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I Don't Know Why The Caged Bird Sings	By : yllimilly Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 5322 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh nor its characters. This was written for fun, not for profit.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
I (don’t) know why the caged bird sings

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AN Thank you maggiemay, angel_dove, PprenticeDaman and everyone who rated and made it so far! This chapter is where the sexy stuff begins (at last!), with light depictions of oral and solo. Enjoy!

-Milly

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chapter five - day four.

the more you know

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Fifty minutes later, Joey got home to an unlocked door and a half-unconscious patriarch.

He’d never thought that he’d once in his life actually welcome the sight of his father, sprawled out on the couch in front of a muted television set. Anything to relieve his of the suffocating thoughts he’d had on the way home. Joey must have replayed, helpless, fragments of that nauseatingly touching scene at least a thousand times in his head. Kaiba’s thick eyelashes, his worn out features, his spindly hands and the relentless tremor in his fingers, every image shone bright in his mind’s eye; the man had exposed himself to the blond, yet his motives remained a mystery.

Why him? Why now? And what... could his intentions have been?

Joey looked at the images of the nondescript late night show shifting, casting shadows on his father’s features. The man had one was clutching the front of his shirt, raising and falling softly at every breath. Joey concluded he must have had a bad fit of acid reflux, then made a mental note of checking for antacids in the cabinet. He’d do that tomorrow before leaving for school. Not now - the lights in the bathroom were connected to the fan and the combination of light and sound would wake the man up.

A flashing red dot on the counter attracted Joey’s attention.

There was a message on the answering machine.

With practiced ease he swiftly grabbed the device and roped its wires under his bedroom door, shut said door behind him and pressed the ‘play’ button.

He lowered the volume as his mother’s high pitched voice came blasting off the tiny speakers. It was the usual reminder to attend the bi-monthly, Saturday brunch with her and her ‘friend from church’ - God, he hated the hypocrisy of the term - and to attend mass with them the next day.

Except this time there was no mass to be had, it was something-or-other for the cure. It was naturally implied that Elaine Wheeler expected her son to fully commit to the one thing that reminded him he’d lost a family member to cancer. He didn’t understand why his mother insisted on putting herself through that - hadn’t she lost a daughter in this fight, too? Perhaps, Joey thought, it was a way of making herself feel less guilty, some form of redemption or another. That wasn’t his life philosophy. As far as he was concerned, these charities everyone worked so hard for did nothing to prevent his sister’s death. He owed them nothing.

Besides, Joey was scheduled for two evening shifts that weekend. Friday right after school and Saturday until midnight. These fundraisers typically started out excruciatingly early and Joey knew he wouldn’t have had much sleep to run half a dozen miles for the sake of strangers.

Joey let himself fall flat on his bed, staring at the ceiling, immersing himself in the darkness of his bedroom. He missed his old life. Not that it was a particularly fun one. He wished he got to know his baby sister more before she went away. He wished he didn’t have to pay his dad’s bills for him. Well, most of them. He wished he could still loiter at the mall and the arcade with the gang. Even Anzu. Yugi, more or less the official King of Games, traveled more and more across the country for pro tournaments, so he’d opted for private tutoring to finish his degree. And whenever he wasn’t taken with gaming or public appearances, he devoted much of his time to some long distance relationship the gang had yet to meet in person. They knew it was a man; they knew it was another gamer. As for Tristan, well, he was getting more and more serious about the military and the reserves were eating much of his free time outside of high school. And while Anzu was fun to be around and all, hanging with her alone didn’t make much sense whenever Yugi or Tristan weren’t there, too. Same for Ryou.

Joey closed his eyes.

Then there was...

Kaiba.

He’d rejected Kaiba.

That much was clear to him, now.

His mind still was too hazy to figure out which, potentially many ways he’d rejected him, but at least he was on that page.

Joey left Kaiba hanging high and dry.

His chest felt tight. He closed his eyes, but the mental images couldn’t go away. He imagined Kaiba’s hands crawl up to his... to his...

Joey felt jittery.

He had to think of something else.

