KD: Valentines day part two! Hooray! We had actually wanted to post this chapter closer to Valentine's Day, but sadly delays happened, and we didn't feel cruel enough to make you guys wait a whole year for it. So here ya go!
Chapter Twenty-Three: Diabetes in a Cup
Song for chapter:
Youngstown- Could you love me
School trudged along slowly, and Joey was tired of hearing the girls talk about their homemade chocolates and who they were going to give them to (AKA Seto/Duke). He knew he shouldn't worry about it. After all, he and Seto have been together for several months now and it had been, oddly enough, smooth sailing for the both of them. No one suspected anything could be going on between the two. Well, except Bakura, but he was in a similar boat so Joey felt that he could trust him.
After school was over, Joey went to the shopping center to find Kaiba a gift. After all, Tea was busy perfecting her usual chocolates, Tristan was spending the day with Serenity (Much to Joey's dislike) and Yugi had to help his grandfather at the shop.
"What do I even get the richest man in Domino City? He could have everything he wants served to him on a silver platter." Joey went into shop after shop, seeing knickknacks and trinkets that would hold no use to Seto. He was a practical man after all; he would want something useful and sensible."What is something useful and practical that he likes besides Blue eyes white dragons and gravity defying trench coats?" Joey walked by a plushie shop and saw some Blue eyes White Dragon plushies in the window next to a Red Eyes and a Kuriboh. "That's cool lookin'." Joey soon placed his face close to the window like a little kid during Christmas. "I could just imagine what Kaiba would do if I bought it for him," Joey thought back long ago to his reactions to the Toon Blue Eyes that Pegasus had.
"No! You stripped him of his pride!"
Joey's nose soon smelt the familiar scent of coffee. After all, Kaiba's veins seemed to be full of coffee instead of blood. Joey couldn't think of a time that Seto didn't have a cup of pitch black coffee in hand. Joey let his nose lead him to the coffee shop. It was decorated in shades of red, pink, and white, with hearts all over the place. There were bags of coffee that were tied together in heart shaped lace. There was a chalk board that said:
Buy any extra large beverage get a free 12oz bag of Coffee.
Some restrictions may apply. See Associate for details.
Joey looked at the price of an extra large hot chocolate and the price of just a bag of coffee. He picked up a bag of Sumatra Black Satin Roast Coffee. He hadn't the faintest idea what the bag meant by dark roast, but thought the smell of the beans was similar to something Seto would like. He took the bag to the register and the lady asked him if he would like a drink to get the coffee for free. Joey ordered a hot chocolate with a double pump of mint, one pump caramel, extra whip cream and extra cocoa powder on top.
The man behind Joey got close to his ear. "That's a good choice." The voice was friendly, but still sounded a little rough. Joey was startled by this voice and turned around and saw a "pretty boy" with pale blonde hair, tanned skin, and dark eyeliner. "Might I also suggest a marble mocha with one pump strawberry, two pumps banana, with double whip and caramel syrup on top?"
Joey was perplexed that this random guy was talking to him, and giving him drink advice no less. "Uh…Thanks, I'll remember that," Joey said hesitantly. The guy didn't seem too bad, besides his odd taste in style. "Did you wanna join me?" Joey nodded to an empty table after both boys had their beverages in hand.
"The person I'm meeting up with hasn't arrived yet. So sure, that would be nice." He sat down across from Joey. Both boys pulled out their ipods and paused them. "What kind of music do you like listening to?" he asked seeing the bubblegum pink iPod in Joey's hand.
"I like classic rock, Nirvana, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeplin. You?" Joey saw the bright orange iPod in the tanned boy's hand.
"Oh, I like Green Day, Yellowcard, The Offspring, and Hawthorne Heights. More of the Alternative Rock you would say?" he said in almost a questioning voice.
"So you're into the more the modern day but still underplayed kinda music," Joey noted. "I grew up with this kind of music."
"I didn't really grow up with anything," the guy stated blankly. "By the way, I don't believe I got your name."
"Oh, right. The name's Joey Wheeler. Ya may have heard of me," said Joey with a smug look.
"Nope, not at all." Oh, the innocent bluntness.
This knocked a chunk out of Joey's pride but he quickly recovered. "So, what do folks call you?"
"I'm Malik Ishtar," the prettier blonde stated with a smile. "Your music sounds interesting. If possible, I wouldn't mind getting a few songs from you."
"Don't see why not, I'm always up for a trade," Joey said taking a sip of his diabetes-in-a-cup drink. "So, you were saying something about waiting for someone?"
Malik nodded. "Yes, my partner. I accidentally made a mess of our kitchen trying to make chocolates for Valentine's Day, but sadly I'm still a little rusty with cooking."
"No kidding," Joey said with a soft laugh. "I kinda had the same problem myself. Nearly set the whole place on fire and everything."
"Really? I'm glad I'm not the only one. Anyway, I'm now at a loss as to what to get for Valentine's Day." His face fell a little. "I'm not very good at giving gifts, since my family never celebrated things like this."
"Hey, no worries," Joey said in a comforting manner. "I'm sure that if your partner really cares about you, than it doesn't matter what you give them. They'll love it, because they'll know it came from the heart."
"That's the most sickening thing I've ever heard," said a gruff voice. The two blondes turned to see a very disgruntled, leather-clad Bakura glaring down at them.
"Bakura!" Malik exclaimed shooting out of his chair heading towards him.
