Work Text:
For a man on his wedding day, Joey Wheeler was one unhappy camper. For one thing, his joke of a father was marrying him off to some rich girl he's never met before in exchange for money that was totally going towards the bettering of their town. Not ale and booze, not at all. (What the girl's family was getting out of the deal, Joey had no clue. Maybe she was really annoying and that's why they were so eager to ship her off to some town that'd been in disrepair for as long as Joey had been alive. That'd be just his luck). I mean honestly, just because he was off the market doesn't mean that he was willing to tie himself to the first lady that crossed his path! Then again if he was being completely honest with himself, there really was no other option. Not if it meant...
Joey ejected the thought from his brain. He couldn't afford to get lost in his head, not now. Not when he was still on the lookout for the signal. As the blond crossed his arms and leaned against the walls of the temple, his father swatted at him. "Don't do that, they'll be here any minute!" Joey bit back his retort that he'd never seen him be so concerned about "proper decorum" in public but caught himself. He wasn't in the mood to be covered in bruises on his wedding day, no matter how much of a hack it was. He released his foot from the wall, his shoe purposely letting out a squeak! as it smacked and dragged against the wooden floor. He rolled his eyes.
"Better?" His father glared at him, raising his fist- only for it to be immediately lowered as the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the temple. Joey turned his attention to the small crowd of people entering the room. Well, calling it a crowd was being generous: it was more like two or three people which was kind of odd for a wedding now that he thought about it. (He could practically hear Tristan's voice teasing him. 'You? Thinking? Who are you and what have you done with Joey Wheeler." He punched imaginary Tristan.) They were also all men. His father put on a big fake grin and raised his hand to shake the other's.
"Gozaburo, it so nice to see you! I'm so glad we could settle our differences and come to a mutual agreement."
"Of course." Gozaburo shook the ex-knight's hand and Joey resisted the urge to shiver. He had the smile of a wolf. The other man turned his attention to the blond, and the arms over his chest grasped each other to avoid punching the man while he studied him from head to toe. Joey knew that what he had on, while his best, wasn't exactly fancy. What little money they had before his mother ran away and never looked back had quickly been drained into the local bars, often leaving Joey and his sister to fight for scraps. While he was happy to spoil Serenity when he could, it wasn't often… and no where else was that more apparent than in their dress. Joey had always preferred the clothes of "regular" people in the village, and when money had first started to get tight he was more than willing to sell off some of his old threads so that Serenity could get the clothes she needed. A side affect of that happened to be that Joey now had no fancy clothes, but he didn't care, it wasn't like he planning on going to any fancy parties anytime soon. Well. Apparently now he was, and the offer for his daughter's hand in marriage in exchange for the ordeal being done as soon as possible left him with no time to scrounge up money for a proper outfit. Whatever, if Gozaburo didn't do his research into just who he was giving his daughter away to, that was his problem.
Whatever he was looking for in Joey he found it, his eyes flashing with triumph. He tried to distract himself from the urge to spit in the man's eyes, sniffing in false indifference "So uh, where's this daughter of yours I'm supposed to marry or whatever. I don't see no girls with you." Gozaburo smirked.
"Straight to business I see… Well don't worry, she's right here." With a wave of his arm, two of them stepped aside. Joey looked down between them and blanched. "Meet my daughter, Mokuba." The girl was dressed in a poofy yellow and pink dress that reached the floor with white frills around the collar and shoulders, and her head was topped with some kind of golden head-piece. Her entire outfit looked like it cost more than the entire temple. Most importantly, however-
"WOAH WOAH WOAH- Time out! I didn't agree to marry some kid!" Mokuba glared at him.
"I'm not a kid, I'm eleven-!" She cut herself off as Gozaburo gripped her upper arm. He watched her(With not the least bit of nausea) as she snapped her mouth shut at an alarming speed.
"I'm so sorry about Jonathan, Gozaburo, he can be quite-spirited and-!" Gozuburo laughed and released his daughter's arm to pat her on the head. She didn't move an inch. It didn't help the bile that tickled the back of his throat.
