Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ To Serve and Protect ❯ Chapter 24

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

To Serve 24

Betaed by Skippyscatt. Ever patient. Bless her.

Lemon warning.

Joey grumbled his way up the stairs. He had wanted to watch news, but he was falling asleep on
the couch and Seto had sent him up to bed announcing that he wasn't up to 'dragging your ass'
up the stairs to their suite. He was worn out but he still felt better than he had in months. He
wasn't running on nerves and caffeine anymore. He was so glad he didn't have to force himself.
Now all he had to do was relax, find the Letter Man, and get on with a very pleasant life.

He stumbled through his nightly routine of tooth brushing and face washing, put on the pajamas
that Yukari had put out and crawled into bed. It felt so good to just relax. Roland was firmly in
charge of security. Joey trusted him now, and that was good for both of them. Good for Roland in
that Joey wasn't second guessing him anymore, and good for Joey because he wasn't second
guessing Roland and worrying himself to death.

Falling into bed he dropped off to sleep almost at once and didn't feel Seto slip in beside him.
Seto smiled to himself, Joey was so tired he didn't even twitch. Seto luxuriated in the feeling of a
completely limp Joey snoring beside him and drifted off happily.

Morning was interesting. Yukari woke them up and sent Joey into what he called his dressing
room. Torrance was waiting there for him with a rather hesitant expression on his face. But Joey
greeted him with a happy 'Hey there.' Torrance replied with dignity and offered Joey a choice of
outfits.

"You gonna dress me? What are you doing here? I mean it's not that I don't want you, but . . .
shit. Help a fella get his foot out of his mouth, will ya?"

"Certainly, sir." Torrance bowed gravely from the waist. "Master Seto brought me from the city
to make sure that you took your meds and didn't over do it. I was a Commander in the Singapore
P.D. until I made the wrong decision, got some good men dead, and had to take an early
retirement. It's something of a source of embarrassment to me . . . but I think my experiences will
allow me to help you get along a little better than I did."

Joey groaned softly. "Wow. Tough break. I got a shrink and I'm doin' fairly good. I'll double up
on the sessions for a while. You ought to talk to him too. Real nice guy. Name of Higa. You get
burned in the same mess . . . not that it's any of my business. Um m m . Should I wear gray socks
with navy blue?"

Torrance ducked the question about his burns, he thought, and answered, "They're not gray.
They're light blue, but if you feel they're too light there's a pair of black ones here." He handed
Joey the socks.

"Yeah, that's a lot better. I don't like light colored socks. If I got any more, could you do
something with them? Especially if they're white cotton." Torrance made a face. "I know I'm
supposed to wear light colors with some things . . . in that case I'll skip socks all together. I got a
thing. Ok?"

"Yes, sir. A thing." Torrance smiled and helped Joey with his shirt. "You act like you're still
sore. And I want to change the dressing on that arm. How are you other wise?"

Joey accepted Torrance's help with a nod. "Not too bad. I've felt worse. I'm still achy and if I
don't eat before I take those damn pills I get pukey. Like a cat . . . you know. Now, I asked you a
question. If you want to tell me to fuck off, do it, but don't ignore me. Ok?"

Torrance grimaced then laughed. "I can see why you were so successful. Got a mind like a steel
trap and a grip like a bulldog. Ok. I was drunk off my ass, set the kitchen on fire. I got burned
getting my employer and his wife out before they roasted. It was a charity job. Now, I do a good
job and stay off the sauce."

Torrance pulled the old bandage off Joey's arm causing him to wince slightly. He quickly
examined Joey's arm then stuck a clean bandaid on it.

Joey sighed. "Damn, that's really rough. Well, here. Help me on with my harness."

Torrance took the pistol harness from Joey and examined it. "You really think you need this?"

"No, but I'm not comfortable without it. I'll get over it in a while, but I don't intend to put myself
through the aggravation until I feel better other ways. . . . Damn, strap's twisted . . . get it for
me."

Torrance obligingly straightened the errant strap and handed Joey a light jacket. "You might want
that if you're going to eat outside, it's just a little chilly."

Joey hooked one finger in the collar and hung it over his shoulder. "Great. Come on. I'm
starving. Yukari and Sakura really put on a good feed. How you getting on with them?"

