here after Seto…Gah, don't think 'bout that, Joey. Where is the jerk anyways?" Joey stood up and started looking around the room. There was a cart with some food on it that looked like waffles. "Waffles?" Joey said confused, "wait a minute, didn't I have a dream with waffles in it….oh god…don't tell me I talk in my sleep and Seto heard it. That sneaky bastard." Joey mumbled under his breath while scratching his head. "What time is it anyways? I have school today, don't I?" Joey continued to think out loud. He saw his cell phone on the floor next to his pants, and noticed it was buzzing while blinking '1 missed message'. Joey picked up his phone and held it in his mouth while quickly throwing his clothing on.

From Seto

To Joey

Received 5:47 AM

Looks like the puppy finally decided to wake up. I brought you you're waffles back, so you better not complain about being hungry. Don't be too late for school, I don't want you failing worse that you already are because you can't handle it in bed yet.

Joey slammed the phone shut. "Stupid Kaiba," he said with mouths full of waffle. "What time was it anyways?" Joey angrily opened the phone, "7:27! Oh man, I'm gonna be late." Joey dashed out of the room but slowly started to slow down. "How do I get to school from here?" Joey said, walking around trying to figure out where he was, but seeing only tall skyscrapers in every direction. "This is going to be a long day…" Joey thought to himself.

When Joey had finally managed to make it to school, first period was over and he barely managed to be on time for second. "So glad you could join us, Mr. Wheeler," his teacher said, pushing up his glasses in a clearly disapproving manner. "Please take a seat so I may begin the lesson."

Joey sat down, gingerly though, as his body was still sore from last night. Talk about embarrassing, when technically, he and Seto have never even…. Well, done the deed as some people called it. Whenever Seto was feeling intimate, he usually just tortured Joey by pleasuring him into submission.

He felt a pang of annoyance but tried to distract himself from thoughts of the brunette multi billionaire by actually paying attention to what the teacher was writing on the board. When lunchtime rolled around, Joey didn't feel much like socializing, and he didn't want to chance his friends catching on to anything. Joey could freely admit he sucked at hiding things, especially from his friends. He was just one of those heart-on-his-sleeve guys.

He went to an isolated area behind one of the school buildings, gathered up a bunch of rocks, and began chucking them at the trunk of a tree, imagining Kaiba's face on it.

"Problems in billionaire paradise?" Joey heard a harsh British voice from behind him. Joey turned around to see Bakura standing, arms crossed and obviously not happy to be there. "Don't try to deny it, I know Kaiba is, for some reason, interested in a nothing like you." He stated icily.

Joey sighed at this. He was hoping to cover it up, but it's hard to get things past Bakura. "Yeah, Bakura? What's it to ya?" Joey asked, still annoyed at Seto for last night.

"Someone just thought you would like some help is all," Bakura said, adding more spite than usual to 'someone'. "After all, it's obvious you don't want you friends finding out that you have been playing pup to the billion-dollar boy. Are you housebroken yet?" Bakura asked slyly.

"That jerk thinks he can toy with me like that. Taunting me with waffles. He is so aggravating!" Joey yelled, but then quickly clamped his mouth shut remembering he was at school.

Bakura started to laugh at him, a dark, mocking laugh, "You seriously expected to be able to dominate someone like Kaiba." Bakura smiled, "No wonder Kaiba finds you intriguing; he liked the little puppy that barked back." Hearing the mocking from Bakura angered Joey even more. "But I can see why he would keep it a secret. You would start being kidnapped more than Mokuba." Bakura's laugh was even more menacing now than before.

"Mokuba…That's it, Bakura, you're a life saver!" Joey exclaimed with newfound enthusiasm and started to jog off, forgetting about throwing stones at his Seto tree. Bakura had a brief moment of confusion to Joey's reaction to his comment, but it passed as quickly as it came.

Several hours later, when Joey was on break from his work, Mokuba approached him in the locker rooms. "Hey, Mokuba, thanks for answering my call," Joey said gratefully.

"No problem. So what's up?" Mokuba asked.

"Would it make me sound like a jerk if I said I was hoping you could help me get one over your brother?" Joey asked after taking a drink of water from the water fountain.

"Why would I do something like that?" Mokuba asked in confusion.