He thought of the magazines under his mattress for no more than a second. They were out of reach, considering the noise he’d have to make to recover them, and how he’d have to turn on the lights and potentially wake his father up. Joey only owned a few of these magazines and knew them inside and out anyway. They were like old pals to him, every image engraved in his brain. He unzipped his increasingly tight pants, giving himself two firm strokes. He was only half mast, probably due to the amount of running he’d done. Or out of nervousness. But he still wasn’t completely soft. Probably due to some of the thoughts that were wafting over him. He brushed his fingers against hsi balls and grabbed himself again.

Joey tried to summon an image he’d gotten fixated over lately. Two blondes, licking a thick, dark dick. That pic was nice because, well, it was pretty close up. Joey didn’t really care for the girls’ faces, or the fact that they were actual girls. Maybe their tongues - he could imagine them flickering around the base of the shaft and balls. Joey swallowed, getting slightly harder and enjoying it. Yes. There. He picked up a slow, solid pace, feeling his balls rock in the rhythm of his ministrations. In his mind he saw one of the girls making way for the other, who in turn engulfed the man’s length in one stroke, then pulling away. The two girls kissed each other around the cock’s girth. It might not make sense anatomically, but in his mind’s eye, it was hot as hell to see a thick, dark cock being lovingly nursed, wet and glistening with saliva.

Then it occurred to Joey, out of the blue, that Kaiba had wanted to blow him.

Joey winced. He restarted the scenario, summoning the picture he’d had in his mind in the beginning. But somehow the memory of the.. feeling of Kaiba’s hand on his knee came forth again. Now it was undoing Joey’s pants. Kaiba was now on his knees, resting his forehead against Joey’s naked knee, hip, kissing the soft skin there. Then-
Then...
He opened his eyes.

I’m fantasizing about the bastard.

Joey let go of his cock. And for the next few minutes Joey did nothing but breathe in and out, just to give his heart a chance to rest. His cock kept twitching on its own, no matter how hard Joey willed the mental images to go away.

Giving up on, or maybe refusing to give himself any release in these circumstances, Joey slipped out of his hoodie and pants, undid the buttons out of his dress shirt, secured his boxers back in place and slid under the covers.

He spent the next two hours fully awake, fending off all thoughts Kaiba-related until his consciousness ebbed away.

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Joey woke up with a massive morning wood and the slow, but dreadful realization that today was... a school day.

A little less preoccupied by his father, Joey made himself toast, casting an occasional glance at the sleeping man. He turned the TV off to save on electricity, confirmed that the antacid bottle was empty and mentally bid his father goodbye. Joey locked the door behind him before setting off for school, a half-munched toast hanging at his teeth.

He found himself looking for Kaiba as he entered English class five minutes late. To both his surprise and delight, the brunet was nowhere to be found. That delight soon churned into guilt, and Joey slumped rather than sat down in the first available seat. The very seat in which Kaiba had been last time he’d seen him in school.

Was it some kind of sign? Joey wasn’t into astrology like his mother was, but this coincidence was jarring enough to him. Given the hazy emotional state he was in, anyway. The teacher had to repeat his name twice during the attendance call, just to grab his attention. That earned him a few sympathetic giggles, including one from a cute girl he knew liked him. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, he though as he gave her a polite, casual smile. Tracey Simmonds didn’t know the man she was after very well, despite going way back - they’d been hanging around the same people since grade school.

Joey got slightly nervous when the teacher started going over how proud she was of everyone’s work. Was there some new homework he wasn’t aware of? Or was the due date for the team assignment today? That was bad. They’d gotten nothing done, and surely Kaiba not only didn’t give a care in the world for the requirements of the public education system, he also had every reason not to do something for a man who’d walked out on him after he made himself as vulnerable as possible in the intimacy of his very own bedroom.

The teacher discussed a few exemplary papers she’d read quickly, and singled out a few teams who’d picked similar books or similar themes in their own interpretations.

It took Joey a few minutes to realize that the rest of the classroom had handed in their copies just before he got to class. He froze when the teacher mentioned his name again.

“Youth is a popular theme, but there’s different stages of youth. For example, we have Joey and Seto who focused on teenagehood specifically.” She looked at Joey expectantly, hoping for him to elaborate maybe, like a few of the other students had a minute before. Joey looked left and right, swallowed, then nodded vigorously before agreeing.

“Y- Yeah.”

