Joey still wasn't exactly used to having the Kaiba Mansion all to himself.
Sure, Seto would leave him to take care of it on days when he would be out for meetings all day and Mokuba was at school, but it still didn't feel right to him. Granted, for about three months of it, he'd been worried he'd be found out somehow. He'd spent a lot of his time holed up in the game room going through his deck, those three months.
He sighed, now, wondering if he should get up to the same old thing today while he waited for Seto to get back from his meeting with some investor or another.
He really didn't feel like it, to be honest. He was starting to get very tired of sitting around for hours on end coming up with strategy after strategy that would never actually be used in a duel. Nobody really played Duel Monsters anymore, after all. It was pretty much just him, Seto, and Yugi at this point.
Maybe Ryou and Malik, too.
He didn't know.
When he did finally clamber out of he and Seto's bed an hour later, he still didn't have the faintest idea of what he wanted to do for the day. His stomach growled loudly, so his first order of business was food. There - he had a goal.
Off to the kitchen he meandered, though he wasn't sure what he wanted to eat. Lord, he murmured internally, when did I get so damn indecisive? Eventually he settled on grabbing a bowl and pouring himself some cereal. He hoped Mokuba didn't mind.
Not that Mokuba would say much about it even if he did mind, but still - why piss off the future in-law?
He almost dropped the milk when the thought registered. That hadn't even been intentional. He hadn't meant to think of Mokuba like that. As his future in-law. That was… What made him think Seto would ever want to marry him, anyway? He guessed it was just wishful thinking.
Ew. He thought. I'm going soft. Thinking about marriage and shit. What next - we get a dog? Adopt kids?
He finished pouring the milk before stowing it back in the fridge. But he couldn't stop thinking about that - future in-law. Seto marrying him. Even the thought of adopting a dog or a kid with Seto made him sort of giddy. But recognizing the giddiness for what it was made him wish that he didn't feel like that. He kind of wished it would make him feel sick, like it used to.
Yeah. He hadn't quite come to terms with actually having feelings for Seto, yet.
He'd have to work on that at some point.
For the moment, he busied himself with eating his cereal. No use in wasting it… And he was being spurred on by the incessant grumblings of his stomach, anyway. It wouldn't be good for him to ignore his bodily needs too often. Seto would notice. He'd chide him. And he'd feel like a dumb mutt who wasn't even smart enough to take care of himself.
He didn't feel like going down that road again. He'd spent plenty of time walking down it while he was in high school.
He shuddered at the memory. Those weren't fun times for him at all. All the duels and contests and the constant insults from friend and foe alike had really done a number on him. Of course he'd known that his friends didn't mean any harm, but that didn't mean the jibes didn't hurt. But, at the very least, Yugi had always known when he was getting upset about it and when he was just getting spurred on by it. He knew the difference between Joey getting angry about a jibe and feeling driven to prove someone's jibe wrong.
Sometimes it seemed like he was the only one.
And, at first, he probably was, because it took a long time for Yami to pick up on it and start carefully wording his occasional insults so that they came out as challenges or motivation.
To be honest, Joey kind of missed that. At least with Yami around challenging him he actually had a purpose in life. He had goals to achieve, a life to live. Now? Yeah, not so much. He'd accomplished all that shit back then and mostly he just lived from day to day. The only goal he currently had in mind was to find Yami and the others, really.
After that, his life was essentially a moot point and he really didn't like thinking about that. Maybe, before they found Yami, Seto could find him some other purpose in life. That would probably make him feel better. Or maybe it wouldn't.
He wasn't sure - he just knew he was probably getting too old to be eating Lucky Charms. Was that stopping him? Nope.
Of course, by the time he came to that conclusion he was almost completely done eating and he found himself lacking in anything else to do for the day. He supposed he could just go lay back down and wait for Seto to get home, but that was about as appealing as sticking a needle through his eye. He laid around enough as it was. No need for another day of doing that.
Wait.
Didn't the mansion have a little workout room tucked away somewhere? He could have sworn Seto had told him about one. Shame that he couldn't remember if Seto had told him where it was. Oh, well. He'd find it eventually. In the meantime he could finish off his milk and wander around until he found it. That sounded like an adventure.
Oh, look at that. He had a goal again.