"Just fine. There's no below stairs politics in a Kaiba house, he won't tolerate it. So . . . but, I've
known both of them for a while . . . just in conjunction with all of us working for Kaiba and we
get along well. I'll get your pills for you and be down in a few moments. Will you be wanting to
shave after breakfast?"

Joey rubbed his chin. "Naw. I think I'll let it slide for the day. And don't be thinking I need you
to scrub my back or nothin'"

Torrance blinked, Joey was upset about something, his grammar had slipped. "I believe that is
what Mr. Seto is for. Get to breakfast and I'll be down soon. Go."

Joey laughed and headed down the stairs to breakfast.

~ * ~

The next week was one of interesting changes. Seto found that Joey didn't tend to flinch every
time someone entered a room. He also slept in a little later, allowed Torrance to choose his
clothing, and finally, near the end of the week, put off his harness, except when they left the
compound. He also spent an hour every morning doing yoga or Tai Chi. And only spent half an
hour on strength training. He put on a pound, ate every thing he saw and generally, as he put it,
goofed off like a brat.

Seto watched with joy in his heart as Joey relaxed, not only physically, but mentally as well.
There was only one upset in the week. Joey got a call from Tanaka-sama.

"No!" Joey punched the air. "I said no. I'm not coming back, I'm doing fine. Seto loves me and I
love him. I'm not taking a chance on losing everything I've got by trying to get back on active. I
don't want to. I'm retired and I'm staying retired. I'll write games and programs and do private
security or . . . something. It's not as if I don't have money of my own. Seto invested for me. All
I've got is a small income, but it's enough."

After a moment more Joey slammed the phone down and turned to see Seto standing in the door.
He crossed the room in three long, quick strides. "What is it? You're upset."

"I got a call from my old boss. He wants me to come back. I don't want to and I don't think
Psych will let me. I don't have to go to testify at trial, so as far as I'm concerned, it's all over. But
. . ."

Seto put his index finger against Joey's lips. "You don't have to go back. You've got plenty of
money of your own and I'll keep you if it runs out. So . . . kiss?"

Joey dutifully kissed Seto, much to their mutual pleasure, and quit worrying about Tokyo PD.,
forever.

~ * ~

Seto was enduring a flood of e-mails from the Letter Man and he was sick of it. The last two
weeks or so they hadn't heard anything at all and now it was worse than ever.

"Joey, I don't know what to do. We get regular mails and stuff from the gang, but it all comes to
our private boxes. This shit all comes to my business/personal account. I don't know . . . I'm not
getting anywhere. Will you please find this asshole so I can have everyone over and get Mo' back
from France before he's completely corrupted?"

Joey grimaced. He'd goofed off enough. "Sure, boss. I'm right on it. Send me all the files to my
laptop and . . . I have some ideas I want to try . . . can we get a 3-D projection unit set up
somewhere? Like in the . . . whadda ya call it? Grand audience chamber or the banqueting hall . .
. whatever?"

Seto just shrugged. "Sure. Whatever you want. Just ask. I just want this . . ." Seto's face turned
an alarming shade of red. " . . . fuck wad caught. Soon. You know that shit like this eventually
escalates into something more. I don't want to give him the opportunity."

Joey got up and walked over to Seto. He put his arms around him and hugged him hard. "I'll
catch him. You just watch me. I need to go over all the files now that I'm not worried about the
yakuza. I have some ideas. I just need to collect all the data and analyze it. I . . . well, we'll see."

Seto downloaded all the files into Joey's computer and watched in amazement as Joey wrote a
program that enabled him to control the scroll speed of his word processor so he wasn't
constantly clicking to advance the text.

"You can read that fast?"

"Yeah. Even faster if I'm only looking for symbol matches. Like phrases and such." Joey started
reading and Seto left him alone, going back to his own work.

Joey read for over three hours, then shut down his computer, grumbling. "No patterns in the
messages that I can find. Fuck! I'll have to do a mess of . . . dammit, I'm not either . . . Seto, I
need a job done. I'll type up a set of parameters and you can get some data entry people to make
up a database for me. Then I can apply sorts until I come up with something useful."