The teacher gave him a small smile before going on with her list, and how promising the papers looked, and how she might be able to get their copies graded for next Tuesday or Thursday. Joey couldn’t quite wrap his mind around what had happened - had Kaiba come in to school just to hand in the thing, then left? Or had he intended to stay, then left when he saw Joey wasn’t going to come, because he’d assumed Joey wouldn’t come because he was embarrassed because of...

Joey shook his head. He was overthinking this, no doubt.

When he slowly packed his things at the end of the class, the teacher approached him.

“Do you have a minute, Joey?”

“Uh, yes...”

He sat back down, intimidated maybe by the teacher’s strange tone of voice.

She asked the last student leaving to close the door behind her. When she was sure they were alone, and unbotheres, she started talking more openly.

“So! How did things go with Kaiba?” Her curious, enthusiastic eyes made Joey want to squirm. He felt bad.

“I went to his place, uh, twice.”

“Did you guys get along?”

Joey sighed and allowed himself to give a more straightforward answer, at least to him. “I don’t really know.”

The teacher paused to give him a pensive look.

“He’s not a bad guy, I guess,” he added to break the silence.

The teacher nodded, deep in thought. “What Kaiba sent me by email yesterday looks very good. It looks like you were able to come over your differences, after all.”

Joey was stumped. He simply did not know where to go from there.

Misunderstanding the situation, the teacher assumed she’d simply gone too far into personal territory, and didn’t expect a reply from Joey.

“Well, it sure looks like you did.” She paused again. “You know, I think it was a good idea to compare the book to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

“Y-yeah,” Joey grunted noncommittally. He wasn’t really sure what she was talking about.

“I didn’t know you had seen that movie. I can recommend books on that topic, if you want. Is is something that you’d like?”

Huh-oh. Over-zealous, Savior Syndrome alert. Joey froze. He didn’t really know what to say to that. Or rather, he really didn’t know what to say to that.

On one hand, it would have been easy to just go along with it and show enthusiasm for the idea. There was only good in it for him, and she’d probably go easier on him, when grading and such for example, if she knew he was being such a diligent student. If he went the extra mile for himself, and for her.

Whether Joey Wheeler was an ambitious extra-miler was up for debate. But he wasn’t one who took advantage of people or situations.

He wasn’t a liar, for one.

First of all, because he just wasn’t like that. It wasn’t right.

Secondly, one lie meant having to come up with more lies more to cover up the first one, and if there’s one valuable lesson Joey’d learned from his parents (or rather, from their mistakes), is that getting tangled in lies was little more than a plan to ruin your life and that of the people around you.

So he lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t... know a thing about the cuckoo’s nest.” He lifted up his eyes to meet her gaze. “Kaiba wrote all of that. I haven’t even read the book yet.”

By now his voice was barely audible in the backdrop of the students’ raucous in the hallway.

It was no easy - no fun thing to read his teacher’s disenchantment on her face, but he didn’t look away. He wasn’t gonna look away like a coward. But damn, did he feel like shit at this very moment.

“I’m sorry,” he added as if to ease her pain. “I know that you- ”

“It’s not about me, Joseph.” She sighed. “I believe you when you say you tried to work with Kaiba. That in itself...” She couldn’t help but to sigh again- “is nice. It’s nice,” she trailed off, looking away. “It’s an achievement in itself,” he continued thinking aloud more than anything else.

Joey wasn’t exactly happy about that comment, as if her standards for his performance had been low all along. But now wasn’t the time to argue about that. It stung to realize that his teacher was giving up on him so readily.

“I’ll see what we can do about this,” she said, standing up.

“Is it too late if I read it and give you something, uh... in a week?”

Judging by the look in her eyes, Joey knew he might not earn redemption, but at least make up for his mistake. Nice save, Wheeler.

“Can you write one page?”

“I can write two.”

“Okay, then. That works.” She turned away and walked to the door, showing Joey on his way out. “Have a nice weekend, Joseph,” she said half-heartedly.

That farewell weighted like a rock on Joey’s chest for the rest of the schoolday.

He’d let her down.

He’d let Kaiba down, too. Damn! Not that - not that it mattered.

Still, Joey Wheeler was not a let-downer. But he’d been one, of late. Crumbling under the many responsibilities he felt he’d had to take over.

