AN: It's a sequel!

WARNING: THERE WILL BE LANGUAGE. THERE WILL BE VIOLENCE. THERE WILL BE DEATH. THERE WILL BE SEXUAL HUMOR AND/OR REFERENCES. THERE WILL BE YAOI (M/M PAIRING). THERE WILL BE SITUATIONS WHICH I MYSELF HOPE NO ONE EVER GETS INTO. AND THESE ARE JUST WHAT I'M PROMISING. You have been warned, so don't complain.

Chapter 1: You Don't Know What You Have Until You Lose It

Lifting his left arm over his head, Seto stretched and gradually opened his eyes. Blinking twice, Seto tried to figure out why his face was buried in a brown and black silk. Lifting his head up a little, his eyes focused on Tea's face and smiled. It had been four, almost five, years since they had meet and Seto was now a senior in college. Gently pulling his arm out from under Tea's sleeping form, Seto stretched again and suppressed a yawn while pulling on a pair of boxers and grabbing another set of clothes to throw on after his shower. Wandering down the stairs and through the undersized kitchen into his bathroom, Seto looked over his small apartment.

He'd purchased it when he'd first started college and his parents had even helped with the cost, because they understood that Seto needed his own space and freedom. Of course, they also thought he was living in a college dorm. Getting into the shower, Seto smiled as he though of Tea. He was glad she'd been accepted to Juliard. It wasn't that he wouldn't have followed her to California—he would have—but New York had begun to grow on him. Sighing, Seto rinsed the conditioner—Tea's, he noticed—and stepped out of the shower. He was glad the fall semester had just finished, if only because she had chosen to live in the student dorms on campus. This, unsurprisingly, meant that while they could get together for the odd lunch of dinner, they rarely saw each other. Except during breaks and holidays, Seto grinned. Naturally there was the added bonus that his college and Tea's were on virtually the same schedule, which meant their break periods usually overlapped. Shaking the water off his hair, Seto ran a comb through his hair and tossed his dirty clothes into the hamper before flinging his towel over his shoulders and wandering into the living room. He flopped down onto the couch and looked over at the wall behind it.

Tea had insisted on flaming a large group of pictures, most of which she had taken from her own private collection or from Mokuba, and hanging them on the wall behind the couch. Seto couldn't understand why this was so important to her, but for some reason it was. His eyes drifted along, lazily gazing at each picture, thinking of how much had changed in four years.

He looked over at the top right corner of the photo wall—as Tea had dubbed it—at the medium sized picture in a shiny gold frame. It was a picture of him and Tea standing outside the school in their prom outfits. Seto rolled his eyes at the memory. Prom had taken place less than three weeks after the Ryu mistake, as Seto privately refereed to it. Tea, fortunately, had already bought a prom dress as she planned on going with a group of her friends, but Seto himself had ended up pouring a large amount of money into purchasing his own prom ticket and a reservation at a nice restaurant. Luckily, Seto already owned a tuxedo and the restaurant he had managed to get had been decent, although Tea obviously had felt out of place. Seto still wondered if he would have been better off taking her to a dinner, where, at that time in her life, she would have better understood the menu and silverware. Dismissing the notion, Seto focused his attention back on the picture. Tea had been so excited about prom, Seto was relieved that he had not been totally socially inept and spoiled it for her.

Allowing his eyes, to travel across the wall, Seto's eyes came to rest on a regular sized picture in a cheap plastic frame. It was from Joey and Mai's engagement dinner a year ago. It had been cleverly disguised as a birthday dinner for Mai, but being one of Mai's closet friends, Tea had learned beforehand that it was to double as an engagement announcement. Naturally, Seto still would have declined the invitation, but Tea had dragged him along.

'It wasn't too bad,' Seto reassured himself. 'At least Ryou was there. Even if he was getting over his latest boyfriend and getting drunk at the same time.'

Ryou, Seto noticed had a bad habit of dating and sleeping with the worst sorts of people. It seemed to Seto that, now they lived in the same city, Seto was receiving far too many phone calls from a love-distressed Ryou then was healthy for either of them.

Grimacing, Seto's eyes silently searched for a 'happier' picture. He quickly found the two largest pictures on the wall. Tea had hung them in the middle of the wall, to accent their importance or something to that effect. (Seto never had and never wanted to understand interior design—or exterior for that matter.) The first was a professional one of Seto with Mokuba and their parents. Seto, who was standing behind his Ms. Kaiba, seemed stiff and sober, while Mokuba, who was standing behind Mr. Kaiba, seemed energetic and youthful. Frowning, Seto remembered it was the best on of the bunch. The other three made him appear to be a statue instead of a human.

The other large photo was more recent. Before the beginning of Spring break, Tea had insisted that 'the gang', as she called it, get together. Seto, as was his custom, objected, but, as always, Tea got her way. She had argued that with Tristan leaving to live in California, Joey and Mai leaving for the Hawaiian Islands and Ryou taking time off to travel Western Europe, they needed to have a 'get together', which, of course, involved picture taking.

The picture Tea had chosen to hang on Seto's wall had been taken just outside Mai's bar, 'Hidden'. Mai was standing in front of the door with her arms wrapped around Joey's waist. Joey was kissing her on the cheek, oblivious to Mokuba, who was taking the picture. Tristan was standing off to the side, looking fairly uncomfortable. But then again, Seto though, any polite, straight guy would be rather red in the face with a drunken, flirtatious Ryou that close to them. Seto himself was looking reasonably uncomfortable, but Tea was fairly beaming with happiness as she stood next to Seto holding his hand.

Laughing at himself and his musings, Seto heard the faint sound of the alarm clock ringing and stood up. Walking back into the bedroom, Seto found Tea clinging to the blankets and her pillow.

"Hey, Tea." Seto whispered, as he leaned across the bed to shake her awake. "Come on. Time to wake up."

"Five more minutes." Tea mumbled.

"You're the one who wanted to see a Broadway play today. We'll have to out of here in roughly an hour if we want to make my one o'clock reservation at the restaurant."

"Let's forget the lunch…...... and the play." Tea muttered as she rolled over to face Seto.

"I'd love to, but you'll yell at me later if I don't get you up. Come on. I'll make coffee." Seto laughed.

"Okay, okay." Tea sighed as she sat up. Kissing her on the forehead, Seto left the room and went into the kitchen to make coffee. Measuring out the sugar for Tea's coffee, Seto looked up when the phone rang. He actually considered letting the phone ring, but as his parents were out on a business trip and he was responsible for Mokuba, he reached over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Seto Kaiba?" A voice with a heavy French accent asked.

"Yes, it is. How may I help you?" Seto asked as he removed to coffeepot from the maker and poured two mugs.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. You may want to sit down, sir."

"Oh my God." Seto whispered as the coffeepot slipped from his fingers and smashed against the floor.