The Note

Joey closed his eyes and leaned his head in his hand as he listened to the teacher. He couldn't think of any place more boring than here in his seat at Domino High. He heard whispering around him and faint giggling, but he thought nothing of it. He caught the faint scent of some girl's perfume before he had a note thrust onto his desk by the guy in front of him. He could tell that the guy didn't want that perfume smell on him and so had practically thrown it at Joey. He saw his name in fancy letters, blinked and looked up to see if the teacher had noticed the note-passing. He didn't see any sign that he did notice and so carefully opened the note. He unfolded the paper to reveal the words "I love you, Joey" written in large fancy script letters. He turned the note over and searched for a name, but he found none. He frowned lightly to himself, someone liked him but wouldn't say who they were. He noticed Tristan peering over his shoulder, he moved his head slightly so he could see him.

"Hey Joey…whatcha got there?" Tristan whispered in his ear.

"Nothin'," Joey started to turn back but felt Tristan prod him in the back. He sighed, he should have known Tristan wouldn't let it go.

"Sure it's something, what is it?" Tristan smirked lightly behind Joey's back. Joey was never that good at lying after all. He saw the blond in front of him shake his head in defeat.

"Note," Joey said no more indicating he didn't want the teacher to find out. Tristan nodded, not wanting to get Joey in trouble. He would catch Joey after class.

Once class ended, Tristan waited for Joey right outside the door. Joey jumped as he noticed Tristan standing there, he groaned to himself. Tristan pulled Joey away from the rest of the people so that they could talk in private.

"So…a note huh?" Tristan grinned teasingly at Joey who tried futilely to get away.

"Yeah…"

"What's it say?"

"Someone loves me or something'," He shrugged and shook his head.

"Really? Who?" Tristan arched a brow lightly as he looked at Joey.

"Dunno…there was no name on it."

"Well tell me when you find out…" Tristan smiled and patted him on the back as they met up with Yugi and Téa to head for their next class.

Late at night, Joey sat down on his bed and read the note again, sighing. The perfume smell was still on the paper slightly and he didn't recognize the beautiful handwriting. He put the note on his bedside table and began rubbing his temples. He sighed deeply and fell back on his bed, wondering who this secret admirer could be. Normally he'd be thrilled to find out that someone liked him, but now that it had happened he was having his doubts. He tried to think of which girls were in his class. He ruled out Téa almost immediately, for he knew for a fact that she liked Yugi. He barely knew most of the other girls in his class, but surely they knew who he was though. He sighed again the more he thought about it, he didn't want to deal with this now. He remembered the perfume and for a moment imagined it might be Mai, but he rejected that idea seeing as how she didn't even know where he went to school. He decided to forget about it for now and just get some sleep. He breathed slowly in his sleep and gradually began to dream about what happened in Duelist Kingdom. He dreamed of winning the duel with Rex Raptor and claiming Red Eyes as his prize. In his excitement he ran to Tristan, wanting to leap into his arms. To his surprise, the punch that had happened in real life never happened in this dream. Joey leapt into Tristan's arms laughing as the taller boy happily spun him around. Everything afterwards happened exactly as he remembered it though. He remembered Yami Bakura's Shadow Game play for play in his dream, he shuddered in his sleep as he dreamed of the Reaper of the Cards coming after him. After the duel was over, something shocked him again.

"Bakura!" He remembered yelling at the exact same time as Tristan, each of them grabbing onto each other in fear.

"Hands off!" Tristan had said, not looking at him.

"You grabbed me!" Joey had returned before they looked at each other and blinked. But instead of breaking apart from each other, Joey dreamed that Tristan pulled him closer into a kiss and began laying on top of him.

Joey gasped as he jerked awake and blinked at the strange dream he had just had. He looked out the window and noticed it was morning now. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and groaned, wondering what he had eaten before going to sleep. He slowly got out of bed and changed clothes, yawning. The events of his dream kept floating through his mind. In his sleepy state he could almost feel Tristan's arms around him. Just as he was ready to go to school, he caught sight of the note and a flood of memories came to him at once. Suddenly, he didn't care who sent the note to him. He clasped the note in his hand and was determined to set whoever it was straight.

As soon as he got to school, he walked into his classroom and held the note up for everyone to see. Tristan came in just a little after Joey and stood at the door, blinking.

"Someone passed dis note to me yesterday and I don't have any idea who it is. I just want you all to know that it's wasting your time. My heart belongs to only one person and dat's Tristan Taylor." Everyone in the room gasped and began whispering amongst themselves. Tristan leaned against the door blushing as he looked at Joey. The blond blushed back when he noticed him standing there. Joey walked close and held his head down. "I'm sorry, bud…I didn't mean to…" He was silenced as Tristan held a hand to Joey's lips. Tristan smiled, tears forming in his eyes as he pulled Joey away from people once again.

"Joey…I wrote that note…or rather, I had my big sister do it." Joey couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I wanted to see your reaction…I was afraid if I wrote it myself…you'd never speak to me again."

"Oh Tristan…" Joey's eyes filled with tears too as he grasped his best friend by the neck and kissed him. Tristan held onto Joey gently and smiled as the kiss broke.

"Come on, Joey…we can talk about this after class." Tristan smiled brightly as he clasped Joey's hand and brought him back into their classroom. Joey smiled and more eagerly than ever awaited their dismissal.