~ * ~

It only took the data entry people a day to do the job. Joey didn't know how Seto had set it up
and he didn't care. All he cared about was that the job was done. Unfortunately his sorts didn't
result in anything useful. He nearly threw his laptop across the room. Only refraining from doing
so because he didn't want to have to reload all his files.

Torrance came in with his pills and the happy information that this was his last dose.

"Well, thank someone for small favors. Torrance, I want some tea. I'll take it outside, if you
don't mind."

Torrance just shook his head. Joey was a great one for saying please and thank you. He went to
make up a tea tray.

When he came onto the terrace, Joey was sitting at the small table staring into space chewing on
his lip.

"Oh . . . thanks. Torrance. Talk to me. Tell me stuff."

"What shall I tell you?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling that you told me something once that is important. So talk to
me."

Torrance gave Joey a blank look then started pouring tea. He'd brought two cups just in case Seto
came out to join Joey, but now he took it for himself. He settled down across from Joey and
started talking.

He told Joey everything he'd ever told him over again. He talked through a pot of tea, then
another that Yukari brought. Joey listened with such a blank look on his face that at first
Torrance thought he wasn't really listening. Then he realized something that Joey's teachers
never had. That blank look was because Joey was listening with every fiber of his being. So he
went over everything he could think of.

"What? Wait! Go back. Cleaning crew? I thought you did all the cleaning?"

"I do. But I have some of the women come in and do things I don't want to do alone. Either
because I have to get on a ladder, or I'm afraid I'll drop something on my head. I don't like the
idea of laying on the floor for hours, if not days, waiting for someone to come find me. So I have
a crew come in about every two months."

"Ok . . . so why . . . if you have crews come in. Why did this one bother you?"

"I just had a crew in a week before. The lead girl was really a little odd. She kept saying things
like 'my boy needs to live in an immaculate house' and 'Seto-chan likes things I do.' Really
made my skin crawl, but I just marked it down to the crew wanting to be able to say that they
cleaned for Kaiba Seto and chased them off. Why?"

Joey shuddered. "Not sure . . . just don't like it somehow. How do we know that that crew was
really some of our people?"

Torrance frowned. "They all had the proper badges and uniforms. Both are hard to come by.
Issuing uniforms requires a badge and . . . getting a badge is hard. I lost mine once and the
rigmarole I had to go through was . . . the only word I can think of is impressive."

Joey shifted in his chair. "Something is off. I just can't put my finger on it. There's stuff that's
been bothering me about the e-mails. If I could just put my hand on the right bit of data. Damn."

Torrance poured more tea. "If you like, I could just sit here and listen while you . . . er . . .
organize your thoughts. Maybe I'll see something you don't . . . forest and trees."

Joey sat for a while sipping his tea, then he started talking. "Something about the way the mail
comes in. It's almost always after the fact. Like he's saying, 'See what I can do?' but . . .
something. The ass almost sounds sorry that he did bad things to us. Something happens and we
get mail saying, 'you shouldn't have done that. See what happened?' . . . it gives me an itch. And
I know I know who it is, it's just I don't know." Joey shook his head. "That could make a lot
more sense. Now my head hurts. I still have a way to go to get back up to snuff. I'm going for a
short jog."

Torrance looked Joey over, then nodded. "Yes, I believe it will be good for you. You're getting
better by the minute. Just don't over do. Seto will have both of us in the oubliette if you do. I'll
go on up and put out your jogging shorts. Tank or tee."

Joey nodded. "I'll finish my tea and be right up . . . uumm . . . tank, I think."

~ * ~

Seto couldn't stand it any longer. He was tired of being inside, he wanted out in the fresh air
doing something active. He decided to take a ride on one of the bridle trails on the grounds.

He went down to the stables and had the inappropriately named stallion Kicker saddled. He was
inappropriately named because he wouldn't dream of kicking, he was a Tennessee Walking
horse, his gate bred into him for decades. The first of his bred were used by overseers of
Tennessee plantations. Thus the name, their smooth walking gate was easy and faster than it
looked, enabling the rider to travel in comfort.

Seto rode to the end of the trail, dismounted and draped the reins over his arm. Kicker good-
naturedly followed, snuffling the ground for sweet grass. Seto gently pulled his head up.

