haha well hopefully whoever still reads this is enjoying it! [sorry i intend to reply to reviews, but i can be forgetful lol] anyways, my little sister says she loves the dialogue in this one, although its a shame it won't sound the same since i read it aloud to her usually. (sigh) OHWELL. its still a most beautimis, productive, plot developing chapter. (finally, right?)

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Chapter Eleven: Casually Dressed for a Serious Conversation.

Joey stared at the brunette who, for once, seemed to be dressed in something under a hundred dollars, but found him no less humbling.

"So, are you ready?"

"No, just let me do my hair real quick," Kaiba rolled his eyes. "What did you expect me to do?"

Joey fought away a shy blush when he remembered he couldn't take this whole dating metaphor too far. "No, you just look different that's all."

"Oh, I see," the CEO stepped aside, letting Joey know he could enter. "So, you don't like the way I look, is that it?"

Joey glanced unsure at the other. "What….no," he stumbled, unsure of what he'd been asked. "You look fine, I mean okay," his nose turned pink. "You look okay."

"Just okay?" Kaiba asked in a tone that compelled Joey to change his answer.

"What do you want me to say?" Joey stammered, but quick to catch onto the game. "Do you want me to tell you how pretty you look Kaiba?" he folded his arms stubbornly across his chest.

Kaiba shrugged. "Only if you mean it."

"Sorry," Joey smiled back, "But my mother taught me that it's not polite to lie."

For some reason that brought a smile to Kaiba's face. "So, I guess is shouldn't except you to call, huh?"

Color had begun to creep across the rest of his face, but Joey retained control, turning to establish consistency amidst the confusingly playful atmosphere. "Depends if you put out or not."

The choice of words surprised the CEO as much as Joey had wanted them to, and the brunette's eyes narrowed. "Not all of us are so easy Wheeler," he recovered.

"Oh?" Joey's eyes sparkled, "You were pretty easy last night."

For a moment Kaiba almost seemed to grow deeper in the face, until he released a bored yawn. "Nah, I just faked it."

"Screams sounded pretty real to me."

"Okay, too far."

"Yeah," Joey agreed, suddenly not believing either of them went there at all.

"Sorry," Kaiba offered, "Sometimes I get carried away."

"Sometimes?" Joey questioned incredulously.

"Take it or leave it Wheeler, I'm not going to say it twice."

"Whatever," he waved dismissively.

"So, are you gonna take me out, or are we gonna sit here staring at each other all night?" Kaiba propped his hand against his hip.

Joey held his arm towards the door, "I thought you'd never ask."

There had been an eerie silence separating them as they walked along the lakefront. It was close to 9PM and the night sky swallowed them. Joey was lost in the curious bounce that seemed to have appeared in Kaiba's step overnight, and Kaiba was well aware of the staring. Breathing in deeply, his heart dropped then regained the proper pace. Although composed on the outside, Kaiba's insides coiled and contorted in a frenzy of fear, curiosity, anxiety, and excitement. He could feel the waves lap and pool in steady strokes, painting the shore, just as clearly as he could feel the touch and go of the blonde's glances casting shadows in his peripherals. Where Joey's eyes should've been unnerving, they were disarming, and Kaiba couldn't seem to find a focal point to fixate on. Amidst the midnight and moonlight, Joey's eyes looked like the sea under the thick blanket of darkness.

Void of any color, the chocolate backdrop in his hazel coloring turned black and grey like waves overthrowing each other uncertainly because they could not see. Although common sense clearly cast a more effective shadow; the brunette found himself falling in love with the disjoining shade. Common sense was either black or white—and at its best, sometimes, grey. Once it was a spectrum in which he struggled to define one from the other, but that was before he flooded the whole thing with color. Now he could no longer tell where black met white, or where grey began; his senses were failing him, and yet something in Joey's eyes spoke to him. They did not say a lot, and they struggled just to be seen through the fractures of light passing between each lamppost, but they stuttered into sputters, and spoke nonetheless. Morphing in and out of the dull illumination, Joey's eyes pooled like reflective surfaces, swaying in a sea of obsidian. Although appearing empty, there was deeper meaning under all those layers, but the free flowing shadows shrouded them in a two-way mirror of shatterproof glass. Kaiba could see in, but only Joey saw out, and neither one of them could break through.

