Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ How Do You Like Me Now? ❯ Chapter 4

"But you see, this company has been running for twenty-five years," Mrs. Grayson said for the fourth time. "And we're always welcoming more donors. Especially handsome young men such as yourselves."

Joey sighed and leaned back in his chair, his arms hanging off either chair arm and his head dangling behind the back of the chair. He and Perry had been at the meeting for forty-five minutes and had gotten nowhere with this woman. She was nearly half-deaf and barely comprehended a word either of them had said to her so far. And Joey was beginning to lose his patience.

"Yes, Mrs. Grayson," Perry acknowledged, noticing how bored the blonde man was becoming. "That is why we have come here. To arrange a donation of ten percent of the profit of next month's concerts."

"Oh, are you boys singers?" Mrs. Grayson asked, adjusting her wide-framed spectacles.

Joey groaned and tilted his chair back to its rear legs.

"Mr. Wheeler is the singer. I am his agent," Perry told her again, eyeing Joey curiously. "Does ten percent sound reasonable to you, Mrs. Grayson?"

"Gah!" Joey cried out as he lost his balance and went tumbling over backwards in his chair, landing on his back with his feet suspended in the air.

"What kind of music do you sing?" asked Mrs. Grayson as if she had not noticed Joey's embarrassing predicament. "I hope it's none of that devil-worshipping noise I hear about."

"Are you all right, Mr. Wheeler?" Perry asked, standing up to help the blonde to his feet.

"Yeah," Joey murmured, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm okay." He set the chair back up and sat back down.

"Oh, where did you go off to?" Mrs. Grayson asked, blinking confusedly at him. "Did you use the bathroom? The bathroom's down the hall. The toilet hasn't been cleaned today because the custodian has the day off."

Joey eyed her. "I'm okay. Now is ten percent enough for you or not?"

She regarded him curiously. "Absolutely not. When someone has a day off, they have the whole day off."

Joey groaned and turned to Perry in exasperation.

"Mrs. Grayson," Perry said. "Mr. Joey Wheeler here is a singer. He has several performances next month and we have come here to arrange with you that your charity organization will get ten percent of the profit raised from those performances."

"What kinds of performances?"

Joey practically screamed and leapt out of his chair in frustration, but he restrained himself. After all, he was supposed to be professional here. Instead he took a deep breath and crossed his legs in somewhat of an attempt to tie himself down before he jumped out the window. He looked over at Perry with a look of "Hurry the hell up or I'm going to kill somebody".

"Mr. Wheeler is a singer," Perry repeated. "A pop singer. Modern music, more appealing to teenagers now a days than anyone else. Are you interested in ten percent of the profits of next month?"

"Actually, ten percent of the profits sounds more appealing," Mrs. Grayson said, wagging her finger as if scolding him.

"Great, just sign and we'll get the hell outta here," Joey said quite quickly, sliding a contract toward the elderly woman. "I mean, we'll let you get back to your business."

Mrs. Grayson took the contract from him and stared at it a moment. Then she opened her top desk drawer and fumbled around in it until she emerged again with a new pair of even wider-rimmed spectacles. These she put on after removing the others and picked up the contract again. She held it oddly close to her face and scrunched up her nose as she read every printed word. Slowly. Just when Joey was about to snap something rude, the elderly woman set the contract down and felt around the desk for something.

"Now let's see… My pen, my pen… Where did I put my pen…?"

Joey leaned over and plucked a ballpoint pen from behind the woman's ear.

"Oh there it is," she said, taking it. She then returned the other pair of spectacles to her nose and quite slowly signed the bottom lines. Joey breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.

"Yeah, thanks for your cooperation and yeah, we gotta go," Joey sped out, then exited the room. //Damn, the things I gotta put up with…\\

****

//"As much as I put forth<br>

You couldn't live it through<br>

Was it too much to ask<br>

That you love me too?"\\

Kaiba had temporarily dozed off but at the sound of that voice he snapped open his eyes and sprang to his feet. He looked around for the source and found that the music was coming from a small stereo near the woman at the front desk. He stormed over and slammed both hands down on either side of her. She looked up, startled.

"Turn that noise off," he growled with a threatening tone. "Turn it off now."

She stared wide-eyed up at him for a moment, then regained her composure. "Hey, if you gotta problem with it, don't listen. Got that?"

Kaiba's lip rose in a dangerous snarl and he slammed his right fist down again. "Turn it off now!"

"What the hell's your problem?" the secretary questioned, regarding him as if he had completely lost his mind. And indeed he looked it, with his eyes blazing with a red glow and him practically foaming at the mouth as he demanded that the radio be turned off. "If you don't sit your ass down, I'm gonna have to call security."

"Just try it," Kaiba snarled. She did, and before he had time to react, Kaiba found himself back out on the sidewalk. He glared back up at the building, as if putting in the last word before he began walking down the street toward the apartment he shared with his brother. His brother… How was he going to explain this to him? He had finally gone down to the unemployment office like he wanted and had gotten thrown out simply because he had heard… He shook his head, trying to banish the sounds from his mind. He did not want to think about that. To think about him. But he always did.

