He shouldn't be here. He should never have come here, he knew he should never ever have come here. If anything he should be somewhere far far away from here. Nothing good ever came from coming back here.

Joey forced himself to open his eyes and loosen his vice grip around the door knob leading into the apartment. He hadn't even stepped inside yet and he could already smell the heavy stench of alcohol. His teeth chattered faintly and his whole body shuddered from the cold wind that swept past.

He drew in a shaking breath and pushed the door open. The moment he stepped through the threshold he was greeted with the sight of a beer bottle soaring toward him. He dodged it just barely causing one of the stray shards to scrape his arm. He hissed instinctually covering the wound with his hand.

He could already feel blood oozing in between his numb fingers; he was tired from staying out in the cold for so long, the weather made him slow. Like he was just falling asleep on his feet, every movement he made looked like a drunken attempt at one.

Drunk.

What an interesting word to use in his situation.

"Where da HELL have you been!" A furious voice roared. Joey was just too tired to respond; his mouth moved but nothing came out. That only seemed to make the man before him even more angry, the man he called father stumbled toward him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and hauling him up. Joey groaned weakly as he tried to keep his eyes open, he could smell the alcohol on the mans breath and it made him feel positively sick. Suddenly Joey felt a fist colliding with his jaw, sending him practically flying backwards.

He cringed and whimpered when his back slammed against the ground. God he wished he had never come here.

He soon felt a sharp kick connect with his ribs earning a strangled cry from his dry throat. He wanted to scream, he wanted to plead, he wanted to cry out, and beg for him to stop, but instead he just laid there and took it.

What the hell had ever made him think that coming here would be a good idea? He should have known that his father would be drunk out of his mind. He should have realized that he would be pissed off at him for being late and would beat the shit out of him for it. And still he chose to come here.

After nearly five more minutes of abuse, the onslaught finally ceased. His father appeared to stumble backwards probably from his intoxicated stupor. Joey opened his eyes and quickly forced himself scurry to his feet and then ran out of the apartment as fast as his legs would carry him.

He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, and right now he could barely even feel his feet touching the ground. All the sensation in his body had gone still; leaving him utterly numb from head to toe. If there was one thing he could register it was the feeling of the cold hair whipping at his face, stinging his cheeks.

The pain radiating from his jaw and his stomach. The horrible fatigue; draining his energy.

None of it mattered though, all Joey's head told him to do was run, run, keep running! Run-!

"UGH!"

Joey felt his back hit something wet and hard and he realized he was on the ground. He didn't know what he had run into and quite frankly he didn't care. He sat up weakly cracking one eye open, panting hoarsely. He scuttled back up to his feet; legs shaking as he stood. He tried to move forward again, but something grabbed him before he could get anywhere.

He clamped his eyes shut and cried out in pain. Whatever it was preventing him from moving was touching one of the fresh bruises on his abdomen, and god did it hurt! Joey struggled faintly and started to shake terribly due to the icy weather.

He began speaking in slow unintelligent incoherent sentences that he doubted were even in english. Abruptly through his pain and numbness, Joey suddenly felt warm. He moaned drowsily as the heat warmed his frozen limbs making him feel sleepy.

Faintly he could hear someone or..maybe it was something in the distance talking to him. He couldn't recognize the voice and he couldn't make out the words at all.

And that was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

...

Seto let out a bored sigh as he strode down the cold and desolate streets of Domino City. He had grown bored just sitting around in his office doing nothing so he had decided to take a walk. Seeing as he didn't really have to fear running into anyone, principally the press, since no one in their right minds would be out in this kind of weather.

And of course as irony would have it just as that thought passed his mind he felt something collide with his chest; causing him to falter for a moment. However, he guessed he had fared better then the other, who had been sent toppling backwards. He widened his eyes to see that the person who had run into him was non other then Joey Wheeler.

"What the hell are you doing out here Mutt?" he asked coldly. It was as if Joey hadn't heard him, it was then that he noticed how beat up the blonde was. Joey sat on the ground panting, looking like he was in some kind of strange trance.

He watched the crimson eyed child stumble to his feet and walk face first into him, nearly falling forward in the process. Kaiba's hand shot out, catching him before he could fall. However, he almost jumped when this caused a clearly pained and distressed cry to come from the duelist.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Wheeler?" he asked not allowing the concern to show. Joey began squirming and moaning out nonsense though causing Seto to frown in irritation. "Wheeler, you're not making any sense," he said.

