Chapter 9

Mokuba and Joey enjoyed the rest of the day together and played the game Joey took with him the previous day. They also walked a bit through the city, dwelling in memories from the past together until it was getting late. Seto didn't return until late that night and Joey was wondering if it was because he'd started later since Joey worked with him or if it was because he wanted to get a head start for their trip to New York? Joey stayed up with Mokuba until he returned but decided to go to bed right after Kaiba was home. Kaiba had already said that he would go to bed right after his return. Mokuba looked a little worried but didn't say anything. Even after following them secretly towards their rooms and noticing that Joey and Seto disappeared kissingly in Seto's room. He simply returned to his own room and got out his phone to check if his fiance would arrive as planned. So far Seto had no idea what was coming for him, neither did Joey know the part Mokuba had kept from him.

The next morning when Seto wanted to leave for work early in the morning, Mokuba blocked his way. "Hey, big bro. If you want to go into work you surely can, but I need you to be at the airport at ten."

"Why? Are you leaving this soon?" Seto asked surprised. He knew that Mokuba had plenty of work to keep him busy but he usually made sure to have a bit of air to stay a week at least.

"Of course not." Mokuba grinned, "But that's a surprise, for both of you, Joey's going to be there too and trust me, you'll want to see his reaction."

Seto was thinking about it for a moment. Mokuba looked a little worried and he wondered if Mokuba rather wanted him for protection from Joey's reaction and wondered why that might be. "Fine, I'll meet you two there." Seto agreed certain that whatever was waiting for him, would need his presence.

When he arrived at the airport Joey looked giddy and grinned at him like he already knew what was waiting for them and was eager to see Seto's reaction rather than it being the other way round.

"You're just about in time." Mokuba looked worried towards Joey before he looked towards the arrivals. Seto noticed right away that Joey obviously already knew something he didn't and wondered if that was causing the worried look on Mokuba's face, maybe he simply feared that Joey would give away what was going to happen.

"Aren't you curious?" Joey asked, "I mean ya got no clue what Mokuba want's you here for."

"He invited someone and considering that he want's me to be present I assume that it's either someone that I'll be pleased to see or someone that he want's to introduce to me." Seto summed up. "Since I wouldn't know anyone I might like to see apart from the people present, I'm certain that his girlfriend landed a little while ago and he's eager to introduce her to me, which also means that he's reasonably serious about her since he never mentioned his last three girlfriends."

"Are you spying on me too?" Mokuba grumbled upset that his brother even knew about those. He had liked them but found out rather fast that they wanted money and considering his big brother they assumed him to have plenty of that.

"Of course not." Kaiba replied, "But you were still living here when you were together with them and I did notice an increase of private activities as well as the way you dressed up for those. Since you haven't left that long ago I'm also rather certain that there wasn't another girl in between. I doubt you'd introduce her right after getting together since you didn't with the last three."

"Smart ass." Joey grumbled. "But you don't know everything."

"Neither do you." Seto pointed out after noticing another worried look towards Joey while mostly watching the arrivals also telling Seto that way that his girlfriend had already landed. "He's still worried about your reaction which means you're at least nearly as clueless as I'm."

Joey looked at Mokuba and remembered that he was asked not to kill him today. He had gotten completely sidetracked with the news about his engagement. "He's going to find out though." Mokuba mumbled and Seto stared while no other than Serenity walked up to Mokuba to hug him before hugging her brother.

"You're freaking kidding me." Joey nearly screamed. "You're so not going to marry my kid sister."

"That's not fair Joey." Serenity replied clearly upset and did a weak attempt to glare at her older brother. "You don't even tell your own sister that you're moving from New York back to Domino but expect me to ask you who I'm allowed to marry?"

"Marry?" Seto quietly asked Mokuba slightly amused about Joey's reaction.

"Yes." Mokuba mumbled, "We're engaged."

"Congratulations." Seto replied.

"You're not upset then?" Mokuba wanted to know.

"Why should I be?" Seto asked. "I'm happy that I don't need to worry that your fiance only wants your money. Considering that she's related to Joey and that they're close, there's absolutely no way that this is the case."

Joey and his sister were still glaring at each other but Serenity's glare was already faltering. "Please, big brother, I really love him." She started to beg, the glare already gone. "I'll marry him no matter what but please don't be mad at me about it. I love you too big brother but I don't want anyone else but him."

Joey glared at Mokuba for a moment but then gave a sigh before looking slightly defeated towards his sister mumbling, "Well, you could do worse."

