Seto Kaiba sat in his office, keys tapping as he worked. Entirely zoned into his work, he hadn't noticed the knock on the door. His door opened, revealing Joey Wheeler. Kaiba looked up, disgusted. He gave him a scowl, "What do you want, Wheeler?" Kaiba hissed.

"Listen here, Moneybags, Mokuba just asked me to drop this off for you." The blonde shot back. Joey walked close to Kaiba's desk and dropped a blank creamy white envelope in front of him. "He said it was important."

Kaiba looked at Joey with his ever present glare. "If that's all, then get out of my office, mutt."

Joey started for the door, but not without giving the CEO a stone hard glare. Kaiba reached into his desk drawer, and pulled out a letter opener. He slit the letter open without hesitation, and stared at the contents.

"Wait Mutt," Kaiba ordered still looking at the paper in hand. The blonde stopped at the door, and looked over his shoulder.

"I'm not a dog! What is it!?" Joey scowled, turning around to face Kaiba. He walked over to the desk of the grumpy old troll, and-

Oh, wait, I meant he walked over to the desk of the very constipated looking- oh, wait, that's not right either...

He walked over to the desk of the young CEO, and tried getting a look at the small stack of papers in Kaiba's hand. The paper he was currently looking at was thick and was colored an off white, with gold trimmings, and it looked very formal and official. Kaiba shoved the stack in Joey's hands. The first paper seemed to be a hand written letter by none other than Mokuba. He read

"Dear Big brother,

When you were at the hospital for your broken wrist, I decided to take a roam around. I heard some of the nurses talking about a 'Mr. Wheeler' and I immediately assumed Joey, but then remembered he was at a tournament with Yugi, so must've been a relative. I hid at the corner and eavesdropped while they talked. I heard them talk about him having been treated with alcohol poisoning, and that it wasn't his first time, but it never got that bad. I began to worry, so I kept in. He was in a coma apparently. So after they left, I snuck a peek at this 'Mr. Wheeler' and the resemblance was undeniable, he was Joey's father. So I snuck in the office, used the ''ol puppy dog eyes' trick, and I got a hold of his papers, which also had his address. The place looked like it was hit with a twister... twice. But I got the feeling it was always like that. Since Joey lives alone for the time being, illegally at that, I was wondering if Joey could live with us! We have more than enough room, and I've always wanted a dog! I know you two don't get on good terms, but pleeeeeeeeeease Seto? Haha, for me?

-Moki"

Mt. Kaiba looked like it was steaming and ready to explode... and with real lava. He glared at Joey, imagining just sharing a house with the mutt. Oh, heheh, I mean mansion. Joey just stood there, not even regarding Mt. Kaiba ready to burst, but instead looked through the other papers Mokuba had put into the envelope. 'My 'ol man's in the hospital again? And the letter said it's worse than ever before...'

Kaiba looked at the blonde rummaging through various papers in his hands, wondering why he even handed the papers to him in the first place. As he thought it through once more, Mt. Kaiba really did explode.

"No." Kaiba declared, jumping out of his chair and bringing the other boy out of his stupor. "I won't allow it! I won't allow a mangy flea-ridden mutt into my house! Live on the streets for all I care, it's where your kind belongs! There is no way in hell I'd EVER live with you, Wheeler!"

Joey regained his usual threatening posture that came with a fight with Seto Kaiba. Before he was able to get in a snarky comment, Mokuba burst into the room. Mt. Kaiba wasn't yet done exploding.

Kaiba turned his gaze on his younger brother. "And you! What are you thinking, trying to invite that mutt to live with us?! I have a strict NO PETS rule in my house, and that thing might give us fleas!" Kaiba boomed at his younger brother.

Mokuba's eyes went wide and filled with tears. Kaiba looked down at him angrily, and Mokuba looked down, choking back sobs. Realizing what he had done, Kaiba knelt down in front of Mokuba.

"I'm sorry Mokuba, I didn't mean to yell at you, I'm just frustrated, is all." The older brother said. Mokuba looked up again, wiping some tears from his eyes.

"Big brother, I... I just want to help... W-w-we can't leave someone alone, to fend for themselves... We just can't..." Mokuba said with a small hiccup in his voice. His eyes seemed to grow as he looked into Kaiba's. The older boy sighed deeply, and grumbled before standing up.

