Rent to Own
Chapter 6: Downtime
Author's Note: And here's the start of those plot chapters I warned you all about, heh. I hope those of you kind enough to keep reading enjoy it... the pace will be picking up with updates pretty soon, I just have a LOT of editing to do.
On the way to the ground floor, Joey hurriedly pulled his ratty sneakers on. He yanked off that accursed collar as well, jamming it into his pocket again. As he did, he felt something else in there: the security lanyard Cynthia had given him. "At least ONE thing is going right," he muttered, carefully stepping out when the elevator hit the ground floor. He was half-expecting Kaiba to have some security goons there waiting for him, but to his surprise and relief the lobby appeared to be empty, as it was past business hours now. At that realization, Joey threw any attempts at acting natural out the window and made a dash for the exit, pausing only to fumble with the security pass at the locked gates.
As he ran as fast as he could from the KaibaCorp offices, Joey's still-hazy mind began to realize a few things.
1. He was covered in his and Kaiba's cum (oh god it's still dripping down my leg),
2. He was miles from his apartment on the other side of Domino,
3. He had left his jacket and his schoolbag, containing nearly all his personal belongings - including the key to his apartment and the tiny amount of money he had had on him - with Kaiba's assistant.
The third realization made his frantic sprint slow down to a dejected walk. He was screwed. Literally and figuratively, he thought darkly as he sat down on the guardrail, no longer seeing a point in running. Where was he supposed to run TO? He couldn't go home. There was no way in hell he could face any of his friends in this condition. He didn't even consider his mother or sister - he'd rather die than let Serenity see him like this...
Just then, he saw the faint glow of headlights approaching from the distance. (Fuck it,) Joey thought. (Getting run over sounds like the best option at this point.) With a quick prayer that his sister and friends would be better off without him, he stepped purposefully into the road, squeezing his eyes shut.
He was expecting to hear some honking, breaks screeching, maybe the crunch of his bones being shattered before he lost consciousness.
What he didn't expect to hear was a familiar female voice call out "Joey? Joey WHEELER?"
Tentatively, he opened his eyes to find himself face-to-face with a very shocked Mai Valentine. Before he could open his mouth, or run away, or do anything, the older woman spoke again. "Get in the car."
---
Cynthia was at her desk, alternating between working on some reports Kaiba had requested and filing her nails when her intercom buzzed. "CYNTHIA. GET DOWN HERE. NOW." Before she could even respond, her boss had hung up the call. "Oooh, shit. That can't be good," she winced, racing for the door.
---
"Put your seat belt on," Mai said, keeping her eyes on the road as she drove.
"Why bother?" Joey muttered.
"Because I want enough time to grab you if you try to jump out the second we hit a red light," she gently teased the younger boy, to no response. "So...Where do you want me to take you?" she asked, deciding that questions like 'What the hell were you doing out by KaibaCorp by yourself?' 'Why the hell did you try to kill yourself on the hood of my convertible?' and 'Why the HELL do you reek of semen?' were not going to get satisfactory answers at this time.
Joey shrugged. "Got nowhere to go."
Mai's meticulously-shaped brows furrowed worriedly. "Then we'll go to my place. I have a fold-out sofa, you can sleep there." Yet again, no response. "I'm going to take that as a yes," she sighed, turning her concentration back to her driving.
--
"He just left? Out of nowhere?" Cynthia asked in disbelief, trying her best to politely ignore the white stains on her employer's rumpled shirt.
"You heard me," Kaiba growled, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "It was SO out of nowhere that I couldn't even stop him."
"But... where is he going to go?"
"What do you mean, 'where is he going to go'? Back to that shithole apartment with that lowlife father of his, I imagine," the brunette sniffed.
"I mean.... I have all his stuff." She held up a tarnished silver key, a tiny, scuffed Red-Eyes Black Dragon keychain dangling from it. "This was in his coat pocket." She dropped the trinket into the young CEO's outstretched hand.
"That idiot," Seto sighed, propping his chin up with an elbow. "Get security to do a quick scan of the roads around here. He couldn't get far on foot. Don't let them know too much, though."