"Please just say you'll help me." Joey begged, his hands clasped together.

Mokuba sighed, "Whatever Seto did, it could not have been that bad."

"You obviously don't know your brother very well," Joey grumbled under his breath.

But Mokuba heard him. "Listen, I know my brother can be unsociable sometimes. But he's got a lot of responsibilities to worry about. He's the head of a multibillion corporation. People expect a lot from him. So of course there are gonna be days where he's cold and distant towards people, even me."

"Ya, but it still doesn't give him the right to do that," he muttered softly clenching his fists.

"Let's talk about something else, Joey, like your latest marks." Mokuba lifted up a paper that oddly looked like Joey's last test. "18 points out of 50, Joey, really?"

Joey's face dropped and he tried to snatch the paper from Mokuba, "How'd ya get that?"

"You dropped it on the floor." Mokuba said, folding up the test and putting it in his pocket. "I suggest you get a tutor and fast with grades like these. Otherwise you'll be stuck in high school forever."

"I don't have the dollars to afford a tutor," Joey started, "and Tea makes no sense when she's 'splaining stuff to me."

Mokuba started to laugh, "You could always ask my brother for help. Maybe I should show him this test to brace himself."

"Ya right, like I would ask him. It just gives me two more hours a day to be mocked on something new," Joey said with a sigh.

"But Joey, it would also help you become better friends with my brother… maybe," He pointed out, holding back a laugh. "I'll go ask him for you then." Mokuba ran off, the test in tow.

"Wait, Mokuba!" Joey yelled, trying to run after him, but then saw the time on his watched and knew he was going to be late if he didn't leave soon.

"Brother, are you busy?" Mokuba asked, knocking on Seto's office door before stepping in.

"What is it, Mokuba?" Seto was typing on his computer as usual. "I have a meeting to go to soon."

"I wanted to show you something," he said, placing the exam on the table. Seto picked up the paper gingerly and examined it.

"If you are trying to prove to me how dumb Wheeler is, I already knew that," Seto stated dryly, dropping that paper.

"Brother, you are so dense," Mokuba said quietly under his breath. "Don't you think, with scores like these, Joey needs a tutor?" Mokuba fought back.

"Since when do you care about Wheeler's test scores?" Seto asked, putting away his laptop in his brief case.

"Since I figured you could tutor him. Joey can't afford a tutor, and I think it would be good for BOTH of you to do it," Mokuba shouted as Seto was leaving, emphasizing the 'both'.

"Teaching Wheeler how to do better in school would be like teaching a one legged man to win the 100-meter dash," Seto stated smartly as he approached the door.

"Please, Seto?" pleaded Mokuba. "Joey's my friend and I don't want to see him held back a year. And you're the smartest person I know. If anyone could help Joey, it's you, big brother."

Seto closed his eyes in annoyance. "I'll think about it," Seto finally conceded, not wanting to make any promises on the matter.

Mokuba smiled, because that usually, more often than not, meant 'yes'.

A couple days had passed since the younger Kaiba brother had stolen his test and Joey had heard no word from Seto or Mokuba, which was somewhat of a relief. Kaiba must have refused to be Joey's tutor which was perfectly a-okay with Joey. Even if Kaiba was at the top of his class, Joey would just feel awkward and the sessions would give Kaiba every opportunity to take a shot at his intelligence.

After he was done with work for the day, he was ready to go home and hit the hay, notwithstanding the fact that the extra homework assignment his teacher had assigned him was due the next day. He had tried writing up an interpretation, but he just wasn't good with this sort of thing. He exited Kaiba Land, wanting to get out before the night masses began flooding the place.

A limo was driving past Joey and, much to his surprise, a little boy was popping out of the sunroof, "Joey! Hey, Joey!" He yelled, waving at him with his goofy smile.

"There you are!" Joey marched towards the limo. "Give me my test back!" He pointed accusingly and waved his arm around.

Mokuba's head dropped out of view and he opened the limo door to allow Joey to get in the car. "I'm sorry, Joey, I don't have it." He signaled the driver to continue.

"Wah! Whach' ya mean you don't have it? I need to get that test signed by my dad or I'll get detention for a month and won't be able to work," Joey said, his head drooping.

"Joey, I just said I don't have it. Seto has it." Mokuba replied with a sheepish laugh.