****

~~~The sunlight filtered in through the leafy green canopy, coming to rest on their faces, warming them both with its caressing rays. The warmth brought one Seto Kaiba from his peaceful slumber, and he sat up, rubbing his eyes and trying to remember where he was. He looked down beside him and smiled slightly at the blonde boy nestled against him, snoring softly. Kaiba reached down and moved some unruly blonde strands from his face, studying the bronzed features of the boy's face. Joey stirred a bit and mumbled something about pizza rolls before turning over, exposing his bare back now decorated with stubborn blades of grass. Kaiba reached up and shook out his own hair, dreading what might have crawled in there to nestle in the strands. He was long overdue for a shower. He reached over for his shirt, discarded in the proceedings from the night before and found it drenched, only half of it still on dry land while the other half had hung down from the bank into the trickling brook. He growled to himself and went to get it, then stopped abruptly when he noticed what was sitting on it. He blinked, unsure of how to handle this, and finally decided to get the blonde mutt to take care of it. After all, it had been his idea to come out here in the first place.

"Wheeler," he said, shoving him with a booted foot. "Get up."

Joey groaned and rolled onto his back, blinking up at the taller brunette quizzically. "What's your problem?" he mumbled.

"Get my shirt," Kaiba ordered, pointing to the edge of the brook. Joey sat up curiously, then walked over to where the brunette had indicated. He cocked his head in confusion.

"You couldn't get it yourself?" he asked, turning to look at Kaiba who had followed him over.

"Look what's on it!" Kaiba said, pointing again at the shirt.

Joey raised an eyebrow. "It's a turtle, Kaib."

"Get it off of there!" Kaiba commanded, a slight tone of desperation in his voice. "Who knows where that thing's been!"

Joey could not help but laugh. "Man, you really are pathetic," he said, walking over to the moist bank. "You couldn't knock it over with a stick or something?" He reached down to pick up the small reptile.

"Don't touch it!" Kaiba uncharacteristically shrieked. "It could be poisonous!"

Joey looked back up at him. "A poisonous turtle? Kaib, what've you been listenin' to?"

Kaiba avoided his eyes. He knew nothing about turtles, that was for sure, but he certainly was not going to admit that. "Well, what about that kind that bites? It could be one of those."

"You mean a snapping turtle?" Joey asked. "Kaib, have you ever even seen a turtle before?" He reached down and picked the small creature up by either side and held it out for the brunette to see. Kaiba took a step back.

"Put that thing down, mutt," he instructed. "And don't get it near me."

A sly smirk spread on Joey's face. "You don't like the turtle?" he asked, stepping forward. "Why don'tcha like the turtle, Kaib? What's wrong?"

"Stop it, mutt," Kaiba warned, backing up more. But Joey kept coming forward with the turtle in hand. "Wheeler! You heard me!" He began backing up faster, then tripped over an unseen tree root and fell onto his back. Joey wasted no time in straddling the brunette's hips, pinning Kaiba's arms to his sides in the process. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare!"

"Don't I dare what?" Joey inquired, tilting his head to the side. "Don't this?" He lowered the turtle closer to his prisoner and was rewarded with a disgusted grunt from the brunette. Joey smiled wickedly and let the turtle down, its little clawed feet settling onto Kaiba's bare chest.

"Wheeler!" Kaiba screeched, struggling against the blonde's weight. "If that thing bites me…"

"It won't bitecha, Kaib. Relax," Joey replied. The turtle had not moved since he put it down. It was just barely peeking out of its shell to get a look at its new surroundings. "Look, it's more scared of you than you are of it."

"I am not scared of it!" Kaiba snarled. "I just don't like the fact that it's getting all its germs all over me!"

The turtle had retreated back into its shell at the sound of Kaiba's cross voice and Joey shook his head. "Look at that, Kaib, ye're scarin' the poor little guy." He picked the turtle up and raised off of Kaiba, turning to head back to the brook. Kaiba watched him go, standing himself and coming up behind the blonde as he set the reptile back into the brook. Before the blonde was able to turn around, Kaiba leapt forward and knocked him into the deeper part of the cold water. Immediately, Joey leapt to his feet, screaming in disgust. "What the hell--?"

Kaiba simply stood on the bank, smirking widely. "Revenge is a bitch," he said. "Much like yourself."~~~

He rolled over in his bed. He still had not told Mokuba about the incident at the unemployment office. He had gotten home and went straight to bed, although that was not uncommon for him to do. It was 5:04 already, and Mokuba should have gotten home a while ago. Still, Kaiba remained in bed, staring at the cracked wall. He reached over and began picking at the off-white paint with his fingernail, a nervous habit he had picked up over the years. Mokuba constantly ridiculed him about it, pointing out how damaged it left both his wall and his nail, but Kaiba paid him no heed.

Kaiba's mind returned to the memory-turned-dream. It had been a vivid dream, as were all of his memories of that short time period long ago… He turned over again. Several years ago, Mokuba had dragged Kaiba to the mall in Domino, much to Kaiba's displeasure. It was then that the raven-haired boy had taken his elder brother into the pet store, looking at everything for sale. One thing stood out to him and he pointed it out to Kaiba, asking him if he could have it. Kaiba had taken one look at the sign above the display and had immediately denied him it. There was no way in hell that he was going to allow a filthy creature such as that in his mansion. Mokuba had pouted all the way home. To him, it had been just a turtle.