But when you look at it closely, the whole walking out on Kaiba incident hadn’t taken place for the same reasons.

Heck, it wasn’t his fault if the man wasn’t able to communicate, if he was after things that Joey wasn’t ready to... share just yet...

For the rest of the say Joey wasn’t able to resist scanning each classroom twice before taking a seat, just in case he’d see Kaiba sitting somewhere.

Part of him would be relieved if Kaiba showed up; it would imply that he was already over this awkward episode of their non-relationship.

Part of him wouldn’t know what to do in Kaiba’s presence. The thought of having to meet up face to face with the man gnawed at his insides. Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to deal with the man personally ever again. Their sparring sessions hadn’t resumed after their separation over the summer; Joey didn’t and would never have to meet with Kaiba professionally and the chance that he’d be forced to work with Kaiba for the potential team assignments that could turn up in the few classes they had in common was beyond scarce.

Really, it’s just as if Kaiba was out of his life.

Good riddance.

Good riddance?

Kaiba or not, (ex-)nemesis or not, Joey couldn’t quite stomach the idea of parting with someone on such bad terms. Not that they weren’t on good terms. Actually Joey had missed out on a chance of being on very good terms with Kaiba. Right?

Anyway, Kaiba just hadn’t come to school at all today, apparently. It wasn’t clear why, and Joey wondered why he even cared. That wasn’t any of his business.

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At four PM Joey normally got pretty hungry, partly because he usually ate little for lunch and partly because his body somehow just seemed to know that he was about to go through an eight hour shift plus one hour overtime today. As a result, there was potentially no tangible food to be had until way after midnight. Just in time for a timely midnight fridge raid when his father wasn’t home, or looking, or awake.

No, interestingly enough, Joey wasn’t hungry today. Too much emotional shit going on.

He left the schoolgrounds in the company of a few acquaintances, doing some half-hearted small talk, catching up on everything that had been going in their lives as of late. These were the kids he’d been to grade school with, some of them mutual friends of Tristan’s, some of them just neighbourhood kids in general. Tracey was among them; she was making plans to go clubbing later tonight and the idea was well received. Joey declined; he was much nerdier than he let on, although dancing his ass off would do him some good given the circumstances. The group thinned out as each member parted their own ways. Joey trotted to the hospital on his own, hands in his pockets.

It’s only then that our blond happily discovered he had enough change to buy two or three things at the vending machines near the staff lounge tonight, during one of his breaks. He usually gulped something down during his first fifteen minute break, unable to hold until his ‘official’ half hour ‘lunch’ break at eight thirty at night. That schedule just didn’t make sense, but like Stefano, his supervisor, said: ‘a guy gotta what a guy’s gotta do’.

So Joey dealt with it, and with a bunch of other things.

Namely, that the first thing he was told when he arrived at work, was that he was offered to take an additional shift this weekend. Someone else’s shift. Gianni, the same guy who’d covered up for him when he fell asleep at Kaiba’s place on his first visit, needed Joey to take his night-early morning shift on Sunday. Joey wasn’t in a position to refuse anything to anyone, being both the youngest and the newest in the hierarchy of hospital janitors.

Yet actually, Joey was delighted at first upon hearing the request from Stefano - that was a legit reason for skipping on the fundraiser. Then again, the idea of a double-shift wasn’t so tempting.

“Is he taking my evening shift on Saturday?” He asked Stefano, who had been asked to relay the message to Joey in Gianni’s absence.

“No. Reason he’s asking is that he wants to stay with his kids while his wife’s out working. Bronchitis or something.”

“Okay.” Joey shrugged. “Yeah I guess I can take it.” He signed the shift takeover form, then thought of something a second too late. “Wait, can we even do that? I thought the union.. or something...”

“Nah, the union can do a lot of things but not that. Hey, look at the bright side; you’ll get paid more during that double shift, and ‘cause you’re young and don’t make too much money yet you don’t get none of it ripped off your taxes.”

Joey wasn’t quite versed well in money matters, but he believed Stefano. He had full faith in the guy, who was a childhood friend of Joey’s father. Even though they weren’t so close anymore due to lifestyle differences, mainly, Stefano had always taken over the role of godfather to Joey, giving him a hand from time to time. Hence getting him this reasonably well-paid job. Joey used to go sleep on Stefano’s couch whenever his father got hospitalized overnight, which had been somewhat frequent in the first years following the separation.