"Kaiba! Why does he still have it?" Joey said, as if all the life was sucked out of him. "Guess I'll have to suck it up and go get it from him."

"Well, you'll have to wait until Seto comes home from work," Mokuba told him once they arrived at the mansion. "Bu-ut, until then, how does an ice cream sundae with walnuts sound?"

"That sounds good to me!" Joey said without pretense.

The two went to the kitchen and pulled out the five flavors of ice cream, ten flavors of syrups, seven varieties of nuts and, of course, whipped cream for topping. In no time the kitchen counter was a mess and the two boys had each a mountain of ice cream topped with so many different things it would make a dental hygienist cringe.

As soon as the two started digging in, they heard the front door slam shut, "Mokuba, I'm home." Seto said heading towards the kitchen."What do you want for…" Seto stopped when he entered the kitchen to see his brother and Joey with chocolate and caramel covered faces. Joey took another scoop from his bowl and swallowed it. "Mokuba, how many times do I have to tell you, no sweets before dinner." A maid came in and started to clean up the mess in the kitchen, causing Seto to move his attention towards Joey. "Come with me, mutt," Kaiba said to Joey, leaving the kitchen and heading upstairs to his home office.

Joey took one last bite of his ice cream before getting off the stool and following Kaiba upstairs. Seto was sitting at his desk, hands crossed on the table. "Listen, Kaiba, I want my test back. So hand it over." Joey said, pulling out a chair and sitting across from him.

"No, you listen, Wheeler. I can't have any of my employees with grades this low. Therefore, every day after work, I'll be tutoring you for two hours here. Starting now." Joey clenched his teeth and wanted to object. If his tutor was anyone but Kaiba, he would happily accept it, but he knew if he rejected Kaiba, it also meant the unemployment route.

"Fine, Kaiba," Joey spat out, taking his books out of his backpack. Heart of darkness, the book he was supposed to interpret, was sitting on top.

Kaiba grabbed the book. "Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad, I read this book when I was twelve. What's the assignment?" Seto started to thumb through the book casually.

"I have to give an interpretation of the three levels of darkness," Joey said with a sigh, "But I don't understand this book for the life of me. All I understand as that this guy is on a boat."

Seto sighed and started to explain the book in great detail for Joey, which what quite a pain for him because half of the time Joey was going "Wha?" of "Nyah?" to his explanations.

But after about an hour it was starting to pay off. Slowly Joey was starting to somewhat grasp the deeper meaning. "Wow… I think I'm actually starting to understand this whole darkness thing," Joey said scribbling down a few notes on a piece of paper. "Now I'll have something to add to my report."

Seto deftly snatched the paper from Joey's hand and glanced over it, ignoring the blonde's loud protesting. "Wheeler, what is this?"

"Well, that's the report I was going to turn in."

Seto closed his eyes as if praying to his Blue-Eyes White Dragon for patience before taking the paper in his hands and ripping it right down the middle.

"What's that for, Kaiba!" Joey shot up out of the chair and grabbed Seto's jacket, "I worked hard on that. Why'd ya have to go and rip it up?"

Seto grabbed Joey's wrists, "A third grader has better writing than you. You are writing it over again." Seto tossed Joey to the side, and went to go fetch his laptop, and a cup of coffee. Seto placed the laptop on Joey's lap. "Here, use this, but if you break it you will regret it." Seto hovered over Joey, correcting his grammar and spelling every few minutes, and every once in awhile scolding him about pressing the keys on the keyboard too hard.

"Ta-da," Joey said, finally finished. He stretched with relief. "One paper complete. Thanks for letting me borrow the laptop, Kaiba," Joey said, shutting it closed too hard.

"It will be the last time, too," Kaiba replied testily, snatching his laptop back. "Do you have any other homework that will take over 3 hours to explain to you?"

Joey shook his head no. "Now about the test you have of mine…" but before he could finish, Seto handed him the failed test. "Thanks, Kaiba," Joey said, getting up and leaving the office.

"Don't bother thanking me," Seto commented, "Until your grades improve."

KD: Nyaw! Seto you DO care! He wants his puppy to be smart and graduate. Will their relationship move to the next step with all this extra time spent together? Are we really going anywhere? Sure we are! You just don't know it yet. So stay tuned until next time!