"Of course," the PA nodded, reaching for her phone.
"Oh, and if you could bring me down some spare clothes from my office..... I'd appreciate it," he muttered, staring at the Red-Eyes he was rolling around in his palm.
"Understood, sir." Cynthia replied, tactfully ignoring the slight blush on her boss's cheeks.
----
"Here we are, kid. Home sweet home," Mai announced as she unlocked the door to her apartment. She had been hoping the 'kid' comment would set off that nice, familiar Wheeler temper, but the blonde boy simply followed her inside obediently, slipping off his shoes in silence. "i'm guessing you wanna take a shower first, or....?" she trailed off. She really didn't want to add "or is that police evidence all over you?"
"That....that sounds really great right now," Joey whispered, the gratitude evident in his tone.
"No problem. The bath's right over here down the hall. I'll set something out for you to wear when you get out, so we can wash those clothes."
"You.... want me to wear.... YOUR clothes?" The teen's eyes widened in horror.
"Well, I WAS going to lend you some pajamas my ex left here, but if you really want to try on some of MY stuff, that can be arranged," the buxom duelist smirked, pulling a set of green sweats out of her closet and tossing them to the boy. "There's clean towels in the cabinet by the sink. Use whatever you need...except for the Chanel Hydramax moisturizer, that shit cost me 80 bucks."
"I don't even know what that is, but noted," Joey replied, seeming a little calmer. "Be right back."
"Take your time, hun, there's no rush," Mai replied, making a "scoot" motion with her arm.
A few minutes after her guest had headed into the shower, she headed over to the laundry hamper to get Joey's stuff ready to wash. On top was the t-shirt, which smelt like a certain men's bathroom on a casino riverboat Mai used to work on. She wrinkled her nose and quickly tossed it in the washing machine. Under that were the boy's pants. Having learned many times how bad most guys were at cleaning out their pockets, she gave the trousers a quick check. 2 items fell to the floor with heavy plop. She leaned over to pick them up, and nearly fell on her face when she got a good look at them.
The first was a lanyard, apparently a high-level KaibaCorp security card for guests. She wondered offhand if she could convince Joey to let her keep that one for a rainy day. The second.... "Joey, Joey, Joey," she sighed, rolling the collar around in her hands. "What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?" It was then that she finally noticed the back of the tag's engraving: PROPERTY OF SETO KAIBA. "Big trouble, looks like," she winced. She decided to pretend she never noticed, and tossed the collar and lanyard back into the hamper.
----
"Nothing so far, sir," Cynthia reported nervously, holding out a fresh suit and a pack of wet tissues to her boss.
"....You don't think something could've happened to him, do you?" Kaiba murmured quietly as he took the items from his assistant's hands.
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't quite catch that?"
"....Nothing." Just a week ago, it really WOULD have been nothing, too. "We should just get back to work. If security calls, they call. There's no reason to waste time. I'll be up after you as soon as I change."
"...Yes, sir," the blonde woman bowed slightly before making her exit, doing her best to hide the fact that she was now just as worried about her boss as she was the MIA blonde..
----
"Thanks for letting me use your shower," Joey said as he headed into Mai's living room, dressed in the spare sweats and rubbing a towel over his wet hair. His whole body smelled of coconut and vanilla from using her soaps. (Still don't feel clean though,) he thought sadly.
"No problem. hun. I might as well take one too," Mai said, standing up with a bundle of her own nightwear - the most demure set she could find, at least. "Oh hey, I haven't eaten dinner yet. You wanna order some takeout?"
Joey opened his mouth to reply, but the loud gurgle of his stomach beat him to it. "Yes please," he meekly added, blushing a bit. (The only thing I ate today was Kaiba's..... ohgodohgodohgod)
"Great. There's a bunch of menus on the table, get whatever you want. They all have my address on file, so just give them my name and you're good."
"Got it. ....hey Mai?" he called as the older woman turned towards the bathroom.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks." The expression on Joey's face was heartbreaking. So she just nodded and walked away.
--
Meanwhile, inside his office, Kaiba had given up all pretense of getting any work done. He was more interested in what was sitting on his desk: Joey Wheeler's bag.