Yes, separation, not divorce; Elaine Wheeler was too religious to come against the vows she’d made to her God and actually break their wedding oath. It didn’t prevent her from seeing another man, though. Joey didn’t know if they were fooling around yet and he was perfectly okay with not knowing.

Joey’s first shift quart went rather quickly. The hunger teased him, came and went, partly thanks to the powerful, unappetizing stench of the powerful cleaning products he used in his line of work. But it was getting better every time; during the first months Joey couldn’t eat a bit at all during ‘lunch’ break, he had to actually exit the building and breathe in the outside, city air before he could have a bite.

By the time his first fifteen minute break came, Joey had become reasonably hungry. He settled for an egg sandwich (no crust) and a candy bar, which he chose to eat in the staff room.

Every eligible conversation partner was outside on cigarette break or glued to the payphone. Quite frankly, Joey could use the company at that moment. He’d used all sorts of silly tricks to keep his mind off the last twenty four hours’ events, talking to everyone and anyone he could. But he knew that wouldn’t work for long; visiting hours would be over in an hour, patients would be put to bed, hospital staff would be thinning to the bare essentials, which meant down to a few people so busy they couldn’t even afford giving Joey a nod or a hello.

He’d have to spend the rest of his shift alone with his thoughts on how he’d managed to let two people down in one single day.

Joy.

There was a stack of magazines Joey never touched; he didn’t care about celebrity gossip or about 476 Summer Fashion Tips or whatever else. But he rifled through the pile anyway with one hand, munching on his sandwich with the other. The company of semi-fictional people was better than the company of no people at all.

It wasn’t actually all women’s magazines. Well, not like the alternative was of any interest to him. Something about golf, something about travel, Food and Wine... and a few others on finance or business or whatever. Well, might as well check them all, just for fun. Keeps your mind wandering at least. And so, he made his mind up to go to the bottom of the pile, if only for the sake of going to the bottom of the pile. He nearly choked on some half chewed egg salad filling when he saw Kaiba’s face doting the cover of Young Entrepreneur.

DOMINO IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND

NINETEEN YEAR OLD SETO KAIBA AT THE HEAD OF THE

FASTEST GROWING PLAYER IN DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT

Joey looked for the print date, written out in tiny characters next to the magazine’s price tag. It was a back issue, but a recent one. Two months ago. And it wasn’t just a front page photo; there was a full section just on Kaiba and his so-called ‘gaming empire’. Joey’s eyes scanned the subtitles of the article over and over without really absorbing anything. He shut the magazine and put down his sandwich.

Then, not really knowing what to do of this, of having Kaiba show up in his life even in the unlikeliest moments, Joey pushed the magazine away.

He set out to finish his lunch in peace and put his feet on a chair, crossing his legs at the ankles. He put them down immediately when he remembered that’s how he’d sat yesterday in Kaiba’s living... bedroom... slash office, about exactly twenty hours ago.

The scene, the gloomy atmosphere of the Kaiba mansion felt so vivid still.

His sandwich was finished unceremoniously. Then the candy bar was consumed, bite by bite. Joey’s eyes lingered on the Workplace Safety posters on the walls around him, on the passive aggressive notes on the micro-wave door asking people not to bring fish to work. Somehow, Joey’s eyes always ended up darting in Kaiba’s direction.

Well, in the direction of his million dollar face.

Joey had six minutes left before his shift was to resume. He felt neither hungry nor quite full. Reluctantly, he stood up, walked around the table, grabbed the magazine again and walked back to his seat. He began flipping pages again as a co-worker walked by.

“I always said you were the smart one,” the middle aged lady said, fishing around in the fridge for her lunchbox.

“Well, you know what they say. Can’t judge the book by its cover.” He grinned, and the lady grinned back at him, then left.

She thought he’d been actually reading the thing. For its content. Funny concept. If Joey didn’t put himself through mandatory school readings, he certainly wasn’t gonna put himself reading about finance of all things, just for the sheer fun of it.