He was getting pretty good at this. And it was about damn time for that, too - he was 23, for fuck's sake. He snickered, washed his bowl out of habit rather than a desire to not make the maids work too hard, and made his way out of the room. He was about halfway down the hall when he remembered that he'd left the light on. He cursed and jogged back to turn it off, and then he was on his way again.
He made sure to take it slow, checking each room he didn't already know the identity of. He made sure to steer clear of Mokuba's room and office, and especially Seto's office.
Lord knew there was nothing of any interest to him in there.
Seto was likely working on some new computer gaming programs, so his office would be littered with notes and random calculations. Definitely not Joey's forte - he was more into the actual testing of those games. And Mokuba? His room was all well and good, but Joey respected the young man's privacy and wouldn't go in there without permission. And his office was currently covered in motivational posters and the shelves were filled to the brim with books related to the classes he was taking and the tests he was studying for.
Yeah. He'd been out of high school for four years - he didn't need any of that at the moment.
He'd wager it took him about an hour to finally find their little workout room, and about a hundred doors. He had to admit… He was impressed. They had everything he could need right here - he'd have to thank Seto for mentioning it was even here.
He found himself on one of the treadmills, starting off at a brisk pace. It felt nice to give his legs a bit of a workout. He began to plan his workout in his head, then, making a mental list of what he should do, when, and for how long.
Seto would probably be surprised that I actually have a logical thinking process and it's not all just a jumbled mess of impulses. It still felt kind of wrong to refer to the man by his first name in his head, for some reason. It was probably just because he'd been calling him "Kaiba" since they'd met in grade school and he'd only been calling him "Seto" for a few months. Training himself to call him "Seto" out loud had been hard enough, to begin with, but coupled with now having to adjust to calling him that when he wasn't speaking was… Well, it wasn't fun.
He shook his head, mentally adjusted his plan, and upped the speed on the treadmill. Why was he like this?
Why couldn't he just stop thinking for a while?
He upped the speed again, adjusted his plan to compensate. Maybe he should just run and not do anything else. He tended to lose himself when he was running. Maybe he could tucker himself out and give himself a good reason to wander back into bed. Yeah. Just running sounded like a good idea for the day. He could put that full workout plan into action the next time he had a free day. For now, he was going to make his legs go numb and his lungs burn.
He had almost achieved that goal when his phone dinged in his pocket. He dug it out and checked the notification.
Where are you, babe? -S
He wasn't sure why the text made him smile. Workout room. Why? -J
I'm home. -S
He wasn't sure why that one made him smile, either. What was wrong with him today? He must be losing his edge…
Oh well.
He cut the power to the treadmill and hopped off, stretching. He was in better shape than he'd thought - his legs weren't even getting noodly yet. That was good, right?
The first thing Seto did when they met up in the foyer was pull him close and give him a kiss. He wasn't sure if his heart was still recovering from the workout or if it actually sped up at the touches. "Ew, baby, I'm soaked in sweat, you don't wanna hug me right now."
Seto laughed. "I don't care, puppy." He gave him a sweet smile, "Shower?"
"... Yeah." Joey tried not to look too incredibly in love.
No one would ever get him to admit to how happy that nickname was starting to make him. Or how giddy he got about doing dumb romantic things with Seto. No one. He probably wouldn't even tell Seto, because Seto especially didn't need to know how sappy he was getting and how much his bravado was starting to die off. That was too embarrassing.
Granted, if Seto asked nicely he just might admit it.
Dammit, he really was going soft for this asshole. He didn't like it, but he didn't exactly hate the idea, either. In fact, the thought of going soft for him didn't seem quite as unappealing as it had just a few days before… Funny how these things worked. Maybe one day he'd just be a big old sap with Seto and learn how to still be a badass at the same time.
Seriously, if Ryou could manage to be intimidating while looking like a fucking twig, he could look intimidating while he was wrapped up in Seto's arms. There was no way he couldn't. He just… Had to figure out how. Maybe he could use his size and Seto's wealth to intimidate them. Throw out that he was a total street rat and he'd still somehow managed to make Seto like him.
That was a scary thought in and of itself, really. They'd probably think he gave the poor guy Stockholm Syndrome.
It almost made him snort.