A Christmas Carol with Kaiba

To Save a Ghost of Christmas Present

And it was with that person in mind that he found himself in a neighborhood he would have never been caught dead in. It was the section of the city dedicated to the projects, white trash, and the general population of drug dealers and gang bangers in every sense of the stereotype. It was also where 35th Martin St. was.

It didn't take him long to find him. The street ended in a culvasac of sorts and wasn't very long. He knew the pile of dirty jeans and ratty blond hair the moment he saw them. Swerving besides the curve, he left the engine running and threw himself out. Still, seeing the dog right as he said he would be sent a shock through Seto's system once more. What was it exactly that he had experienced last night?

"Oy! Wheeler!" When the body didn't respond, he dropped down to his knees in the dirty, black snow besides him. "Get off the ground, mutt." When Joey still didn't respond, a spike of fear ran through his heart and he reached out for his neck, which felt like ice to the touch. How long had the kid been out here? All night?

Before he even felt the first thump against his fingertips, Seto had Joey scooped up into his arms and was sliding him into the passenger side of his car. A shady, seedy looking man in a bright orange beanie watched from an alleyway across with the remains of a cigarette in his fingers. Seto only had to take a glance at him for his ire to rise to a broiling fury.

"You there!" he shouted, making the man jump. "How long have you been there? Have you just stared at this guy all morning?"

The man muttered something that sounded like, "I hadda jump." Before Seto decided he had more important things on hand and that he could run the tramp over later. He'd have to take Joey to the hospital himself. No saying when an ambulance would be able to get here, and traffic would be minimal on Christmas morning.

So, twisting on the heat to full blast, ignoring the film of sweat that beaded on his forehead, Seto stepped on the gas and wheeled out of there. Besides him, Joey's head flopped lifelessly to the side, his lips an awful shade of grey-blue. Two beautiful black eyes were already half-way formed and Seto could make out a dried line of blood on the other side of his face and matted in his blond hair. The kid looked worse for wear, that's for sure.

"Don't you dare die on me, mutt. I still got a score to settle with you for dropping me on my face."

As well as a debt that Seto had every intention of repaying, even if the trash didn't remember.

The nurses did plenty of staring when he stumbled in with a grown man in his arms. It only took them a second to snap out of it before they were rushing about for a stretcher and a doctor. Seto explained the situation, lowering Wheeler onto the bed they brought to him, and demanding they take every care to make sure he lived. He himself would be paying the bill, so they had no need to worry about the expense. Reassuring him that Joey would be in the best of hands, all the while packing him within heated blankets and putting a breathing mask to his face, the nurses asked Seto to sign some papers before carting Joey away. Once he had the papers filled out, Seto turned on his heel and almost ran to his car. Bringing Joey to the ER, possibly saving his life, brought a thrill to him he couldn't understand, especially giving the fact it mixed in horribly with the worry that he had been too late anyways.