CM: New chapter! Wee! We're starting to get to the good stuff! Drama! More intense romance! And of course the puppyshipping we love and adore. ^_^ Enjoy! And yes, we know the song is over used, but trust me, it fits.
Chapter Seventeen: Nah, He Likes Brunettes
Song for chapter:
Dirty Little Secret- All American Rejects
"Man, that test was brutal," Tristan stated once their history class had ended.
"I didn't think it was so bad," Ryou inputted.
"That's because you probably studied, unlike some people," Tea said, shooting a glance at Tristan.
"Hey, gimme a break. I can't study something I'm not interested in," Tristan said in his defense before turning to his closest buddy. "How do you think you did, Joey?"
"I dunno. I think I might have done alright," Joey replied with a shrug. Honestly, he didn't feel he did too badly. Several of the questions he felt for sure he knew the answers to. He was confident he at least managed to get a C.
"You looked pretty sure of yourself, Joey," Yugi commented. "You weren't freaking out like you usually do."
"Of course, that's cuz Joey Wheeler knows how to keep his cool," Joey declared proudly.
"Right…" Tea and Tristan said in unified disbelief.
"I say, Joey, what's that on your neck?" Ryou asked suddenly.
Joey was confused by Ryou's question and felt awkward as suddenly everyone was staring at him trying to figure out what strange thing Ryou discovered.
"Is that what I think it is?" Tristan exclaimed.
"Oh, Joey," Tea murmured.
"A bruise? Oh, wait, isn't that…" Yugi asked.
"What are you guys talking about?" Joey asked feeling left in the dark.
"Take a look," Tea said. She pulled out a compact mirror and handed it to Joey. Joey flipped it open and searched until he found what they were talking about. He let loose an exclamation when he saw, at the base of his throat, a faint red mark.
"That jerk," Joey thought furiously. "Why'd he have to leave it someplace visible?"
Joey's inner rage was interrupted when Tristan pulled him into a headlock. "You dog, so you finally found yourself a girl, huh? Why didn't you say anything? I thought we were pals."
"Sorry, Tristan," Joey said awkwardly. "I just…"
"It's alright, I understand," Tristan said giving him a playful noogie before letting him go. "So, Romeo, who's the lucky lady?"
"Is it Mai?" Tea guessed.
"I dunno, Joey seems more like a fan of brunettes," Ryou said cheerily.
Joey flushed at this statement and he wasn't sure how to answer their questions.
Yugi must have sensed his reluctance because he said, "It's okay, Joey. If you don't feel comfortable telling us, then we can wait until you're ready."
Joey smiled at the midget. "Thanks, Yug. No offense guys but, it's not really something I wanna talk about."
After school, Tristan and Joey decided to walk to Burger Land and hang out there before meeting Tea and Yugi at the arcade. Joey had another precious day off and felt it was important to spend some quality time with his best friends. The two boys were walking in silence at first, neither knowing what to say to one another. Tristan wanted to ask more about Joey's mysterious girlfriend and why he hid it for so long from him. They had been through so much together in the past, so why was it so hard for him to mention one girlfriend?
Joey felt more self conscious about his neck now, knowing that the hickey was there. A mark left by Seto, almost like a marking to show the world that Joey is his property, but no one would know this. The two boys had worked hard to make sure that no one knew of their bizarre relationship that extended further than boss and employee.
"Hey, Joey," Tristan's voice finally broke the silence. "Why have you been hiding the fact that you have a girlfriend? I mean I thought we were best friends, man. What gives?"
Joey held in a sigh. "Aw, I don't know, it's embarrassing." Joey let out his sigh almost speaking in a whisper, "Besides sometimes I wonder if SHE really thinks of us like that." Joey waited for Tristan to respond hoping that he didn't hear the last statement.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. And it's obvious she likes ya." Tristan pointed to the hickey on Joey's neck. "Besides I wanna meet this girl. Curious to see what she sees in ya." Tristan laughed at his light taunt.
"Trust me, Tristan, you know him well enough." Joey thought as the two finally entered Burger Land.
"Did you meet her at work?" Tristan asked after the two ordered and were sitting down at their usual table.
"Kinda," Joey said less than convincingly, but Tristan went with it. "It's not a complete lie I did meet Seto at work but I just happened to know him before hand." Joey took a sip of his shake. "Let's talk about something else. You're acting worse than a girl right now interrogating me like this." Joey hoped saying that would drop the topic, which it did. The conversation soon moved to video games, card games, and some new bands Tristan has been listening to and thought Joey would enjoy.
After finishing their food, the two headed to the arcade ready to play some games. However, to Joey, the video games in the arcade where nothing in comparison to the games he'd tested with Mokuba, except for the fact that he actually won against Tristan, rather than getting his butt kicked with Mokuba.
After a good three hours of gaming, the two went their separate ways. Joey headed home, ready to get some much needed sleep. With a yawn Joey stumbled in to his apartment. "How does Kaiba do it?"
He shuffled through the room, his feet hitting empty beer bottles. He noticed a figure passed out in the armchair of the living room, snoring heavily. Joey sighed before he went and fetched a blanket before coming back and covering the comatose figure that smelt heavily of alcohol.
"Ya probably won't miss me if I'm gone, will ya, old man?" Joey murmured out loud before heading to his own room so he could get his much-desired sleep.
