Chapter Text
He couldn't help but laugh, his hand slapped against his lips in an attempt to stifle the sound. It didn't work very well. Not at all. Yugi pouted at him for a moment before letting out his own short bursts of chuckles, "I'm gonna die of hunger and you're 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨!" There was hardly any heat behind Yugi's words but Joey could tell he was at least a little serious. Which...was pretty fair in Joey's opinion. All that shit happened and the guy didn't get a single bite of what they ordered.
(For that he partially blamed Anzu and her ketchup death threat..they didn't have to pay for it but 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭! If it weren't for that he would have gotten more than a bite or two out of his wiped off burger and Yugi would have gotten to actually have a taste of something other than his drink.) He spared another look at Yugi. A soft, slightly annoyed expression rested on his face. His shoulders sagged with mild defeat. Maybe he stared just a little longer than he had to. He tore his eyes away from the shorter teen to look over at Anzu. The brunette seemed awfully cheery for someone who had been held at gunpoint as the main hostage in what transpired.
Whatever, that just meant she isn't traumatized (...hopefully).
"Yo Anzu," he called out. "We're gonna go find some other place to eat-" Joey ignored how in is peripheral he could see a smile grow on Yugi's face "-you comin' or what?" He shoved his hands into his pockets while waiting for her response. She didn't answer. Confused, he looked over at Yugi who shrugged and took his turn calling her name. They were met with silence for a second time. (Maybe she 𝘪𝘴 traumatized?)
No, Joey did 𝘯𝘰𝘵 jump when Yugi decided to very 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐥𝐲 shout her name, okay? You had no proof. Unsurprisingly that's what finally caught her attention. Anzu spun around to face them, glaring at the shortest of the three like she just got a totally sweet daydream interrupted. Joey watched the two go back and forth for a bit before Yugi restated the original question, "Me and Joey are heading out to find food, you want to come with us?" She didn't respond right away, instead choosing to glance over at the close coming police lights first (the lights Joey always hated to see coming).
"Uh actually," Anzu winced. "I'm pretty sure we're meant to go talk to the police.." Yugi looked at her blankly. That doing that made her narrow her eyes and raise a brow at him. He continued his blank stare, which eased Joey's nerves a little. It was like he was the live audience to some inside comedy bit. It was both weird and comforting to see someone so unbothered by police presence. Even Anzu seemed pretty chill about their on coming arrival.
She was, however, not as amused with Yugi's impression of an unblinking cat as Joey was. Tapping her food against the pavement Anzu let out an exasperated, "For 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴, Yugi!" To which the boy in question crossed his arms now sporting a similar humorless expression. "I 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 that.." And briefly Anzu glanced at Joey like he was somehow in on (or responsible for) Yugi's little performance. 𝘙𝘶𝘥𝘦.
̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶i̶r̶e̶n̶s̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶r̶.̶
"So why didn't you say anything??"
"I was kinda hoping we'd gloss over it if I didn't."
Once again Joey couldn't help himself. This time a small chuckle spilt out. It was fine, he could be in Anzu's good graces some other day. "Yeah c'mon Anzu. Lets 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸 this joint," Was the probably ill-timed joke that was Joeys two cents. Anzu rolled her eyes and began making her way back to the restaurant with a "Have fun" as her departing words.
Not quite under his breath Joey muttered, "Her loss.." before turning his attention back to Yugi and smiled brighter than he should. Because Anzu made their burgers on the house Joey still had cash to treat his pal Yugi. It was the least he could do after to try and make his day a little better (he already planned to spend whatever he brought to school with him on Yugi when he first offered to grab a bite).
The two wandered around for a while before they came across a convenience store (mercifully it wasn’t the big store that's got the parking lot Joey and Honda loiter around). It wasn’t as ‘glamorous’ as greasy burgers but it was something. Without much thought Joey walked ahead of Yugi to hold the door open for him. As the shorter fully entered the store Joey scanned the inside area. And a bit of the surrounding outside space before entering himself. Better safe than sorry for now, y’know?
They headed straight to the cheap snacks, though Joey had to keep himself from getting distracted by a weird ass ramen flavor (now was not the time for that). He stared at the wall of a billion and one chips and quickly came to the conclusion he had not a damn clue on what to get. He lifted his hand to rub against the nape of his neck, lightly scratching at his hair. Beside him Yugi seemed to have already zeroed in on exactly what he wanted. Or at least Joey thought he did? As he surveyed his options Yugi continuously picked up and placed back down different bags of the 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 flavor.
Joey looked over and tilted his head a little in an act of questioning, “Uh…whachya doin’, man?” He leaned too close into the teens' space as he examined two new bags. Yugi didn’t flinch at the sudden proximity caused by Joey’s impulsions. Not even a little. For some reason, that fact felt good. T̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶Y̶u̶g̶i̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶m̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶ ̶s̶a̶f̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶w̶o̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶l̶y̶.̶ “Checkin’ the dates for the best one,” was Yugi’s answer. Mirroring the teens' earlier actions, Joey pouted slightly.
“Yuug’, they’re 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴.” Joey cracked a smile and added, “I’ont think it’s that serious.” The pendant wearing teen turned his head to face Joey’s and gaped at him. “𝘜𝘩 it totally is! The stale ones are 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 gross!!”
For the first time today Joey managed to keep his laughter in with only a snort escaping. He returned to his original position and grabbed a random flavor before replying, “Whaddeva ya say, dude.”
The two then turned their attention to the fridges to replace the soda Yugi barely drank and the drink Joey never got to sip (he only didn’t even remember what beverage he ordered). It took a minute but he convinced Yugi that he could get a bottle rather than a can and Joey grabbed a water for himself. Just in case the chips he grabbed tasted like trash he could use it to rinse his mouth out. He was smart like that.
Yugi didn’t have to try for long to convince Joey to get a candy for himself, he was a convincing guy (“Oo, I love those! Joey, Joey you gotta try one” was all Yugi had said. W̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶?̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶w̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶*h̶i̶m̶* ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶r̶y̶ ̶i̶t̶). It was still a relatively new thing. Some chocolate called ‘Black Thunder’. It was only 30yen so why not?
After their little store run the two teens ended up choosing to eat at a park they found (that was thankfully a good whiles away from the Burger world). Though when they settled down on the grass Joey’s mind started to wander. Yugi could have 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 earlier and it was 𝘩𝘪𝘴 fault. If he hadn’t scoffed at the news of an escaped convict, if he hadn’t insisted they follow Anzu to see where was going he wouldn’t have put Yugi in danger. Yugi was lucky he didn’t get hurt and here was Joey doing nothin’ but feed him bullshit instead of actual food. He couldn’t even find them a place to put their shit down. At least their uniforms were a dark enough blue that Yugi wouldn’t get any grass stains. B̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶i̶d̶e̶a̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶s̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶Y̶u̶g̶i̶… At least his bud didn’t seem to mind it all. He looked happy to have something in his stomach.
Joey sipped his bottled water and caught himself staring at Yugi partially chugging his cola. (Christ he really needed to work on that. He can’t keep doing this shit.) He tried to look away. Really. But it felt wrong. And that in itself felt wrong.
No matter what he did, it’d be the incorrect choice. So in the end Joey Wheeler sat on the grass of a park he’s never been to before now, eating what were probably stale chips considering the too chewy texture and kept his eyes trained on one Yugi Muto. Never leaving as they laughed over nonsense he wouldn’t be able to remember over the feeling in his chest.