How Do You Like Me Now?

When Mokuba returned home, he found Joey sprawled out on the couch, one
arm draped over his eyes and the other hanging lazily off of the
cushion. He was mumbling incoherently about something, and as he moved,
his knuckles rasped lightly on the wood of the floorboards. Mokuba
walked toward him quietly, not really wanting to wake him, but all the
same curious as to whether the be hae had been laying there all day. He
was, after all, in the same spot Mokuba had left him in that morning,
and he could distinctly remember instructing Joey to talk with his
elder brother sometime during the day.

“Joey?” he whispered, poking at the blonde’s shoulder with one finger.
“Joey, you awake?”

The other made no sign of acknowledgement, in fact even began snoring
some, and Mokuba placed a hand on his shoulder, pushing his body
slightly. “Joey, wake up!” The blonde stirred, snorted, and finally
opened his eyes.

“Wha…? Mokuba?” he mumbled, his vision still coming into focus. “You
home already?”

“It’s 5:30,” Mokuba replied. “I get off at five.” He stood up straight,
looking down at the other with a stern look. “You didn’t talk with
Seto, did you?”

Joey gulped. Those two cobalt eyes staring down at him with a glint of
frustration seemed eerily familiar. “You… You look just like your
brother when you do that.”

Mokuba’s frown deepened. “You didn’t answer the question.”

Joey sat up, staring at the young man before him. Should his hair have
been chestnut brown and his eyes a cerulean blue, he would have sworn
that he was confronting the Seto Kaiba from his past. “I uh… Uh…” he
stammered. “No.”

“Didn’t think so,” Mokuba frowned. “Joey, it’s not going to get better
by avoiding it. You need to talk to Seto and work something out.”

A slight smile spread on Joey’s face. “You sound like a damn mother.”

“I have to,” the other responded, lowering his voice some. “Who do you
think had to take care of Seto after we lost the corporation?”

Joey fell silent. He really had not given any thought to that. But now
it dawned on him. How horrible was it for this young man, then only in
his teens, to have had the responsibility of another human being’s life
thrown on his shoulders? Of course Mokuba would have d to take care of
Kaiba after his downfall. They had none else to turn to but each other.
A giant wave of guilt suddenly overtook the blonde and his throat
suddenly felt uncomfortably dry. There was an awkward silence, then
Mokuba said,

“Will you talk to him? If anyone can pull him out of this depression,
it’s you.”

“You think?” Joey asked, standing. “You got a lotta faith in me, Kid.”
The smile crept back onto his face. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Mokuba’s eyes lit up and he returned the smile. “Thank you, Joey.”

The blonde nodded, took a deep breath, and walked down the short hall,
stopping outside of the closed door to Kaiba’s bedroom. Great, now
what? he thought. He had no clue as to what he wanted to say to the
brunette, nor had any idea how he was going to react upon seeing the
blonde again, in his own apartment no less. But then, it was more than
likely Mokuba’s apartment… Joey took another deep breath and held it,
grasped the door knob, and slowly pushed the door open.

The room was dark and dusty, thin, off-white curtains blocking out the
fading rays of the sun on the horizon. The wallpaper was dirty and
peeling at the corners and odd places such as just above the single cot
pushed up against the far wall. The only other décor in the room
was an old rugged bureau in the corner,  a short metal stand
beside the cot, and an old rickety chair in front if that. The courage
Joey had built up to enter the room vanished in the instant he realized
that Seto Kaiba was awake and upon his entrance, had dawned a horrific
glare that would freeze water. The blonde found he had to restrain
himself from turning and running out the door then and there. Instead,
he locked his gaze with the brunette’s icy one, trying to match the
intensity, but failing completely and having to turn away. Kaiba’s eyes
had always been too much for him to handle, even now though they had
faded from their original sharpness and held but a fraction of the
power Joey had once known. The blonde’s throad god gone dry and his
legs felt like rubber, but he knew that if he backed out now, neither
he nor Mokuba would ever forgive him for it. And so he let out the
breath he had been holding and began walking slowly, steadily over to
the chair beside the cot.

“Get the hell away from me, Wheeler,” Kaiba snarled, his voice raspy
and rough. Joey guessed he had just woken up as well.

“What would you do if I did?” he countered, placing himself on the seat
of the chair.

The question obviously caught the brunette off guard. “That’s not the
issue,” he said in response. “I don’t want you here, and you damn well
know it.”

“Don’tchu at least wanna… talk?” Joey ventured. He knew too well that
Kaiba would refuse to talk to him, no matter how much he begged him. He
would have to find some other way of getting across to him.

“Why would I want to talk with you?” Kaiba retorted. “There is nothing
the two of us have to talk about. Not anymore.” His voice dropped a
bit, and Joey looked up toward the brunette’s face. He looked pained,
and the blonde thought for a moment that there was a glint of tears in
his faded eyes. Joey gathered his courage again and slipped off of the
chair, onto his knees on the floor. He took a hold of one of Kaiba’s
hands and placed the fingers at his mouth, the familiar scent of his
former lover caressing his senses. The thin digits flinched, felt cold
to the warmth of his lips, and for a second Joey feared they would
retreat from his embrace. But they did not, and to his ultimate
surprise, they wrapped around his own hand.

“Why’re you doing this?” There was no doubt in Joey’s mind that he had
heard Kaiba’s voice shudder during the question. He was breaking down,
and the blonde was suddenly frightened that the brunette might begin
crying. What would he do then? Kaiba had always been the strong one,
the column, the support. The tables had never been turned where Joey
was charged with comforting.