Joey grinned and nodded, then dove back into the... photo shoot that featured the new mystery in his life. One especially striking picture had Kaiba standing on some many story high balcony somewhere in Domino, arms crossed, proudly overseeing the financial center of the city. He looked like he owned the whole place, the whole city.

And most of all, he exuded confidence.

Which was not at all what Joey had witnessed from close upfront, this week, in the intimacy of the CEO’s own lair. When had this photoshoot been taken? When had Kaiba made time in his undoubtedly tight schedule to be extensively interviewed and photographed?

Strange to say, but from having had so many fights with Kaiba over the years, to be so physically acquainted with him, in a way, Joey had grown to feel like he knew the man. He’d gotten to know which insults he was more likely to latch out and when, he had developed a sixth sense of how to press the brunet’s buttons...

Silly now how little this actually meant. Joey knew nothing, nothing about the man and his many lives.

He’d been offered a glimpse into one of them, though.

And he’d made no good use of it, of that occasion. But what did that even mean? Surely that’s how Kaiba would think, ‘to make the most out of every occasion’, to maximize profit or whatever. He surely saw fun as something to be optimized. Well, assuming he was even familiar with the word.

Joey looked at the clock. One minute to go. He tossed the magazine back in the pile, wiped his hands on the pants of his uniform, gave the glossy cover a last glance and exited the room.

.

Maybe Kaiba was angry. He was fully entitled to be angry. Yes. That was why he hadn’t shown up to school today. That made sense.

That truth of life came to Joey as he was kneeling in the geriatrics ward, scrubbing crusty IV liquid the floor with a special sponge.

Kaiba probably hadn’t wanted anything with Joey proper. Heck, he could get anyone he wanted in this city if he wanted to. Joey had been one of these many potential... mates? Maybe Kaiba simply saw every human being a potential mate, coolly assessing their genetic baggage before agreeing to couple his DNA with theirs. But that didn’t make sense; Joey was a guy, and if anything his genetic baggage was bound to suck. Well, his mother and father were alive and kicking, but damn, they weren’t the healthiest people in the world - both mentally and physically.

Meh, Kaiba had much better than to care about Joey or even school. Why did he bother showing up anyway? And at nineteen?

Joey blanked out, set his mind on scrubbing off the stain in time for his half hour break. He didn’t like it when he had to leave unfinished things on the side. It would only stay on his mind and he couldn’t enjoy the much needed timeout from rainbow colored cleaning products and remnants of bodily fluids.

.

He felt idiotic when he found himself feeling a pang of anguish upon entering the staff room. The magazine wasn’t there. Joey frantically searched the remaining scattered magazines.

Turned out it was there still, stashed under a few others that some other employee had read and tossed negligently. Joey grabbed it and started reading the interview. It was eight pages long, minus two full page pictures and some graphs.

It was a remarkably un-informative read. Meaning it revealed nothing, zero, nada about Kaiba’s life as a human being. Oh, you still got a lot on his business ethics, his corporate values and all that jazz. But there was no mention of his personal life, not even the generic, non-revealing ‘favorite restaurant’, nothing about pets, anecdotal childhood memories or family.

Well, that Seto Kaiba didn’t want to address his troubled past, Joey could understand. He didn’t know exactly in what circumstances Kaiba had been adopted, but it must suck to lose one family to begin with only to have your second one die on you just a few years later.
Did Kaiba miss his adoptive father? How did he manage with work, school and his younger brother to look after? It was understandable Kaiba didn’t want to mention his current family - there were probably many kidnapping threats looming over little Mokuba.

Yet when you think about it, Kaiba could use, if he wanted to, all of that negative press to his advantage. Seto Kaiba, the orphaned millionaire! The gifted heir to an imposing empire! The brilliant star who was determine to shine against all odds in a sky of... Joey ran out of metaphors.

And meanwhile, he, improvised poet, part-time ‘sanitation agent’, supposedly full-time high school slacker, was reading a magazine in a hospital basement.
And he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.

The money was pretty good here and the people weren’t bad, but Joey frankly couldn’t see himself switching over to the full time schedule upon finishing high school, spending 40 hours a week indoors, his life regulated by his fifteen and half-hour breaks. He wanted something more out of life. He just wasn’t sure what exactly... And he didn’t know yet what he was capable of doing, what gift he had that he could give to society.