"Don't do that. You'll drool all over. I don't want green slobber all over the tack."

Kicker snorted indignantly, but quit trying to nibble the grass.

When Seto saw Joey across the valley, he snarled so violently that Kicker jerked his head up,
snorting sharply. Seto mounted in one smooth movement and set Kicker into a collected canter
that covered the distance to Joey in a few minutes.

He cut Joey off and looked down on him, examining his face carefully for signs of strain or
fatigue.

"You . . . you're supposed to be resting. Do you . . . "

Kicker decided to take a hand. He extended his head and nibbled on Joey's shoulder. Joey gently
pushed his head away. "No salt here, boy. Seto, Torrance ok'd it. I told him where I wanted to
go and he set me a pace so I wouldn't over do. He'll be happy to see that I've stopped to talk to
you. So . . . why don't you set pretty boy here to a flat walk and I'll jog along side. If I get tired,
you can lead him and I'll ride."

Seto turned Kicker and tapped him with his heels. The horse started off at a flat walk, Joey took
hold of the stirrup leathers and kept pace. When Kicker shifted into a Running Walk, Joey kept
up easily.

"Seto, don't let him go into a canter. I don't want to have to keep up with that yet . . ." Joey
jogged easily, still with enough breath to carry on a conversation. "Seto, this guy is great. He's
got one of the smoothest walks I've ever seen. How's his canter?"

Seto smirked at Joey. "Smooth as Air-Glide, you should ride him. Next time I come out I'll make
sure you come too. You could ride with me. You said you rode, but you've never ridden here."

"Didn't want to get you out in the open, snipers. But . . . God, I'd love to ride this guy. Never got
to ride anything but quarter horses before. Some of the overseers had Walkers. They had to
provide their own horses if they wanted quality horseflesh. Not that the horses at the Farm were
dog meat, but they were common. Good workers, and well taken care of, but not up to his quality
by a long shot."

Joey jogged in silence for a while. Seto made sure that he was keeping up without strain. It was
nice, this companionable ride. He wanted it to continue forever, but of course it was over too
soon.

They reached the stable and one of the stable men came out to take Kicker. Seto shook his head.
One thing he'd learned for himself was that taking care of horses was something he enjoyed. He
felt that, if the huge creature was willing to carry him, the least he could do in return was care for
it himself.

Seto took off the bridle, he walked Kicker until he was cooled down, while Joey walked beside
him cooling down too. They talked about Kicker and his bloodline, where Seto'd gotten him and
whether he was going to breed him. When Kicker and Joey were cool, Seto gave them both
water, Kicker's in a bucket, Joey's in a bottle.

"Come on, inside with both of you." Seto led Kicker into his loose box. Joey leaned on the loose
box wall and watched as Seto removed the saddle. He took it and handed it off to the waiting
stable hand. Seto took up a currycomb and started currying Kicker.

"You're really good at this. Why don't I know this?"

"Because I didn't have time to do stuff like this before. I was too busy. Now that I've got time,
things will be a lot different. Joey love. There's so much I want to do. To show you. We . . . need
time together. The honeymoon's not nearly over yet."

Joey smirked. "It may never be over. There's things I want to show you too. And things I want to
do and see. We find the Letter Man and I want to start dueling again. Give Yugi a run for his
money. Other things too. I'd like to shoot in Barry, Ill. The International Masters Pistol
Championships are held there at the PASA Park."

"Passing park what?"

Joey rolled his eyes. "The PASA Park. Pike Adams Shooting Association. Real deal. The rules
are really strict and keep people from winning because they have money to burn on fancy
equipment. The total cost of three pistols can't exceed two thousand dollars, at least for the stock
class. Which is what I'm interested in. We can do all kinds of stuff if I can just catch this idiot
Letter Man."

"Oh. I see. Well. Just let me know what you need. I'll get it for you."

Seto curried and Joey watched. They both relaxed, neither needing to say anything.

Joey finished his water and Seto finished his job. He turned the comb and lead line over to the
stable man, who took them with a respectful nod.

Seto linked his arm with Joey's and they walked back to the donjon.

~ * ~

Joey stood in the middle of the vast hall and smiled Seto had had a portable Duel Monsters
projector set up there. It was going to be fun as he'd also bought one of the dueling computers.