"Do you have a lighter?" Kaiba spoke abruptly, turning away from the scarlet shorelines and emerald islands as they sank back into an oblivious expression.

"Yeah, here," Joey slipped a hand in and out of his right pocket, and watched Kaiba impatiently light a cigarette. At first, the lighter wouldn't seem to cooperate, failing the fight against the wind for some breathing room. Fiend much? Joey thought hypocritically, reaching reflexively for his own, as he watched the CEO create a blockade against the breeze with his fingers.

"Oh. My. God." the brunette exclaimed under his breath, now angling himself against the wind.

Joey slipped his cigarette behind his ear in one smooth motion before pivoting in front of Kaiba. "Here," he covered the quarter-lit Marlboro with both hands, "Let me."

"Thanks," Kaiba muttered, lowering his head.

Catching the lime-green, baby Bic in midair, Joey used one hand to reposition his cigarette, and the other to light it.

"It would take you two seconds," Kaiba said disbelievingly.

"Jealous?" Joey asked, dragging sideways on a thick cloud of smoke.

"I don't love smoking that much," he almost smiled again, but stuck the stick back between his lips before it formed.

"I still can't believe you love it period," Joey shook his head.

"Oh?" the brunette feigned the slightest curiosity.

"You're just too…clean," Joey decided after contemplating the right word.

Blue eyes rose and fell with the lingering tone that reminded the blonde of a parent trying to indicate an obvious error. "So, you're calling yourself dirty?" his eyes traced a straight line between their cigarettes.

Joey took another frustrated drag. "Shut up."

"It was only a question," he added harmlessly. "I just don't see what being clean has to do with anything."

"Well, never mind," the blonde flicked his cigarette, "I'm not wasting my breath to amuse you."

"Funny," Kaiba glanced upward in mock-consideration. "I don't remember asking you to entertain me, just a simple question."

Sighing, the blonde felt tension arise from the resistance, and his fingers fell to the outside of his pants pocket. Beneath the layer of denim and stitching, pressed warmly against his thigh were two distinct outlines resting against each other. One was rounded and protruding, the other slender and secretive; although the simple motions of his fingertips calmed him into a false sense of security.

"I just meant that I wouldn't have expected it, that's all."

The honest answer seemed to be enough however, because Kaiba raised no further objections, although parted with some unexpected advice. "You wont expect a lot of things about me, Wheeler," he paused, but the rest seemed determined to spill out in sentences. "That doesn't mean they're not true though. Don't act like you know me, okay?"

There was an offsetting malice in the way Kaiba's last words echoed, a sort of quickness in his speech that seemed almost sensitive. Exactly like a woman, Joey rolled his eyes to himself, all over the place, and already stubborn as hell. He had decided then that this certainly wasn't going to be even remotely easy, and the colder temperatures were nipping at him as Kaiba released a draft of icy silence. The skin around his face was practically photo shopped into place with a smooth, jaw line dead-locked and unpredictably stiff.

Sitting so stationary, it was hard to think he'd ever move them again, but thinking always had him clenching his teeth, ever since he was small. He felt the chemicals pour cement into his fillings now though, and he knew better than to let it set. If he wasn't careful; he'd lose himself in thought forever and never talk again.

"So…where are we going?" Kaiba unhinged his jaw, wriggling it unfamiliarly as he waited for Joey to break the silence.

"Dinner."

"No, movie?"

Joey shot him a look, lost somewhere between irritated and oblivion.

"Okay, okay," the brunette surrendered. "No movie."

If this had been a real date, the second they walked up to the grand-staircase ascending the side of the ravine, Joey would've had this in the bag. Instead, Kaiba huffed and puffed with cigarette in hand all the way to the top—thoroughly unimpressed. Well, at least that's all Joey could see from the way the other boy's eyes darted from one detail to the next as if nothing could hold his attention. Not that it truly mattered, but Joey had hoped to…I don't know…prove something he guessed. Yet, from the tea-lights to the table, little changed between them.

The restaurant moved around them, but they seemed stationary by contrast. A strange symphony of sounds played as background music to their silence, and neither could seem to establish eye contact long enough to initiate a conversation. There was both something natural and something forced about it though that only increased Joey's appeal towards it. If Kaiba was playing hard to get, figuratively speaking, it sure as hell was working. The more he withdrew, the more he drew Joey in, and the harder Joey fought it, the more effortless Kaiba's attempts turned. All it seemed to take was a glance from either of them and the even shyer silence snuck up on the one they didn't think could get any deeper.