Joey sighed.

There was one thing slightly personal about Seto Kaiba in the article, though. That brief section on his education. Kaiba hadn’t been shy about that - yesterday night and with the press, as well. He’d agreed to have the interviewer ask him in detail about how many languages he was fluent in, what literature classics he’d read at what age (that wasn’t a secret for Joey anymore), how he’d learned geometry reading straight from Euclid’s original writings (and rhetoric straight from Cicero’s) and how he could take apart, then put back together small engines like lawnmowers and the like. He could quote Foucault, Keynes as well as any of the Founding Fathers. He learned to pilot a Cessna at age fourteen. That was the last thing on the list of things Kaiba The Illustrious had learned.

And it had taken place a few months before his adoptive father died.

But that wasn’t written, or even mentioned, in the article. Yet it was something Joey knew, for some reason. He couldn’t remember where or when he’d learned about it. Maybe word of mouth. Kaiba would never have told him. Not intentionally, anyway.

It sort of made sense that Kaiba be so open and flashy, to some extent, about his education. He had a stake in looking like a good potential role model for the people behind his target audience’s wallets. All kinds of people were after video games and how violent and how nocuous they were for today’s youth; Kaiba was probably trying to off balance the negative press his line of business was getting with the positive image of a remarkably well learned young man who had earned more erudition than what the national education system could ever give him.

The only thing was, the article never specified where or how Kaiba earned that rigorous education. There was always the possibility that he’d taught himself all of this, but that would be a bit too extreme. Every child just wants to play and there should be no exception to that, not even the genius adopted son of a weapon manufacturer.

There was no more to the story. Kaiba could pilot a cessna. And that was that. Now the prodigious youth was apparently too busy with manning his company and waisting his time at school to actually learn new (useful) stuff. Because really, now, the wasting part - that much was clear to Joey. There was absolutely no learning to be had for Kaiba at Domino High, the city’s largest public high school. It just didn’t make sense. If only Joey knew what the teacher meant when she’d told him Kaiba had much to learn still... Or something along those lines.

Exhausted from toying with so many riddles, and from having had to care about all these unanswered questions about the enigmatic young man, Joey shut the magazine and took a last, good look at Kaiba’s face. As if it held answers, as if one could read it, just like tea leaves.

Then something struck Joey. Something very simple, in fact.

That face wasn’t Kaiba’s. Or at least, it wasn’t really him. It was heavily airbrushed. Joey had seen the man from close enough to know. Under Seto’s eyes, there should have been lines. And a dark shadow. There were more little red veins scurrying over his eyeballs. The ridge of his nose wasn’t so straight. Joey smirked in pride over the artwork he’d played a central role in creating. Kaiba still exuded power and confidence, he still had the same elegant, high cheekbone and thin eyebrows, nicely defined lips and thick eyelashes... But he’d been glossed over. At only nineteen, he needed the assistance of restorative technology to appear younger.

So Joey did konw a lot more about Seto Kaiba than the world did.

That thought hadn’t occurred to him until now.

Joey granted his mind full permission to wander anywhere it pleased for the rest of the shift. And that included near Kaiba. Near what could have happened between the... two of them. Then it skipped to how Joey disliked his own parents. How he still couldn’t help but want them to play the actual part of ‘mother’ and ‘father’ at times. How he really wished the two girly blondes in ‘those’ magazines were guys. How maybe ‘that guy’ could be him at some point... And how badly he needed some release. Two days of abstinence was a long time for a seventeen year old male.

Only once freed from his mop and bucket did Joey realize that by embracing his obsession, he’d gone full circle and freed himself from it. He dashed out of the hospital’s automatic doors and relished in the cool night air. It wouldn’t be too late to join the gang at the club. But he was bound to pass out during his double shift if he did. Better act responsibly. Plus who the fuck was he going to dance with, girls? He was more likely to get so drunk and uninhibited he’d make out with random guys and be totally outed on like, Facebook or something. Not what he had in mind for himself.

So he headed home, hands in his pockets, ready to spend more quality time with his obsessions.

He’d actually spent little time thinking exclusively about Kaiba for the remainder of his shift. Well he was now, obviously, but it was more thinking about thinking about Kaiba. It wasn’t thinking about him per se.