“Because… I love you.” A simple statement as a reply, but it was far
more than just a statement. It was the truth, the utter truth deep down
in Joey’s heart and soul. He lowered his head, placing Kaiba’s fingers
against his brow as he felt his eyes burning.  The only guy who
can get me cryin’ like a fucking baby…

“You can’t,” Kaiba responded, his fingers releasing their hold on the
other’s hand. “You can’t possibly love me… Not after what I did to you…
To us…” He trailed off, his voice betraying his weakness, how close he
was to letting his strong exterior fall.

“Kaib, it wasn’t your fault.” Joey was not entirely sure of why he said
that. For all these years, he had always put the blame squarely on
Kaiba and nothing else. He was, after all, the one who had broken them
apart. Still, letting him know that and take all of the blame right now
did not seem to be the best idea. “We just… I dunno. Maybe it was meant
to happen. And it was also meant for us to meet up again, right here
and right now. Y’know?”

Kaiba turned his head away. “I don’t believe in fate, Wheeler.”

“Do you believe in love?”

Silence followed. A thick, grisly silence that settled over the two
males like a stuffy quilt. Joey swallowed, his lungs struggling for a
full breath of air in the condensed space of the room. Kaiba remained
still, his face turned away from the blonde. Even so Joey could see his
eyelids shut, quivering just the slightest bit. It pained him to see
him this way, lost and afraid, helpless even. This was definitely not
the Seto Kaiba he had once loved.

“Kaib, I’ve had about enough of this,” Joey declared, setting his hand
down. Kaiba turned toward him, watching as the blonde returned to his
chair beside the cot. “You gotta pull yourself together. It ain’t like
you to be like this.”

The gray, emotionless eyes lowered themselves. “What would you know?
Times have changed Wheeler, and so have I.”

“For the worse,” Joey added. “You’ve changed for the worst.”

“And what do you expect of me?” Kaiba responded. “How would you have
reacted if your entire life, your career, your future all ended in the
extent of thirty seconds? I lost everything Whe, in, in that one
moment. Now… Now I have nothing to live for. Nothing to hope for.
Everything is gone. I have nothing.” He lowered his voice to just above
a whisper. “I am nothing.”

“Only because you let yourself be,” Joey replied. “Kaib, tell me
something: Back in high school, did you have any clue that I’d one day
be a famous pop singer? Huh? That I would actually have a job that
supported me with plenty of cash left over to live it large?”

He shook his head. “No. What’re you getting at?”

“That anyone can make it big if they just try at it,” Joey said. “I
used to be nothing, now I’m world-famous. You used to be nothing,
right? Back in the orphanage…”

“That’s all in the past,” Kaiba snapped sharply so as to warn the other
to stay away from the subject. “It has nothing to do with now.”

“Yeah, sorry,” the blonde apologized. Kaiba had never been one to speak
up about his past, ever. “The point is, even now you can still pick
yourself up and be something, Kaib. You’re smart, you’re good-looking,
you’re capable… You could probably get any job you wanted. You just
gotta put out some real effort.” Kaiba had turned his head toward him,
but his eyes refused to look at the blonde. “I know you. The real you.
You can do anything you put your mind to.”

It was silent again for several moments. Joey watched Kaiba’s eyes
moving, searching the wooden floor with interest, as if all the answers
were hidden somewhere between the planks. Then, ever so quietly, the
brunette whispered, “I can’t.”

“What?” Joey had heard him. He just wanted him to explain himself.

“I can’t, you bastard!” Kaiba snarled at a much louder volume than the
blonde had expected. He jumped slightly. “You’re wrong; I can’t do
anything now! It’s just not possible!”

And that did it. Joey distinctly heard the moment where Kaiba lost his
self-control and broke through his hard exterior shell. The brunette
took a sharp breath, his body trembling and a pair of lonely tears
falling from his faded eyes. The blonde sat, dumbfounded at this new
development. He wanted to help him , to comfort him, but he had never
been very successful at either of those things. His mind raced with
possible things to do, then finally decided on taking the other’s hand
in his own again. He petted the long digits lovingly, hoping that
somehow his touch might bring the former CEO back to his senses. It was
many minutes later that it finally began to take effect and Kaiba began
to recollect himself. He stopped his weeping, then wiped the fallen
tears away with his free hand.

“Kaib,” Joey ventured. “It’s okay… Things are gonna be okay.”

“You’re just saying that,” the other responded. “Everything is gone and
nothing can change that.”

“You can change that,” Joey insisted. “You will change it. And I’m
gonna help you.21;<21;

Kaiba cocked his head slightly. “How?”

“Any way I can,” the blonde replied. “You and I, we’re gonna make this
happen. I’m gonna help you back up on your feet and get your ass in
gear, you got that?”

Kaiba closed his eyes and a slight smirk spread on his face. “You
persistent little bastard. You haven’t changed at all.”

Joey watched him for a moment, relishing in that little smirk. Things
were starting to look up. “I’m gonna help you in any way I can,” he
repeated. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Nothing’s gonna stop us now.”
His free hand went up to the other’s chestnut hair, brushing a few
strays from his forehead with gentle fingers. “Nothing’s gonna stop us.”

It was only a few moments before Kaiba fell into the best sleep he had
had in ten years.