"Thank you so much, big brother." Serenity cheered and gave her brother a big hug. "But how comes that you're living with Seto Kaiba? Mokuba only mentioned that you'd be here too since you recently moved in with him but he was strangely vague on the reasons behind that."

"Why? What did he tell you?" Joey asked.

"He only said that you wanted to move and that Seto wanted you here, so you moved in with him." Serenity replied confused.

"That isn't vague." Joey grinned with a slight blush, "That's pretty much it. I wanted to move back here for a while, ya know I missed my pals here. And Seto was all alone in that huge mansion since Mokuba was gone so he wanted me to move in with him." Serenity still looked a little confused but didn't ask anything else.

"How about you guys go back to the mansion?" Seto said trying to make sure that she wouldn't ask something Joey wasn't ready to answer. "It was a long flight for Serenity, so I'm sure she'd like to rest a little."

"Thanks for the offer." Serenity said with a smile. She had been worried about Seto's reaction and not expected him to be this nice to her since she knew from Joey that he could be rather unfriendly. Not that Joey had ever used such a nice term for him. She looked at Joey, again wondering why he suddenly stayed with a man he used to talk about so badly? She was certain that there was something all three of those man kept from her.

"Mokuba, I'm sure you can take care of her yourself, I've still got some work to do." Seto said looking towards Mokuba and then turned to look at Joey, "I assume you'll stay home for the rest of the day."

"Don't know." Joey replied. "Maybe the two lovebirds would rather want to be alone."

"Don't be silly Joey." Serenity chided, grinning sheepishly, "I've got Mokuba all to myself when we're home, I can share him with you now."

"I guess that means I have to share you." Mokuba grinned. "But since I'm happy to have survived telling your brother that I want to marry you, I guess I can live with it."

"Of course you survived." Serenity rolled her eyes. "Joey likes you and I could hardly hope for a better husband."

"But I have to ask one thing of you two." Joey suddenly was the one grinning. "I want to be present when you two tell Tristan and Duke."

"Why's that?" Mokuba asked slightly worried. He knew that both used to like Serenity but he hadn't expected either one to still feel that way about the pretty girl.

"You'll see." Joey replied. "They're coming to visit me tomorrow so you guys can tell them then. By the way, how long are you two staying in Domino?"

"Just a week." Serenity answered, "I have to be back at work after that."

"How is that boss of yours?" Joey asked her, "Since you got that new position as the big bosses secretary. I mean working in the mail department might be easier since those rich big asses can be...well asses."

Serenity chuckled, "My boss is handsome, sweet, smart, kind, friendly and simply perfect."

"Really?" Joey asked, "Hey Moki aren't ya getting jealous when ya hear that?"

"Not really." Mokuba replied grinning, "Since my new secretary that got promoted from the mail department is beautiful, sweet, smart, kind, friendly and simply perfect."

Joey looked at them for a moment before he pointed out to his sister, "I guess you could stay a little longer then. I bet your boss won't fire his fiance."

Serenity and Mokuba both laughed before Mokuba explained, "I might not fire her but I really do need her there, she's a great secretary and to be honest, I would miss her."

"I miss her too." Joey mumbled but added, "Well at least I get to see her for a week and as long as I'm staying with Kaiba this is making sure that I'll see her every Christmas since she won't need to choose between her brother and your brother."

"And what about mom?" She asked grinning. "But at least it's going to be every second rather then third."

"I´ve got a better solution, "We make it one year you're at mom's and one year you're to visit Mokuba's brother and one year you visit me. Since I'm living with Seto that means I see you two out of three years."

"Why aren't you simply staying at Mom's when I'm there every second year?" Serenity asked.

"Good question." Joey mused, "I might have to bring grumpy pants though since I don't think it's fair to leave him all alone for Christmas."

"I don't think Mom would mind that too much." Serenity grinned. "Or you could simply invite her to spend Christmas at the Kaiba mansion every year."

"Either way," Seto interrupted the cheerful conversation, "I'll be off and don't wait for me. I have a lot of work to get organized."

"He seems quite busy." Mokuba mused, looking a little worried after Seto left.

"No need to worry." Joey replied with a smile hoping to calm the boy with that. "He promised to take me on a short trip to the states to see my father's grave and I intend to make sure that he gets a break there but he wants to get a head start at work on somethings. He wasn't working as bad as I thought he would. I mean before he promised to take a bit of time off for my sake."

"Well, at least that's something." Mokuba mumbled, "But please make sure that he get's some rest."

