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Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh
Pairings: Joey/ Kaiba, Yugi/Yami

Warm

Chapter 9: New Options

Joey stomped over to Kaiba in frustration and kneeled down. Stupid suddenly strategic Tristan.

"There's no need to bow mutt. I know I may look like it, but I'm no god." Kaiba said with a smirk. Joey grit his teeth more than ready to punch the guy. How on earth did he spend the last ten hours or so thinking about this guy? He totally sucked!

"I'm not bowing, you pompous jerk. Get on my shoulders." Joey growled. It took all his willpower to not throw his leg out and kick Kaiba in his non-bruised somehow evenly tanned shins.

"You're mistaken if you think I'm getting on your shoulders." Kaiba scoffed. "You're obviously the smaller, weaker one of the two of us."

"Weaker? You want to put money on that? I'll kick your butt back to KaibaLand!" Joey snapped, jumping back up and getting in Kaiba's face.

"Big talk for a stray, do you even have change to spare?" Kaiba sneered. Joey's nostrils flared and he tackled Kaiba. To Joey's surprise, moneybags didn't fall, instead he caught Joey and cast him aside. Joey climbed back to his feet and turned toward Kaiba, running full speed towards him. Kaiba braced himself for another tackle, but Joey surprised him with a low swiping kick that landed the millionaire on his butt. Joey smirked at his small victory. Something snapped in Kaiba and the brunette was on his feet snatching Joey up by his shirt with a fist pulled back.

"HEY HEY HEY." The coach roared as he tromped over, eyes wild with irritation. "Break it up NOW." He growled, handing his megaphone to a nearby girl. Kaiba glared at him icily and dropped Joey like a sack of potatoes to the gym floor. "Good." The coach approved as he eyed the blonde scrambling to his feet before returning his eyes to Kaiba. "Now I don't know what the two of you were fighting about this time, frankly, I don't really care. But you need to get over it now. There is only one week until sports day and if you two aren't in top shape I'm failing both of you." The coach warned. Joey shot Kaiba a glare but Kaiba offered no response. "Now kiss and make up." The coach ordered. Joey's eyes went wide and he shot a nervous glance to Kaiba who seemed a bit thrown off by the comment as well. The coach made a face. "Not literally" The coach groaned. "Just shake hands and get back to practicing." The coach took his megaphone from the girl and trotted off to go yell at some other kids.

"You're on top." Kaiba said coolly. Joey didn't say a word and begrudgingly climbed on Kaiba's shoulders. The brunette stood up and Joey got a strange chill from how high up he was. He grabbed awkwardly onto Kaiba's head causing the brunette to stumble a bit. "Watch it mutt." Kaiba growled in warning.

"Sorry, if you weren't so freakishly tall there wouldn't be a problem." Joey growled back.

"Oh, is the little dog afraid of heights? I guess it would be uncommon for you to be so far off the ground." Kaiba snorted in return.

"Can you shut up for a second? Geez" Joey grumbled. "Let's just get this over with." Joey said more loudly, though he was sure Kaiba had heard everything, he was, after all, on the guy's shoulders.

"You forgot to take off your shoes." Kaiba complained. Joey rolled his eyes and kicked one of his shoes off. "Stop moving so damn much." Kaiba demanded. Joey stopped, irritated. This guy was a real piece of work. Kaiba grabbed Joey's foot and took his other shoe off dropping it to the ground like it was a biohazard, which Joey had to admit wasn't too far from the truth. His sneakers were pretty smelly. Joey couldn't see his face but he knew Kaiba was reaching his limit. Kaiba squat down putting Joey's feet on his legs. To Joey's surprise, the rich brat was actually pretty strong. Unlike Tristan, his legs didn't shake and he didn't wobble uneasily as he moved Joey about him.