"Joey, if you beat the computer too many times I'm going to have to rewrite the program. Just
have fun and don't over do."

Joey put on his most innocent 'who me' look and then hung one arm over Seto's shoulders. "I'll
be good, I promise. I feel too good to mess it up now. I had a good run, I feel like exercising is a
pleasure, instead of a chore. I'm not half-starved most of the time anymore. I'd be more than a
fool to over do now. Go do your work. I know you've got a lot of catching up to do. You've
spent nearly every waking hour with me. Between you and Torrance, not to mention Yukari and
Sakura, I've been nursed and coddled to a fare thee well. Not that I'm complaining, you
understand. In fact, it feels great. But I'm better now, so you all need to get back to normal. Go,
work."

Seto smirked at Joey happily. He looked a hundred percent better. He was rapidly putting on
weight, he didn't have that little crease between his eyebrows anymore, and he seemed looser
somehow.

"Ok, I'm going. I've got a bunch of stuff to catch up with. I'll make sure you get your head out of
that game in time for supper."

Joey nodded absently, sorting cards and planning strategy.

Joey spent the rest of the afternoon dueling. He enjoyed it, loved his new deck and beat the
computer three duels out of five. He vowed to improve as fast as he could. He wanted to enter
the next championship, he was going to win it and get his life back. All he had to do was catch
the Letter Man and everything would be fine.

Seto walked into the room just as Joey kicked a chair across the room.

"That bad? I didn't think you would do too bad. What. . . " Seto stopped talking as Joey turned to
glare at him.

"It's not that. I did pretty good. See?" Joey handed Seto the readout from the dueling computer.
"I was just thinking. I've got to find that damn asshole Letter Man. Until I do, we can't get our
lives back. What if. . . well, what if what if. Dammit! I'm gonna find dat pissant and squash
him."

Seto pulled Joey into his arms and kissed him. "I know you'll find him. Now that you have the
time and you know you'll have all the resources you want. Why don't we eat supper? You calm
down and get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow you'll just have to start really cracking down on it. I
know you'll find him. But you can't kill him."

Joey pouted. "Why not? I wanna squash his head like a ripe plum."

"Because then he won't go to prison. You know . . . well," Seto smirked at Joey's arrested
expression. "See, you got the idea. Why shouldn't he suffer. He's got us locked up, but good. He
should find out what it's like. Right?"

Joey hugged Seto. "When you're right, you're right. Come on. Supper sounds good. Do you
think Sakura will make those little shrimp things I like?"

Seto laughed. "And when has she not made them in the last week? Pig . . . you'll get . . . well,
you've got a long way to go to get fat. But you'll definitely put on some good weight." Seto
poked Joey in the ribs. "You're beginning to bulk up nicely. Soon you won't look like a refugee
from some third world country."

Joey tripped Seto and ran for the kitchen. They'd taken to eating in the kitchen or out on the
terrace. Joey complained that the food was cold if they at in their quarters and said it was an
insult to Sakura. Seto just nagged him until he admitted that he just liked to smell her cooking.

~ * ~

Joey woke feeling very good. Well rested, healthy and, as usual, hungry. He wanted food and a
lot of it, now. What he got was a tray of great looking omelet, juice, toast and Seto.

"Mmmm. Seto. Nice. Going to feed me?"

"If you like. And after. . . I could get the ropes?"

Joey made a face. "Don't need ropes. And don't look at me like that. I know you like it. But I'd
like to make love once in a while with you making love back. Feed me. Then we'll see, ok?"

Seto settled in to feed Joey. As he ate Joey touched Seto, gently running his hands up and down
Seto's arms and over his shoulders. He caressed his thighs and gently rubbed his belly. Seto
finally had to put down the fork. His hands were shaking too hard to do anything useful.

"If you're not using those, here." Joey took the tray over to the stand and settled it in place. He
finished off the juice and turned around to look at Seto. Seto's eyes were dilated and slightly
glazed. "Lay down."

Seto obeyed, Joey's tone of voice didn't allow anything else. He watched as Joey stalked back to
the bed. He crawled onto the bed and settled against Seto.