"He gets plenty of rest and plenty of food since he's worried that I miss out on one of those." Joey calmed the younger Kaiba.

"Like anyone needs to make sure you'll get enough food." Serenity giggled.

"Yeah, I don't get what he's worried about either." Joey mused, "But I still like it since I get more than enough grub. He even ordered me burgers and stuff before even though he really hates fast food."

"Wow," Serenity pretended to be shocked, "My big brother is living in the same house as someone who hates fast food and neither died nor killed the other? So miracle do happen."

"Obviously." Mokuba replied. "I mean honestly you know how those two have been in high school. I thought if Joey ever found out about us he'd die of shock that his sister is going to be a Kaiba."

"And I thought your brother would kill me, simply to get rid of me." Serenity mused, "I mean how could the little sister of the so called mutt ever be good enough for his kid brother?"

"Yeah, and now I've seen them in bed together." Mokuba mumbled.

"YOU WHAT?" Serenity screeched.

"Oh great." Joey mumbled "Did you have to tell her?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Mokuba defended himself, "I want to marry her and I really wouldn't like to ruin it for myself by lying to her."

"You're dating Seto?" Serenity asked now completely confused about the whole situation. She had been so sure that Joey hated Seto Kaiba more than anything and now he's not only living with him, he's obviously in some kind of relationship with him. And the fact that so far she hadn't even known her brother to be gay didn't exactly make this any less shocking.

"I'm not dating him." Joey tried to explain slightly embarrassed, "But how about we're not going to discus this at the airport?"

"Fine, let's go to the mansion first," Serenity agreed, "But I really want to know what's going on big brother."

They drove towards the mansion while Joey tried to think of a way to explain everything to his kid sister. Once there she asked him to explain things to her and just looked questioningly at him. Joey looked into her eyes and gave a sigh. "I'm not sure myself. I just know that he's in love with me for some time and, well I like it here and I like being close to him and one thing lead to the next and things happened but we're not really dating and I don't know if I ever will, considering our past. As you've pointed out, I didn't exactly get along with him in high school and don't know what to make of all that's going on now, so I just wait and see where it's taking me."

She looked at him for a moment and then said, "You still just live from one day to the next, don't you?"

"Ya know me." Joey grinned.

Serenity gave a sigh but then said, "Just please, let me know if something changes again, okay? No matter if it's you moving out or actually getting together."

"I promise you're the first to know." Joey replied grinning.

Serenity laughed. "You mean, right after Yugi and Tristan and Mokuba? You know it's sort of good that you get along with him so well because otherwise I wouldn't know as much about your life as I do."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about me moving in here but I just wanted to see how it'll work out and I'm just back here for one week, that isn't all that long." Joey tried to defend himself.

"Well the main thing is that you're happy and it looks like you are." She said with a smile before looking at Mokuba asking, "Now, where is our room because I'd really like to freshen up a little, please."

"Oh please don't talk about sharing a room," Joey whined. "I'm so going to get nightmares from that."

"Welcome to my world." Mokuba replied, "We're just talking, I actually saw you in my brother's arms all naked."

"We had blankets." Joey mumbled with a dark blush but could actually understand his complaints.

"And for now, I'll go to my room and play a little on of the games I'm testing for Seto and once you two have some time you'll join me without saying what exactly you did, apart from Serenity freshening up a little."

Serenity couldn't help but chuckle a little while her brother fled towards his room but then looked towards Mokuba a little more worried, "I'm sure you already talked to them some more about this and that you're really sure that both will be fine, didn't you?"

"Of course I did." Mokuba replied. "I'm really sure that Joey will be great. I'm not so sure about Seto but I do know that it'll be worse if I try to stop this. He needs to at least use this one chance he got now."

"You're sure he really loves Joey then?" Serenity wondered. "I mean he was always so mean to my big brother."

"He just never knew what to do about his feelings and was a jealous mess because of Joey's bond with his friends. But yes, he loves him fiercely." Mokuba tried to explain his brother's actions from the past.

"Then let's see where this ends, I'm sure my big brother knows what he's doing." Serenity sounded cheerfully, "And wouldn't it be nice if our brothers got married too one day and we'd all be one big happy family?"

"Yes it would be nice." Mokuba replied smiling towards his fiance and enjoying to see her gentle smile.

After Serenity went to have a shower after the long flight and changed her clothing, the three went out to walk around the city that by now was getting much more familiar to Joey again.