Yeah, well, screw that. Now he wanted to think about him more. Why the heck not. Might as well get to the bottom of this.

Was Kaiba gay? Joey was a little more certain, everyday, where he himself stood on that spectrum, but it truly baffled him that... he should’ve seen it coming. Really. It wasn’t all that baffling at all that Kaiba might fancy other men.

What did that entail about all their little, medium, big fights?

The irony - two fruits engaging in repeated displays of testosterone. Together. Wasn’t that funny? Wasn’t that hilarious as fuck?

At any rate, Joey could never see himself attracted to those typically ‘flamboyant’ guys, complete with a pink dress shirt, interior design instincts, lisp and all. No now, not ever.

Tall, decently built guys were more his type. Guys with testosterone, but not too much.

.

It was a relief to come home to an empty apartment. ‘Alone’ meant ‘pulling one off in peace’.

Just what he needed to calm himself down.

Closing his bedroom door behind him, Joey lifted his mattress and plucked out what he regarded as ‘inspiration’ for the climax to come. He snuck his right hand under his armpit to warm it up. With the other, he hastily flipped through the worn out pages. That particular magazine was not so mainstream, it was straight stuff but there was equal focus on the guys and the girls, just so that it was male enough for Joey’s tastes. However - and that was key - it was ‘girl’ enough so that his dad wouldn’t suspect anything if he found his stash.

Joey quickly picked that one centerfold he indulged in whenever he didn’t feel to closeted - that image with the two straight couples mingling. Those two four models’ straightness was... questionable, to say the least, and that was the kind of ambiguity Joey relied on to get off.

Joey sat down on the edge of the bed, twisting his torso a bit so he could see the double pager, and got unceremoniously down to business. He undid his pants one-handedly. Freed his member one-handedly. He removed his right hand, now decently warm, from his armpit.

He closed his eyes and gave a first stroke. It felt - God! It felt amazing. His skin was deviously sensitive. When Kaiba brushed by his thoughts again, Joey opened his eyes and cast a glance at the magazine. He noticed a shine between his thumb and his index; Joey’s cock was glistening with precum already. He inhaled sharply. Focusing on the arousing image, Joey began working at more firm, serious strokes. Kaiba was threatening to invade his mind again; Joey’s eyes were focused on the naked, tangled limbs sprawled out before him, but not really seeing them. He should really take care of this quickly before Kaiba came back.

But part of him wanted to relish on the novelty of the experience; he had never felt the compulsion to touch himself while thinking of an actual person, someoen he knew. He wanted to play with it, experiment with it; he imagined Kaiba undoing his own pants, freeing his own cock as he crawled towards Joey. He was now engulfing Joey’s member in his own mouth, bobbing his head in time with the rhythm of his own strokes. Somehow, the idea of Kaiba pleasuring himself for him was an incredible turn on. Kaiba would moan. He would relish in the taste of Joey’s cock, in his smell. He would beg to be gagged, to feel the pressure of Joey’s hand on his nape, forcing his head up and down, eliciting low grunts of pleasure from him as his watering mouth serviced Joey’s throbbing cock.

Joey gave a long stroke, from the tip to the bottom and back again, feeling the soft skin sliding with ease over the hard shaft, his balls swaying up and down along the motion. Images of Kaiba’s lips flooded his mind again, slowing down his own ministrations, waiting for Joey to tell him to come, suckling and rolling his tongue around the rock hard, uncovered head already glistening in saliva and precum. He saw himself coming in his mind’s eye, Kaiba’s tongue lapping at the creamy streams leaking from the tip. Joey sucked in a breath, feeling a brief vacuum in his groin before his own actual climax took him by surprise, his member pulsating against the palm of his hand.

He opened his eyes to the dim light of his nightstand, the stillness of the room punctuated by the beating of the blood rushing in his eardrums. He’d thought his mind would clear. He’d thought his temporary obsession would make way for inner peace. The erotic thought did desert him, but Joey found himself wanting to hold onto it. He immediately sensed guilt creeping over him for having given himself pleasure thinking of Kaiba.

As he felt the warm come on his fingers, Joey reminisced the forlorn silhouette of the kneeling man, leaving him in a vague state of dull, diffuse sadness.
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