Seto and Mokuba were leaving the book store, brown bag full of books in tow. "Look, Seto," Mokuba said, running over to a light pole seeing a brightly colored poster attached to it. "There's a firework festival December 2nd and 3rd in Chichibu." Mokuba started getting excited. They had never gone to a festival together before and always wanted to go to one. "We should go. It would be fun." Mokuba looked at his elder brother hopefully.
"We have more important things to do than take a weekend off to go to a festival." Seto walked back to the car without a moment's thought. He waited for Mokuba to join him, but saw the sadness in Mokuba's eyes from the fast rejection. The entire car ride was quiet, Mokuba day-dreaming about eating all the food from the vendor stalls, watching the fireworks light up the night sky, and just spending some quality family time with his brother.
After the two got to the house, Seto went straight to his study, going back to his work. However, after three hours of nothing but typing away on his computer, his mind drifted to the festival Mokuba was excited about. He pulled of the website with all of the information about what was going on each day, and it did sound like something Mokuba would enjoy. "Even the mutt would enjoy this," he thought as he perused the pictures of previous festivals.
"It's only about ninety minutes away." He was looking at the online maps. On the sidebar, Seto saw some hotels in the area. "Going to an onsen would be relaxing." He looked at the pictures of the place. "But there is too much work to be done here." Seto closed the browser window and went back to his work, but a small part of him, in the back of his mind, really didn't think that spending the weekend there would be too bad.
"Hey, Mokuba, ya feeling alright?"
The next day Joey had dropped by to play some video games before heading over to meet Tristan. What was really odd, though, was that Joey had managed to win three times in a row. He'd like to think it was because of his mad gaming skills, but the young boy genius wasn't easily beaten.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mokuba said, though he didn't sound it. "I guess I'm just not up for games right now."
"What happened?" Joey asked in friendly concern.
"Well, there's this festival going on…" Mokuba began. He explained to Joey about the winter festival he saw being advertised. He described the events as well as all the fun things one could do, and of course all the delicious food one could eat being there. Joey listened intently and was clearly charmed with the idea. When Mokuba told Joey that Seto didn't want to go, Joey was baffled. "I really want to go, but without Seto it just wouldn't be as fun."
"That jerk," Joey said, getting up. "Looks like someone's gotta knock some sense into that rich boy, and it might as well be me."
"Joey, wait…" Mokuba said, trying to stop him but Joey wouldn't hear a word of it. When Joey got to the study, he didn't even bother knocking, but threw open the door. "Find a stopping spot, Kaiba, cuz I'm about to tear you a new one."
"Do you have seriously nothing better to do than to interrupt me when I'm busy, mutt?" Seto asked, not even bothering to look up from his computer screen.
"What's the deal, Kaiba?" Joey asked. "Mokuba wanted to go to a festival and you didn't even consider it? What kind of big brother are you? I can understand shirking me off for work, but Mokuba's your family. You have no idea what you're throwing away!" Joey would have loved to have been able to do things like this with Serenity. Had he the time and money, he would have taken her anywhere she wanted. The fact Seto would rather spend his free time working rather than spend time with his little brother infuriated Joey. "It's like the only time you ever act like an older brother is when Mokuba is in mortal peril or something."
"You're yapping is getting on my nerves, Wheeler," Seto warned. "You're in MY house, mutt. Start learning some respect before you decide to start lecturing me."
"I'll stop lecturing ya when you learn how ta be a brother instead of a work-a-holic." Joey sat down in one of Seto's office chairs, obviously not wanting to budge until Seto hear him out. "If I had the money I would take Serenity wherever she wanted. And I know you have the money, rich boy. So what possible thing at work could be so important that ya can't take three days off for your brother?"
"If you ran a multi-billion dollar company, then you would understand how important my work is," Seto stated, trying to drop the conversation, but when it comes to Joey, that's near impossible.
Joey gripped the chair's arm handles for a few seconds before standing up. "Fine, deprive you brother of an actual childhood then." Joey stalked out and headed back to the living room, where Mokuba was just laying on the couch. Mokuba's body shot up when he heard Joey enter "Sorry Mokuba." Joey looked just as disappointed as he did. "But Kaiba won't budge. You and I could always go together though." Joey tried to cheer up the pre-teen but it was obviously not working.
"It's ok, Joey. It wouldn't be the same without Seto. Thanks for trying though."
Joey messed up Mokuba's hair trying to get a smile out of him. "Well, I got to go meet up with Tristan. If you change your mind call me then." Mokuba nodded at Joey and walked him out of the house.
A few days had passed, and no word about the festival had been brought up in the Kaiba manor. However, Seto didn't stop thinking about it completely. Even though he didn't show it, he did take Joey's words to heart, and thought about the childhood that he and Mokuba had, or lack thereof. "I could always bring my laptop with me to work on. But I can see Wheeler stopping me every time I try to work."
Seto was once again looking at the onsen on the internet, and pulled out his phone. After a few rings he heard an elderly women on the other line. "How much it is to rent out an entire half of you bath house?" he inquired. After one swift negotiation, Seto was able to reserve half of the bath house for the weekend of December 2 and 3rd. "The mutt better be happy about this."
CM: Nyaw! He does have a heart? But WILL Joey be happy? Let's find out! Not now though... but soon! :P