After they all went to bed that night Joey had a hard time falling asleep and woke up many times. Every time he woke up he wondered if Seto was home already and had to look into his room, wondering if being a peeping stalker might be infectious since he was clearly starting it too. Only after seeing Seto in his bed sometime past one in the morning could Joey finally sleep peacefully until the next day. But by the time he woke up, Seto was already at work.

Mokuba and Serenity noticed during the late morning, after Joey had finally gotten up, that he was more quiet than usual and both started to wonder if he might have started to return Seto's feelings to some degree or if it was still due to his recent loss? During the afternoon Joey's mood got much better though once the first of his friends appeared.

Serenity enjoyed seeing her brother like he once was and was welcomed by all of them. Especially Tristan and Duke who wanted to sit to either side of her but Mokuba managed to get between Duke and Serenity, eying Tristan slightly angered but he waited for all of Joey's friends to be there before he said, "By the way Tristan and Duke, would you two be nice enough to quit flirting with my fiance?"

"We never flirted with her." Tristan said, "Since we never met her."

"I wish." Joey mumbled but had to grin, remembering the talk of Mokuba and Serenity from the day before. "My kid sister is going to be a Kaiba, how disgusting is that?"

"Very." Tristan answered, "but at least she's getting closer to the nice one. I'm still not sure if I get why you're staying. I mean the room and the cars and all that is great but honestly, even that can't be worth living with Kaiba?"

"He didn't get mad when Joey and Duke broke that vase last week." Yugi tried to calm Tristan.

"But you do remember how he pushed Joey down in duelist Kingdom?" Tristan reminded his shorter friend.

"But he did help when Marik had Joey brainwashed and Téa tied up." Yugi pointed out.

"That was one." Tristan rolled his eyes, "How often has he called Joey a mutt or worse?"

"He still offered to help him coming back here." Yugi defended.

"I wonder what he's getting out of that because he sure as hell isn't doing it out of the kindness of his heart." Tristan grumbled. "And don't forget how he didn't want Joey to participate his Duel City Tournament because he didn't believe him good enough."

"You do remember how Isizu mentioned to us that she told him that it'd be dangerous and that only he and the pharaoh had to participate, maybe he wanted to protect Joey?" Yugi mused, causing Joey to wonder if that might have been the case.

"Yeah right." Tristan laughed, "Like he'd ever care about Joey's safety. And why do you of all people even protect him Yug? Did you forget what he did to your grandfather? I mean he started that whole fight with us by ripping your grandpa's card."

Even Yugi didn't know what to say to Kaiba's defence while Joey noticed a worried look on Mokuba's face and looked towards the door where Mokuba was looking at and noticed just now that Kaiba was standing in the door with a really angry look on his face. "If it's this unbearable here, then you can all go to hell, no one is forcing anyone to stay."

Joey watched him go while Tristan just grinned and said, "Great, who's going to help me pack Joey's stuff?"

Joey stared after Kaiba for a moment remembering everything his friends had said just now. Both had been right, Kaiba had done some mean but also some nice things. Joey wondered how all that fighting had truly started especially considering that Kaiba claimed to be in love with him. He was sure that Tristan was right, it had to do with him ripping that card, but that wasn't really all that happened. Joey had an argument with him before that. He had never really noticed him there in school. Sure everyone knew he was there and who he was, but no one talked to him since his nose was glued to a book or his laptop. But that day it had been different. Kaiba had shown his interest in duel monsters which Joey had just started to learn from Yugi. But when Joey suggested they'd be dueling with each other, he had looked down on him already. But maybe it wasn't looking down but rather bragging. And what else should he have done? Joey chuckled after trying to picture Kaiba saying 'oh what a marvelous idea, we can go to my office, I have a great dueling stadium there that makes holographs of our monsters, you're welcome to play there whenever you like.'

"What's so funny?" Tristan asked while Mokuba was trying to stop him from packing Joey's stuff.

"I was just thinking about something with moneybags. Ya know, his constant bragging." Joey mused and grinned to Mokuba.

"He really is a pain in the ass, isn't he?" Tristan smiled, obviously believing that Joey had come to his senses and would move out of that jerk's grip.

"I guess he really can be just that." Joey agreed, causing Mokuba to look disappointed, "Keep packing my stuff okay, oh and Tèa, maybe you can help sort through the stuff Kaiba bought for me so I have the really good looking stuff and leave the rest there. I need to talk to Kaiba."

"You're really moving out then?" Mokuba asked worried.