"This is weird," Joey laughed awkwardly, but lightheartedly at the unfamiliar situation as his hand moved across the table to reach his glass. "I feel like I should be putting something in attack mode or something."

Kaiba couldn't help but grin, finally able to associate with familiar references in conversation, "I know."

The appearance of common ground suited their smiles well enough, but ended just as quickly.

"How come you're here?" Kaiba was the first to ask, stepping between casual and casualty in order to reach the obvious. Why it surprised the blonde, he couldn't say, but his response revealed much of that hesitance.

"I uhm, moved," he stumbled the obvious.

Kaiba leaned his weight forward. "Yes," he agreed calmly. "But why?"

"Because I wanted to," he swallowed.

"Liar," Kaiba called him out.

"Okay," Joey snapped. "Why are you here?"

This time Kaiba folded his hands and leaned back. "I'm running away from all my accomplishments, remember?"

"Never mind what I said," Joey dismissed the redirect. "What do you have to say?"

"Nothing."

"You can't say nothing," he argued stubbornly.

Kaiba simply stared.

"Real mature," several hazel eyes found there way into frequencies of blue.

"Says the one who bets people to hang out with him," Seto sighed, glancing around for no-smoking signs.

Ouch, Joey winced, but summoned an outward glare for Kaiba. "Well excuse me for trying."

"I'm not excusing you from anything," his lips curled devilishly. "We're in this together now, remember?"

That look gave Joey a queasy feeling that wasn't remedied very fast by simple steps, and he felt his resolution weakening. "Yeah, we are. So why don't you try acting like a normal person for once."

Kaiba sensed the shift in the air the same way it swam around in his stomach, and something dissolved. Some wall that kept the rush or reality out broke and brought blurs and flashes of motions back into his peripherals.

"I really don't think you're the best person to try and tell me about being normal," Kaiba's eyes bulged. "You're not exactly my cup of tea either."

"I don't even like tea," Joey shook his head.

Another half smile crept creepily into Kaiba's cheek. "What?"

"I said I don't like tea."

"Yeah," he made a noise similar to laughter, "but why?"

Joey rolled his shoulders self-consciously, "I don't know."

"Well, it was a figure of speech," the other boy regained an off-standish tone. "It didn't require a response."

"God," Joey threw up his hands, feeling more and more unsettled in his armor than he had when they began the night. "I can't even have a conversation correctly with you, you're so fucking uptight."

Kaiba's eyebrows rose sharply above his eyes, sending forth a glare that shook shivers through Joey. "Better than blather on like you."

That shut Joey up quickly, but lured them both back into the silence that settled fixedly over any form of movement. I'm being too friendly, Kaiba scowled, feeling a very real space in his chest twist sensitively. However, he couldn't hope to offset it with 40 mg coursing through his veins, and so he tossed Joey's opening statement about duel monsters around in his head as he felt his strings lifting and falling in their proper places. If he could put some kind of subtext to all of this, he might still be able to turn Joey off to this entire deal. So, he began to formulate the context of their meeting with a duel—he couldn't believe he hadn't conjured the comparison earlier. After all, it was the only real reference point they had.

So, repositioning himself with his back stiffly erect against the red pleather backing of his seat, Kaiba reevaluated the space in front of him. Rather than view the sensation of pills as a high or even a secret weapon, he thought of his medicine like a spell card that would compliment his abilities. With this 'card' at his disposal, he could easily set a trap if he used a home field advantage—or more simply, if he tapped in to the reality Joey wasn't aware of. Kaiba looked across from himself, evaluating Joey's last move; Defense mode, he noted, no facedown card. Concluding that Wheeler yielded a weak draw and had nothing ulterior up his sleeve, Kaiba played a more able card, and his spitefully cruel determination threw him into attack mode. "What's the matter?" he inquired the blonde's silence spitefully before Joey could get a word in edge wise, "Cat got your tongue, Mutt?"

Eyeing the other boy's stamina to inspect the damage, he watched the pained wince that temporarily emerged in place of a comeback. Trap, negated, he smiled victoriously as he secured the lead through Joey's obvious withdraw. And now to attack his life points directly…

"What are you doing?"