"Reach up. Here." Joey wrapped Seto's fingers around the spindles in the headboard. "Do not let
go. You owe me time still, and I'm collecting. Look at the clock. Remember what time it is."

Seto looked at the clock, but he doubted he'd remember his name by the time Joey got done with
him. He moaned softly and gave himself up.

Joey started at the top. He kissed Seto's eyelids and mouth. Seto kissed back, lifting his head to
follow when Joey pulled away. "No. Stay still." Seto obeyed. Joey licked his way down Seto's
chest to one nipple. He worried at it gently, licking and nipping at the tender flesh. Seto
whimpered. "Shh. I'm in control here. Be quiet."

Seto endured Joey nipping, sucking or nibbling every part of his body, except where he wanted
him to. He squirmed and wriggled trying to induce Joey to touch him. Joey pinned him down
with his body and held him, gently forcing him to accept the touches he was allowed. He never
let go of the headboard. He was a man of his word, once given always kept. No matter what. But
right now he wished fervently that he wasn't. Or did he?

Joey smiled against his lips. "Like it? You can tell me if you do or not. But no babbling or
bargaining."

"Joey." Joey made an annoyed noise. "Yes, yes. I like it. Please. I . . . please more. Touch . . ."

Joey kissed him firmly, shutting off whatever he'd been ready to say and making him moan
instead. Seto flinched slightly as Joey took him in hand. "Cold." All Joey could say was "sorry."
Seto forgot about Joey's cold hand almost immediately as his brain and blood supply went south.

Seto moaned and whimpered as Joey stroked him, carefully preparing him with his other hand.
Seto never noticed what else was happening to him. Joey gently lifted Seto's legs and draped
them over his shoulders. He'd prepared himself with plenty of lube at the same time he'd started
to tease Seto. Slipping himself into Seto's waiting body was easy Seto was so relaxed.

"Like that? Feel good? . . .you tell me if it hurts." Joey started to move gently, he wasn't about to
hurt Seto, no matter how badly he wanted to thrust into him and jackhammer him into the
mattress. "Mmmm. So good."

Seto groaned as Joey hit his sweet spot. Stars danced behind his eyelids and his brain melted. He
couldn't have said anything if he wanted to. All he could do was moan and whimper louder.
When he finally came, with a yell that nearly brought Roland, he was sure that he didn't have a
brain cell left and he really didn't care.

Joey thrust a few more times and felt Seto's body milking him as his muscles contracted with his
orgasm. He moaned 'Seto' and exploded, spasms shaking him all over.

"Oh god. I'm dead. I died and this is heaven."

"Ummm. Joey?"

"Yeah lover." Joey rolled off Seto and allowed him to lower his legs.

"Can I let go now?" At Joey's nod, Seto lowered his arms and rolled over to sprawl over Joey,
who didn't object at all.

"Mmmmm. Nice."

Seto rubbed his cheek against Joey's shoulder. "Sleep now."

~ * ~

They woke nearer to noon than Joey liked but they both felt so good that they wound up falling
back to sleep and waking again to both Yukari and Torrance snickering.

"You wake them"

"Not a chance. My ugly mug will give them a heart attack."

"You're not ugly. Go wake them. I'll start the bath."

"You wake them I'll start the bath. I'm senior to you."

"Ha!"

Joey sat up and glared. "Will you two stop arguing and . . . shit. I'm awake now. Both of you go
draw a bath and put us out some clothes."

Seto grumbled, rolled over and managed to look about half-awake. "I'm still . . . " Seto yawned
and stretched. "Sleepy. But I'm up enough to know that if I don't get up I'll never sleep tonight."

Joey smirked, waggled his eyebrows suggestively and murmured. "Wanna bet?"

"Pervert."

"Who me?" Seto snickered at Joey's exaggeratedly innocent look.

They crawled out of bed and ambled companionably for the bathroom and the waiting bath. After
splashing around in the tub, making an incredible mess, and dripping at the sinks, they were
finally clean, brushed, braided and dressed.

Seto aimed Joey in the general direction of his office, telling him that he thought there were some
files e-mailed to his computer that Joey ought to see. "I'll load them into the main server here
and you can see what you can make of them. Oh . . . " Seto tugged Joey close by one belt loop,
kissed him, and walked away.