"Off this room sure," Joey grinned at the younger Kaiba, "Oh and maybe you can move that dresser climbing it really is annoying." After that Joey opened the door to Kaiba's room, climbed over the dresser and complained to Seto, "There's absolutely no reason to get all grumpy on my pals ya know, they only did point out the truth and Yugi even defended you."

Mokuba smiled a little and moved the dresser, hoping that he had understood his friend correctly.

"Like I said," Kaiba said after Joey had closed the door, "No one is forced to stay."

"That's where you're wrong." Joey replied, causing a confused look on Seto's face, "I'm forced to live in this place, since I need to keep my boyfriend's temper in check."

"Boyfriend?" Seto asked confused. "Since when do you have a boyfriend?"

"Since I got him." Joey replied, "I mean, do you remember how pissed I was back in the day when ya came to the shop to get that blue eyes card?"

"You mean our first little fight?" Seto asked, "If that's what you can call it since Yugi went in between right away, and like always you listened like a loyal dog."

"I'm not a dog." Joey grumbled trying to keep his temper in check. "But more importantly, do ya have any idea why I was so pissed?"

"Because I told you that dueling you wouldn't be a challenge and that way stepped on your pride." Seto assumed.

"Yeah, that too." Joey admitted, "But it wasn't all, I was always thinking how cool ya are, running a company and all that at such a young age but I never could talk to ya since I thought we had nothing in common. When ya showed an interest in dueling I was so happy that I finally found a way to talk to ya and was hurt that even that wouldn't help me getting any closer to ya, since ya didn't think me worthy."

"Didn't I ask you not to hint that I might have had a chance back then?" Seto grumbled.

"And here I thought I'm the one that's supposed to be stupid," Joey gave a sigh. "But I got something else, ya just wanted to brag, didn't ya? Trying to impress me with your status as first rank duelist and all that."

Joey noticed a slight blush on Kaiba's face, "What does it matter why I said what I said? It's done anyway, you started to hate me, we fought, what else is there to mention?"

"How about the fact that being hurt doesn't mean I started to hate ya?" Joey rolled his eyes. I just called ya my boyfriend, didn't I? I told ya I got it, all the times we fought was because I tried to help Yugi or some other friends of mine. Ya were jealous, right?"

Seto just glared at him for a while before asking, "Is there anything else? If I overheard Tristan and Mokuba's argument a moment ago correctly he's already packing your stuff so it doesn't matter since you're leaving anyway."

"Oh right, my stuff," Joey grinned, "I hope ya got some space in here because it really was annoying to have to climb that dresser to get dressed the mornings I woke up here and that way I won't need to walk over to that damned door when ya home late just to see if ya back, so I can finally sleep a little better."

Seto stared for a moment. "You mean, you want to move into my room?"

"Sure." Joey shrugged, "And since I'm your boyfriend, I doubt ya got any complaints about it. And in case ya do, stick them up ya ass because I'm moving in anyway."

Seto stared again before he asked, "I think I asked this before, but since when are we actually dating?"

"I told ya, since I got it." Joey replied, "The fact that I wanted to have something in common with you back then, the reason why I wanted ya to think I'm worth more than a mutt on the street, as well as the fact that I still can't sleep well unless I know you're alright are the same. You're right, I'm stupid. So stupid, that I totally fell in love with a first class jerk." Joey walked closer to Seto and moved his arms around his neck before kissing him.

"You really are slow." Seto mumbled after the kiss, "To only notice that now."

"Yeah, yeah." Joey sighed, "I'm slow and stupid, and now quit making fun of me and start making room for my stuff while I tell Tristan where I'm moving to."

"Just one second." Seto ordered and left for a moment while Joey waited, wondering what Seto was doing. After his return two maids followed him. "They'll make room for your stuff, I'm going to watch Tristan's face when he finds out that you're mine."

Authors Note: Thanks to Angel Dove1, LovelyRose5001, dancing elf and Violet-Eclipse for the nice reviews. I'd like to thank again everyone else who reviewed the previous chapters and everyone who is still going to, as well as for everyone who put this story or me as an author on their fave list, for your support.

I also would like to use this chance to ask you guys about something that's been going on in my mind recently. I'm thinking about doing a story. And it would be a huge project. I won't be able to update that one on a daily basis because I want to call that story 2013 and will update about once a week and want to make it look like the year from Joey's perspective, after 2012 kind of sucked (including his dad's death but then differently). I would like to know if you'd like such a story. Seto and Joey will end up together but not until the very last chapter at the end of the year. There will be a lot of surprises along the way though.