"Bakura?" Joey said at the same time as Malik, but in shock. "You're with Bakura?" Joey said stuttering. "But you're so cool, so how are you with Bakura?" Confusion was written all over Joey's face. Bakura scowled at Joey almost with the same ice Kaiba would. "Uh, no offence, Bakura," he said shaking his arms hoping he would forget the statement just said.
"Let's go, Malik," Bakura said heading out of the coffee shop.
Malik followed, slowly waving bye to Joey. "Let's do this again sometime…Wait up, Fluffikins!" Malik shouted as Bakura left without him.
Joey finally left the coffee shop remembering that he still needed to find the rest of Seto's gifts for tomorrow. "So that was Bakura's partner. He was kinda cool. I feel like we can relate; we both have partners that come off as jerks." Joey went into a few more shops, looking at mugs, glasses cases, even at picture frames, but none of them seemed reasonable for Seto. He saw a chocolate store a few windows down, with a line that was a good 50 girls long. "It would be too embarrassing to wait in that." He sighed passing the shop and went into the men's clothing store next to it. Joey looked at some coats, but none of them seemed grandiose enough for Seto. He ended up at the ties, and got distracted by a red flashing light on one of the tables.
Joey looked down and saw duel monster themed ties. Some lit up and other made noises. They were very cheesy looking but Joey couldn't help but imagine Kaiba wearing one of those ties and started laughing in the store. The employee looked up from his magazine at the register, but looked back down realizing what the teen was looking at. Joey noticed a Blue Eyes one on the mannequin, but could only find the Dark Magician and Flaming Swordsman on the table. "'Scuse me," Joey said to the employee, "Got any more Blue Eyes ones?"
The employee turned the page in his magazine. "If it's not on the table, we don't have anymore."
"Can I have the one on the mannequin then?" Joey asked pointing to it. The employee obviously didn't want to help Joey, but reluctantly took the tie off and rang up Joey without another word. As Joey stepped out of the store, he noticed that the line in front of the candy store was completely gone. In fact, the store looked almost deserted.
Joey decided to take this chance before the next wave rolled in and entered the store. Most of the shelves were completely bought out and the store was messy and disorganized by poor customer ethic. Still, Joey searched the shelves for something Seto would, by some stretch of the imagination, enjoy.
"Excuse me, sir," the female employee said, approaching Joey. "You do realize that Valentine's Day is for the girls to give chocolates."
"Yeah, I know… it's for a friend though," Joey said lamely, scratching the back of his head.
"Okay… does this friend have any particular favorites?" the employee asked.
Joey thought for several moments. What would Seto like? "How bitter does your chocolate go?"
"The highest cacao percentage we have is 82%," she told him.
"Not sure what that means, but okay."
"It means it's bitter, in laymen's terms," she said patiently. "So bitter, that not many people would eat it."
"Sounds like something Kaiba would enjoy," Joey thought decisively. "Alright, could I have some of that 82% stuff?"
"The only flavors we have left are orange and raspberry."
"Orange should be okay."
She fetched the chocolate for him and even packaged it free of charge. Joey thanked her and exited the shop. "Alright, these should be good," he thought, pleased with his gift selections. He just hoped Seto would find them as pleasing as he did.
It was the morning of all mornings in the month that Seto dreaded the most. If he didn't have a test he would have skipped school and gone to work so he wouldn't have to deal with the girls at school.
"Morning, Seto," Mokuba said chipper as usual. "I wonder how many chocolates you will get this year. And you better not throw them away," Mokuba added scolding, knowing his brother would do so. Seto just sipped his morning coffee, trying to not think about it. "And you better have planned something for Joey too. Just because you are not a fan of holidays doesn't mean you should deprive Joey of them." Mokuba cleaned out his cereal bowl and left for school, hoping that his big brother would listen to him at least.
As Joey got to school he already saw girls with bags of chocolates in hand, a few of them hid their chocolates in Seto's locker with confession notes and throwing away other girls chocolates in the process. Joey sighed and headed to the classroom and sat down next to his friends. "Mornin' Yug, Tristan, Tea."
"Morning, Joey." They all said.
Tea clapped her hands in excitement. "Now that Joey is here, Happy Valentine's day, guys!" She pulled out three bags from her desk. "That white bag is for Yugi, Red is for Tristan, and the pink is for Joey." She handed them their chocolates individually. "So don't forget me to buy me something on White Day." She added teasingly.
Yugi dug into his chocolates right away. "These are really good, Tea. Thank you."
Joey felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, distracting him from popping the first of his chocolates in his mouth. He opened his phone and saw he had a text from Kaiba.
"Come to my office after your shift, and don't be late."
"Who's that from, Joey? Your girlfriend?" Tristan said teasingly, looking over Joey's shoulder at the text. He caught a glimpse of it before Joey had time to hide it from view. "Oh, it's Kaiba, huh? He's got you working today too?"
"Come on, Tristan. You don't seriously think he'd let me off for Valentine's Day do ya?" Joey said with a forced laugh.
"That's rough, man. But I guess it's okay since you and your girlfriend work together, right?" Tristan said, nudging him.
Joey just laughed nervously but decided not to give a verbal response. He really wished he could tell Tristan the truth, but he wasn't sure how the other would take it. He didn't want Tristan's view of him to change, or for their friendship to be ruined. He promised himself and to Tristan that he would find the right time to tell him, just not today.
KD: So what does Seto have planned for the young Joseph? Who know? Except for us of course. Bwahaha. Part three of valentine's day coming soon! Who'd have thought this one day would last so long?