![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Warnings: Shonen-ai, probably yaoi, AU
Pairings: Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler
Disclaimer: Not Muse, Jimmy Eat World, McDonald's, or even Yuugiou characters that might appear.
Chapter One
On the second floor in the house, Joey awoke to his father from the bottom of the stairs before his alarm went off at 5:00, "Get your ass out of that bed now, boy! You got school this morning, and hell like I'll let you get suspended or expelled for another tardy; I don't want you in this house no more than you have got to be here!" Taking his heavily slurred words to strong consideration seeing how he didn't go to school anymore, the twenty-year-old man swung his legs over the tattered mattress after a moment. Beside him on his bed stand, he had his SIRIUS Radio turned to his favorite station: Sirius Alt Nation - Alternative Rock, the small radio playing softly the last of the tune 'Starlight' by Muse, a popular song from their latest album "Black Holes and Revelations." Joey hummed to the rest of it while stretching his arms above his head; Muse was his favorite band.
"Godammit, boy! If you ain't up, I'd take the belt -" Joey reached over and turned the volume on the radio up enough to drown out where exactly his father would take the belt on him, while grabbing his glasses and setting them on his face. He stood, making sure the draw strings on his pajama bottoms hadn't come loose, padding to the doorway, and leaned into the hall to knock on the other occupant's room on the right. After, just for fun, he added 'Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits.' Almost immediately, save or give a moment or two without sarcasm, the door creaked open a slit enough to see light brown sleepy eyes gaze curiously at him. Joey gave a short grin and jerked his thumb further on down the hall to the stairs.
"He's in a storm again, Serenity," he said softly to the little girl, "We got to be quiet to get out, okay?" The auburn haired girl, Serenity, sighed and nodded while stifling a yawn behind a fist. They stood like that for a moment before Serenity opened the door further so she could leaned against the pane and cross her arms behind her back. She seemed to be studying the blonde for a moment before her eyes turned hopeful.
"We leaving today, Daddy?" She asked, showing her young age when she talked. Joey smiled at her reassuringly, loving how cute she was; she wasn't his real daughter, but had been one of his dad's regular's child. Candy Puss, the woman's street name, had come to Joey for advice on what she should do because she had become pregnant with one of her other clients when he was only fourteen.
Candy was a kind woman who just couldn't find an opening for a good life; she couldn't finish high school because she was always busy taking after her sick mother and sister, the quickest way to find money was work small jobs around the town - usually prostitution. Before Joey's father would wake up for a lay, she would talk to Joey, always about things he learned in school that week. Joey could tell she would have been a brilliant woman by the way she was fascinated by hard equations and chemistry elements; Candy was also a photogenic learner, so she learnt fast on whatever he taught her.
However, when Candy came to Joey with a growing stomach that happened to be kicking, he was asked to decide the baby's future. Joey hated the idea of abortion, but didn't think the baby would even make it after birth with the infant's mother moving all the time in sometimes dangerous areas. Candy told him she would try to give birth, the thought of having children frequently crossing her mind. The time for the birth came only two and a half months later, and since Candy couldn't afford a doctor and screamed bloody hell that if he even recommended going to the hospital, Joey wouldn't have any organs to piss out of anymore.
Hemophilia. Joey later found out it was rare for females to actually have problems with the bleeding disease (normally just carriers), so when Joey had enough time to pull out the baby and cut the umbilical cord, the mother bled out. Apparently Candy had known she was hemophilic, the doctors told Joey, because her records said that she had come in as a kid to get prescriptions to medicine to help it. Candy's files had also mentioned that when she gave her family history, she had only lived with her mother. Her mother's files, when looked up, said she only had one child - Candy had no sister.
Joey had got to name Candy's new perfectly healthy baby girl Serenity.
Five years later and after graduation of top marks in high school, nineteen-year-old Joey had taken Serenity into court to claim custody over her. The judge told Joey that if he could raise ten thousand dollars by the end of the year with no collage education, then the jury would see no reason to think Joey was incapable of raising a child on his own. Searching quickly for a job, Joey worked full time in commercial construction while a responsible high school friend, Mai, volunteered to watch over Serenity for free. At the end of the year Joseph Andrew Wheeler became the father of the newly adopted and signed Serenity Lee May Wheeler, having made two thousand dollars over the asked amount. For his job, however, he was fired about a week later for being wrongly accused.
"Yes, we are." Joey answered Serenity, "Good girl. Now go get dress in the clothes that I picked out for you last night." The girl nodded a big toothy smile and retreated back into her room, but her father called her back, "You wanted to say something, Serenity?" Light brown eyes opened wide in realization, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, whispering an 'oopsie.' Joey waited patiently with a small grin.
"Yessa!" she giggled, and ran back into her room. The man took that as his wanted 'yes sir' and went into his own room to change, closing the door behind him, breathing deeply out his nervousness. Today he had an interview, and if all went well, Joey would be independent of his friends and of living in his father's house. He was applying for full time at the world famous Kaiba Mansion, which was troubling enough to even start with understanding how many people a day got their applications ripped in half or fired. Joey wasn't even sure that it was such a good idea to begin with, having heard dark rumors about the mansion, but the same responsible friend had given him a newspaper clipping that held the day that the employers were taking in employees.
Joey had just zipped his pants when a hesitant knock came to his door, followed by an upset voice though almost shy voice, "Daddy? I need help again..."
"Come in," the blonde man replied, knowing what exactly Serenity needed help on.