Kaiba closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned.

"Ok, mutt. How would you like to-" Kaiba opened his eyes, and saw no Joey, and his office door swung wide open. Kaiba groaned, and rubbed his temples. This was going to be a long invitation.

Outside Kaiba Corp. Joey and Mokuba giggled with eachother.

"That was an impressive stunt there, squirt, heheh." Joey chuckled, ruffling Mokuba's hair. The younger boy looked up and grinned.

"Thanks... So... You're gonna be living with me now!"

"I don't know, I mean Kaiba looked 'bout ready to rip my head off there."

"Aww, pleeeease Joey? Please?"

"Hey, don't pull that stunt on me, squirt, I can't resist that face!"

"I never gave you a choice." Mokuba stuck his tongue out.

"Alright, alright, but I have to get my stuff-"

"Already done. I actually have your whole room set up. That's why I couldn't give him the letter myself. I was setting up the room, knowing he'd give in and say yes! So come on! Let's go home!" Mokuba dragged Joey to the limo he'd arrived in, grinning like the little devious monkey he is.

"Wait," the blonde said. "Let's stop off at the hospital first."

Mokuba stopped and looked up at Joey and nodded. They both got into the limo sitting in the back seat. Joey thought about his new living arrangements. He ran outside before Kaiba had been done blowing up at Mokuba, and immediately started thinking of his options. He had come home from the tournament early, and there was still a ways to go in it. He had caught the flu, and so his friends had sent him home before the tournament was even close to over. By the time he got back, he was feeling pretty good, if not coughing some.

The ride to the hospital took no time at all. Joey stepped casually out of the limo, and Mokuba followed behind him into the hospital. Being who he is, Joey joked around with Mokuba straight to the front desk, and then being led down the halls to the room his father lay in a coma. The nurse who was leading them stopped.

"Here it is," she said. "He's stable, so you can go right in. A doctor will be right in to talk to you."

Both Joey and Mokuba walked in, and took a seat in the room. Joey's father, though with an older, even faded with alcoholism look about him, the resemblance was apparent. He didn't have his usual heavy alcoholic scent that usually clung, which made it better to stand the man. He was hooked up to several machines through several tubes and wires, and had a respirator strapped to his face. The way his eyes were closed, without all the wires and tubes, he might look peaceful, but Joey knew better, this man was never peaceful.

Mokuba and Joey sat in silence until the doctor came in. He was a kind, older man, who's eyes crinkled when he smiled. He sat in a rolling stool and moved it in front of the two boys.

"From my understanding, this isn't the first time he's at the hospital due to drinking." The doctor said, flipping through papers on a clipboard. The doctor looked up at the blonde, waiting for an answer. Joey nodded.

"It also says that he's the only one who lives with you, I'm going to assume that's correct." The doctor continued flipping through the clipboard, Joey only nodded. "Well, I'm sure you can see he's in a coma. We... Really don't know how long he'll be out for, but ever since it happened and we got him stabilized, his condition hasn't changed, so we really can't tell. When he wakes up, and is in working condition again, we'd like to send him to rehab... And how long that takes depends on where we send him, and his willingness. We can't even give you an estimate on how long he'll be away from home. But we guess it'll be a long time."

Joey sat listening to the doctor speak, not giving away any emotions. He gave nods to make sure the doctor knew of his acknowledgement. Mokuba was also listening intently to the doctors analysis, though he already knew most, if not all of it.

"Do you have any living arrangements set up?" The doctor asked suddenly. Mokuba jumped up.

"He'll be living with me!" the young boy said excitedly. The doctor raised his eyebrows, but said nothing as he walked out. Mokuba turned to Joey, about to say something, but stopped as he realized Joey was still thinking about the situation. Noticing what Mokuba did, he looked at him and grinned. The younger boy just blinked.

"I'll be outside, come out when you want." Mokuba said, jumping out of the room. Joey stood up and walked to his father's bedside.

"I can't say I feel sorry for you," Joey said to his unaware father. "I can say I did see this coming. Maybe not this soon... I'm not happy about this happening to you, but I'm not sad either, it's your own damn fault and you deserve it. But I guess when you wake up, you'll be getting help."

Bad memories tried flooding the gates of Joey's mind, but he shut them out before they could overwhelm him. He took a deep breath, put on a grin, and walked out of the hospital.