KD: Well, sadly we've lost contact with our editor, so we're doing the editing ourselves for the time being. Hopefully it's okay. Forgive us for the minor errors that we may miss.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Trisconception
Song for chapter:
Secret Agent Man- Johnny Rivers
"Hey, man, wanna hang out today?" Tristan asked Joey as school came to a close. It had been several days since the two teens hung out on Joey's birthday. He wanted to spend more time with his closest friend, but knew how busy he has been with work.
"Sorry, man, I gotta work today," Joey said as he threw his bag over his shoulder "But maybe next time." Joey dashed out of the room, looking down at his new watch realizing that if he didn't get a move on he would be late.
"What does he do at work anyways? He still won't invite any of us to see him there. He never talks about it either," Tristan thought as he started to walk home. "Kaiba Land isn't too far from here... No, he's your best friend, trust him." Tristan was having an inner conflict in his head and not sure which way to go. He was so lost in thought he didn't even realize he was heading in the direction of the park until he saw the towering building a few blocks away. This made him think about how big of a pompous jerk Kaiba was, inflating his own ego even more, building his own park. Well, since he was already almost there… "Joey says he works with children, but I don't see this place having anything like a day care."
Tristan saw an electronic board near the front of the park with the daily activities; learning the basics of dueling, intermediate dueling, advance dueling, shows and the current duels that were scheduled to happen and what time they would start. "He could be teaching a dueling class, but I don't see Kaiba ever giving Joey a job like that. After all, he doesn't respect him as a person, let alone a duelist. But it's worth a shot."
Tristan entered the park and popped in on some of the seminars going on, but could not find the poofy haired teen anywhere. Tristan sighed wondering if he was ever going to find Joey in such a huge place without accidentally getting spotted first.
"Step right up here kids to meet the Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!" Tristan heard a girl announce in a loud peppy voice. "He gives hugs, he takes pictures, and he can sign your character book! Single file please!"
Tristan glanced over as he spotted a cute looking female worker standing with someone dressed up as the announced duel monsters card. "Wow, must suck to be that person. I would never..." Tristan did a double take when he caught sight of the person's face. "Joey?" Joey was too distracted with the kids to notice anything else but Tristan hid behind the empty cotton candy vendor nonetheless, just in case. "Oh man, now THIS is the kind of job I'd picture Kaiba forcing Joey to do. The jerk."
Tristan took another look at the girl working with him. He wondered if that was Joey's girlfriend. It would make sense if the two were constantly working together. The girl must have a fetish for men in costume. He watched as the kids came and went, losing all track of time. Eventually the two of them must have gone on break because the girl and Joey both were getting ready to leave after the girl placed a sign that had a listing of viewing times where they were standing.
"Doing great, Celtic Guardian!" Kit said patting Joey on the back as the two started to walk away from their spot together and off into what looked like an employee only area.
Tristan stayed at a close distance behind the two, hoping to hear Joey talk, but he didn't say a word. After all he was supposed to stay in character the entire time the public eye could see him. He saw the girl slide her employee pass into the card reader at the door and opened it for Joey. "You sit down, Joey. I'll go get you some water." Tristan slid through the door before it closed shut and saw the hallways with numerous doors and windows.
Tristan saw Joey and the girl enter the room with the label 'Employee Break Room'. He ducked down under the window that was placed before the door hoping no one would walk by to see him spying. He listened hard to hear what they were saying behind the wall.
"Thanks, Kit. "Joey happily took the water and started to chug it down. "This armor gets so heavy some times, and the kids don't help much."
"Chin up, Joey. You are doing great. Just think about how much you have progressed since you first started." She grabbed a bottle herself and started to sip it. "Oh ya, Joey, I almost forgot. Happy belated Birthday. I'm sorry again I couldn't make it to your party, but I couldn't get my shift switched. I would have loved to have met your friends." Kit held out a light pink bag that was endowed in frilly ribbons and rose-scented tissue paper.