"Hey. Be careful. I like these jeans. And that wasn't much of a kiss. Birds peck longer than that."
Joey captured Seto before he got too far and kissed him until he melted, then smacked him on the
ass and laughed. "You better go send those files or I'm never going to catch the Letter Man. Go."

Seto laughed all the way down the hall.

~ * ~

Joey got the files translated and went through them. He read until Torrance waved a hand
between him and the screen.

"Would you like some tea? And is there anything I can do?"

Joey leaned back and sighed. "Yes, tea. No, I don't think so. I've got to do this myself. There's a
pattern here, if I can just find it. It's staring me in the face I just can't get a grip on it.

Torrance frowned, he paced over to the door and brought back a tea tray, set it on the desk and
poured Joey a cup. He stood as Joey took his first sip, watching Joey as he read the scrolling text.
Or at least he thought Joey was trying to read.

"You can read that? It's scrolling pretty fast."

Joey tapped a key to pause the scrolling. "Yeah, I had to write a program so I could set the speed.
The regular scroll is too fast and I hate the constant clicking. I've read through this at several
speeds. All I have to do is . . . kind of set myself to recognize patterns. Words. Whatever. Like
kill, murder, bad . . . stuff like that. I have a knack for this sort of thing."

"I see. But you're not coming up with anything?"

"Nope. Nada. Bupkis. There's something I'm not recognizing. It's there, I know it is. It's
knocking at my brain but brain isn't answering. I'll get it sooner or later. Just . . ."

Torrance nodded. "Try looking for what doesn't fit. Turn things upside down, or inside out. What
matches sometimes isn't as important as want doesn't. Excuse me."

But Joey was already gone. Torrance collected himself and walked out, satisfied that he'd done
the best he could.

Joey eyed the sort and wondered how else to sort the data. He resorted it several times, then
stopped to wonder what was buzzing around in the back of his brain.

He decided to take a break and a short walk, hoping the time away from his desk would allow
whatever it was to surface. As he walked, he started humming, then singing softly. "Da, da, da.
Dada. Da - da o, da. O, da. Oda. . . . wha'? Oda, Oda. Why does that . . . Oda. That guy Oda. I . .
he . . . the 3-D. Thingy . . . dammit. I don't remember. I've got to get hold of that guy and
squeeze him."

Joey hurried back to his desk and called Ayami, got Oda's number then called him. After talking
to Oda for several minutes he yelled, hurried down the stairs to the Holographic projector, and
loaded in the files Oda had sent to him days ago.

He set them up and projected them into the middle of the dueling arena. He walked around the
resulting projection of Kaiba Towers and grumbled. All he could see was a wire construct of the
tower; a sort of see through thing of green lines and different colored dots.

"What am I looking at. What is it. What . . . dots . . . e-mails. Something."

Joey paced back and forth, then walked around the projection. He grumbled to himself.

"Dammit! I want a cigarette in the worst way. If I just . . . No, I promised Seto. Shitshitshit.
Something is there. It's staring me right in the damn face. What. Is. It?"

After resorting several times and getting nowhere, Joey decided to try reading the info Oda had
sent. *If all else fails, read the directions.* He read, then snarled, sorted and blew up the section
of the tower with the earliest date.

His eyes flicked back and forth as he compared locations and dates he was definitely onto
something. He just wasn't sure exactly what yet.

~ * ~

"Seto? Help me out here. What if our guy isn't hacking the system to make it seem as if he's
sending messages from different computers. What if he is actually sending them from the
different locations. What do we have then?"

Seto swivelled his chair back and forth as he thought. "Well, if he's actually changing locations.
He'd . . . huumm. That's different. How would he gain access to the . . . passwords . . . "

Joey shrugged. "He's got to have a hell of a cracker. But I'm on the right track. I just don't know
for sure where it's going to lead. See you later." A quick kiss and Joey was on his way back to
the banquet hall and his ruminations.

He paced, grumbled, sorted, squinted, and sorted again. He just couldn't quite get a handle on
what was going on. It was really beginning to bug him. He went into the gym to work on the
heavy bag for a while, hoping mindless violence would clear his mind. It worked, sort of. Joey
wore himself out and fell asleep sitting on the mats thinking. Seto found him, woke him up and
headed him in the general direction of bed.