"Don't worry, she's quite mature for her age."
"That's not the problem-!" His father grabbed his shoulder.
"Johnathan. A word." He spouted off apologies and promises to return shortly as Joey was dragged into another room. The door slamming shut behind them, his father wheeled around and dropped any pretenses of politeness. "Pull yourself together, now." Joey clenched his fists at his sides.
"When you told me I was getting hitched to some girl, I didn't think you meant a- A girl."
"Well that girl has a very wealthy and very generous father who's giving us enough money to get us out of debt-"
"He can keep the money for all I care! I'm not marrying some kid younger than Serenity-"
"Who will happily take your place if you don't get it together." The blood in his veins turned into ice. "Gozaburo has a son too you know. He's your age and your sister won't have half as many hang ups as you about marrying someone for money." The worst part was that Joey was sure she'd agree. She'd do it with a smile if it meant getting their family out of debt(Debt that their father would no doubt soon accrue more of knowing him). He'd be forced to watch as she was shipped off to some distant kingdom where she'd play wife to the son of a wealthy merchant who was older than her and Joey'd have no chance in seeing her again. There was no other choice, not with her. Joey ground his teeth and slammed a fist against a wall instead of his joke of a father's face. He'd choose Serenity. Every time. "I'll take that as a yes? That you'll agree to play nice." The blond forced himself to take a deep breath. 'It won't be much longer, soon I can blow this hot dog stand. I just need to hold on.' He glared at his father.
"Whatever." His father glowered at him and wordlessly opened the door. With an 'After you' gesture Joey smacked his arm away from him and stomped out of the room. The entourage they had left behind had barely moved an inch. Gozaburo smirked at them. He dared a glance down at Mokuba. He was more than willing to bet that the flush on his "blushing bride's" face was that of anger. She stared at him with barely concealed disgust and deep behind that, fear. He couldn't blame her. As the two of them were positioned next to each other, he had a feeling that the only thing from her stomping on his foot with one of her fancy shoes was the oppressive gaze of the adults surrounding them. Side by side, he couldn't help but compare her height compared to Serenity. She was roughly a head shorter than her, and for some reason that just made him even more mad, only this time at her brother who he'd never met before and probably not ever at this rate. Where was he? What kind of older brother just leaves his younger sister to get married to some guy the same age as him? Why couldn't he argue against sending his sister off to some hack of a town when they undoubtedly could find someone and someplace better for her? Why'd it have to come down to Joey to look out for his younger sister for him? Joey was out here fighting tooth and nail to keep his sister safe, where was he?
With the others distracted hashing out the final details, he leaned down as casually as he could and whispered. "Look, I'm no more enthused about this than you, but just hold on, alright." Her eyes narrowed at him in suspicion, but other than that didn't move an inch. "My friends and I have a plan to get out of here, and truthfully I don't feel comfortable just leaving you here with these geezers while we get out of doge. Wanna come with us?" Mokuba's eyes widened as she turned to face him. Wordlessly she opened and closed her mouth, glaze flickering between him and her father. The fabric of her skirt was clenched in the tight grasp of her fists as distrust and fear flashed in her dark purple eyes. He opened his mouth to try and reassure her some more, when the entire temple shook and a BOOM! Echoed outside. The room descended into chaos. Joey smirked. "That'll be our cue, c'mon!" Joey went to grab her hand and faltered last minute. On one hand, like he mentioned earlier he really didn't want to just leave her here, but on the other she was already weary around him as is and he really didn't want to freak her out even more by just grabbing at her. For one very long heartbeat he wasn't sure if she would agree. She glanced behind her. Mokuba cautiously took his hand and he flashed his best reassuring smile at her. With a gentle squeeze, he swiftly led her towards the back door and into the entrance to the forest. "We agreed to meet up over there, follow me."