The door slowly opened, and an auburn head went right pass him to burry itself under his pillow embarrassedly. Joey sighed and kneeled over the side of the bed, pulling his daughter over close to him. She still refused to look at him so instead she smothered her face on the quilt, mumbling incoherent words that probably had something to do with shoes. He sighed again, smiling at her impatient-ness and running his fingers through her hair to calm her some.
"It's alright that you don't know how to tie your shoes yet, Seren," Joey said slowly. "I wasn't even able to understand how until I was eight years old, and listen, sweetie, you told me at the store that you didn't want the slip-ons. That was a big girl's choice; are you still that big girl, Serenity?" The girl's head tilted a little away from him so that he was able to see a brown eye peek out at him from under her strawberry brunette hair. She shook her head in yes. He grinned back, patting her back.
"Good girl. Sit up so I can show you an easier way to tie your shoes, hon." Serenity did as told, and he backed up to give room for her feet to swing over the bed. He took a hold of the laces on her left shoes and asked, "Are you watching closely?" She answered back with a quiet noise, and understanding that it was still too early in the morning for her, he went on with it, first crossing the laces and tightly drawing them down to the tongue of the shoe. He made both laces into separate loops and crossed them as well. Joey patted the toe of the shoe, telling her that was all to it.
Immediately, the other foot went up on the bed for an easy reach and Serenity's hands grabbed the laces in each hand, coping every movement Joey had done but slower. It had taken her two tries, Joey encouraging her from the side, but she had done it! Serenity stood on his bed, jumping in excitement, giggling.
"I did it Daddy! I did it, I did it, I did it! Did you see, Daddy? Did you see!" Joey stood, laughing and wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her forehead and she hugged around his neck, still giggling and smiling.
"I did see, Seren," Joey answered in a sing song voice, "and you know what we're going to get on the way to Aunt Mai's house?" Hopeful eyes shone on him.
"Ice cream?"
"That's right, sweetie." That made her start jumping again with happiness, and Joey laughed.
"Thank you, Daddy! I love you!" Serenity gushed and hugged him, and immediately Joey was filled with warmth. Sometimes being a parent was a hassle, especially a single parent, but it seemed as though each 'I love you' made up for it ten fold.
He kissed her forehead again, "I love you, too. More than anything!" He tightened his hold on her around her back and moved away from the bed. Feeling the bed disappear beneath her feet, Serenity started squealing in delight, especially when her father was making loud munching noise, tipping her over a little in play. He spun around a bit, and soon dropped her back on her feet on the floor, rubbing his fingers through her long hair again.
"You all set and ready to go, honey?"
"Ready, steady, go, Daddy!" Serenity beamed up at him. He grinned back, crouching to her level again.
"Good girl, now remember what I said earlier about your grandpa?" Joey turned serious, and her smile faded a little.
"Yes sir. You told me to be quiet," she said, nodding.
"Right. I do not want you going down stairs without me yet, understand?"
"Yes sir," she repeated. He studied her for a moment before standing; honestly, even though she said she wouldn't, he didn't like to chance it just in case his father tempted her to go down.
"Actually, Serenity, I need help packing a couple more things. Could you help me?"
"Yes sir!" She repeated once more, enthusiastically. Her father stood full height and ruffled her hair to where she would need to brush it again, and pointed to the SIRIUS Radio that was still turned up to the low-medium volume.
"Go unplug that for me and the alarm clock and put them into that bag over there by the door, okay?" He asked, searching around for his leather sack and finding it hanging on the closet handle. He moved the sack to the bed to dump it and make sure he had everything he needed. Keys, wallet (checked the wallet for any stolen money or cards, but saw everything was in tack), glasses case, pens and notebook paper, check book... All good. He grabbed a few books off his shelf to add in the bag as well. He zipped the straps together to make one big strap, and slung it over his shoulder like a backpack.
"'Kay, done!" Serenity announced as Joey was finished as well. With a final sweep around the empty room he'd live in for his twenty years, Joey sighed, taking the plastic bag Serenity had in one hand, and guiding his daughter by the shoulders with the other. Together they went down the stairs quietly, and found that his father had already passed out from the booze on the couch snoring and bottle dangerously tipping in limp hand.
"Do you want any juice from the kitchen before we leave, Seren?" Joey whispered, thinking about her nutrition.
She shook her head while staring at her grandfather, also quiet, "No thank you, Daddy, could we get some when we get ice cream?" He nodded and continued guiding her out of the house to the truck, helping her in the passenger seat and buckling her securely in.
"How does Mickey D's sound? A hot fudge sundae, fruit punch, and sausage biscuit?" Joey offered, climbing into the driver seat and fishing the keys back out of the leather bag to place them in the ignition. He also reached into the plastic bag to unhook the plug from the SIRIUS Radio and placed it in its stand in the middle of the dashboard. He turned it on with the same channel as before, pleased that it was beginning the song 'The Middle' from Jimmy Eat World; Serenity knew this song, and noticing the starting cords she giggled, humming when the artist started singing.
"That sounds good, thank you, Daddy!" Serenity answered between hums.
Joseph Wheeler smiled at his daughter, and backed off into the street, having a feeling that he might have a great day even if he did forget the time of the interview was taking place at seven o'clock in the morning, but thanks to Mai for the reminder, while dropping Serenity off with her McDonald's (spoon full of chocolate in mouth, of course), he was able to make it inside the Kaiba Mansion lobby only five minutes late...
"Tardiness is not accepted, Mr. Wheeler, especially when working with the Kaibas."
TBC
<< Previous Chapter | Next Chapter >>
Comments