"That has to be Joey's girlfriend," Tristan continued to think, trying to peep over the window without being seen. He was having difficulties seeing what she was handing Joey.
Joey opened the bag and saw a bobble head, googly eyed Watapon at the bottom of the bag. Joey took it out and lightly tapped it, watching the body twang up and down as the eyes rolled all over the place. "I thought it was perfect since Watapon was you're first and all. Plus it's super cute," Kit said looking at it with cutesie eyes.
"Thanks, Kit, but you didn't have ta get me anything," Joey said slightly embarrassed by the pink fluff ball in his hand, but at the same time was almost touched by its symbolic meaning.
"Of course I did, silly," Kit said hugging Joey. "Of all the people I work with, you're by far the greatest. Thanks for making it fun."
"Same to you," Joey said smiling. "If I didn't have you ta help me out, those kids would eat me alive. You've been a big help ever since I started, so thanks."
"You're such a sweetie," Kit giggled snuggling him. "It makes me want to huggle you to death."
"As fun as that sounds, let's not. I can just imagine what Kaiba would say if I died on the job."
Both of them laughed at this.
"Wow, no doubt about it," Tristan thought from his window watching. "Those two are together. I've never seen a girl hug Joey like that."
He saw the girl, whose name he now knew was Kit, get up from her chair. "I'm going to the restroom. We should probably head back out when I get back." Tristan saw her getting up and started to panic. He needed to move and fast before he was noticed. He slowly started to crawl away, but forgot which door he needed to go out of.
"Crap where do I go? Just blend, Taylor, and no one will suspect you." Tristan started to walk around as if he knew where he was going.
Kit saw this stranger a few steps after she left the break room. She started to dash, gaining speed, "Intruder alert!" She shouted football tackling Tristan from the rear. He fell face flat on the ground, with the petite, but still limber girl on top of him. "How did you get in here? I have never seen you before." Tristan tried to answer her, but his response came out muffled since his face was smashed into the tile flooring. Kit finally realized this after a few moments. "Sorry." She got off of Tristan, using the full force of her body on his to get herself up.
Tristan sat up, rubbing his now pink cheek as he saw the girl hold out her hand to help him up. "You can really tackle can't you?" He said wiping himself off as he stood up.
Kit just smiled serenely at him. "Basic female employee training. So how did you get in here?" She said trying to get back on track. "This is employees only and I know I have never seen you here before." She circled Tristan as a shark would its prey, waiting for his response.
"Well…um. I'm friends with Joey, and I have been worried about him lately," Tristan started, thinking since this was Joey's girlfriend she would know what's wrong. "He never talks about his job and he seems kinda distant lately. So I came to see if I could figure out what's wrong with him."
Kit saw how worried this guy was about Joey and felt more at ease talking to him. "I'm Kit by the way." She said introducing herself. "And I have not noticed Joey acting weird at all. If you want I can ask him for you….Um, what's your name?" she said feeling bad that she didn't know who this person was.
"Tristan, Tristan Taylor."
"Well, Tristan, I can ask him if something is wrong. I don't know how much help I'll be, but seeing that you went this far for Joey, he must be really special to you," Kit said almost with a fan girl like sparkle in her eyes.
"Can you not tell him I was following you guys?" Tristan added, strongly pleading to the girl he just met.
"Mum's the word," She said winking while holding her index finger to her lips. "Now you should probably get out of here before someone else finds you." Kit ran off remembering she had to use the bathroom, away from Tristan's sight. Tristan eventually found his way out of the large employee building.
"Well at least she seems nice enough for Joey. I really don't see her as the hicky giving type though. I just wonder why Joey is keeping her and his job such a secret." Tristan left the park, figuring he would go visit Joey when he got off work. "Maybe I shouldn't pry since I know this much for now, but something still seems off to me."