"Making my move," Kaiba said unthinkingly.

"What? I meant why do you keep looking at me all weird."

"It's my turn," the brunette replied, eyes still focused invisibly on the cards that weren't really there.

"Turn for what?" Joey asked weirdly, but Kaiba didn't answer, and the boy wished desperately to put an end to what conjured in his stomach when those eyes traced his every angle, inspecting him in a way that felt almost invasive. "Whatever it is, stop doing it, it's weird," Joey said uncomfortably, feeling the first of his own safety strategies beginning to weigh down his pocket.

Thankfully, something seemed to shake within that big brain of the brunette's, and his face clouded with the closest thing to embarrassment Joey had ever seen him wear. "You almost look normal," he smiled in spite of himself, and despite the fact it was bound to receive a riled up reaction.

"Excuse me?"

"It's a compliment, relax."

"Don't tell me what to do," Kaiba frowned with obvious annoyance coating his voice.

"Sensitive, much?" Joey's eyes widened, but grew calmer and he sunk into his armor and Kaiba slipped out of his.

"I'm not sensitive."

"Well what are you then?"

This perturbed the executive, his face fell a shade softer, but his eyes clouded with confusion as his pupils dilated into black holes, that Joey found somehow sad in comparison to the dark and bright blue they eclipsed. "Can we talk about something else, please?"

"Yeah, okay," Joey backed down softly, still trying to figure out if the emotionless tone was another trap.

For the next fifteen minutes, the scenery swallowed both boys back down into the restless sea they were trying so hard to stay afloat upon. Still ignorant to the stakes they had wagered, both duelists made pivotal mistakes. As Joey swayed patiently in his seat, he disregarded the element of wind, the unpredictable shifts in course that could take effect any second. Kaiba, on the other hand, stood the most vulnerable, in the shallowest of the water. Ignoring the abandoned elements he'd allowed to sink out of sight, Kaiba's world lay in shipwrecks. Catching onto an inconceivable coverage of causalities, his vessel rocked unsteady, weighing him fixedly until even veering motion became pivotal. Ironically towards his own self-insured superiority that prepositioned him over the worthless dog, the leash that retracted was his own.

"What's that?" Kaiba's intonation wavered, noticing Joey's hand slip stealthily into his pants pocket, but not well enough to hide it.

Joey jumped visibly in his seat, "They're nothing," he rushed breathlessly, shoving something back downward that gave off a distinct clank-clanking noise.

Suddenly the plot thickened, and Kaiba's brain automatically began to recalculate through the eyes of a dual. Copy Cat, he thought with an uneven thumping that took over in his chest, realizing with sudden alarm the parallel to his dream the previous night. Mirror force, one of my cards was mirror force, he recalled, understanding the implied symbolism. If Joey had a medicine, than his own went down in value, and if he had to figure out a way around Joey's farce, it was just the same as trying to project his own onto the other duelist. I'm fighting myself, he thought with a sharp chill shooting through his spine, as Goosebumps prickled his skin, and the potency of feeling in his chest overwhelmed him.

"They're obviously pills, Joey" Seto said, retaining an air of authority despite the conflict of thought and emotion behind his eyes. "Why can't you just tell me what they are?"

"Because," Joey crossed both arms stubbornly, as if to deflect Kaiba's prying gaze, "I don't need you going off and researching it later."

Oh, you're good, Wheeler. "What makes you think I'd do that?" the tone fluctuated in attempts to reflect falsity.

"That's obvious," Joey rolled his eyes. "To somehow hold it against me."

Kaiba frowned. "Why do you always talk about me like that?"

"Like what? A complete asshole?"

"Not the word I was thinking of," Kaiba looked downwardly to his lap for a second, every one of his features falling into an unknown face.

"Okay. So how would you describe it then, Kaiba?"

"Well," he paused. "It's just…you say stuff like that to me by default," both eyebrows slanted inwardly. "How come you automatically assume the worst?"

"It's what I know," Joey said, almost sympathetically. "It's who you are."

The collision of his words had been so direct that Kaiba never had the chance to deflect the attack, nor could he dissuade the extent of damage. "You don't know the first thing about me," his voice pulled away, unable to disguise the genuine pain that warped his features.

"I would…" Joey's throat formed a lump, absorbing Seto's raw emotion in a way that unsteadied his breathing, "…but you have to let me."