He led her through the forest as fast as he could(while mindful of the various branches and rocks on the ground) considering their vast difference in height and the fact that one of them was in a poofy dress. He had offered to carry her to help speed their trek up, but Mokuba had refused with a shake of her head, so they continued on. He was a bit worried about her silence, truth be told. She could very well just be a quiet person, but her earlier outburst at the temple before her father intervened told another story. He fought back a frown at the memory as he tried to alleviate some of the tension. "So Mokuba, you're eleven, right?"
"…"
"My sister Serenity's 'round your age. She's a nice girl, but… she got a nasty eye infection a few months back. She uh, almost lost her eye sight. We were in a bit of a pinch, didn't have the money to go to one of the city doctors and all that, but luckily my pal Yugi- he's one of the guys we're meeting up with- he was able to help out." The reminder of his friend and his sister left a smile on his face. "He can be real talented at healing magic- don't let his self-deprecating talk fool you otherwise- but what he's really passionate about is games. You play any?" She nodded. "Cool! What your favorite?" Mokuba mumbled something, but no matter how hard he strained his ears he couldn't make out what she said. "What was that?"
"I-" She glanced nervously behind her, but in the dense forest one glance was all it took for her to trip over one of the roots that blanketed the ground. She stumbled and started to careen onto the ground- when Joey grabbed her shoulder to steady her.
"You all right?"
"I-"
"MOKUBA!" As an unfamiliar voice shouted her voice, the girl in question whipped her head towards the sound, eyes wide. A tall, dark haired man stumbled across from them, his blue eyes widening as he saw the two of them. Joey instinctively jumped in front of Mokuba to hide her from the stranger, which he evidently didn't like by the way those same blue eyes narrowed.
"Step away from him, creep."
"Hey I ain't no-"
"Seto!" Joey whirled around to look at the kid behind him in confusion.
"Wait, you know this-?" His question was cut off by the weight of some rich freak body slamming him into the ground. Landing hard on his stomach, he moved to get up but was stopped by a foot planting itself firmly on his back.
"Stay on the ground like the dog you are mutt." Joey growled, looking up at the glowering brunet above him.
"I'm not some dog-" His comments were once against cut off by the boot that kicked his ribs, rolling him a few feet away. Coughing out the dirt that managed to lodge itself in his throat, she shook his head and jumped to his feet ignoring how the world spun seemed to spin a little. What he couldn't ignore, however, was how Seto was hugging Mokuba. There was both a familiarity and a desperation to the way he held her against him, looking especially small with the way his tall, lanky body seemingly folded against itself to cradle her.
"Are you okay, Mokuba? I got here as soon as could-"
"I'm fine big brother." Seto gently stroked his sister's hair, Mokuba looking up at him with a huge smile and Joey mentally paused. Seto must of felt his gaze on the two of them as any trace of softness in his eyes evaporating as he turned to face him, planting himself firmly in front of his sister. Joey held his hands up in front of him.
"Look man, I didn't know you were her brother I swear-" Seto glared at him.
"I don't know what you were up to in these woods or whatever my step-father promised you-"
"I didn't know she was eleven!"
"But if you think you can hurt my little brother-" Joey blinked in confusion.
"Wait, brother?" Mokuba peered out from behind Seto and gave him a small wave.
"Yeah, that's me." Joey shook his head and put one hand on top of the other.
"Okay, hold up, why'd your step-dad or whatever put all the trouble into dressing you up like this so we could get married, when you and my little sister could get married easy- peasy? I mean, you're both around the same age, and it's not like you could pretend to be a girl forever."
"Because he did this as a way to punish me." Seto said with a frown. "I've been slowly working on taking over his business, but he caught on and sent me away to complete a trade deal… and slow me down. He knew he couldn't delay me forever, however… so he made to send away the one thing I hold close to me." He looked down at Mokuba and placed a hand on her-his shoulder, softly tugging him closer. "We had a deal that he wouldn't hurt him, I didn't think he would…" The brunet sighed as his brows furrowed. "All bets were off after he learned that I 'betrayed' him. I was foolish to think he would keep his word." Mokuba gave his older brother a side hug.
"I never got hurt, don't worry."