Bakura just got home, and his nose was assaulted with the stench of burnt sugar. Not only that, his apartment looked like a mess. He saw three cookbooks, along with a plethora of cooking supplies sprawled out taking over the entire kitchen. The TV was on to some random cooking channel, where an elderly woman was baking a cake. However, no other body could be found as his eyes scanned the room.
Finally the front door opens, and there the Egyptian was with four grocery bags in hand. A wide smile was on his face, while he was humming a tune, which for some reason irked Bakura. The smell of cake was now apparent to the other male and the alarm on the oven was beeping. Without a word to the white haired male he flew to the kitchen in a panic, sending half his groceries in a trail behind him. Bakura finally realized what the roommate was doing, and why he was doing it.
Joey stared forlornly through the display window at all of the packaged chocolates, heart shaped boxes, bags tied with ribbon, all in differing shades of pink, red, or white. Valentine's Day was nigh, a scant few days away, and all the girls in Domino high were already abuzz. Joey enjoyed the holiday, because he usually got at least one or two gifts from random admirers, or from his friend, Tea. He was a big fan of chocolate, and welcomed it when it came. For the past several days though, he wondered if he should possibly get something for his current significant other. He was struggling with this for several reasons; for example, Valentine's day was the day the girls gave chocolates, and also because he knew that out of every male in the school, Seto would be the one to receive the most chocolate…well next to Duke that is. Lucky bastards. Also, Joey knew Seto didn't have much of a sweet tooth, and all the chocolates he received on Valentine's Day most likely either ended up in the garbage or given to Mokuba.
The thing that kept the idea in Joey's head was that he really did want to show Seto that he cared, and that he did see him as someone who held a special place in Joey's heart. Joey had tried making his own chocolate which resulted in him nearly setting the entire kitchen on fire. He was going to be hearing his dad complain about how the house smelled like burnt chocolate for a while to come. Now he was thinking he should just bite the bullet and buy Seto the chocolate. Maybe he could give the CEO something on the side, something he could use. What though? It's not like there wasn't anything in the world Seto couldn't get himself if he wanted it. After a few more minutes, Joey headed to school with the intention of doing some shopping later on in the hopes it may spark some ideas.
While everyone else was excited for Valentine's Day, there were a select few who had other things on their minds. One of them, of course, was Seto Kaiba who wouldn't have remembered the holiday at all had his brother not brought it up after delivering the results of their latest testing.
"So, Seto," Mokuba said leaning against the edge of his elder brother's desk. "Whatcha got planned for Valentine's Day?"
"Planned?" Seto asked looking up from his computer at his younger sibling.
"Don't tell me you forgot," Mokuba said in disbelief.
"I have more important things to remember than a useless holiday such as Valentine's Day," declared Seto, returning his attention to the test results, scanning over them.
"How can you say that?" asked Mokuba.
"Valentine's Day is nothing more than a means for stores to boost their sales with the excessive purchasing of lovesick idiots," Seto said matter-of-factly flipping to the next page. "Why should I help support something I find completely pointless?"
"It would make Joey happy," Mokuba pointed out.
"You better go, before you're late to school," Seto told his brother, bring the conversation to a close.
Mokuba pouted but before he left said, "You know Joey's gonna get you something. I think it's only fair you return the favor somehow."
Seto acted like he hadn't heard, but a thoughtful expression appeared on his face as he continued his job.
KD: Ohohoho! What's Seto planning this time? Guess you'll have to wait an see won't you? ;)
IMPORTANT NOTE: A good friend of ours has draw a fanart picture didicated to a scene in chapter 14. It's really cute and well done in our opinion. If you want to check it out, it's on deviantart under the title "The Truth Enslaved" by VP-Land-of-La. Sorry, fanfiction wouldn't let me post the actual link. :-/
Also, I guess another person was inspired to draw a pic dedicated to the halloween party in chapter 10. Not only were we immensely flattered but we thought it was really well done. It's also on deviantart under "Puppyshipping" by Reyson7.
A big thanks to both these artists. You guys are awesome!