"Man Kaiba, I gotta say I'm impressed. All that time in front of a computer and you still somehow are capable of doing normal human things." Joey mused. He heard Kaiba snort as he pulled his head out from under Joey's crotch so Joey was standing on his legs in front of him, his hands on Joey's hips.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Kaiba replied. "Now wrap your legs around my hips." Joey flushed. He heard a scream to his side and he looked over in time to see a girl fall off of another girl. Laying on the floor, the fallen girl grabbed her arm like she was in serious pain. The coach ran over. "Wheeler pay attention." Kaiba barked impatiently. Joey hesitated, he couldn't really figure out how to do it without falling himself. Kaiba's hands were suddenly on his chest holding up his weight. Joey blinked in surprise and embarrassment but let the brunette guide him. Soon his legs were properly wrapped around Kaiba's waist, Kaiba holding his hips to keep him steady. "Put your arms out." Kaiba ordered, clicking his tongue in annoyance. Joey held his arms out like he was trying to fly, counting to eight, then he dropped his hands to the ground, crawling off of Kaiba. There was a slow clap and Joey noticed the coach standing off to the side watching them. Joey grumbled to himself as he got off the ground. Kaiba looked equally as done as Joey felt. Joey crossed his arms and watched the other groups struggle with the formations. There were lots of shaky arms and legs. Why did they think it was a good idea to make kids do all this?

"So Moneybags, you too good to practice for the relay like the rest of us?" Joey questioned, his tone coming out more sassy than he meant to. Kaiba smoothed his gym uniform and looked down at Joey making him feel small and pathetic. Joey tensed.

"I was at a parent teacher conference." Kaiba stated calmly. Joey knit his brows.

"I thought you didn't have parents." Joey contended.

"Are you an idiot? I went to a parent teacher conference for Mokuba." Kaiba snorted, crossing his arms and looking away as if he couldn't stand looking at Joey.

"Mokuba?" Joey asked confused, but then he understood. He flushed, feeling pretty dumb. "Oh… How's he doing? I haven't seen the kid since the last battle city tournament." Kaiba seemed to struggle with if he wanted to continue the conversation or not. A shrill sound of a whistle filled the gym followed by the coach's yelling to line back up. Disappointed, Joey walked back over to his group looking at Kaiba who was steadily gazing back at him.

.

.

Joey wiped the sweat from his brow as he sat on the top of the ladder. He pulled back the drill and checked that the light fixture was level before putting another bolt in place. Clanging and drilling filled the air around him as Dynamite toys slowly evolved into KaibaCorp Gaming Ministop. A few feet away Tokimasa was walking by, carrying a couple of two by fours. Joey put the drill down between his legs and pulled his copy of the blueprints from his mouth, unfolding it to check where the next light had to go. He made a lot of headway, he'd complete the first floor fixtures before the end of his shift tonight. Tomorrow he could probably get the second floor walls knocked out then move to the fixtures. He could have the outside lights up by Friday. Things were looking great.

"Joey!" A young voice sounded and Joey for a moment couldn't figure out where it was coming from. "Down here!" The voice said and Joey looked down to see Mokuba smiling up at him. Joey gaped for a moment before his face burst into a huge grin. He jumped off the ladder and hugged the boy.

"Long time no see punk." Joey said giving Mokuba a nookie. He looked up and saw Kaiba looking down on him, arms crossed, wearing his black and white trench coat getup. "Sup' Kaiba?" He said. Kaiba sneered. Joey decided to let the expression on that ugly mug slide. "What're you doing here?" Joey asked Mokuba, ignoring Kaiba.

"Kaiba told me you were working on the new building and I bugged him to let me come see you." Mokuba explained with a smile. "Do you have time for a duel?"

"Please Mokuba, don't make a fool of Joey in his workplace." Kaiba smirked. Joey tried to send him the meanest look he could but the jerk looked completely unfazed. Joey looked back at Mokuba's excited face and felt incredibly guilty.

"I don't have my deck with me." Joey admitted. Mokuba looked at him as though that were a foreign concept to him.

"Well where is it? We could go get it." Mokuba offered. Joey hesitated thinking of his deck that he carefully hid under his mattress on the floor in his room at his dad's house. Joey shook his head. Mokuba looked sorely disappointed but snapped out of it immediately. "Oh well then how about we get some burgers then!"

"Mokuba he's working." Kaiba reminded him.

"Come on Kaiba, let him have some time off. You're his boss aren't you?" Mokuba begged, giving Kaiba puppy dog eyes. The brunette sighed and Mokuba did a victory dance. "Let's go Joey!" Mokuba exclaimed dragging Joey out of the building. Joey stumbled along, unable to run properly with someone so short holding onto his arm. Mokuba unlocked Kaiba's silver corvette and hopped into the blue interior. Joey silently judged Kaiba for the blue eyes white dragon feel of the car. Maybe he liked the dragon a little too much. A moment later, Kaiba joined them in the car, sitting by himself in the front seat, turning on the engine. He pulled out of the parking lot of Dynamite toys as Mokuba rummaged through his backpack.