"Mmm not sleepy." Joey yawned.

"Yeah, right. Wide awake, that's you." Seto guided Joey into the bed.

"Not time to sleep yet."

"So? Wake up then." Seto covered Joey with the bedspread, tucked him in and kissed him on the
forehead.

"Hungry."

"When you wake up we'll have snacks. Ok?

"Mmmmm K."

Joey woke about three hours later with a growling stomach that told him in no uncertain terms
that he'd missed a meal. Or two. He wasn't sure and really didn't care, he wanted food, now. He
headed for the kitchen and Sakura's gentle ministrations.

Sakura smiled at Joey and fulfilled his demand for food. She made him some of his favorites and
he hugged her, laughing at her indignant smack on his arm. Seto laughed too and sauntered in
from the hall. He'd been standing watching Joey clowning around, it was so good to see Joey
laughing freely, like he had in the 'good old days'; before Joey entered the force.

Seto sneaked up behind Joey and grabbed him, Joey turned with a yelp. He knew he was safe
here and didn't attack Seto, just shoved him back a step. That didn't help much, as Seto lunged
and caught him around the waist. Seto lifted Joey off his feet and attempted to cram him, Joey
caught his belt and they wrestled for a moment.

"You two stop that at once. This is my kitchen and I'm not having this kind of ruckus. Sit! Eat!
Or get out!"

They both settled at once, the threat of being thrown out of the kitchen enough to put both of
them in a chair. Sakura nodded her head firmly and went back to her stove.

"You two should know better than that. You don't wrestle around hot things. You could get
burnt. Now. I'm just about done here. I'm going to put it on the table and then I'm leaving. I'm
going to visit my sister for the weekend. You'll have to fend for yourselves for four whole days."

Joey groaned, Seto gave a tiny whimper. If Sakura was gone for four days that meant that Joey
was going to cook. Not that there was anything wrong with his cooking, but he only knew about
six dishes and they had twelve meals to get through. Which wouldn't be bad except four of
Joey's best dishes were omelets. He also hated cleaning up and tended to push that off on Seto.

Seto brightened suddenly. "Torrance can cook. He's here. He'll save me . . . Torrance. Oh, there
you are." Seto addressed Torrance who was standing in the door way laughing. "What's so
funny? I don't fancy eating omelets twice a day for four days." He ducked a thrown dishtowel.
"Well, I don't!"

Joey snickered. "I'm a good cook and I do know more dishes than just omelets."

"But I don't like three of the things you know how to cook. I like . . ."

Torrance cleared his throat. "I'm quite aware of what you like. I'll see to it that the meals are
attractive to you both. Now. Eat that, then get back to catching that . . .a-hem . . . Person."

Seto and Joey gobbled their meal, squabbling genially about nothing much.

Joey sighed. He didn't want to go back to trying to figure out what was bugging him. He decided
to let it rest. Maybe it would come to him if he quit picking at it. Instead he went into his office
to work on his game idea. Seto followed him and they spent the rest of the evening drawing
character sketches and working up a proposal.

~ * ~

"Seto, I want to go to the towers and look around. That bastard is getting to computers somehow.
I want to look at the physical scene. We can catch him if we can just figure out how he's
accessing all those computers. Each one has it's own password and I want to find out how he's
cracking them."

Seto nodded. "Ok, we'll go this afternoon. I'll have the chopper brought up, we can have bentos
on the way. I want to finish this proposal and send it to the department heads for approval."

Joey looked puzzled. "You're the boss. Why do you have to submit . . . ok, asshole, laugh."

Seto was indeed laughing at Joey. "Each department involved in the project has to know what is
expected of them. We only call it approval because it's politically expedient. They know damn
good and well I'm the only one with the right of veto. All they really get is a chance to tell me
what they'll need to accomplish their part of the project. Now. Kiss so I can get to work."

Joey snickered, just like Seto to call it a proposal when it was really a command. He hadn't
known Seto was too worried about political correctness.

Seto's voice drifted back from the hall. "And I don't give a damn about political correctness. It's
just easier to get them to cooperate if I don't step on their toes too hard. I'm getting lazy in my
old age."

~ * ~

Short chapter again, but I made up for it with a lemon.