"Yes, by him." Seto looked up at him with a frown, his eyes harsh. He started at him in calculating silence. Joey, for once, kept quiet as he took in what was just said. After what felt like hours, Seto broke the silence. "You never said what you two were doing here."
"We were meeting up with my pals to get out of here. I wasn't in the mood to get married, so we came up with a plan to skip town and find my one of my friend's cousin in another town, maybe do a bit of exploring. I didn't want to just leave your brother with a bunch of creeps, so I took him with me."
"Is that true, Mokuba?"
"Yes." Seto looked at his brother, then looked back at Joey for one very long minute and let out a hmf.
"In any case, me and my brother will be returning home. Gozaburo…" He glanced at Mokuba. "Is no longer an issue. The business is mine, and there is much to do back home. Don't cross me again, Wheeler, and consider yourself lucky." Seto Kaiba turned and faced in the opposite direction. Gently hoisting his brother into his arms, he gave Joey one last glare. As he walked back in the direction of the Temple, Mokuba smiled and waved at him from over his brother's shoulder.
"Bye Joey! Good luck!" Thrown off, all the blond could do was back as the two of them disappeared into the trees. Shaking his head, he grumbled to himself about the grumpyness and lack of gratitude from the older Kaiba. Whatever, it wasn't like he was planning on running into him anytime soon. Joey's fowl mood immediately turned around when he saw the familiar shock of spiky hair in a sea of greens and browns five minutes later.
"Hey, Yugi!" A bright smile was met with one equally as blinding as his friend turned to face him.
"Joey, you're here!"
"Finally man, you're here! I thought I was going to have to send out search party or something." Joey laughed and ran over to join the group.
"You can't rid of me that easy, Tristian. Where's Serenity?"
"She's-"
"Joey!" Joey hugged Serenity as she ran over to him from Anzu's side. If he hugged her a little tighter a little longer than usual, that was no one else's business but his own.
"You all ready to go?"
"Yup!" Anzu walked over and gave him a light smack to the back of his head.
"Could you take any longer? Did you get lost in the woods or something?"
"Ey, relax! I got caught up a little with something-er someone." Anzu shook her head.
"Whatever, you can tell us once we get settled in. Get in the circle, everything's already set up since you decided to take your sweet time." Laughing, Joey made his way over to a cleared out patch of dirt where all their bags were piled up in. Careful not to mess up the lines that made up the circle, he and the others piled in, mindful to leave a spot for Anzu. "Everyone in?" As they all let out various affirmations, Anzu smiled and rolled her shoulders. "Alright everyone, stay in the circle, try to keep quiet and let's get this show on the road!" The brunette took a deep breath and the smile on her face made way of the look of a focused witch. She closed her eyes and began to dance around them, feet twirling in a move that was light and airy. The lines of the circle began to glow. Her foot work became faster and faster, spinning in a way that Joey knew would just make him trip on his own feet. As the light glowed brighter and brighter, with one last spin and kick Anzu landed on the spot they left for her, just in time for the feeling of weightlessness to kick in. For a moment, Joey thought that he was floating, but just as quickly as it came, it was gone, and Joey and the others found themselves on the wooden floors of a building. The room had been cleared, with all of the furniture being pushed flush against the walls providing the perfect amount of space for their group. Otogi, perched on the arm of a couch, looked up at them from his book.
"Finally, I was beginning to think you got stuck between dimensions or something." Anzu rolled her eyes at her cousin.
"Well someone-"
"Hey!"
"-Decided to take an extra long walk in the woods." Otogi laughed.
"Sure, sure- Now help me get all this stuff back."
.
.
.
"Hey Otogi, what's that building over there?" Yugi pointed at a giant castle off in the distance, interrupting the tour of the town they were getting.
"Oh that's just the Kaiba's place. The baron recently passed away, but it and his business got taken over by him son and- Joey, you okay?" Joey kept coffing, trying to expel the water that he chocked on. Tristen gave him a few firm pats on the back."
"What did you say his name was?!"