He knew it was an invasion of privacy, and even he felt a bit uncomfortable opening it, but he just had to know. WHAT, exactly, it was that he had to know, the brunette wasn't entirely sure. Was he trying to find a clue about where Wheeler could've gone? Was he looking for future material to tease his rival over? Did he just want to know the boy better?
("this wasn't MY choice, ok?? You know NOTHING about me, NOTHING about ANYONE that isn't a perfectly spoiled little rich boy like yourself!")
...No...it definitely couldn't be that last one, he sternly reprimanded himself as he slowly pulled the worn zipper open. The thing was held together with safety pins and duct tape, and obviously had been used for a long time.
On top was a case holding Joey's DuelDisk and deck. "God, he's still using THIS model?" Kaiba sniffed dismissively, looking over his old handiwork with criticism. Most consumers didn't know, but since the first mass-production model had debuted in Battle City, KaibaCorp had already released several improved versions. Kaiba shook his head in disapproval at his original, flawed model. The balance had been all wrong, the projection power was way weaker...What had he been THINKING? Only someone as simple as Joey would be able to stand using that piece of crap, the inventor thought to himself derisively.
Underneath was an envelope with what looked like letters from Joey's sister, Serenity. Perhaps it was the older-brother in him that made Kaiba set those aside, unread. Next to that was a small, well-worn canvas wallet. Kaiba briefly checked it and found around 75 cents...mostly in pennies.
Under all that was a large, battered red spiral notebook that looked to be quite old - possibly older than the bag itself. The cover was riddled with tears, the sign for Joey's old gang furiously scribbled over with magic marker, a few band logos written in white by an eraser, and in the center was "JOEY'S NOTEBOOK. OPEN AND DIE." Kaiba snorted bemusedly as he ignored the warning. ----- 30 minutes later, 2 blondes in pajamas were sitting around a table full of enough pizza to feed at least twice that many people. "I didn't know what you'd like," Joey explained defensively as Mai glared at him.
"I'll accept that, but THREE pizzas for 2 people??" The curlers in Mai's still-wet hair bounced as she scolded the younger boy. Joey hadn't even recognized the Harpie Lady when she exited the bathroom, having never seen her without her makeup.... or, for that matter, wearing pants. The loose-fitting lavender satin pajamas were a big change from what the female duelist usually wore.
"I'm a teenage boy. If you were Tristan, I woulda had to order five," the weak smile on Joey's face was a welcome relief for Mai.
"Fine, fine. If there's leftovers we can just toss them in the fridge. Speaking of... what do you want to drink?" she asked, standing and heading for the small kitchenette.
"Whaddya got?"
"Umm...." Mai opened the refrigerator and did a quick check. "Red wine.... collagen/placenta drink...mineral water.... more red wine.... green tea.... and a can of soda from about 2 years ago."
"Soda please," Joey replied quickly, not really having much of a choice.
Mai returned with a can of Coke in one hand, and a small bottle of green tea for herself in the other. "Here you go, hun," she said as her guest took the can gratefully. A few moments after they had settled in and started working on the mountain of pizza Joey had ordered, the blonde woman decided to speak up. "Hey.... I know we aren't super-close or anything, but...." she bit her lip, trying to choose her words carefully - something she wasn't used to. "If you need to talk, I'm here."
Joey slowly lowered the slice of Meat Armageddon back onto his plate. "I...um... most of it I CAN'T talk about," he murmured, staring at the half-eaten pizza in front of him. Just before Mai was about to change the subject, he looked up. "But... maybe you could help me with some of this..." he scratched his head nervously. "I DEFINITELY can't talk to my friends about it, they..." he looked over at the older girl, whose expression had darkened a little there. "I mean my SCHOOL friends," he backtracked quickly. "They're just...really..."
"Naive?"
"That's.... yeah, that's basically the perfect word," Joey agreed with a slight wince, moving to take a sip of his soda.
"Do they know that you're gay?"
Joey immediately regretted that sip, taking a few minutes to cough the syrupy liquid out of his lungs before looking over at his hostess in shock.