Joey started to sag against his arm making it harder to hold him up with his arm alone. Seto sighed rolling his eyes and adjusted the blonde duelist so that he was resting against his shoulder instead. Seto could hear Joey whimpering in pain and shuddering against him and innerly it worried him. He opened his mouth again prepared to ask the dog why on earth he was out here, when he noticed that his fingers felt...wet?

Seto blinked looking down at the mop of shaggy golden hair resting against his shoulder. He experimentally rubbed his fingers together again to clarify that his fingers were indeed...very damp. He slowly looked past the dog's head to look down at his hand, the same one that he had caught Joey with, to find it painted red.

Seto's blue eyes widened upon the realization, it was blood.

Seto gazed back down at the blonde pup his brow creasing with worry. Why was his puppy bleeding?

/Wait what!/ Kaiba stopped himself mentally. His puppy? Seto innerly shook his head at the absurd thought.

He forced himself to abandon his previous train of thought and refocused his attention back on the boy currently leaning against him. "Hey Wheeler, Wheeler?" Seto asked waiting for the boy to answer him. His only reply though was a soft and distant sounding moan as Joey suddenly went limp. Seto quickly tightened his grip around the boys waist so that he wouldn't fall again and cursed softly under his breath.

"Great, just perfect," he grumbled. Seto briefly looked up at the darkened sky and sighed watching his breath fog in front of him. "I came out here to clear my head, and instead I got an arm full of mutt," he breathed out. He shook his head and looked back at the teenager currently wrapped in his arms.

/Even if I don't really like the mutt...I can't very well just leave him out here. Can I?/

Seto's face seemed to scrunch a little at the mental debate he was having with himself.

/I mean...he's bleeding. I know I don't like him, but that doesn't mean I want him to die. Just because I'm taking him in it doesn't mean anything, right?/

Seto frowned.

/Idiot. Of course it means something...It says something just because of the fact that I haven't left yet./

The tall brunette could hear the crimson eyed boy whimpering weakly in what seemed like a somewhat feverish and fitful sleep. His brow creased with worry and his eyes softened involuntarily causing him to frown in an almost pained way at the Wheeler.

/I can't help it though! This damn mutt makes it so hard not to...feel bad for him. He's just so...pathetic it almost hurts. He's so pitiful it's not even funny anymore. It's just...sort of sad. He's like Mokuba when we lived at the orphanage...He can't even take care of himself./

Seto shut his eyes briefly, letting out a silent huff before he reopened them. "Damn it. I guess I really can't leave you here can I.." Seto whispered to himself.

He gave a simple sigh of what sounded like defeat before he carefully readjusted the blonde in his arms, so that one arm was wrapped around Joey's shoulders while the other one slid underneath his knees to pick him up off the ground.

Kaiba blinked immediately after he picked the blonde boy up. He was surprised to see that the teen was so...light. He had expected him to be easy enough to lift, but he had never thought he'd be this easy to carry. He almost felt lighter then Mokuba did, and considering Mokuba was about twelve and Joey was around sixteen, Seto was a little horrified at how similar their weight was. After all...with that many years separating them...Joey should be a lot heavier then Mokuba was.

Seto mentally shook himself, innerly telling himself that this was no time to be randomly pondering over the scarlet eyed teens weight. Seto vaguely heard a soft squelching sound and realized that his fingers began to feel damp again. He made a face somewhat akin to a grimace.

Joey was still bleeding. And not to mention beat up, unconscious, and freezing cold.

Without wasting anymore time Kaiba turned around and started back down the still cold and desolate streets back toward his mansion.

And in his arms the blonde puppy lay asleep; completely unaware of his surroundings.

TBC

Thought for awhile if i should just make this one chapter or at least keep going, but then i thought whats the fun in that! Lol so any how hopefully this story will get a lot more hits because unlike the other two series im writing this is a pairing that people are very familiar with! So yeah I'm happy to be writing these...sigh- it's a living...well not really since I never get paid -_-. I felt the need to post this today for some reason, honestly my grandpa just went to the hospital, he's okay it turns out but...you know still. Wow sorry...just killed the mood..lol. But anyways I hope you like this story. And I do have a question for you all, since I'm a nerd and fanfic obsessed I go online and sometimes I find these fanfic trailers...and I don't have really good tech for that stuff...nor much talent... so I wanted to know if any of you guys were since I would really really love to have a fanfic trailer for one of my Yu-gi-oh fics. Anyways though have fun and please REVIEW!...please...im bored.