"Hey, did you tell someone I was leaving?" Joey asked awkwardly. Kaiba put on his blinker and turned down the street.

"Of course I did." Kaiba said icily. Mokuba tapped on Joey's shoulder and held up a pretty awesome drawing of the red eyes black dragon.

"Oh man Mokuba that's sick! Did you draw this all by yourself?" Joey asked in awe.

"Yeah! It took me a couple hours but it got into the art show last week." Mokuba grinned.

"Why'd you draw a red eyes black dragon and not the blue eyes white dragon?" Joey asked. Mokuba blushed. "Isn't the blue eyes the family logo or something?"

"Er… well it was originally supposed to be the blue eyes… but I messed up on the shading…" He bit his lip. Joey then realized the monster actually looked more like the blue eyes in the shape of the body and head but the colors were that of the red eyes.

"Really? I would've never noticed if you didn't point it out." Joey laughed.

"That's because you're a moron." Kaiba commented. Mokuba laughed and then immediately looked guilty, covering his mouth with his hand, ducking his head a little. Joey rolled his eyes. Now he was being tag-teamed by the Kaiba bros. Best way ever to spend the evening. Not.

They pulled up to a burger place near the main Kaiba headquarters building. Joey didn't visit this part of town often because it was pretty far to walk to and the train ride was kind of pricey. He saved the trips there for dueling tournaments and the rare shopping days with Serenity.

"-so then I summoned a Cobrada. The guy was totally freaked out." Mokuba delighted in telling Joey every single detail of a capsule monster chess match he had at school recently. Joey wasn't familiar with the capsule monster rules, but assumed they were like duel monsters'. He wouldn't put money on that though. Kaiba asked for a table and the hostess led them to a private table sectioned off from the others. Joey watched Mokuba talked animatedly, wondering how the two brothers could be so incredibly different. "What are you getting?" Mokuba suddenly asked. Then he looked over at Kaiba sitting across from them with no menu. "Can I get a chocolate parfait?" He asked.

"Sure why not?" Kaiba smiled and Joey felt like he walked in on a very personal family moment he wasn't supposed to be seeing. "Are you getting anything else?" He asked. Mokuba looked at a menu with Joey.

"The usual." Mokuba decided. Kaiba nodded.

"Ready?" Kaiba asked not quite as nicely to Joey. Joey thought of the amount of money in his pocket and carefully looked over the menu. He found something that was cheap enough so that he could get a drink too. Score.

"Yeah I'm ready." Joey said. The waitress came and Joey let out a loud laugh. Kaiba looked appalled and Tea looked shocked.

"Oh hi Tea!" Mokuba greeted. Tea awkwardly returned the greeting as her eyes remained on Joey.

"Joey what?" She then looked at Kaiba and she seemed to struggle with what she was seeing.

"I didn't know you worked for a burger place." Joey mentioned casually.

"I didn't know you and the Kaibas were so close." She replied. Joey and Tea's eyes locked and they shared a silent agreement that neither would speak of the other's secret.

"We aren't" Kaiba corrected.

"Uh… right. So what can I get for you?" Tea asked opening her memo. Kaiba listed off his and Mokuba's order and then looked pointedly at Joey. Joey ordered and Tea gave him one more curious look as she closed her memo pad and walked away.

"Great, does the geek squad have to ruin everything I enjoy?" Kaiba complained.

"Oh don't be that way Seto." Mokuba chided. "Joey's pretty cool. Right?" Joey winced. Out of the whole crew it was no secret Kaiba seemed to dislike him the most. Kaiba snorted.

"Joey wouldn't know what cool was even if he was made of ice." Kaiba argued.

"It's hard to be cool when you're this hot." Joey grinned pointing both thumbs to himself. Kaiba pretended to throw up and Mokuba doubled over laughing. Tea returned with the drinks, looking uncomfortable as she placed them down. She gave Joey a fleeting look and disappeared again.

"Never say anything like that again." Kaiba groaned. Joey couldn't shake the grin off his face.

I apologize for the very late chapter, the website was spazzing on me (visible html, super zoomed, missing buttons, etc.) Thank you for your patience and...

Thank you for reading Ladies, Gents and Non-binary friends!

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